DEAR STACY: Please give an update on Nicollette Sheridan's film/TV plans. - Lisa14

DEAR LISA14: There's not much to say at the moment, as the one-time "Desperate Housewives" sexpot has no projects in the pipeline, and her latest two Hallmark Channel movies were in 2013 and 2011. The avid horsewoman keeps busy with various activities, but her career momentum obviously plunged in conjunction with her nasty legal battle with Touchstone TV and "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry. You may recall she accused Cherry of assault (he says he tapped her head with his fingers while demonstrating how to do a scene) and claimed that when she complained her character got killed off. That was in 2009. Her first trial ended in a hung jury in 2012, and her efforts to get a retrial have been extremely difficult, with higher courts rendering decisions that made it appear she would get another chance, then not. In January, the California State Supreme Court declined to review her case.

DEAR STACY: One of my favorite guilty pleasures is the fabulously faked "Mystery Diners," with all those evildoers who just happen to stop right in front of the hidden cameras to do their bad deeds, with multiple angles! Can you tell me more about the super stiff host, Charles Stiles? He's a riot. — Glen L., Ontario, California

DEAR GLEN: The 11-season-old "Mystery Diners" may look staged, but Stiles himself is the real deal. Coming up from a background that saw him in hardscrabble jobs from oil-rig hand to bus boy, he built his Business Evaluation Services company from scratch. The 20-year-old firm includes mystery shopper services. Stiles and his wife have two grown daughters.

DEAR STACY: Was Judge Lynn Toler, now presiding on "Divorce Court," ever a judge on the show "Power of Attorney" after Judge Andrew Napolitano? — Lombardo

DEAR LOMBARDO: Yes, Toler presided in the 2001-2002 season of the syndicated show.

DEAR STACY: We were talking about child stars. Tommy Rettig of the "Lassie" series died young, I believe. Was it drugs? — S.D., Shamrock, Texas

DEAR S.D.: As a young adult, Rettig did have trouble with the law over drugs, including a conviction for growing marijuana, but he got himself together and became a highly regarded software developer in the last 15 years of his life. He died of heart failure at age 54 in 1996.

Photo credit: Marco Verch