Give me a break, the producers of Damages must have been completely mental, I must say, to hire Martin Short, because their show, doncha know, is hardly a humorous one.

I wonder, how could they possibly put the man who was Ed Grimly, Jiminy Glick or Father of the Bride's gloriously funny wedding planner Franck Eggelhoffer in Damages? It was very decent, I must say, for them even to consider Short.

Turns out he's great as an unscrupulous lawyer -- I wonder if there's any other kind, dontcha know? -- who's defending a Bernie Madoff-like swindler who finds himself in the sights of the truly amoral Patty Hewes, played by Glenn Close, who has won the acting Emmy for each of the show's first two seasons.

"I think of myself as a character actor," Short said via satellite from New York, "and you play
characters in a sincere fashion. So even if you’re playing Franck ... if you’re trying to be funny as that character, you won’t be. But if you sincerely play him as this eccentric person who exists in the world, then you’re basically acting the character. ... So I don’t really look at it as a differentiation between comedy and serious. It, to me, is just what the role is, what it requires, how you can most effectively give the author what he had hoped to achieve."

Lily Tomlin also stars this season. She came to the critics Sunday morning via satellite from Key West, and she appeared to be drinking a glass of wine during the interview.

Nope, just water. "I was drinking wine earlier," said Tomlin, who plays the swindler's wife.

The producers deny they have a list of unlikely actors in line for each show, but Short said he knows differently. "Carrot Top is in the next one. He's very effective."