Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are married!

PEOPLE magazine breathlessly reports that our favourite lesbian power couple Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have married:

"Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi were married tonight in an intimate ceremony at their home in Los Angeles," their spokesperson tells PEOPLE exclusively.

DeGeneres, 50, and de Rossi, 35, both wore Zac Posen and exchanged rings by Neil Lane during the Saturday ceremony. Their big day also featured arrangements by L.A. florist Mark's Garden.

You know, it's progress of a sort when the tabloids are as interested in gay relationships as they are in heterosexual ones. I can't wait to see the photos. Who d'you reckon wore the dress and which one wore the tux? ;o)

Tyra Banks wins an Emmy - "kiss your dimply, flat, juicy, bootylicious, skinny, jiggly, saggy fat ass!"

ZOMG Tyra Banks won a Daytime Emmy award and you can bet that she'll never let us forget about it. Ms Banks pronounced after her win:

"I just have a message for everybody out there: When you have a dream, there are going to so many people that tell you that you cannot do it, that you are not good enough. And I want you to tell them to kiss your dimply, flat, juicy, bootylicious, skinny, jiggly, saggy fat ass!"

She's a class act, our Tyra. Here she is posing with her Emmy, smiling with her eyes, her hips and her bingo wings. I like the blonde hair too, I mean, weave. It even looks new!

Ooh, and the lovely Ellen DeGeneres won her fourth consecutive Daytime Emmy for best talk show host and made sure that she lezzed up the ceremony by giving girlfriend - sorry, I mean fiancée - Portia De Rossi a great big lesbian kiss on the mouth. Ah, you gotta love the lesbians.

Here's the full list of winners:

Talk show, informative
"The Tyra Banks Show" (syndicated)

Talk show, entertainment
"Rachael Ray" (syndicated)

Talk show host
Ellen DeGeneres, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" (syndicated)

Drama series
"General Hospital" (ABC)

Lead actress in a drama series
Jeanne Cooper, "The Young and the Restless" (CBS)

Lead actor in a drama series
Anthony Geary, "General Hospital" (ABC)

Supporting actress in a drama series
Gina Tognoni, "Guiding Light" (CBS)

Supporting actor in a drama series
Kristoff St. John, "The Young and the Restless" (CBS)s

Younger actor in a drama series
Tom Pelphrey, "Guiding Light" (CBS)

Younger actress in drama series
Jennifer Landon, "As the World Turns" (CBS)

Drama series directing team
"One Life to Live" (ABC)

Drama series writing team
"One Life to Live" (ABC)

Best legal/courtroom program
"Christina's Court" (syndicated)

Out magazine’s 2nd annual Power Issue - Ellen, Barney Frank and Anderson Cooper!

Here, in reverse order, is OUT magazine's 2nd annual power 50 list:

50. Kelly Bush
49. Benny Medina
48. Brian Swardstrom
47. Susan Arnold
46. Martina Navratilova
45. Jonathan Burnham
44. Bob Greenblatt
43. Adam Rose
42. Bryan Lourd
41. Carolyn Strauss
40. Christine Vachon
39. Jon Stryker
38. Lorri L. Jean
37. Simon Halls & Stephen Huvane
36. Annie Leibovitz
35. Randy Lovely
34. Craig Zadan & Neil Meron
33. Jim Nelson
32. Jeremy Bernard & Rufus Gifford
31. Rosie O'Donnell
30. Sheila Kueh
29. Adam Moss


28. Tim Gunn
27. Jasper Johns
26. Fred Hochberg 25. Tom Ford
24. Suze Orman
23. Anthony Romero
22. Nick Denton
21. Nate Berkus
20. Andrew Sullivan
19. Greg Berlanti
18. Christine Quinn
17. Martha Nelson


16. Perez Hilton
15. Brian Graden
14. Rich Ross
13. Jodie Foster
12. The New York Times Gay Mafia
11. Scott Rudin
10. Peter Thiel
9. Marc Jacobs
8. Joe Solmonese
7. Jann Wenner
6. Andrew Tobias
5. Tim Gill
4. David Geffen

3. Anderson Cooper - He’s still cautiously neutral—and silent on his sex life—but his domination of the airwaves is undeniable.


2. Barney Frank - A Democratic president would only increase the political clout of this most powerful of gay elected public officials.

1. Ellen DeGeneres - Having weathered the “Puppy-gate” media storm and an ill-perceived crossing of the writers’ strike picket line, DeGeneres and her daytime show remain perennially popular. Her most recently reported salary of $15 million put her in 15th place on Forbes magazine’s 2007 list of the top 20 TV stars—above Barbara Walters and Matt Lauer.

One thing that surprised me was the comment about Perez Hilton: His mercilessly dishy gossip blog attracts 2.6 million visitors a month and demands up to $45,000 for its ad packages. Wait, they're saying he gets 2.6 million a month? I thought he was boasting that he got that many hits a day!

Ellen - yup, ten years later and she's still gay

In The Advocate, Cathy Renna writes an article about Ellen Degeneres on the ten year anniversary of her coming out in Time Magazine and the famous coming out episode of her TV sitcom that over forty two million US viewers watched back in 1997. These days, of course, she's a popular chat show host who rarely discusses her sexuality. However, Cathy Renna notes that Ellen's influence goes way beyond heart to hearts about her lesbianism.

"Bottom line is this: We all have a lot to thank Ellen for today. Even if you think she doesn’t use her now-enormous platform enough for activism, she is leading by example in living her life openly and honestly. When she walks down the red carpet with Portia de Rossi and says she waits for the day they can get married legally, she is doing far more than most celebrities. I don’t think we would have had Will & Grace without Ellen. Frankly, she has done far more than many of us in the community."

You know, it's hard not to be critical of Ellen sometimes for not making any references to her sexuality on her show, but Cathy Renna is quite right in pointing out that Ellen does a heck of a lot to change opinions every day just by living her life as if being a lesbian is the most normal thing in the world. Which, of course, it is.

By the way, on Monday's show this week, Ellen's guests are Josh Duchamel and Jon Bon Jovi. For a lesbian, Ellen sure always manages to get the hottest guys.

Simon Cowell explains Paula Abdul's incoherence to Ellen Degeneres

Simon Cowell explains Paula Abdul's incoherence during American Idol to Ellen Degenres this week. Apparently, naughty Simon has been messing with Paula's head throughout the American Idol kids performances all these years.

"I'm taunting Paula throughout the performance," Cowell explains on Monday's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. "I'm saying to her, 'Try to say something interesting, try not to use the words mountain and lakes in your critiques because it's always: You'll climb mountains, you'll swim lakes, whatever.' "

So that explains it. I was thought she was just strung out on Novocain. I have to say, I love Paula Abdul. I liked her years ago when she was a singer but I really like the all new loopy Paula. I always like it when someone's career is all washed up and yet somehow, they manage to crawl their way back to the top again. For sheer entertainment value, there's nothing quite like watching Paula each week getting more and more frustrated with herself as she tries to string a sentence together, usually ending up with a "erm, you just did what you do!" to the guys or a slurred "erm, you look really pretty tonight" to the girls.

You know, I think Paula is just craftily giving everyone the big ol' finger. It's as if she's saying to the world - you stopped buying my records, you thought my career was over, well look at me now, I can just sit here getting high on the top rated show on TV and get paid millions of dollars for doing it, so bite me, ha!

Problems encountered by actors portraying gay characters

A couple of Hollywood actors are in the news this week after portraying gay characters. Firstly, ABC reports about the Academy Award nominated actress Laura Dern, who appeared on The Ellen Degeneres Show and talked about how she couldn't get an acting job for more than a year after she shared a kiss with Ellen in the infamous Coming Out episode back in 1997.

"There was certainly backlash, I guess, (that) we all felt from it,"

Ellen said that she was sorry and "had no idea" that Dern was snubbed in Hollywood. Not getting work felt "awfully terrifying," recalled Dern, who said she's grateful for the "extraordinary experience and opportunity" to be a part of the groundbreaking episode.

Isn't that the stupidest thing? Laura Dern couldn't get work because she once played a lesbian in one episode of a TV show. And this was after Dern had been a regular in the tabloids for her high profile relationships with Kyle MacLachlan, Renny Harlin, Jeff Goldblum and Billy Bob Thornton.

It puts the story about Heroes' Thomas Dekker into perspective too. After Elton reports about the confusion over the sexuality of Dekker's character in the show, Zach.

Zach was conceived as a gay character, he was developed as a gay character, and as of the November 20th “Homecoming” episode, he was a gay character. And yet a decision was made by someone – be it studio execs, talent management, or otherwise – to “straighten him out”.

Dekker has left the show to appear in the upcoming Terminator spin-off series, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Dekker has already played a gay character in TV show Grosse Point so it's unlikely the actor has an issue with playing gay. The real reason behind the about face hasn't been revealed to anyone's satisfaction but both stories highlight the apparent problems that some actors can still encounter these days after playing gay characters.

Absolut Hunk Jason Lewis's appearance on the Ellen Degeneres show

Jason Lewis, the Absolut Hunk from Sex and the City way back, was on the Ellen Degeneres Show today here in the UK (I believe we're a few weeks behind the US). Jason was on the show to promote his appearance on Greg Berlanti's current ABC show, Brothers and Sisters.

Jason is playing the closeted gay love interest of Matthew Rhys's character, Kevin. I'm mentioning the appearance on the Ellen show because it was remarkably brief! Jason kinda just came on, gave Ellen some flowers, sat down, answered a couple of quick questions, then it was on to the next guest, Lionel Richie (talk about buzz-kill..). Doesn't Ellen bother with her guests or do we get a heavily edited edition over here in the UK?

What was also disappointing was that Ellen seems allergic to referring to her own sexuality at all in the chat show. I know it's a daytime show and all, but sometimes it's relevant. For example, Ellen was asking Jason today about how it felt to be playing a gay character and kissing a man etc. Ellen could've brought her own insight and talked a bit about her own experiences. Anyway, rant over. Check out Absolut Hunk in the photograph above!