CelebSpice

Portia de Rossi was too nervous to date now-wife Ellen DeGeneres.

The 'Arrested Development' actress said she fell for the talk show host the first time she "laid eyes on her", but couldn't bring herself to ask her out.

Portia, 36, said: "I just walked over to say hello to her and I couldn't believe it, but she turned around and it was like an arrow was shot through my heart.

"I was weak at the knees and I was overwhelmed with how I felt. But then it took me about 10 months to get the courage up to do something about it."

Portia - who married Ellen in 2008 - says it took her a long time to open up to the 41-year-old comedienne about how she felt because she was worried about the public response to her sexuality.

Seven years after the Emmy-winning series starring Calista Flockhart ended after five seasons, problems with music rights have been resolved to allow the first 32-disc DVD collection to go on sale (October 6) for the first time in the United States.

With its fantasy sequences, frank approach to sex and a central character who was independent and looking for love, "Ally McBeal" was as controversial as it was ground-breaking.

But the show's creator David E. Kelley said that transforming TV for women was the last thing on his mind when he sat down to create 20-something lawyer Ally, her assistant and 'face-bra' inventor Elaine (Jane Krakowski) and ice-queen Nelle Porter (Portia de Rossi).

"I really did not think I was writing a character that was representative of womankind at all. I thought Ally was really an idiosyncratic, eccentric character. So it was bit of a surprise to find the character was so relatable to so many women," Kelley told Reuters.

Ally, a career-minded and lascivious young woman who was also searching for a soul-mate, touched off a heated debate among feminists that reached its height with a 1998 cover story in Time magazine asking "Is Feminism Dead?".

The show was a success in more than 70 countries around the world, including such diverse nations as Thailand and Lithuania.

But Kelley said that back in 1997, he initially doubted the series would even get on the air.

"It was such a different animal and I didn't know whether the studio and the network would even get it, much less the public," he said.

"I have got to credit Calista a lot for its iconic reputation. As an actress, she just resonated with the public in a way that a writer can't predict."

Kelley, who wrote all but three episodes himself, said he felt closest to the characters of Ally and John Cage, the frog-loving lawyer played by Peter MacNicol who channeled singer Barry White for inspiration.

"There was the most of me, my feelings, values and beliefs in John Cage and Ally. And I would see a lot of my twisted sense of humor in Richard Fish," he said.

"Ally McBeal" ended in 2002 with Ally adopting a child as a single mom and quitting her high-powered job as a lawyer.

Although Kelley went on to create other TV hits including the high-school series "Boston Public" and courtroom drama "Boston Legal", he was more saddened than usual when it ended.

"I knew I wouldn't really be able to do the things I did on that show again without it seeming derivative...When 'Ally' ended, I knew I was going to miss a loved one that I was never going to be able to spend time with again."

(Edited by Bob Tourtellotte)

New American Idol judge Ellen DeGeneres received a romantic first wedding anniversary present from her partner Portia de Rossi – a giant “One” drawn by a sky writer. Loved-up Ellen shared a photo of the “sweet” gesture with the audience of her US chat show. The lesbian star said: “Portia and I just celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary. That was nice.

"It was quiet, we had a little picnic. Not a picnic really, like a blanket and some wine. No blanket, wine. “All of a sudden we looked up in the sky and Portia had hired a sky writer to write ‘ONE’ in the sky. “Isn’t that sweet? “If anybody saw that, that’s for me!”

More pop...Spanish actor Antonio Banderas recreated a tomato-throwing festival from his home country in a talk show studio. The movie hunk challenged host Conan O’Brien to a tomato fight like La Tomatina, the famous festival in the village of Bu-ol, near Valencia. Luckily, he wore a red shirt as Conan’s house band all joined in, although his white trousers picked up more than a few stains. Banderas told O’Brien how he goes back to Spain in the summer to enjoy the festivals.
He said: “I love my country, especially in the summer time. There are a number of festivities going on. There is this little village called Bu-ol in Valencia. “This is a little town with 9,000 people living there and every year they do something called La Tomatina. La Tomatina is 45,000 people coming from all around the world. “They just put on the ground with big trucks with 200 tonnes of tomatoes, and people just throw the tomatoes at each other for an hour. “They have been doing it for 60 years. They are looking for the purpose. “They may find it when they get to 100 years. I would love to do it actually.

Vanessa Williams poked fun at lesbian couple Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi during a sexy stage routine to kick off the Daytime Emmy Awards. The Ugly Betty star opened the glitzy show with a comical version of Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You, as the talk show host and her actress wife looked on from the audience.

Changing the lyrics to make fun of nominated TV stars, Williams was comically inserted into scenes from the soaps which were flashed up onstage.

At one point, she was inserted into a lesbian kiss scene, as she sang: "Take me I've got all the moves, I know that Ellen approves..." Williams, who was hosting the bash, sashayed around stage in a figure-hugging white dress.
Earlier, DeGeneres and former Ally McBeal star de Rossi had been spotted on the red carpet. DeGeneres was dressed in trousers and braces, while de Rossi wore a black gown designed by Monique Lhuillier.

Mother's Day wishes for Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston.  The two are often star crossed in the celebrity and entertainment media and the weekend that celebrates mom will be no different and this time the two are together in the form of a poll.

Meanwhile in real life, Jolie is a mother times six, with another usually rumored to be on the way in the form of adoption or pregnancy.  Jennifer Aniston is again single and though she has expressed wishes to start a family, she still seems to be in a holding pattern.

But Jen wins over Angie, at least in the hearts and minds of celebrity loving parents that might want a Hollywood star to babysit the kids for a really cool Mother's day present.  According to a report from Us Weekly magazine, a new poll gives Aniston the nod over Jolie and Jen's ex Brad Pitt for sitter duties.
A ParentDish.com poll gives the number one nod Ellen DeGeneres and her partner Portia de Rossi as the top celeb sitters with Ansiton in secnd and Jolie in third.  The report adds that the Ellen and Portia, "nabbed 31 percent of votes, while the single Aniston came in second with 22 percent. Jolie and beau Brad Pitt -- who have six kids -- nabbed 18 percent of votes; Oprah Winfrey got just nine percent." 

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres and her actress partner Portia de Rossi topped a poll that asked American moms which celebrities they would feel most comfortable leaving their kids with.

DeGeneres and de Rossi, who married in August when same-sex marriages in California were briefly legalized but who have no children, beat Angelina Jolie and partner Brad Pitt with their eclectic brood of six in the ParentDish.com poll of more than 10,000 moms.

The TV chat show host and de Rossi took 31 percent of votes with singleton Jennifer Aniston coming in second at 22 percent. Jolie and Pitt got 18 percent of votes, while chat show queen Oprah Winfrey got just nine percent.

Jolie also won few fans as a mom, coming bottom in a list of five best celebrity mothers. Former "Alias" star and mom of two Jennifer Garner won that round with 37 percent of votes, followed by first lady Michelle Obama and Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon in a virtual tie.

In a close battle for worst celebrity mom, rock singer Courtney Love edged out Dina Lohan -- mother of Lindsay Lohan -- and pop star Britney Spears.

The poll, conducted to mark Mother's Day in the United States on Sunday, was carried out on AOL's parenting site ParentDish.com between April 23-May 5.

As for their top Mother's Day gift, those questioned chose "time with my family" by an overwhelming 63 percent over chocolates and flowers.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Patricia Reaney)

George Huff is back with his gospel-flavored "George Huff" album April 7, including the song "Hold On" that he relates to facing hardships before -- and after -- his becoming popular with the mass audience as a Season 3 finalist on "American Idol." Huff's family lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. "I couldn't focus on my career. Of course I had to deal with family members -- starting with finding family members alive," he recalls. "A lot of the money I got on 'American Idol' was used to get family members on their feet and maintain them through this ordeal," adds the singer, whose old neighborhood in New Orleans and the building where he grew up remain abandoned and untouched since the 2006 disaster.

Now, he notes, "As Americans, we are all going through this recession. People are suffering." He and his producers, he says, "tried to think of something that would inspire everybody in America that even in hard times, in trouble, dreams can come true, and you can acquire success and maintain stability in your life." The devoted Christian says he also gets inspiration from his friendships with fellow one-time "Idol" singers Fantasia Barrino and Jennifer Hudson. "We're like brother and sisters," he says. "We talk to each other and text each other all the time.”
BETTER OFF WATCHED: Jay Harrington, title star of ABC's "Better Off Ted" admits that it's been hard waiting for tonight's (3/18) debut of his comedy that deals with corporate immorality. However, "I'd rather wait as long as I have to for a good timeslot," says the handsome veteran of "Desperate Housewives" and "Summerland." "I see the shows put up against 'American Idol' every Thursday being blown out of the water, and I can't help being kind of glad our show is being put on when it is."
Portia de Rossi plays Jay's boss, who isn't a bad person, he stresses, though the two conspire in such shenanigans as creating an award to give an employee almost killed in a research and development experiment to keep him from suing the company. "I haven't read anything as consistently funny in a long time, for me personally," Jay says. "My character loves his job, so it's not that he's a victim per se. I guess he is, in a way, a victim of the corporate world. He wants to have pride in what he does and how he does it." He also has an 8-year-old daughter (Isabella Acres) serving as his conscience booster.
CROSS-OVER: "This American Life" host and producer Ira Glass reports that there are movies based on stories from his popular radio show currently in development at Warner Bros. and DreamWorks -- in addition to his just-announced deal with Endgame Entertainment to develop a film based on the Arthur Phillips story, "Wenceslas Square," that aired on the radio program last summer. (It's about two spies who fall in love while on separate missions.) Says Glass, "I've been told to develop four or five things. Cross your fingers, and hope one of them gets made," he says. "One of the reasons I got into it is that my sister is a movie executive. She used to say, 'Hollywood has got all this money and needs decent stories, and you have just the opposite situation.''" Will the siblings collaborate some time? "We are hoping to do one together," says Ira.
With reports by Emily Feimster.

Taking a well-deserved break from the breakneck pace of Tinseltown, Eva Mendes was spotted out in Rome, Italy with her boyfriend today (February 25).

The “We Own the Night” babe looked relaxed as she meandered around a few boutiques, chatting with her handsome beau while trying to avoid the paparazzi.

Miss Mendes also enjoyed some time checking out the latest fashion trends during her time at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week last week.

Along with Kate Beckinsale, Eva was spotted peeping the new Calvin Klein Fall/Winter 2009 line from the front row of the runway show.

Madonna and Demi Moore are throwing an Oscars party.

The 'Hung Up' singer will again team up with her actress friend and her manager Guy Oseary for a glitzy bash on February 22 following the success of the bash they threw last year at Guy's Los Angeles home.

The party will be strictly invitation only, and it should be a star-studded affair as last year's guests included Tom Cruise and his wife Katie Holmes, Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi, Cameron Diaz and Orlando Bloom.

Despite hosting their own post-awards bash in aid of charity, Sir Elton John and David Furnish also attended the gathering last year after their AIDS Foundation benefit ended.

They will be throwing their party again this year for the 17th time and singer Raphael Saadiq admits he is stunned to have been asked by the couple to perform.

He said: "I won't believe it's happened until it's happened. It's unbelievable."

Vanity Fair magazine will also host their own Oscar night party after taking a break last year due to the Hollywood writers' strike but have promised next week's revelry will be less elaborate than previous functions.