Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever.
by Sarah Warn, AfterEllen.com Editor
The lesbian pop culture column

Friday, September 8, 2006

BUT REALLY, WHEN IS IT NOT GOOD TO BE ELLEN THESE DAYS?
It was a good week to be Ellen DeGeneres. First she and Portia emerged relatively unscathed from a fender bender in L.A. earlier this week. Then the debut of The Ellen DeGeneres Show's fourth season on Tuesday (which featured Justin Timberlake) earned the show its highest season-premiere ratings ever--no small feat given that it was already one of the most-watched talk shows on TV.

Finally, it was announced yesterday that Ellen has been tapped to host the 79th Annual Academy Awards, which will be broadcast live on ABC on Sunday, February 25. While Ellen has hosted the Emmys and Grammys twice each, this will be her first time hosting the Oscars; needless to say, she is the first out lesbian to be granted this honor. “Ellen DeGeneres was born to host the Academy Awards,” said producer Laura Ziskin in a statement. “I can already tell she is going to set the bar very high for herself and therefore for all of us involved in putting on the show. Now all we need is a lot of great movies.” Don't worry, Laura, there's always Jackass Number 2.

A LESBIAN WALKS INTO A TALK SHOW...
In more lesbian talk-show news, Rosie O’Donnell made her big TV comeback on The View this week, joining Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck as the popular ABC talk show's newest co-host. In her debut episode, Rosie talked about her marriage to Kelli, coming out ("I thought everyone knew") and her now-infamous hair cut ("an error of epic proportions"). She talks even more candidly about the past few years in a new interview with Newsweek, which includes her amusing statement that "my Angelina Jolie crush was much more sexual than my Tom Cruise crush ever was." (Gee, you think?)

Critics gave Rosie's View debut mostly positive reviews, and viewers tuned in in droves: The View drew an audience of 4.2 million on her first day, a 55% increase over the same day last year. But will viewers keep coming back, especially since Rosie's not shy about mentioning her sexual orientation on the show? 60% of People magazine readers say yes (see the poll at the bottom), but we'll have to wait and see how it ultimately pans out.

Rosie is also appearing on the new season of Nip/Tuck, which bowed this week. She guest-stars on the October 3rd and 17th episodes as a housewife who gets liposuction, and dumps her husband after she wins $381 million in the lottery. And, of course, because this is Nip/Tuck, she sleeps with Christian (Julian McMahon). Now that sounds like an error of epic proportions...

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND
I attended MTV's Video Music Awards last week, and it was a lot of fun, but sadly, there were no lesbian moments to report. Unless you thought Beyonce and her posse of beautiful women dancing on stage in black lingerie and trench coats was a hot new lesbian gang.

I also spent the weekend settling into my new apartment in New York--yes, it's true, I've moved to the Big Apple. Why? To get you more good lesbian news and gossip, of course! There might be a lot of trees in Seattle, and less chance of dying from smog inhalation, but a hotbed of lesbian entertainment info it's not.