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Ellen and Portia’s “rehearsal” for “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”

On The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Ellen showed a very funny home video she made of her and Portia de Rossi “rehearsing” at home for Portia’s first interview on Ellen’s talk show.

Watch it here now:

I love how subversive this is – from Ellen casually using the phrase “my wife Portia” in the beginning, to introducing Portia with the joke, “I always know when my first guest wakes up on the wrong side of the bed,” to the awkward greeting hug, to Portia playing a song on the guitar called, “Babe, I’m gonna leave you” (Ellen: “Yeah, that’s not a good song”).

Even though it’s staged, just watching them banter this way – at home in their backyard, teasing each other the way all couples do – is subversive. It makes same-sex couples more relatable to Ellen’s millions of straight viewers, many of whom still think we’re like exotic animals in a zoo.

This provides one more way for people like Randy – who called in to NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” lesbian visibility discussion this week to say he doesn’t really understand homosexuality, but can connect with Ellen because of the antics on her show – to relate to us as human beings.

The fact that it’s presented with humor makes it even more effective, since laughter makes you lower your guard (as Rachel Maddow pointed out when David Frum criticized her use of humor on her show).

But politics aside, this segment is also just plain funny and entertaining.

I’m looking forward to watching their “official” interview on the show on Monday, and not just because Portia looks fantastic in that green sweater, and Ellen’s tie rocks. Here’s a preview:

I could comment on the irony of them playing the Newlywed Game in light of Prop. 8, but this has been such a happy post so far, I refuse to sully it with bitterness. I’ll save that for next week.

When you’re done watching the videos, read this interesting new L.A. Times interview with Portia, and watch Better Off Ted next Wednesday at 8:30pm on ABC. (I’ve seen the first two episodes, and love it!)

UPDATE: watch the interview here.

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