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AfterEllen.com at the CBS/Showtime/CW TCA Party

CBS, Showtime and the CW presented their new shows to reporters at the Television Critics Association on Wednesday and Thursday this week, and there was a star party for the networks on Wednesday night. I brought my reporter’s notebook (aka my iPhone and voice recorder) and set out to get some scoop from the actors and producers on hand.

First up was Emmy Rossum, who I had to ask about the last few episodes of Shameless. There was some definite flirtation between Emmy’s character, Fiona, and Amy Smart. What was up with that?

“There was definitely some, yeah, for sure!” Emmy said. “She’s back! She’ll be on a couple episodes this season.”

And what will be happening between them?

“It’s interesting – we’ll see,” Emmy said. “She’s married, and I like boys, as of yet, but we’ll see. I think girls are comfortable with each other and they’ll see as their friendship goes, it definitely goes to a different place, but we’ll see how it develops.”

Emmy’s co-star Shanola Hampton helped me out by chiming in, “The two kiss on the lips again! That’s a spoiler.” Noted!

I spotted Rachel Bilson, who was there for her new CW series Hart of Dixie, and had to ask if she’d reprise her lesbian character on How I Met Your Mother anytime soon.

“I would love to, I mean, if they will have me, yeah!” she said. “That was so much fun. There’s been little talks here and there. I’d love to, if given the chance.”

Someone get that ball rolling.

Whitney Cummings was rushing off, but I had to find out if there will be any gay characters on Two Broke Girls, the CBS comedy she produces with Michael Patrick King. “It’s coming, it’s coming,” she told me, as her publicist said “AfterEllen.com’s been Tweeting about all of my clients today: Whitney, Ellen Page …” I told her if she ever wants to set up an Ellen Page interview, she knows who to talk to. That’d be me. She looked amused, for the record.

I asked Michael Patrick King for further comment on the possibility of lesbians on Two Broke Girls. He is, after all, the man behind Sex and the City.

“It takes place in Williamsburg,” he said. “if a lesbian doesn’t come into the diner, something’s wrong!” Agreed. But apparently none to speak of as yet. As to if the show’s stars, Beth Behrs and Kat Dennings, will have any subtext we could read into, Michael was pretty sure that’d be a no.

“They’re 22 and they have to pay the rent. They don’t have time for sexual fluidity at this point. They have to work!”

Michael, have you never heard of multi-tasking?

I wanted to steal Sara Gilbert‘s blazer off her back, but instead, I asked if she picks out her own clothes for her daily appearance on The Talk.

“I do it with the wardrobe people and I have a friend who is a stylist who I do it with, too,” Sara said. “I wouldn’t do it as well as they do!”

Now that her partner, Ali Adler, is writing for Glee, I asked if there was any plans to bring on stars from that show to appear on The Talk. Sara said not as of yet, but they also haven’t announced any of their second season guests. “But I know we have an awesome season opener that I can’t say anything about yet,” she said, “but I’m excited.”

As to how she and Ali balance their schedules with their adorable toddlers, Sara said they do their best to be home with them as much as possible. “It’s like any working parents, you know,” she said. “You are trying to balance as best as you can. Luckily with the talk show, I’m done early a lot of days so I get a lot of time with them and it’s fantastic.”

Lastly I asked about her very gay-friendly co-hosts, and how they might not always see things the same as Sara does – including a recent discussion on a lesbian being asked to turn her “Marriage is so Gay” T-shirt around at Dollywood.

“I’m going to have a different point of view,” she said. “I think they just see it differently. I understand it can be uncomfortable. When you know people, you can take their point of view and get in their shoes a little bit, but that’s what good because otherwise the show wouldn’t work if we all thought the same thing.”

True, but I don’t think I’d ever yell at my TV if everyone on The Talk said all kinds of pro-gay things all the time.

I caught Jillian Michaels coming through the party with her publicist, and asked if I could grab her for a sec for some questions. Her publicist said, “Just one – she has to be somewhere.” As I geared up to ask about the hot K-Swiss pic she posted on Twitter right before arriving at the party, I introduced myself, as I usually do, as being from AfterEllen.com. Jillian put her hand up and said “Oh no, sorry” and turned to her publicist, pulling her away and adding, “I don’t need that.” Dissed! She doesn’t need press about her sportswear line? Doesn’t she know we buy that s–t in bulk?

If there’s one show I can’t wait to see come back on, it’s The Good Wife. Could creator Robert King tell me anything to tide me over? Oh yes – yes, he can. He was not afraid to tell me how he felt about Kelli Giddish getting cast on Law & Order: SVU, thus not having the time and ability to be Kalinda’s bed partner anymore.

“This one was even worse [than losing Jill Flint] because we had a very extraordinary first three episodes involving Kelli Giddish,” Robert said. “What we’re hoping – and don’t tell Kelli Giddish this, but you can print it – that she fails there miserably so she’ll come back to us.”

But they also have a Plan B. “Our hope is to get Aubrey Dollar back – she was on as a nurse last year – as part of that. We’re also looking to cast someone else as someone with Kalinda. Kelli Giddish brought a really different energy and one of the things that made that work was they were so different and you never really got a sense that Kelli Giddish being beholden to Archie [Panchabi] and Archie had so much fun playing with her because they were both equals. We are looking for somebody else. Kalinda’s really going to come to the forefront this year in her own right, but her friendship with Alicia is the core story this year.”

Speaking of that currently strained friendship, will Kalinda and Alicia be able to work out their differences this year?

“In the first episode, they’re kind of slapped awake. … There’s a sense they’re not as powerful a team. So can you work with someone who was a friend and work just as well? They’re both adults, they’re both trying to do their best, but also, Kalinda begins to enjoy working with Eli’s side of the company, partly because of the difficulty with working with Alicia,” Robert said. “So Eli helps us in house because he creates this whole other world for Kalinda to research scandals and things like that.”

As for what kind of cases we can expect to be tried with Lockhart Gardner, look for some references to the Weiner/Schwarzennager scandals. Salacious!

Lea Michele isn’t the only TV actress to be a fan of The Real L Word. Rules of Engagement‘s Megyn Price told me all about her obsession.

“I don’t know what happened! I love it. This is my guilty secret,” she said. “I’m eyeballing around like ‘Is Whitney here? Are any of the girls here?’ I didn’t know who she was last year – and I was like ‘Who are those cool girls?’ Cuz we’re like dorky TV actresses but I was like ‘Those are the cool girls – who are they?’ And I didn’t watch the show then. And now I’m obsessed. Those were the only people I wanted to see.”

After I told her I didn’t see them on the press list, we chatted about the lesbian surrogate storyline on Megyn’s show.

“We love that storyline – both of us, Sara [Rue] and I both, have a lot of lesbian friends. I learned to surf from the crew. I was their mascot;they used to call me ‘Melissa,'” she said. Hilarious. Was she on Curl Girls?

“The thing that bothers me,” Megyn said, “is when the writing staffs write ‘lesbian women.’ It’s the same thing when they write ‘women’ because they talk differently than men. It’s like, “No.’ So Sara and I try to be very conscious of the fricking stereotypical nonsense. They wanted her – and I’m not kidding you – to wear Doc Martens. Specifically, they had her in a plaid shirt and Doc Martens.”

I told her the plaid is fine, because that’s totally in right now. Also, Sara is adorable.

“She’s such a cutie,” Megyn said. “She’s like a chicky chick.”

And will Sara’s character be producing a baby for Megyn and her on-screen husband this season?

“They haven’t told us yet. We think there’s a baby coming. We think it’s this season. I’ve fought against it because I think babies usually wreck TV shows. The idea of the baby – trust me because I have one – is much cooler.”

Plus, Megyn says, “It’s hard to write for a baby.” True – the ones I know don’t have much to say. And then we talked about how much Claire sucks and we’re glad Rachel got some professional help.

One of the last people I knew I had to grab at the party was Kirsten Vangsness, who also introduced me to her Criminal Minds co-star, Paget Brewster. Kirsten was raving over her Betsey Johnson dress, which was another piece of fashion I coveted that evening, although my boobs would never compliment the outfit like Kirsten’s. (I swear, I was professional.)

And since I had the pleasure of speaking to Kirsten for quite a while about all kinds of projects she’s working on, and all about her fiancee, Melanie, I’m saving that conversation for a separate piece altogether. But enjoy this pretty picture of Kirsten with her co-stars (AJ Cook!)

I might have had one more free drink before I went back to my hotel and Skyped with Emily Hartl, but that’s the least bit of interesting information I’ve provided you with so far. All in all, a good night of stalking.

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