Special Coverage Pop Culture Classics (The EW 1000)Sound BitesSummer TVBox Office Game
Page 2 of 3

Not bad for a year's accomplishments.

"I never thought I would end up being on television, much less some person people were looking at like I was some kind of--you know, that I've changed things in the world," DeGeneres swears, with the kind of plainspokenness that characterizes her comedy style. In the past year, she has been honored by all sorts of folks, from individual gay and lesbian viewers, who tell her how her show cheered them, to the ACLU. She's been hated, too (the Reverend Jerry Falwell has called her "Ellen DeGenerate") and courteous all the same: "I believe in God. I trust that I'm doing the right thing. I'm not driving through neighborhoods in a truck with a loudspeaker," she explains. (Now's the moment to credit Ellen's network, ABC, which continues to take heat from skittish advertisers, anxious affiliates, and angry political and religious conservatives; now's also the time to note that Ellen is running an upper-middle-of-the-pack 33rd for the season and consistently wins its 9:30 p.m. Wednesday time slot.)

But through it all, the 39-year-old who, 15 years ago, was named Showtime's genderless "Funniest Person in America" and who lives in a nice house in Los Angeles with the 28-year-old Heche and two dogs named Trevor and Murphy, is still surprised by what she's stirred up. "All I wanted to do was a very good show, and at the same time free myself," she says. Now the artist's challenge is to keep her character's sexual life an organic part of Ellen without overwhelming the story lines, turning off viewers, or spooking the affiliates and advertisers too badly. "It's foolish to think, Oh, I'm just doing a little show," DeGeneres acknowledges, "and I don't care if 2 million people watch it or 40 million people watch it. Obviously, I want 40 million people watching."

Meanwhile, she doesn't want to pigeonhole herself as That Lesbian Girl. (In an upcoming dark comedy called Goodbye Lover, DeGeneres plays it straight as a homicide cop; next she'll costar with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as a straight cable exec in Ed TV, directed by Ron Howard.) Last month, Ellen Morgan fretted that she didn't want to become known as The Lesbian Formerly Known as Ellen. And the star concurs. "I can understand some people saying 'Okay, enough already,' because it can seem as if that's all [Ellen] is about. But in my show, my character's gay. And I have to continue to play that out for as long as that show is on the air. And then my life will go on, and I'll play other things." While we're talking about future plans, this update: One addition you won't be seeing in the DeGeneres/Heche household soon is a child. Although the two have discussed the possibility--and reporters have run with the nonstory, including the detail that Heche would carry the bundle--there is, DeGeneres stresses, no baby on the agenda.

Rather, while Ellen is on the agenda, keeping Ellen Morgan's life honest matters to DeGeneres most. "ABC probably thought, Well, she'll just be gay, but she'll still get her foot caught in the blind and spill water, and we'll never mention this ever again," she wagers. "But if somebody discovers at 35 they're gay, there's a transition period. I wanted to get into a relationship [with Lisa Darr as Ellen Morgan's girlfriend]because I wanted to show that this is a wonderful thing. It's not gay issues. It's relationship issues."


Page 2 of 3