As the wife of America’s most popular talkshow host, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi has attained the kind of non-threatening Middle-American respectability that DeGeneres must have hoped for when she came out in 1997. But whereas DeGeneres’ openness about her sexuality was met with a ‘thank you and goodbye’ from the ABC Network, hosts of her eponymous TV show, de Rossi has thankfully not had to battle against such prejudice in her career. Being a blonde former model she has, however, had to endure the scrutiny of media pollsters who have included her on their Top 100 lists of sexiest women. As beauty is still considered one of the most important attributes for a female star, she has certainly made the grade. It’s an achievement – of sorts – that few out lesbians can claim.

Born Amanda Lee Rogers in Geelong, Australia, on January 31st 1973, de Rossi is best known for her role as Nelle Porter in Ally McBeal and as Lindsay on the sitcom Arrested Development. At 15 she changed her name by deed poll, because at the time, she says, she felt as though nothing about her fitted in. In retrospect, she claims the decision to change her name was largely an expression of her ambivalence about being gay. In an interview with The Advocate, she said, ‘I was trying to find things I could identify myself with, and it started with my name. I picked Portia because I was a Shakespeare fan (Portia is the character in The Merchant of Venice who comes to the rescue of Antonio and Bassanio in their time of need), and de Rossi because I was Australian and I thought that an exotic Italian name would somehow suit me better than “Amanda Rogers”. When you live in Australia, Europe is so far away and so fascinating, stylish, cultured and sophisticated.’

Raised by her medical receptionist mum, Margaret, on the outskirts of cosmopolitan Melbourne, the newly-made Portia flirted with modelling. She later made her screen debut in the Australian movie Sirens before deciding to move to the States, where she landed a part in Scream 2.
In 1996, aged just 23, she married documentary film-maker Mel Metcalfe to get a green card. The two divorced in 1999. From 2000 to 2004, de Rossi dated singer Francesca Gregorini, daughter of actress Barbara Bach and stepchild of Ringo Starr. De Rossi says most of her family and Ally McBeal castmates didn’t know she was gay until tabloid pictures of the couple were published. She decided not to publicly discuss the relationship or her sexual orientation at the time.
De Rossi and Gregorini broke up in late 2004 as de Rossi began dating talkshow host and comedienne Ellen DeGeneres. In 2005, de Rossi opened up publicly about her sexual orientation in interviews with Details and The Advocate. She and DeGeneres married in August 2008 and live in Beverly Hills, California.
From 2007-2008, de Rossi appeared in cult TV show Nip/ Tuck’s fifth season as Julia McNamara’s latest girlfriend, Olivia Lord. Due to the writers’ strike, the show was forced to take a break. In 2009, the concluding eight episodes of Season Five will air. She is also rumoured to be reprising her role as Lindsay Bluth Fünke in an upcoming film adaptation of Arrested Development.
When we meet de Rossi, she’s at a press junket for Better Off Ted, a new satirical TV comedy for ABC that premieres in America this month. Although it won’t be screening here any time soon, we’re sure the more resourceful among you will figure out how to get hold of the show, episode by episode. The sitcom is about a successful but ethical man, Ted, who runs a research and development department at a morally questionable corporation, Veridian Dynamics, headed by superhuman boss Veronica (de Rossi). No achievement is too far-fetched and no invention too unorthodox for Veridian. Need a suicidal turkey? Done. Need a metal that’s hard as steel but bounces – and is edible? Done and done. Ted loves his seemingly perfect job; he loves his superhuman boss and colleagues Lem, Phil and Linda, but he’s starting to take a closer look at the company’s extremely questionable practices... especially when they try to cryogenically freeze one of Ted’s scientists for testing purposes.

DIVA: Will you be appearing on Ellen’s show to promote Better Off Ted?
De Rossi: Unfortunately, yes. And I say ‘unfortunately’ because it seems like a very awkward kind of interview. She’ll make it flawless, and I’m happy and excited to go on her show and talk about our show. I just hope she doesn’t ask any personal questions. That’s off-limits!
So, she already knows all the answers, presumably?
Well, no she doesn’t. That’s something I’m worried about. She could ask anything she wants.
Have you been protesting against [the law that outlaws same-sex marriage] Prop 8?
Yes. Every day of our lives is a protest against the passing of Prop 8. We are a happily married couple. It was kind of devastating, actually, when it passed. I’m keeping updated on what’s happening. I just hope that the American people will all decide that they don’t want discrimination written into their Constitution, and that not just California will change its mind, but the entire country. We hope that gay marriage will be legalised and that this whole thing will be in the past. It will be just a very dark part of history.
What are you going to do for your anniversary? Have you planned that?
No, but it’s going to be something that I can do for Ellen because she took care of our anniversary last year and it was amazing. So I want to plan something special.
How has marriage affected you?
It completely changed my life. Marriage is a different way of being together. There’s a peace to it, and a sense of togetherness that we just didn’t have before. And I didn’t even realise it would change as much as it has, but it’s so lovely.
What was unexpected about it for you? You’ve been together for a while, but there must have been some surprise to it.
What was really lovely was the ability [then] to get married legally, and to have my family – my mother, especially – to not snigger when I say the word ‘wife’. Because she is my wife. It’s legal, and it’s real. So there’s a formality to it that makes it valid and lovely. We’re very much a partnership and a team. I guess it’s not surprising, but the emotions that went with that as a gay woman kind of surprised me – that I would be that relieved to have my mother present at the ceremony to bless the union, and to call her [DeGeneres] her daughter-in-law.
Both of you are comedians in your own ways. How do you relate to each other’s comic sensibilities?
I’ve always been a huge fan of hers. She’s exceptionally brilliant as a comedian, and an actress, really. She’s amazing. So anything that I do, I really need her stamp of approval, or else I just don’t think it’s good. She was a big Arrested Development fan, and she loves Better Off Ted (BOT). She loves my character, all the characters in it. She thinks it’s going to be something that people are going to want to watch. That means a lot to me, because I admire her talent so much.
You’ve talked about your struggles with food and other areas of your life. Do you feel more confident now?
Very much so. It’s so important to live an honest, open life and I didn’t realise that until I started doing it, what kind of a change it makes. I guess you grow up thinking you have to please everybody. You think being gay isn’t going to please some people – and maybe some networks and some executive producers. But I just have to do my own thing. There aren’t too many outwardly-gay actors playing straight on network TV. I really think it’s important to be one of them, and I’m proud to do it.
What’s your hope for Obama?
Oh, I have so many! Don’t we all have so many hopes for that poor man?
We heard that you’re both vegan. Why did you decide to go that way?
Yes. We’ve been vegan for about 10 months. We’ve just made that shift in our lives. It’s very easy, and a benefit of it is weight loss – for Ellen more than me, actually. Her body responded well to it, and she looks amazing. It feels like a more compassionate choice. We’re such animal lovers, and it stopped short of cows and chickens somehow. It just did not make any sense.
When we first got together I was wearing fur and she was wearing leather, like very expensive Italian calfskin. She was giving me a hard time about wearing a fur. I said, ‘Well, why is a fox any more important than a calf? Than a cow?’ We just kind of took that idea and went all the way with it. We’re doing what we can. We’re not perfect; we still have some leather!
Can you talk about your character, Veronica, who is the boss in this office comedy?
I’ve got to tell you, Veronica is my favourite character I’ve ever played, bar none. I’m really attracted to strong women… let me rephrase that [laughs]… Strong female characters. And I love her sensibility. I love how cold and uncaring she appears to be and how focused she is. She’s a very fun, interesting character to play.
While we’re on past characters, do you see any similarities between Veronica and Nelle, your character on Ally McBeal?
Yeah, I think there are, actually. When I first met Victor (Fresco, the creator/ executive producer) after reading the script, I was very excited about it. I met with him and was talking about Ally McBeal, assuming that he’d seen it. He hadn’t – which didn’t change my opinion about him [laughs]. I kind of have to throw myself at him, saying, ‘I played this character, Nelle Porter, on Ally McBeal, who has similar qualities in that she was very work-driven, strong, insensitive and slightly chilly.’ I had to convince him that I could play Veronica well, that I was familiar with a person of that nature. So, he made me audition! [laughs]. D
Better Off Ted premieres on the ABC network on March 18th 2009, 8.30pm