Ellen DeGeneres...Family Feud contestants choke on gay issue! Simon unpopular...

OMG!

On the West Coast - especially in the show biz arena - we are all so blase about Ellen DeGeneres being "openly" gay.

Married to a pretty lipstick lesbo?

Who cares!

Not so - in mainstream America - if we're to try to fathom what went down on Family Feud this week.

Even Ellen was a trifle perplexed (miffed?).

Game show contestants were asked to take a stab at a quiz that should have been a snap!

During the segment - "Things that people know about Ellen DeGeneres" - it became quite evident that the guests (a typical middle-class American family) were having a difficult time dealing with the issue of Ellen's "gayness".

I expect the first answer that popped into the fuzzy little heads of the viewers at home was quite obviously one that pertained to the fact that Ellen is "gay!".

Nope.

First answer?

"Ellen has a talk show."

Okay, not bad, but just betcha the next response will focus on her same-sex persuasion (I thought to myself from the comfort on my Hotel suite in San Francisco).

The second answer tripped off-the-tongue of the contestant trippingly, no problem.

"She is a funny lady."

Uh-huh.

Not queer, mind you, just funny.

Golly, the next words to be uttered up would  surely have the - "H", "G", or "L" - letters in it (wouldn't you have thunk?).

"Ellen doesn't like this country," the husband hazarded a guess (with a straight face, mind you!).

Huh?

"Ellen takes care of her mother," flunked out too.

Not on the ubiquitous board above the stage!

Finally - gosh almighty - a family member piped up that Ellen's married.

Bingo!

But, the tactful woman stopped short of noting the particulars.

"To a woman, you idiot!"

Needless to say, when Ellen showed the clip on her show earlier today, she was obviously in need of some consoling.

Til now, the perky talk show host - and upbeat friendly Judge on American Idol - must have thought she was the darling of America.

Nope.

Hard to swallow, eh Ellen?

In another surprise moment (when Ellen was setting up a belated April Fool's Day joke) she announced that Simon Cowell was exiting American Idol.

The spirited guests in her audience cheered!

Or was there an applause sign being held up from the sidelines?

Nope.

Ellen was shocked.

"You want Simon Cowell to leave Idol?"

The crowd roared in approval.

Life is full of surprises, isn't it?

http://www.thetattler.biz

Ellen DeGeneres...Twitter Escape all booked! Ship ahoy...

For those of you who toiled away in a stuffy office last week - and missed all the hoopla over the cruise that Ellen whipped together at the twitter site for Ellen Fans the end of last week - I am inclined to report on a handful of the delicious details.

It all started when Ellen quipped in a tweet that she was longing to flutter off on a fun-filled weekend jaunt to parts unknown for a bit of catchy two-stepping (according to shock jock Howard Stern - she's a fab dancer - 'ya know?) - and just maybe - a round or two of poker (last man standing).

Any suggestions, she queried her dedicated fans.

Within seconds, a handful of excited Ellen Fans (moi included) chirped up.

Suddenly, Ellen was fast-tracking a tantalizing itinerary for a "Twitter Escape", a handful of Ellen Fans were invited to tag along on in August (2009).

A whaling trip - with a night of poker tossed in for good measure - was difficult to resist.

In fact, so much so, that within twenty-four hours the novelty cruise was sold out!

I expect that other talk-show hosts will jump on the bandwagon in the lazy days of summer ahead, eh?

You betcha!

No doubt, Letterman ("top ten" sea tricks cruise) and Jerry Springer ( "pillow fight" tease charter) will be rustling up pleasurable people perker-uppers with a nod to Ellen for leading the merry way.

Oprah (not to be outdone by upstarts) will obviously coral her best bud - the Prez - to helm her ritzy good-ship lollipop.

Undoubtedly, she'll also book a multitude of snake-oil salesmen to pitch unproven alternative medicines on deck, once the luxury liner heads out to sea.

Nothing like a captive audience, eh?

My bets are on Ellen's magical mystery tour.

How could the current "it" girl possibly go wrong?

Whoa Nellie!

She meant strip poker

http://www.julianayrs.com

Ellen DeGeneres...Twitter Escape! Between tweets, perky talk-show host whipped up a fun-filled fan-packed cruise!

The morning started off quietly.

Not one peep from Ellen (DeGeneres) on the Twitter landscape.

Had she attended a screening of "Hangover", and ended up with one, or was she simply laying low before the curtain went up on her daily talk show?

Suddenly, about mid-afternoon, the perky blond with the infectious grin, breezed onto the Twitter site brimming with a handful of novel ideas for a whimsical holiday Ellen-style.

How about a cruise, she excitedly queried her fans online.

"Yes, " I quipped.

"If the buffet doesn't give us the trots and we loll about in some exotic locale," I added with glee.

On the heels of this brainstorm, Ellen tossed in another teaser.

"How about poker? Last man standing?"

I chuckled out loud.

After pointing out that I was graced with a great poker face (!) I joked that the bosses in Las Vegas also welcomed "whales" to sin city.

Imagine that, Ellen was quick on the uptake.

After conferring with her loyal assistant toiling on the sidelines off-screen, she surprised us all with her flexible no-holds-barred approach to the smorgasbord of choices before us.

"We can do both! A whaling cruise one day. A poker night the next."

The twitter site was all abuzz now.

Indeed, the walls had ears, too.

An alert from Twitter informed me that Texas Hold 'em was now following moi!

And, shortly thereafter, Poker Mom jumped on board, as well.

Meanwhile, Ellen issued a turning-point "tweet".

"We'll call it the Twitter Escape."

After that, the details just started to fall into place.

When to set sail - Ellen wondered express tweet to her fans - July or August?

While I would have liked the outing sooner, an August date was stamped on the itinerary.

After all, that calendar month gelled best with the schedules of all pining for the relaxing get-a-way with their Clown Princess, Ellen.

Fifty EllenFans was a cozy cut-off number for the cruise, all agreed.

Meanwhile, the entertaining banter continued on in an upbeat, entertaining fashion.

Gosh, I don't recall ever having so much amusing interplay with folks on twitter, since I joined a scant few moons ago.

From the get-go, it was obvious that charismatic Ellen was not only a great party-planner, but one to jump in and roll-up her sleeves to get the task done, when the occasion required it.

Around 5 pm when I was forced to log off to honor a prior social obligation, I half-expected that by the end of the business day, EllenFans would wrap for a day or so until the stardust settled a tad.

No, Sir!

When I perused my e-mail late this evening I spied a direct message from EllenFans regarding the much-anticipated outing with Ellen and her adoring flock mid-summer.

Ellen's sidekicks were busy firming up guests for the cruise, securing contact information, and moving full steam ahead.

At the Ellen Show site, fans signing up for the magical cruise that Ellen plans to officially helm, were already gushing about the Twitter Escape.

One staffer was inclined to note for the record:

"Of course there will B dancing @ The Ellen Fans Twiter Escape Aug 21 - 23rd. Someone will be crowned Dancing Queen! or King! R U That Person?"

Who, moi?

Do I look like the type?

Okay! Nuff said, Ellen.

Another excited Ellen cruiser offered up some useful info on the whaling expedition.

"This region is a feeding ground for 13 species of whales, amongst which, the blue whale, the most imposing animal on Earth."

Will there be video?

Ellen's response:

"Yes of course we will film a video of it. That's a GIVEN! :)"

Who knows, maybe there will end up being an offshoot reality TV show!

In the interim, Ellen, looking forward to meeting the Missus.

http://www.julianayrs.com

Twitter...Ellen DeGeneres tucks in twits - er - tweeters! Howard Stern & "Hangover" trigger raft of dialogue!

Ellen entertains flock with over-the-top frock!

In a round-about-way, I ended up signing on to "follow" the Ellen DeGeneres talk show, at ever-popular Twitter.

Of course, I've always been fond of the quick-witted comedian's style.

It all started when I inputted my user name and password to enter the Twitter site late yesterday afternoon a moment or two shy of posting a feature on Ellen's novel idea to gift fans of the show by tweet express.

Curiously, when a "thread" of conversation sprang to life on the screen, right away I spied a tweet from Ellen informing her "followers" that Howard Stern allegedly quipped that he didn't like her dancing on the show.

For those of you in the dark - on occasion - Ellen dead-pans a soft-shuffle or two to the delight of her gushing fans.

I was taken aback by the timeliness of the Stern barb!

Just minutes earlier, I published a post which also took a sly poke at Ellen's somewhat spastic (no rhythm!) two-step style.

Of course, the jibe was a bit tongue-in-cheek, and not meant to crush the bright-eyed talk-show host's penchant for engaging in the romantic past-time.

Since the Stern tweet was on the heels of my own post regarding the same subject matter, I was inclined to surf over to Ellen's fan site, to investigate the synchronistic moment further.

So, I clicked on the shock jock reference link provided by the charismatic show biz personality, and ended up plunk down in the middle of the Ellen "show" web site.

What a fun place (well, instinctively, I half-knew it would be!) for the curious to kick off their shoes and put their feet up.

Ok, I fess up.

I tapped the "follow" button - and within minutes - I was interacting (mostly reacting!) to a host of dazzling "Twitter" personas heretofore unknown to moi!

Golly!

Then, just before I keyed out at about 10 p.m , I took one last gander at the socially hip hub site I was now joined at the heart to, before signing off.

Now the Ellen "tweet" on Howard Stern was going full-steam ahead after triggering a slew of responses (mostly negative) from Ellen fans who flew to her side in a defense mode.

One irate tweeter was particularly angry with old garbage-mouth for dissing a woman on air about her abortion.

I won't repeat what she quipped in the heat of the moment, though.

This is a Disney-style family blog, after all.

Yeah, right!

And, I don't sleep buck naked at night, either.

One of my followers - Caesar's Palace - was all hopped up over "Hangover".

Throughout the starry night, CP urged tweekers to catch the entertaining feature just released around the country.

The mere mention of the comedy, which has garnered rave reviews in the local and National press in recent days - set off a tidal wave of glittering chatter - not unlike the kind you'd encounter in a trendy single's bar in Anytown, U.S.A.

Looks like I have springboarded into a dizzying strata of fresh meat - um - contacts.

Like Facebook & Twitter, membrs are often led through one door and out another, at Twitter.

If you're a true adventurer with a thirst for life, who knows where you'll end up!

Computer heaven?

Or on a fast track to trojan hell?

By the way, did you know that a major computer in Europe has been nick-named "The Beast".

Insightful thoughts on the subject, anyone?

As I was reflecting on these matters of import, a warm & fuzzy feeling swept over me when I caught sight of one last tweet from Ellen before she slipped off into another dreamy landscape that must have been beckoning from afar.

The tweet was short and sweet:

EllenFans Good night all my Tweeple!

Imagine that!

The quirky talk-show host tucks in her tweeters each night.

That's true class!

http://www.julianayrs.com/