Ellen Degeneres will be the new judge on American Idol, it has been confirmed.

She won’t start her new job until after the audition period. During that time there will be a slew of other celebs including Shania Twain and Victoria Beckham helping to judge.

Ellen insists that she is not giving up her job on the Ellen Degeneres Show, instead, she says, she’ll have a “day and a night job.” The deal has reportedly been under wraps for a couple of weeks. She says:

“I’ve been dying to tell everyone. It’s just been so hard to keep it a secret and we just finally got the OK and I’m so excited. It is going to be so much fun.”

She adds that she is a huge fan of American Idol, never missing an episode.

“Hopefully I’m the people’s point of view because I’m just like you. I sit at home and I watch it. I’m not looking at it in a critical way from the producer’s mind. I’m looking at it as a person who is going to buy the music and is going to relate to that person.”

I love this. I think Ellen will definitely add more to the show than Paula. Ellen has a lot of charisma and has such a great sense of humor that I think she will actually make the show more fun to watch. Paula had the same responses for people every year, you know, “You are an inspiration. Your confidence is great but this competition isn’t for you.” And she just wasn’t very funny either, except to laugh at. I’m just saying. The whole ‘Paula vs. Simon’ bit got pretty stale.

I’m actually looking forward to the new judges this year. Because to be honest with you, it’s probably the only reason I’ll watch!

Ellen Degeneres & Portia de Rossi at the 36th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards.

[Photos: ©AXELLE/BAUER-GRIFFIN.COM]

Lindsay Lohan opens up about her recent breakup with Samantha Ronson in an appearance on today’s Ellen Degeneres show.

Lindsay, 22, tells Ellen that the split between the two has been very trying for her. She says the shock of it all still hasn’t quite settled in. She claims Samantha decided “out of nowhere” that the relationship was over, and instead of telling Lindsay, she simply avoided her for a week. Lohan says, “When you don’t know you’re breaking up. [It's] really weird.”

She denies that infidelity was the cause of the breakup and is still holding out hope that she and Ronson may reunite.

“I really care about Samantha and we’ll see what happens. Maybe when we’re fully in the right place. And I love her.”

But for right now, the actress says that she is focusing on her career. “I feel like I want to get my career back in shape.”

“You know when people are together so much it gets really difficult and you forget who you are because you’re more concerned about being with the other person. I think it’s been really good for me. I thought it would be so much harder and it hasn’t been. My sister’s been here with me.”

Do you think Sam and Lindsay will get back together eventually? I am guessing not a chance in hell! Sam definitely seems WAY over Lindsay and I think she has talked enough smack about her to her family that she might look like a fool if she does take her back. Your thoughts?

[PM]

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are close to settling down and having a child.

Star magazine says the couple will undergo fertility treatment in the not-so-distant future.

DeGeneres has recently said that once her contract expires in 2010 the women would like to move out of the spotlight and onto a rural farm.

De Rossi has also been quoted as saying she would like children sometime soon. “There are times when I think I’d be really selfish not to adopt a child. It’d be great to spend our lives with somebody, a little child that really needs a home.”

However, the couple have decided on using IVF to conceive a child of their own. Sources say they would really love to have a baby boy.

Ellen Degeneres tried to find out the answer to that question yesterday on her show.

After straight up asking the pop diva if she was pregnant, Ellen backtracked by saying, “You don’t have to answer that. Let’s just toast with champagne.”

She’s such a sly little devil..heh.

So she whips out the champagne and Mariah comes up with every possible excuse as to why she can’t drink it. It’s fattening, it’s too early…blah, blah.

So Ellen simply said, “No, let’s toast to you not being pregnant!”

Mariah responded with, “Why would we toast to that? How about to the future? For both of our futures, who knows what they hold.” Then she pretended to take a sip, which made Ellen blurt out, “You’re pregnant!”

Although Mimi did deny it until the bitter end, it is a little suspicious..

“You know how I always like to share what’s going on in my life with you all, and I was going to give you some news, and unfortunately rumors started circulating all over the Internet. I am here to set the record straight right now. I am not pregnant. It just turned out to be a bump. I went and had it checked out.  That’s not the news. I am the new face of CoverGirl.”

- Ellen Degeneres admits that the rumors are true, her CoverGirl cosmetics campaign launches in January.

[Us]

I don’t know what you guys think about Portia’s wedding dress, but I absolutely love it.

And I think Portia looked amazing in it.  I would be willing to bet that a lot of women out there will be wanting a similar style dress for their wedding after all the publicity this one got.

People magazine has exclusive coverage of the women’s wedding in this week’s issue.

And more photos you might have missed..

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi were married Saturday in a small ceremony at their home.

Approximately 20 people attended the wedding, including the women’s mothers, Degeneres’ mom, Betty, and di Rossi’s mom, Margaret, who flew in from Australia for the big event.

Ellen, 50, and Portia, 35, have been together since December 2004 and have been planning the wedding for months.

Both women wore Zac Posen, with Portia in a Cinderella-like pink dress and Ellen in white pants, vest and button-up shirt.

Ellen described Portia last year saying,

“She’s taught me lessons about myself, and I feel like I’ve taught her. We’ve both changed and grown, and we just feel like, ‘Oh, okay, this is completion.’”

Even back in 2005 she felt that she and Portia would be together forever.

“I never would have thought my life would have turned out this way. To have money. Or to have a gorgeous girlfriend. I just feel so lucky with everything in my life right now.”

That same year Portia told the Advocate,

“My feelings for Ellen overrode all of my fear about being out as a lesbian. That had never happened to me in my life, where I saw somebody and [experienced] all of those things you hear about in songs and read about in poetry. My knees were weak.”

Congratulations to the women!

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are engaged and have reportedly set a date to be married.

Ellen gave Portia a beautiful ring with pink diamonds. Ellen told reporters at Friday night’s 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, “Yes, we have set a wedding date. Portia has a ring. It’s a Neil Lane ring.”

Although she didn’t reveal the date she did hint that the guest list is getting long and that the planning was a little stressful. However, both women are thrilled and excited to become each other’s spouse.