Portia De Rossi refuses to talk to male interviewers
Wed. November 17, 2010 11:38 PM by GoPride.com News Staff
Sydney, Australia -
Author, actress and lesbian wife Portia de Rossi is turning a book tour into a battleground by refusing to be interviewed by men.
On Tuesday morning, de Rossi appeared on "Sunrise," one of Australia's most popular morning news shows, to talk about her wife, Ellen DeGeneres, and her new book, "Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain."
On that show, de Rossi talked with the female hosts. Later on, producers confirmed that's because she refuses to speak to men. The same issue came up with a radio show.
"The word used yesterday to us was 'preference' - it was her preference to speak to a woman," Austereo radio spokesperson Chelsea Kelly told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"The reason we were given for that was because her book and the context of her book is about women's issues and the pressures on women to be thin and it was just a better fit if the interviewer was a woman," Kelly continued.
Austereo Radio was fine with the request, but David Koch, the host of "Sunrise," was not.
"Portia de Rossi would only be interviewed by a woman. Am I weird in thinking that's strange. Be outrage if a man made that a condition," Koch wrote on Twitter. "Portia has campaigned, quite rightly, for gay rights and equality. Then insists on only being interviewed by women. Hypocritical? U tell me?"
De Rossi is a native of Australia.
On Tuesday morning, de Rossi appeared on "Sunrise," one of Australia's most popular morning news shows, to talk about her wife, Ellen DeGeneres, and her new book, "Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain."
On that show, de Rossi talked with the female hosts. Later on, producers confirmed that's because she refuses to speak to men. The same issue came up with a radio show.
"The word used yesterday to us was 'preference' - it was her preference to speak to a woman," Austereo radio spokesperson Chelsea Kelly told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"The reason we were given for that was because her book and the context of her book is about women's issues and the pressures on women to be thin and it was just a better fit if the interviewer was a woman," Kelly continued.
Austereo Radio was fine with the request, but David Koch, the host of "Sunrise," was not.
"Portia de Rossi would only be interviewed by a woman. Am I weird in thinking that's strange. Be outrage if a man made that a condition," Koch wrote on Twitter. "Portia has campaigned, quite rightly, for gay rights and equality. Then insists on only being interviewed by women. Hypocritical? U tell me?"
De Rossi is a native of Australia.