Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres' wife
Portia de Rossi has filed paperwork to change her name to Portia Lee
James DeGeneres, TMZ.com reported.
The legal document was filed in L.A.
County Superior Court last Friday, but was signed by the actress in
late March. “Petitioner is taking the last name of her spouse,”
the document says.
During the brief 2008 June-to-November
window when gay marriage was legal in California, DeGeneres exchanged
vows with De Rossi. The pair announced their engagement during a May
taping of DeGeneres' popular talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show,
after a four-year romance.
De Rossi, 37, is an Australian-born
actress who gained fame on the hit sitcom Ally McBeal and more
recently appeared on FX's sex-obsessed plastic surgery drama
Nip/Tuck. At the age of 15, she changed her name from Amanda
Lee Rogers to Portia de Rossi.
Fifty-two-year-old DeGeneres, who came
out gay in 1997 on the cover of Time, is listed on Forbes
magazine's annual 100 Most Powerful Celebrities at #23.