Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres' wife
Portia de Rossi has legally changed her name to Portia Lee James
DeGeneres, celebrity website TMZ.com reported.
According to the website, an L.A.
County Superior Court judge granted Portia's request on Thursday.
The original request shows Portia signed the document in March but
waited until August to file the paperwork. “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, the two women
exchanged vows. The pair announced their engagement during a May
taping of DeGeneres' popular talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show,
after a four-year romance.
Portia, 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 Ellen 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.