DeGeneres: "I don't need to be distracted"

Ellen reveals what the most important thing in life is. Plus: Britney backs out of duet with Jacko!

By Amy Reiter

Sep 7, 2001 | If Ellen DeGeneres is alarmed that her ex-lover Anne Heche is A) married, B) pregnant and C) talking about her inner demons to the world at large, she's not letting on.

"I'm really just staying focused on what I do," the comedian said in a press conference on Wednesday to promote her new sitcom. "My life is back on track now and I'm really grateful and thrilled to be working again. I've got so much going on right now that I don't need to be distracted -- I'm just working on me."

That may come as unwelcome news to the Heche look-alikes who are reportedly packing the house at tapings for her new show. But then, DeGeneres hasn't necessarily given up on love. She's just given up on making a big scene out of it all.

"I think the most important thing in life, more than work even, which is kind of rare in this town," she tells the New York Post, "is a relationship and love."

Oh. That poor woman.

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Why do I not believe her?

"I couldn't be happier."

-- Liz Hurley on being replaced by young American supermodel Carolyn Murphy as the face of Estee Lauder's makeup and skin-care line, thus ending her lucrative exclusive deal with the company. (Hurley will still front its perfume line.)

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She's back?

When Mariah Carey's spokeswoman, Cindi Berger, said her client needed time to rest, she apparently really meant it. (I'm guessing that at this point Berger could use a little break, too.)

Both the New York Daily News and the New York Post are reporting that the singer has checked herself back into the hospital. This time, however, Carey is reportedly recuperating on the Left Coast, at UCLA Medical Center, where she is said to have been admitted on Tuesday.

Hospital sources, citing patient confidentiality, would neither confirm nor deny that Carey is in their care. And Berger also refused to comment on whether her client was back in the hospital, although she did confirm that Carey was bailing on the "Tonight Show" appearance she had scheduled for Sept. 14.

I guess healing, like love, takes time.

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The man with the golden member

"It's the most interesting, exotic villain people have seen in a long time."

-- "Austin Powers" director Jay Roach on Goldmember, a new James Bond-spoofing villain played by Mike Myers in the new Powers flick, in Variety.

Next Page: Moss takes a tumble; Britney jilts Jacko

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