Ellen DeGeneres wows audience for Aussie filming
U.S. talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, left, has actor Russell Crowe show her a map of Australia during a recording of her show in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, March 23, 2013.(AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
PUBLISHED: March 23, 2013 at 8:50 a.m. | UPDATED: September 23, 2021 at 11:28 a.m.
SYDNEY (AP) – Ellen DeGeneres was applauded by a rapturous Aussie audience like a cherished part of the family as she introduced her Australian-born wife, Portia de Rossi, on a Sydney Harbour-side stage on Saturday to begin pre-recording Down Under segments for her popular U.S. TV show.
The Emmy Award-winning talk-show host arrived in Sydney with her mom, Betty DeGeneres, and de Rossi on Friday after a 14-hour flight from Los Angeles for a six-day filming trip to Australia.
'I'm moving here, it's so beautiful,' DeGeneres told 3,000 admirers, who were clearly delighted to be in the sun-bathed Royal Botanic Gardens near the Sydney Opera House for the two-hour recording despite the 30-degree Celsius (86-degree Fahrenheit) early afternoon heat.
Guests included Oscar-winning actor and Sydney local Russell Crowe. He presented the 55-year-old host with two kangaroo-hide cattle whips that he said DeGeneres might need to catch 'some brumbies' – an Australian term for wild horses – when she visits Australia's southeast. The pair took turns at whip cracking.
Asked by one emotional fan whether she and her wife would adopt her, DeGeneres replied, tongue-in-cheek: 'We were just saying we should adopt someone. It's so easy for us.'
The show was packed with games involving audience members, including an Australia-themed trivia event in which fans had to take a harbor plunge for a wrong answer.
'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' is in its 10th season. DeGeneres was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor last year.
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