Showbiz Commentary: Heidi Oringer

Sept. 20, 2000 -- Another celebrity lesbian couple hits the skids, an ’80s music heartthrob gets hauled off to the slammer, and a former Angel denies she mistook someone’s lawn for a bathroom during a chichi party. Yes, the summer hiatus is over: Hollywood is back in session.

Sure, Anne Heche and Ellen DeGeneres ended their relationship this summer. But despite all the publicity surrounding their romance, they weren’t the first lesbian celebrity couple to break down barriers. Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cypher went public long before Ellen and Anne started billing and cooing in public.

Boys on the Side?

After 12 years, rocker Etheridge and director Cypher have issued a joint statement saying they have ended their relationship “with the utmost love and respect for one another.” The couple would divulge absolutely no details, though they did say the most important thing right now is to focus on the children. They have two, borne by Cypher, who was artificially inseminated with sperm donated by David Crosby.And so the question of the hour is: Who gets the rest of David’s sperm?

Just kidding! The real question is: Now that stardom’s only two openly lesbian celebrity couples have broken up, will it set back the whole openness policy? Both couples seemed eager to speak about their relationships while they were ongoing, but their breakups remain a mystery. Something tells me Dr. Laura will have oodles to say about this.

By the way, more details are emerging about the Ellen and Anne split. When the story first broke, we heard that Anne went a little off the balance beam, ended up in some stranger’s house, took a shower, watched some TV, and was briefly hospitalized, but no further details were forthcoming (such as, “Why?!”). More recently, it has been reported that Anne has been canoodling with numerous men, including Vince Vaughn (one of her exes), an unknown actor from a movie she is filming, and a cameraman who worked on the documentary Anne was shooting about Ellen’s comedy tour.

If these stories are indeed true, the reason for the breakup may be that Anne decided to go back to being heterosexual, or at least bisexual. Bottom line? She’s preferring men again, for now anyway.

But Anne and Ellen really aren’t news any more. Not when we have an ’s80s hottie being arrested for spousal abuse. Ladies, brace yourselves: It’s Rick Springfield.

Reality L.A. Rocks

Needless to say, I’ve not been myself since I heard the news. It’s hard to be unbiased about a story that involves a man to whom I dedicated my pimply adolescence. A man who wailed for “Jesse’s Girl,” who wreaked havoc with General Hospital fans’ hearts as Dr. Noah Drake. Why, the mere thought of his skinny tie sent me into palpitations — or was it asthma attacks?

Anyhoo: Rick Springfield was arrested Monday night after police received a report of a disturbance at his Malibu home. They found his wife with injuries to her face and arms, mostly scratches and “redness.” The police report says the incident is still under investigation, as is the main suspect, one Richard Springthorpe, aka Rick Springfield. Rick was released on Tuesday morning after posting $50,000 bail.

And speaking of stars from decades past, Farrah Fawcett is fuming over an anecdote in Joe Esterhaz’s new book, American Rhapsody. Esterhaz claims the Charlie’s Angels icon yanked up her evening gown and relieved herself on the grass during a swanky Hollywood party years ago.

Fawcett swears it ain’t so, but Esterhaz says there were several people at this soirée who would say otherwise. Interestingly enough, Fawcett says Esterhaz is a flat-out liar, but she has decided not to sue the author. She believes he will get his just due in the karmic end.

Perhaps the real deal is that she’s worried a lawsuit would overshadow her newly flourishing movie career. Farrah appears in a new film, Dr. T and the Women, about a gynecologist (Richard Gere) and his many patients. And by the way, the woman whose poster fueled so many male adolescent fantasies back in the ’70s has a nude scene in Dr. T That should call enough attention to her in the coming weeks without going into her bathroom habits.

So that leaves us with kickoff of the fall TV season. No matter how good the shows are, they’re going to pale in comparison to the real-life goings on in Hollywood. If they want real ratings, they should put a giant camera on the Hollywood sign and roll tape. Forget reality TV — let’s go with reality L.A.

Either way, throw your recliner into first gear and stay tuned! We’re off to a great start!

Heidi Oringer is director of entertainment programming at ABCNEWS Radio.