Pre-production on Exes & Ohs season 2 is in full swing and Michelle’s up in Vancouver, hard at work. In this vlog, she takes you on a tour of the sound stage and shows you neat things like wardrobe racks, hallways that go to nowhere, and what she eats for lunch while she’s writing.

We also get to see her messy desk and the view from her window.

Look for new episodes from Michelle on AfterEllen.com every other week or so, and watch previous episodes of her vlog here.

You can learn more about Michelle at her official website, her MySpace profile, or her Facebook page.

You can also buy the first season of Exes & Ohs on DVD!

This week, Michelle Paradise continues to talk with Marnie Alton and some of our other favorite actresses at a party for the Trevor Project.

Marnie dishes on her "glamorous life" as an actress and Michelle talks about balancing her producing and acting duties on set.

Look for new episodes from Michelle on AfterEllen.com every other week or so, and watch previous episodes of her vlog here.

You can learn more about Michelle at her official website, her MySpace profile, or her Facebook page.

You can also buy the first season of Exes & Ohs on DVD!

This week, Michelle Paradise answers a lot of your questions, and gets some surprise guests to answer them as well.

This vlog is so action-packed and guest-filled that it had to be done in two parts. Look for part 2 next week.

Look for new episodes from Michelle on AfterEllen.com every other week or so, and watch previous episodes of her vlog here.

You can learn more about Michelle at her official website, her MySpace profile, or her Facebook page.

You can also buy the first season of Exes & Ohs on DVD!

Lesbians are popping up in the darndest places. Twenty years ago you would need a magnifying glass and the best gaydar detector money could buy to find an out lesbian actress on television, never mind a show that depicted one. Nowadays we have our very own series that is based solely on the lives of gay women loving, laughing, lying, lamenting and other L-related activities; we have cable stations like Logo that give us all gay programming all the time; and more and more networks television shows are incorporating bi/lesbian characters into their programs (hat tip, Grey’s). To further our quest to conquer the world, celesbians and actresses that play some of our favorite gay women are infiltrating another frontier — television ads.

The other night while watching some reality show I can't get enough of I was treated to not one, not two, but three commercials featuring some of my most beloved ladies in entertainment today. Yes, the commercial break — that universal time when millions of people choose to get up, stretch, refill that satisfying beverage, or tend to nature’s call — is now featuring ads staring our favorite ladies trying selling us things that we may not even want. (But the point is they are there and visibility matters.)

I’m sure we have all seen Ellen’s American Express commercials by now. Her ads are as widely known as her sexuality. Ellen has built her career on knocking down barriers and starring in this ad campaign is another accomplishment to add to that list. What other out celebrity of this magnitude would be signed on by such a huge company to sell its product? Kudos to Ellen, a card carrying lesbian and our favorite American Express card member.

And this commercial is "I-wish-I-was-that-dollop-of –yogurt-on-the-end-of-that-spoon good." No, no, this commercial is "I-don’t-want-anyone-else–to-ever-sell-me-yogurt-but-Leisha good." We all heard about how yogurt is the definitive product for women, but now thanks to Leisha, Yoplait can be the definitive product for women who love women. … continue reading

This week, Michelle fights seasonal allergies, a meowing cat, and a complete inability to focus her flip-cam in order to tell us how stories eventually make their way to our TV screens.

She also takes us through her writing process and gives us an update on where Season 2 currently stands.

Look for new episodes from Michelle on AfterEllen.com every other week or so, and watch previous episodes of her vlog here.

You can learn more about Michelle at her official website, her MySpace profile, or her Facebook page.

You can also buy the first season of Exes & Ohs on DVD!

In her new vlog, Michelle shows you her office-away-from-the-office, introduces you to Billy, addresses some of your comments and questions, and explains why the last few days have been so rough.

She also shows off her self-professed "mad editing skills."

Look for new episodes from Michelle on AfterEllen.com every other week or so, and watch previous episodes of her vlog here.

You can learn more about Michelle at her official website, her MySpace profile, or her Facebook page.

You can also buy the first season of Exes & Ohs on DVD!

The creator and star of Logo's lesbian comedy Exes & Ohs kicks off the new “season” of her behind-the-scenes video blog by battling wind and noise, and getting lost in her own office building.

She also takes you on a tour of the MTV building in L.A., shows you a nifty foosball table, tells you one thing that she’s afraid of, and lets you know what to expect from future her vlogs (hint: her video blog isn’t over until it’s over).

Look for new episodes from Michelle on AfterEllen.com every other week or so, and watch previous episodes of her vlog here.

You can learn more about Michelle at her official website, her MySpace profile, or her Facebook page.

You can also buy the first season of Exes & Ohs on DVD!

Comedian Jackie Jones joins other AE vloggers to tell you why women like Rachel Shelley, Olivia Wilde, Angie Harmon, Salma Hayek, and Lauren Graham are hot, as our video countdown of The 2008 AfterEllen.com Hot 100 continues.

Plus: a special appearance by Kate McKinnon...

You can watch other installments of the countdown here, including the women who ranked at the top of the list!

Continuing their commentary on the results of the 2008 AfterEllen.com Hot 100, the stars of AfterEllen.com's video blogs and web series tackle those women who ranked between 75 and 51 in this installment of the 2008 Hot 100 Countdown.

This time, AfterEllen.com vloggers Dee and Cathy DeBuono join in the discussion of women like Cat Cora, Alicia Keys, and Emily Deschanel. (and if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to check out Liz Feldman's interview with Emily about being No. 69 on the Hot 100).

Watch more installments of the countdown here!

Now that we know the results of the 2008 AfterEllen.com Hot 100, I asked the stars of AfterEllen.com's video blogs and web series to give us their take on why these women deserved to be on the list. Some took a funny approach, others a more serious one, but all are entertaining.

And unlike most TV countdown shows, this one is very, very gay.

To keep the video manageable, I've broken it into four parts. The first one is below, and the next three will be rolled out each day this week through Thursday. Not all the vloggers appear in every segment — Dee and Cathy DeBuono, for example, are in the next three, but not this one; and Liz Feldman was too swamped with working on the (awesome) upcoming episode of her show to participate at all — but you should find at least a few of your personal favorites represented in each video, talking about women they think are hot. (Does it get much better than that?)

First up! The women who ranked on the list between 100 to 76, which includes P!nk, Cat Cora, and Naomi Watts, plus a few of the vloggers themselves. Enjoy!

Watch the 75 - 51 countdown, and check out the entire list of women on the 2008 AfterEllen.com Hot 100. … continue reading

The stars of Logo's lesbian series Exes & Ohs are back with a very special announcement for AfterEllen.com readers...

Get the first season of Exes & Oh on DVD, watch Michelle's vlogs about the first season, or read our first-season recaps of the show.

The second half of the AfterEllen.com AfterNoon at Dinah last week was a hilarious train wreck — or "cluster screw" as our host Michelle Paradise politely called it — of comedy improv starring several of the AfterEllen.com vloggers: Cathy DeBuono, Jill Bennett, Marnie Alton, Karman Kregloe, Dara Nai, and Bridget McManus.

Dee and Jenn (Come With Me If You Want to Live) joined Lori and I as judges, using criteria Dara came up with — so you know it's slightly off-kilter.

Highlights of the event? Too many to mention, but here are a few of my favorites: Michelle getting heckled for accidentally picking on a woman with a broken toe; Karman and Cathy flirting in Santa's workshop; Bridget and Marnie's adventures in Amsterdam's red light district; and Jill taking orders from Dara in a barn. Then there's Karman and Dara's rendition of A Sound of Music...well, you'll just have to watch for yourself and tell me what your favorite moments / lines / scenes are. Check it out now here:

Thanks to Michelle for graciously agreeing to host, and to the rest of the vloggers for participating. It was a lot of fun to watch live — hopefully it will translate on-screen!

(And in case you missed it, also check out the AfterEllen.com AfterNoon stand-up performances at Dinah, our Dinah red carpet interviews , and Julie Goldman's Dinah stand-up routine from Logo's Comedy Cocktail Hour.)

Cats are better than dogs.

OK, I'm not really talking about Catwoman. But I wanted to deflect the ire of dog-lovin' lesbians long enough to let me make a point. And I do have one.

Yes, another gratuitous picture. You're welcome.

Personally, I love dogs and cats equally. I have cats because, well, I'm lazy. But a recent University of Minnesota study suggests that people with cats are less likely to die of cardiovascular disease than people without cats. Dog owners had the same rate of stroke and heart attack as non-owners. Of course, I already knew that my cats help reduce stress, especially when I'm working at home. I mean, this is what I see when I'm blogging.

One theory about the results has to do with the nature of cats — they are lap animals that want to be petted. When the owner pets the cat, down goes the stress. I would have to balance that with another aspect of the feline nature: a fondness for attacking toes when the owner is asleep. And the fact that a kitty's favorite place to sleep is on whatever part of the bed is highest at a given moment and, if its position is threatened, it will hang on with extended claws. In other words, sex can be, well, a pain in the butt. Literally. (This is, unfortunately, not just theory.)

Still, we love our kitties. Witness the popularity of Lolcats. … continue reading