newsmakers

newsmakers

Stephen Colbert to testify on Capitol Hill

NEW YORK

The United Farm Workers union says Stephen Colbert will visit Capitol Hill today to testify at a U.S. House committee hearing on farm workers who are illegal immigrants.

Colbert will appear as an expert witness. He has focused on the UFW’s “Take Our Jobs” campaign on his nightly show on Comedy Central, “The Colbert Report.” He had spent a day last month picking vegetables on a farm in upstate New York.

The UFW launched the “Take Our Jobs” campaign in June to invite U.S. citizens and legal residents to replace illegal immigrants who work on farms.

White is chairwoman of LA Zoo association

LOS ANGELES

Betty White’s Hollywood renaissance now extends to the animal kingdom.

The 88-year-old actress has been named chairwoman of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association.

In the announcement posted Wednesday on the association’s website, White says promoting animal well-being is the most important thing she does.

She has worked with the zoo for 46 years and was honored at June’s Beastly Ball by the association, a nonprofit that raises money for the zoo and its causes.

Portia de Rossi takes Ellen Degeneres’ name

LOS ANGELES

Portia de Rossi has officially taken wife Ellen Degeneres’ last name.

A Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner granted De Rossi’s request to take the last name of her partner during a closed hearing Thursday. The television star now will be known legally as Portia Lee James DeGeneres.

The couple were married in August 2008. The 37-year-old Australian-born actress asked for the name change last month.

Neither woman attended the hearing. They married during the five-month window in which gay marriage was legal in California.

Associated Press