The sexuality of the character of Justin on "Ugly Betty" has not been announced or anything but it's pretty clear that this fashion-loving, showtune singing dynamo is gay. When I was 13, if there was a kid like that on television, I would have felt a lot less freaky. I wasn't into fashion and showtunes then but I was into movie magazines and divas like Cher! My parents never hassled me about it but didn't exactly say, "Hey! I heard you playing the 'Take Me Home' record today. Cher is such a survivor!'"
I write this as a way of leading into my conversation Monday night with Ana Ortiz (pictured, right) at the DVD release party for "Ugly Betty" at Skybar. Ana plays Hilda, the supportive mother of Justin.
"it's really wonderful to be able to portray a single mom and the way the writers write these two characters is so brilliant and so truthful and funny," Ana says. "One of my absolute favorite character traits of Hilda is that she feels that as long as he's happy, I'm happy. I'm not going to change him, I'm not going to judge him. He's happy. How many people can say they have a happy, well-adjusted kid? Not many. So she's like, 'If it's not broke.'"
She added: "it's an actress' dream to not only be on a show that was picked up, and a show that is a success but on a show that is affecting people and making change. It's such a blessing."
Ortiz is a blushing bride, having been married in Puerto Rico this summer. Among the guests was her television son Mark Indelicato who was also at Monday's party. In the season finale, Mark is performing the lead in his school's musical 'West Side Story' (he was understudy but fed the lead some kind of nuts that he's allergic to!) when his father is shot on his way to the performance.
The father has learned, by Hilda's example, to accept his son as he is and to celebrate the bright spirit that he is.
"It was a complete honor to be put in that situation and to have the finale end on a family note. Ana did a great job in that end scene, it made us all cry," says Indelicato, who turned 13 last month.

The young actor (pictured above with fellow cast member Rebecca Romijn) had a busy summer vacationing in Puerto Rico with his family and attending Ortiz's wedding. But he no longer has the life of your typical junior high schooler. Mid-holiday, he did make a quick trip to New York to appear on the Tony Awards.
On the new season of "Betty," fashion savant Justin will begin to intern at MODE magazine where his aunt Betty works as assistant to the editor.
"It's so much fun. I love working with all the MODE people - Vanessa [Williams], Michael [Urie], Becki [Newton] and Chris [Gorham]. I love doing the family stuff, of course, which is the majority of what I do," he says. "But getting those little joy rides and going to MODE is a lot of fun."
Most delicious are his scenes with Vanessa Williams, Emmy-nominated for her performance as the scheming and ambitious Wilhelmina Slater: "Justin idolizes her, but he fears her. But she starts to respect him and he starts to ease up with her. He knows his stuff."
Indelicato is still a bit in awe of the success "Ugly Betty" has become: "A lot of shows don't even get the chance to finish a season one and we're going into season two. People might not think that that's a big deal but that's a huge deal. We're just hoping to stick around for a season three. I think we'll do OK."

Meanwhile, I don't want to forget about adorable Christopher Gorham (above), who I have been a big fan of since the WB's old "Popular" series and who was so good opposite Stockard Channing in the CBS sitcom "Out of Practice." Chris shared with me the news that John Cho ("Harold and Kumar's Trip tp White Castle") is joining the cast as a buddy of Gorham's nerdy character of Henry.
"He thinks that Henry walks on water," he says. "He's really, really funny."
Gorham, who joined the series in its fourth episode last season, is Betty's love interest but Henry broke her heart when his ex-girlfriend, Charlie, claimed to be pregnant with his child. It's not his, but he doesn't know that yet.
"I can tell you that the first scene in the first episode of season two is one of the funniest scenes that we've shot to date," he says. "It's a Betty-Henry-Charlie scene, it's subtitled and it's amazing."
So what's in store for Betty and Charlie?
"We're gonna find out who the baby daddy is before that and the Betty-Henry relationship takes a very definite step in the second season, is definitely moving along and Freddy Rodriguez ("Six Feet Under") is coming on and there's a potential conflict there."

I'll be watching...