Bumping in to Joely Fisher...

I found myself standing behind the talented Joely Fisher in the drink line at the Pantages Theatre last week and confessed to the "'Til Death" star that I was surprised that she was one of the singers on the bill for The Actors Fund concert series taking place that night.

"I still get surprised that people don't know that I sing," Joely said. "I've done a couple of Broadway shows and sang before I did any acting. But I don't do it very often now and it's kind of fun and gets the adrenaline going."

The Broadway shows were actually pretty big ones: Joely was a replacement in the 1994 revival of "Grease" as well as in the 1998 revival of "Cabaret." But those roles were overshadowed by her work on the sitcom "Ellen," on which she played Ellen DeGeneres' best friend - the vain and insensitive Paige Clark - for four seasons.

Joely, married to cinematographer Christopher Duddy and the mother of two daughters, was a showbiz kid raised by her TV star mom, Connie Stevens. (Her father is singer Eddie Fisher). She appeared in her mother's nightclub act as a kid and the desire to perform just grew stronger.

While she remained busy in the post-"Ellen" years in films ("Inspector Gadget") and television roles ("Wild Card," "Desperate Housewives"), "Death" marked her return to the sitcom format and casts her opposite Brad Garrett as a sometimes very off-putting married couple.

The show premiered in fall 2006 on the Fox network and the chemistry between the two leads, who play longtime married couple Eddie and Joy Stark, was immediately apparent.

"I got the nicest compliment from my mom, who said that when she watched the pilot, she felt like she was watching a cast that had worked together for years," Joely said. "Brad and I instantly had that. He makes me laugh harder than anybody I know. I love it! It makes the day bright and he's a love and he's neurotic as I am and he's filthy, which I love."

"Death," like most scripted prime-time shows, had an unexpected hiatus because of the writers strike. But it returned to the Fox schedule with new episodes last week and can be seen on Tuesday nights at 9:30 p.m.

"We premiered after `Idol' after being off for eight weeks, which had been kind of a bummer," Joely said. "But we're excited and it's not a bad time slot. Some shows got canceled after the strike; we got an order for eight more."

I wanted Joely to spill the beans on some of the future episodes.

She gave me this little tidbit: "In a script that we just did a run-through on, Joy thinks she's pregnant. (Eddie) says, `I thought you went through that thing,' and I say, `Menopause? How old do you think I am? I haven't done that yet!"'

By the way, Joely was a smash at the Pantages that night, singing her friend Ron Abel's song "All the Good Men are Gay," which brought the house down. I asked her if she thought the song's title was true.

She laughed and said: "Some good ones are not, but most of the good ones are."

My kinda gal!