On the red carpet at the Daytime Emmys...

When it comes to the red carpet at the Daytime Emmy Awards, EllenDeGeneres is an absolute rock star.

"Ellen! Ellen! Over here!" "Ellen! Look this way!" Ellen, just one question!" That last urgent request came from me and Ellen and fiancee Portia de Rossi did pause for a quick question and I asked how badly she wanted to win.

"Sure I want to win," she said. "But if you don't win, it doesn't really matter because happy for other people to win. But of course I want to win."

So I asked Portia: "Would she really be happy for someone else?"

"Oh yeah," Portia said. "She really is happy for other people. The ladies on "The View" have been nominated 11 times and they haven't won yet."

As it turned out, Ellen could be happy for herself as she won outstanding talk show host - her fourth consecutuve triumph in the category and the co-hosts of "The View" are starting their olwn streak of Susan Lucci proportions. Lucci was famously nominated 19 times before finally winning for her role as Erica Kane on "All My Children."

Ellen and Portia were among the stars sweating under the intense afternoon heat in Hollywood as they made their way up a long red carpet leading to the Kodak Theatre.

But soap opera queen Lucci was regal and cool as a cucumber with someone from ABC keeping her shaded underneath an umbrella. I'm going to feature our interview in a seperate column next week.

Just about an hour before showtime, co-hosts Cameron Mathison and Sherri Shepard did red carpet interviews and I gabbed with both of them wanting to know how they were holding up.

Cameron said Sherri "keeps coming up with funnier and funnier stuff. I'm just her straight man. i just love working with her."

Sherri looked glamorous and slimmer than every in her blue gown and told me: "I stopped eating so I could fit into my dress, I haven't eaten in about three or four days. I'm really hungry."

My spot on the red carpet was right next to a bank of male photgraphers who kept telling the actresses how gorgeous they looked and snapping a gazilion pics of them and all but ignored Luke and Noah from "As the world Turns." Nominee Van Hansis and on-screen partner Jake Silbermann stood akwardlly for a bit then moved on as the clueless photogs did not realize that these two good looking guys are involved in one of the hottest storylines in the history of daytime TV.

I chatted up handsome as ever Tuc Watkins of "One Live to Live," Tracy Bregman, a nominee and past winner for "The Young and the Restless" and her co-star Doug Davidson, Stephen Macht of "General Hospital," Jay Kenneth Johnson of "Days of Our Lives," and John Hensley who plays Luke's dad on "ATWT." My very favorite was a chat I had with Hillary B. Smith, a past Emmy winner for her role as Nora on "One Life to Live." I'll post some of these encounters in the coming days.