After nearly nine years together and two children, Melissa Etheridge and Tammy Lynn Michaels had been engaged in one of the ugliest same-sex celebrity couple splits in history.

On Tuesday, the former couple settled their differences and reached a financial and custody agreement.

TMZ.com reports that the women will share custody of their twins – daughter Johnnie Rose and son Miller Steven – and that Michaels will receive monthly support that is a higher amount than the $23,000 she had previously been receiving.

Maybe this will be the end of Tammy’s juicy blog posts about Melissa?

She dropped in on Jay Leno last night and he asked her to weigh in on some hot topics, including President Obama’s recent endorsement of gay marriage.

‘I’m over the moon,’ Wanda told Jay. ‘And for a black person to say over the moon, that’s big. We don’t use that. … I’m very excited. I’m so proud of him.’

She doesn’t understand how some detractors think Obama took the stand to gain votes.

‘It’s so funny, people think he did it for political reasons. How is this going to help him politically?’ she wondered. ‘Him saying he’s for same-sex marriage, there’s someone saying, ‘ This is the last piece of my anti-Christ puzzle.”

Wanda also had a few things to say about Mitt Romney: ‘I bet if you put Mitt Romney in front of a gay organization, he would go, ‘I like gays, I’m all for gays,’ she said. ‘He says whatever should be said in front of that organization. He’s the Forrest Gump of candidates.’

All kinds of attention has been given to Rosie’s comments earlier this week that Lindsay Lohan not only is miscast as Elizabeth Taylor in an upcoming Lifetime movie, but that Lohan should leave the spotlight altogether and get herself together.

Rosie returned to The Today Show Thursday and elaborated on why she said what she did: ‘I (was) watching Whitney Houston’s funeral, and I remember thinking why didn’t more people say what they knew?’ O’Donnell told hosts Matt Lauer and Ann Curry. ‘We all knew, when she would not show up to do this show, not show up to do my show, we watched Being Bobby Brown and it was like watching Sid and Nancy, they were people who were in the throes of addiction. But all that anyone cared about was that the show was getting ratings, not that this woman, this talented individual, this human being, this mother, this daughter, was worth saving… To look at Lindsay Lohan you can’t help but feel for her. I don’t think she’s untalented, I think she’s quite talented.’

Access Hollywood caught up with Lohan this week to get her take n Rosie’s remarks:

It’s funny that someone you don’t know at all can say something so intrusive and so knowing,’

She believes she is a good choice to play Taylor: ‘I know that I’m great. I know that I know Liz Taylor very well, and I share the same makeup artist and the same hair stylist. We’ve worked with a lot of the same people.’

But one thing Lohan doesn’t know, apparently, is that Miss Taylor hated being called Liz.

It was always, Elizabeth.

This little showdown between a “Christian” street preacher and Rosie O’Donnell apparently went down at the Super Bowl but has just surfaced today via YouTube.

Rosie is walking with her family and gets into a little debate with this guy whose insults are about at the maturity level of Donald Trump’s.

“You are an ungodly, wicked woman on your way to hell,” he says. “You need to get saved.”

So this dude is saved?

He also calls Rosie “a lesbian pig.”

The guy tells Rosie to go home “and do the dishes.” She says, instead, she’s going home “to f*ck my wife.”

I’m telling you, it’s just better to bite your lip and keep walking!

With two children, they are destined to be a part of each other’s lives forever but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be pretty.

The two are headed to court next month for a settlement conference on financial issues and custody of the kids.

Tammy wants more than the $23,000 a month in child support she gets from Melissa and she claims Etheridge is trying to turn the kids against her!

To read more about this battle, see my story over at Gay Star News!

But on the bright side, it does give Rosie O’Donnell the time to do other things like pop up on her pal Fran Drescher’s new sitcom Happily Divorced next month.

Rosiue will play Fran’s (Drescher) high school friend Katie O’Grady, who “helps Fran learn a lesson about her relationship with her overbearing mother Dori,” according to TV Guide.

These two go way back.

During the first season of Rosie’s syndicated talk show back in the 90s, she used to have Fran’s parents on periodically to do restaurant reviews. They were a hoot!

Rosie also guested on a memorable episode of Fran’s first sitcom, The Nanny, as a cab driver. The episode was memorable for Rosie’s appearance, of course, but even more so because it also featured Elizabeth Taylor in a rare guest spot.

It will be good to see these two together again.

Trivia: Fran had a role in Rosie’s very first movie: Car 54, Where Are You?

Below is Fran’s appearance on The Rosie Show from last fall:

I worship Martina but even I could see that this was not a great performance by the tennis legend.

“I blew it,” Martina said after losing her footing to start the dance with partner Tony Dovolani and never really caught up.

Will she survive tonight’s elimination show? It will combine the first week’s totals with the second week’s totals and the fans’ voting.

Navratilova and Dovolani have a total of 37 out of 60 points for two weeks (20 the first week and 17 on Monday). That puts them at the bottom of the 12 contestants. Melissa Gilbert (40) and Gavin DeGraw (41) are also right there.

Hopefully the affection the public seems to have for Martina and all she has accomplished and stood for will help her survive.

“I’ve been very patient and have given my best effort,” she said. “I’m such a perfectionist. Of course, I want to win. I want to feel like a dancer.”

Martina’s great rival, Chris Evert, was not in the audience as she was last week but her former doubles partner, Pam Shriver, was. And so was fellow tennis great Jimmy Connors!

They were just beside themselves last night over Martina Navratilova’s more feminine look as she performed a Fox Trot with her professional partner Tony Dovolani.

Martina and Tony scored just 20 out of a possible 30 and were in the bottom three overall. I think they did just fine but the level this season is going to be pretty high. Gladys Knight, at 67, is one of the best dancers!

But I will be rooting for the marvelous Martina who has always dared to be herself.

One of those things is the new documentary Bully which has been given an R-rating by the Motion Picture Assn. of America because of the foul language used by some of the kids in the film.

The MPAA has denied an appeal by distributor The Weinstein Co. which is pushing for a PG-13 rating.

‘Having an R rating makes it difficult for anyone under the age of 17 to see it,’ DeGeneres said on her syndicated talk show this week. ‘Also, you can’t show R-rated movies in schools and that’s exactly where it needs to be shown.’

‘So, I think it’s important for the rating to be PG-13,’ DeGeneres added. ‘That was the intention of the filmmakers. … I think it’s an important movie and I think it can change lives.’

When we chatted recently, I said if I had an Emmy I would probably take it everywhere like Kathy Griffin used to or attach it to the hood of my car.

But the New York-based Jones doesn’t even have hers anymore! She gave it to the crew of 24, the show on which she played the President of the US.

“They live in Calfornia and they have more spacious homes,” she said.

The Emmy is currently in the possession of Nicole Burke, first Assistant Director for 24 and now first AD on Awake, the new NBC series on which Jones appears.

“I have made peace with it being on her mantle,” she says.

She had given the Tonys to her parents but after they passed on, they are now back with Jones and she has them in her New York apartment.

I talk to Miss Jones about her role on NBC’s Awake, about working in television after decades of being primarily on the stage, about about whether she is seeing anyone now that she and Sarah Paulson are no longer together.

Read all about it over at Gay Star News.

Nearly 25,000 people have signed a Change.org petition in support of Ellen and an LA Times poll shows that nearly 95 percent of respondents think JC Penney should keep her on.

The company said Friday that it ‘stands behind our partnership’ with Ellen.

You can read more about this and get to the petition by going over to my story at Gay Star News.

Here’s an excerpt:

Nixon manages to keep a similarly clear-eyed perspective on her relationship with [Christine Marinoni], despite the titillation it has caused in the tabloid media. She has less tolerance for the skepticism she says her relationship has sparked among some gay activists who find her midlife switch in sexual orientation disingenuous.

“I totally reject that,” she said heatedly. “I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line ‘I’ve been straight and I’ve been gay, and gay is better.’ And they tried to get me to change it, because they said it implies that homosexuality can be a choice. And for me, it is a choice. I understand that for many people it’s not, but for me it’s a choice, and you don’t get to define my gayness for me. A certain section of our community is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if it’s a choice, then we could opt out. I say it doesn’t matter if we flew here or we swam here, it matters that we are here and we are one group and let us stop trying to make a litmus test for who is considered gay and who is not.” Her face was red and her arms were waving. “As you can tell,” she said, “I am very annoyed about this issue. Why can’t it be a choice? Why is that any less legitimate? It seems we’re just ceding this point to bigots who are demanding it, and I don’t think that they should define the terms of the debate. I also feel like people think I was walking around in a cloud and didn’t realize I was gay, which I find really offensive. I find it offensive to me, but I also find it offensive to all the men I’ve been out with.”

Don’t you just love this photo?

It was taken earlier today when Days of Our Lives star Chandler Massey met Kristy McNichol.

They happen to have the same publicist, Jeff Ballard, and he made the introduction.

“She is a wonderful actress and is so warm and down to earth,” Chandler said after meeting McNichol for the first time.

Kristy’s view of Chandler: “What a cutie!  He is so adorable and talented.”

As you know, Kristy earlier this month publicly acknowledged that she is a lesbian and did so because she wants to help LGBT kids who are bullied.

Although Kristy has not acted for more than two decades, the Emmy winner is still well-remembered for her television roles on Family and Empty Nest and such feature films as Little Darlings, Only When I Laugh and The Pirate Movie.

Chandler, meanwhile, is doing an outstanding job as gay teen Will Horton on Days of Our Lives. He’s been so good that the current issue of Soap Opera Digest, which just arrived in my mailbox today, names him as “Performer of the Week.”

“The young actor has had to delicately balance his alter-ego’s fragility, profound hurt and confusion, not to mention his intense anger at [his mother],” the magazine notes. “The material marks the first time Massey has really been pushed to show off all his skills and he has fully embraced the challenge.”

Sara Gilbert and Linda Perry have been an item for eight months but the world just learned of the star coupling in November.

“It’s so awesome,” Perry told E! Online’s Marc Malkin Thursday at the Critics’ Choice Awards. “I would never have expected that me and her [sic] would be dating.”

“We met and we just instantly connected,” Perry added.”We’re so alike but so different, too. It really works.”

So, is marriage a possibility?

“I don’t know,” Perry tells Malkin. “We gotta get through a year first. It’s been eight months. We’re going on nine. We haven’t even lived together yet.”

Today, I complete the trifecta with this story on Pariah writer-director Dee Rees.

She has made such a superb film, so deeply moving and authentic.

I hope a lot of people go to see Pariah when it opens in theaters tomorrow.

While Pariah is not her life story, Rees says there are similarities.

‘It’s the emotions I experienced that were the same,’ she said during a recent Los Angeles press junket for the film. ‘Who I was was not a choice. … I knew this film was a universal story. I’m excited to see it playing out and seeing people respond to it.’

Click HERE to read the story in its entirety.

Rosie chatted Huffington Post about a wide range of topics in an interview posted today. Here is what she has to say about Madonna:

“Madonna is my age. I don’t have that big sister reverence of looking up to her. We’re very good friends. I just saw her new movie, “W.E.” and it’s amazing. It’s a brilliant piece of work. She is probably the most talented person I have ever met in my life. You don’t get to be Madonna in this lifetime without an immense amount of talent and I think when people see this movie, that not only did she write and direct but she produced it as well, they’re going to be shocked. She’s a meteoric, once-a-generation type talent and she’s a pretty phenomenal human being as well.”

The couple met in line at Starbucks!

Rosie broke the news today to audience members of her new talk show on OWN.

Rosie has four children with her ex, Kelli Carpenter,  and last year split from artist Tracy Katchick-Anders.

But once the show was on, she would occasionally speak about her then-partner Allison Adler and their kids. On Wednesday’s show, as the ladies held a discussion about celebrity privacy, Sara acknowledged what had been buzzed about over the weekend: she is dating musician Linda Perry.

“All these articles are out that I’m in a new relationship,” Gilbert told the audience, prompting applause. “I go online, and it’s on CNN … it’s weird.”

“I can’t believe anyone cares,” she said. “I do want to share stuff with you guys but I guess I’d rather do it on my own terms – in full hair and makeup.”

According to the New York Daily News, the pair were spotted holding hands in West Hollywood over the weekend.

The two were also seen together at the LA Gay & Lesbian Center gala earlier this month and the day before Thanksgiving Perry had tweeted: “Grocery shopping with @THEsaragilbert. Her contribution: breaking the balsamic vinegar trying to figure out if she had spotted Bill Cosby.”

I reminded her that a few years earlier, she had become a little distracted my a tiny hole I had near the shoulder of my favorite old sports coat that I no longer wear.

“Oh my God I’m always picking at you!” she said apologetically as wife Lara Embry laughed. “I’m just a picker.”

I assured her that it was all right by me.

Jane looked so happy and relaxed that I wondered if life as a superstar – after decades as a busy and successful character actress – had become more manageable.

“No!” Jane said.

But Lara, who she was married to last year, thinks they have because they are now in a new home they had built that she describes as “calming.”

“Ever since we’ve known each other we’ve been building this house,” said Jane. “So yes, things have started to level out – especially now that we live in this house. It feels so good. I sometimes still feel a little overwhelmed but its all good.”

The couple also shared with me their thoughts about last week’s Glee episode called “The First Time” where couples Kurt and Blaine and Rachel and Finn had sex for the first time. Groups such as the conservative Parents Television Council were up in arms before the episode even aired.

“I think they did a great job with that episode, I thought it was so sweet and tender,” Jane said. “We had Rachel and Finn having their for first moment and I thought they did that tastefully. Nobody was humping each other. They basically showed these kids post-coital if you will. It was just tender and sweet. If you have a problem with homosexuality, then maybe you have a problem with that.”

Added Lara: “What they are upset about is their own issues.”

Jane went on that night to present the evening’s other high-profile couple, Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka with the Rand Schrader Distinguished Achievement Award.