DeGeneres gets banged in the rear

Talk-show host and comedienne Ellen DeGeneres emerged relatively unscathed from a three-vehicle collision Friday that was caused by a suspected drunken driver, police said.



Ellen with the Lane Twins


"She had a little neck and back pain, but it doesn't look like it was anything serious," Sgt. Ken Buscarino of the Los Angeles Police Department said after the accident, which occurred just before 4 p.m. PT on Sunset Boulevard.

DeGeneres, host of the popular daytime talk program The Ellen DeGeneres Show, stopped her 2006 Porsche Carrera at a light, followed by a 2002 Buick Le Sabre with two men in their 20s. A 2002 Porsche Carrera driven by a 52-year-old woman then slammed into the back of the Buick, causing a chain reaction, police said.

The woman, who was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, had minor cuts on her leg, police said. The two men in the Buick suffered scratches.

DeGeneres's passenger, a woman in her mid-30s, complained of minor back pain. DeGeneres's car sustained moderate damage.

No one required medical attention at the scene, Buscarino said.

DeGeneres rose to prominence in the mid-1980s with her stand-up comedy before starring in the ABC sitcom Ellen from 1994-98. The show created a stir in April 1997 when DeGeneres announced she was a lesbian, becoming one of the first openly gay actors to portray an openly gay character on television.

The syndicated Ellen DeGeneres Show, which premiered in September 2003, has won outstanding talk show honours at the Daytime Emmy Awards in each of the past three years.