Another day, another double entendre:

Portia de Rossi, who plays a scary boss in an even scarier workplace in an upcoming ABC comedy, "Better Off Ted," is asked about the character, which she calls her "favorite."

(Yes, fans of "Ally McBeal" and "Arrested Development," she's cheating on you.)

"I'm really attracted to strong women -- let me rephrase that, actually," said the actress, who in real life is married to talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres.

Oh, and add de Rossi to the list of "Arrested Development" cast members who are up for the reunion movie.

“We just have to figure out when we all can do it,” she said. “It will be soon, and it is definitely happening, according to ['Arrested' creator] Mitch Hurwitz.”

Fans of NBC's "Lipstick Jungle" might want to continue to look around for another Friday night date.

Because while Angela Bromstad, NBC's new entertainment president, insists the Brooke Shields dramedy hasn't been canceled, its future doesn't feel exactly bright, either.

That's because while Bromstad herself thinks "Lipstick's" a "quality show," she also thinks "it wasn't broad enough in the ratings."

Earlier, she'd told a roomful of reporters that she and her NBC colleagues "feel very strongly about 'Life,' 'Friday Night Lights' and 'Lipstick Jungle,'” but that that doesn’t mean they’re not looking for new shows that might do better ratings.

"Lights," which returns to NBC tonight -- 9 p.m., Channel 10 -- only got a third season because of a deal with DirecTV, which aired all 13 episodes on its 101 Network, where the season finale aired Wednesday.

Asked if a similar deal might help "Lipstick Jungle," Bromstad indicated that it might, and hinted that there are "different companies that are interested in that show."

Meanwhile,  NBC yesterday announced it had already picked up "The Office," "30 Rock" and "The Biggest Loser" for next year and added three episodes to the final season of "ER."

And now something for you "Women in Prison" fans.

When Showtime spins off "The L Word," it'll be doing so by sending one of the show's current characters, Alice (Leisha Hailey), off to the slammer.

Where, according to Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt, she'll be meeting a "big cast" of other women, some of them lesbian.

Meanwhile, "The L Word" will begin its sixth and final season at 9 p.m. Sunday. 

It's been a few years since FX brought the cast of "Rescue Me" to the Television Critics Association, which is a shame, since these guys can usually wake up even the sleepiest group. Even if half of what they say can't be printed in most newspapers.

Creators Denis Leary and Peter Tolan are doing the usual shtick, Leary bad-mouthing Hollywood friends who are doing better than he is financially -- especially "24's" Kiefer Sutherland and  Michael J. Fox (who'll guest-star in several episodes in the coming season).

He's demanded food, and a critic has tossed him some of the snacks Fox has put out for reporters. (He seems to prefer chocolate to peanut butter-filled pretzels, but then, who doesn't?)

And people are amused.

But not really paying close attention until it's mentioned that the post-9/11 dramedy, which returns in April, plans to deal with some of the conspiracy theories surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks, and that that is thanks to actor Daniel Sunjata, whose character, Franco, will share some of his own beliefs, including the one that says the attacks were "an inside job."

"Obviously, not all of us buy in," noted Tolan, "but [they decided] 'That's interesting, and let's do that.'"

Mary Lynn Rajskub's nerdy Chloe has long been my favorite part of Fox's "24," and the pleasure is only doubled this season, as the show's added another comic, Janeane Garofalo, to the mix as a sort of Bizarro World Chloe, but within the FBI.

So far, we've only seen the pair not exactly together on one of "24's" split screens, but Rajskub, who's here -- looking beautiful and yet still Chloe-like -- promises we'll see them in the same place at some point.

Rajskub, who's known Garofalo for years, said, "We tried not to laugh when we were in scenes together. You may notice that our eye lines are off," because they were afraid to make eye contact.

The actress, whose pregnancy was written into the show at the end of the previous season -- she delivered a 9 pound, 5 ounce baby boy in July -- joked, deadpan, that she'd become pregnant as quickly as she could to match the script.

"That's how committed I am," she said.

A few minutes later, some reporter comments on how "slim" Kiefer Sutherland remains and asks the actor for his fitness secrets.

Most of us hate even hearing questions like this -- if I wanted the stars' workout tips, I'd read entirely different magazines -- but Sutherland, who plays "24's" Jack Bauer, probably scores a few points when he suggests his secret is "fear and panic."

One of the milder amusements of the network portion of the TV critics' confab is getting network suits to take potshots at one another.

Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly -- who held the same job at NBC before being shoved aside for the guys who drove that network even further into the ground -- is a remarkably polite guy, everything considered.

That didn't keep him from offering up the quote of the morning, though, when asked about recent events at his old network, including the decision to hand five hours of prime time over to Jay Leno.

"NBC is like the crazy ex-wife I can't get away from," said Reilly, who'll cop to having used the line before.

People go on "reality" TV shows for all sorts of reasons, but hardly ever to quiet the haters.

Brooke Crittenden, who used to date Kanye West -- or as she puts it, "a very famous rapper" -- decided to join the cast of  BET's new unscripted drama "Harlem Heights," to let people know that she's not the woman you may (or may not) have read about on the blogs.

Crittenden, who works at MTV, said she hopes the public will see her as she really is, not merely the false image presented often presented in the media during her relationship with West.

If you see her and don't like her, well, "then you're just to determined to hate me, regardless."

You can decide for yourself starting March 2, when the show premieres. Filmed in high definition, it's set to follow Crittenden and seven other twentysomethings who are, according to the network, part of "New York's young, black and fabulous crowd."

The room was packed for A&E's "The Beast" in anticipation of Patrick Swayze's appearance here this morning, but the session begins with the announcement that the show's star, who's being treated for pancreatic cancer, has been hospitalized with pneumonia.

"We learned only this morning that Patrick has checked himself into the hospital," said Abbe Raven, president of A&E Television Networks.

Hard to say how many in the room are actually surprised, though Swayze's appearance had been one of the most-anticipated events of the cable portion of the Television Critics Association's winter meetings.

"Patrick did want me to tell you that he is very sorry," said Bob Bitetto, A&E's president and general manager, "and that he plans to get back to promoting 'The Beast'" when he's feeling better.

"The Beast," which premieres next Thursday, was filmed during Swayze's ongoing treatment. (The pilot was shot before he knew he was ill, something he discovered a few hours after the show was picked up by the cable network.) His interview earlier this week with Barbara Walters on ABC's "20/20" was taped last month.

A&E execs and the show's producers continue to insist that the show could continue for a second season, refusing to address the question of whether it could do so without Swayze, whose character is central to the show. He plays an undercover FBI agent who's mentoring a younger agent, played by former model Travis Fimmel.

Fimmel, asked if Swayze had appeared to be ill at times during the filming, said no.

"The sickest thing about him is probably his jokes," he said.

Actress Isabella Rosselini, product of a once-notorious relationship between her director father, Roberto Rosselini, and her actress mother, Ingrid Bergman (who, OK, had married by the time she and her twin were born), might be expected to know from scandal.

But it's not Brangelina that interests her.

No, it's animals.

Rossellini, who's been doing a quirky little show called "Green Porno" for the Sundance Channel, where Season 2 debuts in May, said she started out knowing she wanted to do small films about animals, and figured sex would sell it.

Animals, she's discovered, "are quite scandalous. They make love in funny ways."

What kind of ways?

"You can think of something really scandalous in your mind. Well, the animal is going to do more."

Pressed for something "dirty" in the way of details, the actress seemed stumped, offering up examples -- including sex-changing shrimp and earthworms that "mate in the 69 position" -- that wouldn't be likely to shock the average Internet user.

Or maybe it's just TV critics who are jaded.