Cullen wins Ellen role

Sean Cullen has landed a part in Ellen DeGeneres's next series.

He has filmed a role as an annoying restaurant guitarist, and producers say they are considering making him a regular character.

Cullen told the Toronto Sun: "I bother Ellen on Valentine's Day, singing about how hapless and lonely she is, making fun of everything she and her friends say and singing it back to them."

The role in The Ellen Show is some consolation for a fruitless year spent in Hollywood trying to get his own sitcom off the ground.

He signed a development deal with CBS, but the network twice turned down his ideas.

Cullen, a former member of the group Corky and The Juice Pigs, said: "Both times they said 'This is just not really us.'

"I kept being told I was the next Kevin James (star of King Of Queens). I said, 'Well, I have nothing in common with him. He's a fine comedian, but we're not alike in any way except that we're both portly men.'

"I got the feeling they didn't really know who I was. So I decided to see what else was out there."

So Canadian Cullen has spent the last year on the road, including taking a new show to the Edinburgh festival.

"I've been forced to do a lot of different work in different countries," he said. "And I've improved, I think."

Published: 31 Dec 2001