Top: Ally McBeal Cast Left: Peter MacNicol Right: Gil Bellows Bottom: Greg Germann |  | By Sandra Schulman Ally McBeal is both an award winning hit show and a cultural lightening rod for issues of feminism, sex, law, morality, and sometimes, even love. While much attention and controversy swirls around title character and star Calista Flockhart - miniskirts in court! poster girl for anorexia! it's the men of Ally's world that drive much of the "dramedy's" love angst. And according to Fox Network, 40 percent of the show's viewers are men. If you have been on the planet for the last two years, you know that Ally McBeal is a wacky show that takes place within the setting of a law firm. Of the nine major characters on the show, six are (gorgeous) women; Georgia, Billy's beautiful and intelligent wife (Courtney Thorne Smith); Elaine, Ally's officious assistant (Jane Krakowski); Renee, Ally's sassy confidante and roommate (Lisa Nicole Carson); Nell (Portia di Rossi), the newcomer to the firm; and Ling (Lucy Liu), the one-time lawsuit crazed beauty who brought chaos to all by joining the firm. As anyone who has seen the show can attest, they are quite a handful! Left to that monumental albeit ofttimes pleasant task are the three male stars, character actors John "The Biscuit" Cage (Peter MacNicol), the quirky but brilliant, stuttering, frog loving, legal strategist; Billy (Gil Bellows), Ally's former boyfriend and Georgia's current husband (sort of- she's currently suing the firm for causing her divorce); and Richard Fish (Greg Germann), ringleader to the group and head of the firm. In the past two years, each of the characters has in some way or the other been romantically involved with each other, or at the very least, been involved in the romances of each other. People have been working hard, but not necessarily on legal briefs. |