tonight on "nightline," dangerous diet? it is the hottest eating trend in the land. with a host of celebrities raving about increased energy, more beautiful skin. but do they know the dangers of going gleeten free? finding love. she was on every list for the world's sexiest women, but portia de rossi had a secret. tonight, she opens up about it. and, mr. speaker. after two years of butting heads with barack obama, he's about to be two heartbeats away from the presidency. diane sawyer sits down with the next speaker of the house in the "nightline" interview. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden

and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," november 4th, 2010. >> and good evening, everyone. we begin tonight with the gospel of healthy eating now heard throughout the land, from the school caffeine ka to the white house. but sometimes even more important than what you put into your body is what you keep out. and that is the idea behind today's hottest diet trend, going gluten free. gluten is a protein found mostly in wheat products. it is harmful for some. but for most doctors say cutting it out entirely can be dangerous. here's terry moran with details. >> reporter: victoria beckham is doing it. so is gwyneth paltrow. it may not sound sexy being going gluten free is hot in hollywood right now. and those who do it say the results range from weight loss to more restful nights to clearer skin. it's today's "it" diet. this summer, chelsea clinton's

massive nine-tiered wedding cake was baked with gluten free flour, 45 pounds of it. jenny mccarthy goes so far as to credit the diet with curing her son's autism, a claim not confirmed by hard science. what is gluten? it's a protein, found in wheat, barley and other grains and many processed foods, soups, dressings and sauces, too. so, how hard is it go to gluten free? >> this is my, like, special refrigerator. i feel like my name should be here. >> reporter: we went to whole foods with elizabeth hasselbeck, one of the co-hosts of "the view." she's written a book called "the g-free diet" and she's a big advocate. >> bread crumbs, cookies, bagels. it's there. pie crust is there. >> reporter: hasselbeck has a disease that causes an intolerance to gluten. so, all those foods with wheat,

barley and rye were making her sick for years until she found out. >> my main goal always is trying to find gluten free food that tastes like i remember it tasting. >> reporter: and she claims it's not as restrictive as it seems. the great thing about pasta -- >> is that you can have it if you want gluten free. >> reporter: and that's important to you? >> yes, pasta was at our family table like another family member. instead of removing, you want to replace. >> reporter: she is a true believer in a gluten free diet and not just with people with her disorder. she encourages others to try it out. >> you need a ball lanced meal. but those that are adopting this for fashion or frietrend, they' going to probably like it. >> reporter: do you think i'd be better off reducing or eliminating gluten from my diet? >> i think that if you gave yourself a challenge, where you

went gluten free, you would find that your energy levels would soar and that you would like how you felt every single day. >> reporter: but after we spoke with hasselbeck, we wespoke wita doctor who knows all about gluten free diets. he says there's no scientistic evidence to support all the claims in hollywood and elsewhere about gluten free living. are there benefits for a person who doesn't have a disease, in adopting a gluten-free diet? >> not that i'm aware of. >> reporter: not only that, but there's no guarantee of weigh loss. and it likely bad for you to cut out all glooten. few people have the disease, about 1 in 100, and doctors who are very familiar with the diet say that going gluten free can be dangerous unless you are one of the minority of people with that disease. i see very famous people telling me that this is a healthful way to eat. it sounds healthy --

>> yeah. well, a gluten-free diet is not entirely healthy. often it lacks fiber and the manufacturers of wheat flour fortify wheat flour with vitamins and minerals. >> people's been secured. >> reporter: baby cakes in new york city is filled with gluten-free flogoodies. what's not in your cup cakes? >> no dairy, no eggs, no soy, no refined sugar. no preservatives. >> reporter: so how do you make a cup cake? >> well, we start out with a cup cake base which is made of bean flour. potato starch. we use agave nectar. apple sauce instead of eggs. coke nut oil instead of butter.

and some how it tastes good. i don't know how it happened. >> reporter: it's those missing nutrients that make a diet entirely devoid of gluten unhealthy for most people. >> it's been demonstrated if you're on a gluten-free diet long-term you can actually become b-vitamin deficient. we see people, they restrict calcium, as well. >> reporter: but for those who suffer from disorders, and for their families, a place like baby cakes is a god send. >> put these in the fridge if you don't eat them right away. >> we get a lot of episodes of mothers crying because their children can choose whatever they want. it a moment, definitely, for them, because their kids have been without desserts for so long. it's just a special thing. >> reporter: and that's the best thing about this latest dietary fad. while it's not for everyone -- i think i'm going to do a care mel

crunch and then i'm going to have dessert. for millions of people -- >> it's good, right? >> reporter: really good. life's getting a lot tastier. that's really good. >> have some coffee. >> reporter: i'm going to be regular. >> reporter: he didn't bring glare. portia de rossi tells us what she was hiding from plain sight. how smart is the new ford edge? well, it can show you the most fuel-efficient route to where you're going. it can find the best price on gas. show fuel prices. and now its v6 gets the best highway fuel economy in its class. say hello to the new ford edge. quite possibly the world's smartest crossover.

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before she married her wife, ellen degeneres and became one half of one of the most famous couples in the word, part ya de rossi was a regular on the lists of most beautiful. but behind that glamour and apparently charmed life was a struggle with her body image. one that nearly cost her her life. and tonight, she discusses the shame and the pain and what exactly saved her with my co-anchor cynthia mcfadden. >> reporter: she was the hot, self-confident young traern on "ally mcbale." portia was blond and beautiful -- >> we hate her, right? >> reporter: and very, very skinny. in real life, men loved her looks. she appeared on list after list of the world's sexiest women. but in a twist, worthy of hollywood, she would eventually come out as a lesbian. and two years ago, married the very famous, very funny ellen degeneres. >> we were just looking for a

little farm that was close to l.a. >> reporter: we met up with her at the horse farm the two share. and while ellen doesn't ride, there is a special place for her in the barn. >> and this is where she will come and read a book or just hang out when she's in the stable with me. and the dogs, obviously. they live here, also. >> it's like ellen's stall. >> reporter: a stall for ellen. >> reporter: and while she says she is now deliciously happy, her new memoir, "unbearable lightne lightness," reveals her private and crushing battle with her weight and her sexuality. >> i had this voice in my head from age 12, right up until i was perhaps 30, 31 years old, and it was this voice that told me that i wasn't good enough. that i wasn't thin enough. >> reporter: the voice pushed, she says, pushed her into bingeing and purging, into starving herself so that the 5'6" actress got down to a

frightening 82 pounds. you almost killed yourself. you almost died. >> yeah. i -- i could barely move without being in excruciating pain. >> reporter: the secret war with her body went on, she says, until she met the person who made her feel beautiful inside and out. >> after i got down to 82 pounds, i went up to 168 pounds and that's when i met ellen, was when i was at my heaviest weight. and -- >> reporter: and she still thought you were wonderful. >> yeah. she didn't notice that i was heavy. she saw me for who i am. >> reporter: the girl who grew up dreaming big dreams in australia. who got herself a job as a child model. and learned that her body was her enemy. >> i went to a casting, i was 12 years old, and i was asked to turn around, drop my pants and

stand there while the clients looked at my butt. so, i did, i dropped my pants and i faced the wall, for what seemed like an eternity and at the end, the client said to me, you have such a saggy butt for a young girl. do you work out? and i just remember feeling this overwhelming sense of shame, that i didn't actually think to work out. i became very afraid of food. >> reporter: tell me what you'd eat. >> little tiny bit of tuna. turkey. oatmeal. and butter spray. >> reporter: that's right. butter spray became a staple. she began consuming 300 calories a day. she even had a secret weapon when she would force herself to throw up. cheetos. >> because of the bright orange color, it served as kind of a marker during a purge. i thought, in my stomach, that

it would be layered, and if i threw up a bright orange color, if i threw up the cheetos, i would know pretty much how far i had to go to get the rest of the food that i'd eaten out. >> reporter: being in the spotlight on "ally mcbale" intensified her obsession with her weight. in scenes like this, having to bear it all, made it worse. so, when we look at that clip, who are we seeing when we see you there? >> a girl full of fear, just praying, praying that i look okay. praying that everyone will see it and think, she deserves that job. >> reporter: there were rumors at the time that the star of the show, ka list that flock heart was suffering from the same thing. though, flockhart denied it. do you think ka list that was going through the same thing you were? >> i think that -- i wish we had

talked to eachor. >> reporter: and you didn't? >> no, we didn't. we didn't. and i don't know if she suffered from the same thing i suffered from. i can only speculate that she was underweight and she didn't seem very happy and that's really all i knew. >> reporter: the show made have sent an unfortunate message. that it was sexy to be painfully thin. you two became sort of the -- >> yeah. >> reporter: people to aspire to. how does that feel? >> horrible. it's a horrible thought. and that's part of the reason why i wrote the book, because i wanted people to know that it was the worst time in my life. being that concerned about how much i weighed was the biggest waste of time in my life and that if i could take it all back, i would.

>> reporter: in part, she says, living as a close setted lesbian was having a devastating effect on her. >> i think it was trying to starve away my sexuality. i was -- i was straight up and down. i didn't have a period. there was nothing about me that look looked sexual. i looked like a young girl. i looked like a little kid. and when i was a little kid, i didn't have to think about my sexuality. >> reporter: it all became too much for her body to handle. mentally, and physically. and one day, she collapsed. >> the doctors told me that i had lupus, that i had osteoporosis at age 25. that i was close to having cirrhosis of the liver. my organs were threatening to completely shut down. i was very sick.

may is my first horse. i got her just when i started to recover from an eating disorder. >> reporter: but she decided she wanted to live. she threw herself into riding, saw a therapist regularly. it helped. but her weight ballooned up to that all-time high of 168 pounds, and she still didn't feel beautiful. not until she met ellen. who had famously come out as a lesbian on her own sitcom. >> i'm gay. >> reporter: and lost her job. >> she taught me how to live your life without worrying about what other people think of you. >> reporter: why do you think she knows that? >> i think she just came back stronger and with more self-confidence than she would have if she -- if she hadn't lost everything. >> reporter: finding love helped her find herself. and let her call a truce to that battle with her body.

>> these days she says she weighs a healthy 130 pounds. her book, "unbearable lightness" is in bookstores now and our thanks to cynthia mcfadden for that report. up next, the man who is about to pull together congressional conservatives and cut a deal with the president at the same time. [ male announcer ] first is fast. first is 4g, but plays nice with 3g as well. first has an 8-megapixel hd camera and can stream live video to the web. first has an hdmi out. ♪ first shares wi-fi with 8 devices at once. first is not stephen furst, who played flounder in animal house. first has a kickstand for watching video. what will you do first with evo, the first 4g phone? only from sprint, the now network. deaf, hard-of-hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com. [ male announcer ] every day thousands of people are switching from tylenol to advil.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with bill weir. >> as the man with the gavel, john boehner will soon be in charge of herding all kinds of conservative cats as they set

out on an extreme house makeover. but before he became a back room negotiator, he was one of 12 kids and tonight he tells "world news" anchor diane sawyer he is ready, in this "nightline" interview. >> reporter: in the year of going rogue, the inexperienced, activist outsider candidate -- the man who will be speaker now, john boehner, is a bit of a bridge back to the traditional party insider. polished, even old fashioned. the president extended an inviation to come meet together. what's the first sentence you're going to say to him? >> hello. nice to see you. listen, i have no perm anent animosity to the president. while we disagree, we try to do it in a way where neither one of us are disagreeable. >> reporter: and then, there are the raucous new members of congress from his own party.

a reality show star, an iraq war veteran who rides a harley. but is it going to be complicated? >> growing up with 11 brothers and sisters and working in my dad's bar, all the lessons i learned growing up are the lessons i need to do my job. when you mop floors and doing dishes, waiting tables, tending bar, you learn to deal with every character that walks in the door. >> reporter: he talks a lot about them, the close family. 12 kids living together in a two-bedroom house outside cincinnati, with their parents. >> i've seen that picture before. i'm the little brown one. my parents were -- they're the most easy going people that you've ever met. and one of -- i think, the greatest gifts they gave me was that of patience. after dinner, we'd all be wrestling in the living room floor and my mother and father would sit there and read the paper like nothing was going on. and as i got into high school, it used to drive me crazy,

but -- i found out that patience is a good thing. >> reporter: his first job was sweeping the floor of his father's tavern. his sister still works there. his brother bob, unemployed since february. >> and you don't have a lot, you tend to be conservative. he knows that people are out there suffering and he takes that personal, when he tries to, you know, try to get something through the congress to help not just those people, but a lot of people in that same situation. >> reporter: he put himself through college, working odd jobs and said he met his wife when he was a jan core and throwing out her trash. you were telling me that, you've never had any debt. any debt of any kind in your life? >> no. germans. we're savers, we're not spenders. and, well, i wouldn't describe myself as a penny pincher. i don't mind spending money -- >> reporter: no mortgage? >> no, no, no. 15 years, paid it off and that was the end of that. >> reporter: and, he says, the hard-working frugal roots are where he gets his passionate

opposite to what he calls tax and spend. >> congress is going to come back in a lame duck session. we have to deal with two issues. spending and taxes. and i believe that extending all of the current tax rates for all americans is the best policy. i don't think washington has a revenue problem. i think washington has a spending problem. >> reporter: he says he is determined to do something to change that health care bill he fought hard to stop. is there a mandate to repeal? >> i don't know if i would call it a mandate. but i believe that obamacare will ruin the best health care system in the world, and i believe it will bankrupt our country. >> reporter: how sure are you you'll get a repeal, a full-out repeal of health care? >> i'm pretty confident that come next year we will have the votes to repeal that bill. >> reporter: and before we leave you, what do you want the american people to know, that being speaker of the house, would mean to you?

>> i'm a regular guy with a big job. and i didn't come to washington because i want to be a congressman. i came here to do something. i want to cut spending, create jobs, repeal health care and fix the institution of the congress itself. the place is broken. i've watched both parties contribute to the building up the scar tissue between the two parties, especially here in the house. and i want an opportunity to heal the house and restore the institution of the congress for the american people. >> new speaker john boehner. our thanks to diane for that. and breaking election returns tonight. winner finally decided in the washington state senate race. patty murray, barely defeats dino rossi. democrats will keep a slim 53-47 majority in the senate. we'll be right back. but first, here's what's coming up next with jimmy kimmel. >> jimmy: tonight, ellen pompeo,

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