Host of 'The Dish' skewers celebrities - all with a smile

LOS ANGELES - Danielle Fishel is struggling to get her pants on because the huge heel of her shoe keeps getting caught on the small leg opening.

She needs to slip the ghastly looking parachute pants over the more fashionable jeans she is wearing for a segment of The Dish about the new MC Hammer reality show, Hammertime.

It's just another Friday on the set of the Style Network program that pokes fun at pop culture - much like E! Entertainment Television's The Soup - but with more of an emphasis on programs of interest to a female audience. The other big difference is that, where The Soup host Joel McHale delivers his cutting remarks with dry humor, Fishel serves up an equally piercing jab with a Cheshire Cat smile.

And she smiles a lot.

"I think it is a combination of the show and the kind of person I am," Fishel says.

"I think in general I am a very happy individual. But this show has added something to my life in ways I would have never imagined."

Considering how the reality, talk, and entertainment shows that get skewered on The Dish are taking away work from actors, Fishel considers herself lucky to have a job. She has made a few guest appearances in TV shows and has been a special contributor to The Tyra Banks Show since her role as Topanga Lawrence on Boy Meets World ended in 2000. This is her first full-time job since then.

Fishel gets great joy out of the show's structure. As the on-air host, she delivers jokes about TV shows, magazines, commercials, and fashion. At the same time, she still gets to act.

In the episode in which she jokes about MC Hammer and dances to one of his songs - she's backed by four female dancers from the show's staff and crew - she also dons a reverse mullet wig, steps behind a podium, and delivers an emotional speech as Kate Gosselin of Jon & Kate Plus 8.

Fishel even laughs at herself. When the podium is rolled out, the 5-foot-1 Fishel is too short to be seen.

"That's just great," Fishel says with mock indignation. She ends up standing on a stack of boxes.

Fishel, who was told over the years that if she ever stopped acting, she would be a good newscaster, is comfortable in her role hosting The Dish.

She plows through the comedy material with few mistakes. The entire 30-minute show is taped in about an hour.

Along the way, she has taken shots at Bruce Willis (who looked as if he was wearing a girdle in a magazine photo shoot), Jennifer Aniston, Fergie, Richard Simmons, and Victoria Beckham. Fishel delivers each comic blow with a disarming smile.

"We try to make our show a little bit lighter. More on the girly side of things. Sometimes, that can be taken as an insult. Women don't only like to talk about hair and makeup. They have multi interests that we try to cover," Fishel says. "At the same time, we want this to be something they look forward to watching. They know it's going to be 30 minutes of fun, light-hearted television."

The only down side to the job for Fishel is how the word celebrity has been stretched to apply to the likes of Heidi and Spencer Pratt or Jon and Kate. She just can't understand why so much credence is given to what they have to say.

In Fishel's case, she earned her celebrity through a television series and through the guys (such as Lance Bass) she dated over the years. Her work on Boy Meets World struck such a chord that people still call her Topanga.

She credits her parents - plus an interest in education - with helping her stay out of tabloid headlines.

"The minute my head got to be a little too big for my mom's liking, she would tell me, 'I let you get into the industry, and I can take you out just as quickly,' " Fishel says.

"And while most kids in the entertainment industry just do their entire high school curriculum with tutors, I would go back to my regular high school every hiatus. I was at my school fairly often. I went to every football game, every high school dance."

Her interest in education has not waned. She's working toward a psychology degree with a focus on marriage and family counseling.