Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi is expecting her first baby, an event she is calling a “medical miracle”.  Lakshmi is a co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America as well as a long-time sufferer of the condition.

Padma hasn’t named the father yet, but I was wondering what was up when I saw her on the Emmy red carpet.  I figured she moved past eating just the garnish during Top Chef judging segments and had ventured into consuming actual entrees.

Congrats to Padma and the mystery daddy (who I’m sure is a billionaire)!

Padma Lakshmi, the frozen, stilted, emotionless host of Top Chef, is getting a sitcom on NBC. No, I’m not kidding. It was in Variety.

Lakshmi has sealed a development deal with the Peacock and sister Universal Media Studios, which plans to create a half-hour comedy for her. Original Media, which is based at Universal, is also involved; Original’s Charlie Corwin will exec produce.

Building on her “Top Chef” credentials, the show will star Lakshmi as a woman working in the culinary world. (One possible title being mulled: “Single Serving.”)

Corwin and Lakshmi are currently talking to writers and kicking around specifics.

Is anyone else completely bowled over by this news? Like, with all the genuinely talented comediennes out there who act natural on camera, a major network is giving a sitcom to this woman? Don’t get me wrong, she seems like a perfectly nice lady, but every time I see her on Top Chef I cringe a little bit. Her robotic gestures, her forced smile, her over-enunciation of every single word? I mean, it’s funny, but not in an intentional way.

Hollywood is so weird.

Especially enjoyable is the skirt hike at about :14 (is that Spanx?), coupled with, “It reminds me of being in high school,” and a close up of Padma licking her arm like it’s an over-sized phallus.  I guess we know who the most popular girl at Lakshmi’s school was.

Padma Lakshmi, perhaps best known on the Top Chef set as the resident herb enthusiast, is divorcing her much older husband, controversial author Salman Rushdie. A rep for Rushdie stated today that “Salman Rushdie has agreed to divorce his wife, Padma Lakshmi, because of her desire to end their marriage.”

The New York Post seemed to catch a whiff of trouble before the news officially broke. On June 29, they noted that “Lakshmi was spotted hanging out into the wee hours at the Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel with a well-known chef who was there without his spouse.” The kids at Gawker have decided this means Padma’s having an affair with Anthony Bourdain. All together now: Ew.

Here’s something funny: the permalink for this story on TMZ is the following:

http://www.tmz.com/2007/07/02/my-big-fatwah-divorce/

This is, of course, hilarious, but the story actually ran on the site with the headline: “Padma to Rushdie: Pack Your Knives and Go,” which is less hilarious. I wonder why they changed the original headline.

Padma’s not the only Top Chef host to be married to a much older man; Billy Joel’s child bride, Katie Joel, hosted the first season, and we’re been hearing murmurings of trouble in their marriage over the past few months. Is there a Top Chef curse? Or is there just, you know, a Marrying a Much, Much Older Man Until You’re Famous and Wealthy in Your Own Right curse?

It’s also disappointing, though, because we could have pushed this storyline much further. Pot brownies have been done — can we see someone attempt a duo of Mary Jane foie gras and sirloin? With pot potatoes on the side? Can Marcel make a foam out of it? Or mix it with xantham gum? I can’t believe no one thought to try that. It would have made for one hell of a judges table.