Ellen DeGeneres is playing a little hardball with her male cable anchor crushes, it seems. Yesterday, the talker got MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews on the phone during her popular daytime program.

But, alas, it was just a play to get the attention of the real man of her dreams. While chatting about the new O.J. Simpson case, a crawl across the bottom of the screen read: “Ellen’s on the phone with Chris Matthews because Wolf Blitzer wouldn’t take her call.”

When DeGeneres asked Matthews about CNN’s Blitzer, the squawker was obviously hurt: “He’s a little different than me.” Matthews then told the gay icon to “dump him, get me on. Forget him. It’s a rivalry here.”

Which leaves us wondering: Who’s cuter? Matthews or Blitzer? And who would be better in a threesome with Anderson Cooper?

Earlier: Wolf Blitzer Gives Ellen the Cold Shoulder