Do Americans pronounce "Ellen" and "Alan" in the same way? I am especially concerned with the first vowel.

EDIT:

Here is a quote that may be a case in point:


  Being a Brit also, the names "Ellen" and "Alan" tend to sound the same
  when spoken with an American tongue. It was just unfortunate that the
  child was very tom boyish and had an ambiguous sounding name


Context: discussion on why they chose a boy-looking girl for the movie "Fatal Attraction"

Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093010/board/thread/186160978?d=186229310&amp;p=1#186229310


Question: Crosstalk vs interference
Answer: Crosstalk is a type of interference.  Interference can come from just about anywhere - e.g. RF interference from all sorts of things emitting radio waves (including, but not limited to, radio transmitters).  Interference can also come from coupling from other devices.  In the case of a phone system, this could be hearing humming from a power line or music from the local AM radio station on the phone line.  Generally crosstalk refers to interference from an 'adjacent' signal - be it in a wire, radio channel, etc - leaking into the 'victim' signal.  In the case of a phone system, this could be in the form of being able to hear your neighbor's phone calls on your line because the two lines are routed next to each other on the telephone pole.