November 2007 Archives
I just had a three-hour visit to the dentist and it was not fun. So since it's Friday and I should be partying instead of dealing with a numb face, I'm gonna post a coupla kissing scenes from the "Dawson's Creek" finale. They really aren't very good when compared to what we see now on ATWT or B&S but the guys sure are cute!
Enjoy!
Wow. This is a juicy little tidbit I found posted on Towleroad.com.
Singer Wayne Newton - who proved on "Dancing With the Stars" this season that he can hit the right notes of a song, but not so much the steps of a dance - was on "Larry King Live" last night and the Vegas legend told Larry about why his friendship with Johnny Carson ended. It seems that Johnny kept making jokes implying the the Vegas legend was gay.
Fed up, Newton confronted the late Carson personally: "'Mr. Carson,' I said, 'I don't know what friend of yours I've killed, I don't know what child of yours I've hurt, I don't know what food I've taken out of your mouth... but these jokes about me will stop, and they'll stop now. Or I will kick your ass.'"
And that's not all. He went on to tell Larry: "Johnny Carson was a mean-spirited human being. There are people he has hurt that people will never know about. And, for some reason, at some point, he decided to turn that kind of negative attention toward me, and I refused to have it."
Now THAT'S a good interview!
Cad Womack, I mean Brad Womack, taped his interview with Ellen DeGeneres yesterday and it airs today. She apologized in person for calling the jerk a jerk earlier this week. Then Ellen let this smoothie (and father of a toddler apparently) tell why he went on national television allegedly looking for fame, I mean, a wife, and in the end did not choose any of the 25 women who all seemed to be in love with him - especially the final two contestants.
Womack told Ellen that he does regret telling finalist DeAnna Pappas the the finale would be "A good day" for her.
"I definitely regret that," he said.. "I don't know if I got caught up in the moment. I don't know if I was trying to comfort her. I bear the full brunt of responsibility for saying that. I do. She deserves someone to be straightforward and honest, which I thought I was. That's one very, very bad decision of mine that I made."
But he said he never asked that Pappas's father be flown out to the set on finale day which gave the impression that he was going to pop the question: "What I did say is a proposal was such a big deal to me that a phone call was not sufficient, if and when that proposal would happen. When it got to that day, I was informed that Deanna's father was flown out. I never one time asked for Deanna's father to be flown out. Never one single time."
I can just hear him saying all of this and it makes me want to just wrap duct tape around his mouth. Anyway, this poor, slick millionarie bar owner told Ellen he's been shocked by the backlash against him and, get this,. feels like he's going through a breakup himself.
"I did not take the easy way out," he said. "In fact, I took the tough way out in order to show these women respect, in my opinion. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong."
Then Ellen, who probably still thinks he's a jerk, ended things on a nice note:"I really appreciate you coming here," she said. "I'm so sorry that I judged you because I didn't know the full story."
I propose that Brad Womack not do anymore interview unless he has his shirt off so we can focus on his body and not his bull...
When I saw "Dirty Laundry" at Outfest in summer 2006, I remember laughing so hard at times but also shedding a few tears. Maurice Jamal wrote, directed and acts in the film which opens Dec. 7 in LA and NYC then nationwide Dec. 28. It also stars the lovely Loretta Devine who is currently riding high with the box office hit "This Christmas" and the fabulous Jenifer Lewis who gets a meaty role to sink her talented teeth into.
I remember requesting a DVD screener of the film before Outfest but none were available. Good thing. "Dirty Laundry" is billed as a serious comedy about family drama and is absolutely meant to be seen with an audience even if it means you can't hear some of the dialogue because everyone is still laughing so hard at a previous line. The superb script is just filled with humor and truth. But none of that would have mattered as much if not for the first-rate performances of the cast - in particular Loretta Devine who should win all kinds of awards for it. She is the heart of the fim.
I asked Jamal recently how he got these wonderful stars to do his movie?
"They really were taken by the script and they really wanted to tell this queer story with African-American characters so I lucked out," he said. "I always say all the time that this film was cast by God because I had no money and I was a new director."
The film focuses on Patrick (Rockmond Dunbar), a black gay man who left his small town in the South and moved to New York where he carved out a successful career as a magazine writer. But a family situation brings him back home after a 10 year absence.
SPOILER ALERT: He finds out he has a 10 year old son. Devine, playing his mother who has been raising the boy, delivers in every single scene she's in including a hilarious and touching drunk dinner scene at the end ("My son is as gay as a $3 bill!"). Lewis as Devine's full-of-herself sister provides some of the film's biggest laughs in a scenery-chewing performance.
Said Jamal: "This definitely has never been covered in film before and I'm so excited about it. It's going to be the first time that we've ever had a black queer film that will have nationwide distribution. It's an amazing thing."
Jamal shot the movie in three weeks and edited it in another three weeks and was able to complete the work through “a lot of denial and a lot of expresso."
"We have screened the film from Dallas to Boston and LA and New York and everywhere we've been, whether it be white or black or gay or straight, people absolutely loved the film," he said. "We're very excited about it."
He should be. It's a wonderful film and I hope it gets seen by lots of people.
Here's a trailer for the film:
When I saw confetti-tossing Rip Taylor at the Hollywood Christmas Parade on Sunday, all I wanted to do was talk about the silly show he used to do called "$1.98 Beauty Pageant." It was really awful but I thought he was hysterical in it.
But Rip just wanted to tell jokes. And throw confetti, of course.
"The hair's on too tight," he said, adjusting his toupee. "It's a new one. HELLO!...These roots are dead...[the toupee] looks like the hind leg of a dog. I go by a tree and the whole left side goes up in the air!"
"I'm having the KFC chicken, it's the Hillary Clinton. Two small breasts and a left wing. HELLO!"
I ask Rip what brings him back to the parade each year. "Cash!" he jokes. "It's fun . The kids scream at me and I yell back, the little bastards. They know me from 'Zach and Cody' and from 'Jackass.' New audience. I'm still there, still working. I'm doing a one-man play next called 'It Ain't All Confetti.'"
Suddenly, I feel so patriotic!
Doesn't American tennis star Andy Roddick look mighty tasty in these photos? He's in Portland Oregon with his teammates as the Americans prepare to face the Russians in the final of the Davis Cup - a competition the U.S. once dominated but has not won since 1995.
Let's hope that on Sunday, the team will be posting with these pictures as the champs! Joining Roddick in this quest are twin brothers Mike and Bob Bryan (I don't know which is which!), captain Patrick McEnroe and the sometimes brilliant, and sometimes not, James Blake.
I just love the way Andy's shirt flies up when he's hitting a big forehand or serve...
Once again, I'm so thoroughly satisfied with "As the World Turns" and the writing for the Luke and Noah storyline. Today's episode had Luke continuing to make progress physically (he got out of the chair on his own!). He and Noah go out and bump into some of Noah's college pals. Luke is introduced by Noah as "my friend" and gives his boyfriend a "you gotta be kiddin' look.
Luke says later: "Is that all I we are?"
They go back and forth a bit and finally Noah says: "I don't have to say something out loud for it to be true."
Such a man.
Luke apologizes once they get home but it's still bugging him that he said the L word to Noah at the police station and he has not heard it back: "I just feel like, like I say things you don't say or you haven't said or you can't say." It would have been easy for Noah to say "I love you too" and smoothed it over but he continues to mystify Luke by saying: "What you said was great and I want you to know that I don't want you to take it back, OK?"
My favorite scene is father and son, again. After Noah leaves, an exasperated Luke confides in Holden and complains that Noah "acknowledges things half way, it drives me crazy." Holden states the obvious but I love it anyway: "I think you need to be patient with Noah. This is all very new to him."
Here is today's scenes that also include the gorgeous Dusty out with Luke's mom and ...well, take a look:
The results of a Hunter College Poll released today show that Sen. Hillary Clinton has the support of 63 percent of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual likely voters in the Democratic primaries. I guess they didn't poll any transgender folks. Hmmmm.
Trailing far behind was Sen. Barack Obama with 22 percent and John Edwards with 7 percent. The Hunter College Poll also finds that during the process of “coming out,” LGBs become more liberal and more engaged in the political process than the general population.
The poll was conducted with 768 respondents by Knowledge Networks, Inc. from November 15th through November 26th, 2007.
Other findings include:
• Nine in 10 LGB likely voters will vote in the Democratic primaries and 21 percent say that lesbian and gay rights will be the most important issue influencing their vote in 2008.
• 72 percent of LGB likely voters consider Senator Clinton a supporter of gay rights, with Senator Obama at 52 percent and former Senator Edwards at 41 percent. On the Republican side, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was at 37 percent, followed by Senator John McCain at 13 percent.
• 33 percent of all respondents say they are “very interested” in politics compared to 22 percent of the Knowledge Networks general population sample. And 36 percent said they became more interested in politics during their “coming out” period.
• LGBs were more likely than the general population to have contacted a government official in the past 12 months (23 percent to 16 percent).
•When asked about the proposed federal law making it illegal to discriminate against lesbians, gays, and bisexuals in employment, LGBs (by a margin of 60 to 37 percent) said that those seeking to pass the law were wrong to remove protections for transgendered people in order to get the votes necessary for passage in Congress.
The Hunter College Poll was funded by a grant from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
Ellen DeGeneres apologized on her talk show Thursday for calling "Bachelor" star Brad Womack a "jerk" earlier in the week. She will have the jerk on Friday's show to ask why he picked neither of the two finalists in the show's finale.
Oops. Did I say that?
Yeah, I did. I think that when he's got his shirt off, Womack is very watchable. But otherwise, he's a big phony. So smooth, so sincere, so full of crap!
But Ellen has more class than me and doesn't want to judge this jerk. It all started on Tuesday when she interviewed finalist DeAnna Pappas."I may have called [Womack] a jerk," DeGeneres admitted Thursday. "I'm pretty sure I did. Cause I thought he was a jerk. Cause I thought he led the girls on."
But soon she regretted her remark. "I went home that night and I thought, 'That's not who I am. I don't like to judge people. I don't want to call someone a jerk. I have no idea what his story is. ... I do think what he did was wrong, but I do apologize."
Ellen found out that poor Brad was upset by her comments. Boo hoo.
"Because he likes me and was a big fan," she said, before adding jokingly, "Now, if I had known that, I would not have called him a jerk."
"I do want to hear what his excuse is," Ellen added, "because it was wrong, what he did. Not a jerk, but wrong. Maybe he is a jerk. We'll find out tomorrow, I don't know."
After that, maybe his 15 minutes of fame will be over, he'll stop talking and just take his shirt off. Thankyouverymuch.
Outfest Fusion: The Los Angeles LGBT People of Color Film Festival begins its three-day run on Friday night and I am so looking forward to it. I went last year for the first time and the opening night gala was a blast. This year's promises to be the same at the new location which is the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
Tomorrow night's opening program is a collection of short films, some which I have seen and others I have not. The one I have seen maybe five times already and look forward to seeing again is the very entertaining and perfectly cast "Kali Ma" from director Soman Chainani. The hilarious and touching film is about a suburban Indian mother delivers her own brand of vigilante justice when she finds out her son is being bullied.
Others in the Friday night rogram include "Make a Wish" about young Palestinian girl will do whatever it takes to buy a birthday cake, "El Prino" about a sheltered teenager visits his tough, older cousin in Laredo, Texas and learns a lesson about what it means to be a man and the acclaimed "Pariah" from director Dee Rees about a Bronx teen unsuccessfully juggles multiple identities to please her friends and family.
I talked to Outfest Executive Director Kirsten Schaffer this week about the festival: “Fusion is only slightly different in that it focuses on people of color,” she says. “Outfest has tons of these films integrated into program in the summer, what Fusion does is it takes those films and shines the spotlight on them."
This is also a way to get people to see movies they would ordinarily skip during Outfest in the summer. For example, I missed "Pariah" because there were no men in it. Then it started winning all these awards and I was sorry I chose to see something else that night.
Says Kirsten: “Outfest tends segregate along gender lines. Because this is called Fusion, the festival is focused on blended audiences. The programs are designed to bring together diverse audiences. You
have people from 15-70, lesbians, gay men, trans folks all together from a bunch of different racial and ethnic backgrounds."
Among the more high-profile feature-length films to be featured is “Starbooty” which stars drag glamazon RuPaul as a supermodel/secret agent. RuPaul will be present for the Saturday night screening.
On Sunday, two of the newest episodes of “The DL Chronicles,” a series about gorgeous men living secret sexual lives, will be screened.
Also Sunday, the closing night film will be the “Water Flowing Together,” a documentary about Jock Soto, the successful and influential gay Navajo Indian and Puerto Rican modern ballet dancer. Soto will be at the screening which will be followed by a closing night party.
“He’s incredibly beautiful to watch and also has a very unique personality,” says Kirsten. “He talks about his sexual orientation and how that and his racial culture affected his life and career.”
For the first time, there is also a conference going on in connection with Fusion. Called “Ignite the Fuse: Queer People of Color in Film, TV and Video,” it brings together filmmakers, activists and others
for various sessions on future directions of media for and by queer people of color.
To see a full schedule of movies and other Fusion events, click HERE.
I guess I won't be cancelling my subscription after all. A few issues back, Instinct magazine had included a photo of my hero, Billie Jean King, in its SPOTTED section - you know, the section where all the beautiful people are seen at parties etc - and the caption was completely derogatory about the 63-year-old icon. Why? Because she doesn't look like a chisled 28 year old dude? I was so pissed off and even more pissed that I didn't fire off a letter in protest because I really felt like it was a slap to a person who has worked so hard to make the world a better - and more equal - place for us all.
In the current issue, the magazine gets it right. They posted a large picture of Billie Jean in her prime, hitting a backhand volley (her favorite shot). The caption reads: SORRY BILLIE JEAN KING: One of the world's all-time greatest athletes, she's equally accomplished as a tireless advocate for women's and GLBT rights. Like a bad serve, we lobbed a mean joke her way this year, but luckily, cheap shots bounce off heroes.Well said.
I read earlier that the caption had been written by interns and I hope that they, and others who are in their 20s or younger learn about who the heroes in the world are - who have worked to make life easier for them whether its Billie Jean or anyone else who is no longer young and buff.
Everyone's gonna get old but not everyone can claim to have changed the world the way BJK has.
Now this is quite a piece of work that AfterElton.com has posted this morning. The site not only has the results of a poll of the top 25 gay or bisexual television characters of all time, but there are really nice write-ups about each - what makes them distinct - and some cool pictures and videos too! It's far more than just a list.
All my faves are there including Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys) from "Brothers & Sisters," David Fisher (Michael C. Hall) from "Six Feet Under," Luke (Van Hansis) from "As the World Turns")and, of course, Will (Eric ) and Jack (Sean Hayes) from "Will & Grace."
Editor Michael Jensen makes some interesting observations in the opening section including: "Our list... reflects the fact that television, and especially gay characters, are still largely the dominion of white men. The only men of color to make the top 25 were Enrique Rickie Vasquez (My So-Called Life), Keith Charles (Six Feet Under) and George Huang (Law & Order: SVU). It’s also interesting to note that of the top twenty-five characters six are played by out gay men – Randy Harrison, Peter Paige, Wilson Cruz, John Barrowman, Robert Gant, and B.D. Wong – half of whom were on "Queer as Folk."
To view the complete list, go to AfterElton.com
The oh-so talented singer-actor Sam Harris is performing Monday night in Hollywood at the Pantages Theatre. It's a benefit concert for the Actor's Fund and if tickets didn't cost $125, I'd most definitely be there!
Frontiers Magazine interviewed Sam in it's current issue and covered some ground that I didn't when chatting with Sam a few months back.
Sam gained fame nearly 25 years ago with his 14-week winning streak on the TV talent show "Star Search." It was a bit of a precursor to "American Idol" which he does not watch very much of.
"There's a lot of great talent that's come out of it," he says of 'Idol.' "I'm not crazy about criticism that encourages people to be the same. The reason they want them to sing like someone is because that person was original. The idea of conformity and "this is what a star is" is a little bullshit to me. But I love it as a platform for talent."
Writer Jeremy Kinser wonders if Clay Aiken would be happier if he just came out as a gay man, which he is widely assumed to be. Sam doesn't address Clay specifically but does have some thoughtful remarks: "During my first record at Motown, everybody in the industry - certainly everyone I knew - knew I was gay. There was a thing in the press where they couldn't ask me any personal questions. I had to use the term "they" and vague terms and that was pretty awful. It was a different time then. Gay has become pretty and fancy and educated and it wasn't that way so much. So yes, everyone would be happier I think. On the other hand, if someone is not comfortable with themselves,and they live in that kind of fear, they're not necessarily a good role model anyway. ... We need people who are strong and who can stand up and say, 'This is who I am and what's the big deal?'"
On his close friend Liza Minnelli: "There's nothing more fun than driving with Liza around Los Angeles and you hear this history because she lived everywhere. "Here's where my father did this and here's where my mother did that." You get this incredible Hollywood history that's better than any guided van tour."
For ticket information on Monday's Pantages performance, call 323-933-9244 (ext. 59) or go to www.samharris.com where there is more info about it and lotsa cool stuff (photos, upcoming appearances, bio etc) about Sam.
Brady Quinn. Can you ever really get enough of Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn? Kennethinthe212 can't, thank God, and it is on that site that I found this video of Brady doing a Men's Fitness cover shoot and talking about his hobbies, favorite movies etc. Of course, it is the visuals that are most compelling!
Take a look...
My weekend calendar is ridiculously crowded but there's one event I just can't miss: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' 11th Annual Ribbon of Hope Celebration on Saturday night which is beiong held on World AIDS Day.
I went to this event last year and it was a very moving night and star-studded too! This year, celebs confirmed to attend include the fabulous Judith Light of "Ugly Betty," Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp from the original Broadway production of "Rent," the always hilarious Bruce Vilanch, trangendered actress Alexis Arquette, the multi-talented Wilson Cruz of "Noah’s Arc," Thea Gill and Reichen Lehmkuhl of "Dante’s Cove," Andrea Bowen who plays Julie on "Desperate Housewives," and the former catwoman Julie Newmar.
The Ribbon of Hope Celebration honors media companies, programs, producers and individuals whose personal and professional commitment continues to keep HIV/AIDS awareness in the forefront.
This year, a Special Achievement Award will go to the groundbreaking series "In the Life" for 15 years of excellence in documenting the pandemic.
In addition, honors will presented to HBO for the acclaimed film "Life Support," to BET in association with the Kaiser Family Foundation for "106th & Park: World AIDS Day Special, to Lifetime for "Girl, Positive," TLC for "Ashley Judd & YouthAIDS," Showtime for "3 Needles" and here! Networks’ here! "Focus on HIV/AIDS."
The event takes place at the Television Academy in North Hollywood. It will be taped live by here! and then edited for later broadcast. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. RSVP is required at ribbonofhopersvp@yahoo.com.
Barbra Streisand, who had earlier hedged her bets and donated to Hillary Clinton, John Edwards AND Barack Obama, officially endorsed Clinton on Wednesday.
Comes as no surprise really since Streisand was such a big stumper for Bill Clinton. Here is some of what Streisand said Wednesday regarding her endorsement: "Madame President of the United States...it's an extraordinary thought. We truly are in a momentous time, where a woman's potential has no limitations....Hillary Clinton has already proven to a generation of women that there are no limits for success.
She went on the state that Clinton "is a powerful voice for change as we find our country at an important crossroads. Under her leadership, our country will regain its respect within the global community...After 8 long years, the public will once again have faith in their government....Hillary Clinton is ready to shatter through that glass ceiling for all women."
Clinton released a statement saying she is "honored" to have the support of Streisand.
"Barbra has used her immense talent to be an advocate for truth, justice, and fairness and I deeply appreciate her confidence in my candidacy as we work together to change the direction of our nation."
What a lovefest. I think I'm gonna cry.
I'm just gonna go ahead and admit this: I fell asleep during the second hour of "Dancing With the Stars" last night so I did not know that Helio had won the competition until I flipped on "Good Morning America" this morning. OK, congrats, rah rah etc.
Who cares?
The more important thing was that Cameron Mathison made the cross-country flight with Helio after the finale and also danced on "GMA." Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts teased him about showing his abs but Cameron became suddenly modest after ripping his shirt off on the show last night.
He is so gorgeous that I think he should be arrested!
In fact, I think we need one more pic of Cameron...
Perhaps. I saw this photo of Ryan Reynolds on A Socilaite's Life and thought to myself, even fully-clothed, with sunglasses and a hat on, this man is just about the hottest thing in LA. His movie "The Nines" is coming out next month but I'll post on that later because there's a shirtless still from the flick that I want to post with it. To post the shirtless shot for now reason would be...I dunno...shallow?
Hey, I love this casting because it means that Jake is gonna have to get really bulked up! OK, that's awfully shallow, I know. I'm also glad that Mr. Gyllenhaal has been signed to play Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath because I think Jake is a mighty fine actor - one of the best of his generation along with Leonardo DiCaprio and Heath Ledger.
Daily Variety reports that the still untitled movie - to be written after the damned writers strike is settled - will tell the story of how the golden-armed kid from Beaver Falls, Pa. became Broadway Joe as the New York Jets quarterback.
I. Can't. Wait.
Well, if he says so.
French tennis star Richard Gasquet, the guy who beat Andy Roddick at Wimbledon this year, gave a post-match interview earlier this month and seemed to feel the need to reiterate that he is not gay. What makes this all the more curious is that it is the second time he has done this publicly and what's even more curious is that no one even asked him!
Here is the interview which was flagged by Outsports.com:
Q. Now your matches are finished. Do you still have any plan to go around the city maybe with your uncle or your girlfriend?
GASQUET: My uncle? No. My girlfriend, no. I have no girlfriend, so I will try to find one, one Chinese girl. Why not? Why not? I lost 6-1, 6-1. It will be very hard for me tonight. I'm ready to lose, you know.
Q. Who is the girl watching your match with your uncle?
GASQUET: Not my girl. I don't know. Not my girl, for sure. No, no, no, I have just friends. Men friends, but I'm not gay.
It would seem that his defensiveness about his sexuality is due to the fact that earlier this year, the eighth-ranked Gasquet denied he was gay after French magazine Le Point printed a rumor that he was having an affair with 46-year-old married French businessman Arnaud Lagardere.
"I was absolutely not happy about that," he said then. "This question has come back hundreds of times, and every time someone turns up saying, Oh, I have evidence. It is just bullshit. Neither him nor me are homosexuals. It's absolutely obvious."
Hmmmmm. Nothing is obvious these days Richie!
I don't know if it can tap its toe but it apparently does have a wide stance, according to online toy manufacturer Stupid.com.
C'mon, it;s just too much fun to stop making fun of Sen. Larry "I've Never Been Gay" Craig after his arrest in an airport restroom, his claims to "have never been gay," his announced resignation then fight to clear his name.
Anyway, when you press a button, the dolls speaks! I love what it says: "Thank you all very much for coming out today. I will read a statement: 'I am not gay. I never have been gay."
Tee-Hee.
Well, this woulda been cool to see but we're gonna have to wait for the DVD.
Dana Delaney says in the new issue of TV Guide that her biggest regret so far about her stint as Katherine on "Desperate Housewives" is that a cutthroat bitch-fight between her character and Lee (Kevin Rahm) was cut from the Halloween episode because of time constraints. In the scene, Lee threatens to reveal the secret about Katherine's husband, Adam (Nathan Fillion) and she retaliates by threatening to tell all on Wisteria Lane about Lee's past as a performer in gay porno films!
"I was really proud of the work we did," Delaney told the mag. ""It was Katherine at her cattiest and she really had the goods on him."
Delaney says creator-writer Marc Cherry promises the scene will be a part of the season four DVD. Let's just hope that DVD will include a full season of episodes and that this dreadful writers strike that has shut down production ends soon!
Meanwhile, hunky Tuc Watkins, who plays Bob's partner, Bob, on the show, weighed in on Delaney for the magazine: "Watching Dana work her way onto the canvass was amazing. It's gotta be difficult to find your place among five powerful women, but she found her own dark and twisted and very funny colors."
Dreamboat NFL quarterback Brady Quinn has gotten rid of that moptop hair and looks really hot in these pics from a new ad campaign for a new Gillette promotion with Facebook. Kennethinthe212 has more pics but here are a few appetizers for ya...
I can't even pretend to be a fan of "Torchwood" even though I adore John Barrowman. I'm just not a sci-fi guy at all. But AfterElton.com has been writing these terrific recaps and I thought these photos from the most recent episode were pretty sizzlin'.
Tommy Haas, a top 10 player with tremendous skills and even better looks, was apparently not poisoned during a Davis Cup match a few months ago.
Well, at least there is "no evidence" of the German hearthrob being poisoned during his country's semi-final defeat by Russia in Moscow, according to the International Tennis Federation. The ITF started an investigation after Alexander Waske, a doubles player on the German team, said he had been told by an unnamed figure in Moscow that Haas had been poisoned during Russia's 3-2 win.
"Following enquiries, the ITF has concluded that there is no medical information or other evidence whatsoever to support recent speculation concerning the medical condition of Tommy Haas during Germany's Davis Cup semi-final tie against Russia," the ITF said in a statement on Monday. "There will be no further comment on this subject."
Haas, who apparently had gastro-enteritis, said himself this month that blood tests had revealed no evidence of poisoning.
That's a relief!!!
"Entourage" cast member Rex Lee was one of the celebs participating in this year's Hollywood Santa Parade on Sunday night. But he didn't do the red carpet beforehand and since I didn't stay for the parade, we missed each other!
But Rex and I did have a good gab a week earlier at the Diversity Awards in Universal City and I've been wanting to share it with you because it just sort of meandered and wasn't the typical "what project are you working on?" sorta chat.
Here it is:
Greg: Just a quickie.
Rex: Oooh. What a proposition.
Greg: [laughs] So, whatcha been doin?
Rex: I've been traveling, I've been going to Las Vegas and New York and just having fun.
Greg: I remember meeting you at Outfest a few years ago a fan yelled out to you from a car on Sunset Boulevard when you were walking into the theater. Fame was so new then. Have you settled into it now?
Rex: I think that I've reached a plateau where there's a certain level of interest in me that I can expect and it doesn't grow bigger and it doesn't recede. So I'm sort of used to it.
Greg: Do you like it?
Rex: I do. When I was a kid and I said I wanted to be an actor, I wanted to be rich and famous and I really didn't understand what acting was as an art. It was all very, 'I'm gonna be on TV and people are gonna know who I am.' So now that I've achieved that, I like it. I can't complain, it's what I wanted. It never gets old."
Greg: Are you getting political at all? When you're an out actor, people want you to be political.
Rex: You know when they say the personal is political and the political is personal? Obviously what they really mean by that is the issues that affect you are probably the issues that are most important to you. But I also take it to mean that my level of activism, my level of being outspoken about politics, is my personal decision. If I want to go hide in the closet and not tell you what I think about the world, that's my right. But it would be a little irresponsible and that's not what my inclination is. But beyond that, the lengths to which I'll go, I haven't figured that out yet....My politics are pretty liberal and I pretty much always vote Democratic but I haven't really decided which of the Democrats I'm behind so i can't really go out and campaign for anybody because I haven't made up my own mind yet.
Greg: OK, last thing. How's your love life? Ya dating anyone?
Rex: I remain single.
Greg: What are you looking for in a guy?
Rex: Taller than me, cuter than me but thinks I'm cute. Funny, kind. A nice person you know? Someone who makes me feel like I'm special.
Greg: I hope you find him!
Rex: I hope so too!
Stop the presses!!!
OhLaLablog asked readers on Friday to vote for the three finalists for the new Armani Exchange underwear model. Thousands have voted and so far, Reichen's man, Ryan Barry (center), as the winner with 43,3%, just behind Daniel (42,5%) and Michael (14,2%).
But these are not the official results which will come from the vote conducted by Armani Exchange. BTW, I noticed in episode 2 of "Dante's Cove" (Reichen is a new regular), Ryan is seen wearing very little as he shops at an outdoor flea market. Jensen Atwood shows up and the two give each other the once over. It lasts only seconds but it's really hot!
How great it was to chat with Zach Braff and Lisa Kudrow this morning after they announced the nominees for Film Independent's Spirit Awards in Beverly Hills.
Of course everyone knows Lisa from her role as Pheobe on "Friends" but what isn't as well-known is her gem of her HBO comedy "The Comeback" which earned her an Emmy nod for her role as actress Valerie Cherish.
But the show, critically acclaimed with a loyal but perhaps too small a following, lasted only a single season.
I asked Lisa about the show and Zach interjected with: "I was just telling her how much I loved it."
Lisa: "Yeah, me too."
I wondered if there had been any talk of the series returning and Lisa said: "Oh God, I wish. I would love to do more. \[The cancellation\] was a heartbreak. It was, I was gonna say my pride and joy, but I have a child so he would occupy that space in my heart."
Zach: "What about "The Comeback: The Movie"?
Lisa: "That didn't happen either!
The actress next appears in the romantic comedy "P.S. I Love You" out Dec. 21.
Zach, winner of a 2005 Spirit Award for best first feature (he wrote and starred in "Garden State") said the world of independent film has provided with roles far different than the wacky doctor he has played on "Scrubs" for eight seasons.
"I always say to people that I would not have been cast in that movie had I not written it because it's hard to break out of what people see you as," he said. "I think that's one of the things that's so wonderful about independent cinema."
Of course, who can forget Zach and the rest of the cast in "The Broken Hearts Club"?
Monday was the last day of shooting on the final season of "Scrubs" which will end six episodes prematurely if the writers strike is not resolved soon.
"This is really sad and I'm sad it's over and I hope we get to do the last six," Zach said. "But \[fans\] should know that \[the strike\] is for a really important cause. It's not really about wealthy people getting wealthier, it's about the rank-and-file writers who pay their mortgage with residuals. Something has to be done now because all of entertainment is moving to the Internet and those people need to have a way to have an income. So we who have been very successful in the business want to stand by the people who have not been as fortunate and say, 'We'll do whatever we can to make sure you are paid fairly."
Andy Baldwin, the "Bachelor" who DID pick someone at the end of the season (even if they later broke up!) is seen here over the weekend in Oahu. He is set to ship off to the Middle East soon so that explains the haircut.
Speaking of "The Bachelor," I'm reading everywhere that Brad Womack, the cad who couldn't decde between 25 contestants, is the FATHER of a toddler. Oh, great. He sounds like such head case.
I was underwhelmed by the kiss shared between Kevin and Scotty on "Brothers & Sisters" Sunday night so I lifted these frames from OhLaLa blog for you to examine. Not that I'm obsessed or anything!
This is the only picture of Project Runway contestant Jack Mackenroth that I can run for you because the others are a bit too, well, nude for this blog. But they're not too nude for Queerty.com which has posted a while buncha pics that are very tastefully done but nude all the same!
Kinda strange that the former majority leader of the U.S. Senate is stepping down from office FIVE years early. It always raises a red flag and usually seems to mean some kind of major scandal is in the offing.
Is Lott retiring to spend more time with the family (yeah, sure) or to take a lucrative job in the private sector (maybe) or is there any truth to the reports all over the blogosphere that he may have been involved with a male escort named Benjamin Nichols?
We will have to see. Lott has never been a friend to the gay community so if there is anything to this, it's just another example of how hypocritical and self-loathing some members of the GOP are. For the record, here is one of the soon-to-be-ex-senator's quotes on homosexuality: "It is [a sin]....You should try to show them a way to deal with that problem, just like alcohol...or sex addiction...or kleptomaniacs."
Sorry for the late posting on "As the World Turns." I seem to be battling a flu (shoulda got the shot!) and slept the afternoon away. I have a bit of energy now so here I go:
Noah comes over to drop off a homework assignement to Luke but he is distant and leaves quickly, leaving Luke in a state of confusion and doubt. Oh, how we can all relate! I was initially annoyed that the writers had Noah acting all funny but the conversations that followed between Luke and Holden and Noah and Dusty did more to explain and develop their characters than any scenes between the two of them would have.
After Noah leaves, Holden breezes in and Luke just let's it all out: "I think maybe I told [Noah] something yesterday that maybe I shouldn't have...I told him I loved him." When Holden asks him if he meant it, Luke says: "Yeah! Yeah. But I guess he doesn't feel the same way and now I just feel like I made everything so awkward and uncomfortable...I wish there was some way that I knew how Noah feels about me."
I love what Holden says to reassure his son - I love that they are having this heart-to-heart conversation in the first place: "He calls you his boyfriend, he spent a major holiday with your crazy family, and he goes out of his way to come here and see you even when you're not happy to see him. I'd say that's a sign of something."
Then we cut to Noah walking into the diner where Dusty is eating. Why is it until now that Dusty's absolute hunkiness has escaped me? This guy is hot! Noah is all confused over what kind of man he's supposed to be, having a real identity crisis. Dusty has this advice: "Just be yourself, that's it."
Here are the complete scenes. Enjoy.
Daniel Craig, the sexiest James Bond ever, has shared how he plans to regain the buff bod he showed us so much of in his debut Bond feature "Casino Royale."
He confessed to Britain's The Times that after he finished "Casino," he completely slacked off his workout regiment: "After it finished, I stopped training." He "relaxed for three months and ate what I wanted, and then it's hell because as soon as you get back in the gym, you have to work all that off, and it takes much longer than it does to put it on."
Craig, currently promoting The Golden Compass, is already preparing for the next 007 outing set for release a year from now.
"Last time I did a lot of weights to bulk up because I had to do it quickly," he says. "This time I'm going to do more boxing and more running. I need to be physically strong for Bond and, as much as I looked in great shape, I got a lot of injuries, probably due to the fact that I wasn't doing enough running and jumping, which is what I needed to do in the film."
But don't expect quite as much beef in your beefcake this time around.
"I won't look physically much different, but I won't be as 'no neck' as I was last time."
Hmmmmm. Either way sounds good to me!
UPDATE: Just read this on Towleroad.com: British TV personality and comedian Russell Brand told chat show host Jonathan Ross that he secretly harbors a crush on actor Daniel Craig, who appeared later on Friday night's show, promoting his upcoming film The Golden Compass.
Said Brand: "He's a challenge to my heterosexuality. He's effortless. If I knew I was about to die, I'd be out there chatting up Daniel Craig. “I'm going to give him such a big cuddle, that man. I could be a vicious Bond girl!"
Joun the club, pal.
I love that a rich and handsome movie star like Matthew McConaughey does his own grocery shopping. I always figure I'd have a staff of five or six people to do things like that or to fluff my pillow or to make sure the water in my glass is room temperature.
But the unpretentious Matthew did some shopping in Beverly Hills on Sunday after being evacuated from his new Malibu home because of the fires.
Oh, great. We finally - after about a year of waiting - get another Scotty and Kevin kiss only to have most of it obscured by Kevin's arm. What is the point of THAT? Granted, if it had been Kitty and Robert kissing, I might not have noticed or cared that part of the kiss was blocked. But we get so few kisses between our favorite gay characters so when they do lock lips, we want to see it!
Dammit.
But otherwise, it's so cool to see intimate scenes between Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke MacFarlane) who are so cute together. Scotty brought home lobster and champagne from a party he catered, they fell asleep on the couch together still wearing the lobster bibs (nice touch) then start making out and then they slept together. But we only saw half a kiss.
Scotty downplays the hook-up: "I was a warm body after lobster." He wants to run - either he really does want to respect Kevin's relationship with the far-away Jason (Eric Winter) or he wants to protect himself - so he's packing when Kevin later announces that he has broken up with Jason.
Scotty: "Why do you always have to be such a drama queen?"
Kevin acknowledges that their past has been messy but says: "I want to be back there with you. Easy isn't all it's cracked up to be."
Kevin invited Scotty to Kitty and Robert's wedding so we'll see what happens then. In this scene below, we can see Kevin's frustration when Robert (Rob Lowe) mentions that he's talked to his brother twice in recent days while Kevin has not received a call in weeks. He says to the senator: "The next time you two chat, maybe you can tell him his committed, monogomaus, highly sought-after boyfriend said hi."
Ouch. Next thing we know, he's hooked up with Scotty. I love the scene I've posted because it is Sally Field at her most charming as she recalls how she lost her virginity. As she tells the story to all of the Walker kids, Kevin says: "Mom, you slut!"
It must be a kick to be Patrick Dempsey right now. The star of one of TV's biggest hits ("Grey's Anatomy"), a recent father of twins, and one of the sexiest men alive, also has the number one movie in the country with a $50 million five-day opening for his new movie "Enchanted."
The Disney flick would not be the magical treat that it is without a perfectly cast Amy Adams in the main role of an animated princess who ends up in NYC, lost and alone. Dempsey is so good as the man who helps her find her way. While "Freedom Writers" opposite Hillary Swank was a commercial dude earliert this year, Dempsey had had a big hit for Disney before: he played Reese Witherspoon's fiancee in the 2001 smash "Sweet Home Alabama."
He's good in everything he does...
Gee, no sign of Tuc Watkins or Kevin Rahm as the gay couple on "Desperate Housewives" and yet we still got to enjoy a pretty gay episode. The previews made it appear that this was the week of the tornado but that apparently is next week.
The whole Gaby-Victor-Carlos-Edie thing is one big BORE because it doesn't feel real at all. But Mike on drugs has all kinds of terrific potential. I was most pleased that the show finally gave the talented Shawn Pyfrom a couple of good scenes with Marcia Cross as Bree and Pyfrom as Andrew. He has been largely ignored after being one of the best characters of the show's first two seasons and went from being out and rebelious to way below the radar. Tonight, we learned a little more about why Andrew has been that way and it was sweet. He told his mom that he's grown up, that he's forgiven her, but that she's been too busy with her new marriage, pretending to be pregnant and now with a new baby to notice.
Bree takes it all very stoically and doesn't cry until Andrew asks her to put a coaster under her drink. That's her boy! Let's hope this writers strike ends this week so the show can finish the season and we can see Andrew get a boyfriend or have some dates now that he's grown up and on his own.
As for Richard Chamberlain, he made his first appearance as the former stepfather of Lynette (Felicity Huffman) and ex-husband of Polly Bergen's character. What I loved about his appearance was that he brought out the little girl in Lynette - you could see it - and we never get to see that. He explained that he had left the family not because her mother had cheated on him - as she had believed - but because he is gay.
Later, when he offers Bergen his "immaculate" guest room, she wonders "How'd I not know he was queer? He always talked that way."
Chamberlain, by the way, looked terrific. Still hot after all these years...
Oops!
Forgot to post about Luke and Noah who had a few brief scenes on "As the World Turns" during Thanksgiving dinner. The highlights are that Luke got himself out of the wheelchair and into his seat at the table. Noah was warmly welcomed by Luke's sweet grandmother and his little sister read a poem after which Luke commented on how thankful he is "to have so many people to love."
As he says this, he and Noah are caressing each other's hands. Very sweet. In the previews for next week, they flash to Noah saying to Luke: "What do you say we take this public?" Not sure what that means, but I like it!
Here is the Thanksgiving dinner clip:
Here are some of the emails I've gotten in recent months from readers. Love hearing from you whether it's kudos or you want to give me a piece of your mind!
Access to blog in Europe blocked...
Hi Greg,
I liked to follow your blog, but attempting to view it from Europe has become impossible during the past weeks.
I'm rather suprised that you have decided to block readers to your blog outside USA. Rather sad have to admit. Just proves the usual point rest of the world thinks of Americans, thought you would have
been somehow different. Apparently I have been mistaken.
Good luck on your blog.
Signing out. :(
Jani Mäntylä-Blå
Greg replies: Jani, this is something that is completely beyond my control and I am very unhappy about it since I have thousands of readers in Europe - or should I say had. Apparently, the tech people have done this to try and eliminate the unbearable levels of spam email our sites get. I hope there is another way in the future because this is a blog for everybody and every single reader is important to me.
Back up in New Zealand
Hi Greg,
I'm so pleased that your site is up and running again, why were you off the air waves for a while? This is just to let you know that I'm reading your site way done under here in New Zealand and thoroughly enjoying it.
All the very best
David
Greg replies: David, I'm glad you're getting access to the site again. I'm not sure if New Zealand was blocked or not. Glad to have you as a reader. Lemme know if you lose access again.
Strained family relations
Greg,
I felt so sad reading your story about your unfortunate meeting with your homophobic brother. I belong to PFLAG and we hear these stories often. We work with family members who are at least willing to try to understand their feelings. I have seen successes and failures. Sometimes we have to tell especially young gay men and women that they may have to accept the fact that a parent or sibling or friend will never change, will never accept them. It's like losing a member of your family when this happens and I feel
so for the gay child.
Although we work with parents mostly, I'd like to see more effort go into working with siblings. A gay child will grow up and his/her parents will die. If he or she doesn't have a full, life-time membership card in the
family...he or she will be alone. I know of an elderly (he's in his 80s now) gay man who told me once that 50 years ago his family rejected him completely, with anger and hatred. Except for one brother, in whose home he was always welcomed, etc. He said, with tears in his eyes, "He's been gone now for14 years, and I miss him so much." I hope you have a brother like that, too.
Love your column(s)!
Judy
Greg replies: Thank you to Judy and to others who sent notes after I posted about a particularly unpleasant confrontation I had in recent months with one of my five siblings. The good thing is, I am very close to most of the rest of my very big family and just got back from a great Thanksgiving weekend.
Grammar police give Greg a citation...
Your blogs are two of the first I visit every morning and to which I return during the day. This morning I'm going to ask, PLEASE, that you not participate in the epidemic destruction of the English language by using "I" and "me" incorrectly. You're certainly in good company, because everyone from presidential candidates to network anchors makes the same mistake, but it's SO easy to correct!
In the first paragraph of your piece on Tuc Watkins this AM, you're 1 for 3 in the "Tuc and I" department. "My friend James and I were having lunch" is right. "James snapped a photo of James and I with his cellphone" and "the picture of Tuc and I was lost forever" are not. The correction is incredibly simple: remove the other person from the construction and use the pronoun that sounds right. "I was having lunch," "a photo of me," and "the picture of me" are so obvious, and "the picture of Tuc and me" is so right.
People who read your two blogs will appreciate reading what you have to say without cringing even for second over the grammatical error --and that includes my friends and ME.
-- Nanci
Greg's reply: Me, myself and I thank you for the tip!
Nanci then writes: And there, my dear, is precisely why I like reading your blogs, your sense
of humor! Call me your grammar consultant any time!
Kind words from readers...
Greg,
I just wanted to write and tell you how much I enjoy your blog Out in Hollywood. As a huge tennis fan, Big Brother watcher(how did we come to like Jen, anyway?!), political junkie, and movie goer, it is so much fun to find a place where they are all written about! A photographer myself, the photos you use of the tennis players are always first rate. Another passion of mine is the band Heart. I think Ann and Nancy Wilson are legends. We have so many other shared interests, I thought I would throw that your way!
Anyway, thanks for all the good work. I will keep reading and share your site with others I meet.
Thank you,
Doug
**********
Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know how much I enjoy your website.
I've been visiting it for the last couple of months and just wanted to say keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Bobby
**********
Greg,
Thanks for writing about the Noah & Luke story line on As the World turn. I haven't watch soaps in years and I am recording the show every day. I too have been brought to tears a couple times. I admire both actors ability to portray these characters.
I check your blog every evening. Thanks again and hope I run into you again.
Brian
**********
Just wanted to drop you a quick note to say I'm loving your Out in Hollywood website. I used to read it here & there, but I've become a devotee. Love your content -- fun and intelligent. Keep up the great work!
Cheers,
Eric
**********
Greg,
Your post just gets better and better. I especially love the Nip Tuck post. Keep up the great work. XOXO! You're the Best
Don!
Reader wants to know who's gay...
Greg,
Just wondering about Matt Lauer.....he is so sweet and kind on tv and you can see he is real.....but....I don't think he is gay....or is he? Also Anderson Cooper...so much Gay talk....what do you think Anderson thinks about all this "talk" about him being Gay or not? And of course now all of us know that Kenny Chesney is not gay....what a shame.
Keep up the good work....it is great that people like you get the real stories without them looking cheap and out of sort.
Yours, Vern
Greg's reply: I do know that Anderson Cooper has never confirmed or denied being gay which has annoyed a lot of people - especially after he released his book last year. I think he's a real silver fox! Know nothing about Matt Lauer or Kenny Chesney except that both are very attractive men.
Want to give my pal, Johnny Diaz, a little attention for his novel "Boston Boys Club" which I am finally reading and happily absorbed in. Johnny is on a magazine cover which you can learn more about from his Beantown Cuban blog.
And up above, is a video of a reading he did from the book at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Assn. convention in San Diego a few months ago which is where I had a good time hanging out with him. Terrific guy, terrific writer!
I just checked out Rosie O'Donnell's blog for the first time in several days and boy, it just makes me sad that the MSNBC show didn't pan out! Rosie speaks her mind and that always makes the world a more interesting place.
Here are some bits and pieces from her Thanksgiving blog entry where she writes that she is in Baton Rouge with the grandparents "always fun in a family stressed out way... then 2 miami to find the dolphins
soak in the sun with gratitude."
On her most recent appearance on FX's Nip/Tuck which aired this week: nip/tuck was fun last night, wild to see urself on tv, watching dawn budge. she is so real to me...
On political scandals: sing scooter sing... scott mcclellan, who knew? a jedi knight uke skywalker himself just may save the republic. as the evil emperor palpatine watches it all crumble, we pray, save america. this administration is criminal...IMPEACH THEM ALL
I'm loving the CBS drama "Cane" and one of the reasons is the performance of the very handsome Nestor Carbonell who is kind of the Bobby Ewing to Jimmy Smits' J.R. But instead of oil, the family deals in rum.
I talked to Nestor last weekend at the Diversity Awards. He had a 6 a.m. call the next morning but took the time for a gab. He was surprised and glad that I do watch the show which is in a tough time slot on Tuesday nights at 10 p.m.
Here is my column on Nestor which appears in my page 2 column of the L.A. Daily News:
**************************************************************
Nestor Carbonell is part of a big-name cast on the CBS drama “Cane” that has one thing in common: the leads are all Latino.
There’s Emmy-winner Jimmy Smits, Emmy-winner Hector Elizondo and Oscar-winner Rita Moreno, among others.
.
“I’m so thrilled,” Nestor said when we chatted last week. “You always hope that strides are made and I feel they certainly have been. Even before “Suddenly Susan” when I started \[in 1996\], the kinds of roles tha
t were open to Latinos are nothing like there are today.”
On “Susan,” his role on the Brooke Shields sitcom required that Nestor speak with a thick accent, nothing like the erudite Harvard grad actually sounds.
“You have felt that in the past, the minority characters quite often are ancillary characters to a show. Here, you have a show where most of the cast is Latino. It’s wonderful and we hope that we can break ground and that it doesn’t stop just with ‘Cane.’”
The wealthy Duque family is in the sugar and rum business and Frank is constantly overshadowed by Smits’ Alex character.
I wondered what it was like for Nestor to work with Smits, with whom he shares many heated scenes including a few weeks ago when he landed a right hook to his on-screen brother’s jaw.
“He’s amazing,” Nestor says of Smits.
I then blurt out: “But you punched him!”
Nestor, cool as ever, replied: “I did punch him. It felt kinda good though (laughs).”
“I never knew Jimmy,” he continued. “I had met him sort of briefly at events but never knew him. It’s been a real joy. The star sets the tone for the show and we have an amazing star in him. He’s always looking out for everyone in every part of the process.”
The handsome actor, who turns 40 on Dec. 1, is on a nice career roll. In addition to “Cane,” he will be seen next summer in as the mayor of Gotham City in “The Dark Knight,” the sequel to “Batman Begins.”
Nestor has worked steadily on television since “Suddenly Susan” with recurring roles on “Lost,” “Strong Medicine,” “Resurrection Blvd.” “Kim Possible” and “Cold Case.”
But “Cane” gives him a leading role in a drama for the first time since the short-lived CBS drama “Century City in 2004.
“It is a great role,” he said of Richard. “It’s sort of the brother who’s been passed over and he’s got an ax to grind. But he’s conflicted. He’s got love for his family on the one hand and obviously he’s got this contentious relationship with his adopted brother. It’s great stuff to play.”
I love this young mega-talent, a rising star with a good head on her shoulders. Nikki sang "You Can't Stop the Beat" from the new "Hairspray" DVD at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Here is a clip:
Have you seen the new issue of In Touch? That's the mag that has been pushing the story of Angelina and Brad breaking up every other day and other stories that never seem to end up being true.
So we can take this latest cover story on Tom Cruise with a grain of salt I suppose but really, who even cares anymore? We used to wish he was gay but I don't know that it even matters to us now. For decades there have been the rumors - someone knows someone who knows someone - who allegedly hooked up with the three-times married star.
So In Touch has a story about porn star-turned-private investigator Paul Barresi who conducted an extensive investigation of the gay rumors, "Everything I've found and everything I know points to Tom being heterosexual," Paul tells In Touch.
OK then, it's all settled.
Here is an image from the new Gap campaign featuring the oh-so talented James Marsden, so good in "Enchanted" and in "Hairpray" this year - proving he is more than just a handsome face. But he IS a handsome face let's not forget!
I snagged this image off the terrifically sexy OhLaLa blog!
Cynthia Nixon, currently filming "Sex In the City" in NYC, told People magazine this week that she is teaching her two children that you are never "too young to learn about giving back,"
The mother of Samantha, 11, and Charles, 4, helped launch of the Curél Lends a Helping Hand Campaign, which auctioned off celebrity hand prints to raise money for the American Red Cross.
"My children are being raised Jewish, so last year we all had a meeting with a rabbi, who said it's good to let your children know what their parents values are," said the Emmy and Tony award winner.
Nixon herself is a major advocate for public schools. Her partner, Christine Marinoni, works for the Alliance for Quality Education.
"My kids go to public school," she said. "I grew up here [in New York], went to public school, got a great education. It wasn't a tough decision."
Of her kids, Nixon said her daughter is "a very good writer" abd her son is "very into building and dinosaurs, that kind of thing."
Both have come by the set of the "Sex" movie: "If we're shooting late on a Friday night, they'll come by the set. They seem to be on set different days. But we talk to Charlie about James and James about Charlie, and one day we'll figure it out so they can be there at the same time."
This is cool.
Love that Richard Chamberlain, who I fell in love with in "The Thorn Birds," has been out for several years now and is playing gay roles more often. On Sunday, he will guest on "Desperate Housewives" as Lynette's (Felicity Huffman) stepfather. He tells her why he left her mother (played by the terrific Polly Bergen): he left her because he is gay.
Chamberlian told Entertainment Tonight that he'd love to stick around Wisteria Lane. That would be great, if the writers can resolve their strike against producers. Jann Carl asked Chamberlain if he now makes it a point to play gay characters.
"I played a couple of gay characters since I came out," he said. "I didn't want to come out until I was completely free of fear about it, which finally happened at age 68."
I'm here in The OC and have given my niece and nephew the slip for a minute. She's dressed as an indian, he is a pilgrim. I have promised to eat at the kiddie table with them. Nowhere else I'd rather be.
Just wanted to express my thanks to all of you readers for coming to my site each day and for keeping Out In Hollywood alive and kicking!
Enjoy your meal and your loved ones...
Will resume with some light posting tomorrow...
Love how Hugh Jackman has been going with the Matthew McConaughey style of "less is more" in recent months. This is probably the zillionth image of him in trhe surf but I think he's always worth a post. What a perfect man: he can sing, he can dance, he can play Wolverine, and he a strapping movie star of a man.
Just love this interview with Patti LaBelle that has been posted on Advocate.com. Here's a lady with massive talent and enormous success. But more importantly, she's got a very big heart when it comes to the LGBT community who no doubt will be buying her new Christmas CD "Miss Patti's Christmas."
Here are a few excerpts:
Q. Why do you think you appeal so much to the gay community?
Patti: I guess because they see no prejudice in me and no judgment. I don't judge you because you love who you love. I don't judge because of the color that you are. I don’t judge anything. I'm very honest with gay people. I’m very honest with calling you out and saying come up to the front of the stage and let the audience know that you're gay. You’re breathing and you're just like them. The only thing that you have is a different sexual orientation. I'm honest, and most gay people appreciate that.
Q. At what point in your career did you know you had a gay following?
Patti: I've been in this business for 45 years—I've known for 43 years that I've had a strong gay following and loved every minute of it.
Q. What’s your take on transgender people?
Patti: That’s the way they were born -- people put them through hell! This is the body that they were born in. They want to get changed into a woman because that’s who they feel they are. If they can afford it -- do you think I'm going to read them? Get on their case? My God, people put too much worry and emphasis on things that they should not be. Try to worry and figure out world peace, not the piece that the person has on them! I’m sick of people! I am, you can say that too…judging. Everybody’s got to judge.
Do you love this woman? Oh my God! She should be running this country!
Found some terrific pics from Saturday night's event on AfterEllen.com which show that it really was a ladies night. And what great ladies they are:
The one, the only, Jenifer Lewis doing what she does best...
The great Shirley MacLaine's affection for Jenifer was clear as she presented her with an award...
Linda Ronstadt, a showbiz trouper, sang "Time After Time" with the LA Gay Men's Chorus despite bei9ng under the weather...
Here's to the ladies!!!
Fantastic!
"For the Bible Tells Me So" is a movie that can change the world and reallty build some bridges between parents and their gay children. It's so well-done and moving so it was with great excitement that I just read on AfterElton.com that Daniel Karslake's movie has named one of the 15 films being considered (from 70 entries) as one of the five nominees in the Documentary Feature category.
A win for this movie, which explores Christianity and homosexuality, would be moe significant than a "Brokeback Mountain" win would have because this message, these stories, can change people and open their hearts and minds.
I am thrilled and hope and pray it makes the nominees list next.
After watching Brian Williams on "Saturday Night Live" last weekend (they re-ran the episode already!) I was delighted with his sense of humor and timing. I'd seen it on Leno and other shows but never in skit form. So when I read yesterday that he had led into a story about The Queen saying that marriage is "under attack" I thought he must be joking!
He works for NBC News, not FOX News! It was not unreasonable to speculate exactly what the heck he meant by this since right-wingers use the same phrase to complain that we gay people - who simply want the same rights as every other American - are trying to destroy the institution of marriage by wanting to marry people of the same sex.
But Brian Williams wrote in his blog today that he didn't mean anything like that at all:
"I was the recipient today of several emails from well-intentioned people, telling me I was being attacked in parts of the blogosphere for something I wrote and said on the air in last night's broadcast. It was a closing piece about Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip celebrating their 60th anniversary. I noted this accomplishment, especially in this era when, as I put it, marriage seems "under attack" as an institution. My meaning? Our national divorce rate, which is currently somewhere between 40 and 50 percent. Others took it upon themselves to decide that I was somehow attacking gay marriage. The simple fact is that nothing could have been further from my mind, as many others easily understood. In fact, one comment shared with me today came from a respected member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, who said, "It seemed to me he was talking about the sky-high heterosexual divorce rates. Marriage IS under attack -- by straight people. It had nothing to do with the gay marriage movement."
I got home from this "High School Musical 2" party the other night feeling entirely too wholesome. That was quickly remedied when I found waiting for me the entire third season of "Dante's Cove" waiting for me. I had already seen the first episode so put on episode 2 figuring I'd try and do one or two a day. Well, next thing I know, it's 2 a.m. and I have watched the remaining four episodes.
I am not going to do a plot recap because I don't want to spoil things and besides, no one does a better recap of this fun and sexy guilty pleasure than AfterElton.com. But I do have a few assorted observations.
First off: Even though Kevin (Gregory Michael) is pretty much being forced to be Bro's (William Gregory Lee) boyfriend, these two are HOT together. I love seeing them together and when they are, they are often wearing next to nothing. I also like Toby (Charlie David) and Adam (Jon Fleming) together and their love scene - after all the pent-up passion, was a scorcher. My small quibble is that Fleming did not pull off the kissing scene - he had that closed-mouthed, puckered lip thing going on which is not sexy and not realistic for a hot gay man making out with the love of his life. (As an aside, I'm loving Charlie David with the blondish hair, He has never looked more attractive and I love his performance. We all want a Toby in our lives).
Convincing love scenes are more apt to occur between the women because, well, most of the women who play lesbians - Michelle Wolff, Jill Bennett and Jenny Shimizu - ARE lesbians. I think there are plenty of gay actors out there - very attractive ones - who would be willing to perform convincing same-sex love scenes in season four.
And finally, the show's dueling divas: Grace (Tracy Scoggins) and Diana (Thea Gill). They are on fire! Diana is over-the-top fun and crazy in episode 5 and I admire Gill for really going out on a limb in those scenes. As for the delicious Scoggins, she elevates every scene she is in and this season, has added a tenderness we never saw before and she makes us believe Grace's journey in getting there.
And talk about odd couplings: Grace and Jensen Atwood's character have one helluva love scene and it better be: Grace is a 200-year-old virgin!
Not anymore.
And Jensen Atwood could NOT be hotter. Oh. My. Gawd.
Anyway, you have treats in store in the remaining episodes which air on here! Network.
The writers strike has put a stop to many things, but it won’t stop Dame Elizabeth Taylor from returning to the L.A. stage next month for a performance of A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters” with James Earl Jones.
The great star of such classics as “Giant,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “A Place in the Sun” has been granted a one-night waiver from the Writers Guild of America stike to go ahead with a Dec. 1 performance at a theater on the Paramount Pictures studio lot which writers have been picketing for the past two weeks.
The performance is taking place on World AIDS Day and is expected to raise about $1 million for research and care.
Miss Taylor reached out to the leadership of the guild and WGA West President Patric Verrone graciously offered to remove the picket lines for that evening so the performers and the audience could enter the studio without feeling that they are betraying the writers.
“The Writers Guild of America has shown great humanity, empathy and courage by allowing our little evening to move forward,” Dame Elizabeth said in a statement.
The Hollywood legend also took the opportunity to state her support of writers in their current stalemate with producers.
“Everyone knows that my heart belongs to people with HIV and AIDS,” she said. “I also share my heart with people who must battle unfairness. Without the gifts of writers, the world would be rather empty. I beseech those in power to treat members of the Writers Guild of America with fairness and decency.”
The last time this great star and humanitarian was on stage here was back in 1983 when she appeared in “Private Lives” opposite Richard Burton, husband number five and six. Theirs was one of the great loves stories which began on the set of "Cleopatra" in 1961 when both were married to other people. On the very first day of shooting, they knew it was true love.
They finally married in 1964 after their respective divorces were final and went on to make a strong of movies including "Woolf," "The Sandpiper," "The VIPS," "Taming of the Shrew" and "Boom!" They were the Brad and Angie of their day but divorced in 1974, remarried a year later then divorced a second time. But the connection remained and Taylor has always said that Burton and her third husband, producer Mike Todd, were the two great loves of her life. Todd was killed in a plane crash in 1958.
Miss Taylor had made her Broadway debut in “The Little Foxes” in 1980 and was nominated for a Tony Award for best actress in a play. She also brought that show to L.A. and took it to London and the feeling was that she would transition to a stage actress. But after "Private Lives," that was it.
Since then, the two-time Oscar winner has gotten divorced a few times, had some serious health scares, made some movies, launched perfume and jewelry lines and received almost all the top honors one can get: a special Oscar (the Jean Herscholt Humanitarian Award; The Kennedy Center Honors; the Presidential Medal of Freedom; the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, and being named a Dame of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth.
But through it all, her work on behalf of HIV/AIDS has been her first priority and passion in life and for that, so many of us are forever grateful...
A really powerful episode of the Luke and Noah storyline on "As the World Turns." I'm kind of breathless as I write. Our young men defined their relationship when Noah badgered Luke about continuing to try and walk:
Noah: "I don't want a boyfriend who's terminally depressed."
Luke: "I'm your boyfriend now?"
Noah: "Yeah, you got a problem with that?"
Luke: "No. But I gotta admit I didn't know where things stood. I do kinda wish you came to this realization when we actually could have done something about it."
Noah then gets a call that his nutso, homophobe dad is being transfered from jail to state prison and he decides to face dad and tell him exactly what he thinks of him. The dad tells Noah that Luke "is a deviant and he tried to make you as sick as he is."
At this point, Luke wheels himself in and tells daddy dearest: "Noah and I are together and you have to accept that. I love your son and we're together and we're not afraid to let the world see that."
As Luke is saying this, he stands! And he speaks from his heart. It's an Emmy scene for Van Hansis. I almost blubbered at my desk. The dad tries to attack Luke but he is finally led away and Noah has the last word telling him he will live his life with Luke and there isn't a damned thing he can do about it."
The boys held hands a lot today but if we don't get a nice smooch soon, I may have to write the network a letter. It would be direct and to the point:
Dear CBS,
We gay fans of "As the World Turns" want you to instruct your writers to have Luke and Noah make out with reckless abandon. Young men in love, like everyone else, cannot keep their hands or lips off each other. Please be accurate in your portrayal.
Thank you.
p.s. Bonus points for showing some tongue.
...Is this guy good lookin' or WHAT? I met him a few weeks back at an event and managed to remain composed, but it wasn't easy. I featured him in my Daily News page 2 column on Sunday but forgot to post the story here for Out In Hollywood readers who, I know, like their hunky men - even the straight ones.
Here's what I wrote:
Carter Oosterhouse doesn’t want to talk about how good looking he is.
But it’s kinda unavoidable now that one of the former stars of TLC’s “Trading Spaces” franchise is now a leading man of sorts. He’s got his own home improvement show now and it’s even got his name in the title: “Carter Can.”
“I was at the right place at the right time and there was a job available,” Carter said when I caught up with him recently. But being named one of People magazine’s sexiest men on TV probably doesn’t hurt, right?
“Someone said the other day, ‘You look like a model,’” he said. “I was like, ‘Dude, I am not a model, I’m a carpenter.’”
On HGTV’s “Carter Can,” which debuted last month, the 28-year-old Oosterhouse has the chance to show off his carpentry skills to a national audience.
“It’s a blast,” he said of the gig. “Being on a show, being able to rebuild and help people in their homes and being able to get the feedback instantly from fans all over the U.S. I work with the exact same things people are dealing with every day and re-purposing and re-doing things for their homes. When they see what you’re doing and they like it, it’s a great feeling.”
The idea is "not to just put color on the walls but the idea is to construct. We're able to get in there and actually move walls around and make the house what they really want. People don't want to leave their homes, they love their homes. But maybe they want it a little different and that's what we do."
Carter loves to talk about his work. But I want to know things like what it’s like to guest on “Oprah” and to remodel Kirstie Alley’s kitchen when she started losing all the weight?
He looks at me, like I’m from the moon.
“No, I didn’t do Kirstie Alley’s kitchen,” he said patiently. “But there are a lot of kitchens that we have done.”
Not much of a name-dropper this guy.
Carter’s older brothers, Todd and Tyler, are also carpenters and there is still a bit of sibling rivalry among them. He knows though, that he has landed a dream job being able to ply his trade on television.
“It’s great, going to different places to do this,” he said. “You’re able to build this great piece of furniture and then you’re able to leave it in a different part of the U.S. There’s something kinda cool about that.”
Is he surprised at how popular home improvement shows are these days?
“There’s always mindless entertainment and then there’s entertainment that’s almost mindless,” he explained. “But with us, people can learn stuff. They can sit back and relax and watch how to do this and how to do that.”
I found "Another Gay Movie" to be surprisingly enjoyable and sweet so I'm looking forward to seeing "Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild" set for release next summer. The project begins production in and around Ft. Lauderdale next month.
This is the description I just got of the movie, word for word: "Between wet package contests, evil gay frat boys, and genital crabs the size of kittens (they may want to re-think that last phrase), it's a bumpy ride to booty victory. But this time around, love proves to be the biggest conflict of all as the boys struggle to rectify just how casual sex fits into their lives."
There's an opportunity for a lucky someone to win a visit to the set. One bidder will win an all-expense paid trip to Ft. Lauderdale to meet the cast and director Todd Stephens. The trip includes air fare, one night at the cast's hotel and a buncha other stuff.
Why an auction? Because an indie gay film needs all the help it can get in raising money for production costs! This trip is being auctioned off a www.anothergaysequel.com. until Nov. 18.
Enjoyed talking to "High School Musical" director Kenny Ortega the other night at the Diversity Awards where he was given best director honors. Then saw him again last night at a big, splashy party for the release of "HSM2" on DVD. (Among the delish eats were these little mac & cheese balls - looked like chicken nuggets but were stuffed with mac and cheese. They were like crack cocaine - so addicting. I had three then moved to the other side of the room).
Zac Efron was there and is cute but so tiny I could stuff him into my pocket!
Anyway, here is some of mine and Kenny's chat:
With the cast so famous, so quickly, I wondered if Kenny worries about them being under such an intense spotlight - especially Zac and Vanessa: "Yeah, I do. Not that they can't handle it or that they can't be responsible. It's just that they're chased around a lot. I'm discovering that it's hard for them to have personal lives - just to step outside of an apartment and go down the street and grab a sandwich is a thing of their past. That bothers me. They love new adventure, they love being kids, they love going to the movies, they love hanging out with friends and going to parties and that part of being young has kind of been taken away from them. Their interests is what makes them interesting people. You start to pull them back and not allow them to have that sort of full experience."
I asked Kenny to shed some light on the phenomenal success of the franchise which has struck a deep cord with this generation of kids and their parents: "Sometimes you just end up with a lot of the right ingredients. This was not a recipe that anybody sort of laid out and said, 'If you do all this, it's gonna work.' But we took our time I think in putting together a wonderful group of kids and [writer] Peter [Barsocchini] created a wonderful world with some stunning and important themes at the center of it. And then I think the wish fantasy of high school and music and dancing with are always so much a part of young culture. I think all of those ideas coming together made for something that has grabbed the attention of a global youth audience."
"We're doing 'High School [Musical] 3' for the big screen," he added. "We're back at East High, final year, and we're gonna bring in some new characters and have some fun. Mix it up a bit."
With the "High School Musical" franchise such a success and "Hairpsray" and "Dreamgirls" doing some well at the box office, does Kenny think this really is the return of the musical - a genre which used to dominate in decades past but since the 60s has only resurfaced, successfully, every so often.
"I'm hoping that they're gonna stay around and that we're gonna get the chance to make more of them and that audiences will want them," he said. "I just saw Julie Taymor's film the other night, "Across the Universe," and I loved it. Beatles music, brilliant staging, gorgeous casting, wonderful cinematography."
...Poor, poor Brad Womack. After dozens ofd women vyed for his love (and his fabulous abs), "The Bachelor" ends up choosing...NO ONE!!!
Ha! I love it! What the man billed as "the sexiest bachelor" proved is how stupid this show is! It's fun to watch sometimes for the beefcake factor but it is demeaning to the women - all beautiful, many quite smart and wonderful seeming.
I wonder if this means the end of the franchise, especially on the heels of the last bachelorl, Andy Baldwin, going through the whole show of proposing and splashing around the beach with Tessa for months after only to break up.
We all know it comes down to one thing: ratings. I just feel that this show has more than run its course. But, if they come up with another hunk along the lines of Brad or Andy, I'm sure I'll take a look or two even if I hate myself in the morning.
He left both ladies at the podium in last night's finale saying that marriage meant too much to him to toss out a ring on national television.
Duh.
But that's why ya went on the show, Brad.
Tonight, ABC airs "After the Final Rose" which gives the ladies the chance to confront Brad. Who cares. But that doesn't mean I won't post some pics and a video of the hunky heartbreaker!
Readers of Out In Hollywood already know that I am nuts about Daniel Craig who I think is an even better James Bond than Sean Connery! If you don't agree, then you have to admit that he is the sexiest! He took the role and ran with it and made me very eager for the next installment. Next up, he stars in "The Golden Compass" opposite Nicole Kidman. There are big expectations for this flick which should fare far better than the pair's previous outing, last summer's mega-dud "The Invasion."
Anyway, here is a photo of Daniel, as Bond, that I think you can't possibly post too often:
While I'm rooting for Rami, had no idea what a HUNK that Jack is until OhLaLa blog posted these pics of him today.
Enjoy!!!
Ya know, i get a lot of emails from people plugging various things and most of the time I just wanna sent a note back saying, "Hey pal, I'm not Amazon.com, mmmmmkay?" But when I get one that has all these photos of hot men with it, it catches my attention! So here's the deal: just go to www.menoflagunabeach.com and order away. In Los Angeles, the calendar is being sold at A Different Light Bookstore in West Hollywood. All proceeds from the sale of our calendar goes to The Laguna Beach Resources Center, the Laguna Beach AIDS Advisory Committee and Save the Boom.
Yeah, I know I'm in most of 'em. Nice memories...
With the great, the inspiring, the amazing Jenifer Lewis - the night's big honoree. Each time I see her, I fall in love just a little bit more...
With my tall, handsome, smart friend, Jim Key...
What a foursome: George Takei, Lorri Jean, Alec Mapa and Jane Lynch!
At our table with Jim Key, the center's chief public affairs officer, and Nick Velasquez, spokesman for LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.
How'd this picture of me and Luke MacFarlane get in here again? Oh well, he's worth another look!
Jenifer Lewis, in all her glory...
This cutie pie is my neighbor Jonathon Aubry who I know from the here! Network. Jonathon was recently promoted tp head marketing for Regency Releasing.
If you had read the press release for the 15th Annual Diversity Awards, you would have expected to see Janet Jackson present an award to Chris Tucker but neither showed up. In fact, Tucker wasn't even listed in the program. So when I cornered the PR guy handling the event as the awards were underway, I asked if Tucker was present since I hadn't seen him on the red carpet and had pre-written a column for the paper with him in the lede.
"Let me check the script and I'll get back to you," he said.
He did not get back to me anytime soon and I had to junk my column and write one off the top of my head, dictating it into the phone to an editor as i paced the steps outside the Globe Theater at Universal Studios. I would have been a lot more irritated had I not had Mo'Nique there to make my night.
What. A. Woman.
She was the star of the night and got the evening's only standing ovation. We chatted before the event and I wanted to know if she knew how happy she makes people - how much she makes us smile and laugh out loud.
"If you knew how happy people made me...I pinch myself every morning and think, 'God, for real? Another day of this? Thank you! Appreciate ya sugar.'"
Mo'Nique was honored as the 2007 Renaissance Artist last night. After she gained fame as the star of the hilarious series "The Parkers," she used that success to become a real showbiz multi-hyphenate with her best seller "Skinny Women" and new book "Skinny Cooks Can't Be Trusted," a movie star in such films as "Queens of Comedy," "Phat Girlz," "Hair Show," and "Good Fences," a TV host of "Showtime at the Apollo," and the full-figured beauty pageant "Mo"Nique's F.A.T. Chance."
She says: "When you start playing by your own rules and you start playing in your own ball field, it's incredible. And when people start coming out to your games? It's really incredible....You create your own options. Just believe, that's it. People think it's a special formula where you gotta take a pill. Just simply believe. I'm a 250 pound black woman, all you gotta do is believe."
Mo'Nique brought her grandmother to the event and tearfully paid tribue to her from the stage. Earlier, she told me: "My grandmother has been an incredible force in my life. Very humble, very kind. Not real fancy. She's very simple and to the point. So when you see Mo'Nique, you see a whole lot of her."
And there were plenty of other terrific talents on hand including honorees Elijah Kelley ("Hairspray") Brittany Snow ("Hairspray"), Jackie Warner ("Workout"), Kenny Ortega, director of "High School Musical" 1 and 2),
Lisa Edelstein who accepted an award for "House."
Kevin Frazier of "Entertainment Tonight" was a smooth and charming host while E! personailty Debbie Matenopoulos was pretty annoying I must confess. Comedy is not - I repeat, not - her forte.
Well, actually that's Luke MacFarlane and me with (this is another photo than what I posted earlier). Isn't he adorable? And very sweet. I'm a little horrified that my bow tie is all screwed up and apparently was all night. I put it on it the car and rushed in. I'm not a very good gay man sometimes.
Luke was at the LA Gay and Lesbian Center gala on Saturday night and we met at the cocktail hour/silent auction. We talked a little "Brothers & Sisters" and he is glad to be back! But he wasn't working a press line and I wanted to let him go and have fun with his friends.
Hopefully, we'll be able to do an interview sometime soon.
Found this clip on Towleroad. Hearthrob former pro baseball player Billy Bean has submitted a question for candidates in the Republican YouTube debate taking place Nov. 28.
His question: "Over the years, factions of the Republican party seem to have fully embraced religion-based bigotry and discrimination against the GLBT community as a way to win elections. Will you discourage people from using their religious beliefs as a way to justify discrimination against citizens like me?"
Andy Towle writes that Bean said in an email to friends: "I hope you'll take a look...and if you think you'd like to see one of those far right conservatives answer my question...pass the word, and tell as many people as you can to take a look. Apparently the amount of hits/views has a lot to do with the selection process. Please forgive the quality of the video....Spielberg was busy...., but I did it all by myself...(I know...it shows)."
It's kinda ridiculous that I've posted a picture of Alec Mapa in a coat and tie since at the LA Gay and Lesbian Gala Saturday, he was like Cher, changing outrageous costumes each time he took the stage as host including a feather headdress.
He said hello to the crowd with the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles standing behind him ready to perform. But there was a technical glitch so Alec had to stretch. He started to inrterview the singers: "Out of all these guys, who's the sluttiest?"
Some other Mapa gems:
"I'm so high on painkillers right now, I tink I'm home watching this on Bravo."
"What a great night! Ilove being gay! Shirley MacLaine's right here. I love being gay!"
To Shirley MacLaine: I love you so much because I was raised Filipino Catholic and we believe in everything. To Filipinos, "The Excorcist" is like a documentary."
On Larry Craig getting busted for soliciting sex in a public restroom: "You know how it is. You don't know whether to take a dump or have sex with a stranger!"
To George Takei: "Listen Sulu, if you wanted to be queen of the Pacific Rim, you should have come out 35 years ago!"
Being on Rosie O'Donnell's gay cruise: "She was so Alpha...it was like a scene out of "The Devil Wears K-Mart."
Honorees the Gay Mens Chorus of Los Angeles were joined onstage by the legendary Linda Ronstadt, winner of 11 Grammys and whose CDs I still buy today because she always tries new things and her work is always quality. I love her version of Tom Petty's "The Waiting" and a beautiful song she wrote when she decided to move from California called "Adios." There was also the pop standards stuff, the great early 90s album with Aaron Neville and all those great 70s hits like "When Will I Be Loved?" "Blue Bayou" and "You're No Good."
On Saturday, Linda came out and sang "Time After Time" with the choir. She seemed to be reading the words from a teleprompter on the floor and was not quite reaching her usual high notes. I learned later from a member of the choir that she had lost her voice and there was some doubt whether she'd be able to sing or not.
But she showed up and she sang and it was great to see her! She also presented the choir with their award
OK, you can't even begin to write about Saturday night's event at the Century Plaza Hotel without starting with Jenifer Lewis - an amazing woman of immense talent and heart.
She received The Rand Schrader Distinguished Achievement Award which is the center's highest individual honor awarded to someone who has a remarkable and courageous record of championing LGBT visibility, combating homophobia and/or significantly serving or contributing to the community. When Jenifer decided to perform her one-woman show "Bipolar, Bath & Beyond" at the center's Renberg Theater, it kept selling out so she insisted on extending the run and in the process, raised more than $40,000 for the Center's Youth Services programs.
That's why she got three standing ovations at the event, why you could hear a pin drop when she spoke, why Shirley MacLaine showed up to personally present her with the award. Shirley refered to her friend Jenifer as a "mad genius lady...She's what I would call an out of the mainstream talent...She is so unlimited, she creates and functions in other dimensions simultaneously...This is a woman I'm so proud to know."
Jenifer took the stage and gave a funny, touching, funny speech using some of MacLaine's book titles:
"I'm not afraid to admit that when Shirley was "Out on a Limb," I was out on a twig. When she said "Don't Fall off the Mountain," I was already down there!"
"I am so honored and humbled and moved to be receiving this award and I mean that from my heart..."
The great diva returned to the stage to perform a few songs that brought the house down concluding with a rousing version of "I Know Where I've Been" from "Hairpray."
Absolutely perfect.
Jenifer Lewis got three standing ovations, Lorri Jean inspired everyone, Alec Mapa had more costume changes than Diana Ross, Shirley MacLaine was in a playful mood, and Linda Ronstadt performed a lovely version of "Time After Time" with the Gay Men's Chorus without telling the audience how sick she was.
It was the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center Gala and Auction at the Century Plaza Hotel. It was my first time at this event and will be sharing interviews and photos in future posts and tell you who said and sung what. But for now, wanted to give you a quick rundown of the evening and write a little bit about the center. I've attended many center events over the years and even got a tour of the main headquarters by my friend, Jim Key, after we had lunch one day a few years back. But last night was the first time I really got it. I got how good this organization is, how important it is and how much it means to so many people.
Jim, the center's chief public affairs officer (and who I met three years ago in Rio during Carnaval), invited me to be one of his guests. I'm so glad I was able to share this night with him and other friends of his - some who I was meeting for the first time (that's part of our table pictured above. Jim is on my right). But before dinner, I flitted around a bit looking for Shirley MacLaine who I was told was wandering the auction. I never found her but I did find George Takai and we had a really good gab. He is the best storyteller and has lots of great stories to tell. Stay tuned. Gave Alec Mapa an air kiss and wished him luck and bumped into Luke MacFarlane (Scotty on "Brothers & Sisters") who really is as cute and nice as he seems on television.
I gotta get ready for another event so you'll get all the juicy details later. But I do want to encourage you to watch the video below. We were shown it at the dinner and it tells all about what this great center does and gives you an idea of how important its work is with homeless gay youth turned away by their families, HIV/AIDS patients, older LGBT people and so, so much more. It's easy to see why people are willing to shell out the big bucks for the center - several of whom were recognized last night for passing the $1 million mark in donations over the years.
I'm looking forward to seeing Ellen DeGeneres' variety special tomorrow night and wrote a story that appeared in today's LA Daily News about it. So go out and pick upo a copy!
Oh, you don't live in LA? OK, here's the story - delivered special to Out In Hollywood readers...
**************************************
Hosting an old-fashioned variety show could be just what Ellen DeGeneres needs right about now.
She's had rough go of it in recent weeks. First there was the drama surrounding an adopted dog name Iggy that led to Ellen crying on the air and now she's under fire for continuing to tape her syndicated show during the writers strike.
On Monday night, she hopes all of that will be set aside during "Ellen's Really Big Show," a 90-minute special airing at 9 p.m. Ellen will host established stars like Sheryl Crowe, Wayne Newton,
magician Lance Burton (Mary J. Blige was a last-minute cancellation))
and she introduces viewers to a lot of lesser-known acts. The writing for the special was completed before the strike.
"I've wanted to do a variety show for a long time," she says. "I really miss variety, I miss Carol Burnett and the Smothers Brothers. I love all the weird acts, the things you don't normally see unless you go to Vegas...I really think people are ready to see a variety show on prime time."
She was in talks with TBS to do some kind of special but was not keen on doing another stand-up show like she had done in the past, a format she says "is too daunting."
"I used to love on Carol Burnett when they would do sketches and couldn't keep a straight face. Also Sonny and Cher. It was a different kind of humor. I loved when I saw new comedians like Steve Martin."
What's not well known is that after the cancellation of her ABC sitcom "Ellen," and before the one season run of "The Ellen Show" on CBS, she had taped a variety pilot that she was hoping to do for CBS instead of another sitcom.
"I thought it was a really good idea and a really good pilot," she says. "But nobody thought America was ready for it. So we did the other one that didn't work out either. I wish that somehow the pilot I did would be able to be aired. It was sort of behind the scenes and on stage,Larry Sanders style."
So if it's not all about her and her comedy, then what's the appeal of doing "Ellen's Really Big Show" which was taped in Las Vegas on Thursday?
"It's close to stand-up and yet not as much talking," she says. "I have people to take over for a little while. I get to respond immediately to something that's going on. It's sort of why I had always done what I do. I really like making people feel good. If you are hosting a party, you want to make sure people are having a good
time. It's a challenge and it feels good. I like feeling the energy in the room when I'm helping that move along."
She hopes the writers strike will be long over. She was slammed by the union which released a statement saying "We find it sad that Ellen spent an entire week crying and fighting for a dog that she gave away, yet she couldn't even stand by writers for more than a single day."
Ellen skipped taping of her show the first day of the strike two weeks ago but, along with Oprah Winfrey, Rachael Ray and other syndicated shows, has continued producing new shows.
"I hope it ends soon. I hope people can compromise or figure it out. It's just the hardest thing in the world to drive on this lot. I'm stuck in the middle."
My pal Henry e-mailed me from overseas with the results of Roger Federer's match today before I even had a chance to have my morning coffee! He was excited that the world's top tennis player had easily beaten David Ferrer to win the year-end championships in Shanghai.
Federer had more losses this year (9) than he has had since 2003, the year he won his first Wimbledon. But then you consider that he still managed to win more tournaments (8) than any other player on tour, became the first player to earn more than $10 million in a single year, and defended his titles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and Australian Open.
Not so bad for an off year!
For those of you who watch "Project Runway," this news is so two days ago. But I want to get it on the record and thankfully, AfterElton.com is doing its usual terrific job of recapping. I'm rooting for Rami because I know hom and know him to be insanely talented. AfterElton reports: The winner of the first competition was Israeli-born out gay designer Rami. He crafted a truly beautiful charcoal gray draped dress that screamed Lauren Hutton, except for an unfortunate blobby fabric rose at the shoulder. I’d been grumbling about it all night, and was totally pleased when out gay designer and judge Michael Kors commented that it was just too “Mother of the Bride” for the dress.
So far, so good!
...at Andy Roddick's killer abs...
The tennis year is almost over for the top-ranked American who lost his semifinal match Saturday in Shanghai to David Ferrer at the year-end championships. But Andy still has a big event ahead - possibly the biggest of his career: the Davis Cup final against Russia. If Andy and his teammates can win, it will be the first Davis Cup victory for this country since 1995 when guys named Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi were in their absolute primes.
Speaking of prime, top-ranked Roger Federer played second-seed Rafael Nadal in the other semifinal and won. He will play Ferrer for the title tomorrow and try and add another title to an already superb year.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy is the professional on "Dancing With the Stars" who really makes our hearts race and from an interview I did with him last summer, I know that he embraces his gay fans. What I didn't know was the he has a brother, Valentin, who also has killer moves and is easy on the eyes. Found these pics and this clip on the OhLaLa blog which always has an eye for true beauty.
Enjoy!
All you have to do is look at Christopher Gorham to see that he is a total babe. But as the nerdy Henry on "Ugly Betty," his good looks are someone obscured by the glasses and sweater vests etc. But a fantasy scene a few weeks back had him in nothing but his underwear and it revealed his hunk within. It even landed him in People Magazine's sexiest men alive issue.
Gorham said that post underwear scene, "one of the producers came up to me and said, 'I have to be honest with you. I thought they digitally put your head on someone else's body.' That's how surprised people were. Now everybody's coming up to me for exercise and diet tips."
As well they should!
Every once in awhile, we gay men get a girl crush. It's perfectly natural and nothing to be ashamed of. Mine is on Natalie Portman for many reasons dating back to when I first saw her as a teenager in "Beautiful Girls." She was so sweet in that movie, a shining light, and her scenes with Timothy Hutton are what I remember most...in addition to the HILARIOUS scene with Rosie O'Donnell going on a rant about what is wrong with men.
Anyway, Natalie has made it to adulthood intact, intelligent and thoughtful - think of her as everything Britney is not. She's Harvard-educated and Oscar-nominated and in the current issue of In Style magazine, she gave a quote about marriage that made me love her all the more: "I'm not convinced about marriage. Divorce is so easy, and the fact that gay people are not allowed to marry takes much of the meaning out of it...committing yourself to one person is sacred."
...no matter how much this American hearthrob huffs and puffs, he cannot beat Roger Federer who dispatched Andy easily on Friday in Shanghai. Andy now has a 1-14 record against the world's top player.
It's one thing when you are a famous actor to grab a sign and walk a picket line in support of the Writers Guildx of America in their battle against producers for a bigger share of new media and DVD residuals. But it's even more effective when you are as thoughtful and articulate as the gang from "Grey's Anatomy" who spoke out this week and made the writer's demands sound quite reasonable.
The great Lily Tomlin was among the famous faces who walked picket lines this week in support of the Wrtiers Guild of America who are battling producers for a bigger share of DVD and new media revenue.
"The writers deserve their fair share of the pie and that's all there is to it," Tomlin said. "...We're nothing without good words. We're nothing."
Well said.
(Thanks to A Socialite's Life for orignally posting this clip)
This is terrific news.
I just got an email from Focus Features announcing that "My Private Idaho" director Gus Van Sant will begin production in January on the biographical drama "Milk" which will star the great Sean Penn, so good in everything but never better than in "21 Grams," "Dead Man Walking" and "Mystic River."
The movie tells the story of gay-rights icon Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in America; in 1977, he was voted to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors but the next year, he and Mayor George Moscone were shot to death by another city supervisor, Dan White. This marks the first non-documentary film about Milk's life. He was the subject of the 1984 Academy Award-winning documentary feature "The Times of Harvey Milk."
Damn Disney for making me believe in fairy tales again!
I arrived at the screening of "Enchanted" last night irritated by traffic - a state of mind that was not made any better by the lack of free popcorn or VIP seating. Then there was the organ player. I'm sure he's a nice man and he plays well. But he plays loud and by the fourth number, I wanted to leap from the balcony of the El Capitan Theatre and break every one of his fingers - one at a time. The 7 p.m. movie finally began at around 7:25 p.m. and i settled in, ready to be further annoyed.
It did not happen.
Instead, my damned bad mood has disappeared within the first few minutes of this gem of a movie that is gonna be a monster hit for Disney and make all kinds of people laugh and sing and be gay (well, you know what I mean). This fairy tale may be tongue-in-cheek, but it has such tremendous positive energy and wonderful performances from a perfect cast led by an amazing Amy Adams, a very funny James Marsden, and a perfectly-cast Patrick Dempsey. And let's not forget Susan Sarandon who is a hoot! All the actors are seen in live action but they also voice the animated versions of themselves in a movie that very cleverly mixes both genres.
Adams is would-be princess Giselle who has been banished from fairy tale land by the wicked Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) and ends up in Times Square looking more than a little lost and out of place. She tries to make do as she waits for her cartoon prince (James Marsden) to rescue her. Along the way she meets Dempsey who thinks she's nuts - at least at first.
There are so many clever touches, some laugh out loud stuff (watch for anything involving a chipmunk) and all the actors are at their best. Adams is a revelation and does her own singing. Marsden, as he did with "Hairspray," shows that his pretty face has obscured the fact that he is a wonderful comic actor and song and dance man.
Dempsey is dazzling and how great to see him on the big screen far away from the hospital on "Grey's Anatomy." He plays a divorced divorce laywer who doesn't believe in love anymore and the best part about the scenes with his clients is that one of them is played the fab Tonya Pinkens, the Tony winner who most recently wowed us in "Caroline, or Change."
The movie is greatly enhanced by the music with songs written by Oscar winners Alan Menken ("The Little Mermaid,""Beauty and the Beast,""Aladdin") and Stephen Schwartz ("Pocahontas,""The Prince of Egypt") and the production numbers can't be beat.
I loved, loved, loved this film.
While I was across the street at the El Capitan Theatre last night watching "Enchanted," Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka were among the celebrities at the Victoria Secret event taking place at the Kodak Theatre. They are such a cute couple!
NPH has had a busy week! He hosted the L.A. Ovation Awards Monday night honoring LA stage productions and appeared as a celebrity guest on "Wheel of Fortune." All that plus his usual hilarious turn as Barney on "How I Met Your Mother."
Remember that picture of John Travolta giving his male nanny a big smooch on the lips as they parted outside an airplane? Well he's at it again and this time, it's with an older man: Kirk Douglas. The kissing bandit locked lips with Spartacus at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.
Kirk is still cute, but I'd rather kiss Michael...
I saw "Enchanted" last night and Patrick Dempsey was so handsome and charming and fun in it. It made me realize just how depressing his on-again, off-again relationship with Meredith on "Grey's Anatomy" is. I'm so over them!
I will post my review of "Enchanted" soon, provided the blog gods cooperate!
When he ruled the tennis courts with Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe from the mid-70s through the early 80s, Bjorn Borg was a hearthrob who won five Wimbledons and six French Opens wearing the tiny, white shorts that were so common then.
He woulda made a great underwear model.
But now that's he's in his 50s, the still handsome Borg is leaving the modeling to other people but not the underwear. His uinderwear business is thriving and the ad campaign is certainly eye-catching with these breathtaking models, don't you think?
Yellow never looked so good...
I wonder how much a plane ticket to Sweden is...
...and I will be there!
My friend, Jim Key, has invited me to the LA Gay and Lesbian Center's annual anniversary gala on Saturday and I was already looking forward to hearing Linda Ronstadt sing and seeing the fabulous Jenifer Lewis receive the Rand Schrader Distinguished Achievement Award.
Well, it has just been announced the Jenifer will get her award from...Shirley MacLaine!
I'm not into her UFO stuff etc. but Shirley MacLaine the actress, I am very into. My friend Eddie and I love doing lines from some of her movies.
Here are our faves:
From "Terms of Endearment" ...
To a hospital nurse: "Give my daughter the shooooooooot!!!!!!"
To Danny DeVito: "Why should I, why should I be happy about being a graaaandmother!"
To Jack Nicholson: "Blah, blah, blah, blaaaaaah."
From Steel Magnolias:
To Sally Field: "The only reason people are nice to me is because I have more money than God!"
To Darryl Hannah: "Who the hell are you?
To Olympia Dukakis: "Are you HIIIIIIIGH Clairee?"
From "Postcards from the Edge" ... (All lines are said to Meryl Streep's character):
"Of course in those days the material was better."
*****
"How'd you like to have Joan Crawford for a mother? Or Lana Turner?"
*****
"It twirrrrrrrrrrrlllled up!"
*****
"Do you think i should get liposuction? Right here?"
*****
"Mr. Mayer was talking to me while he was on the toilet. He wouldn't have done that to John Garfield..."
There are many more but I don't want to scare you! Anybody else have favorite Shirley lines to share?
Actor Scott Caan has learned that using the f-bomb is not acceptable and that it's best not to use the gay slur just because someone ticks you off. Scott directed the word at a paparazzi who dared to take a photo of him as he was leaving LA's Newsroom Cafe.
The Gay and Lesbian Association Against Defamation then issued this statement to TMZ.com which caught the whole ugly affair on tape: "While Caan's anger at being harassed is understandable, responding with that kind of vulgar, anti-gay slur is simply unacceptable," said GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano. "We've reached out to Caan's representatives and called on him to apologize for his defamatory, dehumanizing remark."
Caan has indeed apologized through a statement to TMZ: "I am sorry for using such a derogatory word. I was being harassed by a paparazzi, and unfortunately, the word slipped out. I don't ever condone the use of that word and I deeply apologize to anyone whom I may have offended."
Let that be a lesson to you, young man!
I just love a guy who isn't afraid to show his emotions. If he's got bulging biceps too, well, who am I to complain? So why is Rafael Nadal so happy? Because he has just beaten Novak Djokovic to reach the semifinals of the Masters Cup in Shanghai.
When I covered the Grammy Awards for the first time this year, one of the artists that I was most impressed with was Mary J. Blige who came backstage a few times after her wins and had something different and insightful to say each time.
You could tell that this was a woman who has learned tough lessons in life and come out the other end stronger and wiser.
She is on the cover of the new Advocate and her interview is a good read. Here are some excerpts:
On gay fans: The majority of my fans are gay. The majority of them are, and I have to really make sure that they know I’m paying attention to the fact that they support me, and I support them."
On Growing Up: When I was growing up, my neighborhood was full of everyone—black, white, Latino, gay, straight. A lot of people that I knew were gay, but they were great people. They were good people. It’s not like they were alien. They were just people. That [acceptance] was just something that was always in me. I’ve never been a judgmental person because I have been through so much hell myself."
On the homophobia in hip-hop: "The real hip-hop, the real people don’t even care about that. They’ll love you and accept you no matter what because they know who they are. There are a lot of people trying to figure out who they are and what they’re gonna be. There’s a lot of confusion in that. Confusion causes a lack of identity. I’ve heard a couple of guys say foul things, and those guys are not around me anymore because when they say things like that, I’m looking at them like, What makes you so scared? You don’t know who you are? I guess it all boils down to them not being sure about themselves and what they wanna do, whoever that is. I won’t say any names. And I don’t dislike them or anything—it just makes me wonder about them period. ’Cause if you’re not sure about that, then you ain’t sure about a lotta things!"
How are ever gonna get kids to using the f-bomb on the playground if grown-ups can't think of a more appropriate slur to use when they are really pissed off at somebody?
Scott Caan unleashed the word on the paparazzi yesterday as he was leaving the Newroom Cafe in Beverly Hills.
According to TMZ.com, he said from his car: "You tryin to be nice about it? I saw you shootin me while I was eatin a cheeseburger. Fuckin jack-off. I'll give you a thousand dollars to come fight me, how bout that? $2000. $2500. Ten grand if you'll fight me. Get a real job, you faggot."
OK, let's think of some other words Scott could have used since his vocabulary seems to be rather limited: Insect? Loser? Reptile?
Lakers coach Phil Jackson has been getting a lot of flack for his "Brokeback Mountain" joke the other night after his team lost. He had been asked if if too much penetration was leading to open outside shooters and replied: “We call this a ‘Brokeback Mountain’ game, because there’s so much penetration and kickouts.”
Keep yer day job, Phil.
''...In retrospect, it wasn't really funny,'' Jackson said before the Lakers played Houston on Wednesday night. ''When you take it out of context, it wasn't funny. It was a poor attempt at humor, and I deserved to be reprimanded by the NBA.''
Still, Jackson couldn't resist making another joke as he apologized.
''If I've offended any horses, Texans, cowboys, or gays, I apologize,'' Jackson said.
Jackson admitted he should've known better and left the joke-telling to Leno and Letterman: ''It's societal right now,'' he said. ''Some people can do it. Some people can't. That's something that's appropriate for certain categories.''
Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation president Neil G. Giuliano issued a statement saying, ''Phil Jackson's been coaching long enough that he should be able to talk about the Lakers' performance without resorting to cheap gay jokes.''
True.
This very funny woman guests on tonight's "Ugly Betty" as a security guard who has the hots for Henry (who can blame her? Christopher Gorham is a DOLL). This leads to my true confession. Sometimes, when no one was around, I would watch "The Parkers," her old UPN sitcom. I thought it was pretty silly the way she kept after the dull professor dude but it always made me laugh.
This has made me think of some other shows over the years that really aren't so good in terms of quality, but every time they are on if I am channel surfing, I'll watch some of it - or all of it: "Mama's Family" (remember Bubbah?) and "Facts of Life" (even the Cloris Leachman years...never the Molly Ringwald year though).
There, I've confessed. I feel better now.
Anyone else have guilty pleasure like this?
I'm just a casual basketball fan these days - it's been years since I pretended to be straight and hung out with all my cute college friends watching the Lakers win those NBA titles during the Showtime era.
Now, I spend more time doing things like watch "Brokeback Mountain." And apparently, so does Laker coach Phil Jackson.
After his team was beaten by the San Antonio Spurs Tuesday night 107-92- a victory that included 13 three-pointers, Jackson was asked if too much penetration was leading to open outside shooters.
His reply: "We call this a Brokeback Mountain game, because there's so much penetration and kickouts. It was one of those games."
The NBA, which fired Tim Hardaway this year for his homophobic remarks, is not pleased and has spoken with Jackson about it and league spokesman Brian McIntyre said: "The remarks are in poor taste, and the Lakers have assured us such remarks will not occur in the future."
Hi Cameron! Yer beautiful. But this post is not really about you - you are just my attention grabber.
I want to say that it seems that our six days of glitches seem to be over. Our blogs have been "upgraded" to a new system and that process has been frustrating with me unable to blog at normal hours - if at all - and comments not coming through.
But that is over now so please, START POSTING COMMENTS AGAIN!
I love hearing from you...
- Greg
We got some Luke and Noah scenes today but they still haven't made out yet. He can't walk, but he can still kiss! C'mon! Liplock. Soon.
So Noah's parents are splitting-up. WhatEVER! I just want Luke to get back on hos feet and for these two to have some happy times. Watch this clip and you might be encouraged by what happens at the end!
I have never watched "Project Runway." Does that mean I have to turn in my gay card? But I did attend the kick-off party for season one at the now-closed iCandy in West Hollywood. iCandy may have folded, but "Project Runway" keeps on rolling with its fourth season premiere tonight on Bravo.
I am rooting for a very talented designer from Echo Park named Rami Kashou who is an acquaintance of mine and who I've taked to, at length, about his work at the various parties and events I've seen him at over the last few years. Saw him last month at a birthday party for a mutual friend and tried to squeeze some info out of him about the new season but his lips were sealed with Super Glue! Well, they might as well of been.
The only quote I got out of him other than "I can't talk about the show" was what I got off the show's Web site: "I think 'Project Runway' will introduce my work to a bigger audience."
Rami's got a really interesting backstory story which I remember him telling me over brunch once. He was born in Ramallah on the West Bank before coming to California as a young man and attending Brooks College. But he left after a few months to go about it on his own.
He worked in retail including traveling to Europe as a buyer. He kept studying pattern, bought two sewing machines and began to create a collection that was picked up by various notable Los Angeles boutiques. He has dressed celebrities such as Jessica Alba, Fergie, Tyra Banks, Amy Smart, Erykah Badu, Lucy Lui, Tracee Ellis Ross, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Penelope Cruz and Shiva Rose.
His designs have been seen on the pages of In Style, Flaunt, Vogue, Lucky, Elle, Angelino, Interview, People and Us Weekly. Rami was also commissioned to design the costumes for the March 2005 America's Next Top Model add campaign for billboards across the nation.
And the winner is...
If you're 19 and you tongue a male friend and take nude pics of yourself with a cellphone does that make you gay? Or Bi?
Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Jiri Tlusty insists that it does not. Once the pictures surfaced online (they always do), the player told a Canadian gossip site that published the photos that "I am not gay or bi nothing."
He released a more formal statement on Tuesday: "I used poor judgment in this instance last season and I have learned a valuable lesson. It will not happen again and I have no further comment."
John Ferguson, general manager of the team, also issued a statement saying that Tuisty "made a naive mistake as a teenager. It's a lesson in how something private can easily become very public in the Internet age. Hopefully it's a lesson that other people will learn from as well."
The lesson? New media means anything you do can wind up in cyberspace so be careful!
Apparently, Guytv.com has some kind of obsession with Tuc Watkins body. I just don't get it. Ha!
They just keep choosing friom the cast of "Ocean's 13." George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Clooney again, Pitt again. Who's next? Carl Reiner? Hard to quibble with the selection of Damon though with the year he's had and how good he was in "Bourne Ultimatum." He seems like a good guy handles his stardom well and not only looks good, but can act too. "You've given an aging suburban dad the ego-boost of a lifetime," Damon, 37, told PEOPLE, explaining why he couldn't possibly accept the crown. The mag says that perfectly demonstrates many of the reasons we chose him in the first place: irresistible sense of humor, rock solid family man, heart-melting humility.
Here are a few other hotties chosen as runners-up...
Dave Annable from "Brothers & Sisters." Is he adorable or WHAT?
Ryan Reynolds...who really SHOULD have made the cover don't you think?
And then there is Shemar Moore...no complaints here!
Ellen DeGeneres, under fire from the Writers Guild of America for continuing to tape her talk show, will not be taping episodes of the show next week in New York as previously planned.
This comes days after WGA, East released a statement criticizing Ellen and saying she was not welcome in the Big Apple.
Writers Guild of America East president Michael Winship told Broadcasting & Cable magazine that his organization is “delighted” that Ellen DeGeneres has cancelled show tapings in New York City scheduled for November 19 and 20.
"She knows that the Writers Guild East would have been there to protest her lack of solidarity, not only with her Guild writing staff but all the striking members of the Writers Guild, of which she is a member. We will be even more delighted if she does not cross the Guild picket lines at the NBC Studios in Burbank, where her show usually is produced."
Ellen has said her show is syndicated making her contractually bound to produce the program for local stations across the country. Other syndicated shows, including "Oprah" and "The View" also continue production without writers.
Poor Ellen. First Iggy, now this!
We all know that plenty of gay men have some of the Peter Pan syndrome of never wanting to grow up. I've been afflicted with it from time to time if truth be told. But hey, I don't chain people up to the wall - not even if they wanted me to.
But 47-year-old Boy George allegedly does. He was charged this week with false imprisonment after allegedly chaining a male escort to a wall in his flat as a sex slave. Out on bail, George is scheduled to appear in court next Thursday.
Auden Carlsen, a 28-year-old Norwegian escort, claims he was grabbed and chained up by George and another man after the singer invited him back to his home in Shoreditch, east London, to pose for photographs in April. Instead, the former lead singer of Culture Club allegedly produced whips and sex toys and said: "Now you'll get what you deserve." Carlsen musta been wondering, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" (Sorry, could not resist). He told police he escaped after wrenching a hook out of the wall.
This is far from George's first brush with the law: Last year, he was sentenced to community service and ordered to sweep the streets of New York City after he admitted wasting police time by falsely reporting a burglary at his Manhattan apartment. Officers who responded to the call found cocaine there.
Like I said, time to GROW UP!
I'm curious to know what really happened between Rosie and MSNBC. If negotiations did in fact break down because Rosie blabbed about it a little, then I think someone at MSNBC should be given their walking papers. Rosie would've brought boffo ratings and elevated their entire slate of shows.
So Rosie, ever resourceful and never one to be quieted (thank God) wants to do some kind of show on her own Web site which is sure to keep her in the headlines on a regular basis.
"So I'm going to figure out a way to do a show out here in my blogville," she revealed in a recent post. "I really think it's the next way, anyway. Who the hell wants to work with a company with three letters that's just going to get mad if you tell people what you're doing? I don't know."
"I'm too old," she said of whole secret deal approach. "When you're young you can do those things."
Rosie, you're really not that old. But maybe these MSNBC suits are.
People magazine is at the top of my list this week.
First, they feature a gay man as their sexpot of the week and also in the pages of this issue is the tragic story of Mary Lou Wallner (pictured with husband, Bob) who rejected her lesbian daughter then lost her to suicide. I'm familiar with Wallner's story because it is one of those featured on the fine documentary
"For the Bible Tells Me So" which screened at Outfest this year. It's a movie I think can help to reconcile a lot of gays and lesbians with their Christian parents.
When Wallner's daughter, Anna, came out to her mother via letter in 1988, she reponded with a letter of her own which said: "I will never accept that in you. I will continue to love you, but I will always hate that."
She had her church pray for Anna, took her daughter to counseling, cried the first time she saw her daughter with a girlfriend. By 1996, Anna began to pull away and wrote another letter stating that "she didn't want anything to do with me, that I had done colossal damange to her soul with my shaming words."
Six months passed with no communication. Then Wallner learned that her daughter had killed herself.
It was then that she began to read books on homosexuality and really started studying the Bible: "In the end, I found myself far away from the safe place I'd been all my life. I wound up on my knees praying, "God are you sure you want me to change my mind?" And I had an epiphany: This is not a sin. These people are just like we are; they want the same things we do."
God bless Wallner for not keeping that epiphany to herself. She has gone to rallies and conferences and told her story and six years ago, founded TEACH Ministries. It stands for "To Educate About the Consequences of Homophobia."
She tells the magazine: "If we can save one life, it will be worth it."
Nooooooo!
My favorite dancing hunk, Cameron Mathison, was eliminated from "Dancing With the Stars." I guess showing all that skin only works up to a point! But Camerson, who traveled from L.A. to New York to tape "All My Children," gave it his all and after he was voted off, said it was the best thing he'd ever done and that now, he feels "like I can do anything." The video montage they aired showed his terrific progression over the weeks and he seems like a hunk with a heart and soul.
"Not one single bit of me wanted to go home," Cameron said, telling partner Edyta Sliwinska that he "can't believe" the progress he's made.
Meanwhile, Marie Osmond made it to the semifinals! My sister and I were gabbing this morning and we get so into it. She said: "The judges were so mean to Marie last night. I called and voted for her after that." She wasn't the only one. This showbiz trouper, who lost he dad last week, brings such a joy to the show and I'm glad to see that "Dancing With the Stars" has brought her back into the public eye in a big way. I'm rooting for Marie to make the final three and figure the next to go will either be her or Jennie Garth but hey, ya never know...
I took People magazine to task earlier this year for not including more gay men in its annual hottest bachelor's issue. They took a nice step toward more inclusiveness (and common sense) in their current issue with the selection of movie producer Perry Moore ("The Chronicles of Narnia) as sexy man of the week. I was flipping through my copy of the magazine over the weekend, saw this hot, blonde guy posing with a surfboard and assumed he was straight.
So, I start to read and my eyebrow goes up when the piece states that he has just written his first novel, "Hero," about a gay teen superhero.
Hmmm.
The first item made things clear. Perry was asked to describe his seduction secret: "Because I had such trouble coming to terms with being gay, it's just being myself. Don't play any games. Then you'll meet someone who loves you for who you are, and you'll love him for who he is."
Perry said he would "love to see two guys meet in the surfing line-up. You're all out there where the waves are breaking, waiting to catch one. Late in the day, you've caught a lot of great rides, the sun is setting, and you have someone to share that with."
The producer/author has been partnered for 13 years and was also asked what the perfect recipe for romance is: "Good waves. Good wine. Great new wave music. A little bit of dancing. A little bit of dancing. Writing 10 great pages. And collapsing into the arms of the one you love."
How to keep love alive: "Laughter first. Then, knowing that no bad moments lasts forever, but love can."
This guy is so sweet!!!
The top eight men's players in the world are playing in the year-end championships this week in China. OhLaLa blog has been keeping tabs and posted these sexy pics earlier today. Hottie Rafael Nadal;s bulging biceps were not enough to save him from defeat at the hands of David Ferrer.
Below we have Novak Djokovic, a fave of this blog, being consoled by Richard Gasquet who beat him today. It looks like they want to just start making out right there doesn't it? OK, maybe it's my over-active imagination!
And finally, the king: Mr. Roger Federer receive yet another honor as the winner of the men's tour point race for 2007. My friend Henry must be so pleased. I am too. Roger Federer is too cool for school.
It's Whoopi Goldberg's 52nd birthday today and she celebrated on "The View" this morning with a cake sent from Aretha Franklin and Marc Coen sang his "Walking In Memphis" for her. Bill O'Reilly was a guest on the show (what kind of a birthday present is THAT?) and presented Whoopi with a beautiful bouquet that I figure have been tossed out in the alley by now.
Anywho, Whoopi, what a gal.
We see her on the show everyday being just one of the girls and it's easy to forget how accomplished this woman is. She's conquered Broadway, was nominated for the best actress Oscar for "The Color Purple" and won a few years later for "Ghost." (Fave line: "Molly, yer in danger, girl."). She's hosted the Oscars twice, had mega box office hits with "Sister Act" and "Sister Act 2," given wonderful performances in "Clara's Heart," "
The Long Walk Home," "How Stella Got her Grrove Back" and "Ghosts of Mississippi" and was such a cool lesbian in "Boys on the Side." I loved when she sang "You Got it" to Mary Louise Parker.
So what if her two sitcoms tanked or if her talk show only lasted one season. She is an icon forever for so many reasons, including her role on "Star Treck: The Next Generation."
The thing about Whoopi is that she is a resourceful, multi-talented and intelligent woman who will always find something interesting and relevant to do.
Happy birthday, Whoopi.
Hey, at least she's not 200 years old like her character, Grace, on "Dante's Cove."
Tracy is probably the best part of that fun show with her delicious line readings and the glamour she brings to the screen. How great to see her in such great form all these years after the "Dynasty" spin-off "The Colbys" in the mid-80s.
Happy birthday!
Watched Cameron Mathison do the Cha-Cha-Cha on tonight's "Dancing With the Stars" and while he did a solid job, it is clear that this soap hunk has secret weapons his competitoprs do not have: mainly, a killer body. The snug slacks and vest (no shirt) he wore tonight got him an extra million votes I am sure. I just love his tenacity - he's like the Ian Ziering of this season only hotter!
I'm enjoying this season of the show and love seeing Marie Osmond and Jennie Garth do so well. But I think Cameron has the edge over these two lovely ladies to make it to the final.
After she helped announce the nominations for the People's Choice Awards last Thursday, I had a little chat with Paula Abdul but with all the blog problems last week, forgot to post it. Sorry. Also, I should have it figured out by tomorrow why comments have not been posting.
Thank you for your patience!
Anyway, the folks from A Socialite's Life snapped this picture of me talking to Paula who I had never met and who is just the tiniest thing. I could just pick her up and put her in my pocket but I don;t think she would've liked that.
We talked about the upcoming season of "American Idol," which has launched the careers of such superstars as Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson and Chris Daughtry. When the new season of the monster hit debuts in January, Paula thinks yet another star will emerge.
"I think we can expect the best season so far; I honestly feel that. I'm not just saying that - I didn't say that last season," she insisted. "But I do believe that we have an amazing season coming up, very interesting contestants coming up, great back stories, really great singers, and adorable! Really, really cute."
She had watched the Country Music Awards the night before and was quite excited to see former "Idol" champ Underwood win big again and is looking forward to having Melinda Doolittle release a CD.
"I'm so excited for her because, you know what? She's one of the most talented singers, and everyone knew that last season. All I want for her is to just go out there and live her dream. As long as she's out there singing, for her she's doing God's work."
And as far as the other winners and finalists from seasons past, Paula feels like a mentor whose young charges have made her so proud.
"It's fantastic to see Elliott Yamin do fantastic, to see Daughtry, to see Kellie Pickler, everyone's doing their thing, Taylor Hicks is touring. It's all part of the process and I love the fact that our show single-handedly really does change these kids' lives and launches solid careers for them."
Jill Bennett admits that she's the second actress to play Michelle on "Dante's Cove" but she makes me promise to "not tell anyone! It's our secret."
Jill replaced Erin Cummings who played Michelle during the second season of the show. I gotta know, does that make her feel like the second Darrin on "Bewitched" or the other Becky on "Roseanne"?
"I do a little bit!," she admits. "I actually said when we were filming that we needed to acknowledge the fact that I'm a completely different person here and so we did a little bit in the first episode."
Her character is not just played by a different actress, but she has gone from passive victim to a ferocious killer.
"She's a lot different," Jill says. "There's a little bit more darkness in her now - a lot more darkness in her now which is why I think it was OK that we did the switcheroo with the actresses. Erin is a fantastic actress and just totally different and it just worked out."
Jill, 32, is probably best known for her role in the film "In Her Line of Fire" with Mariel Hemingway but what I did not know was that orignally cast in "Dante's Cove" in another role.
"I was in the orignal pilot. I actually played Grace, who Tracy [Scoggins] now plays," she says. "You never saw that version. It would have been a very different show. But now it's all how it should be. She brings the right sensibility, a little more tongue-in-cheek than I think I played it. She had the right temperature for Grace."
She's currently filming the feature "And Then Came Lola" and a webisode series and also appeared in the film "Exes and Oh's" which premiered at the Hollywood Film Festival and in "Out at the Wedding."
"And I play gay in all of them!"
So I ask Jill if she is gay because I seem to be the last remaining person on the planet who did not know. I loved her answer: "Very gay. I'm completely gay! You didn't know I was gay? Oh my God! I'm so gay, I'm 100 percent lesbian. That's why I love the here! network and feel very supported."
Elisabeth Hasselbeck, just three days after giving birth to a son, called in to "The View" this morning to talk to the ladies about the blessed event. She said she will return to the show Jan. 6 and Whoopi promised to being her "a pump."
Sherri Shepherd asked Elisabeth how she was "liking the boobies." Hasselbeck said: "The chest is huge. Everytime I look at them, I think of you." After the pleasant chit-chat, Joy Behar mentioned that the show had "brought on another right-wing blonde."
She was Laura Ingraham, the conversative radio host and author. Here's where I realized why Elisabeth annoys me so much. She and Ingraham and her probably have the exact same views, but Ingraham discussed them as if they were her own, not like she was spouting someone else's rhetoric or trying to get invited to a White House state dinner to meet the Queen of England.
Things got lively during the show which was a full hour of "Hot Topics" and no guests. Ingraham went on and on about the culture etc. and she and Whoopi locked horns a bit. But you sensed it was two intelligent women who were up to the task. I didn't mind it so much at all and ideas were debated with a minimum of emotion but certainly with passion.
It was one of the better segments the show had had in awhile. I gotta add though, the studio audience - which goes nuts if they find out they are gonna get ANY kind of free gift - seemed less than thrilled when they were told they would all be getting a copy.
My guess is that a lot of 'em left them under their seats!
God bless America.
I spent several hours yesterday purging my shelves of old VHS tapes that I once thought I could never live without but now can't stand even looking at! Those big, bulky things, taking up so much storage space, But one tape I did keep was a copy of "Get Bruce!" - a funny, star-studded documentary about Bruce Vilanch who not only is a very funny performer, but a terrific writer who has been writing material for the Academy Awards for many years.
Here are some photos sent to me today of some creative signs naughty Bruce has come up with to bring a little levity to the increasingly bitter strike...
When I was surfing the next in search of some pics of Tuc Watkins to post with interview with him, found this very visually pleasing collage of him in a scene with Vicki Buchanan, played by five-time Emmy winner Erika Slezack.
Enjoy!
Wow.
The intervention the Walker family staged for Justin not only succeeded in getting Justin to quit and suffer through withdrawls, but it also brought the family under one roof where confrontations took place and secrets were shared.
The biggest secret came from a tormented Saul who by the end of episode, came out to his sister, Nora: "You don't have to know everything Nora, well all have secrets," he began. "There's nothing wrong with me physically - it's just hard...I'm not who you think I am...I was in love with a man."
Nora is shocked, didn't see it coming, but tells her brother: "Why didn't you tell me? You should have told me. You should have told me a long time ago."
Earlier, Kevin and Saul kept going at each other with the nephew badgering the uncle a bit about being a closet case. Finally, Saul says: "You may have grown up in a world where men hold hands in public, but at the end of the day, you are one of the loneliest people I have ever met."
Harsh.
Later, Kevin confronts Tommy over having an affair with Lena and a defensive Tommy turns it right back on Kevin asking: "Did you tell Jason and your and Scotty's little slumber party?"
Kevin: Are you sleeping with Lena?
Tommy: The question is, are you sleeping with Scotty?
Kevin then admits that Jason has not returned his calls in some time: "I never talk to him...he's not a saint just because he's a minister."
Kevin: "You wanna know why I'm letting Scotty stay with me?
Tommy: "He's cute?"
Kevin: "Yeah, and I'm lonely."
Later, when an exhausted Kevin gets home, Scotty has left a sweet note and some food for him. Kevin smiles. I think the minister better get home quick! Or not. We like Kevin and Scotty together!
Here are some scenes from this very good episode:
The absolute funniest part of last week's episode of "Desperate Housewives" was when Danielle Van De Kamp (Joy Lauren) showed up to Bob and Lee's Halloween party dressed...as her mother, Bree! Bree (Marcia Cross) is pretending to be pregnant, Danielle really is. So guests assumed it was Danielle with the padded belly...then her water broke! I love the delivery scene with Andrew dressed as Cher and the doctor dressed as Frankenstein.
It was pure comedic genius!
"It was so much fun, it was so much fun," Joy told me when we gabbed a few days ago at the party for the People's Choice Award nominations. "That whole Halloween scene was so big that we shot all week so I was in the red wig and the heels and the pearls and the belly all week and it was really such a blast."
Who knew she had such comic chops? I got her to repeat my favorite line of hers from the episode when someone asks her what the name of her child will be and she answers as Bree: "You're not good enough if it's a boy and you'll always disappoint me if its a girl."
We crack up after she says it again.
Last we saw Dannielle, she was packing her bags and leaving her baby behind for Bree to raise. Will she be back?
"Wisteria Lane has a certain draw, you can't stay away for two long so hopefully I'll be back soon."
What's it really like to work with Marcia Cross?
"She's very different from Bree. She's very warm. I feel like Bree is very cold and straight. Marcia is very warm and fluid, graceful and nice and giving. The only similarities I can see between her and Bree is she's very specific and professional when it comes to acting."
Do you miss the Applewhites?
"I do! But we have really good new characters like Tuc [Watkins]."
Does she ever want Danielle to just get to act together, stand up and fly right?
"It's really fun to play the bad gikrl and a good outlet. I don't get to do that in my everyday life. I don't get to throw plates against walls, I don't get to have babies while I'm dressed as my mom, I get to experience all these things I normally wouldn't. But whle it's really fun to play the bad girl, I think Danielle has been too mean for too long."
All Ellen DeGeneres wants to do is make people laugh.
Is that so wrong?
The multi-Emmy winner has continued to tape her daytime show without her writing staff which is on strike and their union are none too happy about it. The Writers Guild of America, East, is slamming Ellen and here is part of the statement they have released:
"...The Writers Guild of America, East is extremely disappointed to see that Ellen has chosen not to stand with writers during the strike. Ellen's peers who host comedy/variety shows have chosen to support the writers and help them get a fair contract, Ellen has not. On her first show back, Ellen said she loves and supports her writers, but her actions prove otherwise....We find it sad that Ellen spent an entire week crying and fighting for a dog that she gave away, yet she couldn't even stand by writers for more than one day - writers who have helped make her extremely successful...We ask Ellen to cease doing shows immediately. She should stand by all writers and help us bring this strike to a quick conclusion. We owe that to the thousands of people who are caught in the middle."
Harsh!!!
Elisabeth Hasselbeck, conservative co-host of "The View," has given birth to a little Republican! I wonder if Rosie will send flowers?
I don't like virtually any of her views, but I'm happy her baby was born healthy. Elisabeth and her pro football playing hubby Tim Hasselbeck the proud parents of a boy who came in weighing 7 pounds, 15 ounces. He was born in Arizona where the couple moived last month when Tim began playing for the Arizona Cardinals.
"We're thrilled he arrived safely," Tim said in a statement. "Both mom and son are happy and healthy."
We won't find out the name of the boy until Monday when Elisabeth calls into "The View" to announce it. What a November ratings sweep stunt! Their daughter, 2, is named Grace.
Congratulations to the Hasselbeck family!
The last time I was face-to-face with Tuc Watkins was at El Mirasol restaurant in Palm Springs. My friend James and I were having lunch and noticed Tuc with a group. On our way out, we went over to say hello and James snapped a photo of Tuc and I with his cellphone. I never bothered to download the picture to a file so when the phone broke, the picture of Tuc and I was lost forever. I told him about this when we talked the other night at a party celebrating the People's Choice Award nominations.
Tuc: "I broke your camera?"
Me: "No you didn't. I dropped it later.
Tuc: "You took a picture with me and your camera broke?
Uh boy, this whole day has been a blogging nightmare with our new, "improved" system giving us fits!
OK, let's hope this posts: Lance Bass interview with HX magazine and he talks about his old, crazy pal Britney Spears. He was asked if he ever says to himself, 'Oh, Britney."
Lance: [Laughs] Yeah. I think that’s just the typical thing to say every day when you wake up and read AOL news page. You have to admit it’s entertaining. I always hope she’s just doing it as a joke and we’re all going to be Punk’d in a couple of years—like, “You know all that stuff I did, it was all a joke!” I think she’s been doing this documentary for years, where she’s like, “Today I’m going to shave my head and see if they buy it!”
OK, now a Reichen-related item. I guess Lance's ex, Reichen Lemkuhl is noe too pleased with this comment Lance made to GQ magazine about him: In the interview, the ex ‘NSYNC-er claims Reichen cheated on him, adding: “I thought, ‘Why does everyone hate him?” At the end, I was like, ‘Ok, everyone was right.’”
Apparently Reichen is threatening legal action.
Well, what a night.
I was at Area in West Hollywood for a party celebrating the People's Choice Award nominations. I think I was only cleared for the press line to do red carpet interviews but I did manage to get into the party where I had a diet coke and gabbed with various publicists.
Saw the handsome Brian Howe of "Journeyman" as I walked in and Shawn Pyfrom of "Desperate Housewives." Tuc Watkins of "Desperate Housewives" and "One Life to Live" and the late, great "Beggars and Choosers" was there too but I didn't need to stalk him because we had a good gab outside and I will share that with you over the weekend.
Other stars I talked with included Paula Abdul, A.J. Cook ("Criminal Minds"), Joy Lauren (Bree's daughter, Danielle, on "Desperate Housewives," the very nice Gretchen Egolf of "Journeyman," the ridiculously handsome Carter Oosterhouse, formerly of "Trading Spaces" and now host of "Carter Can." Also talked to one of the surgeons on "Dr. 90210" - not the main guy, but one of the members of the team and I asked him which celebrities he thought had really bad plastic surgery. He wouldn't bite. Then, noticing that his forehead had not moved the entire time, I asked if he had botox injected in there. He wouldn't answer. I asked him to act surprised! He couldn't. Before hurrying away from me, he said that his forehead "has been known to move."
Not tonight, pal.
As part of the print/online press, you are often placed at the end of these long press lines so sometimes the celebs are just plain tired of answering questions! That's why Scott Foley bailed out without talking to me, ditto Ryan Seacrest. I skipped out on the whole Kardashian clan because I don't even want to go there. All I know is Bruce Jenner is their stepdad and he wasn't there so be on your way. Spotted the cast of "Carpoolers" including Jerry O'Connell and Faith Ford but didn't want to wait to interview them and also skipped on Jason Biggs for no particular reason.
OK, so the reason for the party was the announcement of the People's Choice Award nominations - in 38 categories! Good grief! No way to go over them all but you can go to DailyNews.com to see the complete list. But here are some categories I care about:
Favorite Leading Lady: Jessica Alba, Drew Barrymore, Queen Latifah
My pick: Latifah is my queen! i love that she is nominated. Alba leaves me cold.
Favorite Female Action Star: Jessica Alba, Jodie Foster, Keira Knightley.
My pick: Jodie Foster, duh!
Favorite Male Movie Star: Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis
My pick: Denzel, Denzel, Denzel
Favorite Male Action Star: Matt Damon,Johnny Depp, Bruce Willis
My pick: Hands down: Matt Damon
Favorite Female TV Star: Sally Field, Katherine Heigl, Jennifer Love Hewitt
My pick: The best actress working in television today: two-time Oscar winner and three-time Emmy winner Sally Field.
Favorite Male TV Star: Patrick Dempsey, Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland
My pick: McDreamy. He really is. But Kiefer could use a win because I like him tons and he's had some tough times lately.
Favorite Scene Stealing Star: Richard Belzer from "Law & Order: SVU," Neil Patrick Harris from "How I Met Your Mother" and Chandra Wilson from "Grey's Anatomy"
My pick: Love Chandra. But NPH as Barney is a revelation and the very best part of the show.
Favorite Funny Female Star: Ellen DeGeneres, Whoopi Goldberg, Wanda Sykes
My pick: I can't. They are all great, all so funny and so smart. But if I were to admit who makes me laugh the hardest, it would be Wanda.
Favorite Group: Daughtry, Maroon 5, Rascal Flatts
My pick: Is it shallow to pick Maroon 5 because Adam Levine is so beautiful? It is? OK: Maroon 5.
Well, well.
Here is yet another reason to watch "Nip/Tuck" as if Julian McMahon and Dylan Walsh and the new lesbian storyline between Joely Richardson and Portia de Rossi weren't enough of a lure. Now we have the addition of the very beautiful Bradley Cooper who plays an actor playing a plastic surgery on a TV show. He's a prima donna who considers himself a real actor and not just a big stud. So in this YopuTube clip, you can see what his real assets are. My favorite line of his is this: "How come I'm the only one in my goddam underwear?"
Tommy Haas, a top 10 tennis pro with movie star looks, thought he had a stomach virus when he fell ill in Moscow in September during a Davis Cup semifinal between Germany and Russia. Russia went on to win and faces the U.S. in the final at the end of the month in Portland, Ore.
The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that Haas, Germany's top player, may have been poisoned during the Moscow match!
Tommy, who has been in Rio de Janeiro for commercial commitments, says he still feels unwell six weeks after the incident. He was due to fly to New York today for more medical testing.
Haas told the German newspaper Bild: "I'm shocked that something like that appears possible. When I think of how bad I felt, I can imagine it. . . I was the only one ever to order dessert or a latte macchiato after dinner. If all this is true, since no one else got sick, that must have been when it happened."
Stay tuned!!!
Don't ya just love crabby Mrs. McKlusky on "Desperate Housewives"?
She is, a hoot!
So last week, when I ran into the actress who won and Emmy playing her, I had to have a chat. She's Kathryn Joosten and she didn't become a professional actress until 20 years ago when she was in her early 40s - a recent divorcee with two kids. She started with theater in Chicago and her first full-time job was as a street performer at Disney World. She came to L.A. in 1995 and within her first few weeks, landed a small guest spot on "Family Matters. But she really hit paydirt when she was cast as Mrs. Landingham, secretary to the President (Martin Sheen), on "The West Wing" in 1999.
Here is our conversation:
Greg: You're so funny. I love you on that show.
Kathryn"I love me on that show.
Greg: That line you said to Bree (Marcia Cross) about her husband having his hand on the knob...
Kathryn: "Your son has bolted out of the closet and your husband's reaching for the door knob (laughs).
Greg: I watch every episode and I think this season is terrific.
Kathryn: I think it's really rolling really good and we've got some real surprises coming up, we've been working overtime doing this particular big surprise. It's a two-parter. I'm intergal. Very much so.
Greg: When you started on this, that first episode when you were the neighbor who had the fight with Lynette. Did you think it would turn into this? Wasn't it supposed to be a one-time deal?
Kathryn: I never thought it would grow into the character that it's grown into. I've been very lucky. Frankly, I was replacing another actress who had the part and was having some mobility problems. So I came in and did it. I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if...' and, it did.
Greg: Was it because you and Felicity Huffman were so good together?
Kathryn: I'd like to think it was because I was so good!
Greg: You two did have such chemistry together and then you won the Emmy. That's always nice.
Kathryn: Yes. It was a nice scene that I had with the boys.
Greg: Where do you keep that Emmy?
Kathryn: I keep my Emmy on a bookshelf. My joke at home is, 'What's an Emmy good for? A door stop. I thought, 'Emmy! I'll get offered parts, i won't have to audition. That didn't happen. I've gotta go down to Manhattan Beach tomorrow at 4 p.m. for an audition for 'Medium." Friday afternoon at 4 o'clock. i might as well take a picnic lunch and stay over."
Greg: This is the life of a working actress as you've been for awhile.
Kathryn: For awhile, yeah. For 22 years now.
Greg: This is your most high-profile role. What's it like to have something like that come along after 20 years?
Kathryn: It's overnight success! (laughs). It's great. It's really great. I enjoy it so much. I get a kick out of it. I got nothing to lose now. I got my pension so anything that happens is just golden.
Greg: I still can't believe that episode last season when we found out you had your dead husband in the freezer! I thought, 'How is she gonna explain her way outa this?'
Kathryn: (laughs) You notice I only spent one night in jail. It wasn't having him in the freezer that was illegal, but I stole his pension for I don't know how long. But we tend to gloss over those little things you know.
Greg: Are you a fan of the show? Do you like to watch it?
Kathryn: Yeah! I do because the episodes I'm not in, I don't know what happens because I'm not at the table read and they don't just send me a script to be nice. So I have to watch it to find out what happened.
Greg: When you're around town, do people say, 'It's Mrs. McKlusky!"
Kathryn: Absolutely. I get a lot of that. Fans are great. They're very nice and it's very satisfying.
Greg: What about the new neighbors, the gay couple played by Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm.
Kathryn: Aren't they fun? I said, 'What's my attitude gonna be? and they haven't decided yet."
Greg: What about Dana Delaney?
Kathryn: She's fun to be around. What a character. What a fun character. Everytime you turn around, they throw somebody else into the stew and it's just great fun dealing with. In addition to this great two-parter, how do I phrase this? We're going to have some interesting cast changes. It's gonna be November sweeps.
I. Can't. Wait.
It takes one heck of an actor to be able to portray a serial killer on television each week and still have the audience rooting for him not to get caught. But that's what Michael C. Hall manages to do each week on the Showtime series "Dexter," a show that I found out last night will be returning for a third season next year.
Hall took on the role following the end of his five-year run on HBO's acclaimed "Six Feet Under" where he played David Fisher, a gay man dealing with his partner and running a funeral home with his brother.
'Six Feet Under' ended and I thought, 'Well, that's it for TV. I'd been spoiled rotten and lightning doesn't strike twice," he said. "The last thing I thought I'd do was another television series. I feel like I left David behind by nature of the way 'Six Feet Under' ended where we all got to simulate our own deaths."
When we talked last night, was a bit jet-lagged after flying in from a film set in Australia for an Academy of Television Arts and Sciences event where most of the cast gathered for a screening of an upcoming episode and a discussion after.
I didn't mention the irony of interviewing Michael at the Academy headquarters in North Hollywood (and his appearance on the cover of Emmy Magazine) given that he was snubbed for a much-deserved Emmy nomination this year. Not only should he have been nominated, but he should have won!
I wondered if it's been tougher to play Dexter this season now that the show has moved beyond establishing his character and has him juggling his duel roles as serial killer (he only kills bad guys!) and forensics specialist for law enforcement in Miami in addition to personal issues galore.
"It's all been a challenge and one that I've welcomed as an actor," he said. "I think some of the twists and turns that the character has taken this season have presented new challenges for me because as he experiences himself in more what could be called human ways, it's my responsibility to honor the fact that he does remain, fundamentally, sociopathic or compelled to kill. So yeah, that's tricky. It's not boring, thankfully."
Last season, we learned that Dexter and his brother has watched as their mother was murdered. He had buried the memory of the mother and of the brother. But when a rival serial killer begins taunting him, it is discovered that he is his brother. While Dexter kills evil folks, the brother killed more for sport and his arrival put Dexter through an emotional ringer that penetrated his carefully constructed emotional walls.
"I think the show is moving forward and evolving. I think the second season really honors the gaping wound that Dexter is carrying around after he lost his brother, a person he never imagined could even exist and he's reeling a bit in a way that he's not even consciously aware of. I think the storyline of the second season honors that reeling and honors the vulnerability that sort of goes along with that. His susceptibility to certain things is exploited in certain ways and he's really on a road to a kind of recovery from that trauma."
And we thought life was complicated when he had to deal with Kieth on "Six Feet Under"!!!
Sorry for the slow trickle of posts so far today. But in a bit, I will have an interview I did last night with Michael C. Hall who, of course, we love from his years as David on "Six Feet Under" but who has created an even more indelible role as a serial killer on Showtime's "Dexter."
I'm still reeling from the MSNBC deal falling apart. C'mon, work it out!
Anyway, I do have a second Rosie item today involving former president Bill Clinton. It seems that Ro is still haboring a grudge against the probable future first hubby over the Monica Lewinsky. Rosie had gone on a rant about Clinton at a casino performance saying: "He disgusts me. And I know I'm not supposed to say this because I'm a good Democrat, but I didn't want to [talk] to him because he lied to me when he said, 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman,' and then put the scarlet-letter [bleep]-job on her for the rest of her life . . . I still hate you!"
Rosie did not know that Clinton was in the audience that night.
She told the audience at the New York Comedy Festival this week that Clinton reached out to her with a note with his phone number.
"My knees got weak. I was like, 'Can I [bleep] you?' No, I didn't say it, but I felt it - I was like, 'Whoa! Whoa!' And he said, 'I was at your show the other night, and I was sorry that you didn't come over and say hello to me. And I know that you're still harboring some hard feelings. And I said, 'You know, listen, here's the deal, dude. I've been disappointed by men my whole life. I loved JFK, my mother loved JFK, and you were the JFK to me. And you let me down, man. You killed me and that hurt me a lot, and when you hurt me, I don't know, I didn't expect that out of you and I thought you could do better for your wife, for the country and just in general."
Clinton reduced Ro to tears when he said: 'I'm sorry for all the men who ever hurt you, I'm sorry that I hurt you. Everything you've said to me, I've said to myself, and I hope one day you can forgive me, and I hope I can forgive me.'"
These are the kinds of delish things we would hear on a daily talk show!
This is lame.
Let me just say that MSNBC would have been looked at as geniuses if they had been able to snag Rosie O'Donnell for a show on their cable network because it would have broadened their audience and brought them a real water cooler buzz.
I've just read that the deal is now dead because Rosie talked about it during a stand-up routine. Good grief, it's not like she was spitting out numbers and other secrets about negotiations. But this was too much for these execs as Rosie wrote in her blog (in verse, of course):
we were close to a deal
almost done
i let it slip in miami
causing panic on the studio end
well
what can u do
2day there is no deal
poof
my career as a pundit is over
b4 it began
It's not as if she wasn't warned.
Rosie nsists she isn't bitter, noting "everything happens for a reason."
But I am! I want her back on TV!
Luke wasn't any more agreeable than he was yesterday but what changed was that Noah stood up to him and made some sense. Luke felt that his inability to walk would never change but Noah told him that anything was possible: "I couldn't admit that I was gay, that I cared about another guy. Things change Luke. I'm living proof of that."
Luke: "Do you have any idea how mad I am? This whole summer - even before you came - I felt like my life was finally gonna get started - anything was possible. I don't feel that way now...If you stay with me, it's all gonna be closed doors and even if they're open, my chair won't fit through them."
Noah is having none of it and finally says, "Snyder! You're full of it."
This seems to jolt Luke out of pity party mode and he stands!
It's a start.
Here are today's scenes:
Cameron Mathison is such a stud and I am rooting for him to make the final three on "Dancing With the Stars" which I think he very well can do. I love his energy and commitment to his dancing which he has to perfect between flying back to New York to film scenes for "All My Children" Mostly, I love the outfits he wears that show off his terrific torso.
Good luck Cameron!
p.s. thanks to those who pointed out that I incorrectly stated that Cameron was on "One Life to Live." I musta been daydreaming about Tuc Watkins at the same time!
One of my favorite gay movies - ever - has a theatrical sceening in LA tonight at The Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Since the movie is coming out on DVD next month, I understand this is the last chance to see it in a theater with a buncha gay people. The movie starts at 7:30 pm and the theater is located at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard
So if yer in LA..GO!
Here is a wonderful trailer that will make you want more, I promise:
Just finished a conference call interview with Ellen DeGeneres for a story I'm writing on her upcoming TBS variety special that will air Nov. 19. We were warned right up front by a cable flak: "No personal questions!"
As if Ellen, whose life is something of an open book, would care.
"I think I am exactly who I am," Ellen said when asked if her stand-up persona differs from her. "I have nothing to hide, nothing to worry about. My humor is raw, and it's honest."
When it came time for my questions, I wanted to know if her triumph as host the 2001 Emmys, not too long after 9/11, was a breakthrough for her as far as being able to go from being a sitcom star to a host. I reminded her of the wild standing ovation she received when she walked out to say goodnight and to introduce Barbra Streisand who closed the show by singing "You'll Never Walk Alone."
"I thought they were clapping for Barbra Streisand, that she had walked out early."
Nope, it was all for her.
"It was a difficult line to walk (hosting that Emmys) and I think I gained some confidence once I carried it off. It put me in a place where I trusted that I could be myself and it would be OK."
More of my interview with Ellen has been posted on my HOLLYWOOD JOE blog.
Tony Plana knows that having the opportunity to play the patriarch of a Latino family on a hit prime-time show is nothing short of a miracle.
But that’s what he gets to do each week on ABC’s “Ugly Betty” when he steps into the role of Ignacio Suarez.
“It feels like an epiphany for me after so many years of struggling and watching Latinos as a group try to penetrate the industry and become an intregal part of it, an included part of it,” Tony told me last week at the Television Academy’s “Hispanics and Television: In Transition” event.
Tony has nearly 140 television and movie credits in a career that has included roles in such films as last year’s “Goal!” as well as “Primal Fear,” “Lone Star” and “Salavador.” But I remember him so fondly from the late, great Showtimes series “Resurrection Blvd” where he also played a widowed family patriarch who was a former boxer and far different from Ignacio. While “Resurrection” only lasted two seasons, “Betty” seems destined for a long run given its popularity with viewers and its critical acclaim.
"The fact that we're starting to see an evolution of Latino characters in television that are almost automatically included now as part of the central world in most series. That's huge," said Tony, who remembers a far different situation not so long ago.
"It was bad. The only time you hired a Latino is when they did the gang show, the drug show or the illegal immigrant show. I believe that ‘Ugly Betty’ has gone a long way towards eradicating these very deeply established stereotypes toward Latinos...It has tackled issues in a very intelligent way and still entertained us. That’s what I think is remarkable about this program.”
At the end of last season, Ignacio was deported to Mexico after it was learned that he had illegally immigrated to the U.S. several decades earlier. He hopes the storyline helped to out a human face on the immigration debate that continues to rage in the U.S.
“If anything, I’m hoping that it illicited some kind of compassion and understanding of the complexity of the human element of this problem and the familial element,” he said. “The season finale seperated this family and kind of puts a knife through the heart of this family. ...The people who were watching, I don’t think will ever be able to be dispassionate or cold or cynical about separating families and what that represents."
It's story acrs like that like which provide what Plana calls "disguised learning" to viewers.
"I believe that's the function of art. Art should make us feel and think about those complexities in our society that are difficult to figure out."
The show has also not shied away from including a transgendered character (Rebecca Romijn's Alex) or a gay character (Michael Urie's Marc) or a possibly gay character in Ignacio's grandson, Justin (Mark Indelicante) who is a fashion and Broadway loving junior high schooler whose personality is embraced by the Suarez family.
"That's huge," Tony says. "Especially for a culture that is predominately macho in its ethos and for a male latino father. That was basically the learning lessons for Ignacio in that first season to go from a being afraid for the kid and wanting to change him to a place of acceptance and support and nurturing, encouragement."
So, is Justin gay?
"He's not sexualized yet, he's a boy. So we can't really be talking about a gay character. What's more important is that he's an artist and he;s extremely sensitive to design, to color, to music to art. So if you have a boy born into your family that is different that way, that is not an athlete or he's got these special gifts, you need to not supress those gifts but support them, encourage them, nurture them, celebrate them. That's the real lesson, I think, of Justin's character. His sexuality will be an issue hopefully in the fourth or fifth season, down the line. And either way, it will be interesting. We could explore the stereotype of the gay. Are they always effeminate? No. There are effeminate gays and there are effeminate straights. It does not define them."
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has a special place in LGBT history when he allowed same-sex couples to get married in his city until the courts stopped him. For the first time in my life, I saw all these images of what could be and those are images that can never be erased no matter what opponents of our equal rights say and do.
Honestly, I don't know what kind of job he's done as mayor of that fabulous city. I know he admitted to a drinking problem and had an affair with the wife of his campaign manager. Not good. But he was easily re-elected to office on Tuesday and I felt happy for him.
"To my critics, this is an opportunity, and in some ways a reconciliation," he said in a victory speech. "I commit to working with you for the next four years, and I commit to resolving those areas where you still believe we can do better."
A few summers ago, I interviewed Newsom at an Outfest screening of a documentary on that period of same-sex marriages and, once you get past him being one of the best looking men on the planet, you could see that his heart was in the right place on the issue.
I'll always be grateful for the courage he had - something none of our leading candidates for president have.
Rosie did nothing to dispell reports that she is negotiating for a nightly talk show to air on MSNBC when she did a stand-up routine at Live at Lincoln Center, an event to kick off the New York Comedy Festival. She let it accidentally on purpose slip that she is "filming for an unidentified TV station, which I was told that I was not allowed to mention."
Then she added: "You don't tell me what I'm not allowed to say because then I can't help but say it. They told me not to mention this possible show, and they are men in business suits. Nothing is scarier than men in business suits screaming at you over the phone."
She seemed to sum it up best by touching on her leaving "The View" last May and now being ready to resume her career in television which has also included six years of her enormously popular Emmy-winning daytime talk show.
"I don't know if you heard, but I did a TV show last year," Rosie told the crowd. "It's over. It's a new year, a new start. It's a new beginning."
This is pretty surprising to me.
The Human Rights Campaign commissioned a poll which asked 500 members of the LGBT community across the country their feelings about the Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA). Seventy percent said they favor passing a bill that does not include transgender people over not passing the bill at all.
ENDA, sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank, does not include job protections for transgender Americans. It was voted out of the House of Representatives rules committee Monday night and is very likely to be voted on Wednesday.
“There were so many people out there speaking so emphatically about where the entire community was that I thought maybe we should get a sense of it, and that’s why we did the poll,” HRC president Joe Solmonese told Advocate. “So it was surprising to me, but I think it really speaks to the fact that there’s a big diverse community of GLBT Americans all across the country.”
The poll specifically asked: “This proposal would make it illegal to fire gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers because of their sexual orientation. This proposal does not include people who are transgender. Would you favor or oppose this proposal moving forward?” Seventy percent favored moving forward with the legislation.
The poll also asked people if they agreed that “national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organizations should oppose this proposal because it excludes transgender people.” Only about 20% of the people agreed with that statement.
Go to Advocate.com to reads the entire story.
Greg's thoughts: I personally am appalled that transgendered people are not included in the bill regardless of the practical political reasons. They are the very people who need this kind of protection the most. We can't call ourselves the LGBT community if they are not included, embraced and supported. It's not the LGB community.
I know this is very eighth grade but some co-workers and I were having a debate.
Do we still think Tom Cruise is hot?
I'm not sure if I do anymore. But after more than two decades of thinking of him as my fantasy boyfriend, it's kinda hard to give up on the dream that began with 1983's "Risky Business." I loved him in "Lions for Lambs" which he promoted this week on TRL of all places. But I'm just not feeling the love as much.
Any thoughts?
I'm already loving how gay "Desperate Housewives" has been this year with the addition of the gay couple and more use of Andrew. Now comes the news via the Televisionista site that out actor Rchard Chamberlain will guest star in the November 25 episode as Felicity Hoffman's stepfather.
It goes without saying that in "Thorn Birds," Chamberlain was at his absolute sexiest and I was completely in love with him in that role. I'm glad he came out officially a few years back. Better late than never!
How cool that one of Huffman's sisters on the show will be played by out actress Sarah Paulson, the best thing about the late "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." The wonderful Polly Bergen has also been terrific in her recurring role as Lynette's mom.
Watching the Luke and Noah scenes on "As the World Turns" was kinda depressing until they showed scenes from the next episode. In it, Noah has gotten Luke to try physical therapy.
But today, it was negative Luke, just down in the dumps. Noah was too until Luke's parents went looking for him and the cute dad said: "I think Luke needs you."
Noah shows up at the house and mom and dad tell Luke that his boyfriend is in bad shape.
Luke retorts: "Well, is he walking?"
He agrees to see Noah but is still feeling better. Noah asks how he's doing and Luke says, sarcastically, "Never better."
Noah: "I miss you."
Luke: "I miss me too. That guy you met, I'm not that guy anymore."
Noah: "At least you're someone. I don't know who the hell I am."
Luke: "Well then., I guess we make a great pair."
Then they begin to make out. NOT REALLY! But they really should, I think it would cheer them both up.
So here are today's scenes:
Sally Field turns 61 years old today.
I've been a fan forever but never more than now because of what Sally brings to the role of Nora Walker each week on ABC's "Brothers & Sisters." She the on-screen mother of five children, including gay son Kevin, and the actress - who won her third career Emmy this fall for her performance - is the kind of mom every gay kid wants. Kevin is treated no different from the other siblings, that I can see, and that includes not being handled with kid gloves regarding his sexuality. And now Nora will get to deal with her brother, Saul, coming out as gay after all these years.
So happy birthday to Sally Field and thanks for the wonderful portrayal each week which makes us believe that a parent can treat their child's homosexuality as no big deal.
Hey, I don't blame Regis for his crush on Eric Dane (seen here at the airport yesterday). The "Grey's Anatomy" doc known as McSteamy was guest on "Regis and Kelly" this morning and I caught a few minutes of it as I waited to watch Portia de Rossi.
When the tall, strapping Eric walked out, Kelly said to him: I think Regis has a crush on you."
Eric: "It's a bro-mance!"
Regis:"What's wrong with a little bro-mance? I think it's good."
The two jokingly, (I think)!, agreed that they would spend more time together.
I'm running an interview with Tony Plana, who plays Betty's dad Ignacio on "Ugly Betty," on my HOLLYWOOD JOE blog later this week but wanted to give you a preview. We talked last week at a Television Academy event in North Hollywood about a lot of things relating to one of my favorite shows on television and Plana was very thoughtful about each question.
And here's what he had to say about Betty's 12-year-old nephew Justin (he must be 13 now, right?) who loves fashion and theater - and is accepted for who he is by his family.
"That's huge," Tony says. "Especially for a culture that is predominately macho in its ethos. That was basically the learning lessons for Ignacio in that first season to go from being afraid for the kid and wanting to change him to a place of acceptance and support and nurturing, encouragement."
So, is Justin gay or what?
Says Tony: "He's not sexualized yet, he's a boy. So we can't really be talking about a gay character. What's more important is that he's an artist and he;s extremely sensitive to design, to color, to music to art. So if you have a boy born into your family that is different that way, that is not an athlete or he's got these special gifts, you need to not supress those gifts but support them, encourage them, nurture them, celebrate them. That's the real lesson, I think, of Justin's character. His sexuality will be an issue hopefully in the fourth or fifth season, down the line. And either way, it will be interesting. We could explore the stereotype of the gay. Are they always effeminate? No. There are effeminate gays and there are effeminate straights. It does not define them."
Oh, brother.
Pat Boone, who released a heavy metal album a few years back and went to the American Music Awards dressed like THAT, is also a conservative Christian who doesn't believe gays deserve equal rights. I wouldn't have bought his silly album anyway but here is a recorded political message he did that was made public today:
"Hello friends this is Pat Boone a fellow Kentuckian by descent from grandaddy Dan’l. I’ve always been proud of Kentucky’s stance on patriotic, military and moral issues; a great heritage. Now, as an American and a Christian I am very conservative about the upcoming governor’s election. Ernie Fletcher is a typical Kentuckian, he’s worked long and hard for the state, its people, and its traditions. And, of course, he has come under attack by political opponents and now he faces a man who wants his job who has consistently supported every homosexual cause: same sex marriage, gay adoption, special rights, to gay, lesbian, bisexual, even transgender individuals.
The problem (inaudible) gay advocacy groups (inaudible) enthusiastically endorse Bashear, knowing he’s their guy. Kentuckians have already voted to amend the state constitution to prohibit same sex marriage. Now, do you want governor who’d like Kentucky to be like another San Francisco? Please reelect Ernie Fletcher.
This message paid for by the Kentucky Republican Party.
Greg's thoughts: Oh no Pat, not another San Francisco!
I just read a pretty terrific interview in the new issue of TV Guide on the new lesbian couple on "Nip/Tuck." You may have heard of them: Portia de Rossi, formerly of "Ally McBeal" and "Arrested Development" and off-screen love of Ellen DeGeneres; and Joely Richardson, daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and series regular for five seasons as Julia McNamara.
Hey! Wasn't Julia married to Dylan Walsh's character, Sean, and isn't Julian McMahon's character, Christian, the biological father of her son?
When they find out she has fallen in love with de Rossi's character of Olivia Lord, they don't take it well hurling anti-lesbian insults at her. DeRossi said reading the script "makes me remember all the people I had to come out to and how often I had to come out. People think you just hold a press conference. But you don't - you tell individuals. And you cross your fingers with every single person you care about, hoping that they'll love you just the same."
Portia notes that this is the first time she is a lesbian playing a lesbian: "I talked to Ellen about it and I realized that I spent so many years downplaying that side of me, just to forward my career. I could pass as a heterosexual and it would have been easy for me to stay that way, except that I didn't feel honest as an actor because I wasn't honest in my personal life."
Life just got a lot more interesting.
The NY Times is reporting that Rosie O'Donnell is in negotiations for a prime-time show on cable news channel MSNBC which just sounds like the perfect fit! Let's face it, since Rosie left "The View" last May, she has needed more of a soapbox than her blog.
The Times writes that Rosie could be given the 9 p.m. slot each weeknight on MSNBC, where she would go head-to-head with two heavyweights of cable talk: “Larry King Live” on CNN and “Hannity & Colmes” on Fox News. The show with Rosie would replace the low-rated “Live with Dan Abrams.”
But NBC executives who spoke with the paper anonymously cautioned that still to be determined before a deal is sealed is when the show would appear, Rosie's salary, and whether she would also be seen on the NBC broadcast network which has been courting her in recent months for a variety of jobs, including hosting a game show.
Alex Trebeck, Pat Sajak and Ty Treadway?
They are the hosts of the three game shows still on the air that were created by the late Merv Griffin. While Alex Trebeck of “Jeopardy” and Pat Sajack of “Wheel of Fortune” are game show institutions, Ty is the new kid on the block as the host of “Merv Griffin’s Crosswords.”
“It’s an amazing and surreal experience,” Ty told me recently. “I hope I can live up to what they’ve done. The beauty of both of them is they make it look so easy when I know it’s not.”
Just about four months before he died, Griffin personally chose the 40-year-old Treadway for the gig and his selection was definitely a decision to appeal to younger viewers.
“Actually I’m 85,” Ty joked. “I just look younger. It’s all the botox.”
He’s still amazed at how quickly he landed a job that he felt was a real longshot.
“I thought I was going to have to go through 20 or 30 levels of executives before I ever got a glimpse of the man behind the curtain himself. As fate would have it, I walked into that very first meeting on March 2 and the first hand that reached out to shake mine was Merv himself...I couldn’t feel any more honored or privileged to hopefully carry the torch for his legacy.”
Ty gained fame on the ABC soap “One Life to Live” in 2000 and after his character was killed off a year later, he returned as his nicer twin brother. He spent three more years on the show until his character went insane!
The soap exposure led to his co-hosting “Soap Talk” on the Soapnet cable network with Lisa Rinna. They had a four year run and were nominated for Emmys three of those years.
Does he miss being a soap stud?
“What do you mean? I’m still a soap stud! (laughs). There are things that you miss about it, there are things that you don’t miss. You don’t miss having to take your shirt off every five seconds and I’m really glad I have a job that lets me use my other assets such as my brain. But occasionally I think, well, maybe I’ll take my shirt off for ‘Crosswords.’ No, I’m kidding. You get to eat a little bit, you get to enjoy life a little bit more. You don’t always have to be on your toes workout-wise.”
But he does he miss acting sometimes.
“Yeah, because acting is very much about yourself, you’re in the spotlight, you are the instrument and you only have yourself to work with. Hosting, a lot of it is about the other person. Their number one job is to make people feel comfortable and bring out the best in them while entertaining people in the downtime in between."
...and I love it!
Kevin is down in the dumps because he hasn't heard from Jason in ages. He also hasn't been able to find Scotty who moved out of his apartment and turned off his cell phone.
Well, it turns out Scotty is homeless after choosing to pay his culinary school tuition instead of rent and phone.
"I like to think of it as being between homes," he says.
Kevin tracks him down at a job, finds out the situation and invites Scotty to stay with him.
Scotty: "Do you really think there's room for both of us with all our baggage?"
But he does move in and so far, we have seen a few sweet scenes of Scotty renting movies to cheer Kevin up etc. but we all know what is ahead. They are too cute and too attracted to each other NOT to get together. Then Jason will come back and it'll be a gay love triangle.
I love television.
Just look at that picture. That says it all. Danielle, dressed as Bree, goes into labor at Lee and Bob's Halloween party so she gives birth to the baby in costume as Bree (Lil' Bo Peep) and Andrew (Cher) looking on and the doctor is dressed as Frankenstein. I'm not sure who Orsen is supposed to be. Sorry.
I love it!
But what I really loved was how gay the first few minutes of last night's episode of "Desperate Housewives" was. When Bob and Lee decide to start inviting their neighbors to the party, they aren't sure who might come since the debacle with the ungly fountain.
Bob (Tuc Watkins) saud to Lee (Kevin Rahm): "They hate you. I'm the butch one, they can feel more comfortable around me...Let's start with Bree, she has a gay son. She's probably gay friendly."
As the guys talk to Bree, Danielle looks out the window upstairs and the guys want to know who it is. Bree says it's Andrew trying on his Halloween costume - as Cher.
Next scene we see her saying to poor Andrew: "How familiar are you with pop icons from the 70s?"
Fast-forward to the party: Katherine walks in as Marie Antionette and snarky Lee says to her: "You came as a self-important queen who lost all her power. Isn't that right on the nose?"
Ouch!
All that stuff was delish and what I love most about the show right now - the terrific writing and wonderful performances. If anyone needs to be reminded of the importance of writers - who went on strike this morning - shows like this demonstrate it weekly.
I love how soccer players feel so free to express their affection to each other in a physical way. It's just so sweet and well, it's sexy too. Here, Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo, bid a fond farewell to rival midfielder Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal following their match-up Saturday.
There are several more shots on Towleroad.com so check 'em out!
There are times when I find Rosie O'Donnell's poetry-style blog posts maddening. But not this one. This photo and post from the Annie Lennox concert is just so cool...
a night in harlem
sylvias for dinner
then the diva
in all her fine ness
wow
wow
wow
transported
i laughed i cried
i took a lot of photos
sing my sister sing
What the heck is going on here?
You probably haven't heard much about David Nalbanian, right? He's a tennis pro who can lose to just about anybody. But here's the thing: he can also beat just about anybody and in the last three weeks, he has! On Sunday, he beat world number two Rafael Nadal at the Paris Open after also beating Rafa in Madrid two weeks earlier. What's more is that Nalbanian also beat top-ranked Roger Federer in both of those tournaments as well.
But the week in between, in Basel, he lost his first match to a no name.
The men's season wraps up in the coming weeks at the year-end championship.
...it's Matthew McConaughey! But please, don't buy him any T-shirts to mark the occasion. We like his running outfit just the way it is!
Found this fun clip while looking at DListed and it is a hoot! I miss corny TV like this:
...and as a bonus video, here is a duet between Bea Arthur and Rock Hudson...My guess it's early 80s, maybe late 70s. It's fun:
Are Dlyan Walsh and Julian McMahon trying to revive the gay storyline from last season on "Nip/Tuck"? Or can two extremely attractive men who deeply love each other and spend all that time together really not be lovers?
Well, we can dream...
Earlier post: Greg chats up the men of Nip/Tuck...
Interviewing Jennifer Tilly is a lot like being at a really good party: You hear lots of