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05/19/10
“Can you hold this for a minute?” asks Renee Zellweger with a laugh, as I juggle an iPod, pen and notepad. Zellweger is charming, relaxed and delicate looking in her Carolina Herrera dress at An Evening With Women, the fundraiser for women’s services at the LA Gay & Lesbian Center. No, Zellweger isn’t a lesbian—but she would pretend to be one if the right part came along. “I wouldn’t play her just because she was a lesbian,” she says with a good-natured grin. “It’s all about the character and the story that she has to tell. I’m not seeking specifically lesbian parts to play.” The Oscar-winning actress came to the Beverly Hills soiree at the invitation of Linda Perry, the singer-songwriter-producer who turned the...
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05/12/10
Fans who adore celebrities one minute can abhor them the next.Some on the blogger beat have vilified Sandra Bullock recently because of photographs that implicated her husband with white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers. There is no way she couldn’t have known, the argument goes.Personally, I don’t find it hard to believe that an A-list celebrity used to being the center of attention could somehow overlook what a mate is up to on the side. But others are absolutely certain that Bullock knew, approves of or at least accepts his alleged beliefs that Nazism is fun and it’s OK to screw around with women who are not your wife.But is Bullock a white supremacist? I originally wrote this blog before the People magazine cover hit with Bullock holding the little baby of color...
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04/29/10
Songwriter-producer Linda Perry is putting herself on the auction block to raise money for women’s services provided by the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center.Last week Perry insisted that she would “do what is needed” to raise awareness for the center’s good works, I guess she wasn’t kidding. Some fledgling musician will have the chance to spend a day in the studio under Perry’s supervision. Post 4 Non Blondes, Perry produced Pink, Alicia Keyes, Christina Aguilera, among others.Clementine Ford (The L Word) has been dating Perry for almost two years. She responded to Perry’s auction announcement on her Facebook page with: “I am so bidding on this.”You too can bid, at charitybuzz.com. On Sunday, the Single de Mayo party for hundreds...
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04/21/10
The Back-up Plan” premieres this week and it’s Jennifer Lopez’ first film since birthing twins. It’s also the first feature film directed by Alan Poul, producer of Six Feet Under, Tales of the City and an advocate for gay rights. This is the third romantic comedy that J.Lo has starred in for a gay director (the other two were Robert Luketic on Monster-in-Law, Adam Shankman on The Wedding Planner).“We click,” Lopez said in an interview with the Advocate. “Gay directors have a certain sensitivity when it comes to women’s issues … that’s what I feel. They also have a tremendous sense of humor about life, so they know romantic comedy. I love them.”I had dinner with my pal Carlease Burke, a versatile actor-comedian-singer who...
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04/15/10
Amanda Bearse, left, director of the Big Gay Sketch Show, and Lisa Sherman, executive vice president and general manager of Logo “I get to play a lot of women, which I know people are going to be shocked by,” says Julie Goldman, looking dapper in red tie, white shirt and vest, her hair primped to perky perfection, at the season premiere party for The Big Gay Sketch Show. Most of the cast, creator Dan MacDonald, director Amanda Bearse and even Lisa Sherman, Logo’s executive vice president and general manager, turned out in L.A. for the premiere of the comedy hit’s third season. Taking over Hollywood’s high-end sports bar Capital City, guests had many screens to watch and space to mingle, and hundreds came to spread hugs and kisses, including Nia Vardalos...
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04/07/10
The deadline has been extended to April 11 to submit a one-minute video to win tickets and backstage passes to An Evening With Women, featuring Rene Zellweger, Linda Perry, Heart, Sarah Silverman and Gina Gershon as emcee. The elegant extravaganza, which has become one of the hottest tickets in town since it became Linda Perry’s pet project two years ago, has pulled in everyone from Cybill Shepherd to Paris Hilton to raise money for women’s services at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. Perry was honored by the center a couple years ago and vowed to do more. She took the reins, called friends, moved the event out of the Henry Fonda Theater and into the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. “This year will be better,” she pledged when I ran...
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04/02/10
I don’t think Dinah Shore would mind that her name has been removed from the LPGA’s Kraft Nabisco Championship. Not because it’s become the largest lesbian gathering in the world, but because her game was really tennis, not golf. The very ladylike Ms. Shore, a popular radio singer in the 1940s and `50s and a beloved television host in the 1970s and `80s, gave the golfers permission to use her name when the tournament debuted in 1972. The tournament at the Mission Hills club outside Palm Springs, Calif., was originally the Colgate Dinah Shore. Ms. Shore lent her name to give the tournament some cred because she liked sports and Colgate was a sponsor for her show Dinah’s Place. Even Wikipedia calls her a “founder” of the tournament. But in an interview...
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03/19/10
Standing backstage with Joan Jett at San Diego Gay Pride some years back I couldn’t help but ask why she avoids talking about her sexuality. She said she doesn’t and walked away.So I was curious to see if The Runaways, which she executive produced, would allude to the topic that over the years she made clear is nobody’s business. It does.I attended a benefit screening of The Runaways earlier this week in Los Angeles for Equality California, the group that has helped implement 63 pieces of legislation that are important to LGBT citizens. The film is a bloodied Valentine of sorts, a peak at what went down when a group of 15 and 16 year old girls formed the Runaways in the 1970s. The group stuck around only a few short years but long enough to forge a path that enticed...
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03/11/10
I’m standing in line at the grocery store where I eyeball a headline blaring reports of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt turning their three-year-old into a “cross-dresser.”Because a person’s sexuality is enough to incite a national uproar these days, it’s hard to take even the most absurd comment lightly. So when a fashion “expert” calls Shiloh Jolie-Pitt’s look a “complete shocking transformation,” accusing her of “pushing the boundaries of a tomboy look and crossing over to cross-dresser territory,” just because she wears cargo pants with a toy sword stuck in her belt, it begs for further investigation. I find that some pundits are wondering if dressing Shiloh this way confuses her gender identity.Um, the kid is...
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03/03/10
What started as a respectful little chat between two high-profile female performers last week evolved into a discussion on the gay celebrity burden. Both Wanda Sykes and Rosie O’Donnell started out as standup comics, both married women, have children and have become spokeswomen for the gay community.When Wanda called Rosie’s radio show on Sirius XM, they began dishing about their personal lives and coming out. Rosie reveals that she felt pressured by the gay community. That’s not so surprising, but do celebrities "owe" anything to the community, merely because they happen to be famous and LGB or T?If it weren’t for celebrities cozying up to Americans in their living rooms, LGBT people might still be seeing themselves portrayed primarily as murderers,...
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