Why 'Liberal Hollywood' Is a Myth [AlterNet, November 10, 2011]

As the conservative mainstream media frames it, Hollywood is a place festering with pinkos and radicals, or at least where the bulk of America's artsy liberals go to live and work. This narrative has been so pervasive that even progressives think of Tinseltown as a place where our allies reside, and indeed many do: actors like Sean Penn, Angelina Jolie, Danny Glover, and Matt Damon all participate in hands-on activism and deliver speeches that inspire us to greatness.

But while Hollywood's reputation for liberal politics continues, the concept that only progressives and the socially conscious populate it might as well have come direct from Industrial Light and Magic. Brett Ratner's actions this week are a reminder that, though some of its marquee names are politically liberal, the movie industry is completely contrary to that: trade organizations gouge wages, studios have legacies of union busting, roles written for people of color are limited and stereotypical, and actors remain closeted because they're afraid of losing straight roles. ("An out male star can never be a leading man," wrote Emily Nussbaum, in a New York magazine profile of out gay actor Neil Patrick Harris. "Straight women won't be able to fantasize about him; straight men won't be able to relate.")

It's time to re-evaluate the long-held belief that Hollywood is a particularly progressive place-because as long as that's the prevailing conventional wisdom, the slower it will be to change.

[Continued here]

Heil Hollywood: The Los Angeles bunker from which Hitler planned to run Nazi
empire after the war [Daily Mail, March 18, 2012]

It sounds like the bizzare script of a Hollywood B-movie.

In a parallel universe the Nazis have won the war, Adolf Hitler moves to LA where he mingles with the stars of the silver screen while running his evil empire from a luxurious ranch deep in the LA hills.

But during the 1930s, American sympathisers were so confident this exact scenario was actually going happen they spent millions building a deluxe compound ready for their fuhrer's imminent arrival.

Equipped with a diesel power plant, 375,000 gallon concrete water tank , giant meat locker, 22 bedrooms and even a bomb shelter, the heavily guarded estate was home to a community of Hollywood fascists who hoped to ride out the war there.

[Continued here]

Harvey Weinstein threatens MPAA boycott over R rating
[BBC, February 24, 2012]

Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has threatened to pull out of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) over a film rating given to the documentary Bully (2012).

The R rating means children under the age of 17 will not be able to watch the film, about bullying in US schools, without a parent present.

In a statement, Weinstein called the rating decision "a bridge too far". ... "Alex Libby gave an impassioned plea and eloquently defended the need for kids to be able to see this movie on their own, not with their parents, because that is the only way to truly make a change." ...

Bully premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York last year and follows students and families in Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Iowa and Oklahoma.

It also touches on the suicides of two bullied teenagers Tyler Long and Ty Smalley.

[Continued here]

• Bully: The Movie (2012)

At the Oscars: the very first Best Picture winner



Wings (1927) [Wikipedia]

Wings is a 1927 silent film about World War I fighter pilots, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures. Wings was the first film, and the only silent film, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Wings stars Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and Richard Arlen. Gary Cooper appears in a role which helped launch his career in Hollywood and also marked the beginning of his affair with Clara Bow.

[Continued here]

• Wings (1927) [IMDb]

[Note: At the very least, this film is somewhat homo-erotic. A kind of distant prequel to the film War Horse (2011)?]

'The truth can't hurt them anymore': How a 1940s Marine turned rent boy slept with Hollywood's elite and 'had threesomes with Edward and Wallis' [Daily Mail, January 30, 2012]

A former Marine turned rent boy for some of Hollywood's biggest names in the 1940s claims to have had threesomes with the abdicated King of England Edward VIII and his wife Wallis Simpson.

Scotty Bowers, now 88, has opened up his little black book in a tell-all shedding light on his prostitution ring catering for the royal couple as well as gay and bisexual A-listers such as Cary Grant, George Cukor and Rock Hudson.

'Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars' opens the doors of the closeted, x-rated under world of old Hollywood over three decades.

Stories in the 286 page book tell of arranging bedroom partners for actresses like Rita Hayworth and Katherine Hepburn, the latter of which he says he set up sexual encounters for with 'over 150 different women', reports the New York Times.

His own lovers he claims included Edith Piaf, Spencer Tracy, Vivien Leigh and Cary Grant. ...

Newly discharged from the Marines after World War II he got a job at a gas station near Paramount Pictures, reports the Times.

He was pumping gas one day when actor Walter Pidgeon drove up and propositioned him with a $20 bill.

He accepted, and soon the word spread and, according to Mr Bowers, he stumbled into a business that he ran from his base at the gas station servicing clients himself as well as setting them up with his handsome marine friends.

[Continued here]

• Hollywood Fixer Opens His Little Black Book: Scotty Bowers and His Sexual Tell-All of Old Hollywood [New York Times, January 27, 2012]

"Old Hollywood people who have, shall we say, known him would tell me stories," said Matt Tyrnauer, a writer for Vanity Fair and the director of the 2008 documentary "Valentino: The Last Emperor." "But whenever I followed up on what would obviously be a great story, I was told, 'Oh, he'll never talk.' "

Now, he's talking.

Mr. Bowers, 88, recalls his highly unorthodox life in a ribald memoir scheduled to be published by Grove Press on Feb. 14, "Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars." Written with Lionel Friedberg, an award-winning producer of documentaries, it is a lurid, no-detail-too-excruciating account of a sexual Zelig who (if you believe him) trawled an X-rated underworld for over three decades without getting caught.

• New Memoir to Reveal All Sorts of Sordid, Sexual Details About Old Hollywood [New York magazine, January 29, 2012]

Why Browers Asked Tennessee Williams Not to Publish an Article on Him: "He made me sound like a mad queen flying over Hollywood Boulevard on a broomstick directing all the queens in town."

[Note: The women of the View, other than Joy Behar, showed themselves to be the wretched, mealy-mouthed, homophobic bigots that they REALLY are this morning while viciously dishing this interesting and enlightened book Full Service.]

• I Don't Vant To Be Alone: A Review Of Full Service By Scotty Bowers & Lionel Friedberg [Boy Culture, February 26, 2012]

You might have read something about this book already-likely something dismissive as to its veracity, as to the probability that Bowers really and truly could have set up Katharine Hepburn with over 150 women-but the book has more to offer than just Scotty's Hollywood hijinks. One aspect of the memoir that is left out of most of the coverage is that Bowers, born into poverty in Illinois, has been turning tricks since his pre-teens. His stories of life as a shoe shine boy willing to polish the knobs of various priests and businessmen are just as compelling as his later tales of cornholing people you grew up thinking of as untouchable icons. ...

As for the big names mentioned in the book, many of them are people we now know for sure were gay or, as lots of them preferred to insist during their lifetimes, bisexual. These include Cary Grant and Randolph Scott (Bowers confirms they were live-in lovers and that he had three-ways with them many times), Tyrone Power (he had group sex with Bowers, who confirms the actor was a "doo doo queen"), Charles Laughton (when you read what he had in store for one young stud, you'll realize he might've asked Octavia Spencer for seconds had he been cast in The Help), Raymond Burr, Tony Perkins, Tab Hunter, Ramon Navarro (a cumwhore who guzzled the stuff five to 15 men at a pop in order to "retain his vigor, his strength, his good looks"), Rock Hudson, George Cukor ("Anal sex was out of the question...George just wanted to suck dick."), James Dean (an annoying little queen, apparently) and many more.

• It's (Not So) Hard Out Here For A Pimp [Boy Culture, March 2, 2012]

The Insufferable Self-Seriousness of the Golden Globes
[The Atlantic, January 16, 2012]

The Globes are supposed to be fun. What happened?

The Golden Globes had a bad case of Oscar-itis this year. Or, as it's more commonly known, taking yourself too seriously. And unofficial launch to Hollywood's six-week awards season, culminating in the Academy Awards, the Globes are supposed to be relatively loose and light.

The 69th version wasn't, but not because host Ricky Gervais didn't try to set a raucous bawdy tone. Hosting for a third time despite last year's kerfuffle over some of his rough jokes, Gervais started his opening monologue with an awful quip about Jodie Foster, then gave an analogy. The Globes are to the Oscars," Gervais said, "as Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middleton. A bit louder, a bit drunker and more easily bought."

The tepid, awkward laughter was a bad sign, suggesting that the film and TV stars gathered in the Beverly Hilton ballroom were in no mood to laugh at themselves. Over the next three hours, they proved as much in a broadcast that grew ever more pompous as the night went on.

[Continued here]

James Dean (1931—1955) [Wikipedia]

Early in Dean's career, after Dean signed his contract with Warner Brothers, the studio's public relations department began generating stories about Dean's liaisons with a variety of young actresses who were mostly drawn from the clientele of Dean's Hollywood agent, Dick Clayton. Studio press releases also grouped "Dean together with two other actors, Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, identifying each of the men as an 'eligible bachelor' who has not yet found the time to commit to a single woman: 'They say their film rehearsals are in conflict with their marriage rehearsals.'"

[Continued here]

• James Dean [IMDb]
• Mad about the boy [The Guardian, May 14, 2005]

Looking back over half a century to the meteoric career of James Dean, the one thing that now seems obvious is that the boy was as queer as a coot. It wouldn't matter a scrap if he hadn't also been groomed to perform vulnerable young male innocence, tormented by inchoate yearnings for heroism, freedom, and true love with the right girl. The studio made sure that he acted it out in real life by supplying him with starlets to be seen with in public.

• James Dean Death Anniversary: Remembering The Legend 56 Years On [Huffington Post, September 30, 2011]

James Dean died in a car crash on September 30, 1955, while on his way to Salinas, California, for a car race. At only 24 years old, he had already made an indelible mark on cultural history with three films, so much so that a documentary, "The James Dean Story," came out two years later. His film roles were always some variation on The Outcast -- troubled teen Jim Stark in "Rebel Without a Cause," social pariah Cal Trask in "East of Eden" and the more badass loner, Jett Rink in "Giant." In all of his films, he brings a magnetism that goes beyond his looks, an internal struggle that never quite lets you in beyond the surface, which is probably why he always left his audience wanting more of him. His iconic role in "Rebel" continues to resonate with teenagers generations later in that Holden Caulfield kind of way.

• Fact or fiction? Upcoming biopic Joshua Tree, 1951 portrays James Dean's alleged gay affairs [Daily Mail, January 13, 2012]

Upcoming biopic Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean, includes scenes that depict the actor having sexual encounters with a series of men.

One scene shows the character of Dean making love to his male roommate in a corridor.

He is also seen in the movie indulging in a tryst with another male character, this time on top of a mountain. ...

Dean's first biographer and close friend William Bast stated that the pair had a intimate relationship.

He was also described as a homosexual by screenwriter Gavin Lambert and Nicholas Ray, who directed Dean's most celebrated movie, Rebel Without A Cause.

Dean apparently avoided being drafted into the war by registering as a homosexual, which was at the time classified as a mental disorder by the US government.

Sal Mineo (1939—1976) [Wikipedia]

Salvatore Mineo... better known as Sal Mineo, was an American film and theatre actor, best known for his performance opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause.

Mineo was born in The Bronx, the son of Sicilian coffin makers. His mother enrolled him in dancing and acting school at an early age. He had his first stage appearance in The Rose Tattoo (1951), a play by Tennessee Williams. He also played the young prince opposite Yul Brynner in the stage musical The King and I. Brynner took the opportunity to help a young Mineo better himself as an actor. ...

He returned to the stage to produce the 1971 gay-themed Fortune and Men's Eyes (starring Don Johnson). This play gathered positive reviews in Los Angeles but was panned during its New York run, and its expanded prison rape scene was criticized as excessive and gratuitous. ...

By 1976, Mineo's career had begun to turn around. Playing the role of a bisexual burglar in a series of stage performances of the comedy P.S. Your Cat Is Dead in San Francisco, Mineo received substantial publicity from many positive reviews, and he moved to Los Angeles along with the play. Arriving home after a rehearsal on February 12, 1976, Mineo was stabbed to death in the alley behind his apartment building in West Hollywood, California. He was 37 years old. Mineo was stabbed just once, not repeatedly as first reported, but the knife blade struck his heart, leading to immediate and fatal internal bleeding. Mineo's remains were interred in the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

[Continued here]

• Sal Mineo [IMDb]
• Sal Mineo: A Biography: The life of a gay heartthrob [XTRA, July 19, 2011]
• Sal: Venice Film Review [Hollywood Reporter, September 3, 2011]

Even ardent fans of Hollywood's polymath pin-up James Franco may be surprised to learn that shoestring-budgeted Sal is actually the Rise of the Planet of the Apes star's fifth feature-length movie as a director. But while this heartfelt, rough-edged tribute to now largely-forgotten Hollywood actor Sal Mineo isn't without interest, it's too small-scale and sketchy for wide theatrical distribution. Further film festival play - perhaps in conjunction with Franco's Hart Crane biopic The Broken Tower, which itself only premiered in June - will surely follow Sal's debut in a midnight slot at Venice's Orizzonti section.

That isn't in any way to knock the impressive front-and-center performance from curly-maned Val Lauren as Mineo, the diminutive New Yorker who became a 1950s teen idol thanks to movies like Nicholas Ray's James Dean vehicle Rebel Without A Cause - the film which earned Mineo the first of two Oscar nominations. But as the "Switchblade Kid" aged, his star gradually waned and by 1971 he was barely recognizable under simian make-up in Escape From the Planet of the Apes- foreshadowing Franco's own involvement with the same revitalized franchise decades later.

By concentrating on theater and TV, Mineo slowly edged his way back to prominence. When he was stabbed to death in a robbery-motivated murder in February 1976, he was returning home after rehearsals for another L.A. play. His short, eventful life in which Mineo was increasingly open about his homosexuality was chronicled in a 2010 biography by Michael Gregg Michaud, the source material for Stacey Miller's screenplay.

Rock Hudson (1925—1985) [Wikipedia]

Hudson never publicly revealed any specifics regarding his sexuality. While Hudson's career was blooming as he epitomized wholesome manliness, he and his agent Henry Willson kept his personal life out of the headlines. In 1955, Confidential magazine threatened to publish an exposé about Hudson's secret homosexual life; Willson covered this by disclosing information about two of his other clients, in the form of Rory Calhoun's years in prison and the arrest of Tab Hunter at a gay party in 1950. According to some colleagues, Hudson's homosexuality was well known in Hollywood throughout his career.

[Continued here]

• Rock Hudson [IMDb]
• Film star Rock Hudson, victim of Aids, dies aged 59 [The Guardian, October 3, 1985]
• Michael Musto: Linda Evans Talks About That Rock Hudson Kiss & And How She Dated A Gay! [Village Voice, October 7, 2011]

Tony Curtis (1925—2010) [Wikipedia]

Curtis was married five times. His first wife was actress Janet Leigh, to whom he was married from 1951 to 1962, and with whom he fathered actresses Kelly and Jamie Lee Curtis. "For a while, we were Hollywood's golden couple," he said. "I was very dedicated and devoted to Janet, and on top of my trade, but in her eyes that goldenness started to wear off. I realized that whatever I was, I wasn't enough for Janet. That hurt me a lot and broke my heart."

[Continued here]

• Tony Curtis [IMDb]
• The legacy of Tony Curtis [XTRA, February 24, 2011 ]

William Inge (1913—1973) [Wikipedia]

William Motter Inge... was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s, he had a string of memorable Broadway productions, and one of these, Picnic, earned him a Pulitzer Prize. With his portraits of small-town life and settings rooted in the American heartland, Inge became known as the "Playwright of the Midwest". ...

The Last Pad is one of three of Inge's plays that either have openly gay characters or address homosexuality directly. The Boy in the Basement, a one-act play written in the early 1950s, but not published until 1962, is his only play that addresses homosexuality overtly, while Archie in The Last Pad and Pinky in Where's Daddy? (1966) are gay characters. Inge himself was closeted.

[Continued here]

• Out of Kansas, Into the World: A Trove of Inge Plays [New York Times, August 5, 2009 ]

Tab Hunter (1931— ) [Wikipedia]

In Hunter's 2005 best selling autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star, he acknowledged his homosexuality, confirming rumors that had circulated since the height of his fame. According to William L. Hamilton of The New York Times, detailed reports about his alleged romances with very close friends Debbie Reynolds and Natalie Wood were strictly the fodder of studio publicity departments. As Wood and Hunter embarked on a well-publicized and groundless romance, promoting his apparent heterosexuality while promoting their movies, insiders developed their own headline for the item: 'Natalie Wood and Tab Wouldn't'. ...

During Hollywood's studio era, Hunter says, life "was difficult for me, because I was living two lives at that time. A private life of my own, which I never discussed, never talked about to anyone. And then my Hollywood life, which was just trying to learn my craft and succeed..." The star emphasizes that the word 'gay' "wasn't even around in those days, and if anyone ever confronted me with it, I'd just kinda freak out. I was in total denial. I was just not comfortable in that Hollywood scene, other than the work process." "There was a lot written about my sexuality, and the press was pretty darn cruel," the actor says, but what "moviegoers wanted to hold in their hearts were the boy-next-door marines, cowboys and swoon-bait sweethearts I portrayed."

Hunter had long-term relationships with bisexual actor Anthony Perkins and champion figure skater Ronnie Robertson, before settling down with his partner of 30 years, Allan Glaser.

[Continued here]

• Tab Hunter [IMDb]

Farley Granger (1925—2011) [Wikipedia]

In 2007, Granger published the memoir Include Me Out, co-written with domestic partner Robert Calhoun. In the book, named after one of Goldwyn's famous malapropisms, he freely discusses his career and personal life. Calhoun died of lung cancer in New York, New York on May 24, 2008, at age 77.

[Continued here]

• Farley Granger [IMDb]

Montgomery Clift (1920—1966) [Wikipedia]

Edward Montgomery Clift... was an American film and stage actor. The New York Times' obituary noted his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men".

He invariably played outsiders, "often victim-heroes," - examples include the social climber in George Stevens's A Place in the Sun, the anguished Catholic priest in Hitchcock's I Confess, the doomed regular soldier Robert E. Lee Prewitt in Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity, and the Jewish GI bullied by antisemites in Edward Dmytryk's The Young Lions. Later, as a result of heavy consumption of drink and prescription drugs, and after a disfiguring car crash in 1956, he became erratic. Nevertheless important roles still remained to him, including " the reckless, alcoholic, mother-fixated rodeo performer in Huston's The Misfits, the title role in Huston's Freud, and the concentration camp victim [sic] in Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg." ...

On July 22, 1966, Clift spent most of the day in his bedroom in his New York City townhouse, 217 East 61st Street. He and his live-in personal secretary, Lorenzo James, had not spoken much all day. At 1 am, James went up to say goodnight. The Misfits was on television that night, and James asked Clift if he wanted to watch it. "Absolutely not!" was the reply. This was the last time Montgomery Clift spoke to anyone. At 6 am the next day, James went to wake him but found the bedroom door locked. Unable to break it down, he ran down to the garden and climbed a ladder to the bedroom window. Inside, he found Clift dead: he was undressed, lying on his back in bed, with glasses on and fists clenched.

Clift's body was taken to the city morgue at 520 First Avenue and autopsied. The autopsy report cited the cause of death as a heart attack brought on by "occlusive coronary artery disease." No evidence was found that suggested foul play or suicide. ...

Patricia Bosworth, who had access to Clift's family and many people who knew and worked with him, wrote in her book, "Monty carried on affairs with men and women. After his car accident his addiction included pain killers and became serious. His deepest commitments were emotional and reserved for old friends; he was unflinchingly loyal to women like Elizabeth Taylor, Libby Holman, Nancy Walker and Ann Lincoln.

Elizabeth Taylor was a significant figure in his life. He met her when she was supposed to be his date at the premiere for The Heiress. They appeared together in A Place in the Sun, where their romantic scenes received considerable acclaim for their naturalness and their appearance. Clift and Taylor appeared together again in Raintree County and Suddenly, Last Summer.

[Continued here]

• Montgomery Clift [IMDb]
• Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift: Unpublished Photos [Life magazine]

Cary Grant (1904—1986) [Wikipedia]

Archibald Alexander Leach..., better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor. With his distinctive yet not quite placeable Mid-Atlantic accent, he was noted as perhaps the foremost exemplar of the debonair leading man: handsome, virile, charismatic, and charming. ...

On April 11, 1981, Grant married long-time companion Barbara Harris, a British hotel public relations agent, who was 47 years his junior. ... Grant allegedly was involved with costume designer Orry-Kelly when he first moved to Manhattan, and lived with Randolph Scott off and on for twelve years. Richard Blackwell wrote that Grant and Scott were "deeply, madly in love", and alleged eyewitness accounts of their physical affection have been published. Hedda Hopper and screenwriter Arthur Laurents also have alleged that Grant was bisexual, the latter writing that Grant "told me he threw pebbles at my window one night but was luckless". Alexander D'Arcy, who appeared with Grant in The Awful Truth, said he knew that he and Scott "lived together as a gay couple", adding: "I think Cary knew that people were saying things about him. I don't think he tried to hide it." The two men frequently accompanied each other to parties and premieres and were unconcerned when photographs of them cozily preparing dinner together at home were published in fan magazines. [Continued here]

• Cary Grant [IMDb]
• Memoirist claims he turned tricks for stars like Cary Grant and Spencer Tracy [Entertainment Weekly, May 20, 2011]

"The book is a window onto the shadow lives of all these people who entertained us and made popular culture, but who in many ways weren't what they appeared to be," says Kuhn. "Scotty helped them to fulfill the desires that they couldn't fulfill themselves."

"I believe in doing what I can,/ In crying when I must,/ In laughing when I choose."



Noel Coward (1899—1973) [Wikipedia]

Sir Noël Peirce Coward... was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".

Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works (including the operetta Bitter Sweet and comic revues), poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, and a three-volume autobiography. Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works.

At the outbreak of World War II, Coward volunteered for war work, running the British propaganda office in Paris. He also worked with the Secret Service, seeking to use his influence to persuade the American public and government to help Britain. Coward won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 for his naval film drama, In Which We Serve, and was knighted in 1969. In the 1950s he achieved fresh success as a cabaret performer, performing his own songs, such as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "London Pride" and "I Went to a Marvellous Party".

His plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. Coward did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, but it was discussed candidly after his death by biographers including Graham Payn, his long-time partner, and in Coward's diaries and letters, published posthumously. The former Albery Theatre (originally the New Theatre) in London was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in his honour in 2006.

[Continued here]

• Noël Coward [IBDB]
• Noël Coward interviews [BBC]

"Lucy Ricardo was the underdog who was always trying to prove herself, and
I think many gay men can identify with that."



Lucille Ball (1911—1989) [Wikipedia]

Lucille Désirée Ball... was an American comedienne, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy. One of the most popular and influential stars in the United States during her lifetime, with one of Hollywood's longest careers, especially on television, Ball began acting in the 1930s, becoming both a radio actress and B-movie star in the 1940s, and then a television star during the 1950s. She was still making films in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1962, Ball became the first woman to run a major television studio, Desilu; a studio that produced many successful and popular television series.

[Continued here]

• Lucille Ball Found Gay Rights "Perfectly All Right" [The Advocate, August 6, 2011]

In a candid interview from 1980, Ball was asked her thoughts on a number of subjects, including gay rights. "It's perfectly all right with me," she replied. "Some of the most gifted people I've ever met or read about are homosexual. How can you knock it?"

Sir John Gielgud (1904—2000) [Wikipedia]

Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH... was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937. He was known for his beautiful speaking of verse and particularly for his warm and expressive voice, which his colleague Sir Alec Guinness likened to "a silver trumpet muffled in silk". Gielgud is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

Gielgud lived and worked in an era when there was a conspiracy of silence around homosexuality outside of theatrical circles. Shortly after he was knighted, Gielgud endured a horrific humiliation. In 1953, he was convicted of "persistently importuning for immoral purposes" (cottaging) in a Chelsea mews, having been arrested for trying to pick up a man in a public lavatory. Gielgud would avoid Hollywood for over a decade for fear of being denied entry because of the arrest. There was much discussion behind closed doors about whether his career could endure the ignominy, but he continued to rehearse the play in which he was scheduled to direct and act. Instead of being rejected by the public, he received a standing ovation at the play's initial opening in Liverpool, in part because of his co-star Sybil Thorndike; Thorndike seized him as he stood in the wings unable to bring himself to make his first entrance and brought him onstage, whispering "Come on, John darling, they won't boo me." Biographer Sheridan Morley writes that while Gielgud never denied being homosexual, he always tried to be discreet about it and felt humiliated by the ordeal. Some speculate that it helped to bring to public attention a crusade to decriminalise homosexuality in England and Wales.

[Continued here]

• John Gielgud: When England hounded a hero [The Independent, February 28, 2008]

The most terrible moment in John Gielgud's life - on which he maintained a public silence for 50 years - is about to be put on public view. Nicholas de Jongh, theatre critic of the Evening Standard, has written a play in which we will witness Gielgud, played by Jasper Britton, give the glad eye in a public lavatory to a man who then turns out to be an undercover policeman.

But Plague Over England is concerned with much more than Gielgud's arrest in 1953 on the charge of "importuning for immoral purposes". The play shows the milieu Gielgud inhabited and the forces arrayed against him. Its characters include the producer who nearly ended his career, the virulently anti-homosexual Lord Chief Justice Rayner Goddard (a man, says de Jongh, "by buggery obsessed"), an American fleeing his own country's anti-Communist paranoia, and a doctor who claims to "cure" same-sex attraction with Clockwork Orange-style electric shock therapy.

Homosexuals had long been feared and hated in England as men who, it was believed, preyed on the innocent young, and were thus unfit to lead normal, happy lives. Until 1967, they risked prosecution for what the law called "acts of gross indecency between male persons", even in private, and could be arrested for merely showing - in a police spy's opinion - an intent to commit them.

Police throughout England were alert for any hints of homosexual behaviour. The officer who arrested Gielgud was part of a Metropolitan Police squad established in 1930 that regularly lurked in central London toilets.

Arthur Laurents (1917—2011) [Queerty, May 5, 2011]

Laurents was known as being gay long before being "out" was a professional possibility in Hollywood. He dated Farley Granger, an actor best known at the time for starring in Alfred Hitchcock's films, before settling down for 52 years with his beau, Tom Hatcher. Although his sexuality didn't cause much of a scandal in the New York theater world, in the 1950's Laurents was "blacklisted" in Hollywood thanks to the anti-Communist witchhunts led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Many Hollywood careers were ended by the blacklists; luckily Laurents proved he had little political interest in any way, communism or otherwise, and convinced the U.S. government to remove his name and allow him to go back to work.

[Continued here]

• Arthur Laurents [Wikipedia]
• Arthur Laurents [IMDb]
• Arthur Laurents, Playwright and Director on Broadway, Dies at 93 [New York Times, May 5, 2011]
• Arthur Laurents index [New York Times]
• Arthur Laurents obituary [The Guardian, May 6, 2011]

The playwright, screenwriter and director Arthur Laurents has died aged 93. If he was not as well known as some of his collaborators, Laurents was nevertheless intrinsic to the success of the stage musicals West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959) and La Cage aux Folles (1983), and the films Rope (1948) and The Way We Were (1973). ...

Laurents's autobiography, Original Story By, was published in 2000. He also wrote the memoir Mainly On Directing (2009). In both books, he reflected on his relationship with his partner of more than 50 years, Tom Hatcher, who died in 2006. "Tom and theatre, that's what my life has been," he wrote.

Stephen Sondheim (1930— ) [Wikipedia]

Stephen Joshua Sondheim... is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards (eight, more than any other composer) including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. Described by Frank Rich of the New York Times as "the greatest, and perhaps best-known artist working in musical theatre", his most famous scores include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Assassins, as well as the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. He was president of the Dramatists Guild from 1973 to 1981. ...

In The Times in 2009, Alan Franks wrote: "Sondheim came out as gay only when he was about 40, and did not live with a partner until he was 61. This was Peter Jones, a dramatist; the two lived together for several years, until 1999." Sondheim discussed relationships in an interview with Frank Rich, who wrote, "His long solitary spell, he says, didn't faze him.... Well, in his case, does being gay play a part in it? 'Homosexuality, certainly it's a part of it. But the outsider feeling - somebody who people want to both kiss and kill - occurred quite early in my life.'" Sondheim's social life in the NYC gay scene is also discussed in many books by Alan Helms.

[Continued here]

• Stephen Sondheim [IMDb]
• Stephen Sondheim [PBS]
• Frank Rich: Conversations with Sondheim [New York Times, March 12, 2000]

In the old rehearsal snapshots from 1957, three of the four men who created "West Side Story" look as cool as the Jets and Sharks. The choreographer Jerome Robbins, the playwright Arthur Laurents and the composer Leonard Bernstein are all dressed in 50's hip. Only the true kid of the group, the 27-year-old lyricist making his Broadway debut, seems out of place. Stephen Sondheim is in a tie and a loud, boxy sports jacket, his hair slicked back, his grin forced -- a geek trying to cut it with the popular crowd.

• Stephen Sondheim Talks To Frank Rich About 'Glee' And What's Next [NPR, November 23, 2010]

When Rich asked if it felt strange to see the Glee character Kurt sing the Gypsy showstopper "Rose's Turn" so completely out of context, Sondheim quipped, "I saw it completely out of context in productions of Gypsy.

• Stephen Sondheim index [The Guardian]

Tim Cusack: Broadway's Binary Line Between Gay and Straight [Metro Focus, July 19, 2011]

I've been thinking a lot about "Priscilla: Queen of the Desert" and "The Normal Heart." As the artistic director of a queer theater company operating in New York in 2011, I think a lot about the representation of gay people on the commercial Broadway stage, and our community's purpose therein. What was practically unheard of 30 years ago has become so commonplace as to be unremarkable: Openly gay writers, directors, actors, choreographers and composers producing plays and musicals with openly gay characters, many of whom are the heroes of the story. We most certainly are not in Kansas anymore.

And yet I believe that something essential is missing.

I view "Priscilla" and "The Normal Heart" as twin theatrical poles between which is stretched the queer (male) body. On one end, gay men are fabulous, feminine and frivolous; on the other, tortured, dangerous, martyred. At "Priscilla," straight spectators leave the theater secure in their gender identities (even while wearing a magenta boa from the concession stand).

In Larry Kramer's AIDS play, "The Normal Heart," the straight spectator is invited to pity the struggle of the gay men under siege from AIDS, while safely insulated by the fourth wall. Homosexual viewers, meanwhile, are invited to feel smugly superior to both the hetero yahoos in the Aussie outback in "Priscilla" and the straight establishment in "The Normal Heart" that allowed the epidemic to spiral out of control.

[Continued here]

Craig Russell (1948—1990) [Wikipedia]

Russell Craig Eadie..., better known by his stage name Craig Russell, was a Canadian female impersonator and actor.

Born in Toronto, Russell became president of Mae West's fan club as a teen, and he briefly worked and lived in Los Angeles as her secretary. He returned to Toronto where he moved in with the writer Margaret Gibson. He worked as a hairdresser while pursuing his career as a stage performer. By 1971, he was a regular performer in Toronto gay clubs and had a burgeoning international following.

His impersonations included Carol Channing, Bette Davis, Mae West, Barbra Streisand, Tallulah Bankhead, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Midler, Anita Bryant, Shirley Bassey, Peggy Lee and Judy Garland. While performing, he always spoke and sang in the voices of the celebrities he was impersonating.

In 1977, Russell starred in the film Outrageous!, based on a short story written by Gibson about their time as roommates. The film was entered into the 28th Berlin International Film Festival, where Russell won the Silver Bear for Best Actor.[1] A decade later, in 1987, he starred in the sequel to Outrageous! entitled Too Outrageous!. ...

Russell fathered a daughter, Susan Allison ("Allison"), who was born January 6, 1973 in Toronto. Father and daughter developed a relationship in the years prior to his death. Although he publicly identified as gay rather than bisexual, Russell married his close friend Lori Jenkins in 1982.

Russell remained married to Lori until his death in 1990 of a stroke related to complications from AIDS. He was cremated and buried at Pine Grove Cemetery in Port Perry.

[Continued here]

[Note: I was in the Toronto gay bar Les Cavaliers late one evening when Criag came in with his friend the actress Shirley MacLaine in tow. For some bizarre reason the entrance door was locked and barred by the bouncer. Craig climbed up onto the grand piano and did his 'Judy Garland' thing. Shirley leaned on the bar with a drink looking bored to tears. Finally after about an hour they both left and those of us who wanted to leave were able to do so. A very droll happening.]

"He never wanted to be a woman. Are you kidding? No, no. He just
wanted to be a movie star. There's a difference."



Divine (1945—1988) [Wikipedia]

Divine..., né Harris Glenn Milstead, was an American actor, singer and drag queen. Described by People magazine as the "Drag Queen of the Century", Divine often performed female roles in both cinema and theater and also appeared in women's clothing in musical performances. Even so, he considered himself to be a character actor and performed male roles in a number of his later films. He was often associated with independent filmmaker John Waters and starred in ten of Waters's films, usually in a leading role. Concurrent with his acting career, he also had a successful career as a disco singer during the 1980s, at one point being described as "the most successful and in-demand disco performer in the world."

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, into a conservative, wealthy middle class family, he became involved with John Waters and his acting troupe, the Dreamlanders, in the mid-1960s and starred in a number of Waters's early films such as Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble. These films have since become cult classics. In the 1970s, Milstead made the transition to theater and appeared in a number of productions, including Women Behind Bars and The Neon Woman, while continuing to star in such films as Polyester, Lust in the Dust and Hairspray.

[Continued here]

• Divine [IMDb]
• Michael Musto: Divine Dressed Like Liz Taylor On Dates With His Girlfriend [Village Voice, July 18, 2011]

Azis (1978— ) [Wikipedia]

Azis... (born Vasili Troyanov Boyanov Katsuras...)... is a Bulgarian Romani chalga (pop-folk) singer known for, among other things, his atypical gender expression and his flamboyant persona.

His discography includes: "Celuvai Me" (2003), "Na Golo" (2003), "Kraliat" (2004), "Together" with Desi Slava (2004). Azis has recorded and performed many songs with some of the most popular Bulgarian pop-folk singers, like Gloriya, Malina, Sofi Marinova, Toni Storaro, singer Indira Radic and also the rap performer Ustata.

Azis also performed alongside Mariana Popova in the Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song Let Me Cry. The song, however, did not qualify for the grand finale.

He began his political career in 2005 as a member of the Evroroma political party and ran in the general elections campaign in the summer of 2005, but did not receive enough votes to become a member of Parliament.

[Continued here]

"If you don't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?"



RuPaul (1960— )
[Wikipedia]

RuPaul Andre Charles..., best known as simply RuPaul, is an American actor, drag queen, model, author, and singer-songwriter, who first became widely known in the 1990s when he appeared in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. Previously, he was a fixture on the Atlanta and New York City club scenes during the 1980s and early 90s. RuPaul has on occasion performed as a man in a number of roles, usually billed as RuPaul Charles. RuPaul is noted among famous drag queens for his indifference towards the gender-specific pronouns used to address him-both "he" and "she" have been deemed acceptable. "You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee; I don't care! Just as long as you call me." He hosted a short-running talk show on VH1, and currently hosts reality television shows called RuPaul's Drag Race and RuPaul's Drag U.

[Continued here]

• RuPaul: Still Strutting, on Stage and Off [New York Times, August 5, 2011]

It's not as if boisterous, touchy drag queens are a novelty, or that we can't see a lifetime's supply of goo on "The Real Housewives." We're not even surprised if a guy in a girdle vents what sounds like feminist pride.

Recently, on the spinoff series "Drag U," when a straight, frumpy Harvard graduate admitted she was dateless, her drag mentor said what the audience was thinking: "Harvard grad? And she can't get a man?"

In fact, maybe the most surprising thing about "Drag Race" is that RuPaul Charles, its 50-year-old creator and host, is still the reigning queen of such foolishness. ...

Out of drag, Mr. Charles (Ru to his friends) seems to have the same effect on everyone who meets him. Which is to say you can't stop grinning. He is tall and smoothly handsome, with almost military posture and a long, low rumbling laugh that seems piped into the room by hidden ducts.

• RuPaul to Republicans — don't be a drag [Reuters, January 7, 2012]

"I am NOT Ron Paul, and I'm not running for President!" RuPaul exclaimed during a high-energy visit to the tiny Red Arrow Diner in downtown Manchester, which has hosted more than its fair share of celebrities and political luminaries. A large number of local gays and lesbians, as well as adoring fans of all stripes, came out for the occasion. ...

"I want you to know that this is NOT a cheap publicity stunt," said RuPaul. "I flew here first class!" ...

"Let's not forget, this country was founded by a bunch of men in wigs. Am I right?" RuPaul asked his fans, to cheers. "When a man walks outside in a wig and a pair of cha-cha heels, he is making a political statement."

• Michelangelo Signorile: RuPaul Sounds Off On New Season Of 'RuPaul's Drag Race,' Obama, The Word 'Tranny,' And More [Huffington Post, January 14, 2012]

Of the ABC sitcom, "Work It," in which two straight men dress in drag in order to get jobs and which has been criticized by gay and transgender activists for mocking transgender women, RuPaul implores the activists: "Don't take life so seriously... We live in a culture where everyone is offended by everything."

On Lance Bass's apology for using the word "tranny," Rupaul says: "It's ridiculous! It's ridiculous!... I love the word "tranny"...And I hate the fact that he's apologized. I wish he would have said, 'F-you, you tranny jerk!'"

• You Don't Get to Tell Us When to Be Offended, Ru Paul [Bilerico Project, January 19, 2012]

For someone like Ru Paul who does not actually live a transgender life, but rather only engages in transgender expression as a way to make money, his response to Signorile's asking what he thought of Lance Bass apologizing for using the word "tranny" was testament to his arrogance, ignorance, and utter detachment from the lives most trans people live. ...

While like many real-life trans folks I'm tempted to ask "Is he for real?", I already know the answer. Yes, he is for real, because Ru Paul is neither a true trans woman nor someone who lives a life reflecting reality for most of us. Ru Paul is actually a gay male actor, a super-rich celebrity performer who has probably made more money portraying a comedic caricature of a woman than most real trans women will see in their lifetimes.

"I know what it feels like to be an outsider."



Judith Light (1949— ) [Wikipedia]

Judith Ellen Light... is an American actress. Her television roles include Karen Wolek on the soap opera One Life to Live, Angela Bower on the sitcom Who's the Boss?, Claire Meade on ABC's TV series Ugly Betty and Judge Elizabeth (Liz) Donnelly on Law & Order Special Victims Unit. ...

In 2007 Light starred as a radical Christian woman in Save Me an independent film. Light's character, Gayle, runs a Christian ministry known as Genesis House, which works to help gay men recover from their 'affliction.' She is challenged by the arrival of Mark, an ill gay man who reminds Gayle of her dead, gay son, and the movie chronicles the challenges of the two as they learn to accept each other as they are. ...

Light is a gay rights activist and helped former Who's the Boss? co-star Danny Pintauro in coming out. She has done work for many LGBT charities. She sits on the board of the Matthew Shepard Foundation and spoke at the 1993 March on Washington. In 1998, she had a library named after her at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

She is also a prominent AIDS activist and played Ryan White's mother in a 1989 TV movie on his life. Also, she sits on the board of Point Foundation, a LGBT organization that provides financial support, mentoring, leadership training and hope to meritorious students who are or feel marginalized due to sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

On April 1, 2010, Judith Light joined Cyndi Lauper in the launch of her Give a Damn campaign to bring a wider awareness of discrimination of the GLBT community as part of her True Colors Fund. The campaign is to bring straight people to stand up with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered community and stop the discrimination.

[Continued here]

• Judith Light [IMDb]
• David Mixner: Five Questions For ... Judith Light [Live From Hell's Kitchen, October 26, 2011]

2. For decades you have been battling for LGBT rights and against HIV/AIDS. What is the high point and low point for you personally in that struggle?

This is somewhat difficult for me to think in terms of high points and low ones in relation to HIV/AIDS. The whole process has been enormously painful and daunting for me. Since it has been so deeply personal for me from the beginning it is hard to focus on much more than so much loss and suffering. In terms of the fighting the fight against social insensitivity and discrimination, it has been a real challenge for me to resist the impulse to be very judgmental of much of our country. On the other hand, few things in my life have been more inspiring than watching the LGBT community respond to the epidemic the way they did from the very beginning. This community has always set the standard for me in terms of responding to challenges and operating at the highest levels of personal courage and integrity even in the face of discrimination and oppression.

Danny La Rue (1927—2009) [Wikipedia]

Danny La Rue, OBE... was an Irish-born British entertainer known for his singing and drag impersonations. ...

Among his celebrity impersonations were Elizabeth Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Marlene Dietrich, and Margaret Thatcher. At one point he had his own nightclub in Hanover Square, and also performed on London's West End. In the 1960s he was among Britain's highest-paid entertainers. He used to own the Swan at Streatley hotel in the 1970s. In 1982 he played Dolly Levi in the musical Hello, Dolly!. He also has the distinction of being the only man to take over a woman's role in the West End theatre when he replaced Avis Bunnage in Oh, What a Lovely War![3] and he was until his death still a regular performer in traditional Christmas pantomime shows in Britain. ...

La Rue would often perform parts of his show in men's clothes, and was often seen out of costume on television. In later life, he was more candid about his private life, including his homosexuality. La Rue lived for many years with his manager and life partner of 40 years, Jack Hanson, until Hanson's death in 1984. ...

La Rue suffered a mild stroke in January 2006 and all of his planned performances were cancelled. He had several subsequent strokes. He died at his home shortly before midnight on 31 May 2009 at the age of 81 after suffering from prostate cancer.

[Continued here]

Merv Griffin (1925—2007) [Wikipedia]

Though remaining friends with his ex-wife, whom he credited with creating the premise of Jeopardy!, questions that he was either bisexual or gay persisted. Two same-sex palimony and sexual harassment lawsuits in 1991 brought questions about Griffin's sexuality to national prominence. In 1991, Griffin was hit with both a $200 million palimony lawsuit by former "secretary/driver/horse-trainer/bodyguard" Brent Plott, and an $11.3-million sexual harassment lawsuit from Dance Fever host Deney Terrio; both suits were ultimately dismissed with prejudice (the Plott claim after Griffin filed a countersuit). A 2006 article in Rolling Stone magazine by John Colapinto stated: "Merv does not refute the underlying implication in both cases: that he is gay. Nor does he admit to it. Instead, he mentions the high-profile relationship that he began with actress Eva Gabor at the time of his legal troubles. They were photographed everywhere: Atlantic City, La Quinta, Hollywood premieres. Griffin says that they discussed marriage, and he parries any direct questions about his sexual orientation. 'You're asking an eighty-year-old man about his sexuality right now!', he cries. 'Get a life!' "

[Continued here]

• Merv Griffin [IMDb]

Liberace (1919—1987) [Wikipedia]

Liberace's fame in the United States was matched for a time in the United Kingdom. In 1956, an article in The Daily Mirror by veteran columnist Cassandra (William Connor) mentioned that Liberace was ".the summit of sex-the pinnacle of masculine, feminine, and neuter. Everything that he, she, and it can ever want. a deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavoured, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love," a description which did everything it could to imply he was homosexual without actually saying so. Liberace sent a telegram that read: "What you said hurt me very much. I cried all the way to the bank." ...

In 1982, Scott Thorson, Liberace's 24-year-old bodyguard, limo driver, and alleged live-in boyfriend of five years, sued the pianist for $113 million in palimony after an acrimonious split-up. Liberace continued publicly to deny that he was homosexual and insisted that Thorson was never his lover. In 1984, most of Thorson's claim was dismissed, although he received a $95,000 settlement. ...

Liberace's obvious weight loss in the months before his death was attributed to a "watermelon diet" by his longtime manager Seymour Heller. He had been in ill health since 1985 with emphysema from his daily smoking off-stage, as well as heart and liver troubles; and author Darden Asbury Pyron wrote that Liberace had been "HIV-positive and symptomatic" from 1985.

[Continued here]

• Liberace [IMDb]
• Turn out the lights, blow out the candelabra: Liberace Museum closing [CNN, September 12, 2010]

Since 1979, fans of the larger-than-life pianist, who famously said, "I don't give concerts, I put on a show," have wandered a couple miles off the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada to see vestiges of the wonder that was Liberace.

Marlene Dietrich (1901—1992) [Wikipedia]

Unlike her professional celebrity, which was carefully crafted and maintained, Dietrich's personal life was kept out of public view. Dietrich, who was bisexual, enjoyed the thriving gay scene of the time and drag balls of 1920s Berlin.

[Continued here]

• Marlene Dietrich [IMDb]

Cole Porter (1891—1964) [Wikipedia]

Porter maintained a luxury apartment in Paris, where he entertained lavishly. His parties were extravagant and scandalous, with "much gay and bisexual activity, Italian nobility, cross-dressing, international musicians, and a large surplus of recreational drugs." In 1918, he met Linda Lee Thomas, a rich, Louisville, Kentucky-born divorcée eight years his senior, whom he married the following year. She was in no doubt about Porter's homosexuality, but it was mutually advantageous for them to marry: for Linda it offered continued social status and a partner who was the antithesis of her abusive first husband; for Porter it brought a respectable heterosexual front in an era when homosexuality was not publicly acknowledged. They were, moreover, genuinely devoted to each other and remained married from December 19, 1919 until Linda's death in 1954. Linda remained protective of her social position, and believing that classical music might be a more prestigious outlet than Broadway for her husband's talents, she tried to use her connections to find him suitable teachers, including Igor Stravinsky, but was unsuccessful. Finally, Porter enrolled at the Schola Cantorum in Paris where he studied orchestration and counterpoint with Vincent d'Indy. Meanwhile, Porter's first big hit was the song "Old-Fashioned Garden" from the revue Hitchy-Koo in 1919. In 1920, he contributed the music of several songs to the musical A Night Out.

[Continued here]

• Cole Porter Is Dead; Songwriter Was 72 [New York Times, October 16, 1964]
• Cole Porter [IMDb]
• De-Lovely (2004) [IMDb]
• Night and Day (1946) [IMDb]

"I wasn't sensational enough. I didn't hang around at the Post and drink."



Liz Smith (1923— ) [Wikipedia]

Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Smith... is an American gossip columnist. She is known as The Grand Dame of Dish. ...

On February 16, 1976, Smith began a self-titled gossip column for the New York Daily News. During a 1979 newspaper strike, her Daily News editors asked her to appear daily on WNBC-TV's Live at Five, and she stayed with the program for eleven years. Her exposure on television made Smith a popular figure on the Manhattan social scene and provided fodder for her column which had, by then, been syndicated to nearly seventy newspapers. She won an Emmy for her reporting on the hot hit "Live at Five" for WNBC in 1985.

Smith was hired by Fox Broadcasting Company heads Barry Diller and Rupert Murdoch to develop a talk show with Roger Ailes as her producer.

In 1991 Smith, hot off her exclusive interviews with Ivana Trump during her divorce from real estate tycoon Donald Trump, moved to Newsday, where she stayed until 1995. Smith then signed on to the Murdoch-owned New York Post. She worked for Fox News for 7 years and is today on "Fox and Friends."

In April 2005, Smith left Newsday, over a contract dispute. The official discontinuation of her column came after several months of dispute among Smith, her lawyer David Blasband, and Newsday management. Lawyers for Newsday focused on a misstep and refused to renew her contract, the highest-paid in newspaper history. Blasband says, "Yes, Liz missed the date, but Newsday still had four months before the contract ran out." The matter was settled out of court and Smith continued at the New York Post where her column still appears. It also appears two days a week in Variety and in many other newspapers.

On February 24, 2009, the Post announced that the paper would stop running Smith's column effective February 26, 2009, as a cost-cutting measure. ...

Smith acknowledged her bisexuality (or as she refers to it, 'gender neutrality') in her memoirs. She is twice-divorced and currently resides alone in an apartment in Manhattan's Murray Hill neighborhood.

[Continued here]

• Liz Smith Bids City's Tabloids Goodbye [New York Times, February 24, 2009]

After Thursday, the gossip columnist Liz Smith will not have a home in a New York City tabloid for the first time in 33 years. The New York Post - which has published her gossip column since the days when Donald was still married to Marla and Christie Brinkley was still married to Ricky Taubman - is dropping her column, citing hard times. ,,,

Even for Ms. Smith, who turned 86 on Feb. 2, tabloids are so last century. She plans to concentrate on that newer medium, the Internet. She is a founder and part owner of the 11-month-old site wowOwow, for "women on Web," and said she looked forward to posting scoops there - "free," she said, "from the constraints of newspaper deadlines."

• Liz Smith Dishes On Her Feuds With Sinatra, Trump [NPR, December 24, 2009]

Dusty Springfield (1939—1999) [Wikipedia]

Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien... OBE... known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s. With her distinctive sensual sound, she was an important white soul singer, and at her peak was one of the most successful British female performers, with 18 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970. She is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the U.K. Music Hall of Fame. International polls have named Springfield among the best female rock artists of all time. ...

n the 1970s and 1980s, Springfield became involved in several romantic relationships with women in Canada and the US that were not kept secret from the gay and lesbian community. She had a love affair with singer-musician Carole Pope of the rock band Rough Trade.

[Continued here]

• Flashback: Dusty Springfield [Observer, October 19, 2003]

People said Dusty sounded black, but really she didn't. She sounded only like herself. 'Haunting and husky,' Bette Midler said of her voice, 'full of secrets and promises.'

Lily Tomlin (1939— ) [Wikipedia]

Tomlin met her partner Jane Wagner in 1971. After watching an after school special written by Wagner, Tomlin invited her to Los Angeles to collaborate on a comedy album. Although Tomlin officially came out to the press in 2001, her sexual orientation has not really been a secret; in interviews she would often refer to Jane Wagner as her partner. As Tomlin herself stated in 2008, in an interview for Just Out magazine: "Everybody in the industry was certainly aware of my sexuality and of Jane... In interviews I always reference Jane and talk about Jane, but they don't always write about it." She also had fights over jokes about her sexual orientation with late-night TV mogul Johnny Carson.

Tomlin has been involved in a number of feminist and gay-friendly film productions, and on her 1975 album Modern Scream she poked fun at straight actors who make a point of distancing themselves from their gay and lesbian characters - answering the pseudo-interview question, she replied: "How did it feel to play a heterosexual? I've seen these women all my life, I know how they walk, I know how they talk ..."

[Continued here]

• Lily Tomlin [IMDb]

Raymond Burr (1917—1993) [Wikipedia]

Raymond William Stacey Burr... was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain. He won two Emmy Awards in 1959 and 1961 for the role of Perry Mason, which he played for nine seasons between 1957 and 1966. His second hit series, Ironside, earned him six Emmy nominations, and two Golden Globe nominations. He is also known for his role as Steve Martin in both Godzilla, King of the Monsters! and Godzilla 1985. ...

After his death from cancer in 1993, Burr's personal life came into question as details of his known biography appeared to be unverifiable. Gradually, it was revealed that Burr had possibly contrived a life story that hid his homosexuality.

[Continued here]

• Raymond Burr [IMDb]
• Raymond Burr: TV Icon's Life Blends Fact and Illusion [After Elton, October 10, 2005]
• Raymond Burr [Museum.tv]

Raymond Burr is so associated with his characterization of television lawyer/detective Perry Mason that his rich and varied career in film, radio, and television is often ignored.

• Michael Musto: Closeted TV Star Raymond Burr Lived a Life of Lies! [Village Voice, April 21, 2008]
• Excerpt: Hiding in Plain Sight (2008) [ABC News]

M*A*S*H's Maxwell Q. Klinger [Wikipedia]

Corporal (later Sergeant) Maxwell Q. Klinger is a fictional character from the M*A*S*H television series played by American actor Jamie Farr. A Lebanese-American hailing from Toledo, Ohio (like Farr himself), Klinger serves as an orderly/corpsman (and later company clerk) assigned to the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in [usually] Uijeongbu during the Korean War. The character's original defining characteristic is his attempts to gain a Section 8 psychiatric discharge from the army, by habitually wearing women's clothing and engaging in other "crazy" stunts. He later gives up his discharge attempts and is promoted from the rank of corporal to sergeant during the course of the TV series.

[Continued here]

• M*A*S*H (TV Series 1972-1983) [IMDb]

Freddie Mercury (1946—1991) [Wikipedia]

Freddie Mercury... was a British musician, best known as the lead vocalist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range. As a songwriter, Mercury composed many hits for Queen, including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "We Are the Champions". In addition to his work with Queen, he led a solo career, penning hits such as "Barcelona", "I Was Born to Love You" and "Living on My Own". Mercury also occasionally served as a producer and guest musician (piano or vocals) for other artists. He died of bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS on 24 November 1991, only one day after publicly acknowledging he had the disease.

[Continued here]

• Unseen Queen footage to be aired in BBC documentary [Telegraph, May 27, 2011]
• Freddie Mercury's friend David Wigg reveals the flamboyant star's vulnerable side and the loneliness that haunted him [Daily Mail, February 18, 2011]

As Long as I live, I'll never forget my first meeting with Freddie Mercury. Storming into his dressing room where I was waiting after a two-hour show, he picked up a clothes iron and hurled it at a full-length mirror, smashing it to pieces.

Well, I thought, he's obviously not superstitious! The outburst had been sparked by a faulty microphone on stage. Although the audience were unaware anything was wrong, Freddie blew his top.

When he'd calmed down, I asked if it was worth getting so wound up over a problem the public knew nothing about. 'Some people can take second best, but I can't. If you've got the taste for being number one, then number two isn't good enough,' he said, slapping me on the knee as he exploded with laughter.

• Watch Google's wonderful video doodle tribute to Freddie Mercury on his 65th birthday [The Next Web, September 5, 2011]
• Freddie Mercury returns to the stage (sort of) [CNet, May 14, 2012]

Queen guitarist Brian May told the BBC that an image of Mercury will appear onstage during a special 10th-anniversary performance of the musical "We Will Rock You" at London's Dominion Theatre. May said the image will not be a hologram, referring to it instead as an "optical illusion," but hinted at similarities to the hyped Tupac hologram seen at the Coachella festival last month.

"The stately homo."



Quentin Crisp (1908—1999) [Wikipedia]

In 1975 The Naked Civil Servant was broadcast on British and U.S. television and made both actor John Hurt and Crisp himself into stars. This success launched Crisp in a new direction: that of performer and lector. He devised a one-man show and began touring the country with it. The first half of the show was an entertaining monologue loosely based on his memoirs, the second half was a question and answer session with Crisp picking the audience's written questions at random and answering them in an amusing manner.

When his autobiography was reprinted in 1975 on the strength of the success of the televisual version of The Naked Civil Servant, Gay News commented that the book should have been published posthumously. Quentin said this was a polite way of telling him to drop dead. Crisp was not sympathetic to the Gay Liberation movement of the time. "What do you want liberation from?" he asked in a 1974 chance encounter with Peter Tatchell. "What is there to be proud of? I don't believe in rights for homosexuals."

[Continued here]

• The Naked Civil Servant [Wikipedia]
• Quentin Crisp [IMDb]
• Quentin Crisp dies [The Guardian, November 21, 1999]
• Quentin Crisp's 90 years of bad luck [The Guardian, January 5, 2002]
• In the footsteps of Quentin Crisp in New York [The Guardian, December 9, 2009]

Elwy Yost, longtime TV host, dies at 86 (1925—2011) [CBC, July 22, 2011]

Elwy Yost - the witty host of programs such as TVOntario's iconic Saturday Night at the Movies and the CBC's afternoon movie show Passport to Adventure - has died of natural causes at 86 at his home in West Vancouver.

Yost was a lifelong movie aficionado who put an educational twist to the shows he hosted for TVOntario and CBC over a decades-long television career, most notably with Saturday Night at the Movies from 1974-1999 and Passport to Adventure from 1965-1967.

[Continued here]

Jaymz Bee (1963— ) [Wikipedia]

Jaymz Bee is a Canadian musician, writer and radio personality.

While Jaymz is currently working at JAZZ.FM91 in Toronto, he also runs a PR firm called Bullhorn; writes freelance for various papers and magazines and has a regular column called "City Lights" in FYI Magazine.

[Continued here]

Leslie Roberts (1962— ) [Wikipedia]

Leslie Roberts... is a Canadian journalist and TV personality, primarily from his position as the executive editor and anchor for Global Ontario's News Hour from 5:30-6:30 p.m.... In 2011, he received a Gemini Award nomination for Canada's Best News Anchor.

[Continued here]

• Richard Burnett: Anchors aweigh! [Vue Weekly, Three Dollar Bill, March 30, 2005]

Leslie Roberts: When I appeared on his live CFCF Montreal TV show years ago, he told me as I walked onto the set during a commercial break, "Whatever you do, don't out me." Roberts has since moved to Hogtown, where he's a news anchor for Global and-gasp!-stars in promos about the greatest Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player of all time. Never mind being a Habs traitor; as a colleague of mine noted, "Don't Leafs fans usually wait to come out of the closet until after the first round of the playoffs?"

• Leslie Roberts works out hard to overcome a poor family health history [Globe & Mail, May 6, 2010]

Bettty White: "Bea had a reserve. She was not that fond of me. She found me a pain
in the neck sometimes. It was my positive attitude — and that made Bea mad
sometimes. Sometimes if I was happy, she'd be furious!"



The Golden Girls [Wikipedia]

The Golden Girls is an American sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida. The series was produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions in association with Touchstone Television and distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television in syndication.

The Golden Girls won several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series twice. It also won three Golden Globes for outstanding TV series comedy/musical. All four stars each received an Emmy Award throughout the series' run and had multiple nominations. The series also ranked among the top ten highest-rated programs for six out of its seven seasons.

[Continued here]

• Michael Musto: Betty White Reveals Why Bea Arthur Hated Her! [Village Voice, May 5, 2011]

• Greg Archer: The Golden Girls Live On in San Francisco [Huffington Post, December 13, 2011]

Break out the cheesecake. In a fairy tale that only San Francisco could give birth to, four mischievous drag queens are revitalizing television's most celebrated characters, The Golden Girls.

But this isn't the first time the local Fab Four have slipped into the houseslippers of television's most endearing stars (Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty). The Golden Girls: The Christmas Episodes have been playing to city crowds for years. The big news? The gals' celebrity have reached new heights -- suddenly they need more spotlights. Literally.

• Betty White Birthday Special: The 'Golden Girl' Turns 90, Gets Song & Dance Salute On NBC [Huffington Post, January 14, 2012]

When asked what she wants for her birthday, White, who turns 90 on Tues., Jan. 17, told AOL TV in November she has a simple wish: "Just to keep things going as they're going now. It's one of the highest spots of my life."

Tommy Femia: The Boy Who Became Judy Garland [New York Times, November 11, 2011 ]

DOWN some dark stairs, past cases of empty beer bottles, in the brick warren beneath the Off Off Broadway cabaret called Don't Tell Mama, a middle-aged man helps his middle-aged brother adjust the blue sequined top that complements his black sequined skirt. Fifteen minutes to showtime.

"Grab it from here," says Tommy Femia, 52, who is also wearing pantyhose, three-inch heels and a dark-brown wig that belts out Carnegie Hall, 1961. "There's just the one button."

"No zipper?" asks his brother Bobby Femia, 58, who fumbles about Tommy's back like a safecracker searching in vain for the combination. He is wearing a black golf shirt, black pants, white sneakers and a porkpie hat that grunts Philadelphia, 1976.

No zipper, says Tommy, who returns to his metamorphosis. Something burning in the cabaret's kitchen is sending smoke through the muggy basement, but Tommy is focused only on the small round mirror in his closet of a dressing room, next to a humming Frigidaire. He checks his eyeliner. Sprays his hair. Applies his red lipstick.

[Continued here]

• Family Portraits: Tommy Femia [Philadelphia Gay News]

We all know the term "Friend of Dorothy" (if you don't, shame on you. Learn your gay history!), but this week's interview isn't just a friend of Dorothy - he is Dorothy. Well, not Dorothy Parker, but the gal who played the other Dorothy, the venerable LGBT icon Judy Garland. Since 1991, Tommy Femia has appeared as Ms. Garland in almost every New York City nightclub (including an ongoing 20-year run at Don't Tell Mama), to Tim McLoone's Supper Club in Asbury Park to multiple venues across the nation. His credits include "The Montel Williams Show," "The Facts of Life," "One Day at a Time," two off-Broadway shows, Drama Desk Award-winners "Whoop-Dee-Doo!" "I Will Come Back!" and "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown," and he's served as emcee at the celebrated revue La Cage Aux Folles. The six-time winner of the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs Award for Outstanding Impersonation is currently in our part of the world to rehearse for his latest show, "Norma Doesmen," opening in March at the Abingdon Theatre in New York.

New Zealand's Unstoppable, UnTOPPable Twins [Berkeley Daily Planet, May 18, 2011]

A prizewinning 2009 New Zealand documentary - the Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls - is about to hit the big screen in the US. Prepare to be bowled over. A long-time institution in New Zealand, these yodeling lesbian twin-sister activist comedians - Lynda and Jools - are a delightfully daffy, huggable hoot.

As fresh-off-the-farm teens, the Topps were the cutest little buskers Auckland had ever seen. Now, as zesty, rambunctious senior citizens, they are beloved cultural institution. In one interview early in the film, friend and fellow musician Billy Bragg calls the twins "cheeky chappies" and characterizes their performances as a kind of "anarchist variety act."

The Topps manage to blend the broad humor of Britain's Bennie Hill with the powerhouse harmonics of the Everly Brothers and the cut-up musical pizzazz of the Grand Ol' Opry. You might call Lynda and Jools a couple of Bennie Hillbillies.

The most successful documentary ever released in New Zealand, Topp Twins had its North American Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival where, the producers are pleased to announce, "it won the Cadillac People's Choice Award for Best Documentary, beating Michael Moore!"

[Continued here]

• 'Topp Twins': Portrait of wacky Kiwi duo is a real crowd-pleaser [Weekly Herald, May 20, 2011]

I know what you're thinking: not another documentary portrait of country music-singing, comedy sketch-playing, twin lesbian yodelers from New Zealand?

All right, perhaps this is the only movie that fits that description. And "The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls" should be the final word on this zany showbiz act, wildly popular in New Zealand but mostly unknown anywhere else.

For the last few decades, Jools and Lynda Topp have carved out a beloved place for themselves in their native country by acting silly and yodeling like crazy, but also by delivering straight country tunes and putting themselves out as political activists.

"It's wonderful. I grew up around gay people my entire life, basically, that's possibly why I'm quite camp, and some people think I'm gay when I meet them, which I think is awesome."



Daniel Radcliffe (1989— ) [Wikipedia]

Daniel Jacob Radcliffe... is an English actor who rose to prominence playing the titular character in the Harry Potter film series adapted from the book series of the same name. Radcliffe was cast as Harry at the age of eleven. From 2001 to 2010, he starred in seven Harry Potter films alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson; he will return for the final installment: the second part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2011). Radcliffe's work on the Harry Potter series has earned him several awards and more than £60 million.

[Continued here]

• Daniel Radcliffe [IMDb]
• 'If the script says have sex, I have sex' [The Guardian, September 7, 2007]
• Dan the man [The Guardian, July 4, 2009]

• The Homosexual Undertones of the Half-Blood Prince [Gawker, July 17, 2009]

A major challenge in Harry Potter 6 is that the teenage wizard had the ability to get a boner. So how did the kid-friendly franchise deal with the prickly issue of teenage sexuality? Splendidly! But perhaps in an unintended direction.

Hogwarts is a hormonal hothouse! Wizards are snogging in the halls, winking at each other during Potions class, and they're even abusing their powers to seduce other supple wizards. Director David Yates did a fantastic job capturing the sexual tension that must throb through any kind of co-ed castle. But because the most troublesome part of teen sexuality is the idea of a loose lady wizard most of the innuendos and flirtation stayed between the boys. And so in the tradition of British boarding schools things got a little gay. ...

Daniel Radcliffe who has always played Harry a little fey, undulates and titters around Ron. At a quidditch tryout Ron needs to impress Harry in order to make the team. Harry's eyes stayed locked on Ron as he straddles a broom. When Ron succeeds in blocking a score from the opposing team, Ron leans back on his broom, clutches the broom at its base and points it in Harry's direction. Harry beams. It is a giant phallic broomstick in between his legs! C'mon people! ...

P.S. I also think Radcliffe is gay as all get out! There, I said it.

• Daniel Radcliffe snapped up to star in The Amateur Photographer [The Guardian, February 16, 2011]
• What to say about ... Daniel Radcliffe in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying [The Guardian, March 29, 2011]
• Will Harry Potter's final fling be the one we've been waiting for? [The Guardian, April 28, 2011]
• Daniel Radcliffe Dedicates Trevor Project Hero Award To 'Real Heroes' [MTV, June 28, 2011]

Daniel Radcliffe took a break from his successful turn in Broadway's "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and the press tour for the final "Harry Potter" film to accept the Trevor Project's Hero Award at Monday night's Trevor LIVE gala in New York.

"The fact that I'm able to help with something like this makes me very, very proud," Radcliffe told MTV News at the event. "It's a huge honor, and it's lovely of them to give it to me. I'll say it again later, but the real heroes are the people who are staffing those call centers and picking up the phones saving lives every single day."

• Daniel Radcliffe 'reliant' on alcohol for final Harry Potter films [The Guardian, July 4, 2011]

Radcliffe, 21, admits his lifestyle became an issue on the set of 2009 film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He went on to claim he has not touched alcohol since August 2010, shortly after completing work on the final Potter production. "There's no shame in enjoying a quiet life. And that's been the realisation of the past few years for me," he said.

"I spent my boyhood behind the barbed wire fences of American internment camps and
that part of my life is something that I wanted to share with more people."



George Takei (1937— ) [Wikipedia]

George Hosato Takei Altman... is an American actor of Japanese descent, best known for his role in the television series Star Trek, in which he played Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise. He is a proponent of gay rights and active in state and local politics as well as continuing his acting career. He has won several awards and accolades in his work on human rights and Japanese-American relations, including his work with the Japanese American National Museum.

[Continued here]

• George Takei [IMDb]

• Star Trek's George Takei boldly goes where few men have been before... and marries his gay partner [Daily Mail, September 15, 2008]

The actor played Mr Sulu in the 1960s sci-fi series and in subsequent movies.

More recently he played Kaito Nakamura in the US sci-fi drama Heroes, winning himself a whole new generation of fans.

The couple's wedding came three months after California followed Massachusetts' lead and allowed same-sex weddings.

Last month, comedian Ellen DeGeneres married Australian actress Portia de Rossi in Beverly Hills.

Takei, who was interned along with his family and 120,000 other Japanese-Americans during World War Two, is a longtime human rights activist.

William Shatner (1931— ) [Wikipedia]

William Alan Shatner... is a Canadian actor, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T. Kirk, captain of the USS Enterprise, in the science fiction television series Star Trek from 1966 to 1969, Star Trek: The Animated Series from 1973 to 1974, and in seven of the subsequent Star Trek feature films from 1979 to 1994. He has written a series of books chronicling his experiences playing Captain Kirk and being a part of Star Trek and has co-written several novels set in the Star Trek universe. He has also authored a series of science fiction novels called TekWar that were adapted for television.

Shatner also played the eponymous veteran police sergeant in T. J. Hooker from 1982 to 1986. He has since worked as a musician, author, producer, director, and celebrity pitchman. From 2004 to 2008, he starred as attorney Denny Crane in the television dramas The Practice and its spin-off Boston Legal, for which he won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Shatner most recently starred in the CBS sitcom $#*! My Dad Says.

[Continued here]

• William Shatner [IMDb]
• Video: William Shatner Sings O Canada [NFB, 2011]

... and mentions same-sex partnerships in the same breath. Yo! Are you ready to come out yet, Bill?

• Like his career, Shatner's live show goes on forever [Globe & Mail, October 20, 2011]

From beneath the oddly sentimental, slightly rambling, sometimes funny, often embarrassing three hours that William Shatner delivered on the opening date of his six-city tour, the occasional glimpse of his character bubbled up.

"It was wrongly assumed that I wished to become some sort of leader among
gay activists, whereas in reality I was happier to be a foot soldier."



Sir Ian McKellen (1939— ) [Wikipedia]

Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE... is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is known to many for roles such as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and as Magneto in the X-Men films.

In 1988, McKellen came out and announced he was gay. He became a founding member of Stonewall, one of the United Kingdom's most influential LGBT rights groups, of which he remains a prominent spokesman.

[Continued here]

• Sir Ian McKellen [IMDb]
• Sir Ian McKellen's Official Home Page
• Sir Ian McKellen's first TV role rediscovered [BBC, May 24, 2011]
• McKellen takes gay tour to schools [The Guardian, April 12, 2011]

"Do you know any gay people?" asks Sir Ian McKellen asks. Silence. Heads shake. "Well, you do now. I'm gay." It's my turn to speak up. "You know two now. I used to go to this school - and I'm gay," I offer. "You know three now," a sixth-former chips in. The other pupils don't look too surprised, and he seems admirably comfortable in his sexuality. Silence. Then: "Erm. Well. You know four now." Heads shoot around to see a uniformed boy, leaning close to McKellen. Mouths fall slightly open - including mine - but nobody speaks. Then McKellen says, in that mellifluous voice of his, "Well. How about that? It turns out we all know quite a few more gay people than we thought we did."

This is the third month of McKellen's nationwide "role model" tour of secondary schools on behalf of Stonewall, the gay equality charity that he co-founded, and which I work for, and the two of us have come to Hundred of Hoo comprehensive in Kent, which I left over a decade ago.

• Sir Ian McKellen on why he never came out to parents as he fronts gay homelessness campaign [Pink News, June 26, 2011]

In the advertisement, Sir Ian says: "Perfectly ordinary loving parents faced with the knowledge that their child is gay are appalled and can't believe it. If they're a member of a society or a faith that disapproves of homosexuality, sometimes the first gay person in their life turns out to be their child. They can't cope. The instant reaction is: 'Get out of our house'. And you've got a child who is homeless simply because he or she told the truth."

Sir Ian explained to The Times why he never came out to his father (his mother died when he was just 12): "I first accepted I was gay when I was about 16 and I wasn't attracted to girls in the way that my friends were. I had this secret and there was nothing I could do about it because, as far as I knew, I was the only person." In reality, Sir Ian's two best friends were also hiding that they were gay and it wasn't until 20 years later that they discovered the truth.

• Sir Ian McKellen is pleased success came late [This Is Lancashire, August 28, 2011]

The X-Men star, who has prostate cancer, which he has to keep monitoring, says he talks about age a lot, but isn't angry about getting older. He said: "That would be very egotistical, thinking it wasn't appropriate for me to die.

"But of course, we all think we're immortal a little bit don't we. So working is a way of keeping mortality at bay." He added: "I have got prostate cancer and I have to keep monitoring that. It's no problem, it's under control and I'm very cool about it but other people are dying from it."

Bert and Ernie [Wikipedia]

Bert and Ernie are two roommates on the popular U.S. children's television show Sesame Street. The two appear together in numerous skits, forming a comic duo that is one of the centerpieces of the program. Originated by Frank Oz and Jim Henson, the characters are currently performed by Muppeteers Eric Jacobson and Steve Whitmire, with Oz performing Bert occasionally since 2000. ...

Bert and Ernie live together in an apartment in the basement of 123 Sesame Street. Bert and Ernie sleep in separate beds, though they still share a bedroom. Sesame Workshop states that the two are not homosexuals,[7] and some of Bert's interactions with female characters appear to show that he is attracted to women: serenading Connie Stevens in the Some Enchanted Evening segment of a first-season episode of The Muppet Show, and recording a song about his girlfriend, I Want to Hold Your Ear, which was released on several albums.

[Continued here]

• Is Bert from Sesame Street gay? [Telegraph, October 26, 2010]

The fact that he and his room-mate Ernie sport garish pyjamas and sleep side by side has not escaped viewers of the popular children's television show over the years.

But Bert has now ignited fresh debate about his sexuality after using a slang word for gay to describe himself.

• Sesame Street, Friends and Happy Days are being used to promote secret left wing messages, according to a new book [Telegraph, May 29, 2011]
• Alyssa Rosenberg: Bert And Ernie Shouldn't Get Married [Think Progress, August 5, 2011]

Some folks have gotten together a petition on Change.org calling on Sesame Street to have Bert and Ernie get married or for the show to add a transgender character. I'm not sure I have an opinion on the latter, but I'm pretty firmly against the idea that New York's two most famous roommates should tie the knot.

If Bert and Ernie were gay, I would be all for them bopping down to City Hall and getting hitched. But the characters aren't gay. People may want them to be gay, but the Sesame Workshop has repeatedly denied that either character is homosexual and that they are a couple, and I'm pretty firmly in favor of creators' rights to determine basic facts about their characters. We can debate the specifics of the characters' portrayal, but if Sesame Street says the pair isn't gay, it would be a bit odd to force them to get married because we want some role models. Archie Comics' approach, adding and firmly establishing a new gay characters, makes much more sense than this kind of justice-oriented retcon.

• Mary Elizabeth Williams: TV's greatest roommates: Bert and Ernie don't need to tie the knot — and neither did these classic cohabitators [Salon, August 12, 2011]

You can stop holding your breath for that Vows column announcing the union of longtime companions Bert and Ernie. Despite a recent groundswell to marry off the most enduring duo on "Sesame Street," the show's producers have announced definitively this week that "Bert and Ernie are best friends. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets do), they remain puppets and do not have a sexual orientation." Besides, Bert's the only gay one.

Society still may have a long way to go toward understanding -- and accepting -- the unique nature of puppet relationships. But the bigger question is -- can't two people sleep under the same roof without registering at Crate and Barrel? And in that spirit, we'd like to give a tip of the hat to television's other iconic roommates, the men and women who cohabitated without shacking up. Here's to you, Turk and J.D.; Will and Grace; Trapper John and Hawkeye; Janet, Jack and Chrissy and all the others who proved that splitting the rent doesn't mean you're soul mates.

• Michael Musto: Bert and Ernie Have No Sexual Orientation? [Village Voice, August 13, 2011]

"Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation."

There's just one problem with that.

Puppets do have a sexual orientation--when they're straight, that is.

After all, Miss Piggy is wild for a man, any man, especially Kermit, whom she regularly smothers with kisses in between tantrums. ...

But when it comes to the g word, children's show producers get all terrified into silence, saying sexuality is not an issue and the characters are just made out of cloth and fists.

• The Muppets and moi [The Guardian, November 23, 2011]

When it was announced on Tuesday that US TV broadcaster NBC has commissioned a script for a new series of the Muppets, the reaction among critics, commentators and tweeters was, frankly, remarkable. It is rare that a four-decades old franchise can announce a return to TV and prompt such unabashed enthusiasm as well as a total lack of cynicism about quality control. Everyone loves the Muppets - that goes without saying. More surprising is how many people want them back, creating, satirising, karate chopping.

The Muppets are definitely having what Miss Piggy would call, with a proud tilt of her snout and a toss of her blonde mane, "un petit moment". The Muppets, the latest Muppet movie, opens in America this week and magazines across the nation have enthusiastically taken advantage of this to feature the cloth-covered puppets on their covers, in all their anarchic glory.

• Coming Out Muppet: The Amazing, Gay Subtext of the New Muppets Movie [AlterNet, December 6, 2011]

The Muppets will save thousands of gay children. In American cinema, one of the rarest narratives is a joyful coming out story, and on the surface, The Muppets seems a simple reboot of a faded franchise. But watch again and you'll see Walter, the protagonist muppet, in the classic stages of gay liberation. At the film's climax he claims full muppethood-and through him, young viewers trapped in the wrong body can feel free.

• Remembering Muppet Performer Richard Hunt [Bilerico Project, January 7, 2012]

Richard Hunt joined the Muppets with his characteristic gregarious exuberance, cold-calling them from a Manhattan pay phone on a whim one beautiful June afternoon in 1970. He was 19, a year out of his North Jersey high school. "Hello, I'm a puppeteer, can you use me?" he asked cheerily. He was in luck: Jim Henson's company was auditioning for a new production that very afternoon. Hunt ran over and landed the gig.

Jim Henson (1936—1990) [Wikipedia]

James Maury "Jim" Henson... was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for projects like Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. He was also an Oscar-nominated film director, Emmy Award-winning television producer, and the founder of The Jim Henson Company, the Jim Henson Foundation, and Jim Henson's Creature Shop. He died of Streptococcus pyogenes on May 16, 1990.

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Barry Manilow (1943— ) [Wikipedia]

Barry Manilow... is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana (At the Copa)." ...

Manilow's well-known association with Bette Midler began at the Continental [gay steam] Baths in New York City.

[Continued here]

• Fears grow for Barry Manilow as he drops to SEVEN STONE [Daily Mail, July 17, 2008]

The spiky blond hair and the famous nose are as recognisable as ever.

Walking along the beach in Malibu, however, Barry Manilow looks a shadow of his former self.

While during his long career the singer could never have been described as porky, it seems that recently his weight has plummeted. ...

A spokesman for Manilow denied that he had slimmed down to just over 7st or that he is in ill health.

• Barry Manilow: He's made it through the rain, one marriage and a quixotic bathhouse past [Pittsburg Examiner, July 5, 2009]

Many organizations receive proceeds, including a handful of those helping raise AIDS awareness, including Aid for AIDS of Nevada, the AIDS Project Los Angeles, AIDS Research Alliance of America and the AIDS Walk of Los Angeles.

Yet, throughout the years, Manilow has made every attempt to conceal his sexual orientation. Few know Manilow was married to Susan Deixler, his high school "sweetheart," whom he callously dumped while on his quest to have fame and fortune enter his front or back door. Manilow makes a fleeting reference to Deixler in his 1987 autobiography Sweet Life; without naming her, he recalls her as "adorable, small with great legs and a voluptuous figure." Less than a year later, he abruptly left Susan, telling her he was going on "this wondrous musical adventure that I saw within my reach." On January 6, 1966, a annulment decree was signed. A cousin of Deixler claims that "the marriage was annulled for not being consummated."

Ouch!

Perhaps he'll never be ready to take a chance again. During a 2004 concert at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Manilow made homophobic remarks. Just as he started to sing a duet with Brian d'Arcy James, Manilow quipped to the crowd, "Of course, we're not going to sing it to each other-that would be creepy."

The comment forced an apology out of Manilow's camp, who insisted "the line was meant lightheartedly," and that Manilow was "very sorry if he offended anyone."

When the camper was directly asked if Manilow was gay, she said, "no comment."

• A post about Barry Manilow, Ron Paul, and libertarian hypocrisy [the reaction, September 15, 2011]

If, like me, you think Barry Manilow is really, truly, and utterly terrible, or, in a word, sucks, you probably don't know much about his politics. I mean, how would you? You probably don't pay him much attention at all. And understandably so.

Well, it seems that Manilow is actually a huge Ron Paul supporter.

"For me, it's that I contributed, ... That I'm on this planet doing some good and making
people happy. That's to me the most important thing, that my hour of television is
positive and upbeat and an antidote for all the negative stuff going on in life."



Ellen DeGeneres (1958— ) [Wikipedia]

Ellen DeGeneres... is an American stand-up comedienne, television host and actress. She hosts the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and was also a judge on American Idol for one year, having joined the show in its ninth season.

DeGeneres has hosted both the Academy Awards and the Primetime Emmys. As a film actress, she starred in Mr. Wrong, appeared in EDtv and The Love Letter, and provided the voice of Dory in the Disney-Pixar animated film Finding Nemo, for which she was awarded a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first and only time a voice performance won a Saturn Award.

She also starred in two television sitcoms, Ellen from 1994 to 1998 and The Ellen Show from 2001 to 2002. During the fourth season of Ellen in 1997, DeGeneres came out publicly as a lesbian in an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Shortly afterwards, her character Ellen Morgan also came out to a therapist played by Winfrey, and the series went on to explore various LGBT issues including the coming out process. ...

Since 2004, DeGeneres has had a relationship with former Ally McBeal and Arrested Development star Portia de Rossi. After the overturn of the same-sex marriage ban in California, DeGeneres announced on a May 2008 show that she and de Rossi were engaged,[30][31] and gave de Rossi a three-carat pink diamond ring. They were married on August 16, 2008 at their home, with nineteen guests including their mothers. The passage of Proposition 8 cast doubt on the legal status of their marriage but a subsequent Supreme Court judgment validated it because it occurred before November 4, 2008.

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• Ellen, 'Idol' and the Power of Niceness [New York Times, March 31, 2010]
• Ellen DeGeneres index [New York Times]
• What Ellen DeGeneres Doesn't Understand About Hollywood [The Atlantic, October 7, 2011]

• Clinton chooses Ellen as special AIDS envoy [Sydney Star Observer, November 9, 2011]

"The enormous platform of your television show and your social media channels will enable you to reach millions of people with the strong and hopeful message that we can win this fight."

Responding to her State Department appointment, DeGeneres said in a statement that she was honoured to have been chosen by Clinton.

• Ellen Stands Up to Right-Wing Gay Bashing Group [AlterNet, February 9, 2012]

The conservative Christian group One Million Moms is angry. Angry like just-missed-an-awesome-sale angry. Sure, the down-home-sounding offshoot of the reliably right-wing American Family Association exists in a perpetual state of twisted knickers. It's whipped itself into a frenzy of indignation at the not-quite-exclusionary-enough tactics of Macy's, Levi's, Jenny Craig and Oreos in just the past few months. But its outrage at JC Penney, the jeans supplier to at least 800,000 of those million moms, is especially intense of late.

At issue is the group's contention that by hiring Ellen DeGeneres for a new campaign, the department store is "jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon" and turning away from "traditional families." The organization warns darkly that "Unless JC Penney decides to be neutral in the culture war then their brand transformation will be unsuccessful." There is so much to love in that sentence alone. Culture war! Brand transformation! Fearless disregard for the rules of comma usage after a subordinate clause! "The majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended," they continue, "and choose to no longer shop there."

JC Penney, however, which recently declared that "We share the same fundamental values as Ellen," has remained unmoved from its perch on a "pro-gay bandwagon" in the midst of a "culture war." (I hope that bandwagon is reinforced.) Also unmoved: the woman at the center of the controversy.

• Ellen DeGeneres named Mark Twain Prize recipient [Washington Post, May 15, 2012]

"It's such an honor to receive the Mark Twain Prize. To get the same award that has been given to people like Bill Cosby, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell, it really makes me wonder .?.?. why didn't I get this sooner?"

Ricky Martin (1971— ) [Wikipedia]

On March 29, 2010, Martin publicly acknowledged his homosexuality in a post on his official web site by stating, "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am." Martin said that "these years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within, and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn't even know existed." In 2010, prior to Martin coming out, Barbara Walters expressed some regret for pushing Martin in a 2000 interview to admit if he was gay. The Toronto Star quoted her as saying, "When I think back on it now, I feel it was an inappropriate question."

[Continued here]

• Ricky Martin [IMDb]
• I am proud to be gay, says pop star Ricky Martin [BBC, March 30, 2010]

Martin, who has sold more than 60 million albums, said in a statement on his website he was "proud to say" he was "a fortunate homosexual man". ...

"Not sharing with the world my entire truth" about his sexuality, he continued, had become "a self-fulfilling prophecy of sabotage".

• Ricky Martin Asked To Stop Promoting Being Gay [On Top, April 13, 2011]

Cardinal Luis Aponte Martinez of San Juan, Puerto Rico has asked singer Ricky Martin to set a good example for young people and stop promoting being gay.

In an interview with Primera Hora published late last week, Martinez railed against the Puerto Rican father of twin boys Matteo and Valentino. Martin announced he's gay last March.

• Ricky Martin: 'I hated it when people tried to force me to come out' [The Guardian, July 3, 2011]

• Ricki Martin Opens Up About His Boyfriend, Carlos [Huffington Post, April 16, 2011]

Ricki Martin finally opens up about his boyfriend, Carlos Gonzalez on VH1's 'Behind the Music'. From Menudo to "Livin' La Vida Loca," he talks about his ups and downs as the face of Latino pop. Although he still makes the ladies go gaga, he doesn't have to pretend anymore.

• Ricky Martin granted Spanish citizenship [Pink News, November 4, 2011]

The star, who came out in 2009 reportedly wants to take advantage of Spain's gay marriage laws.

Spokesman Jose Blanco told a news conference that ministers had agreed to grant him a "letter of naturalization", issued in special circumstances, because of his "personal and professional links with Spain".

Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that Martin sought citizenship in order to marry boyfriend Carlos Gonzalez Abella, with whom he is bringing up his twin three-year-old sons.

• Ricky Martin featured with sons and partner in Spain's Vanity Fair [Gay Star News, March 21, 2012]

The cozy family portrait another sign that the singer is growing more comfortable in being more public about his relationship with Abell.

Boy George (1961— ) [Wikipedia]

Boy George (born George Alan O'Dowd...) is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by rhythm and blues and reggae. His 1990s and 2000s-era solo music has glam influences such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop. He also founded and was lead singer of Jesus Loves You during the period 1989-1992. Being involved in many activities (among them songwriting, DJing, writing books, designing clothes and photography), he has released fewer music recordings in the last decade. ...

When Boy George was with Culture Club, much was made of his androgynous appearance, and there was speculation about his sexuality. When asked in interviews, George gave various answers. He gave a famous, often quoted response to an interviewer that he preferred "a nice cup of tea" to sex.

In Take It Like a Man, George told his side of his secret relationships with punk rock singer Kirk Brandon and Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. He stated many of the songs he wrote for Culture Club were directed at Moss. However, one of Culture Club's biggest hits "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" was about Brandon. Moss acknowledged that he had a sexual and romantic relationship with George, but Brandon denies he ever had a relationship with George.

In 2006, in an episodic documentary directed by Simon George titled The Madness of Boy George, George declared on camera he was "militantly gay". In a 2008 documentary directed by Mike Nichols titled Living with Boy George, he talks about his first realisation he was gay, and when he first told his parents. He discloses that he understands why men fall in love with one another as well as with women.

[Continued here]

• Out, the new Boy George appeared thinner with a healthy glow after stint in prison [Daily Mail, May 12, 2009]

When life's getting you down, a bit of time out can be just the tonic you need.

Although most of us would choose the restorative powers of a beach and a parasol, four months in jail seems to have done the trick for Boy George.

The Eighties pop star was jailed in January for falsely imprisoning a rent boy. The court case took its toll on him, leaving him looking overweight and exhausted.

Yesterday, as the 47-year-old singer and DJ, whose real name is George O'Dowd, emerged from Edmunds Hill prison in Suffolk, he gave a cheery Benny Hill-style salute and a grin, showing that he was refreshed and raring to go.

• Interview: Boy George, King of Queens [Pink News, December 12, 2011]

Our interview begins four hours later than scheduled. Boy George has a good excuse: he got stuck in a lift with ten other people in Hampstead underground station and afterwards had to rush to an Italian singing lesson. It turns out George is recording a limited edition EP in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care. The new release will feature him singing four songs in Italian, celebrating the great Italian ballads of the 1960s and backed by a full orchestra and choir.

Roland Emmerich (1955— ) [Wikipedia]

Roland Emmerich... is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films, most of which are Hollywood productions filmed in English, have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide, more than those of any other European director. His films have grossed just over $1 billion in the United States, making him the country's 14th-highest grossing director of all time. He began his work in the film industry by directing the film The Noah's Ark Principle as part of his university thesis and also co-founded Centropolis Entertainment in 1985 with his sister. He is a collector of art and an active campaigner for the lesbian and gay community, himself being openly gay. He is also a campaigner for an awareness of global warming and equal rights. ...

Emmerich has claimed that he witnessed overt racism when producers and studio executives were opposed to allowing him to cast Will Smith for the lead in Independence Day, and reluctant to allow him to portray an interracial couple in The Day After Tomorrow. He has also claimed that he has encountered homophobia from the same groups, and is vocal in his opposition of such behavior. He has stated that sometimes he does "[not like working in] the movie business", describing it as a sometimes "very cold, brutal business", but his motivation to keep directing is that he genuinely "like[s] making movies".

In 2006, he pledged $150,000 to the Legacy Project, a campaign dedicated to gay and lesbian film preservation. Emmerich made the donation on behalf of Outfest, making it the largest gift in the festival's history. In 2007, on behalf of the LGBT community, he held a fundraiser at his Los Angeles home for Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

[Continued here]

• Roland Emmerich [IMDb]
• Roland Emmerich index [The Guardian]
• Shelved Roland Emmerich movie may signal decline of the 'found footage' film [The Guardian, November 10, 2010]

"I like stressing and grafting and stretching myself."



Andrew Garfield (1983— ) [Wikipedia]

Andrew Russell Garfield... is an American-English actor who has appeared in radio, theatre, film, and television. His early roles include the films Lions for Lambs, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Boy A, which garnered him the 2007 BAFTA Television Award for "Best Actor".

Garfield achieved wider recognition and critical acclaim for his role in the 2010 Academy Award-winning film The Social Network, for which he received two BAFTA nominations a Golden Globe nomination. He has been cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the franchise's reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man. Garfield is a dual citizen of the U.S. and the U.K.

[Continued here]

• Andrew Garfield [IMDb]
• London's Beautiful Boys: An interview with Gavin Brocker and Andrew Garfield [Gaydar Nation, January 4, 2006]
• Andrew Garfield talks about the size of his Spidey package [Entertainment Weekly, August 11, 2011]

"I am a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the
altar of language and purity and tolerance."



Stephen Fry (1957— ) [Wikipedia]

Stephen John Fry... is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also included Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Tony Slattery. With Hugh Laurie, as the comedy double act Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry & Laurie, and the duo also played the title roles in Jeeves and Wooster. ...

Fry struggled to keep his homosexuality secret during his teenage years at public school, and has claimed not to have engaged in sexual activity for 16 years from 1979 until 1995. When asked when he first acknowledged his sexuality, Fry quipped: "I suppose it all began when I came out of the womb. I looked back up at my mother and thought to myself, 'That's the last time I'm going up one of those.'" Fry was in a 14-year relationship with Daniel Cohen, which ended in 2010.

[Continued here]

• The New Adventures of Mr. Stephen Fry [StephenFry.com]
• Fry worships at the court of Gaga: Stars meet up for unlikely interview in the Financial Times
[Daily Mail, May 28, 2011]

Readers of the Financial Times were no doubt taken aback by an unlikely interview between intellectual maestro Stephen Fry and outrageous pop singer Lady Gaga.

The two stars have very different groups of fans, but somehow they gelled over the course of the interview with Fry in particular overcome with admiration for the pop superstar.

Throughout the feature he gushes about the Bad Romance singer, unable to contain his unwavering respect for Gaga.

• Why I may commit suicide one day, by 'exhausted' Stephen Fry [Daily Mail, June 2, 2011]

Stephen Fry finds the demands of fame 'exhausting' - and fears he may one day kill himself.

In a TV interview to be screened tonight, the 53-year-old broadcaster discusses his struggles with bipolar disorder.

George Michael (1963— ) [Wikipedia]

George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou...)... is an English musician, singer-songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! along with his school friend Andrew Ridgeley. His first solo single, "Careless Whisper" was released when he was still in the duo and sold about six million copies worldwide. ...

In a 2007 interview, Michael admitted that he hid the fact he is gay because of worries over the effect it might have on his mother.

[Continued here]

• George Michael takes steps to put record straight on gay lifestyle [The Independent, May 12, 2011]

George Michael will record a new album with a "collective" of gay musicians, aimed at a young gay audience, as an apology for the homophobia that he believes his turbulent private life has inadvertently generated.

• 'I've let gay kids down': George Michael apologises to gay community for his behaviour over the years [Daily Mail, May 12, 2011]
• George Michael jailed for eight weeks for drug driving [BBC, September 14, 2010]
• George Michael postpones rest of tour due to pneumonia [CNN, November 25, 2011]
• George Michael's condition worsened overnight say doctors [Vienna Times, November 26, 2011]

Meanwhile Austrian paper Kurier linked the star's condition with an HIV infection, pointing out that although the star has consistently denied suffering from HIV it was a known symptom that the condition led to a weakened immune system.

The paper said: "The constant rumours of a possible HIV infection are not going away. In 1993 his partner Anselmo Feleppa died from AIDS. The British singer has always denied that he is HIV positive.

"But a poor immune system is an indicator of an HIV infection. He has already had to cancel a performance a month ago because of a virus infection. The deciding factor on whether a person gets a lung infection is often the state of their immune system. Patients with a poor immune system whatever the reason is for that have a higher risk of a lung infection."

AKH spokeswoman Karin Fehringer said: "We have no comment to make on this matter at the request of the patient." But a hospital insider confirmed to Central European News that the singer's condition had worsened. He said: "I have not seen him myself but cardiac specialists and internists are treating him round the clock." Internists specialise in treating adults with multi-system disease problems in hospitals.

• Michael Musto: George Michael's Flack: "It's Not AIDS!" [Village Voice, November 26, 2011]

"HIV" is a dirty word, even if you're a pop star who came out after having been busted for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public bathroom, later getting nabbed again for a similar deed in a park.

• George Michael Blasts Christian Group Who Prayed For His Death [Huffington Post, January 4, 2012]

George Michael has launched a tirade of criticism on Twitter against a Christian group who prayed for his death whilst he battled life-threatening pneumonia last month.

The openly gay singer, who was taken ill at AKH hospital in Vienna, Austria last November, has been criticised by religious group Christians For A Moral America, who suggested the former Wham! star was suffering from AIDS and that he deserved to die because of his sexuality.

Taking to Twitter after 'a few glasses of vino' last night, George called the group "c**ksucking b***ards".

David Hyde Pierce (1959— ) [Wikipedia]

David Hyde Pierce... is an American actor and comedian best known for playing psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier, for which he received many accolades including four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. ...

After years of speculation about his sexuality, his relationship with long-time partner, television writer, director and producer, Brian Hargrove, became public in 2007. Pierce later confirmed through his publicist that he and Hargrove were indeed a couple. When accepting his Tony Award for Curtains, Pierce thanked "my partner, Brian, because it's 24 years of listening to your damn notes - that's why I'm up here tonight." They married in California on October 24, 2008, just days before Proposition 8 was adopted as law, banning same-sex marriages in the state. He has twins from a previous relationship that were born in 1983.

On May 28, 2009, while a guest on The View, he publicly announced his marriage to Hargrove and expressed his anger over the approval of Proposition 8. Pierce and Hargrove divide their time between New York and Los Angeles.

[Continued here]

• David Hyde Pierce [IMDb]
• David Hyde Pierce On His Marriage, Prop 8 Anger [Huffington Post, May 28, 2009]

"Brian and I always kept a low profile, we didn't hide our lives," Pierce told the ladies. "We got married very quietly last October 24 and thought that was fine, and then suddenly the state of California said, 'no it's not.'"

Pierce went on to say, "Can you imagine if you're married the people in your state getting together and saying, no you're not... It was a very angry-making decision... It's none of your business."

Neil Patrick Harris (1973— ) [Wikipedia]

Harris is openly gay, confirming this in November 2006 by saying "...I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."

Harris attended the Emmy awards in September 2007 with his partner David Burtka, later confirming the relationship, which began in 2004, in an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. On August 14, 2010, Harris announced that he and Burtka were expecting twins via a surrogate mother. Fraternal twins Gideon Scott, a boy, and Harper Grace, a girl, were born on October 12, 2010.

[Continued here]

• Neil Patrick Harris [IMDb]
• Neil Patrick Harris' 2011 Tony Awards Opening Number Broadway, It's Not Just for Gays Anymore [YouTube]
• E! Locks David Burtka Into Talent Deal [Hollywood Reporter, December 5, 2011]
• When Stars Collide [Out, January 18, 2012]

I ran into my friend Kate one day and she was with this brooding, James Dean-type guy in a leather jacket who gave me the head nod and then turned away. I assumed he was Kate's boyfriend and said, "Nicely done." And she said, "David? He's not playing on my team, but he has a boyfriend." So, then I just kept seeing him on the periphery, and in turn, catching up on him, but I didn't want to be that guy who was creating some sort of romantic interference. So, I was always around when he was around, hoping the stars would align. When we all hung out for the first time -- I was invited by Kate to an American Idol viewing party -- I just stammered around him. I couldn't take my eyes off him.

James Franco (1978— ) [Wikipedia]

James Edward Franco... is an American actor, film director, screenwriter, film producer, author, painter, and performance artist. He left college in order to pursue acting and started off his career by making guest appearances on television series in the 1990s. Franco landed a lead part on the short-lived cult hit television program Freaks and Geeks and later achieved recognition for playing the titular character in the TV biopic James Dean (2001), for which he was awarded a Golden Globe Award. He achieved international fame with his portrayals of Harry Osborn in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.

Franco has been acclaimed for both dramatic and comedic work in projects and has appeared in an eclectic range of projects since the 2000s. Ranging from period to contemporary pieces, and from major Hollywood productions to less publicized indie films, as well as fantasy movies to biopics and soap operas. Other notable films include Pineapple Express, a stoner comedy that earned him his second Golden Globes nomination, the Harvey Milk-biopic Milk (both 2008) as well as Danny Boyle's 2010 movie 127 Hours, about real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston's struggle to free his hand from a boulder. His performance in 127 Hours earned him nominations for many high-profile awards, including the Academy Awards, Golden Globe and SAG Awards. ...

n 2008, he was named as the new face of Gucci's men's fragrance line. Viewed as a sex symbol, Franco was named the Sexiest Man Living in 2009 by Salon.com. In response to questions regarding his sexuality now that he has portrayed three gay characters during his acting career, he insists he finds plenty more dimensions to the characters than their bedroom proclivities. "Or, you know what," he quipped, "maybe I'm just gay."

[Continued here]

• James Franco [IMDb]
• Acting clever: James Franco [The Guardian, January 24, 2009]

When Judd Apatow first met James Franco around 10 years ago, he thought the 20-year-old was funny, strange, skinny and very greasy. He couldn't understand why women found him so attractive. Still, the producer cast the intense young actor in Freaks And Geeks, a critically acclaimed American television drama about two groups of teenagers at high school in the 1980s. After shooting the pilot, Franco flew himself to Michigan to research his role at the scriptwriter's old high school. Everyone thought he was crazy.

But this was just the start of there being madness in the method acting: back in 2001, Franco played James Dean in an American television biopic. He did a decent job and won a Golden Globe. Yet inhabiting James Dean came at a price. "I got it into my head that I needed to be isolated and so told my girlfriend at the time that I wouldn't be talking to her for four months," he recalls. "It did not go down well. We finally made a compromise where I talked to her for an hour a week on the phone. I no longer do that."

• The many lives of James Franco [The Guardian, February 20, 2011]

I fear I have wounded James Franco's manhood. "Is that you?" I had asked, referring to some film in his new art exhibition that features a closeup of a penis emitting an arc of urine. "You think that's what I look like?" he spluttered. I don't know, James - didn't you wear a prosthetic for Milk? "That's a 75-year-old man!" he says, before pointing out, with good humour, the grey hairs I had failed to notice.

If you go to Berlin and check out Franco's first European exhibition, at the hip gallery Peres Projects, you should probably know that that's not his bottom you can see defecating in On Masculinity and Me, either. He does feature in a lot of his art, though. "Everything I do, I look for opportunities to collaborate with people," he says. And if that means persuading others to go to the toilet on camera, so be it.

• James Franco Explains Oscars, Talks Gay Rapist Rumors, Slams Critics In 'Playboy' [Huffington Post, July 11, 2011]

In a Hollywood filled with seemingly 2D stars, flattened against a wall for public consumption by agents, managers and PR flaks, James Franco stands out as a multi-dimensional multi-hyphenate anomaly. How one sees Franco, then, truly depends on the angle at which they choose to view him.

An actor/director/writer/student/author/artist, Franco is talented for sure, but can give off alternating hints of mysterious and open, high minded and down to earth, opaque and transparent. His prolific past few years have, thanks in part to the squadron of opinions on the internet and late night shows, been both celebrated and maligned, with his less than successful turn as Oscar co-host alongside Anne Hathaway coming in as by far the most buzzed about -- and criticized -- public moment.

• The James Franco Project [New York magazine, July 25, 2010]

James Franco will not stop bouncing around. We're standing on the sixth floor of a building at NYU, in the Department of Cinema Studies, outside a small theater. He's wearing a standard grad-student uniform: washed-out jeans, charcoal sweater, gray sneakers, messy hair. His face-the face whose sculpted smoothness has won him countless film roles, and a Gucci endorsement, and daily floods of heartsick prose poetry on Internet comment boards-has been abducted by a mildly disturbing mustache. (He had to grow it for a role, he says.) We've just finished listening to a lecture by the performance artist Marina Abramovic-a talk Franco introduced with a charming but rambling overview of Abramovic's career: the time she screamed herself hoarse, the time she took medication to give herself seizures, the time she cut her own hand with a knife, the time she ate an entire raw onion. It's unclear whether people have come tonight to see Abramovic or Franco or just the symbiotic fusion of the two-this rare public marriage of Hollywood and art-world stars.

• James Franco's long-con of sexuality and fake art [Salon, July 20, 2011]

James Franco may be the greatest Icarus metaphor in celebrity culture today. After a great wave of interest in the actor/artist/student/teacher/whatever for the past two years, the media has slowly turned on the handsome renaissance man ever since he bombed as co-host of the Academy Awards.

Franco responded by going into hiding: deleting his Twitter account, sequestering himself to work on his new album with Kalup Linzy and his various academic pursuits, and generally staying away from the burning spotlight that seared his wings. But today ... today James Franco has reemerged, resplendent in gossip and new artistic endeavors. Turns out, he hasn't learned anything at all in the past three months. Welcome to Franco 3.0.

• The Artist vs The Professor [Lainey Gossip, December 20, 2011]

In short, Dr Jose Angel Santana was an assistant arts professor at NYU. He failed James Franco for only attending 2 of his 14 lectures. Then the university fired him. He claims he was fired because he refused to suck Franco's celebrity dick. He also claims that "the school has bent over backwards to create a Franco-friendly environment, that's for sure. The university has done everything in its power to curry favour with James Franco." This also includes his colleagues. Santana alleges that two faculty members have benefited from a relationship with James Franco, Student, Artist, Everything, by collaborating with him on a few of his projects.

• James Franco to Play Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in Tribeca-Backed Project [Hollywood Reporter, January 12, 2012]

Jake Shears (1978— ) [Wikipedia]

Jake Shears... is the lead male vocalist for the American music group Scissor Sisters.

[Continued here]

• Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears Loves Feeling Sexy. Lucky Us! [After Elton, May 26, 2010 ]
• Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears Honored to Write 'Tales of the City' Musical [Rolling Stone, April 27, 2011]

It didn't take much to persuade Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears to get involved with a musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City novels. "I got an email from [librettist Jeff Whitty] wondering if I'd be interested in a musical that took place in the Seventies and had kinda fun themes that involved gays, copious drug use and trannies," he says. "I said, 'Of course - what is it?'"

"You know, the relationship we're in is going into nine years. You know
how it is — it's work. Relationships are work."



k.d. lang (1961— ) [Wikipedia]

Kathryn Dawn Lang, OC..., known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. She styles her name in lowercase letters, with the given names contracted to initials and no space between these initials.

Lang has won both Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical performances; hits include "Constant Craving" and "Miss Chatelaine". She has contributed songs to movie soundtracks and has teamed with musicians such as Roy Orbison, Tony Bennett, Elton John, and Anne Murray. Lang is also known for being a vegan as well as an animal rights, gay rights, and Tibetan human rights activist. She is a tantric practitioner of the Old School of Tibetan Buddhism. She performed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" live at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. ...

Lang, who came out as a lesbian in a 1992 article of the LGBT-related news magazine The Advocate, has actively championed gay rights causes. She has performed and supported many causes over the years, including HIV/AIDS care and research. Her cover of Cole Porter's "So in Love" (from the Broadway musical, Kiss Me, Kate), appears on the Red Hot + Blue compilation album and video from 1990 (a tribute to Cole Porter to benefit AIDS research and relief). Her 2010 Greatest Hits album, Recollection, also includes this cover of "So in Love".

[Continued here]

• Constant calling [The Age, February 7, 2010]

Buddhist, vegetarian and lesbian. Even k.d. lang wonders why sometimes she doesn't inspire fervent annoyance in some people. ''It's something I worry about,'' admits the singer, with a warm laugh. ''I myself don't really like categorisation, but I find myself naturally categorised because I'm in the public eye. I think they're just concepts. And you know, you can tick a thousand boxes and you'd still not be exactly what people think you are.''

Globally, the 48-year-old is a lesbian icon, one of Canada's best-known performers, and a musician whose general appeal has broken through countless barriers in mainstream society.

The four-time Grammy winner says she never felt bad about being different, even as a sports-loving, artistic, tomboyish kid in the small Canadian prairie town of Consort, Alberta, where her dad owned the local pharmacy. ''My view of living in a small country town is actually that it gives you more opportunity to be eclectic. Because in a city you sort of naturally gravitate towards like-minded people, but in the country, it's more like pioneering your own spirit,'' says lang.

• Classic k.d. lang: Long Live the Lang Thang [Curve, March 5, 2009]

Is she, in fact, happy? Yes, definitely. Both within herself and with her partner of six years, Jamie Price. Both are Buddhists who live clean lives, which means being vegetarian, working out, practicing daily meditation and cultivating a coveted private existence in Los Angeles, where media coverage can often be blinding. Today, lang has carved out a sacred personal life, which she and Price have studiously and deliberately protected.

• k.d. Lang Dissolves Domestic Partnership with Jamie Price [She Wired, January 10, 2012]

Lang and Price met in 2003 at an event held by a Buddhist teacher, according to an interview with Curve. ...

Lang and Price became domestic partners in California and made their home together in the Los Angeles hills.

"Let the little fairy in you fly!"



Rufus Wainwright (1973— ) [Wikipedia]

Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright... is a Canadian American singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. ...

Wainwright acknowledged that he was gay while a teenager. In 1999, he told Rolling Stone that his father recognized his homosexuality early on. "We'd drive around in the car, he'd play 'Heart of Glass' and I'd sort of mouth the words, pretend to be Blondie. Just a sign of many other things to come as well." Wainwright later said in another interview that his "mother and father could not even handle me being gay. We never talked about it really." ...

In April 2010, Wainwright came out publicly in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States because he wishes to marry his partner, Jörn Weisbrodt. Wainwright stated, "I wasn't a huge gay marriage supporter before I met Jörn because I love the whole old-school promiscuous Oscar Wilde freak show of what 'being gay' once was. But since meeting Jörn that all changed."

[Continued here]

• Rufus Wainwright [IMDb]
• Rufus Wainwright index [The Guardian]
• Rufus Wainwright Takes A Trip Down Memory Lane With Interactive Fan Timeline [arjanwrites.com, July, 2011]

To celebrate his upcoming residency at the Royal Opera House in London and the release of the "House Of Rufus" box set, singer Rufus Wainwright has partnered with Memolane to create an interactive timeline of his career. It's a crowd-sourced, fan-made interactive scrapbook that draws on social network data that is continually updated as new content gets posted.

• Rufus Wainwright to marry [Sydney Star Observer, March 6, 2012]

The Canadian crooner has been with theatre producer Jorn Weisbrodt for five years. They plan to marry in Montauk on August 23.

Wainwright had previously said he wasn't interested in marriage.

Adam Lambert (1982— ) [Wikipedia]

Adam Mitchel Lambert... is an American singer, songwriter, and actor from San Diego, California. In May 2009, he finished as the runner-up on the eighth season of American Idol. The Times identified Lambert as one of the few openly gay mainstream pop artists to launch a career on a major label in the United States.

[Continued here]

• Adam Lambert: America's First Gay 'Idol'? [ABC News]

There's the eyeliner. There's the YouTube video in which he declares kissing girls is "not necessarily" his preference. There are the Web photos of him making out with guys.

None of it seems to matter.

Adam Lambert appears to be this year's chosen "American Idol" contestant, whatever his sexuality may be, signaling a shift from the moral scrutiny once piled on "Idol" contestants.

• Adam Lambert and the Burden of Being First [Think Progress, June 13, 2011]
• Adam Lambert And His Mother Leila to Be Honored [LezGetReal, September 25, 2011]

Adam Lambert is one of those musicians who people love. This includes the fact that he has been rated as the guest judge that everyone loves on Project Runway. Well, now, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) will be honoring Lambert and his mother tonight at the LA Event in Beverly Hills, CA.

This past June, Leila Lambert and Betty DeGeneres, the mothers of celebrities Adam and Ellen, marched side-by-side at the West Hollywood Gay Pride Parade while wearing matching red PFLAG t-shirts. In fact, Adam was so proud of his mother that he tweeted a pick of the two saying "Look how sweet! My beautiful mother Leila marching in the Gay Pride Parade for PFLAG (that's Ellen's mom to the left!)."

• Adam Lambert In The Advocate: Singer Dishes On New Album, Boyfriend And Being Gay [Huffington Post, October 19, 2011]

Adam Lambert's rise from "American Idol" runner-up to gay cultural icon has been truly unprecedented in the fickle world of pop music. But as the singer reveals in a new interview with The Advocate, he has mixed feelings about his role within the LGBT community.

Though Lambert is actively involved with both the Trevor Project and Equality California, he says he hopes to achieve more of a balance between advocacy and performance as his career continues to progress. "How many ways can I spell G-A-Y? Everybody knows I'm gay," he says. "What am I going to be known for in 15 years? I want to be known for my music, that's my art. That's what I'm contributing actively."

• Lawsuit Suggests Adam Lambert Was Ineligible for 'American Idol' [Hollywood Reporter, November 4, 2011]

A new lawsuit suggests that Adam Lambert may have violated the rules of American Idol when he agreed to appear on the eighth season of the hit reality competition show. The singer is now facing a lawsuit that alleges that he's still under a Music Services Agreement and a Co-publishing Agreement from a company he worked with prior to hitting it big on Idol, and that he has violated the company's rights in his mega-selling post-Idol career.

• Reinventing Adam Lambert [The Advocate, October 17, 2011]

American Idol's most interesting graduate has a new album in the works, a new relationship, and a new attitude toward the media that prompted him to sing "Whataya Want From Me" ...

Lambert is of two minds when it comes to gay visibility and his place as a gay cultural figure. He's become increasingly involved with gay rights organizations, yet he asks, "How many ways can I spell G-A-Y? Everybody knows I'm gay. And the thing that's hard is, where's there balance for me? I'm a musician and I'm writing music. I'm also becoming more involved sociopolitically, I'm getting involved with the Trevor Project and Equality California - these are things that I really do care about. But I do want to maintain a balance. What am I going to be known for in 15 years? I want to be known for my music, that's my art. That's what I'm contributing actively. I think visibility is a great tool, and that's one other reason that I've been so verbal about it, but the irony is that here we are, talking about it."

• Adam Lambert Joining Queen: Singer Teaming Up With Brian May And Roger Taylor [Huffington Post, February 3, 2012]

Carole Pope (1950— ) [Wikipedia]

Carole Pope... is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, whose provocative blend of hard-edged New Wave rock with explicit homoerotic and BDSM-themed lyrics made her one of the first openly lesbian famous entertainers in the world. She is the sister of Emmy Award-winning television producer and screenwriter Elaine Pope.

Pope was raised in Scarborough, Ontario, where she met her longtime musical partner, Kevan Staples at an audition for another band. In 1968, they began performing together as a duo in Yorkville, which was Toronto's live music and arts district at the time. In 1970, they adopted the name O, changing it to The Bullwhip Brothers the following year.

In 1975, they added several other musicians to the lineup and changed the band's name to Rough Trade. Pope often performed in black leather pants and bondage attire.

[Continued here]

• Carole Pope confidential [Toronto Star, March 20, 2008]

If you think the passing of time might have turned Carole Pope all warm and fuzzy, then think again.

She's coming back to Buddies in Bad Times Saturday and Sunday night along with guest comic Elvira Kurt and in her own inimitable words, "There will be acoustic, there will be jokes, there will be blood."

The woman dubbed "The Raunch Queen" in her heyday with Rough Trade 30 years ago is still capable of lobbing a conversational grenade into the room with the best of them.

Gil Scott-Heron (1949—2011) [Wikipedia]

Gil Scott-Heron... was an American poet, musician, and author known primarily for his late 1970s and early 1980s work as a spoken word performer and his collaborative soul works with musician Brian Jackson. His collaborative efforts with Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues and soul music, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. The music of these albums, most notably Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. Scott-Heron's recording work is often associated with black militant activism and has received much critical acclaim for one of his most well-known compositions "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". His poetic style has been influential upon every generation of hip hop since his popularity began. In addition to being widely considered an influence in today's music, Scott-Heron remained active until his death, and in 2010 released his first new album in 16 years, entitled I'm New Here.

[Continued here]

• Gil Scott-Heron's Rap [Village Voice, July 17, 2001]

On a rainy Sunday night last fall, Detective William Velasquez and Michael Pardo, two undercover cops from the Northern Manhattan Initiative, a special NYPD narcotics task force, were making 'observation arrests' from an unmarked, green Ford Windstar van. They were driving down Amsterdam Avenue, at about five miles an hour, when Velasquez saw 'an older black male, gray hair and beard, not dressed too well," walk up to a younger black man near the corner of 147th Street, chat for a few minutes, and "do a little handshake thing." Then the older man placed something in his pocket.

• US musician and poet Gil Scott-Heron dies at 62 [BBC, May 28, 2011]

Lemn Sissay, a friend of Scott-Heron's who produced a documentary on his work, told the BBC he was "a polymath" who "spoke crucially of the issues of his people".

• Gil Scott-Heron dies aged 62 [The Guardian, May 28, 2011]

Scott-Heron's spoken word recordings helped shape the emerging hip-hop culture. Generations of rappers cite his work as an influence.

He was known as the Godfather of Rap but disapproved of the title, preferring to describe what he did as "bluesology" - a fusion of poetry, soul, blues and jazz, all shot through with a piercing social conscience and strong political messages, tackling issues such as apartheid and nuclear arms. ...

Scott-Heron was HIV positive and battled drug addiction through most of his career. He spent a year and a half in prison for possession. In a 2009 interview he said that his jail term had forced him to confront the reality of his situation.

Elton John (1947— ) [Wikipedia]

In a 1976 Rolling Stone interview, he talked about bisexuality, his belief that everyone is bisexual to a degree, and that his first sexual experience was with a woman, the secretary Linda Woodrow to whom he proposed, and who is mentioned in the song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight". John married German recording engineer Renate Blauel on 14 February, 1984, in Sydney, with speculation that the marriage was a cover; when they divorced four years later John told Rolling Stone that he was "comfortable" being gay.

He met his Canadian partner David Furnish, a former advertising executive and now filmmaker, in 1993. On 21 December 2005, they entered into a civil partnership. The night before the event, a host of his closest celebrity friends helped him celebrate his stag party at the cabaret nightclub Too2Much in London's West End. On the actual day, a low-key ceremony with their parents, photographer Sam Taylor-Wood and her husband Jay Jopling, and John and Furnish's dog Arthur in attendance was held at the Windsor Guildhall, followed by a lavish party at their Berkshire mansion, thought to have cost £1 million. Many famous guests were invited, but were delayed just outside John's Windsor household in a traffic jam of guests waiting to get inside.

[Continued here]

• Elton John [IMDb]
• Sir Elton John won't "rush" his label's young stars into studio too early [Pink News, July 16, 2011]

The gay star, who has frequently criticised the speed at which talent shows such as the X Factor push up and coming singers into stardom, says that young artists need time to develop their skills first.

Rocket Music already has signed-up Leon Russell, Lily Allen, James Blunt and Sir Elton himself.

Sir Elton tells Music Week, "The worst thing to do is to rush people to have a record out. They'll make a record when they're ready and it comes out when it is ready."

Johnny Mathis (1935— ) [Wikipedia]

John Royce "Johnny" Mathis... is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts. According to Guinness Book of World Records writer and historian Paul Gambacini, Johnny Mathis has sold 350 million records worldwide. ...

In a 1982 Us Magazine article, Mathis was quoted as having said, "Homosexuality is a way of life that I've grown accustomed to." Us Magazine later retracted the statement. After more than 20 years of silence on the subject, Mathis revealed in an interview, in 2006, that his silence was due to death threats he received as a result of that 1982 article. On April 13, 2006, Mathis granted a podcast interview with The Strip in which he talked about the subject once again, and how some of his reticence to speak of the subject was partially generational.

[Continued here]

• Gay Mathis Received Death Threats [Contact Music, February 18, 2008]

[Note: I remember Johnny Mathis frequently coming into a bar where I worked. He was always very courteous to the staff and left very generous tips.]

Justin Bieber: Is a Gay Ally Emerging? (1994— )
[The Advocate, November 8, 2011]

After a double win at the European Music Awards on Sunday, pop sensation Justin Bieber escaped his ardent female fans by dashing into the Kremlin, a gay bar in Belfast with girlfriend Selena Gomez. And that little stop has generated surprised headlines internationally.

But whether intentional or not, Bieber's career includes a developing yet substantial set of moments as an LGBT ally.

Last October, Bieber was involved in a skirmish with a teen male, who called him a "faggot." The following month Bieber appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to discuss the incident. "Everybody goes through bullying," he told her. "Everybody has, even me. On my YouTube page, there are so many haters. They just say crazy stuff. I'm not mad, I'm 16 and I don't have chest hair. I'm not angry about it at the moment. That will come. People are like, 'Look at him, he puts helium in his voice before he sings.' You just have to laugh at yourself. It's funny." Bieber later taped an It Gets Better PSA, saying, "I just wanted to say there's nothing cool about being a bully. And if you're getting bullied, make sure to tell someone and, you know, it gets better. And if you're a bystander, make sure to step in and, you know, help out."

Last February, he shared his view on homosexuality with Rolling Stone, saying, "It doesn't affect me and shouldn't affect anyone else." Last March, Bieber donated locks of his hair to Perez Hilton so the blogger could auction them off to raise money for Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, an organization that works for positive change in schools.

[Continued here]

Kristy McNichol Wants to 'Be Open About Who I Am' (1963— )
[People, January 6, 2012]

Kristy McNichol has been out of the public eye for 20 years. Now she's chosen to come out - to try to help kids who are being bullied.

McNichol, 49, who has lived with her partner Martie Allen, also 49, for the past two decades, decided to make a statement about her sexuality and share this photo because she is "approaching 50" and wants to "be open about who I am."

She "is very sad about kids being bullied," her publicist Jeff Ballard tells PEOPLE. "She hopes that coming out can help kids who need support. She would like to help others who feel different."

[Continued here]

"You know, this President invaded a sovereign nation in defiance of the UN. He is
basically a war criminal. Honestly. He should be tried at The Hague."



Rosie O'Donnell (1962— ) [Wikipedia]

Roseann "Rosie" O'Donnell... is an American stand-up comedienne, actress, singer, author and media personality. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family Vacations.

Raised Roman Catholic, O'Donnell lost her mother to cancer as a pre-teen and has stressed the importance of protecting children and supporting families throughout her career. O'Donnell started her comedy career while still a teenager and her big break was on the talent show Star Search when she was twenty years old. A TV sitcom and a series of movies introduced her to a larger national audience and in 1996 she started hosting The Rosie O'Donnell Show which won multiple Emmy awards.

During her years on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, she wrote her first book, a memoir called Find Me and developed the nickname "Queen Of Nice" as well as a reputation for philanthropic efforts. She used the book's $3 million advance to establish her own For All Kids foundation and promoted other charity projects encouraging other celebrities on her show to also take part. O'Donnell came out stating "I'm a dyke!" two months before finishing her talk show run, saying that her primary reason was to bring attention to gay adoption issues. O'Donnell is a foster-and adoptive-mother. She has since continued to support many LGBT causes and issues.

[Continued here]

• Jeffery Self: Rosie [Huffington Post, October 8, 2011]

I know it's not just the gay thing that draws me to Rosie. It's something else. It's the manic, obsessive love of things and people, whether it's the new, underwater FlipCam or some Ethel Merman impersonator she saw performing in a New York City basement the night before. It's the openness with her feelings, whether it's flattering or not -- the boldness to scream if she needs to scream, to cry when she needs to cry, and not be afraid of the public's perception.

• Finding Love At 50, From Rosie O'Donnell [Huffington Post, December 5, 2011]
• Rosie O'Donnell Engaged to Michelle Rounds! [OMG!, December 5, 2011]

Jane Lynch Talks 'Glee' Shakeup, First Year of Marriage (1960— )
[Huffington Post, July 16, 2011]

Jane Lynch has been quite a busy woman this year. When she wasn't track-suiting up to play Sue Sylvester on 'Glee,' the 51-year-old actress was busy penning her new book, 'Happy Accidents,' preparing for her Emmy-hosting gig and adjusting to married life with her new wife of one year.

Lynch met wife Lara Embry in 2009 at the National Center for Lesbian Rights gala, and it was love at first sight. The couple was married last June in Massachusetts.

"We've taken on everything in our first year of marriage," Lynch told Vogue in their August issue. "Moving. I gained a daughter. We renovated a house -- and writing a book. I mean, talk about learning about your wife!"

Since then, the pair have been enjoying their new life together, but living the happily-ever-after fairy tale was not something Lynch could always see in her future.

"When I grew up, just like in 'Glee,' you had to be what they considered 'normal' or you got a Slushee in your face," she said. "I didn't want to be too tall. I didn't want to be too loud. I didn't want to be gay."

[Continued here]

• Jane Lynch [IMDb]
• Jane Lynch and the Mommy Track (Suit) [The Advocate, October, 2011]
• Editor's Letter: What It Means to Be Out [The Advocate, October, 2011]

[Matthew] Breen lauds [Jane] Lynch for participating in one of the most fundamental things a person can do to improve the lives of future generations - be out in the public forum.

Celebrated Chef Lynn Crawford (1964— ) [The Pink elephant]

Crawford was executive chef of the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, and she was the first female Canadian chef to be invited to participate in the Iron Chef America competition, the Food Network's hit reality show that pits one chef against another like gladiators in an arena. Although she and her team of two sous-chefs lost to celebrity chef Bobby Flay, she says her pride in having participated "far outweighs my disappointment" over not having won.

In an appearance as a guest chef on HGTV's Restaurant Makeover, Ms. Crawford made mincemeat out of two young chefs who were trying, unsuccessfully, to run a Thai restaurant. She hated their menu, poked at a plate of something they had prepared as if it were a pile of garbage, and at one point, when one of the hapless young men addressed her as "babe," steam could almost be seen emanating from her ears.

"Excuse me, did you just call me babe?" Ms. Crawford asked him, incredulous as a mother who has just witnessed her child pull a moon in public. The young man, who wore his chef's pants slung halfway down his butt, could only stare dejectedly into his simmering pot as she instructed him to call her "Chef Lynn."

[Continued here]

• A long-simmering love affair [Globe & Mail, May 7, 2007]

Cat Cora Turns Up the Heat (1967— ) [After Ellen, November 26, 2007]

Food Network star Cat Cora, 40, is all of these things, but it is the latter descriptor that still comes as a surprise to many of her fans. Although the celebrated chef has mentioned her partner in interviews since early 2005, she has kept a fairly low profile about it, often simply referring to Jennifer, 36, as "my partner" or "better half," or using the nonspecific term "we."

The Greek American's official Food Network bio mentions only that "Cat resides in Northern California with her family, including her biggest fans, her two sons" and her official website, CatCoraCooks.com, mentions only her oldest son.

But in the Nov. 19th issue of People magazine, Cat posed with Jennifer and their two sons in front of a Thanksgiving dinner spread, making her sexual orientation known to millions of Americans.

Cat Cora, it seems, is finally putting it all on the table.

Cora grew up in a small Greek community in Jackson, Miss., in a family that celebrated cooking. "I loved entertaining from a young age," she told People. "I had an Easy Bake oven and was serious about tea parties."

[Continued here]

• Iron Chef Cat Cora And Wife Both Pregnant [Huffington Post, March 9, 2009]

A Day at Work with the Stars of Spike TV's Auction Hunters [Allen Haff and Ton Jones]
[The Smoking Jacket, May 25, 2011]

If you're not familiar with the Spike TV's Auction Hunters-learn to love it. The show follows the exploits of Ton and Allen as they prowl storage unit auctions across the country-taking a spin of the wheel by bidding on the unknown boxed contents; hoping it will harvest such lucrative treasure as Abe Lincoln's stove top hat or a hidden crate of gold left behind by an eccentric millionaire-who fell behind in his storage locker payments. Think of Auction Hunters as Treasures in the Attic meets Pawn Stars with a little Price is Right thrills thrown in for good measure.

[Continued here]

Chuck Hughes (1976— ) [Wikipedia]

Chuck Hughes is a Canadian chef, television personality and restaurateur [as well as a newly minted heterosexual]. He is the chef and co-owner of Restaurant Garde-Manger, located in Old Montreal, with partners Tim Rozon and Kyle Marshall Nares. He also hosts the cooking series Chuck's Day Off on the Food Network in Canada and on the Cooking Channel in the US.

Chuck also competed on the American cooking show Iron Chef America and defeated Iron Chef Bobby Flay in battle Canadian lobster. Chuck is set to compete on Food Network's The Next Iron Chef superchef competition.

[Continued here]

• Chuck Hughes becomes the first Canadian chef to beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef [Toronto Life, March 21, 2011]
• Q&A with Chuck Hughes [Lesley Chesterman, January 14, 2009]
• Gay & Away August: Montréal, Quebec [Gay Net, August 3, 2010]

Garde-Manager

408 Rue Saint-Francois-Xavier

514-678-5044

I recently took New York City blogger Joe.My.God. on a Bixi ride through Montreal. After a few hours of peddling our tired asses around town we tucked ourselves in at the bar and had a super delicious meal. The chef, bad-boy Montrealer Chuck Hughes (pictured here), has his own show called Chuck's Day Off, which started storming the televisions of America on the newly-launched Cooking Channel. Recent visitors to Garde-Manger include Kirsten Dunst and Jake Gyllenhaal. Reservations are a must.

Crack open the Bolly! Ab Fab are back and Eddy and Patsy are shopping up
a storm filming Christmas special [Daily Mail, August 26, 2011]

We haven't seen them crack into a bottle of Bolly since they last appeared on our screens in 2004.

But the dysfunctional and deluded Eddy and Patsy are set to return to our screens with a special episode of Absolutely Fabulous.

Earlier today Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders were seen stepping into the shoes of the tragic middle aged women filming scenes for the Christmas special.

The pair were seen parading up and down Bond Street laden with designer bags from the likes of Louis Vuitton, The Kooples and Lanvin, in the never-ending quest to stay hip and cool.

Joanna, who plays Patsy, a magazine editor, is sporting her trademark beehive hairstyle with a black furry coat and a pair of stone coloured trousers, which she teams with a pair of nude heels and peaked sunglasses.

Meanwhile Jennifer as Eddy had gone bright and bold in a colour blocked pleated dress and a bright red jacket, finished off her look in a white felt hat.

In their quest to keep up with the latest looks Eddy is seen looking glum as she is refused entry to Stella McCartney's boutique and stands outside the store looking glum.

[Continued here]

• Absolutely Fabulous to return to BBC1 [The Guardian, April 20, 2011]

Crack open the Bolly and set the Sky+, sweetie - Absolutely Fabulous is set to return to BBC1 after an absence of six years.

Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley will reprise their roles as Patsy and Edina in three new episodes of the sitcom expected to begin filming later this year. The BBC said it was "putting the finishing touches to the deal" and is expected to confirm it imminently. ...

Absolutely Fabulous was first broadcast in 1992 and ran for three series and a two-part special until 1996. It returned for two more series and another two specials between 2001 and 2004, with a Comic Relief edition on BBC1 in 2005.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "We're putting the finishing touches to the deal to bring it back and as soon as we're in a position to confirm it we will."

• Absolutely Fabulous or Absolutely Misguided? [The Guardian, April 21, 2011]

You may have thought they'd staggered off for good some seven years ago, but Edina and Patsy are tottering back on to the telly, sweeties - with the expectation that they'll be boozier and bitchier than ever, if such a thing is possible. Now in their 50s, age is unlikely to have mellowed them.

The original Absolutely Fabulous cast also included a raft of eccentric characters including Bubble (Jane Horrocks) Edina's dim-bulb assistant; Edina's daffy mother (June Whitfield); and her disapproving, prudish daughter Saffy (Julia Sawalha), who Patsy openly loathed: "Tell her not to speak when she's this close, I can feel her dog breath on my neck," was a typical complaint.

Along with their heroic levels of drink and substance abuse, Eddie and Patsy were also astonishingly politically incorrect. It is incredible the show ever made it on to American networks. In series five, when Saffy was pregnant, Edina advised her "You should tell people as soon as you see them: you don't want them thinking you're fat." When not chain-smoking and glugging champagne, Pats was likely to be swigging from a large bottle of Stoli and making bizarre pronouncements: "Time is like a stretched elastic band. You can't let it go or it'll come back and take your eye out?"

But is the time right for Edina and Patsy to stagger back into our living rooms? Arguably the show didn't end on a high: when we left her, Eddie was running her own TV production company with partner Katy Grin, a saccharine-sweet ex-children's TV presenter and lottery host whose career had been derailed; a setup that encouraged AbFab to up its quotient of celebrity cameo with the result that it all became a bit in-jokey. In one episode alone we had Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, Twiggy, Michael Greco of EastEnders, Lady Victoria Hervey, and Stephen Gately. As a rule celebrities can't actually act and their presence was slightly jarring. And of course Larry Sanders has had the last word on backstage intrigue in the world of TV.

• NEW 'Absolutely Fabulous' Photo Released [Out, November 25, 2011]

The BBC released a press image of the girls from the upcoming Ab-Fab season, and though it's been almost 20 years since the group first appeared they don't look like they've changed a day. Can you believe that Jane Horrocks (Bubble) is 47, Julia Sawalha (Saffy) is 43, Jennifer Saunders (Edina) is 53, June Whitfield (mom) is 86, and Joanna Lumley (Patsy) is 65?

• Joanna Lumley: 'Patsy is a strong woman. She has to be. She hasn't eaten since 1973' [The Guardian, December 11, 2011]

I recite these lines to Lumley, who looks at me with imperious blankness. She's impeccably polite, but there's something in her fixed look that says: how did this chump get past security? I feel like former immigration minister Phil Woolas did when he contradicted the Lumley Line at a Gurkha press conference. We're sitting backstage at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket where, in 90 minutes, she and Robert Lindsay will be playing the leads in Trevor Nunn's revival of Goodman's medieval Christmas from hell. She's coolly elegant in full makeup, black trousers and V-necked T-shirt, while I, damp and flustered from the rain, seem to have brought five plastic bags filled with books and notes supporting my unworthy nipples thesis, like some inept petitioner admitted to court against everyone's better judgment.

"But, darling," Lumley says, not unkindly, but firmly. "I don't know what you're talking about." "Desolation," I burble crossly, "the desolation monologue." "Desolation?" she says mystified. She's got a beautiful plump-lipped mouth and her matchingly captivating voice, a good octave below Hepburn's posh quack, would reduce stronger men than me to quivering wrecks.

"There's nothing wrong with being gay, so to deny it is to make a
judgment. And why make a big deal of it?"



Keanu Reeves (1964— ) [Wikipedia]

Keanu Charles Reeves... is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix. He has worked under major directors, such as Stephen Frears (in the 1988 period drama Dangerous Liaisons); Gus Van Sant (in the 1991 independent film My Own Private Idaho, also written by Van Sant); and Bernardo Bertolucci (in the 1993 film Little Buddha). Referencing his 1991 film releases, The New York Times critic Janet Maslin praised Reeves' versatility, saying that he "displays considerable discipline and range. He moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanour that suits a police procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles."

In addition to his film roles, Reeves has also performed in theatre. His performance in the title role in a Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Hamlet was praised by Roger Lewis, the Sunday Times, who declared Reeves "...one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he is Hamlet." On January 31, 2005, Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A 2006 ET online survey placed him in the "Top Ten of America's Favorite Stars".

[Note: Keanu camped out at David Geffen's super-luxurious pad for a period of time following the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake. Geffen self-identifies as gay.]

[Note2: I remember Keanu decades ago loitering on the corner outside my apartment building in Toronto and snappinng pebbles at passing motor cars. He was very 'hot', indeed.]

[Continued here]

• Keanu Reeves [IMDb]

David Geffen (1943— ) [Wikipedia]

David Geffen... is an American record executive, film producer, theatrical producer and philanthropist. Geffen is noted for creating Asylum Records in 1970, Geffen Records in 1980, and DGC Records in 1990. Geffin was also one of the three founders of DreamWorks SKG in 1994. ...

Geffen has an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion, making him one of the richest people in the entertainment industry.

David Geffen is openly gay. In May 2007, Out magazine ranked Geffen first in their list of the fifty "Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America."

Geffen is the subject of Joni Mitchell's song "Free Man in Paris".[11] Mitchell and Geffen were close friends, and in the early 1970s made a trip to Paris with Robbie and Dominique Robertson.

[Continued here]

• David Geffen index [New York Times]
• David Geffen Makes a Sudden Exit [from DreamWorks] [New York Times, October 26, 2008]

No, Mr. Spielberg said, he really did not know why Mr. Geffen was parting ways with DreamWorks after 14 years.

But yes, he hoped he and Mr. Geffen would remain close. "I know David will be in my personal life," said Mr. Spielberg, who stood near the door of his office in a Southwestern bungalow complex on the Universal Studios lot.

"I cannot imagine not having David in my professional life," he added. "If that's true, I'm going to have to figure out what to do about it." After months of turmoil, Mr. Geffen, Mr. Spielberg and the chief executive of DreamWorks, Stacey Snider, three weeks ago joined about 100 associates in severing ties with Paramount Pictures, which had bought DreamWorks for $1.6 billion in 2006.

In a deal maker's master stroke, Mr. Geffen created a new company to be run by Mr. Spielberg and Ms. Snider, with backing from Reliance Big Entertainment of India. Its movies will be distributed by Universal, with which Mr. Spielberg has long-standing ties.

But Mr. Geffen said he would not be part of the equation. In fact, after engineering some of the most breathtaking deals and transitions over nearly 40 years, he has indicated that he is backing away from Hollywood altogether.

Along the way, Mr. Geffen, now 65, amassed a fortune that Forbes magazine estimated this year at $6.5 billion. It is enough to permit luxurious retirement, and to focus on interests like fine art and the Rising Sun, a $200 million yacht he shares with Oracle's chief executive, Lawrence J. Ellison.

Andrea Martin (1947— ) [Wikipedia]

Andrea Louise Martin,,, is an American actress and comedian.

Martin, the oldest of three children, was born in Portland, Maine,[3] of Armenian heritage, in 1947.[4][5] Her father owned Martins, a grocery store.[6] Soon after graduating from Emerson College, she won a role in a Canadian touring company of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown After frequent visits to Toronto, she relocated from New York City to Toronto in 1970 and immediately found steady theater work. In 1972 she played the character of Robin in a Toronto production of Godspell, with a cast that included future comedy stars Gilda Radner, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, singer and actor Victor Garber, and musical director Paul Shaffer. Two of her first prominent film roles were in 1973's Cannibal Girls and then as the bookish sorority sister Phyllis in Black Christmas, another Canadian slasher film from 1974.

Two years later, she joined then-unknowns John Candy, Dave Thomas, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Harold Ramis and Joe Flaherty on the Canadian sketch comedy television series, SCTV, which was set at fictional television station "Second City Television", or SCTV, in Melonville. Martin most notably portrayed leopard-print-wearing station manager Edith Prickley, whose dealings with the staff, including president/owner Guy Caballero, clueless newscaster Earl Camembert, and washed-up actor Johnny LaRue, helped to provide much of the show's humor. ...

[Continued here]

• Andrea Martin headlines 519 fundraiser [XTRA, June 1, 2011]

Comic Andrea Martin is bringing her hilarious one-woman show, Final Days! Everything Must Go!, to the 519 Church Street Community Centre on Sunday, June 5 and Monday, June 6.

Martin talks with xtra.ca's Ryan Carter about the show and meeting Barbra Streisand, and she raises the possibility that she is Lady Gaga's mother. ...

Michael Feinstein (1956— ) [Wikipedia]

Michael Jay Feinstein... is an American singer, a pianist, music revivalist, and an interpreter of, and anthropologist and archivist for, the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for celebrating American musical theatre songs. ...

In October 2008, Feinstein married his longtime partner Terrence Flannery. The ceremony was performed by famed family court & television judge Judith Sheindlin aka Judge Judy.

[Continued here]

• Michael Feinstein index [New York Times]
• Michael Feinstein's American Songbook [New York Times]

Rick Mercer (1969— ) [Wikipedia]

Richard Vincent "Rick" Mercer... is a Canadian comedian, television personality, political satirist, and blogger.

Mercer first came to national attention in 1990, when he premiered his one man show Show Me the Button, I'll Push It, or Charles Lynch Must Die at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa. A pointed, satirical political commentary on Canadian life after Meech Lake, Show Me the Button made Mercer a national star as he toured the show across Canada.[citation needed] Mercer came to greater attention for his role in the satirical news show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and his spinoff special Talking To Americans was the highest-rated comedy special in the history of CBC Television, with 2.7 million viewers. ...

Mercer's partner is television producer Gerald Lunz. Although the romantic relationship came first, Lunz is also Mercer's long-time partner in business, who discovered him, fostered his career, and is currently the executive producer of The Rick Mercer Report. He regards his personal life as private, and says little about it in public.

[Continued here]

• Rick Mercer comes out — again — after his rant goes viral [Toronto Star, October 27, 2011]

Rick Mercer went on The Current Wednesday morning to discuss his sexual orientation.

The appearance came after his rant against teen bullying and suicide went viral.

Mercer told host Anna Maria Tremonti that while he didn't come out in high school, he didn't feel especially afraid to share his sexuality.

"I always knew I was gay. I always knew that somehow it would work out."

However, he said it didn't occur to him to reveal his sexual orientation as a teenager.

"It's a brave new world. I'm 42 years old. I certainly wasn't out in high school. And in fact it wasn't even a notion. So the idea that these kids are out of the closet in high school are so foreign to me.

"But they're out and they need role models."

John Barrowman (1967— ) [Wikipedia]

John Scot Barrowman... is a Scottish-American singer, actor, dancer, musical theatre performer and media personality. Born in Glasgow yet growing up in Illinois after his family emigrated to the United States when he was eight years old, Barrowman was encouraged to further his love for music and theatre by his high school teachers. He studied performing arts at the United States International University in San Diego before visiting Britain and landing the role of Billy Crocker in Cole Porter's Anything Goes in London's West End.

Since his debut in professional theatre, Barrowman has played lead roles in various musicals both in the West End and on Broadway, including Matador, Miss Saigon, The Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard. After appearing in Sam Mendes' production of The Fix, he was nominated for the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical and, in the early 2000s, returned to the role of Billy Crocker in the revival of Anything Goes. His most recent West End credit was in the 2009 production of La Cage aux Folles.

Aside from his career in theatre, Barrowman has expanded his repertoire into film and television. He has appeared in various films including the musical biopic De-Lovely (2004) and musical comedy The Producers (2005). On British television, he is known for his acting and presenting work for the BBC, including his work for CBBC in its earlier years, his self-produced entertainment programme Tonight's the Night, and his BAFTA Cymru-nominated role of Captain Jack Harkness, who appears in science fiction series Doctor Who and Torchwood. Before venturing into British television, he featured on the American television dramas Titans and Central Park West. Since, Barrowman has had a number of guest roles in television programmes both in the United States and in the United Kingdom. He appeared as a contestant on the first series of celebrity ice skating show Dancing on Ice while his theatrical background allowed him to become a judge on Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical talent shows How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, Any Dream Will Do and I'd Do Anything. In 2006, he was voted Stonewall's Entertainer of the Year.

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• John Barrowman [IMDb]
• Torchwood's John Barrowman on 'Man Sex,' Glee, and Closeted A-Listers [New York magazine, July 8, 2011]

After six years as the Doctor Who universe's token Yankee, John Barrowman is coming to America. Torchwood: Miracle Day (a Starz/BBC co-production) brings the U.K. alien-investigation drama Stateside, with Barrowman's swaggering, omnisexual time-traveler Captain Jack Harkness engaged by the CIA to determine why people are no longer dying. In this fourth installment, Torchwood has evolved into something less Doctor Who and more Battlestar Galactica: a bleak, high-tension sci-fi thriller. For Barrowman, it's the role of a lifetime, not least of all because he's channeled his U.K. fame into a virtual one-man entertainment franchise. The actor-singer-dancer is a popular British-TV host, theatrical star, and cabaret performer, as well as an outspoken role model for handsome gay actors everywhere. Vulture spoke to Barrowman about Captain Jack's revitalized sex life, Torchwood's darker direction, the big gay secret of Hollywood, and whether the actor missed a golden opportunity by doing sci-fi in the age of Glee.

• John Barrowman criticises church over gay marriage attacks [Pink News, September 14, 2011]

"I plan on having the largest gay wedding that Canada's ever seen."



Ashley MacIsaac (1975— ) [Wikipedia]

Ashley Dwayne MacIsaac (born... in Creignish, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian professional fiddler from Cape Breton Island.

His album HiT How Are You Today?, featuring the hit single "Sleepy Maggie", with vocals in Scottish Gaelic by Mary Jane Lamond was released in 1995. MacIsaac published an autobiography, Fiddling with Disaster in 2003. ...

MacIsaac has declared an interest in politics and has stated, in a letter to the National Post, that he is studying constitutional law so as to pursue an entry into Canadian federal politics.

In the March 20, 2006, edition of the Halifax Daily News, MacIsaac declared himself a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada. MacIsaac denied that his campaign was a publicity stunt, telling the Canadian Press that he fully intended to mount a serious campaign, but on June 21, 2006, he decided to no longer take part in the leadership race.

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• Fiddler on the truth: Ashley MacIsaac opens up about his controversial past [Marc Andrew, July 5, 2011]

Q: Is it easy being openly gay in the public eye? You've been called everything from a freak to a pedophile.

A: It's nothing to boast about, but I wouldn't sit back and have anybody tell me that I haven't been a battering ram. Over the last twelve years I've seen countless stories everything from when I got married to Andrew to the age of my boyfriend over ten years ago when I was only 19 years old. There was only three years difference in our age. After I got married, I have seen hundreds of stories and blogs that were calling it disgusting, shameful and vile, every possible nasty dirty thing. That type of negative scandalous press allows it to be less sensational for someone else. Is it easy to be gay in the press? I think it's a little easier now and it should be. If they're talking about you, they're leaving someone else alone. There was Rock Hudson, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, then there's Ashley MacIsaac.

• Ashley MacIsaac takes on animal rights activists [Globe & Mail, November 6, 2011]

Sinéad O'Connor (1966— ) [Wikipedia]

Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor... is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U".

Since then, she has occasionally encountered controversy, partly due to her forthright statements and gestures, ordination as a priest despite being female with a Roman Catholic background, and expressed strong views on organized religion, women's rights, war, and child abuse while still maintaining a singing career.

Her body of work includes a number of collaborations with other artists and appearances at charity fundraising concerts, in addition to her own solo albums. ...

In a 2000 interview in Curve, O'Connor outed herself as a lesbian, "I'm a dyke ... although I haven't been very open about that and throughout most of my life I've gone out with blokes because I haven't necessarily been terribly comfortable about being a big lesbian mule. But I actually am a dyke." However, soon after in an interview in The Independent, she stated, "I believe it was overcompensating of me to declare myself a lesbian. It was not a publicity stunt. I was trying to make someone else feel better.

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• Sinead O'Connor: 'The Vatican is a nest of devils' [The Guardian, September 11, 2010]

You can't mistake Sinead O'Connor's house. Outside the porch is an empty plant pot full of cigarette butts, inside are two large statues of the virgin Mary. As the door opens, I crash into another Virgin Mary. O'Connor's housekeeper, who doubles up as her best friend, opens the door and leads me into a lounge where family photos, rocking chairs and kids' paintings jostle for pole position with more Virgin Marys. A huge beautiful bay window overlooks the sea at Bray, just outside Dublin.

When O'Connor arrives, I barely recognise her. Her hair is a black bob, her face rounded, she is wearing a three-piece suit and has the air of a mid-20th century industrialist. A big brass cross hangs down her front. "That's my ordination cross. Normally I tuck it into my bra," which she does as she speaks. She suggests we retire to the shed-cum-office in the garden. So we stroll past the hanging linen, a few guitar cases, two Yorkshire terrier puppies, the cat, and she chats away confidently, and we reach the wooden hut and shut the door on the world. Then everything changes. She sits down, just about manages to light a fag with a shaking hand and morphs into the terrified (and terrifying) wisp of a girl from yesteryear.

In 1992 she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on the American TV show Saturday Night live. She said it was a protest at child sex abuse in the Catholic church, and many people thought she was loopy. What abuse? Two weeks later she was booed off the stage at a Bob Dylan tribute concert, her records were publicly smashed, and that was pretty much that as a pop star.

Johnny Weir (1984— ) [Wikipedia]

John Garvin "Johnny" Weir... is an American figure skater. He is a three-time U.S. National Champion (2004-2006), the 2008 Worlds bronze medalist, a two-time Grand Prix Final bronze medalist, and the 2001 World Junior Champion. Weir did not skate competitively in the 2010-11 season and plans to sit out the 2011-2012 season as well. ...

Weir's sexual orientation was long the subject of media speculation; however, when asked about his sexuality, Weir often responded along the lines of, "...it's not part of my sport and it's private. I can sleep with whomever I choose and it doesn't affect what I'm doing on the ice." In his memoir Welcome to My World, published January 2011, Weir officially came out as gay, citing the recent string of gay youth suicides as one reason for his decision: "With people killing themselves and being scared into the closet, I hope that even just one person can gain strength from my story."

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• Johnny Weir as the face of M.A.C.'s 2011 Holiday collection "Glitter and Ice" [ONTD, October 18, 2011]

It's clear he inspired many of the colour names: some are related to figure skating, like "Going for Gold", "Double Spin" and "Fresh Ice", while others, such as "Unconditionally Fabulous", are inspired by the man himself.

• Johnny Weir marries boyfriend [Sydney Star Observer, January 3, 2012]

Olympic skater Johnny Weir has announced his marriage to boyfriend Victor Voronov.

The 27-year-old tied the knot with his law graduate partner on New Year's Eve and tweeted the news shortly after.

"I'm married. all the official stuff is done now! No more livin' in sin," he wrote to his Twitter followers.

Carson Kressley (1969— ) [Wikipedia]

Carson Lee Kressley... was the fashion expert on the American television program Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, where he was one of the show's "Fab Five" members. He is also the motivational host of the TV show How to Look Good Naked. ...

He currently resides in New York City, where he is active in numerous gay-rights, animal and health-related charities. Kressley was a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign for President and headlined a number of events in her honor.

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• Carson Kressley 'glad' to have female partner on 'DWTS' [USA Today, September 19, 2011]

Carson Kressley had tweeted that he was "pretty sure" male dance pro Maxim Chmerkovskiy was going to be his partner on Dancing With the Stars. Show producers even considered giving the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy star a male partner.

But in the end Kressley was paired with a female partner, Anna Trebunskaya. And he couldn't be happier. "I'm so glad in the end because Anna will be so much easier to lift over my head," Kressley tells USA TODAY.

Kressley understands the reasoning for the female partner. Not only is it avoiding a controversy for the Disney-owned ABC television, but it adheres to ballroom history.

• Carson Kressley And Partner "Bitter" Over Elimination [The Advocate, October 19, 2011]

Wanda Sykes (1964— ) [Wikipedia]

Wanda Sykes... is an American writer, stand-up comedian, actress, and voice artist. She earned the 1999 Emmy Award for her writing on The Chris Rock Show. In 2004 Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the 25 funniest people in America. She is well known for her role as Barbara Baran on The New Adventures of Old Christine and for her appearances on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. In November 2009 The Wanda Sykes Show, her own late-night talkshow, premiered on Fox, airing Saturday nights. It ended in April 2010. She also appeared in Annie at the Media Theatre in November 2010 in Media Pa where she lives. ...

Sykes was married to record producer Dave Hall from 1991 to 1998. In November 2008, she publicly came out as lesbian while at a same-sex marriage rally in Las Vegas regarding Proposition 8, which forbids new marriages of same-sex couples in California. After coming out, Sykes married her female partner, Alex, whom she met in 2006. Alex gave birth to twins Olivia Lou and Lucas Claude on April 27, 2009.

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• Wanda Sykes finds joy, hard work and comedy in being a mom to twin toddlers [Times Union, October 6, 2011]

Yehonathan Gatro (1977— ) [Wikipedia]

Yehonathan Gatro... is an Israeli singer and actor. He has performed under the stage names Gatro and (currently, as of 2009) Yehonathan. He has had a long collaboration with Israeli music producer Lyrik.

Yehonathan Gatro... was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. He started singing when he was just 14 and became a teen heartthrob with popularity with the girl/teen audiences. Although coming out to his own family, he remained closeted for the beginning of his musical career. ...

In 2002, he moved to Los Angeles to study acting. In 2006 he released the first single "Kore Lecha" (Hebrew for "Calling You"), a gay love song. The single represented Yehonathan's official coming-out to his fans. The video version of the song went on to top the charts in Israel.

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• Ohlala Yehonathan! Openly Gay Israeli Singer [Oh La La, August, 2008]
• Out Israeli Singer Yehonathan Attacked At Tel Aviv Pride [Ask William, June 8, 2009]

Wilson Cruz (1973— ) [Wikipedia]

Wilson Cruz (born Wilson Echevarría...) is an American actor, known for playing Rickie Vasquez on My So-Called Life and a recurring character on Noah's Arc. As an openly gay person of Afro-Puerto Rican ancestry, he has served as an advocate for gay youth, especially gay youth of color. ...

Cruz works with and advocates on behalf of LGBT youth, especially youth of color. He has volunteered his time as host for the Youth Zone, an online community at Gay.com for LGBT youth. He was the Grand Marshall of the 1998 West Hollywood Gay Pride parade and the 2005 Chicago Pride Parade. In 2008, he was the keynote speaker at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Lavender Graduation and Rainbow Banquet honoring graduating LGBT students.

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• Cruz Control: Wilson Cruz talks activism, politics and his commitment to Creating Change [Metro Weekly, January 19, 2012]

''Wilson - because it is his life - has the ability to give voice to queer people of color. He used to be, at that point, queer youth of color. And that was very rare in the '90s,'' she says. ''And, unfortunately, still, there aren't enough of those voices and enough of those stories that get told. Or probably more specifically, get listened to.''

Lance Bass (1979— ) [Wikipedia]

James Lance Bass..., best known as Lance Bass, is an American pop singer, dancer, actor, film and television producer, and author. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band 'N Sync. 'N Sync's success led Bass to work in film and television. He starred in the 2001 film On the Line, which his company, Bacon & Eggs, also produced. Bass later formed a second production company, Lance Bass Productions, as well as a now-defunct music management company, Free Lance Entertainment, a joint venture with Mercury Records.

After completion of 'N Sync's Pop Odyssey Tour, Bass moved to Star City, Russia, in much publicized pursuit of a seat on a Soyuz space capsule. Bass was certified by both NASA and the Russian Space Program after several months of cosmonaut training, and planned to join the TMA-1 mission to the International Space Station. However, after his financial sponsors backed out, Bass was denied a seat on the mission.

In July 2006, Bass revealed that he is gay in a cover story for People magazine. He was awarded the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award in October 2006, and released an autobiography, Out of Sync, in October 2007, which debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list.

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• Lance Bass: Why We Shouldn't Use the Word 'Tranny' [Huffington Post, December 23, 2011]

Let me start this off with two very important words that I truly mean from the bottom of my heart: I'm sorry. I'm sorry to anyone who was offended or hurt by my use of the word "trannies" while appearing earlier this week on Access Hollywood Live.

Ivri Lider (1974— ) [Wikipedia]

Ivri Lider... is an Israeli pop rock singer-songwriter. He is one of the biggest-selling contemporary artists in Israeli music, and has won the Male Singer of the Year honor from major Israeli national and local radio stations since entering the Israeli music scene in the late 1990s. His sales stand at over 200,000 records. ...

In January 2002 Lider spoke openly about his sexual orientation in a cover-story interview to the daily newspaper Ma'ariv, which attracted a lot of attention. He later said, "On a personal level, I felt complete and happy with my life and who I am, and I didn't see any reason to not talk about it. It seemed strange to have an interview and not to talk about it, about my boyfriend, about my life. On a less personal level, I felt it's kind of my obligation. When you're an artist and you're doing well and you're successful, you get a lot of love and appreciation and energy and good things from people, and I think you need to give it back. Maybe I can influence people and help younger people that struggle - help them to be able to change their views, and stuff like that." Lider refused to be drawn into the debate about the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade. He did, however, accept a booking to play at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras' "Fair Day" in Camperdown, Australia on Sunday, 21 February 2010.

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• Gay Israeli singer coming to Chicago [Windy City Times, June 8, 2011]

WHO'S NEXT 2010: Justin Utley [NEXT magazine, December 29, 2009]

Country music remains one of the music industry's largest and most profitable genres, yet is arguably still as self-contained as ever. But behind the Tim McGraws, Carrie Underwoods and Keith Urbans, there's a Justin Utley, a boy with a guitar and a dream of becoming one of the genre's brightest stars-who also happens to be gay. "My music comes before my sexual preference," he demurs, before listing the various gay-related foundations his album proceeds support including HRC and The Empire State Pride Agenda. "I'm sending my message to anyone who can apply it to their situation." And, as an ex-Mormon from Utah who spent the first part of his life as a spiritual ascetic and the second discovering himself and his sexuality, his message is clearly one of identity and continuously evolving self-awareness-a message not so foreign to the gay ear.

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• Will Country Music come out of the closet? [Sundance Channel blog, November 17, 2011]

A few years ago, Willie Nelson released an iTunes single called "Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other." As a novelty tune prompted by the popularity of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, it hardly represented a serious attempt to introduce gay subject matter into country music. But, in its own jocular way, it did break through a verboten barrier for the genre and cause some folks in Nashville to look around at each other and think: Just how many music-industry "cowboys" are we talking about here? And just how necessary is the secrecy?

Jane Rule: "Human beings tolerate what they understand they have to tolerate."



Shane Stevens, Openly Gay Nashville Songwriter, Discusses New Reality Show, Country Music
[Huffington Post, November 19, 2011]

When Sundance Channel's "Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys" chose Nashville, Tennessee, as the location for its second season, it only made sense that a country music star might turn up. But a gay country music star?

That's exactly what happened last night when songwriter Shane Stevens, who has had his tracks sung by everyone from Lady Antebellum to Jordin Sparks, was introduced, along with his BFF, straight girl friend and country singer Sherrie Austin, to viewers during the show's premiere episode, reports TheBoot.com.

The reality show follows four Nashville-based "couples" for 12 weeks to learn more about the dynamics of the special bond the gay men share with their straight girl friends.

Country music has a complicated history when it comes to the LGBT community, but Stevens says that he hasn't personally felt the sting of homophobia from the industry.

"Faith [Hill] has always been amazing," he told TheBoot.com. "Barbara Mandrell has always been amazing. Sara Evans . Tammy Wynette. No one has ever said anything derogatory to me ever. If they have it's been behind my back."

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Tim McGraw: "I thought he was gay for the longest time!"



Kenny Chesney (1968— ) [Wikipedia]

Kenneth "Kenny" Arnold Chesney... is an American country music singer and songwriter. Chesney has recorded 15 albums, 14 of which have been certified gold or higher by the RIAA. He has also produced more than 30 Top Ten singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, 20 of which climbed to the top of the charts.

Over the life of his career, Chesney has been honored with numerous awards from the Academy of Country Music (ACM), Country Music Association (CMA), American Music Awards (AMA), Country Music Television (CMT), Billboard Music Awards (BMA), People's Choice Awards (PCA), and the French Country Music Awards (FCMA).

Chesney recently produced and co-directed a film for ESPN, "The Boys Of Fall". Chesney has received six Academy of Country Music awards (including four consecutive Entertainer of the Year Awards from 2005 to 2008), as well as six Country Music Association awards. He is one of the most popular touring acts in country music, regularly selling out the venues at which he performs. His 2007 Flip-Flop Summer Tour was the highest-grossing country road trip of the year. ...

On May 9, 2005, Kenny Chesney married actress Renee Zellweger in a ceremony on the island of St. John. They had met in January at a tsunami relief benefit concert. On September 15 of that same year, after only four months of marriage, they announced their plans for an annulment. Zellweger cited fraud as the reason in the related papers, but after media scrutiny of her use of the word "fraud", she qualified the use of the term, stating it was "simply legal language and not a reflection of Kenny's character" (as it was assumed it meant he was homosexual.) Chesney later suggested the failure of his marriage was due to "panic" from the intense media scrutiny surrounding it. In an interview by 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper [Note: How appropriate.], Chesney commented on the failed marriage. "The only fraud that was committed was me thinking that I knew what it was like.that I really understood what it was like to be married, and I really didn't." The annulment was finalized in late December 2005. Kenny Chesney's family still resides in east Tennessee.

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• "Gay Rumors" Addressed in Kenny Chesney's Playboy Interview [CMT blog, February 11, 2009]

What's Up, Spock? Zachary Quinto has no problem being fully human (1977— )
[New York magazine, October 16, 2011]

Last year, when Zachary Quinto was starring in the Signature Theatre's restaging of Angels in America, he would find himself at Cafe Mogador, near the place where he was staying in the East Village, imagining what it must have been like when, say, fifteen of the 40 people in the place were skeletal and dying. "Doing that play made me realize how lucky I was to be born when I was born and to not have to witness the decimation of an entire generation of amazingly talented and otherwise vital men." He's saying this on an Indian-summer morning at a café on West 12th Street, just a few blocks from another of that play's touchstones, the now-shuttered St. Vincent's Hospital-a place where many of those men died. Quinto, who had arrived in ambi-­seasonal Silver Lake camouflage-brown wool cap, patterned T-shirt, dark jeans, New Balance trainers, ball-chain necklace, facial scruff, and aviator sunglasses-is in a reflective mood. ...

For one thing, he's willing to unambiguously talk about his sexual orientation. His eight-month role in Angels was both "the most challenging thing I've ever done as an actor and the most rewarding" he says. Having to inhabit that terrible lost world, if only in his mind, took a toll. "And at the same time, as a gay man, it made me feel like there's still so much work to be done, and there's still so many things that need to be looked at and addressed."

Quinto has played a series of gay roles, including on Tori Spelling's TV show So NoTORIous, and on the new FX series American Horror Story, where he plays the kinky dead owner of the haunted house, and has been outspoken about gay-rights issues. Last year, the Times, in profiling him for Angels, noted that "the blogosphere is rife with speculation about his sexuality" but that "he prefers not to feed the rumor mill with either substantiation or dismissal." That has changed. A little while later in our conversation, speaking of the cultural bipolarity that can see gay marriage legalized in New York in the same year that yet another gay teenager, Jamey Rodemeyer, was bullied and killed himself, Quinto says, "And again, as a gay man I look at that and say there's a hopelessness that surrounds it, but as a human being I look at it and say 'Why? Where's this disparity coming from, and why can't we as a culture and society dig deeper to examine that?' We're terrified of facing ourselves."

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• Zachary Quinto [IMDb]
• Can an Action Star Be Gay? [The Daily Beast, October 24, 2011]

Kirsten Vangsness (1972— ) [Wikipedia]

Kirsten Simone Vangsness... is an American actress. She graduated from Cerritos High School in Cerritos, California in June 1990. She is currently appearing on the CBS drama series Criminal Minds as FBI Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia. She also portrayed the same character on the spin-off, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior.

Her fiancée is film editor Melanie Goldstein, whose credits include the television series 24. They intend to marry in 2013.

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• 'Criminal Minds'' Kirsten Vangsness: I'm as Queer as a Purple Unicorn Singing Madonna [ET Online, February 9, 2011]
• The Lesbian Star of Criminal Minds Goes Noir [The Advocate, November 1, 2011]

A target of bullies, Vangsness wants to do an It Gets Better video to remind kids that being different is okay - and so is letting your "freak flag fly." Vangsness says she developed her own unique sense of style: "I dress like a 7-year-old space pilot. I have clothes that I still wear regularly from high school. My mom would give us $20 and she would send us to the thrift store, and I would [buy] a faux fur coat with a pimp-daddy collar and some sort of nature scene polyester dress."

Luke Evans (1979— ) [Wikipedia]

Luke Evans... is a Welsh theatre and film actor. He is known to theatregoers for his stage roles in Rent, Miss Saigon Small Change and Piaf, and to filmgoers for his roles in The Three Musketeers, Clash of the Titans, and Tamara Drewe. ...

During his early career, Evans openly identified as gay. In a 2002 interview, he said "[E]verybody knew me as a gay man, and in my life in London I never tried to hide it" and that by being open he would not have "that skeleton in the closet they can rattle out". In 2004, he said that his acting career had not suffered by being out.

In September 2010, Evans was romantically linked with a female PR executive who stated, "Luke's lovely - we're really old friends and it just sort of happened. ... We are nowhere near engaged but things are really good."

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• Luke Evans [IMDb]
• Is Luke Evans Gay? Publicist Tries to Get His Story Straight [After Elton, August 8, 2011 ]

"The freedom of being out and open about who I am allowed me to find and fall in
love with Lauren — the most amazing woman I've ever known."



Country Star Chely Wright Marries Fiancée Lauren Blitzer! (1970— )
[E! Online, August 20, 2011]

After coming out last year, and making history at that, Chely Wright then announced her engagement to girlfriend Lauren Blizter. And now the duo have officially announced to People that they've tied the knot!

Chely and Lauren, a GLBT Civil Rights activist, got hitched Saturday in front of 200 guests at Lauren's Aunt's home in Connecticut. As for the most important question the dresses? Both brides donned traditional white gowns, yet decided to not wear veils as they told the mag: "We like our hair too much!"

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• Chely Wright: Confessions of a Gay Christian Country Singer [Huffington Post, June 24, 2011]

There is a robust discussion in our society today about religion and LGBT issues. Since it's Pride Month, I'm eager to weigh in on the conversation. My journey began in the fall of 1970. Being born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in the very rural parts of Kansas led me to believe that everything was simple, everything made sense and that anything was possible. In the first decade of my life, I came to know and love God, as I was raised in a Christian home and community. My basket of dreams was overflowing.

But the older I got, the more I began to understand that not everything was simple, not everything made sense and the things that once seemed possible, began to feel impossible. I started to take inventory of that basket of dreams and I felt forced to throw some of those dreams away.

As a young girl, there were the obvious messages about what girls could and couldn't achieve. And to compound the limitations I felt being leveled upon me, I realized at the age of nine, that I was gay.

Comedian Judy Gold on Her Critically Acclaimed Show: "25 Questions for a Jewish Mother"
and Other semi-Related Topics (1962— ) [PR, February 6, 2006]

Emmy Award Winning Comedian Judy Gold has always been fascinated by her Jewish roots. Her own loving, but sometimes overprotective, Jewish mother has been a focal point of her stand up act; and to mixed reactions. Some people have accused her of playing up cultural stereotypes and lampooning her own people. She says she is simply presenting an accurate portrayal of her mother and doing so in a loving way. Never squeamish about expressing her opinions, she is quick to bring up many a comment that has ruffled social and political feathers throughout her career.

After years of impersonating her mother on stage and contemplating her own role as a Jewish mother, she decided to embark on a project that would change her life forever. She and playwright Kate Moira Ryan set out on a five year journey, where they toured the United States interviewing over fifty Jewish women of varying backgrounds. The purpose: to find out if there is, in fact, a stereotypical prototype of a Jewish mother and what that means to her own existence as a modern, single and gay Jewish mother.

[Continued here]

• Comedian Judy Gold stars in 'The Judy Show: My Life as a Sitcom,' as a lesbian mom wanting a TV show [New York Daily News, July 6, 2011]

Judy Gold is a lesbian mother of two, a standup comedian and the product of a neurotic Jewish mother. Her life would make great TV. But, so far, it hasn't.

"Tell me, 'George Lopez has his own show. Sarah Silverman has her own show. Why don't you have your own show?' I say, 'You know what? I already have low self esteem and I don't need to hear it from you.'"

She may not have her own sitcom, but now she has the next best thing - a play about wanting her own sitcom.

David Archuleta (1990— ) [Wikipedia]

David James Archuleta... is an American pop singer-songwriter. At ten years old he won the children's division of the Utah Talent Competition leading to other television singing appearances. When he was twelve years old, Archuleta became the Junior Vocal Champion on Star Search 2. In 2007, at sixteen years old, he became one of the youngest contestants on the seventh season of American Idol. In May 2008 he finished as the runner-up, receiving 44 percent of over 97 million votes.

In August 2008 Archuleta released "Crush," the first single from his self-titled debut album. The album, released three months later, debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart; it has sold over 750,000 copies in the U.S. and over 900,000 Worldwide. In October 2010 he released a third album, The Other Side of Down featuring lead single "Something 'Bout Love".

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• David Archuleta Fuels Gay Speculation [Show Biz Spy, December 18, 2010]

The American Idol alum said he's never been kissed or been in love.

No doubt he'll come out of the closet in a couple of years when he is ready to take his career to the next level.

Out Actress Amber Heard Lands Female Lead in 'Motor City' [She Wired, November 21, 2011]

NBC may have canned The Playboy Club after just three episodes, but that hasn't stopped its star, out actress Amber Heard from hurtling toward becoming Hollywood's new "it" girl as Heard has just been cast in the upcoming "revenge" film Motor City, according to Deadline.

The sultry blond will star opposite Dominic Cooper (Mamma Mia, The Duchess) in the film that tells the story of a man whose released from prison and one by one picks off the people who framed him. Gotta love a film that takes its cues from the season's hottest soapy one-hour drama - Revenge!

Prior to 2008's Pineapple Express Heard was barely a blip on the IMDB page but with subsequent roles in 2009's Zombieland and more recently Drive Angry and The Rum Diary, she's quickly becoming the go-to gal.

In December of 2010 Heard came out of the closet and discussed her now three-year relationship with artist Tasya van Ree.

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• Amber Heard: Staying in the closet in Hollywood is a "horribly detrimental lie" [Pink News, December 15, 2011]

The Rum Diary star told Women's Health magazine: "You can't respect yourself if you're afraid to be who you are. It requires bravery to do something no one else around you is doing.

"But the risk was outweighed by the possibility of playing into this horribly detrimental lie that some in Hollywood perpetuate."

Michael Musto: Paul Iacono's Coming Out Interview (1988— )
[Village Voice, April 11, 2012]

MM: Speaking of which, you're openly gay now?

PI: Yes. I'm rolling with the punches here. I was asked if I was comfortable doing gay press. I said 'Of course.' I didn't think I'd be coming out. But why not now? I think it's the right time to say something. It's not about me, it's about change and the work.

MM: Is part of it to inspire the gay youth out there?

PI: Of course. The whole reason we came up with Kenzie's Scale is to give young gays characters to look up to. It's great that we have Chris Colfer, but we need more characters. I was so moved by your comment on Facebook that 'If I'd grown up with gay TV icons that were out, I'd have been so much better off.' I didn't have much to look up to as a kid. I had to search to find like-minded images. I'm happy to be that person so kids won't have to grow up and be afraid of their sexuality and this won't be an issue.

[Continued here]

The Village People [Wikipedia]

Village People is a concept disco group formed in the United States in 1977, well known for their on-stage costumes depicting American cultural stereotypes, as well as their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics.

Original members were: Victor Willis (the police officer character), Felipe Rose (the Indian), Randy Jones (the cowboy), Glenn Hughes (the biker), David Hodo (the construction worker) and Alex Briley (the G.I.). For the release of "In the Navy", Willis and Briley appeared as an admiral and a sailor, respectively. Originally created to target disco's gay audience by featuring popular gay fantasy personas, the band's popularity quickly brought them into mainstream.

Village People scored a number of disco and dance hits, including their trademark "Macho Man", "Go West", the classic club medley of "San Francisco (You've Got Me) / In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star)", "In the Navy", "Can't Stop the Music", and their biggest hit, "Y.M.C.A.".

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• Can't Stop the Music (1980) (the film) [IMDb]
• It Takes a Village Person to Change Music Copyright Law [Gawker, August 17, 2011]

Bare-chested cop impersonator Victor Willis, aka the former lead singer of the Village People, is attempting to regain control of 32 songs he co-wrote, including their biggest hit, "Y.M.C.A.," whose catchy melody and acronymous choreography has made it a perennial favorite at everything from basketball games to Bar Mitzvahs.

According to copyright law, ownership of music rights goes back to the songwriters and recording artists after 35 years. But the current owners of the Village People catalog - French company Scorpio Music and its U.S. arm, Can't Stop Productions - deny Willis's claim. Yes, he wrote the lyrics to "Y.M.C.A.," they concede, but he was essentially their "writer for hire" at the time - just one of a roomful of costumed fetish monkeys, chained to typewriters and forced to churn out hit after hit for their coke-snorting, leisure-suit-wearing, disco overlords.

"I want to write my this-is-who-the-fuck-I-am anthem, but I don't want
it to be hidden in poetic wizardry and metaphors."



Lady Gaga (1986— ) [Wikipedia]

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta..., better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American pop singer-songwriter. After performing in the rock music scene of New York City's Lower East Side in 2003 and later enrolling at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, she soon signed with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records. During her early time at Interscope, she worked as a songwriter for fellow label artists and captured the attention of rapper Akon, who recognized her vocal abilities, and signed her to his own label, Kon Live Distribution.

[Continued here]

• Understanding GagaVille: A primer [Salon, May 18, 2011]

In one of the odder marketing strategies we've seen in a while, Lady Gaga is leaking tracks from her new album "Born This Way" through a farming social networking game on Facebook. In all fairness FarmVille is the most popular application on Mark Zuckerberg's site, with over 10 percent of users participating in the virtual crop-growing exercise.

• A message from Lady Gaga to the Senate Sept 16 2010 [YouTube]
• Lady Gaga "it gets better!" [YouTube]
• Born This Way by Lady Gaga (Video) [YouTube]
• Lady Gaga Dethrones Oprah In Forbes Top 100 Power Rankings [Cinema Blend, May 18, 2011]
• Lady Gaga performs at Rome gay pride rally [USA Today, June 11, 2011]

Hundreds of thousands of people marched through central Rome in a gay pride parade today, which was capped by a brief Lady Gaga performance in the ancient Circus Maximus stadium. ...

Lady Gaga told the crowd she is often asked "How gay are you, Lady Gaga?"

"My answer is: 'I am a child of diversity.'"

• Portrait of a Lady [The Advocate, July 5, 2011]
• Tony Bennett featuring Lady Gaga: The Lady is a Tramp [YouTube]
• Lady Gaga says she will meet Barack Obama over anti-gay bullying [Pink News, September 22, 2011]

Jamey Rodemeyer, 14, from Buffalo, New York, killed himself om Sunday after posting an online tribute to the singer.

The teenager was gay and said no one had listened to his pleas for help over bullying.

Writing on Twitter, Gaga, who previously lobbied for an end to the military gay ban, called for a "law for Jamey" to ban bullying.

She said she had spent days "reflecting, crying, and yelling" and wrote: "I have so much anger. It is hard to feel love when cruelty takes someones life . Bullying must become be illegal. It is a hate crime."

Gaga added: "I am meeting with our president. I will not stop fighting. This must end. Our generation has the power to end it."

• Lady Gaga — "Hair" [Jamey Rodemeyer Tribute] Live at iHeartRadio Music Festival 2011 [YouTube]
• Lady Gaga Launches Born This Way Foundation [MTV, November 2, 2011]

Lady Gaga has always made it her mission to empower her little monsters. On Wednesday (November 2), Mother Monster announced she's launching the Born This Way Foundation, which aims to further inspire young people. The pop superstar is even getting some help from her very own Mother Monster, Cynthia Germanotta.

"My mother and I have initiated a passion project. We call it the Born This Way Foundation," Gaga said in a statement about the foundation, which takes its name from her hit single and album. "Together we hope to establish a standard of Bravery and Kindness, as well as a community worldwide that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and abandonment."

The foundation will work with a number of partners, including the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the California Endowment and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. According to the statement, the foundation will focus on "youth empowerment and equality by addressing issues like self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying, mentoring and career development and will utilize digital mobilization as one of the means to create positive change."

• Lady Gaga Sends Anti-Gay Bullying Video To Toronto Student [Huffington Post, November 25, 2011]

The pop diva and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights advocate e-mailed the video message to 17-year-old Jacques St. Pierre, who has organized school assemblies and gathered no-bullying pledges from students at the Etobicoke School of the Arts in Toronto.

"I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you for being such a strong advocate of the LGBT community in your school," Lady Gaga, who has repeatedly vowed to make bullying illegal, says in the clip. "There should be more little monsters like you. My father always saves all the fan letters that I receive and I read yours and wanted to send this video to you. It is important that we push the boundaries of love and acceptance."

• The White House Blog: Meeting with Lady Gaga on Inclusion and Equality for Our Young People [The White House, December 8, 2011]

Lady Gaga is a source of strength for many young people who feel isolated and scared at their schools. Today, I had the opportunity to welcome her to the White House, where we discussed ways we could work together to make sure that no child comes under attack, regardless of his or her race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other factor.

One of Lady Gaga's newest projects is joining together with the MacArthur Foundation and Harvard University to launch the Born This Way Foundation, which will explore ways to help change the culture, the policies, and the curriculum surrounding the safety of our children in school.

Lady Gaga has described this cause as a personal one - she has said that as a child, she was often picked on for being different. I am deeply moved by the way she has used her story, and her success, to inspire young people, and shine the spotlight on important issues.

    

(Click on images above to enlarge)

Glee [Fox]

In its sophomore season, GLEE is a biting musical comedy that has quickly become a pop-culture phenomenon. This season's No. 1 entertainment series among Teens and a Top 3 series among Adults 18-49 and 18-34 boasts critical acclaim, a loyal fan base of "GLEEks," two Platinum and two Gold albums, two Grammy Award nominations, more than 16 million song downloads, the record for the most titles on the Billboard Hot 100 by a non-solo act (beating out The Beatles), the No. 1 soundtrack of 2010 ("The Christmas Album"), an incredible 19 Emmy and 11 Golden Globe nominations - earning it the distinction of being the most-nominated series of the year - and four Emmy Awards. To top it off, the genre-defying, award-winning series has been picked up through its third season.

[Continued here]

• Glee's Chris Colfer and Darren Criss: Baby, It's Cold Outside [YouTube]
• Interview with Glee's gay hearthrob Darren Criss [365 Gay, May 2, 2011]

Darren Criss isn't even officially a full-time cast member on "Glee," yet he's one of the most popular stars on the Fox TV show.

The actor made his debut last fall as Blaine Anderson, a gay student at Dalton Academy where Chris Colfer's character, Kurt, transfers after being bullied out.

• 'Glee' 'Raised the Bar' For TV Inclusiveness With Gay Kiss [Pop Eater, March 16, 2011]

On last night's 'Glee,' the New Directions won regionals after hitting the stage with a pair of original songs -- a first for the series -- but that isn't what anyone is talking about this morning. After months of hints and winks, fans of FOX's hit musical finally got what they've been waiting for: The characters of Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss) kissed for the first time. And it wasn't a peck. It also wasn't overtly sexual or desperate, it wasn't rushed or clouded with turmoil, and it certainly wasn't played for laughs, the way many kisses between men are on TV. It was perfect.

• 'Glee' creator Ryan Murphy engaged and spilling 'Glee' secrets [Celebrity Cafe, June 18, 2011]

Ryan Murphy called into On Air with Ryan Seacrest Friday morning to talk about what is next for Glee and his love life.

"I'm with a great fellow now who I've known for 15 years and we just got engaged," Murphy revealed on air. "And I'm very excited about it!"

• 'Glee' Movie Continues LGBT Exclusion in 'Born This Way' [Bilerico Project, August 18, 2011]
• 'Glee' May Introduce Gay Love Triangle Drama (Spoilers!) [Bilerico Project, September 28, 2011]

It's nice to see that the Glee writers are treating the relationship between Blaine and Kurt the same way they treat every other relationship on the show. All of the straight couples deal with (often ridiculous) drama, infidelity every other episode, and otherwise difficult obstacles. Whether you love or hate the show, it gets huge, national, mainstream attention, and it's been highlighting gay issues, especially schools' anti-LGBT bullying problem, for two years. It's high time to see the gay couple deal with the same challenges as the straight couples.

• Chris Colfer Adopts Fat Cat [HuffPo, May 14, 2012]

"He's a little bit in denial about his size and thinks he's very very small. So I go home and find him stuck in all kinds of things," Colfer explained. He said he tried to put the cat on a diet, but "he kept breaking into the food."

Colfer has been joking about the cat's hefty size with his Twitter followers. He recently tweeted, "Note to self: Next time you're looking for keys, wallet, or phone, begin with checking under the cat."

Jane Espenson: Exclusive! "Jane's Take" Episode One "Torchwood: Miracle Day"
[After Elton, July 11, 2011]

Oooh! It's finally here!

I remember that we were in the BBC Worldwide offices exactly a year ago, working on the broad strokes of this season of Torchwood. It was around this time that we came up with the idea of calling the change Miracle Day. And now Miracle Day has arrived.

I'm going to be writing up my impressions and memories here after each episode - there is some dark water up ahead and the journey may not always be smooth, but we'll go through it together.

To a certain extent, this will read as DVD commentary, except it's written down and we're all imagining the DVD. Let's try it.

So let's talk death throes! Everyone who was on set during the attempted execution of Oswald Danes couldn't stop talking about Bill Pullman's performance here. I was told that the ripping off of the armrest wasn't even planned. But personally, I think the impressive stuff in this scene is all the stuff he does before that.

[Continued here]

• Gay Heroes and a Reptilian Monster, From the BBC [New York Times, July 18, 2009]

America these days gets its televised science fiction in a narrow spectrum, from serious to grim. (Hello, "Battlestar Galactica.") Even relatively lighthearted fare like the "Stargate" franchise strives for a certain level of surface plausibility.

Which may explain why the British series "Torchwood," which begins its third season - actually a five-night mini-series - on Monday on BBC America, has been such a success with American audiences and critics. Maybe we have a hankering for aliens who appear to be wearing our old Halloween costumes and for stories of such giggly impossibility that we'd be embarrassed to watch if we had a second to stop to think.

Actually, the mini-series, "Torchwood: Children of Earth," reflects an alarming trend on the part of the BBC to spend more money on its goofy sci-fi. The monster in this case is a reptilian, vomit- and blood-spewing thing in a glass tank that's more reminiscent of "Alien" than of the dime-store concoctions on "Doctor Who," the show from which "Torchwood" was anagrammatically spun off. As the title implies, he has evil designs on the human race's younger members, and he demonstrates his power early on by having them all stop in their tracks and chant in unison in scenes that pay tribute to the British science-fiction classic "Village of the Damned."

Russell T Davies, the Welsh writer and producer who revived "Doctor Who" and created "Torchwood," has thrived by taking the low-rent, knockabout style of the original "Doctor Who" and giving it a nighttime-soap-opera gloss.

This has meant, for one thing, employing much better-looking actors, like David Tennant, the current (though soon to be replaced) Doctor, and John Barrowman, Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd, the principals of "Torchwood."

It has also meant amping up the sexual tension and pushing against some of the same boundaries Mr. Davies did in his breakout show, "Queer as Folk." On "Torchwood" Capt. Jack Harkness (Mr. Barrowman) and his aide-de-camp, Ianto Jones (Mr. David-Lloyd), are now a full-fledged, kiss-on-the-lips couple.

10 Actors Who Have Cross-Dressed For Roles [Buzz Feed, January, 2012]

Dude looks like a lady! Many actors have cross-dressed for roles, but some are just a little more convincing than others. And only Chris Lilley could pull off playing the overprotective, overbearing mother of a teen Japanese skateboarding sensation.

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• The Mean Girls of Black Hollywood: 15 Cross-Dressing Roles Portrayed By Black Actors [Hip Hop Wired, November 20, 2010]

Lets face it, even in 2010 (and yes, even if you live in Atlanta), seeing a man dressed up as a woman takes some getting used to.

Yet, in film using the cross-dressing gimmick almost seems cliché, especially among Black actors.

Most of the roles are comical and warm hearted in nature.

However, that still doesn't stop the debate as to whether or not all these cross-dressing characters (many portrayed by strong Black actors) contribute to the perceived "emasculation" of the Black man in America.

• The Oscars: Actresses in Lesbian, Bisexual, Gender Bending and Coded Roles Throughout History [She Wired, February 21, 2012]

While Oscar - or Hollywood as a whole - has rarely sought to represent queerness positively on film, there remain a few handfuls of performances that, for good or bad, helped to bring visibility to lesbian, bi, trans and queer characters throughout the years. Of course, since Hollywood has traditionally punished transgressive women, be they adulterers, prossies, dykes or just unsupportive of their men, most of the queer characters portrayed by these master thespians were either crazy, paid for their sins or died a gruesome death.

2009's acting nominees didn't include a lesbian, bi or queer part among them - ahem, Paula Patton should have been nominated for Precious. But 2008 broke ground with Penelope Cruz winning the Oscar for her hilarious and peerless performance as a fiery bisexual artist who beds Scarlett Johansson in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, as the character was only mildly crazy and presumably lived fairly happily ever after. This year the Academy has honored Annette Bening with a nod for playing - gasp - a completely sane, if not tightly wound, lesbian character who lives to see the credits in The Kids Are All Right.

When They Play Women, It's Not Just an Act [New York Times, July 28, 2011]

FOR someone whose only acting experience was playing a Boy George lookalike in a high school production of the musical "The Wedding Singer," Harmony Santana is having an incredible year. Ms. Santana is making her big-screen debut in Rashaad Ernesto Green's coming-out drama "Gun Hill Road," which had its premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival. Last month the movie made a splash on the gay film-festival circuit, opening Outfest in Los Angeles and closing Newfest in New York. It opens commercially in New York on Aug. 5.

But when Ms. Santana goes to sleep at night she does so not as a buzzed-about young starlet but as a resident of Green Chimneys, a group home in Harlem mainly for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth. Ms. Santana, who says she is in her early 20s, has been living full time as a woman only since last year.

She is the latest performer to join the tiny pool of openly transgender actors who are finding a place on screen. Her small cohort includes Candis Cayne, who appeared in the film "Stonewall" and the television series "Dirty Sexy Money," and Laverne Cox, a reality-television star with a role in the coming Susan Seidelman film "Musical Chairs." The most recognizable female-to-male personality today is probably Chaz Bono, the child of Cher and Sonny Bono who, while not an actor, is the subject of the documentary "Becoming Chaz."

Cross-dressing on film certainly has a long tradition, dating to the silent era when Fatty Arbuckle and others put on dresses and wigs for laughs. And Oscar nominations have been given to actors who played transgender characters, including John Lithgow ("The World According to Garp" from 1982), Jaye Davidson ("The Crying Game," 1992) and Felicity Huffman ("Transamerica," 2005). Hilary Swank won an Academy Award for her role in "Boys Don't Cry" (1999).

[Continued here]

• Glenn Close In 'Albert Nobbs': Female Actresses Who Play Male Roles [Huffington Post, January 26, 2012]

But Glenn isn't the first actress to take a role, playing opposite her gender. Whether they're playing a man who's playing a woman, a woman who's playing a man, or any combination of the former, a handful of Hollywood's elite female actresses have made the transformation from their born and raised gender to channel a male role.