November 2006 Archives

Thank God for Michael Jensen's new blog on AfterElton.com. called Best. Gay. Day. Ever. He posted this funny item of David Letterman’s Top Ten Shows on the new gay television network:

10) How I Met Your Brother

9) Gary’s Anatomy

8) Desperate Poolboys

7) Everybody Loves Raymond…Especially Steve

6) The King of Queens

5) Not-So-Smallville

4) I Dream of Gene

3) Gays of Our Lives

2) My Name is Earl…and I Like Construction Workers

1) His Deal or No Deal

Says Michael: "Pretty funny for the most part, and I’d actually tune in to watch a couple of these. Or have I already seen Desperate Poolboys on the motel…um, never mind. The only one I didn’t get was His Deal or No Deal. Can anyone explain it to me?"

I usually go about my day filing stories for the Daily News then move on to the next thing. I'm a busy guy, who has time to dwell? But as I wrote a story on minority hiring in film for today's paper, I stopped to tell me deskmates a story from my past that surfaced as I wrote the piece "Whites Get Majority of Acting Jobs."
Picture it: Orange County, Calif. in the 1970s. I'm one of the few little Hispanic kids at John A. Murdy Elementary School and decide to try out for the school's production of "Tom Sawyer." I'm shy but secretly crave the limelight (shocking, isn't it?) I want the lead and am waiting to audition one day after school. Sitting next to me is a red-headed kid with freckles named Clark. We start to talk:
Clark: What part are YOU trying out for?
Greg: Tom Sawyer.
Clark: A BLACK TOM SAWYER?
Greg: (gulp).
I had no clever comeback and couldn't even muster any measure of cool. I was pretty stunned. Then the drama teacher calls me in. I am more determined than ever to score the part. I do a reading that I think would've gotten me into Julliard.

I walk out, past Clark, and am quite confident he will be eating his words. I'm gonna be the best BLACK TOM SAWYER in John A. Murdy history. A few days later, the cast is posted. I'm in it all right, but red-headed Clark is cast as Tom (even though he has a tin ear!) and me, well, I am cast as Injun Joe!

I got my revenge on Clark on the night of the performance though. There's a courtroom scene where he identifies me as a suspect and I throw a knife at him and miss. It's a rubber knife and through every rehearsal and in the dress rehearsal in front of the school that day, I missed him, as scripted. But on the night of nights, our families in the audience, I threw the knife at him and whaddaya know, it hit him right-square in the middle of the forehead.

I didn't mean to do it , I swear. But I went home feeling pretty good all the same.

Last night's Ribbon of Hope Celebration 2006 started off much like many other award events with red carpet intervews, a pre-show VIP party, hellos and hugs. But after settling into my seat at the Television Academy Theater, the heaviness of the reason why we were all there took over. In addition to honoring actress/activist Judith Light, several television projects were recognized as responsible programming that educated and raised public awareness of this devastating epedemic for which there remains no cure - treatement yes, if you can afford it. But no cure.
The HBO film "Yesterday," sanctioned by Nelson Mandela and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, follows the struggles of a young mother who has been diagnosed with AIDS and wants to live long enough to send her daughter to her first day of school. The film is set in South Africa, 10 years after democracy arrived there. "the husband brought AIDS into the family and his reaction was to beat [her] to a pulp," actress CCH Pounder told the hushed audience after a clip of the film. "You really must see this film to understand its impact. This is...programming at its best."
Acter Peter Gallagher introduced the Cinemax documentary "Orphans of Nkandla" in which directors Brian Weeds and Deborah Shipley travel to the village of Kkandla in rural Zululand, South Africa where boys and girls share a common burden of having one or both of their parents die of AIDS. This leaves the older kids, as young as 12 years old, left to take care of younger siblings. "It breaks your heart," Gallagher said. The hero of the piece is Sister Hedwick, a nun who works at a local hospital whose mission is to locate and assist children from these devastated homesteads.
"General Hospital"Shifting the focus to AIDS in America, the long-running daytime drama "General Hospital" was recognized for its continuation of an AIDS storyline surrounding Robin Scorpio (portrayed by Kimberly McCullough, left) was was infected as a teenager by a boyfriend she loved. Robin is the portrait of a survivor who grew up to become a research pathologist but she still faces the everyday struggles of living with HIV. The AIDS storyline this year involves Robin's new love, Dr. Patrick Drake, who is exposed to HIV after cutting his finger while operating on a patient with AIDS. "We made a promise that we weren't going to let this storyline go away," GH writer Karen Harris said when she accepted the award. "Whatever Patrick's results are, we will continue to explore this subject. It is my hope that Robin will continue to live a full and joyous life."
Showtime's "The L Word" was selected to receive Ribbon of Hope's first honor outside the area of HIV and AIDS for its storyline on breast cancer during its third season. It followed the wrenching journey of Dana Fairbanks (Erin Daniels) from the discovery of a lump to her death from an opportunistic infection contrracted when chemotherapy weakens her immune system. "Lesbians have been virtually unrepresented in the popular culture," said Ilene Chaiken, the series' creator and executive producer. "It's a privledge to be taking part in television that makes a difference."
Shortly before his cancer diagnosis, Peter Jennings started work on a one-hour documentary devoted solely to the issue of AIDS in Black America. Black Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for over 50 percent of all new cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That infection rate is eight times the rate of whites. Among women, the numbers are even more shocking—- almost 70 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV-positive women in the United States are black women. Black women are 23 times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than white women, with heterosexual contact being the overwhelming method of infection in black America. The hour includes tough interviews with the likes of Jesse Jackson and a very telling interview moment from the 2004 vice presidential debate when moderator Gwen Ifil exposed Dick Cheney's absolute lack of awareness on the subject.
ABC's Terry Moran, who completed the work for Jennings, made some comments on his behalf: "He had a natural confidence that good journalism could make a difference. I know that Peter would be honored by this award - I am as well."
Also honored was the program "Frontline: The Age of AIDS on PBS which on the 25th anniversary of the pandemic, examines why humanity has failed to stop the spread of HIV.

Just got back from the 10th annual Ribbon of Hope Celebration honoring people in television who have contributed to responsible programming with regards to educating and raising public awareness of AIDS. It was a heart-warming, star-studded night. But I'll write about the dish in another post because this one is reserved for Judith Light, the star who shined the brightest at the Television of Television Arts and Sciences theater Thursday evening.

Judith received the evening's only standing ovation and it was heartfelt and filled with love for a woman who has more than done her share, for decades, in the battle against AIDS. Before the show began, I chatted with the two-time Emmy winner ("One Life to Live") and beloved star of the long-running sitcom "Who's the Boss?" who currently has a recurring role on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

On how she became an AIDS activist:
"I was always connected to the gay community, I grew up in theater and that's synonymous with the gay community. So all of my good friends who always supported me and were always wonderful to me were out of the gay community. So when AIDS started, I really felt it was important for me to start looking at this and say, 'What a minute. My friends are dying, they need help. Someone's got to be talking about this. This isn't politically correct but i gotta get out there. I did it to support my friends."

"You can't live in a country where you tell everybody you're compassionate and you love everybody and then treat the gay community like they don't exist and let them die. You cannot do it. I mean, you're doing it but I'm going to tell you that it's absolutely unconscionable. So I began to see how much homophobia was really layered underneath this AIDS crisis and why people weren't talking about it. You know that if this was a good ol' white boys disease, they would've been on it in a heartbeat. I'm not saying that we shouldn't take care of everybody but the point is, it was purposeful. People may say, 'Oh no, people would never really do that.' But whether it's conscious or unconscious, that was what was happening and I just didn't want to see that happening to people who I knew and loved."

Among the 15 television movies Light has starred in is "the Ryan White Story" and her AIDS-related advocacy includes representing Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS, The Names Project, AIDS Memorial Quilt, Project Angel Food, The Point Foundation, the Trevor Project, and The AIDS Memorial Grove, among others.

On being honored with the Ribbon of Hope:
"It's really kind of amazing. I do the work because it's the work and then somebody comes along and says, 'We want to give this to you.' And I'm here and I'm happy to be here."

Light was presented her award by Bruce Vilanch who called his friend "an incredible humanitarian on so many levels. She is a television icon who has made herself visible from the very beginning for a cause that no one wanted to be associated with. This never got in her way."

Chad Allen, who stars opposite and produces the gay-themed indie film "Save Me" with Light and Robert Gant, also gave a shout out to his friend when he was on stage presenting another award: "Judith Light, thank you. You are like family to me and I'm so proud to say that. I love you."

This seems to be a big day, week and month for Daniel Craig news and I am only too happy to share all of it with you. The new James Bond has been nominated for a Film Independent's Spirit Award in the best supporting actor category for his fine performance as a cold-blooded killer who happens to be gay in the Truman Capote biopic "Infamous." As a blond and buff Craig dazzles the world as Agent 007, it's nice to see him recognized for this smaller film which has suffered by coming out a year after "Capote," a film with an identical storyline. But the film is solid and Craig's performance as one of the killers Capote writes about in his novel "In Cold Blood" and seems to fall in love with is not to be missed.

Leading the pack in Independent Spirit nominations is one of my favorite films of the year, "Little Miss Sunshine" which earned five nods including best picture. Even though Steve Carrell, who played a suicidal gay man in the film, did ot receive an individual nod, his co-stars Alan Arkin Paul Dano did. Also nominated were co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and screenwriter Michael Arndt. This movie gem about a dysfunctional family on a road trip is out on DVD Dec. 19 with many bonus features ncluding four alternate endings, audio commentaries, music video and more.

And here is a well-deserved Indie Spirit nomination: up for the John Cassavetes Award, given to the best feature made for less than $500,000 are out filmmakers and real-life couple Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland for "Quniceanera." Their film has several key gay characters and won both the grand jury prize and the audience award at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Finally, up for the IFC/Acura Someone to Watch Awards, which includes a grant of $50,000 to a new filmmaker, is Richard Wong who directed the terrific "Colma: The Musical" which screened at the Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles last summer.

Congratulations to all!

Well, isn't this just a dandy little morsel of information just making its way around cyberspace? According to the site Contactmusic, the hunky Daniel Craig is urging movie bosses to modernize the James Bond series by including gay scenes involving the superspy.

"Why not? I think in this day and age, fans would have accepted it," Craig reportedly says. "I mean, look at (British TV series) Doctor Who - that has had gay scenes in it and no one blinks an eye."

Hmmmmmmm. Do I think this is a good idea? HECK YEAH!

Anyway, the blond Bond, who debuted worldwide last week in "Casino Royale," has also reportedly made it clear that he has no inhibition about doing film a full frontal nude scene to please both his male and female admirers.

OK, I think I'm gonna faint now.

Sometimes, movies can really give you some much-needed perspective. While gay rights in this country still have a ways to go, I am so glad to be an American gay man in 2006 (and actually writing a gay-themed blog) and not a French gay man in 1942. That is the year in which the moving period drama, "A Love to Hide" is set. I recommend that every gay person see this film, released on DVD Dec. 5. In French with English subtitles, this sweeping and unforgettable wartime epic about gay life and love in Nazi-occupied Europe was easily the best movie I saw at last summer's Outfest, the one movie that made me cry. See it and you will understand why. You will understand what it was like to be gay in another time and place and feel grateful for what we have even as gays and lesbians continue to fight for full equality in this country.

In "A Love to Hide," two gay lovers, Philippe (Jeremie Renier) and Jean (Bruno Todeschini), living in Paris hide their love from their families and from the occupying Nazi army. Philippe works with the Resistance while Jean runs his family business, a dry cleaner. When Jean’s childhood sweetheart Sara shows up their door, her family murdered by the Gestapo, they take her in and nurse her back to health. Philippe gets her a fake ID and Jean obtains her a job at the cleaners.

Even though Sara still loves the handsome and sweet Phillipe, she accepts his relationship with Jean. But it's still quite a struggle keeping their ragtag family safe from the Nazis. Jean’s brother is a collaborator and his dad a sympathizer. Tragedy closes in as Jean is accused of being a member of the “third sex� and having an affair with a Nazi officer. It is an important, beautifully-acted and heart-breaking film. I cannot recommend it enough or give enough praise to the filmmakers who provide such strong attention to details as the Nazi occupation of France from scenes in a ‘40s gay bar to the papable anxiety everyone was forced to live under.

"A Love to Hide" is released by Picture This! Home Video.

Outfest, Fusion: The Los Angeles LGBT People of Color Film Festival begins its three-day run on Friday night and I am so looking forward to it. I missed last year's inaugural edition of the event, the only multicultural, gender-inclusive film festival of its kind. But I'll be there this year for the opening night gala at the Aratani/Japan America Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.

The festival will kick off with a series of a diverse short films from the US and around the world, featuring beautiful radical lesbians, spirited queer youth, and relationships stemming from unlikely attractions. Of course, since I do like a good party, also fun should be the opening night post-movie gala, an electric party with music that organizers say will make you movewith delicious food from hot LA restaurants, and a hosted Absolut bar.

I. Am. So. There.

For a full schedule, click HERE and check out the festival Web site.

In addition to the Aratani/Japan America Theatre, 244 South San Pedro Street, movies will also be screen Saturday and Sunday at both the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, and the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood.

Tickets will be available at the box office prior to all Fusion events or by Phone: 213-480-7088.
TICKET PRICES Opening Night and Closing Night Galas (includes screening and after-party):
General: $12
Members of Outfest and Collaborating Organizations: $10
21 & under / 62 & over: FREE

Other Programs:
General: $8
Members of Outfest and Collaborating Organizations: $6
21 & under / 62 & over: FREE
Special Offers:
Pass to All Fusion Programs: $35
Outfest Membership: Buy a Fusion Pass, add $15 and receive an Outfest Crew level Membership ($50 value)

I don't care how good he looks in a towel on "Grey's Anatomy," Eric "Dr. McSteamy" Dane is rather clueless when it comes to the reality of the same-gender marriage debate which continues to rage in our country. Dane, co-star of the upcoming A&E movie "Wedding Wars," gave an interview to Instinct magazine, parts of which have left me incredulous.
In the movie, he plays a speechwriter set to marry the daughter of a politically conservative Republican governor who is against gay marriage. His brother (played by John Stamos) is a gay wedding planner who goes on strike in protest to his brother's future father-in-law's political stance. "Ben's a politician," Dane explains. "What's more, he's protecting a politician as his campaign manager. He's taking polls and listening to polls, and he's gonna take the position of what the state says regardless of how Ben feels personally. I think that at the core, Ben thinks there's nothing wrong with gay marriage."

Q. So how will Middle America react to the movie's premise?
A. "Well, I think simply...this is a good film. This is ot a "gay" film. It's a romantic comedy that happens to have a gay guy in it and some gay themes. They've done a real good job about being really subtle with what could be a heavy-handed issue."

Q. Do you think this movie will change minds?
A. "I don't think people should come away from this film thinking, 'I have a new perspective on gay marriage' because I think you want to shy away from that to the point where there doesn't need to be any thought going on about it. I don't want people coming away from this movie thinking anything other than, 'I just thought saw a good movie, because [gay marriage] should be something that's so accepted that it doesn't even cross your mind as something you would need to recognize."

Uh OK. Well McSteamy, we live in the REAL WORLD and in the real world, 49 states in the U.S. do not allow gay people to get married and there are plenty of people out there who want to keep it that way. We are in the trenches right now fighting for that civil right.

Your co-star, the thoughtful and informed John Stamos recognizes "Wedding Wars" as an opportunity to perhaps get Middle America to watch and maybe learn, maybe open up their kinds a bit. “[It’s] a light, frothy romantic comedy with, obviously, an important message,� Stamos told the show "Extra" this week which was the first to show him the new issue of The Advocate, with John as the cover boy promoting the movie with the headline "Would You Take This Man?�

“I don't care what anybody says,� Stamos says. “It was funny; I got a call today from someone who said that there was a big debate in some hair salon because I was on the cover. They said, ‘Exactly, we knew he was gay. Isn't he gay?’ The girls were saying, ‘No, he's not gay!’ I'm proud to be on it.�

John’s cover boy issue of The Advocate is on newsstands and “Wedding Wars� premieres Dec. 11 on A&E.

Was flipping through the latest issue of Instinct magazine last night and came across an interesting sidebar to the cover story on Beyonce in which she shares her thoughts on her many gays: "I love my gay fans and I thank them for Destiny's Child and Kelly, Michelle and Solange from day one!"

The singer, sensational in "Dreamgirls," comes from a strong faith but does not believe religious beliefs should make you intolerant: "I grew up going to church, but I was raised by my uncle who passed away from AIDS a couple of years ago. He was my mother's best friend. He brought me to school every day. He helped me buy my prom dressz. He made my clothes with my mother. He was like my nanny. He was my favorite person in the world. And you know, I never really mixed Christianity with how I felt about him. I am about faith and spirituality more so than religion. Doing right by others and not judging.

What she would say to her child if he were gay: "That I love him for the person he is with no expectations back. That I support whatever he does. That who we are is from the inside out."

Sam Harris' Perry Pearl, the gayest-straight-man-ever, did not appear on Monday night's episode of CBS' "The Class" but one of the real gay characters on this often-funny sitcom, Kyle ( Sean Maguire), shared some terrific scenes with Ethan (Jason Ritter). I think this friendship between a straight man and a gay man could really invigorate the show which has suffered from its large cast not interacting enough with each other.

So Ethan (he doesn't know Kyle is gay) shows up at Kyle's apartment to pick him up for a raquetball came and sees a picture of Kyle's boyfriend.
Ethan: Is that your brother?
Kyle: It's my partner.
Ethan: Oh, your business partner?
Kyle: My PARTNER partner.
Ethan: Oh! That's fanTAStic! It's fine...it's...REGULAR.

So with that out of the way, they become involved in the episode's plot where one of their friends has crashed into a liquor store (he lost control of the car when a bee flew in the window). and their comic chemistry was very fresh and welcomed. So hopefully Ethan will hang out with Kyle and his boyfriend in future episodes and maybe he'll even get to interact some with Perry Pearl!

At a time when I feel frustrated by the discrimination against gays not being allowed to get married in 49 states (unlike the thoughtful Pam Anderson or Britney Spears) or frustrated that gays are still not able to openly serve in the military, I find solace in the unlikeliest of places: Monday night's episode of the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother."
I hope a lot of the teens, or anyone, who are struggling with being gay and feeling good about themselves saw this episode. Not only was in wickedly funny and touching, but it was absolutely devoid of homophobia. And trust me, it was a VERY gay episode. The characters were just all very evolved and a view of how much better off we'd all be if people would get rid of their hang-ups.

The CLASSIC episode of "Mother" featured a very funny Wayne Brady as the gay brother of Neil Patrick Harris' womanizing Barney character and focused on Barney's reluctance to accept the fact that his brother is...in a RELATIONSHIP! Barney's friends clue in before he does when the group hits a gay bar and the usually very "social" James starts turning down every hot guy in the place who approaches him: "He's too in shape," he says of one. "He'll spend all night talking about his level of body fat."
But Barney remains in denial and insists his brother is still a swinging bachelor despite such tell-tale relationships signs as "he's a little sleepy and he hasn't had sex with anyone in a bathroom stall and he's texting!"

They have different fathers, obviously, but are two peas in a pod in terms of personality and attitude. They had been each other's wingman on the single's scene forever and even scored a brother and sister once. I loved the sequence that showed all their different tag-team pick-up techniques. for example, James offends a woman by coming on too strong and she is rescued by Barney who sweeps in and says something like, "Is this guy bothering you?" They even scored a brother and sister once which James describes as "she was a little bit country, he was a litle bit WAY into black guys!" Suffice it to say, James is the homosexual version of Barney's aggressive heterosexual character and Brady is a delight in the part.

Once Barney learns of his brother's marriage plans, he tries to get him hooked up at the bar, approaching potential hook-ups and telling them to ply his brolther "with a few dirty martinis" and he'd be all theirs. But Barney is stopped cold when James tells him he's in love with Tom and they are getting married.
Barney: 'I don't support this!"
James: "Gay marriage?"
Barney: "Not the gay part! Marriage!"

Barney explains: "Here’s my thing. If gay guys start getting married, then suddenly the whole world’s gonna be doing it. That’s how it works. They start something, then six months later, everyone follows…Gay marriage is going to cause single life as we know it to die out. Think of how the American family will be strengthened."

As an aside, I found some silly of the interactions between Barney's straight guy friends Ted (Josh Radnor) and Marshall (Jason Segel) being hit on by men at the gay club hysterical. Says Marshall to one admirer: "I'm flattered and objectively, you're a very attractive man."
Adds Ted: "I'm straight too but I appreciate your time and you appreciating my body."
But later, after a not-so-cute guy walks up and puts his arm around both of them and says: "Look at me, in the middle of a yummy sandwich!" Ted complains: "It's never the hot ones - it's always the losers. Bums me out!"

Barney's anti-marriage campaign ends though when his brother tells him that he and Tom are going to adopt a baby. Barney immediately changes his attitude and Harris is so good in this moment of conveying his love for his brother.
The episode flash-forwards to a year later and the wedding reception with uncle Barney having a heart-to-heart with his baby nephew: "Just because you're being raised by married people doesn't mean you have to choose that lifestyle...I am going to teach you how to live!"

Also at the wedding reception, you can see two men dancing together, two women dancing together, a man and a woman dancing together. It's all just there, everyone being who they are. And it's on at 8 p.m. on network prime time. I love it! Kudos to CBS and especially to the show's creative team. Mostly, kudos to heterosexual Wayne Brady for his terrific performance as a gay man and to the openly gay Neil Patrick Harris, for his continually convincing performance as a heterosexual man!

Gay Democratic congressman Barney Frank says he has every intention of pushing for a modification of the military's antigay ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy.
"What we have is a shortfall in the military," Frank pointed out on Fox News Sunday. "I think when you have people being fired who can read Arabic and understand Arabic, because of what they do when they're off duty, that that's a grave error.''
The current policy prohibits officials from inquiring about the sex lives of service members but requires discharges of those who acknowledge being gay - as if there is something wrong with being gay. A report in 2005 by the investigative arm of Congress estimated it cost the Pentagon around $200 million to recruit and train replacements for the nearly 9,500 troops that had to leave the military because of the ban on openly gay personnel. The losses included hundreds of highly skilled troops, including translators, from 1994 to 2003.
To continue this legal form of discrimination is, in my opinion, not only bigoted, it's detrimental to the military and to the country. So why does the ban continue? Because some guys are worried about sharing a tent with a gay man or is shy about taking a shower? Get over yourselves and think about what is best for your country which needs trained military personnel more than ever now.

Any one of us would hope to live to be 89, especially if until the end we could remain witty and engaged and beloved. Still, I was so saddened to learn of the death of Betty Comden in New York a few days ago. Along with professional partner Adolph Green, Comden is responsible for some of the greatest musicals including "Singin' in the Rain," "Wonderful Town," "Auntie Mame," and the great "On the Town" which features the classic song "New York, New York...(It's a Helluva Town)."
In early 2001, Comden and Green were the recipients of the Writers Guild of America's Laurel Award. I was a film writer at The Hollywood Reporter at the time and was assigned to write a story about the pair. I phoned them separately in New York. We had such nice conversations and I'll never forget it. Green died in 2002 but lived long enough for the two to make it to the DVD premiere of "Singin' in the Rain" in Beverly Hills. Sorry I missed that event!
The pair were Tony winners for "On the Twentieth Century," "Hallelujah Baby!" and "The Will Rogers Follies," among others. Their other credits include "Peter Pan," "Bells Are Ringing," and "Applause," the latter a musical version of "All About Eve" that ran for several years and won Lauren Bacall the first of two Tonys. I interviewed Bacall a few years ago and she told me that the show was absolutely "a career high for me" and allowed her to finally emerge from the professional shadow of her late husband Humphrey Bogart. They created the show with Bacall in mind as they did "Bells Are Ringing" decades earlier for Judy Holliday who also won a Tony.
Among the songs written by the Comden and Green team were "Just in Time," "The Party's Over" and "Make Someone Happy." They were twice nominated for an Academy Award for writing "Band Wagon" and "It's Always Fair Weather."
In closing, I gotta say, the passing of someone like Betty Comden really makes you think about the artistic contributions of some of the people who have walked this earth and how much joy their work gave to so many of us. The songs we hum, the movies we remember, the stage productions we will never forget. It's far more interesting and deserving of attention than what we heap on so many of these no-talent party girls with hair extensions on the cover of every magazine. Betty Comden will be remembered long after we forget about every single one of them.

Remember Tom Cavanaugh from the charming series "Ed" on NBC? I just think he's the sexiest thing and very talented.His guest spots on "Scrubs" as Zach Braff's brother are always very welcome and he brought a lot to the short-lived WB show "Jack and Bobby" which cast him as the gay uncle to Christine Lahiti's two sons.
Now Cavanaugh is playing gay again in "Breakfast with Scot," a movie about a gay hockey player. It tells the story of a gay couple who who end up adopting an 11 year old boy. What is really cool is that the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs have given the go ahead for the filmmakers to use the Maple Leafs’ name and logo. Well,Canada IS a country where they actually let gays get married. Still, Cavanaugh says: “I never in a million years thought when we finally went to shooting we’d be donning Leaf sweaters. I thought it’d be that thing where it’s the Toronto Razorbacks or whatever.�

The Maple Leafs apparently didn’t have the least bit of a problem with it, according to Towleroad.com. Leafs’ general Scott Ferguson said that while they aren’t trying to make a statement, it wasn’t hard for them to give permission once they had permission from the NHL.

But it DOES make a statement, a big one.

I don't mean to be completely unkind but I ask you, is there a grosser minor celebrity on the planet than David Gest, the strange music promoter who Liza Minnelli inexplicably married earlier this decade? I thought he was a creep from their first interview together and he set my gaydar off so loudly that I believe I broke the city noise ordinance. Anyway, the courtship went like this: Gest meets Liza when she appears on a Michael Jackson birthday special that he is producing. She's massively overweight and in a career slump.
Next thing ya know, she's lost like 100 pounds, they get married in a lavish ceremony where he kisses her like a 12 year old boy who had never kissed a girl before. Liza records a live CD "Liza's Back!" Of course, above her name on the CD read: "David Gest Presents..." and they agree to do a reality show for MTV. But the show gets yanked and the couple splits and soon Gest is saying big ol' linebacker Liza had regularly beat him and verbally abused him. That Liza. What. A. Bully. Thank God David got out of there alive before Liza picked him up and threw him out of a window or something.

Anyway, now Gest is appearing on an Australian reality show similar to ABCs best forgotten "I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" where "celebs" brave the elements in the jungle. Here is some excerpts from what Gest has been saying while in the rough: "They said 'was I straight, was I gay?' I always said, 'bring me one guy I’ve been with' - I’d love to meet him because, if I was into it, I’d be proud of it. I have tons of friends that are gay. They said that because of my wife who I’m getting divorced from was [a gay icon]. I never had a Judy Garland room, I never had a Shirley Temple room. These are all ridiculous things."

On his over-the-top kiss with a seemingly suffocating Minnelli at their church: "Donald Trump said to me that night I have never seen a kiss like that in my life. I was so excited and so in love that when I took my tongue it looked like I was eating a part of her because I went all the way through her mouth. It looked like I was a shark going in and I took every part of her mouth out with my tongue. And it was like a nine-minute kiss. When I saw it three months later when we were in bed I took the covers over me. I was going: 'Oh my God, Liza!'"

Oh my God is right...

I just received the terrific news that "Save Me," a film produced by and starring openly gay actors Chad Allen and Robert Gant as well as gay rights supporter Judith Light, has been accepted into the Sundance Film Festival in January! When I ran into Chad at an event last month I told him I wanted to do a big write-up on the film. But Chad was nervous about drawing too much attention to the movie because it might hurt its chances of getting into Sundance. Well, now that it's in, I feel free to write about "Save Me" all I want.

The drama chronicles the life of a young gay man (Allen) who flees his life of drugs and sex to return home to find himself. He arrives at a Christian ministry run by Light which promises to transform him from gay to straight. While there, he meets and falls in love with another gay man (Gant) who is also trying to go "straight." Also in the cast is Allen's real-life boyfriend, actor Jeremy Glazer.

The movie wrapped production this fall and I am rooting for it to make a big splash at Sundance. We need intelligent, gay-themed films and the level of talent and heart from Allen, Gant and Light pretty much ensures that. While Lance Bass may get more ink these days for being an out gay man, Allen and Gant were trailblazers in this regard and seem to be two of the more thoughtful and well-adjusted actors around. And Judith Light is simply an angel to the gay community. She cares so much and is a very special human being.
A big "Out in Hollywood" CONGRATULATIONS to all!

Took in Carrie Fisher's one-woman show, "Wishful Drinking," at the Geffen Playhouse Sunday night and a couple of times got the church giggles - the kind where the more you try not to laugh the more you want to and your shoulders start to shake and it all just starts to fall apart for you. My friend Eddie and I love Carrie Fisher and believe that her "Postcards from the Edge"screenplay has some of the best dialogue of any film we have chosen to memorize and incorporate into our unique and strange lexicon. We felt like were at a really great cocktail party with Carrie Fisher at the center of it.
We were easy-to-please audience members since we could practically mouth the words of some of the anecdotes but Fisher was an immediate hit with most of the capacity audience from the start: "I'm Carrie Fisher, I'm an alcoholic, and this is a true story" she states before singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" which was hilariously accompanied by a slideshow of headlines from everything from the New York Times to the National Enquirer chronicling her very taboidly life. She says: "If you think all of this is over the top, you can't even imagine what I left out!"
She's got more material for a one-woman show than just about anyone except maybe Elizabeth Taylor, her most famous stepmother. She is the daughter of the beloved movie icon Debbie Reynolds ("Singing in the Rain." "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," "Mother") and former star Eddie Fisher who famously left Reynolds for a recently widowed Taylor in the late 1950s: "Think Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie as Elizabeth," Carrie told the audience at the Geffen. Her mother's terrible choice in men is covered here and Fisher clears up any question of whether or not her mother is a lesbian. Sne's not, "she's just a really bad heterosexual."
Fisher does a hilarious and dead-on impersonation of her mother who is peppered throughout the show. Considering what a shit her absentee father was/is, Eddie Fisher gets off pretty easy here although there is one great anecdote of him swallowing his hearing aids and his daughter and grandaughter talking to his stomach and ass so he could hear them better.

Fisher was just in high school when Warren Beatty asked her to be in his movie "Shampoo" and a few years later, she beat out a large group of hopefuls including Jodie Foster to land the plum part of Princess Leia in "Star Wars." Two hugely successful sequels followed and Fisher cemented her place in film history. Then came a decade-long relationship with singer Paul Simon, including two years as husband and wife, roles in such films as "The Man With One Red Shoe," "Hannah and Her Sisters," and "When Harry Met Sally," and a wildly successful writing career that includes four best-selling novels.

Fisher recalls the good times in her show and has a good sense of humor about the bad times which includes being told by the father of her daughter, superagent Bryan Lourd, that not only was he gay, but he was gay BECAUSE of her and her drug problem. Then there were her serious drug problems, being diagnosed with manic depression after a serious psychotic break, and having a close gay friend not only unexpectedly die in her home, but in her bed.
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true," she says in the show. "And that would be unacceptable."

Fisher talks about it all with self-deprecating humor and honesty. The woman does have a way with an anecdote and we love her for it. At 50, she is a real survivor and was well worth an evening at the Geffen where her show runs through much of next month.

Anything that has to do with the character of Barney on "How I Met Your Mother" is bound to be pretty damned funny but this may top all: on tonight's episode of the popular CBS sitcom, real-life heterosexual Wayne Brady is going to play the gay brother of raging on-screen heterosexual Barney, played by Neil Patrick Harris - a gay man in real-life.
Yes, one is also black and the other white and I have no idea if that will be explained but I get the feeling it will be pretty funny.
Here is what I know about the plot: Barney is already struggling with the fact that all of his friends have settled into the boring state of "coupledom." Then his number one wingman, his gay, black brother James, arrives on the scene. James is bacsically a gay version of Barney, always on the prowl. But he's found a guy and is settling down which further causes Barney to confont being a bachelor on his own.
Word has it that Brady could return for future guest spots. I imagine they would only make an already good show even better!

I'm really enjoying the addition of Dixie Carter to the cast of "Desperate Housewives." Gloria Hodges is no Julia Sugarbaker that is for sure. Anyway, when I wrote up a story on Dixie's guest stint for the Daily News a few weeks ago, i was a bit miffed when ABC could not deliver series creator Marc Cherry for a quick chat. Marc had worked for Dixie as her personal assistant during part of her run on "Designing Women" and had always wanted to get her on the show in some way. I knew they were delivering an exclusive to TV Guide together (Marc and Dixie). So, because I'm wild about both of them, I'll try and be big about it and share some of the conversation with TV Guide's Mary Murphywith the readers of "Out in Hollywood."

It all began when Marc moved to Los Angeles in 1988 to be a writer. "Designing Women" was in its third season and and a friend of the unemployed Cherry said an actress and her husband needed help moving from Bel Air to Hancock Park. The actress was Dixie Carter and the husband was the great Hal Holbrook. Cherry became Carter's assistant and says working for her was funnier than any project he has ever been associated with.

Cherry: "Every morning Dixie would sweep out of her bedroom and make an entrance. I'd say, 'Dixie, I'm the only one HERE.' It didn't matter. That was when I knew she was a star...I remember one day I counted and there were two maids, a yoga instructor, a voice teacher, a chauffer and a cook in the house and I thought I was in the middle of 'Upstairs, Downstairs.'"

On working with his old boss again: "I got very emotional when I introduced Dixie to the cast. I said, 'This was my start in show business.' And I had a momentary feeling like, 'I guess i have come a long way.' Ever since I started 'Desperate Housewives,' I have thought about her a secret weapon.

Carter says she is surprised at the level of Cherry's success: "I knew Marc was talented but I never knew his trajectory was going to be like this. And I never knew he would turn out to give me the best job in show business." She adds that as her personal assistant, Cherry "never got out of sorts with me. He just had a kind of wry, amised look at everything. He used to say my house was like a sitcom because I'm so disorganized."

Cherry says "Mrs. Holbrook" is still the boss: "When I am working with Dixie, the kid gloves are on. I just want to make sure she is happy."

Being ridiculously behind in my movie-going, I'm now gaining some megaplex momentum after seeing "Dreamgirls" on Wednesday then a Daniel Craig double-header this weekend: the Truman Capote drama "Infamous," and the new James Bond movie everyone is buzzing about: "Casino Royale."
As Bond, Craig has tremendous screen presence and charisma with blue eyes that say so much. He's also the hunkiest and most physical Bond ever which is obviously very appealing. While the publicity shots of him walking out of the ocean looking like an Adonis initially had me smitten as any regular reader of "Out in Hollywood" well knows, it ends up just being icing on the cake.
This is the most character-driven of any Bond film iis also a mostly fast-paced (although about 20 minutes too long with a 2.5 hours running time) thriller that has spectacular chase scenes (including a real doozy on foot), plenty of twists and turns, and endless action. I don't want to spoil for you but trust me, it is non-stop and more realistic than previous Bond films. When he kills someone, it is not pretty. This movie is not played out like a cartoon. As for the romance, Craig has his match in the lovely Eva Green who I would not be able to classify as a Bond girl. She is a woman, her own woman. These are two actors who have depth and know their craft but are also oh-so sexy. The nuances, the eyes, the chemistry, the repartee. It's all there. And you add Judi Dench to the mix and give her more to do as M. than in any of her previous Bond movies, and "Casino Royale" is a wonderful winning hand.
Sean Connery will always be the definitive 007 for most Bond fans but Craig and the filmmakers I think accomplish something remarkable: they literally re-start a franchise that can be better than ever moving forward. It feels brand-new again! "Casino Royale" is on track to cross the $100 million mark in domestic grosses this weekend and is making a killing overseas.
Since I had seen, and liked, last year's "Capote" which won Phillip Seymour Hoffman an Academy Award for best actor, "Infamous" didn't feel so brand-new to me. But that didn't mean it wasn't every bit as good as the oither movie because it is in many ways.
Craig plays one of the men who brutally murdered a Kansas farm family in “Infamous,� which examines Truman
Capote’s emotional journey into the minds of two killers that formed the core of his true-crime novel, “In Cold Blood.� An attachment grew between Capote (Toby Jones) and confessed killer Perry Smith during the long periods the author spent in Kansas teasing out their story. In a pivotal moment, the two men kiss.
Craig is nothing like Bond in this movie (obviously) but the contrast allows you to see what a versatile and mesmerizing actor he is. As Perry, he's scary and angry yet tender and vulnerable and the performance allows a cold-blooded killer seem human. "Infamous" helped me to understand the night of the killings better than "Capote" did. I think Jones is physically more like the real Capote and certainly has the voice down, but Hoffman was better at conveying how much researching the book was destroying him. Sandra Bullock was every bit as good as Catherine Keener in the Harper Lee role. This movie is definitely a must-see when it comes out on DVD and I hope it isn't forgotten at Oscar time.
My friend Eddie and I took in "Infamous" at the Recency Fairfax theater on Friday afternoon where every seat is $3. Can't beat the price! But who you sit near, that is the wild card. After the lights dimmed and previews began, a loud lesbian couple plopped down in the seats directly in back of us. The two squeakiest seats in the place and they took about the first 20 minutes of the movie to finally settle in. Squeak! Squeak! But that was preferable to the sound of one of them munching on her popcorn. You woulda thought she was chomping on dry Cap'n Crunch! I almost turned around and said, "Did you order the EXTRA CRUNCHY popcorn?" Then one gets a cell phone call. She answers (of course). When she returns from taking the call, the other one explains (and not in her whisper voice) what she had missed. I wanted to move but a jet-lagged Eddie had fallen asleep. So, I turned around every few minutes to give every dirty look I have in my collection. As we were walking out, Eddie casually says to me, "Hey, did you notice those two were kind of loud?" I look at him incredulously: "Gee, ya think?"

Fast-forward to The Abbey about an hour and one margarita later and I am back to my shallow self.. No more grumbling about the loud lesbians in the $3 movie theater, just guy talk: "So isn't Daniel Craig hot even as a cold-blooded murderer?"

So how was your Thanksgiving? That piece of pecan pie right before watching "Ugly Betty" just about put me over the edge last night. (burp.) I'll have to write quick if I am to make my emergency liposuction appointment this afternoon....And speaking of "Ugly Betty," I hadn't seen much of it but my sister is hooked and got me to watch it with her after dinner as we looked at each other and wondered, once again, "Why did we EAT so much?" So "Betty" is the bomb! Love her. As Betty, America Ferrera has one of the most appealing characters in prime-time and as an evil bitch who works at her magazine, Vanessa L. Williams is a HOOT! As far as eye candy, no need to look any further than Eric Mabius who plays the editor of the magazine where Betty works. Love the show.
And how about this? Her young nephew Justin (Mark Indelicato), more interested in fashion and design than in football and skateboards, is being encouraged by his mother (Ana Ortiz) and grandfather (Tony Plana) to just be who he is. This episode featured his flaky, absentee father trying to turn him into a "man" by getting him to put down the crafts and go out and play some ball. Mom just says NO: "We let him be who he is." Amen! I hope he finds a little boyfriend too but no unchaparoned dates until high school. I think the development of this kid could be more revolutionary than anything else going on in network television right now when it comes to gay characters...

And speaking of gay characters on network television, I was reading online somewhere (who can remember where?) some speculation that it is not entirely out of the question that Kevin (now Scotty-less) on "Brothers and Sisters" could end up involved with Rob Lowe's character. I don't know if this is just wishful thinking but we do know that Kevin (the sensational Matthew Rhys) will become involved with someone who he meets through Kitty (Calista Flockhart).
Lowe's character, a Republican senator, recently went through a divorce (we don't know why but the Dec. 3 episode is titled "Affairs of State" and it teases that the Walker family learns of the senator's most painful secret). If he had been a Republican congressman then I would be SURE he would end up being a closet case. So we'll obviously stay tuned on what happens there alothough there will be NO "Brothers and Sisters" episode on Sunday.
"Boston Legal" will air instead which I can take or leave but will stop in my tracks anytime that blond and beautiful Mark Valley is on screen. I gabbed with the star of the short-lived but memorable Fox series "Keen Eddie" at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last year and he could not have been nicer or more handsome. Also, Candice Bergen I'd watch reading the phone book.

I am curious about a new show set to debut on the Lifetime channel (television for women...and GAY MEN!) on Jan. 8. It's called "Gay, Straight or Taken?" Each episode follows a woman (ineligible to play are McGreevey's ex-wives, Ted Haggard's wife and Liza Minnelli) on a series of dates with three different guys: one gay, one in a relationship, and one single and straight. She will try and figure out who is who (it's just getting SO more difficult these days. If she picks the straight single dude then she gets to go on some kind of exotic trip with him (to quote Shirley MacLaine in "Postcards from the Edge," I hope they use CONDOMS!"). If she picks the gay guy or the involved guy, then he and HIS significant other get to take the trip. Here is the line-up for the debut show: Chris, a personal trainer (I pick him! i pick him!), Luciano, a bartender (hmmm, he sounds good too!) and Mike, a club promoter (I dunno). It's worth a view before I give it a thumbs up or down
...And speaking of gay, straight or taken?, I think we should all give thanks on this day after Thanksgiving that Matthew McConaughey and his "bro-mance" buddy Lance Armstrong like to go around shirtless so much of the time and that cameras follow them wherever they go. It is such a beautiful thing.

I'm real thankful for the support I've received in doing this blog and for the growing readership of "Out in Hollywood." Now for a rare day off. I'll be kicking the soccer ball around with myspirited nephews, watching some kind of DVD with my precious nieces (please, not 'Shark Tale' again!), then sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner with my enormous family in The O.C.
Will resume with some light posting sometime Friday...
Enjoy your day!

It was the perfect pre-Thanksgiving treat: a special screening of the upcoming musical "Dreamgirls" in Hollywood in a theater filled with people so appreciative of the talent on screen that they applauded at least a dozen times throughout the movie.
This is the best musical Hollywood has produced in forever. I feel like a chump for thinking "Chicago" was the living end. This makes that one, good as it was, look like a high school production. This movie has real singers, real heart, and a real story. And it is just beautifully done with an absolute first-rate cast.
"Dreamgirls" follows the rise of a trio of women - Effie (Jennifer Hudson), Deena (Beyonce Knowles) and Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose) - who are part of an all-girl group, The Dreamettes. Discovered by an ambitious manager named Curtis Taylor, Jr (Jamie Foxx), The Dreamettes are given the chance to enter the big league as the back-up singers for headliner James 'Thunder' Early (Eddie Murphy)
I stayed through the end credits so I could hear all the songs on the soundtrack and had to laugh when it said on screen that any similarity to real-life events was "coincidental." OK, just try and pretend that you aren't watching the story of The Supremes (pictured, left), that Beyonce Knowles isn't playing Diana Ross (at times she seemed to be channeling Miss Ross onstage), that Jamie Foxx isn't Berry Gordy, that Rose isn't Mary Wilson, and that Hudson (get your Oscar speech ready girl) isn't a triumphant version of the tragic Florence Ballard. While it's no surprise that Foxx is terrific in "Dreamgirls," I was not prepared for the absolute revelation that Murphy is in the film. His acting is not only first-rate and mature, he sings wonderfully as does Foxx, whose best song is "When I First Saw You" and who won an American Music Award on Tuesday.
Hudson's version of "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" was not only spectacularly sung, but beautifully acted as well. It felt like one of those great old Hollywood musicals. It felt like a classic. Who can ever forget Jennifer Holliday's singular version of this song? Hudson almost makes it happen and she most certainly makes the song her own. Hudson also shines on "Love You I Do" and "I Am Changing" and the whole cast is wonderful on "Family." And a wonderful touch was including Loretta Devine in the movie (she starred on Broadway with Holliday back in 1981) and she even gets to do part of a song to remind us of how multi-talented she remains.

On the "Out in Hollywood" movie scale, "Dreamgirls" gets four stars (out of four)! Congratulations to the cast, to director-screenwriter Bill Condon and to Paramount Pictures who are going to not only have a big hit on their hands, but many Oscar nominations to promote!
Original Supreme Mary Wilson has said that "Dreamgirls" is most certainly the story of the Supremes and even named her best-selling 1986 memoir "Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme." And in the book, Ross and Gordy come off as ambitious villians and Ballard, the original Supreme fired from the group at the height of its success and replaced by Cindy Birdsong, a self-destructive victim. I never felt the same way about Diana Ross after I read the book and neither did a lot of people: she never had another hit song after its release after a two-decade unbroken string of hit songs first with the Supremes then as a solo artist.
In the movie, Beyonce's character has more of a consience than Ross apparently ever did and made sure Hudson's Effie got her due and even invited her up on stage for the farewell performance of The Dreams. It was the kind of ending a lot of people wish Ballard (pictured, right) could have had. Instead, she never mended fences with Ross and Gordy and died at the age of 32 in poverty. Although in the movie, Effie has a child by Foxx's Taylor, in real life it was Ross who had a child with Gordy.

Even before Wilson's book was released, bad blood surface in 1984 at the Motown 25th Anniversary television special which was to be highlighted by a reunion of the Supremes: Ross, Wilson and Birdsong. As the women began singing "Someday We'll Be together," Wilson attempted to keep equal footing with Ross by not allowing her to move in front of the two other Supremes, as was her custom, and treat them like anonymous back-up singers. Although this was cut from the eventual NBC telecast, Ross got so irate that she shoved Wilson aside. Smokey Robinson was sent onstage to salvage the situation by joining the group for the song.
There was another opportunity for a reunion in the summer of 2000 when Ross decided to do a "Return to Love" tour and tried to recruit Wilson and Birdsong for a series of mostly Supremes music. One sticking point: Ross was to receive $20 million, Wilson $4 million and Birdsong even less. They declined and Ross and Wilson were interviewed by Barbara Walters (on separate nights, of course) about their feud. In the end, Ross decided that she'd go on tour anyway with two singers, Scherrie Payne and Lynda Lawrence (pictured with Ross), who she had never performed with but who had joined later incarnations of the Supremes long after Ross left the group.
I bought tickets for me and a cute guy and we were set to attend the Anaheim concert. But Ross had underestimated how badly most fans wanted to see the group reunite, not just her and two other singers. Poor ticket sales resulted in the tour being cancelled.
With all the ladies now in their early 60s and Wilson undergoing heart surgery earlier this year, time is running out. 'Dreamgirls" could either spur them to set aside their differences, or it could open old wounds. Well, at least we have the songs. We'll always have the songs.

My American Music Awards experience was pretty fun. Here is a link to take you to the Daily News blog On Red Carpet site where I was posting last night from backstage along with our music critic Fred Shuster. Best thing abvout the AMAs: no tuxedo required! I'm tired of going to all these kudofests dressed like a penguin.

The red carpet was so funny as I stood in front of two TV gals from the UK who didn't know who ANYONE was. I assume they just filmed EVERYONE and would figure it all out later. But they were quite fun. The reporters from US and People were quite nice despite my making fun of their silly questions. And once I got back to the press tent, there was some yummy pasta that was actually still hot! And you know how I feel about free food.

So, here are my award winners for the night, we'll call them the OUTIES::
BEST SCOOP: Getting Isaiah Washington to come over and chat about the T.R. Knight controversy even as his publicist was having a stroke! Click HERE to read the interview.
STARSTRUCK MOMENT: I've met many stars and am usually Mr. Cool but once in awhile, when I do not expect it, I just get weak in the knees lkind of starstruck. It happened three years ago when I met Jaclyn Smith at the premiere of "Charlie's Angels" and again last night when I turned around and there was the stunning Katherine McPhee. I actually said: "Oh my God! It's YOU!" Real professional, real cool. That's me.
HOT (female division): Beyonce! (flawless), Carrie Underwood (a princess) and Katherine McPhee (looked like a model).

HOT (male division): Taylor Hicks! (Not kidding! He is not the same man he was on the show. He's slim, good haircut, cool threads), Mario Lopez (could he look bad?), Tyrese Gibson (sexy!) and Jamie Foxx (what. a. fox.)
ANNOYING: Britney Spears (why is she celebrated for leaving her loser second husband, losing baby weight and cutting her hair?) and Paris Hilton (To quote Nancy Reagan: "Who does this dame think she is?").

SWEETEST: Josh Grobin (I just wanted to hug him, then give him a haircut!), the Cheetah Girls (Never heard of 'em but they were a lotta fun) and Billy Ray Cyrus (absolute gentleman. such a proud dad).

After the show ended, I got lost looking for the shuttle outside the Shrine Auditorium that was to take me back to the Coliseum parking lot. I'm not allowed into things like the "Entertainment Tonigfht" tent ot the Dick Clark Hospitality Tent but the press pass dangling around my neck apparently gives me license to wander around outside all these tents. I soon realize this is celeb spying paydirt!
>There's Jamie Foxx with his family having a group hug. Carrie Underwood approaches Jamie to say hello. Photos were snapped and they went their separate ways. Suddenly I'm struck in this big crowd but it's OK because I'm standing next to Tyrese Gibson. Wow! I think I'll stand here awhile. And finally, William Shatner and his wife are waiting for a shuttle or a limo (probably a limo, he has TWO shows on ABC now!) And finally, there's Isaiah Washington, walking out in good spirits, along with his wife and his now-relaxed publicist. I leave them alone.

It has been a good night.

With my day tied up with covering the American Music Awards yesterday, I didn't get to weigh in on this whole silly controversy that has erupted between Kelly Ripa and Clay Aiken and now Rosie O'Donnell. It all began wikth Clay, filling in for Regis Philbin, rudely put his hand over Kelly's mouth during an interview with " Dancing with the Stars" winners Emmitt Smith.
A clearly ticked-off Ripa looked at Clay and said, "That's a 'No, No'. I don't know where that hand's been, honey."

I took it as just a little tiff but Rosie O'Donnell, God bless her, has turned it into a national incident, accusing Ripa of making a homophobic remark. Now, we don't know if Clay is "officially' gay or not and I personally don't much care anyway, but Rosie felt compelled to basically out him with her concerns over Ripa's comment. If Clay ain't gay, then why would the remark be at all homophobic?

Kelly called Rosie on live TV a few moments later Ro's remarks to defend herself saying it's FLU SEASON and that's why she made the remark. "He's shaking hands with everyone in the audience ... It's cold and flu season, that's what I meant, and to imply that it's anything homophobic is outrageous, Rosie, and you know better."

O'Donnell shot back that she's not convinced the remark had anything to do with cold season. She went on to say that hosting a live talk show is difficult for anyone who isn't used to doing a live show. "I feel for the kid," she said. "He's in a very difficult space."

Clay, not missing a beat, appeared on Tuesday night's AMA's with Tori Spelling spoofing the incident so it looks like Rosie was more bothered about it than him. While Clay jabbered on, Tori clapped her hand over Aiken's mouth, saying, "I'll tell you where that hand's been later."

Now let's make a pact that this whole stupid thing goes away. Ripa is a doll, Rosie rocks and Clay, well, I don't know what Clay is. On Wednesday's edition of "The View," Barbara Walters tried to put the entire thing to rest: Walters said Ripa and ODonnell spoke again off the air Tuesday and everybody was happy! (Walters had Tuesday off.) O'Donnell later in the show said she spoke with Aiken and was apparently satisfied no homophobia on Ripa's part.

So that's that!

Isaiah Washington was on the red carpet at the American Music Awards last night. You THINK I wanted to talk to him? "Isaiah! Isaiah! A word?" He walks over, accompanied by his lovely wife and a nervous publicist.
In case you've been hiding under a rock, Washington and his "Grey's Anatomy" co-star Patrick Dempsey had a verbal and physical altercation on the set of the show last month when Washington told Dempsey he wasn't his little "faggot" like another one of their cast members. Speculation grew over who he was talking about. Then, a few days later, co-star T.R. Knight released a statement to People.com saying that in light of all the questions swirling about, he wanted to confirm that he is gay.

Washington issued an apology shortly after. Knight has not said anything more nor has Dempsey. So I asked the actor about it and here is our exchange:

ME: Is everything back to normal on the set? Your publicist is saying, 'Don't ask!'
ISAIAH: (laughs). Everything was back to normal four weeks ago five minutes after it happened but the media chose to do what they felt they had to do. Patrick and I look at it now and say, 'Wow. Great. Now we know we're the number one show in America (laughs).
ME: How are things between you and T.R. Knight? (the publicist is now making a violent finger across the neck sign, eyes bugged out. She wants to kill me).
ISAIAH: T.R. is fine. T.R. wasn't even on the set when we had the argument, he was nowhere around.
ME: You guys had a great on-screen relationship.
ISAIAH: We still do, we still do. I don't know what it's going to take for the media or the people to start believing otherwise. The media is going to have to start writing some positive things all over again. My family on 'Grey's Anatomy,' we spend a lot of hours together and we're happy, our producers are happy, ABC is happy and if they weren't, I wouldn't be on the set, that's the bottom line.
ME: Are you proud of T.R. and the way he did handle the situation with his statement?
ISAIAH: T.R., the thing about T.R., is T.R. has been gay for a long time (laughs). I think it was a mere coincidence that it came out the way it came out. But we all love T.R. We all know who T.R. is and T.R. knows who T.R. is trust me, T.R. would never be a victim or victimized by anyone under any circumstances and if I saw it or heard it, i would be the first one jumping into the fray to make sure he would be protected from something like that. That's my family, that's all i can say to that.
ME: You publicist is mad at me but thank you for talking to me about that.

I feel like I'm watching an episode of that old game show "The Liar's Club." But the terrific site Towleroad has just posted some of the transcript from a television interview Golan Cipel, the former aide to former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey, gave to WCBS in New York. He opens up about how that big, hulking "crazy-eyed" McGreevey "sexually harrased" He even tears up a little. I had tears too...from laughing! I don't mean to be unkind, but c'mon! Does anybody believe a word of it?

The interview takes place in the condo where Cipel was allegedly harrassed. Anyway, here is some of it:

Cipel: "I feel like this is the spot where my life ended, the way I planned it to be, the way I believed it to be and it's never going to be the same. (sigh) When you plan a life, everybody has dreams. You think you know, most people are good and you don't think bad things can happen to you. And to think of so many months and years I think about this moment and I think how do you let it happen? How did this guy manage to fool you and fool everybody else?"
Cipel claims McGreevey cornered him in the bedroom of the condo against his will: "And I just remember holding back here and saying what's going on. Again he pushed me on the chest back into the bedroom. I was in shock and I fell. And there was just this crazy look in his eyes. Didn't care. Tried to struggle with me. Tried to kiss me. I just remember holding my head and saying, 'No. Stop.' Fighting with him. And I moved to the other side of the bed here. And he was there where you stand. And I wanted to get out. But he's close to the door. I just remember wanting to ask him so many questions, but wanting to leave as fast as possible. And he said don't ever repeat this to anybody. Then I asked him, 'Why did you think I was gay?' And he said, 'Everybody's a little bit gay.'"

Towleroad writes that "Cipel says he has no proof of what occurred in the bedroom, claims that he and McGreevey never actually had sex, and says he decided to file a sexual harassment suit against the Governor but changed his mind after the Governor resigned. McGreevey claims that Cipel demanded $50 million for his silence, but the demands went away when it was apparent Cipel had no proof."

As most of you know by now, Isaiah Washington's on-set spat with "Grey's Anatomy" co-star Patrick Dempsey escalated when Washington refered to one of their co-stars as Dempsey's "little faggot." It soon became known that he was refering to T.R. Knight who in response, calmly released a statement acknowledging the speculation and stating that he is gay.
Washington had released a statement apologizing for his actions but pulled out of a scheduled interview with Ellen DeGeneres. But when Oprah Winfrey made a visit to the set of "Grey's Anatomy" recently, Washington opened up about the spat.

He tells Oprah: "It was a combination of fatigue, pride, passion... I've been working with these beautiful men for three years now and we had an argument as brothers. It came about at a time and a place that was overwhelming for both of us and we resolved it easily. What it was not was a brawl, fisticuffs and all that stuff. I lost my cool... It was coming out of a place of trying to stay focused about the work and the one thing I understand about myself and my passion about everything I do is that the opposite of love is indifference... Out of that caring, we got ourselves into a debate that had to happen."

OK, so the debate had to happen. But did you HAVE to refer to your gay co-star as a "faggot"? I'm still not satisfied on this one.

Lance Bass considers himself be a S.A.G. (Straight Acting Gay) so after watching tonight's episode of CBS' "The Class," I would have to say that Perry Pearl (Sam Harris) is a G.A.S. (Gay Acting Straight).

I want to be offended by all the laughs that are had at the expense of this flamoyantly funny character who is married with a child (who he named Oprah Liza Pearl) but who everyone seems to think is gay. (I wonder why?) I want to be offended because it's just such a cheap joke and besides, it is cruel to laugh at the flamboyant kid on the playground and all of that. But darn it, I just can't help but howl with laughter each week.

I guess I'm kinda cheap. But I feel real bad about it. Well, sorta bad about it.

This week, Perry and his wife Holly Ellenbogen-Pearl (Lucy Punch) are hosting Thanksgiving dinner for her parents and Polly's high school ex-boyfriend Kyle (Sean MaGuire) who comes with HIS boyfriend Aaron (Cristian de la Fuente). Perry greets the men and proudly announces: "I made two different turkeys, four pies, and this sweater didn't knit ITSELF!" Polly's parents then show up and Kyle says to Aaron: "You know how they say all women marry their fathers?" And in walks her prissy father Robert Michael Morris, the gayest straight man since, well, Perry Pearl.

The two men are in charge of cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Says Perry to the boys: "He's a doll, I love him. But just between you and me, could he BE any gayer?" Later, the dad says to the boys: "Is it just me or is Perry a little light in the loafers?"

Obviously the show can get away with this because the people laughing behind Perry's back are the two gay men themselves who just can't stop snickering. When Holly sees them to the door and says, "I hope it wasn't awkward for you guys - you know, being the only gay people [at dinner]."
Replies Kyle: "You know, it didn't feel that way."

Good grief, Sam Harris is so damned funny as Perry, just so happy to be Perry. I do wonder where the show is going to go with his character though. Even I am going to start to feel conflicted about laughing at him (I hope!) but probably not for at least the rest of this season!

I wasn't there but wanted to share with you some images sent to me today from Saturday night's L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s 35th Anniversary Gala & Auction where more than $460,000 was raised during at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel.

More than 800 people attended the annual gala, hosted by drag legend Miss Coco Peru and featuring Lesley Ann Warren, Alec Mapa (the night before his debut in "Desperate Housewives"), current Advocate cover subject Jane Lynch and Peter Paige (pictured, above), "Work Out" star Jackie Warner, and "Project Runway" alums Nick Verreos, Robert Best, and Jeffrey Sebelia.

Actor and activist Wilson Cruz (standing to the left of Warren, Mapa and Paige) was presented with the center’s Rand Schrader Distinguished Achievement Award. Andrew Cohen, senior vice president of production and programming at Bravo, accepted the Center’s Corporate Vision Award on behalf of cable TV network Bravo.

Some info about the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center: it provides a broad array of services for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, welcoming nearly a quarter-million client visits from ethnically diverse youth and adults each year. The Center offers free and low-cost health, mental health, HIV/AIDS medical care and HIV/STD testing and prevention as well as legal, social, cultural, and educational services.

For more information, check out www.laglc.org

So you missed the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago last summer? Join the club. Woulda been nice to visit one of my absolute favorite big U.S. cities but, no dice. Still, we're in luck! The organizers of the Gay Games have released a feature-length DVD with more than two hours of coverage from the huge sports & cultural festival.

At the games, 11,500 athletes from 70 countries competing in 30 sports ranging from softball to dancesport, swimming to tennis. The weeklong event included band, cheerleading and color guard performances, chorus, an ancillary arts festival, and a series of community-organized social events and parties.

The DVD scenes were culled from 200 hours of raw video footage taken by a dozen camera crews throughout the week including the opening and closing ceremony highlights featuring iconic performers such as Margaret Cho, Erasure's Andy Bell, Cyndi Lauper, Megan Mullally, Heather Small, Kate Clinton, Ant and members of the cast of Showtime’s "The L Word," Marlee Matlin, Pam Grier and Daniela Sea.

There are also chapters highlighting 30 Gay Games sports & cultural events, an interview with former NFL football player Esera Tuaolo, on-site interviews of athletes, families and fans - including conversations with international athletes in Chicago on scholarship, Crystal Lake residents at the rowing competition, and athletes attending their 5th, 6th or 7th Gay Games.

There is also Tom Waddell Tribute Video - 4 minute video honoring the founder of the Gay Games movement with commentary by Olympians Greg Louganis and Leigh-Ann Naidoo, former NFL players Esera Tuaolo, Dave Kopay, and Roy Simmons, and a dozen other gay sports legends.

The Official Gay Games VII DVD is available for sale through Wolfe Video with a direct link available at gaygameschicago.org. Pre-orders purchased through the Gay Games organization are being shipped before December 1.

An unexpected visit from an old friend required me to juggle my weekend schedule so I have YET to see "Casino Royale" starring the dreamy Daniel Craig. But I did report on the box office performance of the movie which just barely missed out on opening up at number one with the animated "Happy Feet" making just a bit more. HERE is my story on the weekend box office derby in today's Los Angeles Daily News (my favorite newspaper).

Monday box office UPDATE: Final figures released by studios this afternoon show that while "Happy Feet" came out ahead of "Casino," it was by less than $1 million - closer than estimated on Sunday. Bond grossed $40,833,156 over the weekend compared to the $41,533,430 taken in by "Happy Feet."

Aside from his buff bod, Craig's gay appeal has to have been helped by his role in the recent Truman Capote biopic "Infamous" in which he planted a kiss on the lips of Brit actor Toby Jones. And then there is this quote from Bond co-star Dame Juidi Dench after she caught a glimpe of a nude Craig and was taken aback by the size of his appendage: "It's an absolute monster! Maybe I shouldn't have said that. How uncouth of me!"

A Nov. 10 interview with Carol Channing in Ohio-based Gay People’s Chronicle shocked her fans everywhere with her seemingly sharing some startling views about gays. Despite the Broadway legend's long pro-gay history, the interview with writer Kaizaad Kotwal indicated that Channing privately judges gays by anti-gay biblical standards.
IN Los Angeles magazine scored an exclusive with Channing who seems eager to defends herself:

IN: The reporter said that he asked you “You seem to have a very large gay following. Have you ever thought about why?� And you supposedly said “I don't think about them. I'm grateful that they seem to like me. They're terribly loyal to me. But I'm knee-deep in the Bible and you know what it says about that.� Could you clarify that please? Do you remember what you said?

Channing: I never said that! I've never read anything in the Bible about being gay or at least I haven't read that part. But, it is true that I don't think about them in that way. They are gay. Who cares? The Bible says “Love thy neighbor as thyself.� I don't recognize differences except their goodness and artistic abilities, which I always admire.

IN: So what DO you think of gay people?

Channing: Again. I don't think about them as gay. They're people, period.

Channing added that “the interview started out very badly. He seemed to have an anger towards me from the very start. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from..I think my record speaks for itself. I've always been supportive to the gay community and I have found they are capable of taking care of themselves. I told him, that not being gay, it hasn't been a problem I've had to live with myself."

To read a truncated online version of the story on the IN Los Angeles web site, click HERE.

So many of us are still mourning the break-up of Kevin and Scotty last week on ABC's "Brothers & Sisters." But not Kevin! Any concerns over his sexuality being put on the back burner (like poor Andrew on "Desperate Housewives") were forgotten about when he and two of his siblings hit a bar in the middle of the desert after their car breaks down. The bar, as luck would have it, was filled with hot Army guys. When one of the hunks sidles up to Kevin at the bar, he asks if Kevin has children. Kevin tells him everything: he's gay, his boyfriend just broke up with him etc."
Army guy says: "So, you're single? I was hoping you'd say that." He asked, and Kevin told!
Later, Kevin's sister (Rachel Griffiths) says incredulously: 'We come to an Army bar and HE gets laid!" Kevin, smiling, says: "Well, I'm workin on it."
In the end, Kevin doesn't get much sleep that night.
But for me to focus on this is a bit shallow given the weight of the rest of the episode. Justin, who last episode overdosed on drugs and booze after he learned he was being called to Iraq by the military, survives after getting his stomach pumped (was there any doubt?) and by episode's end, he's done a complete turnaround and is now resolved not to fight his callback and to go back and serve his country...in Iraq.
The prospect of her son going to Iraq to face such danger gave Sally Field (Nora) some real "Steel Magnolias" when Shelby died moments: "They're gonna take my boy! They're gonna take my boy!" she says, sobbing into the arms of Kitty (Calista Flockhart). "I don't know how I can do this again!" I half expected her to next say, "Shelby's riiiight. My hair does look like a football helmet!" Ya have to have seen "Steel Magnolias" at least a dozen times to even know what I'm talking about!
Meanwhile politically conservative Kitty has changed her mind on the war telling her co-host that she supported the battle "when we knew what we were fighting for...it's so dangerous over there now. My mother, who's so strong, is so heartbroken."
Kitty asks a U.S. Senator (guest star Rob Lowe) if he will intervene when he guests on her show. He refuses and she confesses, on air, to going easy on his interview in the hopes that she will help her brother and "to keep him from fighting in a war that i have defended on this program...I made a mistake of continuing to defend a war that is in desperate need of re-examination."
I gotta say, this was the most cnvincing Flockhart has been all season when discussing her politics. Finally, something seemed to feel authentic to her. Meanwhile, Lowe offers her a job on his staff which I take as a sign that we will see this uncommonly handsome on the air again on a weekly basis (he'll be on at least six episodes this season). The political dialogue just seemed so natural coming out of the mouth of the former star of "The West Wing" who had turned down the plum role of Dr. McDreamy on "Grey's Anatomy" so instead we get him as a dreamy McSenator.

Out actor Alec Mapa was hilarious and endearing on tonight's episode of "Desperate Housewives." And thank God. With Andrew strengely relegated to glorified extra sitting at the dinner table in the past three or four episodes (that has GOT to change), at least we had the magnificant Mapa this week as Gaby's sassy personal shopper Vern. He invites the floundering Gaby to speak to his modeling class for young girls. She arrives with an attitude and he says to her: "These mothers have refinanced their trailers to pay for this so for God's sake, when you make your entrance...sparkle!"
When Gaby walks out and sees a group of overweight or unkept girls, she snarls to Vern: "It's going to take a miracle to turn these mutts into show dogs!" Vern tells her: "Please Gabrielle, be their moses."
It was terrific to see Gaby (Eva Longoria) have something else to do other than fight with Carlos and sit around pouting. she soon realizes that she feels fulfilled working with the girls and wants to continue. She makes a speech at the end that shows a humbled, more human side of Gaby. Maybe she'll be less of a cartoon from now on.
As for Alec Mapa's Vern,. I hope we'll be seeing more of him in the weeks to come!

It is GREAT to see John Stamos enjoying a second wave of television success on "ER" which is enjoying a ratings resurgence this season. This impossibly good looking man also stars in the A&E movie "Wedding Wars" (premiering Dec. 11) as a gay wedding planner who goes on strike for the right to marry. Stamos, who kisses his partner TWICE in the film, is hoping that because of his participation, Middle America will start watching the film...and won't be able to stop. For so many of us, he had us at hello (even when he had the mullet!).

Stamos is on The cover of the December 5 issue of The Advocate features the sexy Stamos (sigh) and I wanted to quickly share some of his interview:
"I was excited to get it," Stamos says of the role. "I think I'm actually one of the right guys to deliver this kind of message. I think the gay community will see the film and love it and hopefully me in the role, and that people that are not gay will hopefully want to follow my story and not turn it off 10 minutes in. I felt like it was a safe way to get people to see this and hear a really important message. Hopefully they'll take the trip and be able to look at both sides.
On preparing for the role of a gay man: "It's funny, I never approached it as being different than any other role. I'd never kissed a guy, and i was thinking that'd be really weird for me. In "Cabaret" [on Broadway], I was physical with the other dancers on stage, but "Wedding Wars" was a couple of full kisses...I just approached him as a guy who is in love. Initially, it's not about this issue of gay marriage. It's just the simple fact that his brother gets to have something that he can't have and why shouldn't he get to have it? He can plan a wedding but he can't have one himself."

On understanding homosexuality: "Homosexuality has never been an issue to me. I never really judged it. I remember a dear friend coming out to me when we were younger. It didn't freak me out at all....And he said something that maybe sounds simple, but it was really revelatory to me at the time. He said, 'You know how you feel when you see a pretty girl you like - those butterflies in the stomach and that tingly feeling? Well, that's how I feel when I see a guy.' And I never forgot that. It was just so simple and beautiful."

To read the full online excerpt, click HERE and enjoy!

From Norm (New York) to Pedro (San Francisco) to Dan (Miami) to Danny (New Orleans), gay men (and lesbians) have almost always been a part of the cast of each season of MTV's "The Real World." The new season debuts on Nov. 22 and takes place in Denver, Colo. The gay cast member is Davis, a 23-year-old from Marietta, Ga.

The blond-haired Davis spoke with Advocate.com writer Daniel Blau about his stint on the reality show, now in its 18th season. He sounds like one of those people Lance Bass describes as a SAG (Straight Acting Gay): "I'm a real straight-acting kind of gay guy. I'm in a fraternity, I've barely been to any gay bars. I hardly even went when I was in Denver. Most of my friends, if not all of them, are straight. I have a few gay friends. And so, for me, I thought maybe I was being cast for being more like the "straight gay guy." They hadn't really cast a ton of those before. But I didn't want to have to come in and, like, come out immediately to everyone. 'Cause I felt like the guys would immediately label me as "the gay character." And I just came out a year ago."
Once all the castmates found out he is gay, the reactions were predictably mixed: "The girls had no issues. In fact, one of them was craving a gay character. Some of the guys had issues with it, homophobic issues. I mean, that¹s probably why they were chosen. I'm from a really strong Christian family, so we had a lot of talks about, like, "Is this a choice?" And, what are my views about, you know, if you condemn drinking in the Bible, how is that any different from condemning being gay in the Bible, when my Christian friends are drinking, you know? So it was things like that. "

Davis only came out a little over a year ago to some of his friends but after getting picked for the show, he made a list of about 25 people to tell so they wouldn't hear it somehwere else. Still, there are many people who will find out by watching the show.

"I got really great feedback from my Christian friends. The next thing you know, it was like, Wow, my Christian friends aren¹t really responding the same way I thought they would. They were like, ³I love you, Davis. This is an issue I¹m starting to change my mind about, and maybe I don¹t think that it¹s a choice. Maybe I don¹t think it¹s condemnable to hell,² and all these sort of things that I was afraid I would be getting when I was in high school. My brother had known for a couple years; he¹d overheard me and my mom fighting about it, and that¹s how he found out. And I told my mom and dad when I was in early high school, late middle school."

He's not too concerned about what people in his hometown will think and hopes to become an example for young kids strugglinjg to come out: "I have gotten to the point in my life where I just want to be happy. I want to be in a relationship with a guy because that makes me happy, and I want to just be proud of who I am and not ashamed of anything anymore. I don't really care what my friends from my school who may not be my friends anymore think...
I just think, once you come to terms with your sexuality, once you come out of the closet, it's an amazing experience. It's like a new day for you. This is day one for me for the rest of my life. I would love to be able to talk to people about that experience and make them feel more confident."
Click HERE to read the interview in its entirety.

I raided a free magazine rack in West Hollywood last night and one of the publications I picked up was the November issue of dotnewsmagazine. Two of my favorite out actors, Jason Stuart and Wilsaon Cruz are on the cover! I've interviewed both several times in recent years and think the world of them. They are in the new comedy "Coffee Date" and were profiled in the magazine by writer Gil Kaan.
Jason and Wilson may not get a People magazine cover for being out, but they are two performers we can be very proud of for always being honest about who they are. For Wilson, this is especially noteworthy because he was just 19 when he was cast as Clare Daines best friend on "My So-Called Life" more than a decade ago and came out publicly then.

Here is a taste of the interview:

Both Stuart and Cruz did not have smooth personal "coming out" experiences. Cruz's father kicked him out of his house. He was living in his car only a few months before beginning his role on "My So-Called Life." Cruz's "coming out" became well-documented, and was incorporated into the series' plotlines.

For the then 20-something-year-old Stuart, it was frightening.
"I was totally wrong about both of them and how they would react," Stuart said. "My father was 'Oh, who cares?' and my mother was the one that had the problem. Then it got worst, and two years later she stopped talking to me."
Stuart publicly "came out" to viewers of the highly rated Geraldo in 1993 after 10 years of doing stand-up with "no point of view." It took a year of performing fat jokes for Stuart to realize that they didn't work.
"When I first started, I put a bathroom scale around my neck," Stuart said. "I talked about being a fat kid, which was totally ridiculous because I was never fat doing stand-up."

Both actors had interesting advice for young actors who decide to come out.
Says Cruz: "'Coming out' is a personal thing. But being good at what you do is good business. If you're going to be an 'out' gay actor, just know that it's going to be a little harder--it just is. The only way to minimize how hard it is on you is to be as good as you possibly can. That means studying your craft and working as much as you possibly can and keeping your ego in check and make it about the work."

Says Stuart: "Come out! Come out where ever you are! When you are 'out,' you are 'out' for me, and I am 'out' for you. We become a big community, and we're like a large family."

To read the article in its entirely, click on dotnewsmagazine.com.

On this morning's "The View," moderator Rosie O'Donnell talked about telling Warner Bros. execs that she is a lesbian when she started her old talk show back in 1995, and said that she kept it mainly under wraps to avoid controversy. "At the time when my show was on, there was no Drudge Report, there was no Perez Hilton, there was no TMZ, and you could be gay and have a big successful career and no one would ask you -- no journalist ever asked me," Rosie said.

In response, TMZ defends itself on its website saying: "We're not in the business of outing people -- so back off, girlfriend!... Not that there's anything wrong with coming out of the closet, but -- yo, Ro! -- get your facts straight! TMZ has, for the record, never outed anyone; gay, bisexual, alien or otherwise, and that's really not what we're about."

Since I have gotten bored with "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and stopped watching weeks ago, I was unaware of the gay storyline being played out in the last few episodes. But I was reading AfterElton.com's Michael Jensen weekly column "Best. Gay. Week. Ever." and he writes: " What I most appreciated was the show's stance that just because you're anti-gay bias is Bible-based, it doesn't mean you're not a homophobe. (I can already hear Jerry Falwell, Pat Roberston, etc. hyperventilating.)

In the show's opening scene, Matt (Matthew Perry) is confronted by Harriett (played by out actress Sarah Paulson) who demands to know if he really thinks she is a homophobe because she believes the Bible condemns gays. He says “Yep� and when she asks what's wrong with civil unions instead of marriage he interrupts her by saying, “There is no way to get to the end of that sentence without saying homosexual love is less than heterosexual love…� And it's not some half-hearted defense either. Matt is ticked about this issue, even taking the Democrats to task for what he perceives as their pandering. You go, Chandler !"

I know it comes as no surprise that I'm always happy to see when one of my favorite actors - gay or straight - takes on a gay role. This is the case with Tom Everett Scott who I have admired since his big-screen debut in "That Thing You Do" about a decade ago. Now Everett Scott is on Broadway playing a closeted rising movie star who falls in love with a young male hustler in the Broadway production of "Walks the Dog" which opened earlier this week. His character is considering coming out but his tough-as-nail agent, a lesbian, is strongly against it.

The actor, who stars in the TNT drama "Saved," was interviewed by my friend Christopher Lisotta for the cover story of MetroSource LA. The Dec./Jan. issue just hit the stands and here are some excerpts:

When director Douglas Carter Beane offered Everett Scott the part, he says he called the actor up and said: "Buddy, you're going to have to kiss a guy and get naked. And he said, 'All right.'"

Everett Scott says the character "is still bound rto the idea that he can't be a superstar - a movie star - male- and come out. When the character the agent says it's not going to happen because no women will want to sleep with you and men will feel weird, that really says something about how people hold up actors. Mitchell, his dream is to be that image, regardless of whether it's true or not. And falling in love with Alex is who he really is. It's an identity question."

Tom, a married father of one child, had played gay before in the television movie "Surrender Dorothy" opposite Diane Keaton but kept his clothes on for that one. On stage, he plays opposite Johnny Galicki who is cast as the hustler, Alex.

"I don't know any closeted movie stars and I wouldn't know where to begin asking about this," Everett Scott tells the magazine. "...It is really the writer's job to create a context and it's really my job to create a reality of that context. So if I'm supposed to fall in love with Johhny Galecki on stage, that's really just as much a challenge as falling in love with an actress on stage...There are lovely, wonderful things about Johnny that I am sure I will strart to really appreciate and admire and go from there."

Here come the grooms…and their mothers! The movie screened on closing night of this year's Outfest film festival in LA was the wonderful comic romp "Queens." It maybe be a Spanish-language movie but trust me, nothing is lost in translation. The mother and gay son comedy will be out on DVD on Dec. 5 and I have no hesitation in recommending it.

Here is the plot: As Spain prepares for its first-ever mass gay wedding, so must five mothers. Over the course of one weekend, these uncompromising women must learn to cope with a variety of family conflicts surrounding the marriages of each of their sons. While these very different mothers learn to deal with their own desires and prejudices, a clash of sex, bigotry and love ensues. Amongst the hilarious chaos, all five women must find the strength and love they need in order to give their sons away.

Released by Genius Products and here! Films, the movie stars five of Spain's most beloved actresses: Carmen Maura (star of Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Matador, Law of Desire), Marisa Paredes (All About My Mother), Mercedes Sampietro (Common Ground), Verónica Forqué and Betiana Blum. Directed by Manuel Gómez Pereira, the film also stars Raul Garcia, Gustavo Salmeron and Daniel Hendler.

The character may be hopelessly heterosexual, but I can drool, can't I? So today is the day the newest James Bond flick, "Casino Royale," debuts in more than 3,400 theaters natrionwide. I, of course, am most looking forward to seeing sexy Daniel Craig make his debut in the role previously played by Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore, George Lazerby, and most famously, by Sean Connery. There is a lot of buzz that Craig could be the best Bond since Connery, the man to whom all other Bonds must be compared.
The reviews have been tremendous including a positive one (***) in today's edition of my favorite newspaper, the Los Angeles Daily News. Click HERE to read it. I also wrote a piece, "Licensed to Thrill" about the Bond business empire and how, after more than 40 years of movies, it has remained strong with new generations lured by the charms of Agent 007.
Craig has already signed on to do the next Bond film as well due out in fall 2008!
The British newspaper, The Guardian, has published a story on the smoking sex appeal of Craig as Bond and the ridiculously hot scene of the buff secret agent emerging from the ocean.

Here it an excerpt printed in today's Towleroad site:
"...Craig has made himself iconic in the most familiar way. He is simply demonically sexy. The frame of the movie where he emerges from the sea in those clinging trunks is so scorchingly hot I feel embarrassed watching it, even when alone. It has been used as the key piece of pre-publicity on the movie, and with good reason. Good film directors recognise gold dust when they see it. This is the kind of image that even straight men can't peel their eyes from...The traditional term for all this is 'homo-erotica'. But that's not quite right here. Craig in his swimming trunks has cemented the emergence of a new type of adoration of the male form. This is hetero-erotic, too."

For some reason, I got on the mailing list for Reason magazine. Just what I need, ANOTHER magazine. But the cover of the Dec. 2006 issue got my attention: "10 Years of South Park: Trey Parker & Matt Stone on censorship, politics, and staying funny."

The portion of the interview that I was most interested in was about the infamous "Trapped in the Closet" one that lampoons Tom Cruise and Scientology and makes thinly-veiled remarks about the actor's much-speculated-about sexuality. (Cruise is due to marry actress Katie Holmes, the mother of his daughter, Suri, this weekend ). The "South Park" episode shows Cruise's ex-wife Nicole Kidman and fellow Scientologist John Travolta attempting to coax a fictional Tom Cruise character out of a closet, with Kidman saying: "Don't you think this has gone on long enough? It's time for you to come out of the closet. You're not fooling anyone."

The episode aired once in 2005 but was pulled from the rerun schedule which caused a storm of controversy. Here is some of what Stone had to say about it:

Q: How did the network respond to pressure from the Church of Scientology about the episode?
Stone: They blew it off. To be fair, it wasn't really at the Comedy Central level. It was way up at the [Comedy Central owner] Viacom level. It wasn't a choice or anything we had any say in. The only thing that we got was a phone call saying that the producers of "Mission Impossible 3" (released by Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures) want this show off the air. The rerun was supposed to air that night. So we bitched and moaned and yelled at them on the phone...But then we realized - and luckily it came true - that you can't just pull an episode off the air anymore. People are going to find out. Sure enough, it was all over the press. The Internet makes those backroom deals a lot harder to do."

It was on January 2, 1998 that NBC aired an episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street" titled ‘Closet Cases' during which Baltimore-based thirtysomething detective Tim Bayliss (played by Kyle Secor) acknowledged his attraction to men. In the following episode, Homicide's writers re-established Bayliss's interest in women, while making it clear that he was not closing the door on the possibility of dating men.

Secor gives an extensive interview to AfterElton.com that delves more deeply into the character of Bayliss than I have ever read elsewhere. I was fascinated with this complex character and remember well the episode in which Peter Gallagher (playing a gay bar owner) asked Bayliss out on a date and Bayliss said YES!

"Homicide," which ran from 1993 to 1999, was released this week for the first time as a complete series DVD set. Here are some excepts from the article or you can click HERE to read it in its entirety:

One of the reasons why Bayliss's storyline is interesting for a queer audience, even before his coming out, is because of what can be seen as his ambiguous feelings for his arrogant, prickly detective partner, Frank Pembleton (played by Andre Braugher).

Secor referred to Pembleton and Bayliss's “very kind of ‘old married couple' relationship�, describing them jokingly as “the deeply involved couple who didn't have sex anymore�. Of the show's ambiguous dialogue, he says that:
“It's the writers, and Tom Fontana. He can split that dialogue both ways. Andre and I had many talks about it. And in a lot of the relationships in the show you see that, where the partners are very intimate with each other. They generally care a great deal about each other, and about their personal lives, and it feels like, you know, they know each other better than potentially their husbands or wives might know them, or boyfriends or girlfriends. So it was very intimate, what we were all going through.�

Even pre-coming out, Bayliss's storyline had been phrased in terms of self-discovery, and particularly sexual self-discovery.

An early episode delved into his discomfort in dealing with an S&M murder, suggesting that it was perhaps partly due to his own repression. Then he winds up sleeping with a woman in a coffin. A Season 3 episode seems to have him confessing that he had some homosexual experiences as a young man. On a darker note, Season 5 also saw him acknowledging and confronting the sexual abuse he had suffered from his uncle as a child.

Secor, who is straight, says he thinks that Bayliss was attracted to men before the ‘Closet Cases' episode: “I think that he had had fantasies, but he'd never acted on it before. I mean I really think that with the Peter Gallagher character, that was the first time. [Being attracted to men was] something he had been aware of... you know, it could be in the corner of his eye, looking over, seeing someone, and then just going on and doing his business, but never... But stuff with women didn't work either. And, you know, in a sense, [he was] almost, like - ‘There's gotta be something else. There's gotta be something else. Oh, men understand me much better than women. Let's see if this [could work].'�

CBS is ordering more episodes of "The Class" which is great news. The Monday night sitcom needs to trim some of its characters (let's start with the married woman and the carpenter, pu-leeeze) but there is lots to like:
The show has a happy gay couple who are quite appealing and they have a lot of interaction with a married couple that includes Perry Pearl, a husband (Sam Harris) who hilariously fits many gay stereotypes: he named his daughter Oprah Liza Pearl and dressed her up as Audrey Hepburn from "Breakfast at Tiffanys." I wonder what direction they will take Harris' character of Perry Pearl who also clearly seems attracted to men.
And even though his character is straight, I think Jason Ritter is showing himself to be a wonderful comic actor who would make his late father, John Riktter, very proud. Anyway, the network is still hammering out whether or not to order a full season but at any rate, it has committed to enough episodes to allow the show to continue to build an even bigger audience.

Now it's just a matter of who to believe. This entire Carol Channing thing is just a big mess. She allegedly made some ridiculous anti-gay comments to a reporter for Gay People's Chronicle, her publicist then claimed she was misquoted and now the paper has issued a statement defending its reporter. I'm starting not to care but here is the statement from associate editor :Brian DeWitt:

"Carol Channing's publicist is doing his job: protecting his client. However, his personal attacks on our reporter are completely unwarranted. Kaizaad Kotwal set out to interview Ms. Channing about her show in Springfield, Ohio. He was also very startled at her responses.

Mr. Kotwal identified himself to Ms. Channing's handlers as being from the Gay People's Chronicle, and his questions were quite straightforward. The entirety of the interview was published in the article. Knowing that Carol Channing is 85 years old and has been touring extensively for decades, it's understandable that she might be a little confused; she might have been tired.

However, what Kaizaad Kotwal wrote is the truth of what was said."

Whatever DID happen, I get the feeling Channing, 85, is gonna lay off doing interviews for awhile. Debbie Reynolds, with whom Channing is supposed to tour with next year, must be concerned about this hurting ticket sales. But I love Debbie and worship her daugfhter, Carrie Fisher, so I hope she'll find a replacement if Channing proves to be a drag on sales.

George Takai, still known as Lt. Sulu to the gazillion "Star Trek" fans out there, is on the front page of today's L.A. Daily News (my favorite newspaper). My colleague Fred Shuster writes about how Takai and a few other original cast members are appearing in new Webisodes of the show, available for free Internet download.
To read Fred's story, click HERE and enjoy!

Meanwhile, I'm re-posting an account of meeting George this summer at an Outfest event:

I was introduced to George Takei (below), the "Star Trek" legend who came out publicly last year. "Everybody already kneeeew," he said in that distinctive voice of his." George is keeping busy these days attending 40th Anniversary "Star Trek" conventions around the world and he says fans have been great. Always out in his private life, Takei says he decided to go public after Gov. Schwarzennegar vetoed the same-sex marriage bill.

"I felt I needed to speak out on that, I felt I needed to be authentic," he said. "It feels great. Although my colleagues and the fans knew, the difference is now I get to address issue much more openly. And the conventions give me the opportunity to use 'Star Trek' as a platform for LGBT issues."

It seems that George is also pals with Howard Stern and did his second weeklong stint on Stern's radio show recently and may do it again sometime. Stern loves the way George says, "Oh myyyyyyyyyy." He says Stern won't marry his girlfriend until gays are allowed to marry as well.

"Howard could not believe that I am gay. He said, 'You're so masculine!' I said, 'So!' We have baseball players and truck drivers, all very masculine, and gay."

I think the world of George Clooney but the Out in Hollywood choice for "Sexiest Man Alive 2006" is...DANIEL CRAIG! Runner-up: Daniel Craig. First runner-up, Dan....(you get the picture).

This became all the more apparent to me during an overpriced sushi dinner in West Hollywood Saturday night. My friends Ted and Michael and I talked about politics, our loves lives, our holiday plans and...James Bond! We all agreed that Daniel Craig could be the sexiest Agent 007 ever and that's without even seeing the movie yet! We thought Pierce Brosnan was as handsome as they come but Craig seems kinda dangerous, kinda wild, filled with secrets. Plus, he's got those blue eyes and that body...wow! These pictures say it all.

And so, I begin a "Casino Royale" countdown: THREE days until these pictures come to life at a theater near you.

Of all the men alive, George Clooney is the sexiet one, according to People magazine which announced its annual selection on Wednesday.

The debates are already beginning: what about McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) or McSteamy (Eric Dane) or the new Bond (Daniel Craig)?

I guess it's just that Clooney, 45, is so damned handsome AND so much more: smart, talented, funny, down-to-Earth, and principled. He joins Brad Pitt as the only two-time honoree of the "sexiest" title which began back in 1986 with Mel Gibson.

What a year for Clooney: he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for "Syriana" and was nominated multiple times for writing and directing "Good Night, and Good Luck." Clooney also further cemented his reputation for social activism, working on behalf of causes to help the troubled Darfur region of Sudan.

And through it all, he's kept his sense of humor intact. "There's a lot of pressure," he says of the Sexiest Man Alive honor. "There are all the events you have to show up for. The sash you have to wear … is embarrassing."

Here is more of his People interview:

On whether he'll ever have children:
"I think it's the most responsible thing you can do, to have kids. It's not something to be taken lightly. I don't have that gene that people have to replicate. But everything in my life has changed over time."

On his vow to "never marry again" – and whether he's changed his mind:
"The truth is, I haven't softened my position on anything, but it's not something I deal with on a regular basis. Who knows? I've been married (in the early '90s, to actress Talia Balsam). It's not something I'm looking out for. The truth is, I'm really happy."

On what he finds attractive:
"Everybody says this, but sense of humor is No. 1 for me. It's certainly what's most attractive. It's not the first thing you notice at 21, but it's the first thing you notice now. You also have to have a sense of humor about my life. It certainly has had an effect on relationships, but I would bet less of an effect than my own issues or insecurities. You can't really blame outside forces for things not working out. You have to take some responsibility."

On being named Sexiest Man Alive for a second time:
"This one's going to be hard for Brad (Pitt) since he's been Sexiest Man Alive twice. He's enjoyed that mantle. I'd say 'Sexiest Man Alive' to him and he'd go, 'Two-time.' So that's been taken away. We used to call him Two Time. So Brad's going to be upset."

Stopped by the Falcon Restaurant in Hollywood last night for the DVD launch party of "Boys Life: The Complete Collection." The drinks were flowing at this very lively bash (I had Diet Coke) and it was fun to catch up with friends and to scarf down some Tuna Tartar every time the waiter would walk by with some on a tray. Finally he said: "Why don't you just take two?" Well, if you insist.
OK, so about the DVD. No one even talked about it! But there were little cards around advertising it and some posters on the walls here and there. Maybe it's because you don't really have to promote the "Boys Life" shorts to an L.A. crowd. They are classics. I still remember seeing the first collection in the mid-1990s at the Sunset 5 and enjoying them so much that any time a new collection was playing, I was right there. Those first films were
POOL DAYS by Brian Sloan, A FRIEND OF DOROTHY by Raoul O'Connell, THE DISCO YEARS by Robert Lee King.

The DVD set includes the entire BOYS LIFE Series, volumes 1 through 5 - Twenty short films about love, life, and liberation. It features short films by critically acclaimed and award-winning directors such as Michael Burke (THE MUDGE BOY), Robert Lee King (PSYCHO BEACH PARTY), Lane Janger (JUST ONE TIME), Brian Sloan (I THINK I DO), Phillip J. Bartell (EATING OUT 2: SLOPPY SECONDS), Eric Mueller (WORLD AND TIME ENOUGH), and Eytan Fox (YOSSI & JAGGER, WALK ON WATER).

The boxed set can be purchased through its distributor, Strand Releasing as well as Amazon.com.

This comes exclusively via Advocate.com: Kristanna Loken, star of "Terminator 3" and Showtimes' "The L Word" is involved with Michelle Rodriguez, star of "Girlfight," "Fast and the Furious" and spent last season on "Lost."

Here is the exchange between Loken and Advocate writer Michele Kort:

As we sat downstairs in her Los Angeles home, upcoming Advocate cover girl Kristanna Loken—the smoldering star of Terminator 3—found an adorable way of letting us know that she’s involved with her equally sexy BloodRayne costar Michelle Rodriguez.

At first Loken, 27—who has a recurring role as lover of Shane (Katherine Moennig) on Showtime’s The L Word this season—affirmed that she’s in a relationship but wouldn’t specify the name or gender.

Then we mentioned the tantalizing stories Loken has told in past interviews about getting tight with Rodriguez when they filmed BloodRayne in Romania. Here’s what happened next.

What about all the stuff that was said about you and Michelle on the shoot?
[Laughs, then takes a deep breath] There is the $64,000 question. Um…I don’t even know how to answer that.

It seems like you both had a lot of fun partying.
Uh-huh. [Smiles, doesn’t say anything]

OK, your silence says volumes. [Both laugh]
Just don’t look upstairs, OK?

Ooh, OK. You don’t want me to print that?
You can print it. [Laughs again] The very hot housekeeper. No, just joking.

Rodriguez is filming in Seattle and her representative declined to comment. Look for comments in the November 21st issue of The Advocate.

In my gushing coverage of the "Designing Women" reunion last month, I basically glossed over all the ugliness that resulted in Delta Burke being fired from the show after the fifth season. It made the cover of People magazine even back in 1991 but I was so swept up in all the love and bygones that it didn't seem necessary to rehash all of that.
But in today's edition of USA Today, writer William Keck does a piece that rehashes ALL OF IT. So, I share it with you and the good part is, there is a happy ending.

Other links to Designing Women entries posted on Out in Hollywood:

- A night with the Designing Women Pt. 1
- A night with the Designing Women Pt. 2
- Designing Women: All About Delta
- The Dazzling Designing Women

And here is my DAILY NEWS piece that previewed the reunion which included interviews with Dixie Carter and series creator Linda Bloddworth-Thomason.

So many of today's top tennis players are movie star handsome and have charisma to spare. From the world's top two players, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal (pictured, right) to the recently retired Andre Agassi who was always fun to watch in practice because he prefered not to wear a shirt. But those three men, along with the incredibly sexy Marat Safin (pictured holding the 2000 U.S. Open trophy w/Pete Sampras looking on) and young
American hearthrobs James Blake and Andy Roddick are all straight. Or so it seems. The truth is, no male pro tennis player in the modern era has ever come out of the closet, unlike some of their female counterparts including reigning Wimbledon and Australian Open champion Amelie Mauresmo and, of course, Martina Navratilova. I examine the situation in an article published today on the terrific site AfterElton.com. I think it's well worth a look!
My thanks to AfterElton editor Michael Jensen who suggested I do the article during our drinks in Miami back in September after he became aware of my absolute passion for the game of tennis. Also thanks to Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Renee Stubbs and retired out baseball pro Billy Bean for weighing in on the topic for the piece.

I'm sure they don't aspire to be like Lance and Reichen who have been endlessly photographed at public events since Bass came out this summer, but Neil Patrick Harris and boyfriend, actor David Burtka, are now living under more of a microscope with paparazzi interested in their every move.
Here is a picture of the couple taken Sunday afternoon as they were out walking the dogs and picking up some flowers and groceries. They are awfully cute, don't ya think?

As much as so many of us have enjoyed the rocky but sweet romance between Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke MacFarland) on "Brothers & Sisters" this season, apparently their problems will be too much to overcome, according to the new issue of TV Guide.

Columnist Michael Ausiello reports that the new year "will usher in a big romance" for Kevin with Scotty apparently headed out of the picture. (Tears are falling onto my keyboard and I just wanna yell "Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!")

But, Kitty (Calista Flockhart) has had a few rocky relationships of her own so far and is going to start something up with a new character, a senator, played by Rob Lowe. So even if Scotty leaves, the eye-candy quotient will remain strong. Lowe just gets better looking all the time, dammit.

OK, back to Kevin. The shows' executive producer Greg Berlanti tells Ausiello says Kevin will get a surprising new admirer and "he'll meet the person through Kitty." Hmmmmmmmmm. Maybe Lowe will turn out to be using Kitty to get to Kevin! Imagine, a closet-case politician!

Berlanti says it has been remarkable how little controversy the frank depiction of Kevin's love life has stirred - particularly within ABC. "IIt's a different era," says the exec producer who credits the late great "Six Feet Under" with "setting the standard" when it comes to honest portrayals of gay relationships on the small screen.
Says Berlanti: "You can't go back to creating sexless gay characters on the small screen anymore because it feels too weird."

Here is some very welcome news released on Monday: here! Films, the theatrical distribution and worldwide sales division of here! Networks, announcded it will executive produce and oversee worldwide distribution for the upcoming feature "Kiss the Bride."

The romantic comedy follows the impending nuptials of happy, heterosexual couple Ryan (James O’Shea) and Alex (Tori Spelling), and how that happiness is disrupted by the arrival of Ryan’s old high school friend Matt (Philipp Karner), with whom Ryan had a fling with in his teenage years. (I love it already!)
Suddenly, both Matt and Ryan are forced to confront long-forgotten feelings for each other while perky, unsuspecting fiancé Alex befriends the new visitor.

The supporting cast is a good one: Joanna Cassidy, Tess Harper, Robert Foxworth and Spelling's husband, Dean McDermott (I literally bumped into Dean at the 90210 reunion event a few weeks ago. He's dishier than I thought and very tall).

The film's director is C. Jay Cox whose first feature film, "Latter Days," won the Audience Award for Best First Narrative Feature and was nominated for its screenplay at the 2005 Los Angeles Outfest. I was there the night it screened and the rousing standing ovation the film got at the Ford Ampitheatre is something I will never forget.
Cox previously wrote the box office smash "Sweet Home Alabama" starring Reese Witherspoon, Patrick Dempsey, and Josh Lucas.

"Kiss the Bride" is the first project of new production company Shadow Factory and is now in production in Los Angeles. It will premiere in theaters and on here! Networks in 2007.

In today's issue of The Hollywood Reporter, TV editor Andrew Wallenstein looks at the recent announcements by Neil Patrick Harris and T.R. Knight that they are gay men. He notes that these self-outings (with some help of the tabloids and bloggers) seems to be evidence of how far Hollywood has come since the days of such closeted stars as Rock Hudson and Montgomery Clift.

Both those handsome and very gay leading men (Clift is pictured on the beach) remained closeted for fear of ruining their reputations during what was a far less tolerant era.
Wallenstein wonders if this is progress though. "Neither Harris or Knight is in the m,old of the traditional lewading man, and that's a huge distinction," he writes. "That type of role is predicated on an actor's sex appeal to the opposite gender. Absurd as it sounds, on some level viewers have to believe their object of affection could somehow reciprocate their attraction. Just imagine if ["Grey's Anatomy"] resident hearthrob Patrick Dempsey, who is not gay, had come out. Would McDreamy till be as popular and would that affect the show's popularity?"

Wallenstein believes that given the current climate of gossip-mongering on the Internet that makes it virtually impossible for even a minor celebrity to stay in the closet, it is probably inevitable that a sexy lead actor will be outed.

He writes: "If the disclosures of Harris and Knight seem like a big deal, just wait and see what happens when someone like a modern-day Hudson follows in their footsteps."

In the meantime, i say give some leading roles in movies to such out actors as the sexy and talented Robert Gant, Chad Allen or Rupert Everett to show that they can be sexy and attractive to any gender!

Carol Channing, best known for her ditzy-blonde stage persona and millions of stage performances of "Hello Dolly" over several decades, really slapped her gay fans in the face in a recent interview.

The 85-year-old performer has long had a huge gay following and is scheduled to tour with Debbie Reynolds in a two-women show next year. Reynolds is a beloved trouper but I wonder if they will have trouble selling tickets to gays fans after Channing surprised Gay People's Chronicle reporter Kaizaad Kotwal by sharing some not-quite-friendly views on gays and the Bible.
Here is the unfortunate exchange which was reported in the Towleroad blog this morning:

KK: You seem to have a very large gay following. Have you ever thought about why?
CC: I don’t think about them. I’m grateful that they seem to like me. They’re terribly loyal to me. But I’m knee-deep in the Bible and you know what it says about that.
KK: Alright.
CC: Oh, dear. Is this for a gay publication? Have I offended you?
KK: Yes. For the Gay People’s Chronicle. Right now, it’s really not my job to be offended or not be offended. I am just asking questions and reporting answers. I read that you have fought for gay rights. Do you think that the things gay people are fighting for are important?
CC: I don’t think about it. If they can’t take care of their own problems, why should I bother. It’s not my problem.
KK: I see.
CC: At one time there were seven men doing me in Las Vegas. I began to wonder if I had a glandular problem. But you know that the Bible says that that’s not the way it’s supposed to be.

Late Monday, Channing's publicist issued a lengthy statement in defense of the performer. Here is part of it:

"What she actually said when asked about gay marriage was that she wasnt necessarily pro gay marriage, because why would we want the government involved in our business and most of her gay friends were in
agreement - this include myself. She thought civil unions and civil rights were more important, but "if this is what gay men really want then its their business and I dont care, they can take care of themselves."

"With reference to the Bible - she said about gay marriage "You know what the Bible says about it ... Nothing." The interviewer failed to add that last comment in the quote to the interview."

"Her history of support speaks for its self. As a gay man myself, who has worked for her for years, she has supported my 7 year relationship from the beginning and of her other gay friends and colleagues agree."

Didn't think I'd forget about Kevin and Scotty on this week's episode of "Brothers & sisters" did ya? Not a chance. But I did think the Iraq war storyline was more important so gave it a seperate post.
Last week, Scotty stormed out of the family ranch house after Kevin told him to "shut up!" in front of everyone at dinner. Wisely, Scotty stays clear of Kevin until he shows up at Kevin's law firm to accept a reward check for being a whistle blower in a civil case Kevin was handling (this is how they met).

Kevin invites Scott to lunch reasoning that they are now "equals" because Scotty just got a big check.
Scotty: "You think we're equals because I have money? I thought what makes us equals is that we're both human beings! ...I was completely wrong about you. It took me a long time to figure out what I'm worth...It's taken you two months to make me feel worthless. Congratulations!" Scotty storms out, leaving the check behind.

On a related note, I really like the close sibling relationship between Kevin and Kitty (Calista Flockhart) where they tell each other how it is and can do so because they completely trust each other. Kevin calls her a "whore" when it comes to relationships and she calls Kevin a "bitch."
Kitty: "You're the stuck-up bitch...You talked to (Scotty) like he was the hired help!"
Kevin: "Whore."
Kitty: "Bitch."

I gotta say, Kevin is a real bonehead when it comes to this money and status crap. A few weeks back, he actually offered to pay Scotty to be his date at a party Scotty was scheduled to work at as a waiter. But, since Kevin is so smart, being a waiter and all, it's interesting to make his so emotionally clueless.

But, he's learning. At the end of the episode, he calls Scotty and begins to leave a rambling apologetic message on his answering machine saying in part: "I think you're amazing and funny and cute as hell and I just hope that someday...maybe I could be worthy of your respect whether we're together or not."

Scotty, a bit tearful, picks up, and they chat a bit. He asks Kevin to please send him that check.

We'll see how this one goes. I'm rooting for them!

On a day when three U.S. soldiers were reported killed in Iraq (25 killed this month and 2,843 killed since March 2003) and on a day when 159 Iraqis were killed - including 35 men blown apart while waiting to join Iraq's police force - tonight's episode of ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" really packed an emotional punch in the stomach.

Justin Walker (Dave Annable), who served in Afghanistan, receives a registered letter from the military ordering him to report for duty in two weeks for a tour of duty in Iraq. On the news that day (in the episode) there's a report that 12 soldiers had died in Iraq. Justin calls his brother Kevin in a panic: "I can't watch any more people die! I can't go back!"

The episode had some dramatic flashbacks to Sept. 11 when Kitty (Calista Flockhart) was living only six blocks away from the World Trade Center and the anguish the family went through waiting for word that she was all right. Her ordeal led Justin to enlist in the military and when he did so, he agreed to a clause that, in essence, was a backdoor draft. He threatens to flee to Mexico and even tries to buy a fake passport.

By episode's end, Justin was being rushed to the hospital after injesting too many drugs and booze. He REALLY did not want to go back. And who can blame him? It's a good thing President Bush is open to fresh ideas and strategies after his election day "thumping."

Ironically, this episode of the show was titled: "Mistakes Were Made."

I love this ad: "Wedding Wars: His brother is out. his wedding is off. The war is on."
Hey, I don't know if this movie is any good but i intend to find out. Why? Will give ya two reasons: John Stamos and Eric Dane. The impossibly handsome Stamos, whose presence has really boosted the ratings for "ER" this season, plays a gay wedding planner whose brother (Dane, Dr. McSteamy on "Grey's Anatomy") is getting married to the conservative (anti-gay marriage) governor's daughter. That's when things get interesting. Stamos goes on strike, refusing to plan the wedding and calling for a nationwide strike on all weddings.

The movie airs on A&E channel on Monday, Dec. 11...9 p.m. (8 p.m. central)

There is word that my beloved "Sex and the City," the show that I think is really about four gay men living and loving in Manhattan, may finally be made into a movie after all! That's according to the latest issue of OK! magazine. and because I want this to happen so badly, I'm going to have to take OK! magazine as gospel, just this once.

The magazine states that negotiations are now in full swing with the four leading ladies of the series and that early results points to the movie entering the production stage. "Obviously, there is still a lot to be worked out contractually, but it would be amazing to get this project off the ground," a source tells the mag.

Since I wasn't aware of this possibility when I met series creator Darren Star at the "Melrose Place/90210" reunion event a few Fridays ago, I didn't ask him about a movie. But i did say to him, "The show was really about four gay men, right?" He looked at me, annoyed, and said: "No."
Me: "OK, well at least Samantha Jones, she's gotta be based on a gay man, right?"
Darren: "No. She's Samantha."

Alrighty then...

Since the show completed its six season run two years ago, the four stars have gone on to other projects. Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie) has been the most successful commercially with the hit big screen comedies "Failure to Launch" and "The Family Stone" and just wrapped the drama "Spinning Into Butter."
Cynthia Nixon (Miranda) has had the most artistic success with a Tony Award for the play "Rabbit Hole" and Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild award nominations for her portrayal of Eleanor Franklin in "Warm Springs."
Nixon, who along with Parker won an Emmy for the show's final season, has also came out as a lesbian in a committed relationship.
Kristin Davis (Charlotte) had a mid-sized box office hit last spring starring opposite Tim Allen in "The Shaggy Dog" and on Nov. 22, she has the feature film "Deck the Halls" out which also stars Parker's real-life hubby Matthew Broderick.
Kim Cattrall (Samantha), who is widely blamed for the film being sidetracked in the first place with script and salary demands, failed to make much of a box office splash in her post-'Sex" feature "Ice Princess" and the little-seen Him and Us." But she has the indie film "The Tiger's Tale" making the film festival circuit and was a sensation on the London stage in "Whose Life is it Anyway?"

Will keep ya posted!

I'd be watching anyway but how terrific is it that the dazzling Dixie Carter is beginning a seven-episode stint on "Desperate Housewives" tonight? She'll always be Julia Sugarbaker to me but after meeting her at the "Desinging Women" reunion a few weeks ago, i gotta say, Dixie as herself is pretty damned cool!
But she won't be herself on "Housewives" with a gray wig and decidedly "de-glam" for the role of Bree's new scary mother-in-law!
I have a story in today's entertainment section of the Los Angeles Daily News about her role on the show. If you don't get the paper delivered at home (you must subscribe!) then click onto DailyNews.com.

At any rate, here are a few excerpts from the article just in case:

"Housewives" creator and head writer, openly gay Marc Cherry (right), was Carter's personal assistant during her days on "Designing Women." "He was handling my personal business and picked up my underwear at Neiman (Marcus) sometimes," Carter remembers, laughing.

Good thing Cherry remembers her fondly. Tonight, Carter appears in the first of at least seven episodes as the mysterious Orson Hodge's (Kyle MacLachlan) mother and Bree Van De Camp-Hodge's (Marcia Cross) mother-in law. She is going to make Bree's first annoying mother-in-law from her marraige to Rex (Shirley Knight) look like a saint. Gloria Hodge knows all of her son's secrets (and apparently there are many) and is expected to make life quite difficult for the clean-freak newlyweds (pictured, left).

"Marc was very memorable, a very memorable young man," says the actress. "He was always observing. We knew he was a writer. He never got upset with a really kind of goofy household that Mr. (Hal) Holbrook (her husband of 22 years) and I somehow rock along with. He never got upset with the zaniness of our life."

Carter's part of Gloria Hodge is a far cry from her signature role as the outspoken and stylish Julia Sugarbaker, who could annihilate anyone with words.

"Marc called me, and it was really exciting," Carter recalls. "He said, 'I have something nice for you to do if you are willing to de-glam. The woman is older and needs to be gray and not made up.' I said, 'OK, fine, I'll do it.' The part is quite wonderful...I'm a bad mama. I like to hit the liquor cabinet, and they don't like having me there on Wisteria Lane.""

"It's a very heady atmosphere," she says of her new gig. "When you drive onto the lot, your little heart beats faster and you're singing 'Hooray for Hollywood!' "

I love the article "They're Here, They're Queer...and we're used to it" by Mark Harris that I just read in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly. He writes that "those gay celebrities who keep fighting to pass as straight look like embarrassing antiques - lawsuit-filing Liberaces instead of liberationists."

Harris notes that something is really changing in the culture when Ellen DeGeneres' 'Yep, I'm Gay" Time magazine story in 1996 gives way to 2006 statements from actors Neil Patrick Harris and T.R. Knight which essentially say "Yeah, I'm gay - you wanna make something of it?"

He offers various tips for celebrities who decide to come out. Here are some of them:

1. TRY NOT TO SPEND THE PREVIOUS DECADE LYING: Neither Knight of Harris had constructed elaborate "I just haven't found the right woman" stories that they then had to admit weren't true...It's easier to announce something than to have to announce something AND retract something. You'll find any number of movie stars at the bottom of a big hole they've dug for themselves.

2. SOUND BORED: Statements from both Knight and Harris had the undertone of a shrug, a whiff of "I don't know why people particularly care about this, but I'm gay, and I don't have a problem with it." Setting the tone early - one without a note of apology or grandiosity - helps.

3. IF YOU DON'T WANT BEING GAY TO BE THE MOST INTERESTING THING ABOUT YOU, MAKE SURE IT ISN'T: Knight ("Grey's Anatomy") and Harris ("How i Met Your Mother") are both on network television shows and presumably have job security as well as second careers as theater actors. Coming out doesn't look like a desperate grab for attention when you've got a nice gig already.

4. AVOID PROUD CHARACTERIZATIONS OF YOURSELF AS "STRAIGHT-ACTING") which is what Lance Bass did in his People magazine coming out cover story. Writes Harris: Lance Bass, this means you. Guess that's why they call it ACTING."

I am a bit reluctant to share this in case I come off sounding like a half-wit but what the heck: I've been invited to be a guest on Saturday night's Mark Isler Show on KABC TalkRadio. I follow an interview with a representative from the Liberty Film Festival (Hollywood’s first conservative film festival)!
In contrast, I'll be discussing "Out in Hollywood" and also chatting about a variety of entertainment topics like Tony Bennett (did i mention I met him today? Oh yeah, only a hundred times) and whatever else Isler brings up. Maybe people who tuned in to hear about the film festival will call in and yell at me!

KABC is 790 on the AM dial. The actual call in number is: 800. 222. KABC. It can also be heard online if you go to KABC.com.

Singer David Crosby, already a father of three, agreed to be sperm donor so his good friend Melissa Etheridge and her then-partner Julie Cypher could start a family. In his new memior, "Since Then," the member of legendary bands Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young writes about his decision to father not one, but two children for Etheridge and Cypher.

"To me it's a no-brainer. If two couples care about each other and one couple wants to help the other couple have kids, why wouldn't they do it? We were following our hearts, and our hearts told us that these were people...We believe in love."

Cypher carried both children and in an excerpt of the book in the new issue of "People," she tells of how Crosby once delivered the sperm: "We were having our house painted and this big, black Suburban pulls up while all the painters are eating their lunch. It's David, dropping off a paper bag with the sample in it. He's wearing dark glasses and looks like a drug dealer, comes in the door with the bag, gets back in the big black car and leaves."

The second time, Crosby met Cypher at a street corner, handed her the paper sack, and asked for a life to rehearsal and could she stop and pick Graham Nash up to?
"So I put the paper sack with this little thing of sperm in it between my legs to keep it warm and we go pick up Graham...I'm driving really carefully because the car is full of history if I get in an accident AND I've got this secret paper sack tucked between my legs."

Seven months after the world learned of Crosby's role via a cover story in Rolling Stone magazine, Etheridge and Cypher split up. Etheridge is married to actress Tammy Lynn Michaels who recently gave birth to twins. Cypher is married to Matthew Hale.

"It's discouraging how this worked out because one of the main reasons [wife] Jan and I did it was the love between Julie and Melissa, who have obviouly transferred that affection to new partners. But both women have brought the kids up here and been with me at different times...They're great kids: superbriught, extremely nice, beautiful, happy, wonderful children...They're very special people in my life."

Some days are just a helluva lot more special than others and this one is kinda hard to top: I was one of about 200 people invited to watch Tony Bennett perform an eight-song set Friday and I will be in a good mood over it for... I dunno... the rest of my LIFE!

Tony, who turned 80 in August, looked no worse for the wear after his star-studded birthday gala last night at the Kodak Theater as he strode onto the stage singing "The Best is Yet to Come." My friend, Evan, and I were sitting on stools (the set resembled a swanky nightclub) about 15 feet away from Mr. Bennett. We could not believe it! He sounded as good as he ever did, moved like an old pro, and even scatted at the end. He is a man who loves what he does.

Bennett went on to sing "Cold, Cold Heart," "Just in Time," "The Good Life," "Steppin Out With My Baby" "I Got Rythm," and, best of all, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."
"I thought it would be a local hit," Bennett said of "San Francisco." "But it's my signature song now and allowed me to sell out around the world since 1962."
Backed by a four-piece band, he was smooth, such a cool cat.

The set was interrupted by a short Q&A session and I loved Tony's answer to the obvious question about what seems to be enternal youth: "I've always had a passion to sing and paint. The older I got, the more disciplined I got. I just love what I'm doing. It doesn't feel like work to me."

Evan had to rush back to work but I stuck around for a real nice VIP reception (Me? Turn down free food?) and chatted up the music legend asking him how he is still topping the charts after all these years.

"I was taught at the Paramount Theater where we had to do seven shows a day because there were that many people coming in to see us, and the managers there, they said, 'In the morning you have your teenagers, in the afternoon you have your senior citizens, at night you have your married couples. Sing great songs. Don't ever just sing it to one group. If you sing to the whole family, it's like when Walt Disney made movies like 'Snow White' or 'Bambi,' the parents went to see it as much as the children. Everybody enjoyed it.So it's a bigger audience, economically, that's much more successful than just singing to one demographic group."

I also asked Tony (well actually, I call him Mr. Bennett) about his recent CD of duets which included a duet with his frequent singing partner K.D. Lang and other openly gay performers Elton John and Geroge Michael.
He said: "I believe that everybody is here on this planet and you should cater to all of them and not be bigoted."

Let me say first off that this picture of Dr. Mark McSteamy (Eric Dane) on the right has absolutely nothing to do with last night's episode of "Grey's Anatomy" or why it was the gayest episode of the series ever. But I posted it because I haven't watched the show in a few weeks (no, I don't have TiVo...GASP!) and this is the first week that I really got it: McSteamy is HOT! Not just physically, but in the way that he is an unapologetic tramp! He wants to sleep with everybody and makes no bones about it. I say it will be difficult for Meredith or anyone to resist his charms. Anywayh. McSteamy and Meredith treat a patient who is set for a male-to-female sex change operation (with the support of the woman who married him as a man) but complications arise when the paitent is diagnosed with breast cancer caused by the hormones she had been taking. Best chance for survival: stop taking the hormones and revert back to a man. "She'll go back to being an unhappy man with a penis," McSteamy tells Meredith. "Just like millions of us."
This episode was a real departure because most of the male doctors (McSteamy excepted) go on a fishing trip and also along are Joe the bartender and his partner of 10 years, Walter! Cool!
How all the hunky docs (plus the hospital chief) get the same day off, I do not know. For those of us aware of the big on-set fight between Patrick Dempsey and Isaiah Washington that resulted in T.R. Knight coming out, the fishing trip was a chance to see how these actors interact on screen. Washington and Knight had a scene together as did Washington and Dempsey and all seemed normal between their characters.

The brawl in the episode was between Knight's Geroge O'Malley and Alex. But it was only an open-handed fight because they are surgeons and no matter how pissed off they are at each other, they can't damage the hands! Walter ends up getting knocked down in the fracas and cutting his head. He says to Joe: "Next time, we're NOT going camping with straight guys."
Anyway, Chief Webber does not know that Joe and Walter are a couple and wants to sleep in their tent with them. When he finally realizes they want to be alone and are gay, he starts blurting out funny things to show he's cool with it: "Wonderful!" "Man love!" "Beautiful!" "My cousin is gay!"
Later, the chief is fishing next to Joe and asks how long he and Walter have been together.
"Ten years. We're thinking about kids," Joe says. "I can't imagine my life without him."
Later, Chief Webber tells Derrick (Dempsey): "They're a happy couple...I miss my wife."

As if tipping you off to my current piece in The Advocate wasn't enough, here is a tip to check out a story I wrote for the new issue of LA-based Frontiers. It is my interview with a very special man named Thom Bierdz. Some of you may remember him from the three years he spent playing Phillip Chancellor on "The Young and the Restless."

Since he was a closeted soap star, it was ironic that Thom was a hearthrob to so many female fans.
“At one time there were 7,000 girls to see me in Toronto—but they weren’t there to see me,� Bierdz remembers. “They were there to see my character Phillip. I knew that I was gay, and I didn’t think they were there because they knew who I was, so I never got too involved in that. I was always a little removed.�

But after Thom left the show in 1989 to pursue movies, the worst kind of tragedy struck:Back home in Wisconsin, Thom's chronically troubled youngest brother Troy beat their mother Phyllis to death with a baseball bat in the kitchen of the home where they grew up. Things were never the same personally or professionally for Bierdz, who, six years ago, also discovered the body of his other brother, the charismatic Gregg, who unexpectedly committed suicide.

He also became obsessed with delving into his mother’s murder and his brother’s history of mental illness, which not only resulted in a reconciliation with the sibling who ended their mother’s life, but also produced the haunting and painfully honest memoir "Forgiving Troy," an “art-o-biography� that mixes Bierdz’s writing with his paintings.

Here are some of Thom's paintings:

Except for appearing on an episode of Matlock and returning briefly to the soap, his acting career was all but over. But his creative output had just begun. Bierdz became a prolific and respected artist who has made hundreds of paintings of varying mood and style.

“After my brother killed my mother, my priorities really shifted,� he says. “I went really introverted and spent a lot of time examining what was really important to me. Acting became very difficult for me. I was always an introvert, and I just seemed to get more nervous as I got older. I wrote for a while and the painting happened by accident, and people were just very interested.�

The handsome Bierdz, 41, lives with his boyfriend, actor Steve Callahan (pictured, left) - who was terrific in " East Side Story" - in the mid-Wilshire section of Los Angeles. Their home is filled with Bierdz’s paintings.

Bierdz is so prolific that he is hired to paint on-the-spot at various events, including the recent Thalian’s Ball, where he received an award from organizer Debbie Reynolds and his painting that night earned $6,000 for charity. "Forgiving Troy" can be purchased at www.thom bierdz.com, where about 400 of Bierdz’s paintings can be viewed as well as a video of him visiting his brother in prison. I promise you, it's a really engrossing and deeply personal read.

Well-done Thom!

OK, so here it is, the truth. I think Donny Osmond is a babe, OK? And I think he's a wonderful singer and genuinely nice man. I interviewed him about the DVD set of the "Donny and Marie" variety hour shows released this month and will share it in a future post.

But as an appetizer, here is a funny thing that happened last night in NYC at a fundraidser for the Christopher Reeve Foundation when Donny (a grandfather now!) had some fun with the openly gay Tony Award winner Nathan Lane.
Here is the account from the NY Post's PAGE SIX:
Donny Osmond brought down the house when he coaxed Nathan Lane onstage and sang him a love song from "Beauty and the Beast" at the Christopher Reeve Foundation fund-raiser at the Marriott Marquis the other night. Lane, playing Belle to Osmond's Beast, deadpanned, "My God, I thought you were Mormon!"

Then, as Meryl Streep, Barbara Walters, Joan Collins and Miss USA Tara Conner watched, Osmond pulled Lane onto his knee for a mock marriage proposal. Streep, who'd earlier been asked to play Belle, told the crowd she'd made many important decisions in her career, and "not being part of that skit was one of them."

C'mon Meryl, it sounds like a lot of fun!

Remember Danny Roberts, the openly gay housemate on MTV's "The Real World New Orleans"? During his stay in the house, Danny was in a relationship with Army Capt. Paul Dill, whose face was blurred whenever he came for a visit. If his identity had been revealed, he would have been kicked out of the military because, yes, even in 2006, it's not OK to be openly gay in the military.

Anyway, six years after the show, Roberts and Dill have split up and Roberts did an interview with "The Advocate" that appears in the Nov. 21 issue. (A likttle self-promotion here: I have a companion piece with the Roberts interview in the magazine about people who are "Suddenly Single.")

But enough about me. Here is some of what Danny had to say:

Dill left the military in 2003 but for two years, Danny lived with him in North Carolina while he was still in the Army:
"Ironically, moving in together was the beginning of our undoing...We could not live our lives. We could not be a normal couple. We lived in so much fear. We were forced to live underground."

On the break-up: "Paul and I are better friends now. That's not to say it wasn't ugly when we first broke up."

On being single again: "I don't think anyone truly wants to be single. We all would love to be with someone. But it is so nice to be on my own, to do what I want and to find out who i want to be."

Working in real estate for two years: "Actually, that got a little strange. I had little problem with people contacting me who weren't interested in buying homes...I don't know what they wanted. I'll just say there are a lot of lonely people in the world."

Roberts' post "Real World" speaking career: "It's something that is offered to just about every fool who's been on any reality show. So there's nothing original about that part of it. But I realized pretty quickly that there was a niche I could fill. I could go to colleges and share my coming out experiences or talk with people about 'don't ask, don't tell.'"

It seems like the closet is no longer a safe place for any public figure in either Hollywood or Washington! I'm not for outing gay celebrities really but I am very proud of how Neil Patrick Harris handled the situation last week. It's a model for others to follow and I hope they do! But in most cases, I hope it's on their terms.

Politics is a little trickier and I can't say it bothers me when someone who pushes anti-gay policies is outed. And this is what Bill Maher did on tonight's "Larry King Live" according to the blog Towleroad.

Here's the exchange with Larry King:

MAHER: "Frank Rich wrote about this a couple of weeks ago. He said, yes we've heard about Mark Foley...but he said, that's just the beginning of it. A lot of the chiefs of staff, the people who really run the underpinnings of the Republican party, are gay. I don't want to mention names but I will Friday night.

KING: You will Friday night?

MAHER: There's a couple people everybody in Washington knows, who run the Republican party

KING: You will name them?

MAHER: I wouldn't be the first. I'd get sued if I was the first, but...you know, Ken Mehlman, okay there's one I think people have talked about. I don't think he's denied it when people have suggested it (actually, he has). He doesn't say...

KING: Ken Mehlman? I've never heard that. But the question is...

MAHER: Maybe you don't go to the same bathhouse I do Larry.

KING: Why would someone who is gay take public anti-gay positions? Why would you do that?

MAHER: Because Larry, hating yourself is the greatest love of all.

Postscript: CNN edited the west coast feed of Larry King Live and cut out Bill Maher's comments outing RNC Chair Ken Mehlman. See the two versions on Towleroad.

"Out in Hollywood" will most certainly return to lighter topics but I did feel compelled to share some post-election thoughts. I woke up this morning, the day after a national election, and I don't feel like staying in bed!

I've spent the last six years increasingly dismayed, disgusted and depressed over the direction our country has been headed - especially since the U.S. began the war in Iraq. I mourn every U.S. life lost and every innocent Iraqi life lost.

Listening to NPR today, it was a different President Bush addressing the press, a humbled man with no "political capital" remaining. Why did it take this kind of "thumping" for the president to see things clearly or even to be open to any other path? I'm beyond disillusioned with him. I believe he has us failed on so many levels and the history books will not be kind.

Anyway, compared to two years ago, when so many of us felt kicked in the stomach with 11 anti-marriage amendments on the Nov. 2004 ballot, this election day had some positives for gays. For the first time, a proposed constitutional amendment to ban any form of legal recognition for same-sex couples was defeated (in Arizona) and even though similar bans did unfortunately pass in seven other states, it was by much slimmer margins than two years ago with 37 percent of voters opposing the bans overall. In 2004, 31 percent opposed such ballot measures.

Other reasons for gays to cheer: sent packing were two of the most anti-gay members of Congress: Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate who compared same-sex marriage to "man on child, man on dog" sex, lost his seat to Democrat challenger Bob Casey (left), and in Indiana, Democratic challenger Brad Ellsworth defeated Republican Rep. John Hostettler, one of the House’s anti-gay leaders. Hostettler, who was elected in the GOP sweep of 1994, worked to slash funding for AIDS programs and drafted the Marriage Protection Act, designed to prevent federal courts from ordering states to recognize same-sex marriages permitted in other states.

In Ohio, Democrat Ted Strickland (right) beat Republican Ken Blackwell by a wide margin. Blackwell is one of the most virulently anti-gay elected officials in the nation, a chief advocate of Ohio’s 2004 anti-marriage constitutional amendment and an outspoken opponent of Cincinnati’s recent nondiscrimination law. Strickland, on the other hand, voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment as a member of Congress and opposed the 2004 Ohio state constitutional amendment banning same-sex partner recognition of any kind.

In Massachusetts and New York, pro-marriage equality gubernatorial candidates Deval Patrick and Eliot Spitzer were elected by landslides. This is the first time pro-marriage equality candidates have been elected governor of any state.

Hooray! God bless America!

Rev. Ted Haggard, the self-loathing evangelical pastor who was fired over the weekend amid allegations of gay sex and drug use, can't count on Focus on the Family founder James Dobson to take part in Haggard's "restoration" counseling process.

"Emotionally and spiritually, I wanted to be of help - but the reality is I don't have the time to devote to such a critical responsibility," Dobson explained in an AP story.

So what does Dobson have time for? Continuing to try and deprive gay people of equal rights and basically trying to make them feel terrible about themselves?

As far as Haggard goes, in a post earlier this week, I expressed compassion for Haggard because as a gay man who spent some time in the closet, I had empathy for him. But some of my friends - both gay or straight - were surprised. They asked if I had taken into consideration how many gay people in his church Haggard had made feel like immoral people. How many of them tried this "restoration" process and continue to fight their own gay soul?

It got me thinkling.

Ultimately, I think the only way I will ever have an ounce of respect for someone like Ted Haggard is if he comes totally clean and tries to undo the damage he's done to himself and to others with his hypocricy and with his lies. His "restoration" process should not be about trying to rid himself of his gayness (never gonna happen) but should be an effort to become an honest person who can look himself in the mirror each day and not hate who he sees.

Watching election coverage tonight, I picked started my usual multi-tasking and began flipping through Written By, a monthly magazine published by the Writers Guild of America. Damn if I didn't come across a blog item in the most unexpected of places.

The magazine interviews writer Gore Vidal who has a new memoir out called "Point to Point Navigation: A memoir 1964 to 2006." I imagine there is plenty of dirt in the book since there was plenty of dirt in the interview promoting it! What jumped out at me was a story Vidal tells about Clark Gable, the handsome Rhett Butler in "Gone With the Wind."

It seems that Gable really did give a damn that the movie was being directed by the openly gay George Cukor who was famously replaced early on in the filming by Victor Fleming. Vidal says that Cukor told him personally that Gable wanted him removed from the film because in his younger days, Gable had been a hustler and Cuckor was one of his clients!

I gotta get this book!

President Bill Clinton (doesn't that sound especially good these days?) surprised everyone when he showed up at last weekend's National Gay and Lesbian Task Force fundraiser in Miami honoring NAACP Chair Julian Bond. The handsome man next to the ex-prez is Chip Arndt who won the "Amazing Race" several years ago with former partner Reichen Lehmkuhl who is now famously with Lance Bass.

Arndt is president of the Freedom Democrats, the Miami-Dade LGBT Democratic Caucus.

For a full account of Clinton's appearance at the event, click on Towleroad.

Reichen Lehmkuhl, boyfriend of Lance Bass, had this to say about actor Neil Patrick Harris coming out in response to items on the Internet about his relationship with actor David Burtka:"It's to be outed by someone in the public media and to a celebrity, and Neil Patrick Harris, I understand, has been `lanced,'" Lehmkuhl told AP Radio News in a recent interview.

Harris, co-star of "How I Met Your Mother," came just a few weeks after "Grey's Anatomy co-star T.R. Knight publicly came out following speculation that co-star Issaiah Washington referred to him as a "faggot" during a heated argument with Patrick Dempsey.

The popular Defamer site had this to say: Should Reichen's attempt at turning his more famous boyfriend's name into a lower-case, media buzzword actually catch on, it could well be Lance Bass who ultimately suffers, the public's perception of the former, non-essential *NSYNCer becoming forever linked to the generic shorthand for "famous for being smoked out of the closet." Still, "lanced" does have a catchy succinctness to it, and we wouldn't be surprised if an entirely new vocabulary based upon the Great Celebrity Outings of 2006 were to follow suit, including "knighted" (announcing one's sexual preference as a direct result of an on-set choking or similar, violent attack), "doogied" (putting one's itchy-trigger-fingered publicist in his place with an unabashed rejection of his gay denials), and, not to leave out the man who started it all, the verb "to reichen," i.e. encouraging one's celebrity boyfriend to come out, then riding the free publicity for every photo-op, soundbite and self-promotional opportunity that it's worth.

I think Nicole Kidman is THE most gifted and daring actress of her generation. She's also an articulate woman who can promote her projects with intelligence and insight (I"m not talking about "Bewitched" OK?). And best of all, she's a real star who shines brightest on the red carpet at any event she attends.

The Nov. 21 issue of The Advocate spotlights Nicole as a star with a "Big Gay Following." Here are some highlights from her chat with writer John Griffiths:

Asked if she's ever felt repressed, Nicole says: "Of course. I've felt that I've tried to be things that I couldn't be. I've tried to believe things that I couldn't believe...it's probably why I really have [affinity with] a gay man or a gay woman."

If one of her kids were gay: "I'd give them a huge hug and say, 'What do you want from me? How can I help you?What do you need?' I recently lost probably my dearest, closest friend, Robert [McCann, her make-up artist who died unexpectedly last year]. Robert would always say to me, 'This is what you do: You just open your arms and say, 'Here I am, and I love you.' Because you need that unconditional support and love. Because you need that unconditional support and love. Because you're not going to get anywhere else in the world."

On why some people want to believe that straight actors are gay> "(Laughs) I don't know. I suppose, you know, it's nice to fantasize!...Fantasies can exist in your head, and they can be what you want them to be. They're yours and nobody else's."

On gay men ogling her handsome husband, singer Keith Urban: "I'm all for people thinking he's the cutest thing (laughs).

While Rosie O'Donnell gets most of the attention on "The View" these days, I'm glad to see that comedian Joy Behar, usually the best part of the show, is still getting in her two cents and regularly taking on resident conservative Elisabeth Hasselback.
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"Even though Rosie's on 'The View' now, same-sex marriage hasn't come up yet. I'm waiting. I'm waiting!" Joy writes in the new issue of Instinct magazine. "I think Elisabeth will say that she doesn't believe i it. She'll say that marriage is between a man and a woman - you know, the old rap they give....When it comes to elisabeth, I want to be democratic - people should express themselves from their heart. However, I think that people who believe the stuff she does can be cornered. But then they pull the religion card out and what can you can't fight that. Either you believe or you don't. Some of these people believe that life begns at flirting. What can you do?"

Joy says 'The View' is a gay-friendly show: "If it was up to me, the whole show would be gay! "Somebody said to me, 'Gay men don't love you, they want to BE you.' I think gay men just like to have a good time...I'm an outsider. Gays are outsiders. And people like us have to stay together and have fun. Life's tragic enough. You have to have a few laughs!"

Behar began her career playing small gay clubs in Staten Island and New Jersey and remembers: "Sometimes they were making out while i was on stage. It's hard to make people laugh when they're turned on, but I tried my best. I did a lot of gay clubs. They're the greatest audiences, I have to say. You can talk about smart things and they get it."

Here! Here!

It's not nearly as tacky a movie as the name suggests and my feelings are this: I sat through I don't know how many teenage sex comedies when I was young ("Porky's," "Last American Virgin," "Losin' It" etc) so why shouldn't young gays have something silly and sexy to see?
I saw "Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds" at Outfest this summer and found it harmless and enjoyable enough. And take a look at the poster: some serious beefcake in star Marco Dapper. In the first "Eating Out" movie released two years ago, Kyle (Jim Verraros) convinced his straight roommate to pretend to be gay to get the girl. Now, with the help of Gwen (Emily Brooke Hands) and Tiffani (Rebekah Kochan), Kyle pretends to be heterosexual to land Troy (Marco Dapper), the new guy -- and nude model -- in town. But things get complicated when Kyle finds himself joining the campus ex-gay support group and nabbing a girlfriend! Kyle's ex boyfriend, Marc (Brett Chukerman), is horrified at the plan and decides to pursue the confused Troy with his own tactic -- being his out gay self. Who will win?

I am promoting this movie on Out in Hollywood because I think it's fairly entertaining but also because the publicist, Jim Dobson, thought of emailing me the release dates and the poster today. When someone makes it that easy to get the information, it is my pleasure to share it.

The following are firm release dates and cities before going wider release in January.
November 22: New York Quad
December 8: Los Angeles Sunset 5, Pasadena Laemmle One Colorado, Chicago Century Center, Atlanta Midtown Art, Minneapolis Lagoon Cinema.
December 15: Seattle Varsity Cinema, San Diego Hillcrest
January 5: San Francisco Castro
January 12: Palm Springs Palme d’Or
January 19: Boston Kendall Square
January 26: Denver Starz Film Center

Click HERE to see a scene from the film.

In the span of just a few weeks, both Neil Patrick Harris and T.R. Knight came out as gay men. They did it with little fuss and have gone on with their lives and busy acting careers. But they are hardly the first. I found this slideshow of out celebrities today and invite you to check it out!

Click on the It's Good To Be Gay SLIDESHOW!!!

Last seen getting punched in the face by Adam Sandler in the summer comedy "Click" and as a judge on "America's Got Talent," David Hasselhoff is headed for the Vegas stage. The actor has agreed to take on the role of gay director Roger DeBris in the upcoming Las Vegas run of "The Producers."

"He is perfect for Roger DeBris because he has the best legs in Hollywood," director Mel Brooks said during a press conference this week. Brooks praised Hasselhoff for his "incredible comedic timing, terrific musical theater experience, and a stage presence that I think will be a perfect marriage for the role."

The show will open at Paris Las Vegas hotel Jan. 31. Hasselhoff may be best known for running around the beach with his shirt off on "Baywatch," he is not a stage novice. He has previously starred in Broadway productions of "Jekyll and Hyde" and "Chicago."

"I am honored to be a part of anything Mel Brooks is involved with," he said.

Rosie O'Donnell may not be everybody's cup of tea but she sure is making ABC's morning chatfest "The View" into a must-see experience. Since Rosie replaced Meredith Viera in September, ratings are up by 14 percent. Even more importantly to ABC, viewership in the key advertising demo of viewers 18-34 is up a whopping 34 percent.
Personally, I like Rosie so much better on television as an openly gay woman with a wife and kids as opposed to the "Queen of Nice" persona from her old talk show when she had a crush on Tommy Cruise.

The sexy gothic soap opera "Dante's Cove" which airs on gay TV network here! will return for a third season next year! A lot of people dismiss this show as silly and it is! But no more silly than "Dynasty" was and a lot more sexy with same-sex storylines left and right, male and female.

Production on the series’ third season, which will consist of six, one-hour episodes, is slated to begin in early 2007.
Says Paul Colichman, founder and CEO of here! Networks: “The success of Dante’s Cove, which has built a loyal fan base over its first two seasons, has helped build a solid foundation for the network. We are proud and excited to announce the shows renewal for a third, thrilling season.�

For those fans who want to explore Dante’s Cove beyond the small screen, more information can be found on the show’s official website at www.dantescove.com. The site offers character and actor bios, video clips, a guide to the show’s mysterious dark art of Tresum and a new series of Podcasts hosted by popular DJ Ben Harvey.

Season one of Dante’s Cove is now available on DVD at www.amazon.com, with season two coming in early 2007. In addition, the soundtrack for the series, featuring young and emerging LGBT artists, will be hitting stores in time for the holiday season.

Saw this coming last week and it just makes me sad. Ted Haggard, the former president of the 30-million member National Evangelical Assn., has gone beyond admitting to buying drugs and having a massage:
"I am a deceiver and a liar. There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life," he wrote to the 14,000 members of his New Life Church in Colorado Springs. He was fired from the church on Saturday.

His war would have never become public had a gay prostitute not accused Haggard of monthly encounters and illicit drug use over a three year period.

Haggard's confession of sorts comes just days before Colorado voters will decide two ballots measures: one would ban gay marriage in that state and the other would guarantee domestic partner rights. Haggard, the married father of five, was supportive of the gay marriage ban. That's what got him into trouble: when the prostitute saw Haggard on a History Channel show and realized the client he knew as "Art" was an anti-gay marriage religious leader, he came forward to expose what he believed was Haggard's hypocrisy.

In his statement, which is filled with self-loathing, Haggard also said: "Please forgive my accuser. He is revealing the deception and sensuality that was in my life. Those sins, and others, need to be dealt with harshly. So, forgive him and, actually, thank God for him. I am trusting that his action will make me, my wife and family, and ultimately all of you, stronger. He didn't violate you; I did. "

My two cents: I wish Haggard luck. But instead of dealing with himself so harshly, perhaps he should try and love himself and accept himself. It could be very healing for him, his family and his church and might help foster a lot more understanding. The truth is always so much better than living with a bunch of lies.

Tonight's episode of "Brothers & Sisters" was a wild ride. Titled "Northern Exposure," the family is selling their beloved ranch house and each Walker silbing, as well as mom (Sally Field), each separately plan to take a romantic interest to the house for a farewell fling. Of course, they all show up there, it's raining and they are forced to spend the weekend together.

Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke MacFarland) have a sweet scene eating ice cream together as Kevin talks about losing his virginity inside a tree house at the ranch to a tall good-looking blonde guy named Tucker Booth. What made the scene so funny was that Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) in an earlier scene had told her hubby about losing her virginity in the tree house to...TUCKER BOOTH!
There's some fun moments at the ranch but it turns serious over dinner when an argument ensues over Kevin's refusal to be a sperm donor for sterile brother Tommy and his wife, Julia. "How long would it be before his friends at school find out his biological father is really his gay uncle?" Kevin asks. Everyone takes sides, including Scotty, which leads Kevin to snap: "Scotty, please. This is my family. If you're not going to support me then please SHUT UP!"

Scotty leaves the table and soon heads back to LA and we see that Kevin can be a real ass-hole. But he's also articulate and heartbreaking which was evident when he tells Kitty why he is reluctant to father his brother's child: "I don't talk about what it was like for me growing up gay but it wasn't easy...I was surrounded by you guys, this whole family, but I still felt completely alone. I don't want to bring a kid into this world that would feel different or ashamed. I didn't want him to go through what I do."
In the end, both Matthew and brother Justin both agree to donate sperm and no one will know which one actually fathered the child. "If it's well-dressed and witty, it's mine," Matthew jokes as the three brothers walk out of the sperm bank.

It can be far-fetched but I'm hooked on this delicious morsel of a show and just love seeing Sally Field, 60 years old this month, have the opportunity to do so many different things on screen and do them so well. She's funny, she's maternal, she's strong...she's real.
As for Calista Flockhart's character, Kitty, I'm having some problems with her. It's not because of her politically conservative views (she is a right-wing pundit on a tv talk show) but because she doesn't seem to believe her character's views. This was never more apparent than when she was telling her liberal tv co-host (and romantic interest) why she became a Republican and she tied it to family and America and apple pie etc. I didn't buy it for a second.

It Woulda been loads of fun to see how Shannon Doherty (Brenda Walsh) would have interacted with her former co-stars when they gathered Friday night for the DVD launch of "Beverly Hills 90210." But Shannen didn't show and no one even talked about her (that I could hear). Oh well. The women of "90210" who did show up, Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling and Gabrielle Carteris were nothing to sneeze at.
I spoke with Gabrielle first and let's just say it didn't go very well. As she stood there looking like a million bucks, I said, "Were you upset that as Andrea Zuckerman you had to wear glasses on the show?" She said, "No. Those were MY glasses and I was proud to wear them."
Oh.
Next question.
"So, Gabrielle, how did you feel when they had Andrea get pregnant on the show? She was the smart one who was really going places."
Carteris' response: "I ASKED them to have Andrea get pregnant because I pregnant with my own baby. I wanted my baby to know I was proud."
Uh boy. "well, thanks Gabrielle, you look dazzling tonigjht!"
Sheesh, please bring on Jennie Garth, please! I'll try and not offend HER.
No worries. Jennie has that serenity of a woman who recently gave birth (she had some serious cleavage) and was enjoying her first night away from the baby. [Photos and description 'yummy mommies" courtesy of Perezhiolton.com] Jennie stayed with the show during its entire 10 year run and recently completed a three-year stinit as the star of the WB comedy "What I Like About You" on which her character, in the final season, got married to the gorgeous (and funny) Dan Cortese.
"That was an adorable show and I'm looking for another half-hour show to have time for the baby," she says.
On "90210," her characterof Kellie always had the best-looking guys and was always torn between Dylan (Luke Perry) and Brandon (Jason Priestly). So who would she have ended up with?
"Probably Brandon but she'd probably be having an affair with Dylan!" Garth said.
Tori Spelling, wearing a red dress and matching lipstick and looking very pregnant, was last on the red carpet. She said her favorite moments as Donna Martin on "90210" were the comedy bits like when during a spring fling episode when Donna wore a dress so big that she couldn't get out of the car. She said her and her bubby, Dean McDermott, have a reality show in the works.

Click HERE to read about the 90210 guys.

While much of the "Melrose Place" cast was missing from the Friday night bash celebrating its DVD release, much of the first-season cast from "Beverly Hills 90210" was presented an accounted for (the noteable exceptions being Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry).
I spoke with Jason Priestly but I didn't want to talk about Brandon Walsh! I wanted to talk about the gay-themed indie films he has appeared in like "Die Mommie Die" in which he played a bisexual and shared a sexy smooch with the movie's star, Charles Busch (in convincing drag). "Charles Busch is a good kisser," Jason says. "I thought we were a good couple." I asked if that film resulted in him having more gay fans. "Really that came from 'Love and Death on Long Island," he says.
We also talked about "90210" and where his character Brandon might be today: "I'm sure Brandon's got a drinking problem and he probably decided to be a war correspondent in Iraq."
He has fond memories of the show that made him a star: "It's been an absolute blessing and so much of what I do today is rooted in my experiences on this show and the lessons I learned from Aaron Spelling. I have the show to thank for a lot in my life."
As Priestly began to walk away, Brian Austin Green (David) grabs Priestly and plants a big kiss on his cheek for photographers: "I think I got some earlobe!" Green joked.
Green, who was hilarious as Freddie Prinze's best friend in the ABC sitcom "Freddie" last season, is still a bit upset that the show was cancelled.
"I just feel like we were shortchanged," he said. "We were cut short, they really cut the ambylical cord on that one."
Now, while most women and gay men were busy havong cruishes on Priestly or Perry (Dylan), I was all about Steve (Ian Ziering). I loved the humor and sweetness in his character and well, what a body! While he would be jealous that Brandon would often get the girl over him, their friendship always preservered and I thought was one of the strongest relationships on the show. It felt real and the two actors were very funny together.
"It was like going to the playground every day," Ian told me. "It was like a bunch of lunatics running around. We're all great friends and a lot of us still live close together...but not in the 90210."

At the Beverly Hilton bash for the release of the "Melrose Place" DVD, there were some noteable first-season cast member absences: Heather Locklear, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Andrew Shue Josie Bisset, and Amy Lacone. I can't blame Amy since she was written out of the show fairly quickly but I thought it was really classy of Vanessa Williams - who played spunky Rhonda the first year - to show up with so much enthusiasm and positive energy.
Vanessa (no, not the former Miss America Vanessa L. Williams) told me she was excited to see fellow castmates Doug Savant, Grant Show and Daphne Zuniga, who did make the event.
"It's been great to watch everyone's career blossom and grow. We were all so young when we did the show," Vanessa said. "We are part of the pop culture of our decade. Rhonda was me. We were both bats out of hell from New York."
The "Melrose" gig was only her second showbiz job and she remembers beating out Rae Dawn Chong and others for the part. There was the other Vanessa Williams who had more fame, but this Vanessa Williams had registered with the Screen Actors Guild first so the beauty queen would have to add the "L" initial to her name when acting.
"We've never met but we have mutual friends."
Sadly, Williams was written off the show after just one season: "I was devastated," she remembers. "It really was a 'Welcome to Hollywood' experience. It was a huge sting and an absolute surprise." But the actress successfully moved on, making movies and doing television guest spots including recurring roles on "Chicago Hope" and "Murder One" and was one of the stars of the series "Soul Food."
Daphne Zuniga joined the show halfway through season one as photographer Jo, who had a serious relationship with Jake (Show). Zuniga was already a familiar face with starring roies in the feature films "The Sure Thing," "Gross Anatomy" and "Spaceballs." Most recently, she was the star of the ABC Family series "Beautul People."
"("Beautiful People") is already out on DVD and "Melrose Place" took forever!" said Zuniga, who doesn't look much different than she did 14 years ago when she started playing Jo. "I loved Jo. She started out really strong. But I think they started writing her too victimy when she started dating every loser in town."
Zuniga says her early roles still follow her around. She just retirned from a 10-day silent meditation retreat and once the silence was over, the teacher walked up to her and said, "I remember you as Jo Reynolds and from 'Spaceballs.'"

See related posts on Grant Show and Doug Savant

Thank God for long valet lines at the Beverly Hilton Friday night. I had gabbed with all of the stars of "Melrose Place" who were present for a big DVD launch party except for the one I really wanted to talk to : Doug Savant, who played the role of openly gay Matt on the show. But waiting for my car, I spotted him out of the corner of my eye and made a dash right over. He could not have been nicer. I asked Doug, now one of the stars of "Desperate Housewives," if he was disappointed that his character didn't have much of a romantic life on the show. Even his one on-screen kiss got reduced to him leaning in then the camera cutting away to Billy (Andrew Shue) astonished that Matt would be kissing his best friend!
"We actually filmed a kiss but they didn't show it," Doug says. I asked if it was the first time he had ever kissed a man. He laughed and said: "Yes!" (In real life, Doug is married to his former "Melrose" co-star Laura Leighton who played the scheming Sydney).
"I understood it then and I understand it now," he said of the deleted kiss. "Matt was a blip on the map of the evolution of gay characters on television. I liken it to the Lucy and Ricky days when they had separate beds. What I focused on was having the audience understand what was common to our humanity, the gay people fall in love just like straight people and try and break down stereotypes. Matt was a character who was your brother or co-worker or neighbor. He was important in that regard."
OK, so enough about "Melrose." I wanna know who is getting killed off of "Desperate Housewives" on Sunday night. I say to him: "Is it that annoying woman you had the one-night stand with who had your baby? I hate her!" He laughs and for a second I think he's gonna spill it, just for me. No dice.
He says: "Hey, I like keeping my job!"

Chatted with Grant Show at last night's bash at the Beverly Hilton for the DVD premieres of "Melrose Place" and "Beverly Hills 90120" (much, much more on the party in future posts). I can't believe I favored Billy (Andrew Shue) all those years on "Melrose." I'm here to say that Grant (he played Jake) is the bomb!
Grant was friendly and chatty and seems very comfortable in his own skin. He most recently appeared in the ABC Family show "Beautiful People" with former "Melrose" co-star Daphne Zuniga, will play a closeted A-list star in the upcoming FX drama "Dirt." The show centers around a tabloid and stars Courtney Cox who is also the producer. Grant previously played a gay baseball player in an episode of HBO's "Arli$$" but he says this new gay part "it's a whole different animal. I'm doing some stuff on this show, well, it's FX. They can show a lot."
His lips were sealed, dammit, but the message was that his character definitely gets past first base, probably second and maybe third. I definitely think it's gonna be steamy and I definitely think I will be watching.

I had to ask him about "Melrose," of course.
"Jake really is a part of me," he says of his alter-ego. "There's nothing in Jake that wasn't me."
on which he was involved with so many beautiful women on the show including Amanda (Heather Locklear), Jo (Zuniga) and Allison (Counrtney Thorne-Smith). So who was Jake's true love?
'Oh, definitely Jo," he said. "It's Jo."

Talented television and Broadway star Neil Patrick Harris has decided to tell the world he's gay following widespread reports about his private life this week.
"(I) am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest," Harris tells People magazine's Web site.
The 33-year-old actor, currently starring in the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother," said he decided to reveal his sexuality to end "speculation and interest in my private life and relationships."

That speculation began with an Oct. 23 item on the Web site Canada.com that claimed Harris had helped his "longtime sweetheart," actor David Burtka, land a part on his hit CBS sitcom. That was followed by an unconfirmed report Nov. 1 that a publicist for Harris said the actor is "not of that persuasion."

Here is Harris' complete statement:
"The public eye has always been kind to me, and until recently I have been able to live a pretty normal life. Now it seems there is speculation and interest in my private life and relationships. So, rather than ignore those who choose to publish their opinions without actually talking to me, 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."

Perez Hilton, Defamer.com and other gossip blogs jumped on the topic, eager to "out" the actor. I wrote about the reports this week in "Out of Hollywood" but it was with mixed feelings. Harris was already widely known to be gay but it really was up to him to come out publicly.

And so he has.

Good for him! He has followed T.R. Knight's example of issuing a statement and leaving it at that. Neither he or Knight need the publicity since both are on hit shows and have a high profile. Of the high-profile coming out stories of recent months, Lance Bass has probably benefited the most. His profile was almost non-existent at that point but coming out on the cover of People magazine and having a high-profile relationship with hunky "Amazing Race" winner Reichen has him on the pages of many magazines and on all the "ET," "Access Hollywood" shows.

With both Harris and Knight playing convincing heterosexuals on their respective shows, they are proving that being openly gay doesn't have to be career suicide. I was at an event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel tonight and was told about yet another high-profile actor thinking of coming out soon. Can't spill just yet, sorry. I hope it's a trend.
As for Harris, HOORAY! I'm a big fan of his professionally and now personally. I am so proud to add him to the Out in Hollywood gallery of out heroes.

Why do I get the feeling this is only going to get more and more scandalous? Evangelist Ted Haggard admitted Friday that he bought methamphetamine and received a massage from a gay prostitute who claims he was paid for drug-fueled trysts by the outspoken gay marriage opponent.
Talking to reporters outside his house Friday, the married father of five denied he had sex with the man but said he bought the meth because he was curious. "I bought it for myself but never used it," he said. "I was tempted, but I never used it."

That is just pathetic.

Anyway, Haggard resigned Thursday as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and also stepped down as leader of his Colorado megachurch while the two groups investigate the allegations made by Michael Forest Jones (pictured at right), allegations Haggard intially completely denied.
But now, little bits of the "truth" are coming out. It's my hunch that it's not the whole truth - THAT will come when he feels his back is completely up against the wall. Kinda like alcoholic, molestation victim rehab resident Jim Foley, the disgraced former congressman from Florida. It's gross that Haggard, likely a big closet case, is so anti-gay marriage. Reminds me of Foley, the anti-child abuse advocate who sounds to me like a pedophile but insists that he is "a gay man."
The hypocricy of some of these high-profile Republicans just riles me. I mean, be self-loathing if you want, but get the heck off the national stage as you figure out your twisted self. Invest in therapy and please, please, stop telling people how to live their lives.

As if posting beefcake shots of Colby Donaldson and Matthew McConaughey this week for very loosely-related reasons weren't enough, I have found a loosely-related reason to post a picture of delicious Daniel Craig, the new James Bond in "Casino Royale" which hits theaters Nov. 15. I wrote a holiday season box office preview for today's L.A. Daily News (click HERE to read it) and the Bond flick is the one title being touted as a sure-fire blockbuster. I don't know about you, but I think we could have the sexiest 007 since Connery! Making Craig even more appealing, to me and my friends at least, is his role as a gay man in the current Truman Capote biopic "Infamous" which includes a fill-fledged lip-lock with the actor portraying Capote.

I gotta say, I love that Cybill Shepherd! A star for 35 years starting with 1971's "Last Picture Show," Cybill always finds a way to reinvent herself. She's gone from A-list movie star to country singer to TV superstar ("Moonlighting") to Emmy-nominated sitcom lead ("Cybill) to talk show host, author and cabaret singer.
What. A. Woman.
But we haven't seen much of Cybill lately except for in a pair of TV movies in which she played Martha Stewart. But come Jan. 21, the sensational Shepherd will join the cast of Showtime's "The L Word" as a vice chancellor of a university and married mother of two children who has a fling with Leisha Hailey's character, Alice.

Shepherd, 56, tells USA Today that she "never played a character like this before. It's just thrilling to be part of a show that's almost all women."

As for the love scenes? "It's easier to play a love scene with a woman," she says. Men have more "issues."

Shepherd says more than once that she was "turned on" by the woman-woman sex scenes. But the twice-divorced Shepherd says that in real life, she has a boyfriend. Basically, she doesn't like labels. "If you look at what we know about men, women and our sexuality, a great majority of people are bisexual. So what's wrong with that?"

This has not been a banner week for faded British pop stars who do drugs. First we are subjected to George Michael's whining that gay people don't like him because he's out (uh, right). Now Boy George, last seen cleaning up garbage in NYC as part of a sentence for filing a false burglary claim, is being slammed by his former Culture Club bandmates.
Two of the band's founding members told The Associated Press on Thursday that they're furious with Boy George, who recently accepted a songwriting award without telling them, labeled their new vocalist "dreadful" and, they claim, made their lives a misery.
"We've never said anything about George, because George has always been George," said Jon Moss, the band's drummer and Boy George's former boyfriend. "But this has gone too far."

Later this year, Moss, bassist Mikey Craig and keyboard player Phil Pickett will be back on the road as Culture Club Reborn. Boy George will not be joining them. The band found success in the 80s with such hits as "Karma Chameleon," "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" and "Church of the Poison Mind" and androgynous George became an early MTV star and a global style icon. But his heroin addiction and flagging record sales led to a bust-up for the band. The band reunited with some success in 1998 but Boy George didn't want to tour again this year. The band recruited 29-year-old unknown Sam Butcher for a British tour that starts Dec. 7.

Boy George was not impressed, telling an audience at a music awards ceremony that he thought the new singer was "dreadful. I wanted to like it," he said of the group's new sound, "but I couldn't."

Moss, now married with three children, has a particularly volatile relationship with the singer. He and George were lovers at the height of the band's success, though the relationship was not made public at the time. In his autobiography "Take It Like a Man," Boy George said many Culture Club lyrics were about his feelings for Moss and claimed the band's breakup was driven by the collapse of their relationship.

Moss says the book is misleading.

"He says I was ashamed" of the relationship, Moss said. "I'm not ashamed of anything. My parents know, all my friends knew. There's no problem there."

He said George's claim the band split "because he was distraught and broken-hearted over our love affair" was "complete and utter cobbler's (rubbish). The only person George loves is George ... He's like a nightmare ex-wife."

I haven't watched very much of "Survivor" since the Outback season when hunky cowboy Colby Donaldson almost won the whole darn thing (and the world was intorduced to the annoying Elizabeth Hasselbeck). But AfterElton.com reports today that Brad (pictured), the only openly gay contestant this season, was called a "nancy boy" in an effeminante, lispy voice by fellow contestant Nate. Of course Nate did this in one of the interview segments and not to Brad's face.
Well Nate, when the tribe speaks next week with their votes, I do hope your torch will be extinguished.
Grow Up!
BTW, does anybody know what happened to Colby Donaldson? I think I'll just put a few pictures of him here so you all will remember who he is...

There is so much going on in my gay world that I have neglected to weigh in on the controversy swirling around ESPN commentator Brian Kinchen. During the network's broadcadt last weekend of the Northern Illinois-Iowa football game, Kinchen remarked that something he had just said was "kinda gay."

That remark got him suspended.
According to Outsports.com, the comment came in the first quarter, with Iowa leading, 7-0. A pass from NIU quarterback Phil Horvath was thrown slightly behind a receiver who failed to catch the ball. Kinchen, a tight end in the NFL from 1988 to 2000, was observing that the receiver should have tried to catch the ball with his hands, not his body. "Your hands are, are, tender and they can move and caress the ball," he said. "That's kinda, that's kinda gay, but hey."

ESPN's Vice President of Public Relations Josh Krulewitz said Kinchen's future with ESPN is under review.
"The comments were inappropriate and we apologize," Krulewitz said. "He will not appear on the air this weekend, and his future appearances are in question."
Kinchen says he knows he made a mistake and released this statement:"I sincerely apologize for my extremely poor choice of words. They were completely inappropriate and not at all a reflection of who I am or of the way I perform when I work. I have learned from my mistake and look forward to continuing my broadcasting career."

Frankly, I think a one-game suspension should be enough. I'm glad ESPN took the bold move of having zero tolerence but I would be satisfied if Kinchen would have some sensitivity training and talk about it in an interview on ESPN. This whole situation also providing us with an opportunity to educate kids that calling something "gay" can be so devastating for some of their classmates on the playground and it's got to be frowned upon.
It's interesting to note though how ESPN, owned by The Walt Disney Co., is being so harsh with Kinchen when Disney-owned ABC didn't even slap the wrist of Isaiah Washington for referring to his "Grey's Anatomy" co-star T.R. Knight as a "faggot" during an argument with Patricjk Dempsey. Sure, it didn't happen on the air but it resulted on Knight feeling he had to come out publicly.

What a fun time it was at the Egyptian Theater last night for the lively LA premiere of the comedy "Coffee Date." The A-list crowd was across the street at the premiere of "Bobby" at Grauman's and I gotta say, it's not so much that I wasn't invited, it's that I parked at the Hollywood & Highland structure to walk the block to the Egyptian and passed by at least three people I know waiting in line along Hollywood Blvd. waiting to get in. "WHERE are you going?" one of them asked. So I walked away giving myself a pep talk: "I'm A-list, I'm A-list. OK, I'm B-list or possibly C-list. Am I even on a list?"
So, who cares? Back to "Coffee Break." I loved seeing the movie again and for the first time on the big screen. It's a wonderful film about a straight guy (Jonathan Bray) whose brother (Jonathan Silverman) sets him up on a blind date at a coffee house with a gay man (Wilson Cruz) who he thinks is a woman (his name is Kelly and they didn't swap pics). But they are still drawn to each other over their mutual love of movies and begin to hang out as friends. "Other than you being the wrong gender, you're great," Bray tells Cruz during their first coffee date. "I think I was half in love with the woman you were." After their second evening together, when Bray is taken aback when Cruz tries to hug him goodnight, Cruz sayd: "We almost made it through the same night without a gay panic moment."

What follows is a series of misunderstandings that results in everyone thinking Bray's character is gay! His mother (Sally Kirkland), his co-workers (Jason Stuart, Debbie Gibson), his boss (Leigh Taylor Young). It's a wonderful film, written and directed by Stewart Wade. Hard to believe this is Wade's first film!
"My partner and I met on a coffee date," Wade said after the film screened. "Luckily, he turned out to be gay...and still is!"

Gabbed with some of the cast before and after the movie: out actor Jason Stuart, who is VERY funny and sweet in the movie as a supportive co-worker told me: "It's all about sexaul confusion, it's sort of like a Julia Roberts comedy with a twist.This is truly an independent film made by openly gay people starring openly gay people (he and Cruz) and we play gay parts in the film. That's sort of unusual in this industry where roughly 85 percent of the gay roles are played by straight guys."
The multi-talented Wilson Cruz, who starred on Broadway in "Rent" and locally onstage in "Tick, Tick...Boom!" got a lot of laughs during the film and it's good to see an actor, who came out at 19 when he starred as a gay teen in the short-lived gem "My So-called Life."

"We do take some liberties and we do take some chances. I think it's an exaggeration of reality but we tried to lay a foundation of realism to it and I think in that way it's really successful. At the end of the film, you feel like you watched two people deal with something in a very honest way," Cruz said.
Jonathan Bray, who is straight in real life (and mostly straight in the film) said "my character really is straight but I do delve into the confusion of it. I just love the way he write it, it was just very honest and very sincere. I really responded to the script. I read it, I thought it was funny and I thought it dealt very sincerely with questions of friendship and love and when you explore these emotions what does it mean to be in love and what is involved if there's sex?"
Sally Kirkland, also associate producer, always fun to talk to, called "Coffee Date" "a real feel-good film. It's got a gay theme but there's a real crossover thing. My straight friends love it, my straight friends love it."
I asked Sally if she was bitter about losing the Oscar in 1988 when she was a best actress nominee for "Anna." "I can't believe that bitch Cher won!" I said. (I worship Cher btw, was just trying to start a little something).
Sally giggled. "Aren't you sweet.? That was a tough year with Meryl (Streep) and Glenn (Close) and Holly (Hunter) nominated too."
Anyway, she wants EVERYONE to see the movie when it plays at the Landmark Theater on LaBrea Nov. 10, 11 and 12.
"It's the first time that I actually went myself and got the distributor," she said. "It was so good to be in the boys club and to achieve that."

For more info, check out the Coffee Date Website.

Had a great chat with actress Sally Kirkland last night at the Egyptian Theater for the premiere of the comedy "Coffee Date" and couldn't help but ask her about Matthew McConaughey who played her son in the Ron Howard-directed "EdTV." Sally, an Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner for 1987's "Anna," is never one to give a boring answer.
"I had the toughest time not *****ing in my pants. He would look at me with those bedroom eyes and I'd say, 'How am i going to be your mother? You've got to stop this! I'm your mother! And he'd just look at me like he's undressing me the whole shoot. I died. I love Matthew, he's a doll. And he is a dreamboat and he knows his power over all the sexes."

So Sally, I ask, what about all this "bro-mance" stuff between Matthew and Lance Armstrong? In the current issue of Details magazine with Armstrong on the cover, Mathew jokes that "we tried it, decided it wasn't for us."
"I honestly think it's for publicity, that's my gut feeling," says Kirkland. "Matthew, he's a bad boy, he'll do anything to keep you guessing. Playing bongos in the nude? That's him!"

Sally, who has appeared in about 120 films, is one of the associate producers of "Coffee Date," a comedy that explore friendship between a straight man and a gay man. In the film, Sally's son is really straight, but everyone thinks he's gay because of a practical joke gone awry. The producers are hoping for a crossover success for the comedy which was written and directed by Stewart Wade and stars Jonathan Bray, Wilson Cruz, Jason Stuart, Jonathan Silverman and includes small and funny roles for Debbie Gibson and Leigh Taylor Young.

Kirkland has appeared in several gay-themed indies and says: "I love the gay community, the gay community loves me. I go where the love is. I love people who has suffered because then I can be myself, I don't have to pretend like I have it together because I don't really have it together. I'm just human."

I'm a few days late on this but wanted to post on Bryan Singer signing to direct and produce a sequel to last summer's "Superman Returns." Singer is the openly gay director who helmed the first two "X-Men" movies. Daily Variety reported this week that the movie is being targeted for a summer 2009 release. Warner Bros. has an option on star Brandon Routh but no cast has been announced, script written or budget set.
"Superman Returns" had a hefty production budget of $209 million, not counting the estimated $40 million in development costs as well as marketing and publicity costs.
But the film did manage to revive a franchise that last flew in the early 1980s with the late Christopher Reeve in the title role. "Superman Returns" just crossed the $200 million mark in domestic box office receipts last week and made an additional $190 million in foreign grosses.

Lance Bass, gay. T.R. Knight, gay. Neil Patrick Harris, not gay.
The website Canada.com reported that Harris, who plays a relentless womanizer on the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother," had landed a guest gig on the sitcom for his "longtime sweetheart" actor David Burtka. According to the web site Towleroad, Burtka is aBroadway performer ("Gypsy") who has done several television guest spots and was part of a recent stage performance (pictured) with Harris and several other actors.
Harris, who played a gay men in the Los Angeles production of "Rent" as well as on an episode of "Will & Grace," has not commented but his puiblicist reportedly stated that the actor "is not of that persuasion." We may be hearing more about this in the coming days if Harris chooses to make any clarifications.
Pity. He'd be such a great gay man. Harris is an intelligent, well-spoken performer who navigated the often turbulent waters of child stardom by turning to the stage (Broadway runs in "Cabaret" and "Assassins") after his first series, ABC's "Doogie Howser M.D." I heard him guest on Terry Gross' radio show on NPR earlier this year and was blown away by his knowledge of the theater and his dedication to his craft. Got to tell him so a few months later at a big party for the DVD release of "9 to 5" as we waited for Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton to appear.
With his Barney really being a break-out character on "Mother," now in its second season, I can understand why this kind of story might not come at the best time for Harris but it's going to be tough judging from the backlash I've been seeing on the web about his publicist "inning" him.
Anway, Harris told the CBS Morning Show last month that he was tapped for Barney after his hilarious appearance in the movie "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle."
Although Harris has been a hit on the show, he said he wasn't what the creators originally had in mind to play
"They initially wanted a John Belushi, Jack Black — a big, portly cigar-smoking kind of guy," he said. "And I had just done this movie where I play this extraordinarily extreme version of myself, and the creators had seen it and thought it would be funny. I went in with no expectations at all. In pilot season we do lots of auditions and you rarely get anything. I went in and kind of made an ass of myself. And that's what they wanted. I did a dive roll, actually."
Harris is scheduled to host the 2006 LA Starte Alliance Awards ceremony Nov. 13 at the Orpheum Theater.

Now I've heard everything.
Apparently singer George Michael is convinced he doesn't have gay fans because he has been open about his homosexuality.
"Gay fans are only interested when you're 'in the closet," Michael said Tuesday on "George Michael - I'm Your Man: A South Bank Special show." "Once you're out, they don't give a toss."
Give me a break. This dude really has smoked too much pot! If he lacks fans, gay or straight, it most certainly has more to do with his pathetic public behavior which has included several run-ins with the law for such things as having sex in public places. The former Wham singer, 43, didn't even come out until April 1998 after he was arrested for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public restroom in Beverly Hills.
It's a total slap in the face for him to diss gays and I think shows that he has totally lost his perspective.

I'm a big fan of "Lost" but if it has to go off the air for a few months, I think I might be quite happy to get into its timeslot replacement: "Day Break." The premise, a detective who keeps living the same day over and over again, sounds intriguing but hey, let's get real: the star is the talented Taye Diggs, one of THE best looking men currently walking the Earth.
It was a shame that his "Kevin Hill" series a few seasons back didn't make it because not only was it a terrific show, it also showed Taye's comedy skills as he played an unprepared single father of an infant juggling parental duties with his job as an attorney. I also liked that he hired a gay male nanny!

Taye, married in real life to Tony-winner Idina Menzel ("Wicked") has never been afraid to play gay on the screen. In the past few years alone, he reprised his Broadway role as Benny the evil landlord for the movie version of "Rent" and he also played Will Truman's boyfriend for a five episodes on "Will & Grace" even sharing a kiss with Will at one point.
Diggs, 34, burst onto the scene in the mid-90s as Angela Bassett's young lover in "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" but he has not depended on the sex symbol thing for work. He's got a musical theater degree from Syracuse University and extensive stage and screen credits in several genres.
So, get lost "Lost," and bring on Taye!

Another DVD title to place on my Christmas wish list is "Little Miss Sunshine" which I've just learned has been schedcuked for release on December 19th! I've got the perfect double feature planned with "Sunshine" and "The Devil Wears Prada," my two favorite movies from last summer and both terrific word of mouth hits.

"Sunshine" has a stellar cast that includes funnyman Steve Carell in a very serious role: a suicidal gay man reeling after being left by his boyfriend who takes up with a professional rival. There's a part of me that wants gay characters to be happy and positive but hey, heartbreak is the same for everyone - gay or straight - and sometimes people get really desperate about it.

But "Sunshine," which also stars Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and the adorable Abigail Breslin, is actually quite funny and sweet as this dysfunctional family hops into their broken-down van and drives across several states to get their daughter to a beauty pageant. And in the end, Carell's character seems to have embraced life again. I guarantee you will be smiling though much of this film.

Anyway, the DVD released by Fox Home entertainment will include four alternate endings as well as some optional audio commentary. Should be a hoot.