January 2007 Archives

A few days after I met Dave Koz at a red carpet event in late November, a package arrived in the mail. Inside was his new CD, "At the Movies" along with a nice note from Dave! I am just now getting around to giving the CD an overdue mention but my timing is excellent because it was just released this week! I have so much respect for Dave, who came out publicly a few years ago, and great admiration for his talent as a world-reknowned saxophonist.
The CD has 12 timeless themes from classic films starting with "Over the Rainbow" which starts with Judy Garland's vocals set to Dave's sax. Barry Manilow does "Moon River" and while Audrey Hepburn's will always be my favorite (from 'Breakfast at Tiffany's"), Barry and Dave team up for a nice version of a wonderful song.
Eleven of the songs were Oscar winners or nominees and four of them appear in the Top 10 of the American Film Institute's list of 100 Top Movie Songs. They include Vanessa Williams singing on "The Way We Were," Johnny Mathis on "The Shadow Of Your Smile," the Oscar-winning song from the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton film "The Sandpiper," Anita Baker doing "Somewhere" from "West Side Story" and it's Donna Summer doing a shimmering version of "A Whole New World."
Koz is a multi-Grammy Award nominee Koz, has two Gold albums and ten Top 5 hits to his credit.
"I'm happiest in a darkened theater with a tub of popcorn, a soda, a great movie and a friend," he says on his Web site. "I love that feeling of being transported to a moment in time. You get to turn off your own life and just disappear into this other world."
To read my interview witrh Dave Koz from a few months ago, click HERE. For more informartion and a listen, click onto Dave's Website today!

First "Casino Royale" and now this! John Cameron Mitchell's VERY sexuallyt explicit film "Shortbus" will be released on DVD March 13. The film revolves around a salon of the Gertrude Stein model from the early 1900s, where artists, writers, musicians, and intellectuals converged to share their works and discuss new ideas in art and politics. Mitchell's version attracts an updated assortment of regulars culled from New York's burlesque and gay performing arts communities—or, as he says, the kinds of people who belonged on the "short bus" for gifted and challenged children in elementary school.
Though the cast includes actors with varying backgrounds and sexual orientations, the thing connecting them is their humorous and frustrating explorations of sexual relationships. One character, a sex therapist (Sook-Yin Lee, pictured at right), has never herself experienced an orgasm. A gay couple is thinking about opening up their relationship to include other lovers.
Be prepared: in the sex scenes, the actors are REALLY having sex with each other. The film had an NC-17 rating when it played in theaters last fall.
Here are some of the DVD extras: Deleted scenes (They must be some doozies!) with commentary from Mitchell and the cast, movie commentary, theatrical trailer, and the featurette: "How to Shoot Sex: A Docu-Primer."

Here is part of a Q & A that Jennifer Aniston had with People magazine about her guest appearance on the season finale of FX's "Dirt" and, unfortunately, it seems that things won't be getting as steamy as we thought...or hoped!
PEOPLE: You guest-star on the season finale of Dirt as a lesbian. What was it like working with Courteney again? JENNIFER: We had a ball. It was completely fun. I forgot just how much fun we have together in the work world.
PEOPLE: So what about that kiss between you and Courteney? It was touted as a passionate lip-lock.
JENNIFER: It's a good-bye kiss. I don't honestly think people want to see Rachel and Monica have at it.
PEOPLE: Did you two laugh when it became such a big deal?
JENNIFER: Of course! I think I won a bet. I told Courteney, "How many days will it take to come out? 'Lesbian kiss! Lip-lock!' " It was a record: about a week.

The coming of age movie "Wild Tigers I Have Known" has been acquired for distribution by IFC Entertainment for its First Take label. The film, written, directed and produced by Cam Archer is about a 13-year-old boy (Malcom Stumpf) who develops a crush another boy (Max Paradise).
Well WHO hasn't had THAT happen?
The movie is executive produced by Gus Van Sant and Scott Rudin and is set for theatrical release at the end of February and will be available via On Demand on Comcast as well as Cablevision, a corporate sibling of IFC.

Premium gay television network here! will begin a national marketing campaign with a month-long outdoor advertising campaign in the West 14th Street station at Eighth Avenue, located in one of the most densely populated gay and lesbian neighborhoods in the country known as Chelsea. The subway campaign, which begins tomorrow, Feb. 1, will unveil and focus on “1-888-HERE-NOW�, a national toll-free number aimed at building subscribers in key major markets across the country.
"The campaign was designed to demonstrate our commitment to continue building subscribers in 2007 regardless of what cable system covers a particular consumer’s location," says here! founder and CEO Paul Colichman. " Now that here! is broadly available, we are creating an easy and highly visible way for consumers to join other gay and lesbian Americans who have already subscribed to our authentic and groundbreaking programming.�
here! is the first gay and lesbian company to participate in CBS Outdoor’s “Station Domination� advertising program which involves “dominating� every available media space at the 14th Street subway terminal. It joins past Fortune 500 advertisers such as Budweiser, Johnson & Johnson, Delta Airlines, Apple, NBC, Starbucks, Target and American Express who have previously participated in the “Station Domination� program.
The 1-888-HERE-NOW campaign will rollout over the next 6-8 months in the top 25 major markets utilizing print and online in addition to outdoor media.

I'm sure Barbara Walters has had her moments of wishing Meredith Vierra has never taken that job at "The Today Show" and she might even miss Star Jones a wee bit. That's because when she hired Rosie O'Donnell to be the new moderator on "The View," Walters hired the most formidable co-host she has ever dealt with in the show's 10-year history.
But, according to the latest daytime ratings from Nielsen Media Research, the ABC talk show has drawn the biggest audience in its nearly 10-year history. Itaveraged 4.2 million viewers for the week of Jan. 15-19. The previous high, of 4.1 million, was posted nearly three years ago. Overall, ABC said, View viewership is up 15 percent this season.
The running feud Rosie had with Donald Trump may have caused backstage tenstion between Walters and O'Donnell, but it helped ratrings. And Rosie has not become a shrinking violet post-Trump: she indicated that she believes Paula Abdul was driniking during auditions and media interviews for "American Idol" and, the day after the State of the Union Address, called for the impeachment of President Bush!
You go, girl!

This sounds very promising: Logo has announced that its eagerly awaited six episode sketch comedy series, "The Big Gay Sketch Show," will make its debut April 24. It features a cast of eight up-and-coming comedic actors in a show that features a combination of traditional and music-based sketches, pop culture parodies and recurring characters, all from a unique LGBT perspective. 
The cast includes: Erica Ash, Dion Flynn, Julie Goldman, Stephen Guarino, Jonny McGovern (pictured above), Kate McKinnon, Nicol Paone and Michael Serrato.
The show is produced by Oh Really? Productions and, get this, among the executive producers are Rosie O'Donnell. I sure hope that means she'll be making a guest appearance. Rosie may be controversial, but she is also VERY funny. And the series' director is Amanda Bearse, who came out as a lesbian years ago while appearing on "Married With Children" as a very horny Marcy. Who wouldn't be horny when married to the very handsome Ted McGinley.

In addition to airing on Logo’s 24/7 television channel, LOGOonline.com will offer a slew of features including bonus sketches, outtakes, cast crew interviews, photos and each episode of the series will be available for download on iTunes via instant release.

I. Can't. Wait. "Casino Royale," out on DVD March 13, is already the number one movie on Amazon.com's hot sellers list based on pre-sale orders alone. The Bond movie, marking the debut of sizzling Daniel Craig as the sexiest 007 to date, is still playing in just over 1,600 theaters. Its U.S. gross is $165.3 million to date and more than double that internationally. The two-disc DVD has some extras including "Becoming Bond,": an intimate look at how Daniel Craig stepped into the role of the 6th James Bond. and "James Bond: For Real," an Inside look at action and stunts of film.
Sounds like a winner!

Oh, if only I could be a fly on the wall tomorrow.
That is when Isaiah Washington is due back on the set of "Grey's Anatomy." His absence from Sunday night's Screen Actor's Guild (where the series won for outstanding drama ensemble and Chandra Wilson outstanding lead actress) seemed to me to leave everyone a bit more relaxed than they might have been otherwise. I never saw T.R. Knight smile though, maybe I missed it.
So, USA Today reports that Washington has been released from the treatment facility he entered last week foir counseling over his use of a gay slur aimed at Knight then repeated at the Golden Globe Awards as he denied ever saying it in the first place.
Now he is supposed to continue outpatient treatment.
By the way, "Grey's Anatomy" was the third most-watched show of last week, finishing behind only the two episodes of "American Idol." The controversy has not hurt the ratings one bit and viewers, like me, will be watching to see if any of the scenes with Washington and Knight, Washington and Katherine Heigl or Washington and Patrick Dempsey seem a little strained.

Anyone who loves Lucy as much as I do was saddened to hear about the death a few days ago of Bob Carroll Jr. who worked with writing partner Madelyn Pugh Davis for more than 60 years on virtually all of Lucille Ball's shows - including every episode of "I Love Lucy." He was 87.
When you think of how well the dialogue of "I Love Lucy" episodes has held up and how funny they still are more than 50 years later, it is criminal that Carroll and Davis only received two Emmy Nominations for writing on the show.
But in 1992, the Writers’ Guild of America awarded them with its Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Achievement.
TV Week's Tom Gilbert interviewed Davis on Monday: "We had the same sense of humor. We really never argued about anything. People always ask where we got our ideas because we turned out so many scripts. We never liked to do off-color stuff. And we never used topical humor-thank God for that; we had no way of knowing we were going to last for 50 years."
She added about the partnership, "I think Bob was funnier than I am. I was the more of the driver-and I did the typing."
Carroll and and Pugh (her name then) were writing for comedian Steve Allen’s radio show in the 1940s when they heard Ball was hiring for her show, “My Favorite Husband.� They were so anxious to write for the series that they paid Steve Allen to write his own show one week so they could submit a spec script for Lucy.
Needless to say, the script was accepted. They stayed with the program for the remainder of its 2-1/2 year run, then moved to TV with Miss Ball, collaborating with Jess Oppenheimer on the "I Love Lucy" pilot and then turning out scripts for 39 episodes a season. Together they also created "The Lucy Show" and "The Mothers-in-Law" which starred Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard. Other TV credits include scripts for "Here’s Lucy," "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour," the Lucille Ball-Henry Fonda movie "Yours, Mine, and Ours," among many other credits - some 400 television programs and 500 radio shows in all.
After one of my articles about "I Love Lucy" ran in the Daily News last fall, I got an email from Bob Carroll's daughter, Christina, who pointed out that I had not mentioned her father and Davis in it. She wrote in part: "Is the show's enduring appeal not due to the clever verbal gymnastics of the writers? What are any scripts without words?"
We then began trading emails and there was hope that I would be able to interview her father and Davis to coincide with the 55th anniversary of the airing of the first episode of "I Love Lucy" which aired Oct. 8, 1951. "As you may calculate, they are both in their eighties, but I can let them know what you'd like to do. We'll have to see," Christina wrote.
The interview didn't happen but Christina Carroll did leave me with one nuggest of "I Love Lucy" trivia that I never would have thought to include in a quiz I put together for our front page. One of my answers had the famous red head's REAL hair color as being "mousy brown." Bob Carroll's daughter corrected me: "By the way, for the record (and should you personally come upon another Lucy quiz), Lucy's hair color was, more precisely: "mucklededun", a mousy brown. "Mucklededun" was an expression of my grandmother's to describe a dishwater brown haircolor. Her son, later in life, wrote it into an episode of "I Love Lucy."
I've posted about Lucy on this blog before. Click to see "Oh How We Still Love Lucy" and "I Love Lucy Movie: An Update."

It's soooooo good to have newly-crowned Australian Open champ Serena Williams back at the top of the tennis world after two years of limited play. She was asked about her fitness after her win over Maria Sharapova and, thank God, spoke her mind: "I'm definitely in better shape than I get credit for. Just because I have large bosoms and I have a big ass. I swear my waist is 29-30 inches. I swear I have the smallest waist. And just because I have those two 'assets' it looks like I'm not fit. I was just in the locker room staring at my body and I'm like, 'Am I not fit? Am I really not fit? Or is it just because I have all these extra assets that I look not fit.' I think if I were not to eat for two years I still wouldn't be a size 2. No matter how slim I am, I always have this [points] and that [points]. We're living in a Mary-Kate Olsen world. I'm just not built that way. I'm bootylicious and that's how it's always going to be."

You all don't know this because you read what I type, you don't SEE me typing. It can be a scary thing. I type with two fingers, I type fast and I type hard. Always have, always will. The more focused I am, the faster and louder I type. This did not go unnoticed by New York Times culture reporter and media columnist David Carr, whose "The Carpetbagger" is a seasonal blog that covers all things Oscar -- the news, the nonsense, and the players that drive the campaign.

Here is some of what Carr, who refers to himself on his blog as "the Bagger," wrote about encountering me at the past few awards shows:
"At the Globes, the Bagger sat next to this guy who opened up file after file on his laptop and kept going all night long, every once in a while piping up to ask a question. A few of us sitting by him watched him pound away and asked, “Who is that guy?� Turns out it’s Greg Hernandez from the Los Angeles Daily News and, well, the dude likes typing.
At the SAG awards, the Bagger, when he saw he would be sitting close to this blogging bot decided to sit elsewhere. The Bagger lived-blogged here and there, but nothing like the amazing output of Mr. Hernandez, who likes to bring his readers results on a schedule that’s closer to live television than publishing."

Here is a LINK to the Carpetbagger site and a DIRECT LINK to the item about me and my terrifying typing.

I swear, I'm not just looking for an excuse to post a picture of the very handsome San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. But this one from "Bike to Work Day" last spring is a pretty good one, huh? I interviewed this charismatic man a few summers ago at the Outfest Film Festival and he was so thoughtful in his answers. He was there in support of a documentary that told the story of the same-sex marriages that took place in San Francisco after he ordered city clerks to issue same-sex marriage licenses and became a gay icon in the process.
I wanted to share with you some of an interview Newsom did with Reuters while he was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Newsom says that the gay-nup move may have hindered his own political growth: "I’ve basically written myself off of any prospects of running for any different office, and I certainly won’t be appointed by any administration or special councils because I’m a time bomb and too controversial. And I’m not just saying for Republicans. One of the three Democrats you mentioned as presidential candidates [Obama, Clinton, Gore] God as my witness, will not be photographed with me, will not be in the same room as me, even though I’ve done fundraisers for that particular person not once but twice, because of this issue."

On VP Dick Cheney's reaction to Wolfie Blitzer's questions last week about his pregnanrt lesbian daughter, Mary:
"The Vice President of the United States has a daughter who happens to be in love with another woman, and happens to want to raise a family. Those are fundamental questions that are being debated across this country... Wolf Blitzer was right to ask and Dick Cheney was wrong not to have the dignity to respond in a human way, and the dignity to respond in kind why he continues to advance discriminatory policies that are hurting, not uniting this country."

USA Today has an interesting article on the cover of its life section that I read thisx morning over a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats (I am addicted to those suckers). Writer William Keck touches on some of the same material as I did in my article "In Today's Hollywood, More Gays Out of the Closet" earlier this month but delves further into the issue of playing gay and what impact that can have on an actor's career.
Former "Melrose Place" star Grant Show (pictured above on "Melrose") admits in the article that he worried a bit about what impact playing a cloested gay movie star on FX's "Dirt" would have on his career - a career that had been laregly off the radar since the end of the FOX sudser. Show, who is straight, took a week to contemplate whether to accept the "Dirt" role, which includes graphic scenes.
"There are a lot of prejudices still in this town, which is kind of what this role is about," Show says. "The perception could be the negative things, like 'he kissed a guy.' All that weird stupid (stuff). Or it could be a good thing for your career to take a risk like this." Show had previously played a gay baseball player who chose to remain closeted on HBO's Arli$$, that role did not require him to perform such intimate acts.
"I've never kissed a man like this before, and I had to decide if I was completely comfortable with that," Show says. He decided to go ahead and "to (expletive) do it — fully! I hope this isn't offensive, but I've kissed a lot of (actresses) whom I didn't want to kiss in scenes. It was pretty much exactly like kissing a woman I didn't want to kiss. It was work."
Show, who auditioned unsuccessfully for a gay role on "Brothers & Sisters," tells the paper he "absolutely" would not have been hired to play Melrose Place's Jake Hanson had he been a gay actor who was out. He has gay actor friends who choose to remain in the closet, fearing for their careers.
Matthew Rhys and Jason Lewis, who are playing out a similar storyline on "Brothers & Sisters" (Lewis plays a closeted soap star involved with Rhys' character) declined to be interviewed by USA Today but the show's openly gay executive producers Jon Robin Baitz and Greg Berlanti did speak. Baitz says that "because we live in this world and know people who live with that crisis daily — how will their livelihoods be affected? — it definitely spurred our desire to talk about how sexually free people are."

Definitely an interesting read. I'm glad to see this topic being written about!

Miguel Marquez called last week as he was preparing to depart for Bahgdad where he will spend roughly a month reporting for ABC News. We met at the holiday party thrown by the LA chapter of the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Assn. last month and I, of course, asked him to give an interview to Out In Hollywood about his job as a Los Angeles-based national correspondent for the network and about being an openly gay man in the television news business.
"It's very important for people to know you can be gay and do anythng you want to in the world," he says. "We tend to discount how important it is to have role models when we live in cities where being gay is so accepted. To me, what I strive for is to be comfortable out without putting it in people's faces. As a reporter, I’m there to be fly on the wall and kind of absorb the story."
While he is in Bahgdad, Marquez is reporting for "ABC World News," "Good Morning America," "Nightline," ABC.com, ABC radio and for Canada's CBC. This is his fifth ("or maybe sixth") trip to Iraq since joining ABC in 2005 from CNN where he was also an L.A.-based correspondent.
"ABC was willing to put me overseas. I was there about 4-5 months when they called and I went. By the time I got there, it was already pretty much this tightrope situation that we're in now. Now I’m one of the people who they ask to go. There’s a list of correspondents who are willing to go and I’m one of the dumb ones [laughs]. It's my first war zone. My background is in politics."
But sometimes, politics comes to Bahgdad as they did when Secretary of State Condi Rice came for a visit during Marquez's watch: "It was her second visit to Baghdad. That is the biggest person I’ve ever interviewed. It was very stressful,. in the Green Zone in the U.S. Embassy compound."
Marquez, 39, came out as a gay man even before he entered television news. He was working in Washingtion D.C. as a legislative assistant for Bill Richardson, then a congressman from New Mexico's third district. (Marquez grew up in the small town of Santa Rosa, New Mexico).
"When I did it, I was only sorry I hadn't done it earlier," he says of coming out. “ABC has been very, very great. It's so comfortable here and CNN was also very comfortable with the whole gay thing. Every media company that l've worked with has been fine."
Marquez left Washington and politics behind to try his luck at producing television documentaries. He attended Columbia Journalism School and right out of school, got hired for a plum job on WNBC in New York, the station that launched Matt Lauer's career. But Marquez knew he was too green and barely kept his head above water during the year he was there. He then spent three years working at the FOX affiliate in Pheonix, Ariz. before CNN hired him.
He hasn't looked back.
"It's great to be on a big story," he says. "I really got bit by the bug."
Marquez has only given the rare interviews about himself ("I don't know how important it is to do tons") but has great respect for CNN Headline News' Thomas Roberts who got all kinds of attention last fall when he participated in a panel discussion at the NLGJA conference in Miami about being a gay anchor. Roberts was already out but the appearance made him far more public. In addition, Roberts had been on the enws for speaking out at the trial of a priest who had molested him as a child.
"He had a much different situation being much higher profile with that trial," Marquez says. "He’s comfortably out. He wasn't hiding. At the convention, there was a lot of coverage. It was the brave thing to do his part, to pursue that [case against the priest]. That put him in an awkward position to cover the news and become the news."
But being in television news these days requires a lot more than just doing television. Marquez has been a prolific presence on ABC.com, the network's webcast, and he's enthusiastic about it: “I try to do as much as possible ABC.com. It’s fun to do. ABC .com is very aggressive now. They want us filing for the Internet as much as possible. With television, you are often frustrated you don't get three-quarters of what you found on the air. It's a different animal now. I've shot my own pieces, I've blogged."

Well, from one reporter/blogger to another...THANK YOU!!!

I will again be a guest on Now in LA's Marty Keegan's "Hollywood Babble On" show at 1:30 p.m. or so TUESDAY, JAN. 30. Marty, just back from the Sundance Film Festival, will mostly likely ask me about last night's Screen Actors Guild Awards but you never know where the conversation will go. It's always lots of fun for me and hopefully the audience. I hope some of you will tune in. You can even email comments and questions as we chat. Here is the link for you to listen in: : http://www.nowinla.com/

I don't think there has been an in-depth interview with Matthew Rhys who plays the openly gay attorney Kevin Walker on my favorite show, ABC's "Brothers & Sisters." But AfterElton.com was able to score one and I wanted to provide you with some excerpts:

Does it surprise hom that his character is such a standout on American television? "Um, in a way, yes. Because that particular comment I've heard a couple of times, and it has made me think that in this day and age you would expect a higher degree of exposure for gay characters."
On having two gay executive producers, Jon Robin Baitz and Greg Berlanti: "Robbie [Baitz] says that often he finds it very easy to write for Kevin as opposed to other characters. And Robbie was adamant from the start that he didn't want any whiff of stereotype or anything like that. Not to make [Kevin] any exception to anyone else in any way. Just an absolutely normal part of the family."
On Kevin's problems: "With regards to the commitment issues, I think they were careful with that because they didn't want to give him specifically gay problems. And commitment-phobia, you know is a human and universal flaw. So I was happy about that character trait. There are elements of that aspect of Kevin that I can relate to [laughs]. Especially in your 20s. In your 30s, things do change."

He was surprised at how much Kevin's relationship with Scotty struck a cord with viewers: "The reaction was very big, especially when Scotty and I broke up. We had a lot of reaction to that. I was surprised by how much of a chord it had struck, but I was very happy."

On Kevin's new relationship with a closeted soap star (played by Jason Lewis): "I like the fact that they've gone for another universal theme in that you don't necessarily fall for those people who are right for you, or you don't choose the people you fall for. And with that comes conflict, obviously, then drama, which makes it all the more entertaining to see. … It's like with Scotty. For Kevin, Scotty wasn't what he'd have picked ordinarily, and the same has happened with Chad, and I think that's a part of his makeup. He goes for people who are unavailable or not necessarily the right people for him."

On the public scrutiny for playing a gay role: "I was a little shocked at the reaction of the press at the beginning. A lot of the questions were, you know, "Was it a problem for you to play gay roles?" Or "Were you concerned about getting typecast?" You know, I was a little confused as to why I was getting [questioned]. I thought we'd passed those times, really. So that was a little bit of a shock. "

On kissing another man on screen: "I don't think it's ever really problematic. I just think if you're fortunate enough to be confident and secure in yourself, and you know it's a role you play, I don't see where the problem lies, really. Actually, my first theater job was a gay part with a lot of kissing it in it. So, I wouldn't say it was a hurdle really, but I got over that really early on. You realize there's nothing to it."

On hiding his Welsh accent to play California boy Kevin Walker: "I still have to put the hours in on the accent. It still manages to flip me and throw me. But we get a dialect coach that puts all our words down on a CD for us, so I'm continually working on it. It's the rhythm and the cadence and the intonation rather than the actual sound that is always tripping me up. And the emphasis on all the wrong words that make you stick out sometimes."

After a day plagued by a breakdown in our blogging system, I'm so happy to be able to resume posting with this item! Brian Juergens reports on AfterElton.com blog today that Ryan Reynolds, the wonderfully talented and wonderfully HOT Ryan Reynolds, plays gay in one of his three roles in "The Nines" which recently screened at Sundance. The movie is three stories with the same actors playing different roles in each. In Story 2, Reynolds plays a gay television executive and apparently treats fans to a pretty hot shower scene. The film is written and directed by John August who wrote "Go."
Reynolds has a huge gay fan following but unless I'm wrong, the gayest he ever got on screen was the cameo in the "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle" movie. And in "Buying the Cow," in which he wears precious little in a scene where he thinks he's slept with a man after waking up next to him.
Anyway, cannot wait to see "The Nines."
P.S. The pic I posted has nothing to do with "The Nines." But it's lovely, don't ya think? It's an Out In Hollywood policy to post shirtless pics of Ryan Reynolds whenever possible - as long as there's a news hook!

Wanda Sykes is one of the funniest women on the planet, so full of funny observations. I love her as a stand-up and as an actress. I just noticed this exchange between her and Ellen DeGeneres on the TMZ.com site making fun of the Isaiah Washington flap:
Comedienne Wanda Sykes joked to Ellen DeGeneres that African-Americans have "overcome" -- now that they are the ones dishing out bigoted comments instead of receiving them!
Sykes, guesting on Friday's episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," made fun of the fact that Isaiah Washington was going to "rehab" after his homophobic comments about "Grey's Anatomy" co-star T.R. Knight. "Gay rehab? That sounds like traffic school. You should be able to do that online."
After opining on the irony of the whole situation, Sykes joked, "Maybe gay is the new black now."

I dunno. Maybe it's for good, maybe not. These crazy kids. I almost posted about this last week but wanted to wait and see if it stuck. Apparently it has since Lance has confirmed it to People.com: We broke up last week," Bass tells People. "But we're really good friends. Nothing bad at all – nothing bad at all to say."
The couple had announced in early December that they were splitting though trying to work on their relationship. "We remain the best of friends," they told People in an exclusive statement Dec. 4. "Please respect our privacy as we try to work things out during this difficult time."

Hi everyone...
Have not been able to blog all day due to a system meltdown! I think it's back up so new postings to come soon! Thanks foir your patience...
- greg

These are a compilation of some of my red carpet blogging from last night...Enjoy!!!

Oh, what I've been through. Total techical nightmare that required me to dictate my red carpet ramblings to a very patient Armando Hernandez who I work with. He was great! Now I'm in a dimly lit deadline room (cannot see a bloody thing!) getting ready for this thing to get going!

Before leaving the red carpet, in one eyeful, I saw Mary Tyler Moore getting ohotgraphed by te throngs of photogs, Megan Mullally standing nearby beaming. Maybe she didn't want to do that damned talk show anymore anyway! And Julie Andrews is a few feet away from Mary. It's a a "Thoroughly Modern Millie" reunion! All they need is Carol Channing!
Some Grey's Anatomy stars like Sara Ramirez and Katherine Heigl did interviews but Ellen Pompeo just posed for pics as far as I could see and Sandra Oh and Patrick Depmsey sailed by fan and press. T.R. Knight is here tho! Good for him. No sign of Isaiah Washington, he's still in "gayhab."
OK, show is starting!!!

Here is some of the barely coherent things I dictated to my colleague, Armando Hernandez (no relation) as I stood near the entrance of the red carpet: Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher just walked in, sending the bleacher crowd in to a frenzy. But that was nothing compared to the reception for nominee Jennifer Hudson of "Dreamgirls." Hudson is wearing a vintage plum-colored gown and showing lots of cleavage, she waves to the fans and just missed runnning into Mirren at the ET booth by a fraction of a second...Also causing excitment was super couple Warren Beatty - and his wife Annette Benning, nominee tonight....
Just arriving are Eddie Murphy, Leo DiCaprio, Helen Mirren, all oscar-nominees....Marcia Gay Harden just walked by me, teetering on gold pumps. I hope she doesn't fall when she walks on the red carpet...
"Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera - who's is looking more like "Gorgeous Betty" in an Emerald-green gown...fans in the bleachers go nuts...Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear just walked by. They were two feet away from me and didn't bother to say hello. They are OFF my Christmas card list!
And some stuff that never even made it onto the blog earlier today: One of the first stars to arrive was Sean Pyfrom of "Desperate Housewives" which was nominated for best comedy enemble. He has gotten so cute! I can say that, he's 20 now. He is with his youngish-looking mother and they hurry over to the TV Guide booth for a live interview with that awful Melissa Rivers. I'm not one to be catty, but her hair looks like it was styled with an egg beater. She asks Sean a buncha dumb question but does not ask why the hell his gay character has been completely merginalized this season.
I then climb into the bleachers and start gabbing with fans and security people and it's a blast. We see Mariska Hargitay...sooooo beautiful, then we see Shirley Jones and her biggest fan, Marfty Ingles...There's Justn Kirk from "Weeds," Edie Falco from "Sopranos," Eric Nabius from "Ugly Betty."
"I've loved him since 'Welcome to My Dollhouse," one of the bleacher fans tells me.
We all agree that Kyle McLaughlin has amazing hair.

I leave the bleachers and go back to the entrace on the red carpet. Suddenly, there she is: Mary Tyler Moore! She looks sensational. I worship MTM. She must be pushing 70 now...Remember when her and Rhoda used to just eat salad for dinner on their show. They really did need more protein.

This was my favorite moment of the the SAG Awards when out walked onto the stage, each individually introdiced, the cast of the classic "Mary Tyler Moore Show." They were given a warm and well-deserved standing ovation. What. A. Cast! They were there to present the best comedy ensemble award and how appropriate since they set the standard for an ensemble.
When Mary announced "The Office" as the winner, star Steve Carell took the mic and said: "This is quite an honor having these people [resent this to us [applause]. I ws craning my neck, 'Oh my God! There she is!They're here! Oh my God!"
It was perfect!

You had to wonder, and I did, what would happen if "Grey's Anatomy" won any awards at the Screen Actiors Guild Awards tonight. I mean, who wasn't thinking about the whole Isaiah Washington debacle which was just two weeks ago?So when Chandra Wilson beat a very competitive field to win outstanding actress in a drama series, she kind of made everyone laugh when she refered to the absent Washington who entered some kind of rehab facility to deal with his issues.
"First of all, it's about those 10 cast members sitting over there," Wilson said, refering to her castmates, "And the other one in rehab."
I love how Wilson ended her speech: "Just to be able to take this thing home to my girls, in particular, and hold it in front of them and say, 'Look, with this skin and this nose, and this height, and these arms,' you know, 'I'm here!' Thank you Screen Actors Guild for taking me as I am."
It's too bad they didn't let Wilson speak again - or Patrick Dempsey, or T.R. Knight, or Sara Ramirez, or Sandra Oh, or ANYBODY else besides Ellen Pompeo- when the show's cast won for best drama series ensemble.
"We're honored to be in the company of all the felow nominees," she began.
Okay, so far so good. But instead of turning around and mentioning any of the stellar cast members behind her or talking about working through hard times or whatever, she says: "And i think because this category is ensemble, it;s worth mentioning the members of our cast that are not here."
She starts with Kate Walsh, who is actually standing right behind her! She means Kate Burton who hasn't been on the show for awhile now. "Help me...Isaiah Washington...I'm drawing a blank, please help me..."
To quote Katherine Heigl: Pompeo "should not speak in public. Period."

Just got home from the Shrine Auditorium where I was blogging live on the "On the Red Carpet" blog on DailyNews.com. But "Out In Hollywood" readers get a summary of the night and hopefully, with far fewer typos than in my live blogging where the idea is to post stuff as it happens.
Some of my favorite movies of the year did well with the cast of "Little Miss Sunshine" surprising absolutely everyone and winning the best ensemble award over the casts of "Dreamgirls," "Babel," "Bobby" and "the Departed." Just before I left the Shrine for the night, I watched cast members Steve Carell (who played a depressed gay man getting over a break-up in the film), Greg Kinnear (very cute), the adorable Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin doing an interview with one of the E! anchors around this little table. They looked tired!
Before and during the show you are in such a frenzy and once it's over, I felt kinda goofy in that punch-drunk way. So my colleague Sandra Bererra and I were sitting at a table in the press room when the service elevator opened and there stood Helen Mirren - someone else carrying her two SAG trophies - along with her husband, the director Taylor Hackford. I couldn't help but yell out: "Hey! Congratulations!" And I waved. Helen Mirren, very down to earth, waved back and shouted out "Thank you!" It was a funny moment. But apparently, i wasn't through being a reporter/blogger/fan for the night. Sandra and I pack up our laptops and are about to leave when the damned elevator opens again and damn if there isn't Jennifer Hudson and her group. I'm a madman. I yell out: "Hey! Can we ride down the elevator with Jennifer Hudson?" They say, "Sure!" So Sandra and I nudge our way in and I start gabbing with Effie.
ME: "Do you need to add a room to your house to put all these trophies?"
JENNIFER: [laughs]
SANDRA: Eyes roll back in head.
ME:"I've seen 'Dreamgirls' three times. I love the soundtrack." [Then I actually - oh my God - quietly start singing a few bars of "I'm Tellin You, I'm Not Going." Got caught up in the moment I guess. But Jennifer takes it all in stride.]
JENNIFER: "Do you have the regular CD or the special one with ALL the songs on it?"
ME: "I think I have the regular one." [I now realize I have the special one but I was momentarily blank because Effie was so nice, had her hand on my shoulder, was so sweet.]
JENNIFER: "Get the special one," she says as she is stepping out of the elevator and someone else carries her SAG trophy. "It's got a remix of "I'm Telling You I'm Not Going." Bye!"
ME: "Bye! Have fun tonight!"
SANDRA: You're such a fan."

The intrigue!
Will Helen Mirren continue her award season domination and win another trophy for "the Queen" or will "The Devil Wears Prada" star Meryl Streep win in an upset? Which movie will win for best ensemble? Is this the chance for "Dreamgirls" to shine to make up for its Oscar snub? Or will "Babel" become a firm Oscar front-runner if it wins the night's top prize. Last year's upset win for the cast of "Crash" over the cast of "Brokeback Mountain" was the first indication that "Brokeback" wasn't the Oscar shoo-in everyone had thought.
Will Forest Whitaker's nervous, mumbling speech at the Golden Globe Awards doom his chances for "The Last King of Scotland"? I saw "Blood Diamond" a few days ago and I'm now all about Leonardo DiCaprio, who is up for a total of three SAG Awards tonight.
Will the cast of "Grey's Anatomy" win the SAG award for best ensemble and if so, WHAT will happen backstage? And for God's sake, what will everyone be wearing???
The answer to these and other questions will start being answered around 3 p.m. today when I start blogging from the Shrine Auditorium, site of the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Go to Dailynews.com and the On the Red Carpet blog will be prominently featured on the home page. I'll try and bring you as many tidbits as I can before, during and after the show.
p.s. Here is a shot of Jake and Heath from last year's SAG Awards. I have to say, awards are fun but in the end, it really does come down to what the movie leaves you with. I can remember just about every moment of "Brokeback" and how I felt. I remember some of Ledger's scene so vividly: the throwing up when he leaves Jake the first time, the smelling of Jake's shirt after he dies, the frustration and conflict. Phillip Seymour Hoffman won all the top prizes last year for "Capote" and he was damned good. But Ledger's performance is the one that will stand the test of time as will "Brokeback" over "Crash." Often tmes, the true classics don't win the awards - and they don't need to.

Get back from breakfast and see this email from Marcellas Reynolds who I met last month at a National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Assn. Christmas party at East West Lounge in West Hollywood. We chatted a bit and he even bought a raffle ticket from me (I'm on the NLGJA board). I knew i had written some unkind things about his days on "Big Broither" but I didn't tell him that there, not during the holidays! But he's no fool, he just found the blog and wrote me the following:

"So I get to your site through my friend and blogmate, Clay's. I look @ your pic and realize we met at an event. I start reading through things you've written. Good. Funny. And then I get to things you said about me. It's not often you meet your detractors face to face. I was nice to you when we met. It's a bit unsettling to see that you weren't very nice about me in your coverage of Big Brother.
I find it interesting that this is the year that GLAAD chooses to nominate Big Brother. When I look @ the season I see cast mates who were homophobic. I see the only gay cast member to make the show willfully edited poorly. I see a lack of inclusion of gay cast members on a production scale. I also see a show I was not proud to be a part of.
I'll say this, I wasn't happy to be there. For me Big Brother All-Stars was a bad experience all around. Do I think I deserve a bit of latitude for that? I don't know. I do think that in the future you should try and be nicer about the House Guests. We are human. And on a show like Big Brother, that is so heavily edited for a desired outcome, viewers don't get the truest measure of who we are. And who knows? You may one day meet us."
M. Reynolds

From Greg to Marcellas: 1. Please don't throw a drink in my face next time we meet. 2. I'm sure you are a far more pleasant person than what was portrayed on television. 3. I feel terrible that you were edited so poorly. 4. Thanks for buying the raffle ticket!

To my readers: I sure hope I never run into Donald Trump!

hmmmmmm.
Janice Scott-Blanton, the author of "My Husband Is on the Down Low and I Know About It," filed a $250 million lawsuit claiming copyright infringement against Universal and the studios that financed and distributed "Brokeback Mountain," reports BlackNews.com.
Scott-Blanton claims there are over 50 substantial similarities between her novel and the Academy Award-winning film. An early bar scene in the movie reminded Scott-Blanton of a scene from her novel, but she chalked it up to coincidence until further scenes, including the first sexual encounter between Jack and Ennis, reminded her of her novel.  

In "Brokeback Mountain" Alma(Michelle Williams) confronts her husband Ennis (Heath Ledger) about his homosexual activity during Thanksgiving dinner and tells him she purposely wrote a note and put it on his fishing line for him but he never found it. According to Scott-Blanton, this scene is strikingly similar to a scene in her novel wherein her character Annette confronts her husband James about his homosexuality on their ninth anniversary. James tells her he wrote a confession in his journal purposely, knowing she was secretly reading it. Both scenes are set in a kitchen.
Scott-Blanton will argue in court that the film is strikingly similar to her novel in terms of characters, plot, themes, and sequence of events.

It's kind of surreal watching "Grey's Anatomy" now with all that has gone on off-screen due to Isaiah Washington's behavior and use of a gay slur toward T.R. Knight. But the facts are this: it's still one of the best shows on television and one of the most popular: ABC won the night Thursday in the 18-49 demo with a 5.3 rating/4.6 share thanks to a new "Grey's Anatomy," which averaged an 8.8/21 to win its 8-9 time period, and beat  "CSI" with an episode that featured two marriage proposals.Ironically, those two proposals came from the characters portrayed by Washington and Knight to their respective love interests on the show played by Sandra Oh and Sara Ramirez.

The episode saw George (Knight) mourn his father's death by embracing life — first by indulging in nonstop sex with Callie (Ramirez), then by sharing his feelings with her more honestly than ever before. "Every time I look at you, I feel better," he told her. Then came the kicker: "Marry me?"

George also shared a lovely scene with Izzie (Katherine Heigl, the only cast member to publicly rebuke Washington at the golden Globes and stand up for Knight) in which she realized George no longer needs her. "I have to let you go," she told him.
Also Thursday, when Cristina (Oh) discovered that a marathoner nearly died because he was so focused on winning, she abandoned her stalemate with Burke (Washington). "I'm in this for the long haul," she told him. Apparently, so is he: "Marry me," he replied.
Perhaps a wedding will take place after Washington gets out rehab for his issues, or "gayhab" as some have called it. It certainly looks as if he will not be fired from the show, not with ratings up, no sponsors pulling out, and the cast still doing stellar work.