After we all finished our lunch, a session called "Tattle-Tales: The Dirt on Hollywood Dish" began with a panel that included Marc Malkin who does the E! online column "Planet Gossip," USA Today entertainment writer William Keck, and Karen Bonsignore, an executive producer of entertainment news for CNN.
"The way we get out news has changed tremendously in the last four years...I think TMZ.com has changed the television landscape ," Bonsignore said. She then mentioned the reach of blogger Perez Hilton, who she said should not be depended on as a reliable source for news: "Last week, he insisted that Fidel Castro was dead. You have to know the person who is telling you something is reputable and true."
While Hilton has pushed such celebrities as Lance Bass and Neil Patrick Harris out of the closet door, Malkin admitted that as a gay man, he feels torn about such things: "One second, I'm like f*** 'em. I should just cover the gay celebrity as I do a straight celebrity. But I'm also a gay man who knows that struggle."
Malkin shared an anecdote about his days working at the New York Post when he submitted an item about media titan Barry Diller having dinner on gay night at a club called Beige in the company of several attractive men.
"The editors killed it," he said. "If Bruce Willis had been there, it would have stayed in because everyone knows he's straight."

Keck had a similar experience a year ago when he reported that Barry Manilow was dining with a table of "fine looking" men after the Emmys. Editors cut it out. Also cut was a line Keck had in a story this month on Merv Griffin's death which stated that Griffin "was commonly known to be gay in Hollywood."

An audience member asked about an unnamed A-list male celebrity who has been dogged with gay rumors for decades and sued many times over it.
Said Keck, without mentioning Tom Cruise by name: "I think it would be a mission impossible to prove that."
Added Malkin: I have no proof that that celebrity is gay but it is amazing how many people address the Tom Cruise may possibly be gay rumors."
I took the microphone to take Bonsignore to task for praising Melissa Etheridge, Rosie O'Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres for their coming out and their activism related to that. She then went on to be critical of T.R. Knight and Neil Patrick Harris for not doing more.

I found her to be ill-informed and unfair on this and reminded her that Rosie had a daily talk show for six years and was not out. T.R. was outed about a year ago and has gradually become an activist. He's done a cover story with The Advocate, appeared on Ellen's talk show, was the center-of-attention at the GLAAD awards and has quietly been supportive of gay films and causes.
I told her that I didn't mean to be a bitch, but she really needed to be set straight...so to speak!

I'm off to yet another reception and probably hanging out with my new blog buddies Kenneth Walsh and Johnny Diaz who each wrote postings on their blogs about our adventures yesterday. Click on their names to read their versions and HERE to read mine...