LA Gay & Lesbian Center Gala (Pt. 2): Jenifer Lewis and Shirley MacLaine...

OK, you can't even begin to write about Saturday night's event at the Century Plaza Hotel without starting with Jenifer Lewis - an amazing woman of immense talent and heart.

She received The Rand Schrader Distinguished Achievement Award which is the center's highest individual honor awarded to someone who has a remarkable and courageous record of championing LGBT visibility, combating homophobia and/or significantly serving or contributing to the community. When Jenifer decided to perform her one-woman show "Bipolar, Bath & Beyond" at the center's Renberg Theater, it kept selling out so she insisted on extending the run and in the process, raised more than $40,000 for the Center's Youth Services programs.

That's why she got three standing ovations at the event, why you could hear a pin drop when she spoke, why Shirley MacLaine showed up to personally present her with the award. Shirley refered to her friend Jenifer as a "mad genius lady...She's what I would call an out of the mainstream talent...She is so unlimited, she creates and functions in other dimensions simultaneously...This is a woman I'm so proud to know."

Jenifer took the stage and gave a funny, touching, funny speech using some of MacLaine's book titles:
"I'm not afraid to admit that when Shirley was "Out on a Limb," I was out on a twig. When she said "Don't Fall off the Mountain," I was already down there!"

"I am so honored and humbled and moved to be receiving this award and I mean that from my heart..."
The great diva returned to the stage to perform a few songs that brought the house down concluding with a rousing version of "I Know Where I've Been" from "Hairpray."

Absolutely perfect.