My night at the Ribbon of Hope Celebration...

I can't think of a more perfect place to be on World AIDS Day that at the Ribbon of Hope Celebration. I sat through the ceremony at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences theater Saturday night and was blown away at some of the programs that were honored like the movies "3 Needles," "Life Support" and "Girl, Positive" as well as the programs "Ashley Judd & Youth AIDS" (that one is a real eye-opener) and BET's "106 & Park:World AIDS Day Special."

Also honored were here! Networks for their "Here! Focus on HIV/AIDS" program and a well-deserved special achievement award was presented to PBS' "In the Life" by Judith Light who was honored at the event last year for her decades of work for HIV/AIDS.

The Emmy-winning actress, now one of the stars of "Ugly Betty," was one of the first celebrities, way back in the early 80s, to step-up and help to raise money and awareness.

She's never stepped down.

"I've been part of the really dark days," Judith said when we talked before the event. "How it feels now is it feels mildly better but it's not enough. I know that people are working really hard to make it be different and that's what we have to keep doing and that's why this is an important program for people to see so we do see that it's out there and it's not over."

Here! founder and CEO Paul Colichman who produced "Gods & Monsters" among other films, not only accepted an award for the network's special, but who also for the second year running will broadcast the ceremony (the date TBA)..

"It's an opportunity for everyone to realize what the face of AIDS is in 2008," Paul said. "The face has changed but it is probably more important than ever that people realize all of us have to play our art whether it's a dollar that you give, or an hour of time that you give, all of us together each doing our small part creates a mighty army of warriors."

I talked to tons of celebrity presenters at the event including Anthony Rapp, Jasmine Guy, Andrea Bowen, Bruce Villanch, Alexis Arquette, and the "Dante's Cove" trio of Charlie David, Jon Fleming,Reichen Lemkuhl and will be sharing some of the interviews throughout the week. I gotta say, there were lotsa beautiful people there but perhaps no one looked more lovely than Thea Gill of "Dante's Cove" and "Queer as Folk." I missed her on the red carpet but when she walked out to present with Reichen, she was old-Hollywood glamour and just glided across the stage to the podium with the train of her dress floating behind her.
I loved it!

Gabbed with Jack Coleman, who is now on NBC's "Heroes" but who we all know and love from his days as Steven Carrington on "Dynasty.," He had some thoughtful things to say about the HIV/AIDS crisis as we managed to do an interview despite a bossy fire marshall who insisted we were in some kind of forbidden area away from the red carpet.

Get a life dude!

Anyway, here is what Jack had to say: "It gets off the front page for awhile and people forget about it," Coleman said. "People think it's a disease that's been conquered and that's very far from the truth. In this country alone, there's 300,000 undiagnosed cases so it's scary and it's still out there and people really do have to be aware of it."

I always get such a lump in my throat whenever they do a scroll with many of the names of people who have died from AIDS over the last 25 years or more. It's is a potent reminder of the human toll this disease has taken and still takes. This year, Adam Pascal of "Rent" performed his original song "I'm With You" as those names were shown and I wanted to bawl.

Despite the serious nature of the topic, the event had its lighter moments. Alexis Arquette walked out and said to Julie Newmar sitting in the audience: "Hi gorgeous! I want to BE you!"

Bruce Vilanch can adlib better than just about anyone in town and is the first to poke fun at his less-than-svelt physique. He walked out and said: "Well, I used to be a writer. Now I'm a striking writer...and a stripper."

Bruce said that because he's currently on strike, he has to use old award show material alread written so he welcomed everyone to the 1948 Emmys where "we're honoring Kukla, Fran and Ollie and our newcomer of the year is Barbara Walters who we think has a bright future despite that terrible speech impediment."

But the real laughs came when Bruce, trying to introduce a clip from Ashley Judd's special, tripped up on the words "brothels of Guatamala City." He kept saying: "Guatamala Silly." When he FINALLY got it right, the audience applauded and Bruce said: "Thank you Guatamala citizens."