Sharon Stone stood on a short red carpet outside the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood Saturday night and I was going to get a few minutes to talk to her. What fun! So many questions. What was her motivation in "Casino"? Does she regret doing that sequel to "Basic Instinct"? What was it like working with Russell Crowe in "The Quick and the Dead" or kicking Arnold Schwarzenegger's butt in "Total Recall"?

No dice.

Miss Stone, who turned 50 in March, wanted to talk about real life and her job as global fundraising chairman for The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) -a big reason why was being honored by the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center during its annual Women's Night event.

I wanted to know what getting the center's Special Board of Directors Award meant to the actress, who owns an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award and been nominated for an Oscar.

"It's a proud and privledged moment for me," she said. "You know, it's a hard journey because sometimes you feel like you're really succeeding whebn you know that the grants that you've given to scientists have provided much of the life-extending drugs that are in the market. And then sometimes you feel like you're failing when you know there is not a cure and there is not a vaccine and there are almost 40 million people with AIDS worldwide and that number is growing, not diminishing. So you know that there is a child dying every minute of AIDS, you know that you have to keep it moving and stay with it. So we're doing everything that we can, we are working as hard as we can."

So how did this glamorous movie star and international sex symbol become such a committed AIDS activist?

"When I was asked to step in for Miss Elizabeth Taylor at the Cannes Film Festival one year when she couldn't go and take her position, I did that," she said. "And after that I was asked would I take a three-year position with amfAR and I took that three year position. At the end of those three years, we had not accomplished a cure or a vaccine and now I'm in my 13th year and we are now the global foundation for AIDS research so we have accomplished a great deal and I hope to continue to accomplish even more.

Online extra:
On risky sexual behavior: "Sometimes I feel very bad because I think young people are incredibly reckless and they have a wrong idea that it's not dangerous when it is more dangerous than ever before. I feel badly that people think that oral sex is not sex and that it's safe when it isn't and when young people think they can have sex without condums and they shouldn't. I think that parents are afraid to have safe sex talks with their children or embarassed and I feel that they really, really should."

Teaching lessons: "I think we need much more sex education, we need much more talk about condum use and STDs and AIDS. I think that people really need to think about it and talk about it so much more and that there is no cure for AIDS, that it's a death sentence and people really, really need to get that."

What she's learned: "I think what's happened to me is that I've really come to understand that it comes down not just to science and medicine, but to peace in the world. We have to really notice that people near to us and the people far to us and realize that we're all the same, we're all families, we're all parents and kids and we have to treat each other with a sense of respect and kindness both and far and realize that whether it's our backyard or backyards in the Middle East, we're just families.

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Rosie O'Donnell doesn't seem to miss being on "The View" but that doesn't stop her from talking about the show that she left nearly a year ago.

"Passion on that show was not number one," Rosie said on the Today show Monday. "Some people confuse passion for rage. I have a lot of passion about things I believe in."

Rosie said she never set out to cause controversy but "when somebody would say something that I found insane, I would say, 'That's insane.'"

She and Barbara Walters are still friends, attending plays together and exchanging emails. She also touches base occasionally with Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

She wants to make clear that neither Hasselbeck or anyone else on the panel were the reason she left nearly a month before her one-year contract was up: "It was not the people on the stage. It was the director and the executive producer. You have a choice, do you want to choose to fight for a living...they made it into Hardball."

Here is a clip from Rosie's appearance:

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...Kyan Douglas, of "Queer Eye" fame! Like Paul McCartney of the Fab Four, Kyan was known as "the cute one" of the Fab Five who helped straight men clean up their acts and give them some style.

Kyan turns 38 today...and he's still the cute one!

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At the recent GLAAD Awards, I threw a few questions to the organizations president, Neil Giuliano, and here's what he had to say:

Q. How do think things have gone in terms of LGBT representation in the media since last year's awards?
A. "We've certainly made progress. We need more visibility and we need more representation. the ones that we do have are for the most part pretty outstanding but there are not that many. When you look at the number of characters that we are whether it be television or film, or even the way some of our stories are being portrayed in the press, we still have a long way to go."

Q Do we sort of live in a bubble and think there's more than there really is?. I think it's great that we have Luke and Noah and Scotty and Kevin. When I was a kid there was none of that.
A. Because we're so visible in society at-large, we do have an misunderstanding that we';re everywhere from a standpoint of visibility in the media. We';re not as visible in the media as we could be. But, we;re much more visible than we were so we get that kind of perception.

Q. What do you think of the Scotty and Kevin storyline on "Brothers & Sisters"?
A. I think it;s groundbreaking. I'm excited about it. And we;re actually going to have a whole lot of information up on our web site about that for the media to help tell that story fairly and accurately around the country.

Q And what about Luke and Noah on "As the World Turns."? A lot of people have been updset because they didn't kiss for such a long time until last week.
A. I think people have to remember this is daytime drama. Nothing happens quick on daytime drama. They want you to tune in, they want you to come back, they want you to see what's gonna happen next. So they had a kiss, I think that's important. It's great visibility for authenticity of that relationship and we'll see where that storyline goes.

Q. They had seven months without a kiss though. Were you dissapointed?
A. And we had more than seven years without even those characters. So for as frustrated as we are that it hasn't gone as fast as we'd like, we have to acknowledge that we are making some progress.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tonight's the night!

Eric Van Der Woodsen (Connor Paolo) is set to reveal that he is gay on "Gossip Girl" which airs on the CW (check your local listings). And not just that, he is also spotted making out with a cute guy name Asher (Jesse Swenson). The problem: Asher is the new boyfriend of Jenny (Taylor Momsen). Jenny;s brother, Dan, is dating Eric's sister, Serena.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The last 20 minutes of "Brothers & Sisters" were the gayest yet for this wonderful series. Uncle Saul (Ron Rifkin), after this agonizingly slow coming out this season, finally told all to his nephew, Kevin (Matthew Rhys), who bails him out of jail after he hit a tree while driving drunk. The things Saul said to Kevin were so heartbreaking, how he doesn't know how to be gay at his age (the character is 60 or so) and mourns the lost years he spent not being true to himself. The scene was very well done and moving...

...but it was just a warm up for a really beautiful scene where Kevin Walker, at last, has just the right words for the love of his life, Scotty. He comes home after one of the most trying days ever for his family (family business about to be bankrupt, brother in love with who he thinks is his half-sister, uncle hits tree) and there is Scotty (Luke MacFarlane), a man who he feels comfortable enough to be himself with, who feels like family. He tells Scotty that he is very much in love with him (at this point I'm wiping away a tear), gets down on one knee and asks Scotty to marry him. Scotty does not hesitate: the answer is a heart-felt "Yes!" and they give each other a passionate kiss that woulda freaked out every sponsor on the air 10-15 years ago.
Here is a clip of a scene we will long remember:

The previews for next week's episode (the season finale) show the commitment ceremony between the two men. It should be a keeper.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If you want your event to have glamour and to be a big hit, just decide to honor Sharon Stone. The woman is a force of nature and was not only the big honoree of the LA Gay and Lesbian Center's Women's Night event in Hollywood, she also took over the live auction and raised tens of thousands of dollars with her persuasiveness.

My pal Jim Key, who heads communications for the center, and I were among the men heavily outnumbered by these glorious women and we just had a great time watching the spirited festivities unfold.

I interviewed Miss Stone before the dinner began and will share that chat with you later this week. For now, I wanted to share a few highlights from the show. Rosanna Arquette presented Sharon with her award and said: "Tonight's women's night is about glitz, guts and girls... I don't think there is a better example of glamour and guts than Sharon Stone,

"You have no idea how incredibly proud and privledged and honored I am by your support," Sharon told the crowd. "It's been a long journey for me...I don't know sometimes how to go on and I couldn't if it wasn't for the support from you and people like you."

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