Birthdays: July 2008 Archives

...The divine Delta Burke turns 52 today!

This deliciously talented actress is obviously best known for her classic portrayal of Suzanne Sugarbaker during the first five seasons on "Desiging Women" and on the short-lived spinoff "Women of the House." Suzanne is one of the most brilliant comic creations in the history of television and one of those rare times when it was the perfect meeting of actress and character.

I've remained a fan of Delta's since the show and she has done some great stuff. Among my faves was her portrayal of Cherry Cherry during the second season of "Popular." She was a riot! Delta also had a recurring role on "Boston Legal," and a decent sitcom on ABC, "Delta," that had decent ratings in the mid-90s but was not renewed. But she has triumphed on Broadway in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "Steel Magnolias" and was a smash in the touring production of "Southern Baptist Sissies" and in the indie fave "Sordid Lives."

Delta, married to Gerald McRaney for more than 20 years, was to be a part of "Sordid Lives: The Series" but had to pull out to get treatment for her depression. She has been very open about her life-long stuggle with mental illness and helped people to realize that with treatment, they can have happy and productive lives. It's so important when celebrities like Delta help to remove the stigmas because it leads others to get help.

She's a great lady!

Here is:Delta on "The View" a few years ago:

The following are some of my favorite Suzanne moments from "Designing Women"

The "Project Runway" judge turns 55 today!

The out director of the upcoming movie "Milk" as well as such movies as "My Private Idaho," "To Die For," "Good Will Hunting," "Last Days" and "Elephant" turned 56 today!

Regarded as one of the great male vocalists and songwriters of his generation, Rufus Wainwright turns 35 today.

I met Rufus in April at the GLAAD Media Awards where he was being honored and he told me he has "always made a real effort to be completely honest about who I am and to sing about boys and about my life as a homosexual so it's the right match."

Then he gave this really amazing acceptance speech: "An artist's decision to live an authentic life should go hand-in-hand with success. The more honest you are and more willing to share, the more gratifying it will be for your audience."

He also touched on something else that isn't talked about too much about so many of us gay people: "We have to work so hard to be so brilliant and be so fabulous all the time, we often forget that we are damaged and we are hurt. To allow gay people to think everything is fine - it's not."

The "Gossip Girl" cutie turns 23 today!

Yeah, yeah, there are all those gay rumors but Chace hasn't really said much about them. I'm wishing him a happy birthday because, well, it;s seems like a mighty good excuse to post a buncha photos of him in various poses...shirtless of course!

The brilliant playwright turned 52 today. "Angels in America" is obviously his most famous and important work so far and won him the Pulitzer Prize. But he is also co-author of the Oscar nominated screenplay of the 2005 film "Munich.", He also wrote the book for the musical "Caroline, or Change" and was the subject of the 2006 documentary feature entitled "Wrestling With Angels" debuted at the Sundance Film Festival.

Happy birthday to the incredible actress, Jane Lynch.

There may still be plenty of stars who are choosing to remain in the closet, but Jane is not one of them. Since co-starring in "Best of Show," her star has been on a steady rise with so many memorable roles including Steve Carell's boss in "The 40 Year Old Virgin," Will Ferrell's 's mom in "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" and a hilarious send-up of a Mary Hart-type anchor in "For Your Consideration." She next appears with Meryl Streep in the film "Julia & Julie/"

I did an interview with Jane last week at Outfest opening night and will share it with you later this week.

Best wishes to an actor who is out and proud - and one of the hoittest 40 year olds in town!

Here is part of an interview I did earlier this year with Robert Gant:

For years, Gant was cast as "the boyfriend" on such shows as "Caroline in the City" and "Friends" and had a recurring role on the cult favorite "Popular" as the young high school principal who all the female students were in love with. He had no trouble being convincing in these straight roles then decided to take on the part of a gay college professor in the groundbreaking Showtime series "Queer as Folk."

Early on in the show's five-year run, Gant decided to come out publicly. several years before such young stars as T.R. Knight, Neil Patrick Harris, Lance Bass and Luke Macfarlane followed suit.

"We're starting to cross the frontier in lots of different ways with Neil Patrick Harris' (womanizing) character on 'How I Met Your Mother,' so we're able to go there comedically," Robert said. "We are moving toward it. It's exciting to see Neil play that kind of a role. I see that as part of the frontier happening.

"I've been crossing many of my own frontiers in my life, now I'm encountering what I believe to be the last real frontier in Hollywood which is what it means of an openly gay leading man type actor playing a romantic straight role."

...Broadway star (and stud) Cheyenne Jackson who turned 33 today! He makes us proud by being an openly gay perfomer as he basks ib the success of the Tony Award nominated musical "Xanadu."

Cheyenne earned a 2008 Drama Desk Award nomination for outstanding actor in a musical In June 2007 for a role he assumed less than a week before the scheduled opening night,. He replaced actor James Carpinello who had been injured during rehearsal.

The performer also starred in the 2005 musical "All Shook Up" and won the 2005 Theatre World Award for outstanding Broadway debut. He had previosly understudied the leads in ."Thorougfly Modern Millie" and " Aida." In film, Cheyenne won praise for his performance as Mark Bingham in "United 93."

Next up: a New York production of "Damned Yankees."

America's self-proclaimed "Gaysian Sweetheart" turns 43 today.

The very, very funny Alec has roles in the current Adam Sandler comedy "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" and in the Outfest closing night film "Tru Loved." He has a recurring role on ABC';s "Ugly Betty" as mud-slinging TV personality Suzuki St. Pierre which has been a real hoot!

But Alec is at his absolute funniest when he is himself, on stage, in full flight. So watch for any of his live oerfornances and prepare to laugh very hard.

...the talented and sexy Patrick Wilson! He's a movie and stage star who can do it all as we've seen in "The Phantom of the Opera," "The Alamo": "Little Children" and the intense indie "Hard Candy" opposite Ellen Page. But mostly, we love Patrick for his performance in "Angels in America" in which he played a gay man struggling with his sexuality.

Patrick turns 35 today.

It's also Tom Cruise's 46th birthday today. I'd write more about my one-time favorite movie star but I fear that I am kinda over this former top gun at the box office.

I wish he'd focus on good acting roles in smaller films than all of this 25th anniversary of being a movie star crap (the Oprah shows were nauseating!) and showing up at the opening of an envelope.

Less would be more.