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It's a new honor I just created after spotting this picture of Warren Beatty on a new friend's MySpace page. Can you believe how beautiful this man was? I'm guessing this is mid-to-late 60s. Anyone know when this was taken? It shows that before he became an Academy Award winning director ("Reds"), married Annette Benning and slowed down professionally to raise their four kids, he was just a breathtaking young movie star.

I've loved Sarah Jessica Parker ever since she kept twirling around on the beach in front of Steve Martin in "LA Story" (I missed the whole Broadway ("Annie") and early television stardom ("Square Pegs"). But I really became a mega-fan from the time the first episode of "Sex and the City" aired. I've never interviewed her and the closest I've gotten to her was backstage at the Golden Globe Awards in 2001 when she ran by me holding her award.

This is my set-up for saying that I filled with envy that EOnline.com columnist Marc Malkin got to interview SJP herself before she jetted off to London for the start of an almost two-week European tour in support of Sex and the City movie. This comes on the heels of Marc's terrific interview with Janet Jackson last month. You go boy!

Here are some tidbits with the link to the whole thing at the end:

How many outfits do you bring with you for the press tour?
[Laughs.] Probably more than is necessary. But they've really got us busy over there, and we have a lot of work to do, so we are required to wear clothes. It's the law. That's how I rationalize it.

Did you watch some of the episodes to get back into your role for the movie?
Any excuse to not look at myself is preferable. And in my opinion, the script just really stood on its own. [Director and writer] Michael Patrick King has such skill in telling these women's stories. We didn't have any time to rehearse at all, so he said to all of us, "You all have been rehearsing for six years." It's strange how much muscle memory there is in a role.

The new issue of Vogue just came out with you on the cover. The shots of you and Chris Noth are amazing. The chemistry is still there.
It was incredibly easy with Chris. We stay in touch, we email, and we're really good friends, and I just adore him. I just adore being around him.

I asked a bunch of friends what they would ask if they could ask you one question, and at least five said they wanted to know which your favorite episode was.
I'm very bad at picking favorites, because I'm one of eight kids and I always heard my mother saying, "I will never pick a favorite among the eight." But I have particular fondness for the early episodes, because we were just figuring out how we wanted to tell these stories. One episode in particular is "Valley of the Twenty-Something Guys," because it's kind of dark and there's something very fresh about the storytelling.

Where do you keep all your awards? There are a lot!
I have them affectionately cluttered on a shelf in my office.

Tell me about the new Sex and the City book.
You know, we haven't talked about it with anyone else. We did this book for the movie, and what is amazing that no one realizes is that we had to go to print before the final cut of the movie. So there are scenes in the book that are cut from the movie. I just got my first copy, and it's kind of unbelievable, because it's like a version on paper of a director's cut.

I have to tell you that us gay boys are going crazy for the movie. Two people have asked me today if I have a ticket for opening day. It's like a gay bar mitzvah. And you know what, it's already sold out in Hollywood. We have to go to the Valley!
Oh, that's even better! There's great Mexican food in the Valley. But that's great! I hope it makes you all happy. I hope we've done right by our audience.

To read Mark's interview with SJP in it's entirety, go to EOnline.com.

...the one, the only, Cher debuts her new show in Las Vegas this week. I've never been to a Cher concert and not felt like I absolutely got my money's worth. So many hits, so many costume changes, so many memories...

Here is one of her greatest videos ever: "If I Could Turn Back Time."

And she sure does!

My post yesterday marking Barbra Streisand's 66th birthday included some videos of her performances but not this one which is one of her most dramatic and memorable. At the end of the 2001 Emmy telecast - which had been postponed twice because of 9/11 - host Ellen DeGeneres introduced a surprise guest but never mentioned her name. Suddenly, she was just there. And her version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" was most powerful and meaningful.

I'll never forget it and neither will you.

...the legend turns 66 today. So many of us have loved Barbra for so long - virtually all our lives - and stuck with her through every hairstyle, every musical genre, every husband or boyfriend. She's always sang one helluva number and there really is no one else like her - no one.

Some Barbra videos, through the years:

Here is a wonderful 1997 visit to "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" where Rosie was overcome with emotion to be welcoming her childhood idol to the show. Barbra's music filled Rosie's house when she was a kid and was an absolute favorite of her late mother:

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One of my favorites: Streisand singing "As If We Never Said Goodbye" from "Sunset Boulevard" during her 1994 comeback tour...It's like buttah...

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Another fave: Barbra, in character as Esther Hoffman, singing "I Believe in Love" in a concert scene from 1976's "A Star is Born." Love the curly hair!

...Patti Lupone! The great star who has played Eva Peron ("Evita"), Maria Callas ("Master Class"), Mrs. Lovett ("Sweeney Todd") and now Mama Rose ("Gypsy") on Broadway as well as Norma Desmond ("Sunset Boulevard") on the London stage, turns 59 today. What a magnificant talent. Still, to my old pal Danny Sullivan, visiting from London this month, she will always be Libby from TV's "Life Goes On."

This is cool news: Beatrice Arthur, best-known as television's "Maude" and as Dorothy on "The Golden Girls," has been named one of the six 2008 inductees into the Academy of Television Arts and Science's Hall of Fame joining such past female TV icons as Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett and Mary Tyler Moore.

We all know the gays love her because no one can deliver a bitchy line as well as Bea Arthur! But here's the official bio from the Academy: Bea Arthur is a two-time Emmy® Award-winning and a Tony Award-winning comedienne, actress and singer. In a career spanning six decades, Arthur is best remembered for her trademark role as the title character Maude Findlay on the 1970's sitcom Maude, in which she portrayed an outspoken feminist living in affluent Westchester County with her husband and divorced daughter. The show ran for six years, during which time many controversial topics, including abortion, were tackled. In 1985, she was cast as Dorothy Zbornak, the divorced substitute teacher on The Golden Girls. On stage, her many roles include "Lucy Brown" in the 1954 off-Broadway premiere of Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, "Yente the Matchmaker" in 1964's Fiddler on the Roof, and a 1966 Tony Award-winning portrayal of "Vera Charles" in Mame, a role she recreated for the film version in 1974. In 2002, she made a triumphant return to Broadway starring in Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends, a collection of stories and songs based on her life and long career. The show was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event.

Also being inducted are Dan Burke, Larry Gelbart, Merv Griffin, Tom Murphy and Sherwood Schwartz .

WIND BENEATH MY WINGS: When 'American Idol' judges talk to contestants about connecting with a song, they should instruct them to watch this video of Bette singing this song at the 1990 Grammys. It is a magnificant performance from her voice to her phrasing to the way she quietly owned the stage. Moments later, she would win the record of the year Grammy for what was her first number one hit.

THE ROSE: Bette was in her post-"Jinxed" period just before her big comeback in all those Disney comedies when she sang this live at a major Martin Luther King Tribute. The YouTube clip states 1984 but I'm thinking it was 1985 or 86 because I remember watching it on TV. Anyway, it's a wonderful rendition of the song and again, she sings the hell out of it.

I missed seeing Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert on Oprah this week but the show's Web site has a nice story on the pair. Here are some excerpts:

While the press loved to run stories about their rivalry, Chris and Martina say they completely supported each other off the court. "What's weird about tennis is you're both in the locker room before the match and after the match, and one is very happy and one is very sad," Martina says. "But we would put our arms around each other and say, 'You know what, I was lucky,' or, 'Next time you're going to get it, I'm sure', and, 'Are you okay?' Or we would leave notes in each other's racket bags for later."

Between defecting to the United States and being an openly gay athlete, Martina has been placed under scrutiny more than once and has become a role model for many. Chris says she knew Martina had guts from the moment she met her. "You lived your truth and you had a clear conscience and you felt great about yourself, so that is the most important thing," Chris says.

Love Sally Field and have basically my entire life. Love her in "Brothers & Sisters," "Soapdish," "Norma Rae," "Sybil," "ER," "A Cooler Climate" and, of course, "Gidget." But any gay man who is a Sally fan loves her the most for her performance as Julia Roberts mother in "Steel Magnolias." So many of us can do the entire scene at the cemetery by heart: "Shelby's riiiiight. My hair really does look like a brown football!'" She begins to fi her hair and surrounded by Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis and Darryl Hannah, she just loses it: "I wanna know whhhhhhhyyyyyyy!!!"
Here's a clip:

Anywho, why I just went off on that tangent I do not know. This is really just a set-up to share with you an interview Sally gives in the new Ladies Home Journal.

On "Brothers & Sisters," Sally plays the mother of a soldier injured in the Iraq War. The real-life mother of three sons hads this to say about our soldiers who come home injured: "What's really awful is how poor the help is for these brave men and women once they get home. This country has never respected the mental health of its returning soldiers and they deserve all the help they can get after serving their country. They need sophisticated, ongoing treatment but the expectation is, if you're a soldier, you swallow your feelings and move on. That's a disgrace, an absolute disgrace, and I hope we can address that issue on Brothers & Sisters."

On her Emmy speech which she concluded by saying that if mothers were in charge of the country "there wouldn't be any more goddam wars." "I went back and looked at it again and again," she said. "The only mistake I made was in the next line when I put god in front of damned. But I do think if God would ever damn anything it would be war. Unfortunately, what was lost in the tumult was my intention to pay homage to mothers."

On the acting front, Sally has no plans to have herself nipped or tucked: "I think about it all the time because I see friends who've done it and they look great and younger... I have an ego but it's an actor's ego more than a woman's ego. It's about roles. I'm 61, and as I get older I'm obviously going to be playing older characters. What I would like is to age into roles I want to play the way the great ones did, like Helen Hayes and Lillian Gish."

Sally is supporting the candidacy of Hillary Clinton and here's why: "What dazzles me is how resilient she is. The times she gets slammed, she takes it and grows from it. She gets stronger. We need to get out of some terrible, terrible situations as a country, and I want a President who can take those blows and be stronger. Not stronger in the sense that, I'm going to blow your head off. But stronger in the sense that I'm going to be more informed, more honest, more honorable and those blows won't weaken me. Showing our might clearly didn't work over the last four years. I want stronger in the way that only a mother can be strong."
On feeling sexy, the twice-divorced woman who also had a five-year relationship with Burt Reynolds said: "...the feelings are still alive and thriving. And certainly, feeling that excitement with someone, that heated attraction--I miss that a lot. But too often in my life I've give up things for that. Women often give up pieces of themselves to feel the rush of excitement that comes with sex, usually because they mistake it for true intimacy, and they end up losing. I won't do that again."

On settling down again: "It's not that I'm difficult. I just have such a full life. I don't have any room to let someone else in... I don't look for it, I don't go out, so whoever my soul mate will be, if he's out there, he'll have to come up here and find me."

On pressure and media--and sympathy for Britney: "I can't imagine the pressure these young people are under. I thought it was rough, juggling a high-profile career with raising a family, but now you look at someone like Britney Spears and think, we had it easy. When I began, there were a few fan magazines but there was no Entertainment Tonight and certainly not the 24-hour medica force that the Internet has become."
While Britney appears to have been overwhelmed at being a superstar mom at a young age, Sally embraced motherhood which first happened while she was starring in her second TV series "The Flying Nun" in the mid-60s: "I went through most of my life not knowing who I was. But what saved me was my children. I had children so young--I was 23 when I had my first and had two by the time I was 25--that I didn't have time for anything else. I didn't have time to get real precious with myself. You have to make lunch. You have to get the kids to school. You go to work."

...movie legend Doris Day who turns 84 today!

Both my parents were big fans of Miss Day so whenever her movies were showing on television, we watched them. Particular favorites of ours were "Move Over Darling," "With Six You Get Egg Roll" and "Pillow Talk." Later, as an adult, I became more familiar witrh her pre-60s films including "On Moonlight Bay," "By the Light of the Silvery Moon," "Tea For Two" and - most significantly - "Calamity Jane" and "Love Me or Leave Me."
Here is Doris singing the Oscar-winning song "Secret Love" in a scene from "Calamity Jane"

And here is a funny scene from "Move Over Darling": with Polly Bergen who marries James Garner who doesn't realize his last-at-sea first wife (Doris) is not dead:

Miss Day followed up her movie career with five seasons of "The Doris Day Show" then later several pet-themed talk shows. She was also a major recording star for decades as well as the top box office star for a time.

So here's an idea: Why not award the great Doris Day with an honorary Academy Award next year. She was only nominated once and her body of work is stellar. Also, it is ridiculous that she has never been among those selected for the annual Kennedy Center Honors.

Let's honor this legend while we still have her around!

...the unsinkable Debbie Reynolds! On-screen, she was Grace's mom on "Will & Grace" (we all love the "I Told You So" dance!) and off-screen, the mother of Carrie Fisher who is just an interesting in her own right. I love Debbie in "Singing in the Rain" and really love Debbie in her Oscar-nominated role in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." But It's been so great to see her later role including playing Albert Brooks' mother in... "Mother" which my sister swears was really about our own mother and me.

She also played Kevin Kline's mother in "In & Out" and starred with Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley MacLaine and Joan Collins in the critically-panned "These Old Broads" written by Carrie Fisher. "Broads" is worth watching mostly for the touching scene between Debbie and Elizabeth when they talk about the ex-husband they have in common: "Freddie Hunter." It was a poke at Eddie Fisher who famously left Debbie (and their two kids) for Elizabeth in the late 50s. It made her the Jennifer Aniston in the Brad and Angelina triangle. Whatever her private pain, Debbie always had a sense of humor about it in public and never stopped smiling.

Debbie, a star for nearly six decades, 76 today. She's still performing on stage and on screen, still dazzling us with her unsinkable personality.

...Sir Elton John turns 61 years young today.
I love Elton for being outspoken, for being an out and proud gay man, for all he does to raise money for his AIDS foundation. He's also close friends with my all-time hero, Billie Jean King, and theirs is the most beautiful of friendships that dates back to the early 70s.

Mostly, I love Elton because of his music. It was the soundtrack to my childhood with an older brother who played Elton's 70s records (yes, they were LPs!) over and over and over again. Years later, I have memories of several Elton concerts including one in San Diego that he did with Billy Joel, then a three-song set he did after a special screening of "The Lion King" in Hollywood, and best of all, a 10-song set Elton did for Billie Jean last year at the Beverly Hilton during an awards ceremony for female athletes called, The Billies.

I've interviewed Elton a few times. One was for a freelance magazine article and I was told he would call "sometime Monday or Tuesday" so it was a matter of having my cellphone on me at all times. Can you imagine? Of course Elton called while I was stuck in rush hour traffic on the 101 Freeway. I pulled off into a gas station parking lot and scrawled down some notes on a yellow legal pad.
OTHER BIRTHDAYS TODAY: If Elton wanted to have a birthday dinner with olther famous people born today, it would be a pretty awesome evening! I figure Elton would be seated in between two legendary ladies: Aretha ("The QUEEN of Soul") Franklin to his left and the great feminist and author Gloria Steinem to his right. Aretha turns 66 while Miss Steinem is 74.
Others at the table: Sarah Jessica Parker (43), young hunks Lee Pace (29) and Sean Faris (26), Desperate Housewives Marcia Cross (46) and Brenda Strong (48), my "Starsky & Hutch" crush Paul Michael Glaser (65) and Bonnie Bedelia (60) who was so good in "Private Lives." Elton could have Katherine McPhee (24) perform a few songs before dinner then the infamous anti-gay activist Anita Bryant (68) could be trotted out later so everyone could throw pies at her face.

I'd love to attend THAT party!

Elizabeth Taylor Hilton Wilding Todd Fisher Burton Burton Warner Fortensky and I usually don't hang out at the same places.

But on Thursday, the 76-year-old legend dined at The Abbey in West Hollywood - one of my regular haunts. The paprazzi caught up with the actress-activist on her way out and she graciously gave a wave.

While everyone talks about Britney Spears getting mobbed by the photogs, it really was Miss Taylor and husband number five (and six) Richard Burton who were the first real targets of overzealous photogs. They began a scandalous affair on the set of "Cleopatra" in the early 60s and for the next 15 years or so, were the money shot.

Liza Minnelli turns 62 today!

The Oscar winner, Tony winner, and Judy Garland's little girl is a survivor. We love Liza with a Z not only because she's an amazing performer, but she has a terrific sense of humor - even about some of her very questionable marriages!

With "Cabaret," "New York New York," and "Arthur," Liza's spotty film career has its gems and she was a riot on "Arrested Development." But Liza's always at her best when she's doing what she was born to do: singing!!!

This is kinda sad.
TMZ.com reports that 86-year-old Broadway legend Carol Channing had her luggage stolen this afternoon as she was checking into the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel. It is such a bizarre story.
Wouldn't you know it? The damned thief didn't take a bag that included shampoo and stuff. The small black roller bag contained the sparkling "diamond dress" that Channing is wearing in this picture with the Reagans and Rockefellers. Channing famously wore the dress in the role as Lorelei Lee over 700 times in the stage production of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
The valuable dress was scheduled to be photographed and then sent to the Smithsonian for exhibition. Channing is also donating her 1964 Tony award for "Hello Dolly" to the museum but it was in another bag. Channing is in town to perform at the Hollywood Bowl this weekend.
This showbiz legend knows the show must go on...

Way back in late spring, I was seated with the talented artist Louis Briel at a political breakfast where Bill Richardson was the featured speaker. (This was pre-debate gaffes). Louis, who is based in L.A., told me about his work, including a portrait he had painted of Diana, princess of Wales, shortly after her death and gave to her close friend Elton John.
The portrait hung in Sir Elton's private dressing room and was said to have helped him cope with the loss.
Tomorrow marks the 10-year anniversary of the death of Diana in that horrible and senseless car crash in Paris. She was at the top of her game, had never looked better, and was doing some terrific work bringing awareness to the world about landmines.
Remember where you were when you heard?
I was vacuuming my apartment in the Long Beach neighborhood of Belmont Shore because I was hosting a party the next day. Instead of partying, my guests and I sat in my living room watching the endless reports of her death and reading the pile of newspapers I bought that morning. It just didn't seem real and in some ways, still doesn't.
Briel painted the portrait of the Princess to deal with the unexpected grief he was feeling. Days after finishing the portrait, he saw Elton on the Oprah Winfrey Show and was so touched by Elton's love for Diana, he gave the painting to the rock star.
Moved by the kind gesture, Elton sent a handwritten note to Briel thanking him: "I am going to take the canvas on tour with me, so that I can look at it each night before I go on stage. Then the portrait will be sent to my home in England. You are a very kind man and the gift is very much appreciated. Much love, Elton."
Elton took the portrait around the world with him on "The Big Picture Tour" in 1997-98, hanging It in his dressing room at every venue worldwide.
"When I met him, Elton said he would one day give the painting to the Princes William and Harry," Briel said in a newspaper interview. "I hope he will do so now. It would help heal them and come to terms with their mother's tragic death. It helped heal Elton, perhaps now it's time for him to give it to the Princes, who truly need it."
Briel's painting (www.louisbriel.com). is now featured in Diana In Art, by Mem Mehmet, a collection of portraits of the Princess from around the world. It is published by Pop Art Books.

Jodie Foster, looking sensational on Oscar night this year, has had her sexuality become quite the focus of attention with OUT Magazine featuring the private star and anchor Anderson Cooper on their covewr as two of the most powerful gay and lesbian people.
Foster, 44, seems to have taken it in stride. The two-time Academy Award winner has just gone on with her life and is currently featured on the cover of the September issue of More magazine. She seems to be more open these days, but on her terms. Here is an interesting excerpt from the piece:
MORE: Let's talk about your ring.
JODIE FOSTER: This one? [Proffers left hand] It's Tiffany, an eternity ring.
MORE: You're wearing it on you wedding ring finger.
JF: I am. I've always worn a ring. Even taking photos. Even on magazine covers. I don't take it off.
MORE: Don't you think wearing a ring like that raises questions?
JF: Well, but that's my life. I thought about this recently: I had a nightmare the other night. Well, anyway . . .
MORE: C'mon! Let's hear the nightmare!
JF: I was being interviewed by somebody, like an innocuous [press] junket thing. They were asking me questions about food I liked or whatever. Then they said, [in a high innocent voice] "Have you ever written any homemade antisemitic cards?" And I was like, [horrified] "No!" Then she said, "Come with me," and I realized, "You're so stupid. Haven't you ever seen that 60 Minutes thing where they ask you a banal question? You're not supposed to say yes or no. You're supposed to go, 'Well, that's interesting.' Because if they ask you the banal question, it's becuse they have some kind of document on you. And now you've got to go! And now the camera's following you!" Then my dream was over [pauses and reflects before continuing] My life is my life. I'm not going to change my life for anybody. I don't have any problems with it. I just don't talk about my health, my dad, who I voted for or what I think of the death penalty, because that would be trivializing my life, selling it for a magazine. I don't have any problems with anybody reporting on my life. It's just that I'm not going to bring my family into that. The number one reason for that is: Why would I invite--encourage--more people to sit outside my door and wait for my children to go to school? I don't have any desire to participate in it."
MORE: Are you happy with the life you've created for yourself?
JF: I'm absolutely over the moon. Ten years ago, I was worried. You know how you worry, if I do this, will this happen? And, I won't be happy if I'm not this. I'm so happy that this is what I chose.

What a beauty. We are so used to her madcap adventures as Lucy Ricardo that it's easy to overlook or take for granted that Lucille Ball was a glamorous movie star before she became a television icon...Today marks what would have been her 96th birthday...

Miss Ball died in April 1989, just about a month after she made her last public appearance at the Academy Awards. She presented an award with Bob Hope and the thunderous ovation assured her that she was still so very loved...Here she is arriving at the awards with her second husband, Gary Morton, to whom she was married for more than 25 years. This picture doesn't show it but on Oscar night, Lucille wore a gown with a high slit up the side, revealing still-gorgeous gams at the age of 77.
She is missed...thank God for reruns and DVD!

Monday will mark the 96th anniversary of the birth of Lucille Desiree Ball. I'll probably do some kind of photo gallery to mark the occasion. But if you're near Miss Ball's hometown of Jamestown, New York, they will be celebrating all weekend! According to the Everything Lucy site, the city will welcome thousands of fans from across the world to Lucy’s Birthday Celebration that begins Saturday and runs through Monday. Lucy impersonators roam the streets and pose for photographs, and special guests such as Lucy’s longtime chauffeur, Frank Gorey, share memories of working with the queen of TV comedy. Writers and film editors of her various TV series discuss her work, and buses take visitors on tours of various Lucy-related sites, including the two-story home at 69 Stewart Ave. where she was born, and Lake View Cemetery, where the comedienne’s ashes are interred alongside her parents.
They all still love Lucy...

Tammy Faye Messner is as beloved in death as she was in life by many gays. She holds a big place in our hearts and I am among those who sincerely mourn her and feel the world is a little less special without her in it.
On the site Gay.com, people are sharing their memories in an online condolence book for her family. Among the suggestions - and I love this - is the proposal of a new street, “Tammy Faye Way,” in Palm Springs. Terrific idea!
Wrote one Palm Springs resident: “Tammy, I know how much you liked it out here in the desert and I will think of your warm smile when I feel the sun and your fluttering eyelashes every time a palm tree moves in the breeze. A group of us are proposing re-naming a street Tammy Faye Way...it will be the one with the most flowers on it.”
It is so moving that a mere 24 hours before her death, Tammy Faye spoke positively about her gay fans on "Larry King Live."
Those fans have posted hundreds and hundreds of pages of comments about the positive impact Tammy Faye had on their lives on a special message area created especially for Tammy on Gay.com. There has previously been a special "Wish Tammy well" section on the site.
"We knew that Gay.com members would want to share their feelings with Tammy Faye and her family," Jenny Stewart, Gay.com Entertainment Editor, said in a statement. "She has long been a gay icon -- from refusing to speak against LGBT people on 'PTL' to supporting AIDS causes early to her sympathetic and personal encounters with gay fans. And, of course, we also loved the makeup."