Icons: March 2007 Archives

I had to post this picture of a couple of 60-something dymamos who are still vibrant and active and relevant. Patti LaBelle, a singing star since the 1960s, is still dynamite and was deservedly given a special GLAAD Award Monday night in NYC. My hero Billie Jean King was there in support of the superb HBO documentary on her life called "Portrait of a Legend" which lost to "Rosie's Family Cruise."
I never tire of posting about formidable, accomplished, intelligent and inspiring people because I DO tire of seeing all the pictures of the complete trainwrecks who fill the pages of US Weekly, Star and In Touch.

I wanted to post this picture taken of Elizabeth Taylor taken in recent days because she looks so happy. It seems like turning 75 last month agrees with this Dame of the British Empire, multiple-Oscar winner, AIDS activist, and perfume and jewelry mogul. Or maybe it's not being married to anyone that agrees with her! It's been a good 10 years since her split with her seventh (or eighth if you count Richard Burton twice) hubby Larry Fortensky who she had met in rehab in the late 1980s. I wonder what ever happened to him? Taylor's sixth (or seventh) husband, Virginia Sen. John Warner, seems to have learned something from his former wife of six years (they divorced in 1982) when he trumped Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is responding to Gen. Peter Pace's anti-gay remarks earlier this month. Warner, a staunch Republican, simply released a statement saying that he did not believe that homosexuality is immoral.

I've met George Takei before. It was last summer at an Outfest event but our time together was so brief. so what a treat it was to have a real gab Saturday nitght at the HRC gala with the man who I first became familiar with not through his role as Capt. Sulu on the original "Star Trek," but through his appearances on Howard Stern's radio show before it switched to Sirius. I told George that I don't have Sirius and he said in his unmistakable voice: 'Well you shoooould. Howard neeeeds you!"
It's been 17 years since the unlikely professional relationship began between Stern and Takei who had never heard of the shock jock when he was booked to appear on his show in 1990.
"I didn't know Howard from Adam," he remembers. "I went to this radio station and as I'm sitting waiting to go on, I tell one of the other guests, 'This conversation is offensive and vulgar.'" Takei was unaware that the show he could hear in the waiting room was Stern's!
"They usher me in and here's this wild-haired guy who says to me, "Anyone with a voice like that has got to have a big dong!"
That was the beginning. Takei was a bit uneasy about Stern but Howard sensed a strange chemistry. He would surprise Takei with on-air calls and created what he called the "Sulu Dance." Eventually Takei was won over enough to begin appearing on the show without being too guarded. Still, he did not come out publicly as a gay man to Stern or any members of the press (he had long been out in his personal life to family and friends) until a few years ago.
"What Howard offers me is access to a while different audience," George says. "If you are going to push for social change, you can't just preach to the choir, you've got to get other people. I've gotten so many emails [from listeners] who said they never thought about gay issues but 'what you say is right.''
Takei felt compelled to be more public after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzennegar vetoed a same-sex marriage bill in California: "I felt I needed to speak out in an authentic voice." He tells me that he and Brad Altman, his manager and partner of 20 years, would very much love to get married.
Takei is currently a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign "Coming Out Project" and since coming out, he's has become as big a star as he ever was - all over again: "It's been great. If anything, my career has enjoyed a second wind."
That second wind includes a recurring role on the NBC hit series "Heroes" on which he plays the father of Hiro.
"My scenes are all in Japanese," he notes.
Since "Heroes" is a huge hit in its first season and 'Star Trek" did not catch on in a big way [in syndication] until after its cancellation in 1969, Takei says it really is the first time he's been on a hit show!
"'Star Trek' became very popular but our ratings were rock bottom," he says. "So this is great fun."
Also great fun was reprising his role of Sulu for an episode of "Star Trek: New Voyages," a web-based continuation of the original "Star Trek" series. Following his episode, "New Voyages" will produce an episode from an unproduced script that has Capt. Kirk's nephew as a gay man in a relationship with a fellow crew member aboard Starship Enterprise.
Takai thinks series creator Gene Roddenberry would be proud: "He was very enlightened and I know that Gene would be very happy with what is going on now."
I'm very happy for George's career recent resurgence even though he never really gone away, not with the five "Star Trek" movies in the 80s and 90s that followed the original series and all those conventions where he is swarmed by "Trekkies" and that unlikely Howard Stern connection. I love it! And I loved our chat. His partner, Brad, snapped the photo of George and I (right) before we wrapped up our conversation and headed into the dinner.

Later today, Elton John will celebrate his 60th birthday with a record-setting 60th performance at Madison Square Garden. I won't be there, sadly, but I will play some of his CDs in honor of the milestone. At least the concert will be recorded and broadcast April 5 as a two-hour special on MyNetworkTV so check your local listings! I saw Elton in concert a few times in the mid-90s when he was touring with Billy Joel and those were some of my favorite concerts - ever.
I interviewed Elton a few years ago for a magazine piece and the most memorable thing was that his schedule was very unpredictable so I was told that he would call me on Monday or Tuesday but no set time so be ready. I remember going to lunch with a group of co-workers that day, putting my cell phone on the table and saying, "Elton will be calling any moment." Of course Elton called me later that day, while I was stuck in traffic on the 101 freeway! He laughed when I told him of my predicament and waited until I could find an off-ramp, park, and do the interview.
Anyway, I got to meet him face-to-face last fall when he was doing a charity tennis event with Billie Jean King called Smash Hits with proceeds benefiting the Elton John AIDS Foundaton. Elton played doubles with Andy Roddick and I gotta say, he's got a terrific forehand!
Anyway, this has nothing to do with his 60th birthday but you know me, any excuse to tell a celebrity anecdote.
So happy 60th birthday to the "Rocket Man" and a big thanks for being so outspoken for the rights of gay people, for all that you have done in the fight against AIDS, and most of all, for the music that has accompanied us on car rides, on a lazy afternoon or on a jog in the park.
Rock on!

Lily Tomlin is causing a scandal! This brilliant talent, now 67, is handling the surfacing of guerrilla video shot on the set of the 2004 film "I Heart Huckabees" that show her cussing out director David O. Russell and vice-versa. Tomlin was interviewed by New Times in Miami about the video in which F-bombs fly after it showed up on YouTube.
“After poor Britney Spears, with her poor little legs open … I’m not the least bit upset about it,” Tomlin said. “That’s part of the upside and the downside of the Internet.”
What. A. Hoot.
The video had never before surfaced publicly but was the subject of a New York Times article in 2004, when it was rumored to be making the rounds of West Coast talent agencies. Tomlin is sitting next to Dustin Hoffman and another actress in a car when she goes into a profanity-laced fit.
“Oh my God, the one in the car is on there too?” Tomlin asked, referring to one of the two videos, which were shot during two different scenes. In “the one in the car,” Tomlin tells Russell: “Leave me the fuck alone! Do you know what the fuck is going on, period? Fuck you! Fuck you motherfucker!”
Tomlin, laughing, said to New Times: “I can’t believe the damn car is in there. I’ve never seen it. Is that when I’m sitting in the seat and really going nuts? Oh my God, I’m gonna die when I see that.”
In the second video, shot on the set of the office of Tomlin’s detective character, Russell is seen screaming at Tomlin: “Fuck you! I’m just trying to help you, you understand me? I’m not here to be fucking yelled at!” He then sweeps his arm across the desk at which Tomlin is sitting and its contents go flying.. “I’ve been working on this thing for three fucking years, not to be yelled at by some fucking c**t! So just fuck yourself!”
Tomlin, who had previously worked with Russell on "Flirting With Disaster" does not have hard feelings.
“I love David,” she said. “There was a lot of pressure in making the movie — even the way it came out you could see it was a very free-associative, crazy movie, and David was under a tremendous amount of pressure. And he’s a very free-form kind of guy anyway.”
“Adults have fights and go through stuff,” she added. “I know some people are more dignified in the world, that if you transgress against that kind of professionalism, that it’s some kind of great sin, but I don’t see it that way.”
It is so refreshing to read Tomlin's take on it all. She is so immensely talented with such a brilliant body of work on film, television and stage. And she's also an out lesbian (partnered with her frequent professional collaborator Jane Wagner) so that makes her all the more cool in my book.
Tomlin told New Times that the episode is “in a way liberating… now it’s all over, and so what, and I don’t have to keep up some great pretention I’m the most dignified, eloquent, elegant, perfect, smart-thinking, kind, generous person. I’m just a plain old human with a whole bunch of flaws.”
Aren't we all?

It's always so refreshing to have someone like Elton John in this Peter Pace/Tim Hardaway/Ann Coulter world. Elton is calling on people to speak out against homophobia in an editorial he wrote for New Statesman, a British magazine.
Here is part of it:
"In December 2005, I was legally bound to the man I love. It's my legal right and my human right. And I wanted everyone to know, I wanted to shout about it. In some countries, my voice would have been drowned out. Maybe even stamped out. Men and women are persecuted and attacked every day all over the world, just because of who they love and who they make love to...My voice has served me pretty well over the years. I hope maybe it can do him some good too. But we need more voices. Whether the bigot is in our local pub or a thousand miles away, we should all stand up and speak out for these basic human rights."

I blame it on being distracted while on vacation: last week was Liza Minnelli's 60th birthday! What can you say about this showbiz icon? So much. She's is an Oscar winner ("Cabaret"), an Emmy winner ("Liza With a Z"), the recipient of the Grammy Legends Award, and a two-time Tony winner ("Flora the Red Menace" and "The Act"). She also won a Golden Globe for her dramatic work in the TV movie "A Time to Live" and was Oscar-nominmated for "The Sterile Cookoo," has been in successful comedies on the big screen ("Arthur") and on television ("Arrested Development"), starred opposite Robert DeNiro in the musical "New York, New York" and has performed in sold-out concerts around the world - including a memorable late-80s tour with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.
She is every bit her mother's (Judy Garland) daughter and more. While Judy died tragically young, Liza is still here and is still kicking despite battles against alcohol and other addictions, bad marriages (most notably to the very strange David Gest) and health problems that include hip replacement, bad knees and struggles with her weight that she seems to be winning.

I was at the GLAAD Awards two years ago when Liza was honored with the Vanguard Award and she was a sensation, singing for us and making us love her as much as we ever did. I also got to see her at this terrific event where her father's (Vincente Minnelli) movie "Meet Me in St. Louis" (starring her mother) was screened with a remastered print. When she walked out on the stage at the DGA to intoduce the movie, I got goose bumps. That is some serious Hollywood royalty who has lived up to her lineage.
They really don't make superstars like Liza Minnelli anymore.

I was going to post this picture as part of my Elizabeth Taylor 75th birthday collage last week but it slipped through the cracks. Anyway, this is Miss Taylor and the love of her life, Richard Burton, at the 1971 Academy Awards. At this year's Oscars, I think only maybe Jennifer Lopez came even close to her level as far as old-fashioned movie star glamour.