Lesbian : May 2008 Archives

Poor Amelie Mauresmo.

Just two years ago, the tennis tour's most prominant out player, was ranked number one in the world with the Australian Open title in her pocket. She would go on to add Wimbledon to her trophy collection in the summer.

But since then, she's been in a free-fall and that continued Thursday when she was beaten by a low-ranked qualifier in the second round of the French Open. It is her home tournament and she has longed stuggled there (French players often feel immense pressure in Paris) but I was hoping she would be able to reverse her sagging fortunes.

Hang in there Amelie!

...The Oscar winning singer-songwriter turns 47 today! The mother of four has been such an inspiration through her music, her activism and her battle over breast cancer. Who can forget when she took the stage during the Grammys one year with a completely bald head? She's articulate and thoughtful and asked tough questions during the LGBT Democratci presidential debate.

Melissa is just one of those class acts who you are so proud to have as a member of the LGBT community.

I've been reading the reports in recent days on all kinds of sites that Jodie Foster's 14-year relationship with Cydney Bernard is on the rocks. Is it true? I have no idea. The first report came from the National Enquirer which is why I ignored it. And now it has gradually spread to such a point that the Enquirer isn't even being attributed anymore...to anyone!

One thing is for sure: Jodie is not going to set the record straight for us. She's not going to release a statement or do an interview with "The Insider." The only thing she has ever said about the relationship was something I heard wirth my own ears back in December when she received the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at the 16th annual Women in Entertainment Breakfast at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Towards the end of a wonderful speech, Jodie thanked "my beautiful Cydney who sticks with me through all the rotten and the bliss."

I was surprised to hear her thank Cydney publicly and figured it would be all over the news by the time I got to the office. It wasn't. I was the only journalist there who wrote about it and from there, it became worldwide news. That story fell in my lap. If there's a different story going on now, I cannot say.

Earlier posts:
- Jodie Foster thanks "my beautiful Cydney" at women's power breakfast...

-- Thoughts on my Jodie Foster story

I'm so excited to see this story on my friend Karen Ocamb in LA Weekly (one of the LA People of 2008) that I am going to post the entire thing. What Karen does becomes all the more important as the battle to preserve gay marriage in California heats up. I'd say that Karen would be working harder than ever but I don't think that's possible!

Here's the story, "Hard news as a civil right," by Patrick Range McDonald

On a recent Monday morning, Karen Ocamb sits back on a couch and gears up for another heavy week of hard-news journalism. Her one-bedroom apartment in West Hollywood is the command center, where she calls up sources, writes copy on a MacBook Pro and always keeps the television turned on to MSNBC or CNN as her three dogs lie around and nap. For 20 years, Ocamb has been reporting about a world few Los Angeles journalists, if any, have covered so consistently and with such passion.

"These are civil rights issues," she says. "Whenever someone is denied the right to the pursuit of happiness, we should all be concerned. That's what I continue to write about."

It was so much fun to see Dr. Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith) lean over and plant a long and sexy kiss on Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) in the elevator as Dr. McSteamy (Eric Dane) looked on in shock (and delight!).

I think this is only the beginning for Callie and Erica!

Sara Ramirez was on "The View" this morning and looked absolutely gorgeous. She wrapped up the fourth season of "Grey's Anatomy" last weekened then flew to New York to announce the Tony Award nominations yesterday. She, of course, is a Tony winner herself for "Spamalot" and the threater-loving women of "The View" started heaping compliments her way the minute she sat down:

Whoopi Goldberg: "Your voice. You are brilliantly funny and fabulously talented."
Joy Behar :You basically stopped that show ("Spamalot").
Sara recalled what it was like the moment she won her Tony: It felt amazing. I had my mother and my best friend next to me and I was not prepared to walk up there in that dress! (pictured, right) James Earl Jones is saying my name and he's saying it right! (It's pronounced Sada)

OK, didn't mean to bury the lede: Sara also talked about the possibility that her character of Callie Flores on "Grey's Anatomy" might enter into a lesbian relationship with
Brooke Smith's surgeon character. Callie has taken up with Dr. McSteamy (Eric Dane) and a clip shown on "The View" shows Callie teasingly saying to him: "We're lovers didn't uou know?... Look me in the eye and tell me you're not thinking about a threesome.You're not thinking of her and me and you and a video camera."

Ha! I love it!

Sara said Wednesday of the lesbian possibility: "It's so interesting because nothing has really happened yet there is a lot of buzz and speculation and perhaps some assumptions ... It's a revolutionary show with universal truths about relationships. If (creator and head writer) Chandra Rhimes decdes she wants to expand that further and expand our homophobic horizons, I think it's great."

So do we!

When I saw Cynthia Nixon talk about her girlfriend Christine Marinoni on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" a few weeks ago, I was touched by her obvious love for this woman. But in the blogosphere, all I ever read is disparaging remarks about Christine's appearance. It is ridiculous. She's not a Hollywood star, so don't expect her to look like Halle Berry or Charleze Theron or even Cynthia.

I wish people would stop that kind of garbage and celebrate the same-sex love, a couple who is high-profile and showing the world that doesn't want to give us equal rights that gay people aren't all shallow and want to be in relationships.

Had to get that off my chest. Now on to the news. Cynthia, in London for the premiere of "Sex and the City," told The Mirror that she would love to marry Christine: "It's something my girlfriend is interested in and it was not something my boyfriend ever was. I think that to get married to her would be a little act of rebellion. It's like if you've never had the vote and then you get it you're going to run out there and vote."

She also said that she's never been in love with a woman before, , "I had been with men all my life and I had never met a woman I had fallen in love with before. But when I did, it didn't seem so strange. I don't define myself. I'm just a woman in love with another woman."

I think they make a beautiful couple...

Caught the cast of "Sex and the City" on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" yesterday. Less than a month to go before the movie opens! The Big O asked Cynthia Nixon about her relationship with girlfriend Christine Marinoni.

"I was pretty shocked I have to tell ya," Cynthia said of falling in love with a woman. "It kinda made my day."

Then Oprah asked the other women, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis: "Were you all as shocked as we were?"

Kristin was the only one who knew about the relationship before it became public news and Cynthia said: "They were all really great in the things they said to the press."

Though she dated men most of her life, Cynthia says when she met her girlfriend, it didn't matter to her if she was male or female. She was in love.

"Love is love," Kristin said. "I think that's the important thing. There's something real and intangible and solid about it that you can't really dissect or analyze. That's how I feel when I'm around them. It's just undeniable."

SJP said Cynthia's happiness is all that matters. "[Cynthia] is such a capable, smart-thinking person, and our greatest concern was that Cynthia be happy," she said. "No one is better equipped to answer questions, and no one knows how to be more circumspect and how to draw the line. We were merely to follow suit, and we were happy, very happy to do so."

Oprah, wanting more, remarked: "Love is love but she'd been in a 15-year relationship with another kind of love," she said, referring to the father of Cynthia's two children.

Cynthia basically left Oprah with nothing left to say when she said: "Well, have you met my girlfriend?"

She must be amazing.

The audience was shown the flick - except for the last 20 minutes - and Sarah Jessica made them wow not to tell their friends about the plot: "You can brag, but don't blog!"

Cattral, Nixon and Davis and the women talked about what it was like to have such huge crowds show up along the streets of NYC to watch them film,

Kim: "I felt like a Beatle."
SJP: "It was madness...you can't be anything less than thrilled that people still care."

Oprah loves the flick: "Every one of tem just acted their little asses off... I don't think anyone has a tush left."