I’m more stunned by Perez Hilton’s tweet that this song made him cry. Or that he felt the need to TWEET THAT! OMG!!! Yeah, kinda like that.
But here it is and I think it has better potential than that horrid “Hold It Against Me” single. Apparently Ke$ha helped out with this song. Perez said so. OMG!!!
In this week’s episode, Rich Lopez and I talked about former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert’s anti-gay tweet, the Oscars, Perez Hilton at SXSW, Equality Texas Lobby Day, the GSA controversy in Corpus Christi, and more.
Many gays are still smarting from the upset victory of Crash over Brokeback Mountain at the Oscars five years ago, but somehow, the lack of a clear frontrunner among many of the gay-content pictures this time around doesn’t feel as dramatic. Still, here would be the ideal queer surprises at the awards (they air Sunday at 6:30 p.m. on ABC).
Best picture, best original screenplay: Lisa Cholodenko’s lesbian family film The Kids Are All Right, is up for four awards, including best picture, which it won’t win. But Cholodenko and her co-screenwriter Stuart Blumberg have an outside shot at a writing award. They are up against the favorite, David Seidler for The King’s Speech (which also has the momentum for best picture). Then again, Seidler’s other screen credits include several animated films and a made for TV movie with Liz Taylor. It’s not like giving it to the lesbian would insult his art. And if King’s Speech does beat The Kids … well, everyone can root for a queen, and there are several in that movie. And gay uber-producer Scott Rudin is twice nominated, for The Social Network and True Grit. Pretty good odds.
Best actress: For a time, Annette Bening, pictured above, seemed a strong sentimental favorite to win as the totally gay half of the complex relationship in Kids, but Natalie Portman has come on strong with her SAG and Globe wins for Black Swan. Still, Portman’s character has same-sex fantasies about her dance rival Mila Kunis, so the LGBT community can claim a victory if either wins.
Best supporting actor: Mark Ruffalo as the straight dad in Kids is a longshot, as is Jeremy Renner, the villain in The Town (and, if Perez Hilton is to be believed, gay himself). They’ll probably lose to Christian Bale in The Fighter, but any would add a little hottie beefcake to the acceptance podium.
Live action short: Here’s an office pool tie-breaker you can get behind. Among the largely un-gay short film nominees is God of Love, pictured, a Jim Jarmusch-esque comedy about a homely man who acquires the power of Cupid. He uses it to seduce women … and at least one man. It’s quirky and fun, and among a perfectly fine slate of nominees, the stand-out.
— Arnold Wayne Jones
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition.
I’ve been scouring the roster of the bands appearing at SXSW this year and while it’s always an impressive list, the gayish vibe wasn’t hitting as hard as I had hoped — but with tons of bands, it’s easy to miss some of the smaller ones, so I keep looking.
Still, one single event might trump anything else gay about SXSW — a discussion panel titled What Would Gaga Do? Facebook’s Meredith Chin moderates the event which includes the Queen of Mean himself Perez Hilton and Semi Precious Weapons singer Justin Tranter along with VEVO’s Fred Santarpia.
The session is described as “Lady Gaga has said that she has ‘embraced the Internet in a pop-cultural kind of way’ by thinking about what pop artists of the 70s and 80s would have done if they had the social technologies we have today. With the disruption of the music industry, artists, managers and record labels discuss the importance of evolving with technology and embracing the power of the Web.”
So perhaps it isn’t really just about Lady Gaga as much as it is about the collision of music, media and the web, but it would appear she’s the spark that led to this session.
WWGD is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. March 18 at the Austin Convention Center, Room 18ABC, 500 E. Cesar Chavez.
What is it with pop stars and Dallas men? George Michael started the trend with his tolerant beau Ken Goss, Then we find out that Lance Bass is dating someone originally from Dallas. Over the past few days, the gay gossip blogs have been buzzing about local actor Jeff Walters and his celeb boyfriend Clay Aiken. After we found that out, his appearance in the audience at Theatre 3′s Drowsy Chaperone all started to make sense.
Perez Hilton posted this clip about the two’s appearances in town, which included stops at Pinkberry, Gaylord Texan and Borders. Aiken also took in Ohlook’s production of The Rocky Horror Show where Walters played the title character. And then it came out that Walter is an underwear model. Hot. Then it came out Walters had sexy pics on Grindr. Extra hot.
Colleague Chance sent me this TwitPic of Aiken at Theatre 3. Initially we thought “that’s random.” Come to find out, Aiken was doing so much more here.
Oh, and Aiken’s tour stops in Grand Prairie at Verizon Theatre on March 8. In case you were more interested in his music than his love life.
Last week, I sat down at the computer and watched a number of videos from people — famous and not-so-famous — who were participating in Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” campaign, sending video messages to LGBTQ youth that even though they may face bullying and harassment and discrimination now, life will get better if they just hang on.
One of the videos I saw was from gay gossip maven Perez Hilton. I have to admit, I didn’t even finish watching his video because I — apparently like a lot of other people — couldn’t stomach the apparent hypocrisy of watching this man — who has made a living bullying people and outing people who weren’t ready to be out — speaking out against bullying and trying to console young people who were being bullied.
Apparently, Perez realized the hypocrisy of it, too. And he went on Ellen DeGeneres’ show to acknowledge that hypocrisy and to pledge to change his ways. Will he change? I guess we just have to wait and see. But in the meantime, watch the video, and decide for yourself whether you believe he is sincere.
The other day we shared with you the Rev. Stephen Sprinkle’s “It Gets Better” YouTube message to LGBT youth. Sprinkle, a gay 58-year-old assistant professor at TCU’s Brite Divinity School, may lack the celebrity appeal of some others who’ve recorded these messages in recent days, such as Chris Colfer, Tim Gunn or Ke$ha (also, $prinkle doesn’t usually spell his name with a dollar sign). But out of more than 1,000 videos submitted to the “It Gets Better” YouTube channel, Sprinkle’s is among a handful featured in a national story about the campaign from the Associated Press. That’s because, according to AP, Sprinkle is like the gay Santa Claus. And after all, for the average LGBT youth who’s not going to become a celebrity, a grandfather figure who’s a man of the cloth probably has a lot more cred than Perez Hilton. At least we’d like to think so. Here’s the excerpt about Sprinkle from the AP story:
It’s been 40 years since Stephen Sprinkle was in high school. At 58, he rocks gently in an office chair, his trim gray beard and gentle smile offering a touch of Santa Claus in his video. He describes his Christian upbringing in rural North Carolina and his decision to deny himself an “affectional life” as a gay man when he received his call to the ministry in his 20s.
“It made me lonely for a lot of years,” he tells his viewers, as he constantly looked over his shoulder and lived in fear he would slip up and reveal his secret.
It wasn’t until he was hired as an assistant professor at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas, that he decided to come out “utterly, fully and completely,” surviving attempts to have him fired and earning tenure, Sprinkle said in an interview.
Since posting the video, he’s heard from several young people, including one so upset that Sprinkle tracked down professional help.
“He’s 18. He’s a closeted religious person and he told me he was afraid he was going to explode,” Sprinkle said. “He kept asking over and over, `Does God hate me?’ I said ‘Heavens, no. God created you beautiful and complete. God makes no mistakes like that.’”
Carrie Prejean made headlines earlier this when, competing as Miss California in the Miss USA pageant, she answered Perez Hilton’s question on same-sex marriage by saying, basically, she was against because God was against it.
She lost the pageant and eventually lost the Miss California crown. But she did gain a role as a spokeswoman for the National Organization for Marriage, a group that has been working to defeat efforts to extend equal marriage rights to same-sex couples around the country.
But now, in the wake first of topless photos of Prejean that were made public and then a video of her “performing solo” she made for a boyfriend, NOM has reportedly “fired” Prejean, too. NOM has said Prejean was never an official spokesperson for the group, but the organization certainly used her “girl-next-door” visage as much as they could to promote their cause (before the latest scandal, of course).
Prejean had owned up to having made the tape, calling it “the biggest mistake” of her life (although during a recent interview on “Larry King Live” she apparently didn’t want to talk about it anymore, telling Larry that he was being “inappropriate” when he asked her why she had settled her lawsuit against the Miss USA Pageant. Rumor has it that she settled because news of the video leaked. Larry was asking why she settled.)
But now RadarOnline.com is reporting that Prejean’s “biggest mistake” was one of many big mistakes. The site says Prejean has made at least eight sex tapes (all solo performances) and that there are at least 30 naked photos of her out there, some of which she took herself, in the mirror with a cell phone.
