PITTSBURGH — Chelsea Handler will perform April 4 at the Benedum Center.

Tickets start at $39 available at TrustArts.org and the Box Office at Theater Square for the 7:30 p.m. benefit for the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh, the region’s leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organization. Tickets also can be purchased by calling 412-456-6666.

“An Evening with Chelsea Handler” will be hosted by six-time Emmy winner Bruce Vilanch, who for quite a few years could be found on “Hollywood Squares” to the left of Whoopi Goldberg (“if that’s possible” according to his bio).

After a successful 10-year career in TV, Handler ended her most recent talk show, “Chelsea,” and last October announced she would pursue political activism.

She has authored five books that have made the New York Times Best Seller List, four of which reached number one. She also writes columns for Cosmopolitan and NOW, a UK celebrity magazine. She was the host of the 20th annual GLAAD Media Awards and received the “Ally for Equality Award” from the Human Rights Campaign, and was named a Grand Marshal of LA Pride.

The post Bruce Vilanch To Host Chelsea Handler At Pittsburgh’s Benedum Center April 4th first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Chely Wright, Sam Sparro perform at San Francisco event presented by Southwest Airlines

Los Angeles, Sunday, June 6, 2010 –Bruce Vilanch, Nikki Blonsky, Wilson Cruz, Jai Rodriguez, Thea Gill, Michelle Clunie, Lynda and Jools Topp, Jan Wahl and Liam Mayclem were among the celebrities who joined the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) as it honored Cybill Shepherd, Lee Daniels, Robert Hanson and the best in documentaries and journalism last night at the 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards presented in San Francisco by Southwest Airlines.

The GLAAD Media Awards elevate and promote fair, accurate and inclusive stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, people and allies that have increased awareness, understanding and respect for the lives of LGBT people. The GLAAD Media Awards also fund GLAAD’s work to amplify stories of LGBT people and issues that build support for equality.

At the ceremony, Clementine Ford and Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim presented the Golden Gate Award to their mother Cybill Shepherd, who has been outspoken in her support for full equality for LGBT people. The Golden Gate Award is presented to individuals who, through their work, have increased the visibility and understanding of the LGBT community in the media.

“We stand on the shoulders of our elders and I want to thank everyone who’s worked so hard to make this possible,” Shepherd said in her acceptance speech. “I’m very humbled and I don’t know that I could be more dedicated to this cause, but I could never thank you enough, GLAAD, for your education of me.”

Also at the event, actor Jensen Atwood presented the Davidson/Valentini Award to director Lee Daniels, who received an Academy Award® nomination for his 2009 film Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire. The Davidson/Valentini Award is presented to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender person who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for the LGBT community in the media.

“I come from a world where I was beaten daily by my dad because of my gayness. I had bullies and I wanted to kill myself,” Daniels recounted while accepting the Award, noting how these experiences had strengthened his determination to succeed.

Robert Hanson, president of Levi Strauss Americas, received the San Francisco Local Hero Award for championing the company’s involvement in supporting full LGBT equality. Hanson was out of the country on business and unable to accept his award in person. Jeff Harlowe, Senior Vice President for Levi’s Latin America Commercial Operations, accepted the award on his behalf.

Writer and comedian Bruce Vilanch hosted the show. Country music artist Chely Wright performed with Rodney Crowell and Jeremy Lister, and pop artist Sam Sparro closed the show for the capacity audience at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. Other attendees included: Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer, Linda Perry who is dating Clementine Ford; Derrick Martin, a Georgia teenager who was thrown out of his home by his parents when he took his boyfriend to the prom; and Thomas Krever, executive director of the Hetrick-Martin Institute.

Following is a complete list of GLAAD Media Award recipients announced Saturday in San Francisco. Previous awards were presented in New York on March 13 and in Los Angeles on April 17. For a complete list of nominees and award recipients, please visit www.glaad.org/mediaawards.

Golden Gate Award: Cybill Shepherd (presented by her daughters, Clementine Ford and Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim)
Davidson/Valentini Award: Lee Daniels (presented by actor Jensen Atwood)
Outstanding Documentary: Ask Not (PBS) [Accepted by: director Johnny Symons]
Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia: “The Stonewall Riots: 40 Years Later” (AARP.org) [Accepted by: producer David Singleton]
San Francisco Local Hero Award: Robert Hanson (President of Levi Strauss Americas) [Accepted on his behalf by: Jeff Harlowe, Senior Vice President for Levi’s Latin America Commercial Operations]
GLAAD also announced that Lady Gaga received the award for Outstanding Music Artist for her album, The Fame Monster (Interscope). The GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Music Artist is presented to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) music artist who has increased visibility of the LGBT community and spoken out for equality via their music or media appearances. Lady Gaga has identified as bisexual in a number of interviews, spoke at last year’s National Equality March in Washington, D.C. and included LGBT images in her music videos.

GLAAD live tweeted from the GLAAD Media Awards red carpet and during the show. GLAAD’s tweets can be seen at http://twitter.com/glaad. If you tweet about the GLAAD Media Awards, please include the hashtag #GLAADMediaAwards in your tweets. Also, please follow @glaad on Twitter at http://twitter.com/glaad.

More than 100 corporate partners are showing their support, including New York Co-Presenting corporate partners IBM and Prudential, Los Angeles Presenting corporate partner ABSOLUT® Vodka and San Francisco Presenting corporate partner Southwest Airlines. GLAAD is also grateful to the 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards Platinum Underwriter corporate partners: AT&T, Anheuser-Busch, Inc., Time Warner, Lexus and University of Phoenix, as well as Underwriter corporate partners: Allstate Insurance Company, American Airlines, Comcast, Delta Air Lines, Fox Group, Harrah’s Foundation, Herb Ritts Foundation, Here Media, MTV Networks, MillerCoors, New York City Marriott & Renaissance Hotels, The Palette Fund, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Terry K. Watanabe Charitable Trust and UBS.

For a full list of corporate sponsors or information on how to become a corporate sponsor, please visit www.glaad.org/mediaawards.

About GLAAD
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) amplifies the voice of the LGBT community by empowering real people to share their stories, holding the media accountable for the words and images they present, and helping grassroots organizations communicate effectively. By ensuring that the stories of LGBT people are heard through the media, GLAAD promotes understanding, increases acceptance, and advances equality. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org. For the latest updates on our work, visit www.twitter.com/glaad and www.facebook.com/glaad.
[6/7/2010]

The post Cybill Shepherd, Lee Daniels Honored At 21St Annual Glaad Media Awards first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Cybill Shepherd and Lee Daniels were honored for their gay advocacy Saturday night at the final installment of the 21st annual GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco.

Shepherd, who played lesbian for three season on Showtime’s groundbreaking drama The L Word, was given the Golden Gate Award, while openly gay Precious director Daniels took home the Davidson/Valentini Award.

Wilson Cruz and Jai Rodriguez joined the show’s host writer-comedian Bruce Vilanch on the stage.

Lady Gaga won in the Outstanding Music Artist category for her most recent album The Fame Monster.

Chely Wright – the 39-year-old country music star who recently came out lesbian – performed for the crowd. Also performing was Australian recording artist Sam Sparro, who announced he is gay on the cover of Australian gay glossy Attitude in 2008.

Ask Not, a documentary on the military’s ban on open service, won in the Outstanding Documentary category, while The Stonewall Riots: 40 Years Later, a film that chronicles the gay rights movement, took home the Outstanding Digital Journalism prize.

Robert Hanson, president of Levi Strauss Americas, was given the San Francisco Local Hero Award for championing marriage equality in the business community.

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize excellence in 41 categories including newspaper content, syndicated columnists and comic books. Awards were rolled out in a series of ceremonies. ABC took home the most awards in television during a New York ceremony in March. During the award’s second installment in Los Angeles, Director Tom Ford’s film about a gay man’s journey after the loss of his lover, A Single Man, won for outstanding film.

The post Highlights Of The GLAAD Awards first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Words and images matter. That’s not only the slogan of GLAAD [the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation], it’s also the reason for the 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards this Saturday night at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. The event celebrates and honors those in the media for fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBT community. This year’s celebrity honorees and guests span the worlds of film, television, music, advertising, print and online media.

Funny man Bruce Vilanch will host the gala event that will feature Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky, Queer Eye’s Jai Rodriguez, Queer as Folk’s Michelle Clunie and Thea Gill, actor Wilson Cruz, recently out country star Chely Wright, pop singer Sam Sparro, and KRON 4’s Jan Wahl, among others.

Actress Cybill Shepherd (of TV’s Moonlighting and The L Word) will receive the Golden Gate Award; Levi Strauss president Robert Hanson will receive the San Francisco Local Hero Award; and Lee Daniels, the Oscar-nominated director of the film Precious, will be presented with the Davidson/Valentini Award.

Openly gay Daniels was not only the first African-American to direct a Best Picture nominee, his producing debut Monster’s Ball earned a Best Actress Oscar for Halle Berry. His film The Woodsman featured a fearless turn by Kevin Bacon as a pedophile trying to rebuild his life.

For the three of you who haven’t seen Precious, it’s an unflinching yet inspiring tale of a young girl struggling to overcome a bleak life of poverty and abuse. Mo’Nique won a richly deserved Supporting Actress Oscar as the girl’s abusive mother, and the film’s screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher became the first African-American to win a Best Screenplay Oscar.

In a recent interview, Daniels commented on his affinity for material that explores characters who live on the edge of hope and despair. Daniels admits that he’s drawn to “that gray area that we fight all the time, between good and bad. I think we’re all good people – I really believe that every morning when we wake up and our feet hit the floor, we stand up and we wanna be good people. But life throws us shit, and that shit defines that gray area where we live. I think that my cinema gives justice and life to that gray area.”

Despite his film being embraced and promoted by producers Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, Daniels never expected that Precious would resonate with a broad audience – until it did.

“You just can’t imagine anybody but a specific demographic and cultural understanding of the DNA of this, and that’s the genius that makes it so beautiful – that it’s so universal. That’s the gift Precious has given me. You really think you’re telling a story about a fat black girl, and only fat black girls will understand it, and then you realize we’re all Precious. We’re all fat black girls.”

Being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in this society can, at one time or another, make any of us feel like a fat black girl, even if you’re a thin, beautiful white girl.

Single white female
Chely Wright recently came out as the first openly gay country singer. For those of you who don’t follow country music, Wright was named the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Female Vocalist in 1994. Within the next few years she had major hits with her song “Shut Up and Drive” and her #1 single, “Single White Female.”

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Wright grew up in a deeply religious Christian family. In her recently published memoir Like Me, Wright reveals that she was aware that she was a lesbian at an early age, but concealed her sexuality in order to pursue her dream.

After six albums, a public romance with country star Brad Paisley, and a secret 12-year relationship with a woman, Wright experienced a breakdown in 2005. Standing before a mirror with a gun in her mouth, Wright was on the verge of suicide when the tears began to flow – and her need to live, honestly, consumed her. Wright’s depression, and her need for renewal, inspired her to write several songs which she began to record with producer Rodney Crowell for the her new album Lifted Off the Ground .

“When I was writing that music, I didn’t imagine I’d come out. I thought I’d still be hiding, and then I thought, ‘Holy crap, how can I keep hiding when the public is going to ask me who are these songs about?'”

Halfway through recording the album, Wright came out to Crowell, e-mailing him the song “Like Me” (her first overtly lesbian song). “As soon as I sent it to him, I opened up a Word document, and I began writing my book that day.”

Wright moved from Nashville to New York to write her confessional memoir. “It’s very calming and comforting when you’re committed to the truth,” she said. “Never for a moment did I think of turning back.”

For the support she needed, Wright turned to GLAAD. “Part of my reason for moving to New York was to put myself through gay school,” she said. “I wanted to educate myself, because I knew at some point I’d become a spokesperson for the gay community. They schooled me in this process – and to be embraced and encouraged by my gay pals has been a great source of support.”

Some of the key lessons that GLAAD provided for Wright were to be patient but not strident. “In interviews, people are very nervous. They don’t want to mess it up. You don’t want to correct people or embarrass them.”

Unlike performers who have come out to more gay-friendly fans, Wright has penetrated the belly of the beast; country music fans are among the most conservative, fundamentalist people in the country. But in Chely Wright, the gay and lesbian community has a new Joan of Arc.

“In country music, we’re acutely aware of what we can and can’t sell to our public. But I’m not about to allow a 14-year-old kid to sit in his basement and think he’s all alone.”

And that is the spirit that the GLAAD Media Awards celebrates. Because words, images – and even country songs – matter.

21st GLAAD Media Awards, Sat., June 5, San Francisco Marriott Marquis, 55 4th St., 4:30-11 p.m. Tickets: $350 (includes cocktails, dinner, show and celebrity afterparty): www.glaad.org.

06/03/2010

The post GLAAD Media Awards handed out in SF on June 5th – Bruce Vilanch to Host first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Bimma Loft is an immense modern furniture showplace and art gallery near the CalTrans Depot. It was the site of a Gay and Lesbians Against Defamation (GLAAD) Dinner Kickoff Party on April 21. Once they were past the check-in, guests saw the perfect party seating for their living spaces – a discounted large white fabric-covered couch. It had seating for four, and maybe three Bears, though it is forbidden for parties where red wine is being imbibed. The other remarkable items besides the eye-catching artwork on display were the Modafire cabinets, which produced a tremendous amount of warmth. It was announced that purchasers of Modafire portable fireplace units would be given a complimentary GLAAD Media Awards tickets, and people who signed up to be table hosts by April 21, for the June 5 Awards event, would be entered into a raffle for a four-day Puerto Vallarta condo stay.

Hundreds of people, including numerous non-LGBT couples, enjoyed the hors dâ€oeuvres, wine, complimentary cocktails, and the opportunity to mingle and exchange cards and glances. GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios ascended the 30-foot high DJ booth to speak about the organizationâ€s past accomplishments and future goals. He carefully described GLAADâ€s media advocacy, its work in fighting defamation, a how it has changed attitudes.

He then introduced EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors, and he spoke passionately about how GLAAD works with EQCA on equality legislation. SF GLAADâ€s Juan Barajas spoke afterwards, promoting attendance at the June 10 awards, and he enthusiastically encouraged inviting friends to one of the best parties of the year. Jovial and witty Bruce Vilanch is the event host, and actress Cybill Shepard and Levi Strauss President Robert Hanson are the honorees. Hanson is known to tell audiences at large events that their butts look best in Leviâ€s jeans.

City Treasurer Jose Cisneros joined Levi Strauss Foundationâ€s Miguel Bustos and Alfredo Pedroza as they greeted friends, and other gay Latinos from Aguilas were having cocktails and chatting. GLAAD National Board of Directors member John Marez spoke with this yearâ€s awards co-chairs Julie Candice and Richard Klein, they commented to Bimma Loft owner Nancy Arrowsmith about the beauty of her furniture gallery and thanked her for her generosity. Maria Cetto, who is performing with her band Azucar Con Ache at the May 1 NCLR Dinner, settled onto a leather couch with her wife Ann Lazo as they watched the parade of guests. Tingle Tangle Clubâ€s Earl Dax and Wulf Pak slid past Zero Divideâ€s Timothy Wu, pr consultant Mark Rhoades and realtor Joel Goodrich, and there were waves of more and more guests arriving well past the kickoff party closing time. This is a good sign for the upcoming GLAAD Media Awards, and this year may surpass 2009 in attendance.

The post The San Fran GLAAD Dinner Kickoff Party first appeared on We Got Bruce!.