I Didn't Say It ...

Elton John, honoring Dr. Anthony Fauci on World AIDS Day for his early work on the global HIV/AIDS crisis and his effort to educate the public on the COVID-19 pandemic:

"What a wonderful and fitting way to mark World AIDS Day, by honoring one of the biggest champions in the history of the AIDS epidemic. "There are very few people on this planet who have dedicated themselves to a lifetime of service to save millions of lives like Dr. Fauci. His unwavering commitment to public health and innovation has transformed the approach to HIV, and it is his leadership and persistence that will ultimately help us overcome the Covid-19 pandemic."

Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, served as the National Institutes of Health's AIDS coordinator before becoming the first director of the NIH's Office of AIDS Research, where he served from 1988 to 1994. He faced protests and condemnation from activists in organizations like the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power [ACT UP] for his handling of the deadly disease as it claimed more than 100,000 lives in the United States, but he would go on to collaborate with activists on research and drug trial development.

Hero. Or Heroes. Elton John deserves heaps of praise for his work rising money for AIDS research.

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Elliot Page, formerly Ellen Page, announcing he is transgender and nonbinary:

“Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot. I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life. I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey. I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self. I’ve been endlessly inspired by so many in the trans community. Thank you for your courage, your generosity and ceaselessly working to make this world a more inclusive and compassionate place. I will offer whatever support I can and continue to strive for a more loving and equal society. I love that I am trans. And I love that I am queer. And the more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more my heart grows and the more I thrive. To all the trans people who deal with harassment, self-loathing, abuse, and the threat of violence every day: I see you, I love you, and I will do everything I can to change this world for the better.”

Welcome out, Elliot. It’s a brave move, even in the 21^st century, to come out as trans. But here’s hoping visibility will erase the hate; here’s hoping your first steps pave the way for others to make that move.

Welcome out.

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Caroline Giuliani, offering her batshit crazy daddy, Rudy, some “self-care tips” … like how to care for an adopted dog … or taking on a hobby … after _____lost the election bigly:

“Avoid charcoal products or anything with artificial dyes, which may result in your face oozing as you make false claims of voter fraud in Philadelphia, for example.{And] breathe. As a devoted yogi and longtime breather, I recommend inhaling for two months—the length of time that Donald Trump once suggested the coronavirus would last—and exhaling for 16 years, the average length of a Supreme Court justice appointment. Please, just treat [the dog] better than Trump has treated his lapdogs: William Barr, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham. [Try] knitting, Reiki, capoeira, even building imaginary walls—there are so many enriching possibilities. (Please note that whining, lying, and grabbing women by the pussy are not skills.) Call your friends and family. Connect with the people in your life who prioritize science, empathy and facts. Or at least stop ignoring your relatives who just want you to allow the democratic process to unfold unobstructed. (Artsy daughters are especially insightful.)”

Suh-nap

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Ryan Phillippe, actor, on how his Baptist parents shunned him for playing a gay teen shunned by his parents on One Life To Live:

“I thought my parents were going to disown me [for deciding to do Cruel Intentions]. I had grown up going to, like, Baptist school and Christian school. My first role ever coming out of the Christian school when I was a senior in high school, I played the first gay character on a soap opera—first gay teenager ever—and so I was shunned at that point. So, they were already out of the picture. I mean this was 1992, and I was playing a gay teenager and I was in a Christian school. They weren’t happy about it.”

Life imitating art. Even worse his parents didn’t want him to play gay and so they shunned him. I wonder what they might have done if Phillippe was actually gay.

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Melissa McCarthy, actress, apologizing for HBO Max’s $20,000 donation to Exodus Cry, an organization led by Benjamin Nolot, who is virulently anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice:

“It has come to our attention that our 20 Days of Kindness, which is something—a  kindness up that we started to kind of shine a light on 20 great charities—had one in there that, there’s no other way to say it, we blew it. We made a mistake, and we backed a charity that, upon proper vetting, stands for everything that we do not. So, I want to thank everyone, on social media who said, ‘What are you doing? Are you sure you want to back this?’ Because the answer was no we do not. We have pulled it. We are so incredibly grateful for you ringing the bell and helping us be better, We’re sorry for our mistake. Oh boy, are we sorry for it. [I] can’t believe that we missed it. And that’s it. And I just want to say that I hope it doesn’t ding the other charities because they’re really doing some amazing things, and 20 Days of Kindness Is really meant to shine the light on all of those wonderful charities. So, let the kindness continue… and thank you. Thanks for the help, we really needed it.”

The donation was made as part of a 20 Days of Kindness campaign to promote McCarthy’s new film Superintelligence. Nolot, who now claims his views have changed, has a history of inflammatory rhetoric towards homosexuals and abortion, and has referred to homosexuality as ‘an unspeakable offense to God’ and compared abortion to the Holocaust.

Thanks to Melissa McCarthy who, unlike Nolot, realized that when you know better, you do better.

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Braunwyn Windham-Burke, of the Real Housewives of Orange County, coming out as a lesbian:

“It’s been something that I think everyone’s kind of known has been coming, but I’m finally comfortable enough to say, I like women. I’m gay. I’m a member of the LGBTQI+ community. I’m a lesbian. It has taken me 42 years to say that, but I’m so proud of where I am right now. And I’m so happy where I am. To be able to be comfortable in my own skin after so long is just so nice. I love [my husband] Sean. I love him dearly, he is my person, he is my family. But I’m not attracted to men and I never have been. We are in unchartered territories. Sean and I are still married, I plan on staying married. We are not sleeping in the same bedroom right now, but we are in the same house. We are raising our kids together, he’s my best friend. He knows the girl I’m dating. I grew up in a time when, you know, my idea of what being a lesbian was you had short hair, you wore flannel. There’s a very masculine stereotype, so when I was younger I never really thought that I could be that. I knew I was attracted to women. I always have been. But I liked makeup and hair and I didn’t quite understand what to do with that.”

Windham-Burke has been married to her husband Sean Burke for more than 20 years, and they have seven children. She also revealed this season that she is an alcoholic..

After reading this I watched RHoC that night, and while, during that episode she had yet to come out, she did reveal that she had been living her life doing what others wanted of her, keeping quiet, not being true to herself. And now, at 42, she’s coming into her own.

Good for her. Welcome out, Braunwyn, and please accept as out gift from HOMO HQ the Official Coming Out Toaster Oven™ and a copy of the Gay Agenda.

It matters now when or how you do it, it only matters that you do it. Welcome out.

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Tuesday Thought #1

I Ain't One To Gossip But ....

Apparently, actor Mark Webber was fired from an ABC pilot before it even aired, and he thinks it’s because the executives did not find him handsome enough.

Seriously? ABC, home of John Goodman and Tim Allen is suddenly the arbiter of handsome men on TV? Bitch, please. And yet the fact remains that when ABC’s Untitled Colbie Smulders pilot—formally Stumptown—was the network’s first new drama series picked up, Webber’s name was nowhere in the cast list. And so naturally, Mark Webber too to Twitter:

“Look, I’m a straight white male so I know my journey has been way less painful in this warped industry, but I’m being recast in a network television show because I’m not handsome enough for the executives. … I’m so curious how they’re going to frame this in their upfront announcement. What the spin will be? Probably none as I’ve already been deemed insignificant by them. The way I was treated was so degrading. These ‘executive’ decisions are why network tv is dying. The way this industry has contributed to women hating their bodies is just ONE of the many things I’ve abhorred for so long. I know a lot of us men generally stay silent with our challenges in this arena.”

Wait, so you hate network TV, and you think it's dying and you feel network TV is degrading, but you’re pissy because network TV kicked you to the curb? You need to settle, Mark; settle down. But he didn’t; instead he continued:

“I was raised by a single teenage mom. We were poor. We were homeless. We lived in the streets. She became a radical revolutionary leader. I give zero fucks what filthy rich executives at huge corporations think about me. Never have. Never will. I feel sad that by expressing my own bad experience with the show I was fired from, that it could interfere with the positive experience the actors & creatives that are still on the show should be having. I wish the writers, producers and cast nothing but love.”

And what do you wish for network TV executives who will see this childish woe-is-me rant and scratch your name off their list of prospective actors?

Get back to Starbucks quickly, Mark, your job may still be open.

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Even better at trying to make sure she doesn’t work again is one Constance Wu, from TV’s Fresh Off the Boat and the movie Crazy Rich Asians. Wu is none-too-happy about that her show was picked up for a new season because she was hoping it would die so she could embark on a glorious film career, but ABC put the kibosh on that when they renewed the show, forcing Wu—who makes 300K a year from TV—to also take to Twitter to rage about still having a TV job:

“So upset right now that I’m literally crying. Ugh. F–k .” 

And when someone congratulated her on the renewal by saying it was “great news,” she replied:

“No, it’s not.”

Poor Constance; she’s got a job on TV making thousands of dollars a week and was in one of the biggest films of the year, but she wants us all to feel her pain at having to go back to TV. Luckily, perhaps in the nick of time, her publicist sat her down and told her she was inches away from destroying her career because now Wu is trying a different spin:

“That was not a rampage, it was just how I normally talk. I say f–k a lot. I love the word. Y’all are making a lot of assumptions about what I was saying. And no, it’s not what it’s about. No it’s not … what this is all about. Stop assuming. Todays tweets were on the heels of rough day&were ill timed w/the news of the show. Plz know, Im so grateful for FOTB renewal. I love the cast&crew. Im proud to be a part of it. For all the fans support, thank u & for all who support my casual use of the word f-ck-thank u too.” 

Nice try Constance, but … “So upset right now that I’m literally crying. Ugh. F–k” ... doesn’t sound like anything other than you being pissy at going back to star in a TV show making nearly half-a-million a year, rather than be an adult and see if you can work this out and still be allowed to work in film.

Maybe you and Mark will get hired to do PSAs for acne creams or suppositories.

At least until you both grow up.

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It used to be that Steve Harvey was everywhere you looked on television. Now? Not so much.

He’s been “let go” from two different jobs this week. First, it was announced that Steve would no longer be doing Little Big Shots because next season Melissa McCarthy will be the host.

Then came word that he’d been axed from his own talk show because they’re changing the name of it to The Kelly Clarkson Show and so Kelly Clarkson will be hosting that one.

Too bad he wasn’t quick enough to change his name to either Kelly McCarthy or Melissa Clarkson, cuz he might have kept both those gigs.

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Paris Hilton was on Watch What Happens Live! This week and is still trying to make herself relevant by reigniting her decades-old feud with Lindsay Lohan.

Paris had made it clear to interviewers that she never wants her name spoken in the same sentence as Lohan, and so Andy Cohen–being a big old drama queen–asked Paris to say three nice things about Lohan and she couldn’t come up with one, except to say:

“…She’s… beyond… lame and embarrassing.”

How funny that Paris Hilton is calling anyone embarrassing since the last time she was in the news was when she was going Full Lohan trying to get her engagement ring back from an ex-fiancé because she paid for it herself. Now that’s embarrassing.

Lindsay, of course, heard the news and had a source—possibly Dina after she’d soaked her head in a box of chardonnay—say that Lohan has not been in contact with Hilton in some time and doesn’t understand why the heiress continues to talk about her publicly. She feels Paris is a little obsessed with her and it’s becoming a thing.

An embarrassing thing.

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When we last left Constance Wu, she was trashing her TV show job because, after starring in one hit movie, as part of an ensemble, she thinks she’s a movie star. Trouble is she’s acting like a spoiled self-entitled movie star.

Apparently, Constance is a diva, and so much of a diva on the set of her new film Hustlers that she’s making her co-star, the diva of all divas, Jennifer Lopez, seem positively normal. In fact, a source from the set, and it’s either JLo or Cardi B, says:

“[Wu] is a pain in the fucking ass. She just won’t agree to do anything. She refuses to do interviews; she won’t have visitors on her sets. It’s like a cliché. She is very talented–but all signs are pointing to a difficult diva.”

And now, either though ABC President Karey Burke says the cast and crew of Fresh Off the Boat love Constance and have no plans to replace her, a source there claims Constance is the “most hated person on set.” They add that she’s rude to everybody, but mostly the crew.

In fact, they compare her to Katherine Heigl, and we all know how fabulous her career turned out to be; she’s on basic cable.

Now, I like a diva, especially one that makes JLo seem sweet and innocent, but Wu is about to Diva herself out of all jobs in Hollywood; well, unless she gets a job driving one of those buses that takes you by the movie star’s homes.

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When Ben Affleck announced he was no longer going to be Batman because the public shouted, “Please Ben! You’re not Batman! Stop!” we all thought big old hunk of beef, and My-Husband-In-My-Head, Armie Hammer was the new caped crusader.

Well, that’s not true, because it looks like Twilight star Robert Pattinson will mutter and pout his way into the cowl.

Seriously? That pale little waif of a man instead of Hammer? How’s he gonna get that gelled hair up in that mask?

Damn. I so wanted to be Missus Batman.

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Random Musings

Last Sunday, I was in the kitchen getting ready to make some soup when Carlos, who had been on the computer for a while, sauntered in and asked this question:

“Who is this Tom Brady and why is everyone talking about him?”

Bless his heart. Later on, as he practiced his trumpet, I was channel-surfing—well, waiting for Gaga to come on—so I had the TV tuned to the Super Bowl. Carlos again entered the room, squinted at the screen and when I asked what he was doing he said:

“I just want to see what’s happening so tomorrow at work if anyone asks I can say I watched the game.”

I replied:

“Oh honey. No one at your office is gonna believe you watched football!”

Bless his heart.

Neo-Nazi, white supremacist, racist alt-right leader Richard “May I call you ‘Dick” Spencer, who made headlines last November when his speech to white supremacist _____ supporters ended with Nazi salutes and Heil _____, is back and as racist as ever  ... over a football game.

Dick Spencer Tweeted:

“I was born in Boston, Mass. I'm proud of the NFL's Whitest team! #superbowl”

“Rooting for the Pats!1/ Belichick & Brady support Trump2/ Three White widereceivers3/ Consistently NFL's whitest team4/ ATL is dreadful”

Earlier in the game, when the Patriots were down by twenty points, he replied to this Tweet from a man named Chase Mitchell:

“@RichardBSpencer how does it feel to be losing to America's blackest gayest city you nazi piece of f**king garbage”

... with this ...

“Your tweet aged like a fine wine.”

Then this ...

“Happy birthday Trayvon Martin! #Patriots #SuperBowl”

Then this ...

“And to think #kek allowed the #Patriots to win in Black History Month! #Superbowl”

Then this...

“For the White race, it's never over. #SuperBowl”

And finally this ...

“Will Atlanta riot after #superbowl loss? And more importantly how can they tell?”

Again, may I call you Dick ... because you are a dick. A racist Nazi-saluting, goose-stepping, _____-supporting, Hitler loving, race-baiting, piece of excrement, dick.

I post this because this racist openly supports _____, and _____ has never once condemned the filth that spews forth from Dick Spencer's mouth.

Remember that. Resist.

I was a huge Downton Abbey fan and distraught when Matthew Crawley was killed because actor Dan Stevens, above, wanted to do other things. I missed his sweet smile and his baby blues every Sunday night. But now Stevens is back playing a maybe-crazy-maybe-not man on FX’s Legion, so I am getting my fix.

And then, whilst watching The Real O’Neal’s I noticed that Little Gay Kenny’s new boyfriend is awfully cute. He’s a high school student and I was feeling a little like a pervert thinking this high school boy was cute, but then I learned that the actor, Sean Grandillo, above, is 24 ... so I feel less like a pervert and more like a lech.

And there is a difference.

This is what a White House Press Secretary does ... Spicer demanded an apology from The New York Times for publishing an article about President _____ and saying that Hair Furor wears a bathrobe.

“That report was so riddled with inaccuracies and lies that they owe the president an apology.  ... I don’t think the president owns a bathrobe; he definitely doesn’t wear one.”

Yup, let’s talk _____ in a bathrobe. It's ugly, right?

And speaking of _____ and Spicer, what did they think of Melissa McCarthy’s brilliant portrayal of Spicer on SNL? Well, Spicer said he thought the impersonation was “cute” but Hair Furor, though he didn’t Tweet about it, was less than amused.

A "top _____ donor” says McCarthy’s performance did the one thing that no one has been able to do: shut _____ up. The source says McCarthy’s Spicer “rattled” Hair Furor and he thought that having a woman play Spicer made his team look weak.

I hope SNL runs with this and turns all of _____’s men into women and all his women into men. High-larious.

Ouch. Hair Furor’s SCOTUS nominee Neil Gorsuch met with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal this week and told him that _____’s Tweets about “so-called’ judges were “demoralizing” and “disheartening”:

“He said very specifically that they were demoralizing and disheartening and he characterized them very specifically that way. I said they were more than disheartening and I said to him that he has an obligation to make his views clear to the American people, so they understand how abhorrent or unacceptable President _____’s attacks on the judiciary are.”— Richard Blumenthal

And before _____ could spin this whole story into a lie, Ron Bonjean, communications leader for Gorsuch during the confirmation process, admitted that Gorsuch had said it.

Poor _____, even his own appointee is rattling his cage.

This week, as Senator Elizabeth Warren read a letter from Coretta Scott King about racist Attorney General nominee Jess Sessions, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stopped her from speaking, saying she had violated Senate rule No. 19, which says senators cannot “directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.”

So, let me get this queer: the GOP leadership in Congress silenced a woman for reading a letter from another woman because of some archaic rule about denigrating a fellow member of Congress--in this case racist asshat Jeff Sessions--yet another member of Congress, yet Orrin Hatch can call Democrats idiots and Ted Cruz can call them liars and that's just fine?
And then these MEN, who silenced a WOMAN, allow other men to read that very same letter? Is that because they’re as afraid of Warren as they are of Hillary Clinton? or is it because the GOP doesn't care what women think?

Well then ... #Warren2020

So the Patriots won the Super Bowl and lotsa folks are feeling the upset is a little like the _____ win in November, especially given that Tom Brady—one of the dimmest bulbs in the sport ... seriously, listen to him speak. I’ve heard third graders speak more eloquently—and Patriots coach Bill Belichick are _____ supporters. But not everyone on the team is so keen on Hair Furor.

But, Devin McCourty, left, and Martellus Bennett, right, two of Tom Brady’s teammates, won’t be making the traditional ceremonial trip to the White House that most Super Bowl winning teams make every year:

“I’m not going to the White House. Basic reason for me is I don’t feel accepted in the White House. With the president having so many strong opinions and prejudices I believe certain people might feel accepted there while others won’t.”— Devin McCourty

For his part, Martellus Bennett said:

“It is what it is. People know how I feel about it. I don’t support the guy in the [White House].”

Good for them, and if they’d like to stop by my little house in Smallville and say Hello, I wouldn’t mind that at all. I mean, a couple of beefy hot guys who don't like _____? I would love it.

This week I was at the DMV and a woman and her little bowl were sitting behind me waiting for their number to be called and this is what I heard the mother say:

“Baby, this is the fourth car Mama has had to register in six months. I gotta stop wreckin’ cars. That’s my New Years Revolution.”

It must be a revolution if she’s wrecked that many cars!

Looking for a way to Resist? Here’s a simple one ... all it takes is a stamp ... or a hundred, depending on how many you mail

Do.It. Resist. Imagine the _____ White Getting millions and millions of these!

I Didn't Say It ...

Melissa McCarthy, on that odd Ghostbusters reboot trailer that opens with “30 years ago four scientists saved New York”:

“It’s a reboot. I know, it’s weird that they said the ’30 years ago’ because in this movie, the first one didn’t happen … it’s the same thing of four unlikely heroes, it’s in New York City, ghosts are taking over. It’s that same classic story, but it’s not a ’30 years later.’ The trailer says 30 years later, which I didn’t quite get myself. Believe me, the question was asked. I was like, ‘I think that’s very confusing’, but then everyone said ‘We don’t care what you think.’”

Careful. You don’t wanna piss McCarthy off. I’ve seen her throw a punch!

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Elizabeth Warren, on Donald [t]Rump: 

“Donald Trump clearly feels threatened by Secretary Clinton’s qualifications to be president so he’s attacking Hillary Clinton for being a woman. That’s what weak men do. It is an old story, and I don’t think the American voters will fall for it. ... I hoped you were going to ask me if I thought he was a sexist, [but] that’s like asking if he has bad hair. He wears the sexism out front for everyone to see. We need someone in the White House who isn’t afraid to fight for equal rights for women, [and] that person is not Donald Trump.”

We need Warren in the White House.

Perhaps she can run after Hillary’s eight years??

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Pat McCrory, North Carolina and Bathroom Bill signer, whining that his reelection campaign is in peril now:

“And now, sadly, in our nation if you have disagreement and you’re on the wrong side of that disagreement, according to the thought police, you’re dispensed of. You’re exiled. I’ve even had some people call me, ‘Please don’t, governor, don’t show up to this event because I have people who disagree with you and we don’t want it. That’s not America. Society is changing quickly and anybody who gets in the way is in trouble. And I might be in trouble. I might be looking for a side job over here.”

Society is changing and if you wanna stay in the Hate and segregate people because you don’t understand who they are, then you will be exiled.

My hope is that you are soundly voted out of office and are never heard from again.

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President Obama, on Donald [t]Rump:

“I think that he is not somebody who even within the Republican Party can be considered as equipped to deal with the problems of this office, but look, we live in a democracy. If in fact the Republicans nominate Mr. Trump, then it’s going to be an interesting fall season. I’m confident that ultimately the Democrat in that circumstance will win.”

A Democrat in the White House again, and the Senate going Blue.

The only thing better than that would be if Obama could run for a third term!

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Bobby Jindal, on supporting [t]Rump:

“If it comes down to a binary choice between Donald Trump, I’m supporting the party’s nominee. I’m not happy about it. I don’t think he’s the best qualified, I don’t think he’s the one most likely to be successful, but I would vote for him over Hillary Clinton.”

Typical Republican.

They’ll vote for the guy who isn’t qualified, who they believe cannot be successful, because he’s not Hillary Clinton?

I think Jindal’s angling for a spot on the ticket … as Melania’s dog-walker.

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Colton Haynes, coming out as gay:

“I should have made a comment or a statement, but I just wasn’t ready. I didn’t feel like I owed anyone anything. I think in due time, everyone has to make those decisions when they’re ready, and I wasn’t yet. But I felt like I was letting people down by not coming forward with the rest of what I should have said…People who are so judgmental about those who are gay or different don’t realize that acting 24 hours a day is the most exhausting thing in the world.” 

I agree, though I wish these gay actors would just come out already — I  mean, it’s not like it was when Ellen came out and lost her TV show — because they’d help so many young people by showing that it’s okay, it’s fabulous, to be yourself.

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I Didn't Say It ...

Brian Brown, of NOM, still crying because people can’t Hate The Gays:

"Not only has the Christian baker been ordered to 'cease and desist' from 'discrimination' against gay couples, but he and his staff have been ordered to undergo two years of 'training' to assure that no further 'discrimination' occurs. The baker must report quarterly to the state Civil Right Commission about how it is changing its policies, its "training" progress and the names of any clients it has refused to serve. The movement to redefine marriage was once said to be about 'tolerance and acceptance.' Today it is about tyranny. Anyone who continues to think that redefining marriage won't affect you or your children is just not paying attention. It already affects every American, and this will only continue to get worse. Oh, sure, you'll always be free to hold a belief about marriage, but if that belief ever impacts your actions as a citizen, you can expect the full force of government to come down to crush you."

Here’s what you don’t get, Brian, you and the baker can hate the gays, and hate “redefining” marriage all the live long day, but you cannot use hate, masked as religion, which the height of irony, to discriminate.

M’kay?

Phil Wilson, president of the Black AIDS Institute, on the ongoing fight: 

"The fight is today. It’s a fight that we need to have and it’s certainly tied to access to care, it’s tied to access to information, but it’s also tied to making sure that we understand that everybody matters. Now the new folks that don’t matter in this context are young, black, gay and bisexual men and all of us need to be part of that fight because as we found out in the early days of HIV, HIV spread like it spread because we didn’t care about the first folks that we perceived to be at risk. And as long as anyone is at risk ... to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., we’re all at risk."

HIV/AIDS knows no color, no age, no gender, no orientation, and it isn’t over, especially in the black communities.

Used to be that Silence = Death, now, though, maybe we should say Ignorance = Death.

Harry Hamlin, who appeared in the 1980s film Making Love, in which he played a gay man having an affair with a married man, saying that film ended his film career:

"It was way before its time...It was something that I would repeat. I would do it again today, even though there was a ruffle in my career after that, for sure....What it did is it created a transition for me between feature film to television...(I didn't work in feature films) ever again. That was the last feature I did..."

I’m glad he said he’d do it again because, while it was ahead of its time, it paved the way for gay-themed mainstream films.

But, Harry, after doing Making Love you appeared in Blue Skies Again in 1983, appeared on a very successful TV show LA L:aw for several years, and have made another eleven or so feature films, not including many TV films, since Making Love.

Methinks you doth protest too much, especially given that it’s been thirty years.

Charlize Theron, saying Googling herself and reading what people say about her, feels like rape:

“I don’t do that, so that’s my saving grace. When you start living in that world, and doing that, you start I guess feeling raped.” 

What is with these celebrities comparing their lives to those of rape victims or soldiers at war? I mean, I loves me some Charlize, but if it’s so violating, so close to rape, to read what folks say about her, maybe she should find another line of work.

Failing that, she should rally think before she speaks.

Lady Bunny, on the use of the word "tranny":

“Tranny is an abbreviation for transvestite and transsexual, so I'm free to use it since I fall with that category. Much as blacks can use the N-word. I know tranny from London, where they abbreviate everything -- breakfast is brekkie, biscuit is biccie. Tranny is used affectionately on the club scene. Even transsexual advocates like Jayne County and Kate Bornstein have come out and said that these words aren't necessarily slurs. … And I'm sick of people thinking they can ban words because they make them feel bad. Boo hoo for you! Any time we choose a different path in life, we're going to get shit for it -- whether you choose to be openly gay, trans or even a straight guy with tattoos all over his face. If you don't have the balls to take s--t, then choose an easy path. And for huge gay organizations like GLAAD to join in to censor Ru or anyone else confuses me. "Gender bender" is on GLAAD's list of banned words. That's what Frank-n-Furter, David Bowie and Sylvester were--that's not a slur except to the most precious, uptight goody two-shoes.”

I agree with Lady Bunny, she and others who fall into that category may use that word, but perhaps those folks that aren’t transvestite or transgender should stay away from it.

Just like I don’t like to hear anyone use the N-word, I am slightly less bothered by it when it comes from a Black person; just like I don’t like straight people using the word faggot or queer, but don’t have a problem with The Gays doing so.

Again, it all comes down to thinking before you speak.

Melissa McCarthy, on if she ever dated a gay man: 

“Just one? There were so many. In my early 20s I was like the last stop before a guy said, ‘Yep, it’s official: I’m gay.’ I’d be like, ‘Really?!’ I’d think, But he’s so funny, so charming, and such a good dresser. I never saw it coming.”

Sometimes I think she’s a gay man trapped in Melissa’s body.

Love.Her.

Akie Abe, the First Lady of Japan, speaking at a gay pride event in Tokyo:

"There is no difference to importance of love from sexual orientation. There should not be any discrimination because who you love. I am going to raise my voice. If my raised voice could contribute to the pride of LGBT people, there is no greater joy."

I imagine a lot of LGBT folks in Japan felt that same sigh of relief we felt here when Obama spoke so eloquently about equality.