"...and miles to go before we sleep"

Rest in Peace
Robert “Michael” Jeter
August 26, 1952 – March 30, 2003

The photo above (courtesy of Allen Light) shows Michael arriving at the 1992 Emmy Awards. That was the year he won for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. The handsome gentleman in the sunglasses to the right of Michael is…moi! (at 28!!!!)

I was never quite sure what to do, or how to behave on the “red carpet” with Michael. That year I had decided, in my actorly way, to
play “security” I would act the role of Michael’s bodyguard in those pre-out days. I knew I was successful when his dear Tennessee friend, LIBBY, called the next morning & said” “I saw y’all on the red carpet. And I don’t know quite what the hell Charlie was doing, but he looked ready to take the bullet for you!” Triumph!

Miss you goonboy….

FORSAKING ALL OTHERS

I am sooooo sick of the Presidential campaign already! We still have 8 months to go til the general election in November & it just seems as if this is like a bad movie that keeps going on an hour & a half longer than it should (to paraphrase BARACK OBAMA) I hope Pennsylvania ends this “death march” but I think it highly unlikely. I’m from PA & feel that Sen Clinton will do very, very well there & not for reasons to be particularly proud of but more on that later. I am growing so cynical (WHAT?? A Cynical GAY man, you ask???) that the lone thought I’ve had these past to weeks was:

“IF only we had sent the REV. WRIGHT into that “hail of sniper fire” at the Bosnian Airport, this whole damn thing would be over!”

But I jest...

ON a so much less cynical note…STAR Magazine is reporting that BRAD PITT & ANGELINA JOLIE TIED THE KNOT in NEW ORLEANS today, Saturday. I really hope this is true. Not only is Angie preggers with Brad’s TWINS, but damn it, (sorry Jen) this is the most perfect couple who ever lived & they just HAVE to stay together. When they are not trying to save AFRICA & rebuild New Orleans, they’re giving away PILES of $$$ & looking FLAWLESS all the while. Recent reports had them donating as much as $8 million dollars to various charities. It is in the best interest of the ENTIRE HUMAN RACE that these two generous & gorgeous souls stay together & keep breeding!! A while back BRAD (God love him) said that he & Angie would NEVER marry as long as the right to marriage excluded gay people. Well BP, it most states it still does, but hey we appreciate the support & we (if I may speak for the whole gay crowd..& I may) do NOT want you to delay ONE day of your own personal happiness in support of us. We’re going to GET THERE with your help…so you just go right ahead & marry that stunning woman & be happy! WHERE ARE YOU TWO REGISTERED???

There is a fascinating story in the LOS ANGELES TIMES this week about the high price of…SHOES! NO not KEDS OR CROCS, but ladies high fashion shoes to be exact. MONICA CORCORAN tells a very interesting tale of fashion, vanity & obsession in “Manolo Lovers Feel Financial Pain at the Pump” Pump….get it???
Anyway amidst little informational nuggets & lots of mind blowing quotes on prices of high end shoes (the ones above go for $1,345. But they’re the much desired, CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN and at least he bothers to paint the inside of the heel & the under sole in a fabulous crimson which is his trademark. I guess this is particularly effective in Church when you can see the soles of the souls in front of you when we all kneel down to pray…otherwise how would anyone ever be able to tell? Is Church attendance up?) but I digresss…here’s the kicker:

Half way through the article (with great shoe photos by KIRK McCOY) we meet JOHN RUTENBERG a long time sales associate (now retired) at BARNEY’S. Mr. Rutenberg reveals the following tidbit:

"Danielle Steel spends $4 [million] to $5 million a year at Barneys on shoes for herself and her children," he says, adding that the Beverly Hills store "sells $22 million in footwear per year."

For the uninitiated, DANIELLE STEEL is one of the most successful & prolific writers of best sellers of all time! Truly! But $4- $5 MILLION on SHOES???????????????? Not to mention that ”the CHILDREN’ are at the very least in their mid 20’s! There are entire COUNTRIES (many!) that do not have a GNP of $5 Million a year! Most hard working families won’t make that figure during their lifetime of jobs. STEEL WORKS FROM HOME just how many pairs of shoes does this chick need?? I hate to sound like some sort of communist but Jesus! This is obscene! And if I do the math Danielle is responsible for ONE QUARTER of the Annnual Barney’s Shoe Budget!?!?! She makes IMELDA MARCOS look like an amateur!

Have a great Sunday!

"And on the Third Day..."

Happy Easter! Or Buona Pasqua as my dear Italian friends say.
Did you have a nice one? I did! It was 95 degrees in the shade in Los Angeles today! How could I complain? At least I got to spend it with m Italian friends in Beverly Hills!

Got this idea from this month's Better Homes & Gardens: Take a bunch of empty bottles (water, soda, olive oil etc.)
And place a single fern stem in each. Gather as a group & you have a long-lasting (& cheap) centerpiece!


You want to know what is wrong with this country? Besides the obvious? I’ll tell you. I’m at the chic Los Angeles shopping center, THE GROVE on Friday….Good Friday. I see a lovely All American family walking towards me. The one adorable son is leading his daddy by the hand pointing at a shop window, when I hear the following exchange:

LITTLE BOY (pointing) ORANGE! DADDY! ORANGE!
FATHER: Well no honey, that’s GREEN…BUT if you want to CALL it ORANGE…that’s O.K. too!

Uhhhhh…well, NO DADDY That’s NOT O.K. Green is Green & Orange is Orange, but as long as you are too timid to correct your child, the entire world will have to deal with an adult who does not know the difference between Black & White but think’s whatever choice or decision he makes is the best one…THANKS TO YOU ( IDIOT) DADDY!!

Three's Company!!!!

I’ve posted about former New Jersey Governor, James McGreevey before. I’m not a fan. McCreepy resigned the state house because he was caught in a blackmail scandal involving a paid male staffer with whom he was having a affair behind his wife’s back. McCreepy tried to portray himself as some gay “victim” & never mentioned the fact that he was paying the young dude to be a “terrorism consultant” a job that he was clearly not qualified for though indeed he had served in the Israeli Army!! McCreepy wrote a book, went on Oprah & found himself a rich “daddy” good for him, I guess.

One thing I really hated was how he made his wife, Dina, stand up on the stage with him while he resigned from the Governorship & came out of the closet. This was pre-ELIOT SPITZER of course & as awful as I felt for the lovely Mrs. Spitzer, at least Eliot wasn’t lying about being a heterosexual!

So, naturally, the McCreepy’s have been in the process of divorcing ever since. There have been financial issues & custody disagreements over their young daughter, And there was something in the news a few months ago about Dina objecting to a nude portrait in McCreepy’s new shared digs. Oh & Dina wrote a book too. Betrayed, shamed, deceived, misled etc. But MAYBE NOT...

The New York Post is reporting that the estranged wife of former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey must have known he was gay, because they shared their bed with a handsome twenty-something aide:
In an explosive interview with The Post, the McGreeveys' longtime man-in-the-middle, Teddy Pedersen, recounted explicit details of alleged, titillating, three-way sex romps he had with the now-divorcing duo, starting during their courtship and continuing into the marriage.

Pedersen - who said he has already spilled the beans on the steamy ménage a trios arrangement under oath in a deposition for the couple's divorce battle - hinted that he thinks his presence was required to get Jim's motor running for Dina.
Matos McGreevey's basic claim in her divorce war with the former Garden State gov is her argument that he covered up his homosexuality and tricked her into a loveless marriage.
Pedersen - who is named in Matos McGreevey's court papers - agreed to talk about the reputed unconventional relationship after Dina repeatedly sounded off to the media last week about Eliot Spitzer's sex scandal and blasted the fallen pol as a hypocrite.
"It's frustrating to hear her call Gov. Spitzer a hypocrite while she's out there being as dishonest as anyone could be about her own life," said Pedersen, 29.
"She's framed herself as a victim - yet she was a willing participant, she had complete control over what happened in her relationship," he said.
"She was there, she knew what was happening, she made the moves. We all did. It's disgusting to watch her play the victim card."

Ugh! Can it get more seedy? But the kid is cute!

"Spring Ahead, Fall Back" (& my back!)

I love daylight’s savings time don’t you? Although they moved it up a month earlier this year, as if everything wasn’t confusing enough… but it’s a gift so I’ll say thank you!

I will say NO thank you to whomever decided this was a good time for me to totally wrench my back. I wish I could tell you I hurt myself doing something naughty or even gardening but alas, I cannot. I woke up Friday very stiff (no, not like THAT) with pain searing down my leg & it only got worse. Happily most of my friends are on some kind of medication or another so I was able to get some pain meds but I’ll be damned if I’m going to waste the money I’ve been saving for a “touch-up” (read: brow lift) on some stupid back surgery or traction or some-such torture. I do believe in the mind-body connection & I’m going to heal myself,,,so there! While I was bending down picking up something off the floor yesterday I was reminded of an old Reader’s Digest “Quotable Quote” that had the aging author bending down to retrieve something & asking themselves if “there was anything else they needed while they were down there?” Yea, the Reader’s Digest was never funny.

Isn’t this a nice picture of “Beethoven & the Potato Vine? (that sounds like a Tim Allen & Martin Lawrence film, huh? With all the rain we have had everything in my garden is just about to Pop!

And really I don’t think there’s anything more perfect than a hydrangea. Or “snowballs” as my Grandmother would say. This beauty is $6 at Trader Joes’s, can you beat that? Throw it in an old champagne bucket & you got instant “class”

Speaking of class (or lack thereof): Congratulations to former Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro! In one news cycle she managed to rescue herself from the dust heap of history & Trvial Pursuit Championships just long enough to write her own political obituary.
Sad, just sad.

A ROYAL MESS

You all know what a huge fan I am of the author, PHILLIPA GREGORY, and her books on the Tudors.
So I really could not wait when I learned that a film was being made of her “The Other Bolelyn Girl” starring the hot, hot, hot, ERIC BANA, as Henry VIII. Well, I wish I was still waiting. What a piece of crap. Oh yea, Eric is still hot (when he’s not buried under 50 lbs of what I can only describe as damask bedding!) but the whole damn thing looks & feels like it was shot as a music video. SCARLETT JOHANSSON & NATALIE PORTMAN are fine, I guess but somehow lack the “weight” required to portray women who brought a King to his knees, ripped apart a country & a church & forever changed history. If you really want a good Tudor story then pray that Showtime brings back The Tudors & quick!

You know what really bugs me at the movies? People passing by you on the way to their seats with their SEAT in your face! Who the hell wants to be sitting down with someone’s big ass right above & in front of them? The polite thing to do folks, is to enter the aisle, facing those you are about to pass, & say “excuse me” as you do so! Maybe they only teach this in Catholic school?

The ELIOT SPITZER story is too delicious, no? What do you think “Client 9” is code for? A reference to what, I wonder? Watching tonight, I thought one thing: “why do they always drag out the wife”? Isn’t this further humiliation? I know it’s good politics & sends a message that says, “well if his wife is standing by him, who are we to judge?” And I know we live in different times what with HILLARY CLINTON having set the “stand-by-your-man” bar quite high, but hell, at least she got something in the bargin…a chance at the Presidency. The blogs are ablaze with this story. I found the following joke in a comment on a blog on The Huffington Post:

I'm reminded of the Irish woman who caught her husband cheating on her. The next day she asked the parish priest to say some prayers for her husband as he had died. The priest told her how sorry he was to hear that and asked if poor Shamus had said any last words. She said, "Yes, he did Father.” He said, “Mary, please put the gun down."


I cannot believe that STAR JONES & her husband, AL(I am NOT gay!)Reynolds are getting a divorce! If these two lovebirds couldn’t find happiness, I don’t know who could!

Congratulations to MADONNA on being inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! Hers is an unlikely success story & she keeps writing new chapters every year!

Viva Las Palapas!

So....I played hooky for a few days & went to one of my favorite places on earth, Playa del Carmen with some friends.
If you've never been I highly recommend it. You fly into Cancun & drive 45 minutes South. The beach is beautiful, the water gorgeous, & the little town is full of Europeans (especially Italians) After nearly 2 months of rain & crappy weather in Los Angeles, it was just what the Doctor ordered!