Debi Mazar Dances With The Stars

Debi Mazar chatted with The Advocate about her reasons for rumba-ing it up on ABC's wildly successful Dancing With The Stars competition. Whether it's her Entourage fame, hot DWTS partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy, or her early days hanging around with New York queens, Mazar is candid about it all. The provocative former make up artist and longtime Madonna pal says she only wishes she could have shared a tango with the tantalizing Cheryl Burke...

Originally published on Advocate.com
By Brandon Voss
From her feature film debut as a coke-snorting mistress in 1990’s Goodfellas to her recurring role as publicist Shauna on HBO’s Entourage, Debi Mazar has made a career out of playing strong, sassy women with New York accents as thick as her eye makeup. Best known to TV audiences as tough-talking legal secretary Denise on both Civil Wars and L.A. Law, Mazar has memorably milked small roles in movies like The Doors, Malcolm X, and Empire Records, but it’s her enviable gig as gal pal Madonna’s makeup artist in the ’80s that first cultivated her gay following.

Gay TV on a Friday Night: 'Smallville' and John Waters

Hey, television fans, it's Friday! You know what that means: Ghost Whisperer and Medium -- tonight! -- for a superfemme, supernatural night of television on CBS. Oh, you didn't know? Well, your Gramps probably did. Ghost Whisperer, which is allegedly very popular among senior citizens (talk about morbid), is back tonight at 8 o’clock for a fifth season of Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) talking to dead people. Fans should watch tonight's premiere to see a telling future flash of her baby's inherited gifts. If you stay tuned, at 9 o’clock season 6 of Medium kicks off on the show’s new network, CBS. Same old entrancing medium Patricia Arquette witnessing murders in her dreams.

Steven Spielberg Brings Broadway to TV

One of Hollywood's most successful filmmakers, Steven Spielberg, is bringing his talented eye to a project that concentrates on both the stage and the small screen. The prolific director and producer will chronicle a stage production from conception through script writing all the way until opening night. The program will air on Showtime and concentrate on a musical set to debut on Broadway, with a possible run in London's West End.

The Jurassic Park director has tapped Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who composed the score for Hairspray and also wrote the music and lyrics for a stage adaptation of the filmmaker's 2002 thriller Catch Me If You Can, to possibly develop a musical for the project.

Anderson Cooper Staying Put in Prime-time News

The silver fox of a newscaster Anderson Cooper has been known to fill in for Regis Philbin occasionally on the Live! With Regis and Kelly show. But Cooper told People magazine there's no plan for a permanent placement on the morning chat fest, The 360 host cleared up any misconceptions that he may be replacing Philbin. "Regis is the king," Cooper cooed. "He's not going anywhere!"
"It's completely made up. I have no idea where it came from," Cooper said of the rumor. "Regis is not retiring, and I'm very happy with what I'm doing. I occasionally fill in for Regis, which is maybe how this came about. I love filling in for him," Cooper added. "I love working with Kelly Ripa. … It's nice to exercise different muscles."

Linda Ronstadt's Gay Mission

By Jenny Stewart, PlanetOut

You’ve had the fantasyas a teen: You’re in a room with your favorite rock star -- someone whose every hit you know by heart, whose voice made you close your bedroom door and turn the music up as you hold a hairbrush up to your mouth as a microphone and sing along with them. In the dream they’ll share their most intimate thoughts with you.
 
For me, that singer was Linda Ronstadt, who cut me to the quick with her heartbreaking “Different Drum,” roused me with her sexy, soulful “You’re No Good,” and, at 14, made me dread the heartbreak I had yet to experience with “Blue Bayou.”
 
This isn’t a dream, though it’s utterly surreal – 25 years later, Ronstadt and I are actually sitting in beach chairs in the otherwise empty master bedroom of her newly-purchased, still-unfurnished San Francisco home. We’re surrounded only by her freshly painted swatch samples on the walls, as the rest of the house is being renovated. 

Celebs Playing Celebs

We all know Johnny Depp loves his outlandish roles -- the sympathetic scissor-handed humanoid, the antisocial chocolatier, the murderous barber, the eyeliner-loving pirate (just to name a few) -- but wouldn’t we all agree, considering his character choices over nearly two decades, that he might be getting just a tad bit, well, predictable? Look, put Edward Scissorhands, Willy Wonka, Sweeney Todd and Jack Sparrow in a lineup, and identifying one from another becomes almost as difficult as distinguishing between La Toya and Janet Jackson.

"Idol" Without Paula: Would You Watch?

Paula Abdul is forever our girl, but it looks like her run on American Idol could be over. "Very sadly, it does not appear that she's going to be back on Idol," her manager David Sonenberg tells The Los Angeles Times.

Idol, which begins its ninth season in January, will begin auditioning singers in a couple of weeks, but the producers of the show have yet to reach out to Paula to discuss extending her contract, according to Sonenberg.

"La Mission" Explores Homophobia

Making its premiere at the New York Latino International Film Festival this month is Benjamin Bratt's new film, "La Mission."  In it, Bratt's character is on "a journey toward redemption through his struggle with violence and homophobia."  From the trailer below, Bratt's still hot as ever...

The Full Package: Jason Bateman

Contrary to popular belief, we queers aren't attracted just to gym bods and pretty faces. We're looking for it all -- intelligence, charm, heart, style, talent, accessibility and that unexplainable sumthin' sumthin' called the "X-factor" that makes our hearts go thump.

From the worlds of entertainment, art, sports, business, politics and other realms we've plucked the very few people who fit these criteria, and we present them to you through our weekly series "The Full Package."

Johnny Depp might have the in-your-face charisma, but Jason Bateman's got the effortless, good-guy magnetism. Matt Damon might have the megawatt smile, but Jason's got the irresistible, self-deprecating grin. Brad Pitt might make passionate statements about his belief in marriage equality, while Jason jokes unselfconsciously about how he can't help flirting with the gays. Steve Carell might be the unthreatening everyman you wouldn't mind introducing to your parents, and Matthew McCounaghey the gristly stud you'd want to meet at a cheap motel for a dirty, boozy romp, but Jason is the guy you fantasize about taking home at Thanksgiving so you two could sit side by side at the family table and then spend the long weekend bedded down together in your old room having the sex you used to only dream about.

Gale Harold Turns 40 -- Where Would Brian Be?

There are certain gay men who use their looks and sexual prowess to get them through life. You know the type, the guy who gets laid on near-daily basis, uses sex to get ahead at work, in social situations and even to screw over friends. But how much is sex the means to this end or is it just a way for them to mask some other void in their life? We can try to analyze it as much as possible, but the best way to see how it works is to look at a real-life example, or in this case, a made-for-TV example that comes close to real life.Ok, maybe not so much.