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March
30, 2004
By
Keston Huntington
And
the Belle of the Ball was...... none other then our favorite
Erin Daniels!
On
Saturday, two LezBeOut.com staff members had the fun assignment
of covering the 15th Annual GLAAD Media Awards which ended
up being an enormous success. We shook hands and met all the
fave's from Christina Ricci to Rachel Stirling to Karina Lombard.
The
Awards were hosted by ABSOLUT VODKA at the Kodak Theater and
Antonio Banderas, John Waters, "Bend it Like Beckham," and
"Angels in America" were honored this year. Celebrities in
attendance were Christina Ricci, Tracy Ullman, Antonio Bandera's,
Rachel Stirling, Ellen Degeneres, Mia Kirshner, Erin Danials,
Karina Lombard, Kate Moennig, Leisha Hailey, Laurel Holloman,
Paige Moss and Sharon Osbourne just to name a few!
The
show was opened by none other then Ellen Degeneres and it
began with a film depicting thousands of gays waiting in line
to get married. Performances by Tracy Uullman and Allanis
Morisette also set the stage as Morrisette performed her hit
song "Ironic" mixing the lyrics, "meeting
the man of my dreams & meeting his beautiful husband".
Not
surprisingly, one of the highlights of the evening came from
GLAAD Executive Producer, Joan Gerry as she gave a passionate
speech citing the struggles of the gay community including
her own battle to retain custody of her children with her
partner of 23 years and the importance of portrayals of gays
in the media, "Our one weapon is humanity".
Sharon
Osbourne as usual took center stage. When LezBeOut reporter
Michelle Fey asked Sharon if there was a special reason she
was attending the event Sharon put it quite simply, "Because
I fucking love gay people!". On stage Sharon's magical
personality was at its best, "None of my children
turned out to be gay" she explained, "but
I love them anyway".
The
highlights of the evening for LezBeOut staffers Colleen Peterson
and Michelle Fey was the wonderful encounters they had with
the celebrities. Two celebrities were particularly memorable
to our reporters, Erin Daniels and Rachel Stirling. Stirling
whom we met outside having a cigarette was exceptionally sweet
and friendly but Erin Daniels was none other then the Belle
of the Ball (not to mention the odd object of affection for
Sharon Osbourne, who seemed to be fascinated with grabbing
Erin's breasts). Miss Daniels spent a considerable amount
of time with our reporters and seemed to really care about
the community and what they thought of The L Word. When asked
about her input into Dana's character, she answered, "Yes,
we all have input. Aileen is very generous in letting us develop
our characters". She went on to explain Dana's character,
"Dana is a great character to play because you can
throw any awkward moment in there and it works".
This
year is going to be a particularly objective for our community and
the direction society takes can only be helped by fair portrayals
of us in the media. GLAAD is certainly a catalyst in our future.
"In a year where the enemies of equality want to define
the American family by how many people they can exclude from
it, the stakes are high for all of us," said GLAAD Executive
Director Joan M. Garry to the crowd of over 2,000. "But
each of you has the power and the opportunity to make a difference
-- by using the power of your stories to build a vision of
America where equality, fairness and love are values that
all Americans share."
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