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Last year we had Patti LaBelle and Jennifer Hudson lushly praising each other and breaking out into an a capella duet, not to mention Whoopi Goldberg busting off the stage to hug freshly-uncloseted former NBA star John Amaechi. This year we had, um, awardee Barbara Walters telling us how she took a little transgendered kid she profiled to see The Lion King and Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann (above), who play gay teen sometimes lovers on As the World Turns, sadly not thrilling the audience with anything as inspiring as a Chris Meloni/Lee Tergensen-style kiss. (They also brought along their co-star, Tala Ashe, whose character-slash-plot device is helping serve as yet another impediment to the Nuke love story.)
Suffice to say, last night's first installment of the 19th annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York (with more to come in Florida, L.A. and Frisco in April and May) was, uh, sedate. Host Graham Norton, the gay British talk-show personality, started things off on a naughtily promising note, asking, "Can this much cologne in an enclosed space be good for us?" and imagining a reality show called America's Next Top Bottom: "I imagine the rose ceremony will be quite memorable."
But it was, if not quite downhill, then a flatline, from there. "Isn't it just like the gay community to bring together the two Lorrells," noted Loretta Devine (whom we insanely love) standing alongside her Dreamgirls-movie counterpart, Anika Noni Rose (whom we, um, also love), as they gave BET an award for doing more LGBT-friendly programming. So damn, ladies, why didn't you give us some a capella "Lorrell Loves Jimmy" duet action? Instead, we got GLAAD poobah Neil Giuliano's three-hour (well, it felt like that) monologue about his gently wise guidance while serving as mayor of Tempe, Arizona, to the parents of a runaway gay teen. Touching, yes, but remotely media-related?
Okay, we admit, we were pretty much riveted when Judy Shepard, mother of the late Matthew, received the Excellence in Media Award for the amazing anti-hate-crime work she has done since virtually the moment Matthew was murdered in 1998. The lady has a quiet, heart-breaking bearing that made all the more moving her remark that, as pleased as she was with the award, "I'd trade all of this in to have Matthew back for a minute." And MTV/VH1 genius and Logo founder Brian Graden was sweet and humble receiving his Vito Russo Award, presented by American Idol's Randy Jackson and Alec Mapa -- who lamented that, if he and Brian had only partnered before each went into their respective relationships, "I could have been the Imelda Marcos of MTV!"
-- TIM MURPHY
Previously > Last year's LA awards
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