What do off-Broadway lesbians have to
do with Barbara Walters? They both won GLAAD awards Monday March
17th in New York.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation's (GLAAD) 19th Annual Media Awards kicked off
in New York Monday with a full red carpet. Kevin Bacon, Kyra
Sedgwick, Alan Cumming, and Graham Norton were among the celebrities
in attendance. GLAAD Media Awards honor fair and accurate
representation of GLBT people in film, television, and journalism.
Recognizing an openly GLBT media
professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equal
rights for the gay community, MTV president Brian Graden won the Vito
Russo Award. In accepting the award from American Idol judge
Randy Jackson and actor Alec Mapa, Graden said, “Should we really
accept present reality? A world where jobs are not protected?
...Where I can't marry the man I love or have a family? Once and for
all, the answer is never shall we accept that reality...because we
are not invisible.”
Paramount's Stardust won in the
outstanding film in wide release category. Sienna Miller, Claire
Danes, and Robert De Niro star in the fantasy-adventure movie.
Openly gay Ian McKellen and Ruperet Everett also make appearances.
The Bubble (Strand Releasing), the limited release winner, is
director Eytan Fox's sometimes-comical-sometimes-political look at
Israeli-Palestine relationships through the prism of gay love.
Lesbian affairs in 1950s Greenwich
Village explode on stage in the Beebo Brinker Chronicles,
GLAAD Media Award winner for outstanding New York Theater.
The New York Times won for outstanding
newspaper overall coverage.
In the category of Outstanding TV
Journalism-Newsmagazine, CBS's 60 Minutes shared the award
with ABC's 20/20. In 60 Minutes' Don't Ask Don't
Tell, Leslie Stahl explores the possibility that the military is
more tolerant of gay members in wartime.
Barbara Walters said upon accepting her
award for My Secret Self: A Story Of Transgender Children,
“You can forget all the Emmys, this means more to me.”
Additional awards will be presented in
South Florida on April 12th at the Seminole Hard Rock
Hotel & Casino, Los Angeles on April 26th at the Kodak
Theater, and in San Francisco on May 10th at the San
Francisco Marriott.
Gay Entertainment Report is a feature
of On Top Magazine and can be reach at ontopmag@ontopmag.com.