The stars were out in force on Saturday night for the GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles, where Bill Clinton was handed the ‘Advocate for Change Award’ by Harvey Weinstein and Jennifer Lawrence, while Leo DiCaprio and Charlize Theron gave entertainment lawyer Steve Warner the ‘Stephen F. Kolzak Award’ for his work for gay causes.
‘Outstanding Film – Wide Release’ went to The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, while The New Normal got ‘Outstanding Comedy Series’ and American Horror Story: Asylum won ‘Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series’.
Guests at the shindig included Darren Criss, Kelly Rowland, Andrew Rannells, Justin Bartha, Chaz Bono, Wilson Cruz, Logan Lerman, Ellen Pompeo, Eric Dane, Beth Ditto, Trevor Donovan, Kirsten Dunst, Chris Evans and his gay brother Scott Evans, Elle Fanning, Joshua Jackson, Tobey Maguire, Alex Pettyfer, Teri Polo, Molly Shannon, Matt Dallas and Betty White. You can take a look at a few of those guests below.
However there has been a bit of controversy, as Bret Easton Ellis has said that he was banned from the event. He was due to attend as the guest of one of those invited, but Ellis tweeted that, “As a gay man in a domestic partnership who plans to get married I’m sad to hear I’ve been banned by Glaad from attending tomorrow’s event… Glaad is supposedly ‘furious’ about my tweets. And I’m guessing not the ones concerning my boyfriend or how sexy I think Adam Driver is.”
GLAAD has responded, with the organisation’s vice president of communications Rich Ferraro telling the Hollywood Reporter, “GLAAD spoke with the guest who was planning to bring Bret about some of Bret’s recent remarks, which the gay community responded negatively to. We also asked for a time to sit down with Bret. They decided to replace Bret with a different guest and there has been no response to the offer of a meeting.”
Ellis has slip opinion with tweets such as comparing watching Glee to “stepping into a puddle of HIV”, and also provoked fury among some for saying that Matt Bomer is ‘too gay’ to play Christian Grey in the film version of 50 Shades Of Grey. It’s not only the LGBT community he’s managed to piss off, as recently he apologised for saying Kathryn Bigelow only won the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker because she’s a ‘hot woman’.
Ellis seems resolutely unimpressed by GLAAD though, making the perhaps salient point, “Bill Clinton signed Doma [Defense of Marriage Act] and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and cheated on Hillary… I dissed Glee and Matt Bomer as Christian Grey. GLAAD: RIGHT ON!”
Take a look below for all the winners from Saturday night’s awards, and a few pics from the event below that.
Advocate for Change Award: Bill Clinton
Stephen F. Kolzak Award: Steve Warren
Outstanding Film – Wide Release: The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Summit Entertainment)
Outstanding Comedy Series: The New Normal (NBC)
Outstanding Individual Episode: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Me What to Do” Raising Hope (Fox)
Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series: American Horror Story: Asylum (FX)
Outstanding Daily Drama: Days of Our Lives (NBC)
Outstanding Talk Show Episode: “At Home with Neil Patrick Harris, His Fiancé David Burtka, & Their Twins” Oprah’s Next Chapter (OWN)
Outstanding Los Angeles Theater: The Children by Michael Elyanow
Spanish Language:
Outstanding Daytime Talk Show Episode: “Confirma su identidad como mujer” Showbiz (CNN en Español)
Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: TIE: “Los transexuales buscan su identidad en medio de ignorancia y prejuicios” Encuentro (CNN en Español) and “La vida en rosa” Aquí y Ahora (Univision)
Outstanding Newspaper Article: “Gays y padres excelentes” by Pilar Marrero (La Opinión)
The nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards have been announced and LGBT movies have done pretty well. The ISAs are the premiere US awards for independent movies. Many see them as the Oscars for those who don’t have the means to launch a massive, multi-million dollar awards campaign (e.g. most LGBT film), but who have still made a great movie.
Taken 2 has topped the US box office for a second week running, taking another $22.5 million to take it total to $86 million after 10 days. While the holdover stayed top, Ben Affleck’s Argo was a strong second, outpacing many people’s expectations by taking $20 million to place second on the charts. It also got a very good reaction from audiences, suggesting it should have a good run at cinemas.