Leave it to Cleavage: I Love Elvira

October 31, 2006

Last week on Twist, the radio show I co-host with Will Wikle and Melissa Carter, our in studio guest was the Mistress of the Dark herself Elvira AKA Cassandra Peterson.

I could not have adored her more.

First of all, she’s such a champion of the gays she insisted on coming in and doing the interview in the studio instead of phoning it in. Cassandra also served up some great anecdotes, like the fact that she grew up around drag queens (her mom worked in a costume shop) and they taught her everything she knows about putting a look together.

She added that her personal assistant is one of the best Elvira drag queens she’s ever encountered, though she worries that one day she’ll come home and find him trying on her clothes Single White Female style.

Someone should make a movie of that.

But what really blew me away about Cassandra was how much joy she seemed to get from being Elvira. She’s been slipping into that get-up and trotting it out for, what, twenty years at least, and she didn’t seem the least bit over it.

When I commented on her lack of jadedness, Cassandra said that Elvira stayed fun for her because she was really only consumed with the business of being Elvira during Halloween season and the rest of the year, she gets to be a regular person.

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Chucky Cheers

October 30, 2006

In the current issue of The Advocate, I have a "Big Gay Following" interview with the delightful Jennifer Tilly.

One anecdote she shared that didn’t make the magazine is perfect for this, the most bewitching of seasons. It has to with Tilly’s appearances in the much-loved horror movies, Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky.

I asked Jennifer if she kept any souvenirs from the movies and she reported that one of the puppeteers gave her a life-sized Tiffany puppet.

“Her head is cracked open from being hit with an axe,” she explained. “I had her in the garage for a while but my boyfriend saw it and got freaked out. So I zipped it up in a garment bag but one day, I forgot it was in there and I was like, “Aaaah!” It was like she was in a body bag.”

For more Tilly fun, pick up the current Advocate or visit www.advocate.com

Dennis on YouTube

October 30, 2006

He's crazy? Or he's genius? Now you can decide for yourself. A clip of Dennis dancing at the Xanax/Xanadu dance-a-thon last week is on YouTube NOW!

Check it out!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=U3i2QZWZYlM

Here He Is, Mr. Gay America

October 27, 2006

Hot on the heels of my Xanadu dancer euphoria comes another opportunity to realize a lifelong dream. I’m going to be judging a pageant. Okay, so the Mr. Gay Contest this weekend in Palm Springs is not technically a pageant. The event’s organizers make a point to refer to it as a competition and they don’t like the P word at all. Fine with me, as long as there’s a line-up of cute, anxious hopefuls and a crown, I don’t care what you call it.

Friday night is the Mr. Gay America competition, which I’ll be a judging, and Saturday is the Mr. Gay International competition. I’m not sure what my judging will entail apart from lots of judgment but I do know this, I take the calling seriously and look forward to helping select a solid role model for our community and if he happens to look good in his underwear, well, so much the better.

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Part 3, The Final Xanax-adu, This Time With Passion!

October 27, 2006

So the big sing-along screening of Xanadu I’ve been blogging about was last weekend. As I’ve told you before, I was one of a troupe of 20 live dancers who performed in front of the screen during the big 40’s meets the 80’s showstopper “Dancin’.” I’m happy to report that our number was a big hit. I didn’t forget the steps, drop anyone or tumble into the orchestra pit. A friend told me afterwards that he’d never seen me look so happy as when I was dancing to ONJ in my purple suit with a bunch of kids half my age.

Perhaps we should have quit while we were ahead. We returned to the stage to do the Xanadu chant in the finale and though that was a bit of an under-rehearsed train wreck, it was fun to be able to shout the word “Xanadu!” over and over again in public. I do that quite often anyway, so it was a nice change to be in an environment where it was acceptable.

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Confessions of a Xana-Dancer, Part 2

October 18, 2006

The place where nobody dared to go…is Glendale!

As I posted previously, I’m pulling out the old Capezio jazz boots from my cruise ship days and appearing as a dancer in a sing-along version of Xanadu this Friday, October 20 at the Alex Theater in Glendale (details below). I attended last year as a fan and it was nirvana on skates, so this year, I lobbied shamelessly to get myself a slot in the chorus line. Last night was our final rehearsal before the big night and I feel like I know my stuff. Some thoughts on my Xan-adventure, so far:

• I’m wearing a purple suit that, back in my cruise ship days, I had a tailor in Hong Kong knock off from a Versace ad in Rolling Stone. Though it got a lot of use back in the early 90’s, I have not wore it since and I discovered last night that I can no longer button the waist. I’m counting on a chunky belt to save the day.

• In our big number, “Dancin’”, where the 40’s meet the 80’s, I am a 40’s dancer. When the two eras come together, I’ve discovered that if I watch the 80’s people as they merge into us, it throws me off, so I don’t look at them. I end up with the ‘Zebra Girl,’ which I’m pleased about.

• I’m the oldest one in the group by about 100 years. Some of the dancers are literally half my age. Last night, we were watching the DVD so we could learn the moves to the big Xanadu chant at the end, and I made some crack about wanting to do the Matt Lattanzi role so I could bang Olivia. No one knew who or what I was talking about. I was like, Matt Lattanzi, he was a dancer who fell in love with Olivia on this movie and they have a daughter together named Chloe. He was also in My Tutor and a slew of Olivia’s music videos, where he always played her
boy toy object of desire.” I received nothing but blank stares. So when Darcel from Solid Gold turned up, I held my tongue because how do you explain the wonder of Solid Gold to someone who wasn’t there? What words do you use?

I’ll let you know how it goes. I'm hoping it'll do for me what "Dancing with the Stars" did for Lisa Rinna--specifically give me a new lease on life and a serious career boost. (Speaking of Lisa, my friends John and Terence refer to her as 'Lips on a Stick,' which I think is hilarious.) If you happen to be in the LA area or feel like hopping a plane, here are the details:

Xanadu: Sing-Along
October 20 – 8PM
Alex Theater – 216 Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA
Tickets $14 (Proceeds are going to the Red Cross)
Info: www.alextheatre.org
www.xanadumovie.com

Bryant Park or Bust!

October 17, 2006

I’m sure I don’t need to tell any of your that the Project Runway finale airs this week. We’re all on pins and needles -- just as the ads promised.

Thanks to my gig here at Outzonetv.com, I was able to score a ticket to the final Bryant Park fashion show.

Though I felt like Charlie getting the Golden Ticket in Willy Wonka, my first inclination was not to go. I had just returned form NY a few weeks prior and was reluctant to spend money on another trip just to see a 15-minute fashion show. However, when I expressed this reticence to the gang of Runway junkies I watch the show with each Wednesday night, they turned very ugly. A line had been drawn in the carpet -- if I didn’t make the trip, they’d never forgive me.

Who wants to look back and say, “I’ve could have gone to a PR final fashion show but I pussied out?” they argued. And they were right. So I hopped on a plane.

And boy, I’m I glad I did.

The excitement I felt as the lights went down and the show was about to begin was different than any kind of audience anticipation I had ever felt before.

First off, I’d never been to a real fashion show before, let alone one during Olympus Fashion Week. (If I keep referring to it as Olympus Fashion Week, will I get a free camera?)

Add to that the fact that I was going to see work from these designers that I had been following for months on the show. I felt like I knew all four of them and now, they were going to wow me -- and hopefully Nina as well.

And they did. Some highlights:

• Heidi looked better than anyone -- and that’s just not fair.

• Each designer gave a little speech before their show, which I recorded with my digital recorder to play for my fellow fans back home. Laura's speech was the shortest and least emotional -- the other’s spoke longer and tugged at the heartstrings a bit more. Laura said, "I always said I wanted to make it big in fashion. Well, I'm big (indicating her pregnant belly), and I'm in fashion."

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Bryant Park or Bust ... Continued

October 16, 2006

After the show, I went to a Starbucks in Times Square to decompress and get out of the rain. While I was there, struggling with my New York Times crossword puzzle, two women and a man came and sat near me.

It was obvious from their swag bags and breathless declarations of, “I loved Laura’s!” and “I loved Jeffrey’s more!” that they had been to the show, so I started chatting to the woman nearest me.

She said her name was Laura from and that she was a wife and mom from Scottsdale, AZ, my home state.

Laura explained to me that she became obsessed with “Runway” during Season 1 and had no one to dish about it with so she started blogging about it at bloggingprojectrunway.blogspot.com. This started a groundswell in the Blogosphere about the show and soon Laura was interacting with fellow fans from all over the world. Her two cohorts in Starbucks were fellow fans from other parts of the country who she met through the blog who now work on the blog as well.

As Laura and I sipped coffee and compared notes, one of her compatriots was feverishly posting her pics onto the web. It was like being in a high-pressure episode of “Lou Grant.”

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Taking Off On The Runway: My Fashion-Forward Birthday Party

October 12, 2006

Last Sunday, I celebrated my birthday (officially, September 29) with a Project Runway-themed party at this groovy Melrose Avenue theater space called the Fake Gallery , where my friend Steve Silverman hosts his monthly 2-D extravaganza "Slideshow," which I’m performing in on November 10.

Though I used to throw big blowouts all the time, with crazy themes like “A Love Boat Birthday”, I hadn’t organized one in ages and was worried that I’d lost my hostessing mojo.

But I sent the Evite and pressed on, and thanks to some serious rallying by my peeps, everything came together and a chic and fabulous time was had by all.

A few highlights:

Guests were divided into teams of four for the Project Hensley Design Challenge, which had each team designing two T-shirts for me, the birthday boy: One was a ‘couture’ shirt, an outrageous and over the top work of art. The other was more wearable shirt for the ‘everyday guy,’ which Heidi Klum kept referring to as the ‘everyday gay.’

If the shirt fits …

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Jake in Progress

October 11, 2006

I want to go back and be a gay teenager just so I can put pictures of Jake Shears in my locker. I know I’m not the first to observe that the Scissors Sisters front man is sex on a stick in spandex. I bet he can eat whatever he wants, too.

The band’s new disc, Ta-dah, is full of smart, infectious pop and I can’t get enough of it.

I got to chat with Jake this week for the syndicated gay radio show I co-host, Twist, and I’m ever more of a Jake fan now. If international stardom has swelled his head, it sure didn’t come across in our interview.

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Cher for Sale, and I'm Fondling the Goods

October 09, 2006

Chatting Up Jennifer Tilly, and Why doing “Fun Stuff With Friends” is Important

My trip to Sotheby’s had to be the Gayest Field Trip Ever. Monday, a dozen or so friends and I blew off work to take an afternoon jaunt to the Beverly Hilton Hotel to see the stuff Cher was getting rid of in her much-publicized auction entitled “Property From the Collection of Cher.”

The collection/presentation did not disappoint.

Going in, I thought there would be a lot of rules and humorless security people hovering about keeping overzealous fans from getting their cooties on the merch … but it was remarkably relaxed.

We caressed Cher’s fur coats. We took all the pictures we wanted. We sang along to “The Way of Love” which was playing in the background. And we wondered a bit too loudly if we bought a giant gothic armoire, would Chastity deliver it herself?

I bet she has a friend with a truck.

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CW STands for Crazy Woman + Tyra Banks

October 04, 2006

At last, the new season of "America’s Next Top Model" is upon us. I use the term ‘upon us’ because I literally feel that the show is humping my leg — and I’m letting it, gladly. I don’t know if you’ve all noticed but there’s a new, unspoken area of judging this season. The girls not only have to be beautiful, photogenic and say, “Easy, breezy, beautiful Cover Girl,” without forgetting their words ... but this cycle, more than ever, they have to be able to endure — make that enable -- Tyra’s broader-than-ever, Oprah-goes-to-the-Groundlings schtick.

Tyra is out of control. First of all, the would-be models’ house is decked out with a laughable amount of photos of Tyra and ‘Tyra’ signage. I wouldn’t be surprised it the toilet paper had little embossed T’s on it. It’s kind of like when you go to Kenny Rogers Roasters and the walls are all covered pictures of Kenny Rogers. There's Kenny winning awards, golfing, singing with Dolly ... and it makes it hard to eat.

Luckily, no one in the Top Model house is trying to keep food down.

Then Tyra herself shows up in the flesh and that’s when things get really crazy.

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Thanks For Everything, John Leguizamo

October 02, 2006

Actor John Leguizamo has a new memoir coming out called "Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and all the Rest of My Hollywood Friends: A Life." It’s filled with delightfully dishy anecdotes about his life in show biz. I interviewed him recently for the Big Gay Following page of The Advocate. The mag didn’t have room for some of my favorite stuff -- the “earrings in the dog poop” story, for example -- so I’m going to share them with you!

DENNIS HENSLEY: Your book’s very honest. Did you struggle with how much to reveal?

JOHN LEGUIZAMO: When you’re writing at home, you’re like, “I’m going to tell the truth.” Then, when you start letting it out of your hands, the panic hits. Still, I hope people get some laughs out of it and that they can understand me in a deeper way and not just in an “E! True Hollywood Story” kind of cheesy, sleazy way.

DH: You write that on the film Regarding Henry, some crew members took out their frustrations with director Mike Nichols by peeing in his cappuccino machine.

JL: I hope Mike finds that kind of humorous because I like him, he’s a friend of mine. That was a lesson for me that you gotta learn how to deal with all kinds of political things in making a movie.

DH: Then there’s the story about how you were going to give your girlfriend at the time, Samantha Mathis, an expensive pair of earrings but your dog ate them and so you had to follow the dog around until he pooped them out.

JL: That’s called persistence. One of my virtues is tenacity. If I want something, I go after it no matter what kind of fecal soup I have to go through.

DH: Did Samantha ever know the truth about her earrings?

JL: Of course not. That’s one of the calls I’m going to get. History plus time equals comedy.

DH: Gay audiences got their first big dose of you as ChiChi Rodriguez in Too Wong Fu Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar. You claim your eyebrows haven’t been the same since.

JL: I used to have thick eyebrows. Now, they’re hyphens. If you look at Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes you’ll see that their eyebrows are weirdly thin on both ends.

DH: You shot that film in the tiny town of Loma, Nebraska. Did you encounter any homophobia?

JL: No, they welcomed us. I’m a Latin man so when I travel across America, I’ll always have the Deliverance radar that somebody is going to come at me. But they saw all this going on and they wanted to be a part of it.

DH: Early on, you did the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream with F. Murray Abraham who, you write, carried his Oscar for Amadeus around with him. Were you joking?

JL: I wasn’t joking. That was when he had just won it. If I had one right now, I’d be carrying it around, too. I’d put it right on my dashboard.

DH: You turned down the part of Tom Hanks’ boyfriend in Philadelphia, which Antonio Banderas ended up playing. Why?

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