My Night with Margaret Cho

One of the perks of living in Hollywood, as I've mentioned before, is celebrity sightings. For some people, such things aren't important, but for a boy who grew up with TV and movies as his only escape from an often unbearable childhood filled with lonely days, the razzle-dazzle of "Hollywood stars" and the promise of excitement that Hollywood held, seeing a celebrity out and about is, I have to say, a pretty darn cool thing.

Now, I'm not one of those crazy stalker fans who has to run up to every celebrity he sees. I like to hang back, let them go about their lives, and not bother them; I'm really just happy to know that they're just like me, and it's cool when they are brave enough to go out in public--so really, why should I interrupt their evening out? (Well, OK, if it was Madonna, you can bet your ass I'd at least say "Yo, girl! You da woman!")

But if there's anything cooler than just spotting a celebrity out and about in "the real world," it's a full-on Hollywood premiere, baby! And last night, I was in Hollywood heaven when I attended the world premiere of commedianne Margaret Cho's new concert film Assassin over at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. The event was hosted by Outfest, the annual gay and lesbian film festival held every summer, and it was pretty cool.

Now, I had been lucky enough to review an advance copy of the movie for IN Los Angeles magazine (one of the many gay and lesbian publications I freelance for), so, of course, they put me on the list for the premiere. And lucky me got to stand along the red carpet and flash pics of the stars as they walked by.

Now, admittedly, the "stars" that showed up to Ms. Cho's premiere weren't what you would call A-listers. I mean, Tracy Scoggins of Babylon 5 and Dynasty II: The Colbys and Chad Allen from Our House and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman??? Arent't we kinda scrapin' the bottom of the barrel here? But, hey, for a celebrity hog like me, that doesn't really matter. (Besides, Chad is gay, and totally hot to boot. Check out his pic! Va-va-va-voom!)

Now Chad's got a hot new role as a gay private detective on Here TV's new "Murder, He Wrote" show Third Man Out, which I am actually looking forward to--if I can get Adelphia to carry the Here channel, that is. We shall see. But anyway, it was cool to see him out and about looking all dapper and sexy. A lot of these child stars don't grow up looking too good, you know (I mean, have you seen Danny Bonnaducci lately?). And we need more brave, out and proud actors like Chad making the world a safer place for the Tom Cruises of the world to come out. Woops. Did I just say that? (If you don't hear from me ever again, you'll know the Scientologists have gotten to me. Don't laugh; it can happen! Those people will do anything to keep their gay superstars in the closet!)

Now Tracy Scoggins was looking pretty good for her age, I must say. She was accompanied by the young studly actor Greg Lee, who some of you might remember from his appearances as 'Virgil' on Xena, but from the way photographers were snapping pics of him you would have though that the dude was the new Playgirl cover model. (These were predominantly gay photographers, after all.) I remember former model Ms. Scoggins quite well from her days as Monica on The Colbys (What can I say? I actually watched it, though admittedly it was more to drool over Maxwell Caulfield than it was to see Tracy), and well, she pretty much looked the same.

There were a few other celebs there as well: my good friend the openly gay comedian Jason Stuart (who has a number of film roles coming up, including one in which he appears alongside Faye Dunaway), gay comedian Alec Mapa (who I may be interviewing sometime soon for Frontiers), Reichen (that hot 'n' hunky gay stud from TV's The Amazing Race), Robbie Laughlin from Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Girl, and the one and only Chastity Bono. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who wanted to scream out Sandra Bernhard's famous line "Chastity, get iiiiin heeere!" Chastity was lookin' a little less than svelte, I have to say, but hey, the girl's a bull dyke icon, so what can you do? She was a little laid-back, I guess you could say, all hands-in-pockets and aloof, and she looked a little uncomfortable in the flash of the cameras, but she eventually did take those damned sunglasses off, though I missed that shot.

Now, Ms. Cho, on the other hand... Well, she was just looking hot. And bitch was workin' the photographers like she'd been born to do it, posing up a storm and carrying on like she was Norma Desmond. As I mentioned in my last blog, I really wanted to get my pic taken with Margaret, simply because she is such a fabulous gay icon and because it's always good to be close to greatness in case it rubs off on you (I woke up this morning feeling strangely invigorated, I must say!), and I stood patiently but anxiously off to the side as she posed for pics and talked to interviewers until she made her way over to me, and I got my friend Photo Larry to snap a shot of the two of us, which I am proudly displaying here for you to see.


So anyway, then we all got to go inside and watch the movie, which I had already seen having reviewed it. My review had just come out that day, and while I still had some of the same problems with it (I think, like Bill Maher, Margaret has gotten a bit complacent "preaching to the choir," so to speak, writing material mostly for gay audiences who will all too readily agree with and hang on her every word), it was great to see it on a big screen with a packed house of people. It seemed so much funnier when you're enjoying it with a crowd. I laughed my ass off. Unfortunately, because I had waited so long outside by the red carpet to get my pic, the big theater was full, so they shoved a bunch of us press people into a smaller side theater to watch the movie. But Margaret was cool enough to come into the theater and tell us, "You people are just so fabulous that we put you in the 'special' theater."

After the movie was over, there was a rather fun Q&A with Margaret in which she did her famous impression of her mother, and then a festive party out in front of the Egyptian. There were all kinds of hot gay guys out there, one of whom was most definitely my pal Peter Hume, one of the writers of the upcoming WB TV show South Beach. Peter is quite the hottie, I must say. And he's Canadian, which I just think is sexy as hell. You know, Canada--the land of ice hockey, legalized marijuana, health care for all citizens and gay marriage! Not to mention Alanis Morissette! But the sexiest thing about Peter, besides the fact that he's from Canada and is a writer (I just love a creative man), is that he's just a nice guy with a great sense of humor. Like someone you could spend hours talking to and laughing with. (OK, so obviously I've got a little crush on the dude.)

After the premiere, my friend Mike and I went to eat at Hamburger Hamlet and called it a night. And oh, what a night! I swear, there's just nothing like a good Hollywood premiere to get you energized! Here's looking forward to more of them!

XOXO,
Hollywood Ken