This is, hands down, my favorite Christmas song – ever. So what better way to kick off this year’s Holiday Tune series.
Merry Christmas Darling was written by Richard Carpenter and Frank Pooler was made a classic by the gorgeous delivery of the late, great Karen Carpenter who died in 1983.
The single of Merry Christmas Darling went to number one on Billboard’s Christmas singles chart in 1970, and did again in 1971 and 1973. It was then included in The Carpenters 1978 Christmas Portrait album and Karen performed it on their ABC Christmas special that year.
World AIDS Day takes place on December 1 each year. It’s an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness.
Matt Bomer has written a tribute to the late writer and activist Larry Kramer who was one of the founding members of Gay Men’s Health Crisis and started ACT UP, which has been responsible for the development and release of almost every lifesaving treatment for HIV/AIDS.
Here is an excerpt from Matt’s piece published by Out Magazine:
Though Larry doubted whether one could be both an artist and an activist, he most assuredly was. I’ll never forget reading The Normal Heart and The Destiny of Me as a teenager in Texas, and being awakened to all that was going on in the world around me. Because of Larry, I realized that “I belong to a culture that includes Proust, Henry James, Tchaikovsky, Cole Porter, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle,” among others. The warnings and clarion calls were tempered with pride and self-acceptance.
By the time I met Larry, I saw little of the firebrand I was expecting. There he was, in his uniform of overalls with a cardigan over a shirt. Still an artist on fire, he was surrounded with thousands of pages of his current writing, workshopping a reading of one of his plays, and completely dedicated to his amazing husband, David Webster.
There were books everywhere — books that had been read and absorbed, books with broken backs. In my experience, he was a dream collaborator, quietly confident and trusting of the artists tasked with bringing The Normal Heart to the screen. He, like The Boys in the Band playwright Mart Crowley, knew that the effectiveness of what he had written would transcend interpretation. One of the highlights of my professional life was seeing Larry and Mart, who we also sadly lost this year, reunite at the 2018 Broadway opening of The Boys in the Band. Larry was as passionate as a man could be and of course had opinions about everything. He was also very funny. But mostly I remember sitting before him like a welcome disciple and laughing as he, ever curious about life, asked me questions while we both ate the cupcakes I had brought for him. He was the rebel who taught me how to save my own life and the wise uncle who was curious about and loving toward the life he saved.
Ellen Page will now be known publicly as Elliot Page.
The Oscar nominee made the announcement today via social media. It’s a big step, a brave step, and they are to be congratulated and applauded for having the tremendous courage to be their authentic self in the public eye.
“Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot,” Page wrote on Twitter. “I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life. I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey. I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self.”
When Bette Midler turned 70 five years ago, I did what any gay blogger would do: I compiled a list of 70 things I love about her. Did most of it off the top of my head! Well today she turns 75 and I’m just basically re-running the list because there are some terrific videos in it I want you to see. She has a showbiz run that has lasted nearly a half-century. From her Broadway debut in Fiddler on the Roof in the 1960s to a legendary career that has brought her a Tony, three Emmys, three Grammys, four Golden Globes and a whopping seven American Comedy Awards. She has no illusions of ever becoming an EGOT as the Oscar has alluded her desire best actress nominations for The Rose and For the Boys. But maybe a juicy big-screen part awaits!
And the gays had her first.
This showbiz icon first built up a core following in 1970 by performing at a local bathhouse in New York City called the Continental Baths with her piano player – an unknown named Barry Manilow.
Her staying power is so great that Bette has been able to weather major flops like her films Stella, Jinxed! and Scenes From A Mall and changes in the music industry. When all else fails, she’s been able to put together an amazing show and hit the road or take up residence in Las Vegas. She’s was the toast of Broadway playing the title role in the smash revival of Hello, Dolly! for which she won the 2017 Tony Award for best lead actress in a musical. Her curtain call for that show and her hilariously long Tonys speech where she cuts off the orchestra are classics and are the latest additions to my list.
Here are 75 other reasons why I love her so.
1. Her Buzz-worthy Twitter account in which she regularly calls out Trump. She also once called out ‘unseemly’ Geraldo Rivera for grabbing her breasts and shoving poppers under her nose before an interview. She demanded an apology from Rivera who seemed to be defending Matt Lauer.
3. Oscar-nominated performance in 1979′s The Rose – her first leading role in a movie.
4. Unforgettable presentation of the Best Original Song Oscar to Arthur’s Theme at the 1982 Academy Awards. She decided to be dignified and ‘rise to the occasion’ and pretended to lifted her breasts then gave her own hilarious spin on the nominated songs.
5. The fact that she and Martin von Haselberg, her husband of 30-plus years, were married by an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas.
6. She tearfully sang Wind Beneath My Wings on the phone to a woman in the hospital with terminal cancer. It was her dying wish and she passed away a few hours later.
7. Emmy-winning appearance on Johnny Carson’s 1992 farewell on The Tonight Show – made Carson cry with her version of One For My Baby.
8. The classic character of Delores DeLago – a singing mermaid in a wheelchair.
9. Every single moment of For the Boys.
10. Every single moment of Hocus Pocus.
11. Every single moment of Beaches.
12. While accepting the Emmy in 1997 for her HBO special Diva Las Vegas, Bette admitted to being ‘extremely pissed’ that she lost the Emmy three years earlier for Gypsy.
13. Her classic line as the comically self-absorbed CC Bloom in Beaches: ‘But enough about me, let’s talk about you… what do YOU think of me?’
14. Classic guest spot in 1995 episode of Seinfeld as Bette Midler who George injures during a softball game.
15. One of the better celebrity websites around: bettemidler.com
16. The stellar 2014 album It’s The Girls which spans seven decades of famous girl groups. The wigs and wardrobe for TV appearances and the tour made it all even more epic.
17. Classic 1980 Golden Globe Awards acceptance speech when she teased: ‘I’ll show you a pair of golden globes!’
18. The sensational ballad From A Distance – one of the biggest hits of Bette’s career.
19. Memorable comedic performance as separated at birth twins opposite Lily Tomlin – who also played twins – in the 1988 hit comedy Big Business.
20. The make-up and the gloriously hideous teeth for Winifred in the 1993 film Hocus Pocus, now a Halloween classic.
21. Ruthless People
22. Outrageous Fortune
23. Down and Out in Beverly Hills
24. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.
25 Splendid performance of Wind Beneath My Wings at 1990 Grammy Awards shortly before winning Record of the Year.
26. Underrated dramatic performance in the little seen independent film Then She Found Me directed by Helen Hunt who played the daughter Midler gave up for adoption.
27. Unbilled performance in the 1997 John Travolta hit Get Shorty. Bette stole every scene she was in as Doris Saphron.
28. Hysterical Emmy-nominated guest spot on the sitcom Murphy Brown guest spot as Murphy’s last secretary (she had a new one every episode).
29. Delicious pairing of Bette and Nathan Lane in 2000 film Isn’t She Great. The divine one played Valley of the Dolls author Jacqueline Susann and Lane her press agent husband Irving Mansfield. It was so bad it was good!
30. Broadway triumph in the 2013 play I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers.
31. Asked by Barbara Walters in a 1980 interview to rate herself on a scale of 1-10, Bette replied: ‘I think I’m about a 55. I think I’m a happening girl!’
32. Gave emotionally raw Golden Globes acceptance speech in 1992 just weeks after For the Boys bombed at box office. Bette could not hide her broken heart despite winning for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical..
33. Tear-jerking performance on The Glory of Love at end of the 1988 film Beaches.
34. The cover of the 1998 album Bathhouse Betty.
35. Putting her stamp on Mama Rose in 1993 TV version of Gypsy.
36. Fight scenes with Dennis Farina in the 1997 comedy That Old Feeling.
37. Gorgeous rendition of The Beatles In My Life in the 1991 film For The Boys for which she earned her second Oscar nomination for best actress.
38. Bette’s very cool 2006 holiday album called Cool Yule.
39. The absolutely hilarious – and raunchy – Otto Titsling number from Beaches.
40. The Grammy-nominated Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook produced by Barry Manilow.
41. Bette’s first turn as a grandmother (gasp!) in the 2012 hit comedy Parental Guidance.
42, Stupendously fun performance of the ditty Fat As I Am on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson in 1985.
43, Bette’s memorable voice work in the animated film Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
44. Short-lived 2000 sitcom Bette on CBS which actually had some very funny moments during its 18 episode run with Bette as a fictional version of herself.
45. Opening the 1994 Emmy Awards with a terrific performance of Rose’s Turn from Gypsy.
46. Bette Midler’s Clams on the Half Shell Revue
47. The 1980 book Bette Midler: A View From a Broad
48. The 1983 book The Saga of Baby Divine
49. The Grammy-nominated Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook.
50. Bette’s old age make-up as Dixie Leonard in her 80s in For the Boys.
51. Her debut album The Divine Miss M released in 1972.
52. 1980 comedy album Divine Madness also made into a concert film.
53. 2003-05 Kiss My Brass tour
54. The soundtrack to For the Boys featuring Stuff Like That There, In My Life, Come Rain or Come Shine, I Remember You.
55. 1993′s Experience the Divine: Greatest Hits.
56. The soundtrack to Gypsy
57. Dressing like a giant rabbit – a singing rabbit – for her ‘meet cute’ scene with John Heard in Beaches.
58. When she took revenge on Danny Devito in the pier scene in Ruthless People.
59. The 1985 comedy album Mud Will Be Flung Tonight which brought Bette out of per post-Jinxed! career funk.
60. The Trashy Ladies medley with Cher on the first episode of Cher’s solo variety show in 1975.
61. The giant orange sweater that hid her pregnancy in some scenes of Outrageous Fortune.
62. Scenes with Nick Nolte in her comeback comedy Down and Out in Beverly Hills.
63. Do You Wanna Dance?
64. The annual Hulaween Ball to raise money for New York Restoration Project (NYRP).
65. Emmy-winning TV special Ol’ Red Hair is Back.
66. Glorious ending of First Wives Club when Bette, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn team up for a defiant version of You Don’t Own Me.
67. In First Wives Club when Bette’s character describes demise of her marriage: ‘He starts working out, he, he grows a mustache, he gets an earring. I said, “Morty, Morty, what are you? A pirate? What’s next? A parrot?’
68. She was voted ‘Most Talkative’ and ‘Most Dramatic’ in high school.
69. Bette’s good sense of humor about the We Are the World recording session when she was moved from being front-and-center with Bruce Springsteen to nearly out of camera range next to LaToya Jackson.
70. Touring and still filling arenas like LA Staples Center during 2015′s Divine Intervention show.
71. Returned to Hello, Dolly! for one final run before the show closed on Broadway.
72. Her memorable performance in the 2017 independent flick Freak Show as the mostly absentee mother of a gay son.
73. Reviving her memorable role as Caprice, one of Murphy Brown’s most memorable secretaries, on the short-lived reboot of the sitcom.
74. Doing the voice of Grandma in the 2019 hit animated film The Addams Family.
75. Being up for reuniting with Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy for a Hocus Pocus sequel!
Cher, Christina Aguilera sing justice for Burlesque, 10 years later EW.com
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Actor Viggo Mortensen defends playing gay role: “You’re assuming that I’m completely straight.” Queerty
MSNBC’s viral ‘map guy’ Steve Kornacki reveals he was ‘taken aback’ by his overnight election coverage fame and the love for his ‘Kornacki Khakis’ Daily Mail TV
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Partner Test Positive for COVID-19 Advocate
President-Elect Joe Biden Announces Black Lesbian Karine Jean-Pierre as His Deputy White House Press Secretary The WOW Report
Happy 69th birthday to Treat Williams who I enjoyed seeing over the weekend in the new Netflix Christmas on the Square with Dolly Parton and Christine Baranski. He also plays the father of Robert Buckley and Jonathan Bennett in the new Hallmark holiday movie The Christmas House. I saw that a week ago and quite enjoyed that too!
Although younger people may know Williams best from his starring role on Everwood from 2002-06, this handsome actor made his big splash decades earlier.
It was in 1979 that Williams landed the lead in the big screen version of the musical Hair which earned hm a Golden Globe Award nomination. He was nominated again two years later for his starring role in the film Prince of the City then again for a television production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
Williams has more than 75 film and television credits including 1941, Once Upon a Time in America, Miss Congeniality 2, Howl and 127 Hours. He is also a stage veteran starring in Broadway productions of Follies, Grease, The Pirates of Penzance and Love Letters.
Williams played the role of Mick O’ Brien in a Hallmark Channel television series called Chesapeake Shores from 2016-19 and had a recurring role in Chicago Fire as Kelly Severide’s father, Benny Severide until his character’s death in season 7.
Olympic diver Tom Daley and Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black make their home in London where they live with their young son. Tom is training for the 2021 Summer Olympics (we hope!) and Lance is working on his next big project. Tom has posted this video and writes: “Lance and I were busy working for Thanksgiving this week! We made a some of Lance’s traditional foods that he has made for years!”
And since then, Gael Garcia Bernal has been stellar in such films as The Motorcycle Diaries, El Crimen del Padre Amaro, Bad Education, Babel, Rosewater, Blindness, and Casa de Mi Padre, among many other films.
The actor, who turns 42 today, has been best known in recent years for his role as Rodrigo de Souza in the Amazon Studios’ web television series Mozart in the Jungle. In 2016, he won the Golden Globe Award for his performance in the show.
Three remarkable actress – Academy Award-winners Meryl Streep and Dianne Wiest, and 5-time Emmy Award-winner Candice Bergen – share the screen in a new film by director Steven Soderbergh, “Let Them All Talk,” an exercise in improvisation, in which its actors were required to create much of the dialogue themselves. CBS Sunday Morning Correspondent Rita Braver talks with the trio about the rarity of starring in a major Hollywood film about three women in their 70s.
If you read my interview with Betty Buckley a year ago, then you are familiar with the funny story involving Miss Buckley, Patti LuPone and the song Meadowlark from the musical The Baker’s Wife.
Composer Stephen Schwartz told both Broadway legends that he wrote the song for them then when confronted, said he didn’t remember what he said to either of them!
The most important thing is that it doesn’t matter who he wrote it before because both Tony winners sing this song superbly and make it their own. My personal favorite is Miss Buckley’s because, well, no one sings the song quite like her. It’s a stunning rendition.
Below are both versions plus some other versions for your enjoyment.
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This is, hands down, my favorite Christmas song – ever. So what better way to kick off this year’s Holiday Tune series.
WATCH: Cher singing to “The World’s Loneliest Elephant” is all the sweetness you need today
World AIDS Day takes place on December 1 each year. It’s an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. 
By the time I met Larry, I saw little of the firebrand I was expecting. There he was, in his uniform of overalls with a cardigan over a shirt. Still an artist on fire, he was surrounded with thousands of pages of his current writing, workshopping a reading of one of his plays, and completely dedicated to his amazing husband, David Webster.
Ellen Page will now be known publicly as Elliot Page. 
When Bette Midler turned 70 five years ago, I did what any gay blogger would do: I compiled a list of 70 things I love about her. Did most of it off the top of my head! Well today she turns 75 and I’m just basically re-running the list because there are some terrific videos in it I want you to see. She has a showbiz run that has lasted nearly a half-century. From her Broadway debut in Fiddler on the Roof in the 1960s to a legendary career that has brought her a Tony, three Emmys, three Grammys, four Golden Globes and a whopping seven American Comedy Awards. She has no illusions of ever becoming an EGOT as the Oscar has alluded her desire best actress nominations for The Rose and For the Boys. But maybe a juicy big-screen part awaits!
14. Classic guest spot in 1995 episode of Seinfeld as Bette Midler who George injures during a softball game.
20. The make-up and the gloriously hideous teeth for Winifred in the 1993 film Hocus Pocus, now a Halloween classic.
34. The cover of the 1998 album Bathhouse Betty.
50. Bette’s old age make-up as Dixie Leonard in her 80s in For the Boys.
52. 1980 comedy album Divine Madness also made into a concert film.
57. Dressing like a giant rabbit – a singing rabbit – for her ‘meet cute’ scene with John Heard in Beaches.
61. The giant orange sweater that hid her pregnancy in some scenes of Outrageous Fortune.
66. Glorious ending of First Wives Club when Bette, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn team up for a defiant version of You Don’t Own Me.
Cher, Christina Aguilera sing justice for Burlesque, 10 years later 
MSNBC’s viral ‘map guy’ Steve Kornacki reveals he was ‘taken aback’ by his overnight election coverage fame and the love for his ‘Kornacki Khakis’
Happy 69th birthday to Treat Williams who I enjoyed seeing over the weekend in the new Netflix Christmas on the Square with Dolly Parton and Christine Baranski. He also plays the father of Robert Buckley and Jonathan Bennett in the new Hallmark holiday movie The Christmas House. I saw that a week ago and quite enjoyed that too!
Watch: Bette Midler Bids Trump So Long in Song –”Go Shove Your Stupid Wall, We’ll Send a Nice U-Haul…”
He had me at Y tu mama tambien.
If you read 
Jonathan Bennett – Making Room at the Hallmark Holiday Table 
