I spoke with Chandler this morning after he received the news.

“I feel great, it was good news,” he said. “It’s such an honor to be nominated and it is much appreciated.”

It’s the second consecutive nomination for Chandler in the category of Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series.

His competitors are Eddie Alderson who played Matthew Buchanan on ABC’s now-canceled One Life To Live, Chad Duell who plays Michael Corinthos on ABC’s General Hospital and also from that show, Nathan Parsons who plays Ethan Lovett.

While the Will Horton storyline has been filled with dramatic moments this year with Will coming to terms with being gay, the nomination is not for any of those because the performances have to have aired in 2011.

Chandler’s nominated episode aired on Sept. 30 and included scenes with Deidre Hall who plays his grandmother Marlena and Freddie Smith who plays Sonny.

So how much does he want to win?

“I think just being nominated is nice,” he insists. “The work is already done. At the end of the day, I’m proud of the work.”

The Daytime Emmys will take place on Saturday, June 23 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Chandler took his mother to last year’s ceremony.

‘This year I will not be taking my mom,” he said. “I will be taking a hot woman – I just have to find one.”

Nominations for the 2012 Tony Awards were announced on Tuesday and just a day later, the nominees gathered to pose for photos and give interviews at the annual “Meet the Nominees Press Reception” held at the Millennium Broadway Hotel.

Here are the portraits of two of the openly gay nominees: a radiant Cynthia Nixon who is up for lead actress in a play for her performance in Wit. She won in the category back in 2007 for Rabbit Hole.

Harvey Fierstein, already a three-time Tony winner, is nominated for best book of a musical for Newsies: The Musical. He previously won in the category in 1984 for La Cage aux Folles and has best lead actor in a musical Tonys for Hairspray and Torch Song Trilogy.

To see more portraits, go to Playbill.com.

Jackman,who returned to the Great White Way with Hugh Jackman, Back to Broadway, is being honored for his contributions to the Broadway community, both as a performer and humanitarian; his tireless dedication to charitable works of many types; and his personal generosity of spirit.

Although best known as the star of the X-Men feature film franchise, Jackman is a three-time Tony Awards host who appeared in the 2009 play A Steady Rain opposite Daniel Craig and will return to Broadway next year in Houdini.

He is currently shooting the feature film adaptation of Les Miserables.

Miss Peters, a seven-time Tony nominee and two-time winner, will receive the Isabelle Stevenson Award.

The award goes to an individual from the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations.

Peters, whose Broadway hits include Annie Get Your Gun, Sunday in the Park With George, Song and Dance, and Gypsy, starred in the revival of Follies last year. She earned raves for taking over the lead in A Little Night Music from Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2010.

It’s the third nomination for the Sex and the City alum who won in 2006 for Rabbit Hole.

Nixon’s competition is Stockard Channing (Other Desert Cities) and Linda Lavin (The Lyons) as well as Nina Arianda (Venus in Fur) and Tracie Bennett (End of the Rainbow).

There may be other openly gay nominees in the major categories but I’m just not aware of them. Please feel free to point others out!

One openly gay star who did not make the cut was Ricky Martin in Evita. The superstar, making his first Broadway appearance since 1996′s Les Miserables, has been nominated for a Drama Desk Award for best actor in musical so a Tony nod was somewhat expected. His leading lady, Elena Roger, was also snubbed but their co-star Michael Cerveres was nominated in the featured role in a musical category for his performance as Juan Peron.

Staunch LGBT ally Judith Light earned herself a nomination in the featured actress in a play category for her acclaimed performance in Other Desert Cities. She will compete against Linda Emond (Death of a Salesman), Spencer Kayden (Don’t Dress for Dinner), Celia Keenan-Bolger (Peter and the Starcatcher) and Condola Rashad (Stick Fly).

Fans of NBC’s Smash will be happy to know that Christian Borle, who plays gay composer Tom Levitt, was nominated for featured actor in a musical for his performance in Peter and the Starcatcher.

“It’s been an awfully nice morning!” Borle told BroadwayWorld.com. “I’m happy and just so very proud of the show. It’s been a few years leading up to now. This is just enormously gratifying.”

Borle had previously been nominated for Legally Blonde.

Click HERE to see a full list of nominees.

I’m going to have all kinds of coverage from last night’s GLAAD Media Awards in the coming days from red carpet interviews to speeches to photos I took to videos etc.

But I won’t get the chance to post most of it today except for this recap of the night’s main winners and their speeches. Stay tuned for more though!

The 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles were a star-studded affair on Saturday night with appearances by Ellen DeGeneres, Betty White, Milla Jovoich, Benicio del Toro, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Josh Hutcherson.

But no star shined brighter than Cher who shocked the audience when she walked onto the stage at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel to present her son, Chaz Bono, with the Stephen F. Kolzak Award.

The night’s other big award recipient was 19-year-old Josh Hutcherson, one of the stars of the box office phenomenon The Hunger Games. Hutcherson received GLAAD’s Vanguard Award for being one of the founders of the LGBT ally organization Straight But Not Narrow, a campaign working to positively impact the way teens view and treat their LGBT peers.

In accepting his award from Del Toro, Hutcherson spoke movingly of the influence his mother has had on his activism and of the two gay uncles he never knew who both died at the height of the AIDS epidemic.

‘They are very much a part of me and everything that I believe in,’ he said. ‘Being honored with this award goes to them 100 percent and it goes to my family and everything they raised me to believe in.’

Prior to the start of the show, Hutcherson spoke with me about being chosen to receive an award that in the past has gone to such icons as Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli, Whoopi Goldberg, Shirley MacLaine and Cher.

‘I don’t belong on that list I know that much,’ he said modestly. ‘It’s incredible to be honored at all. But to be honored at this young age, I think is awesome. I think it’s so important that young people are getting involved in organizations and trying to step up and make a change. It means a lot to me to honored with this.’

Bono returned to the stage later in the show with Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato to accept the outstanding documentary award for Becoming Chaz which chronicled his transition from female to male.

The film Beginners, which won Christopher Plummer the Academy Award for his performance as a gay man coming out late in life, won the award for outstanding wide release film.

In the television categories presented Saturday, Modern Family took home the GLAAD Award for the second year in a row. The Emmy winning show features gay couple Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) as two of its core characters.

‘We’re always being called revolutionary and groundbreaking and I really look forward to the day when that won’t be the case and we’ll actually just be kind of mundane and normal,’ Ferguson said as he accepted the award.

The Lifetime network series Drop Dead Diva and the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland tied in the category of outstanding individual episode of a TV series without a regular LGBT character.

Hot In Cleveland star Betty White, 90, said while accepting the award with co-stars Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves: ‘When you see the four of us together, Valerie [Bertinelli], and Wendie and Jane and Betty, you’d swear we were all gay because we adore each other!’

DeGeneres opened the show with a comedy monologue and joked: ‘Betty White is here! I didn’t know you were gay. Welcome sister!’

She added on a serious note: ‘I wanted to be here because I’m so proud of the work that GLAAD does, it does amazing work. With their help, we’ve made a lot of progress this year. Gay marriage is now legal in six states. … We’re on TV more than ever, we’re on commercials, we’re in magazines, we’re all over the media – and that’s just my JC Penney campaign.’

She talked about how Chaz “meant the world” to his dad, the late Sonny Bono.

Then after a video presentation about Chaz, a woman with a wig Diana Ross might wear came onto the stage unannounced.

It was Cher.

The crowd inside the ballroom at the Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles went nuts.

“I don’t have anything prepared,” she said. “I am so nervous because my pronouns for my child just jump all over the f*cking place.”

Cher did indeed mix her pronouns up a few times calling the child who was the female Chastity to her for 40 years “she” on a few occasions then quickly catching herself.

“I think everyone knows how freaked out I was to find out he was gay,” Cher told the crowd. “This [transgender] is one step to go past. … And then you go, ‘Oh, those were the good old days.”

Getting serious, Cher said of her child: “I’m here because Chaz has the most courage of almost anyone I know.”

Chaz took the stage to accept the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, presented to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equality.

“This truly means so much to me,” Chaz said. “Of every organization out there, and there are a lot of them, I don’t think any of them do more to affect change on a cultural level than GLAAD.”

UPDATE: Cher tweeted after the show: So much fun at Glaad awards!I I really surprised Chaz! HE was adorable,Said wow mom i was so surprised i forgot what i was going 2say!

Look for my full report on the GLAAD Media Awards tomorrow!

The two-time Tony Award winner has appeared in such Sondheim works as Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, Gypsy and in last year’s filmed version of Company.

Rather than just bask in the tributes, LuPone performed Sondheim’s classic Anyone Can Whistle as well as Kurt Weill’s September Song.

“I shouldn’t be singing for my supper,” LuPone told guests. “However, I had a little too much to drink; the wine’s been flowing. I’m not as young as I used to be, so the voice. . . we’ll see what happens. What the hell.”

LuPone won her first Tony for Evita in 1980 and was nominated again for Anything Goes.

Prior to the tribute, Sondheim said in a statement: “There are few performers who can play both Mrs. Lovett and Fosca, Evita and Reno Sweeney, Nancy in Oliver! and Cora Hoover Hooper in Anyone Can Whistle, and still create roles for David Mamet.  In fact, there’s only one. Versatility of such a high caliber is rare indeed, and therefore it couldn’t be more appropriate that the recipient of this year’s Signature Theatre Sondheim Award is going to the best tuba player on Broadway: Patti LuPone.”

It has also gone to people like Charlize Theron and Kristin Chenoweth who, at the peak of their fame and success, have spoken out loudly for LGBT equality.

It’s also gone to Jennifer Aniston. Not sure what that was about except that she fell in love with a gay guy in Object of My Affection.

Well, GLAAD has just announced the recipient of this year’s Vanguard Award which will be presented on Saturday night at the GLAAD Media Awards in LA.

I was ready to be skeptical because it’s going to a 19-year-old actor named Josh Hutcherson who is one of the stars of The Hunger Games and played the son of a lesbian couple in The Kids Are All Right.

Is this a case of Jennifer Aniston deja vu?

Not a chance.

It’s a wonderful opportunity to honor a young star who is using his fame as a platform for LGBT equality.

Read all about his efforts in my article posted over at Gay Star News. And below is a video Josh made for a campaign he co-founded called Straight But Not Narrow which is working to positively impact the way teens view and treat their LGBT peers.

The year he began on Seinfeld – 1989 – he had won the Tony Award for best actor in a musical for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway.

He also appeared on Broadway in Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound, Kander and Ebb’s The Rink, and Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along.

In addition, Alexander appeared opposite Martin Short, in the Los Angeles production of Mel Brooks’ The Producers, as well as with Kelsey Grammer in the 2004 musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

It’s just been announced that Alexander will be honored for his stage career with the Julie Harris Award for Lifetime Achievement at The Actors Fund at their 16th Annual Tony Awards Party.

The June 10 gala features the only approved live feed of the Tony Awards as they happen in New York.

Previous recipients of the Julie Harris Award have included Julie Harris, Gwen Verdon, Charles Durning, Rita Moreno, James Earl Jones, Tyne Daly, Lauren Bacall, Stockard Channing, Carol Channing, Liza Minnelli, Jerry Herman, Tommy Tune, Chita Rivera, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Hal Holbrook.

Congratulations to Jason!

For more information visit www.actorsfund.org.

This is such great news: Neil Patrick Harris is hosting this year’s Tony Awards!

This marks the third time NPH will lend his talents to the ceremony honoring Broadway’s best and he has really made it a fun experience – especially with his memorable opening and closing numbers (see videos below).

“I’m thrilled to be a part of this year’s Tony Awards,” he said in a statement. “Not only will I be shining a spotlight on the best that Broadway has to offer, but hopefully I’ll score some free house seats to a show or 5.”

NPH is best known for his television roles on How I Met Your Mother and Doogie Howser MD but he is a also a Broadway veteran who in the years between his hit sitcoms starred in the musicals Assassins and Cabaret and in the play Proof.

Bernadette Peters, Dakota Fanning, John Stamos, Harvey Weinstein, Megan Hilty, Russell Simmons, Kim Wayans, Carson Kressley, Padma Lakshmi, Vinny Guadagnino, and Tracey Gold were among the special guests.

At the ceremony, Broadway legend Bernadette Peters and actor John Stamos presented the Vito Russo Award to producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

The Vito Russo Award is presented to openly LGBT media professionals who have made a significant difference in promoting equality for the LGBT community.

“I want to thank GLAAD for selecting us to be honored, and for their extraordinary work every single day,” Zadan said in his acceptance speech. “When we did The Reagans, we had death threats for telling the truth about that President’s outright refusal to acknowledge the growing AIDS crisis in America. We would not have survived that ordeal, I must point out, without the help of GLAAD. They got us through the political firestorm leveled against us by the Republican National Committee. So we got to see first hand what GLAAD’s capable of accomplishing when they mobilize the troops, and thank God for them.”

Zadan finished his acceptance by thanking his late friend and GLAAD’s founder, Vito Russo, “Some people become your heroes and they don’t even know it. [Vito Russo] was mine. And the lucky thing for me was I got to tell him while he was here. I want to thank…my guru and inspirational life-force Vito Russo, who is responsible for every aspect of my social consciousness that brought me to this stage tonight to get this award that bears his glorious name. Thank you so much.”

Meron accepted the award by saying, “I just love being gay. [It's] part of who I am, so it impacts the work that we do, and I love the work that we do. So it’s great.” Pointing to the youth in the balcony, Meron continued, “It’s great for you guys to understand that it’s really great to be gay. I really thank GLAAD for this wonderful honor and it’s very, very meaningful to me.”

Also at the event, The Weinstein Company Co-Chairman and outspoken anti-bullying advocate Harvey Weinstein presented a Special Recognition award to openly gay high school student Katy Butler.

Butler launched a Change.org campaign last month to advocate that the ‘R’ rating of the upcoming documentary Bully be changed to ‘PG-13.’ Her Change.org petition has nearly 500,000 signatures.

Accepting the award from Weinstein, Butler said, “This award belongs to every student like me, who has been bullied and beaten just for being who they are. Please know that we’re working hard to make it better. And judging from what we’ve already seen tonight, I’m thankful that we have groups like GLAAD on our side. Stay strong.” She continued, “A few weeks ago, I started a petition on Change.org urging the Motion Picture Association of America to change the rating of Bully from R to PG-13 – so students across America can see this life-changing film. I want to personally thank each and every one of the nearly half a million people who have signed my petition on Change.org. Your signatures, stories, and ongoing support have inspired a national dialogue on our nation’s bullying epidemic and have given hope to struggling students everywhere.”

Zach Wahls, who appeared in a GLAAD Media Award-nominated episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show this year, received a standing ovation as he spoke to the crowd about the impact of his 2011 speech to the Iowa senate in which he spoke about his lesbian moms. The viral video has received over 18 million views on YouTube.

Pariah stars Adepero Oduye and Kim Wayans with the film’s producer Nekisa Cooper accepted the award for Outstanding Film – Limited Release.

Carson Kressley, who with Chaz Bono appeared on the GLAAD Media Award-nominated season of Dancing with the Stars, picked up the statuette on behalf of the show which receive the award for Outstanding Reality Program.

The award for Outstanding TV Journalism Segment was accepted by ABC News Correspondent Josh Elliott for his report “Battle Against Bullying,” which aired on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer. In his acceptance speech, Elliott thanked his father, who came out as a gay man when Elliott was 13 years old.

Openly gay journalists Carolyn M. Brown and Chris Geidner shared the award for Outstanding Magazine Article for their stories in Black Enterprise and Metro Weekly respectively. Brown’s article “Black & Gay in Corporate America,” explored the increasing presence of openly gay African American employees in the workplace. Geidner received the award for his four-part series looking back at the passage of the Defense of Marrage Act (DOMA) during the Clinton administration.

Other guests and presenters at the event included: Dakota Fanning (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn); hip hop icon Russell Simmons; Megan Hilty (Smash); Padma Lakshmi (Top Chef); MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts; Cheyenne Jackson (30 Rock); La La Anthony (La La’s Full Court Life); Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir and his husband Victor Voronov; Vinny Guadagnino (Jersey Shore); Ted Allen (Chopped); Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (Becoming Chaz, Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys); Alex Newell, Emily Vasquez, Marissa Von Bleicken (The Glee Project); Tracey Gold (Starving Secrets with Tracey Gold); Wendy Williams (The Wendy Williams Show); Laverne Cox (Musical Chairs); Jay Manuel, Isis King (America’s Next Top Model); the cast of Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys; Janet Mock (People.com); Emil Wilbekin (Essence); Jamie Clayton (Hung); Stephen Karam, Charles Socarides (Sons of the Prophet); Robin Skye (Southern Comfort); Mega TV’s Javier Ceriani (Paparazzi Magazine); and GLAAD Acting President Mike Thompson. Attendees enjoyed performances by recording artist Todd Alsup and The Rockettes.

Sorry that this is the best photo of Charlize Theron that I was able to snap at last night’s HRC gala.

I was getting in a few words with Joe Manganiello when she was posing for photos so had to scramble for this shot before she left the red carpet entirely.

But I digress!

Sexy Michael Fassbender flew into town just hours before to present the HRC Ally for Equality Award to Theron and apologized to the crowd for being dressed in a leather jacket and jeans rather than a tuxedo or suit.

No one seemed to mind!

He took the stage holding a glass of beer, hoisted it in the direction of the audience and said, “Here’s to St. Patrick.” Then he took a big swig.

Fassbender said his support of LGBT equality is why he wanted to be at the gala and present the award to Theron who has long been an outspoken proponent of gay marriage in interviews and made appearances at rallies and other LGBT events.

The actress, who won an Oscar for playing a lesbian serial killer in Monster, playfully took a swig of Fassbender’s beer before she began her speech.

She then titillated the actor – and the audience – with a series of double entendres referring to Fassbender’s nude scenes in Shame which have had many buzzing about his being well-endowed.

“I think I speak for everybody Michael when I say, we don’t care what attire you come in. I loved you in Shame. I have to say, I was truly impressed that you chose to play it big [audience roars with knowing laughter]. Any of those other actors would have gone small, trust me [more laughter]. I know because I’ve worked with most of them [laughter]. No, seriously, your penis was a revelation! [wild applause and laughter]. I’m available to work with it anytime.”

Once the room calmed down, Theron moved on to the more serious portion of her speech.

She went on to share the results of a 1996 Gallop Poll on gay marriage which 68 percent were against. Then 2011 when 45 percent opposed gay marriage.

“In this short span of 15 years, you have moved a culture, you have worked tirelessly.Today, the majority of Americans stand with you. … Marriage equality is about more than just marriage, it’s about being accepted.”

She concluded that she would “always” fight for the LGBT community.

I’ll have much more coverage of the HRC gala – speeches and interviews – later tonight and tomorrow!

When I think of some of my favorite television shows, movies and musicals, many of them have one thing in common: the extraordinary producing team of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

Their most recent television success is NBC’s Smash which I am just crazy about and love it all the more because it actually has gay characters featured prominently.

Anyway, it has just been announced that Mr. Zadan and Mr. Meron will receive the Vito Russo Award at the GLAAD Media Awards in New York City on March 24.

The award is named after one of GLAAD’s founders and is presented to an openly LGBT media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting LGBT equality.

In a career spanning over two decades, Zadan and Meron’s productions have garnered six Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, 11 Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, two Tony Awards and a Grammy Award.

In addition to producing iconic films such as the Academy Award-winning Chicago, The Bucket List, Hairspray and Footloose, two of their television movies have received GLAAD Media Awards, Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story in 1996 and What Makes a Family in 2002.

They also received GLAAD Media Awards nominations in 2004 and 2007 for It’s all Relative and Wedding Wars.

Their current hit TV series Drop Dead Diva this year received its second nomination in the Outstanding Individual Episode category.

Through many of their projects, Zadan and Meron have been trailblazers in telling the stories of the LGBT community.

In 1995, their film Serving in Silence, which aired on NBC, recounted the legal battle of Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, who challenged “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” following her involuntary discharge under the law.

In the 2001 Lifetime movie What Makes a Family, Zadan and Meron recounted the story of a woman who had to fight for the custody of the child she shared with her deceased partner, and in their 2006 Wedding Wars (A&E), they told the story of a gay man who speaks out in favor of marriage equality when he discovers his straight brother, whose wedding he was planning, is behind an anti-gay speech.

In 2010, the duo returned to their theater roots with the Tony winning Broadway revival of Promises, Promises starring openly gay actor Sean Hayes and GLAAD Vanguard Award-recipient Kristin Chenoweth.

Zadan and Meron’s Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying starred outspoken LGBT equality advocate Daniel Radcliffe.

Their current hit series Smash on NBC features a prominent gay character whose dating life is an important part of the show.

Previous Vito Russo Award honorees include Ricky Martin, Cynthia Nixon, Suze Orman, Rosie O’Donnell, Alan Cumming, Nathan Lane, Elton John, Liz Smith, k.d. lang, David LaChapelle, Brian Graden, and Tom Ford.

Streep later publicly thanked Fonda for her encouragement during the shooting of that 1977 film and for spreading the word around Hollywood about this terrific young actress with a bright future.

So Fonda, a two-time Oscar winner herself for Klute and Coming Home, was thrilled to see Streep win her third Academy Award on Sunday as she watched the ceremony from the Vanity Fair party (she is pictured, above, at the party with son Troy Garity).

Fonda blogged about the evening and here are her thoughts on Streep’s popular win:

The evening was really fun Highlights for me: the biggie for me was Meryl’s winning. I stood up and cheered and wasn’t the only on. I adore Viola [Davis]…as a human and as an actor but Meryl—that performance! Breathtaking…besides the fact that she’s given about a dozen Oscar-worthy performances since “Sophie’s Choice.” I can tell you that as an actor, she (and Annette Benning) raise the bar and inspire me to go farther, reach higher. I also loved Billy Crystal and a whole lot else about the show.

Meryl Streep seems to have remarkable perspective on why she had lost 12 consecutive times at the Oscars.

One gets the sense that had she not finally broken that Susan Lucci-esque losing streak last night and finally won a third Oscar (best actress for The Iron Lady), she would have been just fine and gone on having a wonderful life.

“I have I mean, I have everything I’ve ever dreamed of in my life,” she told reporters backstage after her win. “I mean, I think there’s room for other people. Frankly, I understand Streep Fatigue. And it shocks me, it shocked me that it didn’t override this tonight. So, I was really, really happy but I don’t take anything for granted, that’s for sure.”

Pictured are the gorgeous David Burtka and Neil Patrick Harris followed by smoldering Ian Somerhalder, cutie pie Chace Crawford, hottie Ryan Kwantan and Glee fave Chris Colfer with his sometimes co-star Ashley Fink.

Go to Socialite Life to see more party pics!

Octavia Spencer was presented with her Oscar from last year’s supporting actor winner Christian Bale for her memorable performance in The Help.

As she clutched her statue, Octavia said the obvious: ‘Thank you, Academy, for putting me with the hottest guy in the room.’

Then she got to hank out with him backstage!!!

The silent film The Artist fended off eight other nominees to take the best picture prize at the 84th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood on Sunday.

The top award was among a trio of major awards for the film which also won the best actor award for French star Jean Dujardin and best director for French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius.

The three other major acting awards had major gay connections:  Christopher Plummer won in the best supporting actor category for his performance as a gay man in Beginners; Best actress winner Meryl Streep earned her third Oscar for her role in The Iron Lady which was directed by lesbian filmmaker Phyllida Lloyd and Octavia Spencer, winner of best supporting actress for The Help, was directed by gay filmmaker Tate Taylor.

In her speech, Streep congratulated her longtime make-up artist J. Roy Helland who shared the makeup Oscar with Mark Coulier for their work on The Iron Lady.

Heiland has worked with Streep on every film dating back to Sophie’s Choice. In his speech he said: ‘Thanks, Meryl, for keeping me employed for the last 37 years. Your brilliance makes my work look good, no matter what.’

Here are the rest of the 2012 Academy Award winners:

Cinematography: Hugo

Art Direction: Hugo

Costume Design: The Artist

Foreign Language Film: A Separation (Iran)

Film Editing: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Sound Editing: Hugo

Sound Mixing: Hugo

Documentary Feature: Undefeated

Animated Feature Film: Rango

Visual Effects: Hugo

Original Score: The Artist

Original Song: Man or Muppet from The Muppets

Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, The Descendants

Original Screenplay: Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

Live Action Short Film: The Shore

Documentary (short subject): Saving Face

Animated Short Film: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore