I can watch episode after episode after episode – and sometimes do!

The host of the show, for those of you not familiar with it, is Ted Allen who came to fame as one of the “Fab Five” on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on which he was the food and wine specialist.

Ted, whose latest book In My Kitchen was released May 1, turns 47 today.

Happy birthday!!!

That guy is Billy Beane.

But this Billy is also a former pro baseball player who has also got a fascinating life story that I hope gets made into a movie someday.

It’s been 13 years since Billy came out of the closet with a heart-breaking memoir Going the Other Way. He did an interview with Diane Sawyer that I was watching while at the Gold’s Gym in Long Beach. I was so riveted that I got off the elliptical machine to completely focus on what Billy was saying. I’ll never forget it because as he cried on the air, I also wept in a way that I prefer not to do publicly.

He was telling of how he was playing for the San Diego Padres as a closeted young man and his lover died unexpectedly. Billy could not mourn him for fear of being outed and it took an emotional toll that resulted in his baseball career ending prematurely after 12 years in the major leagues.

Billy, who turns 47 years old today, came out after his playing days but is still one of the very few former pro athletes to do so.

“I think kids at this generation are light years ahead of where we were,” Billy told me in an interview we did in 2006. “They are so much more aware because of the Internet and blogs. We had to interact face to face which kept us from doing that. They are so much more progressive in so many ways.”

He’s gone on to have a successful real estate career, plays serious competitive tennis and has remained in the spotlight as a public speaker telling his story.

Kyan Douglas came to our attention when he was the grooming guy on Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy which was all the rage for awhile.

He was like Paul McCartney was with The Beatles, Kyan was pretty much “the cute one” among this Fab Five who actually were all pretty cute.

Kyan, who turns 42 today, continues to appear regularly on the popular Rachael Ray Show. He also hosted the TLC makeover show Ten Years Younger.

He had kept a pretty low profile until recently and explained why in 2009 to Metro Source magazine: “I didn’t realize how private a person I was until the Queer Eye thing happened. I think while some of my castmates were immediately ready for more action, I just needed some time to myself.”

The former member of ‘N Sync, who came out publicly in 2006, turns 33.

Happy birthday to Lance!

The song reached number 1, was nominated for a Grammy and sold more than 1 million copies.

More hits followed including You Don’t Own Me which spent three weeks at number 2 but was unable to dislodge the song in the top spot: The Beatles’ I Want to Hold Your Hand.

Lesley, who turns 66 today, had many other hits during the 60s including She’s A Fool, Judy’s Turn to Cry, Maybe I Know, Look of Love, That’s the Way Boys Are and the Grammy-nominated Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows.

While Lesley’s recording career stalled at the end of the 1960s, she kept performing and was nominated for an Academy Award for co-writing the song Out Her On My Own with her brother, Michael Gore, for the movie Fame (See video below). The song lost to the theme song from the film which was also written by Michael.

It wasn’t until 2005 that Lesley publicly stated that she is a lesbian and has been with the same partner for more than two decades.

She is still out there sharing that gorgeous voice of hers with us.

To celebrate her birthday, I’ve chosen three of my favorite songs: In My Life, a beautiful version of the Beatles classic; Both Sides Now, the smash hit written by Joni Mitchell which won Collins a Grammy; and Send in the Clowns, the ballad from A Little Night Music that Collins turned into a major pop hit which went on to win the Grammy for Song of the Year.

Enjoy!

He may stand just 4 feet, 11 inches tall but Leslie Jordan is a huge talent.

The Emmy winning star is probably best known to the masses for his recurring role as Karen Walker’s bitchy nemesis, Beverley Leslie, on Will & Grace. But his greatest role, in my opinion, is that of Brother Boy in Sordid Lives which he played on stage, feature film and in a television series.

He also appeared on Broadway in his one-man show My Trip Down the Pink Carpet based on his memoir. There is a DVD available!

More recently, Leslie had a role as a newspaper editor in the huge box office hit The Help, did guest spots on Desperate Housewives and The Game, and had a delightful cameo in the documentary Hollywood to Dollywood.

I last chatted with Leslie in November at the LA Gay and Lesbian Center’s annual gala and  wondered what he thought about a growing feeling among some that the LGBT community is becoming too mainstream.

“You know, I fluctuate on that,” he said. “When I came out, there was one gay bar in Chattanooga, Tenn. and in that gay bar there were lawyers, there were black people, there were white people, there were drag queens and we had one leather queen all under one roof and what we had in common was that we were gay. And sometimes I miss that. But then again, c’mon. We were also that gay bar that you had to go down an alley and knock on the door. We feared for our lives.”

He added: “The other day, I was at a restaurant and there were two young guys sitting side by side and they were holding hands. I watched them and, I couldn’t help it, I went by and I said, ‘This is just so beautiful and I hope you realize what we went through.’ They thanked me but, you know, I don’t think they had any idea of what it was like. I try to tell my story sometimes to younger people and they’re like, ‘Wow! Oh really?’ A world without the Internet, a little gay boy in Chattanooga Tenn. immersed in a Baptist church with not one soul to talk to, not one soul! I think if there had been a Trevor Project that I could have talked to.”

But would he be as brilliant as he is, especially in his one-man shows, had he not had those difficult experiences?

“No. I wouldn’t change a thing,” Leslie said. “I look back and I wouldn’t change a thing. Everything that I went through brought me to here.”

Happy 57th birthday to Leslie!

Here are some random Leslie clips to enjoy:

I posted some videos earlier today but just read this awesome feature over on AfterElton.com by Louis Virtel in which he lists 70 things he loves about Barbra.

It inspired me to do my own list!

Here goes – in no particular order:

1. Her stupendous rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone at the 2001 Emmy Awards – just a short time after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

2. The gorgeous Love Comes From the Most Unexpected Places from her Superman album.

3. My Man from Funny Girl.

4. The fabulous surprise cameo at the end of the Madonna/Rosanne Coffee Talk sketch on Saturday Night Live in 1992.

5. The dramatic Grammy Awards duet of You Don’t Bring Me Flowers with Neil Diamond.

6. Woman in the Moon in one of the concert scenes of A Star is Born.

7. Coming in and Out of Your Life from the early-80s Memories album.

8. I’m the Greatest Star from Funny Girl.

9. Her opening number from her comeback 1994 concert tour: It’s As If We Never Said Goodbye from Sunset Boulevard.

10. The Broadway Album.

11. Back to Broadway.

12. Stoney End.

13. The dance in the street with Jeff Bridges at the end of The Mirror Has Two Faces.

14. Walking in the beach scene with Robert Redford in The Way We Were and Streisand’s Katie falls down laughing over baby names.

15. Papa Can You Hear Me from Yentl.

16. The No More Tears (Enough is Enough) duet with Donna Summer.

17. The 1986 concert she had in her backyard in Malibu and made into album One Voice.

18. Guilty with Barry Gibb.

19. The Way We Were – the movie.

20. The Way We Were – the song.

21. What’s Up Doc? opposite Ryan O’Neal.

22. Every moment of the Don’t Rain on My Parade number from Funny Girl.

23. The first words of her Oscar speech when she won for Funny Girl: ‘Hello, gorgeous!’

24. Evergreen.

25. The With One More Look at You/Watch Closely Now medley at the end of A Star is Born.

26. Somewhere from The Broadway Album.

27. The Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy duet with Judy Garland on The Judy Garland Show.

28. The lunch scene with Brenda Vacarro from The Mirror Has Two Faces and they split the salad and the hamburger in a nod to one of them no longer being heavy.

30. The “Your girl is lovely Hubbel” line from the final scene in The Way We Were.

31. The performance of People in Funny Girl.

32. The Higher Ground album.

33.  2004 Inside the Actors Studio appearance.

34,  The scene in A Star is Born when she tells Kris Kristofferson’s character who she has just caught cheating: “You can trash your life but you’re not going to trash mine.”

35. The afro hairstyle from the 1976-80 period.

36. Her fingernails in The Prince of Tides.

37. The Tell Him duet with Celine Dion.

38. Smile from The Movie Album.

39. The morning scene with Lauren Bacall in The Mirror Has Two Faces when Streisand’s character asks her mother: ‘What was it like? To be beautiful.’ Bacall’s character admits: ‘It was wonderful.’

40. The Woman in Love single from Guilty album.

41. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes from the Love is the Answer album.

42. The crazy scenes with Dustin Hoffman in Meet the Fockers.

43. All I Ask of You from Till I Loved you album.

44. Everything from A Star is Born album.

45. The Oscar-nominated I Finally Found Someone duet with Bryan Adams from The Mirror Has Two Faces.

46. If I Could from Higher Ground album.

47. 1967′s A Christmas Album.

48. The dramatic courtroom scene in the movie Nuts.

49. The break-up scene with Robert Redford in The Way We Were.

50. The title song of the album Songbird.

51. New York State of Mind from Superman album.

52. I Believe in Love from concert scene in A Star is Born.

53. Queen Bee number from A Star is Born.

54.  The Way He Makes Me Feel from Yentl.

55. Don’t Believe What You Read from Superman album.

56. 2010 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

57. Prince of Tides.

58. The moment at the end of The Way We Were when Streisand’s Katie fixes Hubbel’s hair.

59. Second Hand Rose from Funny Girl.

60. The title song of The Main Event.

61. Moon River from The Movie Album.

62. The ‘Till  Loved You duet with then-boyfriend Don Johnson.

63. The scene in Yentl when Mandy Patikin’s character discovers that his male friend Anshel is really a woman named Yentl.

64. What’s Up Doc?

65. Appearance on The Rosie O’Donnell Show in 1997 that had Rosie in tears.

66. The infamous 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace during which he makes her cry.

67. Joining Judy Garland and Ethel Merman to perform There’s No Business Like Show Business on The Judy Garland Show.

68. Lost Inside of You duet with Kris Kristofferson from A Star is Born.

69. The see-though pantsuit she wore to the Oscars the year she won for Funny Girl.

70. Somewhere from The Broadway Album.

BONUS FIVE:

71. Her dramatic performance in Up the Sandbox.

72. Performance of America the Beautiful from I Love Liberty television special.

73. The love scene when she gets into bed with Robert Redford in The Way We Were.

74. What Kind of Fool duet with Barry Gibb from Guilty album.

75. My Heart Belongs to Me from Superman album.

Okay, there’s my list! While I love so much of her work, this exercise has made me realize that I’m not very familiar with her early albums or TV specials and that I’m indifferent about some of her movies including Hello! Dolly, The Main Event, All Night Long and even Funny Lady.

Would love to hear from some of you! What are your favorite Barbra moments?

The great star is still like buttah!

Despite some people’s skepticism (bitches!), I’m thrilled that Miss Streisand is going to play Mama Rose in a new feature film version of Gypsy.

To have her in another big-screen musical is a dream come true.

She has taken care of her voice and her looks so what’s the problem people?

Anyway, happy birthday to this national treasure whose albums got me through some rough times as a gay kid growing up in Orange County.

I loved getting lost in that magnificent voice then, and I love getting lost in it now.

Let’s enjoy some of Barbra’s classics:

A Tony winner for Gypsy and Evita and an Olivier Award winner for Les Miserables in London, the great LuPone originated the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard and had Tony-nominated runs on Broadway in Anything Goes, Sweeney Todd and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

To celebrate her birthday, here is her version of The Ladies Who Lunch from Company. The performance is from a tribute to Stephen Sondheim but she was also one of the stars of a very limited all-star run of Company last year.

It does not seem possible for a man with such a youthful spirit.

This Star Trek icon remains utterly hip and relevant in the age of Twitter and YouTube.

But what I really admire about George is his willingness to speak up for LGBT equality and for sharing with the world his happy marriage to Brad Altman.

May they continue to live long and prosper!

VIDEO: The Star Trek band Five Year Mission has done a special birthday song for George who posted it on his Facebook page and wrote: “This may be the best birthday video ever. I’m smiling ear to ear. Thanks, “Five Year Mission.”

I hope this handsome and talented actor is having a wonderful day!

Saw Sean a few weeks ago at The Advocate’s 45th anniversary party and he told me he has completed filming on the Joss Whedon-directed Much Ado About Nothing and looking to whatever comes next.

Sean, who starred in the TV series Firefly and The $treet and had the title role in Ryan Caulfield: Year One,  came out publicly as he was playing a closeted gay man on NBC’s short-lived drama The Playboy Club.

“I am still hearing from people who were inspired by my story and came out to their parents,” Sean told me last fall. “I’ve also been getting some old-fashioned fan mail from people that brought me to tears – their stories so inspire me.”

I hope that his honesty will result in more good television and film roles as gay or straight characters. He has proven he can do both!

Cynthia Nixon is one of those amazing people who seems to just get better with age.

The Tony, Grammy and two-time Emmy winning actress turns 46 today and is at the peak of her profession with acclaimed roles on television, movies and stage – most recently starring on Broadway in the play Wit.

She, of course, is best known for her role as Miranda on Sex and the City and has twice reunited with her TV co-stars for feature films based on the much-loved series.

Cynthia caused a it of a furor earlier this year when she talked about becoming a lesbian midlife. Instead of simply saying she is bisexual, she said that for her being gay is a choice.

She finally cleared it all up and we were able to get on with our lives:  ‘While I don’t often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation is bisexual,’ Nixon said in a statement to The Advocate. ‘I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact. What I have ‘chosen’ is to be in a gay relationship.’

Cynthia had spent more than a decade with the man who is the father of her two children but she came out publicly in 2006 after falling in love with activist Christine Marinoni.

His Niles Crane on Frasier is one of the most delicious comedic characters in the history of television and David Hyde Pierce has four Emmy Awards to show for it.

During the run of the series, we never really knew too much about Pierce who turns 53 today. But when he won the Tony Award for Curtains in 2007, he thanked his long-time partner, television writer, director and producer Brian Hargrove “because it’s 24 years of listening to your damn notes — that’s why I’m up here tonight.”

The couple was married in October 2008 just before the passage of California’s Proposition 8.

In 2010, David was the recipient of the Isabelle Stevenson Award, which recognizes 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.

If you’ve never seen the 2003 romantic comedy Down With Love, do see it. David (pictured below with co-star Ewan McGregor) played Renee Zellweger’s book editor and had a terrific chemistry with Sarah Paulson in the film. Considering he’s gay and she’s a lesbian, those who think openly gay stars can’t convincingly play straight are just dead wrong.

Happy birthday to David!

It’s been more than 35 years since Doris Day retired from showbiz after making scores of classic films, recording hit songs and a five-season run of her popular sitcom.

She never really retired though, she just moved on to another phase of her life living in Carmel, CA and dedicating her energies to animal causes.

Although Miss Day showed up to accept the Cecil B. Demille Award at the 1989 Golden Globe Awards looking glamorous and youthful, in more recent years she has declined such honors at the Kennedy Center Honors and the lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute. In 2004, she was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom but did not show up to accept the honor.

But leaving the spotlight behind certainly seems to have agreed with her. Still healthy and robust, she turns 88 today. She recently re-emerged recently doing a series of interview promoting the release of My Heart, a compilation of previously unreleased recordings produced by Day’s son, Terry Melcher, prior to his death in 2004.

There are four of my faves celebrating birthdays today and one who celebrated his birthday yesterday!

Even though I did not like Richard Chamberlain saying a few years back that gay actors should stay in the closet if they want to be big stars, I’ll always be a fan of his work in The Thorn Birds, Shogun and Dr. Kildar (What? You expected me to mention The Towering Inferno?) turns 78 years old today.

Chamberlain was pretty much off my radar until I saw a scene in Thorn Birds where he was dancing (it was the same party where Barbara Stanwyck kissed him on the lips then died) and he was just so HOT!

From then on, I watched everything he ever did and was so glad when he came out publicly several years ago. He continues to be busy in roles both straight and gay – including playing Felicity Huffman’s gay stepfather on Desperate Housewives a few seasons back and a potential love interest for Saul on Brothers & Sisters in its final season.

Other birthdays today: Oscar winner Shirley Jones, star of classic musicals Oklahoma, The Music Man and Carousel (she also drove that bus around on TV in the early 70s) is 78 years old today and still looks magnificent.

Ewan McGregor, whose love scenes with Jim Carrey in I Love You Phillip Morris were quite sweet, turns 41 today. He was outstanding in last year’s Beginners in which he played the son of Oscar winner Christopher Plummer’s character, a man who comes out as gay after his wife’s death.

Ewan is straight but he’s not afraid of gay roles or of the attention of other men. When comic Louis CK admitted to a mad man crush on McGregor and a desire to have sex with him (even though CK is also straight), the actor said to a TV interviewer who showed him footage of the routine: ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if I met him somewhere and tapped him on the shoulder to see just how serious he s about it?’

And then there is one of my favorite actors, William McNamara, celebrating his 47th birthday.

His performance as a closeted college student in 1993′s Doing Time on Maple Drive was heartbreaking then he showed comedic chops on Showtime’s late, great Beggars and Choosers as an slimy talent agent. He also killed in Copycat. I met him once, about eight years ago, on a very rainy day in Woodland Hills. We were waiting in line for the ATM machine outside a Bank of America. He was very nice (and still very cute) and answered all my nosy questions about future projects.

He was also memorable opposite Jodie Foster in Stealing Home and as Jeff Bridges’ son in Texasville.

And finally, there is sexy and talented Gerald McCullouch who turned 45 yesterday.

After seeing Gerald in the film BearCity in summer 2010 at Outfest, I proclaimed him the sexiest man alive and I stand by that! Thankfully, a sequel to that wonderful film has been shot and is in the editing stages.

Gerald has been acting in movies, television and on stage for more than two decades and is best known for his role as Bobby Dawson on CBS’s long-running CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Happy birthday to all!

Whether he’s performing on Broadway (Tarzan) or on television (One Life to Live) or on the web (Then We Got Help), it’s hard to take your eyes off of gorgeous and talented Nicholas Rodriguez.

This openly gay star is celebrating his birthday today and I hope it is a magnificent one.

Fans of the late, sometimes great One Life to Live remember Nicholas well from his role as Nick, the man who came between the characters of Kyle and Oliver in daytime TV’s first gay love triangle.

He is also a veteran of the stage and starred in the role of the young, lovestruck Italian shop clerk Fabrizio in Arena Stage’s production of The Light in the Piazza, played Jesus in a touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar and appeared on Broadway as the King of the Apes in Tarzan.

Nick also starred for two seasons in the terrific web series Then We Got Help.

It looks like Nicholas is poised to return to television again in a new reality show based on The Broadway Dreams Foundation’s performing arts training program. He will be one of the core faculty members on the show which will follow hundreds of Broadway hopefuls as they learn the ropes from the industry’s brightest stars and savviest of insiders.

Whatever way he chooses to mark the occasion, it will most certainly be more tasteful than the over-the-top wedding of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries.

I mention the 72-day hubby and wife because Koz performed at the nuptials and later admitted it felt a lot more like a TV special than an actual wedding involving love and commitment.

Dave had long been one of America’s best-known saxophonist for years when he decided to come out publicly as a gay man in 2005.

I’ve interviewed him several times over the years and in December 2010 he told me he has had absolutely no regrets: “I’m a musician, it took me forever to come out. I never planned on doing it. It wasn’t until I was 40 that I did it. And when I finally did it, it was the right time. It was a blip on the screen, it made no impact on my career at all.”

While professionally it did not matter one iota,  it was very profound on a personal level.

“I just became a whole person for the first time,” he says. “So if some [gay] kid is growing up in some city or some rural place in the US, if they want to me a jazz musician, they can Google me and they’ll see that guy came out and it’s fine, nothing happened. If my life helps just one kid deal with this in their life, it will be worth it.”

Seeing her in concert just last week, it is so wonderful to know that her gifts are still very much intact and let’s hope she does some more albums and some more touring.

She is such a part of our history and how lucky we are to have this mother of five and new grandmother still going so strong.

To celebrate her birthday, here are some Diana Ross performances starting with the energetic video for I Will Survive shot in the streets of West Hollywood in the mid-90s. It’s a gem:

BONUS VIDEO: This is the first time I’ve ever come across video online of the disastrous 1983 reunion of Diana Ross and the Supremes which took place on a very memorable television special celebrating the 25th anniversary of Motown. What should have been a beautiful coming together of Diana, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong was cut short by some onstage jostling between Diana and Mary (it was edited out of the footage, of course). They almost reunited again in 2000 for a tour but the Mary-Diana bad blood surfaced again. It will likely never, ever happen now which is a pity. So here is what is almost certainly the one and only reunion of Diana Ross and the Supremes.
BONUS 2: Diama looking terrific on The View about eight years ago. The hair!

In this era of celebrity designers and stylists, this kind of individuality has all but vanished and this troubles Bob Mackie, the man who is behind most of Cher’s most memorable red carpet ensembles.

“The stylists make everybody look alike sometimes,” Bob told me when we chatted at the 10th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards.

He’s also appalled that many actresses have become walking advertisements for everything from gowns to jewelry to shoes.

“I hate it,” he said. “I think it’s very low class for an actress who makes that much money, who’s a serious actress, to come on and start giving all these people plugs. There’s something very kinda tacky about the whole thing.”

It was so much simpler back in 1988 when he designed the very risque outfit Cher wore the night she won the best actress Oscar for “Moonstruck.”

“She’s Cher!” he said. “I’ve known her over 40 years and we worked together over and over and over again so it’s kind of like family.

These days, Bob is keeping busy with his clothing line sold on QVC which offers affordable designer duds to viewers. He operates at a much less frenetic pace than he did in the 70s when he not only designed for Cher’s variety shows with and without Sonny, but also for “The Carol Burnett Show.”

“I used to run through the men’s room to get from one studio to the other,” he remembered. “It was really fun at the time. When I think about it now, I wonder how we ever did it, the amount of shows we would do in one week.”

Bob seems to have mixed feelings about the memorable gown he designed for Burnett for a classic “Gone With the Wind” spoof. Burnett, as Scarlett O’Hara, comes down the stairs in a gown made from the drapes – complete with curtain rod still in place.

“The curtain rod dress is the one everybody talks about,” he said. “Either that or a crazy get-up Cher wears. But, you know, I’ve done a lot of other things too.”