Chelsea Handler chats with Greg In Hollywood

I bring you this red carpet interview I did with Chelsea Handler a bit late but hey, better late than never!

Chatted up the smart and funny host of the nightly E! show Chelsea Lately shortly before she took the stage to host the LA Gay & Lesbian Center Gala on Oct. 24 at the Century Plaza Hotel.

I asked Chelsea what made her decide to host the event and her reply, of course, was very funny: “I think a lot of people confused me with actually being a lesbian for a long time and I’m just going with it.”

“I’m here to support the gay and lesbian community because it’s always fun, always a good time,” she added.

Since Chelsea was grand marshal of the West Hollywood Pride Parade last spring and was hosting the LA Gay and Lesbian Center Gala, I wondered how it felt for her to be on her way to becoming a gay icon.

“I never thought it would happen, not after it happened to Tori Spelling, definitely not,” she joked. “After Tori, I felt like it was my duty to claim a place.”

Getting more serious, Chelsea said her support for the LGBT community is real: “I feel like the community is an underdog and you want to help the people who aren’t getting their voice hear in the mainstream media all the time and I have a platform, a show that’s on five nights a week. I feel like I should be doing the right thing. If I’m going to be sitting around bad-mouthing so many people I should do something nice once in awhile.”

At this point, my friend fellow blogger Karen Ocamb stepped in and asked Chelsea what she thought of President Barack Obama’s performance on the LGBT front so far.

“He’s the president and it’s not as easy as it seems and it’s going to take awhile but I have faith that things will happen in due time,” she said. “He’s got a lot to do so I think it’s a little premature for everybody to go off the handle saying, ‘You’re not taking care of this!’ There’s a lot that has to happen and there’s a lot of assholes in the Senate. I think he’s doing the best he can. He’s not going to forget about everybody, he’s not that kind of guy.”

Let’s hope she’s right.