Worst Record Of The Year

Unoriginal, unmusical, AND pretentious.

That's Gay: Real Housewives

The Night Of 1000 Gowns

Last night I attended the Imperial Court of New York's 25th annual Night Of 1000 Gowns, which this year benefited the Ali Forney Center and the Trevor Project. Swirling amidst all of the winking pomp and circumstance were empresses, emperors, duchesses, dukes, viscountesses, dowager empresses, and probably a dozen other royalty titles unknown to me. Also in the room were 100% of all the rhinestones and tiaras to be found in North America.

Among the bold-face names in attendance were the evening's honoree, longtime activist David Mixner, the cast of Logo's A-List, the cast of RuPaul's Drag Race, director Chi Chi LaRue, "JMG addict" Wilson Cruz, and actress Ally Sheedy, who cracked up when I asked her to say "No disassemble!" Miss New York 2010 Claire Buffie spoke eloquently about her LGBT rights platform during the Miss America pageant, gay pop star Ari Gold arrived with two slave boys on leashes, Dan Choi walked in on the arm of a statuesque attendee he "met on the escalator," and My Princess Boy author Cheryl Kilodavis worked the room with a handsome man in one hand and a stack of her books in the other.

This was my first Imperial Court event and I found the entire evening simultaneously spectacular and spectacularly silly. But one got the distinct impression that everybody there was totally in on the joke and folks, this group has raised buckets and buckets of money for LGBT causes over the decades. Check out the slideshow at the bottom of this post for many, many photos of the glamor, plus lots of celebs not mentioned above. Full-screen versions of the photos can be found here. You'll also enjoy Matthew Rettenmund's coverage at Boy Culture, where you'll find many red carpet video interviews.

Broadway Friday

-Openly lesbian Tony winner Cherry Jones (Doubt) begins previews tonight in George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession. Opening night is October 3rd.

-Next Sunday (Sept. 12) La Cage Aux Folles lead Kelsey Grammer hosts the annual Broadway On Broadway spectacular in which the casts of more than two dozen hit Broadway shows perform for free in Times Square to the accompaniment of a 30-piece orchestra. Arrive by 11am (or earlier) for a good view as Times Square will be mobbed blocks deep in front of the stage. Jay-Z and Alicia Keyes will perform New York State Of Mind for the finale.

-AbFab's Jennifer Saunders is collaborating with Mamma Mia! mastermind Judy Cramer on Spice Girls: The Musical, which "won't be a tribute or bio show, nor will it feature characters with any of the names of the famous five-piece." OK, then.

-John Paragon (the original Jambi) and Lynne Marie Stewart (the original Miss Yvonne) have been cast for the "re-imagined" Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway. Mekka-lekka-hi.

-Stephen Sondheim's 1981 bomb Merrily We Roll Along opens tonight at Fire Island Pine's Whyte Hall. Get tickets here.

-The Broadway debut of the WWII gay love story Yank! has been postponed until the fall of 2011. The show played Off Broadway last year to (mostly) rave reviews.

-Kenny Solms' gay comedy/musical It Must Be Him opened Off Broadway this week at Playwrights Horizon. Emmy nominee Peter Scolari (Newhart) stars. Get tickets here.

-Prostitution whores! On Thursday the cast of Real Housewives Of New Jersey kicked off a four night sold-out appearance in Off Broadway's My Big Gay Italian Wedding. Teresa Giudice, Ashley Holmes, Jacqueline Laurita, Caroline Manzo and Lauren Manzo return to the show for four more appearances beginning on October 20th. Get tickets here.

Real Bankruptcy

Here's some "real" insanity. Teresa Giudice, the bling-loving fake-boobed star of The Real Housewives Of New Jersey, has filed for bankruptcy. And court papers reveal that although Guidice and her husband only make a combined $80K annually, they are a staggering $11M in debt.

The Giudices say they owe creditors $10,853,648.04. Teresa, known for her lust for designer clothes and expensive bling on the Bravo show, owes nearly $20,000 on credit cards for Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. In total, the Giudices show $104,000 in debt on at least eight credit cards. The bank has moved to foreclose on the Giudices' $1.8 million, 10,500-square-foot, eight-bedroom, 5½-bath marble-and-onyx manse in Towaco, NJ, the couple moved into during the first season. Teresa and Joe defaulted on their $1,280-a-month payment for the family's ubiquitous black Cadillac Escalade. They also didn't have insurance on the massive SUV, according to GMAC. Teresa -- who this season told Joe to get a vasectomy -- owes $12,000 to a Garden State fertility clinic. Banks have taken the couple's $279,000 four-bedroom Jersey Shore house. The Giudices had three mortgages on the house and owed $325,000. The couple also handed over a $200,000 home in Lincoln Park, NJ, that had four mortgages -- and an outstanding debt of $600,000. Teresa and Joe owed another $1 million for property in Clifton, NJ, that has been given back to lenders.

All of the women on all of the incarnations of the series are bitter social climbers who try to outdo each other with increasing larger tacky mansions, designers clothes, designer faces, and ostentatious parties for their children. Many have the women have been found to have profound financial difficulties, including bankruptcies, home evictions, and salary liens. But the real story here is our banking system, which allows someone to accrue debt to the tune of 100x their income.

BiQuotable - Kim Zolciak

"I don't believe love has a gender. I have a ton of girlfriends who have been with girls, and I could never comprehend that before. Now I can. But I don't want to define gay, bisexual or straight. I just think it's too much for me — a woman doesn't define me, nor does a man. I'm among the millions of parents who have been in a gay or lesbian relationship.

"It hasn't been an easy road lately, but I feel there are no mistakes in my life. Everything happens for a reason. To have the opportunity to speak for myself and to have people understand what I'm going through is really special. I myself was confused and scared at first. Being able to speak from my heart and get this all out, it’s a huge relief for me." - Real Housewives cast member Kim Zolciak, confirming her relationship with popular circuit party DJ Tracy Young.

RELATED: Zolciak is responsible for the inexplicably popular dance hit Tardy For The Party.

(Via - Towleroad)

SLIDESHOW: HRC 2010 NYC Gala

Here's a short slideshow from Saturday's HRC gala in NYC, courtesy of my able photographer Dr. Jeff. Except for the HRC's official photographer, media were kept tightly corraled in a roped-off pen in front of the HRC backdrop, so we were pretty much unable to photograph or interview attendees. After all the big shots were trotted off the pre-show stage, we were escorted to a balcony over the ballroom. I've done a lot of these things, but haven't felt quite so "managed" before. And I'm pretty sure one of the HRC volunteers even followed me and waited outside the men's room, just to make sure I didn't try and infiltrate the millionaires. Whatever, dude. I did get a giggle when they played Tardy For The Party to try and get people to take their seats. The second Real Housewives moment of the evening came when NYC cast member Jill Zarin introduced Joe Solomonese. OK, then. We take our support where we can get it and Zarin was actually rather charming.

We're Talking Showgirls Bad

Real Housewives Of Atlanta "star" Kim Zolciak performed her hit "song" on Ellen today, prompting this comment on YouTube: "She's 31 according to Wikipedia, but I dunno if it's true cuz according to Wikipedia she's also a singer HAHAHAHAHA."

White House State Dinner Party Crashers May Face Criminal Charges

The two aspiring cast members of The Real Housewives Of Washington DC who crashed the White House state dinner may face criminal charges.

Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the couple who crashed the White House state dinner, may face criminal charges, the Secret Service announced today. Jim Mackin, the agency's spokesman, said this is one reason the Secret Service has kept mum about what happened when the couple, who are auditioning for the Bravo reality show "The Real Housewives of DC", arrived at the security checkpoint Tuesday. They were not on the guest list for the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but managing to get into the party, where they posed for photos with Vice President Joe Biden and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. "As this moves closer to a criminal investigation there's less that we can say," Mackin said. "I don't want to jeopardize what could be a criminal investigation. We're not leaving any option off the table at this point." It was not immediately clear what charges would be pursued. The Salahis lawyer, Paul Gardner, posted a comment on their Facebook page saying, "My clients were cleared by the White House, to be there." He said more information would be forthcoming.

Conservative and wingnut sites nationwide are howling about the Secret Service's failure to properly identify the event's attendees. Many are pointing to the couple's Arabic-sounding names as evidence of some kind PC bias that prevented the Secret Service from singling them out for attention.

Real Housewife Danielle Defends Gays

Towleroad points us to this after-the-series clip from the cast of Real Housewives Of New Jersey in which Danielle mentions having taken offense at a "that's so gay" comment from earlier in the show's run. Openly gay host Andy Cohen steps in to support Danielle. Click on the "that's so gay" label in the bottom of this post to see some celebrity PSAs against the expression.

All The Classy Ladies, Put Your Hands Up

I am ashamed to report that after reading a recap of the finale of Real Housewives Of New Jersey in the NY Daily News, I was curious enough to tune in. OMG and WTF! Botoxed, boob-implanted, hair-extensioned, foul-mouthed bimbos gone wild. In front of their kids. In a fancy restaurant. The stuff that camp is fricken' made of, ya gawdamn whore.