Alan Cumming on Marriage EqualityThe actor and gay activist voices support for the beleaguered governor — and disdain for naysayer (and potential political foe) Rudy Giuliani.
J.Lo and Marc Anthony’s Problems ContinueThe couple had trouble getting into one of the inaugural balls last night. Also, Sheryl Crow had an awkward interaction with an ex, and Russell Simmons got caught stealing!
Ana Ortiz Just Can’t Win in CharadesDespite lengthy and public training, at last night’s LABrynth Celebrity Charades event, the ‘Ugly Betty’ star kinda tanked.
Our Night at the Oscars*So last night New York Magazine threw its annual Oscar party at the Spotted Pig, and even though everyone had promised themselves they would act professionally and not drink too much, by the time Best Picture was announced, Chris was in the corner stroking Alan Cumming’s beard and Jessica was wondering if it would be okay to ask Dave Zinczenko if she could touch his abs. Or the abs of Dan Abrams and Bill Hemmer, who were (as always) hanging out with him. Really, any abs would do. Happily, our man Darrell Hartman was there asking the important questions. “So, have you ever drunk anyone’s milkshake?” he asked stylist Kate Schelter. “I’ve shared a milkshake,” she replied dubiously. Diane Neal from Law & Order drifted by, looking judicious. “Julian Schnabel has been going to events in pajamas,” Darrell said, importantly. “What do you think about that?” Diane replied that she had been wearing pajamas until moments before arriving at the event. “I have the onesie footie pajamas, but they do not have the button on the anus,” she said. “I gotta say, the only problem is when you have to go to the bathroom. It gets pretty cold, because you have to take everything off.”
photo op
Alan Cumming Got a Whole New Face!
When last we saw Alan Cumming, he was as nubile and smooth and hairless as, well, Alan Cumming usually is. Which is why we were shocked to see this photo of him backstage at Cynthia Rowley last night. Would he be playing the aged protagonist in some supersecret sequel to the Harry Potter movies? OMG, was Harry Potter going to grow up gay like Dumbledore? Google: No! Cumming grew the beard for his role as Boris in Chekhov’s The Seagull at the Classic Stage Company. “I’ve been putting conditioner in it,” he told the AP. “It’s finally past the scratchy phase.” All the better to tickle theater critics with, then.
Alan Cumming At G-Star [AP]
Related: Plimpton’s Cute, Posey’s Ragged, and Price Is Scared [The Cut]
gossipmonger
Cumming Sprays Everyone at Le RoyaleHeath Ledger allegedly did so much coke and heroin that Michelle Williams kicked him out of their Brooklyn home. (His publicist denies that he opted not to check into rehab.) Farrah Fawcett got $500,000 for allowing The Insider to videotape her chemotherapy. Alan Cumming ripped the disco ball off the roof at Le Royale, and then sprayed partygoers with Champagne.
party lines
Alan Cumming, ReporterWe know Alan Cumming has had sex with journalists. But would he ever like to try being a journalist, like Naomi Campbell, who recently interviewed Hugo Chavez for British GQ? “I’d love to ask certain questions to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama,” he said at the launch of the Italian Commission’s Made in Italy ad campaign at the Hearst tower. “I’d like to know where they stand on equal rights for gay people. I’d also like to interview George Bush, just to watch him squirm.” (Maybe he could ask him, “You’re into your cock, aren’t you?”) But what about the people who really matter?, we pressed. Which celebrities would he like to interview? “I’d like to find out who all those blonde girls are — there’s a whole lot of them who look the same, the ones from The Hills, and that Hayden, um, Pan-i-tare? She’s everywhere,” he said. “And who’s that one, that Kim Ka-shi-shen?” Kardashian? We said. The one who made a sex tape with Brandy’s brother and now has a TV show? “Yes! My friend told me she’s a skanky whore, and I’m like, ‘Wow, she’s a lot more interesting than I thought she was.’” Like any ambitious reporter, Cumming would like to land the big story. “I’d love to interview Britney,” he said wistfully. Then he changed his mind. “But I’d rather her do it with one of those E! TV people, or Oprah.” That’s it, Alan Cumming will take care of Hillary and Barack. Let the professionals handle Britney. —Amy Preiser
intel
New Year’s Resolutions for the Best New YorkersRecently, we were watching John Waters’s 1998 movie Pecker, which starred all kinds of great people like Martha Plimpton and Lily Taylor and Edward Furlong, before he got weird and started getting arrested and dating his manager. Anyway, as in all John Waters movies, there were about five really brilliantly funny parts in it, one of which was a game the characters played called “Shopping for Others,” in which they’d go to the supermarket and sneak things into the shopping carts of fellow shoppers when they weren’t looking. (Like a long phallic gourd in the cart of a mousy single woman or a stack of Depends for a smarmy dude in tight jeans, etc.) Anyway, we got to thinking: How about if, this year, we make New Year’s resolutions for others? We’ve never made New Year’s resolutions ourselves — it’s weird, every year New Year’s Eve rolls around, and we realize we’re still kind of perfect! — but we’ve always felt we were missing out on that great American tradition. Not to mention, frankly, there are people that could use our assistance. So. To celebrate the great New Yorkers who make this blog possible and to help them continue their gloriousness into 2008, we’ve generously ginned up some resolutions for their benefit.
intel
Who Will Save Christmas From the Gay Grinches?For the past 21 years, gays of all stripes have flocked to the annual Holi-gay “Toys for Tots” charity event, where they’ve drunk and flirted and the only price of admission was a Malibu Barbie or fire truck to be donated for poor city children. Last year, over 4,000 hairdressers, publicists, and lawyers packed into the Metropolitan Pavilion, breaking fire-code regulations. And so this year, the organizers decided to charge a $35 admission (plus a toy). The fee was introduced in order, the organizers said, to defray costs and stay under capacity, but a number of gay New Yorkers were disgruntled and boycotted the party, saying the “gay elite” was trying to price out less-affluent homosexuals.
party lines
Alan Cumming’s Holiday Travel Tips Alan Cumming is such an, um, Man About Town, we almost totally forgot he was married! He got hitched to his artist boyfriend, Grant Shaffer, in January in London. “We got married there because it’s legal, but we live here,” he told us at the International Emmy Awards gala on Monday. They’re very happy. “We had our first cooking lesson in our home the other night,” he said. “This man called John came around and taught us how to make salmon with beets coulis and everything.” But don’t be lulled by the warm homey stories. Cumming is still not an entirely domesticated beast. Five minutes later, he was telling us all about his mile-high experiences. Yes, there’s been more than one. “I always think the pressure on planes gives you a hard-on,” he mused. “My friend I was just working with said that when he goes to sleep, he always puts the table out in case he gets a hard-on whilst he’s asleep. That’s a very good tip for your readers if they want to avoid embarrassment on a plane.” And just in time for the holiday season! —Bennett Marcus
See Al and Tipper Gore, Robert DeNiro, and Gloria Reuben at our complete coverage of the International Emmy Awards.
Earlier: Who Had Sex With Alan Cumming?
Who Hasn’t Had Sex With Alan Cumming
ink-stained wretches
Who Hasn’t Had Sex With Alan Cumming?Last month at the Condé Nast Traveler Awards, actor Alan Cumming told a little story about how he once missed a flight because he was at his hotel in New York, having sex with a journalist who had just interviewed him. Reeeeeeally, we said to ourselves. Who could it have been? We tossed out a few guesses: Was it the journalist to whom Cumming said, “You’re into your cock, aren’t you?” The one who began his profile by saying, “I like Alan Cumming. I like him”? Or the Newsday writer who lingered lustily over Cummings’s physical description? No, no, and no. “The thing is I enjoy New York Magazine online trying to work out who that person might be,” Cumming told us last night at the Ace Accessories Awards. “They’re all wrong so far, though, I have to say.”
multiple choice
Who Had Sex With Alan Cumming?
Alan Cumming entertained the crowd at Condé Nast Traveler’s twentieth-anniversary party last week with a story about how he once missed a flight from New York to London after an interview because, “Dammit, I had sex with the journalist in my hotel room.” “No further details were given,” said WWD’s “Memo Pad,” “but let the guessing games begin.” Well, alright then! Who did it with Alan Cumming, in a hotel room, possibly in a kilt?
gossipmonger
Scalia Digs TortureSupreme Court justice Antonin Scalia is, not surprisingly, a fan of Jack Bauer’s 24 torture techniques. Mark Green is set to join Al D’Amato and Ed Koch on NY1’s Inside City Hall program. Jeanine Pirro is set to star in a Judge Judy–esque show. Ellen Barkin and Ralph Fiennes have been canoodling. Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury gave $300 to a homeless man. The Olsen twins trekked to Atlantic City for a Bob Dylan concert. The late Kurt Vonnegut has a role in an upcoming DVD. A gay former CBS News producer filed a $10 million discrimination suit against his former employer because he felt the network didn’t want his gay-bashing in St. Maarten to be publicized. Aussie golfer Greg Norman and his ex-wife-to-be have finally come to (undisclosed) terms on how to split up his $500 million fortune. Patti LaBelle didn’t need a mike to wow a Carnegie Hall audience.
gossipmonger
Miss Anna Likes Cat People!Anna Wintour was in on that Romanian “Cat People” Fashion Week stunt from the get-go. Heidi Fleiss is set to sell a tape that supposedly features former client Charlie Sheen gallivanting with a transsexual named Kayla Coxx. Anderson Cooper wants kids. Georgina Chapman would like you to know she was in twelve movies before she landed roles in the Weinstein-produced Factory Girl and Nanny Diaries, thank you very much. Bungalow 8 owner Amy Sacco is a proud size 12.
