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Adam Lambert’s racy ‘American Music Awards’ performance

alleyhector — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:27:38 +0000

Photo: Djansezian/Getty

Though I am tempted to editorialize, I’m really much more interested to hear what you all have to say about last night’s Adam Lambert performance on the American Music Awards. In his first televised performance since the Season Eight finale of American Idol, Lambert aims to stir the pot. He also proclaims that any censorship would be discriminatory.

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Ellen Degeneres on ‘Oprah’

alleyhector — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:41:48 +0000

One of the 3 cover designs for Ellen Degeneres' appearance on Oprah magazine, and the silliest

Today Ellen Degeneres appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show with new wife Portia De Rossi for their first televised interview as a married couple. Largely a fun and promotional show celebrating Ellen’s appearance alongside the daytime star on the cover of O: The Oprah Magazine, the duo were a pleasure to watch, and a happy foray into gay comedic mainstream.

Ellen has been campaigning for months to be the only the second other person to grace O’s cover (only First lady Michelle Obama has ever had that honor) and it’s finally paid off with 3 different cover shots appearing in the upcoming December issue. Degeneres wants it to be the best selling issue so far and with this amount of publicity, and the shopping ways of the gays, I have little doubt it can achieve that when it hits newsstands this Thursday.

In the sappier portion of the show, Portia is invited to the set to talk love and marriage. When Oprah asks Portia when she knew if she was the one she says:

When I first laid eyes on her. But it took me three years to actually tell her how I felt about her, because I was on ‘Ally McBeal’ at the time and wasn’t living as an openly gay person. I was closeted and very very afraid that if I talked about being gay it would be the end of my career. So I wasn’t about to date the most famous lesbian in the world….

…She’s my wife, I get to say that she’s my wife and that’s just the way it is.

Ellen continued with, “Anybody who’s married knows there is a difference. It feels like you’re home. There’s an anchor, there’s a safety. I’m going to be with her until the day I die and I know that.”

Ellen also discussed her difficult public coming out experience, including a 3 year acting hiatus, and her upcoming addition to the American Idol team, including a declaration of no Simon Cowell fear and letting Adam Lambert know he should use less tongue.

Always, cheeky, yet sincere the episode was a refreshing mix of love, laughter, sweetness, bravery and good ol’ fashioned Oprah cry-fest moments.

Here’s a clip from the show:

Ellen DeGeneres takes over for Paula Abdul on ‘American Idol’

alleyhector — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:23:42 +0000

While we will all miss the antics of batsh*t crazy Paula Abdul on American Idol, her zany dyke replacement, Ellen Degeneres, will probably also serve up some pretty good times. I’m excited to see her interactions with fellow judges Simon Cowell, Kara DioGuardi and Randy Jackson.

DeGeneres told EOnline:

“I’m not leaving here, don’t worry about that,” the 51-year-old chatterbox reassured her audience when she made the announcement during a taping of Ellen.

“I’m gonna have a day job and a night job. The times we’re living in, we’re all doing that.”

And in case you were questioning her music-biz credentials…

“I don’t know how it happened myself,” she said. “I have not missed one episode of that show, I have watched every single thing, I love everything about it, and I love music, as you know.”

“Hopefully I’m the people’s point of view, because I’m just like you. I sit at home and I watch it…I’m not looking at it in a critical way, from the music producer’s mind. I’m looking at it as a person who’s going to buy the music, and who’s going to relate to that person.

“So I’m hopefully going to be the voice of what we’re all doing at home.”

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Adam Lambert on the cover of Rolling Stone

alleyhector — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:58:41 +0000

Adam Lambert on the cover of Rolling Stone. Photo by Matthew Rolston

And yes, he answers that question that everybody already knew the answer to. He’s gay! Gay just like Clay, other other runner up that’s more famous than the winner. But Adam is much bolder, hotter, and glamtastic. And Rolling Stone knows it.

The flamboyant Idol singer hits our cover and bares all, talking about his childhood (”I started to realize I wasn’t like every other boy,” he says), the drug-fueled Burning Man epiphany that led him to AI (”I realized that we all have our own power, and that whatever I wanted to do, I had to make happen,” he tells RS) and his run on the show (”I was like, ‘I’m going to glue rhinestones on my eyelids, bitch!’ “). And yes, he talks about his sexuality. “Right after the finale, I almost started talking about it to the reporters, but I thought, ‘I’m going to wait for Rolling Stone, that will be cooler,’ ” he tells us. “I didn’t want the Clay Aiken thing and the celebrity-magazine bullshit. I need to be able to explain myself in context.

“I’m proud of my sexuality,” Lambert adds. “I embrace it. It’s just another part of me.” Ultimately, however Lambert tells RS contributor Vanessa Grigoriadis that there are other parts of his life that he’s trying to keep front and center. “I’m trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader,” he says.

And though the Stone does not have video embedding capabilites you can watch clips from the photo shoot, as well as all kinds of other coverage in RS’s essential Lambert Guide.

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The projected ‘American Idol’ favorite, and projected homo, is robbed of his title

alleyhector — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:00:49 +0000

From Left: Adam Lambert, Kris Allen, Ryan Seacrest at the 'American Idol' finale

Buzz across TV land predicted that the outlandish, and quite probably gay, Adam Lambert would take home the top prize at this year’s American Idol. Alas, the favorite was upset by the cute, but not nearly as deserving, Kris Allen.

Even Mr. Allen was slightly stunned by the news: after the host Ryan Seacrest had told him he had won, he said, “Adam deserves this.” (By contrast, Simon Cowell appeared to lodge a silent protest from his seat, declining to stand and applaud Mr. Allen’s victory with his fellow judges.)

LA Times blogger Ann Powers argues that, although she felt Lambert more deserving, Allen’s approachable and unassuming nature was more appealing to a mass Idol audience.

Allen has his undeniable strong points. In terms of the music industry, he cuts a more contemporary figure than Lambert: Many stars now (specifically rock-oriented, male ones) tend to do better when they draw themselves to scale, offering songs that make fans feel warm and connected, not blown away.

Think Jack Johnson. Dave Matthews. Jason Mraz, who performed on the “Idol” finale. And on the country side, Keith Urban, with whom Allen did a spirited duet early in the show.

This approachable kind of pop figure is one that often naturally emerges from the “Idol” competition. David Cook, last year’s winner, is cut from this natural-fiber cloth. Performing “Permanent,” the song he has dedicated to the brother he recently lost to cancer, Cook epitomized what Allen will likely soon become — a crowd favorite, empathetic and touchable.

No one has any doubt, at this point, that the flamboyant and explosive Adam Lambert will have a successful career, even as a runner up. Just look at Clay Aiken, Jennifer Hudson, and Chris Daughtry.

But is does beg the question as to whether mainstream America is ready to welcome a possibly gay, and most certainly gender-bending performer. Lambert still has not officially come out, instead remaining coy with quotes such as “I know who I am. I’m an honest guy, and I’m just going to keep singing.” And though it is unclear if he chooses not to discuss his sexuality for personal reasons or at the advice of publicists, it seems like it does not much matter.

America is making strides, and indeed, might be ready for calm, complacent queers to be out and proud sexless singing daddies like Aiken. But are they really ready to accept the brazenness of an Adam Lambert? It seems not. So might he as just well as been out and proud throughout the competition? And what will he do now?

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