Thoughts on Joan Rivers

From my review of Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Love, Losses, and Liberation of Joan Rivers by Leslie Bennetts which I posted on Goodreads.com

This book was a gift from friends who know I always enjoyed Rivers' comedy. Bennetts has a great beginning with Rivers contemplating suicide after her husband has done likewise in the aftermath of the cancellation of her Fox talk show which he produced. She's devastated but her little dog jumps on her lap and she reconsiders. After this horrible setback, she bounces back stronger than before becoming a cultural icon while most of her contemporaries fade away. The rest of the bio is fairly standard but not up to the intriguing opening scene, offering insights into Rivers' driven personality and the contradictions in her career. She shattered sexist glass ceilings in comedy, but reinforced the chauvinist attitudes towards beauty and female roles. She made fun of men's shallowness but also derided women who slept around or had let themselves go such as the late-career, heavy-set Elizabeth Taylor. Bennetts also delivers a mini-history of women in comedy, but not a very deep one. She neglects to go very far back (no talk of Mae West or Fanny Brice), skips over some pretty big names (like Elaine May), barely mentions Lily Tomlin and Carol Burnett. 

Why Anderson Cooper's Coming Out IS a Big Deal

It's been a long time since my last regular blog post. In the past few days, I've posted some lists of theater trivia from the 2012-13 season, but there hasn't been any deep stuff from the David Desk since March. It's just been really busy between my job and planning a wedding with my partner in June and now planning a big trip in August as a sort of honeymoon. (More blogs on that later.) So much has happened--Where to start?

Anderson Cooper's coming out, let's go with that. The reaction to this non-surprise has been mixed. Some say a big so what, what's the big deal, we all knew anyway and who cares, it's his private business. Others are reacting with hostility that celebrities deserve their privacy just as much as anyone else. I had written about this about a year ago or so in a blog about Kathy Griffin's purposely NOT joking about her pal Anderson's closet status. Just a week before AC's big reveal, he appeared on her Bravo talk show. One of her "civilian" friends was siting on the couch with Anderson and said she had a big crush on him and was convinced they were now dating. Anderson said "It's not gonna happen." The audience laughed and the inside joke was he was gay. But nobody said anything about that.

I have also heard that the reason he didn't publicly acknowledge his sexuality was so he could continue to report on the ground in fundamentalist Muslim countries.

The reason this is important is that gay people are still being persecuted and gay kids are being bullied and driven to depression and suicide. Being gay is not an agenda or a political statement, it's a natural state of being like being black or Asian. The more prominent, brave, and successful people who come out, the more homosexuality will be accepted as an ordinary way to be. The longer Anderson failed to publicly acknowledge his being gay, the longer it was seen as a secret and shameful--it was seen as something that would alienate his CNN and talk-show viewers. In one interview with P Diddy the rap star offered a gift to Anderson to give to his wife. Anderson said he wasn't married and didn't have a girlfriend. He should have been able to say "I'm gay" and left it at that. I wrote at the time that's what I wanted to happen. I want  celebrities to be able to say "I'm gay" and then move on to something else--or to talk about it if they want to. I think that day is here.

When people say "It's no big deal, why talk about it at all?" what they are really saying is, "It's OK to talk about celebs' relationships and marriages and break-ups if they are straight, but not if they are gay. Let's not talk about gay stuff at all. We all know it's there, let's just pretend it doesn't exist. Anyway, seeing two men or two women kiss creeps me out."

Last month I was married to my partner both in NYC--where it is legal--and Pennsylvania--where it is not. The very act of a public ceremony treating my same-sex relationship as equal to a heterosexual one is revolutionary and Anderson's finally coming is another revolution. It means the general public will not turn from him in droves and his attracted to men will not be a stigma. The process of acceptance is slow, but it's happening and it's inevitable. The day will come when we can get married in all 50 states. Yes North Carolina, even you will accept me and Cooper's coming out is a part of that future.

More blogs to come.

Alaskan Vacation Part Two Plus Outrage Over the Debt Deal

TRAPPERS CREEK, ALASKA--Reporting to you from the Main Lodge at the Princess Mt. McKinley Lodge in Trappers Creek, Alaska. The Internet is free, so I thought I would take advantage of it. Jerry, my brother Jonathan, and I went river rafting this morning in a pouring rain. We put on layers and layers of raingear including rain pants, boots, hats, and a fleece jacket--it got pretty cold on the river. We saw seven eagles, including one in flight. We mentioned we had passed Wassila yesterday on the bus ride in and our rowing guide said "Don't talk about her. She Who Must Not Be Named" as if Sarah Plain were Volemort, Harry Potter's evil nemesis. When we passed  Wassila on the way from Anchorage, I think we saw the little coffee stand that Kathy Griffin and her staff stopped at on her visit during My Life on the D-List.

After the raft ride, we had lunch in the town of Takleena--I think I'm mispelling it, but the postcard with right spelling on it is back in my room--which was the inspiration from the town of Cicely in Northern Exposure. A tiny little village with lots of cool shops and adventure tourism. We were at the Roadhouse and had a pasty which is sort like Mrs. Lovett's meat pies from Sweeney Todd. Food here is interesting. Last night, I had reindeer lasagna.

When we got back to our rooms, my parents in their room acorss the hall were watching CNN just after the House had passed the compromise bill, or as I like to call it, The President's Cave-In. I am OK with looking at Medicare and Social Security and doing some reform, but I am pretty upset that there is no revenue increases for rich people, not even closing of ridiculous loopholes. The only possibility is this stupid Committee of 12,  but with half of it Republican, nothing is going to happen as far taxes goes. Let's face it, the Tea Party won and I figured out why: they had nothing to lose. They basically said, "Go ahead, don't raise the debt ceiling. Let the country default. Nothing is going to happen." And some of them, like Michelle "Bat S**t Crazy" and this Walsh guy from Illinois who owes over $100,000 in child support, actually believe it. The President could have said, "Give me a bill with some tax increases for rich people or I veto it and if you don't by Aug. 2, I raise it myself invoking the 14th amendment." But the other side genuinely was willing to go over the cliff and take the whole world's economy with them. Now the Senate will have to pass it tomorrow or we default, so you'll get all the Repubs--the women from Maine and Scott Brown are safe to vote for it--and some Dems. 

But I am having a great time, it's wonderful to get away from the heat of NYC for the coolness of Alaska. Tomorrow we go on to the Denali Lodge.