'Top Chef' Contestant Attecked In Gay Bashing

A former contestant on Bravo's "Top Chef" was beaten by attackers yelling anti-gay slurs, her lawyer said.
Josie Smith-Malave, who was featured on the second season of the reality show, was among a small group of women who were asked to leave a Sea Cliff bar over Labor Day weekend, lawyer Yetta Kurland said Tuesday.
About 10 young people followed the women and began screaming anti-gay epithets, spitting on them and then beating them, Kurland said.
Smith-Malave, who is in her early 30s, is openly gay, Kurland said.
Nassau County police said they were investigating, but declined to provide details of the incident.
Smith-Malave, a Miami native, is a former sous-chef for Marlow and Sons restaurant in Brooklyn. She has played for the New York Sharks of the Independent Women's Football League.
from The Associated Press

Jerry Apologizes

Jerry Lewis dropped an anti-gay slur - the same one that got Isaiah Washington of "Grey's Anatomy" in trouble - during the 18th hour of his annual Labor Day telethon.
He apologized Tuesday for a "bad choice of words."
The 81-year-old showman - prowling about the stage during the live telecast Monday in Las Vegas - was goofing around and dodging his cameraman, then went into a ramble about imaginary family members.
"Oh, your family has come to see you," he said, speaking to the camera and gesturing toward thin air.
"You remember Bart, your older son," he said, and motioning toward another unseen character, "Jesse, the illiterate f-----.
"No," Lewis said, quickly stopping himself before continuing.
Monday's monologue prompted a critical statement Tuesday from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
Neil Giuliano, GLAAD president, called Lewis' use of the term "simply unacceptable."
"It also feeds a climate of hatred and intolerance that contributes to putting our community in harm's way," Giuliano said.
In a statement Tuesday, Lewis said he was making "a joking comment to a member of my production team."
"I apologize to anyone who was offended," he went on. "Everyone who knows me understands that I hold no prejudices in this regard. In the family atmosphere of the telethon, I forget that not everyone knows me that well.
"That something like this would distract from the true purpose of the telethon pains me deeply. ... I accept responsibility for what I said. There are no excuses," he said.
Lewis' telethon, in its 42nd year, set a new record by raising $63.7 million to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association, topping last year's event by $3 million.
from The Associated Press

Jerry Lewis Using 'Faggot' To Help Raise Money

Update 9/5/07 Wednesday:
That clip was taken down but TMZ still has it.
Click here to view it.

Sharon Osbourne Fired For Calling Simon Cowell Gay?

Sharon Osbourne is furious with her brother David Arden for his sensational expose in a British tabloid this weekend (02Sep07) and is "devastated" by his betrayal, according to reports.
The rock matriarch is said to be "disappointed" at Arden's revelations in Sunday newspaper the News of the World, in which he claims Osbourne hated her fellow The X Factor judge Simon Cowell and was briefly fired from the British talent show for her constant gay jibes.
Arden also alleges his 54-year-old sister only married husband Ozzy Osbourne to spurn his Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi.
He said: "The truth is Ozzy was way down on her list. Sharon had no interest. In fact she always referred to Ozzy as 'the w**ker'.
"When the label was having hard times, she actually tried to get Ozzy fired."
But Osbourne has vowed to set the record straight in the second installment of her autobiography, which is due out in October (07), and a close friend of the star claims Arden only sold his story because he was so desperate for the money.
The source says, "Their dad is dead and David thinks he can do what he wants.
"Basically, he needed the cash. Now he has to wait and see what Sharon says in the book - he should be trembling with fear."
Arden and Osbourne fell out after the death of their father, music mogul Don Arden, who passed away in July (07).
from The Post Chronicle

Sex Charges Levied Against Police Chief

Texas - The police chief in this South Texas town has been charged with two counts of sexual assault for allegedly violating male employees who were passed out at his home during parties.
Jose Luis Vela, 42, was being held in the Hidalgo County Jail on $200,000 bond after his Thursday arraignment on the two felony charges. The city has placed him on paid leave pending the outcome of the case.
"This is the first time I've ever heard of a chief of a police arrested for sexually assaulting his employees," said Sheriff Lupe Trevino, whose office started an investigation last week based on a tip from a friend of one of the alleged victims.
As he was led out of the courtroom Thursday, Vela denied the charges and said he did not know who his accusers were.
Investigators have accused Vela of performing oral sex on a male employee after the man passed out drunk at a party about a year ago at Vela's home in Mission, according to court documents.
Vela is also accused of violating a different male employee with an object while that man was passed out at a party in July, Trevino said.
Trevino would not identify the alleged victims, nor their positions within the 18-employee department.
City Manager Jorge Arcaute said the city's employees must work through the shock of Vela's arrest. The town of about 4,400 residents is located 10 miles north of the Mexican border in the Rio Grande Valley.
"This will reflect poorly on us," Arcaute said. "The challenge for us is to keep doing a good job and work harder. We're up to the challenge."
Lt. Eric Hernandez has been named the Alton department's acting chief.
from The Associated Press

Larry Birkhead & Howard K. Stern Were Gay Lovers?

An explosive tell-all book about Anna Nicole Smith's sad demise alleges the two men who battled for custody of her baby girl and control of her fortune were gay lovers.
The bombshell allegations about the steamy relationship between the former Playboy Playmate's longtime companion Howard K. Stern and her baby's biological father, Larry Birkhead, come to light in "Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death."
Sordid passages in the soon-to-be released book by former MSNBC journalist Rita Cosby describe how Anna Nicole and her friend allegedly caught Stern and Birkhead with their shirts off and their pants around their ankles in a Los Angeles home.
Jackie Hatten, described in the book as one of Anna Nicole's closest friends, said the men were engaged in oral sex.
"Their bodies were intermingled," Hatten says, according to a copy of the book obtained by the Daily News. "It was obvious what was happening."
The shocking book accuses Birkhead and Stern of cutting a secret deal after Anna Nicole was buried in March, with Birkhead getting custody of Dannielynn in return for Stern being named executor of the star's estate.
Dannielynn, who turns 1 on Friday, could inherit hundreds of millions of dollars from the estate of Smith's late husband, oil tycoon Howard Marshall.
Birkhead and a lawyer for Stern both vehemently denied the accusations in Cosby's book yesterday - and vowed to drag her into court, setting the stage for an ugly legal battle.
"None of it is true," Birkhead told The News. "I'm gonna sue Rita Cosby for it."
Birkhead said he was disgusted by Cosby's claim that he and Stern were gay lovers.
"If she printed that then she is really getting sued," Birkhead yelled. "My attorneys are going after her and that is absolutely false. And I am sure Howard and the estate and everyone else involved is going to sue her too. This is just nonsense."
Stern's lawyer, Lin Wood, called the book's content "false and defamatory." Wood said Cosby "has taken the coverage to a disgusting new low for which she will be held legally accountable."
OK! magazine already has severed ties with Birkhead over the Cosby allegations, axing coverage of Dannielynn's first birthday as the final part of a $1.7 million access deal.
The 244-page book reads like a whodunit novel with cliffhanger chapters, plot twists and tales of deception by those closest to Anna Nicole.
The former stripper knew both Birkhead and Stern were gay, the book alleges. But Smith, who was obsessed with Marilyn Monroe, chose Birkhead as her lover because she wanted a blond, blue-eyed baby, according to Cosby.
The tell-all claims Anna Nicole would spread out on her bed and watch a video allegedly showing Birkhead and Stern having oral sex "over and over" while Stern worked on his computer in their Bahamas home. The existence of the video was confirmed by a source yesterday.
Stern is portrayed in Cosby's book as a jealous, money-grabbing control freak who manipulates the erratic blond beauty's celebrity status for his own financial gain.
As her life spun out of control after the death of her son, Daniel, last September, Stern kept Anna Nicole hidden from friends and forced the heavily drugged model to sign stacks of paperwork, the book claims.
His alleged "goodie bag" of meds - including Vicodin, Valium, morphine and Demerol - were never far from reach.
"He was the pharmacist and [the bag] was the drugstore," Anna Nicole's ex-boyfriend Ben Thompson told Cosby.
In Anna Nicole's final days, the buxom blond was holed up in Room 607 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Florida, with a raging 105-degree fever, the book says.
She was watched by Stern, her bodyguard, her psychiatrist and a handful of aides as a pus-filled abscess from a needle injection in her left buttock caused an infection in her bloodstream, Cosby writes.
Cosby alleges a right-handed Anna Nicole could never have administered these injections herself.
As Anna Nicole's life slowly ebbed away, Stern allegedly abandoned her to keep an appointment with a boat broker. The book describes him as cold and nonchalant when told of Anna Nicole's death - a far cry from the picture of a doting lover he painted in interviews.
As doctors rushed Anna Nicole to a hospital in a futile bid to save her life, Stern allegedly was already on the phone to media contacts lining up lucrative exclusive interviews.
"Howard was ready to make his next deal," an eyewitness says in the book. "It showed us that to Howard it was all about money."
Birkhead comes across as no angel either. The book claims Birkhead gave Smith cocktails of drugs and watched as Stern allegedly gave medication to Anna Nicole while she was attached to an IV drip in the hospital during her pregnancy.
His image as the "aw shucks nice guy" was a carefully crafted ploy to manipulate the media, Birkhead's former lawyer Debra Opri told Cosby. Opri is suing Birkhead for failing to pay her legal fees.
Yesterday, Birkhead dismissed Cosby, whose MSNBC show was canceled last year, as a has-been TV hack.
"She got fired and nobody wanted her," Birkhead told The News. "The last story she did was on Anna and now she is doing this book because no one will hire her."
Stern's lawyer was equally outraged, saying: "It appears that Ms. Cosby has joined the ranks of tabloid journalists who are willing to publish the print equivalent of sewerage to engage in character assassination for profit."
from The New York Daily News

Brokeback Mountain Director Comments On New Movie Sex Scenes

HONG KONG - A Hong Kong newspaper reports Oscar-winning director Ang Lee says filming the sex scenes in his new spy thriller Lust, Caution nearly caused him a mental breakdown.
The Apple Daily newspaper quotes Lee adding he was comforted he was able to help his actors through the ordeal.
The Taiwanese director, who won an Oscar for best director for Brokeback Mountain in 2006, was speaking from Venice, where Lust, Caution is competing for the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival.
The movie was screened in Venice last Thursday but has not been released in theatres.
Hollywood trade publication Variety has reported the movie features lovemaking in provocative sexual positions, implied oral sex and also full female frontal nudity.
The film has received the strictest rating in the United States, which bans viewers younger than 17.
"Lust, Caution," based on a short story by famed Chinese writer Eileen Chang, is about a group of patriotic students who plot to assassinate the intelligence chief in the Japanese-backed Chinese government during the the Second World War era.
Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai plays the intelligence official Mr. Yi, while newcomer Tang Wei plays the Chinese student Wang Jiazhi, who seduces Yi to pave way for the assassination. The movie also features Joan Chen from "The Last Emperor" and Chinese-American pop star Leehom Wang.
In a separate interview with Chinese news website Sina.com, Lee said he cleared the set to all but four crew members, including himself, while filming the sex scenes involving Leung and Tang.
"The scenes were completely in a very private space," he said.
Lee told Apple Daily he spent tremendous effort training actress Tang - more so than for Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi when she was a budding star shooting Lee's kung fu hit "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
"She (Tang) was picked from 10,000 people. There was three months' training and five months' shooting. I spent a full eight months on her. I've never spent so much effort on one person," Lee was quoted saying.
from The Canadian Press