100 WOMEN WE LOVE 2008
Lily Tomlin’s extraordinary career as a funny lady bloomed on the TV show Laugh-In in 1969, the year of the Stonewall rebellion. Fittingly, she has woven feminism and LGBT life into her characters—the not-so-hardworking phone operator Ernestine, Violet Newstead in 9 to 5 and the numerous personas populating The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, the one-woman play written by Tomlin’s partner Jane Wagner, for which Tomlin won a Tony Award. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for her turn as Linnea Reese in Robert Altman’s Nashville, played recurring roles on TV shows from Murphy Brown to The West Wing, and has won six Emmys, a Grammy, and a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1977. Tomlin, who has called Wagner the most influential person in her life and career, narrated 1995’s landmark LGBT documentary The Celluloid Closet. –KL
In no particular order…
Hats off to the 100 Women We Love, class of 2008 (in no particular order, ’cause we love ’em all!).
Chantal Carrere
“Everybody kept telling me I was funny,” says comedian and soon-to-be reality star Chantal Carrere of her segue into the biz. “Then I got dumped and I was like, I have nothing to lose, so I’ll just try it. I think that’s how a lot of comics start out—broken and abused.” But from humble beginnings came great things for Carrere, who has since emerged as a successful standup, and recently wrapped filming on ABC’s Fat March, a reality show about 12 overweight people who walk nearly 600 miles from Boston to Washington, DC. “It’s over. I won,” she says. “Well, six of us won…I won 40 grand. I lost 51 pounds. It was amazing.” Next up: AIDS Lifecycle in June, the Nike Women’s Marathon in October, and her 2008 comedy tour, which is already in swing. “I’m bringing funny back,” she says, “how ‘bout that?” –CL
In no particular order…
