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!).
Rosie O’Donnell
There isn’t enough room here for a list of reasons why Rosie is among the Women We Love, but it starts with her role in A League of Their Own (opposite Madonna), and includes her current work with wife Kelli’s travel company, R Family Vacations, which offered the first-ever cruise designed for LGBT families in 2004. In 2006, HBO aired Rosie’s unprecedented documentary All Aboard! Rosie’s Family Cruise, which portrays the Norwegian Dawn’s maiden voyage from New York to the Bahamas and back with Rosie, Kelli, their four kids, and many other families aboard. Packed with the poignant personal stories of those on the cruise, as Rosie told gaywired.com, “…the film reminds us that families can come in all shapes and sizes, and that the things we all have in common far outweigh our differences.” Rosie is currently appearing with the True Colors Tour, which benefits a number of worthy LGBT charities. –MF
In no particular order…
