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
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Hats off to the 100 Women We Love, class of 2008 (in no particular order, ’cause we love ’em all!).
Jamie Babbitt
Filmmaker Jamie Babbitt got her start in the industry by interning for Martin Scorsese on 1993’s The Age of Innocence. Babbitt’s work has since exploded onto the small and large screens. Her films include But I’m a Cheerleader, The Quiet and Itty Bitty Titty Committee, all of which were inspired by her personal experience and poke fun at serious issues. “I’m just interested in telling the stories that are around me,” she says. “I see humor a lot in the world.” Babbitt has also directed, produced and written for dozens of television programs, including The L Word, Dirty Sexy Money, Nip/Tuck, Malcolm in the Middle, and Popular. –LL
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