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!).
Ann Marie Moloney
With the voice of Ethel Merman and the courage of a cop, Detective Ann Marie Moloney is no shrinking violet. In addition to her 19-year tenure with the New York City Police Department, Moloney can belt “Danny Boy” like nobody’s business. As a teenager, she discovered that she could earn extra cash by crooning in her neighborhood’s Irish pubs. Today she’s an NYPD national anthem singer, volunteering her voice for special events such as 2001’s Prayer for America, the nationally televised 9/11 tribute at Yankee Stadium. “I can tell a 100-year-old story in three minutes, and people like it,” says Moloney of the power of song. In 2006, she hosted an episode of here! Focus about Gay Officers Action League (GOAL), and she’s appeared in several NYC-based television shows, including Third Watch and Law & Order. –LL
In no particular order…
