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!).
Jill Bennett
Actor Jill Bennett is queer-themed programming’s “it” girl: She plays Michelle on here! TV’s soap opera Dante’s Cove, she recently wrapped the lesbian comedy And Then Came Lola, and her Web-based series 3Way will jump to the silver screen at Outfest, L.A.’s LGBT film festival. She also hosts the vlog (video blog) We’re Getting Nowhere on AfterEllen.com. This tireless performer has appeared in Beverly Hills 90210, The Others, Exes and Ohs, Out at the Wedding and Expiration Date. “It seems that the Web is the best place to be right now,” she says. “….I do think we’re proving, with the popularity of the vlogs, that there is a desperate need for lesbian programming in the world…..The first major corporation that has the balls to step up and fund lesbian content will be rewarded with viewers and loyalty,” she predicts. –KL
In no particular order…
