Gets Serious and Seriously Funny About Life, Death and Fundraising at AIDS Assistance Program’s
BRUCE VILANCH
HOLLYWOOD DINE & DISH FUNDRAISER
by thom senzee
The Rage Monthly caught up with celebrity writer, actor, comedian and physically thinning, yet still figuratively larger-than-life entertainment personality, Bruce Vilanch in advance of the 2013 AIDS Assistance Program Hollywood Dine & Dish Fund- raiser, happeningFriday, November 15 at a private estate in Rancho Mirage. For a mere $1,000 attendees will receive the address of said estate and “enjoy the
ultimate Hollywood experience dining with the stars as they tell stories of Tinseltown you’ve never heard,” according to organizers. In addition, they’ll get hors d’oeuvres, “premium cocktails” and “an exquisite dinner.” But the big draw for those who can afford the ticket may be the fact that, according
to program officials, 100 percent of each ticket purchased will feed ten AIDS Assistance Program (AAP) clients for an entire month. Rounding out a three-pronged elite celebrity-gossip attack squad alongside bestsell-
ing romance novelist and tell-all diva, Jackie Collins and award-winning celebrity pho- tographer, Michael Childers, Vilanch will help ensure the conversation at the fundraiser raises eyebrows, causes guffaws and makes it hard to tell which attendees are enjoying more: the dish they’ll be eating off of fancy plates—or that being dealt by three of today’s ultimate entertainment-industry insiders. So, without further ado, here’s what Vilanch had to say about growing acceptance for
LGBT people; how friends’ HIV/AIDS diagnoses have impacted his life and why anyone should spend big money to hear him dish…
How has the LGBT community changed during your lifetime? Just a smidge. We are now married parents driving a tank through
Afghanistan. And, for my generation at least, we are survivors of a plague. Put it together and it’s a waaayyyyy far cry from the florists, hairdressers and scared schoolteachers of “the day.” Has the battle for marriage equality replaced HIV/AIDS as the first thing the average straight person living in, say the Midwest, thinks of when she or he thinks about gay people—or was it ever that way in the first place? In certain pockets of Teabagistan, the perception of gay people as diseased child molesters has never changed. But almost everyplace else, yes, it’s different now. And that is solely because we came out of our own closets and identified ourselves to our families and co- workers and did it with pride and happiness. We stopped being an abstraction and became a reality. It’s very difficult to hate someone when they’re in your face and they’re smiling. Why do you make yourself available for AIDS Assistance Program’s Hollywood Dine & Dish fundraiser? Anything to escape Nutrisystem! My house is lousy with it. Oh, and
Palm Springs 48 RAGE monthly | NOVEMBER 2013 RAGE monthly | NOVEMBER 2013 (Continued on page 50)
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