An acclaimed director and actor, Pollack was diagnosed with cancer nine months ago and died surrounded by his loved ones, his publicist Leslee Dart said.

The short list of Pollack’s Oscar-nominated films include Out of Africa, Tootsie, They Shoot Horses Don’t They and The Way We Were.

Pollack was just as at home in front of the camera, recently making an appearance playing George Clooney’s boss in last year’s Academy Award darling film, Michael Clayton.

His last film appearance was in the Patrick Dempsey comedy, Made of Honuor, currently in cinemas.

“Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better. A tip of the hat to a class act,” Clooney said in a statement.

“He’ll be missed terribly.”

On the small screen, Pollack played the recurring part of Eric McCormack’s philandering father opposite Blythe Danner on Will and Grace.

He also appeared in The Sopranos, Frasier and Mad About You.

Well-loved and respected by his peers and colleagues, a host of actors and celebrities issued statements about Pollack upon learning of his death.

“We started together in New York and he always excelled at everything he set out to do, his friendships and his humanity as much as his talents,” Martin Landau, a longtime close friend and associate in the Actors Studio, said in a statement.

Pollack is survived by his wife, Claire; two daughters, Rebecca and Rachel; his brother Bernie; and six grandchildren.

© 2008 GayWired.com; All Rights Reserved.

Foster, 45, met and fell for screenwriter Cynthia Mort, 51, on the set of the vigilante flick, The Brave One in 2007 and has been seeing her ever since, according to a report by the National Enquirer.

News of Foster’s split from Bernard, 54, rocked the industry and now the Enquirer has reported in an “exclusive” that the couple is still living uncomfortably under the same roof, although the relationship has been “shattered.”

Foster’s latest love interest, Cynthia Mort, is a screenwriter and producer who has worked on shows such as Will and Grace and Roseanne.

Recently Mort executive produced HBO’s one-hour relationship drama, Tell Me You Love Me, on which her ex-partner, thirtysomething’s Melanie Mayron, was a director.

Since the pair became involved on the set of Foster’s 1994 film Sommersby, Foster and Bernard have raised two sons together, Charles, 9, and Kit, 6.

The father of the two boys has never been identified.

While the only public mention of the couple’s relationship came last December at a Hollywood awards breakfast when Foster acknowledged Bernard saying, “To my beautiful Cydney who sticks by me through the rotten and the bliss,” both women have worn matching “eternity” rings on their wedding fingers for several years.

Mort also has two children that she shares with Mayron.

The ex-partners, who’ve remained friendly, live in separate homes on the same Los Angeles street.

Oscar winnning actress for Silence of the Lambs and The Accused, Foster will move into one of her Hollywood homes while Bernard resides in another, according to the Enquirer.

“They’ll continue to raise the boys together and try to keep a loving family unit despite their break up,” a source close to the couple said.

© 2008 LesbiaNation.com; All Rights Reserved.

Just six months after Foster, 45, publicly acknowledged her relationship by thanking her “beautiful Cydney” at an awards ceremony last December, the power couple has supposedly split, according to the National Enquirer.

“Jodie’s break up with Cydney is shocking. She and Cydney have been together for so many years and have two children together – the potential fallout and legal wrangling from this could be monumental,” a source told the Enquirer.

After years of speculation, Foster finally acknowledged her hush, hush relationship with Bernard, 54, at the Women in Entertainment Breakfast when she thanked “my beautiful Cydney, who sticks by me through all the rotten and the bliss.”

Since Foster and Bernard hit it off on the set Foster’s 1993 film,Sommersby, they’ve led a quiet life, raising two sons, Charlie, 9, and Kit, 6, together.

While the two-time Academy Award winner for The Accused and Silence of the Lambs, refused for years to speak publicly about her private life with Bernard, the couple has worn matching Tiffany eternity rings on their wedding ring fingers for several years, The Daily Mail reported.

Fiercely protective of her private life, Foster has forgone hiring household staff for fear her private life would be leaked to the public, The Daily Mail alleged, adding that she refuses to answer the telephone or to carry a mobile phone.

Besides protecting her children and her personal life with Bernard, Foster has attempted to remain out of the public eye since 1981 when John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan to get her attention.

© 2008 GayWired.com; All Rights Reserved

Sports beverage Gatorade pulled its sponsorship from Warner’s reality fitness show Work Out, on the Bravo network, in response to letters of outrage from viewers over insensitive remarks she and her business manager made about a client’s breasts.

The husband of a client at Warner’s Skylab gym called Warner and her co-worker to the carpet when he overheard their on-camera quips about the shape of his wife’s breasts, for which she’d undergone work from a struggle with breast cancer.

Warner and her employee and onscreen nemesis Brian Peeler, the client’s trainer, came to blows later in the episode when Peeler insisted on further discussing the situation. She refused.

“We have notified Bravo we no longer wish to be associated with The Work Out [sic] and will be pulling our commercials. Furthermore, we will not renew our sponsorship of this programme in subsequent seasons,” said a Gatorade spokesperson.

The beverage chose to pull sponsorship following a spate of negative letters from Work Out viewers, in which Warner has been called, “a negative icon for the gay community.”

Warner took to her Bravo blog to quell the backlash by writing that Peeler had tried to demonise her on camera. She also said that editors cut all of the “good” stuff out of the episode.

“I did not make a derogatory remark about Brian Peeler’s client on camera or off-camera.

“The only reason he tried to bring it up to me on camera is to villianise (sic) me and set me up for something I didn’t do,” wrote Warner.

But despite attempts to mollify viewers and Gatorade, the beverage company has refused to associate with Warner and her show.

“We hope our immediate actions send a clear message to the community that we greatly value what you have to say, agree with your sentiments, and appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns with us,” said a Gatorade spokesperson.
copyright 2008 GayWired.com All Rights Reserved.

In a phone conversation with Pelosi last month, the movie mogul said he’d cut off contributions to Democrats if Pelosi failed to get on board with his plan for a Florida and Michigan revote, officials said.

Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax, firmly denied on Thursday that he made threats to cut off funding.

“Never, ever was the thought about denying funding to Democrats,” Weinstein said.

A voracious Clinton supporter, Weinstein hoped to finance a revote to help keep Clinton in the race against Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Weinstein phoned Pelosi with an offer to finance the revote in Florida and Michigan in attempt to make all Democrats’ votes count in the primary, Weinstein said.

“I told her people felt there would be a disenfranchisement of voters,” unless Democrats came up with a remedy, he said.

He also put the pressure on Pelosi to rescind comments she’d made saying that superdelegates should support the candidate leading in pledged delegates in early June, sources told CNN.

Among the threats officials said Weinstein made to Pelosi was that if Democratic leaders “did not fix” the Florida and Michigan issue, powerful members of the party might jump ship and vote for the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, in November’s election.

Officials briefed on the phone call said that Weinstein also promised to quell the flow of donations to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to elect House Democrats, if Pelosi refused to embrace his proposal.

“He was trying to get [Pelosi] to promise not to shut the race down,” said one of the officials familiar with the call, which came before the primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.

Unmoved by Weinstein’s demands, Pelosi, who has said she is neutral in the battle for the Democratic nomination, refused to buckle.

“She said, ‘Don’t ever threaten me again,’” said another official who was briefed on the conversation.

A revote in the delegate-rich states of Florida and Michigan looks to be Clinton’s only remaining shot at catching up to Obama in the delegate count, who maintains 1,845 to Clinton’s 1,686.

© 2008 GayWired.com; All Rights Reserved

The cyclone that ravaged Myanmar, formerly Burma, the number of dead rapidly rose to 4,000. But if the estimates prove accurate, the death toll would be the highest of any natural disaster to hit Asia since the tsunami in December 2005, which killed 181,000.

Myanmar cabinet ministers, including foreign minister, Nyan Win, initially announced at a briefing that the death toll was dramatically higher than the 351 people killed that officials originally estimated Sunday, according to Richard Horsey, a spokesman for the United Nations disaster response office in Bangkok.

“What is clear is that we are dealing with a major emergency situation, and the priority needs now are shelter and clean drinking water,” Horsey said.

Cyclone Nargis ripped through the Irrawaddy Delta and the country’s main city, Yangon (Rangoon), early on Saturday, leaving hundreds of thousands of its citizens homeless and scrambling to find food and clean water.

The Myanmar government, which traditionally restricts the movement of foreign groups in the country, including those providing assistance, gave the green light for the United Nations to send emergency aid to the country, said Paul Risley, a spokesman for the World Food Programme.

The country’s ruling Junta, which has spurned the international community for decades, appealed to the international community for aid on Monday.

But the US State Department said Myanmar’s government had not granted permission for a Disaster Assistance Response Team into the country, the Associated Press reported.

Assessment teams have been sent to the most ravaged areas to assess the damage and determine the most pressing emergency needs, said Laura Blank, a spokeswoman for World Vision.

“Stories get worse by the hour,” a Yangon resident wrote via e-mail.

“No drinking water in many areas, still no power. Houses completely disappeared. Refugees scavenging for food in poorer areas. Roofing, building supplies, tools, all are scarce and prices skyrocketing on everything.”

The World Food Programme is preparing to send 500 tons of food into Yangon and intends to send in more relief supplies, said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

© 2008 GayWired; All Rights Reserved.

Easley officially endorsed Clinton at a joint appearance at North Carolina State University on Tuesday.

“I’ve been accused of being persistent and downright aggravating, but this lady right here makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy,” Easley said about Clinton’s fight to the finish.

“I am having a ball today,” Easley added, his wife Mary standing beside him.

“There’s nothing I love more than a strong, powerful woman.”

Easley’s endorsement and praise could prove to be a boon for Clinton’s campaign as she heads into the state’s May 6 primary, where her Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, shows a significant lead in the polls.

Several high-profile politicians have recently endorsed Obama.

Riffing on Obama’s “Yes we can!” theme, Easley said”

“There’s a lot of ‘yes, we can’ and ‘yes, we should’ going around. Hillary Clinton is ready to deliver. That’s the difference. She’s ready to deliver today. Immediately.”

“Of course, [Easley's endorsement] is politically very meaningful, but even more than that, it’s great to have someone who understands what we have to do to transform our country, to be prepared for the 21st century,” Clinton said, as the her supporters shouted “Hil-La-Ry. Hil-La-Ry,” in support.

But Clinton also praised Easley in return. She acknowledged Easley’s success in making the state a leader in education and biotechnology.

“Governor Easley has been on a mission, and it is a mission to transform the economy of this state,” she said. “I think North Carolina has made all the right bets.”

2008 GayWired.com All Rights Reserved.

The former N’Sync star, who came publicly in 2006, recorded the spot to promote the National Day of Silence on April 25th, during which students across America will take a vow of silence in protest at bullying, harassment and discrimination of LGBT teens in schools.

“I think it’s time for me to stand up… and help educate, because I’m lucky enough to have been given a voice to be able to talk and grab the attention of people,” Bass said about his PSA.

Bass told the Associated Press that he was moved to make the PSA in honour of Lawrence King, the 15-year-old California student who was shot and killed by another student in February, when King arrived to school dressed in what the killer deemed “feminine” clothing.

“I heard about Lawrence on the news, and it was just incredible to me that kids that age that would have such an issue… with the subject of being gay,” Bass said.

“This has been a long time coming. I’m in a place where I’m at peace with my faith, friends, family and more importantly myself,” Southworth told Out and About, a Nashville based LGBT publication.

“I know this will end my career in Christian television, but I must now live my life openly and honestly with everyone. This is my reason for doing this.”

For a year and a half, Southworth, 21, has hosted and produced the syndicated show, The Remix, which has featured top-rate Christian acts including Jars of Clay, Avalon, Superchick, Building 429 and Rachael Lampa.

The Remix can be viewed in more than 128 million homes worldwide and averages more than 200,000 viewers weekly on three networks.

“I know I will be cut off from many within the Christian community, and if so, then they didn’t get the point of the life of Christ,” Southworth said of his decision to come out.

“I believe by me living my life honestly and authentically now, I am able to be a better person and a better Christian.

“We all know there are so many other gay people in the Christian industry; they’re just all scared. I was scared, but now I’m no longer afraid.”

According to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, Jeremy Paul McIntosh, 27, was angry at the store for refusing to give him a job.

Wearing “facial makeup, lipstick, blue Capri pants, red flip-flops, a flowery blouse and a matching flowery women’s bra,” according to Oakland County UnderSheriff Michael McCabe, McIntosh was arrested on Saturday for ramming his vehicle into the Intimate Ideas lingerie store in Commerce Township, 25 miles northwest of Detroit.

Damage to the store is estimated at around $3,000 (£1,510).

According to the Detroit Free Press, McIntosh entered the store around 9:00 p.m. on Saturday and told a store employee he was going to run his car into the building.

The employee told police McIntosh said he was upset because he had applied for a position at the store in January and was turned down.

After speaking to the employee, McIntosh returned to his vehicle and began crashing it into the side of the store.

Police say McIntosh hit the building about seven times, according to the Detroit Free Press, and completely totalled his car.

McIntosh told police officers he committed the crime because he’s homeless and had nowhere to go but prison.

He is currently being held in the Oakland County Jail on charges of malicious destruction of property and reckless driving.

McIntosh is still seeking a lawyer to represent him, according to McCabe.

No one was injured in the incident.

© 2008 GayWired.com; All Rights Reserved

Throughout the trial, Palfrey, 52, maintained that her company, Pamela Martin and Associates escort service, provided legal escort services that catered to adult fantasies from 1993 to 2006.

Palfrey, wearing a grey suit and with clasped hands, showed little emotion when the jury, following eight hours of deliberation, handed down the guilty verdict that carries with it a maximum 55-year prison sentence, to be determined at her sentencing July 24th.

Former employees of Palfrey’s company, including 13 call girls and several clients, provided four days of often titillating testimony at the trial.

But Palfrey’s defence attorney Preston Burton said she had no knowledge of any sexual escapades.

“My client did not have an intent to provide illegal activity,” Burton told jurors during closing arguments on Monday.

Prominent players tied to Palfrey’s company via phone records, Senator David Vitter and Randall L. Tobias, who resigned as deputy secretary of state after admitting he’d used Palfrey’s service for massages, were on the original witness list, although neither was called to testify.

© 2008 GayWired.com, All Rights Reserved.

A New York City collector and businessman just paid a cool $1.5 million (£762,000) for the silent, black and white sex film of the famous blonde orally servicing an unidentified man for 15 minutes.

But unlike today’s celebrity sex tapes up for wide public consumption on the Internet, Monroe’s will remain under wraps for now.

“The gentleman who bought it said out of respect for Marilyn he’s not going to make a joke of it and put it on the Internet and try to exploit her,” Keya Morgan, the memorabilia collector who brokered the sale, told Reuters.

“He said, ‘I’m not going to make a Paris Hilton out of her. I’m not going to sell it, out of respect.’”

Morgan initially learned of the salacious tape from a former FBI informant while researching for a documentary and later tracked it down via the informant’s son.

Then FBI director and John F. Kennedy detractor, J. Edgar Hoover, allegedly tried in vain to prove that Kennedy was on the receiving end in the film.

© 2008 GayWired.com, All Rights Reserved.

Along with her former co-workers and best pals, Nancylee Myatt and Paige Bernhardt, Quinlan conceived of and created the sensation that has become 3Way, about a straight soap actress who moves her best gay girlfriend into her home only to be followed by an array of whacky lesbian characters.

Billed as, “The hottest lesbian comedy NOT on TV,” the little Internet show that could co-stars Jill Bennett, Cathy Shim and co-writer Maile Flanagan.

But with wildly inventive guest appearances by the original “Buffy,” Kristy Swanson, as a loopy stalker and The L Word’s Elizabeth Keener as compulsive liar and overly friendly ex-girlfriend, 3Way is already created much buzz and a can’t-get-enough fan base.

Quinlan, who appeared in the juicy soap, The Bold and the Beautiful, gained near cult status playing the homophobic mom of a lesbian teen in South of Nowhere.

But her character Siobhan, the straight actress surrounded by gay women on 3Way, is much closer to Quinlan’s own experience.

LesbiaNation caught up with Quinlan to chat about Dinah Shore 2008, 3Way’s outrageously hot guest stars and whether or not fans can anticipate another season.

LesbiaNation: It’s great to get the chance to talk with you. I know you recently returned from the Dinah. How was it?

Maeve Quinlan: It was amazing. I’d been there for the first time the year befor with Nancylee Myatt and Paige Bernhardt.

We discussed 3Way in an interview with AfterEllen.com. We just shot the season finale at the Dinah.

LN: Kind of like a bookend.

MQ: Last year we knew that South of Nowhere wasn’t coming back.

LN: And you all worked together on that?

MQ: Yes and we were mourning it. I had done Girltrash with Angela Robinson on the Web. I had this idea of a straight woman living with two lesbians, which was loosely based on my life in some capacity.

I thought about blowing it up and making it bigger than life. And Nancylee said, “That’s a great idea!” So the blueprint for 3Way was sitting around like the rest of the garbage in my head and would have stayed there if not for Nancylee and Paige.

LN: It’s great that you were all able to collaborate on getting 3Way off the ground.

MQ: We had a loyal fan base from South of Nowhere. While we were mourning not working together we thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to put out a great lesbian comedy?”

Nancylee’s pedigree is in sitcoms. She’s won an Emmy. And we were lucky to get Mary Lou Belli, an incredible sitcom director.

LN: I’m curious about how you became a lesbian icon. Did you ever think when you were on The Bold and the Beautiful that you’d become so popular with gay women?

MQ: (Laughs) Probably not! You know, so many of my best friends are either lesbian or gay. I was on South of Nowhere playing this righteous homophobe. Actually, Paula Carlin doesn’t even think of it in those terms. She’s just so righteous.

It’s so different from who I am. At that time, I was living in this house and one of my best friends had moved in with me. And she happens to be gay. But on South of Nowhere, I was playing a homophobe.

LN: That’s quite a dichotomy.

MQ: I was reading on the message boards, which you should never do, about my character being a homophobe. “Maeve is such a homophobe,” people were writing, not separating me from my character. But I was out at The Abbey on the weekends. I go to The Pump.

LN: The Abbey is like West Hollywood’s gay ground zero.

MQ: I thought, this situation is funny. My friend and her girlfriend would coach me on my dating life and I would coach them on theirs.

LN: I read something on Wikipedia and when I saw it, I thought, “It must be wrong,” but I have to ask, since it seems like such an anomaly. Were you really married to Tom Sizemore?

MQ: Yes I was in the nineties. We split in November 1999. It was a very respectful divorce.

LN: How did you get together?

MQ: We met on the set of Natural Born Killers. Back then he was working with A-list directors. He was a fabulous actor.

LN: Wow. The craziness in his life seems worlds away from where you’re at.

MQ: It was in another lifetime, a case of opposites attract.

LN: I wanted to ask you a little more about the Dinah this year. You said you were shooting the finale there but did you get to play all?

MQ: We were pretty much working, working, working. But no, we did go to the White Diamonds party on Friday night. We went to the fashion show and supported the wonderful Jill Bennett. On Saturday we shot at the pool party.

LN: You’re not going to give me spoilers though are you?

MQ: I’ll just say it’s a pretty funny scene. But Kristy Swanson is back stalking Geri and Elizabeth Keener is back.

LN: How did you nab all of these great actresses for the guest spots? Kristy’s got her own sort of cult following and Elizabeth is hot off The L Word. Plus, Cathy DeBuono. That’s quite a feat.

MQ: Mostly through friendships. Kristy and I have been friends for years. Liz Keener is Jill Bennett’s friend. And we have others who want to come on.

Kelly Hu, Melinda Clark, Jennifer Finnigan. People have said they really like the show and have asked to be on. And then there’s the whole Ladycops thing with Christina Cox and Liz Vassey, you know, the show within a show.

LN: Right. I love it. I think it’s perfect.

MQ: Christina and Liz worked with Nancylee on Nikki and Nora. We want to do more with that.

LN: How much is left of the season? Do you even call it that?

MQ: We’re calling it a season. But, what is a season on the Internet? We are on 15 episodes now. And there are many more “Confessionals”.

LN: Are you already thinking about another season?

MQ: Response has been really great. We’ve got people interested in picking up advertising. But the advertisers tend to take a wait and see approach, to see if the hits will continue to be good. But we have lots of ideas for a second season.

LN: It looks like you’re all having a blast on the set? How has it been?

MQ: Nancylee and Paige and I worked together before and I love their brilliant comedic minds. They’re two of my best friends. It’s just been magic in a bottle doing this show.

And Maile Flanagan is the funniest person I know. She writes on it as well. It’s all been pretty amazing and I don’t do comedy.

LN: You wouldn’t know from your performance. You’re hilarious being surrounded by all the whacky lesbians.

MQ: Playing the “straight” woman, pun intended. It’s thanks to the writing. I’ve done romantic comedies but never a sitcom before. I just grip and hang on for dear life. I love to do drama but I’m finding that comedy is so much harder.

LN: You mentioned Maile. How is it working with Jill and Cathy Shim?

MQ: Jill Bennett has brought so much to the part that we never imagined and Cathy Shim. I love her. She was the biggest find.

LN: Now that you’ve been in a couple of lesbian-themed shows, is the next logical step to play a lesbian?

MQ: Yeah. Definitely! I played bisexual on Girltrash but that was one episode. I’d love to play a lesbian or to create a role to play.

LN: Is there anything you’d like to say about 3Way that we haven’t hit on?

MQ: I want to give major props to Nancylee for doing this with me. And I want to thank the fans for their support.

I can’t thank them enough. We have so many ideas for a second season if we get one, so please keep the hits coming.

LN: I’m not alone in saying I hope you get that second season.

MQ: Here’s to the future.

For more on 3Way, visit 3waytv.tv

© 2008 LesbiaNation.com; All Rights Reserved.