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AE: What are you up to these days?
HL: Well, right now I have a daily, live talk show. It's a morning show. Well, it's the morning on the West Coast. But it's on Q Television.

AE: You're talking about The Brunch?
HL: Yeah, The Brunch is my show. We've been doing it since September 6th, and I co-host with Scott Withers. Scotty and I have a great time. We're like the gay Regis and Kelly. I'm Regis, he's Kelly. Anyway, we do this talk show every day. It's kind of a sit com-y hybrid with a talk show kind of thing. It takes place in the apartment that we're in and, you know, we have a good time. It's very skewed in focus for the community, and our guests are all different kinds of people in the community: actors, singers, directors, charities. And we try to tackle serious topics from time to time, and it's informative and it's fun.

AE: Who are some of the guests or charities and what are some of the topics you've had on the show?
HL: Well, a topic we did last Wednesday—and it really was a great show, though it was the most different format that we did to date—was on teen suicide prevention. Just because it's a subject very close to me, and The Trevor Project is one of my favorite charities. And there's another one, Teen Line Online, which is a suicide hotline manned by teenagers. It was just something that I felt was really important to do, and we got a lot of response from viewers from all different places in the country. Which is great when you have a platform, to be able to use it, to really reach out and be able to help other people. Because I think that so many people, especially in that position, think that they are alone. And especially in our community.

Then we've had others. We just do fun things. I get to have singers on. Actually Sam Harris, a wonderful singer, is co-hosting for me today. And, you know, Ted Allen from Queer Eye has been on. I had him on before the holidays and got him to whip up some things. But I have a minor background in cooking, so I get to cook on my show sometimes. That was one of my survival jobs when I was out there struggling as an independent producer, I had a catering
company, so I get to bring those talents.

You know, it's just been great to have different political people on, from the Log Cabin
Republicans to whatever the Democrat comparison is. It's really been a great opportunity. We're going to be covering the Gay Games in Chicago in July. Q is covering all of those. So we've had a lot of athletes and different people who are involved with that. We're going out to Sundance. I'm going to be out there covering some of the film festival, especially, obviously, the members of our community who are directors, producers, actors and the like. And the Queer Lounge, which I'm sure you've heard of. And Ellen Wong, who's a dear friend. It's great that we have this opportunity to reach out to all areas of the community. So I'm really getting familiarized with areas outside of Hollywood and outside of the film and television industry, which is fun.

AE: So, do you guys have brunch on the show each morning?
HL: Well, we started out in the beginning where sometimes we'd make brunch, but really it's just kind of like a cup of coffee and, you know. That's pretty much what I have every day. It really is more just the name of the show.

AE: But you said sometimes you get to cook on the show.
HL: Sometimes I get to cook and we have other guests who come in and cook. But we've had some really fantastic chefs come in and cook, and that's always fun.

AE: So, tell me about Xcess/Access.
HL: Xcess/Access is a show that I did with my old production company, Siren Multimedia.
Basically I pitched this fashion concept last March to Frank Olsen and he said, “Absolutely, do it.” Eight days later we were the shooting fashion shows in Los Angeles. So just having a
background in fashion has given me access in a way that not everybody can get. It's also knowing what to look for. Having been a model, it's like going back and talking to models, I find that it's easy for them to talk to me, because I've done what they do. And I don't come in
criticizing them or coming in with a lot of judgment, which so may people do, because they don't really respect it for the very, very difficult job that it is. It's like with any sort of
celebrity: People often think that it's easy, that it's a walk in the park. Modeling in some ways is even more difficult than acting, I think, personally.

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