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L.A. Scene March 2010: Jill Hennessy live, An Evening With Women V.I.P. Launch Party and Fusion Film Festival

L.A. Scene is a monthly column that chronicles lesbian nightlife and events of interest in Los Angeles. Sarah Witness, an East Coast transplant and obvious femme, has been navigating the snark infested waters of Hollywood since 2001. Although she’s an NYU trained actress, she prefers sipping vodka and making idle chit-chat at really gay nightclubs.

Jill Hennessy Performs at The Hotel Cafe

Guess who’s performing in Lilith Fair this year? No, not me. Everyone’s favorite honorary lesbian Jill Hennessy.

If you haven’t seen her in the hit lesbian flick Chutney Popcorn, do so now. Although she’s better known for Crossing Jordan and Law & Order, Jill’s talents extend well beyond homicide investigation. She actually began as a street musician, playing sidewalks and subway stations in Toronto and New York City. She made her recording debut in 2003 for the Crossing Jordan soundtrack. Now she has a new album, Ghost in My Head.

Last month, Jill performed in Hollywood at The Hotel Cafe. I made the mistake of showing up on time, rather than early. The place was totally packed with lesbians, including Chutney Popcorn director Nisha Ganatra, and straight men including Benjamin Bratt.

Jill had a great set. She sounds a lot like she could be the third Indigo Girl, a duo that she’s a huge fan of. They’ve clearly been a strong influence. I chatted with her after the show. She was really sweet and really normal, which can be rare in Los Angeles. It was probably because she lives in New York.

An Evening With Women V.I.P. Launch Party

Last year’s “An Evening with Women” was my favorite gala/benefit type of event, so I was thrilled when they invited me to this year’s VIP Launch party. The get-together’s purpose was to encourage people to buy tickets or sponsor tables for the actual event. “An Evening with Women” is a star-studded affair that benefits the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, an amazing organization that provides invaluable services to our community.

The launch party was held in a suite at the Chateau Marmont, a posh and slightly creepy old Hollywood hotel on the Sunset Strip. In attendance were an interesting mix of lesbians and rockers. I joked that one guy looked like he’d just walked out of a Motley Crue video and he turned out to be Nikki Sixx – from Motley Crue. Oops. He was there with Kat Von D of LA Ink.

Clementine Ford showed up too, looking lovely as always.

After sitting through the requisite speeches about the organization, we moved onto the fun stuff. Linda Perry is one of the co-chairs of the event and she performed several songs right there in the overcrowded hotel room. What do you do if you are staying in the adjoining room? Complain to the management that Linda Perry is belting it out next door?

During the amazing performance, my girlfriend and I went out on the patio so we could listen without being trampled. The patio was also home to the bar and passed hors d’oeuvres. Perfect. We took in the breathtaking 360 degree view as Linda sang a stunning rendition of her hit song “Beautiful.” My girlfriend turned to me and whispered softly in my ear, “There’s kitty litter in my shoe.” Next time I’m leaving her home.

The highlight for me was Linda singing the Radiohead song “Creep.” Too cool. Also, the cheese and artichoke puffs were right up there.

“An Evening with Women” will take place on May 1 at the Beverly Hilton. The lineup is amazing. Gina Gershon is hosting, Heart and Linda Perry are performing, Sarah Silverman is doing stand-up, and, just for good measure, Renee Zellweger is doing something. Reading from her diary? I’ll let you know in May.

Fusion Film Festival

On March 13, I attended Fusion: The Los Angeles LGBT People of Color Film Festival. Fusion, a division of Outfest, is now in its seventh year. NBCUniversal partnered with the festival and hosted Access LA, a series of seminars designed for aspiring filmmakers. Topics included networking skills, how to get work in television, and how to use new media.

The Saturday program was the actual screening day. It was held at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, an area known for wax museums and drunk tourists. Must be a bummer to finally get a star on the Walk of Fame, only to have people throw up on it. (I’ll spare you the photos.)

The day featured 12 shorts and two full-length features. Due to overlap, I saw everything except the legacy screening of the 1967 film Portrait of Jason. The lesbian shorts all involved women repeatedly asking each other “What’s wrong?” Of particular note was Sara, a well-made short about hot girls having a hard time, starring lesbian model Jessica Clark.

Also riveting was Damelo Todo: Give Me Everything. This documentary is set at The Silver Platter, a longstanding Latino gay bar in Los Angeles. A huge chunk of the clientele are transgender women from Mexico and Central America. The bar has provided a safe haven and sense of family to them since 1963. It has hosted “Wildness,” an evening that defies description, for many years. Which is to say that I personally was unable to describe it when I went there.

A few months ago, I was doing something obvious – like hanging out in Weho – when I ran into Jamie Babbit. It was pretty late at night, but she convinced a group of us to head over to Wildness. She thought this would be great to write about for AfterEllen.com. We crossed town and parked near a lot of barbed wire. We entered Silver Platter and found a swarm of sweaty people of ambiguous gender writhing about. Every so often, someone in drag would do an impromptu dance performance. I put Jamie in charge of taking pictures since she’s a director and anyway, this was her idea. Big mistake. All the pictures looked like an LSD trip.

We left confused and I scratched the idea of writing about it.

After seeing Damelo Todo, I realized the problem was that Wildness, and Jamie, are much cooler than I am. The history of Wildness is pretty fascinating and you should check out the film. Something political happened recently and Wildness is no longer at the Silver Platter but looks to be moving elsewhere.

The big film at Fusion was Quentin Lee’s The People I’ve Slept With. The movie is about Angela (Karin Anna Cheung), who has hooked up with so many guys recently that when she gets pregnant she has no idea who the father is. What’s a girl to do? Turn to her gay BFF for help of course, who is played by Wilson Cruz. (Of course.) I always joke that Rickie is everywhere, so I had to laugh when I went up to him at Fusion and he accused me of being everywhere. Maybe we should carpool. He went on about how much he loves AfterEllen. We love him too, right?

Before the screening, Wilson was presented with The Fusion Achievement Award, for being “a role model of courage and honesty who inspires those within and outside the LGBT community.” I would agree. Also he’s very nice and very cute. Congratulations Rickie!

The film was followed by an afterparty. They unearthed the bartenders from regular Outfest to keep the party rolling. Skyy Vodka is always sponsoring gay things. I love them for that. I also love that they keep making different infused vodkas. Ginger! Pineapple! Stella Artois was a sponsor as well. I tried to mingle and take photos to prove there were women in attendance. Sadly, most of them ran away when I pulled out my camera. I need to work on my game I guess. You’ll just have to take my word for it that there were lots of girls there.

Outfest will take place in July. I look forward to more great gay cinema and can’t wait to see what Skyy will think of next.

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