Julie and Kate McKinnon talk to Club Skirts founder Mariah Hanson about Dinah Shore, same-sex marriage, and tiger tamers.

Check back next week for another Celesbian Interview, and watch previous episodes here.

The 3Way roommates prepare for “lesbian spring break” in this sneak peek at their season finale, airing next Monday (look for more about that in the BLWE column on Friday).

Go to 3Waytv.tv for more video, photos, wallpaper, etc.

In this very special episode of Come With Me If You Want to Live, our Southern vloggers Jenn and Dee walk you through their first time at the annual lesbian spring break known as Dinah Shore Weekend, as they share their stories, photos and footage from the event.

When they weren't getting lost racing from event to event and marveling at all the lesbians, they were cooking burgers with Karman and me (okay, they cooked while I fired questions at them), chatting with Jackie Jones about doing stand-up, pillow-fighting on Brunch with Bridget, dancing with Cathy DeBuono, getting smack talk from Elizabeth Keener, and dishing with Jill Bennett about the Dinah fashion show. They were almost busier than I was over the weekend!

If you've never been to Dinah, this is a great way to experience it through the eyes of "Dinah virgins." If you're a veteran of the event, it's a fun — and much less tiring! — way to re-live it.

Look for Jenn and Dee's first Work Out vlog later this week.

AfterEllen.com's own Bridget McManus was spreading herself pretty thin at The Dinah this year. As if accosting people on the red carpet, showing off her splits technique during the improv, and singing a vaguely inappropriate "sorority" song to Sarah Warn weren't enough, she also performed at the Logo Comedy Cocktail Hour.

Bridget McManus

There Bridget regaled the crowd with a couple of memorable ditties (accompanied by her trusty tambourine), shared some treasured family memories, and paid tribute to her favorite restaurant, Red Lobster.

Don't forget to check out the rest of our Dinah coverage, including stand-up by Julie Goldman, Kate McKinnon, and Liz Feldman, and improv by the AfterEllen.com vloggers.

If you live near L.A. and still can't get enough of Bridget after all the Dinah videos, you can see her live and in person as the main event in her upcoming show "Tall Dark and Random" on Thursday May 8th at The M Bar in Los Angeles; buy tickets here before the show sells out.

The second half of the AfterEllen.com AfterNoon at Dinah last week was a hilarious train wreck — or "cluster screw" as our host Michelle Paradise politely called it — of comedy improv starring several of the AfterEllen.com vloggers: Cathy DeBuono, Jill Bennett, Marnie Alton, Karman Kregloe, Dara Nai, and Bridget McManus.

Dee and Jenn (Come With Me If You Want to Live) joined Lori and I as judges, using criteria Dara came up with — so you know it's slightly off-kilter.

Highlights of the event? Too many to mention, but here are a few of my favorites: Michelle getting heckled for accidentally picking on a woman with a broken toe; Karman and Cathy flirting in Santa's workshop; Bridget and Marnie's adventures in Amsterdam's red light district; and Jill taking orders from Dara in a barn. Then there's Karman and Dara's rendition of A Sound of Music...well, you'll just have to watch for yourself and tell me what your favorite moments / lines / scenes are. Check it out now here:

Thanks to Michelle for graciously agreeing to host, and to the rest of the vloggers for participating. It was a lot of fun to watch live — hopefully it will translate on-screen!

(And in case you missed it, also check out the AfterEllen.com AfterNoon stand-up performances at Dinah, our Dinah red carpet interviews , and Julie Goldman's Dinah stand-up routine from Logo's Comedy Cocktail Hour.)

Continuing our coverage of Dinah Shore Weekend, we present you with the first of several clips from Logo's Comedy Cocktail Hour, which was so popular they had to keep people out for fear the fire marshall would shut the place down — yes, the same fire marshall that kicked Karman and Bridget off the red carpet. (That's who everyone was avoiding this weekend!)

First up is today is the show's host and always funny comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer, followed by the hilarious Julie Goldman, whose performance brought down the Dinah Shore house.

Suzanne Westenhoefer

Julie Goldman

Warning: don't watch while consuming a beverage! Or in earshot of small children. Or squeamish adults.

Look for more Logo Comedy Cocktail Hour clips later this week from Kate McKinnon and Bridget McManus (yes, her again — we can't get enough!).

At last week's Dinah Shore Weekend, out comedians Jackie Jones, Liz Feldman, and Bridget McManus made us laugh us with stories about Dinah, personal revelations, and a very sweet and funny (and unusually profanity-free) lesbian sorority song Bridget sprung on me surprised me with at the event.

Naturally, we filmed the stand-up so all of you at home could join in the fun, and because we needed more video to edit between the hours of 2am and 6am. (Sleep? Who needs sleep?!)

Unfortunately, due to technical issues during Jackie's opening set (the mic didn't work), we weren't able to include her footage here, but we have most of Liz and Bridget's for your comedic enjoyment.

Liz Feldman

Bridget McManus

Bridget being Bridget, we couldn't include her last song in our video because, well, my arm got tired from bleeping out all the f-words only a few seconds in. But you can mosey on over to Bridget's MySpace profile if you want to see the song in all its profanity-laden glory. And check out Liz's MySpace page and Jackie's MySpace page for more lesbian hilarity.

Look for the improv portion of the AfterEllen.com AfterNoon in the next day or two, and more stand-up through-out the week from the Logo Comedy Cocktail Hour at Dinah. (We can sleep when we're dead!)

For our latest YCTTA adventure, Bridget and I traveled to Palm Springs for that legendary event known as The Dinah. It's where lesbians from all over gather together to dance in their swimsuits, wait in line for drink tickets, and avoid their exes.

In addition to that kind of fun, quite a few celezbians were participating in the fashion show, performing music and comedy, and touting their wares. We talked to a number of them on the red carpet Friday night before the fire marshal shut us down for causing a mob scene. (Yeah, we're pretty proud of that one. No, they did not hose us down, much to Bridget's dismay.)

Among them were Dani Campbell (A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila), who told us about her new fashion line, and Kate McKinnon of The Big Gay Sketch Show, who confessed her obsession with the Food Network. Jenny Shimizu (Dante's Cove) showed up in colorful attire, reminding us that we were not as cool as her because we actually followed directions and wore white to the white party. (Just kidding! We didn't need to be reminded that we're not as cool as Jenny. We already knew.)

So put on your best white outfit, sit back, and hear what the celesbians have to say about Dinah...

We all know that lesbian Mecca, Dinah Shore weekend, is heating up Palm Springs right now, and it seems as if every party-minded queer woman in North America is there. Those of us skipping the nonstop array of pool parties and celesbian sightings might be feeling just a wee bit jealous (or justified) at missing out on the festivities.

But just because you didn't spring for airfare doesn't mean you can't have a great weekend. I've put together a little list of non-Dinah activities guaranteed not to leave you broke, sunburned or fated to do the dreaded walk of shame in a hotel bathrobe.

1. Watch things.

So it isn't exactly a big blockbuster weekend at the movies, but there's plenty of good under-the-radar stuff if you know where to look. Jellyfish (Meduzot) has been getting rave early reviews, and Water Lilies looks more than intriguing (and more than a little bit lesbianish) in its depiction of teenage angst. It's also out writer-director Celine Sciamma's first big international release.

Since these films are only screening in a few cities, you could also stage an impromptu protest and complain loudly that women filmmakers don't get enough visibility.

Failing that, it's a perfect weekend to partake in a DVD marathon of your TV show of choice. Make it The L Word if you must, but I can't guarantee you won't wake up with a Dinah-caliber hangover from all the drama. … continue reading

The Dinah Shore weekend is billed as the largest lesbian party on the planet, and centers on the weekend of the LPGA’s Kraft Nabisco Championship. This year, the Dinah overlapped with the women’s basketball Final Four. The Dinah Shore parties ended on April 1, and the women’s final basketball games were held April 1 and 3. Our recruiting numbers were spread thin across multiple states as hard-working lesbians were forced to choose.

(I'm kidding about the "recruiting." Or am I? Check out the tag line for the Final Four this year: “Women Rock. Join the Team!”)

The NCAA recently announced that the women’s Final Four dates may be later next year. Right now, the 2008 championships are slated for April 6 and 8 in Tampa, Florida. While the Nabisco dates won’t be announced until later in the year, the event (and thus the Dinah) usually falls in the last couple weeks of March.

This year, comedienne Suzanne Westenhoefer performed in Palm Springs with out LPGA player Rosie Jones in the audience, and then hopped on a plane to perform at an event before the basketball games in Cleveland, Ohio. I talked to Suzanne after both events, and she said that when she performed in front of a room of 500 people in Cleveland and asked who was in town for the basketball, all 500 cheered. … continue reading

As midnight approached on Saturday night at The L Word Fashion Show in Palm Springs, the electricity grew palpable, the crowd rushed the stage, and just as the lights went down, someone spilled beer all over my girlfriend's sexy new heels.

Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig stepped out onto the stage and the 500 or so lesbians, who a mere hour ago were blithely drinking and mingling, completely lost their minds.

They didn't need to do much to whip the room into a frenzy, so they didn't. Leisha and Kate came out, looked awesome, said a total of ten words, and ran off stage.

That's it? That was what I body-checked a Shane-wannabe who was trying to steal our spot at the stage's edge for?

(click "read more" for more photos) … continue reading