CHAVITY HOPE VALENTINE
Ran into someone who told me that Margaret Cho and her manager and business partner Karen Taussig had split. Not much detail, and I’m a stickler for details--- just that they read it somewhere. Of course this perked my interest as I toured with Margaret for six months in 2001-2 on her Notorious C.H.O tour.
My first impression of Karen Taussig was that she was like most business people, cheap, and that is my biggest pet peeve----I HATE CHEAP PEOPLE. I’ve been very vocal in attacking cheapskates,as Joseph Brooks, James Frankenstone and Lenny Young of the Funeral Parlour can attest to.
I only like people who are gracious and generous.
When I joined the Cho tour, I didn’t know that she was a top selling tour act.. Of course I knew she had a television show, but we’d known each other only casually, so when she asked me to open for her I didn’t know what to expect.
From the beginning Karen rubbed me the wrong way, but I convinced myself I was overreacting I have to remember to trust my instincts----they are golden. ALWAYS LISTEN TO THOSE RED FLAGS. Karen realized early on that I wasn’t some weak minded foolio who she could manipulate, and a few times, In Hawaii especially I shocked her by putting the chick to check.
Toward the end of the tour Margaret kept saying she wanted me for the next tour. I smiled and said, "o that’d be great, but I knew that would never happen, especially as long as Karen was her manager. And that was ok by me. I had a great time on the tour. It was glam, and I got to stay in 4 star hotels, and Bill Silva of Bill Silva Touring was amazing, to me. I have a natural disdain for the wealthy and I was surprised at how genuine Bill Silva was, and how smoothly his company worked. I always thought that people high up in the music or entertainment industry got there by being complete assholes. And if they were gay, then they must be super a-holes!!!Bill broke that stereotype.
Now that so much time has past I can now admit that I didn’t care much for our tour manager John Hogan or JHo as I renamed him. He was a little bit "sometimey" which is a black ghetto term that describes perfectly how some negroes feel about certain white f olks they can’t seem to trust. Of course JHo’s mood swings could be because like almost everyone in LA he is on psychotropic medication.
I found JHo to be a frustrated performer with a little sugar in his tank. We were civil to each other, and he lived vicariously through my shrimping routine, and loved that I incorporated him into the act. It secretly turned him on. But several times on tour he was somewhat curt with me, and I feel he resented that I had a following of my own, albeit a small following---JHo would always comment that the really cool people would always be hanging out in my dressing room backstage after the show and not in Margarets.

I’m not a commercially oriented performer, and never will be. Bill Silva even mentioned once that I needed to get out of my ghetto mentality, and think bigger. He may be right but I have to follow the path that is made for me and take it to its natural conclusion whereever that may be.

A few months after the tour JHo had the nerve to contact me to take part in some photo project with some tired friend of his. I may forgive, but I NEVER forget slights. But getting back to Karen Taussig---I mentioned to Larry Bob about the Margaret/Karen breakup and he tracked down a blog report that Margaret posted a few months back that is very illuminating. I include it at the end of my report, I’m not surprised by Margaret’s comments on Karen. My take is that Margaret is still searching for something, her recent marriage to Rev Al of the Cacophony Society proves that. Karen must have had a fit when Margaret married him, her hissy was probably self preservation in that she was most likely afraid that Margaret would spend all her money on him and his nutters projects. Margaret is financially successful, but like most people who have a foot in the mainstream, she probably wants more. I could see Margaret doing the roles that Sandra Oh has, and I think that is a good direction for her to go in, but since Sandra beat her to it, there is probably not room in the mainstream for two Asian comic actors----you know how Hollywood is. Her financing her own narrative movies is smart, but this new project Celeste and Bam Bam sounds like the Plush Life Players. Getting more embroiled in "The Gays" may not be such a good idea. "The Gays" are notoriously fickle, and cavorting to them can backfire on you big time. Margaret is very smart and needs to follow her instincts in going really radical, and not by just doing the obvious Bush bashing, and rally round the liberal flag twirl. Hopefully she’ll figure it out for herself, and I wish her well with that. I did have a good time doing a little short film project with her and Jackie Beat awhile back that Austin Young photographed. Austin is very handsome, but lets just say he and I aren’t destined to be good pals anytime soon. I gather the short subject will be playing the festivals, but I have no interest in seeing it.


http://margaretcho.net/blog/movingon.htm

4/12/06
Moving On

SEASON HUBLEY
Treated to a lovely bruncheon by the legendary Billy Wisdom of the 80s glam band Billy Wisdom and the HeeShees. Billy, aka: Craig Roose took me to a nifty J-Town eatery that had lots of cute pieces of masculine eye candy floating about. Mr. Roose is one of those unsung geniuses that came out of the punk scene via the San Fernando Valley, whose never been given his proper share of credit. He use to work for years at Slash Records, and also led the Brit pop parody band Stupor, and performed as the chanteuse Summer Caprice channeling a mean Eartha Kitt and whispy Billie Holliday. As Caprice he starred and hosted the cable TV Dinah Shore meets Mike Douglas talk show Decoupage. These days he works as an art director. He gave me a lot of great celebrity gossip but swore me to secrecy so i can't repeat any of it. Believe me its some juicy salacious stuff, but i don't want to get Craig in any trouble, unlike me, he can't afford to burn any bridges. See i can keep a secret.
My oldest friend from elementary school, Marlou de Luna is now a lawyer for the State of California. She and her lawyer hubby Hal Marinas took me to dine at Cafe Stella. The weekend heatwave was in full broil, but it didn't exhaust our spirits. I was housesitting at the Silverlake Maltman Avenue compound of gay lovers Hector Martinez and Eric Pierce. They live right next door to Ann Magnuson.
The scene at Cafe Stella was lively, and the service impecable. Saw buff male ingenue Channing Tatum and his girlfriend. The dull remake of The Poseiden Adventure starlet Emmy Rossum as sitting at another table with dinge queen X-Men directrice Brent Ratner, who is a bit of an otter, but has a really nice complexion, of course he brought along with him another one of those interchangeable LeRoy's whose semen he guzzles. I swear he's the new Keith Haring when it comes to a bevy of faceless black and latino male lovers. I wonder of Mr. Ratner is still seeing the Rican porn thugstar Tiger Tyson.
More exciting of a spotting was Zoey Dechanel and her sister who were eating with horsey faced Alanis Morrisette and her bisexual boyfriend Ryan Reynolds who brought along his cute ginger headed and freckly beau.
I escaped the heat the next day to spend time in Santa Barbara with Barbara Young and her foxy surfer gal sis Paula. Miss Barbara is the perfect hostessa. She cooked a feadt of feasts, where the liquor was constantly flowing for me and my companion, the kuntry krooner Glen Meadmore. I always cherish the moments i'm able to spend with Ms. Young & company. Barbara even knew the name of the lovesexy latino star of the TV serial Oz, that i ran into a few days ago. His screen name is Kirk Acevedo, and let me tell you he is more beautiful and muscular in person then on the telly.