Wiretap: Whither Wild Orchid?

Current Rolling Stone cover girl Fergie, or The Douche ass Dutchess, as she's dubbed herself, seems to be reaching her zenith. She's just released her solo album, gained universal renown with the Black Eyed Peas, oh, and kicked that nasty meth habit.

But what about her former band mates in the girl group Wild Orchid, Stefanie Ridel and fellow Kids Incorporated alum Renee Sands? Coming of age in the eighties, we totally remember watching Kids Incorporated excessively (we'll save our search for Martika, another Kids Inc. graduate, for another day).

The Orchid's janky website is a no go, while the "official fan site" is totally Fergie-centric. Renee's personal site is stuck in 2004. It seems that the girls tried to make a go of it sans Fergie, but without the drug-addled third leg of their triangle, the menage a pop that was Wild Orchid wilted.

Renee's been able to make the payments on her Honda Civic doing session work, and Stefanie is providing vocals for a House/Techno duo 5th Element. Hardly seems fair. Back in the Kids Inc. days, we totally thought Renee was the one with talent, Fergie (nee Stacy Ann Ferguson) was just the annoying little sister, the Jan Brady of the bunch. But for every Justin Timberlake, there's a Chris Kirkpatrick. For every Ricky Martin, there's thousands of slightly haggard hustlers on Santa Monica. You get the point. One can never be sure who the fickle pop gods will anoint.

For now, the Dutchess reigns. We've seen London, we've seen France, we've seen Fergie Piss her pants. She's extolled the virtues of her lovely lady lumps, and mystified us with lyrics like "How come everytime you come around/My London, London bridge, wanna go down "( Is she talking about her panties? A blowjob? Bad dental work she received in England?). It seems the musical landscape shant be free of Fergie for the foreseeable future.

Here's hoping the other girls will at least merit a cameo on your Behind the Music, Fergie. Or a Wild Orchid reunion at some point. It's an act of grace befitting a Dutchess.


Wild Orchid [site]
Kids Incorporated [wikipedia]

Fergie ;Wild Orchid ;Pop Music

The Ring-A-DIng: Gay Animals Mate, Gay Rumours About GOP Gov Candidate, Man Learns: Don't Decapitate

Ah, to humans it is the love that dare not speak it's name, but in nature it is just another call of the wild. The birds and the bees may sometimes be gay, according to the world's first museum exhibition about homosexuality among animals. With documentation of gay or lesbian behavior among giraffes, penguins, parrots, beetles, whales, and dozens of other creatures, the University of Oslo Natural History Museum concludes that human homosexuality cannot be viewed as "unnatural."

Wow, what happened at the Republican Convention. It seems someone dropped some gay juice in the pink punch. Republican are the new blacks- keeping everything on the DL. Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has been the subject of speculation for several years but on Wednesday a political opponent used National Coming Out Day to say he's known for years that Crist is gay.

If you read The Operator regularly then you know that we think Lesbians are Crazy. But we don't think they are crazy enough to want to saw their heads off. Well, not everyday atleast. There was that one lesbian boss who continually called operatorLA "skippy" and made him serve grilled cheese sandwhiches to cross dressers- we wanted to saw her head off sometimes. Seemslike some other guys think like us. A 46 year old man faces a life sentence for the murder of a woman who broke up with him after coming out as a lesbian. James Seaton was convicted Thursday of the murder of Jacqueline Queen. The jury discounted Seaton's excuse that he was suffering a mental illness. At his trial the court was told that Queen was likely still alive as Seaton began sawing off her head in a frenzied fit. Her blood soaked body was discovered wrapped in a sheet on a quiet North London street last November.

411: Keeping Up With the Joneses

So, following in the altruistic footsteps of Brangelina, Madonna is rumored to have adopted a child from Malawi. As we are celebrity-obsessed and in need of constant validation, we've contemplated the idea of adopting a needy orphan from one of the far corners of the globe. But where? There are so many options. So we look to you to help us. Listen, we don't want to get all Sally Stuthers on you, but you best vote and help us out. We have to keep up a certain status level, okay, and nothing says "I'm globally conscious" like an adopted, third world child.

*69: William S. Burroughs Redux

We enjoyed our last WSB clip we wanted to post another one. We particularly fond of the dramatic reenactment of the Dr. Benway routine, especially his hippie-looking assistant and Drag Queen nurse. We're glad Burroughs opted for a career as a writer and not as a healthcare professional.





William S. Burroughs ;You Tube

*69: The Wau Wau Sisters

In our continuing effort to spotlight indie entertainers we adore, we present you with The Wau Wau Sisters. The alcoholic, acrobatic duo of Tanya and Adrienne have shared the stage with the likes of Kiki & Herb, Le Tigre, and Murray Hill,; and performed at the Shortbus after-party during the Toronto International Film Festival (they have a cameo in the film).

The sisters blend neo-burlesque, acrobatics, and comedy into a scintillating cocktail of naughty fun. Their original songs are hilarous and their cover songs are retardedly delightful (see: "Sister Christian"). Oh, and their bodies are ridiculously fit.

Listen, we've certainly gotten ourselves into some acrobatic positions after a few cocktails, but having seen these ladies, we've come to the conclusion it's best to leave it to the professionals.


The Wau Wau Sisters [site]

Wau Wau Sisters ;Acrobats

The Ring-A-Ding: Gay Marriage Is A Boon, We Hate Cameroon, Coming Out Day Came So Soon

Well, if there is anything that could change America's perception on gay marriage it could be their pocket book. You know us Americans, anything for a buck. Giving same-sex couples marriage rights will be good for the economy, according to a new study, released Wednesday.
"The Effect of Marriage Equality and Domestic Partnership On Business and the Economy," was prepared by the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles.
The study says that gains to businesses from happier and healthier workers that would outweigh new costs for benefits. The economy would also gain from the positive effect of equality on state government budgets it says.

Can you imagine being jailed just for doing what comes naturally. Well, if you are gay and in Cameroon, it could happen to you. Luckily, though, people are waking up to this horror. International pressure is mounting on the government of Cameroon to release nearly a dozen men sentenced to prison earlier this year on charges of being gay.The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Wednesday declared that the detentions on the basis of their presumed sexual orientation constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of liberty contrary to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We think it is slightly ironic that men who are convicted of being to "close" to another man, are then jailed, where they are surrounded only by men.

Has another year come and gone already. It must be so because today is National Coming Out Day. While we see the importance of having such a day, we wish it didn't have to be an issue and really don't want to cover it too much. But some people do. As much as it pains us to say it, go over to Queerty today. They always make a big issue of being the gayest and outest and they are holding back nothing on this non-holiday.

Chit Chat: Blame Games or Drinking Games?

Amy Sedaris's progressive politics: Chong for president. [Daily Intelligencer]

Fatty McFatfuck, aka Dennis Hastert, gives a press conference on the Foley scandal in front of a graveyard. Appropos setting, if ever there was one. [Crooks and Liars]

Hands on buzzers, It's time for another round of everyone's favorite game: Blame Bill Clinton! We'll take North Korea's nuclear program for $100. [TPM]

Paris Hilton buys schwag weed. But honestly, when has she been discerning about what she puts in her body? [City Rag]

The Killers are mixing their dark liquors and their clear liquours. Take it from us, it's a bad idea. [Rock&Roll Daily]

Shirley MacLaine can drink young Hollywood under the table. [TPFM]

Call Sheet: For Your Consideration

The trailer for Christopher Guest's new movie,For Your Consideration, which lampoons the Hollywood hype machine and awards season madness.

Wouldn't it be ironic if this were the movie to finally net Guest an Oscar, or at least a nomination?





For Your Consideration -- movie trailer [You Tube]

For Your Consideration ;Christopher Guest ;Academy Awards

Photo Call: Message to Kate Bosworth

We see this waif model/ freshly exhumed corpse as Kate Bosworth's ultimate inspiration. So Kate, there's just a few more pounds to shed, sweetie. Keep it up (and don't keep anything down). We know you can do it.

See a picture of the nearly skeletal Kate here.

[Image via Dlisted]

Skinny Models ;Kate Bosworth ;Eating Disorders

The Directory: Gay LA

Wow! Los Angeles celebrated its 225th birthday on September 4th. operatorLA lives here and didn't realize we were that old, but that is probably because of all the plastic surgery. It does make it difficult to pin point an age range.

To celebrate the occassion, IN magazine has put together a listing of 225 places of gay history in Los Angeles. This list is comprehensive and incredibly informative.

Read The List Here

The Ring-A-Ding: Queers Are Everywhere, Transexuals Are To BE Feared, Get Your Foleygate Update Here

As schools, colleges and community groups across the country prepare to observe National Coming Out Day on Wednesday two new reports show encouraging signs of LGBT acceptance.
The first report is a national survey that found that seven out of ten heterosexual adults in the United States say that they know someone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. This is great news. operatorLA truly believes the only way that the GLBT communiyt is going to change our laws is by changing people's perceptions, on eperson at a time. Looks like we are doing a good job at being visible.

Girl, we thought lesbians were crazy but it looks like transexuals are the new lesbians. Tammy Felbaum, 48, is charged with terroristic threats, assault by a prisoner, aggravated harassment by a prisoner and retaliation against a prosecutor, in connection with letters she allegedly sent to Butler County Assistant District Attorney B.T. Fullerton. Felbaum, a transexual woman, is in jail in connection with the castration death of her husband and Fullerton was the prosecutor who helped put her there. We guess she really had something against balls.

Foleygate continues and it doesn't look good for the Republicans. Ot only is there a full scale investigation by the FBI now, but reports are coming out that the Republican Party received concerns about Foley as far back as 2000. Read some stories here:

Foley scandal gives Democrats reason for optimism

Kolbe warned clerk about Foley, denies confrontation

Hastert: Heads Will Roll

Congress, FBI Begin Talking To Pages

Former pages surveyed in Foley probe

Mark Foley ;Transexuals ;GLBT Community

Call Sheet: Dr. Benway

One of our favorite faggoty forefathers, William S. Burroughs, reads one of his routines introducing the infamous Dr. Benway. We love Burroughs' narcoleptic drawl and absurd sense of humor.



You can find more clips Burroughs on You Tube, including the silent film where Burroughs inexplicably purchases a parrot.

William S. Burroughs ;You Tube

Book Chat: Mother's Bilk

With the big screen adaptation of his hit memoir Running with Scissors set for release, and the recent scandals of authors James Frey and JT Leroy, it's no wonder folks would want gauge the veracity of Augusten Burroughs' memories.

Well, NPR's All Things Considered went right to the prime source, Burroughs' mother Margaret Robison. Unfortunately, she remains rather tight-lipped, not really refuting the facts nor embracing them wholeheartedly, but some interesting tidbits slip out. Like, who knew Augusten Burroughs was christened, uh, Chris?

"First of all, Chris is Chris to me. Augusten Burroughs is a fiction to me," says Robison. "I know a little bit about Augusten Burroughs. I met him in San Francisco. When Chris called me and asked me to come. And he was lost, he said. I met Augusten Burroughs there. But Augusten Burroughs and Chris are not quite the same."

She remains aloof about the book and its impact on her life, preferring to focus on her own work:
"At this point, Running with Scissors the book and the movie are a great part of Chris' life," she says. "But it's part of his life. It's not a part of my life. That book really touches me very little. It's not my focus. My focus is on my spiritual growth, and largely through poetry. And that is what my life is about. That plus, certainly to do everything I can to hold my family in love."

Burrough's himself was asked to participate in the segment, but declined through his agent.
The interview doesn't really answer any questions, but offers a sad portrait of a woman who is still more concerned with her future than her past, and fiercely proud of her son's success, despite what it may have cost her.

Augusten Burroughs' Mother Speaks Out[All Things Considered]

Further Reading:
Margaret Robison [official site]
Augusten Burroughs [official site]


Augusten Burroughs ;Running with Scissors ;All Things Considered

Wiretap: Was Cher Too Busy?

In a continuing quest to out-gay even themselves, the Pet Shop Boys have enlisted Rufus Wainwright to collaborate on their new album.

Entitled Concrete, the new release finds the Boys performing some of their best material accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra. The track listing is as follows:

CD one
"Left to my own devices"
"Rent"
"You only tell me you love me when you're drunk"
"The Sodom and Gomorrah Show"
"Casanova in Hell"
"After all"
"Friendly fire"
"Integral"

CD two
"Numb"
"It's alright"
"Luna Park"
"Nothing has been proved"
"Jealousy"
"Dreaming of the Queen"
"It's a sin"
"Indefinite leave to remain"
"West End girls"

Oh, and our favorite gay/not gay singer Robbie Williams is featured on the track "Jealousy," which may nudge this a hair past the PSB's collaboration with Liza Minnelli, Results, on the gay music-ometer.


Rufus Wainwright To Team Up With The Pet Shop Boys[ The Music Slut via NME]


Pet Shop Boys ;Rufus Wainwright ;Gay Musicians

WireTap: Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls!

ok, take a former American Idol contestant, add a movie musical based on a girl group, include heart breaking song about not being accepted and you get GAY!!!

Jennifer Hudson does a good job on her rendition of "And I am Telling You." It is hard to do this song when it is so inextricably linked to Jennifer Holiday but Hudson does it well and we bet once Bill Condon works his visual brilliance, this number will be a movie stopper.

Take a leap over to Perez Hilton's site to hear this little ditty.

The Ring-A-Ding: Gay Teacher Makes Parents Irate, Lesbians Wed Out Of State, Another Foley Update

Several parents of students at a downtown Minneapolis school are protesting a second-grade teacher's decision to tell his class he's gay as part of a discussion of diversity, without first notifying them. Notifying them? operatorLA also wonders if the children were irate when he came out? We bet that they weren't. While the teacher was trying to instruct them on tolerance and acceptance, we have found that only parents and society do a good job of teaching ignorance and bigotry.

A lesbian couple from Rhode Island who won the right to marry in Massachusetts held their ceremony Sunday. After being denied a marriage license in Massachusetts, Wendy Becker and Mary Norton challenged a 1913 state law that prohibits out-of-state residents from marrying if the union would not be permitted in their home state. In reaction to this news, wedding planners in MA have stocked up on flannel gowns, mullet barbers and have Melissa Etheridge compilation CD's. Ha-Ha, we love stereotyping, it's fun. But true. All lesbians have mullets. We promise.

Foleygate just keeps unfolding. While Republicans are trying to salvage what they can, new reports break daily on Foley's inappropriate relations with pages.

The most comprehensive coverage we have found so far is over at Towleroad. Go here to read everything.

Call Sheet: Prime Time Federline

Taking work away from those actually skilled in the craft, Kevin Federline makes his "acting" debut on an episode of CSI. Stereogum provided us with this little preview, so we can judge Federline for the talent he seems to think he is. To his credit, Kevin Federline plays a decent facsimile of Kevin Federline.



Kevin Federline on CSI [Stereogum]

Kevin Federline ;CSI ;Douchebags

411: Yet Another Reason to Hate France

We can't believe that France has proposed a ban on smoking in public places. France! The "smoke anywhere, anytime" country. Those assholes practically invented the whole disaffected, "I look so cool smoking" pose.

And yet, berets, Speedos, and hairy female armpits are still acceptable.

France, you're on notice.

France to ban smoking in public [BBC News via HuffPo]

France ;Smoking Ban ;Public Health

Call Sheet: The State of The State

In case you missed the news the entire first season of The State is available for download on iTunes, some of the original gang got back together for this brand spankin' new viral marketing campaign skit to spread the word. Shit, we've fallen into their nefarious clutches by posting this. Very clever, State, very clever.
"Just hang up on the fucker, Don."




THE STATE New Skit Posted on YouTube [ProductShopNYC]


The State ;Sketch Comedy ;iTunes