LESBIAN POP CULTURE NEWS THIS WEEK

(Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, pioneers of lesbian liberation; photo by Jill Posener)

I don't usually do pop culture on this blog, unless it's got a political connection, and the love scandals of sapphic celebrities do not count as lesbian liberation news. But I've had more down-time than usual and have watched some trash TV, so guess what: I'm going to share!


Ellen Degeneres announces on her show that she and Portia di Rossi are going to get married. She got a standing ovation. I watched it, and got verklempt.



Anne Heche pleads to the divorce court that she cannot afford $15,000 monthly spousal and child support to the guy she dumped Ellen for, because her series Men In Trees got cancelled. No comment.



According to reports, actress Jodie Foster and her longtime partner Cydney Bernard have called it quits. Foster and Bernard began dating in 1993 after meeting on the set of Sommersby. The pair have been together for 14 years and have two children; 9-year-old Charlie and 6-year-old Kit.

Erica Hahn and Callie Torres kiss on Grey's Anatomy. Mostly this seems to just be appealing to the twisted het version of what lesbians are (secretly wanting to be with men). But the kiss is good, Erica has a good chance of being a REAL dyke trying to deal with Callie's lesbo panic, and Callie -- well, she felt that kiss, kids.



Oprah Winfrey recreates the office and apartments sets for the Mary Tyler Moore Show and the entire cast (minus Ted Knight, who died in 1989) reunites so Oprah can gush on about how much Mary meant to her. Well, Mary gave a LOT of us permission to stay home on Saturday nights, and a reference to her influence appears in at least one dykiest of dykes songs. Five points to anyone who can make the lyric connection. (Not you, Liza, for obvious reasons.)

When I used to do radio, I made it a habit to play Joan Jett's rendition of the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme, "Love is All Around". Here's a YouTube version with a montage of Joan and Mary pix. You can never get too much Joan Jett.