75 percent of the Golden Girls - Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Betty White - got together for a rare public appearance at the TV Land Awards in Santa Monica yesterday.
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Before there was Joey Lawrence, there was Bea Arthur.

Dan Mathews isn’t your typical activist.

This fun loving rabble-rouser regularly humiliates himself for his cause, gets arrested and finds himself under fire from flying beef. No, he isn’t a gay activist - well, he is gay and an activist, but Mr. Mathews spends much of his rabble-rousing energies fighting for furry friends. Yes, that’s right, Mathews works for PETA.

Say what you will about the vegetable loving organization, but you can’t deny that they’re effective, making headlines and grabbing ink left, right and center.

The model turned activists’ memoir, Committed, just came out in paperback, so our meat loving editor took some time to pick Mathews’ brain on the evolution of his work, what makes his organization so effective, how to use “impure” allies and what gay organizations can learn from PETA’s sensational ways.

Read all about it, after the jump.

[Image by Todd Oldham]
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Twenty-eight lucky - and aged - lavenders can now move into Europe’s first gay retirement home: The newly built, four-storey nursing facility in the German capital could accommodate 28 patients in state-of-the-art rooms with private bathrooms and enough space for some of their own furnishings, said Christian Hamm, an architect and nursing home board member.

“When you’re old … you certainly don’t want to give up your identity and live in some hostile environment, possibly sharing a room with someone who despises you.” But can you imagine living with 27 old queens? Sheesh!

We may dig dick, but we find a certain eerie comfort in old women’s titties. No doubt, then, we’re tickled a pervy shade of pink over Chris Zimmerman’s forthcoming “Golden Girls Gone Wild” exhibit.

Our cousin Jossip describes the Frontiers-sponsored Los Angeles show, which features a breast bearing Bea Arthur, thus: Bea Arthur, like you’ve never seen her before, and never, ever want to see her again. Obviously they don’t know us at all.

Homo Jack E. Jett, meanwhile, sent us an email this morning which read, “My buddy Lenora has purchased some artwork that in my opinion is priceless.”

Who knew Bea Arthur and her 85-year old breasts could feed so many contradictions??

It’s now officially Rock Hudson week here at Queerty. It all started with Monday’s report on J. Edgar Hoover’s reports on the then-reportedly gay Rock Hudson. It gained more momentum yesterday with the Hudson video remix. In response to that video, a reader sent us this: Hudson and Bea Arthur singing “Turnin’ On” from the play, I Love My Wife. It’s about taking drugs. We know what you’re thinking: a video of Hudson and Arthur wailing about drugs? What could be better? The drugs themselves, of course.

“I don’t want to bore the audience. I don’t want to leave them as I was with a certain one-woman show in New York recently, saying, ‘When the f#ck is this going to end?’”–Joan Collins

80’s mega-bitch Joan Collins is embarking on a 25-date British theatre tour with her one-woman show, “An Evening With Joan Collins.” The show–part theater, part autobiography–will tell the tale of Collins’ life and career, through stories, song, photographs and clips of film. Collins only worries that, since her career is “so sprawling and multi-faceted,” the show might be too long.
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Your really must run out right now and get the Comedy Central Roast of Pamela Anderson Uncensored! We’d missed it when it originally aired, but since its release on DVD we’ve been unable to pull ourselves away from the television.

Bea Arthur reads from Anderson’s book Star Struck and deadpans a passage on anal sex. Courtney Love is a glorious mess, slurring words and falling down. Lady Bunny, repeated jokes about Andy Dick’s sexuality and Tommy Lee’s pecker size round out what may be the funniest 80 minutes ever captured on a DVD.

It’s great to see celebrities not taking themselves too seriously, dishing like real people, and being funny, not contrived. … Continued…

You know we love The Straights as we illustrated in yesterday’s So Gay! list. You know whom we love more than straights? Drag queens and transgender folks. And they were everywhere this year. The top five moments in drag and trannies from 2005 is below.

5. Heatherette/Zaldy. Drag chic was all the rage in 2005 thanks to Richie Rich, Traver Raines, and Zaldy. Zaldy, a onetime runway model in drag, helped Gwen Stefani launch the LAMB line at Fashion Week. Heatherette and tranny-muse Amanda Lepore, brought club-kid fashion to the pages of People and the local Nordstrom making it OK to show your inner freak in the Midwest.

4. RuPaul. Thanks to Jonno, RuPaul started blogging way before blogging was cool. This year Ru continued that project but also got her hands in the dirty porn business, directing for Michael Lucas. But it was her doll line that really caught our eye. Finally, a doll for little gay boys! Perfect for teaching Barbie how to walk the runway.

3. Paris is Burning. More than a decade and a half since its theatrical release Jennie Livingston’s classic film finally saw the light of day on DVD in 2005. Giving a face to the Harlem ball scene of the 1980s, the film has kept its power intact. Heartbreaking and empowering, it remains a must see for any gay person, fabulous or not.

2. Transamerica. Desperate Housewife Felicity Huffman plays a transsexual and receives a Golden Globe nod. The gays are all hailing Brokeback Mountain as the must-see gay film of the year. However, this little film deserves just as much attention. And Oscar may just take notice.

Our #1 drag queen of 2005 after the break!
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To coincide with the launch of the Bid 2 Beat AIDS auction Bradford Shellhammer chatted with Chip Duckett, legendary NYC party promoter and the man behind the auction.

Chip, how did you get involved with LIFEbeat and who came up with the Bid2Beat auction?

I’ve worked with LIFEbeat for over eleven years, and we’ve done many benefits together, from after-concert parties to dance nights, so we know each other very well. And I’m an admitted eBay addict, so it just seemed natural — and happily, LIFEbeat agreed. This will be the ultimate celebrity tag sale!

Can you explain to our readers what LIFEbeat is all about?

LIFEbeat was founded in 1992 when Bob Caviano, Grace Jones’ manager, wrote an editorial in Billboard disclosing the fact that he had AIDS and challenging the industry to mobilize. The response was terrific, and LIFEbeat was born. Over the years LIFEbeat has raised millions of dollars, which has gone to help small AIDS organizations nationwide, among other projects. Most importantly, it uses the power of music to reach young people. One of the coolest things LIFEbeat does is distributing HIV/AIDS information packages and condoms to hundreds of thousands of kids at concerts and clubs nationwide. Think about it — many young people don’t have access to this at school, and would be intimidated around their parents. At concerts, they are free to get this info!

What are you expecting to get the biggest bid in the auction?

That’s hard to say — there’s a 2006 Vespa LX-50 sitting in the lobby of Sirius Satellite Radio, signed by Kanye West, Gloria Estefan, Garth Brooks, and about 50 other stars. But some wealthy, drunk drag queens may just battle it out for J. Lo’s signed jogging suit or Beyonce’s signed jeans and top that Vespa! (That means YOU, Dina Martina and Jackie Beat!)

Info on gay icons Lindsay Lohan, Madonna, and Bea Arthur after the jump.
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• Oh good. Trent is NOT crazy. Wonder if he knows if Madonna’s playing the Roxy?

• Bea Arthur is doing a benefit for the Ali Forney Center. We are so going.

• The University of Utah held a Queer Spelling Bee, where “Queertestants” had to spell words like debonair, fag hag, and DeGeneres.

• Michael Jackson is going back to court. This time as a jurist. He may be picked if the lawyers are looking to fill the jury with middle-aged white women.

• Looks like Musto is hitting all the gay blogs. We thought we were special.