For years, the GLAAD Media Awards was a constant thorn in our side, as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation routinely ignored the gay film industry and gay media in an attempt to stuff their awards ceremonies with A-List (read: whoever will show up) actors. Fortunately, President Neil Giuliano got the message and the group has done a better job expanding its definition of inclusiveness, to include gay and lesbian filmmakers, actors and reporters.
That, coupled with an increasing presence of gays and lesbians in mainstream media, have made the GLAAD Awards fun at last. The winners will be announced this spring in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, but in the meantime, we tell you who we thinks should win in the categories that you actually care about– our apologies to to "Best Electronic Advertising" nominees.
OUTSTANDING FILM – WIDE RELEASE
The Nominees: Brideshead Revisited , Milk , Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, RocknRolla , Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Who Should Win: While we enjoyed Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona far more as apiece of cinema and as a provocative, thought provoking film, you can't deny the unrelenting power of Milk. It's a weaker film, but it's impact is obviously huge.
Who Will Win: Drink Milk!
OUTSTANDING FILM – LIMITED RELEASE
The Nominees: The Edge of Heaven, Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom, Save Me, Shelter, XXY
Who Should Win: This one's a toughie. Save Me and Shelter are both excellent films– we particularly love Jusith Light's performance in Save Me, but XXY, the Argentinian film that deftly explored the life of a 15-year-old intersexed person is the one that should win. It's beautifully shot and at turns, both heart-breaking and defiant.
Who Will Win: Shelter, Jonah Markowitz's surfer boy love story, was an unexpected sleeper hit that also garnered critical raves. It's a more accessible film than XXY, so expect it to win.
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
The Nominees: Brothers & Sisters, The L Word, South of Nowhere, Torchwood, True Blood.
Who Should Win: If we're judging solely on quality, ABC's drama Brothers & Sisters deserves the win. This year we saw Scotty & Kevin get married, brother Saul come out and the show consistently depicts contemporary gay life in a way that's refreshingly honest and realistic.
Who Will Win: Awards tend to go to the hot young thing or to the show on the way out the door, so our guess is that it's a toss-up between vampire bayou mystery True Blood or the departing South of Nowhere.
OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
The Nominees: Desperate Housewives, Greek, Reaper, Skins, Ugly Betty.
Who Should Win: We have no idea why the awful, just awful Reaper is on this list and while Skins and Greek are both charming, this category looks to be dominated by Betty Suarez and company for the forseeable future. The show, in all its candy-coated glory is, to put it mildly, the most fabulous thing on television.
Who Will Win: Ugly Betty.
OUTSTANDING REALITY PROGRAM
The Nominees: America's Next Top Model, I Want to Work for Diddy, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, Shirts & Skins, TransAmerican Love Story
Who Should Win: Look, if we're gonna give an award to shitty reality tv shows, the one that ought to win isn't even on this list. It's the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, which is one part-Morning Goods mixed with one-part Janice. There are soooo many naked, hot guys on the show that it's almost porn and this season featured openly gay deaf-model Martin Richie, who managed to maintain some dignity despite (because of?) being forced by Janie to dress up as a lady, along with all the other guys in the house.
Who Will Win: GLAAD, like every other gay in the universe (except us, which we'll go into some other time), has a hard on for Kathy Griffin that won't quit, so expect Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List to win.
OUTSTANDING DAILY DRAMA
The Nominees: All My Children, As the World Turns.
Who Should Win: Seriously? Unless you've been living under a rock the past year, you know that As The World Turns has been all about gay romance, with boyfriends Luke & Noah being the first openly gay dudes on daytime to make out and just recently, after a long courtship, they finally got in bed to do the nasty. Poor AMC, you don't stand a chance.
Who Will Win: See above.
OUTSTANDING MAGAZINE OVERALL COVERAGE
The Nominees: The Advocate, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, People.
Who Should Win: None of these bozos (The Chronicle of Higher Education excepted). When we look for great gay magazine coverage our first stops are usually The Atlantic, which regularly does in-depth gay features and The Economist, which does an admirable job of distilling a lot of global gay policies down to their core realities. People is the magazine that does the world's most annoying "Yup, I'm Gay" stories and Entertainment Weekly and Newsweek are as irrelevant to gays and lesbians as they are to everyone else.
Who Will Win: You know. Don't make us say it.
OUTSTANDING MUSIC ARTIST
The Nominees: Jay Brannan, Hercules & Love Affair, k.d. lang, The Magnetic Fields, Sam Sparro
Who Should Win: Jay Brannan's cute and all, but Hercules & Love Affair is the best chance Anthony Hegarty (of Antony and the Johnsons) has had yet to cross over into the mainstream. Hegarty is a singular, once-in-a-generation talent that deserves all the accolades he can get and if it takes setting his iconic voice to disco to do it, we're all for it.
Who Will Win: Sam Sparro's been nominated for a Grammy and so, we expect he'll win on name recognition alone.
OUTSTANDING COMIC BOOK
The Nominees: The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames, Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Drew Goddard, Jeph Loeb and Joss Whedon, Final Crisis: Revelations by Greg Rucka, Secret Six by Gail Simone, Young Avengers Presents by Ed Brubaker, Brian Reed, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Paul Cornell, Kevin Grevioux and Matt Fraction
Who Should Win: Considering that we named Jonathan Ames' The Alcoholic our number one book of the year, it should be no surprise we think it should win this category hands-down. An honest and heartfelt look at addiction, friendship and maturity, Ames graphic novel is required reading.
Who Will Win: Our money really is on The Alcoholic, but if there's a contender in the list, it's Buffy, who has name recognition and magic powers on its side.
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People deserves the win in the magazine category not for journalistic quality but for treating Ellen & Portia's wedding just as it would any other celebrity union. That's really the point of GLAAD in the end? It's not really about quality so much as equality, inclusion and visibility.
Plus the pics were pretty adorable.
You pick Sam Sparro for his name recognition in a category that includes k.d. lang? I'd guess her name recognition is about 15 times as high as Sam's. If name recognition wins this category it won't be the deserving Sam Sparro. Heck I can't win an eBay auction for his CD now. Got no shot at all if he wins.
i'll believe it when I see it. The way to NOT win this award has ALWAYS been to actually BE gay. They won't change, these hollywood gays are so ashamed of themselves that I really do not hold out much hope for awards ceremonies like these.
You're missing my favorite category, for shows that aren't gay but have a "very special episode". The nominees are:
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL EPISODE (in a series without a regular LGBT character)
"Ghostfacers" Supernatural (The CW)
"My Maharishi is Bigger than Your Maharishi" Life on Mars (ABC)
"Slam" Ghost Whisperer (CBS)
"Tandem Repeats" ER (NBC)
"Unidentified Funk" The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS)
Who should win: Ghostfacers was not only an amazing episode of a severely under-appreciated show, but the way they mixed humour (“Ed, you have to go be gay for that poor dead internâ€) with sincerity was a revelation.
Who will win: Old Christine, because Wanda Sykes came out.
We were so hoping that the poor economy would smother this happy-to-be impotent group of self-deluded fools to death, but, alas, I guess the Antigay Industry-supporting COORS peeps are still underwriting them.
I saw the nominees, and I was intrigued by the inclusion of RocknRolla. So I rented it last night. Wow. Who could have thought that Mr. Guy Ritchie could make such a gay friendly AND homoerotic action film. I'm still for Milk as the best of the year, but ………
Reaper's on it not only because it's a really smart show, but also because they did a very good subplot with two gay demons, Steve and Tony. Their relationship was not only portrayed as very loving and realistic, but also highlighted the couples loyalty to each other, and that their lifestyle choices *aren't* against His Will.
where is the nomination for the marvelous misadventures of flapjack? that is the single most gay show on television!
But what with Ads? For me the Jawbone was excellent :)
I was surprised that the Washington Blade, the paper of record for our community here in DC and beyond did not receive anything. Totally sucks!