I don’t even know where to start with Christina Aguilera these days. Yesterday was a big day for her – she received (paid for) a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and she had her big premiere of Burlesque, with CHER. Sigh… okay, let’s do the Walk of Fame stuff first. Christina was drunk off her ass, judging solely from these photos. Her hair was a mess, her makeup was applied with a shovel, and she came close to flashing her cooter at the world. She’s just a f-cking mess.

Next up, the Burlesque premiere. Cher looked especially waxy, like she had just frozen herself in 1989. Christina is wearing Elie Saab, it seems, although I first thought it was Roberto Cavalli, because Elisabetta Canalis wore an almost identical dress LAST YEAR to the Venice Film Festival, only Eli’s Cavalli was more of a blue-green, and Xtina’s is just green. Almost the same cut, though. Is Elie Saab copying last year’s Cavalli? A discussion for another time – Christina looked totally jacked for the premiere too, and her cotton candy hair is just… f-cking tragic. She could be a cute girl, but I have no idea why she feels like these drag queen styles are good for her. I’m not even joking about the drag queens either – there are drag performers who wear less makeup than Christina.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Cher was on The Late Show last night (summary quotes here), and she talked extensively about Chas to David Letterman. That alone is interesting – and it does sound like Cher is really trying to be accepting and loving, but that she is still struggling. I give her points for trying, though. But the real headline came when David asked Cher to confirm or deny the list of men she had allegedly boned throughout the years. Cher admitting sleeping with… Tom Cruise, Warren Beatty, Eric Clapton and Gene Simmons! TOM CRUISE. Jesus!!!

Cher has revealed she still can’t get used to the fact that her daughter Chastity has had a sex change to become Chas – and revealed she still calls him ‘her’. Talking for the first time about the gender realignment of her only daughter, the 64-year-old star said however that her son didn’t mind. Chatting to David Letterman on his chat show last night wearing a daring see through top and leggings slashed up the sides, Cher said she and her only daughter had talked about it for years before she finally underwent the surgical procedure.

She said: ‘During the years we have talked about it and I don’t really know what made her change her mind – I still haven’t got the pre-nouns right, but she says that’s not so important – he had changed his mind, she had changed his mind and then it didn’t make very much difference. But it kept nagging and nagging and one day he said to me, I think I really have to do this.’

The double Oscar winner revealed that she didn’t always find it easy to accept that her daughter was transgender either. Cher confessed: ‘The day that we talked about it, really talked about it seriously, I said “If you have to do this you just have to do it.” I wasn’t always able to be quite as calm through the process, but that day I was so calm, and just thought, this is what has to happen.’

The singer and double Oscar winning actress said that Chas had first started to talk about being trapped in the wrong body more than a decade ago. Cher explained to Letterman: ‘She was a lesbian. She still is. But it’s not the same now. She has a beautiful girlfriend. But it’s not the same thing as being a homosexual, you feel as if you’re in the wrong body. I was saying to someone the other day, I really like being a woman, I feel so comfortable in my body, and if I woke up and I was in a man’s body, I’d think oh my god, I’ve got to get out of here. And that’s the way Chas felt, it was never comfortable. He’s very comfortable now.’

She added that such a major life change had been made even more difficult for Chas because of who his mother was.

Cher admitted: ‘A lot of people have come up to me and said Chas is very brave, because to make this decision with me as your mother, it’s difficult, because you’re in the limelight, there’s no place you’re going to hide.’

Chas, 41, her daughter with ex husband Sonny Bono, who died in a freak skiing accient in 1998, was originally named Chastity Sun Bono after the film Chastity, which was produced by her father and in which Cher made her movie debut as a bisexual woman. She underwent a surgical sex change and legally changed name and gender after a two-year process in in May this year.

David jokingly got her to confirm rumours about who she’d slept with over the years and read out a list of names of Cher’s supposed conquests. Of those he read out, she confessed to sleeping with Tom Cruise, Warren Beatty, Eric Clapton and Gene Simmons, but said it was only an ‘almost’ with Elvis Presley (‘I got nervous’) and Marlon Brando, both of whom she regretted turning down.

When David then asked her exactly how many men she’d slept with, Cher laughed: ‘We’re not talking Cleopatra numbers here. You know, the truth is, everyone was more promiscuous than me. I promise you, all my girlfriends, it was the time too. I’d been married to Sonny for so long, 11 years, so when I got out, I was excited, but I wasn’t quite with it.’

Cher also revealed that she once got mistaken for a Cher impersonator at a gay Jewish wedding.

She giggled: ‘I went to the bathroom, and I’m coming out, and this woman goes “Miss! Miss!” and she comes running after me and grabs my hand, and she was like “Can I have your card? ‘Cos you are the best that I’ve ever seen.” And I’m so dense, I’m thinking “I don’t have a card! I don’t carry cards!” Then she looks at me, and says “Oh god, I’m so sorry!” She thought I was a very good Cher impersonator.’

[From The Daily Mail]

The last part sounds like a skit out of Will & Grace. Back to Cher and Tom Cruise… I mean… I just can’t even picture it. I need so many more details. My guess is that it happened pre-Nicole Kidman… maybe even before Mimi Rodgers, wouldn’t you think? Tom must have been jailbait. Oh, this is going to keep me occupied all day.

Cher is the December cover girl for Vanity Fair. She’s promoting her role in Burlesque, which looks like an even more budget version of Showgirls, only with more pancake makeup, I think. VF released some excerpts from the interview, and it sounds like no subject was off-limits for Cher, for which I give her credit. A lot of stars of Cher’s caliber and worldwide acclaim could just phone it in and demand that a lot of subjects be off-limits (hello, Madonna), but not Cher. She discusses in detail her struggles with her daughter’s gender reassignment from Chastity to Chaz, as well as Sonny Bono, aging, fashion and why Meryl Streep is a “stupid bitch”. Here’s more:

Cher tells Vanity Fair West Coast editor Krista Smith that she can’t believe “Sonny and I still aren’t in the [Rock and Roll] Hall of Fame, and it just seems kind of rude. Sonny was a good writer, and we started something that no one else was doing. We were weird hippies before there was a name for it, when the Beatles were wearing sweet little haircuts and round-collared suits…. We influenced a generation, and it’s like: What more do you want?”

As for her daughter turned son, Chaz, Cher says, “If I woke up tomorrow in a guy’s body, I would just kick and scream and cry and f-cking rob a bank, because I cannot see myself as anything but who I am—a girl. I would not take it as well as Chaz has. I couldn’t imagine it.” While Cher remains a proud mother, she admits to Smith that she still gets confused: “She’s a very smart girl—boy! This is where I get into trouble. My pronouns are f-cked. I still don’t remember to call her ‘him.’”

Of her secret to remaining in the spotlight for the past five decades, Cher tells Smith, “I feel like a bumper car. If I hit a wall, I’m backing up and going in another direction. And I’ve hit plenty of f-cking walls in my career. But I’m not stopping. I think maybe that’s my best quality: I just don’t stop.”

Cher opens up about her feelings for Sonny, and their tumultuous marriage, saying that Sonny “told me when we were together, ‘One day you are going to leave me. You are going to go on and do great things.’ … I wouldn’t have left him if he hadn’t had such a tight grip—such a tight grip.” Cher tells Smith that Sonny treated her “more like a golden goose than like his wife…. I forgive him, I think. He hurt me in so many ways, but there was something. He was so much more than a husband—a terrible husband, but a great mentor, a great teacher…. If he had agreed to just disband Cher Enterprises and start all over again, I would have never ever left. Just split it down the middle, 50-50.”

Other highlights of the article include:

Cher on Sarah Palin and Jan Brewer:
“I got so obsessed with [C-SPAN] that it was kind of interfering with my life. Sarah Palin came on, and I thought, Oh, f-ck, this is the end. Because a dumb woman is a dumb woman.” On the subject of Arizona governor Jan Brewer, Cher says, “She was worse than Sarah Palin, if that is possible. This woman was like a deer in headlights. She’s got a handle on the services of the state, and I would not let her handle the remote control.”

Cher on her family and drugs:
“It’s weird, because both of my children had the same drug problems as their fathers—same drug of choice. My father was a heroin addict, and my sister’s father was an alcoholic. But it jumped us…. I didn’t not do drugs because of moral issues. I tried a couple of drugs, but I never felt good out of control. I have the constitution of a fruit fly. I can’t do coffee, but I can do Dr Pepper.”

Cher on aging:
“I think Meryl [Streep] is doing it great. The stupid bitch is doing it better than all of us! But I don’t like it. It’s getting in my way. I have a job to do, and it’s making my job harder…. I’ve been screaming at the top of my lungs at my family, ‘Work out! Work out! Old age is coming!’ At some point you will need the strength. Who would have ever thought you would get this old?”

Cher on parenting and whether her children are still angry with her:
“I think Chaz is pretty much finished with it, and I think Elijah has a little longer to go, but they both really love me a lot. But it’s hard… One time, when Chaz was little, we were on a field trip, and she said, ‘I’m so pissed off, Mom. You can never not be Cher—we can never just do something.’” She concludes, “So your kids pay. I did the best I could do, and yet it was definitely lacking.”

Cher on paying taxes:
“I would be willing to pay a lot more taxes, because I make a lot more money, but I don’t want to give them more to just f-ck things up more. It really should fall on people like me to get together and do things to help the people in this country. If you’re not worrying about how to put food on your table, you [should be] worrying about why other people don’t have food on their table. I remember a great America where we made everything. There was a time when the only thing you got from Japan was a really bad cheap transistor radio that some aunt gave you for Christmas.”

The December issue of Vanity Fair will be available on newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on Thursday, November 4, and nationally and on the iPad on Tuesday, November 9.

[From Vanity Fair]

I mean… at some point, Cher became the half-dressed old lady who sits on her front porch, screaming obscenities at the mailman. When did that happen? She’s still kind of fabulous though – and you can tell she’s joking about SOME of this stuff… like calling Meryl a “dumb bitch”. Just FYI, they are close friends! They’ve been tight ever since they did Silkwood back in the 80s. As for Chaz, you can tell Cher really is struggling, but that she still loves Chaz so much, and she’s willing to accept him however he comes.

Video has f-bombs and is NSFW

Roseanne Barr has released a short video on her website making fun of Cher and her transgender son, Chaz, using actors dressed up like the two and affecting their mannerisms. It’s set to look like a sitcom complete with an awful laugh track and is called “Cher and Chaz,” episode 1. The jokes are lame and the bit gets old after about a minute. I might find some of this video offensive if I could muster up the interest to care.

Intro song:
Ones in sequins, the others in jeans
One hangs with dykes, the other with queens
One munches beava, the others a diva,
Here comes Cher and Chaz

If you want to watch the video, be forewarned that it’s 3 and a half minutes of jokes that try to be obnoxious and controversial and mostly fall flat – which is pretty much an apt description of Roseanne’s career lately.

In case this video doesn’t bring her enough attention, Roseanne is continuing her verbal smack down of Jon Voight, which brought her some minor headlines last year. She writes on her blog that Voight is “attacking the leader of our country, our first elected President in eight years! I am a Jew, and I do not support Jon Voight, the whitest man on earth when he blabs on about Israel. You honky peckerwood, shut your stupid bill kristol directed mouth!” There’s more, but you can read it yourself if you’re interested. Voight voiced his support of Israel last summer so that’s not new. He was a guest on Sean Hannity’s conservative talk show on August 9, and some of his statements against the health care plan must have predictably pissed her off. Voight is staunchly conservative and Roseanne has called him out in personal attacks in the past.

Last year, Roseanne wrote “those who inhabit the media world of glamour and entertainment and fashion and gossip are horrid people who have no talent of any kind.” It takes one to know one I guess, and it’s hard to see what kind of talent is involved in mocking Cher and Chaz. The part about Cher’s gothic interior design sense is mildly funny, I guess.

We were last treated to news about Roseanne when she posed as Hitler with “burnt Jew cookies” for a photoshoot.

Chaz Bono, the once daughter of Cher and Sonny Bono, is transitioning from female to male and has chosen to go public with his decision. Gay and transgender rights advocates say that Chaz is about to become the most famous famous of the transgender community in the US. Chaz is engaged to his longterm girlfriend, Jennifer Elia, and the two are said to be planning for a baby. Chaz and Jennifer are looking for a sperm donor to help them start a family, and grandmother-in-training Cher, 63, is reportedly trying to get them to chose someone they know instead of using an anonymous donor. She’s even compiled a file of prospects. (I am trying so hard not to make a David Crosby joke, but I just couldn’t let this pass without at least mentioning him.)

Cher is looking for a baby daddy for her daughter-turned-son Chaz! That’s the latest twist in the unconventional world of the 63 year-old music legend and Chaz, formerly named Chastity. Chaz is having a sex change from female to male, and hopes to marry his female live-in lover and start a family.

The couple needs a sperm donor – and Cher is being supportive by helping them find the right man, says a family friend.

“After Chaz told his mother about getting married and planning for a baby, Cher offered to help,” a longtime family friend told The Enquirer.

Chaz intends to marry fiancee Jennifer Elia by the end of the year.

As the Enquirer has reported, 40-year-old Chaz is having stomach stapling surgery to knock off 75 pounds before the gender reassignment is completed.

Meanwhile, Cher has thrown herself into the donor screening process.

“Cher doesn’t care if the baby is a boy or a girl,” the source said. “But she’s insisting on a donor with intelligence, creativity and good looks.

“At first Chaz and Jennifer wanted an anonymous donor. They both thought it would be better not to know who the father was. But now they are open to someone they know.

“So Cher is putting together a file of prospects, and as you can imagine, they’re all handsome and brilliant. Chaz and Jen are sticking to strict criteria, but ultimately, all three of them want a healthy baby.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, August 24, 2009]

The article doesn’t outright state it, but it’s assumed that Jennifer will carry the baby. Congratulations to Chaz and Jennifer if this is true, and it sounds kind of sweet that Cher is taking over to find the right guy to be the biological father. I bet she’s hoping to plan their wedding too!

Chaz and Jennifer look so happy in photos and as JayBird once wrote, I also get the vibe that Chaz is a good person who is just trying to live authentically. By just being himself, he’s educating so many of us on what it means to be a transgender person.

Chaz is shown with Jennifer Elia at Outfest on 7/9/09. Credit: WENN.com

Cher’s daughter Chaz Bono, formerly Chastity, is transitioning from a woman to a man with the support of his longterm female partner. Cher issued a statement two weeks ago saying that while she might not understand Chaz’s decision, she will support him fully. She worded it better than I can recap, saying in part, “although I may not understand, I will strive to be understanding. The one thing that will never change is my abiding love for my child.” Cher never referred to Chaz by a gender-related pronoun in her statement, which seemed like the right way to address the situation when, as a mom, she was still trying to make sense of it.

Producers have approached Chaz about creating a reality show documenting his sex change, and he’s seriously considering it, according to the National Enquirer. Cher is trying to talk him out of it doing a reality show centered on his gender reassignment, as she values her family’s privacy. Chaz has experience with reality television and appeared on Celebrity Fit Club 3 in 2006, losing 23 pounds. He has gained the weight back, and The Enquirer also claims that he’s going to have lap band surgery to lose weight ahead of his planned wedding.

Cher is adamant about not wanting to get dragged into the crazy world of reality TV.

Now known as “Chaz,” the 40-year-old daughter of Cher and music legend Sonny Bono recently announced she [sic] was undergoing the gender reassignment. She wants to do it before marrying longtime partner Jennifer Elia.

“Talk about must-see TV!” declared the friend. “Chaz has been fielding offers from reality show producers who want to show her [sic] sex change on camera.

“After appearing on ‘Celebrity Fit Club’ a few years ago, Chaz learned the ropes of reality TV.

“But Cher was shocked that Chaz even considered documenting her life – let alone her sex change on camer. Cher treasures her privacy…

“As a gay activist, Chaz is adamant about recording her sexual identity struggles and her transition from female to male,” said her friend. “Her concern is that it be done tastefully. If she does it at all, she wants a documentary style format, and for it to be educational.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, July 13, 2009]

Cher is right – Chaz should stay far away from reality TV if the goal is to make it educational. Reality shows take on a life of their own and create drama and a story arc when it’s not necessarily there. People’s lives then start to resemble the roles they’re shoe-horned into and it’s hard to separate reality from fiction. Chaz is getting married soon – they don’t need the added stress on their relationship of a reality show.

Chaz could possibly work with documentary filmmakers who are aware and sensitive about transgender issues and create a special to air on cable. An average reality show producer will not do his story justice. HBO might be the place to air Chaz’s story. A few years ago I saw a very moving documentary on HBO about a dying transgender man called Southern Comfort. There’s also another documentary that aired in 2005 on HBO called Middlesexes that was relatively well received.

Corey Scholibo, the entertainment editor of The Advocate, told Good Morning America that Chaz’s high profile status makes him a de facto representative for his community. “I think that he is going to be the most public face of the transgender community…

For America, and for the world it will shed light on a community I don’t think they are all that familiar with and don’t really know that much about.”

Maybe a reality show could help too, but it would have to be done by people who thoroughly understand transgender issues and don’t just try and exploit the situation for ratings.

Here’s a link to a segment on Good Morning America on Chaz’s gender reassignment process. He is not interviewed but it’s a good look into why people are fascinated with this story.

Chaz is shown supposedly test driving a new Mustang on 7/1, but then he hugged the guy he was with, suggesting it was a friend, not a salesman. Credit: Coqueran/Fame Pictures

Cher has given her public support to her daughter Chastity, as Chastity makes the transition from female to male, from Chastity to Chaz. Cher gave her statement to US Weekly, saying that supports Chaz’s courage, and she also says “although I may not understand, I will strive to be understanding.” Which I think means that Cher was maybe caught off-guard with Chaz’s announcement? Or was it something Chaz had told his mother beforehand? Cher also says, “The one thing that will never change is my abiding love for my child.” Which is awesome. I hope this is the signal for a new era in understanding the transgendered, and I hope that Cher will give more public statements about how she’s dealing with this as a mother:

Cher is speaking out for the first time about daughter Chastity transitioning from female to male as Chaz Bono.

“Chaz is embarking on a difficult journey, but one that I will support,” Cher tells Usmagazine.com in a statement. “I respect the courage it takes to go through this transition in the glare of public scrutiny, and although I may not understand, I will strive to be understanding. The one thing that will never change is my abiding love for my child.”

Last week, Us reported that Bono began undergoing a sex change after turning 40 on March 4. A rep would not offer details on the procedure (gender reassignment typically involves surgery and hormone therapy).

“Chaz, after many years of consideration, has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity,” the Bono spokesperson said.

“He is proud of his decision and grateful for the support and respect that has already been shown by his loved ones,” the rep continued. “It is Chaz’s hope that his choice to transition will open the hearts and minds of the public regarding this issue, just as his ‘coming out’ did nearly 20 years ago.”

[From US Weekly]

Though some disagree, I really think that in the long run, we’ll find that we are born gay, straight, transgendered, and everything in between. It’s how we were made – and if someone feels like a man caught in a woman’s body, or vice versa, so be it. It’s like hating someone for their eye color.

In other Chaz Bono news, Radar reported a few days ago that Chaz and longtime girlfriend Jennifer Elia are engaged. According to Radar’s jewelry store source, Chaz once bought Jennifer an engagement ring – but it was a few years ago, so it may just be a nice ring, not an engagement ring. Apparently, Jennifer adores the simple solitaire diamond, and wears it all the time. They also report that Jennifer is “the light of Chaz’s life” and that Cher adores Jennifer. I know there are probably rough spots with having Cher as a mother, but in general, Cher seems like she’s a great mom to have around.

This past weekend Cher donned a see-through body suit that was nearly identical to the iconic one she wore for her “Turn Back Time” music video in 1992. And to say she looks the exact same now as she did then is almost an understatement. Of course, she’s had the help of many a surgeon’s scalpel over the years, but still… it’s sort of mind-boggling to look at the pictures. Surgery is obviously helpful in maintaining one’s youth, but Cher looks better than you’d expect anyone to, no matter how much help they’d gotten along the way.

Cher stunned audiences when she first donned her daring black cut-out body suit 17 years ago. And the singer looked equally as amazing as she took to the stage in an outfit almost identical to the lace and gem-encrusted outfit at the David Foster and Friends concert at Mandalay Bay Events Centre in Las Vegas.

The 62-year-old was all smiles as she showed off her figure in the daring number, which includes thigh-high leather boots and suspenders. She first wore a version of the costume at the age of 46 in Berlin and fans at her weekend show were delighted as she showed that it really is possible to Turn Back Time. This time around, the hair’s bigger and the leather jacket is shorter – but the question on everyone’s lips is whether it’s actually the original outfit she wore all those years

Cher has previously admitted that she has had a little help maintaining her youthful looks. She confessed to having a facelift, as well as procedures to improve her teeth and breasts, and has even described herself as a ‘plastic surgery poster girl’.

…She has said: ‘Everyone says I am terrified of getting old, but the truth is that in my job becoming old and becoming extinct are one and the same thing… And becoming obsolete and useless is completely unattractive to me.’

[From the Daily Mail]

Part of me feels like I shouldn’t be so wowed by Cher’s appearance, given her near-obsession with cosmetic surgery. But she has kept her body in great shape too – look at her legs! Again, I’m not claiming she hasn’t had help there, but obviously she must work out. She looks like she’s put on – at most – 10 pounds since her first body suit appearance. Her hips and thighs are a little bit bigger but still look good.

The Daily Mail wondered if body suit was the original – and it’s definitely not. The cut outs are different on the sides of her torso – there were two in the original, and there’s only one now. So there’s a teeny bit more coverage. No matter what, Cher looks amazing. Maybe getting to 62 and looking this good will feel like an accomplishment, and she will finally compromise a bit and allow herself to age. Or just go to the surgeon’s office half as much.

In Touch has comparison photos in this week’s issue that show just how close Britney’s Circus tour costumes are to some of the flashy outfits Cher wore on stage during her 2004 ‘farewell’ tour. The photos I’ve found here are close, not as close as In Touch’s photos are, but they’re a good approximation

Britney performed in Germany in a top hat, black leotard and boots that looked remarkably similar to one of Madonna’s outfits on her Stick and Sweet tour. Given how similar her outfits are to Cher’s tour, including an Indian-inspired number and of course a big top look, her costume designers must be getting more than just some inspiration from other artists. It’s not a blatant rip off though and there are some differences in the outfits.

Britney is doing well and hanging in there on tour. This week’s Star reports that Britney and Kevin are rekindling their romance as he joins her on tour, but that’s not likely. She’s thought to be having a secret romance with her agent, Jason Trawick, with whom she’s been linked in the past.

Normally I would dismiss this rumor as just another creative casting idea by a tabloid, but British paper The Telegraph is reporting that the actress wanted to play catwoman in the next Batman installment is Cher! The 62 year-old singer would continue the trend of darker, scarier villians and would be a menacing catwoman instead of the sexpot catwoman we’re used to:

[Cher] will join a cast that includes Johnny Depp as The Riddler as she plays the whip-carrying burglar. The character has also been played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry.

A studio executive said: “Cher is Nolan’s first choice to play Catwoman. He wants to her to portray her like a vamp in her twilight years.

“The new Catwoman will be the absolute opposite of Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry’s purring creations.”

Filming of the new Batman instalment, provisionally entitled The Caped Crusader, is due to begin in Vancouver early next year.

The Dark Knight, this summer’s blockbuster, has become the most successful of the Batman movies. Warner Bros expects the film to make about $530m.

[From Telegraph.co.uk]
Cher is a decent actress and she could pull this off well. She won a Best Actress Oscar for her 1987 film Moonstruck, and she’s shined in films like Mask and Mermaids. She’s probably not getting as many roles lately because she’s older and the parts dry up for older women. It’s a great idea to cast her as catwoman and I can see her being a very convincing villianess.

The last we heard of Cher she was romancing a guy 24 years her junior, a 38 year-old biker who climbed Everest on his second attempt. She’s said to be planning to marry him in a Vegas ceremony around the end of the year.

Cher is shown performing in her Living Proof tour on 6/26/02. Credit: Tom Walck / PR Photos