Tag: Ellen DeGeneres

  • Stars battle proposition to bar same-sex marriage in California

    Celebrities Steven Spielberg, Kate Capshaw and Brad Pitt are throwing their weight behind efforts to stop Proposition 8, the proposed amendment to again ban same-sex marriage in California.

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    California legalized same-sex marriages in May. Proposition 8 would reverse the California Supreme Court’s decision to allow same-sex marriages, allowing only marriage between a man and a woman.

    Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, said in a statement, “By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation. Such discrimination has NO place in California’s constitution, or any other.”

    Spielberg and Capshaw donated $100,000 to the Vote No on 8, Equality for All campaign, matching Pitt’s contribution last week to the political organization Californians Against Eliminating Basic Rights.

    Steven Spielberg
    Steven Spielberg

    It’s not the first time Pitt has publicized his views on marriage. In an October 2006 interview, Pitt told Esquire that he and partner Angelina Jolie weren’t planning to marry until it was legal for everyone.

    Many openly gay high-profile celebs have yet to donate such large amounts to the Vote No on 8 campaigns. IN magazine reports that Rosie O’Donnell, Elton John, and Melissa Etheridge have not yet contributed to the campaign.

    Although Ellen DeGeneres wrote on her blog of her support for gay marriage, and therefore her choice to vote no on Proposition 8, she has yet to make a significant public contribution to the cause.

    DeGeneres was one of the first high-profile celebrities to put the same-sex marriage law into practice when she married her longtime partner Portia de Rossi on August 16.

    Other high-profile same-sex weddings in the last month include George Takai to Brad Altman, and Jonathan Adler to Simon Doonan.

    Variety reports political groups supporting Proposition 8, which include Focus on the Family and Knights of Columbus, have raised $16.2 million, while “No on 8″ groups have only managed to collect $10.8 million.

  • Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi to marry (Muckety)

    When the California Supreme Court ruled yesterday in favor of same-sex marriage, Ellen DeGeneres was the first celebrity to announce that she intended to take advantage of the court’s decision.

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    DeGeneres said she and her longtime girlfriend Portia de Rossi would marry at Thursday’s taping of her talk show, which will air today.

    An emotional DeGeneres joked, “I’ll tell you who the lucky guy is soon,” after cameras panned to de Rossi, who applauded in the studio audience.

    DeGeneres has been pioneer for gays in the public eye. She made headlines in 1997 when, on her sitcom, Ellen, her character came out as a lesbian. DeGeneres came out personally, in an interview with Time magazine, the same year.

    She is one of many celebrities who spoke to The Advocate about the new ruling.

    “I can’t wait to get married,” she told the magazine. “We all deserve the same rights, and I believe that someday we’ll look back on this and not allowing gays to marry will seem as absurd as not allowing women to vote. P.S. I’m registered at Crate & Barrel.”

    Other high-profile people who have added to the commentary on the new ruling are: Marc Jacobs (”Who to love and how to love should be up to the individual or the couple. Enough said!”), Melissa Ethridge (”I feel they have made an honest woman of me”) and T.R. Knight (”Our ‘certain inalienable rights’ are protected today. It makes me proud to live in a country that works to correct its sins”).