NY Mirror

Comments (0) By Michael Musto Tuesday, Mar 2 2004

Well, I went out to see a protest—the City Hall one demanding that BLOOMBERG start green-lighting gay marriage. (That's a no-brainer.) Inspiringly, some of the old ACT UP legends were there, like PETER STALEY, as well as some new kids, all chanting and holding signs like "I Deserve a Bridal Registry" (held up by a man) and "Stonewall Was 35 Years Ago. Time's Up, Straight People." Chitchat centered on LARRY KRAMER's brilliantly blistering letters to New York Times heads after they fired stringer JAY BLOTCHERbecause he was once a publicist for ACT UP. The only cynical note came from a photographer, whom I heard tell an associate, "Want to go to the MARTHA STEWART trial? That'll be better." (By the way, DICK CHENEYconsiders any talk about his daughter's lesbianism to be an invasion of privacy—and a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage isn't?)

Without protest, I attended a party for the trippy The Saddest Music in the World, where charming co-star ISABELLA ROSSELLINI told me, "I'm not religious, so I don't want to start an argument with the pope, with whom I disagree already on many things, but I never understood why gay marriage isn't accepted. They talk about 'holy marriage.' But the state doesn't do anything holy. It organizes a community!" Isabella warned me to be careful about what we wish for, though, because "it's awful when people ask you to marry them, and you just wanted to have a little fun." Please, I've got my gay flyswatter all ready.

photo: David Heischrek

"Destination: Fashion"?: A trio of women celebrate Miami-style.

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In a marriage of remarkable minds, SPENCER TUNICK is shooting a massive group of HIV survivors for the cover of Poz's 10th anniversary issue, and they'll all be in the nude, maybe so no one can snarl, "Nice shirt, sugarplum."

Finally, finding it hard to stay positive, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER was recently spotted walking around Madison Avenue with a few businessman types, saying, "You mean there's nothing around here? Not even a Starbucks?" No, but there's a lovely rest home in New Zealand.

musto@villagevoice.com