Interviews
Kandi Burruss Spreads Happiness & Joy
On the season finale of The Real Housewives of Atlanta last night, Kandi Burruss revealed her new line of Bedroom Kandi sex toys at a party for fans. Here she is giving us a more up-close-and-personal demonstration. Kandi is currently expanding her empire with a network of in-home Bedroom Kandi party reps. She tells us she wants the party network to be ‘just like Tupperware, only with a different kind of plastic!’ Apply here.
Kandi Burruss: ‘The Kandi Factory’ Interview
Wednesday afternoon we caught up with Kandi Burruss, the Grammy award-winning Real Housewife of Atlanta to talk about her new Bravo show, ‘The Kandi Factory‘…
Kandi says her show, which gives two aspiring hopefuls a chance at the music business, is different from other music programs like American Idol, The Voice, and X-Factor.
‘Our show is totally different. We take you through the whole process of being an artist. It’s not even just about the artist, it’s about the whole team, and can we even accomplish this? You see us getting frustrated and agitated sometimes.’
Thousands of people applied for the chance to come to Atlanta be mentored by Kandi and her team. Bravo narrowed the applicants down to 50, and Kandi chose two from there.
‘We wanted to take two people who may not had been the best vocal talent, but really wanted it. It was hard looking at the tapes, because everybody liked someone different.’
In the end, Kandi chose Melissa, a young single mom and Matthew, a college guy who had been going through some personal difficulties with his family. ‘His story really touched our heart. I love the underdog.’
As we all know from the hit song ‘Tardy for the Party’ Kandi wrote for fellow cast member Kim Zolciak, the voice isn’t everything. Some may argue in today’s world, anything.
In fact, Kandi says there are three main ingredients necessary to cook up the perfect pop star:
‘I feel as a music industry vet, in order to make a mark when you first come out, you have to have the right image, the right song, and a good stage show. It’s one thing for people to like your song, but when they see you perform, you don’t want to crash and burn.’
Kandi wrote an original song for each person on ‘The Kandi Factory.’ The first episode is a 90-minute pilot. If it gets picked up, Kandi hopes to showcase two new aspiring performers on each episode.
‘That means I have to write two new songs every time. It’s a lot more work, but an opportunity to give a lot more people exposure to the world. A lot of people just need that chance to be seen.’
- ‘The Kandi Factory’ premieres Sunday, March 4th at 10 p.m. on Bravo following ‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta.’
Leslie Jordan: The Atlanta Interview
“I literally fell out of my mother’s
womb and landed in her high heels.“
In honor of Atlanta author Kathryn Stockett’s ‘The Help‘ being nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, we thought we’d revisit our interview with Leslie Jordan.
Jordan played Mr. Blackly, Emma Stone’s newspaper boss in the film. He’s also known for his work in ‘Will & Grace‘, ‘Sordid Lives‘, and his one-man shows ‘Like A Dog on Linoleum’ and ‘My Trip Down the Pink Carpet.’
You’re from the South, where did you grow up?
I grew up about an hour and a half above Atlanta in a little town in Chattanooga, Tennessee called Missionary Ridge. You can have it if you want it!
You lived in Atlanta for a while also, right?
Well I came out of the closet in 1973 and had to find my tribe, so I moved to Atlanta. I was always sort of out but not really… I mean I had been sneaking into gay bars since I was 16!
Tell me about ‘Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel‘ which was a real hotel in Atlanta. You wrote and starred in a film about it by the same name.
The Pershing Point Hotel was at the corner of Peachtree and West Peachtree and just filled with hookers, whores and queers! It was sort of like the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. Home to rift-raft.
I lived there for a time in the 70s when I first got to Atlanta, and was lost both literally and figuratively. I used to get so high that I couldn’t even find my own apartment!
It was right at the start of Atlanta’s growing gay scene. I remember Colony Square was being built, and Piedmont Park and Ansley Mall were becoming the places to go if you were gay.
What was it like for you being gay and growing up in the South?
Sitting on the pews of the Baptist church in Tennessee is where I really learned to hate myself. You feel so abandoned when you’re gay and raised in the church.
My spiritual adviser once said to me, ‘You’re a fag hating fag.’ I quickly realized that growing up in a devout Christian home was the cause of a lot of my problems.
I didn’t have a choice being gay – I mean I literally fell out of my mother’s womb and landed in her high heels!
Now that you’ve been sober for years, can you talk about your addiction?
It’s funny, when I was loaded I had no trouble being gay. So I stayed loaded for 30 years!
The 70s were all about disco and Quaaludes, the 80s were about cocaine and lots of money, and in the 90s everyone was dying from AIDS.
You can drink forever, but I had to quit doing drugs because I really thought I was going to die. Then all of a sudden, I was 40 years old and didn’t know how to be gay without them.
Is it true you went to jail five times?
I was very popular in the L.A. County Jail! But I don’t think for the right reasons. I’m a big talker, which is great if you’re in jail. Being able to tell stories helps a lot, especially if you’re 4′ 11″!
You played Brother Boy, a cross-dressing gay man who craved attention in Sordid Lives. Were you always so dramatic?
Oh yes. I used to pull out my pee pee in malls to get attention! My mother always said, ‘Can’t you just whisper your problems to a therapist instead of acting them out for the world to see?’
My friend Del Shores wrote Sordid Lives, which was actually four short plays that ended up all together. My part of the movie was a play called ‘The Dehomosexualization of Brother Boy.’
How is your life now?
I’m a lot happier now and am artistically saturated. I got a lot of notoriety for doing Will & Grace, but I was sort of an aging show pony.
They’d trot me out on stage, I’d do my thing, then they’d trot me back off. But in my plays I have a say in the writing and direction. They’re about my real-life journey into sobriety and queerdom.
Do you wish more characters would come out?
Yeah. You know, lesbians have their heroes in Ellen and Rosie, but gay men don’t really have any. I sort of wish a big butch athlete would come out.
What I learned from working on Will & Grace was that we can put a face on homophobia through laughter.
Despite your childhood, are you a religious person now?
Someone once said, ‘religion is for people who are afraid of going to Hell, and spirituality is for people who have been there.’ Even though I feel like I was spiritually raped as a child, I’m not a deeply spiritual person.
Are you looking forward to coming back to Atlanta?
I’m always excited to come back to Atlanta, because it’s the South and only an hour and a half from my hometown.
When ‘Like a Dog on Linoleum’ was playing in Los Angeles I would walk out on stage and know that there were about four southerners in the audience. Sometimes I felt like I was at a pony show!
I’m like Ethel Merman – I can cry out of one eye and work the stage with the other, so get ready!
June ‘Coupon Queen’: The Atlanta Interview
Tuesday afternoon we sat down with June ‘The Coupon Queen’, AKA Alana Thompson (Honey Boo Boo Child‘s) mom from the hit show ‘Toddlers & Tiaras‘ on TLC…
June shared several of her extreme couponing tips, including how to buy bulk coupons on eBay, what to do with expired coupons, and the best newspapers and stores for couponing in Georgia.
How did you get into couponing?
June: My mom’s been couponing for years and said you can save money, but I never did like the thing. There were a couple of pageant moms that was on the pageant scene doing the couponing and posting pictures on facebook. So I said OK I’ll give it a try.
So I bought a couple of papers that weekend, did my first transaction and I was hooked. It’s all about catching sales and looking at your sales papers. I know for Atlanta the best paper to get is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday. They may be a little bit more but it has some of the best coupons.
eBay is another good place if you’re looking for bulk coupons. You get them on there for like two or three dollars, it’s not bad. And there’s other clipping services, that’s pretty much what I use.
I haven’t been couponing in like a month, and as you can tell my couponing stockpile looks really sick. You wouldn’t think that because there’s like hundreds of products in here, but to me, my toilet paper’s like normally up to the wall and it’s not.
I’m actually going to go do some stuff today to stock it back up, because it looks sick. I’ve really missed couponing the past month because it’s something that I thoroughly enjoy doing, but you know I’ve been doing adventures with Alana.
How does buying coupons online work?
June: What you do is you go on eBay and type in what you’re looking for and it will pop up. Whenever you find the best deal or whatever you PayPal the money and then they send it out to you.
And if they’re from your area, a lot of times you’ll like meet up. Because there’s a lot of people online on eBay that sell out of Atlanta. Like the Woodstock, Marietta, Atlanta area.
What are some of the best stores in Georgia for couponing?
June: Dollar General, Kroger, Publix you can use a manufacturer’s coupon and a store coupon on top of one another. The same thing at Dollar General – a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon so it’s like stacking. CVS and Walgreens is the same way.
What we call stacking is you put a store coupon on top of a manufacturer’s coupon, so you max your deal out.
How do you choose which products to go after?
June: It’s really what deals are going on for that time. As you can see, if I can find the main staples – because there’s not a lot of food coupons – if I can find the staples that we need, then I can save on the other things.
What do you do with stuff that you don’t need?
Alana: We like help the community with it.
June: We help people who have been burned out, we take it to the school, they’ll call me if they like go to a house or whatever, the Sheriff’s office. It’s all about giving back.
Alana: We give it to the school, we give it to the Sheriff’s department, because we help. We help some stuff.
June: We do a lot of outreach programs besides coupons. We help at Christmas time with the kids here in Wilkinson County. We’ve actually got a fundraiser coming up in April. I know it’s a little early for Christmas, but we’ve got a couple of fundraisers coming up in April. It’s all about giving back.
Alana: It’s my birthday in April!
June: It’s not your birthday in April, your birthday’s in August.
It’s kind of a hard skill to coupon.
June: I actually taught myself. It’s not hard, I promise you. I’m almost blind, and for me to be able to coupon, it don’t take too much.
So it’s a skill that you have that you use to help others.
June: A skill, yeah. I like helping other people.
You have to be good with numbers and math though.
June: I mean it ain’t bad, sometimes I don’t make a list – most of the times I do – but sometimes I just wing it and whatever happens happens.
How much do you think you’ve saved overall?
June: I’ve been doing this since June, and I’ve probably saved close to $10,000.00, if not more.
Alana: Boom!
June: Because each of these things right here are $2, these are like $4, and they’re absolutely free. The laundry detergent…
Alana: No they’re not. Coupons don’t make it free.
What are your top 3 couponing tips?
Alana: I know!
June: Watch your sales, watch your ads, Walmart now price matches, and get the max out of your coupons and do whatever for your family. This right here provides for my family. If I don’t coupon ever again, this stash would probably last about six or seven months.
If coupons have expired, is there any way to get around that?
June: Actually it is a good thing if they have expired, you can send them to Coups for Troops. Send them overseas and they’re able to use them for like up to six months at the commissary.
You cannot do that here that I know of in the state of Georgia, but I do know that you can send them overseas and at the commissary they can use them up to six months. And a lot of people do that.
What’s the difference between this and that show Hoarders?
June: I’m an organized hoarder!
So you would say that you’re a hoarder?
June: No.
Alana: If you go on Facebook and look at the picture in there that it was all over the floor, this couponing mess – you will see she’s a hoarder.
June: People say she’s a hoarder, I would prefer them to say hey she’s an organizer. Because it is very organized, it’s all together. It’s all in the same category.
Alana: No it’s not! Look at this! Look at this Brawny! It is supposed to be in there!
June: You’re goofy.
Alana: You don’t know how to organize! Your daddy – your boyfriend has to do it.
June: OK boyfriend do it – your daddy.
Anything else you want to say about couponing?
Alana: I do! Because look at this Brawny! It’s supposed to be in there, and you don’t know how to separate, so your boyfriend has to do it
Alana do you help organize or clip coupons?
Alana: Yeah, but most of the time you don’t let me!
June: Yeah, I’ve gotten very anal when it comes to couponing and my stockpile. I can know when something’s out of place or when they’ve come and gotten something. You can’t get nothing and me not know it.
Alana: Yes you can!
- To learn more about Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo Child’, join her official Facebook fan page.
Debbie Gibson: The Atlanta Interview
‘When you’re a child star you try to be normal,
but really, you’re a freak.’
With the premiere of Celebrity Apprentice tonight, we thought we’d look back at our interview with pop, Broadway and now reality star Debbie Gibson…
In 2005, Debbie called us from the set of her Playboy photoshoot, but we couldn’t say anything at the time because it was top secret. The next day, she hopped on a plane to Atlanta to perform at the Civic Center where we got to meet her backstage.
Now Debbie’s up against Teresa Giudice, Victoria Gotti, George Takei, Clay Aiken and more on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice (dare we say this is the gayest season yet?), premiering tonight at 9 p.m. on NBC.
When did you first realize you had so many gay fans?
I started performing in gay clubs when I was 16. I’d do a teen club, a straight club and a gay club all in one night. The gay clubs always seemed to have the most receptive audiences.
I remember one time watching my mom collecting the ticket money from a huge, six-foot tall drag queen at a club in Miami and thinking, ‘I’m not in Long Island anymore!’
Why do you think gay audiences have been so receptive?
Gay fans seems to be the most loyal, they really stick with the stars and songs they love. I just performed at a club in West Hollywood the other night to a mostly gay audience, and they knew every word.
So why the name change from Debbie to Deborah?
My real name is actually Deborah. When I got my first record deal, they wanted to call me Debbie, so I went with it because I understood it from a business standpoint.
But after a while, it was strange calling myself something that wasn’t really my name, so I decided to go back to Deborah. It’s funny, because I’ve seen other stars do the same, like Joey Lawrence going back to Joseph.
Do you mind when fans still call you Debbie?
[Laughs]. No, I totally get it. I would never slap anyone for calling me Debbie.
Which do you like better, recording music or performing on Broadway?
(Gibson played Eponine in ‘Les Miserables’ on Broadway and starred in U.S. tours of ‘Grease,’ ‘Funny Girl,’ ‘Gypsy, ‘Cabaret,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘Chicago’ and ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.’)
There are pros and cons to both. To me, pop music is the ultimate freedom of personal expression. However, I can have a bad vocal night and a good vocal night, and the audience will scream just as loud. They just want the body on stage and the image.
In theater, you show up with a certain kind of dignity, knowing that not everyone can do it. It’s sort of like being an Olympic athlete: if you miss a day of training, you might hurt a vocal chord.
Of course, I love playing different roles and interpreting other people’s material. I sound very different on stage now than when I did ‘Out of the Blue.’ I’m a belty broad when I’m on stage!
What was your favorite Broadway show you’ve star in?
I love all of them, but I would say ‘Cabaret’ for a couple of reasons. The acting was something I could definitely sink my teeth into. Rob Marshall and Sam Mendez directed it, and everything about it was just amazing.
Would you say it was your most challenging role also?
‘Cabaret’ was challenging, but ‘Funny Girl’ was probably more challenging. All performers can identify with the curtain going up and having to go out there and smile and be on, even if you’re having a bad day. I loved telling that story… it was very me.
You were a judge on ‘American Juniors’ which was hosted by Ryan Seacrest during the first season of ‘American Idol.’ Was there any truth to a romance between you two?
[Laughs]. No, I was going through a really hard relationship with my boyfriend at the time, and I think the press just wanted to make a story up. ‘Star’ kept calling and wouldn’t leave us alone.
I know they probably had to make a story up for Ryan because he works so much. He’s so busy. I’ve actually never seen him outside of professional work.
Did you have flashbacks of your own career when you were judging the kids?
Oh God, yes. I tried to spend as much time with them off camera as I could. I started doing theater and commercials when I was five. When you’re a child star, you try to be normal. But really… you’re a freak. Other kids don’t understand why you have to go to work instead of to their birthday party.
So how did you stay sane? You didn’t get into trouble or spin out of control like other child stars.
You know, I’m so lucky to have grown into adulthood unscathed. I had a really good family. My sisters would be like, ‘We don’t care if you were out performing all night, it’s your turn to do the dishes.’
Also, I don’t think that was really in my nature. There was a lot of pressure for me to be edgy and cool and all of that, but I was into a very disciplined and kind of geeky mode. I made sure I was in bed on time, had my steam and steamed my throat.
I’m not sure that would be possible today with all the pressure that’s out there to be sexy.
Would you call yourself a diva today?
Well I think the world ‘diva’ is overused. If being a diva means you know how to command the stage and turn it on, then yes, I am a diva. If it means walking around with a bunch of attitude like you’re better than everyone else, then no.
I’ve shared the stage with a lot of performers. We should be able to support each other and all go out there and do our own thing.
Do you have any fond memories of Atlanta?
Oh yes, in 2000 I performed at the AIDS Walk in Piedmont Park. I sang ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone.’ That was a really special moment for me.
What project are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on something that’s a little provocative and something a lot of people wouldn’t expect me to do. I’m 34 now and comfortable with my own body, let’s put it that way.
Got any bottles of ‘Electric Youth’ perfume still lying around?
[Laughs]. I’m sure in a warehouse somewhere with all of my old tour costumes. It’s funny, because when you’re young and that stuff comes out, you don’t think about holding onto it. Now I’m seeing that people are making a fortune off of it on eBay!
- To learn more about Debbie Gibson, visit Deborah-Gibson.com or follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: The Atlanta Interview
“Bring people into your life.”
You’ve probably seen Dr. Oz on the cover of the new January issue of O Magazine, telling Oprah in an in-depth interview that “Every person has the right to look and feel like a million bucks.”
I had my own chance to interview Dr. Oz recently during his visit to Atlanta for Oprah‘s O You! conference at the Georgia World Congress Center.
(I had no idea how many women have a crush on Dr. Oz – kind of scary!)
Since the holidays were coming up, I decided to ask the host of The Dr. Oz Show for his #1 tip on how to deal with holiday stress.
(He smiled when I said working for Oprah has got to be a little bit stressful. If you watched her Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes reality show on OWN, you know what I mean!)
Here’s what Dr. Oz told me:
“Stress is a big issue for everybody, we all know that. But you have to realize it’s the energy you bring to the equation that creates most of the stress.
If you create positive energy, if the motivating force for you is love, stress rapidly diminishes.
The best way to deal with stress is community. Bring people into your life.”
From O You:
What’s the quickest legal route to joy?
Sex with someone you love. The increased life expectancy is a fringe benefit!
What makes you still?
Meditation at the end of a yoga routine.
What words do you live by?
Always show up in your own life.
What’s one thing that’s always overrated?
New Year’s Eve.
What/how did you last surprise yourself?
I just went on 15 rides with my kids at Universal Studios in Orlando without vomiting!
What’s the most daring thing you’ve done?
Swim with sharks in Bora Bora.
What’s left on your ‘To Do’ list?
Visit Australia.
What do you ask yourself most often?
‘Why am I running this maze?’
What do you know for sure?
We fear failure and that we don’t be loved. Tip the scales to toward what you want your life to be. Deciding to do something and doing it are very different things.
Daytime Emmy Award-winning host of The Dr. Oz Show and co-host of Ask Oprah’s All Stars on OWN, Dr. Mehmet Oz also currently serves as Vice-Chair and Professor of Surgery at Columbia University. He directs the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and has co-authored seven New York Times best-sellers, including the YOU book series. Dr. Oz is also a regular columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine. He is the host of a daily talk show on Sirius XM Radio’s Oprah Radio and was a featured health expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show for over five seasons, spanning 55 episodes.
- To learn more about Dr. Oz, visit DrOz.com or follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
What is your #1 tip for dealing with holiday stress?
Kandi Burruss On How to Get Very Rich, Bitch!
“You have to live for the time
you don’t even see coming yet.”
Kandi Burruss is not only a musician and reality star, she’s also a serial entrepreneur.
The single mom and star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta started out in the Atlanta-based group Xscape when she was in high school.
But unlike other young artists who later went broke, Kandi now runs four successful businesses. She’s a Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and music producer but also owns a clothing store (TAGS Boutique) in Smyrna, a sex toy line (Bedroom Kandi) and a game app (Kandi Koated Spades).
I recently caught up with Kandi to find out how she became one of the only (actually) very rich Housewives of Atlanta…
“When I was in high school, my mom always told me, ‘Good credit better than money.’ A lot of my friends didn’t learn that lesson. It doesn’t matter if you’re making a lot of money if you don’t have good credit.”
“I have always been a firm believer in living below your means. The first car I eve rhad was a BMW 325i that I bought, but I had been out on tour selling millions of albums before I every bought that car. I was still driving the old car that my momma had given me in high school, even though I had an album and hit songs on the radio. I waited until I had $100,000 in the bank before I went out and bought my little $30,000 car. I didn’t want to go out and buy the biggest Benz just to impress other people.”
You don’t want to put on for other people
so much that you become broke in the process.”
“I didn’t want to go spend spend spend to put on an image for everyone else. I don’t think it’s important for to go, ‘I got millions of dollars. I want everybody to see it by spending way more than I’ve got. If I’ve got a million dollars but I’m two million dollars in debt, I’m still not a millionaire.”
“You have to live for the time you don’t even see coming yet. A lot of people are living for today. Just because you’re making a lot of money today, doesn’t mean you’re gonna be making a lot of money 20 years from now or 10 years from now. Unless you set yourself up in a way to where you will be able to make money off the money that you have.”
LL Cool J once told me, ‘always have
a house and a car that you own.”
“LL Cool J once told me, ‘always have a house and a car that you own.’ So every time you get a check, throw a little money to the principle so you can pay off your house. So that’s what I did, and those were words for me to live buy. Every time I got a check, instead of balling out to impress people, I paid more toward my house. I paid toward things that accumulate in value.”
“Take care of your credit and pay your bills on time. You don’t ever want to be one of those people who is putting on for other people so much, that you go broke in the process.”
Who is your favorite Real Housewife of Atlanta?
Dwight Eubanks: The Atlanta Interview
“When you know better, you do better.”
Wednesday night I caught up with Dwight Eubanks, owner of the Purple Door Salon on Edgewood Avenue and former star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Eubanks was at Grady High School for CNN Dialogues: LGBT. “I thought it was very informative, and I’m very pleased that I came out,” he said.
On Midtown’s LGBT community:
“We need support for these types of things [CNN Dialogues], not just in our community, but in all communities for us to move forward. We have to have dialogue and conversation because we are so segregated. We’re still very divided. We have a lot of work to do.”
On gay bullying and homeless youth in Georgia:
“Bullying happens at home, in our community and at school. We have alarming numbers of gay homeless youth here in Georgia, and it happens at age 13. How do we have such a large gay population and no outreach center in Georgia? Hopefully we will see some changes very soon to address those issues.”
On coming out:
“For the black community, coming out is hard. It is very different for black Americans to be out because we are not comfortable with our sexuality. We don’t want to talk about it in church, in school, and we most definitely don’t talk about it at home. We learn about our sexuality out on the street.”
On HIV & AIDS:
“A new generation of parents have to become comfortable with sexuality and talking about it. We would not have the problems of HIV and AIDS in our community if we talked about it. We act like it doesn’t exist.”
On The Real Housewives of Atlanta:
“I do not miss being on that show particularly,” Eubanks said when I asked if he missed being on The Real Housewives of Atlanta (he was phased out last season).
“I did not watch it last year but I do hear a lot of comments about it. It was fun and footsteps in the direction I was going in. I’m still great friends with them and love them all, but I feel that when you know better, you do better.”
“Being on television was great, it had its advantages and disadvantages, but it’s not over yet. There’s a whole lot behind this door that America has not seen. It seems as though reality TV isn’t going anywhere, but let’s have some substance.”
Do you miss Dwight on The Real Housewives of Atlanta?
Johnny Weir: The Atlanta Interview
“I can’t even count how many
men in heels I’ve seen down here.”
Last night I caught up with Johnny Weir at Grady High School for the CNN Dialogues: LGBT forum.
Weir, who is usually much more flamboyant, chose to wear an all black suit instead of his usual attire.
“I wanted to be very serious and downplayed, because I’m in quite a mixture of people and I’m the weird, crazy one on the end. I wanted to blend in for fashion,” he told me.
“This is my serious look. I’m in a high school, so I can’t come with my feathers and nipple tassels and all that. But I have seen so many men in high heels down here, I can’t even count – especially from The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”
It’s funny he said that, because a few minutes into the forum, Purple Door Salon owner and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Dwight Eubanks walked in and sat down right next to me (I’ll post my interview with him soon).
“I’ve been very much attacked for being gay
by the media outlets of the world.”
Weir said he would talk about whatever the group wanted to discuss, because “I’ve been there. I’ve been through it all. I’ve been very much attacked publicly for being gay by the media outlets of the world.”
“If me being here can shed some light on issues that I’ve had and that people around the world have had, then I have to be here to talk about it.”
Weir also told me he loves the southern charm and culture of Atlanta. But that’s not the only reason. Weir recently got engaged to an Atlanta man – Roswell High School and Emory University graduate Victor Voronov.
“I have an appearance in Greenville, South Carolina tomorrow,” Weir said. “Then I’m coming back to Atlanta to meet the in-laws!”
Peter Walsh: The Atlanta Interview
“Christmas is the time to get rid of those
people who are dragging you down.”
I recently got to interview Peter Walsh, host of Extreme Clutter on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.
Peter was in town for O Magazine’s annual summit, O You!, along with the rest of team Oprah… Nate Berkus, Suze Orman, Dr. Oz, Lisa Ling, Bob Greene, and more.
I asked Peter for his #1 tip on staying organized during the holidays, which was ‘Make a list.’
I was surprised that he said to not only make a list of the people you want to come to your holiday party, the things you need to do, and the things you need to cook, but also the people you want out of your life for good.
‘If you’re going to de-clutter, Christmas is the time to get rid of those people who are dragging you down,’ he says.
I also asked him about the show Hoarders and IKEA who sponsored Peter’s trip to Atlanta (he hosted a cocktail party at IKEA’s Midtown location the night before).
‘IKEA has beautiful stuff, elegant design, and a fair price which is a home run,’ he says.
![Oprah Winfrey Gives Words of Wisdom to 2012 Spelman Graduates… [PHOTOS]](http://atlantaboy.com/wp-content/plugins/special-recent-posts/lib/phpimage.php?width=100&height=100&rotation=no&file=L2hvbWUvY29udGVudC83Mi84MzI5NzcyL2h0bWwvd3AtY29udGVudC91cGxvYWRzL2FmMTVPcHJhaC1XaW5mcmV5LVNwZWxtYW4tQ29tbWVuY2VtZW50LTIwMTItU0ZUQS0xLmpwZw==)
![Hot or Not? Usher Raymond’s Baby Blue Billboard Awards Suit + “Scream” Performance…[PHOTOS + VIDEO]](http://atlantaboy.com/wp-content/plugins/special-recent-posts/lib/phpimage.php?width=100&height=100&rotation=no&file=L2hvbWUvY29udGVudC83Mi84MzI5NzcyL2h0bWwvd3AtY29udGVudC91cGxvYWRzLzAxNGFVc2hlci1CQk1BLTEyLTIuanBn)
![Boo’d Up ~ Monica & Shannon Brown Hit Red Carpet of 2012 Billboard Music Awards [PHOTOS]](http://atlantaboy.com/wp-content/plugins/special-recent-posts/lib/phpimage.php?width=100&height=100&rotation=no&file=L2hvbWUvY29udGVudC83Mi84MzI5NzcyL2h0bWwvd3AtY29udGVudC91cGxvYWRzLzNkOGVhbm5vbi1Ccm93bi1CaWxsYm9hcmQtTXVzaWMtQXdhcmRzLTIwMTItU0ZUQS04LmpwZw==)
