So, after a week of trying to get this video to upload to YouTube (it kept timing out), it has finally made it up! This is some footage of Leslie and me settling into our hotel room, running around town and rehearsing for our monologue. Then I added in some clips from a few other YouTube people who had uploaded video from that night, and some photos.

To my great and lasting heartbreak, I somehow lost my digital camera as I was returning to Los Angeles from New Orleans. On it were many photos of me with the various women in the play, including Jane Fonda, Rosario Dawson, Doris Roberts, Didi Conn, Kristina Krepela, Amber Tamblyn, Ali Larter and of course Eve Ensler. All of the photos are irreplaceable, so this loss will haunt me for some time to come. But thankfully, the most important part was that I got to experience the event, and I will never lose the memories.

The full list of stars who participated in the New Orleans “celebration” included, Oprah Winfrey, Faith Hill, Jessica Alba, Sally Field, Ali Larter, Salma Hayek, Jennifer Hudson, Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Rosario Dawson, Julia Stiles, Kerry Washington, Calpernia Addams, and musicians Common, Eve, and Charmaine Neville

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth and father of five children, said it is astonishing that Ensler and her vulgar play are being celebrated given TVM’s past and current promotion of adult predatory behavior against minors: “Imagine if an adult homosexual man were to quiz a six-year-old boy about his penis—or a straight man were to ask a little girl silly questions about her private parts - for use in a play! Would such men be praised by the media and famous personalities?”

Stop the Monologues Project Director Donna Miller, the mother of a teenage girl, said, “I find it horrifying that an author would sexualize a six-year-old girl—particularly when that same author has a record of writing favorably about adult/child sex, at least for lesbians.”

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08041402.html

This, from the Catholic Church:

• whose outright active blockage of sex and contraceptive education in Africa could be linked to the devastating spread of HIV there.
• who have historically been responsible for such loving, godly endeavors as The Crusades and The Inquisition (Wikipedia) (YouTube).
• whose own priesthood is responsible for one of the largest pedophilia and sexual abuse scandals in modern history

Tsk tsk.

Jezebel.Com’s nice mention of me at the Vagina Monologues’ 10th Anniversary Performance

The celebrities added an interesting flavor and there were some new monologues that had been introduced since the last time I did the show. After watching the touching monologue “They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy” in homage of the transgender experience, I had to Google one of the performers, Calpernia Addams, and I have found my new favorite time-killing video channel.

V Day has arrived! After my long rest from yesterday, I was ready to get going. Today was the day, so I took my script down to the lobby to get some coffee. Once again, I was duped into being gouged by the “suck the traveler dry” system I’m coming to loathe more with every day on the road… A girl behind the counter in the lobby was setting out coffee and bagel fixins, and I enquired about coffee. “It’s free, just help yourself.” The way she said it, I thought she meant both things she was setting out were free, so I got coffee and a bagel. She said nothing as I stood next to her toasting it, and I sat down, ate it, studied my script and then Leslie called so I got up to go meet her. “Ma’am, that bagel was $3.00” the girl said. Gotten again! I think I’m just going to have to ask “what does this cost?” every time I sit down to eat or touch anything, no matter what the server has said to me or even if it was free the day before. I’m really not a dummy or an easy mark when people are trying to fast talk me, but the new tactic seems to be setting up a situation that looks a certain way and just keeping quiet until I fall into the trap. Over the last three weeks, I’ve been to Ohio, London and New Orleans, and I have been gouged to the core mercilessly the whole time on every little thing possible.

But back to what this is really about… Leslie and I had until 1:15pm to do whatever, so we walked over to a little Greek place that served a good old Southern style grill breakfast (?!?) of things like fried eggs, biscuits pre-drenched in butter, hash browns, bacon and coffee. At least, that’s what I had. Then we went back and ran lines for a few hours until it got really close to 1:15pm - time to get ready.

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When I got off the plane last night, I was surprised at how hot and humid the air was, even at 10:00pm. After a short ride with my sweet driver named Kissy, I checked in to the gorgeous W Hotel, which is where all the participants are staying. Leslie Townsend and I were sharing a room, but she was out finishing up her dinner, so she met me in front of the hotel to give me company for my own meal.

This morning we got up early to prepare for our “just us” rehearsal with the stage manager and Arabelle. Downstairs, in the lobby as we waited for our car, we ran into Jane (Fonda), who was all hugs and sweetness. We met representatives such as women from Afghanistan, Columbia, Juarez Mexico and others. Then our car whisked us away to
The Superdome!

Our rehearsal went well, and the stage manager and Arabelle had lots
of good suggestions. We went over basics like where to enter the
stage, all the way up to the various emotional beats of our piece.

We took a break and met Shirley Knight on our way out. She was a sweetheart. During our break we met two lovely student volunteers from Pennsylvania, and we took a peek at the inside of the Dome, where we were confronted with a vast space filled with darkness and blue lighting. There were row after row of seats, waiting to be filled with our audience.

When we returned from the break, Rosario Dawson was in the room
waiting her turn and we finished up our rehearsal with her watching.  Nervous! But she’s as sweet as can be, and was very encouraging.

Once we’d finished rehearsal, it was still early in the day, so we met up with two of Leslie’s girlfriends and hit Bourbon Street. These
girls were WILD. One had on a purple wig, and she was letting the boys HAVE it. Men were on her like bees on honey, and she was NOT afriad to talk to them and say what she wanted. We met at a cafe, and before I knew it, I had eaten a bowl full of barbeque shrimp and slurped down a peach schnapps cocktail, and we were out the door. I picked up a Hurricane to sip as we walked (it’s so cool that you can drink on the streets in New Orleans) and we pushed our way through throngs of hot frat boys, street musicians and colorful characters as brass band jazz played everywhere. Soon my head was spinning from the sunshine and the alcohol, and by 4:00pm I was ready to go back to the hotel room with Leslie. The plan was to freshen up and then up get dinner, but I fell into a deep coma and did not wake up until 6:00am Saturday morning.

Thursday

Well, here I am at LAX again. I’m getting to be a pro at this air travel thing, but I have been irreprably spoiled by Air France. I’m on plain old Delta today, with “food for purchase”, no free booze and movie screens on the seat backs that charge $6.00 to watch the movies (plus $2.00 for headphones if you don’t have your own) or play cheapo games like “Bejeweled”. I’m surprised they don’t charge for seat belts.

On my way through the metal detector, I let a cute skinny rocker guy ahead of me because he was close to missing his flight. The x-ray man noticed my (tight, as usual) black tshirt with big white letters spelling “NIN” across the chest. “How do you pronounce it?” he asked.  “Nine Inch Nails”, I said, suppressing an amused smile. “It’s a
Klezmer band.” Rocker boy and I exchanged big smiles as we put our shoes back on. He looked back twice at me as we made our ways to our gates, but I certianly have np time for boys right now.

Of course, for those who don’t know, I’m on my way to New Orleans (by way of Cincinatti) to perform in the 10th anniversary spectacular of The Vagina Monologues at the Superdome. I am thrilled, yet a little apprehensive. All the recent traveling has left me feeling (if not looking) a little haggard. All this travel food isn’t making it easy
to maintain my size 0 figure (or was that size 10?) And I only get
two days to enjoy this experience. What if I miss something? Omg! I’m such a nervous Nelly.