Living Out Loud with Darian

Jennifer Hudson returned to the spotlight in a major way yesterday to sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl following months of seclusion after the death of her mother, brother and nephew. In my opinion she nailed it! Was I the only person who got a little teary-eyed? Rumors are already going around that the Academy -Award winner and four time grammy nominee lip-synched her performance...well duh! I thought it was common knowledge that because of issues with feedback in a stadium that large everyone has lip-synched over the years, including Whitney Houston. I hate to ask this, but who do you think sang it better-Whitney, Beyonce, or Jennifer?





SoBe 2009 Super Bowl Commercial Lizard Lake








Since I'm not a sports fan the highlight of The Super Bowl for me has always been the national anthem, halftime show, and the commercials. And there is one commercial that stood above all the rest for me and that was SoBe's spinoff of the famous ballet Swan Lake. Appropriately titled "Lizard Lake" with beefy football co-stars and dancing lizards this commercial had two of my favorite things, dancing and men! Oh and the drink looked interesting too.





Super Bowl Ad Featuring Gay Family Rejected by KNBC





Not everything was festive on Super Bowl Sunday. And now for a sad dose of reality for LGBT folks.


Los Angeles NBC affiliate KNBC refused to air a paid ad produced by GetToKnowUsFirst.org featuring a gay family and supporting marriage equality during Super Bowl programming. KNBC stated that it had shown the ad to the NFL legal department, which rejected it for being "advocacy", a category they claim to exclude. Despite this policy, however, other advocacy ads aired multiple times throughout the day's NFL-controlled programming.


The rejected ad featured black gay couple Michael and Xavier along with their children who reside in Los Angeles. GetToKnowUsFirst.org has also purchased ad time and plan to run the ad during The NAACP Image Awards, The Academy Awards, and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Watch the ad below.





The Game Tackles Gays In Sports








I don't usually watch this show and I was out of the country when it aired last week(thank God for DVR), but it sure has a lot of people talking. Here's a recap of what went down in the first episode via afterelton.com.


Lead character and team star Malik (Hosea Chancez) has a nasty ex (Robin Givens, playing herself) who implies in a TV interview that their marriage went sour because Malik is gay (he's not). His teammates give him some good-natured ribbing (that's where the musical number comes in) but things get complicated when, after a party with the boys, his super-sized teammate Clay (guest star Marcello Thedford) makes a pass at him.


Malik goes into full-on gay panic mode despite Clay's insistence that it was a misunderstanding, and eventually outs Clay to the team during a game. In the closing moments of the episode, Clay is benched by the coach and the team goes out onto the field to finish the game, leaving him alone in the locker room as the crowd roars outside.


Check out both episodes here and here. I'm anxious to find out your thoughts.