' [ My daughter Lourdes ] is really obsessed with who is gay. And she even asked, 'Mom, you know they say that you are gay?' And I'm, 'Oh, do they? Why?' And she says, 'Because you kissed Britney Spears.' And I said, 'No, it just means I kissed Britney Spears. I am the mommy pop star and she is the baby pop star. And I am kissing her to pass my energy on to her.' — Madonna to Out magazine, April issue. The kiss occurred at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.
' [ Elton John ] seems to be angry. I seem to have become a target. It's not very gentlemanly or gracious. But he did send me a letter apologizing for his last outburst, right before his wedding.' — Madonna to Out magazine, April issue.
'It is my own stupid fault, as usual. I was in possession of class C drugs which is an offense. ... The only thing I care about is that people know that I was properly tested by the police doctor on Saturday night, who stated to the officers present that I was not impaired in any way and should be allowed to drive home. In fact, the only reason I didn't drive home was that the police accidentally immobilized my car when they parked it. The duty solicitor very kindly gave me a lift home. ... I promise I won't make a record out of this one—even though it is tempting.' — Gay singer George Michael after he was arrested Feb. 26 for drug possession after being found slumped over the wheel of his Range Rover in central London. Class C drugs are marijuana, tranquilizers and some prescription pain pills.
'First of all, I want to thank two people who don't even exist. Or I should say, they do exist, because of the imagination of Annie Proulx and the artistry of Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Their names are Ennis and Jack. And they taught all of us who made Brokeback Mountain so much about not just all the gay men and women whose love is denied by society, but just as important, [ about ] the greatness of love itself.' — Ang Lee accepting the best-director Oscar for Brokeback Mountain, March 5.
'For me, Brokeback [ Mountain ] isn't rebellious at all. It's a very ordinary movie. People call it groundbreaking or what not. It puts a lot of pressure on me. But I didn't feel this way when I was making the movie. This is the way gays are. It's just that they have been distorted. When two people are in love and are scared, that's the way they are.' — Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee, who won the director Oscar for the film, speaking to Hong Kong television, March 8.
'Gays brokenhearted over 'Brokeback' loss - S.F. crowd gets quiet, some cry as 'Crash' wins Oscar' — Headline in the San Francisco Chronicle, March 6.
'Film buffs and the politically minded will be arguing this morning about whether the Best Picture Oscar to 'Crash' was really for the film's merit or just a cop-out by the Motion Picture Academy so it wouldn't have to give the prize to 'Brokeback Mountain.'' — Washington Post columnist Tom Shales, March 6.
'In the privacy of the voting booth ... people are free to act out the unspoken fears and unconscious prejudices that they would never breathe to another soul, or likely, acknowledge to themselves. And at least this year, that acting out doomed 'Brokeback Mountain.'' — Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan, March 6, after the gay cowboy film failed to win the Best Picture Oscar.
'I ... suspect that at least a few handfuls of Oscar voters backed Crash because they knew that such a vote would allow them to reject gay love yet still look their left-wing faces in the mirror this morning ... not a few of them old-time Hollywood 'liberals'—for whom the idea of crowning a movie about explicit gay love as the year's best was simply too beyond-the-pale. They were, whether they admitted it or not, distinctly uncomfortable. In a close race, those kind of ugly sentiments matter.' — Journalist Brendan Lemon at Out.com, March 6.
'We were so shocked. I mean, we're still trying to figure out if we got this.' — Crash writer/director Paul Haggis after the film beat heavily favored Brokeback Mountain for the Best Picture Oscar, as quoted by the AP, March 7.
'When I came out about my sexuality, I didn't say, 'Oh, I'm going to do this and be a big, famous lesbian that's going to talk about gay rights.' I've got to do this because I'm going crazy because I think people think that I have a boyfriend! And that makes me nuts and that's not truthful. I want to be truthful.' — Rocker Melissa Etheridge to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, March issue.
'I don't go out that often. I think I went out, met my wife, and that was the last time I had to go out.' — Rocker Melissa Etheridge to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, March issue.
'They're trying to cloak themselves in normalcy. It's not normal. The American people overwhelmingly believe it's not normal.' — Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, on the Family Pride Coalition's plan to bring hundreds of gay parents and their children to the April 17 White House Easter Egg Roll, to the Scripps Howard News Service, March 9.
'It's an event that has a great tradition and all families are welcome to attend.' — Peter Watkins, deputy press secretary to First Lady Laura Bush, on the Family Pride Coalition's plan to bring hundreds of gay parents and their children to the April 17 White House Easter Egg Roll, to the Scripps Howard News Service, March 9. Mrs. Bush is the official overseer of the roll.