By Songirl Sez, Special for Diversity News

Legendary comedienne Lily Tomlin appeared with some of today’s hottest leading comedy acts on Saturday, August 7, 2010 in Beverly Hills, CA at the Lavinthal estate for a fundraiser held by Voice For The Animals to raise funds for Billy the elephant, who has been in solitary confinement at the L.A. zoo for over 20 years.

Held on the sprawling estate grounds, the event went from 5-9pm and was emce’d by Bruce Vilanch, who introduced an all star line consisting of fellow comedians Orny Adams, Elayne Boosler and Rick Overton. A special speech of support by Los Angeles City councilman Tony Cardenas, before Lily graced the stage at the mansion. Tax deductible tickets ranged from $100-$350 and included cocktails and fine vegan food. An auction continued after the show while desert was served.

Celebrity supporters for the evening (although some unable to attend) included James Cromwell, Kevin Nealon, Bernie Williams, Georja Umano, Mariana Tosca, Fawn and Ashley Bell. There were a host of well known animal advocates present including Patty Shanker, Ed Boks, Bill Dyer, Robin Torme’, Bryan Monell, Daphne Dimitriadi, Linda Grey Heitz, Marjorie Hirsch Loeb, Sandra Mohr and Kat Kramer.


“Lily and all of our guests understand the significance of the lawsuit, not only to save Billy from what inevitably will be an early death, but to send an even louder message,” said Melya Kaplan, founder and executive director of VFTA. She added “These magnificent, sensitive and loving creatures belong in the wild and if they’ve already been brought here, then they belong in wide-open sanctuaries designed to meet their physical and emotional needs.”

VFTA’s lawsuit originated in 2007 and was filed on behalf of two plaintiffs including the late actor Robert Culp. The suit charges the Los Angeles zoo with cruel and unusual punishment of elephants (there have been 14 elephant deaths in the zoo’s history, two in the past four years) and seeks to shut down the $42 million planned elephant exhibit the city council approved in January of 2009. It was the second time the council voted in approval of the exhibit in light of sufficient evidence that proves the care captive elephants receive constitutes civil and criminal abuse under California law. After a series of motions and appeals, the Court of Appeals finally ruled the case could go to trial.

 ”It would be a much nicer educational process for children to visit animals in sanctuaries and see how animals thrive in their wild habitat, rather than living in a zoo where animals don’t live, the actually die.” said Tracy and Robin Torme party guests.

Kaplan concluded “Lily has been instrumental from the start in helping us bring this issue to light. She loves elephants and wants Billy to go to a place where he can roam free on many acres with other elephants-our lawsuit against the Los Angeles zoo is scheduled to go to trial November 2nd.”

About Billy the elephant and why so many people gathered to help him:
Billy was born in 1985 and has been in solitary confinement since 1989 at the L.A. zoo. He was caught in the wild and forcibly taken from his native home of Malaysia, as part of a trade between the L.A. Zoo and the Malaysian Game Department. Billy lives on approximately one-quarter acre at L.A. Zoo. In the wild, elephants can walk 30 miles in a day. There are roughly 640 acres in one mile.

With no other elephants near him, Billy lives an unnatural, solitary life at the Zoo. While male elephants are often kept separate from other elephants in zoos, in the wild males can display social connections, residing in bachelor herds or frequenting areas with female elephants, sometimes moving from family to family. In India, younger bulls join with older bulls to crop raid.

For many years Billy has displayed stereotypic behavior in the form of repetitive head bobbing that goes on for extended periods of time. Stereotypic behavior is often viewed as an indicator of poor welfare, caused by factors such as restriction of movement, size of enclosure, social isolation, and lack of complexity in the physical environment. Billy has experienced all of these factors at the L.A. Zoo. In fact, Billy was routinely chained each night, likely from the time of his arrival at L.A. Zoo in 1989 until 1994, for approximately 12 to 14 hours each night. It was during this period that a keeper reportedly physically abused Billy by using electric shock on him.

Experts state that stereotypic behavior can lead to foot problems such as nail cracks (which Billy already has), and abscesses and abrasions to the sole of the foot. Foot-related problems are one of the leading causes of euthanasia in captive elephants in the United States.

If you would like more information on Billy or A Voice For Animals, please visit http://vftafoundation.org/ or http://www.helpbilly.org/

“Oy Vey, My Son Is Gay” is the story of the Hirsch’s, a Jewish family living in the North Shore of Long Island, where every Friday night Shirley Hirsch (Lainie Kazan) invites another “perfect” girl for Shabbat dinner in hopes that her son, Nelson (John Lloyd Young), will marry a nice Jewish girl. When Shirley and Martin (Saul Rubinek) once again set him up on a date, Nelson reveals that he is already seeing someone. Shirley and Martin are thrilled and can’t wait to meet the lucky lady.

In a motherly attempt at finding out who her son is dating, Shirley stops by Nelson’s apartment. She is greeted by Angelo Ferraro (Jai Rodriguez), Nelson’s live-in boyfriend, and in order to not divulge Nelson’s secret life, Angelo introduces himself as his decorator. Shirley also meets the gorgeous Sybil (Carmen Electra), Nelson’s neighbor and Playpen magazine centerfold. Shirley believes that Sybil is Nelson’s mysterious girlfriend. She is concerned that Sybil isn’t Jewish but resigns to the fact that if her son is happy, that’s all that matters and she can’t wait for the rest of the family to meet Sybil at an upcoming wedding.

Nelson attempts to tell his mother that he is gay, but Shirley is too busy with her own life to listen to her son. After a long and emotional argument between Nelson and Angelo, Nelson agrees to take Angelo to his cousin’s wedding, instead of Sybil. Halfway through the ceremony Nelson finally breaks the news to his parents that he’s gay. At first, Shirley and Martin are confused and distraught, but when the reality starts to set in they begin to blame one another for Nelsons sexuality.

As Shirley and Martin struggle to accept this, they meet with a psychiatrist, talk with local members of the gay community, Martin goes to a gay bar in an attempt at understanding his son and he even goes as far as to try to get Sybil to sleep with Nelson to make him straight. As a last resort, Shirley and Martin have dinner with Angelos parents, Teresa and Carmine Ferraro (Vincent Pastore), in order to understand their sons lifestyles. Shirley and Teresa have sympathy for one another, unlike Martin and Carmine, who accuse each others son at being the cause of their own sons homosexuality.

Both families continue to try to hide the fact their sons are gay from their friends and co-workers, but when Nelson and Angelo decide to adopt a baby and it makes headline news, the two families must unite to defend their son’s cause. In an emotional confrontation, the families stand up and fight for their gay sons right against opposition. In an emotional victory for the two families and the country, the Hirsch’s and the Ferraro’s not only accept the fact their sons are gay but realize how much they love them.

Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!! is a romantic comedy about how far we come and yet how far we still have to go.

Release Date: November 06, 2009
Studio: NEW GENERATION FILMS

Directors: Evgeny Afineevsky, Svetlana Anufrieva, Igor Zektser and Rich Cowan

Starring: Golden Globe, Emmy and Tony Award nominee Lainie Kazan, Saul Rubinek, Carmen Electra, Vincent Pastore, Tony Award winner John Lloyd Young, Emmy Award winner Jai Rodriguez, and Emmy Award winner Bruce Vilanch

Screenplay: Joseph Goldman, Martin Guigui and Evgeny Afineevsky

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Trailer: Courtesy of NEW GENERATION FILMS

For movie Times and Locations http://oyveymysonisgay.com/screenings
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SEE THE MOVIE FOR FREE and see cast members, who will come to watch the movie! (Two winners will be selected)

Win two tickets to see the movie on November 6 at

Laemmle’s Sunset 5

8000 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, 90046

T: 323-848-3500

Write why you want to see the movie and also how you came out to your parents. You can go to the movie website at www.oyveymysonisgay.com or email your story to oyvey@newgenerationfilmsinc.com

Also you can email the story to: diversitynews@hotmail.com

(Please include your full name, telephone number and email). Thank you and good luck.

On Thursday, October 22, 2009 was held the LA/Hollywood premiere and red carpet of “Oy Vey! My Son is Gay! At the Vista Theatre in Los Angeles-Hollywood, CA.
The movie is a comedy about two families, one Jewish (Hirsch’s) who was expecting their son to marry an educated and Jewish women and the other family (Angelos’s) who have accepted that their son was gay. For the Jewish family was very hard to accept their only son have fall in love in another men. So they tried to learn about his gay life. Finally they accepted what it matters is the his son was happy and the was nothing wrong loving another men. It is a funny movie, the you will laugh and even cry.

“Oy Vey! My Son is Gay” some of the cast members are: Golden Globe, Emmy and Tony Award nominee Lainie Kazan, Saul Rubinek, Carmen Electra, Vincent Pastore, Tony Award winner John Lloyd Young, Emmy Award winner Jai Rodriguez, and Emmy Award winner Bruce Vilanch.

It is a good movie to go see, support it and watch to learn about the there is nothing wrong been gay and what it matters in life is LOVE for each other.

The movie is to be release on Theaters November 6, 2009. Movie is produced by Evgeny Afineevsky, Svetlana Anufrieva, Igor Zektser and Rich Cowan. The movie features original songs by Desmond Child – writer: Ricky Martin’s ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca, writer: Bon Jovi’s ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’, and writer: Joan Jett ‘I Hate Myself For Loving You.’

For more information about showing and red carpet events please visit movie site http://oyveymysonisgay.com/

The premiere event benefits AIDS PROJECT LOS ANGELES (APLA), It is produced by New Generations Films and event sponsored by Metro Source and Clear Channel.

Oy Vey! My Son is Gay! movie trailer is courtesy of  NEW GENERATION FILMS. All Rights Are Reserved.

Photos are © 2009 By Diversity News Publications. Display photo by Alex Palomares, Diversity News Photographer. First slide photos by Esteban “Steven” Escobar, Diversity News. Second Slide photos by Alex Palomares, Diversity News. You can use them, but you need to contact the publisher for permission and authorization. Violation of Copy Rights may be fine by applicable laws.