Happy Birthday, Neil Patrick Harris!

He avoided the fate of most child actors; he did not slide into drugs or obscurity. He has not been featured on Where Are They Now or Celebrity Rehab.

Instead, he is nominated for Emmy Awards for convincingly playing a ladies' man on How I Met Your Mother. He beats even the great Billy Crystal for best award show host of all time; just let him host the Oscars. Please?!? He is brave & fearless… how about that rap at the end of the Tonys on Sunday night? He plays a very demented version of himself in the Harold & Kumar movies, including the upcoming A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas. NPH sings, dances, does magic, he has a sly sense of humor, & spot on timing. Along with his impossibly cute partner- David Burtka, he is the father of 8 month old twins.

NPH turns 38 today. Is he a gay hero. I think so, he lives his life with his head held high & with a certain elegance. I simply love him to pieces. On Sunday, Gay Pride Day in Portland, we are going to see him in a film version of his stage turn in Sondheim's Company from this spring.

Emmy Awards Wrap Up

I don't actually care who won, because all I care about is Neil Patrick Harris. I am so in love with NPH. After seeing how he brilliantly handled the Tony Awards, I see no reason why he should not be handed the hosting of the Oscars. Cute, sexy, super talented- his opening musical number was amazing, including a long patter song list of the networks that I can't imagine anyone else being able to deliver. My favorite lyric: "Joan (Christina Hendricks) of "Mad Men" could "turn a gay man straight; oh, wait, there's Jon Hamm". I think NPH can do more for gay rights than any speech or any march on Washington DC. Who could resist this man?

I wanted the host to win for Best Supporting Actor, but Jon Cryer's acceptance speech was just what award shows need, less lists of "thank you"s & more "funny", as he jokes that he used to think shiny awards were a shallow measure of popularity, "but now I realize, they are the only true measure of a person's real worth as a human being."

I love Mad Men & 30 Rock, so I was happy with their unsurprising wins. It was weird to have the talented Toni Collette win over the always winning Tina Fey. I loved that tiny Kristin Chenoweth (a fave of the Husband & me) won for Pushing Daises, (which had been canceled). Chenoweth, fighting back tears, announced that she was unemployed "& I would like to be on Mad Men. I also like The Office and 24."
Adorable. But again, I am in love with Neil Patrick Harris. Have his people call my people, please.

Tony Awards Wrap-Up

After 42 years of watching, I have noted that The Tony Awards are very GAY. I did before the broadcast, & now I love him even more after his excellent job of hosting the Tony Awards last night, but NEIL PATRICK HARRIS has a birthday this month & will get his own Post Apocalyptic Bohemian birthday blog post. But I need to say it- he was handsome, charming, funny & a natural for being the host of the Tonys.

I have been watching the Tony Awards since the first national broadcast in 1967. That evening was hosted by Mary Martin & Robert Preston. The nominees for Musical were The Apple Tree, Walking Happy, I Do! I DO!, & Cabaret. This was the only way a young musical comedy queen in Spokane Washington could see numbers from the big Broadway musicals & I found each broadcast thrilling. During the day of the airing of the Tony Award show, I would listen to my Original Cast albums of that season's shows & practice accepting my award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical (I was too humble to see myself nominated for Best Actor) in the mirror, using a large brass candlestick as my Tony award. I would reserve the new color TV for just me & my parents would allow me to stay up for the show.

Last night's broadcast had some highlights for me: seeing Liza acting so very Liza, hearing the sound of Bret Michael's head hitting a lowering set piece, the numbers from West Side Story & Hair (the Hair selections raised the roof all the way to Portland Oregon), Gavin Creel looking yummy, the 3 Billy Elliots accepting their joint award for Best Actor in a Musical, my good close personal friend- Angela Lansbury winning her 5th Tony, seeing Nicole Kidman , Marcia Gay Harden, Stockard Channing, & Anne Hathaway looking stunning, but most of all I loved me some Neil Patrick Harris, especially doing the musical wrap up of the awards at the end of the evening. How did he memorize lines about things that had just happened a few minutes earlier? I am more impressed than ever by this bright, funny, talented & super sexy man.