Bruce Vilanch to Spill Oscars Tea on Podcast

This sounds good. I'm going to listen.

I never realized that Mason Reese had a twin brother . . .

“Legendary funnyman”

He outed Margaret Hamilton as a big ol dyke who was hitting on young women.

He looks like Michael Moore. Or, MM looks like him.

Michael Moore likes like a mtf. Bruce looks like a fat Muppet.

[quote] He outed Margaret Hamilton as a big ol dyke who was hitting on young women.

I'll get you my pretty, and your little pussy-cat too.

Bruce Vilanch is a good choice to host a podcast. He feels like one of our last links to old gay Hollywood.

He is a good choice; he has a face for radio.

It’s funny I recently was watching some YouTube videos of Bruce interviews. Very entertaining though after awhile they got repetitive as he told the same stories with the same jokes over and over. I didn’t hear the Margaret Hamilton story though; maybe he didn’t want to be on the record with that one

This TV academy wasn’t the only interview I saw but it’s a fun starting point

R4 she outed herself in the Christmas Special she did with Paul Lynde.

Why has he looked like a fat slob for the last 50 years? Couldn’t he get a new look and clean up?

R11, on the show? Bruce was talking about behind the scenes.

Alas, "The People Who Hired Bruce Vilanch: What Were They Thinking?" debuts on November 10th.

Weird fact: a friend of mine who is a Hollywood writer and who has worked with him on several projects has said that Bruce Vilanch smells amazing because he uses really high-end, well chosen, and judiciously applied men's fragrances.

My friend said he guessed it was because Vilanch probably realizes that otherwise he looks very much like someone who would smell bad.

When I lived in LA and was being dragged around to Premier and openings and events, I found most people incredibly unsociable.

But Bruce was always walking around and being lovely and funny.

It’s his signature look. He’s maintained it for years and he’s instantly recognizable despite being far from handsome. I give him credit for that.

Did he not sign an. DA with the Academy?

I look forward to this. He might help fill the podcast link to Old Hollywood that disappeared when Gilbert Gottfried died. (His respect for and knowledge of Old Hollywood was quite surprising, and his guests were great!)

Worked on The Annual Ball at the El Rey with him back in the late 90s.

I wanted a bagel but he had eaten them all already.

Is he still alive?

Of course he’s still alive -someone has to spread the rumors of Margaret Hamilton being a lesbian.

[quote] Vilanch smells amazing because he uses really high-end, well chosen, and judiciously applied men's fragrances.

Men who wear fragrances smell like trash.

I love his shirt.

Yikes, Sia is looking rough!

I love Bruce Vilanch. On my Valley of the Dolls DVD set, there's an Extras with snippets of an interview with him. Very smart guy.

I like how he’s able to tell funny stories about practically everyone but never comes across mean spirited.

[quote]When I lived in LA and was being dragged around to Premier and openings and events, I found most people incredibly unsociable. But Bruce was always walking around and being lovely and funny.

I saw him once at the Arclight theaters in Hollywood and wanted to approach him but I'm always too shy and don't want to bother people. Now I wish I had. He seemed to be alone so he might have welcomed the conversation while waiting for the movie to start.

I had a friend who worked with many 'stars' on Broadway. He worked with Bruce Vilanch when he joined the cast of 'Hairspray'. My friend, who rarely said anything bad about the celebrities he worked with (he did hair and makeup) had the most horrible stories about Bruce Vilanch...starting with how he treated the backstage crew and the 'extras' in the cast. A few years later, he was offered a job of another musical in the works which he was interested in. Can't recall the show, but it was going to be a revival. He found out Bruce Vilanch had accepted the offer of one of the leading roles - my friend then declined the offer (the project never made it to B'way).

He’s had his signature look for years- ‘’Lazy-no effort-slob’’. Must be a distant cousin of Steve Bannon.

Is he wearing a wig?

No! Pretty blonde hair is Bruce's one good asset, r29.

[quote]When I lived in LA and was being dragged around to Premier and openings and events, I found most people incredibly unsociable.

Not talking to the limo driver is not being unsociable.

How far back to you all think Bruce's Oscar stories go? When did he first write for the Oscars?

I'm hoping they go back to at least the 1980s.

Is he a natural blonde, R30?

Do he and Michael Moore go to the same stylist for hair and wardrobe ?

Only his hairdresser knows for sure, r33.

This freak isn't remotely funny. He was head writer for the Oscars for how many umpteen years and it was never funny, just the Bob Hope sort of not funny at all funny, the Billy Crystal sort of funny that makes unanaesthetized wisdom tooth extraction seem funny. I wouldn't put this disgusting freak in charge of a spin-art stand at a third-rate amusement park, in winter.

The Oscars was only ever a big thing when there were only two other TV networks. They always favored cheeseball snickering and three-hour dance routines and the wrong people singing the nominated songs and endless presenters and Debbie Fucking Allen dance routines that made you forget your will to live.

I blame Bruce Villanch for the whole shitshow. Why not? He looks guilty of that and so much more.

Will his doppelganger be there?

Did Margaret and Agnes ever, uh, hop on the broomstick together?

There's a Bruce Vilanch in Hollywood on NextDoor. I'm guessing it's him. He has a dumb comment he leaves on everything. I forget what it is though.

He's on a Broadway page I belong to on Facebook - constantly 'correcting' people. I hardly go on it anymore.

[quote]How far back to you all think Bruce's Oscar stories go? When did he first write for the Oscars? I'm hoping they go back to at least the 1980s.

I believe his first Oscars was the disastrous 1989 year with Rob Lowe and Snow White. He might have been on the fringes before that unofficially writing things for friends who were presenting

Bruce talks about the disaster 1989 Snow White Oscars.

[quote]He's on a Broadway page I belong to on Facebook - constantly 'correcting' people. I hardly go on it anymore

If you think that’s bad, you should see his posts on NextDoor.com.

R42, "And then...you won't believe this, haw haw haw...but the next thing I wrote was fucking shit too!!"

I can second his NextDoor posts. They’re kind of endearing though.

Wait, this is not Travis Kelce’s mom?

[quote]He’s had his signature look for years- ‘’Lazy-no effort-slob’’. Must be a distant cousin of Steve Bannon.

And Michael Moore.

R45 What kinds of posts does he make?

I've told this story before - we hired him as the main speaker at an HRC or Howard Brown dinner in Chicago circa 1990-95. I forget which. Inappropriately dressed, Bruce wouldn't mingle beforehand (as agreed), wasn't there for much of the dinner (but wolfed his food and drinks in the kitchen), conspicuously arrived at the head table right before being introduced, was boring in his very brief remarks, and bolted when they were over. Not impressed.

Good to see Mama Kelce branching out

R48 He actually doesn’t post a lot but he contributes to others’ posts. It’s exactly what you would expect from a witty eldergay.

What is his obsession with Alice t-shirts?

R9- and a body for radio too

Someone on another thread about Bruce Vilanch said years ago Bruce hit on him and when he rebuffed Bruce's advances he made a bitchy remark like- you're not that hot anyway.

Everybody is hot relative to Bruce Vilanch, R54.

He makes sea creatures Steve Bannon and Michael Moore look like ordinary guys.

I've never once heard Vilanch say anything funny. He's a revolting pile of shit, a monstrous open abscess dressed as a clown. How does this fucker manage to pull the wool over so many eyes?

Didn't Bruce originally come to fame writing one liners for Bette Midler?

He wrote the Paul Lynde Halloween special. (Which is its own kind of fun in a "watching a horrible crash or fire" sort of way)

And then, somehow, got hired again elsewhere.

R55- He was in a scene with Diana Ross in Mahogany. He was young then and someone here on the Datalounge said- even when he was young he was unattractive- something like that.

Who?

The question of whether this monster dig ever had his day in the sun is easily settled, R58.

And the answer is an emphatic, No!

*of whether this monster, this dog ever had his day...

R60- That was the scene. He was obese even when he was 26 years in that movie.

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special circulated between me and friends on a shitty VHS tape for years. “Classic” doesn’t even begin to describe it.

R60, if he hadn't been fat he'd be okay-looking in that clip.

He had nice hair.

At least we know now that he is not a natural blonde.

I find his constant wearing of t- shirts with pithy writings on them so tiresome.

[quote]conspicuously arrived at the head table right before being introduced, was boring in his very brief remarks, and bolted when they were over.

Like Helen Lawson, he had a man waiting for him.

Bruce and Miss Ross.

R67 One that was no doubt being paid by the hour, so time was a wastin'!

R69- Exactly. Even when he was young it must have been rather difficult for him to get laid.

R4- Was he the one who also said Beatrice Arthur was a BIG OLD DYKE who was hitting on young women?

R71, I am amazed at such a revelation!

I was saying bitchy things about Bruce Vilanch on this thread but I have to say- He does have some interesting things to say about different celebrities. I was watching a 1 hour and 40 minute podcast on youtube with Ike Eisenman from the Escape To Witch Mountain movies and some other guy plus another 50 minute plus video with someone else. He said Elizabeth Montgomery was an alcoholic and she kept ignoring her cancer illness until it was too late. He feels if she had gone to a doctor right away she would have saved herself.

Colon cancer has a very good survival rate if caught early.

[quote] What is his obsession with Alice t-shirts?

R52: He was one of the writers of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.

About ten years ago, I saw Bruce Vilanch in a performance of "Celebrity Autobiography" in L.A. to benefit Actors & Others for Animals. It was a pretty epic line-up of readers! Lily Tomlin, Florence Henderson, Lainie Kazan, Fred Willard, Laraine Newman, Mindy Cohn, Joey Fatone, and Bruce. JoAnne Worley hosted & lead a pre-show auction (possibly greatest warm-up act ever).

The main thing I remember Vilanch doing was a mash-up of dueling, famous pet/animal "autobiographies" with Lily Tomlin & Mindy Cohn -- which was hilarious. (Remember those? Millie, Socks, etc.).

JoAnne Worley & Fred Willard were the most social & accessible afterward. They milled around the theater-lobby, thanking people for attending & were happy to take photos, etc. (my friend & I took photos with both of them).

R76. I adore JoAnne Worley—wish she’d a higher profile career, but seemed to work steadily. I gather her Rose in Gypsy was wonderful, perhaps to the surprise of many.

The podcast is out.

He has that mean-as-cat-shit look common in intensely hideous people.

I’m listening to the first one—Oscars of 1989–and really enjoying it.

Vilanch is akin to the characters in the Elephant Man and Mask. Can anything be done for him?

He rocks weird so well.