The GLAAD Media Awards were a pretty star-studded affair but there was no star who burned brighter than the event's big honoree Janet Jackson who got the night's only standing ovation.
She only did a few non-televised red carpet interviews and, somehow, one of them was with me. So it was quite surreal experience to be talking to her then to suddenly be surrounded by, literally, dozens of tape recorders and microphones of other reporters horning in on our chat.
Janet just kept talking like it happens all the time, which I'm sure it does! I wanted to know how she felt about being honored by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation with its Vanguard Award for her influence in increasing awareness of HIV/AIDS and LGBT equality in the mainstream media.
"I love it," Janet said. "I never expected it in a million years so when I heard they wanted to honor me, I was really taken aback. It's just for the work that I've done with AIDS and acknowledging the gay and lesbian community through my music and so on. I'm just very appreciative."
Janet, whose chart-topping single "Together Again" was a tribute to the close friends she lost to AIDS, said she grew up in a very gay-friendly household.
"Even when I was younger, when I was growing up, my mother was very religious but there were a lot of kids who were dancers that she brought into the home and now that I think about it, think back, they were gay. They all called her mother and she treated every one of them like they were her children. And that's where it kind of started I suppose and I've been around the community all my life."
Janet's award was presented Saturday night inside a sold-out Kodak Theater in Hollywood by Ellen DeGeneres. Other stars in attendance included Billy Baldwin, Wilson Cruz, Jennifer Beals, Cindy Crawford, Sharon Stone, Christopher Gorham, Sally Field, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Leslie Jordan, Becki Newton, Michael Urie and Candis Cayne, among others.
; "JanetJackson.com")
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