'L Word' star booted off plane over kissing dispute

LOS ANGELES, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Former "The L Word" star Leisha Hailey has complained in a stream of Twitter messages that she and a girlfriend were kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight in a dispute over their kissing on a plane.


Hailey, 40, tweeted that a flight attendant had told her that Southwest "was a 'family' airline and kissing was not ok," and that she and her companion were then "escorted off the plane for getting upset about the issue."

"SouthwestAir endorses homophobic employees," she tweeted. "Since when is showing affection towards someone you love illegal? I want to know what Southwest Airlines considers a 'family.'"

She went on to tweet: "Boycott SouthwestAir if you are gay. They don't like us."

Hailey, who starred on Showtime network's "The L Word" as Alice, a bisexual magazine writer and radio host, also demanded a public apology.

The airline issued a statement saying initial reports it received about the incident "indicate that we received several passenger complaints characterising the behaviour as excessive."

"Our crew, responsible for the comfort of all customers on board, approached the passengers based solely on behaviour and not gender," the airline said. "The conversation escalated to a level that was better resolved on the ground, as opposed to in flight."

The statement concluded: "We regret any circumstance where a passenger does not have a positive experience on Southwest and we are ready to work directly with the passengers involved to offer our heartfelt apologies for falling short of their expectation."

An airline spokesman declined to comment beyond the prepared statement.

The incident comes a little over three weeks after another celebrity, Green Day rocker Billie Joe Armstrong, was complained he was booted from a Southwest flight in Oakland, California, because he was wearing his baggy pants too low.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/10348503/l-word-star-booted-off-plane-over-kissing-dispute/

Saving Face

Lynn Chen, Alice Wu, Joan Chen and Michelle Krusiec

Anu Dalam Botol Poster

I love Saving Face movie so much because I am attracted by the storyline and the Chinese culture in that movie. The movie directed by Alice Wu. Big applaud to her because even though it was her first movie and it seems that she managed to make a good movie. Plus the new comer actress Lynn Chen won an award for her performance in that movie. Hopefully she can make lots of movie with her talent and creativity and I am looking forward to see them. I am happy to see talented Asian people in Hollywood because it is hard to break the tradition in Hollywood.

Yesterday I read The Star online news about Malaysian Gay movie called “Anu Dalam Botol”, directed by Khir Rahman. “Anu Dalam Botol” means genital inside the bottle. From what I read the movie is about a transsexual who is performing operation to be a “woman” for his lover. I am looking forward to see the movie because it says that within 5 days estimated more 1 million people went to see it.

I know why Malaysian people went to see the movie because it is a taboo issue in Malaysia, so people wonder to know about the issue. But one thing that bothered me when reading the article. It seems like Raja Azmi the producer of the film doesn’t know how to explain or defend her own movie because the “Gays” and straight people in Malaysia said the movie is somehow not right. She said that the movie was based on her friend experience.

I don’t know what to say because I haven’t seen the movie. If I had seen the movie I can give my own opinion. Somehow everybody has their own opinion and judgement. Hopefully she did all the research before make the movie because it is a sensitive and taboo issue in Malaysia. Malaysia is a conservative Muslim- majority country.

I would love to see more movies like Late Yasmin Ahmad made because Malaysia needs good movies and directors to introduce to the world about Malaysian film industry and to be proud with our outcomes.

Please click the links to read:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/30/nation/20110330143824&sec=nation
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/7/10/nation/6631616&sec=nation