THE BRAT PACK
ILENE CHAIKEN, BRYAN SAFI, CAT CORA & ANTHONY WOODS
Until Chaiken (far left), TV land was almost entirely devoid of lesbian characters. Interested viewers had to seek, second-guess, and often come up empty-handed. The creator, writer, and producer of The L Word, which concluded its final season in March, gave women a panoply of lesbian characters living rich lives. Without pussyfooting, her raw narratives proved irresistible for gay and straight audiences alike. Her new reality series, The Real L Word: Los Angeles, debuts in 2010.
As the creator-host of Current TV’s biweekly segment “That’s Gay,” Safi (second from left) who is also a staff writer on Ellen, uses humor to raise awareness of homophobia in popular culture. Fearless in that he takes on equally homophobic gay-endorsed gay pandering (“I love my gays!”) and hip-hop’s use of “no homo,” Safi takes folks to task without preaching.
Cora (second from left) has never bristled at being told a woman’s place is in the kitchen. The Food Network’s first—and only—female Iron Chef has been whipping up Greek-influenced offerings with a Southern twist since she was a child, and by 15 she had already drafted a restaurant business plan. In September, Cora opened her first sit-down eatery, Kouzzina, at the Walt Disney World Resort’s Disney’s BoardWalk. She and her wife, Jennifer, have four sons.
Woods (far right), an Iraq war veteran, launched an energetic and historic campaign to become the first openly gay African-American elected to Congress. He may have lost his bid to represent California’s 10th congressional district (in the East Bay Area near San Francisco) this fall, but political heavyweights like Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln lost early elections, and there’s no doubt Woods is a rising star in the Democratic firmament.
