I know the news about Ricky Martin coming out is already old. After he came out I kept reading a lot of articles speculating that his career was going down hill, specially as a Latin star. As a Latin myself, I was quite content to see that someone like Martin came out. In my opinion this might help to stop ridiculous stereotypes and clichés.

However, that is not the point of my article. What triggered my curiosity is to know how much celebrities benefit from coming out vs. professionals or every day people.

The celebrities I will mention are not in order of importance or chronological order of them coming out; they are just a few examples of how they somehow benefited from coming out.

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That’s exactly how Ryan Seacrest says it.  And how would I know?  Because I got to go to the live tapping this evening!

Quick backstory:  my friend Stephen is in town from Alabama and had planned on visiting me, but because of my stupendous work schedule (I haven’t had a day off in 11 days and I’ve been getting off work no earlier than 11pm) I haven’t been able to hang out with him save for a few night’s when I’ve met up with him at the bars.  Luckily he’s resourceful and was still able to have a good time sans me.  So today, I end up getting off work fairly early and we have a chance to hang out, and this is where our story begins…

Since we both are kind of tourists in LA (I’ve only been here a month and he’s only been here a few times before) we decide to go to The Grove – outdoor shopping mall – to kill some time and walk around in the sun.  Stephen asks me what makes The Grove so special and I tell him that it’s just a different take on a mall and that if anything there’s a good chance we’ll run into a celeb.  Not 10 minutes later we’re in front of the Avatar Maker (a camera/computer set up that takes your pic and turns you into an Avatar – it was awesome) and Tyce Diorio from SYTYCD walks up and takes interest in the Avatar maker.  Since Stephen has no shame, he asks Tyce if a quick pic is cool and Tyce obliges, same for me.  After we get our Avatar pics taken and are all giddy with excitement a lady comes up to us and says “do you like American Idol?”  Stephen and I both tell her yes and she says “cool, well we have extra VIP tickets to tonight’s tapping, want to go?”  We almost sucked the air out of LA with the gay gasp we both did.  Once we regained composure and finished gushing, we got the directions and headed over to CBS studios to watch the live tapping of American Idol: Idol Gives Back.  It was AH-MAZ-ING.

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Out Magazine has compile their 4th Annual “Power 50″ list – this one for 2010. What does “Power” mean in this list you ask? Well as they put it: “The richest, most influential, most feared gays and lesbians in the country [United States].” A little vague, but these are the criteria they look at:

• Power to influence cultural & social attitudes for the better
• Political clout
• Individual wealth
• Media profile

There are some new additions to the list (Adam Lambert) and some people subtracted (Rosie O’Donnell). Of the fifty, the top ten are listed below (along with what the magazine wrote about each, justifying their position on the list).

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WTF does that even mean? Well, a family battling it out on the game show Family Feud was working on a category called “Things We Know About Ellen Degeneres.” There are several things we know about Ellen:

• She has a talkshow
• She’s a judge on American Idol
• She’s gay
• She’s a comedian
• She’s “married” to Portia

I could go on and on and on. Never would it cross my mind to say “Ellen doesn’t like our country very well,” for several reason. (a) Because it grammatically doesn’t even make sense. (b) Because Ellen is one of the kindest people out there. (c) As if that’s one of the answers, bozo! Check out the clip of Ellen showing the footage of the contestant saying this from the Family Feud show on her talk show, and her response to it. “Show Me Ellen Hates America….” I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that perhaps it was coming from a place whereby she doesn’t like the country, because the U.S. doesn’t recognize her marriage – which in that case would be fair. It just, well, didn’t come out right.

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Damn you, Idol producers!!! Yesterday on Ellen Degeneres’ show, ousted semi-finalist, Alex Lambert, sat down and chatted with Idol’s newest judge. During his chat, he confessed his mom made him audition and threatened to take away his phone if didn’t try out. He also mentioned, fighting off his nerves was the biggest obstacle during his time on Idol (ummm duh, that was kinda obvious). Prior to performing in front of America and on the Idol stage, he had only sung in a couple of coffee houses.

After his quick interview, Ellen asked her favorite green, ripened, brown “banana” to perform Mario’s “Let Me Love You“. Apparently, he had initially wanted to perform this song instead of Ray Lamontagne’s “Trouble” during the Top 16 performances. So why did he change his mind? An Idol producer had suggested to him that he would probably get more votes if he sang “Trouble”. Ouch, that’s gotta hurt. Thanks producers. Regardless of the outcome, I would’ve rather watch him perform Mario’s song instead of “Trouble”. Watch the video for yourself.

watch Alex perform “Let Me Love You” after the jump

Third time isn’t always a charm- at least not for perennial American Idol contestant punching bag, Angela Martin. I understand that American Idol is a TV show trying to highlight dramz for the viewing audience but the treatment given to Angela was down right mean. To catch you up to speed, this was Angela Martin’s third and FINAL time trying out for the show. Since she’s 28-years-old, she will be too old to try out next season. For the past few years, she’s made it to the Hollywood round only to fall short right before the final cut.

In year one, we were first introduced to Martin and her heart-wrenching story of raising a daughter with Rett Syndrome. A few days before Martin left for Hollywood week, her father was murdered by her mother-in-law. Considering the circumstances, Martin wasn’t able to perform at her best and was cut. Fast forward to season eight where she once again made it to Hollywood week. Unfortunately for her, she was unable to attend due to traffic violations and was stuck in jail. Since she didn’t have the funds to pay the violations, she had to spend a few days in lockdown.

With all this bad luck, you’d think some good luck would finally be coming her way. Right? Nope. Once again she made it to Hollywood week. This time, a few days before she had to compete, her mother was reported missing and as off press time, still unaccounted for. Despite facing family problems once again, I felt she performed well and had a good shot of making the Top 12 girls.

ellen degeneres gives angela martin a consolation prize. find out more after the jump

Despite being away from the music industry for about ten years, Sade’s newest album “Soldier of Love” topped the Billboard charts. With only one week of sales, the band’s sixth studio album has sold 501,000 copies and has been certified gold. Its only the second album from Sade to land #1 on the Billboard chart- their first was in 1986 with “Promise”. Not only did it conquer the United States, but it also scored a #1 debut in Canada, France and Switzerland as well proving Sade’s music is as timeless as Sade’s beauty.

“Soldier of Love” was also the biggest week sales ever for the group proving they’re only getting better with age. While some consider the Grammy’s “Best New Artist” award to be a curse, that award has been bringing them luck since they won it in 1986.

Wanting to secure a huge first week sale number, Sade went into heavy promotion mode by making several appearances on David Letterman and Ellen Degeneres’ talk shows. She hit up everyone’s favorite lesbian with an amazing performance on yesterday’s show (check out video after the jump).

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This Monday at the Television Critics Association, Fox Network announced that this will be Simon Cowell’s last season as Judge on American Idol (they’re droppin’ like flies).  Since 2002, Cowell has made viewers stir in their seats with his straightforward, no BS, harsh and often rude criticism  of would be singers.  However uncomfortable he made some viewers and contestants, his personality must have struck a chord with the rest of America because much of the show’s success can be attributed to Cowell’s judging, (which would explain his $36 million/season contract).  Much like Oprah, Simon  said that he to leave the show “bigger and better than it was in the past.”  With recent drops in ratings this leads me to wonder if American Idol has reached the top of it’s game.  But for those die-hard Cowell fans, worry not, because we’ll still see Simon’s v-neck-wearing self on our screens.

Starting in the fall of 2011, Simon Cowell will be an executive producer as well as judge on the newest star-seeker show to hit the States, American X Factor.  While Cowell still loves the Idol, he stated that he “didn’t think it was right to do two shows in America at the same time, so (I) decided to leave one and start another.”  I’m glad that he chose this route, because I’m not sure that I’d want to see him dolling out criticism a la Cowell multiple times per week.

Paula & Simon reunion on X-Factor??? check after the jump