HRC Back Story

Yep. We told you so. HRC's Los Angeles Dinner this weekend was pretty legendary. We would say it was "fierce," but we think Christian says it all with this photo taken at the dinner:

(WORK!)

As we mentioned before, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) gave the evening's keynote address. Nick Verreos, John Amaechi, Judith Light, Ricki Lake, Cat Cora, Neil Patrick Harris, Nia Vardalos, George Takei, Wilson Cruz, Bravo TV's Andy Cohen, The Point Foundation, Melissa Crutcher and a host of other luminaries also turned out for our Los Angeles gala to present awards, receive awards, or vie for the You-Were-Spotted-Looking-Fabulous-In-The-Audience award.

Anne Hathaway, who was presented with HRC's Ally for Equality Award at the dinner, served it up in her own elegant Oscar de la Renta dress hot off the runway (Thank you, Fashion Week Daily and HQbuzz.com):

UPDATE: YouTube video of Anne speaking at HRC LA Dinner is now available.

Speaking of Anne, Andrew at Queerty has posted an interview with the lovely starlet (or, "Ms. H," as he calls her). During her Q&A, Anne shares an interesting memory about her first experiences with gay people. Her family was definitely ahead of the curve even then:

AB: Do you remember when you first knew about gay people and what “gay” was?

AH: Oh, yes. Well, the first people to come visit my mom in the hospital after I was born were her friends, Sydney and Jack and - well, at that point they had been in a committed relationship for a few years, now they’ve been in a relationship I think for over thirty years - so they were family friends. When my parents explained what sex was to me, I didn’t really - it didn’t occur to me to ask, “Well, what about other people?” But then I think as I got older, maybe around five and six, I began to say, “Sidney and Jack kiss. How does that factor in?” And my parents said, “Well, sometimes men love men and women love women and sometimes they love both,” so there was definitely an awareness of it, but my parents had such a relaxed, low-key and definitely accepting attitude, I never realized that it was anything controversial.

Read the full interview here.

For more images from the 2008 HRC Los Angeles dinner, they're here.

(P.S. HRC does NOT have a hit out on Andrew - or anyone else at Queerty.com for the matter. See? We appreciate the shoutout, but our membership dues in the gay mafia only take us so far....)