Posted on 04/14/2007 10:14:39 AM PDT by Spiff
Giuliani's cross-dressing antics back in spotlight
NEW YORK -- It is difficult to shock New Yorkers, yet Rudy Giuliani teetered close to the line when he sauntered onto a stage wearing a platinum-blond wig, a face full of makeup, dainty white gloves and a frilly pink gown filled out in all the right places.
His appearance at an annual political roast was exactly 10 years ago, and at the time, the idea of the tough-talking mayor in a busty ball gown raised eyebrows but was mostly accepted as a good joke -- adhering to an unwritten rule for the shenanigans that take place at the roast, known as the Inner Circle dinner.
Shortly after winning re-election that year, Giuliani took his feminine side to a national audience. While hosting "Saturday Night Live," he appeared in one skit as a bosomy, gray-haired Italian grandmother in lipstick and a flowered housedress, with stockings pulled halfway up his calves.
Now that Giuliani is running for the Republican presidential nomination, experts and political observers are wondering whether those well-photographed and widely documented performances -- and others -- could damage his campaign. Some say conservatives won't get the joke and will be turned off by what they see as yet another peek at Giuliani's exotic, big-city liberal side.
Political observers say many voters associate a macho demeanor with Giuliani's post-Sept. 11 image as a strong national leader in a time of crisis -- an image that could lose its power if dressed in stockings and dancing the cancan.
Yes, there was another year when he wore fishnets and did high kicks with the Rockettes.
"People think of him as a leader and a tough guy, and he has this image as somebody who tamed the city of New York and made the trains run on time, and seeing him dressed up like a girl would run contrary to all of those things," said political science professor Neal Thigpen of Francis Marion University in South Carolina.
South Carolina has one of the nation's earliest presidential primaries next year, and as the first Southern contest, it could set the stage for the region.
With conservative voters largely dominating presidential primaries, some experts say the footage of Giuliani cavorting about in women's wear could significantly damage his chances there and throughout the South. The images are already showing up on the Internet, including a mock campaign commercial on the popular video-trading site YouTube.
"You get out in more sophisticated places of the country, where they know Giuliani and they like him and they know about some of his antics, it's not going to be any surprise, but down here where they've never seen that kind of thing, it could do him some damage," Thigpen said.
But others say the gender-bending gags won't matter.
In Nevada, another state with an early caucus, Republicans would be unfazed by the image of Giuliani in women's clothing, said Heidi Smith, chairwoman of the Republican Party in Washoe County.
Giuliani impressed Reno citizens in a campaign appearance there last month that included a trip to Costco during which he mingled with shoppers, posing for photographs and signing autographs.
"That meant more than seeing him in drag," Smith said. "If he wants to wear a dress, who cares?"
Giuliani's first drag appearance, in 1997, featured a breathy Marilyn Monroe impression that was followed by various other female alter-egos over the years, including one that shared a scene with Donald Trump, who groped Giuliani and buried his head between the mayoral breasts.
His other Inner Circle characters included a 1950s greaser on a motorcycle, the Lion King and the Beauty's beast.
His most famous appearance from 10 years ago is likely to be remembered this weekend when Mayor Michael Bloomberg gets into costume to dance and sing for the same charity event, as New York mayors have done for decades. David Dinkins once donned full cowboy regalia and entered the ballroom on a horse; Ed Koch wore a suit of glittering gold; and Bloomberg has ridden a mule and pretended to smoke pot.
In 1997, the New York media had fun for a few days with Giuliani's first cross-dressing experiment -- the Village Voice printed a favorable review by real drag queens -- but it didn't appear to hurt him politically.
A poll shortly afterward found his approval rating at an all-time high of 67 percent, and a majority of city voters said they enjoyed the gag. He won re-election later that year.
Perhaps New Yorkers, who are overwhelmingly Democrats by a margin of five to one, appreciated one particular line during the 1997 show, which was a spoof of the musical comedy "Victor/Victoria," in which a woman pretends to be a man pretending to be a woman.
"I already play a Republican playing a Democrat playing a Republican," Giuliani quipped.
For conservatives who already are leery of backing Giuliani because of his support for abortion rights and other positions on social issues, the feminine clothing may also remind them of his support of gays while mayor -- despite the fact that the majority of cross-dressers are not gay.
Still, a poison-pen mailer or e-mail could easily imply a connection, observers say.
"I'm imagining the negative ads -- they could use this as sort of an oblique reference to all of those positions," said Clemson University political scientist Dave Woodard.
Southern Baptist Convention official Richard Land said gay issues represent just one area of the problems religious conservatives have with Giuliani.
"There are so many dealbreakers for Giuliani, it's difficult to know where to start," he said.
Throughout his eight years in City Hall, Giuliani supported laws that protected gays against harassment, marched in gay pride parades, welcomed the Olympic-style Gay Games to New York City and, after his second marriage broke up, lived with two friends who happened to be a gay couple.
He does not support gay marriage, but he does not see the need to ban it with a constitutional amendment. And in a 1994 cover story with The Advocate, a national gay magazine, he condemned Pat Buchanan's speech at the Republican National Convention two years earlier during which the failed presidential candidate declared a "cultural war" against homosexuality, radical feminists, abortion rights supporters and other "liberals."
The speech, Giuliani said, "tried to narrow rather than to broaden the Republican Party. There is no reason why the party shouldn't appeal to gays and lesbians in the same way it does to all Americans."
Over the years, Giuliani's relationship with gays has not been exactly cozy -- he was often heckled while marching in the city's annual gay pride parade.
Asked this month about his theatrical past, Giuliani told Fox News that it shows voters another side of him.
"I think what they'll find out about me is I enjoy having fun. I mean, I really enjoy those Inner Circles. I made them fun, and I enjoyed them," he said. "And so you're going to get a couple of things people can interpret different ways, I guess."
Nope. At least 5 times, that I know of.
Still looks like there were three appearances to me, but I’m still waiting for more information. Not that it will matter as long as he was ACTING parts in SKITS, etc.
Excerpt: “His other Inner Circle characters included a 1950s greaser on a motorcycle, the Lion King and the Beauty’s beast.” If he dared to repeat those characters, I suppose some will assume that he is also a closet ‘50’s greaser, a closet “Lion King” and a closet “Beauty’s beast”.
All in all, I think anyone with an ounce of humor and/or some good old fashioned honesty, will admit that when Giuliani was playing these characters, that’s all it was. Just like many other famous people and actors have done throughout the years.
“I honestly thought it was a one time SNL thing that everybody is all up-in-arms about”
Hardly a one time thing.
“Rudy Giuliani: The Knight and ‘The Queen’
According to The London Times, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani gives kisses before he leaves every morning, but to neither his estranged wife, nor his girlfriend. Instead, says The Times, “Sir Rudy” gives a peck on the cheek to the two homosexual men he’s living with.
“We always get a little kiss, it’s cute,” says wealthy car dealer Howard Koeppel, with whom Giuliani has been sharing an apartment since June. When Giuliani was recently knighted, Koeppel tells The Times that he told “Sir Rudy” to call him “Queen Howard.” Koeppel (63) and his homosexual lover Mark Hsiao (41) have been comforting Giuliani, and trying to make him laugh, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.”
http://www.cwfa.org/printerfriendly.asp?id=318&department=cfi&categoryid=cfreport
“Gay multi-millionaire Koeppel is a top campaign fundraiser for the Mayor and is his frequent dinner and after-hours companion.”
“This was not merely a half-hour involvement in slipping on a dress and wig for a laugh but a months long coaching effort in walking, talking a and singing like a woman complete with custom-made undergarments. To make his transformation complete, Giuliani did everything but have sex-surgery.”
http://bluecollarpolitics.com/lederman/giuliani-525reinventing.html
He keeps knocking himself down amongst the kooks, but actual voters seem to like him more and more. And the kooks keep reaching and reaching for something new to rip him on.
1) There was an appearance with Julie Andrews at a New York City Dinner
2) There was the SNL appearance.
3) There was the videotaped incident where Rooty dressed in drag, did a comedy skit with Donald Trump (in which Trump buries his face in Rudy’s fake bosoms).
4) Rudy even offered to dress in drag for Showtime’s Homosexual porn show, “Queer as Folk” (a show which promotes pedophilia)
5) Besides his famous pink gown and Marilyn Monroe wig, Rudy also cross-dressed as a chorus girl, and danced in a chorus line.
None of the Rudy Rooters has been able to give a plausible explanation for this. They just keep telling us that they and Rudy are conservatives, it is a classic leftist ploy of repeating something constantly and hoping that people will start to believe it.
Do the PETA people accept Rudy wearing furs?
I AM a conservative, thank you very much. I have a long history with the Republican Party in my state. I have read the tea leaves, so to speak, and have taken a long hard look at our candidates. Knowing how important it is that we win this next election (it could be life and death, IMO) I have come to the conclusion that Rudy Giuliani is the only really strong person with LEADERSHIP and A HISTORY OF FISCAL CONSERVATISM who can actually WIN the election in '08.
No, I don't agree with all his policies, but neither did I always agree with Ronald Reagan or George Bush. There are many lies swirling from both the left AND the FAR RIGHT about Rudy Giuliani's record. I have researched every one of them and have found out that Rudy used good judgment in most cases. I would prefer him to be pro-life all the way but he is honest about his beliefs and has not tried to LIE or flip flop as our most of other candidates have done. There is a certain honesty in Rudy Giuliani that other candidates lack.
That is why a conservative is supporting Rudy Giuliani. And I am not alone.
Don’t freak out. LOL
Excerpt from Wikepedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Giuliani
Most famously, Mayor Giuliani appeared in public dressed in women’s clothing three times:
On March 1, 1997, at the New York Inner Circle press dinner, an annual event in which New York politicians and the press corps stage skits, roast each other and make fun of themselves, with proceeds going to charity.[48] In his appearance he first imitated Marilyn Monroe. Then, he appeared in a spoofing stage skit “Rudy/Rudia” together with Julie Andrews, starring at the time on Broadway in the cross-dressing classic Victor/Victoria (about a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman). Under his drag name “Rudia” and wearing a spangled pink gown, Giuliani said he was “a Republican pretending to be a Democrat pretending to be a Republican.”[49][50]
On November 22, 1997, during his Saturday Night Live hosting role, he played an Italian American grandmother in a bright floral dress during a long sketch that satirized Italian American family rites at Thanksgiving time.[51]
On March 11, 2000, at another Inner Circle dinner. He was on stage in male disco garb spoofing John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, but also appeared in drag in taped video clips which reworked the “Rudy/Rudia” theme again.[52] These included a bit in which he flirts with (normally dressed) real estate mogul Donald Trump, then slaps Trump for trying to get too “familiar” with him,[53][54] and then afterward in an exchange with Joan Rivers that sought to make fun of his then-Senate race rival and fellow dinner attendee Hillary Rodham Clinton.[55]
In October 2001, Giuliani agreed to appear in drag on the gay-themed television series Queer as Folk to raise aid money for gay and lesbians affected by the September 11 attacks, saying “If it means more money for relief funds, sure.”[56] However, the appearance never took place.
At least it's not a hug.
What is sleazy is the dishonest portrayal of a comedy routine as if it were the factual life of a political opponent. Some are trying to dishonestly smear Giuliani for political purposes. If these same tactics were being done to their chosen candidates, they’d be furious.
Dishonest attempts to portray his appearances in those skits as anything but a comedy spoof, shows a lack of integrity on the people doing so, IMHO.
BTW, I am NOT a Rudy supporter.
Heh——THAT would be a bit of a PETA problem.
Or, the more rabid will fixate on it while recreating the rabid days of Go Pat Go...
Think you’re disgusted now? Wait till you find out- again- that America isn’t buying what you zealots are selling.
The good news is that everyone on Freerepublic will again be on the same page critizing the elected Democrat President starting after the second Tuesday in November 2008.
The bad news is America will be screwed.
LOL, I love Corporal Klinger! But wasn’t he born in Lebanon and that would disqualify him from being VP?
You have the right to believe in that. But to stoop to calling rudy a cross dresser and making insinuations about his sexuality feeds into every bad stereotype that people have of conservatives.
Go ahead and pee in your own water supply.
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