9.26.11 Adam News and Info

@leisha_Hailey This is an outrage. I demand a public apology by @southwestair and a refund. Hate is not a family value. I will never fly this airline.

Leisha_Hailey Leisha Hailey
by Sunflower_AT
We were escorted off the plane for getting upset about the issue. @southwestair endorses homophobic employees. No one made her accountable.

It would be nice to think that everyone or even most people attending a promotion-by-celebrity charity event were there for the charity, but that's quite unrealistic.

I once attended a charity show with a scheduled mix and mingle time for all ticket buyers above a certain price ("Donation") point. The big celebrity draw of the evening -- an A-list couple -- never showed up for the mix and mingle, although they did walk the red carpet, take pictures for the press, and perform their act incredibly well. All of the other celebrities were at the mix and mingle. Nonetheless, the event planners were inundated with complaints that night and spent the next week fielding phone calls from disgruntled ticket buyers demanding a portion or all of their ticket price back solely because this couple did not attend the mix and mingle. And ticket sales the following year declined, particularly at the medium--higher levels, which left the organization with less money to provide services to those in need.

To paraphrase Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged amongst those of us who plan such events that a goodly portion of ticket buyers to promotion-by-celebrity events are attending solely to meet a celebrity (or if applicable, watch their live performance before a small crowd).

We are happy, thrilled and ecstatic to sell tickets to them. Money is money, to be blunt. (The raison d'etre of having celebrity charity events, after all, is to generate sales and promotion, so there is no higher road to take.)

And secondly, you always hope that by exposing people to a cause, they may become interested, then converted, then involved. (I personally know someone who bought very expensive tickets to one of these events solely to meet a celebrity, but in mingling with other guests passoinate about the charity, got interested and went on to raise tens of thousands of dollars for it.)

But failing that? You take their money and smile when you think of the good it can do. And you're even more happy when they do promo for you by using social media to tell others about it -- maybe someone reading about it from them will take an interest.

OT but made me smile. Actor Sean Maher (Playboy Club, Firefly/Serenity) came out publicly today. Has been living openly w/partner and children for long time. Every step fwd pushes the door open a little more for the people following, esp those trying to decide whether to take a step that could def. hurt or end their careers. Go Sean!

(BTW I think all of Adam's statements at the PFLAG event were terrific - he said what he meant and what many in LGBT community try to say about their lives - even when it doesn't fit into everyone's narrative. Such respect for the man.)

I'm treating this the same way I treated the other Idol guy that got kicked off a plane last week for arguing about not being able to bring his guitar as carry on. People get escorted out for their reactions and that tends to overshowdow the original complaint. Now he had a reputation as being pissy so his complaints fell on pretty deaf ears. So much of this will depend on Leisha's reputation of how factual she is or if she's been known to fly off the handle.