Latest 7 magazine

One of the biggest parties of the year will take place next month. The Red Party, the annual Wild Fruit World Aids Day fundraising event, will be held at Tru on Sunday 7 December.
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Seven stars have been born into the Brighton drag and cabaret scene and the graduates of Dave Lynn’s Cabaret Academy are now available to take bookings for professional gigs.
This year’s output include: Welsh rocker Violet Venom, whose act blurs the line between alternative comedy and drag. At the industry showcase, Venom wielded a bottle of vodka, pogoed her way through a Blondie number; and confessed to waking up face down in a urinal and details of her hedonistic student lifestyle in Lewes Road.
Buxom Auntie Robbie told an outrageous story about an exploding toilet and innocently pouting Tammy Tinkle closed the night with belting songs and Gaydar gags.
The event was sponsored by REALBrighton.com and compered by Dave Lynn and Pat Cruise. It raised money for the Sussex Beacon.

Latest 7 attends the annual Stonewall Awards in London

An MP who called homosexuality “an abomination“ has been declared Stonewall’s bigot of the year. Iris Robinson, MP for Strangford, Northern Ireland, earlier this year said in a Westminster debate: “There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality, than sexually abusing innocent children.“
Hero of the year at the Stonewall Awards, sponsored by Barclays, was Rt Rev Gene Robinson, who became the first openly gay bishop when he was ordained in 2003.
He was recently barred from Lambeth conference.
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Victoria Nangle chats to an icon of eighties TV, the unforgettable Val Lehman aka Bea Smith

Bea Smith ruled the roost in Australia’s Wentworth prison from 1979 until 1983, and for those 400 episodes of Prisoner Cell Block H Val Lehman ruled Bea Smith. Iconic at the press in the laundry and constantly wrestling to maintain her position as Top Dog, the support for the show and for Bea, in particular, has been phenomenal. Now, almost 30 years later, Prisoner Cell Block H is finally available on DVD.
So how do you account for the show’s success? “I think it’s because it was possible for the audience to identify with the women. They weren’t perfect, with perfect hairstyles, perfect gowns, perfect make-up and a perfect home with a husband and children and a perfect lover.” She chuckles. “They were real women”.
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