As a member of Bistro Awards Committee, my lips have gotten sore and chapped from being sealed for so long, not revealing the chosen winners.  But look for the announcement finally this week!  The awards show is Tuesday, April 13, at Gotham Comedy Club on West 23 Street.  See www.bistroawards.com for all the juicy details and tickets as they become available, and the news will be here as well.  Meanwhile, two ladies you saw as part of last year’s Bistro show are around this week.  Catch ‘em while you can:  At 6pm this Wednesday, March 9, last year’s Bistro Award winner for Outstanding Vocalist, SUSAN WINTER, appears as part of the ongoing FREE series at Barnes & Noble on Broadway at West 66th Street.  She’ll be singing from her first CD, a live recording of her cabaret show Love Rolls On. Well worth the roll, or, rather spin.

For nearly two decades, and whether at its previous location near Lincoln Center or its current home on Broadway and 51st next door to the Winter Garden Theater, Iridium Jazz Club has endured as one of the finest jewels in the crown of Manhattan nightlife. Not merely a mecca for jazz fanatics to catch such soon-to-be legends of their day as Diana Krall, or more recently when the Stanley Jordan Quartet took the stage, proprietress Ellen Hart Sturm (the brains behind Ellen's Stardust Diner) has launched a venue which people will most fondly remember as the room where legendary guitarist Les Paul held court every Monday night for years until his lamented passing.

Memo to the WORLD!!! KIRSTIE ALLEY IS BACK!!! Yes, peeps, our girl Kirstie is back and better than ever! Starting this March 21^st, “Kirstie Alley’s BIG LIFE” is coming to A&E! Cameras follow our girl around the house, along with her two kids, assorted animals, assistant and the assistant-in-training, just being Kirstie. What’s not to love about this? Here’s the trailer, courtesy of the Huffington Post – who else? Love her thin, love her fat…maybe it’s just me, but I think our girl is hot either way.  What do you all think?

From the mid-1980s until the end of the decade, the comedy songwriting duo of Horowitz & Spector occupied a very special and extremely-visible place in the cabaret sphere. Known as much for their catchy melodies and snappy lyrics as their penchant for flashy garmenting (matching metallic pantsuits and headbands in gold and silver, huge rhinestone brooches proudly announcing “Horowitz & Spector” and the glitter the two would liberally sprinkle into their hair), it was a very short matter of time before they were headlining at such clubs as The Duplex and Panache Encore.

Memo to “The View” & Barbara Walters!

Ok, time to dump Hasselbeck! Really, I am so amazed that Joy has not hit her with a shovel and Whoopi hasn’t walked off the set. If the show needs a token Republican, what’s wrong with Meghan McCain? The woman has brains, looks, class and obviously that chip in her brain that Elizabeth seems to be missing. You know, the chip that prevents you from saying unbelievably stupid things that make people want to punch you out? Time to make the change, Barbara!!! Send Elizabeth to O’Reilly!

Despite the attractions of cabaret, I can understand how on many of these so very frigid nights it was tempting to stay warm and snuggly under the covers.  But now that the temperature is easing back up, why not go to Under the Covers instead of staying under the covers?  Under the Covers --- that’s “covers” as in “cover songs” where a singer re-does material that was a success for someone else.  It’s not the usual tribute show cherry-picking songs from across a star’s whole career ---  we’re talking about taking an entire classic old vinyl album by an icon and doing all the songs. 

Memo to ABC!

First, last week's "Ugly Betty." I have never laughed so hard! Ok, maybe it was a bit scary realizing that I knew EVERY drag queen on the show, from my darling Hedda Lettuce to RuPaul to Varla Jean & Justin Bond. Not to mention Vanessa's brother, Chris Williams, in HIGH DRAG as "The Wonderfully Wicked Wilheldiva Hater." And Kristen Johnston as Helen needs to be locked up! And they're taking this show off the air? Uh, hello? ABC...where are the queens who run your network???