Throwing a Lifeline to Gay Teenagers

As recent news events prove, the phenomenon of schoolyard bullying and teasing can have tragic consequences. Gay teens know this all too well. Thankfully, there is an organization in Los Angeles that is trying to help: The Trevor Project provides support to gay teenagers through a 24-hour, toll-free hotline, (800) 850-8078.

“This is the only help line in the country for gay youth and suicide prevention,” executive director Brenda Freiberg told us Sunday at a fund-raiser for the group. “It fills a need.” Freiberg, who served as assistant deputy mayor of Los Angeles from 1997 until June, lost two gay sons to AIDS.

The Trevor Project was established in 1998 to coincide with the HBO premiere of the Academy Award-winning short documentary “Trevor,” about the hardships faced by a gay teenager. Hotline administrators thought they’d receive about 3,000 calls by now; they have already received more than 15,000.

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Hands clenched and jaws dropped as Lord Wedgwood stepped up onto one tippy toe, his entire body balanced atop a tiny teacup. The feat was meant to demonstrate for Geary’s shoppers the strength of the dinnerware that is his namesake. (The cup survived without so much as a crack.)

“It’s 51% bone,” said the burly chap with rosy cheeks. “Oxen bone,” added Wedgwood Marketing Director Jeanette Brick. (The remaining 49% is clay.) “At an event in San Francisco, we had a Jaguar car parked on top of teacups. We’ve even had a double-decker bus full of people on top of our teacups,” she said.

Wedgwood was founded in 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood of Burslem Staffordshire, England. The firm’s newest designs, not surprisingly, are millennium-themed, with different patterns chronicling mankind’s achievements.

“After eight generations, that we are still making Wedgwood with the same level of craftsmanship is a source of great pride,” Lord Wedgwood told us Saturday in Beverly Hills. He travels the world, signing china for collectors, who spend as much as $15,000 for a limited-edition Pegasus vase or as little as $45 for a heart-shaped box.

Each piece has a story: “Russia’s Catherine the Great, who was British as you know, missed England terribly, so each piece of this ‘Frog’ service was decorated with a different scene from the British Isles,” he explained as he displayed a replica dessert plate painted with the abbey at Somerset and a teensy frog.

Although Lord Wedgwood lives in London, he’s fond of the colonies and reminisced about a film he once saw documenting the history of Colonial Williamsburg, Va., including the use of Wedgwood china.

“It makes me remember we had a following here even before our, um, little problem.”

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Product placement is not just for soda pop and cigarettes anymore. Witness Motorola’s recent fete at the new Hollywood club Blue. Friday’s party was the first step in a plan to reach out and touch the entertainment community. Celebs turned out en masse. We spotted Bai Ling, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, Edward Furlong, Kate Moss, Kathy Griffin, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt LeBlanc, Michael Bolton, Lucy Liu, Rick Schroder, Stephen Dorff and Rod Stewart.

Gift boxes, guarded by a menacing gent, spawned lots of interest.

“I need a new phone!” one woman said excitedly.

Unfortunately, when she emerged into the lamp-lit side street and opened the box, she found not a real cell phone but a chocolate one.

Psych!

Booth Moore can be reached at [email protected].