Entertainment

The Bitch is Back! Elton John has left a London hospital after being treated for flu and an E. coli bacterial infection.

Gary Farrow, the singer's spokesman, says gay icon Elton was at home on Friday and was feeling fine. He says Elton planned to continue his suspended tour and would play scheduled dates in America with Billy Joel starting in Oakland, California on November 14th. 

The 62 year old singer was forced to postpone concerts in London, Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle and Dublin, as well as three gigs in America.

His promoters are hoping to re-schedule the European dates for December.

JLS played a hugely popular gig at G-A-Y in the Heaven nightclub on Saturday night. The audience even got a flash of their recently toned torsos too.

Aston Merrygold, Marvin Humes, Jonathan 'JB' Gill and Oritsé Williams were supported by fellow X-Factor reject Rachel Adedeji. Now she has left the show she will be hoping to emulate their success.

JLS, which stands for Jack the Lad Swing, in honour a type of U.S. R&B, could well be on the edge of superstardom. In January, they start their first UK tour. The tour will see them perform in 7 cities including Newcastle, Manchester and London.

In an online interview Rachel revealed she may be producing a song with a producer currently working with JLS.

The 4th Stonewall Awards, hosted by Gok Wan, were held London's V&A and attended by more than 400 people including celebrities, politicians, sportspeople and writers. 

The event, sponsored by Barclays, celebrated those who have made a positive impact on the lives of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in 2009. 2009 winners are:

• Hero of the Year - chosen by Stonewall thousands of supporters – Reverend Scott Rennie. The Church of Scotland’s first openly gay minister was inducted in July in the face of shrill opposition from some quarters yet backed by his own Aberdeen congregation.
• Bigot of the Year – Father John Owen (voted by thousands of Stonewall supporters) and Jan Moir. Father John Owen claimed on BBC One’s The Big Questions that the majority of child abuse was carried out by gay men. Jan Moir became a late entrant to the award, following unprecedented requests from Stonewall supporters prompted by her Daily Mail piece on the death of Stephen Gately.
• Broadcast of the Year – Corrective Rape in South Africa. Samira Ahmed’s special report from Johannesburg focused on a horrific phenomenon emerging in South Africa – the targeting of lesbians for ‘corrective rape’. The judges singled out the report as a ‘shocking piece of television, which cast a light on discrimination suffered by lesbians, all too often overlooked in the media.’
• Entertainer of the Year – Boyzone. The Judges noted the huge influence that boy bands have on young people in particular. Stephen Gateley’s brave decision to come out was an important step and the band made pop history with their video featuring a same-sex couple a year ago.

Read more: Stonewalls Awards: Full Winners List Published

A new innovative website called the LGBT Collective has been launched that aims to promote the wide range of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans resources available across the South West peninsula. 

The website address is www.lgbtcollective.org.uk and has a directory of groups and projects across the peninsula, an events diary and local LGBT news.

This brand new resource is the first of its kind in the country and has been funded by the Big Lottery Fund.

As well as being a key new website resource, the Collective is also a physical body of LGBT groups and projects who come together to discuss issues that matter for them and work on campaigns that highlight issues important to LGBT people and communities.

The launch of this site is our first campaign and aims to raise the profile of the many resources available and to get information to rurally isolated people across the peninsula.

Read more: Gay Collective Up & Running

Have you got a valid will? If so, you’re in the minority.  

Every day, over 1,500 people die in the UK, and more than 70% of them die without a legally valid will – a truly shocking statistic, which can lead to conflict amongst the remaining family. Under UK law, when one of the partners dies marriages and civil partnerships are handled identically.

Now one of the country’s leading businessmen, Sir Gerry Robinson, wants to help change that. Assisted by expert legal advisors, he will help people to write their wills for a major new BBC2 series.  Sir Gerry is looking for local readers who might be interested in receiving free, expert help.  

“It shocked me when I found out how many people in this country haven’t written their will,” says Sir Gerry Robinson. “I want to start raising awareness of this issue, and helping people put their estates in order.” Even those who have written a will may find it is out of date. “If you wrote it twenty years ago, stuffed it in a drawer and forgot about it,” Sir Gerry points out, “you may find that your circumstances have changed so much it no longer applies. And if you didn’t get it properly witnessed at the time, it isn’t valid anyway.” 

Read more: Get Help with Your Will from Sir Gerry Robinson and the BBC