Chelsea joins GLAAD for gala

Easily acceptable Pop-culture sage Chelsea Handler says, “Everybody needs to be tolerant of all people. It’s about human beings.” (Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO — Paris Hilton is still annoying, and boy is it ever fun to talk about the crumbling mental state of a certain famous singer — all this, according to Chelsea Handler.

The fiery comedienne cum talk show host (“Chelsea Lately”) cum best-selling writer (“Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea”) makes a memorable return to The City this weekend when she hosts the 20th annual GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Awards, which honor both locals and celebs whose work in the past year raised the level of awareness of and/or fairly represented LGBT culture, its people and issues.

Asked why she felt the LGBT community, as a whole, has embraced her verbally uninhibited panache, Handler chuckles.

“I’m outspoken,” she quickly says, “and outspokenness is a common quality in the LGBT community. And also because of the topics

I bring up, which I have a passion for and are important in the context of the silliest show in television.”

That would be “Chelsea Lately,” an irreverent half-hour late-night talkfest that fast became the ratings darling of the E! channel when it was unveiled several years ago. Handler, revered for “telling it like it is” and talking about things others are afraid to discuss, says “nobody is off limits.”

“I think John Mayer is making a resurgence as a complete idiot,” she says. “After Jennifer [Aniston] … it’s full throttle. He’s a real mess  — a carnival freak — and I’d like to keep track of that.”

As for GLAAD, Handler, and a bevy of others, have kept track of this year’s notables. Roughly 185 nominees were on the roster for the awards, doled out annually in Los Angeles, New York and The City in separate events. More than $3.5 million will be raised from the ceremonies.

Dustin Lance Black, Suze Orman, Wilson Cruz and Chad Allen are among those being honored in The City. Turning heads may be Geoff Callan and Mike Shaw, local filmmakers whose marriage equality-laced documentary, “Pursuit of Equality,” generated
significant buzz. 

Meanwhile, Handler, now a pop-culture sage and already busy writing another book (“Chelsea, Chelsea Bang Bang”), seems fine with GLAAD’s hosting duties.

“Everybody needs to be tolerant of all people,” she points out about the awards’ cultural significance. “It’s about human beings and being helpful and accepting to people who are in different situations than you."

IF YOU GO

GLAAD Media Awards

Where: Hilton Hotel, 333 O’Farrell St., S.F.
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: $100 and up
Contact: www.glaad.org