Opening night of Sell/Buy/Date was hosted by Lily Tomlin and Laverne Cox.  Rashida Jones (no relation) was also listed as a host but, to the best of my knowledge, she showed up, took some photos, and presumably had better places to be.  Afterwards, my play mama, Jenifer Lewis, went backstage to congratulate Sarah.  I was walking into the lobby with Debra Messing when, right in front of me, I saw her…Brigitte Nielsen.  Believe it or not, I would (and did) knock people over to get to Nielsen.  Most remember Gitte from her marriage to Sylvester Stallone, her various other romantic entanglements, and her tabloid headlines.  But if you were in the UK when she did Celebrity Big Brother, you saw another side of Gitte – a human side and a real person capable of great love and compassion.  She’s smarter than you think, wickedly funny, brutally honest, and a nurturer.

When I came upon her (you can’t miss her – she’s like 9 feet tall), she was chatting with a group of women, led by comedian Whitney Cummings!  The topic?  Fertility, IVF, and older women giving birth.  Cummings was asking Brigitte everything about her landmark pregnancy at 54.  Whit may be only 36, but she’s obviously thinking about having children – and, more importantly, when.  She even said, “You know, they should tell girls when they’re young that they should freeze their eggs so that they have them…just in case.”  What a brilliant idea – and it came from Whitney Cummings!  Nielsen spoke with them endlessly and even offered to stay in touch and be of service.  It was surely anticlimactic when I engaged her in conversation about her time on CBB, dished about Jackie Stallone, spoke Italian with her husband, and perhaps drooled a bit over her model son, Douglas Aaron Meyer (picture a male version of Gitte).  Photos will follow on BillyMasters.com.