Screening of Hudson'smarriage-equalityvideo draws celebs

\NEW YORK CITY—W Hotels Worldwide, in partnership with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), hosted an exclusive screening of Jennifer Hudson’s new music video for the song “I Still Love You” at the W New York-Union Square on June 4 as part of the hotel chain’s “Turn It Up For Change” LGBT marriage-equality campaign.

The event drew about 250 people, but not the singer herself. She told the audience in a taped speech that she wanted to attend, but instead was at her son’s graduation—and that led to a comical response from the event’s host, Andy Cohen, the Bravo TV host who moderated a panel after the premiere.

Cohen joked that he was wondering what Hudson was doing that kept her away from the star-filled event.

Nonetheless, the evening event featured appearances by Perez Hilton, drag sensation Lady Bunny, film directors Tabitha Denholm and Molly Schiot, LGBT model/activist Claudia Charriez; HRC’s Fred Sainz, recording artist Aiden Leslie and many others.

Topics in a 30-minute panel ranged from trans issues to W Hotels’ overall campaign in support of LGBT marriage rights to future plans to help push marriage equality in all 50 states.

“It’s a controversial [topic] but, in the end, it’s the right thing to do,” Anthony Ingham, the global brand leader for W Hotels Worldwide, told the audience.

The six-person panel followed a cocktail reception and the traditional red carpet-style photo shoot. Ingham said it was “a great event and the people [in the crowd] were really engaged, so that’s a great thing.”

Sainz, the vice president of communications and marketing for HRC, said, “I think it’s a testament to W’s leadership that they put on events like this in order to really talk about the importance of marriage equality, and equality to our country overall. I thought it was an incredibly powerful event.”

The screening was the fourth marquee event celebrating the partnership between W Hotels in partnership with Hudson and HRC. The video depicts a father’s last-minute decision to attend his gay son’s wedding.