Meet Steven Le Vine!

Welcome back everyone to Justin Plus One. I'd like to thank you for sticking it out with me (assuming you did) last week.

In professional wrestling, when a wrestler admits that it's all pre-planned and the injuries are accidental, it is known as breaking kayfabe. Nowadays it's a lot more prevalent (especially with owner Vincent Kennedy McMahon going as far as to rebrand the WWE as "Sports Entertainment").

Okay, now you know I'm a wrestling dork, but this is for a reason...

Last week was a grand experiment with my Plus One Clint. To answer your questions, no I wasn't actually beaten up. No I didn't give him the blog for real. And yes, much like Ann Coulter, I must give credit to Clint for sticking to his douchey guns despite the hate mail he received playing his part.

Anyway, this week I am happy to bring Justin Plus One back to its standard format, and with a fantastic fellow coming to us all the way from the West Coast.

Okay, well for the next week or two he is in NJ visiting, but I assure you that has nothing to do with me or this blog. No, it was his own personal choice (seriously, I would never ask someone to give up that sun just to blog - I swear!)

The man in question is one Steven Le Vine - owner of grapeVine (a PR company he created) out in California. He has represented some of the greatest gay and lesbian folks on the planet, and has done a ton of good work for gay rights throughout his career.

In addition, Steven is a totally awesome (and super smart n sexy) fellow and I am beyond honored to have him share the J+1 stage with me. I've said more than enough for now, allow me to allow him to introduce himself to you!

xoJR

My Name:
Steven Le Vine

My Location:
Los Angeles, CA & Freehold, NJ

My Site/ Sites:
GrapeVine PR ,
GrapeVine on Twitter ,
Facebook

What I might post about:
The Public Relations and Entertainment industries and how they work within the context of gay culture

What I love:
music, traveling, sushi, super hot showers, Tiki culture, connecting with people on a positive level, nightlife, real people, checking out new restaurants, the boardwalk, visiting family and friends, pop art, Runyon Canyon, shopping, reading blogs/magazines, and people who can make me laugh until my gut hurts.

What I hate:
manipulative, phony, lazy and cynical people. Or, people who impose their religious dogma on others. Oh, and bad hair days and slow drivers.

My Last Word:
I grew up in the blue-collar town of Freehold Boro, N. J., also known as Bruce Springsteen’s hometown. In fact, we both went to the same High School. Over the past couple of years, I’ve grown to love my town very much and the people who live in. But, I currently live most of the time in L.A., and I love it here in a different way.

I have always been driven, but not in the conventional way. I always had to make my mark on everything in my own way. This really came into play about two years ago when I started my company, grapeVine PR, which I also consider my baby. I had been working in the PR industry straight out of college, but I always loved the entertainment world, and being gay, well it was instinctual. Being an entrepreneur was, and is, also instinctual, and it drove me out of the offices of others and into my own. All of these helped create the “perfect storm,” and in the end caused me to help found one of the first PR agencies in the world dedicated to gay and gay-friendly celebrities, businesses and organizations.

When I wake up every morning, I know that I love what I do, rather than dread waking up. It drives me to succeed, because I have the passion to do it and make a difference. Seeing that the most important thing to ever get us equal rights or to be more accepted as a community has always seemed to be having more visual presence in the media and showing that we aren’t much different from our heterosexual counterparts. By giving a platform and presence to many more interesting, talented and wonderful LGBT folks, the idea would be that it would help us over time gain more and more rights as a community. And I am on a mission to prove that!