Grand marshal chosen for Palm Springs Pride Parade

Television personality Ross Mathews will serve ascelebrity grand marshal for the 27th annual Greater Palm Springs Pride Paradeon Nov. 3, organizers announced today.

Mathews is a weekly regular on the E! show “Chelsea Lately” and nextmonth will begin starring in and producing a weekly talk show on the cablenetwork.

He rose to fame with his role as an intern, and later a correspondent,for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” for which he was known as “Ross theIntern.” His first book, “Man Up: Tales of My Self Delusional Self-Confidence,” was released last May.

Mathews, 33, and his partner are regulars in the Coachella Valley,according to Greater Palm Springs Pride.

Mathews will join organizers of the Sochi Pride movement, who were namedgrand marshals.

The national grand marshal is blogger Joe Jervis; and community grandmarshals are Melanie Jones, Ellen Zimmerman, Mark Jones and Brian Vatcher.

All of the grand marshals will be recognized at the Pride Honors awardsceremony on Oct. 4, organizers said.

The downtown parade is part of the Palm Springs Pride Celebration onNov. 1-3. This year’s theme is “It’s Time.”