Perry’s dress shows she’s fashion forward

Pop star Katy Perry sported a skin-tight minidress with President Barack Obama’s campaign slogan “Forward” emblazoned across it at the president’s rally Saturday in Milwaukee.

Perry came on initially wearing a red, white and blue dress and holding a microphone shaped like the Statue of Liberty’s torch.

But after her first song, a cover of Al Green’s soul hit “Let’s Stay Together,” she tossed aside the dress to reveal the bright blue minidress.

Obama’s slogan “Forward” is also Wisconsin’s state motto.

Obama is set to appear in Madison on Monday with rocker Bruce Springsteen.

Thomas enjoys freedom of new project

Director Betty Thomas, who won an Emmy for “Hill Street Blues” before turning to directing, neatly sums up the benefits of making a low-budget online series: a lack of high-level meddling.

“There’s no network saying, ‘Oh, Betty, I’m not sure viewers will like that character if she picks that banana up,’ ” she said. Mention that the character enjoys fruit, she said, and the network comeback may be, “But what does a banana symbolize?”

The independence Thomas enjoyed making “Audrey,” about a woman whose great passion in life is food, for the WIGS YouTube channel came with its own challenges, including limited resources for the half-dozen episodes that are seven to eight minutes long.

“You get whoever you can force to work for no money,” she said. She had the advantage of cajoling previous collaborators including Gary Cole, whom Thomas directed in “The Brady Bunch Movie” (1995).

The birthday bunch

Actress Doris Roberts (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) is 82. Actress Loretta Swit (“M.A.S.H.”) is 75. Singer Delbert McClinton is 72. Actress Markie Post is 62. Actress Kathy Griffin is 52. Actor Ralph Macchio is 51. “Survivor” host Jeff Probst is 51. Actor Matthew McConaughey is 43. Rapper-producer Sean “Diddy” Combs is 43. Actress Gillian Zinser (“90210”) is 27.