CLASSY GAY STUFF :

DOWNTON ABBEY, a thankfully-gone bygone era ...

2012-02-18T22:50:00.000-05:00

'DOWNTON ABBEY': Its Upside-Down Appeal
---- opening thoughts from an extended tv-arts commentary on the inverted politics of Downton Abbey by Carina Chocano at The New York Times, revised 19 February 2012 :-

For a man of equanimity, Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham and lord of Downton Abbey [played by UK actor Hugh Bonneville], is surprisingly prone to fits of temper — nothing sparks his ire like an injustice done to a social inferior in his employ. You half-expect him to tear off his dinner jacket and reveal a spandex unitard as he rushes to succor an admiring serf. When a young woman accuses his footman of cowardice, the master leaps to the man’s defense, chin quivering in righteous indignation. When his shellshocked interim valet tells him people look at him and wonder why he’s not in uniform, the master bellows, “You refer them to me and I’ll give them a piece of my mind!” ....
.... Has a fictional aristocrat as upright and honorable, as tender of heart and noble of spirit, as humble, forbearing, magnanimous, solicitous and totally ludicrous as the Earl of Grantham ever graced the screen? Supermodels playing rocket scientists in Nicolas Cage movies put less strain on my credulity. It’s not just that the earl takes his role as steward of the British class system seriously; it’s that he’s positively messianic in his flock-tending. His noblesse is all about oblige. In fact, save for an uncharacteristic, but not at all inconsistent, indiscretion toward the end of the second season, the earl’s behavior is a model of self-effacing forbearance. He simply cannot do enough. You can’t help wondering what gives? .... "
---- see more of this fascinating, extended questioning of Downton Abbey's pecking orders & social gestures by Carina Chocano of The New York Times at :-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/downton-abbey.html?_r=1&ref=television

HOLLYWOOD BABYLON | Gay History?

2012-02-17T22:24:00.000-05:00

Sex, Lies, & Celluloid
FULL SERVICE: The sex lives of the stars, by Scotty Bowers
---- excerpts from a substantial review by Roger Lewis in the Books page of The Mail Online (UK), 17 February 2012 :-

" Gore Vidal asserts on the back-flap of this book that ‘Scotty doesn’t lie’ - but that’s not the same thing as saying that Scotty Bowers, former Hollywood pimp and male prostitute, isn’t a considerable fabulist .... Bowers, as a hunky ex-marine, in the Forties became ‘enmeshed in a wild world of sexual intrigue the likes of which few people can ever begin to imagine’. Oh, I think most adolescent lads would be up to the task .... But on the whole, Bowers’ Tinsel Town is thoroughly gay .... Bowers beds the usual suspects - Anthony Perkins, Rock Hudson, and Tony Richardson; and yet he also spends enchanting evenings with masculine, pipe-puffing chaps like Walter Pidgeon and Raymond Burr ....
.... For a modest twenty-dollars, ‘I became the go-to guy in town for arranging whatever people desired’ - and the accounts of Charles Laughton’s tastes and Tyrone Power’s proclivities turned my stomach. .... Regular clients included George Cukor, Vincent Price .... Noel Coward, Cecil Beaton (‘painfully prissy’), Laurence Olivier, Peter Bull ... how curious and coincidental that all of them are dead and beyond being able to answer back! ....
.... Bower’s chief revelation concerns Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Despite there being massive, definitive, exhaustively researched biographies on each of them, which quite fail to mention any of this, Bowers’ contention is that the famous relationship between the stars was false and non-existent, because Hepburn was a lesbian and Tracy was a homosexual. .... "
---- see more of Roger Lewis's questioning article at The Mail at :-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2102101/Sex-lies-celluloid-FULL-SERVICE-THE-SECRET-SEX-LIVES-OF-THE-STARS-BY-SCOTTY-BOWERS.html
---- and compare it with an earlier commentary at The Express (UK) at :-
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/299140/I-was-a-gigolo-to-the-stars-I-was-a-gigolo-to-the-stars-I-was-a-gigolo-to-the-stars-I-was-a-gigolo-to-the-stars

OPERATIC GOINGS-ON at La Scala, Milan ...

2012-02-15T23:14:00.002-05:00

Opera Wars at Last Night's La Scala AIDA Premiere
---- a report on the eccentric behavior of opera aficionados from the very stylish Opera Chic site based in Milian, Italy :- 15 February 2012 :-

"La Scala AIDA always brings the dramz! Alagnagate '06! Last night's Aida premiere at La Scala cut divisions among the theater's loggione (*) and orchestra. Franco Zeffirelli's 49-year-old Aida was put back into rotation in a nod to the Italian director's long La Scala legacy -- it had originally premiered in 1963.
After the the second act intermission, conductor Omer Meir Wellber was greeted with boos from the loggione as he took the podium, although an intrepid voice rang out in his defence: "It's not the conductor's fault, but the fault of an unprofessional orchestra."
During the second intermission, one of the orchestra members came into the lobby to defend the orchestra's work. He argued in front of journalists that, to the contrary, the orchestra helped out the conductor a lot and even tried to cover some of the vocal problems of the singers -- Oksana Dyka sang Aida, Marianne Cornet was Amneris and Jorge De Leon was Radames.
Four hours later, three curtain calls of "light, lukewarm applause" set the backdrop for a shout from the loggione that said, "Shame on you guys!"
La Scala 69'd Zeffirelli's 2006 disco fever, Bolle-thonged dancer's AIDA production that was made famous for Roberto Alagna's Radames mid-aria walk-off after a boo was fired from the loggione.
Good times."
(* loggione = claque of followers, "the Gods" in the theater)
---- check-out more of opera's fun-&-games at Opera Chic's daily updates on musical life in Italy at :-
http://operachic.typepad.com/
---- or if you are lucky enough to be in Milan through the current La Scala season, check out ticketing options for Zeffirelli's AIDA at :- http://www.teatroallascala.org/en/index.html

CONN IGGULDEN's fifth Mongol novel | Historical Fiction

2012-02-14T18:09:00.000-05:00

From a Teacher's Tales to Terrible Tyrants
---- excerpts from an article by Sue Grant-Marshall at Business Day (South Africa), 14 February 2012 :-

"BRITISH author Conn Iggulden writes his million-seller historical fiction the way Wilbur Smith writes novels, and with the same results — sleepless nights for his readers. In his latest book, Conqueror (Harper Collins), he sets history ablaze with such vigour and pace even I, a mere woman, am riveted by battle scenes between the Mongol and Chinese armies. Conversely, he weaves his fantastic tale about Kublai Khan, one of history’s most powerful and richest men, with remarkable insight and sensitivity.
His characters are so exquisitely crafted that Genghis Khan, Kublai’s grandfather, who was as illiterate as he was infamously cruel, leaps to life. This is in spite of there being only one record of his rampaging existence from which Iggulden could draw.
.... His books sell as fast as the Arctic’s ice melts, yet he’s one of the most self-effacing, boyishly enthusiastic authors I’ve met. I have to wheedle his success story out of him. He’s the schoolteacher son of an Irish mother, "who, from an early age, told me history was an exciting series of stories, with dates".
He’d written and had 17 books rejected before he turned 20. He told his wife Ella that one on the young Julius Caesar, that he’d taken a year off teaching to write, would, if rejected, "finish me off because I was running out of money".
It marked his turning point. Five publishing houses had a bidding war over it and now, eight years on, he’s sold at least 7-million historical books.
.... Iggulden is a staggeringly prolific author. Since 2003 he’s produced a 400-page-plus historical novel every year. In addition, he’s written a children’s book about tough fairies called Tollins and a novella, Blackwater .... "
---- see more of Sue Grant-Marshall's article about Conn Iggulden at Business Day at :-
http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=164847

MATT BOMER, actor & hunk, acknowledges his partner | GAY RELATIONSHIPS

2012-02-13T23:54:00.002-05:00

"White Collar's" Matt Bomer Comes Out
---- excerpts from a news report at The Hollywood Reporter, 13 February 2012 :-

"White Collar star Matt Bomer officially came out as gay on Saturday when he publicly thanked his partner, Simon Halls, and their three children while accepting an award. The star of USA's hit series attended the Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards this weekend, where he received the New Generation Arts and Activism Award for his efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Bomer’s partner, Hall, is a publicist with Slate PR. He represents Ryan Murphy, Neil Patrick Harris and such production companies as Working Title. .... Bomer, 34, has previously declined comment when asked about his love life. .... Bomer will guest star in an April episode of Glee as Blaine's (Darren Criss) older brother. Bomer also has joined Glee creator Murphy's next feature, the big-screen adaptation of the Tony-winning drama The Normal Heart. Additionally, he stars in Magic Mike, the male stripper movie based loosely on Channing Tatum's own experience and set for release in June. [ Bomer and his partner, Simon Halls, have three children, Kit, Walker, and Henry]"
---- see more of The Hollywood Reporter's item at :-
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/matt-bomer-gay-white-collar-simon-hall-290036

NABOKOV'S GAY BROTHER | Gay Fiction

2012-02-13T00:55:00.000-05:00

A Pioneer of Queer Theory in Literature
---- selected extracts from a substantial article by reporter Emma Daniels at The Miscellany News, Vasser College (US), 13 February 2012 :-

"Famed Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov wrote, "For various reasons, I find it inordinately hard to speak about my other brother." Professor of English Paul Russell decided to investigate the rich story behind Nabokov's words in his newest book The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov: A Novel. Released last November, the book centers on Nabokov's gay brother, Sergey.
Nabokov barely mentions Sergey in his autobiography, and in 1915 publicly outed Sergey's homosexuality. In 1943, Sergey was arrested and sent to a concentration camp, where he died in 1945. "I wanted to reclaim that life, somehow, from all various forces—familial and historical—that conspired to essentially erase his existence," said Russell. The book, Russell's seventh novel, was well received by critics. ....
.... Russell teaches a variety of courses at Vassar. His academic interests include authors like Dickens and Proust, Nabokov, queer studies, 20th-century British and Irish literature and creative writing. ....
.... His recent book on Sergey Nabokov and his other gay characters, as well as his gay-themed classes, have all promoted tolerance of the LGBTQ community, and been influential in the creation of a vocal LGBTQ community. .... "
---- see more of Emma Daniels' report at The Miscellany News at :-
http://www.miscellanynews.com/2.1579/russell-pioneers-queer-theory-in-literature-at-vassar-1.2697147

HETS ... their very, very brief formal history | Gay Science

2012-02-12T01:11:00.001-05:00

Ten Surprising Facts About Heterosexuality (Redux)
---- extracts from an eleven-frame slideshow by Hanne Blank posted at the Gay Voices pages of The Huffington Post, 11 February 2012 :-

[A former Scholar of the Institute for Teaching and Research on Women at Towson University, Hanne has taught in various capacities on campuses, including Brandeis and Tufts. She is also a popular speaker and guest lecturer, with appearances ranging from Harvard University to the inaugural Femme Conference in 2006.]
"When I began work on my book Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality, I often got teased by friends .... The history of heterosexuality is actually a motherlode of remarkable and sometimes deeply strange stuff, from the broad-brush conceptual to the kinds of tidbits you add to your cocktail-party repertoire. Not only does the history of heterosexuality offer up surprises that make you rethink what "heterosexual" is and means, it also makes you realize how little we really know about this thing about which most of us assume we already know everything we need to. The following is the tenth of my personal favorites in the form of an 11-page slide show...
No. 10 Heterosexual? "Heterosexual" is not, and never was, a scientific term. Nor is "homosexual." Both were coined in the context of what we'd now call gay rights activism, during a campaign of pamphleteering and letter-writing in opposition to a mid-19th-century German sodomy law. ....
The idea behind the words "heterosexual" and "homosexual" was to demonstrate through language that these were merely two ways in which human beings could be sexual, distinct and equal, with the implication that sodomy laws should apply equally to everyone... or else to no one at all."

---- see the remaining ten frames of Hanne Blank's eye-opening slideshow at The Huffington Post at :-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hanne-blank/10-surprising-facts-about-heterosexuality_b_1269706.html?ref=gay-voices
---- & check the earlier story titled Straight & Narrow further down this blog.

COURTLY QUEENS ... why we love 'em

2012-02-10T22:54:00.000-05:00

Why We Love To Read Novels About Queens
(No, there's no pun intended)
---- the opening pars of a 2-part essay by Stephanie Cowell at Wonders & Marvels (US) site for history lovers, 10 February 2012:-
"Do readers never tire of reading about queens? What is the great fascination?
I decided to ask some novelists, readers, bloggers, and experts.
I met Sarah Johnson, the author of Historical Fiction II: A Guide to the Genre and compiler of the blog Reading the Past (http://www.readingthepast.com), at the semi-annual Historical Novel Society U.S. conference. She told me, “It’s safe to say that the fascination for such novels has been ongoing for some time. Dumas was writing novels about Marguerite de Valois and Marie Antoinette in the 1840s and ’50s, for instance, and he wasn’t the first. The trend comes and goes, and now it’s firmly on the upswing with novelists such as Jean Plaidy, Norah Lofts, Margaret George, and Philippa Gregory and many gifted others.” (Sarah believes perhaps a few dozen such novels were published in 2011.)
But why do we want to read about queens? Sandra Gulland, author of the magical trilogy about Josephine Bonaparte (the empress) and Mistress of the Sun (mistress of Louis XIV), answered, “I think we simply are hungry for stories of women in a position of power, because it’s so rare. Some handle it gracefully (i.e. Josephine Bonaparte), and others wilt in the harsh glare of such light (Louise de la Vallière).” Sarah Johnson replied, “The majority of novels about queens take place in eras (12th through 18th centuries) when women had little say in the major decisions affecting their lives, but most queens, whether they were rulers themselves or consorts, had a wide sphere of influence. Plus, these women were served the finest cuisine, wore the most expensive gowns, had the most talented artists and musicians around them… and readers love descriptions of court life. (This is assuming the queens didn’t end up in the Tower or its international equivalent!”) .... "
---- see more of Stephanie Cowell's 2-part essay about women in historical novels at Wonders & Marvels at :-
http://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2012/02/why-we-love-to-read-novels-about-queens-part-i.html

GAY RAPPER's 99 PROBLEMS | Gay Society

2012-02-09T22:12:00.001-05:00

Hip Hop's Biggest Taboo - And How It's Being Challenged
---- the opening pars from an extended article by Zoe Camp in The Eye (Columbia Daily Spectator) USA, 9 February 2012 :-

"Richard Ruperto wakes up in the morning with one goal in mind: to become a hip-hop sensation. He’s been hustling for years, tirelessly releasing mixtape after mixtape, remix after remix, and maintaining a large social media presence without the dozens-deep entourages rap stars typically have. A lifelong resident of the projects of Spanish Harlem and raised by a single mother, Ruperto regards his community with the diehard devotion of a mayor. He wants to give back to the people of Spanish Harlem, get his mother a nice apartment, and sign a record contract with Young Money.
Ruperto’s bio is not too different from those of other hip-hop artists—he wants to use his music to tell his story and give back to his neighborhood and the people in it who gave him the strength to succeed. And that’s where this story takes a turn: Richard Ruperto, also known by his stage name, Loco Ninja, is openly gay.
In the world of hip-hop, where “faggot” is still a common diss track insult and machismo reigns supreme, Loco’s sexual orientation is quite possibly the greatest commercial disadvantage possible. To date, no openly gay male hip-hop artist has signed to a major record label. While there have been some successful female rappers who identify as LGBTQ—Lady Sovereign and recent breakthrough rapper Azealia Banks have been open about their sexualities in interviews—out male rappers have had a harder time breaking into the community. This is a business standard that is not difficult to understand within the context of a musical culture in which “no homo” is still a common tagline and chief figures ranging from Chuck D to Eminem have, at some point or another, declared their discomfort with the gay community.. ...."
---- see more of Zoe Camp's insightful look at hip hop at The Eye blog page at :-
http://eye.columbiaspectator.com/?q=article/2012/02/09/99-problems-beat-aint-one

COOL GAY SEX at the Super Bowl? | Gay Perspectives

2012-02-08T23:55:00.002-05:00

Sex Sells, Gay or Straight
---- brief excerpts from a perceptive, whimsical post by artist Jeffrey Augustine Songco at the HuffPost TV pages, 8 February 2012 :-

"Did you catch the Toyota Camry Super Bowl commercial [in the USA Sunday]? The narrator begins the ad with a voiceover: "After reinventing the Toyota Camry, we decided to keep reinventing." Then, a dorky guy carrying a bag of groceries opens the door of his apartment and is stunned at the sight before him: a group of seven bikini-clad female models forming the shape of a couch. "This is the reinvented couch." The dorky guy smiles. Then the couch reappears as a group of seven shirtless male models. "It also comes in male."
.... He shrugs his shoulders, raises his eyebrows, and nods his head with the approval of a customer who understands the options. A basic oh, cool, OK reaction: no demarcating comment regarding masculinity, no insult-as-joke, and no homophobic disinterest.
.... But for me as a guy who watches too much non-recorded television (yes, I love commercials), it's amazing to see Toyota's "It's Reinvented," not because it showed gay sex, but because it showed a reaction to gay sex as oh, cool, OK. .... "
---- see more of Jeffrey Augustine Songco's cool Super Bowl commercial's observations at :-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-augustine-songco/toyota-camry-reinvented-commercial_b_1256612.html?ref=tv&ir=TV
---- & check the Toyota Camry Super Bowl commercial in the sidebar. Follow Songco on Twitter:www.twitter.com/VB2023
---- or check the insightful assessment in A Superbowl For The People at The American Prospect, 10 February 2012, at :- http://prospect.org/article/super-bowl-people

CHRISTOPHER BRAM redux | On becoming gay ...

2012-02-08T00:16:00.002-05:00

How Books Made Me Gay
Christopher Bram is the author of eight novels, including Gods and Monsters (originally titled Father of Frankenstein), which was made into an Academy Award-winning film.
---- the opening pars from a whimsical revelation by Christopher Bram reflecting on his youth, published in the Gay Voices pages of The Huffington Post (US edition), 8th February 2012 :-

"I came of age in the 1960s and 1970s. I was a slow learner as a gay man and I used books to show me the way. You might say that I read my way out of the closet. Growing up outside Norfolk, Virginia, I was a shy, bookish boy, a good boy, a Boy Scout--literally. I did not learn about gay sex by doing it, heaven forbid, or even from hearing about it.
There was no internet back then, no "It Gets Better" campaign. The only gay characters on TV were about mannerisms, not sex or affection, and the rare gay characters in movies were usually evil. I had no choice but to explore my sexuality through books. Luckily there was a lot out there, and I was able to use it in my own private, idiosyncratic way.
This struck home again recently while I wrote my literary history, Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America. Without knowing it, I'd been preparing for much of my life to write such a book, reading many of the same novels and memoirs read by earlier generations of gay men to discover who they were. Books helped me to become the kind of gay man I am. I know it's different for later generations. We now have open representations of gay life and individuals on TV and the internet, in music and theater, on YouTube and Facebook, in good movies and bad movies. But despite all the modern options, I still meet young, quiet, bookish folk like myself who took the long away around, going through the library to find out who they are. And it's not a bad route.
Here are a few of the titles that helped me: [Non-Spoiler Alert: Check Christopher Bram's original article to read about his five selected influences at The Huffington Post :-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-bram/how-books-made-me-gay_b_1254550.html?ref=books
---- see also a post about his book Eminent Outlaws four stories down this blog's posts.

INTOLERANT TOLERANCE ... a French movie about 19thCent prostitution

2012-02-06T21:21:00.000-05:00

HOUSE OF TOLERANCE
---- excerpts from a review by Trevor Johnston at Time Out (UK), 1st February 2012 :-

"Seductive on the surface, steely underneath, this is an angry, fascinating, highly political film all wrapped up in costumed frilliness. .... This striking mix of plush visuals, knife-edge drama and provocative ideas captures the daily routine of a Parisian brothel circa 1900. Our interest isn’t purely historical, however, since the interchange of sex, capital and labour is far from a thing of the past. Writer-director Bertrand Bonello uses incongruously modern music (gutsy vintage R ’n’ B, The Moody Blues!) and the odd time-shift cutaway for emphasis – but we’ve already taken the point. These girls have opted out of the privations of working-class toil for the maison close .... yet we’re left in no doubt as to the price of escaping the backstreets. ....
.... What draws the viewer in, though, is the way this highlights those fleeting moments in which the prostitutes’ humanity somehow finds its own space – like a picnic sequence, as lovely as a Manet canvas, where the nudity’s an innocent reclamation of their own beauty. .... "
---- see more of Trevor Johnston's Time Out review at :-http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/89943/house-of-tolerance.html
---- & visit a separate review at The Guardian (UK) at :-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jan/29/house-of-tolerance-review-apollonide
---- plus view the English-subtitled, French-language, trailer in the opposite side bar. The movie opened recently in London after opening in the USA in November. It will open in other markets through 2012.

SPARTACUS VENGEANCE tells it like it is ...

2012-02-05T22:49:00.000-05:00

"SPARTACUS VENGEANCE": 5 Misconceptions of the Era
From waxed chests to homosexuality, Steven DeKnight reveals the facts on the era depicted in the Starz series
---- very brief excerpts from a whimsical history refresher course by Jethro Nededog in The Hollywood Reporter (US), 3 February 2012 :-
"To a certain extent, it isn’t really the job of a period film or TV series like Starz’s Spartacus: Vengeance to teach us about history. Its main purpose is to deliver a fantastic viewing experience for fans, but that doesn’t mean the series hasn’t tried to stay as historically correct as it can be. .... “There are always a bunch of little adjustments that we have to make,” series creator Steven DeKnight tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I always say we try to stay close to history. We’ll bend it. We’ll try not to break it. But at the end of the day, our number one job is to entertain the audience. ....
.... At the same time, DeKnight says there are certain misconceptions of the time period that come up over and over from fans. Here are five of the biggest ones according to the series creator [abridged].
1. Cursing goes way back. “I sent my historical consultants a question about cursing, ‘What curses did they use?’ They sent me back a hysterical e-mail that ran through all the curses that they used. They were all exactly the same that we use now,” he says.
2. “Manscaping” isn’t a modern trend. “The Romans waxed. They waxed and they plucked. They considered hair barbaric,” DeKnight explains.
3. In other hairy matters, the Romans wigged out. "If you were bald, you were considered to be lascivious. It was frowned upon. So, they would cover it up with wigs.”
4. And before you ask about the Romans wearing makeup: “I have had comments about makeup,” he points out. “ ‘They didn’t have makeup back then,’ people have said. Yes they did.”
5. Same sex, so what? “The Romans had such a different view of same sex relationships, especially among the men,” he says. “It was pretty much accepted among the men. ....“I still get so many comments mostly from young guys saying, ‘Oh I love the show. It’s fantastic. Do you really need all that gay shit?” .... I just don’t understand how straight males can feel threatened by what two other people are doing. It always boggles my mind.”
---- SPARTACUS: Vengeance opened on Starz in the US last month, and will follow in other global markets. Check the trailer in the sidebar for a taste of the mayhem, & read more of the Hollywood Reporter's entertaining article at :-
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/spartacus-vengeance-starz-steven-deknight-history-misconceptions-287051

THE NORMAL HEART comes to the screen | Gay History

2012-02-04T00:26:00.000-05:00

Mark Ruffalo Falls For Matt Bomer in "THE NORMAL HEART"
---- a news post by Christopher Donaldson at gay.net (US), January 2012 :-

"Ovid, the Roman poet, had a saying: amor tussisque non celantur. 'Love and a cough are not concealed.'

If true, let’s hope that the sound of love between Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) and Matt Bomer (White Collar) behaves audibly, even wildly, in the silver-screen adaptation of Larry Kramer’s Tony Award-winning play, "The Normal Heart," the latest feature-length from Hollywood’s most overworked gay, Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story, Eat Pray Love).

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ruffalo will wander into the drama—an autobiographical take on the AIDS pandemic that swept across New York City in the 1980s—as Ned Weeks, the LGBT activist who falls invariably in love with closeted New York Times fashion writer Felix Turner, played by Bomer.

Prepare to fan yourselves furiously, for Julia Roberts has also signed onto the project in the role of Emma Brookner, the wheelchair-bound doctor who advocates an abstinence only approach to man-on-man sex (her response to “gay cancer”) while Alec Baldwin will play Ben Weeks, Ned’s homophobic brother.

Hollywood’s most overworked gay-friendly-heterosexual, Brad Pitt, will produce the film under the influence of his production company Plan B."

---- see Christopher Donaldson's report at gay.net at :-

http://www.gay.net/entertainment/2012/01/23/mark-ruffalo-falls-matt-bomer-normal-heart

GAY CULTURE ... the risk takers win out at last ...

2012-02-02T22:29:00.000-05:00

A Fraternity of Risk Takers
Christopher Bram tackles the rich, but largely untold history of gay novelists, playwrights, and poets
---- excerpts from an interview by Gary M Kramer with writer Christopher Bram about his new book Eminent Outlaws, posted at Gay City News (US), 1st February 2012 :-

"Christopher Bram’s new non-fiction book, “Eminent Outlaws” is a compelling history of American gay male writers and their literature. And Bram is as good a writer as the many folks he includes here. .... From poet Allen Ginsberg to playwright Tennessee Williams and novelists James Baldwin, Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, and Edmund White, among many others, Bram provides a remarkable chronicle of how gay writing became a catalyst for social change.
In a recent email exchange, Bram — the author of nine novels, including “Hold Tight,” “Gossip,” “Exiles in America,” and “Father of Frankenstein,” the basis of the 1998 film “Gods and Monsters” starring Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave, and Brendan Fraser — discussed his book and the risk-taking writers that inspired him and “Eminent Outlaws.” [A sample question-&-answer follows. - G.G.]
GMK: Risk seems to be a unifying theme in “Eminent Outlaws,” as well as in your own fiction. Why is this element such a critical component to gay writing?
CB: I think risk is an important component to all good fiction writing, and not just gay writing. Good writers stick their necks out and take chances. They write what they need to write — what they burn to write — without thinking too much of the consequences. Almost all of the writers I discuss began their careers by writing something gay, got kicked in the teeth, then tried to play it cool, but later came back to the subject.
Some were quite cagy about it, such as Gore Vidal, who avoided it after “City and the Pillar,” then returned with “Myra Breckinridge,” recognizing he had hit upon something so polymorphous perverse it left the idea of “gay” in the dust.
Others, like Christopher Isherwood, swore off the subject after being slammed by the critics, tried to write something straight, and then said, “Fuck it,” and wrote “A Single Man.” ....

---- see more of Gary M Kramer's insightful interview with Christopher Bram in Gay City News at :-
http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2012/02/01/gay_city_news/arts/doc4f299a884f104216673681.txt
---- or see a different evaluation at The New York Times of 3 February 2012 :-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/books/christopher-brams-eminent-outlaws-on-american-gay-writers.html?_r=2
---- plus a further appraisal by Melissa Martin at The Winniped Free Press, 4 February 2012, at :-
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/books/how-gay-writers-drove-revolution-138700999.html

SUPERMAN star's first leading role | Henry Cavill

2012-01-30T22:21:00.001-05:00

SUPERMAN with Daddy Issues
‘Man of Steel’ star Henry Cavill finds out about his dad’s (Bruce Willis) dangerous past, and races against time to save his family in the ‘The Cold Light of Day’ trailer.
---- snippets from a movie blurb report by Sandy Schaefer at ScreenRant, 30 January 2012 :-

"Summit Entertainment’s The Cold Light of Day reads as being just another average entry in the mystery-thriller genre – with a slight Hitchockian twist, involving a vacationing young man’s family falling into danger due to the secret history of his otherwise seemingly-benign father.
That is, at least, before you learn that the film features Immortals star and the new Superman in Man of Steel (Henry Cavill), along with longtime fan-favorite acting veterans such as Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver – as the movie’s shrewd anti-hero and calculating villainess, respectively. In that regard, The Cold Light of Day suddenly becomes a film worth your attention. .... "
[The movie hits US cinemas on 6 April, with other international markets to follow. UK actor Henry Cavill is renown for his role at Theseus in the recent "Immortals", plus his earlier role in the tv series "The Tudors".]
---- check the movie's trailer in the right sidebar, & read the original report in ScreenRant at :-
http://screenrant.com/cold-light-of-day-trailer-sandy-148902/
---- plus a further pre-release report at :-
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/movies/news/article_1688211.php/Henry-Cavill--Bruce-Willis-star-in-new-Cold-Light-of-Day-trailer

BORN THIS WAY? | Gay Science

2012-01-30T01:27:00.001-05:00

Genetic or Not, Gay Won't Go Away
---- excerpts from an opinion piece by Frank Bruni in The New York Times, 28 January 2012 :-

"BORN this way. That has long been one of the rallying cries of a movement, and sometimes the gist of its argument. Across decades of widespread ostracism, followed by years of patchwork acceptance and, most recently, moments of heady triumph, gay people invoked that phrase to explain why homophobia was unwarranted and discrimination senseless.

Lady Gaga even spun an anthem from it. But is it the right mantra to cling to? The best tack to take? .... there are problems with some gay advocates’ insistence that homosexuality be discussed and regarded as something ingrained at the first breath.

By hinging a whole movement on a conclusion that hasn’t been — and perhaps won’t be — scientifically pinpointed and proved beyond all doubt, they hitch it to a moving target. The exact dynamics through which someone winds up gay are “still an open question,” said Clinton Anderson, the director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns Office of the American Psychological Association. “There is substantial evidence of various connections between genes, brain, hormones and sexual identity,” he said. “But those do not amount to a simple picture that A leads to B.”

One landmark study looked at gay men’s brothers and found that 52 percent of identical twin brothers were also gay, in contrast with only 22 percent of nonidentical twin brothers and 11 percent of adoptive, genetically unrelated brothers. Heredity more than environment seemed to be calling the shots.

Other research has posited or identified common anatomical and chromosomal traits among gay men or lesbians, and there’s discussion of a gay gene or, rather, set of genes in the mix. The push to isolate it is entwined with the belief that establishing that sexual orientation is like skin color — an immutable matter of biology — will make homophobia as inexcusable as racism and winnow the ranks of haters. .... "

---- see more of Frank Bruni's opinion piece at The NY Times t :-

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/bruni-gay-wont-go-away-genetic-or-not.html?_r=2

MONTY PYTHON returns | Cool New Movie

2012-01-27T22:49:00.000-05:00

New pic reunites Monty Python members
'Absolutely Anything' will be sci-fi comedy
---- brief excerpts from a news report by Dave McNary in Variety (USA), 26 January 2012:-

"Members of Monty Python's Flying Circus are reteaming for "Absolutely Anything," a sci-fi farce combining CGI and live action, with Terry Jones to direct and Mike Medavoy to produce.
Plans are for filming to begin in the U.K. this spring, with the Pythons voicing key roles as a a group of aliens who endow an earthling with the power to do "absolutely anything" to see what a mess he'll make of things -- which is precisely what happens. There's also a talking dog named Dennis who seems to understand more about the mayhem that ensues than anyone else does. Robin Williams will voice the character.
"It's not a Monty Python picture, but it certainly has that sensibility," Jones told Variety.
.... Jones co-directed 1974's "Monty and the Holy Grail" with Terry Gilliam and was the sole director on "Life of Brian" and "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life." He said Gilliam and Python members John Cleese and Michael Palin have agreed to perform and added that producers are attempting to sign Eric Idle. ....
---- see more about this Monty Python reunion in Dave McNary's Variety article at :-
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049265
---- & check the YouTube video in the sidebar to recall the Python's style of movie fun.

OUT ACTORS | 81% of British actors

2012-01-26T23:02:00.000-05:00

UK Survey: 81% of Actors Open About Their Sexuality
---- brief excerpts from an article by Stephen Gray in Pink News (UK), 26 January 2012 :-

"In a new survey of the acting industry, eight in ten actors said they were ‘out’ professionally and three quarters of respondents said the decision to come out had not hindered their career. The poll of 326 actors was carried out by Equity, the union for actors, stage managers and models and published in The Stage today.
81% of respondents said they were openly gay in their professional life, and 94% were open to performers they are working with. But 43% said they would not be so open talking to their agent. ....
.... Rupert Everett, who starred in My Best Friend’s Wedding, has suggested that his career was damaged by coming out in the 1990s. In 2009, he told the Observer: “The fact is that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the British film business or the American film business or even the Italian film business. “It just doesn't work and you’re going to hit a brick wall at some point. .... "
.... Other stars, including Cutting It’s Ben Daniels, have rejected Everett’s comments. .... “There are actors I know who won’t come out, and I can see it crippling them as human beings. It’s a great shame that people can’t be who they are in the 21st century, and people won’t let them be who they are.”
---- see more of this candid article by Stephen Gray at pinknews.com at :-
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/01/26/uk-survey-81-of-gay-actors-open-about-sexuality/

"ZENNE DANCER" | Cool Gay Movie

2012-01-25T18:11:00.000-05:00

Turkish film highlights gay honor killing
---- excerpts from a news report by Susan Fraser (AP) at chron.com (Texas, US), 25 January 2012 :-

"ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Shortly after telling his parents he was gay, Ahmet Yildiz was gunned down inside his car by his father in Istanbul. It was Turkey's first officially recognized gay "honor killing."

An award-winning film partly inspired by Yildiz's story, which opened in dozens of cinemas across Turkey last week, is putting the spotlight on gays in a Muslim country that is seeking European Union membership but remains influenced by conservative and religious values.

The film "Zenne Dancer" — or male belly dancer — is not the nation's first gay-themed movie but is the first to explore the little-known phenomenon of men killed by family members for being gay. So-called honor killings in Turkey usually target women accused of disgracing the family. ....

.... "Zenne Dancer" won four awards at Turkey's coveted Antalya Golden Orange film festival this year, including best First Film and Best Cinematography. Erkan Avci, who plays Yildiz's character, won Best Supporting Actor. ....

.... Gay honor killings are believed to be common in Turkey's conservative heartland. But Yildiz's murder was the first in Turkey to be reported by authorities as a gay honor killing. .... Zenne dancing itself harks back to the Ottoman Empire, a time when there was a degree of tolerance toward gay sex among some sectors of the elite. .... "Zenne Dancer" is currently showing in 50 cinemas in 16 out of Turkey's 81 provinces. .... "

---- see more of Susan Fraser's disturbing insight into Turkish society at chron.com (The Houston Chronicle) at :-

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Turkish-film-highlights-gay-honor-killing-2681968.php
---- see also the February 10th article at :-
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/arts-and-entertainment/movies/animated-foreign/Hit-Film-Zenne-Dancer-Explores-Turkish-Gay-Community-139080349.html
---- plus check the movie's English subtitled trailer in the sidebar & another news report at :-
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/watch-trailer-for-zenne-the-controversial-gay-honor-killing-film-thats-challenging-turkey.php

TOLKIEN, DOYLE, HAGGARD, & the value of fantasy ...

2012-01-21T20:49:00.000-05:00

There And Back again ... how writer's fictional worlds have colonized real life

---- brief excerpts from a substantial essay by Tom Shippey at The Wall Street Journal, 21 January 2011 :- "In "As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality," a historical and cultural study of fiction fandom, Michael Saler counterpunches vigorously against the whole edifice of literary snobbery. What he has to say is so self-evidently right that the fact he has to say it makes one wonder how the critical profession has managed, for so long, to cultivate such a large blind spot. His book should be essential reading in every graduate school of the humanities. But it's much more fun than that recommendation suggests. Mr. Saler's contention is that, as the developed world has grown more rational, progressive, secular, and "disenchanted" since the Industrial Revolution, the dominant reaction, among the literary intelligentsia, has been to withdraw into "inner consciousness," to proclaim "art for art's sake," to scorn and reject mere shallow entertainment. .... Most readers, though, weren't fooled. They went along with the joke out of a sense of fun—and then they started to join in. The "first fictional creation that adults openly embraced as real," Mr. Saler argues, was Sherlock Holmes. By the 1930s people had produced biographies, chronologies of his adventures, speculations about his private life and Dr. Watson's and—continuing right up to now—many sequels and continuations. Conan Doyle had made it easy for them by leaving so many loose ends, and building in so many provocative allusions ....Tolkien, similarly, was an English "essentialist"—he believed that there were English qualities bred in the bone or rooted in the soil, which is unlikely, to say the least. This last belief, however, was no obstacle at all for millions of non-English readers world-wide. Mr. Saler notes that they were given a lead by Tolkien's own characters: Treebeard, Aragorn, Gandalf and even Shagrat the orc all accept that there may be different stories and different interpretations. "

---- see more of Tom Shippey's account of Michael Saler's literary critique of "AS IF" at The Wall Street Journal at :- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577156860068204638.html?mod=WSJ_Books_LS_Books_8

EDMUND WHITE on sex & death | GAY FICTION

2012-01-17T20:15:00.001-05:00

Sex & Death Are Two Great Subjects for Literature
---- very brief excerpts from a revealing interview with US author Edmund White at Metro.co (UK), 17 January 2012 :-

  Edmund White has had 3,000 lovers and, at 72, shows no signs of slowing down. The author tells Metro about his latest, lusciously grubby, novel Jack Holmes And His Friend.
  Edmund White is not the thing to read on public transport. His new novel, Jack Holmes And His Friend, is about a platonic friendship between two men but it still has enough descriptions of the male anatomy, man-on-man sex and man-on-woman sex to make one blush like a rose. It’s embarrassing. It’s also amazing. White’s lusciously grubby prose takes your breath away. Of course, White – just turned 72 but as frisky as a man half his age – doesn’t do blushing. ....
.... Jack Holmes And His Friend begins in the early 1960s with young Jack arriving from the Midwest, as young White did, in a New York on the cusp of an explosive permissiveness .... As the dark, sexual furtiveness of that decade gives way to the ecstasy of the 1970s and the Aids terror of the 1980s, Jack has a fantastic number of lovers before eventually – like White – settling down.
  White writes frequently about his own life: with a luridly dysfunctional childhood and a lifetime spent ricocheting between the seedier bars of New York and Paris and their respective literary salons, he’s had plenty of material for two memoirs and the loosely autobiographical sequence of novels that began with A Boy’s Own Story in 1982. Yet, despite the similarities, he insists Jack isn’t based on him. ‘For a start, he’s much better looking than me. And, of course, he has this extraordinary endowment.’ That laugh again. Jack, you see, is hung like a horse. .... "

---- read more of this candid interview at the Metro.co site at :-
http://www.metro.co.uk/lifestyle/887539-edmund-white-sex-and-death-are-two-great-subjects-for-literature

ROMAN HISTORY moves ahead ...

2012-01-15T20:36:00.000-05:00

(For this site's history aficionados ... )

Roman Helmet puts History on its Head
---- brief excerpts from a substantial archaeological news report by Ernest Gill at Archaeology Headlines, 16 January 2012 :-
"This amazing 2,000-year-old Roman helmet has been lovingly restored by experts at the British Museum who say that it could turn the history of Roman rule in Britain on its head, so to speak.
When archaeologists unearthed it in 2001, at a spot in Hallaton, England, where hundreds of Roman and Iron Age coins had been found the year before, they initially joked they had found a rusty bucket. But the discovery turned out to be one of the most significant Roman finds ever made in Britain.
Lifted out of the field in a mud block and pieced together from hundreds of fragments like the world's most expensive and delicate 3-D jigsaw puzzle, the helmet was painstakingly restored before finally being unveiled at a news conference at the British Museum.
It is the only Roman helmet found in Britain with the majority of the silver-gilt plating surviving, and one of only a handful ever discovered. It is also among the oldest Roman helmets ever found in Britain.
But the most extraordinary thing of all is the fact that the helmet was discovered at the burial site of a British tribal chieftain. The experts believe it could transform our understanding of the Roman conquest of Britannia.
.... It is difficult to put a price on the helmet, but in 2010 a bronze Roman helmet with face mask was sold for $3 million at Christie's.... "
---- see Ernest Gill's full report at his interesting Archaeology Headlines site at :-
http://www.antinopolis.org/hernestus/archaeologyheadlines.html

SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR on feminist approaches to history ...

2012-01-13T23:54:00.000-05:00

"We need to transcend our sex and station in life to evolve" - Simone De Beauvoir

---- the opening pars from a substantial interview about the publishing of a new translation of "The Second Sex" into English, posted at Tehelka.com (India), Saturday 14 January 2012 :-

Iconic feminist and existentialist philosopher Simone De Beauvoir's The Second Sex has been on the reading list or, at least, occupying aspirational space on many a humanities student’s bookshelf. Turns out that the version we know—the one that was translated in 1953 into English by Howard M Parshley, a male zoologist in his fifties, didn’t have 15% of the text. The American publisher Knopf told Parshley that the original was too “verbose”. After several decades in 2006, Knopf once again commissioned Sheila Malovany Chevallier and Constance Borde, American professors who have lived in France for 40 years, to put the ‘philosopher’ back into Beauvoir’s iconic contribution to feminist thought.

The new translation of The Second Sex, published in 2009, has thoughts about feminist history and additions in the chapter “The Married Woman” that were left out of the first translated edition. In conversation with Yamini Deenadayalan and Bhamati Sivapalan in Delhi, the duo spoke about the attempts to gender sensitize language, why Sarah Palin is allowed to call herself a feminist, and why Beauvoir is ever so relevant in 2012.

Q: The first translation in English was by Howard Parshley— a zoologist in his 50s. How much of its language was gendered, and what portions were edited?
"Ironically, it was the history chapter where the book was edited most. Beauvoir was looking at feminist ways to approach history. It is true that women were left out of history books. We’ve now discovered incredible women writers who wrote during the slavery era in the US, for example. It was so interesting to go back to the original texts De Beauvoir cited from. Historically, women played roles as generals of armies. They did so many amazing things in society. I don’t think that the publishers oversaw every single cut. However, the hypothesis looks to be that it was not only Parshley’s decision to cut out these parts but also the editors. Also, it was the intellectual parts that were cut out. There was too much philosophy and maybe the American public couldn’t deal with the complexities. There was a toning down and simplification. .... "
---- see the full interview at Tehelka.com at :-
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Ws120112Books.asp

Hillary Clinton's Amazing Speech | GAY HISTORY

2011-12-09T21:35:00.001-05:00

A Speech Worth Waiting For ..
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s address before the United Nations in Geneva will be remembered by history, with the Secretary of State unabashedly arguing to the world that LGBT rights are human rights.
See the powerful video or read the Complete Transcript of the Speech, as Provided By the US State Department, published at The Advocate, 6 December 2011. Some very brief extracts :-
" .... In the 63 years since the declaration was adopted, many nations have made great progress in making human rights a human reality. Step by step, barriers that once prevented people from enjoying the full measure of liberty, the full experience of dignity, and the full benefits of humanity have fallen away. In many places, racist laws have been repealed, legal and social practices that relegated women to second-class status have been abolished, the ability of religious minorities to practice their faith freely has been secured. ....
.... Today, I want to talk about the work we have left to do to protect one group of people whose human rights are still denied in too many parts of the world today. In many ways, they are an invisible minority. They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed. Many are treated with contempt and violence by their fellow citizens while authorities empowered to protect them look the other way or, too often, even join in the abuse. They are denied opportunities to work and learn, driven from their homes and countries, and forced to suppress or deny who they are to protect themselves from harm.
I am talking about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, human beings born free and given bestowed equality and dignity, who have a right to claim that, which is now one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time. .... So we, like all nations, have more work to do to protect human rights at home. .... "
---- see all of US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's address transcript, or view a video, at The Advocate site at :- http://news.advocate.com/post/13844217337/watch-the-speech-youve-been-waiting-for
---- and see a separate article about her speech at dallasvoice.com, a Texas media voice for LGBT people, at :- http://www.dallasvoice.com/clinton-history-speech-u-n-1096370.html

COOL GAY MOVIES : "Victim" (UK 1961)

2011-09-27T23:37:00.001-04:00

Shifting Attitudes on Homosexuality

---- excerpts from a lengthy article by Andrew Roberts | Published in History Today Volume: 61 Issue: 10 2011 :-

"Fifty years ago a British film challenged widespread views on homosexuality and helped to change the law. In late 1960, what appeared to be a run-of-the-mill British crime film, complete with trilby-hatted detectives in their bell-clanging Wolseley police cars roaming a bomb-scarred London, went into production. The casting seemed notably deluxe for such a seemingly mainstream enterprise, but on its release in 1961 Victim became one of the few pictures to genuinely shift social attitudes. ....

.... In 1861 Parliament had passed The Offences Against the Person Act, section 61 of which removed the death penalty as the punishment for ’buggery’ and replaced it with a minimum period of penal servitude. Almost a century later, after the Second World War, Sir Theobald Matthew, the Director for Public Prosecutions, embarked on his long campaign against homosexuals .... [so] the Home Secretary agreed to the appointment of a departmental committee to examine and report on the laws relating to homosexuality, chaired by Sir John Wolfenden .... The committee deliberated over a period of three years and in the Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution [the Wolfenden Report], published on September 3rd, 1957, concluded that ‘homosexuality cannot legitimately be regarded as a disease .... It is not, in our view, the function of the law to intervene in the private life of citizens, or to seek to enforce any particular pattern of behaviour’.

In short the committee considered that homosexuality should be treated on a par with other forms of sexual behaviour that, although viewed as repugnant by some, were not proscribed by law. ....
.... These developments inspired the film producer Michael Relph’s plans for a picture with ‘... the same point of view as the Wolfenden Report, that the law should be changed ... The film [Victim] shows that homosexuality may be found in otherwise completely responsible citizens in every strata of society’. ....
.... Victim was released in the UK in autumn 1961 to critical plaudits. As with most of Dearden’s films it is a polished production with some of Britain’s finest character actors – Nigel Stock and Norman Bird in particular – conveying a real sense of pervading fear .... "
---- see more of Andrew Robert's informed article about this pivotal moment in cinema history at History Today (UK) at :-
http://www.historytoday.com/andrew-roberts/shifting-attitudes-homosexuality
and check the movie's 1961 trailer in the sidebar, starring Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Sims, Peter McEnery, & Dennis Price.