October 2006 Archives

I can't wait. The DVD of "The Devil Wears Prada" is coming out Dec. 12, just in time to make my Christmas wish list. My friend Eddie and I, who worship Meryl Streep, are planning to do what we did with "Postcards From ther Edge" by memorizng the best lines and incorporating them into our conversations. Eddie has already claimed ownership of "Oh do move at a glacial pace, you know how I love that." But I think we'll both be able to use "That's all" quite liberally.

Anyway, "Prada" will arrive in stores with special features including an audio commentary with director David Frankel, 15 deleted scenes, feature trailers and a fun gag reel, Fox Home Entertainment announced Tuesday.

I am counting the days.

As if Alanis Morissette isn't already lucky enough to be with beefcake Ryan Reynolds off-screen, the singer will appear in the first of three episodes of "Nip/Tuck" as Poppy, the anesthesiologist lesbian lover of Roma Maffia's Liz. Cool! At least they will have a real same-sex relationship instead of this tease Julian McMahon's character has been engaged in this season. McMahon got a magazine cover over all of this so he should at least put out! Sheesh.
Anyway, Morissette's character will be encouraging Liz to undergo liposuction

"She wants me to be my best me, to reach my full potential," Maffia tells TV Guide's Mary Murphy. ""But when I go under the knife, we will see just how much she wants me to have done. She is a control freak."

Murphy also spoke with Morisette - who played a lesbian on an episode of "Sex in the City" and kissed Sarah Jessica Parker - about her latest acting gig on the F/X drama..
"This is definitely against type," the edgy rocker says. "I feel like Poppy is my shadow self, everything that I try not to be — controlling, micromanaging, projecting all kinds of dysmorphic body issues onto your partner rather than owning your own self. "

She and Liz will share a kiss.
"The kiss felt so natural; there was nothing uncomfortable about it. We live in a homophobic culture — if it were two men they would be judged to the nth degree, but with women it is "hot." What I love about this is this seems real.

Morissette tells TV Guide that even though she and Reynolds ("Van Wilder," "Just Friends") have had an on-again off-again relationship over the past four years, she feels "like we are married already. We will most likely down the road actually do it."

Click HERE to read the entire interview on TVGuide.com.

The great Elton John, who married his longtime partner David Furnish in the United Kingdom last year, has donated $20,000 to Fair Wisconson, a group trying to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage in Wisconsin. Voters will decide the issue Nov. 7.

Elton has been giving us memorable music for nearly 40 years now and as he has evolved as an openly gay man, he has become a real activist, raising many millions each year through his AIDS foundation and always speaking his mind on gay issues. It's great to see him putting some of his money where his mouth is!

For more info on Elton's donation, check out the Web site Towleroad.

I gotta wonder why any staunch Republican go to a Barbra Streisand concert a week before an election. I mean, her music is terrific but her politics are VERY LIBERAL and she has never been one not to express her displeasure with the Bush adminsitration.
Gay icon Streisand was pelted by a beverage in hurled by a concert-goer during her Monday night concert in Sunrise, FL. The incident at the BankAtlantic Center came as Streisand was trading political barbs with a George W. Bush imitator, according to the Miami Herald. After her anti-GOP riff ended, another man in the crowd shouted at the singer and was escorted out of the center.

Streisand appeared to shrug both incidents off, saying some people would do better to buy her records than come to her shows.

Click HERE for an Out in Hollywood report on a similar incident at an earlier Streisand concert this month.

I'm glad that Out in Hollywood isn't the only site that understands the significance of the gay storyline playing out on Sunday night's ABC drama "Brothers & Sisters" between Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke MacFarland). AfterElton.com does a terrific examination of network television's evolution by recalling back in In 1991, when ABC's "thirtysomething" showed two gay male characters in bed together which resulted in a sponsor boycott, costing the network an estimated $1 million in lost ad revenue and more than 400 written complaints from outraged viewers. ABC pulled the show from repeats and the gay characters were quickly written off the show.

Scotty and Kevin have kissed in two different episodes as their romance continues to unfold and no advertisers threatened to pull out and no conservative groups have launched a letter-writing campaign. I think it was wise of the show's producers to not use the kiss to create some buzz for the shows prior to their airings. By treating the kiss as no big deal in both the "Date Night" and "For the Children" episodes, the reaction has been no big deal. That is refreshing and so is the show's willingness to incorporate these appealing gay characters who seem like real people. Much credit also goes to the two actors who have chemistry and play their scenes like they mean it.

In my opinion, "Quinceanera" was one of the better movies released in 2006 and certainly one of the best in terms of having realistic, but flawed, gay characters. The film, which took both the Grand Jury Prize and the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival this year, has all but wrapped up its theatrical run and has been scheduled for DVD release on Jan. 9, 2007 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
It is a title I will want in my collection. Star Jesse Garcia (pictured above) gives a very natural and believable performance as a gay Latino teen shunned by his family - except for his wonderful octenegarian ucle who takles him in as well as a pregnant 15 year old cousin whose father has disowned her.

The gay couple who the uncle rents from in the Echo Park neighborhood seduce Garcia's cxharacter after a party they have at their house on the same property. All is well until one of the men played by David W. Ross (pictured with Garcia at left) continues his own affair with the teen. When his partner finds out, he evicts the entire family - including the uncle who has left there for 50 years,
This drama, fueled by the racial, class, and sexual tensions of a Latino neighborhood in transition, also stars Emily Rios and Chalo Gonzalez. The DVD bonus features include filmmaker and cast commentary, filmmakers and cast Q&A, behind-the-scenes featurette and a red carpet featurette featuring footage of the filmÂ’s premiere.

I was REAL curious to see where the Kevin and Scotty storyline would go this week on ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" after last week's big kiss. I thought, they're gonna chicken out, the network or the producers or the advertisers will not let this relationship advance.
I remembered years past and how the networks had handled similar situation. They'd give us a little romance then pull the plug before things got good.

Steven Carrington was unapologetically gay during the first season of "Dynasty" and his father killed his lover! As the year's went on, he fathered a baby and married two different women! Finally he ends up with Luke (the gorgeous Billy Campbell) only to have Luke killed off in the infamous Moldavia massacre. Then of course there was Matt Fielding on "Melrose Place" who used to routinely hug his boyfriends goodnight (you hug bad dates goodnight, not your boyfriend) and when Matt finally does lick his lips and prepare for a well-publicized smackaroo, FOX got cold feet and rather than show the kiss, cut away to Billy's reaction when Matt kissed his previously-thought-to-be-straight best friend from high school.

Kerr Smith's character of Jack McPhee on "Dawson's Creek" seemed to be allowed only one on-screen kiss per season with plenty of build-up to the big moment. The kisses were always a little G-rated but still somewhat romantic.
Considering such scant gay romance in network television's past, the relationship developing between Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke MacFarland) on "Brothers & Sisters" is nothing short of revolutionary. Not only did these two handsome characters share another sexy kiss Sunday night, but it came pretty much without warning during a gala dinner Scotty was working at (as a waiter) and Kevin was attending with his family. Earlier, attorney Kevin had offered to pay Scotty his salary if he would forgo working and be his guest instead. Insulted, Scotty stormed out of their lunch.

Kevin proceeds to slowly get drunk at the gala and asks various people if what he did was insulting. When they say it was, he sees Scotty's point and tracks him down in the kitchen of the hotel:
Kevin: I never get this way. I never lose control over anybody.
Scotty: I'm supposed to be flattered!
Kevin: YES! Would you please forgive me so I can stop getting drunk? I promise I'll never offer to pay for anything again - not a dinner or a movie, not even a parking ticket.
Scotty: OK! Enough! I forgive you.
Kevin: Really?

Scotty answers with a kiss - a good one. That is until his boss interrupts and promptly fires him. Kevin smoothes it over though and at the end of the episode, when the family is dancing, Kevin and Scotty were doing a slow dance along with the rest.
As it should be.

When the call came to audition for the role of a fashion designer on the MyNetwork soap "Fashion House," Garrett Swann had already rented a U-Haul truck to move to Santa Barbara, abandoning his dreams of an acting career. The audition came with short notice that Swann actually drove the U-Haul truck to it! Even though he had little television experience, his history of party planning and working around fashion design during his years as a struggling actor helped him nail the part.

"It was just ironic that the minute you want to give up, you let go of something, and suddenly it all comes back to you," Garrett tells Out in Hollywood. "This role just came really natusally to me because I knew all about that world, about fabric and how things are cut. And with all the backstabbing the characters do on the show, I know about that from the drama in my pwn life! I even knew about throwing vases and glasses!"

Now the openly gay Swann finds himself on television six nights a week as one of Bo Derek's fashion designers. The other one is played by openly gay actor Tony Tripoli.
"When we wrere in the screen test together for the pilot, I knew when I met him we were ying and yangv and frik and frak. I'm the softer side of the pair, the more sensitive but sneaky one. Bo really liked working with Tony and I. We gave her a lot of fun and we had a lot of connection with her. It's so easy to connect with gay boys, we're so open."

The cast also includes Morgan Fairchild, Tippi Hedren, and a cast of quite attractive younger actors and actresses just now making their mark.

Swann began performing in plays as a teen, studied acting in New York at Circle in the Square and landed commercials and bit parts here and there. It may have taken until he was 37 years old to land his first job as a regular on a television series, but Garrett says he hgas been performing since he was maybe 6 years old when "I'd lock myself in the bathroom and go through every product in the medicine cabinet ands I'd do commericals."

'This is really my big break," he says. "Before when I'd go out for things, no one knew who I was."

Now, a lot of people do.

"I find it bizarre and weird to see myself on television but I'm starting to get used to it," Garrett says. "I'm getting recognized now as I travel and do publicity for the show. A woman walked up to me on a plane recently and said, 'You're that guy on television!' I went to the opening of 'Sweet Charity' recently and ["General Hospital" star] Jackie Zehman came up and told me she was a fan. It's bizarre."

Was gabbing on the phone with a friend Friday night with the television on in the background. I hear this voice. It's Mario Cantone! Charlotte's gay wedding planner'friend in New York City with lots of attitude was making an appearance on ABC's "Men in Trees" as a gay hairdresser in the small town of Elmo, with just a little bit of attitude. Cantone is giving a trim to former real-life lesbian Anne Heche's character of Marin when there is an earthquake and he lops off a big chunk, forcing her to wear hats for the rest of the episode.

I liked the fact that Cantone's character, Terri, makes it immediately clear that he is gay. "You too look as sad as the end of 'The Way We Were.'" he says to a forlorn Marin and her friend. "I watched it again last night!" When Terri overhears the women talking about a guy Marin likes because "he looks like a young Paul Newman," he interjects: "I'd fall into those cool hands Luke anytime."

He explains to the women that he ended up in this small town because while on an "alternative lifestyle" cruise with his boyfriend, he walked in on the partner and the ship's purser getting cozy in their cabin. He got off the ship at the next stop and stayed.
"What can I say?" he tells the ladies. "I love the crap out of nature!"

Traffic was bad last night. So when I arrived at A Different Light bookstore in West Hollywood last night, I expected the book signing event for Reichen Lehmkuhl's "Here's What We'll Say" to be well underway.

But there was a line out the door and things had not yet begun. I bought a copy of the book for him to sign then thought, what the heck, I'll see if he's here already so we could have a quick chat. His assistant took my card back to him and then waved me back a few seconds later. There was an exhausted Reichen text-messaging someone (I didn't ask if it was to boyfriend Lance Bass). He was exhausted from a morning book signing appearance in San Francisco then a quick flight back to LA to appear on the "Trya Banks Show" before rushing over to the bookstore. On Monday, there was a big, splashy book party at WeHo hotspot "The Abbey" as well.
"I'm so tired right now," Reichen confessed. "But I love it."
He told me his book published by New York-based Carroll & Graf Publishers has been two years in the making. "When I was given a publishing date of October 2006, I thought, 'that is so far away. That's plenty of time.'"
He found himself in a time crunch but did manage to finish the book on time. Subtitled "Growing Up, Coming Out, and The U.S. Air Force," "Here's What We'll Say" is a 343 page account of Reichen's difficult life as a closeted gay man in the Air Force. While he was able to find refuge in a secret society of gay cadets, he at one point was sexually assaulted by other cadets.
Reichen, who went on to win season four of CBS' "The Amazing Race" with his former partner, says his book is not "anti-Air Force" but is more an effort to pull back the veil over what is really going on there under the current "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
I asked Reichen about what it has been like for he and Bass since the former member of NSYNC came out publicly over the summer.
"It's been amazing," he said. "We'll go to events and the media will treat us just like any other couple and not even bring up that we're gay."

Knowing that a crowd was waiting outside, I kept our chat brief but when I walked out of the store, some dude in line says, "HE'S the one who is making us wait!" I got dirty looks you can be sure. Gay men can be such bitches.
For more on Reichen, visit www.Reichen.us.

>Finally finishing the emptying out of my "Designing Women" reunion notebook from Wednesday night (see previous posts pt. one and pt. two). I think a lot of gay men, if they were really honest about it, would admit to having a little bit of Suzanne Sugarbaker in them. The world revolves around us, we tell it like it is, we sometimes struggle with our weight, we adore men, we have really big hearts and, well, at one point or another, we probably really did want someone to place a tiara on our heads.

That's why I think Suzanne is the perfect gay icon. But she wouldn't be if not for the beautiful actress who brought her to life and created one of the most memorable and funny characters in the history of television comedy: the dazzling Delta Burke.
That's not hyperbole. Check out Nick at Night reruns and see Delta as Suzanne and you will see the perfect melding of actress and character operating on all cylinders.

Until I was about a foot away from her, I didn't realize how stunningly beautiful Delta Burke really is. She is 50 years old, looks more than a decade younger, and that face is right up there with Elizabeth Taylor and Vivian Leigh at their most beautiful. A quite slim Delta was wearing a black knee-length dress and had her hair a flip that reminded me of Mary Tyler Moore and Marlo Thomas from their sitcom hey-days. I was glad to be sitting just a row behind Delta, one seat over, so I could kind of gawk without her noticing. I know I'm going on a bit, but I really was at a loss for words.

But during her years on "Designing Women" (I also loved her as Cherry Cherry on "Popular"), Burke was making terrific television and was the only one of the oh-so-talented leading ladies to receive not one, but two Emmy nominations for best actress in a comedy series.

It's ironic that CBS brass was reluctant to cast her in the part she was born to play and actually had another actress do a run-through with Dixie Carter, Jean Smart and Annie Potts. But Linda Bloodworth-Thomason had written the role of Suzanne for Burke and in the end, got her way.

"When she stepped on the stage, it was so apparent she was the missing part of the puzzle," Linda said at this week's reunion at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills. She added that none of the show's four leading ladies were exactly comfortable admitting the similarities between themselves and their characters.
"Delta didn't want to be as aware of the fact that she was the center of her own universe but it came out over time," she said.

And what would "Designing Women" be without the odd, but beautiful relationship between Suzanne and Anthony (Meshach Taylor)? The ultimate Southern belle used to ask Anthony to wax her legs, drive her around, town and even help her get her wigs on right. And when they got stuck in a snowstorm and couldn't get seperate rooms, Suzanne sent Anthony to the van to sleep with a blanket and had the nerve to sweetly say: "Night night. Don't let the bed bugs bite." But, despite the impropriety, she finally allows Anthony share the room with her and their heart-to-heart talk allowed the audience to see another side of Suzanne. Of course a few seasons later she accidentally shoots Anthony, but that's a while other story.
"Meshach and I'd get on the road (for promotion) and sometimes they'd just put us in a suite together," Burke remembers. "It got pretty tight. I knew he had my back."

In the audience Wednesday night was actor Gerald McRaney, Burke's husband of nearly 20 years. They fell in love when he guest-starred on the show as one of her ex-husbands: "He came on and I started acting all girly," she said.

Linda addressed the turmoil on the set during the fourth or fifth season that resulted in Delta leaving the show. Burke was suffering from panic attacks and depression, conditions not well-understood in the late 1980s. It led to misunderstandings between her and Bloodworth-Thomason who said Wednesday: "Despite that little brohaha we had at one point in the show, I think [the mutual respect] grew and continues to grow." Linda said she and Burke "got into a little bit of trouble" because they never talked out their issues." But the two made up when Linda created a series for Delta in the mid-90s called "Women of the House" in which she reprised her character of Suzanne Sugarbaker and they have been thick as thieves ever since.
"She really did want that crown on her head," Linda said of Delta, who is a former Miss Florida in real life and played a fictional Miss Georgia on the show.
Burke said when former Miss America Mary Ann Mobley guested on a fifth-season episode, "I was really pissed when she came on with her crown. I should have at least made the top 10."
But all is forgiven, Burke will serve as a judge at this year's Miss America pageant.

Related links from the "Designing Women" reunion:
-The Dazzling Designing Woman
-Hilarious and Endearing by Design

I wrote enough about that great kiss between Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke MacFarland) on last week's episode of ABC's "Brothers & Sisters." So now CLICK HERE to see it (again and again) on YouTube.
Enjoy!!!

I am very happy about the New Jersey Supreme Court's historic ruling yesterday that will, at the very least, give gay couples absolutely the same legal rights as married straight couples as Vermont does. My hope is that the legislature in the state will take it a step further and follow Massachusetts to become the second state in the U.S. to allow same-sex marriage.

That being said, the LAST person I want to hear from is former NJ Gov. Jim McGreevey who while in office, opposed gay marriage (he did support civil unions at least) because he didn't want anyone to know that he was secretly gay. Now the almost twice divorced McGreevey (still not legally divorced from his wife) is saying he'd like to enter into a legally recognized union with his partner Mark O'Donnell.

He tells the Newark Star-Ledger: "I would obviously look forward to having our relationship recognized. It's a blessing to live in New Jersey...[The ruling is] so profoundly emotional and meaningful. It speaks to the value of marriage and the value of committed relationships, gay or straight. It's groundbreaking and it shows a great generosity of spirit..."

As the Church Lady from SNL would say, "Well, isn't that special?"

But McGreevey did add this little tidbit to the AP: "I applaud the court's courage. I regret not having had the fortitude to embrace this right during my tenure as governor."

Yeah, the gays in your state regret it too.

So here are more highlights from the great "Designing Women" reunion at the Museum of Television and Radio last night. First off, I have to say that this had the feel of a loving reunion of people who love and respect each other and who honor what they created together. This is in contrast to a "Golden Girls" reunion I attended at the museum a few years ago when Bea Arthur seemed to not even acknowledge Betty White and Rue McClanahan sat in the middle of them almost like a referee.
"There was an amazing lack of ago," Jean Smart said of the cast. "For the first few years, every single solitary interview we'd do they'd ask, 'Do you really get along?' We didn't know what they were talking about. [Did they] ask the guys on 'Barney Miller' that?'"
Added Delta Burke: "We all got so close and talked about everything in the world. The characters became more and more of us in them and I, of course, took some of Suzanne home with me."

After the pilot episode was aired, the ladies took the stage and Delta Burke wanted everyone to know why she didn't have her Southern accent. It turns out that the network honchos didn't want the show to seem too much like "Filthy Rich," an earlier sitcom Linda Bloodworth-Thomason created that co-starred Burke and Dixie Carter.
"I was thrilled because Dixie and I had been wanting to work with Linda again," Delta said. "I was told I had to talk straight and that was as straight as I could get!"

Linda said she wanted to create a show using Dixie and Delta as well as Smart and Annie Potts, who had been standouts in an episode of the short-lived Robert Wagner series "Lime Street." She didn't quite know what she wanted the show to be about but she did know "I wanted to show women who were friends, bold in their ideas and strong in their comradrie with each other. There was no concept really - just loud-mouthed women."
"Designing Women" was initially on the ropes with CBS. It was moved around the network's schedule about nine times its first year then cancelled. Said Smart: "My mother couldn't even find us. She'd call me and say, 'What night are you on?" But the group Viewers form Quality Television, which had saved "Cagney and Lacey" from cancellation, initiated a letter-writing campaign for the sictom and it was saved, settling into a Monday night timeslot where it would stay for most of the rest of its seven-year run.
Many Funny stories were shared at the reunion. Among them, when Carter appeared in a dream sequence wearing panty hose, but no panties underneath. Says Potts: "She made the Janet Jackson thing pale. It was the ultimate costume defect." Carter's husband, Hal Holbrook told her: "They saw your pretty." At one point Smart blurted out to Burke: "Remember the episode when you drank Charlene's breast milk!?!"

Each actress was asked to pick a favorite episode.
Smart: The show when she gives birth and Dolly Parton guest-starred as her guardian movie star. Smart was pregnant in real life and told the crowd that Wednesday was her son's 17th birthday!
"I loved playing a character who was gullible and innocent and who took everything at face value. All the women were very distinct. Suzanne and Charlene were shockingly unliberated!"

Carter: The episode when Charlene wants to become a pastor and Julia gets to sing "How Great Thou Art" at the end. Carter's mother was dying and that was the last episode of the show she ever saw, her daugfhter by her side. "She got to see her little girl sing this great Methodist hymn for the whole country."

Potts: The episode when Mary Jo inherits some money and considers getting breast implants. She puts some fake ones on for a test run and asks Julia to go to a bar with her to see the reaction. Men are buying her drinkls left and right. She turn to Julia and says, "These things are POWER!" "To do a whole show about breasts. It was, at the time, pretty provocative. People will still come up to me and say: "These things are POWER!" Carter, in the scene with Potts when the line was said, remembered that she had to " turn around to keep from laughing. I just turned around and took a drink!"

Burke: "They Shoot Fat Women Don't They" was the episode in season four that focused on Suzanne's (and Delta's) noticeable weight gain. "It was out there and no one would acknowledge it, except the tabloids. All I asked was to let me have the punchlines. I didn't want to have all the punchlines be about me." (For the record, Burke is now quite slim and as gorgeous as ever.)
Smart proudly pointed out that Burke was nominated for an Emmy award for that episode (as well as one the next season) while Potts boasted that Smart had actually WON a pair of Emmys (for 'Frasier').

You put Delta Burke, Jean Smart, Dixie Carter and Annie Potts together in a room and you are going to have magic. That's what happened Wednesday night at the Museum of Television and Radio when these four amazing actresses reunited for only the second time since "Designing Women" left the air. They inhabited four classic sitcom characters on that show but when watching them interact as themselves, it is just as interesting...and FUNNY!
They joined the show's brilliant creator and head writer Linda Bloodworth Thomason for the event which had a standing room only audience filled with serious "Designing Women" afficionados. It was nice to not be the only person in the room to be mouthing the words of dialogue as the show's classic pilot episode was screened prior to a panel discussion.

I gotta say, for a rabid "Designing Women" fan like me, this was a night I will never forget. Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, with whom I'd had a terrific interview with last week, greeted me before the show with a great big hug and introduced me to Jean Smart. Then I chatted up Annie Potts before heading into the packed theater for the program. Hmmm. Where to sit? I don't know how this happened, but next thing I know, a staff member is guiding me down to the second row. Then next thing I know, the cast is escorted in and I am directly behind Linda and Delta! Annie, Jean then Dixie filled out the row. So, not only am I stoked to be sitting so near them, I get to watch THEM as they watch the pilot episode together. They would whisper to each other, give each other a look at a particularly funny moment, Jean was cackling hard during some spots and Dixie was just in a constant state of laughter.
In the pilot, her character got the most laughs so this was a real showcase for the actress. One of my favorite lines of Dixie's is when obnoxious Ray Don Simpson ("I want to thank you...RAY DON...") tries to join the women for lunch at a sushi restaurant saying they look like they could use a little male company. Dixie puts down her chop sticks, looks at him and says: "Trust me when I say that you have completely misjudged this situation."

Anyway, there were some terrific lines during the panel portion and I'll have to share those with you later today in a separate post. But what was also cool was that when I took the microphone to ask a question, Linda introduced me to the audience! Holy cow! Love her! Harry Thomason slipped into the theater after the program was underway. After it was over, he turned around and introduced himself to me.
What a heady night.
I'll finish this later, gotta get on the freeway and head to the office.

Out actor John Benjamin Hickey, who alternates between roles in theater, television and film, has roles in two movies currently in theaters: "Flags of our Fathers" and "Infamous." He recently spoke with Andy's Blog about a variety of topics.
He calls being directed by Clint Eastwood in "Flags" "The greatest experience of my life! Like being in a room with Miles Davis -- not that I've been in a room with Miles Davis, but that's how I imagine it would be like...
In "Infamous," he plays Truman Capote's longtime partner Jack Dunphy: "They were partners, lovers, and boyfriends for some 30 years and Jack led his own much quieter life. They had something worked out to where it worked for them, because Truman got around much more than Jack did."
Check out the full post by clicking HERE.
I best remember Hickey for his role as one-half of a gay couple of the wonderful, but short-lived, comedy "It's All Relative" that aired on ABC three seasons back. A friend and I attended this surprisingly intimate event at the LA Gay and Lesbian Center where Billy Bean hosted a panel featuring the entire cast. And what a cast. It also included out actor Christopher Sieber, Lenny Clarke and the terrific Harriet Sanson Harris who has since gone on to a delicious role on "Desperate Housewives." It was a magical night made even more magical by getting to meet two of the show's executive producers: Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. Their credits include a few things you may have heard of: "Chicago," "Gypsy" starring Bette Midler, "Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows" and the upcoming big-screen musical 'Hairspray." They are also involved in bringing Bean's life story to the screen on Lifetime television.
"We met little resistance," he tells Andy's blog regarding ABC and "It's All Relative." "For whatever you may have thought about that show, it did offer Middle America a monogamous gay couple like a lot of married couples and I thought that was cool. It was cool to get to do that on network television -- especially on ABC. They never
censored us in any shape or form. Granted it wasn't the most cutting edge show, but even so...."

Lance Bass' boyfriend, Reichen Lehmkuhl, says he and the former `N Sync star have been dealing with threats ignited by his new memoir, "This is What We'll Say: Growing Up, Coming Out, and the U.S. Air Force Academy," about the trials of being gay while serving in the military.
"We have to be very protective," Lehmkuhl tells "Inside Edition" Wednesday. "I am not going to hide. There are threats that come in from people who do not want me to be so public and expose what is going on in the military."
The former Air Force captain and winner of season four of CBS' "Amazing Race" says that he and Bass forward the threats to private security personnel who send what they consider the more serious ones to the FBI. "Everything is being covered so we feel safe," he said.

 

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is profiled in the November 7 issue of The Advocate by John Caldwell. Here a few highlights:

On same-gender marriage:
"When the [anti-same-sex marriage] Knight bill came along in 2000, I put $10,000 of my own money in [to try to defeat it]."

On the roaring ovation he got in summer 2005 when he became the first L.A. mayor to show up and open Outfest, the LA gay and lesbian film festival. The men in the audience were all but whistling at him.
"Oh, I know they're joking," the mayor says. "I've attended almost every Christopher Street West [pride] parade [in West Hollywood]. Sometimes, especially when I was younger, they'd have these big sings saying, 'He's a 10.' I always liked that."

On gay friends and family members:
"I have two openly gay nephews out of three; I have gay cousins. In the 1950s, my mother had gay couples over for dinner."
On what he would say to one of his children if they came out:
"I'd love them. I'd embrace them. I've always said that. The two nephews I mentined, I love them like they're my own sons. I love them dearly."

Has he experienced a backlash from other Latino leaders over his support of same-gender marriage?
"I have from time to time, but you're always going to have people who are upset with a position you take. I don;t preoccupy myself with those who take umbrage with my views on issues. I respect other views, and I've always been very respectful that the views I come with are just those: my views."

Longtime gay rights leader Torie Osborn, who serves as a special advisor to Villaraigosa, says in the article: "Antonio is a rock star. When you're a rock star, you carry a lot of influence. That goes a long way on the controversial issues and he's taking us with him."

Well, it's about time.

Grey's Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington has finally issued an apologyf or his behavior during an on-set argument with costar Patrick Dempsey. After Washington and Dempsey, 40, clashed on Oct. 9, reports surfaced that Washington had used a homophobic slur during the fracas. Then on Oct. 19, their costar T.R. Knight disclosed to PEOPLE that he is gay.

In an exclusive statement to PEOPLE, the same venue Knight used to make his announcement, Washington said:
"I sincerely regret my actions and the unfortunate use of words during the recent incident on-set. Both are beneath my own personal standards. … I have nothing but respect for my coworkers … and have apologized personally to everyone involved."

There had been reports that Washington's job was in jeopardy and that be might be replaced by former ER star Eriq La Salle. Show creator Shonda Rhimes, who has put together one of the most racially diverse casts of any show ever on television, told PEOPLE that Washington was not being fired or replaced.

"I found (those rumors) not only ridiculous but offensive that we would consider replacing a member of our family," Rhimes says. "And also the (idea) that one black man was interchangeable with another seemed disturbing to me...We have a group of people who are more of a family than anything else. We have our fun days, and we have our days when people are tired and the work is hard."

On Tuesday's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Grey's costar Katherine Heigl played down the incident, calling it "some scuffle … There was a little burst of testosterone in the room, and then within five minutes ... they were totally fine." So what actually happened between Washington and Dempsey? A set source says that when Knight, 33, was late to film a scene, a debate ensued between Dempsey and Washington, with Dempsey insisting on waiting for Knight before starting the scene. The argument quickly intensified, and the source says that yes, the alleged slur was used, but Knight was not present at the time.

"Isaiah was running his mouth off," says the source. "Isaiah verbally attacked Patrick – he tore into him. Patrick's voice escalated and he did tell Isaiah to 'f– off, (but) that was as heated as Patrick got."

Rhimes tells PEOPLE that Dempsey and Washington "are fine" – as are Washington and Knight. "They've had conversations," she says. "They did a really great scene together the other day." The whole affair, she says, "was four and a half seconds of one day in three years. I feel like we've already moved on."

Jane Lynch has been one of those actresses who looks really familiar but you can't quite place her. She has nearly 100 guest appearances on televison series ranging from "Friends" to "Desperate Housewives" to "Felicity." But in the past year or so, this 46 year old actress has been one of the busiest performers around: Tonight, she made another appearance on ABC's "Boston Legal" as sex therapist Joanna Monroe, is a regular of Lifetime's "Lovespring International" and has been signed for a role in an untitled CBS sitcom to be directed by Ben Stiller starring his wife Christine Taylor. She also has had a recurring role on the Showtime series "The L Word."

Jane is just as busy in feature films, big box office hits, including her role as Will Ferrell's mother in "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" and as Steve Carell's sexually hungry boss in last year's smash comedy "40 Year Old Virgin." She has a role in the upcoming Christopher Guest comedy "For Your Consideration" and a handful of movies either in the can or in pre-production!

As a tribute to this talented and very busy actress, I am adding Jane Lynch to the "Out In Hollywood" gallery of out heroes. Check out our gallery so far and feel free to suggest any high-profile people you feel deserved to be added.

John Spencer seems to be making a big jackass of himself in the New York senate race against Hillary Rodham Clinton. First he allegedly bags on her looks and now he's allegedly making lesbian jokes.
He sounds, like a moron - allegedly at least.

Clinton's Republican opponent for the U.S. Senate, in an interview with a local Westchester County, N.Y., newspaper, suggested the New York senator and Democratic star is a lesbian. A columnist for the paper, The Journal News, said that Spencer made the insinuation last week in a telephone interview in response to a question about whether he would attempt to portray Clinton as a liberal in two recent debates. "He said words to the effect of, 'Well, you know me, words slip out, but I won't call her a lesbian or anything,'" Phil Reisman, the columnist, told the Times. "He was definitely joking—he laughed after he said it."

Spencer's camp did not deny the remark but offered a lukewarm apology. "As John Spencer said this afternoon, if he offended anyone, he apologizes," Rob Ryan, Spencer's spokesman, said.

Spencer, the former Yonkers mayor, has denied making the comments, which were published by the New York Daily News under the headline "Getting Ugly." "You ever see a picture of her back then? Whew," Spencer was quoted by a Daily News reporter who happened to sit next to Spencer and his wife Friday during a flight from New York to Rochester for a candidates' debate. "I don't know why Bill married her."

Clinton on Tuesday said : "It's unfortunate that when you don't have anything positive to say about the issues that we can get off in some pretty swampy territory."

Outraged women are jumping to Clinton's defense:
"John Spencer's comments about Senator Clinton are an embarrassment to New Yorkers of every party," said Geraldine Ferraro, the party's unsuccessful 1984 candidate for vice president. "Does anyone think if John Spencer were running against a man he would be making comments about his appearance? I think New Yorkers know the answer."

"Out In Hollywood" is nearly four months old and, I gotta say, doing this blog is hands-down the most fun I've ever had in my nearly two decades as a professional journalist. I know there are some typos etc. (which I am reminded of from time to time by some grammar bitches out there in cyberland!) but it's a stream-of-consciousness kind of process so I let it flow. Sometimes, it flows out with typos. Sorry.

Anyway, the feedback from people has been terrifically gratifying and thanks to everyone who has sent nice notes of encouragement and thanks to my friends and colleagues for reading and for being so patient when I blurt out to you in the middle of your busy day: "Have you read "Out in Hollywood" today?" Daily News online editor Josh Kleinbaum, about as busy a man as we have in our newsroom, took the time to give the site a bit of a design upgrade last week. Big thanks to Josh.

Which brings me to the point of this long-winded post. I'd like to challenge/ask regular readers of this blog to do something for me: send our new, simplified link www.dailynews.com/outinhollywood to at least three of your friends, co-workers, family members, the Sparkletts man, your postal carrier, the checker at the Whole Foods, the person who never looks up from his laptop at Starbucks, your stalker. OK, I went one too far. But you get the picture.

It feels like after four months, we have a good, solid and faithful readership and I want even more traffic on this blog! And with your help, there will be so much traffic, it'll resemble the 101 Freeway during my commute home.

One last time, that new, abbreviated web address is: www.dailynews.com/outinhollywood

Officially, I have some issues about making comedy out of a situation that involves a clearly closeted gay man married to a seemingly clueless woman - especially when that couple has a young daughter. No, I'm not talking about a sitcom based on Jim McGreevey's life! I'm talking about Sam Harris' hilariously flamboyant character, Perry Pearl, on the CBS Monday night comedy "The Class." So, while I officially have concerns about the storyline, I forgot about them tonight because I was too busy laughing my ass off.
In this Halloween-themed episode (A yummy Jason Ritter in a Superman costume is reason enough to tune in!), Perry dresses his daughter up as Audrey Hepburn's Holly Golightly (with sunglasses and little black dress) in "Breakfast at Tiffanys." His wife, Holly, thinks she's dressed up as a blind girl and the daughter confesses: "I don't get it." Daddy Perry replies: "You don't have to get it, you just have to SELL it!"

Later in the same scene, the TV reporter wife finds out she is in contention for a weekend anchor slot against a rival who Perry describes as "the one with the big boobs." His wife asks: "You noticed?" Perry reassures her: "Oh honey relax, you know I'm an ass man!"

Disaster strikes when Holly, while on the air doing a piece about a petting zoo, impales a fluffy little white rabbit named Q-tip with her high heel spike on live television. It's on the Internet worldwide within minutes under the title: "Can I see this bunny in a size 8?"

Later, their firends, gay couple Kyle and Aaron rush over to comfort Holly while still in their costumes: a cowboy and a pirate, respectively. Perry gives the sexy Aaron's Johnny Depp-like pirate costume a flirty once over, smiles, and says, "Ahoy!"

Former "Queer As Folk" star Gale Harold, who was unexpectedly killed off of Fox's "Vanished" a few weeks ago, is leaving television behind for the time being. He's headed back east to co-star in a production of "Suddenly Last Summer," the Tennessee Williams play that was made into a 1959 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn (both Oscar-nominated for their roles) as well as closeted gay icon Montgomery Clift.

Harold plays the Clift role of Dr. Cukrowicz, opposite Blythe Danner and Carla Gugino. The play officially premieres on Nov. 15 at the Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre. The straight actor, who fully gave himself up to the rile of slutty Brian Kinney in "Queer," gave an interview to Playbill magazine. In it, he seems A LOT more enthused about appearing in two episodes of "Deadwood" as Wyatt Earp than about the five years on "Queer," the show that made him a star.

Appearing on "Deadwood," he says, "was fantastic! Working with David Milch [creator and head writer] and the actors and everybody on that show was really invigorating. I don't know what the best descriptive word would be. I loved it! I didn't want to leave."

Of "Queer" he had this to say: "It was full of different experiences. Working with the cast and the directors and pushing myself to places I didn't expect to be in was very positive and difficult and frightening. I'm very grateful that I had the experience to do it. It opened some doors to me. Overall, it was very positive."

Gee Gale, sounds like you had a BLAST.

I swear, I'm not trying to become the next Perez Hilton or anything. I'm still soul searching over the entire Lance/Matthew/Jake "bro-mance" post last week telling myself it was legit since Lance and Matthew addressed the rumors in a cover story in Details. Still, did i need to run about 10 photos of these hunky guys and their pal Jake Gyllenhaal? Oh, the questions that keep me awake at night. But, what the heck. Now that I've already dipped my toe in the tabloid gutter, I offer you this photo and the following speculation: T.R. Knight of "Grey's Anatomy" and Luke MacFarland, who plays Kevin's new love interest on "Brothers & Sisters," were spotted all over town this weekend and lots of pics were taken. Since T.R. publicly came out of the closet last week, obviously there is a buzz around whether these two talented and way cute actors are dating. Now, the photos tell us nothing really since there are no blatant PDAs between the two. And, it's certainly not fair to automatically link any man seen walking around with an out man as gay (I have a lot of straight friends who can tell you this!). But here's a few more pictures (one is from Perez Hilton's site which explains the silly doodling) and maybe some of our astute body language experts can read something into all of this.

My final words on the subject: In my feeble defense of the tabloid-like nature of this post, I did have to go to the doctor today for treatment of a sinus infection. I was given some drugs and my judgement may be impaired as I blog from the home office. So enjoy the tabloidy "Out In Hollywood" for at least today! Tomorrow, we are back on the high road...well, at least the middle road.

Before he became best known as Lance Bass' boyfriend, before he posed for his own beefcake calendar, and before he won $1 million on CBS' "Amazing Race," Reichen Lehmkuhl was an Air Force captain living in the closet. In promoting his new book about his military days, "This is What We'll Say," Reichen told ABC News this week that as far back as he could remember, he had dreams of being in the Air Force.
"It was a childhood dream to fly, and then it came more of an adult dream to not just fly but to … [go to] the Air Force Academy and to be an officer, to be a leader in the U.S. Air Force," he said. But when he began at the U.S. Air Force Academy, he realized that as a gay man, he was in enemy territory.
"I remember the panic that came over me at that moment realizing, 'What am I going to do? Am I going to be able to change this? How can I admit this?' " he said. "And it was all happening just within me, all internal 'cause I couldn't talk to anybody about it."
He says the 1993 policy of "Don;t Ask, Don't Tell" offers little protection: "There was definitely an institutionalized acceptance of people being homophobic and telling gay jokes and making homophobic remarks — really, really mean homophobic remarks to the point of, 'Kill gay people.' "Speculation grew about Lehmkuhl"s sexual orientation and one night he was sexually assaulted by the people he served beside everyday and the attack left him suicidal.
"A bag was put over my head," he said. "I was stripped of my clothes. I was forced to do things sexually with two other male cadets... That's when you start having suicidal thoughts, and that's when you start saying, 'Oh my God. I am so stuck in this situation. I can't go to anyone.' " he said.

But Reichen served out his commitment to the Air Force and has gone on to put himself in the position to write about it. I hope his story shines an even brigher light on this wrong-headed policy that is not only completely unfair and cruel to gays and lesbians, but is also clearly wrongheaded - something never more clear than now with so many gay translators discharged because of their sexuality.

It seems like gay men never really stop coming out of the closet about one thing or another. I've come out as a gay man time and time again but up until now, I have never come out, publicly, as a rabid fan of a show that is one of my top-five favorite sitcoms of all time: 'Designing Women." I loooooooooove that show. I've seen every episode from the first five seasons (it wasn't the same after Delta Burke and Jean Smart left) countless times and know a lot of the dialogue by heart. I think the show had some of the most brilliant writing of any show in television history.

On Wednesday, the Museum of Television and Radio is presenting a Designing Women reunion that will bring together Burke, Smart, Annie Potts and Dixie Carter together with the show's creator and head writer Linda Bloodsworth-Thomason. I preview the event in today's U section of the Daily News.

For the article, chatted with both Dixie Carter and Linda Bloodsworth Thomason and, well, we started doing lines together on the phone. Dixie did the classic: "And thaaaaaat, is when.The lights. Went out. In Georgia!" And, of course, her lines from the first show when she tells off the man called "Ray Don" and later tells her sister Suzanne (Burke) "If sex were fast food you'd have golden arches over your bed." Dixie tells me she loved doing Julia's famous speeches but after they were filmed "I'd have to drop all that information as soon as we drive off the lot in order to clear the brain for next week's script!"

One thing that "Designing Women" had from the very beginning was gay fans. "We were told right away that gay bars all over the country were showing the show and bars in Atlanta and L.A. would do the "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" speech," Dixie says.

Among the most memorable episodes were “Killing All the Right People� in which the women were asked to design the funeral home for a friend dying of AIDS. It was based on Bloodsworth-Thomason’s mother who was infected with AIDS after a blood transfusion and died in November 1986, shortly after the show was launched. A client overhears the women talking to the friend (Tony Goldwyn) and she blurts out that AIDS is God's punishment and added, "This disease has one thing going for it, it's killing all the right people." At that point, Julia throws her out but not before saying, "If God were handing out diseases for sinning then you'd be at the free clinic ALL THE TIME!"

Linda remembers being honored at the Pacific Design Center by a gay organization for the AIDS episode and when she walked onto the stage she remembers, "I left like Liza. It was a sea of gay people and it was one of the nicest nights of my life. People were so grateful for that show and for what Dixie had said."

Another far more humorous gay-themed show was when former Miss Georgia Suzanne realizes she has no other friends except for the three women at the design firm. So, she calls up a gal from her pageant days, unaware that she's a lesbain and clueless even after she comes out to her. "Well," Suzanne says, "I'm glad she came out. I don't know why she didn't do it in her teens but better late than never. Why should I care if she's the world's oldest living debutante!" Once Suzanne realizes the friend, a weathergirl at a local TV station, is gay, she freaks out and hides out from her at her health spa. The friend finds her and confronts her inside the sauna. Suzanne softens and the women decide they really can be friends, "once I get my clothes on," Suzanne says.

The glorious Delta Burke created one of the most delicious comic characters to ever grace the small screen. Suzanne Sugarbaker, with her total narcisism, was just a hoot whether she was bringing her pet pig to work, making Anthony wax her legs, showing up in black face to sing Supremes songs at a talent show, helping Mary Jo find a date at the supermarket or taking up smoking to lose weight, Burk