Recently in Actors/Actresses Category

Melissa Leo is one of those hard-working actresses who has been respected for decades but is only now getting the kind of widespread recognition she has long deserved.

Leo has delivered deeply moving performances in films ("21 Grams") and on television ("Homicide: Life on the Streets") and last Thursday was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance in the acclaimed independent film "Frozen River."
Since she was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for "River" and would seem to have a good chance at an Oscar nod, I wondered how this hard-working actress was handling all the newfound attention.

"I've really been blessed with continuing to work this entire year and several fabulous roles in beautiful projects as this builds and flows," she said. "(Working) is how I know how to walk and feel most comfortable. (For awards ceremonies) I will don my movie star dress and get help with my hair but not change my internal reality."

In "River," Leo plays a single mother faced with desperate financial circumstances who in the effort to earn fast money, is drawn into border smuggling across the frozen water of the St. Lawrence River located on the Mohawk reservation between New York State and Quebec.

While the recognition is nice, Leo said she already has such great memories of making the film with writer-director Courtney Hunt
.
"It was just a magical, amazing thing," she said. "Every night we'd get back to our little hotel and Courtney would say, 'We got it!' The hardest thing was the last day of shooting because we weren't going to do that the next day."

Had the chance for a quick chat with the lovely Kristin Scott Thomas the other day at the Hollywood Film Festival Awards gala just before she entered the ballroom.

An Oscar nominee for "The English Patient" a decade ago, she is once again getting awards buzz for her performance in "I've Loved You So Long."

"It's very, very early days I think," she said, dismissing awards talk.

But it's clear the movie means a lot to her.

"I love this film," she said. "It's one of the most personal films because it's a film that I took on as a challenge and the director took it on as a challenge. He'd never made a film before, I'd never acted in anything else like this before. It's a deeply emotional and kind of honest film and I'm very, very proud of it."

I still can't believe Hugh Grant didn't pick HER in "Four Weddings and a Funeral."

Amy Brenneman has successfully transitioned from the courtroom on "Judging Amy" to a shrink's office on ABC's "Private Practice."

But it's been quite an adjustment for the actress who created "Amy" - based on her own mother's real-life experiences as a Superior Court judge in Connecticut - to segue into the role of Dr. Violet Turner on "Practice."

"I was telling my husband last year, `I feel like I was married and now I'm dating somebody new and they're different,"' she said. "With `Judging Amy,' I always knew what the show was about because I made it up. This, it's not family and she's not a mother. It's a workplace thing. And we met her last year in such a kind of hysterical (state).

"But what I love about her is she's super, super smart. This year she has many more cases and I love that. Probably in another life I was a shrink. I love those days when it's just me and the guest actor (as a client). It's not disimilar to what Amy Gray did, really being the trusting person for somebody to tell their truth to."

But being in nearly every scene of a one-hour drama was quite a workload and on "Practice," she gets to share that load with a stellar cast that includes Kate Walsh, Taye Diggs, Audra MacDonald, and Tim Daly, the brother of Tyne Daly who played her mom on "Amy."

"That's the only way it would really work," she said of the acting ensemble. "As much as I loved `Judging Amy,' once I had my second child, it was like I can't be away 18 hours. It's just no joke, that schedule. So with this, I have heavy days but then I have lighter days and I can take kids to school. It was either that or nothing because they're so little. I'm not gonna miss the whole thing."

"Practice" was spun off from a May 2007 episode of "Grey's Anatomy" in which Walsh's character of Addison moves from Seattle to Los Angeles to join the staff of Oceanside Wellness Center.

The series debuted to strong ratings last fall but had only completed nine episodes when Hollywood's writers strike put a halt to production of scripted shows.

But the cast members returned to work this spring and have already completed filming nine of the 18 episodes ordered by ABC.

"We feel like we're just getting going and getting a rhythm and getting to know each other better," Amy said.

Violet has not been lucky in love so far. She began the series recently split from a boyfriend and remains pained by it - especially after he marries a younger woman just a few months after their break up.

"Violet is slower than the other kids on the block in terms of jumping in and out of situations.

"She's a little damaged," Amy explained. "There's lots of other fun stuff. I kiss Pete (Tim Daly).

"I kiss Tim. That's just wild to me because I know Tim from Tyne. It's like kissing my brother (laughs)."

While Amy's fans love seeing her on "Practice," there are many who have been waiting for "Judging Amy" to be released on DVD.

So far, nothing.

"The reason it hasn't been, honestly, is it was a famously acrimonious co-production between 20th Century Fox and CBS," Amy explained. "It's really weird. Neither one wants the other to really benefit from it. It's crazy. You have someone who spits their gum out and it's on DVD.

"It's like insane. That's 133 episodes. I'm sure it will but people should call and write, seriously."

When Angela Bassett lights her cheatin' husband's clothes on fire in "Waiting to Exhale," audiences cheered. Her performance as Tina Turner in "What's Love Got to Do With It" won her the Golden Globe. But my favorite role of Angela's was as Stella in "How Stella Got Her Groove Back." The fact that a young and hot Taye Diggs played her young lover was just gravy. Angela is dope! (I've been wanting to say that about someone for the longest time).

Here is my newspaper column, published today, about this stunning actress:

This sounds like a dream come true for any television show: Angela Bassett is checking into NBC's "ER" this fall for what is expected to be the long-running medical drama's last season.

Angela, the Oscar-nominated star of "What's Love Got to Do with It" and such films as "Waiting to Exhale," "How Stella Got Her Groove Back," "Strange Days," and this year's "Meet the Browns," had two good reasons for accepting her first regular series gig: son Slater Josiah and daughter Bronwyn Golden, twins born on Jan. 27, 2006.

"I'm a mom now and (the set is) 15 minutes from our house, so that went into it," she said when we chatted last week. "And they promised me a great role, to work me hard, to get me wonderful, complicated stuff to do. I'm always looking for that opportunity to grow and to stretch."

Angela, who has been married to actor Courtney B. Vance for 11 years, will portray the hospital's new emergency room chief Dr. Cate Banfield.

"They've upheld the standard of excellence for 15 years," she said of the show. "I thought it would be a great company to be associated with and be a part of. It's the final year, so out with a bang."

I spoke with Angela at a brunch in Denver during the Democratic National Convention that celebrated the screening of "Gospel Hill," a film directed by Giancarlo Esposito.

"Gospel" is set in a black neighborhood where race relations are strained when residents are being forced out of their homes to make way for a multimillion-dollar golf course development.

Angela plays a woman who works to expose the profiteering of a black community leader (Esposito) who supports the project. She pushes to get her husband (Danny Glover) involved, which is a challenge because he withdrew from the community after his brother, a civil-rights leader, was assassinated three decades earlier.

"I loved the opportunity to play against Danny and to play a mature, grounded, driven, passionate, on-fire female. I was really impressed," she said. "It was a great, great time."

She was still feeling emotional after the film's screening in Denver the night before: "The way the audience responded to it - words like `divine' and `perfect' and `it had me in tears.' It was great. It's such a labor of love."

Jason O'Mara wanted to make one thing clear: he's not changing his haircut for his new ABC series "Life On Mars."

Even though his character of NYPD Det. Sam Tyler finds himself sent back to 1973 when he's hit by a car while chasing down a criminal, Jason didn't go for a retro look. After all, Sam had been living in 2008 until his little accident.

"I don't think it's really necessary to do anything to my hair," the actor told me recently.

I guess a bad 70s hairdo ("Mod Squad" anyone?) wouldn't be so good for ratings. One thing the Irish-born actor is trying to do though is work on an accent for the series, based on the British hit of the same name.

"I'm gonna try and give it sort of a New York flavor. That's very difficult to do, to do a subtle New York accent," he said. "It's easier to do Italian or something very specific."
On the show, Sam is trying to understand what has just happened to him and figure out how he can get back to the present day.

Meanwhile, he doesn't know who to trust and is, of course, without any hi-tech crime fighting techniques.So what would Jason miss the most is he really was transported back to the 70s

"Well, I would certainly miss the Internet, iPods, my DVR, microwave oven and cell phones of course," he said.
The Irish-born actor is no stranger to television audiences after roles as a regular or guest star on a number of series including "The Closer," "Grey's Anatomy," "CSI: Miami" and "Criminal Minds." He was part of the cast of "The Agency" on CBS and co-lead of "In Justice" on ABC and did several pilots that didn't make it on the air.

"I've been working with ABC for the last four years and this is kind of the culmination of a lot of that work."

The series doesn't premiere until early October but in recent weeks, the promos featuring Jason have hit the airwaves.

"This is a new deal for me, I've never had a fall launch like this," he said. "We're the only ABC fall drama so there's a lot of pressure so, it's very exciting."

Jason has lived in the U.S. for the last six years where he has consistently worked. He has a home in a small town in Connecticut with actress wife Paige Turco and their young son David. Paige, who Jason met when both were regulars on the CBS drama "The Agency," is currently one of the stars of the FX drama "Damages."
The couple's main priority right now is "trying to stay in the same city" as they juggle busy acting careers.

Neal McDonough fans who miss seeing the former "Boomtown" star on television each week can celebrate: Neal has joined the cast of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" as Nicolette Sheridan's love interest.

"It's like Disneyland, it's the happiest place on Earth," he said of the "Housewives" set. "Nicolette is terrific, she's great. It's just this great cast."

Neal had not done a steady television gig since the cancellation of NBC's "Medical Investigation" in 2005. Instead, he was busy making movies including "Flags of Our Fathers," "88 Minutes" and "The Hitcher."

"I was traveling everywhere, I wanted to see my wife and kids," Neal said during a recent chat. "I was about to go off again and ('Desperate Housewives' creator) Marc Cherry and said, 'How'd you like to be the new guy?' It's just a lot of fun and it's nice to drive 3.5 miles to work, get home and kiss my wife."

Edie Brit (Sheridan) has has been unlucky in love on "Housewives" but in Neal's character of Dave, she finally seems to have found the perfect man.
Or so she thinks.

"There's definitely a past to the guy that no one else knows about and he's hell-bent on revenge as the year goes on," Neal said. "The audiences is gonna like this."

While Neal makes his debut on the show next month, fans can see him even sooner than that because his latest film, "Traitor," hits theaters Wednesday.

It's an espionage thriller that also stars Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce and Jeff Daniels.

"To work with Don and Guy and Jeff, those guys are fantastic," he said. "It's a very smart, entertaining film. This is one of those smart thrillers where you will never guess what's going on. If you can guess, you are pretty amazing. It's just really layered and that's what I like about it. It was one of those characters that was just right for me."
So what would Neal consider to be a "just right" character?

"I generally play those hardened tough-as-nails type of guys, I think that's what I am," he said. "Lee Marvin, John Wayne kinds of guys, not a lot of BS about us. We like to get to the bottom of situations, not dance around issues. These are the kinds of characters I like."

In "Traitor," Neal plays FBI agent Max Archer who he said "fights his way through to get answers."

Neal, 42, was trained at the London Academy of Dramatic Arts and Sciences and was a busy theater actor but soon began landing guest spots on various television series including "NYPD Blue," "Quantum Leap" and "Murder One." His first significant film role came in 1996's "Star Trek: First Contact" which was a dream come true for a life-long fan of the franchise.

"I get a kick out of watching myself on screen," he admitted. "I'm so blessed to have the career and the life I have."

Molly Shannon in a new TV comedy?

I'm so there!

This "Saturday Night Live" alum is an absolute riot and will be playing Selma Blair's mother in the NBC comedy "Kath and Kim" which premieres this fall. It is based on a popular Australian comedy of the same name.

"It's really fun to play a character and it's fun to be different from yourself," she told me recently. "I even wear a wig."

The wig is to help the audience believe that Molly, who turns 44 next month - and is mother to two young children in real life - is old enough to play mother to Selma who is 36.

But hey, it worked for the late Estelle Getty on "The Golden Girls." She was actually a year younger than her TV daughter Beatrice Arthur.

What really worried Molly the most were inevitable comparisons to the original "Kath and Kim," a show about a dysfunctional mother and daughter, living in a suburban community in Florida.

"It's a little hard because I'm such a big fan of the Australian version so I get a little nervous thinking, 'Oh God I could never imitate that,'" she said. "A couple of years ago, they did a version of the script with a different writer and they came to me with it. I didn't like the writing so much. Then they brought in a new writer and came back to me a year later and I really liked this new version."\

This marks the first TV series Molly has headlined since 2004's "Cracking Up" which lasted just nine episodes. She's confident things will go better this time around.
"It's just such an opportunity," she said. "Just to be in this position where the network's excited about the show, we're picked up for 13 (episodes). I just feel so grateful for that."
"There's so much you can't control in TV, I just try to have fun and enjoy the people that I'm working with. But of course I hope it does well."
Even though Molly left "SNL" in 2001, her characters remain fresh in the minds of fans - none more than the neurotic and melodramatic Catholic school girl Mary Katherine Gallagher who ended up being the central character in the spinoff movie "Superstar."
Her guest spots have also lived on including the "Seinfeld" episode on which she plays Sam, a co-worker who drive Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) bonkers because she didn't swing her arms when she walked.

And, of course, there was her recurring role on "Will & Grace" as loony neighbor Val who became the nemesis of Grace (Debra Messing).

"People love that show," she said of 'Will & Grace." "I only did a few episodes and people act like they saw me so much on that."

That's because she was so unforgettable.

Charlie Hunnam may be just 28 years old, but he is an actor who would rather not work at all than accept a bad role in a film or on television.

Before he was cast as the lead in the new FX series "Sons of Anarchy" which debuts Sept. 3, he didn't find any projects that appealed to him to he took some time away from acting to write a screenplay.

But the star of such features as "Nicholas Nickleby" and "Green Street Hooligans" was finally offered a part that he knew was absolutely right for him: Jackson "Jax" Teller in "Anarchy," an action-drama that explores the life and brotherhood of a notorious outlaw motorcycle club.

"They are pretty bad," Charlie said recently. "If ever anything comes into their world and compromises the way they live their life or their freedom, then they strike out with a vengeance."

Katey Sagal plays his force-of-nature mother and Ron Perlman is his stepfather and president of the club.

"He's trying to distance himself a little bit from the violent nature of this club," Charlie said of Jax.

When we spoke, I wondered about the tatoos that were on the actor's arm. I asked him if they were real.

"No," he said before explaining that he participated in the selection of his character's body art: "You can either pay attention and make a specific choice about tatoos or you can show up and have the make-up artist put some tatoos on you. And I thought long and hard about it. I didn't want to go overboard but I wanted something very specific."
Real tatoos that are visible can be problematic: "I love tatoos but it's just such a pain to have them covered."

The English actor, now based in Los Angeles, was open to doing a series even though he had been getting steady work in such films as "Cold Mountain," "Children of Men," and "Abandon."

In fact, two of his most memorable roles were on TV: the original British version of "Queer as Folk" and the FOX comedy "Undeclared" which was cancelled after one season but remains a cult favorite.

I wondered if playing a tough guy was much oif a stretch for Charlie.

"I was a rough little kid growing up," he said. "I definitely had my share of fights but all that's behind me now. I'm an actor. I'm not a bad-ass anymore."

Here is a scene from "Queer As Folk: filmed nearly 10 years ago:

Kyle Chandler was the star of one of my favorite shows, "EarlyEdition."

You remember it, right?

It was about a guy who, for reasons completely unknown to him, gets tomorrow's newspaper on his doorstep today. Then he's got just 24 hours to try and prevent whatever calamity he reads about.

Talk about stressful!

When I ran into Kyle recently - who now heads the cast of NBC's "Friday Night Lights - I had to tell him how much I enjoyed "Early Edition."

"That was a fun show," he said. "I've been very fortunate, no doubt about that. I went four years on that."

Kyle is hopeful that the critically-acclaimed but never highly rated "Lights" runs at least that long. He plays Eric Taylor, coach of the high school football team in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas. The show is about a lot more than football and uses the small-town backdrop to dramatize issues facing Middle America these days.

The show was in danger of being cancelled after each of its first two seasons but has managed to weather so-so ratings and a writers strike to return in the fall - first exclusively on DirectTV then rebroadcast on NBC in early 2009.

"To have this opportunity with the third season, I'm very excited for it," Kyle said. "I think the show will be as strong as ever. I think it's a new opportunity. As long as they keep it on the air, I can focus on the stories."

"Everyone is excited," he added. "I'm working with some very, very intelligent people who are very, very creative. It's the best working atmosphere that I could ever imagine and I think a lot of that shows in the episodes. It all fits together."

This is the first year the show will air on DirectTV first in an arrangement that helped ensure "Nights" survival on broadcast television where shows are rarely given time to prove themselves and grow in the ratings.

Kyle is so confident about the show's quality that he believes if people just sample it once or twice, they will never stop watching.

"I think the people that don't watch it are the people that haven't seen it," he said. "A lot of people that I know who have seen it who initially thought they wouldn't be watching it for whatever reason ended up finding out that it was a lot different than they ever had
anticipated. We have a lot of very strong followers of the show. I expect that to continue and I expect a whole new audience with 17 million subscribers to Direct TV having a shot at it. It's really exciting. We've got a real chance of showing a lot more people what
we have."

Television viewers first got to know Kyle, 42, from his roles on the well-regarded television series "Homefront" and and the final season of "Tour of Duty" followed by roles in the short-lived the Joan Cusack sitcom "What About Joan" and the Rob Lowe drama "Lyons Den." He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his memorable
four-episode gig on "Grey's Anatomy" and has appeared in such films as the Peter Jackson-directed "King Kong," "The Kingdom" and "Mulholland Falls."

But the role of Eric Taylor on "Lights" is one he's been waiting his entire career for.

"I really like him a lot," Kyle said of his TV alter-ego. "I was unsure about him at first but I like everything about him."

With its endless reruns airing several times a day, "Scrubs" sometimes seems to me to be on its way to becoming almost as ubiquitous as "I Love Lucy," the most repeated comedy in the history of television.

The two shows are so different and yet they do have one thing in common: both feature comedy teams that are the heart of the show. Where "Lucy" had best friends and neighbors played to perfection by Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, "Scrubs" is anchored by the extremely close - and very funny - relationship of young doctors Christopher Duncan Turk and Dr. John "J.D." Dorian played by Donald Faison and Zach Braff, respectively.

Donald told me recently that the chemistry between he and Zach was instant, "from the day I met him."

"We joked around really well together," he said. "For some reason, his sense of humor was the same as mine. I think pretty much everything that you see us do together, on that show, is how we are in real life. Maybe times that by ten. In real life we're that on
steriods."
The two characters are so close (J.D. calls Turk his "brown bear") that there has been some question - and many jokes - about whether they are gay and just don't know it.

Donald said that although "I am definitely his brown bear," he believes the two are merely engaging in typical male bonding: "I think that's in all male relationships. There's always references toward one's sexuality. It's a bonding tool. I don't think you'd be
dudes if you didn't do that. How could someone be your best friend if you can't do that?"

"There's not just gay references," he's quick to add. "There's black references and white references. Everything. The fact that I'm called brown bear or chocolate bear, it's not because I have the physique of a bear. It's because my skin is brown! It's definitely fun to not have to worry about being politically correct."

Although it's never been a blockbuster in the TV ratings, "Scrubs" has quietly built-up a loyal following throughout its seven years on the air. The many reruns and popularity on DVD led ABC to pick up the show for an eighth season when NBC was ready to send it to that big operating room in the sky.

So come January, we'll get more adventures of J.D. and Turk and their friends.

"Eight years on television, you can't beat that with a baseball bat," said Donald, who previously was a regular on the "Felicity," "Clueless," and "Clone High." "When we first started the show, I was 26. So I've almost lived a decade doing this television show and I
wouldn't change that for the world."

"I dreamt of it," he added. "Watching 'Cosby' and 'A Different World' and watching 'Family Matters' and 'Family Ties' and 'Cheers'and 'Friends' and 'Frasier' and all those shows. I think everybody dreams that that will happen one day. I for sure dreamed that it would happen. And it did and it's awesome."

At first glance, Ryan Gosling - snapped here after a workout at 24 Hour Fitness this week - would appear to be just another one of the many hot young guys in Hollywood. But he is so much more with an Oscar nomination under his belt ("Half Nelson") and another one deserved this year ("Lars and the Real Girl"), Ryan is one of the finest actors of his generation.

What I really liked about Ben Shenkman - besides the fact that he's such a terrific actor - is that when I met him on the opening night of Outfest last month, he was absolutely the first celebrity to arrive.

That meant we could have a nice conversation on the red carpet without my eyes darting around every so often to make sure I'm not missing anyone else!

Ben's first leading role was in the romantic comedy "30 Days" in 1999 and he went on to appear in the features "Chasing Sleep," "Requiem for a Dream," and "Americanese." But his biggest role was his role in HBO's adaptation of Tony Kushner's hit play "Angels in America." On television, Ben had recurring roles on "Law & Order," "Canterbury's Law" and "Love Monkey."

Now Ben is one-half of a gay couple in "Breakfast With Scot" who take in a relative's orphaned and very free-spirited young son. Tom Cavanaugh plays Ben's partner, a former NHL star who is now a publicly closeted sportscaster. The film marked the first time major Canadian hockey teams had allowed a gay film to be made at their facilities. "Breakfast" was the opening night film at Outfest.

"This one has really thrived on the (film festival) circuit in a way that I haven't seen before in my own experience with little movies," Ben said. "They at a certain point thought it would probably go straight to DVD in the U.S. but it just kept playing really well in the festival circuit. It's so nice, it;s what's supposed to happen in a way - a film that connects with audiences has a chance to get out there."
I asked Ben about the amazing Noah Bernett who plays the young boy who changes the couple's lives.

"The whole thing wouldn't have worked if they hadn't found him," Ben said of Noah. "It can have no trace of a self-conscious performance about it otherwise you're not worried for him. And all the comedy comes out of being worried for him and all the pathos comes out of being worried for him. They were just very lucky to find that kid."

On working with Tom Cavanaugh: "He's great. I'm in the movie more or less because of him because I had worked on both of his TV shows ("Ed" and "Love Monkey") and gotten to know him there so when they were putting this together, he called up and said, 'If you;re free, this would be a good part.' He was intimately involved at that point in getting the script together, he had a lot of input."

On the NHL's cooperation: "It created a little bit of news because there were people who got angry at the NHL. And the NHL, so admirably, was just like this is such a non-issue. They didn't see themselves as endorsing anything. They weren't trying to be progessive, they just didn't give a (expletive) in the nicest possible way."

Ben is also in the terrific little film "Then She Found Me" which also premiered at the Palm Springs Film Festival and marked the directorial debut of Helen Hunt. Ben played her brother in the film. The film enjoyed a surprisingly strong run in limited release and comes out on DVD in September. It also starts Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick and Colin Firth.

Be sure to catch both films this fall!

Wilson Cruz is an actor who I've written about many times on this blog and in my newspaper column who I greatly admire and who is a really special guy. I've seen him several times in the past month or so at events so this interview that we did at the GLAAD Awards in late April is just a little dated but still worth posting.

Here is our little chat:

Q. Hey you! What's new with you?
A. I'm recurring on a new series for Steven Bochco called 'Raising the Bar." I just completed the first episode of what I hope will be many. At least two ], probably more. It's got Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Jane Kaczmarek. I play Rafael de la Cruz, this very flamoyant character that becomes a love interest for one of the main characters - Jonathan Scarfe.

Q. Great! Too bad you can't be Mark-Paul's love interest too! Okay, what else you got going on?
A. We're doing the second season of "Rick and Steve (The Happiest Gay Couple In the World)" at the moment and "He's Just Not That Into You" coming out in October.

Q. Here we are at the GLAAD Awards. I'll bet you;ve been to a lot of these.
A. It gets bigger and better every year. This year was especially special for me because of the award (in Miami) I got a couple of weeks ago. It was an overwhelming night. I felt completely honored and cried halfway through my speech.

Q. How did it feel to get that kind of recognition? You've been out since you were 19 (in 1994) and you didn't get a lot of attention in the same way as TR Knight or Neil Patrick Harris. How did it feel to know that people really do know what you went through?
A. It's overwhelming. I feel incrediboly supported by this industry. I've been allowed to be who I am and live my life and do great work. I'm incredibly proud. I continue to be amazed by the opportunities that continue to come my way. I knock on wood that they keep coming."

What's really interesting about Matthew Montgomery's film career so far is that while his most significant leading roles have been gay men, they have been in various genres ranging from romantic comedy to drama to sci-fi. We talked about some of his best films in part two of our interview. Click HERE to read part one. But first, Matthew tells me about his inspiration for gay roles: Not long after "Gone But Not Forgotten was released, he started getting fan mail: "I got this letter from this kid one that that said that he really liked the movie and that it made him confident and gave him the courage to come out to his family and accept who he was. Man, are like you kidding? To have that kind of effect on somebody, It was when I got that first email - and subsequently I've gotten many, I have a purpose now. It's more than about me and how many movies I can do what character I can play. It's also about having a voice and standing up for something important and being a part of helping us move forward and integrating us into society... The younger gay generation looks us to up with respect and see that they can be open about who they are and that they can have aspirations and dreams and not have to mask who they are in order to succeed in the world."

Long-Term Relationship: "I loved it and thought it was very funny, the characters very rich. I felt very strongly about the script." The film also marked Matthew's debut as a producer with Guest House Films: "I don't claim to be an expert in the industry but as an actor, when you're on enough sets, you pick up on things and you do know how to run the show and you do know how to put the pieces together. It's all up there in your head. You just have to access it and that's what happened. ... It aso helps me to be very realistic about how it happens. I don't have any illusion of the glamour, I get my hands dirty getting in it and making it work, making it happen. It's a lot of hard work but it's well worth it."

"Gone, But Not Forgotten" "It's about this guy with amnesia who is found in the woods sort of wandering around when he's rescued by a ranger in the area. He has no recollection of his past. The movie is about him trying to recapture whatever his history is. At the start of the movie he doesn't even know what his name is. It's about him rediscovering who he is, where he came from and what that means. And in the meantime he stays with this ranger and, of course they fall in love. For as low budget and low production values as it is, it's surprisingly stayed as one of the top 10 gay movies of all time which is shocking to me."

"Back Soon" "Both characters are supposedly straight and I took it with that approach anyway, I thought it was more interesting. They had never had wanted to have that kind of experience before with another guy. In the end, it's because you realize - and this is a spoiler - it's because my character is being possessed, so to speak, by the character of his dead wife."

Socket: I jumped in head first. I love sci-fi so the idea to combine the two genres of science fiction and gay was, I thought, a great opportunity. The thing I liked about "Socket" is I don't feel that it tries to be more than it really is. You can look at it and sort of interpret it as sort of these underlying elements of drug addiction in the gay world or addiction with relationships. But really on the surface it's just a really cool, creepy, cringe-worthy science fiction movie with gay elements that's a lot of fun. I really loved that we are sort of moving past the typical gay story of coming out. There's still definitely a place for that and I hope those stories continue to be told but it was nice to be a part of something different that was part of a very specific genre.

Pornography: A Thriller: (The film is in post-production and will most likely be released in the first quarter next year.) "This one's really trippy on a psychological basis. It's very non-linear. It;s based on this fictional legend of this former gay porn star who supposedly died in a snuff film. The character that I play is a writer who reviews gay pornography and he comes across footage that could potentially be the actual snuff film that this guy died in. It's really sort of (expletive) with your mind and makes you question what's real and what isn't and who's real and who isn't. I don't think there's anything out there that's ever been done like this. "

On nude scenes: "I'm still not comfortable with it. I'm very sefl conscious about my body so it's very strange to me. the thing thast I;ve been lucky with ius where every movie that I've done where they've asked me to be nude and I've agreed to it, the direvtor and actors i;ve wolrked with have been so considerate and sensitive., always checking my pulse to make sure that I'm ok. there;s been a lkot of talking and pre-planning before we get onto the set so that we do know what we're duty. It's not as sexy as people think. It's very robotic and mechanical. Move here, turn your butt cheek there. It's the very opppsite of romantic or hot - for us anyway. I've done so much nudity is my moveis that when I don't, sometimes I get letters from people who say, 'Why didn't you take your clothes off. I'm like, Are you kidding me? I just don't even respond to those kinds of emails. I didn't really think much about the nudity at the beginning.l If it was there, it was there. Now I think about it a lot more."

The future: Matthew has written his first screenplay about "Stick Figures" about a self-absorbed gay man who is battling through alcoholism who gioes back to his hometown and fins out he has inherited a little girl - his daughter. It's about someone learning how to be a parent."

To learn even more about Matthew, click HERE to get to his web site.

Alfre Woodard is set to play a very different kind of character - for her - on the new NBC series "My Own Worst Enemy" set to debut in October.

She plays the handler of a man played by Christian Slater who has two personalities: a mild-mannered family man and a cold blooded secret agent. The twist is that the family man doesn't know the other personality exists.

This is how Alfre described it as she slipped into character at last week's Television Critics Associaton Summer Press Tour sesson: "What we actually do is we manifest a divergent identity dormant in a sealed-off portion of the medial temporal lobe."

Fortunately, when we spoke earlier, the conversation was a lot easier to follow!

"It's said of me that I'm the lady decides who lives and dies," she said of her character, Mavis Heller. "I've obviously been an agent in the field before and I got promoted to this position and I am Christian's boss."

The last time Alfre appeared as a regular on a television series, she was the mysterious new neighbor on "Desperate Housewives." But Betty Applewhite had too many secrets to really connect with the other women of Wisteria Lane and Alfre left after one season and an Emmy nomination.

She didn't hesitate to try series TV again.

"I'm not picky, I just make decisions," she explained. "If this had come as a stage play or a miniseries or a movie I would have done it. It happened to be a series. I follow the material."

And there has been some mighty good material over the years including her Oscar-nominated role in "Cross Creek" and the features "Passion Fish" and "Down in the Delta."

She's also earned an astounding 15 Emmy nominations - including four wins - for such films as "Mrs. Evers Boys," "The Piano Lesson," "Gulliver's Travels" and "The Water is Wide." She was nominated again earlier this month for her performance in "Pictures of Hollis Woods."

With such a stellar resume, I wondered if the 55-year-old Alfre is constantly flooded with scripts after all these years.

"I sort of got into this intending to go the long haul So I've always made my decisions based on not only what interests me, but with an eye out for longevity," she said. "So I've never been flooded but I've always consistently had offers."
So what makes her say "yes" to a project?

"I've always said I wouldn't do anything that I wouldn't go to see so that kind of knocks out a lot," she said. "Work is hard and you leave your family for it sometimes. So when I look something and I feel like it's something I can do and I thought of something that probably no one's going to think of to bring to that, then I'll go to work."

Alfre can disappear into a role but she also cuts a very glamorous figure on red carpets. But as someone who still considers herself more of a working actress than a star, she doesn't take that part very seriously.

"Any time you're not at work, it's sort of make-believe," she said. "Work is real, even though you're pretending to be a person. All the rest is frivolity and frivolity is always fun but at the end of the day, I don't feel that anything I do outside of my set is going to make a difference in the world. So I take it like fun. When it's not fun, you go home."

Matthew Montgomery kept unexpectedly coming back into my life long before I even met him.

More than a year ago, I watched a screener of the drama "Back Soon" as part of my Outfest preparation. Then a few months back, I rented a bunch of movies one night and two of them - coincidentally - happened to star Matthew: "Long-Term Relationship" and "Socket."

So when the opportunity arose recently to interview Matthew, I jumped at the chance. We met at Insomnia Cafe in LA for a morning chat. At 30, he is one of the more thoughtful, articulate and prolific gay actors in the movie business - and one of the most talented. Our conversation was so rich that I am presenting this profile in two parts with the second part to run Sunday.

Matthew looked awfully cute as he ate a giant chocolate muffin during the first part of our intervew. As he licked the chocolate off his fingers, I wondered if this had always been his plan to focus on gay roles in film.

"It was totally by accident," he said. "I came to Los Angeles wanting to be the next big thing, hit some big Hoillywood movie. But I wasn't working. There's a lot of actors here and it's tough to get work in this town, The first film I was cast in was a gay independent film called "Gone But Not Forgotten." It was a gay character so obviously there was something about that that was very personal to me and meant something to me on a deeper level. So I took it. Then, what I found out was I could build a career in this smaller industry and sort of get my footing there, And now, here I am. I've just sort of been working one movie after the other."

Matthew has completed a trio films that are in the post-production stage: "Pornography: A Thriller," "The Dark Side of Love" and "Redwoods."

He knows that by playing mostly gay parts, he is taking a road less traveled than most actors.

"A lot of actors come into this industry and they do a gay film here or there and either they themselves or through the advice of other people, decide that they don't want to continue playing other gay characters because they're afraid of being typecast. I felt the complete opposite," he said. "I felt a huge sense of loyalty to these filmmakers and to the viewers watching these movies. If I spent the rest of my life only doing movies in the independent film industry, at least it's part of something that's progressive and part of something that's at the frontier of movement and change."

"It was never my plan to stay in or leave the gay independent film industry," he added. "It was just omething that kind of happened. But I kept working and what started to happen is it started to open other doors for me in general."

Born in Houston and raised Corpus Christi, Matthew thought his television was filled with tiny people and he wpndered how he could get into the set. It was then that his artist father explained to him what acting was.

"I never wanted to do anything else," he said. "I've always known I would move either here or to New York and pursue that. I auditioned for Julliard when I was 18 and didn't get in so I moved here.'
After high school where had one of the leads in "Annie Get Your Gun." he went to study theatre at USC and landed roles in many mainstage productions. He left after a few years "to find myself" then went on to study on a scholarship at Point Park Conservatory in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and was cast in his first short film.

He then returned to Los Angeles, this time, to pursue acting full time - but not necessarily as an out actor.

"I have to confess, in the very beginning, I had no intention of being an out actor, no intention of being open about that," he said. "I figured I'd spend my whole life not talking about it or keeping it hidden."

I interject and remark: "You were going to be like Raymond Burr weren't you?" (Burr was the famously closeted star of TV's "Perry Mason" franchise).

Matthew chuckled then asked, "Who?"

We laugh. I feel old and ask him to continue.

"That was my intention. That was sort of what was expected. If you came out of the closet you didn't have a career. But things have changed and things have moved forward and we've progressed. We're growing as a society and we're integrating. and I think that's a very important. The only way that that's happened us because people have the coiurage to say who they are and to stand up for what they believe in. I decided early on that I wanted to be one of those people that was at the forefront of this change. I wanted to be one of those people that stood up for that."

Coming In part 2 on Sunday: Matthew talks about his films, about producing and about doing nude scenes.
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Here are some highlights of Matthew's work:

To learn even more about Matthew, click HERE to get to his web site.

We all know Gale Harold as sexy and slutty Brian Kinney from the much-beloved "Queer as Folk" series. Of that amazing cast, he has found the most work on television including the lead in the short-lived Fox series "Vanished," a role on HBO's "Deadwood," and a stunning two-part guest spot on "Grey's Anatomy" as a paramedic who is a closet white supremicist. Now he has landed a role as a regular on "Desperate Housewives" which begins its fifth season this fall with the show jumping ahead five years.
Here is part of our conversation last night at the ABC party which was the culmination of the network's day on the Television Critics Association Press Tour.

Q. That is a very dramatic opening scene you had on the season finale of "Desperate Housewives." It was such a shock because Susan (Teri Hatcher) came home to you and not to Mike (James Denton). How have things been going so far?
A. I've worked about four days and it's been very nice, a very easy transition to go from being a complete stranger to all these people to just going to work and doing the work. (Teri) has a very ready grasp of what she needs to bring to the scene, she's a very fluid actress and it's been great to work with her."
Q. Do you feel like you've finally left Brian behind?
A. Brian behind? Is that a joke?
Q. it was such a great role. And you're doing such different stuff now and I'm starting to look at you in a different way.
A. I'm glad that you say that. That's kind of a baseline obstacle for an actor who comes from a place of obsurity then gets a big job and then they get associated with whatever that big job is. And when the job is really somewhat extreme then you worry. Everyone decides to get freaked out about typecasting at some point in their lives. But I really wasn't.... If I was never anything other than what I did on that show then maybe I would be typecast but I think I have the ability to consider the world at large and approach it.""

At this point, some other "journalist" crashes our little chat and remarks that Brian Kinney "could have been straight or gay." I love Gale's response: "No, I think he could never have been straight. I mean, the guy was absolutely homosexual. It was part of what was interesting about playing him. He was what he was. He was, essentially, an absolutely-realized gay man living with no boundaries."

This same "journalist" who doesn'rt even let people finish their answers then asks Gale about his "Desperate Housewives" character which he has already covered. So, he jokes: "He's a self-possessed gay man, out and proud."

I wrestle control of the interview back and ask him about his fellow "Queer as Folk" castmates. Are they in touch?

"By the way, congratulations to Sharon Gless who was nominated for an Emmy today. That should be the lead, don't bury it, please. I had lunch with Scott Lowell (last) Saturday and I emailed Peter Paige this afternoon. Randy (Harrison) was in Paris and we talked a day after he got back about three weeks ago."

I wrap up my part of the interview when the other "journalist" starts asking questions like "Are you a nightlife guy?" "Are you an outdoors guy?"

I didn't stick around long enough to hear the answers to those STELLAR questions...

Talked to Katey Sagal at the Television Critics Association Press Tour yesterday and wanted to share that with you. On her new show, she plays Charlie Hunnam;s mom! Will post through the day with TCA-related items and general items whenever I get the chance.

Katey Sagal knows she can get laughs, but that's not what she'll be looking for in her latest TV gig.

The star of the sitcoms "Married With Children and "8 Simple Rules" has stepped into the role of the fierce matriarch of a notorious outlaw motorcycle gang on the new FX series "Sons of Anarchy."

"She's lived in this motorcycle world for 30 years and was married to the guy who started the original club," Katey said if her character, Gemma. "I've been wanting to do a drama, I've been wanting to do something different. This is really something I was looking for and I'm really happy to be here."

Gemma could not be further from Peg Bundy and that was the appeal for the actress who started in showbiz as a background singer for Bette Midler.

"I feel like I've been in the sitcom comedy world so much - which I'm so grateful for - and I sort of feel like there wasn't a lot more to explore," she added. "I feel like I really did a good job in that world."

The show, which will air on Wednesday nights beginning Sept. 3, has Katey working with her husband, Kurt Sutter, who created the show and is one of the writers and executive producers.

They had previously worked together on a few episodes of "The Shield" and so far, things have been pretty smooth.

"He's in the writer's room and producing and I'm actually on the set so during the day we don't seem to run into each other quite as much but we're all on the same lot so we can sneak off for lunch," she said.

"We never have done this and it's working out great. I have enormous respect for my husband as an artist. It's great to leave the husband and wife cap at home and I have no problem with him being the boss which I think is his favorite part (laughs)."

Would her character ever ride a motorcyle? Katey said no but quickly added: "She might ride on the back."

I don't know about you, but I think Val Kilmer is the sexiest Batman of all time. When he had on the Batman mask, those lips had me transfixed! I was already smitten with him from the days of "Top Gun" and always find his performances interesting. I've met Val at a few premieres but had never interviewed him until this week. He is the subject of my Sunday column in the LA Daily News and I am giving you all an advance look:

Val Kilmer is quick to note the irony that his latest film, the gritty prison drama "Felon," is being released on Friday - the same day as the latest Batman movie "The Dark Knight."

Christian Bale plays the caped crusader for the second time, a role Val played in 1995's "Batman Forever." He succeeded Michael Keaton in the original set of films and preceded George Clooney.

"I really liked it, the last one," he said of 2006's "Batman Begins." "I wanted it to be me and Clooney and Michael Keaton to be in the next Batman movie together. We can be the bad guys."

There were couple of misconceptions that Val, 48, wanted to clear up when we talked last week: he has no plans to play David Lee Roth in a film ("Why? Why? Why would do that?") and he gained all that weight that resulted in a run of tabloid photos for "Felon."
"I'm determined to stalk the paparazzi in Malibu and show my torso," he joked. "I got a lot of (overweight) pictures out there. You can't chase after these guys and say: 'It's for a movie!'"

In "Felon," Val plays a prison legend at Corcoran State Prison named John Smith who basically has nothing left to lose and acts accordingly.With the extra weight, a heavy mustache and countless tattoos, the handsome actor is barely recognizable.

"The old-time lifers have the big heavy mustache and one of the reasons they have it is because (inmates) read lips," he explained.

Val is "really pleased and satisfied" with the film and its authentic recreation of prison life. But he almost wasn't in the movie at all.

"I actually turned the studio down because I wanted to be in a nice, light-hearted comedy. But the research (by director Ric Roman Waugh) was so compelling. It feels like you must imagine it's like in prison. I think it's easy to say you don't want to go to prison."
Val made his splash in the mid-80s with the films "Real Genius" and "Top Gun," was a sensation as rock star Jim Morrison in "The Doors" and starred in "Willow," "True Romance" and "Tombstone" before he was tapped to play Batman.

The movie was a huge box office hit but Val walked away from the franchise to star in an eclectic mix of films including "The Saint," "Heat," "The Ghost and the Darkness," "The Island of Dr. Moreau," "Red Planet," "The Salton Sea," and "Alexander."

Despite his leading man looks, he has always considered himself a character actor.

"I think of Jim Morrison as a character role - he was an extreme character. Even my first movies, I'm nothing like those guys. So I don't really feel like I'm becoming a character actor, it's really just acting. But it is more fun for me now because I know how to do it better."

Proof that was Val has never been better came in the criminally overlooked "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" which he starred in with Robert Downey Jr.
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"I wish we had gotten better distribution," he lamented.

\But he is glad there are still good roles like that out there and plenty of directors he'd like to work with.

"When I was younger, I was pretty interested in challenging myself tom explore acting so I did whatever I was interested in - that's why I think I have such an eclectic group of movies," he said. "Now, I think more about the director. It's a director's medium and I understand now that I'm older that you don't turn down great directors."

I first took note of Stephen Dorff when he did a TV movie back in 1990 called "Always Remember I Love You" with Patty Duke. I'll never forget it, mostly because at the end of it, I bawled my eyes out. Then four years later, he really blew me away with his performance as Stuart Sutcliff in "Backbeat," one of my favorite movies of all time. So I was really excited to talk to him today for an interview that appears in my newspaper column tomorrow.

Here it is, a day early for the readers of Out In Hollywood:

To prepare for an interview I did with Stephen Dorff on Tuesday, I watched his latest film "Felon" and felt like I was in the middle of a nightmare.

It's a raw and riveting movie that has the 34-year-old star of such films as "Backbeat," "Blade," and "World Trade Center" playing a good guy who gets sent to prison for killing an intruder who was robbing his house.

"What comes through in the film is how in one moment, it all changes," Stephen said. "He didn't know to stay inside the house after a guy comes out of nowhere and is in his kid's room. You want to know who was in your house. He hits him (after chasing him outside) but doesn't want to kill him."

Once he gets to prison, he has to navigate brutal inmates and deadly guards in a movie based on actual events and the atrocities that had taken place at California's Corcoran State Prison.

"It was a great script when I read it and I wanted to do it. A lot of people wanted to do this part, it was a pretty hot script around town. (Writer-director Ric Roman Waugh) said he wanted me."

Stephen was impressed with the level of painstaking research Ric had done to ensure authenticity in "Felon" which hits theaters July 18.

"Rick wanted the vibe real and that's how he approached the whole movie," he said. "A lot of the (extras) were parolees who had done time in Corcoran. Some of them were still on parole. It was the real deal."

Val Kilmer plays a prison "lifer" who forms an unlikely bond with Stephen's character.

"Val was great," he said. "I didn't know where he was going with the character. He showed up in the goatee, the tatoos. He was this hulking presence yet this sensitive poet meditative guru. He had so much (expletive) going on. I was blown away by his performance."

At 34, Stephen feels like he is doing some of the best work of a career that dates back to 1985 when as a child actor, he appeared in various television movies and in such sitcoms as "Roseanne" and "Different Strokes."

"In the last few years, there's all these movies coming out and working with so many of these greart directors. In the beginning, I did all these great movies then did a few I shouldn't have done. The 'Fear.com' and other genre movies that were big pay days but not at the same level of quality."

In addition to "Felon," he also recently completed the period epic "Public Enemies" opposite Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Channing Tatum and directed by Michael Mann.

"I don't know how it works. There's been times when I've wondered, 'Why the (expletive) am I not getting that movie? There's so much to this game like who's hot and all that. If you stay true and work with great directors, that's all I can hope for. Right now, I feel the most solid and my work is the best it's ever been. I feel fortunate."

Writer Brandon Voss was nice enough to send us an early look at his 'Big Gay Following' feature on sexy David Duchovny in an upcoming issue of The Advocate. I'm excerpting some of my favorite questions and have a link to the entire thing at the end.

Brandon starts off by reminding the "Californication" and "X-Files" star about one of his classic guest appearances as himself on "The Larry Sanders Show' starring Gary Shandling. Larry's gay assistant estimates his friends' opinion of Duchovny: "A third think he's gay, a third think he's bi, and the rest don't care -- they just want to kiss him anyways." Is that a fair representation of his entire gay fan base? "On my best day, that would be nice," admits Duchovny,

In Californication your womanizing novelist character, Hank, lives in Los Angeles and works in the entertainment industry, yet there are no gay characters -- just a smattering of frat-boy fantasy girl-on-girl action. What's the deal?
That is quite unrealistic, and I hope to address that in the near future, and I apologize to my big gay following. It's funny because when we were casting the pilot, and even when we shot the pilot -- though we never told the actor -- the idea was always that Evan Handler's character, my agent, was gay. But that never came to pass. Actually, he became more of a player than my character.

Hank says he used to live in New York's West Village "amongst the gays," so I'd be surprised if he's never jumped the fence.
Well, Hank is a very passive sexual partner. He's like a boy who can't say no, so I could certainly see that. That was one of my favorite lines -- I love saying "amongst the gays."

What inspired the homosexual vibe you gave off on The Larry Sanders Show?
It was before this whole man-crush thing became played out -- the "bromance" and all that stuff. I had done one Larry Sanders and Larry and I had become friends, and we were thinking about what I could do next on the show. I said, "Why don't I have a crush on you, but I'm not gay, and it's funny because it doesn't bother me -- I just say it." And he said, "That is funny." So we ran with it.
Here is a clip from that classic "Larry Sanders" episode:

Have you been hit on by guys?
I grew up in the East Village and lived amongst the gays, so that kind of shit happens, and it's no big deal.

Have you ever been annoyed by gay rumors about yourself?
I didn't know I had a gay rumor! It wouldn't annoy me at all. I imagine if I were gay and wanted to hide it, it would annoy me. I find I only get annoyed at the things that are true, so that's a telltale sign.

Have you ever dealt with a friend or loved one's coming-out?
I had a friend come out in college, and I didn't handle it great because I'd just always assumed he was gay. So when he came out, I guess I wasn't surprised enough or didn't think it was amazing enough. It was always obvious to me!

To read Brandon's conversation with David in its entirety, click HERE and enjoy!