Actors/Actresses: June 2008 Archives

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!

I can count on one hand the times I have felt physically star-struck. It just sort of hits you in unexpected ways and for me, it seems to happen when I meet stars who I watched in my childhood including two of "Charlie's Angels:" Jaclyn Smith and Cherly Ladd. It happened again the other day with Susan Lucci. Here is a column I wrote on Miss Lucci that will appear in today's LA Daily News:

During all the years that Susan Lucci was nominated for - and famously lost - the Daytime Emmy Award for her performance as Erica Kane on "All My Children," she handled the result each time with extraordinary grace.

So when she finally won her Emmy in 1999 - on her 19th try - there was something akin to a palpable sense of nationwide relief even if it meant she wouldn't be able to spoof her losing streak on "Saturday Night Live" and in commercials.

"When I did win, I got the key to the city of New York and New York City firemen would stop on their trucks and give me a big thumbs up, and beggars would sing (laughs)," Susan said when we spoke at a pre-Emmy party last week. "It was wonderful. It's much better to win but it's great to be nominated."

Here is video from the night of her 1999 Emmy win:

The night of her win, Susan vowed that she would return to the set of "Children" the next day and play Erica "for all she's worth." She kept her word and is now in her 38th year on the show playing the most famous character in soap opera history.

"I love the part of Erica Kane," she said. "I walk into the studio in the morning and I'm smiling, I'm happy. I work with great actors and I've got one of the best parts ever written for a woman as far as I'm concerned."

Remarkably youthful at 61, Susan has managed to juggle her role as the larger-than-life Erica with many other ventures including a series of well-received television movies ("Mafia Princess," "Between Love and Hate" and "Ebbie").

"I love that the fans and the public has really responded to (Erica) so much that I also have had the chance to go on Broadway in 'Annie Get Your Gun' and have a line of jewelry and lingerie and all of that on HSN," she said. "I enjoy it all. But it's all because of Erica Kane."

Erica has been married seven times, legally, and there were another five unions that were either ceremonial or later found to be invalid.

"No, I don't forget," she said when I asked if she remembered everyone her character had been married to.

Nothing in Erica's life is ever simple. She has a lesbian daughter who battled anorexia, a daughter from a traumatic teenage rape, and a son who she thought she had aborted but who was used by the doctor in an experimental fetal transplant.

Working woman Erica started as a model then edited a magazine, wrote several books, ran a cosmetic empire and now works as a talk show host. She is currently involved in a political storyline with Mario Van Peebles.

"I had talked about Erica being involved with a politician and the political world a couple of years ago," Susan said. "But the time is right now. I'm so glad that we're doing it right now because I'm loving it."

Tuc Watkins and I gabbed a bit at the Daytime Emmys over the weekend and, of course, I wanted to know if he would be returning to ABC's "Desperate Housewives" next fall as one half of the gay couple on Wisteria Lane.

"We should find out in the next couple of weeks," he said. "The show fast-forwarded five years and Bob and Lee got married in the last episode and we'll see if we're still living between Gabrielle and Susan."

There was talk that Tuc's character would be split from his husband and in the five years since, be living with Andrew Van de Kamp (Shawn Pyfrom), the show's young gay guy who is growing up to be cute as a button. But Tuc, 41, did not seem thrilled about his character sharing his life with someone 20 years younger.

"I don't like that rumor," he said. "I didn;t like that story and I'm glad that it's just a rumor."
Since Bob and Lee did get hitched on the season finale of "Housewives," I wondered what Tuc's thoughts were on gay marriage becoming legal in California: "I think the Supreme Court decision is fantastic," he said. "I think it's the way things are going to move in the future. I'm anxious to see what's going to happen in November and I think Bob and Lee proved their commitment on the last episode prior to this legislation happening. so, once again, Marc Cherry's ideas are a little bit ahead of the curve."

Meanwhile, there's his day job. I told Tuc that I was "outraged" he has never been nominated for his truly unique role of scam artist David Vickers on "One Life to Live."

"It's ridiculous!" he joked. "If soap opera is meat and potatoes, I provide the broccoli robb," Tuc said. "It's so much fun to play David Vickers. He's the world's stupidest smart guy."

Tuc first appeared as David in 1996 and in the last 12 years, has taken leave from the show to do such things as "The Mummy" film, the terrific Showtime series "Beggars and Choosers" and the classic gay indie film "I Think I Do..."

But he has always been able to return to David: "He's the kind of guy who can kind of come and go because you never know where he's gonna be. It's wherever the next scam is. There aren't a lot of scams you can run in Pennsyvania (where the soap is set). He can go back there to kind of fill the coffers but you've got to go out into the world and experience other things in order to bring something new and different back."

Here are some terrific clips of Tuc in his role as David Vickers. They show why the soap has allowed him to return again and again and again. It doesn't hurt that in the first two clips, he's shirtless!

Here is a fun spoof that catches you up on the David Vickers story...

TR Knight showed up at The Abbey last night looking absolutely adorable with his boyfriend Mark Cornelson. He was one of the star attractions of the "Love and Pride" event to gain support in the fight against right wing's ballot initiative which would amend the California constitution and take away the marriage rights just granted by our State Supreme Court.

Before things got underway, TR and I had a chat about gay marriage.
"It's just our fight to uphold the court's ruling. It's what's right, it's one of our fundamental rights," said the Emmy-nominated star of "Grey's Anatomy." "It shouldn't be any different from any other fundamental rights - freedom or religion, freedom of speech. That's not for some, that's for all. We're in a free society."

I wondered where TR was when he got wind of the Supreme Court decision: "I was in the middle of working on a project in my house and I got a phone message from Corey Scholibo over at The Advocate who's a friend of mine. i knew it was happening but I just wasn't aware of the hour. It was just one of those moments where the word astounded fits perfectly. Just so happy."

Used to setbacks in the gay rights movement, it was a wonderful breakthrough, TR said.
"Not to be negative, but there's a lot of disappointment when it comes to things like, for instance, the Matthew Shepard Act which didn't quite survive. You want to be positive and you want to stay positive. You've got to fight for this, to not be second class citizens. To have something good come out of it, to have there be a success, to know that our country is trying to right its wrongs, it's a good thing."

He added: "Thank God they denied the stay (on Wednesday). It's like, 'OK good.' We're starting to operate as thinking human beings. Obviously public opinion is changing. I was just listening to NPR over the day and a gentleman was on, he was a pollster, talking about how over the 30 years how many people were against and how many people were for. And it's changing so much. People are realizing, I think, it's about equality and that's it. Nothing else. It's about our constitution, it's about America, the principles upon which it was founded. It's nothing else. It's so simple."

He will resume taping episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" on June 25 provuded there is not a Screen Actors Guild strike.

"It's a little more of a brief break than usual because we're going to make up for some lost time and I really hope that there's not another strike. I support my union but there a lot of people this affects and it's not just the people in the union. I'm very hopeful that they're going to resolve this because it's not time for another strike."

Before there was TR, Neil Patrick, Luke MacFarlane and all those other wonderful guys who are now out and proud actors, there was Chad Allen. The man who was cruelly outed by a tabloid while starring in "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman" as a young man, has become an extraordinary actor and spokesman for LGBT causes. His "Donald Strachey" movies for Here! have been terrific and his performance in "Save Me" will finally be seen by the masses this summer. Chad's other roles include a lead in the feature "End of the Spear" and a role in the recently-completed "For Better of for Worse."

He has also been a very busy stage actor and will appear this summer in "Looped" opposite Valerie Harper at Pasadena Playhouse officially opening July 8 and run through Aug. 3.

Chad turns 34 today...Here are some highlights from one of his "Donald Strachey" movies which cast him as a gay private eye.

When NBC's new version of "Knight Rider" makes its debut as a series this fall, it has the advantage of having the talented Bruce Davison as a member of the cast.

"I get to be dad and I get to be the inventor and sort of be right in the middle of a lot of it," Bruce told me recently.

His character of Charles Graiman is an eccentric physicist who creates the Knight Industries Three Thousand, the second generation KITT.

"Get ready, there's going to be a lot of new stuff," he said of the revival. "It's going to be a lot of fun which is what we're looking forward to more than anything. KITT's back and he's bad!"

Bruce, who turns 62 on June 28, is a handsome guy who has often been cast as a politician. But he learned early on that character actors get the most work and he now has more than 150 film and TV credits to his name.

He is best-known for his movie roles, which include an Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning performance in 1990's "Longtime Companion," playing Lucille Ball's nephew in the movie version of "Mame," starring in the original version of "Willard" and playing a U.S. senator and his imposter in the first two "X-Men" movies.

I wondered if he had ever seen the 2003 remake of "Willard" which cast Crispin Glover in the title role as a lonely man with an unusual connection to rats. Davison's version was a cult hit back in 1972 and even spawned a sequel, "Ben," with a famous title song sung by a young Michael Jackson.

"I never got to see it; I was out of the country the year it was running," he said of the remake. "My son recently saw (the original) and he said he didn't know what all the hoopla was about. It didn't scare him."

Bruce's most celebrated role, as a gay man whose lover dies of AIDS in "Longtime Companion," still stands out.

"It's certainly one of the closest things to my heart. It was quite a wonderful piece. Now the director's gone and others are, but Craig Lucas wrote a wonderful script and it was a great opportunity to be part of it."

Television and stage have provided the most steady work for Bruce. He was a regular in "Harry and the Hendersons" in the late 1980s, had recurring roles on "The Practice," "Kingdom Hospital" and "The L Word" and most recently did two seasons of the CBS drama "Close to Home."

Bruce made his Broadway debut back in 1968 and went on to star as John Merrick in "The Elephant Man" and in "The Glass Menagerie" opposite four-time Tony winner Jessica Tandy.

So after all these years and all the projects he's been involved with, I wondered if Bruce was still having a good time. His answer came easily: "It's never been better."

Madeline Zima is really bad on Showtime's "Californication."

I'm not talking about her acting, of course. Her character, Mia Lewis, is a scheming Lolita who wreaks absolute havoc with David Duchovny's life. Madeline is so good at playing bad that I had no idea she was the same sweet girl who played Grace Sheffield for six seasons on "The Nanny."

"I couldn't believe when I got the role because I'm so different from the character," she said when we chatted few days ago. "I tricked everyone into believing I'm this sexy, destructive, ruthless person. It's amazing that I pulled that off. I've always played the sweet girl-next-door character. It's interesting to see the world through those kind of eyes for a little while. Anytime I have to say something rude, it's like, "Really?" But then I have to re-invest every week a new amount of non-judgment and leaving my own personal values at the door. She's so young still and doesn't fully understand the
consequences of her actions."

And her actions during season one, which becomes available on DVD on June 17, were jaw-dropping. In the very first episode, she seduces Duchovny's character of novelist Hank Moody by convincing him that she is a college student and not the worldly 16-year-old daughter of his ex-wife's fiancee. And just so he'll never forget their tryst, during sex she slugs him in the face.

"When I did the scene, I thought I was doing nudity one time. But every week in the recap, the punch is there," said the 22-year-old actress. "They made (the punch) look pretty good. I came dangerously close but I never connected with his mug at all."

Working opposite Duchovny (she later steals his recently-completed novel and passes it off on her own) has been a freeing experience creatively for the young actress who more than holds her own opposite the Emny winner.

"I'm like a little impish girl and play such a Goliath," she said. "It's so funny. I love working with David. He's so funny and brings such a relaxed and open attitude to the set. If you have an idea and want to improvise, whatever's funny goes. Everyone on the show is wonderful. I've never worked on such an amazing group of people - so creative and open and not stuck in one way of doing things. It's a wonderful blessing and a dream."

"Californication" could not be more different in content and tone than "The Nanny," the CBS sitcom starring Fran Drescher that ended its run in 1999. Her character of Grace was the youngest of three children being raised by their father (Charles Shaughnessy) and their nanny (Drescher).

"I was so young," she said of that gig. "I didn't really truly enjoy acting until I worked in later things, not until I was 12."

She hasn't seen the cast since the 2004 TV special "The Nanny Reunion: A Nosh to Remember." But some of them do keep in touch: "I see Nicolle (Tom) every now and again, we've always been close. I absolutely adore her. I went to Ben (Salisbury's) wedding and talk to Charlie on MySpace. But I haven't seen Fran since the reunion."

So how did Madeline - who has racked up an impressive resume of film and television credits in the near-decade since "The Nanny" - manage the often tricky transition from child star to adult actress?

"I guess persistence and hard work," she said. "There's no such thing as an overnight success, just people doing what they love and never giving up. I just never gave up."