Stars: August 2006 Archives

My gay card would be revoked if I let the day go by without posting some thoughts on the appearance of Diana Ross during last night's ceremony honoring Billie Jean King at the U.S. Open. The supreme star, wig hair big as ever, sang "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" before introducing BJK. It was vintage Diana Ross, whose records with the Supremes my older sister played non-stop in our house growing up. So, her voice is on the soundtrack of my life in a big way.

I saw her perform live in 1989, 1991 and 1995 then finally met Miss Ross last fall at a big party for the DVD release of "Lady Sings the Blues." She looked great that night and as she worked the press along the "blue carpet," I asked her when she was going to make another movie or even a record. She gave one of her vague answers. "Yes! Bring it all on!" Huh?

That night on the Paramount Pictures lot, Smokey Robinson had the invited crowd in the palm of his hand singing some classic Motown tunes and Billy Dee Williams, Berry Gordy and others worked the crowd with gusto. Diana remained in a roped-off area, danced a little to Smokey, but didn't sing a note. She had done the press line, sat through the film and was ready to get the heck out of there with Jon Voight and at least four of her kids.

Before the film began, I was walking out of the men's room just as she was entering the theater and I overheard her say to her handlers, "No more talking, RIGHT?" She did not want to go on stage. But she did stand at her seat to bask in the applause.

Her attitude just seemed wrong because so many people were there that night just wanting to appreciate her and this great movie she made more than 30 years earlier and got nominated for an Academy Award.

That was the night that, as a fan, she kind of lost me. And she had me for a long time. I just found her to be not that interesting anymore and after watching her perform Monday night, that feeling was magnified. Nothing new going on there as a singer, same "If you need me call me" stuff.

Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

Tom Cruise and Paramount Pictures have parted ways and are now engaging in a War of the Words (You're fired! I Quit!). Read all about it in today's Daily News.

It all got me thinking back to this great night at UCLA less than two years ago when I met Cruise face-to-face. I was with a friend and we were among the thousands waiting to get into an auditorium on campus where Cruise was going to do an AFI sponsored Q&A following a restrospective of his films. He was working the crowd and shaking hands. I snaked my way to the front to get a glimpse of the guy and suddenly yelled out: "Hey Tom! Help me, help you!" He was on his way in but stopped, turned around and came over to shake my hand. "That was pretty good," he said with that mega-watt smile. I just thought, wow, this guy is the perfect movie star.

This was October 2004, post-Nicole and pre-Katie. I remember thinking about the first time I saw Cruise on screen in 1983 in "Risky Business." A star had been born. (I hadn't seen "Taps" or his other real early work) After that, I pretty much wanted to see every Tom Cruise film released and usually was rewarded with a good moviegoing experience. From "Top Gun," "Rainman" and "Born on the Fourth of July," in the 80s to "A Few Good Men," "The Firm," "Interview with a Vampire" and, most of all, "Jerry Maguire" in the 90s, to "Magnolia," "Collateral," and "Mission Impossible 3" in the current decade.

That's an amazing body of work and Cruise is to be admired for his energetic promotion of any film he is associated with. But it was about six months after the night at UCLA when it all seemed to start to unravel. Jumping on a couch on Oprah over Katie Holmes was one thing but those interviews criticizing a post-partum depression-plagued Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants was nightmare PR. Even though "War of the Worlds" was a huge hit last summer, it seemed that Cruise's negatives were sky high. Now there are all the headlines are about "Where is Suri?" which I think are silly but indicative with his current image problem.

It seems like when Cruise focuses on his movies when he's in the public arena, he fares best. I hope we will see him in some good movies in the years to come and he'll talk about them with the passion that he did that night at UCLA. He may no longer be the perfect movie star, but he is still a terrific actor.

For anyone who didn't see "The Matador" in theaters, I recommend checking it out on DVD. It provides Pierce Bronsan with a terrific part as a hitman that is far different from the suave James Bond and even earned him a Golden Glove Award nomination for best actor in a comedy. Brosnan gets to be fun and homicidal and crazy and even kinda sweet.

But one thing he doesn't get to be, according to an article I came across this morning on AfterElton.com, is bisexual, something the character was in the original script. It's hinted at in the movie but, as Meryl Streep would say in "Devil Wears Prada," that's all.

"I don't regret it, not at all - even with Brokeback's success," Brosnan is quoted as telling reporters about the deleted same-sex content. "The original problem was the director [Richard Shepard] threw everything at it, including the kitchen sink. It was too much. It came on full tilt. I felt the bisexual references took away from the ambiguity of his [Julian Noble's] sexuality. I just got it toned down."

Explains Shepard: "In the original script it went further, where we saw Julian (having sex with) men." It was this material, Shepard explains, along with some over-the-top, lewd humor that Brosnan wanted toned down, and cuts along these lines were made to the script before filming."

The DVD doesn't include any deleted same-sex love scenes or anything, at most there is an extra scene of Brosnan's character ogeling a cute waiter. Anyway, the film is still terrific and Greg Kinnear turns in another solid performance. Also good is Hope Davis as Kinnear's wife.

The last time funnyman Robin Williams played a gay role, he struck box office gold with "The Birdcage" a decade ago. He and Nathan Lane were a hoot in this comedy that was non-threatening enough to be accepted by the mainstream.

Now Williams, an Oscar winner for the drama "Good Will Hunting," tackles a serious gay role in the psychological thriller The Night Listener which opens Friday. It is based on the novel by the openly gay Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City).

Williams plays a gay radio host who begins speaking to a young boywith AIDS on the telephone who is supposedly his biggest fans. But questions arise about the boy's identity and the life of Williams' character is thrown into chaos. This is based on a real-life experience of Maupin, who has known Williams for 30 years.

Bobby Cannavale, who played Will's boyfriend (once he FINALLY got one!) in "Will & Grace" plays gay again as the ex-boyfriend of Williams' character who he just painfully split with after a 10 year relationship. Toni Collette and Sandra Oh also star.

Director Patrick Stettner told AfterElton.com: “The thing about Bobby [Cannavale] and Robin [Williams] is that they are both open souls. There's a lot of warmth there and there's something very real about their screen relationship.�

Stettner says he knew the two stars were up to the challenge of playing gay lovers in a serious and honest way. “Cannavale has played a lot of gay men before,� he says, “so I don't think it was an issue for him. Robin understood from the big get-go that this was not 'The Birdcage.' This was different—very matter-of-fact—and we're all very proud of that.�

Mel Gibson's way with words have him in some seriously hot water. But his anti-Semitic outburst during his drunk driving arrest in Malibu last Friday was not the first time the "The Passion of the Christ" director has made seriously disparaging remarks about his fellow human beings.

Back in 1992, Gibson caused an uproar among gays when during an interview with a Spanish newspaper, he made a graphic remark about anal sex as he complains about being "labeled" as gay because he's an actor. He then goes on to label every gay with these remarks: "But with this look, who's going to think that I'm gay? It would be hard to take me for someone like that. Do I sound like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them? What happens is when you're an actor, they stuck that label on you."

He no doubt lost many gay fans at that point but things got worse when Gibson was asked in a 1995 Playboy interview about prostests made by GLAAD over his disparaging statements three years earlier: "I'll apologize when hell freezes over.

When Gibson starred in and directed 1993's "The Man Without a Face," the film heterosexualized the gay leading character of the novel on which it was based. Then in his Oscar-winning "Braveheart," Gibson drew fire for including one of the negative gay portrayals in recent film history in scenes with Great Britain's Edward II whose lover is casually pushed out a window to his death.

It seemed that Gibson was offering an olive branch of sorts when he conducted a seminar in 1997 for a group of lesbian and gay filmmakers. But he was unrepentent about any of his remarks or filmmaking decisions that gays had found so offensive.

With his looks and talent, Gibson obviously had many gay fans early in his career but he lost many of them in the 90s. It's hard to beieve that this is the same guy, who in one of his first films, "Summer City," playfully kissed one of his friends on the mouth in the back seat of a car as they were on their way to the beach. It was Gibson's first onscreen kiss!

Lasrt year, Gibson spoke out about the kiss he shared with actor Steve Bisley (who later appeared with Gibson in the first "Mad Max" movie pictured below) saying he was "ashamed" of the smooch.

"It was a cheap, nasty movie that was cranked out in three weeks on a tiny budget," Gibson said.

He won the role during his graduation year at Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art and complained that he never received the $450 he was promised for performing in the film.