Stars: June 2008 Archives

I gabbed with Jimmy Smits Thursday afternoon and am really happy to be featuring him in my newspaper column on Sunday. It was just one of those really good interviews with good energy. So, I am sharing it with Out In Hollywood readers a few days early.
On "The West Wing," Jimmy Smits' character of Congressman Matthew Santos was elected president of the U.S. but the show ended its run before we got to see Santos move into The White House.

On July 4, Smits returns to the scene of that fictional storyline to host "A Capitol Fourth," a televised party in Washington D.C. televised live on PBS.

"It's very moving to watch those fireworks with all the national monuments as a backdrop," Jimmy said a few days ago. "It fortifies you in a strange kind of way about what it means to be an American - especially for me, being second-generation in this country. It just gives me goosebumps."

Jimmy called to chat after a long day of shooting an episode of the popular Showtime drama "Dexter." He has joined the show in its third season as Miguel Prado, an assistant district attorney in Florida who forms a bond with the title character, a forensic expert-serial killer portrayed by Michael C. Hall.

"(Hall's) work is just really, really special," Jimmy said. "He can do more with an eyebrow than most people do with pages of dialogue."

Without question, Jimmy has had one of the most successful careers of anyone who has ever worked in television. He's also had a movie career that includes roles in the last two "Star Wars" films, "My Family/Mi Familia," "Lackawanna Blues," "Old Gringo" and "Switch."

He won an Emmy for his portrayal of attorney Victor Sufuentes, who he played for five seasons on "L.A. Law." Then he earned an Emmy nomination during each of his five seasons on "NYPD Blue" as Det. Bobby Simone.

Jimmy really re-invigorated "The West Wing" during its final two seasons as Democratic nominee Santos who engaged in a thrilling presidential campaign against Alan Alda's Republican Sen. Arnold Vinick.

"I had a blast," he said of "West Wing." "We did a live debate episode show that we did twice - once for each coast - and that will always stay in my mind as one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career on a lot of levels."

While "The West Wing" was a terrific high, his experience with the short-lived CBS series "Cane" turned out to be a professional low.

The drama about the lives and internal power struggles of a powerful and wealthy Cuban-American family in Florida running a rum and sugar cane business had its chances to succeed doomed by the writer's strike that crippled Hollywood earlier this year.

"The experience on 'Cane' was wonderful for me but it's just very bittersweet because of the way the year went down," he said. "It's basically collateral damage of the strike. I had a great time working on it, learned a whole lot and forged a lot of wonderful friendships."
He's happy to fit in the July 4 hosting duties with work on "Dexter" and said he's looking forward to hearing the musical acts which include Huey Lewis and the News and Taylor Hicks.

But mostly, he looks forward to those fireworks on the Washington mall and the feelings they evoke.

Said Jimmy: "When you start thinking of the framers (of the Declaration of Independence) and the chances they took when they put their name down, it makes you reflect on how deep those words were and how far this country has some. It also helps you acknowledge how far we have to go."

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!

Happy LA Gay Pride Weekend everyone! West Hollywood is just nuts right now, so much fun. Was at The Abbey frim early evening to past midnight and it was a mix of out of towners (including my friend Ken from SF) and plenty of locals. Music, dancers and perhaps one too many Absolute Vodka's with grapefruit juice.

Anyway, I think this video of James Dean and Paul Newman is kinda cool as I put up a few random posts before heading to brunch with my old friend Hope who's in from Colorado! Good times...