True Colors Cabaret

If you're lucky enough to live in or near NYC, please allow me to live vicariously through you and attend the True Colors Cabaret series. When I read about things like this, it's all I can do not to just get on a plane and go, expense be damned!

Cyndi Lauper hosted the October 26th show, which featured one of my favorite Broadway men, Gavin Creel. Another one of my very favorite men in entertainment, As the World Turns' Van Hansis, will be hosting the next show, on November 29th, and that show will feature Glee and Spring Awakening co-stars Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff, as well as Rufus Wainright! Jason Mraz will be performing in the December edition of the show.

Several of the names I've just typed are people that I would LOVE to see perform live, or even just host the show like Van and Cyndi. If you're lucky enough to go, please share the details and let me be sick with envy!

The best part is that 100% of the proceeds from the shows go to support LGBT Equality through the True Colors Fund and Broadway Impact. It doesn't get much better than that. Why must I live on the opposite side of the country?!

By the way, Gavin Creel and the newly out Jonathan Groff are said to be dating, which would pretty much make them Broadway's gay power couple! They do make a really cute couple, if it's true:

Thank You, Bea Arthur

I just noticed that the readers of AfterElton voted the late Bea Arthur as this week's Gay of the Week. I was a bit surprised to see this at first, since as much as I loved Bea Arthur and know that she's a gay icon, the voting is usually for someone -fictional or otherwise- who has stood out that week in the gay community.

Then I found out the reason behind the nomination: it was just announced that Bea left $300,000 in her will to the Ali Forney Center, a New York shelter for homeless LGBT youth. With Bea's bequest, the Center will be able to purchase another building and shelter 12 more LGBT youths.

There are a plenty of gay icons out there, but something like this proves that Bea was more than just an icon, she was an ally.

Chenoweth Returns to Broadway

I was just reading the news that Kristin Cheoweth, who as you probably know by now is one of my most favorite individuals on the planet, is returning to Broadway next Spring in a revival of Promises, Promises. The musical will also star Sean Hayes, best known as Jack on Will & Grace.

Still being a Broadway neophyte, I know absolutely nothing about the show, but this will be Kristin's first time back on Broadway post-Wicked. I've already vowed to myself that I'll be going to New York at last, even if I have to starve myself to save the money to do so!

How amazing would it be to see Cheno on Broadway? I know countless people already have, of course, but I'd like to be one of them. I've been planning a trip to NYC for a very long time now, there are so many places and things I'd like to see. Maybe this will give me the kick start I need to stop daydreaming and actually make it happen.

In the meantime, I guess I'd better find myself a copy of the original cast album for the 1960's production of Promises, Promises and find out what it's all about.

At Last

As you've probably heard, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act into law earlier today. He had this to say:

"After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we've passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray, or who they are. I promised Judy Shepard, when she saw me in the Oval Office, that this day would come, and I'm glad that she and her husband Dennis could join us for this event."

Earlier this week, I finished reading The Meaning of Matthew, Judy Shepard's book about her son's brief life, his murder, and the impact it had both on the world and on her family. I basically cried throughout the entire book, for Matthew, for what his family lost, and for the countless others who have been attacked and killed both before and after Matthew.

This new law is long overdue.

National Book Award Finalists

I'm about two weeks late in mentioning this, but the finalists for this year's National Book Awards were announced earlier this month. Here's the list:

Fiction:

American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
Far North by Marcel Theroux

Non Fiction:

Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook by David M. Carroll
Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species by Sean B. Carroll
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin
The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy by Adrienne Mayor
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles

Poetry:

Versed by Rae Armantrout
Or To Begin Again by Ann Lauterbach
Speak Low by Carl Phillips
Open Interval by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
Transcendental Studies by Keith Waldrop

Young People's Lit

Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
Stitches by David Small
Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor
Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia

I'm familiar with many of the titles, from working in a bookstore, but I haven't read a single one of them myself.

The best part of this year's National Book Awards, though, is that they've chosen Gore Vidal as the recipient of the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. It's certainly about time!

Speaking of Gore, I did buy his new pictorial memoir, Snapshots In History's Glare. There wasn't a whole lot of new information for someone who'd already read his two earlier memoirs, but the pictures were really worth the price of the book and when you add in Gore's commentary and captions, it really is a must have for any fan. There were a lot of interesting shots I'd never seen before, including copies of letters written by Gore or friends of his (such as Paul Newman).

Most fascinating of all, I think, were the copies of just a few of the letters from gay men who wrote to Vidal after the publication of The City and the Pillar in 1948. They were moving and depressing all at the same time, a portrait in miniature of that era when the closet was the norm.

Don't Mess With Miss Ellie!

I'm still excited about the prospect of the new Dallas series, which I wrote about earlier this month. I have to keep reminding myself that it's just a pilot and not to get my hopes up too high, just in case.

It doesn't help me contain my excitement, though, when I read that Linda Gray is in talks to return as Sue Ellen:

She has yet to see a script, but Gray, 69, said she hoped Sue Ellen had not been turned into a sweet-natured grandmother, in the style of Ellie Ewing.

"I'm not going to wear little boring dresses with pearls around my neck. At this age, Sue Ellen should be a powerhouse role model," Gray told TV Guide.

By the end of her run on the series and in the two reunion movies, Sue Ellen had really come into her own as a confident and strong woman, after many, many years of being a complete doormat to J.R. and of course battling her addiction to alcohol. In fact, by the reunion movies she was actually running Ewing Oil with Bobby!

I wouldn't expect her to be anything less in the new series than the strong woman she'd become after years of struggle.

Of course, it's not entirely fair to dismiss Miss Ellie as a sweet natured grandmother. It's true that she didn't usually have the most exciting stories and was often there to listen to others over iced tea, but Miss Ellie is actually one of my favorite characters from the original series, thanks largely to the incredible talent of the late Barbara Bel Geddes.

Barbara won the only Emmy and Golden Globe awards for acting on the series and did some incredibly moving work during Miss Ellie's breast cancer storyline and in the aftermath of her husband Jock's death.

But the reason I really loved Miss Ellie is that while she was normally mild mannered, there was true fire in her when she was angry. Some of my favorite scenes are the ones where Miss Ellie would show that side of herself and be far more intimidating than any of the men in her family ever were. If Miss Ellie raised her voice at you, you were quaking in your boots!

The most memorable of these scenes was in the very first season, when J.R. and Bobby were in a plane crash and feared dead. Jock had recently had a heart attack and Miss Ellie was doing her best to keep him from hearing the news until they knew for sure if their sons were alive. A reporter somehow managed to get past the extra security on the ranch and rang the doorbell to ask for a comment.

Miss Ellie greeted him with a shotgun in hand, but her fury alone would have sent any sane person running. It's truly one of my favorite moments in the entire run of the series, because you just didn't expect that from her. Later, when such moments happened from time to time, they were enjoyable but less of a surprise because you already knew that at heart, Ellie Ewing wasn't meek.

I have a feeling that Barbara Bel Geddes herself probably relished such scenes. I wish she was still around today to make a return appearance to Southfork in the new series! I also wish that someone would write a biography of her, since her work actually went far beyond Dallas. For instance, she originated the role of Maggie the Cat in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway and had an illustrious stage career long before Dallas. I can't tell you how much I wish I could hop in a time machine and see her as Maggie!

One of my favorite quotes from her: "They're always making me play well-bred ladies. I'm not very well bred, and I'm not much of a lady." I've heard great stories about her being what was once referred to as a 'salty dame' in real life. Seriously, someone write a biography already! Maybe I'll do it myself one day.

An Update

I'm beginning to despair about ever getting caught up on One Life to Live and Kish. Each passing week adds five more episodes to the tally of shows waiting to be watched and it gets more and more daunting.

Honestly, what I'm really hoping for is a day where I can just sit and marathon my way through all the episodes I've missed, but such an opportunity hasn't presented itself yet. The days I have had off recently, I've had other things planned.

I see the Kish preview photos on AfterElton and they make me practically salivate with the desire to watch the show, though. I know there must be a ton of great stuff going on! I won't let myself read anything about the Kish story, though, because I don't want to see any 'spoilers', even of things that happened weeks ago.

There's a chance that I may be able to catch up this coming Tuesday and write about Kish then, but if that doesn't happen, it will be at least another week since next weekend is going to be an eventful one for me.

As for Nuke... well, my Tivo is filling up with One Life to Live, so I actually deleted all my as yet unviewed episodes of As the World Turns. I figured since I actually watch the entire show when it comes to OLTL and just fast forward through most of ATWT, it was the right decision. Once I'm caught up on Kish, I'll catch up on the Nuke story via YouTube and write about it then.

I'm sorry for falling behind in this manner and when I'm caught up I will be officially vowing to never let such a thing happen again!

Kiss Me, Chuck Bass

This past Monday marked the much heralded (in some circles, at least) kiss on Gossip Girl between Chuck Bass and another man. Before I begin talking about this, I should related my viewing history with this particular show, since in all fairness you should know that I'm not really a big fan to begin with.

I tuned in for the first few episodes of the series, hoping to find in it a new guilty pleasure. I was instantly enamored of Ed Westwick, the actor who plays Chuck Bass, but found him to be sadly wasted in a badly written and pretty unwatchable show.

The action really only came to life when he was onscreen, which wasn't often enough. The worst part was that you could see that there was a ton of potential for Ed to shine in the role, but they were only letting the merest hint of it end up onscreen.

Whereas once upon a time I'd sit through pretty much anything if it had a guy I liked in it, I seem to have developed some standards over the past few years, or at least just a very low tolerance for bad teen dramas.

Still, when I heard that the show (which is based upon a series of young adult books in which some of the leading male characters are gay or bisexual, including Chuck himself) was writing in a gay character in the form of Serena's younger brother Eric, I tuned in for his coming out episode, hoping to find that time had improved things.

It really hadn't and I wasn't overly impressed with the gay storyline, so I tuned out once again, certain that it would be for good this time.

Then came news of the impending kiss between Ed Westwick's Chuck and another male character, and I knew that even though I'd hate myself for it in the morning, I had to watch.

Which brings us, finally, to last Monday's show. It started off on a good note, I thought, with a black and white homage to All About Eve, complete with Ed Westwick in a tuxedo looking unbelievably, breathtakingly hot. My first thought was: 'God, why don't I watch this show every week?!'

This feeling lasted while Blair and Chuck were onscreen, but faded instantly when the focus shifted to Serena and Nate (though Chace Crawford is still so very, very pretty) as they talked about an election and storylines that I didn't really care about it.

It didn't get any better and I soon started fast forwarding everything that didn't involved Chuck, which turned out to be pretty much the whole first half of the show, other than the opening scenes. Apparently they're still wasting Ed Westwick's talents in a shocking fashion!

The fun truly started when, for plot reasons that don't really even need to be gone into, Chuck set out to seduce another man at Blair's request. Watching Ed Westwick go into seductive mode would be enough to make me go weak in the knees even if he'd been working his charms on a woman, so you can imagine the effect it had on me to see him turning on the charm with a guy!

I loved the way that his potential lover, played by the incredibly lucky Neal Beldsoe, was running his fingers through Chuck's hair as they talked (picture borrowed from Superherofan):
Some guys really do have all the luck. I would seriously have paid them to be the one doing that! I have to wonder, again, if this was the role that Van Hansis tried out for on the show? If so, It's probably better for me that he didn't get the part, because I think my brain would have just shut down completely due to the sheer hotness of watching Van run his fingers through Ed's hair and then kiss him!

When Chuck's target moved in for a kiss, our Mr. Bass stopped him, saying that he 'wasn't that kind of girl'. After a bit more of the demure act (which doesn't suit Chuck in the least), Bledsoe's character got his kiss:



Sadly, it was very short, not exactly the sort of thing that sets the screen on fire. Still, the seduction scene leading up to it was nice, and I think the whole fingers in the hair thing was downright hot.

Blair then stormed in to confront the guy and break it up, which Chuck had expected her to do before he was kissed! Apparently, she'd secretly promised the guy a kiss from Chuck in exchange for letting her give a toast at a college event, but I don't really know the details since Chuck wasn't in those scenes.

After Chuck's well kissed new friend had made his exit, Blair made up an excuse for being late and apologized to Chuck:

Blair: Are you upset because you kissed a guy?

Chuck: I'm upset because I kissed somebody that wasn't you. You really think I've never kissed a guy before?

That, I think, was the most interesting part of the whole episode! I don't know if they'll ever go anywhere with that, story wise, but it was still a nice touch and Ed delivered the line perfectly.

There wasn't much else for Ed to do in this episode, though, which was a shame. Honestly, I'd love to watch a show that featured Chuck Bass as the lead character, with some Blair thrown in for good measure and the rest of the cast written out.

At any rate, I'll be tuning out again, probably for good. Of course, if there's any further hint of some Chuck-on-Guy action, well, you know my motto: Look for me wherever Ed Westwick is making on with another man onscreen, I'll be there.

Moving Out of Melrose Place

It's never nice to celebrate someone losing their job, but I have to admit that when I read the news this morning that Melrose Place was writing out the characters played by Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and Colin Egglesfield, I was pleased.

As I've noted before, I think those two in particular are the biggest weak spots in the new series and I'm glad to see that the powers that be are making much needed casting adjustments early in the series, in the same way that the original show did.

Egglesfield always delivers eye candy, of course, but then so do all of his male co-stars, each of whom brings more acting talent to the table.

I would have been okay with Auggie sticking around for awhile, I guess, but I think they really had to get rid of Simpson-Wentz's character, Violet, as soon as possible. I'm not even sure the people who created the show knew quite what they were aiming for when it came to this character, but whatever it was, they didn't achieve it and her scenes were pretty painful to watch.

With these two leaving and Heather Locklear returning as Amanda, things are looking up! I haven't had a chance to watch last Tuesday's episode yet, but so far I have to admit that I'm enjoying the show. This honestly surprises me, since I was more than half convinced that I'd find it as awful as 90210 and Gossip Girl.

Every Little Step

I just finished watching Every Little Step, a documentary that follows the casting process for the Broadway revival of A Chorus Line, and I found it fascinating. I'd been waiting for this to come out of DVD for months now and it really didn't disappoint.

I've more or less fallen in love with the original cast album of the show over the past two or three months and I'm only sorry that I didn't discover it in time to see the revival's touring company last year when they performed in my neck of the woods.

Watching the documentary, I now have a new regret: that I didn't get to see this cast perform on Broadway! Is it too much to ask that Broadway plays and musicals be recorded and released on DVD for those of us poor souls who don't get to live anywhere near NYC? They did it quite well for the final Broadway performance of Rent, so I know it can be done. Why can't the mountain just come to Mohammad already?!

The biggest surprise of the whole documentary was Jason Tam, though truthfully it wasn't a surprise tonight, but rather several months ago when I saw the clip online. That was actually before the documentary was even released on DVD and before I ever listened to the music or even really knew what the show was about.

I've been watching Tam as Markko on One Life to Live for nearly two years now and while I've found him to be a likable young actor I can't say that he's ever impressed me on the show the way he did in his audition for the role of Paul. He was just astonishingly good and I had tears rolling down my face by the end, both while watching it online a few months back and again tonight on the DVD.

I was hardly the only one who was impressed, either, since he moved the casting people in exactly the same way. Bob Avian, the director, even commented that it was the first time in thirty years that he'd cried watching the scene where Paul talks about a pivotal moment with his parents.

If only I could have seen Jason playing Paul on Broadway! It also would have been nice if he'd been featured more in the film, since aside from the one shining moment that is really the emotional high point of the entire film, we don't see anything else about him at all. Maybe he just didn't want to participate in the documentary?

The movie actually focused mostly on the casting of the female parts, which was a bit disappointing, though not enough to seriously detract from my enjoyment. I just wish we could have seen them casting all the roles, but I suppose there were time constraints to consider.

I'd recommend Every Little Step to anyone who is interested in the workings of show business and/or musical theater. I enjoyed it a lot more than I did the feature film version of A Chorus Line, which sadly is as close as I've come so far to seeing a production!

Rent is my favorite musical ever, but A Chorus Line has become a very close second. If I ever actually do manage to see a real production, I may even find that I can't choose between the two shows.

Out of the Closet and into the Glee Club

So, last week I read an interview on We Love the Soaps with Jonathan Groff, an actor who'd been nominated for a Tony for playing the lead in Spring Awakening. The interview was about his stint on One Life to Live a few years back.

I remember hearing about his story on the soap (which featured him as a school shooter and which was rewritten after it had been filmed, due to the events at Virginia Tech right around the same time it would have aired), but it was before I'd started watching OLTL.

Reading the brief interview, I thought Jonathan came across well and that he looked really cute in the picture. I regretted a bit that I'd missed his time on the show, but I didn't give it much more thought than that.

Now, just a few days later, Jonathan Groff is suddenly very much on my radar. First came the announcement that Jonathan would be joining Glee for a five episode run as the male lead in rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline, reuniting with his Spring Awakening co-star Lea Michele, who of course plays Rachel on Glee.

As exciting as that bit of news is, things get even better: I just read on AfterElton that Jonathan was at the National Equality March last week, and that the cutie took that opportunity to publicly come out of the closet as gay!

By the way, the article in which Broadway.com casually mentions Groff's coming out also highlights the many Broadway connections to the National Equality March.

An openly gay Tony nominee with a past connection to One Life to Live doing a multiple episode story arc on Glee? The fates couldn't have designed a person for me to be more interested in if they'd tried!

The only thing I'd like better is if his character was a new love interest for Kurt, rather than Rachel. But, hey, you can't have everything!

In the meantime, I'll settle for this picture from the Equality March, borrowed from AfterElton, of Jonathan with another Broadway favorite of mine, Gavin Creel.

A Few Things

Sorry for the lack of action here this week, I just haven't been feeling all that well. If you're wondering, I'm still several weeks behind on Nuke and Kish and trying to develop a game plan so that I can catch up both on watching and on blogging about them. I'm really, really missing Kish and the rest of OLTL, but being so far behind is rather daunting!

Just a few things I wanted to highlight today: first of all, Glee was fantastic again this past week. Jane Lynch is now officially a goddess of comedy as far as I'm concerned. If you haven't heard, the cast was supposed to perform at the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, but NBC banned them! Boo! I get that NBC wouldn't want to promote another network's break out hit show, but the ratings for their parade would probably be higher if the Glee cast was there.

The cast will be singing the National Anthem during a World Series game, though.

In news unrelated to Glee for a change, I was just reading that Randy Harrison, who played Justin on Queer as Folk, will be onstage this winter as Andy Warhol in a new musical called POP! at the Yale Repertory Theater.

I really wish I could see Randy onstage. I saw a very badly shot YouTube clip of him performing on Broadway in Wicked a few years back, but that's as close as I've been able to get to seeing him perform live. As bad as the quality of the clip was, it sounded like Randy has a great voice. He looks great in the picture included with the article, less like the adorable blond twink he was during QAF and more like... well, more like a hot guy in his 30's, which is what he is!

By the way, the Matthew Shepard Foundation is auctioning off signed teddy bears. Lots of cool people have signed them, including Jane Lynch, Stephen Sondheim, Dustin Lance Black, and Queer as Folk's Sharon Gless. It's for a good cause, so check it out and see if anyone you're a fan of has signed one.

National Equality March and Harvey Milk Day

Towleroad has some great footage up of this weekend's National Equality March, as well as an interview with out Broadway star Gavin Creel, who attended the event along with the cast of Hair. I haven't seen any interviews with her, but I know from what she posted on Twitter that Kristin Chenoweth was also among the thousands who were at the March. All the more reason to love her!

It looks like it was an incredible moment in the LGBT civil rights struggle and I really regret that I couldn't be there myself!

You can watch Cleve Jones, the gay activist who fought alongside Harvey Milk in the 1970's and has kept up the fight ever since, and who called for this March to begin with, address the crowd here.

In a nicely timed moment, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill creating May 22nd as Harvey Milk Day in California, something that he'd previously vetoed. That, of course, was before they made a movie about Milk that won some Oscars.

Rest in Peace, Stephen Gately

The first thing I saw when I got online today was the headline that openly gay Irish pop star Stephen Gately had died in Spain at the age of 33. I couldn't believe my eyes.

Back in 1999, boy bands pretty much ruled the pop scene and I have to admit that at the time I was a huge fan of N Sync and the Backstreet Boys. I had enormous crushes on certain members of each group and listened to their music all the time. It was in that atmosphere that I first read about a member of an Irish boy band called Boyzone coming out of the closet as gay.

Up to that point, I'd never really heard of Boyzone or of Stephen Gately, but having a member of a hugely popular boy band come out of the closet seemed like a dream come true, and so I ended up becoming a fan of Stephen.

At that time, I especially liked Boyzone's song No Matter What, which can be heard in the movie Notting Hill over the end credits. It seemed to me (and still seems) like an anthem for the LGBT community. Sample lyrics:

No matter what they tell us
No matter what they do
No matter what they teach us
What we believe is true
No matter What they call us
However they attack
No matter where they take us
We'll find our own way back.
I can't deny what I believe
I can't be what I'm not

Even though my boy band phase came to an end, I still followed Stephen's career from afar, as he did some solo work after Boyzone went their separate ways, and also worked in the theatre in the UK.

Stephen married his partner Andrew Cowles first in a commitment ceremony in Las Vegas in 2003 and then married him in the UK in 2006.

Last year, Boyzone reunited and put out a new album. One of the songs was a cover of 'Better' and in the video, which can be found here on YouTube, each of the guys has a love interest that they sing to. Stephen's was played by another man, which for a pop music video is still pretty unique, and which lead to some religious condemnation of the video in Northern Ireland. I watched it last year when it first came out and thought it was beautiful, watching Stephen sing romantic lyrics to another man.

I think Stephen was the first young celebrity to come out of the closet in my own experience, which was probably why he meant so much to me at the time and why I've remained a fan ever since.

At this point, they're saying that his death was natural, not a suicide or drug related, though they don't yet know the specific cause. He was on vacation in Spain with his husband and was working on finishing up a novel that he'd been writing.

Stephen was a beautiful man who seemed to have an equally beautiful soul. My heart goes out to his husband, family, and friends, and to the rest of his fans.

Back to Southfork?

Updating old prime time soaps with next generation casts seems to be all the rage at the moment, what with 90210 and Melrose Place, and it looks like the trend is going to be continuing. You can't possibly know how excited I was to read on the New York Times website yesterday that the latest update will be of Dallas, the Grande Dame of all such shows.

I happen to be a huge fan of the prime time soaps from the 1980's. Dallas and Knots Landing in particular were fantastic shows, and I've been buying the DVD box sets as they've been released over the past few years. I love how in the 80's they weren't afraid to make the shows straight up soap operas. Now, they'll make teen dramas, but anything with older characters that isn't a medical, legal, or police drama has to be a satire, not a soap.

A few years back there was talk of a feature film version of Dallas, which I thought was an interesting idea until I heard some of the casting ideas: John Travolta as J.R.?! J Lo as Sue Ellen?! Completely wrong.

The idea of a film seems to have fallen through, which is probably for the best. But now TNT has ordered a pilot for an updated version of the show revolving around the next generation: J.R. & Sue Ellen's son, John Ross, and Bobby and Pam's son, Christopher. Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, and Patrick Duffy are said to have been contacted for their participation in the project, though to what extent they'd be involved is still not known.

Of course, TNT may decide not to order a full series, so I'm not going to get my hopes up too high just yet. I think it's a great idea, though. When they made J.R. Returns, the first of the two Dallas reunion movies, they included both Christopher and John Ross and laid the groundwork for a potential rivalry between them that could have developed into something more. They also included Cliff Barnes and Afton Cooper's daughter, Pamela, which bolstered the idea of a whole new generation.

Sadly, the second reunion movie, War of the Ewings, was pretty terrible and dropped the younger characters completely. Now, finally, they seem to be picking up on the idea they were developing back in 1996.

Dallas remains hugely popular all over the world even though it has been off the air as a weekly series for a full 18 years. I think the popularity of a potential new show depends on how involved the original characters and their portrayers are and on how well they cast the roles of the new generations of the Ewing and Barnes families.

If you thought I was excited about a Melrose Place update, just wait until the Ewings are gathered around the dinner table at Southfork again!

Glee and a Chris Colfer Interview

Another great episode of Glee tonight. The musical numbers were both fantastic, Sue Sylvester was back with a vengeance (her journal entry made my week, I was laughing so hard!), and they continue to develop the supporting cast in new ways each week. Quinn and Rachel's moment in the hallway was very well done and part of a series of steps that they're taking to make Quinn more than just the cheerleader villainess that she seemed to be in the pilot.

With all of that said, I think next week is going to be the best episode yet, at least based on the previews! They looked hysterical, with Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester joining Will as 'Co-Captain' of the Glee club!

I've become a fan of the entire cast since the show started, but among the younger cast I think Chris Colfer is the one who stands out the most for me. He seemed likable enough in the first few episodes, but starting with the episode where Kurt came out to Mercedes and then the following week where he told his father he was gay, Colfer really gave some beautiful performances that made a fan out of me.

I'm far from the only person who feels this way, of course. From what I understand, fans of Colfer and his character have already dubbed themselves Kurtsies!

Advocate.com has a new interview up with Colfer which you should definitely check out if you're a fan of the show. Among other things, Chris talked about his own high school experience:

Your character, Kurt, is the show’s fashionista and a key member of New Beginnings. How similar was your high school experience in Clovis, Calif.?
It was similar in the sense that I was definitely teased a lot in high school and I was definitely at the bottom of the food chain: total underdog, complete "Gleek." I was never like Kurt at all; I wish I was now that I watch the show, but I was never fashionable. I wish I was like Kurt in high school! [Laughs]

Were you in your high school drama club?
I was in drama, speech and debate, president of the writers' club, I was editor of our school's literary magazine ... I pretty much did everything.

You wrote, directed, and starred in a musical spoof of Sweeney Todd called Shirley Todd. What can you tell me about that?
[Laughs] The end of my senior year, my school did this thing for the seniors called the Senior Show where one senior was designated to do whatever he wanted for however much time on the stage -- they get their own show in a sense. All the other kids previous to me had done SNL-type skits and gags and that type of stuff. But I was dead serious that I wanted to do a show that would be funny and adult, so I wrote this spoof called Shirley Todd, which is Sweeney Todd except all the roles were gender-reversed, so I was Mr. Lovett rather than Mrs. Lovett, and it took place in modern-day punk-rock London. It was a lot of fun.

Were you out in high school?
Oh, no. People are killed in my hometown for that.

Well, they got the name of the Glee club wrong (it's actually New Directions, not New Beginnings), but it's still a good interview. I think Chris sounds like someone I'd love to hang out with.

From what I've seen online, a number of people in the gay community have been complaining that Kurt is too stereotypical as a gay character, that he just confirms preconceived notions instead of confronting them. While I do want to see more diversity in onscreen representations of LGBT characters, that shouldn't preclude ever depicting characters like Kurt. People who get offended by such a character seem to only want gay characters on TV who are stereotypically masculine (or 'straight acting' to use a term I loathe) rather than a balance that reflects real life.

Just off the top of my head, there are currently gay male characters on Greek, Brothers and Sisters, One Life to Live, and As the World Turns who aren't 'stereotypical' (which to these complainers seems to be a term interchangeable with effeminate), so what's wrong with having a character like Kurt who is into fashion and singing?

Some people seem to think that creating such a character is a setback to gay rights or possibly even homophobic in and of itself, and I think that's just as bigoted a viewpoint as those who think all gay men should be depicted as flamboyantly as possible. They're just flipping the message around and saying that being less than 'straight acting' is somehow shameful.

Personally, I love the character of Kurt, if you couldn't tell. I love everything about Glee, except for the fact that it only airs once a week!

A Conveniently Timed Appointment

David Huebner, an openly gay lawyer and founding board member of GLAAD, is to be named the United States Ambassador to New Zealand.

Call me cynical, but I don't believe it's a coincidence that word of President Obama's first appointment of an openly gay Ambassador (and the third such appointment in U.S. history) comes just days ahead of the National Equality March on Washington.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that the President decided to appoint someone from the LGBT community, but the timing of the appointment seems suspicious at best.

The fact is that this is coming from a President who promised so much on LGBT issues during his campaign and so far hasn't followed through on a single thing. His administration can barely even bring itself to pretend that they're still going try to repeal DOMA or end Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Then, just days before a huge march that is going to be highlighting every promise he's failed to live up to, the President seems to scramble to toss us a bone of sorts, as if appointing a gay Ambassador will make people think that sooner or later he's going to live up to what he said during the campaign.

I really wish I could be in Washington for the March. As soon as I heard that Cleve Jones had called for it, I wanted to take part, but it's just not financially feasible for me at the moment. I will be there in spirit, though, and I hope the number of people who attend (each representing countless more who cannot) and the passion and commitment they're bringing to the issues will force the President and Congress to stop with the empty promises and start delivering results.

Mantel Wins Booker Prize

Today, they announced the winner of this year's Man Booker Prize for fiction: Hilary Mantel's novel, Wolf Hall. I'm still on the hold list at the library for the book, which is understandable since it doesn't actually come out in the United States until next week.

Just today, I finally picked up A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book, another of the short listed nominees, from the library after being on the hold list since July. I'm really going to have to pick another literary prize if I want to try and read all the nominees before the winner is announced. Either that, or I'll have to get the books that haven't been published here yet shipped over from the U.K., which seems like it would probably be too expensive.

Mantel's novel, which is about Thomas Cromwell, a minister of state to Henry VIII, sounds interesting. I haven't yet read any of her work, so Wolf Hall will be a good place to start.

Speaking of books, I'm just finishing up Alberto Manguel's A History of Reading, which I've really enjoyed. I absolutely loved his more recent book, The Library at Night, which I read last year, and since reading it I've been catching up on some of his earlier works. I've decided that Manguel is definitely one of my literary soul mates.

I'm also reading a short story collection called The Body And Its Dangers by Allen Barnett. He was one of the writers in the Men on Men anthology that I read earlier this year. When I finished that collection, I made a list of the authors I'd liked the most and tracked down some of their books.

Barnett wrote beautifully and this collection is largely about the AIDS epidemic, to which he lost his own life in 1991. It's heartbreaking to think of the works he may have given us if he'd been able to live beyond the age of 36.

Another writer I discovered in that anthology was Christopher Davis and I absolutely loved his short story collection called The Boys in the Bars. If you like literary short stories, especially gay themed ones that offer a perspective on the AIDS epidemic from those who were living right in the middle of it, I'd recommend either of these collections.

It All Goes Back to Ryan

Once upon a time, I had a huge crush on an actor named Ryan Phillippe, of whom you may have heard. It all started with I Know What You Did Last Summer and that shower scene at the gym. You know the one, right? (pics borrowed again from Superherofan!)
Things really kicked into gear with Cruel Intentions, though, a movie that I still shamelessly love, if I'm being completely honest. From there, I felt like I had to see every movie Ryan had ever done. I was also extremely upset that I'd missed his turn as gay teen Billy Douglas on One Life to Live, of course!

Why am I bringing all of this up tonight, long after my adoration of Ryan has faded into nothing more than an appreciation for his overall hotness? Well, my early obsession with Ryan and seeing all of his films lead me to a writer/director I might not have discovered otherwise: Gregg Araki.

Ryan was in a film of Gregg's called Nowhere. Watching the film, I was totally confused and turned on and mesmerized, all more or less simultaneously. It was certainly one of the oddest films I'd seen at that point in my life, but as out there as it was, something about the weird yet strangely heartbreaking ending spoke to me.

I found out that the film was actually the third in a teenage apocalypse trilogy, so I sought out the first two films (neither of which had Ryan in them, so at that point it was Araki who was my point of interest), Totally F***ed Up and The Doom Generation.

All three of the films were interesting, disturbing, and exciting, but as soon as I saw his earlier film, The Living End, I knew that it was his best work, at least out of those early films. The movie is about two men who have AIDS and who end up on the road together, living outside the law because they have nothing left to lose. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.

Since then, he's impressed me even more with Mysterious Skin, starring the incredible Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It showed the same deft touch with uncomfortable subject matter as his earlier films but also proved how much he'd matured as an artist since the early 1990's.

I just read today that he's working on a new film, Kaboom, which "follows the sexual awakening of a group of college students." Perfect material for Araki, who no doubt will take what could in most hands be rather tired subject matter that we've all seen a million times and make something completely original out of it.

Most of Araki's films (I have yet to see his most recent film, Smiley Face, or his very first two films, Three Bewildered People in the Night and The Long Weekend (O'Despair), but I can speak for the rest of them) deal with LGBT subject matter to some extent, so it's especially interesting to see that Thomas Dekker is among the cast. I wonder if he'll dare to play a gay/bi scene after the whole controversy of Heroes de-gaying his character in the first season, apparently at the request of his management.

At any rate, I'm very much looking forward to Kaboom. It's funny to think that if it wasn't for my early crush on Ryan, I may never have experienced some truly interesting films! Of course, I also would never have had to sit through 54!

Not Quite Like Old Times...Yet!

I haven't written all that much in the past few weeks on the new Melrose Place, so I thought I'd do that tonight, since I'm still overwhelmingly behind on Kish and Nuke (two weeks worth still to watch, with a third week starting tomorrow!).

Let's start with the gay character, Caleb. He really hasn't really been on very much so far. We see him in one or maybe two scenes a week, at the office with Ella. Honestly, there isn't much to say about him at this point, other than that Victor Webster is still as smoking hot as he was when I first saw him on Days of Our Lives back in the day.

Maybe in the coming weeks, we'll learn more about Caleb, but right now he's not exactly a leading character on the show. In fact, he's far less of one than Matt Fielding was at the start of the original series.

As for the other characters, the show for me is still primarily about two of them: Ella and Jonah. Not only are they the most watchable and interesting of all the characters, but Katie Cassidy and Michael Rady are so far the only actors on the show who seem to be completely comfortable with their characters in every scene (other than Thomas Calabro, of course, who had the whole run of the original series to get into Michael Mancini's head).

Honestly, the two of them (and some nice eye candy) are what keep me tuning in so far. I'm hoping that we'll be building up to some great campy, over the top moments as the show progresses, moments like those that the original Melrose was famous for. With Heather Locklear returning as Amanda in the near future, things could be looking up. In fact, the only non-Jonah and/or Ella moment that I've really been excited by so far was when David found files on his father's hard drive labeled Jane, Jo, Alison, and Amanda, after the original series characters.

The rest of the cast I can take or leave at the moment, for the most part. David is growing on me a little with each passing week, while Riley seems to be an incredibly dull character. Lauren, meanwhile, is caught up in a story that I feel we've seen plenty of already and should retire forever: the struggling fill in the blank (in this case, med student) who becomes a prostitute to make ends meet.

Didn't we see this story in the first series, in fact? My memory of which character it was is hazy, but I do remember that Kristian Alfonso, who plays Hope Williams Brady on Days of Our Lives, played a Hollywood madame on the original show in that storyline.

The worst of the bunch so far are Auggie and Violet. Colin Egglesfield is an incredibly gorgeous man, but his acting hasn't improved in the slightest since his stint as Erica Kane's suddenly no longer aborted son on All My Children. Still, as long as they have him stripping down as often as possible, I won't complain too much.

As for Ashlee Simpson-Wentz... well, I'm praying that Violet really did murder Syndey and will be exiting the show in a body bag after a standoff with the cops, if that gives you any clue as to my opinion.

The return of original series character Jane Andrews this past week was a mixed bag. I will always welcome any connection with the original show, but Jane spent half her time on the first series as a rather boring doormat and then suddenly went over the top crazy before being written out.

Her return this week gave us a Jane who was bitchy for no real reason, a blackmailer, and completely cold towards someone who may or may not be her only living relative. Jane now owns the apartment building so we'll probably be seeing more of her, but even so, I was sad that they didn't put her in any scenes with her ex husband, Michael, in her return episode.

Most new shows need time (which they rarely get these days) to figure out what's working and what isn't. The first series wrote off a few of the original characters who were proving to be dead weight early on, and if this show gets a chance to continue, I'm sure they will, too.

In the meantime, there are always moments like this (borrowed from Superherofan):
And, yes, even like this:

From Milk to General Hospital?!

In what has to be the most unexpected soap news since Joan Crawford filled in for her twenty something daughter on The Secret Storm, it was announced yesterday that film star James Franco will be playing an upcoming role on General Hospital. I don't mean a cameo appearance as himself, either, but a two month stint in a role that has yet to be revealed!

I think it's great that a young film star with a healthy career would do something like this, given the unwarranted stigma that exists towards daytime actors. Sadly, the bad rep about the writing on soaps is pretty well deserved at the moment, at least for most of the shows. General Hospital is included in that, so I hope James isn't expecting anything of Dustin Lance Black magnitude.

With so many declaring the genre of daytime soaps to be dead or dying, this could certainly give it a shot in the arm. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Speaking of soaps, I'm still completely behind on Kish and Nuke. I'll write about each individual episode as I catch up in the coming days, but it may be a week or so before I'm completely caught up.

A New Gore Vidal Memoir

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before or not, by my very favorite author is Gore Vidal. I think he's an amazing writer, I love his essays, his novels, and just hearing him express his views on books, life, and most of all, the United States.

I just found out about a new pictorial memoir he's putting out, called Gore Vidal: Snapshots in History's Glare. I work in a bookstore and I had no idea this was coming out until I read about it on Band of Thebes!

I can't wait to get my hands on it! I've read both of Gore's memoirs, Palimpsest and Point to Point Navigation, as well as Fred Kaplan's biography of him (which I liked, though Gore himself didn't speak well of it in his second memoir), but I don't think I'll ever tire of hearing (or in this case, seeing) more about him.

In addition to the new memoir, Gore is speaking his mind once again on the sate of the union, this time in an interview with the Times of London. The view is rather grim, but that's because Gore never pulls any punches:

Today religious mania has infected the political bloodstream and America has become corrosively isolationist, he says. “Ask an American what they know about Sweden and they’d say ‘They live well but they’re all alcoholics’. In fact a Scandinavian system could have benefited us many times over.” Instead, America has “no intellectual class” and is “rotting away at a funereal pace. We’ll have a military dictatorship fairly soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything together. Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people. His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is. Benjamin Franklin said that the system would fail because of the corruption of the people and that happened under Bush.”

I don't always agree with Gore on everything. Take his views on sexuality, for instance. They seem too much like a throwback to the closeted era of the 50's: he'd slept with, by his own estimate, a thousand men by the time he was 25 (!), but he still believes there are only homosexual acts, not homosexual people. To me, that seems too much an attempt to have your cake and eat it too, to be gay while denying such an identity actually exists outside the bedroom. Being gay goes beyond just sex, as much as many would like to claim that sex is all that's involved!

Gore has got an incredible mind, though, and whether you agree with him or not, he always gets people thinking.