Groff Returns to Glee!

Yesterday I wrote about a bit of casting news that annoyed the hell out of me, but the news I read tonight had very much the opposite effect.

I'm talking, of course, about the report that Jonathan Groff will be returning to his role as Jesse St James on Glee for the final three episodes of the season!

I became a huge fan of Jonathan's during his run on the show last year. He's not only beautiful, a talented actor, and a fantastic signer, he's also openly gay, which makes him even more awesome as far as I'm concerned.

Jonathan spent some of the time since leaving the show starring on stage in Deathtrap in London's West End and while I'm sure he was fantastic in that, I couldn't exactly afford to fly over to the UK to see it, so I'm very happy that I'll be able to see him on my TV screen again.

I wonder if the show will have Rachel break out Carly Simon's 'Jesse' when Mr. St James returns to town? ("Oh mother, say a prayer for me, Jesse's back in town, it won't be easy...") The lyrics seem to work perfectly for the situation.

More to the point, will Jonathan share any screen time with Darren Criss? That much hotness onscreen at one time could be too much to handle, but I'll gladly take the risk!

Say What?!

We've all seen some ridiculous film and TV casting decisions over the years, but I don't think my jaw has ever dropped quite so much as it did a little while ago when I read that Jennifer Garner will be playing Agatha Christie's beloved detective Miss Marple in a new movie update.

Yes, Jennifer Garner, the actress from Alias will be playing the elderly spinster from the village of St. Mary Mead. I saw her in 13 Going on 30 but I never dreamed they'd make her 39 Going on 80!

Of course, this is a cool new youthful update of Miss Marple, meant to appeal to the Disney tween crowd. Um, if you're going to completely alter the character, why not just create a new detective altogether? Why tie it in to a very well established character fifty years older than the actress?

Back in middle school and high school, I devoured all of Agatha Christie's mysteries and collected copies of every single one. The books starring Miss Marple were particular favorites of mine. Don't get me wrong, I loved Hercule Poirot too, but Miss Marple was more fun, somehow.

What made Miss Marple a great character and as good of a detective as she was? Experience and age. She'd spent a lifetime as a single woman in a small village, observing life around her with a keen eye. Years of this had taught her a lot about human nature. That's how she always solved crimes, through the wisdom brought by her decades of living.

A young Miss Marple just makes no sense at all. I'm sure Jennifer Garner will be her usual winsome self and it's certainly not going to hurt the books any, but the stupidity of the idea just astounds me and I had to vent a bit!

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to re-read The Body in the Library.

A Groundbreaking Story for Daytime

This weekend I received an e-mail from a reader wondering if, now that I'm blogging again, I would comment on the male/male rape storyline that has unfolded recently on General Hospital.

I have to confess that General Hospital is not a soap I've ever watched regularly and, with my life being a bit chaotic recently, I hadn't followed the story at all. I'd seen reports about it on soap websites, of course, but I hadn't had the time to tune in.

The e-mail this weekend, though, prompted me to take a look at this story, which is a groundbreaking one for a daytime soap in the United States. I've heard a few rumors over the years that a male/male rape storyline was in the works on various soaps, but they always turned out to be nothing more than online speculation.

I've always thought it would be a pretty powerful story, if told right, but I honestly didn't think an American soap would ever go there. I knew that it had already happened on a British soap, though. Back in March 2000, Hollyoaks wrote what from most accounts was a pretty intense and well written storyline involving a male/male rape.

The character of Luke Morgan (played by Gary Lucy) had been bullied for awhile by his football teammate Mark Gibbs and some of his friends. When Luke finally stood up to Mark, he and his friends beat Luke up in a locker room after a football match. Luke ran off, but the guys gave chase and two of Mark's friends held Luke down while Mark raped him.

The actual rape took place in a special late night episode of the soap, but the aftermath played out on the show itself as Luke battled depression, lost his girlfriend because he felt he couldn't tell her about being raped, and eventually attempted suicide before finally opening up to his friends, family, and the police about what had happened to him.

Even then it was far from clear sailing, with Luke's father not wanting him to go public about the rape and his parents marriage crumbling in the aftermath. Mark and his friends were eventually found guilty and sent to prison, but it was far from easy for Luke to move on even after that. (I've only seen bits of the story itself on YouTube and read summaries, so bear with me if I got any details slightly wrong).

It always seemed less than likely that an American soap would tell such a story, especially when rape itself has always been such a poorly handled issue on daytime. Countless female characters have been raped over the years, but there are a few glaring examples that stand out as especially outrageous. Most famously (and most reprehensibly), of course, is General Hospital's Luke & Laura, where the rapist and his victim ended up not only marrying each other but becoming one of daytime's most popular supercouples.

On Days of Our Lives the character of Jack raped his wife, Kayla, before going on to become a lovably comedic character and one half of the popular Jack & Jennifer, not to mention a brother-in-law to Kayla, who'd married his brother.

The character of Todd Manning on One Life to Live was the leader of a very famous (and very well told) fraternity gang rape storyline back in 1993. While hardly a heroic character, Todd remains front and center on the soap today, with wives, ex-wives, children, and even a shared grandchild with his victim, Marty Saybrooke.

Worse, he essentially raped Marty again a few years ago when she had amnesia. That rape was more emotional than physical, since the clueless Marty thought she'd fallen in love with him and didn't regain her memory until after she'd made love to her rapist.

That's just a drop in the bucket and only touches on the male/female rapes. There have also been several stories in which a female character essentially rapes a male character and gets away with it completely, with no one even recognizing it as rape.

The one that comes to mind right away for me is from Days of Our Lives, where Sami Brady (herself a rape victim!) drugged her sister Carrie's boyfriend, Austin Reed, and had sex with him while he thought she was Carrie. That is certainly rape and would be described as such if the roles had been reversed.

That's really just the tip of the iceberg on this subject, so I'm sure you see why I thought that a male/male rape was doubly unlikely in a medium that is already squeamish about two men being together when both parties are willing.

So I wasn't really sure what to expect with this General Hospital storyline. It made sense that if any soap would feature a male/male rape, it would be the more violent than most GH, but I'd also trust them the least to deal with the aftermath of such a groundbreaking story.

The victim was 17 year old Michael, son of the show's lead character, mob boss Sonny Corinthos. Michael was in prison for murder last spring when he was beaten and raped by a fellow inmate named Carter, who was subsequently killed by Sonny's right hand man, Jason, who'd found out that Michael was being harassed by the man. The show left what exactly had happened up to viewer's imaginations until just a few months ago, when Michael discovered a friend being attacked and finally flashed back to what had happened to him.

Jason had his suspicions about how far the harassment in prison had gone, especially given how uncomfortable the virginal Michael seemed about the topic of sex after his release, but it wasn't until January that Michael finally confessed to Jason that he'd been raped.

Chad Duell (above), the actor playing Michael, really blew me away in that scene, as well as in subsequent scenes where he tells his brother & friend and discusses it with mother and then his macho, mob boss father.

Overall, in fact, I'm fairly impressed with what I've seen of this story, which admittedly is not much more than the clips I've just linked to! But Chad Duell seems a promising talent and I'm glad that Daytime has taken on another subject that seemed forever taboo. It's especially important, I think, that people finally see a story in which something that has largely been treated as a punchline in pop culture- being raped in prison- is far from being a joke.

Casting the Ewings

It won't surprise you to know that I've been avidly following all the casting news about the new Dallas pilot that TNT has ordered. I've written before about how much I loved the 1978-1991 series.

I'm thrilled that Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, and Patrick Duffy will all be reprising their roles from the original series. I cannot imagine Dallas without J.R., and even though both Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray left the series during its run, they're certainly an integral part of what made Dallas what it was and, hopefully, what it will be.

I'm a bit more wary about some of the casting choices for the new generation, though.

I'm fairly happy with Josh Henderson as John Ross, at least based on the fact that he's roughly the right age for the part (born in 1981, whereas the character was born onscreen in 1979), quite attractive, and seems to have some soapy experience already, having done time on both Desperate Housewives and 90210. I've never actually seen him in anything, though, so I can only hope that he's got some acting talent.
Henderson also looks like he could be John Ross, by which I mean it's somewhat believable that young Omri Katz could have grown up to look like this. I cannot, however, same the same thing when it comes to the actor they hired to play Christopher Ewing.

Jesse Metcalfe is certainly an attractive man. A decade ago, back when he was on Passions (a soap that I detested), I admit that I would occasionally record the show just to see him in a state of undress as the dim-witted hunk Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald. I've even caught a few glimpses of him on Desperate Housewives, for much the same reason.

He just doesn't seem right as Christopher, though. I can't see the kid on the original series or Chris Demetral, who played the role last in Dallas: J.R. Returns, becoming this beefcake version of Bobby and Pam's son. I'm also worried about Metcalfe not being the actor needed for the part, but that may be because I haven't seen him in much other than Passions and John Tucker Must Die. Hopefully his acting skills have improved since then? He's terrific eye candy, certainly, but I'd like Christopher to be more than that!

I was interested to see that Christopher's fiancee, the character that Julie Gonzalo is going to be playing, was named Rebecca. Could she be Pamela Rebecca Cooper, the character that Christopher was interested in when we last saw him in J.R. Returns? I'd heard no mention of Ken Kercheval returning as Cliff Barnes, but if Rebecca had been the same character that would have opened the door for him, since Rebecca turned out to be his daughter with Afton Cooper. Sadly, this character's last name appears to be Sutter.

Jordana Brewster, meanwhile, has been cast as a character named Elena who is reportedly in a love triangle with John Ross and Christopher, which I guess means that Rebecca may not be holding on to her man for long.

I'm not familiar with Julie Gonzalo, but I know Jordana's recent work from the show Chuck and I think she'll be a good addition to the cast.

I can't wait to see how all of this comes together onscreen. TNT had better pick this up as a series!

Van Gets Psyched

Some great news for all of us Van Hansis fans: the former Luke Snyder will be on our TV screens again in the near future. Van has landed a guest starring role on an episode of the series Psych.

I know that it has only been six months since As The World Turns went off the air and that I've seen Van more recently on YouTube in the Black Swan parody, Pale Swan, but it really seems like it has been ages since I last had my Hansis fix!

Van is a seriously talented guy and I can't wait to see what he does with this new role. I know it's going to be just the first of many.

About a month ago, by the way, I had a dream that Luke & Noah were given a spin off show that also starred Kyle and Fish from One Life to Live, along with several characters from Queer As Folk. It was pretty epic and I was so disappointed when I woke up and realized it was just a dream!

Rest in Peace, Elizabeth Taylor

As you've no doubt heard by now, the world lost a film icon and a legendary beauty today when Elizabeth Taylor passed away at the age of 79.

More importantly, though, the world lost a woman who worked tirelessly to fight AIDS, raising awareness and millions of dollars for the cause. She helped to found the American Foundation for AIDS Research and then her own organization, The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

It's especially worth noting that she began her work in the fight against HIV and AIDS back when many people outside of the LGBT community, and certainly most of those in public life, preferred to ignore the epidemic.

She left behind many wonderful movies (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, starring Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor each at the height of their beauty and talent, is one of my favorite films) and an epic personal life that was pure soap opera at times, but for me she'll always be first and foremost a true hero in the fight against AIDS.

Rest in peace, Elizabeth.

A New Gay Story for Daytime?

I'll believe this when I actually see it, but Entertainment Weekly's online arm is reporting that a gay themed storyline may finally be coming to Days of Our Lives. NBC's one surviving soap and The Bold & The Beautiful remain the only two daytime soaps left on the air that haven't done a major gay storyline.

I know I've mentioned before that Days is the soap I grew up watching, the one that my mother, aunts, and Grandmother all watched before me. It's also the only soap that I still keep up with somewhat, largely because of my life long history with it.

As I wrote when I first started blogging about gay soap characters, Days did provide a few very early and ultimately misleading hints that it might lead the pack on the issue of gay characters, but they both turned into major disappointments:

"Back in the 70's, there were a few minor blips on the radar, both on Days of Our Lives. Neither was exactly a stellar moment in soap history. First, a minor female character made an advance on Julie Williams, the lead character on the show at that time, and Julie reacted with disgust, fleeing the scene. The character who made the advance on Julie was promptly dropped and no further mention was made of the incident. Later, Julie's young cousin Mike Horton briefly questioned his own sexuality, until sex with a woman made him put all doubts from his mind once and for all. The character has come and gone over the years, but has been resolutely heterosexual ever since."

There has been much speculation over the years about Days doing a gay storyline. When the character of Eric Brady (played by a pre-Supernatural Jensen Ackles) first returned to Salem in the late 1990's, the Internet was abuzz with the rumor that the character was going to be gay. This speculation was aided by the fact that he was being followed by a mystery person and hiding a secret about his time in boarding school in Colorado.

Whatever the story was intended to be, the show dropped it without pursing it and wrapped up the weeks of Eric being followed in a single episode with hastily written scenes about the guy following him being his ex-roommate who'd date raped someone and blamed Eric for getting caught.

A decade later, the buzz has largely surrounded Eric's nephew, Will Horton, and his frenemy Chad Woods. Both characters have dated (and, in Chad's case, impregnated) women, but then they're still young, just out of high school and in that 'self discovery' phase of life. Fans of the fantasy pairing have already dubbed them 'Chill'.

EW.com hints that the new storyline would involve a current character becoming involved with someone new and even wonders if it could involve Will and the newly arrived Dario Hernandez. I've already noticed a few message boards hoping for a 'Wario' pairing.

At the moment, there are no major LGBT characters left on any soap, although a minor recurring character was recently revealed to be gay on One Life to Live, the soap that gave us Kish and then took them away.

Is a Chill, Wario or some other such pairing really in the works? If it happens, will the show be committed to keeping their gay characters front and center like As the World Turns was with Luke (though hopefully with better writing)? Or will they go the 'come out, get bashed, get accepted, disappear' route like General Hospital took with Lucas Jones?

If Days truly does tell a gay themed story, I hope that it will involve a legacy character from a core family, like Will Horton, who is far less easy to write out once he's come out (though admittedly General Hospital had no problems dropping Lucas Jones).

The Kish pairing proved that you can tell a beautiful love story with characters who aren't related to anyone else on the show, but it also reinforced just how easy it is to get rid of those characters.

As far as this latest Days rumor goes, only time will tell if there's actually something to it, and if that something is worth watching.

Stage Talk

At some point during my blogging hiatus I saw the news that Neil Patrick Harris and Patti LuPone were starring in a three night only concert production of one of my favorite Sondheim shows, Company. As you can imagine, I wanted to buy a ticket the minute I read the news, but sadly my recent move didn't take me any closer to the East Coast and I still can't afford to make the trip.

It seems strange to me that just a few years ago, I wouldn't have known a Sondheim show from a Lloyd Webber show, and if you'd showed me a picture of Patti LuPone I would have hazily recalled seeing her on TV in the early 90's, but would best have remembered her as the daughter-in-law in the film Driving Miss Daisy!

Well, what a difference a few years makes. I'm still far from being an expert on the Broadway musical, of course. I've now read all of Ethan Mordden's excellent books on the history of the genre and I've listened to many cast albums. I've even seen three Sondheim shows (the original productions of Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George and the 2006 revival of Company) and two Sondheim concert tributes on DVD, but can you really be an expert in something you've never experienced first hand?

Still, just listening to the original cast albums of Company, Follies, and A Little Night Music convinced me quite quickly that Sondheim was a genius. I'd love to see one of his shows in person and how incredible would it be if it also happened to star one of my favorite men on the planet, Neil Patrick Harris?

Then, of course, you throw Patti LuPone into the mix just to make me want to see it even more! In the past few years I've become a fan of Patti through the cast albums of her revivals of Gypsy and Sweeney Todd (she also worked with NPH on a concert version of the latter show, which is available on DVD), her own albums, and her new autobiography.

Alas, I'll have to live vicariously through those who see the new concert production of Company and share their opinions with the rest of us. I wonder if there's any chance that they'll release a cast recording?

Meanwhile, a bit closer to home but probably still far enough away to be out of my reach at the moment, there's a brand new musical that I'm dying to see. I'm talking about the Tales of the City musical, based on Armistead Maupin's wonderful books. It opens on May 18 in San Francisco and plays there through July. If I can scrape together enough money before then I'd love to not only see the show but also the city itself.

Thoughts on Glee

With everything that has been going on in my life, I have yet to comment on the second season of Glee other than to note my approval of the two hot guys who joined the cast last fall. I've been meaning to blog on the subject for months and there's no time like the present, right?

To start with, I should say that Chris Colfer has continued to impress the hell out of me. I was practically jumping up and down with joy when he won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in January. I don't think anyone deserved it more than he did and his acceptance speech was the high point of the evening.

I've loved the bullying story arc that is still unresolved. It's an important story and Chris played it beautifully, especially during the scene where Kurt finally confronted his bully Karofsky in the locker room.

I think one of my favorite scenes not only of the year but from any TV show EVER has to be the scene where Kurt's Dad gives him The Talk about sex. This was such a groundbreaking moment, to see a straight father sit down with his gay teenage son and discuss not only safe sex, but the emotional aspects of becoming sexually involved with another person. I honestly never thought I'd see a scene like this on network television. If Glee had ceased to air immediately afterward, it would have earned its place in history just with that scene.

What made this all truly spectacular was Mike O'Malley and Chris Colfer as the father and son in question. They were both pitch perfect as they had the uncomfortable but important conversation, and if it were up to me they would both be showered with every award possible just for this alone.

One of the best things about the new season has been the addition of Blaine Anderson to the cast of characters. Yes, Blaine is played by the incredibly sexy Darren Criss (see above), but that's only one reason to love this character. A far better one is that Criss is a talented actor and singer who has made Blaine truly come alive onscreen.

I could cite many examples of this, but I think the best one actually comes from this past week's episode. The scene I'm talking about is the one in which Blaine is listening to Kurt perform 'Blackbird' and there's no doubt as you're watching that you're seeing him fall in love with his fellow Warbler right before your eyes. Blaine doesn't say a word, but the dawning realization is all right there on his face and in his body language.

I've loved the way in which Kurt & Blaine have become friends (although Kurt was in love from the moment Blaine sang Teenage Dream to him) and how Blaine has tried to be a mentor to Kurt, and I'm excited to see where things go from here, now that they've finally become a couple.
With that said, I'm so ready to see Kurt back at McKinley High! All of the Warbler's performances tend to start sounding the same after awhile, with so little diversity in the singing, and I just miss seeing Kurt interacting with his old friends. I've loved seeing him become closer with Rachel since his transfer to Dalton and I'd like to see how that holds up when they're in the same glee club again.

What about the rest of the show, outside of Kurt and Blaine? Well, I've got to say that I'm incredibly disappointed with the way things were written for Will & Emma. Throwing Carl into the mix and then having Emma marry him so suddenly was not only wildly out of character for her, it also sort of ruined Emma & Will for me.

I liked the addition of Holly Holliday and I have to confess that I've never liked Gwyneth Paltrow more, but I don't see her being a long term character. If she's just in the mix to get Emma and Will back together, as seems likely, I'm less than impressed.

One truly fantastic decision they made this year was the casting of Dot-Marie Jones as Coach Beiste. At first, I thought the new football coach was going to be little more than a stereotype and a joke, but I quickly lost that idea. The writing has given Dot-Marie Jones a chance to shine both as a comic actress and in some surprisingly emotional scenes.

I also very much enjoyed the addition of Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans, though for somewhat different reasons:

Yes, he's fantastic eye candy, but I also loved how secretly dorky Sam was underneath the hot jock exterior. When he spoke Na'vi and did his McConaughey impression, I melted. I was especially excited when I thought that he was coming on to be Kurt's new boyfriend. My disappointment on that front was quickly appeased by the real chemistry that existed between Sam & Quinn, though. I really enjoyed that pairing.

Since then, they haven't seemed to know what to do with Sam. They trashed his relationship with Quinn to do a Quinn & Finn retread (boring!) and then paired him up with Santana, only to have her confess her love for Brittany. There is some truly interesting story to be told with the character of Sam, his insecurity, and his overwhelming need to be popular, but will they tell it?

Don't get me wrong, though, I love the whole Brittany/Santana relationship. It will be interesting to see where that goes. I've also enjoyed the Brittany/Artie match.

I have mixed feelings on the Puck/Lauren pairing. I love Lauren's complete confidence in herself and in her sex appeal, in spite of not looking like what is accepted in our society today as 'sexy', but I just feel like the pairing with Puck is too forced to be believable. They don't quite carry it off, somehow.

Where is Mercedes? Yes, she's physically present and has had a few great songs (I loved the duet of 'Take Me or Leave Me' she did with Rachel!), but she's had no character development whatsoever this season, outside of the tater tot thing. Give her a story already!

I also think they need to be very careful with Sue. She's always been deliciously over the top and I love Jane Lynch, but some of the character's actions this season have been a tad too much, even for Sue. If they made her a complete cartoon, that would be one thing, but they continually ground her with scenes in which we see that she is indeed human. So, why would she not care if she killed Brittany to win a competition, to give one example?

Overall, the show has had some great episodes this season and a few that weren't quite all that they could have been. I hope they'll move away from doing too many more episodes that revolve around the music of just one artist. It worked beautifully in the Madonna episode last year, but... well, let's just say Britney Spears is no Madonna.

Still, at this point I'd take a less than perfect episode of Glee over almost anything else on offer. It continues to be groundbreaking and remains my favorite show.

A New Role for Chenoweth?

I've said many times since the tragic demise of Pushing Daisies that Kristin Chenoweth, whom I practically worship, should be given a starring role in her own TV show. Yes, I know that she did have a short lived sitcom called Kristin that sort of came and went back in the summer of 2001, but that was nearly a decade ago. With her Emmy winning work as Olive on Pushing Daisies and her Emmy nominated recurring role as April Rhodes on Glee, she's more than demonstrated both her comedic abilities and her dramatic talents, not to mention that incredible singing voice.

Well, we may finally be seeing her on our TV screens again on a regular basis. Cheno has landed a lead role in a soapy new pilot from Darren Star, the man who brought us the original versions of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place, as well as Sex and the City (though of course he also brought us such less memorable titles as Central Park West, Miss Match, and Cashmere Mafia).

Kristin's new show would be called Good Christian Bitches, which certainly would rank among the more memorable titles of any new season. It sounds like pure campy fun, I have to say, especially with Kristin on board as what sounds like the villainess of the piece!

Still, I'm not getting my hopes up too high until the pilot is picked up as a series. The last time I was (somewhat) excited about Kristin landing a pilot, it never saw the light of day.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to her return to Glee this Spring as April Rhodes, where she'll be singing an original song that sounds perfectly suited to her character: 'It's 10 AM, I'm Drunk'.

Back in the Game

I'm sorry for the two and a half months of silence. Life has been even more hectic than usual since I last wrote. Among other things, I've left my job and moved to a new city. It has certainly been stressful, but I do love the idea of a fresh start!

Now that things are somewhat settled, my hope is that I can once again resume blogging on a regular basis.

I'll just dip my toe in the water tonight by noting that it's that time of year again: Literary Award Season! Lambda Literary has announced the finalists for their 23rd annual prize and the same can be said for the Publishing Triangle Awards. Both of these awards honor LGBT writing and never fail to alert me to a title or an author I might otherwise never have found.

The Orange Prize, meanwhile, honors excellence in women's writing and they've announced a longlist that sounds pretty fascinating.