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.

2010 in Retrospect

It's hard to believe that 2010 is already at a close. I feel as if it was 2002 about ten seconds ago, so how can we possibly be about to enter 2011?!

As with any year, a lot can be said to sum up 2010 from just about any perspective imaginable. In the United States, those on the right of the political spectrum certainly had a lot to cheer in the mid term elections, yet it was also the year in which Congress finally passed some Health Care legislation and repealed Don't Ask, Don't Tell, which will allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

On the Same Sex Marriage front, no new states joined the five states (and Washington, D.C.) that had already allowed (or were about to allow) LGBT citizens their right to marry at this time last year, but Maryland did begin to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states and, best of all, California's Prop 8 was overturned in federal court, though of course the case is far from over.

President Obama appointed Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court this year, bringing the number of women on the court to an historic high of three.

In the entertainment world, the two biggest men to come out of the closet this year weren't really any great surprise: pop singer Ricky Martin and Will & Grace star Sean Hayes had both been rumored/assumed to be gay for many years, but that doesn't make the fact that they finally took the steps to come out publicly in 2010 any less noteworthy.

A true milestone this year in terms of coming out: the first openly gay country music artist, in the form of newly out lesbian Chely Wright.

Ricky Martin, by the way, was part of another trend this year: out gay celebrities becoming parents. Ricky Martin has been a dad since 2008, while Neil Patrick Harris and his partner David Burtka, and Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, all welcomed new children into their lives in 2010.

We lost some greats this year in every field imaginable, from daytime TV's Frances Reid, James Mitchell, and Helen Wagner, to primetime TV greats Rue McCLanahan, Dixie Carter, Barbara Billingsly, and John Forsythe, to all around legends like Lena Horne, Dennis Hopper, and Tony Curtis.

The literary world lost an iconic figure in J.D. Salinger and we lost a great historian, writer, and activist when Howard Zinn left us at age 87.

Last year in my retrospective, I mentioned that the year had been bookended by two very different gay love scenes in daytime soaps: Luke & Noah's long awaited first time on As the World Turns at the beginning of the year and Oliver and Kyle's amazing New Year's Eve love scene on One Life to Live.

It's sad to read the hope and excitement I was feeling over Kish a year ago at this time, completely unaware that in less than three months Kish would be gone, that in less than nine months there would no longer be an As The World Turns or any LGBT characters on daytime TV at all. This year, when I say "What a difference a year can make" I say it with sadness.

Well, on to some of my picks for this year's favorite things!

*Favorite Classic Fiction Book I read this year: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

*Favorite Gay Fiction Book I read this year: Mary Ann In Autumn, by Armistead Maupin, with Stephen McCauley's Insignificant Others a near second.

*Favorite Modern Fiction Book I read this year: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I snobbishly put off reading this for ages because it was published in the U.S. as a Young Adult novel (in the author's native Australia, it was published as adult fiction), but it was so good!

*Favorite Non-Fiction (Literary) Book I read this year: The Book of William by Paul Collins.

*Favorite Non-Fiction (Autobiography) Book I read this year: City Boy by Edmund White.

*Favorite Film I saw this year: (500) Days of Summer.

*Favorite Gay Themed Film I saw this year: A Single Man. I only saw four gay themed films this year, and this was by far the best, but it couldn't begin to touch the beauty of the book.

*Film I Most Wanted to see this year but haven't yet: The Kids Are All Right. What's wrong with me?! I've been dying to see this. First film of 2011, for sure.

*Favorite Hour long TV Show: It's still Glee.

*Favorite Half Hour long TV Show: A tie between Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory, both of which I've belatedly caught up with and love.

*Best Daytime Soap: One Life to Live until March. After that, NONE.

*Favorite CD: Hard to say. I've been discovering Sondheim all year, so probably A Little Night Music or Company.

*Favorite Actress: Kristin Chenoweth

*Favorite Gay Themed Website of the year: AfterElton.com.

*Favorite Gay Character of the year (Daytime): A tie between Oliver Fish, One Life to Live (until March), and Reid Oliver, As The World Turns.

*Favorite Gay Character of the year (Primetime): Kurt Hummel, Glee.

*Favorite Gay Character of the year (International): Aaron Livesy, Emmerdale

*Hottest Actor (Daytime): A tie. Scott Evans (until March)

and then the Brothers Ford (aka Nicolas Robuck, David A. Gregory and Lenny Platt), One Life to Live.
*Hottest Actor (Primetime): Jared Padalecki. I still love me some Jared, and this year he even deigned to show some skin!
*Hottest Actor (Film): I barely saw any films this year, so I'll go with my choice from last year, the still very sexy Ryan Reynolds.

Well, I think that about sums it up. I hope 2011 proves to be a wonderful year for everyone reading this!

Year End Lists

It's that time of year again! Last night I made my list of the Guys Who Made 2010 and now I'm working on my retrospective look at the year.

While I work on that, I thought I'd share some lists put together by others. I always love these annual Best Of lists!

First up, The New Yorker's look at the best in film. Actually, I should say 'looks' since they have three critics weighing in: David Denby, Anthony Lane, and Richard Brody.

On the subject of film, Roger Ebert also offers his list of the top ten feature films and looking at all these combined lists makes me realize how few films I saw this year!

The New Yorker also has several writers commenting on the books they read in 2010.

Speaking of books, one of my favorite blogs, Band of Thebes, has a fantastic round up of 80 writers who choose their favorite LGBT books of the year. The list numbers 100 books and it's certainly enough to give anyone hope about the future of LGBT writing!

Oh, and be sure to check of Lambda Literary for several great articles on 2010.

Playbill.com has an excellent look at the year in theater , including a tribute to those who left us this year.

Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker has picked his top ten TV shows of the year, and then added another ten on top of that.

Even though I've more or less sworn off daytime soaps made in the United States, I can't help but check in on Michael Fairman's list of the Best and Worst in the year of daytime drama.

Fairman shows some love to One Life to Live, naming it best soap, but also calls out the shameful dumping of the Kish storyline as the most shocking moment of the year. He also names As the World Turns' Luke and Reid as the best new couple of the year and Reid's portrayer, Eric Sheffer Stevens, as giving the best overall performance by a supporting actor.

Not surprisingly, he 'honors' the ATWT writers with a well deserved nod for the worst writing of the year and mentions Reid's death as the most upsetting soap moment of 2010.

Fairman also offers photographic evidence of the 25 best and 25 worst soap moments of the year.

Well, I'll have my own retrospective on the year up later this evening.

The Men Who Made 2010

For the past two years, I've made year end lists of what I considered to be some of the hottest guys of the year. These weren't necessarily guys who were 'new' to the scene in the entertainment world, but rather guys that had caught my attention for the first time in the past twelve months.

Being the stickler for tradition that I am, I see no reason not to continue this particular one, even if I haven't had any time at all to blog during the holiday season (I've been at the book store for more Christmas seasons that I care to remember, but this was the first year in my new position and it was way more intense and exhausting than I expected it to be).

Anyway, without further ado, here are the men who made 2010 for me:

So far, I've always opened this list with a guy from One Life to Live. In 2008, it was Mark Lawson and last year it was Scott Evans. Now, I haven't followed the stories on One Life to Live since the shameful writing out of Kish back in March, so you'd think that this year would be different.

The truth is, though, that I still record the show on my Tivo every day, simply to ogle the hot guys, and there is one in particular who has caught my fancy this year. His name is Nicolas Robuck and he plays James, one of the very delicious trio known as the Ford brothers.
While all three of the Ford brothers (the other two are played by David Gregory and Lenny Platt) are incredibly sexy, as evidenced above, there is just something about the vulnerability that Nicolas brings to the role of James that makes my heart skip a beat.
Next up is a soap hottie from across the pond. I'm talking, of course, about Danny Miller, the actor who plays gay character Aaron Livesy on the British soap Emmerdale. I was aware of Danny somewhat at this time last year, since his gay storyline was just kicking off, but 2010 was the year in which he not only impressed the hell out of me with his acting talent (seriously, this man can break my heart; I dare you to watch a scene in which the tough, tightly wound Aaron breaks down and not sob right along with him!) but also had me completely falling for him.
The last three guys from my list all came to my attention this year while starring on the same show. You probably won't be at all surprised to hear that the show in question was Glee.

First up, Chord Overstreet. Once upon a time, when I was much younger, I had a major thing for blonds. Almost all of the guys that I had crushes on, both in real life and in the entertainment world, were blond. Nowadays, though, I tend to gravitate towards men with dark hair.

Still, once in awhile a hot blond like Chord comes along and I just can't help lusting after him like it was 1999 all over again! I mean, those lips, that body, that smile! I'll let the evidence speak for itself.
Next up is Mr. Teenage Dream himself, Darren Criss. At this point, I think even people who have never watched Glee know that Darren became an overnight sensation after he debuted on the show with an incredible performance of Katy Perry's song Teenage Dream. He certainly won my heart that night and his talent, his sexy grin, and his awesome attitude definitely made him one of my favorite guys this year. I just wish some shirtless pics existed! Maybe in 2011?

Finally, I think my biggest discovery this past year was Jonathan Groff. I can't even begin to tell you how much I crushed on him during his run as Jesse St. James on Glee last spring or how much I hope to see this talented, sexy, and out gay actor in something again soon! Shirtless pics of him aren't quite as scarce as those of Darren, but they're still pretty rare.

Well, there we are. The men who made 2010 for me. I can't wait to see what hotties 2011 will call to my attention!

Thanksgiving Past

Broadway.com is honoring the upcoming Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade by highlighting one classic performance from years past each day this week.

I mention this because they started the week off by featuring a performance from the 2007 parade starring two talented people who were then little known outside of the world of the stage: the leads of Spring Awakening, Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff, both now world famous thanks to a little TV show called Glee.

It's a very nice performance of 'Give My Regards to Broadway'. It goes without saying, of course, that they sound fantastic singing together. I love that they clearly have a great deal of affection for each other.

I wonder if it's at all possible that we'll have a Jesse St. James return appearance sometime this season on Glee? I know that Jonathan is performing in London right now, but I miss my weekly fix, especially after seeing how completely adorkable he is in his winter jacket in the parade clip!

How do I get Santa to leave Jonathan under my tree this year?!

Speaking of Glee, I'm going to have a write up on my thoughts on the season so far at some point in the near future. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers!

Southfork Calling

I've written before about my undying love for Dallas, the Grand Dame of 1980's prime time soaps, and about how excited I was that TNT was thinking about updating the show with a series that focused on the younger generation of Ewings: John Ross (son of J.R. and Sue Ellen) and Christopher (son of Bobby and Pamela). The best part, though, was that there was also talk of Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, and Linda Gray reprising their roles from the original show.

Since that time, there hadn't been a lot of news about the project. I read awhile back that TNT had decided to order a pilot, which was fantastic news since that's obviously the first step in the series becoming a reality. But overall, news was scarce and that was a bit worrisome since I'd been through the same process earlier in the decade when there was a lot of talk of a big screen adaption of the show and it ultimately came to nothing.

Just when I was starting to despair of ever hearing anything more, a new article popped up on the TV Guide website earlier this week. The show is clearly very much in the works, as original series stars Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray (J.R., Bobby and Sue Ellen) discuss the script and reveal certain details, like the fact that matriarch Miss Ellie and her husband Clayton have both passed away (as, of course, have their portrayers, Barbara Bel Geddes and Howard Keel) and Bobby has remarried.

Larry Hagman notes that he remains 'ambivalent' about the idea and is waiting for a firm offer, but Patrick Duffy sounds a much more optimistic note:

"I read the script and was extremely impressed with it," says Patrick. "I'd managed to read the scripts for the feature films Fox was planning a few years ago and they were atrocious. Just awful, so I didn't know what to expect from TNT. But this read like one of the better episodes at the height of Dallas. It's a perfect sequel to continuing the Dallas tradition."

I'm so excited to see this show become a reality! If they manage the mix between the older and younger characters just right, throw in some real eye candy as John Ross and Christopher (and, for those who are into that sort of thing, some attractive women to play their love interests), this thing could be great!

I feel like a little kid counting down the days until Christmas, only I'm starting on December 26th and it's going to be a looong wait!

Books, Hold the E

Last month I read with dismay that Alyson Books, the oldest LGBT Publishing firm in the United States, was converting itself into an E-Book only publishing house. I know that many newspapers and periodicals are making the switch to digital only, but the idea that publishers may stop printing actual books and move exclusively to E-Books really worries me.

As someone who loves books (and by that I mean actual printed books!) this new trend towards E-Readers is not something I'm thrilled with. Part of that comes from working in a bookstore that is trying very hard to get ahead of this particular trend. We're made to push E-Readers like crazy, even though roughly two thirds of the staff dislike them.

I remember fondly the days when we just sold books (okay, and movies and CDs), but now we're constantly having to take training courses on the latest E-Reader and being asked all sorts of technical questions by customers.

Frankly, I hate E-Readers. I suppose if you travel a lot they're handy to have around, but they're certainly not for me. The idea that a cold piece of machinery could ever replace the experience of holding a book in your hands, turning the pages, and smelling the scent of the paper is just insane to me.

Not only are the things apt to break down eventually (or perhaps quickly, as evidenced by the many we've had returned to us as defective) and wipe out your whole library (!), but with the way that technology is constantly changing, who is to say that the E-Book you buy today will even be accessible to you a few years down the road? I guess that wouldn't matter to people who never want to re-read something, but I think most true book lovers should find that idea disconcerting, to say the least.

I know I'm not alone in this. Many of my co-workers feel the same way and so do a lot of our regular customers. I always want to cheer when I overhear a customer at work say "No, thanks, I'm a book lover," when asked if they have any questions about our E-Readers.

The thing the really gets me is the sheer number of questions we get about whether or not the E-Readers will actually read the book to their owners. Is that what we're coming to? Are that many people so lazy that they can't be bothered to even read for themselves? They want to be read to like they're still in Kindergarten?!

I know that I could never be happy if I wasn't surrounded by my books. They're a part of my life in a very physical sense.

At any rate, I cheered up a bit today when I read the news that the former head of Alyson Books, Don Weise, is launching a new indie press that will be dedicated to LGBT books. Magnus Books will publish 15-20 titles a year.

I really like the idea of publishing books from a small independent press. If I had the money, I would love to do that myself. There's an interesting memoir by Felice Picano called Art and Sex in Greenwich Village which is about the founding and running of SeaHorse Press, his independent LGBT press, in the late 1970's. It's definitely worth a read if you're at all interested in the inner workings of publishing books or in that particular time period in LGBT writing.

LuRe/Nuke: The End (In So Many Ways)

Almost two months have passed since the venerable soap opera As the World Turns aired its final episode, bringing to a close over 54 years of television history. That history included the groundbreaking character of Luke Snyder, whose story I have covered here in detail over the past several years.

The last time I wrote about Luke's story was back in May. After that point, I became too busy in my personal life to keep up with the show. I did save all of the Luke related episodes on my Tivo, though, and last month when I'd taken a week off of work I managed to catch up with the final four months of the LuRe/Nuke storyline.

It's rather sad that I stuck with the show through some really terrible stories (The Z Twins? Ameera? I could go on for a few paragraphs, but let's leave it at that) and then, just when I was delighted with the electric chemistry between Van Hansis and Eric Sheffer Stevens as Luke and Reid, I had to step away.

I've been wondering since I finished watching the show just how much I should write about the way it ended. Too much time had passed for me to try and do any sort of thorough recap of the story. In the end, I decided to just do a brief summary of the action and then talk about what, exactly, this story meant and the impact it had.

There was much talk among fans about how the show would end: would Luke end up with Noah or with Reid? Both couples had their die hard fans who believed that the wrong choice would be a betrayal of their favored pair. I myself was firmly in the LuRe camp.

In the end, the show opted for door number three in an attempt to try and satisfy everyone involved.

Luke chose Reid over Noah, who decided to leave for school in Los Angeles. Luke and Reid were briefly happy, though they never actually got to make love. Luke wanted to hold off, since he'd only ever been with Noah, and Reid agreed to wait until Luke was ready.

This being a soap opera, things didn't go as planned. Reid's rival at the hospital, Chris Hughes, needed a new heart quickly, or he was going to die. Reid learned of a heart that was a match in nearby Bay City and rushed off to bypass the bureaucratic red tape and get the heart. His car stalled on a train track on his way there and he was hit before he could escape.

He lived long enough to be taken back to the hospital in Oakdale and say good bye to Luke, to whom he gave his power of attorney and instructions to make sure that Chris Hughes got Reid's heart if it was a match (which, of course, it was).

It goes without saying that Van Hansis was heartbreaking in these scenes. Watching Luke grieve Reid was incredibly hard.

So, the show gave the LuRe fans what it wanted, sort of: Luke and Reid remained in love and would have lived happily ever after except that Reid died a noble, heroic death.

They also gave the Nuke fans what they wanted, sort of: Noah and Luke didn't end up together, but the possibility of Luke eventually joining Noah in L.A. after he'd grieved Reid was very much hinted at.

Instead of making both sides happy, I suspect that it actually left everyone unsatisfied. Still, I greatly appreciated that the very last scene we ever had of Luke Snyder was of him placing his head on Chris Hughes' chest to listen to Reid's heart beating.

I bemoaned the awful writing on this show many times but in the end there is no denying that Luke's story broke a lot of ground. Like many pioneering stories, it won't be as good as what comes after it, the stories (like the much superior Kish storyline on One Life to Live) that don't have to break down the same taboos themselves.

Those stories, though, would never be able to exist if Luke's story hadn't lead the way. Let's recap here:

Luke was the first out gay male character from a core family on a daytime soap. This means that the character wasn't a disposable one, easy to remove when his purpose had been served.

Luke was the first gay male character who remained a leading character on a daytime soap once his coming out storyline was finished.

Luke and Noah shared the first romantic kiss between two male characters on a daytime soap. In fact, they shared the first several.

Luke and Noah were the first two male characters to make love on a daytime soap, though of course we didn't get a scene of them in bed together before or after (that ground was broken by Kish).

Luke, Noah, and Reid were the first true all male love triangle on a daytime soap (one in which both sides of the triangle had fans rooting for them).

Luke and Noah were, in fact, the first gay supercouple on daytime TV.

In the end, these milestones will be what truly matters, not the awful plot twists that cluttered things up along the way.

None of this would have happened, of course, without Van Hansis. His talent was what made people care about Luke. Van quickly developed a legion of fans that championed Luke and then the Nuke pairing, bringing the show the sort of attention in hadn't had in years.

If the writing had been up to the level of Van's talent, this attention could have been parlayed into ratings and the show might still be going strong today.

With the end of As the World Turns, there are no longer any out gay characters on daytime television. A truly sad state of affairs given that just a year ago we had Luke & Noah, Oliver & Kyle, Nick, Mason, Philip, and Rafe spread out over three different soap operas.

With all the talk of ground being broken, it's a bitter irony that we're suddenly back to where we were before Luke ever came out of the closet.

Mary Ann in Autumn

I have a lot to catch up on here, there's so much I want to write about. I suppose I'll have to just take it one post at a time.

Let's start with Mary Ann in Autumn, the new Tales of the City novel by Armistead Maupin. If you've followed my blog at all, you know that I'd been looking forward to this book for quite awhile now.

I picked up my copy the day it came out, of course, and I pretty much devoured it all in one sitting. Maupin definitely still has the touch when it comes to weaving an engaging tale.

Reading this novel (and the earlier update, Michael Tolliver Lives) was very much like running into people you dearly loved in the past but haven't had the chance to see in ages. You may worry at first that too much will have changed in the ensuing years, but you quickly discover how easy it is to fall right back into your old rapport.

Don't think for a second, though, that Maupin is only interested in the characters that he first created over thirty years ago. In his two latest updates to the series he's introduced a new generation of characters to catch our interest and he's been able to seamlessly intertwine their lives with those of the classic characters.

Mary Ann in Autumn focuses, as you'd imagine, on the character of Mary Ann Singleton. In the original series of books, she was the character who arrived in San Francisco from Cleveland, wide eyed and naive. Mary Ann ended up being the character who most personified the times she lived in, going from the open hearted and free spirited 1970's to the ambitious and self obsessed 1980's.

Maupin managed to actually make this change in Mary Ann feel quite natural. Looking back, you saw that the seeds of it were always there. It still hurt, though, to get to the end of the series (as Sure of You was for so many years) and to feel just as abandoned by Mary Ann as her friends and family in the books did when she left them behind to pursue success in New York.

When the series was updated in 2005 with Michael Tolliver Lives Mary Ann was largely absent, with the exception of a telling cameo appearance toward the end. We learned at that point that she'd continued to mirror the changing times by becoming an upper class suburban wife in Connecticut who hadn't seen her San Francisco friends in years.

Mary Ann in Autumn, then, is the first real chance to catch up with this particular character as she returns to San Francisco in the face of both health and marital crises.

The book takes place in December of 2008, when the country is still hopeful over the recent election of Senator Obama to the White House but California itself is reeling from the passage of Proposition 8. One of the younger characters, in fact, is a sexually confused Mormon who'd been in town on a mission to help pass the law.

As with any Tales novel, there is no shortage of intrigue or heartfelt moments, mixed in with a lot of laughs and plenty of wisdom dispensed from Mrs. Madrigal.

I loved the book. I loved getting to know Mary Ann all over again and discovering that the ambitious woman who'd left everything behind for the sake of her career was still very much present, but that the open hearted young girl who'd first arrived in San Francisco was there, too. They were, in fact, very much the same person.

In the first books, I tended to identify with her as the outsider coming into this new world. Maybe that's why it was so hard when she later turned her back on the world I'd come to love, why it seemed so unforgivable to me.

I picked up the new book hoping that Mary Ann would be redeemed in my eyes as a character, but I quickly realized that she didn't need redemption. In the end, Mary Ann is simply a woman who has made her decisions in life, for better or worse, just as we all do. Maybe being a bit older myself than I was when I read the original six books is part of why I can see that so clearly now.

I hope that this won't be the last of the Tales novels. There is still a lot of story to be told, both with the original characters and the newer ones. If it is the final book, though, I will at least be glad that I finally came to a new understanding of Mary Ann.