Category Archives: Actors

Brad Bell: Fine-tuning the Image of Gays in Hollywood: An Open Letter to Amy Pascal

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Great article by Brad Bell. There’s not a single point he makes that I don’t agree with. Take a read. It’s extremely thought-provoking. Also, take a few minutes and watch Husbands, the great Web series that Bell co-created with Jane Espenson.

First, I applaud your acknowledgement of this issue and want to thank you for setting a precedent which makes this dialogue possible. Yes, I agree with you that an alarming volume of movies and TV shows thoughtlessly rely on anti-gay slurs for humor, thus perpetuating the idea that homosexuality is a shameful and comprehensible source of ridicule. Just one example is The Hangover, which manages to call texting “gay” and use the nickname “Dr. Faggot” in the first few lines of the movie. However, I also think that calling for an across-the-board ban of the word “fag,” with no consideration to context, is counterproductive for creating a climate of learning and compassion. I assume, of course, this is a concept you’re familiar with, after the public’s polarizing response to Django Unchained.

via Brad Bell: Fine-tuning the Image of Gays in Hollywood: An Open Letter to Amy Pascal.

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Richard Thorp, Emmerdale’s Alan Turner, dies aged 81 – Telegraph

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Just watched him a few minutes ago on Emmerdale, in a scene with Paula Tilbrook. Sorry to see the old fellow go. It’s lovely on the U.K. soaps, that so many of the long-serving actors still get screen time. Eighty-five year old Freddie Jones had a cracking good front-burner story recently. You’ll not find much of that on TV in the States. RIP. Will miss ye at the Woollie, Alan.

Actor Richard Thorp, best known for his role as Alan Turner in ITV’s Yorkshire-based soap Emmerdale, has died aged 81.

Thorp played Alan Turner, the womanising manager of Home Farm and landlord of the Woolpack pub, since joining in 1982, making him the longest-serving actor in the serial. Thorp took a leave of absence from filming Emmerdale in 2010 following knee surgery. Since then he has played a minor role, but will continue to be seen on screen in previously recorded episodes, including Thursday’s in which he takes part in a fundraiser storyline at the Woolpack.

via Richard Thorp, Emmerdale’s Alan Turner, dies aged 81 – Telegraph.

John Barrowman Must Have Lost a Bet or Something…..

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Television’s hottest sci-fi couple: Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones and John Barrowman (r) as Capt. Jack Harkness in the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood. One helluva great show!

John Barrowman Hosting ABC Singing Contest Show — Vulture.

Recent Scandal guest star and Torchwood mainstay John Barrowman will host a reality contest show for ABC called Sing Your Face Off. According to EW, five celebrity (“celebrity”) contestants will “take on the identity of an iconic music performer each week,” attempting to impress judges Debbie Gibson and Darrell Hammond. The contestants are Jon Lovitz, Lisa Rinna, Sebastian Bach, NBA player Landry Fields, and Disney Channel actress China Anne McClain, so place your bets accordingly. As horrendous as this all sounds, maybe SYFO is the first step toward a musical special starring the cast of Scandal! Not a musical episode of the show, mind you, just a one-off special. Maybe with holiday songs?

Okay, far be it from me to impugn the choices of Mr. Barrowman, whom I adore — especially as Capt. Jack in Torchwood — but DAMN. I’m not sure it can get any worse that this. I mean, without hillbillies hand-fishing, of course.

“Submissions Only” – How’d I Miss This Great Web Series Until Now??

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I am completely late to the table on this one, but if you are at all interested in backstage shenanigans, watch Submissions Only, the Web series created by Kate Wetherhead and Andrew Keenan-Bolger.

“Backstage shenanigans” really doesn’t do this series justice in the slightest. It’s ostensibly about a struggling casting agent and his friend, a struggling actress, but it’s a warm, witty, often laugh-out-loud funny look at the relationships — and indignities — that occur backstage and in the wings.

For any of us who are, or have been, “in the business,” you know every one of these people. The last show like this, for me, was the Canadian series Slings & Arrows. For those amongst us who have not spent any time backstage, watch it for the cameos and great writing. There’s hardly a Broadway name that doesn’t get a couple of minutes of face time. I mean, they got Chita Rivera, Harvey Fierstein and Beth Leavel, for God’s sakes!

Wetherhead and Keenan-Bolger are no slouches as Broadway names either. You may have seen her in Legally Blonde or The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee or him in Mary Poppins, Seussical or until recently as Crutchie in Newsies. The “sizzle reel” below is linked straight to YouTube. Watch the entire series at www.submissionsonly.com. You’ll be glad you did.

Bret Easton Ellis and the Magical Gay Elves

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The rush to embrace and console every gay man who comes out is infantilizing and condescending—but it’s a script written and promoted by GLAAD and reinforced by a sanctimonious establishment of gay men that rewards those who play by the rules—and punishes those who don’t. Novelist Bret Easton Ellis on why he refuses to take his bitch-slapping lying down.

via In the Reign of the Gay Magical Elves | Out Magazine.

Oh, Bret Easton Ellis, you insane, snarky old bastard. I actually agree with you on a lot of this, but as one gay man to another, can I also inform you that there is an enormous swath of the American public that needs to be nudged along a little softly. At least right now. Yes, it makes my eyes roll sometimes, too, but dial back the rhetoric just a bit — just a bit — and let’s let the rest of the country catch up.

And for the record, I vehemently disagree with you about Matt Bomer. He’s an actor. It shouldn’t matter that he’s gay playing straight any more than a straight actor playing gay. Get over yourself just a touch.

You’re Out? You’re Off the Air: Networks Swinging the Big Gay Axe

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NBC’s “The New Normal,” a gaycentric series the network chose not to renew.

Although most people associate the month of May with the Kentucky Derby, Memorial Day weekend traffic or beautiful spring bouquets for Mom, television has only one thing on its mind: Out with the old and in with the new. Manhattan is awash with TV folks in town for the upfronts, the annual ritual in which the networks present their fall schedules to advertisers in hopes of wooing big bucks. It is too early to tell which network will be the big winner, but this year there is a clear loser: gay characters.

via Derek Hartley: May-day! TV’s Big Gay Bloodbath. Huffington Post

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Will Horton (Chandler Massey) and Sonny Kiriakis (Freddie Smith) on “Days of our Lives,” one of the few gay couples on American television.

Sadly, Hartley tells it for the truth, but I’m not sure he actually goes far enough in his hue and cry against the broadcast networks.

Last year there was a lot of positive buzz about the numbers of gay characters on the networks. The sum total of gay characters was about 6% of all characters — lame — but it was the highest percentage ever. After wiping us off the map for all intents and purposes in primetime, in daytime it’s not much better. There seems only to be  Sonny and Will’s  front burner storyline on “Days of our Lives,” amongst the sordid lives being lived on the few remaining televised soaps. Other than that, gay characters on traditional American television are few and far between. (Eden Reigel’s Bianca stands alone — as a proud but lonely lesbian in the gay landscape of Pine Valley on the Web reboot of “All My Children.” It will be nice if that changes.)

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Van Hansis, Kit Williamson and John Halbach star in the superlative Web series “EastSiders,” created by Williamson and now available on logotv.com.

Moving away from traditional TV to find entertainment, I would encourage you to check out these great Web series: EastSiders, The Outs, Husbands, and others. If you go to Logo to check out EastSiders (highly recommended), explore some of their other Web only offerings, such as Hunting Season.

The New Normal — Done With TV

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Last week, leading up to the upfronts — that’s the time when the networks pat themselves on their backs and announce their new series — news about television was all about what shows had gotten the axe.

Last season I watched a half dozen or so shows on the networks. Here’s what I enjoyed, in rank order:

the-new-normal-utah-new-home__oPt1. The New Normal
Ryan Murphy’s smartly written comedy about a gay couple who want to start a family. This show got some unfavorable reviews from gay outlets, but I found it simply lovely. Truth be told, this surprised me because I find Murphy’s Glee the most inconsistent show on TV. However, this one was a love note to the celebration of difference. Andrew Rannells and Justin Bartha were wonderful. NeNe Leakes was hilarious and I found the whole thing refreshing. I particularly liked the way Ellen Barkin’s strident conservative grandmother was allowed to change and still hold to her own truth. It was smart. Very smart. No, it was not everyone’s gay experience — we’re not all wealthy Californians with a perfect house and perfect teeth — and maybe you couldn’t quite relate to it, but hey, at least it WAS a gay experience on network television.

DAMON WAYANS JR., ELIZA COUPE, ADAM PALLY, CASEY WILSON, ELISHA CUTHBERT, ZACHARY KNIGHTON2. Happy Endings
The quirky, oddball non-linear new take on Friends full of fast dialogue and underplayed pop culture references to keep you on your toes. The show grew over its time on the air, but it never gelled the way I think it should have. I think Adam Pally was poised on the brink of being a breakout star, but no one seemed to know how to write for his character, which is a shame because I think there was a lot there to be mined. There’s talk that this may end up on some cable network or another. I hope so. It deserves a second time around. Zero bad apples in this gang of six.

New-Girl-Jess3. New Girl
Three guys and a girl share a loft apartment. Zany antics, deftly drawn characters and a healthy dose of heart. And this is on Fox? Zooey Deschanel and Jake Johnson have really shined this season. Max Greenfield is insanely funny and a fearless performer. The show is smart, has grounded itself in a unique worldview and is starting to emerge as more than “just a sitcom.” It’s a delight AND one of the few sitcoms that understands how to maximize its (terrific) guest stars. Two words: Julius Pepperwood.

Smash season 24. Smash
NBC’s paean to Broadway. Shot in New York and chock-a-block with actual theatre performers. Theresa Rebeck created the show, adapting Garson Kanin’s novel. A writer, Rebeck was also the showrunner and by all accounts the first season was a train wreck backstage and the novel show became nearly unwatchable at the end of season one. Brought back for a second season with a seasoned showrunner who severely retooled it, the storylines got tighter and more interesting to watch, but the network buried it and ratings fell through the floor. A shame, really, because there was some great stuff going on here. Andy Mientus, Jeremy Jordan and Megan Hilty showed great range, Christian Borle made the jump from stage acting to screen acting look utterly effortless and Debra Messing showed a fantastic grounded, dramatic side that we never got to see on Will & Grace.

images5. Whitney
An odd little nut of a show featuring interesting comedic performances from some not-so-stereotypical performers. Comedienne Whitney Cummings had her hand in two shows that debuted in 2011: her self-titled one and the CBS diner sitcom 2 Broke Girls. Whitney was a lovely little show with interesting performers while 2 Broke Girls was one extended dick joke. Guess which one is still on the air? Chris D’Elia and Rhea Seehorn were refreshing additions to the landscape.

AUBREY ANDERSON-EMMONS, RICO RODRIGUEZ, ED O'NEILL, SOFIA VERGARA, NOLAN GOULD, TY BURRELL, JULIE BOWEN, SARAH HYLAND, ARIEL WINTER, ERIC STONESTREET, JESSE TYLER FERGUSON6. Modern Family
Because it’s consistently funny when you least expect it to be. There’s a lot of talk about the over-the-top performers on this show — like Eric Stonestreet and Ty Burrell — but the real heart of this show is Ed O’Neill who delivers a consistent, grounded, underplayed performance week after week. He’s not recognized for this anti-Al Bundy turn, but he should. Critics who know better should realize that he’s the glue that’s holding the whole damn thing together. Every time I think that MF is close to jumping the shark, it pulls itself back from the edge. Also, as the children have grown, all of them have gotten better and better, particularly Nolan Gould, who plays Luke Dunphy.

Cougar TownAnd not on the network any longer:
Cougar Town
Courteney Cox leads Bill Lawrence’s band of wine-swilling crazies through an odd Florida town. Axed as an underperformer after two seasons on ABC, it’s found new life on TBS with two 13-episode seasons — one just concluded and one upcoming. If you understand Penny Can, Dime Eyes and Big Carl, you’re onto the shenanigans in the cul de sac. It’s devilishly clever in a truly oddball sort of way. It’s to group-of-friends comedies what Scrubs was to hospital comedies. Makes sense, because they were created by the same warped mind.

Last week, the networks axed numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5. So, I’m done with TV now. The cable company gets a call on Monday and the hundreds of channels with nothing on them but five-year-old reruns of Paula Deen deep-frying bacon-wrapped lard balls in butter and Housewives of (fill in a place) and Kardashians and hoarders and Honey Boo Boo and rednecks in swamps can all go away and I’ll save thousands of dollars over the next year and it will make me ecstatic not to have to pay that money to hellish Comcast!

Besides, most of the stuff that I watch comes from abroad. I watch A LOT of stuff from the U.K. on the computer. I watch a number of excellent independent Web series and even the back-from-the-dead All My Children. With the possible exception of losing out on new episodes of The Big Bang Theory and NCIS (because sometimes you just don’t want to have to think), why do I need cable if I have Hulu and Netflix and Amazon and YouTube and enough minor technical knowledge to sneak behind the occasional poorly built firewall?

And that’s my new normal.

Besides, NBC, any network that pays Matt Lauer millions of dollars to stay ON television certainly does not want me watching.

Alec Baldwin Sure Does Hate Ben Brantley

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Photo: from Vulture. Ben Gabbe | Getty Images

Alec Baldwin Sure Does Hate Ben Brantley — Vulture.

Baldwin writes that a critic should “never say ‘why bother?'” about something he or she is reviewing, and that “[in] the case of Orphans, Brantley wrote ‘Why bother?'” Actually, Brantley didn’t — though he did call Baldwin’s performance “a mutating cartoon … with only hints of the requisite menace” and said the production was “dispiritingly pallid.”

Okay, this is probably a way for Baldwin to vent his spleen a little, but, you know what? When you strip away all the vitriol from both sides, Baldwin is dead right.

Look, critics have way too much power.

Critics who are looking for a way to tear down a performer or a performance sadly outnumber those who are offering legit criticism.

If theatre marketers were doing their jobs correctly — and I say this with impunity because I was one for years and years — you can make your shows immune in critics. Of course, doing so requires changing your business model and investing more money in marketing, so I’m pretty certain that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

Today’s Best Tweet

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Good grammar is the best revenge!!

enhanced-buzz-9985-1367617432-6H/T BuzzFeed

 

Durang’s Best Chekovian ‘Spike’

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Shalita Grant, Kristine Nielsen, David Hyde Pierce, Genevieve Angelson (on rug), Sigourney Weaver and Billy Magnussen star on Broadway in Christopher Durang’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.” The play is directed by Nicholas Martin. Photographer: Carol Rosegg/O&M Co. via Bloomberg

Lucky me. I was in New York last week and had a chance to see Christopher Durang’s brilliant Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at the Golden Theatre.

When we arrived and settled into our seats, the usher turned to us and said, “You’re going to laugh.”

“Good,” I said, “I could use a laugh.”

“Oh, you’re gonna laugh,” she said, “whether you need it or not!”

And I did.

Kristine Nielsen, David Hyde Pierce, the divine Shalita Grant and the hilarious Billy Magnussen all received Tony Award nominations for their performances today. They were all richly deserved — hell, I thought someone should have delivered a Tony to Ms. Grant after the performance I saw, she was so good — but I am puzzled by the Tonys snub (and it’s completely a snub) of Sigourney Weaver who, as Masha, delivers what may be my all time favorite line in the history of theatre in this play.

I just posted a bit about Jake Silbermann who is in a Tony nominated show on Broadway right now as well. Billy Magnussen — Spike — was one of Silbermann’s co-stars on As The World Turns. Let no one tell you great actors don’t come from soaps.

If you have a chance, see VSMS!

By the way: Here’s Billy Magnussen’s reaction courtesy of Theatre Mania. Priceless.

Billy Magnussen, Best Featured Actor in a Play, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike:

“Ahhhh, my dog is eating this thing. I have two dogs. I have a French bulldog named Kiki Something Awesome Ninja Meatball. The other one is a long-haired miniature dachshund named Tank. I was in bed when I found out I was nominated for a Tony. I don’t have a publicist. I found out when my mom called this morning. I was sleeping. You know when your phone rings and you just keep yelling at your phone because you just want to sleep? That’s what I was doing. I didn’t know they were calling about that. After the fifth time, I was like, ‘fiiiiine…she has something to talk to me about.’ Crazy, right? I’m going to go to the gym right now. I have to run every day, because I gain weight fast.”