Tag Archives: gay

Massey Leaves Iconic Gay Role as Will Horton

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Outlets covering gay entertainment news and those covering soap operas had plenty to write about Fri., Aug. 23, when, in a surprise move, two-time Emmy winner Chandler Massey announced that he had filmed his last scenes as Will Horton on the venerable NBC sudser Days of our Lives.

The story of Will Horton (Emmy winner Chandler Massey, left) discovering himself and his love story with Sonny Kiriakis (Freddie Smith) has been achingly slow, but powerful performances by the duo have overshadowed the typically tepid plotting.

AFTERGLOW. Sonny Kiriakis (Emmy nominee Freddie Smith, right) will find a strange new bedfellow in the new year when an as yet unannounced new actor takes over the role of partner Will Horton (double Emmy winner Chandler Massey, left) on the NBC daytime drama Days of Our Lives.

The 22-year-old Massey had announced his intentions to leave the role earlier this year when he won his second consecutive Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Younger Actor. He has said that he intends to finish college, which was interrupted during his freshman year when he won the role of Will Horton on DOOL.

“I’m done. It’s bittersweet, Massey is quoted as saying on The Backlot. “These four years have been so amazing I’ve built a family here. I’m so grateful to NBC and everyone for these amazing four years. It’s been my privilege and honor to work there.”

Massey was let out of his contract several months early for a variety or reasons. While originally saying that they would not recast the role, producers have now indicated that storylines have dictated a recast.

While many current fans of the show have taken to social media decrying the decision to recast, Massey — the fifth actor to play the role — has been vocal in his support of a recast for some time.

“I think it’s a good move [to recast],” Massey said in The Backlot piece. “I’m biased because I fell in love with Will and Sonny and I want Will and Sonny to be together.”

I agree with him. I fell in love with them, too. But, recasts have always been a part of the life of a continuing drama. After all, excluding babies, 12 actors assayed the part of Tom Hughes on As The World Turns from 1960 until Scott Holmes became “lucky 13” in 1987, staying with the role until the series ended in 2010. There’s hardly a role on a soap that has not been played by another actor at one time or another.

There’s no doubt about it: I will miss Massey, but I do believe that it’s more important that DOOL continue to tell this story and I hope a recast indicates that they tend to do just that.

There are plenty of young people, struggling with their sexuality that need to see other young gay people in a committed relationship to show them that it can be done — insane gunmen, unintended pregnancies, annoying and sometime borderline psychotic parents, drug dealing cousins, perjury, hot architects and Stefano DiMera aside — and that you can come home each night to the loving embrace of Sonny Kiriakis and his fabulous hair.

Thanks, Mr. Massey, for sharing your gifts with us. Your impact on the landscape has been indelible.

Because of DAYS’ shooting schedule, Massey will likely be seen as Will through December.

Other Recent Posts:
More Sands Through the Gay Hourglass — Revisiting and Revising
Like Sands Through the Gay Hourglass: Ticked Off at American Dramas. Again.
Charm of DAYS’ Gay Supercouple “Cannot be Denied”
Chandler Massey Takes Home Second Emmy
Daytime Emmy Q and A: Freddie Smith

Simon Pegg Decries the Need For Bromance

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Pegg, Star Trek’s new Scotty, and his cuddly BFF, Nick Frost, want to know what’s wrong with two guys showing affection. Damn good question.


Simon Pegg spoke with WTF with Marc Maron and decried the idea of a bromance, but for all the right reasons. “You can be affectionate with each other, you can love each other and it doesn’t have to be some – you know, and even if it does turn into something, which it didn’t, then it’s okay… We always sort of flinch at this “bromance” buzzword that’s come up – there’s no equivalent for women, because it’s not weird if women are friends… because of this homosexual terror that straight guys have, it’s ridiculous. Now there has to be this word for it, and it’s crazy. It’s totally sad.”

via Meme: Simon Pegg Decries the Need For Bromance, Sir Elton Takes Us “Home Again,” Is Peter Capaldi The Last Doctor? – thebacklot.com.

‘Harry Potter’ Star: Hollywood Gay Casting ‘Ridiculous’

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“If you are a romantic lead, there is a perception — I don’t know if it is true or not — that you will no longer be cast as straight people,” [Jason Isaacs] told the Telegraph. “Even when casting gay roles, there is a tendency to cast straight people, so they are lauded for their transformation. It’s ridiculous. The notion that a gay actor can’t seem like they are in love with a woman on screen is so patently absurd I can’t believe it still exists.”

via Jason Isaacs, ‘Harry Potter’ Star: Hollywood Gay Casting ‘Ridiculous’.

I couldn’t agree more. Of course, I looked at the photo and went, “Who in the hell is Jason Isaacs in Harry Potter?” That’s because Jason Isaacs is this guy:

jason-isaacs-la-premiere-of-bully-01He’s Lucius Malfoy!

I know, right?

Astonishing what a little slap and a blonde wig’ll do for ya!

Wentworth Miller Comes Out

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Actor/writer Wentworth Miller. |Image: Kiyoshi Ota / Getty Images AsiaPac via BuzzFeed

Wentworth Miller Comes Out: ‘Prison Break’ Star Reveals He’s Gay.

Okay, unlike yesterday’s “revelation” about Lucas Cruikshank, at least I know who Miller is! Also, the reason why is important, too. We all have to stand up and take a stand against injustice and intolerance and horrifying whack jobs every now and then.

And, because every story deserves a bit of levity, here’s BuzzFeed’s take on it!

Nickelodeon Actor Comes Out

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Lucas Cruikshank, Nickelodeon actor and star and creator of the popular YouTube series Fred, came out of the closet in a Q&A video posted to his channel today.

via Towleroad (includes video embed — it’s kinda cute, actually)

I suppose this was inevitable — some young celeb comes out and I have no freakin’ idea who in the hell they are. I am officially old. *sigh*

Well, anyway, good for him. I think that the more young people who come out on their own terms and just get on with it, the better off we’ll all be. I envy the nonchalance of this generation. It certainly beats the angst-ridden youth of my generation.

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Lucas Cruikshank and Jennifer Veal. He came out today. I have no idea who either of them are because I am, alas, too damn old. |Image: screen grab via Towleroad.

The Straight Years — A New Website and a Look Back at How it Used to Be

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Got this tweet this past weekend from LogoTV —

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Of course, I had to check it out.

The premise is people who are out now showing old pictures of themselves when they were pretending to be straight — or simply hadn’t figured out how to come out of the closet.

Back when I was a pre-teen/teenager, there were three people on television that I knew were gay: Paul Lynde on The Hollywood Squares, Charles Nelson Reilly on Match Game, and Billy Crystal’s character, Jodie Dallas, on Soap. And that was it! At least that was it in my little insulated corner of the planet. No one talked about gay and straight. Were these my role models? No, thanks. That’s not it. I’m not like ANY of these men. (Although, I LOVED Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly — they were the epitome of hilarious to me in the 70s — I did not connect the dots.)

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Charles Nelson Reilly made the 70s a little bit funnier on Match Game. A gifted actor, teacher and director, the Tony-winning Reilly filmed his autobiographical stage show, The Life of Reilly, shortly before his death. |Image: nndb.com

Paul-Lynde

TV’s center square, Paul Lynde, was bitchy and campy and threw out one double entendre after another on The Hollywood Squares for years. Also known for stage and TV work, including memorable turns as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched, Lynde died of a heart attack in 1982 at age 55. |Image: crewmagazine.

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Billy Crystal as Jodie Dallas in Soap. Allegedly gay throughout the series’ 1977-81 run, Jodie had several relationships with women. Granted the show was an over-the-top spoof on soap operas, but commercial director Jodie was nobody’s idea of a role model.

Things weren’t that much better in the 80s, when Steven Carrington on Dynasty was television’s gay standard bearer. Carrington — played by Al Corley and then recast with Jack Coleman — like Jodie Dallas before him, had far more romantic entanglements with women than any gay man I’ve ever met. Then again, “conversion therapy” and attempts to go straight were seen as serious back then, as ridiculous as it sounds now. There was no touching, no actual affection shown between two men on TV then; not in those days when, after his 1985 death, the world was shocked to learn that Rock Hudson was gay.

Looking back on those “straight years,” I think that simply because they were there and we could have a conversation about them, Jodie Dallas and Steven Carrington began to pave the way for networks like HERE and LOGO and superstars like Ellen Degeneres and Rosie O’Donnell and Zachary Quinto and George Takei and Anderson Cooper and Neil Patrick Harris and shows like Glee and The New Normal and Will & Grace and Brothers & Sisters and The L Word and Queer as Folk on cable and the networks and Husbands and The Outs and Eastsiders and Submissions Only and Hunting Season online and iconic couples like Kevin and Scotty,  Luke and Noah,  Lindsey and Melanie,  Will and Sonny and, hell, Jack and Doug on Dawson’s friggin’ Creek just to scratch the very tip of the iceberg.

I finally figured it all out in my mid-20s and came out publicly after attending the 1993 gay march on Washington. Being surrounded by the largest crowd I’ve ever seen on the National Mall, I decided that I wasn’t alone. I had back up in case coming out was a terrible idea.

It wasn’t. It NEVER is. I just wish my “straight years” hadn’t lasted quite so long. Maybe they wouldn’t have if I could have seen more of myself on television, in the movies or in literature back then.

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The Corner Bar was a 1972 summer replacement series on ABC that is credited with the first recurring gay character on American television. Played by Vincent Schiavelli, “Peter Panama” was reviled by gay activists at the time for playing up all of the worst gay stereotypes. Schiavelli, far right, is pictured with cast members Gabriel Dell, J.J. Barry, Shimen Ruskin, Bill Fiore and Joe Keyes. |Image via sticomsonline.com, watermarked argentaimages.

Ben Whishaw Comes Out: Do We Care?

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‘Skyfall’ Actor Ben Whishaw Officially Comes Out As Gay, Reveals He Is Married.

In a statement obtained by the Daily Mail over the weekend, Whishaw’s rep confirmed the actor is gay and has been married to his partner, Australian composer Mark Bradshaw, for a year now.

“Ben has never hidden his sexuality, but like many actors he prefers not to discuss his family or life outside of his work,” his spokesman said Friday night. “Due to speculation, I can confirm that Ben and Mark entered into a civil partnership in August 2012. They were proud to do so and are very happy.”

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Ben Whishaw as Freddie Lyon in “The Hour,” the period drama from the BBC about newsgathering in the 1950s. The Beeb cancelled the show after two series, sadly, but it was great TV. For many in the U.S., “The Hour” was the first real introduction to Whishaw’s many talents. | Image: BBC

There’s part of me that’s happy about this. There’s another part of me that just thinks it’s not a big deal and, frankly, none of my business or anyone else’s.

I’m conflicted, I suppose. I believe that it is so very important for LGBT equality that people realize how many people live their lives vibrantly and openly and how that polyglot makes this a richer world.

But ….

I don’t know if I really need to know who Ben Whishaw sleeps with or is married to. It just has no relevance. He’s a fine, fine actor. He was great in the last James Bond flick, picking up the mantle of “Q” seamlessly from John Cleese and the magnificent Desmond Llewellyn. He was mesmerizing as Freddie Lyon in two seasons of the BBC drama “The Hour” and he was captivating as Sebastian Flyte in a less-than-stellar take on Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited.”

Is he less or more captivating because we know that the performer under the artifice is gay? My belief is that if he’s a fine actor, everything — everything — else is completely irrelevant.

Well, anyway, good on ya, Ben. I wish you, your husband, and your fabulous head of hair all the happiness in the world!

Then There’s This “All American”

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You’ve probably seen 22-year-old Steve Grand’s self-funded video, All American Boy, on YouTube. More than a million people have. It’s the latest example of this particular generation breaking barriers that seemed so insurmountable just a few short years ago. Also, the song’s damn good.

Grand seems a genuine good sort and after a lot of the stuff he’s been through, it shows two things: the resiliency of the human spirit and that karma’s a real bitch!

Here are a few links:

Good Morning America

All American Boy video

Steve’s Facebook

Steve’s Bandcamp Page (donate a buck or more and download the song).

Kevin Keller: It Gets Better

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It was Kevin Keller Day recently courtesy of the It Gets Better Project and Archie Comics. Keller, you may know, is Archie Andrews’ pal from Riverdale, U.S.A. and, in addition to appearing in other Archie Comics titles, fronts his own eponymous book.

Thanks to Dan Parent, who created Kevin Keller, the world of Archie Comics has gotten exponentially better — not to mention more diverse and incredibly more affirming. Not bad for a town where Archie, Jughead and company have been high school juniors since 1941!

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Superman as gay teen … or gay teen as Superman. Works either way. | Image: Dan Parent/Archie Comics. Click image for more Kevin Keller.

Little Gay Movie Makes Big Splash, Baby – er – Gayby

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How A Gay Indie Movie Made A Giant Splash During Pride Week.

Halle Berry, Steve Carell and Jim Carrey, Jason Statham, James Franco and Mila Kunis, and Melissa McCarthy. They’ve all got movies atop the top of the iTunes charts right now. Familiar names and the usual suspect of movie stars. And then there’s… Matthew Wilkas in something called Gayby?

This week, Apple selected the little independent movie as its Movie of the Week on iTunes, giving prominent spotlight and promotion to director Jonathan Lisecki’s comedy about a straight woman, her gay male best friend, and their quest to have a child together.

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Jenn Harris, Jonathan Lisecki and Matthew Wilkas of Gayby, the quirky “half-gay” comedy that’s taking iTunes by storm. | Image: Daniella Zalcman for The Wall Street Journal

I’m a natural born cynic. I’m just sayin.’ So, when I first heard the premise of this movie last year, the first thing I did was roll my eyes. Then I watched a trailer, because, well, that takes no investment at all. And I liked it. Then I watched the damn movie.

To my utter shock, I LOVED IT! I just loved every second of it. It’s witty, the actors are great, the direction and writing are tight. Writer/Director/Actor/Gay-of-all-Trades Jonathan Lisecki is utterly and completely charming as the BFF.

I am not surprised it’s gone gaga on iTunes. It’s a fabulous film — and proof, yet again, that the real talent lies with the crowd-funded Indie dudes (and dudettes) and not in the well-heeled hallways of Hollywood.