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Wha’d, they get Matt Heaton to edit it for TV? Fark that squirmy skeeeze — here’s the real thang:
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Somehow… Someday… Somewhere…
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Not that I wasn’t delighted about Dustin Lance Black’s and Sean Penn’s Milk wins at Oscar time, and not that I don’t hope Sigourney walks away with her well-deserved Emmy for Bobby — I’m just finally figuring out all we’re ever going to get is a pat on the head and a scratch behind the ear for being good little entertainers, and then locked in our cages at night while the real humans are allowed out to play.
But I digress, bitterly. This is really just a reminder that Prayers for Bobby is up for some winged gold:
Read more »»»
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Found hanged in his Bangkok hotel room.
Foul play not suspected — nor, at this point, is suicide.
We won’t speculate. We’ll just say:
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The Hollywood Reporter has the details on Outfest 2009, the 27th Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which “will kick off July 9 with Peter Bratt’s ‘La Mission’ at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. The film stars the director’s brother Benjamin Bratt as a single father who discovers his son, played by Jeremy Ray Valdez, is gay.”
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If you haven’t read Chino’s interview with Reed Cowan, director of the upcoming film 8: The Mormon Proposition — “the case against Mormons and … [the church’s] decades long work to damage gay people and their causes” — you must.
RC: What the Mormons did and what they continue to do against gay people needs to be a matter of record, because it is spiritually criminal. When these young people sitting in the pews grow up, I hope they can turn to my film and get the message that it’s OK to leave the organization that pulls them to its breast tenderly, while choking the spiritual life right out of them through assaults on their very civil rights. …Right now it’s all about making this the most explosive, compelling piece of documentary film-making you’ve ever seen. And as I look at the wealth of material we have obtained, I just have to say: BRACE YOURSELVES. …
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“Engaged” as in “to be married” — w00t!
“Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon announced her engagement to girlfriend Christine Marinoni on Sunday at a N.Y. rally for gay rights and gay marriage, a source told Access Hollywood.… Actors Kristen Davis, David Hyde Pierce, Audra McDonald and Ana Oritz also were at the rally for New York Gov. David Paterson’s proposed bill granting legal equality to same-sex unions. …
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Juicy bits after the trailer:
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No, not that club — I mean the People Minding Their Own Business and Doing Their Own Thing When Bill Donohue Goes All Whackjob on Them Club:
Angels & Demons: It’s A Thriller, Not A Crusade William Donohue of the Catholic League is on a mission. Whether it is a “mission from God,” as the Blues Brothers would say, only God knows, but the goal of his mission is clear: to paint me and the movie I directed, Angels & Demons, as anti-Catholic.
For a $5 donation to his organization, Mr. Donohue will send you his glossy new booklet (Angels & Demons: More Demonic Than Angelic), in which he writes that I and the people who made this thriller “do not hide their animus against all things Catholic.”
He’s been making these assertions for years, going back to the theatrical release of The Da Vinci Code. He stepped up his campaign more than a month ago with a series of press releases. And there he goes again, in a Daily News op-ed last Friday, saying that Dan Brown and I “have collaborated in smearing the Catholic Church….”
Let me be clear: neither I nor Angels & Demons are anti-Catholic. And let me be a little controversial: I believe Catholics, including most in the hierarchy of the Church, will enjoy the movie for what it is: an exciting mystery, set in the awe-inspiring beauty of Rome. After all, in Angels & Demons, Professor Robert Langdon teams up with the Catholic Church to thwart a vicious attack against the Vatican. What, exactly, is anti-Catholic about that? …
I guess Mr. Donohue and I do have one thing in common: we both like to create fictional tales, as he has done with his silly and mean-spirited work of propaganda. …
Oh, and Ron? Congratulations, too — there’s nothing like a good bit of hysteria from the Catholic League to boost a movie’s visibility.
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Thank you, Sean. Just: Thank you. You said the rest.
You honor us.
Thank you, Sean.
Update: Must watch listen — really listen:
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If it doesn’t get another award tonight (although it should), I will still be happy, for the first time in more than three months.
Thank you, Dustin. You said it all.
Update: Watch it quick, before YouTube pulls it:
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From Lifetime:
Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Sigourney Weaver stars in this emotional true story about a 1970s religious suburban housewife and mother who struggles to accept her young son Bobby being gay. What happens to Bobby is tragic and causes Mary to question her faith; ultimately this mom changes her views in ways that she never could have imagined. Also starring: Ryan Kelley (”Mean Creek”), Henry Czerny (”The Tudors”), Dan Butler (”Frasier”) and Susan Ruttan (”L.A. Law”), Austin Nichols (”John From Cincinnati”), Carly Schroeder (”Mean Creek”), Scott Bailey (”Guiding Light”), and newcomers Shannon Eagen and Rebecca Louise Miller. Based on the book “Prayers for Bobby” by Leroy Aarons. Premieres January 24 at 9 pm et/pt
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Asks The Guardian: “Could Gus Van Sant’s Harvey Milk movie have killed off proposition 8?“
We’ve always thought so. I did a lot of private muttering about wishing Milk had been released just a few short weeks earlier, and now, having seen the film, I know it had immeasurable potential for tipping the scales in our balance in a way nothing else could. While I noticed a few teary eyes in the packed-house audience — and while I was certainly moved by many moments in the film — there was only one time the tears flowed freely for me: when word came down that the Briggs Initiative had been defeated. The joy on the screen was palpable, and contagious — but what made me cry was knowing that this this joy, this relief, was lost to us on November 4th.
That said, here’s what Gus Van Sant has to say about his conscious decision to hold back the release of Milk until after the election:
Van Sant has stated that he considered releasing the movie before the election but felt that the issues it addressed were about “more than just one proposition” and that the producers had done enough for the cause by previewing the movie before the vote. “The end decision was not to have the film speaking directly to the election,” he told Filmmaker magazine, “because if it was seen to be just about the election that might take away its chance of having a life after the election.”
Gus, you couldn’t be more wrong — or more selfish.
To the first part of your answer: Proposition 8 was not “just one proposition.” Defeating Proposition 8 was it, Gus, the whole enchilada. With marriage, we have it all. State-recognized marriage confers only a fraction of federally-recognized marriage, but the right to marry in California was the anchor for the nationwide marriage equality movement. Why do you think equality proponents everywhere wanted to maintain our newfound marriage right so badly — and the anti-gays wanted to stop it so badly?
“One proposition” would be Arkansas’ adoption ban — or any other kinship-related issue that would be completely moot if we had full, legal marriage, under which adoption, inheritance rights, taxation, and a host of other single issues would be taken care of in one fell swoop.
To marginalize marriage as “just one proposition” is astoundingly shortsighted.
The second part of your answer, “if [Milk] was seen to be just about the election that might take away its chance of having a life after the election,” smacks of self-interest and plain greed. What was more important to you, Gus — making a change in the world, or making sure your financial interest in a movie was protected?
Not that I think for one minute that you are correct in your assumption that associating Milk with the Proposition 8 battle would have diminished interest in — or monetary returns for — the film (on the contrary, I believe momentum would have been even greater if you had moved up the release), but that’s beside the point. The real question is: Do you, or did you ever, believe in the message of Harvey Milk, or did you make this film just for the money?
Curiously, the interview linked by the Guardian ends:
Van Sant: We decided to straddle the election, to have the opening affect the election and the release be after the election.Q: That sort of fits Harvey Milk himself, who claimed that his election was about him but also about the larger movement of gay rights.
Van Sant: You could look at it that way. But I think that if Harvey was the decision maker, he would want the film to affect the election.
If you believe that, Gus, then why didn’t you do what Harvey would have done?
As for the rest of us, The Guardian asks:
Was he right? Or could the press attention that Milk received have tipped the vote in the anti-prop-8 camp’s favour had it arrived before 4 November? Did that camp have enough support from Hollywood already? And was it Van Sant’s responsibility as a politicised film-maker to have a greater consideration for real events when negotiating the release of his film?
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It’s hard to tell how much of the following (rambling, bizarre) press release is on the level, what with— well, just read it and you’ll see what I mean. What caught my eye is at the very end; while making a Phelps-à-clef film itself might be “pure genius,” I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around casting Warren Beatty in the lead. (Jury’s out on Annette Bening as Phelps’ wife, as I honestly can’t recall a thing about the real Mrs. Fred Phelps.)
Kevin Smith urges JLo, Marc Anthony to Split on Feb. 19 instead of on Valentine’s Day Proposal seeks to funnel often-excessive celebrity media attention into valid educational purposes
NEW YORK — January 4, 2008 — Director Kevin Smith came out with a recommendation at a film industry event yesterday that actress/singer Jennifer Lopez and her husband Marc Anthony should announce their impending divorce next month on February 19, instead of on Valentine’s Day as they had previously planned.
The reason? “Feb. 19 is the birthday of Copernicus, the famous Polish astrologer who claimed the sun was the center of our universe,” says Smith, whose recent film “Zac and Miri Make a Porno” took in $60 million in the worldwide box office this fall on a $22 million investment. “So much media attention is given to celebrity doings that we ought to try to divert some of this celebrity press attention to highlight educational issues, when at all possible.”
Reports have been circulating for weeks that Lopez and Anthony are calling it quits on their marriage after Marc Anthony’s Valentine’s Day concert at Madison Square Garden, at which they will sing one final “surprise duet” before calling it quits.
The two have been spending the holidays with family and friends in San Juan.
Copernicus was the first astronomer to formulate a scientifically-based heliocentric cosmology that displaced the Earth from the center of the universe, according to Smith. His epochal book, “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium” (“On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres”), is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the Scientific Revolution.
“Among the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, classical scholar, translator, artist, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist,” said Smith. “Among his many responsibilities, astronomy figured as little more than an avocation — yet it was in that field that he made his mark upon the world. If only he was around today to join Obama’s cabinet.”
Smith said he came up with the idea after hearing Sarah Vowell talk about how Justin Timberlake broke up with Cameron Diaz just one day before his birthday last year, leaving Diaz holding a very expensive Rolex watch upon which she had had the worlds “I love you” engraved.
“Imagine if Cameron had chosen to have Einstein’s equation E=MC2 engraved on the watch,” opines Smith. “What an educational lesson that would have been for America’s youth.” Diaz later gifted the watch to her friend, Drew Barrymore.
And Smith had harsh words for singer Mariah Carey, who had already used the E=MC2 equation as the name of a number one selling album — but “dropped the ball,” in Smith’s words, when it came to using it as an educational tool.
“Mariah Carey claimed the equation E=MC2 stood for ‘emancipation equals Mariah Carey,’ which is hardly a useful topic for a new generation of youthful American scientists to be discussing,” said Smith.
Smith, meanwhile, has announced that his next film project will be a horror film to be called “Red State” inspired by extremist preacher Fred Phelps. In a blog update that called the suggestion “pure genius,” Smith stated that Bob and Harvey Weinstein have urged Smith to cast Warren Beatty in the Phelps-inspired role with Annette Bening cast as his wife. The Weinsteins have been involved in distribution of all Kevin Smith films, with the exception of “Mallrats” (Universal) and “Dogma” (Lions Gate).
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“Causecast sat down with James Franco, Josh Brolin and Emile Hirsch to talk about their new film, Milk, starring Sean Penn and directed by Gus Van Sant.”
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“Actor James Franco tells NEWSWEEK’s Ramin Setoodeh where he thinks you should pause the DVD version of his new film Milk…”
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We couldn’t make this crap up:
Rejecting The ‘Chuck And Larry’ Defense:
Equal Benefits For All Federal EmployeesBack in September, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security And Governmental Affairs considered the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2007, a bill that would provide Federal benefits to same sex domestic partners of Federal employees. Howard Weizmann, the deputy director of the U.S. Office Of Personnel Management (OPM) objected to the bill because it “could lead to fraud and abuse in the programs we administer.”
Proponents of the legislation, including Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the bill’s sponsor, and Susan Collins (R-MI), remained skeptical of Weizmann’s claim, arguing that a large number of private sector companies — including more than half of Fortune 500 companies — already offer domestic partnership benefits and successfully detect fraud through verification systems that should provide models for the federal government.
Weizmann, however, remained unconvinced. He claimed that the office was unaware of any interest from Federal employees for such benefits even and suggested that since fraud occurred in a fictional movie about two heterosexual New York firefighters who pretend to be a gay couple, it would be a problem in real life:
First of all, to suggest that we are being far fetched in the sense that these benefits are open to fraud or abuse. It’s not an unrealistic concern. I would suggest even Hollywood has discussed this in a movie with Adam Sandler. In which, I think, ‘Chuck and Larry’ get married, which the subject of the movie, was quite frankly, was insurance fraud, along the lines of what we’re discussing. This is not far fetched and it’s not disingenuous to suggest such.
Listen…
More at the link.
In the meantime, I think it is neither far-fetched nor disingenuous to suggest that Mars Attacks! is a realistic portrayal of what might happen if, well, Mars attacks.
Jiminy Christmas, and our tax dollars pay Weizmann’s salary?
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