Full Article Text
r
FALL
ENTERTAINMENT
PREVIEW
The new
degaying of
Hollywood
Alexander. Troy. Brokeback Mountain .
De-Lovely. Straightening up history's
heroes, desexing literature's love stories,
Hollywood is making gay movies
without the "gay" By Michael Giltz
Is Hollywood on lavender alert?
After decades of slow and steady
improvement in depicting queers
on-screen-from indie films like
Maurice and Boys Don't Cry to
well-intentioned major studio flicks like
Making Love and Philadelphia and grmmdbreakers like In & Out-Holly
wood seems to be living in terror of
showing intimacy between two men.
Lesbian intimacy is even less visible, un
less it's presented as seedy sport for
straight men.
Catwoman gives Halle Berry a minc
ing coworker who is so out
landishly gay (clapping his
hands girlishly and cooing
over "man sandwich" Ben
jamin Bratt), you don't know
whether to be angry or em
barrassed. Troy features two
of the most famous male
lovers in history-Achilles
and Patroclus-and pre
tends they're just really good
pals. De-Lovely tackles the
Oe-Lovely puts Cole Porter (Kevin
Kline) in a man's bed, but there's
none of that sex stuff: He's really
in love with Linda (Ashley Judd),
THE ADVOCATE 1401 SEPTEMBER 14, 2004 rO
pETER
{quiCkl"
Just one
life of Cole Porter by finally letting the
composer (a wry Kevin Kline) be seen
chastely in bed with men but implies
that the real love of his life is his wife,
Linda (Ashley Judd).
And upcoming movies seem to threat
en just more of the same. It's two steps
forward, one step back: Hollywood is
tackling more and more gay subject
matter, but sometimes in a way that de
nudes it of meaning or substance.
Acclaimed British writer Andrew
Davies finishes a new film script of
Brideshead Revisited, and the dream
cast includes Jude Law as the teddy-tot
ing Sebastian and Paul Bettany as
Charles Ryder. Then Davies happily de
scribes his work as "darker" and "more
'IN atJ):'----
•
It
• ,
• dialOgue
, loud
heterosexual" than the classic miniseries
and Evelyn Waugh's noveL
Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger set
hearts aflutter by agreeing to star in Ang
Lee's drama Brokeback Mountain,
based on the short story by Pulitzer
Prize-winner E. Annie Proulx. Current
ly in production, it's about two modem
cowboys who are passionately in love
with each other but tragically unable to
make it work.
Gyllenhaal further warms the cockles
of our heart by telling Canada's Calgary
Sun it would be no big deal to kiss a guy
in a movie and that "every man goes
through a period of thinking they're at
tracted to another guy." Then he spoils it
later by saying to another paper that the to
• Ul.
j.
gay love scenes might be toned down and
that Lee had made the claim that two
men herding sheep was far more sexual
than two men having sex on-screen.
Up first is Alexander, Oliver Stone's
epic about Alexander the Great, one of
the most famous bisexuals in history
and a man who conquered the world
with his male lover and military general
Hephaestion by his side. Colin Farrell,
who plays the title role, spoke charm
ingly to Entertainment Weekly about
his well-reviewed drama A Home at the
End of the World-then launched a
clever preemptive strike on complaints
about Alexander (due November 5
from Warner Bros.).
"I don't have a kiss with Jared [Leto],"
THE ADVOCATE 1411 SEPTEMBER 14, 2004 Farrell told EW, referring to the actor
who plays Hephaestion, "but 1 have a sex
scene with the woman who plays my
wife. And there will be blue murder as to,
Why do we see him have sex with
Rosario Dawson, but we don't see it with
[Leto]? Nobody will stop to think; they'll
only see what's on the surface."
Alternately, in the new drama When
Will I Be Loved, directed by James To
back, Neve Campbell has a steamy les
bian scene, and no one blinks twice, ex
cept perhaps the always excitable
Toback.
What's going on? With gay people
kicking ass on reality and game shows;
with gay characters so common on sit
coms and dramas on prime-tin1e broad
cast and cable TV that you can barely
keep track of them all; with Ellen De
Generes the darling of daytime talk; with
Broadway flooded by queer-friendly mu
sicals like The Boy From Oz, Hair
spray, and Avenue Q; with authors such
as Allan Gurganus, Sarah Waters, and
David Leavitt treated as major talents
rather than ghettoized in the "gay" sec
tion; with out pop stars like Rufus Wain
wright and Scissor Sisters becoming
matter-of-fact; with scenes of men kiss
ing men and women kissing women fea
tured routinely on the local news as peo
ple fight for their basic civil rights, why
is Hollywood so timid?
It's always been so, says Frank Rich,
longtime cultural critic for The New
York Times. "Mainstream Hollywood
movies may be the most conservative
medium in this regard, [certainly com
pared] to television, theater, and inde
pendent filmmaking," says Rich. "Main
stream Hollywood movies are much
more dependent on the international
market than an independent film or
cable show. That leads to a general
dumbing-down of everything, not just
the presentation of gay people."
To show that gays are not alone, Rich
cites such examples as The Diary of
Anne Frank (which barely presented
Anne as Jewish), the history of blacks in
cinema, and the first film version of TIw
Children's Hour, which drained all the
lesbian content from the play. Mark
Merlis, the out author of several novels,
including the recent Man About Town
and An Arrow's Flight, which plays off
tales of the Trojan War, can attest that
today is, in some ways, an embarrass
ment of riches. ~
FALL
ENTERTAINMENT
PREVIEW
'No kisses!' I guess that'll be OK," laughs
Shanower. "Obviously, I'm not familiar
with the movie, and I don't know the
story. But if you're not going to do the
gay content, why choose the story that
had the gay content in thefirst place?"
What filmmakers are choosing, of
course, is how to tell that story and dra
matize the moments that matter to
them. "Let's say there is a big kiss in the
story and it's taken out of the movie,"
says Rich. "Until we see it, we can't
judge. I don't think that's necessarily
wrong. If we learned that a studio exec
utive made them take out the kiss-they
wanted it artistically, they wanted to be
faithful to that part of the book, but the
studio said, 'No, you can't do that be
cause we don't want to lose any view
ers'-that would be appalling and repre
hensible. But we don't know that we're
in that situation. For all we know, Ang
Lee has a way of doing it that's more
original than showing any kind of explic
it physical contact."
Indeed, stories can be told and retold
in a thousand ways. The Trojan War, for
example: Troy, the Brad Pitt summer
blockbuster ($480 million worldwide and
counting) is sheer spectacle that turns
Achilles and Patroclus into cousins.
Shanower's book treats their love
matter-of-factly, as something unre
markable to those around them. And An
Arrow's Flight by Merlis is a marvelous
ly original take that mixes in anachronis
tic details like cars and television, all in
service of a story that uses the mythic
tales of the Trojan War to breathe new
life into the very modern story of a go-go
boy and the curse of AlDS. (The novel
couldn't be gayer, but Merlis got angry
letters from readers upset that it didn't
include the romance of Achilles and Pa
troclus. Apparently the sexy goings-on
surrounding Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles
and a hustler to boot, weren't enough
for them. Just goes to show you can't
please everyone.)
Ironically, Shanower didn't know "I don't have a kiss with Jared, but
I do have a sex scene with Rosario,
and there will be blue murder as to
why," says Colin Farrell.
about the romance between Achilles
and Patroclus when he began research
ing his project in 1991. And Merlis initial
ly intended to focus his book on the
cursed Greek warrior Philoctetes and
play it straight in every way-until he re
alized that the curse on that warrior
spoke to him as a metaphor for AlDS.
So two gay authors approached this
classic and unexpectedly discovered gay
elements they wanted to explore.
Shouldn't other artists be able to adapt
that same story and find the straight
ones? And does it matter?
THE ADVOCATE I H I SEPTEMBER 14, 2004 "I haven't seen Troy, but it's still a
Hollywood star vehicle," says Rich. "It's
not as if it's changing what kids are read
ing in high school history books. I'm
much more worried about that kind of
tampering going on. I'd be very upset
and I daresay it's probably happening
that the gay identities of historical fig
ures, such as Alexander, are edited out
of history books." •
Giltz is a regular contributor to
several periodicals, including the
New York Post.
Alexander the straight
It stuns me that we are still dealing
with such major censorship regard
ing historical gay people ["The New
Degaying of Hollywood," September
14). The Pitts and Cruises refuse to
play these characters as they truly
were. I suppose when a studio has
hundreds of millions riding on con
tent, they do have to make a deci
sion. The really sad thing is that so
many people will never believe the closet in an effort to demonstrate to
Americans that gays effectively
serve our nation in many ways.
Unfortunately, the true motivator
of McGreevey's confession was the
scandal of a lawsuit and, perhaps,
some of the other missteps of his ad
ministration.
I am proud that I was able to
come out of the closet with dignity
and on my own terms. Other gay
elected officials who are in the closet
should aim to do the same. Personal
"Certainly there would be
no Burger King tie-ins il
Alexander actually kissed
his young Iriend."
---,JON HALBUR,Las Vegas, Nev.
truth if they hear it; they will go by
what they saw on the screen. Cer
tainly there would be no Burger
King tie-ins if Alexander actually
kissed his young friend. And so it
goes-America is still one of the
most homophobic countries in the
world, playing to the fundamental
ists and the right-wingers.
Forget art, forget accuracy-just
tell a good story and have the hero
ride off into the sunset with his girl.
Though I really enjoy Colin Farrell's
work, based on what I have read and
what has been deleted from the story
of Alexander, I will have to pass.
Jon Halbur, Las Vegas, Nev.
Out in Miami-Dade
At first I was excited when I saw the
headlines about Gov. James Mc
Greevey's coming-out [At Issue,
September 14). Earlier this year, as
a member of the North Miami city
council, I was the first elected offi
cial in Miami-Dade County to an
nounce while holding public office
that I am gay. I thought McGreevey,
likewise, was stepping out of the experience has shown me that the
electorate cares little about one's
sexual identity. Those truly wishing
to advance the cause of gays in
America should do so with their
heads held high.
Scott Galvin, North Miami, Fla.
A star is scorned
Attention, Michael Giltz: Fun pre
view ["Let's All Go to the Lobby,"
September 14), but where was Meet
the Fockers? Barbra Streisand is
back in a movie after eight years, and
you fail to mention it? What are you,
a heterosexual?
Frank Dannstadt, West NIJW York, N.J.
Twin cities theater
I don't know what kind of research
Gerard Raymond does before writing
about theater, but I guess most of it is
from what his friends in New York
and on the West Coast tell him ["Get
Thee to a Theater," September 14).
Certainly he has missed (big-time)
the big theater towns in between,
Minneapolis and St. Paul. In fact,
THE ADVOCATE I. I OCTOBER 12, 2004 next to New York, there is no metro
politan area that comes close to the
amount of theater [in the Twin
Cities), and there is almost always
something that has GLBT elements
certainly as much as some of the
plays he showcased in his article.
Stuart Holland, Minneapolis, Minn.
Crossing party lines
I can relate to Taro Gold's beautiful
ly written perspective about grow
ing up in a conservative Republican
military family [My Perspective, Sep
tember 14). Like many gay folks, my
family is also a very conservative,
Republican, and sometimes narrow
minded group. I forwarded copies of
Gold's column to many members of
my family, and to my delight and
surprise, most of them agreed with
everything he had to say-and more
important, they announced they will
not be voting for Bush this year. If
only every rational Republican
could read Gold's essay, I believe
our country would be set to elect
John Kerry, a more fair-minded,
wise, and truly compassionate man,
as president this November.
As a gay Republican, I simply
cannot support a political party that
allows religiously inspired bigotry to
be espoused as policy, as it is by the
Bush administration. Like Mr. Gold, I
pray that all of our gay and lesbian
brothers and sisters who made the
mistake of voting for Bush in the last
election will not make the same mis
take this time. We must put our own
dignity and the good of our nation
ahead of partisanship, and that
leaves us only one choice, in my
opinion. I for one will be happy to
support John Kerry when I'm at the
polls this fall.
Dan Culbertson, Los Angeles, Calif.
As Taro Gold says, "Without wis
dom, knowledge can be more harm
ful than ignorance." This is exactly
what we have been dealing with dur
ing the Bush administration and its
reelection campaign. Bush's support
ers are paying no heed to the facts.
They are incorrigible! Why is the
Bush re-election campaign so en
veloped in untruths? The day we ~
FALL
ENTERTAINMENT
PREVIEW
The new
degaying of
Hollywood
Alexander. Troy. Brokeback Mountain .
De-Lovely. Straightening up history's
heroes, desexing literature's love stories,
Hollywood is making gay movies
without the "gay" By Michael Giltz
Is Hollywood on lavender alert?
After decades of slow and steady
improvement in depicting queers
on-screen-from indie films like
Maurice and Boys Don't Cry to
well-intentioned major studio flicks like
Making Love and Philadelphia and grmmdbreakers like In & Out-Holly
wood seems to be living in terror of
showing intimacy between two men.
Lesbian intimacy is even less visible, un
less it's presented as seedy sport for
straight men.
Catwoman gives Halle Berry a minc
ing coworker who is so out
landishly gay (clapping his
hands girlishly and cooing
over "man sandwich" Ben
jamin Bratt), you don't know
whether to be angry or em
barrassed. Troy features two
of the most famous male
lovers in history-Achilles
and Patroclus-and pre
tends they're just really good
pals. De-Lovely tackles the
Oe-Lovely puts Cole Porter (Kevin
Kline) in a man's bed, but there's
none of that sex stuff: He's really
in love with Linda (Ashley Judd),
THE ADVOCATE 1401 SEPTEMBER 14, 2004 rO
pETER
{quiCkl"
Just one
life of Cole Porter by finally letting the
composer (a wry Kevin Kline) be seen
chastely in bed with men but implies
that the real love of his life is his wife,
Linda (Ashley Judd).
And upcoming movies seem to threat
en just more of the same. It's two steps
forward, one step back: Hollywood is
tackling more and more gay subject
matter, but sometimes in a way that de
nudes it of meaning or substance.
Acclaimed British writer Andrew
Davies finishes a new film script of
Brideshead Revisited, and the dream
cast includes Jude Law as the teddy-tot
ing Sebastian and Paul Bettany as
Charles Ryder. Then Davies happily de
scribes his work as "darker" and "more
'IN atJ):'----
•
It
• ,
• dialOgue
, loud
heterosexual" than the classic miniseries
and Evelyn Waugh's noveL
Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger set
hearts aflutter by agreeing to star in Ang
Lee's drama Brokeback Mountain,
based on the short story by Pulitzer
Prize-winner E. Annie Proulx. Current
ly in production, it's about two modem
cowboys who are passionately in love
with each other but tragically unable to
make it work.
Gyllenhaal further warms the cockles
of our heart by telling Canada's Calgary
Sun it would be no big deal to kiss a guy
in a movie and that "every man goes
through a period of thinking they're at
tracted to another guy." Then he spoils it
later by saying to another paper that the to
• Ul.
j.
gay love scenes might be toned down and
that Lee had made the claim that two
men herding sheep was far more sexual
than two men having sex on-screen.
Up first is Alexander, Oliver Stone's
epic about Alexander the Great, one of
the most famous bisexuals in history
and a man who conquered the world
with his male lover and military general
Hephaestion by his side. Colin Farrell,
who plays the title role, spoke charm
ingly to Entertainment Weekly about
his well-reviewed drama A Home at the
End of the World-then launched a
clever preemptive strike on complaints
about Alexander (due November 5
from Warner Bros.).
"I don't have a kiss with Jared [Leto],"
THE ADVOCATE 1411 SEPTEMBER 14, 2004 Farrell told EW, referring to the actor
who plays Hephaestion, "but 1 have a sex
scene with the woman who plays my
wife. And there will be blue murder as to,
Why do we see him have sex with
Rosario Dawson, but we don't see it with
[Leto]? Nobody will stop to think; they'll
only see what's on the surface."
Alternately, in the new drama When
Will I Be Loved, directed by James To
back, Neve Campbell has a steamy les
bian scene, and no one blinks twice, ex
cept perhaps the always excitable
Toback.
What's going on? With gay people
kicking ass on reality and game shows;
with gay characters so common on sit
coms and dramas on prime-tin1e broad
cast and cable TV that you can barely
keep track of them all; with Ellen De
Generes the darling of daytime talk; with
Broadway flooded by queer-friendly mu
sicals like The Boy From Oz, Hair
spray, and Avenue Q; with authors such
as Allan Gurganus, Sarah Waters, and
David Leavitt treated as major talents
rather than ghettoized in the "gay" sec
tion; with out pop stars like Rufus Wain
wright and Scissor Sisters becoming
matter-of-fact; with scenes of men kiss
ing men and women kissing women fea
tured routinely on the local news as peo
ple fight for their basic civil rights, why
is Hollywood so timid?
It's always been so, says Frank Rich,
longtime cultural critic for The New
York Times. "Mainstream Hollywood
movies may be the most conservative
medium in this regard, [certainly com
pared] to television, theater, and inde
pendent filmmaking," says Rich. "Main
stream Hollywood movies are much
more dependent on the international
market than an independent film or
cable show. That leads to a general
dumbing-down of everything, not just
the presentation of gay people."
To show that gays are not alone, Rich
cites such examples as The Diary of
Anne Frank (which barely presented
Anne as Jewish), the history of blacks in
cinema, and the first film version of TIw
Children's Hour, which drained all the
lesbian content from the play. Mark
Merlis, the out author of several novels,
including the recent Man About Town
and An Arrow's Flight, which plays off
tales of the Trojan War, can attest that
today is, in some ways, an embarrass
ment of riches. ~
FALL
ENTERTAINMENT
PREVIEW
'No kisses!' I guess that'll be OK," laughs
Shanower. "Obviously, I'm not familiar
with the movie, and I don't know the
story. But if you're not going to do the
gay content, why choose the story that
had the gay content in thefirst place?"
What filmmakers are choosing, of
course, is how to tell that story and dra
matize the moments that matter to
them. "Let's say there is a big kiss in the
story and it's taken out of the movie,"
says Rich. "Until we see it, we can't
judge. I don't think that's necessarily
wrong. If we learned that a studio exec
utive made them take out the kiss-they
wanted it artistically, they wanted to be
faithful to that part of the book, but the
studio said, 'No, you can't do that be
cause we don't want to lose any view
ers'-that would be appalling and repre
hensible. But we don't know that we're
in that situation. For all we know, Ang
Lee has a way of doing it that's more
original than showing any kind of explic
it physical contact."
Indeed, stories can be told and retold
in a thousand ways. The Trojan War, for
example: Troy, the Brad Pitt summer
blockbuster ($480 million worldwide and
counting) is sheer spectacle that turns
Achilles and Patroclus into cousins.
Shanower's book treats their love
matter-of-factly, as something unre
markable to those around them. And An
Arrow's Flight by Merlis is a marvelous
ly original take that mixes in anachronis
tic details like cars and television, all in
service of a story that uses the mythic
tales of the Trojan War to breathe new
life into the very modern story of a go-go
boy and the curse of AlDS. (The novel
couldn't be gayer, but Merlis got angry
letters from readers upset that it didn't
include the romance of Achilles and Pa
troclus. Apparently the sexy goings-on
surrounding Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles
and a hustler to boot, weren't enough
for them. Just goes to show you can't
please everyone.)
Ironically, Shanower didn't know "I don't have a kiss with Jared, but
I do have a sex scene with Rosario,
and there will be blue murder as to
why," says Colin Farrell.
about the romance between Achilles
and Patroclus when he began research
ing his project in 1991. And Merlis initial
ly intended to focus his book on the
cursed Greek warrior Philoctetes and
play it straight in every way-until he re
alized that the curse on that warrior
spoke to him as a metaphor for AlDS.
So two gay authors approached this
classic and unexpectedly discovered gay
elements they wanted to explore.
Shouldn't other artists be able to adapt
that same story and find the straight
ones? And does it matter?
THE ADVOCATE I H I SEPTEMBER 14, 2004 "I haven't seen Troy, but it's still a
Hollywood star vehicle," says Rich. "It's
not as if it's changing what kids are read
ing in high school history books. I'm
much more worried about that kind of
tampering going on. I'd be very upset
and I daresay it's probably happening
that the gay identities of historical fig
ures, such as Alexander, are edited out
of history books." •
Giltz is a regular contributor to
several periodicals, including the
New York Post.
Alexander the straight
It stuns me that we are still dealing
with such major censorship regard
ing historical gay people ["The New
Degaying of Hollywood," September
14). The Pitts and Cruises refuse to
play these characters as they truly
were. I suppose when a studio has
hundreds of millions riding on con
tent, they do have to make a deci
sion. The really sad thing is that so
many people will never believe the closet in an effort to demonstrate to
Americans that gays effectively
serve our nation in many ways.
Unfortunately, the true motivator
of McGreevey's confession was the
scandal of a lawsuit and, perhaps,
some of the other missteps of his ad
ministration.
I am proud that I was able to
come out of the closet with dignity
and on my own terms. Other gay
elected officials who are in the closet
should aim to do the same. Personal
"Certainly there would be
no Burger King tie-ins il
Alexander actually kissed
his young Iriend."
---,JON HALBUR,Las Vegas, Nev.
truth if they hear it; they will go by
what they saw on the screen. Cer
tainly there would be no Burger
King tie-ins if Alexander actually
kissed his young friend. And so it
goes-America is still one of the
most homophobic countries in the
world, playing to the fundamental
ists and the right-wingers.
Forget art, forget accuracy-just
tell a good story and have the hero
ride off into the sunset with his girl.
Though I really enjoy Colin Farrell's
work, based on what I have read and
what has been deleted from the story
of Alexander, I will have to pass.
Jon Halbur, Las Vegas, Nev.
Out in Miami-Dade
At first I was excited when I saw the
headlines about Gov. James Mc
Greevey's coming-out [At Issue,
September 14). Earlier this year, as
a member of the North Miami city
council, I was the first elected offi
cial in Miami-Dade County to an
nounce while holding public office
that I am gay. I thought McGreevey,
likewise, was stepping out of the experience has shown me that the
electorate cares little about one's
sexual identity. Those truly wishing
to advance the cause of gays in
America should do so with their
heads held high.
Scott Galvin, North Miami, Fla.
A star is scorned
Attention, Michael Giltz: Fun pre
view ["Let's All Go to the Lobby,"
September 14), but where was Meet
the Fockers? Barbra Streisand is
back in a movie after eight years, and
you fail to mention it? What are you,
a heterosexual?
Frank Dannstadt, West NIJW York, N.J.
Twin cities theater
I don't know what kind of research
Gerard Raymond does before writing
about theater, but I guess most of it is
from what his friends in New York
and on the West Coast tell him ["Get
Thee to a Theater," September 14).
Certainly he has missed (big-time)
the big theater towns in between,
Minneapolis and St. Paul. In fact,
THE ADVOCATE I. I OCTOBER 12, 2004 next to New York, there is no metro
politan area that comes close to the
amount of theater [in the Twin
Cities), and there is almost always
something that has GLBT elements
certainly as much as some of the
plays he showcased in his article.
Stuart Holland, Minneapolis, Minn.
Crossing party lines
I can relate to Taro Gold's beautiful
ly written perspective about grow
ing up in a conservative Republican
military family [My Perspective, Sep
tember 14). Like many gay folks, my
family is also a very conservative,
Republican, and sometimes narrow
minded group. I forwarded copies of
Gold's column to many members of
my family, and to my delight and
surprise, most of them agreed with
everything he had to say-and more
important, they announced they will
not be voting for Bush this year. If
only every rational Republican
could read Gold's essay, I believe
our country would be set to elect
John Kerry, a more fair-minded,
wise, and truly compassionate man,
as president this November.
As a gay Republican, I simply
cannot support a political party that
allows religiously inspired bigotry to
be espoused as policy, as it is by the
Bush administration. Like Mr. Gold, I
pray that all of our gay and lesbian
brothers and sisters who made the
mistake of voting for Bush in the last
election will not make the same mis
take this time. We must put our own
dignity and the good of our nation
ahead of partisanship, and that
leaves us only one choice, in my
opinion. I for one will be happy to
support John Kerry when I'm at the
polls this fall.
Dan Culbertson, Los Angeles, Calif.
As Taro Gold says, "Without wis
dom, knowledge can be more harm
ful than ignorance." This is exactly
what we have been dealing with dur
ing the Bush administration and its
reelection campaign. Bush's support
ers are paying no heed to the facts.
They are incorrigible! Why is the
Bush re-election campaign so en
veloped in untruths? The day we ~