APRIL 21, 1995 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 23

ON WITH THE SHOW

U.S. version of Absolutely Fabulous is in the works

by Jerry Semas

Comedy Central will begin airing the final season of Absolutely Fabulous next month. If you're tired of reruns of the same 12 episodes, make sure to catch these fresh (to us Yanks that is) adventure of Patsy and Edina. The U.S. version rights to the hit British series have been secured by Roseanne. The comedian beat out the likes of Jeffery Katzenberg and Brandon Tartikoff by befriending Ab-Fab creator and co-star Jennifer Saunders. Roseanne is trying to get Carrie Fisher (Surrender the Pink) to write the scripts and wants Kristie Alley (Cheers) to star. If the new Cybil shepherd series doesn't make it, how about Christine Baranski as Patsy?

RuPaul will play a man, or at least a person in man's clothing, for the upcoming made for cable HBO film A Wing and a Prayer. A bit of new news on The Mayor

dark comedy which has been described as a kind of Arsenic and Old Lace for the 90's. The premise has five liberal graduate students at a Midwestern university who throw dinner parties to which they invite varying types of right-wing radicals. Carefully and comically they do away with racists, antiSemites and homophobes. One of the carefully chosen homophobes whom meets a justifiable end is the leader of a group called "God's Way" who intends to stop AIDS funding and wants quarantine programs for

"We are not born one way. We are like a marvelous stew; we have a lot of ingredients to us. And to say 'Jimmy, don't do that, let's not look like a girl' is wrong. I just hope we get to the point as human beings that we'll say. 'What is, is. I do it my way, you do it your way."

of Castro Street. The latest word is that Oliver Stone is still on board as producer and Tony Kushner is adapting the screenplay to star, not Robin Williams, but Outbreak star Dustin Hoffman. Williams is busy filming the U.S. version of La Cage Aux Folles, called Birds of a Feather, with Nathane Lane, Gene Hackman and Christine Baranski for director Mike Nichols.

Bad boy Eric Roberts (Julia's brother) will star in the United Artists film It's My Party for director Randal Kleiser (White Fang). Known mostly for direct-to-video action films like Best of the Best, Roberts will play a gay man who discovers that he not only has AIDS, but also brain lesions which will likely turn him into a vegetable. More concerned with the quality of his life rather than the abbreviation of it, he decides to commit suicide at one last grand party with his friends, lovers and family. Producers are trying to convince Oscar winner Marlee Matlin to play the character's deaf sister.

The fourth edition of MTV's The Real World will air this summer with a whole new cast of London roommates. Some 20,000 people applied for the seven slots and most certainly at least one gay or lesbian character should make the final cut, since all the previous versions have had at least one gay or lesbian roomie. Co-director George Verschoor says that one important criteria for being selected is "A spark in someone who can sustain your interest for 20 weeks." The Last Supper is director Stacy Title's

people with AIDS. "Our father, who art in Heaven, Newt be thy name!"

In the wake of the virus-on-the-loose adventure film Outbreak comes what may be the first AIDS action adventure film. Writer and director Charles Winkler is developing Red Ribbon Blues, a movie about people living with AIDS that doesn't dwell on death. The story tells of five people from an HIV support group who join forces to acquire a drug called D-64 which has been proven to prolong the life of PWAS from five to ten years. Since none of them can afford the expensive new treatment, they set about the next logical course of action, robbing drugstores and distributing the drug to people in need.

→Julie Harris

Gay culture had various levels of acknowledgement at this year's Academy Awards. The biography of schlock moviemaker and cross-dresser Ed Wood won the Oscar for make-up and best supporting actor by Martin Landau. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert won the award for best costume (of course); Elton John thanked his lover David when accepting the award for best original score on The Lion King; and The Madness of King George, which was directed by a Nancy boy and starred two others, won the Oscar for best art direction. On the subject of awards, the PBS production of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City was one of 31 recently announced Peabody Award winners which included the TV series Frasier, E.R., and Mad About You.

Gay director Nicholas Hytner, the man who took The Madness of George III from stage to multi-Oscar nominated film will next take on the film version of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. The 20th Century Fox film will star Daniel Day-Lewis (My Beautiful · Launderette) in a tale of the Salem witch trials. Perhaps a touch apocryphal for today's political climate.

In the upcoming film version of Michael Crichton's book Congo, Tim Curry plays a Peter Lorre-type member of a jungle expedition. The adventure story follows a group of explorers as they search for a treasure-filled lost city. The cast also features Ernie Hudson and Dylan Walsh with Steven Spielberg cohort Frank Marshall directing. Universal Pictures is seriously exploring the idea of a sequel to Fried Green Tomatoes. Patrick Stewart, soon to be seen in the film version of Jeffery, will co-star with Ian McKellen in director Richard Loncraine's next movie, Richard III.

Lily Tomlin is working on Flirting with Disaster for Miramax Films, the folks who distributed the controversial Priest. Co-starring with Lily are Alan Alda, Ben Stiller and Mary Tyler Moore. One of the current hits of British theater is Kevin Elyot's My Night with Reg, a play which focuses on a group of gay men who slowly realize that they have had affairs with a man named Reg who has since died of AIDS. One critic described the work as Boys in the Band-style backstabbing bitchiness. Sounds like a cocktail party with Rex Reed, Leona Helmsley and Mr. Blackwell.

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1,400 cross-dressers descend on Oberlin

by Miss Jacqueline Fischer

The largest drag ball in the history of Oberlin transpired on Saturday, April 8 and this diva was there to witness the spectacle.

Thrown by the Oberlin College Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Alumni and held in Wilder Hall on campus, the Annual Oberlin Drag Ball has become a steady tradition throughout the years. Drag Ball '95 press releases promised the most freewheelin', heart-stoppin', stiletto-wearin' ball this town has ever seen. It was just that and even more.

The ball itself was a multi-media drag bonanza complete with a runway competition, drag shows, two dance floors and over 1,400 cross-dressers. This was truly

the most fun this reporter has had in some time! Unfortunately, I didn't get to experience all of the fun, especially the "whoopee room," with safe sex condiments everywhere which, I'm told, were for those who wanted to do whatever their hearts desired, if you know what I mean.

I did, however, get my official Drag Ball '95 photo taken with the illustrious Miss Mona Lott, who showed up unexpectedly and wowed the crowd. Special guests of the evening included the Lady Mizz Ginger Vitis, who hosted the ball; and her illustrious, but nasty, cohort Marie Aquanette. The party raised $4,200 which will be dispersed to AIDS charities. I can't wait until next year for all the fun, glamour and excitement. Keep up the fabulous work.

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