GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE SEPTEMBER 1, 1995

ON THE AIR OFF THE PRESS

New Navy show will wait before exploring gay sailors

by John Graves Producer-director Donald P. Bellisario says that he will shy away from sensitive topics like gays in the military and sexual harassment in the early episodes of JAG, his new NBC series about Navy lawyers. Bellisario says that he wants the show to be on the air for a while, and that he is waiting to see if the Navy will cooperate with him.

In USA Today, Bellisario said, "We're going to be a positive look at the military, but on the other side, we're not going to be a recruitment poster either. When I tell the gays in the military and sexual harassment

SUSAN M. WEAVER

ATTORNEY AT LAW

216.621.7200

Fax: 694.3486

Serving the

Tesbian & gay coMMUNITY for over 14 years.

story, I'll tell both sides of the story. I don't when we'll deal with [those stories], but if I don't get any cooperation from the Navy, I guess I'll dive right in."

According to an ad in the latest issue of the Advocate, Freestyles, a new video magazine show for lesbian and gay audiences, was set to debut on VH-1 August 26, at 3:30 am. Freestyles, our first nationwide show on commercial television, is hosted by Amanda Bearse, the openly lesbian co-star of the TV sitcom Married With Children.

Cable's Lifetime channel will repeat an airing of the women's comedy special, The World According to Us, on September 9 at 11

LEAVE IT TO WEAVER.

とい

140

1370 W. 6 Suite 213

Cleveland, Ohio 44113

For All of Your Insurance Needs...

Michael D. Farmer, CLU, ChFC, CPCU

pm. The show features lesbian comics Kate Clinton, Lea DeLaria and Suzanne Westenhoefer and has a number of gay and lesbian sketches. DeLaria is hilarious as Ralph Cramden in a send-up of Jackie Gleason's famous Honeymooners series. The twist in this sketch is that Cramden's wife is famous lesbian Virgina Woolf!

Openly gay comedian Scott Thompson, formerly a member of the Kids in the Hall comedy troupe, talked about his new role as a continuing gay character on the HBO sitcom The Larry Sanders Show in the August 12 edition of TV Guide.

In the TV Guide piece, Thompson quips that the show's star, Garry Shandling, “didn't care how my character acted, but he wanted me to be gay and from Canada." Thompson himself happens to be gay and from Canada. In the TV Guide article, Thompson goes on to say, "That was fine, as long as I didn't have to be American. I don't mind playing offensive stereotypes, but I won't play American. The article went on to say that Thompson "scorns TV's portrayal of gay characters" and asks "will he bring truth to his role?" Thompson's reply: “Are you kidding? My character will be even farther from reality."

Passengers discuss their lives and reveal their most intimate secrets to taxi drivers late at night in New York City in the HBO Channel's cinema verité documentary Taxicab Confessions, which has been airing on cable lately. Passengers include a gay couple, a transgendered person and lesbian actress Guinivere Turner, who starred in Go Fish last year. It seems that Turner got a little "cocktailed" while out partying in the clubs, hailed one of the HBO camera cabs and tried to seduce the woman driving the cab! HBO got signed releases from all of the passengers appearing on the show.

Actor Patrick Stewart, who plays a gay decorator in the soon to be released film version of Jeffrey, talked about his role in the August 4 edition of Entertainment Weekly. Patrick indicated that the challenge of his role in Jeffrey was to avoid stereotypes. Said Patrick, "I asked Christopher Ashely (the film's director) to slap me if I did anything clichéd. I didn't want the character to be twodimensional." Stewart also indicated that he wasn't afraid of losing any of his Star Trek: Next Generation fans because of his role as a gay man. Patrick said, "I don't choose roles wondering whether fans will be shocked or pleased." Patrick described Jeffrey as "a 20thcentury love story" that would appeal to a wide audience. In the August 7 edition of

People, Stewart indicates that he was startled by some of the reaction to his playing a gay character. Stewart said, "In interviews, to my surprise, it has been put to me that there's a general body of opinion that I might be gay. I'm not," he said, "as far as I am aware.'

Last March, Scott Amedure, a gay man, was murdered by Johnathon Schmitz when he revealed that he had a crush on Schmitz on an episode of the Jenny Jones show about secret crushes. Schmitz claims that he had assumed his admirer would be a woman and that his increasing embarrassment about his appearance on the show led him to kill Amedure. This week, Amedure's family filed a $25 million lawsuit against the show for negligence in his death. Although the show's producers say that Schmitz had been informed that his secret admirer could be either a man or a woman, Amedure's family claims that the show's guests were encouraged to drink alcohol before the show to lower their inhibitions. Schmitz is scheduled to stand trial for the killing October 16.

Next News, a lesbian and gay marketing magazine, reports that the internationally syndicated radio program This Way Out, which was in danger of folding, has been saved by Liberation Publications, publishers of the Advocate, who have agreed to pick up the show's production costs for the next year. Liberation president Sam Winters explained it this way, "Like the Advocate, the program strives to reach people who live in small towns-not only thriving gay and lesbian urban markets-where cohesive gay communities and local publications do not exist." Although This Way Out has been saved this year, the program still needs your help to remain on the air in the future. To find out how you can help, write to: This Way Out, P.O. Box 38237, Los Angeles, California or e-mail them at tworadio@aol.com.

USA Today reports that Nashville radio station WSIX-FM DJ Chuck "Hoss" Burns became the first well-known country-music personality to reveal he is living with AIDS. According to the report, Burns said that he made the announcement because he had "told my friends, told my family, told my work and told my mother. It was time to tell everyone else." Burns, who is writing a book about living with HIV, said, "I hope to end the hate and judgement, because anyone can get this illness. AIDS has brought me closer to my friends and family and my work and my church. All aspects of my life have been enriched."

Agent

SITVENA chi

Weber PMRICK SICAT

SIGOE

27025 Knickerbocker Road Bay Village, Ohio 44140 (216) 835-1969

I CAN'T REMEMBER WHEN I'VE LAUGHED SO MUCH."

-BILL DIEHL, ABC RADIO

"UPROARIOUS FUN...ARTFUL WIT AND A PRICELESS CAST."

-PETER TRAVERS, ROLLING STONE

Put the Gay People's Chronicle Personals on your reading list.

1-900-370-7566

Love is an adventure when one of you

is sure... and the other

is positive.

WORKIN' MAN FILMS ASISTENTION IN THE BOOKING OFFICE.

HAN KEVIN MCCOLLUM MICHAEL JOHNSTON

PRINTS BY Delane

"JEFFREY... STEVEN WEBER PATRICE STEVANT ICELLES IN W. SEN MENER — PAUL RUDNICK JEFFERY J. TOFANO-CARA SILVERNAM ➡STEPHEN ENDELMAN BARRY KOPP? ....... JERRY MITCHELL • MARK BALSAN MITCHELL MANOWELL VICTORIA MAXWELL KOHE ORON PICTURES CON ADORION R

OPENS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH

EXCLUSIVELY

CEDAR LEE

2163 Lee Road 321-8232