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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE AUGUST 15, 1997
ON THE AIR OFF THE PRESS
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Emmy nominees include Ellen, other gay notables
by John Graves
Newly out of the closet star Ellen DeGeneres has been nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy Series in the upcoming Emmy awards. The coming-out episode of Ellen also received Emmy nominations for writing and directing. Guest star Laura Dern, who portrayed Ellen's first lesbian love interest on the show, also received an Emmy nomination.
Emmy nominees for Best Television Movie include Bastard Out of Carolina, Showtime's film version of lesbian author Dorothy Allison's semi-autobigraphical novel of childhood abuse, and In the Gloaming, the HBO film about a gay man living with AIDS coming home to his family. Gloaming also received three other Emmy nominations. Tracey Ullman's gay-friendly Tracey Takes On... comedy series earned eight nominations. Actress Gloria Reuben received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her notable portrayal of HIV-positive physician's assistant Jeanie Boulet on the NBC medical drama ER.
Follow the adventures of Genesis; a lesbian from Gulfport, Mississippi; on the sixth season of MTV's Real World. Genesis is described as a "lipstick lesbian” in an article profiling the new cast in the July 18 Entertainment Weekly. A profile of Genesis is also included in the August 19 Generation "Q" edition of the Advocate, devoted to the promise of the under-30 generation of bisexuals, lesbians and gays with profiles of up-andcoming leaders in the arts, medicine and politics.
Hope you got to see "A Day in the Life," an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess that focused on the day-to-day domestic life of Xena and her girlfriend Gabrielle. The epi-
sode had one of the most overtly lesbian storylines yet.
The episode starts off with Xena beating off attacking soldiers with Gabrielle's frying pan. With the frying pan ruined, Gabrielle asks Xena why she did it. Xena replies, "My juices were stirred up," to which Gabrielle responds, "What are we supposed to do? Cook with your juices?”
Later, the duo have to decide who will tell a love-struck villager that Xena is not available, share an intimate bath fraught with lesbian undertones and finally share a tender moment in their sleeping bag under the stars.
Actress Renee O'Connor talks about her role as Xena's life partner Gabrielle as well as the show's popularity in the lesbian community, in the July 25 edition of People magazine. Sorry, but according to the article, O'Connor has a boyfriend now. CNN recently aired a report on Xena fans at a lesbian bar enjoying themselves in Xena costumes and engaging in mock sword fights.
After first denying it along with the other major networks, ABC this week confirmed they are developing a made-for-TV movie based on the life of Andrew Cunanan and the crime spree that led to five murders, including that of gay fashion mogul Gianni Versace.
By the way, in all the media hullabaloo
Donald Bogle's recently published biography of Dorothy Dandridge. According to the article, the famous African-American actress' mother, Ruby Dandridge, raised Dorothy "with the help of her lover, a harshtempered woman by the name of Geneva 'Neva' Williams."
The July 29 Cleveland Plain Dealer carried a New York Times article about lesbian activist Chastity Bono who was appointed Media Director of GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation last November.
Chastity is the daughter of actress and singer Cher and singer turned GOP Rep. Sonny Bono. Chastity says that her mother still tries to get her to make her appearance more stereotypically “feminine” but she refuses, saying, "I'm a butch dyke, I guess."
On her father, who co-sponsored the infamous anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act, Chastity says, "I would have a lot more respect for him if he really was anti-gay and voted this way, as opposed to being so great about it, which he was when I came out."
"He said stuff to me like, 'Sometimes you have to go according to the people who got
over celebrities mourning Versace's death, Beautiful men
his lifetime partner Antonio D'Amico seems to have been lost.
The story of Jeffrey Trail, Cunanan's former best friend and first victim, is told by his sister Candace Parrott in the August 11 edition of People magazine. Also in that issue, actor Nick Scotti, who plays Tony on The Young and the Restless, is profiled. Scotti plays a homophobic New Yorker who unwittingly moves in with a gay roommate in the film Kiss Me, Guido.
The July 28 People ran a story about
Continued from page 15
wards with sexuality and they have chosen to go visual as opposed to sexual where they could be risking their lives. And finally, the gay male market and its demographics have tremendous buying power. It's like the river rising to meet the boat.
Not only are you a prolific photographer but a Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer. What drew you to the story of Medgar Evers' killer Byron De La Beckwith?
you there' the constituent thing, that old excuse," she said.
Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End, a documentary about the author's journal of his last two years living with AIDS, has strated airing on Cinemax. The film played at the Cleveland International Film Festival this past spring.
William S. Burroughs, one of the three literary stars of the “Beat Generation” along with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, passed away this week. Burroughs, who was gay like his colleague Allen Ginsberg, was mostly remebered for his unconventional, streamof-conciousness novel Naked Lunch, which was made into a movie several years ago. Naked Lunch created quite a controversy when it was first published in 1959, because of its explicit sex and violence. It was not published in the U.S. until the publishers won a landmark obscenity trial in 1962. ✔
John Graves is the producer and host of Gaywaves, a lesbian-gay public affairs show on Cleveland's WRUW 91.1 FM Fridays at 7 pm. Dave Haskell, Jim McGrattan and Kim Jones also contributed to this column.
It's very true. I embrace the penis! Pun intended. I think it's a beautiful thing! Seriously. I am not and don't think others should be embarrassed by nudity. Sometimes, when someone is on the brink of deciding whether or not to pose for me, I use the argument that they may be at their physical peak and it would be great to look back at these images 50 years from now and see how beautiful they were. Numerically speaking, the number of dick shots in my books are very few compared to what I consider to be portraits.
My pictures are about always people's faces, their eyes, my interaction with them. It's about much more than just the penis.
What do family and friends have to say about your work?
My
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My mom's oldest sister, my aunt Mary, was married to Beckwith for 20 years. I knew so much about him that the rest of the world didn't and I felt this deep sense of outrage that he had not been successfully prosecuted in the 1960s. There was a story that needed to be told.
How was writing a biography similar to photographing someone?
On the surface it is about the exploration of somebody else. From a project standpoint they are very different. I will always be very proud of the biography as a writing achievement. However, people now know my name from my photography even though I have always considered myself a writer first.
Do you think that the proliferation and dominance of images of perfectly chiseled men has any effect at all on the gay psyche? Sure. It helps propagate the sense that we must look like this. What I call the Chelsea mentality, that I have to have a slim waist, a broad upper body, etc. In that it has an adverse effect. If you hold my models up to those shot by Bianchi and Ritts, mine are very normal, average, everyday guys. They're not necessarily buff.
Our post-Puritan society has had great trouble with the male penis out on view for the public, erect or even flaccid. What are your thoughts on this?
BRUCE COLE
keeps pretty hush
about it. They haven't yet dealt with the fundamental gay issue. My sister asks lots of nosy questions. My mother and sister have a certain healthy approach or at least they acknowledge that I'm gay. They have looked at the pictures, they know Billy and they think some of the pictures are really beautiful. I think they would be embarassed by it if they were around the books a lot. Interestingly, this is the way in which my father's name will be carried on. I find that ironic, if not amusing.
How does being gay affect your work? It's the driving factor. It's the only reason I shoot nude men.
What question do you wish I had asked during this interview?
Oooh. That's a hard one. Hmmm... well, it's a question that no none really asks: Has shooting male nudes helped you get dates?
Well, I didn't want to get all Jerry Springerish on you.
No, it's okay. Actually I am not getting sex out of this, particularly since most of the men I shoot are straight. And in the past, my photography has been the downfall of a couple of fairly promising relationships because they feel they have to compete with the guys. They say, "Well I don't look like those guys. "In that part of my life, I have not been successful or productive. But on balance, I think I am very lucky and I'm pretty happy. And I'm just 35. I'm not over yet.