16 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
FEBRUARY 20, 1998
ON THE AIR OFF THE PRESS
·
Lesbian and gay films make good at Sundance fest
by John Graves
and Doreen Cudnik
Several films with lesbigay themes won awards at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The Documentary Audience Award went to Out of the Past, a film about the struggle of lesbian teen Kelli Peterson to form a gaystraight alliance at her Salt Lake City high school two years ago. The school board banned all clubs and eventually involved the Utah legislature in an attempt to stop the alliance.
Another documentary, Divine Trash, about the making of John Waters' cult classic Pink Flamingos, was selected by filmmakers attending the festival to receive the Filmmaker's Trophy. High Art, a film about the lesbian romance between a budding photo editor and an eccentric photographer played by Ally Sheedy, won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. 2 by 4, in which an Irish immigrant comes to terms with New York City and his sexual ambiguity, won the Cinematography Award.
Although it did not receive an award, Trimark Pictures paid $1 million for the gay love story Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss. Another gay-themed film that did not get an award was Gods and Monsters, Bill Condon's cinematic fantasy about the last years of Frankenstein director James Whale and the young gardener he fancies. Gods and Monsters co-stars openly gay British actor Sir Ian Mckellen.
NBC pilot has gay male lead
The February 6 issue of the Hollywood trade publication Variety reported that network executives are looking to develop new comedy shows, now that most of the new drama pilots have been ordered for the fall
season.
NBC seems to be looking to capitalize on the success of last summer's hit movie My Best Friend's Wedding, in which Rupert Everett plays the gay friend of Julia Roberts. The network has ordered a pilot for a sitcom titled Will & Grace, a show about a gay man and his straight female friend.
Titanic stars proud of gay roles
As the film Titanic continues to sail along on its course into box-office money-making history, its two stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and British actress Kate Winslet, seem poised for superstardom.
MERIE W. WALLACE
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet snogging on board the Titanic.
The romance between the characters Rose and Jack is the story within the story of the doomed vessel, and their onscreen kisses are as believable as any in recent movie memory.
fag. dyke.
bashed.
You're not protected.
What many film buffs don't know, however, is that in prior films, both actors have engaged in some equally believable kissing with members of the same sex.
DiCaprio stars as the French poet Arthur Rimbaud in the 1995 film Total Eclipse. In the film, DiCaprio's character has a romance with fellow poet Paul Verlaine, played by actor David Thewlis. DiCaprio was 19 when the film was made, Thewlis was 32. The movie, which has become a cult classic with gay movie fans, features DiCaprio performing a seductive striptease, and some passionate kissing between the two men.
While DiCaprio has said he is proud of his work in the film, his publicist Cindy Guagenti claims her client is "100 percent heterosexual." She may have a hard time selling that idea to the manager of Rock and Roll Taco a nightclub in Rosarito, Mexico near the site where Titanic was filmed. The January 26 issue of People magazine reported that DiCaprio and four or five of his male buddies were thrown out of the disco for "dancing inappropriately, with one guy lying on top of another guy."
Winslet received international acclaim for her performance in 1994's Heavenly Creatures. In the film, which is based on a true story, Winslet plays a teenage girl whose passionately intense relationship with another girl (Melanie Lynskey) leads to murder. The March issue of Movieline, (which features a radiantly sexy Winslet on the cover-check it out) puts her performance in that film among the "top ten performances by an actor under 30 (in the last five years)."
Author Virginia Campbell writes, "In this bizarre film, Kate Winslet gives such an extraordinary performance as the dominant, brilliant, theatrical girl who draws a brooding, malcontented schoolmate into her romantic dream world, that she makes her character not merely believable, but emblematic of the insecure... sex-crazed person lurking in every teenage girl."
Due to the success of Titanic and its two young stars, both films are doing a brisk business at video stores.
No adjectives allowed
Talk show maven Rosie O'Donnell indicated recently that the 'gaydars' of millions of queer fans are not defective; it's just that the star has a strong distaste for certain adjectives-particularly those preceding her name that might have anything to do with sexual orientation.
In the February issue of Us magazine, O'Donnell said, “Any child can look at me and draw whatever conclusion they want to inspire them in their life. I do not mind being used that way. But I don't have a desire to do that for adults. I don't want to have some adjective preceding my name for the rest of my life, whatever it may be, however people want to pigeonhole me. Is that mildly vague Rosie O'Donnell enough?"
Yeah, Rosie... whatever. Guess she won't be riding her motorcycle in any Gay Pride parades any time soon, and we can definitely forget about any more softball movies with Madonna.
Ellen and Laurie are top couple
TV Guide's "Romance '98" Valentine's Day edition picked Ellen 's Ellen and Laurie as TV's "Boldest Romance" in their list of "TV's Top Twosomes." Josh, the gay office assistant on NBC's Veronica's Closet was paired with Scott Thompson's "Larry" from The Larry Sanders Show for their list of "Dream Lovers."
Ellen DeGeneres' real-life sweetie, actress Anne Heche, will guest star in the March 4 episode of Ellen, the last episode before the show goes on hiatus for six weeks. In an interview in the December 12 edition of Buzz magazine Heche said, "I asked Ellen to marry me on day four. We can't wait until we get married. But we can't get married. That's the next fight."
In this year's second all-drag episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Autolycus and Salmoneus donned dresses, changed their names to Autolyca and Salmonella and joined an all-woman dance troupe led by lolaus as the Widow Twanky.
USA Today's openly gay TV critic Matt Roush has left the paper to become TV Guide's new TV critic. Roush's column premiered in the February 7 edition of TV Guide. ♡
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.
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