DECEMBER 11, 1998 GAY PEOPle's ChronICLE 17
ON THE AIR■ OFF THE PRESS
Ellen says she and Anne will be taking a year off
by John Graves
Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche recently told the Los Angeles Times that they had been subject to discrimination in Ĥollywood ever since they came out as a lesbian couple. DeGeneres also talked about how cancellation severely the of her groundbreaking sitcom had affected her. "When I walked out of the ABC studio after five years of working so hard," DeGeneres said, "knowing I had been treated so disrespectfully for no other reason than I was gay, I just went into this deep, deep depression. Everything that I ever feared happened to me. I lost my show. I've been attacked like,..I went from making a lot of money on a sitcom to making no money."
That depression was evident if you saw DeGeneres host the VH-1 Fashion Awards show this year. To me, DeGeneres looked a bit frazzled, and her comedy bit about cancelled shows had a bitterness not usually seen in her stand-up routines.
Actress Clea Lewis-or someone in the audience doing a good impression of her Ellen character's voice called out the familiar, "Hey El-len!" to DeGeneres, who responded with a despondent "Yeah, sure.”
A day after the Times story came out, DeGeneres and Heche told the Times that they were going to "take at least a year off,” that they had fired their agents and publicist and would sell their house and moving out of town. DeGeneres also said that she was cancelling a television series and an HBO comedy special she had been developing.
Her prediction that their actions would come under attack as “just another bid for attention" proved true the next day, as media pundits complained the celebrity couple had two or three films set for release, including the much-talked-about remake of Psycho co-starring Heche as Janet Leigh's character Marion Crane.
The critics went on to say the famous lesbian couple did not face job discriminątion because all actors go through slack times and that they had no right to claim discrimination because they were rich.
The next day, DeGeneres and Heche backed down a bit saying that, although they had fired their agents, they were keeping their publicist and would not move out of town just yet.
Moore plays sister as lesbian
Check out the December issue of Out magazine for a feature interview with actress Julianne Moore, who plays Vera Miles' role-the victim's sister-as a lesbian in gay director Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho.
Will & Grace moves to Tuesday
NBC is shaking up its lineup, moving a slumping Mad About You and several other
shows to new time slots beginning later this month. One of the shows moving is the critically praised Will & Grace, a comedy about a gay man and straight woman who are best friends and roommates. The show has been a bright spot for the network.
Beginning December 14, Will & Grace will air at 9:30 pm Tuesdays. Its original slot was also 9:30 pm, but on Mondays.
TV marks World AIDS Day
Television, especially cable television, pulled out all the stops in commemorating World AIDS Day this year with more AIDS and lesbigay-themed programming than I've seen during June's Pride or October's National Coming Out Day celebrations.
MTV led the way with AIDS-related programming including Red, Hot and Rhapsody; this year's AIDS benefit concert in honor of George and Ira Gershwin. MTV also had the AIDS awareness specials Staying Alive, Smart Sex and True Life: It Could Be You.
Other AIDS-themed programs included the Lifetime movies Touch Me, about a struggling young actress who finds out she's HIV-positive, and Something to Live For: The Alison Gertz Story.
PBS weighed in with Travis, a documentary about young people living with HIV and AIDS; Starz had The Cure, a teenage AIDS saga; Bravo ran Longtime Companion; and Friends For Life: Living With AIDS aired on the Disney Channel.
HBO had a Family Video Diaries episode that examined the impact of AIDS on a family; the films Gia and Boys on the Side; and gay, HIV-positive stand-up comic Steve Moore's moving, one-hour special Drop Dead Gorgeous (A Tragi-Comedy): The Power of HIV-Positive Thinking.
On the radio, Cleveland's NPR outlet, WCPN 90.3 FM, aired a panel and listener call-in discussion on How AIDS Has Affected the Arts.
Films with lesbigay content-but not about AIDS-were also plentiful. These including Dog Day Afternoon, Twilight of the Golds, The Times of Harvey Milk, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, My Own Private Idaho, My Best Friend's Wedding, Waiting for Guffman, Love! Valour! Compassion!, In and Out, Victor/Victoria, The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love and Go Fish
PBS repeated the Masterpiece Theater presentation Breaking the Code, starring Derek Jacobi as Allen Turing, a British mathematician credited with breaking the Nazis' Enigma code during World War II-a major factor in winning the warthen persecuted and prosecuted after the war for being gay. The life of Oscar Wilde, one of the most famous gay men of all time, was examined by Bravo's Profiles. Comedy Central aired a repeat of the
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lesbigay comedy special Out There II.
Transgender issues were examined on the Discovery Channel documentary What Sex Am I?; as well as by Sally Jesse Raphael and Dateline NBC, who visited a Denver family where the husband dresses in women's clothes and goes by the name Sissy.
Mission to Africa featured
The Jeffrey D. Heard Center's mission to deliver medical supplies to AIDS-stricken communities in Africa was the subject of a feature article in the December 2 issue of Cleveland Life, Ohio's newest paper serving the African-American community, and Mission of Hope, a TV special on WOIO Channel 19.
90210 mom comes out
Steve's mother came out as a lesbian on
David's radio show on a recent, brand-new episode of Beverly Hills 90210. Jacqueline Susann on USA
Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story stars Michele Lee as the flamboyant, and bisexual, novelist; is being aired on the USA channel.
In the end, girl gets girl
Girl gets girl, girl loses girl because she "wants to be normal,” and girl gets girl at the end of Listen, a dark lesbian crime/romance thriller with a happy ending, now airing on HBO.
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.
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