FEBRUARY 19, 1999 GAY PEOPLe's ChronicLE 13

ON THE AIR OFF THE PRESS

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GLAAD to honor Goldberg for her black lesbian roles

by John Graves Actress Whoopi Goldberg will receive the Vanguard Award from GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for her portrayal of African-American lesbian characters in mainstream movies. In giving the award, GLAAD said that Goldberg, through her lesbian roles such films as The Color Purple, Boys on the Side and the soon-to-be released (February 26) Deep End of the Ocean, was able to "educate millions about the experiences of AfricanAmerican lesbians. On the big screen, this is an almost invisible part of our diverse community."

3 Oscar nominations for Monsters Openly gay actor Sir Ian McKellen's nomination for Best Actor heads a list of three Oscar nominations for Gods and Monsters, a film based on the life of openly gay Frankenstein director James Whale. The

Out in two different magazines

In my last column I reported actor Robert Downey Jr. had come out as bisexual in the February issue of Details magazine. He did come out, but in Detour magazine, where he is featured on the February issue's cover.

The February issue of Details focuses on lesbian and bisexual women in a feature section simply called "Sex.” Sex columnist Anka and correspondent Suzan Colon lead off the section by taking a look at the fascination of heterosexual men for lesbian and bisexual women in their respective pieces.

Next up, Cathay Che, a lesbian, and John Sellers, a straight man, were asked for their choice of the "five steamiest lesbian movies."

Che picked the 1968 French film Therese and Isabelle; the first film in the "Emmanuelle" series; The Elegant Spanking, which is a black-and-white hard-core version of The Story of O; the lesbian romance thriller Bound; and Anne Heche's

Lynn Redgrave, as James Whale's housekeeper, warns Brendan Fraser about his “proclivities."

film's two other nominations went to Lynn Redgrave for Best Supporting Actress and to the screenwriters for Best Screenplay Adaptation, from Christopher Bram's novel. Upcoming films of interest

Besides Deep End of the Ocean and Ellen DeGeneres' role as a cop in the film Ed TV, Entertainment Weekly's spring movie preview notes a few other films of interest.

Later this month, look for The Trio, a film about "a triangle of sexual betrayal" that develops between a larcenous gay man, his lover and his lover's tomboy daughter. Coming up in March is Forces of Nature, in which Ben Affleck's character "is required to wiggle his bare keister in front of a packed house of gay men," and Rock the Boat, a documentary about the all-HIV-positive crew who competed in the Trans Pacific Yacht Race in 1997.

Also in March, a film called Heaven has actor Martin Donovan's character dying and going to heaven as a clairvoyant transsexual.

pre-coming out lesbian romance with actress Joan Chen in Wild Side. (A note here: Talk show host Rosie O'Donnell was surprised when she told her guest Anne Heche that she loved Wild Side, and Heche said she didn't like the film. On another show, O'Donnell sang the praises of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, an even more obscure lesbian coming-of-age film that played on cable a few years ago.)

Sellers, the straight guy, chose The Hunger;

Embrace of the Vampire; the Poison Ivy trilogy; the fight scene between Krystle and Alexis on the 1980s TV series Dynasty; and Bitter Harvest-in which the male lead is killed off by the emerging lesbian couple.

Nightlife columnist Marecelle Karp talked about discovering her bisexual nature when she explores New York's lesbian club scene with a friend. By the end of the article we learn that Karp now heads out to the clubs on her own to find Ms. Right.

The feature closes out with ten tips on how to please women, by lesbian writer Karlyn Lotney, a.k.a Fairy Butch. This is opposite a very gay ad from fashion designer Dolce & Gabbana, showing two young men holding each other romantically on a love seat. (Hey, lesbians, gays and bisexuals write to straight advice columnists all the time. Who says straight people can't learn from us!)

Oscar and Ellen now on tape

Wilde, the 1998 film biography of Oscar Wilde, and The Real Ellen Story, a, British

documentary about the coming out of Ellen DeGeneres and her sitcom character which first aired on cable's Bravo channel, are now available on video.

Out at Work in the classroom

For one year, HBO has waived copyright protection for classroom use of Out at Work, their special examining the discrimination faced by lesbians and gays in the workplace. The show is narrated by retired Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer.

Song gets advance play

"Bi-Sexual Chick," a song by Hawaiian singer and songwriter John Oszajca on the soon-to-be-released Clubland soundtrack CD, is already creating a stir on the airwaves.

According to USA Today's Edna Gunderson, radio stations in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston have been playing leaked copies of the song well in advance of the album's March 23 release date.

James Fink of KROQ in Los Angeles reports the radio station has been getting "pretty good feedback" saying, “We get calls from girls who love his voice, women who are bisexual and men who just like the idea."

Gia actress will divorce

I have few friends that will be very interested in this item from USA Today. According to the report, bisexual actress Angelina Jolie, who won a Golden Globe award for her portrayal of lesbian supermodel Gia Carangi in the film Gia, is getting a divorce from her husband, actor Johnny Lee Miller.

Black first, or queer first?

Finally, since this is African-American History Month, gay African-American writer Randall Kenan reflected on his nationwide search for the meaning of identity in the February 16 issue of the Advocate.

Kenan, who sums up that search in his new book Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century, concludes, "We face a particular strain of African-American homophobia— intensified by the myths of black male machismo and of the Black Earth Mother/ Black Whore; by the black church's virtual intractability when it comes to same-sex love; and by the majority of vocal black leaders who deeply resent and intentionally misread any political. language that compares gay civil rights to black civil rights.

"To live within the soup of these inherent contradictions places an extra hump on the shoulders of identity. Too many queer black men and women feel forced to choose whether they are black first or queer first; some even opt to be openly only one or the other, as best they can.

"I end my book suggesting that black identity is a construct of politics, culture, emotion and personal will. The same can be said of being queer, especially for a black queer like me."

Since I am African-American myself, I agree, and say: My brothers and sisters, we are all of that . . . and a champagne brunch!

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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Coming-out films come of age

Continued from page 11

veteran director's most stylishly lush, erotic film to date.

Backed by yet another rocking soundtrack, Araki dares to view sexuality a matter of individual needs and desires, not social rules or friends' expectations. Splendor's primary ethic-that sex and love sometimes come in unexpected packagesis entirely welcome given the fact that the queer community continues to judge our peers for falling in love with someone of the opposite sex, including Araki himself. Openly gay since the early days of his decade-long career, Araki shook the queer establishment in 1997 by bringing his— gasp!-girlfriend to the festival.

The most welcome news for audiences this year is how quickly Sundance films will begin appearing in theaters. Strand will release Edge of Seventeen in March, followed by the Paramount Classics release

Get Real in April, both just in time to inspire all those new queers graduating from high school. Trick will grace your local cineplex in July, courtesy of Fine Line Features. Miramax will release Get Bruce! soon. Summit Entertainment is still tossing around possible dates for Araki's Splendor.

"Theater owners need to know there's a market in their community for this work," Sundance founder Robert Redford said via phone from his Los Angeles production

office, shortly before the festival opened. “If you read or hear about a Sundance film that interests you, make a list and call your local theater. Let them know you'd like those films to play in your community and that you'll support them when they arrive. Now would be a very good time to pick up the phone."

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Mark J. Huisman is a Chronicle contributing writer living in New York City.

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