March 31 2000

eveningsout

Laura Schlessinger cancels her Detroit birthday bash

by John Graves

Trying to avoid a clash with gay activists, radio talk show host Laura Schlessinger canceled her Michigan birthday bash and fundraiser. Gay and lesbian groups, upset because "Dr. Laura" called homosexuality a "biological error” and “deviant," were planning to protest the April 15 event.

Schlessinger said in a statement she decided to cancel "so as not to compromise anyone's physical safety or subject anyone to embarrassment or discomfort."

About 800 tickets at $76 apiece had been sold. Proceeds were to benefit her charitable foundation and Detroit's Children's Center.

"We're thrilled that she's not bringing her anti-gay rhetoric to Detroit," said Sean Kosofsky of the Triangle Foundation, a Detroit gay civil rights group.

Upset at the furor her anti-gay stance has generated, Schlessinger tried to point out that she wasn't really homophobic on her radio show this past week with a story about a young boy who was harassed at school because his mother was a lesbian.

It seems the child's mother, whom Schlessinger described as her "friend,” told Schlessinger her child had been harassed at school for apparently no reason.

When the child asked the harasser why, the response was that their parents were fans of Schlessinger's show, and that Schlessinger had been telling listeners about how evil and abnormal lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people-like the child's lesbian

mom-were.

Confronted with a situation where her rhetoric might have led to specific harassment, Schlessinger took the bigot's usual "don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are" defense, declaring that she was totally against children being harassed because of who their parents were or what they did.

Schlessinger went on to rant that she was furious at the harasser, even more so than the child's mother. It sounded as if Schlessinger was claiming to be an even better mother than the child's natural one.

Honestly, most of the disclaimers the religious conservatives use when they are confronted with the fact that their rhetoric can lead to violence against LGBT people sound like they were scripted by the WWF. They remind me of those phony displays of innocence wrestlers show after the referee catches them doing something dastardly to their opponents.

Police aide solves a murder

NYPD Blue's gay civilian police aide John Irvin, whose role is often a silent "Greek chorus" to stationhouse drama, got a major part in a recent episode. His understanding of the LGBT community led him to solve a case involving the murder of a gay man.

On the March 20 episode, even homophobic detective Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz), who at first thought the victim's ex-lover was the killer, realized that Irwin had deduced that the real killer was the ex's supremely egotistical new boyfriend. Sipowicz and his partner then enlisted Irwin's help in getting the man to confess.

Critics hailed the performance of Bill Brochtrup, who plays Irwin. Entertainment Weekly TV critic Dalton Ross said of the episode, "No TV character does more with so little screen time than NYPD Blue administrative assistant John Irvin. Tonight the master of the inquisitive glance not only speaks but helps solve an actual homicide to boot." Brochtrup says that four years ago, the producers of NYPD Blue “brought me on as this temp, this gay temp, who was supposed to be funny for two episodes and go."

Brochtrup says he got conflicting advice about how broadly the role should be played, but David Milch, the show's co-creator, set him straight. Brochtrup says Milch told him, "No, the role isn't flamboyant. He's a real person. He wouldn't last a day in this squad if he weren't good at his job."

Brochtrup said that what he values more is the heterosexual response to the character he calls "a caring, nurturing, good person."

"When I spent the summer doing Snakebit in New York," he recalls, "I got waves from cab drivers and truck drivers and burly, macho guys who you wouldn't think would be wanting to come up and shake my hand on the street. I think John is sort of an ambassador to the straight community."

DeCaro in Oscar special

Comedy Central aired its second gay Oscar pre-show, The Out at the Movies Fabulous Big 'O' Special: Being Frank DeCaro hosted once again by openly gay comic Frank DeCaro. Catch this on a rerun or catch one of DeCaro's regular reports on Comedy Central's The Daily Show.

A happy ending in E's first film

Lesbians, gays, the tabloids, the Oscars and murder all figure in Best Actress, the E! channel's first original film, but there's a happy ending, including more than one passionate same-sex kiss.

Depicting the story of five women competing for an Oscar, the film features former supermodel Rachel Hunter as British actress Fiona Covington, who has an affair with a woman after a tabloid reveals her husband is having an affair with another nominee.

The story is told by the ghost of a kindly tabloid reporter who is murdered by an especially conniving straight nominee. Fiona meets Maria (Maria Conchita Alonso) when she is overheard complaining about men in a bathroom. Maria is estranged from her longtime partner Lori Seefer, another Oscar nominee played by Elisa Donovan.

Maria and Lori eventually reunite in a Hollywood happy ending where they come out Ellen-style on Oscar night.

I don't know about the other actresses involved in the triangle, but Rachel Hunter seems true to her character. When asked about her passionate kiss with Alonso on several interview shows, Hunter says she instructed the Hispanic actress that they should "keep their tongues to one side" while kissing.

Teena film opens in Nebraska

Boys Don't Cry, the Academy Awardwinning film about Brandon Teena, has opened in Falls City, Nebraska, the town where the young transgender man was raped

and killed by two male friends after they play a person who is still alive, said of learned he was a woman.

The film opened nationwide in November, but did not reach Nebraska screens until last month, when it opened at multiplex theaters in Omaha. Area theater managers had

shied away from the film until actress Hilary Swank won the Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Teena.

Last Sunday, Swank won the Best Actress Oscar for that role.

Virginia Ernst, manager of the River Twin Cinema, said she did not know how the community would respond to the movie's love scenes and an unflattering portrayal of Falls City, whose citizens are often depicted as drunken lowlifes.

After previewing the movie with her staff, Ernst said, "It's nothing like the town that's in the movie. We thought about it, debated it and decided to show it."

Ironically, the River Twin Cinema sits across the street from the courthouse where a jury convicted John Lotter and Marvin Nissen for Teena's murder.

Lana Tisdel settles with filmmaker

Brandon Teena's girlfriend Lana Tisdel settled a lawsuit last week with Boys Don't Cry distributor Fox Searchlight and two oth-

ers.

Tisdel had sued Fox, actress Chloe Sevigny, who played her in the film, and Aphrodite Jones, who wrote a book about the case. Tisdel said she was defamed by the film, in which a character calls her "lazy, white trash and a skanky snake." She also said the film portrays her as a lesbian and constantly under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

The suit also said the movie falsely depicts her as falling asleep at the murder scene and "doing nothing about it after it has occurred." Police reports say that Tisdel was not at the scene.

Boys Don't Cry writer-director Kimberly Peirce said she did take dramatic liberties with the story.

The suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

After the settlement, Tisdel said, "I would like the public to know how realistic I found Hilary Swank's portrayal of Brandon. She captured the real Brandon."

Sevigny, who says she will never again

Columbus Symphony to accompany film

Sergei Eisenstein, seen here on the czar's throne during the 1926 filming of October, was one of the most influential filmmakers in the early decades of Soviet cinema. However, life under Stalin required him to keep his gayness severely in the closet.

In his book Images in the Dark, Raymond Murray writes, "Eisenstein's homosexuality was a closely guarded secret. Joseph Stalin, a great admirer of his, would no doubt have ended Eisenstein's career if his sexual orientation had been known. There can be found in several of [his films] a subtle yet quite distinct homoeroticism."

Eisenstein's silent classic The Battleship Potemkin will be shown at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus on Friday April 14. Dmitri Shostakovich's score for the film will be performed live by

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK

the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. David Filipi will also discuss the career of the filmmaker before the screening.

The 1925 film, about Russian sailors who spark the October Revolution, contains the infamous image of Cossacks pushing a baby carriage down the Odessa steps.

---Michelle Tomko

Tisdel, "It must be strange for her; a lot of the major facts were changed. It was really difficult to do."

Newsweek has 'Gay Today' feature

If you haven't seen it yet, the March 20 issue of Newsweek magazine features a 15page special report on lesbigay America. Entitled "Gay Today," the cover story is described by Newsweek as a report on "the gay struggle for acceptance."

The report is composed of several indepth stories on LGBT diversity, families, gay-straight alliances in schools, coming out in the military and the acceptance two lesbians have found in their churches.

The issue also featured an interview with British cross-dressing comic Eddie Izzard and an on-line ballot asking readers to vote on the question: "Should your place of worship bless same-sex commitment ceremonies?"

Actor fined for attacking photographer

Actor Wallace Langham, who plays the closeted Josh on Veronica's Closet, pleaded no contest last week to charges he attacked a gay tabloid reporter using anti-gay slurs during the attack. Langham was sentenced to 450 hours of community service, had to pay a $2,000 fine and agreed to pay $10,000 to the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

John Graves is the producer and host of Gaywaves, an LGBT public affairs show on Cleveland's WRUW 91.1 FM Fridays at 7 pm, and at http://radio.cwru.edu. Dave Haskell, Jim McGrattan and Kim Jones also contribute to this column.

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