September 8, 2000 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 11

on the airoff the press

Olympic closing ceremonies to be graced by drag queens

by John Graves

Don't be surprised to see some Australian drag queens in the closing ceremonies of the Olympics later this month.

Although he has come under fire from what he calls "right-wing reactionaries," ceremonies director Ric Birch told reporters that including drag queens in the closing pageant is a justified tribute to the Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Birch feels the inclusion of the drag queens also reflects one of Sydney's most colorful events, the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras pride parade, which now draws thousands of spectators and is a featured event on the E! channel's Wild On show about Australia.

I'll put my John Hancock on that

Look for a lesbian couple and their child in a John Hancock Insurance Co. ad that is set to air during the telecast of the Olympics.

The ad shows the couple at an airport welcoming their newly adopted Asian baby and talking about their new status as mothers. As expected, it generated a storm of protest from anti-gay conservatives when it was first aired during the gymnastic trials a couple of weeks ago.

The attack may even be heavy enough for John Hancock to drop the ad if the conservative outcry is not countered by a sufficient number of positive responses to the ad.

To their credit, the insurance company was able to get four TV outlets that had refused to air the ad to change their minds. To show your support and make your voice heard, e-mail the insurance company from their web site at http://www.jhancock.com.

'Freak' line cut from film

Scary Movie director Keenan Ivory Wayans is dropping a line from the video release of the film, according to USA Today. A scene in the film shows a theatergoer watching Miramax's Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love, and making a comment about the film's star, Gwyneth Paltrow.

"Brad Pitt's ex-girlfriend (Paltrow) is a real freak. She dressed up like a man," the theatergoer says. The line was cut from the video release to appease Miramax and Paltrow.

According to a report in Entertainment Weekly, Miramax co-chief Harvey Weinstein, who originally approved it, now calls the offending line "inappropriate." Robin Williams stars as Liberace

Actor and comedian Robin Williams will develop and star in a new biopic about the life, career and AIDS-related death of the colorful, gay pianist Liberace, reports USA Today.

Tap dancing at boys school

Adam Garcia, the Australian-born actor who plays a hunky sweetheart in the film Coyote Ugly, talked to USA Today's Ann Oldenburg recently about his real passion— tap dancing. He'll soon put those dancing shoes to good use on September 15 as a featured dancer in the opening ceremony of the Olympics, in his own home town of Sydney.

Garcia told Oldenburg that he first got into dancing when he took up ballet at age seven, and then fell in love with tap dancing when he was ten.

"I have no idea why or who or what,” Garcia said. "I can't remember anything inspiring. I just went. I just found myself at ballet class with a friend who's now an actor, too. We both blame each other to this day." Although Garcia said his dancing was pretty well accepted by his classmates, he did get some teasing about his passion for something considered unusual for young boys when he went to an all-boys school for a time.

The apparently straight Garcia (he's been with actress Laetitia Thackery for two years)

had just the right response to stop the gaybaiting.

"I got a little bit of hassle," Garcia told Oldenburg. "They'd say: You're the dancer guy, right? I'd be like, right. They'd make these aspersions of homosexuality. And I'd say: You're the ones getting sweaty, hugging each other playing rugby and showering together. And I dance with a roomful of 60 girls in leotards. Let's work out the math, shall we?"

Dad comes home to 'Normal, Ohio'

John Goodman's heretofore unnamed new sitcom about a gay father who returns home to live with his sister and her kids will be called, of all things, Normal, Ohio.

Extensively re-worked from the original pilot, the show will co-star Ellen's Joely Fisher as the sister, and will air on the Fox network.

Etheridge brought Clinton to tears

Although America's most visible, lovable lesbian couple, Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche, have split, two other celebrity lesbian couples seem to be growing stronger.

Melissa Etheridge talks about her 12year relationship with Julie Cypher and their two children, daughter Bailey, 3, and son Beckett, almost 2, in a feature interview by William Keck in the September 11 issue of Us.

The magazine reports that Etheridge "brought President Clinton to tears" at an August 12 fundraiser when she thanked him for reaching out to the LGBT community and providing her and others “with a safe environment to come out of the closet."

Etheridge, who is in her second season as host of her heartwarming reality show Beyond Chance, told the magazine that she's "done with" her recording and touring career to concentrate on a new, autobiographical one-woman stage show she plans to launch at the end of the year. Her next musical production will be the sound track for that show.

Asked how she knew Cypher was the one she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, Etheridge responded, "That sort of thing creeps up on you... At first it's 'Oh, my gosh-she's gorgeous, she's sexy, she's wow!' A couple of years go by, and you realize the energy is just right. You start making plans and then all of a sudden five, six, seven years go by, and you realize this is the one.

Etheridge said that although she had self-esteem issues in high school and con-

sidered herself "homely," she now considers herself sexy when she's on stage.

"When you get enough people going 'Woo-hoo,' you know you must be doing something right." Asked if she would pose nude in Playboy, she said, "I'm leaning toward yes. My feminist friend Kathy Najimy would tell me 'Are you kidding? That's stupid!' But I think it would be kind of funny. I'd do it to be the first boundarycrossing big-dyke-gone-Playboy. Well, the first out dyke, anyway."

'Marriage' by another name

The other couple is, of course, k.d. lang and her partner of four years, Murmurs guitarist Leisha Hailey. Talking about her new CD and summer tour in a feature article by Adrienne Stone in the August 28 issue of Us, k.d. lang said, "This album is a love letter to myself, it's a love letter to my love, and a love letter to California."

Lang told Stone that although Hailey was immediately attracted to her, she herself was a bit hesitant at first. She took some time off when she moved in with Hailey after the release of her Drag CD in 1996.

"The time off really allowed me to cultivate the relationship,” lang said, “and it was the first time I'd ever actually seriously given myself to a relationship."

Asked if she wanted a marriage with Hailey, lang said, “Marriage is a mainstream concept, and being gay is being alternative. It's good for the tax recognition and health benefits... but you're stepping into some sort of really old religious traditions, so we need to call it something else and create our own tradition that says: Ours is different from yours, but it's just as valid.'

Ellen and Anne

By now you have heard the sad news of the breakup of Ellen and Anne, and Anne's trip to the hospital in late August after she appeared, confused, at a stranger's house. It

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is now reported that she had sunstroke after walking several miles from her car, which had run out of gas.

As expected, the tabloids were ablaze with lurid stories about the breakup, full of quotes from unnamed "sources" speculating on the "real" reason for the split. I won't bother to report them here; I'll wait for them to give their own version of what happened.

Although there are many out LGBT celebrities, I feel we owe them at least that much respect for being out as a lesbian couple, unafraid to speak out for the rights of all of us. Nothing to say at this point except that are hearts and prayers are with the two courageous women— -we'll have to wait now and see what the future brings.

Reverse psychology?

Boy George is upset with Elton John's defense of rapper Eminem, who has come under fire for the extremely homophobic lyrics in some of his songs.

It seems John told the New York Post that Eminem's lyrics were "really hard-core stuff, but it's intelligent hard-core. It's poetry and also really interesting."

George told reporters, “I am shocked to hear that Elton John has called queer-baiting Eminem 'the most important voice since Bob Dylan'."

Still, George thinks Sir Elton may have been using a little reverse psychology on Eminem.

"Cool singers or bands hate being championed by fellow artists they consider uncool," he said, "and Eminem will not take too kindly to being championed by one of the world's most famous diamond-studded homosexuals."

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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