on the air off the press

Goodman is 'just a normal gay guy' on his new show

by John Graves

The only new program with a gay leading character joining Will & Grace on broadcast TV this season is Fox's new sitcom Normal, Ohio. It stars former Roseanne star John Goodman as William "Butch" Gamble, a working-class

married man who

comes out of the

closet, leaves the

bright lights of Los Angeles

and

moves back to the

small Ohio town

where he was born. The new show, featuring gay-

friendly comic Mo Gaffney as Butch's former wife, Greg Pitts as his son, and Anita Gilette and Orson Beane as his

John Goodman

parents, makes its debut on November 1. It is set to air Wednesday nights on Fox. Goodman, who grew up in St. Louis, told San Francisco Chronicle writer Paul Iorio that he and his character are somewhat alike. They both grew up in the Midwest, played football in their youth and like to keep in touch with their high school friends.

Goodman described his character as "Just a guy. He grew up playing high school football, he's coming back to his community. He was a jock, he worked with his hands... He's just a normal guy who found out he was gay. That's the premise."

Asked whether his new show would deal with such issues as discrimination, gaybashing and AIDS, Goodman said, "I really don't know. Right now, I'm just going to play it as I go along."

The show's producers have indicated that Butch won't have a love interest right away.

"The show is not about... John's character being gay," producer Bonnie Turner told Iorio. "It's about a man who made a choice, left home, came back and is trying to reconnect with his family."

The question is, was Butch's "choice" his decision to get married even though he knew he was gay-or was it that he "chose" to be gay?

'It is rumored that Hillary ...'

Fox News canceled a segment of the Hannity & Colmes liberal-conservative debate show featuring Martin Mawyer, president of the Virginia anti-gay group Christian Action Network. Mawyer was to discuss a TV ad his organization produced that said Hillary Clinton is lesbian.

Mawyer's group has tried to buy time on TV stations in New York, where Clinton is running for Senate, to air the ad. All have refused.

"It is rumored that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian," a voice in the ad intones over images of the first lady. "It is rumored that Hillary Clinton supports homosexual marriage. It is rumored that Hillary Clinton will leave her husband upon taking office. It was rumored that Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky. Sometimes rumors are true."

The group has no basis for the claims. "It's not like we can prove this," CAN director Phillip Vaught told the Roanoke, Va. Times. He said he didn't remember where he'd heard the rumors.

After reviewing the ad, which was to be seen as part of the show, Fox News president Roger Ailes ordered the segment to be cut, reports Variety's Paula Bernstein.

"The segment was canceled because it was an unfair attack against the first lady

and we're not in the business of being unfair," said Fox News executive producer Bill Shine. He asserted that Ailes' decision was not an attempt to soften his conservative image, saying, "We're a credible news organization."

Sketch comedy to have 'drag genius'

This coming Sunday, October 8, WB will begin airing its new sketch comedy series Hype from openly gay co-creators Lanier Laney, Scott King and Terry Sweeney. The show features the writing of Jackie Beat, whom the Advocate calls a "drag genius." Liz Smith comes out, sort of

Noted gossip columnist Liz Smith reveals she has been in relationships with both men and women, but refuses to name her sexual orientation in her just-released autobiography, Natural Blonde.

USA Today's Jeannie Williams says Smith gives little details of her former long-term relationship with archaeologist Iris Love in the book. Asked if she was disappointed, Love, who got an advance look at the book, told

Williams that when she writes her own autobiography she would". . . reveal all sorts of answers to mysteries on many levels."

Dreyfuss of 'Ab Fab' is on 'Bette'

Bette Midler's new show Bette, debuting on CBS October 11, is a spoof of the diva's own personality and features Ab Fab's James Dreyfuss as Oscar, her gay accompanist. TV's only lesbian family

As any lesbigay fan of Xena, Warrior Princess knows, Xena, Gabrielle and their daughter Eve are the only ongoing lesbian or gay family on broadcast TV. Although some of my friends are frustrated that the lesbian relationship is not more overt, it is strong and intense.

That relationship has been built up pieceby-piece over the years, not only by the subtle lines of dialogue between the warrior women at key points in every show, but by the acting skills of Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor. They deliver those lines with an intensity that overshadows the sporadic story lines that attempt to assert the heterosexuality of the characters-a phenomenon only recently realized by the actors themselves.

The depth and intensity of Xena and Gabrielle's relationship is precisely why this show is more popular and longer-running than any other shows of the fantasyaction genre.

Two on PBS this fall

This fall, PBS will air Cora Unchained (October 25), an adaptation of Langston Hughes' novella starring openly lesbian Broadway star Cherry Jones, and On Cukor an "American Masters" documentary about legendary (and gay) film director George Cukor set to air on November 22.

Cukor, who directed such films as The Women, The Philadelphia Story and My Fair Lady, was reportedly fired from the filming of Gone With the Wind because its star, Clark Gable, balked at being directed by a gay man.

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.

October 6, 2000

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