December 1, 2000 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 15
on the airoff the press
'I never thought of this as dating, it's too much fun'
by John Graves
With little fanfare, Dr. Kerry Weaver began an affair with a staff psychiatrist played by actress Elizabeth Mitchell on the medical drama ER's Thanksgiving episode. The storyline was introduced with puzzling little snippets of Weaver, played by Laura Innes, getting compliments on a new hairstyle and singing in the shower before a mysterious dinner date that turned out to be Mitchell's character.
At dinner, Mitchell's character, who is openly lesbian at work, remarked that since this was their second evening out people would ordinarily assume they were dating.
When Weaver got flustered, Mitchell's character apologized for what she thought was a misunderstanding but Weaver stammered that she just hadn't thought of the idea of being attracted to a woman, but she thought Mitchell's character was extremely beautiful.
Mitchell, you may remember, played Angelina Jolie's lover in the cable film Gia about the life and tragic AIDS-related death of real-life lesbian supermodel Gia Carangi.
DOMA on 'West Wing'
NBC's West Wing did it again with another excellent lesbigay storyline that had White House staffer Josh arguing against an anti-gay marriage bill with a gay Republican representative who supports the legislation in the House. The measure was similar to the infamous federal Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1996.
'Eyes of Tammy Faye' now on cable
Tammy Faye Messner, a very gay-supportive former televangelist best known by her married name Bakker, co-hosted a talk show with her friend, openly gay and HIVpositive J.M. J. Bullock a few years ago. See the story of her life in the film documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye, now playing on cable.
Martin still walks that fine line
Latin heartthrob and singing sensation Ricky Martin was the subject of a feature interview by Jeff Gordinier in the November 14 issue of People magazine. Asked about his sexual orientation, Martin again failed to acknowledge or deny the rumors that he is gay, but did discuss his frustration with the inevitable question.
"In the first interview, you make a joke of it," Martin told Gordinier. "In the second and the third one, perhaps. But when you have ten interviews in one day, and everyone asks you about this thing, it's like, what's the need? Once again, it's the aaah! that I'm telling you about. So I have many answers for this. One of them is, 'You know what? Get a life! Stop living mine.' The other answer can be, 'I'm an artist, and you can fantasize about me however you want to. I am powerless over your thoughts. Go for it! And enjoy the ride.' There's nothing else to say about it.”
Judy Wieder, editor-in-chief of the Advocate, called Martin's attitude “a major turning point" for pop culture.
"He's responding without squelching the rumors or immediately running around with a woman," Wieder said. "And it doesn't seem to have impacted his sales at all." Martin's songwriter and producer Desmond Child told Gordinier that
"Jezabel," one of the songs on Martin's new CD Sound Loaded, was inspired by the singer's relationship with the media.
"Given everything he had gone through in the press, from one minute being incredible to the next minute being trashed in the tabloids," Child said, "I think he wanted to express a message that people should be free to be who they are-a freedom to love who they want to love."
Bernhard on 'Will & Grace'
Sandra Bernhard will play herself on an upcoming episode of Will and Grace. The title characters pose as a wealthy couple to make a phony offer for Bernhard's townhouse which Bernhard accepts, according to USA Today's "Inside TV" columnist Peter Johnson.
Also in USA Today, Jeannie Williams reports that Gladiator star Russell Crowe will play a schizophrenic bisexual mathematician in Ron Howard's upcoming film A Beautiful Mind.
A millionaire's advice
Lyons Press has just released openly gay Survivor winner Richard Hatch's new advice book, 101 Survivor Secrets: How to Make $1,000,000, Lose 100 Pounds and Just Plain Live Happily.
In the slim volume, which he describes as "just longer than a Cliff Notes book," Hatch says, "I do have a philosophy. It has worked for me and it can work for you. Quit your pathetic job; explore your sexual identity; for me being fat [was a drag]; reduce the amount of breads, potatoes, pastas and sugar in your daily diet."
Hatch was very open about his life and loves when he appeared as a feature guest on the Howard Stern show recently. He has also appeared on the Australian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and the Australian TV series Sam and the Fat Man.
Questioned by the Globe supermarket tabloid, Hatch refused to discuss whether his marriage to Australian Joanne Mansell was a marriage of convenience so she could get a green card saying, “We could still get in trouble."
But he did say the ten-year marriage "certainly wasn't sexual-God no."
Mansell, who is now married to financier Andrew Mansell, told the Globe, "Richard and I had the perfect marriage. I knew he was gay and he knew he was gay, but we had fun. He's a very, very nice man, not the beast many TV viewers think he is."
A giant step for cable
The American version of the outrageous and controversial British gay-show Queer as Folk debuts on Showtime this Sunday, December 3.
New York Times critic Bernard Weintraub said the 22-hour television drama "shatters an unwritten rule in television against explicit depictions of sexual behavior between men, including kissing, fondling, anal sex and oral sex, much as HBO's Sex and the City depicts men and women engaged in various sexual acts."
Executive producer Tony Jonas said, "We pushed this as far as we could go.” Jonas added that Will and Grace is “a wonderful mass-appeal show, but it's still sanitized. Our show has no such limitation. We don't have to apologize for or whitewash or pretend what gay sexuality is all about. In a
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Showtime's president for programming Jerry Offsay told Weintraub the network was making Queer as Folk because the. original British series was "the most interesting, unique, innovative television show we've seen in a couple of years."
"It's truly a show that's exploring characters and a lifestyle we've never seen before on television. You can do the 47th lawyer show or the 50th cop show or the 700th doctor show. We've seen those. We haven't seen this before," Offsay said. "People have no problem seeing this kind of honesty in
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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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