January 26, 2001

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 11

on the airoff the press

Macpherson and Capshaw didn't need mints to kiss

by John Graves

Look for a steamy lesbian love scene when Elle Macpherson plays a lawyer who finds herself attracted to Kate Capshaw on part 1 of A Girl Thing, Showtime's 2-part cable drama about a psychiatrist and a group of women she treats.

Asked if they used Altoids to prepare for their passionate kissing scene in an interview by Marc Malkin in the January 22nd issue of US Weekly, Macpherson said, “Yeah. You have to if you're going to kiss someone... But kissing Kate Capshaw wasn't difficult. She's a very good kisser."

"There were boxes of Altoids in every flavor," Capshaw added, “And you know what? I didn't mind kissing Elle either.”

When Malkin asked Capshaw if any of her children had seen her performance in A Girl Thing, Capshaw said, "My 24-year old daughter (actress Jessica Capshaw) has, and she thinks it's beautiful. But I don't know about my 15-year old son, Max. I just hope he doesn't get tortured in school by classmates who may catch it. I'll be curious though, to see if it's razzing like, 'I saw your mom naked' or something like 'Your mom is gay!""

Asked if they ever thought about the possibility of one of their children being gay, Capshaw said, "Oh yes. I don't know if this is true, but I once read that one in seven people is gay. I paid attention to that because we have seven children. So chances are that one of them is going to be gay or is gay but doesn't know it yet."

Macpherson, who has a 2-year old son, added, "It would not be an issue. When you're a parent you just want your children to be happy with themselves."

Out of the Celluloid Closet

Lily Tomlin has finally come all the way out of the closet, although she did it without ever saying the word "lesbian" in a second feature interview in the January 22nd issue of US Weekly. James Kaplan interviewed Tomlin in her home where, according to Kaplan, she lives "quietly in Hollywood with her partner of three decades, Jane Wagner, and their dog, Princess . . ."

Kaplan says Tomlin met Wagner after a friend told her to watch J.T., a TV film about a young African-American boy in the inner city, to get ideas on how to improve Edith Ann, one of her most famous characters. The film was written by Wagner and, according to Kaplan, "Tomlin sent Wagner a letter. They met, they clicked. They've worked and lived together ever since."

Tomlin told Kaplan, “I don't like to talk about my private life in any detail, but I don't disavow my private life. I also don't want to become someone's poster girl, either. And, you know that's been somewhat difficult in terms of the movement. I've tried to be as simple and direct as I can without

being exploited or tabloidized."

Tomlin angered Armistead Maupin when she reportedly reneged on a promise to come out when the celebrated gay novelist agreed to write the narration she was to recite in the 1995 documentary, The Celluloid Closet. At the time, Maupin told reporters, "My feeling was the narrator should be an openly gay person or a sympathetic straight person. Instead, I have to endure the cruel irony of a film called The Celluloid Closet narrated by a closeted person."

Asked about this episode, Tomlin simply smiled and told Kaplan, “Oh Armistead, he's been after me for a long time."

Find out more about one of the funniest and most insightful comics of our time on the celebrity's website, http:// lilytomlin.com. And look for Tomlin as a lesbian caught up in the start of World War II while touring pre-war Italy with a group of straight friends in the film Tea With Mussolini now airing on cable. Brooke loses her Cherry

Brooke Shields and openly lesbian Broadway actress Cherry Jones play Sandy and Janine, a lesbian couple who conceive a child through artificial insemination only to have Sandy's parents try to gain custody of the child after their daughter's untimely death in the Lifetime cable drama What Makes a Family. A lesbian family, a single father and his son and a teenage family are some of the 5 families profiled in the documentary, All Kinds of Families which Lifetime airs right after What Makes a Family. When lesbian comics attack...

Lesbian comic Sabrina Matthews performed in her own stand-up special on Comedy Central Presents Sabrina Matthews on January 22, to be repeated endlessly. Matthews, who first appeared on Comedy Central's Out There in Hollywood, began her comedy career in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the San Francisco Chronicle called her one "of the brightest emerging talents in town".

Matthews, who lives in Los Angeles with her big dog and his cat, appears regularly at mainstream clubs and colleges around the country, has performed at the internationally renowned Montreal Comedy Festival, and made her television acting debut in America's Most Wanted.

CBS

goes gay

The January 26 Entertainment Weekly reports Ellen Degeneres' new CBS TV series is finally ready to hit the airwaves and guess what, her character is a lesbian.

After much reworking, Ellen decided to drop the as yet unnamed show's varietyshow format in favor of a more conventional sitcom in which she plays a lesbian who returns to her hometown to "find her roots again and rebuild herself” according to

executive producer Mitch Huritz.

Huritz tells Entertainment Weekly, “This show really surrounds her with real people. As Carol Leifer, my partner, says, 'She has a Bob Newheart quality, so you surround her with real people and she really shines."

According to Entertainment Weekly, CBS executives are now deciding whether to debut the show within the next few weeks or save it for the new fall season.

Ellen's new show won't be the only show on CBS with a gay lead character. Jason Bateman will play a gay man with a straight roommate in the midseason replacement sitcom Me and Frankie Z, based on the 1997 film, Kiss Me Guido. According to Entertainment Weekly, the name was changed to "avoid offending Italian-Americans."

Bateman told Entertainment Weekly he has high hopes for Me and Frankie Z, saying, “I was a huge fan of Survivor. I kept saying, 'This is great for my show CBS has a gay star." He was referring to openly gay Survivor winner Richard Hatch who, coincidentally has filmed the pilot for The Weakest Link, an American version of a hit British game show, and a Reebok commercial set to air during Survivor II, according to the January 29 issue of US Weekly.

Bateman told Entertainment Weekly that he would even take off his clothes like Hatch to promote Me and Frankie Z saying, "I'll be nude at mall openings whatever it takes.

Streep's turn

Actress Meryl Streep will portray a lesbian living in contemporary New York in The Hours. Stephen Daldry's (Billy Elliot) upcoming film about three women in differconnected ent time periods whose lives are by Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway. GLAAD Award nominees announced

Showtime's outspoken and outrageous new cable series Queer as Folk, MTV's Real World, NBC's Will and Grace and the ABC soap All My Children are among the 23 nominee's for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's 12th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. Openly gay USA Today columnist Craig Wilson was nominated for best newspaper columnist while CBS' runaway hit Survivor and NBC's critically acclaimed White House drama West Wing will receive special honors at the award ceremonies to held in New York and Los Angeles this spring.

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. Dave Haskell, Jim McGrattan and Kim Jones also contribute material for this column.

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