December 6, 2002 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 11
eveningsout
Rosie and Kelli are the proud moms of a baby girl
by John Graves
Rosie O'Donnell and Kelli Carpenter are the proud and out mothers of a new baby girl. Carpenter, whose due date was in December, gave birth to Vivienne Rose O'Donnell the afternoon of Friday, November 29 at a hospital in New York City.
Vivienne Rose weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces and measured 19 inches at birth and was born "with a thick mop of blond hair," according to George Rush and Don Singleton of the New York Daily News.
Carpenter, a former Nickelodeon cable network executive, has legal status as a coparent of O'Donnell's 2-year-old adopted son Blake and has filed to become the legal guardian of O'Donnell's two other adopted children, Parker, 6, and Chelsea, 4, according to friends of the couple. They share a five-bedroom home in Nyack, N. Y., a brownstone on the upper West Side and a $6.75 million vacation place on exclusive Star Island, near Miami.
"Mothers and baby are great," said O'Donnell's spokesperson, Cindi P "Rosie is staying in the room with Kell. The birth was a week early with no complications."
O'Donnell said in a television interview in October that they chose the name Vivienne after the main character in Rebecca Wells' book, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
Mizrahi to direct 'walker' film
Gay fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi is making his directorial debut with the film adaptation of Jonathon Ames 1998 novel, The Extra Man. It is a comedy about the relationship between a "walker," a society bachelor paid to escort wealthy women played by Christopher Plummer, and his protegé. Casting has begun for Plummer's young cohort and filming of the $6 million project is expected to get underway in New York City this spring.
'ER' couple are about to be moms
Dr. Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes) and her lover, firefighter Sandy Lopez (Lisa Vidal) are about to become lesbian moms on NBC's ER.
A joyful Weaver said, "Because we're going to have a baby!" to one of her colleagues when she was asked why she was taking a short leave of absence. Lopez then picked her up after her shift in the emergency ·
room.
JAGS keep commander's secret
JAG, the CBS drama about the Navy's Judge Advocate General division, aired a storyline about a lesbian flight commander, the first woman to command a seagoing Orion search plane unit, who was accused of sexually harassing one of her men.
In response to witness statements that she had said she thought the accuser was "hot," the commander told her JAG defense lawyers she had gone out of her way to tell her colleagues that she found the man attractive: She never made any overtures because she was lesbian, but forced to be closeted by "don't ask, don't tell."
In an unusual twist, the JAGs told her that her statement was considered attorney "work product." Since the man had admitted in court that the commander had not actually come on to him, they would not be compelled to tell her secret to the Navy brass, thus allowing her to continue her exemplary ca-
reer.
This storyline, like all JAG scripts, was produced in close cooperation with the Navy.. Like an earlier gay-themed storyline, it was undoubtedly supposed to show how well the "don't ask, don't tell" policy works. If only this were true in the real-life Navy.
..
Showtime has gotten together with Pocket Books to publish three novels based on three characters from Showtime's Queer as Folk followed by a companion book to the whole series.
Sean Hayes tells why he's coy
Will & Grace co-star Sean Hayes, who plays Jack, one of the most out gay characters on TV, has been very guarded about revealing his own sexual orientation. He refuses to respond to media rumors that he himself is gay.
Sean Hayes
Hayes was true to form when Entertainment Weekly's Nicholas Fonseca interviewed him (November 22) about his role as Jerry Lewis in the TV biopic, Martin and Lewis.
"I love that people think I'm gay," Hayes said. "I love that people think I'm straight. I think it's fun. I think it's so much fun. It's the right way for me to be."
"Every time you see Tom Cruise on the screen, what you don't see is a character," Hayes explained. "You see Tom Cruise, the guy who divorced Nicole Kidman. You see Tom Cruise, the guy who sued some guy who said he was gay. Every time you see Ellen DeGeneres or Anne Heche... it's everything but the part that they're playing."
"There are some actors who, the second you ask them if they're playing a gay role, they say, 'I'm straight! I'm straight and I'm married. I have two kids and I'm straight. Did I mention I'm straight? I'm straight'," Hayes added. "Wouldn't it be great if they didn't say that? Then you might actually believe they're gay."
NBC wants Connick to be full-time
NBC entertainment president Jeff Zucker says the network is negotiating with Harry Connick, Jr. to expand his role as Grace's new husband Leo to a full-time position in the cast.
"We've had a million friendship stories and we probably told all of them," Will & Grace executive producer Johni Marchinko told USA Today, adding, "Now there's some really interesting triangle stories."
49er apologizes after non-apology
San Francisco 49ers running back Garrison Hearst initially told USA Today he regrets, but stands by, homophobic comments he made to the Fresno Bee about gay players in the NFL. He made the comments when asked his opinion about former Green Bay defensive tackle Esera Tuolo coming out of the closet. Two days later, Hearst apologized again.
"Aww, hell no!" Hearst had told the Bee in October, "I don't want any faggots on my team. I know this might not be what people want to hear, but that's a punk. I don't want any faggots in the locker room."
When asked about his comments to the Bee, Hearst said November 21, "The comments I made, I realized it was a little insen-
Cable shows get companion books sitive, some of the stuff I said. But all I can do
Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball and HBO are trying to market a companion book to the hit cable series about a gay funeral director and his dysfunctional family.
is say, 'It was said,' and try to go on with it." But two days later, Hearst appeared again at a news conference, appearing shaken by the controversy his comments and his initial
non-apology had generated.
"Being an African American, I know that discrimination is wrong," Hearst said. "I was wrong for saying what I said about anybody, any race or any religion. I want to apologize to the San Francisco 49ers organization and the city of San Francisco for the comments that I made, and also to my teammates for bringing this distraction upon us."
With him was John York, who owns the 49ers along with his wife, Denise DeBartolo York.
"I have spoken to Garrison about his comments and to educate him on the hurtful effect they have had on so many people," John York said. “(I) have talked with him today about discrimination, including the terrible history of discrimination against African Americans, as well as sensitivity and tolerance."
Tuaolo came out in October, becoming only the third NFL player to do so. He joins 49ers running back David Kopay, who came out in 1975, and New York Giants offensive tackle Roy Simmons, who came out in 1992. All three were retired when they came out.
Gay 'Hart to Hart' set for next fall
Actor Steve Martin and ABC are developing a gay version of the series Hart to Hart. Cabaret star Alan Cumming has signed to play one of the leads in Mr. and Mr. Nash, described as a TV mystery series about a pair of interior decorators who discover and help solve a murder each week
ABC has ordered a script for the project being developed by Martin's production company and Carsey-Werner-Mandabach, producers of the sitcom That '70s Show. Martin, who will host next year's Academy Awards, told Variety, "I am proud to be a part of Mr. and Mr. Nash," quipping, "especially the part where it's a big hit."
Joan Stein, Martin's partner in the Martin/ Stein Co., described the concept as "fun and silly" and said the producers will shortly launch a casting call to find a partner for Cumming's character.
The show, targeted to hit TV screens next fall, marks the first time a gay couple will be the lead in a network TV show.
Peirce dealing with DreamWorks
DreamWorks co-president of production Michael De Luca is in negotiations to work out a two-year, first-look deal with lesbian filmmaker Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry).
According to reports from Variety and the Advocate, De Luca, who made a similar deal with Peirce at New Line after Boys Don't Cry, would bring her into the fold at his new studio once that original deal at New Line expired. The deal would also include Dream Works' covering costs for the
director's New York production company, Peirce Pictures.
Peirce currently has two projects at DreamWorks as well as a John Dillinger
Kimberly Peirce
project scripted by David Mamet and a screen adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End. She is also developing her own script, Silent Star, which she plans to direct and coproduce with openly gay American Beauty producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks. Willow will have a girlfriend
Amber Benson, who played lesbian witch Willow's lover Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, will not be returning to the series as earlier reported. Series creator Joss Whedon told TV Guide Online he wanted to bring Benson back into Buffy as another character after Tara was killed on the show's season multi-episode finale last year, but said negotiations between producer 20th Century Fox and Benson had stalled.
"It was a question of negotiations, as it sometimes is," Whedon said. "It's sad because I love Amber. But that's between her and Fox."
Nevertheless, a lesbian love interest is still in the works for Willow. Whedon said, "We do have somebody in mind that Willow will meet in the future who might shake up her world just a little bit—and it'll be a girl."
"This I will tell you without any equivocation," Whedon added. "Willow's gay."
John Graves is the producer and host of Gaywaves, a lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender public affairs show on Cleveland's WRUW 91.1 FM Fridays at 7:30 pm, and at www.wruw.org. See what's coming on TV in the Couch Potato Report, under "Entertainment" at www.lgcsc.org. Dave Haskell, Jim McGrattan and Kim Jones also contribute to this column.
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