April 25, 2003

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 11

on the airoff the press

Just in time for summer: the first gay slasher film

by John Graves

Production has just finished on what is being billed as the first "all-gay horror film." The yet-to-be-named film is directed by Paul Etheredge-Ouzts and stars Dylan Fergus, Bryan Kirkwood, Hank Harris, Matt Phillips and Andrew Levitas (Psycho Beach Party) with makeup effects by Justin Raleigh.

Producer Steven Wolfe (Circuit) said, not counting the various lesbian vampire films and hardcore flicks, "This is the first film of its kind... not just a horror film with gay characters, but a horror film where all the primary characters are gay."

"What attracted me to the idea of developing this project," Wolfe told Fangoria magazine, "was the lack of gay-themed films out there that are non-issue-related. This is simply a horror film that follows the standard genre formula, like a Scream kind of film. The twist is that all the lead characters are gay."

"To my knowledge, we've made the first gay slasher film,” director Etheredge-Ouzts said. "I felt a responsibility to set a high bar for any future gay horror films. I wanted the film to exceed what the target audience expects to see-another tired slasher-movie parody. My challenge to myself was: Don't give in to the formula. Turn the slasher conventions on their heads. I used the genre's stock female victims the ingénue, the sexual dynamo, the prude—and tried to create gay male characters who are dimensional, believable and, I hope, appealing, even to a mainstream audience."

Wolfe and his Sneak Preview Entertainment company, who have other gay-themed horror films in the works, will be shopping the film around to distributors once postproduction finishes.

Oliver's best friend Michael

A correction: Because the early reviews of Oliver Beene had been less than stellar, I had not had a chance to catch the show myself until the night I was writing my previous column and, in shuttling back and forth between the keyboard and the TV screen, I mistakenly identified 11-year-old Oliver Beene's gay best friend as Christopher. His actual name is Michael and he is played by young actor Taylor Emerson.

Executive producers Howard Gewirtz and Steven Levitan said they tried to avoid gay stereotypes when they first wrote the character of Michael into the show.

"We wanted this character to be really funny," Levitan told the Advocate's Mike Goodridge, "but didn't want to cross any lines, and we're not looking to make fun of him."

Gewirtz noted that the inspiration for Michael was a boy in his high school who he said was, "I believe, the very first Barbara Streisand fan I knew."

"Kids today would be much more suspicious of his sexuality," Gewirtz said, “but at that time, the idea of being gay wasn't in the mainstream yet. Other kids wouldn't know that he would grow up to be gay. Today, on the other hand, my kids, who range from the ages 5 to 9, know what being gay means."

Levitan chided, "This is 1962, remember, there were three things that were unmentionable and unthinkable-being communist, being homosexual, and being a drug user. It was a wonderful time if you were part of the mainstream but hell if you were an outsider." Where's the nookie?

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is unhappy that that there are apparently no plans for explicit on-screen love between Bianca and Lena on All My Children.

"It absolutely is a double standard," said GLAAD entertainment media director Scott Seomin, "When we see gays and lesbians portrayed on television, they are gay in name only. We are told they are gay, but we have no real visual evidence that they are gay-we don't see them expressing affection openly."

"I believe [producers] underestimate what viewers want to see or can handle," Seomin

noted, adding, "It's fear and ignorance."

Despite the lack of on-screen displays of affection, All My Children has been nominated as Best Daytime Drama in the 14th Annual GLAAD Media awards. As Seomin told Soap Opera Weekly, "Every romantic plot line is a small step forward. There is a benefit to this storyline because it is Erica Kane's daughter. People who aren't watching AMC are hearing about it and talking about it at the dinner table, at school, at work."

“Eventually," he added, “we can have more gay and lesbian characters, and see them portrayed as villains, in love triangles and bed. That's why some people tune in to daytime: to see who is sleeping with whom. We don't want Bianca's portrayal to be all rosy, because that's not realistic-and it's not daytime."

As if in reaction to GLAAD's criticism, USA Today and Reuters reported that All My Children was set to make television history on April 22 when Lena (Olga Sosnovska), "in a moment of truth and true love...comes to terms with her feelings" and kisses Bianca in daytime TV's first on-screen same-sex kiss.

"It is an extremely mixed bag of nuts over here," said Randi Schultz, media representative for the Bianca and Maggie fan group BAM.

Schultz said that Bianca's story so far has not been very realistic, saying, "She is single, she is beautiful, she would be having millions of dates in the real world. But they portray her as being this lonely, hard-up gay girl who only falls for straight women. It's not that we want to see a same-sex scene, it is about wanting a same-sex love story." Buffy ending very Willowy

Meanwhile, as Buffy the Vampire Slayer draws to a close, the romance between Willow (Alice Hannigan) and her new lover, Kennedy (Iyari Limon), is gaining popularity even among fans disappointed by the death of Willow's former lover, Tara.

"We do good lesbians here on Buffy," executive producer Marti Noxon opined, a sentiment echoed by GLAAD's Scott Seomin, who said that Buffy creator Joss Whedon, "has been extremely inclusive of our lives."

"Those who loved Tara will never accept a new girl," added Noxon, but I think people really like Kennedy and the new romance and the fact that Willow is still all gay. We had originally talked about the idea that Willow would be bisexual, and that the affair with Tara would not necessarily lead to an affair with a woman. But we found that once we created this really strong gay relationship, the girls became kind of iconic. They meant a lot to the gay community, and it seemed like it would be a betrayal if we had Willow suddenly go straight again."

As for the sturm und drang of the upcoming series finale, Noxon says, "Everything is in question as the season rolls to an end, but Kennedy will be around, that's for sure."

"We want to reflect a more diverse world. You can't always control who you fall in love with, and the rest is nobody's business," Noxon said.

Maybe Willow and Liberty will cross over to Angel when Buffy slays her last vampire.

Fierstein to play a mom again

Harvey Fierstein's performance as Tracey Turnblad's mother Edna in the Broadway production of Hairspray, has inspired ABC and Touchstone TV to write script for a sitcom featuring the openly gay actor.

Under development by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, producers of the AcademyAward-winning film hit, Chicago, the unnamed sitcom will cast Fierstein as a mom again, a little less like Edna, a little more like Roseanne..

Etheridge is engaged

Melissa Etheridge has announced the she and her girlfriend Tammy Lynn Michaels are engaged. Etheridge's representative made the announcement April 15, saying the couple are planning to hold their wedding on a

holiday later this year. The couple, who have been dating for about two years, plan to continue living in Los Angeles after the wedding.

Etheridge, 41, spent 12 years with former partner Julie Cypher. Before they split in 2000, Etheridge and Cypher had two children together, Bailey and Becket, with the assistance of singer David Crosby who donated his sperm to the couple.

Michaels, 28, who says she has always been gay, was introduced to fans last year through Etheridge's concert video Live And Powerful. Michaels is best known for playing Nicole Julian on the defunct WB series Popular, She has reportedly signed to star in Jennifer Love Hewitt's Why Can't I Be Audrey Hepburn? slated for release in 2004.

School is, like, so gay

The Walt Whitman Community School, one of the nation's few schools established specifically to educate gay and lesbian teens, was featured on MTV's documentary series True Life on Thursday, April 24.

The school, which started six years ago, is trying to reach more teens who may be in hiding about their sexuality through the documentary School's Out: The Life of a Gay High School in Texas.

Becky Thompson, principal of the Dallas school, said the school, whose students come from all over the country, needs money for social workers, counseling and a dormitory to house the students. She said that with only 16 students and a budget that won't reach $150,000 this year, the school can't afford those things without the publicity the documentary may bring.

The full film version of School's Out, chronicling the lives of eight Whitman students over the past school year, premiered at a Raleigh, N.C., documentary film festival a

Love on the Nile

week earlier than MTV's shorter, 90-minute version.

Michael Boyd, 19, who says he grew up ostracized in Texarkana, Texas, said that he participated in the film because he wanted to reach out to kids who are confused about their sexuality, saying, "I'm hoping the film will impact the community of youth who feel alone and reassure them that they're not."

Boyd since has earned his General Educational Development diploma and is working at a Dallas law firm.

Angel Collie, a former Whitman student who was featured in School's Out with her former girlfriend, saw the film at the premiere and said, "I wanted to get out there and show what gay youth are really about. I wanted to talk about it and show them that we're real people."

Thanks for the support

Finally, I wish to thank all who pledged a donation to the WRUW 91.1 FM telethon last week. Thanks to those who pledged, we were able to raise $47,000-$7,000 more than our telethon goal of $40,000. Thanks to your pledges, we will be able to purchase new music, including music by LGBT artists, and new and replacement equipment to bring you the best in diverse, LGBTinclusive community radio 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

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.

Jeremy Kushnier, center, is the focus of a love triangle in Aida, which made its Columbus première April 22.

Elton John and Tim Rice's version of the opera won four Tony awards after opening on Broadway in 2000 and is Disney's third Broadway venture after Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.

With a score written for Broadway by John and Rice, Aida is a more adult show than either of the earlier Disney stage musicals. It is a love story with a contemporary energy that tells the ancient story of Aida, a Nubian princess stolen from her country. Aida's fate is complicated by Amneris, an Egyptian princess, and Radames (Kushnier), the handsome soldier they both love.

Michael O'Brien, one of the touring show's wardrobe supervisors, said that this “was a truly spectacular show." O'Brien said that he likes this show better than the other two Disney musicals "because it is more for adults than kids."

For O'Brien, who has been touring with the show for over a year now, the two most powerful moments in the play are Aida's heart-breaking ballad "Easy as Life," and Amneris' gut-wrenching solo in "I Know the Truth." These two songs epitomize the central theme of the musical that deals with a doomed love triangle and the social pressures of not being able to love who one wants.

O'Brien, who has also worked on Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon, lives in Los Angeles and his boyfriend of four years, Feliciano Gonzales, is currently in New York in the Brodway production of The Lion King. Aida will play through May 4 at the Ohio Theatre.

-Kaizaad Kotwal