July 11, 2003

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 11

on the airoff the press

CBS pulls Nathan Lane's sitcom from summer airing

by John Graves

CBS has pulled Charlie Lawrence, Tony Award-winning Producers star Nathan Lane's new sitcom about an openly gay U.S. representative, from its summer schedule.

"We did pull them from the schedule and they'll likely return to the schedule later this summer," a CBS spokesman told the New York Daily News.

Originally scheduled to air last spring, Charlie Lawrence was instead rescheduled as a summer replacement show on Sundays at 8:30 pm for seven weeks. Unfortunately, the show debuted to dismally low ratings.

Nathan Lane has won Tony awards for his performances in The Producers and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum on Broadway. He received a Golden Globe nomination for his work in The Birdcage.

Although his sitcom is on hiatus for now, Lane can be heard co-starring with Andrea Matin as the voice of George in George and Martha, an animated series with a gay subtext featuring Oscar and Wilde, a same-sex alligator couple, airing on HBO Family.

Lesbian love 'too much,' but rape OK

By the time you read this, fans of All My Children will know what ABC Soaps in Depth reported: On the episode that aired July 8, Bianca was brutally raped by the evil Michael Canbius.

As new head writer Megan McTavish explained, "Bianca is raped not because of her sexual orientation, but because she is the beloved of all the people that Michael hates. She is Erica's darling. She is Kendall's sister. She is Jack's niece. She is Lena's love. Boyd

IN

is one of her best friends. She becomes, in a sense, the sacrificial lamb, because everyone loves her and because she is truly the most innocent of all those involved in this story."

Actress Eden Riegel, who plays Bianca, said, "The situation is just full of dramatic possibility. But the fact is: [Rape] could happen to any woman or anybody, gay or straight."

The story may have a good resolution eventually as McTavish concluded, "This begins a story that is going to take a while. It has many twists and turns to it and is going to [bring] in a whole lot of other people. It's tragic, but tragedy overcome. Tragedy fought with... Tragedy can be very inspirational."

Nevertheless, lesbigay fans of All My Children should be outraged that the show's writers and ABC felt that an explicit love scene between Bianca and Lena was too much for daytime TV but a violent scene in which daytime's only lesbian feature character is graphically raped is acceptable.

You owe us big time, ABC! Every other character has had a bedroom scene with their lover, including Bianca's former love interest Maggie and her new boyfriend Henry, Greenlee and Carlos in a department store after hours and a very explicit and shocking scene where a young, soon-to-be-wed doctor was shown humping another woman and fellow doctor in standing position in a closet.

Bianca, on the other hand, has only experienced a hurried kiss at the airport and an alltoo-sisterly hug when she realized Lena had been telling the truth and really loved her. It is unconscionable that Bianca's only sex scene involved a rape by a man.

THE

'Barbara Walters on crack'

Although no air date has been set, People magazine's openly gay fashion guru Steven Cojocaru has closed a deal with Paramount to develop a talk show.

"Picture Barbara Walters on crack, only nobody will be crying," Cojocaru said, describing his new show to USA Today.

Cojocaru will also begin providing fashion commentary for Entertainment Weekly sometime this month.

Cross-species same-sex couple

While "the first network for men" will still have to call itself "the new TNN" until a lawsuit by director Spike Lee is resolved, TNN/Spike TV has started unleashing its male-oriented, adults-only cartoons.

In addition to Kelsey Grammer starring in Gary the Rat and Pamela Anderson as superhero/exotic dancer Striperella, TNN has also introduced The Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon.

Much like the earlier, Nickelodeon-produced Ren & Stimpy cartoons, the eponymous Chihuahua and cat get involved in all sorts of fairly fecal adventures. The new version, however, gave creator John Kricfalusi full control over the characters without having to keep them at a childfriendly level.

Kricfalusi has turned them into the most dysfunctional same-sex couple on television. They're not role models, they might not treat each other well, but then again, not all opposite-sex couples on television are role models or treat each other well.

The Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon airs on TNN Thursdays at 10 pm.

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 Saturdays at 9:30 am, and at www.wruw.org. Dave Haskell, Jim McGrattan and Kim Jones also contribute to this column.

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