August 8, 2003

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 11

eveningsout

Magazine makes history with same-sex wedding feature

by John Graves

Condé Nast's Bride's magazine made bridal-magazine history when it published a full-page article on same-sex weddings in the September-October issue, which is on newsstands now.

The New York Times reports this is the first time any of the five top bridal magazines has ever published an article on such unions. The article, "Outward Bound," a discussion of recent developments in same-sex ceremonies, was written by freelance journalist David Toussaint. He interviewed lesbian and gay couples about why they want their families, friends and the community at large to publicly recognize their very special ceremonies.

The article also offers advice to guests of same-sex wedding ceremonies and urges readers "not to panic" if they receive an invitation to one. Noting that the New York Times and 210 other newspapers now publish notices of same-sex ceremonies, Bride's editor in chief Millie Martini Bratten said the story was discussed at an editorial meeting in December and was assigned after some discussion of whether the topic was appropriate for their readers.

New ad takes travel out of this world

With an ad that shows a male puppet checking out another male puppet lying on a beach, the online travel agency Orbitz has

launched the first TV ad campaign by a major company to directly target the gay market.

A report by USA Today business correspondent Jayne Clark says the ads began airing in late June on BBC America and Bravo during the series So Graham Norton, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and other gay-themed shows.

"Gay travelers spend more and travel more," Orbitz spokesperson Jeffrey Marsh said. "Going on TV is the ultimate sign that you're a gay-friendly company."

Forrester Research, a firm that analyzes technology trends, reports that gay and lesbian households spent 16% more on leisure travel and 32% more on business travel than their straight counterparts in the past year. About a third of gay travelers booked one half or more of their trips online as opposed to 23% of the straight travelers who responded to the Forrester survey. No O'Dowd-O'Donnell feud

Rosie O'Donnell has denied recent tabloid reports that she and gay pop star Boy George are feuding over Taboo, the hit London musical about Boy George's friendship with the late Leigh Bowery that the two are developing with gay playwright Charles Busch for the Broadway stage.

O'Donnell told the New York Daily News she and Boy George, whose real name is George O'Dowd, e-mail each other on a daily basis.

"We love each other," she said. "We're both from working-class Irish Catholic backgrounds."

Busch said O'Donnell asked him to adapt the musical for Broadway because, “Rosie thought there was a lot of heart in it they weren't telling."

O'Donnell herself will not perform in the musical set to open November 13 because, as she told the Daily News, "Rosie O'Donnell doesn't sing well enough to be in a play I'm producing."

Get Bruce a razor

Gay comic Bruce Vilanch publicly shaved off the blond beard he has sported for 32 years on Live With Regis and Kelly July 24. He is preparing to take over the role of Edna Turnblad, Tracey's mom, on the national road tour of John Waters' hit Broadway musical Hairspray opening September 17 in Baltimore.

In a pre-shave interview with USA Today, Vilanch said he was attracted to the role of Edna, "because she's hysterically funny, but she also has sweetness and humanity.”

"The show is smart with art,” Vilanch added, "and it's about fat people winning, which is unusual."

Vilanch said he would have no problem playing a woman. "Privately, I've been a bearded lady for years."

Is Johnny Depp available?

Meanwhile, Waters, spurred by the success of Hairspray, has approved a musical theater version of Cry-Baby, his 1990 film about the romance between a debutante and a boy "from the wrong side of the tracks. Of all my movies, it's the only real musical,” Waters said. "People would stop at points and start singing original music."

"We're going to change the music now," Waters added, "but the basic blueprint is there."

Waters explained why the themes and characters in Cry-Baby translate well to the stage, saying, "People don't realize what a class system we live in, and how it's sexualized in a weird way, so that the grass is always erotically greener on the other side of the economic fence. Also, we have characters like an oversexed tease, a pregnant tough girl and the ugliest girl in the world, who's proud of it-Hatchet Face."

Although Waters didn't say when the new play would open, he noted that he was releasing a DVD version of Cry-Baby this fall. "It's my only movie that hasn't been released on DVD yet, and it will have all this commentary and extra stuff. So maybe this is CryBaby's moment."

'Gaysploitation'

The August 8 issue of Entertainment Weekly features a five-page cover story by Nicholas Fonseca on how Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, "the gayest show on TV (sorry Will) became this summer's breakout hit," a companion piece by Henry Goldblatt on the new phenomena of “gaysploitation" and a look at what's coming up on gay-themed TV.

Fonseca says Queer Eye's co-creator and co-executive producer David Collins got the idea after he watched a woman berate her husband for his slovenly appearance and lack of style at a Boston art gallery two years ago. Collins, who is gay himself, said the exasperated woman then pointed to a group of well-dressed gay men nearby and exclaimed, "Why can't you be more like them?”

Collins said the men took pity on the husband and swooped in to offer him their advice on grooming and style. "Those guys just dove right in and began giving out pointers," Collins noted. "I said to myself: This is hysterical."

In his companion article, Goldblatt explains that up until now, gays on TV were portrayed as saintly virgins whose only purpose was to educate America about the evil of homophobia. Goldblatt says that Queer Eye "is terrific and groundbreaking because it upends this saintly stereotype: These men are flawed and fabulous. They're strong, pushy and intolerant of those who don't listen to them. And unlike Will & Grace's Jack, they aren't the butt of jokes—indeed they excel at something."

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Goldblatt says, "In this world of gaysploitation, my people shave better than you, apply hair products better than you, buy pearls and mingle at parties better than you.. Indeed, the men of gaysploitation do pretty much of everything better than you except date."

Coming soon to a TV near you

As to what's next for gay-themed shows on TV this year, Entertainment Weekly lists seven new shows:

A Minute with Stan Hooper, a Fox sitcom set to air this fall in which Norm Macdonald plays a big-city newsman who moves to a small town in Wisconsin and discovers that middle America has gay people too;

Gay Hollywood, a documentary that follows two filmmakers, a writer, an actor and a drag performer looking for their big break airing August 11 on AMC;

It's All Relative, an ABC fall sitcom about a guy from a conservative, Irish-Catholic family who marries a Harvard graduate with two gay dads;

The L-Word, a lesbian-themed drama coming to Showtime in January;

Mr. & Mr. Nash, starring gay actor Alan Cumming as one half of a gay couple who do interior design by day and solve crimes at night set to debut on ABC in 2004;

Wonderfalls, a drama set to air on Fox in 2004 about a woman with discovers an ability to help others by following the advice of talking inanimate objects who has "an overachieving lesbian sister";

American Pride, a reality series still under development that follows a nationwide search for "America's first openly gay country singer."

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The aftermath of rape

As expected, the rape of Bianca, daytime TV's only lesbian character, by the evil Michael Cambias on All My Children has generated a lot of controversy.

Head writer Megan McTavish defends her. decision to have Bianca raped, telling Soap Opera Weekly, "I made my choice because Michael was an almost-rapist when I came to the show. They had already touched on Erica's history of rape and how that affected her, and it seemed to me that rather than be scared off by that, that's the natural place for all the characters to go. To me, it's a love story among these three women.`

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The three women McTavish was talking about are Bianca, her mother and her sister Kendall.

Brian Frons, president of ABC Daytime, said, "Bianca's rape came out of our desire to deepen the relationship between Erica and her two daughters, to deepen Kendall and Bianca's relationship. and change the family dynamics among the Kane women. There was nothing about Bianca's sexual orientation that played a major role."

Rachel Baum, associate director of the gay and lesbian National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, said, “I think they've done a great job of showing her trauma and shock. I just wish there wasn't this behind-the-scenes issue of whether the rape has anything to do with her sexual orientation; then we could say unequivocally, 'They're doing a good job. Bianca isn't only a woman; she is also a lesbian, and realistically, that would influence some aspects of her recovery process."

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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