NEWS:

September 26, 2008

Viewers are asking about Susan and Mike's split on Desperate Housewives. "Mike and Susan's estrangement is the result of a tragedy the two were involved in. Not to worry, we will still see plenty of the plumber. Plus, Susan's new guy, Jackson the house painter (Gale Harold), is pretty likeable," says Korbi Ghosh, of Korbi TV. The five-year jump in the storyline is the subject of this review by television critic Mark Dawidziak, who quotes Teri Hatcher as saying, "It's giving all the characters the opportunity to be someone they haven't been. It's empowering and exciting." According to creator Marc Cherry, Jackson is a "crunchy-granola liberal… and of course, he's got a secret."

Susan's new story line is "a shocker," said Bob Daily, an executive producer, referring to the dissolution of her relationship with Mike. "We'll learn in the first episode what happened between her and Mike, and it's a tragic incident. She's more cynical now and has gone from someone who wanted fairy tale romance to someone who just wants to keep her new relationship casual." Susan's new boyfriend, played by Gale Harold, wants a more committed relationship than she does. As for Mike, he's still around. "We had hoped to keep that more of a secret, but it got out quickly that James Denton would be returning to the show. [We've] discussed a career shift for Susan, who illustrates children's books, but right now we're just dealing with her sorting out her romantic life," Daily said.

Italian fans of Queer As Folk should check out the new Queer As Folk Italia website. Benvenuti/Benvenute!

Michelle Clunie (Melanie on QAF) and Nick Kenkel (Legally Blonde) will host "Salute To Nightlife" on Sunday, October 5th at 9pm at Chelsea's Elmo's Restaurant in New York City, with a performance by singer/songwriter Scottie Gage. Owles Liberal Democratic Club, named for the legendary gay activist Jim Owles, will present awards to nightlife activists and Broadway stars.

Out & About newspaper has partnered with Zanies Nashville to offer fans a chance to win free tickets to see Hal Sparks (Michael on QAF) perform stand-up comedy. You can enter to win a pair of tickets to one of his October 2-4 performances by sendingg an email to contest@outandaboutnewspaper.com with "Hal Sparks" in the subject line. Please be sure to include a daytime phone number in your entry, so the group can notify the lucky winner.

Access Hollywood reports that Robert Gant (Ben on QAF) was among the celebrities who attended the Los Angeles premiere of Dolly Parton's "9 to 5: The Musical" at the Ahmanson Theatre last weekend. The other guests included original "9 To 5" film stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman, as well as Lance Bass, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Gabriel Byrne, "Frasier's" David Hyde Pierce and Peri Gilpin, and "Everybody Loves Raymond" actress Doris Roberts, who brought along Blythe Danner, who starred in "Suddenly Last Summer" with Gale Harold.

Some interesting comments from a review of Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (the documentary of which Gale Harold is an Associate Producer) after a screening by StudioFilmClub in Trinidad last year: This is an absorbing documentary tracing the career of the great singer-songwriter from boy band pin-up to avant-garde legend. It includes interviews with famous fans as well as extensive sessions with the man himself during the recording of his 2006 album, The Drift. "I know nothing about him," says David Bowie of his musical hero at the beginning of this captivating documentary. "Who knows anything about Scott Walker?" "I heard he likes to sit in pubs and watch people play darts," offers Jarvis Cocker. "Is he still cute?" wonders Lulu.

The rumour mill surrounding Walker, one of the great singer-songwriters, has had reason enough to turn over the years. Famously reclusive, he lets his music do the talking. "Ultimately," he tells us, "your work is yourself". But three albums in the last 30 years doesn't give us a lot to go on. Stephen Kijak's film, Scott Walker: 30th Century Man, tries to shed light on this most fascinating subject with colourful and eloquent contributions from collaborators and famous fans alike (including members of Radiohead, Sting, Brian Eno, Johnny Marr and Damon Albarn). But the real coup of director Stephen Kijak's labour of love is to provide access to the artist himself as he records his critically acclaimed 2006 album 'The Drift'. When we first meet him, the 63 year-old Walker comes across like the timid elder brother of 'Body World' anatomist Gunther Von Hagens. The leonine hairdo that helped make Scott such a heartthrob back in The Walker Brothers days has thinned dramatically, as has his luxurious baritone voice. He looks allergic and is disarmingly self-effacing for a man who, in 1965, had a bigger fanclub than The Beatles. He's also surprisingly chatty yet gives little away, referring to an extensive creative slump in the 1970s and 1980s simply as "that 20 year hiatus". He is, in fact, the least likely music legend you can imagine.

Barney Rosenzweig is pissed. In a recent blog he wrote at the Cagney & Lacey website, he talks about the Saturday, September 20 Los Angeles Times CALENDAR front page and the article "Tough, like Jane," where Lynn Smith writes about the EMMYs and the cop show nominees Glenn Close (Damages), Holly Hunter (Saving Grace), Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU) and Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) while holding out for singular praise Prime Suspect, its creator Linda La Plante and its star Helen Mirren as the instigator of such roles. Smith says the show is "considered ground breaking for placing a tough mature and flawed woman at the helm of her own unit. Supported by legions of female fans, Prime Suspect practically established a new television genre..." Rosenzweig calls this revisionism, or at the very least, "poor representation of historical fact". He writes, "Cagney & Lacey was not only about women and their partnership… but was also about two singular women, Christine Cagney (Sharon Gless), who preceded Jane Tennyson as head of her own unit by years while demonstrating every bit as many flaws as her English counterpart, and Mary Beth Lacey who kept up with her partner’s frenetic pace while managing home, children, husband and a night school education was equally as ground breaking as a lead character in any television drama...ever." Rosenzweig encourages readers to let the Times writer know their thoughts on this. [read the blog for more info]

New photos have been posted to ABC Medianet of upcoming Desperate Housewives episodes airing through October 12, 2008. Cinemablend has posted a couple of clips from the season premiere. The leading ladies of the series (Marcia Cross, Dana Delany, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria Parker and Nicollette Sheridan) were on hand to present at last night's Emmy Awards. They announced Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Zeljko Ivanek for "Damages").

When asked what Gale Harold will be doing in the premiere of Desperate Housewives, Michael Ausiello (Entertainment Weekly) replies, "Pretty much the same thing he was up to in every episode of Queer as Folk: He's naked and having sex."

The run of J.B. Priestley's The Glass Cage has been extended an additional week, through November 2. The play, which features Jack Wetherall (Vic Grassi on QAF) began previews September 4 and officially opened September 21. In his review for TheaterMania.com, David Finkle says the characters "are brought to bracing life by director Lou Jacob and a thoroughly adept cast".

InsideSoCal catches up with Sharon Gless, and talks to her about the level of success and longevity she has enjoyed in her career, including five seasons on Showtime's 'Queer as Folk' as the larger-than-life Debbie, a no-nonsense working mom with a heart of gold and a wild red wig that allowed her to stand out in any crowd. "I promise you I come from gratitude every single day because they still let me do it," Sharon said, while chatting at last weekend's Creative Arts Emmys. "I'm sure as you know most of my peers are not working anymore. So I'm very blessed. I've been given good material that seems to land and I get to be a part of it."

As for QAF, Sharon had this to say: "You know, I've been on many series. This is my 10th. And you always swear you'll never part, you'll all be friends and you'll stay together forever and you never do - except for Tyne Daly and myself. The boys and I have stayed close, close, close friends all these years. We never parted. We all lived in another country (the series was shot in Canada) and the work they had to do was very intimate stuff so we supported each other." It should come as no surprise that Sharon is staunchly against California's Proposition 8 which seeks to ban marriage between same-sex couples. "I'm gonna fight it. I'm there, I'm absolutely there. The gay community has been absolutely wonderful to me, they've kept me going all my career." [read the full interview]

Here's more from The Town Crier Online about Bruce McDonald's world premiere of "Pontypool" at the Toronto International Film Festival, and his collaboration with illustrator John Coburn, who created drawings of the behind-the-scenes action of this film from McDonald, who directed many memorable episodes of Queer As Folk.

Good news! Robert Gant's "Save Me" has been extended yet another week at the Clearview Chelsea Cinema in NYC.

From the Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA): Sharon Gless has two Emmys at home for "Cagney & Lacey" but was excited to be nominated in the guest-actress category for an episode she did of FX's 'Nip/Tuck.' "This (is) my ninth nomination, but I've never been nominated in this category, and I've never been to the Creative Arts (Emmys)," said Sharon. She said she was surprised to get the nomination and gave credit for it to series creator Ryan Murphy, who wrote "the sickest, most twisted thing he's ever written" for her to play, she said.

Peter Paige's film, "Leaving Barstow" is making the film festival rounds. Michelle Clunie (Melanie on QAF) won Best Supporting Actress at the Breckenridge Film Fest for her part in this film, and Kevin Sheridan won Best Actor at the Rhode Island Film Fest. Upcoming screenings are at the Eugene International Film Festival, October 3-5 (Eugene, OR), the Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Film Fest on Sunday, October 12, and the Red Rocks Film Festival, November 13-16 (Springdale/St George, UT).

Miner's Alley Playhouse in Golden, Colorado presents "Summertree", written by Ron Cowen (writer and co-executive producer of QAF), September 19 to October 26. "Summertree" was first produced in 1967 during the height of the Vietnam War. It was also Cowen's first play. It received the Drama Desk Award for Best off-Broadway Play of 1968 and went on to become a Pulitzer Prize nominee that same year. Kirk Douglas purchased the film rights to the play as a gift to his son after Michael Douglas was fired from the stage production. The movie, starring Michael Douglas, was released in 1971. Tickets are $20. Call 303-935-3044 or visit the website for more information.

From The New York Times: The Levi’s 501 button-fly line of jeans sold by Levi Strauss & Company is joining with the Logo unit of MTV Networks, owned by Viacom, for a campaign called "Logo Unbuttoned." Promotions for the campaign are scheduled to begin on Tuesday on Logo, a network aimed at gay and lesbian viewers. The "Logo Unbuttoned" title echoes the phrase "Live Unbuttoned," which is the theme of a worldwide campaign for Levi’s 501. The company will be the sole sponsor of a program block that Logo plans to introduce on October 12, "Saturday Nights Unbuttoned Presented by Levi’s," which will run from 1 to 3 a.m. on Sunday mornings. The shows will be the first on Logo — a basic-cable channel available in 33 million homes — that will not be edited for language or other content. Some taboos will still apply; among them, no frontal nudity. The programming will include series like "The Big Gay Sketch Show," "Queer as Folk" and "The L Word"; music videos; comedy shows with Mario Cantone and Joan Rivers; theatrical movies like "Fighting Tommy Riley"; and short films. The programs will also be on a Web site and on mobile phones as well as on TV. In all outlets, there will be commercials and video clips, created by an agency named Digital Kitchen, featuring gay men and lesbians talking frankly about trying to live life "unbuttoned."

The Cinema Society of San Deigo will host a screening of Falling for Grace, followed by a discussion of the film, at AMC La Jolla 12 Theatres in California on October 7, 2008. Fay Ann Lee, who co-stars in the film alongside Gale Harold, is an invited guest.

Randy Harrison's production company, the Arts Bureau (tAB) (also located on MySpace), has sent out an update on their current activities. Their first short film, "thinking..." is being submitted to several film festivals worldwide. They've completed principal photography on their first feature film, "Return Shift Escape," which was co-written by Randy and People-Food's Daniel Stessen, who also directed. Randy stars in the film, along with Christopher Stewart, Amanda Byron and (tAB) co-founder Marci Adilman. The movie was shot over three weeks in Altmar, New York on a beautiful, private lakefront property. Here are a few images:
Return Shift Escape (1)
Return Shift Escape (2)
Return Shift Escape (3)

From The LA Times: Sharon Gless may have turned 65 this year and qualified for Medicare, but she's not looking to retire any time soon. In fact, the Emmy Award-winning star of "Cagney and Lacey" and "The Trials of Rosie O'Neill" is busier than ever. She has a kicky supporting role as the neurotic but loving mother of spy Jeffrey Donovan on USA's action comedy hit "Burn Notice" and is the recipient of an Emmy nomination in a guest starring role for her creepy turn as a stalker who makes life hell for Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) on FX's "Nip/Tuck." Her performance as the domineering, disturbed and murderous agent -- and stuffed bear maker -- Colleen Rose, was startling, complex and even, at times, sympathetic. Recently, Gless chatted about her Emmy nomination from her home in Miami. [read the interview]

Raymond at Queerty.com recently interviewed Peter Paige ("Emmett" on QAF) about what he's been up to (short answer: LOTS!). They talk about the gay community, closeted gay actors, and the importance of having unapologetic images out there in the media. Peter says he became interested in writing/directing after realizing very quickly on QAF that "as an actor you are really just a part of the machine and if you want to play a role in the real storytelling, you need be involved as a writer or a director. For me, I used Queer as Folk as 'graduate school' to learn as much as I could about what happens on the other side of the camera. I would never just sit in my trailer when I wasn't filming. I would always go on the set, sit by the director, ask questions, and visit every department and learn about what they did and how it contributed to the overall production."

Raymond asks Peter if he was ever worried about the messages Queer as Folk sent to the gay community or uncomfortable with any of his storylines. Peter says, "We knew that the show was going to be something very new and important for the gay community, and we knew that we carried a sort of responsibility for being one of the first multifaceted representations of the gay community on television. For me, the most important thing about the show was that it was real. Whenever I saw a new story, I would ask, Is this true? Is this real? Could this really happen? And I'm proud to say I could always answer yes. I really think we never did a story that wasn't real. Of course, sometimes things were sensationalized, or components were dramatized, but basically everything that happened on the show either happened to me or someone in the cast or crew." Raymond asks who Peter thinks is the gayest person in the world. His reply? "Johnny Weir. Emmett. You." Read the entire interview, and check out these hot new photos of Peter:
Peter Paige (1)
Peter Paige (2)

From Variety: Vivendi Entertainment has grabbed all U.S. rights to "Tennessee," the latest pic from "Monster's Ball" producer Lee Daniels. Directed by Aaron Woodley ("Rhinoceros Eyes") and written by Russell Schaumburg, the film was produced by Daniels in association with Smokewood Entertainment. Adam Rothenberg, Ethan Peck and Mariah Carey star in the tale of two brothers on a journey to their hometown in search of their estranged father. Carey plays an aspiring singer who flees her abusive husband to join them. In the film, Carey performs original ballad "Right to Dream," which she co-wrote with Willie Nelson. Vivendi has set a December release.

Robert Gant's movie "Save Me" has done so well at the Clearview Chelsea Cinema in New York City that its run has been extended through next weekend. So spread the word, and if you haven't seen this film, check it out -- you won't be disappointed! The theatre is located at 260 West 23rd Street. To purchase tickets call 212-777-FILM or visit the cinema website. Read an article in the New York Blade with comments from Judith Light, one of the stars of the film.

There are lots of new photos up at the Desperate Housewives ABC Medianet site, including a couple new shots of Gale Harold and Teri Hatcher, along with the show's new press release. You can check out the bios of the actors and much more (some items are inaccessible unless you have an account).

From USA Weekend: Who was that man at Teri Hatcher's door in the season finale [of Desperate Housewives]? He's Gale Harold, 39, and all he knows is the characters new to Wisteria Lane are there to shake things up; on set it feels a little like high school. He's trying to fit in. "I'm just sitting back in an anthropological way watching it happen."

Art imitates life at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. Jim Slotek writes about director Aaron Woodley ("Rhinoceros Eyes") and how he draws on his weird childhood experiences in an article for the Toronto Sun. Woodley's new project, "Toronto Stories," came together at a Rhinoceros Eyes release party, when he was introduced to fellow Canuck filmmaker David Weaver (Century Hotel). "We got to talking over some beers about how we were the next generation of Toronto filmmakers and how it was important to tell stories about this city -- which we both felt is unrepresented cinematically." The result is a quartet of stories that includes a failed sexual relationship, a gun standoff, and a chess-playing homeless man who sets out to save a North African boy lost in the city. "There was a great amount of artistic freedom on this project," Woodley says of Toronto Stories. "I found it to be one of the most amazingly rewarding artistic projects I've had."

Also at TIFF this year, Bruce McDonald is the director of Pontypool, a take on the name of the 1998 book by Tony Burgess titled, "Pontypool Changes Everything." McDonald has worked on popular TV shows like Degrassi: The Next Generation and Queer as Folk. The main character in the story, as in the book, is a man named Grant Mazzy. Mazzy is a news-radio personality who recently lost his job with a national broadcasting company. "He's sort of starting over again at this small town radio station in Pontypool," Burgess said. "He's a guy who is late in his career and he's having to reinvent himself and suddenly this virus appears."