Peter Paige's appearance on Open Mike with Mike Bullard, which originally aired on March 28, will be rebroadcast on Wednesday July 16th.

There are also new photos of Hal Sparks being his usual goofy self, getting his nails painted at The Kahlua Lounge Benefiting Dress for Success (enter his name in the search field).

Showtime Networks Inc.	QAF Productions
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"It was an odd mix of being fun and horrifying all at once. I was very scared to let him go to such horrific depths. It was hard for me to let him get into situations that I knew the fans of the show would hate him for, especially being so mean to Saint Emmett. Whom everybody loves so much. That was really tough for me to do and I fought it a bit. I finally had to kind of let him go through this terrible journey, because I knew in the end it was all for a good purpose, but I feel very very fortunate that Dan and Ron trusted me, that I wouldn't let Ted become too despised, that I would be able to find a way to help people understand the pain that he's in and the reasons why he turned into the evil Ted that he did. Hopefully, I accomplished that."

"Now here's an odd thing: I lost weight at the end of the season to try and make Ted look unhealthy due to his drug addiction, but it seems the skinnier I got and the more gaunt I looked, the hotter people said I was. I'm a little worried about our fanbase." (ha ha, Scott)

When asked about the camaraderie among the cast, Scott says, "Working together so closely and often nakedly on the show has made us one big crazy dysfunctional family, and we miss each other terribly when we're not around each other every day."

Catch Hal Sparks and Scott Lowell back-to-back on July 2nd on Showtime Showcase East in Bleacher Bums at 8pm and On The Edge at 10pm, respectively.

Last but not least, the Appearances page has been updated with new information on hiatus projects for the actors.

Eden Lane is written by Tom Donaghy and directed by the Playhouse's own Des McAduff, and centers around a distressed woman named May who leaves the city to establish her dream home. Once there, she finds things with her husband, daughter and gay best friend aren't as she had planned. The problem? Her interior designer won’t let her put a window in her bedroom wall. While May’s busy trying to look outside, the view inside the house reveals more problems than she could ever have anticipated. As her complicated family—May’s martini-loving husband Philip, her nursing-student daughter Ruby and her long-suffering gay best friend Timothy—try to live in a new place, they come to see each other in a new light.

Speaking of Peter... he, along with buddy Scott Lowell and the producers of QAF, Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, showed up at the Los Angeles Film Festival this past weekend to support Gale and see Particles of Truth. From all accounts, it seems the boys were in good spirits and very happy to see each other after being separated during the first part of their hiatus from QAF this summer. Peter mentioned on his website that they are all close, and try to see each other whenever they are in the same city. The actors spoke candidly with fans, signed autographs, took pictures, and joked around with one another. As with the Tribeca Film Festival, there was a brief Q&A period following the screening, during which Gale spoke about how he became involved with the project, how he read twice for the part of Morrison (once over the phone, and once at Jennifer Elster's offices in NYC). It seems apparent that Gale is very proud of this film and has been doing his best to help promote it in the hopes of finding a distributor.

According to the Gale Harold fan site, the indie film Wake will be screened at the Maine International Film Festival (www.miff.org/) on Saturday, July 12th at 7:00 pm at the Waterville Opera House in Waterville, Maine. Gale and some of his co-stars are scheduled to appear.

One of the busiest actors on the show is Robert Gant, who recently chatted with fans online and has several appearances lined up in the coming weeks. Bobby's chat transcript has been posted to the Showtime site (www.sho.com/queer/chat.cfm). The actor says he really "digs" the character of Ben, and part of why he wanted to take the role in the first place was because he felt that he had many things in common with Ben. They both share a love of literature, and are interested in a spiritual path. They both consider fitness to be important and love to dance. Of his contribution to QAF, he says, "I think Ben has added a level of maturity to the show. I think that the characters when they began were very much at the beginning of an evolutionary process that they're somewhere in the middle of now. And I think Ben cam to the show having done a lot of work on himself. I think also part of why the producers like the character was that when they actually saw him on the screen they felt like his was a voice that didn't otherwise exist. And I think he's also a really interesting counterbalance to Brian. They're both very strong alpha gay male characters. Who believe strongly in their life paths and yet htose paths are so divergent. They're virtually polar opposites. I thnk that makes Ben's addition to the show an important one.":

If you want to see more of Bobby, he will be at Houston Pride (www.pridehouston.org/) on June 28, 2003, appearing on a Night Pride float. The following night, Bobby will be appearing at the night club South Beach on the final stop of the QAF Babylon Tour. Check the appearances page for more events.

Scott Lowell will be chatting with fans this Sunday, June 22nd, immediately following the season finale. Log on to Showtime at 10pm ET to chat with other fans and submit questions for Scott, who will be joining fans around 10:45pm ET.

New photos have been added to the Set Design section of the Showtime site, including behind the scenes looks at the sets of Woody's and Babylon. There is also a new interview with Michael Perlmutter the Music Coordinator. For those who are interested in the sounds behind the scenes, this is a great opportunity to learn more about how things are put together. Michael says, "In Season 1, we had a composer on board for a few episodes but realized that we rarely used him. The show's style is not typically 'musically dramatic' compared to other shows. We do not use score in the emotional or dramatic scenes. We sometimes use music but most often we let the characters drive the scene. In addition, we have used various musicians in Toronto to help us with certain scenes.". He also says that the music chosen is often something he thinks the characters WOULD listen to IF it is playing in their home, but when the music plays on top of a scene, they play what they think works with the emotion. "We like to use eclectic music - artists/songs that aren't that familiar to the audience. It's fresh for everybody and adds a certain uniqueness to the show." He explains that it can be quite expensive to acquire a song. "There are many variables that make a song expensive: Over end credits, stature of song/artist, duration of song (1 minute vs. 5 minutes), and the various terms that we have to negotiate - for TV, for Video, and length of term (Perpetuity or 5 years etc.)". Visit the Showtime site for more of this interview.

New pictures have been added to the Queer As Folk Gallery section (under "Miscellaneous QAF") on Dean Armstrong's website (www.dean-armstrong.com). There are cute shots of Dean with Gale and with Scott from the Perry Ellis/Details Party earlier this year in Toronto.

Michelle Clunie's website reports that she was named Grand Marshall of Key West Pride. Keep an eye on the photos section of their site (currently featuring Pride 2002) for some colorful images.

Last but not east, it is being reported that the movie Bang Bang You're Dead (featuring Randy Harrison) is slated for DVD release by Paramount in September of 2003.

The June 2003 issue of Inside Entertainment has some great features for QAF fans:

INSIDE E EXCLUSIVE: Rainbow Warriors
On a labyrinthine series of soundstages in Toronto's west end, writer/producers Daniel Lipman and Ron Cowen are quietly making television history. The award-winning pair, partners both personally and professionally, are, with coproducer Sheila Hockin, the brains behind Queer as Folk, the boldly controversial, sexually frank drama about the intertwining lives and loves of six gay men and two gay women in modern-day Pittsburgh.

In the "Celebrity Bookshelf" section, Inside E asks Gale Harold what he's currently reading:
"I'm reading Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War by T.J. Stiles. It's a complete reevaluation of James. It's great. Oh, and I've also been rereading [Anthony Burgess'] A Clock- work Orange."

When asked the same question, Peter Paige replied:
"I just finished one of the best novels I've ever read. It's called At Swim, Two Boys [by Irish author Jamie O'Neill]. It's f***ing brilliant. Extraordinary prose. A beautifully told story. I found it staggering."

The magazine's television section includes a write-up by Kendon Polak about the series Bliss in which Thea Gill appears:
Celebrate the female gaze. The steamy (and rather raunchy) female erotica series makes its debut on regular cable on Friday, June 6 -- with a healthy, primetime slot to boot. Each half-hour episode of the Gemini-nominated series is a short story of sexual awakening told exclusively (for a change!) from a female perspective. Showcase will air seasons I and II (eight episodes apiece) back-to-back. Season III, in preproduction, is expected to air on TMN next February. Cast includes Adam Beach, Callum Keith Rennie, Thea Gill and Peter Wingfield.

The 'dirt' on Gale Harold...
(by Shinan Govani, a writer for canada.com):
"Paul Gross from Due South was there. So was Queer as Folk's Gale Harold, whose show, come to think of it, could very well also work with the title Due South. The meeting of the hunks happened last week at Carlu [one of Toronto's premiere special events venues], at a lovely, drinks-filled, pat-ourselves-on-the-backs supper for Showcase television. Network execs, TV critics, small-screen slaves and a few Trailer Park Boys all mixed it up, marking the occasion of what one insider called 'Showcase's bar mitzvah'. [...] Although I wasn't able to stay for the whole din-din (I slipped out right after the very sexy asparagus starter, just as the now-bearded Harold, sitting beside me, turned and asked, "Did you get enough dirt?"), I stayed long enough to learn that Showcase, eight years young, definitely has a lot to celebrate.

A page of press images has been added to the Particles Of Truth website. Check out Gale and Jennifer at the after-parties and on the streets of New York.

In Redlandsdailyfacts.com, Valerie Kuklenski writes about Particles of Truth in an article entitled, "You are not in Cannes or Park City":
Jennifer Elster's debut feature has generated some heat since it screened last month at New York's Tribeca Film Festival. It's an unlikely Manhattan love story between a painter (Elster) and a writer (Gale Harold of 'Queer as Folk'), she still carrying the baggage of being raised by drug-addled parents and he a reclusive germophobe who spends hours on end in his BMW SUV. (Gee, wonder which character the Los Angeles audience will relate to more easily?) With artist Lilli's insecurity about her talent and her frequent brushes with inhumanity -- in a bar's back room, at a family gathering, in her own memories -- and writer Morrison's anxieties and need to please his father, one might expect this twosome to tangle in a fast downward spiral. But each is uplifted in the process of supporting the other.

Check out this slideshow of 100 pictures from the Babylon Tour on its stop in Chicago at Circuit.

TV alert:
Next Monday night (technically Tuesday morning, June 17, at 1:05am) Showcase begins airing the UK version of QAF. For those who haven't seen it, it's definitely worth a peek... similar to the North American version in some ways, but definitely its own animal.

The June Q&A is up on ScottLowell.com. After reading the Q&A myself, I felt compelled to share some comments that Scott made regarding the future of QAF. He spoke about the pending retirement of Showtime exec Jerry Offsay, and how the vision of his replacement will determine whether QAF remains a staple of the network viewing schedule, or is cut out entirely. Scott definitely thinks that the fourth season should NOT be the last one!

On a related note, Annie (who runs the forum) mentioned that questions for Scott have been a bit slow lately, so if you want to see a July Q&A, please submit questions, and tell your friends to do so too. Be sure to read the submission rules first. And before you leave, check out the Miscellaneous section of the Gallery for a cute picture of Scott and Bobby Gant in Denver last year. (Guy Smiley? Too funny).

A fun fact from the Silent Auction at Runway... one of the helpers went into the kitchen and came out with two bananas. He ate one and decided to auction off the other. He made up a bid sheet and everything. The bid opened at 10 cents. Someone said they should have Scott and Michelle sign them to make it more valuable... and they did! They each wrote a semi-naughty message. Soon, the bid was up to $5.00, then $20.00...then $50.00. The bids closed $50.00! The winning bidder was very pleased with his prize, and also with Scott coming over to take a picture with him and the banana. Too funny!! Thanks again to Cathie for sharing her story.

A female Brian Kinney?...
Kate Moennig has been cast to play Shane McCutcheon in Showtime's new series, The L Word (previous called Earthlings), premiering in January 2004, about a college graduate from Chicago who moves to West Hollywood to live near her boyfriend, but ends up sharing a loft with several 'lipstick' lesbians. The character of Shane is described as a "female Brian Kinney of Queer as Folk" because she gets all the girls, all the time, and leaves broken hearts all over the place; her list of conquests is legendary. This female lothario is lanky and lithe, with a short, shaggy haircut. She is casual and yet somehow transcendentally cool--and could almost be mistaken for a boy. She wears faded jeans, big black biker boots, a heavy low-slung belt buckle, and un-self-conscious garnishments of leather. In an excerpt from the pilot script, Shane visits a friend's house to skinny dip in the pool, and ends up having sex with another naked beauty who is sunning herself on a raft. Sounds... interesting! For more on the show, visit KateMoennig.net.

Hal Sparks guest stars on "One on One" tonight at 8:30pm on UPN, playing "Danny Davis, Jr." in the episode titled, "I Believe I Can Fly: Part 2" which originally aired September 30th, 2002. You can catch him again on Pyramid on Tuesday (June 3rd) at 10am.

"One of the biggest themes of QAF is that by accepting all types of families and all forms of groupings, you get to that point where we love each other, we love the people we choose to have in our lives, we are caring, we are accepting, and we've done something that gives us the meaning of life," says Thea. [more]

JT LeRoy (whose works Randy Harrison and other celebrities read from at recent events in New York and Pittsburgh) is Associate Producer on Gus Van Sant's new film, "Elephant", a minimalist take on the Columbine high school massacre which scooped the Palme d'Or and the best director award at the 56th Festival de Cannes. The last time an American movie took the Palme was in 1994, when Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" won top honors. Randy starred in the 2001 television movie "Bang Bang You're Dead", a vehicle that was meant to open a discussion on school violence.