Friday, April 15, 2005

TV ROUNDUP
A bad week for gay men on reality TV: Coby was voted off on Survivor:Palau, and Karamo got the boot on MTV's reality competition The Inferno 2. Boyfriends Lynn and Alex did manage to stay in The Amazing Race, but barely.

Gays on scripted television fared a little better: destructive teen Andrew finally admitted he was gay on Desperate Housewives, and Chris Didion continued to kick ass as a tall gay drink of water on the new P.I. drama Eyes.

MUSIC ROUNDUP
The Scissor Sisters flew to Vegas to record with Elton John recently; Boy George is making waves with his claim that Gwen Stafani's husband Gavin Rossdale and one-hit-wonder Marilyn were an item years ago; and as an April Fool's joke, Russ Parr told listeners of his show on 93.9 WKYS in Washington D.C. that popular R&B singer Usher had come out as bisexual on his website. After angry calls from Usher's manager, Parr apologized on-air for the joke.

PARADISE FALLS COMES TO THE U.S.
Gay premium channel here! has acquired the first two seasons of Paradise Falls, a Canadian soap that includes three gay characters. Episodes of the series will be available to watch individually on the premium channel beginning in the next few months.

DE-BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN?
Variety reports that Brokeback Mountain, the long-awaited cinematic version of the short story about two gay cowboys (played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) has "underwhelmed" the selection committee for the Cannes Film Festival, and its chances of making the festival are "wobbly." Director Ang Lee (The Wedding Banquet) has previously stated that the gay love scenes in the book are likely to be left on the editing room floor when the film hits theaters later this year, dashing the hopes of gay men everywhere.

So, not a great film and no gay love scenes. Sounds like a winner!

BUT DO THEY ACCESORIZE BETTER AFTERWARDS?
The results of two new University of Minnesota studies indicate a correlation between watching gays on TV, and, well, not hating them in real life. The study measured the attitudes of students towards gay men before and after viewing ten episodes of Six Feet Under, and (in a separate study) before and after viewing three episodes of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. In both cases, there was a marked decrease in the students' levels of prejudice towards gay men after viewing the TV shows, especially among those students who had had the least amount of prior direct contact with gay men in real life.

That's it for this week! Check back next Friday for a new installment of Best. Gay. Week. Ever.