Friday, July 1, 2005

TV ROUNDUP
Six Feet Under (HBO) is moving back to Sundays, after garnering low ratings in its new Monday night spot. The Today Show (NBC) has opened up their annual wedding contest to same-sex couples for the first time in its six-year history, although only gay couples in states where gay marriage is legal (i.e. Massachusetts) will qualify.

Coming up: QueerDay.com makes a pretty good case for why the requisite gay house member in the next season of Big Brother (CBS) is Beau, an African American personal shopper; tune in to the premiere on Thursday, July 7 at 8pm to find out if they're right.

LOGO FINALLY LAUNCHES
MTV's new gay basic cable channel Logo launched this week. Although their content is currently limited mostly to concerts and GLBT-themed movies like Kissing Jessica Stein and When Night is Falling, they have some interesting shows in the pipeline, like Noah's Arc and Surfer Girls. They've also just picked up all 22 episodes of It's All Relative, the short-lived ABC sitcom about the struggle of the parents (one set straight Republicans, the other set two gay men) of a newly married couple to get along. You can find more info at logoonline.com.

SAY GOODBYE TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD
This week, ABC scrapped the upcoming July reality show Welcome to the Neighborhood, in which a group of middle-class white families choose their new neighbors from among a group of, well, non-middle-class white families (including one gay couple with a child). Although in its entirety, the show reportedly sends a message of tolerance and acceptance, the series came under fire from GLAAD and other groups because if you watch only the first few episodes, the message is exactly the opposite. Given the average American attention span, that's probably a wise move.

HOW STELLA LOST HER GROOVE
The relationship that spawned the hit movie and book How Stella Got Her Groove Back is ending in bitter divorce, now that author Terry McMillan has discovered her much-younger Jamaican husband, Jonathan Plummer, is gay. Although he claims he didn't realize he was gay until well after their marriage in 1995, she is accusing him of marrying her just for her money and a Green Card. In a letter to Plummer filed as part of the court documents, McMillan wrote, “The reason you’re going to make a great fag is that most of you guys are just like dogs anyway….You do whatever with whomever pleases you and don’t seem to care about the consequences." But tell us what you really think, Terry!

HOW EVERWOOD'S GETTING ITS GROOVE BACK
More good news for gay visibility on TV next season: Everwood (WB) is casting for a new gay character to join the cast of the ensemble series next season. The character, a young man in his early twenties named Reid, won't be the first gay man on Everwood (created by openly gay Greg Berlanti): that distinction belongs to the much-maligned Carl (Dylan Walsh) from the first season, who left town after his devastated pregnant wife discovered he was having an affair with a man. Fortunately, since Reid is out and proud, Everwood won't become a Terry McMillan story this time around.

HAPPY ENDINGS
Jason Ritter, who plays gay and makes out with co-star Ramon de Ocampo in the star-studded indie flick Happy Endings, recently told the San Francisco Chronicle that "I finally understand about stubble. After the third take, Ramon's face was pretty scratchy. But I didn't even consider using a stand-in. I wouldn't have missed doing that scene myself." Gotta love that guy.

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