Ask the Flying Monkey: How Do You Get a Christmas Card From Dolly Parton?

This week: Did Matthew Bomer lie to AfterElton.com? How great is Allison Janney? Is the voice behind “robot skeleton” Geoff Petersen gay? How excited was Parvesh Cheena to go Bollywood?

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Contact me here (and be sure and include your city and state and/or country!

Q: Will Allison Janney be my friend? Because I know she’d like me, and I know I’d like her too! – George, Waterville, MN

A: I met her recently, and I can say that you almost certainly would like her – I instantly did. But how did we both know that even before I met her?

I think it’s the combination of intelligence, obvious talent, and unconventional beauty – she can play both sophisticated and gawky with equal ease.

It also has something to do with those big, thoughtful eyes, put to good use in movies like The Object of My Affection and Juno, TV shows like The West Wing, lots of stage roles – and even a gay-themed viral video, Prop 8: The Musical.

When I met her, I told her that she had a big gay following. “I love that!” she said. “I’m very flattered.”

I wondered if she was aware of it. “How would I be aware of that?” she said. “I’m so bad on computers. I don’t remember my password for Facebook. I don’t like to read things about me, because I have skin that’s so thin.”

That said, the person who “discovered” Allison was, not surprisingly, a gay man.

“I couldn’t get an agent to save my life,” Janney tells me. “And this man Karl Brown wanted to manage me. I was in town a long time before anybody wanted to work with me, and he took a chance on me. And I loved him, but he died of AIDS right before I got The West Wing. He saw me do a wonderful play in New York with Stanley Tucci and Marissa Tomei called Fat Men in Skirts that got me so much work, and he saw that performance. I think of him all the time, because he was the first person who believed in me.”

I was curious what her thoughts were on the stage musical version of the movie 9 to 5 (where she played the Lily Tomlin role).

“That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” she admits. “I’d never done a musical before, so I wanted to challenge myself. I sure love that I did it, that I succeeded in my own way. I don’t regret it at all – I just wish it had been a bigger success. But personally, it was a success for me, just to have tried it and done it, and now I’m not afraid to do it. And getting to work with Dolly Parton – I got a Christmas card from Dolly! Two friends of mine borrowed it – I was gone for Christmas, and they said, ‘Can I borrow this, and pretend it’s mine?’ And I said, ‘Of course!’”

Janney’s latest show, Mr. Sunshine, co-starring Matthew Perry, debuts next Wednesday on ABC.

“I love playing this character, because it’s so the opposite of [The West Wing’s] C.J.,” Janney says. “She is a powerful woman, but she’s inappropriately powerful. She doesn’t edit herself, she says the wrong things. She has no self-awareness. And it’s fun to play that because in my life, I’m so self-aware. I get to be as big or silly as I want. She’s in me, and she’s fun to play.”

Janney at this month's TCA Winter Press Tour with Mr. Sunshine co-star Matthew Perry

Next Page! Was Matthew Bomer snowing AfterElton.com?