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Ask the Flying Monkey! (March 03, 2009)Q: One thing about last week’s Oscars bothered me, and I want to check to see if I'm just being overly sensitive. First, I truly do think that Hugh Jackman is a friend to the LGBT community, and I thought he did a great job hosting, but having said that I found his interaction with Frank Langella to be a bit off – it almost felt like gay-baiting to me. First came his crack about how he knew Frank did theater when he sat in his lap, and the other comment about not wanting to kiss him. Do you agree? Or am I making a mountain out of molehill? -- Brian, North Hollywood, CA
A: First, can you make sure Kitty is okay? She is? Okay, good. Um, that gag isn’t really necessary, is it? I admit I found Jackman’s remarks weird too – more than a molehill, definitely not a mountain. The thing is, they didn’t strike me as scripted (partly because they were delivered in such a stilted, halting way and were so unfunny). In other words, I think he was adlibbing. Yes, they were borderline-insensitive, but I’m pretty willing to give Jackman a pass. Why? Because he was hosting the Oscars for the very first time, in front of an audience of hundreds of millions worldwide. I can only imagine how nervous he must have been. Q: I keep reading about this show The United States of Tara and would love to see it, but being in Canada we don't get Showtime (we have Showcase). Do you have any information on if it is going to be shown in Canada and when? Randy, Toronto, Canada A: The show is on Showtime in the U.S., but it’s on HBO Canada in Canada. Go figure.
Keri Gilchrist (left) stars with Toni Collette in United States of Tara Have a question about gay male entertainment? Ask the Monkey!
(Please include your city and state and/or country.) Submitted by on Mon, 2009-03-02 22:32. |
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News, Reviews & Commentary on Gay and Bisexual Men in Entertainment and the Media
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Inquiring Minds
"Kitty from Knoxville, TN" wouldn't happen to be your pet name for Michael, would it?
If so . . . Kinky! ;Þ
United States of Tara
If you have access to torrents or http://www.watchtvsitcoms.com/tvshows.phpYou can see this weirdly great series.
And Matt is totally hot!
OMG!!
I absolutely no longer have any lung capacity from laughing SOOO Friggin' HARD for like 10 minutes straight!! Everything hurts now!
Sorry, Brent. I will try my best to only ask one or two questions at a time. The problem is that you're SOOOO good at what you do, and I just love how you get the job done when it comes to getting on top of the tough questions. You are so magnanimous, OH WISE FLYING MONKEY!!
***Stares at Brian***
"Sir, one more time and I will strangle you with my microphone wire. You understand me?" -Adam Sandler in "The Wedding Singer"
Kitty
I'm glad you have a sense of humor! :-)
Check out my new fantasy website: TheTorchOnline.com. It's like AfterElton.com for fantasy geeks! And I Twitter
So much Kitty...love?
LOL! Thats great.
Im confused though, The Sunday Bloody Sunday I saw was a 1971 movie, is there a remake? I actually just watched it a couple of weeks ago and it was very interesting. A Home at the End of the World is a great movie too, imagine my surprise to see Colin Farrell in that role.
As weird as it is, changing networks is quite common. Even if we have an AMC network, I watch Mad Men on HBO. Same with the BBC, we have similar channel to BBC America, but the best series get shown on monday nights on HBO. Would you believe The L Word and Californication get shown in the WB network, not exactly your teen network over here. I guess you just have to find the shows you want to watch.
Thanks Monkey.
Yup, the 1971 film
Check out my new fantasy website: TheTorchOnline.com. It's like AfterElton.com for fantasy geeks! And I Twitter
I did actually
I did actually. While I cant relate to the whole Bi thing and the movie is not perfect, I was left with good feeling about it.
Thanks for clearing that up, about Sunday. I thought they might have made a remake and it would have been interesting to see how might they have done differently a second time around. You might want to change the date in the article though, it says 2002.
I still cant believe how much things can get stirred up whenever something related to Q&F gets posted.
Congrats and good luck with the new site.
Thanks for catching that
Check out my new fantasy website: TheTorchOnline.com. It's like AfterElton.com for fantasy geeks! And I Twitter
I'm no big Colin Farrell fan but ...
One of the two best Farrell performances, in my opinion, was "A Home at the End of the World" (the other was "In Bruges"). The movie is flawed, in my opinion, largely by the casting of Dallas Roberts, whom I found uncharismatic and unattractive (I liked him in "3:10 to Yuma" but not in this).
It's funny we're also talking about "Queer as Folk" because one problem with Roberts was that he was such an unconvincing older version of Harris Allan (Hunter on QAF) who played the younger character. The other thing is, while I was watching Farrell in the movie I kept thinking "if only HE could have played Michael Novotny."
He was everything Hal Sparks was too shallow to portray -- extremely boyish without resorting to a funny walk or an infantile way of holding his spoon, enormously touching and sweet and vulnerable. If he'd played Novotny, I'd really have been torn, but I'd probably have wanted Brian Kinney to end up with him.
You're right on
I thought that Dallas Roberts, though he gave a fine performance, was the weak side of the "Home" triangle, mostly due to the starpower on the other two sides from Wright Penn and Farrell. I think Edward Norton would've been brilliant.
In the British version--SPOILER ALERT!--the "Michael" and "Brian" characters realize that they really are each other's true loves, and DO get together. So, there you are.
Yep
QAF reunion
Hal would like you to THINK
Hal would like you to THINK it was Gale and Randy causing problems but Gale, Randy, Peter, Scott, Thea, Michelle, Jack and Sharon are all still very good friends and have kept in close touch. Meanwhile Hal hasn't really kept in touch with anybody but Robert Gant and Harris Allen. I think that says much more than Hal's bitter rants ever could. It's 4 years after the show has ended and yet Hal never wastes a chance to trash Randy and Gale and whine about how there won't be a QAF movie or whatever because of them.
Hal Sparks and QAF
As RJ says..
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Bad blood, fiddlesticks
The reason Hal Sparks "does answer the question" is that he's a jealous little jerk without any class. He's the only member of the cast who has ever badmouthed his former colleagues. For being willing to trash others, you're letting him have the last word?
If the rest of the cast wanted to get down in the gutter with him, I'm sure they could say plenty. Let's let their actions speak for them instead. When Gale Harold did "Suddenly Last Summer" in New York, most of his former castmates other than Sparks came to the show. There's bad blood, all right, but it's only in Hal's interviews.
You had it right the first time. Two of the leads didn't care (for reasons having to do with their own career goals and prospects) to sign up for another five years in icy Toronto. There's no need to explain that with "bad blood."
I don't agree
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It's an art and a business, not just a social situation
What a spinoff would have looked like, I have no idea. I think they had lightning in a bottle the first time. But do note that when QAF's run ended, Jerry Offsay had been replaced at Showtime by Robert Greenblatt, who hadn't greenlighted either it or "The L Word." Greenblatt showed no subsequent commitment to gay-themed programming, and never greenlighted another show by Cowan and Lippman. It's quite possible that Showtime didn't try that hard for a spinoff, although I'm sure they'd have liked to extend their most popular series.
It's no secret that Randy Harrison was unhappy, but his unhappiness seems to have been artistic. Since then, he's done only Christopher Marlowe, Peter Shaffer, Ibsen, Beckett, George Bernard Shaw and so forth, in wonderful parts, and all on stage. Being primarily a stage actor and wanting out of a series after playing the same part for five long years isn't mysterious. It doesn't require some tabloid-style explanation.
Same thing with Gale Harold. He was the breakout star on the show, was probably tired of playing Brian Kinney, and had options. He's undoubtedly made good money since, and more than tripled his credits. On "Desperate Housewives" he played to 18 million people every week -- 18 times the audience of QAF. A spinoff on Showtime starring him would have had a far smaller audience, and he'd have been playing Brian Kinney for a decade by the time it ended.
Can you not imagine how much you might want out of a series and a character at the end of a five year run? Showtime has half the subscriber base of HBO, and shoots its shows in Canada under looser Canadian work rules. You seem to start from the premise that continuing to work for them on the same series or a spinoff is so inherently desirable that there must be something wrong with an actor who declines. I'm sorry, but that's showbiz. Even on "Gossip Girl" the private shool princes and princesses occasionally do things for academic reasons. These were working artists, not high school girls, on QAF.
Doesn't it strike you as fishy when Hal Sparks, of all people, accuses somebody else of having an ego? And by the by, if Hal's interview was given after Gale Harold's motorcycle accident it was in even worse taste than he usually shows.
Sparks is the one showing all the resentment, just as he has shown it to David Foster, the makers of "Brokeback Mountain," C. Thomas Howell, and numerous others. I think you have the cart before the horse. If two indispensable leads want out of a show that is your (Hal's) most viable meal ticket, you might well resent them. The bad blood may not have preceded the prospective end of the series, it may have manifested itself after the handwriting was on the wall.
So you are taking Hal's word
I'm disappointed, Brent. Hal Sparks talks of bad blood, and the QAF producers make a few references that are too oblique for you to include as fact, and from that you infer that there was bad blood on the set of QAF? Further, you infer that since Hal is the one talking, he also must be right that the source of the bad blood is Gale Harold and Randy Harrison? That's flimsy evidence leading to a faulty conclusion.
On the other side, we have Gale and Randy never speaking a bad word about their castmates. Randy works steadily in theater with generally glowing reviews, and works with the same directors and actors over and over again. His QAF castmates show up to cheer him on. That doesn't sound like a troublemaker to me.
Gale's QAF castmates showed up to cheer him on in Suddenly Last Summer. He and Scott Lowell are apparently close friends, according to many sources including a recent Sharon Glesss interview that talked about Scott visiting Gale daily after his accident. Scott and Gale were seen in public together as recently as last weekend. Thea Gill and others have talked on the record about poker parties in LA with Gale, Scott, Sharon, Thea, Michelle Clunie, and Peter Paige. Who is missing from this group? Hal Sparks, of course. All of this, which is on the record, tends to show that if there was bad blood or hard feelings it's Hal Sparks who was the problem. The rest get along great.
As aggravating as these types of remarks are, it's not my real issue with Hal. Almost NINE years after Hal started working on Queer As Folk, he is still assuring everyone who will listen that HE IS NOT GAY. Over and over again, in interview after interview, Hal brings it up that he is NOT GAY. Hal Sparks is a great friend to the gay community unless, of course, God forbid!, that anyone might possibly think that HE is gay. Then the denials pour out of his mouth like lava from a volcano.
Frankly, it offends me that this site would give credence or attention to Hal at all given his incessant "I'm not gay" rants. So instead, please give some attention to Randy Harrison an out, proud actor who, in addition to his theater career, has started his own venture to support the arts: the Arts Bureau (tAB). Give some attention to Peter Paige, another out proud man, who continues to act and direct brilliantly. And let's hear it for Scott Lowell and Gale Harold, who are not compelled to erupt at the mouth about their previous co-stars AND who are not compelled to assure all and sundry of their NOT GAYNESS!
WIth all due respect
You are not a very good reporter. I found it hard to believe your evidence of the bad blood was "it seems pretty clear" and one cast member's account of what had happened. I got that you didn't like QAF, but you could have given your view of the show without digging shit from a cast member who has no credibility to back you up. Most of all, I saw you participated in rating comments by posters. I found it utterly unbelievable.
By the way, if Hal Sparks is so great, professional, and reputable, why you think there is no spinoff of QAF starring him or a reunion movie without Gale and Randy? I'm sure he could carry the thing himself with his following.
I keep hearing all these rumours...
about bad blood on the set, especially concerning the two lead actors. but from what I can find out (which is preciously little, other than a season 3 blooper kiss), it's not between the two, right?
Stacey, you do not know either...
...what really went on behind-the-scenes of QAF. Brent is not presenting "facts". He simply posted a quote from a published interview with Hal Sparks. But just because it's Hal's opinion doesn't mean he isn't also telling the truth.
So what if those actors keep in contact and have "moved on", as you put it? It doesn't rule out there having been "bad blood" at the time.
Brent....
Agreed
Agreed as well
Oh, I don't know. I think
Oh, I don't know. I think GH was more than adequate for the job. He certainly looked like he enjoyed screwing Justin to the high heavens.
People like Brian for two reasons: they want to be him or they want to screw him. And on the surface, what's not to like? He's fearless, successful and handsome -- the self-made man who doesn't take sh*t from anyone, least of all straight people (read other men).
He can indeed be unpleasant and cruel, but he has also been kind, loving and generous, especially to those near and dear to him. I mean, yes, he just keep shoving money to solve problems, but hey, don't diss the money, especially when your father just refused to pay your tuition.
He's the ultimate Byronic hero, the man's man, and that's why a lot of people follow and admire him.
Cheers
Wow, that is SO offensive!
Wow, that is SO offensive! Why would it be amusing when little old ladies would rent Queer as Folk? Maybe they were trying to understand their son, grandson, or brother and had darn few other sources for insight in to the lives of gays! Why is any show that may have helped forward the cause of understanding and enlightment a source of amusement to you?
Or maybe those little old ladies just enjoyed what many people thought was one of the best shows on television! Maybe they liked looking at hot guys! Why is that wrong or amusing at any age?!? I would say that enjoying looking at hot guys is pretty much the common ground we have here!
Whatever their motives
I think it's sweet. It used to be said that men liked girl on girl sex but women didn't feel the same way about two men.
Well, they might not like male on male porn, but male on male romance and erotica obviously appeals to women a lot. If they can get into the characters on a deeper level than just the physical, they adore it.
Proving that fact is one of the major contributions of QAF to the entertainment marketplace and it led directly to "Brokeback Mountain." The prospect that women might turn out for a gay love story (and drag men with them) is the only thing that makes possible a pretty big budget gay-themed film. "Milk" also is a beneficiary.
And of course it is true that the women might be seeking some insight about their children or grandchildren. If so, an added benefit is that they got Debbie Novotny (Sharon Gless) as a role model. She's the ultimate supportive and loving parent of a gay son. Gless has every right to be proud.
Hal on Rachel Maddow last night
Good to know
Thanks for the heads-up. I will be contacting Rachel Maddow to express my concerns about her giving airtime to Hal Sparks. Sparks is not our friend. He carries on and on about his straightness whenever possible. He lives in terror of anyone thinking he might possibly be gay. Watch the QAF reunion video! His sexuality and his girlfriend are mentioned over and over, while the other actors don't talk about their sexuality or significant others much or at all. But it is repeated many times that HAL. IS. NOT. GAY. Google his interviews and you will see more of the same from him: "I'm not gay, not gay, not gay!"
I say it again. This man is not a friend to the LGBT community. I'm disappointed at AfterElton for giving him credence and I'm horrified that Ms. Maddow thinks his opinion is worth seeking.
Hal repeats that he's straight
Because he, as a straight actor, has to overcome the straight bias that only a closeted gay guy could actually play a gay guy. More often than not he's responding to the QUESTION of is he or isn't he, which he gets an idiotic and annoying number of times even to this day.
A lot of Hal detractors want to say that he is trying to get publicity by doing all the good he does for the LGBT community, but the fact is there are plenty of ways to get publicity that have nothing to do with raising money for AIDS research or marching/demonstrating/fundraising for marriage equality in California. He does that because that's what feels RIGHT to him.
He puts his foot in his mouth, true, but for those who know him they know that he wouldn't have taken the hits of his character and his sexual identity for a paycheck.
You don't have to support him, but he does a lot to support you.
Hal does NOT support me
Hal is NOT fighting bias; he's adding to it every time he tries to put as much distance as possible between being identified as gay and himself! And he's the only one of the QAF cast quoted saying those kinds of things. Do you think that Scott Lowell and Gale Harold don't get asked the same kind of questions? Of course they do, but they are not on the record over and over again for NINE years making an issue of just how straight they are.
There are plenty of ways that Hal COULD be supportive that don't get him any publicity or give him an opportunity to "put his foot in his mouth", but that's not what he's doing is he? He's a publicity hound, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing for an entertainer, but at least be honest about what he's doing.
I completely get that you are a Hal Sparks fan. You probably waited for him after some gig and he was really nice to you and took pictures with you and maybe even stuck out his tongue for a picture. That's how he treats his fans. But that doesn't mean that he is a great guy. In fact, given his history, he probably went back to his girlfriend or band mates and talked about what saps his fans are, always giving him crappy gifts and fussing over him and taking up his valuable time.
????
The Rachel Maddow show
I just watched the clip on YouTube. I still have no idea WHY Hal was on there. The other guest was Arianna Huffington. They were discussing the "GOP in Exile". It's a bit bizzare if anyone would like to watch it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5u9PYTbCu8
Okay, still a little bewildered
I just watched it on YouTube. Rachel said something about wanting a comedian's viewpoint and being sure those two wouldn't fight. I'm not sure any liberal these days would actually fight with Arianna. Even Al Franken didn't really "fight" with her, not even back when she was a conservative.
I still don't understand why Hal. He's not especially political (not known for it anyway). Keith Olberman has had Janeane Garofalo on, but she is political -- she's even been an Air America commentator.
That said, he wasn't stupid. He sounded like he'd been paying attention, and most of his points were well taken. He overworked the cutesy only slightly and he talked over Arianna only once. I didn't hate him.
He had no central message, and Arianna did. She wanted us to pay more attention to Karl Rove's historical revisionism (which she considers more insidious) than to Rush Limbaugh's red meat. Hal didn't engage with that, but arguably his role was just to poke fun.
But Rachel pokes fun perfectly well herself. She was as amusing on the show as he was.
And Hal said something I didn't quite understand: that the Republicans want Obama to fail in a "messianic," "Christlike" way, so they could push him aside. Christ's "failure" started a religion. is that really what he thinks Republicans want?
I do completely agree about the hair. I've hated it for some time, since it always looks so messy and nasty, but it's enormous now and very frizzy. I wonder if he's dyeing it these days, and doesn't realize that it needs more conditioning when you do that. It looks like a merkin, or the gigantic wig worn on Discovery by the High Priest of Amun. r
But hands down the funniest thing -- funnier than the hair, or anything else anybody said -- was when Rachel introduced him (no doubt at his request) as "the lead singer of Zero 1."
Buncha responses
The new hot dancing guy on "The Soup" is nice, but I frankly think that the man-kini guy is scruffily adorable too, despite the man-kini. :) He could always take it off... Another good bisexual male film is "The Five Senses" with Mary Louise Parker, aside from the "Huh?" ending. (One little tweak, and it'd be wonderful.)
I think "QAF" was flawed in some ways, but not for the reasons others might think. The first season had WAY too much plot (probably because they weren't sure if they'd get picked up for renewal), and once the show shook off the trajectory of the British series (after Ted's OD), it floundered a bit. It's no secret that Chris Potter, Hal Sparks' first boyfriend, was unhappy on the show and mouthed off about it, which resulted in his being scuttled and threw a monkey wrench into the plotlines. (Too bad, I thought he and Sparks were really sexy together.) Also, they never developed the idea that Ted was sexually obsessed with Michael (remember the hidden pictures?). Then the second season was truncated, resulting in even more shifts in tone and slapdash plotting (especially Emmett and George's relationship). By the third season they began to get things on an even keel and balance the sexier stuff with more realistic drama (death, splits, settling down, kids), and picked up plotlines from early in the show that seemed like abandoned loose ends (the gay basher/murderer case that brought in the cop who became Debbie's boyfriend) and tied them off. The last three seasons were really strong. I think the show needed maybe one more 2-hour movie, or even a last 6-episode arc, to do justice to ALL the characters and their stories, but they did what they did very well. (However, again, I liked the ending of the British series, and they definitely didn't do that in the U.S., aside from Justin's storyline.) It's easy to be jaded about "QAF" from a distance of 8 years; nothing--NOTHING--like it had ever been on TV or in movies before in terms of its epic scope, its unapologetic in-your-face sexuality, its trying to wrestle with a host of issues our community faces, etc. I personally am extraordinarily grateful to everyone who was a part of it.
I LOVED "A Home at the End of the World"
Wept buckets. The scene on the roof where they dance to the trio from "Cosi Fan Tutti" really struck home for me as I was part of an identical scene in real life back in the day. But we were dancing to Buffalo Springfield, not Mozart. Colin Farrell's brother is gay. They are very close. Colin was best man at his brother's wedding. I think a lot of his perfornace in the film was des=rived from his brother.
I'm sure Frank Langella thoroughly enjoyed having Hugh Jackman on his lap. Several years back at a press party for Good Night and Good Luck Mr. Langella was all over Dennis Christopher -- to the considerable amusement of George Clooney.
Colin's character in "Home At the End of the World"
Upon Reflection, I think you're absolutely right
Check out my new fantasy website: TheTorchOnline.com. It's like AfterElton.com for fantasy geeks! And I Twitter
I disagree
Lst thoughts on "Home" and Bobby (and "Big Eden")
I think Bobby loved Jonathan so much, he was willing to have sex with him or kiss him as an expression of his love and devotion to him, even though that wasn't the way the majority of his orientation was geared. In this way, "Home" is a little bit of an ultimate gay fantasy: the hot, sensitive straight guy who is ONLY GAY WITH YOU, because YOU are so wonderful and special!!
However, Bobby was certainly more comfortable with his sexuality--and all of its Kinsey amibiguities--than, say, Dean in "Big Eden," who shares a tender kiss with Henry, his best male (gay) friend and clearly seems to wish he could consummate the relationship, but then says "I can't." And I don't think it's because of internalized homophobia, etc.--he seriously wasn't gay, and his love for Henry wasn't enough to overcome that. Nonetheless, he knew that Henry loved him and that he loved Henry probably more than anyone else in the world, which leads to his crying jag shortly thereafter (and the cool blonde chick who comforts him and becomes his girlfriend). It's a remarkable moment in a lovely film--seriously, how many straight guys would beat themselves up because they're NOT GAY, and afraid they could lose their best friend?
Agreed
please delete
duplicate
I Hope......
It is irrelevant whether or
It is irrelevant whether or not you "buy" Gale's and Randy's "excuses" about why they were not on the reunion video. It is a matter of record that Randy WAS performing in a play at the Berkshire Theatre Festival at the time the reunion lunch was filmed. He was contractually obligated to be there (unless the BTF is run by idiots) and a theater full of fans can vouch that he was there performing. Additionally, I would guess he would have made FAR more money appearing in the video than he made for doing that entire play, but of course he didn't bust his BTF contract or bail on his fans or castmates. He's a professional.
As far as Gale not being on the video, according to Scott Lowell's website, Gale was going to be there until he had a family emergency. Gale's family emergency was reported in the regular press as a news story (without mention of any connection to Gale Harold the actor). Again, that is all a matter of record. But you can believe that all of that was faked and that Scott Lowell was lying. You would be completely wrong though.
Finally, your name calling is very immature and you would have a better chance of being taken seriously if you stopped using such childish tactics.
Gale's conflicting engagement
QAF & Naivety about the business
Agree and disagree
I agree that the cast's willingness to do a reunion show or a movie isn't what gets it done, but I'm sure Showtime would have liked a reunion show with the whole cast. A reunion show would have made marketing sense as an extra on the compendious complete series DVD set. A lot of people already bought the seasons individually.
I don't think a movie would be commercially out of the question, since a movie was made of "Noah's Arc" (ugh). But there'd be no point making it without the whole cast (other than Wetherall). And that's where the willingness of the cast to do it really does matter. They might not get it done, but they could sure as hell spike it.
QAF Reunion
We should realize the QAF when it ended was not at the peak of it's popularity (unlike say--Sex in the City, which would be a better comparison than Noah's Arc which had a much lower budget and was still on the air). Though it has a loyal fan base it is not the kind of fan base that makes a hit. Making a reunion show would have been expensive and may or may not have added much value to a DVD set--the home DVD market is not as strong as it was and extras won't neccessarily make people rush out and buy dvds they already own.
Noah's Arc seems to be something of a labor of love for the writer/director--I don't think QAF had anyone who was that into pushing it through. Also, the cast of Noah's Arc was already together and the movie could be made really cheaply.