Ask the Flying Monkey (August 19, 2008)

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Ask the Monkey!

Q: Billy and Alec Baldwin are so pro-gay, but their brother Stephen definitely isn’t. What gives? –Monty, Chicago, IL

From left to right: Billy, Stephen & Alec Baldwin

A: Stephen, who played a straight guy in a love triangle with a gay guy and a girl in Threesome (1994), was “born again” after 9/11. Unfortunately, his politics also took a decidedly conservative turn. He even endorsed far-right anti-gay nut-bag Sam Brownback for president last year, despite the fact that Brownback doesn’t believe in evolution. Meanwhile, Billy, who currently plays a politician in love with a transgender character (played by Candis Cayne, the first openly transgender actor in a regular TV role) on ABC’s Dirty Sexy Money, is famously liberal, just like his brother Alec.

“I really do love and admire all that’s come out of [Stephen’s] Christian beliefs,” Billy Baldwin tells AfterElton.com. “It’s just that there’s three or four things that I’m not down with. And I’ve warned him, I’ve said, ‘You need to know if you say something and I don’t agree with it and somebody asks me about it, you have to be prepared for me to let people know how I feel. And you gotta be prepared for the gloves to come off.’ And right now, with gay marriage, that’s one of the ways. Another one is when he says to me, ‘If you don’t believe what it says in this book [The Bible], then you’re not going to heaven, you’re going to hell.’ Then I don’t want to go to that heaven. I don’t want to go to that place with the people who believe what [he] believes.”

How did Billy come by his famously liberal beliefs and his pro-gay politics? “Part of it is my education, my upbringing, the values instilled in me by my parents, part of it was the community I was raised in, and part of it is the creative arts community,” Baldwin says. So why did Stephen turn out so differently? “My brother Stephen has always been non-political or apolitical his whole life. He doesn’t have a lot of experience with politics. My brother Alec and I went to university, we both graduated, we both have degrees in political science, we both worked in Washington on Capitol Hill, we’ve both been very active in political organizations. Stephen is sort of naïve and inexperienced, not in all of life, but he’s not as experienced or knowledgeable [about politics].”

Incidentally, Billy Baldwin has yet to play a gay character (though he’d be willing). He did play the male partner of Sherilyn Fenn’s bisexual character in 1993’s gay fave Three of Hearts.

Q: I’m a big fan of Robert Gant and enjoyed him in Kiss Me Deadly. What’s he got coming up next? – GantFan, Key West, FL

Robert Gant in Kiss Me Deadly

A: Gant’s career has flourished, putting proof to the lie that you can’t be openly gay in Hollywood, even as he continues to play both gay and straight roles. He got a lot of attention from his boy-toy-to-a-really-older-woman role on last season’s Nip/Tuck, and the Flying Monkey definitely enjoyed his recent here! TV movie Kiss Me Deadly co-starring Shannen Doherty — sort of a gay Bourne Identity, except with male nudity (not Gant, alas).

“Right now, I'm filming this new series for the BBC, called PAs, which stands for ‘personal assistants,’” Gant tells the Monkey. “Over here, though, the term is synonymous with Executive Assistant (or secretary), not the kind of personal assistants we have in Hollywood! Started shooting in early June and wrap mid-September. It's a one-hour dramedy, and I play Rock Van Gelder, the Texan-born boss of the place they all work. Think Desperate Workwives, if you will. Much more to share, but suffice it to say that I'm having a blast. From a personal standpoint, it's very cool to be playing the romantic straight guy again! The show airs this October in the UK. Not sure when it hits BBC America or DVD, but I think our LGBTQ peeps are gonna dig it!”

Next Page! Which team does Guillermo Diaz play for? Also, is Brian Kinney as bad as Buffalo Bill?