Ask the AfterElton Flying Monkey! (May 13, 2008)

Q: Is Zachary Quinto gay? -- Dustin, Dayton, OH

A: To the surprise of many who know him as the evil Sylar on Heroes, Quinto played the gay best friend of Tori Spelling in the short-lived, but hilarious 2006 VH1 series So NoTORIous (in a role based on Tori’s real-life gay best friend).

A steamy gay scene from So NoTORIous:

Ironically, Quinto will play young Spock alongside Chris Pine’s Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek movie. Zachary doesn’t discuss his personal life, but he’s definitely not an out gay man.

Q: Is that really Tori Spelling singing in Trick? She’s not half bad! – Lincoln, Lewiston, ME

A: This is the week for Tori-related questions, is it?

That is indeed Tori belting out “Enter You,” the so-bad-it’s-good showtune in Jim Fall’s sensational gay romantic comedy Trick (1999). The song is instrumental in the plot, first helping to establish that our hapless songwriting hero Gabriel (Christian Campbell) doesn’t know the first thing about love and passion, and then, at the end of the movie, giving us a sense of all he has learned in a single night when he finally manages to fill in the “missing” lyric.

“[Director] Jim [Fall] asked me if I could sing, which I couldn't,” Tori says of the role. “But I assured him that I could. I asked him how well does she sing, and he said, 'Well, you know, it's supposed to be kind of campy and fun, but she should be able to carry a tune. That's fine, right?' And I said, 'Oh, yeah, yeah. You don't have to listen to me sing. It'll be good.' Then they called and said I was going to have to tap dance. So I took tap dancing lessons. It was two or three weeks of just straight lessons."

Indeed, it was good! I thought Tori perfectly captured not just the character’s middling talent, but also her passion and, more importantly, her desperation. In fact, I honestly think she was robbed of an Oscar nomination in what was one of the funniest, most pitch-perfect performances of the year.

Tori Spelling (left)

Q: Rupert Graves made a huge impression on me in Maurice and A Room With a View (and was even willing to go completely naked in both films, which was part of the aforementioned huge impression). But then he seemed to disappear. What happened to him? – Emmett – Arcata, CA

A:The boyishly good-looking Graves made a big impression on lots of gay boys back in the 80s, including the Monkey. But while other British actors of his generation such as Colin Firth and the other Rupert, Rupert Everett, went on to international stardom, Graves never chanced upon his break-out role, either here or in his native Britain. Let’s hope his willingness to play gay in roles like Maurice and Different for Girls (1996) (not to mention the 1983 London production of Torch Song Trilogy, starring Harvey Fierstein) didn’t have anything to do with it.

“I've managed for 20 years to do things without doing them just for the money,” Graves has said. “Very, very occasionally, when I've been really strapped for cash, I thought I'd better do a job for money. Maybe about four times in 20 years, every five years or so on average. And the rest of the time, I've done pretty much as I've pleased in jobs that have interested me. By those standards, which are the standards that I judge myself by, I feel happy. The amount of work you need to do to become a very successful celebrity is something I'm not prepared to do."

Indeed, Graves has worked consistently, most recently in a small part in a terrific film, V For Vendetta (2005), and a bigger part in a so-so movie, Death at a Funeral (2007). Forty-four now, he is still very handsome.

Rupert Graves (right) with James Wilby in Maurice

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