Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (March 30, 2007)

THE AFTERELTON CRACK TEAM OF FLYING MONKEY'S TAKE MANHATTAN
This is the first time I've ever brought the Flying Monkeys with me to New York and they are loving it! Okay, they were disappointed I wouldn't let them climb the Empire State Building and pretend they were all King Kong, but other than that they've been most impressed. It's been a good week for me as well. I had drinks with TVGuide's spoiler guy Michael Ausiello who tipped me off to a few big stories. Brothers & Sisters fans will be thrilled to know that Kevin and **** are going to get lost at sea and ***** ** *** in Ireland with amnesia. And then we learn that ***** is really ***** from Dynasty. Can you believe that? Neither could I!

Michael was as sweet and interesting in person as he is in his column and it was great getting to meet him. I also got to meet our brand new associate editor Brian Juergens in person. One of the weird things about the world of the internet is that you can work with people online for months, really get to know them, and never meet face-to-face. It's always a little unsettling meeting for the first time. What if they have really bad halitosis? What if they don't like Flying Monkeys? What if they comment on your really bad fashion sense?

Fortunately, Brian has none of those foibles and given his fantastic writing ability, his amazing organizational skills, and over all smarts, I couldn't be more impressed with him.

One thing, however: Should I be worried he kept talking about how All About Eve is his favorite movie and that poor Eve Harrington is such a misunderstood character?

LET'S JUST PRAY THEY DON'T GIVE IT THE 300 TREATMENT!
We've pretty well documented Hollywood's ignoble history when it comes to doing historical films that include GLBT subject matter. Hollywood especially sucks at historical accuracy when it comes to the ancient world, having already given us Ben Hur, Spartacus, Troy, and Alexander with an Irish accent and blond highlights. It looks like Hollywood is going to take yet another swing at the subject matter by turning the reportedly gay-friendly and well-written novel Memoirs of Hadrian into a film.

MOH tells the story of Roman Emperor Hadrian who was known for his military prowess, as well as his love of art, philosophy, and culture. Oh, and his passion for a young feller named Antinous. (Little known fact: J. Edgar Hoover called lover Clyde Tolson, “my little Antinous” and loved dressing up in togas before being conquered by the “barbarians”. At least that's what the National Enquirer says.)

MOH was written by French writer Marguerite Yourcenar and published in in France in 1951 where it was an immediate critical and commercial success. Strangely, the book wasn't a huge hit here. Hmmm....

So how will Hollywood handle this gay storyline? On the plus side, the director is John Boorman who directed such movies as The Emerald Forest, Excalibur, Hope and Glory, and Beyond Rangoon. While I haven't loved everything Boorman has done, he's not the sort of director aiming for the commercial bullseye and willing to pander to the lowest common (homophobic) denominator to succeed.

The film is still in production, but Charlie Hunnam is already attached to play Antinous and Antonio Banderas is in talks to play Hadrian.

You might know Charlie as Bosie in Cold Mountain or more recently as Patric in Children of Men. I haven't heard much one way or the other about Charlie as Antinous, but there is already a fair bit of grumbling about Banderas as Hadrian. The complaints have primarily been that a) Banderas doesn't look Roman and b) can't act. All I'll say at this point is that at least Banderas has played gay numerous times (Philadelphia, Law of Desire) and would likely be more than willing to portray a man in love with a man as opposed to, oh, say, a man who once shook hands with another man, but really, really wants to snog whatever poor starlet gets cast opposite him as the chambermaid or the Roman Senator's beautiful, but wild daughter..