TCA Day 4, 5, & 6: David Hyde Pierce, Ewan McGregor, and Shirley hearts Anderson!

Carson Kressley (Photo credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

While things aren't yet where I would like them to be when it comes to gay visibility (I suspect there is at least one interview I'm not getting here at the Television Critics Association because we're a gay website), things are vastly improved from years past. What I found most encouraging was that this weekend's panels included three out gay men here to promote a wide array of projects. Best of all, their being out gay men wasn't even really of note to anyone, yet nor was it a topic everyone was afraid to bring up.

The always funny Carson Kressley was here to tout the second season of his surpise hit Lifetime hit How To Look Good Naked. Season 2 looks to be very much like Season 1, but I mean that in a good way. I genuinely like the show's emphasis on learning to look at yourself in a realistic, healthy way as opposed to trying to physically be something most of us can't be. (I spoke with one critic afterward who seemed disbelieving of the idea I actually identified with the women Carson helps until I explained I'd been pretty heavy myself until my early 20's.)

Carson was his usual funny self, getting off a series of one-liners. When he was asked if he was surprised to have this particular job, he replied:

You know, I wake up every day and think to myself, wow, I'm doing women. I never thought this was going to happen. I was a little surprised when we first talked to the producers about the show, and they were like, would you host this show "How to Look Good Naked"? And I was like, "That's easy. "A box of wine and a dimmer switch."

Carson also announced he's got a daily talk show in the works. Could we finally have our own Ellen or Rosie? While I suspect Carson would do well in this format, it's not quite the breakthrough I'd been hoping for in talk shows. Where is our David Letterman or Arsenio Hall?  

David Hyde Pierce

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

Present for a much more somber reason was stage and television star David Hyde Pierce continuing his longtime Alzheimer's activism. PBS is presenting a rebroadcast of The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimers, followed by a thirty minute panel discussion hosted by Pierce covering the most recent developments in the treatments of Alzheimers. David and I chatted afterward about our experiences with Alzheimers (the disease runs on both sides of my partner's family having killed both his mother and grandmother), same-sex marriage, and what he has coming up next. More on that to follow.

Stan Zimmerman

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

Last in the gay male department, out writer Stan Zimmerman (The Golden Girls, Roseanne, A Very Brady Sequel) has a new show on Lifetime called Rita Rocks starring MadTV alum Nicole Sullivan. During the panel, the show was described as being similar to Reba and the clip show definitly confirmed that with a slightly hipper edge thanks to Sullivan who truly shone on MadTV.

Of course, it wasn't all just gay men this weekend. In fact, it was quite a eclectic line-up including one of the last true movie stars, Shirley MacLaine.

Shirley MacLaine

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

Ms. MacLaine (it just feels wrong to call her Shirley) is starring in Coco Chanel, a Lifetime movie about the French designer. For you MacLaine fans who will only be tuning into see her, I should say that she is only in about 20% of the movie, 10% at the start and 10% at the end. During the panel and afterward, MacLaine was funny, outspoken and normally jaded critics actually seemed a little in awe.

Afterward, a group of us were chatting with the screen legend who has very definite views on politics. Asked what she watches MacLaine named off a variety of programs before someone asked which news channels she watces. Said MacLaine, "I want to see what old Bill O'Reilly is up to because he's so full of shit. Gotta see what he's doing now. ... I like Bill Moyer. I very much like that society lady's son [Anderson Cooper]. I like him. I think he's honest."

So Anderson not only made the AfterElton.com Hot 100 top ten, but now he's got Shirley MacLaine's stamp of approval.

After the jump, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Kline, and Lee Tergesen!

It was actually very much a movie star weekend. Also present was Ewan McGregor promoting his Fox Reality special A Long Way Down which chronicles his motorcycle trip which took him from from Scotland to South Africa

Ewan McGregor

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

While there is nothing gay about Long Way Down, Ewan did tell us his hair was dyed blond for his gay role in I Love You, Philip Morris in which he stars with Jim Carrey and which he had just been filiming in New Orleans.

Later, Kevin Kline also dropped by to discuss his turn in Cyrano de Bergerac for PBS' Great Performances. Kevin joked about being older and his desire to do a more mature Romeo in Romeo & Juliet, but the man who played gay in In & Out and De-Lovely was dashing as ever.

Kevin Kline

(Photo Credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

This last item actually comes from Thursday, but somehow got left out of that post. After HBO presented their panel for Generation Kill, I noticed Lee Tergesen (who plays Evan Wright, the Rolling Stone journalist who wrote the book on which the miniseries is based) standing around. So I grabbed the chance to ask him if there are any similarities between his role as Evan and the character of Tobias Beecher in Oz.

Lee Tergesen

(Photo Credit: Getty Images/Alberto E. Rodriguez)

Turns out Tergesen is cheeky and quick on his feet as he replied:

"... similarly, as much as I wanted to make sweet love to Alexander Skarsgård [in Generation Kill], I just couldn't find a place to fit it in. And when I say place to fit it, no I don't mean that as some sort of weird joke. ... This character is vulnerable and open and tries to roll with things. He does the best with what he's given at any moment."

Perhaps not coincidentally, Tergesen's answer is very much in character with the miniseries as it involves a fair bit of homoerotic chatter and teasing much like the miniseries itself which I'll have more about later.

Tomorrow Fox presents their new shows. It'll be interesting to see if Fox, which just again finished in last place in GLAAD's ranking of the networks, has anything to show us for next season.