Jim Says: That Bi-Devious Storyline on "Revenge" and How Much More of Bad-Ass Stefan on "The Vampire Diaries?"

Hey all. Jim here, kicking off the first edition of my weekly entertainment column for AfterElton! Have a burning question concerning your favorite TV show, movie or celebrity? Either tweet me @JimHalterman or shoot me an email at jim@jimhalterman.com. I'll try to track down an answer for you.

Now let’s get started with this week's questions!

I keep hearing about this gay storyline with Will on Days Of Our Lives, but what’s taking so long? – Mike (via email)

Well, Mike, your timing couldn’t be better because Days is finally going to stop talking the talk and start walking the big gay walk. I was hanging out at this weekend’s ‘Day of Days’ event at the Universal City Walk in Burbank and I had a chance to sit down with Chandler Massey himself.

He elaborated on what Freddie Smith told me a few weeks ago, that the story of Will coming out is not going to be done hastily. “In terms of the gay storyline,” Massey said, “the writers and the producers and everybody is committed to making it a very gradual process and, you know, taking the time with it and really trying to make it not so stereotypical and try to make it realistic and relevant and powerful for people so that’s on a very gradual, long-term timeline...”

You can see what else Massey, as well as co-stars Freddie Smith (Sonny), Camila Banus (Gaby) and Casey Deidrick (Chad), had to say about the gay storyline later today when we post the video interviews here on AfterElton.

At the Day of Days event with (l-r) Freddie Smith, Casey Deidrick and Jim Halterman

I want some Revenge goodness. Do they plan on continuing the recent gay characters' development? Or was it simply a plot device? – Shane (via Twitter)

That was definitely an interesting development on the show, wasn’t it? However, I must agree with snicks’ recap last week where he pointed out that the show blatantly cut away just before Nolan (Gabriel Mann) and Tyler (Ashton Holmes) actually locked lips. I mean, I thought we had advanced since the days of the original Melrose Place!

But, keeping off my soap box (for now), I don’t really see having this particular gay twist as merely a plot device but, instead, an organic way to include gay characters in a mainstream network series without it coming off as forced or with some heavy-handed agenda. Soaps are only as fun as the conniving and manipulating going on and that’s one reason why Revenge started so strong out of the gate. Everyone has their own set of high stakes and their own moral line that we can only hope they’ll be pushed to cross. Why not have the gays be in on the fun?

Revenge may be pre-empted this week, but I’ve got time to chat with creator/Exec Producer Mike Kelley so we can find out some scoop on next week’s episode. I'll be sure and ask him what's ahead for Nolan and Tyler.

Hey, Declan, weren’t you gay on Gossip Girl? So…how YOU doin’? (l-r Connor Paolo & Gabriel Mann)

As much as I loved Stefan in the early years of Vampire Diaries, I really love him being a bad-ass. Will he be staying bad for awhile? I kinda hope he does. – Stephanie (via email)

I have to agree with you 100%, Stephanie! While Paul Wesley was always nice to look at in the first two seasons of the show, I have said more than once that Stefan was also pretty boring as the do-gooder. Having him suddenly be under the thumb of the evil (and sexy) Klaus (Joseph Morgan) is really giving Wesley something to literally sink his teeth into and Stefan is actually fun to watch these days.

I grabbed a few minutes with TVD Exec Producer Julie Plec late last week and asked her if there was any concern about Stefan returning to being a goody two shoes assuming he gets out from under Klaus’s control. But, as she told me, there may be no going back.

Plec explained, “I would say that if Stefan is going to learn anything from this experience it’s that I don’t know that he can return to who he was. Because who he was was not actually a true representation of who he is.”

I’ll have more from my chat with Plec later in the week.

Do you prefer the brooding Stefan (Paul Wesley) or the sexier, ripper version? I vote RIPPER!

Next page! Stephen Fry making Bones. And just how gay is J. Edgar?