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Since Passing Glory, the unconventional performer has appeared in more than fifty films, with at least five more currently in the planning, filming, or postproduction stages. Along the way, Cumming has coped many awards, most of them, including the prestigious Olivier, Drama Desk, and Tony Awards, for his stage work.

Shaken or stirred, you ask? Neither. The one-time 007 wannabe favors tequila, not martinis. And he prefers entertaining friends at home to playing baccarat in a Monte Carlo. His closest friends tend to be creative, quirky, and eclectic, not household names. Remembering his childhood pretending, Alan has remarked, “It was the first thing I had any sense that I was good at.”

Cumming didn’t grow up to inherit the Bond mantle, but he did play 007’s nerdy nemeses Boris Grishenko in the 1995 Bonder GoldenEye.

Since his “let’s pretend” days, the multi-gifted star has discovered many things at which he excels. Among them: novelist (Tommy’s Tale, Harper Collins, 2002), motion picture director (The Anniversary Party, Fine Line Features, 2001), fragrance entrepreneur (Cumming, The Fragrance, current), runway model (for Hilfiger, Cynthia Rowley, R. Scott French), Gap Model, and active supporter of many AIDS and AIDS-related organizations (ongoing). In 2002, he added theatrical innovator to the rapidly growing list of accomplishments.

Cumming, along with his then-main squeeze, English stage director, Nick Philippou, founded The Art Party. The New York-based theatre company set out to encourage collaboration with artists from other mediums. After a much-publicized launch and early success, The Art Party, along with Alan and Nick’s relationship, was over one year after its founding.

As if the new bisexual kid on The L Word block weren’t busy enough, he’s also writing the screenplay adaptation of his mostly autobiographical novel, and he hopes to direct the film.
Clearly, the eclectic star is a lion/ess in the summer of his life. Everything’s coming up Cumming. He’s everywhere. Almost.

There’s one place he’s not. Alan won’t be in X-3, the third installment of the X-Men movies. In X2: X-Men United, he played the wacky Teutonic “teleporter” Nightcrawler. For that film, his body was covered in cobalt goo for forty-five days of shooting, and, many reviewers claim that he walked away with the picture.

Nightcrawler’s absence in X-3 will not be explained. Nor will the role be recast. The official word is that the producers decided that there were already too many heroes in X-3. And they want extra screen time for some new characters. But the official reason doesn’t wash. After stealing X2, Nightcrawler’s absence from X-3 is tantamount to a Jaws movie without a shark.

The news must have taken Cumming by surprise. Promoting the disappointing Son of the Mask in February, he publicly claimed that he’d be in X-3. And then there’s X-3’s director, Brett Ratner, who, in early June, told MTV News that “everybody” would be returning for X-3.
In announcing that Cumming is now an ex X-Man, MTV News suggests that fans of the movies may want to purchase several bottles of Cumming, The Fragrance, to hide the stench of a new X opus sans Cumming’s charismatic blue teleporter.

Whatever the true reason for Nightcrawler’s X-3 absence, it’s good news for devotees of the Showtime series--it was the hole in his schedule created by being 86’d from X-3 that made it possible for Alan to sign on for The L Word.

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