World of Wonder's Fenton Bailey and Frameline's Michael Lumpkin 

In Park City, Albertsons’ supermarket is the great leveler: stars and plebeians alike, without braving guest lists, swing by and mix it up. My cashier had spotted Jessica Alba and Patrick Stewart amongst others coming through.

There was certainly no shortage of food at Sunday’s Outfest Queer Brunch, which was presented by here! Networks. Expected guest Paris Hilton was a no-show (“she slept in,” I was told – but she did manage to show up at Regent’s party for upcoming release The Hottie and the Nottie, in which she stars, later that eve), but the place was hoppin’ with schmooze, friends, and some disco dancing. Oh – and a brief bite of politics regarding the importance of digitizing queer film and ensuring its permanent survival.

The altitude isn’t the only thing high around here. World of Wonder’s Fenton Bailey and I shared a taxi cab driven by Park City’s most Zen-y drug dealer. After offering us bottles of V8, he very politely asked us if we needed “party favors.” Then he elaborated on what’s on tap, interjecting compliments like, “You guys have positive energy! You’re shining stars!” I was also running late to the Queer Lounge. Oh, he had some other things to offer as well. “If you want I can bring some of my friends, young, beautiful, pure.” As a parting gift, he handed me a Xanax. Fenton was lucky enough to stay in the taxi and head to a second stop, an even longer trip (so to speak) riddled with wrong turns, during which our new friend revealed he was a trauma nurse! Alas, Fenton was way, way late by the time he arrived at his destination to meet WOW partner Randy Barbato, whose energy was not exactly positive by then. They didn’t get Xanax swag, either!

Ah, swag take two. Rex Lee has been making out quite well. He even had himself a facial at the lovely, art-filled St. Ives Sensory Spa & Gallery. “I enjoy facials,” he later told me. “I love being pampered!” And I love the new moisturizing cleansers I managed to take away (this mountain air is drying!).

I ran into Lee at the Queer Lounge’s panel (moderated by The Advocate’s fabulous Anne Stockwell) for HBO’s upcoming WOW production, “When I Knew,” which will air this June. GLBTQ guests could record their own accounts of that pivotal revelation in a QL booth, which will later appear online (as well as accounts shot for the production).

A few queer interest films have been screened over the past couple of days. Sunshine Cleaning, about a couple of sisters who start a crime scene cleanup company, had a lesbian character in Mary Lynn Rajskub (24, Mysterious Skin), but its allegedly filmed lesbian kiss – between Rajskub and Emily Blunt - had been snipped.

Mysteries of Pittsburgh also had quite a lot of its queer content removed, at least from its Michael Chabon source novel. Peter Sarsgaard plays bi again. As for the mystery? It’s a snoozer!

The Sundance Film Festival just announced the line-up for their big annual blow-out which launches January 17th in Park City, Utah. Alas, there isn't a whole lot of gay again this year. I checked over the listings and the only two things that popped out at me included the film adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and the documentary Derek about director Derek Jarman who died of AIDS in 1994. UPDATE: Our cinephiliac contributor Adam Lubitow spotted UK doc Be Like Others, which is about transgender Iranian men. Also, the U.S. doc American Teen, which follows four high school students in Indiana, has been accused of offering to pay subjects to "act gay" for the film.

As I'm neither a huge fan of documentaries or Derek Jarman, it's Pittsburgh I'm most curious about. Jon Foster (pictured above) plays the bisexual Art Bechstein who falls into a love triangle with a married couple. It's been years since I've read the book, but I recollect loving it and am very interested to see how they handle the gay plot threads.

The movie also stars Mena Suvari, Sienna Miller, and, best of all, Peters Sarsgaard, whom gay fans no doubt remember from his turn in Kinsey. It does give me a bit of pause that the film is directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber who last directed Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

There are still some other announcements to come from Sundance and we'll keep you posted! BTW, after the jump I've included the first production diary from the shooting of the film.