"Nip/Tuck"'s Gay Paradox

Gay (and Straight) for Pay
In its never-ending quest to draw attention to itself, Nip/Tuck has also taken full advantage of its ability to attract big-name guest stars, many of whom often send up their public images.

The most recent example (episode 5.12, "Lulu Grandiron") included Knot’s Landing’s Joan Van Ark and Donna Mills, Shari Belafonte from Hotel, and Deborah Shelton from Dallas, as aging Hollywood doyennes with penchants for plastic surgery — a sly nod to the fact that all four actresses have clearly had plastic surgery, but also the fact that Nip/Tuck is often just as campy as all those previous nighttime soap operas.

“It was a great homage,” said GLAAD’s Romine.

Joan Van Ark, Donna Mills

The show has also had fun giving openly gay actors a chance to tweak their own public images, especially ones that may have risked typecasting by their admirable decisions to come out.

Christian, Dawn Budge

In addition to having outspoken lesbian Rosie O’Donnell playing the homophobic Dawn Budge, 1970s heartthrob (and now openly gay) Richard Chamberlain satirized his own pretty boy image by playing an uber-creepy aging gay sugar daddy determined to remake his gay-for-pay boy toy in his own image.

Richard Chamberlain as Arthur Stiles, Thad Lukcinbill as Mitchell Skinner

Out actor Robert Gant, meanwhile, subverted his own work on Queer as Folk by appearing as the very heterosexual boy toy of a sex-obsessed old woman. You could even argue that Jai Rodriguez’ Wormtongue-like Chaz Darling was a parody of his gentle, accepting Queer Eve persona.

Again, on Nip/Tuck, what you see on the surface is not necessarily a reflection of the truth that lies underneath. "The person poking fun at us is actually Ryan Murphy, who is gay," Plotnick said. "So he's actually poking fun at himself."

Next page: Christian goes gay!