A new movie will focus on Brian Epstein, the homosexual manager of the Beatles who charted the Liverpool moptops’ rise to fame. Producer David Permut (Prayer for Bobby, Face/Off) has acquired A Life in the Day, a script by TV director Tony Gittelson. The film will explore events early in the band’s career following their discovery by Epstein. As Permut describes it, “Everybody turned down the band, even though Brian promised they would become bigger than Elvis, and he finally got George Martin at EMI to change his mind and give them an audition.”
It all started one evening when Epstein, then a prim and proper businessman, stumbled into the steamy Cavern Club, where the scruffy, leather-jacketed Beatles were twisting and shouting.
Epstein was immediately fascinated by the possibilities: he went to work on their rough image, dressing the band in fashionable suits by Douglas Millings and hiring stylists to touch up their soon-to-be-famous androgynous hairstyles. The combination of Paul McCartney’s melodies, John Lennon’s intellect, and Brian Epstein’s gay sensibilities created sex/music/fashion havoc that energized the cultural revolution of the 1960s.
Of the “fab four,” Epstein’s favorite was John Lennon. When Epstein published his 1964 autobiography A Cellarful of Noise, Lennon joked to Epstein that he should have called it A Cellarful of Boys. It’s believed that Lennon wrote the song, “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” about Epstein. As homosexuality was illegal in Britain until 1967 it was indeed necessary for Epstein to be discreet.
Legend has it that Epstein and Lennon slept together once, during a visit to Spain. Later Lennon told his friend Peter Shotton, “I let him toss me off, and that was it.” An interesting version of what may have happened between the two inspired the 1991 film, The Hours and Times, by Chris Munch. Imagine.
Maurice Schwenkler, better known as Ariel Attack, the transgender anarchist, is one of two persons arrested in connection with a spate of broken windows at Colorado Democratic Party headquarters in Denver. The pair tried to escape by bicycles after they were caught in the act by police, who nabbed Attack after a short pursuit. Attack faces charges of felony criminal mischief.
Attack’s listed address matches that of the Derailer Bicycle Collective, a radical pro-bike group which was the target of FBI raids prior to the Republican convention last year. The group has since been cited for operating a “non-profit bicycle shop” and a “non-profit boardinghouse”, neither of which appears to be allowable under city code. Attack has also been associated with Bash Back!, a radical queer activist group.
Schwenkler/Attack has been “an occasional blogger” at Queers Against Obama and Gender Mutiny, two sites that take a decidedly negative view of politics as usual, particularly as practiced by the current supposedly progressive administration.
After being bailed out earlier today, Attack will face a hearing September 9.
Writer Lawrence Ferber (Birthday Time, Cruise Control) and director Douglas Langway (Raising Heroes) are collaborating on a new film focused onthe portly, furry gay men known fondly as “bears.” BearCity is now filming in New York. Read More.
Next Sunday, Cambridge, Massachusetts mayor E. Denise Simmons will marry her long-time partner, Mattie B. Hayes, in a ceremony at the predominantly African American St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church. Simmons, who was recently involved in the controversy surrounding the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., notes, “I believe this may be the very first African-American church to hold a same gender wedding, and that’s something that just wouldn’t have happened years ago.”
Liz Hoggard takes a close look at the phenomenal success of high-powered lesbian couples in an article in the London Evening Standard. Among them are BBC fashionista Mary Portas and her partner Grazia journalist Melanie Rickey; writer Jeanette Winterson and popular psychotherapist Susie Orbach, BBC sports presenter Clare Balding and radio newsreader Alice Arnold; writers Joanna Briscoe and Charlotte Mendelson; TV CEO Dawn Airey and TV producer Jacquie Lawrence, chef Allegra McEvedy and her partner Susi Smithers; writers Ariel Levy and Amy Norquist; singer Beth Ditto and her girlfriend Freddie; and actresses Fiona Shaw and Saffron Burrows. Other lesbians/bisexuals mentioned include poet Carol Ann Duffy, director Phyllida Lloyd, director Debra Warner, BBC newsreader Alice Arnold, comedian Sandi Toksvig, literary agent Pat Kavanagh, DJ Samantha Ronson, and writer Peggy Reynolds. Hoggard also throws in a few Americans including Annie Liebovitz, Lindsay Lohan, and Ellen DeGeneres. Read More.
Beth Ditto, the lead singer of US group Gossip, which has become a UK phenomenon, is interviewed in today’s Sunday Mail. She talks about her upbringing in Arkansas, where she felt compelled to keep her real feelings secret and was on her way to a life of suburban housewifery. Then Kathy Mendoca offered to fly her to Olympia, Washington. They formed The Gossip there and started recording and touring in 1999. Four albums later, Gossip’s single “Standing In The Way Of Control” took off. Ditto no longer keeps her feelings secret. She’s known for her outspoken views, open lesbianism, plus size, and punk attitude, and is having a huge impact on the music, fashion, and social scene as a major celebrity. Read More.
With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that Sedaris is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 8pm
part of the Barclay’s 20/20/20 Season
Irvine Barclay Theatre – 4242 Campus Drive
Tickets: $29 – sold out
949.854.4646 | www.thebarclay.org
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