New anti-smoking ads warn “It’s Gay to Smoke”

Posted 11 months ago at 7:55 am. 0 comments

Thanks to the Onion for this terrific report.  At last, an approach that works.

New Anti-Smoking Ads Warn Teens ‘It’s Gay To Smoke’

Former President Bill Clinton and “Mr. Right” film ‘Come out’ at the same time

Posted 11 months ago at 7:20 am. 2 comments

British Director Jacqui Morris and Screenwriter David Morris strike a new chord with a romantic comedy about same-sex relationships as Clinton tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “I was wrong.”

Hollywood – Wednesday, September 30/ Just as former President Bill Clinton told CNN’s Anderson Cooper this past week, “I was wrong” about same-sex marriage referring to the law against it that he had signed early in his administration, and revealed that he is now in support of it, “Mr. Right,” a film from director Jacqui Morris and screenwriter David Morris, is set to premiere in Hollywood, October 9, at the Laemmle’s Sunset Five Cinema.

Just as “Star Trek” star, George Takei and his new partner are announced to be the first gay couple on one of America’s longest running t.v. shows, “The Newlywed Game,” the concept of “Mr. Right,” captured in the film’s ad campaign, “Query Yourself” (www.queryyourself.com), challenges audiences to inquire of their own reality on the subject and experience what one reviewer called a “smartly delivered film that creates a self-contained, well-to-do, feel-good universe where pure intentions and tolerance will heal all wounds and open all doors.”

“Mr. Right’s” promotion includes “Mom’s Go Free,” says director Jacqui Morris, and she means it literally.  “It’s certainly one of the first films since ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ that examines an honest view of the normal relationships of couples where it matters not if they are gay or not.  And it’s a movie you can take your Mom to.”

“For those initiated into the gay community, it will ring true, for those who aren’t, it will hopefully provide some fascinating insight.  Rather than being polemical or crudely comic, it deals with adult subjects which affect us all,” Morris says.

The distribution for “Mr. Right” produced by Mugshoots Productions will be done by Wolfe in the U.S. for the DVD expected out in time for Christmas.  The film will be screened on VH1/Logo Television starting November 15 following the October 9 theatrical run in Hollywood at the Laemmle Sunset Five Cinema (323) 848-3500 (www.laemmle.com).  The U.K. DVD release by Verve is set for mid January, 2010.  Ms. Morris will be meeting with prospective US theatrical distributors during the week of the run in Hollywood, to qualify “Mr. Right” for Academy Award consideration.

Topp Twins Win at Toronto Film Festival

Posted 11 months, 2 weeks ago at 6:54 am. 0 comments

A documentary on the Topp Twins, New Zealand’s duo of lesbian country/folk singers, has won the award for best documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival.  The film, directed by Leanne Pooley, tells the story of sisters Jools and Lynda Topp, who grew up on a dairy farm, began touring as comedians/singers, became active in politics and the gay rights movement, and starred in their own award-winning TV show.  They were inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame after more than 25 years of performing.

The doco includes interviews with the twins in some of their better-known characters such as Ken and Ken, the Bowling Ladies, Camp Mother and Camp Leader.   The film also documents Jools’s chemotherapy and mastectomy after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006.  Interviews with their family are also included.

The film has been a box-office successs in New Zealand, taking in over NZ$1 million in the first four weeks of shows.

Porn Stars Sentenced in Philly Burglaries

Posted 11 months, 3 weeks ago at 8:27 am. 0 comments

Keyontyli and Taleon Goffney, twin brothers who have starred in gay porn films such as Marc and the Twins, have been sentenced following conviction on charges of burglarizing Philadelphia businesses.  They were arrested in February 2008 after police spotted them breaking into a beauty shop during a sting operation.  They were suspected of more than 45 rooftop breakins.

Their mother Towana had also been charged, allegedly for driving a getaway car, but those charges were dropped.

Keyontyli was sentenced to time served, but Taleon is facing 3-8 years due to his prior record.   Assistant District Attorney Caroline Keating said Keyontyli “had previously been a working member of society up until this point.  But his brother is a true career criminal.”

Following a prior arrest, Taleon escaped by using his head to butt the window of a police squad car out, then swimming across a lake while handcuffed.

Nicky Haslam writes of “gay affair” with Lord Snowdon

Posted 11 months, 3 weeks ago at 8:38 am. 0 comments

Celebrity interior designer Nicky Haslam (b. 1939) will publish his autobiography, Redeeming Features, in November and the sparks are already flying.  Among other revelations, Haslam writes of his affair with photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon (b. 1930).  Haslam claims their fling went on during 1959, the year before Lord Snowdon married Princess Margaret.  Though they were divorced in 1978, and Margaret died in 2002, Snowdon remains close to Britain’s royal family.

Haslam writes, “I had a very brief romance with Tony Armstrong-Jones, somewhat one-sided on my part as Tony, who was dazzlingly attractive, had other irons in the fire.”   Haslam, who has written columns for London Evening Standard, The Telegraph, Vogue, and Tatler, also claims Snowdon had an affair with Tom Parr, later head of the luxury-goods firm Colefax and Fowler.

Lord Snowdon has denied Haslam’s claims, saying: “It’s not true as far as I’m concerned – and I should know.”  Snowdon has never confirmed widespread rumors of his bisexuality.

Anne de Courcy, in her biography of Snowdon published last year, quoted a friend of his as saying, “If it moves, he’ll have it.”  She wrote that in his early days he enjoyed boys, “who were fun to do things with”, as well as girls.  “I didn’t fall in love with boys,” he noted, “but a few men have been in love with me.”

Lord Snowdon, Los Angeles, 1980s. Photo by Chris Gulker

Tom Ford’s “A Single Man” debuts at Venice Film Festival

Posted 11 months, 3 weeks ago at 7:39 am. 0 comments

Fashion designer Tom Ford made his public debut as a film director yesterday at the Venice Film Festival, screening A Single Man, adapted from the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood.  Starring Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, and Lee Pace, it follows a day in the life of George, an expatriate gay professor in Los Angeles who must continue his closeted routine following the sudden death of his lover Jim.  Ford employed the production design team responsible for AMC’s award-winning series Mad Men.

A Single Man is in competition for the festival’s Golden Lion prizes for best film, best actor, and best actress.  It has already received the unofficial Queer Golden Lion, awarded unanimously by a panel of judges headed by Daniel Casagrande.

In an interview with AFP, Ford said: “One of the things I always loved about Christopher Isherwood … is that he always has gay characters because he was gay, but you never see the gay character struggling with his homosexuality or being tortured by it.  I didn’t want this to be a ‘gay film.’ It’s a universal film, about love and connection … The character happens to be gay, so what?”

Ford and his own partner, journalist Richard Buckley, have been together for 22 years.

Following the Venice Fest, A Single Man will be screened at Toronto International Film Festival.

UPDATE: Colin Firth has won “Best Actor” award at Venice Film Festival for his portrayal of George in A Single Man.

Brian Epstein focus of new film

Posted 1 year ago at 7:59 am. 0 comments

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.

The Beatles with Brian Epstein

Gayest Video on the Internet?

Posted 1 year ago at 4:42 pm. 0 comments

You be the judge — David Fudge presents his take on Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA”.  Party in the FIP:

Lawrence Ferber and Douglas Langway Taking us to BearCity

Posted 1 year ago at 4:14 pm. 0 comments

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.

Is Daniel Radcliffe Gay?

Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 8:20 am. 1 comment

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is not gay.  Or is he?  In the interests of publicity for the new installment of the film series, he’s been having some fun stoking the fires of the machinery of rumors that have been raging for the past year or so.  The latest is an interview for Moviefone which was only 4 questions in before the question of Dumbledore being gay was introduced.  “It’s wonderful.  I grew up around gay people my entire life, basically, that’s possibly why I’m quite camp, and some people think I’m gay when I meet them, which I think is awesome.”

Perhaps the rumors first began when he took on the lead role in Peter Shaffer’s homoerotic masterpiece Equus, which entails extensive nudity and male-male contact.  Showbiz Spy (link) reported that he said he’d gladly marry his co-star Lorenzo Pisoni, if only Pisoni were gay.  Naturally the full frontal photos spread like wildfire on the Internet.  Now those are being eclipsed by a Steven Klein spread for Details which includes a shot of a scruffy leather-clad Radcliffe that is a candidate for a gay icon status.

Daniel Radcliffe by Steven Klein

Radcliffe’s London gay nightclubbing with presumed homosexual Kevin Spacey and openly gay Stephen Fry have branded him a silver fox chaser in some people’s minds.  Not to mention the 6′8″ transsexual he claims to have gone out with (Our Lady J confirms she’s the one.)  Radcliffe has mentioned a desire to play a drag queen in a film, and thought he might make a good gay James Bond with Potter co-star Rupert Grint as his love interest.

Some blogs that follow the star have gone from pegging him as liking older women, to not wanting to date women at all, to “not saying anything about boyfriends.”

And then there’s the kiss.  Not his fault at all, of course, only James Corden taking advantage (and who wouldn’t) but you have to admire Radcliffe’s willingness to go with the moment.

Stay tuned for further developments.