Publisher's
Weekly says: "Waters's sharply drawn page-turner
doesn't quite equal the work of literary greats who've
already mapped out WWII-era London. But she matches any
of them with her scene of two women on the verge of an
affair during a nighttime bombing raid, lost in blackout
London with only the light of their passion as a guide."
I
say: does it really matter what it's about? It's a Sarah
Waters book. The most important question is, who will
BBC cast in the miniseries? I vote for Kate Beckinsale!
And Lena Headey. And Rachel Shelley. And Saffron Burrows...wait,
how many lesbian characters are there, again?
SPEAKING
OF SAFFRON BURROWS
According to The Hollywood Reporter, openly bisexual
actress Saffron
Burrows is in final negotiations to join the cast
of the Columbia Pictures movie Reign O'er Me, a
post-9/11 drama starring Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle
(Jada Pinkett Smith and Liv Tyler are also close to signing
on). Burrows would play a patient of Cheadle's psychiatrist
character who has entanglements with Cheadle and Sandler's
character, a man still grieving the death of his family
in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
But
your next chance to see Burrows in the U.S. will be in
the horror film Perfect Creature, slated for
wide release later this year, in which she plays
a human police captain battling vampires, an influenza
epidemic, and no doubt some kind of attraction to the
film's (male) hero. But on the plus side, no sharks!
FRENCH
KISSING
Carmen Electra and Victoria Silvstedt made
out on a French TV show this week. I think I'm supposed
to know who Victoria Silversomething is (I don't), and
I think I'm supposed to see this desperate bid for attention
as titillating (it's not).
LESBIAN
BROKEBACK +
CHARLIZE + DUSTY = WISHFUL THINKING
The lesbian movie news spreading like wildfire across
the Internet this week is that director Ang Lee's follow
up to Brokeback Mountain is going to be a movie
about Dusty
Springfield, starring Charlize Theron in the title
role, and possibly Kate Moss as her lover.
Okay,
I know every quasi-news publication and their brother
is running with this story, but this has "fake news"
written all over it: none of the trade magazines (Hollywood
Reporter, Variety, etc.) have reported it, just the
tabloids; there's already a Dusty Springfield movie in
the works (starring Kristin Chenoweth); and most importantly,
it just sounds unbelievable. Charlize playing yet another
lesbian role? Kate doing lesbian love scenes on-screen
when she's still trying to put the whole coke-and-threesomes
scandal behind her? Ang Lee doing another movie with homosexual
themes right after Brokeback? I'm
not buying it. It's such a straight person's idea of a
lesbian movie, the only thing missing is Hilary Swank.
LESBIAN
BROKEBACK + INDIA =
SLIGHTLY LESS HOMOPHOBIC THAN BEFORE
A newspaper in India recently asked
a handful of Indian actresses whether they thought a lesbian
Brokeback could succeed in India, and whether
they would star in such a movie. Shilpa Shetty's ultra-homophobic
response typifies the stance we've come to expect from
actresses in India: "Even if a serious director made
such a film in India, I don’t think I would work
in it. It’s a concept that goes contrary to our
culture. Actors are people that the masses look up to
and I don’t think I want to be portrayed as ‘someone
like that’."
But--and
here's the encouraging part--although they still made
a point to establish how not gay they are, the
other actresses interviewed for the piece didn't exactly
rush to second Shetty's comments. "If it is done
in a sensitive manner, it shouldn’t be a problem,"
said Urmila Matondkar, because "People are becoming
more open to such issues." Vidya Balan said, "People
are becoming more and more open to good films. So if it
is well made, why not?" Compared
to the uniform homophobia expressed
in 2004 by the actresses involved in the "lesbian"
movies Girlfriend
and Men Not Allowed, these comments are akin
to throwing a lesbian pride parade.
I
don't want to read too much into such a small crack in
the veneer of India's anti-lesbian sentiment--there won't
be any happy lesbian movies coming out of India anytime
soon. But
maybe we'll start to see more movies where at least the
lesbians don't die, go crazy, or both.
You
know, more like The
Journey and less like Basic Instinct 2.
