Best.
Lesbian. Week. Ever.
by Sarah
Warn,
AfterEllen.com Editor
A
weekly column highlighting lesbian pop culture news
Friday,
March 3, 2006
OUT
AT THE OSCARS
This year's Academy Awards (airing this Sunday on ABC) may
be all about gay men this year, but there is at least one
lesbian you can root for: out makeup artist Tami
Lane, who has worked on Lord of the Rings, Chronicles
of Narnia, and the just-finished Superman Returns.
She's up for an Oscar, along with her co-worker Howard Berger,
for her prosthetics work on Narnia, where she was
in charge 42 people and responsible for the makeup of characters
like Mr. Tumnus and the White Witch's sidekick. "It's
an incredible experience," she told me yesterday when
I asked her about the nomination. "You just don't think
the film will become that big when you're working on it."
Even
if she doesn't win an Oscar, though, Tami's work on Narnia
has already paid dividends: it was on the set in New Zealand
a year or so ago that she met her girlfriend, Penny Mackie,
who was doing costumes for the film.
Penny
will be accompanying Tami to the Oscars on Sunday wearing
a deep red dress, with Tami in a black strapless gown with
jewelry from Erica Courtney. I know, I don't normally describe
what people are wearing, but hey, it's the Oscars, I have
to ask! And now you can keep an eye out for them when you're
watching the Academy Awards on Sunday night, so really, you
should be thanking me for my shallow ways.
What is Tami planning to do if she wins? "Go to every
party I can," she laughed. "I've been told if you
win, you have to go to the Vanity Fair party."
And
then, "Howard and I are going to hunt down Charlize
Theron--we're both big fans."
IF
IT TALKS LIKE AN UNFOUNDED RUMOR, AND WALKS LIKE AN UNFOUNDED
RUMOR... Speaking of Charlize Theron, she will not be
playing Dusty Springfield in the upcoming Ang Lee movie,
because, as I suggested
last week, there is no such movie in the works: Brokeback
Mountain producer James Schamus officially denounced
the "news" this week, saying, "It showed
up on one of these gossip sites, and Ang and I were like,
'Huh? What?' I'm a Dusty Springfield fan, but it's all
completely fabricated."
That's
fancy producer talk for "Think, McFly, think!"
LESBIANS
ON STAGE AND (SMALL) SCREEN
Lots of news this week about queer women on TV and at
the theater (although most are playing straight characters).
Out lesbian Lisa
Kron's new one-woman show The
Well debuts on Broadway this month,
and Cynthia Nixon is earning high
praise from just about everyone for her role as a
grieving mother in Rabbit
Hole, which has just been given an extended run
at the Manhattan Theater Club through April 9th. Finally,
Cherry
Jones will co-star with Ralph Fiennes in Booth Theatre's
Faith Healer beginning May 4th, and then reprise
her award-winning role in Doubt for a six-month
national tour beginning in September.
In
TV news, it is being widely reported that Portia de Rossi's
series Arrested
Development has been picked up by Showtime for
a 2-season, 26-episode commitment, to the excitement of
lesbians and banana stand fans everywhere (although this
has not yet been officially confirmed by Showtime). And
as we reported on the site earlier this week, Heather
Matarazzo has joined the cast of Logo's upcoming series
The Rules: A Lesbian Survival Guide, and Sarah
Paulson has secured one of the lead roles in the upcoming
NBC drama ensemble Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
Sara
Gilbert's WB sitcom Twins, meanwhile, is not
expected to return next season, to the disappointment
of no one anywhere.
