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Ask AfterEllen.com (April 14, 2009)

Want to know the status of a particular movie, TV show, or band? Wondering what a certain actress is up to these days? Send your entertainment-related questions to [email protected] – with your first name, city and country – and we’ll try to answer as many as we can.

Question: Memory Mambo by Achy Obejas is such a good book. It ends rather abruptly though, as if there is room for a sequel. Is there a sequel coming?

– LilyJadeRose, South Carolina, USA

Answer: Achy Obejas’s 1996 award-winning novel Memory Mambo, about Juani Casas, a Cuban-born American lesbian, was a big hit (read our review here) and definitely begged for a follow-up. We sent your question to Brenda Knight, the associate publisher at Cleis Press, and she told us, “We do not have any plans for a sequel.”

But she did point us to the recent coverage of Obejas’ new piece of fiction, Ruins, in the New York Times Book Review. The novel ( “No relation to Memory Mambo, darn it” per Knight) is set in 1994 Cuba after the fall of the Soviet Union and is about “a true believer” who is “faced with a choice between love for his family and the Cuban Revolution.”

According to her bio statement, Obejas “has received a Pulitzer for a Tribune team investigation, the Studs Terkel Journalism Prize, several Peter Lisagor journalism honors, two Lambda Literary awards, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in poetry, and residencies at Yaddo, Ragdale and the Virginia Center for the Arts, among other honors.”

She’s currently the Sor Juana Writer in Residence at DePaul University in Chicago and also writes about Latin music for the Washington Post and about books for In These Times.

Question: I was wondering what was up with Sarah Michelle Gellar‘s movie Veronika Decides to Die. The last of her movies have seemed to just blow away in the wind, and as this movie is modeled after Paulo Coelho’s book, I don’t want the same thing to happen to it.

Mia S, Louisiana Answer: Sarah Michelle Gellar (who recently announced her pregnancy) stars in the cinematic version of Coelho’s international bestseller about a woman who decides to kill herself and, upon surviving, discovers a will to live. The film began shooting on May 12, 2008 and is directed by Emily Young (Kiss of Life). It also stars Johnathon Tucker, David Thewlis, Melissa Leo and Erika Christensen. According to IMDB.com, the release date is November 2009.

You can watch scenes from the film at the official site, or watch the trailer below:

Question: I recently watched Itty Bitty Titty Committee again, and again I liked Lauren Mollica’s performance a lot. I know that she used to be a pro skateboarder. What is she doing these days? Do you know if she is planning to do more acting?

 

– Christiane, Bremen, Germany Answer: I contacted Lauren Mollica (who played Aggie in IBTC) via her Facebook page and she told me:

I’m not actually an actor so I’m not working on any of those types of projects. I just do my stuff. I’m a skateboarder and like working on cars, and building and making things. I just got back from the Dinah which I thought was hilarious. It made me feel old, but I had tons of fun.
If you want to see her skateboarding moves, you can check her out in the 2004 documentary about female skateboarders, Getting Nowhere Faster. Watch a clip from the film below: The other stars of IBTC, however, are still making movies. Melonie Diaz (Anna) stars in Identity with Claire Forlani, Pam Grier, Jason Alexander, Elizabeth Peña. Nicole Vicius (Sadie) has several films in post-production, including Leadcatcher, Exquisite Corpse, Sordid Things (with Piper Perabo), and How I Got Lost.

Deak Evgenikos (Meat) recently co-starred with Julie Goldman (The Big Gay Sketch Show) in the short film Happy Birthday, and Carly Pope (Dirt, Popular) completed shooting on Life is Hot in Cracktown (with Ileana Douglas) and is in post-production with her film Stuntmen (with Dominique Swain).

Pope also appeared in multiple episodes of the FOX drama 24 this season as the girlfriend of the President’s son. Here’s a screencap of her first appearance on the show: Carly’s character on 24 has the same name as her character on Popular, but sadly, this Samantha is not secretly a lesbian.

Question: I recently saw Sandra Valls in Latin Divas of Comedy and thought she was hilarious. What is she doing now?

– Frances, Michigan, USA Answer: I shared your question with Sandra, and this is what she had to say:

In addition to recovering from an amazing weekend at Dinah Shore Club Skirts, I just wrapped up production on my show Drama Queens at the Macha Theatre in Los Angeles (it’s like American Idol but for actors). And I recently did a podcast with David Rubin from Hot Gay Comics (listen to it here). It’s fun stuff, and in it I talk about how I got into comedy, my mission in life, Buddhism, the weather and girls in skirts!

Also, I just finished taping a hilarious episode of Zombie Underground for MySpace Comedy, in which I play a tough lesbian. Quite a stretch for me.

I’m off to Chicago this weekend for a show (An Evening with Sandra Valls) at the Chicago Center for Performing Arts, then it’s off to Toronto for the international queer comedy festival, We’re Funny That Way. I’ll head for Provincetown, Massachusetts in October for Women’s Week, and then it’s anchors away this November when I perform on a Sweet Caribbean Cruise.

Oh and run, don’t walk, to buy the book, Out on the Edge: America’s Rebel Comics, in which I’m a featured author. I write about coming out, playing cholo motorcycle bars, fighting with a heckling lesbian in the audience, and changing the world.

Finally, I am always promoting my girlfriend’s t-shirt line, LOVEHOLICS. Drop me a line at MySpace and let me know you want one. I’ll even sign it. (Part of the proceeds go to gay rights organizations.)

Stay tuned to my MySpace and Facebook pages for more information.

With that schedule, it’s hard to believe Sandra even had time to answer us!

A special thanks goes out to AE reader TruMischief for her invaluable research assistance with the Ask AfterEllen.com column.

A new edition of Ask AfterEllen.com is published every other Tuesday. Have a question for us? Email it to [email protected]. For more entertainment news, read previous editions of Ask AfterEllen.com, and check out AfterElton.com’s weekly entertainment Q&A column, Ask The Flying Monkey.

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