LESBIAN MATTERS
I just got back from a press screening of Gray Matters, the romantic comedy opening February 23rd that stars Heather Graham as an ad exec who realizes she's gay when she falls for her brother's wife, played by Bridget Monyahan.

The movie's tagline is "A Romantic Comedy About a Brother, A Sister, and the Girl of Their Dreams."

We'll post a full review of it on AfterEllen.com in the next few weeks, but here's my quick take: If you like more mainstream, conventional movies like Imagine Me and You and Kissing Jessica Stein--or you just like to see hot women playing gay--you'll probably like Gray Matters. If High Art and My Summer of Love are more you style, you'll definitely want to skip this. This is a very conventional movie with a lesbian twist--and that's exactly what I like about it.

Not that Gray doesn't have plenty of room for improvement. Heather Graham needs to take it down a notch, or even two or three (did she and Gretchen Mol go to the same over-acting school?), Sissy Spacek's character is annoying, and the story isn't developed enough.

But overall, I enjoyed the movie. Moynahan is great, and Tom Cavanagh and Molly Shannon are even better--the baner between Graham and Shannon, and Cavanagh and anyone, are some of the movie's best. There are some truly funny lines, the production quality is excellent, and the kiss between Graham and Moynahan is surprisingly hot (that's the raciest this film gets--in terms of physical affection, think Sleepless in Seattle, not Sex, Lies and Videotape).

Throw in The L Word's Rachel Shelley, good music, and the fact that no one dies or goes crazy, and you've got the perfect lesbian date movie. On the heels of last year's Imagine Me and You, and this month's Puccini for Beginners, this happy-lesbian-movie thing is threatening to become a trend!

SHE FEELS PRETTY, AND WITTY, AND—HEY!
This month, Ellen DeGeneres graces the cover of W Magazine, which bills itself as "the only pure luxury, fashion and lifestyle magazine." In the interview, she talks about fashion, and Portia de Rossi, and fashion on Portia:

"Whenever Portia and I are on the red carpet, they’re yelling out for her to tell them what she’s wearing. But nobody cares [about what I’m wearing] because I have a suit on, even if it’s a Gucci suit. That to me is frustrating, because I put effort into getting ready too. But I guess it’s not as important, and I’m not as dressed up somehow. I also feel myself more of a person than a gender. When people show me clothing that seems very, very feminine, it’s hard for me to embrace that, because it just doesn’t feel like me.... It was fun [for the shoot] having somebody do that to my hair, and do that makeup. But would I want to do that every single day? No."

Ellen may downplay her personal life on her talk show (although she did actually mention Portia and "my girlfriend" on the show this week), but she's really pushing the envelope, in a good way, on what's appropriate for women to wear. Sure, women from Katherine Hepburn to Diane Keaton have been wearing pantsuits in Hollywood for years, but none of them have been out lesbians, except for Melissa Etheridge and kd lang (and that doesn't really count--because everyone knows the same rules don't apply to musicians).

Speaking of Ellen and Portia, here's the cute photo of them included with the W interview:

Looks like the racoon's been doing Ellen's makeup again, though!