Friday,
June 10, 2005
TV
ROUNDUP
There's
an out lesbian on Fox's new Martha Stewart-meets-The
Apprentice-meets-Fear Factor reality show Hell's
Kitchen, which airs on Monday nights. Look for the one named
Jessica, with spiky blonde hair.
Out
actress Cherry
Jones won another
Tony Award for her performance as a nun in the award-winning
play Doubt, and she and actress Sarah
Paulson went public with their relationship when the two were
openly affectionate at the awards (which aired on CBS).
FICTION
ROUNDUP
The
17th Annual Lambda Literary Awards were held in New York this week,
and among the winners in the lesbian categories were Stacey D'Erasmo
(for A Seahorse Year), Judith Frank (for Crybaby Butch),
and Katherine
V. Forrest (for Hancock Park).
In
other lesbian fiction news, ex-New York Times journalist
Edward Klein joins the ongoing efforts by some of America's more
conservative factions to discredit Hillary Clinton by using the
dreaded lesbian label in his upcoming book The Truth About Hillary:
What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She’ll Go to
Become President, according to a report in the British
Mail this week, to whom excerpts of the book were leaked. "The
culture of lesbianism has influenced Hillary’s political goals
and personal life since she was a student at Wellesley, an elite
college near Boston" which has a "long tradition of lesbianism,"
Klein reportedly claims in the book, which will be released on June
21st. He doesn't appear to have any actual proof of these allegations,
but it seems to be enough to point out that "[Hillary] said
she was passionately in love with her husband, but many of her closest
friends and aides were lesbians." You mean, you can't be straight
if you have lesbian friends? Horrors! My straight friends
will be devastated when I tell them their whole lives have been
a lie.
Um,
Edward, I hate to destroy your fantasy, but in the mid-90s I was
president of Wellesley's lesbian student organization--whose members
numbered in the dozens, out of a school of a few thousand--where
I organized its first annual Dyke Ball and a rousing long hair-vs.-short
hair softball game. And I can tell you from first-hand experience
(including many unrequited crushes on straight classmates) that
there is no "tradition of lesbianism" there, unless by
that, you mean a tradition of straight women accepting and/or not
actively discriminating against lesbians. But then, I think you've
proven that pretty much means the same thing to you, eh Eddie?
MOVIE
ROUNDUP
The French horror film High
Tension (Haute Tension) opens in American theaters
today, and I don't want to spoil the movie, but let's just say its
portrayal of lesbianism currently makes it the frontrunner for Worst
Theatrical Release of 2005 in our annual
lesbian visibility awards.
Sony
has just posted the trailer for the upcoming movie Rent,
which includes a prominent lesbian couple and hits theaters on November
11, 2005. You can find it on the movie's official
site.
In
2003 I wrote about Gray
Matters, a film in the works about a woman, played by Heather
Graham, and her brother who fall for the the same woman, played
by Saffron Burrows. Fast-forward almost two years and there have
now been a few cast changes--including the replacement of Burrows
with Bridget Moynahan
(Serendipity, Coyote Ugly)--and the movie is finally filming
in Vancouver B.C. No word yet on when it will be in theaters.
Speaking
of Saffron Burrows
(Troy), the openly bisexual actress is currently starring
in the Neil LaBute play Some Girl(s) in London's West End,
and last month, 20th Century Fox acquired the New Zealand vampire
film she starred in recently, Perfect Creature, for a wide
release in the U.S. later this year.
Next
week on DVD: the release of the lesbian-themed indie movies All
Over Me (1997) and Clara's
Summer (2001).
FRAMELINE
Frameline29,
the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, kicks off next
week with a screening of My
Summer of Love (which also opens in theaters in New York
and L.A. on June 17th). This year's festival
lineup features some promising lesbian films, including the
Indian lesbian romance Sancharram ("The Journey"),
the German ensemble drama Beautiful Women, and the documentary
Little Man by Nicole Conn (Claire of the Moon),
about her and her partner's experiences conceiving and giving birth
to an at-risk baby.
L-DIRECTORS
The
L Word has announced its roster of directors for the third
season, and they include openly gay directors Angela
Robinson (D.E.B.S.),
Rose Troche (Go Fish), and Kimberly Peirce (Boys
Don't Cry), as well as Bronwen Hughes (Forces of Nature,
Harriet the Spy), Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down), Frank
Pierson (Soldier's Girl), and Moisés Kaufman (The
Laramie Project). No date has been announced yet for the third
season debut.
DAMN,
I WISH I HAD EQUAL CIVIL RIGHTS, BUT AT LEAST I CAN KISS NOW
Omnisexual
musician Sophie B. Hawkins is performing her classic song "Damn
I Wish I Was Your Lover," the first song with lesbian-themed
lyrics to reach the Top 5 in America, on next Thursday's episode
of NBC's reality show Hit Me Baby One More Time. Interesting
how times have changed: when the song came out in 1992, Hawkins
had to fight the record label not to edit the song's controversial
lyrics "and I lay by the ocean making love to her with visions
clear." Now she's being asked to sing them on network TV. 'Cause
girls kissing is trendy now! As long as we don't try to get married
first.
DEEP
THOUGHTS BY BRITTANY MURPHY
“I admit that my most memorable on-screen kiss was with Reese
Witherspoon in Freeway, because we were just laughing so
much,” Murphy recently told the British Maxim. Because
lesbian kisses are funny! I mean, imagine kissing another girl!
That's hilarious! Almost as funny as your performance in 8 Mile,
Brittany!
That's
it for this week! Check back next Friday for a new installment of
Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever.
Past
installments of Best. Lesbian. Week.
Ever. |
