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Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. (July 6, 2007)

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A LESBIAN PRIVATE EYE? BBC America‘s upcoming series Jekyll, a modern reinvention of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, features a lesbian couple: a private detective named Miranda, played by Meera Syal, and her partner, Min, played by Fenella Woolgar. Here’s Meera: And here’s Fenella: The good news? I just saw the first episode, and the show is absolutely riveting – and Miranda is a P.I. with some real real backbone.The bad news? Min is pregnant. Cue the collective groan.

Apparently actress Fenella Woolgar is pregnant in real life, but you can’t tell in the first episode, and I’m not convinced it was necessary to make the lesbian couple expecting a baby. Now it just makes me expect that there will be some danger to the unborn baby in a future episode. Yawn.

Moving on, let’s take a closer look at the actresses behind these new lesbian characters.

Meera Syal is familiar to British viewers for her role as Sushil “Ummi” Kumar in the BBC2 series The Kumars at No. 42, and she also played the role of Miss Chauhan in the 1996 film Beautiful Thing. In 1997, she was made a Member of the British Empire, the most junior class (of five) in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. That means that Meera’s only got four more classes to ascend before she can be called a Dame.

Fenella Woolgar, who plays Min, is best known for her role as Agatha Runcible in Bright Young Things (2003), a gay-friendly (or gay-winking) adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies.

In Jekyll, Syal’s character, Miranda, is initially hired by Dr. Tom Jackman’s (aka Dr. Jekyll) wife to investigate him, because she suspects he’s having an affair. Miranda soon discovers that Dr. Jackman’s issues are much bigger than cheating, and despite the danger (Mr. Hyde is, well, psychotic), she is intrigued by him and continues to seek out the truth about his existence.

“A lot of detective roles you read are a load of cliches,” Syal has said about the role. “Miranda was such a different character and I really enjoyed her relationship with Min, not just because she’s a lesbian but because the kind of banter they have is funny and fresh and rather Noel Cowardy. And they’re also actually probably one of the happiest couples in the whole series! Miranda and Min’s relationship is one of the spines running through the drama.”

The woman who plays Tom Jackman’s assistant, psychiatric nurse Katherine Reimer, is Michelle Ryan, who will play the title role in NBC’s new incarnation of Bionic Woman, which premieres this fall.

Jekyll premieres on BBC America on Aug. 4 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

FINALLY! SEX IS COMING BACK TO THE CITY Variety recently reported that the long-awaited movie version of HBO’s Sex and the City is finally set to begin shooting. New Line has inked a deal to finance and distribute the film, which will bring together all four stars of the television series: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon. Two years ago the movie almost made it to the greenlight stage, but Cattrall backed out due to alleged salary disputes. Apparently she’s happy now and is ready to reprise her role as the bawdy, sexy, sometimes bisexual Samantha.

Nixon, who came out in 2004 and has been with girlfriend Christine Marinoni since then, has been busy with a variety of other projects since Sex and the City wrapped after its sixth season. She won an Emmy for her role as Eleanor Roosevelt in HBO’s Warm Springs (2005) and took home a Tony in 2006 for her role in the Broadway play Rabbit Hole. Here’s Cynthia at the Tony Awards last month: Here’s a photo of Cynthia and her girlfriend in 2005: And here she is with her co-stars from Sex and the City: No confirmation yet on when the movie version of the show will start shooting, if out lesbian Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field will outfit the foursome in the big-screen version, or what exactly happens in the script penned by Michael Patrick King. So maybe it’s not too late for me to make a suggestion: an L Word/Sex and the City crossover. Remember when Bette went to New York and picked up a hot girl at the Starlight Bar? Imagine what it would have been like if Samantha had been at the Starlight instead. The possibilities are endless (and I’m not just talking about fashion).

WE’RE JUST MAD ABOUT SAFFRON Openly bisexual actress Saffron Burrows has been cast as a guest star in a multi-episode arc on ABC’s Boston Legal, which kicks off its fourth season this fall. According to the press release, Burrows’ character is “a sexy, sophisticated commercial litigator who once had a passionate affair with Alan [James Spader], the chemistry of which still lingers and distracts.” Too bad Saffron’s not playing gay, but since Portia de Rossi is going to be playing a lesbian on Nip/Tuck, we’ve reached our quota for an openly lesbian or bisexual actress playing an openly lesbian or bisexual character on prime-time television: 1.

Nonetheless, kudos to Saffron, who’s been in a low-key but openly acknowledged relationship with actress Fiona Shaw (Petunia Dursley of the Harry Potter movies) for several years. Will this make me tune in to Boston Legal? The verdict’s still out.

ONCE MORE WITH FEELING Season 3 of ABC’s Once and Again (1999—2002) is finally coming out on DVD! Probably. Well, the signs are looking good, anyway: TVShowsonDVD.com reports that the man in charge of licensing ABC shows told them recently that he’s looking to license the all three seasons of the show to a new distributor, now that the license for Buena Vista Home Entertainment (which released the first two seasons on DVD) will be expiring soon.

I’d quote a trademark line from the series, but that’s the beauty of Once and Again: it didn’t have one-liners, it was all about the art of conversation. The characters talked like real people do: overlapping, conflicting, muddled and often using a lot of words to say very little. Like this conversation between 14-year-old Jessie (Evan Rachel Wood) and her therapist when Jessie’s still in denial – about herself, and about her friend Katie (Mischa Barton, before being Mischa Barton wasn’t cool):

Therapist: So, your friend is gay … Jessie: No, no, no. My friend being gay wouldn’t bother me. What bothers me is people saying she’s gay if she’s not. Like there are girls in my school who say they’re gay and know if they are or they aren’t, but at least it’s their choice to say it. Therapist: I see. Jessie: And with Katie, I just don’t think that she is, because I know her really well. And if she was, she would be going to that meeting tonight and she’s not, so she’s obviously not gay. Therapist: Well, that settles it, then.
Classic.

If you want even more O&A, check out Sarah’s new blog post Where are they now? The women of Once and Again.

Now if only ABC would release Relativity on DVD, the lesbian TV circle of life would be complete.

LOOK OUT, AMERICA – BILL O’REILLY LESBIAN GANGS ON THE LOOSE! Last Friday night, Sarah wrote a very funny blog post about a recent O’Reilly Factor segment on the rampant proliferation of pink gun-wielding lesbian gangs in America who use violence to achieve their nefarious goals, as well as recruit young girls into the homosexual lifestyle. Even funnier were some of your comments, a few of which I’m sharing here (commenter credited in parentheses):

150 lesbian gangs in the DC area??? Well, I know where I’m going on my next vacation! 🙂 (XSaraXPoeX)

My mom catches his show every day if she can. If she saw this today, I expect the first thing to come out of her mouth when I come out to HER to be, “Was it the GTO? DTO? WHO DID THIS TO YOU!?!??” (G)

This whole thing kind of makes me think that Bill was watching an episode of Girltrash and ran with the idea. (Amie)

I went to Michael Moore’s new movie “Sicko” last night, about the decrepit state of American health care. Then, I woke up this morning to find out that I am (unbeknownst to myself) in a roving gang, carrying pink guns. (Really, Bill? PINK?) Anybody from the UK want to take in a wayward American lesbian? I’m a helluva cook… (sevencostanza)

I’m not sure we should be taking a guy whose idea of good sex involves loofas and falafels too seriously. (verticalblue)

I’m starting my own gang, IOLNTTCLD (Irate Oklahoman Lesbians Not Taking This Crap Lying Down). I’ll be giving out sports bras, pink glocks, and bad haircuts to all who want to be jumped in. (CountessEntwistle)

Who says lesbians don’t have a sense of humor?

All kidding aside, GLAAD’s now calling for The O’Reilly Factor to issue an apology for perpetuating such gross inaccuracies as “Fox crime analyst” Rod Wheeler’s statement that there are 150 lesbian gangs “just in the D.C. area alone.” (In response to that, Sgt. Brett Parson of the D.C. Metro Police said, “We have 150 to 175 total gangs in the D.C. area, and out of those only nine where the predominance of members are female.” And the head of an intelligence-sharing organization of 400 criminal justice professionals in the Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia areas noted, “our membership reports only one lesbian gang in the area.”)

Share your opinions by writing or calling the following people: Rod Wheeler Capitol Investigations (301) 390-8272 [email protected] [email protected] Mr. John Moody Senior Vice President, News Editorial Fox News Channel 212-301-8560 [email protected] Amy Sohnen Executive Producer, The O’Reilly Factor Fox News Channel (212) 301-3000 [email protected] GLAAD’s call to action is not unexpected, but you know it’s bad when even straight people are pointing out how ridiculous this story is – Sarah’s blog post has gotten over 800 diggs at Digg.com, while straight and gay bloggers across the internet are calling the “lesbian gangs gone wild” segment so silly that it seems like a parody masterminded by Jon Stewart.

On the other hand, have you seen the poster for Jodie Foster‘s new movie? Maybe O’Reilly is on to something, after all …

(Kudos to AHunter for the photoshopping skills!)

TRY WAITING TILL YOU’RE OUT OF BED BEFORE BEGINNING THE PROCESSING If you missed it when it was in theaters earlier this year, Maria Maggenti‘s romantic comedy Puccini for Beginners is now available on DVD. The film centers on Manhattan author Allegra (Elisabeth Reaser), who has been dumped by her girlfriend, Samantha (Julianne Nicholson). While she’s on the rebound, Allegra starts dating Columbia professor Philip (Justin Kirk). She thinks it’s just a fling, but Philip breaks up with his long-term girlfriend for her. Simultaneously, Allegra starts dating an investment banker named Grace (Gretchen Mol).

In Shauna Swartz’s review of the film last February, she wrote: “The film is polished and entertaining in a breezy way. It is not necessarily challenging to viewers, but it seems to make the point that nobody really wants to be challenged all the time, anyway.”

Shauna, I know what you mean. I’m certainly tired of being challenged. Maybe it’s the summer – all that sunblock must leach out the brain cells. We could show you the trailer, but wouldn’t you rather watch Gretchen Mol in bed with Elisabeth Reaser? Here you go:  

THINK GLOBAL, PARTY LOCAL AfterEllen.com has always had an international audience, which is why we try to keep our entertainment coverage broad in scope. But we know there’s a ton of cool entertainment options available in your hometown, and we’re going to start visiting various locations around the world every month to bring you a taste of local lesbian life. Yesterday we kicked off a new monthly column, Scene, with my take on San Francisco. Next month, Karman’s going to give you an insider’s glimpse into the L.A. celezbrity scene, and a guest-star writer will take you on a tour of her own stomping grounds every month after that.

Meanwhile, here are some local happenings to keep an eye on this weekend:

Friday night in New York, comedian Julie Goldman (The Big Gay Sketch Show), premieres her latest work-in-progress, Julie Goldman’s Pre-Emptive Strike, for one night only at the Culture Project’s Women Center Stage. According to the press release, “Taking on religion, gender politics, the war, and the confusion of heterosexual morality, Julie comes out guns-a-blazin, shooting at all that she doesn’t understand, and makes sure to attack everything before it attacks her, following our President’s lead with this PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE.”

Saturday night in Chicago, the organizers behind Queerfest Midwest, an alternative, queer music festival, are throwing a fundraiser and dance party at Ronny’s (2101 N. California Ave.), featuring performances from Katastrophe and Nicky Click. Queerfest Midwest, scheduled to take place Aug. 25 at the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse in Chi-town, features bands such as The Ex-Members (a trio featuring former members of The Butchies, Team Dresch and Gerty), Chicago’s own Office, electro-pop duo Team Gina and others.

All this month in Boston, Queer Soup Theater celebrates its five-year anniversary with a festival of new plays under the title Lost & Found: The Anniversary Series at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Queer Soup, which is the only theater company solely dedicated to performing original work by queer artists, aims to “cultivate new works that introduce, unite and incite audiences by using laughter to smuggle ideas across society’s borders.” Go to queersoup.net for tickets and more information.

IS THIS THE HONEYMOON STAGE? You may have noticed a nifty little link on our front page that now leads to Angela Robinson‘s lesbian web series, Girltrash. That’s right, AfterEllen.com has recently tied the knot with OurChart.com, and our new relationship brings this sexy series directly to you every Sunday. As Karman explained earlier this week, the series includes a number of our favorite actresses, from Margaret Cho to The L Word‘s Rose Rollins.

Last month at the South of Nowhere Appreciation Conference in Los Angeles, Mandy Musgrave, Gabrielle Christian and Maeve Quinlan – who are all in Girltrash – joined Angela Robinson at a panel to discuss the series. If you missed the conference, don’t worry! You can now watch it online. The panelists are introduced in Part 1, and in Part 2, Robinson talks about their guerilla shooting tactics (that’s shooting the film, not shooting guns) that resulted in Mandy and Gabby getting in some trouble with the cops during their convenience store robbery scene.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! According to NME.com, openly lesbian singer Beth Ditto of the Gossip is in talks with British clothing retailer New Look to design her own line of clothes; the store recently brought in Lily Allen to do the same. Earlier this year Beth also wanted to design clothes for “big girls” for British chain store Top Shop, and she has been writing an advice column for British newspaper The Guardian. This leads me to ask: Hey Beth, are you becoming British? This is OK, I guess (I have a lifelong history of being an Anglophile, after all), but please, please, don’t take up a Madonna-esque accent.

Pirate Master‘s openly closeted lesbian contestant, Jupiter Mendoza, is still going strong on the CBS reality series, even though its ratings have been steadily slipping. I admit I’ve been watching the series, hoping to get some campy good cheer out of it, but the show has started to turn into a Kmart version of Survivor with leftover Halloween Store pirate costumes, and my interest is rapidly flagging. Nonetheless, good luck, Jupiter! May the best wench win.

This weekend, more than 100 musical artists will come together for a 24-hour concert you might have heard about called Live Earth, which aims “to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.” NBC will broadcast a three-hour special on Saturday night including performances from Melissa Etheridge, Madonna, Kelly Clarkson, Shakira and others, but if you want to see more, you can watch 18 hours of live coverage on Bravo or attach yourself to your computer to watch it all online. Apparently Live Earth is following Green Event Guidelines to make sure it makes the minimum environmental impact, but I still haven’t figured out the lowest-impact way for me to watch the concerts. Maybe I’ll turn off all my electronics instead and go for a hike.

That’s it for this week! Check back next Friday for another edition of Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever.

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