It’s that time of year again. Now celebrating its 22nd birthday, the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival will screen at the British Film Institute on London’s South Bank from March 27 to April 10, offering queer-themed shorts, documentaries, and feature films from around the world.

The Chinese Botanist's Daughter

You can view a complete list of the films on offer here. Among the ones reviewed or mentioned by AfterEllen.com are the romantic tragedy The Chinese Botanist’s Daughter (pictured above), the American TV pilot Don’t Go featuring Guinevere Turner, and the Oscar-winning short documentary Freeheld, about the fight of dying lesbian policewoman Laurel Hester to see her pension go to her partner Stacie Andree.

There’s also the Taiwanese romance Spider Lilies, the German drama Vivere, the French coming-of-age film Water Lilies, and the South African period romance The World Unseen.

The World Unseen

There’s the 1996 American documentary It’s Elementary — Talking About Gay Issues in School, and its 2007 follow-up, It’s STILL Elementary — The Movie and the Movement. And there’s the HBO film Life Support, starring Queen Latifah as an HIV-positive charity worker (although unfortunately her character isn’t a lesbian).

A program titled "The Face of Another: Imagining Lesbian Desire" offers a chance to see Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring fall in love in Mulholland Dr. It also includes films that explore female relationships but are not so overtly lesbian-themed, like Ingmar Bergman’s Persona and the Madonna–Rosanna Arquette flick Desperately Seeking Susan. … continue reading

Olivia Wilde is going to play Jack Black’s love interest in the new biblical-times comedy The Year One. I am going to let the full weight of that news sink in while you stare at a picture of Olivia. Please, take your time. I’ll wait.

And, for comparison, here is Jack Black.

OK, now side by side.

So, yeah, what’s wrong with this picture? God, could there be a better example of the schlubby guy/hottie girl formula that has become the on-screen Hollywood couple du jour? I’ve railed (and railed) against these pairings for what seems like forever now. It’s not just the aesthetic that bothers me. Heaven knows a book is more, so much more, than its cover. But it’s the inequity of this equation that infuriates me. Where are the schlubby girl/hottie guy movies? And, since we’re dreaming big, how about the schlubby girl/hottie girl flicks? … continue reading

Tonight at 8:00, tune in to Fox for the 39th NAACP Image Awards telecast. This year, the theme is "Stand Up and Be Counted." According to the press release,

During this crucial election year, the NAACP encourages everyone to be socially conscious and take a stand on critical human and civil rights issues.

Wouldn't it be nice if every awards show encouraged such things? Susan Sarandon always gets played off when she tries to be political on the Oscars, and Kanye West was barely allowed to remember his mom on the Grammys this year.

Here are some of the nominees:

Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series
CCH Pounder (The Shield)
Jennifer Beals (The L Word)
Nicki Micheaux (Lincoln Heights)
Regina Taylor (The Unit)
Wendy Davis (Army Wives)

Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
America Ferrera (Ugly Betty)
Golden Brooks (Girlfriends)
Tia Mowry (The Game)
Tichina Arnold (Everybody Hates Chris)
Tracee Ellis Ross (Girlfriends)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Audra McDonald (Private Practice)
Chandra Wilson (Grey's Anatomy)
Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Without a Trace)
Pam Grier (The L Word)
S. Epatha Merkerson (Law & Order)

  … continue reading

I didn't watch all of the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards broadcast last night. Actually, I forgot it was on. I guess I find it difficult to get excited about movies like There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men — which, as Jamie recently pointed out, might as well be called No Movie for Women at All.

But I think I caught the best moments anyway. First, Tina Fey won for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series.

She was self-effacing and adorable as usual. Here's her acceptance speech, in which she calls herself the "hat rack" to Alec Baldwin's Fred Astaire: … continue reading

The writers' strike certainly made an impact on the Golden Globe Awards this year. No glitz, no glamour, no stars, no oops-Christine-Lahti-is-in-the-bathroom moments. Shots of the red carpet were replaced by shots of those red-and-black WGA picket signs. But, as cohost (and pinhead) Billy Bush noted, the winners still deserved recognition, so some sort of show had to go on. Here are some highlights of last night's Golden Globes Winners Special on NBC. (Images are from the press conference rather than the broadcast, but you get the idea.)

MOVIES

Best Actress, Comedy or Musical: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

Best Actress, Drama: Julie Christie, Away From Her
Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There

Best Actor, Comedy or Musical: Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Best Actor, Drama: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Best Picture, Comedy or Musical: Sweeney Todd
Best Picture, Drama: Atonement
Best Director: Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

TELEVISION

Best Actress, Drama: Glenn Close, Damages
Best Actress, Comedy: Tina Fey, 30 Rock … continue reading

The Golden Globes have been canceled, but the the writers’ strike didn’t prevent the live broadcast of the Critics' Choice Awards from pressing on last night. But the strike it did have its effects. Many winners noted that they were speaking off the cuff because they wanted to respect the strike and did not write speeches.

Host D.L. Hughley’s commentary was incredibly awkward, and it seemed that all his jokes were about race. Probably the oddest comment of the night for me came when Hughley dubbed Brad Pitt an “honorary black person” for seemingly no reason. And several times Hughley told the crowd that they needed to lighten up and laugh once in a while.

Despite that, there were many bright spots during the evening. For one, it seemed that every two minutes Pitt and AfterEllen.com’s No. 2 hottie, Angelina Jolie, were on the screen, looking just as fabulous as ever.

Additionally, there were some fantastic female winners throughout the evening.

Nikki Blonsky, breakout star of Hairspray, won the award for Best Young Actress.

Blonsky shared the award for Best Acting Ensemble with the rest of the Hairspray cast, which includes Queen Latifah (AfterEllen.com Hot 100 No. 55), Amanda Bynes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Allison Janney, Brittany Snow and, of course, John Travolta in drag. … continue reading

Queen Latifah hosts the 34th annual People's Choice Awards tonight at 9/8c on CBS.

Ellen DeGeneres and Jodie Foster are among the nominees, as are lots of other AfterEllen.com favorites. Three categories are still open for voting.

Sure, it's no Golden Globes, but I'm already in take-what-I-can-get mode in these days of striking writers!

As a bestseller about "the divine power of women and the transforming power of love," it was only a matter of time before Sue Monk Kidd's debut novel The Secret Life of Bees made its way to the big screen. But, still smarting from too many adaptation debacles to count (The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood comes to mind), I wouldn't have very much cared — until yesterday's Variety report about casting. With Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, and Sophie Okonedo signed and Alicia Keys in talks, I'm setting aside my $11 now.

Dakota Fanning is due to star as teenaged protagonist Lily, but that doesn't interest me so much (apparently nobody has yet followed Sarah's advice and convinced her that she need not portray every precocious young girl). Nope, I'm all about this somewhat random but potentially quite satisfying group of non-adolescent stars: Hudson as Lily's nanny and friend Rosaleen, and Latifah, Keys and Okonedo as the Boatwright sisters. I'm also all about the fact that Gina Prince-Bythewood will be at the helm, using her own based-on-the-book script. Since the Love and Basketball writer-director is responsible for one of the greatest moments in female sports movies but has only done a modest amount of work since, much of it on TV, I'm eager to see her in charge of a major release. … continue reading

On Mondays, I find it easier to look at pretty pictures than put together sentences. So here are some movie posters for your visual pleasure. (You could also call this a preview of 2008, which isn't looking great so far ...)

1. Hellboy II, starring Selma Blair:

I didn't see Hellboy, and even if I had, I probably wouldn't feel compelled to see the sequel. But Selma is mesmerizing in this poster. So I might reconsider. Her eyes, they follow me everywhere!

2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (the poster was just released today): … continue reading

For the last few days, the buzz on the gossip blogs has been that Queen Latifah is "engaged" to her trainer Jeanette Jenkins and plans to come out publicly soon.

The sources of this tidbit aren't exactly reliable; they range from Perez Hilton to a blind item in the New York Post to <insert your favorite dodgy rumor site here>. Here's how the Post put it on Monday:

"WHICH big Hollywood actress is about to come out of the closet? She's been living with her girlfriend in a small town, where all the neighbors know, and the two are now engaged to be married."

Perez and other bloggers have concluded that Latifah is the most likely candidate; she lives in a "small town" in New Jersey — where, incidentally, same-sex civil unions are legal.

The original source seems to be MediaTakeOut.com, which declares its reliability very loudly — you might even say they doth protest too much. … continue reading

I have to admit, my first thought on seeing this picture of Katie Holmes was, "At last, she can find her Helen."

But no, Katie has not become a bad girl — yet. She does, however, play a girl gone wrong in the movie Mad Money, in which she stars with Queen Latifah and Diane Keaton.

Mad Money is the story of three janitors at the Federal Reserve who plot to steal money that is scheduled for destruction. Arthur Frobisher Ted Danson also stars. The movie is based on the British film Hot Money, which was based on a true story. … continue reading

I forgot to do a TV alert about this yesterday — Queen Latifah was on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Sorry about that. (Maybe you don't care, judging by your reaction to her comments to Glamour.) Nothing gay was discussed, so you didn't miss anything earth-shattering if you didn't see it.

I figure the least I can do is provide you with a clip of the best moment of the show. This is why I'm still a loyal subject: … continue reading

In a recent interview, Aretha Franklin spoke about casting dilemmas for the TV movie version of her autobiography, From These Roots.

Billy Dee Williams and Terrence Howard have committed to play her father and Smokey Robinson, but the role still up for grabs is Aretha herself. Depending on who you listen to, that is. Jennifer Hudson is rumored to be already cast, but Franklin says nothing is set yet. If it were up to her, she'd have several women play herself at different ages. (Hey, that sounds familiar. But I would really have something to say if they cast Cate Blanchett for this one.) Here's Franklin's short list:

I know, I know. Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia Barrino and Halle Berry? Which one of these is not like the other? But let's start with Hudson. … continue reading