LESBIAN KISSES ON TV? IT MUST BE SWEEPS WEEK! This week saw the beginning of May sweeps, a period which traditionally features a flurry of exploitive lesbian kisses (and occasionally some decent ones), and this year is no exception. Veronica Mars (CW) kicked things off with a silly story line about two women who locked a guy who was secretly dating both of them in a vending machine room, and then taunted him by kissing each other in the elevator as they left. Because lesbianism is all about kissing for men.
Then ER (NBC) jumped into the fray by running a promo for last night’s episode that showed an enthusiastic Asian-American intern declaring her admiration for Neela (Bend it Like Beckham‘s Parminder Nagra) by kissing her in the bathroom at a wedding. Hey, I’m all for Nagra playing a lesbian role – what Beckham fan isn’t? – but a random kiss drummed up by the promo department doesn’t exactly qualify.
What’s next, Pam and Angela getting drunk and playing spin the bottle on The Office? Izzie coming down with a mysterious disease that temporarily makes her attracted to women on Grey’s Anatomy? Actually, that last idea’s not half bad …
HILLARY, OBAMA, AND … ROSIE? No, Rosie O’Donnell hasn’t entered the 2008 presidential race as the candidate for the Lesbian Party (although I’d probably enjoy the televised presidential debates more if she did); she has been named as one of Time‘s 100 most influential people in the world. Here’s what Barbara Walters had to say about her in Time (along with the illustration Time ran with the piece):
When Rosie O’Donnell was 10, she lost her mother. I don’t think she ever got over it. It made her both independent and vulnerable, sensitive and outspoken. She loves Barbra Streisand, Broadway shows, her partner Kelli, their four young children, anyone’s babies … and feuds. Not necessarily in that order. She hates what she considers injustice, snobby people, most of the current Administration, and chances are she will never live in a Trump building.A classy tribute. The 28 other women on the list include Hillary Clinton, Queen Elizabeth, Oprah Winfrey, Tyra Banks, Cate Blanchett, America Ferrera, Tina Fey (excellent!) and Kate Moss (?!), among others. Barack Obama made the cut as one of the 71 men on the list, but George W. Bush is noticeably absent.She is enormously charitable. She has two foundations: Rosie’s Broadway Kids and the For All Kids Foundation. She gives unsparingly to returning veterans’ causes and hospitals. And she visits them.
A year ago, I went to a screening of the HBO documentary All Aboard!: Rosie’s Family Cruise. It followed a cruise that Rosie and Kelli had inaugurated. It was funny, touching and-I guess to some-unsettling. That night, inspired by her documentary, I asked Rosie if she would consider joining us on The View. And so, last September, we began a thrilling roller-coaster ride. We followed Rosie’s passion and compassion, her feuds and fearlessness, her humanity and humor. When Rosie and ABC couldn’t come to an agreement for her to return to the program next fall, it was for me a plunge on the roller coaster. But we remain respectful and affectionate friends.
Rosie, 45, is a fine actress, a great storyteller and a woman of conviction. Her opinions are heartfelt, passionate and often abrasive. Her views are not necessarily my views, but in her heart, she dearly hopes to be a force for good, a voice for people like her who are vulnerable and perhaps neglected. Her mother would be proud.
I’m no Kate Moss hater, but isn’t it a sad day when a washed-up model with a drug problem is considered more influential than the president of the United States? I’m just saying.
WHEN REGINA MET CARLA I mentioned in my column back in January ’06 that Rebecca Budig – aka All My Children‘s Greenlee – was going to play a lesbian on Out of Practice, last season’s CBS sitcom about a family of doctors that included Paula Marshall as a lesbian ER doc. Unfortunately, the show was canceled before that episode aired.
Why was this show canceled again? The writing started off rocky, but definitely got better as the season progressed – and the show starred Stockard Channing, people! (For more of her, check out Scribe Grrrl’s blog post about Stockard from earlier this week.) It also featured one of the best lesbian characters we’ve had on TV in a long time – oh wait, I think I just answered my own question. This is network TV: no smart, sarcastic single-and-dating lesbians allowed.
UH HUH LEISHA As most of you know, before she was on The L Word, Leisha Hailey was half of a rock band called The Murmurs (later renamed Gush).
Now Leisha’s formed a new band called Uh Huh Her with Camila Grey and Alicia Warrington. Here’s a look at the new band:
And a cool new photo of Miss Hailey looking all rock star-y:
Can’t get enough Leisha? You can read Leisha’s blog entries about the band on OurChart.com and listen to Uh Huh Her’s first single – a great song called “Say So” – on their MySpace page.WILLOW AND BUFFY, SITTING IN A TREE? The third installment of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comic came out this week, and it’s All Willow All the Time!
Willow is back after an unexplained year-and-a-half absence, and she’s all over this issue – fighting evil witch Amy and her minions and just generally being a badass (including temporarily turning into Dark Willow). Here are a few of the panels heralding Willow’s return: There’s good news for all you Kennedy haters. When Buffy asks Willow about Kennedy, Willow replies, “she died,” and then hurriedly explains upon seeing Buffy’s horrified expression: “She’s fine. Mystical thing, only lasted a month.” Willow goes on to add that she and Kennedy are “taking it slow right now” because Kennedy’s “sort of in her own space, but it’s cool.”
But wait, there’s more! Willow announces that Buffy can only be freed from the dreamland in which she’s trapped by the kiss of someone in the room who’s in love with her, and then she does a spell to reveal who that is. The spell works, Buffy awakens, and of course they don’t show us who kissed her – but it’s believed by most readers to be either Xander or Willow (!).
I think it’s going to end up being Xander, but I can’t decide what I think about the idea that it might be Willow. On the one hand, a Buffy-Willow relationship would make a lot of lesbian fans happy. On the other hand, Buffy’s not gay (or bi, as far as we know), so it would probably end up being an unrequited love, which just means a lot of Willow mooning about, and that would get annoying after a while. Plus, we wouldn’t want to reinforce the idea that lesbian/bi women can’t be friends with straight women without wanting to sleep with them (Work Out‘s Jackie and Rebecca are already taking care of that, thank you very much!).
What do you all think? Register your opinion here:
POLL: Do you want Willow and Buffy to get together? Yes No Not sure view results
I’ll keep you posted on what happens in the comic. In the meantime, get more details on it at Wikipedia.
STEPHEN COLBERT’S FAVORITE LESBIAN
Fans of The Colbert Report might have been puzzled by Colbert’s random comment at the beginning of his show last night: “Ladies and gentleman, I learned something tonight that I did not know: I do not have a favorite lesbian. I have got to fix that!”
This very special lesbian moment of The Colbert Report was brought to you by AfterEllen.com. Here’s how it happened:
My girlfriend and I attended a taping of The Colbert Report last night with Dara (aka bad machine) and her girlfriend, Brooke. Before the show started, the audience was informed that Stephen would take a few questions from the audience, and they asked us to think up some unique ones, questions Stephen hadn’t been asked before. The comedian who entertained us while we waited for the show to start told stories of how audience members had tried to stump Stephen with questions, but to no avail – he always had a comeback. The four of us conferred and came up with one we were pretty sure he didn’t hear every day. When Stephen finally appeared to chat with the audience a few minutes before the cameras rolled, Brooke was one of the four people he called on, and she asked, “Who is your favorite lesbian?”
And he was totally stumped. He just kept repeating the question and saying, “I don’t know,” and then, “I did have a nice chat with Melissa Etheridge the other day.” Finally he asked Brooke, “Well, who’s your favorite lesbian?” And she pointed to Dara and said “her!” to loud laughter from the audience. Colbert looked at Dara and with his trademark eyebrow lift said, “Well, you’ll do.”
And that’s how Dara became Stephen Colbert’s favorite lesbian.
SHE SAID TOSHI Our guest on this week’s episode of She Said What? is the amazing R&B/blues/rock musician Toshi Reagon(for those who don’t know her: she was the guitar-playing singer on the beach in this season’s L Word finale).
We also got our Staceyann back (yay!), so we had a good time all around. Oh, and many of you have asked for Lauren’s email address, so you here go: samesexinthecity at gmail.com – I’m not typing out the “@” symbol to avoid spammers.
NEXT IT’LL BE THE WELL OF LONELINESS: THE MUSICAL The Hourglass Group and New York Theatre Workshop are producing a theatrical adaptation of Ann Bannon’s Beebo Brinker novels, the classic lesbian pulp novels from the ’50s. The play will debut this fall at New York Theatre Workshop in the East Village. Sarah Paulson and Cherry Jones are reportedly being considered for the lead roles of Laura and Beebo, according to a rumor made up entirely by me.
For more info, read this interview with the playwright and director, or our review of the Beebo Brinker Chronicles.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Jodie Foster is set to play Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl on the big screen.
Ratings for the second season of Work Out, which ends next week, are up 5 percent total over last year’s average, and up 17 percent among adults 18—49, according to a new press release from Bravo.
At least half the contestants on the next season of the U.K.’s Big Brother “have revealed they have homosexual or bisexual tendencies,” according to this article.
The Windy City Times has an interesting new interview with actress Rusty Schwimmer.
NBC will air the remaining episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip beginning May 24th. Get your Sarah Paulson fix while it lasts!
That’s it for this week! Check back next Friday for a new edition of Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever.
