TV

Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. (July 25, 2008)

FROM SHOWGIRLS TO SHOWTIME The guestbians just keep on coming. Joining the ranks of Camryn Manheim, Anne Archer, Rosanna Arquette and Sandra Bernhard, Showgirls and Saved by the Bell alum Elizabeth Berkley has signed on to a multi-episode arc on The L Word next season, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Berkley will apparently play “the straight girl that got away from Jennifer Beals’ Bette in college.” Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second. This news raises all kinds of questions. First, a girl – straight or otherwise – got away from Bette? Let’s not stretch the limits of believability. I mean, you’ve seen Bette Porter, right? Second, I saw Showgirls, and Nomi Malone was in no way 100 percent straight on the Kinsey scale. Of course, her rating could be skewed due to the presence of Gina Gershon. She tends to have that kind of effect on women. Just ask Jennifer Tilly.

And third, um, how many years did it take Bette to finish college anyway? If their IMDb.com profiles are to be believed, Beals (44) has a good eight years on Berkley (36). Was Bette in grad school trolling the freshman dorms for dates or something? Pressing questions aside, this won’t be the first time Beals and Berkley have shared the screen. The two worked together in the 2002 independent film Roger Dodger and are apparently real-life friends as well. Considering that the women starred in two of the most famous dance – nay, exotic-dance themed films of the last quarter century, perhaps they will engage in their own forbidden dance once the sixth and final season starts in January. I’ve got two words for Ilene Chaiken: stripper pole. by Dorothy Snarker

INEVITABLE: ANOTHER WAY TO SAY “ELIZA DUSHKU FULFILLS COUNTLESS LESBIANS’ FANTASIES” OK, folks: Are you ready for some news that will surely make your fangirl sensors go all a-tingle? Well, if you happen to be a fan of Joss Whedon and his contributions to the pop cultural landscape (and if you’re not, uh, why not?), have I got some fun news for you. When I talked with Joss at the TCA press tour last week, he told me that queer viewers can look forward to gay and lesbian characters and story lines in his upcoming series Dollhouse, starring Eliza Dushku.

In case you haven’t been following the deafening buzz surrounding the show, it’s about a group of people called “actives” – one of them is played by Dushku – whose personalities have been erased so that they can be imprinted with new personas to take on various “engagements,” ranging from the criminal to the comical.

AfterEllen.com: Will there be any lesbian/bisexual story lines on Dollhouse coming up? Joss Whedon: Yeah, I think inevitably. You know, the premise of the show is these people are hired out for very specific engagements, and some of those engagements are to be the person in your life that you don’t get to have in your life. And I think … it’s inevitable that … some of those stories are gonna involve people exploring their sexuality in a way that they’re maybe not comfortable with in their daily life, or have to hide or don’t even know about. So yeah.

AE: So, Eliza will be playing gay? JW: At some point, and not just Eliza. Female and male members of the cast will have engagements where we explore that. Sexuality isn’t the only focus of the show, but it’s a part of it.

Joss said that we can expect these story lines within the first 13 episodes of the series, but they won’t be part of long-term relationships. “We don’t have long-term relationships set up because they [the “actives”] forget who they are at the end of every day, but same-sex encounters is part of the mythos,” he told AfterElton.com. “It comes with the territory.”

So, who else can’t wait till January 2009?

PAGING DR. WEAVER This fall will mark the 15th and final season for long-running medical drama ER. And given the list of actors who have come through the swinging doors of the fictional County General Hospital and gone on to continued success in Hollywood, you might be wondering just who will be coming back for a last hurrah. You can cross George Clooney off your list, but Noah Wylie will be back, and it’s quite likely that Laura Innes will be, too. Her character, Dr. Kerry Weaver, is still the longest-running recurring lesbian character on prime-time TV.

When I spoke with ER‘s executive producer, John Wells, on the set of ER earlier this week, he told me that he’s in touch with Laura “all the time” because she also directs episodes of the long-running series, “and I’m very hopeful she’ll come back this season. … I think it’ll probably happen.” Dr. Weaver went through six seasons of ER before her sexual orientation even came up, but in Season 7, she fell for staff psychiatrist Kim Legaspi (Elizabeth Mitchell), and later came out. She had a relationship with firefighter Sandy Lopez (Lisa Vidal) in Seasons 8 and 9; had a child with Lopez in Season 10 followed by custody battle when Lopez died in the line of duty; and had a relationship with TV producer Courtney Brown (Michelle Hurd) in Season 13. In January 2007, Dr. Weaver moved to Florida, taking a job at a Miami TV station.

Though Wells made it sound like bringing Dr. Weaver back was almost a guarantee, he also said that the show’s writers have only just begun writing the story lines for the upcoming season, and they “don’t really want to do the … there’s a party that everybody comes back to” type of reunion show. “If we’re gonna get people to come back, we want them to have stories that are appropriate for their character and advance the character.”

Tune in this fall to see just what he means by “appropriate” and “advance.” Hopefully it has nothing to do with lesbian pregnancies or child custody battles (been there, done that).

– by Malinda Lo

SURE, SHE’S ARTICULATE AND CAPABLE. BUT IS SHE FIERCE? At the TCA press tour last week, Malinda got some dish from executive producer Ken Mok on the next season of America’s Next Top Model, which premieres Wednesday, Sept. 3.

AfterEllen.com: It’s been several seasons on Top Model since there was a lesbian or bi contestant. Can we expect anything this next cycle? Ken Mok: I think you’ll have just as much variety of contestants on the show as you’ve had in every cycle. It’s not a bland bunch.

AE: You can’t confirm any gay contestants this year? KM: I think I can. There is a contestant on the show this year who is a lesbian, and expresses herself incredibly well and articulately, and is a great, positive influence on the show.

AE: Do you know what her name is? Have you released those names yet? KM: We haven’t released the names, but she’s a real contender on the show, very capable girl.

An articulate lesbian contestant who’s a positive influence sounds encouraging. But can she rock this Top Model tee? In case you were wondering, the T-shirt – with its rhinestone-outlined lipstick print and the boldly emblazoned word fierce – is “appropriate to wear every day and on the runway,” according to the CW, because “a girl knows when she looks good she is Fierce!”

Lesbian Lifestyle sold separately.

SARAH SINGS Openly gay singer/songwriter Sarah Slaton, who hails from Denver, will be releasing her first solo album, 11:19, next month. She’ll also be touring through the Midwest beginning in September, but you can already check out some of her songs on her MySpace page. On her MySpace profile, Sarah cites spicy foods and winter trees among her many influences. Personally, I’ve found fall foliage to have a greater impact on my life, but her voice is good enough that I won’t let this petty difference come between us.

by Sarah Warn

MISSING: AN ATTRACTION TO MEN On the U.K. reality show Britain’s Missing Top Model, women with disabilities compete for a shot at appearing in a Marie Claire photo spread.

One of the top contestants, Jessica, had a difficult time on this week’s episode, but it had nothing to do with her disability: She was put off by having to fake an attraction to a male model for the camera.

Jessica, who has HNNP and ME, wasn’t excited about the challenge of inciting “chemistry and intimacy” with a male model, and didn’t linger with the guys and the other girls back at their hotel after the shoot. When the group discussion turned to relationships, the other girls pointed out – for the first time on the air during the series – that Jessica is a lesbian. “I really hate when people go ‘Jess is a lesbian! Jess is a lesbian!'” Jessica said in an interview. “It really annoys me. Why is it a big deal?”

Obviously, the other girls wanted the boys to know straightaway that Jessica was unavailable to them, leaving the remaining four girls with better hook-up odds. That was fine with Jessica; she went to bed saying, “I need to go de-male myself.”

During elimination, Jessica was in the bottom two because she was uncomfortable getting up close and personal, but luckily the judges liked her photo enough to keep her on the show. She will compete on the finale next week, which airs on BBC 3 on Tuesday, July 29.

If Jessica had paid any attention to past seasons of America’s Next Top Model, Jessica would have known that a challenge like this was bound to happen. And really, it’s hard to feel bad for her when poor Michelle in Cycle 7 had to get sexy in a bed with Fabio. Is there really any worse worst-case scenario for a lesbian?

HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU THINK SHE’S HEARD “POKER IN THE REAR”? AfterEllen.com reader hrj202 told us about out lesbian poker player Vanessa Selbst, who will be playing in the World Poker Tour Championship Ladies No Limit Hold ‘Em tournament on Aug. 18, which will be aired on the Game Show Network. The Brooklyn-based 24-year-old is ranked 66th in the nation and recently came in first at the 2008 World Series of Poker. She is the first woman to ever do so – which means she is the first lesbian, as well. According to Wikipedia, Selbst’s earnings exceed $680,000. But the entry does not give any details on her personal life, such as if she’s single or possibly interested in becoming a sugar mama. Anyone care to make a wager that Selbst has a very lucky girlfriend?

– by Trish Bendix

THE EX-EX-LIST Earlier this week, the intrepid Malinda Lo sent us a report from the Television Critics Association summer press tour that included a tip about a new series, The Ex List, starring Elizabeth Reaser.

Malinda wrote:

In another series featuring an actor who once played a lesbian, Elizabeth Reaser (Puccini for Beginners) will be starring in a new CBS series called The Ex List, executive produced by Diane Ruggiero (Veronica Mars). The series focuses on Reaser’s character, Bella Bloom, “a single, successful, 30-something business owner who is surprised to learn from a psychic that she’s already dated her future husband and … if she doesn’t find him in the next year, she’ll remain alone forever.”

Doesn’t seem like there’s much opportunity in here for any lesbianish tendencies, since the story seems focused on hammering home the “must get married to a man” story line, but hey, at the start of the press conference one male TV critic commented to Ruggiero that “there’s an inordinate amount of vaginal humor in the pilot.”

While there haven’t been any new lesbian developments in the show since we published Malinda’s blog post, a reader (thanks Elana!) told us that the show is based on an Israeli television program, and that the main character (Bella Bloom in the U.S. version) had a female ex. In fact, an entire episode was devoted to her former female lover.

(Malinda admits that given the show’s premise, she didn’t actually ask about the possibility of a lesbian ex, but she has vowed to follow up with the show’s publicists in the near future.)

Below are some photographs of the female lovers in the Israeli series:

Elana wrote, “She finds her old girlfriend (who she left, heartbroken, awhile back), gets things started again and when it gets heated up in the bedroom she suddenly ‘remembers’ why she is straight.”

Wow. With a story line so original and complex, I’m really disappointed that we may never see this amazing scene played out on U.S. television. Maybe they can substitute it with something less gay but just as visceral, like how Bella Bloom “remembers” why she’s anti-violence after she punches herself in the face.

by Karman Kregloe

REMEMBERING KATIE REIDER Many readers wrote in to tell us of the passing on July 14 of talented singer-songwriter Katie Reider after a two-year battle with a rare tumor that overtook her face and prevented her from performing.

The 30-year-old Cincinnati native released her first CD in 1998 and was lauded with local and national music awards. Her blend of folk and rock earned her comparisons to Shawn Colvin, and her music had already garnered attention from major record labels. She moved to New York with her partner, Karen, and their two sons in order to continue developing her career in music. Reider toured with Catie Curtis, Melissa Ferrick, Michelle Malone, Antigone Rising and Ember Swift before falling ill in 2006.

Watch a video of Reider’s story below:  

In order to help her family with expenses, one of Reider’s friends has created a benefit website containing Reider’s videos and a collection of music available for download for only $1. Content will continue to be added over the course of the project’s planned one-year lifetime.

Reider’s partner, Karen, recently told The New York Times: “Sometimes she’d cry out in pain: ‘God, give me mercy.’ But she never doubted there was a purpose. She never lost her faith. And I have to believe this can be life-changing in a positive way because Katie would have expected nothing less.”

by Karman Kregloe

I CAN’T THINK STRAIGHT, EITHER Filmmaker and author Shamim Sarif, who brought us the beautiful film The World Unseen, has been hard at work on yet another lesbian movie featuring women of color, I Can’t Think Straight.

According to the the film’s website, the movie focuses on Tala (Lisa Ray), a “London-based Jordanian of Palestinian origin” who is getting ready for “an elaborate wedding with her Jordanian fiancĂ©, when she encounters Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating her best friend Ali.” Tala and Leyla (Sheetal Sheth) are opposites, which mean, of course, they attract.

Watch the trailer, which includes one of the better uses of the “Lebanese” joke I’ve heard in a while:

– by Malinda Lo

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Jane Lynch was recently spotted at IKEA shooting the Ileana Douglas web series Easy to Assemble, which will premiere in September.

Margot Kidder, best known for playing Lois Lane in the Christopher Reeves version of Superman, plays a lesbian in the next installment of here! Networks’ Donald Strachey mystery series, On the Other Hand, Death, which premieres tomorrow night and airs throughout August. Check out AfterElton.com’s review of the movie.

This week we launched the first of a limited-run religious-themed vlog Oh God I’m Gay, which profiles a different spiritual leader each week.

As we mentioned previously, Come With Me vloggers Jenn and Dee had to stop vlogging for the summer because they’re in different locations. But we’ll be posting a special Atlanta pride vlog with Jenn and her friend Troy next week.

Coming up on AfterEllen.com on Monday: a quickie with Mary Louise Parker!

That’s it for this week! Got the inside scoop on a hot new lesbian/bi actor/musician/TV show/film? Tell us at [email protected]. Check back next Friday for another edition of Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever.

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