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Ask AfterEllen.com (March 10, 2009)

Want to know the status of a particular movie, TV show, or band? Wondering what a certain actress is up to these days? Send your entertainment-related questions to [email protected] – with your first name, city and country – and we’ll try to answer as many as we can.

Question: I heard that The L Word will be continuing online in the form of webisodes. Is this true? I thought that The L Word spinoff series was going to be a web series. I’m so confused! Can you tell me what’s going on with all of this?

– Cynthia, Austin, TX

Answer: When we first told you about The L Word spinoff series, we learned that it would be a prison drama, The Farm, starring Leisha Hailey.

Showtime said that the show would initially debut online, with the potential to move to television. Showtime later stated that the pilot episode of the show (written and directed by L Word creator Ilene Chaiken) would debut on television (not online, as originally announced), and that the network is deliberating on picking it up as a regular series. That’s where things stand at this point, and as soon as we know more about The Farm, we’ll let you know.

Though The L Word is now officially over, there are some video “extras” available at Sho.com. These extras include footage of the interrogations that took place after Bette, Tina and the gang made their bedazzled, windswept appearance at the police station for questioning in relation to the death of Jenny Schecter.

The first interrogation video to go up is a doozy. In it, potential suspect Tina Kennard reveals that Bette wasn’t her “first,” as she had led all of us (including Bette) to believe for so many years.

No, that distinction goes to her own sister.

That’s right, as a pre-teen, Tina had a three-year lesbian relationship with/was molested by her older sister, and Tina was “always the boy.” Unfortunately, I don’t think she meant that she got to have a later curfew or received cooler toys for Christmas.

Watch the clip below:

Why, Ilene Chaiken, why? Did we need more fuel for the relentless homophobic stereotype of creepy incestuous lesbian sister?

Had Sergeant Duffy (Lucy Lawless) known this random, unnecessary and decidedly creepy tidbit would have come to light in Tina’s interrogation, I think she would have skipped the questioning altogether.

More interrogations videos are slated to follow each day on Sho.com. View them at your own risk!

Question: Do you have any info on where I can get a copy of the DVD or watch the documentary Searching 4 Sandeep?

– JStone, Nyack, NY

Answer: For those of you unfamiliar with Searching 4 Sandeep, it’s a documentary by Poppy Stockell about her adventures in online dating. Here’s the official description:

To her surprise and delight, she forges a deep online connection with an English woman, Sandeep Virdi. When their innocent flirtation turns into true attachment, Poppy sends Sandeep a camcorder and viewers watch as Poppy and Sandeep’s virtual relationship blooms into a poignant love complicated by the reality that Sandeep is Sikh, lives at home with her conservative family, and has kept her sexuality a secret.

The documentary follows their relationship “across two years, and three continents, in a touching examination of sexuality, religion, globalization, and culture seen through the lens of this uniquely modern love story.”

I contacted the filmmaker, and she told me that Searching 4 Sandeep is being distributed by Women Make Movies, a multicultural, multiracial, non-profit media arts organization which facilitates the production, promotion, distribution and exhibition of independent films and videotapes by and about women. You can purchase a copy at the official website for WMM. (You can also learn more about Searching 4 Sandeep at the MySpace page for the film.)

Question: A while back, I saw a funny documentary about the Dinah Shore Weekend called A Lez In Wonderland. Can you tell me more about the director and what else she’s done?

– JoAnn, Tampa, FL

Answer: I saw Anna Margarita Albelo’s A Lez in Wonderland at Outfest a couple of years ago, and it was one of my favorites in the festival lineup. In fact, I remember watching it and hoping that I wasn’t one of of the many deranged, partying lesbians that she somehow convinced to talk about The Dinah on camera.

After the screening was over and I realized that I probably hadn’t even been there the year she shot it, I loved the film even more!

But I digress. I contacted Albelo and asked her what she’s working on now. She told me:

“Since A Lez in Wonderland, I participated in a feature documentary called, Gay And So What? a collaboration between several filmmakers covering six cities around the world: New York, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Peking, and Havana. I did the segment on Cuba and created a 17 minute individual piece from it. I also had a short film, The Turkey, at the Cannes Film Festival (Critic’s Week). It’s an ode to mothers.

My on-going project is once again destined to contribute to lesbian culture, it’s called The Lipstick Lesbian Revolution: From Birkenstocks to Burberrys, and will encompass lesbian history from 1989to today. Hot!

I am looking for producers, investors, even comments or testimonials about the the past 15 years in lesbian history. My hypothesis for the film is that while we have never heard or seen so much about lesbians in the media, lesbian culture is actually disappearing. The film is historical, anthropological, and sociological. I want to analyze how pop culture has helped lesbian visibility but also it’s invisibility. If lesbians don’t support their own culture – literature, cinema, art – no one else will, and this is what’s consistently happening. Lesbians are the first people who need to get more involved in advancing our stories and our place in history.

Until I find a distributor in the U.S., anyone interested in my films can get them directly from me. I sell them as “art pieces!” Contact me at [email protected], and get more info on my work at myspace.com/annalachocha.”

Question: Will Cherry Jones be on 24 again next season?

– Linda K., Cleveland, OH

Answer: Yes! It was recently announced that the Tony Award-winning actress will return to 24 once again as U.S. President Allison Taylor in the show’s eighth season (airing next January).

Jones told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that TV host Charlie Rose turned her onto the show. She said, “I’m someone who has always disliked, greatly, gratuitous violence. I don’t believe in torture, yet I found the storylines and characters and action and espionage so addicting, it would have been hypocrisy for me not to do the show.”

And what does she think about the ethical questions raised by the show in regards to torture and terrorism? Jones told the Post-Gazette:

Lord knows given the grave we’ve been digging for ourselves in these last few years and corruption at the highest levels of institutions we thought we could trust and the moral authority we’ve lost around the world for any number of reasons, it would sure be great as a nation to get that one thing right, that we do treat human beings with dignity. But then I put myself in Jack Bauer’s position and all bets are off. And that’s what is so fascinating to people about 24 and why liberals love it.

When asked what political party Jones’ fictional President might belong to, she stated, “I have my own theories, which I will not share because I think it’s interesting that they always make a point of leaving it up to the individual audience member…My hair seems to be Republican but I don’t know about the rest of me.”

While we’re on the subject of Jones, her real-life sweetheart, actress Sarah Paulson, will soon be appearing onstage in the world premiere of The Gingerbread House, by Mark Schultz (and directed by Alex Kilgore) at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York.

The official (and officially cryptic) description of the play states, “In Schultz’s darkly comic Gingerbread House, Brian and Stacey want a better life, the life they deserve. However, what they’re willing to do to get it will destroy their family, rip them apart… and finally get them into ‘the Club.'”

The play also stars Paulson’s Cupid co-star Bobby Cannavale and Jackie Hoffman (Kissing Jessica Stein). Performances begin Friday, April 11, with opening night set for April 18th. Tickets are $40 and are available at smarttix.com.

Look for more about Paulson’s upcoming ABC dramedy Cupid on AfterEllen.com in the coming weeks, and read more about Jones and Paulson’s relationship here.

Question: I just heard Solange cover the Sia/Zero 7 song “Destiny,” and it was pretty good. Anyway, it made me wonder, what’s Sia up to these days? Does she have a new CD coming out soon?

– Janet, Los Angeles, CA

Answer: No, but she does have a new live concert DVD, TV is My Parent, slated for release on May 19.

TV is My Parent features a live concert recorded at the Hiro Ballroom in NYC on September 12, 2007 and includes four music videos from her latest studio album, some people have REAL problems and behind-the-scenes videos shot by Sia and her friends while on tour.

In addition the concert, the music videos (for the songs “Buttons,” “Day Too Soon,” “The Girl You Lost To Cocaine” and “Soon We’ll Be Found”), there will also be a few “hidden clips” sprinkled throughout the DVD.

Sia is currently touring Australia and Europe, and you can get info on her tour dates at her official website.

Question: Are there going to be any queer women on the bill at this year’s South By Southwest Festival in Austin?

– Stacy, Flagstaff, AZ

Answer: Yes! This year, the South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival (SXSW) includes An Horse,Melissa Ferrick, Finally Punk, Jen Foster Girl in a Coma, Gravy Train, The Indigo Girls, Mika Miko, Mirah, Amanda Palmer, and Ponytail.

The Festival isn’t just about hearing great music in a great city (Austin, TX). SXSW is known for featuring interesting new films each year. Some titles that might be of particular interest to women (though not specifically lesbians) include:

It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home: A woman tries to get over her recent breakup by backpacking in Costa Rica with her best friend, and through traveling together, the two women realize they may be on separate trips.

Women in Trouble: One day in the lives of ten desperate women with one thing in common: trouble.

Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo (Documentary): Amidst stories of murder, hardship, heartache and redemption, the film follows the convict cowgirls of the Eddie Warriors Correctional Center in their preparation for the only rodeo where female prisoners compete rough-stock and as equals against male prison teams.

Also screening this year will be the film Artois the Goat, about a guy hoping to win the heart of his true love by crafting “the greatest goat cheese the world has ever known.” Sadly, it is not a documentary.

You can peruse the entire list of films screening at the festival here. SXSW is a weeklong festival taking place this year March 13-22 in Austin. For ticket info, visit the official website.

A new edition of Ask AfterEllen.com is published every Tuesday. Have a question for us? Email it to [email protected]. For more entertainment news, read previous editions of Ask AfterEllen.com, and check out AfterElton.com’s weekly entertainment Q&A column, Ask The Flying Monkey.

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