LESBIAN MATTERS
I just got back from a press screening of Gray Matters, the romantic comedy opening February 23rd that stars Heather Graham as an ad exec who realizes she’s gay when she falls for her brother’s wife, played by Bridget Monyahan.
The movie’s tagline is “A Romantic Comedy About a Brother, A Sister, and the Girl of Their Dreams.”
We’ll post a full review of it on AfterEllen.com in the next few weeks, but here’s my quick take: If you like more mainstream, conventional movies like Imagine Me and You and Kissing Jessica Stein–or you just like to see hot women playing gay–you’ll probably like Gray Matters. If High Art and My Summer of Love are more you style, you’ll definitely want to skip this. This is a very conventional movie with a lesbian twist–and that’s exactly what I like about it.
Not that Gray doesn’t have plenty of room for improvement. Heather Graham needs to take it down a notch, or even two or three (did she and Gretchen Mol go to the same over-acting school?), Sissy Spacek’s character is annoying, and the story isn’t developed enough.
But overall, I enjoyed the movie. Moynahan is great, and Tom Cavanagh and Molly Shannon are even better–the baner between Graham and Shannon, and Cavanagh and anyone, are some of the movie’s best. There are some truly funny lines, the production quality is excellent, and the kiss between Graham and Moynahan is surprisingly hot (that’s the raciest this film gets–in terms of physical affection, think Sleepless in Seattle, not Sex, Lies and Videotape).
Throw in The L Word‘s Rachel Shelley, good music, and the fact that no one dies or goes crazy, and you’ve got the perfect lesbian date movie. On the heels of last year’s Imagine Me and You, and this month’s Puccini for Beginners, this happy-lesbian-movie thing is threatening to become a trend!
SHE FEELS PRETTY, AND WITTY, AND-HEY!
This month, Ellen DeGeneres graces the cover of W Magazine, which bills itself as “the only pure luxury, fashion and lifestyle magazine.” In the interview, she talks about fashion, and Portia de Rossi, and fashion on Portia:
“Whenever Portia and I are on the red carpet, they’re yelling out for her to tell them what she’s wearing. But nobody cares [about what I’m wearing] because I have a suit on, even if it’s a Gucci suit. That to me is frustrating, because I put effort into getting ready too. But I guess it’s not as important, and I’m not as dressed up somehow. I also feel myself more of a person than a gender. When people show me clothing that seems very, very feminine, it’s hard for me to embrace that, because it just doesn’t feel like me…. It was fun [for the shoot] having somebody do that to my hair, and do that makeup. But would I want to do that every single day? No.”
Ellen may downplay her personal life on her talk show (although she did actually mention Portia and “my girlfriend” on the show this week), but she’s really pushing the envelope, in a good way, on what’s appropriate for women to wear. Sure, women from Katherine Hepburn to Diane Keaton have been wearing pantsuits in Hollywood for years, but none of them have been out lesbians, except for Melissa Etheridge and kd lang (and that doesn’t really count–because everyone knows the same rules don’t apply to musicians).
Speaking of Ellen and Portia, here’s the cute photo of them included with the W interview:
Looks like the racoon’s been doing Ellen’s makeup again, though!
TWO LESBIANS WALK INTO A TATTOO PARLOR…
The Berlin Film Festival opens this week, and a reader from Hong Kong tipped me off that among the many international films vying for distribution is Ci-Qing (The Spider Lilies), a Taiwanese drama starring Isabella Leong and Rainie Yang that involves a mysterious tattoo, an earthquake, and two young women whose friendship becomes something more. In other words, I couldn’t quite figure out the plot, but you can read about it yourself in English here, or in Mandarin here (if any international AfterEllen.com readers are going to see the film and want to review it for us in English, please let me know).
Since the film is directed by a woman (Zero Chou), there’s a chance this film won’t end in tragedy or despair–on the other hand, one of the young women does Internet porn, and the plot description ends with, “unwittingly, the two young women find themselves at the centre of a secret police campaign, about which neither Jade nor Takeko are aware.”
Oh well, at least we have the pretty pictures:
ALL MY COMPLAINTS
This week on All My Children, Bianca said goodbye to her now ex-girlfriend Maggie (Elizabeth Hendrickson) to spend more time with her family. Yes, that’s actually the reason she gave. Like she’s stepping down as an Enron exec or something. She and Maggie did share one last long kiss, the surest sign yet that the relationship is over, at least for now–same-sex kisses are only allowed on AMC when the boom is about to fall on the relationship.
The real reason Bianca’s dumping Maggie? If the prevailing spoilers are accurate, Bianca’s going to fall for Zarf/Zoey (Jeffrey Carlson), the show’s new pre-op male-to-female transwoman. I’m all for having a trans storyline on daytime television, but here’s my question: WTF does that have to do with Bianca? Answer: nothing, unless you’re trying to avoid all that controversial same-sex affection and look cutting edge at the same time. At least in your own minds.
Congratulations, All My Children! You’re now rivaling the Bush Administration for the number of times you’ve screwed over lesbians in the last 8 years.
LIKE EVANESCENCE, BUT GAY
Fans of Vixtrola, fronted by out singer Jamie Blake (who also plays the electric guitar and the piano–yes, she’s obnoxiously talented) are thrilled that the pop-driven electronic rock band’s fantastic album End:User is finally available to download via their MySpace page for $.99 a song. Be sure to check out their killer song “Waiting,” which has been featured in the movie Darkness Falls and in shows like Robbery Homicide and Birds of Prey.
Speaking of Birds of Prey, I miss that show. We need another TV drama about a group of female superheroes who have cool powers! You know, the same way Heroes is about a bunch of men with special powers, and women waiting around to be saved by them.
WE BELIEVE
NBC comedy pilot Area 52 about a secret government installation in the desert with an alien resident, has added Jane Lynch to the cast. Jane will be playing Irene Maloof, who if she’s anything like Lynch’s previous characters, probably inappropriately hits on the alien.
HOT FOR TEACHER
More good fall pilot news: there’s a recurring lesbian character in Hackett, a half-hour, single camera comedy in the works for Fox about a bad-boy literary luminary who escapes his troubles with women and a disgraced career teaching at yale to become a public high school teacher in Ohio. One of his fellow teachers is a woman named Tam, who is described in the casting call as a “sexy 20’s lesbian” whose lover has left her. Where do I sign up for detention?
LESBIAN QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Without going into too much detail, we’ve all been there and done that.”
– Belinda Carlisle on The Go Go’s lesbian experiences, to PlanetOut.com
ZOMBIE MOVIES? CLOSETED CHEERLEADERS? THAT’S SO HIGH SCHOOL.
My friend Brent Hartinger‘s (Geography Club, The Last Chance Texaco) latest excellent young adult novel came out this week, and I made the mistake of starting to read it at 11pm last night. Of course I got sucked in and before I knew it, it was 1am and I was still wide awake, even though I’d promised myself I’d go to sleep by midnight. My girlfriend, on the other hand, had fallen asleep the minute her head hit the pillow, like she always does. It’s one of her more annoying traits.
But back to the book. It’s a two-part book called Split Screen: Attack of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies / Bride of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies, but don’t let the name throw you–this isn’t one of those teen horror/slasher novels that are all the rage now (seriously, who lets their kid read those?). Zombies is about the romantic misadventures of a gay high school junior named Russell, and his sarcastic bisexual Asian-American friend Min who has a purple streak in her hair, a mother who wears really tacky sweaters, and a crush on a closeted cheerleader named Leah. When Russell and Min volunteer to be extras in a horror movie shooting nearby, the sparks between Min and Leah start to fly, but Leah’s refusal to admit she’s dating Min threatens to end the relationship before it begins.
Will Leah finally introduce Min to her cheerleader friends? Will Min get off her high-horse long enough to let her? Will I get any sleep tonight?
Eh, like the bumper sticker says: you can sleep when you’re dead. Or watching All My Children.
SHE SHE WHAT?
On this week’s episode: Valentine’s Day, coming out, and Linda Villarosa’s upcoming novel.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
Watch the conclusion of the two-part lesbian episode of Fox’s Trading Spouses tonight to find out if the homophobic straight family gets what’s coming to them–and read our new interview with Pepper and Judy to get their take on the whole thing.
Out actress Maile Flanagan just received another Emmy nomination for her voice-over work on the PBS series Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks (she won last year for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program).
Next Tuesday on Dirt, Garbo, Mallory, and a random guy have a graphic threesome. A heartwarming scene just in time for Valentine’s Day!
That’s it for this week! Check back next Friday for another edition of Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever.
