> There's a very fine, tricky line to walk if you're going to use the "some of my best friends are gay" line successfully. This No on 8 ad featuring a number of Popnog favorites -- including Kathy Griffin, Greek's Paul James and scruffy singer Val Emmich -- totally gets that if you're capable of being both funny and sincere, you can get away with it.
When we interviewed Madonna's brother Christopher Ciccone earlier this year, he intimated Guy Ritchie had some serious beef with the gays. Who knows if it's true -- or if it had anything to do with the end of his marriage to the pop star. But for what it's worth, his new movie, RocknRolla, out in theaters today, features a gay gangster played by the hunky British actor Tom Hardy.
Speaking with Out for a profile in our November issue, Hardy confessed playing Handsome Bob -- based on a real gay mobster -- suited him perfectly: "Masculine, butch groups of blokes together -- it's never really been
my cup of tea. Playing a gay man in a Guy Ritchie movie is a finger up
to that whole attitude of men talking about men doing men's things,
which is so fucking narrow-minded. Handsome Bob is what a man should be
-- except for the part of him taking a crowbar to the back of someone’s
head."
From fashion phenoms to chic restaurateurs to dance company directors, the impeccable taste and sensibility of these men make our lives simpler, prettier, happier, and richer. Today's trendsetter is Kevin Carrigan:
As creative director for Calvin Klein and ck Calvin Klein, Kevin
Carrigan oversees the brands' styles of men's and women's sportswear,
denim, underwear, accessories, licensed products, and even store
designs. With $4.5 billion in licensed retail sales and over 230 shops
worldwide, that's a lot of responsibility, but Carrigan takes it on
with aplomb, approaching each season one theme at a time.
"It's
extremely important for me to have one consistent message for the
season that can be applied to different areas and different regions --
one emotion with many expressions," he says. "The process evolves from
color to concept, moving from the two-dimensional to the
three-dimensional form."
Carrigan studied at London's Ravensbourne
College of Design and Communication and earned his master's degree in
fashion design at the Royal College of Art, then cut his teeth at
Nicole Farhi in France and Max Mara in Italy -- though his real taste
for fashion developed while watching his grandmother, a seamstress, at
work.
And the text of the ad, verbatim, is among the most eloquent I've heard in this whole campaign:
"It wasn't that long ago that discrimination was legal in California. Japanese Americans were confined in internment camps. Armenians couldn't buy a house in the Central Valley. Latinos and African Americans were told who they could and could not marry. It was a sorry time in our history. Today the sponsors of Prop 8 want to eliminate fundamental rights. We have an obligation to pass along to our children a more tolerant, more decent society."
Speaking at a TV industry function in Australia, Jermaine Jackson announced the Jackson Five will reunite in 2009. (Yes, we've heard that before, too.) The oldest Jackson brother was on hand to help celebrate the kick off of a "greatest hits" TV channel in the country and told reporters, " This has been a long time coming for the Jackson family to get
back together."
Talk about a major buzz kill. Still, it's probably for the best -- if we're going to be creeped out by Michael next year (and chances are we probably always will be), we'd prefer it to be on his own terms and not because we're watching him prance around singing the same songs he sang some 40 odd years ago as an 8-year-old child.
The only thing we like better than seeing a bunch of teens getting hacked to pieces for foolishly deciding to investigate the strange noise in the basement after the lights and the phone line go dead is seeing reflections of our own homo selves, tendencies, and/or obsessions show up (however covertly) in that very same slasher flick.
In honor of Halloween we chose a couple of our favorite fright films that represent the best in scary cinema and gay sensibility:
> Nightmare
on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge: Ever accidentally run into your high school gym coach at a leather bar only to later watch him spanked in a locker
room? Me neither, but this movie let’s us live out this fantasy and so many more.
> Rosemary's Baby:
Sure the tale of a naive housewife impregnated with the spawn of Satan
sounds heterocentric -- but look deeper. The kitschy decor, the fabulous
Manhattan high rise, the nightly cocktails -- they all appeal to every
gay man with any sense of taste. And who among us hasn't realized mid-coitus, "This isn't a dream! This is really happening!"
> The Lost Boys: Disenfranchised youth, leather jackets, secret clubs, a regular exchange of bodily fluids, and Jason Patrick banging on our bedroom window. This movie is to gay men what Harry Potter was to kids: our fantasy world come to life.
> Sleepaway Camp: Patently homophobic considering the killer’s motivation is, well -- we’ll just let you see for yourself. However if
you can get past that, the short shorts, feathered hair, and obvious tranny mom all conspire to make this a gay Halloween cult classic.
> Anything by David DeCoteau: DeCoteau has made a career out of churning out gay-themed horror movies
without ever actually admitting that's what he's doing. The movies are masterfully subversive
in their homoeroticism, which makes them more fun knowing some jock is
watching one of those movies and thinking, "this is scary, yet
strangely arousing for some reason?"
While we don't especially love dressing up for Halloween -- too much pressure! -- and are content to go with something sarcastic and ironic or just plain easy (last year I went as the male Country Crock hand and just carried a tub of the butter substitute and a plastic knife around with me), we DO love horror movies.
One of our recent favorite flicks, Otto; or, Up with Dead People, comes to us courtesy of maverick auteur Bruce LaBruce. The film features a hot gay zombie wandering the streets of Berlin consumed by thoughts of a recent breakup while at the same time a director shoots a film about the gay walking dead terrorizing the locals. Very meta, no?
Speaking with Out for a profile featured in our November issue, LaBruce revealed that Otto was "inspired by conversations with kids on MySpace who [told him] they felt 'dead inside' as well as by LaBruce's then-boyfriend, who drew connections between his Shi'a Muslim religious beliefs and his obsessions with death." LaBruce says he also wanted to make a zombie film that responded to the homophobic and misogynist elements in the gore-porn flicks that are currently all the rage at the cineplex.
> Speaking of all that is old being new again: Panic at the Disco goes (even more) retro and black and white in the band's new clip for "Northern Downpour," the sweet, lyrical ballad that's their new single. If you think you know what to expect from the band -- techno cabaret, gay circus acts, piano-banging rockers -- they'll be happy to prove you wrong.
"Drawn to the ones who never yawn," by the way, is a Jack Kerouac reference. [Thanks M]
> Uh Huh Her -- the duo of Camila Grey and ex-Murmurs, current L Word star Leisha Hailey -- released this video for "Explode" today on MTVU.com, featuring the animated story of a gothic (straight) couple unhappily trolling the City of Lights. It's a little bit Everything But the Girl, but we mean that in a good way:
> Speaking of MTV and actual music videos, the network launched the beta version of MTVMusic.com this week, chock full of some 14,000-odd full-length clips going back to the channel's inception. Best/worst flashback from the otherwise very smooth and easy to navigate site: The use of Kabel, the signature font MTV labeled its videos with, dropped last year. Here, watch Everything But the Girl's "Missing (Remix)":
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