Those trying to earn a livelihood from acting are finding their paychecks shrinking, the union says.

By Richard Verrier and Claudia Eller

You've probably never heard of John Eric Bentley.

But you might recognize his face. The 38-year-old actor has played a park ranger in the TV series "Bones," a police officer in "CSI: Miami" and a judge on "Hannah Montana."

Yet despite some 50 film and TV credits, Bentley makes barely enough to support his four children and pay the mortgage on his West Hills home. He recently began a graveyard shift as a security guard at a Marriott Hotel to supplement his acting income, which swings between $50,000 and $150,000 a year.

"I'm in a survival mode," Bentley said. "Every day is a fight."

Bentley is a journeyman actor working in the shadow of multimillionaire stars -- a member of Hollywood's "middle class," whose economic plight is a flash point in the difficult negotiations between studios and the Screen Actors Guild. Talks are expected to resume today.

These actors contend that over the last decade they've been squeezed out of roles by the proliferation of reality shows and that their paychecks have shrunk because of dwindling residuals from fewer reruns. Nor are cost-conscious producers willing any longer to routinely pay actors their "quote," a fee based on experience.

Middle-class film and TV actors -- defined by SAG as those who earn enough to qualify for the union's health insurance but less than $100,000 a year -- are hardly representative: They account for less than 5% of the guild's 122,000 members.

Nonetheless, this sliver plays an outsize role within the union because the vast majority of members don't, in fact, earn a livelihood from acting. "If we can't reverse the trends for working-class actors, we'll cease to exist," said SAG President Alan Rosenberg. "We'll be hobbyists."

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By Cheryl V. Jackson

Chicago-based Playboy Enterprises Inc. is getting into the gay market, providing guy-on-guy erotic movies for on-demand cable broadcast stations in the U.S. The initiative, under the corporation's spicier Spice banner, will launch next month in a limited number of geographical areas, the company said Thursday.

Spice currently primarily distributes video movies featuring guy and girl sex content and some girl-on-girl content.

Spice has offered gay titles in the U.K. for about two years.

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By Moses Serugo

Uganda - Film buffs at the just-concluded Fifth Amakula Kampala International Film Festival must have wondered why the film showcase did not start on time last Thursday.

Most had come early to the National Theatre to watch Ugandan filmmaker George Sengendo's works Adopted Twins and Dangerous Decisions scheduled to show in the morning.

Unbeknownst to them, Pastor Martin Sempa had thrown a spanner in the festival works and had petitioned the Broadcast Council about the impending screening of a gay-themed movie The Watermelon Woman at 10.15p.m. that day in the Green Room. The Broadcast Council forwarded the complaint to the Media Council who summoned the festival organisers and asked that they preview the controversial film first.

The Watermelon Woman is a loosely constructed faux documentary about black lesbian filmmaker's obsession with obscure silent film star. Reel.com says it's the kind of film that would be much appreciated by those seeking mix of tongue-in-cheek humour with thought-provoking exploration of gender, race and identity.

The Media Council then decided that the film contained a lewd lesbian act that was not palatable for public consumption and its secretary Mr Paul Mukasa requested that they suspend the film but that the festival could go on.

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Cape Town - IMAGINE this! One minute two men are caught up in a heated argument about homosexuality, and the next they are locked in a passionate kiss.

This was the scene on the prime-time e.tv soapie Rhythm City last week that got TV viewers talking.

The protagonists were Stone (played by Zenzo Ngqobe) and Thula (Wright Ngubeni). Thula’s unemployed mother is bedridden by HIV/Aids, and to make ends meet he is selling his body to a married man. Not even his best childhood pal, Charlotte (Stone’s girlfriend) played by Nosipho Nkelemba, knows about the big secret. When Stone confronts Thula about the prostitution, there is an exchange of words and Stone suddenly kisses his friend, Thula. Both are left staring at each other in shock.

BIG MOMENT: Nozipho Nkelemba as Charlotte, Zenzo Ngqobe (middle) as Stone and Wright Ngubeni (right) as Thula, before their kiss in Rhythm City.

HEATED: Stone and Thula exchange words in SABC 1’s Rhythm City.  Their kiss on the screen has evoked widespread reaction.

The kiss did not last longer than five seconds, but is as big a talking point as After Nine – a locally produced short film on black gay men, screened on SABC1 last year. In an interview this week, Ngqobe was not fazed by the attention the scene was receiving. “I’ve been getting different opinions from people I meet in the street.

 

“Some think it was too graphic and shocking for a show that airs at 6.30pm,” he said.

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By Michael Wilke, Commercial Closet Assn.

Procter & Gamble, the parent of numerous familiar household product brands, is currently under pressure from anti-gay conservatives for including a same-sex kiss between the characters Noah and Luke who are a couple on the daytime program "As the World Turns." The kiss was a response to previous support by fans who wanted to see the couple kiss again since last September, and even mailed bags of Hershey's chocolate kisses to the CBS studio.

See the kiss below

 

But the American Family Association (AFA) issued an action alert to get its members to contact P&G, the show's producer, to stop future gay affection on the soap: "Procter & Gamble has resumed using explicit, open-mouth homosexual kissing in their soap opera, 'As the World Turns.' P&G decided to include this type of content as a commitment to 'diversity.' Gay activists are hopeful that the P&G effort will desensitize viewers to the homosexual lifestyle and help make the unhealthy and immoral lifestyle more acceptable to society, especially to children and youth."

So P&G has set up a phone voting system to register your support (or disagreement) with the program. It's easy to take action: just dial 800-331-3774. You'll be prompted to press #1 for English. Then press #2 to express your thoughts on "the storyline of As the World Turns." Then you can press #1 to say you support the Luke & Noah storyline.

The International Black Film Festival (IBFF) of Nashville announces its dynamic four day event highlighting the newest work in independent cinema, will take place October 15 - 18 in the heart of downtown Nashville, Tennessee.

Impressively, the Rage Magazine recently designated IBFF one of the "50 Things We Loved in 2007." IBFF is rapidly making a name for itself on the festival circuit, hosting premieres, engaging panels and attracting noted filmmakers, VIP's and celebrities from around the globe.

IBFF is now accepting submissions until July 31, 2008 and is dedicated to discovering emerging filmmakers and promoting their work. All official IBFF film selections receive tremendous exposure, reaching the festivals broad audience that attracts representatives from distribution companies and leading industry film executives. After screening at IBFF, a number of films have received international recognition and distribution offers.

Accepted filmmakers receive an all access festival pass, informative panels, enjoy fabulous parties and wonderful screenings. Selected films are eligible for awards. Screen your film and immerse yourself in Nashville's diverse and dynamic entertainment community. Submit your film today!

IBFF is open to independently produced national and international films in the following genres: Short Narrative, Feature Narrative, Documentary Long/Short and Animation. Also accepting faith-based, health & environment and sports-related films.

Qualification and Submission Forms in Full Story

Actor Alan Cumming has said the media's attitude towards homosexuality is scaring off gay actors from coming out.

By Genevieve Hassan

The 43-year-old X-Men 2 star said actors were afraid because the press portrayed being gay as controversial.

"I don't think the people that go see films care that much - the media make it more of a deal and it's made into controversy," he told the BBC.

Cumming added: "There is a lot of homophobia in the world - but in Hollywood definitely."

Pigeonholed

Actors like Stephen Fry and Rupert Everett recently complained they feel pigeonholed since coming out.

But Cumming, who "married" his partner Grant Shaffer in a civil ceremony last year, does not think he has been.

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A pioneer queer doc finally gets the DVD treatment.

By Jason A. Heidemann

CAMERA RIGGS The Tongues Untied director gets streetside footage.In the first two decades following the Stonewall Riots, migrants to San Francisco’s gay Castro District could seek a public camaraderie—that is, if they were white. In 1989, Marlon Riggs, an African-American U.C. Berkeley professor and experimental filmmaker, walked Castro Street feeling invisible and out of place. That experience inspired him to create the first documentary to both explore the lives of black gay men and garner national attention for doing so. Almost 20 years since the landmark film went into production, Tongues Untied is at last available on DVD.

Clocking in at 55 minutes (beefed up to 89 by the DVD’s deleted scenes and bonus extras), the film’s resurgence testifies to the rapid mainstreaming of queer culture. The idea that a black gay male subculture exists, and the subsequent notion that its members may participate in something so shocking as, say, an embrace, seems almost mundane in an era when gay marriage is on the table. But Tongues Untied’s in-your-face examination of the intersection of race and homophobia—as depicted by queer men of color cruising, donning drag and engaging in unadulterated self-expression—shattered the subculture’s long-kept community silence.

By the mid-’80s, Riggs already had dabbled in experimental filmmaking with Long Train Running, about jazz musicians in Oakland, and Ethnic Notions, an exploration of anti-black stereotypes in pop culture. On a trip to see his parents, a military couple then living in West Germany, acute kidney failure put Riggs in the hospital, where testing uncovered an HIV-positive diagnosis. Given the impending mortality that people living with the virus faced at the time, Riggs (who died of AIDS-related complications in 1994) at last had the impetus to muster up the funds and make a personal film about being black and gay in America.

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By Walter Addiego

It's a milestone year for the San Francisco Black Film Festival. Starting as a one-day event, this cultural celebration is about to mark its 10th year, running June 4-8 and 11-15.

The theme is "10 years, 10 days, 100 films."

"Long before 'going global' became a catchphrase," festival director Ave Montague said in a statement, "the San Francisco Black Film Festival served as a bridge between worlds, underscoring the power of celluloid to translate political stories into universal themes."

The opening-night movie is "Shoot the Messenger," made for the BBC by the Nigerian-born British filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah. The film is about a black British teacher who fights his way out of madness, and out of blaming his own people, after he loses his job. Starring David Oyelowo, "Shoot the Messenger" won the Dennis Potter screenwriting award. Variety called the film "outrageous, funny, challenging."

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Quarterly OP LYNX & NewFest Filmmaker Brunch Series
Sunday, May 11, 2008
1:00PM - 4:30PM





 

Lesbian Webisodes: New Wave Storytelling
Meets Multi-Platform Marketing
In collaboration with Q-Me Con & Queer Black Cinema

Continental Brunch: 1:00pm
Screening: 2:30pm
Post-screening Q&A with Filmmakers: 4:30pm

A very exciting collaborative team has come together -- OP/LYNX, NewFest, Punkmouse, Queer Black Cinemas & Afterellen.com -- in presenting this event as an official program of Q-Me Con 2008 (Queer Media & Entertainment Conference).

LESBIAN WEBISODES: New Wave Storytelling meets Multi-Platform Marketing will focus on the unchartered territory of Webisodes. Filmmakers, Webisodes & more details to be announced...

The event will start at 1pm with a Continental Brunch, which will include fresh bagels, muffins and pastries, a selection of fruit (and a few other healthy carb alternatives), as well as coffee, OJ and $5 Bloody Marys and Pomegranate Mimosas. Brunch is followed by the screening at 2:30pm. Immediately following the screening, Kerry Weldon, Filmmaker and Administrative Director of NewFest, moderates a Q&A with the Filmmakers.

Admission for Brunch & Screening: $15 for Non-Members; $10 for OP/LYNX, NewFest, Queer Black Cinema Members & Q-Me Con Ticket Holders. Admission for Screening Only: $10 for Non-Members, $5 for OP/LYNX, NewFest, Queer Black Cinema Members & Q-Me Con Ticket Holders. RSVP Required: This event will sell out. Reserve your seat early.

Cattyshack is located at 249 4th Ave btwn President & Carroll Sts, Park Slope, Brooklyn. By Subway: R to UNION ST [1.5 blocks from Cattyshack]; or F/G to 4th Ave-9th St [8 blocks from Cattyshack]. Visit Cattyshack online for street map: www.cattyshackbklyn.com

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By Sheila J. Hardy

Read very closely - Sha-hid Mann-ing affectionately called "Manning" is President and CEO of Blue Horizon Entertainment, LLC ("BHE"). This name is very important because him and his comrades are about to do something innovative serious Alexander Gram Bellish, something we've all been waiting for, give voice to a community that has existed in silence - the multi-cultural world of gay men. BHE is dedicated to developing and distributing high quality, lifestyle entertainment.

"Lifestyle" means the gay lifestyle. The overall intent of Manning is to normalize - rather than marginalize - the lifestyle as simply one of many. According to a study by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), gay or transgender lead or supporting characters are declining on network television. There were a mere seven gay characters spread out among 5 shows - six of which appeared on the ABC network.

"While we acknowledge there have been improvements made in how we are seen on the broadcast networks, most notably on ABC, our declining representation clearly indicates a failure to inclusively reflect the audience watching television," GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano said of the 2006- 2007 season.

The Life of Chris Mann One of the up coming Blue Horizon features

Photography by: JL Blue Photograghy  310.529.1601

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By Ben Hazell

Cult 1990s TV show The X-Files is to make a cinema comeback.

Ten years after the last film, the team behind the original series is slowly releasing information about the new film, due for US release on the 25th of July.

That information doesn't yet include a title.

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny return in the new film

It is known that the film will be set six years after the end of the television series, and will again star David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as Agents Mulder and Scully.

Director Chris Carter, creator of the series that ran between 1993 and 2002, showed the first trailer of the new film at a television convention in Los Angeles.

Speaking about the title he hinted at rifts between the writers and studio Fox.

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By Jennifer Bringle

Growing up in Greenville, S.C., filmmaker Tiona. M. struggled with her identity as an African American lesbian in a traditional Southern town.

"There wasn't a lot of visibility in the area; there was a lot of prejudice," she says. "I wanted to do something that gave women, especially lesbians of African descent, a voice."

That feeling inspired her documentary "Black./Womyn.: Conversations With Lesbians of African Descent," which will screen Saturday at Bennett College in Greensboro. The film is part of the school's annual Africana Women's Studies/Womanist Religious Studies Summit.

"There has not been enough dialogue on homosexuality in the black community," says Valerie Ann Johnson, director of Africana women's studies at Bennett College. "It hasn't been realized, and we need to take opportunities to talk about those issues."

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African Americans' role chronicled from church's beginning

By Jennifer Dobner

Elijah Abel, Jane Manning James and Green Flake hold a unique, but rather obscure place in Mormon history: all three joined the church in its infancy and all three were black people.

They also remained faithful after policies were altered and black people were denied full membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Abel was the first black man ordained to the priesthood in 1836. James worked in the home of church founder Joseph Smith and followed the faith's next president, Brigham Young, across the Plains to Utah in 1848. Flake came to Utah as well, but as the slave of white members. He was freed by Young in 1854.

Such stories won't remain unknown if Darius Gray and Margaret Young have anything to do with it - they've chronicled the struggles of black Latter-day Saints in a new documentary "Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons."

"To me, it's parallel with the story of African Americans, period," said Gray, who is black and has been a member of the church since 1964. "We talk about the black history and contributions being either lost, stolen or strayed generally, and it's the same within the LDS church."

Nearly six years in the making, the film is an extension of a longtime partnership between Gray, a former broadcaster, and Young, a writing teacher at the church-owned Brigham Young University. Together the pair have written three books on black Mormons.

Wrapped in soulful black spirituals, the 72-minute film takes viewers on a journey from the days of Mormon pioneers to the 1960s civil rights era, when some university athletic teams refused to compete against BYU because the church openly discriminated against black people. It ends with current black church members sharing their own stories - good and bad.

"We're not hiding anything, we're not sugar-coating anything," said Young, who is white. "We're telling a very difficult history, but the people who are telling it have come through it."

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By Akinyi Princess of K’Orinda-Yimbo

When Flame was sixteen, he left his parents’ place to live in a home where he learnt the “gangsta” trade. When Mamadee was ten, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) collapsed, dashing her dreams of wearing the Thälmann pioneers’ red scarf. When Adé was fifteen, his father was killed and he left Nigeria for Leverkusen in Germany. Xavier Naidoo learnt early from his parents that owning a car made one respectable in the community.

These artists grew up as German children of African fathers and German mothers (except for Xavier whose father had some Indian ancestry and D-Flame whose father was an African-American GI soldier), and all of them finally grew up without their fathers. Yet they have made it big time through determination, self-will and religious faith. Their paths never crossed till an African from Mozambique, Alberto Adriano, was brutally killed by three Nazi youths in a park in the Eastern German city of Dessau. Following the murder, more than twenty of the best-known African-German musicians joined up to found the band project Brothers Keepers. They recorded the maxi Adriano (Last Warning) and the album Lightkultur on which they were partnered by their female counterpart, Sisters Keepers. And they visited, and still visit, schools in East Germany to talk to schoolchildren. The documentary film- Yes I Am - tells the story of Flame, Mamadee, Xavier and Adé and the story of the Brothers Keepers / Sisters Keepers. It tells of the power of music and shows how good it feels to raise one’s voice as a group. Looming large in the background is of course the tragic story of Alberto Adriano.

I remember the League of Nation’s so-called humanitarian, Gilbert Murray, who blatantly asserted: There is in the world a hierarchy of races...those nations which eat more, claim more, and get higher wages, will direct and rule the others, and the lower work of the world will tend in the long-run to be done by lower breeds of men. This much we of the ruling colour will no doubt accept as obvious.

So much for civilised Christian values. There is an increase of racist-motivated violent crimes in Germany, directed at dark-skinned people or those who do not look “Northern European” enough. If one is the “typical” Spaniard, Portuguese, Greek, Albanian or Italian, one is no better off than a Sri Lankan, Chinese, Philippine, Japanese or Indian. The perpetrators come mainly from the right radical neo-nazis, especially the jobless youth. But there are to date many cases pending in courts where the German police have shot Africans (allegedly attempting to escape) on the streets or, in one case, torched an African detainee in his cell. The defence is that the detainee set his mattress and himself on fire. But how a chained detainee who had been searched and stripped of any “dangerous” objects can set himself on fire and burn to death before any help arrives, is the puzzle of the century.

German politics has a lot to do with it as well. In a country where elections seem to run non-stop (if not the general federal elections, then local government elections are running in one state or the other), the German electorate is wooed variously by blaming foreigners for taking jobs away from the Germans or living off the German taxpayers’ money as recipients of the welfare benefits. Granted, the German social welfare institution is rather generous and lawfully bound to make sure that anybody living in the country, whether German or not, and has no adequate income, still has a roof over their head, a bite to eat, adequate medical support, extra money at Christmas and clothes and shoes to wear in summer and in winter – and that for the entire family however large or small.

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Cherno Jobatey - "Germany’s most entertaining alarm clock", as recently described in the conservative newspaper FAZ (04/05/06).

Cherno Jobatey has "shaped ZDF- Morning News with his irrepressible zest" as states Germany's people magazine BUNTE (24/06). "His winning smile has long been part of the show", cheers Cologne Paper „Express". "No one is quite as entertaining" adds Germany's tv guide Hoer Zu (No 45/05).

But his easy going sense of humour early in the morning is not liked by everybody. It just so happened that the German Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection simply didn't know an appropriate answer to a question that was put with the winning smile and very affable manner of his host, the "news junkie" (Welt) Cherno Jobatey. It was a question about Germany's recent food scandal when rotten meat was sold in parts of the country. Minister Seehofer just couldn’t explain the reasoning behing his ministry's guidelines and regulations.

Cherno Jobatey is the „TV-Darling”! states Europe’s biggest tabloid Bild (09/09/07) He explains world event at dawn on the small screen in Germany's No. One morning news show "ZDF-Morgenmagazin". The show is broadcasted live directly from Berlin’s political heart, close to Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. Because that’s where the political action is.

Life Story

Pony tail, sneakers and a winning smile: that can only be Cherno Jobatey.

He has become a brand name on television, convincingly matching form and content.

First and foremost, Cherno is an expert in news and current affairs.

But he also knows how to present entertainment shows, is a secure interviewer on any topic and always knows how to get that feel-good mood across.

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"There is no Denzel here"

By David Gordon Smith in Berlin

The African-German community has a long history, but the sizeable minority is often overlooked in a country where being German is often considered to mean being white. Now a group of black German filmmakers is trying to change that.

A teenage girl finds her life turned upside down when her father, who she has never met, turns up. After some initial distrust, she begins to develop an affection for him. Even though she still blames him for abandoning her mother, she begins to understand that life is about making difficult choices -- until she finds out her father has established a new one with another woman.

The plot of the short film "Cherish" is one which many people could relate to. Winta Yohannes, the film's 32-year-old German director, wanted just that. "It's a universal story which very many Germans can identify with," she says.

But the film is more than just that. Yohannes, who was born in Eritrea and moved to Germany at the age of three, is showing her film at this year's Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) as part of the series "New Perspectives." Her film is informed by her experiences growing up in Germany -- a country where the black minority is next to invisible.

That's something the organizers, the association Black Artists in German Film (SFD), is trying to change. "We want to make people aware of the fact that black filmmakers are making films which avoid the old clichés and represent black life as we see it," says SFD's Philippa Ebéné.

Her colleague Carol Campbell feels the Berlinale presence is also motivating for black German filmmakers. "It's a form of empowerment," she says.

The series features six short films that aim to represent the breadth of black filmmaking in Germany -- from Yohannes' coming-of-age story, to "You Are Welcome!," a documentary featuring interviews with German visitors to Ghana, to "Diver," a cartoon about a German superhero.

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Many actors would balk at the thought of playing a closeted homosexual on the big screen, but for actor Razaaq Adoti it was just another day on the job.

Razaaq Adoti

Born in England to Nigerian parents, Adoti maybe somewhat of a newcomer to Hollywood , but his star is very much on the rise thanks to roles in movies ‘Amistad, ‘Black Hawk Down’ and ‘Doom.’ With an explosive role in the thriller ‘Cover,’ the theatrically trained Adioti is finally staking his star in Hollywood . Samantha Ofole-Prince caught up with the actor to hear about his latest project.

A lot of actors would probably be a little nervous to play a gay character irregardless of the circumstances. Did you view the role with caution when you initially read the script?

I am aware that the script fell through a few actors hands before it reached my lap, but it’s a great script and when you look at the cast that’s been assembled only a fool won’t want to be part of this project. I want to play a full range of different characters and one of the beautiful things that excite me about this profession is that I am able to do so. I am trying to do the kind of movies that hopefully will allow me to inspire someone else and allow my family to be proud and me to be fulfilled at the same time.

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By Chris Jordan

Actor Leon Robinson certainly isn't ducking for "Cover." That's the name of the new Bill Duke film in which he stars. It tackles the issue of bisexual men, or those on the so-called down-low, in the African-American community.

Leon Robinson

"In my opinion, a man and women's sexuality is their own business, but if you're sleeping with men or sleeping with women, (your partner has) a right to know so they can make a decision on their own," says Robinson, who's usually billed as just Leon.

"Cover," which also stars Aunjanue Ellis, Razaaq Adoti, Vivica A. Fox, Louis Gossett Jr. and Patti LaBelle, explores the shadowy world of married men in Philadelphia hooking up with guys without the knowledge of their wives or girlfriends.

Although the film was shot and takes place in Philly, it's a national problem, specifically within the African-American community, according to filmmakers.

"Bill Duke told me a story, and it was very touching," says Leon. He said someone he knows "contracted HIV from her husband of seven years, and she found out that he was living a double life -- and instead of killing somebody, he said, 'let me make a movie about it.' "

The problem occurs when straight women -- who aren't aware of their men's behavior -- are infected by their down-low partners. The rate of HIV diagnosis for black males is nearly seven times that of white males, and the HIV diagnosis rate for black females is more than 20 times that of white females and nearly four times that of Hispanic females, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Come out ... Jaason Simmons (centre bottom row), with his Baywatch co-stars.

The man at the centre of many adolescent fantasies, former Baywatch hunk Jaason Simmons (no, that’s not a spelling mistake) has today come out of closet and publicly declared that his is gay.

The Tasmanian-born actor, who played Australian lifeguard Logan Fowler on Baywatch for three years in the mid 1990s [pictured front centre in the top photo], has ended years of speculation in the hope of raising awareness of African adoption.

Simmons has appeared in Australian New Idea magazine with his boyfriend of eight months, Irish actor John O’Callaghan, and his adopted six year-old Ugandon son saying that they want to get married. The couple plan to wed in Canada as same-sex unions are not legally recognized in California where they both live.

Jaason, who first married a woman at 20, hit the big time at 24 with his regular role on Baywatch, alongside Pamela Anderson, David Hasslehoff and Yasmine Bleeth. Among Simmons’ first confidantes in revealing his sexuality was his Baywatch co-star Alexandra Paul, whose twin sister is gay, and to whom he was romantically linked.

Simmons, Irish actor John O’Callaghan, and his adopted six year-old Ugandon son

After quitting the show and spending some time in a Buddhist monastery in Wales, doing theatre in London and acting in several independent films, fellow actor O’Callaghan proposed to Simmons a few months after they met. “People said ‘Isn’t it too quick?” says Jaason in New Idea magazine, “But it’s different when you’re 37 and you’ve gone through the mill and been kicked around and learnt stuff. If you both want the same thing and are on the same journey, and you’re together until you pass, what’s too fast? If you know, you know.”

When asked why they want to get married, Jaason says: “We’re doing it for our family and for my soon-to-be son. Although you don’t want to typecast yourself, you have to take responsibility and ownership and move humanity forward, out of bigotry. Our son needs to see we can stand in front of family and loved ones who are going to support our union through the good times and bad.”

Oh the irony that the man who has appeared on the cover of Playgirl Magazine  and set many female hearts aflutter actually bats for our team. Now all we need is for fellow Baywatcher David Charvet to come out and we can die happy.

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