Best boy
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By Daniel Treiman
Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel may be crossing the picket lines, but the Writers Guild of America is getting support from a surprising quarter: the Jewish Defense League, the fringe group founded by assassinated firebrand rabbi Meir Kahane.
It all started when the JDL went after one of America’s biggest movie stars.
In a recent interview with a Scottish newspaper, screen idol Will Smith remarked in passing that “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘Let me do the most evil thing I can do today.’” Instead, Smith suggested, “using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good.’”
While some saw Smith’s remarks as a thought-provoking meditation on the nature of evil, the JDL wasn’t as charitable. It accused Smith of having “spit on the memory of every person murdered by the Nazis” and called for a boycott of the star and his new film, “I Am Legend.”
Internet gossip sites and mainstream news outlets quickly blew the brouhaha into a big story, with Hollywood gossip powerhouse TMZ.com labeling the JDL a “leading Jewish group.”
Smith responded to the snowballing story by issuing a statement, saying he was “incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such ludicrous misinterpretation,” and calling Hitler “a vile, heinous, vicious killer.”
That, it turns out, was enough to satisfy even the militant JDL, which announced that it would call off its boycott. But the JDL did not rest there. It seized the occasion to offer its two cents on another hot-button Hollywood issue: “In a related matter, the Jewish Defense League supports the Hollywood writers and hopes the strike is settled soon so that Smith, a very talented actor, can continue doing what he does so well.”
By Subhash K. Jha
It's been a long and tiring search for Madhur Bhandarkar to find one of the principal male leads, modeled on a real-life character, to play a gay dress designer. "It wasn't an aggressive in-your-face kind of homosexual character. I needed someone tall, fair handsome suave and outwardly a ladies' man. The hunt was killing me because I start shooting with this character in just a few days. But now I've found my actor. Samir Soni fits the bill completely. He's sensitive and yet not delicate, soft-spoken but not effeminate. I needed that," enthused Madhur Bhandarkar on Thursday afternoon minutes after finalizing Samir Soni.
By Ryan Lee
IN HER FIRST SCENE in the new movie “Dirty Laundry,” veteran actress Jennifer Lewis overpowers her backup church choir while singing a melodramatic gospel number during which she stretches the word “trinity” until it’s about 20 syllables long.
“I know I hit my note,” Lewis says proudly, as the rest of the choir is chastised by the conductor and told it needs more practice.
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Indeed, Lewis (“Jackie’s Back”) hits her note as Aunt Lettuce, stealing almost every scene in which she appears in “Dirty Laundry.” Lewis’ screen presence is as bold and brilliant as the outfits Aunt Lettuce wears to church, and she infuses “Dirty Laundry” with a rhythm and edge it needs to be successful.
The movie, like Aunt Lettuce’s back-up choir, improves from a weak beginning and far-fetched premise to become a potentially breakthrough film that explores a peculiar dynamic of black family life with sincerity and humor. Written, directed and produced by black gay filmmaker Maurice Jamal, “Dirty Laundry” wades through heavy topics like sexual orientation and the definition of success, while featuring many scenes that are “as funny as a fat girl on roller skates.”
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New York, NY, December 26, 2007 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed and accepted actor Will Smith's clarifying statement that Adolf Hitler was "a vile, heinous, vicious killer" and not someone to be held up as a good person.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:
We welcome and accept Will Smith's statement that Hitler was a 'vicious killer' and that he did not mean for his remarks about the Nazi leader to be mistaken as praise. Once Smith realized that his remarks may have been misunderstood, he took immediate steps to clarify his words and unequivocally condemn Hitler as an evil person. We would have expected no less from a celebrity of his standing in the strata of Hollywood stardom.
Unfortunately, in citing Hitler in what appears to be a positive context, Smith stirred up a hornet's nest on the Internet, where hate groups and anti-Semites latched on to the remark and praised it. If anything, this episode serves as a reminder of the power of words, and how words can be twisted by those with hate and bigotry in their hearts to suit their own worldview. This is why all celebrities bear a special responsibility to weigh their words carefully, and an obligation to speak out against racism and bigotry whenever even a whiff of it appears, as Will Smith has done in this instance.
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
Tom Cruise refuses to star alongside best friend Will Smith, because he fears he’ll be upstaged according to reports on femalefirst.
The pair are close pals and frequently speak of plans to act together but sources tell the National Enquirer Cruise is terrified a collaboration would kill his career.
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The insider claims Cruise backs down over every script Smith sends him and never returns the offer.
The source says, “Tom’s a great guy, but he sees Will as competition — a movie like ‘I Am Legend’ is the kind of role Tom used to get offered first. The feeling is that Tom fears he’ll suffer by comparison if he acts alongside Will.
He hasn’t really worked with another strong male lead since Dustin Hoffman in ‘Rain Man’.”
The source insists Smith doesn’t care, “He knows how Tom is, and it’s not going to end their friendship if they never appear on screen together.”.
NBC Unaware of Gladiator's Gay Porn Past
- By Best boy
- Published 01/5/2008
- Television
- Unrated
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HOLLYWOOD, CA -- The producers of NBC's new show "American Gladiators" say they had no idea that Alex Castro, the warrior going under the alias "Militia" on the show, was once a gay porn star.
"We were aware that the guy had a good physique and did some modeling and stuff like that," a show source told New York Post.
"We were certainly unaware to the extent that he apparently exposed his body. It is an internal matter now and something we will be in discussions with the network about."
Photos and videos from Castro's porn past have turned up on gay porn sites after Colt Studios went out and congratulated their former star about his new gigs.
The first season of "American Gladiators" has already been filmed and scenes with Castro will not be edited out.
On Jan. 6 (8 pm), "Militia" will join other beefy brawlers going by the names "Crush," "Hellga," "Venom," "Stealth," "Fury," "Titan" and "Justice," all trying to foil contestants vying for a $100,000 prize in various events including Pyramid, Gauntlet and Joust.
By Topher Campbell
At last a British Black Gay Film. One that has two strong leads and sense of realism. Raymond/Rag and Tagbo/Tag have a friendship that has endured over many years of separation. As twelve year olds they enjoyed an intimacy that many adults would find threatening.
As young men, despite the disapproval of Tag's religiously driven father, racism, the distractions of troubled heterosexual relationships and shady dealings in Nigeria, Rag and Tag are forced to face the inevitable. Their love is full of promise and truth but neither of them is sure how to embrace it. Set in a London that is totally believable Rag Tag has an edge that echoes Stephen Frears' My Beautiful Launderette.
As a bonus it is also set in Lagos, which adds a cultural dynamic rarely explored: namely the relationship between British Nigerian and West Indian communities. The film introduces its themes and ideas without banner waving. The two leads are believable and watchable and supported by a strong cast. It's a story that has a slow burn but one worth persevering with, because by the end, the sum of its parts makes this film amount to a touching life affirming love story.
It also boasts some very good looking black guys and the first British Black Gay screen kiss since Isaac Julien's Passion of Remembrance. In Adaora Nwandu the UK has a brave and ambitious feature director with a rich imagination. This is her debut and proves that she is definitely one to watch.
All is set for the Nigerian film industry to release the first gay movie titled “Sinful Saints” early next year.
Directed by Nigeria’s 2005 Best Film Director, Dickson Iruegbu, the movie seeks to answer such questions as whether homosexuality is an African or borrowed culture.
“Sinful Saints is a very controversial movie. It deals with a very sensitive but neglected topic; homosexuality. The movie will explore homosexuality in Nigeria,” Iruegbu revealed.
How did it creep into our society? How do we discuss issues relating to sex with our children? Do we frighten them with our experiences? The family is the ultimate unit of society but unfortunately most homes lack good ways of discussing sex-related issues.
Sinful Saints is the story of a kid whose over-protective mum (Clarion Chukwura) sheltered him so much that at age 19 he had not had any contact with a woman.
Meanwhile his hormones are raging but ignorance has set in and he clings onto his fellow man to satisfy his sexual needs. Soon he is enmeshed in homosexuality.
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Talk about a casting coup! When Zoe Saldana, who's a fine actress and Latino, was cast to play Uhuru, which was originally played by African American Nichelle Nichols, in the new Star Trek film, I'm sure some folks may have been upset with that choice and wondered if there would be any Blacks in the film. Well, low and behold, of all the marketing moves the producers could have done to insure that the African American market was represented, they have cast one of the hottest movers and shakers in the media world to appear in the film, Tyler Perry.
[Editor's correction: Zoe is Dominican and therefore most likely part black]
That's right - Tyler Perry. According to the website UGO, they are reporting that Perry, who has never appeared in a film that he didn't write, direct, or produce, will be featured in the film as the head of Starfleet Academy, and in a human form, instead of looking like some alien. Tyler's character is overseeing some kind of Starfleet courtroom/ assembly event where young Kirk is facing expulsion from Starfleet.
That's all you need. Explanations are not needed to tell what Perry brings to the table. His last film, 'Why Did I Get Married?', was #1 at the box office during its opening weekend and has amassed over $50 million dollars so far at the gate. His other films 'Diary of a Mad Black Woman', Madea's Family Reunion', and Daddy's Little Girls' also did well at the box office.
Gay Tory to star in TV comedy
- By Best boy
- Published 01/5/2008
- Television
- Unrated
By Tony Grew
A former Big Brother contestant who was once a Conservative parliamentary candidate may star in a remake of a controversial 1970s television programme.
Derek Laud, who also worked as a speechwriter for several leading Tories and as a lobbyist at Westminster, is an unusual figure in the party, a black, camp and openly gay man.
He was a contestant in the sixth series of reality show Big Brother, which was eventually won by Anthony Hutton.
Regeneration and Renewal magazine reports that Laud will be starring in a remake of ITV comedy Love Thy Neighbour.
The show featured a black couple who move in next door to a white racist man and his long-suffering wife.
It dealt with race relations in a way that has come to be regarded as so offensive that it has never been shown again.
By Roger Ebert
April 2006
How strange, a movie where a bad man becomes better, instead of the other way around. "Tsotsi," a film of deep emotional power, considers a young killer whose cold eyes show no emotion, who kills unthinkingly, and who is transformed by the helplessness of a baby. He didn't mean to kidnap the baby, but now that he has it, it looks at him with trust and need, and he is powerless before eyes more demanding than his own.
 Presley Chweneyagae stars in the title role in the South African film "Tsotsi," winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Film 2006 |
The movie, which just won the Oscar for best foreign film, is set in Soweto, the township outside Johannesburg where neat little houses built by the new government are overwhelmed by square miles of shacks. There is poverty and despair here, but also hope and opportunity; from Soweto have come generations of politicians, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, as if it were the Lower East Side of South Africa. Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae) is not destined to be one of those. We don't even learn his real name until later in the film; "tsotsi" means "thug," and that's what he is.
He leads a loose-knit gang that smashes and grabs, loots and shoots, sets out each morning to steal something. On a crowded train, they stab a man,- and he dies without anyone noticing; they hold his body up with their own, take his wallet, flee when the doors open. Another day's work. But when his friend Boston (Mothusi Magano) asks Tsotsi how he really feels, whether decency comes into it, he fights with him and walks off into the night, and we sense how alone he is. Later, in a flashback, we will understand the cruelty of the home and father he fled from.
Continue to Full Story to see the film trailer...
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Set in rural Alabama in 1950, John Sayles' latest is a golden-hued fairy tale about the moment when a jolt of electric current turned the front-porch blues into modern rock and roll. In this mythical version of the South, the freight trains moan like departing spirits, music seeps out of every gap-walled shack, and you can practically taste all those sweet, tangy guitar licks. Even the local preacher sounds like Paul Robeson.
It's a lovely portrait of a fabled time and place, but wasn't there a bit of ugliness, too? Lynchings, rapes, white-hooded mobs -- none of those realities rear their heads here. Sayles, who wrote, directed and edited, seems so enamored with the popular lore of the blues that he often glosses over the suffering that begot the music.
The story -- not really a plot -- centers on Tyrone "Pine Top" Purvis (Danny Glover), who hopes to save his struggling juke joint, The Honeydripper, by convincing a guitar-toting youngster (Gary Clark, Jr., in his film debut) to pose as a famous musician. The film unfolds patiently, introducing the various field hands, petty hoods and regular folk (plus the local white sheriff, played by a smirking Stacy Keach) who will eventually gather at the bar for the climactic concert.
The appealing, nearly all-black cast (including Charles S. Dutton as the bar's amiable handyman) perform real magic with the vernacular poetry of Sayles' script. In one scene, Glover imagines himself as the first slave to sit at a white man's piano. "Lord help me," Glover whispers aloud, "I could do some damage with this thing."
There's so much charm and life in "The Honeydripper" that it makes the bygone South seem like a delightful place to be. It surely was, for some.
THE HONEYDRIPPER 2:02 (mild language, brief violence, adult themes). At Cinema Village, Manhattan
Movie Trailer
By Kristi Mitsuda
Because John Sayles specifically sets his latest film, "Honeydripper," in rural Alabama in the year 1950, one would assume the socially conscious writer-director means to explore racial tensions in the South, by focusing on the titular bar run by Danny Glover's Tyrone "Pine Top" Purvis. But black-white relations soon fade to background noise levels, evidenced directly only in a few brief scenes, as when the town sheriff (Stacy Keach) routinely rounds up random African-American men on trumped-up charges to work in the cotton fields, or in a strained sequence between Tyrone's wife (Lisa Gay Hamilton as Delilah) and employer "Miss Amanda" (Mary Steenburgen), which shows the latter oddly sympathetic and desperate to connect with the silverware-shining former even as she betrays her ignorance by presenting a hand-me-down for Delilah's daughter -- a dress about ten years too small.
Loaded as these peripheral details may be, they slowly fall by the wayside to reveal an unexpectedly light "hey kids, let's put on a show!" narrative, albeit one infused with as great a sense of potential loss and despair as joyousness. Glover's stirring performance, as a man weathered by past mistakes and presently at the precipice of disaster, helps conjure an air of melancholy that tempers the classic trajectory's usual ecstatic, cathartic outburst. As indicated by the echoing emptiness of the uncrowded bar where aging blues singer Bertha Mae (Dr. Mable John) croons on a Saturday night, Tyrone's business verges on nonexistence. Losing out to the neighboring competition, which nightly attracts the coveted youthful demographic, Tyrone decides to go for broke by hiring radio sensation "Guitar Sam" to pack 'em in and play the Honeydripper for one night only. Cue a mishap because of which means the man never makes it to town, and the spontaneous stopover by an electric guitar-toting stranger named Sonny (Gary Clark, Jr.).
Film about gay Christians is an Oscar contender. "For The Bible Tells Me So" earns appreciative recognition.
The Free Press, in Mankato MN, is reporting on the incredible public response to the documentary For The Bible Tells Me So.
The film focuses on the debate about gays-in-the-church. And many pro-gay veterans of theological discussions give their positions on the subject throughout the documentary.
Former House majority leader Dick Gephardt and his daughter, Chrissy Gephardt appear together in the film.
In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Mr. Gephardt explains he's not concerned about other people's opinion of his family:
"I never cared about what people in my district or people generally would think about me because of my family. My family has always been the most important thing in my life. I love my kids. I will love them unconditionally and that, that just doesn’t equate for me. It doesn’t compute for me."
One of Hollywood's finest takes his place as director
By Jamie Portman
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Don't call Denzel Washington a role model.
He may be one of the most powerful black actors in Hollywood, but he doesn't buy into the suggestion that he serves as a role model or mentor to others.
Yet, it's clear that the three young actors sitting beside him this morning think otherwise. They worship the guy.
"What inspired me most about Denzel was his integrity," says Nate Parker, one of the youthful African-American stars of The Great Debaters, which could become the sleeper hit of the Christmas season.
Washington directed Parker, 28, and his colleagues in this inspiring new movie loosely based on real-life events that occurred in the racist American South of the early 1930s. It took the Oscar-winning actor four years to realize his dream of recreating this story of an all-black Texas institution, Wiley College, which against enormous odds mounted a superb team of debaters whose triumphant journey eventually takes them to the hallowed halls of Harvard University and a national championship.
The Great Debater - Full Trailer
In the film opening Christmas Day, Washington plays Melvin P. Tolson, the driven professor who leads his young charges to victory despite a vicious climate of racism. The script, to which Washington made a major contribution, leaves no doubt that Tolson served as mentor to these idealistic black youngsters. But Washington shrugs off any suggestion that he made a similar contribution in real life while working with the film's cast.
What a stellar year for the gay film industry. Coming off the cancelation of “Noah’s Arc” the gloom was replaced by the debut of several films and in South Africa a bold new television series. Please see below a few of the articles representing the year in film. 
By Christopher Kelly
The most satisfying movie in theaters right now features no elaborate computer-generated special effects and no talking polar bears. It doesn't star any scenery-chewing actors gunning for an Oscar. And - thank heaven for small favors - it doesn't have six people playing Bob Dylan at various stages of his career.
Instead, Preston A. Whitmore's surprise hit "This Christmas" - which opened last month and has grossed nearly $40 million - tells the story of a large and bickering African-American family reunited for the first time in four years for the Christmas holiday. What makes the movie so refreshing is its unabashed old-fashioned sensibility. In this age of newer, bigger, better and louder, Whitmore has offered up a kind of mini-revolution, with a plainspoken, warmhearted comedy-drama about recognizable people overcoming everyday problems.
"I wasn't surprised at all that it opened so well," Whitmore says. "Look at the social landscape: We have a war, there's less money, gas prices are astronomical. People want things that make them feel good."
Three nights at the Egyptian, featuring "Starrbooty" with RuPaul and a documentary about Jock Soto, a gay Navajo Indian and Puerto Rican ballet dancer.
By Margaret Wappler
FUSION, Outfest's program of films about LGBTQ people of color and the only festival of its kind, pulls in audiences like no other: Think queer theorists, questioning teenagers, the next generation's Vaginal Davis and, of course, your usual entertainment industry professionals.
The diverse crowd is a reflection of what's on the screen. Held at the Egyptian Theatre, Fusion 2007's opening night of short films on Friday -- which co-executive director Kirsten Schaffer calls the hub of the festival -- includes "Pariah," an Outfest award-winning film about a Bronx teenager's multiple identities, and "Kali Ma," a suburban Indian mother's revenge tale.
By Alison Maloney
EWAN McGREGOR is set to play JIM CARREY’S love interest in a prison drama.
The couple will be seen embarking on a gay romance in I Love You Phillip Morris, written and directed by Bad Santa duo GLEN FICARRA and JOHN REQUA.
The film is based on the true story of conman STEVE RUSSELL, a married father who fell for fellow inmate PHILIP MORRIS while serving a sentence for fraud.
His passion for Morris inspired him to escape from prison four times, using ingenious methods such as faking his own death and even dying his prison uniform green to look like a doctor.
Filming will begin when McGregor has finished playing multiple roles in the motion capture version of A Christmas Carol.
St. Claire Bourne in New York City in 1981. “Black men who define themselves from an Afrocentric point of view fascinate me,” he said in 1999
By Dennis McLellan
December 19, 2007 St. Clair Bourne, a prominent independent documentary filmmaker whose work focused largely on African American social and political issues and cultural figures such as Paul Robeson and Langston Hughes, has died. He was 64.
Bourne, a Brooklyn resident, died Saturday of pulmonary embolisms after undergoing surgery for the removal of a benign tumor on his brain, said his sister and sole survivor, Judith Bourne.
In a career that began in the late 1960s as a producer for the public affairs series "Black Journal" on public television, Bourne launched his production company, Chamba Mediaworks, in New York City in 1971.
Over 36 years, he produced and/or directed more than 45 works, including documentaries for HBO, PBS, NBC, CBS, the BBC, the Sundance Channel and National Geographic.
Among his most notable films was "Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks" (2000), an Emmy-nominated feature-length documentary about the renowned photojournalist and filmmaker that ran on HBO.
Other biographical subjects included poet-writer-activist Amiri Baraka, historian and Pan-African activist John Henrik Clarke, and Hughes, the poet, novelist and playwright.
