The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) articles from March 2003

The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) archives from March 2003

Ballet class. (reader forum).
March 4, 2003... As devotees of classical and modern dance, my life partner and I have followed American Ballet Theatre for 50 years and have noted (during their recent New York seasons) how their roster is steadily enriched with Latino dancers: Julio Bocca,...

Out of focus? (reader forum).
March 4, 2003... I can't believe that Herb Ritts did not make the cover and that you chose some unknown ballet twink who is coming out! I can't believe you would just about overlook Ritts's contribution to gay culture by doing a one-page article just about on...

It's a queer romance. (reader forum).
March 4, 2003... I found your article "Better Dating Through Circuitry" [February 4] very interesting, especially since my partner, Gary, and I met online over six years ago. We first became "friends" online and, even though we lived in the same town, didn't...

Reader comments from www.advocate.com. (The Advocate Poll).(Brief Article)
March 4, 2003... * "Yes, but I believe the problem is already there, in anyone who has it, and it is just easily manifested via the Internet. I do not believe the Internet `creates' it." * "Even though I do not use the Internet for live sexual encounters,...

Sexual healing. (reader forum).
March 4, 2003... As a recovering sex addict and member of Sex Addicts Anonymous, I was thrilled to see the issue of sex addiction and compulsive sexual behavior addressed by Jeremy Quittner in the February 4 issue ["Addicted to Dot-com Sex"]. I know that sex...

Butching it up. (reader forum).
March 4, 2003... The gender issue, as brought out by Riki Wilchins in Last Word [February 4], is the primary and underlying cause of sexual discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination. The feminine is still devalued in our society, as it has been...

Our baby, the star. (my perspective).
March 4, 2003... Both my partner, Joanna, and I were surprised and concerned when, on December 30, our nurse-midwife told us that we would have to induce labor the next morning, two weeks before I was due to deliver. As one hour gave way to the next, murmurs...

Rants & raves.
March 4, 2003... "Anything involving motorcycles and women." --Rapper and Chicago star Queen Latifah, discussing what her next film project will be, as quoted by the New York Daily News's Rush and Molloy, January 21 "I was in bed with Meryl Streep, one...

A federal nod to gay partners: will Peggy Neff's award from the federal Victim Compensation Fund help all same-sex couples win more legal recognition? (September 11).
March 4, 2003... A check for $557,390. That's what Peggy Neff received from the federal government to help compensate for the loss of her partner, Sheila Hein, a Pentagon employee who was killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Neff and Hein had...

Morris Kight, 1919-2003. (Legacy).(Brief Article)(Obituary)
March 4, 2003... The gay rights movement lost another pioneer when activist Morris Kight died peacefully in his sleep at the Carl Bean hospice in Los Angeles on January 19. Kight was indispensable in launching the gay liberation movement on the West Coast in...

From power lunches to play dates. (Business).
March 4, 2003... There will be one less power lesbian in the nation's capital next year--Hilary Rosen, the out lesbian CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, announced January 23 that she will step down at the end of 2003. "I have young...

Antigay exit. (Politics).(Jerry Thacker)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2003... The derailed appointment of HIV-positive Christian activist Jerry Thacker to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS may also blunt the Bush administration's concentration on abstinence-only prevention education, say some activists....

Across the nation. (The Nation).(Brief Article)
March 4, 2003... Sacramento, Calif. A caucus of lesbian and gay state legislators introduced four gay rights bills on January 28, including one that would grant gay couples nearly all of the legal rights that married spouses enjoy. Woonsocket, R.I. ...

Massage parlor massacre. (South Africa).
March 4, 2003... Police in Cape Town, South Africa, hope the sole survivor of a January 20 massacre at a gay massage parlor can provide information to help in their search for suspects in the case. Ten men at the massage parlor Sizzlers were shot...

Gay no more. (People).(Brief Article)
March 4, 2003... How's this for a top story? David Bianco, founder of gay news service Q Syndicate, which supplies content to about 100 gay and lesbian newspapers, announced in mid January that he no longer considers himself gay. A devout Jew, Bianco...

West Hollywood survivor: Trev Broudy, whose September bashing infuriated a gay neighborhood, speaks for the first time about his recovery, his anger, and his future. (Behind the Headlines).(Interview)
March 4, 2003... Voice-over artist Trev Broudy and his friend Edward Ulett were hugging good night outside Broudy's West Hollywood, Calif., apartment on September 1 when a man suddenly ran up and swung a baseball bat against the back of Broudy's head. The...

Know your lesbian patients. (Medicine).(Brief Article)
March 4, 2003... Doctors will be getting a crash course in lesbian health issues, thanks to a program created by the Mautner Project for Lesbians With Cancer in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Removing the Barriers, a nationwide...

Phantom bug-chasers. (Controversy).(Brief Article)
March 4, 2003... It was late January when Rolling Stone published a story on "bug chasers"--men who intentionally try to become infected with HIV--but the fireworks the purported expose sparked were more reminiscent of the Fourth of July. Even before the...

More than skin-deep. (Outbreak).(staph infections)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2003... Health officials are trying to figure out why an outbreak of drug-resistant staph infections has hit gay men in Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles Times reported January 27 that the skin infections, which appear as ugly boils, started turning...

Transitions. (Health).(Brief Article)
March 4, 2003... DIED: Mary Dunlap, 54, gay rights advocate and civil rights lawyer, of pancreatic cancer, in San Francisco, January 17. DIED: George Haimsohn 77, coauthor of the musical theater spoof Dames at Sea and author of gay erotic fiction, of a...

On the web. (The Advocate Report).
March 4, 2003... This week on Advocate.com BREAKING NEWS: Visit www.advocate.com for the latest news, entertainment, and health headlines, updated twice a day. Q&Q Gus, Matt, and Gerry Out director Gus Van Sant's new film, Gerry, with Matt...

August 5, 1986: Supreme injustice. (From the Advocate Archives).(Brief Article)
March 4, 2003... As the Supreme Court considers the case of Lawrence v. Texas, which disputes the constitutionality of the state's ban on consensual gay sex, one can only hope that the ruling will be more favorable than the last time the court addressed the...

Going postal: the creator of a video game in which gays are targets takes aim at his critics. (The Advocate Report).(Vince Desi creator of Postal 2)(Brief Article)(Interview)
March 4, 2003... Postal 2 won't hit stores until March, but that hasn't stopped gay activists from protesting the violent computer game, which allows players, who take on the persona of a spree killer, to shoot various townspeople, including gay people. Dutch...

Queer year at Sundance. (the Buzz).
March 4, 2003... CHARLES BUSCH, AL PACINO, JANE FONDA, Gina Gershon, Jason Priestley--the Sundance Film Festival is the place to rub elbows with gay and gay-friendly stars. Eleven years after the advent of the new queer cinema--a phrase coined at Sundance by...

Sarah Pettit's journey: longtime friend Eric Gutierrez remembers the Out cofounder and Newsweek editor as ambitious, idealistic, and fearless to the end. (In Memoriam).
March 4, 2003... Before Out magazine, before Newsweek, Sarah Pettit slept under my Christmas tree in Los Angeles. Although I served on the editorial board of Out during its first five years, while Sarah was coeditor and then editor in chief, my relationship...

What makes a hotel gay-friendly? Gay travel experts are seeking to set standards for how welcoming hotels really are. (Gay Travel).
March 4, 2003... When Mel Heifetz scans a copy of "The Gay Guide to Center City Philadelphia," a brochure and map put out a few years ago by the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau, he notices that "just about every hotel is listed, including the big chains."...

Amazing travel tips: on CBS's The Amazing Race, seven gay contestants have globe-trotted for thousands of miles. Who better to ask for advice on gay travel? (Gay Travel).
March 4, 2003... [A] Travelers: Joe Baldassare, 53, and Bill Bartek, 49 Hometown: Laguna Niguel, Calif. Raced as: Team Guido, life partners; finished third (season 1) What was it like racing with your partner? Would you recommend it? Joe: Oh,...

A loss of orientation: just when he thought he had traveled so far from home that his sexual orientation didn't matter to those around him, novelist Michael Lowenthal realizes that maybe, when it comes to being gay, you really can't get away from it all. (Gay Travel).
March 4, 2003... In Edinburgh last summer, I attended a dance party called Joy at a club called Ego, where for 5 [pounds sterling] you could buy a pill to boost both. It was fun enough, but the music and the men and their sweaty machinations were virtually the...

Balance of justice: cultural advances, openly gay clerks, and speculation about the sexual orientation of one of their own have substantially changed the way the Supreme Court justices weigh civil rights. (Cover Story).
March 4, 2003... It was almost 17 years ago, but it could have been a century. During oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Bowers v. Hardwick, the Georgia sodomy case, Chief Justice Warren Burger blurted out, "Didn't they used to put people to death for...

Awaiting judgment day: Lawrence v. Texas could take out sodomy laws for good--or it could set a precedent for increased infringement of gay rights. (Cover Story).
March 4, 2003... John Lawrence and Tyron Garner were taking advantage of the privacy most couples take for granted one night in 1998 when Houston police stormed Lawrence's apartment. The officers had been tipped off by a disgruntled friend of Garner's that...

Sodomy and the Supremes: legal expert David J. Garrow counts the potential votes in the upcoming Supreme Court decision on sodomy laws. (Cover Story).(Cover Story)
March 4, 2003... It's been more than four years since John Lawrence and Tyron Garner were arrested and charged with violating Texas's Homosexual Conduct Law, which prohibits "deviate sexual intercourse"--anal or oral sex--between people of the same sex. Now...

My big fat gay scorecard. (final cut).(author rates movies for gay content)(Illustration)(Column)
March 4, 2003... For the first time in memory there's a veritable flurry of folks (like me) claiming that many of this season's award-winning films are gay, gay, GAY! But how gay are they, really? Leave it to me--arbiter of all that is truly gay--to give you...

Master of the house: The Wedding Planner's Adam Shankman lucked into his first movie job. Now he's directing Steve Martin and Queen Latifah in Bringing Down the House. (film).(Interview)
March 4, 2003... "Well, you know she has to die, because she won't put on a tight dress," quips Adam Shankman, referring to the death of Mandy Moore's Christian teen character in 2002's surprise hit romance A Walk to Remember. The sweet-natured film was the out...

Wake-up Maggie: expatriate American comic Maggie Cassella tells all about her happy, gay life as a talk-show host in Canada. (television).(Interview)
March 4, 2003... Maggie Cassella is used to the road less traveled. Armed with a burgeoning avocation for stand-up comedy--which she first took up to vent the frustrations of her life as an out lesbian attorney in Connecticut--Cassella hightailed it to...

The fire still burns: a new one-man show and television documentary remind us that the life and work of James Baldwin continue to resonate.(Witness James Baldwin)(James Baldwin ... Down From the Mountaintop)
March 4, 2003... Witness James Baldwin * Biography * Directed by Angie Coretti * A&E * February 20, 8 P.M. Eastern/Pacific James Baldwin... Down From the Mountaintop * Written and performed by Calvin Levels * 4305 Village Theatre, Leimert Park, Los Angeles...

Betty's Rules of attraction: Elizabeth Ziff explains why taking rock and roll to off Broadway was such a savvy career move for her band, Betty. (music).(Interview)
March 4, 2003... After nearly 20 years of hustling along the club underground, Elizabeth Ziff is savoring the taste of mainstream attention that's finally being lavished upon her band, Betty. "After all of these years, we'd stopped anticipating that big wave of...

Disco wrecking ball: who recorded Ethel Merman with a disco beat? Could it be ... Satan?(Sound Recording Review)
March 4, 2003... The Ethel Merman Disco Album * Fynsworth Alley Why do we love the Bad? Do we need it to recognize the Good? Could we fully appreciate a glorious pop music masterpiece like Donna Summer's "Last Dance" without the bellowing sonic boom of...

The kid is alright: 25-year-old art star Ryan McGinley went from skate punk to photographer, but his worldview remains the same. (art).(Interview)
March 4, 2003... "I don't know if I was repressed or what, but being gay never even crossed my mind," recalls Ryan McGinley about his rowdy teen years growing up in New Jersey and raising hell in Manhattan. "I was just skateboarding and snowboarding with my...

Gays and the military: in Sons of Ulster a gay lad finds love in the trenches of World War I. The play's director, Nicholas Martin, talks about balancing tragedy with good Irish humor. (theater).(Theater Review)
March 4, 2003... "I've been accused in productions of leaning a little heavily on the humor in the plays," admits stage director Nicholas Martin cheerfully. "After I did a production of The Royal Family, my pal Campbell Scott said, `Your plays always start with...

Shanghai surprise: in Shanghai Moon drag master Charles Busch spoofs those hokey old "mysteries of the Orient" movies.(Review)
March 4, 2003... Shanghai Moon * Written by Charles Busch * Directed by Carl Andress * Starring Busch and B.D. Wong * The Drama Dept. at Greenwich House Theater, New York City (through March 9) Charles Busch is a unique presence on the American cultural...

Prized pets in portrait: a new book poses dozens of gay and lesbian New Yorkers in family photos with their animal companions. (books).(Brief Article)
March 4, 2003... It's a classic tale of New Yorkers with bite and a certain magnetism. A story of people who are madly in love with their hirsute and sometimes scaly companions: their pets. The coffee-table book NYC Pet Project: A Collection of Portraits and...

Wilde and wilder: British bad boy Will Self updates Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray with drugs, orgies, AIDS, and Princess Di.(Review)
March 4, 2003... Dorian * Will Self * Grove Press * $24 Described by one Victorian critic as rich in "the odor of moral and spiritual putrefaction," Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray was a scandalous hit when published in 1890. Centering around the...

Bring back the coffee klatch. (last word).
March 4, 2003... When New York State passed a gay and lesbian civil rights bill in December, after 31 years of struggle, I was shocked at how little attention that milestone generated among the highly informed urban gay people I work and socialize with....

Aflutter over Futterman. (reader forum).(Letter to the Editor)
March 18, 2003... OK, you win. I have long been among those who resent it when you put a nongay person on the cover. But today, when I pulled my Advocate from its wrapping and saw the face of Will & Grace's Dan Futterman ["Boyfriend in Training," February 18], I...

Fightin' words. (reader forum).(Letter to the Editor)
March 18, 2003... Reasonable people can disagree about whether national GLBT organizations should speak out on important issues that are not exclusively related to GLBT civil rights, like the impending war against Iraq [Last Word, February 18]. The National Gay...

Reader comments from www.advocate.com. (The Advocate Poll).(opinions about television program Will & Grace)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... * "Eric McCormack should be so lucky as to have Dan Futterman as his boyfriend, Will & Grace hasn't always been at the top of its game the last couple of years--let's hope they do the smart thing and bring Futterman back." * "Only after a...

No medal. (reader forum).(Letter to the Editor)
March 18, 2003... In your interview with Charles Moskos [Behind the Headlines, February 18], he asks, "Shouldn't gay advocacy groups give me some kind of medal?" My response, as someone who served two years in the military, is a resounding no. A better question...

Dear Karel. (reader forum).(Letter to the Editor)
March 18, 2003... As a gay senior, I have observed that many gay men spend a lifetime never finding or keeping Mr. Right. Charles Karel Bouley II [My Perspective, February 18] is indeed fortunate to have found love and romance and "butterflies" for 12 years up...

Gay youth revolution. (my perspective).(Column)
March 18, 2003... Alex was actually hyperventilating. "I'm... I'm... I think I'm gay," he finally gasped. "What do I do?" The 15-year-old was one of the first teenagers to walk through the dooms of OutSpoken nine years ago. Suburban Connecticut's first support...

Rants & raves.(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... "Society is a little more forgiving of two women kissing than two men. It's sad but true." --Tiffani Thiessen, on her much-hyped lesbian hot-tub scene on Fox TV's Fastlane, as quoted by TV Guide Online, January 31 "Sen. [Hillary]...

Belgium says "I do": the country becomes only the second in the world to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriage. (Marriage).
March 18, 2003... Once again, one of the world's smallest countries is taking the biggest steps in expanding the rights of gay people. This time it's Belgium--passing a law January 30 to recognize same-sex marriage beginning this summer. The country is only the...

Leona loses. (Bias).(Leona Helmsley loses in employment discrimination case brought by manager of her Park Lane Hotel, Manhattan, New York)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... The former manager of Leona Helmsley's Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan emerged victorious February 4, when a jury handed Charles Bell $11.2 million in punitive and compensatory damages in Bell's employment discrimination suit against Helmsley. ...

The retiring kind. (People).(prominent lesbian couple Hilary Rosen and Elizabeth Birch retire in order to spend more time with their twins)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... Out lesbian Hilary Rosen is hanging up her headphones and picking up a bedtime story, as she announced January 23 that she would step down from her position as chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America at the end of the...

Will Bush weigh in on sodomy? (Supreme Court).(George W. Bush and the legal challenge of Texas v. Lawrence)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... As governor of Texas, George W. Bush supported the state s antigay sodomy law. But as president, Bush may be taking a very different approach to legal questions about its constitutionality. By press time, the Bush administration had yet to...

Keep dreaming. (Numbers).(fantasies of lesbian sex)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... Nearly 28% of all American females under 30 fantasize about having lesbian sex, according to the 2002 Durex Global Sex Survey.

New Yorkers take a brake. (Fundraising).(New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center plans bikeathon to be called the AIDS Ride)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... A beneficiary of the Northeast AIDS Ride for nearly a decade, New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center is now hitting the road with a ride of its own. Braking the Cycle, a three-day bikeathon from Maryland's...

Across the nation. (The Nation).
March 18, 2003... Colorado Springs, Colo. A drop in donations forced the antigay group Focus on the Family to cut $5 million from its budget and lay off 34 employees. Cincinnati, Ohio The city council added sexual orientation to the city's...

From Laramie to London. (United Kingdom).(play depicting hate crime murder of gay college student in Wyoming encounters social restrictions in United Kingdom)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... Confusion about the scope of the United Kingdom's "no promo homo" law, Section 28, is causing producers of The Laramie Project to invite only those students who are 16 and older to the London production, which was set to open March 6. And...

A new day in Washington: Sen. Gordon Smith says gaffes like Trent Lott's may have helped open fellow Republicans' minds about gay rights legislation. (Behind the Headlines).(Interview)
March 18, 2003... Racially insensitive remarks cost Trent Lott his job as U.S. Senate majority leader, but they may have also opened the door for the passage of new civil rights protections, including an expanded hate-crimes law. Pro-gay Republicans, such as...

The importance of being open. (Books).(Oscar Wilde Bookshop purchased by Deacon Maccubbin of Lambda Rising)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... New Yorkers thought they had read the final chapter on the Oscar Wilde Bookshop, the oldest gay bookstore in the nation, tucked away like a treasured old novel in a shady nook in Greenwich Village. The struggling store was set to close for good...

Partied out. (Episcopal).(end put to parties held at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, San Francisco, California)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... For nearly six years the Divine Rhythm Society held all-night parties in San Francisco's St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church. Now the party's over for DRS, and the gay minister who supported the group is resigning. The Reverend Kevin...

ConocoPhillips gets it right. (Business).(states policy banning discrimination against gays)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... When Conoco and Phillips Petroleum merged last August, the new company rescinded Conoco's policy banning antigay discrimination. But that action didn't become public until February 6, when a ConocoPhillips employee tipped off the Human...

Transitions. (The Advocate Report).(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... AMENDED: Caterpillar Inc.'s nondiscrimination policy, to include protections based on sexual orientation, January 27. APPROVED: A gay-straight alliance at the Jesuit-run Boston College, January 31, after a months-long campaign by student...

This week on Advocate.com. (On the Web).(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... BREAKING NEWS: Visit www.advocate.com for the latest news, entertainment, and health headlines, updated twice a day. TV PREVIEW Queer as Folk '03 Will Justin stay with Ethan or go back to Brian? Can Ted find true love with best...

Hollywood comes out to fight AIDS: October 29, 1985. (From the Advocate Archives).(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... While star-studded Hollywood benefits for AIDS are now common, in 1985 they were new. Describing AIDS Project Los Angeles's first Commitment to Life event, which grossed over $1.3 million, Advocate reporter Matthew Daniels wrote, "The stars...

In the bedroom. (On the Web).(Whitebedroom.com aims to educate teens about safe sex, AIDS prevention)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... Activists hope a white bedroom will send up red flags to teenagers when it comes to the risks associated with unsafe sex. Whitebedroom.com, produced by MAC Cosmetics' AIDS Fund and the Elton John AIDS Foundation, is designed to answer teens'...

Black and out of the closet. (On the Web).(Human Rights Campaign Web site offers support to gay African-Americans)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... Gay African-Americans now have two new online resources designed to help with the unique difficulties they might face in coming out of the closet, thanks to the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign. One of the sites features profiles of...

Simon and the gay Idols. (the Buzz).(Simon Cowell, Will Young, Jim Verraros)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... WILL YOUNG--WHO WON THE U.K. Pop Idol contest and then promptly came out--is finally hitting America! Sort of. The tall, lanky, good-looking Young is featured in a music video on the 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure DVD, swinging the...

Monsters, Inc. (the Buzz).(movie to portray lesbian serial killer Aileen Wuornos)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... LAST ISSUE, THE BUZZ REPORTED ON THE MOVIE Party Monster, a true story with Macaulay Culkin playing a gay club-kid killer. Now we've got the scoop on just plain Monster, a movie with Charlize Theron as real-life lesbian serial killer Aileen...

Queer as Folk: the prequel. (the Buzz).(Showtime network publishes books about television characters)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... SURE, YOU CAN WATCH Queer as Folk on DVD or on TV (the third season begins March 2). But is it enough? Showtime thinks not, so it is now publishing, with Pocket Books, a series of three QAF novel prequels. Available now is the lust book, Every...

Taking to the streets: whether or not war is a traditional "gay issue," more and more gay people are taking an organized stand against the U.S.'s potential invasion of Iraq. (Activism).
March 18, 2003... In 1990, when President George H.W. Bush was preparing to go to war with Iraq, Mara Math marched in protest while wearing a shirt that depicted an American flag with skulls in place of its stars. In January, as President George W. Bush...

Designated driver: the extensive market research that Ford used to target its Jaguar brand to gay buyers has raised the standard for companies wooing the gay dollar. (Business).
March 18, 2003... When Subaru became the first automaker to market its cars specifically to gay and lesbian consumers in the mid 1990s, it relied mostly on gut instinct and anecdotal evidence that gays would respond with their wallets. "Anecdotally, we found...

An AIDS wake-up call: a documented case of female-to-female transmission raises a question: why are lesbians excluded from most HIV-prevention messages? (Health).
March 18, 2003... When a 20-year-old woman tested positive for HIV last year, her physicians were baffled. The woman had no history of injection-drug use, blood transfusions, body piercing, or heterosexual intercourse. It turned out that her bisexual female...

Bush's shell game: are the president's bold steps against the global AIDS pandemic glossing over his antigay attempts to fight the disease here at home? (Health).(George W. Bush)
March 18, 2003... President Bush startled the nation in January when he announced during his State of the Union address that he would triple spending to fight the global AIDS epidemic to $15 billion over the next five years. "We have a chance to achieve a...

The golden Hours: with Meryl Streep as a lesbian, Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf, and Julianne Moore kissing Toni Colette, The Hours would seem to be the gayest movie ever nominated for nine Oscars. But the actresses and filmmakers argue that transcending such labels is exactly what has made the film so successful. (The Hollywood Issue).(Cover Story)
March 18, 2003... "The Hours is not a gay film," says David Hare, the acclaimed British playwright who adapted Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize--winning novel for the screen. If by "gay film" Hare means a movie about "the gay experience" that speaks chiefly...

Gay guide to the Oscars: we're here, we're queer, we're going to the Oscars. Our tip sheet tells you whom to root for at this year's Academy Awards. (The Hollywood Issue).
March 18, 2003... The Hours Why It's Here Perhaps you missed our cover story and should consider turning back to page 40. Why We Care While Meryl Streep was denied a deserved nomination for her modern-day lesbian editor, Nicole Kidman (as Woolf) and...

21st century gay icons: three out experts speculate about which new stars are ready to fill the shoes of Hollywood's legends and the walls of adoring gay fans. (The Hollywood Issue).
March 18, 2003... JOAN CRAWFORD Jenni Olson Julianne Author, critic, producer Moore Who else possesses this kind of ...

Rose to the occasion: Director Rose Troche has moved from Go Fish girl to go-to woman for quality mainstream projects in film and TV. (The Hollywood Issue).(Interview)
March 18, 2003... Nearly 10 years ago Rose Troche was broke. Sure, she had directed the lesbian cult classic Go Fish, but the project put her in serious debt. "I couldn't get a credit card, a bank account, nothing," she says. Now, to put it mildly, things have...

The gay Hollywood 10. (notes from a blond).
March 18, 2003... Used to be when you mentioned the Hollywood 10, nobody thought you were speaking about someone named Stryker or Ryker or Donovan. In recent years, though, the town has gotten stubbornly apolitical. Most everybody is assumed to be a Democrat,...

Three roads to Chicago: the movie sound track joins two stage versions--but which cast album is the best?(Buyers Guide)
March 18, 2003... Few musicals achieve multiple-recording status the way John Kander and Fred Ebb's murderous vaudeville romp, Chicago, has. But ever since its acidic 1975 debut--when it was overshadowed by the Tony-hogging A Chorus Line--its reputation has...

An adventurous life: remembering out composer Lou Harrison, a man undaunted by musical dogma, the classical closet, or the hard knocks of old age. (in memoriam).(Obituary)
March 18, 2003... When American composer Lou Harrison died at age 85 on February 2, the nation was already mourning the death of the crew of the space shuttle Columbia. Now the music world and the larger universe of gay artists also have much to grieve, for...

Death becomes her: Six Feet Under matriarch Frances Conroy talks about family secrets, grocery store encounters, and working with Alan Ball and Charles Busch. (television).(Interview)
March 18, 2003... "You must try this! It's a spinach enchilada with avocado and black beans. And this is papaya or mango, I think. Eat!" Much like any other mom, Frances Conroy is insisting that I share the food at her favorite neighborhood Mexican restaurant in...

Jessica on gender: Oscar winner Jessica Lange talks about taking on the emotional challenge of a transgender story line in HBO's Normal. (television).(Interview)
March 18, 2003... Jessica is one of the greats," says out writer-director Jane Anderson, describing Jessica Lange's performance in the HBO original film Normal, set to debut March 16. "I think she's a national treasure." Having watched the glamorous Lange...

The yellow pages of queer cinema: The Bent Lens offers a wealth of information while being light on critical insight.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2003... The Bent Lens: A World Guide to Gay and Lesbian Film * Lisa Daniel and Claire Jackson * Alyson * $22.95 This latest edition of this hefty gay film reference volume will be beneficial to any student, programmer, or enthusiast of gay and...