We know you already have your 2(x)ist boxerbriefs in a twist over the forthcoming release of The Confession, the memoir from Gay American and former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, scheduled for release in the fall. But the fabulous Andy Towle today notes how Amazon.com will make the ineffable pleasure of reading about Jimbo's sexual awakening even more pleasurable:
Variety reported late yesterday afternoon that the ugliness between Brokeback Mountain gay cowboy enabler Randy Quaid and Focus Features, the studio that he felt used his love of independent cinema to trick him into accepting a lower fee to appear in four scenes in the movie, may have finally ended with a "backdoor agreement" (Var's words, not ours, though you know our affection for a good sodomy pun) between the parties. Focus, however, is coyly denying the rekindling of their romance:
Syriana was not exactly a tourism commercial for the United Arab Emirates, unless of course your idea of a vacation is to retrace a girthy, bearded George Clooney's footsteps through a global military-petro-industrial conspiracy. After a four month review, UAE government censors have decided to release the film, minus two minutes of what they consider to be objectionable material. Still, that's nothing compared to the 134-minute edit they made to Brokeback Mountain:
We recently noted the Massachusetts Department of Corrections disciplining of an officer who screened Brokeback Mountain for inmates, a prison movie night no-no because of its graphic sexual content. So what films did make the extremely selective cut? According to the Boston Herald, such pacifistic entertainments as Get Rich or Die Tryin', which you may recall was blamed for a movie theater shooting death, and the mob mercenary/marital-rape-on-a-staircase thriller, A History of Violence:
Life in the big house can be a lonely affair, eased only by the shallow, temporary comforts of the occasional gang rape. Perhaps, then, there is no better audience for Brokeback Mountain's tale of man-on-man yearning than a prison population, who know all too well the pained longing that can often follow a spittle-assisted "claiming" of the new blue-eyed number on the block. Unfortunately, a Massachusetts prison didn't feel the same way, and are disciplining a guard who sought to share the Brokeback experience with his inmates:
From "New DVDs," in yesterday's Times:
We wish you could, too, you hacky copywriters. We really do.
Randy Quaid's recently filed lawsuit against the producers of Brokeback Mountain has turned a pair of watchful binoculars on how talent is being paid for working in features produced by the so-called "mini-majors"—those arthouse divisions of huge studios such as Focus and Fox Searchlight. The studios claim that the low-budget films wouldn't be made without their casts and crew drastically cutting their asking price, while above-the-line players like Quaid feel they are nickle-and-dimed only to have the studios spend huge amounts on marketing, eventually reaping big distribution fees. The NY Times reports:
We attended the GLAAD Media Awards last night, which are designed to "recognize and honor mainstream media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community." It was a fun evening — mostly because of the free-flowing booze and the attractive boys — but it also left us feeling conflicted. How so?
It was a forgone conclusion that Brokeback Mountain's last go at the awards show rodeo—the GLAAD Media Awards—would rope it its final trophy, what with Brokeback being touted as a monumental turning point in the history of gay acceptance, and these being the awards that celebrate gay acceptance. As predicted, Ang Lee accepted Best Picture, Wide Release at the ceremony in New York last night, easily beating out such other nominated gay-friendly wide releases as Rent and The Family Stone:
After hearing about Randy Quaid's lawsuit against Brokeback Mountain's producers claiming that the actor's love of independent cinema was taken advantage of to lower his quote and cheat him out of millions, Bat Boy: The Musical co-author Brian Flemming dropped us a note to point out that Quaid once loved indie films so much he wouldn't even joke about the low-budget world at the 1999 Independent Spirit Awards. Says Flemming:
We must admit, Randy Quaid's lawsuit made us lonesome for the good ol'Brokeback Mountain days, when the Jake and Heath posts came in bushels and bloggers grew rich off the fat of the gay-cowboy-joke land. Sadly, things have slowed to a near trickle since the Oscars, though we can always rely on supreme Brokeback chronicler Towleroad for a nugget here and there, such as this eBay auction for Jack Twist's truck:
Now that the warm glow of three Oscar wins (and the bitter sting of one huge loss) is finally fading into memory, it's time for those involved in Brokeback Mountain to start suing each other for pieces of the movie's unexpected financial success. Brokeback supporting player Randy Quaid, who played the grizzled ranch boss whose employment opportunities brought together tragic lovers Jack and Ennis, is first out of the gate with a suit claiming the actor was misled into thinking that the movie was just a lil' old gay cowboy tone poem with little chance of scaring up any profits, thus depressing the asking price for his services. Reports Variety:
A helpful reader who was in attendance at Saturday night's assistant beer pong tournament forwarded along this picture of the Universal team's much-discussed t-shirt. Just in case that fold is throwing you off, it does indeed say, "We're gonna fuck you in the ass," which is at best a very loose paraphrase of the dialogue that contributed to a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.
· Following up on the earlier trade round-up post including Benicio Del Toro's plans to star in the The Wolf Man remake, a couple of readers reminded us of Del Toro's touching turn as Duke the Dog-Faced Boy in Big Top Pee Wee. He's definitely ready to take it up a notch to full-on wolf.
· Where's Andrae? Why, he's at the Red Lobster with Tim Gunn, sillypants! [via realityblurred]
"The Red Ranger" and Austin St. John are both perfectly acceptable gay porno names.
Jesus! It's Eva Longoria's 31st (coughcough) birthday! Be nice! Fuck!
Is it too soon to be pining for Brokeback parodies? Probably. But at least this one tries to redeem those sinning cowpokes.
A reader shares his weekend brush with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who apparently forgot to take a cat nap before trying to finally catch up on seeing all of the Best Picture nominees:
Of all the conspiracy theories half-whispered around town about how Crash managed to win Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain (Jack Nicholson didn't read the correct name, Paul Haggis' buddies at the Scientology mothership put the fix in, etc etc) this might be our favorite.* But as long as we're all still willing to cling to the idea something more sinister than simple, honest bad taste delivered Crash the victory, we submit a new crackpot theory: Tom Hanks wasn't cursing as he took the stage, he was actually casting a spell that changed the winner in the biggest awards race because he was angry with Brokeback screenwriter Larry McMurtry for wearing jeans to the ceremony.
Two Washington Post staff writers were granted golden tickets to both the Vanity Fair and Elton John Oscar parties, and take us along on their Roald Dahlesque adventures. At VF they spot Madonna ("...she was heard to say 'oy' after experiencing a press photobarrage going in"), Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller sprawled on couches, J-Lo begging Marc Anthony to dance with her (he does not), Paul Haggis being gracious at a urinal (next movie: "Flush?"), and an affable, smoking Joaquin Phoenix; at Elton's: a bored George Lucas, alone but for his security guards, Pamela Anderson, and a "sea of women with Duck Face," including the world's reigning duck-faced monarchs, Amanda Lepore and Lisa Rinna. Spirits overall were high; but there's always the exception:
