Fagburn: Fillum Of The Year

I know it's not "technically" a film, so don't write in.

Runner-up: Czech Lads Doing It IV (Bel Ami Productions).

Film: Bodycount

Since Philadelphia there have been, by my count, 257 Academy Award-nominated portrayals of heterosexual characters, and 23 of gay, bisexual or transsexual characters. Of the heterosexual characters, 16.5% (59) die. Of the LGBT characters, 56.5% (13) die. Of the 10 LGBT characters who live, only four get happy endings. That's four characters in 19 years. Behind the Candelabra won't be eligible for any Academy Awards due to its cable TV distribution, but it's keeping Oscar's kill-the-gays mentality alive and kicking. Or rather, dying and haemorrhaging.
Whether it's suicide, Aids (a particularly maudlin Ed Harris performance in The Hours employs both), being beaten to death, state execution, getting shot, or getting raped and then shot, LGBT characters are just not allowed the happy endings that their straight counterparts enjoy. My personal favourite comes from A Single Man, in which Colin Firth simply drops dead for no reason. Presumably overwhelmed by sheer homosexuality, his heart can no longer keep beating. Beware, non-heterosexuals: Sudden Gay Death Syndrome can strike anywhere...

James Rawson writing for the Guardian Film blog. 

Vito Russo's 1981 book, The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality In The Movies - genuinely groundbreaking, seminal etc etc - ended with a "Necrology" of over 30 gay characters on film and how they died.
Hollywood's clearly come a long way, eh?

Behind The Candelabra: That's Gay!

This weekend viewers and critics fell head over heels for Michael Douglas and Matt Damon as make-believe lovers. But what if their gay romance had been portrayed by actual gay actors? Would it be a different, less-seen story?
Here's the deal: the ratings are in, and the much buzzed-about Liberace movie Behind the Candelabra is a big winner. The biopic nabbed 2.4 million viewers, HBO's highest ratings for an original movie in nearly a decade. It's not entirely surprising. You had A-list actors doing plenty of promo. You had a juicy story: a look at the loving but difficult relationship between a dramatic showman and his younger lover...
The success must have been vindicating for director Steven Soderbegh, who took his blockbuster-made cast to HBO after movie studios balked that the film was "too gay." The record-setting ratings (and even a cursory glance at social media) confirm that lots of straight eyeballs wanted to see the flick - so "too gay" it was not. But could it have been? 
Watching noted heterosexuals Michael Douglas and Matt Damon playact being a couple is one thing. But what if these gay roles were played by actors who are actually gay? Would 2 million people still be willing to watch them smooch? That seems worth asking, before we become too self-congratulatory about living in an age where a movie like Candelabra can be a success...

Interesting piece by Scott Kearman, Gay Lib(erace): Would "Behind the Candelabra" be a hit with out actors?
Conclusion: "I don't know. There are no major examples to look to. And maybe that void, in a way, answers the question."
Meanwhile Fagburn's still pitching his BTC-themed gay porn flick, 'Michael, Douglas, Matt, Damon'...

And here's (yet another) crap cartoon by the the hopelessly unfunny and graphically-challenged Andrew Birch in The Independent...

Update: Michael Douglas tells ShortList about actors who stay in the closet. Yes, apparently some do.

The Independent: On The Banality Of Banality

The Independent continues its valiant quest to bore everyone to death with well-meaning trite liberal tripe, and the most piss-poor and patronising gay coverage in the known world.
As someone boring said; "This carries a very positive message."
Yay!

• Thankfully, Patrick Strudwick continues his Twitter campaign against banality, with thought-provoking and "inspirational" tweets like this.

The gay little people of the world say; thank you!

Liberace: The Flamboyant Pianist Who Forced The Gay Marriage Issue

"In making the film, the socio-political aspect of it was not really in my mind but I was focused on... trying to make this relationship as believable and realistic as we could.
"When this issue comes up, of equal rights for gays, I am hoping 50 years from now we will look back on this and wonder why this was even a debate and why it took so long."

Steven Soderbergh speaking at a Cannes press conference for Behind The Candelabra, quoted by Reuters et al.
Steven surely deserves some kind of award for not choking on his vol-au-vent when a thick hack asked what this story of Liberace and Scott Thorson says about the great gay marriage debate.
What a ridickerless question!
Also note, SS's endlessly repeated line about the fillum being "too gay" for Hollywood - which we only had his word for - has now been downgraded to how The Man thought it might not break out of a niche gay audience. 
Which doesn't look quite so good in a hysterical "THAT'S HOMOPHOBIA!" headline.
As it's Saturday, there's an "The Liberace I barely knew" piece in the Telegraph today.
Here's something on Guardian Film, arguing - unpersuasively - that the best onscreen romances are now gay.
The best piece I've read on Lee in the British press this time round comes from Simon Edge in... The Daily Express!
Behind The Candelabra airs on HBO in the States tomorrow - Fagburn can't wait to see it.
 
PS Scott Thorson's memoir, Behind The Candelabra, has just been republished in the States. In this excerpt he shares his intimate memories of Liberace in the 50s, ten years before he met him.  

Update: And The Observer has a (syndicated) interview with Scott from Washoe county jail. Poor bugger.

MIchael Douglas: A Little Behind

Despite the fabulous photo above promoting Behind The Candelabra, The Sunday Times puts Michael Douglas in their News Review section, rather than in Culture or the magazine.
That's because in the interview (bought in from New York magazine), he doesn't talk much about the film.
It's a profile of him where; "Michael Douglas describes his recent battle with cancer, his son’s imprisonment and how playing Liberace reflects his own old-school Hollywood grit."
Oh, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
When he's asked about the film ("the toast of Cannes last week"), it's that question that every (presumably) straight journalist wants to know - WHAT WAS IT LIKE DOING THE GAY SEX SCENES?!!!

Behind The Candelabra: Two Minute Trailer

Have to say this looks wonderful...

PS Loopy interview with Stephan Soderbergh from Hollywood Reporter that asks; "Do you see the film as making a statement 
about marriage equality?" Cause that worked out real well...

Fagburn: TV Times

 
“The joke is that these people happen to be horrible to each other even as they love each other, and they happen to be gay. These guys aren’t funny because they’re gay, these guys are funny because of their wit and humanity.” 

Ian McKellen on Vicious in The Sunday Times, which starts on ITV tomorrow night.
Unfortunately "just happens to be gay" just happens to be a vacuous liberal cliche, and particularly silly when you're talking about a sitcom about a gay couple.
Could a male and a female actor have been slipped into the two lead roles?
And even more unfortunately, the word is Vicious happens not be funny.
David Benedict was hilarious - ironically - previewing it on Saturday Review; "The script is sooo bad..."
Looks like all those who said Ben Elton's The Wright Way was "the worst sitcom ever" could soon be revising their opinions.
Oops.

Grimmy - everyone loves Grimmy, don't they?
Did you know he's got lots of top showbiz mates?
Funny he never talks about that.
Anyway, he's got his own TV show!
Apparently, on Sweat The Small Stuff on BBC3 "he and celebrity guests argue the toss over things that don’t really matter. It is perfect for Grimshaw, and for the version of youth he embodies: celebrity-obsessed, fast-moving, dismissive, reductive fun. It is Twitter for the telly. Grimmy opted for it because, he says, 'I am fickle about pop culture. Like, I’ll love something one week, and then, yeah, I’m so over it.'”
Hope that's not tempting fate, Nick.
Oh, and good news, girls - he's still single!
But he quite "likes" James Franco.
“He’d be good, wouldn’t he? Like, older. Casual. And smart. I got a National Geographic subscription so that I could say things like: ‘Yeah, you know the blue whale’s spine?’ I thought he’d like things like that.”
Nick sounds quite a catch, doesn't he?

Update: Little parlour game. See if you can see any connection between this headline in Monday's Star - Nick Grimshaw Bans Harry Styles Over 'Gay' Jibes - and the story beneath it.

And not last but lust, another plug for Russell Tovey's new sitcom, The Job Lot.
Unfortunately it's on ITV on Monday straight after Vicious.
Let's hope everyone hasn't changed channels.
Russell plays a bloke who works in a job centre... who just happens to be straight!
Typecasting?
“Every character I play is straight, which is unique, my agent says, because it’s not really been done before that someone who is completely out is able to play straight roles. So for me to play gay it has to be something special, because it might actually be more of a risk. So I’m waiting for that role – I want it to be something that moves things forward.”
Can't wait.
Doesn't she look gorgeous right now?

And finally, the Sunday People has an interview with Scott Thorson, former lover of Liberace - "the bling-loving piano player".*
Scott's life fell apart after he split up with Lee, and he's spent the time since on and off drugs, and in and out of jail.
He let go the rights to his memoir, Behind The Candelabra, years ago, so may not see a cent from the TV movie.
Scott's now in prison - again - awaiting trial on credit card fraud and burglary charges.
Poor sod.

* There's a more revealing interview with Larry King from 2002 here.

Liberace: This Appalling Man

Jon Kelly writes for BBC News magazine on the paradox of Liberace; how could an entertainer so outrageously camp and over-the-top be so deeply in the closet?
Even infamously - and hilariously - suing the Daily Mirror in the 50s for daring to suggest he was not as other men...

"He is the summit of sex - the pinnacle of masculine, feminine, and neuter. Everything that he, she and it can ever want.
"I spoke to sad but kindly men on this newspaper who have met every celebrity coming from America for the past 30 years. They say that this deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavored, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love has had the biggest reception and impact on London since Charlie Chaplin arrived at the same station, Waterloo, on September 12, 1921. 
"This appalling man - and I use the word appalling in no other than its true sense of terrifying - has hit this country in a way that is as violent as Churchill receiving the cheers on V-E Day. 
"He reeks with emetic language that can only make grown men long for a quiet corner, an aspidistra, a handkerchief, and the old heave-ho. Without doubt, he is the biggest sentimental vomit of all time. Slobbering over his mother, winking at his brother, and counting the cash at every second, this superb piece of calculating candy-floss has an answer for every situation.
"There must be something wrong with us that our teenagers longing for sex and our middle aged matrons fed up with sex alike should fall for such a sugary mountain of jingling claptrap wrapped up in such a preposterous clown".

Lee won, quipping "I cried all the way to the bank".
Expect a sluice of articles on Lee as the biopic Behind The Candelabra approaches.
That's fine by me - I think he's wonderful and find him endlessly fascinating.
Partly as he's the greatest example of how the door to the celebrity closet is rarely slammed shut, it's just open to different degrees.

Update: Behind The Candelabra is getting a cinema release in the UK from June 14th. 

Liberace: A Little Behind

Oh look it's the trailer for HBO's Behind The Candelabra, the biopic about "flamboyant pianist" (© The Sun) Liberace!
I'm still not convinced by Steven Soderbergh's claim that it was "too gay" for Hollywood.
Maybe they just thought it wouldn't be much good - and that was before they'd heard Michael Douglas's comedy fagcent.
Really hope I'm wrong - Lee deserves a great film. 

Liberace: King/Queen Of Gonzo!

Entertainment Weekly gets the scoop on Behind The Candelabra, and dishes the dirt on Lee.
Also has the first proper photos of Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in character.
Sadly not available online, but we do get a few teaser quotes.

"The scene where I’m behind him and going at him, we did that in one take,” recalls Damon, laughing. “We do it. Cut. There’s a long pause. And then you just hear Steven [Soderbergh] go, “Well… I have no notes.”

Wonder if it was the bumming etc that apparently made many Hollywood studios turn it down?
Mind you there was a lot of that in the recent Ginsberg/Radcliffe fillum Kill Your Darlings.
Hmm...
If the UK "release" for this HBO TV movie means it just gets stuck on Sky Atlantic I is gonna be so mad.  

Liberace: "Too Gay"

Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh says his upcoming film about Liberace is airing on HBO instead of getting a theatrical release because studios thought it was "too gay."
The upcoming "Behind the Candelabra" has Michael Douglas in a compulsively watchable performance as the celebrated pianist, Matt Damon as his young lover and Soderbergh directing. It comes, in other words, from a trio of A-listers. So why isn't it a theatrical release?
"Nobody would make it. We went to everybody in town," the "Traffic" and "Ocean's 11" director told TheWrap on Friday, at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. "We needed $5 million. Nobody would do it."
Wait a minute, we said. Let us get this straight: No studio would budget $5 million for a movie with Damon and Douglas?
"They said it was too gay. Everybody. This was after 'Brokeback Mountain,' by the way. Which is not as funny as this movie. I was stunned. It made no sense to any of us..."

TheWrap.
There's no way of checking this, but I have to say I doubt it.

Update: This story became a big thing in both the straight and gay media.
As above, there's no way of checking its veracity, but - here's an idea - journalists might question it.
If I said I was the first gay man on the moon, would you obediently reprint that?

Liberace: Candelabra In The Wind

Michael Douglas has reportedly signed up to play Liberace in a big budget biopic directed by Steven Soderbergh.
The screenplay is based on Behind The Candelabra - My Life With Liberace, written by Lee's last lover, Scott Thorson.
His yumminess Matt Damon is set to play Thorson.
The book focuses on Lee's relationship with his much younger lover (I'm sure Douglas can empathise), their separation - and an infamous "gaylimoney" case - and Liberace's denial about and then death from Aids.
Despite his very public denials of being gay, Liberace always seemed like a queer hero to Fagburn.
Maybe the new film will reposition him as a gay martyr, but of a very different colour to that Oscar-magnet Harvey Milk.
In a strange piece of synchronicity, Sacha Baron Cohen is to play Freddie Mercury, the other big name musical loss to Aids, in a new film scripted by Peter Morgan.
The 19th anniversary of Freddie's death was marked by BBC World Service's Witness where his personal assistant, Peter Freestone, remembered his last days.