Tweet Of The Day: Hameron

Couldn't resist a bit of #snoutgate photoshopping. #piggate #hameron #porkback pic.twitter.com/j5dm53xqgO

— Zombride (@MariBiscuits) September 21, 2015

That's probably enough about Piggate...

A rare photograph of King Edward II with his young lover Piers Gaveston, of Society fame.

Brokeback Mountain: Regrets

Don't we all?

Awful sentimental tripe - the world's first gay chick flick!

Looking: For Love

I didn’t expect to fall in love with Looking, but Sky Atlantic’s imported drama about gay men – and one woman, the formidable Doris – snuck into my heart. Any drama which attempts to nail a “scene” or “tackle issues affecting a group” can end up either cliched, or worthy, or worse than that, cliched and worthy, with an added slap of “controversial”, when all that was really needed was a relatable look at the way a certain strand of society lives. But in Looking, from the outset, here was a beautifully gentle – with the occasional bout of allusion to anal sex and rimming – and compelling little tale. I say “little” as not a great deal goes on...

Looking has found a fan, The Independent's TV critic Grace Dent.

Maybe like Brokeback Mountain its adoring audience will be not gay men, but straight women?

Brokeback Mountain: The Opera!

Yes, this shit is even shitter than you could have ever imagined in your darkest nightmares where you woke up screaming 'What is this gay shit?' in absolute terror.

Film: Hooray For Hollywood!

No matter who we are, no matter what we are, no matter where we come from, we learn about ourselves and each other in two ways. The first way is what we hear – in our families, from our friends, and from our schoolmates. The second way is what we see – on television and in the movie theater. Now, there is not much any of us can do about what people hear from families and friends, but there is a whole hell of a lot we can do about what people see.
The images that impacted me as a teenager had lasting influences on my entire life and I bet that is true for most of us. What we see in the media today affects everybody, whether it’s film, TV, radio, magazines or the internet. What the media says about your sexual orientation, and the color of your skin, and the shape of your eyes, and your ethnicity… what you look like, what you weigh, what you wear, how poor you are, how awkward you are, how educated you are, and how different you are… this stuff really sinks in. What we see teaches us about how to feel about ourselves and how to feel about each other.
And now, I’m talking about kids who are gay and I’m talking about kids who aren’t gay. One group needs affirmation and the other group needs education. And, if I’m being honest, neither of those issues are high on any movie studio or TV network’s agenda…

The Celluloid Closet was made almost 20 years ago and certainly attitudes have changed, but maybe not quite so much as you or I would want or hope. Television has been much more progressive and credit has to be given to producers like Max Mutchnick and David Kohan and Ryan Murphy for really changing things.
Now movies need to catch up. There are magnificent movies being made about gay subjects with gay characters, like Brokeback Mountain and Milk. Anyone would have been proud to have made those movies. I know I would be. But when you think about some of these films, even our favorite ones, there is a theme that runs through them.
Brokeback Mountain, Milk, Boys Don’t Cry, Philadelphia, The Hours, Gods and Monsters, The Talented Mr. Ripley, A Single Man, My Own Private Idaho, Cloud Atlas – in all these movies, the main character is murdered or martyred or commits suicide or just dies unhappily. And there are far more pernicious and dangerous images that confront gay kids and their parents: the lesbian murderer, the psychotic transvestite, the queen who is humiliated and sometimes tossed off a ship or a ledge. It’s a big joke. It still happens.
How many times have you heard a character imply to another that the worst thing about going to prison isn’t being locked up for the rest of your life, it’s the homosexuality? And old stereotypes still exist. The most benign stereotypes would have a gay kid believe that they will end up being the asexual, witty best friend of the pretty girl, or a drag queen, or a swishy hairdresser. The list goes on.
Of course, there are great images, too, like the family in The Kids Are All Right. The way the boy in Perks of Being a Wallflower and the middle-aged man in Hotel Marigold and the 75-year-old man in Beginners come out to a better, richer, more fulfilled life. It’s treated as a celebration.

And real credit has to be given to the filmmakers of ParaNorman, Chris Butler and Sam Fell, who had the first gay character in an animated movie, and he was the football hunk and it was totally incidental to the plot.
Now it’s time for all of us to take that step. Not every gay character needs to be defined by his or her sexuality. Can’t being gay just be one stitch in the fabric of someone’s life? Can’t we depict men and women who just so happen to be gay – perhaps a lawyer or soldier or business executive or scientist or engineer…
We need to create an atmosphere that encourages people to speak up, so we get this right.
How about next time, when any of us are reading a script and it says words like fag, or faggot – homo – dyke – take a pencil and just cross it out. Just don’t do it.
We can do better and we will do better. We have to. If we just think about that kid in North Dakota, or their parents, we might just do it a little differently.

Amy Pascal, chair of Sony Pictures, in a speech given last night.
Via Hollywood Deadline.

Thought this was interesting - but more because of who said it, than what it says.
It's a bit simplistic and resurrects a rather tired 80s argument about "positive images" in popular culture.
Haven't we got over this by now?
How can you show the fact of homophobia if someone can't say a word like "faggot"?
How can you film a movie about the life of Harvey Milk if you don't have him dying at the end?
And don't get me started on characters "who just happen to be gay"...
Can you imagine how arse-achingly awful a film about some nice gay men having a nice time would be?

PS For the record, can I stress that I find gay men who think they're saying something stunningly original and "radical" by complaining about non-existent gay straw men who they claim are arguing for "positive images" in popular culture as painfully tedious as anal bleaching. 

Panda News: Gay Rumours Slammed

'As of last night Tian Tian and Yang Guang had failed to mate, leaving keepers, tourists, biologists and zoo accountants frustrated...
'The failure of 20-stone Yang Guang to perform has left many of the zoo’s staff underwhelmed. “He just needs to grab her and get on with it,” said Rachel Goddard, who works in the zoo’s communications department. “She’s still keen, but it’s fading off now.”
'Ms Goddard assured zoo visitors that Yang Guang was not gay, just inexperienced'
 
The Times. 
Not sure if The Times' cartoon above is utilising a same-sex metaphor. 
You may remember after the election the popularity of portraying Cameron and Clegg as a gay couple, most often in Brokeback Mountain homage.
Does this mean this is the end of the affair?
"I wish I knew how to quit you" etc.
Or maybe it just means that Nick Clegg is fucked?
"You know friend, this is a goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation."

Brokeback Mountain: Bad Romance

"Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger’s rodeo romance in Brokeback Mountain has been voted film fans’ top on-screen love affair.
"The gay cowboys beat the bunny-boiling fling ­between Michael Douglas and Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction into second place.
Controversial romp Lolita – about a man’s obsession with a schoolgirl – was third, with Julia Roberts’ hooker date with Richard Gere in Pretty Woman fourth.
"Star-crossed lovers Romeo & Juliet’s doomed crush made it to number five in the poll by DVD rental service Lovefilm.
"Steamy flicks Notes On A Scandal, Disclosure, The Graduate, Match Point and Unfaithful made up the rest of the top 10 in the love flick stakes.
"Fliss White, of Lovefilm, said: “From under-age encounters to love triangles, we are definitely a nation which loves a scandal.”"

The Daily Mirror.
Dutifully cut and pasted by Jonny Payne at The Pink Paper.

Actually Lovefilm's poll was of "The top ten film affairs in need of a super injunction."

Here they are:

1.Brokeback Mountain (22 per cent)
2.Fatal Attraction (18 per cent)
3.Lolita (13 per cent)
4.Pretty Woman (12 per cent)
5.Romeo & Juliet (nine per cent)
6.Notes on a Scandal (six per cent)
7.Disclosure (five per cent)
8.The Graduate (four per cent)
9.Match Point (three per cent)
10.Unfaithful (two per cent)

James Franco: Straight Acting Gay For Today

'Unusually for Hollywood, Franco is sanguine over speculation about his sexuality. He has a girlfriend, but has joked, after all the gay roles he has played (including Sean Penn's boyfriend in Milk), "maybe I'm just gay". Watching Howl, which is also a love story, you wonder if playing the gay Ginsberg is something only a demonstrably straight actor could risk.
"It's possible," says Franco. "I remember when Brokeback Mountain was being cast, people saying, 'Gosh, I wouldn't want to do that. A gay cowboy?' And I still get it – that's the bloggers' favourite topic, how many gay roles I've played. So it's territory where people pretend they're OK with it, but based on the amount of coverage that a straight person taking one of those roles gets, it shows that there's still a big bias. It's easier for a straight actor to play a gay role than it is maybe for an out gay person to play it; my sense is that a gay actor still feels he or she, if they came out, would be typecast and couldn't play straight roles after that. I don't know the ins and outs of Rupert Everett's story, but he certainly claims that happened to him."'

James Franco - interviewed in The Guardian - adds his two cents to the eternally gripping Straight Acting Gay/Gay Acting Straight debate.
By happenchance The Advocate has just put up an article online; "And the Gay Razzie Goes To... Forget about The Oscars. From J.Lo to Al Pacino, The Advocate looks at some of the actors who've perpetuated stereotypes and turned in terrible performances by going gay."
I'll put up the link when it fucking works!
Update: There we go...

The photo shows James Franco and Aaron Tveit in the movie Howl echoing a famous photograph of Allen Ginsberg and his lover Peter Orlovsky.

Robbie Williams In Gay Video Shame

Brokeback Mountain - it's the gay cultural cliche that just keeps on giving.
When Take That started out way back in 1991 their "Well, we might be..." schtick seemed ever so modern and rather racy.
In 2010, when Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow exchange longing looks and do some serious shirt lifting in the bromantic video for their reunion single Shame, one wonders if they're referencing those two gay cowboys in Brokeback Mountain, or just Nick Clegg and David Cameron's Brokeback Coalition.
But that's progress for you, I guess.

Brokeback Coalition: Broken Record

Much musing on the newly-minted metaphor "the Brokeback Coalition" - the touching photomontage above comes from the Mirror.
The Daily Mail reports on the formation of a "Brokeback Club" of disgruntled right-wing Conservative MPs.
"Among the rebels are the Eurosceptics, as well as those who oppose the referendum on Alternative Vote, the rise in Capital Gains Tax and Ken Clarke's decision to jail fewer criminals...
"MPs yesterday dubbed the group 'the Brokeback Club' because they want to 'break the back' of the coalition and force Mr Cameron to fight the next election alone to win an outright majority, rather than as part of a non-aggression pact with the Lib Dems."
How apt that this ragbag of assorted right-wing nutjobs were inspired to come together by a comment (allegedly) made by David Davis in a wine bar called The Boot and Flogger.
It also sounds like an S and M club, which may be apt too.
Fagburn believes that the first comparison of the Cameron and Clegg coalition government to the two gay cowboys was also in The Daily Mail.
It was our old friend Richard Littlejohn way back on May 15th.
Littlejohn initially welcomed it, in an anything-but-Gordon kinda way.
"In this Brokeback Mountain-style love-in, Dave as Heath Ledger and Nick as Jake Gyllenhaal have saddled up for the long haul.
The sight of Cameron and Clegg staring fondly into each other's eyes stands in welcome contrast to the ghastly, self-serving politics of venality, resentment, hatred and mendacity honed and prosecuted by Gordon Brown."
But hang on Dick, wasn't it Jake Gyllenhall's character Jack who seduced Heath Ledger's Ennis?
I seem to remember Heath/Ennis's wife walked out on him in a huff.
And didn't Jake/Jack end up getting beaten to death?
Fagburn wonders how far this metaphor can be stretched?

The Brokeback Coalition

The papers are all loving it this morning that David Davis, the former shadow home secretary and eternal Tory shit-stirrer, has allegedly called the Cameron-Clegg marriage of convenience "the Brokeback coalition".
The comment was made in a wine bar, but sounded like a saloon bar sneer.
Davis was only (allegedly) quoting a quip from Lord Ashcroft, and in the past almost every newspaper has light-heartedly compared Nick and Dave's relationship to a civil partnership (Cameron even made that "joke" himself).
The story was broken by The Financial Times; "Davis in ‘Brokeback’ jibe over coalition - Remark exposes rightwing frustration at government."
But the other newspapers seemed reluctant to speculate on what David Davis might actually mean by the comparison.
That even they think it's wrong and it's doomed to failure? ("I wish I could quit you!")
Or that Davis thinks it's rather queer and a bit "funny"?
"You know friend, this is a god damn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation..."