Looking: HBO cancels gay series on account of it being boring.

Zzzz....

But ver gay media said it was great!!!

PS And the Guardian.

The Normal Heart: Kramer Vs Streisand

His [Larry Kramer's] efforts to get a movie made of “The Normal Heart” were delayed by jousting with Barbra Streisand, who had the film rights for years. He admitted to demanding “a lot of money” and that the story be told his way. Ms. Streisand has said she couldn’t raise the money; in Mr. Kramer’s telling, she also expressed discomfort about the subject of gay sex.

“I said, ‘I really think it’s important that after eons of watching men and women make love in the movies, it’s time to see two men do so,’ ” he said. “I bought her a book of very beautiful art pictures of two men making love, and she found it very distasteful.” In response, Ms. Streisand released a statement saying her intention for the movie was “to promote the idea of everyone’s right to love. Gay or straight!”

“Larry was at the forefront of this battle and, God love him, he’s still fighting,” she said. “But there’s no need to fight me by misrepresenting my feelings. As a filmmaker, I have always looked for new and exciting ways to do love scenes, whether they’re about heterosexuals or homosexuals. It’s a matter of taste, not gender.”

Referring to the gay couple at the center of “The Normal Heart,” she added: “I was trying to reach a large audience, and I wanted them to root for these two men to get married.”

Mr. Murphy initially used his own money to buy the rights, Mr. Kramer said, “which shows how much he wanted to do this, and how tacky it sort of is that Barbra never would think of something like that.”

New York Times.

The famously curmudgeonly Mr Kramer, there.

Fagburn wouldn't be surprised if his account is a complete distortion. 

The Normal Heart airs in the US on HBO Sunday.

The Normal Heart: Beats At Last

Here's the full trailer for HBO's adaptation of Larry Kramer's play The Normal Heart
Directed by Ryan Murphy of the rather different Glee fame, and starring Mark Ruffalo, Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons and Julia Roberts, it airs on May 25th in the US.
Awards ceremonies here we come!

• And here's a very thorough article from Hollywood Reporter on the 30-year saga to get the movie made.

The Guardian: Oh Do Shut Up!

What does "post-gay" even fucking mean?
No more ridiculous articles written by posh straight people telling The Gays how it is, pls.

PS Hilarious piece in The Guardian Guide by Issy Sampson, however. I rocked with mirth.

Looking: Unexclusive!

Fagburn is proud to bring you this trailer for HBO's TV series, Looking, long after everyone else has.

Here's 10 TOPFax about it...

1. Even though you can only see 30 seconds-worth, some blogger-types have said it looks like being the greatest gay TV programme ever made!

2. It's a "dramedy" (Oh, do fuck off!) about three friends in San Francisco. They are gayers, incidentally.

3. It is made by HBO, who have done some other shows that - admittedly - are rather good. Well, Curb is anyway.

4. It's directed by Andrew Haigh (most of it). Though I thought Weekend was just a teensy bit overrated by the pink knicker-wetting crowd. Here's an interview with Haigh and executive producer/writer, Michael Lannan.

5. That lovely Russell Tovey's in it - his first proper gay role. Everyone loves Russell. He's like a big gay puppy.

6. Michael Groff stars, though he doesn't really mean that much over here, does he? He's been in Glee, but he's basically a Broadway babe.

7. Groff says there's going to be some "sexy" sex in it. "Sexy" gay sex! Woop.

8. The San Francisco-setting and all that facial hair made me wonder if it was set in the 70s at first - I had to whizz back and check I'd really seen that Apple laptop.

9. Apart from that, I have absolutely no idea what it will be like.

10. It airs in January in America. Dunno about the UK. Can't wait!

Liberace: Flamboyant Pianist

One of the sunniest entertainers ever to come along, flamboyant pianist Wladziu Valentino Liberace – known simply as Liberace – may have had a dark side, but he kept it carefully concealed from his public. 
That is bound to change next year when HBO airs the movie Behind the Candelabra, now filming with a cast-against-type Michael Douglas as the gilded showman and Matt Damon as his much younger lover, Scott Thorson – who exposed his life with Lee in a tell-all book and also sued for $113 million in palimony. 
"He thought his personal life was nobody's business," the real-life Thorson told PEOPLE in 1987, when Liberace, 67, died from Aids.
Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Ocean's 11 and Magic Mike), directs the HBO production, whose title comes from the elaborate décor with which Liberace surrounded himself, including his trademark candelabra on the piano. Also in the cast: Rob Lowe, Debbie Reynolds, Dan Aykroyd, Scott Bakula and Cheyenne Jackson. 
In the scene shown here and taken on the set Monday, Douglas and Damon, both in character, are shopping for a car. 

People.
First onset photo to be released.
Think it's meant to look like it's unofficial.
God, I love Lee - this better be great.

US TV Networks: Still Making Us Mad As Hell?

GLAAD Network Responsibility Index 2010 - 2011
Blurb! "The fifth annual GLAAD Network Responsibility Index is an evaluation of the quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people on television. It is intended to serve as a road map toward increasing fair, accurate and inclusive LGBT media representations.
"Primetime programming on the five broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox and NBC) was evaluated as well as 10 highly-rated cable networks (A&E, ABC Family, AMC, FX, HBO, Showtime, Syfy, TBS, TNT and USA). Based on the analysis, a grade was assigned to each network: Excellent, Good, Adequate, or Failing..."

In fine: Most "gay" representation on the American tellybox is of white gay men.
There aren't many lesbians, bisexuals or people of colour.
Trans people are almost invisible - 1% of all LGBT representation.
The bestest cable network is ABC Family - whatever that it is.
Oh, apparently it's a Disney (owned) channel, and they show teen shows like GREEK and Huge.
No. Me neither.
Big sister channel ABC make Ugly Betty, Modern Family and Desperate Housewives - they are "Good".
The CW (WTF?) was the best broadcast (terrestial) channel.
These ratings can be a wonky; CW scored extremely highly for gay man hours on TV, but "51 of the CW's 55 hours of LGBT content came from... America's Next Top Model".
GLAAD think "True Blood [is] the most inclusive show on television".
It's on HBO - HBO is rated merely "Good", which surprised me.
And at last there's some good news for Rupert Murdoch, Fox was rated the second best broadcast network.
GLAAD love teh Glee.

Read the report here.

Glee Watch: Shoving It Down Your Throat

“Recently Victoria Jackson, the oldest surviving member of Saturday Night Live, said the show Glee is 'shoving the gay thing down our throats.' Now, besides being the first funny thing she's said in 25 years, that is true. They are shoving the gay thing down America's throat. And it turns out America got used to it surprisingly quickly.”

Bill Maher, on this weekend's Real Time With Bill Maher.
Victoria Jackson, now a joyless and unfunny conservative columnist for something called WorldNetDaily.com, wrote last month after Kurt and Blaine kissed;
"Did you see Glee this week? Sickening! And, besides shoving the gay thing down our throats, they made a mockery of Christians – again! I wonder what their agenda is? Hey, producers of Glee – what's your agenda? One-way tolerance?"

• You can watch the latest episode of Real Time With Bill Maher, which centres on a discussion about gay marriage, here - if you're quick.
• In other exciting Glee news, a special Born This Way-centric episode, due to air in the UK in May, will run for 90 minutes - like a fillum or something! Fagburn would need a pledge they'll only do B*** T*** W** once before agreeing to watch it.