Showbusiness: In The Absence Of News

Roger Moore, who please bear in mind is 88, says that James Bond, who please bear in mind is an entirely fictional character, can not be gay or 'a lady Bond' * A 'really adorable gay couple' (barf!) didn't make it to the X Factor final * Sir Tim Rice makes a completely unconvincing case that the 'baffling lyrics' to Bohemian Rhapsody was 'Freddie's coming out song'; '"I see a little silhouetto of a man” – that’s him, still being haunted by what he’s done, and what he is.'" An interpretation of the next line 'Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?' is sadly omitted * Will 'Nice But Dim' Young says in 2012 he checked into a clinic and was told he had post-fame PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). 'I must admit I am baffled. I thought PTSD was linked to single events — a bomb explosion in Iraq, say, or a car crash,' notes The Times' journalist wrily * Mark Feehily, he was the gay one in Westlife you may just recall, has made his first solo album. He has written some songs about his ex-boyfriends. Expected sales: 27 * Everybody loves 'impish star' Ben Whishaw, 'the delicate frame and gentle voice of... MI6’s resident geek, Q...' * Vincent Price might have been bisexual * Casey Conway, another retired rugby player you've never heard of before is gay, he's now pushing over-priced swimwear * Nobody has a clue who those two gay footballers could be, or indeed if they exist * More boring showiz gossip when we hear it...

The Simpsons: Behold The End Times

Here's more reason for Christian parents to carefully watch out what their young children are viewing on the television: The makers of "The Simpsons" cartoon show have decided to directly promote homosexuality on TV as the upcoming Season 27 of the show will feature, among many other changes, the character Waylon Smithers Jr. finally coming out of the closet as a gay...

Christian Today. 

The Simpsons used to be Fagburn's favourite TV programme, but that was 20 years ago.

Haven't seen a new episode in donkey's balls.

Together with a plotline where Homer and Marge split up, this just seems a sign of utter desperation.

Time for bed, Springfield?

PS Cue a revisit of that most hackneyed subject for a feature; 'Gay' characters on kids TV. Zzzzz...  (And The Simpsons hasn't really been a children's programme since series 1).

The Simpsons: Smithers Lives!

And Mr Burns and Kent Brockman and Principal Skinner and Ned Flanders and Dr Hibbert and Rev Lovejoy and Lenny and Otto...

Harry Shearer is returning to The Simpsons.

The Simpsons: Smithers Quits!

And Mr Burns and Ned Flanders and Chief Wiggum and...

No official statement from Harry Shearer yet, he's had money issues with Fox in the past, but Fagburn senses the ship called Springfield has finally sunk.

Gays in The News: Simpsons' Fan

Glyn Culliford, 38, began the 2,000-item hoard at 13 with a T-shirt.

He has now filled two rooms with everything from limited-edition life-sized figures of Bart and his animated family, to a £3,500, 37-piece train set.

And his June 2010 civil partnership to Roy Culliford, 42, was the first Simpsons-themed one.

Aerobics instructor Glyn, of Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, said: “I could never consider selling my collection — it would be like taking away the past 25 years of my life.

“I love the show. It’s hilarious, but also deals with issues and taboos that we see in the world today — from prostitution and the environment to gay and transgender people. It’s a ground-breaking show.

“You can watch an episode from the early 90s and it will still be relevant today. It will never end, and neither will my love for it.

“My obsession has caused arguments in the past. I think Roy has a bit of a love/hate relationship with the show. But he’s very good about it; he understands I can’t be without the Simpsons.” ...

The Sun.

A grown (gay) man who collects Simpsons stuff? Tragic! 

Sam Simon: 1955-2015

Co-creator of The Simpsons, and executive producer seasons 1-4 ie when it was still the greatest TV programme ever made.
Made Lisa a true radical and Waylon Smithers gay...
x

Update: Brilliantly, Pink News don't mention Smithers but remind readers he once donated to save a 'gay bull'. Shit.

The Simpsons: 25th Anniversary!

Yay!

Greatest, most beautiful and (truly) anarchistic TV series ever made!

PS No, I haven't watched any of the last five seasons, either.

Education: Is Gay

Teachers should work words like ‘gay’ into their lessons to fight homophobic bullying, an official report suggests.

Schools can make a ‘positive impact’ by incorporating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people into the curriculum from reception class up.

The study, commissioned by the Government Equalities Office and supported by the Department for Education, also highlights how staff can improve the ‘visibility’ of LGBT people in schools by discussing topics such as diver Tom Daley ‘coming out’ as gay.

The report’s authors suggest that children as young as four or five should be taught about LGBT issues.

The report was published yesterday as Education Secretary Nicky Morgan unveiled a £2million drive to tackle homophobic bullying...

Daily Mail.

Cause if there's one word you don't hear enough in our schools it's 'gay'.

Brilliantly trivialising framing of this important initiative by the Mail. 

Not sure I can handle reading the Mail Online readers' comments yet, but presumably it's mainly variations on this... 

PS Here's the report, Tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying among school-age children and young people: findings from a mixed methods study of teachers, other providers and pupils.

Scotland: Oh FFS!

Pink News.

"You're living in a land of make believe, with elves and fairies and little frogs with funny green hats!"

Homer Simpson.

Marcia Wallace: 1941-2013

School's out, Ms Krabappel.
Doffs non-existent schoolcap.
xxx

Gay Action Hero Movie: Spoiler Alert!

Director Lee Daniels always has an interesting eye for casting (thanks to him, we saw a grownup Zac Efron in The Paperboy). Now it looks like he's tapped Alex Pettyfer (Magic Mike) to be his new muse, saying he will star as one-half of a gay interracial action hero couple in a new feature film project Daniels has in development.

The always ambitious Daniels, who is riding high on the critical acclaim and box office receipts of the Oscar-worthy Lee Daniels' The Butler, has revealed in an exclusive interview with Out magazine, that he's developing an "interracial love affair action movie" with an interracial gay couple. According to Daniels, think of it as a gay "Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but the two good-looking guys as the action heroes." The twist? "We don't find out they're gay until the end of the movie," he explains...

Out magazine.

"In other news, the chick in "The Crying Game" is really a man!" - Mayor Quimby, Los Simpsons.

Fagburn's not terribly sure who this Pettyfer dude is, tbh, but here's a SHIRTLESS photo of him anyway.

PS Please bear in mind not every movie proposal actually becomes a movie...

Den Simpsons: Hinter Den Schwulen Lachern

A German author has penned a book exploring homosexuality in the popular cartoon series The Simpsons. Erwin In het Panhuis, a Cologne-based librarian, analysed 490 gay scenes and over 70 homosexual characters which featured in the show.

“It [The Simpsons] set the standard for cartoon series … and I believe it’ll always be a trailblazer,” In het Panhuis told the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The focus on gay characters helped to dispel prejudices about homosexuality, according to the author, who points out that in 2005 The Simpsons was the first cartoon series to dedicate an entire episode to gay marriage.

According to In het Panhuis, the complexity of the characters plays a particularly important role, citing the example of Smithers, whose unrequited love for his boss Burns is dealt with in depth.

Conservative TV channel Fox, which has been showing The Simpsons, for twenty years, has a history of censoring gay scenes. In het Panhuis advances the notion that the network stuck with the series in part because it needed a “liberal fig leaf” in its entertainment package to appear diverse alongside its ultra-conservative news coverage.

As for Homer Simpson, Pater Familias and loveable snob [Eh?], In het Panhuis believes that beneath the gay jokes lies a more complex character.

“Homer has kissed other men on the lips more than 50 times throughout the series but despite that he’s happily married to his wife,” In het Panhuis said. “Homer is sometimes heterosexual, sometimes gay and sometimes homophobic.”

The book titled 'Behind the Gay Jokes - Homosexuality in 'The Simpsons' Hinter den schwulen Lachern - Homosexualität bei den Simpsons can be bought at the reduced price of €20 until 7 July.

The Local.

This wonderful waste of time appears to actually exist - or at least it has a Facebook page.
That's in German, though, so I'm still not sure.
[Edit: €20 euros from amazon.de - and it's 270 pages!]
A much picked-up story, but most coverage like this in the Mail - Study finds the Simpsons has encouraged gay men to 'come out' with its sympathetic attitude to same sex couples - makes it seem more simplistic than it does above.

"Homer, I won your respect, and all I had to do was save your life. Now, if every gay man could just do the same, you'd be set."
John, Homer's Phobia.

Margaret Groening: 1919-2013

Goodbye Marge.

x

Elton John: Again!

Mere words can not describe my excitement at this fantastic news.
And - to quote Homer Simpson - in case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic.

Fagburn: And In Other TV News...

Apparently there's some election thing going on in America, a far-off country of which - as is evident from reading Twitter today - we know little.
This means there is a 24-hour moratorium on reporting about any other news, but here's a few quickies from TV Land...

• D'oh! Channel 4 have apologised for editing out a non-pejorative use of the word "gay" in a repeat of The Simpsons broadcast last Sunday lunchtime.
'A spokesman said: “We always carefully consider the context in which language is used in our programming. However in this instance the episode was edited in error as neither the word nor the context was unsuitable.”' The Independent.
Daftness.
It's accompanied by a sidebar on five other famous "gay controversies", which appears to be the product of ye olde journalistic standby; "Having a quick look on Google."

Update: Here's the Telegraph's report'; 'Channel 4 has admitted to editing the word "gay" out of an episode of The Simpsons in an "overly cautious' move."'
There is of course no irony in the fact the Telegraph is the only British national newspaper whose style guide says journalists shouldn't use the word "gay". 

• ITV have now confirmed that the "gay sitcom", Vicious Old Queens, is a-happening.
This story originated in the notoriously unreliable and fantasist Daily Star Sunday, and I couldn't find one journalist who bothered to check it.
I did. Obvs. Cause I'm a saint.
Here's Media Guardian's story. And here's Guardian Online's earlier take on it - pure churnalism that, being boring, I complained to their Readers' Editor about.
This may seem trivial and petty - which I obviously am - but if even The Guardian can't take a few minutes to check a story from a trashy tabloid, then we, friends, are fucked.

• Nadine Dorries, Tory MP and mad evil homophobic witch, has been suspended from the Conservative party for ignoring her parliamentary duties and pissing off for a few well-paid weeks in Australia to take part in I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.  
Many have said they hope they keep her there.
Mad Nad's suspension may have more to do with her vocal criticisms of David Cameron And George Osborne.
And her appearance in IACGMOOH may have more to do with her being not really interested in politics, but in trying to make herself famous.
Or maybe she just likes noshing on kangaroo testicles?
As ever, never trust a politician, or a journalist for that matter, who gets off on seeing their picture in the papers or their face on TV.
Their vanity is your enemy. 

US TV Sitcoms: Are We Family?

In terms of change, one of the most startling developments is the growth in the number of sitcom gay characters and their acceptability to the viewing public.

Modern Family is a mega-hit comedy that features three families - a white couple with 2.4 kids, an interracial marriage between a white man and a Hispanic woman, and a gay couple who are raising an adopted daughter.

The show isn't about politically correct cliches. In one episode, the gay couple - Cameron and Mitchell - want to get their toddler into a popular school. Worried that their sexuality isn't enough to win over the ultra-liberal headmaster, Cameron pretends to be a Native American. His improvised "injun" accent is met with a stony silence and the daughter doesn't get her place.
Given that it explores race and sexuality with such frankness, we might expect Modern Family to be something that mostly Democrats watch. In fact, both Obama and Romney have cited it as their favourite show and Republicans in general are more likely to watch it than Democrats... 

Tim Stanley writing on BBC Online. 

Or, alternatively, you could argue that gay characters are more acceptable in sitcoms than elsewhere in TVland because the audience can laugh at them...

• Tim Stanley presents Family Guys? What Sitcoms Say About American Now on BBC2 tonight.

Life In Hell: Freezes Over

Breaking: Matt Groening has announced that he's stopping drawing his cartoon strip Life In Hell after 35 years.
If you're not American and not a big Matt Groening fan this will probably mean bo-diddley-squat to you, but hey, your loss.
Farewell Akbar & Jeff ("brothers or lovers or both... whatever offends you most") and the rest of the gang.
Thanks. It's been a ride.

x

PS Sadly there's no Akbar & Jeff archive online, but to see a selection of strips featuring cartoonville's first and most tetchy gay couple type their names into Google Images...

The Simpsons: 500th Episode Spectacular

Thank you for being the most funny and wonderful and literate and smart and gay-loving and human-loving TV programme of all time.
My favourite line?
Homer "Hello, my name is Mr Burns, I believe you have a letter for me."
Postal worker dude "Okay Mr Burns, what's your first name?"
Homer "I don't know."
Maybe you had to be there...
Big kiss.

American TV: We Know Where You Live

Where's Springfield?

Via Joe.My.God.

The Simpsons: Homerphobic Outrage!!!!!!!!!

If this article doesn't rouse you to anger, fury, rage, and action, gay men may have no future on this earth.
Our continued existence depends on just how angry you can get.
A gay couple has been banned - banned! - from having giant models of Homer and Marge Simpson as guests of honour at their civil partnership, The Daily Mirror exclusively reports.
The little Eichmann's at Merthyr Tydfil register office told Glyn Stott and Roy Culliford the models were a bit too big to get in and out on time as they had quite a lot on that day.
How very handy!
I hope Glyn and Right take those homophobic bastards to The European Court of Human Rights - or whoever deals with this sort of thing these days.
I need to go and calm down now - Jeez!