On Barbara Walters' pre-Oscar special, she asked host Hugh Jackman about rumors that he is gay. Jackman didn't deny it, but allowed his wife to do so for him again:
"Peter Allen has a great line. He goes, 'I know what you're thinking. You're just sitting there looking at me, and thinking now, is he or isn't he? Well, it's true. I am Australian.' Deb used to say - she came about 40 times to the show - and she used to go to the bathroom and she's be in the cubicle in the ladies bathroom, and she would hear people going 'I know he's married, but I'm sure he is. Is he or isn't he?' And she said occasionally she would yell out, 'he isn't!'"
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Source: www.digitalspy.com
Clay Aiken has apparently parted ways with his record label after his latest LP sold just 159,000 copies in the United States.
On My Way Here was released last year and flopped in comparison to his 2003 debut Measure Of A Man, which sold 2.78 million copies.
According to Billboard, the American Idol runner-up left RCA a couple of months ago.
Aiken, who revealed that he is gay last September, will next appear as a guest judge on the forthcoming series of America's Next Top Model.
My comment: Poor Clay Aiken. He is such a promising singer with a enchanting, tenor one voice. That man can hit those high alto-like notes. But his albums, even his mega-hit first one, are full of sappy, syrupy songs that never truly showcase his vocal prowess. Some critics claimed that coming out has hurt him. Perhaps. But I doubt it given the quality of his albums. At least he is going to get some solace from appearing on that popular, gay friendly model show--maybe he will learn how to settle for a hairdo that best suits him. So far, it has been a schizophrenic romp from frumpy to downright ridiculous. And oh, lose that silly glittery jacket too, please.
Source: The Motclair Times, February 12, 2009 For Rufus Wainwright, being gay can be a bit of a distraction.
Wainwright, who has been open about his homosexuality since the release of his eponymous debut album in 1998, acknowledges that he isn’t the only gay pop star, but believes he is the first to begin his career totally out of the closet.
Though his personal life has resulted in tons of press in the past decade, it has also been a liability, Wainwright told The Times.
"It’s an exciting prospect, and always has been, but on the other hand, you know, it has diminished at times my success," he said. "But I can’t really – there’s no sort of skirting the issue, because it is just a plain fact."
Tomorrow night, Feb. 13, Wainwright, 35, makes his Montclair debut, playing a solo show at the Wellmont Theatre. It’s one of a handful of shows Wainwright is performing this February, including one in Red Bank (at Montclair and Red Bank, his half-sister, Lucy Wainwright Roche, is the opening act).
Photo credit: 3bp.blogspot.com
Though Wainwright is not promoting an album – his last collection of original material, "Release the Stars," was released in May 2007 – he is in the middle of a very fertile artistic period.
In July, "Prima Donna," his first opera, will premiere at Palace Theatre in Manchester, England. Wainwright, a U.S. and Canadian citizen who spent much of his youth in Montreal with his mother, the folk singer Kate McGarrigle, wrote the opera in French.
Wainwright has been an opera fan his entire life, evident in his lyrics, which are littered with operative references. On "Damned Ladies," the 10th track on his debut album, Wainwright serenades various opera heroines: "Desdemona, do not go to sleep/Brown-eyed Tosca, don’t believe the creep/I see it in his eyes."
"Prima Donna" – which focuses on a day in the life of an opera singer – will not be Wainwright’s last foray into the world of opera composing, he said.
"I intend to write many operas, and even if this one is a disaster, which has happened before in the opera world, I’ll just keep hacking away," he said.
On Wainwright’s five albums of original music, he displays an eclecticism rare in the pop world. One minute Wainwight is singing a tune that would not have been out of place on Tin Pan Alley ("Foolish Love"), the next he’s channeling 1960s pop group The Mamas and The Papas ("California").
The arrangements on his albums reflect this variety, ranging from Wainwright alone on his piano to bombastic orchestral pieces replete with hundreds of vocal overdubs. Wainwright said the arrangements are suggested by his often-confessional lyrics.
"I definitely lived my life in stages," he said. "I think the production of my albums much more reflects the outside circumstances I’ve been faced with, whether it’s been blissful ignorance of the dark side of addiction … or struggling with the war in Iraq, or subsequently being overjoyed about Barack Obama."
Wainwright’s lyrics tend toward the personal rather than the political, though he has ventured into topical waters. In "Going to a Town," the elegiac first single off his 2007 album "Release the Stars," he croons that he’s "so tired of America," while "Waiting for a Dream" on 2004’s "Want Two" laments the "ogre in the Oval Office."
Although his political slants may not make him many conservative fans, audiences at his shows are a diverse mix of young and old, gay and straight. Wainwright attributes this variety to his songwriting.
"In July 2006, one evening I was sitting in a car with another man in a public park, in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur. We were just talking, there was nothing sexual going on. This park is known among gay people as a place to hang out. We call it “lost world.” Around 10pm, a police patrol car with two police officers pulled up. I still remember that moment. I thought I was going to die. The officers were both Malay Muslims. They quickly approached the car and grabbed us. ONE officer dragged my companion about six to eight meters away. They pushed us each to opposite sides and quickly grabbed our IDs. They tried to force us to admit that we were doing something wrong so that they would have a reason to bring us back to the police station. I only had one thing in my mind there. I was so frightened. I thought that I am not going to see the morning tomorrow. The police officers made us stand with our backs to them facing the car and put our hands on the car. We said we did nothing wrong. They said two men inside a car in a public park was already wrong. I said again to them, “We did nothing wrong.” One officer said, “Don’t lie to me. We all know what people are doing in the park at this hour.” I said, “Officer, I don’t know what you had the occasion to catch people doing in the park at this hour but I am telling you the truth.” I was afraid because I knew that if I admitted I was gay I would be in serious trouble. I tried to act regretful, hoping they would have some pity and soften up. I was praying that the officers would believe me."
This anecdotal account is excerpted from a long, unpublished essay written by Dr. Walter Williams, a leading scholar in gay studies. In this extended essay, Williams overviews the insidious influence of Islamic fundamentalism in Malaysia, the country of my birth.
Like the Chinese Malaysian gay man of the above story, I too am of Chinese descent. And like that man, I have always lived in fear. I have lived in fear of my identity--but only for few years, unlike this young man.
Coming out to myself in my late teens, I was at that time hundreds of miles away from home. Then in college, my new home was a touristy island and a place of trade exposed for centuries to cosmopolitan ideas. At times, that island of pristine beaches and stupendous vistas embodied my aspirations, as I fell in love over and over again.
Even later when I was banished to a rural area of obvious Islamic fundamentalism to teach high school, I feared nothing. Respected and beloved by my students of all faiths and creed, iI found solace in my vocation. And I found someone to care for--a father figure, a man of little formal schooling, but of much wisdom.
So how is it that this "Mak Nyah" (Malay derogatory term for transvestites, but also used broadly to apply to homosexuals) ended up in America? When did my fears begin?
That moment of epiphany seemed so distant, so hazy. And yet, Williams's essay prickled my subconscious. It vexed me.
For me, perhaps that moment was seeded by the prim and proper English instructor--a woman who had attended Oxford, a woman whose skirt was always of the polite length--of my undergraduate years. Somehow, I received the assignment of making a speech on the sodomy laws of Malaysia as part of the coursework in the Speech class. I resisted, she insisted. Such is the irony of life.
I do not remember the exact parameters of my fifteen-minute talk, but surely I must have covered some highlights of the said laws, and here I quote from Williams's essay again:
"In Malaysia’s Penal Code, Section 377, the sentence for conviction of sodomy is flogging, plus up to twenty years in prison. Victims are flogged with a section of bamboo that is split into several strips. When bamboo is split it has extremely sharp edges, which slice the skin like knives. Flogging is quite bloody, and leaves permanent scars. In addition to Section 337, just to prevent any homosexual from escaping conviction, Section 337A provides for a male to receive up to two years in prison for any act of “gross indecency with another male person.” This vague wording allows prosecution for any kind of erotic interaction between two males. This law is explicitly applied only to homosexual behavior among males, but lesbians also suffer discrimination."
I thought little of these laws--a young man caught up in the frenzy of tests, quizzes, and paper writing could scarcely have time to mull over such heady stuff. But such thoughts must have remain in my subconscious, and like what Thomas Jefferson said, they came back like "a fire bell in the night," filling "me with terror." They came back one unexpected day.
Illustration courtesy of www.dannymiller.typepad.com
Apparently the Obama administration, according to one newspaper article , will be impaneling a commission to conduct a study of this longstanding policy on gays in the armed services. No doubt, there will be much more hand wringing before we get any kind of resolution to this dilemma. Not to mention more of the taxpayers' money going down the drain in a time of economic recession. Just what we need--more talk and less action.
Another article in the Huffington Post commenting on this proposed commission offers the following cogent comments:
"What we don't welcome -- what we strongly oppose -- is yet another "study," which is Washington-speak for saying "let's just kick this down the road a ways." Out of sight, out of mind. You see, we're for repeal but don't really want to take a public stand right now (or we're bigots but don't have the guts to say so, outright bigotry being pretty unfashionable these days). So let's appropriate money for a commission or a study, maybe both. We'll have to appoint some members. That alone could take months. Of course the commission will need a staff. And offices. It could easily take a year before they get down to actually studying the issue (that's already been studied to death). Eventually -- and it could be a very long "eventually" -- we may see a report, the most recent in a long line of reports that began in 1988. That's 21 years ago!
Let's be clear: a commission or a study group is not about change. That's business as usual. We do not need another report to tell us what we already know and what earlier reports have long since concluded: the sexual orientation of a service member is irrelevant. What is relevant is how well he or she does the job."
Until the administration lays down a new law and forces all military personnel to abide by a policy of integration, some quarters in the military will continue to protest. That is as certain as the sun rising in the east each day. For sure, attitudes sometimes are hard to change, but a good leader must lead, not follow.
Either this president has to have the guts to make a move that is in line with all of the major allies' policy of integration of GLBT people into the services, or he has none. Stop pussy footing. Stop dishonoring the services of gay personnel. Give them the respect they deserve. They are, after all, citizens of the US.
Like many other gay men, I have had a troubled relationship with organized religion. I grew up in a Buddhist family, attended Jesuit schools, and considered entering the seminary. Then for many years, I consciously divorced myself from religion of any kind. I chose the path of atheism. It is only in recent years that I returned to Christianity, and found a comfortable "place" in a gay-friendly local Episcopal church.
So when I saw this film on the shelves of a Blockbuster store, I hesitated. I hesitated not because I fear the subject matter per se, but because I feared the evocations of the past. I feared the haunting specter of guilt. It is a guilt born out of deception, deceit, and disparagement.
Like some gay men, I used religion to mask my insecurities, to hide my identity. Subconsciously, I rationalized Christ (or Buddha at other times in my life) loved me in spite of who I am, rather than for who I am. I found solace in religion, but in a deceptive, misleading way. It is only in recent years that I finally realized that God has always been within myself, and that his Grace is within my reach. And my gayness is a blessing, hardly a curse.
This film, "Save Me" (2007, 96 mins.), reminds me of my personal journey of finding God and His meaning in my life. Filmed in New Mexico, which lends itself to sweeping vistas of open spaces and skies--evoking thus God's omnipresence and omnipotence--"Save Me" pivots around the life of Mark (played admirably by Chad Allen, who is an openly gay actor), a sex and drug addict. His brother, at the end of his wits, checks Mark into a low-key Christian retreat run by Gayle (Judith Light) and Ted (Steven Lang). The retreat's sole mission is to use spiritual guidance to cure its residents of their "gay disease." Brainwashing is far from its means, and in that respect, its mission is no different from other similar Christian centers devoted to the same mission.
Mark, predictably, struggles to fit into the retreat's modus operandi. Along the way, he befriends Scott (Robert Gant of Queer as Folk series fame) and soon, their relationship blossoms. And soon enough, they both have to confront their true identities. And interestingly enough, so does Gayle.
What this movie does well is its balanced, even handed treatment of both the residents and their guardians. It takes a sympathetic look at both sides of the divide. It never seeks to demonize any one side. Instead, it seeks to find a possible reconciliation between homosexuality and Christianity.
For a low-budget, art house type of movie, this production, filmed entirely within just two weeks, is a winner. Anchored by subtle acting on the part of all the major characters, the movie is moving, without being mushy or sentimental.
"Nothing against dance or disco. I came out to Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way" and its swirling waves of ecstasy still send chills up my spine."
"But there's more to gay culture than just a few pop hits, and you don't have to be an opera queen to think some of it might come from the classical sphere."
The funny, yet insightful, quotes come from an article in a Canadian mainstream newspaper that caught my eyes. It, in gentle humor, plumbs the nature of gay music today. Click here to read the entire article.
For me, gay music is a hard term to define. What constitutes gay music? Is it fast paced rhythms? Is it the incessant beat that keeps pace with the sexual energy of youth? Or is it the slower cadence of classical music that echoes the tragedies of gay life? Is that why gay men become drama queens or divas?
I personally always found classical music uplifting. It reminds me that life is redeemable, that life is full of colors and hues, and not black and white alone. And that life is about shared dreams.
Enjoy the Youtube video of the music of Benjamin Britten, the well-known gay composer. The piece is entitled "Hymn to St. Cecilia no. 3."
Before anyone thinks this is an imaginative story, let me assure you that I speak from experience--well, sort of. I dated someone who was happily married (perhaps) for the first twenty years of his marriage, having entered into nuptials at the impressionable age of twenty. Along the way, he fathered six children, three girls and three boys. Talk about equations. Then a moment of epiphany developed for him in his early forties. He realized he is gay. And soon divorce arrived.
That was the easy part.
For a newly minted gay man living in New York City that would have been difficult enough. But for a gay man who graduated from Baylor University in Texas (yes, that school), who almost became a Baptist minister, and who went on to raise a family of six, this was hell.
What does a man with a scarring guilt do in this overly "swinging," youth obsessed, still highly single gay community? Do you tell people right away you have six children? Do you tell these twinks and yuppies that nobody knows you are gay? Do you pretend the children do not exist? Or do you just stay at home, alone, every Saturday night and eat popcorn and watch romantic films?
Most gay men tend to run away from such formerly married guys with a train of kids behind them. Did I? No, not initially. But no matter how progressive minded I was, it seems his past haunted our budding relationship. It became a burden. It became shackles.
This was a man unable to throw off the shackles of his internalized homophobia, to the point where no one, save a few platonic girlfriends, knew of his true orientation. Deceit, deception, delusions--these became the raison de'etre of his life. Such is the tragedy of a life mangled by societal demands. And yet it is one that can rise from these demands if he had had the fortitude, the bravado, to see the truth.
After almost ten years of "coming out," does his children and ex-wife know of his true identity? No. And is he a man comfortable in his skin? An emphatic no.
South Dakota Bans Sexual Discrimination
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Source: http://gay-rights-law.suite101.com
The North Dakota Senate passes a bill banning discrimination based on
sexual orientation and gender identity in...
Chicken Enchiladas
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I got this recipe from a recently published cookbook (Sam Zien's Sam the
Cooking Guy), but found it too heavy in its original make up. So here I
have ligh...
