As I've previously reported, Neil Patrick Harris returns to television later this month in the series "Uncoupled" -- and now you can watch the first trailer, below:
In it, Harris plays Michael Lawson, a 40something real-estate broker whose partner of 17 years, Colin, played by dreamy Tuc Watkins, leaves him as Michael is throwing his man a surprise 50th birthday party.
I've watched the first season and came away impressed. The supporting cast made up of Michael's friends is an organically diverse bunch -- his work best pal is a black single mom (Tisha Campbell); and his two best gays are a schlubby-American who doesn't get much action (Brooks Ashmanskas) and a narcissistic weatherwhore (Emerson Brooks) -- while the storylines are well-written and topical, without feeling forced.
Co-creators Darren Star and Jeffrey Richman seem at home with the “suddenly single” middle-age gay man theme -- debut dick pics, PreP, barebacking 20somethings with daddy fetishes, etc. -- which was certainly something I can relate to having re-entered the dating scene at 47 after 12 years in a committed relationship with someone I met in an AOL chat room.
As the only gay man who doesn't know what a Neil Patrick Harris is -- I've never seen a single episode of "Doogie Howser M.D." or "How I Met Your Mother," nor would I have ever gone to White Castle with Harold or Kumar -- I wasn't sure what to expect. But he quickly won me over with his performance that was the perfect blend of vulnerability without fake humility, which tracks with his character's reality. (He may have been dumped, but he’s not exactly dumpy.) My biggest concern now is that "Uncoupled" will become another "Looking," HBO's criminally underappreciated series about gay men from a few years ago. I can already hear Gen-Z viewers whining about the show "revolving around a cis white man" while mindlessly not taking into account that A) There haven't exactly been any shows about gay men, cis white or otherwise; and B) You need a name to get a show on television -- and NPH and his gang of friends aren't exactly turn-of-the-century Carrie Bradshaw & Co. My rating: A-
I have no idea if the new Netflix series "Uncoupled" will be any good. With Darren Star ("Sex and the City," "Melrose Place") and Jeffrey Richman ("Modern Family," "Frasier") at the helm, its pedigree is certainly promising. But I already consider this a huge victory in the representation column. I have spent my life watching -- and loving -- television shows and movies about people picking up the pieces after a breakup ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Annie Hall," "An Unmarried Woman"), something we've all been through. So to finally have at age 54 a high-profile series about a gay man doing this most natural thing has me as giddy as I was on Christmas Eve hoping for a Tuesday Taylor Penthouse Apartment!
I will say this: The trailer's kind of titillating! Series premieres July 29.
Michael (Neil Patrick Harris) thought his life was perfect until his husband blindsides him by walking out the door after 17 years. Overnight, Michael has to confront two nightmares -- losing what he thought was his soulmate and suddenly finding himself a single gay man in his mid-40s in New York City.
To be fair, "Will & Grace" did at times deal with Will's pre-show breakup. But I'm hoping 25 years later the topic won't be addressed with quite so much celibacy. 😜
Warning: There's a spoiler of sorts ahead. Most people wouldn't even consider it one. But my fiance thinks knowing ANYTHING about a film in advance counts as a spoiler, so consider yourself warned.
Rachel Mason, who directed the film about her family, with porn legend Jeff Stryker
As I said last week when I watched "A Secret Love": Love him or hate him, we have Ryan Murphy's clout to thank for getting LGBTQ stories into living rooms around the world -- and this week it's the tale of West Hollywood's most legendary gay pornography peddlers. "Circus of Books" not only documents the bizarre dichotomy that a hardcore smut shop -- which in addition to selling magazines, videos and dildos later began producing Jeff Stryker-grade gay porn -- was run by an everyday middle-class couple with three children, but also that the matriarch was a bit of a nightmare. In addition to being an incredibly unpleasant woman who seems deeply bitter that life didn't hand her more, she's also an a la carte religious zealot, which made life incredibly difficult for her gay son, who quietly hides behind his “Best Little Boy in the World” facade.
Here we have Josh Mason growing up in the gayest city in the country with two intellectual parents -- Mom started out as an investigative journalist who was drawn to First Amendment stories like that of Larry Flynt and Dad was a inventor who worked in movie special effects, among other things -- and two open-minded siblings, yet he might as well have been the son of preacher man in the Deep South. And I'm sure you know why. Sure, his mother very much a product of her time (not unlike Cher, she was incredibly supportive of gay people so long as they aren’t in her family). But the truth is before the later years of the Obama era -- and even now for many people -- life for LGBTQ people was extremely unpredictable and difficult, with families disowning and students bullying gay youth, and employers firing and landlords or neighbors harassing gay adults. (Next time you see me, be sure to ask me about my newsroom colleague who had to leave Ventura County because of death threats ... in the late '90s.)
Free Masons: Micah, Barry, Rachel, Karen and Joshua
I truly hope young people will see this film so they can begin to understand that gay men and lesbians -- even white ones -- have been persecuted in the very recent past while also watching their friends die by the hundreds as the government did nothing. This lack of understanding has led me to coin the phrase "youth privilege," something I've started using on social media to combat the Gen Z activists who somehow can't quite seem to understand why Bill Clinton couldn't magically make his gays-in-the-military plan happen with the blink of an eye, don't get why a trans man wasn't cast as the lead in "Boys Don't Cry," 22 years ago, and who will probably not vote in November if Joe Biden doesn't pick a trans woman of color as his running mate.
Check out "Circus of Books." It'll really stir things up inside you, for better or worse.
Highly recommend Netflix's "A Secret Love," especially if you’re in the mood for a good cry. Ryan Murphy may not always get things right, but this is why it’s important to have LGBT people in positions of power. Our stories need to be told.
Looks like they're going to be filming the Ryan Murphy adaptation of "The Boys in the Band" near (or in) Julius's bar in the West Village. Fans of the classic Mart Crowley play will remember a scene took place at the famed watering hole in the 1970 film version. I saw the Broadway revival last year and if the film is as good as that, we're in for a treat.
So many mixed feelings about Netflix’s wildly uneven "Tales of the City" reboot, but overall I'm happy to have experienced it. (Full disclosure: After watching Episode 1, we seriously considered abandoning ship.) Loved seeing four of the original actors again. But since I hadn't read any of the followup books, it took me a while to accept sweet Mary Ann as being the villain. Was leery of the newcomers -- who seemed like a bit of a hamfisted attempt at modernizing the landscape -- but grew to like them. And thought Murray Bartlett became Michael -- he was at his mousiest when he was suddenly so vulnerable about losing his home, and then delightful when he said of his couples Scruff page: "Then put muscle daddy"(!) -- even if I could never quite get over his being just bit too young for the part. (I wonder why they reverted to Brian No. 1 but still didn't use either of the original two Mice? Are they maybe not gay in real life so they wanted to be more authentic? Might Tuc Watkins have been a better choice?)
Mouse 1 and Mouse 2, now-ish
More than anything else, though, the infamous "Dinner Party" -- a wonderful nod to the young Mouse's awkward experience in the original -- was what made the whole thing worthwhile.
Yes, it was heavy-handed and uncomfortable to watch. But the not-so-grand dames at the table finally said what needed to be said to Generations Y and Z.
My feeling is this: If we are all part of the LGBTQ community -- taking our punches and props, experiencing our highs and our lows, together -- then we all have access to terms that are off-limits to outsiders. Don't agree? I grew up being bullied and called a queer on the playground and I don't remember the new generation asking me if I was OK with "our" reclaiming the term. For those who say both sides had valid points I say this: Do you really think Ben's telling those guys anything they don't already know? What they don’t need is some patronizing pill lecturing them for letting loose and camping it up in the privacy of their own home. (Read the room, queen.) Now be quiet and pass the potatoes. My grade: B minus
With ”EastSiders” boys John and Kit this evening at the series' U.S. premiere party at SoHo House. Season 4 will not disappoint. Look for it on Netflix soon.
If last week's episode of "Will & Grace 2.0" was a stark reminder of how little today's gay youth know about their history, David France's new documentary -- "The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson," streaming now on Netflix -- may be an even starker reminder how little most LGBT people know about transgender history.
As a just-post-baby-boomer gay, I've always felt I've had an interesting view of LGBT life. I'm old enough to remember or at least be aware of queer details of many 1970s and most '80s movies, TV shows and political events. (I watched "Soap" with my family as a boy, and chatted with Renee Richards at.a tennis tournament in Detroit when I was 11!) Yet I'm just young enough -- or perhaps prudish enough -- to have escaped the wrath of AIDS, having not had sex until I was nearly 21, which was after the HIV antibody test had been invented and condoms were the safer-sex norm. I also feel incredibly fortunate to have been on the frontline of AIDS activism -- doing volunteer work for San Francisco AIDS Foundation and AIDS Project Los Angeles -- while having only been close to a handful of people who died from the disease. (I never forget that so many people my age or slightly older lost just about every person they knew and loved.)
Sylvia Rivera, left, called Marsha P. Johnson her mother
From my perch, I've long believed certain documentaries should be required viewing for aspiring queers: "The Times of Harvey Milk" would be my vote for political awareness. "The Celluloid Closet" for Hollywood history. "We Were Here" for the HIV/AIDS crisis. And "United in Anger: A History of ACT UP" and/or "How to Survive a Plague" would be my vote for HIV/AIDS activism -- a model for all activism since. But what I never knew was egregiously missing from my viewing list until it was produced is "The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson," a compelling new look at the T movement. Covering everything from transvestite to transsexual to transgender, France's film succeeds at looking at the past, present and future of trans activism in such a way that even someone involved in LGBT rights for 30 years learned plenty.
For the uninitiated, Marsha P. Johnson was a trailblazing trans activist -- she called herself a transvestite back in the day -- often credited for throwing the first brick that shattered the windows at the Stonewall Inn in 1969. (Or Stonehenge as Will's date refers to it.) She was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and co-founder (along with friend Sylvia Rivera, who is also profiled at length in the film) of the trans advocacy organization known as S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), which created the S.T.A.R. House, a groundbreaking shelter for homeless trans people. Into the '80s and early '90s, Johnson was a prominent AIDS activist, as part of ACT UP. Christopher Street was Marsha's ground zero, and it seems everyone who ever came in contact with Marsha adored her.
With Victoria Cruz at the premiere party at the Stonewall Inn
What the film does so well is effortlessly weaving the history of Marsha, Sylvia and other trans pioneers with a Who Done It? of how Marsha died (her body mysteriously turned up in the Hudson River in 1992, at age 46) all through the eyes of a (transwoman of color) peer of these women, Victoria Cruz, as she pounds the pavement looking for clues while also keeping an eye on current cases involving violence against trans women. (How little things have change will deeply depress you.)
Don't want to spoil anything and would encourage each of you to watch the film and draw your own conclusions. But I don't think it will ruin anything to tell you how sad I was at how little seemed to have been done to investigate Marsha's death. (Especially the information shared by the late Rodger McFarlane.) As Matt Foreman, former director of Anti-Violence Project, says of Johnson’s death: “In any other community had a similar hero been found dead under unclear circumstances, it seems self-evident that the city would have put resources, real resources behind it to try to figure out what happened.” And that my jaw was on the floor at one point watching archival footage of Sylvia interacting with a mostly gay white male crowd, which filled me with outrage and shame for our collective history.
"The Death of Life of Marsha P. Johnson" isn't a perfect film. France has been faulted for overly sanitizing its principals' lives -- mental illness, HIV, drug abuse and prostitution are nowhere to be found -- and I tend to agree that these details were relevant. (When someone's death is ruled a suicide, isn't a prior diagnosis of schizophrenia germane? Why did the man who made an Oscar-nominated documentary about the AIDS epidemic omit this woman's own struggle with the disease, especially when said film was criticized for only focusing on gay white men?) And he has had to respond to allegations that he appropriated his idea and research from Reina Gossett, a transwoman of color activist and filmmaker. (France denies the claim, saying he was a friend of Marsha's and first took an interest in her death as a reporter at the Village Voice.). But none of this takes away from the importance of having all of this trans history respectfully put together in one place -- a place that eschews talking heads on couches telling us about Johnson and Rivera in favor of letting these two remarkable people tell us about themselves.
The director responds to omissions from his film.
And below find the back-and-forth about about Reina Gossett's allegations of theft:
A statement from David France, director and producer of "The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson":
In 1992, the year that activist Marsha P. Johnson was killed, I was writing for the Village Voice covering AIDS and the general LGBTQ beat in New York City. Marsha had been a friend of mine, and her story fell to me to report. I started investigating right away, but with no active leads and the exploding AIDS crisis in New York, I let the story slip away. For years, my decision has haunted me.
When making my first feature, How To Survive A Plague, I kept a “Projects Board” of other stories I wanted to explore in future work. Marsha’s story was always the most prominent, because I felt a duty to investigate her death the way I had not been able to in 1992.
Reina Gossett has suggested that I’ve stolen both the concept and footage for The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson from her work, the experimental short narrative Happy Birthday, Marsha. I owe a debt to those who have kept Marsha’s story alive over the years. My creative work builds on theirs. But it is it’s own scholarship. My research team and I spoke with every friend and associate of Marsha and Sylvia Rivera’s that we could reach, and poured through a vast archive to arrive at our film, aided immeasurably by the Anti Violence Project, whose story is at the center of my film. We sourced, digitized, and licensed the archival footage. Our intention was always to have archival footage allow for Marsha and Sylvia to tell their stories in their own voices. Nothing in the film’s concept, research or execution came from anyone outside of this process or our immediate team.
I found out about the existence of Gossett’s film years after I had started research for my film. I reached out to her to see about sharing resources, at which point she informed me she was working on a scripted short film about Marsha and Sylvia in the hours leading up to Stonewall, which is not at all the focus of my film. These stories seemed different enough to me that there was no cause for concern — they were both about Marsha and Sylvia, but Marsha and Sylvia are two of the most important people in the history of the LGBTQ rights movement, and there have been many films already made about them (including Arthur Dong’s 1995’s PBS documentary The Question of Equality, where I first witnessed Sylvia’s firebrand speech at the 1973 Gay Power rally). It seemed there was room in the landscape for both films with very different stories, methods and approaches. As part of a sincere desire to see their film completed, I connected Gossett, her co-director Sasha Wortzel, and their producers with our funder.
I admire Reina Gossett and look forward to her beautiful film. Alone among researchers, she has dedicated her work to the legacy of Marsha and early trans activism. Yet in terms of funding and support, I witnessed the obstacles she faces as an artist who is also a transgender woman of color, obstacles that have been far less onerous for me in pursuit of my craft. Racism and transphobia are hideous cancers. By joining my voice to the campaign for Marsha’s justice, I hoped to amplify that call, not complicate it, and to bring whatever attention I could draw to this history and those who defend it. But I have complicated it nonetheless. I know that history-telling is not a zero sum equation. But funding and cultural power can be. It is wrong that our projects have not received equal attention. I re-double my commitment to bringing Happy Birthday, Marsha the attention and backing it needs and deserves, and hope that you will too.
I don't have all the facts to be able to have an opinion about Gossett's claims. But other people do not seem to need more information, leading me to believe the only way David France can make this "right" in some people's eyes is for him to single-handedly undo centuries of racial discrimination and change the way Hollywood works. I'm not expecting him to succeed on either front.
Exactly.
I've reached out to Reina Gossett to ask her what she would like to see happen going forward but have not received a reply.
I concur with Peter and Fred.
Here's the trailer for "Happy Birthday, Marsha." the film by Reina Gossett and Sasha Wortzel about Marsha Johnson's life in the hours before she ignited the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City. It is a dramatic re-enactment that seems to have little in common with France's film.
Also of interest:
Here is Richard Morrison (writer) and Michael Kasino (director)'s 2012 documentary, "Pay It No Mind: The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson."
The trailer for Netflix's "The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson" is out:
She was one of the icons of the gay rights movement in the 1960s, the self-described "street queen" of New York City's gay ghetto, and founded the Transvestites Action Revolutionaries with fellow luminary Sylvia Rivera. When Johnson's body was found in the Hudson River in 1992, police called it a suicide and didn't investigate. In David France's new documentary, trans activist Victoria Cruz seeks to uncover the truth of her death while celebrating her legacy.
Watch:
Related:
Violence against trans community continues to this day. Bubbles (aka Anthony Torres), a trans activist, DJ and colorful figure in the San Fran LGBTQ community, was shot dead there early Saturday morning. Condolences to her loved ones. Read HERE.
I've shamefully never read any of the Armistead Maupin books. And I only saw the famed 1993 miniseries in recent years, eschewing the Showtime sequel because it recast the adorable Mouse (as well as Mona and Brian). But word that Netflix is developing a new installment of "Tales of the City" with Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis on board -- with a script penned by Michael "The Hours" Cummingham -- certainly has piqued my interest.
Thomas Gibson and my pal Kevin Sessums
The original cast was filled with handsome men, including Marcus D'Amico (Mouse), Billy Campbell (Dr. Jon Philip Fielding) and Thomas Gibson (Beauchamp Day). I remember when "Will & Grace" and "Dharma & Greg" came along, I was so bummed that Gibson hadn't been cast as Will instead of the other way around. (In retrospect, the less-handsome Eric McCormack made for a better uptight queen.)
Billy Campbell and the original Mouse
I had just moved to Washington when the first installment premiered on PBS and everyone was talking about it later that night at Trumpets (just up the street from JR's), only I hadn't known it was on. This was pre-Internet and being new to town, my subscription to Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide hadn't started yet -- and I didn't have friends to tell me about it. Although I felt a bit out of it, all was not lost. I met my (first) Latin lover that night at the bar, Señor Rafael! I'm not sure who they will get to fill the lead male roles. But with "Looking" off the air and Shonda Rhimes threatening to bring Russell T. Davies's heinous "Cucumber" and "Banana" to the U.S., this reboot can't come along soon enough.
Mouse 2.0: Paul Hopkins
Billy Campbell has another Mouse in the house (what was my problem with this recasting?!)
As my Latin lover and I board the Amtrak to Washington today for this weekend's Equality March for Unity and Pride, head over to Boy Culture to read a nice piece about Marsha P. Johnson -- one of the pivotal figures in the LGBT rights movement -- who is the subject of what promises to be a fascinating new documentary set to air on Netflix.
Johnson was born in 1945 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, running off to NYC in the '60s ...
Nice interview with Kyle Chandler about his slow rise to fame, moving away from Hollywood and the final season of "Bloodline" (premieres Friday on Netflix) in The Wall Street Journal HERE.
Not sure where this is going -- the wonderful first season ended with a huge twist -- but am looking forward to more of Will Arnett's Netflix series, "Flaked," which is slated to return June 2. Other television premiere dates HERE.
Harvey has never shown any interest in television whatsoever until we put this new Netflix special about cats on last night. When it got to the part about a feral-cat colony -- like the one the shelter we adopted him from says he accidentally wound up in -- he became very concerned!
For those who also watched the Netflix series, you'll be happy to hear the hapless nephew -- who "confessed" to a murder so he could get back to class on time -- is getting out.
A man whose homicide conviction was overturned in a case profiled in the Netflix series “Making a Murderer” has been ordered released from prison while prosecutors appeal.
U.S. Magistrate Judge William Duffin on Monday ordered the release of Brendan Dassey. Duffin ruled in August that investigators tricked Dassey into confessing he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape, kill and mutilate photographer Teresa Halbach in 2005. The state has appealed that ruling.
Dassey’s supervised release was not immediate and is contingent upon him meeting multiple conditions. He has until noon Tuesday to provide the federal probation and parole office with the address of where he planned to live.
Dassey was 16 when Halbach died. He’s now 27.
I'm still not convinced one way or the other about his uncle, but at least there's finally some justice for this poor kid who lost 11 years of his life. Now let it continue by NOT retrying him for something he obviously had nothing to do with. (There was NO BLOOD in the bedroom!)
Wow! If you're looking for a good way to never fall sleep again, might I recommend reading this article about the Italian prosecutor who put Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito behind bars for the murder of Meredith Kercher, and crime they have always insisted they did not commit? Promoting a new Netflix documentary about the sensational case, Giuliano Mignini wants everyone to know that he's still sure Knox did it -- because she's a slut and people used to come up on the street and shake his hand.
"They would congratulate me," he says. "It gives me satisfaction."
"Normally, people say that 'nobody is a prophet in his own country,' " he says. "But that's not what I experienced."
If that adulation wasn't proof enough that Knox was guilty -- notice how Sollecito is never mentinoed -- he also points to the way SHE acted when THEY were arrested. Mignini says he was stupefied. "I have to remind you that her behavior was completely inexplicable," he says of Knox. "Totally irrational" ... because everyone knows there's a right way to act when you've been accused of a horrendous murder when you're very young studying abroad.
Then comes the smoking gun in the case.
"Amanda was a girl that was very uninhibited," Mignini says in the documentary. "She would bring boys home – and hearing Meredith's friends, if you could imagine a girl different from Amanda in every imaginable way, it would have been Meredith."
Oh, to be fair maybe I am leaving out one piece of incriminating evidence: He also "felt it in his gut."
God help us all if we're ever falsely accused of a crime with someone like this in the DA's office.
