HOW GAY IS OSCAR?
By Andrew Sullivan
http://www.andrewsullivan.com
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Another reason to not go to the movies...
- Posted on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 by Inspectorette
HOW GAY IS OSCAR?
I guess we wll know the answer to that, but this year's
nominees are almost a hetero-shut-out. An unusually well-
informed movie buff friend sent me the following email:
Today's Oscar nominations must set a record of sorts for
gays in Hollywood. Best Picture nominee "Chicago" was
produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, both openly gay,
while another Best Picture nominee, "The Hours," had
openly-gay Scott Rudin as producer. (The Pulitzer Prize
winning book on which it is based was, of course, written
by openly gay Michael Cunningham.)
Two of the nominees for Best Director, Rob Marshall of
"Chicago" and Pedro Almodovar of "Talk To Me", are openly
gay. Nicole Kidman is nominated as Best Actress for her
portrayal of bisexual Virginia Woolf in "The Hours," Ed
Harris is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his
portrayal of a gay man with AIDS in the same film, while
Meryl Streep is nominated for Best Supporting Actress as
his lesbian best friend. Selma Hayek is up for Best
Actress for her portrayal of bisexual painter Frida Kahlo
in "Frida".
Pedro Almodovar is also nominated for Best Original
Screenplay, where he is joined by openly gay Todd Haynes,
who wrote and directed "Far From Heaven." Juliette Moore
is nominated as Best Actress for that film, in which she
plays the wife of a closeted gay man (played by Dennis
Quaid, whose omission from the list of nominees will be
noted as one of this year's Oscar gaffes).
Another original screenplay nomination went to "Y Tu Mam
Tambien," in which two young straight men end up having
sex with each other. "Lilo & Stitch," whose co-director
Dean DeBlois is openly gay, is up for Best Animated
Feature. Kander and Ebb are up for Best Song (as is
Eminem).
And the Dutch film nominated for Best Foreign Film, "Zus
& Zo," is a comedy about how a family deals with the news
that the brother they all thought was gay decides to
marry a woman. Stephen Daldry did not direct it.
Note that this is all related to people who are openly
gay. The closet is crumbling - even in that most
privately homophobic enclave, Hollywood.
UPDATE: My friend got one detail wrong: Meryl Streep was
nominated for her performance in "Adaptation," not "The
Hours." But one more addition: openly gay writer, Bill
Condon, for his screenplay adaptation of "Chicago."
How gay is Oscar?
:big grin:
...but I liked 'Moulin Rouge':big grin:
Linear Mode
