Life After L WORD Options

[4u2]

INFO From: L Word Fansite

An Evening with Ilene Chaiken at Brava, part 1: Interview with Ilene
By BetteAndTinaForever

Brava! for Women in the Arts is a committed to the artistic expression of women, people of color and youth. Their mission is to produce, present and cultivate live art, which celebrates works that explore the intersections of multiculturalism and feminism that ignite social change as well as build community.

In celebration of Women’s History month Brava held a contemporary discussion about women in art and media with Ilene Chaiken.

I went to this event with a purpose in mind and it was to ask Ilene about her take on season six and the interrogation tapes webisodes. I arrived to the theater a little earlier and was able to get a few minutes alone with Ilene to talk about some things that I thought the audience might not ask.

Here’s our short interview.

B&TF: Looking back at The L Word, what stories were you trying to tell and what was your favorite because obviously the show meant different things to different people?

IC: I was trying to tell all those stories. I was just trying to entertain people and make good television.

B&TF: What were you hoping to achieve beyond simple entertainment?

IC: Simple entertainment is what I was trying to achieve. I thought that the real achievement was to make a television show about lesbians and have it be truly entertaining and function like all popular entertainment.

B&TF: Why then begin and end season six with death of one of the characters?

IC: It was the story we decided to tell. We liked the story, we thought it was a good story, we thought it was fun.

B&TF: It was a good story, I agree but it brought a lot of negativity.

IC: We didn’t see it as negativity.

B&TF: Even when all the characters who were Jenny’s friends began to hate her for different reasons?

IC: That’s already happened and I can’t tell you how many fans had asked me over the years to do something violent to Jenny. That didn’t come from me.

B&TF: It’s true then when you say you read the boards and listen to what fans say?

IC: Absolutely. That was a story that grew largely out of fans’ sentiments.

B&TF: Well, I heard a lot of fans saying, “Oh, I wish Jenny would die” or “I wish so-and-so would be killed” but I always thought it was just a figure of speech because personally for me, even if I don’t like the character I wouldn’t wish them any harm.

IC: I loved the character and it is fiction and it’s a fictional confection. It wasn’t a violent death and it wasn’t a hard-core murder story. It was a piece of entertainment consistent with all the rest of the entertainment we did.

B&TF: Why did you leave it open with so many suspects but no solution?

IC: Maybe it’s because the story is not over yet or maybe it’s just because it was the way we chose to tell it. We didn’t think that the point was ‘Who killed Jenny?’ or ‘Whether someone killed Jenny’. It was the vehicle for saying many, many things that we wanted to say to wrap up the show. And it was also a metaphor. It was a metaphor for the bittersweet moment in which we had to say goodbye to this show and these characters. Jenny brought us into this world and Jenny brought us out of it.

B&TF: Some people are actually saying that the entire The L Word was written by Jenny because she’s the writer. It began with her coming out and ended with her dead…

IC: All these speculations are valid.

B&TF: Interesting…so if you will get the green light to make a movie what will you do? Will you pick up where the show ended?

IC: I’m not even remotely prepared to entertain that question.

B&TF: Okay. Now we have interrogation tapes coming out every Monday. Are they the edits from the interrogation scenes we saw in the finale or are they the separate scenes you shoot just for this purpose?

IC: I won’t talk about the process behind shooting it or when we shot it or what it was intended for but the one thing that I will talk about is that that was all scripted material and it was scripted in response to the things that fans wanted to know about these characters.

B&TF: I remember there was a thread on OurChart where people were asking what they wanted to know.

IC: Yes.

B&TF: Well, this is a bit of personal question for me. I’m a big Tina fan and I know we all were asking for Tina’s background forever and finally we got it and lots of people were really shocked when they saw it. Who came up with this story and was it actually a recent development or was it developed over the years?

IC: I’m very, very collaborative with the actors that I work with and it was partly scripted and partly work shopped.

B&TF: So you mean that Laurel Holloman had input in this scene?

IC: Yes, Laurel had input.

B&TF: When I was watching it I wasn’t shocked that it happened because obviously child abuse happens in families but the way she was talking about this, like for Tina it wasn’t an abuse but just a childhood experience…

IC: It was a childhood experience. In her mind it was a childhood experience. These experiences aren’t always experiences of abuse and I take sexual abuse very, very seriously. But there are also childhood encounters that one had that don’t necessarily fall into a category of abuse. I think the more important thing is that fans wanted to know more about Tina and about her life and now we know that she grew up in the South and that she had a father who was in politics and he was very right wing and her mother left him. We know many, many things about Tina that we never knew before.

B&TF: I know that right now we have two tapes out for Tina and Shane. Can you give me a little hint what’s coming with Bette’s tape because fans are nervous now.

IC (laughing): No, I’m not going to give you a hint. It’s coming.

B&TF: Well, I know but we don’t even know if it’s going to be the last one or…

IC: That’s not my decision but you should hopefully tune in and see it.

B&TF: Yes, of course, I wouldn’t miss it.

My five minutes were up because Ilene had to prepare for the event. When she was announced Ilene talked for over an hour before answering a few questions and my report about “An Evening with Ilene” is coming up next. I, too, hope that you will tune in to find out what else Ilene had to say about her career, the show and her plans for the future.



Part 2

Before the evening began, Raelle Myrick-Hodges, who was just recently appointed as the second Artistic Director for Brava, talked to us about the theater and Brava’s mission and then introduced Ilene Chaiken to the audience.

Ilene began by saying that first she will talk to us about her life and career, and how she finally got to do The L Word and tell our stories, and after her talk we would have a chance to ask her questions. I read a lot of Ilene’s interviews over the last few years, especially regarding the creation and realization of The L Word but listening Ilene speaking about it had quite a different feel to it. She talked to us for almost 30 minutes so I will give you just some highlights of Ilene’s talk. It’s not verbatim but I tried to make it as close to what she said as possible

Ilene’s Talk

- Making movies and telling stories has always been for Ilene a combination of a really great way to spend more time with fabulous women.

- In her senior year at the film school she made a thesis film that was pretty much autobiographical and it was before she realized that she was gay. The movie was made from the point of view of a woman but she wasn’t telling gay stories, she was pushing out the issues of sexuality and how women fit into the culture. The movie was sort of a version of “Sex, lies and videotapes”, and it was controversial and shocking. Ilene’s thesis advisor looked at the film and said, “You’re gonna go to Hollywood”, which wasn’t a compliment.

- Ilene did go to Hollywood and she wanted to write and direct movies. Her first job in Hollywood was at a theatrical agency called TAA. One of her jobs was taking her boss’s Ferrari to the gas station and gassing it up.

- She began working in Hollywood before the sexual harassment laws and before sex changed for everyone with the advent of AIDS.

- After a few years Ilene got a job with a few Hollywood producers who wanted to make a movie and Ilene wrote a treatment for a movie about a bunch of girlfriends who were about to graduate from high school and looking forward to go into the world, explore their sexuality and become adults. It was a personal story for Ilene in a lot of ways. One of the producers liked the treatment and he took it…he actually took took it. He took it to some guy at Warner Brothers and they made a movie out of it about a 40-year old man having an affair with an 18-year old girl. In the background there were a few girlfriends and some nod to a relationship between women but the movie itself was different. It was called “Satisfaction” with Liam Neeson, Justine Bateman as the main character and Julia Roberts as one of the friends.

- After that Ilene worked as an executive, developing movies and then she went to work for a production company where she met Aaron Spelling. She ended up working for him for five years developing television shows.

- While working for Aaron Spelling she learned a lot about television and worked as a development executive on a Pilot for the show that featured the first ever lesbian character on the network television. At that time Ilene was already out and she was completely out in her work. The show was called “Heartbeat” (1988) and it was about a group of women gynecologists in Los Angeles. All women doctors were straight but there was one lesbian played by Gail Strickland who told Ilene that she didn’t know how to play gay and she asked if she could come over to hang out at Ilene’s house and learn how to be gay. The show wasn’t picked up.

- After that Ilene went to work for Quincy Jones’s production company at Warner Brothers for three years. Most famous show that she worked on with Quincy Jones was “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” It was very successful and represented different stories told on television but it wasn’t something that would help Ilene to tell her stories.

- Ilene got fed up with everything and tired of not being able to tell her stories and really get her work out there. Finally, after ten years of working in the movie business and not being able to do what she wanted to do, Ilene locked herself in a cabin and wrote a script. It was angry and really fun action movie. It was homage to “Seven Samurai” but it was all-girls action movie. It was very cool, at least for Ilene. She took the script to an agent she’s been working with and said, “I’m a writer now, here’s my script.”

- Ilene got another writing job and worked on a script for a more conventional movie but after that she got a really cool job adopting a comic book. It was a perfect job because she always wanted to do an action movie, showing girls’ power. She was hired to write a script based on a comic book called “Barb Wire.” The comic was great and she wrote a more subversive script than the comic itself. Ilene’s script was a blown-out action movie with great characters and she thought it would be the coolest movie ever made. She turned in the script and it was pretty much re-written and even though Ilene got the credit as a writer, it wasn’t exactly what she wrote. “Barb Wire” was made in 1996 with Pamela Anderson as a main character. Ilene actually shown us the opening credits for the show and it looked like a soft porn movie.

- Ilene was now a screenwriter and she loved to write commercial movies and she liked to make mainstream entertainment but she always tried to find stories that featured her themes and her people.

- It was a number of years before she had another movie made. She wrote a movie about a young woman with multiple personality disorder who struggled to remain her true self. Ilene wrote it but it didn’t work out and just recently she found out that someone dug it out and made a movie out of it with Halle Berry and it titled “Frankie and Alice”; it’s coming out later this year.

- Finally, Ilene met folks at Showtime and they were working with a very interesting project. They tried to figure out how to make a movie about the work of Robert Mapplethorpe and about events that occurred in 1990 when a museum director in Cincinnati went on trial for showing Mapplethorpe’s work in his museum. The theme was very interesting to Ilene and she read everything about the real events. The movie was called “Dirty Pictures” (2000).

- Showtime executives were really supportive of Ilene’s work and then she wrote an article for LA Magazine based on her urge to tell her stories. At that time Ilene and her then partner had twin girls and they were two years old. She looked around and saw that a lot of her gay and lesbian friends in West Hollywood were having babies and she wanted to talk about it. She wanted to write something about the lives of gay and lesbians in Los Angeles and LA Magazine liked her story and published it. Ilene decided that maybe she could try to make it into a movie and took her article to Showtime. She pitched it to a few people in production that she worked with before and they said, “No way, the guy down the hall in the corner office will never go for this.”

- So Ilene went to work on another movie and then “Dirty Pictures” got nominated for the Golden Globe. And something happened then. Showtime got the rights to a British TV series “Queer as Folk” and they put it on air and it was the most successful show that Showtime ever did before. And just before the Golden Globe Awards Ilene said that they doing this queer boys show and not just long ago she pitched a lesbian show but it was rejected. During the Golden Globe the same guy from the corner office came up to Ilene and whispered in her ear, “I think we’re going to try your lesbian show.” And that night “Dirty Pictures” actually won the Golden Globe.

- This was a truly great moment in history, especially for Ilene because she was finally able to tell her stories the way she always wanted it. Showtime was very supportive and there was never a moment when they said that she had to change something, or tone it down, or not to tell some stories because they were too controversial.

- Ilene ended her talk on a slightly bittersweet note. She said that it was their mutual decision to end The L Word after six beautiful seasons and she felt that they would go out on a high note. Ilene already pitched her spin-off to Showtime (during that event on March 20, Showtime hadn’t made their decision yet but we already have news that “The Farm”, as the spin-off was called, was not picked up by Showtime). Ilene always thought that they will have The L Word on the air for five-six years and by the time it will end there will be many shows, waiting to be made and taking off where TLW left off. And Ilene said that she doesn’t know what happened because we find ourselves once again not represented on the television. She was really disappointed that with the ending of The L Word there’s nothing out there right now representing gay and lesbian characters.

Q&A with Ilene

After the talk, Raelle Myrick-Hodges was heading a short Q&A session with Ilene. They warned us right away that we can ask any questions as long as it’s not, “Who killed Jenny?” Again, here’re some highlights from that part of the evening.

- At first they talked about gay characters being marginalized, or Ilene being marginalized as an artist because she’s gay. Ilene said that even in the earlier years of her career she felt pretty integrated but sometimes people used it against her. She told a story when she hired a woman to direct one of her movies and she got a call from a very powerful person who said that Ilene hired that director because she was gay. In reality, the director was straight and married but they wouldn’t believe her. And she added that we get marginalized not because we are gay women but because we are women. It’s still a largely misogynist culture. And in her career she felt more oppressed because she was a woman and not a gay woman.

- They talked about how Ilene separates her life and her art and Ilene said that she often put a lot of her personal life stories into her writing.

- Ilene said that she tried to write a show that would not only speak to gay women but to straight women and men, to anyone who wanted to come and partake of our stories. The thing that made The L Word a great success was that women loved it, not just lesbians but women. The loved the show and supported it throughout the years.

- The questions chosen from the audience were mostly general questions about movie business or asking advice for young writers. Ilene’s advice was - writing, writing, and writing. Learn all you can about the business and your craft, and keep writing. Ilene herself has certain rituals when she’s writing. She usually gets up very early in the morning and she either works out or write, usually she does both. She writes all day long and most of her writing is done at her computer and not on the paper. She doesn’t write like some writers who go for a walk and come up with ideas then. She writes, takes breaks and then comes back to write more.

- Ilene said that she doesn’t watch many TV shows. There were just a few that got her attention but as soon as she began working on The L Word, she just didn’t have time to watch pretty much anything. Her favorite show was “Six Feet Under.”

- One question was kind of funny. Someone asked if Ilene had ever excluded a storyline from The L Word because it was “too gay”. Ilene was really surprised and asked, “On The L Word? It’s a gay show, there were no stories that can be too gay.” She did mention that she worked on other projects when some people questioned a storyline that appeared too gay but never on The L Word.

- Ilene also said that another reason she wanted to do a lesbian ensemble drama because on the television there were gay characters but it was always the gay best friend or the gay character here or there, and even if there was a show about a single lead gay character, this character was living in a largely straight world. She wanted to have several gay lead characters, represented in a multitude.

- One question was about any similarities between the “Lez Girls” movie storyline and a real-life relationship with Showtime upper management. Ilene replied that as she said before, the Showtime was always unbelievably supportive and never tried to shut her down, make her less gay but that storyline was very real about Hollywood, especially in the movie making business.

- Ilene did say again that Jenny’s storyline was a response to fans’ demands to kill Jenny but it wasn’t only because the fans demanded it. She also said that in the Pilot, Jenny’s character was written based on Ilene and her personal life when she was younger. However, the actresses changed the characters as they brought themselves into their characters; therefore, Jenny changed a lot over each season. Bette was also another character that represented Ilene in her adult reincarnation-- someone driven by work and her passion -- but Bette’s character also evolved because of the way Jennifer Beals portrayed her. Ilene said that she loved Jenny because she thinks that Jenny made the world more interesting place to live.

- Marina was written off the show because Karina Lombard went to work on another show, “4400”.

- One question was asked about Dana. Ilene basically said that when they met in the beginning of season three for their writer’s meeting, a lot of them went through some loss with family members and friends. They wanted to tell a story about a loss and they hadn’t decided right away what character they would kill. All they knew that it had to be a beloved character. Ilene said that she loved Dana and she loves Erin Daniels who had fit very well with the group, but they decided that the most powerful way to tell this story was telling about a character who was healthy, who took care of her body, and it would be shocking. But Ilene had no idea what the reaction of the fans would be and that the grief would be so profound. Ilene said that they believed it was an important story to tell, but if she had a foresight about the fans’ reaction, she would not have killed Dana off.

- The obligatory sex scenes question was asked again, and Ilene replied that all sex/love scenes were choreographed. Each actor works with sex scenes in a different way. There were some who wanted each scene being choreographed to the number, telling them when to move this hand or when to move there, or when they have to orgasm. Some worked better when they were told just the general direction where the scene would go. Always, when they did the sex scenes, the actors had a large say on how the scene was done. They all had different boundaries and Ilene respected those boundaries. The only thing Ilene told them was, “I want you to tell the story, and I want you to believe in it, and we will make it work in a way that makes you comfortable.”

- They had an incredible crew and the directors were predominantly women and it’s really unique in Hollywood. Women were dominating in this project. Rose Lam, who is actually straight, hired as many lesbians as possible to work for the show. It was a very pleasant environment to work in and all the straight people who worked on the show were always comfortable, even with some sensitive material. Ilene said that there was never a division between straight women or gay women who worked on the show behind the scene because, in her opinion, everyone wanted to be gay.

- They skipped most of the written questions about individual characters and then gave the audience the chance to ask more questions. One question was about how to keep going and make more stories about gay and lesbian community. Ilene said that one important thing is for the community to get engage in the storytelling and tell the networks what they like. Ilene added that the president of Showtime called her all the time and told her about the crazy L Word fans that kept sending him letters and emails. When Showtime was deciding to pick the L Word for another season, they started a “black bra campaign” and he got tons of black bras sent to his office. When the community gets together, there’s no way to stop them.

- There was a question “What happened to OurChart” and Ilene was telling about how they really believed in that project, but because of the business structure and some other reasons I don’t remember, it wasn’t valuable as a business. Ilene and some other people who were on OC are working really hard to put together another version of OurChart.

- Another question about The L Word the movie was asked, as well. Ilene pretty much said the same thing as she always said – that the cast and she really want to do it, but it’s not up to her, so it’s hard to say right now what will happen. I suggested sending more black bras to the CBS or whatever company is in charge of it. Ilene’s reply: “It won’t hurt.”

- Another thing Ilene said that there’s a difference between writers and screenwriters. As a screenwriter, you write not to see your words on page but to see it performed by actors. She was always so excited to see what actors would make out of your work, and sometimes they would make it better with their acting. In television, writers are supreme, and in the movies, writers are garbage. In television, the writers are often in charge of everything, even more than directors.

- On any television show, there’s a group of writers. On the L Word, Ilene had a relatively small group of writers. She was a head writer who chose writers, and they all worked together as a group, talking about their ideas in collaborative way. At certain points, Ilene would give everyone certain scripts or stories to write or contribute to a storytelling, but as the head writer, she had the final say.

VIP reception

During the VIP reception we all had a chance to approach Ilene and talk to her. I found her by herself for a moment and asked if she always had a big picture in her mind about where the storylines would go when she pitched the Pilot to the Showtime executives. Ilene replied that when she pitched the Pilot, she basically pitched the characters, but each season they would decide where their stories would go.

Then I asked if it was true that she never intended to get Bette and Tina back together after their break up in season 1. Ilene said that she didn’t intend not to get them back together, but there was a possibility that TiBette would end up in different relationships. Then I asked, “Why did you finally decide to reunite them? Was it because of the fans?” And Ilene said, “It was such a good story to tell and bringing them back together was part of it.”

Overall, I liked event. It was entertaining and informative and just another little connection to the show that I missed so much already.

[4u2]

INFO From: L Word Fansite

Benefit Event hosted by Mia Kirshner and Jennifer Beals
By BetteAndTinaForever



On June 11, Operation USA will hold a benefit event to debut Mia Kirshner’s Literacy project in Malawi. At first, this event was supposed to happen on April 22 and Jennifer Beals was going to co-host it. Many supporters were scheduled to attend, including: Chris Abani, Mike Bender, Jason Blum, Jodie Evans, Janina Gavankar, Laurel Holloman, Walter Mosley, Rose Rollins, Shiva Rose, and Danny Sussman. Since it had been rescheduled, the guest list and location might be different but the idea behind the event will stay the same.

Operation USA (www.opusa.org) is an international relief agency that helps communities abroad and at home overcome the effects of disasters, disease and endemic poverty by providing privately-funded relief, reconstruction and development aid. They also have several long-term projects promoting education and health services worldwide.

As you remember, last year Mia Kirshner’s book “I Live Here” was published and it’s a visually stunning narrative about war in Chechnya, ethnic cleansing in Burma, globalization in Mexico, and AIDS in Malawi. Mia spent most of her savings to personally go to all these places to tell their stories through journals, images, graphic novellas, and interviews. I have this book and it’s brilliant, educating and heart-breaking.

It’s no surprise that Operation USA had joined forces with Mia and an award-winning author James MacKinnon to begin creative writing field projects, inspired by the book that they both co-authored. This program will launch in Malawi, Africa, with Kirshner and MacKinnon returning to work in the Kachere Juvenile Centre in Lilongwe, the boys’ prison documented in “I Live Here”

For more information about I LIVE HERE, visit http://www.opusa.org/whatwedo/ilivehere.html

All proceeds will directly support the debut I LIVE HERE field project in Malawi, Africa. Tickets are $175 and can be purchased at www.opusa.org or by phone, 310.838.3455.

[4u2]

INFO From: L Word Fansite

L5 Convention – Complete Interview with Laurel Holloman
By BetteAndTinaForever

As you might remember, when we first posted this interview I mentioned that there were some things that Laurel said during the interview regarding season six that were a little more revealing in terms of the spoilers. At Laurel’s request, we removed it. Since the show had ended, we are reposting the complete interview that includes all the removed parts so you can read Laurel’s take on Tina and TiBette in the final season of The L Word.

******

B&TF: At the end of episode 512 Bette alluded to having another baby. Ilene said in her OurChart vlog that actually that particular dialogue was much longer; they cut the part about Bette saying that she might carry the baby this time. Then we heard about an adoption story. Is it to show how difficult it is for same-sex couples to adopt?

LH: Yeah, it can be hard everywhere. There are a lot of wonderful adoption agencies. The one that my husband and I used does same-sex adoptions and there’s another company that’s called “Independent Adoption Center”. Again, they do same-sex adoption. I think that in what I’ve learned about it, it’s not so much the birth parents that are against the same-sex adoptions as some of their parents. No one would be in the situation where they were putting the baby up for adoption if they didn’t have a set of harsh circumstances ahead of them. So sometimes they’re dependent on their families, their parents or are already parenting other children. Basically there is an adoption storyline and it’s a really good storyline; it deals with a lot of the issues that are really important today with gay marriage and some of the difficulties that come with that.

It was also, which was very important to me, birth-mother friendly. We tend to think that birth-mothers don’t take the time to really think about the future of the child that they’re giving birth to; which is completely not true. They are mature, they’ve thought things through. That was the one thing I said to Ilene and Rose Troche - I really would love to be and wanted to be a part of the adoption storyline as long as the birth mother was shown in the right light. They did that and it was great. I have a lot of strong opinions because I just adopted. I did a conference call with the writers and I also set them up with our lawyer who does same-sex adoptions. The attorney knows all the states’ laws, the complexities of it and the statistics, which surprised a lot of people.

B&TF: If you could change one thing about yourself what would that be?

LH: I would opt for more patience.

B&TF: If you had the power to change anything that happened to Tina on the show, what would it be?

LH: I wouldn’t change anything.

B&TF: So, no regrets?

LH: No, not a one.

B&TF: This is kind of a silly question but if Alex Owens from Flashdance was gay and she met Randy Dean, how do you think it would go? Would they be a young Bette and Tina?

LH: I don’t think Alex would be Randy Dean’s type. I just think that she’s a kid. She’s 17 and she would think that Alex was too much of an older woman (laughing). I don’t see it at all. They are so different, I just don’t see it.

B&TF: How has being on the L Word for six years changed you personally?

LH: I think in some ways it’s given me more insight into how I want to be when I work with a large group of women and how to stay above any of the craziness that can happen as well as who I want to be and how I want to treat people. I think it’s nice to have job security. It’s the longest job and the longest time I’ve ever played a character. It taught me to persevere in a different type of way.

B&TF: This question kind of goes together with the previous. Being on a show for six years, what did you learn about acting?

LH: I’ve learned that you have to refill yourself a lot and I’ve learned that on television, which is a little bit the opposite of film, you really have to take control of your character and hold tight inside for what you think they would do or not do. The reason I say that is the directors come in and out and unless it’s one of the writers or directors like Rose Troche or Angela Robinson, they don’t always know exactly what’s going on. Most of them do but you have to say, “Oh, I don’t think my character would do this because in the third season my character did this, this and this.” You have to keep holding onto the trajectory of your character.

B&TF: What did you learn about yourself?

LH: I’m more patient after having done the show. I think the whole thing for me, being on The L Word, was that I’ve learned how to not define myself by my job. During this time I became a wife and a mother. I spent a lot of time focusing on my career in my twenties and even into my early thirties; it was relaxing for me and it was a time in my life that I just needed to know that what I do is not, who I am. Who I am is this totally different person from what I do. What I do is act. I happened to be on The L Word and that’s why I don’t dwell on the past, and I don’t show up for every event, I don’t do all of that. I feel like I like to do the show and come back and tuck into the privacy of my life. That makes me a better actor because I’m done playing Tina; unless there’s a movie. And now I’ve got to find another character and that finding of another character usually works for me when I go back into my life and don’t think too much about that, to be honest. So, there’s balance and I crave the balance and I also feel that if you put yourself too far out there, then people have a preconceived idea of who you are; and I’d rather keep that a little closer to my chest because I want to play a different character.

B&TF: So, you won’t stay Tina forever for your fans.

LH: I won’t, I’m done. I don’t even have the same hair color and I don’t even dress the same way. I probably won’t play a character who even speaks the same way, you know.

B&TF: Well, for some fans you always be Tina.

LH: For so many people out there, I also will be Justine from Angel, too.

B&TF: This is true.

LH: Yeah, so it just depends. I like the shutting of the character. It feels good. In fact, I think that it was probably, at times, too long, like I probably would’ve shut is sooner (laughing).

B&TF: You mean you wouldn’t want to go to season seven?

LH: No way. I think we’ve told a lot of good stories and I’d love to do a movie. I think that would be really fun but that’s it.

B&TF: You said you don’t like to come to many events and you’ve been to pretty much all the conventions, except for L4 because of the adoption…

LH: These events are very, very, very different than the political events and those kinds of things. I don’t throw myself into every event or charity. You know, even when I raised money for Doctors without Borders, I just sort of kept it on the lowdown.

B&TF: It was posted all over the Internet and a lot of people donated to your charity.

LH: Yeah, and I was comfortable with that. It’s amazing because it was my first time doing this.

B&TF: That’s great and a worthy charity to donate. Next question, there was a rumor about some kind of project development with Fox involving you.

LH: (laughing) Where did you hear this? Where did you get this?

B&TF: The internet.

LH: A Fox show?

B&TF: You don’t know anything about it?

LH: I swear to God, I don’t. It would be fantastic if Fox wanted me for a show (laughing).

Sean Harry (who was in the room, organizing things): I read that too about Century Fox having a project with you and I was like, “Yeah, go Laurel.”

LH: I’m wide open, I have no work. I just don’t know where this stuff comes from (laughing).

Sean: You have to tell everyone that Laurel is looking for a job.

B&TF: Okay, I will put it in my report.

LH: I really want to play at weddings, too (laughing).

B&TF: You’ve been to many conventions; can we expect you to come again for L6, L7 or L15 even?

LH: Here’s the thing. I’m completely not a planner. I live from moment to moment and I have no idea where I’ll even be living next year or what I’ll be doing. My husband just got his dream job as an architect. I’m in this place where I have a 7-month old at home and I just want to go home and see what happens. There are a lot of women who haven’t come here. You know, Rose Rollins is like one of the most hysterical, wonderful people I know (laughing) and so is Pam. I think everybody’s gotten my autograph (laughing).

B&TF: Oh, I have about fifteen of them but it’s all for a good cause…money well spent for me.

LH: (laughing) Okay. We just have to wait, I don’t know. Maybe there will be one at the very, very end where the whole gang will come or something.

B&TF: I’ll be dead by then (so not joking).

LH: You’ll be dead by then? (laughing)

B&TF: Totally, I’m getting old.

LH: No, no. To be completely honest, I think people will disperse from this and go on to different projects; they have different schedules and you can already see that with some people that left earlier or who have to shorten their contracts because of new shows beginning. Janina’s busy doing things and Erin’s on a “Swingtown” and she’s developing a show right now. I know, at some point, she was asked to come back and do a web series as Dana but I think she didn’t really know how to bring her back from the dead. So she just said it wasn’t a very good thing to do (laughing).

I think the only thing that will bring it together is if there’s an L Word movie but I think it’s time to say goodbye and hope that another show comes along or there are more characters in other shows. Even if the spin-off doesn’t go, I think so many great things will happen. I think it would be just great to see all these women move back into the industry and create and do the things we want to do.

B&TF: It would be great. Now, let’s talk about Tina a little. She has changed a lot since Season 3.

LH: She did and in Season 3 Tina misbehaved a lot and she threatened to marry Henry and keep the baby. It was kind of a crappy thing to do but I like it when characters behave crappy because it’s more interesting than being nice. I was a little worried about Tina in the beginning because I thought they were going to make her super sweet.

B&TF: Yes, the one-dimensional nice girl next door.

LH: Yes, we made her edgier. Likability is not my concern (laughing).


B&TF: True. Well, back to the convention for a second. You know, before each convention, Sean puts out polls and asks us who we want to see. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been here so many times; everybody wants to see Laurel again. You’re always at the top; either first or second…next to Kate because you know everyone loves Shane.

LH: (laughing). I had no idea.

B&TF: Yeah, it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve been here, we still want to see you.

LH: I had no idea. I don’t even know. Somebody told me that on OurChart I had 42 thousand hits or something like that.

B&TF: It’s true. Tina’s thread is the biggest on OC just because the fans love you…

LH: They do? It’s so awesome (laughing).

B&TF: You have a lot of followers because Tina is one of the “most” favorite characters to many fans.

LH: I had no idea. I thought it would be Kate or Jennifer. It’s just awesome. OurChart is a great website, so is the l-word.com and AfterEllen.com.

B&TF: Thank you. By the way, speaking of OurChart. We know that Jennifer, Kate and Leisha sometimes contribute to its contents. Were you ever asked to be a part of it?

LH: Yes. I did an interview with Ilene Chaiken on OurChart.

B&TF: Yes, that vlog thing when you were wearing the “I see you” t-shirt.

LH: Yes. I’ve seen everybody’s been wearing that t-shirt (laughing).

B&TF: Well, when we saw that video, we researched the origins and found out about the organization and we found out it was for charity so we all decided to buy the shirts and donate to charity.

LH: Did you, guys? That’s so great.

B&TF: Yeah, we were like, “If Laurel’s behind it, it means something so we have to support it.”

LH: (laughing) Yes, it’s things like that that are totally cool. Here’s the thing. At the end of the day when the show is over I’m just Laurel, the actress. I’m just trying to focus on what’s important, and last year what was important was my adoption and I was offered the lead in a movie but I dropped out to do the adoption. I never auditioned for it. It was a straight offer. I wanted to be back working and do things like that but again, I feel like I’m in this really great place, reaching between the balance in my life and the balance of my work and I don’t want to be concerned about the work all the time. And I want to be really, really careful about what I do now. I think for woman getting older as an actor you need to have a lot of faith that there will be something there for you to do and as an artist I have to faith in that. Pam Grier is probably one of my biggest inspirations and she has the most amazing attitude. She’s one of my favorite people to work with and she’s been in the business for a really long time. She’s super savvy and she lives her life to the fullest. She’s just an inspiration to me and I just think about how I want to be when I get older and what I want to do and I just want to try to find that balance, you know?

B&TF: Thank you. Okay, now a Bette and Tina question.

LH: Bette and Tina question? No…really? (laughing)

B&TF: You know I have to ask at least one (laughing). On Ilene’s “Secret Ingredients” videos she was doing after each episode during Season 5, she mentioned that both Jennifer and you were a little nervous to do the love scenes because of the expectations of the fans and so many fans wanted their favorite couple to reunite. How was it for you to film those scenes?

LH: I wasn’t nervous. I don’t know, I think we’ve just done a lot of sex scenes and I think for me at that moment the priority was not to be repetitive or if we were going to bring something back, to do it in a really beautiful way.

B&TF: I was talking to Rose Troche about the second love scene in that episode because it was basically a mirror image of the Pilot love scene and Rose explained that it was done on purpose as a nostalgic moment for Bette and Tina.

LH: Yeah, I think whenever anything comes about Bette and Tina, they really listened to what Jennifer and I had to say because we’ve been living in the character’s skins for so long. Sometimes the writers get overwhelmed at how many characters they have, they have a lot to do and I think that if there’s something untrue…like it was something in Season 6 that reminded me of the way Tina would have behaved in Season 1 and I just said, “I don’t see myself behaving this way because I’ve spent six years creating this arch, can we change it a little bit?” And Ilene was awesome. She said, “Yeah, it’s a great idea. I think you’re right.” By the same token, it’s also good to listen to the director and a writer because you’ve got to make sure that your ego is not making that decision. You need to find that balance.

One of the issues was that my character had a moment of jealousy, which I actually really enjoyed playing, because I like playing those little mood scenes but my character handles it in a different way and then realizes that the end doesn’t bother her or what’s real. And Tina’s this character that’s super comfortable in her skin and super comfortable with who she is and being jealous would make her uncomfortable because this is a trait she doesn’t want to have. It’s an ego trait and I think what you end up seeing is that she’s not threatened at all by Elizabeth Berkley’s character because she isn’t a character she respects. I think it’s not so much about the situation but it’s about the trust that you have in your partnership.

B&TF: So basically Tina has trust in Bette now…

LH: I think it’s something that has to be explored based on Bette’s history. I can’t give you any answers because I can’t really reveal anything but I think that’s a really important thing to explore, especially partnerships when there’s been a betrayal or someone has trouble with the monogamy aspect. There’s always a character that needs lots of attention, attention through work, attention through this and then there’s a character that just needs love, and I understand that and I see that dynamic in lots of partnerships. When something comes up and Tina feels like, “God, Bette’s used to having a lot of attention and she needs it” and that’s something that frightens her but I think what she realizes is that it’s also something that she loves about her. I think that if you love your partner, you have to sort of dig deep and accept certain things. Attention is not necessarily a bad thing. I understand it because in my life I tend to need more attention than Tina did. I’m very different from her. Actors need a lot of attention (laughing).

B&TF: That’s true; I think we all need attention (laughing). So, you know that you have a lot of followers, TiBetters. How does it make you feel that Jennifer’s and your characters are the most popular couple on the show?

LH: I don’t know if it’s the most popular. I don’t know if that’s the fact but I know there are a lot of Talice fans.

B&TF: Fans even petitioned for Jennifer and you to have a spin-off.

LH: I don’t think that it would happen. It’s flattering that people would want to keep seeing us. The minute they wrote the Pilot they knew that they had a couple with a strong chemistry, they had a really strong couple that tried to have a baby and have this very strong family; and I think we kind of an anchor for the show and as a couple we are trying to be role models and we’re trying to have the fairytale, happily ever after, you know.

B&TF: You’re trying to have or you’re having it?

LH: I don’t know. I think you’re always trying. Marriage takes work. It’s not just that you showed up to be married and then it’s happily ever after. You have to work on it for the rest of your life.

B&TF: True. What does it mean personally for you to be a part of such a popular couple?

LH: You know, I just play the character and I do the work. It helps with the writing and the storylines for me to still have issues that come up with that couple. I just connect to them because I’m in the partnership and connect to how difficult it is to work on it and to also connect to the real world when you have a partner to go through life with and not be alone. It’s great to walk in those shoes as a character and then have people really respond to that or relate to that because they’re either already in a partnership or because they want that type of partnership. Again, this is flattering but I don’t wake up and think about it every day. It’s just an aspect of the character, just an aspect of who she is.

B&TF: So there are, of course, people who want Bette and Tina to be together but there are also some fans who wants to see Tina with somebody else, like Helena or Sam from Season 5…

LH: Yeah, that would be great. I wish she had dated a little more but I think it’s just more of a Laurel thing because it’s more of an aspect of my own personality but Tina is more of a relationship person or she’s more of a loner person and I think the casual dating is just not her. She could never live Shane’s life. But I have a different upbringing and they are different people. Tina is just more careful about who she connects too and when she connects; she usually starts from some sort of emotional core. I do think when she has the sex scene with Brenda, she loses herself in it and she thinks, “Wow, I can actually have physical pleasure even if I don’t want to call her the next day, it’s all right.” And I think that was a good thing for Tina to go through and it would be neat to see more of that happen. It’s not in Tina’s personality, though. I wish she had gone to a bar and just picked up a twink but she doesn’t need that attention. That’s the kind of attention that Bette needs. You know what I mean? This is the power trip of it and Tina doesn’t see it as a power trip. And then it’s also so strange to her because she doesn’t act on that type of anger, energy or the sexual power of that. She’s just not a predator.

B&TF: In Paris you mentioned that we will finally learn something about Tina’s family. Why did it take six years to bring it up?

LH: I said the same thing, why did it take so long?

B&TF: Yeah, we even have information about minor characters but not Tina.

LH: It was very frustrating to me.

B&TF: So, we are going to have some information.

LH: Yes, at the very, very end.

B&TF: Is it good?

LH: It makes sense.

B&TF: It makes sense, okay. How often do you and Jennifer improvise your scripts?

LH: Not so much between me and Jennifer but the big group scenes are very improvisational.

B&TF: Since Season 5 is your favorite season, what is your most favorite scene from that season?

LH: The Kiss…SheBar Kiss.

B&TF: Mine too. When I saw it the first time, I cried. And I cried after the second time, too because it was such a wonderful, beautiful moment. When Jennifer explained yesterday [during Q&A] that Bette’s crying wasn’t scripted and was sort of improvised by her, I thought it was just all these emotions.

LH: Jennifer is a great crier. It’s such a great scene and I really loved it because there’s a part of Tina that kind of takes care of Bette in that little moment, like it’s going to be okay.

B&TF: Kind of a nurturing moment?

LH: Yeah, when she kissed her on forehead and rubbed her hair. Jennifer and I don’t tell each other what we’re going to do before our scenes so you have a natural reaction to what happens in those scenes. I didn’t know what was going to happen and I didn’t know what it was going to look like, but I really liked the whole scene. I liked the way Tina’s kind of lonely and depressed and she doesn’t really expect Bette to kiss her at all.

B&TF: The song was perfect, by the way.

LH: This song is my all-time favorite song.

B&TF: Mine too.

LH: It’s such a beautiful song.

B&TF: Actually, when you listen to the whole song, it basically explains the whole Bette and Tina relationship in a way.

LH: It really does. As soon as heard it I was like, “Ilene, what is that song? I love it.”

B&T: They are signaling to me to finish, so I just want to confess that traveling for The L Word, interviewing the cast and writing about it has been one of the happiest times of my life. Sorry, I might cry because I’m really emotional right now.

LH: I think it’s good to be emotional. I’m a big fan of crying. When you cry you feel better.

B&TF: Unless you get puffy eyes and a big red nose, like me. Anyway, the show’s ending and for many fans it will be a sad time because we lived and breathed it for six years. What is your advice on how we can let go and basically move on after it’s over?

LH: Create more shows.

B&TF: You think there will be another show like that?

LH: Write a show, write your stories.

B&TF: Well, we do have a lot of writers on our website.

LH: I noticed that (laughing).

B&TF: Do you read anything?

LH: I just go back into my life. It’s really hard to focus on yourself that much. That’s not my nature; do you know what I’m saying? I don’t want to be on the Internet all the time, looking at what people think about the character. I have two kids, so I want to focus on somebody beside myself.

[4u2]

GUEST APPEARANCES:

MAY 13TH: Jennifer Beals (”The L Word”) on “Lie to Me,” 8 p.m. Wednesday on Fox.

MAY: 11TH: Elizabeth Berkley (”The L Word”) on “CSI: Miami,” 9 p.m. Monday on CBS.

[4u2]

‘Our opponents know the end is near’
Atlanta HRC dinner honors LGBT activists working for full equality

Friday, May 08, 2009
By: MATT SCHAFER

Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese said full equality for LGBT people is coming soon, but attacks from the religious right and other social conservatives will become more “ferocious” as the tide turns.

“Our opponents know that the end is near. This is when they are going to be the most ferocious,” Solmonese told the audience at the Atlanta HRC Dinner, held May 2 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

“Why? Because they know when we pass hate crimes and President Obama signs that bill into law, that a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act is next. A repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ isn’t far behind,” he said. “Once we start, we are not going to stop until we enjoy the same equality as every other American.”

Solmonese warned HRC supporters to be careful of lies spread by conservative lawmakers as they try to stop what he sees as an inevitable victory for equal rights.

“Our opponents have nothing left but lies,” he said. “They know they can’t win on the merits so they lie about lives, they lie about the depth and reach of even the most basic civil rights.”

YouthPride, Harris honored

The dinner included a series of awards, where HRC honored several Atlanta and national advocates who have advanced the cause of LGBT rights. For the first time, the Atlanta gala awarded two National Ally for Equality Awards. The first went to Dr. Johnnetta Cole, the first African-American woman to head Spelman College. The second went to actress Cybill Shepherd, who gave the keynote speech.

Cole, who has lobbied for gay rights through out her career in the academic and private sector, said she would redouble her efforts to support gay issues.

“I will be speaking out, to educate and to call for legislation for the rights of all people to marry,” she said. “I promise to stand up for my LGBT sisters and brothers for in doing so I am standing up for myself. Until every single one of us is free, not a nary one of us is free.”

In addition to Shepherd’s role on “The L Word,” the actress began speaking out for gay rights before most celebrities felt safe enough to come out of the closet. She spoke of her regret for not speaking out against segregation and her determination to carry the banner in the 1993 March on Washington for LGBT Rights.


(left to right) National Ally for Equality Dr. Johnnetta Cole and Community Leadership winner Dani Lee Harris. Dinner Co-Chairs Ebonee Bradford and Brad DiFiore. YouthPride members who accepted the Humanitarian Award

“I am so incredibly proud to stand with you as we move forward,” Shepherd said. “I have been with you a long time and I will always be there for you. I love you.”

YouthPride won the Dan Bradley Humanitarian Award. Paul Rogers, director of youth and volunteer services, chose to honor YouthPride’s founders in accepting the award.

“There are two people I would like to accept this award on behalf of tonight, and the first one is Philip Rush, who was one of our founders, and was always there and I know is looking down on us tonight and is completely happy with us tonight,” Rogers said. “And the other person is Stephanie Swan, who was an original founder of our organization.”

There was also a moment of silence to remember Rush, an Atlanta activist who died April 28 at age 55 from a pulmonary embolism.

Patrick Snipes was the YouthPride Essay Contest winner this year, and told of finding himself and moving to Atlanta in order to “get out of the hell I was living in.”

Atlanta Police Department GLBT Liaison Officer Dani Lee Harris accepted the Leon Allen & Winston Johnson Community Leadership award.

“I didn’t expect this award,” she said during her brief speech. “I don’t do my job for awards, and I’ll keep on doing my job.”

One of the more powerful moments of the dinner came when John-Paul Griffin, who is now in nursing school, shared with the audience his attempt at suicide after being bullied and beaten in high school for being gay.

“I remember laying face down in the dirt, feeling someone’s boot hit me in the side over and over again,” he said. “I remember thinking, ‘I would rather die if this is what it’s like to be this way.’ I knew that I would have to see these guys every day of the rest of the school year, and I knew that year would be hell.”

Griffin said one night he took ...

all the drugs in his parents’ medicine cabinet, but survived.

“Mostly I remember being disappointed, because when I woke up I knew I would still have to go to school and hear people call me names,” he said.

Griffin recovered with the help of a lesbian therapist and went on to travel the world and mentor teens as part of YouthPride.

Dinner nets close to $200,000

The awards came during a more frugal gala than years past. Organizers reduced the number of performers and consolidated the silent auction into a smaller space. Attendance was estimated at 900 people.

Dinner Co-Chair Brad DiFiore said he was pleased with the event’s more focused tone.

“We did a lot of things that were sensible from a financial perspective, but the guests didn’t suffer for it,” DiFiore said.

Attendance was down 15 percent, but organizers raised approximately $300,000, which is in line with previous years, and this year had expenses of $110,000.

“We got the HRC message across and did so in a year when we could have taken a big hit,” DiFiore said, noting many of the contracts were signed before the current economic downturn.

As usual the dinner hosted a bevy of elected officials: U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Atlanta), state Sens. Nan Orrock, Vincent Fort and mayoral candidate Kasim Reed, all Atlanta Democrats; state Reps. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates), Margaret Kaiser (D-Atlanta), Stephanie Stuckey-Benfield (D-Atlanta), Stacey Abrams (D-Atlanta) and Rep Rashad Taylor (D-Atlanta), as well as House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin), who was the only gubernatorial candidate in attendance.

Also attending were Atlanta City Council President and mayoral candidate Lisa Borders; Decatur City Commissioner Kecia Cunningham; State Insurance Commissioner candidate Mary Squires; Graham Balch, who is running against Fort in the 2010 primary; Atlanta City Council candidates Steve Brodie, Adam Brackman, Amir Farokhi and Clarence Turner; and Courtney English, candidate for Atlanta Public Schools Board.

[4u2]

May 13th, 2009
Neil Patrick Harris, Portia de Rossi top gay and lesbian “hot” list
Posted by: Dean Goodman

A lecherous womanizer is the hottest entertainer out there for gay audiences.

Or more precisely openly gay actor Neil Patrick Harris, who plays the character in question on the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” has topped a “Hot 100″ list determined by an online poll at a Web site popular with gay and bisexual men.

There’s a separate list for the ladies, and the No. 1 spot went to Australian actress Portia de Rossi, the wife of comedienne Ellen DeGeneres.

Both were compiled for the third year by gay-oriented cable channel Logo, which polled visitors to its afterelton.com and afterellen.com Web sites.

Harris, who revealed he was gay in 2006, ends the two-year reign of Jake Gyllenhaal, who played a gay cowboy in “Brokeback Mountain” but otherwise prefers the girls, specifically actress Reese Witherspoon. Gyllenhaal dropped to No. 4 on the new list.

Indeed, one does not have to be gay or lesbian to make it into the Hot 100s. The picks should be “hot … in the physical sense,” Logo said, but “also command our respect and admiration.” That might explain why President Barack Obama made it to No. 39 on the gay Hot 100. But Michelle Obama is either less popular with lesbians or faces tougher competition. The first lady came in at No. 97 on their list.

Logo helpfully identified the “out” people on its lists. Actresses Jennifer Beals (”The L Word”) and Lena Headey (”Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”), who are not, came in at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Beals’ “L Word” co-star Leisha Hailey, who is, was No. 4. Yet another “L Word” alumna, Sarah Shahi, who also is not, was No. 5.

For the men, “out” actors John Barrowman (”Doctor Who”) and Luke MacFarlane (”Brothers and Sisters”) ranked at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. Straight actor Jensen Ackles (”Supernatural”) came in behind Gyllenhaal at No. 5

[4u2]

Originally posted: May 15, 2009

Here for the 'Party' and full of 'Glee': A talk with Jane Lynch
Jane Lynch fled her first acting opportunity.

In her freshman year at Thornridge High School in south suburban Dolton, Lynch was cast in a one-act play. But one day she stopped going to rehearsals.

“I wanted nothing more, and I was so afraid of failing that I just walked away from it and joined the tennis team,” Lynch said in a recent interview.

Lynch eventually embraced her desire to perform, and now this Chicago theater and comedy veteran is one of the hardest-working actors in TV and film.

She currently stars in the delightful comedy “Party Down” on Starz, which has its second season finale Friday. The show has been renewed for a second season, but there’s a catch: Lynch is so busy that, though she’d love to return, she’s not sure her schedule will allow it.

That’s because she’s also a cast member in the highly anticipated musical dramedy “Glee,” which gets a post-“American Idol” tryout Tuesday on Fox. As if that weren’t enough, she has two films coming out this summer: the romantic comedy “Post Grad” and the Meryl Streep-Amy Adams film “Julie and Julia,” in which Lynch plays Julia Child’s sister, Dorothy McWilliams.

The chef had “a big, eccentric energy and [Streep] completely immersed herself in that,” Lynch said. The same words could be said of Lynch, whose characters retain their amused compassion even as they embrace their eccentricity.

“I guess maybe I’m kind of an extreme person, and I guess when I make a choice, I make a big one,” Lynch said with a laugh.



Since her breakthrough nine years ago as a dog handler in Guest’s “Best in Show,” Lynch, 48, has been a mainstay of comedies produced or directed by Judd Apatow (“The 40 Year Old Virgin,” “Talladega Nights”) and a key ensemble member in Guest’s improvisational films (“A Mighty Wind,” “For Your Consideration”). But those roles were shoehorned in among dozens of appearances in various TV shows, everything from “The L Word” to “Boston Legal.”

Only in the last couple of years has she occasionally turned down roles.

“That part of it is brand-new to me,” she said. “When you’re a struggling actor, the mentality is, ‘Just take it.’”

But if there’s a rule book for achieving success in Hollywood, Lynch has ignored it. Not only has she flourished in the mostly male comedy world, her major break in the business came the year she turned 40. And she’s always been truthful about her sexuality: She’s out and proud.

“I don’t remember hiding it,” she said.

Lynch’s honesty is admirable, but it’s of a piece with her approach to acting. Colleagues past and present cite Lynch’s generosity and her willingness to take chances.

Zach Gilford (“Friday Night Lights”), who worked with Lynch in this summer’s “Post Grad,” recalled how, even when she was off-camera, Lynch was trying out comedic bits.

“I was at a table with her, Alexis Bledel, Michael Keaton and Carol Burnett, and I was just watching Jane Lynch,” Gilford said. “She would be picking her teeth with a chicken bone or something like that. She was always so totally there and complete, in a comedic way, but not over the top.”

On “Party Down,” a show about actors who moonlight as catering waiters, Lynch plays the sweetly clueless Constance Carmell, who thinks all of her bit parts have actually been meaningful career breakthroughs.

“She’s taken a character who would could have been merely an oddball outsider and turned her into someone you root for despite her rather large disconnect from reality,” executive producer John Enbom said. “I think she brings a wonderful sense of warmth and lightness to the show. Her Constance is so grounded and satisfied in her delusions.”

Though she’s pleased with her role in “Glee,” in which she plays a taskmaster of a cheerleading coach, she calls “Party Down” “the most fun I’ve had in my life.”

“It’s what I really love to do. I love being part of a team where everybody’s kind of got equal weight,” Lynch said. “It’s about teamwork. There’s really no room for the big ego-trip thing that you hear about.”

“Jane gets it,” says Faith Soloway, the creator of “The Real Live Brady Bunch,” an early ’90s off-Loop production in which Lynch played Carol Brady (Steve Carell and Andy Richter also had roles in the show). “She knows how to play every note of comedy and drama. She almost reminds me of a brilliant musician when she acts. ... She is more in the moment then most comedic actors I have ever worked with. And that’s why her performances are so subtly uproarious.”

Lynch may be fearless as a performer, but, she said with a throaty chuckle, many of her life choices in the past were “driven by fear.”



She loved performing, but she started out at Illinois State University as a mass communications major, and only later transferred to the theater program. A brief stint in New York after graduate school at Cornell sent her scurrying back to Chicago—the Big Apple kind of “ate me up,” she said.


Once ensconced in Chicago’s theater scene, where she did Shakespeare, appeared in plays at Steppenwolf Theatre and elsewhere, and performed with Second City’s touring ensemble, she was nervous about heading to Los Angeles. But a breakup, plus the fact that most of her “Real Live Brady Bunch” pals had moved to L.A., helped change her mind. She moved there in 1994 and spent years scrambling for guest roles and short-term gigs.

A few months after working with her on a Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes commercial, Guest ran into Lynch at an L.A. restaurant, and later that day, cast her as a dog trainer in “Best in Show.”

“I can absolutely pinpoint that as a moment when new doors opened,” Lynch said.

Though she loved her time in the Second City touring company, Lynch said that the skills required to succeed in Apatow’s and Guest’s comedies are different than those seen on the improv company’s stages.

“The Second City improv is different. It’s sharper—it’s a more masculine improv, let’s put it that way,” Lynch said. “It’s kind of about getting to the joke. It’s fast and kind of harder hitting. The stuff I do with [Guest and Apatow] films, we meander a lot more. We don’t rush headlong into a joke. We’re more interested in characters and situations and seeing what comes out of that.”

Yet the thing that Lynch sounds happiest discussing—working largely without scripts when making “Virgin” and the Guest films—is a concept that would terrify many actors. But Lynch is willing to trust the process and her choices, especially when she knows the other participants well (Carell’s wife, fellow Second City veteran Nancy Walls, recommended Lynch for the “Virgin” role of electronics store manager that was originally written for a man). Lynch describes her approach as “close my eyes and fall into it.”

Coming out was never really a choice for Lynch, because she can’t actually remember being in the closet, certainly not since she’s lived in L.A. She has played both gay and straight characters, and Lynch said she’s never felt typecast. ] “I think the reason for that is that we, as a society, have come a long way in accepting that it’s just another way of loving,” Lynch said. “I also think it’s because I’m a character actor. I don’t think it’s so easy a road for an ingenue, male or female.”

Therapy allowed her get in touch with the truths that have affected her life most deeply, which led to a “profound shift” in her work, she said. And it helped with the comedy too.

“The more truthful something is, the funnier it is,” she said.

[4u2]

Where The Girls Are On TV: Kate Moennig, Portia de Rossi, Dilshad Vadsaria
by Rhiza Dizon | Article Date: 05/20/2009 5:07 AM



L Word stars Kate Moenning and Jane Lynch are back on TV, Portia de Rossi's Better off Ted is renewed for next fall and Dilshad Vadsaria comes out on GREEK.


I started having The L Word withdrawals about 2 weeks after the series finale. It started with the need to visit some sort of trendy café establishment, then it developed into a desire to make a movie based on my life with the names of the main characters slightly distorted, and then it culminated with a dance marathon in the name of some good cause.

God forbid. I even missed the Betty song in the opening credits and soon after I had the unexplainable desire to meet girls in tight dresses who drag with moustaches. Though our show is dearly missed it doesn’t mean that we can’t catch our favorite Sapphic ladies back on television this fall. Sure, they won’t be as naked, nor will they be kissing girls, but we’ll take what we can get.

We’ll be seeing Kate Moenning back on TV, but will we love her in any role other than Shane? My first encounter with Kate happened years before the L Word on a show called Young Americans, in which she played a girl who was impersonating a boy to go to an all-boys school to rebel against her mom. Said girl who was playing a boy ends up falling for a boy, and boy ends up liking boy who is secretly a girl, and he starts questioning his sexuality. It was all very charming and is a nostalgic throwback to the days when The CW was the WB and Kate Bosworth was a television star.


Anyway, I digress -- the point of all this was that Kate Moenning is fully capable of playing a character other than a wife-beater-wearing, jeep-driving, womanizer turned good troubled soul, although that will perhaps always and forever be my favorite role for her -- hands down.

The new series is set to air on CBS in the fall, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, Three Rivers is a medical drama pilot about organ transplants, with each story told from the point of view of the doctor, the recipient and the donor.

There is no absolutely no word that Kate will be playing gay, but let’s face it, if the writers know what’s good for them, they’ll find a way to write it in there somehow.

Jane Lynch, the L Word’s feisty cougar of a lawyer Joyce Wishnia, premiered a new show on Fox in Glee, a musical comedy based on a high school. And you guessed it -- glee club! Lynch plays a nazi of a cheerleading coach—I guess it was the closest she could get to P.E. teacher.






Besides watching Lynch in different colored Adidas tracksuits yelling at girls flipping in the air every week, the new series looks entertaining, with the promise of choreographed musical numbers and a classic underdog storyline.

[4u2]

Season Two Of The A&E Hit Scripted Drama "THE CLEANER" Premieres On Tuesday, June 23 At 10PM ET/PT

May 19, 2009 - 2:44:48 PM




Inspired By A True Story, The Series Stars Benjamin Bratt, Grace Park, Amy-Price Francis And Esteban Powell

Guest Stars Include Whoopi Goldberg, Mia Kirshner, Gary Cole, Rebecca Gayheart, Shirley Jones, Christine Lahti, Lori Petty, Tyler James Williams, Jayne Brook And More

Season two of the hit A&E original scripted drama series "The Cleaner," starring Benjamin Bratt, Grace Park, Amy Price-Francis and Esteban Powell premieres Tuesday, June 23 at 10PM ET/PT. The second season will feature thirteen one-hour episodes.

In its first season, on a weekly three telecast cume basis, "The Cleaner" averaged 4.2 million total viewers, 2.4 million adults 25-54 and 2.2 million adults 18-49 in primetime, becoming the number one original drama in A&E history.

Inspired by the true story of real life "extreme interventionist" Warren Boyd, who also co-executive produces the series, "The Cleaner" stars Bratt as William Banks, a recovering addict who must balance his unwavering dedication to helping others get clean with an increasingly rocky personal life and the ghosts of his addictions. Banks and his teammates Akani Cuesta (Park) and Arnie Swenton (Powell) employ an unconventional - and often by any means necessary - approach to getting addicts and those who surround them to realize they've reached rock-bottom and help them begin the process of recovery. With every success and failure, William wrestles with his commitment to his work and his love for his wife Melissa (Price-Francis) and their children through an unusual relationship with God.

Whoopi Goldberg guest stars in the series premiere, "Hello America," as William's (Bratt) former sponsor who resurfaces when an addict he is called to help is one she currently sponsors. The addict (Gary Cole), a former friend and fellow program member, happens to be a high-profile national news anchor who is a spokesperson for recovery and is struggling with his sobriety in the face of his wife's (Jayne Brook) battle with cancer. William juggles the case while moving back in with his wife Melissa (Price-Francis) to create a façade of happiness while her parents (Mariette Hartley and Barry Newman) are in town.

Additional guest stars featured in the second season, which is currently in production in Los Angeles, include Mia Kirshner ("The L Word"), Rebecca Gayheart ("Vanished"), Shirley Jones ("The Patridge Family"), Christine Lahti (Obsessed), "Lori Petty ("House M.D."), Rachel Boston ("The Ex List"), Tyler James Williams ("Everybody Hates Chris"), Charles Esten ("Big Love"), Diana Scarwid ("Pushing Daisies"), Brian Van Holt ("John From Cincinnati"), Michael Beach ("Stargate Atlantis"), Raymond J. Barry ("Cold Case"), Joe Don Baker (Strange Wilderness), Steve Landesberg ("Head Case"), Jonathan Adams ("Bones"), Kate del Castillo (Julia), Tom Bower (Appaloosa), Madeline Carroll (Swing Vote), Janina Gavankar ("The L Word"), Alice Amter ("Big Bang Theory"), Paul Schulze ("The Sopranos"), Noah Bean ("Damages"), Jeanette Brox ("Heroes"), Nasser Faris ("24"), Jamie McShane ("Sons of Anarchy"), Ingrid Rogers ("All My Children"), Taylor Handley ("Southland"), Sterling Beaumon ("Lost"), Joel McKinnon Miller ("Big Love"), Samantha Shelton ("Monarch Cove"), Jon Sklaroff ("The Beast") and Maxim Knight ("Our First Christmas").

"The Cleaner" is produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Once A Frog Productions for A&E Network. The series was created and is executive produced by Jonathan Prince ("Cane," "American Dreams") and Robert Munic. David Hollander ("The Guardian") also serves as executive producer. Jay Silverman and Warren Boyd are co-executive producers and Benjamin Bratt serves as producer.

[4u2]

Tuned In: CBS schedule -- 'Three Rivers' runs through it

Thursday, May 21, 2009
By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

John P. Filo/CBS"Three Rivers," a medical drama set in a Pittsburgh transplant hospital, will premiere this fall on CBS. The cast includes Alex O'Loughlin and Katherine Moennig.Five years after CBS canceled its last Pittsburgh-set series, "The Guardian," the network returns to the 'Burgh for the aptly titled "Three Rivers," a medical drama that will air at 9 p.m. Sundays beginning this fall.

"Three Rivers" is set in the world of transplant surgery among organ donors, recipients and surgeons at a Pittsburgh hospital.

The series stars Alex O'Loughlin ("Moonlight") as Dr. Andy Yablonski, described as "the highly skilled workaholic lead organ transplant surgeon, whose good-natured personality and sarcastic wit makes him popular with his patients and colleagues."

Other characters include:

• Dr. Miranda Foster (Katherine Moennig, "The L Word"), a rebel surgeon with a temper who lives in the shadow of her surgeon father's reputation.

• Dr. David Lee (Daniel Henney, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"), a womanizing surgical resident.

• Ryan Abbott (Christopher J. Hanke), an inexperienced transplant coordinator who schedules the organ transplants.

• Dr. Sophia Jordan (Julia Ormond, "Sabrina"), the head of surgery.

• Pam Acosta (Justina Machado, "Six Feet Under"), Andy's no-nonsense operating assistant and best friend.

The "Three Rivers" pilot filmed in Pittsburgh in late March and early April using the closed Brownsville Tri-County Hospital as its primary location. Other locations included, but were not limited to, Allegheny County Airport, the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and Duquesne University's A.J. Palumbo Center, where members of the Point Park men's basketball team filmed a scene involving a player who faces a medical emergency during a practice session.

A CBS publicist did not know where subsequent episodes of the series will film, but the Pittsburgh Film Office has gotten no confirmation that "Three Rivers" is returning to Pittsburgh to film additional episodes. A likely scenario is that the series will shoot primarily on the West Coast, like "The Guardian," returning to Pittsburgh on occasion for pick-up shots. Although Pennsylvania tax incentives make filming locally attractive to filmmakers, actors often have contracts that limit series filming locations to film industry centers (e.g. Los Angeles, Vancouver, New York).

"Three Rivers" is executive produced by director Curtis Hanson, who shot the film "Wonder Boys" in Pittsburgh, and the showrunner is Carol Barbee, a veteran of CBS dramas "Jericho" and "Swingtown." Barbee wrote the "Three Rivers" pilot.

"Three Rivers" will face stiff competition for attention opposite ABC's female-skewing "Desperate Housewives," NBC's male-skewing "Sunday Night Football" and Fox's youth-skewing animation block.

In its most aggressive programming move, CBS will shift freshman hit "The Mentalist" to 10 p.m. Thursday, where it is likely to win the time slot over ABC's "Private Practice" and NBC's "The Jay Leno Show."

CBS also picked up "Medium," which NBC canceled this week, and paired it with similarly themed "Ghost Whisperer" on Fridays.

CBS canceled "The Unit," "Worst Week," "Eleventh Hour" and "Without a Trace." Ratings for "Trace" have not been terrible, but the show is expensive to produce and it's owned by Warner Bros., not CBS.

"Rules of Engagement" will return at midseason. Canadian co-production "Flashpoint" will also return.

Here's CBS's fall schedule, with new series in bold:

SUNDAY
7 p.m.: "60 Minutes."

8 p.m.: "The Amazing Race."

9 p.m.: "Three Rivers": Pittsburgh-set medical drama.

10 p.m.: "Cold Case."



Read more: "Tuned In: CBS schedule -- 'Three Rivers' runs through it" - http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09141/97161...0GA5uFn8X&A

[4u2]

Lauren Zalaznick, Tina Brown, Donna Byrd and Ilene Chaiken Set to Headline BlogHer '09 -- The Largest Conference for Women Who Blog
Speakers at Fifth Annual Conference Include Some of the Biggest Names in the Media Industry

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BlogHer, the leading participatory news, entertainment and information network for women online, today announced the keynote speaker line-up for BlogHer Business and BlogHer ‘09, both to be held at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Chicago, IL from July 23-25. On July 23rd, Lauren Zalaznick, President of NBC Universal’s Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Network, will headline BlogHer Business -- BlogHer’s annual crash course on best practices for marketing to women online. On Saturday July 25th, Tina Brown, founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast; Donna Byrd, publisher of The Root and Ilene Chaiken, creator of "The L Word" and OurChart.com will headline BlogHer ’09, discussing how they are revolutionizing popular, for-profit media by placing online, social media front and center.

“We are thrilled to welcome Lauren, Tina, Donna and Ilene as keynote speakers for this year's BlogHer conference," said BlogHer COO and co-founder Elisa Camahort Page. "They represent some of the most influential women in the field of media today and are powerful examples of how to marry traditional experience with new tools and incisive business savvy."

Other speakers scheduled for the 2009 conference include online safety experts Anne Collier and danah boyd, Op-Ed Project founder Catherine Orenstein, Blogging While Brown founder Gina McCauley, blogger-author Stefanie Wilde-Taylor and the four recipients of BlogHer’s International Activist Blogger scholarship program, hailing from Malawi, India, Bolivia and Nigeria.

For more information on this year's speakers, please visit: http://www.blogher.com/blogher_conference/conf/9/speakers/1

About BlogHer’s Keynote speakers:

Tina Brown is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller "The Diana Chronicles.” She has written for numerous publications including The Times of London, The Spectator, and the Washington Post. Tina's revitalization of publications began at the Tatler - she became editor-in-chief in 1979; circulation rose dramatically and soon purchased by Condé Nast in 1982. She became editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair at the end of 1983. With Tina at the helm from 1984-1992, they won 4 National Magazine Awards; she was named Advertising Age's first Magazine Editor of the Year. In 1992, Tina took on revitalizing The New Yorker. In her 6 ½ year tenure, circulation increased 28%; in 1992, Tina was the first magazine editor to be honored with the National Press Foundation's Editor of the Year Award. In 1998, she co-founded Talk Media with Harvey and Bob Weinstein of Miramax, launched Talk magazine and Talk Miramax Books which published best sellers by Rudy Giuliani, Queen Noor and Madeleine Albright.

Donna Byrd is Publisher of TheRoot.com, a daily online magazine that provides thought-provoking commentary on today's news from a variety of black perspectives. As publisher, Byrd leverages her expertise in marketing, strategic business planning and digital innovation to lead one of the top African American-focused daily magazines on the Web. Prior to joining TheRoot.com, Byrd was CEO of Black America Web, where she worked with entrepreneur and national radio personality Tom Joyner to launch one of the top three African-American news and lifestyle websites. Most recently, she was a founding partner with Kickoff Marketing, a strategic planning and brand firm, where she used her extensive experience in brand development, marketing and strategic planning. Byrd has held previous positions at The Coca-Cola Company and Procter and Gamble where she developed and managed marketing strategies and advertising for new products, among other initiatives.

Ilene Chaiken is an award winning writer and producer of film and television who has worked openly as a lesbian in Hollywood for over 25 years. She is internationally known for her creation of Showtime Networks' groundbreaking series, “The L Word." “The L Word” has grown into a cultural phenomenon, giving a worldwide audience of both gay and straight fans the opportunity to get a glimpse into the complex lives and relationships of a group of LGBT friends and lovers. Since the creation and subsequent success of “The L Word,” Chaiken has been recognized as one of Power Up’s Top 10 Lesbians in Hollywood and as one of OUT magazine’s 100 most powerful gay people in Hollywood. In January 2007, Chaiken and a small group of prominent women from the entertainment and technology worlds launched OurChart.com, a fully-featured social networking and media site on the Web for lesbians and their friends.

Lauren Zalaznick, President of NBC Universal Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, oversees Bravo Media, Oxygen Media, iVillage – the original online destination for women – and “Green is Universal,” NBC Universal’s ongoing environmental initiative as well as NBC Universal’s health and wellness program. She was named President, NBC Universal Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Networks in May 2008, when she added iVillage to her portfolio and announced the launch of Women@NBCU, a sales and marketing initiative designed to create custom solutions for advertisers seeking to connect with a highly targeted female demographic. Zalaznick was named president of Bravo in May 2004 and expanded her oversight in May 2007 when the network announced the formation of Bravo Media, a multimedia global content company targeting every consumer touch point. Under her watch, Bravo has become the No. 1 ranked entertainment cable network for upscale, educated and engaged television viewers. Since NBC Universal acquired Oxygen in 2007, under Zalaznick's oversight the network has shattered every previous ratings record and recorded its best year ever in 2008 across all demographic, on-air, on-line, and financial metrics. Zalaznick was named among Time 100’s most influential people in 2009.

About BlogHer

Founded in February 2005 by Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone, BlogHer’s mission is to create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment. BlogHer is the leading participatory news, entertainment and information network for women online and creates opportunities for its members via a community hub (http://blogher.com), annual conferences and an publishing network of more than 2,500 qualified, contextually targeted blog affiliates. BlogHer provides the highest quality content on a range of topics, with all blogs continually edited to meet strict editorial standards, including content quality, category relevance and blog frequency. BlogHer enjoys a strategic partnership with iVillage, part of Women@NBCU, which includes other NBC Universal brands including Bravo and Oxygen. BlogHer’s investors include Venrock, Peacock Equity, a joint venture between NBC Universal and GE Commercial Finance’s Media, and Azure Capital Partners.


Contacts
Racepoint Group
Lindsey Scott, 415-694-6713
lscott@racepointgroup.com
or
BlogHer Inc.
Elisa Camahort Page, 408-504-5708
elisa@blogher.com

[4u2]

Interview: Ariel Schrag The L Word(s): love, literature, and lesbianism in Likewise Robert Sebree
by Shauna Miller May 29, 2009

Ariel Schrag compulsively cataloged her life as a queer teenager at Berkeley High School in the ’90s, creating unblinking portraits of young lust, rejection, and the struggle for authenticity that make for a Robert Crumb-meets-Judy Blume experience: neuroses you can find solace in. Schrag, now 29, produced one graphic novel for each school year, scoring a contract at 17 for the series’ third book, Potential—which won an Eisner Award nomination and is now in development as a feature film. Likewise is the long-awaited final chapter, looking at that fateful year between adolescence and young adulthood. In advance of her readings tonight and tomorrow at The Charm City Kitty Club in Baltimore, Schrag spoke to Decider about managing to graduate high school—if not from her debilitating crush—with a little help from James Joyce and her dutiful tape recorder.

Decider: Likewise is the last book in your series about high school, which you’ve actually been working on since high school. How does it feel to be done?

Ariel Schrag: It feels really good. I felt like I really had to do it before I turned 30. That just would have been too old. So, the last year and a half was non-stop work—drawing 16 hours a day. I feel really happy with how it turned out. It’s really dense, too. There lots of little things in there to mull over.


D: Is it strange to have your adult career so attached to the person you were as a teenager?

AS: When I meet new people, sometimes I don’t always want them to read the books right away. I want to have a chance to show them who I am now. Especially with someone I’m dating—I don’t want them to think that I’m still this really desperate teenager. I think there’s something really charged about being a teenager. It’s why I like Gossip Girl now. It’s all the same emotions we experience now, just to a really exaggerated extreme.


D: There’s a lot of angst about a relationship you have with a girl named Sally, who you’re in love with but who isn’t really gay. It’s a specific kind of rejection that turns into obsession and shame. You’re very confessional about it.

AS: The confessional thing for me had a lot to do with being a teenager and this obsession with truth-telling—with not being fake, with getting to the core of something. You’re becoming an adult and you want to feel like you’re not deluding yourself.


D: A phony, like in Catcher In The Rye?

AS: Yeah, exactly. That obsession with not being phony. I wanted to include all the shameful stuff and all the embarrassing stuff. I wanted to tell it like it was.


D: There’s a tradition of that in comics—I’m thinking of Robert Crumb.

AS: Robert Crumb inspired Joe Matt and Joe Matt inspired me. He has a comic called Peepshow, and it’s all about him masturbating and dubbing porn and being an asshole. It was my favorite comic in 11th grade. I’d say my two biggest influences in writing Likewise were James Joyce and Joe Matt. So, you get these stream-of-consciousness drawings of nonstop masturbation.


D: At the end of Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield says, "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." Do you ever feel like sharing all these details of your life makes it less yours?

AS: Sometimes I do feel sort of exposed in a certain way. It’s a trade-off because it’s also a way to be closer to people. The whole goal of writing is to be able to communicate with people. But sometimes it feels weird having these really personal things floating around for someone to flip through [when they're] bored in a bookstore.


D: The styles in Likewise change abruptly throughout the book. Some are very shaded and detailed, some just sketched roughly.

AS: Each style matches a different form of storytelling. The first half of the book is told in this sort of stream-of-consciousness of what the character is thinking. As it continues, she gets obsessed with recording everything. It becomes a sort of escape. I didn’t have to think about what was actually happening. What was important was how I was going to record it. The only thing that mattered was how I was going to turn it into a comic. In the book’s second half, you have the story being told through what was recorded, in my diary, or with my mini tape recorder.


D: How do you do live readings of your comic?

AS: I’ll be reading and doing a slideshow—flipping through the frames of the comic like a little movie. It’s a recent thing that cartoonists have been able to do with the evolution of PowerPoint. Some of them are better with other actors, so I’ll get someone to read with me.


D: The series’ third book, Potential, is being made into a film directed by Rose Troche from The L Word, Go Fish, and The Safety Of Objects. How true will the film be to the comic?

AS: We met doing The L Word, and she’s really perfect for this. She completely gets this stuff, and I think she’ll be really great at having those elements come out in the story. But we also want teenagers to be able to see the movie. So there’s an issue about what you can include and still get a PG-13 rating.

D: Any concern it will go the way of Les Girls? Will you end up being Jenny Schecter?

AS: It’s the classic story, right? Your life story being turned into a shitty movie. I have a lot of faith in Rose. The bigger fear is that it will go straight to DVD.

[4u2]

Monte Carlo bets on U.S. talent
'Mad Men,' 'Lost' among competition lineup
By JOHN HOPEWELL

Matthew Fox ("Lost"), Jennifer Love Hewitt ("Ghost Whisperer"), Kyle MacLachlan ("Desperate Housewives") and Emily Deschanel ("Bones") are due in Monaco for the 49th Monte Carlo TV Festival.
Confab kicks off June 7 with the world preem of "Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace," a U.S. docu feature from New York's Channel Productions on the backroom negotiations driving the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace accord.

Heightening Hollywood presence, "Mad Men," "Lost" and "Boston Legal" will face off in Monte Carlo's main TV drama competition with 28 of the top drama series from around the world.

"30 Rock," "The Office" and "Entourage" rep the U.S. in the comedy category.

Though it lost its official market in 2000, and Formats Forum in 2004, the 49th edition will launch a TV Xchanges networking conference June 9-10.

Fabrice Larue, prexy of France-based FL Capital Partners, and "Law and Order" producer Dick Wolf will give keynotes.

Touching 50, the Monte Carlo fest has had to develop a new identity since it abandoned an ever-slimmer market in 2001.

It now serves three main purposes, CEO David Tomatis said Tuesday: access to U.S. talent for close on 350 invited journos, mostly from Europe; networking for producers and talent; and a platform for international productions that face-off with U.S. shows in six competitive sections.

This year, Hollywood's talent troupe is expected to include producer Chuck Lorre ("Two and a Half Men"), "Sex and the City" showrunner Darren Star, "Law and Order" co-stars Anthony Anderson, Epatha Merkerson and Linus Roache. Creator Ilene Chaiken and star Kate Moennig will talk up "The L Word," Jessica Szohr "Gossip Girl" and Bryan Dattilo "Days of Our Lives."

U.S. shows normally figure as favorites in competitive categories, but, Tomatis said, they haven't swept awards over the past two years. "There's very strong competition from Europe, especially the U.K."

Fest's 49th competition, and recent kudos counts, underscore the rising level of international TV production, Tomatis added.

U.S. companies have had a hand in priming foreign TV standards. Two drama category competitors are HBO Ole original productions: Argentina's serial killer thriller "Epitafios," and "Alice," from HBO Brazil and Gullane Filmes, about a country girl in Sao Paulo.

This year, U.S. drama contenders also face off with a BBC 1 hit trio -- costumer "Lark Rise to Candleford"; the BAFTA-prized "Spooks," from Shine's Kudos; and young wizard adventure skein "Merlin."

Other drama competitors include a prominent Gallic duo: Corsica mob saga "Mafiosa, Le Clan," from France's Image et Compagnie, one of Canal Plus France's hardest-boiled crime dramas; and the Marathon Intl.-sold "Bloody Mountains," a satanic cult thriller set in the brooding Pyrenees, which was the most-watched show by buyers at September's TV France Intl. Rendez-Vous in Biarritz.

"The Tudors" competes for Ireland.

U.S. drama and comedy submissions were designated by the Producers Guild of America.

Only one U.S. TV movie — HBO's "Recount," helmed by Jay Roach — figures in Monte Carlo's TV film competition, a sign of the decline of Yank TV movie production.

"CSI: Miami" competes with sibling "CSI" and "House" for the 4th Intl. TV Audience Award as the most-watched drama TV series worldwide, according to Eurodata TV stats.

Special events include presentations by some of France's top companies, with showcases from pubcaster channel France 3 (Marseilles procedural "Enquetes reservees" and hit soap "Plus belle la vie"), Calt Production and premium paybox bouquet Orange Cinema Series.

Fest runs June 7-11.

[4u2]

Cybill Shepherd: At 59, the actress is still sassy, sexy and smart. And moonlighting.

By: Alan Petrucelli
Examiner.com
June 2, 4:55 PM

It would be easy to say that Cybill Shepherd resembles a cat with nine lives, except that at this point it’s got to be closer to 10 or 11 . . . lives that is. She’s been a beauty queen, a model, a film starlet, a TV leading lady, a wife, a mother, a divorcee, a Martha Stewart impersonator and, most recently, an outspoken advocate of gay rights.

Now she’s taken to wearing yet another hat: Comeback Queen. After enduring a modest dry spell, the ever-colorful Shepherd is all over the map in an eclectic array of projects, including a star turn as a middle-aged college kid in the enchanting Hallmark Channel original movie Mrs. Washington Goes to Smith, premiering Saturday, August 1.

We call it a journey from The Last Picture Show to the getting the last laugh.

Hers is a career and a life lived very much on her own terms. Shepherd doesn’t have anything left to prove to anybody; this is clear from the first minute of chatting with her.

There are no star trips, no airs, no haughtiness, no overbearing ego. The mischievous, self-assured voice on the other end of the line reveals instead a 59-year-old woman who has seen it all and done it all, yet is plenty excited about doing a whole lot more before heading off to that great Panavision camera in the sky.

She’s endured the best jabs and uppercuts that Hollywood can dish out and continually, consistently, plowed forward. In many ways, she’s a great showbiz survivor story, but she’s also much more than that. As she winds up her fourth decade as an actress and all-around celebrity, the lady has earned the industry’s enduring respect–and then some.

“Yep, I’m still here!” Shepherd announces with certain finality. “And you know what? I don’t feel old yet. I still feel like I’m right in my prime. I’ve been around long enough that this is, like, my fifth comeback or something. Whatever they want to call it is fine by me. All I know is I’ve suddenly got a bunch of interesting projects lined up again.”

One might trace this latest of Shepherd’s comebacks to 2003 and 2005, when she starred in a pair of made-for-TV movies that cast her as Martha Stewart. Three seasons as the bisexual wife and mother Phyllis Kroll on Showtime’s The L Word followed.

But now suddenly all hell has broken loose for the actress who nominated four times for Emmy Awards and six times for the Golden Globe (she won three). She’s got a sitcom pilot at Lifetime called Alligator Point that just might get picked up for a series. She stars in a forthcoming indie feature that has the mesmerizing title of Desdemona Goes Shopping for the Fountain of Youth.

And then there’s Shepherd’s starring role in the lighthearted and poignant new Hallmark Channel original movie Mrs. Washington Goes to Smith in which Shepherd portrays a middle-aged divorcee who returns to college to finish the degree she never earned, disrupting stately Smith College in the process. It’s a role that she calls “just a huge boost to me as an artist and a person. It was just amazing on so many levels.”

Which levels would those be?

“Well, first off, it was just thrilling to get to play the lead in something that wasn’t just another ensemble,” Shepherd explains.

“This was truly one of the most wonderful stories I’d ever read. It was just such a cool part I couldn’t believe they’d even offer it to me. Really.”

This admission might be a tad hard to believe considering this is the same Cybill Shepherd who burst on the scene in 1971 at age 21 with an enchanting role in The Last Picture Show (and for which she earned all of $5,000). She followed that with a memorable performance as the homewrecker goddess in 1972’s The Heartbreak Kid, starred as Daisy Miller (1974)., lent dynamic support in Taxi Driver (1976) before, or course, creating a pair of iconic characters for television: Maddie Hayes in ABC’s wildly clever Moonlighting (opposite newcomer Bruce Willis) and Cybill Sheridan in her namesake sitcom Cybill.

Yes. It’s that Cybill Shepherd. And she’s legitimately surprised to land a leading part in a Hallmark Channel flick.

“I don’t get thrown this kind of stuff every day anymore,” reveals the Memphis-born actress, “though I do have to say it probably helped my image to have done what I was able to in The L Word. I got to do love scenes again, even as a mom playing my real age. I was proud of that because I was permitted to bust some of society’s rules and show that women my age can still be really interesting sexually.”

Mrs. Washington Goes to Smith finds Shepherd involved in physical activity of a different sort: basketball. Her character Alice Washington makes the Smith College team, which meant the actress had to get in game-shape and sink actual baskets for the camera.

“I’d played a lot of basketball in high school, so it wasn’t entirely foreign to me,” says the 5-foot-8 Shepherd. “It was a huge amount of fun. But beyond that, this role kind of fulfilled a dream in a way. As actors, one of the great things is to be able to live your life sideways and experience something through playing it. That happened for me in pretending to be a college basketball player---and finishing college.”

Shepherd took a lot of college classes part-time during her modeling and early years as an actress, but like Alice, she never got that degree.

“It was a major vicarious thrill to finally get it,” she coos, “even just as make-believe.”

The other thrill was reuniting with Jeffrey Nordling, with whom Shepherd had co-starred in a made-for-TV movie entitled Baby Brokers some 15 years before. In Mrs. Washington, Nordling portrays a poetry professor upon whom both Alice and her pink-haired rebel roommate (played by Corri English) have a crush. “Jeffrey and I have great chemistry, so working with him again was a real treat,” Shepherd says.

Being a mid-life college girl dovetailed nicely with Shepherd’s real life in that 21-year-old twins Zach and Ariel Oppenheim, her kids with second husband, chiropractor Bruce Oppenheim, are both still in college themselves. (We visited Cybill at her Encino, California, when the babies were teeny tiny and watched in wonder as she breastfed them, one on each spigot.)

Shepherd’s daughter Clementine Ford, 30 (her dad is Shepherd’s first husband David Ford), is a successful actress who played Shepherd’s daughter on The L Word and is currently is starring on the daytime soap The Young and the Restless. Clementine (below with Cybill) recently admitted she was a lesbian. That's where mom's gay rights acitivism comes into play.

So while Shepherd is coming up on 20 years since her second and last divorce, and some 40 years in the limelight, she is wanting for neither work nor male companionship.

Oh yeah. The men thing.

Shepherd has never been shy about making it clear she has a healthy libido. Come to think of it, she’s really never been shy about much of anything, and isn’t inclined to start now. However, that doesn’t mean being in the dating world is a breeze, either, as she pushes 60.

“I’m getting dates; that’s the miracle,” she says. “The fantasy is there are men lined up around the block for me. Not so. Where is somebody like me going to go to meet guys? Being who I am, I can’t exactly just go in bars and pick them up.”

[4u2]

Marlee Matlin: Bold Moves and Few Regrets
by Elinor Teele
June 10th, 2009




The Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin likes to tell the story of preparing to be interviewed for CNN. She’s sitting there, mentally preparing herself while the clock ticks down, and just before her image is beamed live to millions of people, the interviewer leans over to Matlin’s translator and says, “Can you tell Marlee that my dog is Deaf?”

It’s a common occurrence. From the moment that Matlin first crashed onto the scene in Children of a Lesser God (literally – we see airborne pots before we see her), the world has acted like a 13-year-old boy in her presence: two parts awe to one part excruciating awkwardness.

She has talent, she has looks, she is Deaf. It is a trifecta that has left Matlin with the unenviable title of Hollywood test case.

Readers can find Matlin’s response to this honor and other revelations in her recent autobiography, penned with the ghost writer Betsy Sharkey. As a book, I’ll Scream Later follows the standard line for a Hollywood celebrity. Written in a colloquial tone that Matlin says “absolutely captured my voice,” it meanders from exhortations,

We headed first to the island of Lanai. It’s so beautiful there; if you get the chance, you should go,

to gossipy details of Matlin’s intimate friendship with Rob Lowe:

One unforgettable night on the beach in Santa Monica we had all the light we needed from the luminescence of the fish swimming near the shore.

Yet, probably to Lowe’s immense relief, it is not the fish that have garnered the book so much press. It is the revelation that Matlin was in a violent relationship with her Children co-star William Hurt.

Many have called Matlin’s account a tell-all, a perception reinforced by the amount of pages she devotes to her rocky time with Hurt. I asked her in an email interview if she saw it that way:

Tell all is truth. Truth is power. As I’ve always said I have never lived by any other motto than ’silence is the last thing the world will ever hear from me.’ I’m sticking to it.

…
Born in the outskirts of Chicago to middle class parents, Matlin was the youngest child of three and the only girl. She lost her hearing at the age of eighteen months, probably due to a genetically malformed cochlea, and doesn’t ever remember when she wasn’t Deaf.

The change brought tension into the family. She was alternatively fretted over and indulged by her parents, who enrolled her in mainstream schools. Though she defines her childhood as happy, she had a temper and she and her mother often fought.

At the age of eleven she was molested by a female babysitter. As a sophomore, she
became sexually involved with a 39-year-old schoolteacher. She dreamed about becoming a cop. She threw herself into performing. She also began abusing marijuana and cocaine.

Even a hack psychologist would suggest that these events were related, and Matlin is admirably frank about her struggles, if unwilling at times to analyze her motivations. Busted in high school for pot possession, she deflected by falsely claiming her father had hit her.

I “so regret that day,” she says in her book, but goes no further.

She was still using drugs at the age of 19 when she was cast as the volatile Sarah in Children. A Deaf twenty-something janitor who refuses to speak, Sarah becomes involved with a teacher at a school for the Deaf, James Leeds, and the movie tracks their complicated relationship.

As a feat of acting, it was and still is a fireworks display. Matlin was gawky, raw, violent and vulnerable all at the same time, matching Hurt’s wry Leeds in each scene.

Without voice, much of her performance came through her face and body language. Her scenes are laced with nuance and I asked her if she thought her deafness, paradoxically, gave her an edge over other actors in any way:

I am great at reading other people’s faces, reading happiness or fear that looms under the surface. It’s just all the things I’ve learned to look out for seeing as I don’t have the benefit of relying on hearing people’s voices to read people.

During and after filming, Matlin and Hurt were in a relationship, one that Matlin claims often left visible bruises. Hurt was an alcoholic, and appears to have been extremely jealous of Matlin’s newfound success. She was nominated for an Oscar at around the same time that she checked herself into the Betty Ford clinic.

She quit cold turkey in January and won the Academy Award in March, the youngest actress to win in a leading role. Hurt’s response was curt:

What makes you think you deserve it? There are hundreds of actors who have worked for years for the recognition you just got handed to you. Think about that.

.......

The late 80s and early 90s were a relatively fallow period after Matlin’s early harvest. Flummoxed by her unique set of skills, Hollywood wasn’t quite sure what to do with her. In addition, like many actresses who win the award young, Matlin found out that it does not promise success:

Working in tandem with my production partner and my agents, I work every day to find work. I may have a little golden man called Oscar but I am a working actor who is always looking for work. That’s true for nearly 100% of actors in Hollywood. At some point we are unemployed and we have to hit the pavement and work it if we want to stay viable.

Work, as one might guess from Matlin’s repetition, is a critical concern.

Which may explain, but not excuse, the films that followed. She starred with Ed Harris in the critically panned Walker and then went on to make an embarrassment of a thriller with Martin Sheen called Hear No Evil.



If nothing else, Hear No Evil proved Matlin’s professionalism, for she gamely submitted to being beaten, chased through a forest and filmed taking a bath. Playing a physical trainer who becomes involved in the theft of, wait for it, a rare coin, Matlin adds her customary finesse to what one might politely call schlock. There’s one moment where she wipes her eyes sideways after waking up which has more honesty in it than the entire script. By this time, she and Hurt had separated and she had become a high profile spokesperson for the Deaf community, a role that was not always easy. Some in the community resented her instantaneous success and criticized her decisions to speak aloud on public occasions. Matlin says she has little time for it:

And as far as being lauded one moment by Deaf people and then criticized the next, well that happens less as people have seen that I’m not going anyplace except up. They also know I don’t have much patience for that kind of stuff and that most times I just let it slide off my back.

Matlin’s drive and sense of surety – “I am very demanding, very exact, very precise” – can come across at times as relentless. Nor does she waste much ink in I’ll Scream Later second-guessing her decisions.

But, then again, she had to deal with more than her fair share of moronic challenges. Cast in Reasonable Doubts, a well-received but soon cancelled television series with Mark Harmon, she recalls the first impression of a producer:

That Marlee Matlin is terrific. Is she going to be Deaf for the entire series?

…
Slowly, eventually, producers’ brains caught up with their netherparts, and she was offered better jobs with better scripts. In everyday life, Matlin is known as a jokester and an extrovert, personality traits that smart writers soon found ways to exploit.

After notable stints on Picket Fences, Seinfeld and Spin City, she surged back into the public consciousness with her role as the pollster Joey Lucas on The West Wing. Though her performance as a feisty take-no-prisoners character is spot-on, she is helped in no small part by the dialogue.

Here, as an example, is her greeting to the Deputy Chief of Staff, Josh Lyman – through a translator named Kenny:

Joey Lucas: Joshua Lyman, you have the cutest little butt in professional politics.
Josh Lyman: Kenny, really, that better have been her talking.

Joey Lucas: I’m here.
Josh Lyman: Where the hell have you been?
Joey Lucas: My plane had mechanical difficulties.
Josh Lyman: This is the State of the Union! There was nothing you could do about it?
Joey Lucas: No, because as a child I never paid attention during airplane mechanics class.

In The West Wing, as in her role in her subsequent series The L Word, Matlin was able to mix signing (sometimes with a translator, sometimes not) and speech, a method she says she uses in her own life. I asked her if she had an acting preference for one or the other:

It’s not about the method, it’s about the material. If it’s strong and powerful words that I’m seeing on the page, I would do it standing on my head if they asked me to.

This willingness to do headstands is part of the reason for her current high profile at an age when many actresses are struggling to pay the bills. For in addition to agreeing to appear nude in Children, she has played a lesbian alongside her longtime friend Jennifer Beals and was a recent contestant in Dancing with the Stars. I called them bold moves. She didn’t disagree:


worry about nothing except doing work that I like and that I look at as quality work. I don’t think of legacies or what people think. They are bold moves because I’ve found I can get the most attention with doing things that people don’t expect of me. It’s just the way it is.

…
A wise woman once said we don’t grow up, we just grow old, and Matlin comes across in her book much the same way I’d imagine she came across as a ten-year-old.

Focused, energetic, passionate about acting, still struggling to sort out her relationship with her parents, intent on being the center of attention, unconcerned by what others think of her, proud of being Deaf but unwilling to let herself be defined by it.

In her interview, however, I had the sense that a page has been turned. Having spilled her guts in print, Matlin appears intent on avoiding a lengthy discussion of her revelations and focusing on the future tense. She has four children and a loving husband (a cop, no less) and insists that her family and siblings are “fine now and happy.”

“I’m always trying to show that I can do anything – except hear,” she said in her email. “That means I’ve got a whole lot of stuff still left to do!”