With his new HBO doc on activist Vito Russo, Jeffrey Schwarz keeps queer history in the limelight

RICH LOPEZ  |  Staff Writer

In a San Francisco screening for his latest documentary Vito, a young man in full-on rainbow garb reminded director-producer Jeffrey Schwarz of his purpose. In a post-film discussion that, man, attending with his mother, told the crowd that he had just come out and had no idea who Vito Russo was. Other than rainbows, perhaps he didn’t know much more about gay Pride and history.

“’This is my first gay anything,’” Schwarz recalls the young man saying. “’And today, I have a new hero.’ That encapsulates why I did this and how resonant Vito is today. He showed that you live your life as you wish. And be fearless and be brave.”

While the documentary takes a chronological look at Russo’s life, the message isn’t just a biographical look at the man. As one of the first and perhaps the most prominent activist, Schwarz ponders what Russo could have done had he not succumbed to AIDS in 1990.

“We could never know what effect he would have today, but also, look what he did in such a short time,” Schwarz says. “We take for granted how open we can be today. And young gay people, to be who they are, symbolize a true testament to him. I knew a time when it was almost impossible to be gay. Because of Vito, we’re much more empowered.”

What the documentary does is not only remind of Russo’s legacy, but introduces him to that younger generation. Gay history isn’t taught in most, if any, educational curriculum before college. But following Russo’s lead to chronicle the gay movement as he pushed for back in the days of Stonewall and the rise soon after, Schwartz’s intentions were similar.

“I would say most younger don’t know who he was and they don’t necessarily know the history,” he explains. “Making this was hopefully a corrective to that. I want to restore him to the pantheon of gay and lesbian heroes.”

By doing the film, Schwarz sees how the tone of activism has changed, and may have become a bit less vigilant. When Russo and his contemporaries started, the movie shows how the lack of examples divided gays, lesbians and trans more than solidified their common cause.

“There is a different tone activism now but I think we ought to be a lot more angry,” he says. “Gay kids are still killing themselves. We need to get in touch with that anger he had and people need to be held accountable. Cured therapy. Get in touch with that anger. I hope Vito can help channel that. We’ve made enormous gains but we really take it for granted the freedoms that we had.”

While the film has been on the festival circuit since October (it played in Dallas at the Dallas International Film Festival this past spring and at Q Cinema last month), Schwarz gives high praise to HBO for their attention to his documentary and overall attention to the community in general. As distributors of The Celluloid Closet, HBO already had a relationship with Russo’s work.

“We have to thank HBO for this because now millions of people are going to see,” he says. “It has been a thrill for me to work with them and not onlhy did they jump on board, they have proven to be incredible supporters of our community.”

Schwarz continues his work on gay icons with his next documentary and like Russo, hopes to expand the story of gay director John Waters’ most famous muse to a newer generation.

“Yes, I am working on I Am Divine and we’re in the process of editing now,” he beams. “She was the definitive poster child for misfit youth and another figure who has been significant in our culture. Like Vito, in her way, she was larger than life and these  people are iconoclasts. How can we ever forget them?”

 Vito premieres July 23 on HBO.

Logo keeps its toe in gay reality programming with ‘Big House’

LOUIE SEEKS A. | The gay son’s love life is about the only interesting thing on Logo’s modern family.

Despite officially becoming “No longer the gay network” earlier this year, Logo hasn’t completely abandoned the gays; far from it. Like Bravo and Oxygen, the lifeblood of the network is still us ‘mos, whether on one of RuPaul’s many competition programs or as the most interesting aspect of its newest reality show, In the Big House. And the gay son, Louie, is definitely the reason to watch.

In the Big House is a terrible concept, as most reality shows are — a completely artificial construct that feels driven by producers rather than the actual lives of the people it purports to track. Lou, a Philly mobster who spent the last 25 years in prison, moves in with his daughter Michel, her husband Jay, his gay son Louie and ex-wife Dotsie. You know, like all mobsters. (Alas, he should have gone into witness protection and saved us all a lot of grief.)

Michel and Jay run several businesses in West Hollywood, including, of course, a gay bar, where Louie works. Much of the premiere episode is Lou interfering with his son’s relationship with his on-again-off-again boyfriend. Did Lou “off” the BF? Or threaten him? Why isn’t he showing up to the party? Do you care?

Not much, though Louie is such a goofy, sweet hottie, if the show concentrates on him I might tune in again. A nice gay guy in WeHo trying to date? That’s a show we’d probably all watch … until someone mucked it up with faux drama. Not all gay guys are cliches, no matter what television wants America to believe.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

Two stars. Debuts July 23 at 9 p.m. on Logo.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 20, 2012.

Gay dancer Travis Wall leads a cast of reality hotties in predictable ‘Moves’

SHOWBOYS | Wall, seated, assembles so many sexy boys for the latest in pandering reality shows, they should have called it ‘All the Right ’Mos.’ At least they take their shirts off a lot.

ARNOLD WAYNE JONES  | Life+Style Editor

I’ve long since given up believing in the reality of reality TV. Whenever a character — and this happens every reality series — says, “I decided to raise money for this fundraiser,” you just know the truth is, “the producers pledged a certain budget/donation to put on a fake fundraiser on the condition I invited my enemies and caused a scene.”

So when Travis Wall, the gay So You Think You Can Dance contestant and budding dancepreneur, claims on the new reality show All the Right Moves to be “reaching into his own pocket” to pay for a backers’ show, what I assume he means is, “I will have to use part of my per diem as a prop to make this scene look authentic.” Ugh.

It would probably be unfair to say that this latest queer-skewing fakality series, which premieres on Oxygen, is any faker than the rest. The premise? Wall and his fellow SYTYCD alum (gay Season 1 winner Nick) and two straight buds — Kyle and Teddy — share an apartment (complete with stage lighting and ceiling mounted cameras!) while starting their own dance company in El Lay. Truth is, their enterprise is probably no riskier than what the ratings show it to be; if it gets renewed for a second season, I’m sure they will manage to survive and keep it together. So let’s not attack the show for that reason.

Then again, what else is there? It’s bitchy with artificial tensions arising just in time for commercial breaks; what else is new? Why do they keep making these shows? Why do people keep watching them?

Here’s one reason: This is one of the queerest peek-a-boo series out there right now, with two of the central figures gay against two straight. But it seems much gayer — in just the opening montage of the season premiere, there is more shirtless man-hugging than most Falcon videos manage in an hour. Even the straight guys are manscaped and guylinered while pirouetting their asses (and shirts) off. Why not be flirty and lightweight? It’s not like you’re interfering with someone’s artistic vision.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 27, 2012.

Flamboyant Olympian Johnny Weir embarks on the second season of his reality show

ICE CAPADER | Out figure skater Johnny Weir returns to his reality show on Logo, starting Monday.

When we last saw Johnny Weir in his reality series, Be Good Johnny Weir, the openly gay figure skater prepared to compete in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. In the two years that followed, Weir took a break from competition: He flexed his creative muscles, wrote a memoir, came out publicly, got married to lawyer Victor Voronov on New Year’s Eve, and … well, you’ll have to tune into Be Good Johnny Weir’s 10-episode second season, starting Monday, to see what else transpired.

Here, Weir dishes on the show, making an unusual request of Lady Gaga and, of course, Dallas.

— Lawrence Ferber

Dallas Voice: In the first episode, we see you sing and record a single, “Dirty Love.” What else can we expect from you this season?  Johnny Weir: The second season is very different from the first. The first was all about skating and the Olympics, while the second is about everything I tried after the Olympics, when I took two years away from competition. I tried writing books, singing songs, walking runways, designing — I did pretty much anything one could possibly do. Through all that you get to see me go on a blind date, and one of the first dates I went on with my now-husband, Victor.

It’s kind of a season of growth and learning, because as a figure skater, I popped up on everyone’s TV and I knew who I was. Now, you see me in uncomfortable situations, like going on a bus tour with my book in the middle of the country and being afraid someone was going to shank me.

We also see you come out publicly and experience how the media responded. Are you surprised that your coming out was considered a big revelation to mainstream America?  People are in a very weird position when it comes to acknowledging the pink elephants in the room. When I came out officially, I didn’t hear any shock — it was, “… and the sky is blue.” Maybe my great-great grandmother had an issue.

I’m glad you did it. Only when someone actually says it out loud, it finally sinks in with the public.  I’ve had a very lucky lifestyle: A sport that accepts gay people, parents who accept me. So when I came out, I wanted it to be for the people who had trouble, to show them no matter who you are and what you do, you are a part of society and matter.

Your marriage to Victor happened pretty fast — you could even consider it a shotgun wedding, yes?  It was very fast. We first met years ago at a Russian party. I thought he was straight, and at the time, he was. It ended there and he didn’t know who I was and what I did. We reconnected a year-and-a-half ago, talking on the phone and by email and I said, “OK, come up and we’ll have a date.” I knew he was gay at that point because that’s why he was contacting me again. Then I heard the whole story of how he was in the closet and dated a woman for six years. He was very afraid of his family’s reaction and I hope I helped make him comfortable. But we only officially started dating at the end of last July and were married on New Year’s Eve.

Have you ever been to Dallas?  I have. I’ve been to Dallas many times. We had a national championship out there but I had to withdraw because I was injured — I hurt myself on TV, I was still young, 18 years old. I don’t know that everything is actually bigger in Texas. A few things — burgers. But in general I love seeing my country and knowing what’s out there. The place I’ve been called “faggot” most often is Las Vegas, of all places. I am comfortable kicking it almost anywhere except Las Vegas.

You’ve met Lady Gaga a couple of times. Have you seen her lately?  I saw her randomly. I was just shopping one day, and I went to her parents’ restaurant in New York. Her mom is a big skating fan and supporter of me, and Gaga herself is a big supporter. As soon as I heard about the restaurant I called and said I wanted to come. So they had me, Victor, his parents and my manager come by. It was right when I was deciding to return to competition and I asked if she had the original instrumental version of “Poker Face,” because we can’t use the version with lyrics in competition. Who calls Lady Gaga and asks to use Lady Gaga’s music with her not singing on it? But by the end of that night I had “Poker Face” with no lyrics. Gaga herself gave it, OK’d it and is waiting for me to do something great on the ice
with it.

Gaga does a lot for us gays, doesn’t she?  She’s done so much — not just for us, but anyone who’s different. She’s a good girl and completely down to earth, normal and nice.

When I meet all these famous people I always have a big wall up. I don’t want them to disappoint me. Who am I? I’m an athlete. I don’t want them to be assholes. Christina Aguilera is a huge idol of mine and everyone said, “You’ve got to be careful, she’s a diva.” But she was the nicest thing, watched me at the Olympics, so supportive. The sweetest person. She’s the only one I was really afraid of. Elton John, Gaga … these people I love and cherish have been amazing to me. That gives me a lot of power when I go into the competition and know all these amazing artists are behind and pushing for me.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 14, 2012.

Lifetime’s updating of ‘Steel Magnolias’ with a black cast hits the highlights

BLUSH AND BASHFUL | Pink is the signature color at the wedding of Shelby, witnessed by Clairee (Phylicia Rashad), Ouiser (Alfre Woodard) and mom M’Lynn (Queen Latifah).

ARNOLD WAYNE JONES  | Life+Style Editor

It’s been 23 years since Steel Magnolias became every gay boy’s fempowering camp tearjerker classic, and in that time all that’s changed is cell phones and references to Beyonce and Spanx. Oh, and everyone’s black. OK, so maybe that’s a big change.

Lifetime’s updated TV movie version of Steel Magnolias with an African-American cast (led by Queen Latifah) says it is “based on the play by Robert Harling,” but for most of its running time, it’s really based on the 1989 chick flick. The play was something of a chamber piece, set entirely in Truvy’s backyard beauty parlor, with six women sharing their lives with snarky Southern charm. Like its predecessor, this version opens that up, keeping the men who were only spoken of, never seen, as actual characters and moving us out of the salon. (What would have been really daring would be to put it in a barbershop with all gay black men — that would be something.) That means we see Shelby’s adorable little boy (the one she should never have given birth to), we meet Truvy’s layabout husband, we attend the pink-explosion wedding and a doleful funeral. Only at the end, when adaptation writer Sally Robinson moves the climax from the cemetery back to Truvy’s does it fully return to its roots (and a lady always looks after her roots).

And yet, with full 40 minutes trimmed from the runtime, this Steel Magnolias trots along — no longer do we see Clairee (Phylicia Rashad) calling a ballgame over the radio, or spend time with Annelle (Adepero Oduye) on a date with her boyfriend. We also lose some of the classic lines. (Unless I missed ‘em, I didn’t hear “he has the penmanship of a cereal killer” or “what sets us apart from the animals is our ability to accessorize”). Still, the edits work by streamlining the extraneous — doing a remake could be considered a boondoggle anyway, so why cleave to every detail? (Well, the answer to that is, because it’s part of what people have come to love about the original. But if the only change was the race of the cast, why do it at all?) Still, what it does stick to is important: Although mawkish to the extreme, it’s a sure-fire way to get yourself to cry on command. It’s almost Pavlovian.

The performances, while generally not as memorable as that notorious cast, more than stand on their own. Queen Latifah is an unexpected choice to play M’Lynn, the long-suffering mother of diabetic newlywed Shelby (Condola Rashad), but she more than acquits herself. Mom Phylicia lacks Olympia Dukakis’ devilishness but captures the character’s droll humor. (Oduye is actually an improvement over Darryl Hannah, and while that’s not saying much — Hannah was terrible — the part suits her well.)

But the scene-stealer is Alfre Woodard as the curmudgeonly Ouiser. Woodard is already one of our best film actresses, something she proves time and again even in lesser films.

Here, she makes you forget about Shirley MacLaine. That’s saying something.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition October 5, 2012.

When Gene Robinson became the first openly gay, partnered bishop in the Episcopal Church in the United States, he was the right man for the job. Self-described as “unashamedly gay, unashamedly Christian,” he’s warm, sincere and stands his ground without appearing confrontational … the very qualities work against him as the subject of the documentary Love Free or Die, airing this week as part of Independent Lens. (He’d be better played by Philip Seymour Hoffman.)

Alas, Macky Alston’s film is necessary nonetheless, spotlighting as it does a man who deserves the attention he received for his place in LGBT history.

There are glimpses of Robinson’s early days, including his 2003 consecration in New Hampshire, but Alston focuses on the period from 2008. The first is when he was intentionally snubbed an invitation to the decennial Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion in Canterbury, England. (Instead, Robinson hung around outside, drawing plenty of media attention; he was even asked to preach at a church in London.) The second is the General Convention the following year, where the Episcopal Church officially voted to allow the consecration of openly gay bishops and to perform same-sex weddings in states where they are legal.

Alston allows people on all sides to state their cases, from those supportive of full equality for LGBT people in the church to those struggling with their feelings to those whose conservative attitudes will never change. There is general talk of the schism the change has caused in the church and the communion but no specific figures.

Robinson has his moments to shine, from delivering the invocation at the start of Barack Obama’s inauguration activities to giving a classic comeback to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, but the best line comes from Bishop Barbara Harris, who in 1989 became the first female bishop in the Episcopal Church. (Where’s her documentary?) Speaking of the Anglican

Communion and presiding Archbishop Rowan Williams she says, “If assholes could fly, this place would be an airport!”

Amen to that, sister.

— Steve Warren

Two and a half stars. Love Free or Die premieres on PBS’ Independent Lens, airing on Ch. 13 on Oct. 30 at 10 p.m.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition October 26, 2012.

Tomlin chats about her new series, gay repression and rumors of retirement

DOPE SMOKING MA | Lily Tomlin renamed her progressive older gal after her own mother.

Lily Tomlin launched her career more than four decades ago with a timeless clan of wacky characters that she established on NBC’s sketch comedy show Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.

But what if she had to be friends with Edith Ann, Ernestine or Susie the Sorority Girl?

It’s something the Tony and Emmy Award winning comedian, writer and actress — who’s starred on The West Wing and Desperate Housewives in recent years — never considered until now, making Tomlin rethink her entire career.

Tomlin sat down to dish on how, despite rumors, she has no plans to retire; missing “the sneaking around” before gay liberation; and what we can expect from her progressive, pot-smoking part alongside Reba McEntire in ABC’s Malibu Country, her first major sitcom role since Murphy Brown.

— Chris Azzopardi

Malibu Country premieres Nov. 2 on Ch. 8 at 7:30 p.m.

Dallas Voice: Of all your iconic characters, do you have a favorite?  Tomlin: They’re like kids. You don’t show partiality. It just seems wrong.

Would you want to be friends with any of them?  Let me think. You’re right. Golly — they’re bad news! I don’t know if I want to be friends with any of them! This is a startling awakening. No one’s ever asked me that question. I was running through them really quickly and I thought, “Well, that one would be a handful, and this is a high-maintenance relationship.”

Right! Could you imagine being friends with Edith Ann?  Imagine having to be her mother! I had an Edith Ann puppet with eyes and a tongue — and everything was Animatronics — and we never did anything with her, but I was so wanting a kids show starring Edith Ann. Anyway, so she sits in a big old box right now. Poor thing. She’s probably all deteriorated. But they sculpted the puppet head after me — the way I perform her — and it had a vague resemblance to me. It was always sort of spooky.

So, let me get this straight: Your characters are needy and they scare the hell out of you. You might want to rethink your career, Lily.  [Laughs] Oh gosh. This has been revelatory. This one question is something I had never heard in my life and never even contemplated.

You and your partner, Jane Wagner, have been together for more than 40 years, right?  Yeah. It’s been … what is this? 2012? I have to think back. It’s 41 years, but it’ll be 42 years in March.

Back then, when you realized you were gay, people didn’t even acknowledge it. Gay was taboo. Do you think that’s part of the reason you and Jane have been together so long but haven’t married? Because you never expected to?  No, I don’t think so. I guess it doesn’t mean that much. With the concept of marriage, I’ve been a little too flippant and I’ve said things like, “I was hoping the gay community would come up with a better idea than imitating heterosexual marriage.”

But no, I know plenty of people who married and who are pleased about it and are happy. I guess if we had any kids, it would mean something more. Neither of us is religious, so that means nothing to us. I’m proud and happy for it, for people who want to be married. I suppose symbolically it would’ve been nice if we had gotten married for anybody who’s interested.

You talk about Jane as your partner to the press often now. Was that always the case?  I used to talk about her all the time. I just talked about it naturally, but in those days people just did not write that way. When I was on the cover of Time in ’77, my publicist had almost pulled off the old two-cover coup where you get Newsweek and Time. It’s not even important anymore. For both stories, Jane would be there. It was nothing.

One story, I can’t remember which one, said, “Lily lives alone in the Hollywood Hills.” Another one said that we shared a house — me and writer Jane Wagner. They knew we were a couple. They used to protect us. The journalists would protect us just like they would protect politicians in the old days.

FIRST LADIES GO HEAD-TO-HEAD | Tomlin says Reba McEntire’s brilliant performance in ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ sold her on returning to a weekly sitcom.

You probably never imagined you’d be talking to gay publications like you do so often now. Is that different for you?  Yeah, of course it is. We had The Advocate. Vito Russo, who was my good friend, did a piece on me in The Advocate. What year was that? Probably sometime in the ’70s. And he didn’t want to out me in a really big way that would bring any kind of repercussions on me at that time, because I was very, very popular from Laugh-In. I said to him, “Look, I want to do the piece with The Advocate but I don’t want to lie. It’s too embarrassing and too awkward to do that.” I said, “I’m leaving it up to you. I’m not going to try to influence whatever you do.” So in the piece, I do say to him, “Look, if we don’t talk about the gay issue it’s going to look very strange.” And he kept writing in that vein. But it was never explicit; of course, I’d get a lot of flack for it, a lot of heat. People weren’t that … I want to say hip.

Isn’t it amazing how much progress we’ve made since then? It’s been remarkable. I mean, it’s not enough if it’s still an issue, but yeah — I’ve been just really dazzled by the activism and the refusal to disappear and be invisible. But I’ll tell you: You miss a little bit of repression, just on the sexy side. The sneaking around. Any kind of taboo is always a little more titillating.

Your upcoming series, Malibu Country, features a flamboyant record executive played by Jai Rodriguez from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and a next-door neighbor who’s gay. Were you surprised that a show starring Reba McEntire, whose fan base tends to be ultraconservative, was so gay and progressive?  Yeah, and I’m not sure where they’re going to take the kid next door, but I hope Lillie Mae gets very political. I’ve sort of pitched that to them, to go in that direction with my character. She’s just more enlightened than Reba, even though she’s Reba’s mother. She’s just more open and expansive, where Reba is a little more Nashville and shut down. She’ll definitely be more progressive.

You know, first of all, Reba. I’m not close friends with Reba or anything, but my brother lives in Nashville, and my mother and dad are both buried in Nashville, and so having those Southern roots, I know the culture very well. I’ve always liked Reba, but then I saw her in Annie Get Your Gun in ’99 and she was drop-dead brilliant. People still talk about it. She was so alive in that role. I’ve never forgotten that. And because in the pilot Lillie Mae smokes dope, I thought this is a great chance to do an older person who’s just really open to everything.

So your character’s name isn’t Shirley anymore?  I changed it. It’s Lillie Mae. I changed it to my mother’s name.

What about the character interested you? The gray wig?  I built that wig! I had that wig made. Wigs always interest me. Haven’t you ever heard of Wigstock? I’m kidding. I have a wig room; I have at least 50 to 70 wigs. I’m kind of a wig queen.

You come from a generation of female comedians that had a very family-oriented style of comedy. What’s your take on this new wave of female comedians both in film and in stand-up who are just as vulgar and crass as men?

Guys have done it forever and so the girls just leveled the playing field. I like a much more cerebral kind of comedy. Well, sort of cerebral. But I still have no problem with it. I’m glad to see those girls make successful comedy. Because in the old days — I mean, Gilda [Radner] never got the chance to do the films that the boys did from SNL. I’m glad that these girls break that taboo, that obstacle that people have put up in front of them for years.

I remember I used to do a ’50s teenager at a school dance and the first time I did it at the Ice House in Pasadena — this would be like ’71 or ’72, right after I got on Laugh-In — and I said “boner.” And the owner of the Ice House was beside himself. He says, “Don’t ever use that language on the stage again.” The guys did anything they wanted, but they did not want to see women talking about anything that was the least bit — I don’t know — human. I didn’t listen to what he said.

Word is that you’re retiring after this series, which you mentioned during the recent Television Critics Association panel. Is that true?  I said it as a joke. Somebody in the audience asked me a question, something about playing a woman of a certain age; it was hard to hear. Maybe they were talking about how lately I’ve played all these mothers: I’m playing Lisa Kudrow’s mother on Web Therapy and I just did a movie playing Tina Fey’s mother. I also played McGee’s grandmother on NCIS. [The person asked] something about playing women of a certain age, so I answered it as Edith Ann first and then I said, “Don’t be surprised if this is the last project I do before I go to the motion-picture home.” I was just kidding around.
So you’re not retiring soon?  I don’t plan to.

Good to hear.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition November 2, 2012.

Tuesday night was generally seen as a victorious one for gay and lesbian people across the nation: The reelection of Barack Obama, the first sitting president to endorse full marriage equality; the historic election of lesbian Tammy Baldwin to the U.S. Senate; the defeat of anti-gay legislation. But even more gay was the coverage itself.

I watched the returns in a room full of gay people, ready to pop the bubbly cork as soon as Obama was called by one of the news channels (we were swimming in champagne by 10:15 p.m.). We flipped among the channels to see who had different predictions up. And we got to hear Rachel Maddow on MSNBC announce Barack Obama was the president still.

Lesbian.

Then we watched as Anderson Cooper oversaw coverage on CNN.

Gay.

And we logged onto Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog from the New York Times to check updates.

Silver’s also gay.

All of these people are out and proud and given principal responsibilities for overseeing election coverage for their media organizations. And so far as I noticed, none of them (or their fellows on TV in the cases of Maddow and Cooper) so much as hinted at their sexual orientation during their election night coverage. Because that was irrelevant to their reporting. (Compare that to the folks on Fox News, who acted as if the vote was a rebuke of Christian heterosexuality.)

We’ve reached a special plateau when the most respected newsmen in the country get to report on popular votes about gay folks and be on the side of the majority. The excitement wasn’t just at the ballot box Tuesday night. It was right up there on the screen.

Lohan has the look, but not the style, in Lifetime biopic

The train wreck that has become Lindsay Lohan didn’t start out that way. She was handily the most gifted pop princess of her incoming class, with a throaty voice that conveyed maturity; she even picked good projects, like Mean Girls, and held her own opposite Meryl Streep in A Prairie Home Companion. After all her drug and legal problems, the decision to rehabilitate (her career, at least) by doing a biopic of Elizabeth Taylor seemed like a savvy one: Both actresses were dogged by paparazzi, substance abuse and personal tragedy. Surely Lohan would bring her own experience to bear. And she looked the part, clearly. I was excited.

And now, disappointed with Liz & Dick, the Lifetime movie (airing Sunday) that was to be her comeback.

Aside from the “look,” Lohan lacks most of Taylor’s essential qualities — most specifically, the volcanic passion percolating under a slightly icy exterior. Taylor was never earthy and warm, like Ava Gardner or Rita Hayworth, but unattainable; imagine her in that white slip from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and you can see the formula of sexuality and porcelain perfection that she was — a brunetted and more talented version of Marilyn Monroe.

Lohan has little of that in this TV film, which concentrates on her 20-year relationship with Richard Burton. Taylor had diction and vulnerability; Lohan seems snippy and hardened already. Those qualities come out occasionally, but not consistently, and she too often seems amateurish. It’s simply not her best performance, as much as you want it to be. And the meta-experience of watching Lohan recreate the binge-breakdown cycle of her icon, mirroring her own life, seems less like haunting authenticity than more tabloid exploitation of both of them.

Grant Bowler is more convincing as Burton, with both the craggy looks and the resonant baritone trill, and his heavy-lidded yearning for Liz feels real. Back in the day, no one ever doubted Liz and Dick loved each other — indeed, they were better as exes than as a couple. Bowler reminds us of that devotion.

The film itself dashes, TV-movie-ishly, from scene to scene with little room for development or transition. If the director, Lloyd Cramer, spent less time racing to cover ground and more tailoring Taylor from Lohan, it might be good. Instead, it feels like she’s back at square one.

One-and-a-half stars. Airs Nov. 25 on Lifetime.

I got a press release from the Lifetime network, teasing the big change in the next cycle of  Project Runway, starting Jan. 24: All the designers will compete in teams! Big news, huh?

Eh. Teams is reality TV competitionspeak for “we set up folks to fight more.”

No, what really interested me was that in discussing the return, they noted Heidi would be back with Tim Gunn and Nina Garcia and new featured guest judge Zac Posen.

No mention at all of Michael Kors.

Then, later down, we find out Kors will be the final celebrity guest judge during Fashion Week.

Auf Wiedershesen.

Gotta say it: Bad move. Kors’ catty quips, as only a gay man can be, are for me the raison d’etre of Project Runway. I love me sum Tim Gunn, and me likee Heidi’s brush-off, but Kors is the tart souffle to Nina’s logy cheese course. We’ll have to see…

HUMOR WINS | The hilariously gay-friendly sketch comedy of ‘Key & Peele’ won us over.

10. The New Normal (NBC). Ryan Murphy is so over-taxed — in addition to this, he has three other shows on the air (Glee, The Glee Project and American Horror Story: Asylum), all of which took a turn for the worse (however slightly) this year. While New Normal wasn’t perfect, its sassy discussion of gay issues, including the best comic villain since Will & Grace’s Karen Walker in the form of homophobic GOPer Ellen Barkin and the delightful Bebe Wood as a precocious pre-teen, kept us watching.

9. Nashville and Revenge (both ABC). It wouldn’t be fair to call these ABC shows our trashy secrets or our guilty pleasures — they were both damned good in their own rights last year, with interesting storylines and superior acting. The nighttime soap opera has certainly improved since the old days of Dallas and Flamingo Road.

8. Downton Abbey (PBS). Maggie Smith. That is all.

7. Boardwalk Empire (HBO). The genius of this series? It doesn’t have any likeable characters, just unlikeable ones you end up rooting for. Steve Buscemi forms the emotional center of this tale, based on some real characters from the era of Prohibition, but the ensemble work is as good as you’ll find.

6. Modern Family. The funniest live-action comedy on television got even better this fall in a episode when gay couple Mitchell and Cam crossed paths with two lesbian moms, but that was just the high-water mark in a show that has been consistently great.

5. RuPaul’s Drag Race (Logo). It helped that the last “newcomer” season had a winner (Sharon Needles) who didn’t go simply for glam, and that the All-Stars edition brought back some of our favorites. This show still makes America’s Next Top Model look like it’s populated by rejects from The Walking Dead. And Ru’s deadpan delivery makes it all the funnier.

4. Archer (FX). This foul-mouthed animated spoof of James Bond movies, with a petulant superspy and his Oedipal relationship with his mom, who’s also his boss, is like The Sopranos without James Gandolfini’s weight gain … and a whole helluva lot more laughs. Gayish, sexy and weird, you rarely saw where it was going.

3. Game of Thrones (HBO). Mythic fantasy never seemed more vibrant, and never better told than in this remarkable series, which juggles fully 40 major characters across competing storylines without ever becoming confusing. Throw in a lot of hotties (including some same-sex attractions), dragons and rousing battle scenes, and you have the most fully-realized action series since Alias.

2. The Daily Show (Comedy Central), The Colbert Report (Comedy Central) and Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO). 2012 was an election year, so almost nothing mattered more than comedians who put the ridiculousness of the election process in perspective — and the liberal perspective (even ironically presented via Colbert’s faux Bill O’Reilly impersonation) gave a counterpoint to the serious-as-a-heart-attack misinformation of Fox News. Collectively, 2012 would have seemed very different without these folks — not just on television, but possibly at the ballot box.

1. Key & Peele (Comedy Central). Comedy Central scored a threefer this year, and this sketch comedy show is the reason why. The one unmissable show of 2012 was this hilarious satire of everything from same-sex marriage to gay adoption to Rihanna, though it is probably the “Obama and his anger translator, Luther” segments that made each fall episode so timely and funny. We needed to laugh — no one made us laugh harder than these two humorous hotties.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 4, 2013.

Hoon Lee gives Cinemax’s new crime drama ‘Banshee’ an unexpected dose of drag

DRAGSTER | Korean-American actor Hoon Lee took on an unusual role — that of a small-town cross-dressing gangster — in the new Cinemax crime drama ‘Banshee’ from Oscar-winner Alan Ball.

ARNOLD WAYNE JONES  | Life+Style Editor

As an Asian-American actor, Hoon Lee is accustomed to looking at, as he says, “a smaller spectrum of roles.” So when a good one comes by, why turn it down?

That experience informed Lee’s decision to take on the role of Job, the cross-dressing Korean-American gangster in small-town Pennsylvania in Banshee, a new series premiering Friday on Cinemax. Considering it is executive-produced by gay Oscar-winner Alan Ball, it’s hard not to see the similarity to another of Ball’s series where a rural gay man in drag seems not to raise eyebrows.

“Yes, when I talked to people about this role, they always referenced Lafayette from True Blood,” Lee concedes with a chuckle. “It’s as if he asks, where can we put these guys? Amish Country! Is there a niche being created [for minority actors]? But that very question implies a problem. It’s never really [an issue] to say we have another white, heterosexual male hero — it’s a trope standard to the genre.”

Banshee revolves around a recently-paroled thief who steals the identity of the town’s new sheriff, enlisting the help of shady computer hacker Job to stay ahead of the game.

Lee has done drag for theater before, but this role upped it.

“I’d done drag once in a play, but it was a farce so it was part of that comedic thing. It was very much a new experience we all had to think about and work around. I felt the production was extremely helpful.”

Lee, who is straight, has been mindful of his responsibility not just to the character, but to the communities he represents — both LGBT and Asian-American.

“What I like about becoming part of this community of characters is, we have a sense of shaping how people see these kinds of characters,” he says. “The more extreme the character is, the more interested I am in doing it. It does carry a risk; you are sensitive to that as [a minority]. Is this propagating some stereotype of Asian men as gangsters? The real trap is looking at things in generalities. If there’s a sensational quality, that’s where the problem arises.”

If Job is a stereotype, it’s not a bad one. Lean and handsome, Lee plays Job with a sassy personality; when two teenage girls gawk at him sitting on a beach in a designer wrap, he hisses, “This is Diane von Furstenberg! Now go get pregnant, Snooki.”

Lee laughs at the reminder. A graduate of Harvard University, he brings a thoughtful, analytical approach to his role.

 “What’s exciting to me about Job — and I really enjoy this character — is, I think there’s been a rich dialogue for why he does what he does. He pulls from whatever he needs to achieve his objective — that’s a computer hacker mentality. That also speaks to his cross-dressing — there’s a lot of power in the feminine side of the world, something men can’t access.

“I don’t get even asked to audition for these kind of roles very much and I think the opportunity is tremendous. If someone watches me and puts me in a container in the first few seconds, that allows me to shatter that. If they don’t, they are waiting to see what you are.“

As for the downsides of playing gay and drag, so far Lee has just been happy to explore a unique aspect of society. Even his folks are cool with that.

“My parents are from Korea and pretty traditional,” he says. “What was really curious was, when I told them about the role, their reservations had nothing to do with drag, but the potential for me to be nude. That was funny to me. It’s nice to get these reminders that your parents aren’t as square as you think.”

 This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 11, 2013.

People might know Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell through their television show The Fabulous Beekman Boys on the Cooking Channel, but with their come-from-way-behind victory on last season’s The Amazing Race, the couple is now twofers when it comes to TV fame, winning a race around the world.

“They actually recruited us,” Ridge says. “We knew as middle-aged contestants — even if we trained hardcore — we weren’t going to be the fastest or the youngest.” So the couple 12 years strong focused on their secret weapon: trust in each other.

“When a team fails or gets eliminated, it usually stems from a team defeating itself. So we focused on how to communicate or motivate each other,” Ridge says.

But why run the race at all? In addition to TV fame, they already enjoy a trendy business run out of their farm; Ridge is also a physician and Kilmer-Purcell a novelist. Was mere vanity driving them?

“There is this notion that because we’re on TV, we’re millionaires already, but you don’t make very much money on reality TV — certainly not enough to get Josh here at the farm full time,” Ridge says.

“The last five years Josh has been at the farm only on weekends. Now, with the winnings, he can be here all the time.”

It was the infamously aggressive Sri Lankan sister team — The Twinnies — who many considered the boys’ closest rivals. Likeably brash and never afraid to refer to the team as “the gays” or make catty remarks about them, they ended up being key factors in the boys’ victory. “They really riled up our spirit and we got sassy back,” Ridge says. “When we crossed the finish line, the twins were one of the first we thanked for lighting a fire under our asses.”

Their run through Gotham Hall was one of last year’s unforgettable TV moments, especially for gay viewers who have waited nearly a decade since Reichen and Chip won to see a queer team take it.

“Having us as underdogs, which we were, and people plotting against us I think brought up that alienation gay people have growing up,” he says. “Many times, people were counting us out or never thought we had a chance. But we did it and perhaps viewers triumphed with us.”

— Rich Lopez

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 11, 2013.

It seems now that the only criterion for a reality cable TV show is how punny and suggestive the title can be. A show about big-breasted women working in a bra shop would be a non-starter …until you call it Double Divas, then you have a tentpole. Would anyone watch Honey Boo Boo if it weren’t called Honey Boo Boo?

Add to that list Built. The premise: Five gorgeous male models also work as home renovators! Of course, they do both extremely well: Look hot, nail … and maybe get nailed. It’s all the same nowadays. (The show is a combination of Trading Spaces and Joe Millionaire, without the class of either.)

Still, Built is probably the worst new show I am likely to start watching right now. OK, I admit it: The clients are tasteless nouveaux riches, the projects full of faux drama, the men seem like Ken Doll narcissists (some have to be gay, though none discussed his sexuality in the pilot I screened). Built handsome guys with their shirts off is as good a reason as any to waste an afternoon watching TV.
Monday at 8 p.m. on the Style Network.

Next week also welcomes the returns Monday of Dallas on TNT and RuPaul’s Drag Race on Logo, and Project Runway Thursday on Lifetime. We’re not sure which will have more catfights.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 25, 2013.

HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumble returns for a 19th season Tuesday night, and to be honest, I didn’t even know the series was still around. Certainly Gumble himself has looked better — he appears gaunt, disheveled and slightly befuddled as he walks us through his latest profile. But it’s his subject that had me taking a second look.

In the show, debuting on HBO at 9 p.m. (with rebroadcasts numerous times throughout the month), Gumble talks to a 51-year-old point guard for Mission College’s women’s basketball team, a 6-foot-6 powerhouse named Gabrielle Ludwig. But it’s not her age that’s the focus of the piece — it’s that she was born Robert Ludwig.

It’s been 30 years since Robert played a semester of NCAA hoops, dropping out not to be seen on the court again until last year. By then, Ludwig had transitioned to Gabrielle, and was quickly accepted Mission’s coach, who welcome outcasts on his team.

For the most part, Gumble handles the interview respectfully and thoroughly, using proper pronouns (and playing audio from ESPN Radio where commentators certainly did not, calling Ludwig “he/she” and “it”). And the reunion with Ludwig’s parents after nine years without contact is emotional and touching. Gumble’s only misstep, though — and it’s a big one — is when he questions how one of Ludwig’s teammates took two weeks before she knew Gabrielle was trans. “Come on! It took you two weeks?!” Gumble presses incredulously. Yes, Bryant. Not all trans people are as easy to clock as you think.

Sadly, the episode of Real Sports makes a much more insensitive and lazy joke at the expense of Mike Tyson. In the segment with the former heavyweight champ that kicks off the episode, annoying journo Bernie Goldberg sits in a theater where Tyson is performing his one-man show and asks him, “Are you a thespian?”

“I don’t know about that…” Tyson responds.

“I’m not talking about your sexuality,” Goldberg smugly laughs. “I’m talking about being an actor.”

Sure, Bernie — you thought you’d tease the champ with punny jokes about being a lesbian. But Tyson gets the last laugh, lecturing Goldberg about “Thespis” being the first actor in Greek lore. He didn’t overreact to Goldberg’s offensive, snarky, schoolyard taunt, he set him straight. Which, Bernie, is not meant as a comment on your sexuality.

‘Game of Thrones’ returns, and not a moment too soon

Fans of the HBO series Game of Thrones don’t just love the show — they loooove the show. I should know; I’m one of them. (It was one of my Top 10 of 2012.) It’s the third-highest-rated series in HBO history, made even more significant considering how complex and challenging the storytelling is: More than 250 speaking parts with Middlearth-sounding names like Tywin and Tyrion, Daenerys and Sansa, with more intrigue than a Kardashian pregnancy and more sex than … well, the same. It’s a sweeping story of rivalries between factions on the fictional continent of Westeros — the Lannisters and the Starks and the Baratheons — but each season is only 10 episodes long. You’d be exhausted by more.

Now that Season 3 starts up this weekend, fans will have some English accents to glue them to the tube every Sunday other than Downton Abbey.

This season, though, gets off to a slow start. It’s not surprising — after killing off the leading characters by the end of Season 1 and fomenting a rebellion throughout Season 2, a breather was in order. We’re introduced to more new characters (including Diana Rigg as a sassy dowager and Ciaran Hinds as king of the north) before saying goodbye to old ones. And many of the old ones still hold their appeal, especially Emmy winner Peter Dinklage, pictured, as Tyrion Lannister, the wily dwarf (and sole likeable member of his clan), and Daenerys (Emilie Clarke), the mistress of dragons (we get to see the buggers fly around in the season premiere, though she’s not even in Episode 2). And let’s not forget hunky, brooding bastard Jon Snow. What’s missing so far is a bit more deliciousness and sex (they killed off the best gay character last season!), but we can wait. It’s all in the Game.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

Four stars. Premieres on HBO Sunday at 8 p.m.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 29, 2013,

Eden Riegel, who played lesbian icon Bianca on ‘All My Children’ for a decade, chats about the resurrection of the citizens of Pine Valley … online

NO SOFT SOAP | Actress Eden Riegel, above, plays queer soap character Bianca on ‘AMC,’ who will now have to deal with her sexuality with her teen daughter Miranda, opposite. (Photos: Eric Leibowitz/OLN)

STEVEN LINDSEY  | Contributing Writer
stevencraiglindsey@me.com

It’s common knowledge that nobody on a soap opera is ever truly dead — even if the actor portraying a role dies, the character simply comes back to life after some remarkable plastic surgery and a whole new look. Sometimes even a new ethnicity.

So it should come as no surprise that two entire soap operas that went to TV heaven in 2011 would come back to life eventually — looking mostly the same, but somehow different.

Prepare to meet the evil twins of All My Children and One Life to Live, both bringing sudsy action back to daytime via the Internet. Fans can once again catch new, 30-minute episodes streaming online in HD on Hulu and Hulu Plus, which pushes content to connected TVs, mobile phones, tablets and desktops. (Episodes will also be available at the iTunes Store for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV, Mac and PC.)

For 10 years, Eden Riegel played Bianca Montgomery, the lesbian daughter of Pine Valley’s most notorious citizen, Erica Kane (portrayed by Susan Lucci for more than 40 years) on the TV version of AMC. Now she’s back in character in the new incarnation.

“It is a lot alike, I have to say,” Riegel says during a break from performing in a play in Los Angeles. “A lot of the same people are involved. [Not, however, Lucci.] A lot of our producers are the same, the writers, of course the actors. We’ve all come back for this sort of family reunion with lots of cameras,” she says. “It does feel somewhat the same except the Internet kind of lends this greater freedom to us.”

That includes the ability to use curse words (though Riegel promises not gratuitously) as well as show more skin than network TV allowed.

“I’d say the biggest difference is that kids are able to use sort of the slang they’d really use. They sound like authentic kids,” Riegel says. “We’re really catering to the fans this time, not catering to advertisers.

This is really a fan-driven resurgence. It’s because the fans never gave up hope that this even happened.”

The series is filmed in Stamford, Conn., which doubles for Pine Valley on location shoots. The cast films multiple episodes over a couple weeks and then OLTL moves in to produce their chunk of shows. It’s a fast production schedule, but none of the network gloss has been lost in the new medium. If anything, they’re just working smarter.

“I heard somebody say that they wanted to do 250 episodes a year or something,” she laughs hesitantly, “and we can do it.”

All My Children ended its TV run with a cliffhanger that seemed like it would never find resolution. But audiences may finally get closure.

“I would say the cliffhanger more than gets addressed,” Riegel hints. “The effects are felt basically by everyone in Pine Valley. It’s five years later, so we get this exciting time jump and catch up with these characters’ lives. The cliffhanger definitely impacts my character in particular and she’s reeling from the effects. It’s affecting her family, so it’s definitely a big part of the show. Moving it forward means that people don’t have to stand around in black and mourn for weeks.”

Riegel says to expect plenty of familiar characters and a few new ones, plus lots of drama for her character.

“I’m not allowed to say much, but I can say that Bianca’s daughter [Miranda] has SORAS: Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome. She’s a teenager now dealing with high school drama and taking after Erica Kane in a lot of ways. Bianca has always taken more after Mona [Erica’s mother], so you get this interesting symmetry from the early days of Erica being a teenager rebelling against Mona. Now it’s my daughter rebelling against me.”

Miranda must also cope with her mother’s sexual orientation.

“Miranda is dealing with things at school that have to deal with her mother’s sexuality. The fact that Bianca is gay is really sort of first and foremost in her life and the plot. We deal with that fallout, too, because we’ve never seen Bianca with a grown daughter having to deal with maybe her daughter feeling the effects of intolerance,” she says. “Bianca has certainly dealt with that, but it’s a lot different when the person you love more than anyone in the world has to deal with it because of you. So I think Bianca feels some guilt about that and is trying to help her daughter deal with that. Bianca’s sexuality definitely plays a role in the context of her family.”

Ever since the Bianca character came out of the closet, she has been an icon of sorts to the LGBT community, a role that Riegel cherishes.

“It’s been a great experience,” she says. “I love how the audiences really have embraced her. Certainly it’s attracted gay audience members to watch the show and they connect with Bianca and they identify with her and that makes me proud. Also, straight audiences adore Bianca and they root for her. In a way, I think she’s possibly opened a few minds and introduced people to their first kind of gay friends.”
Most of all, she sees Bianca as a positive role model.

“We tried really hard not to make her a saint — she’s a whole person. We don’t want somebody representing this sexual orientation and not have her be a real human being. That’s the whole point of all of it. Give people an image of themselves on TV,” Riegel says. “If it makes people feel a little more comfortable about who they are because of the fact that they see it on TV, that’s great.”

All My Children premieres, along with One Life to Live, online Monday at TheOnlineNetwork.com. Riegel comes to Austin in June for the ATX Television Festival. ATXFestival.com.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition April 26, 2013.

Douglas, left, as Lee Liberace, and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson.

That fact has been largely forgotten in the 25 years since he died — still closeted! — of complications from AIDS. By the end (hell, decades before it), he had become a caricature, but the image of the facelifted, lisping Vegas showboy has obscured his humanity.

So its especially impressive that a bunch of straight guys — director Steven Soderbergh, screenwriter Richard LaGravanese, and actors Matt Damon and Michael Douglas — have done do an astonishing job of capturing the truth of gay men in the pre-AIDS, barely-post-Stonewall decade of the 1970s with Behind the Candelabra, the HBO biopic debuting Sunday at 9. They could have soft-pedaled the sex; they could have idealized and mystified the era; they could have taken any number of “safer” routes. Instead, they told a story with such a savvy understanding of gay culture, you might think you’re watching a documentary.

That’s especially true in the early scenes, when Soderbergh shows the coded messages (both subtle and overt) that gays used to communicate, from the houseboy who bends over a little too long to the pronoun-shifting in public. It’s easy to forget how back then — and we’re not talking that long ago — gay culture was both underground and so alien to hetero society that some gays they could hide in plain sight. To the mainstream, flaming queens like Liberace and Paul Lynde weren’t “gay,” they were “flamboyant” and “artsy.” That perception fuels a funny early line when Damon’s character, Scott Thorson, is gobsmacked to learn none of the straight families watching Liberace’s Vegas act realize he’s gay.

It’s during that scene where Scott first meets Liberace (Douglas), 40 years his senior, and becomes instantly his twink-du-jour. Liberace’s friends predict the relationship won’t last longer than any of his other infatuations, but Scott proves them wrong, and they stuck together for six years (hey, that’s long in gay-years). Many viewers might recall that Thorson sued “Lee” for palimony, suggesting a bitter end to the affair, but that’s only a fraction of the plot of the telefilm; even smaller is Lee’s illness and eventual death. This isn’t an AIDS movie, nor a courtroom drama; it’s a serious exploration of a gay romance fueled by fame, drugs and the oppressiveness of the closet.

Because Damon and Douglas are straight, it would be easy to criticize their performances as camp stereotypes, or even gay-for-pay acting “challenges” where they nevertheless play it cool. Neither assessment is fair. They throw themselves wholeheartedly into creating fully rounded characters. Sure, Liberace was effeminate and droll to a kitschy degree, and Douglas rolls in the furs and sequins like a pig in mud, but his authenticity is never in question. (The makeup is astonishing, especially with Douglas.)

And, frankly, you do have to admire what Douglas and Damon do, from fairly explicit sex scenes (more exact: scenes of sexual intimacy) to Damon roaming around in a rock-hard body dressed only in a studded thong to Douglas often shirtless and toupee-less, these are the kinds of roles awards ache to recognize.

They’re not the only ones. Rob Lowe as a serpentine plastic surgeon, Scott Bakula as a moustachioed leather daddy and Debbie Reynolds as Liberace’s mom are all nearly unrecognizable and in turn sort of brilliant.

The conceit of the plot — ingenue is lured into the ravishing world of an older Hollywood celeb, only to be corrupted and tossed aside — is a direct send up of classics like Sunset Boulevard, but despite the familiar tropes, it’s forever fresh. This Candelabra shines a light on gay culture in a fascinating way.

The seasons of True Blood have been as unpredictable as Star Trek movies: They seem to alternate good and bad.  Season 1? Spectacular. Season 2? Eh. Season 3? Much better. Season 4? Disaster.

Last season? A bloody mix, with no interesting new villain (save a smoke monster — and Lost beat them to that by almost a decade), just recycled drama among vamps (led by Denis O’Hare), werewolves, fairies, shifters and humans. The season felt compartmentalized, taking place over the course of barely two weeks; it felt more soap opera than ever, with the blessing of Joe Mangianello very frequently naked. Even the cliffhanger ending, where Bill (Stephen Moyer) became SuperVamp, made you wonder: Have they run out of ideas?

The first three episodes of Season 6, the first of which debuts Sunday, hints that maybe they are winding down. Luna is killed off in the first thee minutes, Bill is acting godlike, Sookie (Anna Paquin, pictured right, with Ryan Kwanten) is deplenishing her fairy powers. And the governor of Louisiana (new castmate Arliss Howard) has declared war on “fangers.” The way characters spit out the word “fangers” always sounds vaguely like “faggots,” which has a lot to do with the ethos or True Blood as an idyll on gay rights. This season, there’s even an activist who wants Sam (Sam Trammell) to “come out of the closet” as a shifter. Can’t miss that message.

You’re not meant to. There’s still lots of nudity, still lots of gay humor (including my fave, Nelsan Ellis’ drag diva Lafayette, who announces, “That’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen on TV … and I watch Dance Moms”), a lesbian plot with Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) and Tara (Rutina Wesley).

Has it jumped the shark? Best not to look down and confirm it; just keep soaring and hope for the best.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

True Blood. Two-and-a-half stars. Debuts June 16 at 8 p.m. on HBO.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition June 14, 2013.

Do you hear that slight ringing sound? That’s the death knell for Project Runway.

Well, maybe not dead, but if this isn’t its last season, it’s in earshot.

Last year, Lifetime buried the lead when they casually mentioned that Michael Kors would be back only for the finale, with Zan Posen replacing him in the judge’s chair. At the time, I felt it was a mistake, and felt the decision basically meant Kors was off the show for good. No, folks emailed me — he’ll be back. It was just a “scheduling issue.”

Uh-huh.

The new season begins July 18, and the judges, once again, are Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia and Posen, with the addition of Tim Gunn not only as mentor but spy now, filling in the trio of behind-the-scenes goings-on, and even exercising a veto to save a designer. Tinker, tailor, solider, spy indeed, Mr. Gunn.

And there will be virtually no role for Kors this season.

This isn’t good news. Posen is a good designer but makes for dull TV. (Remember last season’s creepy “I go to high school proms every week” non-sequitur?) Season 11 was the dullest since the first season on Lifetime. The addition of a mystery contestant and Gunn’s new role have the whiff of desperation to prop up an aging series. (And this season no Texans among the 16 designers.)

It may be time to say, “Auf Wiedershesen.”