Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Hallowe'en viewin'
These are my picks for the movies that will scare the bejaysus out of you. What will you be watching this weekend?
Monday, October 27, 2008
Grey power: one man's story
My feature from today's Independent...
Mark Kennedy (71) was actually double jobbing as a protestor last week as both a medical card holder and a mature student researching a PhD in NUI Galway.
Born in Galway in 1937, Mark, like many of his generation, left school at age 13 and took "the boat to nowhere" to England in the 1950s to work as a labourer.
Continue here.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Cowen should call an election
The Sunday Tribune is the first paper to call for a general election following the collapse of the Fianna Fail Technicolour coaltion's budget.
I heartily concur. This is a very different country, economically, if not politically, to the one that voted 16 months ago. A government needs a clear, unambiguous mandate to implement the kind of changes and tough decisions that are needed at this time, and this discredited shower of clowns, elected in economic circumstances now consigned to the history books, and, in particular, Cowen, our anointed, selected/unelected Taoiseach, simply don't have that.
He can limp along for the next few months, turning into the new Gordon Brown, but I can't see this government lasting another year anyway, not considering the new Dail arithmetic, not when there's the chance of another even more severe mini-Budget in the New Year, and certainly not when the government loses Lisbon II as part of the voter backlash.
Will power
My feature on the 10th anniversary of the start of Will and Grace in this month's GCN magazine
Jennifer Jason Leigh! Can it really be 10 years since Will and Grace first hit our TV screens? Debuting in the autumn of 1998 against the backdrop of shifting – and sometimes static - cultural mores regarding gay-themed entertainment, Will and Grace became one of America’s most successful sitcoms of the ‘90s and Noughties, running for eight years and winning just about every showbiz gong along the way.
But the show also divided queer commentators into those who believed the series celebrated gay life, however cautiously, and those who felt the show was mincing to the tune of a reactionary heterosexual agenda.
On July 22, 1998, the final episode of the groundbreaking sitcom, Ellen, aired in the US, little more than a year after 42 million people tuned into watch its creator and star, Ellen Degeneres, make television history by coming out as a lesbian on screen and off.
However, it turned out that Americans, or at the very least, television executives, were just not ready to embrace an out and proud prime time sitcom heroine, and soon even gay supporters such as Chastity Bono were criticising the show for being “too gay”. The ABC network, a Disney subsidiary, slapped a kiss-of-death parental caution warning onto the start of each episode, ratings slumped, and Ellen was cancelled.
Even though the decade had been heralded as ‘Hollywood’s Gay Nineties’, it seemed a television show revolving around a homosexual lead character just wouldn’t – or couldn’t – make it. But it was into this seemingly hostile television environment that Will and Grace was launched just two months after Ellen’sunceremonious dumping – and its fate couldn’t have turned out more different.
The Odd Couple-with-a-twist sitcom about a gay man living with his straight female best friend had luck and timing on its side. In many respects, its very existence owed as much to Rupert Everett, as it did to Ellen Degeneres. Everett was coasting on a wave of rave reviews throughout 1997 for his scene-stealing role as Julia Roberts’ wise-cracking gay confidante in the smash hit romantic comedy, My Best Friend’s Wedding.
The platonic gay man-straight woman dynamic was suddenly in vogue, featuring again in The Object of My Affection, with Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, and as a subplot in As Good As It Gets, with Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear.
The central template for W&G, therefore, was palatable to the American networks. Devised by Max Mutchnick (a gay man) and David Kohan (straight), the guiding maxim for W&G was: do the opposite of what Ellen did in its final season. In the words of Dale Carpenter, an influential gay conservative columnist, Degeneres forgot that “a serious discussion of gay issues has no intrinsic interest for mainstream Americans”, and that he, for one, prefers, “not forcing the issue on the unwilling masses”.
Nobody could have accused W&G of being too in-your-face when it made its debut on NBC on September 21, 1998. The pilot was a sharp, witty confection that successfully set up the primary relationship between handsome, sophisticated lawyer Will Truman (played by straight, married actor Eric McCormack) and his gangly, neurotic interior designer housemate and best friend Grace Adler (Debra Messing, formerly of Ned and Stacey).
It was clear from the get-go that neither protagonist was going to upset anyone too much, irrespective of sexual orientation. Instead, Mutchnik and Kohan decided that the outrageousness factor would be displaced to the pair’s non-titular sidekicks, camp-as-knickers wannabe actor Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes) and helium-voiced, boozy, bisexual, pill-popping socialite Karen Walker (Megan Mullally), who, overnight, became the show’s breakout stars.
The first reviews of the show were respectable, though qualified. Showbiz bible Entertainment Weekly rewarded the show a B+ rating, calling it “the season’s cleverest, most intricate sitcom”. At the same time, however, the magazine noted that there was “an air of potentially offensive, wistful wish-fulfilment in the show: if only Will were straight, the series implies, both the protagonists' romantic problems…would be instantly solved”.
That writer was the first to pick up on the show’s curious (to the say the least) gay politics, particularly in relation to its queer characters Will and Jack. From the pilot episode, indeed through the entire first season, Will didn’t seem to have any love life, not to mention a sex life. Indeed, so careful were the show’s writers and producers not to make Will “too gay” that focus groups on whom the programme was tested often failed to grasp that Will was even gay at all!
Openly gay actor Leslie Jordan, who won an Emmy for playing the pint-sized Southern closet case Beverly Leslie on the show, said in a recent interview that Will’s lack of boo-tay was a necessary evil in W&G’s formative years. “Max [Mutchnik] and David [Kohan] were very smart,” he said. “They knew what their parameters were at the time. It had to be digestible to Middle America.”
The show increased Will’s number of trysts in later seasons, but it wasn’t until the sixth series that he got a long-term boyfriend (played by the strapping Bobby Cannavale). In retrospect, it’s too much to ask for any lead character – gay or straight – to get a happy ever after straight away; after all, something has to provide the fodder for storylines and, as television academic Glyn Davis has noted, the show specialised equally in “disastrous heterosexuality”, citing Grace’s inability to find or keep a partner, Karen’s bad parenting and Will’s parents’ divorce.
The character of Jack – the id to Will’s ego - proved equally problematic. In one way, Sean Hayes’ jazz-handy, over the top drama queen portrayal was extremely progressive, as it depicted a modern gay man who was overwhelmingly comfortable in his own skin, and the character forced a lot of gay men in particular to acknowledge, if not entirely confront, their own internalised homophobia.
But, at the same time, his campy fluttering was often, for entertainment purposes, blatantly cartoonish and stereotypical, leading some to theorise that heterosexual TV executives were using the show to mock that which they more most afraid of, and, as Shane McNamara wrote at the time in the now defunct Gay Ireland, to reduce homosexuality to a perception or concept, rather than treat gay people as actual human beings (the mixed messages were only exacerbated by Hayes’ refusal to publicly state his own sexual orientation).
For good and for bad, W&G was making its impact on pop culture. The show got a massive boost at the start of its second season by being switched to the network’s prestigious Thursday night prime time slot (following on from Friends and competing against Ally McBeal).
Its tight writing, double entendres, cheeky sight gags and zingy one liners helped it maintain consistent top 20 ratings, and the series was nominated for 11 Emmy awards in September 2000, winning three for Outstanding Comedy Series and Supporting Acting gongs for Hayes and Mullally. Over the show’s eight years, it picked up a total of 83 Emmy nominations, and 16 wins in total (including a second for Mullally, and single wins for McCormack and Messing).
It also quickly earned a reputation for stunt casting, and became seen as a fun, culturally savvy laboratory for huge names to try their hands at comedy. Among the huge array of guest stars over the years include Madonna, Cher, Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Joan Collins, Ellen Degeneres, Rosie O’Donnell, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Elton John, Kevin Bacon, Gene Wilder, John Cleese, Sharon Stone, Debbie Harry, Demi Moore, and Irish hunk Stuart Townsend.
The show’s ratings took a dip in its final two seasons, having lost Friends as its powerful lead-in. The finale of the series aired on May 18, 2006, drawing 18.1 million viewers. Since then, its stars have experienced mixed fortunes. Megan Mullally landed her own talk show the following September, but it was cancelled a year later due to poor ratings. She was last seen guest starring on Boston Legal, and in an episode of Kathy Griffin’s My Life on the D-List.
Sean Hayes, meanwhile, went onto musical theatre work and also starred in The Bucket List opposite Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. His production company, Hazy Mills, is currently developing a new series, BiCoastal, about a man with a wife and a boyfriend on the West and East coasts of America.
As for Will and Grace, Eric McCormack has starred in a TV movie remake of The Andromeda Strain, while Debra Messing has had the most post-W&G success, starring inThe Women, opposite Meg Ryan, and having her mini-series, The Starter Wife, turned into a regular series by the USA Network cable channel.
Ten years ago, gay-themed television seemed in a perilous state. Will and Grace defied, and subsequently, re-defined industry expectations by playing the game, even if that was perceived as neutralising its gay quotient. Then, as now, it’s probably best to leave the politics aside, and just take it at face value for the well-produced, consistently funny comedy it is. And as for all those other concerns? In the words of Karen Walker: “Oh coulda, shoulda, Prada.”
Fianna Fail support collapses
From today's Sunday Business Post. Hardly surprising considering the events of the past two weeks.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Budget humour
Got this email today...
A driver is stuck in a major traffic jam just outside Dublin on the M50 motorway.
Nothing is moving.Suddenly a Garda knocks on the window. The driver rolls down his window and asks, "What's going on?"
"Pensioners" have kidnapped Brian Cowen, Brian Lenihan & Mary Harney, and a bunch of Bankers.
They're asking for a €30 million ransom, otherwise they're going to douse them with petrol and set them on fire.
We're going from car to car taking up a collection."
The driver asks, "How much is everyone giving, on average?"
"About a gallon."
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The original Mr Nasty
My piece from today's Independent...The death of fashion critic Mr Blackwell at the age of 86 has robbed showbiz of one of its wittiest and most entertaining meanies.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Joanna Murphy...
...from TV3's The Apprentice: officially the scariest woman on television. It's the constant smiling that's most unnerving. No doubt she'll make it to the final - she makes for great television. Still absolutely terrifying though.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Palin on SNL
Sarah Palin appears as herself on Saturday Night Live. Pity she and Tina didn't appear together...
Friday, October 17, 2008
'Capital' investment
With the entire global capitalist system in the shits, it's good to know someone is benefitting...
An ending fit for a president
Frank McNally's Irishman's Diary is worth a goo in today's Irish Times because he talks about All The President's Men - one of my top 3 favourite movies ever.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Debate
The most astonishing moments from last night's final presidential debate:
1. Fran-Cain-Stein blames Obama for HIS OWN negative campaigning. This man is actually delusional.
2. He then tries to link Obama to ACORN, accusing the group of performing "one of the greatest frauds in voter history" and for "maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." That's rich indeed coming from the Republican party.
3. Obama doesn't beat around the bush and challenges MuckCain on the fact that cries of "Kill him" were shouted - and not disputed - in relation to Obama at McCain/Palin rallies. It was electric viewing, and to hear the words come so calmly from Obama's mouth simultaneously crystallized how more presidential Obama is, and how disgraceful and vile McCain's campaign has become. The old fool was left speechless - because there was nothing he could say.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Name game
A proud day for the global clan Cashin on The Daily Show the other day. Skip to 1.37 mins in...
Sounds like a Leap of shite Amy!
Cyndi, dear, you're still No 1
My interview with Cyndi Lauper in today's IndependentCyndi Lauper has the strongest 'Noo Yawk' accent I've ever heard, so it was probably not the best idea to volunteer to teach her some Irish during the course of a transatlantic phone call that had a five-second delay due to being relayed through a London agency. Continue here.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Politics is bullshit...
Mysterious Skin and Third Rock from the Sun actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets all political in the run-up to the election.
Always nice to know you're being read...
Delightful thread started over on Irish-Nationalism.net about my feature on the gay prom in the Independent last week.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Alternative plans
Get your skates - and skirts, fake boobs, prosthetic penis' and wigs - on if you want to take part in next year's Alternative Miss Ireland. Click on the poster for all the details.
Google and gay marriage
Google adopts a rare political position and comes out (so to speak) against California's Proposition 8 proposal on next month's ballot seeking to amend the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
Recount
This weekend, in absence of any real life, I watched Recount, a fantastic HBO TV movie about the farcical 2000 US presidential election, and the chaos that ensued in Florida over hanging and dimple chad (the plural of chad is chad, as we find out) and the various efforts on both the Republican and Democratic sides to swing the election for their guy. A brilliant cast - Kevin Spacey, Denis Leary, Tom Wilkinson, Ed Begley Jnr, and Laura Dern - truly unnerving as the bizarre Katherine Harris, Florida's overly-made-up Secretary of State - Recount is essential viewing for any politico-heads out there, and is especially topical this year where the election could come down to a close vote-off in many key swing states.
Have you heard about the bird?
Damn you Peter Griffin! This song (and, if I'm honest, dance) has been in my head all weekend. It's a recurring 'earworm' gag from episode 2 of Season 7 of the show, and I almost cried laughing at it. B-b-b-bird, bird is the word...
Movie posters
50 beautiful movie posters. Though it leaves out The Truman Show, one of the best (and most copied) posters ever.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
All the Presidents' movies
My feature from today's Review in the Independent
The 2008 presidential contest between Barack Obama and John McCain has been t he most thrilling and dramatic race in modern American history, and it’s sure to make a hell of a movie some day.
All the elements are there for a great Hollywood epic: generational conflict, cliff hangers, intrigue, bitch fights, glamorous leading ladies (as well as the odd femme fatale), and a spectacular plot twist in the third act in the form of vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, a candidate and a character that even the most imaginative screenwriter would surely struggle to create.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Gay high school for Windy City
Chicago could get its own gay-friendly high school, similar to the Harvey Milk school in New York.
Republicans are putting Obama in physical danger
Andrew Sullivan gets to the heart of MuckCain and Palin's outrageous character attacks on Obama in recent days: that fomenting the prejudices, ignorance and rage of elements of the Republican base could put Obama in actual physical danger.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
MuckCain and Palin's Faithful League of Uninformed Voters
Probably the saddest and most terrifying thing you'll see all year.
More of it here. How can these people be so fucking stupid? These idiots should be identified and barred from voting for life.
UK gets mo-seum
Britain is to get its first museum of homosexual history. From today's London Independent...
Will it be Roth this year?
Sending out all my best vibes for Philip Roth to win this year's Nobel Prize for Literature, to be announced later today - despite the comments from the Nobel committee member Horace Engdahl last week.
Read an extensive interview with Roth in The Observer from a few weeks back.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
No wire hangers. Or questions about cups of urine.
Yikes. My friend David just put me onto this car crash interview with Faye Dunaway in yesterday's Guardian. Every journalist's worst 'mare.
Coming out to play
The school Debs can be a hit-and-miss affair, but it still remains a rites-of-passage for most Irish students, marking as it does (or should, at any rate) the end of those awkward, hormonal formative years, and the dawn of those even more awkward and hormonal adult ones.
But if you’re a gay teenager, the Debs can be a meaningless, even painful experience because, more often than not, you cannot openly and comfortably attend with a same sex partner.
Continue here.
Obama and the wreck-onomy
The town hall debate is mid-way through: every question has been on the American wreckonomy so far, which has all been to Obama's advantage. Keep 'em coming baby!
Meanwhile, McCain hits a new low while addressing Obama - or, should I say, "that one". Astonishing.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Obama hits back
The Obama campaign's fightback against MuckCain's smears - a video detailing his involvement with Charles Keating and the murky savings and loans scandal. The low road to high office, eh?
Meanwhile, today's Gallup polls have Obama leading by 51% to 42% for McCain, while Americans' general satisfaction rate slumps to an all-time low of just 9%. As long as Obama puts in an even competent performance in tonight's second debate, then this election could be decided by the end of this week
Bird takes Washington...
Mediacontact.ie has just gotten word that Charlie Bird has been appointed as RTE's new Washington Correspondent, replacing Robert Shortt.
Summer Lovin'
I've spent the last few evenings howling and weeping - nothing new there, I guess - but this time, my wailing was induced by watching Summer Heights High, a mockumentary series set in an Australian public school, written by and starring Chris Lilley, who plays three parts in the show: Ja'mie King, a racist, snobby, bitchy private school exchange student; Jonah Takalua, a 13-year-old ADHD-afflicted, special ed Tongan bully; and, my favourite, Mr G, a petty, mincing, self-centered drama teacher - sorry, Director of Performing Arts - who is determined to stage a lavish school musical based on a Summer Heights High student who died from an Ecstasy overdose.
Crass, tasteless, offensive, racist - and all the better for it - SHH is like Mean Girls meets Home and Away meets The Office meets Nighty Night. It's absolutely brilliant television. Dig it up somwhere - you'll thank me later. *dick* tation
Monday, October 06, 2008
The poor Brians had to pull an all-nighter. Let's generously compensate them somehow.
In all the coverage of the Irish government's plan to underwrite the deposits of the six main Irish banks, did you notice how many reports referred, almost heroically and reverentially, to the fact that the Taoiseach and Finance Minister had to work all through the night to secure the deal, and how exhausted they must have been the next day?
So what? When was the last time (if ever) they had to work this hard on anything on our behalf - other than their own re-election, of course?
But maybe I'm being churlish. As a reward for their diligence, I think we should pay them a six figure salary that's anything between 7 and 10 times the average industrial wage, as well as give them generous expense claims, massive pension entitlements, and the equivalent of six months off a year, including lengthy breaks during the summer and at Christmas to recuperate.
Oh wait...
Grill-iant blog post
I implore you to break out your best Biblical puns and contribute to a thread that gets my vote for blog post of the month over at UnaRocks.
Obama wins youth vote
Not so shocking news: Obama holds a commanding lead over McCain in a USA Today/MTV poll of young voters aged 18-29. Read here...
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Tina as Scarah: Strike 3
SNL last night - obviously - had Tina Fey as Scarah Feylin during the VP debate with Joe Biden. Fantastic stuff. "I believe marriage to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers."
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Morning gory
My guest column from today's Weekend magazine in the Independent
I read recently that Barack Obama’s wife Michelle wakes up at 4.30 every morning to work out on a treadmill before making breakfast for their two young daughters and getting them out to school.
She then heads off to her mega-salaried job on the board of the University of Chicago Hospitals, as well as cramming in time to help her husband in the not-inconsiderable task of becoming the 44th US president. And all before 9am by the sounds of it.
I find all of that pre-dawn hustle and bustle bizarre and, quite frankly, terrifying. Mrs Obama is clearly a morning person, and, while I myself can be called many things, “morning person” certainly isn’t one of them.
You’ve heard of getting up on “the wrong side of the bed”? Well, my bed is perpetually surrounded by wrong sides, complete with matching duvet and pillows from the trendy ‘Wrong Side’ design label.
We all know people who are sprightly, chatty, upbeat and productive first thing, but to my mind, I could imagine those same people jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch declaring their love for a brain-washed former star of a hit teen angst TV show: it’s just not normal behaviour.
Morning time for me is otherwise known as my daily Seven Dwarves period: I’m simultaneously Sleepy, Grumpy, Dopey and sometimes even a little Sneezy. I’m also Bashful (as in I’ll bash anyone who comes near me), Happy (momentarily, when I get my coffee) and finally Doc (when I pump myself full of enough vitamin B and C to shock my system into action).
Those who know me, and particularly the saints who have lived with me, know not to speak to me before midday. Of course, that hasn’t stopped some of those individuals from deriving pleasure from my pain over the years.
When I was in school, my sadistic older brother used to barge into my bedroom at 7.45 every morning, pull of my duvet, throw open the curtains and open the window, all while singing, “Off to school, off to school, we’re all going off to school.” He would then be forcibly cheerful over breakfast, just to annoy me. Siblings can be so cruel.
These days, my morning-itis has been no doubt exacerbated by my job. There’s no real 9-5 structure to it. Believe it or not, I used to contribute to a breakfast radio show, which required being in the studio for 5.30am and having a stack of newspapers digested and ready to discuss on air by 6.30. Just how that station wasn’t served with hundreds of libel writs during my tenure is anyone’s guess.
I then spent two years working evening shifts on a newspaper, which really solidified the vampire-like existence I live today. My brain learned that it only had to come to life from 2pm onwards, and though I’ve since left that job, the hard-wiring remains.
Now I work from home, where I desperately try to enforce regular work hours on myself. The problem is that, no matter how much I try to transform from an owl into a lark, I find I’m still basically catatonic until lunchtime.
I always get up for work for 9am, but at that time of the day, it’s not uncommon for me to use shampoo as toothpaste, pour orange juice over my cereal or go to the shop wearing just my socks. I’m actually a danger to myself and others in that condition.
Suddenly, mysteriously, my whole demeanour changes once the afternoon dawns. It’s like I’m a Gremlin and I’ve just been fed after midnight. I could work the whole evening through until the early hours if I needed to, which of course has ramifications for my already-just-hanging-in-there social life, but that’s the price that has to be paid when your chronotype is firmly set to the PM dial.
Having said that, I’ve heard that there are hypnosis CDs that might be able to re-wire my body clock to turn me into an Obama-esque, early morning power broker. Anything that can liberate me from my morning comas has to be worth a shot. Until then, the News at 1 will continue to be my Morning Ireland. And in case you’re wondering, I finished writing this article at 1am. Naturally.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Homer tries to vote for Obama...
Love it!
Speaking of, another classic Simpsons presidential campaign episode... "Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others"
How much is enough?
My feature from today's Independent
Recession, credit crunch, banking meltdowns – it’s impossible to avoid the topic of money and finances right now. For that reason, now is the perfect time to publish a book focusing on the role of money in our lives and how much we really need to live a happy, fulfilling life.
Continue here.
Biden vs Scarah smackdown
VP debate tonight between Biden and Palin. Should be mesmerising television.
However, I have a theory about Palin that I've been working on: in the eerily prophetic final season of The West Wing, the Democratic Veep candidate Leo McGarry did appallingly bad in the debate prep, and rehearsal videos of the prep leaked to the media.
Things were so bad that Leo's own campaign team tuned into watch with hands over their eyes. But then Leo came to life on camera, and wiped the floor with his opponent. It turns out that Leo had deliberately "sandbagged" and leaked the videos to lower expectations, which turned out to be a brilliant, cunning strategy. Perhaps Scarah and the Republicans are doing something similar? Because she surely couldn't be this moronic? Surely?
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Tina sparks bidding war with first book
Great news!
30 Rock creator Tina Fey looks set to cash in on her recent Emmy triumph - she's reportedly been offered a whopping $6 million to publish her first book.
The comedienne/writer picked up top honours for the hit TV show at the Primetime Emmy Awards last month, including Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actress.
Her big win ignited a bidding war among publishers, and now they are all vying for Fey to sign on the dotted line to seal a deal to release a tome, according to the New York Post.
However, the book will not be a memoir - the publication claims it's been pitched as "non-fiction humour, more in the style of author, screenwriter and film director Nora Ephron".
Scarah and the gays
Dear God. Scarah Palin talks about her views on homosexuality. Yep folks, being gay is a choice according to the most disastrously, comically unqualified vice presidential candidate in American history. But don't worry, because, like all of the most insidious homophobes out there, her views are qualified because one of her best friends just happens to be gay...by choice, of course.
Meanwhile, Bill Maher slaughters Palin on The View - "If Joe Biden had made some of the comments to Katie Couric that Palin made, we'd think he had brain damage."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
