Movie Article
Nov. 26th, 2008 09:44 amAs usual I have the article under the link, just in case the link doesn't work.
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_popmachine/2008/11/gus-van-sants-m.html
Why are there no openly gay leading men in Hollywood?
Gus Van Sant's "Milk" isn't just a mainstream-minded Oscar candidate; it's also a rallying cry.
With Sean Penn starring as Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco supervisor who was gunned down along with Mayor George Moscone in 1978, the movie (which opens Wednesday) makes its message clear: Gay people must be "out" to be counted.
This theme is particularly timely given California's passage of anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8 this month, but there's also a certain irony:
Here's a broadly targeted movie with marquee actors (James Franco, Josh Brolin and Emile Hirsch co-star), yet not only is none of the featured players openly gay, but there isn't one openly gay leading man in all of Hollywood. Even as gay people have become far more prominent and comfortable in culture and everyday life in the 30 years since Milk's death, not a single current A-list movie actor is "out."
Could it be that big movie stars simply don't swing that way? That lead actors defy all percentages and likelihood to remain a strictly heterosexual crowd?
Or is the more logical explanation that while Hollywood preaches openness, it is fearful to practice it?
( Read more... )
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_popmachine/2008/11/gus-van-sants-m.html
Why are there no openly gay leading men in Hollywood?
Gus Van Sant's "Milk" isn't just a mainstream-minded Oscar candidate; it's also a rallying cry.
With Sean Penn starring as Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco supervisor who was gunned down along with Mayor George Moscone in 1978, the movie (which opens Wednesday) makes its message clear: Gay people must be "out" to be counted.
This theme is particularly timely given California's passage of anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8 this month, but there's also a certain irony:
Here's a broadly targeted movie with marquee actors (James Franco, Josh Brolin and Emile Hirsch co-star), yet not only is none of the featured players openly gay, but there isn't one openly gay leading man in all of Hollywood. Even as gay people have become far more prominent and comfortable in culture and everyday life in the 30 years since Milk's death, not a single current A-list movie actor is "out."
Could it be that big movie stars simply don't swing that way? That lead actors defy all percentages and likelihood to remain a strictly heterosexual crowd?
Or is the more logical explanation that while Hollywood preaches openness, it is fearful to practice it?
( Read more... )