THEGAYUK

Author: Roger Walker-Dack

  • James Corden Is The Next Big Big Thing

    Getting the job of hosting The Late Late Show on American TV is a Big Big thing and when Britain’s own James Corden was picked, the whole country just said ‘who is he?”

    On Monday night they certainly found out as very tongue-in-cheek Corden started off his very first show with a hilarious video showing how he ended up in one of the hottest seats in TV.

    Leslie Moonves the President of CBS is decides the fairest way to find someone for this most coveted job is to slip a golden ticket in a random candy bar and who ever finds it gets to be the host. Luckily for James he happens to pick up the winning ticket Chelsea Handler when drops it and he embarks on a grueling training schedule run by a host of Hollywood A List stars, culminating with Meryl Streep who try to get the Brit into shape.

    Check out the video and see why next morning the news media gave James Corden rave reviews for his performance and declared this relative unknown to be such an excellent choice as the new host.

  • Kerry Washington Stuns With Gay Ally Acceptance Speech

    The GLAAD Media Awards which “recognise and honour media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives’ were handed out in Hollywood last night.

    Roland Emmerich director of Stonewall received the Stephen F. Kolzak Award from Channing Tatum, highlighting those working to eliminate homophobia within the entertainment industry.

    It was, however, actress Kerry Washington who had accepted the Vanguard Award from presenter Ellen DeGeneres, a prize handed to a significant ally of the LGBT community who brought the star-studded audience to their feet with her passionate plea for same-sex rights. “We can’t say that we believe in each other’s fundamental humanity and then turn a blind eye to the reality of each others’ existence and the truth of each other’s hearts. We must be allies. And we must be allies in this business because to be represented is to be humanised. And as long as anyone, anywhere is being made to feel less human, our very definition of humanity is at stake and we are all vulnerable.”

    The Winners List :
    Vanguard Award: Kerry Washington

    Stephen F. Kolzak Award: Roland Emmerich

    Outstanding Film – Wide Release: The Imitation Game (The Weinstein Company)

    Outstanding Drama Series: HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER (ABC)

    Outstanding Comedy Series: TRANSPARENT (Amazon Instant Video)

    Outstanding Individual Episode (in a series without a regular LGBT character): “Identity Crisis” DROP DEAD DIVA(Lifetime)

    Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series: THE NORMAL HEART (HBO)

    Outstanding Music Artist: Against Me! Transgender Dysphoria Blues (Xtra Mile Recordings)

    Outstanding Daily Drama: DAYS OF OUR LIVES (NBC)

    Outstanding Comic Book : Rat Queens, written by Kurtis J. Wiebe (Image Comics)

    Outstanding Digital Journalism Article: “31 Days of PrEP” [series] (Advocate.com)

    Outstanding Blog: Autostraddle (autostraddle.com)

  • INTERVIEW | Elizabeth Streb, 65 and Still Walking Up Walls

    Elizabeth Streb is an American choreographer, dancer, performer who has an insatiable passion for extreme action. She has been creating works from 1975 and is known for her outrageous risk-taking and the experimental shows she puts on. A multi-award winner Streb’s work is extremely demanding and necessitates endurance, dexterity, great physical strength and the ability to be daring. Her Company has been based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn since 2003 where she established SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics) which created a new outlet for the community where people could come and watch rehearsals and even participate in classes.

    In 2012 Boris Johnson invited Streb to create a series of events in London as part of the Olympics Celebration. ‘One Extraordinary Day’ was an unprecedented spectacular with Streb and her Company dangling off the Millennium Bridge, performing an acrobatic dance whilst suspended from the tip of the London Eye, and walking down the outside of City Hall. The latter one that Streb herself took part in even though she was 64-years-old at the time.

    This stunning event is the centrepiece of a new documentary BORN TO FLY: ELIZABETH STREB vs. GRAVITY that will unquestionably be one of THE highlights of the BFI Festival when it has its UK Premiere on March 20th at Southbank. It is an unmissable film, very much like the woman herself who Roger Walker-Dack caught up with her in New York recently when for at least 30 minutes she had her feet firmly on the ground,

    RWD: Born in New York and as a very young woman you somewhat daringly hopped on a motorbike and headed right across the entire country to study contemporary dance in San Francisco for two years.

    ES: I always loved the sound of motorcycles and I was just 15/16 years old when I got my first one. I came from a working-class family and had parents who always believed that if you had a dream and earned your keep that they would never step in your way, even if they did not like it. So I saved all my pennies and worked my way up to a Honda 350 and that’s the one that took me to SF.

    I knew I wanted to go to the West Coast to practice and study with a major choreographer like Martha Jenkins. I also needed to figure out how to live in a city and earn enough money to pay bills and be able to keep dancing. I was also so young that I was so terrified that I would be led astray too (laughs)

     

     

    RWD: Back in NY in 1974 you started your own Dance Company.

    ES: I didn’t have my first one quite yet. I had to find a job to be able to live etc so that I could go into the studio alone and work on my solo work. In those days I was working mainly on techniques that were very influenced by the great Merce Cunningham. I was working on structure but I hadn’t yet gotten to the point where I became fixated with extreme action.

    RWD: Were you pushing your performance to the edge then or was that a later thing?

    ES: Much later Roger, then I was terrified, as I had absolutely no real idea what I was doing.

    RWD: Unlike most choreographers, you actually went back to school to study physics, maths and philosophy to get a better understanding of the effects of movement on matter.

    ES: I guess that is rare, but I didn’t do that until I was 47-years-old and after I had gotten the McArthur Foundation Award*. I went back to NYU thinking that this was a really good way to spend my Award money.

    RWD: The movie covers your creation of POP ACTION for your SLAM Company in Brooklyn and what it encompasses, but I’m more interested in what drives you to not only to create but also to continually push the boundaries forward.

    ES: I think I do it just as the scorpion said to the frog travelling across the stream when he got stung, after promising the frog he wouldn’t: it’s in my nature. Plus curiosity I guess, and the fact that I never want to repeat myself. I’m very interested in where action belongs, which has been somewhat of a puzzle for me and I have still to come to any real conclusions, however. I’m working on it.

    RWD: When I first accosted you in P Town last summer I apologised for the fact that in my review of your movie I had identified you as a control freak. A necessity in your work where exact detail is crucial, but maybe not so much with your very sweet wife. Fair criticism?

    ES: (laughs) I imagine so.

    RWD: The scene of you micro-managing your dinner party still sticks in my head. (Laughing)

    ES: Was I a control freak in that? (Laughing)

    RWD: Totally!

    ES: It may be a character defect (laughs) but in my work, I am responsible for so many people so I am not casual about dealing with that in any way. My spouse Elizabeth is used to me I guess. (She is the daughter of Michael Flanders of Flanders and Swann: a famous British comedy duo from the 1950s & 1960s) She is not my wife as we are still holding out, but we’ve been together for 24 years.

    RWD: That’s as good as married in my book.

    ES: Well I think so too. When it comes to marriage, we just prefer to stand on the sidelines.

    RWD: As the movie is having its premiere in London, let’s talk about ‘One Extraordinary Day’ your remarkable way of celebrating the London Olympics. How the hell did you persuade our Mayor to not only let you jump off the Millennium Bridge, hang suspended off the London Eye, and walk down the outside of The Gherkin, and then make him pay for it as well?

    ES: (Laughing) It started with Ruth Mackenzie the director of the Cultural Olympiad and Justine Simmons of Mayor’s Cultural Commission who I had worked with before, and the idea just grew and grew. Looking back now, I do not know how we pulled it all off. It was totally crazy as we had to be close the Thames, close all the roads, get permission to get on the spokes on the London Eye, and to jump off the Millennium bridge. Even the cultural loving authorities of New York wouldn’t have even let us do anything of that magnitude.

    RWD: The point that I want to stress is that you personally walked down the entire outside of City Hall when you are actually old enough to go inside and get your senior’s Bus Pass.

    ES: (Laughing) That would be no fun. I stay in shape well enough to put myself in a position so that I can if I choose too let extreme things happen to me.

    RWD: What did we Brits think about it?

    ES: The really sad thing was that we were not allowed to advertise where, when or what. The Health and Safety people put their very big foot down and said NO! So it was a complete accident when people walked by and saw us at any of the seven sites. It did, however, make the front pages of every single newspaper in the UK, and several around the world too. As I say in the film when that extraordinary day was over ‘how can I ever one up that?’

    RWD: Did we Brits say ‘Who is this crazy American?’

    ES: (Laughs.) Before the event, there was some rumblings about why an American got such a huge commission but we were very careful to ensure that over half of the crew involved used were Brits

    RWD: Will you never retire from performing Elizabeth?

    ES: No, never! That is just not an option even though it is hard to predict the future. I do have a couple of ideas and I not sure if I can even survive them. One is to stand in the middle of an empty pool and with four firemen (or women) standing on each corner and aiming their hoses at me at the exact same moment when they turn them on at full force. I will stand there and see if I can handle the pressure of the water.

    RWD: You know you are mad! (Both laughing)

    ES: If I think there is something that I really want to so then I will do it. With me it’s not about moving or doing a movement it’s about letting something extreme happen to me

    RWD: I believe we are going to see you back in the UK next year with another project.

    ES: It’s called Cities of the World and I am working on it with the LIFT Festival in London for June 2016. It is an exciting new project made for cranes and London’s iconic industrial landscape and right now the focus of the project is around Kings Cross and Gas Holder Number 8. It is still very much a ‘work in progress’.

    RWD: Finally Elizabeth, I always like to ask everyone ‘if there was a movie on your life that would get to play you’?

    ES: Such a great question (laughing) I really don’t know. Halle Berry pops into my head but I am not sure why.

    RWD: Because she played Catwoman?

    ES: (Laughs) Can I have Angelique Jolie?

    RWD: Of course.

     

  • Sir Ian McKellen Tackles Sherlock

    Sir Ian McKellen reunites with director Bill Condon (Gods & Monsters) to star as the world’s greatest detective in Mr Holmes.

    The movie is a new twist on this famous private eye and is set when 1947, an ageing Sherlock Holmes returns from a journey to Japan, where, in search of a rare plant with powerful restorative qualities, he has witnessed the devastation of nuclear warfare. Now, in his remote seaside farmhouse, Holmes faces the end of his days tending to his bees, with only the company of his housekeeper and her young son, Roger. Grappling with the diminishing powers of his mind, Holmes comes to rely upon the boy as he revisits the circumstances of the unsolved case that forced him into retirement and searches for answers to the mysteries of life and love – before it’s too late.

    The move will reach UK cinemas in June, and in US movie theatres a month later, and as a preview Miramax and Roadside Attractions have released this brand new preview at what looks like could be a real summer blockbuster.

  • FILM REVIEW| Born To Fly: Elizabeth Streb Vs. Gravity

    Elizabeth Streb is an American performer, teacher and celebrated modern dance choreographer who is never happy until she pushes everybody beyond the edge and way out of their comfort zone. ★★★★★

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  • WATCH: They Had It Coming, Cell Block Tango Goes Gay

    As part of its annual Broadway Backwards event benefitting Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS, director Robert Bartley transformed Chicago’s famed “Cell Block Tango” with six really hot male dancers.

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  • FILM REVIEW | Heartbeats

    ★★★★★ | Heartbeats

    If you have ever had an unrequited love, especially one in your (distant) youth then this wonderfully witty tongue-in-cheek movie from the remarkable multi-talented filmmaker Xavier Dolan will really appeal to you.

    The story is of a love triangle. Twenty-year-old best friends Marie and Francis spot Nicolas, a stunning Adonis, at a dinner party, and they both fall for him big time. Nicolas adores attention so encourages them to the point where they destroy their close friendship and become bitter rivals to win his heart. Nicolas is very self-absorbed and affected and it is impossible to tell if his androgynous personification will eventually reveal whether he is gay or straight. The three of them have sleepovers in Francis’s bed but nothing at all happens, and then one day they ago away to the country for the weekend, and after this life, for them, all will never be the same.

    As the story progresses Mr Dolan edits in some hilarious anecdotes in interview form from strangers whose love lives also fell part. The man definitely has a way with words.

    There is something totally entrancing about this second feature from Canada’s wunderkind filmmaker and as much as one can pick holes with annoying (and almost clichéd) touches like some of the slow motion scenes, you really sense that this is no ordinary movie from any ordinary director. Mr Dolan’s first movie I Killed My Mother a totally stunning and hilarious semi-autobiographic piece won 3 Awards at the Cannes Film Festival (and another 23 other Awards around the World) in 2009 when he was a mere 19-years-old.

    Sadly the US Distributor went into financial difficulties and the movie, trapped in legal no-mans-land, has never been seen beyond the Festival Circuit to date. Now at the ripe old age of 22, he has written, directed, starred, co-produced, edited, and designed the sets and the costumes for Heartbeats, which also picked up an Award at Cannes last year. He is an enormous precocious talent and I think this, his early work, shows that he is going to be one of THE most important filmmakers of the future.

    You would be a fool to miss this one.

  • FILM REVIEW | Mommy

    ★★★★★ | Mommy

    When Diana ‘Die’ Despres reacts quite violently after she crashes her car on the way to collect Steve her troubled teenage son from the special care facility after he set fire to the cafeteria, it’s initially not clear who is the craziest one out of the pair of them. However, life with Steve will be no picnic for his widowed mother after the two of them traipses back on the bus to the latest rental apartment in the suburbs that they now call home.

    Steve may look like an angel with his blond hair and blue eyes but he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder which gives him extreme mood swings. They include many violent angry outbursts which then, without warning, suddenly change into some almost inappropriate ‘kiss and makeup’ sessions with his mother. Die seems to spend most of her time pleading and cajoling with her son who she is obviously very afraid of, but then again she too can be pretty frightening in her own right. Despite their traumatic daily life together she clings to her son even though she craves her freedom and so when a neighbour flirts with her she is reluctant to take it one step further in case it antagonises Steve more.

    They do however let someone else into their lives in the shape of their rather mousy neighbour Kyle. She has plenty of her own issues to deal, with most of which manifest in her rather mysterious stutter that greatly inhibits her ability to express herself. Kyle, an ex-school teacher, takes on the thankless task of trying to tutor Steve, and both he and his mother are desperate to make her their only friend which at first is something that she seems to welcome too.

    With one unpredictable scene after another, it soon becomes clear that no matter how strong and fiercely independent Die is, she is simply overwhelmed with trying to deal with this petulant head-strong unbalanced teenager. Love is just simply not enough.

    This remarkable and deeply disturbing film is the fifth from 25-year-old Canadian Wunderkind filmmaker Xavier Dolan and in a way he is revisiting a theme of his debut movie I Killed My Mother. This time however instead of it being about a son who felt completely misunderstood by his mother, the lack of misunderstanding seems to go both ways. It’s extremely raw, very heartbreaking, completely original and deeply personal as it simply has to be another of Dolan’s semi-autobiographical stories. What is especially effective is that despite all the melodrama he infuses it with some brilliant touches of humour which don’t just lighten the pace but make it really quite funny at times.

    It reunites him with his movie mother the dynamic Canadian actress Anne Dorval who, as the lynch pin for this intense drama, is manically mesmerising. She like Suzanne Clement who plays Kyle are stellar regulars of Dolan’s films and their performances (like the movies themselves) keep getting better every time around. Young Antoine-Olivier Pilon inhabits the often uncomfortable skin of the deeply disturbed Steve quite brilliantly too.

    The consummate Dolan’s hands, as usual, are not just restricted to writing and directing but are all over the movie from the editing to the soundtrack. He truly is a renaissance filmmaker and one that is seemingly maturing along with his movies which frankly get better and better. Multi-award winners … this one picked up a Jury Award at The Cannes Film Festival and then a César Award (French Oscar) for Best Foreign Film, but despite all this acclaim, Dolan’s movies have yet to make any significant breakthrough at the Box Office. This, however, may just be the one to give him the success that his movies so deserve.

  • FILM REVIEW | Dior And I

    ★★★★★ | Dior And I

    Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LMVH took a year to decide on whom to appoint as the new Creative Director of DIOR after the unceremonious firing of John Galliano for his alleged very public display of anti-Semitism.

    The interim in-house designer’s collection had been very poorly received so Arnault knew that he had to think outside of the box to save the reputation of the House. His unexpected choice was the Belgian Designer Raf Simons who had made a name for himself with his sublime minimalist collections for the Jil Sander label. Even though Simons had never designed an Haute Couture collection, Arnault threw him into deep end making this his first task and giving him just two short months to do it.

    The company also gave filmmaker Frédéric Tcheng what initially seemed like carte blanche to film the whole process from the time that Simons was first introduced to his new team right through to the Runway Show itself. Tcheng was a wise choice as he had been part of the team who had made the Diane Vreeland documentary The Eye Must Travel and the equally excellent ‘Valentino The Last Emperor’. This time, however, he was to be the sole director.

    Simons is a quiet reserved man which is the total opposite of his predecessor and relies completely on his right hand man Pieter Muller, who is more open and approachable, to execute a great deal of the work. Simons, who insists on doing away with the traditional formality of the House and been called Raf by one and all, creates in a very democratic manner. A very visual man who never actually sketches, he compiles extensive ‘mood boards’ of the ‘looks’ that he wants to constitute his debut collection that has to be good enough to lift Dior out of its current doldrums.

    He is not only fortunate enough to have a design team who are both eager and very capable of interpreting his concepts into reality, he has two workrooms who have for decades been lovingly hand-making all the couture clothes up in the attic floors of the building. Managed by two Ateliers (one for tailoring, the other for dresses) they are staffed by a dedicated bunch of seamstresses who at times seemed to show far more passion about the actual collection than their new Creative Director.

    Simons can, and does get anything he wants to help make this collection even if it means his fabric buyer must beg and plead with her printers, or if the seamstresses work into the early hours of the morning. Tcheng gives us a fascinating fly-on-the-wall look at how it all comes together, but apart from one incident when an Atelier is in New York doing a fitting for a customer ratter than toiling away upstairs in the Workroom, the whole process is presented as being totally drama free which is so completely unrealistic. There is one very real and funny moment when Simons wants a new white jacket made in black, and so to see what it would like, Muller just takes a can of spray paint and the offending white is covered over.

    Tcheng gets full marks for the innovative way that he incorporates part of the legacy of Mr Dior himself by imagery and narrating parts of the Couturier’s own biography. Simons is also aware of what he has inherited by stepping into the legendary Designers shoes (although he is the 7th one to date to have done so). Whilst he looks through the House’s archives as part of his research, he makes a point of stating ‘the past is not romantic to me: it’s the future that is romantic.’

    For a venue for the Show itself they find an empty very grand house in the centre of Paris and whilst walking around its many floors with his team, Simons says that what he would like to do is take the concept of Jeff Koon’s Puppy (outside Guggenheim in Bilbao) and cover the interior with walls of flowers. What Simons wants Simons gets, although when Arnault comes in to see a test run of the walls he takes the PR Director away from the prying camera when he asks ‘how much is this going to cost?’ Whatever the answer was he still stumps up for it and come show day and Simons is walking Anna Wintour into the venue to face this stunning beautiful sight, she takes off her dark glasses for one quick moment to mutter “No budget restrictions then?” with a smirk on her face.

    When the show begins in front of a star-studded audience and seemingly the entire world’s press, we finally get to see in full what we have only glimpsed at in part up to now i.e. the clothes themselves. They are nothing short of stunning, something that will be born out by the clamour of congratulatory hugging afterwards, and to be followed by rave reviews in the media the next day. But now as the skinny models glide from room to room whilst everyone is looking in awe, we finally see the emotional side of Simons as breaks down and quietly weeps and has to be comforted by Muller.

    The lack of real drama was not the only surprise it was the fact that Belgian Simons couldn’t speak French that was quite a shocker, which was hardly something that Tcheng could change. What however he was responsible was the total absence of Galliano’s name at all as if he never ever existed. Despite this unforgivable omission I was still completely enamoured by this otherwise enchanting record of this very talented man and his team creating these works of art that would be admired by so many and worn by so few.

  • FILM REVIEW | 54, The Director’s Cut

    ★★★★★ | 54, The Director’s Cut

    The movie opens with a very hunky bare-chested young man in a New York street late at night trying to cover up and keep warm. You can hear him start to explain. “I’m not going to bulls*** you, it was the greatest party in the history of the world. My boss said the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. Maybe it did. One thing for sure it was the ultimate escape from a f***ed up city in a f***ed up time. But like any great escape, it never lasts”

    He’s talking of course about the infamous Studio 54 which was THE dance club in Manhattan, that for a few short years in the late 1970s was where all the celebrities hung out and partied whilst all the desperate would-be’s were kept outside behind the velvet ropes begging Steve Rubell the co-owner and ringmaster to be let in. Their efforts were all in vain as you had to have either a certain look or a gorgeous body for him to relent and admit you in to mingle with the stars. Shane a rather gormless New Jersey boy who was as cute as hell was in the latter group. This is his story, which started off when Rubell told him to remove his shirt and after he stripped to his waist he got invited into more than just the Club, and he stayed until the party ended.

    What naïve Shane encounters inside the Club quickly blows his mind. Hedonistic excess and debauchery with people openly having sex whilst bare-chested glitter-painted waiters nimbly passed around the packed dance floor with silver trays carrying drinks laced with phials of coke. There are bodies everywhere and all of them behaving badly. Hesitant at first he soon joins in and as he discovers that he loves being the centre of attention he learns to parlay that into getting what he wants. He is very soon a regular fixture and asking a somewhat besotted Rubell for a job. He starts at the bottom as a lowly barboy but literally f***s his way to becoming the next new hottest bartender which is one of the most coveted jobs in the place.

    Rubell’s self-indulgent rapacious greedy lust for money and power knows no bounds and the seemingly unstoppable raging success of the club means endless drug-fuelled sleepless days and nights as he lures Shane and his other young staff into satisfying his sexual needs with the promise of promotion or a handful of cash. His creepy persona (a startlingly wonderful dramatic performance from Mike Myers) influences the once innocent straight Shane who readily now jumps in bed with older celebrities of both sexes as he earns a reputation of being able to literally screw them unconscious. His now insatiable appetite has him also making passes at both his married best friends who are also his roommates.

    For Shane, it’s simply a case of rags to riches story and when the IRS finally takes heed of Rubell’s public boasting of tax-avoidance and raids the Club, it’s back to rags again. He’s had his trip to the dark side and now it’s time get back into a light that is not just from the reflection of a disco glitter ball.

    Written and directed by Mark Christopher, this new Director’s Cut fulfils an ambition he has held since the original movie was released some 17 years ago. He’s added some 36 sparkling minutes, which makes a great deal more sense of Shane’s story, and it also reinstates all the sex and the morally ambivalent characters that frightened the distributors way back then. All’s well that ends well and Christopher’s love letter to the heady days of the New York disco scene is now a sheer joy.

    With the exception of Myers, the cast was relatively unknown. Newcomer Ryan Philippe, whose experience prior to this had been playing a gay teenager on Days Of Our Life (the first gay character on US daytime TV), played Shane so passionately. He not only looks the part … be prepared to swoon like Rubell when he first takes off his shirt to reveal THAT chest … but he imbues his role so perfectly with such convincing innocence. Playing alongside him were a very young Salma Hayek, Neve Campbell, and almost totally un spottable in his very first movie role Mark Ruffalo. Christopher has scattered quite a few celebrities playing themselves as regular habitués of the Club, some of whom you may not even recognise until the credits role at the end.

    As Shane so adroitly summed up the whole scene “one moment it is all around you and the next it’s gone forever”. Very true, but now thanks to this excellent entertaining movie we can relieve part of it again for at least 90 minutes.

  • Dolce And Gabbana Backtrack on “Chemical” And “Synthetic” Gay Parenting

    After Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the two openly gay men and former couple behind the Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana made outrageous comments in an interview with the Italian magazine Panorama there has been a fierce backlash from within the gay community.

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