Sean Penn Oscar Acceptance Speech for “Milk”

Sean Penn Oscar Acceptance Speech for Best Actor in “Milk”

AfterElton: Demetri Martin “Taking Woodstock”

Demetri Martin is 35?!?!

(Demetri)  Martin’s profile will rise even higher next August when he stars in Ang Lee’s new film Taking Woodstock. Martin isn’t just in the movie – he is the movie, appearing in virtually every scene as Elliot Tiber, the gay man who inadvertently helped launch the Woodstock concert in the summer of 1969.

via Exclusive: Demetri Martin takes on “Taking Woodstock” | AfterElton.com.

Problem with Gus van Sant’s “Milk”

While I loved “Milk,” I’ve felt like there was some things missing from the story. Harvey was more radical sexually and socially. And the riots that took place after his killer was given a light sentence would have added to the history in the film. I think leaving things out may have been necessary in order to boil the final years of Harvey’s life into a single-film biopic, but the film’s castration of our hero does relieve present-day film goers dusgust from understanding Milk’s sexual radicalism and the reality gay male relationships.

So why did it happen? Why is the closet-busting film about Harvey Milk so fearful when it comes to its subject’s own sex life? Well, partly because even gay saints need to be shown exercising some sexual restraint. But the main reason undoubtedly is that bundling themselves back into the closet is exactly what today’s US gay-rights campaigners are doing in their campaign for gay marriage. In order to try and persuade an unconvinced American public to support gay marriage under the rubric of equality, gay male relationships are being presented, rather disingenuously, as “just the same” as male-female ones.

via There’s one problem with Gus van Sant’s Milk: it castrates its hero | Film | guardian.co.uk

Sean Penn wins Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in Screen Actors Guild Awards

via Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role | Screen Actors Guild Awards.

“I Love You Phillip Morris” review from Reuters

Ewan McGregor and Jim Carrey in "I Love You Phillip Morris"

“I Love You Phillip Morris” doesn’t have anything to do with smoking, but that’s about the only thing it’s not connected to. The feature, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is of the ethereal-absurdist-gay-romantic-biographical farce genre, which poses the question: How are they going to market this? Basically, just say Jim Carrey struts his stuff in this engaging oddity.

Carrey is at his nimble best as Steve, a Texas family man and lawman who bolts out of the closet into a life of, well, everything. He makes up for the lost years of a straight-arrow, heterosexual life by plunging headfirst into multiple lives as con man and lover. Based on a real-life character, Steve was abandoned at birth, and in the film’s glib psychology, he’s undertaking to find his real identity.

Carrey’s at his nimble best in gay-themed Morris | Entertainment | Film | Reuters.

Milk nominated for at least eight Oscars

Gus Van Sant picks up Director nomination for Milk.
Danny Elfman picks up Original Score Nomination.
Dustin Lance Black’s vision pays off with a nod for Screenplay

Milk goes up against:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire, which is the one to beat

Sean Penn was nominated for Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:

The Visitor
Richard Jenkins

Frost/Nixon
Frank Langella

Milk
Sean Penn

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Brad Pitt

The Wrestler
Mickey Rourke

Josh Brolin also nominated for Milk for playing assassin Dan White.

Danny Glicker also nominated for Milk for costumes.
Elliot Graham nominated for Milk for film editing.

OSCAR.com – 81st Annual Academy Awards – Homepage.

Gay Zombies! (No I don’t mean Tina Queens)

In case you missed Otto, a gay zombie flick:

If we take away the entrail chewing and the gay zombie orgy, i.e., the money shots, Otto vaguely resembles Kaspar Hauser, the legendary “lost boy.” It’s part of LaBruce’s shtick to make fun of pretentious art films, but Otto’s black-and-white intro montage, followed by our hero rising out of a churchyard grave, is pretty good by any standard. Otto stinks and his eyes are odd. “It’s not easy being undead,” he says, just before chomping on a giant road-kill bunny on his way to the big city. This movie takes advantage of the fact that, at any given hour, most of the people in Berlin look like zombies anyway.

East Bay Express | Movies | Defiant Jews, Gay Zombies

Gay Feature Films At Sundance: I Love You Phillip Morris and La Mission

Ace Ventura loves Obi-Wan

Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor star in a “gay prison romance story” I Love You Phillip Morris

The jailhouse romance film I Love You Phillip Morris stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as a pair of star-crossed lovers who meet in a Texas jail cell.

The script is based on the book of the same name by journalist Steve McVickers. The book follows the true story of Steven Russell (played by Jim Carrey, Liar Liar) and his improbable, but true, transformation from small-town businessman, father and former cop to gay white-collar criminal and ingenious jailbreaker.

After a car crash, Russell’s life takes a most unusual roller coaster ride that leads him to a life of crime, being gay, and falling in love with his cellmate Phillip Morris (played by Ewan McGregor, Star Wars).

Between 1993 and 1998, the clever Russell broke out of a Texas jail four times in five years and always on a Friday the 13th; twice landing into a six-figure job as a CFO of a major company…

The Park City, Utah festival will also premiere director/writer Peter Bratt’s La Mission.

In the middle of the Hispanic San Francisco district of La Mission, Che (played by Benjamin Bratt, Law and Order) is the baddest Chicano on the block. A hard knocks life lived behind prison bars and Tequila shots, Che prods on for his beloved son, Jesse.

Che’s macho world is crushed when he discovers that Jesse is gay. He responds to the revelation by violently severing all ties with his son.

La Mission is the story of how a proud father and a lost son mend their relationship, breaking with the violence of the past.

Gay Feature Films Premiere At Sundance | On Top Magazine :: Gay & Lesbian News, Entertainment, Commentary & Travel.

Golden Globe Winners, Spielberg, no “Milk”

Slumdog, Rourke, Ledger win; Winslet wins two!

No Milk.

Mad Men! 30 Rock!

HFPA – Nominations and Winners

Motion Pictures:
Drama: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Musical or Comedy: “Vicky Christina Barcelona”
Actor: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
Actress: Kate Winslet, “Revolutionary Road”
Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Actor, Musical or Comedy: Colin Farrell, “In Bruges”
Actress, Musical or Comedy: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
Foreign Language Film: “Waltz With Bashir”
Animated Film: “Wall-E”
Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Original Score: A.R. Rahman, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Original Song: “The Wrestler” (performed by Bruce Springsteen, written by Bruce Springsteen), “The Wrestler”

Television:
Series, Drama: “Mad Men”
Actor, Drama: Gabriel Byrne, “In Treatment”
Actress, Drama: Anna Paquin, “True Blood”
Series, Musical or Comedy: “30 Rock”
Actor, Musical or Comedy: Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock”
Actress, Musical or Comedy: Tina Fey, “30 Rock”
Miniseries or Movie: “John Adams”
Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Laura Linney, “John Adams”
Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Paul Giammatti, “John Adams”
Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Laura Dern, “Recount”
Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Tom Wilkinson, “John Adams”

Cecil B. DeMille Award: Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg after accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award from Golden Globe Awards on Vimeo:

Newsday explores the life of New York native Harvey Milk

A biography written a few years after his murder recounts stories of his first adolescent sexual experiences (at Metropolitan Opera matinees where he watched from a standee section with a reputation for randiness) and an account of how he was picked up by police, but not arrested, in a roundup of gays in Central Park the summer after his 1947 graduation from Bay Shore High School.

But his high school friends say they knew nothing of his love for opera, much less his sexual orientation. To them, he was an ardent if second-string athlete, a fun-loving joker and a likable pal who danced with girls around the jukebox.

“He was funny as heck,” said Patrick Vesey, 80, a retired accountant who still lives in Bay Shore.

Hidden depths of Long Island native Harvey Milk — Newsday.com.

Spotswood: ‘Milk’ Misses Key Point on Assassination

Though this column buries the lede, >Dick Spotswood may hold a keen observation:

‘Milk’ is good, but misses the mark on a key point – Marin Independent Journal.

The movie ignored a key fact. The assassinations were primarily about Moscone – not Milk. In the film Moscone was erroneously characterized as a peripheral character. In reality, the murderer’s motivation was a $9,600 part-time job as a district supervisor and a bruised ego. White had impulsively resigned his supervisorial post at a time when his Pier 39 food shop The Hot Potato was failing. Moscone had the duty to appoint his successor.

It was only by chance that Milk was there that morning. White’s murder of Moscone was premeditated, but his murder of Milk was a crime of opportunity. It’s been said that if a few of White’s other adversaries had had the bad luck of being present, they would have found that there was a bullet saved for them as well.

‘Milk’ Actors and the People they Play

Here is a great quick read on the actors in “Milk,” including a text message from Madonna.

‘Milk’ actors and the people they play.

Sean Penn’s transformation into Harvey Milk may amaze moviegoers – even close associates of Milk’s, such as his former aide Cleve Jones, say the resemblance is uncanny – but “Milk” is no documentary. Here is a side-by-side chart of the actors and the people portrayed, with some fact-checking help from Jones, who served as a consultant on the film.

Sean Penn: The 48-year-old award-winning actor and sometime Chronicle contributor who lives in Marin County has not shied away from politics in his personal life, making his role as Milk a natural fit. He is rumored to have text-messaged his former wife, Madonna, after kissing actor James Franco, who told Out magazine that Penn wrote, “I just popped my cherry kissing a guy. I thought of you. I don’t know why.”

New York Critics Awards “Milk” Top Prizes

Milk Leads New York Critics Awards – Movie News, Sean Penn : People.com.

Milk soaked up some more awards-season glory on Wednesday, being named best film by the New York Film Critics Circle.

Sean Penn, who stars in the biopic as ’70s gay-rights leader Harvey Milk, was named best actor, and Josh Brolin won best supporting actor for his role as the assassin in the movie, the Associated Press reports.

The New York group concurred with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, which named Penn best actor on Tuesday.

Critics’ Choice Awards Nominate “Milk”, Sean Penn

Critics’ Choice Awards Got “Milk”, Sean Penn Movie And “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Get 8 Nominations Each – CBS News.

Chalk up another honor for Gus Van Sant’s “Milk.”

The biopic starring Sean Penn tied with “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” for most nominations – eight – for the 14th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards.

“The Dark Knight,” “Doubt” and “Slumdog Millionaire” each received six nods.

Nominees were announced Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008, at a press conference in New York by actress Rosie Perez, movie critics Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz and VH1 President Tom Calderone. The Jan. 8 awards ceremony will be broadcast on VH1.

Will We Still Love a Slimmer Seth Rogen?

I wait with apprehension for Seth Rogen to unveil his new “improved” self for 2010’s Green Hornet. Seth is the quintessential everyman: chubby, cute, scruffy. He’s been covering those roles for Judd Apatow and the like for years now, so I guess I can’t blame him for wanting to do something new. But still, a “buff” and “slim” Seth Rogen? Eh. There’s enough “buff and slim” in Hollywood to make you ill. Will we still want Seth when he’s no longer the stocky furball we’ve grown to love?

SciFi.com: Rogen Promises Hornet Preview

He’s playing the title role of the Green Hornet, he hasn’t shot one foot of film yet, and he’s still working out communications problems with the director, but Seth Rogen told SCI FI Wire that he hopes to have something available to show fans at Comic-Con next summer.

“Comic-Con is my favorite event of the year,” Rogen said. “It’s more fun to me than the movie premieres, than anything. I love Comic-Con. All of our friends come down for it, and we just have a really good time, and it’s always a lot of fun. I would love nothing more than to be able to show something at Comic-Con.”

In fact, as he noticeably buffs up and slims down for the role–though he has yet to shoot any footage for the movie–Rogen said he is meeting this week with studio executives and director Stephen Chow to discuss what they could possibly have ready for the international conference in San Diego, which begins next July 23. Rogen discussed becoming the superhero Britt Reid during early interviews this past weekend for the animated DreamWorks film Monsters vs. Aliens, which is coming out in the spring. In that film, Rogen voices the part of an amorphous blob named B.O.B. as part of a team of monsters that includes creatures voiced by Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett and others.

A Christmas Story: Where Are They Now?

Where are they now: ‘A Christmas Story’

It wouldn’t be Christmas without ‘A Christmas Story,’ the 1983 movie that became an instant holiday classic thanks to its winning cast and quotable scenes. Here’s a then-and-now look at the gang from fictional Hohman, Indiana, who brought the ‘original, traditional, one-hundred-percent, red-blooded, two-fisted, all-American Christmas’ tale to life.

More Memories of the Real Harvey Milk

S.F.’s Milk blazed trail followed by Sacramentans – Sacramento News – Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Freshman Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco – a newcomer to Sacramento – also knew Milk well.

Ammiano was a teacher in San Francisco. Though the city has a different reputation now, at that time the concept of an openly gay teacher was not well-tolerated.

‘The established gays were not happy with it,’ Ammiano recalled. ‘They wanted us to be quiet. … I had a lot of doors shut in my face, but Harvey was never like that.”

Benton: The Harvey Milk I Knew

Falls Church News-Press – Nicholas F. Benton: The Harvey Milk I Knew

Milk’s effectiveness as a naturally-gifted leader was demonstrated only weeks before his killing in the defeat of a mean-spirited, California statewide anti-gay referendum pushed by well-financed religious rightwing elements.

Ironically, in terms of results, he and his cohorts did better spearheading the defeat of the referendum to root out homosexual teachers in public schools in 1978 than did the effort to defeat the regrettable Proposition 8, reversing a state court ruling favoring gay marriage, in California just last month. And that’s in the context of a far greater acceptance of gays and lesbians now, compared to then.

Perhaps the key difference: Milk was a natural movement leader, and uncompromising when insisting the issue was not about vague platitudes concerning human rights or fairness, but was about the lives of real, flesh and blood people.

His political rallying cry in the gay rights movement from his earliest activist days was that any gay person’s most radical political act is “coming out of the closet,” usually requiring, especially in those days, enormous courage.

By thousands “coming out,” as he was forever repeating, the public becomes aware of what the issues are really about. If voters know someone who is gay, they’re far less likely to vote to deny gay rights. Moreover, by “coming out,” there is the unexpected, even more salutary personal benefit: the almost magical way it imbues an individual with a liberating sense of integrity.

Strong resistance to Milk’s infectious enthusiasm for pushing the cause openly came from existing leaders of the closeted gay community, fearful that by being open and bold, the hatred of mainstream society would intensify against them. In fact, the opposite proved to be the case.

Podhoretz Says Condensed “Milk” Is Too Sweet

John Podhoretz of the Weekly Standard sees “Milk” as a whitewash of Harvey’s Milk’s radical side, writing as if that side was a flaw. While Podhoretz may be right that Milk was a radical, he is wrong to think that the movie portrays him as politically correct.

He points specifically to the movie allegedly ignoring Milks sexual radicalism. On the contrary, the film portrayed Havey as quick to share his sexuality with new lovers while using public displays of affection as a political statement on the streets of the Castro. The film shows how Harvey had an affinity for the “lost puppy.”

Podhoretz insults Milk’s memory by calling AIDS a “horrifying natural refutation of” Milk’s “doctrine.” His review of the movie is just an opportunity to attack lives of gay people who won’t conform to what Milk called the “heterosexual model.” He further simplifies the complexity of the film in an effort to reduce the significance of it.

Rose-Colored Milk

The real Milk was a sexual liberationist of a very specific 1970s type. “As homosexuals, we can’t depend on the heterosexual model,” Shilts quotes him as saying to one boyfriend in San Francisco by way of explaining why he had another boyfriend in Los Angeles. “We grow up with the heterosexual model, but we don’t have to follow it. We should be developing our own lifestyle. There’s no reason you can’t love more than one person at a time.” Shilts adds: “That ultimately was what his politics were all about, Harvey decided.”

Milk was murdered three years before researchers identified the AIDS virus, which was the horrifying natural refutation of his doctrine (and which took the life of Scott Smith, the man with whom Milk moved to San Francisco from New York in 1970). It is understandable that screenwriter Black and director Gus Van Sant do not want to muddy their iconographic portrait with the inconvenient truth about Milk’s polyamorous views or behavior. They no longer represent the vanguard of the effort to expand gay rights, which is now focused almost solely on the institution of marriage. But it is a distortion, and a significant one.

How “Milk” is like “Titanic”

One of the biggest draws for me to the movie “Titanic” was the opportunity to experience what happened on that ship in 1912. The ship came alive in that movie, and watching its destruction and sinking into the Atantic in a film brought to life something I would never want to experience firsthand.

“Milk” was much the same thing for me. It brought Harvey Milk’s camera shop to life. It gave me the opportunity to experience what it might have been like sitting in his store in the 70s plotting to bring gay rights to San Fransisco and California.

While “Titanic” was a spectacle, however, “Milk” was intensely personal. I’m going to have to go back again just to hear the line Harvey said to Cleve “you will never know until the day you die who will be your best lovers and best friends.” That line really floored me. If someone can please tell me the exact quote, I’d really appreciate it.