"I don't know that my family nor soul could take it."—Neil Patrick Harris answers the question if he would host the Oscars again. Of course, there's a bigger question—would he be asked!
Life has a funny way of putting things into perspective. Last weekend, I was down in South Florida attending the Winter Party, an annual fundraiser for the LGTBQ Task Force. While going through my extensive wardrobe, I was bemoaning the fact that I did not lose the 10 pounds of weight gained while recuperating from surgery ( and indulging in my holiday addiction of peppermint bark ). In the midst of my pity party, I got a call telling me that my friend Dirk Shafer had passed away. Talk about a reality check! Dirk—who looked better in and out of clothes than most people who have ever walked the planet—was dead. I suppose I'm a terrible gossip columnist. My first thought was not to share a scoop with my readers; it was to mourn a friend. The next day, a sanitized account of his passing hit the Web. While there's more to the story, that's ultimately unimportant. He was a man who had success in his field, was blessed with beauty inside and out, and yet he faced the same issues, insecurities and demons we all do. Rest in peace, my dear friend.
One of my guilty pleasures is Empire. While people are comparing this show with nighttime soaps of yesteryear like Dynasty, it's clearly Shakespearean—borrowing more than just a bit from King Lear, with hints of The Merchant of Venice added. While everyone in the cast pulls his or her weight, the delicious Taraji P. Henson gets the lion's share of attention ... and with good reason! She's simply sublime.
But didya know that the role of Cookie could have gone in a whole different direction? According to Mo'Nique, she was offered the part first, saying, "Mr. [Lee] Daniels offered me the part of Cookie, and I have the emails and the sides to go along with it." She claims to have been waiting for information on where the screen test was supposed to be, but no details were forthcoming. However, the executive producer and co-creator of the show tweeted, "Monique is so talented she'd be great in almost anything. But Cookie was always @TheRealTaraji." I'm sure it was simply one big misunderstanding. Maybe someone simply offered Mo'Nique a cookie!
I had reservations when HBO's Looking started. While I still think it's somewhat plodding and cringe-worthy, the winning cast has kept me engaged—and that includes sexy Russell Tovey. But in a recent interview, the openly gay actor earned some ire after making the following comment: "I feel like I could have been really effeminate, if I hadn't gone to the school I went to. Where I felt like I had to toughen up. If I'd have been able to relax, prance around, sing in the street, I might be a different person now. I thank my dad for that, for not allowing me to go down that path. Because it's probably given me the unique quality that people think I have." The interviewer prefaces Russell's quote with this observation: "Tovey thinks carefully about what he's going to say next. If I had to guess, watching him fidget, I'd say he's weighing up whether to be honest at the risk of causing offence, or whether to divert and say something bland. He chooses to risk offence."
And offend he did. His depiction of gay stereotypes has not gone down well with some, including a few notable gays. Christopher Rice wrote, "Dear Effeminate Gay Men. Don't listen to Russell Tovey. I love you ... sometimes too long and too hard but nobody's perfect." Dan Savage wrote, "I've always been into tap-dancing freaks who sing in the street and prance when they feel like prancing." Tovey himself took to Twitter to apologize: "I surrender. You got me. I'm sat baffled and saddened that a misfired inarticulate quote of mine has branded me worst gay ever. If you feel I have personally let you down, I'm sorry, that was never my intention. I'm proud to be who I am and proud for others. We're in this together. I want you to know whatever you think I meant, I didn't. I'm gonna ride this out, and one day we will all look back on this moment with a half smile of fascination and amusement. Until that day, I'm gonna carry on being me."
Remember the Internet phenomenon known as "Alex from Target?" Well, the 17-year-old has quit his job at the retailer and is making a stab at an acting career. He says that he'll be appearing in a film about a boy with cystic fibrosis. Perhaps the aforementioned boy goes shopping and is asked, "Paper or plastic?"
Last week, Michael Phelps proposed to his girlfriend Nicole Johnson, former Miss California 2010. Before asking her that question, perhaps he asked if she's ever had a penis.
Speaking of penises, our "Ask Billy" question has someone turning the tables on me. Rick in Virginia writes, "I was going through your old columns on BillyMasters.com and I saw you talking about Ryan Daharsh when he appeared in DNA magazine in 2007. You said he's probably not gay, but you'd still like to see him nude. I don't know if he's gay, but he does gay porn so you can see him nude."
I remember Ryan Daharsh with ENORMOUS fondness. When he launched as a model, he was touted as the living and breathing embodiment of Michelangelo's David—not a bad comparison. Sure, he's done some nude modeling, who hasn't? Digging deeper, I came into possession of a handful of close-up penis shots in various stages of, well, shooting. I suppose they could be legit. Then I got a jerk-off video that seems to be real—you see both a penis and a face. ( What a novelty that is. ) So, it seems that he is doing some kind of porn. You can check out his body of work at BillyMasters.com .
When I'm running a racy video that doesn't belong to a Tony winner, it's definitely time to end yet another column. Like Daharsah's dick, we ran VERY long ( and thick ). Feel free to check out www.BillyMasters.com, the site which houses a super-sized version of this very column. If you have a question ( or an answer ) for me, send it to Billy@BillyMasters.com, and I promise to get back to you before Dominique Devereux turns up on a very special episode of Empire. So, until next time, remember one man's filth is another man's bible.
