A Not So Itty Bitty Lesbian Movie
Power Up, the nonprofit group that supports lesbians in the entertainment industry, is producing a feature comedy, The Itty Bitty Titty Committee, with a team of lesbians on both sides of the camera. The story revolves around a teenage girl ( Lords of Dogtown's Melonie Diaz ) who undergoes a life-changing transformation when she leaves behind her all-American girl image and joins a radical feminist group called—yes—The Itty Bitty Titty Committee. The movie will be directed by lesbian filmmaker Jamie Babbit ( But I'm a Cheerleader ) and will feature out actors Guinevere Turner ( Go Fish ) , Jane Lynch ( The 40-Year-Old Virgin ) and Tammy Lynn Michaels. Lesbian favorite Clea DuVall ( Carnivale ) and former thirtysomething star-turned-director Melanie Mayron will also appear. Filming now, look for the full-figured film in 2007.
Rent's Rapp Reels in Role
Anthony Rapp is leaving Rent behind him. Since the film adaptation of the hit musical arrived in theaters and his memoir, Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent, hit bookstores, the openly gay actor has been riding a career high of visibility. But his latest project is song-free—a three-person-cast dramatic feature called Scaring the Fish. Directed by Todd Miller and adapted from the stage play of the same name, the plot concerns two office workers arriving at a secluded mountain lake to take part in a company fishing trip. When only one other person shows up, paranoia, job anxiety, and suspicion lead to confrontations among the three men. In post-production now, the film is due in theaters sometime within the next 525,600 minutes.
JT LeRoy's Deceitful Story
The film version of JT LeRoy's collection of short stories, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, is just hitting theaters. But something else hit the fan recently when it was discovered and exposed that author LeRoy—a young, sexually abused, HIV-positive, transgendered former prostitute—doesn't really exist, but is, in fact, a 40-year-old woman named Laura Albert. And now, Albert's astonishing literary hoax will be a film all its own. The Weinstein Company will produce the feature, Jesse Peretz ( The Chateau ) is set to direct and a script is in the works. No casting news yet, but Romeo likes the idea of Winona Ryder—a former confidante of 'LeRoy' who was fooled by the hoax herself—as Albert.
Travolta and Latifah Sing Out
It's not chills he'll have multiplying, but rather chins, as John Travolta steps into the plus-sized frocks and dancing pumps of Edna Turnblad for the film version of the musical Hairspray. The singing actor actively lobbied for the part of the loving mother made famous by both Divine and Harvey Fierstein, and he'll put on a fat suit for gay director Adam Shankman's film adaptation. Meanwhile, Queen Latifah has also joined the cast as Motormouth Maybelle. The movie is in pre-production, and a casting search is on to find a 'fresh face' to play the lead of Tracy Turnblad. Ricki Lake and Marissa Jaret Winokur each took star-making turns as the jubilant dancing Baltimore teenager, and now it's a new young girl's chance to be chosen. Then the beat can go on.
DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com .
