Sacha Baron Cohen Gets
Fashionably Gay with Bruno
He stole scenes from Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights and offended the entire nation of Kazakhstan with Borat, and now Sacha Baron Cohen is setting his sights on the world of fashion. The British comedian has scored a $42.5 million payday from Universal for the worldwide rights to Bruno, which will feature another bizarre Cohen character—a gay fashionista who claims to be 'the voice of Austrian youth TV.' Bruno flitted his way through Cohen's Da Ali G Show—which also spawned Borat—at New York's Fashion Week, so it's anyone's guess where the movie will send him when shooting starts this summer. Jay Roach—a veteran of the Austin Powers comedies—will produce, but no director has yet been attached to the project.
Angela Lansbury Has a
Deuce of a Time on Broadway
If you only know Angela Lansbury as the buttinsky sleuth on Murder, She Wrote, then it might be news to you that she's a four-time Tony winner for her appearances in legendary musicals like Mame and Sweeney Todd. The lady returns to the Great White Way next spring in the latest show from gay playwright Terrence McNally ( Love! Valour! Compassion! ) , a non-musical called Deuce. The play stars Lansbury and fellow Tony winner Marian Seldes as retired women's tennis pros ( which means a lesbian subplot is a possibility, if not an inevitability ) . These grande dames will sink their teeth into McNally's juicy prose when the show enters previews in April 2007 ( with an official opening May 6 ) under the direction of Broadway vet Michael Blakemore ( Copenhagen ) .
Bravo Sets Top Hair
Hoping to do for hair what it's already done for fashion ( Project Runway ) and food ( Top Chef ) , Bravo has announced the network's latest foray into reality television, Top Hair. Stylists from around the country will compete at giving everything from haircuts to full makeovers for at least eight episodes, in the hopes of snagging the $100,000 prize. Top Hair will be produced by Reveille, the company behind the network's other hair show, the popular Blow Out. Casting is underway for the new series, but no premiere date has yet been set. But if there was ever any question that Bravo has wound up being gayer than Logo and Here! combined, the channel's addition of a cutthroat competition for hairdressers should resolve it.
Chad Allen Takes a Dip in The Pool 2
After Lost in Translation, it's no secret that American stars love to make big bucks by shilling products in Japan. But it's not just TV spots luring stars overseas—sometimes they appear in throwaway Euro-horror flicks most Americans won't see, in exchange for a decent paycheck and a vacation abroad. Which brings us to gay star Chad Allen, who went to Italy to star in The Pool 2, a sequel to the German horror movie The Swimming Pool. The movie hit Italy a few months back, but with The Swimming Pool already on DVD here, Americans are most likely to find Allen—and co-stars Joseph Lawrence ( Dancing with the Stars ) and Jeff Conaway ( Grease ) —doing the slasher thing in their DVD players soon enough.
Romeo San Vicente was once horrified in an Italian pool by a man in a very unflattering Speedo. He can be reached at DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com .