Beyonce and Longoria Are Velvet Lovers?
Ever since Bound, audiences have been waiting for another pairing of hot Hollywood actresses as lesbian lovers, and now Beyonce Knowles and Eva Longoria appear to be close to starring in a big-screen version of Sarah Waters' acclaimed first novel, Tipping the Velvet, for director Sofia Coppola ( Marie Antoinette ) . The sexy novel, previously adapted as a British miniseries for the BBC, follows the erotic adventures of a Victorian music-hall star and her female lover. Sounds like a win-win-win: Movie fans get to see two hot ladies wearing corsets; lesbians get a Brokeback Mountain-esque mainstream romance; and Coppola gets to make another female-centric period piece. No shooting date has been set, so you've got plenty of time to find a snappy velvet ensemble to wear to the movies.
Eva Longoria told People.com . 'I would love to work with Beyonce one day ... but this is definitely not something we are doing together. It's completely and absolutely not true.' A spokesperson for Knowles also said that the rumors are false.
Lindsay Lohan Meets Tennessee Williams
Say what you want about Lindsay Lohan's off-screen behavior, but the talented actress has picked an interesting mix of films lately—from A Prairie Home Companion to Bobby. Now she's about to take on one of the 20th century's greatest playwrights—gay or otherwise—with The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, a never-produced screenplay by Tennessee Williams. Lohan will star as a sharp-tongued 1920s Memphis debutante who falls for a man ( Fantastic Four stud Chris Evans ) of a lower station, whom she tries to pass off as a Southern aristocrat. Production starts in 2007 with a cast that also includes Ellen Burstyn, David Strathairn and Ann-Margret. There's no need to hunt for a leaked script—it was published in a 1984 Williams collection called Stopped Rocking and Other Screenplays.
Darren Hayes Gets Too Close
Former Savage Garden lead singer Darren Hayes made headlines around the world last summer when he came out of the closet and announced he was getting civil-unioned in London with longtime partner Richard Cullen. Now the notoriously private Hayes has released a documentary that takes an intimate look at his life, including his transition away from Savage Garden and decision to be forthright about his sexuality.
One critic noted that Too Close for Comfort—which has been released on DVD in Australia, with no U.S. release date set as of yet—resembles Madonna's frank Truth or Dare, but without the sex. Die-hard North American Savage Garden fans will simply have to wait it out.
Douglas Coupland Goes Sci-Fi
Acclaimed gay Canadian author Douglas Coupland ( Generation X, JPod ) has gotten lots of interest in adapting his novels, but so far not one of his books has made the leap to film or TV. So it's no surprise that Coupland has decided to write directly for other media. As Romeo has reported, a film has been made of Coupland's first screenplay, Everything's Gone Green, and now he's creating Extinction Event, a science-fiction TV show. No word yet about the subject matter, but the title—and Coupland's love for disaster movies and apocalyptic scenarios—gives you a good idea. The Canadian production companies behind Everything's Gone Green have signed on for Extinction, but no TV networks on either side of the 49th parallel have committed yet. Stay tuned for updates.
Romeo San Vicente would prefer an extinction event to going to the mall the day after Thanksgiving. He can be reached care of this publication or at DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com .
