Lohan and Bening Are Wilde Women
Oscar Wilde's self-declared genius lives on, as another one of the gay writer's plays hits the big screen: Annette Bening and Lindsay Lohan will star in a new adaptation of Wilde's A Woman of No Importance for director Bruce Beresford, who showed a sure hand with actresses in Driving Miss Daisy and Crimes of the Heart. These two leading ladies seem to dig gay writers—Bening just starred in Ryan Murphy's movie version of Augusten Burroughs' memoir Running with Scissors, while, as Romeo has reported, Lohan will appear in The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, based on an unproduced screenplay by Tennessee Williams. A Woman of No Importance, which deals with old secrets, new flames and illegitimate children, should scandalize its way into theaters before the end of 2007.
The Strength and Honor of Richard Chamberlain
Could it be that coming out of the closet was Richard Chamberlain's shrewdest career move? On the heels of his come-clean memoir, it looks like the Shogun star is more in demand than he's been in decades. Chamberlain will next be seen in one of 2007's most eagerly anticipated gay titles, the comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James as two hetero firemen who get civil-unionized for the benefits. He'll follow that up with the Irish boxing drama Strength and Honor, starring Vinnie Jones and Michael Madsen. After Chamberlain's guest shots on Nip/Tuck and Will & Grace, Romeo would like to see the actor revive his Dr. Kildare character and go toe-to-toe with Hugh Laurie on House.
John August Dressed to The Nines
What with the shoddy way show business treats its writers, it's conceivable that John August's name will mean nothing to you. Would it help to point out that this talented, openly gay man wrote Go; Charlie's Angels; Corpse Bride; and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Perhaps now that he's stepping into the director's chair, August will get the household-name status he deserves. His filmmaking debut, The Nines, stars Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis, Melissa McCarthy ( Gilmore Girls ) and Elle Fanning, and deals with the intersecting lives of a troubled actor, a TV-show runner and a video-game designer. Produced by gay moguls Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen ( American Beauty ) —who previously collaborated with August on Big Fish—The Nines will have its world premiere at this month's Sundance Film Festival.
Brideshead Revisited, Revisited
One of TV's first non-hysterical explorations of a gay relationship came in the early 1980s with the British miniseries adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, about a middle-class university student who falls for a foppish, teddy-bear-toting aristocrat in pre-WWII England. A new generation will get a big-screen version of the Waugh classic from writers Jeremy Brock ( The Last King of Scotland ) and Andrew Davies ( Bridget Jones' Diary ) . The two leads—originally played by Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews—have yet to be cast, but Graham Norton has been lined up to play the exceedingly queeny Anthony Blanche, while Coen Brothers regular Jon Polito will be Mr. Samgrass. Expect to hear a lot about this project—slated to hit theaters in 2008—once a director and leading men are attached.
Romeo San Vicente went on a date once with a man who thought Evelyn Waugh was a woman. There was no second date. He can be reached care of this publication or at DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com .
