THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Not only does Here! TV present oodles of original queer programming and movies, the cable and pay-per-view network also provides a steady stream of work for gay TV icons like Queer as Folk's Thea Gill and Noah's Arc's Jensen Atwood. Now the channel has snagged another QAF star—gay hottie Robert Gant—for a new series of spy movies. Kiss Me Deadly features Gant as Jacob Keane, a former agent-turned-photographer who gets dragged back into the cloak-and-dagger game by an old pal, Beverly Hills 90210 diva Shannen Doherty. Also starring gay Aussie rugby stud ( and recent Advocate cover boy ) Ian Roberts and veteran actor John Rhys-Davies, Deadly wrapped production earlier this summer and should premiere in 2008.

Gay Muppets in Tinseltown

While Ernie and Bert's live-in relationship has always raised an eyebrow or two, there have never been any openly gay Muppet characters—until now. The Henson Company is currently shopping around a pilot for Tinseltown, a sitcom about a gay male couple in Hollywood who adopts a child. Of course, being a Henson show, one of the males is a pig ( an actor named Bobby ) and the other is a bull ( Samson, Bobby's manager and longtime companion ) . At a recent appearance at San Diego's Comic-Con International, Brian Henson admitted that he wanted to do a show about a male couple mainly because he can't do female voices. Buzz indicates that Tinseltown is hilarious and outrageous, but no word yet on when it will make it to TV. Logo, why haven't you snapped this up yet?

Podeswa's Latest to Open Toronto Fest

Gay Canadian filmmaker Jeremy Podeswa is the director of acclaimed indies like The Five Senses and Eclipse, but lately he's made a name for himself as an accomplished and prolific director of U.S. TV series like Six Feet Under, Wonderfalls, and Queer as Folk. Recently, Podeswa returned to the big screen to make Fugitive Pieces, and the change of scenery paid off—the movie has been selected as the opening night presentation at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival. Pieces features Stephen Dillane ( The Hours ) and Rosamund Pike ( Pride and Prejudice ) in a tale about a Polish child in World War II who escapes to Greece while en route to the United States. The Toronto fest opens on Sept. 6, but no U.S. release date for Fugitive Pieces has yet been announced.

Kopay Scores Film Roles

You can count on one hand the number of male American pro athletes who have come out of the closet, and most of them have done so in the 21st century. So the fact that football player David Kopay had the nerve to do so back in 1975 makes his honesty all the more heroic. Now Kopay will face a new challenge—his feature film debut. Kopay will play himself in the indie Tru Loved, about a teenage girl who reluctantly becomes the fake girlfriend of her best friend, a closeted high school football player. Kopay, of course, will provide support and inspiration to the varsity jock. Loved, whoch also stars Alec Mapa, Jane Lynch, and Bruce Vilanch, is sure to be a touchdown at next year's queer film festivals.

Romeo San Vicente has always been a big fan of football players. And locker rooms. DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com