>Crudup Looks
Beauty-ful
Billy Crudup is doing his next role in drag, all for the sake of art. The total hottie is starring in Compleat Female Stage Beauty, a romantic comedy set in 1661. Crudup portrays actor Edward Kynaston, known for playing female roles in an era when only guys were allowed on the stage. When times change and women begin acting in public, Kynaston has to reinvent his career—just as his dresser (played by spunky Claire Danes) starts getting famous for the parts he used to play. Making their professional relationship even thornier is the attraction between the two characters. And you think Ben and Jen have career complications! Along for the ride is director Richard Eyre, who helmed the bi-friendly Iris.
She's Having a Baby
Lesbian filmmaker Cheryl Dunye is exploring heterosexuality with Eddie Griffin—well, on-screen anyway. Dunye, director of the HBO film Stranger Inside and the acclaimed queer indie The Watermelon Woman, is in postproduction on the Miramax comedy My Baby's Mama. Due to hit screens later this year, the film stars controversial comedian Griffin (who also co-wrote the screenplay) as one of three buddies whose girlfriends all become pregnant at the same time. Given Griffin's 'I got nothing against homosexuals' defense of the gay jokes in his concert film, Dysfunktional Family, lesbian and gay audiences may wonder how his pairing with Dunye will play out. I'm betting Dunye's intelligent approach to issues of race and sexuality—not to mention the presence of adorable newborns—will keep this baby boom from turning into a bust.
Getting a Rise Out of Zadan and Meron
Chicago's openly gay producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are bringing their song-and-dance act to the small screen with their new Fox network project, The Rise. Zadan and Meron's production company, Storyline Entertainment, is developing an hour-long weekly drama about a group of young Hollywood singers and dancers sharing a house as they dream of making it big. Lizzie Weiss, who wrote the surfer-chick feature Blue Crush, will pen the pilot. Although there will be Fame-like elements to the show, Zadan and Meron are expected to use music in nontraditional ways, doing more than just the typical big dance number for each episode's finale.
Kathy Griffin's Batting Average
Funny lady and gay fave Kathy Griffin is returning to reality television, but this time she's leaving the paranoia of Celebrity Mole behind her. Griffin is hosting NBC's summer series Average Joe, which will feature a much less photogenic group of eligible bachelors than those usually found on TV. Produced by Stuart Krasnow (America's Most Talented Kid), Joe takes a former beauty queen-turned-NFL cheerleader and matches her with a series of regular guys to test how much physical appearance matters in the world of dating. News flash from Romeo: it matters a whole bunch! Over the course of the series' six episodes, Griffin will offer commentary—hopefully of the bitchy and biting variety—as the cheerleader works her way through the Joes.
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