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

Wham-ma Mia?

Now that George Michael has made the bold decision to give away his music for free online downloading, he's contemplating another move. This one's a little more well-traveled, not to mention lucrative: turning Wham's catalog of hits into a stage musical. Yes, in the tradition of Abba, Queen, the Pet Shop Boys, and Kylie Minogue—all of whom have seen their chart-topping pop songs given new lives as crowd-pleasing revue-style shows with the flimsiest of plots—Michael is in the earliest stages of developing a Wham musical. The singer, who's made no bones about his distaste for such shows, has been approached by producers and is making noise about the possibility—if a suitable story can be tacked on to deep, thoughtful songs like 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.' Romeo thinks it's totally possible, and he bets that Andrew Ridgeley thinks so, too.

L Word Lady Thrills Goldwyn

Lesbians can rejoice at the growing influence of L Word creator Ilene Chaiken. Her recent experience working with actor/director Tony Goldwyn has led to a new project. Goldwyn, best known for his bad-guy performance in the movie Ghost, was directing a recent L Word episode when he began collaborating with Chaiken on a script about American G.I.s in Iraq. The as-yet-unnamed and uncast film will be a thriller that concerns two American soldiers, one from a poor background and the other from a wealthy family. When the rich soldier is killed in battle, his poorer buddy, upon exiting the military, assumes the other's identity to see how the top 1 percent live. Romeo can only assume that the friends are identical and that the movie will not be called The Talented Private Ripley.

Behind Bewitched

People love gossip, scandal, and backstage backstabbing, which is why audiences have tuned in to see TV movie tell-alls about the behind-the-scenes goings-on on shows like Three's Company, The Brady Bunch, and Charlie's Angels. NBC is wise to this and is preparing a slew of similar telepics about Diff'rent Strokes, Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley, and—of most interest to lesbian and gay audiences, thanks to its closeted-witch-in-suburbia premise—Bewitched. But it's the backstory of Bewitched's cast that queer audiences are most fascinated by. The show was chock full of gay thesps like Dick Sargent, Agnes Moorehead, and Paul Lynde, none of whom could be open in the 1960s—which means that there's almost certainly a few good stories ripe for the Peacock to wiggle its beak and bring to life.

Kmetko Moves to Movies

Movies for Guys Who Like Guys, a new series in development at Showtime, looks poised to rearrange gay men's ideas of what Beaches really means. And isn't it time for that, really? Steve Kmetko—formerly of E! News Daily—will host the show and moderate a panel of smart-ass gay men whose job it will be to glean new wisdom (or at least new wisecracks) from watching old films. Kmetko and the panel of film-savvy professional homosexuals—who will most likely include Big Brother alumnus Marcellas Reynolds and witty gay porn star Michael Soldier (who will be clothed, more or less)—will sit around and do what gay men do best when they gather to watch a movie: grab the remote and hit 'pause' so they can make sarcastic comments. Finally, the skills of a community put to good use!

DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com .