Peter Paige Makes
the Donuts
No, Peter Paige isn't opening a Krispy Kreme franchise. He's starting production on Donut Hole, an independent feature based on a script he wrote when he wasn't busy playing Emmett on Showtime's Queer as Folk. The out actor will star—as well as make his debut as director—in a comedy about a young artist who loses contact with his beloved godson when the boy's family relocates to Japan. The artist's innocent desire to be with the boy turns strange when, in order to find a replacement kid to feel parental about, he goes to work in a toy store and begins hanging out at neighborhood playgrounds. Kathy Najimy is in negotiations to star as a meddling local mom who decides that Paige's affection for kids is a danger to the community. Romeo is thrilled to see Paige branch out, but thinks a Krispy Kreme franchise sounds like less work.
Hayes Pilots Pilot Season
Will & Grace star Sean Hayes is changing hats from actor to producer. NBC's cable channel Bravo has tapped Hayes' executive-produced reality series, Pilot Season, to be part of its fall lineup. Much like Project Greenlight, the show that depicts an actual film being produced, the 10-episode Pilot Season will focus on aspiring sitcom writers as they compete to have their ideas produced as actual TV shows. Five semifinalists will pitch their ideas to producers, and two will get green lights to make pilots. From there, the series will follow the show's casting process, script revision, rehearsals, and production. Viewers will see the finished pilots in the final episode, then vote on which show will get 'picked up.' To avoid conflicts of interest, it's fairly certain that scripts entitled Just Jack! will not be considered.
Margaret Cho Is the
One Sundance Wants
It turns out that the revolution will be televised after all. Cable movie outlet The Sundance Channel has locked in the world premiere of comedian Margaret Cho's most recent stand-up concert feature, Revolution. It's the third such feature for Cho, whose previous stand-up films, I'm The One That I Want and Notorious C.H.O., were the sort of thing fans ended up buying on DVD and watching over and over until they could recite every raunchy line by heart. Revolution promises more of the same, bowing on June 19 as the centerpiece of the channel's month-long series of programming featuring lesbian and gay content, called Out Loud. A fitting title, really, since loud is something Cho is steadfastly proud to be.
Julianne Moore Wins Prize Winner
Julianne Moore, who's already shown she knows how to portray a 1950s housewife in Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven, will take on the role of real-life housewife Evelyn Ryan in The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. As Romeo reported earlier, Prize Winner, based on the memoir by lesbian author Terry Ryan, is currently in production with DreamWorks and Revolution Studios and will be helmed by lesbian director Jane Anderson (Normal). Of course, there's no actual lesbian content in the memoir, since it's a childhood recollection of Ryan's mother, an iron-willed woman who, though dealing daily with an alcoholic husband and very little income, singlehandedly raised 10 children in the '50s and '60s through her winnings in a series of jingle-writing contests. And with A-list Moore on board, it promises to be the gritty, flip-side of upper-middle-class fantasies like Cheaper by the Dozen—in other words, actually worth buying a ticket to see.
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