It was just over a year ago that Rosie O’Donnell allegedly angered the mighty O by calling Oprah’s road trip with her BFF, Gayle, “as gay as it gets.” If that comment pissed off Oprah, she seems to have gotten over it, considering that Rosie has a new talkshow that will air on Oprah’s OWN network starting next year. In a recent red carpet interview with ABC News, Rosie said that she believed Oprah’s most recent assertion that Gayle isn’t her girlfriend and that they don’t have anything going on other than a deep friendship. It’s not like Rosie is going to trash talk her new employer, although that didn’t really stop her where Barbara Walters was concerned.
Rosie O’Donnell spoke about the speculation surrounding Oprah Winfrey and best friend Gayle King, saying that she believed Winfrey’s recent statement to Barbara Walters that she is not a lesbian.
According to ABC News, O’Donnell spoke at the Jingle Ball concert in New York City on Friday. She suggested that the rumors about Winfrey and King stem from a lack of understanding about the nature of close female relationships.
“People don’t really understand or don’t have the privilege of seeing a friendship between two women that is that deep,” said O’Donnell. “I have the same best friend that I’ve had since I was 3. I know the intensity of that relationship and what it feels like — to have someone you can depend on no matter what. So, I get it. And I don’t think she was defending it as much as just answering all the speculation. She didn’t seem defensive to me. If anything, it’s just insulting to her integrity that people would consider that she was lying.”
In an interview that aired on ABC last week, Winfrey responded to a question from Walters about the “dumb rumors” by saying, “I’m not even kind of lesbian.”
O’Donnell will premiere a new talk show on the Oprah Winfrey Network next month.
If you watch Rosie talk to the ABC reporter (below) she gets kind of defensive like she’s saying all that out of obligation, but she seems defensive like that most of the time.
I agree with Kaiser that if Oprah was gay she’d tell us about it and make it into a month-long theme about being true to your core self or whatever. When it comes right down to it, the only person that Oprah truly loves is herself.
Check out the logo for the new Oprah Winfrey Network, in brilliant shades of orange green and purple. Isn’t it hideous? The upcoming shows on OWN look somewhat interesting but familiar, like an organizing show, a cooking show with amateur cooks, a medical mystery show that’s like a real-life House, and reality shows featuring Shania Twain and Duchess Fergie. One thing that’s missing is any kind of talk show with Jenny McCarthy, as has been rumored for some time. Lisa Ling is there, though, as is Rosie. We’ll see how Oprah’s ratings are when her network premieres January first.
Rosie is shown on 12/10/10 and 11/11. Oprah is shown in Australian on 12/13 and 12/14. Credit: WENN.com
You know what’s weird? I never really think of Mariah Carey as a big gay diva icon. Like, I think of Cher, Barbra Streisand, Liza, Judy Garland, even Celine Dion as the definitive divas that the gays flock to – but Mariah is up there, isn’t she? Why shouldn’t she be? She’s got the voice, she’s got the crazy costumes, the over-the-top makeup, and the whole “butterfly” fetish – she’s a drag act waiting to happen. Anyway, Mariah is interviewed in the new issue of The Advocate, and she talks about bullying, gay marriage, and whether she secretly dreams of having a gay son:
Her message to young victims of antigay bullying:
It’s horrible that it’s almost 2011 and this is still going on, but I don’t want to get on my podium and say, “Just keep believing!” – I know that’s cliché, and it would be typical of me to say something like that. It’s almost impossible to say anything, really, except you must be aware that dealing with that in high school is a passing place. You have to stay strong, rely on your true friends, and try to get through it, as opposed to drowning in it. Look at how many people suffered during high school and came out of it a better, stronger adult. That’s the thing to focus on.
On gay marriage:
If two people want to get married, it’s their prerogative — we hope. Everybody should be able to do what they want to do and be in the pursuit of happiness. Ever since I was a little girl, my mother was very open-minded and had many different types of friends, so being gay never seemed wrong or strange to me. Her best friends were a gay couple, Ernie and Mort, and they kind of co-raised me. They were the nicest guys ever, and they would watch my little shows when I’d sing. Today, I guess they’d be called my guncles. Sometimes they’d put us up when we didn’t have a place to go. I couldn’t wait to go stay at their house because it was so beautifully done.
How might you and Nick handle it if your child turned out to be gay?
I guess we’d handle it as best we could in terms of being supportive.
You strike me as one of those people who might secretly hope for a gay son.
[Laughs] I just hope for whoever’s going to be happy and that I can be a great mother to.
On having a lesbian daughter who won’t wear Mariah’s tight hand-me-down dresses and butterfly jewelry:
No comment. [Laughs] No, the thing is that you can’t try to make somebody something they’re not. Everybody’s like, “Oh, if she has a girl, everything’s going to be pink, blah, blah, blah.” But I don’t think you should go totally overboard on that. You should wait and see what the child wants.
On bisexual rumors:
If it makes somebody happy to say that, then whatever, but that’s not the reality. I don’t have a discriminatory policy of who I’m friends with, so yes, I’m friends with women who are gay – gay, straight, it doesn’t matter to me. So I don’t get upset when I hear that, because it is what it is. I guess I could lie about it to seem more exciting.
On the rumor that Lindsay Lohan tried to seduce her:
No, but I have hung out with her at a club. She was with Sean Lennon, and they came over. I remember he was playing my Hello Kitty guitar, and we were all just singing, laughing, and making up songs. It really couldn’t have been more innocent.
On Burlesque being the new Glitter:
I haven’t seen it, and I don’t feel like sitting in a movie theater right now. I can barely lay in bed and be comfortable. First, I’m going to go see Elf, the Broadway musical, because I’m very focused on my Christmas music moment. But maybe I’ll see it when it comes out on DVD.
On turning her Christmas songs into a musical:
It definitely wouldn’t be about my life; start that rumor and they’ll never lose it, so make sure people know it’s not about my life. Right now we’re working on finding a script. We’ve been in discussions with HBO for over three years now. Everybody’s been very supportive of the project, but nobody wants to accept a script that’s not amazing. Anybody out there reading this who’s a writer or writer-in-training, we’re definitely accepting different ideas right now. Because it’s so important to me, I don’t want to make a mistake and have the script not be as good as the music. I want the script to be better than the music. … A long time ago, the first idea I had was for it to be on Broadway and hopefully become a perennial. Then we spoke with HBO and got into discussions about making a movie musical. So it wouldn’t be a TV movie, because it’s not TV, it’s HBO.
Last year you made magic with filmmaker Lee Daniels in Precious, and now you’ve created another holiday miracle with Marc Shaiman. Not to detract from their talent, but is there something special about gay men that makes them a perfect creative match for you?
I mean, how could I say that there’s not? I can’t generalize too much because straight people I work with will be like, “Well, what does that say about me?” But it is true that there’s a certain chemistry there. Yes, their talents are gigantic, but they’re also open-minded, and it’s all about the shared references. I really clicked with Marc when we wrote our first song together, “Christmas Time Is in the Air Again,” because our references were so similar. His are way deeper than mine in terms of standards and older Broadway stuff, but he was surprised that I knew old standards that most people don’t know, because my mom would sing them when I was really little. And Lee’s another one that you just can’t help but love. He’s got his own unique personality, and we share so many of the same references as well. I can’t even think of all the crazy things we quote and laugh about.
See, she’s down with the gays. So why don’t I have the association of Mariah and a gay fan base in my mind? Is it my problem, or does she just treat all of her fans equally, gay or straight, they are all her beautiful butterflies?
Also: I am enjoying SO MUCH how Mariah is already plotting to get herself a really girly daughter. She’s already got a plan to ease her potential daughter into the pink stuff, by not overexposing a girl into too much girly stuff right away. Mariah has given this some thought!
Ruh-roh. Carrie Fisher has a new interview in the latest issue of The Advocate, and the lady is trying to take down John Travolta. Oh, this is so rich. Apparently, Carrie has talked about Travolta being ALLEGEDLY gay before – in 2009, she said in an interview “We don’t really care that John Travolta is gay.” When asked about that old quote, Carrie had some interesting stuff to say about Travolta getting nailed in spas from here to Australia (not really). She also talks about being married to a gay man and having a gay ghost:
ADV: In the September 2009 issue of Out, you participated in their monthly “Can I Be Blunt?” column by sharing 10 things that gay men should know about straight women. One of those things was, “We don’t really care that John Travolta is gay.” I know you and Travolta go way back, so let’s get really blunt here: Does his legal team have any business demanding Gawker remove a recent post suggesting that he’s given blow jobs?
CF: Wow! I mean, my feeling about John has always been that we know and we don’t care. Look, I’m sorry that he’s uncomfortable with it, and that’s all I can say. It only draws more attention to it when you make that kind of legal fuss. Just leave it be.
ADV: When explaining that your ex-husband (CAA superagent Bryan Lourd) once blamed your codeine abuse on pushing him toward other men, you joke in Wishful Drinking that you have the power to turn men gay. These are funny quips, but they’ve also turned into headlines that some readers make take seriously. So just to clarify for those who believe that being gay is a choice, do you and Bryan know that he was always gay and that you had nothing to do with it?
CF: Well, we don’t talk about it much, but yes, I should think that he was always gay and probably always knew it. I can only really talk about my part of it, up to a point, but he’s been a very good father — and mother — to Billie.
ADV: I’ve read that you’ve felt haunted by [gay friend R. Gregory Stevens] ghost. I’d think a gay ghost would be pretty fabulous to have lurking around.
CF: No, it wasn’t a bad thing. It was amusing. Things started to go off in my house. You know those little boxes that you push the buttons and they go, “F-ck you,” “Eat sh-t,” “You’re an a–hole”? I had one of those, and it would start to go off, on its own, in the middle of the night. So if that wasn’t Greg… I mean, I don’t think it was [past resident of my Beverly Hills home] Edith Head, do you?
The legal stuff The Advocate is referring to is Travolta’s legal team sending out a “blistering missive” to Gawker, after Gawker printed a salacious, hilarious and raunchy interview with Robert Randolph, author of You’ll Never Spa In This Town Again, about the closeted gay culture of Hollywood. Randolph specifically called out Travolta as being a spa “bottom” who prefers dark, swarthy men. Methinks this whole controversy isn’t Travolta’s first experience with “blistering missives”. And Carrie better watch her ass too, because a missive is coming her way.
Do you know that there are some dumb stories about Scott Disick boning his ex? That’s been going around this week – Scott “cheating” on Kourtney Kardashian with some ex-girlfriend. Whatever, I don’t care. He probably is. But if you told me Scott was quietly murdering his ex-girlfriends and dismembering their bodies so that he could stage a macabre private showing of Burlesque with the body parts, I would be surprised either. But what is especially hilarious to me is a new story in The Enquirer – according to their sources, Kourtney Kardashian is seriously pissed that there are rumors that Scott is gay and/or into transsexuals.
Kourtney Kardashian is devastated by false Internet rumors that her beau Scott Disick is secretly gay and into kinky sex with transsexuals. She’s is furious that her relationship is under a microscope, say sources, and by the constant Internet heckling from commenters taunting her about Scott’s sexuality.
She’s even concerned about a blind item that many thought was about she and Scott: “Things are about to get real for this D-list reality star. Her bf loves she-males.”
What’s worse, Scott seems to be enjoying all the publicity!
“Kourtney is fed up, and she’s starting to feel like all the two of them do is tumble from one crisis to the next,” a pal told the Enquirer. “She’s sick of defending Scott to her family and friends. She wants a decent guy who looks out for her.”
“Kourtney knows Scott is not gay,” said the pal. “But the last thing she needs to worry about is a sex scandal.”
[From The National Enquirer, print edition]
Blah, blah, the rest of the piece is just the same old “pity poor Kourtney, she’s too friggin’ stupid to realize that Scott is going to murder her and her family one day.” I get so sick of Kourtney’s manufactured drama with Scott – I think I’ve said this before, but she reminds me SO MUCH of a former friend of mine who was in a very similar years-long on-and-off relationship with a douche who treated her like crap. My friend thrived on the stupid drama of it, and she was obsessed with the guy. It made me sick towards the end. The end of my friendship with her – I think she and the guy are still doing their stupid drama crap.
But it makes me happy to think of Scott with a transsexual. It really does. Kourtney is kind of drag queeny too, you know? Maybe that’s his type.
Here are photos of Scott, Kourtney and little Mason-Dixon out and about yesterday. Mason is such an adorable baby! And he looks nothing like Scott. Just sayin’. Premo Stallone Jr.
Did you know that Oprah sat down for an “exclusive” one-on-one with Barbara Walters? I kind of get a kick out of that. Babs is old as dirt, and she’s really not a good interviewer (at all), but when Oprah wants to do press, she goes to Babs. Anyway, details about their interview have been leaking out for the past few days (ABC News has done the leaking), and apparently, Oprah let Babs ask her ANYTHING. Including questions about those lesbian rumors.
The rumors have been around for years. She even made light about them recently. But Oprah Winfrey has once again stated flatly: “I’m not a lesbian.”
“I’m not even kind of a lesbian,” the talk-show queen, 56, tells Barbara Walters in an upcoming interview on ABC. “And the reason why [the rumor] irritates me is because it means that somebody must think I’m lying. That’s number one. Number two … why would you want to hide it? That is not the way I run my life.”
The rumors have focused on Winfrey’s friend Gayle King. But Winfrey says that relationship is extremely close in a whole different way.
“She is … the mother I never had. She is … the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don’t know a better person. I don’t know a better person,” Winfrey says while choking up.
“It’s making me cry because I’m thinking about … how much … I probably have never told her that. Tissue, please. I now need tissue. I’ve never told her that.”
The occasion for the interview, airing Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on ABC, is the end of Winfrey’s syndicated show next May and the beginning of her new cable network – OWN, The Oprah Winfrey Network.
On that subject, Winfrey admits to having been afraid of how daunting the new project is. “I was very scared,” she says. “I would wake up in the middle of the night literally like clutching my chest, like, ‘What have I done? What have I done?’ ”
Do I believe this? Eh. Part of me thinks that if Oprah was a late-in-life lesbian, she really would talk about it. Another part of me thinks that she would get it on with Gayle if it didn’t involve Oprah’s issues with germs.
Here’s the video of Oprah getting choked up talking about Gayle:
And here’s video of Oprah talking about endorsing Obama, and her thoughts on how he’s doing now, and her feelings on whether Sarah Palin is qualified to be president (hint: she doesn’t comment on the last one).
I heard over the weekend that actress Amber Heard came out as a lesbian (or maybe she just verified it), but I struggled for a moment to understand who exactly Amber Heard was. Here’s her IMDB page – I’ve seen her in Pineapple Express, although I have no memory of her role in that movie whatsoever. And that’s all I’ve ever seen from her filmography. Huh. Anyway, Amber Heard went to some GLAAD event over the weekend… with her girlfriend. And now everyone is like “ZOMG a C-list actress is a lesbian!” Is it really that scandalous? Here’s Amber’s interview (at the event) with After Ellen:
At tonight’s celebration of 25 years of GLAAD, AfterEllen.com was on the red carpet and talked for a few minutes with actress Amber Heard (The Stepfather, The Joneses, Pineapple Express), who spoke openly (and happily) about her choice to come out and, as she eloquently said, not be “a part of the problem” by staying in the closet. Heard, who was joined by her partner, Tasya van Ree, was also clearly honored to have the privilege of presenting the Founder’s Award to GLAAD/LA Founder and First Executive Director Richard Jennings during the event, held at Harmony Gold in Los Angeles.
AfterEllen.com: What does it mean to you to be a part of this event tonight?
Amber Heard: I’m honored to be a part of GLAAD. I’ve long been a fan and long wanted to be a part of an organization as powerful, as influential and as important as GLAAD. I am acutely aware of the role that the media plays in influencing public opinion and influencing society, and with that awareness comes the burden of responsibility.
I think when I became aware of my role in the media, I had to ask myself an important question “Am I part of the problem?” And I think that when millions and millions of hard-working, tax paying Americans are denied their rights and denied their equality you have to ask yourself what are the factors that are an epidemic problem and that’s what this is. Injustice can never be stood for. It always must be fought against and I just was sick of it being a problem. Because I’m in the media I was aware of it and I luckily was introduced to GLAAD and am honored that they wanted me to be a part of tonight because it is such an important organization. I am so impressed with all the important work that they are doing and I couldn’t see a more important cause to be aligned with.
AE: The media is obsessed with labels and labeling people. As an out actress, is that something that you’re concerned about or is it something you’re moving past because of GLAAD?
AH: It’s hard. I think GLAAD is one of the many reasons that I, as a 24-year-old, can come out. I think that organizations like GLAAD make that possible because if it weren’t for opinions being changed, people being influenced, people being engaged to do the right thing, then there would be no prerogative for anyone to come out. Like I said, I can’t be a part of the problem. I hate the idea of a label just as much as anyone else but I’m with who I’m with, I love who I love and I’m if not a better actress than I was yesterday and my personal life should have no effect on that. I think that the injustice of people staying in the closet is more than I can bear with a clear conscience and I couldn’t sleep at night if I was a part of that problem, if I was part of the lies.
I personally think that if you deny something or if you hide something you’re inadvertently admitting it’s wrong. I don’t feel like I’m wrong. I don’t feel like millions of people are wrong because they love who they love or they were born how they were born. I’m proud to be on the right side of history and I can do nothing more than encourage people to look at their lives and ask “What side of history am I on? Am I doing the right thing or am I doing the wrong thing?” I look at speeches by Martin Luther King and I cry when I read the story of Rosa Parks at the back of the bus, and I can’t help but think if I was in that era what side of history would I be on? Would I be marching on the side of equality or would I be one of these horrible people spreading hate and bigotry?
It’s clear from a person that was born in the ’80s to decide what part of history they’d be on. It’s clear for someone like myself that’s fairly educated and fairly well-rounded and fairly enlightened to be able to say “I would never be on this side of bigots and hatred. I would never be on that side!” But then we have this situation here in my generation, where tons of young people haven’t woken up to the call that this is our generation’s civil rights movement. This is the forefront of human rights. You have to ask yourself what side are you going to be on and if we’re too scared to come out and say who we are, we’ll never get anywhere.
AE: It’s great to see you here with your partner. It’s great that you can do that and you don’t have to be here with a beard!
AH: She’s so beautiful. I mean, you’d have to be crazy not to want to go out with her!
So, Amber is like Rosa Parks, I guess. No, I jest, I understand what she was saying. She’s saying that she wants to stand up for what’s right, and now is the time to be vocal. I get it, and good for her. Here are some more photos of Amber, and her girlfriend Tasya Van Ree. There are a bunch of photos of Amber and Tasya over the past few months, so it’s not like it was some huge secret, in my opinion.
Description below is explicit and not for under-18
One week ago exactly, Gawker printed a particularly salacious and NSFW interview with Robert Randolph, author of You’ll Never Spa in This Town Again, all about the Hollywood subculture of closeted gay power players and their gay spa adventures. One of Randolph’s prime targets was/is John Travolta. Randolph claimed that he had witnessed Travolta doing all kinds of things on various dudes, from oral sex to mutual masturbation to penetration (Travolta is allegedly a bottom). Anyway, long story short, Gossip Cop is reporting that Travolta’s legal/PR team has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Gawker, demanding that Gawker pull their story (they still haven’t, as of yet). Also, Travolta’s team has issued a statement “refuting” many of the Randolph’s claims:
Hours before his wife Kelly Preston gave birth to their son Benjamin, John Travolta’s team shot off a five-page legal letter to Gawker, demanding it remove a post purporting to reveal the actor’s so-called “secret sex life” with other men in Los Angeles spas.
In the blistering missive, obtained by Gossip Cop, Travolta’s attorney, Marty Singer, calls out the site posting “false and outrageous” claims made by Robert Randolph, whose salacious stories Gawker ran in a post called “The Secret Sex Life of John Travolta.”
In a self-published book, Randolph alleges to have seen Travolta on multiple occasions in steam rooms engaging in sexual acts with men.
Singer refers to Randolph’s stories as “blatant defamatory lies” from a “patently unreliable source,” and points out that the “author” acknowledged on his own website that he suffered “permanent brain damage” in 2003.
Also hurting Randolph’s credibility, notes Singer, is that his stories “go back fifteen years, yet inexplicably, he has waited until now to peddle these phony tall tales.”
Furthermore, Travolta’s camp points to what they say is the absurd notion that a world-famous movie star would repeatedly commit adultery in public – casually, and in front of strangers – and that Randolph would bear witness each time.
The idea that Travolta “engaged in multiple adulterous sexual encounters in different public locations in Los Angeles (where he does not live), and that each time, the (nonexistent) events were coincidentally witnessed by [Randolph], is absolutely ridiculous,” asserts Singer.
In repeating the sex claims that the site admits other outlets were “skittish about printing,” Gawker is “significantly compounding the damages” incurred by Travolta, according to his lawyer.
Travolta’s side is demanding the immediate and permanent removal of the Randolph post and “publication of an unequivocal and prominent retraction of the false and defamatory statements.”
Did Randolph go overboard with his claims? Sure. Do I believe that Randolph personally witnessed all of this stuff? Nope. Do I still think that there’s something there? Yep. In my mind, the words “John Travolta” and “international spa dongfests” are connected. I also think that if Travolta’s team really wanted to nip this thing, they would be suing the National Enquirer, Star and Gawker right now, you know? If you care enough to send out “blistering missives” and attempting to refute Randolph’s claims (but only partially), then it seems like Travolta would care enough to actually SUE. It seems like Team Travolta’s argument is: “If Randolph didn’t see Travolta getting boned by every dark, swarthy beefcake, how can he be telling the truth?”
Madonna has become one of those people who watches a trend very closely, then adopts the trend, goes completely overboard and acts like she started the whole damn trend in the first place. Such it was with this year’s issue: bullying, specifically, bullying of gay kids. While many celebrities have chimed in about how they too were bullied, or perhaps they even sat down for an “It Gets Better” video, Madonna wants you to know that she got there FIRST, and that her comments about the issue are so much MORE HARDCORE than yours.
During a satellite appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Tuesday, Madonna makes a heartfelt plea to end bullying in America.
“I’m incredibly disturbed and saddened by the overwhelming number of teen suicides that have been reported lately because of bullying,” she says. “Suicide in general is disturbing. Teenagers committing suicide is extremely disturbing, but to hear that teenagers are taking their lives because they are being bullied in schools and dormitories, what have you, is kind of unfathomable.”
Madonna, now 52, says she was bullied as a kid growing up in Michigan.
“I still feel different,” she says. “I can totally relate to the idea of feeling isolated and alienated. I was incredibly lonely as a child, as a teenager. I have to say I never felt like I fit in in school. I wasn’t a jock. I wasn’t an intellectual. There was no group that I felt a part of. I just felt like a weirdo.”
It wasn’t until her ballet teacher, who was gay, took her under his wing and introduced her to a community of artists that she felt “it was OK to be different,” she says.
The gay community “has been incredibly supportive of me,” she says. “I wouldn’t have a career if it weren’t for the gay community.”
She says she’s been talking to her children about bullying. “We talk a lot about the importance of not judging people who are different — not judging people who don’t fit into our expected view of what’s cool and what isn’t,” she says. “The concept that we are torturing teenagers because they are gay — it’s unfathomable. It’s like lynching black people or Hitler exterminating Jews. Sorry if I’m going on a rampage right now, but this is America. The land of the free and the home of the brave….”
Her solution? “I think it would be interesting for everybody to try one simple experiment: Try to get through the day … without gossiping about somebody,” she says. “And not only that — not even listening to gossip, walking away from it. Can you imagine what your day would be like? How much more free time you’d have? I also feel like you’d feel about better about yourself.”
Gay bullying is comparable to lynching and the Holocaust? Um… don’t get me wrong, I think gay bullying sucks, and I wish we lived in a society where no one gave a sh-t about who’s gay and who’s not, and every kid was allowed to simply do his or her own thing, in their own time, and everyone would be loving and tolerant. Of course. But can’t the issue just stand on its own? Do we need to say it’s better or worse than or comparable to something else that’s awful?
Oh, and Hitler killed homosexuals in the concentration camps too. Why do people always forget that? It wasn’t just Jews that were murdered – it was gays and Communists and Gypsies too. And when Hitler did it, he had them rounded up, they had to identify themselves with the triangle, and then they were sent to the camps. While I think the issue of gay bullying is incredibly serious, that isn’t happening in America, you know? I hate it when people misuse or misread history – it’s one of my peeves, and it’s totally comparable to the Spanish-American War.
Ron Howard is an Oscar-winning director of such movies as A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon, Splash, and The DaVinci Code. He’s one of the most successful directors and producers working today, and he pretty much has his pick of any script and actor he wants. So many questioned Howard’s decision to make the film The Dilemma, starring actors like Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. My problem with the film – as I noted when I covered the trailer – was that it seems like there’s not really any story there. Vaughn plays the best friend of Kevin James, and Vaughn discovers that Kevin’s wife is cheating on him. Does Vince tell his friend? That’s it. That’s the premise. The rest of the film is just poop jokes and people calling each other “gay”.
It was the “it’s gay” jokes (“jokes”) that upset people. Those “jokes” are featured prominently in the trailer, and though gay-advocacy groups protested the “humor,” those jokes have not been edited out of the final film, it seems (although they were taken out of the trailer). Vince Vaughn already defended himself and his usage of the “saying something is gay is funny, because being gay is something that should be mocked” premise. Note: as I said before, what I find even more offensive than the “it’s so gay” premise is just the sheer hack stupidity of it all. I mean, get a screenwriter who can write a funny script without falling into a “let’s mock an inanimate object as gay” crutch.
In any case, immediately following Vince Vaughn’s “this rebuttal is so gay” there wasn’t much of anything. Now, for some reason, Ron Howard is defending leaving in the gay jokes in an open letter to the Los Angeles Times‘ Patrick Goldstein:
Patrick-
I’ve been reading your posts about THE DILEMMA with a lot of interest. In the couple of weeks since you started covering the debate over our joke, it seems a larger conversation made up of many questions about all sorts of freedoms of expression has broken out: When’s it okay to walk off of a talk show if you disagree with the guest? Who is appropriate to cast in a movie and who gets to decide that? Should news people be held to a different standard in what they say? How risqué can a photo shoot be for a men’s magazine promoting an all-audience show? What role does comedy play in both pointing out differences and unifying us through laughter?
They’re all good questions and I’m certainly not the person who has definitive answers to all of them. The debate about what is appropriate in films and advertising has been going on since well before I started in the business — which is to say a very long time — and will never have a conclusion. But I do have some answers to the five questions you put forth in your post. I suppose you’re right that since our movie about two friends trying to do right for each other has been caught up in this larger debate, I’ll have to face these questions as we start to promote THE DILEMMA. I figured I’d address your questions here and maybe answer them once and not from, as you said, “every reporter with a
functioning brain.” So here we go.
So why was the joke in the movie? Our lead character of Ronny Valentine has a mouth that sometimes gets him into trouble and he definitely flirts with the line of what’s okay to say. He tries to do what’s right but sometimes falls short. Who can’t relate to that? I am drawn to films that have a variety of characters with different points of view who clash, conflict and learn to live with each other. THE DILEMMA is a story full of flawed characters whose lives are complicated by the things they say to and hide from each other. Ronny is far from perfect and he does and says some outrageous things along the way.
Was it in the script or was it a Vince Vaughn ad lib? Vince is a brilliant improvisational actor, but in this case It was always in the script. THE DILEMMA is a comedy for grown-ups, not kids. It’s true that the moment took on extra significance in light of some events that surrounded the release of the trailer and the studio made the decision to remove it from advertising, which I think was appropriate. I believe in sensitivity but not censorship.
I feel that our film is taking additional heat as an emblem for many movies and TV shows that preceded it that have even more provocative characterizations and language. It is a slight moment in THE DILEMMA meant to demonstrate an aspect of our lead character’s personality, and we never expected it to represent our intentions or the point of view of the movie or those of us who made it.
Did you think it wasn’t offensive? I don’t strip my films of everything that I might personally find inappropriate. Comedy or drama, I’m always trying to make choices that stir the audience in all kinds of ways. This Ronny Valentine character can be offensive and inappropriate at times and those traits are fundamental to his personality and the way our story works. Will comedy be neutered if everyone gets to complain about every potentially offensive joke in every comedy that’s made? Anybody can complain about anything in our country. It’s what I love about this place. I defend the right for some people to express offense at a joke as strongly as I do the right for that joke to be in a film. But if storytellers, comedians, actors and artists are strong armed into making creative changes, it will endanger comedy as both entertainment and a provoker of thought.
And what do you have against electric cars anyway? Nothing! We have a couple of them in our family including the one I primarily and happily drive. Guess what that makes me in the eyes of our lead character? But then again, I don’t agree with everything Ronny Valentine says and does in this comedy any more than Vince Vaughn, the screenwriter or any member of the audience should for that matter.
Okay, to reiterate two points of Howard’s: this film “is a comedy for grown-ups, not kids.” Sure. Because you can always tell the quality of an adult comedy by how much time is given to the poop jokes. The film hasn’t been rated yet, but my guess is that the push will be for a “PG-13” rating, as opposed to a more Judd Apatow-esque “Hard R” rating for language. I think Ron Howard was trying to make an adult comedy (like Judd Apatow makes) but within a more family-friendly vibe, as Howard has done so many times throughout his history as a director. So, is this really an “adult” comedy? Or was Howard just trying to hack out and tap into the same audience of teenagers and 20-somethings that love Apptow’s comedies?
Second point: “This Ronny Valentine character can be offensive and inappropriate at times and those traits are fundamental to his personality and the way our story works.” Sure, I’ll buy that one more than I would buy the “adult movie” argument. And I think Ron Howard is being honest – he doesn’t think “Ronny Valentine” is funny, nor does he think the character is a good person, perhaps. Ron Howard is patronizing us, maybe? Because he thinks we will think it’s funny, because we’re so dumb and we enjoy hearing about cars being gay? That brings me back to the larger point: Ron Howard was trying to make a dirty, offensive, not politically correct film, but he pussed out. Instead of being bold, it just became hackneyed (operative word: HACK) and stupid.
Last point: for those who make the “first amendment” argument – look, I’m not saying “censorship is totally gay, and people who censor are gaylords.” I’m giving my opinion, just as Ron Howard has. This is a discussion, with opinions being bandied about all over the place. My opinion is that Vince Vaughn and whoever wrote this poop-filled screenplay are hacks. And it’s also my opinion that Ron Howard should be ashamed of himself.
Here’s the original “electric cars are gay” trailer:
The trailer for Vince Vaughn’s upcoming film The Dilemma initially featured a pretty lame scene at the beginning in which Vaughn’s character joked that electric cars are “gay.” The trailer came out right before the highly talked-about series of gay teen suicides, after which more press outlets covered the issue of bullying. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper spoke out against that trailer specifically, saying that “we’ve got to do something to make those words unacceptable cause those words are hurting kids.” As a result, Universal pulled that trailer and put out a new one along with a statement that they were sensitive to the issue. Gay advocacy group GLAAD said they’d contacted Universal immediately after the trailer came out but received no response. They’ve had a campaign for some time urging people to stop using gay as a put down. Now that the scene has been cut from the trailer (but is still playing in some theaters due to logistical issues) people are wondering whether if it will also be cut from the film, due out in January, 2011. The star of the movie wants it to air as-is, though. Vince Vaughn has issued a statement weighing in on the controversy.
Vince Vaughn doesn’t think The Dilemma has much of a problem.
Responding to the controversy over his character calling an electric car “gay,” a clip that originally made it into the comedy’s theatrical trailer, Vaughn has come down on the side of leaving the scene intact.
“Let me add my voice of support to the people outraged by the bullying and persecution of people for their differences, whatever those differences may be,” the sometimes-boorish, sometimes-cuddly actor said in a statement Thursday.
“Comedy and joking about our differences breaks tension and brings us together. Drawing divided lines over what we can and cannot joke about does exactly that; it divides us. Most importantly, where does it stop.”
That was very well put. I still don’t agree with him, but I appreciate the way that he made his point despite his poor slippery slope argument. There’s also something to be said for the fact that he’s giving his opinion amid all this controversy. Personally, I cannot fault him for having a different opinion and I respect the way he phrased his statement.
However, I still maintain that associating the word “gay” with “lame” gives the impression that being gay is somehow inadequate. This can be particularly damaging to gay young people who are struggling with their identity. Kids are going to talk smack and bully each other, but adults and movie stars can set a much better example than that. If all they can come up with to introduce us to their movie is a bit in which they use “gay” as a putdown then that’s truly lame. That scene should be cut from the movie, just like it was cut from the trailer.
Here are some PSAs to try and stop the use of “that’s gay” as a putdown. Why don’t we start saying “that’s so Vince Vaughn”? You wouldn’t even have to explain it to anyone, you know?
Check out the logo for the new Oprah Winfrey Network, in brilliant shades of orange green and purple. Isn’t it hideous? The upcoming shows on OWN look somewhat interesting but familiar, like an organizing show, a cooking show with amateur cooks, a medical mystery show that’s like a real-life House, and reality shows featuring Shania Twain and Duchess Fergie. One thing that’s missing is any kind of talk show with Jenny McCarthy, as has been rumored for some time. Lisa Ling is there, though, as is Rosie. We’ll see how Oprah’s ratings are when her network premieres January first. 
