From "Ask the Flying Monkey!" (July 29, 2009)
by
A: Well, Crash and Eddie are fraternal twin brothers, which explains their chemistry. So while one or both might be gay, they’re almost certainly not a couple.
That said, they’re voiced by Seann William Scott and Josh Peck, so I’m sure many readers wish they were a couple!
Josh Peck (left) and Seann William Scott (right) voice Crash & Eddie
Q: I recently heard rumors that NBC is getting ready to debut a spin-off to Will & Grace called Karen & Jack, set to star Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes, in the fall of this year. Is there any truth to this rumor?
A: You know how you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet? You also can’t believe everything you read in The National Enquirer, which is where that rumor comes from, in an article last October (although, to be fair, it was widely repeated online as well).
Megan Mullally recently confirmed that there were no plans for such a show, and that she and Sean got a big laugh about that article. But at the same time, she said they haven’t necessarily ruled the idea out forever.
Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes
Q: Oh Most Revered Heavenly Monkey, I recently watched the original Grease and I wanted to know if Olivia Newton John is seen as a gay icon. She has been a brilliant and loving gay advocate in such gay movies as It's My Party, and, of course, Sordid Lives. Has she ever gone out on a limb and supported our cause?
A: Oh, God yes! Newton John has been a proud and consistent supporter of GLBT rights, singing at pride events, and even recording perhaps the first safe-sex song by a mainstream artist, “Live and Let Live,” back in 1988.
So why haven’t more people called her a gay icon? Well, some people have. Xanadu? Hello!
Olivia Newton-John performing at LA's 2008 Gay Pride Festival
But it’s true that she doesn’t have quite the gay cachet of, say, Cher or Bette Midler, despite having arguably as big a career. Why? It’s always dangerous to speak of such things, for fear of offending devoted fans, but I think it has to do with two factors:
First, her image is the opposite of “larger-than-life.” Even after getting down with “Physical,” her image is wholesome and all-American (or is that all-Australian?), and her stage demeanor is refreshingly modest, almost shy. It just doesn't scream "diva."
Second, unlike Cher and Midler, Newton-John hasn’t really made the jump into timelessness; she’s so associated with Grease and the 70s and 80s that her celebrity image doesn’t really exist apart from that. In short, she’s more retro and camp than iconic.
But she’s absolutely a long-time and passionate supporter of GLBT rights.
Q: Billy Elliot is one of my favorite films, due largely to the endearing friendship between gay Michael and the unspecified Billy. Would you be so kind as to recommend other films and television series depicting close friendships between non-blood-related gay men and heterosexual men? Do you think films like this make a difference?
Michael (left) and Billy in Billy Elliot
A: Wow, great question.
Here are some gay/straight friendship pairings you might consider, and also what I personally think of the project in question: Guy and Lomper and the other strippers in The Full Monty (loved it); Charles and Sebastian in Brideshead Revisited (still haven’t seen it); Calvin and Rusty on Greek (don’t like it); Mouse and Brian in Tales of the City (loved it); episodes of the reality shows 30 Days (Season 1, Episode 4, loved it) and Make Me a Supermodel (Season 1, didn’t watch it); Nick and his band-mates in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (didn’t like it, but loved the gay-straight thing); Sam and Lafayette in True Blood (still haven’t seen it); and another younger friendship as in Billy Elliot, Toby and Arthur in This Boy’s Life (didn’t like it).
And if I ignore what you said about including friends who are family members, there’s also Six Feet Under (loved it), I Love You, Man (didn’t see it), and The Sum of Us (didn’t like it). Do I think films like these make a difference? Absolutely! Maybe movies and TV don’t “make” us do anything, but they create the sense of what’s “cool” and also what’s not. As a result, I think they influence us far more than most of us are willing to admit.
Incidentally, this question is so wide-open that I feel like I’m missing some obvious choices (worse, I feel like I’m missing some even more obvious jokes!). Readers, can anyone help me out?
Q: John Partridge, Christian Clarke on Eastenders, is really hot. What can you tell us about him?
John Partridge
A: Speaking of Billy Elliot, Partridge was a dance prodigy as a child, winning a place in the Royal Ballet School in London at age ten, despite coming from a very working class background.
“It's pretty much a Billy Elliot story and actually the real-life Billy Elliot, Philip Mosley, was my mentor at school,” Partridge told Britain’s The Paper. “He was great and spoke in the same accent as me, which was good because I couldn't understand what people were saying for a while.”
At age 16, he joined the touring U.K. production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats and played various roles in that show, off and on, for the next 20 years. In 1998, he played Rum Tum Tugger in the video version.
How did he get cast on EastEnders? “I was doing a theatre show and they saw me and thought I would be right,” he says. “When my agent told me I had got it, I felt sick. I thought it must have been a fluke and now I am actually going to have to come up with the goods. I was terrified.”
Partridge is out and lives with his partner Jon Tsouras, also an actor, currently starring in the stage version of Priscilla Queen of the Desert in London’s West End.
Q: Have you seen the new Comcast HD commerical? The one with the man on the exercise bike? His vocal inflections are so freaking gay! And yet there are two beautiful women in the corner of the screen that are there for no real reason. I think it was meant to be very gay but someone added the women. What do you think? And what about that guy doing the Best Buy commercials? He's clearly gay. – William, San Francisco, CA
A: First, can I just ask? Don’t you have a DVR or a VCR? If so, why do you still watch commercials? I understand that sponsors pay for the TV we watch, but I find them so intrusive and annoying that I’m sort of hoping the whole system collapses, and we all move on to some sort of straight subscription TV model.
Incidentally, while researching this question, I looked at a lot of commercials. And I’m thinking to myself, “Wow, commercials have really changed a lot since I stopped watching them – back in ’92 or so.”
I couldn’t find the Comcast commercial you mentioned, but I agree that the Best Buy guy is stereotypically gay. But “gay”? Nah. Just like I call foul whenever a gay guy refers to himself as “straight-acting” – if he’s gay, the way he acts is also “gay,” even if he acts thoroughly masculine. But at the same time, if a guy is effeminate (or whatever you want to call that Best Buy guy), that’s not necessarily “gay.”
Okay, yeah, it’s a picky point. But that, my friends, is the beauty of having your own column!
Q: I have recently watched No Night Is Too Long, and was totally struck by it. It might actually be the second-greatest gay movie of all times (after Brokeback Mountain, of course). I was wondering if actor Lee Williams, who plays bisexual Tim Cornish, is actually gay or bi in real life. I also ran the title through the AfterElton.com search engine and found NOTHING at all about the movie. How come? -- Diana
A: Because it isn’t actually a “movie”; it was a BBC production – basically, a TV movie in Britain. It also doesn’t appear to be available in Region 1 (that is, in America) on DVD. But your email makes me wish I could see it!
Lots of people have an opinion on the sexuality of Williams, a former model who made his film debut in the 1998 film The Wolves of Kromer in which he played one half of a gay werewolf couple. But I wasn’t able to confirm one way or the way.
Lee Williams in The Wolves of Kromer
But since Billy Elliot seems to be the theme of this week’s column, I can tell you that Williams played one of Billy’s tutors in the movie.
Q: How come the Battlestar Galactica "Face of the Enemy" webisodes weren't included on the Season 4.5 or the Complete Series DVD? Are there any plans for it to be included on a future DVD? -- Christopher, Boston, Massachusetts
Battlestar's Gaeta and Hoshi in in "Face of the Enemy" 
A: We asked the producers of the show, and here’s what they said: “Because Battlestar Galactica has such loyal and passionate fans, we try to include as much Bonus Content as possible to enhance each release. However, sometimes due to legal clearances, timing issues, and/or disc capacity, not every piece of available content can always be included.”
In other words, I wouldn’t be looking for the webisodes on DVD any time soon. But they are still available here.
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