Dolce and Gabbana finally say 'We're Sorry'

                                                                                                     (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)

Domenico Dolce has finally apologised for the remarks he and business partner  Stefano Gabbana made back in March that seemed to disparage the freedom of same-sex couples to become parents.  The Italian openly-gay fashion designer in an article in the September issue of 'Vogue Magazine' says 'I am so sorry. It was not my intention to offend anyone.'

His highly offensive remarks about “synthetic” children and gay parenthood quickly gained notoriety and condemnation from some of  their most famous customers like a very vocal and angry Sir Elton John and Madonna calling for a worldwide boycott of the Dolce & Gabbana brand. The design duo's attempt to clarify their remarks at the time to CNN backfired as they only served to re-iterate their extreme homophobic view on the issue.

Dolce told Vogue 'I’ve done some soul-searching. I’ve talked to Stefano a lot about this. I’ve realized that my words were inappropriate, and I apologize.' Gabbana adds that some of his original comments were fueled by the fact that he had seriously thought about being a father and that he was somewhat distraught that is not possible in Italy for gay men to adopt under the current law.

The couple (no longer romantically involved) were obviously shocked and dismayed at the speed and ferocity of the social media campaign against them that quickly went viral. In an effort to counterbalance the claims that they have internalized homophobia, Gabbana was quick to add that when they came out as a couple to the press in 1999 in Italy it was a brave and un-heard of move.

Dolce now claims 'We shouldn't become too rigid. We need to understand, accept everyone'. Whether this new stance that the couple have taken is purely because of the harm the boycott did to their business or a genuine claim that they really have honestly re-thought their traditional Catholic views, is a tough one to call right now.  The jury will still be out for a very long time yet.

More Straight Takes on Gay Sex

It has definitely been one of those weeks when the wackos have been taking to the airwaves to spout their ridiculous theories on gay people and what we do in bed. It's an unhealthy obsession with so many of them, and whilst it may be driving them mad, it has been a wonderful source of hilarity for us.  Here then are our top two loonies of the week and the tunes they are singing.

According to US gay porn star turned ‘ex-gay’ Christian fundamentalist Joseph Sciambra  anal sex causes gay men to give birth to the devil. In his video rant Sciambra says that after finding God, he sought hospitalisation following damage caused to his rectum that meant he had to have his 'sphincters almost stitched shut.' He explains that anal sex releases into the world rare demonic entities. Hmmm take a look ....

Now Father John Riccardo on the other hand likes to compare sex with eating a bagel!  He was speaking at a Catholic conference in Michigan called Welcoming and Accompanying Our Brothers and Sisters with Same-Sex Attraction which was set up in order to help gay and lesbian people stay celibate. Father John said   'If I just rip open a bagel, I take it, and I cram it in my ear. What would you say? That doesn’t go there. It’ll ruin your ear canal.’

Riccardo who is a priest of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth went on to explain that he is not about people being gay (how very kind....of him) but is opposed to us having sex (and fun probably too). He said he has gay friends (duh! he is a CATHOLIC priest so of course he does) and he says his goal here is going from not knowing Jesus to knowing Jesus.

We reached out to the National Bagel Association  to see if they have heard of any new trend of stuffing ears with their products but there has been response so far.  We could venture to guess that as bagels have always been a staple diet of the Jewish community for decades, it is just a religious misunderstanding and that Father Riccardo should be told about the joy of putting them in the right orifice. Maybe about the joy of gay sex too.

Why we LOVE James Corden

The more we see of (fellow Brit) James Corden the unquestionably funniest Late Late Show Host on American TV right now, the more we love him. Watch him here pitch in with his very witty take on why Dalton Maldonado, the star basketball player at Betsy Layne High School in Kentucky omitted from his yearbook because he is gay.

Part of Corden's spiel was 'If you’re a homophobic school, you do not call yourself Betsy Layne High. Betsy Layne sounds like a girl who would love a gay friend. It actually sounds like a term for coming out, as in, ‘Have you heard about Simon? Oh what, what’s happened? He’s gone down Betsy Layne.”

On a lighter note, Corden has a regular slot in his show called 'Carpool Karoake' when he gifts a ride to work to a famous singer and then turns on the car radio which just happens to be playing their music and the two of them sing along. He has had people such as Justin Bieber, Rod Stewart and Mariah Carey in his passenger seat so far, but the very best guest by far was the day his traveling companion was Jennifer Hudson.   The clip of the two is totally wonderful and already clocked up over 8  million views since it was posted onto You Tube.

https://www.facebook.com/latelateshowcbs

Interview with Mark Christopher Writer/Director 54 :The Directors Cut

Not many filmmakers are as lucky as writer/director Mark Christopher who managed to fulfill a long cherished dream when he got to finally make a Directors Cut of one his movies seventeen years after the original one was released.  Christopher’s love letter to the New York disco scene in the late 70’s about the infamous Studio 54 now is a vibrant wonderful new movie told from the viewpoint of some of impressionable young employees who were the heart and soul of the place.  

For a few short years in the late 1970s this was THE Club in Manhattan where all the celebrities hung out and partied whilst all the desperate would-be’s were kept outside behind the velvet ropes begging Steve Rubell the very creepy co-owner and ringmaster to be let in.  Their efforts were all in vain as you had to have either a certain look or a gorgeous body for him to relent and admit you in to mingle with the stars. Shane a rather gormless New Jersey boy who was as cute as hell was in the latter group. This is his story, which started off when Rubell told him to remove his shirt and after he stripped to his waist he got invited into more than just the Club, and he stayed until the party ended.

A very youthful and then unknown Ryan Phillippe puts in an unforgettable performance as the young innocent who got swept away in a drug and sex-fuelled world in an era that  defined the whole disco explosion.  Nightlife would never ever be the same, and Christopher’s new movie restores all the boldness and sheer vitality of what went down then in what will now  become a new gay cult classic.  I defy anyone to find anything hotter than watching Phillippe and Breckin Mayer his best friend in real life, locking lips together.

We caught up with a very happy Mark Christopher after the movie had opened to rave reviews at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, and just before the movie had its UK premiere at the BFI Flare Festival in London.

QG: So why Studio 54, and where did the story come from?

MC: I had been there in the 1980’s when it had been resurrected after it had closed when its colorful owner Steve Rubell had been jailed for tax avoidance. Paul Schrader, the writer of ‘Raging Bull’ & ‘Taxi Driver’, was my Professor at Columbia when I was in Graduate school. and he introduced me to a lot of the people who were involved in the heyday of 54 which was 1977 to 1979. I started meeting everyone one by one and interviewed everybody that I could.  Whether they were the entertainers, but more especially the bartenders, cloak-check girls and the busboys because as you know that is what the story is really all about.

QG: You were a real newbie director at the time so how did you get a big studio to give you the green-light?

MC: Well I wrote the script that took a total of five years, and they liked it. I had made some short films at school that were well received and that Miramax liked very much, and they said that they wanted me to direct. So that part was unusually kind of easy.

QG: Ryan Philippe went from acting on a TV Daytime Soap and then leapfrogged to be your star. Why and how did that happen?

MC: The producers and I wanted to discover a kid as this part called out for it, so once we had cast Salma Hayek, Mike Myers, & Neve Campbell then I was allowed to get my discovery.  The movie took a year to cast so when I first auditioned him he was a real teenager, but by the time the process ended and he came back for his second audition after doing the movie  ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ he was a young man, and we all loved him.

QG: Did the fact that he was playing an openly gay character on 'Days of Our Life’s ’ make a difference to you?

MC: I actually had no idea at the time he was even playing that as he only told me later.  I think his character was the first openly gay teenage character on a daytime soap on US TV.

QG: Several of your actors were then on the cusp of stardom so is that why the original movie was made more mainstream?

MC: When I cast everyone they were all very promising and the only real established stars then were Mike Myers and Neve Campbell then.  As we were shooting they were all becoming more and more well known which was exciting for everybody.

QG: How did you get all those major celebrities like Michael York, Cindy Crawford, Morgan Freeman etc to do those walk-on parts as themselves?

MC: Once Mike Myers signed on (and by the way he reached out to us to play what was one of his first dramatic roles) the movie became THE project in town to do. We became a hot subject, and so all these stars were practically lining up to join in. 

QG: Who was your favorite one?

MC: Lauren Hutton was wonderful, although she in fact had a couple of lines too, and I loved working with her.  I also loved hanging out with Sheryl Crow in her limo on the set because she was so non-disco and so cool.  Another person who had a very small part was Mark Ruffalo as Rico who is Shane's best friend from his New Jersey days.  This was one of his very first movie roles ever.

QG: What are the best parts that you got to restore in this Directors Cut?

MC: Well the story. It really is a love triangle between the characters played by Ryan, Salma & Breckin and it was so very important to me to restore that story.  Secondly, restoring the look of the film that we had shot to be very dark. Shooting a film on film negative in a dark club is very hard to light. My D.P. (Director of Photography) Alexander Gruszynski did a marvelous job as we worked very hard on figuring out how to light it in a way that I experience a nightclub, which is very dark with flashes of light.  I have never really seen a film that has done that to this day and the when the movie came out in 1998 unfortunately they put a lot of light into it and it did not look like the movie that I had shot. Now we are back to the original look of the movie, which I think is gorgeous and makes me very happy.

QG: Do you know if Ryan, or Mike Myers or any of the others have seen your Directors Cut, and if so what their reaction is?

MC: All the actors are very excited and very supportive. Neve Campbell came out to Guadalajara for the screening at the Festival there, which was quite wonderful.

QG: What are you proudest about this movie now?

MC: Just the fact that it exists and is out there and that Miramax are supporting it.  It truly is like a dream come true for me.

QG: Looking back on that period in time, what memories does it bring back to you personally?

MC: The whole concept of the film is that it is about the worker bees who were the backbone of this fabulous nightclub, so it brings back two things. Firstly reminds me of when I was waiting tables and serving people and all the craziness around that. The other thing it brings back is remembering how very exciting it all was.  Even though I wasn’t in NY at the time in the disco era, even in Chicago where I was living I remember how every week an incredible new song would come out and that they all became immediate classics. It was a very exciting wild time and I loved it all.  If we can just draw you back into that world for an hour and forty minutes with this movie, I would be totally thrilled.

It was after all this one iconic Club that really gave birth to what all clubs are like now, and which is the main reason why that this subject of Studio 54 will live for ever.

QG: There is one line in the movie that had me in hysterics and I have to know if someone really said to you personally 'it ain't the size of the ship, it's the motion of the ocean’?

MC: (laughs) That's a cliché. What I wrote was the response 'you told you that? your lover?' 'No, his father!' (laugh)

QG: I laughed because it sounded so like you .(laugh) Anyway, what’s next for you?

MC: I'm working on script for a drama for Warner Brothers called 'Berlin' which is set in 1941.  I also have a couple of other TV deals, because working in television is exciting for me now as that's where I get to do dark character work that I have wanted to do my whole life.  I am also looking at other feature scripts but haven't found the right one yet. I still teach too at Columbia, Drexel and Carnegie Miller.

QG: Now I always finish my interviews with the same question. If there was a movie made of your life, who would play you?

MC: That's pretty obvious right?

QG: Well no, as I wouldn't have asked if I knew.

MC: Wouldn't it be Ryan Philippe? (laugh)  Don't tell Miramax, but I already have his entire wardrobe  (Laugh)

QG: Ryan Philippe then or now?

MC: The younger version of me would be Ryan as he has already played me in this movie, and Denis Quaid would play the older version of me.  Who would play me now?  I guess Madonna! 

QG: (laugh) You always leave me speechless MC.

Putting On The Dish

This fascinating short movie from filmmakers Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston is in 'polari' an old-fashioned form of English slang that was first used at the beginning of the last century by fairground and circus people, prostitutes, beggars and other outsiders. It was later picked up gay actors and chorus boys and became a part of the London gay scene in the days when homosexuality was still a crime in the early 1960's.

The height of its popularity was when it was used on one the most successful BBC Radio Comedy Shows of all time 'Round The Horne' by the infamous Jules and Sandy camping it up for 'straight' Kenneth Horne every week. Polari eventually faded out of fashion in the 1970's after homosexuality had legalized and people started being more open about their sexuality.

Starring actors Steve Wickenden and  Neil Chinneck, the scene is set on a park bench in London in 1962 and is a story that is essentially about betrayal and there are enough clues in English for you to be able to work it all out.  You may however just have to watch it more than once though.

www.brianandkarl.com

Eric Aláns : My Favorite Sin

New York based singer Eric Aláns  : openly gay and as hot as hell , has a new dance video and single out called 'My Favorite Sin'.  The hispanic performer used to support his music career by working on an Oil Rig three weeks out of his month which certainly doesn't seemed to have hurt his body any judging by his photograph.

His first single 'Mr Pornstar' became a big dance club hit and he is hoping to repeat the success with this new one that where he looks like a gay 'Rocky' but sings a lot better than him.

http://ericalanonline.com/

10 of the best Robin Williams Movies

Over the course of his long and distinguished career Robin Williams won four Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmys, and an Oscar.  Although he started off his career as stand-up comedian who became a household name as the star of TV’s 'Mork and Mindy', a silly show about Aliens, some of the finest work he went on to create were in some superb highly dramatic movies. Now at the first anniversary of his untimely death, QUEERGURU has have chosen 10 of the BEST OF ROBIN WILLIAM movies to remember him by. One of which, BOULEVARD was released after his death still showing us what a great acting talent he really was 

In alphabetical order …..

ALADDIN (1992) Robin Williams is credited as ad-libbing most of his role as the Voice of the Genie with his hilarious performance in this Disney Animated movie.  So much so that they created a special Golden Globe Award for him for his work.

AWAKENINGS. (1990) In this movie based on the true story of British neurologist Olivier Sacks, whose pioneering pharmacological studies help achieve a breakthrough with a catatonic patient, Robin Williams gives what critic Roger Ebert described as one of the finest performances of his career in this stunning Penny Marshall film.

BOULEVARD (2015) In his latest movie that has just been released, Robin Williams plays a man who has waited almost five decades to confront his own homosexuality.'The Hollywood Reporter' wrote 'it’s tender but unsentimental take on a story that benefits from finesse', and claims that it is one of the least showy performances of his career.

DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989) In this inspirational drama Robin Williams played an embattled English teacher at a private academy in a movie now hailed as one of the very best of the 1980’s.  Williams got another Academy Award Best Actor Nomination for his pitch perfect performance.

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM (1987) In Barry Levinson’s wonderful war movie Robin Williams superbly played an unorthodox and irreverent DJ begins to shake up things when he is assigned to the US Armed Services Radio station in Vietnam.  He won a Golden Globe for his performance, and another Nomination for an Oscar.

GOOD WILL HUNTING (1987) Playing the therapist who helps Will Hunting move beyond his troubled past, Williams provided an impetus for the film's touching final act while delivering some of his best work ever.  After receiving Oscar nominations for his work in Good Morning America, Dead Poets Society, and The Fisher King, Williams finally scored a win this role.

MRS DOUBTFIRE (1993) Robin Williams won a Golden Globe for his totally hilarious performance as an actor whom after a bitter divorce disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend time with his children held in custody by his former wife.  He had been in talks to reprise this one of his most popular roles in a sequel.

ONE HOUR PHOTO (2002) Robin Williams's performance as the creepy employee of a one-hour photo lab becomes obsessed with a young suburban family was scarily chilling and showed the full range of his remarkable talent.

THE BIRDCAGE (1996) In this Hollywood remake of the French gay cult classic 'LA CAGE AUX FOLLES' Robin Williams's generous performance as the straight man to a very camp Nathan Lane, was one of the highlights of this delightfully entertaining movie.

THE FISHER KING (1991) This was the second movie Robin Williams made with filmmaker Terry Gilliam.  This heartfelt  drama is about an abrasive radio deejay who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a homeless man (Williams) who has a poignant connection to his past.  This was Robin Williams on the top of his form for which he collected another Golden Globe Award, as well as a Best Actor Oscar Nomination.

Robin Williams : July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014