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ENTERTAINMENT ROMEO SAN VICENTE DEEP INSIDE HOLLYWOOD


Jillian Armenante (Courtesy movieberry.com)


GET TO KNOW: JILLIAN ARMENANTE This September sees the


release of “Contagion,” an everyone-in-the-world-is-going-to- die-of-bird-flu-right-now thriller (best line in the trailer: “Someone doesn’t have to weaponize the bird flu. The birds are doing that.”), and it’s got a cast of heavy hitters: Matt Damon, Kate Wins- let, Laurence Fishburne, Gwyn- eth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law and “Winter’s Bone” Oscar nominee John Hawkes. But none of those people matter right now. Because Jillian Armenante is also in this movie. No, you don’t know her name unless you were an obsessive “Judging Amy” fan, a series on which she was a regular. But she’s a lesbian character actress, seen most recently in “Bad Teacher.” And in a world where closeted A-listers still stare interviewers right in the face and lie about who they are, it’s nice to recognize the not- quite-yet-famous out actors who don’t make a big deal about going to work, doing their job and being honest all at the same time. So go see “Contagion” and give this hardworking woman the golf-clap when her name shows up in the credits. It’s the least you can do.


DUSTIN LANCE BLACK’S “8” IS COMING SOON During the Proposition 8 trial


over the legality of marriage equality in California, Oscar-win- ning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”) got down to work reading transcript after transcript of the proceedings. The result? A new play titled “8.” The finished work consists of dramatized read- ings, dialogue taken verbatim from court records and Black’s own observations and interviews


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he conducted with participants on both sides of the issue. The first staged reading will take place Sept. 19 at the Eugene O’Neill Theater in New York City and will then be produced at various universities. Broadway would be a nice final landing place, but this alternative approach insures more audiences in more places will really see the play. As Black recently told the New York Times, “One of my hopes about the trial was to get the opposition in court, hands raised swearing to tell the truth and have the world see the opposition called to account for going on TV saying gay people harm children, harm families… Since the trial itself wasn’t heard or seen, I wanted to get that story out another way.”


YES, RUSSELL T. DAVIES’ NEW SHOW IS CALLED “CUCUMBER” He created the original U.K. “Queer As Folk” (aka “the good version”) and he’s pretty busy right now making sure his BBB/ Starz co-production “Torchwood: Miracle Day” gets the kind of American attention it deserves, so what’s Russell T. Davies got cooking on the back burner? Something called “Cucumber.” Here’s everything we know: Showtime is interested, which is smart of them because the American “QAF” was the big- gest hit they’ve ever had. And it involves gay men. But that’s not a license for amateurs to go around making bawdy, lowest common denominator jokes involving the title. For all you know it could be a series about homosexual sous chefs. Or gay organic farmers. It might even be another sci-fi show like “Torchwood,” and “Cucum- ber” could be the name of… a gay… spaceship. Oh, all right, let the jokes begin.


TRANS DRAMA “GUN HILL ROAD” GETS REAL The coming out movie’s been done to death, that’s a fact on


which most veteran viewers of gay-themed films can agree. But quality films about transgender issues are still a rarity and quality trans films starring actual trans actors are even more scarce. All the more reason, then, to cel- ebrate the upcoming theatrical re- lease of the moving indie drama “Gun Hill Road.” Esai Morales (“NYPD Blue,” “Caprica”) stars as an ex-con who comes home to his Bronx neighborhood to discover that his teenage son is transitioning to female. Dad has some catch-up to play, of course, but the real focus of “Gun Hill Road” is young trans actress Harmony Santana, who delivers a sensitive, intimate debut perfor- mance as the teenager searching for self-expression as well as for the love of her father. “Gun Hill Road”’s first stop will be arthouse theaters, but look for a DVD release before year’s end.


stage vets, but just go with it). Criss will be the one getting his shot in January 2012, as the “Glee”-propelled overnight sensation takes over for Daniel Radcliffe in “How to Succeed In Business Without Really Try- ing” when the “Harry Potter” star finishes his stint in Decem- ber. Meanwhile, Kristen Wiig’s follow-up to her hit summer surprise “Bridesmaids,” titled “Imogene,” has cast Criss as her younger love interest. Wiig will play a woman who has to go back to New Jersey to live with her tacky mother (Annette Bening) and winds up falling for twentysomething Criss. File this one under: Snowballing Careers. Remember to take your vitamins, Darren Criss. And stay away from anyone named Lohan.


KATE MOENNIG GOING TO “GONE”


Kate Moenning, “The L


Word” vet whose lesbian fan base remains as strong as ever, was last seen in a small, pivotal role in the Matthew McConaughey legal thriller “The Lincoln Lawyer.” But she has another project coming up titled “Gone” that should help boost her recognition on the big screen. She stars alongside Amanda Seyfried in the Heitor Dhalia-directed thriller about a woman who arrives home one night to find that her sister is missing, kidnapped by the same man who tried to kidnap and murder Seyfried’s character two years earlier. With no assistance


see Hollywood, pg 20 Q PUZZLE


August 12–25, 2011


GAY SAN DIEGO


17


Kristen Wiig (Courtesy Universal Pictures)


DARREN CRISS SUCCEEDS IN “BUSINESS” AND WITH “BRIDESMAIDS” It’s good to be Darren Criss


right now. Gleeks already know the news that the New Directions collective fantasy of starring in a Broadway show will soon be realized by… a Warbler (yes, Lea Michele and occasional guest Jonathan Groff are already “Spring Awakening”


Good and Irritating Solution on page 19. GOOD AND IRRITATING


Across 1 Not nuts 5 Safari master


10 Emulates Eminem 14 Word on a gift tag 15 Put into law 16 Slumlord’s declaration? 17 With 28-Across, allegedly good individuals


20 Like Hans Christian Andersen 21 Top of the world 22 Screw royally 24 Title used by Uncle Remus 25 Bedroom slipper 28 See 17-Across 30 Help with the heist 34 WWII command 35 Keyboard instrument 37 Mate in Montreal


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38 “Gay Men’s Friendships” author 40 Above-ground trains 41 Thief’s customer 43 Lovers hit them 45 In greater need of Viagra, maybe 46 What 17- / 28-Across probably have


50 Not like a breeder 51 Gold measure 55 Ill. neighbor 56 Celery serving 61 Source of the observation in this puzzle 64 Proves false 65 Kenya’s capital 66 Turn tail 67 Where tops like to put it?


Down 1 Force in “Milk,” for short 2 Lot measurement 3 Time for cowboys to shoot off 4 Gore Vidal novel 5 Queen’s abode 6 Opposite of ESE 7 Pleased sound


8 USMC barracks boss 9 Wanting water 10 Kahlo’s husband 11 Baldwin of “Talk Radio” 12 Elizabeth of “Transamerica” 13 Margaret Cho’s “Can’t ___ Danc- ing” 18 Tigers of the NCAA 19 One of the decks 23 “Aida” backdrop 24 “Pastor, I Am Gay” author Howard


25 Head-oriented group 26 WNBA Starzz fan, often 27 “Grumpier Old Men” star Sophia 29 “Beauty and the Beast” film frame


31 African tongue 32 Mike holder 33 Stadium sections 35 Athens, in Socrates day 36 Previously mentioned 39 To God, to Caesar 42 Little amphibian 44 Pose for pix 45 “Please respond” part, in Vivien’s tongue


47 Most like Mr. Right Now 48 Sand inside a shoe, e.g. 49 Hindu deity


51 Smith of “Dawson’s Creek” 52 Toward shelter 53 Diplomacy breakdown 54 Côte d’___ 57 Model Banks


58 What little things mean, in a Cher song


59 Place for a stud 60 “Charlie’s Angels” role 62 Gravel-voiced actor Arthur 63 Dance noisily


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