Telling It Like It Is
Leave it to Amistead Maupin, author of the famous, gay-themed Tales of the City book series, to publicly put into words what many in the gay community have felt or said privately for years. I always found it curious that so many Hollywood stars rumored to be gay somehow end up as Scientologists. Here is a quote via Towleroad on the subject of John Travolta playing a drag role in Hairspray, opening later this month.
"...of course the Church of Scientology comes in very handy. (huge laugh from audience) It's the biggest ex gay movement in America. They catch you when you're young and confused, tell you they'll look after you, even provide you with a wife and child... Then of course you have to do what they call an audit, where you confess everything you've ever done into a tape recorder, so they've got the tapes. So once you're famous and successful you have to go along with all their nonsense about people falling into volcanoes... (pause)... then you play a woman in a movie musical, a part created by a drag queen and written by a gay man..."
Labels: Gay Culture, Pop Culture, Religion
posted by Michael @ 1:13 PM
4 Comments:
Whenever I see the trailer for this movie, I cringe. I'll probably go see the film, but I usually shy away from movies starring "John Revolta". Edna Turnblatt will always be Divine....no matter what.
Travolta's "performance" -- er, I'm talking about the movie, not his personal life -- got a great early review on Ebert and Roeper this week.
the closest i've come to this (or will likely come) was seeing what's his name on jon stewart the other night. you know, john travolta's husband in the movie? not jon voight, but kinda like him. geeeze, i'm losing my mind. anyway, kind of creepy culty weird sort of guy. maybe the scientologists sucked out my brain?
I think you mean Christopher Walken, Lynette. But you're right, he is rather like Jon Voight.
I saw the new Hairspray the other night. I walked in wishing that the director had given the role to Harvey Fierstein, but walked out believing that Travolta was a better choice. I'd seen Harvey twice on stage, and he was brilliant -- but this filmmaker had plans for Edna, which included lots more dancing than either Divine or Fierstein would have been able to accomplish half as well. Travolta really played the hell out of Edna, and Walken, Pfeiffer, Blonsky, and Latifah collectively killed. Great performances all around and wonderful direction. I loved it.
As for Armistead Maupin, I agree with 99% of the things he says, but I think he's getting a little preachy and self-righteous for my taste these days ...
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