Film

‘Da Vinci’ Secret Is Out: Most Critics Hate It

Staff / Truthdig May 18, 2006 After all that hand-wringing by Christian leaders about the deleterious influence that the movie would have on the faithful, it turns out that the film is stillborn. Dig deeper

George Clooney Urges Action on Darfur Genocide

Staff / Truthdig Apr 28, 2006 The Academy Award-winning actor said at a press conference with Sens. Barack Obama and Sam Brownback, "What we cannot do is turn our heads and look away and hope that this will somehow disappear." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Oscars Postmortem

Sheerly Avni / Truthdig Mar 6, 2006 And the award for "Best Proof That Hollywood Is Out of Touch": No one made a single reference to the troops fighting and dying in Iraq. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Gore Vidal on The Academy Awards, Sexuality and Politics

Sheerly Avni / Truthdig Mar 4, 2006 In a Truthdig interview with Sheerly Avni, Gore Vidal weighs in on this year's Academy Awards competition, Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," and Truman Capote's Proust complex. Dig deeper

Gore Vidal on ‘Capote,’ ‘Brokeback Mountain’ –and Why ‘Match Point’ Is the Best Picture of 2005

Sheerly Avni / Truthdig Mar 4, 2006 In a Truthdig interview, America's most celebrated man of letters weighs in on this year's Best Picture nominations and recalls his own encounters with Truman Capote. (Or, listen to an expanded podcast version.) Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Pity the Fool

Sheerly Avni / Truthdig Mar 1, 2006 Paul Provenza, director of the gleefully obscene "The Aristocrats," explains why Hollywood doesn't get the joke. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

David Thomson on the Oscar Best-Film Candidates: Worthy, but Not Great

Sheerly Avni / Truthdig Feb 28, 2006 The renowned film critic talks about this year's crop of small, issue-driven movies, and why "the liberal faction in Hollywood are much better at going to parties and raising money than actually making challenging films." Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

LGBTQIA+

Down to the Wire

Larry Gross / Truthdig Feb 27, 2006 OK, the votes are in and now we all, or those of us who care, will have to wait till March 5 to find out whether the high water mark of the Year of the Queer in Hollywood will have been the nominations sweep by "Brokeback Mountain," Hoffman, Huffman, etc. In other words, did the Academy voters actually mark their ballots for this year's apparent favorites? Will the foxy stalwarts of cable talk shows be proved wrong again? When the Brokeback wave first broke over the industry the predictable consensus of the bloviators was that the "gay cowboy" film would bomb once it ventured outside the coastal enclaves into the heartland, but that it would clean up at that March madness of the lavender left known as the Oscars. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

TD Original

Year of the Queer: Hollywood and Homosexuality

Larry Gross / Truthdig Feb 27, 2006 Truthdig's Larry Gross, a pioneer in the field of gay studies, argues that for all the hoopla surrounding "Brokeback Mountain" and this year's spate of gay-themed films, there is little about them that upends Hollywood conventions or challenges popular ideas about homosexuality. "Hollywood and much of the media may be awash in liberal self-congratulation," Gross writes, "but they--and we--are also soaking in the familiar hypocrisy of homophobia." Update: Down to the WireGross argues that for all the hoopla surrounding "Brokeback Mountain" and this year's spate of gay-themed films, there is little about them that upends Hollywood conventions or challenges popular ideas about homosexuality. Dig deeper ( 22 Min. Read )

Samuel L. Jackson to Star in Iraq War Movie

Staff / Truthdig Feb 14, 2006 The versatile 57-year-old actor will play an Army medic who struggles to resume his normal life in "Home of the Brave." | story This is one of the first big-budget films to deal with the ongoing conflict. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

LGBTQIA+

The More Things Change…

Larry Gross / Truthdig Feb 8, 2006 In 1983, Ed Asner, then president of the Screen Actors Guild, spoke to the Golden Gate Business Association, a gay and lesbian business and professional organization Asked about his advice to gay and lesbian folk not to come out of the closet in the entertainment industry, Asner replied, "Out of my own gut instinct, I [do] not consider this wise I know that within the gay acting community itself, many of the agents who are aware of the conflict, the bind, the grief that occurs with actors who cannot proclaim their sexual preference, [know] there's a lot of suffering and a desire to be open about it And these agents and actors support me to a very large extent in advising non-publicization" Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Brokeback to the Future

Staff / Truthdig Feb 5, 2006 Check out this hilarious mash-up of "Back to the Future" and "Brokeback Mountain." | video Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )