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 )

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 )

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 )

Jon Stewart Runs on CNN International

Blair Golson / Truthdig Feb 20, 2006 OK, all you expatriates probably already knew this, but Truthdig didn't: "The Daily Show" runs on CNN International outside the U.S. Think about that: Millions (perhaps billions) of foreigners get Jon Stewart's version of America on a relatively straight-news-oriented channel. Depending on how you feel about Stewart's sensibility, that's either wonderful or troubling. (This snippet of news comes near the end of a hilarious article about Stewart's upcoming gig at the Oscars.) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Gays Have to Play It Straight in Hollywood

Staff / Truthdig Feb 14, 2006 Sir Ian McKellen says, "It is very, very, very difficult for an American [gay] actor who wants a film career to be open about his sexuality." | story This is exactly what Truthdig's Larry Gross was getting at in "Year of the Queer: Hollywood and Homosexuality." 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 )

It’s War, Not Hollywood

John Crawford / Truthdig Nov 30, 2005 "Off to War" shows real soldiers and their families struggling to deal with the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )