News like stuff
01) I've been really, really crap at keeping up with reading books this last few months. I...have no excuse. I think the Internet can be blamed, though *g*
02) My oldest friend has asked me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding in two years time. This is awesome and amazing and there is no way I'm going to say no. Added bonus: it's in New Zealand.
03) One of the girls who I used to babysit for, who's family lives across from my mum, was visiting her mum with her newborn baby girl and I went over to see her. OMG, but is she the cutest baby ever. She's totally bespelled me *g* I got called auntie Iona, which made me smile like a loon, I do think *g* As an added bonus I now have a baby I can buy books for and this excites me hugely.
She is only six weeks old and SO damn small. Her fingers are tiny. Although she does have quite a grip *g*
04) I have nearly all of my holiday to the US this year booked now. I only have to do the flight from Greensboro to San Francisco to book now. Although, granted, that would be quite an important element to still do.
05) I'm watching the new Hairspray for the second time in a week and, damn, but I do love this movie. So feel good.
06) So, out of all the things that bug me in High School Musical, the bit that bugs me the most is the line in the song 'Fabulous' where Sharpay says 'Iced tea imported from England'. We bloody well don't DO iced tea. We never have. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if you used any of our regular tea for iced tea, it would taste kind of disgusting. Although I am prepared to be wrong about that. I know next to nothing about iced tea.
07) I, along with pretty much everyone else ever, am finding the media slashing Nick Clegg and David Cameron highly hilarious.
08) I've fallen woefully behind on every show I watch. I think I have three, maybe weeks to catch up on. That's...a lot of TV right there. I think I need to invent a few extra days so I can fit it all in.
09) In some excellent news, Chuck has been renewed. YAY! Although I don't think this season has been as good as last season, I'm still delighted that it's got another season. It's definitely one of my favourite shows at the moment.
10) In less surprising news, Heroes has finally been put out of its misery and cancelled. Now perhaps ZQ can go and do some thing worthy of his talents now.
11) In some rather surprising news, NBC has cancelled Law and Order. I honestly didn't that would ever get cancelled.
12) I went and saw Robin Hood this afternoon
Seriously. I was surprised at how awesome it was. Russell Crowe kind of rocked. His accent was a hell of a lot better than Kevin Costner's was. And the romance between Robin and Marion was really well done and kind of adorable.
I really liked how they altered the legend and weaved it in with some history. And they didn't have a Morgan Freeman character, thank god.
And I liked the way they portrayed King Richard and the disillusionment of his army.
Marion rocked. In so many different ways. But then, with Cate Blanchett playing her, that was to be expected.
And the way Matthew Macfadyen played the Sheriff of Nottingham was hilarious. He was so petulant and whiny. And his delivery of 'But I'm french. On my mother's side' was very damn funny.
I loved Eleanor. She rocked. When she slapped King John I possibly cheered. And I was surprisingly impressed with Isabella considered how unimpressed I was with her when she was first on screen.
Although I am convinced that Will and Allen were gay together. While Little John was getting busy with that woman and Robin was falling for Marion, they never left each other's side.
13) And then, in a week that will probably go down in fandom history for all the wank it has endured,, there was also this (not technically fandom wank, but I think it can be mentioned in the same breath) from Newsweek Apparently gay actors can't act straight
It is a horrible article to read - especially when you consider that the author is openly gay himself.
The thing is he uses Jonathan Groff, who plays Jesse on Glee, as an example as a gay guy who can't convincingly play straight.
Now, the thing here is that until I read this article I had no idea that Jonathan Groff was gay. I didn't find him to be unconvincingly straight. It kind of suggests that he possibly has a problem with the actors and not their perceived gayness or straightness.
Unsurprisingly the acting community was unimpressed with the article.
Kirstin Chenweth and Megan Mullally have come out against the article.
And then Ramin Setoodeh tried to justify his position Which is just as horrific as the original article
He says that the Internet oversimplifies things and what he said was taken out of context. Well, I read the entire article and I don't think that what he said was taken out of context at all. I think they pretty much nailed what he was getting at.
Bullshit was he trying to start a dialogue. He seems to be the person who is most bothered by gay men playing straight men. He wasn't attacking the culture of obsessing over the sexuality of celebrities, he was attacking a few actors and claiming it was because they are 'too gay'. Nice.
There are so many other ways he could have started a dialogue about how the perceptions of the audience can be coloured by the sexuality of the actor in question and how that's really rather sucky since it shouldn't (and in my opinion) doesn't matter and should never enter the equation.
I can honestly say that I am not in the least bit interested in the sexuality of a celebrity or, well, anyone.
I think that if someone, anyone, has to hide their sexuality because it will get them treated differently that is a terrible thing. I wish we lived in a world where being gay got about the same amount of attention as being straight does: you know, none.
I think that actors (or, you know, potential Supreme Court judges) should be allowed to keep aspects of their lives private if they chose to do so. I just hope it isn't because they worry that people will see them differently. Hope being the operative word here, because, obviously a huge number of people will see them differently. And that sucks.
You can tell just how much people find the possibility of such a revelation to be titillating and worthy of being gossiped about by how much time is devoted to deciding if actor's A, B and C are gay or straight. Just once I'd like to hear about an article that wondered if someone was straight.
Someone's sexuality shouldn't change how you view someone as an actor. They are the same actor when you find out that they are gay as they were before you had that information. It's useless information because, here's the thing, they are called actors for a reason. They can act.
If someone isn't convincing as a cop, spy, lawyer, or a captain of a space ship you don't say it's because they've never been a lawyer or space captain before*. You say it's because they are a crap actor and they didn't convince you. Why is this any different? Could it not be the same reason that straight men are sometimes less than convincing when being in love? There just isn't the right/any chemistry. Does it have to be because they are gay?
And can it not be that Ramin Setoodeh found Sean Hayes unconvincing as a straight guy, not because he is gay, but because he played Jack on Will and Grace? He played Jack for how many years? To a good majority of people he will forever be queen-like Jack so does this mean that he should only take camp roles? I don't think so. I don't see why he should allow the public perception of him to not go for any role he likes.
This is the kind of attitude that pisses me off SO DAMN MUCH but I am getting off my soapbox now *g*
*I should say, quickly, that I in no way think recent starship captains to be anything less than awesome. It was just an example off the top of my head.
And now I must go to sleep because I have work in the morning.
02) My oldest friend has asked me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding in two years time. This is awesome and amazing and there is no way I'm going to say no. Added bonus: it's in New Zealand.
03) One of the girls who I used to babysit for, who's family lives across from my mum, was visiting her mum with her newborn baby girl and I went over to see her. OMG, but is she the cutest baby ever. She's totally bespelled me *g* I got called auntie Iona, which made me smile like a loon, I do think *g* As an added bonus I now have a baby I can buy books for and this excites me hugely.
She is only six weeks old and SO damn small. Her fingers are tiny. Although she does have quite a grip *g*
04) I have nearly all of my holiday to the US this year booked now. I only have to do the flight from Greensboro to San Francisco to book now. Although, granted, that would be quite an important element to still do.
05) I'm watching the new Hairspray for the second time in a week and, damn, but I do love this movie. So feel good.
06) So, out of all the things that bug me in High School Musical, the bit that bugs me the most is the line in the song 'Fabulous' where Sharpay says 'Iced tea imported from England'. We bloody well don't DO iced tea. We never have. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if you used any of our regular tea for iced tea, it would taste kind of disgusting. Although I am prepared to be wrong about that. I know next to nothing about iced tea.
07) I, along with pretty much everyone else ever, am finding the media slashing Nick Clegg and David Cameron highly hilarious.
08) I've fallen woefully behind on every show I watch. I think I have three, maybe weeks to catch up on. That's...a lot of TV right there. I think I need to invent a few extra days so I can fit it all in.
09) In some excellent news, Chuck has been renewed. YAY! Although I don't think this season has been as good as last season, I'm still delighted that it's got another season. It's definitely one of my favourite shows at the moment.
10) In less surprising news, Heroes has finally been put out of its misery and cancelled. Now perhaps ZQ can go and do some thing worthy of his talents now.
11) In some rather surprising news, NBC has cancelled Law and Order. I honestly didn't that would ever get cancelled.
12) I went and saw Robin Hood this afternoon
Seriously. I was surprised at how awesome it was. Russell Crowe kind of rocked. His accent was a hell of a lot better than Kevin Costner's was. And the romance between Robin and Marion was really well done and kind of adorable.
I really liked how they altered the legend and weaved it in with some history. And they didn't have a Morgan Freeman character, thank god.
And I liked the way they portrayed King Richard and the disillusionment of his army.
Marion rocked. In so many different ways. But then, with Cate Blanchett playing her, that was to be expected.
And the way Matthew Macfadyen played the Sheriff of Nottingham was hilarious. He was so petulant and whiny. And his delivery of 'But I'm french. On my mother's side' was very damn funny.
I loved Eleanor. She rocked. When she slapped King John I possibly cheered. And I was surprisingly impressed with Isabella considered how unimpressed I was with her when she was first on screen.
Although I am convinced that Will and Allen were gay together. While Little John was getting busy with that woman and Robin was falling for Marion, they never left each other's side.
13) And then, in a week that will probably go down in fandom history for all the wank it has endured,, there was also this (not technically fandom wank, but I think it can be mentioned in the same breath) from Newsweek Apparently gay actors can't act straight
It is a horrible article to read - especially when you consider that the author is openly gay himself.
The thing is he uses Jonathan Groff, who plays Jesse on Glee, as an example as a gay guy who can't convincingly play straight.
Now, the thing here is that until I read this article I had no idea that Jonathan Groff was gay. I didn't find him to be unconvincingly straight. It kind of suggests that he possibly has a problem with the actors and not their perceived gayness or straightness.
Unsurprisingly the acting community was unimpressed with the article.
Kirstin Chenweth and Megan Mullally have come out against the article.
And then Ramin Setoodeh tried to justify his position Which is just as horrific as the original article
He says that the Internet oversimplifies things and what he said was taken out of context. Well, I read the entire article and I don't think that what he said was taken out of context at all. I think they pretty much nailed what he was getting at.
Bullshit was he trying to start a dialogue. He seems to be the person who is most bothered by gay men playing straight men. He wasn't attacking the culture of obsessing over the sexuality of celebrities, he was attacking a few actors and claiming it was because they are 'too gay'. Nice.
There are so many other ways he could have started a dialogue about how the perceptions of the audience can be coloured by the sexuality of the actor in question and how that's really rather sucky since it shouldn't (and in my opinion) doesn't matter and should never enter the equation.
I can honestly say that I am not in the least bit interested in the sexuality of a celebrity or, well, anyone.
I think that if someone, anyone, has to hide their sexuality because it will get them treated differently that is a terrible thing. I wish we lived in a world where being gay got about the same amount of attention as being straight does: you know, none.
I think that actors (or, you know, potential Supreme Court judges) should be allowed to keep aspects of their lives private if they chose to do so. I just hope it isn't because they worry that people will see them differently. Hope being the operative word here, because, obviously a huge number of people will see them differently. And that sucks.
You can tell just how much people find the possibility of such a revelation to be titillating and worthy of being gossiped about by how much time is devoted to deciding if actor's A, B and C are gay or straight. Just once I'd like to hear about an article that wondered if someone was straight.
Someone's sexuality shouldn't change how you view someone as an actor. They are the same actor when you find out that they are gay as they were before you had that information. It's useless information because, here's the thing, they are called actors for a reason. They can act.
If someone isn't convincing as a cop, spy, lawyer, or a captain of a space ship you don't say it's because they've never been a lawyer or space captain before*. You say it's because they are a crap actor and they didn't convince you. Why is this any different? Could it not be the same reason that straight men are sometimes less than convincing when being in love? There just isn't the right/any chemistry. Does it have to be because they are gay?
And can it not be that Ramin Setoodeh found Sean Hayes unconvincing as a straight guy, not because he is gay, but because he played Jack on Will and Grace? He played Jack for how many years? To a good majority of people he will forever be queen-like Jack so does this mean that he should only take camp roles? I don't think so. I don't see why he should allow the public perception of him to not go for any role he likes.
This is the kind of attitude that pisses me off SO DAMN MUCH but I am getting off my soapbox now *g*
*I should say, quickly, that I in no way think recent starship captains to be anything less than awesome. It was just an example off the top of my head.
And now I must go to sleep because I have work in the morning.