All Posts Tagged With: "LGBT"

It’s being reported that Sacha Baron Cohen’s highly anticipated “Bruno” movie – his follow-up to Borat centering around Cohen’s flamboyantly gay Austrian fashionista – has been slapped with an “NC-17″ rating after its first submission to the Motion Picture Association of America. Because Hollywood studios almost never release NC-17 rated movies, it’s a near certainty that cuts to the movie will be made removing the more objectionable parts of the film (and that those parts will later be put back in for a director’s cut DVD). Why the NC-17 rating? According to the report:

Among the objectionable scenes is one in which Bruno — a gay Austrian fashionista played by Baron Cohen — appears to have anal sex with a man on camera. In another, the actor goes on a hunting trip and sneaks naked into the tent of one of the fellow hunters, an unsuspecting non-actor.

Admittedly I don’t know how graphic these scenes get, but I’m willing to bet that an equally graphic scene involving heterosexual sex would not provoke the NC-17 rating. I’m reminded of the cuts made to Stanley Kubrick’s underrated classic Eyes Wide Shut, in which his shots were digitally altered in the famous orgy scene so as to block out a couple instances of lesbian sex, thereby reducing the rating from NC-17 to R.

This story comes on the heels of an even more bizarre story: Times Online reported a couple weeks ago that I Love You Phillip Morris, a new comedy starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as incarcerated gay lovers, from the guys who brought you Bad Santa, may go straight to DVD in the United States for lack of an American distributor:

Film industry insiders said the movie, which features a graphic sex scene and frequent references to gay sex, had fallen foul of anti-gay prejudice in America.

I’m skeptical that this movie won’t eventually find a distributor, but the fact that it’s even having trouble is a little startling. In the wake of Brokeback Mountain and Milk – both profitable films that portray gay sex and deal explicitly with gay subject matter – it seems a bit bizarre that Hollywood would conclude that American audiences wouldn’t be open to this movie.

It shouldn’t be that startling, however. Homosexuality in film tends to fall into a few limited categories:

1. Tragedy: gay characters ultimately meet with a tragic fate, usually death. See, e.g., Brokeback Mountain, Milk, Philadelphia.
2. Comic relief: gay characters or homosexuality in general is used as a gag. See, e.g., I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, any movie with a hilariously flamboyant gay dude.
3. Female companions: gay characters exist solely as the fun-loving, sassy friend of the lead heterosexual female, esp. common in romantic comedies. See, e.g., My Best Friend’s Wedding.
4. Murderers: gay characters are psychotic killers. See, e.g., Monster, Rope.

I Love You Phillip Morris doesn’t appear to fall into any of these categories. The gay characters here are not mere comic relief, they’re the center of the story. And while homosexuality was also at the center of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, the joke there was OMG THOSE STRAIGHT GUYS HAVE TO PRETEND TO BE GAY, THAT’S TOTALLY ZANY, and while I haven’t seen it, I’m told that at one point in the film the characters are told to kiss to prove their homosexuality lest they face some severe consequence I can’t remember, and the joke is that that would be just too gay so they don’t do it. I Love You Phillip Morris doesn’t appear to be going for that kind of humor.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, incidentally, made over $120 million domestically. You hear that, and you hear that I Love You Phillip Morris is struggling to find an American distributor, and you basically want to shoot yourself in the fucking head.

Trailer for I Love You Phillip Morris after the jump (no trailer out yet for the Bruno movie). Read more…

As Election Day approaches, most of us will be focusing on Obama v. McCain, and perhaps to a lesser extent on Senate and House races. But the country will also be making history of a different sort this November, when Californians vote on Proposition 8, a proposal to amend the California constitution to eliminate the recently recognized right of gay couples to marry. The defeat of the proposal appears likely (but not certain), and if it goes down, it will be the first time in this country’s history that the right to same-sex marriage will be recognized through the direct will of the people (though it should be noted that Massachusetts’ elected legislature rejected a similar amendment). You can donate to the effort to defeat Proposition 8 here.

Read more…

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll just came out saying “more Americans express doubts about a candidate [for President] who served in Bush’s cabinet (59%) than one who is gay or lesbian (53%).” Ouch.

Other interesting results:

• 8 in 10 Americans say they would be “comfortable” or “enthusiastic” about an African-American or a woman running
• 53% say they would have “some reservations” or “be uncomfortable” with a Mormon candidate
• 19% say the same about a Jewish candidate
• 44% say the same about an evangelical Christian
• 66% say the same about a candidate over the age of seventy

Almost certainly the number of Americans out there who would actually have misgivings about these kinds of candidates is higher than any poll will ever indicate (people tend not to like to admit to their prejudices), but it’s still interesting to see that people are just as uncomfortable with Mormons as they are with gays. Ironic that Mitt Romney, who is basically pinning his presidential hopes to gay-bashing, must overcome the same prejudice against himself that he is now fomenting against others.