Snyde & Sneak

by Tracy Baim

At one time, there were two Janis Joplin films being made. But now the only one set to start filming (in January) is the $30-million Piece Of My Heart starring Melissa Etheridge, reports Variety. Melissa's work is also featured on a new compilation CD: Amazing Grace, music with spiritual overtones (proceeds go in part to AIDS research, and also featuring Ani DiFranco and Jane Siberry).

Broadway star Tommy Tune comes out in the current Advocate, and flaming News Radio star Andy Dick was outed as bisexual in last week's TV Guide. But Andy is very open about his love of all genders, and he told Entertainment Tonight that he's "mostly heterosexual ... but I'm a little wiggly. ... I'm not playing the way everyone else plays ... I do it with the Andy flair." Tune, winner of nine Tony Awards, also discusses his homosexuality in his new autobiography, Footnotes. Being gay is "such a little part of who I am," he said, joking, "and getting littler every year!" Now, 58, Turner says he's always been out to friends. ... Also in the Oct. 28 Advocate, former Chicagoan and Go Fish star Guinevere Turner and her mom Elizabeth Turner are among gays and their parents featured. Also on the cover is Rent's Anthony Rapp with dad Douglas.

Bill Cosby's even jumping on the gay bandwagon. His Oct. 13 show had him joining an "Older and Out" softball team. But his character "doesn't realize that all of his middle-age teammates are gay," reports the Sun-Times.

Lifetime TV airs a program on open lesbian breast cancer expert Dr. Susan Love Wed., Oct. 22, 6 p.m. The Intimate Portrait: Dr. Susan Love show focuses on her professional life as well as her relationship with her partner and their daughter.

The next quarterly installment of the gay and lesbian In The Life show on PBS airs Monday, Oct. 20, 11 p.m. on WTTW-Ch. 11 in Chicago. The "Back to School" episode focuses on youth, including Robbie Kirkland, a 14-year-old Cleveland kid who committed suicide.

So Ellen DeGeneres is threatening to quit because of a parental advisory. She's heated because ABC warned viewers because there was going to be a same-sex kiss on the Oct. 8 Ellen. She should be upset at the obvious double standard placed on same-sex kisses, but she also should take a chill pill. Yes, heteros hop in and out of bed on sitcoms airing even earlier in the night, but the bottom line is that Ellen is conquering some incredible ground each week. Just treating her lesbianism so casually on each show is great progress. We should protest the warning, but Ellen should get on with the show. When it re-runs in syndication, no one is going to care (just like with Roseanne's kiss of Mariel Hemingway). What will matter is that more shows continue to be made. The episode was the 2nd highest rated show for that evening, on all networks (beating baseball playoffs and Bryant Gumbel's new show). Viewers are obviously watching despite the warning-and parents who are bigots already weren't going to watch, no matter if ABC said "No lesbians tonight -please watch." Write a protest letter to

Jamie Tarses, Entertainment President, ABC Television Network, 2040 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA 90067; (310) 557-7777.

There's a web poll going on about the warning. Vote at http://www.abcnews.com/sections/us/ellen109/index.html

Ellen is taping new episodes, including a November sweeps month episode with Ellen and another woman walking toward the bedroom, implying sex-the scene originally was going to be cut, but now it's been taped. Let's see if it will actually air. Lisa Darr, Abby's lesbian lover on NYPD Blue, be Ellen's girlfriend in at least four episodes.

All My Children Oct. 6-7 completed an "outstanding storyline" confronting so-called "reparative therapy" and the real damage it can do to people, reports GLAAD. Throughout the last several months, openly gay youth Kevin Sheffield (Ben Jorgensen) has endured "treatment" by a so-called "reparative therapist" named Dr. Chapman in order to try to reconcile with his mother, who abandoned him when he came out. On Oct. 6, Kevin's brother tells him that no brother of his could be a "fag," and therefore Kevin is no longer his brother. Kevin knows he cannot live anymore with the horrible psychological abuse. Reflecting back on the many rough experiences he's been through, Kevin decides to leave Pine Valley. He gives the folksy and well-intended Opal a letter for his best friend, a young woman named Kelsey, telling her of his plan to leave. Opal has been in support of the therapy until now, thinking that "changing" Kevin would be best for him. On Oct. 7, Palmer, Kevin's surrogate father after his parents abandoned him, tells Opal that she needs to support Kevin, explaining that the quack doctor has only thrown the teenager into emotional turmoil, turning him from a good kid with a high self-esteem into a depressed and frantic person. Palmer confronts the evil Dr. Chapman and Kevin's mom, telling Dr. Chapman he will go to the media to expose him for the fraud he is. Opal tells Kevin's mom, who is seeking Opal's support for her bigotry, "As sure as there is a heaven, you'll be in hell for the way you're treating your boy." After a long conversation, in which Kelsey tells Kevin that "you're the best thing that ever happened to me," she convinces him how valuable he is in her life and to many people in Pine Valley and urges him to stay. He realizes the evening sky's "nothingness and sparkles" are representative of the beauty of life and a reason to live and stay where he is loved. According to GLAAD sources on the show, this storyline has received much support and little criticism, and writers on the show feel it is some of their best work of the year. Contact: ABC Daytime, 77 W. 66th Street, New York, NY 10023-6201, fax: 212.456.2381, e-mail: daytime@abc.com.

Bound airs on Showtime this month. 

Indigo Girls perform at the Rosemont Sunday, Nov. 16, tix on sale Oct. 11, noon, (312) 559-1212. ... k.d. lang performs Oct. 25 at the Rosemont Theatre, (312) 559-1212.

"Gay-positive, anti-violence and PWA-supportive-those are the three strikes against Janet Jackson's latest CD, making it 'undesirable' to Singapore officials," reports NewsPlanet. Jackson describes Velvet Rope as "kind of like therapy." NewsPlanet notes: "In the course of her 'self-examination,' Jackson performs a reworking of Rod Stewart's classic 'Tonight's The Night' in which the lyric's female references are left intact, suggesting that Jackson's love object may be another female. Another cut, 'Free Xone' (pronounced 'zone') speaks to the misery caused by violent homophobia." The lyrics include: "Boy meets boy/Boy loses boy/Boy gets cute boy back/Girl meets girl/Girl loses girl/Girl gets cute girl back," she sings. "Free to be/Who you really are/One rule/No rules/One love/Free Xone." Contact: Janet Jackson, and Ray Cooper & Ashley Newton, Presidents, Virgin Records, 338 N. Foothill Road, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, e-mail: virgin@media.virginrecords.com.

Zimbabwean activist Tina Chipo Phillips, a poet and member of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, is in Chicago this weekend to speak on gay issues in her country. See calendar, page 8, or call (773) 271-4616.

Deep Inside Hollywood

by Miss Paige Turner

Forget Ellen. The hottest homo in Hollywood right now is screenwriter Kevin Williamson. When the screenplay he wrote in a single weekend called Scary Movie made it to the big screen as Scream, the surprise hit of last December, suddenly the former assistant was the most sought-after writer in town. Before Scream 2 scares its way into a multiplex near you on Dec. 12, he has another horror epic ready to knock you out of your seat. I Know What You Did Last Summer follows four teenagers who get involved in a hit-and-run accident and then suffer the consequences when they are stalked by a killer the following summer. While the film is admittedly an homage to some of Kevin's favorite horror films including Halloween and The Fog, he also throws in a few curves for the homos in the audience. For instance, in I Know it is the high school jock boy who ends up taking a shower when the killer is after him, instead of the usual teenage girl. Of course it helps that the jock boy is played by Ryan Phillippe who was last seen in Gregg Araki's Nowhere, but is probably best remembered for his doe-eyed performance in the boys-in-wet-underwear epic White Squall. The sexy young actor can also be seen in the upcoming feature film Studio 54, about the omnisexual nights at New York's infamous 1970s nightclub.

I Know also stars Jennifer Love Hewitt (Party Of Five) and Sarah Michelle Gellar (TV's Buffy, The Vampire Slayer). Gellar also has a role in Scream 2, but like most of the cast and crew, she has been sworn to secrecy about the plot. When I interviewed her, she gushed about working with Kevin and would only say that she plays a sorority girl in the highly anticipated sequel.

Kevin also refused to divulge too much of the new film except to say that the head of Miramax, Bob Weinstein, squirmed with delight during a recent screening and declared as the lights came up at the end, "Fuck the Titanic" (in reference to the big budget feature being released the week after Scream 2).

Since Scream opened, it seems that Kevin has been working around the clock. He is next set to direct his first film Killing Mrs. Tingle, a dark comedy in the tradition of Heathers, his favorite movie. He wrote the outline for the next Halloween installment (with input from returning star Jamie Lee Curtis) as well as created a new WB television series called Dawson's Creek. The new show has conservative parents squirming in their seats over the frank sexual discussions between the 15-year-old cast members. With all of these projects going, Kevin is definitely on a hot streak. So hot in fact, he just signed a new multi-picture deal with Miramax (estimated to be worth an unprecedented $20 million) which easily makes the handsome (and newly buff) 29-year-old filmmaker Hollywood's undisputed man of the moment.

Miss Paige Turner can be reached through this publication or by e-mail at paige@planetout.com.