Ellen Burstyn has come a long way, baby. In 2000, she was popping pills in Requiem for a Dream, and now she’ll be pushing pills in Tim Robbins’ Possible Side Effects on Showtime.

According to Variety, Burstyn will play the matriarch of the Hunt family, a powerful but dysfunctional brood that runs a drug company that gets in a heap of trouble.

If this series is anything less than fantastic, I’ll be shocked. It’s possible that my expectations are high because the pharmaceutical industry is such an easy target or because Ellen Burstyn and Tim Robbins are incredibly gifted. As much as I hate to admit it, I can’t get enough of evil mothers — big screen and small. Save your two-bit psychoanalysis for someone who cares. Yes, yes, my relationship with my own mother is far from perfect. There, I’ve let you in. Can we move on? … continue reading

The Tony Awards are always really gay. And I don't just mean that gay men are out in force — though, of course, they are (the 2007 Best Direction of a Musical category was the gayest thing ever). Nor do I just mean there are some out (and awesome) stars like Cynthia Nixon, Cherry Jones and Sarah Paulson (the former was in attendance last night, but the latter two were not). The theater also seems to attract intoxicating lesbian-ish types like Tyne Daly, Swoosie Kurtz and Vanessa Redgrave. Strong, ridiculously talented women creating magic on the stage? Yes, please!

Here are some of my favorite moments of last night's awards:

1. Julie White wins for playing gay.
White (also known as Nadine on Grace Under Fire) took home the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for the The Little Dog Laughed. I'm still kicking myself for missing that show, in which White played a lesbian Hollywood agent (AfterElton reviewed it early on). But her acceptance speech was proof enough that she deserved the award. She's got that thing, whatever it is — that inherently funny thing that makes you giggle when she does something dorky like mock-scold the playwright who almost didn't give her the part. Also? She's gorgeous.

Here are some choice quotes from White's acceptance speech: … continue reading

You probably know her best as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote or Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast, but Angela Lansbury is especially beloved among theatergoers. She's won four Tony awards for Best Actress in a Musical, in roles ranging from the original Mame to the perfectly pathological Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (Patti LuPone should be ashamed). Now, at 81, Lansbury is back for a (presumably) last turn on the boards, in Deuce. And guess whose name was on the list when the Tony Award nominations were announced yesterday?

In Deuce, Lansbury and Marian Seldes are retired doubles players who reminisce about their tennis careers and lament the lack of passion in today's players. If that doesn't really seem like enough to hang an entire show on, that's because it's not. The reviews have been scathing, but not toward Lansbury and Seldes — the vitriol is direct at Terrence McNally, who seems to have forgotten that (as Tony Soprano says) "remember when" is the lowest form of conversation. Or, as The New York Times said,

... the true tension in “Deuce” arises from the fight between two valiant, vibrant actresses against a swamp of a play that keeps trying to suck the life out of them. … continue reading

Still, you can't help but root for Lansbury, who makes her way through the bramble of hokey, tin-eared lines with all the aplomb she's known for.