It recently occurred to me that summer is almost over and I haven't once watched Wet Hot American Summer. Once I gave myself the official summer's end deadline of September to rent and watch the comedy gem, I started wondering what Janeane Garofalo is up to these days.

She's definitely keeping busy. Last week, she participated in a staged reading of The Hills alongside Rachael Harris in Los Angeles. Garofalo played Lauren, and apparently did a flawless interpretation. (Harris played the evil Heidi.) The Los Angeles Times article about the show mentioned the actors might perform the reading once more in October, so if you're in Hollywood, it sounds like a must-see.

Besides moonlighting as a reality star, she's returning to her stand-up roots to perform all three nights of Seattle's famous Bumbershoot this weekend. (What did you West Coasters do to deserve all this good fortune?) … continue reading

It's still a year or two down the road, but a musical version of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City is slated to head to Broadway — with a possible stop in San Francisco along the way.

The Tales of the City series, which spanned seven books and three miniseries, began as a serial in The San Francisco Chronicle in the '70s. It told the story of Mary Ann Singleton, a secretary who never returned to Cleveland after a vacation in San Francisco, and the “family” she found in her new digs at 28 Barbary Lane on Russian Hill. Her family members included Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, her gay best friend; Mona Ramsey, Michael's sometimes-lesbian roommate; Brian Hawkins, '70s straight guy on the prowl (and her future husband); and Anna Madrigal, the transgender “mother of them all” who grew pot in her garden and taped joints to apartment doors as gifts for her “children.”

The creative team certainly has the credentials to keep the show gay enough. Tony Award winner Jeff Whitty is slated to write the book. If you're not familiar with his work in Avenue Q, check out the opening number.

(Whitty didn't write the music and lyrics, but he clearly had a lot to do with the campy gay sensibility.) The musical team will consist of John Garden and Jason Sellards (Scissor Sisters), so it's likely that the show will have some era-appropriate disco influences.

The story has so many intricate story lines that some will clearly have to go. Obviously I hope the lesbian plot remains. (Mona's ex-lover, D'or — a white woman who's passing as black for the sake of her modeling career — moves back to the Bay Area to win back Mona.) Perhaps they can do without the story of the closeted gay husband of the socialite (pregnant by the Chinese deliveryman) hooking up with the socialite's gynecologist at the baths. Or maybe they'll downplay Brian's endless quest to get laid. But they have to keep Mary Ann's doomed romance with the vitamin salesman/private investigator/child pornographer. (I won't tell you how that ends.)

I can imagine lots about the show: a set featuring the Barbary Lane steps with the Golden Gate Bridge and Transamerica building in the background, an opening number about Cleveland, perhaps a song and dance number with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. But what I cannot picture is the casting. The original miniseries was so perfectly cast that I cannot fathom seeing others in the roles.

First, there was Laura Linney as Mary Ann. … continue reading

I’ve never watched 24. Not ever. Not even one clock tick. It’s just not my thing. And after six years of hearing our president mispronounce “terrorists,” I’ve pretty much lost all interest in the topic — real or pretend. So I had no intentions of watching the upcoming seventh season. Then, they started to announce the cast. And, well, things got interesting. The latest new installment, as mentioned in last week’s Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever., is Carly Pope.

You know Carly most recently as the lesbian drug dealer to the stars in Dirt; a CIA agent (the good kind, not the ones in black coats) in The Itty Bitty Titty Committee; and, of course, Sam from Popular. Well, now she will play Samantha Roth, the girlfriend of the president’s son who might be connected to his disappearance. I only watched Dirt on and off — it was a little too bleak and joyless for my taste — but I did catch Carly in a few choice scenes. Very choice. … continue reading

They say politics makes strange bedfellows. But the better question is, does it make good TV? Famously left-leaning comic Janeane Garofalo will join the cast of the unabashedly right-leaning counterterrorism drama 24 next season. Janeane will play Janis Gold, an FBI systems analyst assigned to the team investigating the crisis befalling Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and company in the upcoming season.

As a regular cast member the outspoken liberal (heck, she's even had it tattooed on her arm) will work for a man (series co-creator/executive producer Joel Surnow) who is a big Rush Limbaugh fan and happily calls himself a “right-wing nut job.” Wow, that should make for some interesting water cooler conversations. Even Janeane was surprised by her casting, which she told the Ottawa Sun happened "much to my chagrin. That's why I feel like I'm being punked. I feel like the creators are going to make me say things that cause my sphincter to tighten."

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In the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, Janeane Garofalo describes her worst audition ever. It seems she was up for a role in Mona Lisa Smile. Yes, that well-mannered 2003 movie starring Julia Roberts as a spirited art professor who liberates some 1950s Wellesley girls from their suffocating mores (sadly, not in the way you might hope). Let's just take a moment to appreciate the incongruity of the whole idea. Can you imagine tattooed Janeane strutting down those halls of decorum?

Julia and Julia can't imagine it either:

Actually, Roberts took the time to read with Garofalo at her audition and tried to encourage her, but her vote of confidence had the opposite effect for Janeane. … continue reading

Hey, Janeane Garofalo. Girl, where have you been? I’ve missed you. It’s so great to see you again. Plus, damn, you look fantastic. Look at your cute little wave. Look at your adorable glasses. Look at your killer tattoos. Seriously, damn.

Last Friday, the 42-year-old actress, comic and political activist attended the premiere of the Disney Pixar animated feature Ratatouille. Janeane voices the part of French chef Colette in this culinary comedy about a rat (voiced by Patton Oswalt) who dreams of Cyrano de Berger–cooking his way to the top of the Parisian food world with the help of a young bus boy. Rodent issues aside, the movie looks cute and comes from Brad Bird, the Oscar-winning writer-director of both The Incredibles and The Iron Giant. … continue reading