Saturday Night Live has always been classified as a variety show by the folks who make the Emmy laws (yeah, I have no idea who those people are either). This year, however, a rule change pushed SNL to the comedy category, and the only Emmy contender left standing was Amy Poehler.

Poehler is up against Kristin Chenoweth from Pushing Daisies, Jean Smart from Samantha Who?, Vanessa Williams from Ugly Betty, and Emmy favorite Holland Taylor from Two And A Half Men for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at this year's Emmy Awards.

She chatted with L.A. Times award guru Tom O'Neil this week about her chances of winning in such a tough category. "There may be some last-minute injuries," she told O'Neil. "There might be some Nancy Kerrigan, Tonya Harding thing coming your way. You never know. Maybe I'll reject the award on behalf of someone. I'll think of something controversial. It's better to burn out than fade away, right?" … continue reading

I’m fairly certain that my neighbors reached for the phone to call the emergency equivalent of 911 over here in France when they heard my joyful shrieking (which to them may have sounded more like a mutated cat giving birth to elephants). I couldn't help it when I received the news that a film version of the Wicked musical was in the works. Just the other day I was telling my girlfriend that the Wicked movie was long overdue, and now it turns out that my prayers have been answered. (That, or Hollywood has bugged my apartment.)

Universal Studios has teamed up with producers Marc Platt (Silence of the Lambs) and Stephen Schwartz to bring the Broadway hit to the silver screen (though it sounds like production is still in the very early stages). Universal’s Donna Langley implied that the film is mainly in talks at the moment, and being that Platt is currently busy with the film Nine, it sounds like it will be some time before we get any concrete details about the Wicked movie. … continue reading

Come this fall, you’ll be seeing fairies everywhere (and not the gay kind). Walt Disney Pictures officially announced the October 28th release of Tinker Bell, the first in a four-part feature-length DVD series all about Peter Pan’s tiny sidekick and her fairy friends. The voice cast stars some or our favorites, including America Ferrera, Anjelica Huston, Lucy Liu, Raven-Symoné and Kristin Chenoweth.

All the Disney hype is centered on the fact that this is the first time the audience will get to hear Tinker Bell (Mae Whitman) speak. But I’m more interested in the character of Fawn, who is voiced by none other than Ugly Betty herself. (She’s the one next to Tink in the picture below, wearing the pants and the “sensible” shoes. You can see where this is going, right?)

Even better than her more butch appearance and demeanor is the way she’s described in an early press release: “This rascally tomboy is full of mischief and mirth — she loves to tweak Iridessa [Raven-Symoné] just to see her glow. Fawn is always ready to play and the more rough-and-tumble the game, the better.” She loves to “tweak” her, huh? Is that what the kids are calling it these days? Sorry, I dyke-gress.

Don’t get too excited about the possibility of a Fawn/Iridessa pairing just yet, though. If pop-cult history is any indication, Fawn is just another in a long line of what I like to call the “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” tomboy. Everything about this thinly veiled lesbian character — her clothes, behavior, interests (usually playing sports) — screams “butch,” but the writers always fall short of outing her. Instead, they slap on the non-threatening “tomboy” label and either set her up in an awkward boy-crush or strip her of her sexuality all together. And this play-both-sides-of-the-fence formula seems to work magic: Lesbians adopt the tomboy as one of their own — hey, it’s not like we have that many openly gay characters to relate to — and the general viewing public also embraces her, since she’s never revealed to be anything more than a bit on the boyish side. It’s a win-win situation for the producers. But we, of course, have to settle for lesbian subtext and watered-down versions of ourselves yet again. … continue reading