Maria Bello
Photo: Shutterstock.com
By: Romeo San Vicente*/Special to TRT—
Father of the Bride goes gay
In the ’90s, the Father of the Bride movies were enormous hits for Steve Martin and Diane Keaton. And because everything old is new in Hollywood, here comes the gay-themed sequel, in which curmudgeonly George (Martin) has to deal with his own prejudices when his grandson Matty (originally played by Kieran Culkin, no word yet on who’ll take the role now) comes out as gay with plans to wed the son of a former Navy SEAL. So, yes, good-ish news, maybe, provided Martin – currently in negotiations to star – comes back with Keaton and the jokes aren’t mired in decades-old stereotypes and tired ideas of “gay” as a monolithic, one-size-fits-all set of personality and style traits and… oh wait, this is going to be a mainstream family comedy for an audience that would just as soon sit home and watch Mike & Molly. We almost forgot. OK, this whole thing is doomed. Just please tell us that writer-director Charles Shyer has the 21st century good sense to at least change the title to Father of the Groom. Please.
Two heads are better than one
Viewership is down a staggering 45 percent for Ryan Murphy’s Glee. Who knows why? New boring kids, perhaps? Increasingly nonsensical stories? NO CHARACTERS WITH TWO HEADS? We will pick the last option as the reason, because it’s that delicious concept that is giving us life as we contemplate our crush on Ryan Murphy’s newer, shinier, TV toy, American Horror Story, and its groovy lesbian star Sarah Paulson. Sarah will be playing the characters Bette and Dot in the upcoming American Horror Story: Freak Show. Bette and Dot share a body with two heads. Sarah tweeted a picture of this character(s) recently. The Internet sang a glorious song of two-headed praise when she did that. Now all that’s left is to wait for it to show up in front of our eyes. Sorry, Glee, you could have done this instead of putting Darren Criss in dumber and dumber bow ties. But you didn’t.
Maria Bello will battle the Demonic and probably win
Maria Bello’s “coming out,” if you can even call the piece she wrote about her family in the New York Times a coming out story, was so low key that we sometimes forget she did it (for the record, that family includes her son, her son’s father, who is Bello’s ex-boyfriend, and her longtime girlfriend/best friend). But do it she did, pushing the entertainment business’s lesbian population past that of most mid-size American cities. And she’s busy – busier than ever, in fact, with multiple projects in the pipeline, including the Kevin Costner-starring inspirational sports drama McFarland, as well as the just-announced, big-budget, Max Steel, about a kid with special powers and an even special-er creature friend. But it’s the creatures she’ll encounter in Demonic that seem coolest – because they will be satanic ghosts that kill people. Bello will play a psychologist in the latest from James Wan (Insidious, The Conjuring) who will, just guessing, probably say it’s all in the mind of the victims who find themselves tormented by the unseen evil. And then her fancy doctor’s office will rain down blood or something. Again, these are just guesses. But if Bello’s in it, we’re watching it. We made that pact with her career as soon as we saw Coyote Ugly. And we never looked back.
Andrej Pejic dives into Sofia Coppola’s Little Mermaid
Andrej Pejić, the Australian model who has described herself as living between genders and who has stated a preference for female pronouns, has made a name for herself in the modeling world by walking in both men’s and women’s shows and for, well, being 6-foot-2, skinny, gorgeous and knowing how to work the garment. Now Pejić will hit the big screen in Sofia Coppola’s live-action version of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. She’ll play one of Ariel’s sisters, though there’s no word on how big a role that will be. If you need some confirmation that she can slink around on camera, just watch the David Bowie video for “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” in which she appears alongside Tilda Swinton. Obviously that doesn’t equal acting ability, but who cares? She’ll stun in that mermaid costume, there’s no denying that.
*Romeo San Vicente wants to be part of your world. He can be reached care of this publication or at DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com.
