Fans of Tony Award-winning Michael Jeter, who died in March, take heart: The diminutive gay actor had completed enough of his work in his last movie, The Polar Express, so that director Robert Zemeckis won’t have to replace him.
Jeter’s twin characters in the animated Express—6’6′ Smokey and 4’4′ Steamer—are CGI inventions created with motion-capture technology, which translates the actor’s voice, movement, and facial expressions into the figures on-screen. Undergoing the same technological metamorphosis for the holiday-themed family film are Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari. But be patient for that Bosom Buddies reunion —this complicated animation stuff takes time, and Express isn’t due for release until November 2004.
Will the Director Please Stand Up? Favorite TV gay-player Eric McCormack will soon be making his big-screen directing debut. McCormack has made a deal with Disney to direct, write, and star in What You Wish For, a romantic comedy based on an idea from his wife, AIDS activist Jane Holden. The film is about a Midwestern husband and wife who think they’re happily married—until a chance for an affair with a favorite celebrity crops up. McCormack isn’t talking specifics about the script, so no word yet on which spouse is getting the sex-fantasy romp. Currently on break from Will & Grace, he’ll write the script over the summer and shoot the comedy during next year’s hiatus. The busy McCormack has also signed on to reprise his role as a filmmaker in a sequel to the 1998 comedy Free Enterprise, which stars William Shatner.
Big-Screen Queer Ready to see Brian Kinney kissin’ girls?
Queer as Folk’s Gale Harold, who’s given Kim Cattrall her only competition in the bedding-men-on-TV department, falls for females in two upcoming films, Particles of Truth and Rhinoceros Eyes.
Particles, which recently premiered at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival, is the feature debut of director-slash-star Jennifer Elster, and Harold plays her love interest—that is, if you can call a character who’s a recluse and sits in his car a lot a ‘love interest.’ Rhinoceros, still in post-production, stars Harold as a singing and dancing detective and co-stars Hedwig and the Angry Inch’s Michael Pitt. Sounds more than a little queer to me.
See More Seacrest
The prettiest thing on TV, Ryan Seacrest, is getting his own syndicated show. Thanks to his hosting of some obscure show called American Idol, the radio DJ-turned-overnight reality-TV sensation has made a deal with Twentieth Television to host a one-hour program that would run five days a week. Although the details are still sketchy, the show is being described as a news magazine and variety hybrid. Seacrest will also produce the as-yet unnamed show, which is expected to explore elements of American pop culture. But don’t worry—Seacrest, who made this year’s edition of People magazine’s ’50 Most Beautiful People,’ is expected to return for the all-but-certain American Idol 3. Expect to see Seacrest and his new show turn up on your TV screens in January.
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