by willowntaraslovechild » Thu Apr 03, 2003 11:46 pm
by The Smee » Thu Apr 24, 2003 6:42 pm
by sprhrgrl » Wed Jul 16, 2003 12:35 am
Mia Kirshner maintains that the way sex is dealt with on the show is "extremely emotional" and "not pretty. It's about power and vulnerability and loss, and a lot of it is very sad sex."
sprhrgrl.com
she's my everything
Sweetie, I'm a fag. I been there. - Tara
The truth shall set you free, but first it will piss you off. - Gloria Steinem
by kajo 2000 » Fri Jul 18, 2003 5:58 am
Quote:
July 11, 2003
Lisa Gay Hamilton is set to do a guest arc on Showtime's new drama series "The L World," about the lives and loves of a group of West Hollywood women, including a gay couple (Jennifer Beals, Laurel Holloman).
Hamilton will play an artist who has an affair with Beals' character. Hamilton, who played attorney Rebecca Washington on ABC's legal drama "The Practice" for the past six years, is repped by Writers & Artists Agency.
---------
"I want to be Byron... because I want to date young boys." Amber Benson
by sprhrgrl » Fri Jul 18, 2003 5:59 am
sprhrgrl.com
she's my everything
Sweetie, I'm a fag. I been there. - Tara
The truth shall set you free, but first it will piss you off. - Gloria Steinem
by 3peanuts » Fri Jul 18, 2003 6:59 am
"Cunning linguist" GG
Keynes was right
by BytrSuite » Sun Jul 20, 2003 9:25 pm
________
"In my parallel life I could solve this mystery / Like Agatha Christie I'd have a clue
In my parallel life I would act exactly like someone who knows what to do"
by Patches » Sun Jul 20, 2003 10:20 pm
You know I've heard about people like me. But I never made the connection. They walk one road to set them free, And find they've gone the wrong direction. But there's no need for turning back 'cause all roads lead to where I stand. And I believe I'll walk them all No matter what I may have planned
by Rocci911 » Tue Sep 23, 2003 11:20 am
----
She has the best nipples in town and she knows it. She has nipple confidence.
L-Word
by Denial Queen » Thu Dec 04, 2003 1:53 am
at: 12/4/03 12:55 amby xita » Thu Dec 04, 2003 9:14 am
- - - - - - - - - - -
"Hard work often pays off after time but laziness always pays off now!"
by maudmac » Tue Dec 09, 2003 1:23 am
i got a dance ain't got no steps / i'm gonna let the music move me around
by Denial Queen » Wed Dec 17, 2003 4:02 am
by xita » Wed Dec 17, 2003 9:26 am
It's nice to see Rose Troche working on this. - - - - - - - - - - -
"Hard work often pays off after time but laziness always pays off now!"
by Boomstick79 » Wed Dec 17, 2003 8:25 pm
Added bonus! by Denial Queen » Sun Dec 28, 2003 11:35 am
by xita » Sun Dec 28, 2003 1:50 pm
- - - - - - - - - - -
"Hard work often pays off after time but laziness always pays off now!"
by Denial Queen » Sun Dec 28, 2003 2:42 pm
by xita » Sun Dec 28, 2003 3:11 pm
- - - - - - - - - - -
"Hard work often pays off after time but laziness always pays off now!"
by Slicey » Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:57 pm
by Slicey » Sun Jan 04, 2004 2:06 pm
by sam7777 » Wed Jan 07, 2004 12:34 pm
Sapphic LightsQuote:
The much-anticipated debut of The L Word, Showtime’s companion lesbian show to Queer As Folk, debuts Sunday, Jan. 18.
While these may be far from your typical group of lesbians, they are fun to watch. The focus is a gaggle of giggly lesbians in Hollywood, dealing with romance, careers, artificial insemination, and even guys ... [don’t worry, you have read about heterosexual sex in textbooks, so those scenes should not put you into shock]
Jenny Schecter (Mia Kirshner) is a gifted young writer of fiction who arrives in Los Angeles to begin her “adult life” with her boyfriend. Tim and Jenny reside in West Hollywood, next door to Bette Porter (Jennifer Beals) and her partner Tina Kennard (Laurel Holloman, from the Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls In love—she has grown up nicely from that teen film). Bette and Tina have been a couple for seven years and are trying to find the perfect sperm donor to help them start a family. Bette’s and Tina’s close network of friends includes Shane McCutcheon (a very sexy Katherine Moennig), who is the resident heartthrob; Dana Fairbanks (Erin Daniels from One Hour Photo), a professional tennis player not yet out of the closet; bisexual journalist Alice Pieszecki (The Murmur’s Leisha Hailey); and Bette’s half-sister Kit Porter (the one and only Pam Grier), who is a musician and a recovering alcoholic. Marina (Katina Lombard from The Firm), a beautiful and compelling woman, owns a West Hollywood café.
At least they admit to the male titillation factor. Ah well, my jury is still out but I will have plenty of time to consider before the DVD release.Quote:
A blonde woman stands in her sun-dappled bathroom staring at a plastic stick. "I'm ovulating," she says, beaming. "Let's make a baby," replies her partner with a passionate kiss. Standard post-Thirtysomething relationship drama stuff, except that the partner's not some hunky guy—it's Jennifer Beals. Yes, that Jennifer Beals, who accomplishes one of the most dignified comebacks in recent memory, erasing the ignominy of her Flashdance-induced career slide as she takes the lead in Showtime's lustrous new series about lesbian pals in L.A.
With Sex and the City on its last legs (see review) and the media salivating over all things queer-eyed, The L Word straddles the zeitgeist. It's perfectly timed to exploit a gap in the marketplace while also testing our tolerance. Although America has embraced the harmless homo-geniality of Carson Kressley, mainstream audiences remain squeamish about gay male intimacy. But The L Word offers something for nearly everyone: Lesbians can revel in glamorous visibility, straight women will find nuanced portraits of female relationships, and for hetero men, there's the titillation factor.
Although I think of Sex and the City as a "chick show," its subtext is frequently men: how to catch, fuck, fix, or ditch 'em. Whereas The L Word is virtually a phallus-free zone. L.A., as conjured by producer Ilene Chaiken and director Rose Troche, is not so much city of angels as city of women—smart, successful, impossibly thin women with perfect, choppy haircuts. They reflect the real lesbian world as much as Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda reflect the straight one. That is to say, not much. But it doesn't matter, because these actresses radiate the same kind of luminous ensemble chemistry that has animated Sex and the City all these years.
at: 1/7/04 11:53 amby Ben Varkentine » Sun Jan 11, 2004 1:21 pm
Quote:
By STACEY D'ERASMO
The L Word," Showtime's new mini-series about a tightly knit group of lesbians in Los Angeles who are as unabashed as their tightly knit group of gay brothers on "Queer as Folk" and as self-aware as the tightly knit group of heterosexuals were on "Thirtysomething," doesn't lack for visual or narrative pleasure. The show is warm and bright and sexy; it's funny. You can easily stay up late, watching, simply to see what will happen next to the beautiful, ambitious, modern women living their complicated lives with one another: some trying to have babies, some trying to find love, some writing or promoting art or being famous sports stars, some still figuring themselves out. It's wonderful that some of the dialogue goes like this:
Young Lady A, pouting, to a rakish one-night stand: "I really liked [having sex with] you."
Young Lady B, who has already moved on, patiently: "I liked [having sex with] you, too."
The actual transitive verb they use is shorter.
This casual exchange is wonderful because of all the freedom and power and erotic agency it takes for granted, because of the edge of real disappointment it contains (rakes are rakes), and because it takes place on a street corner, in daylight. The fight for liberation is as grand as opera, but the dailiness of living a liberated life can come closer to soap opera; the police might not arrest you anymore, but it doesn't mean the girl you just slept with will call you back.
On "The L Word," which begins next Sunday night, liberation also means material comfort and joy: these 21st-century lesbians drive convertible Saabs and Mini Coopers, chart their love lives on titanium laptops and play out their dramas by the pool at their Los Angeles bungalows. They're not super-rich, but TV-rich enough to spend a lot of time, in the way that TV people do, sitting around in cafes and trendy restaurants, flirting and discussing life. Their jobs are nominal; they have zero percent body fat; their teeth are blindingly white; everyone has sex constantly. What's not to like? As lightly toned by reality as the women on "Sex and the City," the bold, soigné characters on "The L Word" suggest that L is also for limerence, that rapturous state of early love when the entire world is glowing and delectable.
This is a breakthrough in the annals of television's fantasy life. Being an L myself, a member of a group that has had a spotty presence on the small screen, I can testify with authority to the despair of bouncing along a life of risk, mystery and heartbreak only to turn on the TV and see two women in bad pantsuits gingerly touching one another on the forearm. "The L Word" tosses those pantsuits to the wind, and good riddance to them. A mini-series of one's own is progress, undeniably.
At the same time, however, watching the series left me with a strange sense of dislocation along with my happiness. A peculiar consequence of so rarely seeing your kind on television, in movies, in plays, what have you, is that you can become, almost unwittingly, attached to a certain kind of wildness: the wildness of feeling not only unrepresented but somehow unrepresentable in ordinary terms. You get so good at ranging around unseen (and finding less obvious characters to identify with, from Tony Soprano to Seven of Nine) that it can feel a little limiting to be decanted into a group of perfectly nice women leading pleasant, more or less realistic lives. You can think, ungratefully: Is that all there is?
Another consequence of living in a representational desert is that a tremendous urgency develops, a ferocious desire not only to be seen in some literal sense — we do have a lesbian character, she's that one in the back in the pantsuit; did you miss that episode? — but to be seen with all the blood and angst and magic you possess. Watching "Angels in America" on HBO last month, I was reminded of what Georgia O'Keeffe once said, that she decided to make flowers huge enough that people couldn't ignore them.
Among many other things, it seemed as if Tony Kushner, writing during an era when it felt as if one's entire world was about to end, was on fire to convey the impending apocalypse in no uncertain terms. At such a moment there isn't time to wait for general audiences to understand the importance of two gay men in a room, talking. You have to deploy images that can't be ignored: towering angels, galaxy-changing orgasms, history split in half and roaming loose around the world. It's like that. It's that big. Visibility is a tricky thing; is someone visible when you can point her out in a crowd, or when you understand what her life feels like to her?
What about when that life is just, you know, a life? No crashing cymbals of fate. No looming apocalypse. In "The L Word," underneath the libidinous drumbeat (though I'm not complaining) is the interesting, subtler thrum of what Freud called "ordinary unhappiness." Bette and Tina don't know whether they should break up or have a baby; Alice can only love women who treat her badly; rakish Shane might just drift around forever, unmoored. Alice is making a map on her computer of how every L in the galaxy has slept with every other L; speeches are made about how this shows that we're all connected by love (or something), but more fascinating is the off-handedness with which Alice says to a straight male co-worker that she's sure he's on her map, too, somewhere.
Tossed around with the lingerie (again: not complaining) on "The L Word" are some unstressed assumptions which are really quite radical, the primary one being that we live in a world in an advanced state of sexual identity blur. When the subject has anything to do with sex and love, television has always nervously herded like with like, but that conceit is already straining at the fence posts here.
In "The L Word" heterosexuals playfully remark to one another on which members of the same sex they find hot and sometimes dally accordingly; lesbians pick up men if they want to; one of the women is bisexual; and — as in life — gay people and straight people go to the same parties, live in the same neighborhoods and are even related to one another. In its most offhanded suppositions, the show has already gone past its own premise. Reasons for bringing the women together at the Planet, their local queer hangout, begin to vie with the increasingly obvious fact that they live on this planet, with everybody else.
And every time Pam Grier, who plays the semi-floundering straight sister to Jennifer Beals's successful, well-partnered, queen bee lesbian, appears on screen, she conveys a thickness of soul that's riveting. She's imperfect, not shiny, not rich. Even when her line readings go flat, you can't stop watching her, not because she's straight or gay, but because she seems so flawed and human. And she often has the dubious expression of a person who isn't entirely convinced she's got a place on any map.
Looking at Alice's growing chart of interconnection, one character remarks, "It's like this whole crazy, tiny world." To which Alice responds, "Crazy, yes, but not tiny." This is a quiet moment, these two gay women in a room, talking, but as axis-shifting in its way as an angel crashing through the ceiling. You can conclude from the glossy surfaces of "The L Word" that L stands for latte or Lexus and stop there. Or you can notice that in some of its less flashy moments the show has staked a claim on Large: as in a larger, denser, more ambivalent imaginary world, populated by imperfect and riveting citizens of all sexual stripes. Call me an optimist, but my money's on the latter.
Ben
"Never be discouraged from being an activist because people tell you that you'll not succeed. You have already succeeded if you're out there representing truth or justice or compassion or fairness or love."
-- Doris 'Granny D' Haddock
by xita » Sun Jan 11, 2004 4:52 pm
- - - - - - - - - - -
"Hard work often pays off after time but laziness always pays off now!"
by Gatito Grande » Sun Jan 11, 2004 5:20 pm
Quote:
TV-rich enough to spend a lot of time, in the way that TV people do, sitting around in cafes and trendy restaurants, flirting and discussing life. Their jobs are nominal; they have zero percent body fat; their teeth are blindingly white; everyone has sex constantly.
)
Maybe I'll be employed and solvent enough for a DVD-player, by the time the DVD comes out? 
Out
that the press doesn't remember something Laurel Holloman has done since Two Girls in Love. by maudmac » Sun Jan 11, 2004 7:04 pm
go donut go
by WebWarlock » Sun Jan 11, 2004 8:10 pm
Quote:
Lives, loves ... oh, and lesbians
`L Word' is created by and aimed at women -- with no buzz cuts or comfy shoes in sight
By Laurie K. Schenden
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published January 11, 2004
VANCOUVER -- Jennifer Beals steps gracefully out of a black stretch limo in tuxedolike slacks and blouse, her long brown hair piled atop her head. It's no surprise that the beautiful actress has an attractive date on her arm -- except that her date happens to be a woman.
Beals and Laurel Holloman are shooting a scene for Showtime's new series "The L Word." They play a couple, Bette and Tina, in the first dramatic series to revolve around the lives and loves of lesbians.
Setting that precedent is enough of a burden for any show, but "The L Word" (which debuts at 9 p.m. Jan. 18) carries the weight of expectation too. The series is Showtime's latest and perhaps best stab at grabbing some of the zeitgeist buzz and viewership of its larger archrival HBO.
Inside the cavernous warehouse-turned-soundstage on the rural outskirts of Vancouver the crew shoots a scene set in a dance studio, where Pam Grier's musician character is rehearsing a music video.
"One camera is supposed to be on Bette and Tina, I don't know what happened here," director Rose Troche yells across the soundstage from behind a monitor. Watching a woman take command of a set with mostly French-speaking crew members is not such a big deal, especially in Canada. But when the show's creator, several producers, most of the writing staff and eight out of nine main characters are also women, it feels big.
A refreshing change
After years on male-driven sets, working with women "who feel pretty good within their own skin," is a refreshing change, says Beals, who plays a biracial lesbian and curator of a prestigious Los Angeles museum.
In the past, women have tried to "shove my characters into mini-skirts and high heels, trying to imagine what the men would do," says Beals, still best known for her star-making role in "Flashdance." And although there are titillating scenes, "This group of women is very different. It was an amazing experience."
Ironically, the criticism that creator-executive producer Ilene Chaiken is hearing is that the actresses are all "too pretty."
A glance around the set and yes, most of the cast is young, thin and attractive. No buzz cuts or comfortable shoes in sight (although there aren't many glamor scenes either).
But if the show contradicts lesbian stereotypes, it's unintentional. Chaiken ("Dirty Pictures," "Barb Wire" ) says she is merely representing what she knows.
"I'll never do anything that's more personal to me," says Chaiken, a small, intense woman who's more akin to Restoration Hardware than Home Depot. But as a seasoned writer and producer in Hollywood, her goal is simply to put on a good show.
"It would be lovely if it had some positive effect, but I don't feel any kind of social or political responsibility. My responsibility is to tell good stories."
"The L Word" follows a group of lesbian professionals living in West Hollywood. The city's blend of trendy cafes and small-town charm is splendidly re-created indoors on Vancouver soundstages, including the distinctive bungalow houses and even a back-yard pool. Only some exterior vistas of notable landmarks were shot in Southern California.
Life in "The L Word's" WeHo is rather ordinary -- apart from men in a diminished role and the women "linked because of friendship and romance," Chaiken says.
But the show isn't about only lesbians. Straight couple Tim and Jenny (Eric Mabius and Mia Kirshner) are central to the story line, and the relationship between half-sisters Bette and Kit (Grier) veers off into issues of race, alcoholism and sibling rivalry. (Their father is portrayed by Ossie Davis, in a poignant guest appearance.)
Sexuality not primary
Sexuality "is part of who we are, but it's not all of who we are," says Erin Daniels ("One Hour Photo" ) , who plays a closeted tennis pro. "I think the show establishes that. But these characters are lesbian, you can't ignore that either -- and you don't want to because it's interesting."
Her fit physique makes Daniels a believable professional athlete. She, Leisha Hailey and Katherine Moennig hang together as single friends looking for love on the show and are nearly inseparable off camera as well. They laugh and chatter in one corner while Beals, Holloman and Grier shoot scenes in another part of the warehouse. (Karina Lombard, who plays cafe owner Marina, has the day off.) Free time is typically spent exploring the trails and trendy restaurants of scenic Vancouver, or everyone gathers for dinner at one person's house.
During a lunch break Holloman talks about how she identifies with the maternal, feminine Tina, a sharp contrast to the butch lesbian she played in "The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love" (1995).
"I think a lot of issues women have in their 30s about having children and wanting to still have a career come up with my character Tina," says the soft-spoken actress, with shoulder-length blond hair and dressed in a sari. "When she decides to walk away from her career and have a child, she loses a lot of identity and becomes incredibly co-dependent on Jennifer's character."
"The L Word" enters the scene at a time when TV is teeming with gays and gay imagery. The flurry includes sitcoms such as NBC's Thursday night staple "Will & Grace" to dramas such as Showtime's own "Queer as Folk" and HBO's "Six Feet Under" and unscripted shows such as Bravo's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Ellen DeGeneres has a hit daytime talk show as well.
What's different about "The L Word" is that none of these shows focused specifically on lesbians. Sexuality aside, Showtime is hoping its new series can carve out a particular niche as a show that targets women.
"With `Sex and the City' going off into the sunset I can't think of another strong female-ensemble show on the air," says Robert Greenblatt, Showtime's president of entertainment. "I hope that's as much of a draw as the lifestyle."
"The L Word" "isn't nearly as incendiary and deals less frankly with sex" than "Queer as Folk," Greenblatt says. And unlike "Queer as Folk," the show had little trouble attracting familiar actors.
Being truthful
Hailey is the cast's only openly gay member, and the rest of the actors are more concerned about being truthful than about their characters' sexuality.
"It was much easier to do a love scene with another woman," Beals says earlier by phone. "With a man you say, `Can you put your hand here because [I feel] a little fat?' They may not really understand how important it is that they keep their hand there."
"There's nothing that I have to explain to anyone," jokes the effervescent Hailey, who brings much gaiety -- in the most conventional sense of the word -- to the role of the bisexual journalist. She, perhaps more than anyone, feels a certain responsibility on the show.
"The gay and lesbian community is so hungry to be represented," says the actress, who studied drama before co-founding the band the Murmurs. Seated in a quiet upstairs office at the studio, she says the pressure comes in "representing every lesbian. That's almost impossible when you have one show, but I think that it's still just as important -- no matter how far we get with the show -- that it's happening in the first place."
"The L Word" has been called everything from the female "Queer as Folk" to the lesbian "Sex and the City." Mabius, the lone male lead, likes Beals' description: "`Sex and the City' if it was an hour-long drama and some of the women had slept together."
"The L Word" could be "a revelation" to viewers who have expectations derived from stereotypes, says Chaiken, who has been in a relationship for 20 years and has 8-year-old twins.
"People who come to see something that's a little thrilling and different to them will definitely get what they're coming for. But I think the larger experience will be people finding common ground and, in some cases, realizing for the first time that we're all going through the same things."
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
-----
Web Warlock
The Other Side,
home of Liber Mysterium: The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks. Available Now!
"I'm going to open a bag of freak on all of you..." - Dr. Drakken, from "A Very Possible Christmas"
by maudmac » Sun Jan 11, 2004 9:42 pm
Quote:
"It would be lovely if it had some positive effect, but I don't feel any kind of social or political responsibility. My responsibility is to tell good stories."
*cough*go donut go
by Jennpurr » Sun Jan 11, 2004 10:20 pm
by BytrSuite » Sun Jan 11, 2004 11:01 pm
________
"...the sharks got smarter."
Return to Genuine Molded Plastic
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests
