Band of Thebes

Born March 29: Bruce Weber

 
Last year photographer Bruce Weber, 67, made "news" for releasing a series of Abercrombie videos featuring this man to man kiss. Although Weber is married to Nan Bush, for four decades his primary subject has been the eroticizing of men's bodies and male camaraderie. (One of his many books is a collaboration with Reynolds Price, Bear Pond, capturing naked young men at play in the Adirondacks. A similar collection of romps features text by William S Burroughs.) Weber's ubiquitous softcore campaigns for Abercrombie and Calvin Klein underwear have, for better or worse, reshaped gay culture, then youth culture, then American culture. This has been true at least since 1982 when he got Brazilian pole vaulter Tom Hintnaus to wear only white briefs and recline against a white rock. That iconic ad and billboard was named one of "ten photos that changed America," by the industry bible American Photographer. Weber's work is in the permanent collections of major museums and he's an accomplished film director. Beyond his many music videoes, he earned an Oscar nomination for his second documentary, Let's Get Lost, about Chet Baker. His first was a boxing doc called Broken Noses, which premiered at Cannes.

He remains as popular as ever. This year he shot the entire Vanity Fair Hollywood portfolio. His recent books are his 448-page fashion study Blood Sweat and Tears and the shorter, self-explanatory Roberto Bolle: An Athlete in Tights. 

Corporate Cultures' Queer Clashes

Two media attempts to cheer you up after the hellroarin' success of Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day: 

AlterNet runs a piece called "Six Brands Playing Footsie with Conservatives and Paying the Price." It starts well, with reassuring stats about how the haters are old people who "don’t buy stuff!" and the young are overwhelmingly for gay marriage. And the author takes a sharp look at the Komen debacle. But the other examples go limp by the end.

Tiffany Hsu and Ricardo Lopez at the LA Times write "Many Businesses Seek Favor Among LGBT Customers," offering a wide range of some meaty, some meager evidence of companies courting queers. JC Penney hiring Ellen, Bank of America and nearly 40 other companies offering tax relief to gay employees. You'll recall two years ago Lady Gaga had to break up with Target for their antigay ways and hate funding; now they're running this ad and selling rainbow t-shirts to raise money for the pro-gay Family Equality Council. Some actiivists are skeptical of Target's turnaround. The article also mentions cultural changes at formerly antigay Coors and the grandpappy of them all, Cracker Barrel, which "once required that any employees who did not display 'normal heterosexual values' be fired. The Lebanon, Tenn.-based company now employs a nondiscrimination policy and diversity training."

For more on the subject, read the guru of gay marketing Bob Witeck's book Business Inside Out: Capturing Millions of Brand Loyal Gay Consumers or Alexandra Chasin's Selling Out: The Gay and Lesbian Movement Goes to Market. Or for a different view, read The Tragedy of Today's Gays.

Oh, Who Cares if the "Woman" Isn't a Woman and the "Critic" Hasn't Seen the Movie?

One of the bazillion tv spots promises, "Women love Magic Mike!" and the only supporting evidence is... a blurb from Paul Rudnick. The screen flashses

"THE CITIZEN KANE OF STRIPPER MOVIES. --Libby Gelman-Waxner."

Those overworked Warner execs couldn't run the full sentence, "Let me just say this: while I haven’t seen Magic Mike yet, I already consider it to be the Citizen Kane of male stripper movies."

For the record: the hottest player isn't 22 year-old Alex Pettyfer. It's newly out Matt Bomer, 34, who already has three sons via surrogacy with his longtime partner Simon Halls, 48.

Born March 29: Bruce Weber

 
Such is the world that photographer Bruce Weber, 66, made "news" yesterday for releasing a series of Abercrombie videos featuring this man to man kiss. Weber is married to a woman but for four decades years his primary subject has been the eroticizing of men's bodies and male camaraderie. (One of his many books is a collaboration with Reynolds Price, Bear Pond, capturing naked young men at play in the Adirondacks.) Weber's ubiquitous softcore campaigns for Abercrombie and Calvin Klein underwear have, for better or worse, reshaped gay culture, then youth culture, then American culture. This has been true at least since 1982 when he got Brazilian pole vaulter Tom Hintnaus to wear only white briefs and recline against a white rock. That iconic ad and billboard was named one of "ten photos that changed America," by the industry bible American Photographer.

The internet wants you to watch Weber's videos here: shower kiss, wrestling duo, wrestling team, shirtless film shoot, Melville, and matador.

Elle Puts a Trans Model on Its Cover

 

 
 

One of these models is different from the others. Click to enlarge. After the jump, a surprise of sorts...

That Awesome Aussie Ad for Gay Marriage

Warning: You might cry. He writes in pen in a hardcover book.

Dirty Girl

After the teen runaways pick up a hot, hot hitchhiker headed toward Vegas where he's a male stripper (first, demonstrating his talents by the campfire in the beam of the car's headlights, then in the back seat with the no-longer-miserable fat boy), but before the plucky pair stranded in the middle of nowhere stumble into a rough roadside bar where the mean biker dudes have no interest in the skinny blond chick but go wild for her chubby pal, you'll say to yourself in the empty theater, "Wait a minute, this is a GAY movie!" In a classic marketing bait and switch, Dirty Girl's trailer promises two hours of unapologetic high school slut walk grrrl power circa 1987 Oklahoma, and the film delivers a little lost girl's search for her biological daddy bracketing the real heart of the story, a heavyset gay boy's journey through fear, fabulousness, girl friend fun, first love, first sex, first heartbreak, and finally acceptance. Sure enough, Dirty Girl is written and directed by out and proud Abe Sylvia. The plight of the mothers -- her single mom desperate to catch a man; his repressed mom stuck in a loveless, abusive marriage -- are well-enough drawn and very well played by Milla Jovovich and Mary Steenburgen. Fair warning: the uplifting ending is among the most awful you will ever see. The suits at the Weinstein Co. should have embraced the gay and released this as a queer Muriel's Wedding; it is impossible for the movie to have done any worse at the box office than its current $47,931 gross after three weeks.

Born March 29, 30: Bruce Weber, Tracy Chapman

If you will, in the past two decades the music business has seen changes soaring several previously unimaginable octaves -- vinyl and cassette to cd to digital downloads; the death of the record store -- while the industry's attitude about stars' private lives has remained the steady, eternal drumbeat of closet, closet, closet. It was April 1988 when Cleveland native, Tufts graduate, Tracy Chapman released Tracy Chapman, the surprise #1 album that would revitalize the folk rock genre and sweep three Grammy awards. She wasn't out then and after seven additional studio albums and one more Grammy in 1997, she is just marginally out now; she has mentioned her past relationship with Alice Walker but I don't think she has called herself a lesbian. In 2002 she told an interviewer, "I have a public life that’s my work life and I have my personal life. In some ways, the decision to keep the two things separate relates to the work I do." On the other hand, when it most mattered in 2008, Chapman did come around from her policy of not giving money to political causes and for the first time she wrote three checks to defeat Prop 8 and discussed her decision with the media. Her eighth album was released a week after Obama was elected and the anti-gay measure passed by a wide margin. It's called Our Bright Future.

Photographer Bruce Weber, 65, is married to a woman but for forty years his primary subject has been the eroticizing of men's bodies and male camaraderie. (One of his many books is a collaboration with Reynolds Price, Bear Pond, capturing naked young men at play in the Adirondacks.) Weber's ubiquitous softcore campaigns for Abercrombie and Calvin Klein underwear have, for better or worse, reshaped gay culture, then youth culture, then American culture. This has been true at least since 1982 when he got Brazilian pole vaulter Tom Hintnaus to wear only white briefs and recline against a white rock. That iconic ad and billboard was named one of "ten photos that changed America," by the industry bible American Photographer.

Smithsonian Removes Wojnarowicz Video After Catholics Complain

Ants walking on a crucifix in a 30-second video David Wojnarowicz made to honor his dead lover, photographer Peter Hujar, has been called "hate speech" by the Catholic League, and as a result the Smithsonian has removed it from their Hide/Seek exhibit. (Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor also complained.) As Blake Gopnik writes in today's Washington Post: "Now the NPG, and the Smithsonian Institution it is part of, look set to come off as cowards."

He continues:

"Of course, it's pretty clear that this has almost nothing to do with religion. Eleven seconds of an ant-covered crucifix? Come on.

"This fuss is about the larger topic of the show: Gay love, and images of it. The headline that ran over coverage of the matter on the right-wing Web site CNSnews.com mentioned the crucifix - but as only one item in a list of the exhibition's "shockers" that included "naked brothers kissing, genitalia and Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts." (Through a bra, one might note, in an image that's less shocking than many moves by Lady Gaga.) The same site decries "a painting the Smithsonian itself describes in the show's catalog as 'homoerotic'. "

"The attack is on gayness, and images of it, more than on sacrilege - even though, last I checked, many states are sanctioning gay love in marriage, and none continue to ban homosexuality.

"And the Portrait Gallery has given into this attack."

(The image is Hujar's portrait of Wojnarowicz, not the video removed.)

 

Universal Cuts Anti-Gay Line from Ron Howard Trailer; Straights Panic

The opening scene of the trailer, establishing the tone of the Universal's upcoming "comedy" The Dilemma directed by Ron Howard, builds up to the joke of Vince Vaughn saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, electric cars are gay." Initial displeasure from the gays yielded nothing -- (big dispute whether GLAAD approved or ineffectively called for its removal; either way the line stayed) -- but this week closeted Anderson Cooper complained about it on out Ellen DeGeneres's show, and finally today Universal removed the line from a hastily revised trailer.

No one is more surprised by the outcry than Universal who had already checked with their marketing dept gays. (Cut to: After it's finished, demanding, "You don't mind, do you?")

What's more instructive is the uproar on straight websites comment boards where this incident has struck a nerve. Gathering five times more comments than any other story today on Deadline and over 2,340 comments on Huffington Post, the majority of people are outraged by the deletion. Most comments angrily cite over-sensitivity, PC police, and free speech.

McDonald's Gay Teen Commercial Airs in France

Never mind the stilted dialog, the noteworthy part is McDonald's using a gay teen storyline to sell their brand in France. Sent to me by a great internationalist, Sandy Leonard.

Born March 23: J.C. Leyendecker

In the early 20th century when Arrow had 94% of market share, much of their success could be laid with illustrator J.C. Leyendecker -- he used his chiseled boyfriend as the model for the archetypal Arrow Collar Man. Born in Germany in 1874, Leyendecker moved with his family to Chicago when he was eight. He and his brother enrolled at the city's Art Institute before studying art nouveau at the Académie Julian in Paris. They returned to Chicago early in 1899 and by May Leyendecker received his first commission for a cover of the era's most famous magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. Throughout his career he would draw 321 more covers for them, creating the genre of "adorable" domestic chaos, stirring patriotism, family holidays, lovers' foibles, and youthful high spirits (with scrawny nudity) that today we associate with his Eve Harrington protege and successor Norman Rockwell. Leyendecker was slight and disliked confrontation; when his friends warned him Rockwell was stealing his style, he didn't protest. (Being a gay man and an immigrant in the early 20th century may also have amplified his instincts to avoid trouble.) One area in which he maintained preeminence was the blatant homoerotic. Leyendecker's men eternally give one another penetrating looks inside, outdoors, and on deck, and they're always thrusting elongated objects at happy angles from their bodies. He never met a muscle that didn't need to beef up, ripple, or glisten under his expert touch. As his biographers   explain, “Neighboring artists shared models with the brothers, which meant a seemingly endless train of attractive Greenwich Village lads parading through their chilly studio in the buff.” One was named Charles Beach. He was 17 and Leyendecker was 28. By all accounts Beach was both hot and not, given to self aggrandizing claims that he did Leyendecker's work (despite not being able to draw), along with the more typical fits of jealousy, insecurity, and tyranny. Margo Channing Norman Rockwell complained he never heard Beach say anything intelligent and called him "stupid." Nevertheless, Leyendecker and Beach moved into a New Rochelle mansion together and threw luxe parties attended by the jazz age set including Scott and Zelda. Inevitably, times changed, the commissions dwindled, and the money ran out. They had to dismiss their staff yet they stayed together a total of 49 years, until Leyendecker's death in 1951 when he instructed his private papers be destroyed. For more, read J.C. Leyendecker.

Leyendecker's artist brother F.X. Leyendecker also had an eye for masculine muscle, as with this barechested blacksmith, and for strategically placed missiles between shirtless swabbies (compare below). He became addicted to drugs and killed himself at 47.

    

    

Bakla Names Decade's Ten Best Gay Filipino Movies, Commercials

The Bakla Review, covering all things gay in the Philippines, has compiled two 10 Best of the Decade lists: movies and commercials. Given the shortcomings of indie international distribution, many of the films may be unknown to American viewers. The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, however, made a splash at New Directors / New Films, was nominated for a Spirit Award, and won the Berlinale Teddy for best feature. I was impressed by how naturally the movie develops the story of a 12 year boy in the slums developing an intense crush on the handsome young cop who saved him from an attack. Victor, the police officer whose private life is never revealed, rebuffs the boy's romantic advances, then corruption and violence flip their relationship and Maximo rejects Victor's friendship.

Readers who score low on attention span and high on immediate gratification will love Bakla's ten best Pinoy gay commercials, all of which can be seen on the site. They run the gamut from a gay couple casually holding hands walking down a crowded street to a lockerroom romp in which guys in towels lipsynch to Backstreet Boys. Some ads are played for humor to mixed results, though it's interesting to consider why ad executives thought it would sell more Sunkist Iced Tea to create a 30 second spot in which the thirsty basketball stud is shown to be a nellie queen turned on by rubbing against his sweaty teammates.

Walt Whitman Is the New Brooke Shields / Miley Cyrus

Not being a television user, I had no idea Walt Whitman has become a jeans spokesperson. Yes, that's his rich voice reading "America." Everything that's wonderful about his delivery above is absent below in a didactic interpretation of "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" Nevertheless, a good day for bare chested gay poetry "...full of manly pride and friendship."

Truth Wins Out "Lies in the Name of the Lord" Ad To Run in SLC Paper

Wayne Besen's nonprofit group Truth Wins Out, established to counter "ex-gay" and right wing propaganda, is placing this ad in the Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday. It's a response to the infamous anti-gay "No Mob Veto" ad by the Beckett group in last Friday's New York Times, and deserves much wider publicity and placement than TWO can afford. (It's a serious issue, so I'll refrain from posting my two ads "Lies in the Name of Lord of the Flies" and "Lies in the Name of The Lord Won't Mind.")

Strong Women Weekend: Annie Leibovitz

Last night at a private gallery in Chelsea, Annie Leibovitz gave a slideshow based on her new book, Annie Leibovitz at Work, and said, "Much as I love the set-up, I prefer to take moments on their own."

As for those iconic set-ups, Leibovitz usually offers three or four portrait concepts to her subjects but she also encourages them to suggest ideas. Cindy Sherman said, "I'd like to hide if I can," which sparked Leibovitz's group photo of ten women who look like Sherman. (One was an unknown actress, who surprised Leibovitz years later by saying, You've already shot me. Claire Danes.) 

Originally Leibovitz didn't like her photo of a shirtless, cigar smoking Arnold on a white horse because it's "primarily about form" and she's "reluctant to have form dictate meaning" but then she realized, with Arnold, "form is meaning." She's been photographing him for more than thirty years, since his Pumping Iron days when he told her he felt he was destined for something more, because he was "always dreaming about dictators."

Of her naked Mark Morris photo in the style of Rousseau's Dream, she said, "I look at this picture now and think, 'Visually, I could fix this.'" At the last minute he decided he didn't want to show his penis. The weather was a particularly hot and he didn't think he was looking his best. Unrelated, at the last minute for what would become John Lennon's last photo shoot, Yoko Ono decided she didn't want to be naked after all, so only Lennon is bare. (Isn't it a much better picture for that?)

In the book, Leibovitz discusses her long delayed conversion to digital photography and the new possibilities of what can be tinkered with, altered, or faked. For her photo of Helen Mirren and Judi Dench together in the front seat of a car, the women were never together.

Of her tremendous output, Leibovitz said, "I feel like there are five pictures a year I like."

She will speak at the Union Square B&N on Thursday night, December 11. Highly recommended.

Hollywood's Long Love of Murdered Gays Continues with Milk

On the review compilation site Metacritic, Milk earned a perfect 100 score from The Chicago Sun-Times, The New York Times, The New York Post, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, Rolling Stone, TV Guide, Slate, and Time. It also has the most Oscar buzz. None of this would be happening if Milk had a happy ending.  Hollywood has a long history of making movies and honoring films that can be summarized as gay = dead.

Somehow the few big budget movies that do show lgbt people, and those that are considered important each year, tend to fall in the category of Plea for Sympathy. "Gays shouldn't be killed" is a fairly low hurdle to clear, yet it's about as far as Hollywood is willing to go, and each time they do, they're cheered by robust self congratulations.

In the spirit of Vito Russo, look at which stories get told and rewarded, and which don't:

The Children's Hour (1961) lesbian suicide, five Oscar nominations

Silkwood (1983) (probably) bi woman murdered (for other reasons), five Oscar nominations, incl. bi and lesbian roles

The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) gay man murdered, won Best Documentary Oscar 

Philadelphia (1994) gay man dies of aids, five Oscar nominations, two wins incl. gay role

As Good As It Gets (1997) gay man bashed, seven Oscar nominations, incl. gay role, two wins

Boys Don't Cry (1999) trans FTM murdered, two Oscar nominations, won Best Actress for FTM role

The Hours (2002) lesbian suicide but also open well adjusted lesbians, nine Oscar nominations incl. Best Actress win for suicide role

Monster (2003) killer lesbian executed, Best Actress Oscar 

Brokeback Mountain (2005) gay man murdered, eight Oscar nominations, incl. two gay roles, three wins

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) gay man attempts suicide, four Oscar nominations, two wins

Milk (2008) gay suicide and gay man murdered, Oscar nominations to come

For whatever reason, the rare big studio movies in which the gay characters don't die are ignored by the Oscars, as are the many great indie queer movies that never reach the distribution they deserve. Other than The Hours, the best may be Gods and Monsters from 1998, which was nominated for three Oscars and won best adapted screenplay, and Far From Heaven (2002), which earned four nominations. Maurice, Velvet Goldmine, and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert were each nominated only for costumes; The Birdcage only for art direction; My Best Friend's Wedding only for music.

Transamerica was a great exception in 2005, nominated for two Oscars including the MTF role, but it's an open question whether it would have been so honored if the M had been played by an M rather than an F. That same year, Capote was nominated for five Oscars, but typically it was completely degayed. Truman's lover Jack Dunphy was reduced to something less than a roommate -- a concerned friend -- since they were never shown at home together. 

Where are the major Hollywood movies showing healthy, unharmed contemporary same sex couples, and where are their Oscars? Why has The Front Runner languished in development for decades? Patricia Nell Warren says it's because it's set at the Olympics, but now the crowds can easily be CGI. For that matter, where is the biopic of Walt Whitman including his boyfriend Peter Doyle? Whitman's importance to American literature is approximately one thousand times greater than Harvey Milk's place in American politics.

Is it that filmmakers and screenwriters feel it's more important to show injustice against gay people, or are these the only stories studios will greenlight? Executives are certainly more comfortable with the storyline that goes "come out, die" and so is the religious right. The Family Research Council protested Kinsey but they, and Focus on the Family, and Concerned Women of America, all announced they wouldn't picket Brokeback Mountain.

For any Hollywood defenders who want to suggest that "drama is conflict," save your keystrokes. Conflict does not mean annihilation. In mainstream storytelling, an unhappy ending is considered more sophisticated because it is uncommon. Each year hundreds of very common movies conclude with a male and female couple united happily. Those that don't are exalted for subverting convention and playing against the audience's expectations. Obviously, gay stories do not unfold against a wealth of happy endings and viewers have been trained to expect misery.

As for Milk with a happy ending, that movie would be called Noble. Elaine Noble was elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature against all odds from a conservative Irish Catholic district, basically Dan White's people. And she did it three years before Harvey, though Milk ignores her accomplishment and touts him as the first openly gay man elected rather than first gay person. The plot of a scrappy woman triumphing over entrenched unfairness is a Hollywood favorite (Norma Rae, Erin Brokovich) but you won't see this one get made.

And if you haven't yet seen Milk, please pay attention to the scene when Harvey sees the ad designed to fight Prop 6. Not only could you substitute the ads against Prop 8, it's exactly the same as the print ads for Milk. He's outraged, and with good reason.

Milk Ads Degayed

Focus Features ran their big announcement ad in yesterday's papers, the final Sunday before their best shot at an Oscar opens on Wednesday, and it hides any hint of the movie's gay content. Setting aside the problem of an ad campaign that forces the gay activist who insisted on gay visibility back into the closet after thirty years of progress, is it even good marketing? In all seriousness, if you didn't know Harvey Milk, what would you think this movie was about? Wisconsin dairy farmers? The milk lobby? Really bad haircuts? Compare this to the poster for Rob Espstein's documentary, which clearly shows a politician and the tagline says he's gay.

In a country where some people can't say on what date the events the of 9/11 occurred, let's not pretend "everyone knows" the history of a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978. For that matter, let's also not pretend to be too surprised. As soon as Brokeback Mountain proved its crossover appeal, Focus yanked the iconic Heath-n-Jake white hat-black hat ads and replaced them with photos of the men and their wives. Hollywood always aims for the widest common denominator, erasing any sign of otherness. The one sheet for Dreamgirls showed three women in silhouette, with their backs to the camera and swathed in red stage light, so viewers wouldn't see they were black.

Commercial Closet Merging with GLAAD, Wilke To Leave

Sad day. Twelve years ago business journalist Michael Wilke started The Commercial Closet, showcasing lgbt images in advertising with an online database that now features more than 4,000 commercials. Seven years ago it became a 501c3 and the Commercial Closet Association began giving their annual Images in Advertising Awards. The awards honor the best portrayals of the lgbt community in tv spots, print ads, and billboards, while also challenging the worst advertisers to do better with the Clean Up Your Act Award.

Yesterday, the ten-person board of the Commercial Closet Association announced their planned merger with GLAAD and Wilke's departure from the company. Board president Anthony Cirone said, "Our work will become the basis of their advertising media program." Given the reigning ethos of the GLAAD Awards, look for the advertising program to become increasingly chummy with and forgiving of corporations, and to value celebrity access more than content.

Last year, Wilke gave a very smart interview to After Elton with this exchange:

AE: Do you feel that the gay community is too quick to take offense at ads that use gay humor?

MW: Frankly, I think the gay community is too lax most of the time to take offense. Today's world is perhaps too comfortable for many gay people, and they discount the power of advertising to influence how the rest of society views our community.

Too lax to take offense. GLAAD signed off on Boat Trip. And I Now Pronounce You Chuk and Larry.

Commercial Closet's 4th Annual Images in Advertising Awards

You still have time to get tickets to the Commercial Closet's 4th Annual Images in Advertising Awards ceremony Monday night in New York. Among the nominees in ten categories, listed here, are Orbitz, D&G, Wrigley, Chemistry.com,  and Levi's, whose spot is below. Nominees for best print ads include Macy's, Washington Mutual, and BMW. But why did the Commercial Closet discontinue their "Clean Up Your Act" anti-award, which this year would have seen stiff competition by homophobic ads from Snickers to Nike?