Deep Inside Hollywood: Tyler Perry likes Old Spice, 90210, Law and Order

By Romeo San Vicente

Tyler Perry has a taste for Old Spice guy

When Tyler Perry makes a decision that affects your life, sometimes he doesn’t even bother to tell you about it at first. That’s what just happened to Old Spice commercial overnight sensation Isaiah Mustafa (the man on the horse) when Perry cast him in a small role in his upcoming adaptation of the play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf.” The director then changed his mind and decided to upgrade Mustafa to the leading man role in his latest man-in-drag comedy “Madea’s Big Happy Family.” No word on what sort of leading man role this is, but based on past Perry films, it’s a safe bet that Mustafa will play the no-good, mean, cheating husband or the poor-but-honest Christian laborer who saves the beleaguered heroine from the no-good, mean, cheating husband. Perry, as Madea, will then hit someone with a frying pan. It’s going to be hilarious.

Revealed: the ‘90210’ teen coming out is…

Not long ago, the creative minds over at the new “90210,” realizing that “Degrassi: The Next Generation” had already beaten them to the punch a few years ago with a gay teenager storyline (they’re already working with a transgender plot, that’s how much more progressive they are in Canada), decided it was time to lumber forward into the present and provide the kids at West Beverly a chance to forge new understandings about human sexuality. Enter Trevor Donovan’s character, Teddy Montgomery. And he’s already a part of the cast; we just weren’t made aware that he was checking out the guys instead of the girls. In the new season Teddy will go public with his orientation and fall for an equally impossibly handsome student played by Kyle Riabko (the young man who took over for Jonathan Groff in “Spring Awakening” on Broadway). Mutual shirtlessness is bound to ensue.

‘Law & Order”s Prop. 8 slate

It’s been settled (ish) in real life; now it’s Prop. 8’s turn to get its day in court on episodic television. As you may or may not be aware, California’s Proposition 8 removed the rights of gay and lesbian citizens to marry, thanks to a ballot measure popular vote and a lot of Church of Latter Day Saints cash. Recently it was overturned, allowing Californians once again to live in the blissful state of marriage equality. And thanks to its history of ripping stories from the headlines, the latest “Law & Order” franchise, “Law & Order: Los Angeles,” will explore the issue in an early episode when the series debuts this fall. The big names in the regular cast are, so far, Skeet Ulrich, Alfred Molina, Terrence Howard and Regina Hall. Which one of their characters will be most personally affected by the plotline? Tune in this fall and listen for that “chunk-chunk” sound to find out.

‘Golden Girls’ gets new life … in Spain

You “Golden Girls” superfans probably already knew this, but were the rest of you aware that other countries have already taken the “funny senior ladies living together” storyline and run with it? In the U.K. there was “Brighton Belles”; in Russia, “Bolshie Devochki”; and in Greece, “Chrysa Koritsia.” Well now it’s Spain’s turn to reinterpret the “Girls” with “Chicas de oro” (literally translated: Girls of Gold). What’s sure to interest some gay fans is the presence of longtime Pedro Almodovar muse Carmen Maura as one of the four friends. The others are Spanish stars Concha Velasco, Lola Herrara and Alicia Hermida. Now, unless you’ve got some kind of super-satellite TV system that broadcasts international channels directly into your home, you’ll have to wait until the DVDs hit the Spanish market to see this thing. And then need an all-region DVD player. But really, what devotion!