By Romeo San Vicente
Stephen Collins goes gay for 'Brothers & Sisters'
Stephen Collins played a Protestant clergyman and family man on the long-running "7th Heaven," but he's about to get his gay on in the new season of "Brothers & Sisters." The 63-year-old Collins plays Charlie, who'll be dating Uncle Saul (Ron Rifkin) and helping Saul deal with the HIV-positive diagnosis he received at the end of last season. The "Brothers & Sisters" gig is part of a busy fall TV season for Collins, who's also got a recurring role on the new superhero show "No Ordinary Family." (The fact that gay producer Greg Berlanti is involved with both shows no doubt facilitated Collins' multi-tasking.) Collins' character is slated for only a few episodes of "B&S," but if the characters have chemistry – or if "No Ordinary Family" faces an early demise – maybe he'll get an extension. TV primetime could use a good November/December gay romance, after all.
Sondheim, played for laughs
No one is officially saying that the new HBO series, "The Miraculous Year," is specifically based on the life of legendary gay Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, but it's hard to miss the resemblances. Sondheim suffered a heart attack at age 49, and "Year"'s protagonist (played by Tony-winning actor Norbert Leo Butz) is a 44-year-old Broadway composer who suffers an aneurysm. But whether it's based on real life, "The Miraculous Year" sounds promising, with a cast that also features fellow Tony winners Frank Langella, Patti LuPone and Eddie Redmayne, plus Oscar-winners Susan Sarandon (acting) and Kathryn Bigelow (directing the pilot, written by gay Oscar-nominated screenwriter John Logan). Audiences will have to wait until the possibly miraculous year of 2011 to catch what promises to be a dishy dive into Broadway's backstage drama.
Finally! Rooney Mara is 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'
Much like the searches for Scarlett O'Hara, James Bond, Lestat and Harry Potter, everyone wondered who would play Lisbeth Salander in the movies based on the popular mysteries by Stieg Larsson. Big names like Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson were tossed around, but it's relative newcomer Rooney Mara who's landed the coveted role of the badass bisexual hacker in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and its two sequels, which will be brought to the screen by David Fincher. Rooney who-ney, you ask? She popped up in "Youth in Revolt" and the queer indie "Dare," starred in this year's unspectacular remake of "Nightmare on Elm Street," and she's the younger sister of "Brokeback Mountain"'s Kate Mara. She'll soon be seen in Fincher's "The Social Network" – the gig that got her the role as Salander – and by the time "Dragon Tattoo" opens in 2011, she's bound to be a household name.
Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah come to Jesus
They've got two of the most speculated-about private lives in show business, but Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah got to that place because of their talent. So there are a lot of reasons to get excited about these two titans teaming up for "Joyful Noise," a new movie about two fierce ladies banding together to save their small-town gospel choir from a budget cut shutdown. For one thing, Parton plans to write some original songs for the film (that's never a bad thing) and though Latifah got her start as a rapper, she's proven she can belt it out to the bleachers in "Living Out Loud" and "Hairspray." The cherry on top of this diva sundae is that it's being written and directed by gay filmmaker Todd Graff, who in the last few years has given us two happily music-packed films – the show-tune-teen crowd-pleaser "Camp" and the underappreciated rocker-teen comedy "Bandslam." If you haven't seen Graff's two previous directorial efforts, make sure to check them out before "Joyful Noise" hits theaters in 2011. You won't be sorry.
