Advertisement

Deep Inside Hollywood

By Romeo San Vicente

'Stargate' lesbians in space!

The new series "Stargate Universe" will boldly explore a hitherto unexamined corner of TV's sci-fi landscape by including two principal lesbian characters. Ming Na ("ER") and Reiko Aylesworth ("24") play a romantically-linked couple – the first gay characters in a "Stargate" show – who will be prominently featured in the new series that revolves around a group of humans (some civilians, some military) who are stranded in the far reaches of the universe and try to survive. (Genre fans are already comparing the series, the third of the "Stargate" franchise, to the recently-completed, critically acclaimed "Battlestar Galactica" reboot.) The cast also includes Robert Carlyle, David Blue (who recently played the rumpled, regular-guy gay photographer on "Ugly Betty") and Lou Diamond Phillips. "Stargate Universe" premieres on SciFi – sorry, "SyFy"- in October. Take that, "Star Trek"! You've been one-upped!

Viola Davis will 'Eat, Pray, Love' with Roberts

She recently snagged an Oscar nomination for nailing her scene in "Doubt," so it's no surprise that Viola Davis's name is being tossed around for the latest batch of high-profile Hollywood projects. The acclaimed actor is now set to join Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem and Richard Jenkins in "Eat, Pray, Love," the screen adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir that's being written and directed by gay TV ("Glee," "Nip/Tuck") and movie ("Running with Scissors") mogul Ryan Murphy. Davis would play the best friend of Roberts' character; the latter sets out on a worldwide journey to discover herself after going through a bitter divorce. And while Davis has had to make the most out of thankless best-friend-of-color roles before – did you happen to catch "Nights in Rodanthe"? – she'll no doubt make this one crackle when "Eat, Pray, Love" hits screens in 2011.

HBO has a boy-girl crush on 'Middlesex'

Jeffrey Eugenides' novel "The Virgin Suicides" was memorably brought to the big screen by Sofia Coppola, but everyone wondered who would adapt his complex next book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Middlesex." That novel dealt with the life of Calliope Stephanides, a Detroiter raised as a girl who discovers during her college years that she was actually born intersexed. It is 40-something male "Cal" who narrates the novel and tells his story, which includes family history and even a glimpse at 1924's war between Greece and Turkey. Rita Wilson and Donald Margulies are producing the hour-long drama series for HBO, with Margulies (whose Pulitzer-winning play "Dinner with Friends" also became a production for the cable network) slated to write the show. HBO optioned the Eugenides novel this summer, so it probably won't hit the airwaves until 2011 at the earliest. Until then you can just watch your DVD copy of "Orlando" a few more times.

'Bad Girls' fight for their lives

Get ready for the teen spin on those great old Pam Grier prison flicks: MTV Films has announced "Bad Girls," based on the novel by Alex McAulay, about an unruly teenager whose parents ship her off to a wilderness reform school/boot camp on a remote Caribbean island. Once the troubled young ladies arrive, however, they find themselves having to fight for their lives against drug dealers and other marauders while simultaneously battling their own worst impulses. This one sounds like a winner all around, with sharp-tongued mean girls for the gay men and sexy chicks running through the jungle for the lesbians. Advance buzz has Dakota Fanning and Emily Browning ("The Uninvited") vying to play the lead character, but nothing's set yet; look for "Bad Girls" to start some trouble (and hopefully do a lot of making out with each other) in 2010.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement