By Romeo San Vicente
Dumbledore's boyfriend is a vampire
You don't know Jamie Campbell-Bower yet. But you will, and soon, especially if you're a rabid "Twilight" or "Harry Potter" enthusiast. Bower co-stars, however briefly, in "New Moon" as Caius, leader of the Volturi. What's that, you ask? Well, the Volturi are a powerful coven of vampires who figure prominently in the upcoming films, and Campbell-Bower is on board as their shocking-white-haired leader. Between those shoots he'll hop on one of those wizard broom things and fly on over to "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows" where, in flashback, he'll portray Gellert Grindelwald, young Dumbledore's closest friend and subtext-heavy (now that J.K. Rowling has outed the beloved character) lover. It can be assumed that the young actor isn't especially worried about getting typecast in fantasy-themed spectacles. But if he does wind up unhappy with that fate, he can always dry his tears with money.
Kathy Griffin: 'Special' lesbian
When comedian Kathy Griffin recently took lesbian finance whiz Suze Orman as her date to the Gracie Awards (American Women in Radio in Television's annual gala), the trash-talking redhead might have had research – not just photo-ops for once – on her mind.
Turns out Griffin will be playing a lesbian activist on an upcoming episode of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." The Emmy-winner is no stranger to episodic TV, but her appearance on "SVU" will mark the first time in quite a while where she's appeared on a network series playing a character other than herself. So yeah, the queen of all gay-adjacent media plays a gay lady herself, and it's another excuse to watch Chris Meloni for an hour. This win-win situation airs on Feb. 10.
Goran Visnjic in love, just not with Ewan
Former "ER" crush – and the world's most famous Croatian actor – Goran Visnjic has joined the cast of "Beginners," the indie drama currently in production from writer-director Mike Mills ("Thumbsucker"). It stars Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer and early reports are that Plummer plays a man who comes out of a lifelong closet after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. The role of Plummer's new, younger admirer falls to Visnjic, with McGregor playing Plummer's shocked son. So while this may annoy McGregor's gay following – his career to date as been marked by a well-documented, enthusiastic willingness to have an on-screen love scene with either gender – there will be no make-out moments between him and Visnjic. Fans of intergenerational romance, however, may now have a date movie to call their own.
In the pipeline: 'Rock' and 'T'
Two new projects, one definitively queer and one simply featuring men in tight, acid-wash jeans, are headed to screens big and bigger. Actor-writer Dan Futterman ("The Birdcage," "Capote") and his wife Anya Epstein are aiming their pilot "T" (as in testosterone injections) in HBO's direction. Based on a story first heard on the radio program "This American Life," the half-hour drama will center on a woman who transitions to male. Meanwhile, "Rock of Ages," Broadway's goofy hair-metal extravaganza, is coming to the big screen under the direction of "Hairspray"'s choreographer-director Adam Shankman (currently seen as a judge on "So You Think You Can Dance"). Finally, all that guyliner and styling gel will get the proper context. Neither project has a cast yet. Stay tuned here for more details.
