By Romeo San Vicente
'Wicked' Menzel going to 'Glee'
As if this show couldn't get any gayer, Broadway's alliance with "Glee" -specifically, the show's stuck-like-glue ties to "Wicked" – continues to pick up steam and may even spark a renewed love of showtunes in America's heartland. First they brought in Kristin Chenoweth as a boozy, way-post-grad ringer-singer. Then came that rousing "Defying Gravity" number. And now, the "Wicked" witch herself, Idina Menzel, is about to join the cast for the second half of its hit debut season as the coach of McKinley High's rival glee club, Vocal Adrenaline. Still not enough for you? Then add new cast member Jonathan Groff, who co-starred in "Spring Awakening" with "Glee"'s vocal powerhouse Lea Michele, as Vocal Adrenaline's lead male voice (and rumored love interest of Michele's character). It's enough to cause a "Glee"k overload.
Michelle Rodriguez gears up for 'Battle'
When lesbian-dream-date Michelle Rodriguez started her career in 2001 with the film "Girlfight," did she imagine becoming the next Audrey Hepburn? Or did she have a sense that she would become American film's go-to gal for tough ass-kickings and weapon-brandishing? Because, as her recent action turn in "Avatar" shows, the camera loves her when she's got a gun – and she's using it. Meanwhile the next big budget production to happily typecast the swaggering star is called "Battle: Los Angeles" -Rodriguez's second movie with the word "battle" in the title – due sometime in 2010. The film just wrapped its Lousiana shoot (tax breaks for film crews!) and its plot concerns, well, a battle in Los Angeles, with Rodriguez co-starring as a member of the military. Romeo's money is on our gal busting some skulls.
'The Kennedys' are coming
They're the closest thing this country has to a royal family, and they've played historical roles in everything from the highest level of politics to the quirkiest moments in fashion. So it's fitting that the History Channel makes the Kennedy family part of its own history – the first scripted project to air on the cable outlet – with the eight-hour miniseries, "The Kennedys." Co-created by "24" producer Joel Surnow, the series, due to air in 2011, will focus not only on the dynastic aspect of the legendary clan and the powerful men it produced, but the women involved in their lives as well. This, of course, means that the iconic, enigmatic Jackie Kennedy will be front and center and, if gay men of a certain cultural bent get their wish, there will perhaps be at least a side trip down the road to Jackie's crazily entertaining "Grey Gardens" relations, The Beales. OK, the latter may be asking for too much. But we can hope.
Ellen: Comic in a comic
They put Tim Gunn in a comic book already, so why not Ellen? If that's the kind of pop-culture question that you hold your breath over, you can exhale: it's happening. Bluewater Comics has just announced a March 2010 release date for "Female Force: Ellen Degeneres." No, she won't be a superheroine. But she will be the next woman in line to get the company's biographical comic book treatment (after Michelle Obama, Oprah and J.K. Rowling). And it's about time, really. Ellen is, after all, one of TV's most powerful daytime movers and shakers, beloved by mainstream audiences and a permanent part of television history thanks to coming out on primetime network TV in the late '90s on her sitcom "Ellen." And think of the comic-book adventure possibilities with characters like Portia and Anne (!) along for the ride. The more Romeo thinks about it the better it gets.
