By Romeo San Vicente
Margaret Cho, Queen of the 'Palace'
Polymorphously perverse comedian Margaret Cho has been battling on the front lines for the right of same-sex couples to marry, but she hasn't turned her back entirely on hetero unions. She's co-starring in the Korean-American rom-com "Wedding Palace," about a 29-year-old ad exec (Brian Tee) who has to get married before his 30th birthday to avoid a long-standing family curse. (Sounds more like an excuse for maternal guilt, but we'll go with it.) He meets the girl of his dreams online, but things naturally get complicated when she travels from Seoul to L.A. for the wedding. Cho's character is listed as "The Shaman," so one can only wonder how wisdom-ish the dialogue will get during her scenes. Find out for yourself (Ms. Cho will probably announce it on her Twitter account as the date nears) when "Wedding Palace" heads down the aisle of an indie-movie palace sometime this year.
Emile Hirsch to play great dane
How many times can they remake "Hamlet"? If you said, "Until the day comes when English teachers stop assigning it and kids no longer need to watch movies to prep for the test," then you're absolutely right. And what better way to get a new generation juiced up to purchase tickets and Twizzlers for Shakespeare's most quoted tragedy than with the director of "Twilight" at the helm? Catherine Hardwicke, most known for her films about young girls in big trouble ("Thirteen," "The Nativity Story" and that vampire picture) is about to shift gears and explore the most troubled young man in the history of English literature. The screenplay will come from gay writer Ron Nyswaner ("Philadelphia"), with the lead role going to buzzed-about young Hollywood guy Emile Hirsch ("Milk," Hardwicke's "Lords of Dogtown"). But is the 2011 release to be a full four hours like Kenneth Branagh's 1996 adaptation? Or not to be, letting a youthful, attention-span-less, two-hour version rule the day? That is the question.
Hailey and Harold harness the horror
Attention fans of the dearly departed "Queer as Folk" and "L-Word," a perfect storm of ex-Showtime-star casting news has swept into town. Gale Harold, formerly known as "Queer as Folk"'s Brian Kinney, and Leisha Hailey, the erstwhile Alice Pieszecki, are getting married onscreen and taking a horror honeymoon in the upcoming feature "Fertile Ground." Plot details are few, but with the word "fertile" in the title, we're guessing that monster babies and the terror of heterosexual domesticity are on the menu. But yeah, that's just a guess. What is known is that it comes from the crazed, schlock-creating brain of writer-director Adam Gierash, the man responsible for the screenplays of scary cheapies like "Autopsy," "Toolbox Murders," "Mortuary," "Crocodile" and "Crocodile 2: Death Swamp." Look, that may not excite "you," but Romeo is counting the days.
'Big Brother"s gay cowboy bares all
It's not uncommon for reality TV veterans who have gotten a taste of the spotlight to devise ways to extend their 15 minutes of fame. But the TV Guide Channel has only so many hours of programming a day, and sometimes you've got to think outside the box. Or inside it, perhaps. In any event, Steven Daigle, the one-time rodeo champ who worked his "gay cowboy" shtick on "Big Brother 10," has opted to pursue a not-allowed-on-prime-time route to further fame: He's doing porn. Daigle will appear in a man-on-man-on-man scene in an upcoming Chi Chi LaRue production – LaRue apparently approached Daigle with the idea at a Big Brother wrap party – and the reality vet will also shed his chaps for "Unzipped" magazine for the cover of May's "Fantasy" issue. Some may mock this path, but if he's having fun and not harming anyone then that's all that really matters, right? And besides, once you've bared your soul in the "Big Brother" house, why not bare everything else for the highest bidder?
