By Romeo San Vicente
You will believe an elephant can fly
In keeping with the Disney Corporation's transparent bid for global domination of all adorability-based product, they want to bring "Dumbo" to Broadway. Tony Award-winning director of "Billy Elliot: The Musical," Stephen Daldry, is hard at work planning an adaptation of the 1941 animated classic and … why not? There's already precedent in the people-dressed-as-elephants genre of musical theater ("Addams Family" star Kevin Chamberlin was nominated for a Tony for his searing portrayal of Horton the Elephant in "Suessical") and the project comes readymade with great songs like "Baby Mine" and (the admittedly semi-racist) "When I See an Elephant Fly." There's no creative team assembled for this thing yet, which means it'll be at least 2012 before any imagineered output is available. But think of all the giant-ear-themed products not yet produced, just waiting to be sale-tabled in Disney stores world over.
Neil Patrick Harris: feeling Smurfy
Romeo's new theory is that Neil Patrick Harris consulted teen-star-turned-real-life-scientist Mayim Bialik to develop a genetic replica of himself. That's the only explanation for how many places this guy can be at one time. Singing and dancing on the Oscars, hosting other shows, judging "American Idol," Internet musical shorts, sitcoms: Ryan Seacrest has fewer jobs than Harris. But we're not complaining. It's kind of great that America's Sweetheart is a funny, talented, cool gay guy. And now he's going to be in the "Smurfs" movie. The only information available at the time is that he will star as the film's lead live-action character, whatever that means. Will he be blue? Will he be tall? Will he merely befriend many cartoon Smurfs like Jason Lee does with rodents in those "Alvin & the Chipmunks" movies? It's a mystery for now. More details as they smurface.
Ice dancing to boost primetime gayness
"Dancing With the Stars," the home of a lot of sparkly outfits and flourishes of the hand, just got itself one-upped in the unofficial primetime contest known as What's The Gayest Thing We Can Put On Network Television? Its upstart rival: ice dancing. Thanks to BBC Worldwide Productions (which originated "Dancing With the Stars"' predecessor "Strictly Come Dancing") the six-year-old British program "Strictly Ice Dancing" is coming to America. Ice dancers will be paired with wannabe (and fearless) ice-dancing celebrities who are all sure to experience even more injuries than they do when they're merely wearing shoes and being twirled around a studio. The American cousin has no name yet but it's due to arrive later this year on ABC. Can we get Johnny Weir (not technically an ice dancer, but still) to host?
Countless lesbians are 'Out in The Desert'
The Dinah Shore Weekend in Palm Springs, Cali., has been dubbed "Lesbian Spring Break" by more than one observer (aka all of them) and is the kind of event that provides a sharp counterpoint to a lot of media stereotypes surrounding women-who-love-women. In other words, when all 10,000-plus ladies show up in Palm Springs, they tend to party like a group of debauched gay men on Ecstasy. Doesn't this sound like a great idea for a documentary? Someone else thought so, too, and now "Out in the Desert," a film by Page Hurwitz, is a reality. Centered around individual women who come to the Dinah for a variety of reasons that are not solely based on dirty dancing and downing drinks, the doc also features some famously queer and queer-adjacent celebs like Carmen Electra, Margaret Cho, The Indigo Girls, Jenny Shimizu, Elizabeth Keener (Dawn Denbo!) and Suzanne Westenhoefer. Keep your eyes peeled for this one to pop up at film festivals and cable TV down the road.
