Welcome to your weekly pop culture fix, in which we relay important LGBTQ entertainment news that relates to things that have popped but won’t (or can’t) stop.
… In Evan Rachel Wood’s new film Allure, now available on digital demand, Wood plays a housekeeper and abuse survivor who ends up kidnapping and starting an ultimately also abusive relationship with a 16-year-old girl from one of the houses she cleans. The role was initially written for a man, but was re-conceived for a woman and Wood, who wanted the part after reading the original script, was cast. She talks to Out Magazine about the script, her own experiences with abuse, #MeToo, and Westworld season two.
This is a female-led story, and it’s directed by men, but it really is a story that takes the female perspective. It’s so interesting because she’s not a very… She’s a bad person, really, at least to an extent.
She’s broken.
She’s broken. And I wonder how the LGBTQ angle fit into this?
When you think about Laura, you know that she’s been struggling with shame and identity and repression her entire life because she had been dealing with that sort of thing that she didn’t really know how to deal with. Trying to stifle that or whatever, but I also appreciated her being… whatever she is. I don’t even know if she’s gay, you know? That was never the culprit. It was never, ‘Oh, well she’s abused and now she’s gay,’ or ‘oh, she’s gay, now she’s abusing.’ It was just two women.
Yeah, it’s past that.
Yeah, we’re past that. Exactly. That’s not what it’s about. And let’s shatter those conceptions about that being the issue. That’s not the fucking issue.
Right!
If anything, the issue is these backward ideas.
That led to this, yeah.
Yeah, it was just rebranding it in a new way. And it’s funny when people interview me about it and they hardly bring it up. That’s amazing. That people can watch a movie that is still a lesbian romance with a much older woman and much younger girl, and they are focused on your movie. That means we did our job right. That’s a good sign.
… VIDA, the new show we are more excited about than anything else in the world, won the Audience Award at SXSW and here’s the post-show panel.
… Netflix Needs to Renew ‘One Day at a Time’ Already: “With Mount Rushmore-level icon Norman Lear as part of the creative team, One Day at a Time is, like the dearly departed The Carmichael Show and the resurrected Will & Grace and Roseanne, a reminder of the pleasures of the format when done properly and a reminder that the key to doing the format properly is often having people who know what they’re doing in multicam, again on both sides of the camera. “
… Eurovision’s Saara Aalto comes out as lesbian ahead of ‘sassy and fun’ album and new single Monster: “I am very proud to be lesbian and I feel very much like I am lesbian, totally.”
… Revisiting Wild Things on its 20th anniversary: for some reason this article doesn’t mention how I saw this movie the day I lost my virginity, which imo is the most important Wild Things trivia of all
… ‘9-1-1’ Season 2: Connie Britton Returning or Leaving as Abby
… Scarlett Johanssen is already set to start in a George Clooney backed adaptation of this novel, which apparently milks the evil lesbian trope for all its worth (very little): “Tangerine by Christine Mangan, book review: The evil lesbian plot is actually a little hackneyed”
… Gigi Gorgeous & Nats Getty: The Most Visible Lesbian Couple For The Digital Generation: Go Magazine talks to one of our favorite duos after their spectacular engagement situation.
… Straight Women and Situational Homophobia, or When Queer Sidekicks Go Bad
… Drawn to Comics: 6 Women Superheroes Who Should Come Out as Lesbian or Bisexual in Their Next Movie
… Susanna Fogel, who made the movie Life Partners starring Blair Waldorf as a lesbian, is at the helm of “The Spy Who Dumped Me,” starring Kate McKinnon and Mila Kunis. Entertainment Weekly goes behind-the-scenes of the espionage comedy
… ‘Younger’ Season 5 Premiere Date — TV Land Comedy Returns June 2018 | TVLine
… Queerama, Daisy Asquith (film review)
… John Cameron Mitchell’s New Film Is a Queer Homage to Punk
… 20 Female Characters Who Kicked Ass on TV – Best Strong Female Characters on Television – Here is a list of all the women on TV that queer women have crushes on and wish were gay and a few that actually were!
… 10 New NYC Shows With Queer Characters In The Spotlight
“I am very proud to be lesbian and I feel very much like I am lesbian, totally” is how I’m gonna come out from now on
I saw Allure at a film festival last month and it was intense. I’m not sure how to feel about it because, while the performances from everyone were outstanding and its definitely an intriguing story, the subject matter is…uncomfortable. (It doesn’t help that the actress portraying the young girl actually looks much younger than 16)
Dammit Netflix, why haven’t you renewed One Day at a Time yet
It’s so upsetting that they haven’t!
When I first heard the storyline for Allure I froze because it sounded _a lot_ like the story of an acquaintance of mine, minus the dark mindfuck stuff.
Also ! Some of it was filmed right in my neighbourhood ! Argh, but all I saw were star trailers, and boom operators. No need to ask.
Well, I appreciated the article revisiting Wild Things, and I did not know that important piece of Wild Things trivia.
That “Straight Women and Situational Homophobia” is transphobic and I’m disappointed it’s being linked here again. The author even doubles down on her transphobia in the comments.
*linked on this site twice, I mean – just realized this page was published first.
Oh, Wild Things. I secretly recorded that movie and watched it way too many times late at night after my parents had gone to bed. I preferred the pool kissing scene to the threesome scene, though.