Streep and Collette Make
It an All-Star Evening
Pulitzer Prize-winning gay author Michael Cunningham will reunite with Meryl Streep and Toni Collette—who starred in the screen version of his acclaimed novel The Hours—for Evening, a film based on the book by Susan Minot. Cunningham is penning the script for the film, which stars Vanessa Redgrave as a woman dying of cancer who wants to let her daughters know about the importance of her life's defining moments. The extraordinary cast also includes Patrick Wilson ( who played Angels in America's hunky gay Mormon ) , Glenn Close, Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy, as well as Redgrave and Streep's real-life respective daughters, Natasha Richardson and Mamie Gummer. Director Lajos Koltai is shooting the film in Rhode Island for Focus Features, no doubt with one eye firmly placed on the 2007 Oscar race.
Cate Blanchett Dresses Up Cancer Vixen
Marisa Acocella Marchetto's graphic memoir, Cancer Vixen: A True Story, is one of the season's hottest books, and there's already a film version in the mix. Oscar winner Cate Blanchett will play Glamour and New Yorker fashionista and cartoonist Marchetto, whose plans to marry a celebrity restauranteur were wrenched when she was diagnosed with breast cancer three weeks before the wedding. Her pals rallied and made sure she wore the most fabulous shoes possible to her chemo treatments. Given that Marchetto's support group was made up of designers, gossip columnists, and stylists, look for Cancer Vixen to bring lots of Devil Wears Prada-style gay atmosphere when the movie hits theaters next year.
Jake's Back, and Reese Has Got Him
The gay community's cards, letters, and candlelight vigils have paid off—Jake Gyllenhaal has finally committed to making a new movie. Gyllenhaal's signing to star in Rendition marks his first deal since earning an Academy Award nomination for his performance as heartsick gay rodeo cowboy Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain. Gyllenhaal will pair up with another gay fave, Reese Witherspoon, in this new thriller, about a Cairo-based CIA analyst ( Gyllenhaal ) who begins to question his life after watching the Egyptian secret police interrogate a suspect. Witherspoon plays the agent's pregnant wife in director Gavin Hood's follow-up to his Oscar-winning Tsotsi. Shooting gets rolling in November and will take place in such varied locales as L.A., Washington D.C., Morocco, and South Africa.
Brad Pitt Has 4 oz. in the Palm of His Hand
Gay writer-director-producer Ryan Murphy obviously didn't feel he was busy enough as executive producer of Nip/Tuck and working with producer Brad Pitt as the writer-director of Running with Scissors, so he's gone and come up with yet another TV series—and 4 oz. sounds like his most provocative project to date. Over the course of several seasons, the show will follow a married sportswriter as he undergoes gender transformation and becomes a woman. ( The title refers to the approximate weight of a penis, from which the lead character will eventually separate himself. ) Murphy will executive produce alongside Pitt, who makes his first foray into series television. The show will also focus on the sportswriter's conflicted teen sons. No airdate has yet been set for the FX series, which promises to be fictional TV's most daring exploration of gender to date.
Romeo San Vicente doesn't want anyone nipping or tucking at any part of him. He can be reached care of this publication or at DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com .
