Bernhard and Cumming accept ‘Dare’

Sandra Bernhard

It’s great that young performers seem to be coming out of the closet right and left these days.

But there’s still something to be said for those pioneers who were in your face about their sexuality back when it was an even scarier career prospect for a working actor.

So cheers to the divinely decadent Sandra Bernhard and Alan Cumming, both of whom are slotted to appear opposite Emmy Rossum in “Dare.”

Rossum, Zach Gilford (“Friday Night Lights”) and Ashley Springer (“Teeth”) play three high school senior best friends who embark upon the biggest risk of their lives. It can safely be assumed that it’s not toilet-papering someone’s house.

The film also stars Cady Huffman and “SNL” vet Ana Gasteyer, and it will “Dare” to be seen onscreen in 2009.


Williams ready for his close-up
Gay authors like Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf and Truman Capote have all been the focal points of movies in recent years, and now it’s time for legendary American playwright Tennessee Williams to shine.

The gay genius behind such 20th Century masterpieces as “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “The Glass Menagerie” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is the subject of “Tenn,” an upcoming biopic from director Taylor Hackford (“Ray,” “An Officer and a Gentleman”).

“Tenn” will examine Williams’ dysfunctional family life and how the painful incidents of his early years were reflected in his powerful dramas.

No one has yet been cast in the title role, but given the Oscars won in recent years by the stars of “Capote” and “Ray,” not to mention the chance to play a tormented gay alcoholic creative genius, expect Hollywood A-listers to clamor for the part.


Will a Sondheim ‘Bounce’ to success?
You just can’t keep a good show down.

“Bounce,” the latest creation from musical theater deity Stephen Sondheim, got mixed reviews in its out-of-town openings a few years back and never managed to make it to Broadway.

But now it looks like the show, which features a gay lead character and Sondheim’s first man-to-man love song, will finally make it to the Great White Way under a new name.

“Road Show,” about real-life brothers (and con artists) Wilson and Addison Mizner, is set to begin previews in New York in October, with Michael Cerveris (who took over for John Cameron Mitchell in the original stage production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”) and Alexander Gemignani in the lead roles.

The Mizners would no doubt admire Sondheim’s tenacity. Hopefully, audiences will, too.


Thomas Jane Is ‘Hung’
If gay men loved “Sex and the City,” a comedy about four fashionable female friends and their search for the perfect man, they’re really going to get enthusiastic about “Hung,” which follows a middle-aged high school basketball coach who decides to capitalize on a specific physical situation he, well … .

Look, the show’s called “Hung,” people, you figure it out.

HBO has announced that the exceedingly hunky Thomas Jane (“The Punisher”) will fill the shorts of the leading character in an hour-long pilot.

We reported previously on the directorial involvement of the very cool, very funny Alexander Payne (“Sideways”), so Jane’s casting just made some good news better. And since Jane also appeared in “Boogie Nights,” it can be assumed the he knows as much about endowments as the MacArthur Foundation.

Can a cable series be built around what a man is sporting between his legs? Well, stay tuned and find out.



These articles appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition August 22, 2008.