James Franco Not Afraid to Play Gay Twice

And why should he be?

Although NYDN's Rush & Molloy seem to think there are some "wicked" rumors going around about James Franco on the web that should make him concerned about playing gay on film again, Franco will do it again anyway, they say:

"But at a time when Hollywood still seems to like its heroic gay characters played by straight men, Franco isn't bothered by perceptions. Back-to-back gay roles 'don't make any difference to me,' he told us at Monday's Cinema Society screening of 'Milk.' 'Ginsberg has been one of my heroes, and this movie' - about the 1957 obscenity trial over Ginsberg's most famous poem - 'is just so important.' Never mind that Franco doesn't look much like the tubby, balding, bearded Ginsberg of the hippie era. 'I'm playing him when he was in his late 20s, just after he went to Columbia,' said Franco, who happens to be a student at the same university. (The girls moon over him in Butler Library.) 'We work with the old pictures. He has hair, he doesn't have a beard and he's not huge.'"

(image from GQ's "Men of the Year" portfolio)

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News: Ryan Seacrest, Howl, Ang Lee, Jay Brannan, The Cock

UK teen fights for his life after anti-gay attack: "Michael Causer, 19, was battered on Friday morning in Tarbock Road, Huyton, as he walked home after a night out. Today police described the attack as a hate crime. Locals said Mr Causer was never involved in trouble or fighting. One friend told the ECHO: 'Michael is just a tiny lad really. He’s not very big at all. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’s a little sweetheart. I can’t believe this has happened to him. Everybody’s thoughts are with his family. I can’t believe Michael has been attacked because of his sexuality. It’s disgusting.' Friends said Mr Causer lived with his parents in Whiston and has two sisters and an older brother. Residents said he was delighted after getting a job at a hairdressing salon."

Ryan Seacrest attacked by a shark!

Ang Lee holds open casting call for Elliott Tiber film in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Those of you attending Stockholm EuroPride in Sweden may want to check out this concert on August 1 conducted by New York's Jonathan Sheffer with several guest opera singers. We hear John Cameron Mitchell is also in town for a performance of Hedwig Wednesday night.

U.S. Olympic team's Ralph Lauren outfits on display.

Harsh lighting does not suit Daniel Craig.

WordPerfect creator Bruce Bastian writes $1 million check to fight Proposition 8 at San Francisco HRC dinner: "Supporters of the effort to ban same-sex marriage already have taken in more than $1.2 million from out-of-state contributors for the fall campaign. And even before Bastian, a co-founder of the WordPerfect software company, opened his checkbook, gay and lesbian rights groups and their supporters from around the country had put more than $1.3 million into the fight against the ballot initiative."

A Mexican man's journey to see Jay Brannan.

Colorado bans WTF license plate: "Other combinations banned by the state include KKK, ASS, HEL, FAG, COP, FBI, GAY, JEW, JAP, WOP and CAT."

Samantha Ronson and Lindsay Lohan love The Cock.

Obama supporter's car keyed: "The words 'white power' and 'I'm gay' were etched into the car of Karen Wastradowski last Saturday. Wastradowski had left her car in the driveway of her home when the vandals struck. She filed a report with Vancouver police. Wastradowski said a blue "Elect Obama" sign in her yard could have caused the crime."

Howl: James Franco to play beat poet Allen Ginsburg. “I’ve certainly read ‘Howl.’ I was very into the beatniks when I was in high school, and I still am. So I certainly have read Howl many times.”

Shia LaBeouf's pre-DUI arrest confession: "It’s not something that is conducive to being a role model. … And I don’t know how to do it like a gentleman. I don’t know how to have one drink."

AfterElton calls out science fiction author Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game) for a homophobic essay in the Mormon Times: "In this essay alone, he calls us liars, says that we have 'sex-role dysfunctions,' and that we’re 'tragic genetic mix-ups' (even as he indicates elsewhere in the essay that humans have an absolutely unalterable 'long mammalian tradition of heterosexuality'). Previously, in a long history of anti-gay screeds, Card has said he supports anti-sodomy laws that would criminalize same-sex behavior (though he grants that we shouldn't all be thrown in prison and labeled sex offenders — just enough of us to set an example so that we all go into hiding, living lonely, miserable, fearful lives)."

Show us the proof.

Mario Lopez named host of Extra.

Canadian court claims Nigerian asylum seeker "cooked up" story that he's gay to obtain refugee status: "According to court documents, the man mixed up the names of gay bars he claimed to frequent in Winnipeg, called no witnesses to support his claim, and although he joined the gay lobby group EGALE, he could not describe that organization's function and was therefore accused by the board of only joining up to bolster his claim."

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Todd Haynes' Dylan Biopic I'm Not There Stirs Up Buzz

Over the last day or so the internet has been abuzz about Cate Blanchett's portrayal of Bob Dylan in gay filmmaker Todd Haynes' (Far from Heaven, Velvet Goldmine, Poison) upcoming experimental biopic I'm Not There.

As a Haynes fan I'm really looking forward to this film, not only for Blanchett, who features prominently in a scene leaked yesterday in which Dylan converses with beat poet Allen Ginsburg (played by David Cross), but for the unusual approach Haynes has taken, enlisting five additional actors who also play Dylan at various stages of his life.

Haynes is at ease with experimentation (his breakthrough film, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, was a biopic of the singer's life made entirely with Barbie Dolls) and has proven he can do Oscar-caliber drama, so hopefully I'm Not There will be a treat.

Each actor's portrayal, at different stages of Dylan's growth, is shot in a different style meant to showcase various moments on the folk singer-turned-rock star's journey.

Harvey Weinstein told the New York Times on Tuesday that the film is being given a "rolling release": "With a movie like this you have to build it. I don’t think you can go out on 500 screens. The reason for Film Forum is you go where the best word of mouth is on the movie. I like the movie; I think it’s adventurous. The audience is going to have to work — work in a good way."

He also singles out one actor: "I may be jumping the gun, but if Cate Blanchett doesn’t get nominated, I’ll shoot myself."

And here's the leaked scene with Allen Ginsburg:

The film is the first biopic on the legendary folk icon to get the approval of Dylan himself.

Here's Ledger as the singer (his wife Michelle Williams also has a role):

Shots of the other four actors — Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin, and Ben Whishaw, after the jump...

I'm Not There is out in New York and L.A. on November 21st.

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