Berlanti Rewarded as GLAAD Releases LGBT Network Report

Yesterday, GLAAD released its second annual Network Responsibility Index which evaluates the quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people on television.

According to GLAAD, "For the second year in a row, ABC led the broadcast networks in LGBT-inclusive content. Of its 1,150 total hours of primetime programming, 280.5 hours (24%) included LGBT impressions and 11% were transgender-inclusive, making ABC the most fair, accurate and inclusive of the five broadcast networks."

Following in the rankings were The CW (with 139.5 (21%) LGBT-inclusive hours), CBS (with 103.5 hours (9%) of LGBT-inclusive content), NBC (71.5 hours (6%) of LGBT-inclusive content), and finally FOX (with only 33.5 (4%) LGBT-inclusive hours).

FX led the cable networks. More here.

Coincidentally, ABC announced yesterday that Greg Berlanti (pictured), who produces the uber-gay Brothers and Sisters as well as Dirty Sexy Money featuring trans actress Candis Cayne, and Eli Stone, has signed a new "megadeal" with the network:

"The five-year pact -- said to be top-of-the-market, well into eight figures and featuring a large overhead component -- keeps Berlanti at ABC Studios."

Michael Jensen of AfterElton asked Fox's Entertainment President Kevin Reilly about Fox's poor ranking in the index yesterday at the (Television Critics Association)TCA press tour. Said Reilly: "I haven't had the chance to put any of the product on the air. I can say we've got several shows now moving forward with gay characters in them. I think our score ... I think our ... the scores get affected by what's ... sometimes you've actually got great representation and then for commercial or creative reasons something gets canceled and your numbers go down. That's something we're really committed to. In fact, right now were in production on a pilot called Virtuality that Ron Moore and Michael Taylor created and Peter Berg is directing. It's got a gay relationship that is as dimensional and honest as anything I've ever seen portrayed on television right now. If we move forward on that I think that is something to really note."

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Greg Berlanti to Helm Green Lantern Movie

Gay writer/director Greg Berlanti (Everwood, Broken Hearts Club) has signed on to co-write and direct a live-action feature film adaptation of DC Comics' superhero comic Green Lantern.

According to SciFi.com, "The first incarnation was radio engineer Alan Scott, who was the Green Lantern during the Golden Age of Comics. Alan Scott found that, because he was holding a mysterious green lantern, he was the only survivor of a horrible accident involving a train and an exploding bridge. This lantern and ring were powered by the mysterious 'Green Flame', whose origins were linked to a space meteor that fell to earth in ancient China." The Hollywood Reporter notes that "The biggest challenge in setting up 'Lantern' was waiting for the technology to become available to create fantastical worlds as well as overcoming the prejudice of a ring-bearing hero."

Berlanti told the Reporter: "To me, this was on the last great comic book movie that hasn't been made. It was a comic book with a real mythology that you would see in a lot of the space operas and the sci-fi books. The best part about it, anybody can be become one of the Green Lanterns because anyone can end up with that ring. The danger and the fear from a lot of people is that it would be silly. In these post-'Harry Potter' and 'Lord of the Rings' days, it's not any more fantastical than that. It's taken movies like that to make it feel as if a Green Lantern film is possible."

Incidentally, in 2002 Green Lantern became the first major comic series to introduce a storyline based around an anti-gay hate crime.

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