Bi Focus
Brand new on PlanetOut!
News, views, and a little bit of dish! Tune in each month as Michael
Szymanski looks at movies, TV, stage, music, and books from a bi
perspective.
It's been a banner year for bisexuals in film. Oh, no one actually said
the B-word in 1999 -- scriptwriters still seem hesitant to type out the
word -- but the idea that folks can have an interest in both sexes is
sneaking into our entertainment.
Fear of actually using the B-word in entertainment is going to change,
according to a psychic friend of mine who says that the year 2000 will
make the world consciousness more aware of duality. (It's because of the
2, you see.) In the meantime, bisexuality actually did make an
appearance in many mainstream movies in 1999 (as well as music, TV, and
theater) -- all you have to do is take a closer look.
Most recently, Matthew Perry's girlfriend matter-of-factly mentioned her
girl-girl past in Three to Tango. The playwright played by Hank Azaria
in Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock is based on a real-life bi guy
Marc Blitzstein. The Cameron Diaz character in Being John Malkovich
turns out to like women as well as men, and in Dogma the ultra-cool
skirt-chasing Jason Mewes just shrugs his shoulders and smirks when he's
outed as thinking about guys while he's jacking off.
Characters coming into contact with their bi sides were also explored in
Happy, Texas, Breakfast of Champions, The Fight Club,
The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, Cruel Intentions,
and the Oscar-contender Boys Don't Cry, in which a girl who does
some gender mind-fucking makes characters analyze their own definition of
sexuality.
Maybe all of this is a reflection of the unpredictable times we
live in. Who'd have thought that once-queer cinema darling Gregg Araki
would move in with a girl and cast her in his most accessible film
to date: Splendor, about two guys and a girl all in love with each other
in a perfect (well, not always perfect) three-way relationship. Young
characters whose sexuality is best defined as "whatever" showed up this
year in lots of hip small youth-oriented films like
Relax, It's Just Sex, The Imposters, Totally Confused,
200 Cigarettes, Jeanne and the Perfect Guy, Dry Cleaning,
Go, and The Velocity of Gary.
Even in the period film Plunkett and MacLeane, there's a line
about swinging both ways. And, Steve Martin insists it's not true, but it
seems that when the leading sexpot female in his film Bowfinger
starts dating Hollywood's best-known lesbian in order to get ahead in her
career, it's a not-so-vague reference to Steve's bi ex-girlfriend Anne Heche.
Perhaps the best bi movie of the year was The Sticky Fingers of
Time, a sci-fi-bi time travel film by bisexual filmmaker Hilary
Brougher. Everyone in it is cool, free, good-looking, bi -- oh, and a
killer, too.
On television, more bi characters joined Detective Bayliss on
Homicide. Neve Campbell's character on Party of Five went in a bi
direction, and so did characters on Dawson's Creek, Roswell,
and Will and Grace.
In theater, Cabaret remained the big hit on Broadway, and it's more bi
than the movie was. Shooting Porn, Chain of Desire,
Labor Pains, Close to Glenn and Burning Habits
all premiered with bi themes.
In music there have always been bi folk: George Michael, Tom Robbinson,
Mick Jagger, Prince, Ani DiFranco, Melissa Etheridge, Elton John, Boy George,
David Bowie, Liberace and even John Lennon who warned, "lock up your
daughters -- and sons" when he was around.
Biographies emphasized the bi in 1999. Vincent Price's daughter
outed her father and her stepmother as bisexuals, Noel Coward's plays
were analyzed as a reflection of his bi life, the Judy Garland bio devoted
two pages to her bisexualilty and Rudolf Nureyev's dalliances
with both genders were detailed in his latest biography -- including an
affair with Robert Kennedy.
Larry Kramer gave a speech describing an affair between Abraham Lincoln
and a shopkeeper named Joshua Speed, private letters were published about
the male and female lovers of surrealist artist Salvador Dali and
Shakespeare in Love director John Madden declared that the Bard of
Avon was "at the very least bisexual."
Novelist and lesbian poet Jan Clausen confirmed she unexpectedly fell in
love with a man. Many of singer Dusty Springfield's obits mentioned her
bisexuality, and Playgirl Man of the Year Brian Buzzini was rumored to
be bisexual. Marv Albert wants to have sex with a man and woman together
reported the Village Voice; according to the tabloids, Jean-Claude
Van Damme's wife says in divorce papers that he fools around with guys;
and Robert Downey, Jr. talked about fooling around with men.
Andy Dick, Michael Stipe, Courtney Love, Drew Barrymore, Ally Sheedy,
Stephen Sondheim, and publisher Jann Wenner all talked more about their
bisexual leanings in interviews this past year. Jason Flemyng (Lock,
Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and The Red Violin) talked about being
interested in both sexes, and John Wesley Shipp is said to have dumped
Rod Jackson (of Bob and Rod fame) for a fling with an actress.
And just recently the actress behind Will and Grace supervixen Karen,
the lovely Megan Mullally, told The Advocate that she's bisexual.
And, the whole cast just announced they are doing an unprecedented political
spot for the anti-gay Knight Initiative in California.
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