Bi Focus
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.
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It was flat-out the most openly bisexual Oscar show ever. I've covered
the backstage of the Academy Awards for more than a dozen years
and continue to be amazed at the homo-fication of Hollywood -- the
portrayals of gay characters winning Oscars, the occasional "thank-yous"
to same-sex partners (most in the non-acting awards), the continual
hiring of
openly gay comic Bruce Vilanch as the writer of the show (he always
sneaks in a homo-friendly zinger), and the year Elton John won
for music (The Lion King) and declared backstage, "Gosh, isn't
there a gay character in every Disney movie? Just
look at them closely!"
But this year, it was bisexuality that reigned at the Academy Awards.
At least 10 of the movies nominated in the various categories had some
element of bisexuality, especially all the big winners: American
Beauty
(five wins) had the next-door-neighbor father with the big secret;
The
Matrix (four wins) had a subtle subplot (that ended up getting
emasculated
in the final cut) between two women who were more than just friends and
liked men, too; and Topsy-Turvy
(two wins) had bisexual women and cross-dressing men.
Other nominated films with bi elements included Election,
Being John
Malkovich, The Talented Mr.
Ripley, All About My
Mother, Boys Don't Cry, Girl, Interrupted, and Magnolia (this was subtle,
but notice the
sidelong glances many of the same-sex characters have with each other.
And
Tom Cruise's character was supposed to have a scene with the Mark
Wahlberg character from Boogie Nights.)
Chloe and Kimberly
I was lucky enough to chat with some of the openly bisexual actors at
the
Oscars. I talked to Chloe Sevigny the day she came out in the New
York Times as saying, "I've questioned issues of gender and
sexuality since I was a teenager, and I did some experimenting."
Nominated for her bisexual role in Boys Don't Cry, Chloe told me she
had to take a deep breath when she revealed that to the world. "I don't
know, when I was a teen I was a bit confused I thought maybe I
was [bisexual]," said the 25-year-old. "I love women -- they're
beautiful. What more can I say?"
She loves men, too, and is attached to one right now. She found her
relationships with women rather complicated. "I always ended up getting
involved with my close girlfriends, and that was really bad," she told
me.
Boys Don't Cry director Kimberly Peirce, delighted about Hilary
Swank's Best Actress win for the transgender role of Brandon Teena, said
she was equally proud of Chloe's admission of her past bisexuality.
"For her to say that in the New York Times is beautiful. And
she's not going to get bashed for it; she's probably not going to get
denied work for it. And that to me on a cultural level is a good thing,"
said Peirce, who
wears a shock of blue hair among her brown." As a young actress, she
doesn't think it's going to jeopardize her career. That, to me, is
progress. She feels the freedom as an actress to say that; she's not a
person who will play those games too much. I see it as a wave of
change."
For herself, Peirce says, "I think desire is a fluid thing, and we all
have complicated desires. I do believe we're in an era where you
see it all around you and it's more OK. But it's not totally OK, because
look
what happened to Brandon."
Then Peirce made her own admission about her next secretive directorial
Project. "Everyone can be queer. I think everything is gay, bi, lesbian
-- especially in this generation coming of age. And there will be
something like that in everything I work on."
Angelina
Of course, my dream interview was with Angelina Jolie, whom I spoke to
just
after her Best Actress win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, only a
week
before she took home an Oscar. I asked her about that sexy kiss between
her
and Winona Ryder in Girl, Interrupted and she said it was done
for shock value, not to be sexy.
She agreed that the younger generation is more fluid with its sexuality,
but she also issued a warning. "I think it could be a bad thing to
experiment too much," she reflected. "I think it would be a cool thing
to be dedicated to a man, and be married to a man who loved me and I
loved him, but it's not always ideal."
She pointed out that bisexuality doesn't mean promiscuity. "I've only
been with a few people in my life, maybe a handful. I don't know if
that's
experimental, really."
The bottom line is that Angelina reflects Ricky Martin's feelings about
sexuality. "It should be more than just a man or a woman. It shouldn't
matter
what anyone looks like, or anything physical about them. It should be
who
they are."
As if to emphasize that, she said, as she accepted her prized Oscar, "I
love everybody. I find everbody attractive. I'm fascinated by people."
Go Angelina!
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