Aquatic athletes are as revered in Australia as NFL stars are in the United States, so the news that Matthew Mitcham is gay made headlines throughout Australia. It was The Sydney Morning Herald that broke the story; in the course of profiling the diver as part of its Olympics coverage, a reporter from the paper asked Mitcham whom he lived with.
“I hadn’t planned to do it at all,” Mitcham says today. “It was just a question” — which he answered by saying he lived with his partner of two years, Lachlan — “and it went from there.”
One might think that the fuss would have bothered his fellow divers, but they’re nonchalant about his sexual orientation. “They don’t seem to mind that I’m a big homo,” says Mitcham, who trains six hours a day at the New South Wales Institute of Sport, a facility for elite athletes in 31 sports at Sydney’s Olympic Park. “I make jokes about it all the time. I haven’t made an issue of it, so they just reciprocate that attitude.” Plus, he says, because of its artistry and grace, diving is “such an easy sport to be out in — much easier than football, where you have to be rugged and strong and masculine.”
Mitcham is so focused on Beijing that he hasn’t been out with friends for more than a year and a half. And now that he’s won his ticket to China, he’ll be cheered poolside by Lachlan, courtesy of a $5,000 travel grant from Johnson & Johnson’s Athlete Family Support Program (no, there wasn’t an outcry, as you might expect in the States). His mom may be there too, thanks to some Sydney gay men and lesbians who offered to cover her expenses. “I’m very proud to be part of the gay community,” he says.
Well done Matthew! I am so pleased that in Australia Johnson and Johnson supported Matthew (without any drama) and so proud of Sydneys’ Gay and Lesbian community for sending over mum too! I am supposed to be supporting England but with my dual nationality, I will be supporting you mate.
A new gay version of the Evelyn Waugh novel Brideshead Revisited is set to open in limited release this week.
Set in England at the dawn of the Second World War, the film circles around Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode), a young middle class painter who befriends the charmingly quirky Lord Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw) during their tenure at Oxford. The writers of the film make Sebastian’s interest in Charles overtly sexual, whereas the novel left their “man-love” completely ambiguous. Nevertheless, their budding friendship is challenged once Sebastian brings Charles home to his sprawling estate at Brideshead, where Charles meets the devout Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson), an expert in Catholic guilt, and Sebastian’s jaded sister Julia (Hayley Atwell). Drawn both to Julia and to the luxury of Brideshead, Charles’ desire to become closer to the family only distances him from Sebastian, who in Charles saw an escape from the oppressive Catholic lifestyle Lady Marchmain demands. As Charles’ decisions send Sebastian into an alcoholic tailspin, he learns just how deep Lady Marchmain’s hold over her children runs.
Brideshead Revisited, according to The Telegraph, “a new film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited will out Sebastian Flyte as a homosexual and even feature a gay kiss between him and Charles. In one controversial scene in the new £10 million film, which has its world premiere in New York on Tuesday, a love struck Sebastian attempts to kiss Charles on the mouth before his amorous advances are resisted.
The scene has been welcomed by some gay rights campaigners who have already dubbed the film ‘the most overtly’ gay Brideshead ever. But it is set to infuriate purists who insist that the relationship between the two friends has been distorted. Brideshead Revisited tells the story of Charles Ryder and his infatuation with Lord Sebastian Flyte, his aristocratic family and their ancestral home, Brideshead. The two men meet while students at Oxford and Ryder finds Flyte’s decadence and loucheness irresistible.
Although fans of the novel and the 1981 Granada television adaptation which starred Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews have debated the nature of the relationship between the two friends neither the book, which appeared in 1945, or the TV adaptation carry any overt references to homosexual feelings.”
Said screenwriter Andrew Davies: “I think it will probably upset the purists. But one thing we wanted to make clear was that Sebastian was gay and that Charles although terribly fond of him is heading in another direction sexually. Waugh had a very skilful way of skating over the sordid details so we can imagine what we like about them. This ambivalence was probably the result of his own sexual ambivalence.”
Sebastian is played by Ben Whishaw, and Charles by Matthew Goode. Below, Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews in the PBS series which transfixed viewers in 1981.
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Written by TechStickle on July 23rd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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David an I have booked to see Josh “I have the deepest voice in the world” Harnett appearing in London’s West End in new stage version of the 1988 Oscar-winning film “Rain Man”. The show commences at the Apollo Theatre Aug 28 (prior to an official opening Sept 9th)
Sexy Josh Hartnett will play Charlie Babbitt (originally played on screen by Tom Cruise) with British actor Adam Godley as his autistic savant older brother Raymond (originally played by Dustin Hoffman, who won the Best Actor in a Leading Role award).
Other Hollywood stars to appear on the London stage include Nicole Kidman - who caused a stir when she appeared naked in ‘The Blue Room’ - Christian Slater, who enjoyed three stints as R.P. McMurphy in ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’, and Ashlee Simpson, who wowed critics with her performance in ‘Chicago’.
Josh’ bio goes like this:-
Hartnett was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on July 21, 1978. Following his high school graduation, he attended New York’s SUNY-Purchase, but his time there ended after he was offered a role on the short-lived TV series Cracker. He also did a number of TV commercials and plays, and in 1998 he got his screen break with the plum role of Jamie Lee Curtis’ son in Halloween: H20. Although the film received poor reviews, it did moderately well at the box office, and that same year Harnett’s profile further increased when he starred in The Faculty.
One of a number of films to exploit the current trend in teen horror movies, it featured Hartnett fighting off alien teachers alongside the likes of fellow up-and-comers Elijah Wood and Shawn Hatosy. Although the film didn’t do as well as expected, thanks in part to the fact that the teen horror craze was beginning to lose steam, it in no way interfered with the increasing number of opportunities available to the young actor.
Hartnett could subsequently be seen in a number of diverse films; among his projects in 2000 alone, he played an Iago-like character in O, the teen re-telling of Othello; the son of Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton in the comedy-drama Town and Country; and the paramour of the eldest of the ill-fated Lisbon sisters in Sofia Coppola’s adaptation of The Virgin Suicides.
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Marat Safin blasted past Feliciano Lopez to reach his first Wimbledon semi-final at the ninth attempt and make a mockery of his slow slide down the rankings to his current world number 75. Feliciano Lopez looks better naked though.
Marat Safin is not bad though!
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AfterElton.com gay mens reader’s hot 100 list vote Van Hansis as Number Seven
A newcomer to the Hot 100 this year, 26-year-old actor Van Hansis crashed into the top ten without mussing a single hair on his adorable head. Known to audiences worldwide for playing gay teen Luke Snyder on As the World Turns, Van holds the distinction of being one half of the first gay kiss in the history of daytime television. But those who have followed his character’s story from the beginning know that he’s more than just a sensational smooch.
A subtle actor with a great deal of nuance for his age (not to mention the ability to navigate the oft-absurd waters of soaps with impressive ease), Van grew up in a household with no television (he has called his upbringing “nearly Amish”) but is adapting to big city life and stardom like a pro.
His place at the top of the list is a testament to gay viewers’ investment in his character’s story and in his skill in connecting with his audience, and we look forward to what this role and future projects have in store for him. Wait, did we mention that he’s adorable? Yes? Okay, never mind.
When he learned that he made the list, Van said, “Yessss! I’ve never been on a hot people list before, so it’s really exciting … I’m thrilled that so many people have responded so well to Luke and Noah’s story. Thank you! I’m thrilled to be a part of [After Eltons] list.”
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Here comes the bride, da da da da. And, Oh look! Here comes the other bride! It’s true, Ellen and Portia plan on making it official. Taking advantage of the new CA ruling overturning the ban on gay marriage, Ellen announced to the audience of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” that she was engaged.
After a long ovation she joked, “Thank you. I’ll tell you who the lucky guy is soon.”
Celebrities are speaking out on the decision by the California Supreme Court to overturn the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.
Ellen Degeneres: “I’m thrilled that the California supreme court overturned the ban on gay marriage. I can’t wait to get married. We all deserve the same rights, and I believe that someday we’ll look back on this and not allowing gays to marry will seem as absurd as not allowing women to vote. P.S. I’m registered at Crate & Barrel.”
T.R. Knight: “Our ‘certain inalienable rights’ are protected today. It makes me proud to live in a country that works to correct its sins.”
Melissa Etheridge: “I feel they have made an honest woman of me. What a wonderful blessing for us and the gay community. We’re moving forward. It makes me feel happy for the whole human race that we are finally getting out of our differences and coming together and we are putting this all behind us.”
Chad Allen: “I have to say I was completely shocked at the level of emotion of my own reaction. It’s not that I didn’t care, it’s just that I didn’t know that I cared that much… I’m thinking about getting married. I am in love with my partner, deeply madly in love with him, and though I am not ready to propose yet, it is in there.”
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Rising star-to-be Ben Barnes appears in The Chronicles Of Narnia. Ben played the part of Dakin in The History Boys in 2005. Here he is chatting up Orlando Wells’s Irwin (asking for a blow job I recall).
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The Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London is to ‘tie the knot’ with his boyfriend.
Brian Paddick told the Pink Paper of his civil partnership plans in an interview published yesterday.
The 49-year-old was until May last year the most senior out gay policeman in the country in his former role as Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan police.
His boyfriend, Petter Belsvik, 36, is originally from Norway. The couple live in Vauxhall, south London.
Asked if he was planning a civil partnership, Mr Paddick replied:
“Yes, we are – that’s an exclusive!
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Jonathan Rhys Meyers here naked, is currently starring in the Showtime series The Tudors (2007) as young King Henry VIII. He was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Drama in 2007 for the role.
Here Jonathan Rhys Meyers Naked
and Jonathan Rhys Meyers Naked here again
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Dieux Du Stade Calendar 2008
The 2008 Calendar of your favourite rugby team: Dieux Du Stade (Gods Of The Stadium), the French Rugby Champion team from Paris, France has arrived!
