Gay Matt Bomer on playing Gay Montgomery Clift: “I’m only going to be a part of it if it’s done right”
It was back in September that Deadline reported that aMontgomery Clift film project was to be directed byLarry Moss from a script byChristopher Lovick with a 2014 start date being aimed for.
Making things even more exciting is Matt Bomer being attached to star as Clift.
Bomer gave an update to Xfinity LGBT writer/editorJim Halterman during a chat on the set of White Collar.
“It’s potentially on track to be made in the way that we’d like it to be made, at the home we’d like it to be made. But I’m only going to be a part of it if it’s done right. I have too much respect for Monty and Liz [Taylor, Clift's close friend] and that whole world and that whole generation of actors…we could do it tomorrow and make some salacious version of the story and that’s not what I’m interested in.”
Clift was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1940s and 50s with lead roles in such films as A Place in the Sun, From Here to Eternity, Raintree County, I Confess, The Young Lions, Suddenly Last Summer, andJudgement at Nurenburg.
“Obviously, he was an amazing artist but it does baffle me that so few people that I speak to even know who he is,” Bomer says. “You have to list off three or four credits before eventually you get to one, they go, ‘Oh, yeah, that guy.’ I think there’s something to that. I think that’s the kind of biopic you want to make, as an actor, in a way, because if you play someone where people have too many preconceived notions about someone, then it’s a lot of pressure. If it’s not going to really pay homage to Monty, and be a project that he would appreciate, then I don’t want to do it at all.”
His career and his quality of life suffered greatly following a car crash in 1956. He had several plastic surgeries to repair his face. He used pills and alcohol increasingly after that and died in 1966 at the age of 45.
By Greg Hernandez
Okay, so he’s 67 spaces below #5 Ellen DeGeneresbut kudos to Neil Patrick Harris for making it onto the Forbes Celeb 100 which came out earlier today.
The magazine explains why he’s made the cut: The 40-year-old Tony Award winner brought in a reported $400K per episode for the last season of “How I Met Your Mother,” making him a top-earner in television. Combined with earnings for his work in the Broadway production “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” an endorsement deal with American Airlines and a book deal, the father of two raked in $18 million this year, up $3 million from 2013.
Ellen DeGeneres is #5 on Forbes Celeb 100 list
Let’s face it, there is no stopping Ellen DeGeneres.
And that’s a good thing!
Ellen climbed up five spaces from last year to reach fifth place on Forbes Magazine’s 15th Annual Celebrity 100 list.
Beyonce tops the list for the first time with last year’s leader, Oprah Winfrey, dropping to fourth.
In second-place is LeBron James followed by number three Dr. Dre.
The rest of the top 10 are:Jay z, Floyd Mayweather, Rihanna, Katy Perry andRobert Downey Jr.
Forbes describes Ellen as ‘daytime’s most likable TV personality according to industry-standard Q scores.
It points out that she managed to set two records within 24 hours this year.
First, the now-famous ‘selfie’ photo she took with a handful of A-list celebs as she hosted the Oscars became the most re-tweeted Twitter post in history — a record previously held by President Obama.
Then the live post-Oscars episode of her popular syndicated talk show the following day became the most-watched in the program’s 11 years on air.
In addition, her production company is working on pilots for the CW and NBC, and cable network HGTV will air a DeGeneres-produced design competition series next year.
Ellen is the only LGBTI person in the top 10 of a list which measures money and fame and includes estimated earnings over the last 12 months. She is estimated to have earned $70 million.
Out actor Greg Rikaart would love to have his character on “The Young and the Restless” be gay too
Greg Rikaart certainly made an impression at the Human Rights Campaign dinner in New Orleans 10 days ago where he was honored with the Visibility Award.
But he’s been making a splash for more than 10 years on The Young and the Restless as Kevin Fisher, a role that won him a Daytime Emmy in 2005.
It was a year ago that Greg came out publicly as a gay man and now his soap character is single. Could his TV alter ego also be gay?
That’s up to the writers on the CBS which has dabbled with gay characters in recent years then quickly retreated.
Rikaart……tells michaelfairmansoaps.com: ‘Frankly, I think it’s far more interesting to do that with a character that the fans already know than to bring on a gay character that no one knows of. The fans view the characters like family. So if there is a “family” member that suddenly revealed something about themselves that no one knew about before, it mirrors what happens in real life. I think the powerfulness of that message to the audience of this show would be way more profound than just introducing a new character that just happens to be gay. The audience would go on the same journey that a family member would go on.’
The actor believes that making the character gay could provide even more great drama for the show because you could portray ‘different points of view from people in Kevin’s life.’
‘Maybe there is a character that doesn’t support it, and has a tough time with it, because there will inevitably be people in the viewing audience who can relate to that character and that character could take the journey of understanding and full acceptance, and love and support. In turn, that could help someone in our audience that might need that kind of guidance.’
But Rikaart is not aware of any talks of making Kevin gay.
‘If it’s not a story they want to tell, then they are not going to tell it. I don’t think it’s the only avenue that Kevin could go down, but it certainly would be interesting … in my opinion.’
As for his own coming out, Rikaart had been out in his personal life but waited until the age of 36 to do so publicly.
He shares a little but about why.
‘I had someone who was a casting director say to me drunkenly at a party that she would never knowingly cast a gay actor in a straight role. So there is absolutely a fear for self-preservation.’
But as he became more active in LGBT causes, it became about more than career.
‘… You get to a point where you grow up and mature, and you realize that you have more confidence in what your value is, and what you bring to the table. And for me, personally, my life is about more than my job, or my career. I think being an actor and an activist are two things that are important to me, and rather than see the two of them in conflict with one another, I am going to make them work for one another. Things that I say politically, or to further the Equal Rights Movement, have more weight because of what I do professionally and what my career is. Again, rather than have those two things fight each other, I decided I wanted to have a way to have the two of them work together and so far … so good.’
He says reaction has been ‘overwhelming positive’ from Y&R fans.
‘There are a few people who would like to hide behind their religion as a veil for their bigotry. But for the most part, people are, and have been incredibly supportive. I am really glad that I did it.’
Tuesday Morning Man: Alessandro Nivola!
Okay, it is high time I just come out and admit this: I have not seen American Hustle.
There it is, out there at last.
If I had seen it, I might have been more familiar with today’s dreamy Morning ManAlessandro Nivola who had a role in the film starringChristian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams andJennifer Lawrence.
He has also had roles in Laurel Canyon (Independent Spirit Award nomination for best supporting actor), Coco Before Chanel, Junebug, Mansfield Park, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Jurassic Park 3, Best Laid Plans, Janie Jones, Five Dollars A Day, and Face/Off.
The actor has also had a successful stage career starring in the 2010 Off-Broadway revival of Sam Shepard’s A Lie Of The Mind directed by Ethan Hawke. Last year, he starred as Sir Robert Morton in the Broadway revival of The Winslow Boy and is set to return to Broadway in the fall starring opposite his American Hustle co-star Cooper in a new revival of The Elephant Man.
Alessandro, 42, is married to actress Emily Mortimer and is a graduate of Yale University.
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