Could TV be more exciting right now? We keep hearing about the death of television, but like the much-touted death of print media and death of books, we have to paraphrase Mark Twain: "great exaggeration." But let's begin with the news. A few items caught our eye this week: ABC's Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz is currently somewhere in the Ukraine. She reported from there on May 1, where she was covering the story of American soldiers training Ukrainian soldiers. Yes. We are doing that there, now. Just a little tidbit, because we do not remember hearing that this was happening. We're pretty sure you missed it, too. Our soldiers are now in the Ukraine. "Hundreds," according to Raddatz.
Then there was this: James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, in a letter to Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss dated April 18, requested that the Senate remove a provision from an intelligence bill that would have required President Obama to publicly disclose information about drone strikes and their victims. This revelation, reported on April 30 in the [UK] Guardian, followed a series of drone strikes in Yemen that have killed more than 50 civilians in the past few weeks. The bill, which authorizes intelligence operations for fiscal 2014, originally required the president to issue an annual public report clarifying the total number of "combatants" and "noncombatant civilians" killed or injured by drone strikes in the previous year. It did not require the White House to disclose the total number of strikes worldwide.
The next bit of news is far more uplifting. On May 1, Judge Mary Yu became the first Latina/Asian/Catholic/lesbian on the Washington State Supreme Court, or in the country. We thought this was thrilling news. And since it didn't actually make the TV news, just like that elision from the intelligence bill, we thought we'd let you know.
Not so uplifting was Glenn Beck's latest. (Yes, he's still around.) We didn't think there was a Tea Party comment this week to top Sarah Palin's speech to the NRA that she'd be waterboarding terrorists, and anyone who objected were "overly sensitive wusses." But then Glenn Beck said, "I'm telling you, Hillary Clinton will be having sex with a woman on the White House desk if it becomes popular." Beck also said, "Hillary came out last year? I didn't think that was official." In 2013, Bryan Fischer of the anti-gay American Family Association told Fox News that Hillary Clinton would be the nation's "first lesbian president." And that's the news you're not seeing.
We always have our fave queer moment of the week on the tube, and this week it was Ellen's interview on her show with GMA anchor and former ESPN sportscaster Robin Roberts. We won't reiterate how many years we have said in the column, "Please, Robin, just come out. Make it safer for young black lesbians from super-religious families like yours all over America." So we were among the first to congratulate her here when she finally did come out back on New Year's. Roberts' lesbianism was the worst-kept secret since Rosie O'Donnell's had been.
There was something about seeing the two butch lesbian divas of daytime together on Ellen's show that just warmed our queer heart. Ellen, now 56, was the first TV star to come out publically, which she did in 1997 on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Time magazine featured her on its cover, and she also came out on her sitcom in a hilarious airport scene with Laura Dern. Roberts is 53, and spent much of her interview time with Ellen talking about her experience of coming out and her partner, San Franciscan Amber Laign. Roberts told Ellen, "We met on a blind date, it will be nine years in July."
Roberts said Laign was always by her side after Roberts was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome in 2012 and underwent a bone marrow transplant. The syndrome is sometimes a result of chemotherapeutic treatments. Roberts had undergone chemotherapy and radiation when she was treated for breast cancer in 2007. After Roberts announced that she would be having a bone marrow transplant in June 2012, she said she had gone public with her illness to draw attention to the huge need for bone marrow donors nationwide, particularly for people of color. Be the Match Registry, run by the National Marrow Donor Program, experienced a 1,800% spike in donors.
Ellen noted of Laign, "You talk about her a lot in the book. And yet she was living like a quiet kind of closed life."
Roberts explained, "Well, because she doesn't really like the spotlight. She's here right now, I can't even get her to come out." Huge laughter and applause from the audience, to which Ellen responded, "Well she came out, but anyway, it's too late for that now!"
Roberts is not oblivious to the need for public figures to come out, her long closeting notwithstanding. She thanked Ellen for being a "trailblazer" who "paved the way" for others to come out. "You have helped a lot of people like myself to have that discussion with their families because you are so well respected and loved. It's really helped a lot of us, and I thank you for that." How could we not love that interview? We're a little verklempt just writing about it.
Glee club
We were also a bit verklempt watching last week's episode of Glee. How is it this show continues to manipulate us so shamelessly after all this time? Are we still so easily moved just by seeing gay characters on TV? In a word, yes. We admit, we've never been a huge fan of Blaine (Darren Criss). We wanted Kurt (Chris Colfer) to have a real boyfriend and true love, but we just never really warmed to Blaine. Was it the eyebrows?
But we've been converted. Blaine's concern for Kurt's feelings as June Dalloway (Shirley MacLaine) takes him under her wing really moved us. (Of course June clearly has more than just a mentoring interest in Blaine, but that's another part of the story.) When Blaine is getting ready to meet June for an event, he says to Kurt, "Maybe I should just stay home with you and watch Scandal." Perfect.
The recent episodes of Glee remind us why we fell in love with this show in the first place. It's not just the gayness that infuses the entire production, it's not just out gay actors like Colfer and Jane Lynch (Sue), it's not just gay showrunner Ryan Murphy, it's where Glee takes us: back to the high school years we wish we could have had if there were that kind of love for LGBT high school kids in real life.
And the show hasn't ceased to raise real issues. Rachel (Lea Michelle) has finally made it big. Yet she still faces the same kind of problems she faced in high school, notably, she's not classically pretty. Her neck is thick, her nose is big. So when she was told, "You have a face for radio," we felt the dagger to the heart. We had heard her sing "Who Are You Now" and wept through the whole thing, it was that poignant a rendering of the Streisand classic. But as ever, her friends gathered around her, supportive and caring.
Back to MacLaine for a minute. We've always been a fan of the outspoken, left-leaning, funny MacLaine. She has a special place in our hearts because of her role as the lesbian Martha in The Children's Hour, which we watched illicitly on the late TV movie in our junior high years. We have loved her on Downton Abbey as the American parvenu counterpoint to Dame Maggie Smith. The Oscar-winning actress is 80. She was never a great singer, Irma La Duce and Sweet Charity notwithstanding, but she can belt out a tune. Not so much belting now, but her duet with Criss covering Janis Joplin's iconic "Piece of My Heart" was pure magic, and we fell in love with her again.
In a TVLine interview, MacLaine said, in talking about June, "Well, she only wants [Blaine] to be the star, and the man that he's in love with, Kurt, Blaine wants him to be part of what June is doing. And I was very interested in the genderfication of the set. You don't know who's gay, who's straight, who's transitioning, all this wonderful stuff that the young people are experimenting with. It's terrific. Oh my God, I love that I'm doing that." So do we.
You now have the summer to catch up on that other fabulous Fox series, gay showrunner Kevin Williamson's The Following. Oh the homoeroticism. Season two's finale was April 28, so you can binge-watch between now and September, when season three begins. But before the season finale of Fox's long-time hit Bones, a little controversy will no doubt be flaring on social media. The May 12 episode will be devoted to drag. And in case you hadn't heard, drag is declasse. (Although there didn't seem to be much drama over Modern Family taking on drag a few weeks ago.) RuPaul is still feeling the heat.
Meanwhile, our congrats go out to Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother), who was nominated for a Tony Award for his role as the transgender cabaret singer in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Some other TV stars also picked up Tony nods: Breaking Bad's Bryan Crantson, Monk's Tony Shalhoub, and Tyne Daly (Cagney & Lacey, Grey's Anatomy ). Daly previously won a Tony for her role in the revival of Gypsy. Out actress Cherry Jones (Awake, 24) was also nominated. We think all these Tony nods for TV actors point to how superb TV actors have become. Live theater is very unforgiving. The clips we have seen of Harris as Hedwig have been stunning. You can view some at ABC.com in a Nightline segment.
Speaking of the gays, PopSugar had some sneak peeks of the Modern Family wedding long in the making. The ABC sitcom has been part of an ACLU campaign about marriage equality, and now that same-sex marriage is once again legal for Californians, Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) are tying the knot. The story arc has been leading up to the two-part series finale May 14 and 21. We're looking forward to the nuptials ourselves. Mitchell is quite the groomzilla, and how over-the-top will the wedding be if Cam has a hand in it? (Please, no clowns.)
Speaking of comedy, Showtime announced this week that Sarah Silverman will be joining the cast of Masters of Sex for season two. She will be playing a lesbian, Helen, the girlfriend of former prostitute Betty (Annaleigh Ashford). We love this show and we can't wait to see Silverman go Sapphic.
We'd really like to see late night go Sapphic, but we know there's little chance of that happening. But with the second surprise retirement from late night in a month (Craig Ferguson is leaving The Late Late Show ) we would like to make our pick for a replacement. First, we've loved Ferguson. Gay-friendly, bawdy, super-smart, he's taken chances on his show that we haven't seen on late night. Both of his parents died during the course of his tenure on CBS, and both times he devoted stunning tributes to them which were both deeply personal and accessible to anyone who had lost a relative they loved, but who had also been problematic in their lives. Ferguson also once devoted an entire show to a My Dinner with Andre-style sit-down with gay actor and writer Stephen Fry, which was mesmerizingly good. So we will miss Ferguson.
In his place we'd love to see a woman. There are none on late night on a major network, Chelsea Handler's E! show Chelsea Lately notwithstanding. One of the best choices we can imagine is comedian Aisha Tyler. Tyler is a co-host on The Talk, so she's already contracted to CBS. Move her down the hall to late night. She's smart, she's gorgeous, she's got a similar style to Ferguson, bawdy. She's drop-dead gorgeous and she's black, because other than Arsenio Hall, there are also no people of color on late night. She's super queer-friendly. Come on CBS, do it. Maybe The Talk 's other co-host Julie Chen, who is married to CBS' head honcho, Les Moonves, could do some pillow talk on this?
Finally, TV you want to catch in the next two weeks includes Showtime's new period thriller Penny Dreadful, the final season of True Blood, and CBS' hilarious new sitcom #FWBL (Friends with Better Lives ). James Van Der Beek is a comic genius. There's a lot of gay stuff percolating, and did we say funny? So, for the gays, the lesbians, the drag queens, the divas, and to see if just maybe something gay actually makes the news, you know you really must stay tuned.