It's hot. What better time for a swim, or a documentary about a gay Olympic diver? HBO debuts its new documentary Back on Board: Greg Louganis this month. It's a compelling and somewhat tragic tale as the film explores the impact Louganis' being gay has had on his career, and how even now, in 2015, nearly four decades since he entered his first Olympics as a teen prodigy, he is still struggling to keep from being homeless.
As Louganis' former coach Ron O'Brien notes, "Had he been a straight athlete, he would have made millions." But he wasn't, and he didn't. Louganis never got the Wheaties box, unlike then-Bruce Jenner and other American Olympians. Louganis never got the endorsements that are the "payment" sports figures get for Olympic success. Instead, he struggled. A lot.
Louganis was a prodigy. At 16 he was in the same 1976 Olympics as Jenner. But obstacle after obstacle prevented him from achieving what he wanted. And when he discovered his HIV status prior to the Seoul Olympics in 1988, the same year he had the catastrophic injury, hitting his head on the diving board, his life began to fall apart.
America loves second acts, but Back on Board explores how hard it has been for Louganis, still handsome and sleek at 55, to get one. Well worth a look.
Also worth a look is another HBO feature this month, the premiere of Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted, on Aug. 22. It's the lesbian comedian's first comedy special for HBO. Notaro has previously guest-starred on The Sarah Silverman Program and Transparent.
"Tig Notaro is a "comedian's comedian,' whose uniquely fearless and always funny voice has won acclaim from critics and fans alike," said HBO's President of Programming Michael Lombardo in a statement about the special. "I'm so happy that we will be able to introduce this remarkable performer to a larger audience."
We're happy as well, since we've been a fan of Notaro's for several years. In addition to the HBO special, Netflix dropped its documentary about the comedian, Tig, on July 17. Tig first premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews and includes appearances by Silverman and Zach Galifianakis. The documentary explores recent events in Notaro's life: her cancer diagnosis, the sudden death of her mother and her now renowned 2012 set at Largo in Los Angeles, which she started by saying, "Good evening. Hello. I have cancer."
Project Runway is back for a 14th season on Lifetime. The new season debuted on Aug. 6, and host Tim Gunn was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that night talking the show, the spin-off Project Runway Junior, about budding designers 13-17, and his rumored rants this season. The ever-elan gay Gunn described the new season as "Big Daddy blows up." What more could you want?
We know Sir Patrick Stewart isn't gay, but we are so used to seeing him with Sir Ian McKellen that they have become a couple to us. Stewart seemed a bit gay when we saw him last week on ET intoning Taylor Swift lyrics. It was a bizarre yet compelling aside to his talking about his new show on Starz, Blunt Talk, which debuts Aug. 22. The series has already been picked up for two seasons.
Blunt Talk was created by Jonathan Ames (HBO's Bored to Death ) and produced by Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy). The series follows British newscaster Walter Blunt, who moves to Los Angeles with the intentions of conquering American nightly cable news. Hilarity ensues. Hilarity of the edgy, bawdy, NSFW sort. Among Blunt's hobbies are painting men in the nude and being slapped around by his manservant. The series co-stars Jacki Weaver, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her stellar performance in Silver Linings Playbook.
Show Me a Hero, the highly anticipated new series from David Simon (The Wire ), premieres on HBO Aug. 16. Simon is a genius (he's been awarded the MacArthur genius grant) so we know this is going to be brilliant. Based on the 1999 book of the same name by former New York Times writer Lisa Belkin, Show Me a Hero explores what happens when a white middle-class neighborhood in Yonkers, NY is faced with a federally-mandated public housing development and how the resulting racial, ethnic and class tensions impact NYC as a whole. The limited series is directed by Oscar winner Paul Haggis (Crash) and has an extraordinary cast including Oscar nominees Alfred Molina, Winona Ryder and Catherine Keener, as well as Oscar Isaac and Jim Belushi.
Bumper crop
We admit we love election season. We think it runs entirely too long and we may have a stroke before we actually get to vote, but the dog days of August are certainly more interesting with the current crop of Republicans. The GOP makes even Simon's razor-sharp take on corrupt cities seem mild.
We watched the Voters First GOP Forum on Aug. 3 on C-SPAN. That could have led to several drinking games, but we don't drink. The forum served as a preview for the GOP Debate on Fox News held in Cleveland on Aug. 6. Because front-runner Donald Trump wasn't there, it was a more "relaxed" atmosphere. Voters First also included candidates who didn't make the cut for Fox's Top 10 tier, like Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal and Carly Fiorina. We understand the temptation to ignore these debates, but women and LGBT people are talking points for the GOP, and these candidates get wild applause for homophobic and misogynist comments.
Every one of these candidates is against marriage equality and ENDA (remember ENDA?). Scott Walker wants a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage (even though his wife and sons disagree). So do Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee. Jeb Bush thinks money to fund women's health initiatives are "not needed," saying, "I'm not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women's health issues." Huckabee said when he's president, he would call out the National Guard to stop abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics. He went further in the debate, saying women should be arrested for violating the rights of fetuses.
Every candidate in the main debate (as opposed to the earlier kid's table debate) was succinct that they were "pro-life," which has always meant anti-woman and anti-gay. Where these candidates stand on women's issues impacts LGBT people. In many states, Planned Parenthood is a place gay men go for STD testing. Rick Santorum had the most egregious comments about us, but then he has a long history with castigating gay people. In the junior-tier debate, Santorum compared Obergefell v. Hodges, the recently decided Supreme Court case that upheld marriage equality, to the Dred Scott case in 1857. Oh no, he didn't!
Yes, he did. His argument was that marriage equality was not decided. Like Dred Scott wasn't decided. And so like Lincoln (because the Republicans keep calling themselves the party of Lincoln) vitiated Dred Scott with the Emancipation Proclamation, Pres. Santorum would vitiate O.v.H . with a similar proclamation. Because it's 1857?
Santorum said, "Now is the people's opportunity to respond because the future of the institution of marriage is too important to not have a public debate. The Court is one of three co-equal branches of government, and just as they have in cases from Dred Scott to Plessy, the Court has an imperfect track record. The stakes are too high and the issue too important to simply cede the will of the people to five unaccountable justices."
Santorum also had the most ironic line of the night, following his Dred Scott tirade with this: "When we treat everyone equally under the law, that's when we feel good about being Americans." Except gay people. Santorum never feels good about gay people.
In the main debate former Ohio governor John Kasich tempered his anti-gay stance with this comment: "Because somebody doesn't think the way I do doesn't mean that I can't care about them or I can't love them. So if one of my daughters happened to be that, of course I would love them and would accept them. Because that's what we're taught when we have strong faith." That. If one of his daughters happened to be "that." Lesbian.
But he also said he believes in "traditional marriage." And while some were touting the applause Kasich got for his comment, they didn't note when he got the applause. It was after he said, "I'm going to love my daughters no matter what they do. Because you know what? God gives me unconditional love." Love the sinner, hate the sin.
Lest anyone think this was a kinder, gentler audience, the crowd also went wild over the most egregious comment of the entire night in the main-stage debate.
Megyn Kelly said to Donald Trump, "You've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, ugly slobs and disgusting animals."
Trump interrupted her, "Just Rosie O'Donnell." Wild cheering from the crowd for Trump calling a lesbian a fat pig. After the applause died down, Kelly continued, "No, it wasn't. It was well beyond Rosie O'Donnell. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice that it 'would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees.' Does that sound to you like the temperament of someone we should elect as president?"
Trump, looking irritated, replied that "the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I've been challenged by so many people, I don't have time for total political correctness." He said, "What I say is fun, it's kidding, we have a good time." Pretty sure wherever she was, Rosie wasn't laughing. On CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, Donna Brazile (please, will you just come out) said of Trump's comments, "Women are not going to take that from a man in the 21st century." We. Shall. See.
There were two great lines in the two-hour debate. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and the sole black candidate, said in his closing statement that he was "the only one to separate Siamese twins, to operate on babies while they were still in their mother's womb, to take out half a brain, although you would think if you went to Washington that someone had beat me to it." That garnered appropriate applause. But Marco Rubio put it succinctly earlier in the night as he explained his thin resume, "If this election is about a resume competition, Hillary Clinton will be our next president."
Although there were 19 references to Hillary in the debate, none seemed to resonate with the audience. For her part, Hillary was in California at a Hollywood fundraiser attended by stars including Caitlyn Jenner, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. Prior to the event Kimmy had tweeted that she hoped to get a selfie later with herself and "our next President." Score one she did, and tried to break the Internet again. Kimmy and Kanye with Hillary smiling between them garnered 18k faves and 6k retweets within an hour of Kimmy posting.
We scored the winners of both debates as Rubio and Kasich for the main event, Fiorina by a mile for the lesser debate. Fiorina deserves a place at the big table for the next debate. From our POV, the candidate in the biggest trouble is Jeb Bush, who may not be the smarter Bush brother at all. He failed the Voter's First forum, and he failed the Cleveland debate. His money and poll numbers put him in the #2 slot for the debate, but despite his anti-woman and anti-gay comments, he didn't get much support from the crowd. The big winners in the debate? Megyn Kelly, who was the toughest questioner we can recall seeing in any debate in recent years. And the other was Hillary Clinton.
What we want to know, is how many times will LGBT people be a topic at these debates? And why are we the only ones whose lives get to be taken apart for entertainment value?
Finally, Jon Stewart's final show was the same night as the debate, which reminded us of how long we have relied on Stewart to spin the news for us. We have loved the way he turned news into comedy into news in the tradition of satirists as far back as Swift. The final show was a pastiche of farewells from some of Stewart's fave political and social targets, among them Hillary Clinton, Wolf Blitzer, Sens. John McCain and Paul Brown, and the CEO of Arby's, the fast food chain Stewart loved to hate. One of the most hilarious moments was McCain, whom Stewart regularly depicted as the old dude ranting, "Get off my lawn!" McCain held up a puppet of the comedian and said, "So long, jackass."
At one point, Stephen Colbert crept up behind Stewart. Colbert is the most successful of Stewart's correspondents and next month debuts his own show on CBS, taking over as host of The Late Show . Colbert made us tear up when he said to Stewart, "We owe you because we learn from you. We learn from you by example how to do a show with intention, how to work with clarity, how to treat people with respect. You are infuriatingly good at your job." So true. We will miss Stewart and his deadpan delivery, his perfect comedic timing and his well-placed four-letter words. He used a few in closing out his 16-year run when he warned his audience to sniff out the bullshit. "The best defense against bullshit?" Stewart asked rhetorically. "If you smell something, say something." So we will.
So for the bombast of Trump, the incisive questioning of Megyn Kelly, the brilliance of David Simon and the fabulousness of Tig Notaro, you know you really must stay tuned.