In a series of now-deleted tweets, Norm MacDonald criticized Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra for portraying Liberace as a gay man. Yes, that Liberace. He deleted all of these tweets, presumably because he was worried they’d get him in trouble, and I hope I don’t get him in trouble by reposting them, but I thought he raised an interesting point.

Basically, Liberace publicly denied being gay his entire life, even going so far as winning libel suits against magazines who implied that he was gay. Behind the Candelabra was based on the autobiography of Scott Thorson, who claimed to be Liberace’s long-time lover, and almost certainly was, but who also, by almost all accounts, is a less than reliable narrator, being fanciful and a drug addict and having various axes to grind (here’s a recent New York Times profile on him). Point being, it’s easy to look at Liberace prancing around in a bejeweled fur cape and go, “Yeah, of course he’s gay,” but maybe that’s unfair. If you’ve had sex with people of both genders, as many gay people have, you do sort of get to choose your own label, gay, straight, or bi. Right or wrong, it’s interesting that we don’t respect that right as much when it’s a person having gay sex saying they’re straight.

The popular assumption is that Liberace was only closeted because he was worried about the homophobic backlash hurting his career. But at the same time, as Norm seems to be pointing out, if we’re really moving towards a world where a person is allowed to define his or her own sexuality, should we really be so dismissive of a guy who said he was straight a million times just because he seemed super gay? It is kind of like putting words in his mouth. I don’t necessarily agree that making a biopic based on a spurned lover’s account makes it an “odious motion picture,” but I don’t think you can just dismiss this as Norm being crazy either. I mean, he is kind of crazy, but he raises an interesting question about who gets to define a person’s sexuality. Me, I let all the satisfied babes do the talkin’, but not everyone has that option.

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Mother of God, is that a Hawaiian shirt made out of peacock feathers? WANT.

It may seem like we’ve seen a lot of trailers for Steven Soderbergh’s Liberace movie lately, but one of those was actually The Great Gatsby trailer. In any case, today brings the longest trailer yet for Behind the Candelabra, which premieres May 26th, starring Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his lovaah Scott Thorsen (please, no lisp jokes). Soderbergh has been on a roll after Magic Mike and Side Effects, so I’d love to see him prove all the studios who thought it was “too gay” – this in a world where Glee enjoys wild popularity and the Disney Channel styles all of its stars like fastidious homosexuals – wrong.

But I dunno, man. First Jeremy Irons says I have to gay marry my dad, and now the guy from Basic Instinct has to play the gayest man in the world? Thanks a lot, Obama.

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This is one of five new character posters for Spring Breakers released this week, this one for Vanessa Hudgens’ character, Candy. I may be reading into this too much, but this seems a little sexually suggestive to me. Am I crazy? Then again, as Freud once said, “Sometimes a nubile, half-naked teen shooting a finger pistol into her eager mouth is just a a nubile, half-naked teen shooting a finger pistol into her eager mouth.”
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Steven Soderbergh’s film, Behind the Candelabra, starring Matt Damon and Michael Douglas, is set to hit HBO this Spring, and according to Soderbergh, speaking at the Television Critics Association press tour over the weekend, the only reason it’s not getting a theatrical release is that every studio in town told him it was “too gay.” This despite it costing only $5 million to make, having a name director, and starring Matt Damon and Michael Douglas. (*spits out coffee*) Hold on, Liberace is GAY?!

“Nobody would make it. We went to everybody in town,” the “Traffic” and “Ocean’s 11″ director told TheWrap on Friday, at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. “We needed $5 million. Nobody would do it.”

“They said it was too gay. Everybody. This was after ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ by the way. Which is not as funny as this movie. I was stunned. It made no sense to any of us.”

“They’re great and they’re really good at what they do, and ultimately I think more people will see it, and that’s all you care about,” Soderbergh said. “Studios were going, ‘We don’t know how to sell it. They were scared.’” [Yahoo/TheWrap]

Considering all the gay stuff studios release – Milk, Brokeback, Pitch Perfect, Fast and Furious – and how hot gay-themed projects are generally considered to be these days, you wonder if “they said it was too gay!” is just a convenient excuse for a movie that had bigger problems, not to mention a great way to curry sympathy. But Steven Soderbergh seems like a pretty straight shooter, so if he says it, I believe him. Plus it’s hard to be surprised by stories of business execs doing something shortsighted anymore. It’s just weird that the American public could be almost universally obsessed with super gay stuff – find me a network show that isn’t about singing and/or dancing, for instance – but only if the gayness isn’t spoken outright, like this, or I Love You Philip Morris (which had similar problems). You can crowbar some gay stereotypes into every sitcom after Modern Family, but God forbid you try to depict an actual gay relationship.

Incidentally, “too gay for theater” was the meanest thing my guidance counselor ever told me.

Gay? These guys?

Oh, daaahling, how nice of you to drop by. JEEVES! Get our guest some trinkets.

Here we have Michael Douglas and Matt Damon on the set of Behind the Candelabra, a story about Liberace (Douglas) and his lover, Scott Thorsen (Damon), rumored to be Steven Soderbergh’s last movie before he retires. According to LeMonde (via ThePlaylist), Soderbergh’s hoping to finish in time to screen it at Cannes. Soderbergh’s Haywire, a movie about a hot chick who beats people up, mostly kind of sucked (except for one scene), and Magic Mike, a movie about male strippers who wave their wieners at people, ended up being the best movie of the summer. So assuming gayness of subject matter has a positive correlation with how good a Steven Soderbergh movie is, I have high hopes for this one.

I don’t know much about fashion, but to me it looks like they’re about to go ref a joust tournament. It’s funny to me that back in the days when it wasn’t okay to be gay, rich gay guys dressed like medieval court jesters and people just thought they were “eccentric.”

Oh, I thought the picture needed something:

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