Back in September it was revealed that Xavier Dolan fan Jessica Chastain had signed on to star in the Quebecois filmmaker’s first English-language movie. Now she’s has some company, with the queer director ensuring that the film has plenty of impressive female talent by adding Kathy Bates and Susan Sarandon to the cast. Kit Harington is also set to star.
The new movie is called The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, which Dolan has previously described as “the story of an American movie star with everything working out for him who has a secretive correspondence with an 11 year old in London.”
THR expands on that, saying Kit Harington’s title character is famed for playing a popular superhero, ‘whose life and career are turned upside-down when his private correspondence with an 11-year-old fan is exposed and made to look indecent by a villainous gossip columnist (Jessica Chastain).’
Kathy Bates is set to be Donovan’s high-powered manager, while Sarandon will play his mother.
Dolan comments, “I’m so psyched about working with these two wonderful, mythical actresses. My excitement is almost convulsive.”
He adds, “Susan Sarandon’s role of the mother is tricky for me because it’s feels very real. The rapport my mom has with my life [since my profile has risen] — and of course I’m not as famous as the character of Donovan — is different now. I think all people can relate to this because whenever you walk out of the path that’s been traced for you, people from your old life find it a little menacing, because it questions their own worth.”
Dolan made waves when he won a prize at Cannes for his directorial debut, I Killed My Mother, which he helmed when he was only 18-years-old. He’s made four more acclaimed films since then (Heartbeats, Laurence Anyways, Tom At The Farm and Mommy), all of which have concerned the queer experience in one way or another.
A couple of weeks ago the very first picture from Michael arrived, and now a few more pics of Zachary Quinto, Emma Roberts and James Franco in the gay-themed movie have arrived, which you can take a look at above and below.
Brit flick 
It’s crowdfunding time, this time for Pick Up, which is seeking $36,000 on 
Comedienne/actress Lily Tomlin spent much of her career in an interesting netherworld where pretty much everyone knew she was gay, her resume was full of LGBT and gay-friendly projects and there were even several occasions when it was said she was going to publicly come out – except that she didn’t. It’s only been in the last couple of years that she’s spoken openly about her sexuality, and since then she’s also gotten married.
David Hyde Pierce is coming back to TV with a run in The Good Wife. To mark that, he showed up on Larry King Now for an interview. He’s done surprisingly little on-screen work in the 10 years since his multi-award winning turn in Frasier, instead concentrating on theatre, and in 2008 he married his partner Brian Cosgrove in California.
It’s not too long now until we get to return to the San Francisco world of Patrick (Jonathan Groff) and his friends, and now we get to take our first proper look with a full length trailer, which shows us the boys are going on a trip together and there’s still plenty of emotional heartache to deal with.
It easy to see the battle over gay rights in the West as being between LGBT people and the Christian Church. However, that’s to ignore the fact many Christians believe in gay rights, and nor does it really deal with what the bible or even the major denominations say about homosexuality (despite what you may think, the Catholic Church’s official position is that being gay is fine, it’s just homosexual acts they have an issue with – which is admittedly extremely problematic).
It’s not 100% clear whether the film version of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks will retain the full LGBT themes of the play it’s based on, but with Cheyenne Jackson as one of the co-leads and gay icons such as Rita Moreno in the cast, it’s probably going to be worth a look either way. The trailer certainly makes it seems fun.
In the last couple of years Travis Mathews has gained a lot of attention for