James ‘The Amazing’ Randi is a magician who in the last few decades has become one of the world’s most prominent sceptics of the paranormal, famously offering a million dollar reward to anyone who can prove paranormal abilities under laboratory conditions. Due to his outspoken debunking, he has been sued numerous times by the likes of Uri Geller, although he claims never to have had to pay a cent to anyone (although a lot of cash has gone on defending himself).

He’s also gay, a fact he didn’t reveal until three years ago when he was 81, after being inspired to come out by the film Milk. He was also facing the fact his partner of well over two decades, Jose, could possibly be deported, even though he escaped from his native Venezuela due to persecution for being a gay man.

Now Director/Producer Justin Weinstein is trying to put together a historical biography film project about Randi, called An Honest Liar, and has turned to Kickstarter to help. There’s already been a lot of backing, with $137,000 of the $148,000 total pledged. Weinstein is hoping to raise more that the $148,000 minimum though, as while the current total will allow more filming to go ahead, if they can raise extra cash that will help fund post-production.

Randi is certainly an interesting figure who’s well worth making a film about. For decades he was a well-known magician, even working with Alice Cooper to build stage tricks (and appear onstage) for one of his 1970s tour. He then began demonstrating supposedly paranormal tricks, such as spoon bending and saying they were just illusion, which turned him into a professional sceptic (leading some to claim he is psychic and lying about it!)

Behind all this and unknown to the public, he was living as a gay man – and of course when he was young gay sex was illegal. We’d certainly like to see a documentary about him, so head over to Kickstarter to help.

Although TV is getting better at dealing with gay themes (although film sadly still lags behind the rest of society), some of the best LGBT projects are popping up online in the form of web series. Now a new one is incoming, The In-Betweens, about a straight woman and her gay best friend.

Following a successful Kickstarter fundraising drive last summer, the first season of the show is now on its way, starting in February.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘In an ode to the quarter-life crisis, and inspired by their real-life friendship, witness Clancy and Lyndsay’s comedic romp through New York City. There will be dates with blind men, impulsive pregnancies, and other shenanigans, but mostly Lyndsay will be dating weirdos while Clancy gives epic side-eye. It’s just like life, but funnier.  This a show about the moments that happen while you’re waiting for the next big thing. And from what it seems, those are the moments that matter most.  Life is what happens in The In-Betweens.’

From the teaser video above, it looks like it could be fun. Keep an eye on the official website to see the full episodes when they start appearing next month.

The Oscars are only a few weeks away, which has given the guys over at FarsiteForecast an excuse to come up with the infographic above (click on it for a larger version), which takes a look at LGBT-related Oscar, SAG and Golden Globe wins and nominations from the past 10 years.

It comes up with some interesting facts, such as that while there have been several well known wins for straight people playing gay characters – Sean Penn in Milk, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote, Christopher Plummer in Beginners – no openly gay actor has ever won.

As the site notes, there are a couple of caveats to that, such as that, ‘Gay actor John Gielgud Won for Best Supporting Actor in 1981 for Arthur and he was nominated in 1964 as well. Despite a gay scandal in the British tabloids 1953, Gielgud’s sexual orientation was not well-known or publicized in Hollywood. Recent news-maker Jodie Foster has twice won and four times been nominated for an Oscar. But, until last week’s Golden Globes, Foster’s identification as a Lesbian was Hollywood’s worst kept secret. She, in fact, made this into a punch line in her speech.

‘Sir Ian Murray McKellen has long been out and proud. But, despite multiple Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, a Golden Globe Award, five Emmy Award nominations, and two Academy Award nominations, Sir Ian has never taken home the Oscar.’

In the past decade there have been 13 identifiable LGBT roles that have received Oscar nominations, and quite a few more who have picked up SAG and Golden Globe nods. Although the infographic is somewhat encouraging in that in eight of the last 10 years, there’s been at least one LGBT character included in the acting categories, it does suggest we’ve still got a long way to go.

After all, it’s not long ago that the likes of Ernest Borgnine refused to watch Brokeback Mountain when he was considering what movies to vote for in the Oscars. It’s also true that there are no gay-nominations in any of the main categories this year, although Tony Kushner is in the running for his Lincoln screenplay. Paranorman is also up for Best Animated Film, which is being lauded as the first mainstream animated movie to feature a gay character.