It’s been an exciting few days for Spice Girls fans – first Scary Spice Mel B let slip that she and her bandmates might be making a live appearance at Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee.
Now, Ginger Spice Geri Halliwell has revealed that she’s almost ready to release her fourth solo album, her first since 2005’s poor-selling Passion. Halliwell made the announcement at the launch of her new line of Union Jack-emblazoned clothing, while also revealing that the much-touted Spice Girls musical would hit the West End by this time next year at the latest.
Watch a very Charlotte Dawson-esque Halliwell reveal all below.
The team behind Women Say Something have announced details for the next event on February 22.
The evening will start at 6pm with music from Charmaine Bingwa, before Sandy Miller and her partner Louise Bucke provide an update on their dinner with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, to be held the night before as part of GetUp!’s winning 2011 auction bid.
Titled We Are Family, the first panel discussion will include PFLAG’s Shelley Argent, The Australian’s columnist Emma Jane, Dykes on Bikes’ Cheryl Webster and Rainbow Babies coordinator Nadine Sharpe.
They will discuss the challenges involved in creating families.
“We’ll talk about how difficult it can be in our community to have our biological families with us all the time, and how we’re forced to create what we call a logical family — our friends, our children, our animals,” organiser Steph Sands (pictured) told the Star Observer.
The second panel discussion, Health Check, held in conjunction with ACON, will follow a dinner catered by Claire de Lune.
This panel will focus on the research gathered by ACON’s lesbian health surveys over the past eight years and will feature Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, Professor Kerryn Phelps, Sydney University senior lecturer and researcher Dr Julie Mooney-Somers, actress and writer Ann Looby and drag king Rocco D’Amore.
“ACON will present their report card on lesbian health,” Sands said.
“It’ll be a mix of personal stories and strategies on how to improve that report card in the coming years. Heavy topics, but we have some comic relief coming its way in the form of a couple of big name panellists we’ll announce in the coming weeks.”
Organisers expect the event to sell out in advance. Women Say Something will provide a ‘pay what you can afford’ option for women who are unwaged.
Comedians and creative partners Adam Richard and John Richards have stuffed their new ABC TV show Outland with more of the LGBTIQ alphabet soup than Australian TV viewers, fed on a diet of Packed to the Rafters and Winners and Losers, would be used to seeing.
“As we all know, commercial networks don’t do anything even vaguely risky,” Richard told the Star Observer.
“But the ABC — bless them, with their handful of peanuts — are very resourceful when it comes to things no one else would bother to put on or pay for.”
Centred around a ragtag bunch of queer sci-fi nerds and their weekly group meetings, Outland’s cast of characters include leather fetish daddy Andy (Paul Ireland), adorable dork Max (Toby Truslove), hyperactive twink Toby (Ben Gerrard), screaming queen Fab (played by Richard) and even a wheelchair-bound Indigenous lesbian, Rae (Christine Anu). Talk about covering all bases.
Through these lovably geeky characters, and amongst the frequent laughs, Richard and Richards have struck at the heart of an issue not often confronted within the wider gay community: the pressure to fit in, and the ostracism often felt by those who don’t easily find a place for themselves in gay life.
Richard acknowledged this aspect of the story was partly autobiographical.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not thin. All my friends are tiny little twinky things — even the 40-year-olds — so I’ve always stuck out like a sore thumb. When I was younger, that was a much more difficult thing for me to deal with,” he admitted.
Now, he’s on a mission to galvanise gay freaks and geeks the world over, with Outland’s pilot already having played to great acclaim in queer film festivals overseas.
“One guy in London came up to John after the screening and said, ‘I’m not a sci-fi fan, but I am a trainspotter, so I really identify with this’,” Richard cackled.
“I think everyone has that need to be accepted amongst like-minded people — whether they’re gay people, whether they’re science fiction fans, or both.”
At the Sydney preview screening of the show late last year, the pair appeared like nervous parents, fidgeting and giggling as they introduced their baby to a room filled with notoriously hard-to-please journos and TV critics (who, much to the duo’s relief, laughed in all the right places).
“It was really weird — it’s like doing five years’ worth of preparation for a gig, but then not doing the gig on the actual night. It’s there, you’re doing it, but you’re also sitting in the audience watching it. It was very odd,” Richard, who is more used to taking to the stage as a seasoned stand-up comedian, said.
He said casting the show was a difficult process, as the pair trawled through casting agents for actors with just the right mix of skills.
For Toby, they needed a young, attractive actor with impeccable comic timing and a musical theatre background, and lucked out with the NIDA-trained Gerrard.
Max, being the show’s own Carrie Bradshaw (unlucky in love and a relatively ‘normal’ window into the lives of the other, more broadly drawn characters), was a pivotal role to cast.
“Nobody believes me, but it’s true: there are only two types of actors. Actors who can play comedy, and actors who can play drama. There are maybe seven people in the whole country who can do both, and Toby Truslove is one of them. He’s amazing,” Richard gushed of his lead.
The funnyman admitted his own rendering of Max was a little less nuanced (“Yeah, I don’t have any range. Max is basically me but loud — me after 14 pints”), and said the uncensored manner of the show’s louder characters — such as Andy, always keen to share news of his latest debauched sexual escapade — were a conscious choice on his and Richards’ part.
“There is one episode where I lost count, but there were something like 1000 dildos on set.
“The one thing we wanted to do was make a gay show where being gay was the normality — they’re all in the closet about being nerds, they all have other problems and issues, whereas they’re all fine with being gay.”
INFO: Outland premieres Wednesday, February 8 at 9.30pm on ABC1.
Following the success of the Hollywood adaptation of his previous play Rabbit Hole, acclaimed American playwright David Lindsay-Abaire again shines a light on the struggle against despair in Good People.
The Tony-nominated play, which has already played Broadway with Frances McDormand and Tate Donovan in the lead roles, now receives its Australian premiere, with Melbourne’s Red Stitch continuing its knack for securing Australia-first runs for acclaimed overseas works.
In Good People, Boston single mother Margie Walsh is fired from her job as a cashier at a dollar store. Already living from pay cheque to pay cheque, it’s a stroke of bad luck that threatens to break her.
With soaring unemployment figures constantly in the news, it seems the play’s story is especially timely, something Russian-born supporting actress Olga Makeeva acknowledged.
“I think so. Australia’s better than America in that we have Medicare. Poor people in America don’t even have that much support, so when they lose their jobs, it’s much harder,” she said.
“Margie is a single mother with a disabled daughter, and losing her job means she can’t pay rent or afford to buy medicine for her daughter.”
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Margie finds herself on the doorstep of a business-owning ex-boyfriend, pleading with him to employ her.
Makeeva’s character, Margie’s landlady Dottie, features in another subplot that illustrates the scale of the downturn — her unemployed son shows up needing a place to stay but without money for rent, and Dottie tries to place him with Margie.
“It’s a sad story, but what’s incredible is that the characters are able to laugh and make jokes through all this, while they’re struggling to survive,” Makeeva said.
“They don’t have time to mourn or cry. They have to survive, and laughing helps them get through it.
“I spent 33 years in Russia, and I’d say it’s very much like that there. We went through many difficult times, and keeping a sense of humour helped us to survive.”
After migrating to Australia in 1999, Makeeva worked at Red Stitch as an assistant director and designed costumes for the company before joining as an ensemble member in 2010.
She still lends a hand in her previous departments, though.
“Red Stitch is unique, because actors not only act but do other things. My department is costumes, because I can sew and adjust costumes. We’re all multi-skillful, and it’s full-on, full-time work.”
INFO: Good People, Red Stitch Actor’s Theatre, February 3 – March 3. www.redstitch.net
PICTURED: Makeeva (second from left) with her co-stars.
Sydney’s annual Hats Off! concert returns on February 13 with a Coney Island-inspired fairground theme and the tagline ‘Hats Off! to the freaks’.
Event producer Peter Silver told the Star Observer the diverse cast appearing at the event was taking inspiration from this year’s freaky theme.
“Hats Off! to the freaks works as a way for us to frame the show — freakish personalities and quirky talents,” he said.
“Audiences can expect a lot of quirk in this year’s show, as all our performers are thinking outside the square.”
Performers enlisted include cast members from musicals Annie, Love Never Dies and Ordinary Days, Australia’s Got Talent winner Jack Vidgen, musical theatre star Lucy Durack, drag diva Minnie Cooper and a host of other big names. Silver promised there would be a “touch of Gaga” to the show, as well as one very special performer who’s yet to be announced.
Hosts Mitchell Butel, Gary Scale and Jan van de Stool (the comic alter ego of performer Queenie van de Zandt) will MC the two-and-a-half-hour show.
“It’s action stations at the moment, but what’s made the process wonderful is how generous people are with their time,” Silver said. “It’s really comforting to know that everyone’s keen to support Oz Showbiz Cares and Equity Fights AIDS.”
Silver said he hoped to raise up to $40,000 at the event, adding to the more than $750,000 Oz Showbiz Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Inc has raised for critically needed services for people with AIDS, HIV and HIV-related illnesses since 1997.
INFO: Hats Off!, Monday, February 13, York Theatre, Seymour Centre. Tickets from www.secure.seymourboxoffice.com.au or call 02 9351 7940.
Seven studio albums into his career and with excursions into folk, opera and showtunes under his belt, queer Canadian crooner Rufus Wainwright finally seems to be making his bid for mainstream success by enlisting superproducer Mark Ronson for his new album Out of the Game, to be released on April 20.
Wainwright has described it as “the most pop album I’ve ever made,” while Ronson believes “it’s the best work of my career”.
Ronson’s previous work includes production duties on Amy Winehouse’s groundbreaking Back to Black album, plus his own top-selling albums Version and Record Collection.
Ronson has said Out of the Game “has a real 70’s, Laurel Canyon spirit,” while Rufus cites “all the greats – Elton, Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, basically the brash and beautiful. It’s also very Rufus.”
British writer/director Andrew Haigh’s acclaimed romance Weekend is that rarest of beasts: a gay film that doesn’t suck.
Speaking to the Star Observer, Haigh acknowledged the relief many viewers had expressed upon seeing the film.
“When we first started showing Weekend in festivals, you could tell people were worried it’d be another bad gay film. To start with, I think people were just relieved that it wasn’t as bad as they were expecting, which I suppose is a sad state of affairs,” he chuckled.
Weekend follows 72 hours in the life of Russell (the gorgeous but tragically heterosexual Tom Cullen), who picks up Glen (Chris New, openly gay and recently married to his partner) in a seedy bar one Friday night. Waking up in bed the next morning, their fiery, volatile connection deepens over the weekend, despite — or perhaps because of — the knowledge that Glen is due to move overseas on the Monday.
Plotwise, it’s a remarkably simple film: boy meets boy — and that’s about it.
“When you’re doing a character study, which is essentially what this is, it’s important to keep it simple,” Haigh said.
“It did make it hard to pitch it to people though. They’d say ‘Yes, but what actually happens?’ Well, they talk a lot …”
What enlivens the film is the remarkable chemistry between its two leads, found after an exhaustive audition process.
“The chemistry was the key, really; it was just a process of finding the two people who had that chemistry. There seemed to be that spark from [Cullen and New] — they seemed excited and challenged by each other.”
Haigh admitted that when writing the film, he’d imagined casting two gay actors in the roles.
“I really wanted it to be authentic — I know it’s frustrating when you watch films with straight actors playing gay. But during the audition process, obviously you can’t ask people if they’re gay. In the end, I had to go with who was best for the role — it turned out Tom, who is straight, was.
“There’s no point going for two gay people if one of them isn’t very good.”
Cullen is wonderful in the role (although Haigh acknowledged his lead actor’s heterosexuality had angered some viewers — “One guy at a Q&A was furious when he found out. He said he felt like he’d been conned!”), bringing a quiet poise to Russell, who lives on a grim council estate and deals with the daily reality of youths shouting homophobic abuse through his window.
It’s a depiction of working class gay life rarely seen on the big screen.
“His class does play a role in the film, as does his location. It’s easy to forget, if you live in the centre of London or Sydney, that there are places in the world where it isn’t as safe to be gay.
“If you live in Nottingham, you can’t walk down the street holding your boyfriend’s hand without at least getting stares.”
The film is also unapologetic in its depiction of gay male sexuality — it’s all there, from cruising to cum rags. It’s all far more believable than, say, that ridiculously inauthentic sex scene in the otherwise excellent Brokeback Mountain.
“I always laugh about that sex scene. OK, they’ve supposedly never had sex before, and in it goes, just like that. How does that happen? It was obviously made by a straight person!”
In contrast, Weekend is clearly the work of a gay man, right down to the line in the opening minutes of the film, as the characters wake up in bed after their first night together, about “smelling of cock and bum”.
“My producer always had a real problem with that first scene in bed, saying it was too explicit and it’d put people off. I said, exactly. You start as you mean to go on — and if you can’t handle that, leave the cinema now.
“I wanted a wide audience, but I was never prepared to water the film down in order to please that audience. In doing that, you end up pleasing no one.”
INFO: Weekend is now screening in limited release. It is also playing at Dendy Newtown on February 20 at 9pm as part of the 2012 Mardi Gras Film Festival.
ARQ – Australia Day Eve party. DJs and live show by Shauna Jensen. $10 before midnight, $15 after.
BANK HOTEL – Girls’ night, all-new entertainment line-up, 9pm-late.
BERESFORD HOTEL – Happy Hours 5pm-7pm.
EDGE – Play Games Night – Bingo Bitches hosted by Crystal Meth 6pm – midnight.
IMPERIAL – CHIX & STIX – Weekly women’s pool comp.
KINGSTEAM – Sex-on-site venue. 2-4-1 Wednesdays from 3pm.
MIDNIGHT SHIFT – Glamahaus shows at 10 and 11pm, free entry. Plus Dress Code uniform party.
PISS UP – special Australia Day eve edition at Phoenix from 10pm. $15 entry, DJs Stephen Allkins & Matt Vaughan.
QUEEN VICTORIA HOTEL – Queen six poker from 7pm.
SLY FOX – Queer Central – DJs Sveta, Sandi Hotrod, 7pm-3am, shows, free.
STONEWALL – Malebox hosted by Keren St James with DJ Justin Scott. The hottest pick-up night in Sydney. Plus Australia Day eve celebrations.
TAXI CLUB – Members badge draw from 6pm. Astute trivia from 8pm.
VICTORIA
COMMERCIAL HOTEL – M.A.T.C.H. Student night. $5 chicken parma 6-9pm. Courtesy bus available.
DNM – Malebox, meet other singles, starts 9pm. drag shows at 9.30pm with hostess Lady and her hunky maleman, drink specials. open 4pm.
DT’S HOTEL – Open 4pm, happy hours 4-6pm, DT’s keyring ‘create your own bar’ draw at 10pm.
HEAVEN’S DOOR – Lotus Night for the Gaysian community and their friends/admirers. Free entry. 10pm-3am.
LAIRD – VICBears present UnderBear. 7.30pm-3am. $15 entry.
THE PEEL – Australia Day Eve 9pm-dawn. Free entry.
PRISCILLA’S @ 153 – Karaoke with Lexi Gaga. Open 9pm.
SIRCUIT – Australia Day Eve guinea pig racing.
QUEENSLAND
THE BEAT MEGACLUB – Jelly wrestling with Diva at 11.30pm and 2.30am. Member party 7-10pm (first Wednesday of the month).
SPORTSMAN HOTEL – Rolf Harris and His Budgie Barbie Campers show. Camp Karaoke with George Constatine in the downstairs bar and DJ Merlin until 5am.
THE WICKHAM – Lounging with Lidia at 9.30pm and 10.30pm, showcasing bright new stars.
FLUFFY @ FAMILY – GLAM: Boylesque, Courtney Act, Starfuckers and Vandalism. $20/$10 before 10pm.
TASMANIA
FLAMINGOS DANCE BAR – Two floors, open 10pm-late.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
MARS BAR – Tighty Whitey Summer Party Australia Day. Speedo and bikini competition.
EDGE – Edge Fitness at Central Coast’s only LGBTI venue.
HEADQUARTERS – Naked Night – 7pm-11pm sex-on-premises venue
IMPERIAL – Free pool. Happy hour 3-7pm.
KINGSTEAM – Sex-on-site venue. $5 Monday – vouchers are given to full paying customers for the following Monday after 3pm.
MIDNIGHT SHIFT – Maxi’s Candy Shop. Maxi Shield gives away prizes all night. $5 entry.
QUEEN VICTORIA HOTEL – 20% off bar drinks from 5pm.
QUEER OUT WEST – Western Sydney GLBT radio show on 89.3FM from 10pm-midnight. Listen online at www.893fm.com.au
SLIDE – Monday night live, open mic night with entertainment from 6-9pm.
SLY FOX – Free pool and competition
STONEWALL – Christina Dior, hostess with the mostess. Great music from 9pm.
TAXI CLUB – Open from 2pm. Bingo from 6.30pm with Toby.
VICTORIA
DNM – Trash and Trivia with Jamie Lee Skye, cash prizes and giveaways starts 7.30pm, doors open 4pm.
LAIRD – Cheap jugs. Bar open 5pm–late.
TONGUE & GROOVE – Massive Mondays with Spanky.
QUEENSLAND
THE BEAT MEGACLUB – Shows and games with Trixie Laumonte.
SPORTSMAN HOTEL – Movies on the big screen in the Lounge Bar, dinner 5.30-9pm.
THE WICKHAM – Monday-itis 7pm-1am.
AFTER – Day recovery party at Phoenix. DJs Kitty Glitter, JimJam, Tim McCloone (UK)
ARQ – Decadence: Shows by Will Sabin & Decoda Secret. Doors open 9pm.
BANK HOTEL – DJ Kitty Glitter, 4pm – late.
BERESFORD HOTEL – Beresford Sundays, Happy Hour 5-7pm with DJs from 3 with free entry.
COLOMBIAN – DJ Sandi Hotrod & guests from 8pm.
DYKES ON BIKES – Meet every week from 5pm at the Hampshire Hotel in Camperdown. All welcome.
HEADQUARTERS – Naked sex Party 2-7pm
IMPERIAL – Beer Bust 3-8pm with great drinks specials.
KEN’S OF KENSINGTON – Sex-on-site venue. Sunday arvo session.
LOOSE ENDS - @ Phoenix, 10pm-late, free entry. DJ Matt Vaughan and guests.
LORD ROBERTS HOTEL – Bears on Sunday from 4pm on the sundeck. $12 jugs of beer & HCB members cash draw.
MIDNIGHT SHIFT – Call Girls with Maxi Shield, Verushka Darling, Tora Hymen Free entry.
PALMS – Don’t Change from 8pm-3am, with DJ Don’t Wanna Be from 10pm.
POLO LOUNGE – Somethin’ Social, a chilled out Sunday sesh with background music and cocktails at the top floor of the Oxford.
QUEEN VICTORIA HOTEL – Queen six poker from 5pm.
STONEWALL – Polly’s Follies hosted by the hilarious Polly Petries. Guest DJ each week.
TAXI CLUB – Open from 2pm, free entry. Sunday Poker on Level 2.
VICTORIA
DNM – Sexy Sundays open 2pm with gold coin donation sausage sizzle at 4pm, drag shows start at 8pm with Nova China.
DT’S HOTEL – Open from 2pm. Spin & Win drinks wheel from 2.30pm, sausage sizzle, free pool.
HEAVEN’S DOOR – Open 9pm-2am.
LAIRD – Sunday Social with Cock Lotto. Bar 4pm-late. BBQ at 6pm (gold coin donation).
LIBATION – It’s A Girl Thing: Sunday session for women and their friends. Guest DJs from 5pm. Drink specials. Open 2pm.
LOVE MACHINE – Gossip Sundays from 9pm.
SIRCUIT – Lip Service with the Sparklettes: Shows from 9.30pm.
QUEENSLAND
THE BEAT MEGACLUB – Free BBQ 7-8pm, DJs and shows every hour with Deanna Blake, Christy McNicol and guests.
FLUFFY @ FAMILY – Doors at 9pm.
SPORTSMAN HOTEL – Shows at 6.30pm, 8pm and 9pm. Pool comp and Wheel of Sporties from 5pm.
THE WICKHAM – Sunday Soiree – DJ Kandi Kane from 3pm.
