Sassy Movie News

from GED Magazine September 2022

by gedmagazine

On Stage

WithAlexander Rodriguez

This is your Sassy Movie News brought to you by GED Magazine and On the Rocks’ Alexander Rodriguez, Bringing you the sassiest and tipsiest top & bottom movie news. Here is the latest Hollywood tea…

EvenEven with Marvel’s big plans for future spinoffs unveiled at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, little was mentioned about expanding LGBTQ representation. Current film characters like Guardians’ Star-Lord, Deadpool, Thor’s Valkyrie, Dr. Strange’sAmerica Chavez, and Black Panther’sAyo have been stripped of their queerness. After Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill, Marvel came out and said they wholeheartedly support the LGBTQ community….so, c’mon Marvel, let’s get some representation!

The fans want Henry Cavill as Superman back! Can you blame them? Even Dwayne Johnson pushed for his return for his superhero film, BlackAdam. Rumors state that a faceless cameo by Superman will be made, just not featuring his face nor Henry Cavill. His character has been featured in Shazam! and Peacemaker but not in full view. In Shazam! we only saw the bottom part of Superman. I mean, we are all pretty much looking at the bottom part of Superman, but still!

InIn other cameo news, it was leaked that BenAffleck is Batman once again for a cameo inAquaman 2. How the hell did Ben get his life together so fast? From making bad movies, rehab, and more to marrying JLo and now back in the cape? I want to read his motivation book.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are teaming up for the 7th time for The Wager. I’m going to ignore the fact that Leo has aged…is he daddy status now? I still have my Leo in Romeo & Juliet poster up. It’s probably considered vintage art by now.

DidDid you like the Han Solo origin film? Not many people did. There’s been some speculation that a sequel would be made, but for Disney+ and not theatres. Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan says no way, it’s either a film sequel or nothing. I’m still trying to get over my nap from watching Boba Fett…and Obi-Wan. Should NyQuil be sponsoring these TV Star Wars iterations?

DougJonesreturnsinHocusPocus2asBillyandLOOKSTHESAME.Heattributesittobeingthesameweight and build as 30 years ago…bitch! Movie fact: the wig he is wearing in the sequel is the same one he wore in the original Hocus Pocus, it was just sitting on someone’s shelf.

Gwyneth Paltrow stated that she would be open to returning to the MCU, even after Iron Man’s death.The MCU said,

“who asked?” …allegedly.

Did you love Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider? Too bad…no sequel for you! MGM lost the rights and it’s been scrapped.

EuphoriaEuphoria and White Lotus star Sydney Sweeney says she is going under intense physical training for her role in the Spider-man universe. She also stated that she has to keep working because they don’t pay actors what they used to and she can’t even take six months off because she can’t afford it. Oh, she just bought a $3 million dollar house. You poor thing…gurl, I can’t even take six hours off!

Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire comes to AMC and is said to embrace the queerness of the novels. Finally, something we can sink our teeth into! Get it? No? Crickets…

ThatThat is our Sassy Movie News -- Check out our weekly movie news sound bites on CHANNELQ and online at GEDmag.com. See you at the movies!

GEDMAG.com | 21

Scott Nevins

Putting the #Unity in #Community

By Kevin Perry

Humor is life’s great barometer. If something is too mean or too nice, it isn’t funny, honey. But when we can strike the right balance of compassion and irreverence, laughter naturally follows.

Scott Nevins navigates the fine line between amusement and activism deftly. He has leveraged a brilliant stage and screen career into a vibrant philanthropic platform. We picked Scott’s brain and plucked his funny bone to learn how he went from comedian to community leader.

I was raised in Flushing, Queens, (I know, the jokes just write themselves.) My report card always said the same two things: “Scott is a pleasure to have in class” and “Scott talks too much.” My big New York mouth often got me into hot water, because I was always questioning the status quo and the religious teachings at school. They didn’t like it when I pointed out that the Bible was just a book of made-up stories and that there was no Ark with two of every animal, because the animals would have eaten one another!

For Scott, being gay was less of an Achilles’ heel and more of a bootstrap towards better things.

I was bullied a lot, but I was able to learn to use comedy to confuse/diffuse the situation. Survival of the wittiest instead of fittest, I guess. I definitely knew I was different. When other kids were sneaking out to drink and smoke, I was sneaking into NYC to see a Broadway show at 13. I was lucky to have family members who, although baffled by how different I was, did the best with what they knew to support my interests. They didn’t know what to make of me, but they surrounded me with love and protection, which is where I learned those skills, and I would later apply it to those in my community.

At the ripe old age of 24, Scott was headlining standup shows at Carolines on Broadway, where he wore his impressionability on his oh-so-stylish sleeve.

Early in my career I worked with writer (and all-around icon) Bruce Vilanch, who once said to me “you don’t look like most comics - so you can’t make fun of how other people look or the audience will hate you. You have to make fun of yourself first.” So, most of the time I make myself the punchline of my stories, and the payoff is always better. In life, on stage, and in politics, if you are being authentic, people pick up on it and respond. From that moment on I was always authentically myself and was never afraid to laugh at myself first. It’s kind of like that line from GYPSY, “nobody laughs at me because I laugh first - at me!” Oh god, I just casually quoted GYPSY - if ever there was a question of my sexuality. The lesson - be real and don’t take yourself too seriously!

Humility and humor go hand-in-hand with Mr. Nevins, who parlayed his love for laughter into longevity supreme.

I had an incredible ride of sustaining a career for over 20 years in one of the hardest businesses to work in. Highlights would be: opening for Barry Manilow in Vegas, appearing on CNN as a contributor, producing my yearly all-star holiday benefit called

Photo: Philip Hodges Location: Boulder2Sky, Joshua Tree CA

“Sparkle: An All-Star Holiday Concert” for 10 years strong, starring on a Bravo TV show (“The People’s Couch”) for 5 seasons, and of course the hundreds of benefits and galas that I hosted or performed at for some of our most important organizations that had special meaning to me. One fun story: when I was starting out, I would host my own fake talk show called “Scott Nevins *Presents*” at Therapy lounge in NYC. One week, Tammy Faye Messner was in town to promote her book and somehow, I booked her. The place was packed, and Tammy was incredible! I asked her if she would do my eyelashes with her mascara, and she agreed. Of course, I was still talking while she was doing it, and because I am animated, I moved, and she poked my eye with the mascara wand. In front of hundreds of people. I was suddenly blind in one eye, with Tammy Faye Messner next to me, and I had to finish the show.

Commitment is a cornerstone of Scott’s worldview. With every opportunity, he simultaneously reaches up for the big brass ring and reaches back to lift up those who need him most.

I always said that if I ever achieved any level of success that I was use it for good. As my career got bigger, so did the events and the platform. Suddenly I was traveling the country and hosting huge events for organizations like HRC, PFLAG, God’s Love We Deliver, The Matthew Shepard Foundation, Bring Change to Mind, The Point Foundation, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the NY & Los Angeles LGBT Centers, OUT & Equal Workplace Advocates, The Actors Fund (now The Entertainment Fund), San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and so many others. I was able to use comedy to bring awareness to pressing political, civil rights and social justice issues. Then, when I was on Bravo, the 2016 election was happening and I made the choice to be vocal about politics and not shy away from it the way many public figures do, because they don’t want to alienate portions of their fan base. To me, we had gone too far and seen too much (little did I know what was in store for the next four years), and it was important for me to speak up, like I had in NYC and LA with local groups fighting to help marginalized communities.

Sounding the alarm with his signature charm, Scott explains how politics is not passive. An injustice for one is an injustice for all, and the queer community is their next target.

Right now, you need to go to iwillvote.com to either register to vote or double check your registration. After what we saw happen to women’s reproductive rights, it is imperative that every LGBTQ+ person register and show up to vote! For many of us, women were our first allies, and we must stand firm with women now. The fact that their reproductive rights are on the line in 2022 is disgraceful. We cannot let this happen! Also, don’t think for a moment that they aren’t coming for us (the LGBTQ+ community) next - because they are. We need a majority to protect our rights. Sound the alarms because this is not a drill!

Summoning Sister Sledge, Scott embraces the power of connection.

Community means extended family. These are people who are in your life, whether you know it or not, every day. You can come from different places, different backgrounds, different generations, and yet still share this commonality of home together. I’m a people person, and I love helping people, but I also love learning their stories. Everyone has a story, and many will share it if you just ask. That kind of sharing creates a bond. Being a LGBTQ+ citizen, I’ve seen firsthand the power of community, and how it can save someone’s life, and empower/lift them up.

Scott’s journey from entertainer to activist ultimately inspired him to delve into uncharted territory.

For years I’ve been asked when I was running for public office, and I’d always say, “I want it to be the right position at the right time.” Well, my husband and I got married in April of 2022 (after having to postpone three times over two years because of COVID), and during that down time I really took stock of what was next for me. After our wedding I told my husband “You’re going to hate this idea, but instead of a honeymoon, what if I ran for City Council?” He has been insanely supportive, mostly because, as he put it “I know your heart, and I know that you’re doing this for all of the right reasons - you’d be an incredible councilmember.” When you look at my history of working with and advocating for marginalized communities, my leadership roles in both my career, and in my public live as a community advocate, and my special skill set from working in media, it all just made sense.

So, it’s official: Scott Nevins put a ring on it.

Running for Palm Springs City Council is truly one of the things I am most proud of - more than any of the accomplishments from my years in show business. It’s a huge swing - and the response has been so overwhelmingly positive. Lots of people kept texting me after my announcement saying, “This just makes sense” or “This is perfect for you!” It was very moving to feel so supported. This is my second mountain to climb, and I’m so excited for the journey. I cannot wait to serve this city that I love and care about so much. I have lots of ideas on how we tackle the biggest issues facing our city, and lots of plans on how we lift up every single resident so that Palm Springs is not just an oasis in the desert for visitors looking for a fun weekend, but also for those who live and work here all year round. I’m ready to get to work to make that happen!

Optimism courses through Scott’s system alongside caffeine and charisma. He perceives our glass-half-empty current situation through a half-glass-full of possibilities.

The world has changed, and America has changed too. There’s so much progress that we’ve made, but that progress is under great threat. Certain religions have driven dangerous anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs and legislation, and that has now begun to poison our Democracy. We must unify and show up to vote to stop this horrifying trajectory of sending LGBTQ+ back into the closet and stripping their rights. If you still believe that it can’t happen here, just look around - it’s already happening! Voting is the only way we can protect ourselves. I always say, “If you don’t vote, you can’t bitch!” With my work as a civil rights, LGBTQ+, and community healthcare advocate, I’ve been a part of work that actually changes people’s lives. As a Board Member of DAP Health in Palm Springs, I have been a part of something that literally saves lives. It’s very humbling, honestly, and for a guy who cares about people the way I do, it’s a beautiful feeling.

And the feeling is mutual, Mr. Nevins. Or should we say Councilman Nevins? Stay tuned, stay vigilant, and stay gay, everybody!

You can visit www.scottnevins.com for more about Scott and his mission.

Guy Branum

This BRO is Making People Laugh

Cinematic history will be made at the end of this month when Universal releases Bros, the first gay rom-com from a major theatrical studio featuring an all-LGBTQ+ principal cast. Playing best friend to the film’s lead Billy Eichner is modern-day trailblazer comedian, writer, and actor Guy Branum, who also serves as one of the film’s producers. Challenging the norms of roles not usually given to plus-size actors, his character Henry is no slacker in the sexually active department. Bros is just one of the many major projects he has recently worked on. Hot off the heels of Amazon’s series version of A League of Their Own, he worked alongside Wanda Sykes, Nick Kroll, and Ike Barinholtz writing for Mel Brooks’ highly anticipated History of the World, Part II. Oh, did we mention he’s also working on Paramount’s How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days? This Guy is busy.

This comedy maven got his start in the agricultural world of Yuba City, California. Where the heck is that?

The thing is there’s a lot of California people don’t pay attention to. When you say Northern California, people are like, “oh, San Francisco,” but the thing is, there’s still eight more hours of California north of there. So, I am from one of the shitty parts in the middle. I am from the prune capital of the world. What I learned being a Yubian is that we grow more peaches in my county in California than they do in the states of Georgia and South Carolina combined. A few agricultural facts for you.

His homelife was colorful, a collaboration of religions and holidays.

So, my dad was raised Southern Baptist and my mom was Jewish and it just meant that like, honestly, too much holiday snacking. No child should have access to both a chocolate advent calendar and latkes. [Laughs] I did, and it made me the large man I am today. But as a kid, I liked the fact that having Christmas took all pressure off Hanukkah, so then Hanukkah just got to be like a chill evening to hang around the house and play some dreidel kind of operation. Very, very civilized.

From agricultural and mixed religions, Branum emerged. Was he the class clown?

Not remotely. When you are a queer comedy person, there is a healthy likelihood that no one in your little town understood you or found you funny. People found me weird, people didn’t find me funny. It took a long time before I found an audience, and once I did, I was desperately in love with them. It means a lot to me having people who understand my material and my jokes.

His first stop after high school wouldn’t be to the writing rooms of comedy just yet. He attended UC Berkley as a history and science major. There he caused a not-so-minor stir when the US Secret Service showed up at his apartment when his column for the student-run newspaper was misquoted by the Associated Press, suggesting he was inciting the murder of President Clinton’s daughter. Already his writing was considered a hit! Literally. He then went to study law at the University of Minnesota Law School. It was during that time that he came out publicly.

“Came out publicly…” I like the idea that I had a press conference as a law student to announce myself. My press conference was a phone call to my parents, that was me coming out publicly. It was really rough - mom cries, dad gets angry. That’s how we did it back in the late ‘90s. None of these accepting parents like Jennifer Garner in Love, Simon.

What inspired him to finally come out?

Well, first was being 2000 miles away from my mother, I knew that she wouldn’t stab me during the course of the conversation. So that was helpful. July 11th is the day I came out to my parents. The week before on July 4th, I had watched a nice heterosexual couple be loving to each other. And I was just like, you’re never going to have that unless you come out of the closet and be honest about who you are. And another thing is, I was reading a book and it talks about how E.M. Forster (the guy who wrote Howard’s End and A Room with A View) never had sex with a man until he was 38. And I was like, again, that could very easily be you. So, I came out of the closet. I still never had sex with an Egyptian trolley car brakeman. So E.M. Forster has one up on me on that.

How does a newly graduated law school scholar end up in the world of comedy?

Well, there are a fair number of lawyers who end up in comedy. I think Demetri Martin went to law school, Jackie Fabulous was a lawyer. I think it’s just about wanting to be manipulative with language, wanting to herd and railroad other people by putting words together. And I definitely enjoyed that. I mean, everybody has to start somewhere. I’m a little bit weirded out by these New York comedians who all sort of did an individualized program at NYU to become a comedian, I think you should go off in some direction, realize that you hate the world that you’re in, and use that hatred to make your comedy.

Guy would get his early start at G4, a network primarily focused on video games, putting the gay in gaming. He worked as a writer on Unscrewed with Martin Sargent and would appear on-camera as The Ambassador of Gay. At that time, the gaming industry was a very straight and macho-related community. Another early credit was working on Ashton Kutcher’s MTV prank show, Punk’d. Again, MTV

Photo courtesy of GuyBrannum.com

at the time catered very much to the straight, male community. Guy’s experience with homophobia on these early projects was mixed.

It was very strange at G4. When I started out, it was such a nerd space that all nerd energies were sort of respected, and the fact that like I could successfully speak and converse in nerd earned me a lot of respect from the people I worked with. And that was great. But as time went on in, and corporations got more involved, there were more 50-year-old guys deciding what 21-year-old guys want to watch. They were like, this gay guy shouldn’t be on camera, it shouldn’t be obvious that we have gay people working here. It became one of the reasons that I left. It was just understanding that it was the space that no longer wanted me, but the people I worked with directly were all great and really progressive. I worked on this show for three years and the head writer before me was a queer woman, and the head writer after me was a gay guy. It was a pretty queer space.

Along with being The Ambassador of Gay, he also appeared on camera as the gay opinionated guy on Chelsea Lately, and performed a segment called “No Mr. Nice Gay” on FX’s Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. Looking at how far we’ve come in terms of representation, was being the token gay a harmful stereotype?

In the mid two 2000s, it was a period of time when Neil Patrick Harris had to be outed, people were still very cautious and protective and I was just like, I’m going to be as unrepentantly loud as I can be. One of the cool things about Chelsea Lately is I wasn’t the only gay, Ross Matthews was there on a regular basis. Ross and I are not the most distinct visions of what queerness can be, but it’s still two different voices, you know? It was interesting because there were gay people who were bothered by me being effeminate and there were gay people who were bothered by me being fat and didn’t like that was what was representing them. But also, that’s part of the danger that comes with not having enough representation. In the 15 years that have passed, there are just more gay people in media and it’s easier for us to not have to feel that same burden of representation on people. But I can’t talk and have people not know that I’m gay, so I needed to talk about it.

Representation has come a long way since the Jack McFarlands of Will & Grace. There’s been a big push to represent the gay community as three-dimensional characters and not just the sassy stereotypes from years before. Guy’s film Bros is a celebration of several types of representation, with Guy playing a big character with a big personality. As part of that evolution in representation, and as a comedian, does Guy think that gay stereotypes can still be funny, or maybe even a little true?

20 years ago, when I came out of the closet, so many people were scared to admit or acknowledge that there was a culture that goes along with being gay, that there is a shared community identity. That is the result of homophobic pressures, making us scared to feel that way because that isolation keeps us weak. Our culture is rich and great. The way we lead our lives is different from the way straight or CIS people lead their lives, and I’m really proud of it. And I’m proud that Billy managed to make a movie that holds that close, that really loves the community and loves queerness. Also, it’s not just gay guys in this movie, everyone in the movie is played, whether the characters are straight or gay, CIS or trans, they’re all played by queer actors - a lot of lesbians, a lot of trans men and women. It was one of the loveliest experiences I had with a group of people in my life. It was just everybody bringing their shine and sparkle to the table and not being scared of it and working together to make something that we could all be really proud of.

Guy truly has a lot to be proud of. From his early days at G4, he’s gone on to work on Comedy Central’s The Other Two, Hulu’s The Mindy Project, Fashion Police on E!, MTV’s Awkward, TruTV’s Billy on the Street and Talk Show The Game Show (as host and executive producer), and appeared as Natalie Portman’s bestie in No Strings Attached. As a comedian, he took part in the eighth season of Last Comic Standing and most recently, in Netflix’s Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration. Another glowing achievement is his memoir My Life as a Goddess, featuring his candid opinions and humor in essays about anti-fat bias and the representation of gays in the media, hailed by NPR and Entertainment Weekly. With his varied resume and big-name projects flowing his way, how does he prioritize what’s next?