December 5, 2020

James Corden denounced for doing "gayface" in the Netflix movie of the Broadway show "The Prom."

Gone are the days when a nongay actor won praise for playing a gay person. I guess this is like the way they don't stage "Othello" with a white actor in dark makeup and that old-time performance would be called "blackface." A nongay actor playing gay is doing "gayface." 

But what's the gay equivalent of dark makeup? Arguably, it's worse than a white actor putting on dark makeup to play a black person, which is mimicking an objective, outward trait. It's an affectation of stereotypical gestures and speech patterns and so forth. 

What do you need to do to read as gay? Has the answer become just don't do it?

I'm reading "James Corden Under Fire For ‘The Prom’ Performance: 'The Worst Gayface in a Long, Long Time'" (Decider). Here's the trailer. Corden is the actor playing a fat gay man. I don't think he's in what might be called "fatface" (that is, he's actually fat and not wearing a fat suit, I believe).

 

Here's the Vanity Fair review by Richard Lawson: "James Corden Should Have Been Banned from The Prom/Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman are merely wasted in Netflix’s Broadway musical adaptation—but Corden's performance is insulting." 

Corden, who is straight, is so bad in The Prom—somehow both appalling and terminally bland—that it had me thinking maybe the hardliners were right along. Forget the whole case-by-case thing: No more straight actors playing gay men until the sins of The Prom are properly atoned for. [The director, Ryan] Murphy, a gay man, has led some straight actors into fertile gay territory before.... But Corden, flitting and lisping around in the most uninspired of caricatures, misses all potential for nuance, and thus never finds even a hint of truth in the role. And this is in a movie that’s supposed to be about empowering queer people!

It's hard to believe that the era of straight actors playing gay people is over. Look at all the actors who have in very recent years won awards for doing just that. Maybe the problem is the stereotypical gay character. It's one thing for Rami Malek, a straight man, to play Freddie Mercury, a gay man — a grand narrative about a specific person — but quite something else to have a generic gay guy clowning for cheap laughs.

182 comments:

rhhardin said...

Historically gays have affected amusing. Now they're affecting militant. It's still amusing.

Marcus Bressler said...

Denounce his performance because it's terrible, not because of some SJW wokeness about "gayface". So if a gay did the SAME exact performance, would it be okay?

David Begley said...

Nice dance numbers.

The critics need to cool their jets.

rhhardin said...

I forget who was the first gay to climb Everest. It was recent.

David Begley said...

We screenwriters have a saying. “it’s just a movie.”

chuck said...

Who cares about gay, I want to know why are old people having a Prom.

wendybar said...

Democrats are assholes. It's called ACTING for a reason.

Kevin said...

In the future, CGI of gay characters will have to be written and executed by gay programmers on computers sold by gay salespeople running on chips designed, manufactured, and assembled by gay workers, using electricity from solar panels designed, manufactured, installed and maintained by gay technicians.

And it won’t stop there.

Howard said...

I thought Corden was gay. Watched the clip, he appears and acts more straight than his normal tv persona.

Kevin said...

Wait a minute: James Corden isn’t gay?

John henry said...

Okay then. No more gay actors, closeted or out, playing non-gay roles.

I'm a pretty tolerant, liberal, live and let live kind of guy. This constant need for special treatment is going just too far. Even for me.

Fuck 'em.

John Henry

mezzrow said...

In the purity spiral, none shall escape. Yet...

At some point, the condemned may turn on their prosecutors. When they understand the degree to which they outnumber those who would cancel them, the job will be done. Quickly?

If we see it in our lifetimes, yes.

rhhardin said...

As Good as It Gets nancing round. (google adds ad) The guy himself plays gay but doesn't act it.

Howard said...

I like how the Broadway elites are going to fix the deplorable infestation one prom at a time.

Curious George said...

He should have sucked a cock. Discussion over. Well, "Prom" discussion anyway.

J2 said...


Viggo Mortensen plays gay man in film he wrote and directed. "Falling"

From the Advocate:

"Viggo Mortensen Suggests He May Not Be 'Completely Straight'"

https://www.advocate.com/film/2020/12/02/viggo-mortensen-suggests-he-may-not-be-completely-straight

Kevin said...

How much of the current catalog must be made unavailable due to the new rules?

When do the warning labels get added as an interim measure?

How soon can Twitter block non-gay people from discussing gay topics?

The common good is just standing there, double-dog-daring the anointed to zero-sum it another increment.

Wilbur said...

I watched the first 60 seconds. Seems the general theme is: "Indiana? Ewwwww!"

I've got no problem with anybody accompanying whoever they want (human) to the prom.

Curious George said...

"It's one thing for Rami Malek, a straight man, to play Freddie Mercury, a gay man"

Mercury was bisexual.

Phil 314 said...

Well now I’ really pissed at Rock Hudson. We need to ban his movies or at least have a clear, firm warning at the beginning as we now do with “Gone with the Wind”.

Curious George said...

"David Begley said...
Nice dance numbers."

Sounds like you would be okay playing the part.

mezzrow said...

"Viggo Mortensen Suggests He May Not Be 'Completely Straight'"

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made. Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be built. From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned. - Kant

When I look at Elliot Page I feel as though I too may not be completely straight, I confess.

Howard said...

Call me old-fashioned but I really miss the don't ask don't tell days

stevew said...

I don't care. About them and their outrage. I did find this post and commentary interesting though.

Fernandinande said...

As Barney said, "Nip it!"

Before you know it we'll have homosexual actors playing heterosexuals, and professional actors portraying people of other professions.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

atop google...

"What is "gayface," actually? Here's one of the many Urban Dictionary definitions of “Gayface”: “Gayface” is the look that gay men have that enables other gay men to quickly identify them as “family” no matter what they're doing, wearing, or saying. Gayface is identifiable in photos. Jul 15, 2020"

Sally327 said...

If Corden were any color other than white would he still be criticized like this?

I haven't seen this movie but is it possible that acting gay in a cliched over-the-top manner was exactly the point?

James Corden is extremely funny in a two season series called "The Wrong Mans" that you can watch on Hulu, maybe some other places as well. Along with Mathew Baynton, another funny guy, although warning there is gay related humor in this.

I was watching an old episode of "The Larry Sanders Show" recently and Don Rickles was on making some gay jokes. Not today he wouldn't. Which may be for the best actually.

carrie said...

So does that mean that gay actors can no longer play "whiteface"?

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

It still bothers me that Ian McKellen isn't really a wizard.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Stereotypes exist for a reason. They are commonly observed instances of behaviour. Not all people who are 'whatever' act the same but when the actions are widely observed humans will be making conclusions on those observations. Not all Irish are heavy drinkers, not all Hispanics want to take a daily siesta and look for manana, not all homosexuals or lesbians act the same either. Rock Hudson anyone?

Observing, measuring and concluding are how humans and other animals survive. How we classify things, animals other people as being dangerous, acting different from the norm (which usually indicates sick to be avoided), or harmless and amusing.

If we are going to be so very strict.....no one can act other than what they are....then what do we make of trans dressing. Men who wear women's clothing. How DARE THEY!!! or Women who dress all "butch" and act like men. NOT ALLOWED.

Films and plays are now toast. No way to just ACT. You must BE the THING.

Maybe the only way to act like something you aren't is to just BECOME that thing. Anthony Hopkins should have killed at least 10 people and ate their livers before acting in Silence of the Lambs and Jodie Foster isn't a REAL FBI agent. The total NERVE of them.

This must be STOPPED!!!!!

michaele said...

In the trailer, Corden doesn't seem to be mockingly over exaggerated in gay mannerisms. The one that has gotten to me lately is a TV commercial for Uber Eats that has the gymnast Simone Biles dong a routine and then a totally over the top caricature of a gay guy imitating her routine. I looked up who the male was and he is a known gay performer but, jeez, his mincing and prancing seemed insulting to gays. But, hey, here I am talking about the commercial so I guess Uber Eats got its money's worth.

Birches said...

If Corden were any color other than white would he still be criticized like this?

Yep. Think about that black guy from Kimmy Schmidt. Whi isn't that offensive?

I had a moment of weakness to re-up Netflix yesterday after I watched the Selena trailer (it became available yesterday). After watching The Prom trailer, I'm not sure I'll ever contemplate reupping again. It looked awful. Was that really a successful musical? Ugh.

Conservachusetts said...

How was the character played in the original? Perhaps he was simply carrying on an already developed character. Also, wasn’t Freddie bisexual?

alanc709 said...

Can we now denounce gays for taking the roles of straight actors?

Whiskeybum said...

And why all of the emphasis on gayness anyway? Bohemian Rhapsody was about the rise of the rock group Queen. When looking for actors to tell this story, does every single aspect about someone's personality, skills, etc. have to mimic exactly those of the person(s) being portrayed? If the real-life person is vegetarian, does the actor also have to be vegetarian? How is that important to conveying the story? This is just a make-work program for gay actors.

If you want to look at excluding actors lacking bona fide credentials that are a marginalized group (at least by Hollywood), then no more real life progressives playing the parts of conservatives!

(Hey - this victimization shtick is fun!)

MartyH said...

Isn’t the gay director as much to blame as the actor?

Iman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Patrick said...

"It's hard to believe that the era of straight actors playing gay people is over."
It's harder to believe the era of gay storyline brainwashing is NOT over. It's been at least 30 years, and a total success. At this point they're just running up the score. I'd have thought Hollywood would have found a new cause by now.

Phil 314 said...

And now I’m equally pissed at all those Hollywood actors who portrayed Republicans. Clearly they don’t understand the struggles Republicans have endured.

RMc said...

Gone are the days when a nongay actor won praise for playing a gay person.

Gone are the days when anybody won praise for doing anything.

Jeff Brokaw said...

I don’t get why anyone cares. It’s First World Problem whining.

Pretty embarrassing, actually.

gilbar said...

i Like this New World!
Gays can ONLY play Gay Roles!
Blacks can ONLY play Black Roles

wait, that's Not what you're talking about, is it?

Rory said...

I thought it said grayface.

iowan2 said...

Am I wrong that theater was comprised of whores and gays, 4000 years ago? Seeking any kind of personal validation or life lessons from entertainers is always going to be wrong.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

I'm more offended that the gay director is instructing the straight cast members how to portray their characters. As if.

alanc709 said...

I missed the uproar denouncing J. K. Rowling for having a black actress portray Hermione in "Cursed Child", I guess.

cf said...

i dont care. do you?

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

I guess maybe he's qualified to instruct on how to act gay. But is he fat, too?

Laslo Spatula said...

Freddie Mercury was played by an actor with Frog Face.

Which doesn't seem right.

I am Laslo.

Political Junkie said...

I am trying to care, but...

Laslo Spatula said...

Corden's problem is that he probably didn't look hungry enough for cock.

Fat gay guys have that 'hungry for cock' look.

It's in the eyes, mostly.

I am Laslo.

Temujin said...

So much useless drivel here, from Netflix- which as a rule, I ignore. A useless parade of meh entertainment. James Cordon- I still don't get how people think he's a talent. Gay history movies. Meh. In line with Netflix offerings. Does the left ever ever tire of this shit? And finally...jokes about Indiana. Who couldn't see that coming? Hell...my own family living there jokes about it. But they also love it.

I wonder, will the Midwest ever be acceptable to the Northeast?

I think we know the answer.

Someone help me with the James Cordon thing. Does anyone think he's funny? (I put him in the Leslie Jones category. Huh? Who thought she was funny?)

Darrell said...

What if he changes his pronouns? Can't he play a straight woman?

Laslo Spatula said...

This would've been the perfect opportunity for Corden to announce that 'one time in college' experiment thing with the alcohol and the older grad student who wore that wooly scarf and kinda looked like a young Donald Sutherland.

He would be loved, and now a Serious ACTOR.

Just for saying he sucked a cock once.

What a pussy.

I am Laslo.

Doug said...

Maybe it's me, and my age (67) and stage of life, but I am happy that the entertainment industry is making it so easy not to care about them any more.

Never a fan of musical theatre, but have deeply loved dozens of films. Grew up on TV news and entertainment. Now I find that my subscriptions to netflix and prime video offer me a conduit to a vast dumping ground of'product' - with so little of it enjoyable at even a base level. The sheer volume of this bilge has convinced me that reading and playing music have so much better returns.

Network news - swore off during W's admin. Sitcoms and dramas ... have you SEEN the insulting garbage they run through your boob tube every night?

Said it before, but the Oscars, Emmies, Tonys, and all the rest are just the entertainment industry's way of taking time out to tell me how much they despise me.

Hopefully, this kind of victim group infighting will cleanse the industry of its viruses. Either that, or make their presence among us even more obvious and repellent.

Anonymous said...

Freddie Mercury is bisexual. So you'd have to fire the gay guys, too.

(Maybe the future will be even more specific. "Only people who have slept with Marilyn Monroe can play Joe Dimaggio.")

It's insulting to think that you know what it's like to sleep with Marilyn Monroe. There'a look in the eye that can't be faked. And I'm sorry, but you are overplaying it, sir. You are a ham. You have not slept with Marilyn Monroe. So go back to Iowa, you fraud.

Tina Trent said...

Didn't gay men invent drag?

Michael K said...

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at these fools.

Blogger Howard said...
Call me old-fashioned but I really miss the don't ask don't tell days


Nice job on the election. Welcome to the new gayness. Ask and shout.

tim maguire said...

The hypocrisy is so blatant—can a gay actor play a straight character?—that it’s depressing that such vile stupidity is entertained at all. And there’s no justification for it. Gays have been sufficiently accepted into society that there is no need for these silly “‘protections.”

Laslo Spatula said...

No one had a problem with Mickey Rooney playing a gay Japanese man in "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

I mean, they had a problem with the Japanese part, but people seemed cool with the gay thing.

Maybe because he was friends with Judy Garland.

I am Laslo.

Kate said...

My daughter introduced me to Corden's Carpool Karaoke on youtube. He rides around with a celebrity and they sing that person's songs together. He's good on the improv, and not a bad singer. Not offensive, mildly entertaining. That was his wheelhouse, but apparently he blew it.

Laslo Spatula said...

Philip Seymour Hoffman played a fat gay guy in 'Boogie Nights' and was lauded for it.

But that's because he was able to get the 'hungry for cock' look down.

Not sure how he did that.

Maybe he pretended the other male actors had Big Macs between their legs.

Because I bet Philip Seymour Hoffman liked himself a Big Mac.

I am Laslo.

DanTheMan said...

>>It's hard to believe that the era of straight actors playing gay people is over.

It's time to recast Hamilton, then? No gay black men playing straight white guys.

Is that the new rule?

Gahrie said...

If it's not OK for a straight man to play a gay man, why is it OK for a gay man to play a straight man?

Rory said...

"It's time to recast Hamilton, then? No gay black men playing straight white guys."

All historical figures are black or gay, as needed.

Howard said...

It's not over yet, Mike. Don's still $200 million short of his balloon payment to the CCP. Keep Hope Alive.

DanTheMan said...

>>If it's not OK for a straight man to play a gay man, why is it OK for a gay man to play a straight man?

Some are more equal than others.

Howard said...

You messed up, Laslo. PSH preferred the Jumbo Jack

cacimbo said...

Soon only "reality" shows/movies will be permitted.Only you can play fake you.

Howard said...

Double meat whopper anyone.

farmgirl said...

Good.
Good good good.
These woke, better-than, “student of the new ethics”, privileged, smug-faced pricks can suck it.
Instapundit has a similar post: an artist, Sam someone- whose woke art back in whatever year wasn’t 2020 is
now in danger of being painted over as offensive. B/c “people like this” are always oh-so-surprised
when the shit they’ve pulled is pulled on them.

Good.

Lurker21 said...

I guess the way around this is to claim that everybody is a little bit gay and a little bit straight, so it doesn't matter. Freddie Mercury was only a little bit straight and a whole lotta gay. James Corden, who whenever I tune in is always saying "Tell us about your fabulous new movie," is at least a little bit gay.

Today's more masculine gay men and more feminine lesbians resent the old stereotypes, just like today's educated self-confident African-Americans resent the old Negro stereotypes, but one suspects that behind closed doors they mock old-style gay effeminate male and butch female stereotypes, just like heteros do.

tcrosse said...

Think of all those movies where Rock Hudson, a closeted gay man, played closeted gay men opposite Doris Day.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Why all of Hollywood can go to hell.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

why is it OK for lilly white progressive leftwing "entertainers" of hillarywoodland - tp be racist white supremacists?

mockturtle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laslo Spatula said...

"You messed up, Laslo. PSH preferred the Jumbo Jack"

Howard, that is a good alternative.

However, the Big Mac has one thing that people know on a subconscious level: "secret sauce".

'Secret sauce" is a joke by itself that doesn't need to be said: a lot of people will fill in that blank.

Put 'secret sauce' in the context of a desperate man hungry for cock and the humor practically spurts all over itself.

I am Laslo.

mockturtle said...

Gays I have known had a sense of humor. Gay isn't very gay these days.

Sebastian said...

"quite something else to have a generic gay guy clowning for cheap laughs"

Generic! Clowning! Cheap! Laughs!

None of that should be allowed. It's deplorable, utterly deplorable.

Chris said...

I remember a time when we had Actors, who would pretend to be a different person for entertainment. Those were the good ol days. Now no one acts anymore. We had to shut down our production of Sleepy Hallow because we couldn't find any living headless horsepersons. Ah.. such is life.

Laslo Spatula said...

Speaking of fat actors: I always had a hard time watching John Candy -- he always seemed so desperate for affection.

But then, maybe the desperation was that he was closeted, and was hungry for cock in a world that wouldn't let him be hungry for cock and still star in "Uncle Buck."

Something to consider.

I am Laslo.

n.n said...

Today's more masculine gay men and more feminine lesbians resent the old stereotypes

In a couplet there is equal and complementary, not in Nature, but rather in nature (i.e. masculine and feminine gender).

one suspects that behind closed doors they mock old-style gay effeminate male and butch female stereotypes

Trans/homosexuals resent the social proximity and, ironically, political congruence ("="), of other classes in the transgender spectrum ("Rainbow"). They take gay pride in their purity and physical integrity relative to trans/bisexuals, trans/intersexuals, and the indoctrinated and medically corrupted trans/neosexuals.

mockturtle said...

If it's not OK for a straight man to play a gay man, why is it OK for a gay man to play a straight man?

Because there are only so many casting choices in Hollywood. ;-)

rosebud said...

This aligns with an issue I had with Will and Grace. The title gay character was played by a straight man (sexually straight man, not comedic straight man), while the other gay character was stereotypically over-the-top gay. Yet it was loved by the gay community, despite being a predictable plotline show, so much that it was revived from the dead a year ago. Why is that?

Michael K said...

Blogger Howard said...
It's not over yet, Mike. Don's still $200 million short of his balloon payment to the CCP. Keep Hope Alive.


Howard, you are confused again. The $200 million is Joe's ! Performance bonus. Joe and the Ho are ready to perform, as long as Xi approves.

Tina848 said...

But what about gay actors playing straight? Guess that is ok?

Linda said...

Well one of my pet peeves is when “older” actors play high school students and it is obvious. Honestly I haven’t heard about this ?new? Movie but looked up the two actresses. Ariana DeBose was born in 1991 - making her 29 years old and Jo Ellen Pellman was born in 1995 so she is 25. Clearly these young women are not still of High School age and should not be pretending that they are . . . Oh, wait, isn’t that what an actor does? Pretend to be someone that they are not! Our world gets weirder and weirder every single day.
I saw on Twitter yesterday that Ellen Page, of Juno fame, is now identifying as ‘he or him’ and his name is now Elliot. So he can now only play male roles, right? Or does it have to be transgender roles? I can’t keep it straight.

Unknown said...

Really hard for gays to get ahead in Hollywood

Laslo Spatula said...

Martin Short is another actor who's desperation for affection makes him hard for me to watch.

But if that desperation is actually that of a closeted man hungry for cock then that adds some poignancy to it.

So maybe the key to watching Martin Short is to assume he is closeted and hungry for cock, and then there is some bittersweet context.

Otherwise he's just an overly-needy Rick Moranis.

I am Laslo.

boatbuilder said...

Such courage!

Looks like a fine piece of entertainment for those who enjoy that sort of thing, but spare us the MLK at Selma Rosa Parks heroic crap.

40 years ago Anita Bryant said something anti-gay in public and her career ended.

It still takes personal courage to tell your straight friends and family that you are gay, but the idea that in today's world anyone is going to say you can't bring a same-sex date to the prom, or that it would even result in more than a gossipy sneer or two, is profoundly silly. (Maybe it's set in 1985 or something and I missed that).

Of course the idea that I should object to silliness in what amounts to a Hollywoodized Broadway show is pretty silly too, I suppose.

Coming out as gay in 2020 is about as bad for your social and professional prospects as coming out in support of BLM. As in not at all.

9 years ago my son told us, and his friends, that he is gay. It was personally very difficult for him, but virtually everyone he knows was and has been completely supportive. I shudder to think what it would have been like if he'd been born 30 or 20 or even 10 years earlier--the change in attitudes has been that drastic.

Call me when they make a positive biopic about Richard Grenell or Milo Yiannopoulis. That would take courage.

Lurker21 said...

Mickey Rooney's Mr. Yunioshi was an offensive Japanese stereotype, but was he really gay? That doesn't appear to be a widespread view, though it seems like most of the other characters in the book are assumed to be gay.

"Gay" in the Sixties was complicated. "Homosexuals" were those "men in the shadows" in documentaries that they showed after the kids had gone to bed. Just what Paul Lynde was supposed to be wasn't clear to my child's mind. Just a guy who acted funny to get a laugh?

Modern Family was sort of like Will and Grace - one gay actor and one straight actor. Maybe camping it up is more acceptable when one character is actually homosexual.

Biff said...

As with most stories these days about someone being "under fire," is it really anything more than just a handful of people on twitter complaining about stuff, their complaints amplified wildly out of proportion by the twitter algorithm, and then a few "journalists" knowing clickbait when they see it?

LYNNDH said...

So no more watching Rock Hudson and Doris Day, right? I mean a Gay Man playing a straight man should also be taboo.

mockturtle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Oso Negro said...

Blogger Lurker21 said...
I guess the way around this is to claim that everybody is a little bit gay and a little bit straight, so it doesn't matter.


This can be easily fixed. Kamala can establish a Ministry of Love and order all children sent to mandatory Homosexual Immersion Camp. There, elementary school age children will enjoy a practicum on same sex relations. If you can get boys sucking dick before they are 10 years old and girls eating pussy by the same age, you have a real chance at a world where queers don't feel queer for being queer. Plus, a big step on the road to acceptance of pederasty and pedophilia, which may be desired end of our cultural betters.

mockturtle said...

If anyone remembers The Boys in the Band [1970] they will recall that, while all the characters were gay as well as many, if not most, of the cast, IIRC, there was a scene where a very 'nelly' gay man satirized a straight man asking about the Cubs' chance at the pennant. It was funny as was much of the play/film, including the line, "Give me Librium or give me meth". But the end was tragic and the play told, IMO, a sad truth about the gay lifestyle of the times.

At the time I had a lot of gay friends and there was always an element of pathos in spite of the drollery. Not because of any discrimination or lack of acceptance but because, deep down, they knew that what they were doing was self-destructive. This point was corroborated somewhat by Randy Shilts' epic chronology, And the Band Played On.

Roughcoat said...

Oh no. The gays are upset. Again.

bagoh20 said...

I thought that was called "fuckface", because ..., well, it's right there in the name.

Marcus Bressler said...

I'll believe in progress when Alec Baldwin is criticized for "MAGAface".

THEOLDMAN

If I let Elliot (Ellen) Page blow me, does that make me gay?

Roughcoat said...

Mercury was bisexual.

There's no such thing as bisexual. There is only heterosexual and homosexual. If you have same-sex sex, you're gay.

Bisexual is gay.

traditionalguy said...

Being an emotionally sensitive man that enjoys art and classical music does not make a man gay. Being in lust for other men does that. Don’t let jealous assholes set the rules.

Jupiter said...

Once we have pre-natal testing for homosexuality, there won't be any gay men. Then what?

Big Mike said...

If I let Elliot (Ellen) Page blow me, does that make me gay?

@Marcus, you’d be a braver man than I.

JAORE said...

Was that really a successful musical?

Sure because there are tons of people that want to immerse themselves in something that they use to polish their, "I'm woke. I'm one of the (better than you)good guys!"

And it reinforces the victim hood status of those who are gay.

I have a teen family member that has announced she is gay. I know of NO member of the family that is offended at this. But her on-line feed is filled with scenes where a gay hater makes a remark and the gay person/she has a "blistering" retort.

I suspect zero percent of these are scenes she has witnessed, but she wears her victim hood like a crown.

tcrosse said...

Sincerely Yours (1955) starred Liberace (!) as a straight man. It's great fun.

Roughcoat said...

Once we have pre-natal testing for homosexuality, there won't be any gay men. Then what?

Assuming there really is a gay gene, and nurture has nothing to do with it.

I Callahan said...

They don’t call them the “Gay-stapo” for nothing. You will be MADE to care.

tcrosse said...

Martin Short is another actor who's desperation for affection makes him hard for me to watch.

Martin Short is the Canadian Jerry Lewis.

wendybar said...

Tom Cruise should denounce all the shows he has been in then....No more action films showing him as a heterosexual then. If identity matters, it should matter for all parts and people.

Anonymous said...

I assume then that no gay actors are allowed to play straights and Bi's only get to work once every ten years?

Iman said...

Because I bet Philip Seymour Hoffman liked himself a Big Mac.

He did. And it killed him. That and the hard drugs.

Howard said...

"no gay actors were actually hurt during filming the following depicted scenes"

Lucien said...

Never go full retard, either.

bagoh20 said...

"If I let Elliot (Ellen) Page blow me, does that make me gay?"

In 2020, it doesn't even mean you're a male. It used to be 100% probative.

Bilwick said...

I'm still not clear on what what "gayface" is. I'm curious because, a straight man, my travels an adventures in the Arty World has brought me into frequent social contact with homosexuals, and I have noticed that they often employ facial expressions that heterosexual men do not; although what those facial expressions are (other than more frequent eye-rolling than I think a straight man would be prone to do), I am unable to say. I watched the trailer mainly to see Corden do a "gayface," and if he did it, I missed it.

As for the trailer: Ho-hum. Hollywood "liberals" congratulating themselves on being brave for sticking up for Gays--and then probably turning around an going forth to shill for Statism.

Obadiah said...

Biff said...

As with most stories these days about someone being "under fire," is it really anything more than just a handful of people on twitter complaining about stuff, their complaints amplified wildly out of proportion by the twitter algorithm, and then a few "journalists" knowing clickbait when they see it?

Bingo!

cassandra lite said...

"Forget the whole case-by-case thing: No more straight actors playing gay men..."

Wonder if this works the other way, too. If so, bad news for gay actors who just want to have a normal career.

Big Mike said...

Maybe the future will be even more specific. "Only people who have slept with Marilyn Monroe can play Joe Dimaggio."

There was a time when there was more of them than there were people with 2200 big league hits.

JaimeRoberto said...

Where's Titus when you need him?

Paul Zrimsek said...

We've inadvertently reinvented so many other aspects of Victorianism that it was only a matter of time before we got around to the idea that acting is inherently dodgy.

Lurker21 said...

Corden looks like a throwback to an older style of entertainment and talk shows. He isn't as political as Colbert or Meyers, or as edgy and borderline as the early Letterman. He's more in the old "I love showbiz" mode of Merv Griffin and whoever Merv's British analogue was. Des O'Connor, maybe?

A little Corden goes a long way, but in 20 years people may look back on him with nostalgia, like the old music hall, vaudeville, Benny Hill, the Borscht Belt, or Sinatra and the Rat Pack - things despised in their own day by sophisticates, but remembered with affection afterwards.

n.n said...

Once we have pre-natal testing for homosexuality, there won't be any gay men. Then what?

The consensus is that transgender orientations have either a genetic source, phenotypic cause, or indoctrinated progression.

There's no such thing as bisexual.

The transgender spectrum ("Rainbow") is not black and white, or even brown, but it is colorful. Just imagine, you can abort the baby and have her, too.

Yancey Ward said...

If you aren't willing to suck cock or take it up the ass to get a role in a Hollywood movie, then you shouldn't be allowed to act in one.

Lurker21 said...

Bisexuals exist, and there will probably be more of them in the pansexual future, but many celebrities described as bisexuals are gays who happened to have heterosexual intercourse on occasion.

Gay genes? At best they predisposition people to homosexuality. Intrauterine and postnatal factors may play a bigger role. Moreover, homosexuality has to some extent become a lifestyle. Not necessarily a choice, but something some people do in a way "choose."

"Gayface"? It's like gaydar, I guess. Sometimes people get it right. Sometimes they don't. Or it's like "microexpressions": something that's there but not a fail-proof sign.

Wince said...

Worse, they cut the pommel horse scene!

SGT Ted said...

Freddy wasn't gay. He was bisexual. He also did not make his sexuality the central identity of his Self, unlike the queer activists of today.

Fernandinande said...

It's hard to believe that the era of straight actors playing gay people is over.

It's hard to believe you made that prediction based on two catty reviews of one movie.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Fine. "How I Met Your Mother" needs to be flushed down the toilet because "Barney" was played by gay actor Neil Patrick Harris. Barney was the stereotypical one-night-stand swinger who could sweep any woman off her feet and bed her in no time flat. Nice to know the new rules.

The objectional thing about "Prom" is how the woke fashonistas from Broadway come to Indiana to raise the deplorables from their state of hellscape into the heaven of Leftist-think. These Broadway "heroes" will make the deplorables obey Broadway group-think whether the deplorables want to be so transformed or not. Such good little fascists.

mockturtle said...

Might as well ban all those old Rock Hudson movies.

mockturtle said...

Paul Zrimsec opines: We've inadvertently reinvented so many other aspects of Victorianism that it was only a matter of time before we got around to the idea that acting is inherently dodgy.

From what I've read, Victorians were particularly passionate in their lovemaking. Maybe sex is more exciting when it's not shoved in your face all the time.

Arashi said...

Well think of all the possibilites. Only dead people can play dead people, if teh movie has a character that gets murdered during the movie, then the actor palying that part has to get murdered, only people with missing limbs, etc. Pretty soon it all gets a bit effing stupid.

But stupid is where we are at, and unless the pendulum moves back the other way it is going to get a whole lot more stupid before things shift. 2020 has turned out to be the year the entire world went batshit crazy and started saying out loud all the stuff one is supposed to keep inside, plus acting out on all the crazy.

But Merry Christmas, Happy Hannaku, a zippy Kwansa, and for the rest of you, a very dark and miserable wall of doom.

Mazal tov.. me, I'll be in my bunker.

PM said...

Gays don't like to made fun of OKAY!!!

Deanna said...

"No more straight actors playing gay men until the sins of The Prom are properly atoned..."

the word 'for' at the end of that sentence was on the next line. My brain saw 'atoned' momentarily (though it still wants to go there) as 'stoned'. As in - they are sinning and must be publicly stoned. There will be no atoning, only stoning, for your gay misappropriation sins.

KellyM said...

Blogger J2 said...

"Viggo Mortensen plays gay man in film he wrote and directed. "Falling"
From the Advocate:
"Viggo Mortensen Suggests He May Not Be 'Completely Straight'" "

Well, having been married to Exene Cervenka was likely the cause of that.

ALP said...

Theory: if James was better looking and slim, there would be no complaints.

Larry J said...

"Forget the whole case-by-case thing: No more straight actors playing gay men..."

There are also complaints about able bodied actors playing handicapped characters, and of course white actors portraying non-white characters. Ok, how about not letting leftist actors portray conservative characters. This political blackface must stop!

Blair said...

My favourite show in the '80s was the British comedy 'Allo 'Allo. It featured Guy Siner, who is straight, playing a gay German officer with a crush on a straight French cafe owner, played by Gordon Kaye, who was gay in real life.

I believe this is why they call it "acting".

ALP said...

Also - no more actors playing parents unless they have kids of their own.

Narr said...

U peepul get up early and cover all the bases, so --

What y'all said!

The modern latenight goofs have never amused me much-- the self-regard is too apparent and the one-way zingers are too cheap to be mistaken for wit. Corden seems just about the modal model of the type.

I watched some of a Jim Gaffigan stand-up show from 2019 last night. I didn't notice anything particularly political-- he earns the laughs the old-fashioned way. His edgy jokes actually have some edge-- the family visit to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam for instance.

To quote as best I can from Timothy Dalton's treasonous "Errol Flynn" character in The Rocketeer, who comes out as a Nazi after a seeming triumph, "That's why they call it acting, my dear."

Narr
Let the gays wristfight if they want

ALP said...

BTW - I went to a rural high school in upstate NY; around 75 in my graduating class. Broke ass rural high schools don't have much $$$ for proms and such. I did not go to mine - only 12 couples did. I call bullshit!!!!!

And one can skip the prom and be just fine.

tcrosse said...

I get the feeling that a lot of gays are still seeking revenge for having been bullied in high school.

YoungHegelian said...

And, of course, we all know that in the original Norse legends, Heimdall was African.

This has no rhyme or reason other than "All Art Must Serve The Revolution".

Freeman Hunt said...

Isn't this premise at least thirty years too late?

Richard Dolan said...

Really? This is the best Hollywood can come up with for today's exercise in outrage from the deplorables? The whole idea of the movie is so dated. As a trigger for outrage in today's cultural context, the Prom/PTA thing is just a silly send-up of Hollywood's idea of small town deplorables, more stereotyped and agenda-driven than anything in a supposedly stereotyped gay-face performance. Given how dated the basic idea for the movie is, there is even some justice in having one of the gay characters portrayed in an equally dated and stereotyped gay-face performance (assuming the reviewer's characterization of Corden's performance is fair, which frankly seems doubtful).

Some people just can't abide the idea that certain cultural battles have long since been fought and won.

Narr said...

OK, I went back and watched a full minute (60 seconds!) of the trailer. I repeat my earlier comments.

My upscale all white modern high school had proms etc, but I never went to any. Nor any games (except as wingman for a friend hooking up with a girl), nor the play (except from backstage senior year with theater-curious friends), nor much of anything school-related, really.

The only prom I went to was the one at the RC girls' school my (now) wife attended.

Narr
1972, the same year I worked for McGovern's campaign

mockturtle said...

And no actress playing a virgin when she's not.

UplayOnline said...




ALLBET

Casino Deluxe

Joe Smith said...

"Mercury was bisexual."

Sure he was, wink-wink. That explains all the leather : )

I live in a part of the country with a large 'out' population and know and interact with many gay men.

I've only met one gay man in my entire life that could have been taken for straight.

I have never met an openly gay woman that could 'pass.'

There is (almost) always a 'tell.'

Howard said...

Blogger tcrosse said...
I get the feeling that a lot of gays are still seeking revenge for having been bullied in high school.


Yeah this explains the loose talk about civil War as well

Narr said...

Joe Smith says, "I've only met one gay man in my entire life that could have been taken for straight."

And I say, how can you be certain of that?

I have been surprised both ways in my life, more than once--that some person was gay, or that another person wasn't, so my gaydar isn't all that sensitive.

Narr
Then again, I was a librarian, so . . .

David Begley said...

Here’s a recent quote from my dear friend Francis Ford Coppola.

”Film is an illusion. The audience just sees a lot of shadows on the screen. The emotion is in the audience. The trick is giving them something that unleashes that and suddenly they endow the images with their emotion. My theory is, when people say a movie is beautiful, I don’t think it can be unless there is beauty in the audience.”

walter said...

Isn't it more about the casting and director?

Joe Smith said...

"And I say, how can you be certain of that?"

My post, taken in context, was meant to convey gay men/women who are 'out.'

It only reinforces my point that gays (who are covering it up) can, indeed, pass for straight.

Once they are out there is some sort of pressure to conform to gay 'culture' that ends up giving them away...

Big Mike said...

mockturtle (2:24) for the WIN!

bagoh20 said...

Corden, is an excellent choice to play a gay guy. I always thought he was gay, until recently learning otherwise. He doesn't even have to act.

Iman said...

Yeah this explains the loose talk about civil War as well

And the low-T, leftwing behind-a-keyboard taunts from your MIL’s basement.

donald said...

Glenn Burke! Wow. Hadn’t thought about him in a couple of decades or so.

Joe Smith said...

"From what I've read, Victorians were particularly passionate in their lovemaking."

Only a Victorian could 'pull it off.'

Phil 314 said...

"I guess the way around this is to claim that everybody is a little bit gay and a little bit straight"

You mean like this?

Mark O said...

Who knew that all these actors and actresses wanted to be in their own High School Musical.

Narr said...

Joe, I know. It was a joke about how we know what (we think) we know.

So, with my lanky, clean-cut diffidence, I was perfect for the role of the sensitive and now that I think about it probably gay young pianist in the mental institution, one of the four or five key nuts in the class play at my (not yet) girlfriend's/wife's RC school. (Diagram that!)

I had to fake some piano playing, hit my marks, and deliver my lines clearly, which I managed somehow. It did cure me of stage fright per se, and I auditioned for one play in college (on a whim) but I never did act or work backstage again.

Narr
Lots of gay in the university theater program of course


Ken B said...

Is anyone surprised at how inconsistent Althouse is here? Or can only murderers play murderers, only boxers play boxers, only doctors play doctors?

Ken B said...

Don’t worry Birkel. You can still play weasels.

Freeman Hunt said...

Is prom considered cool now?

Narr said...

Was prom considered cool then?

Narr
Through being cool

Tom said...

James Cordon is straight?!!

Freeman Hunt said...

"Was prom considered cool then?"

For any value of "then" that I'm familiar with, no.

Stilton Cheeseright said...

A common aphorism among the woke is that you can never tear down the master's house using the master's tools. There are several implications in it that I expect anyone who cares has already explored. The rule serves to stop anyone on the right side of history who is tempted to even engage in comparative argument with the other side, reminding them that as soon as they engage they've already lost and, in fact, been tainted just by treating wrong-think as worthy of the consideration necessary for a cogent rejection. This is they way it's played now. All emotion. Thinking taints the pure hearted and ennobles the orcs on the other side.

All the figuring and questioning you can come up with about this gayface and similar struggle-session nonsense is not just worthless, it's a win win situation for the side of unreason. You'll never figure out their ephemeral bullshit. You're not supposed to. They change the rules every day if they want and it's Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia. Erasure of yesterday's orthodoxy now takes place literally overnight, if they want, on modern media platforms. They do not engage with your ideas. You engage with theirs. You lose. Only a chump expresses more than contempt for this game. Kiss my ass is as deep as argument gets with such people.

The real question that becomes more urgent every day is what to do about people who intend nothing less than your destruction and, in their parlance, ultimate erasure and who look very much like achieving it if they're not stopped somehow. They're serious. When you ask yourself what today's rules are and try to understand instead of just echoing them in duckspeak fashion, they know you're not.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Joe Smith,

I've only met one gay man in my entire life that could have been taken for straight.

When I was in grad school at UC/Berkeley, there were two fellow students, both male, who shared an apartment. I was over there quite a bit, rehearsing for the most part (one of them and I did a couple of viola/piano recitals).

The guy I was working with, who I was sure was straight, ended up in a long-term relationship with the (male) violist of a celebrated string quartet. The guy I was sure was gay now has a wife and two kids.

I realize that I'm not exactly trained in this stuff, but I am positive that "gaydar" is overrated.

In general, I think this "you have to be what you play" idiocy is inimical to all arts, and to acting the worst. We have, as ever, been there before; more than a century ago, British theaters were advertising real Jews as Shylock. That this meant that real Jews were limited in their Shakespearean roles to Shylock (and Jessica) occurred to no one. Chesterton lampooned producers who advertised that their table settings were actually gold. He said (correctly) that a good actor could wear a tinsel hat like a crown, and be believed.

So now we have to think that every actor playing a gay man is himself gay; that every actor playing a woman with six fingers actually has six fingers; for all I know, that every actor playing an American Samoan is actually from American Samoa. It's exactly like people being told to "write what they know," as though the essence of fiction isn't imagining things that never were, as though a Gullah, or a a Minnesota farmer, or a Tejano shopkeeper, must write only about these things. Given the huge volume of fiction about the rich and powerful, or about crime, you'd think people would realize that all these authors can't know what these lives are "really" like. Apparently not.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Ellen Page made a good career move, claiming to be a trans man.
There should be a raft of good roles for her, now that only authentic trans men get to play the part of a trans man on the screen.
Although I'm not sure how there can be any authenticity in either the actor or the character in this case.

Skippy Tisdale said...

I was watching an old episode of "The Larry Sanders Show" recently and Don Rickles was on making some gay jokes. Not today he wouldn't. Which may be for the best actually.

Watch these old Dean Martin Celebrate Roast and you will see how far we have fallen. Freddy Prinz making racist (by today's standards) Hispanic jokes, Nipsy Russel doing Black jokes, etc. It's pretty funny and everyone is really very cool about it. The world was a lot more tolerant when we were all fast asleep.

mockturtle said...

Stilton Cheeseright: When I said the other day that we can't put up with this, I was asked, quite reasonably, what we can do. My response was, more or less:

1. If Biden becomes President, we need to resist, physically, economically and politically any decree, law or proclamation that is unconstitutional.

2. Should Trump succeed, we must prepare to defend ourselves against the onslaught of violence that will ensue.

I'm just a rather old woman but these are my solutions. So far, no one has commented on them either yea or nay. What would you do?

jg said...

I'd like to go on record now in my opposition to pedoface. Only Hollywood pedos should play pedos.

Oso Negro said...

@mockturtle - I really just want to keep working and focus on my business and my family. But I am armed to the fucking teeth and on the day that it simply becomes too much, well, use your imagination.

Stilton Cheeseright said...

MT, I don't know.

I think it starts with realization and acceptance that you're being played. Very skillfully and successfully played. And it's much, much later than you think.

There are a lot of people, likely a majority, who know plain nonsense when they hear it. The first response is to just ignore it or maybe crack a joke. Humor is actually a bit useful because evil hates to be mocked almost above all things. But, like I said, it's later than you think. They're ready for a play for ultimate power and, having advantages that no one knows how to counter, are very near dropping the mask. They may settle for oligarchy for a while but it ends in dictatorship. For now, the play is corporate/government partnership that leaves a thin and increasingly cracked veneer or democracy in place.

It is fascist in character because, rather than direct control using government force openly, control is implemented by corporations using, most obviously at this time, corporate censorship. They're quite open about it. It's to the point now where Theodore Dalrymple's observation that he "came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better" is obvious. As with propaganda, the same applies to the election. They don't really care that what has happened is obvious. They like it. Winning through fraud humiliates the targets. The humiliation of being afraid to call bullshit by its correct name is a very effective tool of control.

An essential condition for the survival of freedom is the recognition that there is zero daylight between corporate/social media and the government. Social media has to be busted up but the government will never do it. They would take an opportunity to appear to do it but, face it, corporate media is government media and, I believe, they aim to replace and become the government outright in the end. There was a villain in a book somewhere, I forget where, who explained his motive for attempting to subjugate humanity by saying "It is a thing that can be done and therefore it should be attempted." I may have the quote a bit off. I believe that they believe it can be done and people who believe that will always make the attempt. Executives in these companies have been assuring one another for years now that they absolutely could determine the outcome of a a national election and that it's their duty to do so and they've been barely bothering to keep this talk secret - which would be futile in any case. And, anyway, they actually want you to know and to realize that you can't stop it.

The first step, if it's not already too late, is to burn Google and Facebook and Twitter to the ground, leave not one stone standing atop another in the ruins, and salt the earth where they grew. This is a hell of a mission. It's going to require organization by good people to accomplish. And here's the hell of it: those names seem right now to be in control of the most powerful tools of organization and are actively busting up anything like organized opposition. The temptation to a fatalistic outlook is strong right now among freedom loving people and, I'm afraid, for good reason.

ken in tx said...

I read that in ancient Rome, if a violent death was to be portrayed, a condemned person was brought on stage as a double and actually killed. We seem to be working our way in that direction.

The Godfather said...

When I was a freshman in college (1961-62) I was cast in a play in the "experimental theater" -- I think the playwright was a grad student. The playwright was also the director, and in rehearsals he urged me to play the part in a certain way. He didn't say "gay" -- I hadn't heard that word used that way by then -- but that was what he had in mind. It didn't make sense to me, because my character had a wife, so how could he be a homosexual? But, as an actor you do what the director tells you to do. In case it's not clear, I'm straight. We got a fairly good review from the collge newspaper, and it was said that I played an "effete" character skillfully.

Today, my guess is that there are enough good gay actors in various age and ethnic and other categories that you wouldn't go far wrong as a director saying: cast a gay as the gay guy -- but I'd hate to see that as mandatory.

Joe Smith said...

@ Laslo

Martin Short has a daughter or two who attend my wife's Alma Mater.

He in on an advisory council at the school, and my wife is on another.

Once a year all of the councils meet for a football weekend...it's quite nice...all of the councils meet for a big dinner before breaking out into their individual groups.

I assumed I would see him last year the night of the dinner (I didn't), but I had a prepared gag that I found funny.

If I'd met him I was going to be effusive in my praise, and tell him I really loved him in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids."

Seriously, he is very funny in his Jiminy Glick character...

Joe Smith said...

"Tom Cruise should denounce all the shows he has been in then....No more action films showing him as a heterosexual then."

....No more action films showing him as tall then.

Joe Smith said...

This stuff is insufferable.

Of course the protagonist is a lesbian.

Hollywood, please give it a rest.

Sally said...

I always thought James Corden was gay.

asdfasdf said...

So how is every episode of "Will and Grace" with the straight Eric McCormack playing the gay Will now canceled?

Or is consistency too much to expect from "progressive" culture?