The age old question “Are we alone in the universe?” may be answered for Brett Lotriet Best, who gets some back-up from a very famous movie star for his marriage proposal…
Marriage proposal of the day (with special guest star)
Live Twitter chat Friday, July 11 with celebrated actor Ian McKellen
Tomorrow, join openly gay celebrated actor Ian McKellen (@IanMcKellen) at 1pm ET for a very special live Twitter chat about his hilarious new PBS series Vicious.
Follow the chat and chime in using hashtag #ViciousPBS.
If you haven’t watched the new series yet, catch it on Sunday nights at 10:30pm ET on PBS.
Trailer: “X-men – Days of Future Past”
Lots of new footage in this just released trailer for the upcoming May 23rd release of “X-men: Days of Future Past.”
From the clip description: The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.
The beloved characters from the original “X-Men” film trilogy join forces with their younger selves from “X-Men: First Class,” in an epic battle that must change the past — to save our future.
Starring Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Jennifer Lawrence, Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Anna Paquin, Peter Dinklage, Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page, Nicholas Hoult, Michael Fassbender, and Halle Berry.
New PSA narrated by Sir Ian McKellen urges you to “not be a bystander” to bullying
New PSA narrated by Sir Ian McKellen warns on the dangers of what children learn at an early age.
“What we learn as children, can last a lifetime.”
The campaign, by Stonewall, urges people to call out bullying and not be a bystander.
The film “will be shown at the British Film Institute’s Flare (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) festival on 25 March,” Campaign Love reports.
Damien Lewis vs Ian McKellen
This week in “Celebrity Foot-In-Mouth,” according to The Independent Damien Lewis (currently of Homeland fame) said that in his 20s he was worried about being stuck doing theater, that he feared he’d be: “one of these slightly over-the-top, fruity actors who would have an illustrious career on stage, but wouldn’t start getting any kind of film work until I was 50 and then start playing wizards.”
Although Lewis didn’t name anyone in particular, out actor Sir Ian McKellen, known audiences globally as the wizard Galdalf in the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit movies, assumed quite reasonably it was a jab at him.
McKellen, ever the class-act, told Radio Times, “So he feels sorry for me, does he? Well I’m very happy, he needn’t worry about me.” He continued that Lewis’ statement as “a fair comment,” and “To rebut it: I wouldn’t like to have been one of those actors who hit stardom quite early on and expected it to continue and was stuck doing scripts that I didn’t particularly like just to keep the income up.” I bet you could hear a pin drop in Lewis’s on-set trailer.
“I’ve always wanted to get better as an actor. And I have got better. You’ve only got to see my early work to see that.”
“As for a fruity voice? Well, it may be a voice that is trained like an opera singer’s voice, to fill a large space. It is unnatural. Actors have to be heard and their voice may therefore develop a sonorous quality that they can’t quite get rid of, so you think actors are as pompous as their voice is large. I suppose Damian was thinking of that a little bit, too.”
Lewis issued a statement yesterday in response: “I am hugely embarrassed that comments of mine have been linked in a negative way to Sir Ian McKellen.”
“I have always been, and continue to be, an enormous fan and admirer of Sir Ian’s. He’s one of the greats and one of the reasons I became an actor. My comment in the Guardian was a soundbite I’ve been giving since 1999 – it was a generic analogy that was never intended to demean or describe anyone else’s career. I have contacted Sir Ian McKellen and have given him my sincerest apologies.”
McKellen accepted the apology on Twitter, writing:
“There was no need for @Lewis_Damian to apologise to me, as I thought his comments were fair. But he’s a gentleman…Now I hope @lewis_damian enjoys @TheHobbitMovie DOS as much as I enjoy @SHO_Homeland.”
Sir Ian McKellen for the win!
(source)
New UK sitcom – “Vicious”
Vicious is a brand new studio sitcom comedy coming soon to ITV starring respected luminaries of British stage and screen Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi and Frances de la Tour.
Sir Ian and Derek play a couple who have been together for almost 50 years.
The show is written by Gary Janetti, the Emmy nominated writer/producer behind hit shows Family Guy and Will & Grace.
From the Hollywood Reporter:
For both McKellen and Jacobi, who have been friends since university and are both openly gay, Vicious is groundbreaking in another way. The show marks the first time the two acclaimed actors — McKellen’s credits include the X-Men and The Hobbit while Jacobi appeared in such films as Gladiator (2000) and The King’s Speech (2010) — have acted together. Vicious is also, aside from Jacobi’s single, Emmy-winning, guest appearance on Frasier in 2001, the first time either of them has performed in a TV sitcom.
“Neither of them had ever done a multi-camera sitcom,” says Janetti “but its very theatrical. Doing a multi-camera sitcom in front of an audience is very much like live theater. And when you have such extraordinary theater actors and you are doing a comedy, my feeling is you have to put them in front of an audience”.
Ian McKellen on Anderson Cooper: “I’ve never met a gay person who regretted coming out”
Ian McKellen and Anderson Cooper sat down today to talk about The Hobbit, but spent part of the segment talking about being out and proud, and the progress on gay rights in the last 20 years.
Said McKellen, discussing a time when homosexuality was illegal: “I was making love until I was about 30 with my live-in boyfriend and we were breaking the law every time we had sex. Breaking the law. We could have been arrested. All the bad laws have gone. But there’s a long way to go.”
McKellen then praised Obama for coming out for marriage equality, eliciting a big round of applause from the audience.
(via Towleroad)
Sir Ian McKellen urges support for marriage equality in New Zealand
Actor, activist and Knight Sir Ian McKellen recorded a video for the Green Party urging New Zealanders to support marriage equality there, a nation McKellen points out was the first to give women the right to vote.
(via Towleroad)