This week, Simon explores exactly when he became “camp” – when it was clear he was, um, different from other boys. Apparently, there were clues very early on – especially the fact that he was a showtune-singing infant with big hair:
But the pivotal moment came, naturally, during Simon’s fourteenth year (which is a good thing, because Luke Ward-Wilkinson, the actor who plays Simon, isn’t getting any younger!). At first, Andy announces that the whole Doonan family is going abroad on holiday.
But when Kylie's mother Reba accuses Andy of being a sexual pervert and costs him his income, they have to cancel their trip. Why can’t Debbie make up the difference at her job? “I’m personia non-grassy-ass,” she says, hilariously – meaning “persona non-grata,” I think!
Eventually, they decide that rather than take an actual holiday, they can pretend to go away, telling their friends they’re gone...
But the pivotal moment came, naturally, during Simon’s fourteenth year (which is a good thing, because Luke Ward-Wilkinson, the actor who plays Simon, isn’t getting any younger!). At first, Andy announces that the whole Doonan family is going abroad on holiday.
But when Kylie's mother Reba accuses Andy of being a sexual pervert and costs him his income, they have to cancel their trip. Why can’t Debbie make up the difference at her job? “I’m personia non-grassy-ass,” she says, hilariously – meaning “persona non-grata,” I think!
Eventually, they decide that rather than take an actual holiday, they can pretend to go away, telling their friends they’re gone...
- 7/13/2010
- by Brent Hartinger
- The Backlot
This week's Battle of the Network Gays benefits from the start of the summer TV season. We've got a theatrical gay kid form Reading, England, a Bon Temps fry cook, a Broadway star slumming as an ex-bunny's gay sidekick, and two gays on a goat farm. What bounty! Check out the nominees and choose your poison after the break.
Josh and Brent from The Fabulous Beekman Boys
Why? Reviewers have described their new reality show as a cross between Martha Stewart and Green Acres. These two are living out many an urban gay boy's fantasy or retiring to the country. More often, gay couples dream of running a quaint B&B. In Josh and Brent's case it's a goat farm.
Beautiful People's Simon
Why? As played by Luke Ward-Wilkinson, we love this rubber-faced kid who is based on the childhood of Simon Doonan. This week's episode had Simon hastily arranging...
Josh and Brent from The Fabulous Beekman Boys
Why? Reviewers have described their new reality show as a cross between Martha Stewart and Green Acres. These two are living out many an urban gay boy's fantasy or retiring to the country. More often, gay couples dream of running a quaint B&B. In Josh and Brent's case it's a goat farm.
Beautiful People's Simon
Why? As played by Luke Ward-Wilkinson, we love this rubber-faced kid who is based on the childhood of Simon Doonan. This week's episode had Simon hastily arranging...
- 6/18/2010
- by dennis
- The Backlot
In the second season premiere of Beautiful People, Simon returns home to Reading after having just broken up with Sacha. "Is it okay if I just go to my room and lick my wounds?" Simon asks his mom.
"Is that a gay thing?" she says.
But I'm thinking: Wait, isn't the whole point of this series to get the hell out of Reading? Why would he go back to stay? More importantly, if Sacha's not around, who is Simon going to tell the stories of his childhood to?
Turns out, he'll tell them to us, the viewer.
"Whereas most fourteen-year-old-boys in 1998 were fancying girls and playing football, me and my best mate Kylie were fancying footballers and playing girls," Simon tells us.
The first thing we notice about "the past" is that teenage Simon (still wonderfully played by Luke Ward-Wilkinson) has a new haircut — one that can best be described...
"Is that a gay thing?" she says.
But I'm thinking: Wait, isn't the whole point of this series to get the hell out of Reading? Why would he go back to stay? More importantly, if Sacha's not around, who is Simon going to tell the stories of his childhood to?
Turns out, he'll tell them to us, the viewer.
"Whereas most fourteen-year-old-boys in 1998 were fancying girls and playing football, me and my best mate Kylie were fancying footballers and playing girls," Simon tells us.
The first thing we notice about "the past" is that teenage Simon (still wonderfully played by Luke Ward-Wilkinson) has a new haircut — one that can best be described...
- 6/15/2010
- by Brent Hartinger
- The Backlot
I confess I had a somewhat lukewarm reaction to the first season of Beautiful People, a UK import that aired last year on Logo and quickly developed a cult following.
I loved the premise: a gay man looks back on his childhood antics as a flamboyant boy trapped in a stifling UK suburb with his even-more-flamboyant best friend. And it was impossible not to be impressed by actors like Olivia Colman, as Simon’s gloriously unbalanced mother, and (especially) Luke Ward-Wilkinson, the appealingly gawky rubber-faced actor who plays Simon.
But I’ve never been a huge fan of the 30 Rock-style of scatter-shot comedy where a show is determined to tell six jokes, even though only two of them are funny. And Beautiful People’s scripts sometimes seemed to me to be a little lazily-written – just set-ups to get to the next outrageous joke.
I’m happy to report that the second season of six episodes,...
I loved the premise: a gay man looks back on his childhood antics as a flamboyant boy trapped in a stifling UK suburb with his even-more-flamboyant best friend. And it was impossible not to be impressed by actors like Olivia Colman, as Simon’s gloriously unbalanced mother, and (especially) Luke Ward-Wilkinson, the appealingly gawky rubber-faced actor who plays Simon.
But I’ve never been a huge fan of the 30 Rock-style of scatter-shot comedy where a show is determined to tell six jokes, even though only two of them are funny. And Beautiful People’s scripts sometimes seemed to me to be a little lazily-written – just set-ups to get to the next outrageous joke.
I’m happy to report that the second season of six episodes,...
- 6/10/2010
- by Brent Hartinger
- The Backlot
Yep, it’s that time of year.
No, not the time to sip daiquiris alongside the pool or go catch some cool waves at the beach. It’s the time of year to watch summer television!
Truthfully, with most of broadcast television in reruns, it’s mostly cable and reality show offerings. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something of interest to viewers of gay-related programming.
What’s worth watching this summer? The Great Gay is here to help you decide!
Who is the Great Gay is, you ask? Why, as always, I’m the collective wisdom of all who toil here at AfterElton.com, the sum total of years of endless, stupefying television viewing!
Okay, it’s mostly just me blathering on, with the others yelling at me whenever I get something wrong.
Secret Life of the American Teenager (ABC Family)
Why It’s Gay: Gay Griffin...
No, not the time to sip daiquiris alongside the pool or go catch some cool waves at the beach. It’s the time of year to watch summer television!
Truthfully, with most of broadcast television in reruns, it’s mostly cable and reality show offerings. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something of interest to viewers of gay-related programming.
What’s worth watching this summer? The Great Gay is here to help you decide!
Who is the Great Gay is, you ask? Why, as always, I’m the collective wisdom of all who toil here at AfterElton.com, the sum total of years of endless, stupefying television viewing!
Okay, it’s mostly just me blathering on, with the others yelling at me whenever I get something wrong.
Secret Life of the American Teenager (ABC Family)
Why It’s Gay: Gay Griffin...
- 6/3/2010
- by Brent Hartinger
- The Backlot
All photos credit: Logo/BBC
For me, summer is not a season for television. It's a season for kicking back in the yard or the park with fizzy cocktails, eating meals composed entirely of various types of ice cream, and laughing so hard with your friends that your mother/landlord/neighbors yell at you or you lose control of a bodily function.
Enter Logo's (AfterElton.com's parent company) Beautiful People, the first series of the summer to allow you to do all of these things in the comfort of your air-conditioned living room.
Equal parts wistful remembrance and raucous, candy-colored fantasy, Beautiful People is sort of what The Wonder Years would look like were it directed by a relatively well-behaved John Waters. Loosely based on the memoirs of Simon Doonan (first released in the U.K. under the title Nasty), the series tells the story of an impossibly fabulous and...
For me, summer is not a season for television. It's a season for kicking back in the yard or the park with fizzy cocktails, eating meals composed entirely of various types of ice cream, and laughing so hard with your friends that your mother/landlord/neighbors yell at you or you lose control of a bodily function.
Enter Logo's (AfterElton.com's parent company) Beautiful People, the first series of the summer to allow you to do all of these things in the comfort of your air-conditioned living room.
Equal parts wistful remembrance and raucous, candy-colored fantasy, Beautiful People is sort of what The Wonder Years would look like were it directed by a relatively well-behaved John Waters. Loosely based on the memoirs of Simon Doonan (first released in the U.K. under the title Nasty), the series tells the story of an impossibly fabulous and...
- 5/26/2009
- by brian
- The Backlot
Here's some great news for us folks Stateside: Logo (our parent company) has secured the rights to broadcast the first two seasons of the British comedy Beautiful People here in the States. The show is based on the memoirs of style icon Simon Doonan (also the husband of American superdesigner Jonathan Adler).
Set in the early '90s, the show tells the story of Simon's coming-of-age as a gay teenager in working-class Britain, and made a big splash with mainstream audiences when it premiered in the fall overseas. We've been dying to get a look at the show (being big fans of both Doonan and of the people behind the sitcom, who also brought us a little show called Absolutely Fabulous) and we're stoked that we'll all get the chance in the near-term.
Luke Ward-Wilkinson, Layton Williams, Sophie Ash, and Olivia Colman
As told from the perspective of a Doonan...
- 2/24/2009
- by brian
- The Backlot
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