ABC Dirty Dancing Remake Reviews

When I wrote my gay parody novel, Dancing Dirty, back in 2009, the one thing I never wanted to do was try to compete with the original. It was a parody…with too much gay sex…and an erotic gay romance that has a happy ending. I even set my version in the 1970s with campy disco clothes and music for a specific reason. I wanted it to be a fun story, with a lot of camp and kitsch, the same way SNL parodies similar situations every single Saturday night.

I’m afraid I can’t say the same about the Dirty Dancing remake that was on TV the other night. Evidently, from the reviews I’ve been reading, I’m not the only one. Twitter went berserk with baby in the corner tweets. This is from Rolling Stone.

So how do you re-create that magic? The short answer is: You don’t. The long, much more painful answer is: You wait 30 years, you throw together a three-hour-long remake, and you put it on ABC – and then after even a cursory check of Twitter, you realize that you should not have even attempted it. This is one Baby that should have stayed in the corner.

You can read the rest here.  I should also add that I don’t think the remake was a reflection on the actors. They were fine.

John Barrowman Written Out of Arrow

I’ve posted a lot about John Barrowman here on the blog over the last few years, and he’s one of those people I wish I would run into by accident at Ralf’s when I’m out in our rental condo in Palm Springs. And trust me I have never been starstruck. But I love everything he does, and I love the way he handles himself on social media. He treats his fans with more respect and dignity than any other celebrity out there. I’ve never seen him insult his fan base with political rants. In fact, I’ve never seen him do anything where he didn’t put his entire heart into it. So this is discouraging news.

John Barrowman took to Instagram late Thursday (24 May) to talk to fans about his deliciously evil character of Malcolm Merlyn being killed off of Arrow.

‘By now you know that Malcolm Merlyn is no more,’ he began.

‘I know they’ve done it off-camera but I’m here to tell you I won’t be coming back next season. I want you to know how wonderful it has been for the last five years to be part of the Arrow universe and all the shows connected to it.’ 

You can read the rest here. I’ve checked out his Facebook video announcement and his fans are not happy about this. There are over 1,000 comments of support…including me.

Trans Author Thinks Being A Gay Man Is A “Consolation Prize Because They Couldn’t Be Women” 

I can’t help thinking this is one of those publicity stunts unheard of authors often use when they want to get attention for a book. I’ve seen it happen too many times. But I could be wrong. That’s been known to happen, too.

‘When I realized I fancied guys I thought, “Oh, I know what that is, there’s a word for when a boy fancies other boys. I must be a gay guy”,’ she said.

She now sees her life as a gay man as a ‘personal misdiagnosis’ and says, ‘I think that there are a lot of gay men in the world who had the same personal misdiagnosis, because we didn’t have the information that we have now.

‘I think there are a lot of gay men out there who are gay men as a consolation prize because they couldn’t be women. That was certainly true of me.’

You can read the rest of this here. There has been backlash. It’s not something I would ever say about Trans people…or anyone.