The male stripper flick comes out on June 29 and a second trailer was unveiled earlier today.

The first was heavy on the romance between Channing Tatum’s character and a woman played by Cody Horn.

This second trailer is far more appealing to us gays: less romance and more stripping!

Enjoy!

Tonight kicks off a one-week engagement of Going Down in LA-LA Land at the Grauman’s Chinese 6 in Hollywood and I’m going to the VIP screening and party tonight (for tickets click HERE!).

The film was written and directed by Casper Andreas whose impressive list of gay indie flicks includes Violet Tendencies, A Four Letter Word, Between Love & Goodbye, and The Big Gay Musical, among others.

Casper is a guy who I really admire because he knows how to make things happen and how to see his vision through. He is very efficient and shot this film in 19 days in and around Los Angeles.

The film, based on the novel by Andy Zeffer, is about a struggling young actor trying to make it in L.A. , who also has a supporting role in it. Matthew Ludwinski plays Adam, who comes from New York to live with his loyal and funny friend, Candy [an absolutely hilarious Allison Lane], who wants to be a star even more than he does.

We see Adam struggle with some terrible jobs, and as he gets more and more desperate for cash, he is tempted by some career options he’d never want to put on his résumé. Along the way, he also finds time for romance. The film largely rests on the capable shoulders of Ludwinski—who is in every scene—and Lane, who share a wonderful Will & Grace-like chemistry that is both funny and touching.

I really enjoyed the movie when I saw it at Outfest last summer. It includes cameos from some familiar faces: Alec Mapa as a really bitchy version of himself, Bruce Vilanch as a porn director and a deliciously over-the-top Judy Tenuta as Alex’s evil nemesis.

The screening will be followed by Q&A with Casper and the cast, then they are all heading to the Andaz hotel on Sunset for the opening night party at their RH bar. Red carpet, cocktails, gift bags!

Tickets for tonight are just $20. If you can’t make it, support gay independent film and see the movie sometime over the weekend!

Here is the film’s trailer:

McConaughey is featured in the latest issue of The Advocate while Tatum is on the cover of the June/July issue of OUT magazine.

‘With Joe Manganiello naked in a movie, I think even straight guys are going to be, ‘Shit, I need to see that. That man is a specimen,’’ Tatum tells OUT.

The film is being released in the middle of the crowded and ultra-competitive summer movie season when big-budget action flicks dominate at the box office and young males are the most sought after demographic.

‘It’s risky,’ concedes Tatum. ‘People say that women and the gay community will go see it — knock on wood — but I know straight guys won’t be like, ‘Yo, what’s up man — you wanna go see the stripping movie after the game tonight?’ I doubt they’ll have the balls to see it. What’s funny is that the girls don’t ask me questions about my stripping days, but straight guys want to know everything. It’s that fantasy element. It’s probably why a lot of females on Halloween are the whorey version of a ketchup bottle, or slutty nurse, which I love and respect — it’s liberating.’

The latest in the franchise is Eating Out: The Open Weekend.

The film, directed by Q. Allan Brocka and stars Chris Salvatore, Daniel Skelton, Aaron Milo, Lilach Mendelovich, Harmony Santana, Michael Vara, Alvaro Orlando, Jennifer Elise Cox, Mink Stole, and Rebekah Kochan.

Here is the plot: Sexy couple Zack and Benji decide to have an “open” weekend to partake in the smorgasbord of available men on their vacation to a gay getaway in Palm Springs. When Zack runs into his ex-boyfriend Casey at the resort, they both do their best to look like they are having a good time. How could they not, when they are surrounded by cute, frisky guys with six-packs and very little clothing? When Casey reacquaints with his old high school friend Peter, he convinces him to pretend to be his boyfriend to save face with Zack despite Peter’s reluctance. As sexual tensions start to mount between Benji and Peter, Zack becomes increasingly dissatisfied with his relationship while Casey longs for a stable relationship of his own.

I’ll have some cast interviews and trailers as we head toward the release date.

The movie details the rise of HIV/AIDS in New York’s gay community in the 1980s and won a Tony Award last year for best revival of a play.

(Kramer famously slammed Barbra Streisand who held the rights for many years and she has defended herself against his harsh words)

Anyway, Mark Ruffalo had already been announced in the lead role of Ned Weeks and now comes word that White Collar hunk Matt Bomer will also be in the cast.

Bomer will portray Felix Turner, a gay fashion journalist who becomes Weeks’ boyfriend and contracts the disease. Bomer will be stepping into the shoes that won John Benjamin Hickey a Tony Award last year.

Bomer, whose star is rising higher than ever, also has a role in the male stripper film Magic Mike to be released in June. That’s a face – and body – we want to see on the big screen!

Other Normal Heart cast members just announced: Alec Baldwin as Weeks’ brother, Jim Parsons as a gay activist and member of gay men’s health crisis group and Julia Roberts as one of the only doctors in New York talking the new disease seriously.

But things are really heavy for poor Will right now!

If you want to see Chandler in a lighter role, then you’ll want to check him out in 16 Love which is in theaters and available on demand today!

It’s about the top junior tennis champion in the nation named Ally Mash (Lindsey Shaw) who gets injured and gets to discover the regular teenage life she’s been missing out on.

She spots a cute male tennis player named Farrell Gambles emerging from the pool (check out the clips below!) who is played by Mr. Massey.

Farrell is not the motivated of players but he sure knows how to have fun.

He introduces Ally to things she’s been missing like ice cream and the prom.

But Farrell has to get his act together in order to qualify for a college tennis scholarship and Ally is there to help him reach his potential.

It looks really cute!

You can go to the movie’s website for more information!

There are five reasons for this and their names are Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey and Joe Manganiello – and they are all playing male strippers!

AfterElton.com’s Jim Halterman chatted with Mr. Bomer about the upcoming new episodes of White Collar but I’m going to excerpt part of the interview about Magic Mike!

AE: The movie does have dramatic element to it, right? It’s not just a fun and stripping.
MB: Yeah. I mean, look. This movie is really a coming of age story. The really central relationship of it is between Channing’s character, Mike, and Alex Pettyfer’s character, The Kid. It’s about somebody who’s trying to get out of the world they’re in or definitely sees a ceiling on the world they’re living in, and another new, young soul who just is just kind of fascinated and drawn like a moth to the flame to that hedonistic lifestyle.

AE: For our gay readers, is there a gay character in the film or a gay element to the movie?
MB: I don’t know how much I can say. I think there will be several scenes that will… I think the gay fans will be very, very happy with several of the scenes that occur in the film. But, yeah, there is one scene that I… well I don’t want to say anything because then it’s going to ruin it for everybody and it comes out in June and it’s going to give away a big thing, but…

AE: So there’s one scene to look forward to…
MB: There is one scene in particular where definitely those boundaries are blurred. Yeah.

Today, I complete the trifecta with this story on Pariah writer-director Dee Rees.

She has made such a superb film, so deeply moving and authentic.

I hope a lot of people go to see Pariah when it opens in theaters tomorrow.

While Pariah is not her life story, Rees says there are similarities.

‘It’s the emotions I experienced that were the same,’ she said during a recent Los Angeles press junket for the film. ‘Who I was was not a choice. … I knew this film was a universal story. I’m excited to see it playing out and seeing people respond to it.’

Click HERE to read the story in its entirety.

Today, I present to you a story on actress Adepero Oduye who plays the daughter and is so good that she earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best actress. She and Wayans both deserve Oscar nods but have so far been overlooked in most of the other major awards such as SAG and the Golden Globes.

Anyway, go over to Gay Star News to read my story on 33-year-old Oduye who was a pre-med student at Cornell University when she realized – to her mother’s horror – that she wanted to be an actress and she changed course.

Her mother is obviously happy about it now!

For anyone familiar with Kim Wayans’ work as a comedy actress on such shows as In Living Color and In the House will be astounded be her dramatic chops in Pariah.

Here’s now she describes her role as a woman who desperately does not want her teenage daughter to be gay: She’s a very domineering presence in her daughter’s life and she wants to control her. You have a desperate mother desperate to save her child. She just broke my heart. I didn’t see her as a monster or a villain. She’s was just as much a victim of her beliefs. She was so sad, so sad and so lonely and disconnected from everyone else.’

To read my story on Wayans, go to Gay Star News.

McGregor talked to Frontiers IN LA about the movie, his popularity with gay audiences and more. Here is an excerpt:

In Beginners, your character goes through a process that’s almost like a rediscovery of his father when Christopher Plummer’s character comes out at the age of 75. Did you personally discover anything about the gay community through the making of the film that you hadn’t known beforehand?
I learned a lot about American gay history, because I think Mike [Mills, the film’s director] really beautifully explores it in the montages where he’s looking back at his father’s life as a young gay man in the early ‘50s, with an aim to try to understand what that might be like and why his father made the choices that he made. He makes it very real, that history, and it doesn’t feel like a history lesson. It’s an exploration of his dad’s younger years. And then how not very long ago gay men were being thrown into the back of police trucks and arrested for going to gay coffee shops. That sort of stuff I found very interesting—how recently it happened, when it seems so long ago.

You’re a very popular actor among the gay community for many reasons, but primarily because you appear in films and roles that really speak to gay men. How do you choose which roles you take on?
Well, it’s just a very gut process really. I’m not very complicated about it—if I find a script I don’t want to put down and I like that it’s firing my imagination and I start to see myself in that role, and it’s about something I’m interested to talk about, then I’ll do it. It’s kinda as simple as that really. I try not to make it anymore complicated than that.

Occasionally it does [get more complicated]—I suppose the more you do it, the more you start thinking about directors. You know, I’ve made a lot of films, and you start thinking, “Well OK, now I want to make really good films.” You try to narrow down the possibilities of them not being good, so I suppose nowadays I take more note about the directors. But then again, if I love a script and it’s a first-time director, I’ll probably still do it because that first-time director is probably firing at 110 percent.

In regards to the gay community and myself, I’m delighted, but I’m just interested in people and life. I’m interested in sexuality and sex, relationships and love and what makes us tick, and it doesn’t matter whether that’s heterosexual or gay romance. I don’t really mind it, I just find it interesting. I’ve never really gone out to try to play a gay person, because I don’t really believe you could do that, and if you did, it wouldn’t be a very good portrayal of anybody. So I go out to play a person, and their sexuality is a part of what makes them up—of course, it’s a very important part of what makes us up, but it’s not everything—it’s not.

When I was playing Phillip Morris [in last year’s I Love You Phillip Morris alongside Jim Carrey], I wasn’t playing gay—I was playing Phillip Morris, who is a gay man, and I wanted to get that right. Especially with that role, I wanted to make him camp and sort of light and tender—and at the same time, that can be a real stereotype for a straight man playing gay, but I still wanted him to be that way. I had to walk the line and make him camp and light but at the same time make him real.

Watched a DVD screener of Pariah last night and found it to be deeply moving, extremely well-acted and written.

So I’m very glad to see that this wonderful film earned lead Adepero Oduye an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best actress. It’s quite a coup seeing as Glenn Close was not nominated for her terrific performance as a transgender man in Albert Nobbs. although her co-star Janet McTeer, who also plays a transgender man, was nominated in the supporting actress category.

Oduye plays Alike, a Brooklyn teenager dealing with conflicting identities who risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

The Spirit Award nominations were announced this morning and Pariah writer-director Dee Rees has also been nominated for the John Cassavetes Award given to the best feature made for under $500,000.

[I'm hoping Kim Wayans will be getting some recognition this award season for her very realistic performance as the Alike's homophobic mom.]

The LGBT-themed film, Beginners, earned Spirit nods for best picture, best director (Mike Mills) best screenplay (Mills), and best supporting actor (Christopher Plummer).

Other LGBT themed nominees: In the Family which earned a nod for best first feature. I have not yet seen this film about a gay man who must fight his dead partner’s family for custody of their 6-year-old son; Circumstance earned a Cassavetes Award nod for writer-director Maryam Keshavarz. It is the story of two vivacious young Iranian girls — wealthy Atafeh and orphaned Shireen — discovering their burgeoning sexuality; Transgender actress Harmony Santana (pictured, above) was nominated for supporting actress for her role as a transgender teen in the drama Gun Hill Road which opened this year’s Outfest Film Festival.

In the documentary category, the thoroughly outstanding We Were Here was nominated which is no surprise. I sat in stunned silence after the first of my three viewings of this movie. Produced and directed by David Weissman, it is the first documentary to take a deep and reflective look back at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco and explores how the city’s inhabitants were affected by, and how they responded to, that calamitous epidemic.

Here is a LINK to the full list of nominees.

Below are the trailers for Pariah , Beginners and In the Family.

While plenty of us would love to lock lips with Leo, Armie says the experience was hardly romantic.

“It just felt like kissing,” says Hammer, who plays Clyde Tolson, the real-life right-hand man and purported paramour of DiCaprio’s J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood’s film about the founder of the modern FBI. “I also had to shoot a machine gun in the movie, but nobody asks about that.”

Hammer describes the Hoover-Tolson relationship this way: “Clyde was his lapdog and his go-to hatchet man. But Clyde took so much abuse—it was so hot and cold—that it didn’t make sense to me why he would stick around for so long if it weren’t a tragic love story.”

It’s appropriate that the pair would be a part of this since Sandler plays twins in the flick – one of whom is female!

The Lanes were snapped on the red carpet last night at the film’s Hollywood premiere with Sandler himself.

This is a particularly busy and exciting time for the pair whose documentary, Hollywood to Dollywood is winning raves – and awards – on the film festival circuit.

It’s from his first flick as 007, 2006′s Casino Royale.

So what’s my excuse for featuring this photo yet gain? Well, I’ve got some news: producers announced earlier today that the 23rd installment of the Bond franchise will be called Skyfall.

Kind of a yawner, huh? At least compared to previous Bond titles like Octopussy, Goldfinger and The Man With the Golden Gun.

It’s also been confirmed that Oscar winner Javier Bardem will be playing the villain in the film – the first Bond film since 2008′s Quantum of Solace. We all know Barden can be one scary villain based on his performance in No Country for Old Men. Let’s just hope he has a more attractive hairstyle this time!

There were paparazzi pics snapped of the trio emerging from a restaurant and that would have been that had a writer for GQ Australia not asked Taylor in a recent profile if the two men, who are both gay, hit on him during the dinner.

I’ve posted Black’s reaction as well as GQ’s lame “apology.”

So now we know why they were meeting: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lautner and Van Sant will team up on a small-budget film based on a nonfiction article in The New Yorker magazine that Lautner has optioned.

THR writes: Details are still emerging about the project, but sources say an announcement is expected later this week revealing who is write the script for the Van Sant-helmed film. The aim is to shoot the film in the first quarter of next year.

Let’s hope it fares better than Lautner’s most recent non-Twilight film, Abduction, which bombed at the box office.

The Advocate’s Brandon Voss has once again proven himself to be the luckiest gay journalist on the planet. A few days ago, I linked to his chat with Weekend star Chris New and now I’m sharing some excerpts from his interview with Kellan Lutz.

Brandon really asks the questions we want answered starting with this one:

Q. In your Calvin Klein X underwear commercial, when you look at the camera and cockily say things like, “You can look, but no touching,” it does feel like you’re speaking directly and specifically to gay men.
A. I’m so glad you said that. When they pitched that concept, I was all for it. That whole commercial was about speaking to everyone and grabbing every audience member that we could, so I’m glad we captured that.

On his gay fans: “Oh, they’re the best. I love them. When I meet gay fans out and about, they’re so great to talk to – and I’m big on hugging, because I’m from the Midwest. They’re just so energetic and loving. I’m proud to have those fans, and their support means a lot to me. I don’t want just girls coming to my movies; I want guys to come too.”

On gay rumors: “I don’t Google myself, but I’ve heard that people think I’m gay. I’ve heard it all. See, I don’t really go after girls. Most of the girlfriends I’ve had have come after me. So it’s really funny when girls get offended because I don’t hit on them. They’ll transform their insecurity into, ‘Oh, that makes sense, because I heard you’re into guys and have a boyfriend.’ I’m like, ‘Seriously? That’s your tactic to get me to like you?’ There will always be rumors, but I know who I am.”

On whether Breaking Dawn director Bill Condon brought a gay sensibility to the Twilight franchise: “Oh, definitely. I mean, there’s a lot more skin, first of all. It’s for a more mature audience. Our audience has grown up with us, and we have to grow along with them. The original high school fans are in college now, and they want to see more skin. Bill has Taylor Lautner topless all the time, so there’s some great eye-candy. … We have so many cast members in the movie, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the characters was gay and I just didn’t know it. I’d be all for it.”

On battling his beefcake reputation: “I love a topless run by the beach, and it does suck when paparazzi is there. It’s like, ‘Fuck, do I keep my shirt on because I don’t want to be shirtless in another magazine?’ I don’t want to be known as the guy who always takes his shirt off. … I’ve done a lot of photo shoots lately for the press coming up with Immortals and Breaking Dawn, and every photographer wants to get the topless shot. We’ve really had to be choosy and not do that for every magazine. I’ve actually been trying to keep my clothes on more.”

On his preference in roommates: “Honestly, I’d prefer to live with gay guys. They’re the cleanest, and they just take care of stuff. Because I’m always away, coming home to a clean house means a lot to me. Trust me, I’ve lived with a lot of roommates, and straight guys are just kids who don’t pick up after themselves.”

Here is a LINK to the complete interview!

I can do all of their line readings – especially Sally Field’s at her daughter’s graveside: “I’m fiiiiiiiiiinnnnne!!!!!!!”

Now comes word that Lifetime is cooking up a contemporary remake of the film with an all-black cast.

Oh, what fun!

Let’s explore the possibilities!

The casting of M’Lynn is key since she’s sort of the glue that holds all the women together. Sally Field was exceptional in the role and robbed of an Oscar nomination (only Julia Roberts was nominated for the film).

This is certainly a role Oscar nominee Viola Davis could sink her teeth into. She should be offered the part on a silver platter. But the star of The Help and Doubt certainly has her pick of parts these days. If she won’t do it, Angela Bassett or Alfre Woodard could nail it or even Halle Berry who is technically old enough to be a grandmother.

For the role of Shelby, help me out here. I think it should likely go to a young actress who is largely unknown as Roberts was.

For Truvy, I’ve already heard RuPaul suggested but I’d like to nominate Diana Ross. She hasn’t made a movie since 1999′s Double Platinum and she’s at least as good an actress – if not better – than Dolly Parton. How fun would it be to have Diana running a beauty salon?

And a perfect Annelle? Miss Ross’s very own daughter, Tracee Ellis Ross who starred for eight seasons on the sitcom Girlfriends and recently had a recurring role on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Did you think I was going to suggest Jennifer Hudson? She’s a great singer and deserved the Oscar for Dreamgirls but I still have doubt about her acting chops after seeing her in Sex and the City.

Grumpy Ouisa? I think Jenifer Lewis would be such a hoot in the role! But, of course, Oscar winners Mo’Nique and Whoopi Goldberg would probably have to pass on it first. And rounding out the cast as Clairee would absolutely have to be 2011 Emmy winner Loretta Devine.

So there it is: I’ve cast the film!

The project will be produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and Sony Pictures TV and directed by Kenny Leon, who directed the 2008 ABC movie A Raisin In The Sun.

NOTE: I have corrected the character of Shelby. I had originally called her Chelsea. Of COURSE I know her name, was just thinking of Jane Fonda’s character in On Golden Pond I guess!

We’ve seen Michael Douglas play gay before (remember on Will & Grace when he was the cop chasing after Will?) and we’ve seen Matt Damon play gay (the title role in The Talented Mr. Ripley).

But playing gay together? That should be something!

Douglas will star as the flamboyant pianist Liberace in Behind the Candelabra with Steven Soderbergh directing. Damon will play Scott Thorson, Liberace’s live-in lover.

The film was conceived as a theatrical release but executive producer Jerry Weintraub decided on pay cable after working with HBO on a documentary — His Way — about him.

“We’ve been working on it for a very long time,” Weintraub told TheWrap this week. “And usually those are the best ones — the ones you work on the longest.”

Weintraub acknowledged that the project “is a tough one” due to the subject matter: “You’re doing a picture about a gay couple — in a time when gays did not come out of the closet.”

He added: “It’s a fun movie because Liberace is a fun guy — I knew him very, very well. But there’s a dark side as well. It’s very dark and it’s very light.”

The movie begins production next summer and will shoot in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Palm Springs.

Source: The Wrap