Seattle Gay News
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
by Chris Azzopardi SGN Contributing Writer
tacle, The Showgirl Must Go On, which wrapped in 2010 after a two-year run, Midler has returned to the screen as a leading lady in her first major picture in more than a decade. In Parental Guidance, the 67-year-old plays a grandparent alongside Billy Crystal, both of whom try to navigate modernday parenting conundrums when they’re stuck with their daughter’s three kids. In this chat with Midler, she talked about the film, including its stance on bullying, and the “bittersweet” beginning of her career. Azzopardi: You share some similarities with your character, Diane Decker, in Parental Guidance. One thing I’d like to believe you don’t have in common with her, though, is when one of the kids dresses up as a girl. You would have let that boy wear those high heels, wouldn’t you?
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More than 30 years have passed since Bette Midler made her screen debut as a rocker with a self-destructive drug habit. The film, 1979’s The Rose, turned the Hawaii native’s dreams, and her nights performing for halfnaked Gay men at a New York City bathhouse, into a legendary and undeniably influential career both in music – the title song is one of her biggest hits – and in film. Later roles would include parts in Beaches, Hocus Pocus, and The First Wives Club, all of which have become Gay cult classics. With numerous Grammys, Golden Globes, and Emmys to her name, even the moniker “The Divine Miss M” doesn’t quite do her justice. But now that the curtain has closed on her Las Vegas spec-
Issue 51, Volume 40, December 28, 2012
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Andrew Jons, a local recording artist, looked at me from across the table in a café where we met for coffee on December 21 and said, quietly, “Twenty-one years ago, my best friend and baby brother lost his battle with leukemia.”
Now, you must understand: Andy never does anything quietly. He sings loud, he talks loud, and he is an out and proud, albeit loud, Gay man. This was a different Andy, an Andy I never expected to see. The first time I met Andy I must admit I didn’t remember much about him. It was in late November 2011 and my husband and I
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by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor
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got this crazy idea to produce, direct, and star in a Seattle production of BARE: A Pop Opera. Casting was interesting, to say the least. Andy ultimately got cast as Zack, the jock. Zack is one of those characters who are there mainly to be seen, not heard. But as I stated before, “not see jons page 25
Arne Zaslove
by Miryam Gordon SGN A&E Writer
courtesy arne zaslove
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Andrew Jons
Zaslove by name – if not by his slightly-deranged-professor looks – from his years of teaching at the OUR TOWN University of Washington, where HIT AND RUN he helped develop the Professional THEATER COMPANY Actor Training Program with Greg December 28 – January 19 Falls and Duncan Ross. He went Recently, SGN sat down with on to helm the Bathhouse Theater two men who each represent over for years. Gordon Coffey joined 40 years of theater history in Seatsee arne/gordon page 24 tle. Many people recognize Arne