Best Supporting Actor Ballot, Theirs and Mine.

by Nathaniel R

OPPENHEIMER

Last time we discussed TFE's second favourite category (Best Supporting Actress)... or is it actually our favourite category given how often we speak of it? (hmmm).  Now it's time for the male half. Historically Best Supporting Actor, is dullest acting category at the Oscars. It's not just that the roles aren't always as interesting as those the women get to play, but that Oscar chooses so weakly.

Once again this season it's a category that feels a little thin with an obvious future winner who definitely has fine moments but doesn't exactly do anything with his role that dozens of other solid actors wouldn't have. You can guess that RDJ is not on my own ballot! Nevertheless, let's discuss Oscar's choices and my own dozen favourites from 2023 (and your favourites in the comments)... 

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Hamilton Mania, Pixar Short, Gay Rage, New Musical

• Variety Zac Efron possibly joining headliner Hugh Jackman in the new PT Barnum movie musical The Greatest Showman on Earth
• Universal Studios Wicked, the movie has a release date. More on this tomorrow
• Playbill Tony Kushner writing an adaptation of West Side Story for a remake by Steven Spielberg! Since that's my favorite movie of all time I feel very weird about this. Strangely the article stays that Kushner is "currently adapting the screenplay of August Wilson's Pulitzer-winning drama Fences" which would be really bad news for the movie since it's already done filming ;) 
• My New Plaid Pants ...reacts to the news with a shout out to PT Barnum look-alike Jim Broadbent

• THR The British Independent Film Awards, which helped Ex Machina along last awards season, and are adding award categories this year will try a new system to coincide with what voters have seen and where there are conflicts of interest. Interesting.
• EW Tyler Hoechlin will play Superman for the CW
• The Stake Batman v Superman gets a new trailer for its expanded DVD edition. It's LONGER now?!? Jesus Christ. 
• THR That Noah Galvin interview we discussed is still prompting news stories. Apparently ABC is coming down hard on him. Guess they're sensitive about Modern Family!  
• NYT She Loves Me will be the first Broadway show streamed live. One night only June 30th. It will cost you $10 instead of the normal $100+
• Vanity Fair on the making of the new Pixar short "Piper". The buzz is true. The short is super adorable / impressive after a patchy run for the most recent Pixar shorts
• Awards Daily Oscar nomination frontrunners thus far?
• Facebook if you missed Jeffery Self's live feed "It's Awesome to be Gay" with lots of LGBT actors and performers all five parts are available to watch! I haven't finished watching it but there's much talking, funniness, and even some musical numbers. Loved Jordan Firstman singing "Smile," Brian Jordan Alvarez's story about Kevin Spacey, and Drew Droege and Sam Pancake talking about playing gay characters on TV, Darryl Stephens unconventional queer awakening via Prince's Under the Cherry Moon and more... 

Hamilton Mania
I was finally able to see the insanely popular  Hamilton on Broadway last night. For this I must thank the very talented Rory O'Malley (who broke through with Book of Mormon five years back) that's us on stage after the show to your left) who plays King George III. We met because of Into the Woods and this blog and long story.

King George III is such a fun role with perfect little comic interludes to comment on all the chaos in America. (That's the role Jonathan Groff originated but he had to leave the show early due to Looking and other commitments). Otherwise the original cast is still with the show -- for another couple of weeks at least. Good news: they'll be filming it soon for posterity! There will also be a Hamilton mixtape of cut songs and covers and a documentary later this year since people are insatiable.

We had excellent seats -- I nearly smacked the actor Josh Charles in the face (who happened to be sitting next to us) before the show while trying to send a selfie with too little wi-fi. The show lived up to the hype. Great energy, fun, and memorable music and an incredibly finessed marriage of content, form, and theme. 

Politics
Tis the season. With the recent tragedy in Orlando it's hard to not focus on politics, and how broken the GOP is, basically serving only as meat puppets for the NRA who are holding us all hostage (and executing thousands of people each year) via lax gun laws. So here are a few political pieces worth reading/watching:

• BET an amazing open letter to straight people from Dominick Pupa which was banned from Facebook -- I guess because it upset sensitive straight people who don't like being reminded of the existence of gays? Not sure how Facebook can justify removing it
•  The Daily Beast "Admit it..." a thought provoking piece on religion and mass killings and theocratic community's culpability 
• Gawker the essential Rich Juzwiack on Anti-Gay hatred and gay resistance 

Must Read Noah Galvin Interview

If you haven't yet read Vulture's interview with Noah Galvin do that immediately.

 The Real O'Neals star is candid, cocky, and catty. Though the big 3 networks have a tough time making headway in Emmy categories these days, that show would be a wonderful addition to the comedy lineups in several categories. Though Noah is the lead he's campaigning as supporting actor and he 1000% deserves a nod for his clever, heartfelt, nuanced but hilarious work as out gay teen Kenny O'Neal dealing with his Irish Catholic family and new confidence.

Still, I'm guessing Noah Galvin's scorched earth interview style, talking Hollywood's closeted gays for filth (yas queen!) and trashing Bryan Singer, Colton Haynes, Modern Family etcetera ... is not going to win him much favor in Tinsel Town though we're totally for it here at TFE. Hollywood needs to get woke on so many levels but especially in regards to ethnic and sexual diversity, both of which they're hopelessly behind with.

Here's an excerpt:

Are you trying to get me to throw somebody under the bus right now? Because I've thrown Eric Stonestreet under the bus a solid seven times this week. No, I think as wonderful of an actor as Eric Stonestreet is — I've never met him, I assume he's a wonderful guy — he's playing a caricature of a caricature of a stereotype of stereotype on Modern Family. And he's a straight man in real life. And as hilarious as that character is, there's a lack of authenticity. I think people — especially young gay kids — they can laugh at it, and they can see it as a source of comedy, but like, nothing more than that. And I want Kenny to be more than the funny gay kid.

UPDATE: Noah Galvin has retracted his comment on Bryan Singer and issued an apology to those he offended with the interview saying:

 I am new to this and will certainly commit to being more thoughtful and wiser as I navigate all of this moving forward.

 UPDATE #2 Colton Haynes has responded on Instagram