Defamer
Polar bears in compromising positions
Posts Tagged “
Brokeback Mountain
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Polar bears in compromising positions
take a seat
One-Time Resting Place of Heath Ledger's Ass For Sale to Highest Bidder
By now we agree that an opera is no real way to honor the legacies of either Brokeback Mountain or Heath Ledger, but at least an alternative arrived quickly. Or sort of, anyway — and only if you have a spare $1,500 (at least) to "invest": Amid Marilyn Monroe's pencil cup, fishnet stockings and other dustbin diamonds, an auction next week at Bonhams offers up Ledger's director's chair from the Brokeback set, bittersweetly redolent of oak, denim and, we hear, Canada.
Follow the jump for an enlarged photo and all-too-brief description of the year's most macabrely marked-up memorabilia to date.
More »
high art
'Brokeback Mountain' Rendered Even Gayer With Announcement Of New Opera
When America was gripped by an outbreak of Brokeback Mountain spotted fever a few years ago—a rare condition characterized by an onset of involuntary gay-cowboy jokes and acute rose-stemming—more than a few of the afflicted (ourselves included) were visited by visions of high-kicking chorus-boys in a Brokeback musical. Now, reports Variety, our rhinestone-studded delusions are not only coming to pass, but they've even gone one gayer, with the commissioning of Brokeback—The Opera:
More »New York City Opera has commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on Annie Proulx's short story "Brokeback Mountain," which was adapted into the 2005 film.
Our progressive neighbors to the North — they of universal health care and stealthy American media insurgency — may yet cede their place among North America's movie industry vanguard. The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that the country's Conservative leadership wants no part of backing "any film or television show that it deems offensive or not in the public's best interest - even if government agencies have invested in them." Naturally the Canadian left is mortified envisioning a future sans even the tamest of subversive exports. "Would this committee put money into Juno?" asks Toronto lawyer David Zitzerman. "It might not want to encourage teen pregnancy. Would the government put money into a film with a dirty title, like Young People Fucking? Would they invest in something like Brokeback Mountain? They might not want to encourage gay cowboys to have sex together in Alberta." Hollywood studio heads, having long endured the repercussions of Canadian filth from Strange Brew to Paul Haggis, were rumored to vigorously laud the move in a conference call Thursday.
mourning
Heath Gone, Two Remaining Points On A 'Brokeback' Love Triangle Try To Pick Up The Pieces: Update
Instruct your assistant to hold all your calls, poor yourself a tumbler of whiskey, and fire up the Bose Wave to ease you into haunting opening strums of Gustavo Santaolalla's "The Wings"—this next one's going to be a little rough. Sources from the New Mexico set of Jake Gyllenhaal's new movie Brothers tell People that the actor is "devastated" since learning of his Brokeback Mountain sharpshooting partner's death: More »
cinematic justice dept
We'd like to offer our gratitude to an attentive reader, who pointed us to today's AFP story on a lawsuit Crash director Paul Haggis recently filed against producer Bob Yari, which for one fleeting, poorly fact-checked moment righted one of Hollywood's most egregious wrongs. Even though the wounds inflicted by those heavy hands had long ago healed, briefly revisiting what could have been was still a nice way to begin this Tuesday morning. More »
Ill-Gotten 'Crash' Oscar Returned To Rightful Winner
We'd like to offer our gratitude to an attentive reader, who pointed us to today's AFP story on a lawsuit Crash director Paul Haggis recently filed against producer Bob Yari, which for one fleeting, poorly fact-checked moment righted one of Hollywood's most egregious wrongs. Even though the wounds inflicted by those heavy hands had long ago healed, briefly revisiting what could have been was still a nice way to begin this Tuesday morning. More »
ennis on his own
All Those Loose 'Brokeback' Ends To Be Tied Up In Sequel?
Who could ever forget the final scene of Ang Lee's tragic Brokeback Mountain, in which Heath Ledger's Ennis Del Mar [spoiler alert if you've been meaning to Netflix it!] clutches a shirt belonging to the gay-sheepboy love of his life, as if touching him for the very last time? As shattering as that moment was, however, something called for a coda—perhaps just a brief shot of a smiling Ennis, finally at peace serving daiquiris to vacationing tourists at the Key West bed n' breakfast he opened after Jack Twist's death. We may not have to rely on our imaginations for that kind of closure, however, as OK! Magazine reports that a Brokeback sequel is on the way:
Although we won't be seeing his pal Jake Gyllenhaal, 26, Heath Ledger, 28, is currently in negotiations to reprise his role as Ennis.More »
short ends
Jake Gyllenhaal Can't Avoid Tired 'Brokeback' Jokes Even On 'The Today Show'
· Did Meredith Vieira just make a suggestive little whoopsie when bringing up Brokeback Mountain with dreamy-eyed cowboy-bottom Jake Gyllenhaal? We think she did! [via Good As You]
· Our favorite Helen Mirren music video seems to have disappeared from the YouTubes, but Idolator has collected a few more to soften the blow of the loss.
· Giant fucking robots came to the West Hollywood Target.
· We expect that we'll be seeing more "Paris Hilton in jail" costumes this Halloween than we'd like.
comebacks
Yesterday, a reader threw a good scare into us by pointing out that YouTube superstar Brian Atene, whose too-infrequent video dispatches are the only real Art being produced in the industry today, had yanked all of his previous clips but one, leading us to believe that the gifted, possibly insane monologist might be headed towards a tragically early retirement. More »
Brokeback Brian
Yesterday, a reader threw a good scare into us by pointing out that YouTube superstar Brian Atene, whose too-infrequent video dispatches are the only real Art being produced in the industry today, had yanked all of his previous clips but one, leading us to believe that the gifted, possibly insane monologist might be headed towards a tragically early retirement. More »
the gay cowboy curriculum
8th Grader Subjected To 'Brokeback' Screening Wants $500K To Buy Back Her Lost Innocence
The Chicago Board of Education is being sued by the family of a 12-year-old girl who claims she was psychologically scarred after a high school substitute teacher screened Ang Lee's award-winning cinematic exploration of forbidden sheepherder love, Brokeback Mountain, for her students: More »
brokeback mountain
Randy Quaid And Focus Features Keep Their Love A Secret
Variety reported late yesterday afternoon that the ugliness between Brokeback Mountain gay cowboy enabler Randy Quaid and Focus Features, the studio that he felt used his love of independent cinema to trick him into accepting a lower fee to appear in four scenes in the movie, may have finally ended with a "backdoor agreement" (Var's words, not ours, though you know our affection for a good sodomy pun) between the parties. Focus, however, is coyly denying the rekindling of their romance: More »
brokeback mountain
'Syriana,' 'Brokeback' Fall Victim To Arab MPAA
Syriana was not exactly a tourism commercial for the United Arab Emirates, unless of course your idea of a vacation is to retrace a girthy, bearded George Clooney's footsteps through a global military-petro-industrial conspiracy. After a four month review, UAE government censors have decided to release the film, minus two minutes of what they consider to be objectionable material. Still, that's nothing compared to the 134-minute edit they made to Brokeback Mountain: More »
brokeback mountain
'Brokeback'-Banning Prison Prefers 'Get Rich's Positive Cop-Killing Message
We recently noted the Massachusetts Department of Corrections disciplining of an officer who screened Brokeback Mountain for inmates, a prison movie night no-no because of its graphic sexual content. So what films did make the extremely selective cut? According to the Boston Herald, such pacifistic entertainments as Get Rich or Die Tryin', which you may recall was blamed for a movie theater shooting death, and the mob mercenary/marital-rape-on-a-staircase thriller, A History of Violence: More »
brokeback mountain
Hopeless Romantic Prison Guard Disciplined For Screening 'Brokeback'
Life in the big house can be a lonely affair, eased only by the shallow, temporary comforts of the occasional gang rape. Perhaps, then, there is no better audience for Brokeback Mountain's tale of man-on-man yearning than a prison population, who know all too well the pained longing that can often follow a spittle-assisted "claiming" of the new blue-eyed number on the block. Unfortunately, a Massachusetts prison didn't feel the same way, and are disciplining a guard who sought to share the Brokeback experience with his inmates: More »
brokeback mountain
Gay Cowboy Cruise Lines To Skip Bahamas This Year
It may be better in the Bahamas, but not if you happen to be a budding island homosexual looking to spend a few hours in a darkened theater, enthralled in a tale of forbidden cowboy love. A Bahamian government decency board has chosen to ban Brokeback Mountain:More »
brokeback mountain
Inside VPage: Ang Lee's Award Really Means Something
Now we think we know why Ang Lee called his GLAAD award the only one that "actually means something." All the Academy gives you is a statuette of a bald guy, while the GLAADies send you home with your very own, Oscar-winning bear. More »
brokeback mountain
Was Randy Quaid Mini-Majorly Screwed?
Randy Quaid's recently filed lawsuit against the producers of Brokeback Mountain has turned a pair of watchful binoculars on how talent is being paid for working in features produced by the so-called "mini-majors"—those arthouse divisions of huge studios such as Focus and Fox Searchlight. The studios claim that the low-budget films wouldn't be made without their casts and crew drastically cutting their asking price, while above-the-line players like Quaid feel they are nickle-and-dimed only to have the studios spend huge amounts on marketing, eventually reaping big distribution fees. The NY Times reports: More »
awards
