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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 2006)
mstiout JANUARY 6, 2006 SAT • JAN 21 The Oregon affiliate of the National Abortion Rights Action League presents its 28th annual banquet at the Portland Hilton Hotel featuring keynote speaker Sarah Weddington, the attorney who successfully argued—at the age of 26I—the landmark Supreme Court case that has been protecting women's lives since 1973. (6 pm cocktails, 7 pm dinner. 921 SW Sixth Ave. $50-$125 from 503-223-4510, ext. 12, or dayan@prochoiceoregon.org.) ® Golden Girls icon Bea Arthur tells a few lowbrow stories from her 50 years in the business mixed with her favorite songs at Elsinore Theatre in Salem. Rescheduled because of illness. (7:30 pm. 170 High St. SE. $30-$60from TicketsWest.) BearBust at Gail's Dirty Duck. (8-11 pm 429 NW Third Ave. $8 members, $10 nonmembers.) KATRINA COLE ¿8 Tip your hat to Crystal's Country Jam at the Portland Metro Club (PPAA). (8-9 pm lessons, 9 pm-1 am dancing. 618 SE Alder St. $5, $8 with lessons.) SUN • JAN 22 Central Library commemorates the birthday of William Stafford, Oregon's late poet laureate, with a reading hosted by Joanna Rose featuring Molly Gloss, Paul Merchant, David Milholland, Carlos Reyes, Shelley Reece, special guest Dorothy Stafford and lesbian poet Judith Barrington. (2-3 pm. 801 SW 10th Ave.) Gay writer Matthew Stadler hosts the Back Room, an occasional series of intellectual presentations featuring dinner, drinks and live music at Ripe. Tonight's guest is Anne Focke, who served as Seattle's first arts commissioner and has shaped much of the Northwest's arts infrastructure. (7 pm. 2240 N Interstate Ave. $35 from 503-235-2294 or eat@ripepdx.com.) Swallows hatch their music Jan. 12 at Towne Lounge. Tears for Frears You never know what to expect from Stephen Frears. The Oscar- nominated British director has brought us a vicious costume drama (Dangerous Liaisons), a Freudian film noir (The Drifters) and the occasional bomb (Mary Reilly). SB: Everyone’s talking about Brokeback Mountain as a revolutionary gay film. Jfy Beautiful Laundrette also strikes me as revolutionary. SF: Well, it was. When Laundrette became as big a success as it No stranger to gay storylines, he helmed 1987’s Prick Up Your did, you could see that it somehow caught some spirit of defiance, Ears, a biopic about queer British playwright Joe Orton. And in 1985 it got absolutely sensational reviews. They said, “This just changes he made the landmark film My Beautiful Laundrette, which depicts everything. ” Homosexuality wasn’t presented as some kind of terri- the romance between a young Pakistani man and a wayward bloke I ble illness, some sort of problem. I played by Daniel Day-Lewis. His latest—Golden Globe nominee Mrs. Henderson Presents— arrives Jan. 20 in Portland. Based on the true story of an SB: Do you have any dream projects on your mind? SF: No. Absolutely not. I don’t work like that. I like the surprise. outspoken widow who lures audiences to her musical theater with live I I like people sort of ringing me up. I like opening a script and going female nudity, the slight but entertaining film stars Judi Dench, Bob into a new world. If I knew what the world was, it would be much Hoskins and gay singer Will Young, who launched his career on the less interesting. I would like not to know about the next film I make. U.K. equivalent This is very hard work. The responsibility gets greater, and it American Idol. Just Out caught up with Frears during his recent visit to Portland. becomes quite oppressive. It’s given me a very, very interesting life— much more interesting than I ever expected. So I’m very, very grate- Stephen Blair: In one scene Will Young's character ■ fill to it, and also I get enormous pleasure from it. —Stephen Blair announces to Mrs. Henderson that he's gay. She's bigoted in many areas, so why do you suppose she’s so titil lated by this? Stephen Frears: People are wise in unexpected ways. Although she’s such an outrageous woman, she’s always rather humane, isn’t she? Embracing. SB: How did you make the cast feel comfortable during all the nude scenes? SF: You just have to be very, very straight with peo ple. Just say: “If you don’t want to do it, don’t take the job. It’s not going to go away.” It’s the underhandedness they don’t like—someone trying to get some advantage over them. SB: The film is set in the 1930s. How is it rele vant to modern audiences? SF: I don’t know that I think of it in those terms. It’s meant to be entertaining. It makes you cry. If I were to try to claim a sort of relevance, it would be false. Stephen Frears directs actress Kelly Reilly in Mrs. Henderson Presents, also starring Bob Hoskins and Judi Dench (right). D aytime MON-FRI • 7AM-2PM S at -S un • B am -3 pm N IBHTTIME / * T ues , W eds , T hurs • 5:30-9:30 pm F ri -S at • 5:30-1 0:30 pm •A ppealing A ppetizers •S crumptious S weets •D elightful D esserts •A nnoying A lliterations co NW Third Ave Portland • (503) 224*3285 • www hobospdx.com
