"I don't know how to be gay."

"I used to think I was something else, like they'd make a whole new category for me. I like guys, but I like old films just as much. I don't know what to call that."

Oh, Moosh. I feel like you really get me sometimes.

"Love is Love"

I had a lot to say after this week's episode of United States of Tara, namely the locker room showdown between eternally lovable Marshall and the douchey, extremely radical gay Lionel. Unfortunately, the post I had started was going nowhere and ended up sounding a little hypocritical, so I stopped and gave up on the whole thing. Thankfully, Kameron pointed out this article from AfterElton that sums up perfectly what I wanted to say in that post. I normally can't stand AfterElton--I find they believe that unless you support every gay artist (even at the expense of a better straight one) or every gay cause, you are a bad, self-hating gay--but for once I think they hit the nail on the head with this one. Marshall is not the enemy here. His position may be a tad worrisome, but I think his greater point that not every gay can be (or should be) as "out there" as Lionel, looking for biases and hatred everywhere they go, is one worth repeating.

Golden Globe FYC's: Television

In just under a month, the Golden Globe nominations are going to be announced. Say what you want about them, but I love the way they cater to mega stars and nominate some out-there movies and TV shows the more serious Oscars and Emmys wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. And in that spirit, I wanted to point any members of the Hollywood Foreign Press who may have wandered onto my site to some underappreciated and unknown TV shows and performances from the past year. So, without further ado,

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Best TV Show (Musical/Comedy)

Best Actor (Musical/Comedy): Joel McHale
Best Supporting Actress: Yvette Nicole Brown

Not everyone is in love with this show and I can accept that. The show's scattershot, smartass humor is a bit hit or miss, but when it hits, damn it is funny. Joel McHale, host of The Soup, is my boo so it should come as no surprise I love him on this show. The show's other highlight is Shirley, played by Yvette Nicole Brown. She's warm, generous and often hilarious with admittedly little to do sometimes. Hell, she can make silence funny.

Best Supporting Actress: Jane Lynch

The show is wildly inconsistent for me. Jane Lynch, however, is always spot on and often has me howling in laughter with her non-sensical metaphors and "Sue Says" TV spot. It's no wonder that Sue Sylvester is quickly replacing Chuck Norris as the ultimate tough guy.

Best Actress (Drama): Leighton Meester

This season so far has been a bit of a wash for Ms. Meester although things seem to be looking up for her (I loved the way she stood back and simply observed the aftermath of the "OM3"; she was far more interesting than any of the participants). My FYC is for, of course, her stellar work from the second half of last season. Do I really have to try and convince you again of her amazingness?

Best Supporting Actress: Chelsea Staub
Best Supporting Actress: Nicole Anderson

The Jonas Brothers may be the "stars" of JONAS, but the true discoveries are the main females of the show. Staub plays the band's stylist and shoulder to cry on about their various problems with an unusual combination of warmness and ferocious comedic timing unseen on any Disney show I've ever seen. Anderson is the band's obsessive fan who has slowly become my favorite reason to watch the show.

Best TV Show (Drama)
Best Supporting Actor: Sebastian Stan

This show never really had a chance on network TV, did it? Ambitious, layered and epic in scope, Kings was doomed from the start. But in its short 13 episode run, Kings had more impressive moments than some shows have had in three seasons. Ian McShane, with his booming voice and larger than life bravura, was great as the king, but I often found Sebastian Stan as doomed Prince Jack to be even more compelling throughout the show. In just a few episodes, the one-time Ed Westwick imitator became an actor to watch for in the future.

Best TV Show (Musical/Comedy)
Best Actress (Musical/Comedy): Demi Lovato
Best Supporting Actor: Sterling Knight
Best Supporting Actress: Tiffany Thornton

Who said that Disney was only for kids? One of the best shows on TV right now is on the Disney Channel and I'm not ashamed to admit that I watch it religiously. Sonny With a Chance is 30 Rock for the tweens and it's often just as groundbreaking and can't-catch-your-breath funny (when compared to its contemporaries, at least). Leading the cast is Demi Lovato as Sonny, the Liz Lemon of the show, and what's exciting about her performance is that over the course of the season, you can see her letting loose more and more, finally getting the hang of this comedy thing and truly becoming a star with each passing episode. Tiffany Thornton, plays self-obsessed diva Tawni Hart, the Jenna to Demi's Liz, and is a hoot everytime she appears on screen. Do you know anyone else who can elicit so many laughs just by repeating "Cocoa Mocho Cocoa" over and over again? And then there is trusty old Sterling Knight as tween heartthrob Chad Dylan Cooper (swoon!). His role as the romantic foil to Demi's Sonny is not particularly groundbreaking but the way he remains a complete douche even during the moments when he's supposed to be "wooing" Sonny is impressive. Less talented, "pretty boy" actors would have completely pussified CDC by episode four, but Knight is just as mean and darkly funny as he was on day one. Kudos to you!

Best TV Show (Musical/Comedy)
Best Supporting Actor: Keir Gilchrist
Best Supporting Actress: Brie Larson

Toni Collette is likely to get a nom, so it seems unnecessary to FYC her right now. Instead, I'll focus on the underappreciated children of Tara. Like I've talked about before, Gilchrist brings a clever twist to a stereotypical gay teen role. Larson is a complete bitch on the show, but she somehow brings enough humanity to her performance that I kinda wish she was my older sister.

My New Favorite Gays

This weekend I've been in a TV watching mood, so I decided to catch up on two shows that underwhelmed TV critics and audiences, too: NBC's Kings and Showtime's United States of Tara. After watching them, however, I'm afraid I have to disagree. I absolutely loved every minute of each of these shows (give or take some parts of the last two episodes of Kings). Their writing is top-notch, definitely not for everyone but exciting and richly rewarding if you give it the attention it deserves, and the acting on both shows is out-of-this-world ensemble work at its best. I could write at length about each of these shows, but right now I just want to focus on one character from each show: Prince Jack (Sebastian Stan) on Kings and Marshall (Keir Gilchrist) on Tara. Okay, so it's obvious and almost predictable that I'm latching right on to the moes, but the characters are so different from the usual bitchy gays we've become so accustomed to on TV that I was immediately fascinated/in love with them.

Let's start with Marshall, the youngest member of the clan on the Diablo Cody-written United States of Tara. Played by Keir Gilchrist, Marshall is your classic sitcom outcast, the "oddball" of the family who would rather watch Pandora's Box or dress in a sportcoat and tie for school everyday (seriously, though, can I have his wardrobe?) than be trendy and hip. In typical Diablo Cody fashion, his best friend/fag hag is a quirky intellectual girl who wears long, frumpy dresses and horn-rimmed glasses while discussing the difference a From Here to Eternity kiss and a Place in the Sun kiss. But Marshall is also easy to love and, in my case, entirely relatable. Take out the mother with multiple personalities and closeted love interest and you basically have me in high school (and now, actually). It's all thanks to Gilchrist's performance that Marshall feels so fresh, unique and plausibly real (On a side note, can we please get Gilchrist and sister Brie Larson Emmy nominations?).
















On the other end of the spectrum we have Prince Jack on Kings, played by Rants of a Diva favorite Leighton Meester's man Sebastian Stan (you may recognize him from Gossip Girl as the man Blair slept with earlier in the season to get revenge on Chuck for whatever reason). The show doesn't focus on the Prince's homosexuality even half as much as Marshall's (and that's pretty minor as it is) but he's still an interesting bad guy. I don't know if I've ever shared this, but I love a gay villain. Yes, I don't care what the old queen gay activists think, I love it when gay characters are mean, vindictive, sociopathic and/or willing to do whatever it takes to exact their revenge on those who have done them wrong. I find them infinitely more interesting than your standard queen. So, needless to say, I love the flashes of evil that flash from Stan's Prince Jack. Actually, it looks like he has been taking lessons from Meester on how to be so awesomely manipulative that the audience actually roots for you. I know I was, especially during the final episode when he's trying to screw over David, the war hero and his father's new favorite. Oh, and let's not forget Prince Jack's daddy issues or the fact that his father knows about his not-so-discreet liaisons with other men and thinks he's an abomination. Poor Prince Jack, he just can't catch a break, can he?