Latest news with #gayicon
Telegraph
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Princess Diana ‘was not a gay icon'
She has an enduring legacy as a gay icon, celebrated for her campaigning for HIV awareness. But Princess Diana might not have actually been as popular with the gay community as first thought. According to author Edward White, a survey carried out after her death in 1997 found that many gay and lesbian people were 'insulted' by the former Princess of Wales's association with them. Speaking to the History Extra podcast, Mr White said: 'Diana was kind of embraced, I think, by a lot of gay people as being kind of an ally or an icon. 'There's an absolutely fascinating resource that I drew on that's called the National Lesbian and Gay Survey. 'After Diana's death, they asked their respondents to write in and give their take on Diana's death and how they felt and what they felt it meant to gay people.' He added: 'Some people were absolutely horrified that Diana should be considered to be an important person in gay life at all, because she's this ultra-privileged ... She's basically a poster girl for heteronormative couples. 'You can't get straighter than Princess Diana.' Diana advocated for HIV awareness and in 1987 she broke new ground by publicly shaking hands with gay men with Aids. She also opened the first purpose-built unit for HIV and Aids at the London Middlesex Hospital. Talking about his book Dianaworld: An Obsession, Mr White said Diana's 1995 Panorama interview saw her become associated with the gay community He said: 'It kind of has a parallel to other sorts of interviews of the time such as George Michael's one, which is essentially like Diana doing a coming-out interview in the Panorama in 1995 as much as it is a kind of a whistleblowing interview.' Mr White said there were also respondents on the survey that held the positive view of Princess Diana that has continued to this day. He continued: 'Other people at the same time felt like she was, you know, their most important ally and that she took the discrimination that gay people faced as part of their daily lives and she did an awful lot to kind of combat it. 'And not just because of her involvement with the HIV issue, but because she was known to be friends with gay people and she was seen to be a great ally. 'Other people that wrote into this survey, they suggested that what was great about her is that she actually cut across all of these kinds of identities and that everybody could kind of find their own Diana, whether you were gay, straight or anything else.'
The Guardian
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Gina Gershon: ‘Tom Cruise was tickling me in bed. I nearly broke his nose'
Gina, you are a spectacular and artistically brave woman and movie star. How do you rationalise – and, hopefully, enjoy – the fact that your audiences often encounter you as a beacon of beauty, sexuality and eroticism? Geroellheimer People can see me in whatever ways they want. As long as what I do brings them joy or helps them think about things, I don't contemplate how they view me – it's too abstract. When people share their opinions about me with me, I wonder who they're talking about, but I go along with it to be polite. How do you move on and decompress after playing such intense roles? mansurz After Showgirls and Bound, I had so much residual energy that I ended up going to Greece, cut off some of my hair and released it into the sea. I thought: 'This is very Greek.' There was a lot of energy that came with playing Donatella Versace. When I played Nancy Sinatra, I don't want to say 'I channelled her', but I tapped into her energy. The next thing I knew, I had all these stomach ulcers. I asked her about it. She said: 'I've had seven or eight of those.' I thought: 'Oh my God, really?' What do you think of your status as a gay icon? Kooooonan I think it's fabulous. I'm just happy it's brought so many people so much joy. A lot of women have come up to me and told me how Bound helped them either come out or accept certain things. So that feels nice, you know? Did the Wachowskis invite you to audition for The Matrix? Glozboy They wanted to do The Matrix before they did Bound, but they needed to prove themselves. Once we started working on Bound, they told me about The Matrix. I said: 'That sounds insane – and great.' The storyboards all had my face on, so I naturally assumed I was playing Trinity. Then I guess they fell in love with Carrie-Anne Moss and I didn't do it. It was kind of heartbreaking. Did 'the joke' of Showgirls go over the rest of the cast's heads, or were you all on the same page? Rjoepenk I was a big Paul Verhoeven fan. I loved Turkish Delight and Spetters, so I knew it was going to be very heavy and intense. I went deep down into Cristal, thinking I'd be playing Margo instead of Eve [in All About Eve], thinking about Aphrodite. It felt as if I was preparing for a Wagner concert or something. When I walked on to the set, it was a Technicolor pop concert of jewels and feathers. There was a moment when I was hanging on a rope in an S&M outfit, looking down at a load of naked bodies dancing around me, where I had this weird existential moment. I thought: I studied the classics! I wanted to play Medea. I wanted to do Chekhov. How did I get here? I thought: I better be really, really good in this, or else my career is over before it begins. As it turned more campy, I decided not to take things so seriously and thought: the drag queens will love me and want to dress like Cristal on Halloween. Your cameos in Curb Your Enthusiasm were hilarious. How hard is it not to laugh? Galdove19 Playing Hannah the Horny Hasid, as I like to call her, was some of the most fun I've ever had. I had no idea what I was getting into. When they called, I was sitting with [the music producer] Rick Rubin. I said: 'I don't really have time. I'm doing a movie. I'm doing a TV show.' He said: 'If there's only one thing you should do all year, it's Curb Your Enthusiasm.' When I got on set, I assumed I was playing myself. They said: 'No, we want you to play the Hasidic Jew.' Larry [David] said: 'Can you think of an accent?' I thought about my waxer, Rochelle – a French-Israeli woman who lived in the Bronx. I always loved her voice, so I just did her. Larry was laughing so hard. Any time you do something that makes Larry laugh, you feel great. But it's not so great when you're shooting, because they say: 'We have to do it again because you laughed.' But then you just want to make him laugh, because it feels so satisfying to make him break. What was it like working on the truly absurd Face/Off? If you could swap faces with anyone, who would it be? Bauhaus66 I'd like to swap faces with my cat, because he's so handsome. He's called Lord Louis. Lord Louis Zuzu the Magnificent. He's a 28lb [13kg] bundle of handsome love. He's part African savannah domestic and looks like a lion. I wouldn't mind having Benicio del Toro's face; I just saw him in the new Wes Anderson movie [The Phoenician Scheme]. I could watch his face all day long. Did you feel you were on track to become a femme fatale after your guest stint on Melrose Place? Kal_85 Can I tell you the only thing I remember about Melrose Place? I was in Toronto with a bunch of people and we went to a strip club, like you do in a weird location. It was pretty tame and actually quite sweet. This dancer came walking down the runway, doing her bit. She looked at me, pointed her finger and went: 'Melrose Place!' I thought I was going to die. I'd never been pointed out like that before. I can't even remember who I played on Melrose Place. Is that terrible? What was it like being part of a typically alpha-dog Michael Mann environment working on The Insider? leroyhunter I always thought I was too young. I said to Michael at the audition: 'I'm too young to be believable. We're talking about a 40-year-old woman.' She seemed so ancient to me. I thought: should I have grey in my hair? I walked on to set with no makeup, looking like a kid. I remember Al Pacino looking at me, as if to say: 'What the fuck? How is she going to play this person?' I said: 'Don't, worry. I'm gonna age up quickly.' My first scene was with the great Christopher Plummer – the scene where he yells at me right in the face. He was so intense. It was the first time I felt: wow, I don't even really have to act. When you're working with someone so great, you just stay present and it becomes electric. What was it like ordering a multiple orgasm from Tom Cruise in Cocktail? TopTramp I almost broke his nose. I had never done a love scene before and it was going to be with Tom Cruise. I thought: God, I get paid for this. He was so cute. I had a crush on him immediately. He was very protective and very much a gentleman, saying: 'Let's keep you covered.' He was very concerned. Originally, we were supposed to be running around naked, but I thought: I don't wanna do that. That seems dumb. I suggested: 'Why don't you go down on me under the covers? Then when you pop up, it'll be a surprise.' He loved the idea, but I'd told him I was very ticklish, because he had started to tickle me earlier. I said: 'Just don't do that. I lose control because I was tortured as a child by my brother.' Right before the take, he was down there and grabbed my waist in a tickly, sweet manner. I didn't mean to, but I had a kneejerk reaction right into his nose. It was full of blood. I thought: I just broke Tom Cruise's nose. I will never work in Hollywood again. I was mortified because I really kicked him good. I didn't mean to. He said: 'Nope. My bad. You warned me.' I remember thinking: this guy is a movie star. He deserves everything he gets. He was just so kind and so sweet with me in a situation where I was quite vulnerable. I'm glad he was my first. High Rollers is on digital platforms
