Last week, when at a press junket amidst the madness of Cannes Film Festival, Cate Blanchett was asked by a reporter from Variety whether she drew inspiration for her portrayal of a lesbian love affair in the upcoming Carol from relationships with women in real life, Blanchett reportedly responded: “Yes. Many times”. For a split second the reporter must have thought they’d landed quite a scoop and the media was immediately aflutter with the idea that our Cate, who has been married for 18 years to theatre director husband Andrew Upton and is a mother of three children, might have dabbled in her own Sapphic encounters.
A few days later, Cate put the matter quickly to bed when she clarified that she hasn’t in fact dated women in the past, and claimed she was misquoted. But she instead shot back that the question was irrelevant. “In 2015, the point should be: who cares?”
The film itself is based on a 1952 novel written called The Price of Salt by lesbian author Patricia Highsmith, who wrote the potboiler about a Manhattan housewife and a department store shopgirl in 1950s New York who have a forbidden and clandestine lesbian love affair. At the time, it was one of the own lesbian novels with a happy ending, but the author penned the novel under a pseudonym for fear of being outed.
The film version named Carol, directed by Todd Haynes, and starring Blanchett as the housewife opposite Rooney Mara as the shop assistant took more than a decade to reach the screen, and the screenwriter Phyllis Nagy credits the film finally getting made as a sign of progress. The film has been met with resounding critical acclaim, showered with five-star reviews and critics consider the film to be the frontrunner for the Palme D’Or, and Cate a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination.
Miley Cyrus also this month outed herself as “not straight” when she announced her charity work with LGBT and homeless youth. She wasn’t willing to label herself as bisexual, or gay, but acknowledged she’d had relationships with both men and women and is not happily single.
Elsewhere, in the world, In the tiny sovereign city of Luxembourg, the openly gay Prime Minister married his partner in a civil ceremony, and a Tasmanian woman had her dying wish to marry her long-time partner granted.
Tasmanian couple Lee Bransden and Sandra Yates were married in New Zealand over the weekend after a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe raised more than $11,000 for their nuptials. The couple were desperate to get married in New Zealand, as Lee has a terminal illness and has only a few weeks to live and couldn’t wait for Australia to get around to finally changing our marriage laws. Thankfully, more than 270 people – many of them strangers – donated to the campaign set up by Australians for Marriage Equality – to help pay for the pair to make it down the aisle.
On Saturday May 30, Grouse is teaming up with the House of Mince and Contrary to bring NYC act House of Ladosha to the John Curtin Hotel for the second time. The gender-bending hip hop collective will perform their only Vivid sideshow, and will be joined with Chela before she returns to LA, and DJs Sveta, Fletch and Sov Trax.
On Sunday June 7, the Queen’s Birthday Eve is bringing out all the queens from both sides of the river. Sundaylicious with be throwing their annual Sunday day-to-night party starting at 3pm, but this one will be running until late at the Long Room, 162-168 Collins Street, CBD. Entry is free, and all LGBT people are welcome. DJs Jason Conti, Mike Evans, KDJ and John Knap are on the decks, and as usual the place will be packed with gay girls and their friends of all ages.
Swagger are throwing an All Hail the Queens party for all the gays who like to twerk to R&B. Their Sunday party kicks off from 11pm till late at The Bottom End, 579 Little Bourke Street, CBD. Tickets are $10 online, or $15 on the door, with a discount for students.
And of course, YASS QWEEN! is taking over the whole of Roxanne Parlour and Charltons. Along with a huge DJ lineup across both floors headlined by Total Giovanni doing a Dj set, YASS QWEEN! will also feature Karaoke Qween, a karaoke competition hosted by Karen From Finance, and a host of performers and dancers. Early birds are sold out, and first release are selling fast.
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