There is a new interview with Gale Harold in The Weekend Australian, November 27 (Page B30) by Sophie Tedmanson. It's titled, "Gay Abandon" and is available online to subscribers at theaustralian.news.com.au. For those who cannot access it, I've posted the article here as well. POWER UP! is pleased to announce that their film "Billy's Dad is a Fudge-Packer" has been chosen as an official selection of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. The short film stars Robert Gant (Ben on QAF), Cady Huffman (The Producers), and Alex Borstein (MAD TV) and is an homage to 1950's educational films (reminds me of Mental Hygiene, in which Gale Harold had a very brief appearance). The movie premiered in early November at POWER Up's POWER PREMIERE, an annual dinner gala and award ceremony, and will now begin making the festival circuit. For more information, visit the POWER UP! website. Bobby posted an anniversary message to fans at his forum, Be The Change, and says there are some interesting developments in the works with respect to QAF this season, and also with his company Mythgarden that he formed with Chad Allen and Christopher Racster. You can read more about their first project, Save Me, a same-sex romance starring Judith Light, at Chad Allen's website. Matthew Myers interviewed Randy Harrison for a recent issue of DNA magazine from Australia, where season four of Queer As Folk is currently airing on the SBS television network. Randy says they're working on the fifth season now in Toronto, shooting one episode in eight working days (in past years they did it in seven). They aren't certain if this will be the last season, and are still waiting to hear. When asked about the vigilante storyline, Randy says, "It was definitely fun to do, just because the material was so different. After three years, I certainly didn't expect to be handling guns and doing combat scenes on Queer as Folk." He feels the characters are maturing, and starting to deal with aging, as was intended by the show's writers and producers. DNA asks, "Do you feel like you're part of an historic gay era?" Randy replies, "I definitely feel that since the show started the amount of gay subject matter on TV has just skyrocketed. I wonder if it will completely shift the paradigm, or if it's just sort of a fluke. But it seems to me as if television has changed with it. I don't know necessarily if Queer as Folk is responsible, but it's good to know that you're a part of it in some way." After QAF, Randy says he wants to do something classical or period, something very far away from Babylon. From an article by the BBC News: Russell T Davies, creator of the original Queer as Folk, has a new prime time series set in his home town of Swansea (South West Wales, UK). Mine All Mine, starring Griff Rhys Jones, tells the story of Max Vivaldi who inherits the city after a will is authenticated. Dylan Thomas famously wrote it was an 'ugly, lovely, town', the Lonely Planet Guide described it as 'an ashtray of a place' while locals refer to it as the 'graveyard of a man's ambition.' Swansea, as a place to live, work or visit, it would seem, has its fair share of both devotees and detractors. No doubt many local people will be tuning in to see how Swansea is portrayed this time. From GayWired.com: here! TV is currently in production with a varied slate of original content, of which it will produce a total of six series and twelve films per year. Premiering on the network in December is Too Cool for Christmas, a family holiday film featuring two gay dads and starring George Hamilton, Donna Mills, Brooke Nevin, Adam Harrington (Connor James, QAF) and Barclay Hope. In production now are here! Family, a gay parenting series hosted by And Baby Magazine publisher Michelle Darné; gothic horror series Dante’s Cove, and Tides of War, a naval action drama starring Adrian Paul, Mathew St. Patrick (Six Feet Under), Catherine Dent, and Matt Battaglia (Drew Boyd, QAF). Although this year's official gathering of Scott Lowell fans ("Sco-Lo Con") was cancelled, another one is in the early planning stages. If you would like to vote on the location for the next convention, visit the ScottLowell.com forum (you must be a registered forum member to vote). Also on the website is the November Q&A. The QAF Thank You Project, organized by the Liberty Avenue site, offers fans a unique way to express their thanks to the cast and crew of QAF. The project is in two parts: a donation for charity (Human Rights Campaign) and a personalized memory book that will be delivered to the set of QAF. The deadline for submissions is December 15. Hal Sparks has created a blog at MySpace.com. On his message board at Hal's Lair he writes, "I am currently writing a script for a suspense film that loosely involves an online community and I thought it would be great research too. So I hope you enjoy what I write over there and have a laugh or two. If you want to discuss what I said please do it here because it's very easy to overwhelm MySpace's layout and sometimes the software they have running the thing gets squirrelly." Hal is providing commentary for Bravo's "100 Greatest Characters" show, airing every night this week, and again throughout December; he continues his narration in "I Love The 90s Part Deux," another installment in the VH1 series, which will begin airing in January 2005. Chris Gazzara discusses "a decade in gay culture" in an article for the Daily Collegian. Here's an excerpt: The show "Queer as Folk" blasted onto the scene, exposing an entirely gay and lesbian cast for the first time ever to a nation of Showtime viewers. The show centers on several men and women living different lifestyles representative of the different aspects of gay culture. This show was instrumental in giving gays a sense of identity. Finally they had a show of their own. [read the full article] Harris Allan (Hunter) has posted to his official message board, the Hideaway, thanking fans for the Season 5 fan book he received. He says, "Filming for QAF season 5 is a ton of fun and we're working hard to make it the best season ever known to the world! hehe" and adds, "I will be attending the 2005 Queer As Fans Convention I will be doing everything on Saturday January 22nd, 2005 I look forward to getting to see everyone there. Hope all of the Americans had an outstanding thanksgiving!" Read more of Harris' post here. Check out the Media section for a clip of Harris on MTV Canada, and the photo page for pictures of Harris' band Square9 at the "Music for a Cure" benefit concert. The "Queer as Fans" convention takes place January 21-23, 2005 at the Days Inn in Toronto. Confirmed guests so far include Harris Allan (Hunter), Dean Armstrong (Blake), Shawn Postoff (Executive Story Editor), Michael A. Perlmutter (Music Supervisor), Patrick Antosh (Costume Designer), Stephen Lynch (Key Make-up Artist), Etheline Joseph (Hairdresser), and James (Sharon Gless' hairdresser). There will be a showing of the indie film WAKE (featuring Gale Harold) and of The Human Kazoo, in which Fab Filippo (ex-Ethan) appears. A fan auction will be held on Saturday night. Tickets are limited. Check out the web site at queerasfans.com or join the forum. "Lives of the Saints," a two-part, four-hour mini-series featuring Fab Filippo and starring Sophia Loren, will air on CTV Sunday, January 2nd, 2005. Commercials for the film have started to air on CTV in Canada. Check out the website at CTV.ca. Sharon Gless, who plays Debbie on QAF, wants to immigrate to Canada to develop TV and film projects, and has been waiting for more than a year to have her application under business-class rules opened by immigration officials. In an article published at CTV.ca, Sharon says, "I'm not giving up my American citizenship. This isn't about Bush. I've been here for five years now doing a series and I fell in love with Canada. I fell in love with the people and I decided I'd like to stay and work." But since she and her husband, theatre producer Barney Rosenzweig, decided to move to Canada they discovered it was a little more difficult than you might expect. "I want to bring money in. My husband wants to bring money in. He has a Broadway play opening in December. It's coming to Toronto," she said. Despite Gless's plans, she says immigration officers have turned her down in favour of processing "skilled" workers -- those considered to have higher education. "Two years ago I started the process. They refused to open my file. They say I'm not a skilled worker. Is that a critique of my work? I'll show you my awards. They said, 'No, you've had two years of college instead of four.' Well, that's wrong," she told Canada AM. Gless's immigration lawyer, Mendel Green, told The Globe and Mail that the Buffalo consulate has not looked at any business cases in the past year-and-a-half. And from Entertainment now: Something else Gless has is staying power in Hollywood, even though she's a woman over -- gasp! -- 40 years old. "The aging process and the industry's reaction to it is startling to me," she says. But it was the Showtime series "Queer as Folk" that was looking for talent rather than the right birth date. "I found this show and this crazy character," she says of Debbie Jane Grassi Novotny, the eccentric mother she plays on the show. "It's interesting when people give you permission to be however you look," she says. "When I called about this part they said 'Oh yeah, come in.' I said, 'Do you know what I look like?' Because everyone still thought I looked like Chris Cagney. And they said, 'We do. And what we want is this.'" Gless says since starting the show she's lost an impressive 40 pounds. She gives credit to Atkins as well as being given the permission to be herself, which she says took away the pressure to look perfect. The next season of "Queer as Folk" returns to the airwaves in March of 2005 and funnylady ROSIE O'DONNELL is set to appear in three episodes. Gless acknowledges she's been lucky to not just have one successful show, but two. "I've been very, very fortunate, very blessed," she says. "I come from gratitude every day. I don't know how often it happens, but I love it."

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