Atlanta, Georgia Mayor Kasim Reed offered an apology Wednesday for the 2009 raid of the city’s Eagle Bar, which led to a just approved $1 million legal settlement that also requires police reforms and an internal investigation into the planning and execution of the badly botched raid, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. Reed says that Atlanta police officers “engaged in inappropriate conduct” the night they raided the gay bar, and the events of that night “have been a matter of serious concern to me for some time.” He added “I believe that what occurred that evening should not have happened and should not happen again. As mayor of Atlanta, I feel pain for anyone mistreated in our city and apologise to each plaintiff in the ... case.” The city and the bar reached a settlement in a lawsuit alleging that officers violated the constitutional rights of bar patrons by illegally detaining and mistreating them late last week, the City Council approving the $1.025 million settlement Monday, awarded to 28 plaintiffs, including the Eagle owner. None of the 62 patrons detained in September of last year were charged, although 8 bar employees were arrested for permit violations. No search warrant was produced.
James Franco has the option to the film rights of a biography of Sal Mineo, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the work, Sal Mineo: A Biography, by artist and photographer Michael Gregg Michaud, published last month. Franco optioned the book as a potential writing and directing vehicle, but THR says that could change, and Franco, who won a Golden Globe for playing James Dean, can star. Coincidentally, Mineo’s work in Rebel Without a Cause, the Nicholas Ray-directed 1955 film, was nominated for an Academy Award; the movie released a month after Dean had died. The biography reportedly details Mineo’s rise to fame, his conflicted sexuality, friendships with both Dean and Rebel co-star Nathalie Wood, and his murder in February, 1976 in West Hollywood, stabbed to death by a pizza deliveryman.
Darren Criss interviewed in the newest issue of Interview, natch, says he had no reservations about playing the openly gay character of Blaine on Glee, telling the magazine “After having gotten to know the show a little bit, I was really excited to see that a character like this—such a strong gay character, especially a young, male, out-and-proud teen—was going to make its way onto network television, much less Fox. This is the first time I'd really seen an out student that was so young and innocent and really struggling with the big ordeal that it is to be an out student at such an early age. When other shows present the gay character thing, it's typically been in much more adult situations, like gay men living in New York or closeted men who are married and struggling with that ordeal, but never really the core of the journey of defining your sexuality. Blaine offers a beautiful counter to that and makes such a great addition to the many-colored palette that is Glee. So as far as me having any reservations about it, no. I read it being like, this would be so cool, whoever gets to play this, it's going to be a great thing for an already great show.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment