Maryland Republican Kittleman Says He Will Break With Party And Vote For Same Sex Marriage Bill, Bill Barring Openly Gay Members Of Virginia National Guard Killed In House, Anderson Cooper Attacked In Cairo, Clint Eastwood Hints J. Edgar Hoover Bio-Picture To Be “De-Gayed” But Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black Begs To Differ, Scissor Sisters Curate Robert Mapplethorpe Exhibition, James Franco Reportedly To Star In Broadway Revival Of Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird Of Youth

Maryland’s former Senate Republican leader Allan Kittleman said Wednesday that he will break with the GOP and vote to legalize same sex marriage in the state, MyFoxDC.com. Kittleman said he vote for Senate Bill 116, although he said he would not vote to end a filibuster. Tuesday, the Senate Republican Caucus voted Tuesday to oppose the legislation, Minority Whip E.J. Pipkin saying Senate GOP members consider that stance best represents the views of their constituents. Kittleman resigned in January as Senate minority leader after announcing he planned to introduce a measure legalizing civil unions, saying his political views are too moderate for the Republican caucus.

Thankfully, a bill born of hate and ignorance has died in the Virginia House, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reporting that House Bill 2474, which would have banned gay from serving openly in the in the Virginia National Guard was dispatched by the House Rules panel over what members deemed practical considerations. Delegate Robert G. Marshall (Republican-Prince William) sponsored the proposed bill, arguing that the state National Guard should continue to bar gays and lesbians from serving openly despite a Congressional vote in December to repeal the policy that prohibited them from doing so at the national level. Delegate Bill Janis (Republican-Henrico), who said he opposed the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” was against Marshall’s proposed bill, saying that different standards for members of the state’s National Guard versus other service members would present a “management and leadership nightmare” if they were to serve together, and he questioned the effects of such a change on federal funding. Marshall counted that he did not agree with the management concerns and argued that the state already has some different standards for the National Guard that the United States armed forces without any disruptions in funding. A second bill, House Bill 2345, sponsored by Delegate Joseph D Morrissey (Democrat-Henrico) would have made eligibility for service in the Virginia National Guard comply with the laws and regulations adopted by the United States Department of Defense. A committee moved quickly to kill that bill before Morrissey was able to address it since the panel had already decided to act on Marshall’s measure; a move that infuriated Morrissey.

The New York Times reports that a number of journalists were attacked Wednesday in Cairo, Egypt, allegedly by pro- Hosni Mubarak protestors who had fought with pro-democracy supporters. Steve Brusk, a senior editor at CNN said Anderson Cooper and his crew had been attacked while covering demonstrations in Tahrir Square, Cooper “was punched 10 times in the head as pro-Mubarak mob surrounded him and his crew trying to cover demonstration,” wrote Brusk on Twitter. Cooper recounted the incident on-air live and did not appear injured.

Friday, the Wall Street Journal ran an interview with Clint Eastwood ahead of filming on his new movie J. Edgar, a biography of the former FBI director, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Hoover, and Armie Hoover as Clyde Tolson, his lover. The screenplay is being written by Dustin Lance Black, and when asked by the WSJ if the script addresses reports that Hoover was not only gay, but a cross-dresser, Eastwood answers not really, and that what attracted him to the screenplay was the fact that it “didn’t quite go down that road,” adding “I went back and read probably all the material that (Black) had read ... I went and visited with the FBI in Washington, D.C., and tried to find out as much as I could about people who had worked with Hoover.” Black responded Wednesday, telling AfterElton.com "To think that somehow you’re going to a make a movie about somebody like J. Edgar and you’re not going to learn what’s in his heart, that’s just not going to happen in a script that I write," says Black. "It’s unfounded [the idea that the movie is being de-gayed.]" Black adds that "It’s not difficult to find the script and the script that’s out there is the script that we’ve all been working on." When asked what he thought he Eastwood meant in stating that the film “didn’t quite go down that road,” Black answered "I think he’s referring to the fact that he’s not going into the stereotypes of who Hoover was because they are clownish, they are comic book and they reek of homophobia and he’s not going to do that. I agree with that. It won’t be going into anything that is a gay stereotype especially that was used in that day to bash gay men. It won’t be going into that because it’s not accurate and it’s not true. It will deal with sexuality in a far more human, realistic way."

Jake Shears and Babydaddy, of Scissor Sisters, have curated an exhibition of works by the late Robert Mapplethorpe, CNN reporting that the two were asked to curate the show after the Alison Jacques Gallery, which represents the Mapplethorpe estate in the United Kingdom, saw that the band had used one of the photographer’s evocative images of the late ballet dancer Peter Reed, who died in 1994 of AIDS-related complications at the age of forty, on the cover of their 2010 album Nightwork. Shears, who previously said that Scissors Sisters fought the record company over the picture, says “The moment I saw the photograph which we ended up using for our album cover, I knew right away that it was the sleeve. Initially I loved the sexiness and the playfulness of it, “adding that the image of Reed’s sweat-drenched clenched buttocks served as inspiration for the dance tracks on the record.

The New York Times is reporting that James Franco (and Nicole Kidman) may – MAY – appear together on Broadway in a revival of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth in the fall of 2011. In an interview Tuesday, theatre director David Cromer said “We’re still in talks with James, but he seems like a really decisive guy, so given that he’s saying he wants to do the play, I think he’ll do it.” Cromer said that Franco, now a Ph.D. student in English at Yale, had insight into the character of Chance, in addition to the physical presence and sexuality required for the role originated on Broadway by Paul Newman in 1959. “Very rarely do you find an actor who can really take on the varied complications of this character, which is one of those virtually un-castable Williams parts,” Mr. Cromer said. “Chance has to be a moron and a poet, and he also has to be fantastically great looking. It’s one of my favourite plays, but it’s such a mountain, and James and I were in total agreement that the production had to be about the play rather than making it about us. If all of this is about movie stars doing a play, then we should be doing an easier play.”