I went to watch this last night with a few of the Sayoni girls. It would be a crime for me to miss this when it is finally playing in Singapore. Eve Ensler’s celebrated groundbreaking play was given a local flavour by director Loretta Chen, produced by Zebra Crossing.

The monologues is basically a series of short skits telling different stories of women – of love, of sex, betrayal, relationships, empowerment, femininity. I have never seen the Eve Ensler original, but I suppose that means little when this play is supposed to be an evolving piece that accomodates the changing nature of society, and in this case, was given a thoroughly local makeover. So, free from the comparisons from the original, I would say this is mostly a pretty good production in terms of acting, casting and direction. If it were not the last day, I would highly recommend people to go watch it.

The various skits were alternately touching, heartbreaking and funny. It started off with a monologue by an Indian woman about her vaginal hair which her husband found unpalatable, then going into what can only be described as the Vagina Circle – group of women sitting around examining their vaginas, except they were wearing army uniforms and taking orders. An allusion to militant feminism? Perhaps. Notably, there was the original-but-modified chorus of 12-year old girls describing their first periods, who terrorised the first three rows of the audience by walking among them, and distributing (even throwing) sanitary napkins. There was the older woman who couldn’t say the word “vagina”, but held up her hand in a V-sign instead of verbalising it, talking about the experience where she was finally able to “love” her vagina. A woman ranted about the treatment her vagina was getting from the society (which was really funny and insightful) through tampouns, douches and OG/GYN tools. Then of course, the completely controversial originally-13-but-modified-to-18-for-singapore girl who found healing from her traumatic sexual experiences through an experience with an older woman. A pole dancer pranced around for a few minutes, before a group of women sang about their short skirts. A male-to-female-transsexual talks about her femininity and her trials over it. A female dominatrix waxed lyrical about her experiences with giving women pleasure (which was probably the funniest part about the play), where all the different kinds of moans were enacted out, culminating the famously vocal “triple orgasm”. Finally, there was the monologue about childbirth, from various perspectives.

One of the values of the play is that it is highly gay-friendly. Same-sex relationships are portrayed positively – one of the controversies about the play, of course.

One of my main complaints is that it was discomfitingly tokenised in terms of race – Chinese, Malay, Indian. Furthermore, I don’t find it funny when people spout random tamil phrases for laughs, and especially when it is not in context. No one, and I mean no one, says “Thank you” in Tamil during sex. Secondly, what was the pole dancer about? Yes she was fun to watch, but I don’t believe it added any value to the play except pull in the straight male audience.

All in all, I would say this was a well-done production, especially with the high standards people are going to hold this to.

Coming at you a little late this week, we present to you, pain for love, and ultimate twists.

A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila II

This week, Tila challenges the contestants to prove their love for her through getting a tattoo, a piercing, walking on broken glass or sitting in the electric chair. And so they did… All the contestants, very smartly, avoided getting Tila’s name tattooed on them, because in Kristy’s words, anytime that happens, it is a jinx (right on, Kristy). Kristy got a discreet star tattoo that matched Tila’s (once again, very smart), saving on thousands of dollars on tattoo-removal if she ever gets kicked off the show. Jay and Bo got (inadvertently) matching shot-glass tattoos, and George chose the fake broken-glass, which apparently hurt him in ways that did not hurt Tila’s feet. Lisa chose the electric chair – tip to the ladies… you’ve got to keep a woman who’d sit in the electric chair for you. Britney got a stomach piercing, despite supposedly being afraid of needles (er, so the piercing in your lower lip and eyebrow were made by something else?).

Lisa, however, messed up the date later with Tila by running off her mouth, and still keeping her guards up, and refusing to let herself fall. Realising she made a mistake, she kicked everyone’s ass later in the second challenge and won the bedroom date with Tila, where she told Tila that “love was a strong word”. Now, I don’t see anything unreasonable about that… if anything, Tila is too used to people falling in lust/love with her immediately, and 7 weeks on a TV show is not really the best recipe for true love. And of course, there is the fact that Lisa and her are, in her words, a rollercoaster ride. Quite frankly, their courtship is the most realistic one on the show, the preliminaries of a very passionate, intense relationship.

But it was not to be. Tila chose Britney, who was “slow and steady”, over Lisa, at elimination, getting rid of a very bitter George in the process. And she kept Jay, which, once again, makes me go “huh?!”. Whenever they kiss, I have to turn away from the screen and puke.

With Lisa gone, my bets are on Kristy and Bo making the final two – but we’ll know, when Tila visits their hometowns next week, and decides who is best for her!

High-profile lesbian scandals and wrestling… that is what we have for you this week.

Hollywood Lesbian Scandal

Jodie and and new lover Cindi

Taken from New York Daily.

Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster, 45, has a new woman in her life.

According to various sources, including England’s Daily Mail, Foster dumped her long-time girlfriend Cydney Bernard for screenwriter Cindy Mort. The two apparently met on the set of Foster’s 2007 movie “The Brave One.”

Foster, 45, and Bernard, 55, had been together for 14 years and had been raising Foster’s two children. Foster, who won Best Actress Oscars for her roles in “The Accused” and “The Silence of the Lambs” has never revealed the identity of the father of her two sons, Kit (9) and Charles (6).

According to the Daily Mail, Mort, 41, was in a relationship with former “Thirtysomething” actress Melanie Mayron. The two had been raising ten-year-old twins Olivia and Miles.

The source quoted by the Daily Mail said: “Cydney had no idea their relationship was in trouble until Jodie came home one day and told her she’d fallen in love with Cindy and was moving out. Cydney is devastated.”

As for the other side of this scandal, the source says Mayron is also taking the split very hard.

“It’s not easy to be dumped for the most famous lesbian in Hollywood. It is the biggest lesbian love scandal to grip this town in years.”

While I sympathise with the women who have been dumped, I have to simultaneously marvel at how lesbians can create drama anywhere, even in Hollywood. The last time something like this happened, Ellen DeGeneres dumped Alexandra Henderson and Portia de Rossi dumped Francesca Gregorini, and as we all know, Ellen and Portia are getting married, something usually not expected out of a scandalous union like that.

Jodie and Cydney

Yeah, for those people who have been living under a rock for the past 15 years… Surprise! Jodie Foster is gay. As if you could have missed it when she thanked her “beautiful Cydney” at an award show. At the next award show, she can just swap around two letters, and thank her “beautiful Cyndey” instead, and no one will even spot the difference!

All the same… we wish Jodie Foster and Cindi Mort good luck in their new relationship, and offer a listening ear and tissues to Cydney and Melanie.

A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila II

Gelatin, stay or go, and cockroaches. That would be a good tagline for this episode of Tila Tequila, which would have been run of the mill had it not been for the Stay or Go “game”.

Of course, you know Lisa is going to win the Challenge du Jour, because in Tila’s words, “she is a beast”. In a good way, of course. Ahem. [I rest assured in the knowledge that the local authorities cannot possibly prosecute Tila for bestiality after reading this entry and taking it literally]. The real surprising thing about this challenge was that Britney was beaten by Samantha aka Glitter, who displayed a new-found beastly vengeance that is scarier than her glitter eyeshadow. Yeah, you know she’s never going to live down losing to a stripper. After winning the wrestling challenge, Lisa’s team went on a trip to Tila’s candy-store [a real one, what were you thinking?] and er… got themselves some sugar. Really, I am not making innuendoes here.

Honestly, I wonder about you guys sometimes.

In the Stay or Go game, where the contestants were asked to decide who was compatible and who was not, Glitter decided to take the moral high road and “not judge people” – which is understandable, because, you know, she’s a stripper and she must be so sick of being judged herself. Everyone voted Lisa to stay, knowing the “beast” she is, and how much of a connection she had with Tila. Almost everyone voted Bo to go home, citing a personality clash. So Lisa got immunity from elimination (oh, hi there Survivor) and Bo got a one-on-one date, during which Tila affirmed her feelings towards Bo and decided the rest of them were wrong.

At elimination, Scotty and Glitter got the boot. Scotty aka Mr Pastry-Puff-in-need-of-a-shave was told their relationship could not go beyond friendship (which I could have told her from the beginning), and Glitter was told she was too emotional to handle Tila. Oh gee, you think? She has cried at least 15 times on the show so far, often over nothing. The girl is worse than Amanda of the yesterseason – at least when Amanda talked, she did not burst into bouts of inappropriate laughter or cry over spilled glitter.

Of course, I have absolutely no idea why Jay aka Jersey is still in the running. He is loud, obnoxious, immature and idiotic. He acts like a frat boy, and if it were up to me, I’d have sent him home on the first day. I predicted Kristy to get the boot last week, because I thought the way she was not really spending any time with Tila, there was not much hope for her, but this week, she did. Anyway I like her because she looks like a blonde version of Brandi.

Predictions for next week: Jay and George. George is hanging on by a slim thread, as he is not fighting enough and showing that he is more than just a nice guy with no spice. I definitely like Lisa, and I think she is going all the way to the top 3.

“Unasked by night; I am true Love, I fill
The hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.”
Then sighing, said the other, “Have thy will,
I am the love that dare not speak its name.”

– True Love, Lord Alfred Douglas

It was a historical moment. Wilde, a movie made in 1997 was banned in Singapore for 'homosexual content', and it has been passed without cut with a R21 rating this year.

It is not without its merits with good acting and reminding people that Wilde was persecuted under laws against homosexual acts. It is just that it isa rather straightforward story of how a legendary man was persecuted for his forbidden love. If you are looking for something delicate and touches the heart,it is likely that you would be disappointed.

I have always liked Oscar Wilde and his works ...perhaps not so much of his works, but rather his wit and sarcasm. I like Stephen Fry's acting, depicting Oscar Wilde as the talented and flamboyant playwright which we all know him to be. Unfortunately, depicting such a legendary character is always too much of a burden for any seasoned actor, as everyone will have an image of Oscar Wilde in his or her mind. Stephen Fry made a notable effort to merge with the genius he is playing, but he isn't the Oscar Wilde I have in my mind, and I don't blame him for it.

However, Stephen Fry's chemistry with the men left much to be desired. The intimate scenes were awkward and I felt like cringing whenever they start to get undressed. Jude Lawis yummy and totally to die for (no, the author isn't a gay man) but that is hardly salvation for the lackof on-screen chemistry.

Wilde's relationship with Bison (Lord Alfred Douglas, played by Jude Law) was the most well developed subplot in the entire movie, and that speaks volume about how lackluster the emotions are being played out on screen. One moment, you see him with Bobbie , clothes off and onto the bed. The next moment, you see him meeting the next guy and proceeding to have sex withhim. Next up, you see him with his wife Constance and their baby. The director failed to capture the intricacy of their relationships, and chose to jump from one incident to another, leaving audience with no time to feel for the characters. That was the most disappointing aspect of this movie, in my opinion.

Oscar Wilde was portrayed as a man of flesh and blood - his struggles between his loves, being arrogant and foolhardy at times and how he was slowly driven to the brink of desperation. Too silly to be Oscar Wilde, some might say, but I would not mind granting some artistic license to a movie, given it is not a documentary.

In short, it is above-average entertainment, and worth watching if you like Jude Law, enjoy witty dialogues, or want to see a movie about Oscar Wilde andhis less well-known story of being a victim of laws against homosexual acts. However, the lack of emotional engagement, tabloid-like angle and slight dramatic sensationalism has prevented it from being truly moving.