Entertainers of the Year

Bill Sullivan — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:02:57 +0000

Each year since 1990, Entertainment Weekly has selected its Entertainer(s) of the Year.It’s a diverse list, featuring everyone from Bart Simpson to J.K. Rowling, with all kinds of folks in between.

Some, you’ll remember fondly. A few, you may barely remember at all.

Ready to revisit some blasts from the past? Here goes:

2007: J.K. Rowling

2006: Cast of Grey’s Anatomy

2005: Cast of Lost

2004: Jon Stewart

2003: Cast of The Lord of the Rings

2002: Denzel Washington

2001: Nicole Kidman

2000: Russell Crowe

1999: Ricky Martin

1998: Leonardo DiCaprio

1997: Ellen DeGeneres

1996: Rosie O’Donnell

1995: Cast of Friends

1994: Tom Hanks

1993: Steven Spielberg

1992: Cast of Saturday Night Live

1991: Jodie Foster

1990: Bart Simpson

To read more about all these, and to see a slideshow, visit Entertainment Weekly.

Actors who played gay roles

Philip Wuntch — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:49:47 +0000

At this point, Sean Penn ranks high among probable Best Actor Oscar nominees. The dynamic Penn stars as assassinated gay politico Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant’s Milk, which opened nationwide Nov. 26. There was a time, though, when such a role would have been considered risky. Among those who proved otherwise: Hugh Jackman. What’s this, People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive once played gay? Yes, and he was heaped with praise for it. Although Jackman’s buff performance in Australia, not to mention X-Man Wolverine, helped make him People’s cover boy, he won a Tony as gay entertainer Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz. That musical hasn’t made it to the screen yet, but if it does, you can be sure Jackman will be cast. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. Probably the movie world’s most famous onscreen gay couple, they moved critics and moviegoers in Brokeback Mountain(Watch) . But when Brokeback surprisingly lost the 2005 Best Picture Oscar to Crash, Academy homophobia was blamed. Maybe Oscar voters will anoint this year’s Penn as means of erasing that label. Russell Crowe. Six years before Gladiator, Crowe played a good-natured gay in 1994’s The Sum of Us. He and his widowed father bond while searching for appropriate Significant Others. However, Crowe was reportedly offended when he and his rock band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts played San Francisco and gays threw their underwear onstage. Meryl Streep. In 2002’s The Hours, Madame Meryl played a plain-spoken lesbian who vainly tries to keep AIDS-ridden friend Ed Harris from suicide. And near the beginning of her movie career, when handlers discourage such role choices, she played Woody Allen’s ex-wife in Manhattan. When she writes a book explaining how her same-sex relationship had been much more nurturing than her marriage, Woody’s character was not amused. Didn’t hurt Meryl’s career at all.

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Entertainers of the Year

Actors who played gay roles