from the week of December 9 2007

We couldn't have asked for a better second night of "Dirty Laundry."

The show SOLD OUT AGAIN in New York. That makes two nights in a row that the movie has sold out.

The lovely and talented Jenifer Lewis (top photo above) was on hand last night and she spoke at the theater before the film started and then cracked everybody up once she was on screen.

The hilarious Erica Watson (bottom photo above) was also in the house and she showed out in the movie as well.

The audience really loved it last night. They laughed, they cried, they applauded.

Let's see if we can make it three nights in a row and sell out again today. You can get your tickets online and make sure you have a seat.

I recommend you see the 4:45 show because I know a lot of people are going to that one, but you can also go to any of the other shows.

And of course, don't forget to see the movie in Los Angeles if you're out on the west coast.

Posted on December 9 2007, 3:06AM | Permalink

Congratulations to the executive producers of Dirty Laundry for an amazingly successful opening box office weekend!

The film raked in an impressive $7,700 per screen over the weekend, according to box office estimates.

Dirty Laundry beat out:

Golden Compass ($7,405)
This Christmas ($2,660)
Fred Claus ($1,463)
Beowulf ($1,478)
Bee Movie ($964)
American Gangster ($1,199)

and almost every other movie in per screen average at the box office.

In fact, Dirty Laundry turned in the fifth highest per screen average of any film in theaters. For a black gay film to hit those kind of numbers is an astounding feat.

The film sold out repeatedly in New York and reportedly did well in Los Angeles also.

A lot of the credit goes to the many, many viewers who came out to support the movie on the opening weekend, told their friends about it, and put it on the right track for success.

Thanks to everyone for getting us started. Now let's keep the momentum going for this week!!

Posted on December 10 2007, 10:07AM | Permalink

With all the news to report on Dirty Laundry this past week, it's time to catch up on some other exciting news in Black LGBT cinema.

First, there's a new movie called Blueprint that showed a few weeks ago at the 15th Annual African Diaspora Film Festival. You can watch the trailer here.

Second, I just heard of another new project for a movie called Finding Me. I don't know where they are in the filming process, but they've got a hot little web site up right now.

Third and finally, Patrik-Ian Polk noticed a lot of questions in the comments section here about the release of his movie Punks on DVD.

Patrik says: "I'm actually working on getting it out on DVD officially next year, but in the meantime, I've listed a copy of the DVD and an autographed poster for sale on eBay with 100% of proceeds going to the Black AIDS Institute.

The item number for the charity auction is 180189350216 and the title of the listing is "PUNKS dvd/autographed
poster (CHARITY)."

But hurry. The auction closes on December 14 at 6 p.m. PST.

Posted on December 11 2007, 2:58AM | Permalink

A news story from the Worcester Telegram in Massachusetts today reports on the black LGBT middle class.

The story looks at the lives of several black gays and lesbians and found that they support anti-discrimination laws, but "they are hardly monolithic in their views about life, love, [or] racism within the wider gay community," the paper reports.

Rodney Glasgow (top photo), 28, director of diversity at Worcester Academy, rejects ideas of gay assimilation. "Gays shouldn’t think ‘We’re just like [straight people]’ because we’re not and we shouldn’t try to be normalized," he says.

Glasgow also says the gay community is as racist as the population at large. "My friends are shocked when I say this, but I feel most out of place in gay places," he said, referring primarily to gay clubs.

Meanwhile, Henry O. Ritter (bottom photo), 51, coordinator of the Health Careers Center at Quinsigamond Community College, said being gay is only one aspect of who he is.

Posted on December 12 2007, 10:06AM | Permalink

I will be back on CNN Headline News tonight to talk politics.

Every time I've been scheduled to appear on CNN the past few months, I've been pre-empted by a breaking news story. So hopefully we won't get bumped tonight.

I will be a guest on the Glenn Beck Show to talk about the 2008 presidential campaign. I guess I will be representing the Democratic point of view and Leslie Sanchez will represent the Republican point of view.

There will also be a guest from The Politico to provide a more "neutral" perspective.

The host for the show tonight is Joe Pags, who is one of my favorite CNN hosts because he usually lets you talk. He's more on the conservative side, but he isn't strident like some right-wing media commentators.

I'm not sure all of the topics we will discuss, but we will probably talk about this week's Des Moines Register debates in Iowa.

The Glenn Beck Show airs on CNN Headline News at 7 p.m. Eastern time tonight.

Posted on December 13 2007, 12:01AM | Permalink

For the first time in months, I actually made it on CNN without a breaking news story pre-empting my appearance. (Watch the video here.)

I was a little worried when the major league baseball steroids report was released, but it didn't affect the network's coverage of the presidential campaign, which we talked about yesterday.

I argued that the Democratic candidates are much stronger than the Republican candidates. As a Democrat, that's not a surprising position for me to take, but I think it's objectively true too.

I was on with GOP analyst Leslie Sanchez and a representative from The Politico and we we were all asked to watch the live televised Des Moines Register debate from Iowa yesterday afternoon so we could comment on it.

The debate was actually kinda boring (a "snoozefest" as Joe Pags said), but it was the last debate of the Iowa campaign and just a few days before Christmas, so I didn't expect a lot of fireworks.

It was, however, very substantive. Who that helps? I don't know. Less than 3 weeks to go until the first votes are cast in the 2008 election season.

Posted on December 14 2007, 11:38AM | Permalink