Milk That Dead Horse, Cowboy
With the release of Milk, freaky Gus Van Sant puts gay activism in the ultimate closet: the grave. ARMOND WHITE takes a closer look at how the director’s latest crossover hit-to-be references each perverse stage of his film career.
HOW DID GUS Van Sant, of all camera-wielding hipsters, come to direct Milk, this year’s official gay martyr movie? Van Sant once expressed his reluctance to be pigeonholed with the gay political movement—a bold, intransigent stance and personally justifiable considering the gap between political posturing and artistic achievement. Yet Milk, the story of San Francisco’s first openly gay politician, C...
Gut Instinct: Hello, Sweetness
Forget diamonds, JOSH BERNSTEIN knows chocolate is a girl’s best friend
THE PANIC SET in—hummingbird heart and clammy palms—as a rampaging grandma bull-rushed me aside and lunged forward, her thick fingers wrapping around a dark, jagged chunk of her drug of choice: chocolate. “This must be penance for patronizing pseudo-stripper bars,” I told my girlfriend, my eyes dinner plates of fear. Around me, sugar-crazed tots shrieked like they were reenacting Lord of the ...
Transcendent Thrill Drive
Forget the Oscar bait, Transporter 3 is the only movie you need to see this season
NOTHING IN CINEMA this week is more important than Transporter 3. It’s been a long time since a new movie has been so spiritually and aesthetically exhilarating. Producer Luc Besson, director Olivier Megaton and star Jason Statham work at the top of their imagination and abilities—not like they’re completing a formulaic sequel but reinventing the action movie genre. The chase sequence, the fight sc...
Bash Compactor: Pets New Home
Penthouse magazine has moved downtown, next door to the Stock Exchange. So, on Friday night, some beleaguered Wall Street types packed into the back room of Fraunces Tavern to drown their sorrows and ogle the new neighbors. When asked his thoughts on the scene, Richard Torres—a business writer— ran his hand over his shaved head and looked at buxom blond Penthouse Pet Lexi Blade. She was wearing a minisk...
Flavor of the Week: Hot, Gooey Casserole Love
As CHRIS VARMUS discovers, some things can never be reheated
Casseroles had always been our sore spot. A baked dish of pasta and protein bound together with cheese or cream of mushroom soup. When Emily and I were dating, I tried to like them. I really did. But when she started working on a cookbook about them, suddenly there was more casserole chatter than I could bear. Of course there were plenty of other factors that lead to our breakup, but the casserole continued to symbol...
Sounds Like a Plan
Pop music advice from the mind of Mark Blankenship
Dear Mark, I’m head over heels about my neighbor. He is perfect in every way—he doesn’t even slam the door like the other folks on our floor—but I can’t seem to get him to notice me. We’ve made conversation in the hallway, had drunken stumbles home from the bar together, and he’s even come over to slay bugs, but I am having trouble taking things to the next level. What can ...
