i have no idea what is being said in that little vid but I like it. Also I like this...
i had the pleasure of hanging out with Cloris Leachman on Sunday morning whe we both took part in the AIDS Walk San Francisco. She is an inspiration to us all.
And also I like Kielh's, and here I am with Kiehl's head honcho Chris at the opening of their new spa on the Upper east Side last night. It was hot in all ways.
Tonight sees the premiere of Web Therapy on Showtime. The brilliant Lisa Kudrow stars as therapist Fiona Wallice in what was originally a web series and now it's been made into half hours for Showtime. I play a love interest of Lisa's. in a similar vein to the character I played opposite her in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.
I also just wanted to mention that the News of the World once printed a totally false story about my family that was truly one of the most upsetting things I have had to go through. So to watch that disgusting and immoral empire crumble into a cesspool of its own making is very pleasing for me. Just thought I'd mention that.
Yesterday was a big day. We started back on The Good Wife, shooting the photos for the Season 3 posters and press campaign, and as I was sitting in the make up chair I was told by my cast mate Matt Czuchry that I had been nominated for Best Supporting Actor Emmy. Here's the statement I made yesterday about the nomination...
I think everyone would agree that my being asked to play Eli Gold was so from left field, but it has been such a blast and an education for me as an actor. And to be honored in this way just adds to the surprise and the delight I feel at being a part of such a great show. I am sure Eli is in a photo copy room somewhere doing a little silent celebratory jig!
Then in the evening I attended the launch at the Ace Hotel in NYC, of 2nd (Alan) Cumming, my fragrance that Christopher Brosius designed, all the profits of which are going to charity. Thanks toKanon Organic vodka for making sure we all had a very nice time. It was great to see a lot of old friends and meet some new ones, and thanks to everyone for coming along to support this project. You can support it too by clicking on the little box to the right. As I said all the profits go to charity, my half to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and Christopher's to the LGBT Stop Free Project
I have just finished my duties promoting The Smurfs movie. I have to say it was a lot of fun but rather more esoteric than I expected. Members of the press seem to take their amorphous, blue, animated people very seriously these days. I was actually asked at one point this morning to compare my experience working on The Smurfs with working with Stanley Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut. And it wasn't a joke either!!
Here I am on Young Hollywood with the lovely Sofia Vergara. Both she and I were thrilled we were allowed to be on a show that had the words 'young' in its title.
And here is a song I recorded with my friend Nate. It's the old classic April Showers. I have gone a bit jazzy.
I am off to the gym in the hotel. They have one of those power plate machines that made Madonna all lean and sinewy. It sort of reminds me of those machines that fat ladies used to stand on with big rubber vibrating belts across their asses, juggling away the pounds. Oh, and please, I am wearing a kilt, not a skirt in the picture. It was a homage to Gutsy Smurf.
It's been a while but a lot has happened.
Firstly and most importantly, I now live in a state where I am treated as an equal citizen! Yes! Marriage Equality was signed into law in New York and don't we just love our Governor Cuomo for getting those corrupt and out of touch senators off their fat asses and bringing New York back to the forefront of the civil rights battle? Hooray! Now of course, I await the onslaught of weddings. As does, I am sure, the hospitality industry of this great state. Drinks all round. Ka-ching.
I found out about the marriage eqaulity vote when I was on a cruise across the Atlantic with my Mum on the Queen Mary 2. It made the front page of the little news pamphlet you get in your room each day. I had a great time on the cruise. I have always wanted to do one and have always been a little frightened of it. The idea of being completely away and just looking out the window at the sea for a week is so alluring to me, but there was also the worrying flipside of being stuck on a boat with a lot of people I didn't know but who knew me. However, I have to say that people were very respectful and I had such a lovely stateroom with a little balcony that if I did feel in need of some alone time it was a lovely place to be. I went to lectures on Hillary Clinton, Benjamin Britten and Atlantic maritime history! I saw Hamlet and theCantebury Tales! I saw shows in the Planetarium! I had a lot of massages and I ate like a pig every night and best of all... I went back on the booze!
Yes, I have been off the hooch all year, just a little break to give my body a rest and remind myself that fun can be had without martinis. Of course much fun can be had with them, but it is nice to know you can have fun regardless.
I was staying off the hooch also because I was doing a really intense film in Los Angeles calledFamlee, in which I played a man in the 1970s, and as we know everyone was skinnier in the 70s. I think it's because they all smoked and also because processed foods hadn't utterly taken over and made us all unhealthy fatties. I did a bit of drag in this film, and it occured to me that there must be something in the fact that in the two hiatuses I have had from playing Eli Gold on The Good Wife, I have done jobs that require me to slip on a ladies' garment. Obviously Eli' s repression and tailored suits had more of an affect on me than I imagined.
The very exciting thing that is about to happen is the unveiling of The Smurfs movie at the end of the month. I am about to go to LA and do a bit of press for it and then when I come back it will be Smurf Week in NYC. Can you imagine?
Also I just finished doing the audiobook of the last instalment of Scott Westerfield'sLevathan Trilogy entitled Goliath. It comes out in September. Here I am yesterday with Scott, proudly holding the Shania Twain autobiography audiobook which I was delighted to discover was also a Simon and Schuster release. Out now is the novel version ofMacbeth that I did for Audible. I really like it, and just as well as Macbeth is going to be featuring heavily in my life over the next year or so.
If you are a Kate Bush fan you may be excited to know that I will be soon able to tell you about a show I am going to do involving her music. Actually her very early music. Oh yes, I'll be giving it all in a moment or two. Stay tuned. And now some things you might enjoy or be piqued by...
As I write this we are still waiting to see if the NY senate is going to debate the marriage equality bill later today. I hope tou have all called your senators. Scroll down to find the phone numbers. I am crossing everything and hoping that before I get home to NYC there will be good news. I could do with another wedding.
I have been very amused by the reaction to my hair when I attended the Critics' Choice television awards in Los Angeles on Monday. I have not been taking any wonder growth drugs, I am not trying to look like Nicolas cage for any possible biopic, I am not starring in a revival of Les Miserables. I was wearing the wig I had to wear for the film I just wrapped called Famlee, and on the day of the awards ceremony I had to get it out on in my hotel room then go to the awards and then go straight to set to shoot my last day. Famlee is set in the 70s, hence the long do. Underneath it are still my own greying locks. So I hope that answers all the questions and people can sleep easy at night once more. Maybe there was a clue in what I said when I picked up the award for Julianna Marguiles (she won, I didn't). I said 'I am not Julianna Marguiles, though I appear to be wearing her wig this afternoon. We have a time share scheme with it'.
I amd in the UK and about to do something I have never done beofre: cruise the Atlantic! And guess what I did yestreday? I went to the Titanic section of the Maritime Museum in Southampton. Yes, I know, rather morbid. But I am a good ex-boy scout so always prepared.
Here's an extract of the latest audiobook I have recorded. A really amazing book, a novel version ofMacbeth written by David Hewson and AJ Hartley. I loved reading it
And then a very funny montage from The Runaway that a very prolific someone has posted on Youtube. It is a very surreal experience to see yourself in so many different girly outfits in a couple of minutes, let me tell ya.
My friend Krystal Banzon made this PSA as her Community Service Project for The Point Foundation and how very timely it is with the marriage equality bill going to the New York Senate tomorrow.
You can help too by calling and emailing these Senators to make sure they vote the right way tomorrow.
Senator Gregory R. Ball of Putnam County (845) 279-3773
gball@nysenate.gov
Senator Charles J. Fuschillo Jr. of Suffolk County (516) 882-0630
fuschill@senate.state.ny.us
Senator J. Kemp Hannon of Nassau County (516) 739-1700
hannon@nysenate.gov
Senator Andrew J. Lanza of Staten Island (718) 984-4073
lanza@senate.state.ny.us
Senator Betty Little of Glens Falls (518) 743-0968
little@nysenate.gov
Senator Mark Grisanti of Erie County (518) 455-3240
grisanti@nysenate.gov
Senator Stephen M. Saland of Poughkeepsie (845) 463-0840
saland@nysenate.gov
Senator John Flanagan of Long Island (518) 455-2071
flanagan@senate.state.ny.us
Hey peeps. Some of you may not know this, but the NY legislature finishes for its summer recess on June 20th and there is a race and campaign on to bring the marriage equality bill back to the table before it does so. It is still very dicey and down to the wire in terms of which senators will change their bigoted and anti-civil rights stance on this, BUT what has proved to be incredibly effective is them being reminded of the weight and, yes I'm going to say it, sheer girth, of public opinion that is very much against those views.
Step in to the frame Friend Factor, a great organistaion where friends come together to stand up for gay friends' rights. They are running a special campaign geared towards the NY senate, and what hapens is you join, and they show you how to get your friends involved and how easy it is to call a NY senator to voice your views. And every call that is sent ensures a flower is sent to Albany for a visual protest too. It really is amazing, it works and don't forget, time is marching on, people....
Also exciting news is that lots of the LGBT groups have come together in NY to form New Yorkers United For Marriage. They have a great website telling you what you can do and you can be sure that any money you donate is going straight to the front lines of this battle to get a few stubborn, scared and out of touch men and women to change their minds on giving people equality. It is such a little thing but it take s a lot of money and effort to make change happen, as we have seen over the past few years! So please help if you can and try to get this bill brought to the senate in the next few weeks. I will blog pictures of my wedding if it happens on this very site!!! Honest!
Here we are getting hitched in the UK, where gay people are treated with the rights and respect they deserve.
On another note, Cabaret has been much on my mind for the past few days. So many people I run into have mentioned it. Was up wit dat? So here I am on the 1998 Drama Desk awards singing I Don't Care Much.
Here are some good things to do!!
Pepsi, bless them, is giving away cash to good causes. And you can vote and decide who gets it! If, like me, you'd like to help progressive orgnisations that value equality then go to Pepsi's Refresh Everything website and create a profile so that you can vote for the Courage Campaign and help it in its work to empower more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots activists to push for progressive change and full equality in California and across the country!! Yay!!
Once you create a profile on the Refresh Everything website you can vote for the Courage Campaign in three ways: by logging in online, on Facebook, or through text messaging.
Also, if you're more of a fashionista than a soft drink junkie, you may be interested in The Fight For Equality necklace and lapel pin. The concept was created by jewelry designer (and friend of mine),Carlos Antonio. It is a sterling silver, hand-crafted sculpture that is hand polished and stands just over an inch in height. It is very solid in weight yet comfortable. Money raised from the sales of the necklaces and pins go to the True Colors Fund and other organisations that are stepping up their campaigns as we take the last hurdles in the race and the fight for true equality. Here's a pic of me wearing mine, and nothing else apparently, just yesterday.
Tell your friends, make the world a better place. Do it! Courage mes braves!
It is funny to be in Hell A and to hear how utterly boiling it is in NYC. You always think of here being the hot place. But here it is pleasant. Pleasant, pleasant, pleasant.
I am having a bit of a bad LA day. Things that I don't get about it are mounting in their adversity against me, and then I had dinner with a couple of friends and we had an LA bitchfest. I am tired from the movie and from dealing wiht all the detritus of everyday life that you still have to deal with when you want to just completely immerse yourself in someting and someone.
So I looked at my my camera and I found a video I made last week that shows my favourite view of California, and I found a song that I sang in the Burlesque movie that was ultimately cut that best encapsulates both what I am feeling and what I need to hear right now. Enjoy!
