Taking a break from downloading 1.03 to squee. :D :D :D

AfterElton.com just posted an interesting cover article about Gale. Touches on QaF, Vanished and fandom. I always get a thrill outta articles that acknowledge we, y'know, exist. Though I am sick of seeing the tired "mostly straight women" line.

Reader's Digest Version:

• ONE OF MY VANISHED ICONS IS QUOTED OMFG. I may have spent several long minutes daydreaming about Gale reading this article and NOW KNOWING HE HAS BEEN DUBBED THE PRETTIEST FBI AGENT IN ALL FBI LAND KTHX. Though even in my daydream he was v. :| :| :| about it and refused to talk to me ever again. WTF. I cannot even daydream correctly.
• The uglynastyevil rumor is touched on, but nothing definite is confirmed/refuted. Though I found it very interesting/comforting that his publicist, when asked straight out about it, laughed it off. Of course, that could mean absolutely nothing. :|
• His publicist says he's in discussion on future projects, but "nothing ready to be discussed." My icon quote aside, this is the sentence that made me squee the loudest.
• Gale comes with a ready-made army of obsessed fans. Shut up, where?!
• Gale provided his own 'details lite' fox.com bio. It's not Fox trying to de-gay his past, but rather Gale wanting the attention on his present work. Aw, that's so v. GALE of you, Galeface.
• [Fans] created photo galleries of Harold's sex scenes from Queer as Folk, asking, “Hey, Vanished fangirl, wanna see a picture?” Dude. There are? This musta happened in the forums?
• Gale and Randy had crazy amounts of chemistry and were totally fucking.
• Don't ask Gale if he likes boys or girls, he might bitch-slap you, yo.
• When he called Brian an asshole in that iFmagazine interview? He was talking about the character, not his feelings about the role. And then his publicist called Brian an asshole, too. ADLFKAJS.


Gale Harold Hasn't Vanished Yet
by Christie Keith, September 6, 2006

Lots of actors have played gay, but there are still a few things Eric McCormack (Will and Grace) doesn't have to deal with — like hundreds of internet communities devoted to pictures of him naked, licking the backside of a teenaged boy. Welcome to the world of Gale Harold, poised on the brink of mainstream success as the star of Fox's new crime drama Vanished.

There are few straight actors who have played gay quite as long and hard as Gale Harold. If he can break out after playing gay playboy Brian Kinney on Showtime's (Queer as Folk), there's really no excuse for any straight actor anywhere to worry about taking on a gritty, gay-themed role ever again. But a number of factors, including a de-gayed bio on Vanished's official website and speculation about how long Harold's new character is going to stay alive, have led many fans to question whether Fox is trying to make his Queer past vanish.

While a network normally would consider it a good thing when its new leading man comes with a ready-made army of obsessed fans and a track record of five years starring in a critically acclaimed, groundbreaking cable drama, in this case, things are a bit different. Why? Because the role that made Gale Harold a fangirl's dream, Brian Kinney, is not your typical boy next door, or even your typical gay boy next door.

Brian Kinney is the gay man whom gay men love to hate, and straight women love to love. He's tall and rich and sexy. He's promiscuous and cynical and hard-drinking and drug-abusing. He's in love (but don't tell him) with the young, fair-haired Justin, and his legions of female fans swoon when they kiss. And dance. And do just about everything you can do on cable, which is just about everything. Harold spent a significant chunk of those five years on Showtime getting naked onscreen, leaving almost nothing to the imagination.

When he took the role of Brian in Queer as Folk, Harold was an unknown stage actor with little experience, none of it in front of the camera. He was lucky enough to be cast with a co-star, out gay actor Randy Harrison, with whom he had Moonlighting-levels of chemistry. He didn't answer questions about his sexual orientation during the first season of Queer as Folk, but eventually gave what must be one of the most apologetic, heterosexual coming-out interviews in celebrity history, in Flaunt magazine in 2002.

Asked by interviewer Karen Rabinovitz if he was gay or straight, Harold replied: “I can't figure out what to do with this question. Most of the gay men I work with assume I'm straight, so. … It's funny. No, it's just … trying to answer this question is hilarious. … I'm straight. I'm begrudgingly revealing it.” He also appeared on Larry King Live later that year, talking about being a straight actor playing gay.

This year, after five years of Queer as Folk, a handful of indie films, and a few television appearances including Law and Order: SVU and the TV movie Martha Behind Bars, Harold landed the lead in Fox's new crime drama Vanished, playing FBI agent Graham Kelton.

Harold's fans, mostly straight women who knew him from his days on Queer as Folk, were understandably excited about his new role. They built websites and formed online forums in anticipation. They created photo galleries of Harold's sex scenes from Queer as Folk, asking, “Hey, Vanished fangirl, wanna see a picture?” They dubbed Kelton “the prettiest FBI agent in FBI land.” And they went out, in the way of fans everywhere, to spread the good news on other websites, including fox.com. A few of those fans began to wonder if Fox was downplaying Harold's role as Brian Kinney. They pointed to his barebones online bio, which simply lists Harold's credits as “appearances,” ranking his 10 minutes on one episode of Law and Order: SVU equally with his five years of starring on Queer as Folk.

A Fox spokesperson rejected this contention, saying that Harold's online bio was provided by the actor, and referring questions to Gale Harold's publicist, Nancy Seltzer. Seltzer acknowledged that the bio was scant on details, but said that was Harold's preference: “If he could, he wouldn't even have a bio at all. He feels the work should be the focus. It's a very purist view about the work he's currently doing, whatever it is, and no reflection on any past work. When he was on Queer as Folk, he didn't talk about his films or other roles, either.”

A few days after Vanished debuted, rumors began circulating that Harold was being replaced on the show. Some, but not all, of the speculation was based on an alleged scene in the seventh episode, in which Agent Kelton's body is supposedly seen in a morgue. When asked whether or not Harold's character was being killed off, Seltzer laughed. “I've heard the rumors, but everything about Vanished and its plot, like that of Lost is a big surprise,” she said. “Nothing is what it seems to be.”

Similarly, a Fox spokesperson said that Fox doesn't comment on Vanished story line rumors, but intoned mysteriously, “Stay tuned.”

Since Vanished, with its hints of the supernatural, belongs in the X-Files family of crime dramas, death may not be a permanent condition even if such a scene was filmed. Still, many fans suspect the rumors will turn out to be true, and it would undeniably be more encouraging for other actors considering playing gay if Harold's first big TV role after Brian Kinney were a success rather than a failure.

But the real fear isn't what happens to an actor's career after he gets a role, but how hard playing gay might make it for an actor to get future roles at all. Eric McCormack recently told The Observer that playing an openly gay man on the long-running NBC hit sitcom Will & Grace hurt his ability to get other roles.

“I have this big pink cross to bear,” McCormack said. “I absolutely loved playing Will. There was nothing hard about it. It was wonderful. But the only downside is the aftermath. I meet all these film executives who tell me how much they loved Will & Grace and say they never missed an episode. Then they say, ‘So what can we do for you?' What they could do for me is hire me to play someone else.”

Does Gale Harold think playing Brian Kinney hurt his career? He declined to comment for this article, but recently said to If Magazine, when asked about his years on Queer as Folk, “What was that you said? Something about some a**hole named Brian Kinney. But let's not talk about him. OK?”

Harold's publicist insisted he was talking about the character of Brian, not his feelings about playing the role, when using the term “a**hole,” and said, laughing, “You have to admit, he really was one.” She was adamant that Harold's joke had no bearing at all on how he felt about the role, and said, “He's extremely proud of the work he did on Queer as Folk.”

Seltzer said Harold never responds to inquiries about his sexual orientation, but when reminded of the 2002 Flaunt interview, said, “He finds it very offensive to even be asked if he's straight or gay. It has no bearing on the work he's doing.”

Asked if having played Brian Kinney made it harder for Harold to get other roles, she replied, “I don't think the role as Brian has hurt his career at all. I hope and think that day is long gone. It would deeply concern me if we were to return to those days. … There has been absolutely no resistance anywhere about his having played that role.” She said he is in discussion on future projects, but “nothing ready to be discussed.”

So can Harold break out? His work on Queer as Folk was powerful and nuanced, covering the range from drama to laugh-out-loud comedy. Reviews of his performance on Vanished have been mixed, and at least in the two episodes aired so far, his Kinney-esque onscreen magic has flared into view only once or twice.

Harold made something of a splash playing Wyatt Earp on two episodes of HBO's Deadwood this summer, and appeared on The Unit as a scruffy DJ who can only be described as the anti-Brian. A few of his film performances have gotten good reviews, but the films themselves are obscure. Vanished is his best chance yet to break out as a mainstream star. If he pulls it off, will it be in spite of, or because of, his years as cable's bad gay boy? Stay tuned to find out.


Y'know, when they are not about the Vanished with Agent Hotness, the keyword "vanished" Google alerts are hella depressing. :\