Jersey Shore's Snooki Unveils Dramatic Fat Loss

Nicole Snooki Polizzi Jersey Shore's Snooki (Nicole Polizzi) takes the "G" part of "G.T.L." seriously nowadays. The reality star recently posted an image of her new, super-slim body to Twitter, writing, "So happy I'm within my goal weight I used to be once i reaches secondary school! Feelin fit is amazing and really should not wait to set hardcore!"The 23-year-old remains open about her weight struggle, getting fought against a diet disorders in secondary school and, sooner or later, weighing only 80 pounds.Photo gallery: Dramatic celebrity weight reductionInchI truly wouldn't eat. I'd only have lunch which i'd only have planning preparing salads. It got so crazy that we would only have a cracker every day or possibly a cucumber every day which i'd feel full," she told The Insider within the month of the month of january 2010.However, she's now adopted a far more healthy attitude, tweeting about her "late evening gym periods."Lately, she told Wendy Williams she only agreed to be five pounds from her goal of 98 pounds.What can you consider Snooki's change?

Longtime teams keep work fresh

Thelma Schoonmaker gave Sacha Baron Cohen's dialogue air in 'Hugo.'The 'J. Edgar' editors shared your dream sceneLongtime editor-director teams often create a working shorthand together through the years, which carries in one project to another across their physiques of labor.However following a decade or even more of collaboration, how can editors keep their work fresh, while infusing films having a director's signature style?Frequently, the helmer's method of projects is essential. The editors of "J. Edgar" say Clint Eastwood's decisive method of filmmaking makes every project feel fresh -- despite 36 years together. Joel Cox states Eastwood's belief both in having faith in a person's stomach and letting the film find itself enables for creative freedom and brings energy in each and every project."There is something regarding your first instinct if you notice something you hold like a memory," Cox states. "When you begin to experience around by using it you cannot perform the films like we are doing, the emotional films, you cannot edit them this way, because emotion is moments."Films -- they are just like a special wine," he adds. "Should you permit them to breathe and open, sometimes you discover miracle that's this is not on the page but eventually ends up on screen.InchThat philosophy inspired Cox and co-editor Gary Roach to separate a cut together the very first time on "J. Edgar," inside a crucial segment by which Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) and the second-in-command, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), possess a fistfight that's taut with romantic tension. The scene, using its slow build and ultimate explosiveness, was the film's most difficult for that editors. Dividing it assisted them manage the succession, in addition to achieve Eastwood's signature emotional style.In Alexander Payne's "The Descendants," which examines a family's dynamics following the wife/mother suffers a mortal injuries, editor Kevin Tent was driven through the dynamic that's developed through 16 many years of dealing with the director, in addition to fresh hurdles within the material."We're both difficult on one another and difficult around the film to make certain it keeps improving."Within their latest collaboration, he states, "The task was attempting to keep it light with comedy moments, but not to cheapen the sincere sorrow.""We did not need to make it this type of heavy drama that individuals would slit their arms after."The twin need for the director's approach and past collaboration can also be answer to a brand new require Thelma Schoonmaker, that has been cutting for Martin Scorsese in excess of 3 decades. "(Scorsese) is definitely pushing themself, he really wants to experiment, which means I recieve to achieve that too," Schoonmaker states. "Hugo," a period of time piece in regards to a youthful boy who helps find forgotten movie pioneer Georges Melies, is the latest collaboration, as well as their first in three dimensional. "Every cut is really a new problem to resolve, or something like that to savor,Inch she states.Among Schoonmaker's greatest challenges in "Hugo" was integrating Sacha Baron Cohen's improvisational style using the relaxation from the performances.In a single particularly tricky scene, Cohen's socially inept Station Inspector approaches Emily Mortimer's soft-spoken flower-seller to create a romantic overture. Schoonmaker left extra breaks in Cohen's dialogue to balance their performances and boost the comedy -- a trick she learned on Scorsese's 1990 gangster film, "Goodfellas."Eye around the Academy awards: Vfx, Seem & Editing Thesps up f/x respect Longtime teams keep work fresh Randy's Rules to find the best seem Seem editing: Always make dramatic sense Seem Mixing: Which makes it all feel real Digital tools add quality, spend less Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Lysistrata Manley

Patti Murin and Josh Segarra in "Lysistrata Manley" A Paula Herold, Alan Wasser, Ernest Cruz, Michael McCabe, John Breglio, Takonkiet Viravan/Scenario Thailand, Hilary A. Williams, Broadway Across America, James G. Robinson presentation from the musical by 50 percent functions with music and lyrics by Lewis Flinn book by Douglas Carter Beane. Directed and choreographed by Serta Knechtges. Music direction, Kaira Simmons.'Uardo - Alexander Aguilar Tyllis - Ato Blankson-Wood Lampito Kanagawa - Katie Boren Robin - Lindsay Nicole Chambers Heterai - Liz Mikel Lysistrata Manley - Patti Murin Cleonice - Kat Nejat Mick - Josh Segarra Mhyrinne - LaQuet Sharnell Xander - Jason Tam Harold - Teddy Toye Cinesius - Alex WyseSex, gags and dunk shots add Douglas Carter Beane's "Lysistrata Manley," about several cheerleaders who finalise to remain chaste to motivate their males round the Athens U. basketball team to put an finish for the school's 33-year losing streak. This college-level "Secondary School Musical" is layered with giddy and frequently wicked sophistication, which is company of 12 provides vibrant performances backed by energetically brisk staging in this particular sweetly silly romp. Auds will fight to avoid laughter. The show can be a direct descendant of Beane's earlier "Xanadu," but much better than that relate, and much more amusing than his other current Broadway musical, "Sister Act." Borrowing its plot from Aristophanes, "Lysistrata Manley" juxtaposes lowbrow popular entertainment with highbrow wit to supply good-natured injections at modern culture, mores and eccentricities as transfer student Lizzie (Patti Murin) convinces her squad, whose males have been in the overall game, to withhold the items until they win. The show within the Walter Kerr Theater is virtually similar to the version mounted with the Transport Group last spring lower on Washington Square, with one minor cast change. Beane has ongoing to update his script there's a tale about Newt Gingrich at Tiffany's, and also the other in which the leading lady asks her iPhone's Siri about neighborhood brothels. Performances have ongoing to build up. Murin bakes a lovely and undefeatable Lizzie Josh Segarra is enjoyable since the dull basketball star who independently spouts Frost and Dickinson Lindsay Nicole Chambers is perfect since the librarian geek who conveys through poetry jams and Liz Mikel might be the big-voiced extra-large Greek goddess who's really the only adult in your home. Funniest and several impressive is Jason Tam, who carried out the hurt dancer Paul inside the recent "Chorus Line." Here he's greatly droll since the computer geek Xander, giving a hysterical exhibition of eccentric dancing while he Googles the steps on his cell phone. Helmer/choreographer Serta Knechtges, heretofore known inside the latter role, keeps the show moving as being a fluid the overall game of basketball, delivering laffs in route. Weakest link might be the score by Lewis Flinn. The music activity is essentially functional, in no way as tasty since the additional circumstances the lyrics involve some vibrant spots, no less than when they are not overamplified past audibility. It had been something from the problem when the show carried out downtown by having an actual basketball court at Judson Memorial Chapel, nevertheless the appear is unaccountably more garbled within the Kerr.Sets, Allen Moyer costumes, David C. Woolard and Thomas Charles LeGalley lights, Michael Gottlieb appear, Tony Meola orchestrations, Flinn production stage manager, Lois L. Griffing. Opened up up 12 ,. 14, 2011, examined 12 ,. 9. Running time: 2 Several hours, 10 MIN. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

Grimm: Satisfy the New Hansel & Gretel

Daryl Sabara Spy Kids star Daryl Sabara will have one-1 / 2 of the story book duo Hansel and Gretel with an approaching episode of Grimm, Entertainment Weekly reviews. Grimm's Silas Weir Mitchell: Monroe is wilier than Twilight's Jacob Sabara and Necessary Roughness' Hannah Marks will have Hanson and Gracie, destitute teens attempting to survive within the roads of Tigard who all of a sudden get entangled in to the creature world's underground community of human organ dealing. The reality is, this is not your parents' version of Hansel and Gretel. Grimm airs Fridays at 9/8c on NBC.

British Film Institute creates film fund post

LONDON -- The British Film Institute has announced plans to appoint a single executive to run its production and distribution funds, with a combined annual budget of 21 million ($33 million). This follows the resignation of Tanya Seghatchian as head of the BFI's film fund in September, and the departure of Peter Buckingham as head of distribution and exhibition in November. These two jobs will be replaced by a newly-created role titled director of film fund, reporting to BFI chief executive Amanda Nevill. This marks a move toward a more integrated policy of development, production and distribution investment, in line with the expected recommendations of the U.K. government's Film Policy Review to be announced in January. According to a BFI statement, the new director of film fund will be responsible for leading the existing production and distribution teams, nurturing filmmaking talent from across the U.K., championing creative excellence and encouraging a boldness of approach. The BFI took over from the U.K. Film Council last April as the public body responsible for investing lottery coin into British film production and distribution. Both Seghatchian and Buckingham moved across from the UKFC to the BFI, but decided to leave once the transition was complete. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Transgender Performers on How Art and Identity Inform Each Other

Transgender Performers on How Art and Identity Inform Each Other By Simi Horwitz December 9, 2011 Lucas Silveira The statuesque and striking Bianca Leigh admits that exposing one of her breasts in her one-person musical "Busted" was a vulnerable moment. But it was not gratuitous, confessional, or therapeutic, she says, despite her being a transgender woman.Indeed, Leigh never planned to write a piece about the transgender experience, but she felt that audiences were ready, and so was she. "With humor, I showed how the abuse of power can affect any disenfranchised person," she says. "Busted" recounts what happened when she was arrested for alleged solicitation.Leigh no longer feels disenfranchised but concedes that she faces obstacles, especially as an actress. (The majority of the trans women interviewed prefer the term "actress" to the gender-neutral "actor.") Transgender roles are fewoften they're prostitutes, criminals, or murder victimsand when a good part surfaces, more often than not it does not go to a transgender actor. The films "Transamerica" and "Boys Don't Cry" are classic examples. Leigh wants to do more than transgender roles but will seize any small opportunity. "I will work nonstop," she insists. "I have to prove I am an actress who happens to be trans."Leigh is luckier than most transgender actors in that she has representation. Her agent, Judy Boals, says she had no reservations in taking on Leigh: "I will submit her for everything, but mostly beautiful, glamorous, upscale female roles. I haven't gotten her much yet, but mostly because of her many downtown theater credits. Also, in the few films she's been in, she's played transgender characters." Generally, Boals explains, casting directors and agents like to put people in boxes.A Trans Life On Stage and Off "Transgender" is an umbrella term for a person whose gender identity and lifestyle don't match his or her biological sex. Most transgender people know at an early age that they're "trapped in the wrong body" and are usually "out" as homosexuals prior to making the actual gender transition. Some have surgical and/or hormonal treatments, though typically they won't discuss whether they've had so-called "bottom surgery." Others don't take medications or undergo gender realignment procedures. Still others want to "pass," while some see themselves on a gender continuum, sharing characteristics of men and women. A fair number continue to identify with queer culture."I am going to face hatred and discrimination and therefore feel part of a larger queer community," Leigh explains. "But it's not about being gay. I am a woman of transsexual experience." In contrast, trans woman and actor Laverne Cox identifies as a straight female, despite knowing discrimination not only as a trans woman but as an African American.Trans male standup comic Ian Harvie describes himself as a man, but not male. "A male is what you are biologically, while a man is something you can create," he says. He maintains the F (for female) on his driver's license, contending that "if I ever get arrested, I want to go to the women's prison. That's a female privilege I'd like to keep. I don't want the privileges of a straight male, though sometimes I get them because of how I look."Justin Vivian Bond, previously best known for the persona of inebriated lounge singer Kiki of the duo Kiki and Herb and who has been taking estrogen for a number of years, says, "I identify as a transgender. I do not believe in the gender binary, and I do not live as a male or female. When I played Kiki, I was playing a woman. But I was not a man playing a woman, or a woman playing a woman. I was a transgender playing a woman." In his more recent incarnation as a singer, Bond evokes a sophisticated man-woman, but with no campy overtones. Author of the recently published memoir "Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels," he is now participating in a queer art mentorship program and will be guiding a trans male dancer, who did not wish to be identified but who said, "My trans body allows me to occupy a new artistic space."Ambiguous gender identity is part of a long theatrical tradition, says David Kaufman, theater critic and author of "Ridiculous!: The Theatrical Life and Times of Charles Ludlam." Ludlam's performance as Camille in his comic version of the Alexandre Dumas classic was an iconic and moving example of gender blending onstage. "He wore gowns but also exposed his chest hair," Kaufman says. "He was not trying to conceal his male identity. He did not embrace camp. In fact, he felt camp was in the eye of the beholder. He said, 'I'm doing real acting in drag.' " Ludlam was gay but not transgender.Is it Necessary to Pass? Transgender performers are not new. Consider Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis, and Holly Woodlawn, who all starred in Andy Warhol films. The most famous transgender person today is probably Chaz Bono, and the brouhaha over his appearance on "Dancing With the Stars" has brought the topic front and center. The precise number of transgender performers is not available, but all the interviewees agree that their presence will be increasingly felt.They can currently be seen performing cabaret acts, experimental solo pieces, standup comedy, and roles in film and TV. Candis Cayne was on "Dirty Sexy Money," and Harmony Santana played a young boy beginning to transition in the highly praised indie film "Gun Hill Road."Casting director Sig De Miguel, who has cast transgender actors in films, looks forward to the time when a character's transgender status is incidental to the script and an actor's trans identity is irrelevant to casting. "You may be born male, but you're a woman now," De Miguel says. He doesn't think passing as one sex or the other is relevant.By contrast, Cox wants to pass and would love to play a straight woman. "In the film 'Musical Chairs,' my character's sexuality was not an issue," she says. "I had a love interest, and I played it as a straight woman." Similarly, Santana hopes to pass onscreen and believes it's her job as a performer to do so. "The only challenge right now is my voice," she says. "I think it's still a little masculine, but I've been told by men it's sexy." She acknowledges that she would be a little uncomfortable doing a romantic scene with a straight actor, unless he knew she was a trans woman. Shaping a Performance To what degree being transgender shapes a performance is arguable. Trans woman Marlo Bernier concedes that as a woman, her comedic skills are sharper than when she was a man. Still, she had no problem playing men, saying that acting is acting. For others, trans identity and artistry are profoundly interrelated. CeCe Suazo-Augustus says she brought a "unique LBGT twist" to her interpretation of conspirator Cinna in a production of "Julius Caesar" by the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival's Will Power to Youth program in 1997.Likewise, Kestryl Cael, an edgy "trans-masculine" (the phrase he prefers) performance artist, started writing his own pieces in part because the roles in dramatic literature didn't mesh with his aesthetic or sensibility. "I have a queer identity and don't identify with women or straight men," he says. "I use the gender-neutral pronoun 'hir.' "Cael does not send out headshots or rsums but will perform in the works of friends, who understand that he'll bring a special "queer" spin to the undertaking. He would not play a misogynistic straight man in a representational style, but would play the part with a wink to the audience. "I will not identify with that character," he says. "My approach is more Brechtian."Harvie wants his audiences to love him and embrace his "trans-ness" as much as he does, likening it to a "gift." Presenting an easygoing and charming persona, he discusses his life as a woman before top surgery, when he was forced to wear a triple-D bra, and the misery he endured in "lugging the girls around."Without finger-wagging, he hopes his audiences will view sex, gender, and male and female politics in new ways. "I talk about trans-ness, so I've become a transgender comic," Harvie says, "but I see myself more as an identity comic, like a black comic or 'recovery' comic." In the end, his goal is bonding with viewers, because he is one of them. "Everyone feels like an outsider," he says.Playing a lounge-lizard emcee with slicked-down black hair, a slightly shiny, baggy suit, and a fake mustache, standup performer Murray Hill sees himself as an outsider separate from the audience. He views his act as a fun defense mechanism. At the same time, he asserts that "living a life weaving between gender binaries" has made it more possible for him to connect to theatergoers across gender lines. "What I love about my character is it translates differently to each person," Hill says. "Some folks have no idea, others are in on it, and some folks are just confused. That makes for a thrilling ride for both me and the audience." But foremost, "I'm an entertainer," he emphasizes. "I sing, I dance, I interact with the audience, and I tell jokes. I'm everyone's favorite uncle at the dinner table during holidays, after a few drinks."Mixed Emotions Being trans may inform some actors' performances, but for others, performing paved the way for transitioning. Santana had not started her change when she was cast in "Gun Hill Road," but as she delved into her role and the director insisted that she "become a girl," she was able to make the decision to go ahead with sexual reassignment. "It gave me the strength to be comfortable in my skin," she recalls.Harvie came out onstage when he was a woman because not to do so felt dishonest, he says. "I knew I looked like a butch dyke, and I know that was what the audience was seeing. I was aware I was trans before I did standup. But performing helped me get honest about it."Not all demons are from within. Lucas Silveira, a rock singer based in Canada, recounts how difficult it was for him when he was still "Lilia." In the male-dominated music industry, he was stigmatized as a woman and a lesbian. In addition, he felt inauthentic and self-conscious onstage."I came out as a gay woman when I was 17," he says. "I became a trans man at 32, and at 33 I did top surgery. Five years later I started taking testosterone. I was warned I might lose my voice." In fact, that didn't happen, and he had many more recording opportunities. "The freak aspect initially served me well," but "now it has boomeranged." Opportunities diminished while squabbles within his band, the Cliks, flourished. "When I did my last album, I was already out as a trans man and we were all queer-identified," Silveira says. "But when the photographer wanted me to take off my shirt, the other singers did not want me to do it. They had internalized homophobia and transphobia." Transitioning is not always as liberating as one might imagine. Alekxia, a trans woman, says that before transitioning she booked a few SAG and AFTRA jobs, mostly for commercials and voiceovers in Spanish. But once she started the medical procedures, the phone stopped ringing. "In the last two years, I've only auditioned for two roles," she says.Bernier has had a better time of it, though when she started transitioning she agonized over what would happen if she became a series regular in a male role, "with breasts growing and T-shirts getting tighter. I was terrified." At the moment, she is working behind the camera as a director. "In films centering on transgender life, usually the trans person has to make the major transition," she says. "In my film 'Stealth,' family members will have to make the major transition." Perhaps more groundbreaking, upcoming Bernier films do not deal with transgender characters at all.Though progress may be slow, steps are being taken. The performers' dreams don't seem quite that improbable. Silveira wants to go mainstream: "My music is not based on my being transgender. It's based on my being a human being." Hill would love to move into acting and is even willing to take on a distaff role. "I'd play a woman for one of Tyler Perry's movies in a heartbeat," he says. Leigh's ambition is to tackle a larger-than-life matriarch, broad, or courtesan. "I think the male-to-female transsexual is the new courtesan," she proclaims in celebration. "You can't bring us home to Mama."Now that's attitude. Transgender Performers on How Art and Identity Inform Each Other By Simi Horwitz December 9, 2011 Lucas Silveira The statuesque and striking Bianca Leigh admits that exposing one of her breasts in her one-person musical "Busted" was a vulnerable moment. But it was not gratuitous, confessional, or therapeutic, she says, despite her being a transgender woman.Indeed, Leigh never planned to write a piece about the transgender experience, but she felt that audiences were ready, and so was she. "With humor, I showed how the abuse of power can affect any disenfranchised person," she says. "Busted" recounts what happened when she was arrested for alleged solicitation.Leigh no longer feels disenfranchised but concedes that she faces obstacles, especially as an actress. (The majority of the trans women interviewed prefer the term "actress" to the gender-neutral "actor.") Transgender roles are fewoften they're prostitutes, criminals, or murder victimsand when a good part surfaces, more often than not it does not go to a transgender actor. The films "Transamerica" and "Boys Don't Cry" are classic examples. Leigh wants to do more than transgender roles but will seize any small opportunity. "I will work nonstop," she insists. "I have to prove I am an actress who happens to be trans."Leigh is luckier than most transgender actors in that she has representation. Her agent, Judy Boals, says she had no reservations in taking on Leigh: "I will submit her for everything, but mostly beautiful, glamorous, upscale female roles. I haven't gotten her much yet, but mostly because of her many downtown theater credits. Also, in the few films she's been in, she's played transgender characters." Generally, Boals explains, casting directors and agents like to put people in boxes.A Trans Life On Stage and Off "Transgender" is an umbrella term for a person whose gender identity and lifestyle don't match his or her biological sex. Most transgender people know at an early age that they're "trapped in the wrong body" and are usually "out" as homosexuals prior to making the actual gender transition. Some have surgical and/or hormonal treatments, though typically they won't discuss whether they've had so-called "bottom surgery." Others don't take medications or undergo gender realignment procedures. Still others want to "pass," while some see themselves on a gender continuum, sharing characteristics of men and women. A fair number continue to identify with queer culture."I am going to face hatred and discrimination and therefore feel part of a larger queer community," Leigh explains. "But it's not about being gay. I am a woman of transsexual experience." In contrast, trans woman and actor Laverne Cox identifies as a straight female, despite knowing discrimination not only as a trans woman but as an African American.Trans male standup comic Ian Harvie describes himself as a man, but not male. "A male is what you are biologically, while a man is something you can create," he says. He maintains the F (for female) on his driver's license, contending that "if I ever get arrested, I want to go to the women's prison. That's a female privilege I'd like to keep. I don't want the privileges of a straight male, though sometimes I get them because of how I look."Justin Vivian Bond, previously best known for the persona of inebriated lounge singer Kiki of the duo Kiki and Herb and who has been taking estrogen for a number of years, says, "I identify as a transgender. I do not believe in the gender binary, and I do not live as a male or female. When I played Kiki, I was playing a woman. But I was not a man playing a woman, or a woman playing a woman. I was a transgender playing a woman." In his more recent incarnation as a singer, Bond evokes a sophisticated man-woman, but with no campy overtones. Author of the recently published memoir "Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels," he is now participating in a queer art mentorship program and will be guiding a trans male dancer, who did not wish to be identified but who said, "My trans body allows me to occupy a new artistic space."Ambiguous gender identity is part of a long theatrical tradition, says David Kaufman, theater critic and author of "Ridiculous!: The Theatrical Life and Times of Charles Ludlam." Ludlam's performance as Camille in his comic version of the Alexandre Dumas classic was an iconic and moving example of gender blending onstage. "He wore gowns but also exposed his chest hair," Kaufman says. "He was not trying to conceal his male identity. He did not embrace camp. In fact, he felt camp was in the eye of the beholder. He said, 'I'm doing real acting in drag.' " Ludlam was gay but not transgender.Is it Necessary to Pass? Transgender performers are not new. Consider Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis, and Holly Woodlawn, who all starred in Andy Warhol films. The most famous transgender person today is probably Chaz Bono, and the brouhaha over his appearance on "Dancing With the Stars" has brought the topic front and center. The precise number of transgender performers is not available, but all the interviewees agree that their presence will be increasingly felt.They can currently be seen performing cabaret acts, experimental solo pieces, standup comedy, and roles in film and TV. Candis Cayne was on "Dirty Sexy Money," and Harmony Santana played a young boy beginning to transition in the highly praised indie film "Gun Hill Road."Casting director Sig De Miguel, who has cast transgender actors in films, looks forward to the time when a character's transgender status is incidental to the script and an actor's trans identity is irrelevant to casting. "You may be born male, but you're a woman now," De Miguel says. He doesn't think passing as one sex or the other is relevant.By contrast, Cox wants to pass and would love to play a straight woman. "In the film 'Musical Chairs,' my character's sexuality was not an issue," she says. "I had a love interest, and I played it as a straight woman." Similarly, Santana hopes to pass onscreen and believes it's her job as a performer to do so. "The only challenge right now is my voice," she says. "I think it's still a little masculine, but I've been told by men it's sexy." She acknowledges that she would be a little uncomfortable doing a romantic scene with a straight actor, unless he knew she was a trans woman. Shaping a Performance To what degree being transgender shapes a performance is arguable. Trans woman Marlo Bernier concedes that as a woman, her comedic skills are sharper than when she was a man. Still, she had no problem playing men, saying that acting is acting. For others, trans identity and artistry are profoundly interrelated. CeCe Suazo-Augustus says she brought a "unique LBGT twist" to her interpretation of conspirator Cinna in a production of "Julius Caesar" by the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival's Will Power to Youth program in 1997.Likewise, Kestryl Cael, an edgy "trans-masculine" (the phrase he prefers) performance artist, started writing his own pieces in part because the roles in dramatic literature didn't mesh with his aesthetic or sensibility. "I have a queer identity and don't identify with women or straight men," he says. "I use the gender-neutral pronoun 'hir.' "Cael does not send out headshots or rsums but will perform in the works of friends, who understand that he'll bring a special "queer" spin to the undertaking. He would not play a misogynistic straight man in a representational style, but would play the part with a wink to the audience. "I will not identify with that character," he says. "My approach is more Brechtian."Harvie wants his audiences to love him and embrace his "trans-ness" as much as he does, likening it to a "gift." Presenting an easygoing and charming persona, he discusses his life as a woman before top surgery, when he was forced to wear a triple-D bra, and the misery he endured in "lugging the girls around."Without finger-wagging, he hopes his audiences will view sex, gender, and male and female politics in new ways. "I talk about trans-ness, so I've become a transgender comic," Harvie says, "but I see myself more as an identity comic, like a black comic or 'recovery' comic." In the end, his goal is bonding with viewers, because he is one of them. "Everyone feels like an outsider," he says.Playing a lounge-lizard emcee with slicked-down black hair, a slightly shiny, baggy suit, and a fake mustache, standup performer Murray Hill sees himself as an outsider separate from the audience. He views his act as a fun defense mechanism. At the same time, he asserts that "living a life weaving between gender binaries" has made it more possible for him to connect to theatergoers across gender lines. "What I love about my character is it translates differently to each person," Hill says. "Some folks have no idea, others are in on it, and some folks are just confused. That makes for a thrilling ride for both me and the audience." But foremost, "I'm an entertainer," he emphasizes. "I sing, I dance, I interact with the audience, and I tell jokes. I'm everyone's favorite uncle at the dinner table during holidays, after a few drinks."Mixed Emotions Being trans may inform some actors' performances, but for others, performing paved the way for transitioning. Santana had not started her change when she was cast in "Gun Hill Road," but as she delved into her role and the director insisted that she "become a girl," she was able to make the decision to go ahead with sexual reassignment. "It gave me the strength to be comfortable in my skin," she recalls.Harvie came out onstage when he was a woman because not to do so felt dishonest, he says. "I knew I looked like a butch dyke, and I know that was what the audience was seeing. I was aware I was trans before I did standup. But performing helped me get honest about it."Not all demons are from within. Lucas Silveira, a rock singer based in Canada, recounts how difficult it was for him when he was still "Lilia." In the male-dominated music industry, he was stigmatized as a woman and a lesbian. In addition, he felt inauthentic and self-conscious onstage."I came out as a gay woman when I was 17," he says. "I became a trans man at 32, and at 33 I did top surgery. Five years later I started taking testosterone. I was warned I might lose my voice." In fact, that didn't happen, and he had many more recording opportunities. "The freak aspect initially served me well," but "now it has boomeranged." Opportunities diminished while squabbles within his band, the Cliks, flourished. "When I did my last album, I was already out as a trans man and we were all queer-identified," Silveira says. "But when the photographer wanted me to take off my shirt, the other singers did not want me to do it. They had internalized homophobia and transphobia." Transitioning is not always as liberating as one might imagine. Alekxia, a trans woman, says that before transitioning she booked a few SAG and AFTRA jobs, mostly for commercials and voiceovers in Spanish. But once she started the medical procedures, the phone stopped ringing. "In the last two years, I've only auditioned for two roles," she says.Bernier has had a better time of it, though when she started transitioning she agonized over what would happen if she became a series regular in a male role, "with breasts growing and T-shirts getting tighter. I was terrified." At the moment, she is working behind the camera as a director. "In films centering on transgender life, usually the trans person has to make the major transition," she says. "In my film 'Stealth,' family members will have to make the major transition." Perhaps more groundbreaking, upcoming Bernier films do not deal with transgender characters at all.Though progress may be slow, steps are being taken. The performers' dreams don't seem quite that improbable. Silveira wants to go mainstream: "My music is not based on my being transgender. It's based on my being a human being." Hill would love to move into acting and is even willing to take on a distaff role. "I'd play a woman for one of Tyler Perry's movies in a heartbeat," he says. Leigh's ambition is to tackle a larger-than-life matriarch, broad, or courtesan. "I think the male-to-female transsexual is the new courtesan," she proclaims in celebration. "You can't bring us home to Mama."Now that's attitude.

Robert Downey Jr.: We're Having a Baby Boy!

Robert Downey and Susan Downey Robert Downey Jr. has spilled the beans: He and wife Susan are having a baby boy. The Iron Man star revealed the sex of his impending child, who is due in February, Monday night on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. "I am not permitted to discuss it," he joked. "I can't say a word... We're having a boy!" Robert Downey Jr., wife expecting baby This is the second child for Downey, who has a 17-year-old son, Indio, with his ex-wife, Deborah Falconer. However, this is the first child for he and wife Susan, who have been married for six years. "I don't want to be presumptuous," he told Jay Leno, "But I think actually it's been tougher on me. Just the hormones and the mood stuff and the nausea and the whole thing." "I gotta be careful," Downey quickly added. "I am going to have to see my wife some time after doing this segment with you, and I think I'm already in trouble." Check out Downey's appearance to find out the gift Leno gave him:

NBC Tv Producers Team With News Nonprofits: Report

NBC Tv producers in La, Chicago and Philadelphia will begin joining track of nonprofit newsgroups in people urban centers while others, in line with the NY Occasions. KNBC La works together with public radio station KPCC. The Chicago station WMAQ works while using Chicago Reporter blog and magazine. Philadephia’s station WCAU works together with public radio station WWHY which is NewsWorks,a hyperlocal news site.All 10 NBCs possessed and operated stations may even collaborate while using acclaimed investigative journalism nonprofit organization ProPublica. The partners certainly are a results of Comcast’s getting control of NBC Universal. Toward obtaining government approval, Comcast certain to strengthen local coverage through such partners no less than five of the stations. This program was patterned round the Hillcrest station KNSD and local Site voiceofsandiego.org. The us government put the partnership in writing. Valari Staab, the best choice in the NBC-possessed television stations, mentioned the area stations searched for out what organizations we thought may lead original unique content we couldnt otherwise have.” Sometimes the partners enables stations to cover more news without adding staff more directly, and nonprofit news organizations can get new shops for journalism and potentially recover some costs. NBC is making unspecified donations to all the partners. The associations involving the stations as well as the nonprofits will probably be introduced Tuesday. NBC has gone after shoreline up is 10 local stations which in fact had been through financial cuts before Comcast needed over — adding newscasts, employing reporters and altering TV trucks.

Peter Weller Joins Star Wars Follow up

First Released: December 5, 2011 3:51 PM EST Credit: Getty Images La, Calif. -- Caption Peter Weller attends 49th Annual NY Film Festival screening from the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Over the eighth Dimension at Alice Tully Hall on October 15, 2011 in NY CityRobocop actor Peter Weller is joining the cast of director J.J. Abrams large-screen Star Wars follow up. An APA talent agency spokesperson for Weller stated Monday the stars role is really a principal one out of the film, but particulars were being stored under systems. Wellers sci-fi qualifications range from the Robocop films and also the TV series Journey 5. He's guest-starred on shows including Dexter, 'Fringe and Psych. His pointing credits include Monk and also the TV movie Elmore Leonards Gold Coast. The 2nd Star Wars film includes the return of stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. The film is placed for any May 2013 premiere. Copyright 2011 through the Connected Press. All privileges reserved. These components might not be released, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.