Back when Tori Spelling was playing a fictional version of herself on television, her main gay was Zachary Quinto, the now-blockbuster movie star. Now ABC wants to give Tori her own talk show, and they’re searching for a male counterpart. A gay male counterpart.
Producers are looking for a Will & Grace vibe for the show, says the LAT, and they haven’t yet identified who will play Tori’s neurotic, perpetually single, and needy co-host. And if they need a Will, there’s a way (sorry!), and it means her real-life husband Dean McDermott — who also plays her husband on Oxygen reality show Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood — isn’t being considered.
And of course, just because they pick somebody, and shoot a pilot, doesn’t mean the show will actually air. To get a daytime talker on the air, it’s likely ABC would have to kill off one of its soap operas — a bloody affair, but not an unthinkable one. Or it could fill Oprah‘s soon-to-be vacant time slot, though no television exec would compare Tori’s draw to that of Big O.
So who should Tori’s sensible main gay be? Starlets like Paris Hilton have whole reality shows about finding their new buddies, but we suggest something entirely more practical and budget-conscious: Let people vote via Twitter.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Cam
PLEASE let it be somebody actually gay. I do not want to read ANOTHER article in OUT Magazine where some straight actor talks about what a great challange it is to play gay and how lucky he is and gays are great and blah blah blah blah.
terrwill
@Cam: Totaly agree. Well said!
Bill
My money’s on Ryan Seacrest.
Not gay, not straight, not human, not talented.
A match made in heaven!
Quite Right
Cam, Terrwill —
Quite Right. Gays should play gays, and straights should play straights. It’s so tiresome to listen to the commentary when straights play gay … or when gays play straight, since it would be absurd to whine about it in one direction, but cheer it in the other. Would be the sheerest hypocricy, and we’re all opposed to that.
Quite Right
Sorry: meant “hypocrisy.”
Sam
I doubt he would do it, but Mario Cantone would be a riot w/Tori.
Lamar
I understand your point and I’d prefer gays to play gays too but the good side effect is at least it becomes easier and less of a stigma to play gay. There was a time when if you played gay you were treated as ‘gay’ for the rest of your career.
Josh
Christian Siriano! They were so funny together on his Bravo special.
Cam
No. 4 · Quite Right
Cam, Terrwill –
Quite Right. Gays should play gays, and straights should play straights. It’s so tiresome to listen to the commentary when straights play gay … or when gays play straight, since it would be absurd to whine about it in one direction, but cheer it in the other. Would be the sheerest hypocricy, and we’re all opposed to that.
_________________
The point is…that this is going to be a TALK SHOW FORMAT, and the person “Playing Gay” is going to be Presented as gay.
As for the rest of your “Hollier than thou” screed…gee, I wouldn’t know what it’s like to have gays play gay on TV, since other than Ellen I can’t really seem to remember that EVER happening.
Sam
Cam-I guess you don’t watch Glee, or Ugly Betty?
Cam
No. 10 · Sam
Cam-I guess you don’t watch Glee, or Ugly Betty?
______________
Openly…don’t you remember what happened with Glee? That guy was making moves of coming out of the closet when suddenly FOX put the quash on that.
I’m just saying, wait until openly gay people playing multiple characters on TV are even an option before you start complaining about gays playing roles. I have no problem if a straight actor lands a part because he deserves it. I do have a problem with the gay actors not getting to audition because having an openly gay actor in the part “Isn’t a direction they want to go at this time.” or some other B.S.
Tylertime
Hopefully, they will cast someone undiscovered and not go to the same well of gays…NO to Alan Cumming, Mario Cantone, Wilson Cruz, B.D. Wong, Carson Kressley, Cristian Siriano, et. al. Find someone new.
counterpoll
Think about the Bryan Batt from Mad Men, (his role was cancelled!), the cute gay guys from Brothers & Sisters — crap I can’t remember their names— and maybe *** a Black/Hispanic/Asian *** actor.Uglly Betty’s Mark Urie appears to be busy with theater at the moment, but let’s throw his fedora into the ring all the same.
FrancoisTrueFaux
Who should play the homo? Dean
mikey683
what’s wrong with the huge home she married?
mikey683
What’s wrong with the huge homo she married?
Debbie Hilton
I have got it. My brother is a gay man who married when CA legally approved………don’t let me digress!!!!!! I love him and my brother-in-law so much. I just know that my brother would be the perfect television husband for Tori. He is intelligent, neurotic, grounded, creative, and one amazing educator – principal of a local grade school in RPV. The first time I saw him in action teaching a diversity course for peer educators within the LA school system I literally wanted to cry. He’s amazing and has found his true calling. How many of us go through life and NEVER realize our talents and extend them to others? Being neurotic only makes him complete – lol – he would not be himself without this endearing quality. His parent families in his school are wonderful and are so blessed to have his caring watchful eye watching over their babies.