Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, the stars of Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming Liberace biopic, Under the Candleabra, are all glammed up on the cover of this week’s Entertainment Weekly.
“Every Sunday night, this girl would come to my house and I would stand in my garage and I would hike my boxer briefs up into the crack of my ass and she would give me a spray tan,” explains Damon, who spends plenty of the movie in teensy swimsuits. “We’ve been through three childbirths, we’ve been in the trenches—there are no secrets,” he says about his wife, Luciana Barroso. “But I really wish she didn’t see that. That’s too much.”
Source: EW
sfbeast
Dan Avery, I think the film is called Behind the Candelabra. And I’m hoping it’s a whole lot better than Liz and Dick.
postwolcott
How could it not be? This is “Lib and Dick”…
Teleny
Wow, Michael is really channeling Liberace. That smile is so much like Liberace. When I was a kid, my Mom had no idea that Liberace or Johnny Mathis were gay or that I was trans even though she busted me in her clothes at age 3!!! 🙂
Pete
more gay roles go to straight actors . . . that’s Hollywood!
sirald66
Matt is channeling Ellen there.
Kieran
Why do Michael Douglas and Matt Damon both look like women? Oh that’s right I forgot, they’re playing “gay” characters.
postwolcott
Er…they’re playing Liberace and Scott Thorson…
igoape
Pete straight actors play gay roles all the time and vice versa. Neil Patrick Harris plays a womanizing straight guy on TV even. It’s called ACTING. At least it’s a big step forward from just a decade or so ago when straight actors willing to play gay roles were hard to find as they feared getting type cast.
Kieran
Yeah, Liberace. The nonthreatening, flaming kind of homo that the straights are comfortable with because he’s so……queer. Nothing Hollywood does better than promote the effeminate gay male stereotype.
Kenny1948
@Kieran: They’re playing Liberace and his friend, who nobody at the time knew existed. Sad fact younguns, that’s the way it was back in those days. Before everyone came out of the closet. As flaming as he was, very few straight people realized he was gay. Just an eccentric!
sirald66
I wonder what the straight male population generally thought of Liberace at the time. Women seemed to be blind; maybe it was beyond comprehension. They treated him like Willy Wonka making his peek-a-boo appearance.
Mark Jenkins
Unbelievably talented on the piano- He truly earned the name “Mr.Showmanship”- A queen of the first order, undoubtedly- and obviously- after the fact… but back then virtually no one was really out and proud the way many are today, so I don’t think the public as a whole either recognized him as being gay. If they did they didn’t talk about it- Or condemned him his homosexuality.Back then it just wasn’t discussed the way it would be today. He was a GREAT entertainer. Hopefully Michael Douglas will do him justice…so far in previous biopics it hasn’t happened.I saw him twice in concert and he put on a hell of a show.You couldn’t help liking him. I think because of his phenomenal talent, people were able (and willing) to overlook his lifestyle, which never became overtly public until Scott Thorsen decided to sue him for HIV infection.
Derek Williams
Two of my all time favourite actors, I so much admire for taking a hit on their salaries and their reputation to play this risky movie. I hope they make a pile out of it and show Hollywood they should have backed the movie.
Sweet Boy
@sirald66: Wrong….he´s channeling Martina Navratilova
mulletkitty
This looks totally fun and I can’t wait to see it.
All the bitching on this list!! Stephen Soderberg script: YES! This aint gonna be no Liz & Dick.
And if a gay actor got the role, Pete and Keiran would STILL complain about typecasting!
The real question is why has it taken so long to make a Liberace biopic, not why could they not pic a butcher or more threateningly gay dude to make a movie about.
Jay
I can’t wait to see it.