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Originally posted on www.thefancarpet.com

Straight A's Cast Announced

NU Image and Millennium Films have announced information regarding the cast for their new comedy film Straight A’s.

Filming for the new movie has just started in Louisiana and word is that Ryan Phillippe, Anna Paquin, Luke Wilson and Riley Thomas Stewart will all be gracing the comedy with their talents.

Phillippe will be heading up the cast playing a man who has been in and out of rehab several times over the last decade, he is ultimately convinced by the ghost of his mother to return to the family that he has abandoned. After setting off to Louisiana with a bag of pills and marijuana in tow, he returns to the family home where he confronts his older brother (Wilson) and faces up to his sister in law (Paquin) who is still in love with him even after they broke up.

Throw in his son (Stewart) who he hasn’t seen for quite some time and it looks as though we have a strong comedy, with the potential to pack some emotional punches.

James Cox will be directing, with the screenplay written by David Cole.

True Blood is Back

Originally posted on www.differentscene.co.uk

The world is still crazy about vampires and this week True Blood returned in America for its fourth series.

If you haven’t seen the vampire show yet then I recommend that you do. For a start unlike the snooze fest that is Twilight the vampires in True Blood actually show us their fangs and aren’t afraid to kill when necessary, and this is only the beginning. The show is full to the brim with mystical and terrifying creatures that include the likes of werewolves, witches, shape shifters and countless more (really the list is almost endless).

Based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, the show is set in Bon Temps in Southern America in a time when vampires have come out of the coffin and integrated themselves into everyday human lives, but things aren’t always that easy. Soon we experience the plight of the vampires as they try and become accepted into sceptical world along with murder, a few love stories and a whole lot sex thrown in for good measure.

Now you may be wondering what this show has to do with being gay? Aside from the openly gay character Lafayette the whole programme is an allegory for gay rights, with the vampires representing homosexual people and the humans representing the straight, as it shows how coming out for the vampires and their fight for equality and equal rights mirror that of gay men and women over the last 50 plus years. The author of the books on which the series was based has even stated this on several occasions, making the show even more enjoyable. Watch out for a few ‘God hates fangs’ posters and some anti-vampire religious groups (it really couldn’t be more obvious).

So if you haven’t seen it yet, go and get yourself series 1-3 sit back and enjoy a whole lot of real vampires (as opposed to those fake fangless ones in Twilight), as they kill, love, party and fight for their rights, True Blood is a must watch for anyone.