A man in a suit and tie standing on the red carpet.

Gaston and LeFou are back

By Romeo San Vicente

Think back to that flash of a moment in 2017’s live-action remake of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, the one where it seemed that Gaston’s (Luke Evans) sidekick LeFou (Josh Gad) was, in effect, coming out as gay. We call it a flash because if you blinked you missed it – that is, if you don’t count the constant thread of LeFou having a wild crush on Gaston – but that’s another complaint about another day. It’s canon now: LeFou is gay (but keep up, Gad is heterosexual and Evans is the gay actor, just for the record). Now that you have all that background you can know that Disney+ is developing a six-part prequel series about the two characters and how they came to be such a villainous team. It’ll also be musical, with songs from veteran Beauty composer Alan Menken. And we’re just telling Disney now because we’ll all be watching from the social-distancing comfort of our homes and paying very close attention that LeFou better stay very, very, very gay or there will be a riot.

‘The Baby-Sitters Club’ comes to Netflix

Kids’ literature is no stranger to independent-minded tomboy characters created by talented and thoughtful lesbian authors, such as Harriet The Spy by Louise Fitzhugh and The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin. But unlike Harriet, whose adventures spanned just two novels, The Baby-Sitters Club became an enduring series throughout the ’80s and ’90s, with a feature film version in 1995. And now comes a series from Netflix – same name, naturally – that will bring the girls up to date for a new generation. The four mains are all relative newcomers: Sophie Grace as Kristy, Shay Rudolph as Stacey, Malia Baker as Mary-Anne, and Momona Tamada as Claudia, with Alicia Silverstone and Mark Feuerstein providing grown-up support. There’s no drop date yet, but that’s Netflix for you. And while you’re waiting, there are quite literally a couple of hundred books in this series, waiting to satisfy your childhood nostalgia urge.

‘American Gigolo’ calling for Showtime

Feeling a sense of deja-vu? Well, it’s because American Gigolo, the stylish 1980 male escort drama starring Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton, keeps promising to become a TV series and then just… not. In its day, the film was obsessed over for its fashionable details, as well as for its strange straddling of queer panic and queer pleasure, all while objectifying its occasionally nude star. But now comes another chance of resurrection at Showtime, where Jon Bernthal (Ford v Ferrari) will star as the sex worker who was framed for murder. David Hollander (Ray Donovan) is penning the script that updates the story to present-day (and yet set only 18 years after the original story, so good luck keeping your mind wrapped around that), as the older, wiser Gigolo struggles to find his way in the modern sex industry of Los Angeles, all while trying to sort out the truth about who framed him so many years ago. We’re not holding our breath for this one because we were promised it before, but now that Showtime’s delightfully trashy reality series Gigolos is no more, there’s a vacant space in our hearts waiting for a hero.

Joel Kim Booster’s ‘Trip’ to Quibi

Actor and stand up comic Joel Kim Booster (The Other Two, which he co-produces) is taking his new project to Quibi, the streaming platform for short-form series. It’s called Trip, and he’ll write, produce and star in it, a mini-sitcom about two gay friends on vacation in Fire Island. The twist here is that Trip, while ostensibly about gays doing typical gay things in a gay place, is inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (can’t wait to see who Mr. Darcy turns out to be). This will mark Booster’s debut as a series creator, and we’re looking forward to seeing how much of his stand-up material – which sometimes involves discussions of his religious upbringing and always includes details of his life as a gay, Asian man – will make it into the final product. No matter what, it’s a trip we’re ready to take.

Romeo San Vicente is a full round trip all by himself.

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