James McAvoy and Josh Brolin heat up the Oscar stage...

Just a few short comments on last night's Academy Awards ceremony, one of the most entertaining in years, I must say. Jon Stewart did a great job, but the opening sequence was shorter than usual. Overall I quite enjoyed the proceedings (my various glasses of red wine certainly helped too.)

No Country for Old Men certainly deserved to win Best Pic. Diablo Cody (the screenwriter who came out of nowhere to write Juno), took home the Best Original Screenplay award, which was awesome.

Marion Cotillard took Best Actress over Julie Christie, which didn't surprise me at all. Her film, La Vie En Rose, had been gaining momentum in recent weeks.

The hottest moment of the evening (pictured): the pairing of hotties Josh Brolin and James McAvoy to co-present one of my favourite categories, Best Adapted Screenplay (as we know, the Academy usually pairs up one man with one woman to present these things.) Said host Stewart introducing them: "One of those Oscar, odd couples...He's the brooding, handsome star of one of this year's top dramas and he's...the brooding, handsome star of one of this year's top dramas..." Yum. I certainly got a homoerotic charge watching these two babes walk out onto the stage in their tuxes. The boys played up that homoerotic appeal with their intro (see the Youtube video above). Well worth a few watches...lol. Is it possible the Academy was throwing gay fans a bone amid all the pageantry? Of course, gay men aren't the only ones who enjoyed seeing these two men together on stage, who are we kidding, ladies?

**********UDPATE*************

I forgot to mention a great little queer win last night. Freeheld, about a New Jersey detective's fight to get death benefits for her lesbian partner, took the Best Documentary Short Oscar.

For more info on Oscar's gay content, check out this AfterElton column.

My Oscar Predictions for Sunday...

The Oscars will be unveiled this Sunday night. This year seems to be even more unpredictable than last year's awards. For what it's worth, here are my predictions for Sunday night, alongside possible spoilers (for those categories for which I have some nagging doubts):

BEST PICTURE
No Country For Old Men

BEST DIRECTOR
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men

BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

BEST ACTRESS
Julie Christie, Away from Her
possible spoiler: Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose (because why would the Academy honour an older actress when they can honour a younger one?)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (the toughest race to predict, in my opinion)
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
possible spoilers: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone or Ruby Dee, American Gangster

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
No Country for Old Men
possible spoiler: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Juno

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
There Will Be Blood
possible spoilers: No Country for Old Men or The Diving Bell And The Butterfly

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Ratatouille

BEST FILM EDITING
No Country for Old Men

BEST ART DIRECTION
Sweeney Todd

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Sweeney Todd
possible spoiler: La Vie en Rose

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Austria's "The Counterfeiters"

BEST MAKEUP
La Vie en Rose

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Transformers

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Atonement

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Once, "Falling Slowly"

BEST SOUND EDITING
Transformers

BEST SOUND MIXING
Transformers

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
No End In Sight

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Freeheld (about a dying New Jersey detective fighting to leave her pension benefits to her lesbian partner. I hope to see it at this year's Toronto Inside Out festival...)

BEST SHORT FILM - LIVE ACTION
Tanghi Argentini

BEST SHORT FILM - ANIMATED
I Met A Walrus
possible spoiler: Canada's Madame Tutli-Putli

Gays cause earthquakes in Israel but not in Canada?

This is funny and disturbing. Funny because it's so ridiculous, but disturbing because it shows clearly how some religious heterosexuals continue to honestly hold truly wacko opinions about homosexuals.

"Two earthquakes shook Israel last week and a further four struck in November and December...Shlomo Benizri, of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said the tremors had been caused by lawmaking that gave "legitimacy to sodomy".

"Israel decriminalised homosexuality in 1988 and has since passed several laws recognising gay rights. Mr Benizri made his comments while addressing a committee of the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, about the country's readiness for earthquakes...He called on lawmakers to stop "passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the state of Israel, which anyway brings about earthquakes".

Of course, Canada has gone further than Israel on promoting equality rights for LGBT citizens. But we don't have earthquakes here? I guess God can only manipulate the earth's conditions in certain regions at one time?

But come to think of it - we're having one of the worst winters in recent memory in Canada. That's it! God is punishing Canada with a bad winter because we passed same sex marriage in 2003. True, it's been four years, but I guess God is a little slow in unleashing his nature-based punishments for our sins...lol.

Furthermore, isn't Mother Nature in charge of the planet and its grumblings, not God? And how does Benizri know the earthquakes are due to Israel's treatment of gays? Isn't it possible his vengeful god is angry about something else Israel has done? Perhaps his god was targetting Lebanon (where the quakes originated) and Israel was collateral damage? Maybe his god mistook Lebanon for Lesbian? Or is it possible Benizri is crazy?

"Right to Libel" movement gains strength in Canada...

The debate over how best to deal with hate speech continues, with most mainstream commentators I've read this week brushing aside any notion that hate speech could still be a problem in Canada.

Most prefer to couch their arguments against our country's hate laws in sanctimonious "freedom of speech" platitudes, but I think we should relabel these outspoken libertarians as the "Right to Libel" movement.

In effect, by tolerating hate speech, they are fighting for the right to libel.

When anti-gay haters say that homosexuals are just a bunch of diseased pedophiles, they are, in effect, slandering people like me (or libeling, should they publish it.)

Why should it be criminal to libel one individual person, but not criminal to libel an entire group of people based on their skin colour or their sexual orientation?

I've also noted that most of the "Right to Libel" folks are the same types who were vehemently opposed to including "sexual orientation" as a protected group in the Criminal Code in 2003. The big Stephen Boissoin case in Alberta in 2002 could only be considered by that province's human rights commission, not the courts.

Dan Gardner wrote a column in yesterday's Ottawa Citizen which argued that maybe hate speech is actually good for us.

Dan Gardner's dubious premise: In Kansas, the number of same-sex couples willing to identify themselves as such in the American census has risen rapidly. In 2000, it was 3,973. In 2005, it was 6,663. Kansas is the home state for the notoriously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, led by the devilish Fred Phelps, who's been spouting off more than his share of anti-gay hate for years. Yet Gardner argues the effect has been to actually help build acceptance for homosexuals in the state. Phelps is so over the top in his vitriol (his followers now picket the funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq) that it's easy to suggest that he actually undermines his own warped agenda.

But there's something empty in Gardner's essential argument that hate speech has no real victims.

I'm a 35-year-old man. I've heard everything that Phelps and others like him have spouted off for years. It no longer hurts to hear it, I know in my bones that anti-gay vitriol from the religious (and non-religious) is complete bullshit.

But I've had years to build up a thick skin. I remember being an isolated, lonely, closeted gay teenager. When church leaders or others spouted off against the immorality of homosexuals, the darts were painful. Every attack took a chunk out of my then-fragile self-esteem.

To me, this is the main reason the hatemongers do what they do. They want to inflict pain and suffering on their targets. Sure, if they inspire others to take up arms and do whatever they deem necessary to fight the alleged wickedness of the specified group, that's just icing on the cake.

And now the "Right to Libel" folks are going to bat for these bigots?

The notion that hate speech has no real impact in Canada is utter crap. Why must anyone live in terror in a society where irrational hatred toward their community is openly tolerated?

Elsewhere in the world, hate speech is a sign of dangerous things to come.

Let's not forget the mistakes of the past and make it easier to get away with hate propaganda.

It's about time: Ontario mulls alternatives to the Lord's Prayer in legislature

Each afternoon, since 1969 (reportedly), the Ontario legislature opens with MPPs reciting the Lord's Prayer. I used to feel sorry for the Jewish and other non-Christian MPPs who would stand in silence and go along with this long-standing tradition at Queen's Park.

But I agree it's about time this practice give way to something more reflective of the modern Ontario. There are good alternatives:

"Quebec's National Assembly has only a daily moment of reflection, while Newfoundland and Labrador has no prayer in the House of Assembly. Alberta uses a set list of non-denominational prayers that are rotated, and British Columbia also rotates the prayers but allows individual members to select the daily reading...A House of Commons committee agreed on the wording for a new, non-sectarian prayer in 1994, which was adopted in 2004."

I look forward to seeing what Ontario MPPs come up with. I also don't look forward to the predictable howls we'll hear from a small number of small-minded Christians claiming this is yet another unfair attack on their religion. Of course, the vast majority of reasonable Christians will have no problem with this.

It's nice to see some cooperation on Afghanistan; Obama is on a roll...

Our two major national leaders in Canada performed well today, reaching a new consensus on the best way forward in Afghanistan.

It's nice to finally see that Prime Minister Stephen Harper can be mildly non-partisan when he needs to be.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's amendments showed he's reasonable and willing to compromise for the good of Canada and Afghanistan.

"Liberals will not abandon the people of Afghanistan," Dion told reporters Tuesday. "The mission must change...The mission must have a clear end date. The mission must be more than about the military. The wording of the motion has been carefully chosen to maximize the possibility of an agreement for the sake of Canada, Afghanistan and the mission."

********************

Obama's momentum is starting to look unstoppable. I'm thrilled for America and the world! If Obama wins the nomination, he'll have an excellent chance of besting McCain this November.

U.S. Writers' strike almost over, the Oscars likely saved!

It looks like the Writers' Guild of America strike will soon be over as a tentative three-year deal has been reached with production companies.

Union officials briefed WGA members about the tentative deal at meetings yesterday in Los Angeles and New York. WGA officials are claiming victory as it looks like they succeeded in winning better benefits for members on the strike's most contentious issues.

As the New York Times reports:

"Writers had demanded a much bigger share of returns from downloads and Web streaming than they had received in the past from the distribution of shows on older media like cassettes and DVDs, as well as expanded jurisdiction over reality television and animated features."

"Company representatives initially responded by insisting on a complete revamping of Hollywood’s time-honored residuals system, under which writers, directors, actors and others are paid for re-use of their work on television and home video."

"The tentative agreement became possible when the sides reached a handshake deal nine days ago on a crucial term under which writers would be paid a fixed residual amounting to about $1,300 for the right to stream a television program online. In the third year of their contract, the writers would achieve one of their major goals: payments amounting to 2 percent of the distributor’s revenue from such streams."

"The percentage formula is viewed by many writers as protection against the possibility that traditional reruns — which have paid them residuals amounting to tens of thousands of dollars per episode in the past — will disappear because of Web streams in the near future."

"Other major gains include a pay plan that pegs residuals for electronic downloads of movies and televisions shows at nearly double the rate paid historically for DVDs, and calculates the rate as a percentage of the distributor’s revenue, junking an old formula."

So writers get a better deal for the future (should they approve it, which looks likely now.)

And two weeks from today, Oscar lovers will get their much-needed, mid-winter, awards night fix! (Not to mention all the other shows we've lost out seeing the last three months.) This is great cause for celebration, indeed...

********* UPDATE********

The strike's over. The union voted to endorse the new agreement on Sunday.

Keith Martin and Jonathan Kay are simply wrong on hate speech

Jonathan Kay critiques in the National Post today his colleague, Warren Kinsella, and others who oppose taking hate speech protections out of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Kay spends much of his argument doing the typical, right-wing commentator thing: if it's not a burning cross or a swastika emblazoned across the front of a synagogue, it's not hate. For Kay, there is no racism or hatemongering of any kind in Canada.

And if there is, victims can use the Criminal Code provisions against hate to prosecute, Kay suggests.

This whole debate has sprung out of a private member's motion recently put forth by Liberal MP Keith Martin, who refuses to back down despite the protests of his leader, Stephane Dion.

The conservative approach (and I include Martin here as a conservative, he used to be a Reform MP after all) to this issue seems to be simple: deny there's any hate problem at all in Canada and then fight to eliminate the most effective means of fighting any hate in Canada.

I do agree with some of the commentators that the current case against Ezra Levant (for publishing pictures depicting Mohammed as a bomb-toting terrorist) does seem to go too far and that Levant is likely innocent of spreading hate.

But Kay, Martin and others believe that the complainants in that case shouldn't even have the right to complain.

Of course, if one can't turn to their provincial human rights commission for protection from hate propaganda, is getting someone charged instead under the Criminal Code an easy thing? Hell no. As Kinsella pointed out on his blog recently, only a mere handful of cases have been successfully prosecuted.

Consider for a moment the case of the Alberta pastor who published a disgusting, hate-filled letter in his local Red Deer newspaper in 2002. In it, Stephen Boissoin denounced, "Homosexual rights activists and those that defend them...as immoral as the pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps that plague our communities." In the letter, Boisson urged readers to, "take whatever steps are necessary to reverse the wickedness" of the "homosexual machine."

"Whatever steps are necessary"? Two weeks later, a young gay man was gay-bashed in Red Deer.

As a gay man, whenever someone with power like Boissoin urges all citizens to "take whatever steps are necessary" to "reverse" my "wickedness," I feel very, very threatened. Was Boissoin charged under the Criminal Code? No. Was he brought forth before the Alberta Human Rights panel and forced to answer for his hate-inspiring words? Yes.

We need the protections in the Canadian Human Rights Act. It's up to individual human rights boards to dismiss frivolous cases, while at the same time provide those being attacked by hatemongers a chance to have their cases heard.

The right-wingers in this debate deny there is any one spreading hate and promoting violence against anyone in Canada. We know that is a load of right-wing crap.

Fab Magazine: Diablo Cody is my hero

The following piece by yours truly appeared in today's issue of Toronto's Fab Magazine on the Conversation Page. People who change careers like Diablo Cody give the little people like me great hope. Just think, an Oscar nomination could be just one produced screenplay away!

Diablo Cody is my hero

Sometimes you don’t find out until well into your adult years both what you’re good at and what you like doing. How many of us wish our missions in life had been crystal clear earlier? That our passions were complementary, not divergent?

I used to have a career in politics but, to paraphrase a great prime minister, I felt like I was “stuck in the snow.” Three years ago, I backed up and restarted my journey.

But when it comes to career changes, nobody beats Diablo Cody. The 29-year-old first-time screenwriter from Chicago used to be a bored secretary and proofreader before becoming a stripper and phone sex operator. Now she’s an instant star for penning the hit film Juno. How’d she do it?

Cody wrote about her stripping career on her blog Pussy Ranch. It became a popular site and caught the eye of Hollywood producer Mason Novick, who approached Cody to encourage her to become a screenwriter. “I didn’t recognize [Novick’s email] as lifechangingly important at all,” Cody says, “It was just an email and it seemed kind of random and creepy, in fact.” But she wrote a film and now she’s nominated for an Oscar.

Had I known that stripping could lead to a successful Hollywood writing career, I might’ve lost my kit in public long ago. I did pose nude two years ago for Toronto artist Rob Waters [above]. Doesn’t that count?

Maybe I should change my name. Cody’s real name is Brook Busey-Hunt but her new name came from hearing the song ‘‘El Diablo’’ while passing through Cody, Wyoming, after getting married in Las Vegas. As I work on my next screenplay, should I sign it “Angel Arkansas” or “Fantasma Ohio?”

Matt Guerin’s blog is queer-liberal.blogspot.com. He welcomes any and all emails from Hollywood producers.

Tied for 4th Place: 2007 Canadian Blog Awards Best GLBT Blog

Let me give my wholehearted congratulations to Gay Persons of Color for placing first tonight in the Best GLBT Blog category at the 2007 Canadian Blog Awards. Well done!

Also congrats to the other nominees - Slap Upside the Head, Screw Bronze! and Montreal Simon (who tied me for 4th place.)

This was my first year blogging, so it was very humbling just to be nominated next to these great folks. All the best for the coming year!

Back from Moving Hell: Not a Happy Customer!

My partner and I are nicely settled into our new condo in west-end Toronto. We moved on Friday during the snowstorm. Yes, you read that correctly.

We had clear skies on the Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and of course today, but the one day we needed clear weather we instead got 25 centimetres of snow! Sorry for the venting, but it feels good.

We started looking for a new place in mid-autumn and found this great place in late November. The former owners wanted to close on or before Feb 1, 2008 so as to avoid Toronto mayor David Miller's new gouging land transfer tax so we obliged them. Needless to say I've spoken with the former owners about their move and it was just as hellish.

The weather was a major inconvenience mostly because it made it impossible for my brother and his girlfriend to drive into Toronto to help us out.

But the worst part of the move had almost nothing to do with the weather: our fly-by-night movers made what was going to be a difficult day into one of the worst days of my life!

Those who have ever used movers (typically listed on online websites or in the classified pages of major newspapers, etc.) understand probably how pathetically slow they can be.

Normally, good businesspeople try to work hard to earn their pay, provide a good service, make the customer happy and benefit from the positive word of mouth. Not the goons from Empire Movers who helped us out.

They were two hours late arriving at our old place. But that didn't stop them from taking their sweet time moving our furniture out of our modest two-bedroom apartment (i.e. we didn't have much furniture). It took three friggin' hours for them, with our help of course, to get our stuff out of our old building. The lazy movers took every opportunity, when out of our sight, to slack off and take their time. We didn't leave for the new place until close to 8 pm on Friday evening. Unloading at the condo was easier as they merely emptied out the truck into a nearby moving room. In total, it took six hours to finish the entire job. We were done by 10 pm Friday evening.

Furthermore, they overcharged us, first demanding a blank, signed credit card slip as a "security deposit." Then they charged us for 7.5 hours, plus one more hour for travel time (when it took 15 minutes), plus gas, plus 5% for paying with a credit card.

For six hours of work, they walked away with $855. An absolute rip-off for which I am still angry. The company had quoted a figure of $79 per hour when we booked them. They failed to mention the extra travel fee and other costs. I figured it might cost us between $400 and $500 for the move. $855 was obviously disgusting. However, after the worst day of my life, exhausted beyond explanation, I had no energy to quibble with the professional hucksters. So I accepted the amount, filled in the credit card slip and ushered the goons to the door.

I know many others who have also experienced the lazy, pathetic services of these fly-by-night movers in Toronto and I'm sure everywhere. They're all the same. My only advice to all movers: stop using these rip-off services. They overcharge, they're purposefully slow so as to gouge you for every penny and don't believe in providing good service or making their customers happy. They take advantage of people going through major stress while moving to make a quick buck. Anyone can rent their own truck and even pay your own friends to help move and still save $300 to $400 dollars, and have fewer frustrations as a result.

I'm ecstatic about the new place. I can honestly say I intend to stay here for as long as possible simply to avoid this kind of gouging again. Between land transfer taxes, lawyer's fees and these moving costs, I'm bummed out, but recovering nicely.