Was it an "Emperor's New Clothes" moment for "Brokeback Mountain"?

The cowboy-on-cowboy flick - starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as star-crossed lovers and Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway as their unlucky wives - has been lavished with awards and critical acclaim, lassoing seven Golden Globe nominations and the Venice Film Festival's top honor, the Golden Lion.

But openly gay stage and screen star Nathan Lane went on the "Today" show Friday and, instead of treating the Ang Lee movie with customary reverence, had a satirical field day at "Brokeback's" expense.

"I wish I could quit you," twanged Lane - who was on the show ostensibly to promote "The Producers" - mocking Gyllenhaal's cowboy confession to his bunkmate.

"It's really when [Ledger] said, 'This thing gets hold of us the wrong time, the wrong place, we're dead,' " Lane recalled as Katie Couric and "Today" crew members giggled. "I thought, 'What do you mean, like the A&P? You're in the middle of nowhere! Get a ranch with the guy! Stop torturing these two poor women and get a room! What's the problem?' "

Flacks for Focus Features didn't return phone calls, and a publicist for "Brokeback" screenwriter Larry McMurtry declined comment.

You wouldn’t know it from all the hype and the endless critics’ awards. But Ang Lee’s "Brokeback Mountain" may be suffering a little burnout in its third week of release.

Indeed, "Brokeback"—-aka the Gay Cowboy movie—-has seen declines at the box office every day this week after a huge premiere and subsequent run in gay-concentrated neighborhoods.

But now it may be that reality is setting in, and reality bites, as we all know. On Monday, "Brokeback" was 51 percent off from Sunday. On Tuesday, it was down 9.1 percent from Monday. By Wednesday, it was off another 7.6 percent. All in all, it dropped to No. 10 on its 13th day out.

Today, "Brokeback" nearly doubles its number of theaters to 217, but this may be a real litmus test. There is hardly a straight male in the U.S. who will see this movie voluntarily. No matter how well made it is—-and it is very well crafted by a hugely talented group of people—-it’s hard to imagine a suburban wife coaxing hubby to the Cineplex on Saturday night to see two men consummate their passion.

I haven't seen "Brokeback Mountain," nor do I have any intention of seeing it. In fact, cowboys would have to lasso me, drag me into the theater and tie me to the seat, and even then I would make every effort to close my eyes and cover my ears.

And I love gay people. Hey, I've got gay acquaintances. Good acquaintances, who know they can call me anytime if they had my phone number. I'm for gay marriage, gay divorce, gay this and gay that. I just don't want to watch two straight men, alone on the prairie, fall in love and kiss and hug and hold hands and whatnot. That's all.

Is that so terrible? Does that mean I'm homophobic? And if I am, well, then that's too bad. Because you can call me any name you want, but I'm still not going to that movie.

To my surprise, I have some straight friends who've not only seen the movie but liked it. "One of the best love stories ever," one gushed. Another went on, "Oh, my God, you completely forget that it's two men. You in particular will love it."

"Why me?"

"You just will, trust me."

But I don't trust him. If two cowboys, male icons who are 100 percent all-man, can succumb, what chance to do I have, half- to a quarter of a man, depending on whom I'm with at the time? I'm a very susceptible person, easily influenced, a natural-born follower with no sales-resistance. When I walk into a store, clerks wrestle one another trying to get to me first. My wife won't let me watch infomercials because of all the junk I've ordered that's now piled up in the garage. My medicine cabinet is filled with vitamins and bald cures.

So who's to say I won't become enamored with the whole gay business? Let's face it, there is some appeal there. I know I've always gotten along great with men. I never once paced in my room rehearsing what to say before asking a guy if he wanted to go to the movies. And I generally don't pay for men, which of course is their most appealing attribute.

And gay guys always seem like they're having a great time. At the Christmas party I went to, they were the only ones who sang. Boy that looked like fun. I would love to sing, but this weighty, self-conscious heterosexuality I'm saddled with won't permit it.

I just know if I saw that movie, the voice inside my head that delights in torturing me would have a field day. "You like those cowboys, don't you? They're kind of cute. Go ahead, admit it, they're cute. You can't fool me, gay man. Go ahead, stop fighting it. You're gay! You're gay!"

Not that there's anything wrong with it.

His name was Ennis
He was a Shepard
With cowboy hat and assless chaps
He should have kept it under wraps
He would merengue and do the cha-cha
And when he'd drink and fall asleep
Jack Twist tended to the sheep
Across the mountain heights
They worked the summer nights
They were young and they had each other
And had rough sex fights

Up at Brokeback, Brokeback Mountain
Those gay cowboys, they did some mounting
Up at Brokeback, Brokeback Mountain
They felt the passion as they discussed fashion
Up at Brokeback

.... they fell in love
Brokeback, Brokeback Mountain

He was the boss man
He did some firing
When he went to the mountain top
And he saw Ennis getting bopped
And when they finished, he fired them pronto
Later Jack went a bit too far
Gay bashers saw him at a bar
And then the punches flew and chairs were smashed in two
There was blood and a single gun shot
But just who shot who?

Up at Brokeback, Brokeback Mountain
Those gay cowboys, they did some mounting
Up at Brokeback, Brokeback Mountain
They felt the passion as they discussed fashion
Up at Brokeback

.... he lost his love

His name was Ennis, he was a shepherd
But that was a long time ago, when closets hid more than clothes
Now gays have pride days, but not our Ennis
Still in the chaps he used to wear, faded feathers in his hair
He sits there so refined, and drinks himself half-blind
He lost his Jack and he lost his family
Taking it from behind!

Up at Brokeback, Brokeback Mountain
Those gay cowboys, they did some mounting
Up at Brokeback, Brokeback Mountain
They felt the passion as they discussed fashion
Up at Brokeback

.... don't fall in love
Don't fall in love

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Brokeback Mountain," the film about a gay romance between two cowboys, earned multiple award nominations on Thursday from major actor and director groups, distancing it from rivals in Hollywood's Oscar race.

The Screen Actors Guild gave "Brokeback Mountain" four award nominations, more than any film, including best cast, best actor for Heath Ledger and supporting actor and actress for Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams, respectively.

Also on Thursday, the movie's Ang Lee was nominated for best film director by the Directors Guild of America (DGA).

Joining Lee on the DGA list were George Clooney for "Good Night, and Good Luck," Paul Haggis with "Crash," Bennett Miller for "Capote" and Steven Spielberg with "Munich."

Dramas "Good Night," "Capote," and "Crash" have scored well in this year's awards race but no other film has met with the amount of critical, media and industry attention as "Brokeback Mountain," leading industry watchers to consider it a shoo-in for Oscar nominations, which will be announced on January 31.

Still, some experts said the film could fail to win many Oscars, which are the U.S. film industry's top awards, if conservative voters at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences fail to look beyond its gay subject matter.

"It's out front early ... and sometimes it can hurt to be too far out front, too early," said Tom O'Neil, veteran Oscar watcher and columnist for TheEnvelope.com.

In fact, "Crash," which focus on race relations, has rebounded in the race in recent days with several nominations, including SAG nods for best ensemble cast and supporting actor for both Don Cheadle and Matt Dillon.

"It now looks like ("Crash") will be a strong best picture contender," O'Neil said. "It's that little independent film everybody is cheering on."

CLOONEY CAN DO

But the experts said Clooney and "Good Night," a look at television journalist Edward R. Murrow's work during Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist crusade in the 1950s, also has a strong shot at Oscars after picking up its DGA nod and SAG nominations for best cast and
David Strathairn as best actor.

Only six DGA winners in 57 years have failed to win the best director Oscar, and SAG also has a history of picking Oscar winners.

Spielberg's "Munich" has been one major surprise for its lack of guild nominations, including being shut out of SAG, categories, but the DGA nod may help get it back in the race.

SAG, which represents film and television actors, also nominated the actors of "Capote" and hip-hop drama "Hustle & Flow" for best ensemble cast.

Joining Ledger and Strathairn among nominees for best actor were Joaquin Phoenix as singer Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line," Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role in "Capote" and Russell Crowe playing a boxer in "Cinderella Man."

Best film actress nominees were Judi Dench portraying a theater owner in "Mrs. Henderson Presents," Felicity Huffman as a transgender character in "Transamerica," Charlize Theron as a sexually harassed mine worker in "North Country," Reese Witherspoon as singer June Carter in "Walk the Line" and Ziyi Zhang in "Memoirs of a Geisha."

Along with Gyllenhaal, Cheadle and Dillon, supporting actor nominations went to Clooney in "Syriana" and Paul Giamatti in "Cinderella Man."

Williams was joined in the supporting actress category by Catherine Keener in "Capote," Frances McDormand in "North Country," Rachel Weisz in the thriller "The Constant Gardener," and Amy Adams for the independent film "Junebug."

The SAG awards will be given out in Los Angeles on January 29. DGA winners will be named on January 28. Oscars will be given out on March 5.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- Country music outlaw Willie Nelson sang "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" and "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" more than 25 years ago.

He released a very different sort of cowboy anthem this Valentine's Day.

"Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)" may be the first gay cowboy song by a major recording artist. But it was written long before this year's Oscar-nominated "Brokeback Mountain" made gay cowboys a hot topic.

Available exclusively through iTunes, the song features choppy Tex-Mex style guitar runs and Nelson's deadpan delivery of lines like, "What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?" and "Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out."

The song, which debuted Tuesday on Howard Stern's satellite radio show, was written by Texas-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette in 1981. Sublette said he wrote it during the "Urban Cowboy" craze and always imagined Nelson singing it.

Someone passed a copy of the song to Nelson back in the late 1980s and, according to Nelson's record label, Lost Highway, he recorded it last year at his Pedernales studio in Texas.

Nelson has appeared in several Western movies and sings "He Was a Friend of Mine" on the "Brokeback Mountain" soundtrack.

Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other

What did you think those saddles and boots was about?

There's many a cowboy who don't understand the way that he feels towards his brother

Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out.

Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other

That's why they wear leather, and Levi's and belts buckled tight.

There's many a cowboy who don't understand the way that he feels towards his brother;

There's many a cowboy who's more like a lady at night

• G-Man's a neocon homophobe.
  
  
• Jim Jackson is bald queer.
  
  
• rex is a basement dwelling sock fucker.
  
  
• Willie Nelson is high.
  
  
• Pete Townshend downloads kiddie porn.
  
  
• I'm a drunk bastard.

The makers of the gay cowboy flick "Brokeback Mountain" were too rough on sheep, an animal-rights group charged yesterday.

In a letter to director Ang Lee, The Humane Society also complained about the way the horses and elk were treated.

"The excessively rough handling of the sheep and horses leaves viewers questioning whether anyone was looking out for the safety of those animals," the letter said.

"And many also wonder how the filmmakers got the elk to lose its footing and crumple to the ground 'on cue' after being shot."

A spokesman for the producer of the Best Picture-nominated movie, Focus Features, had no immediate comment.

"Brokeback Mountain," the much-ballyhooed favorite about two gay cowboys, won best director for Ang Lee on Sunday but stunningly lost the best picture prize to race drama "Crash." Additionally Philip Seymour Hoffman won best actor for playing gay novelist Truman Capote in "Capote."

The victory for "Crash" suggested Oscar voters were more comfortable with a tale that exploited the seamy underbelly of racial conflict in contemporary Los Angeles than with a heartbreaking tale of love between two married men.

"Perhaps the truth really is, Americans don't want cowboys to be gay," said Larry McMurtry.

In the privacy of the voting booth, as many political candidates who've led in polls only to lose elections have found out, people are free to act out the unspoken fears and unconscious prejudices that they would never breathe to another soul, or, likely, acknowledge to themselves. And at least this year, that acting out doomed "Brokeback Mountain."

"I think that's an absolute horror," said Brad Bruner, who is a leader in the Golden State Gay Rodeo Association.

"It's an outright sign of homophobia in our country. ('Crash') won no awards before this. It makes me sick."

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MisterJLA said:
You're just out to get Chris Oakley.

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Animalman said:
Did he threaten to punch you unless you posted this?

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Chris Oakley said:
That was about as funny as a colonoscopy.

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BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN author ANNIE PROULX has slated the Academy Awards for giving the Best Picture Oscar to CRASH at this year's (06) presentation ceremony. In an essay published by British newspaper The Guardian, Proulx describes voters as "out of touch" and "segregated" from current issues, and insists they were easily influenced by Crash's production company Lions Gate Entertainment. She writes, "Roughly 6,000 film industry voters, most in the Los Angeles area, many living cloistered lives behind wrought-iron gates or in deluxe rest homes, out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city, decide which films are good. "And rumour has it that Lions Gate inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of 'Trash' - excuse me, Crash - a few weeks before the ballot deadline. "Next year we can look to the awards for controversial themes on the punishment of adulterers with a branding iron in the shape of the letter A, runaway slaves, and the debate over free silver."

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the G-man said:


And, more recently, didn't "Philadelphia," a film about a gay man being discriminated against because he had AIDS win a couple of Oscars back in the 1990s?

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the G-man said:

Why is this topic any more "up to date" than other plotlines from the 1970s?

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Jim Jackson said:
PHILDELPHIA doesn't present what BROKEBACK did. ...Hanks and Banduras never kiss.

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Animalman said:
Agreed. Implying that Brokeback Mountain losing the Oscar is proof that Americans are taking a stand against some Hollywood PC revolution is just silly.

Nobody cares.

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PCG342 said:
As the mod... shouldn't you be trying to be as professional and impartial as possible?

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PJP said:
Brokeback Batman

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Animalman said:
Jim, G, wanna, lady:

It's just a movie.

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wannabuyamonkey said:

Seriously, if you're trying to demonstrate what the stereotype of the martyred homosexual is then you're doing an outstanding job. If you're acctually trying to make a point asside from that then you're moving backwards not forwards.

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Jim Jackson said:
Sometimes a movie isn't just a movie; a story isn't just a story. To those who can't see that, I wonder if any form of literature can move you at all....

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PJP said:
That's not true klint. Jim wasn't looking for vindication....

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PJP said:
he's just passionate about it.

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Jim Jackson said:
I'm most "agitated" by those who comment on it without having seen it. G-Man is the biggest defendant in that one.

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the G-man said:
Jim, did you see every single movie produced this year in the United States?

Because, if you didn't, then aren't you guilty, by your own logic, of having an uniformed opinion?

Unless you've seen every single film, you can't really say that BM was the best film of the year and most deserving of an Oscar, can you?

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PJP said:
I hear you Jimbo. This movie moved you and helped you sort out your own feelings about the subject. If nothing else it comforted you to know that there are others like you out there. Over the years there have been many movies, books, or cds that inspired me and made me feel better. No one is denying this movie did that for you and was a well directed, well acted movie. I don't need to see it to know that.

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Jim Jackson said:
If you wish to lump yourself in with BSAMS, be my guest.

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Jim Jackson said:
I know in my own head I can be disappointed a film I really liked didn't win even without having seen the other films. I'm disappointed that STAR WARS didn't win Best Picture, but I didn't THE TURNING POINT. It's a matter of "Yeah, I liked that movie. It would have been nice if it had won because then I could say a movie I really liked, identified with, also won Best Pic."

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Jim Jackson said:
I support Annie for speaking out if she feels that way.

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the G-man said:
So if the rest of us feel differently, more power to us too, right?

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Jim Jackson said:
Ok, how's this?

I support Annie for speaking out if she feels that way. Why do I support her and not a Rush Limbaugh? Well, for starters, I don't advocate against Rush being removed, so I guess I do support Rush speaking his narrow-minded mind.

But I still can't say that I feel BROKEBACK *deserved* the Oscar over the others. If Annie feels that it did, then more power to Annie.

I don't see why that's such a stretch for you.

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Jim Jackson said:
All I'm saying is that if you're going to comment on the movie, please see it first.

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Jim Jackson said:
You know, for most of you, this movie is just a movie about a couple of "gay cowboys."

For others, especially those such as myself, it speaks to and presents an aspect of our personal condition. I know what it is to be a gay man married to a woman. I know what it is to feel unable for so many years to express who I really am because of familial and societal standards. In many ways, this movie tells a bit of my story. It's an added benefit that it's a mainstream movie featuring A list actors who treated Annie's story and characters with respect and did so in an unflinching manner with respect to the love between the two main characters.

Sometimes a movie isn't just a movie; a story isn't just a story. To those who can't see that, I wonder if any form of literature can move you at all....

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PJP said:
Where have all the cowboys gone?



dedudu dedudu dedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedududedudu dedudu

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Jim Jackson said:
I'll purchase BROKEBACK by the end of the week. I have a closeted buddy who won't see it in the theater but who wants to come see it at my place.

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No, this is not a date.

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Of course. The viewing is clearly for research purposes.

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Killconey said:
Mainstream accolades or not, I didn't see that many other guys in the theater when Marlene and I went to go see Brokeback. Heck, if she hadn't been there, I honestly would not have gone simply because of the stigma attached to the film.

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And what "stigma" would that be? That any guy who goes to see it is automatically branded as a queer?

Seems like all that "stigma" really held it back at the box office....

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the G-man said:

Which is, by the way, is the same reason I made my earlier comment which prompted you to say I didn't "understand the dynamics" of the situation.

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Jim Jackson said:
He wishes to view it privately for a number of reasons, none of which is any of your concern.

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JJ's gonna score.

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big_pimp_tim said:
wtg kc, wtg

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