Every season, the Lifetime series Drop Dead Diva goes out of its way to include a specific gay storyline for its lawyer character. This season’s episode, which aired last night, featured a pro baseball player who is hiding his homosexuality — even though it may get him convicted of murder.
Co-star Margaret Cho and executive producer Josh Berman sat down with the media to discuss the episode, gays in sports … and whether Cho is really the prime minister of the gays.
If you missed the first several episodes, you can catch up either on-demand or on iTunes. You can watch a clip of last night’s episode here. Below is a transcript of the chat with Berman and Cho.
Question: Josh, you tackled gay proms, gay sperm … was gay sports just the next arena that you needed to dive into for this episode? Josh Berman: Well I think gays in sports is certainly a hot topic right now. We started working on this episode before it became such a prominent issue and getting such coverage in the news. So I’m thrilled that we are hitting this zeitgeist shed again with gay and lesbian issues. I do think that, you know, sports is one of the last frontiers where men and women feel they unfortunately need to be closeted. So it was important for me to address that issue.
Margaret, you’re all over this episode whether you’re helping Stacy with sperm donors or helping Jane with her case .… Margaret Cho: Terri is always doing anything and everything. She’s kind of like a cross between like Alfred and Batman — she’s kind of like the enabler for everything. But what I really love about this episode is that it really talks about an issue that’s very timely, which is, athletes being able to come out of the closet. And I must note that there is a lot of sexism when it comes to this kind of stuff because Martina Navratilova came out as a lesbian over 25 years ago. Martina Navratilova came out when Reagan was in office. I really want to make sure that her contribution to sports, to the LGBT presence in sports, is really noted. And I’m really, really proud of this episode because it goes into the story about how we look at men in sports and we have to sort of have an idea of who they are and what they’re supposed to be. And I think sports in general is quite a homoerotic art form unto itself. So it’s surprising that there’s not more [athletes who are] out actually, but I love this episode because it really talks about some of these very current issues.
When is Margaret getting her own spin-off? Cho: Gosh, I don’t know, but I’m ready to go anytime! We would have so much fun. Josh and I have been having such a great time for the last six years and, you know, will this make more but I would love to do another series on my own. Terri is a great character, she’s a private eye, she’s sort of everybody’s best friend and I think it would be awesome.
Berman: And I am ready to write that. That would be the most fun I could ever have writing if I could write the Terri show about the diva. I wrote the part of Terri with my fantasy actress, Margaret Cho, in mind never thinking that it’s kind of the pie in the sky when you sit down and you’re looking at a blank paper and you’re like, ‘Well, who could I get for this role?’
Bisexual actress Sandra Bernhard also appeared in last night’s episode of ‘Drop Dead Diva,’ which concerned a gay, closeted pro ballplayer.
Margaret, how does this episode parallel with your own coming out story as somebody who’s openly bisexual. Do you think that you would ever want to play an openly queer character in a show? Cho: Absolutely. I mean I would love to play a queer character. I would love to use my life and my work as there’s so very few cinematic or ideas of what bisexuality is, and I mean for sure I’m definitely bound to be out in any way that I can be. But unfortunately there hasn’t been a lot of visibility for bisexuals in movies. The only one I know of would be Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. But I would be proud to play queer in anything. I would be proud to be able to represent who I really am in my work. I do that in my standup comedy and, you know, I talk about being out and I talk about how I feel like it’s very important for people to acknowledge and be proud of themselves and so, you know, I’d be really grateful to do anything like that.
My coming out story was really more different than — like I came out really young and then I was also like when I was younger I just assumed that I was a lesbian. And then later on in my 20s, I realized that I had a lot of feelings for men and then being like a lesbian at that point and then like realizing no I like guys like it’s really scary because you have an identity in the queer community and then it’s very hard to kind of go, ‘Well, I’m actually more than I thought I was.’
I think that in the gay community there is a lot of suspicion about you if you are bisexual because then people are like, you’re just going back in the closet or you’re just you’re confused or something. For bisexuals, there’s a lot of distrust because we do operate and kind of universally are in both arenas and so I think that’s hard for people to grasp and, you know, I think it’s certainly easier for men than it is for women.
Several baseball players have come out, but only after their careers have ended. Was the sport always baseball and why? Berman: To me, baseball kind of represents an American pastime. I grew up collecting baseball cards, I played baseball — it’s the only sport I played. I was never very good at it but I tried, my dad coached the team and I’m openly gay now and to me that kind of had a personal resonance to kind of telling this kind of story. I also thought it is interesting that no gay baseball players have come out while playing. I actually know Billy Bean who came out as you guys know and I read his book and I just think there’s something very — I don’t know — very iconic about a baseball player. And in writing this episode and attacking this issue I thought it was the right sport to explore from the very beginning. Also we had a consultant on — in the writer’s room while we were breaking this story a guy name Sid Ziegler, who is the president of OutSports.
Cho: Although we don’t necessarily consciously say we are going to explore gay and lesbian themes in every episode there’s a natural parallel to do that. And I will say that throughout the season those are themes that are explored. We have a couple of very poignant themes later on in the season where although it’s not explicitly about a gay person there’s no doubt that anyone who is gay will relate to those scenes.
Margaret, you referred to yourself recently as the Prime Minister to the gays …. Cho: I think Kathy Griffin is the queen of the gays; I’m the Prime Minister of the gays. See? I actually get things done! I’m like, you know, not a false monarchy. I’m the real deal. So I make the laws, I make the policy, I go to the UN, you know, but Kathy is all of the pomp and circumstance in the show biz and, you know, so we have different purposes in our sort of a trajectory in show business — and, you know, on LGBT representation but she is really, really important to the gay community as she is to me.
