If you’ve been following the celebrity news, you’ve probably heard by now that actress Natasha Richardson is near death following a traumatic brain injury while skiing in Canada. Richardson isn’t exactly a household name, but I’ve been a fan. Most reports note upfront that she is married to Liam Neeson, but there are some other ties in her life that, for me at least, have kept her on my radar as a gay man:
• Her father, Academy Award-winning director Tony Richardson, was bisexual. He died of AIDS in 2001.
• Her mother is Vanessa Redgrave, long an icon of gays. She won an Emmy for the 2000 TV film “If These Walls Could Talk 2,” playing the surviving partner of a lesbian who died, leaving her without a home.
• Her sister is Joely Richardson, who plays the bisexual Julia on “Nip/Tuck.”
• Her stage career includes a Tony Award for playing Sally Bowles in the Broadway revival of “Cabaret.”
• She co-starred in “Nell” with Neeson and Jodie Foster, as well as “The White Countess” for gay director James Ivory.
Natasha Richardson's gay connections
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Wow. What a perfectly taste- and pointless article.
Capitalizing on Richardson’s accident, are you? Shame on you.
Ms. Richardson also portrayed a lesbian in the 2001 film “Blow Dry;” Mr. Neeson portrayed the bisexual Dr. Kinsey in “Kinsey” (2004). As well, following her father’s death, she has been a vocal and highly visable supporter of AmFAR.
I am heartbroken and my sympathies go out to her family and friends.
Hmm. I gotta say, I don’t really see how this is either tasteless or pointless, or capitalizing on the accident. Arnold simply noted that Ms. Richardson has suffered a horrible accident, and news of it reminds him of why he, as a gay man and a gay journalist, has always taken note of her. It is a current entertainment news event, and Arnold is an entertainment journalist at an LGBT newspaper.
Don’t forgte Blow Dry, where she played a lesbian.
I really like her and I hope she’ll recover soon!! Though it doesn’t look good…
also, talented grandfather michael was closeted.
concur with nash. LGBT who may not know NR well, may find common ties with her & frankly at this time, better to forge empathy for fellow human being’s suffering than anything. exploiting her tragic accident is shoving camera in her family’s faces so we can gawk at their pain like it’s a performance. otherwise this is no different from a provincial irish/english paper noting their own community’s ties to a famous person.
i have to agree with tammye. i’ve been following the story since last night. does that make me tasteless for thinking she and her family have been gay friendly?
So Richardon’s injuries are interesting [to the author and/or to this site] only inasmuch as she’s tangentially acquainted with or related to homosexual people, or icons of that “provincial” community.
Nah–that’s not at all tasteless.
i’ve been a fan since “gothic” — i’m REALLY hoping she pulls through!!! my heart goes out to the family.
and i totally agree with tammy and meh!
801, I think you missed the point. Arnold was simply commenting on memories recalled by news of a terrible accident, not downplaying the tragedy of it at all. But since Dallas Voice is an LGBT newspaper and Web site, the gay connection is why we report on or blog about it.
It just seems goofy to me, I guess. Why do all the “memories” have to be so “gay”? Is Dallas Voice that limited/limiting?
Regardless, I should say that I am hoping to hear some magically good news about the actress, which is what brought me here in the first place.
I am with you on that 801. We are all hoping for the miracle for her and her family
i have to say i have never heard of the accident until Arnold posted this. I’m glad i get my news at DallasVoice.com, plus they give me a gay angle to boot. Is that so wrong? Bitter queen, party of 801?
If a gay angle is all you’re after, then DallasVoice.com is where you should go for all your information, Kia.
However, while I’m not arguing that there’s “anything wrong with that,” I fear you’d be missing quite a bit of the forest for a relatively small number of a certain variety of tree.
801, if these sentiments feel wrong to you, then you may want to consider if they apply to you. This is a community supporting its folk. Why would you care how we LGBT folk remember or celebrate one of our allies?
If you are LGBT or a friendly, then maybe you need a little more queer culture to help you become a little more comfortable with your identity.
If being comfortable with my identity means stripping the identities of others down to only their similarities with mine, then I’ll pass, choosing to believe that [most] people are greater than the sum of only their gay relation- and acquaintanceships.
Point taken. Regardless, the question remains: Why would you care how we LGBT folk remember or celebrate one of our allies?
Because I don’t want you to seem to anyone else like such a narrowly-focused community, with no use for what falls outside what happens to be your common ground.
I used to like her until I found out about her gay connections as you call them.
I think that whole family is sick, sick, sick.
Is their whole bloodline contaminated, or just what is the problem? Starting with Sir Michael Redgrave.
Can’t men be men and women be women anymore?
Uh-oh! Someone’s bored on a weeknight and looking for cheap entertainment!
If you want mainstream editorial and opinion, 801, read The Dallas Morning News. It’s the mission of mainstream media to please everyone … one-inch deep and 10 miles wide.
The mission of Dallas Voice is to give voice to gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans news and entertainment. A niche pub, similar to what you’d find in other communities attempt to deliver news and information to a specific demographic: Black, Latino, Asian, Senior, Women, Gay etc. I thank God for Dallas Voice and all it represents for equality and freedom of speech for our community.
And Gen … baby, get a life. If you think being gay is sick, you are wrong. We resolved that issue years ago. Don’t come to this site and expect to change opinion or use Instant Tea as a platform for your soul searching. We are all loved by God. Even those who are confused by gender, sexual identity and all the divine wonders of our world. Get some therapy.
Gen- Men can be men and women can be women. It just so happens that they are fucking each other and are not ashamed about it!
You’re right, Kris. The mainstream media hasn’t done enough to shed light on Natasha Richardson’s myriad gay connections, as tirelessly bullet-pointed in the article above. Shame on them for focusing only on the other aspects of her life.
That being sarcastically said, I hear you. I just think there’s more lasting value in focusing on common bonds than what are relatively insignificant differences.
and does your article MEAN anything?? sheesh…to think I wasted these moments reading it.
What a stupid article. Self serving and has NOTHING to do with the issue of being Gay. Shame on you, drama QUEEN!
Sorry guys and gals (if that’s what you really are), when a man such as “Sir” Michael Redgrave moves his male lover into the same neighborhood and introduces that person as a surrogate “uncle” to his own kids in their own home, that’s just plain sick. Also, when Rachel Kemson (the Redgrave children’s mother) agreed to marry “Sir” Michael way back when even though he told her he was a homosexual, and seemingly doesn’t mind he’s having gay sex (which is a highly sexually promiscous and healthwise, risky behavior, besides being morally wrong) and then turns around and has sex with her and continues to produce children, i.e., Vanessa, Lynn, and Corin, all with her consent, that is really truly sick. It get’s better: the male lover of “Sir” Michael goes on to get married and produces a male boy whom he names “Michael”. It seems the daughter Vanessa carried on the bisexual preference of her choice in males by marrying a homosexual as well by marrying and producing children with Tony Richardson and probably knowing about him all along. Yes, the family is sick. Read Corin’s biography of his father Michael Redgrave. You people are twisted and the thing is…inside you really know it but won’t admit it. There’s no denying it.
This really is a stupid argument but I have to agree with the 801. If you are going to apply this rule then going forward, when you list the oscar winners please tell us all the gay movies they have ever been in. When you announce the emmy nominees please list all of the gay roles they have played. When a politician dies please list all of the gay and lesbian charities they donated to. When the President is in town let us know who all of his gay cousins are. WE as a gay community need to be more open minded as well. To think that we would feel more sympathy for a wonderful actress, mother, sister and wife because we have to be reminded of what she has done gay lately is stupid. By reporting on Richardson to begin with, we know that Arnold is sharing with us something about a beloved member of the community (THE HUMAN BEING COMMUNITY) and that we should all pause to remember how short life really can be. If I know who he/she is, is not relevant. What is relevant is that she died and we need to share in the HUMAN RACE’s normal feelings of empathy. Next time Dick Cheney opens his mouth, please remind me that the only reason you are reporting on him is because he has a gay daugther and NOT because he is a lunatic.
Gen, people are just people. That’s the point. And none of us needs to be judged by one person’s extreme opinions about how people ought to live our lives. Is it morally right to make such judgments? It’s great that you’ve done such exhaustive research on this “sick” family and felt compelled to provide your summary; but a more human response to their experiences[their “sicknesses,” as you might choose to describe them] would be one of empathy. I can’t know what circumstances brought about your proclaimed homophobia nor your evident obsession with homosexuals, but I can hope you can manage to see past it one day rather than dismiss you as a dyed-in-the-wool idiot.
No dear, some people are just plain sick, such as yourselves. Other people don’t do it because it’s wrong, and they KNOW it is wrong. And trust me, if I saw some straight people doing this, and I KNOW they do, I’d be calling them sick too.
The gay agenda is to blur all the lines and not differentiate between right and wrong. Well, you can’t hide from the truth, no matter how hard you try. (It’s an insult to true civil rights folks in this country you call yourselves civil rights activists – you don’t know the meaning of the word. You insult racial groups who fought for an honorable cause like being able to drink in the same fountain as others or just go to college or just walk down the same street as a White man without getting spit on. You’ve always had that so don’t compare the two. Your “cause” is negligible and dishonorable and NOT a civil rights issue – it’s an issue of being able to expand perversity into the schools and all other places where it is not welcome and is eroding our life here in the US on a daily basis to the point where people are simply disgusted with all the “gayness” being shoved in our faces everywhere we turn.)
When I see those “gay” parade photos on the Internet like they have in San Francisco with all the GLBT’s dressed up in leather with spikes, bondage and torture items, and all kinds of weird stuff, trust me, I know that group is sick. And they dress their toddlers, yes their tots, that way (in sick getups) and bring them into the parade like that. That’s who YOU are, and that’s sick. So don’t tell me it’s not. If you don’t believe me, check out the stats online. Gay males have higher levels of AIDS, gonorrhea is on the rise again (highest rate in gay males, etc.) because your thinking is deranged. You’d rather have promiscuous sex at the risk of dying, than honor your own lives and live them honorably. Yes, it’s sick and you are all in denial.
I am editor of Dallas Voice and moderator for comments on our blog. My fist instinct was to remove Gen’s comments because they are hateful, ignorant and homophobic, and I don’t like seeing our blog used by someone trying to promote such reprehensible and uneducated bile. However, I won’t remove the comments, because they are a vivid example of the kind of BS LGBT people have to deal with on a daily basis.
If you’re speaking to me, you’re mistaken about who I am and what I’ve said. Also, it seems you’re making some rather sweeping generalizations about homosexual people, which helps neither you nor them.
Perhaps you’re better suited to researching famous homosexuals and browsing “gay” parade photos than attempting a rational discourse on this Web site.
“Wow. What a perfectly taste- and pointless article.” HUH?
Umm, this the the Dallas Voice’s BLOG. Don’t confuse the blog with the newspaper.
I stand corrected, and will make a correction:
“Wow. What a perfectly taste- and pointless blog entry.”
I enjoyed this post. It is interesting to hear about her connection to the gay world. She also played the mother of Lindsay Lohan (bisexual or fully lesbian) in ‘Parent Trap.’