Free Republic

At the end of the day, 'Hollywood' doesn't care about telling a compelling story about interesting people, but is intent on demonstrating the importance of representation in media. There are two excellent stories at the center of “Hollywood,” Ryan Murphy’s alt-history saga of old Hollywood. An intrepid group of friends attempt to make a big studio romance starring a talented black actress in 1947. An aspiring actor must negotiate his desire for fame with his morals, in the backdrop of a sexually exploitive agent and the omnipresent risk of his homosexuality becoming discovered.Both of these stories are technically covered in...

They had us at “Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp.” FX announced Tuesday that American Crime Story‘s third season will focus on the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, with Paulson playing Lewinsky’s infamous “confidante” Tripp. The role of Lewinsky, meanwhile, will be played by Booksmart breakout Beanie Feldstein. Rounding out the principal cast will be Masters of Sex‘s Annaleigh Ashford as Paula Jones. Titled Impeachment: American Crime Story, the third chapter of Ryan Murphy’s Emmy-winning franchise will begin production in February ahead of a Sept. 27, 2020 premiere date. Impeachment will be written by Sarah Burgess, based on Jeffrey Toobin’s bestselling book...

he Hollywood producer behind Glee and American Horror Story has declared war on politicians who support traditional marriage and oppose letting men who identify as women use the ladies room. Ryan Murphy declared war during a politically-charged address at a pro-LGBT gala in Los Angeles. “I want these hateful and wrong politicians to go and to stop polluting our moral and ethical ether,” he said, according to a transcript provided to Starnes Country. “Based on this fall, I think it’s now possible to create a movement to protect and nourish our own.” Murphy announced that his new multi-million dollar organization...

Television producer Ryan Murphy is announcing a multimillion-dollar initiative to help elect pro-LGBTQ candidates and vote out anti-LGBTQ incumbents. Murphy, the producer behind hit shows “Glee,” “American Horror Story” and “Pose,” announced the project while accepting an award at the TrevorLive gala, according to NextNowNext. The new organization, which he said he will launch in 2020, is named “Pose Gives Back,” a nod to his latest television project, which has more transgender series regulars than any other show in history. “I’m going to create and fund, with corporate sponsorship, a multimillion-dollar organization that targets anti-LGBTQ candidates running for office,” Murphy...

After more than a year of fighting FX and Ryan Murphy over her depiction in Feud, Olivia de Havilland has kept her word and is taking her case to the Supreme Court. “We must persevere and speak truth to power,” the 102-year-old two-time Oscar winner said Friday as her attorneys petitioned SCOTUS in the ongoing legal battle. “The fight is itself important to the principle of honesty, so much in need today in the face of deliberate public confusion for selfish agendas,” she added in a statement from her Paris home (read it in full here). Having suffered a number...

In a very competitive situation, Netflix has landed The Politician, a new hourlong comedy series from longtime collaborators Brad Falchuk, Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy, I have learned. The project, starring Tony winner Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hanson), with Oscar winners Barbra Streisand and Gwyneth Paltrow in negotiations to co-star, has received a two-season straight-to-series order, I hear. The deal, believed to be the biggest TV package sale of the year, came after a weeklong bidding war among top streaming players, including Amazon and Hulu, sources said. It gives prolific creator-producer Murphy two series on Netflix, along with the upcoming...

Ryan Murphy is making TV history with his latest FX drama Pose, assembling the largest cast of transgender actors in series regular roles ever for a scripted series. The five transgender actors were cast after a six-month nationwide search led by casting director Alexa Fogel. They are MJ Rodriguez, Indya Moore, Dominique Jackson, Hailie Sahar, and Angelica Ross. All will be playing transgender characters. Also cast in the series are Ryan Jamaal Swain, Billy Porter and Dyllon Burnside. Set in the 1980s, Pose looks at the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in New York: the rise of...

Olivia de Havilland has a real-life feud brewing with FX and Ryan Murphy. “Gone With the Wind” actress de Havilland has filed a lawsuit against the cable outlet and “Feud” producer Ryan Murphy, alleging that her identity was used without her authorization in the FX miniseries, according to court papers obtained by TheWrap. The suit, filed against FX Networks and Ryan Murphy Productions in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, also alleges that the 100-year-old actress, who was portrayed by Catherine Zeta-Jones in the miniseries, was placed in a false light. In a press release issued Friday, de Havilland’s lawyers...

GLAAD is criticizing a Utah NBC affiliate’s decision not to broadcast The New Normal this fall. "While audiences, critics and advertisers have all supported LGBT stories, KSL is demonstrating how deeply out of touch it is with the rest of the country,” the group's president says. Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler's new comedy, which tells the story of a single mother who becomes a surrogate for a same-sex couple, was deemed “inappropriate” by Salt Lake City-based KSL-TV. "Same-sex families are a beloved part of American television thanks to shows like Modern Family, Glee and Grey’s Anatomy," GLAAD president Herndon Graddick...

The New Normal has been canceled after one season at NBC. The semi-autobiographical comedy from Glee's Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler marked Murphy's first half-hour comedy and aired as part of NBC's Tuesday comedy block. Boosted by The Voice, the Justin Bartha-Andrew Rannells starrer about a gay couple starting a family earned a full-season order in October despite early protests from conservative watchdog groups.

It's been a rough end to what started out as a record-breaking season for openly gay characters on the small screen. After a 2012-13 season that featured a record number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters on TV, this past week's wave of cancellations may drastically alter those statistics. Gone are shows that featured prominent gay story lines including NBC's The New Normal and CBS' Partners. Both were semi-autobiographical series about the lives of its nearly all openly gay creators -- Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler on the former, David Kohan (who's not) and Max Mutchnik for the latter...

It's been a rough end to what started out as a record-breaking season for openly gay characters on the small screen.