La Dolce Musto by Michael Musto (NY Mirror) from the Village Voice [published Jan 22, 2002]
www.villagevoice.com/2002-01-22/columns/ny-mirr...NY Mirror
read moreNow that the Sex and The City babes are dabbling in relationships—as boners around the country topple—it's no surprise that the Queer as Folk guys are also taking little stabs at monogamy instead of mononucleosis. At a Tower video event the other day, three of the show's leads told me that the new season is bringing a few dollops of maturity to temper all the penetration (if not enough to be downright gross). Randy Harrison said his character, the chicken-y Justin, will recuperate, go to art school, and renegotiate his relationship with Brian—as we all should. Is he still a victim? "Not as much," Harrison said. "But that's how people like to see me best. I'm accident-prone." At that very moment, the darling boy all too perfectly knocked over some contraption by the cash register. But Harrison's not verballyclumsy. When I asked if his costars who moaned about having to wash out their mouths after kissing scenes have been properly disciplined, he said, "Yeah, they got a good thrashing!" Probably by Harrison; he next plays "a bad high school student" in a Showtime movie called Bang Bang, You're Dead. A victimizer? "A victimizer!" he said triumphantly.
read moreIn another corner, that pinchable Hal Sparkssaid hischaracter, Michael, is evolving, too, "and has to deal with the fact that his new guy slept with Brian at one point." Please—who hasn't? But Sparks's biggest concern is that the show's gay ghetto comes off more West Hollywood than Pittsburgh, "and we might be the cause of a mass exodus out of the South and into Pittsburgh." But the rush of incoming queens will makeit into a gay mecca, right? "Yeah," he said, "we might germinate a huge gay community. Just one little show—look what we can do!"
And look at what Brian can do—with his mouth alone. "He's still slutty," Gale Harold, who plays him, told me. (You can't expect everything to change.) "His sexual scope has been impacted by a bit of trauma, but I think he'll get it back after he mourns and grieves." I bet beforehe mourns and grieves. Harold—who was nice enough to forgive a sliming I once gave him based on erroneous info in the Post—joked to me that there'll be a Queer as Folkanimated feature, "and I think you'reup for the voice of Emmett. I can help you out. It's from the makers of Hasbro's Spiderman that never got released." Sorry, kid, I don't do voice-overs—or relationships.
photo: Brian Finke
Boys will do boys: Queer as Folk’s Hal Sparks, Gale Harold, and Randy Harrison.