Petrelis Files

For "Brokeback" Fans Only!

This is excerpted from The Australian newspaper, published last week:

"There they were, a couple of men, alone together in isolated frontier country, for weeks or sometimes months at a time," says Randy Jones, 53, who was the stetson-wearing, lasso-throwing gay cowboy in the Village People and who acted as an adviser on the film. [...]

Meanwhile, Jones, of the Village People, says that Brokeback Mountain is encouraging "red [Republican] state" gays to come out of the closet. He added that the advice he gave to the actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, when they questioned him about the love scenes, was to "keep their hats and boots on in bed. The boots are for traction." [...]

I really didn't need to know Jones was an advisor on the film, did you? Had no idea he was more than a dress-up cowboy. Good thing he wasn't a music consultant, otherwise Ennis and Jack might have heard "YMCA" playing on the radio.

Wanna see a witty and laugh-riot spoof of the movie? Go here, if you do. And a word of advice to the wise from the satirist video makers: Humans were harmed in the making of the parody.

My good buddy David Ehrenstein, veteran gay film historian and pundit, and all 'round grouch, is not a fan of "Brokeback." He's said so for quite some time, and the LA Weekly has published an opposing view to the objectification of the movie and how it has been embraced as a breakthrough gay film.

I don't buy his arguments, but think it's valuable to read his essay and consider what he has to say.

One last thing to report. The latest box office numbers are in; current through December 29. The film has hit the $10 million mark.