Bobby Hogan: From homophobic college to Parody Spiderman, with some significant d*cks in between

 

Link to the significant d*cks

"The Lake," from Season 2 of  American Horror Stories, follows the recent American Horror Story pattern of minimizing or eliminating LGBT representation.  In the first scene, three hot guys and three bikini-clad girls are on a boat, discussing how heterosexual they are.  Jake (Bobby Hogan) has a map of the village that was flooded to create their lake, so he and his sister dive down and look for souvenirs.  Suddenly a green tendril grabs him and pulls him into the muck.  He doesn't appear again, except as a corpse.  In fact, none of the cute guys appear again.  The story is all about sister Finn and her mother discovering the evil secret of the lake.

Heteronormativity or no, I wanted more than just one scene worth of Bobby Hogan's chest and abs, so I researched him on IMDB and his instagram, looking for beefcake and evidence that he is gay.

Not much biographical information.  On his Facebook, he says that he is from St. Louis and Chaminade College Preparatory School and Belmont University in Nashville.  Chaminade is Catholic, and Belmont is "Christ-centered," affiliated with the Southern Baptist Church until it broke away in 2007, and intensely homophobic. 

Bobby starred in Escape to Margaritaville, Footloose, and Johnny and the Devil's Box, and graduated with a BFA in Musical Theater in 2019.  

Wait -- 90% of musical theater guys are gay.  How does Belmont even allow a musical theater degree program?  Bobby must be gay or gay-friendly, but then why would he choose a homophobic college and listen to rants about how evil he or his fellow drama majors are?  I'm confused.

That better not be an alcoholic beverage, Buddy Boy

On WeAudition, advertising a service helping you run lines, develop a character, and so on, Bobby states that he moved to Los Angeles in the fall of 2020 to begin his film/tv career.  Unfortunately, it was the start of the COVID pandemic, so roles were scarce.  He has 10 listins on the IMDB, beginning in 2021 with The Superhero Diaries  

He plays a Parody Spiderman in 7 episodess.  I watched some clips on Youtube: a date with Harley Quinn, and serenading Wonder Woman.  Depressingly heteronormative, but he displays a nice physique and bulge.

After that, a lot of guest gigs:

Duncan in the 9-1-1 Lone Star episode "Red vs. Blue."  It's actually about a cops-firefighter baseball game, not red states vs. blue states.

 Marine Recruit #6 in the movie Manifest Evil.  The trailer shows a man interacting with two women, yawn.

The American Horror Stories gig.

Trevor Logan on The FBI episode "Fortunate Son." A teen shows up at headquarters with a bag of fentanyl, and wants the gang to find out who killed his father.  

A soldier on the NCIS episode "Survival of the Fittest."  He is attacked by a genetic weapon.

Cole on SWAT

Joshua in Remy & Arletta, a Christian movie about two girls who are friends (not girlfriends).  A Christian movie?   Figures.

Two episodes on Chicago PD as Noah Gorman, a teenager who leaves home after his homophobic parents denounce him for being gay. He is kidnapped, but mom and dad don't care, it's what he deserves for turning evil.  He is found, badly beaten and traumatized, but won't say who the kidnapper was.  

Hank Voight, Jason Beghe, takes him in, since he has nowhere else to go.  In the next episode, he is kidnapped again and killed -- not in a hate crime, just a regular serial killer, but still an awful "bury your gays" moment.  If you are gay, you must die.

But at least Bobby had no problem with playing a gay character. 

More after the break

Scream Queens: Glen Powell and John Stamos compare dicks at a sinister hospital. And there's a serial killer. And some butts

 

I was recommended Glen Powell's shower scene in Episode 2.2 of the horror-comedy Scream Queens.  I watched ten minutes of the first episode when it premiered in 2015, and turned it off, but for a shower-scene why not give it another chance?

Link to NSFW version

The premise: this is a genre-bending horror-comedy about a serial killer stalking co-eds, all named Chanel, with the headmistress played by Jaime Lee Curtis, the Last Girl from Halloween.  

Scene 1: In the last episode, a swamp monster played by Jeremy Batiste killed a patient at the C.U.R.E. Institute, where "the incurable are curable." Wait, I thought we were at a college. The cop is not impressed, and thinks that Outcast Chanel did it..  Evil Dean Munsch, played by Jaime Lee Curtis, thinks that  thecop  is an idiot.

The other two Chanels also think that Outcast Chanel did it, out of frustration because she's so ugly no one will screw her: "The closest shes gotten to sex is when a bookshelf fell on her."  Why, did it have a book about sex? I don't get the joke.   And jealous because they scored hot dates with the Sleazoid Doctors, Brock and Cascade(Taylor Lautner, top photo, John Stamos).

Scene 2: The Sleazoid Doctors and Chanels are interviewing Tyler, played by Colton Haynes, who is covered with large orange tumors, actually not disgusting.  So the Chanels have graduated with nursing degrees, and all gone to work at the Institute, and the headmistress became their boss?  That's not at all unlikely.   

His  regular doctors say that it is incurable, but the Sleazoid Doctors think that  they can remove the tumors with a CO2 Laser.  Except they're too expensive; there aren't any at the center. So just transfer him to a facility that has one.

Scene 3: A non-Chanel nurse and Chamberlain, played by James Earl, wonder why, if Evil Dr. Munsch was upstairs during the murders, she didn't hear the screams and growling?  She must be in on it.

Last season, she was in charge of a college, and did some crazy shenanigans, but the Chanels foiled her scheme.  Dr. Munsch must have brought them here for revenge, sending the swamp monster  to pick them off one by one. So, what are her qualifications?  All she has is the honorary Ph.D. that the University of Pittxburgh took from Bill Cosby.

Scene 4:  Sleazoid Doctor #1 on his movie date with the Head Chanel. She reveals her favorite hobby: dropping popcorn on the floor, so the fatties feel bad about themselves.  He loves the idea!  

Meanwhile, Orange Boy and Outcast Chanel bond over stories of being the outcast in their cliques. He shows her a picture from before the orange tumors: he was hot!  She vows to get him the money for the CO2 Laser. 

More screaming after the break

Matthew William Bishop: leatherman, muscleman, actor, LGBTQ advocate. With bodybulder bonus

 

If you saw this guy wandering through Central Park, would you

a) Run away screaming

b) ask for his phone number

c) skip the phone number and go downtown

Link to n*de bodybuilders

How about now?

He's Matthew William Bishop, who gave up a career in corporate public relations in 2021, when the acting job bit.  His Some Kind of Wonderful, about four gay guy looking for love in Palm Springs, won four awards for Best LGBTQ Film. 

Then he hit the big time playing the silent supernatural Big Daddy, a symbol of AIDs in American Horror Story, NYC. (Set during the first years of the AIDS epidemic.)

Matthew is also a bodybuilder, obviously. He took first place at the 2023 Miami Muscle Beach Contest in the NPC Open Super Heavyweight Category.

And a philanthropist, devoted to recovery, AIDS awareness, and LGBTQ advocacy.  10% of the sales of this "Make the Deposits" shirt go to the New York LGBTQ Community Center.

More after the break

The Top Gay Hunks of "American Horror Story: New York City"

 

American Horror Story, Season 11, is a refreshing change of pace in the long-runnning series.  First, they've covered all of the paranormal bogies, from ghosts to vampires to aliens, so in this season they're sticking close to Earth with an ordinary murder mystery.  It's about a serial killer stalking New York's gay community in the early 1980s: think Cruising, but less homophobic. Second, although  Leather/BDSM is still portrayed as decadent, wild, and violent, sex outside a committed relationship is even more likely to "draw the darkness."   Third, after several seasons with no gay characters, or gay-femme villains, or "gay" guys who only have sex with women, most of the main cast is gay and into men.  Introduced in the first two episodes:

Spoiler alert: I give away some surprises.

1. Patrick (Russell Tovey), a newly-out, divorced, closeted cop who doesn't want to investigate the serial killer for fear of outing himself.  Or he may be the serial killer: he has a secret closet full of leather gear and handkerchiefs of every color, from light blue (oral) to yellow (golden showers).

2. Gino (Joe Mantello, only with a ridiculous tan), his boyfriend,a reporter for a gay newspaper trying to research the story in spite of Patrick's reticence.  He is captured by a serial killer who acts like he's in The Silence of the Lambs. No doubt a red herring.

3. Adam (Charlie Carver), who lost his roommate to the serial killer, and caught a glimpse of a suspect: a muscular guy in a leather outfit (like everyone at the Eagle on a Saturday night?).  He launches his own investigation, and discovers that Theo (#4 below), has photographed him.

4. Theo (Isaac Powell), a photographer who specializes in disturbing scenes , like men in leather (think Mapplethorpe).  By the second episode, he's on the way to pursuing a "normal" relationship with Adam (that is, one modeled after traditional heterosexual courtship, where the first date ends with a kiss rather than a blow job, and you don't see him naked until you have celebrated at least three major holidays together). .     

5. Sam (Zachary Quinto), Theo's  manipulative, cocaine-snorting boyfriend, who may also be the serial killer: he invites random strangers home for BDSM scenes without asking what they're into or giving them a safe word.  Plus the mysterious muscular leatherman that Adam saw is his bodyguard/doorman.

6. Henry (Dennis O'Hare), an elderly, fey Quinton Crisp type who knows something about the serial killer: he 's somehow connected to anal sex, which also "draws the darkness."  Wow, no anal, no BDSM, no sex at all on the first date. My Sunday School teacher was less uptight. 

7. Big Daddy (Matthew William Bishop), the guy Adam saw, Theo photographed, and Sam keeps around for his aesthetic appreciation.   This is Matthew's first screen role; previously he worked in public relations, and was an amateur bodybuilder.  On the show, everyone who sees him is terrified; personally, I would be asking for his phone number.  

See also: Matthew William Bishop: leatherman, muscleman, LGBTQ advocate.

"American Horror Stories", Season 2: All Men are Straight, Evil, and Fully Clothed

 

The anthology American Horror Story, which goes through a single plotline per season, has a good but not great record of LGBT representation: the gay male characters are usually evil, or die immediately, or fall in love with women.  But at least there are always musclemen taking their clothes off.

The spin-off American Horror Stories is worse.  In Season 2 so far, there have been no gay male characters at all, just some lesbian and bisexual women.   The straight male characers are always evil, trying to oppress, victimize, or literally objectify the women.  And beefcake is as rare as nice guys.

Spoiler alert: I'm giving away the surprise ending of all of these stories.

Episode 1: "Dollhouse" In the 1950s, a crazy old guy notices that his son likes dolls, so he decides to turn some women into living dolls.  He's also looking for a substitute for his dead wife.  In an Easter egg, it's hinted that the boy will grow up to become a member of the witches' council in American Horror Story: Coven..  Presumably he's gay, but no sexual identity is specified, here or in Coven.

Episode 2: "Aura"  When she uses a new security app, a woman sees a crazy old guy banging at her door.  Her husband (Max Greenfield, top photo) thinks that she's crazy.  Turns out that it's a harmless (albeit creepy) ghost.  But hubbie is not so harmless.

Max Greenfield played a swishy gay villain on American Horror Story: Hotel.  But there are no gay characters here.  And no beefcake.

Episode 3: "Drive."  A woman insists on going out to clubs and picking up strange men (and women), even though there's a serial killer stalking partiers.  Turns out that she is the serial killer, with her husband Chaz (Anthony de la Torre) as an accomplice.  This one has a muscle guy in his underwear (Nico Greetham) tied to a chair before he's butchered.

Why is she a serial killer?  She's trying to get even with the dudebros who ridiculed her in high school, and their ilk today.  

Episode 4:  "Milkmaids."  Two women in a smallpox-ridden village put their faith in science and develop a cure (over 100 years before Edward Jenner invented the smallpox vaccine).  Meanwhile the snarling, superstitious men of the village, recently widowed Thomas (Cody Fern)  and the Pastor (Seth Gabel), fulminate about witchcraft and plot homicide.  The women begin a romantic relationship, but the men are both straight and hetero-horny.  Even Thomas, though Cody Fern is gay in real life.

I had to just listen to this while pretending to be immersed in something on my cell phone, since the original cure involved...well, never mind. 

Episode 5: "Bloody Mary."  Four girls summon the urban-legend spirit, who orders them to perform horrifying tasks.  No boys around except for a predatory guidance counselor and the crush of one of the girls (JJ Batteast), who keeps smooching on his girlfriend in front of her.  Rude!

The transwoman Dominique Jackson stars as Bloody Mary, who started off as a cisgender woman with husband and son.  Nothing LGBTQ here.

Episode 6: "Facelift."  An elderly woman just wanted a facelift, but instead she runs afoul of a cult run by an evil (female) plastic surgeon.  Next door neighbor Bernie (Todd Waring) seems to be interested in her, but he falls for a prettier girl instead, and in the end tries to kill her.  Nothing gay here, and Bernie doesn't take off his clothes.

Episode 7: "Game Over."  Dr. Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott), who ran afoul of some gay ghosts in American Horror Story: Murder House, here is going on a tour of famous haunted houses (along with his wife, naturally).  He meets various ghosts from past seasons, including the lesbian-lover pair from American Horror Stories, Season 1.  But no gay men.

Grading the Beefcake of "American Horror Stories"

 American Horror Stories is a horror-story anthology produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, whose American Horror Story series often has significant gay representation.  Here, after the first story, LGBT characters are mostly erased, so instead I'm going to evaluate the beefcake, on a scale of 1 (all girls) to 10 (sausage fest).

Episodes 1-2, "Rubber Woman":  Scarlett, a 16-year old girl, becomes involved with BDSM, which on tv always means that you like to kill people.  So she and her ghost-girlfriend start killing.  

Beefcake: Matt Bomer and Gavin Creel play the parents.  Bomer is ok, but Creel has ridiculous long shaggy hair.  We see them shirtless briefly.  Otherwise it's all girls. Grade: 2

Episode 3, "Drive In": High schooler Chad (Rhenzy Feliz) takes his girlfriend to a drive-in showing of a movie rumored to be cursed: anyone who sees it turns into a vicious zombie-monster.  Since this is American Horror Stories, the curse is real.  

A transwoman has a significant role as the girlfriend's best friend, who is dating one of the high school hunks.  She is the last identifiable LGBTQ character in the series.

Beefcake: Rhenzy displays a little of his chest while having sex.  His best friend (Leonardo Cecchi) doesn't have any shirtless scenes.  Grade: 3

Episode 4, "The Naughty List"  Four social media influencers try to get more subscribers by filming someone committing suicide.  When that backfires, they try pretending to be attracted to each other while saying "No homo" (they're jerks, so the homophobia is expected).  That backfires, so they go to the mall at Christmastime and make fun of Santa Claus and his elves.  He puts them on the "naughty list."

Beefcake:  Nonstop!  Three of the influencers (Charles Melton, Nico Greetham, above, and Dyllon Burnside, left) are half-naked all the time, and the fourth (Kevin McHale) is shown briefly in the hot tub.  Plus there are some hunks at the boys' Christmas party.  Grade: 10.

Episode 5, "Ba'al":  A rich lady trying to get pregnant puts an ancient Babylonian fertility fetish under her bed (isn't Ba'al Canaanite? ).  She has a baby, but things go horribly wrong.  Meanwhile her husband (Ronen Rubenstein) has an agenda of his own.

Beefcake:  Rubenstein never unbuttons a button, not even during sex.  He has some cute male friends, but they are likewise beefcake deficient. Grade: 2.

Episode 6, "Feral":  While seeking their long-lost son, a heterosexual couple run afoul of feral humanoid creatures.  One of which turns out to be....

Beefcake: Dad (Aaron Tveit, left) is cute, but always fully clothed, even during sex.  The other male actors are not particularly swoonworthy.  Grade: 2.

Episode 7, "Game Over."  A woman creates a video game based on the Murder House from Season 1 of American Horror Story and Episodes 1-2 of this series.  She and her son go to the real Murder House, and get involved in the tying up of loose ends.

Beefcake: Adam Hagenbuch, one of the characters in the video game, displays his physique. Dylan McDermott from Season 1 appears briefly.  Grade: 5.

Strange that the worst episode of the series, "The Naughty List," has the most beefcake, and the best of the series, "Ba'al," has the least.

American Horror Story: A School for Boys Run By Gay Men

American Horror Story: Apocalypse has gone to a toxic but beefcake-heavy place.

The last episode, "Could it Be...Satan," was the catch phrase of the Church Lady on Saturday Night Live. 

It is mostly a flashback of Michael Langdon (Cody Fern) growing up, with hair length varying depending on his age.  In the first scene, his Satanist mother asks the teenager to say grace to "Our Dark Lord" before dinner, with "amen" backwards.

Does anyone else hear "Michael Langdon" and hear "Michael Landon," star of Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie?

A few years later, Michael accidentally uses his powers to hurt people, and ends up in jail.  He is discovered by the warlock Ariel  (Jon Jon Briones)in a scene that looks very much like the discovery of Harry Potter's Voldemort, and brought to a warlock school, the Hawthorne School for Boys.

Hawthorne, which is the underground bunker in the present, looks very much like Hogwarts, except that it's boys only, and everyone dresses in 19th century costumes.  We see campy instructor Behold Chablis (Billy Porter) teaching a class in how to levitate beads, and upbrading a student (Kai Caster, left) for forgetting his textbook.

Also, all four of the warlock teachers are gay (or at least played by gay men).  That can't be a coincidence, but I can't figure out the reason.  Except to imply that all warlocks are gay.  You can't have magical powers if you're interesed in women.

The other warlocks complain that Michael's powers come from darkness, in another scene that looks very much like Voldemort at Hogwarts.

But Ariel believes that Michael is the Supreme, the prophesied warlock who will become the supreme leader of the witches and warlocks.

The witches find this idea ridiculous.  Men are physically unable to become powerful witches.  They should stick to parlor tricks.

In other words, stay in the kitchen where you belong.  And bring me a beer.

The warlocks are more hopeful.

See, men have endure oppression at the hands of women for generations.  They are forced to take second-rate jobs and housing, forbidden from achieving positions of authority, decried as inferior, insulted, humiliated, harassed.  But when the Supreme arrives, their oppression will end, and men will take their true place as heads of society.

Um...really? Women in general earn less than men, don't get promoted as often, get harassed and humiliated much more.  They can't walk down the street without getting catcalls and propositions.  20% of women and 3% of men have been sexually assaulted.

This sounds like one of those wacky men's rights groups that feels threatened by the possibility of a woman in a position of authority.

I know it's just a coincidence, but the episode happened to air during the Kavanaugh hearings, where multiple allegations of sexual assault have been summarily dismissed.

It was nice, after the very limited cast of characters in the first few episodes, to see the cast expand, with a lot of beefcake potential:  the students at Hogwarts...um, Hawthorne, some cops, a butcher who gets a knife in the head, and two "albinos."

But it was distinctly uncomfortable to watch all the "men are oppressed" rhetoric.

The Hollywood Legacy of Zane Danton

In "The End," the first episode of American Horror Story: Apocalypse, high schooler Timothy Campbell finds out that he has received a prestigious college scholarship.  A moment later, the sirens go off.  The bombs are going to start falling.  Representatives of the mysterious Collective arrive, tell him that he has been chosen to survive due to his superior DNA, and whisk him away.  The rest of the family vanishes from the story..for now.  Maybe they'll return in flashbacks.


Timothy's dad is played by Travis Schuldt, born in 1974 in Topeka, Kansas, best known as Ben in Always Sunny in Philadelphia  and Keith on Scrubs.

Timothy's brother Edward is played by Zane Danton in his first acting role.  His appearance on screen was short but memorable -- I especially liked the full-body hug, as Edward realizes that his brother is going away forever (and that he's going to be dead in an hour).

Zane certainly has what it takes to become a teen idol.

He's a National Honors Student in math.

He does modeling, represented by the Young Artist's Studio.

He won the long jump competition at an event sponsored by the Pacific Palisades YMCA.

No social media presence; I couldn't find a facebook, instagram, or twitter account; this is someone with the same name.

But Zane has the most important criterion for becoming a teen idol: connections.  A Hollywood legacy extending back three generations.

Zane's father is Steve Danton.  He appeared in a few 1980s movies, such as Fever Pitch and Trouble in Mind, but his main career has been in directing.  A lot of rom-coms and female buddy movies: Thelma and Louise, When a Man Loves a Woman, How Stella Got Her Groove Back.   Also Seventh Son, The Fantastic Four, and The Originals.

His mother, Darragh Danton (born Croyle), was a production assistant on Boys on the Side, The Edge, and some other movies.

At the beginning of The Edge (1997), Anthony Hopkins is seen reading a book about wilderness survival by D. Croyle, an in-joke by the prop department.

Zane also has an uncle in show biz. Mitchell Danton has appeared on screen a few times, but he is primarily known as an Emmy-winning film editor, with credits including Beverly Hills 90210, Dawson's Creek, Survivor, and The Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce.  He...um...edited a book on the topic, Cutting it in Hollywood.

Steve and Mitchell's father, Zane's grandfather, was Ray Danton (1931-1992), suave leading man of the 1950s; a biography is entitled The Epitome of Cool.   He appeared in many Westerns and cop shows through the 1970s, and directed episodes of Quincy, Fame, Cagney and Lacey, and Dynasty.  

He also produced, wrote, and directed the two-fisted New Mike Hammer (1984-89), starring Stacey Keach, a muscle hunk of the day.

I haven't heard any gay rumors about Ray Danton, but most of the beefcake stars of the 1950s were at least open to the idea of gay-for-pay.

Ray's ex-wife, Zane's grandmother, is Julie Adams (1928-), not to be confused with Julie Andrews.  She was terrorized in a swimsuit in Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), and had a long career in dramas, Westerns, and the occasional comedy.   You may recognize her as Amelia, a member of the wacky book club run by the Others on Lost (2008), hinted to be the long-lost Amelia Earhart.

With such an illustrious Hollywood heritage, how can you refuse to become a star?

See also: The Hunk from the Black Lagoon.

American Horror Story: Gay World

The anthology series American Horror Story is a hit in gay communities.  It's stylish, witty, adequately creepy -- and gay inclusive, a rarity in horror tv.   Here's my rating of the gay content of the first four seasons: beefcake, buddy-bonding, gay characters, and gay symbolism.  Scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (excellent).

Season 1: Murder House (2011)

A family moves into a house overrun by the ghosts of previous residents.  Interesting twist: ghosts can become corporeal, with bodies indistinguishable from those of the living.
Beefcake: lots of muscular chests and backsides.  These ghosts get naked a lot.
Buddy Bonding: Troubled teen Tate (Evan Peters) seems to have a little thing for the troubled psychiatrist (Dylan McDermott).
Gay Characters: Zachary Quinto and Teddy Sears play a bickering gay couple who were planning to split up.  Then they were murdered in the house, and now they are stuck together for all eternity.  The other ghosts and humans are generally nonchalant about them.
Gay Symbolism: None.
Overall Rating: ****

Season 2: Asylum (2012)

An evil nun runs a creepy asylum for the criminally insane in the 1960s.  With demons, Anne Frank, and alien abductions.
Beefcake:  Not much.  Evan Peters as an alien abductee.
Buddy Bonding: None.  Again, all of the significant friendships are male-female.
Gay Characters: Sarah Paulson as Lana Winters, a lesbian reporter committed to the asylum and forced to undergo a homophobic "treatment" regiment.  In the present, she's a famous writer, out-and-proud.
Gay Symbolism: None.
Overall Rating: ****

Season 3: Coven (2013)

A school for teen witches, a voodoo queen, and the re-animated corpse of 19th century murderess Delphine LaLaurie.  What more could you ask for?  Maybe some gay characters?
Beefcake: Lots.  Madame LaLaurie had a thing for torturing hunky male slaves, and the teen witches build themselves a Frankenstein-monster boyfriend (Evan Peters again).
Buddy Bonding: Some female bonding going on.
Gay Characters: None, except for a fruity Truman Capote-esque member of the Witches Council, who appears briefly in two episodes.
Gay Symbolism:  Witches hiding in the shadows, afraid to let anyone know their true identity, etc., etc.
Overall Rating: ***

Season 4: Freak Show (2014)
A financially-strapped freak show in 1950s Florida, with a murderous clown and his dapper young apprentice wandering around.
Beefcake:  Evan Peters again, the bare buns of a Viking Hustler, a circus strongman, and an amazing bodybuilding little person (his name is Kyle Pacek).
Buddy Bonding: Men are mostly competitors.
Gay Characters: Several.  But for a change, Dandy, the ultra-feminine murderer, is not.
Gay Symbolism: Freaks hiding in the shadows, et., etc.
Overall Rating: *****