IN TORONTO - 30/Sep/2010

Source (http://www.intorontomag.com/art-design/television/brother-in-arms deleted)

Brother in arms
by Gordon Bowness

TV’s sexy taboo-buster, Luke Macfarlane

Luke Macfarlane is the sexiest gay on TV — an out actor playing a well-rounded gay character on network television. The 30-year-old Canadian plays Scotty Wandel on the ABC serial drama Brothers and Sisters (now in its fifth season on Global), a character who has smashed taboos south of the border.
The commitment ceremony between him and his partner Kevin Walker (played by Matthew Rhys) was the first-ever gay marriage by continuing characters on a US network (broadcast the same year as California’s notorious Prop 8 banning same-sex marriage). Last season, Kevin and Scotty began planning for a child through surrogacy. And the two men’s relationship is portrayed as physically passionate; no missing nor chaste kisses on this show.
Macfarlane is humble in the face of such controversial fare.
“I think the writers are doing something controversial. I’m just saying the words on the page,” he says. “I do feel a part of it, though; it’s wonderful.
“I’m quite proud of the fact that we told the story of how two people meet, how they fall in love, how they break up, how they fall in love again and how, ultimately, they build a life together, including kids, and integrate it into a wild family.”
Last season ended with a bang, a bloody car crash that will impact greatly the sprawling Walker family headed by matriarch Nora (Sally Field). Leads Rob Lowe and Emily VanCamp are gone and this season picks up one year later. “It’s been a year of tragedy for the family,” says Macfarlane. “A lot has happened since the car accident. In a strange sort of way it sets a tone that’s different for the show, it’s a little bit darker.”
MacFarlane is looking forward to taking his character into new territory. Given the Walker family’s penchant for drama, in many ways, Scotty and Kevin’s relationship is the most normal on the series. “Scotty is kind of the perfect guy, and Kevin and Scotty have almost the perfect relationship. But we’re actually in the middle of taping an episode that calls all that into question, which I’m pretty thrilled about. I’ve always thought that Scotty lets Kevin get away with way too much shit.”
Macfarlane was born and raised in London, Ontario. After high school, the LB Pearson School of the Arts, he bypassed Toronto and headed straight to New York to attend Juilliard to study drama. He graduated in 2003. LA soon beckoned. “So I’ve never did the whole Canadian thing.”
He did nab a leading role in the 2008 CBC miniseries Iron Road. “I had a great experience. I had always wanted to go to China. And we had an excellent cast, who I’ll never get to work with again: Peter O’Toole, Tony Leung and Sam Neill.
“I remember from my childhood these epic CBC miniseries… so it felt like I am a part of it, now.”
Notwithstanding Canadian progress on gay rights, Macfarlane is continually struck by how different the US and Canada are. “They do really feel like two different places,” he says. “The stereotype is true — Canadians are nicer.”
Is he worried about American reaction to that observation? “Oddly, I think Americans sort of pride themselves on not being nice,” he says, laughing. “I don’t think they’re going, ‘Ah, gee. I wish we were nicer.’”
Kevin, are you listening?
Macfarlane came out to the media in 2008. “It’s odd being put in the situation where you feel you have to talk about it, that it’s the right thing to do to talk about it.
I certainly never regret it, but I guess I was a little bit naïve to think that once you come out, you are done. I think it’s something that’s been said before, but coming out is almost a lifelong process. It’s been very strange for me.
“Not that I don’t want to talk about my sexuality, I guess I’ve just run out of things to say.”
Despite his leading man good looks, Macfarlane may have narrowed his career options by coming out. He remains hopeful, however. “The only thing I can say is that I don’t know…. Society tends towards inclusion — in my lifetime it certainly has. So I’ll be part of that movement towards [gay actors] being leading men, because that’s the direction everyone wants to go.”

Playbill.com - 28/Sep/2010

[Source]
David Alan Grier, Justin Kirk and Jeffrey Tambor Join Cast of Starry Reading of Some Men
By Andrew Gans
28 Sep 2010

David Alan Grier

Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Additional casting has been announced for the one-night-only reading of Terrence McNally's Some Men, which will be presented at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills Oct. 4.

The starry 8 PM reading ? which will benefit Testimony, a project of the Courage Campaign Institute ? will boast the talents of the previously reported Alan Cumming, John Glover, Luke MacFarlane and Jason Ritter. Michael Morris directs.

Newly announced for the evening are Matt Gould, David Alan Grier, Justin Kirk and Jeffrey Tambor.

Some Men, according to press notes, "chronicles the lives of gay men in the United States over the past 80 years, examining the challenges, the victories, the joys and the sorrows of this history through the prism of love and marriage."

Some Men played Manhattan's Second Stage Theatre in 2007 with a cast that included Don Amendolia, Michael McElroy and Frederick Weller.

Dan Bucatinsky, Susan Dietz and Tom Kirdahy are producing the benefit.

Testimony is designed to "bring the Prop 8 trial into the lives of Americans and empower them - gay and straight - to share their stories and change the way America thinks about LGBT rights."

Tickets, priced $25-$250, are available by visiting TicketMaster: http://tinyurl.com/2b3743w. The $250 tickets include a post-performance, onstage reception with the cast and producers. Those unable to attend the reading on Oct. 4 can make a contribution to support the campaign's marriage equality work by visiting www.couragecampaign.org.

The Saban Theatre is located at 8440 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

TODAY - 27/Sep/2010

Source (http://www.todayonline.com/Entertainment/Television/EDC100927-0000029/The-bro-code deleted)

The bro code
The boys of Brothers & Sisters on the joys of siblinghood

by May Seah





05:55 AM Sep 27, 2010

I HAVEN'T got any brothers, but after meeting some of the guys from Brothers & Sisters, who were a barrel of irreverent laughs, I almost wished I did.

I say "almost" because Dave Annable, Matthew Rhys and Luke Macfarlane reminded me that large families are almost inevitably full of conflicts and squabbles. In other words: "God gave us our family; thank God we can choose our friends."

In fact, in Annable's dressing room, where a video game system was prominently set up, the 30-year-old, who is getting married to actress Odette Yustman this autumn, joked that he was trying to get co-star Calista Flockhart and her husband, Harrison Ford to adopt him.

For TV's Walker family, the drama will never die down, especially not as Brothers & Sisters goes into its fifth season.

The new season fast-forwards to a year after the last season's climatic car-accident ending. Rob Lowe's character Robert McCallister is dead, which means wife Kitty (Calista Flockhart) is single again; Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) is in a steady relationship with Giles (Luc Laurent); Justin (Annable) comes back from Afghanistan a changed man; Kevin (Rhys) has a new career as a defense attorney and hubby Scotty (Macfarlane) is running his new restaurant together with Saul (Ron Rifkin); and, to top it all off, matriarch Nora (Sally Field) is acting strangely. And you thought your family life was complicated.

If you guys had your way, where would you like the show to go?

Dave Annable: Well, besides (Justin) living in a sorority house … (Laughs) Well, I think what they're doing with Justin is really great. I'm curious to see where we'll go next when he's alone and single.

Matthew Rhys: I think the Walkers should trace their roots back to Wales. There should be a trip. Walkerrrnen was their original Welsh name before they came to Ellis Island.

Matthew, you're Welsh - what are families like in Wales?

Matthew: They like drinking. They like singing. In that order. They're pretty much matriarch-led in Wales - like, the world over, really. As much as we (men) like to think we rule the roost, we don't.

I was just wondering if all families were as complicated as the Walkers.

Luke: (Laughs) Not all families have to turn out a television show every week.

Matthew: And keep it interesting. There is dysfunction, I think, in every family - it's just varying levels of it. We just seem to have it in abundance. And, you know, having the high number of siblings, you're sort of guaranteed that someone's having a problem anywhere at one point, at one time.

But dysfunction's fashionable now, anyway.

Matthew: It is. I think society's evolved in some certain way - people are less frightened to talk about the dysfunction. As people become more emotionally articulate, it sort of aired a lot more.

Have the characters become part of you? Have you found yourself taking on any of the quirks?

Matthew: I've started taking home a lot of the clothes!

Luke: I borrowed suits for my sister's wedding.

Fancy dress?

Matthew: "I went as a chef"!

Luke: I'm wearing, actually, Nora Walker's dress to my sister's wedding.

Is your mom like Nora?

Matthew: Oh, yeah. And that's the one thing you hear all the time from people who like the show: (Puts on a squeaky, high-pitched voice) "Oh, my mother's exactly like Nora. I know exactly how she feels. Why are you so rude to her? Why are you so rude to Sally Field???"

What's the great Sally Field like in person?

Dave: Uh, she's terrible! No, don't write that! She's the best! It's a lot of work to wrangle us actors to get ready for a scene and Sally's the one running the show - and she has been from day one.

Matthew: And it's no irony that this sort of family's led by the matriarch, and in our show, it's sort of the same. She's a consummate professional and really does lead by example.

So she bosses you around off the set as well?

Dave: Oh, totally. Actually, I have to go get her a coffee right now.

What's the most valuable lesson you've learned from her?

Dave: I think it's "be prepared". She always knows her lines when she comes into work and knows what she's doing. Clearly she goes home and works. It's easy to be young and get caught up in the fun nightlife and come to work going, "Woo, whatever, I got lines", you know. It sort of works a lot easier if you do your homework and go home and study your lines and all that fun stuff, and not play too many video games (looks sheepishly at his console).

Matthew: She comes in early, she's on time, she's prepared, she's thought about what she's going to do. She never holds anyone up. Sits by the camera while they light, doesn't go off and drink coffee and chit chat and get on the Internet. Old school.

Luke: No matter where you are in your career, you still have to work hard. Because she really has kind of done it all, but she doesn't rest on her laurels.


Catch the fifth season of Brothers & Sisters starting tomorrow (Sep 28), any time on demand on mio TV (Ch 533), with new episodes every Tuesday. To subscribe to mio TV, call 1610, visit any SingTel shop, or visit www.singtel.com/miotv

Advocate.com - 20/Sep/2010

[Source]

Stars Line Up for McNally Play

By Advocate.com Editors

A one-night-only staged reading of Some Men, Terrence McNally's 2007 off-Broadway hit chronicling gay men over the past 80 years, has attracted an all-star cast. Alan Cumming, John Glover, Jason Ritter, Steven Weber, and Luke MacFarlane are among the actors confirmed for the reading. The play will be performed at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills on October 4. Proceeds from the production will benefit the Courage Campaign Institute.

McNally is a Tony Award-winning playwright whose credits include The Ritz, The Rink, Corpus Christi, Master Class, and Love! Valour! Compassion!

AfterElton - 20/Sep/2010

[Source]

What Does the New Season of "Brothers & Sisters" Have in Store For Kevin, Scotty and Saul?
Posted by Michael Jensen, Editor on September 20, 2010

When ABC’s Brothers & Sisters kicks off its fifth season on September 26, viewers are going to find the Walkers still putting their lives back together a year after the horrific car crash that ended last season with the death of Robert McCallister.

According to B&S showrunner David Marshall Grant, the twelve month leap forward offered an opportunity to put all of the characters in very different places in their lives. Naturally, that includes Kevin and Scotty, as well as Uncle Saul, whom viewers last saw covered in blood and forced to tell his family that he had lied about not being HIV positive.

Matthew Rhys, Ron Rifkin, Luke Macfarlane

Meanwhile, Kevin and Scotty were excited about becoming parents, having only recently learned their surrogate was finally pregnant.

Unfortunately for them, Grant tells AfterElton.com, the surrogacy ultimately failed, and Kevin and Scotty will have to find a different way to become parents.

It’s clear that for Grant, himself a gay man, telling Kevin and Scotty’s story as truthfully as possible is very important to him. Says Grant:

I think that gay relationships, as the argument with Prop 8 goes, are equal in all ways to straight relationships. That means, you know, the good, the bad, the sublime, and the ugly. I just felt it was really important here to explore that in all ways, shape, and form because that's the truth of love and that's what I think is the most powerful.
I think it's one of the things that's most powerful about Kevin and Scotty throughout the season, which is that they're just a very real couple and we're not trying to hold them up as anything but people.

Here is what else Grant told AfterElton about the new season:

• Scotty and Saul have opened up a restaurant

• Kevin is working as a libertarian lawyer mostly working pro bono

• Initially, Kevin and Scotty’s relationship will be affected as they work through the disappointment of surrogacy not working

• Through Kevin’s law practice they meet a teenager they might end up fostering/adopting (Bobby Soto has been cast as Mateo who is likely the teen they foster)

• In terms of the ‘risqué” storyline for Kevin and Scotty about which rumors have been rampant, Grant was tightlipped and would only say, “It's always going to be about Kevin and Scotty’s marriage and their love.”

• Saul won’t be getting sick but the show will explore the “struggle of moving forward and being honest with himself and what that means. And also to have to deal with some of the consequences of living a life that [is] ever-so-secretive and ever-so-furtive”

• While Stephen Collins will appear for an episode as Saul’s love interest, Grant can’t promise how much happiness Saul will find.

• We’ll continue to see Kevin, Scotty and Saul together as a way to explore intergenerational friendships among gay men.   

Playbill.com - 17/Sep/2010

[Source]

Alan Cumming, John Glover, Luke MacFarlane, Jason Ritter, Steven Weber Set for Reading of Some Men
By Andrew Gans
17 Sep 2010

Alan Cumming

A one-night-only reading of Terrence McNally's Some Men will be presented at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills Oct. 4.

The starry 8 PM reading — which will benefit Testimony, a project of the Courage Campaign Institute — will boast the talents of Alan Cumming, John Glover, Luke MacFarlane, Jason Ritter and Steven Weber. Michael Morris directs.

Some Men, according to press notes, "chronicles the lives of gay men in the United States over the past 80 years, examining the challenges, the victories, the joys and the sorrows of this history through the prism of love and marriage."
Some Men played Manhattan's Second Stage Theatre in 2007 with a cast that included Don Amendolia, Michael McElroy and Frederick Weller.

Dan Bucatinsky, Susan Dietz and Tom Kirdahy are producing the benefit.
Testimony is designed to "bring the Prop 8 trial into the lives of Americans and empower them - gay and straight - to share their stories and change the way America thinks about LGBT rights."
Tickets, priced $25-$250, are available by visiting TicketMaster: http://tinyurl.com/2b3743w. The $250 tickets include a post-performance, onstage reception with the cast and producers. Those unable to attend the reading on Oct. 4 can make a contribution to support the campaign's marriage equality work by visiting www.couragecampaign.org.
The Saban Theatre is located at 8440 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

The TV addict.com - 17/Sep/2010

[Source]

The Showrunner Chronicles: David Marshall Grant Previews the new Season of BROTHERS & SISTERS
By theTVaddict on September 17th, 2010

It has not been smooth sailing for the good ship BROTHERS & SISTERS. Yet despite changes both in front of and behind the camera that began even before the series launched four seasons ago, the show has managed to weather the storms. Of course, navigating rough waters falls upon the shoulders of showrunner — or, to continue our cheesetacular metaphor, ship’s captain — David Marshall Grant. Recently, Grant stepped away from the helm long enough to chat with us about cast members walking the plank, pesky rumors that the voyage will soon come to an end and dealing with industry’s equivalent of icebergs: budget cuts. One would imagine that you’ve had quite an interesting summer! Just how prepared were you for the multitude of changed that were thrust upon you?
David Marshall Grant: Rob Lowe leaving was something Rob had been considering for a while last season, something we talked about, and was not a surprise for me in the least. In terms of Calista [Flockhart], she’s got the same deal as all the other actors this year and is excited and happy about having a great season without any diminished episodes. That said, there certainly were some unexpected changes. Emily VanCamp is only coming back for two or three episodes, which is a change for us and of course losing Rob is a big deal for us.
So yeah, I think it was in some ways a lot of loss for us, yet at the same time I think that all you can do is look at the positive side and really try to move forward. As fans are aware we’re going to jump ahead a year this season and we’re just sort of hoping to start the show this year certainly honoring Rob because that’s a big thing that happened in the season finale, but at the same time move us forward into new and exciting directions.

Not to linger too much on the past, but from a writer’s perspective, just how much did Emily VanCamp’s exit impact your plans for this season and was her exit the genesis of the one year jump forward?
I really felt it was important to jump a year as a way to get people in different places, so that was always going to be a given. But in terms of Justin and Rebecca’s relationship, we weren’t sure what was going to happen and when Emily talked to me about her dreams for her career and what was going on in terms of other offers, we made some adjustments. It was very important for us to honor the Justin/Rebecca relationship, as well as Rebecca’s relationship with her mother Holly, both of which have been so key to Rebecca. So we’ve tried to create a really powerful arc that will explain why she is leaving and honor the love affair that Rebecca and Justin had.
That’s really good to hear, because as a fan of the show and TV in general, it’s always disappointing when outside forces play such a public role in the direction of a given storyline.
Look, I could not agree with you more. Outside factors are things that couldn’t bug a showrunner more. Whether you’re breaking an episode and find out that the actor you were going to cast suddenly got a movie and you can’t do that episode anymore, TV is just so full of that kind of thing. But that is, in a way also the life of television. The more you can think on your feet and the more that you can just accept that this is going to be the status quo now and what can we do to really make this sing? We could get depressed about Justin and Rebecca, or we can use it as a great opportunity to write something that really creates a completion for two characters that have been through so much on the show and so integral to what BROTHERS & SISTERS is.
What will keep Holly in the fold now that Rebecca’s is out of the picture?
I don’t want to tease too much, but there are reasons that Holly needs the Walkers right now. I think that in dealing with her relationship with her daughter, David, and Justin when Rebecca leaves, these are all ways that Holly is going to be a part of the show. I think she’s going to have a very interesting story this year.
Moving on to other members of the family, what’s in store for Kitty?
When we pick up with Kitty, she’s in the process of a great transformation. It’s not a Kitty that we’ve seen so much of, she’s really trying to reinvent herself. We’re sending her on a journey of discovery that will see her begin a new romance with ARMY WIVES’ Jeremy Davidson.
Rumor has it that Kevin and Scotty’s surrogacy didn’t quite go as planned.
In a way it’s hard to answer that completely. Personally I’ve been through a lot of disappointment trying to make a family. As a gay man I know that these things don’t always work out — and it did finally by the way for me. But my point is that there are lots of was for Scotty and Kevin to create a family and I was always interested in landing somewhere else that involved foster adoption, so I think that’s what we’re going to try and do this year. It was always sort of in my head that their journey was going to be filled with a lot of disappointment. And it’s nothing to do with being gay, fertility issues are very difficult for people and I know a lot of couples that have been trying to get pregnant for years and years and years and it just doesn’t work. It’s something worth talking about and I think will be a very compelling story for them.
Will Nora ever find a love interest that doesn’t mysteriously disappear after three episodes?
I know right! We are definitely as excited for her as she is I think. I think this is a season where we’re really going to see Nora finally admit to what she wants in live along those lines. I think there will be some bumps in the roads for her and I’m really hoping that she can that special person.
At the start of every season one imagines you pitch a multitude of story-lines to the Network and Studio. Would fans be surprised by the sheer number of ideas that are shot down by the proverbial powers that be?
[Laughs] You want to know the truth? I think you’d be surprised by the number of ideas they don’t shoot down. I honestly mean that. I think that ABC has been extremely supportive both on the network and studio side. They have allowed us to tell story-lines with Kevin and Scotty that every time I’m just grateful in some ways maybe because I’m old, but shocked they’re letting us do it. They let us tell story-lines that involve politics that are sometimes controversial and they really have been incredibly supportive that way. But yes. It’s always a dialogue.
That said, the real dialogue is in the writer’s room where the writers just scream at each other trying to decide what the best stories are for the season. But once that’s resolved you go to the networks with your pitch, and luckily we’ve done a one through nine [episodes] sort of pitch and the network is very excited.
Excited enough to reward you with another season? After-all, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention all the speculation surrounding the fact that this may be BROTHERS & SISTERS final season.
No. ABC has said nothing to me and hinted nothing. I know there is a lot of talk around town about it. But in all honesty, all the input I’m getting from ABC is about keep going, next season we can do this, make sure we do this. I’m really going forward with the assumption and hope at least that we can keep going one more year, if not more.

AfterElton - 15/Sep/2010

[Source]

Advance Photos of "Brothers & Sisters" Episode 502
Posted by AfterElton.com Staff on September 15, 2010

According to the official release accompanying these photos, "the Walkers attend a swanky launch party for Luc's underwear advertising campaign where 14-year-old Paige falls in with the wrong crowd. Meanwhile, despite several visits from Justin, Holly still struggles to remember the things that were once most important to her; Kevin is saddled with a runaway juvenile delinquent; and just as Nora very publicly admits that she's taken a part-time job as a florist, she's approached by a radio show producer with a job offer."