ATLANTAboy.com: Best of Gay Atlanta

"For The Bible Tells Me So" Opens Friday

An amazing new documentary, "For The Bible Tells Me So" opens this Friday, October 19th at Midtown Art Cinema -- go see it!

You're Invited: Thank GLAAD It's Friday!

Get 6 hours of free drinks at Blake's + your GLAAD Membership here!

Just $35 gets you access to 3 monthly Thank GLAAD It's Friday | Atlanta events at Blake's on the Park with 6 hours of free cocktails, a 1-year GLAAD Membership, giveaways, local celebrities, and more -- click here before September 28 to get your tickets now!

LeAnn Rimes' "Good Intentions"

LeAnn Rimes will soon debut on the big screen alongside Luke Perry in "Good Intentions," a movie that just finished shooting in Atlanta...

Also shot in Newborn and Rutledge, Georgia, "Good Intentions" is Rimes' first movie as an actress, except for when she played herself in "Coyote Ugly." Here's what it's about according to the Georgia Film, Video & Music commission:

"Etta Milford is a loving wife, doting mother and armed robber. Inspired by the success stories on 'The Antiques Roadshow,' Etta decides to invest in antiques and sell them off to bankroll her kids' college fund. To raise investment capital, Etta dons a ski mask and moonlights as the county's most wanted criminal.

She turns the fictional town of Myra, Georgia upside down, outwitting local authorities and pulling heists between carpools and little league games. Etta's plan takes an interesting turn as she uses her loot to purchase "antiques" that she doesn't realize are fakes."

"Good Intentions" also stars Elaine Hendrix, Randy McDowell, and Greg Alan Williams.

- Visit Shadowlight Pictures to get updates and release dates for the film.

Bob Smith: "Selfish & Perverse"

The first openly gay comic to appear on The Tonight Show, Bob Smith comes to Outwrite with his debut novel, "Selfish and Perverse"...

Smith has written for the MTV Video Music Awards, Dennis Miller, Roseanne, and was a staff writer for Fox's MAD-TV. His sketch, "The Zapruder Films" was recently featured on The Best of MAD-TV. Recently he taped both a comedy special and a documentary for LOGO that will air in the fall.

A regular contributor to Out magazine, Smith also appeared in HBO's documentary about Rosie O'Donnell chartering the first gay and lesbian family cruise -- "All Aboard!: Rosie's Family Cruise."

Smith appears at Outwrite on Thursday, September 27th at 8 p.m.

The Wizard of Oz Film With Orchestra

Join the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as they play along to the Wizard of Oz...

America's most beloved classic is better than ever in a dazzling, new digital print and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra playing the complete, original score, LIVE during Thanksgiving Weekend.

Conducted by Jere Flint, performances take place November 23rd at 8 p.m. and November 24th at 2 p.m.

Get your tickets at TicketMaster or by calling 404-249-6400. You can also get them at the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office at 15th and Peachtree.

Cheer Atlanta's First Gay Movie

Annie Leibovitz: Interview & Gallery Tour

We spent several hours with photographer Annie Leibovitz this morning as she gave us a personal tour of her latest exhibition: "A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005" at the High Museum of Art...

Two loves have greatly influenced Annie Leibovitz's work: her mother (a dance instructor) and writer/essayist Susan Sontag (her "lover"), who died of cancer in 2004.

It's obvious Leibovitz truly loved Sontag, as she gets a little choked up every time she talks about her. In fact, there are almost more photos of Sontag in the exhibition than there are of the celebrities Leibovitz is best known for shooting.

(Nicole Kidman, New York, 2003. Courtesy of "Vogue.")

Although Leibovitz's work mostly reflects life, she clearly doesn't like to take photos of people with smiles. In fact, you'll be hard pressed to find any of her subjects in the exhibition smiling.

"You have to understand, my family was the kind that always smiled for pictures. I just thought it was kind of... fake. In the portrait I took of my mother, she's not smiling. She thought she looked old and didn't like the photo. But at an exhibit once all these people were gathered around asking for her autograph, so she kind of liked that."

Pondering photos of lover Susan Sontag undergoing chemotherapy.

"I've recently started looking for a cemetery, which is sort of like looking for a good apartment in New York City. People are afraid to talk about death. So before my dad died, I made sure to talk to him about... those kinds of things. But I promise there's more to this exhibition than just death," she says with a laugh.

"The great thing about this photo is if you love George Bush, you love this photo. And if you hate Bush, you hate this photo. I only had 45 minutes to take it, which was a LONG time."

When asked why she thinks she's become such an icon, she says, "A lot of hard work. It's all about the work. Also I don't think of myself as a photographer. I think of myself as an artist who uses photography."

Leibovitz has been under contract as a landscape photographer with "Conde Nast Traveler" since 1993. Other contracts include "Vanity Fair," "Rolling Stone", and "Vogue."

Annie Leibovitz is no stranger to Georgia. In fact, we actually attended her first exhibition at the High Museum in 1994. Two years later Leibovitz photographed athletes at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. She also went to Cumberland Island to photograph Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rob Besserer on the beach.

"Cumberland Island is an amazing place. I ended up staying with them for three weeks, which is the longest I've stayed anywhere with a subject, except for the Rolling Stones tour which I couldn't get off of for eight years!"

"I asked if I could just watch them make a dance, which is what this photo is about."

And what about that famous "Vanity Fair" cover of Demi Moore nude and pregnant 1994? "I had worked with Demi a lot, and did her wedding pictures when she married Bruce Willis. I told her then that I was interested in photographing a pregnant woman, which I had never done before."

"I shot some close-ups of Demi Moore for the magazine, and I said, 'you know, we should do some nudes just for you.'"

"Demi called me when she was pregnant with her first child. Bruce was working on a film in Kentucky, so I stopped there on the way back to New York from Los Angeles. Then three years later, when Demi had a movie coming out, 'Vanity Fair' asked me to take a picture of her for the cover. As I was shooting I said, 'You know, this would be a great cover. 'Vanity Fair' decided to go with it -- I didn't quite understand the impact it would have on people."

"I photographed Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino standing next to each other in my studio, but I had to cut them into two separate photos because they couldn't be together."

In 1994 her most shocking photo at the High Museum was Whoopi Goldberg in a bathtub filled with milk. This time around she's got Chris Rock donning "whiteface" and Beyonce as Alice in Wonderland. Clearly some things haven't changed, but a lot has, like getting to finally photograph Queen Elizabeth II. Leibovitz is the first American honored with taking her portrait.

(Brad Pitt, Las Vegas, 1994. Courtesy of "Vanity Fair.")

"They gave me 30 minutes to photograph her. She said she remembered me asking if I could photograph her years ago, and she felt bad for turning me down. The photos were good, but they were more like a document. I did a lot of research; they sent me books of her clothes and jewelry I could choose from.

I wanted to include everything, so we did the shoot at Buckingham Palace. She was a little feisty because she had to wear the whole outfit and everything -- it was a bit like photographing your 80-year old aunt. But she was great. At the end I told her I had made a bit of a mistake and needed her to come back so I could do something else, and she did."

"I got rid of my studio. It was becoming a burden, so now I prefer to shoot in the great outdoors. I'm also using a lot of digital, which I love. If I want to make it look like film I can, and it gives me a lot of leeway with color. For instance I used to not be able to shoot a subject in front of a green tree, because green looks black on film. But now I can do that. I first started using digital when I shot Barack Obama, because I wanted it to look like 'now.' It looks sort of like television."

So what advice does Annie Leibovitz have for budding photographers? "The thing I tell artists now is to make sure they preserve their work. Put it into a book. It doesn't have to be published, but put it into something."

- Annie Leibovitz's newest book is "A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005." Her exhibition by the same name runs through September 9th at the High Museum of Art.

(Story: Jordan McAuley, Photos: Matt Burkhalter)

More Annie Leibovitz:

• Annie Leibovitz's 20-Cover "Vanity Fair"
• Annie Leibovitz Exhibit Opens May 12th

* For more gay Atlanta tips, tricks and insider secrets get the book ATLANTAboy: An Insider's Guide to Gay Atlanta on Amazon!

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Jane Fonda's "Georgia Rule" Premiere

So last night was the very gay-friendly "Georgia Rule" Atlanta premiere held at the Woodruff Arts Center...

The premiere benefited Jane Fonda's G-CAPP Foundation to help prevent teen pregnancy in Georgia complete with a live auction. The prize we wanted most was the one Felicity Huffman auctioned off: a "Desperate Housewives" walk-on role.

Rosie O'Donnell was originally supposed to be the auctioneer, but after leaving "The View" she probably had other things she needed to get done (like find a new job!).

Celebrities who did attend included Felicity Huffman, Dallas Austin, Diana DeGarmo, Vivica A. Fox, Martina Navratilova, Christine Lakin, Big Boi, and of course Jane Fonda and Ted Turner.

So as you can see, pretty much everyone made it. Well everyone except Lindsay Lohan, who almost got fired from the movie for not showing up. Clearly she's working hard to improve her image!

"Boy Culture" Opens Friday, May 4th

Don't miss "Boy Culture," the new film from director Q. Allen Brocka ("Eating Out") based on the critically acclaimed novel by Matthew Rettenmund...

"X" (Derek Magyar) is a wildly successful male escort. After 10 years of sex-for-pay, he becomes romantically entangled with his two roomates (Jonathan Trent and Darryl Stephens) and with Gregory (Patrick Bauchau), a reclusive elderly client.

Before Gregory will agree to sex, however, he tells an unsettling love story spanning 50 years and dares "X" to try to feel something he hasn't felt in years: genuine emotion.

As the sexual roundelays become increasingly complicated, "X" learns that this time, his emotions are running the show. Opens this Friday, May 4th at Midtown Art Cinema.

Jennifer Holliday to Reprise Effie at the Fox

We've just learned that the other Jennifer H. -- Jennifer Holliday -- will reprise her role as Effie in the Atlanta production of "Dreamgirls" for "10 nights only, 10 nights only!"

It will all happen as part of the National Black Arts Festival July 19th - 29th at the Fox Theatre. And how does Jennifer Holliday feel about not being asked to appear in the movie? She tells USA Today: "I wanted a cameo. Out of respect, usually someone from the original has a spot in the remake unless they're, like, dead or something. There were plenty of little parts all of us could have played. I would have liked to have been Deena's mother."

Oh well... at least we can all see her live on stage in July. To get your tickets, call 404-252-8960 or visit Theatre of the Stars.