Josh & Josh are Rich and Famous

Josh & Josh Interview Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, and Kim Cattrall for Sex and the City: The Movie

This spring Josh and I sat down with the cast of Sex and the City in a suite at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in New York for exclusive chats about the show’s gay fans, plotlines that never made it to the show, Sex-y fashion, and what it was like to return to their characters’ (high-heeled) shoes for Sex and the City: The Movie.

On The Show’s Gay Fans

Cynthia Nixon: In the first couple years of our show we didn’t have any female writers. Our two writers were gay men. There was a lot said about, “These aren’t really women—these are gay men disguised as women,” and that really bugged all of us. It was like, Why aren’t they really women? Because women aren’t having this much sex? That’s annoying.

It’s a very gay friendly show. Not only do we have gay characters, but one of the central themes is a very gay conceit, which is your family is not the family you came from. Your family [develops] when you come to a place you always wanted to be and you meet people who are like you, and you create your own family. You notice in the series that we almost never meet anybody’s family. Once we met Charlotte’s brother. We heard about Miranda’s father after he was dead. But we never meet anybody’s parents or family. And they really wanted to keep it about the family you create.

Sarah Jessica Parker: Because I’m from New York, and I was raised in the theater, the gay community was always part of culture to me. They were always some of the first audiences, always the first people at the preview of a Broadway show, so it wasn’t so shocking to me that they were some of the first, most committed audiences [of our show].

There was a particular attachment to this show, among even my gay friends. It’s less about the salty dialogue and the candid, forthright chat-chat. Your relationship with your gay friends is like your relationships with your straight women friends. It is that deep and that intense and they care about friendships in the same way; they talk and they share. That has been my relationship with gay men, and, of course, the majority of my friends are gay men. And it’s extremely comforting: They always make you feel good, they always make you feel at even your worst moments like a lady—like a girl—and they are never afraid to be honest. They loved the ridiculousness and the absurd and the dirty and costumes, but if there wasn’t an emotional connection to those friendships and what they meant—you know, the gay community can grow weary, and they can move on quickly. But I think that’s what it meant for [the gay community], that kind of connection.

Kim Cattrall: A lot of people ask me if they feel that I’m playing a gay man in New York, and if I am, I am having the most fabulous time as a gay man in New York. I don’t personally think that, but I think it’s a fun thought. I was very happy to be on the cover of The Advocate. I feel like I have arrived in some ways. But there has been a tremendous amount of support from the gay community, and I’m grateful for it.

Kristin Davis: We have been hugely supported by the gay community, absolutely, and we love that. I feel like we’ve got support from a lot of different groups, which I think was edifying to us. I think people in general identify with well-written characters.

But I think also for gay culture—men and women—we were not locked into anything particularly rigid—there’s Samantha and Charlotte and everything in between. It’s colorful and pretty to look at, and we’ve got crazy clothes, and it was risky in a way, and with sexuality, and I think that people felt free about that, and so of course the gay community would vibe with it. But also, when I go home to South Carolina, old women come up to me, and I say, “Really, you watch it? You don’t have heart palpitations?” So it’s been a really good cross section. But we love our gay fans, obviously.

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Josh K. Makes His Cable News Debut

Tune in tonight to Logo's 7 p.m. newscast and pay special attention to the "Mr. Broadway" and "A Catered Affair" segments on CBS News on Logo.

Why? Because our very own Josh K. shot and edited "Mr. Broadway" and edited "A Catered Affair." It's the start of a lovely and fruitful freelance relationship.

Go Josh K.!

The Weekend (In Pictures): Coney Island

//Josh K.

Josh K., Professional Doodler

I'm an impulsive doodler.

At work, for instance, a post-it note to remind me to run to the bank can, with the right supplies, turn into an impromptu art project in a matter of seconds. It's mostly subconscious; I'll be sitting there, concentrating, trying to write something down before the words escape me, and three minutes later I'm in a trance, gunning for the green Sharpie, obscuring what I just wrote with white-out and curly-cues.

I'm like Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica who obsessively paints that circular vortex of awesomeness on any flat surface she can get her hands on. Except: her circular vortex of awesomeness ends up being a clue to finding Earth; my doodles are little more than productivity-killers.

Below, a sampling of  some recent doodles:

//Josh K.

Josh & Josh Road Trip: The Augusten Burroughs Interview

Not long ago Josh and I rented a car and headed out of the city to interview author Augusten Burroughs at his home in Amherst, Massachusetts.

When we hit the open road I plugged in my iPod. Josh and I worked through most of my cardio playlist, singing the gayest songs imaginable at the top of our lungs. (Shhh, don't judge!) You know Joel Derfner would have been so proud.

I played navigator. (Scary thought, no?) This was our first East Coast road trip together, and since we'd never even heard of most of the roads and highways, it was all a bit of a leap of faith.

What's a road trip without a McDonald's stop? Josh K. did the chicken nugget routine; I went with cheeseburgers. And yes, we did sing with our mouths full.

We made it out of New York, drove north through all of Connecticut, and finally made it to Massachusetts.

When we pulled up to Augusten's house his partner, Dennis, was out in the driveway washing the car. Dennis greeted us affably and Augusten came outside moments later, ushering us into the house. As we set up the camera and fitted Augusten with a mic we teased him about the domestic suburban bliss he had created for himself in Amherst. (And we teased, of course, because we were completely envious.)

The house was immaculate and well-decorated (his own handiwork, he reported). I wanted to dig into the rows and rows of books on his shelves, but instead we got down to business with the interview. (Check out the interview here.)

After the camera was off Josh and I stood around in the kitchen with Augusten and Dennis as their dogs, Bentley and Cow, snorted and huffed around our feet. It was kind of surreal to be standing in Augusten Burroughs's kitchen, chatting casually with him and his partner and playing with his dogs.

Josh K., Augusten, and Josh H., smiling for posterity.

How do you follow up all of that surreal fun and craziness? Why, you go to Target Amherst, of course, and load up on tons and tons of goodies. (Josh and I have a serious love thing going on with Target. Target totally had us at hello)

Like the classy boys we are, we followed up our shopping with pizzas at Target's food court. It's all glamor all the time, people.

As we set out on the three-and-a-half-hour drive I switched the iPod soundtrack from cardio to acoustic as the sun began to set and Josh and I zipped down the highway and back home to New York.

Get Swishy With It

So I just finished reading this great new book called Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever by Joel Derfner. It's a playful, wink-wink title for a book that's very, very funny, but also has an incredible amount of heart.

I read most of Swish on the subway, and I'm certain many of my fellow commuters were probably concerned about the state of my mental health as I read the book, because I not only regularly laughed out loud while reading it, but I also teared up and got all sniffley. Sometimes these things happened a few pages apart from each other, and then the cycle would repeat. Totally embarrassing, but totally true.

Joel's book of essays about his quest to become the gayest person ever, including (but not limited to) his mastery of knitting, cheerleading, musical theater, teaching aerobics, and casual sex, ends up being about those things, but also about so, so much more. In the end, Swish is an insightful, moving book that's skillfully interlaced with genuine comic brilliance, and as a whole is proof of the writer's true talent.

The book hits shelves today, and if you're in New York, you can catch Joel reading from Swish tonight at 7:30 at the Barnes & Noble on 8th Street and Sixth Avenue.

So, Just for the Record: Josh H. Is Single Again

Josh & Josh Interview Augusten Burroughs for Towleroad TV

Josh and I recently made the trek out to author Augusten Burroughs's home in Amherst, Massachusetts, to talk with him about his new, darker memoir, A Wolf at the Table, and about his hilarious project coming up that we kind of can't wait to get our hands on.

You can't just say something like that to her. Let me handle it. I'll tell her in my own way.

The best 5 seconds in American cinema.

//Josh K.

This Is Why I Love the Golden Compass Series...

...because in the third and last book of the series, The Amber Spyglass, which I just started reading, two anti-establishment fallen angels named Balthamos and Baruch aide in the quest to de-throne The Authority (a.k.a. God) and also just happen to be [cue drumroll] ...

GAY and IN LOVE:

"Baruch sat down beside his companion, and Will stirred the fire, so that a cloud of smoke drifted past the two of them. It had the effect of outlining their bodies so that he could see them both clearly for the first time. Balthamos was slender; his narrow wings were folded elegantly behind his shoulders, and his face bore an expression that mingled haughty disdain with a tender, ardent sympathy, as if he would love all things if only his nature could let him forget their defects. But he saw no defects in Baruch, that was clear. Baruch seemed younger, as Balthamos had said he was, and was more powerfully built, his wings snow-white and massive. He had a simpler nature; he looked up to Balthamos as to the fount of all knowledge and joy. Will found himself intrigued and moved by their love for each other."

Not bad for a kids book. Unfortunately, if the next two movies are as watered down as the first, this plotline will be conveniently glossed over.

//Josh K.