"Glambert" = Good Television

BY COLIN MURPHY

With no end to the recession in sight, Americans of every stripe and financial standing seem to be tightening the proverbial belt. Alas, many of us are turning to affordable forms of entertainment to help take our minds off of the daily grind of financial worry.

During the Great Depression and World War II, movies were a perfect opportunity to escape for a couple of hours. But today, with digital cable and 24-hour television, we find ourselves tuning in to "tune out" to reality television. It's ubiquitous and infectious, vegetable-escapism.

I recently fell back in love with American Idol; the preeminent, pop-culture juggernaut where a hand picked group of wannabe songsters square off; are applauded or excoriated by a panel of judges, and then voted on by the viewing public who decides whether or not they should continue on for another week.

I'm watching this season for a couple of reasons. First (and this gives me a lot of pleasure), I tune in to watch the herculean efforts of Paula Abdul to keep it together and sound smarter and more insightful than her soon-to-be-replacement, Kara DioGuardi, who producers have mischievously sat right beside her. Frankly, I miss the crazy, spastic, and incoherent Paula and if she leaves the show I swear I'll never watch again. (Well, I sort of swear.)

I'm also watching because I'm intrigued by contestant, Adam Lambert. He's the quasi-out, California native who recenlty hit the boards in Wicked and could very well be the love-child of Freddy Mercury and Adam Ant.

Adam has a real shot at becoming the first "openly gay" American Idol and while that might not seem important in the grand scheme of things--the fact is we're talking about pop-culture's stamp of approval, and that's significant.

For full disclosure, I have no personal insight on whether Adam Lambert is or is not gay. But hey--I have eyes and ears and my gaydar works just fine. I've watched the YouTube videos where he says of kissing a female cast member, "not my preference" and I've devoured the pictures of him in glam-drag and making out with an adorable dude.

So yes, I think it's safe to say that Adam "was out" in a really big way, and what's more AI producers know this. That's why this season is so interesting. There's a real possibility that they're not going to dance around the big pink elephant in the room this year. It's undeniable that they are promoting Adam and there wasn't a peep when the aforementioned pictures of the overnight heart throb hit the web. If producers were alarmed there would have been a statement of some kind.

AI remains the number one show of its kind after eight seasons and has only recently seemed willing to embrace its gay contestants. I suppose it didn't hurt that season two runner up, Clay Aiken finally came out or that my beloved Paula has gone on record in interviews that she thinks it's time for a gay idol. Indeed, we've come a long way since season one's, Jim Verraros had to creep back into the closet, keep quiet, and erase his online gay presence. Now they might have thought about trying this with Adam Lambert--but really--he loves the camera too much and all of the King's horses and all of the King's men couldn't scrub his omnipresence from the Internet.

Adam Lambert is great television because he's a decent guy with a tremendous talent who just happens to have a chance at making pop-culture history. Now the powers that be could really do this right--actually let him say something about who he is on the bio reels or maybe give that boyfriend of his a prominent seat in the crowd. But even if they don't, there are sign's that Adam is not going to make it easy for them to ignore him. Just look at how he sang the hell out of M.J.'s, "Black and White"--he was fierce and fashionable--and practically stopped the song when he raised his ebony-polished fingernail to the crowd and crooned E-Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y.

Regardless of how far Adam Lambert is prepared to go on AI in terms of his visability the fact that he isn't hiding and is winning the hearts and votes of the American viewing public is a contribution to queer visibility. For being seen and being heard is where it all begins.

America seems to be watching Adam. Take it and run.

You can email Colin Murphy at colin_murphy@sbcglobal.net