Folks who are familiar with The Transporter movies might be a bit shocked to learn (POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT) that Frank Martin (played by Jason Statham) has sex with a young Ukrainian girl named Valentina (played by Natalya Rudakova) in the latest installment of the franchise mainly because the act seems so out of character for Frank Martin. You see, according to Lou Letterier (who directed the first two Transporter movies), Frank is gay and always has been:

With Transporter 3 now in theatres, the director of the first two films is claiming the sex scenes between Transporter star Jason Statham and actress Natalya Rudakova in the latest installment are misleading — because the character Statham plays in the films is gay. Lou Letterier, who directed the first two films in the franchise, outed the character of Frank Martin in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “If you watch the movie and you know he’s gay, it becomes so much more fun. It’s so great — the first gay action movie hero!” He continued, “Action fans in general are pretty homophobic. You see these tough guys who say, ‘The Transporter, that’s such a great movie!’ If they only knew they’re really cheering for a new kind of action hero.” Letterier pointed to a scene in the second film in which a character played by model Amber Valetta makes a play for Martin, only to be rebuffed by the line “It’s because of who I am.” “That’s him coming out,” Letterier said. Though Letterier has yet to see the latest installment, which is directed by Oliver Megaton, he said he recently went back and watched the first films and realized they weren’t as gay as he had originally intended. “I was sick over the weekend and my 2 Transporters were on, so I watched them and in fact they aren’t that gay,” Leterrier wrote in an e-mail to the Times. “But it makes for fun movie legends.”

See … I knew there was a reason that I loved the Transporter movies so much. In Transporter 3, Valentina accuses Frank Martin of being “the gay” which he brutally rebuffs a couple of times … and then it is implied that couple have sex. I found that whole exchange really forced and not at all in character with the way Frank Martin usually operates in these films. To say that he is gay is also misleading … it is never really discussed and we never see Frank get romantic with anyone (except for this third movie and, as I said, we still don’t see anything happen). I quite love the idea of Frank Martin as a gay man … kickin’ ass as a bona fide action hero. It also puts all of those half-nekkid scenes of Jason Statham in fine context, I think. As I said the other day, I didn’t really love Transporter 3 … but I may have to get out my Transporter and Transporter 2 DVDs out for another look ;)

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Actor Tom Lenk, who some of y’all may know from his stint as Andrew Wells on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, has come out of the closet in the new issue of The Advocate magazine. After a failed attempt to come out publicly on the recently canceled FOX series Do Not Disturb, Tom is talking to The Advocate about his coming out. Here are a few pics of Tom in the mag and a report on his coming out from After Elton:

The latest issue of The Advocate features icon Harvey Milk on the cover, but a minor icon of geekdom, Tom Lenk (who played Andrew on Buffy the Vampire Slayer), also makes news by officially coming out in the issue … It probably doesn’t come as that big of a shock to fans of Buffy that Tom is gay, which probably isn’t fair, as no doubt Lenk is capable of playing a wide-range of characters. Nonetheless, Lenk pinged quite a few gaydars including Buffy creator Joss Whedon, who told The Advocate that Andrew hadn’t been planned as gay, but when Lenk auditioned they decided to take the character that way since “Tom has a bit of a fey thing going on in his persona that, you know, you can’t really deny.” … Lenk says his coming out now was supposed to be timed to coincide with his first television same-sex kiss. The Buffy alum had been cast as the boyfriend of Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s character on Fox’s Do Not Disturb. Alas for Lenk, DNR didn’t make it past its second episode before Fox showed mercy on us all and canceled the sitcom. Lenk also discusses his less-than-pleasant childhood growing up in Camarillo, California, a town north of Los Angeles, where he was “constantly tormented”, how theater was his escape, and how, post-Buffy, he learned his own management company was mocking him behind his back for being less than butch. Despite the setbacks, Lenk stays optimistic about his future. And as Whedon says about Lenk, “He’s very, very f**king talented.” Here is hoping Lenk finds the right vehicle to express that talent.

I have actually been very fortunate enough to know Tom for a couple of years now. We met casually just before I moved to LA and got to know each other very well since that time. He is seriously one of the funniest people I know. While I am very proud of him for stepping forward and coming out so publicly in this way, I’m not at all surprised that he decided to make this announcement in this way. It cannot be easy to consider that coming out as a gay person could greatly impact your livelihood but Tom is a resilient man and I am confident that his talent will outshine the simple matter of his sexuality. Folks who have been reading by blog for years may recall that I have talked at length about how much I love Tom‘s Buffy character Andrew. I still contend that Andrew and Anya (Emma Caufield) are the absolute funniest characters on BtVS. Much props and respect goes out to Tom Lenk for making this brave step out of the closet. I never thought it would be possible to care for my friend more … I guess I was wrong :)

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Anderson Cooper is featured on the cover of the new issue of The Advocate as the spokesmodel for the magazine’s coverstory on so-called “Silver Foxes”. The article talks about how a touch of grey (or an entire head of grey, as in Anderson‘s case) makes some older men the “objects of lust”. Here is The Coop‘s cover shot:

I have to say, I’m not normally a fan of the grey hair … that being said, I don’t really look at Anderson Cooper as a man with grey hair. Because it’s entirely silver, it just looks like a different hair color and not merely like grey hair. I think a touch of grey can add a bit of distinction to some men but not in every case. Whether or not such matters are worthy of an entire magazine coverstory is beside the point … I suppose the “age of the Silver Fox” needed to be discussed at some point. Who else but Anderson Cooper would be chosen as the spokesmodel? After all, wasn’t the term Silver Fox named after him?

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