Oh God! Bradley Cooper and Matt Bomer will play lovers in the Leonard Bernstein biopic!

Were Matt Damon and Ben Affleck not availabe?

Nobody in the history of mankind ever wanted this.

Yawn.

I just want to see the scenes of Cooper as Bernstein loudly farting in his tighty-whities at breakfast on CPW as his wife Felicia and children are horrified but say nothing.

The Variety article says he will depict a clarinet player who was one of Bernstein’s conquests

Is that just an unflattering picture or has Cooper aged into Michael Sheen?

I hope Simon made him sign a prenup

I’m having trouble seeing Bradley Cooper being commanding with a 17-inch baton.

That’s actually the rare photo where Cooper looks his half-Italian heritage

More straight actors taking gay roles away from gay actors!

Oh, wait . . .

I wonder who will play Barbara Walters at the infamous Radical Chic party?

Didnt know much about him but according to wikipedia he had a long relationship with a Japanese guy. Who's playing him?

Scarlett Johanssen

Isn't this casting a blatant example of Jewface?

First step to come out ?

Wow, two good-looking guys with zero sex appeal

[quote] Isn't this casting a blatant example of Jewface?

Cooper is half-Italian and Italians and Jews (and Armenians) are allowed to play each other per the Motion Picture Code of 1931.

Cooper just had to make this film because he was obsessed with being “a conductor” as a kid.

Sure Jan.

R12, it was supposed to be Mickey Rooney but the film kept getting pushed. You know, because of Covid.

^ Just like he was obsessed with playing the piano, obsessed with Lady Gaga, obsessed with Victor... Oops

A friend of mine circulated some in NYC artistic circles in the 1970s. He was Dominican by background. He told me he was at a dinner party with Leonard Bernstein and the Adolph Greens and LB kept grabbing his crotch under the table. LB was totally drunk at the time. My friend wasn't interested, but I think he later regretted that he didn't do it just once so he could brag about who he had fucked ..... which phrase I use only because my friend was a total top, at last with me when we had a brief fling.

[quote] I’m having trouble seeing Bradley Cooper being commanding with a 17-inch baton.

Bernstein rarely conducted with a baton.

"I’m having trouble seeing Bradley Cooper being commanding with a 17-inch baton."

You should see him with a 9 inch dick (power bottom vibe)

I will not be paying to see this movie.

Bernstein was clever on the podium but a groyzam ekldik balagan in his private life.

[quote] I will not be paying to see this movie.

Well it’s on Netflix so if you’re a subscriber like most people are, you already are.

[quote] so if you’re a subscriber like most people are

I'm not. I don't know which to choose.

And I don't want to pay up just for one show.

The casting of Bomer who reads as a nice, clean and age-appropriate (44 to Cooper’s 47) homosexual says a lot about how the movie will sanitize Bernstein’s homosexuality, with Bernstein having been by all accounts quite high on the Kevin Spacey scale of gross gay lechery.

Live a little, R26. Subscribe to one for a month or two and then switch it out to another.

Matt Bomer still looks fantastic, but he's right at the cusp of aging out of pretty-boy roles.

He’s aged out of them for quite some time. He looks very much in his 40s.

^ He looks like a pretty boy with a greying beard, but not a single wrinkle on his face

Cooper looks like Zac Efron in that Variety pic, and not in a good way.

I'm only doing this so I can hump Matt Bomer

Bradley Cooper looks like Batman's Penguin.

Looks like movie will focus on "the complex love of Leonard and Felicia" so I'm guessing the gay stuff will be secondary

Who asked for THAT focus!???

[quote] Looks like movie will focus on "the complex love of Leonard and Felicia

That's what they did in that painful Kevin Kline version of Cole Porter's life.

He was married to her for nearly 30 years.

It’s a very odd focus indeed as the marriage had nothing to do with Bernstein’s genius and Felicia is little remembered. I expect it will produce some kind of tortured logic that Bernstein’s genius was a result of being torn between a heterosexual and homosexual world.

In reality, Bernstein was a vigorously promiscuous gay man who entered into a marriage of convenience largely for the sake of his fame and career.

Bernstein supposedly did his best work when he suppressed his bisexuality. Is that the theme of the movie?

Bernstein did his best work when he had strong collaborators.

He made a kaleidoscopic mess called 'Mass' in 1971. It was like a re-run of 'Hair' with about 5 minutes of strong music in two hours running time.

Brown chicken brown cow

What do you mean, R42?

Who gets Top billing?

2 bottoms do not 1 top make.

[quote]That’s actually the rare photo where Cooper looks his half-Italian heritage

Have you never seen Northern Italians? Cooper looks a lot like them.

r39 is correct. Bernstein was gay. Period. He married a woman for his career and also it was just the times he lived in. Gay people got married to the opposite sex and stayed closeted (or as closeted as they had to be) in those times. That was just the way it was.

Matt looks too waxy femme

Bomer has had too many procedures, his face looks plastic.

LOL, he looks the same as he always did. Some people are jealous

R50,not really

[quote]That's what they did in that painful Kevin Kline version of Cole Porter's life.

That Kevin Kline biopic was every bit as fake in its own way as the Cary Grant and Alexis Smith (Follies!) biopic of Porter, "Night and Day." (Casting Cary Grant as Porter, who looked like a toad, was hilarious in and of itself.) At least the Cary Grant version had the excuse of having been made in 1946.

You really think bomer has had more than Botox?

R51 = definitely jealous

Lots of lasers and Juviderm r53. Too much

If they have gay sex scenes - yes, I will watch it! Otherwise, no.

[quote] Have you never seen Northern Italians? Cooper looks a lot like them.

That doesn’t check out since Cooper’s mother’s heritage is Abruzzo and Naples.

r57 Cooper still looks like a lot of Northern Italians. Many are fair and blue eyed.

[quote] Porter, who looked like a toad,

Now I can’t unsee it.

R58 Do most Northern Italiano look like Furetto?

Do Northern Italians look like weasels with bad plastic surgery?

Oh this sounds delightful - Bradley bones Boner.

I forget how provincial many DLers are.

yasssss

I get that Boomer is trying to seem warm and approachable in OP's picture, but what is going on with that mouth?

R65 That's his Mona Lisa smile.

Cooper is not aging well. In reality, Bomer is way out of his league.

I noted in that Imdb link that Jeremy Strong will play John Gruen. Who was John Gruen?

Every year Bradley Cooper looks more and more like he's getting ready to play the Barry Manilow biopic

Oh Duckling, how could you?

I’m curious… what does Bradley really want out of life at this point? To raise his daughter? To fuck around? To settle down with his own Matt Bomer? Or to find another Irina?

Who cares what a celebrity wants?

[quote] Or to find another Irina?

That must be it! I think Irina was the love of his life!

Here you go R68:

Who will play Alan Titus, who got the coveted role in Bernstein's "Mass" by not just singing for Bernstein apparently, from what a well-known by very gossipy voice teacher told one of his students who passed it on to everybody.

WIll Cooper as Bernstein pick his nose on those tv lecture broadcasts?

Watch Hollywood fuck this one up too by downplaying the gay reality of this actual gay man, and frame the sexuality angle as some sort of internal "struggle".

And Cooper playing Bernstein? Oh, the irony...

Can't wait to hear Bomer say, "Bye Felicia!!!"

[quote]Cooper is not aging well. In reality, Bomer is way out of his league.

In reality, Bomer married a leathery Roddy McDowall lookalike 15 years his senior.

Lmao r79 Jesus

Precious little Duckling

Bomer at Billie Lourd’s wedding

His face which was looking better (with age lines) looks tightened again and he’s dying his temples

Old Mr Peabody is wearing a rumpled oversized suit and sneakers, I will give him credit for not giving a shit anymore

And here I thought the duckling troll had finally kicked the bucket.

Remember when Matt Bomer was going to make a Montgomery Clift movie?

I'm sorry, I'm sure Matt is a sweet guy, but I just can't get excited by someone who looks like a Ken doll

He isn’t not a strong enough actor to pull off Clift

Richard Madden I heard was interested in making one, and he’d be a much better portrayer

Bomer is beautiful and seems like a kind person. I hope there are sex scenes.

Unfortunately when this movie comes out we won't be able to have a real discussion of it - or Leonard Bernstein - because of the obsessed Bomer trolls on here.

Instead, we should be discussing Bradley's bad plastic surgery and obvious gayness

[quote]so I'm guessing the gay stuff will be secondary

Matt Bomer's character is referred to as a "clarinet player." His character isn't even important enough to be named off the bat.

The articles on it make it pretty clear that the story will focus on the " “beautifully complex story of the marriage between Bernstein and his wife”.

It's going to be sanitized as hell.

Bernstein was a lecherous gay man who was a total chicken hawk. He liked 'em young. I doubt that's the story we're going to be getting from Cooper.

R90 I guess that tracks since Cooper is a closet case. Maybe he can relate because of “the beautifully complex story” he has with that Russian whore beard he contracted to birth his kid.

R91, did he like underage guys or just barely legal twinks?

Young men r93 but of legal age. Twinky guys in their 20s.

[quote] He isn’t not a strong enough actor to pull off Clift

Bomer is more than capable.

[quote] Richard Madden I heard was interested in making one, and he’d be a much better portrayer

Personally, Madden looks nothing like Clift (unlike Bomer). He's a decent actor, but I don't see him pulling that off.

Totally disagree r95. If Madden's hair was dark brown he'd look far more like Monty than Matt does. Matt's face is too boyish, sweet and callow. Not a lot of soul like Monty and Madden. It's mostly in the eyes and jawline. And the nose, for that matter.

[quote] Bernstein was a lecherous gay man who was a total chicken hawk. He liked 'em young. I doubt that's the story we're going to be getting from Cooper.

[quote] Young men [R93] but of legal age. Twinky guys in their 20s.

R91 R94 then this is a role Richard Madden would be perfect for.

OMG this would have been the perfect role for FROY

R96 I think Matt's face has matured quite a bit, and I think he absolutely has 'soul' (which I honestly don't feel as much from Madden's work). Personally, I can just see Bomer pulling off the sensibility of Clift rather than Madden...but hey, to each their own. (Neither would probably get the Clift role anyway if it was to be made).

Anyway, back to Bernstein. Funnily enough, I could see someone like Madden pulling off Bernstein far better than Cooper, though. I've never understood the appeal of Cooper, even going back to the Alias days.

Montgomery Clift was a brilliant actor and a complex personality with a ton of charisma. Matt Bomer is not very talented, has no personality and no charisma. He's a Ken doll.

Matt is a very good actor. Which is why he got into the acting program at Carnegie Mellon. Not sure why the Clift stuff is relevant since he's too old to play him now, anyway

I feel Matt Bomer does have a personality but keeps it private. He's very guarded about his personal life and is probably self-conscious of the fact he is gay which could affect how he is perceived thus purposely puts on a perfect persona to compensate. Also Bomer seemed to have a pretty normal life and upbringing. Very good-looking white guy from an upper middle-class, a high jock, who didn't struggle too much apart from his sexuality though even in 90s Evangelical Texas, there were plenty of safe spaces and a strong gay community to find refuge. Montgomery Clift's complexity came from his tumultuous upbringing, living through Great Depression and WW2 (that hardened many), his untreated mental illness and living in a time where being gay was seen as disease which resulted in intense self-loathing. I don't think they have anything in common and the role is beyond Matt's ability.

Bradley Cooper has always had a creepy quality to him. I could imagine him as a sociopath. Not saying he is, just that I could see him being one. There's always been something "off" about him to me.

R103 Yep. His smile and his big open eyes are so creepy. He looks like a serial killer. I never found BC attractive in the slightest. Straight women love him though.

Some gays here hate on Matt Bomer for reasons I don't get. I agree he's vanilla and a limited actor but he's absolutely beautiful and sexy. He seems nice, courteous and intelligent. And I think his asexual Ken doll persona is actually by choice and not his true self. If he did play up his sex appeal, it would limit him even more in regards to roles. I think some bitter queens are mad that Matt has a well-off partner, is well-adjusted despite being gay and is very professional. It's very hard to find anything bad at Bomer.

Bomer just isn't interesting at all.

Honestly so is most of modern Hollywood though. Why should a gay actor be different than the straight ones?

*

[quote] Montgomery Clift's complexity came from his tumultuous upbringing, living through Great Depression and WW2 (that hardened many), his untreated mental illness and living in a time where being gay was seen as disease which resulted in intense self-loathing. I don't think they have anything in common and the role is beyond Matt's ability.

Who in modern Hollywood is going to have the background to play that according to your standard?

And if you don't mind my sayin' so There's not a man alive Who could hope to measure up to that blend'a Paul Bunyan, Saint Pat and Noah Webster You've got concocted for yourself Outta your Irish imagination, Your Iowa stubbornness, And your liberry fulla' books!

The vast majority of successful actors in Hollywood get by by simply being competent and agreeable onscreen and Bomer is no exception. However for a role as synonymous with torment as Montgomery Clift, you would want an actor who can go beyond the basic requirements of competent and agreeable and I don’t think Bomer could do that. I saw Eternals at the big Metreon screen in San Francisco and Richard Madden really projected that special star quality on the giant IMAX screen, and that’s something you would want if you were going to do justice to Clift. Otherwise it’s like when Jennifer Love Hewitt played Audrey Hepburn.

However there is no Clift movie in the works now so it’s silly to continue this argument.

As far as Cooper’s “creepy” quality, I agree he has one, but it’s an asset and allows him to play intense, difficult people. Other actors with this same quality have included Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino and of course Marlon Brando.

^ and Timothée Chalamet and Adam Driver for contemporary actors

Does Bradley have small skull compared to rest of body?

Additionally to piggyback on R90’s comment I also noticed that by reducing Bomer’s character to simply “clarinet player” it does sort of flesh out an unglamorous niche he’s fallen into in the Hollywood ecosystem, basically someone they cast when they want a gay actor who can do an agreeable but tame nude scene and then exit stage left, basically established with his role in Magic Mike. Someone crueler and wittier than I said that this made Bomer’s ass “more famous than his acting” and the trend continued in roles like AHS and the Boys in the Band, latter of which managed to get him to take off his pants in the first five minutes and then do nothing the rest of the movie (except for a quick flashback scene, where, again, he took off his pants),

So goes the trials and travails of poor lil Duckling.

"LOL, he looks the same as he always did. Some people are jealous"

Good Lord. You missed the point completely. Nobody "looks the same" as they ever did - nor should they. Those who do, via botox and filler look lifeless and uninteresting.

R144 this is all true but I’m not complaining. He’s got a nice ass.

R117 can apparently see into the future.

Oh dear!!! Sorry meant R114.

I will also add that the only single instance I can think of where Matt Bomer has been named checked in scripted media was an episode of Difficult People where Andrea Martin razzed Ryan Murphy’s AHS for managing to make “Lady Gaga and Matt Bomer’s naked ass boring.” So his industry reputation indeed appears to reflect the ass over acting quote.

R108, why do you have to share someone's background to play them in a movie? It's called acting

But you have to know their pain, r121. The kind of pain Monty suffered cannot be imagined by a pretty boy who's had everything handed to him because of his looks.

Tom Cruise is too old now. But he knows a lot of pain and self-loathing. Of course he would have never played Monty Clift in a biopic because it would have basically outed him.

R122, please, like Monty wasn't a pretty boy. It's not like there aren't actors who haven't experienced addiction or mental illness

Bomer's got the feminized body...narrow shoulders and birthing thighs. Looks like an aging lesbian.

Looking forward to this movie. Hope there’ll be lots of sex between the two onscreen

Bomer is about 25 years too old to play the kind of twinks Bernstein went after. I once watched as Lenny destroyed an entire tomato garden chasing after, and then nailing, a 16 year old.

R127 I was also thinking that a more realistic casting would probably be someone like the kid from Umbrella Academy

R122

Matt Bomer is one of the most talented Ken Doll actors ever. He also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout his life. Despite that, he has a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay people were not oppressed that badly anymore but it’s still no picnic, they identified with his struggles and he theirs.

R105 Who DO you consider interesting, and why?

How exactly did Bomer earn the nickname Duckling?

^ He quacks when you fuck him

R131 after he was photographed in a panicked state trying to cross the street across the Boston Public Garden

Does Simon do pills?

Yes bomer’s family - especially his father - sound intense. I don’t think everything has been easy for him.

R134 = noob

Who's Simon?

Matt Bomer is fuckable.

R136 the tall chipmunk in blue

Bradley Cooper is so fucking pretentious. He and Gaga should fake marry.

Matt Bomer's ass is so smooth. He's pink inside.

Henry Cavill is the rugged version of Matt Bomer if that tells you anything.

The best description someone once gave of Matt Bomer is that he was Henry Cavill put thru a pencil sharpener

Bomer is 44 and should stop with the ageless treatments because he would be a handsome and "youthful" middle aged guy. If he keeps this up, he'll be creepy as Jared Leto.

More like through a tube of lube, r140.

Henry Cavill isn't rugged, he's just addicted to steroids

Yay! Can't wait to see them suck each other off. Nice.

Bomer likes the cock?

Off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the ASS I fucked Matt Bomer one whole summer!

^ Does Matt know about this?

[quote]Bomer likes the cock?

Are you posting from 2009? The "Simon" referenced in this thread is his husband, Simon Halls, to whom he's been married since 2011.

When this movie is released we need two threads - one for the Bomer loons, and one for posters who want a serious discussion of the film, Leonard Bernstein, and his work.

It appears Boomer is playing Tom Cothran, a music director in San Francisco (and clarinet player) whom Bernstein had a long affair with in the 70's. Not sure why they aren't using his real name.

I really hope they recreate this 1980 father-daughter dance, using "Can't Stop the Music" on the soundtrack.

Will Bernstein's Dakota neighbor (and raging cunt) Lauren Bacall be portrayed in this movie?

Leonard is one ugly man. Did he ever have a dewy period?

I saw a talk given by Bernstein’s daughter Jamie, on the publication of her book about her father. She stated that one day Lenny announced to the family that he was moving in with a man. She added that everything was always about Lenny, always.

I can see BC doing that, even showing Lenny as the out of control drinker/chain smoker.

But I don’t think it’s going to be an interesting movie.

Also, isn’t there another Lenny bio movie in the works?

Tom Cothran was thirty years Bernstein’s junior, so if he is playing him, that’s a hell of a whitewashing.

Reading about Bernstein’s affairs, it appears he enjoyed the pedagogical aspect (and power differential) of dating much younger men. So that would be an incredibly important aspect to depict if they were going to make an honest movie about him. Gaining up Cothran would be the equivalent of making a movie about Woody Allen and casting an actress to play Soon Yi the same age as the star. (Woody/Soon Yi age difference is 35 years, close to Bernstein/Cothran).

R153=idiot

@r153, "Leonard is one ugly man. Did he ever have a dewy period? "

I don't know about "dewy", but he definitely had a sticky period

I think he was handsome when he was younger, but BC looks nothing like him at any age. Jake Gyllenhaal would be great.

Jesus Christ no one cares what Leonard Bernstein looked like

^ I guarantee you no one is going to care about this movie, period

I wonder if Bomer and Evan Peters ever hooked up.

I think that's Broadway star, Tony Winner, Goodson & Todman panelist and Bernstein chum and upper west side neighbor Phyllis Newman (Mrs. Adolph Green) in that photo at r151. Don't know why it would be mis-labeled.

To all the ones up thread talking about someone playing Montgomery Clift. There is no star alive capable of playing our Monty. There are none as beautiful as he was. Who can also be as strong yet vulnerable? There is no one who can capture him in a biopic. If he ever gets a big screen one I hope it is a Sissy Spacek as Loretta, or a Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye, not a Nicole as Lucy. And, I just don't see a known person who could do it.

MJ Rodriguez for Monty!

[quote] I guarantee you no one is going to care about this movie, period

Only 5% of current movie-going public care about classical music, conductors or musicians.

I'm sure there are plenty who could play Clift but they just aren't any of our current big stars. They need to cast a real trained actor, preferably an unknown.

No one can play Clift in a way to satisfy all the love-struck Dataloungers (they will be infuriated as those love-struck frauen whining over this new skinny kid pretending to be Elvis).

It only has a chance (with Maddern, perhaps) in a short study of Monty in his ghastly 1960s twilight years when every film of his was a failure.

I could actually see Jacob Elordi playing Clift. They bear a passing resemblance.

I have the feeling that Bomer is playing some kind of amalgam of a bunch of Lenny's lovers in this one so they can just gloss right over the homosex part and focus on the "great and complex love story" of him and Felicia.

I wonder if this movie will actually contain any music-making?

Hollywood is so greedy and too hung up on name recognition to make easy money. There's so many talented actors who trained their whole lives but will never get their big break because studios have gotten so conservative and prefer to hire celebrities with a brand rather than unknown talent. I'm sure people are sick of seeing the same few famous people in every big production.

Exactly r171!

Can't believe I'm the first to ask, but who's playing Steve Sondheim?

r169, much like De-Lovely did with Cole Porter

[quote] [R108], why do you have to share someone's background to play them in a movie? It's called acting

R121 Exactly. Thank you. That's what I was getting at. It's called "acting" for a reason.

What was Montgomery Clift other than a rich pampered pretty boy anyway? Yes, a fine actor and tortured soul. But his background was not tragic. He indulged himself in being beautiful - then he indulged himself in the loss of it. A drunk drug addict difficult petulant unreliable mess. Sad life yes - but even his most loyal friends deserted him. He was too needy and weird.

Matt Bomer is TOO handsome and normal to play Montgomery Clift actually. Justin Theroux would have have once been a good choice. Or one of those hawk nosed Calvin Klein Models.

Montgomery Clift is a legend. I doubt anyone will know who Matt Bomer was 60 years from now.

[quote]Montgomery Clift is a legend. I doubt anyone will know who Matt Bomer was 60 years from now.

Which has exactly nothing to do with whether Bomer could have played him.

Wonder if this movie will actually get made? Bomer has been in “in talks” for several projects which haven’t gone anywhere.

That photo of Matt Bomer at R82 was the first public appearance he’s made in a quite awhile. He’s been very quiet on Twitter and Instagram too.

[...]

Bomer may be gay, but he plays straight rather convincingly. A little too convincingly for my taste.

R180 after he wrapped the Netflix show he shot in January he posted this

Per the recent photo he had had quite a bit of work done which would explain his low profile

^ Yes, nobody his age is that absolutely wrinkle free

It's also lighting and facetuning for instagram.

A léonard Bernstein biopic? Someone will invest MONEY making this? It has FLOP written all over it. They could cast Paul Rudd (sexy jew) as Bernstein and Brandon Flynn (he's half jew isn't he?) as the young lover and it would STILL FLOP. Nobody cares.

[quote] A léonard Bernstein biopic? Someone will invest MONEY making this? It has FLOP written all over it. They could cast Paul Rudd (sexy jew) as Bernstein and Brandon Flynn (he's half jew isn't he?) as the young lover and it would STILL FLOP. Nobody cares.

AGAIN

IT IS ON NETFLIX AND IT DOESN’T HAVE TO MAKE MONEY

ah ok. but does NETFLIX make mini series or telepics just for shits and giggles?

R188 Sort of. They just need to constantly have new content. It doesn't have to be a hit just new.

r24: A what?

Netflix needs to be the content LEADER

To do this, they are giving A List talent green lights to provide content for projects which probably would have poor theatrical prospects

Their gamble is that they will win award nominations and that will give Netflix prestige and convince more people to subscribe

Lenny left Felicia for Tom Cothran and they lived together briefly before Felicia's cancer was diagnosed and Lenny moved back into the house in Westport.

I hope nobody's playing Sondheim. They weren't collaborators at the time the action takes place, and I don't think they were ever lovers.

That photo doesn't show a Bernstein daughter; it's Phyllis Newman.

r20 Cooper looks so different here before all the surgery!

Watch Bomer in The Normal Heart. He's not acting. Ruffalo is acting.

Is it clear that the bio-pic will only cover the period leading up to Felicia's death? I'd be surprised if there aren't lots of flashbacks to earlier times with brief scenes of West Side Story and even earlier of the creations of On the Town, Wonderful Town (who'll play Roz?) and Candide.

I sure hope it covers the Black Panthers party Lenny threw, covered in Tom Wolfe's Radical Chic.

Well, maybe, r195, but I thought the focus of the movie was on the marriage during its last years. I doubt it will cover the Radical Chic party, since that was so uncomplimentary. I expect Cooper is romanticizing Bernstein--how else would he have gotten Jamie's enthusiastic cooperation?

R180 That was 2 months ago. He used to post 3-4 times a month, not all pictures of him, either. Maybe he’s been busy just living his life.

I don’t see much difference between that photo from January and this one.. Obviously, actors are going to try to enhance their appearance, though.

Anybody know when that series Echoes will air?

Oops, R183 posted the Instagram photo from January.

Bomer is 45 years old. He posts an appropriate amount on social media. He isn't desperate like NPH and his husband who post themselves in bathing suits as though they were 24 years old and not middle-aged parents. Or Bruce Bozzi who posts himself shirtless regularly and is what - in his 60s?

Say what you want about Bomer's acting, but good for him for laying low on instagram and twitter.

Boomer is quite good looking, but he has the same sexless blank stare as Gio's husband (Tommy something).

[quote]amalgam of a bunch of Lenny's lovers in this one so they can just gloss right over the homosex part and focus on the "great and complex love story" of him and Felicia.

We have to keep Bradley's, "A Star is Born" audience satisfied. They might tolerate a long gay stare, maybe even a single gay kiss followed by violence and emotional torture, perhaps even a flash of gay ass from the side but at the end of the day it's Bradley with a WOMAN they want to see and that's what they shall have.

[quote]He isn't desperate like NPH and his husband who post themselves in bathing suits as though they were 24 years old and not middle-aged parents.

I find them both annoying but there's nothing wrong with them posting themselves in bathing suits.

It's not like they're running around in speedos with visible dick prints.

It's obvious they take care of themselves and the photos aren't meant to be sexual. They're meant to say, "I live a life where I can be at the beach all day!"

Matt Bomer appeared to have more sex appeal when young. I'm thinking he became super guarded due to insecurity about his sexuality and fear of being read as gay especially when he was on White Collar. Most of his fanbase was horny middle-aged ladies and he was their pretend boyfriend. I think even now that's he's out, he still can't put the guard down and be vulnerable. He plays gay roles now, so he can at least try to express more.

He reminds me of Matt Dallas who similarly had this detached fake smile during his Kyle XY days. He appeared on Kathy Griffin's show as a queeny waiter but butched up for Kyle XY and pretended to be straight and "looking for a girl." But once Dallas came out and began making househusband videos with his slightly older sugar daddy husband and their adorable adopted son, he showed a goofy vulnerable side.

R202 his dick print is pretty visible here….

[quote] Matt Bomer appeared to have more sex appeal when young.

Because his sex appeal was the result of millions of dollars of USA Network marketing as well as a show which investing its continued success into maintaining his desirability as the embodiment of the program’s appeal. So now we’re back to the subject of genuine star quality, which as several posters above have mentioned vis a vis the Clift movie, he does not have. The spark is not there. Ergo, a career defined by taking off his pants.

And from a purely prurient perspective, his thread on LPSG going back to 2009 is a mere 12 pages. The thread for his doppelgänger Henry Cavill? 455 pages. And Cavill is not a strong actor and deeply flawed as a celebrity, but, the spark is there.

I still think a lot of that is related to be married to one of the top PR people in the business. He is so calculated about anything he reveals and how he acts in public - we really have no clue what he’s like in real life. Add onto that the childhood with strict conservative religious parents and staying closeted until his 20s? Expert at hiding his true self. So who knows?

Those old leaked photos of him frenching that ex-bf seem like a different person. He must have been pissed when that happened.

Cavill is also enormously private and a complete social media bore, but the difference is that Cavill can assemble a gaming PC on Instagram and it will trend at the top 10 on Twitter because he is a star. Bomer just does not have “it”. Ergo, reduced to scenery. His ass should be in the props budget.

Hate to use the examples of Magic Mike XXL and Boys in the Band again, but these were movies where he receives top billing but in which he does nothing. He’s just there.

This is just hypothesizing, but I think the appeal of marrying Simon Halls for him was that he thought he would have someone who would say or do everything for him in Hollywood, but obviously that relationship has not extended to Halls going through his scripts and writing red notes in the margin and sending it back asking for better material.

Did someone really suggest 6’5” Jacob Elordi for Monty Clift? Will he perform on his knees?

So many Hollywood male actors have no sex appeal to me. I don't think straight male moviegoers are thinking about the sexiness of the male leads but rather how entertaining they are to watch and how rugged and cool they are. If they are goodlooking that's a bonus because everyone prefers to watch an attractive person on the big screen.

I think being bland and boring is part of being a celebrity because you want to be this blank slate. Also vain narcissists who seek attention aren't interesting people. So I don't get the insults on this site about certain actors. I think his famous you get is really about luck and audience reception. It's a lottery.

Millions of biopics exist on Elvis, James Dean, Picasso, Marilyn Monroe, MLK and Jackie Kennedy played by various well-known actors or complete unknowns. So I don't get the obsession with Monty Clift's biopic being perfect. Biopics are never accurate and prioritize entertainment over facts. Better off reading a written biography or watching a documentary.

R208-Apparently, Monty often performed on his knees.

^ Monty didn't like the back door action after his accident. It destroyed the fresh beauty of his once perfect hole. Getting fucked made him sad.^

Looks like the nurses at the nuthouse gave r212 internet access for a little while.

Bomer reacting to your criticism.

He has love, money and fame. What have you got?

R215 Wrong thread?

I don’t know anything about movie making so I have some questions about OP’s article:

[quote] Pic will be produced by Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger and Fred Berner and Amy Durning. In his directorial followup to A Star Is Born, Cooper will star as Bernstein, and produce from the script he co-wrote with Oscar-winning Spotlight scribe Josh Singer.

So who is really producing this? Scorsese and Spielberg are impressive names, but would they really have anything to do with it?

[quote] Netflix had no comment.

Who made this announcement? Does “in early talks” mean they’re thinking about it or they’re working out the details?

[quote] There’s two different ones in development. Cooper’s one, unlike Gyllenhaal’s, has the rights to use Bernstein’s music.

So if Cooper has the rights and all these people are associated with the film, it will probably get made?

Finally, how long after an announcement like this does it take for the finished product to be shown?

I read a while ago that Gyllenhaal has dropped his project. I don't understand why Jamie B. and her siblings are supporting Cooper's film, but they are. Probably WSS won't be part of the movie, as I can't believe the Sondheim executors/trustees would be in a big rush to grant rights to the lyrics.

R217 I thought Scorcese and Spielberg would be listed as Executive Producer (who has much less to do with the film than producer) although IMDB says they are producers (although IMDB can be wrong)

Steven Spielberg EPs many movies which he has only minimum creative involvement in. The producer is the actual big cheese on the production and is the person who gets the Best Picture Oscar.

Also for a picture like this, casting of tertiary roles which it’s obviously as relates to Bomer is usually the last step before it goes into production. If they're filling out the cast now, I would imagine an April or May start date with at earliest a December release.

Thank you R220!

Wait, Jake is doing a Bernstein movie, too? LOL. All the "straight" actors sure are intrigued by Lenny

No, r222, he is not. He was, but he's abandoned it.

Jake Gyllenhaal is a far better actor than Cooper and much better suited to play Bernstein. Neither movie would be of any interest. It's not a musical. What do you expect - Make My Garden Grow?

Make My Asshole Stretch

How would it be possible not to have music? R217 says Cooper has obtained the rights.

In an interview with Stephen Colbert on his talk show, Cooper stated he was personally selected to direct the film by Spielberg

Leonard Bernstein had a prominent nose and manic eyes.

So does this Cooper.

"Bradley, you're the perfect director for this material. Who else would understand Bernstein but a huge queen like you?"

Personally selected? A likely story. Unless the Bernstein children said they'd only cooperate with him.

I'm sure Cooper gave Bernstein's heirs the same assurances Travolta provided Bill Clinton when he portrayed him in Primary Colors. Quid Pro Quo Clarice. That's why Cooper got the green light. He'll posit what is sexuality anyway? Passion, exploration, creativity. MUSIC

The Bernstein children’s involvement is such a turn off to me.

The whole thing is very strange. Like why would you want to see a film about your parents marriage, which was defined by your father constantly cheating on your mother with men? Lest of all directed and starring an actor who is understood to be himself a deeply closeted gay or bisexual man? I would want any sort of biopic to focus on my father’s work with the marriage/philandering far in the background.

Again this is where the curse of the biopic comes in, what is essentially a very awkward attempt to make a person’s life gel with the expectations of a classical two hour narrative. “Well Lenny had a very long career and we can’t make a nice elegant movie about that, so let’s just make it about his marriage that no one cares about.”

I would hope since this is Netflix there is a chance to maybe pivot to a limited series where they can explore different parts of his career alongside his marriage and affairs in the background. But a film centered on his marriage starring a closeted gay man seems like a deeply uncomfortable sit thru and will not get the industry love that Bradley so desperately wants.

This whole thing is a kind of folie a deux between Cooper and Jamie Bernstein. Cooper fancies himself a maestro--he's spoken about it; Jamie Bernstein, more so than her siblings, is just completely enmeshed in her father's fame and public persona--read her book "Famous Father Girl" to get a picture of her in her own words. She just can't get past her parents' celebrity and her own imagined celebrity and importance. Now that Sonheim's dead she hardly misses an opportunity to claim him, too. I suspect she was more careful about it when he was alive.

Folie à deux: brutal

I love it

"Let's see. I'd like a sandwich please. A couple slices of turkey and a little ham, on white bread with mayo. Oh, and a couple of those little pickles on the side."

I don’t think most moviegoers are as obsessed with actors’ sexuality as Datalounge is. It’s just not something they think a lot about. They’re more interested in the quality of acting and the story being told.

Did Matt Bomer ever fuck pussy?

R238 Don’t think so. He dated women a little, but apparently was conflicted about sex of any kind because of his religious upbringing. He said once in an interview that he he had always equated sex with death. Don’t know what he meant by that. He also said (same interview in OUT magazine, I think) that he abstained for awhile and did lots of push-ups before he came out to his family.

[quote]He said once in an interview that he he had always equated sex with death. Don’t know what he meant by that.

Have you SEEN Mr. Peabody?

I want to do the marketing:

Bernstein Boomer Cooper - BBC!

[quote] He said once in an interview that he he had always equated sex with death. Don’t know what he meant by that.

He is about five-six years older than me, and I would assume he meant AIDS.

R237, that must be why the only movies that make money anymore are superhero stuff and sequels. Because the straights care so much about quality!

[quote]he abstained for awhile and did lots of push-ups before he came out to his family

Pics please.

R244 Maybe something like this?

That’s a pull up bar you freaking dumbass

If course, I know that, R246. It was a joke - that you were apparently too dumb to get.

10 to 1 you did not know it was a pull up bar

You lose, smartass!

What are the odds that anyone really thought there were pics of young Matthew Bomer doing push-ups while he struggled with his sexuality?

Are they both going to show their butts?

Let’s hope so!

There better be bulges.

More information - filming in UK & Italy in May

dream casting?

in what world is Bradley Cooper a dreamboat? Bomer is gorgeous but Cooper is fugly

Why on Earth would they recreate the Upper West Side in Italy?

It doesn't say they're planning to "recreate the Upper West Side in Italy." Just that they're doing some shooting there. Bernstein conducted and performed at La Scala, including Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the La Scala Orchestra. And he also conducted at Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

And he conducted Mahler's 8th with the LSO, and the 2nd at Ely Cathedral, also in England.

whatever happened to Bomer's project announced a few years ago in which he was going to play Montgomery Clift? That never went anywhere

Because the head of HBO who optioned it was fired shortly after.

When will bomer do full frontal?

You can just wait til he's had a couple of more facelifts and his junk will be hanging off his chin.

He’s 44, not 64!

Reading the New Yorker Review of Jamie's book, it seemed a better focus for the biopic would have actually been the period after his wife died when his life got very messy (he wet himself conducting a major concert). But this would be for an actor in his fifties or sixties and Bradley is too vain for that.

The Private World of Leonard Bernstein, an "intimate" portrait of Lenny written by John Gruen with lots of candid photos of the family and all their celebrity friends, focused on a summer the Bernsteins spent in Italy in 1967 in a villa overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. I wonder if Cooper has seen the book and used it as a source. I read somewhere (maybe here) that the movie will focus on the Bernstein marriage. Hard to believe his children would allow that, but Jamie Bernstein , at least, seems willing to do anything for attention.

Now I'm picturing some sort of ghastly amalgam of Tennessee Williams and "White Lotus" with this ultra privileged white family going through a crisis while vacationing in a beautiful Italian villa, with Bradley Cooper turning his bipolar acting up to a million playing Bernstein as a brilliant but cruel circus master, and Carey Mulligan basically replicating Lady Gaga's role in Star Is Born as the gardener tending to her basketcase lover. I think it will end up being very unflattering to the Bernsteins.

I wonder if they’ll do a private rehearsal between the two of them to prepare for their roles

Aren't they 2 screaming bottoms? Would the private rehearsal just be oral?

"Oooooh I gonna make a joke about the two gay men has the gay sex! Tee hee hee hee!"

R265

Will the movie mention the kiddie porn Lenny was into?

Excuse me R267 - it's ONE gay man okay? I'm heterosexual and have a daughter with a beautiful Russian whore.

Mind YOUR mannners sir.

Jamie's book is excellent, she doesn't seem to be sugarcoating anything about her dad or his associates and boyfriends. She came off level-headed in interviews given her background.

I also hope they focus on his life after his separation. It would good to see how he deals with his"new " gay life, exhausting travel, 1600 musical flop, drug abuse, and challenges of composing versus conducting. But that might be too much stuff...

Can you offer any source or support for your kiddie porn claim, r269. I don't think that's true.

R272-I saw the pics under the blotter on his desk while part of a cleaning service. Oh, it's true.

Only on Datalounge would we get an “I was Leonard Bernstein’s housecleaner“ troll.

Presumably the love interest Bomer is playing will not be Italian. Does anyone know who he is supposed to be?

No one said housecleaner. We were a service. There were 8 of us. We were cleaning his vast apartment and I was in the office.

R253, the article you posted is inaccurate. Maestro starts shooting in late May at Tanglewood, then NYC area for nine weeks before finishing up in the UK and Italy. There’s already been casting notices put up on Instagram for Massachusetts locals for the Tanglewood stuff, set in the 1940s and 1980s.

Sounds like the article left out the parts between “shooting in May” and “UK and Italy.”

Thanks for the information.

r275, the "love interest" might be Tom Cothran, the much younger man LB fell in love (or something) with and left Felicia for.

Troll at r276, no one believes you. Well, maybe the part about being a housecleaner and doing some snooping.

Will it hurt this movie that Bradley Cooper was seen comforting Will Smith after the slap?

Well, Lenny loved to “comfort” black men so it’s true to the character.

Is Matt Bomer the first choice for gay roles now?

To a degree, I would agree. He is chosen primarily for the majority of roles he takes as a signifier because he is an out gay actor, not because he adds anything to the role. He is basically used as a marketing ploy, most prominently in the Magic Mike movies and Boys in the Band. “Here we have a gay actor, very good looking, and he will show his ass.” Then wheeled offscreen. I presume Maestro will follow the same pattern.

[quote] Jacob Elordi...Will he perform on his knees?

Not that we've heard.

R284 His role as Larry Trainor in Doom Patrol is more than that, although a lot of it is voice over.

Late 1970s, friend of mine (then about 25) was active in NIC arts scene, attractive gay man of Dominican and Spanish background, attended dinner party at the Adolph Greens (Mrs. Green being Phyliis Newman). (You guys all know who these iconic people are/were, don't you,)

Lennie (then about 60) was there and totally drunk and kept grabbing my friends junk under the dinner table. No one thought anything odd was going on, though it was all obvious. Just a normal dinner party with a drunken Lennie at the Greens....

True.

You told that story already, you senile old bat.

Shut up R288! I love that story.

Hmm, this is different information from R277.

Spielberg and Scorsese?

See R219

Jesus this won’t make release this year then, if shooting has been pushed back to fall. I guess that why there have been no other casting announcements.

If it gets made at all. 😕

Anyone know if Matt Bomer is doing anything now?

I assume he’s undergoing some sort of youth-affirming healthcare

If Brad wanted to finally come out publicly, the PR leading up to this would be the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone - (1) promote the show, and (2) finally come out. I think this would be a great move on his part and could lead to an even greater career. The climate is perfect now, and ripe for a top-tier star to take the plunge.

Does this mean Bradley will finally come out?

My actual fear for this is that Bradley wants to come out as bisexual and will use this as both an opportunity to come out but also to recast Bernstein as bisexual

R253, R277 & R290 all have different information. Wonder which is correct? Twitter may not be the most reliable source.

R295 There is a post on Twitter claiming that Matt Bomer has had LASIK surgery & is recovering. No idea if it is true.

Oh never mind! Totally NOT TRUE! Just some fan posting under his name.

R173 Ben Platt will play Stephen Sondheim in most of the movie and Beany Feldstein will play Sondheim in the flashbacks.

R290, just saw a casting notice today about a shoot in early June-they want “older theatergoers and bohemian types” for a party scene.

Wow! DL should have some good candidates for that! Can they wear caftans?

Here is the notice from March 31.

Matt Bomer is so handsome.

I want to lick his face.

Bomer is beautiful and seems quite lovely. A rare gem.

Interesting. So Matt is going to play another character who dies of AIDS. Hope he doesn’t have to lose weight again.

Just saw posting for 1970s pedestrians, parkgoers and kids for May 31st shoot date. Whether it will be Central or Prospect Park I do not know.

Depending on how much emphasis they put on the gay lover, Bomer might just film his scenes in California. They met in San Francisco and wound up living together in Palm Springs.

LOL Bomer will play a “composite love interest” and he will have exactly one scene in which Cooper cradles him nude like the Pieta.

California scenes… idiot.

Doubt that. He left his wife for Tom Cothran and he was his only long term lover. His daughter’s book talks about him quite a bit.

Stranger Things’ Maya Hawke to play Bernstein’s daughter.

“ It’s a story that spanned more than 30 years, from the time they met in 1946 at a party, and continuing through two on-off engagements, a 25-year marriage, three children (Jamie, Alexander and Nina) and as Bernstein grappled with his own sexual orientation.”

If this is the logline that they’re giving out, then I’m completely turned off by the project. All the biographies say he never struggled with his homosexuality, he got married just like lots of homos got married. He was a narcissist and kind of amoral and didn’t care about his wife’s embarrassment. They’re going to try to paint it as a sympathetic marriage with Bernstein torn by his shameful gay desires. Reprehensible.

I agree.^^ Bernstein wasn't torn in the least, nor did he struggle for a second over his sexuality. Felicia accepted that he would continue to live his sexual life and probably would have gone on indefinitely if he hadn't thrown it in her face constantly--and of course, left her for Cothran.

Nina and Alexander Bernstein made their own lives; Jamie's life remains intertwined with Famous Father; she's made a career of being fame adjacent. Now that Sondheim's dead, she's claiming a close relationship with him at every opportunity. Strange woman.

I don't know what to say about Cooper.

A call has gone out for extras needed for the scenes being filmed at Tanglewood.

R316, In her recent memoir, Jamie wrote of fucking and living with one of Lenny's cast offs.

When Lenny left the family in NYC to shack up with a boyfriend for a summer in California, his son Alexander proclaimed to his sister Jamie, "Daddy came out of the closet ass first!".

Matt Bomer is like a Ken doll. I doubt he even has an anus or genitals.

R320, Frankly, one would be sufficient.

R320 well we saw his ass in Normal Heart but I guess we didn't see the hole so who knows?

I think this film is going to be embarrassing to watch (although I will no doubt watch it).

Bradley is giddy to kiss him. He already has a boner thinking about it.

I hope Bomer doesn’t get monkeypox. Beautiful man - that would be a real tragedy.

Shooting starts Monday up in Tanglewood.

Two sisters playing husband and wife? LESBIANISM MOST FOUL!!

Isn't Bradley Cooper on the autism spectrum somewhere? And so is Bomer. Not sure these two are going to generate much heat.

Cooper is very extroverted and is probably bipolar or borderline. Bomer is spectrum.

I've always thought there's something really "off" about Bradley Cooper. Like there's some deep dark mental shit going on with him.

Neither of them are autistic. Who makes this shit up?

Bomer is not on the spectrum.... come on.

Matt had to do something to get out the house....

Matt Bomer is a sexless Ken doll to me, I've never found him sexually attractive and he's a wooden actor with no charisma. I just don't get the fascination.

Duckling is getting ready for his closeup

You can think Bomer is sexless and boring, but he's not autistic. I don't understand where that even started. Because he looks blank in photos occasionally?

He stims quite regularly during interviews.

Chris Evans too.

Problem with Bomer is that he had a nose job very early in his career which made his face too perfect and artificial looking. If hd had kept the original nose, which was just a tad unsymmetrical, he probably would have escaped the Ken Doll typecasting.

Is his new nose slightly smaller? He looks the same to be in that pic

The new nose is perfectly symmetrical and the old one is a little bit skewed.

He really is beautiful in that pic at R338. Damn.

And then he became a Trans!

Will there be visible penises?

Bomer’s weird staring eyes make him look autistic.

Do any of you even know what autism is?

I think my grandma had autistic blinds in her living room, but I'm not sure.

Shooting actually started today in Tanglewood.

Bradley looks good as Lenny:

[quote]This is like a casting that you would dream about after reading too much Datalounge before bed!

Only if you're a frau of certain years. Both are almost of pension age, and neither has ever been gay lust material.

So somebody up in Tanglewood last week told me Bomer was on set as clarinetist David Oppenheim. I went on Wiki only to discover Oppenheim was married to Judy Holliday and had kids with her. Nina Arianda should play Judy.

[quote]Oppenheim was married to Judy Holliday and had kids with her.

Judy Holliday and David Oppenheim had one child, Jonathan Oppenheim, a documentary film editor whose credits include "Paris Is Burning." He died in 2020.

R348, Excellent job on transforming Bradley to Lenny.

This will surely be Bradley's Oscar.

Don't call me Shirley.

What happened to Jake Gyllenhaal's planned Bernstein biopic?

The family's support went to Cooper, which I'd guess left Jake without much traction.

Girls, girls, girls

Quit your bickering. Bradley is the "straightest straight man on planet Earth."

So says the story at the IntoMore website.

Bradley’s film also apparently has total usage of Bernstein’s film/theater scores as well as his conducting work. I hope they do the bit where he yelled at poor Jose Carreras during the studio recording of West Side Story.

Did anybody here work as an extra?

Yes Oppenheim was ver waspy handsome so Bomer’s casting would make sense.

So this is about two queers on the spectrum?

I thought Bernstein was into to Black and Latino guys?

It’s a MOVIE!

He fucked everybody. He was insatiable.

Fucked everybody - male - that is. (Except his wife.)

But he did some of his best work when he was holding back the Gay!

One summer, Lenny shipped his wife and kids to Nantucket while he spent the summer living at the beach in California with his boy toy.

When he returned to NYC in September, his wife told him he could no longer live at the Dakota with the family so he moved to a hotel.

First pics

Yes he is clearly styled to play Oppenheim

However Oppenheim was more of a peer whom he fucked around with rather than a seriously lover like Tom Cothran

Aww Bomer is very cute.

Oppenheim’s wife and baby are in the scene too? Icky.

This would be Oppenheim’s second wife, Ellen Adler

Promotional photos are out.

They look good together.

It’s actually a bit of a bizarre staging, Cooper greets the couple and gives the husband a mouth kiss and the wife a smaller peck

As expected, Cooper’s acting has been dialed up to 100