Thursday, February 10, 2011

The 15 Most Groundbreaking Gay Roles on Television:Lafayette Reynolds on 'True Blood'

Thanks to creator Alan Ball's brilliant thinking, Bon Temps' most flashy short-order cook/V dealer is alive and well instead of dead in the back of Andy Bellefleur's car (his character's fate in Book Two of the Sookie Stackhouse novels). Although Lafayette embodies certain gay stereotypes (eyeliner, lipstick, jewelry, he prefers the ladies' room – "I is gorgeous"), he is easily one of the most trustworthy characters in a world filled with devious vampires, werewolves, maenads, shape-shifters and, most recently, a witch – the latter of whom just happens to be Lafayette's new boyfriend. Hookah, please!
John P. Johnson/ HBO 

‘True Blood’ too draining? Charlaine Harris says Sookie Stackhouse novels must end [updated]

 “Dead Reckoning,” the 11th installment in author Charlaine Harris‘ Sookie Stackhouse mystery series, is set to arrive this May — not long before the hit TV series inspired by the franchise, HBO’s “True Blood,” returns for a fourth season — but the novelist now is looking ahead to the conclusion of her long-running saga. [FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this post misstated the numeric place of  "Dead Reckoning" in the Harris series.]
“Truthfully, the next two books will probably be the last two books in the series,” Harris said last week. “I still love Sookie, but I’m beginning to want to write something else, and Sookie’s kind of taken over my life. I was able to write other things for the first few years I was involved in Sookie, but then after the start of the television show she took over so much of my time because of my increased publicity obligations that it’s been very hard to write other things, and I really need to do that.”
To satisfy her creative urges, Harris has embarked on a new endeavor, an online game called Dying for Daylight, that prominently features her vampire protagonist, Dahlia Lynley-Chivers, a ruthless, fashion-conscious vamp who has appeared in several of Harris’ short stories. “She’s one of my favorite characters,” Harris said. “Since HBO owns all the development rights to anything related to Sookie, Dahlia seemed a natural choice for this. She’s so visual, she’s so proud of the way she looks and she’s so adventuresome that it seemed like a really good match.”