Raising the Bar

Given the fact that Sean Penn just nabbed an Oscar for playing gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, surely there is still no stigma attached to playing gay, right?
That’s an easy assumption for many viewers – gay and straight – to make, but what do the men who play these roles believe?  
AfterElton.com talked with a number of actors who have played gay roles past and present for their thoughts. Do they think playing a gay role can help, hurt or have no real effect on their careers? How has that changed over the years? What do their peers think? And have we finally moved beyond the stigma a gay role once carried?
Their answers might surprise you. 
Surprising reaction to gay role on “Raising The Bar.”
On TNT’s hit legal drama, Raising the Bar, Jonathan Scarfe plays Charlie Sagansky, a law clerk working for a powerful female judge
dennis

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Chicago – In our latest edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: TV, we have 25 admit-two VIP screening passes up for grabs to the exclusive Chicago screening party for season two of the new TNT drama “Raising the Bar”. The series comes from 10-time Emmy-winning producer Steven Bochco of “L.A. Law” and “NYPD Blue”.
Winners will enjoy complimentary appetizers and an advance screening of the first episode of season two before it airs! Winners will also have the chance to win a season-one DVD of the series!
To win your free pass to the VIP “Raising the Bar” screening party in Chicago courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, all you need to do is be one of the first 25 people to submit a comment in this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup. That’s it!
The party will be held on June 4, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. in downtown Chicago. Directions to enter this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup and immediately
adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

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The best thing you could say about the first season of ABC Studios and producer Stephen Bochco’s (NYPD Blue) production Raising the Bar is that it does exactly what it sets out do. Make no mistake about it, this is a by-the-numbers courtroom drama; another addition to an already overcrowded market of day and nighttime television that unfolds primarily in justice’s hallowed halls. Raising the Bar does manage to briefly distinguish itself on the strength of dialogue and production values, but it can’t avoid the sinking feeling that you’ve seen this all before. Nevertheless, there is a certain comfort to the atypical unpredictability the show brings to many of verdicts and the way the lives of the cast intersect.
Raising the Bar primarily revolves around Jerry Kellerman (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), a plainly idealistic public defender whose ruffled shirt and constantly undone tie should help identify him immediately.
Mark Zhuravsky

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