Two degrees of separation. (the Buzz).

THE BUZZ LOVED Robert Altman's film Gosford Park for all its upstairs-downstairs wit and wile but was especially tickled by a passing proposition between Bob Balaban, as a gay Hollywood producer, and his oversexed valet, played by Ryan Phillippe. The pairing seemed oddly appropriate: Balaban's film debut 33 years ago was as an unhappy gay teen in Midnight Cowboy; Phillippe's first major part was gay teen Billy Douglas on the soap One Life to Live in 1992. Factor in Gosford Park appearances by gay actor Stephen Fry and past players of queer parts such as Richard E. Grant (Withnail and I), James Wilby (Maurice), Helen Mirren (Losing Chase), Derek Jacobi (Love Is the Devil), and Clive Owen (Bent), and the film could spark an all-gay-roles version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Of course, in the gay movie world, it would have to be Two Degrees of Maggie Smith, who plays Gosford Park's most endearing snob.