the Buzz.

Scully likes girls

Gillian Anderson, a.k. The X-Files' Agent Dana Scully, drew cheers with a sexy message to her lesbian fans at Women's Night, the annual fund-raising gala for the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center held at the Beverly Hilton on March 6. After Billie Jean King earned a thunderous standing ovation as recipient of the centers Community Role Model award, Anderson took the stage to introduce Creative Integrity award winner Anne Heche. The X-Files star told a delighted crowd that "a lot of people have accused Scully of being gay. She's single, she's a strong independent, suit-wearing female who chooses not to shack with [a man] whom some people consider the sexiest male on TV. And all I have to say to this is thank you."

Subversive laughter

Screenwriters Paul Rudnick (In & Out) and Wendy Wasserstein (The Object of My Affection) waxed hilarious at a recent meeting of the New York Advertising and Communications Network, a gay professionals group. Rudnick predicted a bright future for queer-themed film projects. "There's an actual studio and independent hunger for these movies," he said. "It's passed through the trend stage.... It's fairly unstoppable. The minute someone makes a hugely successful lesbian romantic comedy, there will be 500 of them in development."

Reflecting on how comedy can build a sense of community, Wasserstein added, "People who don't even know each other are laughing together. I think that's fantastic."

Alias Smith and Cohen 

On the WB series Dawson's Creek, Katie Holmes plays Joey, a sweet young thing who falls for the introverted Jack (Kerr Smith), who turns out to be gay. In the new indie flick Hit and Runway--premiering April 17 at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival--Smith plays Joey, a sweet young thing who falls for an introverted writer who happens to be gay. Coincidence? Or a plot to take over the media universe?

"It's a romantic comedy about relationships, straight and gay," Smith says of the flick, directed and cowritten (with Christopher Livingston) by Jaffe Cohen, formerly of the comedy group Funny Gay Males. "Joey is Jack in five years, living in Greenwich Village. I play the character a little over-the-top because it's a comedy--much different than Dawson's Creek. He's happy-go-lucky Joey; nothing bothers him." And does it bother Smith's girlfriend that he has now played gay twice? "I don't think so," he says.