Fridae

Which to see? What to skip? The Singapore International Film Festival is screening more than 200 films... Fridae sifts through the lot and presents our top picks!

Passport for Men - a new weekly men's lifestyle TV programme will premier on a Thai cable network on Sunday.

The best-loved gay and lesbian films of recent years are coming back to Singapore screens this weekend! Cinema chain Golden Village is organising the first ever film festival that celebrates the best in LGBT cinema.

The Love and Pride Film Festival is the first festival here dedicated to feature films of LGBT interests. But publicity by its organiser Golden Village is discreet and minimal.

Fridae's Muscle Maiden, Alvin Tan, fails to pass off as a contestant for Ms Body Fitness but still manages to file his report on Muscle War 2008.

The Singapore Lyric Opera presents Verdi's famed opera La Traviata from Jan 25 to 29, 2008 at the Esplanade Theatre. Fridae talks to gay Australian director Stephen Barlow about the work.

While expressing his frustration at being pigeonholed as a gay actor, the British comedian-actor-novelist also criticised those who heap praise on straight actors for their "bravery" in playing gay roles.

Fridae's coffee connoisseur, Alvin Tan, confesses to being addicted to top-rated Korean drama The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince which brings homosexuality into spotlight - briefly, before expectedly reverting to a conventional hetero coupling.

First Love of The Happy Prince is a showcase of the works of Koichi Imaizumi who helmed First Love, which played to sold out screenings at the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in November. Fridae speaks to the director, music composer Hiroki Iwasa and actor Hiroshi Murakami.

Jodie Foster, who's known to be fiercely private, thanked her "beautiful Cydney" at an award ceremony - a move seen by the media as coming out.