This chapter considers the representation of straight girl and queer guy within mainstream film, relating the context of the star persona, or the life world of the star. Initially considering the representation of Kenneth Williams within a range of Carry On films, arguing that his imagined real-life friendship with female characters influences how we might read these films, aspects of camp, fantasy, irony and parody are foregrounded. Later more explicit filmic representations of the straight girl and the queer guy are examined, contextualizing the self-reflexive influence of John Schlesinger and Christopher Isherwood respectively within the landmark films Sunday Bloody Sunday (John Schlesinger 1971, UK) and Cabaret (Bob Fosse 1972, US). This leads into an examination of the explicitly commoditized representation of queer man in union with the straight girl, in the films My Best Friend’s Wedding (P. J. Hogan 1997, US), The Object of My Affection (Nicholas Hytner 1998, US) and The Next Best Thing (John Schlesinger 2000, US). As part of this the life world and the cultural capital of the female co-star dominates in providing the cultural reading.
Texts, Bodies, and the Memory of Bloody Sunday