Pippa’s privates

You know when you read a plot description and something in the back of your head goes off, kind of like gay Spidey sense? Well, I have that quite a bit and most of the time it’s just my own wishful lesbian thinking. (Ahh, wishful lesbian thinking, it’s the reason I still tune in to watch Bionic Woman each week. Come on Sarah and Jamie, you know you want to…) But sometimes, sometimes I think I might be onto something. Take, for instance, the recent casting news that Robin Wright Penn, Winona Ryder and Julianne Moore had signed on to star in “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.”

Now I can’t tell you for sure, either way, if this film has any gay content or gay subtext or even a wacky gay neighbor who loves show tunes and has a poodle named Precious. I’ve Googled and Googled and all I can tell right now is that it is based on a yet-to-be-published novel by Rebecca Miller by the same name. According to Variety, its plot description is such:

“The story centers on a dutiful wife whose husband falls for a younger woman, freeing her to explore her buried sensuality and leading to a very quiet nervous breakdown.”

So, I can’t be the only one whose gaydar got a blip from that, right? Freeing? Exploring? Buried sensuality? And, of course, nervous breakdowns? So. Totally. Gay.

Robin will play Pippa and my best guess is that Winona is the younger woman. But then, well, then there is Julianne. Why such star wattage if she is only going to be a friend? I wonder. Rebecca Miller has directed a handful of films, including “Personal Velocity” and “The Ballad of Jack and Rose” and I’ve always thought her work could easily include, and benefit from, some lesbian subtext. What I do know is that even the faintest prospect of Robin and Julianne uncovering their buried sensuality together makes me happy in ways it’s not polite to talk about in public.