Sean P Hayes

In old Hollywood, being gay--or playing gay--was the kiss of death for a career. It was even more of a career-stopper than a lurid sex scandal. Or being over 40. Now you can get your film complete with searchlights and limos at the Mann Chinese, star in a Mel Gibson film, co-star in a new NBC series or sign a studio deal to write and direct a feature.

Turns out there was some validity to 1999's onslaught of end-of-the-millennium prophecies. True, we didn't go "kaboom," but 2000 did see "Cats" close on Broadway and Brad Pitt's goodbye to bachelorhood, and after four sold-out concerts, Barbra Streisand won't be singing us love songs anymore. And as if that weren't wrenching enough, Celine Dion was nowhere to be found. How do we cope? "Trust me," assures "Will & Grace's" flamboyantly fierce, fabulously fictitious Jack McFarland.

Turns out there was some validity to 1999's onslaught of end-of-the-millennium prophecies. True, we didn't go "kaboom," but 2000 did see "Cats" close on Broadway and Brad Pitt's goodbye to bachelorhood, and after four sold-out concerts, Barbra Streisand won't be singing us love songs anymore. And as if that weren't wrenching enough, Celine Dion was nowhere to be found. How do we cope? "Trust me," assures "Will & Grace's" flamboyantly fierce, fabulously fictitious Jack McFarland.

In old Hollywood, being gay--or playing gay--was the kiss of death for a career. It was even more of a career-stopper than a lurid sex scandal. Or being over 40. Now you can get your film complete with searchlights and limos at the Mann Chinese, star in a Mel Gibson film, co-star in a new NBC series or sign a studio deal to write and direct a feature.

* Last week's Top 5 rentals: "The Mask of Zorro," "Six Days, Seven Nights," "Dr. Dolittle," "The Negotiator" and "Armageddon." * Last week's Top 5 sellers: "The Parent Trap," "Dr. Dolittle," "The Mask of Zorro," "The Lion King II: Simba's Pride" and "Armageddon." What's New In stores this week: * "Blade" (New Line), vampire thriller starring Wesley Snipes. (R) * "Cousin Bette" (Fox), comedy starring Jessica Lange. (R) * "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss" (Trimark), romantic comedy starring Sean P.

Tommy O'Haver's "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss" is a giddy yet wise romantic comedy about a self-absorbed young gay photographer from Indiana who has come to L.A. in search of love and success. Sean P. Hayes' boyish Billy loves old Hollywood movies, particularly women's melodramas, and O'Haver makes his film a witty homage to vintage screen romance while keeping its perspective on the here and now.

Movies "Stepmom" features Susan Sarandon (above, left, with Julia Roberts) in a domestic comedy-drama from director Chris Columbus about a family dealing with the fallout from a divorce. Ed Harris plays Sarandon's ex-husband and Roberts' current boyfriend. It opens in general release Friday.

In my 30-odd years of reading Calendar, I have never been moved to write in response to something encountered in its pages. I am now compelled following your writer's snide, semantically ill-advised characterization of Sean P. Hayes' feinting answer to a question about his sexuality as babble ("It's Not Easy Being Jack," by William Keck, Dec. 24). However elastic one's definition of "babble," it is more accurately exemplified by the media's incessant nattering on the issue of sexual orientation than by Hayes' thoughtful and carefully parsed (if purposely evasive)

Here is the list of Golden Globe Award nominees. * Best Motion Picture--Drama: "American Beauty," DreamWorks Pictures; "The End of the Affair," Columbia Pictures; "The Hurricane," Universal Pictures/Beacon Communications; "The Insider," Touchstone Pictures; "The Talented Mr. Ripley," Paramount Pictures/Miramax Films.

Outfest '98, the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, continues through Monday at various venues with more noteworthy films. Tanya Wexler's "Finding North" (DGA, Friday at 5 p.m.) features a grieving gay man (John Benjamin Hickey) who leaves New York to fulfill his late lover's wishes by taking an extended and complicated journey to a small Texas town where the dead man was born and raised.

Special screenings sometimes have something for everyone, and this is one of those weeks--with offerings from the sublime to the absurd. Film buffs get a chance to see one of the most acclaimed French classics--"Grand Illusion," Jean Renoir's 1937 antiwar film--screening Friday at 6:30 p.m. at the Museum Education Center of the Orange County Museum of Art, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. It is part of the museum's World Cinema series. $3-$5. (949) 759-1122.