On a wing and a prayer, gay BBC host-with-the-most Graham Norton, will be filming an American version of his show ‘So Graham Norton’ for Comedy Central. (Photo courtesy of BBC America)
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Oct 03, 2003  | COMMENTS |   |  

Beginning with those crazy Pilgrims on the Mayflower, some great things have come to America from England, including fish and chips, the Beatles, and “Absolutely Fabulous.”

We also have England to thank for GRAHAM NORTON, a gay entertainer for the British Broadcasting Corp. Well, he’s really Irish, but you know what Dish means.

Norton, 39, is the host of “So Graham Norton,” the BBC’s answer to the “Tonight Show.” In the campy hands of Norton, however, it’s a much more outrageous and flamboyant version.

People lucky enough to have BBC America, the BBC’s cable outlet for British shows, might have seen reruns of Norton’s award-winning show. But now, thanks to Comedy Central, he will appear on an American version of the program.

Norton signed a deal for 13 episodes of an hour-long show — very similar to the one he does in the United Kingdom — that features celebrity interviews, audience participation, and pre-taped segments.

“[Comedy Central] … is probably the only channel in America that will let me do all the outrageous things I’ve become accustomed to,” Norton said in his written statement.

Aside from the series, he will also have a stand-up special on Comedy Central and will host four episodes of “Reel Comedy,” which takes a behind-the-scenes look at upcoming comedy movies.

The dollar amount attached to Norton’s new venture wasn’t released. And speaking of secretive contract dealings, the FAB FIVE from Bravo’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” reportedly got a much- deserved raise, but details remain a mystery.

We do know, thanks to former culture expert BLAIR BOONE’s breach-of-contract suit, that they currently make $3,000 an episode. But the Hollywood Reporter announced that team members have renegotiated their contracts to allow for salary increases.

“They got us cheap … I was a nobody who didn’t have leverage to demand a lot of money,” cooking guru TED ALLEN told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Allen as well as Fab Five interior designer THOM FILICIA recently signed contracts with the William Morris Agency to be represented in such matters.

Hunky grooming guy KYAN DOUGLAS might not have an agent, but he has a new “friend.” Us Weekly saw him getting cozy with ROBERT GANT, who plays Ben on “Queer As Folk,” at a pre-Emmy party in L.A. two weeks ago. The two “retired to a quiet corner to chat alone” and then left in a car together.

Dish suspects Douglas was giving Gant hair tips.

Milking it
The stars are coming out to support the New York City-based HARVEY MILK HIGH SCHOOL, the first public high school in the nation devoted specifically to gay students.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT, FRED SCHNEIDER (of the B-52s), BOB MOULD, SLEATER-KINNEY, YOKO ONO, CYNDI LAUPER, THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS, and others are planning to record an album of songs from JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” to raise money for the school, the New York Post reports.

Mitchell will also contribute to the CD and the performers will hold a benefit concert on Nov. 8 in New York. The Post notes that Michael Salem, a business owner and a cousin of Harvey Milk, a gay politician assassinated in 1978 in San Francisco, is donating wigs, shoes, and corsets to the school’s transgender department.