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Taye Diggs is an old hand when it comes to song and dance. He was one of the original cast members of Rent, starred in Carousel onstage and was in the film version of Chicago. He’s so hot even the virtual born-again virgin Will Truman succumbed to his charms in Will & Grace and snogged his face off [See last week’s Totty Watch on Bobby Cannavale Ed.]

Taye is breaking down barriers by not only playing gay, but playing a Black gay in an inter-racial relationship. He’s Totty Watch’s favourite Broadway Queen.

Name
Scott ‘Taye’ Diggs

Vitals
Born 2 January 1972 in New York, USA.

Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes
In Rent (released 7 April) everyone is a struggling artist trying to live an alternative and bohemian lifestyle except for Taye. He plays Benny, the evil landlord who used to be their friend and who now wants to make their home into a cyber studio – whatever that might be.

Now that Benny’s a money-grabbing, capitalist pig he’s nagging his friends to pay rent on the football pitch sized loft apartments they’re squatting in on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They’re outraged because they’re far too busy making handheld movies that show the unfairness of life, burning their screenplays and not writing songs.

You’re Pushing 40. Get A Job
Six of the original cast members from the Broadway show are in Rent, which premiered a decade ago. This means that if homelessness, starvation, overdosing or death doesn’t wipe away their good looks, the force of nature probably will.

Benny prides himself on embracing the ‘real world’ while his friends refuse to grow up. Looking northwards of 35 they fear that if they ever became successful they might end up like him. The gay couples wouldn’t be able to skip down the streets of downtown Manhattan with abandon and smooch in Central Park. Roger would have to leave his huge loft apartment and go out occasionally and Angel’s zebra patterned tights, frilly knickers and Santa jacket would be consigned to the ‘Christmas parties only’ wardrobe.

You'll Be My Queen, And I'll Be Your Moat
Benny used to go out with Mimi before she became a stripper and got hooked on smack. Mimi looks like a cartoon version of Angelina Jolie and is pretty hot for a heroine addict. Benny tries to win back her affections by singing her a song about the pitfalls of living the life of a person with artistic or literary interests who disregards conventional standards of behaviour. ‘Bohemia’s a fallacy in your head. This is Calcutta, Bohemia is dead’, he croons.

But Mimi prefers a good honest power ballad and is hopelessly in love with a dead ringer for Jon Bon Jovi called Roger. Roger spends all day sitting in his loft apartment looking longingly at his guitar, but never playing it. He lost Mimi when she insisted on keeping appointments with her hot Latino drug-dealer, but finds her again living rough and half dead from pneumonia. As Mimi dies Roger screeches into her face, ‘Whooah, we’re half way there. Take my hand and we’ll make it I swear’ and Mimi pops back to life saved by the power of love and blond highlights.

Availability
In real life Taye is married to Idina Menzel who plays the pointy faced vamp Maureen in the film. She’s involved in a love triangle with her girlfriend Joanne and her ex-boyfriend Mark. Maureen is a lipstick lesbian who craves attention and calls all her partners ‘Pookie’. At her engagement party to Joanne she flirts with a waitress and then sings the show stopping ‘Take Me or Leave Me’ in response to Joanne’s jealousy. Taye looks on hoping that his wife might start bringing her work home.

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