By Christopher Cappiello

Julie Brown Brings SLUTS! to the Center

“The boys I know who date the boys/They're having so much fun/They see a cutie with a rock-hard bootie/And, bam, the deal is done.” So ends the first verse of Julie Brown's newest song, “I Want To Be Gay,” which she plans to include in her latest stage show, SLUTS! The Musical, coming to the Gay & Lesbian Center's Renberg Theatre at the end of October. If the song is any indication, the two-night stand should be as absurd as it is hilarious.

After a role in Lily Tomlin's The Incredible Shrinking Woman, a host of guest spots on sitcoms and her own MTV series in the 1980s, Brown carved out a niche as a hilarious singer/songwriter, with tunes like “I Like 'Em Big and Stupid,” “The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun” and “Earth Girls Are Easy. Her 1992 Showtime film, Medusa: Dare To Be Truthful, was a wicked send-up of Madonna's self-indulgent Truth or Dare film, and cemented Brown's reputation for outrageous and inventive spoofs.

So after skewering everyone from Tanya Harding to Wilson Phillips to Madonna in past work, who gets the Brown treatment in SLUTS? “Paris Hilton, definitely,” she says with obvious glee during a telephone interview more than a month before opening night. “I actually met her,” she shares, “and she's insane! She's a dope, and she's just everything you hope for her to be!”

“I also do a Mary-Kate Olsen monologue,” Brown reveals. “She's confessing about the first time she had sex—to prove she's a bad girl, too, not just a goody two-shoes.” She then describes her entrance as Mary-Kate, but only after making me promise not to write about it. Suffice it to say it is wet-your-pants funny.

“I want to do new Medusa stuff, too,” she says, since there is so much new material for her Madonna-inspired character. “Madonna's very different now— she's British!” Brown says, savoring the ridiculousness with a faux accent. “And she's a mom. And she's not posing naked on a highway anymore!” Brown goes on to wonder what will happen when Madonna's daughter finds some of her old “work.” “Lourdes is gonna find those naked pictures someday. How will Madonna ever be able to tell her, 'You can't wear that outfit'? It's gonna be bad.”

So how did a groundbreaking MTV icon get together with the Gay & Lesbian Center for her new show? “I was part of the MisMatch Game,” she explains, referring to the popular game show that the Renberg Theatre has hosted periodically, with a range of actors playing old Match Game personalities. “I did it, and I was Medusa,” Brown says. “And normally we just answer questions, but the last time I did it, I said (in Madonna's fake British accent), 'I'd like to answer that with a song.' And the place went crazy! The audience was so fantastic. I love them”

So the Center folks insisted she come back and now she's planning her “slutty” return. “The money goes toward the Center, too” she adds. “So you feel good—not like you're just a mercenary taking all the money.”

SLUTS! The Musical runs Oct. 27 & 28 at 8 p.m. at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's Renberg Theatre at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, 1125 N. McCadden Place, Hllywd. For tickets ($20) and information, call (323) 860-7300 or visit www.Lagaycenter.org/boxoffice.