PageOneQ | GOP Congressman landed earmark for producer of film featuring drugs and gay sex; Senior staffer had role in movie

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GOP Congressman landed earmark for producer of film featuring drugs and gay sex; Senior staffer had role in movie

by PageOneQ

Congressman Virgil Goode (R-VA) arranged a $150,000 Congressional earmark for a non-profit theater with close personal ties to his press secretary and the producer of a movie featuring gay sex scenes and heavy drug use, PageOneQ has learned.

On assignment for BlogActive.com, PageOneQ and Accountability Moments, Mike Stark uncovered Goode's hypocrisy by reviewing his voting record as scored by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian civil rights organization. Goode is consistent. Since the 107th Congress, back to 2001, he has scored a zero every year on HRC's Legislative Scorecard.

From HRC's Scorecard:

Linwood Duncan, Goode's press secretary has long held ambitions to be a movie actor. In 2003, CNN's Ed Henry, then with Roll Call, reported about Linwood and his dreams of the silver screen:

Who knew that Linwood Duncan, the unassuming press secretary for Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Va.), has been dabbling in acting on the side and turns up with a bit part in the new movie “Eden’s Curve”?

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Duncan has played everyone from Sherlock Holmes to Sir Thomas More in dozens of shows in the D.C. and Charlottesville, Va., areas. He was approached by a longtime friend, Jerry Meadors, screenwriter and producer for “Eden’s Curve.”

The film, RollCall reported, was "especially popular at gay and lesbian film festivals across the country because the lead character gets mixed up in relationships with his male roommate..."

In the Congress immediately following Duncan's role in the film, the conservative Republican Congressman moved a $150,000 earmark to the non-profit theater run by Meadors. The funds were set aside for The North Theatre in Danville, Virginia.

Also uncovered by Stark is the fact that Duncan, still a Goode staffer, serves as a member of the theater's Board of Directors. From the North Theatre's website:

Click to enlarge

The gay sexual content, coupled with repeated scenes of drug use, raise the question of how Goode's conservative Danville, VA constituents will react to the news should it become widely known in the district. Also unknown is how anti-earmark conservatives and anti-gay politicians will respond to the disclosure.

In the video following this article, Stark shares clips from Eden's Curve and a series of five questions he hopes Goode will answer. The questions include requests for information about the personal relationships between Virgil Goode, Linwood Duncan and Jerry Meador and how the earmark request was made. ###

Originally published on Wednesday October 15, 2008.