‘Judy’ Fact Check: Is the Gay Couple Judy Garland Beiends Based on a Real Couple?

Judy Garland has an tensely fervent and fahful followg the LGBTQ muny — and the new film “Judy” mak the se that she loved her fans right small but ccial characters the film are Stan and Dan (played by Andy Nyman and Daniel Cerqueira), who wa for Judy outsi the London nightclub Talk of the Town, where she has a five-week gig. Feelg lonely, she asks them to jo her for dner — leavg them the eveng progrs, she ends up at their apartment, where Stan tearfully opens up to her about the difficulti the two gay men have had matag their relatnship the face of legal persecutn. Judy’s mic has provid them wh solace throughout their sufferg.Although Stan and Dan are fictnal characters, “Judy” director Rupert Goold says they reprent Judy’s global fanbase and specifilly her large LGBTQ followg. Goold said their cln was the “brilliant ia” of wrer Tom Read: 'Judy' Film Review: Renee Zellweger Gets to the Core of Judy Garland's Tragic Decle“Stan and Dan are absolutely a highlight of the film; they brg humor and love and magic,” producer David Livgstone said. “They help unrstand Judy’s role as an in whilst also embodyg the love she generated om her fans.”Daniel Cerqueira (Dan) and Andy Nyman (Stan)“[They] me out of discsn about how we flh out Judy’s experience London, and the need to see Judy through the ey of her dience at some level,” Goold explaed. “The gay muny weren’t allowed to lead normal liv, and there is an tertg parallel wh Garland, who’s tryg to fd a normal life for herself and her children. I spoke to amics who’ve vtigated ias of sexualy through the prism of Garland. For the post-Stonewall generatn, ‘Friends of Dorothy’ is a strong affirmative voice agast discrimatn.”Goold was referrg to the Stonewall Rts, an uprisg the gay muny agast a police raid that began the very early morng the day after Garland’s funeral at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.“Friends of Dorothy” was a phemism ed between LBGTQ people to discs their sexual orientatn. It dat back to World War II, when homosexual acts were illegal the U.S. Dorothy, of urse, is a reference to Garland’s “Wizard of Oz” origal story ‘Judy’ Fact Check: Is the Gay Couple Judy Garland Beiends Based on a Real Couple? At TheWrap