Who is Alan Cumming?

When I first saw actor Alan Cumming playing fast-talking New York-style image consultant, Eli Gold, on the CBS television drama "The Good Wife," he looked familiar, but I had no idea who he was. Little did I suspect this talented actor was actually a Scottish (no trace of an accent) Renaissance man.

Alan Cumming's entertaining guest appearances on Joy Behar's and Jimmy Fallon's comedic talk shows this week reveal him to be a scathingly funny, articulate man who is on the verge of becoming a major media personality and household name.

With Cumming's temporary role on the "The Good Wife" slated to become a permanent gig, according to a recent article in Entertainment Weekly, the actor's weekly exposure to network television audiences will shine a much brighter light on a long-time indie favorite who has somehow managed to operate beneath the radar of the main stream media.

As talented as he is, Cumming is not likely to be most conservative Americans' cup of tea, with his advocacy and support for gay rights and right-wing nemesis, President Barack Obama, (whose candidacy inspired Cumming to obtain U.S. citizenship). Not that Cumming is trying to win over the Tea Party crowd. He called Mike Hukabee "repugnant and offensive" on "The Joy Behar Show" after the failed presidential wannabe lumped gay people with drug users and people who commit incest.

Cumming also derided the United States as being the only country that would seriously consider the candidacy of a political featherweight like Sarah Palin, a woman who Cumming theorizes makes Americans feel more comfortable about themselves. "She shows off and enjoys the fact that she is uninformed. She makes other people who are also uninformed think, 'Why should I be informed?'" Cumming explained to Behar in an attempt to demystify the Alaskan's popularity.

Although Cumming may seem to emerge on the media's center stage as an overnight sensation, his accomplishments range several decades. He has made large and small appearances in movies, plays and television, including "Circle of Friends," "The Anniversary Party," "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion," "Sex and the City," "3rd Rock from the Sun" and "Cabaret" (for which he won a Tony award as the emcee) and hammed it up as host of the PBS mystery anthology show, "Masterpiece Mystery Theater." Cumming has also published a novel called "Tommy's Tale" and markets his own signature fragrance, the eponymous Cumming.

Aside from his anticipated weekly appearances on Season Two of "The Good Wife," in the coming year you will both see and hear (Cumming does a lot of voice-over parts) a lot more of Alan Cumming in projects ranging from movies such as "Boogie Woogie" and "Escape to Donegal" to "The Smurfs" (in which Cumming will voice the part of Gutsy Smurf). Cumming may also play the part of the Green Goblin in the eventual production of Broadway's "Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark," a musical that was ironically caught in a web of financial problems.

The 45-year-old Cumming is also in the midst of launching a new website called Itsasickness.com in which members form communities based on shared obsessions, such as troll dolls, outdated slang and truffle oil, the latter of which is one of Cumming's own personal obsessions.

With so many balls in the air, Cumming is nothing if not complicated, a likable chap who defies simple labels such as actor or webeneur, gay or Scottish. Cumming appears to be a more textured and nuanced personality than those who gain instant celebrity from reality TV shows or even popular American television and movie actors who spend as much time in sex or drug rehab as on the set.

Perhaps the charm of Alan Cumming for those who like their celebrities to be a tad more cerebral than your garden variety tabloid star is best epitomized by his insightful critique of the expectations of today's moviegoers: "Nowadays people don't know how to handle it if all the ends aren't tied up and they're not told what to think in films," he said. "If they're challenged, they think it's something wrong with the film."

With such a critical mass of projects propelling Alan Cumming into the spotlight of the mainstream media, the story of Cumming's own career is far from over. But the trajectory of its path is likely to be interesting and unpredictable, and one suspects that will suit Alan Cumming just fine.

Sources:
The Joy Behar Show, April 13, 2010
The Jimmy Fallon Show, April 13, 2010
http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2010/03/23/good-wife-alan-cumming-series-regular/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001086/
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2010/03/12/alan-cumming-spider-man-musical/
http://www.itsasickness.com/
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alan_cumming.html
http://www.broadway.tv/blog/broadway-news/julie-taymor-spider-man-musical-director-says-show-is-a-go-for-fall/