by Ryan Lee
THERE’S A LONG-STANDING DEBATE about whether people choose to be gay or whether attraction to the same sex is genetic. But for Margaret Cho, there’s no doubt about it: She was born to be a fag hag.
“I’ve always had gay friends, always — when I was a child, even before we even knew that we were gay or anything,” Cho tells David during a recent visit to the Peachtree City set of her upcoming TV series “Drop Dead Diva.”
“I always had lots of little boys who wanted to be friends with me, always, and they grew up and became gay,” says Cho, who sees her loyal gay following as an extension of her gay-friendly adolescence.
“I guess because I was always a fag hag, to me now I’m just more of a fag hag — I think that’s how it works,” she says.
America’s biggest fag hag is calling Atlanta home for the next three months while shooting the new show, which, along with the new “Project Runway,” is making Lifetime’s original programming line-up among the hottest of the summer.
Of course Cho brings big laughs to the show as Terri, an assistant for lead character Jane (played by Brooke Elliot) — a frumpy lawyer whose body is overtaken by the soul of a vapid fame seeker (played by Brooke D’Orsay).
But Cho isn’t the only attraction for gay fans to tune into “Drop Dead Diva.” The show’s male love interest is played by the delectable Jackson Hurst, who executives hope will blossom into the next McDreamy.
“This show is something that I really fell in love with,” Cho says. “I fell in love with the script and I really wanted to do it.”
CHO IS FAMILIAR WITH ATLANTA from her many stops here as a stand-up comic, and from her time shooting the movie “One Missed Call” a few years ago. What she wasn’t familiar with is living in the boonies in a place like Peachtree City, home of strip malls and industrial parks.
“I don’t love that I’m so far from Atlanta,” says Cho, who makes the trip to the city several times a week. “I go as often as I can. It’s about an hour outside of here, so it’s hard.
“I have a lot of friends there so I enjoy coming and hanging out and I’m getting to know the whole bar scene,” she says.
Despite the distance, Cho is absorbing plenty of Atlanta culture and lingo.
“I am so OTP,” she says. “Out here, it’s real OTP, which is fine, it’s just far.”
THE LONG DRIVE MEANS that Cho is getting used to crashing on couches when she parties with the hipster queers in East Atlanta, where she’s taken to gay bars like Mary’s. She’s also fallen in with the Mondo Homo crowd, and is scheduled to perform at the queer music festival over Memorial Day weekend.
Cho’s extended stay in Atlanta got off to a super-shady start, as, upon her arrival, she discovered that her brand new vibrators were stolen from her luggage during her flight into town. She’s yet to replace her beloved ticklers, but plans to visit Atlanta’s numerous sex shops soon.
“I want to go to Inserections, I guess that’s the good one?” she says. “I want to go there, I want to go to all of them. I haven’t had time yet, though, but I’ll be in.”
Cho says her gay fans have welcomed her to Atlanta with open arms, and she predicts many local memories will be immortalized in one of her future stand-up routines.
“I have to probably spend a little more time here because I haven’t been here enough, but I think a lot of it will show up in my act at some point,” she says.
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