Having just done two little postings on brief subjects this morning, I’m now going to wade into a few somewhat meatier subjects that have the potential to explode into larger matters of some weight.
The first of these came to me in tv commercials for the Liberty Mutual insurance company, featuring a Struggling Actor character — all of which delighted me and made me laugh out loud. One of my favorites, “Biberty Bungle” (the one with the bubbles), you can view here.
[Personal intervention. My laryngitis has moderated to the point that I now have merely a hoarse voice, no longer an unintelligible whisper. This is wonderful. Ever hopeful, I just attempted to sing — I really miss Sacred Harp singing — pulling up the Irish YouTube video of Jefferson (SH148) on my Mac to sing along with. Verse 1 came out lumpy, kind of strangled, but on verse 2 I burst out in full volume, in tears of delight at rebirth, and now zeugma. Oh, this is a very good morning.]
But back with the bubbles of Biberty Bungle. The actor presented his character with bewildered self-mocking charm and a pleasant high masculinity, with lots of physicality in his performance. The actor was a familiar type to me: he looked like a serious jock who had discovered a talent for acting (this is more common that you might have imagined), and from his accent he was Canadian.
BINGO. The whole story, from Wikipedia:
Tanner Novlan (born 9 April 1986) is a Canadian actor and model. He is best known for playing doctor John “Finn” Finnegan on the American CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful since 2020. He has starred as “Struggling Actor” in Liberty Mutual commercials and as Gregory Manes on The CW’s Roswell, New Mexico (2020–2021).
Tanner Novlan was born on 9 April 1986 in Edmonton, Alberta, to Doug and Coresa (née Vizina) Novlan and raised in Paradise Hill, Saskatchewan. His mother is from Sacramento, California. His Slovene Canadian paternal grandfather, Clem, had a close bond with Novlan, as he was his first grandchild. Novlan is the eldest of three siblings, with a younger sister and brother.
Novlan grew up on his family’s farm, and at the age of twelve, he drove a $350,000 combine harvester. During his childhood, Novlan was very athletic and active in hockey, basketball and water-skiing. Upon his arrival in the United States at the age of 21, he worked for a construction company while taking acting classes.
… In 2019, Novlan ascended to prominence by assuming the role of the “Struggling Actor” in a humorous televised advertisement produced by Liberty Mutual. The actor notably mispronounces “Liberty Mutual” as “Liberty Biberty” in the commercial. This particular commercial garnered such widespread amusement and viewership that it remained in regular circulation until the year 2022. In September 2023, a new commercial for the … insurance company featuring Novlan was unveiled. In January 2026, Novlan was featured in another Liberty Mutual commercial in the “Truth Tellers” ad series, and again in July 2026, when a yellow fuzzy puppet character with a Statue of Liberty crown named Liberty Biberty was introduced as a new mascot for the company.
Weightier stuff. Now, actors are not their characters, but I’d like to think that Novlan projects Struggling Actor so well because the character is congenial to him. And I’d like to think that because I think life would be better with more pleasant high-masculinity guys, emphasis on the pleasant, in it. My own life has been enriched by friendships with a fair number of pleasant high-masculinity straight guys (I would take credit for having picked them well, but almost all of them picked me).
I am sociable, amiable, and empathetic — but necessarily wary. I have had straight men reluctant to shake hands with me because it would mean touching a faggot; and good Christian ladies telling me sweetly that I might be a wonderful human being but explaining (inaccurately) that their Christ commands that we be stoned to death. I have had stalkers, death threats on the phone, surveillance by the police, and a fair amount of heckling on the street — but have avoided getting gay bashed only by taking great care in choosing when and where I go out. (Living for a while in Brighton (Sussex) brought home to me the perilousness of public homosexuality in America.)
But by choosing to be a highly visible gay person — an entirely conscious moral decision made nearly 60 years ago, admittedly with grave angst at the beginning — this is the world I get.
So everyone has to be scanned, scrutinized: What sort of person are you? Are you safe to become close to? Are you willing to? Or will you shun me, or even present a danger to me?
My gender identity is strongly masculine (admittedly, not at all your grandad’s idea of masculinity, but it’s my brand) and that means I believe I belong to the world of men and have a place there. And so look for straight guys who would welcome me — pleasant high-masculinity guys — both for my own sake and as examples for all the others, they should learn.
In this, as I wrote above, I have been gratifyingly successful with individual guys. My record with groups, or bands, of men hovers agonizingly around zero, with one great exception that was probably, in a complex way, due to my being in a couple with Ann Daingerfield (as she was then). Some of this is enormously sad, a great wound that left a nasty disabling scar, and I haven’t been able to write about it flat out. This will have to do for today. Enjoy the bubbles, and Novlan’s face in character.
Leave a Reply