It may be a valid story that The Coalition of African American Pastors has announced its disagreement with the NAACP over marriage equality, but did Yahoo! have to make this particular story—complete with a helpful link to an anti-equality petition—a lead story? If that doesn't already smack of bias, the entire tone of the article is like a press release against gays, quoting the Coalition's head ad nauseuma and approvingly noting his ideas come from Martin Luther King Jr., God and St. Thomas Aquinas (not necessarily in that order). It's shockingly unjournalistic.
Even more interesting, as pointed out by a reader, the author of the piece, intern Meagan Clark, has a Twitter on which she states she loves Texas and Jesus.
I actually love this restaurant, but not enough to get naked for it.
And even though Mary Ann's in Chelsea is my all-time #1 favorite restaurant since moving to NYC 20 years ago, I'll never set foot in it again unless this manager gets his gay-hating ass fired. (My understanding is he still manages the Chelsea location despite losing a $1.6 million suit for harassing a lesbian chef by getting other employees to help pray away her gay.)
Enter for your chance to win 1 of 5 copies of eCupid from TLA Releasing! Just comment this blog with your thoughts on which two famous men (gay, straight or otherwise) would make an ideal fantasy couple. I'll pick 5 of you to win at random a week from today at 5PM EST. Good luck!
TLA Releasing presents
eCupid
A J.C. Calciano film featuring Morgan Fairchild
Available on DVD now
From the director of Is It Just Me? comes this sparkling romantic comedy which takes online dating to the extreme! Marshall is an overworked ad exec suffering from a serious case of the seven-year itch with his loving boyfriend. As Marshall's thirtieth birthday nears, he gets hell-bent on changing his life and comes across a mysterious dating app called eCupid which quickly turns his world upside down, overwhelming him with sexy guys at every turn! Firing on all cylinders with a sharp script, hot cast and even an extended cameo from Hollywood legend Morgan Fairchild, eCupid will win your heart!
Download the eCupid iPhone app for free here! Like eCupid on Facebook here!
Emmy-winning Big Bang Theory actor Jim Parsons—so brilliant in The Normal Heart and currently plugging his turn on Broadway in a revival of Harvey—has officially come out in a New York Times profile. Commenters on my site have for a couple of years insisted he is already out based on information that they have about how open he is in private. However, being professionally out—on the record—is different (and better) than a glass closet. Great news, and he did it in a way similar to how Matt Bomer did it, organically and without any mincing of words.
Belinda Carlisle is releasing her Belindia line at Bergdorf Goodman, but did you know she was also pitching a show with the same title? I felt fortunate to see the pitch over a year ago in the privacy of her collaborator's apartment (Dan Rucks of Dan-O-Rama fame). Now, everyone can see a cut of it—and can comment below why you think this is not on TV. It's very entertaining in a fish-out-of-water way even if you're not particularly familiar with Carlisle.
Belinda looks great, but those other Go-Go's really let themselves go!
Rucks says:
"Shopping this show has been a delicate process. Belinda and I have passed on several offers because a network wanted a 'back-stabbing drama or bitchiness' and we're not into producing a product like that. I think people are just about over these types of shows and Belindia will eventually find the right network or Internet venue. Don't forget, it took over five years to get RuPaul's Drag Race on the air—and now look! We're looking and open."
In the show, she lets go of her ego (well...almost!), gets her coccyx realigned (well...almost!) in a way that would get a thumbs-way-up from John Travolta and saves animals in India...
With the #1 debut of his album Trespassing, Adam Lambert becomes the very first out gay artist to debut at #1 and the first to have a #1 album at all. (Not counting that out gay artist who did it during Reconstruction.) Others like Melissa Etheridge or George Michael hit #1, but never after coming out. Congrats, kid!
Speaking of out singers, Matt Zarley is offering his fans a chance to co-star in his new music video for "Change Begins With Me".
Enter to win the co-starring gig by shooting and uploading a video of yourself displaying a written phrase (five words or less) that explains how you can make yourself a better person. Creativity counts, people! Matt will pick his 25 favorites to be used in his video.
Submit your film (10 seconds or less) here. (Log-in and password are both changevideo.) The contest is open through June 10th. Good luck!
Robert today, Robert in Times Square, Robert in DSS
Pretty sure I spotted Robert Joy the other day fleetingly in Times Square. He's worked steadily for 30 years, but to me he'll always be the nearly cuckolded Jim from Desperately Seeking Susan. Hating that I didn't grab him when I had the chance.
In spite of my slavish coverage of Broadway Bares for years and years, I find I simply can NOT get the org to send me press releases and treat me as actual press. Anyone have any contacts who can help in that regard? Until then, I just read on Queerty that there will be a Fire Island spin-off soon featuring some of my favorite dancers. I've never even set foot on Fire Island in all my 20 years in NYC...sickening, right?
Adele's Vogue UK cover tanked—it was one of the magazine's worst sellers ever in spite of her huge success in the world of music. Theories are that it was "over-edited" (too PhotoShopped) and that women known primarily for music don't usually sell well for the magazine. But couldn't another reason be that women reading Vogue are interested in being slim, and she isn't? Or maybe being Vogue is all about being classy and elegant and Adele is so earthy and real? (This is not a judgment on my part, this is my reading of what I think Vogue is all about.)
It's not about looking young but rather about living longer—a lot longer. Check out this piece on radical life extension. (Warning: You may age 18 months reading it!) How old would you want to live to be?
Quinn Christopher Jaxon & Co. are back in another Andrew Christian video. Christian seems to be taking over the Calvin Klein innovative-beefcake-marketing mantle with his never-ending series of sexed-up viral ads, no? Set to (the annoying) Kat Graham's (annoying) song "Put Your Graffiti On Me," this one is one of the more sensual clips in the series...
The 1989 show Closer Than Ever is back Off Broadway and is offering an LGBT Night special on June 14. In celebration of this, I'm giving away tickets good to a performance between June 5 and June 20. To win a pair of tickets, simply comment my blog with something—anything—you were doing in 1989 (if you weren't born, I'll accept that as a reply) and I'll pick one of you to win a week from today at 5PM EST. Good luck!
For those of you not familiar with the show:
Click to maximize
More about that LGBT Night: Buy a $35 ticket (regularly $67.50) to the June 14 show and you'll get admission into a special reception after with wine, snacks and soda in the Music Room of The York Theatre Company (enter on 54th east of Lexington). Get tickets at YorkTheatre.org or by calling (212) 935-5820 (code LGBT35).
A remarkably (even the judge pointed it out) remorseless Dharun Ravi received just 30 days in jail after being found guilty in the Tyler Clementi case. I agree he shouldn't be in jail for a decade, but Jesus—30 days? It's like he forgot a few parking tickets.
Still more Donna Summer. Above, two men pay spontaneous tribute to her as "MacArthur Park blares (via Joe.My.God.). Also, don't miss Barry Walters's commentary on why Donna Summer—gay-friendly, anti-gay, gay-tolerant, whatever—was a true gay icon, and perhaps the last of the gay icons the bulk of whose work was enjoyed by gays without the icon's explicit acknowedgment:
"When Summer died from cancer...the straight world lost a superstar, but gays of my generation lost an emblem of our lives that we may never experience again, even at a time when everything is marketed more and more brazenly to us. We'll probably never have another open secret like Summer again because a mystery like hers will either be answered forthwith or never allowed to occur."
I know this ad is about how rescuing a dog is more worthwhile than picking up hot bitches in bars, but it does kind of play with the notion of picking up an actual hot bitch without frequenting bars (perhaps a dating, er, mating site?). It made me look; I hope dogs get adopted out of it.
Ah, to be 19 and from Brazil again. Mateus Almeida is both, and is beginning "his international career as a model." Peter Thiel, a gay Howard Hughes for the '10s, would adore him for skipping college, but along with technology geniuses, Mateus is one of the few who I think can get away with it.
Diver Tom Daley turns 18 today. I guess he's the gay equivalent of the Olsen Twins, who inspired countdowns in the media leading up to their turning legal. Or wait, maybe Taylor Lautner was that already?
Regardless, as if by magic, Tom is now okay to openly drool over. He's become a man overnight! (More of Tom and other frisky jocks here.)
I recently saw and really enjoyed Peter and the Starcatcher—now it's your turn! I've got a pair of tickets to offer one lucky reader, who will be chosen at random one week from today at 5PM EST.
To enter, just comment this post with your favorite version of the Peter Pan story. Good luck!
More info about the acclaimed play:
A wildly theatrical, hilarious and innovative retelling of how a miserable orphan came to be The Boy Who Never Grew Up, PETER AND THE STARCATCHER upends the century-old legend of Peter Pan.
Nominated for 9 Tony Awards® including Best Play and based on the best-selling Disney-Hyperion novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, PETER AND THE STARCATCHER is directed by Tony Award® winner Roger Rees (Nicholas Nickleby) and Tony Award® nominee Alex Timbers (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Pee-wee Herman Show) and written by Tony Award® nominee Rick Elice (Jersey Boys). A dozen brilliant actors play more than 100 unforgettable characters using their enormous talent, ingenious stagecraft and the limitless possibilities of imagination. Don't miss this epic origin story of one of popular culture's most enduring and beloved characters and discover the Neverland you never knew.
With thanks to Kevin: Somehow, Dark Blood—River Phoenix's final, unfinished film project—is going to be released. It co-stars Judy Davis and Jonathan Pryce...
Out (June/July 2012) is foisting its "Hot List" on us, including a slew of hot faces, bodies and (see above) packages. Amongst my faves are Matthew Terry, Hudson Taylor, Harry Lloyd, Ian Harding and Josh Henderson. Henderson (who used to treat his MySpace followers with half-naked photos, see left) is heating up thanks to his Dallas reboot. I know him from his days as a teen popstar, when his cool mom ("Mama Hendu") used to be in regular touch about coverage for her strikingly handsome son. He was a member of Scene 23, a boy/girl group that was formed on a WB (remember them?) series called Popstars that predated American Idol. Another grad of Popstars? Nicole Scherzinger, who was a member of short-lived, short-tempered (trust me!) girl group Eden's Crush.
Later this year (I need to find the exact date) will mark the 20th anniversary of my arrival to NYC. It's the place I've lived longest and loved most. Here, I am showing off my "Erotica" puppet in a Polaroid I took in my first NYC apartment in...Weehawken. New Jersey. The rooming situation involved some alcoholic black-outs (not mine), bounced rent checks (mine) and a sexy straight roommate I wanted to get to know in a way that might have fit nicely as a sequence in the porn film Dynastud (1986). The puppets were sold for about $8 in the East Village, but yokels from all around the country were paying $100s for them. I'm sure the original puppet Madonna used would not be worth $10,000. All those pricy ones fans shelled out good money for are probably worth composting.
After Donna Summer, we now have another Gibb passing away—Robin, age 62, also from cancer. Bad week for disco. I liked but wasn't as personally attached to the Bee Gees, so I have no exceptional words to offer beyond how monumental I think they are in pop music history.
Madonna will apparently include a tribute to Brandon Bitner, a teen who committed suicide, in her upcoming MDNA Tour. Good on her. I don't care if "bullying" is a cause de rigeur—it needs exposure until it's a thing of the past.
I just saw Lady Rizo's show last night at the Highline in NYC and I'm left feeling kind of how I felt when Janice Dickinson kissed me and licked my eyeball—except less afraid of getting herpes and more hopeful that Rizo's creativity might be viral.
Having no idea what to expect, we calmly ate our grilled cheese sandwiches and coconut shrimp and tomato soup that was really just Ragu in a bowl. I was nervous about what would happen if I didn't like Rizo (not pronounced like the Grease character, more like Ree-zoh) since my pal Greg and his partner Dan are friends of hers and had invited us. I needn't have worried. As soon as she emerged (in total darkness) and we heard the first notes, it was clear this bitch could sing just about anything. And wound up doing so.
For some reason—perhaps honoring their late matriarch's idea that she contracted lung cancer from living in Lower Manhattan during 9/11 and breathing toxic air?—Donna Summer's family has released a statement that she was a non-smoker. However, that's not true. I totally believe them if they say she hasn't been a smoker in years and years, but she was obviously a smoker in her youth.
The same Ukrainian prankster who fooled the world into thinking he was a diehard Madonna fan and inadvertently caused Hydrangea-Gate has now attempted an open-mouthed kiss with Will Smith—and was at least as smacked down as those damn flowers were.
The story of a young dancer torn between his family (a losing proposition?) and his dream (a losing proposition?, Five Dances is a film seeking your $upport. But watching the trailer is free...
Scott Teitler captures Zach Ramos for Fantastics in a feature called "On Edge"—it'll either have you on the edge of your seat or perhaps his, either way.
David Leddick's take on what it was like to be gay during the same time period as TV's Mad Men sounds a lot more interesting to me than TV's Mad Men (a show I have resisted sampling...I know! I know.)
Above, Chris Evan looks fine in the wild, as seen in National Enquirer (May 28, 2012). Below, Rock of Ages star Diego Boneta as seen in People en Espanol (Junio 2012):
With thanks to John: I prefer to remember Donna Summer's incredible talent than to dwell on the idea that she apparently thought 9/11 gave her lung cancer (and not her cigarettes). Check out this delightfully warped version of "Bad Girls" starring the late Donna Summer, complete with backing by the late Pat Ast (whose own connection to 9/11 was the death of friend Berry Berenson), the late Debralee Scott (whose fiancé was a cop who died in the 9/11 attacks) and Twiggy. (How sleazy that the cop greedily takes the prostie home for himself!)
Via Sticky (Work Unfriendly): His name is Julian Gabriel, and even that info is optional when you consider what we've got to work with just from a purely visual perspective.
