* This show is never as fun as the others, but it feels far less belabored than the Oscars.
* Would've been a nice touch to have had Misty Rowe and Theresa Russell introduce Michelle Williams.
* Glad Christopher Plummer won! Where did he get that posh accent, coming from frickin' Canada? I hope his win and Octavia Spencer's win—as expected as they were—won't cause Oscar voters to decide to change things up. I don't mind disagreement between the shows, but I hate when it feels like wins at the other shows that come first turn into surprise losses at the Oscars. The Oscars should be definitive, not reactive.
* I love 30 Rock and love Alec Baldwin on it, but it's a scandal that Steve Carell didn't get it—ever!—for one of the most memorable (and interestingly textured) TV characters in history.
* Betty White is amazing and an instution, but she was not the year's best lead actress on a comedy. In fact, she wasn't even the best actress on Hot in Cleveland! She earned the award with the silent "I won?" acting once she was announced.
* Modern Family is probably the best cast, so I was on board with that. 30 Rock's a better show, but those MF mfers are all so equally great and 30 Rock is top-heavy.
* Surprised Maggie Smith couldn't best Kate Winslet, but I did love Kate in Mildred Pierce.
On the right, Madonna 2012 (love the hair, cross and, well, all of it) from her "Give Me All Your Luvin'" video. On the right, her inspiration piece: Madonna 1985, wailing along to "Gambler."
Check out DrownedMadonna.com for more, more, more! The video snippet looks HOTTTTT. I love that Madonna's not a cheerleader in it.
Brandon K. Thorp over at Towleroad is covering the unbelievable blindness of Sen. Stacey Campfield (R-Tennessee), who in an interview with Michelangelo Signorile said he believes AIDS originated with homosexuals, specifically with a gay man (so-called Patient Zero Gaetan Dugas) having sex with a monkey. And other stupid shit, like believing that And the Band Played On's Randy Shilts was "appalled" by unsanitary gay-sex practices and thinking it's "virtually impossible" (!) to get HIV from heterosexual sex. Um, tell Africa that. Um, tell the huge number of heterosexuals who got it that way that. (Also, does a guy putting his dick in a woman's butt not count as heterosexual? Just curious.)
Via MadonnaTribe: Absolutely love the official art for "Give Me All Your Luvin'," which has a lot of energy and style. Love the treatment of the title on Madonna's top. (Fritz thinks that because presenting a person in triptych has occurred before, that makes this somewhat unoriginal. I think Madonna's triptych has a unique, demanding vibe and don't believe it's important for a single cover to be 100% unrecognizable as anything that's ever been done.)
Thought of this cover because of its resemblance to the third pic above
Madonna's triptych "Give It 2 Me" came out June 4, 2008, before Whitney or Mariah's (dramatically different anyway) covers
Any other single covers on which Madonna appears thrice? Oh, yeah!
Even more in love with the info that "Give Me All Your Luvin'" will be released on February 3 and that iTunes will have an exclusive pre-order of an 18-track deluxe edition of MDNA (including a remix of one song) from February 3—February 6 for just $9.99. Starting February 3, go here for the offer.
Matthew Duffy's "Man Out of U" (I wonder if it's a four-year college or...?) is saturated with Madonna references, shows off some killer shades complete with pornstache and has plenty of skin courtesy of Ronnie Kroell...
With thanks to Andy: Ah, to be barely legal and in love. This "fashion film" by Robert-John is from Vrag Magazine (Vancouver) for its February issue. It's like Valentine's Day meets James Bidgood...
Lots of people want this trend to go away, yet people keep watching—just like Madonna! Madonna is immortal, and looking through these 100+ snippets of her saying stuff only reinforces that she is the alpha and the omega and other "Beast Within"-type, Queen-of-the-Universe stuff...
Sadly, Robert Hegyes—Juan Epstein on Welcome Back Kotter—died at the age of 60 following a heart attack. I remember knowing he had not been broke for a long while. It's good to know he participated in that recent WBKreunion. Hopefully, that brought him a little fun.
Pure Barre Beverly Hills has launching a weekly "Boys to the Barre" class, the only of its kind in the country teaching pure barre to an all-male clientele. According to a press release, choreographer Shawn White attended. And yes, I'm aware the photos look like I might have taken the surreptitiously myself, but I swear they are hand-outs.
Mario Lopez gives the performance of his life, removing his clothes to show off his Rated M underwear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Video after the jump...
Imagine being this mom and hearing the beliefs of some of her fellow parents
In a school district where a half dozen kids have committed suicide within the past two years, the system's anti-gay policies (don't ever talk about it) were not harsh enough for a cabal of "conservative" "Christian" (both terms used loosely) parents—they're calling for the school to teach about the existence of ex-gay and ex-transgender reparative therapy and also about the terrors of GRID. Yes, GRID. That's the first term ever used, along with "gay cancer," for AIDS 30 years ago.
If these were my parents advocating for these things, they would be my ex-parents.Read about it here.
OK! (February 6, 2012) somehow got Madonna's dancer-boyfriend Brahim Zaibat to speak. In the piece, he says he was never a big fan of hers—"It is not the kind of music I [prioritize] in my iPod. But like everyone else, I knew her hit songs." (I wonder what word he said in place of "prioritize?")
About his womanizing past, Zaibat says:
"When I was younger, I had a number of female conquests. The dance helped me a lot. I am a dancer first. I have not yet shown the world the extent of my talent."
From Entertainment Weekly (January 27, 2012): Joe Manganiello and Matt Bomer are not only Magic Mike co-stars, they're college buddies! Who knew? I love it; it just increases the odds they've accidentally seen each other naked at some point.
In the purposefully-naked department, Bomer says of filming the stripper-themed Magic Mike:
"If you ever want to build an ensemble between a cast of dudes, put them in a thong together and it's like, instant band of brothers."
Via Towleroad: Joan Rivers goes for Chelsea Handler's throat (or was she aiming that high?) in responding to Handler's suggestion that Rivers fuck off...
The boy band The Wanted is currently giving the U.S. a dose of their new song "Glad You Came" and a few others from their catalogue of U.K. hits on a gay club tour:
January 26—Roscoe's, Chicago, IL; January 27—Saloon, Minneapolis, MN; February 3—Krave, Las Vegas, NV; February 4—Cherry Pop @ Ultra Suede, West Hollywood, CA
Keep reading to see a video diary of what they've been up to in general...
I thought President Obama's State of the Union was persuasive and uplifting. I find it hard to swallow that things are going so terribly now compared to when he took office—they're not. They're on the upswing. And more than even what he said, it's what he's done, as documented in this video (via Joe):
With thanks to Curtis: For photographer Steven Siegel, New York City has been his Helga Testorf. His portraits of the city (and let's face it, it's more a person than a city) are pretty spectacular, and he's sharing some here.
His '80s work could be polarizing, as he addresses on his Flickr. Love his observation:
"Some older people are nostalgic for 'the good old days.' For example, they remember the Times Square of the '80s… And what they remember is not so much the danger but the grittiness and (for lack of a better word) the authenticity. Yes, there was sleaze, but there were also video arcades, cheap movies, restaurants, and weird places...Others’ reactions to these same photos could not be more different. If they’re over a certain age, they remember the high crime, the twin crises of AIDS and crack, the racial tension, the lurid tabloid headlines about the latest street crime. They say: It was a nightmare, and thank God it’s over. Of course, both views are right."
I don't remember a time when I didn't love Holland Taylor. I don't even have to be able to stand her current project (Two and a Half Men) to continue at least a like affair with her. In The Advocate (February 2012), she's asked if anyone's ever asked her about rumors she's a lesbian or bi:
"No, I don't think anybody would ever do that. And I would only say that I'm of an age where there's not much I haven't done in my life."
Hm. It's not really about what you've done so much as what you are, but I do think that she's of an age (69—which has possibilities!) where simply allowing that much is a statement.
Model Nick Gross is anything but as he models for Gregg Homme in these behind-the-scenes photos recently released by the company that specializes in "outrageous underwear." Keep reading and prepare to be outraged...
I was knee-deep in Madonna recapping this morning when the Oscar nominations were announced—some real surprises in there, including only two nominees for song (suck it, Elton John), a full five nominees for animated feature (but no Gnomeo & Juliet, so...maybe David Furnish & Elton John can 69-suck it!), no recognition for Bill Cunningham New York, no Leo DiCaprio (yet STILL no space for Michael Fassbender) and quite a few more.
** All images in this post copyrighted. Do not remove and post anywhere without permission. **
Madonna gets teary thanking her late mom
I was invited to cover the red carpet for Madonna's W.E. premiere at the Ziegfeld earlier tonight. Then I was uninvited. (Space.) Then I was re-invited. I wound up getting to go, and it was a blast of epic proportions. There was a very light turn-out of fans in the cold rain, but the press was packed into a long tent leading into the theater. I was placed two slots from the bitter end, which turned out to be a nice position because anyone who did the red carpet had to pass us to get inside.
I've had front row before but A-1...I'd be riding her dress train!
I made friends with a woman covering for Pink Is the New Blog, but she was whisked away ("first, they came for...") to a spot in the lobby so I wound up bonding with Matt from Hard Candy Music. As I told him, we were probably the lowest men on the totem pole so as such would be lucky to sniff Madonna's stardust as she breezed by. Which meant anything else would be a cause for joyous celebration. We also chit-chatted with a sexy, dark-haired (they have those there?) Swede named Pablo (they have those there, too?) who shoots for Vogue. He was much nicer than you'd expect for a Vogue shooter, and him saying, "One shot for Vogue?" had the effect of a brick wall, stopping nearly every celeb who breezed by. (Patti Smith was not impressed, but I was fucking impressed that Patti Smith walked past me, let alone that she was attending a movie by Madonna.)
The carpet got off to a slow start, but the tip sheet was insane! Check out all the names:
Some of these people didn't do press or didn't show
The first star on the carpet seemed to be one of the film's two male leads, dreamy James D'Arcy, who looks even better with a shaved head that he does with his foppish blond Edward 'do.
Julia Stiles is miles of smiles—for Vogue
Ewan told this reporter the answer to her question was HIS business
Andrew McCarthy was born to run
Patti Smith— love to know her opinion of her fellow Downtown doyenne
It's Diane von Furstenberg, y'all!
"Mine is even younger than yours, dahhhling!" With Calvin Klein!
Guy Oseary said "too stressed!" when I asked if I could quiz him
Spartacus sexpot Lucy Lawless with Liam McIntyre; she unceremoniously plopped her coat on the carpet to pose. She was fab!
Big, unaffiliated stars slipped past most of the press, namely Ewan McGregor (who was at one point attached to do this film), Julia Stiles (who was having absolutely none of any press except for a shot for Vogue), Andrew McCarthy (who gamely answered my question about a fantasy Madonna collaboration: "A duet, of course!"), a stunning Lucy Lawless with equally stunning Liam McIntyre (she gave me a great answer, he sort of avoided making eye contact rather than give us a "no") and then still others who I only saw fleetingingly like Diane von Furstenberg, Guy Oseary (Madonna's manager said he was too stressed to answer my question), Donna Karan, Calvin Klein (big kiss for and from Madonna and some conspiratorial chatting amongst them, perhaps about hot young guys!), Lady Bunny (I was impressed, too), Zac Posen, Ivanka Trump (pretty, actually) Jack McCollough & Lazaro Hernandez (hotness) and several people even I didn't recognize. (Not Z-listers, more like fashion A-listers.)
Finally, a really smart article about Madonna in 2012. I think Lady Gaga deserves more respect than the writer is willing ot grant her, but otherwise—magnifique. And he's right that once someone has done it, the second time never has as much of an impact as the first.
P.S. The amazing score to W.E., by Abel Korzeniowski, is released digitally by Interscope on January 31. It includes Madonna's embarrassing, desperate and narcissistic (snark) song "Masterpiece."
Lush Simon MacCorkindale was touted as a fresh face in the March 1979 issue, and damn he looked good in them jeans. Poor Simon passed away much too young in 2010 after struggling with colon cancer.
Bette Davis inspects Simon in Death on the Nile (1978)
Keep reading to see another hunk of the moment from over 30 years ago...
Via Sticky (NSFW): It's not surprising that this group chose Michael Fassbender as actor of the year, though I'm not sure how his brilliant Shame performance furthered the particular kind of visibility they seek to reward.
U.K. boy band The Wanted—they're all of age and are the "bad boys" of the music scene, known for their partying—are in NYC as part of a whirlwind U.S. promo tour. They played a sold-out Irving Plaza show to the expected screaming teenage girls, but they also made a 1 a.m. stop at Splash, performing infectious hits like "All Time Low" and "Glad You Came".
Max is my favorite
The last U.S. boy band I can recall doing direct gay promo was The Backstreet Boys.
