Bravo's Andy Cohen recently talked with TV Guide about his show Watch What Happens Live, which is marking its fifth year. Among the things Cohen said is that he feels he can go places nobody else can when interviewing friends such as Kelly Ripa; that he loved Martha Stewart talked about having a threesome and sexting; and that Lady Gaga once urinated in a trash can on the set.
Adam Levine has pulled a musical coup on the show The Voice, welcoming legend Stevie Nicks to his "team" on the NBC singing reality competition, according to CNN. "#TeamAdam, welcome the incredible Stevie Nicks as your Season 7 advisor!" read a post on The Voice's Instagram. The coaches build teams of singers with the hope of picking the "Voice" that will win it all; the job of an adviser like Nicks is to help out during rehearsals and offer expertise to the competitors. Back in the show's first season, Nicks sang a duet of "Landslide" with eventual winner Javier Colon.
The story of professional soccer player Robbie Rogers—who became the first openly gay man to compete in a top North American professional sports league—is headed to television, Deadline reported. ( NBA player Jason Collins, who had come out earlier in 2013, was a free agent at the time of his announcement, so he wasn't specifically on a team. ) Universal Television has optioned Rogers' story rights for Craig Zadan and Neil Meron's Storyline Entertainment to develop and produce a comedy series inspired by the young athlete's experiences. Zadan and Meron recently received 18 Emmy nods for producing the Oscars telecast, the Bonnie & Clyde miniseries, Sound Of Music LIVE! and the Anna Nicole movie.
Archie Andrews will die taking a bullet for his gay best friend, according to CBS Los Angeles. The famous freckle-faced comic book icon met his demise in the July 16 installment of "Life with Archie" when he intervenes in an assassination attempt on Kevin Keller, Archie Comics' first openly gay character. Andrews' death, first announced in April, marked the conclusion of the series that focuses on grown-up renditions of Andrews and his Riverdale pals.
Chad Vaccarino of A Great Big World—the pop duo who scored the huge hit "Say Something" with Christina Aguilera—has come out as a gay man in a video recently posted on YouTube, according to DirectLyrics.com . Titled "Day 23 - A Day In the Life: Food for Thought," Vaccarino also talks about being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when he was in college and finding the right treatment.
This year's free Global Citizen Festival aims to shine a light on poverty around the planet. MTV.com reported that the Sept. 27 gig on the Great Lawn in New York's Central Park will include headliner Jay-Z, along with fun., Carrie Underwood, the Roots, Tiesto and No Doubt. The event will coincide with the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and support the parent organization's goal of helping to stamp out world poverty by 2030.
A couple weeks after she announced she would be leaving The View, Jenny McCarthy's next step has been revealed, ABC News noted. SiriusXM announced that McCarthy, 41, will "host a live, limited-run, one-hour weekly series exclusively on SiriusXM starting on Wednesday, July 16." The series is called "Dirty, Sexy, Funny with Jenny McCarthy," and she will discuss parenting, sex, dating and marriage.
Speaking of The View, Rosie O'Donnell ( who's returning to the show ) kept talking about former co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck and the series on Twitter. Hasselbeck initated the feud by interrupting her own vacation, calling in to her show Fox & Friends to disparage O'Donnell. Among other things, O'Donnell tweeted a YouTube video of a 2007 View fight the two of them had about torture at Guantanamo Bay, writing, "remember this — basic human rights."
Out Young & the Restless actor Greg Rikaart—who has played Kevin Fisher on the show for the past decade—thinks it would be interesting if an established character, such as his, were to come out of the closet, according to Gay Star News. Rikaart's character is currently single on the show, and having Kevin turn out to be gay or bisexual is not something that has been something that has been talked about among the writers as far as he knows. In 2009, gay actor Thom Bierdz was briefly brought back to the show after a 20-year absence; his character, the long-presumed-dead Phillip Chancellor III, admitted he had faked his own death because he is gay and couldn't handle living a lie.
Michael Sam, the NFL's first openly gay player, told Out he didn't speak to boyfriend Vito Cammisano for two years after the pair first met, according to On Top Magazine. The couple met at a lingerie party during Sam's freshman year at the University of Missouri. Cammisano, a star swimmer, violently puked over a railing. Sam then said, "I went up to him to ask if he was OK, and he started cursing at me. ... We didn't speak again for two years."
Pamela Anderson is using her writing to comment on the recent news about her divorce from Rick Salomon, according to The New York Daily News. "I knew it was wrong from the start," Anderson ominously writes. "Primitive— base instinct..Never marry a rich man." The actress filed for divorce for the second time from husband Salomon, after six months together.
Speaking of Anderson, Baywatch—the international '90s phenomenon that gave us Anderson—is yet another TV show making a comeback, according to NewNowNext. In fact, Anderson, David Hasselhoff and Alexandra Paul will return—but not as their Baywatch characters, in an effort to avoid copyright infringement. Reportedly, the plot has the characters ( playing themselves ) secretly working as CIA spies while travelling the world promoting Baywatch.
The 2014 Emmy Awards nominations were announced July 10, and there was a lot of love for various TV series. The overall leader was HBO's Game of Thrones, with 19 nominations. Netflix darling Orange Is the New Black received 12 nods, including Best Comedy Series, Best Actress in a Comedy Series for Taylor Schilling, and a supporting nod for Laverne Cox—makingher the first transgender actress to be nominated for an Emmy. Best Drama Series nods went to Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Mad Men and True Detective. The 66th Annual Primetime Emmys award ceremony will take place Monday, Aug. 25, at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre.
The musical adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' controversial 1991 novel American Psycho—about the arrogant Wall Street broker by day and sexually deranged serial killer by night—will make its U.S. debut this season at Second Stage Theatre, according to Billboard. The off-Broadway production will begin previews in February 2015 and will officially open in March. Mary Harron directed a 2000 feature film adaptation of Ellis' novel that starred Christian Bale.
Dallas Davidson, a singer who stars on TNT's Private Lives of Nashville Wives, was arrested after a very public, very drunken outburst in Nashville, according to TheHollywoodGossip.com . Police say Davisons instigated the brawl, cursing and hurling anti-gay slurs while punching his own hand in a sign of provocation. He was officially booked for disorderly conduct and public intoxication.
Grammy- and World Music Award-winning singer LeAnn Rimes is set to release her 19th album on Aug. 5. It's a dance remix of her greatest hits titled Dance Like You Don't Give a… Greatest Hits Remixes, according to a press release. "Dance Like You Don't Give a…" features remixes of Rimes' hits by DJs such as Dave Aude, Kaskade, Cahill, Fear of Tigers, Soul Seekerz and more. Among the tracks are "I Need You," "Headphones," "Can't Fight the Moonlight" and "How Do I Live."
Bravo is expanding its Million Dollar Listing franchise with a fourth series: Million Dollar Listing San Francisco, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The network is adding to its portfolio by greenlighting two more unscripted series: There Goes the Motherhood, centered on a "high-end 'mommy and me' group" in Los Angeles; and Secrets & Wives, following a group of wealthy friends and rivals who know everything about each other.
HBO has released a list of its upcoming documentaries. Among the movies are Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia ( to be shown in October ) and Regarding Susan Sontag ( slated for December ). "Hunted" is an investigation of the growing climate of hostility in the wake of the Russian government's anti-"gay propaganda" law that has led to an alarming increase in brutal attacks on gay men and women. "Sontag" looks at the late feminist icon/writer's life, including her first experience in a gay bar and life with her last partner, photographer Annie Leibovitz.
The tag line of artist Saint Hoax's awareness and prevention campaign for domestic violence asks, "When did he stop treating you like a princess?"—and shows the likenesses of several Disney princesses bruised and battered, according to TheHollywoodGossip.com . Of his "Happy Never After" campaign, Hoax said, "Disney princess are perceived as ideal females ... [b]ut what happens after the happy ever after?"
Margaret Cho, Jack Black, Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet, Aisha Tyler and Kristen Schaal are featured in "Tacky," Weird Al Yankovic's parody video of Pharrell Williams' huge hit "Happy," according to Billboard. Yankovic promoted his new album, Mandatory Fun, by releasing eight videos over the eight days. Yankovic's new album also includes "Word Crimes," a parody of Robin Thicke's 2013 smash "Blurred Lines."
There's hand-wringing and finger-pointing at Simon & Schuster over the soft performance of Hillary Clinton's book Hard Choices, for which she got a $14 million advance—and which was replaced at number one on the best-seller list by Blood Feud, Edward Klein's story of the Bill and Hillary Clintons' strained relationship with Barack and Michelle Obama, Page Six noted. The former secretary of state's tome sold 161,000 copies in its first three weeks, according to Nielsen BookScan—but 85,000 of those were sold in the first week. Simon & Schuster shipped an optimistic 1 million copies to stores.
Comedian Russell Brand announced his intentions of appearing on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor—but not to debate host Bill O'Reilly, according to Raw Story. "I want to go on that program, 'cause if I ever meet Bill, I'm gonna kiss him so hard," Brand said. "I'm gonna French kiss him. Come on Bill, you need to have this snogged out of you." Brand had called Fox "terrorist" and "propagandist" in a previous commentary video.
Colin Farrell is in talks to star in the second season of HBO's True Detective, while Taylor Kitsch ( John Carter; The Normal Heart ) is also the leading candidate for the younger male lead, according to The Wrap. HBO is reportedly intent on landing a true movie star, someone who could play rugged and gritty. True Detective earned multiple Emmy nominations recently, including nods for Best Drama Series and lead actors Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.
Heathers: The Musical—the critically acclaimed musical stage adaptation of Daniel Waters' iconic 1989 dark comedy film—will play its final performance of its limited engagement at NYC's New World Stages on Aug. 4, according to Broadway World. The production opened March 31—the 25th anniversary of the film's release. Heathers: The Musical is directed by stage and screen director Andy Fickman ( Reefer Madness, Parental Guidance, She's The Man ), with choreography by Emmy winner Marguerite Derricks ( Fame, Charlie's Angels, Austin Powers films ).
Academy and Olivier Award winner Helen Mirren has said she will reprise her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in a Broadway run of Peter Morgan's The Audience, which played a celebrated, sold-out London run last year, according to a Playbill item. Mirren told The Daily Mail that rehearsals will get underway in mid-January 2015, with previews to begin in February. In The Audience, playwright Morgan imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the queen and various prime ministers in their weekly meetings.
Broadway.com has confirmed that Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is likely to be heading to London's Aldwych Theatre next year. However, although its Tony-winning leading lady, Jessie Mueller, previously revealed that she would "gladly hop over the pond for a while" to reprise her role, a British actress will reportedly headline the musical in the United Kingdom instead.
A large-scale "Forever Marilyn" statue that depicts icon Marilyn Monroe in a billowy white dress was recently found face down in a junkyard in China, according to The Chicago Tribune. The sculpture was removed in June from its base in a small Chinese city, where it had been erected in the hopes of attracting renters and shoppers. However, the Sculpture Foundation has said this is not the same statue as the Seward Johnson item that toured the United States; Johnson's artwork is reportedly at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey.
NewFest—the New York-based nonprofit organization that will present its annual festival of LGBT cinema with the Film Society of Lincoln Center from July 24 to July 29—announced that filmmaker Ira Sachs ( Love is Strange, Keep the Lights On, Forty Shades of Blue ) will be receiving the 3rd annual NewFest Visionary Award, according to a press release. Sachs' latest film, Love is Strange, stars John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a couple forced to live apart after 38 years together, and has Marisa Tomei and Cheyenne Jackson as their extended family; it will be released by Sony Pictures Classics Aug. 22.
