THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

For actor Eddie Redmayne, portraying a woman in The Danish Girl meant transforming more than just his outward appearance, according to People.com . "I fell into all the cliches of ignorance," Redmayne confessed in an interview with Details magazine. "I didn't realize that gender and sexuality weren't related." In addition, the Les Miserables actor admitted he even "confused the terms 'transvestitism' and 'transgender'" when he first signed on to play Lili Elbe, believed to be the first person to undergo a sex change in the 1930s.

Speaking of The Danish Girl, the film was screened as part of the White House's LGBT Artist Champions of Change event, according to Page Six. Director Tom Hooper participated in a Q&A with others including Transparent creator Jill Soloway as well as Beltway insiders Valerie Jarrett and Julian Castro. Hooper said: "I think [Obama] is the first president to even use the word 'transgender' publicly. And to invite us into his home in this way, to talk about this subject, and allow us to screen The Danish Girl, it's a very special day."

CBS announced that the live broadcast will take place at New York's Beacon Theater on June 12—not June 5 as it had earlier scheduled, according to Deadline. Nominations will be announced May 3 from the Paramount Hotel; the announcement was previously set for April 29. This will be the 70th anniversary for the Tonys, first held at the Waldorf Astoria's Grand Ballroom.

The day before Thanksgiving, Oprah Winfrey took 20 of her students from the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa to see Jennifer Hudson in The Color Purple on Broadway, BT.com noted. After the performance, Winfrey told People: "Particularly this time of the year, you're giving some energy and thought to what it means to be in the world and being able to have access to opportunity—which is what has happened with my girls." Winfrey opened her academy for girls in the small town of Henley-on-Klip, South Africa, in 2007.

Vogue editor Anna Wintour was a distinguished guest at the 2015 London Evening Standard Theatre Awards—but the buzz among attendees was that she's discreetly turned down a theater honor back in New York City, Page Six reported. A source said the stage-loving Wintour was recruited by American Theatre Wing chair and costume designer William Ivey Long to serve this year as an unofficial fashion guru to the Tony awards in June—but she turned down the invitation to be a Tony voter. The source added that despite Wintour's Tony rejection, "Anna has offered to come back again to advise on the red carpet next year."

Adele broke *NSYNC's first-week CD sales record—and she didn't even need four days, TheWrap noted. The singer actually didn't even need the full 96 hours to move 2.43 million units of 25, according to Nielsen music. The boy band had held the record for quite a while thanks to the instant success of No Strings Attached, which sold 2.416 million units in its March 2000 opening week. She ended up selling 3.48 million equivalent album units in her first week, EW.com reported. It's Adele's second number-one album, following her 2011 smash 21, which also returned to Billboard's top 10 for the first time in nearly two and a half years.

A growing controversy over a Singapore concert starring openly gay U.S. singer Adam Lambert has highlighted a widening cultural divide in the city-state, according to BBC News. Thousands of Singapore residents have flocked online to sign two dueling petitions—including one that calls for the show to be dropped, saying it's "contrary to mainstream Singaporean values." Lambert previously performed in Singapore in 2013 to few complaints, and concerts by other artists such as Lady Gaga have generated greater controversy.

NewNowNext.com reported that there is reportedly a scene in the new Sacha Baron Cohen film The Brothers Grimsby, due for a March 2016 release, that depicts actor Daniel Radcliffe as an HIV-positive madman who 'infects the Queen' in what is meant to be a twisted joke. A source close to the actor told The Sun he is outraged by the plot and his likeness being used in the film, and will lobby Sony to have the scenes removed.

Actress Holland Taylor—who played Alan and Charlie Harper's ( Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer's ) bisexual mother on the TV show Two and a Half Men—revealed in a recent radio interview that she is in a relationship with a woman, and has been dating women for quite some time, according to US Weekly. Asked if she was enticed by the idea of marriage, Taylor said, "My relationship is with a woman, and I have not ... given my generation, it would not be something that would automatically occur to me. ... But as a symbol, as a pledge, as a plighting one's troth I would see it—that it would be a wonderful thing to do."

Michael Lucas has been sued for allegedly leaving bodily-fluid stains, enema kits, dildos and other things in a California Airbnb rental, according to Queerty. The gay-porn mogul/documentarian denied the allegations, suggesting the bodily fluids may actually belong to the property owner herself, who he claims is a "professional extortionist." Kristina Knapic alleges that Lucas rented her 1929 Spanish revival mansion in Ojai, California, under false pretenses, claiming Lucas booked the house as a "summer rental" using the fake name "Anna." When he showed for the keys, he reportedly told Knapic he was Anna's brother-in-law.

ABC Family has renewed The Fosters for a fourth season, TheWrap reported. The series is currently on hiatus and will return with the season-three winter premiere on Monday, Jan. 25. ABC Family will rebrand itself as Freeform in January 2016. The show centers on a blended family that a lesbian couple head.

Modern Famiily actor Reid Ewing ( who was in the news recently regarding his open letter regarding body dysmorphia ) has come out as gay, according to Towleroad. It was Reid's conversation about body dysmorphia that then led him to confirm that he is gay. Responding to a Good Morning America report featuring a young man named Eugene Bata who opened up about his battle with body dysmorphia, Ewing tweeted that he thought Bata was hot. When another Twitter user asked Ewing if he outed himself, the actor replied, "I was never in." He later posted, "Writes a cosmetic surgery article, people care more that I'm gay."

Professional-boxer-turned-gay-porn-star Yusaf Mack just gave an interview saying he's officially on the market and looking for love, according to a Queerty item. Mack—a 35-year-old father of 10—first made headlines last month when he claimed was drugged and had absolutely no recollection of ever filming a hardcore gay-skin flick. As for who he wants to love, he used slurs when talking with Hip Hollywood: "My interest is trannys. I love trannys. I'm attracted to trannys. I don't like no muscle like me."

Singer Aaron Carter left many people scratching their heads after he named himself Michael Jackson's successor, according to Page Six. "Remember one very important thing," read a deleted tweet by the 27-year-old pop star. "Michael passed down the torch to me. I never had to ask for him to do that." His statement sent Twitter into overdrive, prompting many to bash Nick Carter's younger brother.

Sinead O'Connor has been located safely in Dublin after posting a note on Facebook, according to an EW.com item that cites People. "I have taken an overdose," O'Connor wrote. "There is no other way to get respect. I am not at home, I'm at a hotel, somewhere in Ireland, under another name If I wasn't posting this, my kids and family wouldn't even find out. The 48-year-old accused her family of "appalling cruelty," and mentioned her health and a battle against two of her ex husbands to see her youngest children.

Joe Jonas has revealed that he went to a gay club with his brother and former bandmate Nick Jonas, Gay Star News noted. Joe said he had "accidentally" gone before, adding he'd realized he was in a gay establishment when he was "getting hit on by more men than you would usually get hit on by," he said.

Model/mother-to-be/FABLife host Chrissy Teigen's recent message of support for Planned Parenthood didn't sit well with some of her Twitter followers, according to E! Online. After a gunman stormed a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, killing three people, Teigen posted, "Every time s—t like this happens, john [Legend] and I immediately make another donation to planned parenthood." However, Teigen shot back

Criminal minds Kirsten Vangsness ( who plays Penelope Garcia ) is engaged to actor/writer Keith Hanson, according to On Top Magazine. Vangsness previously said that she is "as queer as a purple unicorn singing Madonna." She dated television editor Melanie Goldstein for seven years—two-and-a-half of which they were engaged. Regarding her wedding to Hanson, she said she was planning a Harry Potter/Chronicles of Narnia/dinosaurs/Doctor Who wedding and hoping to wear a plaid dress on her big day.

The Miami home of Fredric Brandt has sold for $2.9 million—nearly nine months after the celebrity dermatologist took his own life there by hanging himself in the garage at 65, according to Page Six. Dubbed the "Baron of Botox," Brandt's clients included Madonna, Calvin Klein and Naomi Campbell. Brandt paid just $712,800 in 1990 for the house, which contained his high-end art collection and has an elevator and heated pool.

Just as Real Housewives of New Jersey stars Joe and Teresa Giudice squared away the foreclosure threat on their Montville Township mansion, the Internal Revenue Service has issue the couple a $551,563 tax lien, according to NJ.com . The lien, filed with the Morris County Clerk on Oct. 21 in both Joe and Teresa's names, reveals unpaid tax bills for nine years spanning 2000 to 2013. These include the years for which Joe was previously charged for failing to file his taxes as part of a 41-count indictment in 2013.

ABC's Dancing with the Stars will return for its 22nd season on Monday, March 21, 2016, a press release stated. This past season, which concluded Nov. 24, featured teenage conservationist Bindi Irwin, former Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and U.S. National Army guardsman Alek Skarlatos as finalists—with Irwin winning.

An online report says that Charlie Sheen was caught on video smoking crack and performing oral sex on another man in 2011—the same year he was diagnosed with HIV, Page Six noted. The former Two and a Half Men star smoked a crack pipe before grinning for the camera and then pleasuring his male lover, said the website Radar Online, claiming it viewed a bootleg copy of the tape. The video had been part of a $20-million lawsuit against Sheen alleging he gave his sex partner herpes, the site said.

Gay-porn star Dimitri Kane is dead at the age of 20, Gay Star News noted.The New Jersey-born actor was first thought to have taken his own life in Florida; however, it has also been speculated that a drug overdose was involved. His death follows a week after the death of another young gay-porn star, Zac Stevens, who died at 25.

Iconic singer Dame Shirley Bassey let her thoughts known about gender roles, according to LGBTQ Nation. Bassey told The Daily Mail, "Women in my industry aren't empowered—never have been, never will be. Think about the modern man. The gene goes so deep, it goes right back to the caveman days: man must have control. Women should not change it, because we've tried and we've emasculated men. It's dangerous to mess with science. ... I don't believe in women soldiers! Come on: Women should be women. We should be feminine."

John Stamos won't be facing any jail time or even community service for his DUI charge, Deadline noted. In an arraignment hearing out at the Airport Courthouse, the actor's lawyer Blair Berk entered a plea of no contest to the June 12 incident in Beverly Hills. Stamos will be put under informal probation for the next 36 months and pay a $390 fine for the DUI drug charge, a misdemeanor.

Actress Mo'Nique has said comments regarding her husband of nearly a decade, Sidney Hicks, a "hall pass" to sleep with other people was taken the wrong way, Rolling Out noted. "When I say I'm in an open marriage, it was not my husband's idea," Mo'Nique said on Periscope. The Oscar-winning actress ( Precious ) found it interesting that everyone automatically assumed it was her husband who was having relations outside of the marriage, instead of suspecting it could have been her.

Singer Angie Stone claims that she and actor Idris Elba could've been an item years ago—but she rejected him, according to Rolling Out. She told Madame Noire that while working on the visuals for her 2004 song, "I Wanna Thank Ya," Elba, who was playing Stone's love interest in the video, had eyes for the singer. Stone and fellow soul singer D'Angelo dated for a few years in the '90s and the two had a son, Michael D'Angelo Archer II, in 1998.

Pixar Animation Studio's first human protagonist of color premiered on the big screen Thanksgiving week in Sanjay's Super Team, directed by Pixar supervising animator and storyboard artist Sanjay Patel, NBC News reported. Patel told NBC News that, growing up, he felt embarrassed by his identity and tried to fit into mainstream American culture. But as an adult, he came to appreciate the richness of the culture his father was trying to pass on to him.

Almost two years after his son's death in a fiery car crash, the father of Fast & Furious star Paul Walker has followed his granddaughter's lead and filed a wrongful death suit against Porsche, according to Deadline. Seeking unspecific damages, the lawsuit claims that the Porsche Carrera GT in which Walker was riding when he died in November, 2013 was lacking in essential safety features, among them a stability control system, breakaway fuel line, and side-door reinforcements. The auto manufacturer has several lawsuits pending against it.

Hunky country-music singer Chuck Wicks announced that he's personally calling every person who pre-orders his upcoming album, Turning Point, by Friday, Dec. 4, according to a press release. The album comes out Feb. 26, 2016. See ChuckWicks.com .

Elisabeth Hasselbeck announced Nov. 23 that she's leaving Fox & Friends to focus on her life as a mom, US Weekly noted. The former View cohost joined the cable news morning show in 2013 after leaving the ABC roundtable.