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

Speaking of Martin, he told PrideSource that he's enjoying the single life, On Top Magazine noted. Martin and partner Carlos Gonzalez Abella, a financial analyst he met in 2008, called in quits in late 2013. Martin said that his relationship partly inspired his new album, A Quien Quiera Escuchar. Though he concedes he's a romantic—"I love being in love"—Martin said that he's "enjoying being single."

Melissa Manchester's first studio album in a decade and her first-ever independent release, You Gotta Love the Life, is now out, according to a press release. She celebrated the CD's release with a sold-out appearance at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. Following her stint as a founding member of Bette Midler's Harlettes, Manchester established herself as a solo artist with Top 10 hits like "Midnight Blue," "Don't Cry Out Loud" and the Grammy-winning "You Should Hear How She Talks About You."

She has dominated the airwaves during 30 years as a chart-topper, but now BBC Radio 1 has decided that Madonna is an immaterial girl and just too old for its teenage listeners, The Daily Mail reported. Madonna's latest song, "Living For Love," has been available for airplay since Dec. 20. Madonna now finds herself alongside Sir Cliff Richard, Take That, Kate Bush and Robbie Williams as artists who struggle to get new material played on the station.

Urban Movie Channel announced that April 24 will be the U.S. theatrical release of director Patrik-Ian Polk's LGBT-themed coming-of-age drama Blackbird, based on the novel by the same name by Larry Duplechan, according to Indiewire.com . The film stars Academy Award winning actress and comedian Mo'Nique, Isaiah Washington, Terrell Tilford and Julian Walker, among others. Walker stars as Randy, a good-natured choirboy with a gorgeous voice and a host of personal issues, such as his little sister's disappearance, the separation of his parents ( Mo'Nique and Washington ), his strange and unsettling visions, and his repressed attraction to the same sex.

Laverne Cox already made history, becoming the first openly transgender performer to earn an acting Emmy nomination for her breakout role on Netflix's Orange Is the New Black. However, she is now looking to break more ground with the first transgender series regular character on broadcast TV played by a transgender actor, according to Deadline. Cox will play Cameron Wirth, a transgender Ivy League-educated attorney, on the CBS pilot Doubt.

Richard Glatzer, who co-wrote and directed the Oscar-nominated Alzheimer's drama Still Alice, was hospitalized after he suffered severe respiratory problems, TheWrap reported. Wash Westmoreland, Glatzer's husband and his directing and writing partner on "Alice," posted on Facebook that Glatzer's condition had improved after he went into cardiac arrest. Westmoreland also wrote that they are communicating via eye movements and plan to watch the Academy Awards from the hospital on Feb. 22.

Actor Brandon Routh told Xfinity LGBT that "society is coming to a more rational thought process about sexuality. It's, like, 'Come on, people, just relax already and live your life and forget other people,'" according to Advocate.com . Routh made the comment while talking about Wyatt, the character who dated Michael Urie's character on the short-lived show Partners. Routh is now ( again ) part of the superhero universe, playing The Atom on the CW show Arrow. ( Routh played Superman in a feature film in 2006. )

Lady Gaga will perform on this year's Academy Awards show, she and Oscar producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced via Twitter, according to TheWrap. In the Academy press release that followed the tweet, Gaga's performance was described as "a special tribute." Among those already scheduled to sing during the event are host Neil Patrick Harris, Adam Levine, Rita Ora, Tim McGraw, John Legend and Common, and Tegan and Sara with the Lonely Island.

Two-time Tony winner Patti LuPone will star as a headstrong community theatre diva in the off-Broadway world premiere of Tony-nominated playwright Douglas Carter Beane's semi-autobiographical play Shows for Days, which will co-star Michael Urie as the playwright's impressionable and wide-eyed alter ego, according to Playbill. Four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks will direct Shows for Days, which will begin previews June 6 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Beane is the playwright of The Nance and The Little Dog Laughed as well as the librettist for Cinderella and Lysistrata Jones.

CNN anchorman Anderson Cooper is dusting off his game-show hosting chops for a new politically themed quiz show, The New York Daily News reported. It debuted on the cable channel Feb. 16, Presidents Day. Network chief Jeff Zucker and his executives hope that his mash-up of breaking news with orginal entertainment programming will help CNN find a niche.

David Geffen's alleged former lover, Jamie Kuntz—who was charged with stalking the mogul—is required to stay 200 yards away from Geffen for the next 10 years as part of a plea deal, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Kuntz pled no contest to misdemeanor stalking. As part of his sentence, Kuntz has to undergo at least a year of psychiatric counseling twice a week, and will remain on informal probation for two years. Kuntz, 21, was arrested in October for allegedly trespassing on Geffen's property; Kuntz alleged the two had a relationship.

Singer Sam Smith said he will never going to perform in Russia because of the anti-gay rights law in the country, the Business Standard reported. The 22-year-old multiple Grammy winner, who came out about his sexuality last year, said he has refused numerous invitations to perform in Russia. Smith said, "I don't hate Russia, but I just will never go to Russia [because] what they do to gay people there is just disgusting and it makes me very angry.

Out director Adam Shankman is in talks to direct O'Lucky Day, a Paramount Pictures comedy that will star Emmy-winning Game Of Thrones' Peter Dinklage as a con man who may be a real leprechaun, but who certainly passes himself off as one, according to Deadline. The plan is to start production in April, after Dinklage wraps the next season of Game of Thrones and his pivotal character, Tyrion Lannister.

Leslie Gore—a singer-songwriter who topped the charts in 1963 with her song "It's My Party" and followed it with the hits "Judy's Turn to Cry" and "You Don't Own Me"—has died at age 68, according to Newstalk1010.com . According to her partner of 33 years, Gore died Feb. 16 of cancer at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. Quincy Jones discovered Gore as a teenager and signed her to Mercury Records. In a 2005 interview with AfterEllen, Gore said she knew her true sexual orientation in her twenties.

Four previously unreleased tracks from the '90s group Spice Girls have been leaked online, according to People.com . The tracks were recorded around the time the British group's last album, Forever, was released, meaning that Ginger Spice Geri Halliwell—who left the Spice Girls in 1998—isn't part of them. The four songs include three the public have never heard before—"Pain Proof," "A Day in Your Life" and "If It's Loving on Your Mind"—while the fourth leaked song, "Right Back at Ya," is a previously unreleased "pop version" of a song from Forever.

In what Netflix called a "technical glitch," season three of House of Cards went live for a short time roughly two weeks before its Feb. 27 premiere date, according to TheWrap. Contrary to other reports, only the first 10 episodes of 13 were available for viewing Feb. 11. At season two's end, Frank Underwood ( Kevin Spacey ) had successfully positioned himself to move from the vice presidency to the Oval Office itself after undermining sitting President Garrett Walker ( Michael Gill ).

"He gave me his heart on Valentine's Day, and I said YES!" Lady Gaga wrote on Instagram while showing off a photo of her heart-shaped ring longtime boyfriend Taylor Kinney presented to her while popping the question, according to Time.com . Gaga, 28, and Kinney, 33, have been dating for about four years, and the "Paparazzi" singer has hinted at an engagement in recent months.

Towleroad has noted that Jason Collins has been busy since becoming the NBA's first openly gay player and subsequently retiring from the league. Since leaving the sport, Collins explained in an interview with The New York Daily News he's spent his time mentoring other young, queer basketball players who have yet to come out of the closet. "I'm in contact with other athletes, collegiate and professionally who are members of the LGBT community who maybe aren't ready to come out publicly but they have in their private lives," Collins explained. "At this point it's up to each individual person who has their life to live."

John Cameron Mitchell—the co-creator and original star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, who is reprising his performance in the Broadway production—took a week-long hiatus from the show to recover from a knee injury he suffered during a recent performance, Playbill reported. The revival's recent star, Michael C. Hall, filled in during his absence. Hall stepped back into the production Feb. 17-Feb. 21 in order to allow Mitchell time to attend to his injury.

Out singer Frank Ocean is emerging from seclusion, according to Slate. Ocean released his first solo song in almost two years last November, and now he's shared a cover of "At Your Best ( You Are Love )." The tune was originally written and released by the Isley Brothers, but Ocean's take has been seen as a tribute to the late singer Aaliyah, who did a famous cover of the song in 1994 and who would've turned 36 in January.

DC Comics announced its list of continuing and new titles that will make up the DC Universe when a new direction for the comics publisher's characters begins in June, Advocate.com noted. Among the titles announced was Midnighter, starring a gay superhero who was originally introduced, along with his longtime male lover, Apollo, in 1998. DC previously made history in a similar way when the lesbian superhero Batwoman was given her own ongoing monthly comic in 2011.

The Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Harold Prince, said goodbye to its history-making "Phantom" Norm Lewis Feb. 7, Broadway World noted. Lewis was the 14th actor and first African-American to star in the title role in the Broadway production. James Barbour succeeded Lewis in th production, which tells the story of a masked figure who lurks beneath the catacombs of the Paris Opera House.

Former Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives star Vanessa Williams is set to star opposite Kevin Connolly in Fox's multi-camera/hybrid pilot Fantasy Life, according to Deadline. Williams will play Terry—the bold, pragmatic, unapologetically caustic and apologetically compassionate SVP of Programming at a major sports network, and Mitch's ( Connolly's ) new boss.

Oscar-winning actress and best-selling author Shirley MacLaine has sparked outrage by suggesting in an updated memoir that Holocaust victims might have been paying for sins from a former life, according to CBS Los Angeles. Her comments in What If …, first published in 2013, are being seen as hateful, hurtful and offensive. The Steel Magnolias actress also suggested her friend Stephen Hawking brought about his crippling ALS on himself to "free his mind" so that he could focus better on his scientific works.

Richie Incognito—the NFL player fighting to repair his image and rejuvenate his career after his long history of racist and homophobic bullying became public knowledge—just wants everyone to know he's not actually a "racist jerk" anymore, according to The Huffington Post. In a text message to NFL.com, the former Miami Dolphins player wrote that he has learned from his past mistakes and hopes to "bring attention to a sensitive subject" ( presumably bullying, racism or homphobia ) next season with the Buffalo Bills, his new team.

After some media outlets reported that singer Miley Cyrus had submitted a film for the first-ever NYC Porn Film Festival, her representatives have had the film removed from the Bushwick event and its website, Page Six noted. Her reps claimed the festival's organizer lied when he said Cyrus had personally submitted the film—a three-minute erotic, bondage-heavy short titled "Tongue Tied"—and then misled the production company Cadence Films into granting permission to use it.

Nashville star Chris Carmack has said he realizes the importance of his character, Will Lexington, according to People.com . "I definitely have conversations with people in the real world about this character and what he's going through," the actor said of playing Lexington, a rising country star who is struggling with his identity as a gay man. Carmack added, "It's not just about gay or straight; it's a very universal theme about a guy who feels like he has to sacrifice happiness in order to achieve his dream."

Madonna's butt-baring matador number on the Grammys red carpet may have landed her on many a worst-dressed list—but Bravo's Andy Cohen is a fan, Page Six noted. Cohen said, "I like that Madonna puts on a show every time she comes out. ... When I'm 56, if my ass looks like that, I'll wear fishnets and a matador outfit and show my ass." He also criticized the Twitter backlash of Madonna, saying "the response to her was really ageist."

Showtime has teamed with Arrow and The Flash co-creator/executive producer Greg Berlanti and former Supernatural showrunner Sera Gamble for You, a psychological thriller/drama project, Deadline reported. Based on the Caroline Kepnes book You: A Novel, the series You is described as "a 21st century love story about the obsessive yet brilliant twentysomething Joe Goldberg who uses the hyper-connected digital age to make the woman of his dreams fall in love with him." Gample and the openly gay Berlanti are writing the script, with Berlanti attached to direct the potential pilot.

Rapper Azealia Banks has sparked criticism for complaining that she can't use derogatory terms to describe gay men, the UK Independent noted. In an Instagram post published last night, the '212' rapper asked why it was acceptable for a "gay man to colloquially use the word "b*tch" while she cannot use the word "f*ggot" in reference to herself or "an opponent." Banks, who has said she identifies as bisexual, has been criticized in the past for her use of anti-gay language after she called gay blogger Perez Hilton "a f*ggot" last year.