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

Kristin Chenoweth is in talks to play the lead in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway, according to the New York Post. This would be the first time "Dolly" has been revived since Carol Channing, who starred in the original 1964 production, brought her farewell tour to NYC's Lunt-Fontanne in 1996. Bette Midler was a contender as well but she's apparently made it clear that, after her run in I'll Eat You Last, she isn't interested in carrying a multimillion-dollar musical on her back for eight performances a week. The new production of "Dolly" will be directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, who did Chaplin and Finian's Rainbow.

Sharon Stone, Gilles Marini and LGBT ally Ben Cohen were among the celebrities who appeared at the 4th annual Kiehl's LifeRide for amfAR finale, which took place in The Grove in Los Angeles, according to a press release. The free event included a performance by Kelis, celebrity riders and an interactive photo booth. amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research has invested more than $366 million in its programs since 1985.

So You Think You Can Dance is set to go on tour again this fall. The season 10 tour line-up of the Fox show includes Aaron Turner, Amy Yakima, "Fik-Shun," Hayley Erbert, Jasmine Harper, Jenna Johnson, Makenzie Dustman, Nico Greetham, Paul Karmiryan and Tucker Knox. The 42-city tour will kick-off Oct. 1 at at the Wharton Center in East Lansing, Mich., with shows through Nov. 27 at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles.

Dustin Hoffman has revealed that he recently faced a private battle with cancer, according to Digital Spy. The 75-year-old Oscar winner did not release more information about his condition, but his spokeswoman, Jodi Gottlieb, confirmed that he is now in good health. Hoffman will undertake further treatments to lessen the chances of the cancer recurring. Among the many movies Hoffman has been in are Kramer vs. Kramer, Midnight Cowboy, The Graduate, Tootsie and the Kung Fu Panda series.

Out screenwriter Dustin Lance Black has joined those boycotting Russian products because of that country's anti-gay environment, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The Oscar winner penned an op-ed urging Hollywood to confront Russia's anti-gay laws, writing (in part), "Most shocking to me is that Hollywood might continue to produce and premiere major motion pictures in Russia without doing its part to make sure this abuse is stopped. ... The truth is, the other thing that will soon be noted by Putin and LGBT Russians alike is our industry's silence and apathy. And LGBT Russians living in fear and putting their lives on the line deserve better than our inaction and silence."

One of the late actor Cory Monteith's last films has been added to the lineup at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, according to TheWrap.com . All the Wrong Reasons, a drama with intersecting characters in which Monteith stars as a department store manager, has been added to the Discovery section of the festival. In the Special Presentations program, Canadian additions include Denis Villeneuve's Enemy, with Jake Gyllenhaal in a double role; and Bruce McDonald's The Husband, about a man whose wife has been jailed for sleeping with a 14-year-old boy. The festival runs Sept. 5-15.

Chris Colfer, who plays gay student Kurt Hummel on the Fox musical-comedy Glee, said the show's cast members need to mourn Cory Monteith privately, On Top Magazine reported. On HuffPost Live, Colfer said, "I think I'm doing as well as I could be doing. ... It's hard to mourn someone but it's another thing to mourn someone with the world. And I think a line needs to be drawn because it's really unnerving to get messages like from 12-year-olds in Nebraska telling you how to mourn and telling you how to pay respects."

Grey's Anatomy showrunner Shonda Rhimes talked with the Hollywood Reporter about various aspects of the series, including the possibility of a lesbian divorce between characters Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw). When asked, "We haven't really seen a lesbian divorce story on TV before. Is that something that's appealing to you?," Rhimes said, "It's not necessarily about what we've seen. ... It puts Callie and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) in a lesbian ghetto the way it does when there's a black character on TV and they always have to be good and can't do anything wrong. ... Let's let them be complex."

A judge denied Arrow Productions' pursuit of a temporary restraining order against the film Lovelace—the biopic of famous adult film actress Linda Lovelace—and allowed the movie to open in theaters Aug. 9, as scheduled, according to TheWrap.com . The film depicts the success of the adult film Deep Throat; Arrow, which owns the rights to the 1972 hit, was trying to prevent the release of Lovelace. Arrow had filed a $10-million lawsuit against The Weinstein Company and Millennium Films—the producers of Lovelace—over alleged copyright and trademark violations.

The very fit Jane Fonda ordered $50 cheeseburgers to be delivered to the Roy Teeluck salon on New York City's East 57th Street on consecutive days while she was getting her hair done, according to the New York Post. While she was getting ready for press appearances for the movie The Butler, in which she plays Nancy Reagan, she told salon staff of her craving, and they ordered from the Four Seasons Hotel across the street.

Gay Internet personality B. Scott is reportedly seeking $2.5 million from BET for forcing him to ditch his heels and then yanking him off the air during the BET Awards, according to Queerty.com . In his lawsuit, Scott claims that earlier in the night, BET higher-ups approved his sheer tunic, pants and pumps, but he was forced to change into a less androgynous, although equally color-coordinated, outfit. Scott was later pulled from the show and replaced by fellow anchor Adrienne Bailon.

Actress Amber Tamblyn will join the two remaining men of Two and a Half Men on the small screen this fall (in five episodes) as Jenny, the lesbian illegitimate daughter of the late Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen), according to EW.com . Regarding the storyline, Jenny moves to L.A. to pursue a career in acting and connect with family, which includes Jon Cryer's Alan. Tamblyn joins the cast a little less than a month after a search for the character first began and a little more than four months after the show announced Angus T. Jones would not be returning to the show as a series regular.

Actor Mark Patton—best known for playing lead character Jesse Walsh in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2—has come out as HIV-positive in HIV Plus Magazine. Patton, 49, said he was able to live freely as a gay man in New York City while landing roles such as one opposite Cher and Kathy Bates in the Broadway play Come Back to the Five & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. However, upon moving to L.A. in the '80s, agents reportedly told him to avoid patronizing gay bars and doing interviews with gay publications. Patton added that he discovered his HIV status on his 40th birthday—and was in the hospital three days later, battling multiple infections.

The "Madonna: MDNA World Tour" concert film will be released Sept. 10 on DVD and Blu-ray as well as a digital album on Live Nation and Interscope Records. The two-hour performance includes songs from Madonna's MDNA album such as "Girl Gone Wild" and "Gang Bang," as well as fan favorites including "Hung Up," "Express Yourself," "Vogue," "Open Your Heart," "Like A Prayer" and "Celebration." The MDNA Tour was widely considered the most successful single tour of 2012, entertaining more than 2.2 million fans.

Actress Karen Black—best known for her roles in film classics such as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and Nashville—died Aug. 8 from complications of cancer at 74, according to USA Today. Black was diagnosed with ampullary cancer of the stomach in November 2010; in March, a fundraising page was set up to help raise donations for experimental treatment in Europe. After breakthrough roles in the previously mentioned movies, Black worked extensively in the horror genre, with roles in films such as 1976's Burnt Offerings and 1975's Trilogy of Terror.

Writer Jill Soloway announced that she is creating a new pilot for Amazon titled Transparent, which is set to cast Arrested Development star Jeffrey Tambor in the leading role of a transgender character, according to the Huffington Post. The show, which will begin filming in September, reportedly centers around a "middle-aged parent [Mort] who sits his three adult children down for a revealing, personal conversation. Mort has been secretly living a double life as a woman, and is eager to introduce the family to their new, authentic parent."

In a move many see as a backlash, some Twitter users have posted that news of actress Raven-Symone apparently coming out of the closet has ruined their childhoods, the Huffington Post noted. Insinuating that the realization of the star's sexuality somehow destroys the impact of the hit Disney Channel show That's So Raven on their development, the users are using the phrase "#childhoodruined." Speculation about the actress' sexuality ran rampant for a while, fueled primarily by a story alleging a relationship between Raven-Symone and former America's Next Top Model contestant AzMarie Livingston.

Lesbian WNBA player Brittney Griner has opened up about being bullied. According to a LatinosPost.com item, the 6'8" Phoenix Mercury player said that at one point she felt "humiliated" after being the target of bullying and that her "whole school was laughing" at her after a boy stopped her in the school hallway and called her "a dude." Last year, some also questioned her decision to not compete in the Olympic games, suggesting that maybe Griner wouldn't have passed the gender tests. She said she bypassed the Olympics because she "wanted to stay in school [at Baylor University]" and because her mother was sick.

The Swiss tourism office has apologized to Oprah Winfrey for an incident that she tagged racist, according to USA Today. When Entertainment Tonight's Nancy O'Dell asked Winfrey if she had ever encountered racism, Winfrey said that, while in Zurich, she wanted to look at what turned out to be a $38,000 purse at Trois Pommes (according to the AP); however, the clerk allegedly said, "No, it's too expensive." The tourism office said it was sorry while store owner Trudie Goetz also apologized, saying it was a "misunderstanding" and not racism, the Daily Mail noted. Winfrey has said she's sorry for even bringing up the situation, saying a whole country shouldn't have to apologize for one store employee.

After 16 seasons on the ABC daytime talk show The View, co-host Joy Behar said goodbye on her final episode with an F-bomb, according to TheWrap.com . Behar made Barbara Walters laugh hysterically when she said, "There's something that I've been meaning to say on your behalf for 16 years. F—k, Harry Reasoner. We get it, we get it." (Reasoner was Walters' co-host on the ABC Evening News in 1976, and reportedly made life difficult for her.) Among the guests on Behar's last show were Joan Rivers, Regis Philbin, Alan Alda, Meredith Vieira (a former co-host herself) and Tony Bennett.

Contradicting rumors that they recently clashed, iconic singer Chaka Khan and troubled actress Lindsay Lohan posted loving statements about each other, according to the Daily Mail. Lohan posted, "Sending you love and hugs xo," to which Khan responded, "Ain't nobody gonna tear our love apart....I love you more sweetie!" Khan later released a statement commending Lohan for "doing the work" to battle addiction. The two were both patients at Cliffside Malibu, a residential treatment program; it was rumored that Khan walked out after a situation with Lohan.

DJ/producer Deadmau5 has mocked Lady Gaga's appearance in performance artist Marina Abramovic's Kickstarter promo, in which the singer is nude, Digital Spy reported. Deadmau5 received death threats from Gaga's fans after posting, "What the actual f**k? If some idiot howls in the woods and noones around, does it make a sound? MYTH BUSTED." Deadmau5 (real name: Joel Zimmerman) previously angered Madonna fans after calling the veteran popstar a "f**king IDIOT" following her use of drug slang at the Ultra Music Festival in 2012.

A New York man pled guilty in federal court to trying to extort $200,000 from Paula Deen by threatening to reveal allegedly damaging information, according to USA Today. "I had, I guess, some bad judgment," 62-year-old Thomas George Paculis told a U.S. District Court judge in Savannah. "I do take responsibility for what I have done." Paculis acknowledged sending emails in June to Deen's attorney offering to trade his silence for cash.

Speaking of Deen, a federal judge in Georgia dismissed the racial-discrimination claims Lisa Jackson made against Deen, according to ABC News. U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. ruled in a 20-page opinion that Jackson had no basis to sue Deen and her brother for racial discrimination because she is, in fact, white herself. (The sexual-harassment claims still remain.) In her deposition for the suit, Deen admitted under oath in May that she had used the N-word in the past.

Ex-TV talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell—who played Rizzo in the 1994 Broadway revival of Grease—is planning to buy the Palm Beach County, Fla., home of singer Olivia Newton-John, who played Sandy in the classic 1978 movie, according to GossipExtra.com . O'Donnell and wife Michelle Rounds are purchasing the home for $5.6 million, about $500,000 less than what Newton-John was asking for it. O'Donnell sold her Miami Beach home for $16.5 million in June.

Brian Schornak, an ex-employee of Jennifer Lopez's Nuyorican Productions, claims in court that Lopez's "tyrant" of a manager harassed him and "decided to make his life miserable, Courthouse News Service noted. Schornak, a former development executive, filed a breach-of-contract complaint against Nuyorican in May, claiming manager Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas drove him out of the company. Lopez is not a party in this lawsuit or a separate one filed against Goldsmith-Thomas.

Gay Olympian Johnny Weir says he's prepared to get arrested at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, On Top Magazine reported. Speaking with CBS News, the figure skater talked about if the Olympics should be boycotted over Russia's recently passed anti-gay law. Weir—who married his Russian-American husband, Victor Voronov, in 2011—said that he would go, because "that's what I'm trained to do and that's what I've devoted my life to." President Obama recently said that the United States should not boycott the Olympics over the measure.

Neil Patrick Harris, John Lithgow and Frances McDormand are among the voice actors starring in the upcoming Pixar movie The Good Dinosaur, according to Digital Spy. The film—set to be released May 30, 2014—imagines a world where dinosaurs live alongside humans. The movie is being directed by Peter Sohn, who has previously worked on Pixar projects Brave, Ratatouille and The Incredibles.

While out in L.A. recently, out singer Adam Lambert bumped into NBA star Jason Collins (who came out of the closet earlier this year) at the nightspot Hooray Henry's, according to NewNowNext.com . Collins later tweeted, "I so wanted to challenge @adamlambert to a singing competition. But it's probably for the best that didn't happen."

At the Teen Choice Awards Aug. 11, Glee co-star Lea Michele dedicated her honor to late boyfriend Cory Monteith in an emotional speech, according to the New York Daily News. With tears in her eyes, Michele said, "I wanted to dedicate this award to Cory, for all you out there that loved and admired Cory as much as I did. I promise that with your love, we're going to get through this together. ... He was very special to me and also to the world and we were very lucky to witness his incredible talent."

Celebrities from the worlds of music, business, film, TV and art gathered in East Hampton, N.Y., to honor music-industry legend Clive Davis, according to the New York Post. Among those who attended were Jack Nicholson, Jon Bon Jovi, Anjelica Huston and Paul McCartney. Davis—who has been responsible for the careers of Alicia Keys, Bruce Springsteen and Whitney Houston—came out as bisexual earlier this year in his memoir The Soundtrack of My Life.

The ailing gay lover of the late fashion photographer Francesco Scavullo is battling the artist's family for possession of his valuable photo archives, the New York Post reported. Scavullo famously took photos of a nude Burt Reynolds for Cosmopolitan magazine, and also took pics of Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Brooke Shields. Many of those iconic images are in storage, locked away from Sean Byrnes, Scavullo's assistant who lived with him for 34 years until his death in 2004. Attorney Gary Mennitt said in papers filed in Manhattan Surrogate's Court that Byrnes had "an intimate, unique, working knowledge of the archive."

On his YouTube page, 18-year-old Australian actor Troye Sivan—who played young James Howlett in the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine—came out as gay, according to the Huffington Post. "This is most nervous I've ever been in my entire life," Sivan said in the clip. "It feels kind of weird to have to announce it like this on the Internet, but ... this is not something that I'm ashamed of, and it's not something anybody should have to be ashamed of, so why not share it with all of you guys?" He said he came out to his family three years ago.

Lifetime has renewed the series Devious Maids for a second season with a 13-episode order, according to a press release. Devious Maids centers on a close-knit group of maids (Ana Ortiz, Daria Ramirez, Roselyn Sanchez, Edy Ganem and Judy Reyes) that turns to one another for support after a fellow maid Flora (Paula Garcés) is brutally murdered at the home of her employers. Susan Lucci, Grant Show and Drew Van Acker are among the other co-stars in the show that Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) and Eva Longoria produced.

In a lengthy interview with New York magazine, onetime Calvin Klein paramour Nick Gruber rejects being called "gay," according to an Out.com blurb. "I'm not gay, but I don't believe in labels, I believe in love," he said. The New York article also states that Klein (48 years Gruber's senior) was Henry Higgins to Gruber's Eliza Doolittle, polishing the young man physically. A friend of Klein said that "Calvin tried to make [Gruber] a first-class citizen"; however, things changed quickly due to several factors, including (allegedly) Klein's jealousy.