The upcoming documentary Broadway Rising will have its world premiere on June 13 at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, Playbill noted. The documentary follows theater subjects—ranging from stage doorman to actors—on their journeys back to the stage following the historic COVID-19 shutdown. The movie is directed by filmmaker Amy Rice (By the People: The Election of Barack Obama), and produced by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Justin Mikita, Sam Bisbee, Christopher G. Cowen and Rice.
Winners and special-achievement honorees for the 26th annual Webby Awards, celebrating the best of the internet, were announced. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Honorees included Drew Barrymore, Megan Thee Stallion and Adam Scott, while winners included trans actress Laverne Cox, queer comic Tig Notaro; contemporary artist Takashi Murakami, Peyton Manning, queer writer Roxane Gay and the short film The Queen of Basketball, among others.
The Hollywood Bowl production of the Tony-winning musical Kinky Boots announced that Wayne Brady will put on his boots again to play the role of Lola, Playbill noted. Being staged July 8-10, Jake Shears and Kelly Marie Tran have also been announced in the roles of Charlie and Lauren, respectively. Brady has previously played Lola on Broadway twice; also familiar with his role, Shears made his Broadway debut in Kinky Boots as Charlie.
Speaking of Kinky Boots, it arrives for the first time ever on Blu-ray on May 31, from Paramount Home Entertainment, a press release noted. The movie featured a Golden Globe-nominated performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor as well as performances by Joel Edgerton, Sarah-Jane Potts and Nick Frost. Among the special features is an audio commentary with director Julian Jarrold along with Edgerton, Ejiofor and Potts.
Out fashion designer Tom Ford made some eye-raising statements about the Met Gala, for which he is again an honorary co-chair, Out Magazine noted. "The only thing about the Met that I wish hadn't happened is that it's turned into a costume party," he said in a recent interview. The quote came from a new book, Anna: The Biography, about fashion icon/Met Gala host/longtime American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. "That used to just be very chic people wearing beautiful clothes going to an exhibition about the 18th century." Ford continued. "You didn't have to look like the 18th century, you didn't have to dress like a hamburger, you didn't have to arrive in a van where you were standing up because you couldn't sit down because you wore a chandelier." This year's gala is on Monday, May 2.
Russian Doll star Charlie Barnett and boyfriend Drew Binder are engaged, Extra noted. They are planning to get married in Wyoming. While he said he and his fiancé are "very chill people," Barnett (who has been in Chicago Fire, Ordinary Joe, Gayby and Orange Is the New Black, among other projects) admitted he was the "bridezilla" in the relationship.
HBO Max's ballroom-competition show Legendary is back for season three—and there are a few changes happening, per Out Magazine. Season three will debut with the first three episodes on May 19; three episodes will be released every week until June 9, when episodes nine and 10 drop. Also, guest judges will include Kelly Rowland, Bob the Drag Queen, Anitta, Issa Rae and Leslie Jones—as Pose's Dominique Jackson (who was part of a huge fight in season one of Legendary) will return.
A homophobic joke has been edited out of the original 2002 Spider-Man by one British television channel, Out Magazine noted. The change was noticed by a viewer watching the original Spider-Man movie (with Tobey Maguire) on British channel ITV2. In a scene that has Peter Parker taking on wrestler Bone Saw, the teen character asks, "That's a cute outfit. Did your husband give it to you?" Now, he simply says it's a cute outfit.
Ryan Reynolds will receive the 36th American Cinematheque Award, with the organization saying it has set its annual tribute gala for Nov. 17 at the Beverly Hilton, Deadline noted. The most recent American Cinematheque Award honorees include Scarlett Johansson last year, who followed Spike Lee, Charlize Theron, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Ridley Scott, Reese Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey. The event is an annual fundraiser for the nonprofit organization that runs Santa Monica's Aero Theatre, Los Feliz 3 Theatre and Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre.
Actor Andrew Garfield (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)—who can currently be seen in Under the Banner of Heaven, FX's limited-series adaptation of Jon Krakauer's 2003 true-crime book of the same name—said he's taking a break from acting for a while, Variety noted. Garfield said, "I need to recalibrate and reconsider what I want to do next and who I want to be and just be a bit of a person for a while. Because as you know, that is a washing machine, that awards season." In "Banner," Garfield plays a Mormon detective investigating the brutal murder of a mother (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her baby daughter by fundamentalist followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; out Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black wrote the series.
The same-sex comedy Bros, starring Billy Eichner, will be rated R and have strong sexual content, Out Magazine noted. "Very proud to announce that Bros has been Rated R for 'Strong Sexual Content, Language Throughout, and Some Drug Use!'" Eichner tweeted along with smiling devil emojis. "See you in Sept!!!" The Judd Apatow-backed Bros—which Eichner has been touting as the "first gay rom-com from a major studio"—is set to debut Sept. 30.
Promoting the Paramount+ series The Real World: New Orleans, cast member Danny Roberts talked with GLAAD's Anthony Allen Ramos about a variety of topics, a press release noted. Talking about coming out on the original The Real World in the early 2000s, Roberts said, "The truth was I had just come out myself, and in fact being on the show was a huge catalyst for me to fully come to my family and a lot of people around me." He also talked about going public with his HIV status, the state of LGBTQ+ rights in the United States and other topics. See https://www.glaad.org/blog/real-world-new-orleans-danny-roberts-his-homecoming-hiv-stigma-and-what-hes-learned-over-past-2.
Despite her previous statements during an interview, Kornbread "The Snack" Jete has clarified that she is not quitting drag after all, per Out Magazine. At a RuPaul's Drag Race season 14 finale viewing party in Chicago (at Roscoe's Tavern), Jete blamed "clickbait" articles for misinterpreting what she had said: "I'm not quitting drag. Kornbread will always be a part of me—Hello! Look at me, b*tch. But Demoria [Elise Williams] wants a check now. I'm not quitting, I ain't going anywhere."
Viola Davis responded to critics of her portrayal of Michelle Obama in Showtime's The First Lady, admitting that "not everything is going to be an awards-worthy performance," Variety reported. The Oscar winner (for her role in Fences) told BBC News it was "incredibly hurtful when people say negative things about your work," adding, "Critics absolutely serve no purpose—and I'm not saying that to be nasty, either."
An emotional James Corden made it official: There will only be one more year of The Late Late Show, Deadline noted. Corden will have hosted The Late Late Show for eight and a half years by the time he departs. He signed a contract to host, taking over from Craig Ferguson, in 2014.
Canadian LGBTQ+ Christian pop artist Danah-Lee has released a new single, "Love Letter to a Friend," per a press release. Melancholy but soaring, "Love Letter to a Friend" beseeches a friend to be understanding about the fact that the narrator has fallen out of contact. Featuring piano, a groovy-lite bassline and elegant strings with some whimsical pizzicatos at the end, the song arrives from Danah-Lee's newly released 2022 album, Made in the Image.
Actress Megan Fox—the current digital cover star for Glamour UK—spoke in an interview with the magazine about parenting and how she helps support her oldest son, Noah, who likes to wear dresses, Out Magazine noted. "Noah started wearing dresses when he was about 2, and I bought a bunch of books that sort of addressed these things and addressed a full spectrum of what this is," Fox said. "Some of the books are written by transgender children, some of the books are just about how you can be a boy and wear a dress; you can express yourself through your clothing however you want."
Matt Reeves is coming back as director for The Batman 2, the sequel to his critically acclaimed take on the Dark Knight starring Robert Pattinson, according to Collider. Warner Bros. broke the news at its CinemaCon panel. Reeves is already attached to two new spinoff series being developed for HBO Max—one focused on Arkham Asylum and the Gotham City Police Department, and the other spotlighting Colin Farrell's Penguin.
Paramount unveiled the first look at Tom Cruise's upcoming mission as Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise along with a title reveal: Mission: Impossible 7—Dead Reckoning: Part 1, per The Hollywood Reporter. Cruise himself broke the news during the studio's CinemaCon presentation inside the Colosseum theater at Caesars Palace. The seventh Mission: Impossible is slated to be released July 14, 2023, with an eighth and presumably final Cruise-led Mission due June 28, 2024.
Emmy-winning comedy series Schitt's Creek will leave Netflix later this year to become available exclusively on Disney's Hulu, Variety noted. Hulu announced that it will be the dedicated subscription video on-demand home Schitt's Creek in the United States beginning Oct. 3. In 2020, the series made history by sweeping all Primetime Emmy Awards comedy categories—notching the most wins in a single season for a comedy.
Naomi Judd—the Kentucky-born singer of the Grammy-winning duo The Judds and mother of Wynonna and Ashley Judd—has died at 76, WAGM-TV noted. The Judds were to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on May 1 and they had just announced an arena tour to begin in the fall—their first tour together in more than a decade. The mother-daughter performers scored 14 number-one songs in a career that spanned nearly three decades. After rising to the top of country music, they called it quits in 1991 after doctors diagnosed Naomi with hepatitis.
Jon M. Chu announced on social media that his upcoming adaptation of the musical Wicked will be split into two films, Variety reported. Universal Pictures will release the first Wicked movie on Dec. 25, 2024; the second Wicked movie will debut exactly a year later on Dec. 25, 2025. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are set to star in the lead roles of Glinda and Elphaba, respectively.
Demi Lovato updated their pronouns on social media, Out Magazine noted. Lovato's Instagram bio now lists they/them and she/her pronouns in the pronoun section. In May 2021, Lovato publicly came out as non-binary with a video detailing her self-discovery process and explaining the pronouns they'd use from that point forward.
Jensen Ackles announced his Supernatural co-star Jared Padalecki was in a "very bad car accident, according to Extra. Ackles was speaking at Creation Entertainment's "Supernatural" convention in East Brunswick, New Jersey, when he revealed the news to fans. Ackles said Padalecki gave him permission to tell folks: "He was in a very bad car accident. He wasn't driving. He was in the passenger seat, and he's lucky to be alive." The actor noted that there were no fatalities in the crash.
Speaking of Supernatural, co-star Misha Collins clarified his recent comments about his sexuality, E! News noted. In a video from a fan convention that went viral, Collins asked the crowd, "By a show of force, how many of you would consider yourself introverts? How many extroverts? And how many bisexuals?" He added, "I'm all three." However, in a subsequent Instagram posting, he stated, "I want to deeply apologize for misspeaking this weekend. … My clumsy intention was to wave off actually discussing my sexuality, but I badly fumbled that and understand that was seen as me coming out as bisexual. This was not my intention, so I need to correct the record: I am not bisexual. I happen to be straight, but I am also a fierce ally and the last thing I want to do is falsely co-opt the struggles of the LGBTQIA+ community."
Neneh Cherry (known for her hit "Buffalo Stance") announced a new project titled The Versions out June 10, via Republic Records, a press release noted. The Versions is a 10-track album featuring reworkings from artists who have personal connections to Cherry and her music. Songs include "Buffalo Stance" (with Robyn, featuring Mapei), "Manchild," "Kootchi" and "Kisses on the Wind," among others.
Daytime Emmy winner Tyra Banks (America's Next Top Model) has signed on for a role in Treehouse Pictures' remake of Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Deadline noted. The original 1991 film follows Sue Ellen "Swell" Crandell (Christina Applegate), a 17-year-old forced to take care of her four younger siblings after the babysitter hired by her mother dies while mom's out of town.
On the most recent podcast episode of Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo, the Grey's Anatomy star had some positive words to say about former co-star Katherine Heigl and the way she spoke out about the working conditions back in the day on the ABC drama, Deadline noted. "I remember Heigl said something on a talk show about the insane hours we were working. She was 100 percent right," Pompeo said to Kate Walsh, her guest on the podcast. "Had she said that today, she'd be a complete hero."
American Idol winner Laine Hardy was arrested after being accused of putting a listening device in his ex-girlfriend's college dorm room, NPR noted. Hardy, 21, of Livingston, Louisiana, faces a felony charge of interception and disclosure of wire, electronic or oral communication, Louisiana State University spokesman Ernie Ballard said. Hardy—who won Season 17 of the television talent show American Idol in 2019, and who faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted—told his nearly 750,000 followers about the investigation in a Facebook post.
Judge Gregory Alarcon threw out part of the case against Kim Kardashian in former reality TV star Blac Chyna's lawsuit while the jury deliberates on the elements that remain, NBC News noted. The judge ruled that Chyna's attorney, Lynne Ciani, did not provide any statement during the trial from Kardashian that was defamatory toward Chyna.
Travis Scott is officially hitting the big stage once again—headlining his first music festival since the Astroworld tragedy, and he will perform in front of more than 100,000 people, TMZ noted. The Primavera Sound festival will take place across Brazil, Chile and Argentina and will feature performers like Scott, Bjork, Lorde, Arctic Monkeys, Charli XCX, Japanese Breakfast, Phoebe Bridgers and Jack White.
David Hollander, who was set to helm Showtime's television reboot of American Gigolo, was fired by the network, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Hollander—a writer/producer/director and former showrunner of the show Ray Donovan—was reportedly let go following a misconduct investigation, Deadline initially noted. Jon Bernthal is attached to star in American Gigolo; Rosie O'Donnell and Gretchen Mol are also on the show.
