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

On Jan. 7, RuPaul won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program for the eighth consecutive time for hosting RuPaul's Drag Race, extending his record in this category even further, Out noted. RuPaul accepted the award in person while attending the 75th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. On Monday, Jan. 15, Fox will air the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, where RuPaul's Drag Race is once again the frontrunner to win an award for Outstanding Reality Competition Program.

Among those winning Creative Arts Emmys on Jan. 6 was Nick Offerman, for his role as part of a same-sex couple in the HBO series The Last of Us, Deadline noted. Also, according to IndieWire, Peacock took home its first Primetime Emmy Award when LGBTQ+ ally Judith Light won Outstanding Guest Actress on a Comedy Series for her role in Poker Face. The Bear, The White Lotus, and BEEF all won Outstanding Casting in their respective categories, among other awards, while The Last of Us scored eight Emmys, including wins for guest stars Storm Reid and Offerman.

Also, queer actor/personality Keke Palmer won the Emmy for Outstanding Host for a Game Show for NBC's Password—the first time that the category has been part of the Primetime Emmys after moving from the Daytime awards, Deadline noted. By beating Jeopardy! hosts Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik, Family Feud's Steve Harvey and Wheel of Fortune's Pat Sajak, Palmer became the first woman to win the award since 2009, when Meredith Vieira won for the syndicated run of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? In addition, Palmer was the first Black woman to be nominated or win the category.

"Barbenheimer" dominated nominations for the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards, as Barbie and Oppenheimer each received four nominations, including nods for their ensembles. The movies will vie for that top prize alongside Killers of the Flower Moon, American Fiction and The Color Purple, Variety noted. On the television front, Succession had a leading five nominations for its final season. It was followed closely behind by Ted Lasso, The Bear and The Last of Us, which earned four nominations each. The 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony will stream live globally on Netflix for the first time this year on Feb. 24.

Also, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award nominations have been announced. Per Variety, Barbie's Greta Gerwig, Oppenheimer's Christopher Nolan, Killers of the Flower Moon's Martin Scorsese, The Holdovers' Alexander Payne and Poor Things' Yorgos Lanthimos received nods for best feature-film director. The winners will be announced at the DGA Awards on Feb. 10 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

The African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) revealed its list of 2024 Special Achievement Honorees chosen for their prolific contributions to the entertainment industry, a press release noted. These honorees will be celebrated at the organization's 7th Annual AAFCA Special Achievement Awards luncheon, taking place Sunday, March 3, at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Awardees will include Jamie Foxx, Datari Turner, Fatima Robinson, Michael Latt, Deon Taylor, Killers of the Flower Moon and Delta Airlines.

Aspen Gay Ski Week (AGSW) will take place Jan. 14-21, per its website. Celebrating 47 years of Pride, events will include a drag-queen bingo brunch, a womxn's cocktail party with DJ Autumn Leilani, ski jumps and dance parties. At the heart of AGSW is AspenOUT, a local non-profit organization dedicated to anti-bullying and tolerance, OUT noted. Since 1996, AspenOUT has been instrumental in producing AGSW, with the aim of funding local programs and supporting national organizations aligned with their mission. See GaySkiWeek.com .

Sanaa Lathan, who was recently Emmy nominated for her role on Succession, is to star as the "psychic" Miss Cleo in a new drama series, Deadline noted. Miss Cleo was otherwise known as Youree Dell Harris (who died in 2016)—an actress best known for portraying the spokeswoman for Psychic Readers Networks in commercials between 1997 and 2003; her tagline was "Call me now!" Max released a documentary about her life in 2022—Call Me Miss Cleo. It's not known if the program will delve in Harris' sexuality, as she was lesbian.

The LGBTQ+-heavy Max series Our Flag Means Death has not been renewed for a third season, Deadline revealed. The show is based (very) loosely on the true adventures of 18th-century would-be pirate Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby). After trading the seemingly charmed life of a gentleman for one of a swashbuckling buccaneer, Stede became captain of the pirate ship Revenge. Stede's fortunes changed after a fateful run-in with the infamous Captain Blackbeard (Taika Waititi). To their surprise, the wildly different Stede and Blackbeard fall in love.

The British Academy unveiled the results of the first round of voting across all 24 categories for the 2024 BAFTA Film Awards—with Barbie, Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon each being named in 15 categories, per Variety. Poor Things was named in 14 categories, Maestro in 12 and Saltburn in 11, with the latter missing out on a best film slot. The final nominations list are set to be announced on Jan. 18, with the BAFTA Film Awards ceremony taking place Feb. 18 from London's Royal Festival Hall. Actor David Tennant will host.

The cause of death of Irish singer Sinead O'Connor has been revealed, per The Hollywood Reporter. The medical examiner's office confirmed that O'Connor died of natural causes at age 56 last July at a London home. Last year, the office had previously stated there was "no medical cause of death" given, but a direct autopsy was to be conducted" with "he results "not be available for several weeks."

Openly gay British actor Ben Whishaw will reunite with director Ira Sachs to shoot an "intimate" movie about U.S. photographer Peter Hujar, per Deadline. Until his death from AIDS in 1987, Hujar was a leading figure in the group of artists, musicians, writers, and performers at the forefront of Manhattan's downtown cultural scene. The untitled film follows Passages—the film Sachs shot in Paris with Whishaw and Franz Rogowski. In related news, Emma Thompson has the joined Whishaw's short film "Good Boy" as an executive producer. It tells the story of a young man called Danny (played by Whishaw) who grows increasingly desperate as he finds himself driving his mother and a dead pigeon in the back of his VW van after a heist goes wrong.

Out Spanish director Pedro Almodovar will be shooting his first full-length English-language feature—possibly called The Room Next Door—in March, per World of Reel. The film, set in New York City, is rumored to be about three female friends and will include Tilda Swinton, who let the news slip in an interview with Les Inrockuptibles. Swinton also starred in Almodovar's 2021 short film "The Human Voice."

Taylor Swift's camp is reportedly upset after the New York Times published an opinion piece speculating about the Grammy winner's sexuality, per Page Six. An insider said the Times op-ed—which states Swift has been dropping hints (or "hairpins") about being queer throughout her career—would not "have been allowed to be written about Shawn Mendes or any male artist whose sexuality has been questioned by fans." Swift—an avowed ally of the LGBTQIA+ community—recently slammed speculation about her sexuality in the October 2023 re-release of her 1989 album.

The 1984 Prince movie Purple Rain is being developed for the stage by Broadway producer Orin Wolf, with a book by two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and direction by Tony nominee Lileana Blain-Cruz, Deadline noted. Jacobs-Jenkins' Appropriate is currently a Broadway hit; Blain-Cruz was nominated for a Tony for her direction of the Lincoln Center Theater's 2022 production of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth.

Andrew Garfield and Cynthia Erivo will lead Audible's audio adaptation of George Orwell's 1984, The Hollywood Reporter noted. Garfield and Erivo will play Winston and Julia, respectively, alongside Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers) as O'Brien and Tom Hardy (the Venom movies) as Big Brother. Destiny Ekaragha directs the Audible Original adaptation, which is described as staying "faithful" to the original text while focusing more on Winston and Julia's romantic relationship. The Orwell estate has authorized and endorsed the adaptation.

Leslie Bibb, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey, Dom Hetrakul and Tayme Thapthimthong are set to join returning cast member Natasha Rothwell (reprising her season-one role as Belinda) in the upcoming third season of HBO's Emmy-winning anthology series The White Lotus, according to Deadline. The new installment, set in Thailand, will begin filming in and around Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok in February.

Jacob Elordi (Saltburn; TV's Euphoria) is set to be a part of the all-star ensemble cast in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein at Netflix, per Deadline. Elordi will play the iconic monster, replacing Andrew Garfield, who left due to strike postponements that led to scheduling conflicts. Oscar Isaac will play Victor Frankenstein; Mia Goth is also set to star in the pic.

Selena Gomez will portray Linda Ronstadt in an upcoming biopic, Variety revealed. The pop singer and Only Murders in the Building star teased the role by posting a picture of the legendary singer's 2013 memoir Simple Dreams on her Instagram story. Ronstadt has won 11 Grammys, and she was honored by both the Recording Academy and the Latin Recording Academy with Lifetime Achievement Awards. Ronstadt and Gomez are both of Mexican descent.

Starz will not be proceeding with a third season of 1970s-set erotic comedy series Minx, per Deadline. However, Minx star Jake Johnson had previously told Deadline that he did not expect a season-three renewal for the series whose season-two finale aired Sept. 8. In January 2023, Starz stepped in to rescue Minx, starring Ophelia Lovibond and Johnson, following the series' cancellation by Max (then HBO Max).

The band Paramore wiped its slate clean after completing its contract with Atlantic Records—and is now a free agent, per Variety. Paramore.net was taken down on the day the group's 20-year deal with the record company was up. Besides the website disappearing, most of Paramore's social-media accounts have also been wiped clean. The group's Twitter and Instagram pages—with 5.3 million and 3.5 million followers, respectively—show zero posts, and its Threads account appears to have been deleted.

Oprah Winfrey told The Hollywood Reporter that she's optioned the rights to the Abraham Verghese novel The Covenant of Water, one of her book club selections, the publication noted. But given the plot—which revolves around an Indian family who loses at least one person each generation due to a drowning—Winfrey said she's going "to have a hell of a time getting that done because it's also a story about people of color."

Out British singing legend Boy George has joined the growing list of celebs turning to diabetes drugs to help them lose weight, Page Six noted. The "Karma Chameleon" singer revealed in his new autobiography, Karma, that he first took Ozempic and then switched to Mounjaro to maintain his weight loss following tummy-tuck surgery. He called the plastic surgery procedure the "most painful thing [he's] ever done," noting he went "on tour straight after with Cyndi Lauper with the blood bag attached." And although he's also had hair transplants, "I've never had Botox, though, and I might be the only person in show business with my own face," he wrote.

Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith's multimedia company Westbrook has reportedly taken a hit after the Men in Black star infamously slapped comedian Chris Rock on live television, per The Jasmine Brand, citing Semafor. The couple were reportedly were in talks to sell their company Westbrook to Candle Media in a billion-dollar deal before the slap incident at the 2022 Academy Awards. To the Smiths' surprise, however, Candle Media and its partners valued Westbrook at only $600 million—which played a part in the sale falling through.

Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic, starring nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role, is getting a global release date of April 18, 2025, Deadline noted. Lionsgate is releasing the movie stateside, while Universal is handling overseas distribution. Lionsgate announced that it was beginning production on Michael on Jan. 22, 2024. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) will direct.

Eight-time Grammy-winning artist Carrie Underwood is creating a second channel, Carr-Dio by Carrie's Country, available to stream anytime exclusively on the SiriusXM app, a press release noted. Carr-Dio plays high-energy workout tracks alongside fitness advice from Underwood herself. She created her first channel, Carrie's Country, in June 2023.

BET announced at the CES convention in Las Vegas that its library of Tyler Perry original series will soon be available for licensing and syndication by third-party platforms, including SVOD, AVOD, FAST and broadcast, Variety reported. According to BET, the offering includes eight different original series—including All the Queen's Men, The Oval and House of Pain—encompassing more than 750 episodes and nearly 600 hours of content.

Anti-LGBTQ+ rapper Boozie BadAzz got a lot of flak on social media after objecting to the LGBTQ+ scenes in the new Color Purple movie, Us Magazine noted. "I had to walk out of this Color Purple movie ([and] two other older couples walked out also) because I had my little girls with me," Boosie stated on X, resenting the relationship between Celie (Fantasia Barrino) and Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson) in the musical. "Mind you, Boosie's oldest daughter is a lesbian," wrote April Reign, who created the #OscarsSoWhite campaign in 2015. "So you can imagine the lack of support she's receiving. He wrote a diss track about his next oldest daughter a few months ago. So … If you didn't read the book, see the musical, or watch the first movie, just say that, Torence [the rapper's real name]."

Judge/co-creator Nigel Lythgoe is exiting TV's So You Think You Can Dance after a number of sexual-assault complaints, including one from ex-fellow judge Paula Abdul, Deadline reported. "I have informed the producers of So You Think You Can Dance of my decision to step back from participating in this year's series," Lythgoe said. "I did so with a heavy heart but entirely voluntarily because this great program has always been about dance and dancers, and that's where its focus needs to remain." The move also comes a few days after it was revealed that Lythgoe is being investigated by Sony Pictures Television's 19 Entertainment, which co-produces the show with Dick Clark Productions.

In a heartfelt note to fans, singer Michael Bolton shared that he was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and will be taking a break from the stage, according to Yahoo! Entertainment. "Just before the holidays, it was discovered that I had a brain tumor, which required immediate surgery. Thanks to my incredible medical team, the surgery was a success," the singer wrote on Facebook. "I am now recuperating at home and surrounded by the tremendous love and support of my family."

Singer FKA Twigs' March 2023 Calvin Klein ad, in which she poses nude, has been banned in the U.K., per Us Magazine. The Advertising Standards Authority said that the campaign portrays her as a "stereotypical sexual object." Calvin Klein denied the photos were harmful, adding it is "well known for being a pioneering and progressive brand that engaged in a range of equity- and equality-focused partnerships." On Instagram, Twigs said, "I do not see the 'stereotypical sexual object' that they have labeled me. I see a beautiful strong woman of color whose incredible body has overcome more pain than you can imagine."

Food Network host and former Louisville restaurateur Darnell "Superchef" Ferguson was arrested in connection with several charges, including burglary and assault, per AOL. According to the booking log for Louisville Metro Corrections, Ferguson faces multiple charges, including felony burglary and strangulation, as well as misdemeanor assault, terroristic threatening, menacing, criminal mischief and theft. According to TMZ, Ferguson allegedly attacked his estranged wife in her Louisville home.

NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers returned to The Pat McAfee Show just a day after he was supposedly cut after he made comments insinuating that Jimmy Kimmel could be linked to Jeffrey Epstein, The New York Post noted. ESPN analyst McAfee initially announced that the weekly segment "Aaron Rodgers Tuesday" would no longer be featured for the remainder of this football season." However, Rodgers, who was talking to McAfee "from the woods," returned to talk about coach Bill Belichick leaving the New England Patriots—which was in line with McAfee tweeting Jan. 10 that he hoped Rodgers would still come on to discuss "big events."

Reality-TV figure Tom Sandoval got his revenge on a shuttered bakery after they made cakes that read "Sandoval's a Liar" during his cheating scandal, US Magazine noted. LA bakery Sweet Lady Jane announced its abrupt closure after 35 years in business via Instagram, causing their celebrities including Blake Lively and Sophia Bush to flood the comments with their sadness and warm wishes. However, Sandoval posted, in part, "Tocharge $$$ selling cakes using my name in negative sangs [sic] on it really hurt my feelings and almost pushed me over the edge. Good riddance."