Out comedian Jerrod Carmichael will host the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards, Deadline reported. After a yearlong hiatus, the three-hour telecast will air on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023 from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills on NBC and Peacock. In September, Carmichael earned an Emmy for writing his comedy special Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel. He also earned an Emmy nomination for his hosting debut on Saturday Night Live in April.
Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman (The Favourite) defended 18-year-old actor Kit Connor after fans essentially forced him to come out as bisexual on social media, LGBTQ Nation noted. Coleman—who plays Connor's mother on the Netflix series Heartstopper, which follows a budding romance between two teenage boys—said, "I am so proud of him, but I am not proud of how people bullied him. I think people should be allowed to have their own journey."
Emmy-winning Master of None writer and star Lena Waithe has joined the producing team for Broadway's Ain't No Mo', which opened at the Belasco Theatre on Dec. 1, according to Playbill. She joins a producing team that includes Slave Play playwright Jeremy O. Harris, New York Jets' CJ Uzomah, former NBA star Dwyane Wade and actress/wife Gabrielle Union-Wade, and drag superstar RuPaul. Ain't No Mo' is about Flight 1619, on African American Airlines is readying to take off and bring all Black Americans to Africa on one-way tickets provided by the U.S. government.
In his first major foray into TV, Jake Gyllenhaal is in negotiations to star in and executive produce Presumed Innocent, according to Deadline. Presumed Innocent was published in 1987 and was turned into a 1990 feature starring Harrison Ford. It tells the story of a murder that upends the Chicago prosecuting attorneys' office when one of its own is suspected of the crime. Gyllenhaal will play Rusty Sabich, the prosecutor suspected of killing a close colleague when the evidence begins to point to him.
Cher emotionally announced the death of her beloved 96-year-old mother, Georgia Holt, PinkNews reported. The actress/singer posted an emotional tweet on Dec. 11 in which she wrote, "Mom is gone." She added, "Sorry I've been MIA. Mom's been sick off and on. She just got out of [hospital]. She had pneumonia." Holt began singing from an early age, and first starred in two feature films in 1950, playing minor roles in A Life of Her Own and Watch the Birdie.
A Patti LaBelle concert in Milwaukee was abruptly halted Dec. 10 when the star was rushed off the stage due to a bomb threat, CNN noted. Social media video showed LaBelle exclaiming, "Wait!" as three individuals pushed her mic stand away and escorted her off-stage without explanation.
HBO has canceled the voguing-competition series Legendary after three seasons, Deadline noted. The show was fronted by MC Dashaun Wesley with judges Leiomy Maldonado, Jameela Jamil, Law Roach and Megan Thee Stallion. (The news comes after it emerged that FBoy Island was canceled after two seasons.)
Amy Ray, half of the iconic folk duo Indigo Girls, recently received the Americana Music Association's Spirit Award and released a solo album, If It All Goes South—and now the Amy Ray Band will hit the road on Feb. 9-25, according to a press release. Some of the scheduled stops include Dallas, New Orleans, Nashville and Atlanta. Visit www.amy-ray.com .
Dylan O'Brien (TV's Teen Wolf; The Maze Runner) is starring in the upcoming queer sex-worker drama Ponyboi along with The Haunting of Bly Manor's Victoria Pedretti, River Gallo and Pose's Indya Moore, Out noted. According to the official synopsis, Ponyboi (played by writer/director Gallo) is an intersex runaway. The film is based on the 2019 award-winning short of the same name that premiered at Tribeca.
World-renowned athletes and engaged couple Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe have launched A Touch More—a new production company that centers the stories of revolutionaries who "move culture forward," Variety noted. Bird, a five-time Olympic gold medalist and basketball legend, and Rapinoe, a two-time FIFA World Cup-winning soccer superstar, created the company to "bring a touch more understanding, connection, entertainment, and conversation to the evolving media landscape" by amplifying narratives around concerning underrepresented communities, including LGBTQ people, POC and women.
Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has passed another milestone, reaching 1 billion hours viewed, according to Collider. It now sits as one of three series in the streamer's history to surpass that mark within 60 days, joining global juggernaut Squid Game and Stranger Things 4. The Evan Peters-led true-crime series got off to a hot start, becoming one of the most-watched series in Netflix's history within the first two weeks of its release with 496 million hours watched and 56 million households tuning in.
On a related note, Netflix's relatively new scripted series Wednesday is now the most-watched English-language series in a week in the history of the streaming service—surpassing the popular season four of Stranger Things, Forbes noted. Stranger Things 4 still holds the title for the most-watched Netflix English-language series in its first 28 days on the platform. Half of the top 10 most-watched English-language series in 28 days on Netflix were released this year, including the aforementioned Dahmer, the second season of Bridgerton, Inventing Anna and Ozark's fourth season.
Several high-profile queens from RuPaul's Drag Race who are currently on tour are hiring extra security staff to protect themselves following the Club Q shooting, Out noted. For example, All Stars 7 winner Jinkx Monsoon, who is touring alongside BenDeLaCreme with their joint holiday show, told NBC News that they have "hired armed guards" and have been "using metal detectors and creating venue escape routes" for their U.S. shows. There are also Drag Race superstars who believe that this is not the time to be scared or less visible to the mainstream, including Shea Coulee.
The first image from the upcoming feature film Cassandro—which tells the story of gay Mexican-American professional wrestler Saul Armendariz and which stars actor Gael Garcia Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien; Bad Education)—has been released, Out noted. Once he entered the wrestling world, the gay Armendariz came up with the flamboyant and effeminate persona Cassandro, the "Liberace of Lucha Libre," and he took the machismo-driven world of wrestling by surprise. The movie is slated to debut on Prime Video in 2023.
No Straight Lines—an award-winning film about queer comics—is airing on ITVS/PBS this January, according to a press release. The movie tells the story of five pioneering cartoonists who depicted everything from the AIDS crisis, coming out and same-sex marriage to themes of race, gender and disability. They tackled the humor in queer lives in a changing world, and the everyday pursuits of love, sex and community. See nostraightlinesthefilm.com .
SPOILER ALERT: The HBO series The White Lotus has provided at least two male same-sex love scenes—and now there's one featuring two women, Out noted. Uptight and no-nonsense Valentina (played by Sabrina Impacciatore), the hotel manager, has a scene with sex worker Mia (Beatrice Granno) after finding out that her crush, Isabella (Eleonora Romandini), is engaged to a male co-worker. The season finale debuts Sunday, Dec. 11.
In an Instagram video, singer Celine Dion said she's been diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder called stiff person syndrome, the Chicago Sun-Times noted. Dion added that the diagnosis means the Europe portion of her tour won't be able to restart in February. The shows scheduled for the spring have been postponed to 2024, while the shows she had scheduled for the summer have been canceled. Stiff Person Syndrome, or SPS, is a disease that causes "progressive muscle stiffness and painful spasms" that are triggered by environmental factors such as "sudden movement, cold temperature or unexpected loud noises," according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
The Recording Industry Association of America announced the 13 albums and 68 singles released and awarded this year in its Gold & Platinum program, Variety noted. Taylor Swift earned the top album with her double-platinum "Midnights" (via Republic Records), while Future had the top single with his triple-platinum "Wait for U" (on Epic Records/Freebandz).
Actress Anne Heche's final autopsy and toxicology report found "no evidence of impairment by illicit substances" at the time of her fatal car crash and confirmed that she died of inhalation and thermal injuries, Entertainment Weekly noted. Toxicology testing found benzoylecgonine, an inactive form of cocaine, in Heche's system, indicating past usage of the drug. Cannabinoids were also found in a urine specimen but not in Heche's blood—consistent with prior use of marijuana but not at the time of injury. While testing detected fentanyl in Heche's bloodstream, it was later determined that the drug was administered in the hospital after the accident as a pain treatment. Also, no alcohol was detected in her system.
Actor Neal Bledsoe—who has appeared in two gay-themed holiday movies, The Winter Palace and Christmas at the Drive-In—has made it clear he's not interested in returning to the Great American Family cable network as long as it seeks to marginalize LGBTQ+ couples, Yahoo! noted. "My life wouldn't be where it is today without the love, support and guidance of the LGBTQIA+ community," he said in a statement to Variety. Network actress Candace Cameron Bure recently remarked that the channel's slate of Christmas movies would focus on "traditional marriage" as opposed to the LGBTQ+ relationships that are increasingly being seen in holiday films. Bledsoe will next appear in the CBS holiday movie Must Love Christmas, which premieres on Sunday, Dec. 11.
Emmy-winning ABC comedy Abbott Elementary led the nominees for the 28th Annual Critics Choice Awards, nabbing six overall—including best comedy series and acting nods for stars Quinta Brunson, Janelle James, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Chris Perfetti and Tyler James Williams, Variety noted. Other shows that did well included Better Call Saul (five nods), Gaslit (four), Reservation Dogs (four) and The Good Fight (four). Other notable mentions include posthumous nods for Leslie Jordan, Ray Liotta and Norm Macdonald. The next Critics Choice Awards takes place Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023; the CW will broadcast it.
Queer actress Kristen Stewart has been selected as president of the international jury at next year's Berlin International Film Festival, Variety noted. Stewart—who shot to fame in films such as Twilight—is known for her body of acting work, including recently her portrayal of Princess Diana in Spencer, for which she was nominated for an Oscar. She is set to make her feature-length directorial debut with The Chronology of Water, a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Lidia Yuknavitch. Stewart is also currently working on a paranormal reality series about LGBTQ+ ghost hunters for which she recently issued an open casting call; see https://ghost.castingcrane.com/age-gate.
Australian director Andrew Dominik addressed the backlash against Blonde, his Marilyn Monroe biopic for Netflix that stars Ana de Armas in the title role, The Hollywood Reporter noted. Speaking at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, the director said that the U.S. audiences had the strongest adverse reaction to the film—"they hated the movie!"—and claimed that when it came to iconic Americans such as Monroe, they only wanted to see a celebration. The festival ends Dec. 15.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay has her very own ice cream flavor with Ben & Jerry's, making her the first Black woman to ever grace the brand's pints, People revealed. The flavor—Lights! Caramel! Action!—consists of vanilla ice cream with salted caramel and graham cracker swirls and pieces of chocolate-chip cookie dough. Available in dairy and non-dairy almond-milk versions, the ice cream will start shipping nationwide in January 2023.
Paramount Pictures announced that Tracy Flick Can't Win—a sequel to Alexander Payne's cult classic 1999 comedy Election—is being made for Paramount+, Deadline noted. Payne is returning as director, with the original film's lead Reese Witherspoon to produce and reprise her starring role. The sequel is another satirical dark comedy that finds Tracy in adulthood and still struggling to fight her way to the top.
Director Patty Jenkins' treatment for the film Wonder Woman 3 has been halted, Deadline confirmed. The filmmaker was expected to hand in a screenplay and, instead, the new heads at DC (James Gunn and Peter Safran) reportedly received pieces of paper that just weren't suitable. While the first Wonder Woman movie was a flat-out success, Wonder Woman 1984 bombed critically and commercially.
James Howard Jackson—the man accused of shooting Lady Gaga's dog walker, Ryan Fischer—was sentenced to 21 years in prison after accepting a plea deal, Extra noted. Jackson pleaded no contest to attempted murder but did admit to inflicting great bodily injury. Jackson was one of five people arrested after the shooting, and prosecutors believed he was the one who shot Fischer during the altercation.
Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause claimed she wasn't able to bring along her partner, non-binary singer G Flip, to the People's Choice Awards because the people behind the show wouldn't let her, Out noted. Stause explained that G Flip actually wasn't in the country for the awards and wouldn't have been able to go anyway, but still felt like the lack of invitation was a snub. "EVERY single cast member invited and some had plus ones," she tweeted. "I was nominated for Best Reality Star and yet they said NO."
Actress Gabourey Sidibe (Precious; TV series American Horror Story) revealed that she's been secretly married to Brandon Frankel for more than a year during an interview on Live with Kelly and Ryan, according to Extra. She said, "The thing about weddings is I don't like them. I don't like them. Here's an example of how much I don't like them: I'm actually married. We got married over a year ago." Four months after their November 2020 engagement, the couple wed "at the kitchen table" since Sidibe doesn't like weddings.
Joey McFarland—a producer of the movie Emancipation, which stars Will Smith— has apologized after facing criticism for bringing the original 1863 photograph of the enslaved man known as "Whipped Peter," which served as an inspiration for the film, to the Los Angeles premiere, Variety noted. "I wholeheartedly apologize to everyone I have offended by bringing a photograph of Peter [real name: Gordon] to the 'Emancipation' premiere," McFarland wrote in a statement on his Instagram. Photographed when being fit for a uniform to join the Union army, the image of the scars on Gordon's back was widely circulated at the time, exposing the brutality of slavery to the U.S. population.
ABC will no longer air its planned Backstreet Boys holiday special this month, The Hollywood Reporter noted. A Very Backstreet Holiday was scheduled for Dec. 14 but was pulled from the network's schedule after a lawsuit was filed alleging that Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter raped a 17-year-old fan on his tour bus after a 2001 concert in Tacoma, Washington. The lawsuit alleges that three other anonymous Jane Doe accusers experienced similar assaults by Carter between 2003 and 2006; one of the three unnamed accusers was allegedly underage. In a statement shared with Page Six, Carter's attorney Michael Holtz called the allegations "not only legally meritless but also entirely untrue."
Cardi B got rid of her butt fillers over the summer and she is warning fans against the injections, Extra noted. On Instagram, the rapper said, "In August, I got surgery and I removed 95% of my biopolymers... If you don't know what it is, it's ass shots. It was a really crazy process." The star insisted, "All I'm going to say is that if you're young, if you're 19, 20, 21, and sometimes you're too skinny, and you be like, 'OMG, I don't have enough fat to put in my ass,' so you resort to ass shots—DON'T!"
