At the Berlin Film Festival, Kristen Stewart defended her photo shoot for a Rolling Stone magazine cover that went viral and divided audiences on social-media platforms, per The Hollywood Reporter. "The existence of a female body thrusting any type of sexuality at you that's not designed for exclusively straight males is something people are not super-comfy with and so I'm really happy with it," Stewart said at a press conference for her latest movie, Love Lies Bleeding. The photos feature Stewart sporting a mullet, and wearing jock straps and basketball shorts. Stewart also said, "The era of queer films, being so pointedly only that, is over. It's done. Maybe they'll happen, but I think things develop and move on. It's just so inherent to how we're all moving forward."
Lee Garlington—once called the "true love" of the late Rock Hudson—has died at age 86, his husband, Paul Garlington said, according to People. The Atlanta-born stockbroker died on Dec. 6, 2023, in Laguna Beach, California, while he and Paul—who had moved to New Zealand some two decades ago—were visiting the city to celebrate their 37th anniversary. Lee died of complications from internal bleeding and prostate cancer, and is buried in Arrowtown, New Zealand, where Paul will eventually be buried alongside him.
Salt Lake City, Utah-based singer/songwriter/social activist Talia Keys—who identifies as queer and non-binary—has released her rock version of the Eurythmics classic "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," per a press release. Keys' take on the song is described thusly: "At once nihilist and inspirational, the track offers observations of the quest for inner fulfillment, and muses on the desires that motivate us all." For more on Keys, visit TaliaKeys.com .
Warner Bros Discovery Home Entertainment has released True Detective: Night Country on Digital, and will release it on Blu-ray & DVD on July 9, per a press release. Viewers can binge on all six episodes from season four while they search for answers and go behind the scenes with bonus content. Set in Alaska, True Detective: Night Country follows detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) as they investigate the disappearance of eight scientists. The season also stars John Hawkes, Christopher Eccleston, Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, Anna Lambe, Aka Niviana, Isabella Star Lablanc, and Joel D. Montgrand.
Also, on the heels of the success of the fourth season of True Detective that starred Jodie Foster and Kali Reis, HBO has renewed the show for a fifth season, per a press release. Additionally, under a new multiyear overall deal with HBO, Issa Lopez will create content exclusive to HBO and Max, including the next season of True Detective. True Detective: Night Country is the most watched season of the series, with 12.7 million cross-platform viewers.
The Marvel comics world is celebrating another same-sex wedding, between the women characters Mystique and Destiny in X-Men: The Wedding Special #1—part of Marvel Voices: Pride, per a press release. Mystique and Destiny's story will be written by X-Men architect Kieron Gillen, who has penned some of their most notable tales throughout the Krakoa era in Immortal X-Men.
In light of the revived success of her song "Murder on the Dancefloor," courtesy of the film Saltburn, British singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor announced she will embark on her first-ever headline tour in North America this summer, per a press release. She will perform in such cities as San Francisco, San Diego, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, NYC and Toronto over May 30-June 8. Recently, she made her U.S. late-night television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, backed by The Roots and a three-piece string section. "Dancefloor" became a Top 10 hit worldwide on release 22 years ago, charting at #2 in the UK and within the Top 3 in Australia, New Zealand and four European countries.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse dominated the 51st Annie Awards, taking the prize in seven different categories at the annual ceremony that honors animated film, TV and special productions, TheWrap noted. Three of the Oscar nominees in the Best Animated Feature category besides "Spider-Verse" (incidentally, a record-breaker for the longest animated American feature of all time) also won awards: The Boy and the Heron, Nimona (from the graphic novel of the same name, by trans/bigender writer ND Stevenson) and robot Dreams.
Warner Bros Pictures' Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will make its streaming debut on Max on Feb. 27, per a press release. Director James Wan and Jason Momoa—along with Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Nicole Kidman—return in this sequel to the highest-grossing DC film of all time. In the sequel, Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Momoa) and his half-brother/reluctant ally, Orm (Wilson) join forces to take on Black Manta (Abdul-Mateen), who possesses the power of the mythic Black Trident.
Colton Underwood opened up to People Magazine about his journey to fatherhood after learning he had "no sperm." In May, he'll celebrate his first wedding anniversary with husband Jordan C. Brown, and Underwood said the desire to become parents is a foundational part of their relationship. Underwood and his husband have been on their fertility journey for nearly two years now, he says, and he'll be chronicling the entire process on his new podcast, Daddyhood, which launched Feb. 21.
Lavender Con—hosted by Little District Books, DC's bookstore dedicated to celebrating LGBTQIA+ authors and stories—will take place June 29-30, per a press release. Lavender Con will hold its inaugural two-day event at the National Press Club in downtown D.C. Little District Books will have an on-site bookshop to purchase books by attending authors and allow attendees to pre-order authors' upcoming releases. There will also be a market of bookish creators, indie presses and queer artisans. More than 80 writers are expected, including Andre Bradley, Susie Dumond, Addie Tsai, Andromeda Ruins and Federico Erebia. Tickets are now on sale at LavenderCon.com .
The second annual Reportin' For Duty took place, honoring the late Leslie Jordan's life of service by raising over $1 million for EB Research Partnership (EBRP), a press release noted. EBRP is an organization that was close to Jordan's heart that is dedicated to funding research to treat and cure epidermolysis bullosa—a life-threatening genetic skin disorder that affects children from birth. The night featured intimate performances from Post Malone, EBRP Co-Founder Eddie Vedder, The War And Treaty, Jelly Roll, Ruby Amanfu, Jake Wesley Rogers and Dan Spencer.
Trans actress Hunter Schafer recently talked with Variety about her film Cuckoo, which recently debuted at the Berlin Film Festival. "Any and all acting experience I had, I attributed to being on the set of 'Euphoria' and being around those people who I had gotten really comfortable with — particularly [creator] Sam Levinson, who was sort of my acting teacher," Schafer said. "And this is like, 'OK, the training wheels are off, babe, and you gotta bring it.' That was so scary." The movie has Schafer face off against a mysterious bird-like monster that seeks to impregnate women with her evil spawn.
In a new episode of Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz's podcast And That's What You REALLY Missed, Matthew Morrison—who played teacher Will Schuester on Glee—revealed that during production of season five, he asked to be written off the show, Out noted. "I actually was trying to get off the show," he said. "In season five, I asked to be off the show, 'cause I was just like, I'm no longer being used in the way I wanted to." However, Morrison's plans changed after co-star Cory Monteith passed away in 2013 at the age of 31: "Cory passed, and then they said they couldn't do it. Because you can't have the two main guys on the show [leave]. So yeah, it was an interesting time."
Mr. Man revealed its annual list of the 10 hottest nude scenes in television and movies that came out last year, Out noted. Some of the scenes involved Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine in Prime Video's Red, White & Royal Blue; Mauro da Costa, Joao Villas-Boas, Joao Cacador and Joao Reis Moreira in the Portuguese musical romantic comedy Will-o'-the-Wisp; Matt Bomer and David Tomlinson in Fellow Travelers (available on Showtime); and Andre Lamoglia and Fernando Líndez in the Spanish teen drama Elite, which airs on Netflix.
A parody musical centered on former President Trump and some of the well-known women in his life is hitting the off-Broadway stage in New York City, The Hill noted. Five: The Parody Musical tells a story about Trump; his wife, Melania; his ex-wives, Ivana Trump and Marla Maples; his daughter, Ivanka; and Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who was paid by Trump's former fixer, Michael Cohen, in 2016 in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair she had with the former president. The four-week run began with previews last week and will run for the public through March 10 at Theater 555, an off-Broadway theater venue.
Former talk-show host Wendy Williams' medical team announced that she has been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), People reported. According to a press release, Williams received her diagnosis last year and her medical team said the conditions "have already presented significant hurdles in Wendy's life." According to Mayo Clinic, aphasia "robs you of the ability to communicate" and "can affect your ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written." FTD is the most common form of dementia for people under 60.
Top U.S. tennis player Taylor Fritz was called out for appearing to "like" a homophobic tweet on X (formerly Twitter), according to PinkNews. Fritz vehemently denied that he had intended to like the tweet, which was a response to a post by controversial martial artist Sean Strickland complaining about Pride Month. Nina Yamini, the cousin of Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, responded to Strickland's tweet, saying, "if the founding fathers would wake up, they'd press the reset button"—and it was this response that Fritz "liked." Fritz later stated, "I had to of accidentally liked that while scrolling the replies but wow just want to make it clear for anyone that doesn't know me i absolutely don't stand for any of this and if u [were] to look at my likes it's either all gaming/tennis things I would NEVER do that on purpose."
The 2024 Big Ears Festival—taking place March 21-24 in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee—will welcome Andre 3000 (formerly of the rap duo OutKast), per a press release. The performer will be bringing his New Blue Sun Live to Knoxville, and will be presenting five unique, separately ticketed shows across all four days of the festival. Some of the other performers in the line-up include Herbie Hancock, Jon Batiste, Laurie Anderson, Digable Planets, Fred Frith, Unwound and Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog.
Personal trainer/former adult-film actor Bo Dixon passed away in early February at age 63, per Instinct Magazine. The Georgia-based Dixon (real name: Thom Austin) performed in gay porn from 2005 to 2008, and worked predominantly for Colt Studio and Hot House Entertainment.
Boy Meets World actors Rider Strong and Will Friedle discussed guest star Brian Peck's alleged grooming and manipulation that they claim they experienced, Page Six noted. The men, along with former castmate Danielle Fishel, discussed "the difficult subjects of grooming, childhood sexual abuse and their effects on victims" with family therapist Kati Morton on Pod Meets World, according to a description of the episode. Four years after Boy Meets World ended, Peck, now 63, was convicted of sexually abusing an unknown Nickelodeon child actor in 2004; Peck served 16 months in jail. His crimes are expected to be explored in the upcoming ID docuseries Quiet on Set, which uncovers the alleged abuse of children working in show business in the late '90s and early 2000s.
The Sherri show is mourning the loss of one of its top execs amid a financial investigation at the show, according to Page Six. Matt Uzzle, the executive in charge of Sherri Shepherd's daytime talk show, was found dead in his Piermont, New York, home on Feb. 13. Uzzle—whose primary roles were to manage production and oversee the budget at Sherri—was under investigation at the show at the time of his death. Uzzle, whom Shepherd inherited from The Wendy Williams Show, reportedly died by suicide.
Tyler Perry has delayed an $800-million studio expansion in Atlanta due to his growing concerns over developments in artificial intelligence (AI), Variety noted. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Perry expressed a need for the industry to get ahead of AI's potential impact, saying, "There's got to be some sort of regulations in order to protect us. If not, I just don't see how we survive," citing OpenAI's text-to-video tool Sora. Perry added that he's not against AI, sharing that he's used the tech in two of his upcoming films as he chose to age himself in post-production instead of in a makeup chair.
ABC and Disney lost their attempt to dismiss a discrimination suit by two General Hospital crew members over COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Deadline noted. Now, the religious-discrimination action will go to trial unless ABC wants to settle. Unlike ex-cast member Ingo Rademacher in his own now-dismissed vaccine-mandate suit, it was ruled that father and son James Wahl and Tim Wahl "cooperated" with the soap opera and the network on establishing their "genuine" Christian "religious beliefs" and desired exemptions from getting the then-mandated vaccines.
To celebrate the anniversary of the "Miracle on Ice" Game, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled three officially licensed bobbleheads, per a press release. The first bobbleheads feature Herb Brooks and Jack O'Callahan—the head coach and key player, respectively, of the gold-medal winning 1980 Winter Olympics U.S. hockey team that is famously known for its upset victory over the Soviet Union in the "Miracle on Ice" game on Feb. 22, 1980. The third bobblehead features a generic Team USA player in the 1980 USA hockey jersey with a sticker pack that lets fans customize the jersey name and number as well as the logo on the top of the base.
Out Bravo exec Andy Cohen responded to Brandi Glanville's claims of sexual harassment, saying the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star was "in on the joke" but that he was sorry for the "inappropriate" situation, per The Hollywood Reporter. In a letter sent to NBC Universal, Warner Bros. and Shed Media, Glanville's attorneys wrote that Cohen sent her a video in 2022 in which he appeared "obviously inebriated." The letter explains that Cohen allegedly "boasted" that he wanted to "sleep with another Bravo star" while "thinking" about Glanville, inviting her to watch him engage in the sexual act over FaceTime. In a response posted to X (formerly Twitter), Cohen wrote that the video in question "shows [fellow reality-TV star] Kate Chastain and I very clearly joking to Brandi. It was absolutely meant in jest, and Brandi's response clearly communicated she was in on the joke." Cohen has apologized.
American Idol producer and former So You Think You Can Dance judge Nigel Lythgoe has been accused of sexual assault for the third time in less than two months, per Deadline. A complaint from a Jane Doe alleging battery, gender violence and emotional distress says, in part, "What should have been a quick two-minute ride ended up being a ten-to-fifteen minute sexual assault and battery in which plaintiff was trapped in Lythgoe's vehicle [in 2016]." Lythgoe left the latest season of "So You Think" in January as claims of sexual assault from Paula Abdul and a separate suit from a Jane Doe K.G. and a Jane Doe K.N. hit the court dockets. Lythgoe has denied all allegations.
Kelly Rowland reportedly walked out of NBC's Today show on Thursday morning after the star thought her dressing room was not up to par, Page Six noted. The actress/R&B singer was a guest on the 8 a.m. hour of Today, and was then expected to fill in for Jenna Bush Hager in the fourth hour as guest host of Today with Hoda & Jenna. However, Rowland departed, leaving Hoda Kotb scrambling for a replacement. Ultimately, singer Rita Ora volunteered and filled in for Rowland.
