TidalWave Comics announced the addition of Lil Nas X to its "FAME" comic-book series that's focused on personalities who impact the world, a press release noted. Written by Darren G. Davis and illustrated by Victor Moura, this 22-page comic book is available both digitally and in print and can be found on multiple platforms such as Amazon. Both feature a cover by comic-book artist Joe Phillips. The series has featured musical artists such as Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Madonna, David Bowie, Tina Turner and others.
New Regency and TKO Studios are developing a television series based on the graphic novel The Banks, created by Roxane Gay and artist Ming Doyle, per Deadline. Gay is set to write the adaptation, which stems from the exclusive development and production partnership New Regency and TKO Studios entered last year. The Banks focuses on the women of the Banks family, who are the most successful thieves in Chicago.
Discovery+ will celebrate Pride Month with a look back at the past and the strides that have been made when The Book of Queer premieres in June, per a press release. The series features an ensemble cast of entirely LGBTQ+ actors who portray nearly 200 historical figures, with each episode culminating in an original song and music video, created and performed by queer artists including Betty Who and VINCINT. The series will be narrated by LGBTQ+ icons including comedian and actress Margaret Cho and others to be announced. The trailer is at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RKJ4-7tRaGAY5fJlI4Sq2FxQfSVcynHo/view?usp=sharing.
HBO has renewed the Emmy-winning series Euphoria for a third season, per Deadline. In season two, Zendaya returned as Rue, who's relapsed since Jules (Hunter Schafer) left her for the city. With school back in session, Rue faces new obstacles to her sobriety and her relationship with Jules. Euphoria took home three prizes at the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Zendaya's history-making Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series win.
Queer actor/comedian Lea DeLaria thinks she knows why Che Diaz, from And Just Like That…, is getting so much pushback, according to Page Six. "People have a real problem with non-gender-conforming individuals—always have, hopefully always won't," the performer said. "Any drag queen can talk to you at length about this and [how] black trans people just have a target on their back in our society."
A 6'1" transgender model slammed the fashion industry's body standards, saying she was once told she was "too big" to walk the runway at Paris Fashion Week when she weighed just 123 lbs., according to The Daily Mail. Arisce Wanzer, 25, from Miami, blasted the beauty industry in a recent TikTok video, stating she was told she'd have to shed 10 pounds if she wanted to participate in Paris Fashion Week.
Emira D'Spain, better known as XOXOEMIRA on social media, is making history this Valentine's Day by being the first Black trans model to work with Victoria's Secret, out.com noted. The model collaborated with the popular lingerie brand to make a Valentine's Day TikTok, showing users how to enjoy Valentine's Day when they're single. On Instagram, she said working with the brand was an honor. "As a kid I only DREAMED of being a part of Victoria's Secret," she wrote. "Valentina Sampaio paved the way and it's such an honor to continue that legacy on the first day of Black History Month."
Dan Savage's 2022 HUMP! Film Festival—a curated event of short erotic films made by everyday people—will debut in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco on Feb. 10-March 5, per the event's website. Starting March 10th, HUMP! will tour across 30 cities in the United States and Canada, including New Orleans (March 18-19); Chicago (April 2); Montreal (April 7); Miami (April 15-21); Bend, Oregon (April 30); and Baltimore (May 27-28). See www.humpfilmfest.com .
Global drag figure and RuPaul's Drag Race alum BenDeLaCreme will embark on her biggest solo tour yet as star and lead producer, per a press release. During April 13 through July 10, she will be on her "BenDeLaCreme is...READY TO BE COMMITTED" tour (produced by BenDeLaCreme Presents). Just a few of the stops include San Francisco (April 13-17), Atlanta (April 27), New York City (May 3-4), Denver (May 18), Chicago (May 26) and Seattle (July 5-10).
SPOILER: In a surprise announcement, a competitor of RuPaul's Drag Race season 14 has pulled out of the race, out.com noted. Kornbread "The Snack" Jete withdrew after being advised to rest after rolling her ankle. Kornbread wasn't the first queen to pull out before the end of a season due to an injury; Eureka O'Hara notably had to leave her initial season due to a knee injury.
Blitz Bazawule's The Color Purple movie musical has found its Celie and Sofia in Fantasia Taylor and Danielle Brooks, respectively, Variety reported. Both actors reprise their respective roles from the stage musical, where Taylor made her Broadway debut in 2007 following her American Idol win (beating Jennifer Hudson, among others), and Brooks earned a Tony nomination for her portrayal of Sofia in the 2015 revival.
The Supernatural prequel The Winchesters, the Walker prequel Walker: Independence, and the DC series Gotham Knights have all landed pilot orders at The CW, Variety noted. In addition, the broadcaster has given six additional scripts for its Zorro project. The move to continue telling stories in the world of Supernatural is no surprise, given that the original show aired for 15 seasons, wrapping up its run in 2020.
Showtime Documentary Films acquired worldwide rights to Nothing Compares, directed by Kathryn Ferguson, per a press release. Nothing Compares charts Irish singer Sinead OʼConnorʼs rise to worldwide fame and examines how she used her voice at the height of her stardom before her iconoclastic personality led to her exile from the pop mainstream. Focusing on the singer from 1987 to 1993, the archive-led documentary features music videos and concert performances alongside previously unseen footage from this period. The film is underpinned by a new interview with O'Connor herself, in which she reflects on events in her own words and from a present-day perspective.
Fans of the Super Bowl contender Cincinnati Bengals have been shown to be the most LGBTQ+-supportive in the league, out.com noted. The study by TickPick, a New York area ticketing exchange provider, used various terms and keywords to collect 2,390 posts from the Reddit forums for all 32 NFL teams over the 2020-21 period. The study revealed that 60 percent of all Bengals fan posts on LGBTQ+ issues were positive. Interestingly, fans of their upcoming opponent, the Los Angeles Rams, ranked dead last in the survey, tied with the Carolina Panthers at 29.4 percent.
Girls Trip and Set It Off co-stars Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah will reunite in an upcoming episode of CBS' The Equalizer, Deadline noted. Smith will guest star as Jessie Cook, a savant-level thief with a photographic memory; although she's brilliant and the best at what she does, she's also devious, unpredictable and amoral. The Equalizer is a reimagining of the classic series starring Latifah as Robyn McCall, an enigmatic woman with a mysterious background who uses her extensive skills as a former CIA operative to help those with nowhere else to turn.
Peacock's reboot of the TV drama Queer As Folk has added another name to its cast: Nyle DiMarco, out.com noted. The show is a New Orleans-set reimagining of Russell T. Davies' classic British show about a group of gay friends. According to a statement, DiMarco is joining as a guest star, and his character will be a "charming grad student." The reboot stars Jesse James Keitel, Johnny Sibilly, Fin Argus, Ryan O'Connell, Devin Way, and Candace Grace as a diverse friend group whose lives are transformed in the aftermath of a tragedy.
Queer pop star Troye Sivan is getting ready to front Paramount+'s upcoming coming-of-age film Three Months, out.com noted. Coming to the streamer Feb. 23, Three Months tells the story of Caleb (Sivan), "a South Florida teen who loves his camera, his weed, and his grandmother," according to the official description. "On the eve of his high school graduation, everything changes when he's exposed to HIV. While he waits three months for his results, Caleb finds love in the most unlikely of places."
Danai Gurira—the actress most widely known for being in Marvel's Avengers franchise and AMC's The Walking Dead—will play one of the stage's great villains this summer when she takes the title character of Richard III for New York's Free Shakespeare in the Park, per Deadline. The Public Theater production, part of Free Shakespeare's 60th anniversary season, will be directed by Robert O'Hara, a Tony nominee for Broadway's Slave Play.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said company subscribers will notice a new content warning airing ahead of any podcast episodes discussing COVID-19, per Deadline. The news arrived on the heels of Neil Young removing his catalog from the service in protest of Joe Rogan's podcast which has been criticized for spreading misinformation. In solidarity with Young, Joni Mitchell said she'd also ask that her music be removed. Rogan responded to the fallout, saying in a video on Instagram that he was only seeking to have conversations on his podcast with people who have "differing opinions," per NPR.
In other Spotify-related news, Joe Rogan apologized over his use of the "N-word" in clips circulated by songstress India Arie, Deadline noted. Rogan was depicted using the racial slur two dozen times in the clips, which were used by Arie to illustrate why she was withdrawing her music from Spotify, where Rogan licenses his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in New York announced that four people were arrested on federal charges stemming from the overdose death of actor Michael K. Williams last September, Variety reported. Irvin Cartagena, 39, is accused of selling heroin laced with fentanyl to Williams in Manhattan on Sept. 5, the day before Williams was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment. Three others—Hector Robles, 57; Luis Cruz, 56; and Carlos Macci, 70—were also arrested on a charge of heroin and fentanyl conspiracy.
Spike Lee and Colin Kaepernick are teaming with ESPN to tackle the life and career of the activist and former NFL player, Deadline noted. Unlike Netflix's mixed genre coming-of-age Colin in Black & White last year, from Kaepernick and Ava DuVernay, the Lee-helmed project is the first unscripted deep dive into the ex-San Francisco 49er's saga from his own point of view. A longtime supporter of the unsigned quarterback who has been shunned by the NFL after Kaepernick took a knee in 2016 during the national anthem as a protest against police violence and social injustice, Lee will co-produce the project with ESPN Films through his 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks; Kaepernick will also produce, along with Atlantic journalist Jemele Hill.
Dakota Johnson has been cast as Madame Web in the studio's next Marvel standalone superhero movie, per Variety. In the comics, Madame Web is key in the interconnected multiverse—a concept Sony, Disney and Warner Bros. have each separately started to tease in on-screen adventures. The character (depicted as a blind, paralyzed elderly woman) was introduced in issue 210 of The Amazing Spider-Man comic series in 1980, where she's a clairvoyant mutant whose abilities prove to be greatly beneficial to Spider-Man and his fellow arachnid allies, like Spider-Woman.
Grammy-nominated country-music artist Mickey Guyton will sing the national anthem at Super Bowl LVI, taking place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on Sunday, Feb. 13, per a press release. Guyton tweeted, "I am shook, I am grateful, I am praise dancing… So excited to be singing the national anthem at #SBLVI on February 13th! @nfl @nbcsports." The game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams will air live on NBC and Telemundo and stream live on Peacock.
American Idol judge and five-time Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan revealed details of his Raised Up Right tour, a press release noted. The tour will launch on June 9 in Charleston, West Virginia, and will play in 30+ cities—including Chicago; Hartford, Connecticut; and San Antonio, Texas—before wrapping Oct. 28 in Jacksonville, Florida.
Red Hot Chili Peppers will unveil their new album and twelfth full-length offering, Unlimited Love (on Warner Records), on April 1, per a press release. It notably marks their first recording with guitarist John Frusciante since 2006 and first with producer and longtime collaborator Rick Rubin since 2011. To herald Unlimited Love, the Los Angeles band just shared the first single and music video, "Black Summer."
Almost a year after the Criminal Minds revival for Paramount+ was announced, there is still no one officially attached to the series. However, six cast members—Joe Mantegna, Kirsten Vangsness, Adam Rodriguez, A.J. Cook, Aisha Tyler and Paget Brewster—have agreed to come back, subject to closing their deals and availability, Deadline reported.
Singer-songwriter and The Voice alum Sawyer Fredericks recently came out as bisexual, per out.com . In an Instagram post, the 22-year-old upstate New York native shared with his followers that after years of not knowing there were "more options besides gay and straight," he is now ready to publicly share his bisexuality with the world. "I'll probably lose some fans over this post, but that's fine with me," he concluded.
Tommy Dorfman's husband, Peter Zurkuhlen, is divorcing the Netflix star after over five years of marriage, according to out.com . According to online records cited in a report from TMZ, Zurkuhlen submitted divorce documents at a Los Angeles area courtroom. The pair got engaged in 2015 after knowing each other for more than a decade (they met in 2005 via a mutual friend), officially tying the knot in 2016 in a ceremony in Portland, Maine. Dorfman previously made headlines last year after she publicly came out as a trans woman in an interview with Time.
Cheslie Kryst, an Extra correspondent and former Miss USA, died by suicide at age 30, Billboard noted. Her body on the sidewalk outside the Orion Condominium building, where she was a resident, in Manhattan. Kryst won the Miss USA beauty pageant in 2019 as a participant from North Carolina. According to Extra, Kryst's mother, April Simpkins, said, "While her life on this earth was short, it was filled with many beautiful memories. We miss her laugh, her words of wisdom, her sense of humor and mostly her hugs. We miss all of it—we miss all of her."
Fox has renewed Gordon Ramsay's hit culinary competition series Hell's Kitchen for its 21st and 22nd seasons, per Deadline. Last season, Hell's Kitchen was the number-one cooking show on television among adults 18-49, and its total multiplatform audience was up 8% from season 19.
Kanye West hit back at Kim Kardashian's claims that she's their children's "main provider," releasing a statement on Instagram in which he accused his estranged wife of kidnapping one of their kids, Page Six noted. "You put security on me inside of the house to play with my son then accused me of stealing I had to take a drug test after Chicago's party cause you accused me of being on drugs," he alleged. West was referring to his viral video in which he claimed the Skims founder refused to tell him the address of their daughter Chicago's 4th birthday bash in January. He eventually made it to the party, but sources told us that he and Kardashian had pre-agreed to host two separate events for Chicago.
Rudy Giuliani was unmasked as an exiting costumed contestant in the taping of the first episode of Fox's popular prime time show The Masked Singer—and that judges Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke quickly left the stage in protest, per Deadline. The reaction to Giuliani was perhaps the most polarizing the show has seen since 2020, when another controversial Republican politician—Sarah Palin—was unveiled as The Bear. Giuliani's exit episode won't air until next month.
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills co-star Erika Jayne was dismissed from the embezzlement and fraud lawsuit against her estranged husband, Tom Girardi, per Page Six. The ruling came one day after both parties agreed "dismissal is appropriate," according to a separate filing. Jayne, 50, and Girardi, 82, were sued in December 2020 by Edelson PC, a class-action firm, on behalf of Boeing plane-crash victims for allegedly embezzling settlement funds meant to help the victims of Lion Air Flight 610, per federal court documents.
A week after Fame actor Morgan Stevens was found dead, his cause of death has been revealed, Extra noted. The Los Angeles coroner's office said Stevens died of arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The actor played teacher David Reardon on two seasons of the '80s series Fame, based on the movie of the same name. He was a recurring character on the third and fourth seasons.
