Torch Song Trilogy is back on Broadway, with Michael Urie in the starring role ( and Mercedes Ruehl as his mother ), Vulture noted. Torch Song is a condensed version of Harvey Fierstein's trilogy about a down-on-his-luck drag queen named Arnold ( originally played by Fierstein ) that first opened on Broadway in 1982. Torch Song is the first time Urie's opened a show on Broadway. "It's an emotional play, a gay play, a language play, a comedy, a drama," Urie said. "It feels like everything that I've learned up till now, I need."
Todrick Hall unleashed on his ex-boyfriend in an epic Instagram story to Hall's 1.2 million followers, Towleroad noted. "I'm legit shaking," Hall said at one point of the story, which a follower posted to YouTube. "I haven't been this pissed in over a decade." Hall also stated, "2. Must not come on tour with me, meet other guys, start sleeping with them and give them comp tickets to my show particularly on days when I'm burying my relatives. 3. Must not lie to me about what they're doing when they're sleeping with me when [their] new secret side fling isn't around," People.com noted.
Barbra Streisand is getting political once again, The Hollywood Reporter noted. The Oscar-winner premiered a music video for her new single "Don't Lie to Me" on her YouTube channel. The political video depicts images of protests, President Donald Trump and the president speaking in contradictions. "Don't Lie to Me," which debuted in September, is a single off of her upcoming album Walls.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute's spring 2019 exhibition's theme will be "Camp: Notes on Fashion" ( May 9-Sept. 8, 2019 ), Vogue.com revealed. Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu curator in charge of the Costume Institute, has framed the exhibition around Susan Sontag's 1964 essay "Notes on 'Camp,' "which posited different ways in which the concept could be construed. The exhibition, which will be presented in the Met Fifth Avenue's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall, is made possible by Gucci.
Netflix has ordered 10 episodes of Spinning Out, a new drama series from creator Samantha Stratton, a press release noted. Emma Roberts stars as Kat Baker, an up-and-coming, high-level single skater who's about to turn in her skates after a disastrous fall took her off the competition track—but then teams with a bad-boy partner. See Netflix.com/spinningout.
Gotham and Law & Order: SVU actor BD Wong married Richert John Frederickson Schnorr on Oct. 7, Page Six noted. The wedding took place at Giando on the Water in Brooklyn, per a New York Times announcement on their nuptials. Wong was previously in a long-term relationship with Richie Jackson, and they share an 18-year-old son, Jackson Wong.
DC comics—home of famed characters like Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman and Green Lantern—continues to backpedal after the company published a book showing Batman's penis, Queerty.com noted. Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee, speaking at the New York Comic-Con, wrote the nude reveal and subsequent controversy in the first issue of Batman: Damned off as "production errors," and said that DC will be more mindful of content in the future. "It's something we wished never happened," DiDio added, "because it really took the attention away from what we thought was quality storytelling, and that's not the way we see this imprint."
When Jay Leno referred to Orange Is the New Black star Lea DeLaria from the stage at the Hudson River Park Gala as "a lesbian woman," he was heckled by the fellow stand-up comic, Page Six noted. DeLaria said: "You know you don't have to say 'lesbian woman.' It's implied." When Leno later mentioned the L word again, DeLaria called out: "I am not a lesbian! I am a dyke! Get it right. I don't do that alphabet, LGBTQ thing. By the time you get to all of those letters, the parade is over!"
At ELLE's Women in Hollywood gala, Lady opened up about her sexual assault, mental illness, and a plea for women to lift up each other's voices and "beckon the world towards kindness," the publication noted. At ELLE's Women in Hollywood event, she wore an oversized Marc Jacobs suit, her hair in a low bun—and she said it was about reclaiming her power.
Freeform's annual "25 Days of Christmas" programming event will include Tyra Banks, as the model/actress/TV-show host reprises her role of Eve in the TV sequel Life-Size 2 on Sunday, Dec. 2, a press release noted. In the movie, the Eve doll ( Banks ) magically awakens to help twentysomething CEO Grace Manning ( Francia Raisa ). Lindsay Lohan co-starred in the original movie version.
The official motion-picture soundtrack to Warner Bros. Pictures, Live Nation Productions and Metro Goldwyn Pictures' A Star Is Born has debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with more than 231,000 in equivalent album consumption units, a press release noted. Released via Interscope Records, the album makes this Lady Gaga's fifth consecutive number-one album and puts her in the lead for the most top-ranked albums by a female artist this decade. The soundtrack has also earned the highest album-sales week for a music film soundtrack since Frozen in April 2014 and the biggest week for a soundtrack since the Fifty Shades of Grey album in 2015.
Amy Winehouse's family has signed a deal to executive-produce a biopic about the late singer, who died in 2011, TheWrap.com noted. Monumental Pictures' Alison Owen and Debra Hayward will produce the film, while Kinky Boots writer Geoff Deane will write the screenplay and executive produce. Production is set to start next year. Proceeds from the film will benefit the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which works to prevent the effects of alcohol and drug misuse.
Director Bryan Singer is getting out in front of an Esquire magazine piece that Singer believes will be negative and demonstrate what he says is "reckless disregard for the truth," Deadline reported. In an Instagram message, Singer writes, "I have know for some time that Esquire magazine may publish a negative article about me," explaining that the director's friends, colleagues and "people I don't even know" have been contacted. Singer has implied the article will revisit sexual-abuse and misconduct allegations that have been leveled at the director at various points in his career, Variety added.
Drag queen Morgan McMichaels posted on Instagram that she broke her hand while punching a Nazi, LGBTQ Nation noted. Morgan wrote that she was at a store when a man who said he was a Nazi approached her. He tried to punch her and then he allegedly said that "he wanted to cut my faggot throat"—so she punched him back.
On The View, Neil Patrick Harris revealed that show co-host Whoopi Goldberg promised him sex when he worked with her on the set of the movie Clara's Heart, Queerty.com noted. "She told me, I was 15, 16 years old, she told me on my last day of shooting that in 10 years' time she was going to have sex with me," Harris said, to gasps from the audience—and to which Goldberg said, "I might've! He had many questions as a kid, so I said, 'Listen, wait 10 years, and I'll take you through it.' In those days, you could actually have some fun like that. You can't do that now. People get very upset now."
Ryan Coogler will officially write and direct the Black Panther sequel for Marvel, TheWrap reported. Most everyone anticipated that Coogler would sign back on for the sequel, given the success of "Black Panther" grossed $1.3 billion worldwide and has received critical acclaim. The film is even in consideration for a Best Picture nomination at the upcoming Academy Awards.
Non-binary singer-songwriter Grayson has released their new song "Brother," a building anthem about needing to break free from both internal and external pressures. Of the track, Grayson said in a press release, "'Brother' is about the sometimes chaotic relationship with yourself, and everyone else. I have inhabited so many projects and versions of myself through the years that this feels like a long time coming but such a short time in comparison. I can't wait for it to be heard and in the world. This song really was the start of me."
Taylor Swift got political again at the American Music Awards on Oct. 9, The Huffington Post noted. Swift, who recently endorsed Democratic candidates in Tennessee and urged young citizens to vote, said, "I just wanted to make a mention of the fact that this award and every single award given out tonight were voted on by the people. And you know what else is voted on by the people is the midterm elections on Nov. 6. Get out and vote." President Donald Trump had said he liked her music "25 percent" less after her Instagram announcement backing Democratic candidates in Tennessee.
Singer Michael Buble might have said he will be leaving the music industry after his son's cancer battle gave him a new perspective on life, Page Six reported. "This is my last interview," he told the Daily Mail. "I'm retiring from the business. I've made the perfect record and now I can leave at the very top." Buble—whose new album, Love, is set to be released in November—discussed the trauma and hardship he endured while his son, Noah, suffered from liver cancer after his 2016 diagnosis. However, Buble's publicist has said the singer's words were taken out of context.
A mental-health talk Kanye West was scheduled to take part in this week with the New York Times' TimesTalks program has been canceled following the rapper's meeting with President Donald Trump and rambling videos he posted over the weekend, Page Six noted. West was supposed to take part in a discussion on success and anxiety with Charlamagne Tha God and Jon Caramanica.
On the NBC show The Voice, singing duo Adam and Jerome—aka OneUp—impressed judges Adam Levine, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson and Blake Shelton with their rendition of the Spinners' "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love," Out.com noted. They then revealed that they're actually a couple who fell for each other after becoming singing partners. "In a time in this country when it is so divisive, this is such a beautiful thing," said Clarkson, moved to tears when the couple shared their story and brought their families out on stage with them.
Loni Love and the women of The Real recently gave new insight into Tamar Braxton's firing from the show, TooFab.com noted. Love said "something" happened with Braxton during the second season that changed everything, adding, "When the incident happened when she got fired, I didn't know about it." They all said Braxton then stopped communicating with all of them, one by one. The first person she unfollowed on Instagram was Love, after putting up a post about being stabbed in the back.
Sound mixer James M. Emswiller died after a fall on the set of the untitled Mister Rogers biopic starring Tom Hanks, Deadline reported. He apparently suffered a medical emergency and fell over the brick wall of a balcony in an apartment building where the film was shooting. Emswiller was a veteran sound technician whose mixing work on HBO's Bessie earned him a Primetime Emmy Award.
Building on the success of MTV's Wild 'N Out YouTube channel, the network announced Viacom Digital Studios ( VDS ) will launch a dedicated Jersey Shore channel on Oct. 18, a press release noted. Fans of the "Shore" can access exclusive and original content. The Jersey Shore channel will be anchored by original digital series starring fan-favorite cast members and friends, in addition to linear show clips, behind-the-scenes moments and best-of compilations.
