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

The cast for Emmy-winning Schitt's Creek alum Dan Levy's directorial debut film, Good Grief, has been announced, according to Out. Cast members include out Beauty and the Beast star Luke Evans, Oscar-nominated Loving and Passing actress Ruth Negga, and Emmy-nominated Yesterday star Himesh Patel. Written and directed by Levy, Good Grief also stars Levy and tells the story of a man named Marc Dreyfus who has "chosen to distract himself from the loss of his mom with a comfortable marriage," according to a description of the film from Deadline. "But when his husband also dies, unexpectedly, Marc is forced to finally confront the grief he's tried so hard to avoid, sending him and his two closest friends on a Parisian weekend of self-discovery."

Netflix and NewFest celebrated some of Netflix's top voices in film and television, hosting a panel with top transgender and non-binary actors working in Netflix animation, a press release noted. Among the panelists were Brandon Kyle Goodman (Big Mouth, Human Resources), Sam Zelaya (Wendell & Wild) and Zach Barack (Dead End: Paranormal Park); The Hollywood Reporter's Abbey White was the moderator. The 2022 recipients of NewFest's New Voices Filmmaker Grant were also highlighted.

Christina Aguilera celebrated the 20th anniversary of her influential hit "Beautiful" by putting a 2022 twist on the song's message of self-acceptance, HuffPost noted. Aguilera unveiled an updated music video for the track, which first appeared on her 2002 album, Stripped. Although the Grammy winner does not make an appearance in the video, the footage now reflects the impact of social media on mental health, particularly among young people. Aguilera said she was aiming "to bring awareness and a sense of compassion in the face of judgment, criticism, and outside opinions" by giving "Beautiful" a modern update. The video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kEwGXLdbZ8.

Songwriter and past Out100 honoree Justin Tranter hosted GLAAD's fourth annual "Beyond'' Spirit Day Concert at his Los Angeles home, Out noted. Tranter took the stage alongside Billy Porter, Jake Wesley Rogers, Shea Diamond and others to help raises voices and over $400,000 in support of the LGBTQ+ nonprofit's campaign to support LGBTQ+ youth and end bullying. Also, GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis talked about the struggles LGBTQ+ youth have faced in a record year for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

Three-time Tony winner and stage icon Patti LuPone (Company) said she's given up her Actors' Equity card—a move that could signal an end to or hiatus from her celebrated Broadway stage career, Deadline noted. "Quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about. Gave up my Equity card; no longer part of that circus. Figure it out," wrote LuPone in an apparent reference to a recent controversy over Hadestown star Lillias White wrongly reprimanding an audience member from the stage when the actress thought a deaf patron had a recording device instead of a hearing one. (White's incident drew many social-media comparisons to LuPone's show-stopping dressing-down of a flash-camera user during a 2009 performance of Gypsy.)

Out Chicago Sky player Candace Parker made her debut as a color commentator during the NBA's recent Clippers/Lakers game, calling the game alongside Reggie Miller and Kevin Harlan for NBA on TNT. According to Basketball Insiders, some of the other analysts include Charles Barkley (who recently signed a huge contract extension), Shaquille O'Neal, Stan Van Gundy and Grant Hill. Parker is the only woman.

Kiersey Clemons is set to star alongside Euphoria alum Barbie Ferreira in the new drag-king comedy film The Young King, according to Out. In it, Clemons plays Jules, an aspiring drag king who comes to Las Vegas to reconnect with her estranged father and make her debut performance in the U.S.'s biggest drag-king revue. Michael Shannon will play her father, Mick, a legendary gambler and part-time children's clown. Clemons—who is queer and uses she/her and they/them pronouns—is also starring in the upcoming superhero movie The Flash, starring Ezra Miller.

LGBTQ+ former American Idol runner-up David Archuleta (who came out in 2021) revealed the journey he endured with his Mormon faith and personal life to finally come to terms with his sexuality, Out Magazine reported. He said, in part, "Now, I have to decide what [my goal] is as a queer person. I've been engaged three times. I bought three wedding rings for girls, but it felt dishonest—and they knew it." One of Archuleta's best friends, actor Kevin McHale, directed the music video for Archuleta's newest single, "Faith in Me," and has even served as a bit of mentor to the singer.

The People We Hate at the Wedding—starring Kristen Bell, Oscar winner Allison Janney and out actor Ben Platt—will air on Prime Video starting Friday, Nov. 18, per a press release. In a comedy described as "raunchy," dysfunctional American siblings Alice (Kristen Bell) and Paul (Ben Platt), along with their ever-optimistic mom (Allison Janney), are invited to the British wedding of their estranged half-sister Eloise (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) as a chance for them to reconnect as adults—and to learn to love each other like they once did.

Bravo has unveiled the brand-new cast of its rebooted Real Housewives of New York City franchise—and it's definitely a more diverse group than previous incarnations, Variety noted. Sai De Silva, Ubah Hassan, Erin Lichy, Jenna Lyons, Lizzy Savetsky, Jessel Taank and Brynn Whitfield will all be joining for season 14. Lyons (the former president and executive creative director of J.Crew Group) identifies as gay, De Silva is Afro-Latina, Hassan is Somalian and Taank will be the first Indian Housewife. Bravo investigated complaints of racism after the show's 13th season although, reportedly, "nothing substantial was found," according to People.

Actor Colton Haynes (TV's Arrow and Teen Wolf) spoke very candidly with the Behind The Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast about how coming out has negatively impacted his career, Queerty noted. In part, Haynes said, "I played straight characters my whole career. Then I came out of the closet and now the opportunities aren't there. And so I think that's something that needs to change. But also I think we just have to start making our own things and we have to start writing our own things and trying to uplift our communities as much as we can and not be the people in the community who try to continue to tear it down as well."

Angelina Jolie will star in Oscar-nominated director Pablo Larraín's next movie—a biopic about famous opera singer Maria Callas, Variety noted. Titled Maria, the film "tells the tumultuous, beautiful, and tragic story of the life of the world's greatest opera singer, relived and re-imagined during her final days in 1970s Paris," according to its logline. Callas was a U.S.-born Greek soprano singer and one of the most famous opera singers of the 20th century.

The movie Bros almost included Liam Hemsworth and Nick Jonas, according to Out. "Liam Hemsworth wanted to do a cameo in the movie and he was supposed to, and we had a whole Zoom meeting with him, and he was lovely and charming and funny, but then COVID hit again and he couldn't travel from Australia just to do one scene in Bros, unfortunately—but that would have been fun," Bros actor Billy Eichner told Yahoo! Lifestyle. He added, "We were going to shoot scenes from that movie, and Liam was going to be one of the tragic closeted frontiersmen. We never ended up shooting those scenes, but at one point we were going to with Liam and Nick Jonas."

The annual To The Rescue! Gala supporting the work of the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International will take place Nov. 11 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City, per a press release. Award-winning radio and television talk-show host, executive producer and author Andy Cohen will be the evening's host. The gala is slated to include a cocktail reception, a gourmet plant-based dinner by vegan Chef Eddie Garza, special guests, entertainment and a live auction.

Actress Sharon Stone again boosted the work of Skokie's Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center on social media, per The Chicago Tribune. The Basic Instinct actress posted on her Twitter and Instagram accounts a photo of herself on the museum's grounds with the caption "Be a kind neighbor; Stand up." The tweet contains a link to the museum's website page that accepts donations; that page also contains a photo of her.

Singer Carly Simon is dealing with an unimaginable loss, as both of her sisters died of cancer just a day apart, Extra noted. Joanna Simon, a renowned mezzo-soprano whose career in opera spanned from 1962 to 1986, died at 85 of thyroid cancer in Manhattan; and Lucy Simon, 82, died at her Piermont, New York, home after battling metastatic breast cancer. The three sisters and a brother, Peter (who died in 2018), were the children of Richard Simon of Simon & Schuster. In a statement, Carly said, in part, "I am filled with sorrow to speak about the passing of Joanna and Lucy Simon. Their loss will be long and haunting. As sad as this day is, it's impossible to mourn them without celebrating their incredible lives that they lived," according to Deadline.

Kody and Christine Brown's daughter Gwendlyn opened up about her sexuality in the latest episode of Sister Wives, Today noted. The 21-year-old publicly revealed that she's bisexual in the season 17 episode "Telling Truely," but her family seems to have known for quite some time. Gwendlyn is one of 18 children that Kody Brown shares with his four wives in a plural marriage arrangement.

Penn Badgley's production company, Ninth Mode, and producer Raven Tahzib acquired the rights to openly gay writer David Sedaris' short story "Jamboree" in order to develop it into a feature film, Variety noted. In the story, a 16-year-old boy who lives in his older sister's garage ends up being the caretaker of her baby. Badgley (formerly of TV's original Gossip Girl) recently wrapped the fourth season of You, which will be released on Netflix in two parts next year.

Rap artist Post Malone suffered yet another painful injury weeks after taking a nasty fall on stage, iHeart noted. The rapper was mid-show at his concert in Atlanta, performing his song "Psycho," when he stepped on a wrong part of the stage and twisted his ankle, per TMZ. Post finished the song before he got back to his feet and tell fans that he stepped in a gap in the stage used for pyrotechnics.

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, plans to buy the conservative social-media platform Parler, the BBC noted. Ye "will never have to fear being removed from social media again," Parler CEO George Farmer posted. According to Sensor Tower, the app was downloaded 90,000 times last month globally, compared to 9 million downloads for Twitter.

Netflix is ratcheting up its efforts to get viewers to pay up and will start charging accounts for password sharing early next year, CNET noted. The stream will institute a system that add fees to a user's plan for "extra member" subaccounts when people outside that user's household use his/her/their membership. The company didn't specify the price of these new fees when it confirmed the plan; however, it is is already being tested in a few Latin American countries, charging a fee for each extra member worth roughly one-quarter the price of a "standard" Netflix plan.

Judges Yodit Tewolde and Rachel Juarez are joining the panel of the nationally syndicated courtroom series Hot Bench, now in its ninth season, Deadline noted. They join six-year Hot Bench veteran Judge Michael Corriero, who is continuing on the show. Tewolde and Juarez, who will make their debut on Oct. 31, replace Patricia DiMango and Tanya Acker; they left at the end of last season to join Tribunal, Hot Bench creator Judith Sheindlin's new court show for Amazon Freevee.

Late-night talk-show host James Corden "apologized profusely" after New York City restaurant owner Keith McNally called him out for allegedly being a rough customer—but Corden has now retracted the apology, TMZ noted. The host told the New York Times that the allegations were "silly, adding, "I haven't done anything wrong, on any level. So why would I ever cancel this?" According to CNN, the host/actor mistreated the French restaurant's staff and demanded free drinks from servers. "You can't do your job," Corden allegedly yelled at staff during an October visit. "Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!"

A new report from Puck alleged that Bill Murray paid a $100,000 settlement to a "much younger" female crew member on the film Being Mortal, Deadline reported. The report alleges that Murray, 72, kissed and straddled the woman on set. She was allegedly "horrified," "interpreted his actions as entirely sexual" and filed a complaint against the actor. In quick succession, other allegations were made against the Ghostbusters actor—including actress Geena Davis saying in her new memoir Dying of Politeness that Murray "insisted" on using a massage machine on her back on the set of their 1990 movie Quick Change. Also, SNL alum Rob Schneider claimed Murray "absolutely hated" the cast members when he came back to guest-host. Murray has also allegedly clashed with actors and producers such as Lucy Liu, Laura Ziskin, Harold Ramis and Chevy Chase.

A San Francisco Chronicle report claimed that Sacheen Littlefeather—best known for her appearance on behalf of Marlon Brando to refuse his Best Actor Academy Award for The Godfather—was not who she claimed to be, according to Deadline. Her sisters (Orlandi and Rosalind Cruz) said in the article that Littlefeather, who died earlier this month shortly after receiving an official apology from the Academy, was not of Apache heritage, but was half-Mexican instead. They also said she did not grow up with an abusive father, or in terrible poverty.