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SHOWBIZ 'Planet Sex,' Critics Choice Awards, Madonna, Theo James
by Windy City Times staff
2023-01-22

This article shared 3619 times since Sun Jan 22, 2023
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The show Planet Sex with Cara Delevingne will debut on Hulu on Feb. 14 (Valentine's Day), Out noted. Planet Sex is a six-episode docuseries following the model/actress. "On this immersive journey, she puts her mind and body on the line in search of answers regarding human sexuality—its joys, mysteries, and constantly changing nature," according to the official description. The trailer explores cities like Tokyo, Los Angeles, Berlin, London, New York and Barcelona.

The 28th Critics Choice Awards took place at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on Jan. 15 and aired on The CW. Among the film winners were Everything Everywhere All at Once, which had 14 nods coming in; Cate Blanchett (playing a lesbian composer in Tar); Brendan Fraser (playing a 600-pound gay man in The Whale); and the song "Naatu Naatu" (from RRR). Television winners included Abbott Elementary (as well as co-star Sheryl Lee Ralph); out actress Niecy Nash-Betts (for Dahmer); the lesbian-themed Harley Quinn (Best Animated Series); and Zendaya (for Euphoria). Janelle Monae received the #SeeHer Award while Jeff Bridges received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Madonna announced dates for "Madonna: The Celebration Tour" in a viral video with a wink to her 1990 film Truth or Dare, Variety noted The video features Judd Apatow, Jack Black, Lil Wayne, Diplo, Bob the Drag Queen, Kate Berlant, Larry Owens, Meg Stalter and Eric Andre, and culminates with Amy Schumer daring Madonna to go on tour and perform her four decades of her hits. Produced by Live Nation, the 35-city global tour will kick off in North America on July 15 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, with stops in Detroit, Chicago, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and more before making its way to Europe, wrapping up Dec. 1 in Amsterdam. Bob the Drag Queen (a.k.a. Caldwell Tidicue) will be the special guest on all dates of the tour. (She has also added a second date to her Chicago visit, WGN-TV noted.) The video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBUpN99s1Hg&t=264s.

On a recent episode of Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live, a viewer told actor Theo James (The White Lotus; The Time Traveler's Wife) that he'd be perfect to play the late singer George Michael in a future biopic, and the actor was very open to the idea, Out noted. "Oh yeah, I'd love that," the actor said. "He's an icon. And he's a bit Greek and I'm a bit Greek; put that Greek together and you get falafel." However, American Idol star and current Queen vocalist Adam Lambert is not a fan of the potential casting; he commented on Instagram, "Yay another straight man playing a gay icon [eye-roll emoji]."

Also on Watch What Happens Live, singer/actress Kristin Chenoweth said she regrets not suing CBS after her injuries while filming The Good Wife in 2012 following an accident, Deadline reported. The Emmy- and Tony-winning star detailed the incident she suffered on the set of the drama in her new novel I'm No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts. While filming an episode for the series, she was struck by a piece of lighting equipment and was hospitalized.

Three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep will appear in the third season of Hulu's murder-mystery comedy Only Murders in the Buildings, per The Hollywood Reporter. Co-star Selena Gomez revealed Streep's casting in an Instagram post. Steep joins a cast led by Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short. Paul Rudd—who had a cameo in the second-season finale—and former Grey's Anatomy star Jesse Williams are also joining the cast, which also includes Tina Fey, Vanessa Aspillaga, Adina Verson, Ryan Broussard and Andrea Martin.

Miley Cyrus' new single "Flowers" broke the Spotify record for most streams in a single week on the platform with more than 96 million streams—becoming one of the singer's biggest hits of her career, Out noted. The song is an anthem about finding strength after a breakup and it will be featured on her upcoming album, Endless Summer Vacation, which will be out March 10.

Officials said that out actor Leslie Jordan (Will & Grace; Call Me Kat), who was found without a pulse after a car crash in Hollywood last year, died of sudden cardiac dysfunction, according to NBC News. Jordan, 67, experienced sudden heart failure due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, the Los Angeles County medical examiner said. A toxicology screening was negative for marijuana, alcohol and other drugs.

Melissa Etheridge mourned the death of music icon David Crosby, who helped her conceive a child, People Magazine noted. "I am grieving the loss of my friend, and Bailey's and Beckett's biological father, David," Etheridge wrote. "He gave me the gift of family. I will forever be grateful to him, [son] Django, and [wife} Jan. His music and legacy will inspire many generations to come. A true treasure." The Crosby, Stills & Nash singer provided sperm for Etheridge and her then-partner Julie Cypher's children: Bailey, 25; and Beckett, who died from opioid addiction in 2020.

Chance the Rapper talked with Rolling Stone about the involvement of Dave Chappelle at the Black Star Line Festival, a festival in Ghana that Chance founded with Vic Mensa, according to Yahoo! Life. The African country has a bill that seeks to "criminalizes queer and intersex identity and allyship being championed by a cross-party coalition of parliamentarians in Ghana"—and there's Chappelle's controversial history with the trans community. In part, Chance said, "I wanted everyone to feel as welcome and communal as possible. And so if having Dave there made people feel like they weren't, that they didn't have space or that they weren't welcome, that was not my intention. … I think that in that space, I would say I don't believe that he bashed trans people or gay people at all throughout the entire conversation." Chance's brother, rapper Taylor Bennett, is part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Actor Richard E. Grant will host the 2023 BAFTA Film Awards, which take place on Feb. 19 at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall in London, Deadline noted. Grant takes over the reins from Rebel Wilson, who hosted last year's edition, which was the first in-person ceremony since the pandemic. The ceremony will be broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer in the United Kingdom. Grant, a Swazi-British actor, has received critical acclaim for many roles, including playing a gay man in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, for which he earned Oscar and BAFTA nods.

Speaking of BAFTA, the 2023 nominees for BAFTA's Rising Star Award have been revealed, Deadline noted. The five nominees this year are: Naomi Ackie (Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody), Sheila Atim (The Woman King), Aimee Lou Wood (Living), Emma Mackey (Emily) and Daryl McCormack (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande). A panel of industry jurors—including actors Hayley Atwell, Joe Cole and Jason Flemyng—selected the final names.

And the BAFTA Film Award nominations have been revealed. According to Deadline, Netflix's German-language World War I drama All Quiet on the Western Front led all movies with 14 nods; The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All at Once had 10 nominations each; and Baz Luhrmann's Elvis had nine. Aftersun; The Batman; Good Luck to You, Leo Grande; Top Gun: Maverick; and The Whale each garnered four noms.

SAG Award- and Oscar-winning actress Sally Field has been named the 58th recipient of SAG-AFTRA's highest tribute: the SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment, a press release announced. Field will be presented with the honor at the 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony—to be broadcast live on Netflix's YouTube channel, YouTube.com/Netflix& Sunday, Feb. 26, from the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. Field (Forrest Gump; Mrs. Doubtfire; Norma Rae; TV's Brothers & Sisters) most recently appeared in director Michael Showalter's Spoiler Alert and will star opposite Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Rita Moreno in the upcoming comedy 80 for Brady.

Actor Anthony Rapp, who accused Kevin Spacey of making unwanted sexual advances, is planning a docuseries about abuse in Hollywood, Deadline reported. Rapp, who also starred in Rent, has teamed with Cineflix Productions—the company behind Nancy Buirski's recent feature film Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy—on Surviving Hollywood. It comes after Spacey was found not liable for battery in a civil case brought by Rapp, who accused Spacey of making a sexual advance at a party more than 30 years ago, when Rapp was 14.

The mother of a victim of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was enraged about a speech from Golden Globe winner Evan Peters, who won for portraying the murdered, Out noted. Shirley Hughes, the mother of victim Tony Hughes, told TMZ that Peters should have used his acceptance speech to address the families who are still suffering from Dahmer's crimes—or maybe say that Hollywood should put an end to telling glorified stories about serial killers in the first place. Instead, Peters said he hoped "something good" would come from this win, to which Hughes said nothing would and that the series only added to the grief that families still suffered from Dahmer's acts.

Out noted five LGBTQ+-inclusive shows that have already been canceled in 2023. They include the German show 1899, the cartoon Dead End: Paranormal Park, AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, Snowpiercer (with TNT deciding not to air the fourth season of the show even though production is already complete) and the Neil Patrick Harris vehicle Uncoupled.

Dolly Parton, Belinda Carlisle, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan and Debbie Harry released the new single "Gonna Be You" for the film 80 for Brady, per a press release. The song, from R.A.F/BMG, is written by iconic songwriter Diane Warren and produced by Damon Elliott. The video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeNkqcgfjMg&feature=youtu.be.

Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo and Odesza are headlining New York's three-day Governors Ball Music Festival, taking place June 9-11 in the new location of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Variety noted. Lil Nas X, Kim Petras, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, Haim, Diplo, Finneas, Sofi Tukker, Haiku Hands, Joey Bada$$ and Giveon are also slated to perform, among others. Visit www.governorsballmusicfestival.com .

Russian group Pussy Riot will be among the acts at Seattle's Belltown Bloom music festival that will take place May 5-6, Stereogum noted. Some of the other acts on the bill are L7, Zella Day, Skating Polly, Pearl & The Oysters, Thelma & The Sleaze, and Thunderpussy. See https://www.ticketweb.com/event/belltown-bloom-two-days-3-the-crocodile-tickets/12856525?pl=crocodile.

The actors' union SAG-AFTRA criticized the decision to charge Alec Baldwin for involuntary manslaughter in the October 2021 death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, calling the move "wrong and uninformed," Variety reported. "The death of Halyna Hutchins is a tragedy, and all the more so because of its preventable nature," the organization said. "It is not a failure of duty or a criminal act on the part of any performer."

The NYC venue 54 Below will offer a livestreaming option for the Feb. 7 performance of Pippin: The 50th Anniversary Original Broadway Cast Reunion Concert, according to Playbill. Members of the original cast are reuniting for the 54 Below concert series, which will run Feb. 6-7. Produced and directed by original cast member Walter Willison, with musical direction by Michael Lavine, the concerts will feature Tony winner John Rubinstein, who created the title role; plus Candy Brown; Cheryl Clark; Willison; Tony nominee Leland Palmer; and more, including a few surprises. Bob Fosse directed and choreographed the original 1972 Broadway production of Pippin.

Antoine Fuqua is set to direct Michael, a Lionsgate drama telling the complex life story of the late iconic singer Michael Jackson, Deadline noted. The film will be produced by Graham King, who turned the Freddie Mercury Queen story into the blockbuster Best Picture Oscar-nominated Bohemian Rhapsody that starred Oscar winner Rami Malek.

Gossip Girl's return will not go beyond its current second season, according to Deadline. HBO Max has opted not to order a third season of the reboot, with the season-two finale on Jan. 26 serving as a series finale. The reboot, which features a diverse cast and queer stories, just landed a GLAAD Award nomination.

While on David Yontef's Behind the Velvet Rope podcast, Danny Pintauro—an HIV-positive actor best known for his roles on TV's Who's the Boss and the film Cujo—discussed an interview he did on The View years ago, Yahoo! noted. During that interview, Pintauro had come on the show to discuss his diagnosis; however, then-View co-host Cameron Bure accused him of a lifestyle including "heightened sex" and asked if he claimed any "responsibility" for his promiscuity. "It was horrifying," he told Yontef. "It was one of the lowest moments in the journey I had after coming out [as HIV-positive] to Oprah. So it's not surprising to me that she's taking this stance with Christmas movies that she's going to be involved in, but it's very disappointing."

Boy Meets World actor Ben Savage is running for Congress in 2024, FOX 11 reported. Savage—who unsuccessfully ran for a spot on the West Hollywood City Council in the 2022 election—filed a statement of organization with the Federal Elections Commission, registering as a Democratic candidate for California's 30th House District, a spot currently held by Democrat Adam Schiff.

During a recent interview with Vlad TV, legendary singer/songwriter Smokey Robinson revealed that he once had an affair with Diana Ross, The Jasmine Brand noted. Before the revelation, Robinson explained that the two were childhood friends who grew up in the same neighborhood, however, the famous producer had no idea Ross could sing until they were older.

ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith apologized for a comment he made regarding Rihanna, who will perform at the Super Bowl LVII halftime show, Bleacher Report noted. In the video, he described her as a "superstar" and "a worthy person to be doing the Super Bowl halftime show." Smith drew the anger of Rihanna's fans when he discussed her upcoming performance on Sherri Shepherd's daytime talk show, offering praise before qualifying that Rihanna "ain't Beyonce."

Britney Spears flipped the bird multiple times in a new video a day after she was filmed "speaking gibberish" and acting "manic" at a restaurant, according to Page Six. Spears danced, tousled her hair and poked her tongue out at the camera. At other points in the Instagram video, she was seen applying powdered foundation to her face as she danced to the tune of Divinyl's "I Touch Myself." Sam Asghari, Spears' husband, took to his Instagram Stories to defend his wife and shoot down the restaurant-related rumors, writing, "Don't believe what you read online, people."


This article shared 3619 times since Sun Jan 22, 2023
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