Queer|Art—New York City's home for the creative and professional development of LGBTQ+ artists—announced the fall season of Queer|Art|Film, returning in person through Dec. 13, a press release noted. The line-up includes writer Roxane Gay (who appeared Sept. 27); fashion illustrator Richard Haines; the B-52's lead singer Fred Schneider; and singer, writer, painter, comedian and rapper Shamir. See www.queer-art.org .
Minor-league pitcher Kieran Lovegrove discussed being a bisexual man in professional baseball in a recent interview with ESPN's Joon Lee, according to out.com . Noting that "baseball is a game of statistics," Lovegrove said he found it doubtful he was the only queer player in professional baseball. Lovegrove—who plays for the Los Angeles Angels Double-A affiliate Rocket City Trash Pandas in Madison, Alabama—said he stayed in the closet out of fear throughout most of his career, hiding his sexuality from his teammates and family.
At least 24 players in the 2021 WNBA playoffs are publicly out as LGBTQ—representing 25% of the athletes competing in the postseason, according to Outsports. That's more than all of the publicly out active athletes currently in all of men's professional sports around the world combined. The top seed in the playoffs—the Connecticut Sun—has the most publicly out LGBTQ players, with at least half of the team being so.
Kevin Bacon is joining John Logan's untitled horror project at Blumhouse and will also serve as an executive producer alongside Scott Turner Schofield, Deadline noted. The movie is a LGBTQIA+ empowerment tale set at a gay conversion camp and stars Theo Germaine. The role marks a return for Bacon to the horror genre, a space he appeared in early on in his career with Friday the 13th. Three-time Oscar nominee, Logan (Skyfall; Gladiator; The Aviator) will make his feature directorial debut with the film he also wrote.
Trans actor Indya Moore is among the newcomers to the Aquaman sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, The Hollywood Reporter noted. Jason Momoa is back as the half-human, half-Atlantean hero; other returning cast members include Patrick Wilson as Orm, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, Amber Heard as Mera and Dolph Lundgren as King Nereus. Earlier this year, Moore starred in Sony Pictures' psychological horror film sequel Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, where they played mysterious new character Brianna.
Amazon Prime Video ordered the four-part coming-of-age docuseries Always Jane, which spotlights transgender teenager Jane Noury and her family as she nears her high school graduation and prepares for college, Deadline noted. The docuseries' subject is pursuing a career in modeling and acting and recently appeared in Rihanna's Savage X Fenty Vol. 3 fashion show. She is currently enrolled in college as a film major. The docuseries reveals Jane's passion and gift for visual storytelling. All four episodes of Always Jane will debut on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, Nov. 12.
Universal's Dear Evan Hansen became the latest Broadway musical adaptation to flop in U.S. theaters, opening below its weak projections to an even-weaker $7.5 million weekend debut, just three months after Warner Bros.' Lin-Manuel Miranda musical In the Heights also stumbled, TheWrap noted. According to CNN.com, reasons ranged from the movie-theater industry still recovering from the ongoing pandemic to the movie being critically slammed, gaining a 33% score on the review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.
Shirley Manson—the Scottish lead singer of the rock band Garbage—said in an interview with The Scotsman that she identifies with the concept of non-binary gender, LGBTQ Nation noted. "Being a woman who has got a lot of male traits, I've always really identified with this idea of non-binary," she said. Manson also spoke out about sexism in the music industry, saying that she faced scrutiny in the 90s that male performers didn't face.
Queer Saturday Night Live performer Bowen Yang has been promoted from featured player to full-time regular cast member, according to out.com . Yang—who had a breakout role on the show as the sassy iceberg that sank the Titanic on Weekend Update—recently became the first featured player in the series' history to be nominated for an Emmy. SNL currently has two lesbian comedians in the cast, with veteran Kate McKinnon returning once again, and Punkie Johnson returning as a featured player.
Season two of Acorn TV's My Life Is Murder features the much-awaited reunion of series star Lucy Lawless with her former Xena: Warrior Princess costar Renee O'Connor in the season finale of the New Zealand mystery series, a press release noted. Episodes nine and 10 will start streaming, respectively, on Oct. 18 and Oct. 25. On the show, retired detective Alexa Crowe (Lawless) returns back to her Kiwi roots in New Zealand, where she's once again unable to resist when asked to look into a bizarre unsolved murder.
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga released their highly anticipated collaborative album, Love For Sale, via Columbia/Interscope Records, a press release noted. This is the legendary duo's second album together, following 2014's Cheek to Cheek that debuted at #1 on the Billboard album charts. The first single from the album, "I Get a Kick Out of You," was released on Tony Bennett's 95th birthday celebrating the first night of Bennett and Gaga's two sold-out shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York this past summer. The album's current single is the title track.
Directed by Hal Ashby and written by Colin Higgins, the cult classic Harold and Maude will arrive on Blu-ray as part of the Paramount Presents line on Dec. 7 from Paramount Home Entertainment, a press release noted. Originally released Dec. 20, 1971, this film celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and has been restored and remastered for this limited-edition release. The plot is as follows: Harold (Bud Cort) is a death-obsessed teen who falls for Maude (Oscar winner Ruth Gordon)—a happy-go-lucky, eccentric 79-year-old. To a lilting Yusuf/Cat Stevens soundtrack, Maude teaches Harold a lesson about making the most of his time on earth.
Anderson Cooper, who inherited less than $1.5 million from late mom Gloria Vanderbilt's estate after she died in 2019, revealed that he does not plan to leave his wealth to his son, Wyatt, according to Page Six. "I don't believe in passing on huge amounts of money," the CNN anchor, told Air Mail's Ashley Baker and Michael Hainey on an episode of their "Morning Meeting" podcast. "I don't know what I'll have," Cooper added of his fortune, which is estimated to be $200 million. "I'm not that interested in money, but I don't intend to have some sort of pot of gold for my son. I'll go with what my parents said … 'College will be paid for, and then you gotta get on it.'"
Tommy Kirk—the legendary child actor who starred as Travis Coates in Old Yeller and whose work for Disney came to an end when he was outed as gay—has passed away at age 79, according to LGBTQ Nation. Kirk got his biggest break when he got the lead role in Disney's 1957 film Old Yeller, about the adventures of a boy and his dog. When he was 21, Kirk started seeing a boy whose mother found out about them and informed Disney; the company refused to renew his contract, despite the success of his films, such as Swiss Family Robinson and The Absent-Minded Professor.
Singer Toni Braxton is returning to Lifetime to star in and executive-produce a series of television movies based on the Hollis Morgan mystery book series by author R. Franklin James, Deadline reported. She will play Hollis Morgan, an ex-con turned amateur sleuth who sets out to investigate a series of murders at her book club in The Fallen Angels Book Club (working title). The Fallen Angels Book Club marks Braxton's return to Lifetime after she executive produced and starred in 2016's Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart and 2018 items Faith Under Fire: The Antoinette Tuff Story and Every Day is Christmas. Braxton also made her movie debut with Lifetime with the 2013 movie Twist of Faith.
Dick Wolf's original Law & Order series is returning to NBC. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the network has handed out a straight-to-series order for a revival of the procedural that launched Wolf's multibillion-dollar franchise. Rick Eid, one of Wolf's frequent collaborators, will serve as showrunner on what is being billed as the drama's 21st season. At the time of its cancellation, Law & Order was a season away from breaking Gunsmoke's 20-season record as TV's longest-running primetime drama series.
FXX has renewed the animated comedy Archer for a 13th season, Deadline noted. The Disney-owned network will launch the eight-episode run in 2022; like its current 12th season, it will premiere on FXX and be available to stream the next day on FX on Hulu. It comes as the 12th season—the show's last featuring the voice talent of the late Jessica Walter as Archer's mother and spymaster Malory Archer—continues on the network.
IMDb TV, Amazon's premium free streaming service, is developing an updated take on the cult 1999 movie Cruel Intentions, set in Washington D.C., according to Deadline. In this new incarnation of the premise (rooted in the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, by Choderlos de Laclos), two ruthless stepsiblings will do anything to stay on top of the Greek life hierarchy at an elite Washington, D.C. college.
Jodie Comer (the assassin in the series Killing Eve) is set to make her UK stage debut in the premiere of Suzie Miller's play Prima Facie, Deadline noted. She will play Tessa—a young, brilliant barrister who loves to win and has worked her way up from working-class origins to be at the top of her game. However, an unexpected event forces here to confront the lines where patriarchal power of the law, burden of proof and morals diverge.
Dancing with the Stars pro Cheryl Burke, who is partnered this season with openly gay Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby, tested positive for a breakthrough case of COVID-19, USA Today noted. Holding back tears, Burke said in a video that she "just feel[s] so bad" for Rigsby and felt overwhelmed by the test result coming in just a day before the live competition show was set to tape a new episode Sept. 27. The dancer, who received the Moderna vaccine, said she'll have to quarantine at home for 10 days, per CDC guidelines for vaccinated people who test positive. Rigsby, who wasn't allowed in the ballroom since he had been with Burke all week (although judges saw a taped rehearsal dance), said on Instagram, "I have been through COVID and I know how crazy this virus can be and it can change at any moment, so just keep her in your thoughts."
Andrea Martin—the singer-songwriter from Brooklyn whose collaborations with some of R&B's biggest names soared up the music charts—has died at 49, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Martin was a writer on popular 1990s songs including En Vogue's "Don't Let Go (Love)," Monica's "Before You Walk Out of My Life" and SWV's "You're the One," which all claimed the top spot on Billboard's R&B chart.
Recently, out actor Colton Haynes posted a series of photos of himself to Instagram in leather, complete with a Muir cap and biker jacket, Queerty noted. In case nobody got the reference, he tagged the Tom of Finland Foundation and included a couple of drawings by the iconic artist. Tom of Finland was the moniker for iconic Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen.
Jesse Palmer, who was the fifth Bachelor in 2004, is returning to the ABC reality franchise as host for the upcoming 26th season that is set to air in early 2022, Deadline noted. He succeeds Chris Harrison, who left The Bachelor at the end of last season amid controversy. An ESPN analyst since 2007, Palmer has also signed an extension and will continue his studio role with the network during the 2021-22 college-football season.
Billie Eilish recently called out the Governors Ball's security team for not "paying attention" to the massive crowd watching her perform, Page Six noted. "Security, why aren't you paying attention?" Eilish yelled, interrupting her own performance of "Happier Than Ever." Eilish continued to sing before pausing a second time to check on the crowd.
In a new book, model/actress Emily Ratajkowski says that singer Robin Thicke inappropriately touched her while making the "Blurred Lines" video, according to Page Six. Ratajkowski said Thicke grabbed her bare breasts while they were filming the video, the Sunday Times of London reported. Ratajkowski initially enjoyed the shoot, according to the report—but then Thicke, apparently drunk, began to behave boorishly. Director Diane Martel confirmed the incident, according to the report. Martel said that Thicke had been drinking, "sheepishly" apologized and was "contrite" afterward.
Lori Loughlin is returning to acting, Deadline noted. The former When Calls the Heart star will reprise her character from the Hallmark Channel series, Abigail Stanton, on the spinoff When Hope Calls, which is coming back for a second season on a new network, GAC Family. Loughlin will appear in the two-part second-season premiere, titled When Hope Calls: A Country Christmas, which is slated to air Saturday, Dec. 18.
