Author: Randy Slovacek

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Billy Porter To Be Honored With Star On The Hollywood Walk Of Fame

Billy Porter, currently starring in the second season of the acclaimed FX series Pose, has been announced to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, according to Variety.

The category is: Hollywood!

Billy Porter, currently starring in the second season of the acclaimed FX series Pose, has been announced to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, according to Variety. 

The Golden Globe nominee will be honored at an induction ceremony in Los Angeles at a date to be announced.

After spending the 1990s appearing in Broadway musicals like Grease, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Five Guys Named Moe, and Miss Saigon, Porter took a hiatus from the Great White Way. He said he was tired of being trotted out to center stage to sing a show stopping number but never being given the chance for meatier roles.

In 2017, he penned an essay for the New York Times explaining his decision to turn down those stereotypical roles writing, “It was time to lay down the clown games of my past and find a new dream.”

For years he waited for opportunities, begging for a chance to be seen for roles like the Emcee in Cabaret, and the title role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. But, to no avail.

So he stepped back, and decided to create his own stories.

He enrolled in a screenwriting course at UCLA; he became an artist-in-residence at the Public Theater in New York City where he would create his one-man show, Ghetto Superstar.

He finally got his chance at a heavy-duty role when he was cast in the 2010 off-Broadway revival of Angels in America in the role of “Belize.” As Porter says, “It took me 15 years to do so, but the game had officially been changed.”

Then in 2012, Broadway came calling with a star-making role – drag queen “Lola” in the new musical Kinky Boots. Playing to all of his strengths, he broke through to a whole new level snatching up the Tony Award for ‘Best Actor in a Musical’ in 2013.

In 2018, at an audition for the role of the dance teacher for the then-in-development Pose, Porter told casting directorAlexa Fogel he didn’t feel the role spoke to him.

Having lived through the heyday of the 1980s ball culture during the height of the AIDS epidemic, Porter suggested a new role – a paternal, ‘daddy’ character to help usher the inhabitants of the ballroom through their struggles.

“Would you like to have a daddy in the room?,” said Porter.

Weeks later, Fogel rang Porter up and said producer Ryan Murphy agreed with his idea. Porter was asked to come in with his version of the emcee from the film Paris Is Burning.

The rest, as they say, is history.

With all his recent successes, Porter is still creating in the theater.

He is the author of the 2014 off-Broadway play, While I Yet Live, as well as Untitled Sex Project, scheduled to premiere off-Broadway this fall with Porter in a starring role.

Additionally, he will direct Dan McCabe’s world premiere play The Purists at Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company this summer.

Congratulations, Billy!

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Missouri Man Threatens To “Kill Every Gay Person I Can”

A St. Louis man has been charged with making a terrorist threat after allegedly telling PrideFest organizers he planned to show up at this year’s Pride parade with his guns and “kill every gay person I can before I kill myself.”
Edward Terry (image via Missouri Dept of Corrections)

A St. Louis man has been charged with making a terrorist threat after allegedly telling PrideFest organizers he planned to show up at this year’s Pride parade with his guns and “kill every gay person I can before I kill myself.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports 49-year-old Edward Terry created a fake email address using the name of a woman he used to live with in order to send his threat to a parade organizer for PrideSTL.

But, after being notified by the recipient, the FBI tracked the account to Terry’s cell phone.

Terry’s bail was set at $20,000.

St. Louis’ Pride Parade regularly attracts hundreds of thousands of participants and spectators.

Marty Zuniga, vice president of PrideFest, said in a statement to the press that the organization works “hard to produce an event that is safe for all participants.”

“PrideFest takes all threats seriously and works with local law enforcement,” added Zuniga.

The St. Louis Pride Parade was in the news earlier this week after organizers reversed themselves on whether to allow police officers to march in uniform in the June 30 event.

The Post-Dispatch reports that Pride St. Louis requested officers not take part in the parade “citing sensitivities surrounding the 50-year anniversary of the New York police raid on the Stonewall Inn bar that helped spur the gay-rights movement.”

But after meetings and discussions with police and LGBTQ community leaders, the decision was made to allow LGBTQ police officers to march in uniform.

Mayor Lyda Krewson told the Post-Dispatch, “Exclusion of our police or, frankly, anyone is not in the spirit of our city.”

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Pride Music: Adam Lambert “Ghost Town”

In 2015, Adam Lambert described his music video for “Ghost Town” as ‘Coachella gone goth.’

Directed by Hype Williams, the visuals are stark in tone and content, but high on style and vocal intensity.

“I really wanted to first communicate the lyrics directly to the viewer, but then I also wanted to kind of highlight a scene of people,” Lambert told Entertainment Tonight.

“A lot of the people that we hired for the video are friends of mine. It was really fun on set. It was kind of a party, which made it a very relaxed shoot – I’ve never shot a video like that before, that felt like a house party.”

Lambert was recently asked by Variety how things had changed in the music industry since his run on American Idol ten years ago introduced him to an international audience, and whether he still experiences homophobia in the music industry.

It’s a totally different landscape. There is much more visibility so it doesn’t feel like a foreign or scary concept. When I first came on the scene almost everybody that I encountered in the music business was very supportive of me personally, but they were all a bit nervous about how it could work publicly. Now it’s been proven that there is a market and an audience. It’s allowing a lot more diversity to be pushed through.

It’s gotten better but I can’t make a blanket statement that it doesn’t happen anymore. There are always going to be shades of homophobia — sometimes internalized homophobia that I’ve encountered from other gay people in the industry. They might feel that [I am] ‘too gay.’

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Trump: “We Were Cocked And Loaded” Before Calling Off Iran Strike

Donald Trump

President Trump tweeted Friday morning that the United States military was “cocked and loaded” for a strike against Iran on Thursday night, but that he reversed himself 10 minutes to ‘go time’ after a general informed him 150 people would probably die in the attack.

I believe the two phrases Glorious Leader was mangling were “locked and loaded” and “guns were cocked.”

From the New York Times:

The president said in a series of tweets just after 9 a.m. that he was prepared to retaliate against three sites in Iran for that country’s shooting down an American drone, but that he was “in no hurry.” He indicated that the death of 150 Iranians would not be “proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone.”

It was unclear why Mr. Trump would have been getting information about possible casualties so late in the process of launching military action. Such information is typically discussed early in the deliberations between a president and national security officials.

Trump also indicated that new sanctions have been imposed on Iran, but didn’t go into detail.

Folks on both sides of the political spectrum criticized Trump for the strike and reversal.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt: “The failure to respond to this kind of direct provocation that we’ve seen now from the Iranians, in particular over the last several weeks, could in fact be a very serious mistake.”

And in the Twitterverse:

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Tweet Of The Day

Priceless.

Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore has announced he will run for the U.S. Senate again in 2020 and his spokesperson, Ted Crockett, chatted with CNN’s Jake Tapper about some of Moore’s controversial positions.

Among those – Moore’s belief that Muslims can’t serve in Congress (they can) because they can’t swear on a bible when being sworn in.

The law is that you can put your hand on anything when being sworn into office – a Christian bible, a Jewish bible, or a Quran (Muslim bible).

Check Crockett’s reaction when he gets schooled by Jake Tapper.

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News Round-Up: June 20, 2019

(via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunks Rick and the Griffopotamus (above) trying to a-peel to folks’ animal nature. #ItsWorking

• Despite 7 Tony nominations, the LGBTQ-themed Broadway musical The Prom will close August 11, but will live on in a small screen version for Netflix produced by Ryan Murphy.

• New York state lawmakers have banned defendants from citing a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity (known as ‘gay panic’ or ‘trans panic’ defenses) to justify their crime. New York becomes the 7th state in the country to prohibit the legal defense.

• Two students have been indefinitely suspended from the Kearns High School football team for a social media post showing a Pride flag being burned and threatening LGBTQ people saying, “All gays die.”

• Alabama’s former state Supreme Court Justice, the virulently anti-LGBTQ Roy Moore, has announced he will make another run for U.S. Senate in 2020. (and Republicans are NOT happy about it).

• RuPaul’s Drag Race champs, Bob the Drag Queen and Trixie Mattel, are featured in JetBlue’s new Pride month ad serving up sassy fun as they deliver pre-flight instructions.

It’s worth noting that not only did JetBlue engage the drag stars for the video, but the airline scored a 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.

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Video: Check Out The Sexy Highlights From ‘Broadway Bares 2019’

Cast members of ‘Broadway Bares: Take Off’
(photo: Billy Bustamante) 

Broadway’s sexiest event of the year, Broadway Bares, offered a spectacular romp around the world this past weekend, and we’ve got the video to prove it.

Over two performances at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City Sunday night, Broadway’s hottest dancers raised a record-breaking $2+ million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. Thanks to BC/EFA, men, women and children across the country receive lifesaving medications, health care, nutritious meals, counseling and emergency financial assistance.

This year’s theme, Broadway Bares: Take Off, featured nearly 200 performers onstage including Tony & Grammy Award winner Billy Porter, two-time Tony nominee Christopher Sieber, GLEE alum Alex Newell and Grammy/Tony nominee Ashley Park.

Check out the highlights reel:

The travel theme allowed the creators to take the audience on a sexy, sensual, fun-filled trip around the world.

One number, titled “Ground Crew,” showed what happens when a flight is delayed on the tarmac and the all-male ground crew has to sweat through their shift.

Led by Adam Perry, the number (choreographed by Andrew Turteltaub) featured buff baggage handlers taking care of business.

Other highlights included a sexy ‘mile-high club’ number; an all-female excursion through Amsterdam’s Red Light district; and a Parisian fashion show led by Pose star Billy Porter that evolved into a vogueing battle.

With this year being the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, the show’s travels ended (where else?) with a performance set in the historic Stonewall Inn.

Porter also returned at the end of the show to perform his new Pride anthem, “Love Yourself.”

Addressing the packed crowd, Porter spoke passionately of “community” and “unbowed determination.”

“Broadway Bares is about the joy of community, the love we share and the care we show for each other,” said the Tony Award winning actor. “These are both glorious and difficult days. We have so much to celebrate and be proud of. But at the same time we are surely shaken, angry and saddened by the cruelty, inequality and torrent of lies that confront us on a daily basis.”

“But as I look over this beautiful audience and see thousands standing together, unbowed, we will not be dismissed or demeaned. For we are empowered by love, determination and courage,” he continued. “We will not be stigmatized for the very things that make us beautiful, expressive beings.”

And yes, it does take a village. In addition to the 200 onstage performers, backstage there were 41 stage managers and 700 volunteers, including 70 MAC makeup artists, all helping to make the magic.

With 29 editions of the ‘striptacular’ event now on the books, Broadway Bares has raised an amazing $21.1 million for BC/EFA.

Since its founding in 1988, BC/EFA has raised over $300 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses.

Just to give you a sense of how massive the event is, here’s a clip from the finale via Broadway Bares creator, Tony Award winning director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell:

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Never-Before Heard Recording By Freddie Mercury “Time”

After four decades, a previously unreleased version of the song "Time," recorded by Freddie Mercury for the concept album of the stage musical of the same name, has been released by songwriter & producer Dave Clark.
Freddie Mercury

After four decades, a previously unreleased version of the song “Time,” recorded by Freddie Mercury for the concept album of the stage musical of the same name, has been released by songwriter & producer Dave Clark.

According to USA Today, Clark had asked the Queen frontman to record the track for a concept album for the sci-fi rock musical.

Due to the success of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s pre-production albums for Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, the practice of asking popular recording artists to cover songs from an upcoming stage musical became a popular marketing tool for new shows.

The concept album for Time featured big name artists of the day including Mercury, Julian Lennon, Murray Head, Dionne Warwick, Leo Sayer, and Ashford & Simpson.

I actually saw the musical in London’s West End in 1987.

As I recall the story was about a rock star (originally UK pop star Cliff Richard, later replaced by David Cassidy) and his band mates being transported across the universe where they had to defend planet Earth from destruction before a galactic tribunal featuring a projected floating head (a recorded Laurence Olivier).

Relying greatly on massive sets and special effects, the show ran for two years.

Mercury’s recording of “Time” featured bombastic orchestrations and what sounds like a choir of backup singers. But before the session with Mercury was done, Clark asked the rock star to record a bare-bones, piano accompaniment version of the song.

Clark tells USA Today that hearing Mercury sing the stripped-down version in London’s Abbey Road  studios gave him “goosebumps.”

“It (became) a mega-production, which I was happy with and Freddie loved,” says Clark. “But I didn’t think about what we had originally done until a decade or so later, when I thought, ‘I’ve never felt that sort of goosebumps feeling that I got on that original run-through at Abbey Road with just Freddie and piano.'”

After finding the original recording in the spring of 2018, Clark asked the original session pianist, Mike Moran, to record an updated piano accompaniment to pair with the song.

The music video above was created using video footage shot at London’s Dominion Theatre in 1986.

The acoustic version is a compelling showcase for Mercury’s iconic vocals. And lyrics like “Time waits for no one” seem to resonate even more when considering Mercury’s early passing in 1991.

In this 1986 interview, Clark and Mercury discuss the evolution of the recording:

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LGBTQ Campaign From NIKE: ‘No One Wins Alone’

"Every winner knows victory doesn't happen alone," says the narrator in a new video from Nike released for Pride Month. "But none of us can truly win until the rules are the same for everyone."

“Every winner knows victory doesn’t happen alone,” says the narrator in a new video from Nike released for Pride Month. “But none of us can truly win until the rules are the same for everyone.”

The new clip features athletes and allies of the LGBTQ community who support equality for all athletes including WNBA’s Brittany Griner, Sue Bird, Jewell Lloyd and Jordin Canada; skaters Fernando Bramsmark, Eric Koston, and Elissa Steamer; runners Kerron Clement, Caster Semenya, Scout Bassett and Chris Mosier; and soccer player Mark McKenzie.

From Nike:

It doesn’t matter what you play. Nobody wins alone.

Whether it’s as a team, within our community, or anyone who celebrates our victory as their own — progress only comes if we get there together.

Through decades of game-changing dedication from LGBTQIA+ athletes, those who work to make sport a more inclusive space for all, and the expression of icons like designer Gilbert Baker, the playing field becomes more level every day.

But as far as we’ve come, the game won’t be equal until we all win.

Hit play below and check it out.

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Woofy Matthew Camp Stars In Sex Docu-Series ‘Camp Chaos’

Actor and social media star Matthew Camp (Getting Go: The Go Doc Project; Hurricane Bianca: From Russia with Hate) stars in a 3-part sex-positive docu-series called Camp Chaos produced by Men.com.

Actor and social media star Matthew Camp (Getting Go: The Go Doc Project; Hurricane Bianca: From Russia with Hate) stars in a 3-part sex-positive docu-series called Camp Chaos produced by Men.com.

Via press release:

Camp Chaos is a provocative meditation exploring formative sexual memories. The series takes on the form of a hybrid documentary / experimental film / art project. It uses explicit sex as part of the exploration of Matthew’s formative sexual memories.

Each episode will cover a distinct sexual experience from Camp’s life. He first shares the story with viewers and then sets about recreating the encounter in explicit detail with a new partner.

The series blends reality and fantasy in a way that creates what feels like a true and authentic portrayal of Matthew Camp. What you see is what you get, Camp is truly and unapologetically himself.

Check out the very sexy and cool trailer. Warning NSFW:

“I feel like it’s important as gay men that we exercise our right to want to have sex, to make content with it, and profit off it. It’s sort of a revolutionary act,” says Camp.

In February, Camp told Attitude Magazine, “It’s important to document sex because there’s nothing wrong with it, there’s nothing shameful about it and there’s nothing crazy about it. You should be able to watch sex as entertainment.”

Camp Chaos also functions as a time capsule of what gay relationships and encounters are like in a post-online dating and social media world. It is current, timely, real and treats sex the way millennials treat sex.

Camp Chaos had its world premiere at the Inside Out LGBT Film Festival in Toronto on May 31st and will be having its American premiere at Frameline International LBGT Film Festival in San Francisco on June 28th, 2019.

The first episode (a different episode from the one screening at festivals) will be available to stream on Men.com June 28th.

Camp has over 574K followers on Instagram, 65K followers on Twitter and a gigantic presence on the OnlyFans platform.

Last December, I had the chance to chat with Camp on The Randy Report podcast just as he was prepping for the new Camp Chaos project. It’s easily one of my favorite interviews to date.

An intoxicating blend of good-looking country boy with a side of danger, I found him to be thoughtful and well-spoken. It’s a disarmingly charming equation.

And his sex-positive message is something everyone should hear. So many of us are taught to be ashamed of sex instead of celebrating it.

He’s also designed his own line of t-shirt and leather gear fashions. Matthew says he took a couple of classes in construction and pattern making a few years ago for the ABCs of it all, but admits to having an interest in fashion since he was a kid.

Plus, he launched a line of provocatively named fragrances (8.5, Transgression) that are inspired by, and conjure up, his memories of working in bars around sexy men.

Hit the play button below for my chat with the charming Mr. Camp.