• The world famous Nob Hill Theater, the world’s oldest male strip club, is closing.
• Recording artist Lizzo has released a new single and music video, “Boys.” The video premiered on Out.com who declared, “’Boys’ feels remarkably fresh — a fitting clapback to any stragglers who still feel women can’t express sexuality and lust.” Check it out below.
Just hours after the deadly Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, two years ago, an Indiana man was arrested and police confiscated weapons, ammunition and bomb-making materials found in his car.
In court this week, James Wesley Howell pleaded no contest to charges of unlawful assault weapon activity, possession of a destructive device on a public road or highway and possession of a destructive device. The 22-year-old was sentenced to 7 years in state prison on Thursday.
Howell was found sitting in his car in Santa Monica in the early morning hours of June 12, 2016, after police responded to a call regarding a man knocking on residents’ windows and doors.
Inside his car, police found three rifles — including an Anderson Manufacturing AM-15 .223 caliber rifle that police described as an assault weapon — and two 30-round magazines.
In addition to the guns, Howell was also driving with a full five-gallon container of gasoline and a 25-pound container of “Shoc-shot,” a commercially sold two-component explosive that detonates when hit by a high-velocity rifle round, Santa Monica police said at the time.
Howell also had a black hood, a Taser, handcuffs, a Buck knife, a security badge and additional ammunition for the guns, court records show.
At the time of his arrest, Howell told police he was planning on attending LA Pride, but the Indianapolis Star later reported he had been charged with sexually molesting a 12-year-old girl in Indiana.
As a result of the Pulse shooting and the dangerous materials found in his possession, security measures were heightened at the Pride festival.
Infamous reality TV celeb Omarosa has released her new ‘tell-all’ about her time in the Trump administration titled, Unhinged – An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.
The former Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison in the Trump White House provides a jaw-dropping look into the corruption and controversy of the current administration.
Few have been a member of Donald Trump’s inner orbit longer than Omarosa Manigault Newman. Their relationship has spanned fifteen years—through four television shows, a presidential campaign, and a year by his side in the most chaotic, outrageous White House in history. But that relationship has come to a decisive and definitive end, and Omarosa is finally ready to share her side of the story in this explosive, jaw-dropping account.
A stunning tell-all and takedown from a strong, intelligent woman who took every name and number, Unhinged is a must-read for any concerned citizen.
The results of a new medical research study presented at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam shows men who are HIV+ currently undergoing treatment do not pass the virus to negative partners.
According to the PARTNER 2 study, when HIV+ men are on effective HIV treatment bringing their viral load to ‘undetectable,’ not one incidence of transmission was noted even in cases of condomless sex.
While the original PARTNER study focused on sero-discorant couples (one positive, one negative), that study looked primarily at opposite-sex couples, although there were 635 same-sex couples included.
PARTNER 2 involved data from those 635 couples plus another 337 same-sex couples added to the mix. Overall, couples from 14 countries took part in the study.
Looking at over 77,000 condomless sex acts between the partners, not one incident of transmission occurred when the HIV+ partner had a viral load under 200 copies/ml.
This seems to validate a previous study, Opposites Attract, which came to the same conclusion.
When you combine the participants of the two studies, medical experts couldn’t find one case of HIV transmission in examining 126,000 incidents of anal sex without a condom.
Researcher Alison Rodger told aidsmap.com, “We looked so hard for transmissions. And we didn’t find any.”
“This is the moment when science trumps stigma,” said Executive Director of NAM, Matthew Hodson, a leading HIV/AIDS organization in the United Kingdom. “This is the moment when facts must conquer fear.”
“The knowledge that when we are undetectable we can’t pass the virus on to our sexual partners has the power to encourage people to test and to remain adherent to their treatment,” added Hodson. “Just as importantly it can have an impact on the way that people with HIV think about themselves, removing some of the stress and fear that many in our communities experience.”
All of this helps to underscore the message “Undetectable = Untransmittable,” which countless sexual health organizations have been supporting in an effort to reduce the stigma of being HIV positive.
“This should be reassuring to every gay and bisexual man who is HIV-undetectable that you are not a danger to anyone and no person should use your status as a way to reject you,” said Ian Howley, Chief Executive of HERO – Health Equality and Rights Organization.
French President Emmanuel Macron (image via Twitter)
Why is it when a man is good-looking and successful, the gay rumor has to come out?
French President Emmanuel Macron has now had to deny (for the second time) that he’s not gay after his hunky now-former head of security was fired due to a scandal about police violence.
Alexandre Benalla was fired recently after video surfaced of him taking part in a rough beatdown involving protesters earlier this year.
The issue came to a head when French publication Le Monde identified Benalla in video on July 18.
President Macron (L) Alexandre Benalla (R)
Newspapers began to publish unconfirmed reports that Benalla was living in a large, luxury apartment for free, and was receiving a huge $140,000 a year salary.
After firing Benalla, Macron assured members of his own En Marche party that Benalla never had his country’s nuclear codes.
As GayStarNews reports, Macron began a 30 minute address to his colleagues about the firing by saying, “Alexandre Benalla has never had the nuclear codes; Alexandre Benalla never lived in a 300 square-meter apartment in Alma; Alexandre Benalla has never earned 10,000 euros.”
That was followed immediately by a light-hearted, “Alexandre Benalla is not my lover.”
The 40-year-old French president also took responsibility for Benalla’s actions in the video saying, “What happened on May 1 is terrible, serious and, for me, it was a disappointment and a betrayal.”
Maybe the gay rumors began because both men are very attractive and masculine, but it comes across as homophobic.
Last year, Macron was forced to address rumors of an affair with another hottie, Mathieu Gallet, president of Radio France.
Mathieu Gallet (image via Twitter)
Macron has been married to his wife, Brigitte, for 11 years. Their 24 year age difference has proven to be a point of fascination for some. (h/t GayStarNews)
#HILLARYCLINTON CAME TO #“HELLODOLLY TONIGHT!! What a thrill! The crowd stood, clapped and chanted her name until the lights went down😂. It made us all unbelievably happy to see her…
The New York Times: You would think that a sexually polymorphous musical that combines a Renaissance pastoral romance with the songs of the 1980s California rock group the Go-Go’s would at the very least be a hoot, a show that could get sloppy drunk on its own outrageousness. Yet “Head Over Heels,” which opened on Thursday night at the Hudson Theater, feels as timid and awkward as the new kid on the first day of school.
The New York Post: The new musical “Head Over Heels,” which opened Thursday on Broadway, takes the songs of ’80s American girl group the Go-Go’s, plops them in a British story from the 16th century and adds a bunch of modern, self-referential jokes. It’s an idea that’s so crazy, it just might work! It doesn’t. This indulgent show is wackier than it is fun, and elicits more “huh?” than “ha”. Worse, it treats the catchy pop music like a side of spinach.
Entertainment Weekly: Directed by Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), the joyful production dials the camp to 11; this is a show with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek, except when it’s in someone else’s mouth.
(photos by Joan Marcus)
Variety: It’s really hard to laugh when somebody’s holding a gun to your head. That’s the way this Go-Go’s feels in “Head Over Heels,” an over-written, over-designed, and generally overdone production directed by Michael Mayer. From the sets and costumes to the performance style, the basic principle seems to be: Less is boring and more is never enough. Thanks, no doubt, to the Oracle of Delphi (played here by the impishly funny Peppermint), it’s a miracle that at least some of the wit in Jeff Whitty’s original book gets through.
Deadline: For better or worse, Broadway’s Head Over Heels is stuck with being known as “the Go-Go’s musical” – better because of the good will floating on stage with all those lighter-than-air hits by Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, et.al., worse because the hard-working new production can’t seem to keep itself from popping those effervescence tune bubbles one by one.
amNY: Um, no. Contrary to the affirmatively cheery chant of its opening number, “Head Over Heels,” a new jukebox musical on Broadway in which the hit songs of the all-female 1980s pop-punk band The Go-Go’s are inserted into a ridiculous Elizabethan-era pastiche, has not “got the beat.” That probably got lost long ago in the development of this oddball property.
Chicago Tribune: A lot of harder-edged Go-Go’s fans who find their way through the door will wonder what on earth all of these silly theater people are doing with their beloved music, not just because it feels so far removed from its original pioneering context but also because the sensibility here so doubles down on fluttery theatricality at the expense of raw, charged, visceral, feminist pop.
Hollywood Reporter: If you have trouble imagining songs like “Vacation” and “Cool Jerk” fitting into a scenario depicting a royal family’s romantic complications, you still will after seeing this relentlessly frothy musical, for which the term “check your brain at the door” could have been invented. The farcical, gender-fluid shenanigans are as campy as things get on Broadway. And that’s saying something.
There was a bit of controversy regarding the NY Times review as critic Ben Brantley was forced to issue a statement to the public and edit his review after there was a huge outcry about his use of flippant language regarding transgender and non-binary people.
In his original text, Brantley referred to the word ‘binary’ as “what’s starting to feel like the decade’s most overused word.”
His statement read: “I feel horrible about having offended transgender and nonbinary communities. I was trying to reflect the light tone of the show, as well as a plot point in which one character learns to acknowledge another not as ‘she’ but as ‘they’ – this was meant to be a reference to the character of the Oracle, not Peppermint, the person who plays the role. This unfortunately read as more flippant than I would ever have intended, especially with regard to a performance that marks a historical first. I am deeply sorry.”
Additionally, The Wall Street Journal caught flack for publishing an article on Monday, “Theater Patrons Not Going Gaga Over Go-Go’s Musical,” bringing attention to weak preview ticket sales.
What do you think, readers? Does Head Over Heels sound like a show you’d like to ‘Go-Go’ see?
• Happy birthday to Spanish InstaHunk, Frandullon86! #woof
• Chelsea Handler will guest star on Will & Grace this fall as a “high-powered lesbian” who begins to date Grace’s sister.
• Former Apprentice star and White House Office of Public Liaison official Omarosa is releasing a tell-all titled “UNHINGED: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.” I’m guessing it will not be flattering for the president or his allies.
• A new Republican bill in Congress would ban any U.S. embassy from flying the rainbow Pride flag – ever.
• Gay men were egged outside a gay bar in Florida.
• The Roseanne spinoff, The Connors, will debut on ABC on October 16.
• Fox News anchor Shep Smith is not having the Trumpster calling journalists “fake news.”
“Over 22 years at this network, it’s been my experience that the journalists of Fox News and Fox Business and those of our colleagues at competitors at CNN and MSNBC, NBC, ABC and CBS, Bloomberg and PBS, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The Washington Post – all of them operate in the public interests. We work to discern what is truth. Then to present it to you in context and with perspective. As your representatives in the people’s halls, we report to you without fear or favor while striving to hold those in power to the same standards. This is the foundation of what we do.”
Watch one of the few sane voices at Fox News below.
