Liam Payne (photo: Mert & Marcus for Hugo Boss) Former One Direction crooner Liam Payne stopped the internet when he shared some snaps from his recent photoshoot for Hugo Boss underwear. Six weeks ago, photographer Mert Alas teased the upcoming campaign with an outtake on his Instagram:
But that was tame compared to what was to come. The ’Strip That Down’ singer clearly took his own advice for the shoot with Victoria’s Secret model Stella Maxwell that includes photos of Maxwell topless laying between a clearly naked Payne’s legs. Payne told GQ Magazine UK that the session “got very raunchy very quickly,” adding that he “hadn’t been properly warned about the amount of nudity Mert [Alas] and Marcus [Piggot] do in their work.” The 26-year-old candidly shares in his GQ interview “there was a lot of tequila involved for this shoot.”
“It just ended up being a lot more naked than I thought it was – and for her as well,” he added. “She was also naked. And I was just, you know, ‘Don’t look!’ She was naked behind me and I was thinking, ‘Liam, don’t look whatever you do.’” “I mean it was just a room full of five or six people and a hell of a lot of tequila to get me to this level,” he told GQ. “I was standing there and all of a sudden it was, ‘Right, OK, take them off.’ I’m like, ‘Really? Take them off? Off, off? Like on-the-floor off? Oh, my God.'” Payne also posted this video clip from the shoot on his Instagram:
The singer says his mother wasn’t too keen on the shoot once he shared one of the more raunchy photos with Maxwell. “She took one look at it and gave me a clip round the ear,” said Payne. “All I was thinking was, ‘I better not tell her about the London buses!'” Hugo Boss announced the choice of Payne for the new underwear campaign earlier this year with this smoking hot shirtless pic.
Sam Smith (photo: Aria Shahrokhshahi) Four-time Grammy Award winner Sam Smith has released a cover of the 1977 Donna Summer dance classic, “I Feel Love.” “As a queer person ‘I feel love’ has followed me to every dance floor in every queer space from the minute I started clubbing,” the non-binary/genderqueer artist wrote on their Instagram. “This song to me is an anthem of our community and it was an honour and most importantly so much fun to have a go at it. Highest song I’ve ever fucking sang. But a joy. I hope you all like it xx” Take a listen below.
And, of course, how could I touch the subject without referencing the oh-so-awesome original version by our diva, Miss Summer? Produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, the track (considered the first electronic dance hit) was a Top 10 smash in the US and went all the way to #1 in the UK, Australia, and other countries.
15-time Grammy Award winner Eminem (via Instagram) The internet is buzzing after a short clip of a new track by rappers Eminem and Joyner Lucas surfaced titled, “What If I Was Gay?” With Joyner’s debut studio album on the horizon, it’s widely expected the track will arrive on that release. Rapper Joyner Lucas (via Instagram) The short 13-second snippet, first reported by HipHopNMore, includes some provocative lyrics. “What if I told you I was out of place? Wait, what if I told you I was gay?” raps Joyner. Em counters back, “What if I’m a hypocrite who’s just afraid to face truth? Wait, what if I told you I’m gay too?” Admittedly, there’s no context, but it’s certainly intriguing considering Eminem’s controversial history with the LGBTQ community. The 15-time Grammy Award winner came under fire for using anti-gay slurs on several of his early tracks like “Marshall Mathers” in 2000 and “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” in 2002. In an attempt to hit the reset button, he appeared with Elton John at the 2001 Grammy Awards for one of the most memorable duets in Grammy history. The two artists performed Slim Shady’s “Stan” with Elton at the piano crooning the Dido sample from the track as Em delivered the rap. In a 2017 interview with Vulture, Eminem was asked about his homophobic lyrics:
The first time I got a taste of being called anti-gay was on ‘My Name Is’ when I said, ‘My English teacher wanted to have sex in junior high / The only problem was my English teacher was a guy.’ All I was saying was I don’t swing that way. So when I started getting flack for it, I thought, ‘Alright, you people think I’m homophobic? Watch this.’ I was trying to push the buttons of people who were calling me something that I wasn’t. The honest-to-God truth is that none of that matters to me: I have no issue with someone’s sexuality, religion, race, none of that.
This new track would be the second collaboration for Joyner and Eminem. Eminem had previously teamed up with Joyner for “Lucky You” which was featured on Em’s 2018 studio album, Kamikaze. (source: HHNM)
Tony/Grammy Award nominee Vanessa Williams & Daphne Oz (screen capture) Created by the producers of The Dr. Oz Show, The Good Dish will serve up chat and chow for a new talk show scheduled for Fall 2020. Award-winning actress/singer Vanessa Williams, Daphne Oz (daughter of Dr. Oz), Top Chef’s Gail Simmons and Jamika Pessoa (The Next Food Network Star) will serve as hosts. According to a statement, The Good Dish will offer simple shortcuts, everyday recipes, and trends that will bring families closer, save money, make life less complicated, and help them figure out what they are having for dinner. The show is a spin-off based on segments titled “The Dish on Oz” that have been featured on The Dr. Oz Show.
John Weiser, President First Run Television, SPT. said in a released statement:
We have experienced overwhelming feedback from our audiences on “The Dish on Oz” cooking segments, which have been recently featured on The Dr. Oz Show.
When Daphne Oz and this all-star ensemble were available, we recognized the opportunity for viewers, advertisers, and local broadcast stations.
We have on-air tested this format and talent for two years perfecting this show we are now bringing to market. Spinoffs have the highest success rate of converting into multi-year franchises. In fact, spinoffs gave us the great Dr. Oz straight from Oprah!
Daniel McGraffin (image via Instagram) In a new documentary from Channel 5 in the U.K., former military service member Daniel McGraffin says he found it difficult to find a decent paying job until he discovered he could earn up to £1,000 a day as a gay-for-pay porn actor. Sharing his story in The Sex Business: Swinging Both Ways, McGraffin says he spent six years as a soldier in the artillery until one day, due to lack of sleep, he snapped. At the end of a two-week leave, he went AWOL for a year. He was sentenced to 8 months in a military prison, and upon his release went in search of a job. After working as a janitor in a gym, then as a personal trainer and a DJ, a friend (who works as a dominatrix) told him about a guy who was “totally straight but does gay porn.” She put him in contact with a producer who told McGraffin “the majority of it’s fake” and hired the former military service member for £750 for a shoot. McGraffin liked the experience – and the money – so he researched the porn industry and eventually landed a 3-year contract with Lucas Entertainment.
He says he looked into the straight porn industry but found “in gay porn, there’s way less competition, and there’s no money in straight porn. For a straight guy, there’s way more money in gay porn.” And so, he decided to work as a gay-for-pay performer. McGraffin, who goes by the stage name Geordie Jackson, pointedly shares in the documentary, “My sexual identity is straight, one hundred percent straight.” His girlfriend, Freya, appears in the documentary as well and she’s totally onboard with McGraffin’s career choice. “It’s fake,” she tells the viewer. “People say he must be a little bit gay, [but] when he gets back, he doesn’t want to think about anyone with a d**k.” Freya explains if he was working in straight porn it might bother her since there would be the potential for him to be attracted to co-stars, but with men “that risk isn’t there.” https://www.instagram.com/p/B1JF-X_nbNg/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link McGraffin admits there are people who say he’s gay because he looks so at ease in his videos, but he just takes that as a compliment on his acting skills. “They don’t know the tricks of the trade,” he explains. “They say ‘you look like you’re enjoying it’. And I say, ‘thanks, that means I’m a good actor.’” Asked if he considers himself an ally to the LGBTQ community, he’s unsure but shares that his brother is openly gay. He also explains the logic, at least for him, for remaining in the adult entertainment industry as a gay-for-pay performer. “I ain’t smart, academically,”he admits. “It’s either this or going to work in a warehouse, ’cause I have no qualifications. I have driving qualifications, but obviously, I’ve had one of them lifestyles where I’ve been banned from driving. So driving jobs are a no go.” “You need to make your money, man,” he continues. “I’m glad I found porn because I make more money now than I ever have. I see the perks of it now, I don’t even think about what I’ve got to do anymore, it’s that easy.” Some viewers, however, took to Twitter to express their skepticism about the “100% straight” label and also take offense at the gay-for-pay idiom. We’re not here to judge, though. How McGraffin identifies is his own business. And speaking of ‘business,’ check out some of the adult entertainer’s Instagram account below.
Paul Middleton releases his new cover of “We Found Love” International recording artist Paul Middleton drops his new video and chill remix cover of Rihanna and Calvin Harris’ “We Found Love” today to raise awareness of mental health in the community. Middleton candidly shares that he’s had his own demons to battle. “I had really bad days. Some days, I would be on social media and it just made me question who I was. If I didn’t look a certain way, then I didn’t belong in the LGBTQ community, or I had to be sexually ‘loud’ with pictures, which is not me.” Middleton says the lyrics ‘We found love in a hopeless place’ to be a reminder that self-acceptance combined with a love for oneself allows for receiving love from outside.
“We are not doing enough to tackle mental health. We need more promotion of self-love in a healthy way and stop using social media to project an unrealistic way of life.”
The music video for “We Found Love” is a celebration of exploring self-love with his new love with his partner, filmed in Sardinia, Italy.
“We Found Love” is out now on iTunes, Spotify, Apple and taken from ‘Remixes’, an EP due for release in February 2020. The track has already been added to the ‘New Look, Old Hook’ playlist on Spotify putting him alongside artists like Kygo, Whitney Houston and Jonas Blue. The singer, who’s toured the world with his music, has already had two #1 hits on the LGBTQ Music Chart in the UK with his covers of “Careless Whisper” and “Vincent.” Follow Paul on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
Audra McDonald, Marin Mazzie and Judy Kuhn (screen capture) I’m been meaning to post this for a Throwback Thursday post for months, but the Thursdays roll by and…well, I used to be blond. In any case, many times I get to the end of the day and I don’t want to pay attention to an hour-long story on TV. So, I fire up the YouTube app on my Apple TV and chill watching videos I’ve ‘favorited’ in the past. This performance is easily one of my ‘go-to’ videos. Recorded live at the My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies concert on September 28, 1998, at Carnegie Hall, this trio of world-class Broadway actresses come together beautifully in a mashup of three Andrew Lloyd Webber love songs. Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, and Tony Award nominees Marin Mazzie (who we lost last year to a long cancer battle) & Judy Kuhn, separately perform “Love Changes Everything,” “Unexpected Song” and “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” respectively, to stunning effect, Go ahead and hit play first, then I’ll share a few things.
Awesome, right? Now, I wanted to explain why this lands with me so well. First, what I hear: all three singers have terrific musicianship. When I listen to this, I hear voices singing to the ends of the phrases. They never kind of ‘peter out.’ They sing – with energy – to the ends of the phrases and cut off with purpose. Sometimes you’ll hear singers be a bit lazy and hold a note too long. The problem can be the note they hold might clash with the chord structure of the next phrase. Second, notice how all three actresses stay focused on the stories they’re telling. Look at their eyes – even when not singing, they never leave the narrative they’re in. Even when they all move downstage at the 5:52 mark, they don’t glance at the other two singers. They are IN it. And finally, huge props to the arranger (I believe it was David Loud?) who wove these songs into such a gorgeous tapestry. Bonus points for making sure the ladies’ lyrics for backup phrases all still make sense in each of their stories. No one ever sings a word that doesn’t logically fit into their ‘scene.’ The entire concert is well worth watching (the DVD is available on Amazon). The production features a veritable whos-who of Broadway leading ladies including the aforementioned as well as Bebe Neuwirth, Karen Ziemba, Andrea McArdle, Linda Eder, Jennifer Holiday, Priscilla Lopez, Nell Carter, Dorothy Loudon, Rebecca Luker, and Elaine Stritch.
The stars of the new Dekkoo series, The ThirdThe Third is a provocative, sexy new original series created for the gay-centric streaming platform Dekkoo. The series follows Jason (Sean McBride), a young man who enters into a passionate three-way relationship with an established gay Palm Springs couple – Carl (Corey Page) and David (Ryland Shelton). But he quickly learns that “adding a third” could bring a whole new set of skepticism, jealousy, and secrets. In this episode, I chat with show creator Matthew Lynn, who fashioned some of the series after his own real-life experiences in a ‘triad’ or ‘thruple.’ Producer/filmmaker Matthew Lynn Lynn was inspired to make the series to show the world there are different kinds of relationships that can work, none are wrong or right and all take some work. The Third will be available for streaming on Dekkoo beginning October 24. Click the play button to listen to my chat with Matthew Lynn.
For those not familiar – Dekkoo is a streaming entertainment platform much like Hulu or Netflix, but its focus is on LGBTQ-themed content. For $9.99 a month you can stream gay-centric movies, TV series, short films; genres include mysteries, dramas, comedies, romance, sci-fi – the whole gamut of pop culture entertainment. In fact, many of the movies you’ve heard me discuss here on The Randy Report are currently available on Dekkoo. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial to see if it’s your thing, and for a limited time, when you sign up you can get 33% off your first 3 months by entering the promo code TheThird. (p.s. I get nothing whether you sign up or not – this isn’t a sponsored segment) Click here – www.dekkoo.com – for more info. You can check out the trailer for Season 1 of The Third below.
Checking in with some of my favorite InstaHunks on this fine Hump Day. Philip Evelyn II (Modello9) is up first with more than enough gym-spiration to get your heart pumping a bit faster (above). Next up, Garrett Magee went ‘glamping’ in the desert. Check out the rest of the guys below 🙂
Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein in his new play, Bella BellaBy Lawrence Pfeil, Jr. Before AOC, before Nancy Pelosi, there was Bella, Bella Abzug. Known as “Battling Bella,” she was a graduate of Columbia Law School who became a civil rights attorney, social activist, leader of the women’s movement, member of the House of Representatives, and famously wore hats because “as a young lawyer it helped me to establish my professional identity. Before that, whenever I was at a meeting, someone would ask me to get coffee.” Bella Abzug Bella Abzug’s brilliant, often biting words and crusading work are the genesis of Harvey Fierstein’s enthralling, tour de force, new play Bella Bella which opened last night at Manhattan Theatre Club’s City Center Stage I. Awaiting the fateful results of the 1976 New York Democratic Senatorial primary, Bella holds up in the bathroom of her campaign suite reflecting on her life’s work; and for 90 minutes Mr. Fierstein holds an audience captive with her hilarious, heroic, and often heartbreaking story as few other performers could. Billed as “written and performed by Harvey Fierstein from the words and works of Bella Abzug” it’s difficult to know where Abzug stops and Fierstein begins without being her scholar. But Bella Abzug knew how to make her point in no uncertain terms and Harvey Fierstein knows how to weave a story for maximum impact. Together, Bella Bella is a stunningly relevant and eye-opening call to action for a country that doesn’t seem to have progressed much beyond the America outside the window of her john in 1976. Harvey Fierstein in Bella Bella (photo: Jeremy Daniel) Bella’s opening diatribe on equality, sexist elections, and how women, who are a 2% differential in the electorate yet 1% of the House, (still only 30%) vote against themselves, is immediately passionate and gripping. Ringing so familiar, one wonders whether she’s been transported to the present or if we’ve been taken back to her, and so it is throughout Bella Bella. Her fight for civil rights and equality fifty years ago mirrors the very challenges still facing America today. Most widely known for her leadership of the women’s movement and the ERA, Abzug was also a pioneer of Federal Gay Rights. Representing the Lower East Side of Manhattan and Greenwich Village, she embraced her LGBT constituency, even campaigning at the Continental Baths. In 1974 she introduced in Congress the first Gay civil rights bill, the “Equality Act” which would have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. It failed to pass but succeeded in getting Gay rights into the national conversation. In 1970 when Bella Abzug was elected to Congress, Harvey Fierstein was in Brooklyn already writing and performing in drag. Fifty years and four Tony Awards later he has brought them together on one stage in what can only be described as the perfect pairing of subject and performer. With her words, he has written a smart, insightful, and impassioned portrait of a woman, a Jewish woman, who recognized the discrimination in her path; but walked it anyway because she believed in equality and had the hutzpah to fight for it. With his command of the stage, he creates a Bella that is anything but a drag. Harvey Fierstein in Bella Bella (photo: Jeremy Daniel) Fierstein gives a vibrant, passionate, and powerful performance with no want of makeup or an Abzug ensemble, apart from her iconic hat. In plain black rehearsal clothes, Fierstein is at the top of his prowess as the fierce firebrand wisecracking one minute, outraged the next, inspiring throughout. Some works are a labor of love, done for the joy, not the reward. Still, there are a few others, like Mr. Fierstein’s triumphant Bella Bella which are even more. To those lucky enough to hear what she “thinks about in the bathroom,” this is clearly his labor of passion, created and performed because it had to be done and done now, much like work of Bella Abzug herself. Bella Bella Written and Performed by Harvey Fierstein From the words and works of Bella Abzug 90 minutes No intermission Now through December 1st Manhattan Theatre Club at City Center Stage I More Information and Tickets HERE https://bellabellaplay.com/Lawrence Pfeil, Jr.,is a freelance writer/playwright who has reviewed film and theatre, both on and off-Broadway, for media outlets including The Randy Report, the New York Blade, and Edge Publications
