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Networks Will Give Democrats Airtime For Response To Trump’s Address Tonight

The four television networks – NBC, Fox, ABC and CBS – have confirmed that they will air a Democratic response to Trump’s primetime address tonight.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer requested equal time following Donald Trump’s address tonight to offer their rebuttal and vision for moving forward from the current government shutdown.

From The New York Times:

Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer will speak from the Capitol after Mr. Trump completes his remarks from the Oval Office, which are scheduled to be broadcast live by the major television networks. The dueling addresses from opposite sides of Pennsylvania Avenue will unfold at the close of Day 18 of a government shutdown over Mr. Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion for a border wall that Democrats have steadfastly opposed.

Mr. Trump, who spent much of the first two weeks of the shutdown cloistered inside the White House saying little about it, is now using the powers of the presidency to focus public attention on his immigration message in an effort to build support for the idea of erecting a large wall on the border with Mexico. Democrats, newly in control of the House, are steering clear of talk of the wall itself, and instead are working to focus attention on the damaging impacts of the shutdown.

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Mike Pence: Trump Had The ‘Impression’ Former Presidents Wanted A Border Wall

Vice President Mike Pence

For several days now, fact checkers have noted Donald Trump’s claim that former presidents have told him they wish they had built a wall along the US/Mexico border as false.

Representatives from Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter have all confirmed they never told Trump they regret not building a wall.

Today, Vice President Mike Pence told MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson that the president ‘had the impression’ previous administrations had wanted to build a wall.

“I know the President has said that that was his impression from previous administrations, previous Presidents,” said Pence. “I know I’ve seen clips of previous presidents talking about the importance of border security, the importance of addressing the issue of illegal immigration.”

Again, we see the Trump/Pence administration stretch the truth here as “border security” (which Democrats support, by the way) is one thing, building a wall is another.

On top of the fact that all living former presidents say they never even discussed the subject with Trump.

The man literally cannot stop lying.

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Out College Football Player Jake Bain Sits Down With Ellen

Out college football player Jake Bain on ELLEN
Out college football player Jake Bain on ELLEN

Ellen DeGeneres sat down with out Indiana State University football player Jake Bain, who inspired the nation with his coming out speech during a high school assembly in St. Louis, Missouri, two years ago.

Jake chats with Ellen about his coming out experience, the support he’s received over the past two years, and his hopes to inspire other athletes in college sports to have the courage to also come out.

The handsome college freshman was emotional about meeting one of his idols, saying, “Can I first just say, before I came out, I used to watch your show, like, all the time, and it means so much to me to actually be here now.”

“You’ve done so much for the entire LGBT community, and humanity as a whole,” he continued. “It just means so much to me to be on your show.”

Ellen points up the good that Jake has done by coming out and hopefully giving other college athletes the courage to come out.

“It’s a really conflicting thing to feel really proud of yourself and good at something, and then in the back of your mind have shame or carry shame around,” said Ellen.

“If everyone had the courage to do what you did, then we wouldn’t have that homophobia, we wouldn’t have that fear,” she added. “And so, you’re going to inspire other people the way I inspired you.”

On top of doing great at Indiana State (full football scholarship, don’t you know?), the good news is he’s still with his high school boyfriend, Hunter Sigmund.

The boys see each other whenever they can since Hunter goes to school hours away at the University of North Carolina. So, Hunter tagged along for the Ellen appearance.

And you knew this was coming – since Jake can’t accept gifts due to NCAA rules, Ellen gives Hunter a 6-night vacay to Fiji.

Gee, I wonder who Hunter could take with him…?

Jake Bain on ELLEN
Jake Bain on ELLEN

(h/t Outsports)

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Video Tease: Upcoming Mini-Series ‘Fosse/Verdon’

The new teaser for the upcoming FX mini-series Fosse/Verdon is perfection.

Starring Sam Rockwell as Broadway innovator/director/choreographer Bob Fosse, and Michelle Williams as his muse/wife, Gwen Verdon, the series will “tell the story of these two brilliant, complicated individuals — the love they shared, the art they created, and the price they paid in the pursuit of greatness.”

Anyone who is a fan of the brilliant Broadway power couple will recognize the iconic style in the rapid-fire series of images including finger snaps, toe-taps, bowler hats, fishnet stockings, red/blue mood light and, yes, jazz hands.

The project has the blessing of Nicole Fosse, the daughter of Fosse and Verdon, who will also act as an executive producer on the series.

“My mother and father have one of the greatest love stories ever known,” Nicole Fosse said in a statement. “They were extremely complex people with an indestructible bond, loyalty and trust that endured both fantasy and reality. Finally, we have a creative team with the talent and wisdom to tell the story.”

In addition to being a longtime fan, as many readers know, I was a cast member of the Broadway revival of Chicago the Musical. The experience led me to study and revere (even more!) the genius these two brought to the Broadway stage.

Watch below. Look for the series to debut in April. I can’t wait.

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News Round-Up: January 7, 2019

• The hunky Alex Landi, who plays out Dr. Nico Kim on Grey's Anatomy, tells Attitude Magazine that he just wants to do his best when portraying roles regardless of his sexuality or his character’s.
Alex Landi (promo photo: Grey’s Anatomy/ABC)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Buff Alex Landi, who plays out Dr. Nico Kim on Grey’s Anatomy, tells Attitude Magazine that he just wants to do his best when portraying roles regardless of his sexuality or his character’s.

• Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has signed a new directive banning LGBT-based discrimination in state services or by state contractors. The new executive order does not include a loophole exemption for religious organizations that receive state funds.

• Virulently anti-gay Texas Pastor Donnie Romero resigned last week after it was revealed he has a deep history of gambling, hiring prostitutes and smoking marijuana. At the time, Romero actually cheered the Pulse Nightclub shooting wishing the gunman had ‘finished the job.’ Ye who protesteth the loudest, do it the mosteth.

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has changed her position on healthcare for transgender people in prison saying she now supports access to all “medically necessary services, including transition-related surgeries.”

• Donald Trump may think Special Counsel Robert Mueller might wrap up his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election soon, but Mueller just extended his grand jury in Washington, D.C., for another six months.

• Tony Award winner (Kinky Boots) and Golden Globe nominee (Pose) Billy Porter dropped a new music video for “Love the Pain Away,” a song he wrote in 1999.

Billy shares he recently came across the song again and realized it still applies to what’s happening today in the U.S.

Note how Billy extends the video to give all of his band and chance to shine. #Class

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Robert De Niro Says He Worries About Gay Son “Being Treated A Certain Way” Under Trump Administration

Robert De Niro at the 2018 Tony Awards

In a new interview with The Guardian’s David Smith, two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro opens up about how the Trump administration’s divisive policies are worrisome for both him and his gay son.

“Yeah, I worry, and one of my kids is gay, and he worries about being treated a certain way,” says the 75-year-old actor. “We talk about it.”

De Niro, who has six mixed-race children, didn’t identify which of his four sons is gay.

In 2014, the actor debuted a new documentary, Remembering The Artist, on his father who was also gay.

De Niro says initially he took a ‘wait and see’ position on a Trump presidency.

“When you see someone like [Trump] becoming president, I thought, well, OK, let’s see what he does – maybe he’ll change,” admits De Niro. “But he just got worse. It showed me that he is a real racist.”

“I thought maybe as a New Yorker he understands the diversity in the city but he’s as bad as I thought he was before – and much worse,” he added. “It’s a shame. It’s a bad thing in this country.”

Asked by Smith if he believes Trump is a white supremacist, De Niro reportedly didn’t pause to answer, “Yes.”

Is Trump a fascist? De Niro says, “I guess that’s what it leads to.”

“If he had his way, we’d wind up in a very bad state in this country,” he continued. “I mean, the way I understand it, they laughed at Hitler. They all look funny. Hitler looked funny, Mussolini looked funny, other dictators and despots look funny.”

Since the 2016 presidential election, De Niro has become an outspoken critic of Trump.

The Raging Bull star has called Trump a ‘scumbag’ and a ‘pig’ in the past.

And in June of 2018, during an appearance at the Tony Awards, De Niro received a standing ovation when he declared, “It’s no longer ‘Down with Trump,’ it’s ‘F*ck Trump.”

For an ever-growing list of anti-LGBTQ actions taken by the Trump administration, click here.

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Trump Will Address The U.S. Tuesday Evening On Current #TrumpShutdown

Donald Trump

Donald Trump has announced he will address the country on Tuesday evening regarding the ongoing partial shutdown of the federal government as well as the “Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border.”

According to The New York Times, it’s unclear which news networks will carry the address.

It was not immediately clear which outlets would carry his address. The four major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC — confirmed receiving the White House request on Monday for Mr. Trump to speak during the 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time slot, but producers had not decided whether to grant him the time. Pre-empting prime-time coverage is an expensive proposition for television executives, who have sold millions of dollars’ worth of advertising against entertainment programming.

The ongoing shutdown is now the 2nd longest in the country’s history. Approximately 800,000 federal workers will not get paid this week.

Trump is demanding over $5 billion in funding for a border wall between the United States and Mexico, and has refused to sign any government funding bills until he receives those funds.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has publicly stated that the Democrats are in favor of funding technology and staffing for border security, but the president is “not going to get a wall.”

So far, CNN has agreed to air the address, but being a cable news channel it’s easier for them to break from regular programming.

NBC News could let cable news outlet MSNBC air Trump’s speech and leave the network’s primetime lineup intact.

The Times notes that, in the past, primetime presidential addresses have been reserved for announcements of national importance like the killing of Osama bin Laden.

In related news, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump will travel to the U.S. Southern border on Thursday “to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis.”

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Kevin Spacey Makes Court Appearance Regarding Alleged Sexual Assault

Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey appeared in court today to enter a plea of not guilty to a single felony charge of indecent assault and battery in regard to allegations involving an 18-year-old male at a Nantucket bar in 2016.
Kevin Spacey in Nantucket court appearance
(image via Boston Globe video screen capture)

Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey appeared in court today to enter a plea of not guilty to a single felony charge of indecent assault and battery in regard to allegations involving an 18-year-old male at a Nantucket bar in 2016.

After the brief 10-minute hearing, Judge Thomas S. Barrett released Spacey on his own recognizance, according to NBC10Boston.

The allegations were made public in November 2017 by former local news anchor Heather Unruh, who claims Spacey groped her then-18-year-old son at the Club Car Restaurant in July 2016. Her son was employed there at the time as a bus boy.

According to documents obtained by MassLive that were filed in court, the teen asked to meet the Oscar winner after his shift ended at the restaurant. The young man admitted to investigators that he told Spacey he was 23-years-old.

Unruh says Spacey bought the teen several drinks and eventually sexually assaulted her son by groping the teen’s leg. The teen says Spacey continued by unzipping his pants and touching him without consent.

The alleged groping, according to the court filing, went on for some minutes. The teen told the police investigator that he didn’t say anything or walk away during the assault.

The young man apparently sent video of Spacey touching him to his girlfriend via Snapchat.

Spacey allegedly asked the boy to go back to the house where he was staying, which the teen says made him uncomfortable.

But an audio recording of a December 2018 court hearing, obtained by The Boston Globe, shows Spacey’s legal team asserts the encounter was consensual.

Spacey’s attorneys point to the fact that the boy did not immediately report the incident to police. In fact, the teen wasn’t interviewed in person until a year later.

The 59-year-old’s lawyers also note that the alleged victim admits to approaching Spacey first, and lying about his age.

Further, Spacey’s attorney Alan Jackson says the teen’s admission that the alleged groping went on for approximately three minutes but he made no move to stop it shows the encounter was consensual.

Said Jackson, per the audio recording, “That’s an incredibly long time to have a strange man’s hands in your pants, correct?”

Judge Barrett scheduled a March 4 pre-trial hearing which Spacey will not be required to attend, although he must be available by telephone.

If found guilty, Spacey could face up to five years in prison or up to 2½ years in a house of correction. A finding of guilty would also require Spacey to register as a sex offender.

These allegations are just part of a firestorm of accusations of sexual misconduct leveled at Spacey during the height of the #MeToo movement beginning in fall of 2017.

Spacey was eventually fired from his hit Netflix series, House of Cards, and was replaced in the already-completed film, All the Money in the World.

After the December court hearing, Spacey released a bizarre video via YouTube where he reprised his House of Cards character, Frank Underwood, urging the viewer to not rush to judgement.

“Despite even my own death, I feel surprisingly good, and my confidence grows each day that soon enough you will know the full truth,” said Spacey in the video.

(h/t: Boston Globe, NBC10Boston)

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‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ ‘Versace’ & ‘Green Book’ Score At 2019 Golden Globe Awards

It was a night of surprises at the always-unpredictable Golden Globe Awards last night in Los Angeles.

There were several wins for LGBTQ-themed projects:

Bohemian Rhapsody, the Queen biopic, picked up the statue for “Best Motion Picture Drama.”

Additionally, Rami Malek’s star turn as queer frontman Freddie Mercury scored a win in the “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture” category. Malek did not, however, mention the film’s fired director, the controversial Bryan Singer, in his acceptance speech.

Singer posted his thanks for the Bohemian Rhapsody win on his Instagram.

A post shared by Bryan Singer (@bryanjaysinger) on Jan 6, 2019 at 10:41pm PST

Despite mixed reviews, the movie is a box office juggernaut as the biggest-selling music biopic in history.

Green Book, which chronicles the friendship of gay, black jazz pianist Don Shirley and his chauffeur Tony Vallelonga in the early 1960s Deep South, won “Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical,” “Best Screenplay,” and “Best Supporting Actor.”

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, which told the story of disturbed gay serial murderer Andrew Cunanan, scored as “Best Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for TV.”

Having already won the Emmy Award this year, Darren Criss picked up another trophy for “Best Actor in a Limited Series” as Cunanan.

In his acceptance speech, Assassination executive producer Brad Simpson, warned that although his project was set in the 1990s, the times today are not so different.

“This was the era of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ It was the Defense of Marriage Act era. Those forces of hate are still here with us. They tell us we should be scared of people who are different than us. They tell us we should put walls around ourselves. As artists we must fight back by representing those who are not represented by providing a space for people with new voices to tell stories that haven’t been told. As human beings, we can resist in the streets, resist at the ballot box. and practice love and empathy in our everyday lives. Our show is a period piece, but those forces are not historical. They are here, they are with us, and we must resist.”

Another unfiltered political moment came when Christian Bale, accepting his Golden Globe for his portrayal of former Vice President Dick Cheney in Vice, jokingly thanked Satan for inspiration in playing Cheney. He also referred to Cheney and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as “charisma-free assholes.”

Out actor Ben Whishaw won “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture” for his work as ‘Norman Scott’ in A Very English Scandal.

And Olivia Coleman’s portrayal as ‘Queen Anne,’ who indulges in romance with not one but two women, in The Favourite, took home the award for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy.”

Perhaps the biggest upset of the evening was Glenn Close’s surprise win for her role in The Wife over the much-lauded Lady Gaga turn in A Star is Born.

This was Close’s 15th Golden Globe nomination and 3rd win. The veteran actress has never won at the Oscars, though, and this may make the Academy voters take another look at Close.

In addition to her stunned reaction, Close delivered one of the most moving acceptance speeches of the night underscoring the balance of family life with personal fulfillment:

“I’m thinking of my mom, who really sublimated herself to my father her whole life. And in her 80s, she said to me, ‘I feel I haven’t accomplished anything.’ And it was so not right,” the actress said. “What I’ve learned through this whole experience is that women, we’re nurturers. That’s what’s expected of us. We have our children; we have our husbands, if we are lucky enough; and our partners, whoever. But we have to find personal fulfillment. We have to follow our dreams. We have to say ‘I can do that, and I should be allowed to do that.’ ”

Gaga fans, however, were not moved by the inspiring words.

In fact, they got downright hostile on social media.

And those were the tame tweets.

Gaga didn’t go home empty-handed though. She still attained the title “Golden Globe winner” for her contribution to writing “Shallow, which won for “Best Original Song, Motion Picture.”

Another notable disappointment for LGBTQs was Billy Porter’s stunning work as “Pray Tell” in the acclaimed FX series Pose being overlooked as well as the series itself.

That said, Porter was a standout on the red carpet, giving us life with a spectacular cape designed by NYC designer Randy Rahm.

Here’s a complete list of those who took home Golden Globe Awards last night:

Movies

Best Motion Picture, Drama: Bohemian Rhapsody

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Green Book

Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Olivia Colman, The Favourite

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Christian Bale, Vice

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture: Mahershala Ali, Green Book

Best Screenplay, Motion Picture: Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie and Peter Farrelly, Green Book

Best Motion Picture, Animated: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language: Roma

Best Original Score, Motion Picture: Justin Hurwitz, First Man

Best Original Song, Motion Picture: “Shallow,” A Star Is Born

Television

Best Television Series, Drama: The Americans

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Drama: Richard Madden, Bodyguard

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama: Sandra Oh, Killing Eve

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy: Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television: Patricia Arquette, Escape at Dannemora

Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television: Darren Criss, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Patricia Clarkson, Sharp Objects

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Ben Whishaw, A Very English Scandal