Following her stunning performance at the Billboard Music Awards and the announcement of her highly anticipated new album Madame X (available on June 14,) Madonna announced a series of rare and intimate performances to take place exclusively in theaters, giving fans an opportunity to see Madonna in an environment like they never have before.
The Madame X Tour will kick off September 12th at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House in New York and will feature multiple nights of shows in each city including performances at the Chicago Theatre, The Wiltern in Los Angeles, the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the Boch Center Wang Theatre in Boston, The Met Philadelphia and at the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theatre in 2019.
The Madame X Tour will then resume in early 2020 with performances at the Coliseum in Lisbon, the Palladium in London and at the Grand Rex in Paris.
Kevin Spirtas and Mitchell Anderson in ‘After Forever’
UPDATE – Oh yes, After Forever won for Outstanding Digital Daytime Drama Series at tonight’s 2019 Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, bringing the total number of Emmy Awards to five! Congratulations to the guy who had the idea from the beginning, newly-minted Outstanding Lead Actor in a Digital Daytime Drama Series, Kevin Spirtas!
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At the 2019 Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards last night at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, acclaimed LGBTQ-themed Amazon series After Forever picked up 4 Emmy Awards. After Forever is the story of Brian and Jason, a 50-ish New York City gay couple, who have it all until they don’t. The 8-episode first season follows them and their friends through a journey of love, loss and moving on. The series (with 8 nominations) won last night at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium for: • Outstanding Lead Actor in a Digital Daytime Drama Series – Kevin Spirtas (Mitchell Anderson also nominated) • Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Digital Daytime Drama Series – Erin Cherry (Cady Huffman also nominated) • Outstanding Writing for a Digital Drama Series – Kevin Spirtas, Michael Slade • Outstanding Directing for a Digital Drama Series – Jennifer Pepperman Broadway veteran Anita Gillette was also nominated for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Daytime Drama Series And its not over yet… During the Sunday night broadcast of the 2019 Daytime Emmy Awards, After Forever is nominated for Outstanding Digital Daytime Drama Series.
Last spring, I interviewed writer and lead actor Kevin Spirtas on the journey and evolution of After Forever. You can check out our chat below. Find more info about the acclaimed digital series at the official website here.
Donald Trump ranted on Sunday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller should not testify before Congress, arguing that Democrats are “looking for a redo” after the investigation failed to establish that his campaign conspired with Russia.
….to testify. Are they looking for a redo because they hated seeing the strong NO COLLUSION conclusion? There was no crime, except on the other side (incredibly not covered in the Report), and NO OBSTRUCTION. Bob Mueller should not testify. No redos for the Dems!
Trump has previously said that he would not stop Mueller from testifying and that he will leave it up to Attorney General Bill Barr to decide.
Barr has said the Justice Department has no issue with Mueller testifying.
The House Judiciary Committee is in negotiations with Mueller’s team and is hoping to bring him in to testify on May 15.
Note: The Mueller investigation will not cost $35,000,000 thanks to the millions of dollars seized from former Trump campaign manager, now-convicted felon, Paul Manafort.
White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney was scheduled to attend, but cancelled at the last minute leaving the Mexican Ambassador, Martha Bárcena, with mid-level administration officials.
Both Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush attended/hosted large Cinco de Mayo celebrations at the White House during their administrations.
However, it is good to know that the Trumpster does at least enjoy a taco bowl every now and then.
I send my greetings and best wishes to all those celebrating Cinco de Mayo.
On this day 157 years ago, the Mexican people valiantly defended their freedom and prevailed in the Battle of Puebla. Facing a French army equipped with more men and better weapons, the tenacious Mexican forces, under the command of General Ignacio Zaragoza, rose to the daunting challenge and emerged victorious on May 5, 1862.
As we honor the anniversary of this historic victory, we celebrate the courage and patriotism the Mexican soldiers exemplified in defeating the invading army of Napoleon III. We also acknowledge the remarkable achievements of Mexican Americans and the many contributions they have made, and continue to make, to our Nation.
Melania and I hope those who are celebrating enjoy today’s festivities. Feliz Cinco de Mayo!
Madonna speaks onstage during the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards New York. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for GLAAD)
It was a star-studded night at the Hilton Midtown in New York City as GLAAD – the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization – honored Madonna, Andy Cohen, Don Lemon & CNN, the cast of FX’s Pose and more at the 2019 Annual GLAAD Media Awards.
For 30 years, the GLAAD Media Awards have honored media for fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues.
Introducing Madonna, CNN’s Anderson Cooper told the crowd, “No single ally has been a better friend or had a bigger impact on acceptance for the LGBTQ community than Madonna.”
Accepting the Advocate for Change Award from Cooper, Madonna said in her remarks, “As soon as you really understand what it means to love, you understand what it takes to become a human being and that it is every human’s duty to fight, to advocate, to do whatever we can and whatever it takes.”
Referencing her upcoming album, the Queen of Pop added, “MADAME X is a FREEDOM FIGHTER.”
“Madonna always has and always will be the LGBTQ community’s greatest ally and it is only fitting to honor and celebrate our biggest advocate at GLAAD’s biggest event ever,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.
“From the HIV crisis to international LGBTQ issues, she fearlessly pushes for a world where LGBTQ people are accepted. Her music and art have been life-saving outlets for LGBTQ people over the years and her affirming words and actions have changed countless hearts and minds.”
Following is a complete list of GLAAD Media Awards presented on stage or announced during the event in New York City:
• Advocate for Change Award: Madonna [presented by Anderson Cooper, Rosie O’Donnell & Mykki Blanco]
• Vito Russo Award: Andy Cohen [presented by Sarah Jessica Parker]
• Outstanding Drama Series: Pose (FX) [accepted by: creators Ryan Murphy and Steven Canals, and cast members including Billy Porter, Janet Mock, Mj Rodriguez, Indya Moore, Dominique Jackson, Angelica Ross, Our Lady J, Dyllon Burnside, Hailie Sahar, and Ryan Jamal Swain; presented by Rachel Brosnahan]
• Outstanding Variety or Talk Show Episode: “Trans Rights Under Attack” Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS) [accepted by: Samantha Bee; presented by Adam Rippon and Lilly Singh]
• Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: “Same Sex Couple Reacts to Supreme Court Ruling” CNN Tonight with Don Lemon (CNN) [accepted by: Don Lemon; presented by Mj Rodriguez, Indya Moore, and Dominique Jackson]
• Outstanding Film – Limited Release: Boy Erased (Focus Features)
• Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
• Outstanding Music Artist: Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer (Bad Boy Records)
• Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: “Conversion Therapy: God Only Knows” CBS Sunday Morning (CBS)
• Outstanding Newspaper Article: “He Took a Drug to Prevent AIDS. Then He Couldn’t Get Disability Insurance.” by Donald G. McNeil Jr. (The New York Times)
• Outstanding Digital Journalism Article: “Bermuda Same-sex Marriage Ban Means Trouble for Tourism and Cruise Ships” by Ryan Ruggiero (CNBC.com)
• Outstanding Digital Journalism – Video or Multimedia: “March for Our Lives and LGBT activism. ‘They’re definitely linked for me,’ says Emma González” by Beth Greenfield (Yahoo! Lifestyle)
• Outstanding Scripted Television Series (Spanish-Language): Elite (Netflix) and Mi marido tiene más familia (Univision) [TIE]
• Outstanding TV Journalism Segment (Spanish-Language): “Primera Pareja Gay en Casarse en un Consulado Mexicano” Noticias Telemundo Mediodía (Telemundo)
Additional awards were announced earlier this year in Los Angeles.
CNN’s Don Lemon at the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards New York. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for GLAAD)
Andy Cohen attends the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards New York. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for GLAAD)
Billy Porter from the cast of FX’s Pose (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for GLAAD)
Janet Mock speaks onstage with the cast of Pose. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for GLAAD)
Caitlin Kinnunen from the acclaimed Broadway musical The Prom performs. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for GLAAD)
Chelsea Clinton speaks at the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards New York. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for GLAAD)
It’s important to recognize that all of this doesn’t happen through magic. Corporations that choose to support celebrating positive media about the LGBTQ community are important to us.
Make sure you note the companies that join in celebrating us when you think about your consumer dollars.
The 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards are supported by Presenting Partners Delta Air Lines, Gilead, Hyundai, Ketel One Family-Made Vodka, and Wells Fargo.
Additional partners include: Official Partners Bud Light and Google; Titanium Partner AT&T and WEN; Platinum Partners Comcast NBCUniversal-Telemundo, Creative Artists Agency, Disney ABC Television Group, Facebook/Instagram, HBO, Hulu, Kaiser Permanente, MetLife, NBA & WNBA, Netflix, Omnicom Group, PRG, Sheppard Mullin, Turner; Gold Partners CBS/Showtime, Nielsen, PWC, UM, Univision, and VER; and Silver Partners Allstate, Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley, and Warner Bros.
During a speech to Democrats in Dallas, Texas, Mayor Pete Buttigieg was interrupted five different times by hecklers in a 10-minute period.
The group was organized by Randall Terry, who also followed Buttigieg in Iowa last month.
Pausing while one of the hecklers was escorted out, Buttigieg resumed speaking about his military career recalling “that moment when I was packing my bags for Afghanistan for the purpose of defending that gentleman’s freedom of speech.”
Fellow candidate Beto O’Rourke, who had a campaign appearance in nearby Fort Worth, denounced the hecklers, tweeting: “Texans don’t stand for this kind of homophobia and hatred. Mayor Pete, we are grateful you came to Texas and hope to see you and Chasten back again soon.”
Texans don’t stand for this kind of homophobia and hatred. Mayor Pete, we are grateful you came to Texas and hope to see you and Chasten back again soon. https://t.co/IhRDtIBREb
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has cancelled an upcoming trip to the United States, where he was to be honored as person of the year by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce, after growing outrage among LGBTQ activists and other groups.
The American Museum of Natural History last month announced it would no longer host the event with Bolsonaro.
Delta Air Lines, The Financial Times and Bain & Co are among the companies that pulled their sponsorship of the event because of Bolsonaro’s participation.
Otávio Santana do Rêgo Barros, a spokesperson for Bolsonaro, announced the trip’s cancellation due to “deliberate attacks from the mayor of New York and the pressure of interest groups on the institutions that organize, sponsor and host the event annually.”
Statement from the Brazil on the cancellation of President Bolsonaro’s trip to New York. pic.twitter.com/BjdW8hn3SO
A former Brazilian Army captain and member of Brazil’s Congress, Bolsonaro took office on January 1 after waging a very anti-LGBTQ, anti-women and anti-indigenous campaign.
He’s publicly said that he’d rather have a dead son than a gay son.
When asked if he was homophobic, he not only answered ‘yes,’ but said he is ‘proudly’ homophobic.
Shortly after being sworn in, he ordered Brazil’s human rights office not to consider LGBTQ-specific issues.
Bolsonaro on March 19 stressed his government’s “respect of traditional family values” and opposition to “gender identity” as he spoke alongside President Trump during a press conference in the White House Rose Garden.
And last week, Bolsonaro announced he does not want Brazil to become a “gay tourism paradise.”
Ever since his husband, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, announced his candidacy for president, Chasten Buttigieg has been charming many political followers either in person, on the campaign trail, or on social media.
But, in a new profile by the Washington Poston the man who hopes to become the nation’s first ‘First Gentleman,’ Chasten shares some of the challenges he’s faced in his 29 years.
Chasten has grabbed people’s attention not just because he’s the spouse of the first Democratic gay White House hopeful, although that does factor in. But he’s also a millennial married to a millennial. And, he and Mayor Pete have only been married less than a year.
According to the Washington Post profile, he grew up in a typical conservative Midwestern family. His parents, Sherri and Terry Glezman, worked hard to make ends meet while raising Chasten and his two older brothers, Rhyan and Dustin.
But, while his brothers liked to play sports and go hunting, Chasten admits he was happier “reading Harry Potter or singing Celine Dion” at the top of his lungs while helping his mother with housework.
By the time he got to high school, he realized there was something ‘different’ about him.
Although he didn’t come out at the time – he admits there were no openly gay students at his school – he was the target of bullies who called him homophobic slurs and would physically assault him.
So when the opportunity came up for him to spend his senior year of high school abroad in Germany, he took it. “The further away I could get, the safer I felt,” he told the Post.
It was during that year he began to confide his ‘secret’ to others in the exchange program. And by the time he returned to his home town, it was “his truth.”
A post shared by Chasten Buttigieg (@chasten.buttigieg) on Sep 8, 2016 at 9:23am PDT
Chasten shares that he opened up to some friends during the summer after graduation, receiving mixed responses.
Some said they loved him and it didn’t matter; but others told him while they loved him it did matter.
In recounting the coming out process, he shares that one friend brought up God and implored him to change his mind. “Like it was a choice,” says Chasten. “This thing I had decided to do.”
His family got the news last. He found he couldn’t say the words out loud, so he wrote a letter to his parents and handed it to them in their living room.
“I remember my mom crying,” he recalls. “And the first thing she asked me was if I was sick. I think she meant, like, did I have AIDS?”
Chasten recalls a silence loomed over home life, although he remembers at one point one of his brothers said, “No brother of mine…”
Feeling like an outcast, he decided to leave home.
With his packed bags, he bounced from one friend’s couch to another; sometimes he slept in his car in the parking lot of the community college he was attending.
After some months, though, his mother called and asked him to come home. He says, “I cried, and I went home immediately.”
Over time his parents came to terms with his being gay, and even walked him down the aisle at his wedding last summer.
Rhyan Glezman, currently a pastor of a church in Clio, Michigan, told the Postthat Chasten’s coming out wasn’t a surprise, and that he loves his youngest brother. While he wants the best for Chasten, he admits, “I just don’t support the gay lifestyle.”
Chasten would go on to earn a degree from the University of Wisconsin in theater and global studies, eventually working at a youth theater academy in Milwaukee. But even with a full schedule he didn’t have benefits.
So, he got a second job slinging coffee and lattes 20 hours a week at a Starbucks to get health insurance.
The Starbucks gig led to his moving to Chicago. And it was while living in the Windy City that he met Mayor Pete on the dating app Hinge.
A few weeks of FaceTime chats with the young mayor convinced Chasten to make the drive to nearby South Bend, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Chasten says he laughed when Mayor Pete first broached the subject of running for president. But that quickly turned into total support for the idea.
He shares that the campaign trail is trying on many levels. Having lost 20 pounds since the holidays, he finds he’s worn out at the end of most days from what he calls “vulnerability fatigue.”
“You put yourself out there so much,” he admits. “And we’ve invited the world to scrutinize us.”
And while much of the country is interested in the first gay presidential contender with what looks like a decent shot, there are homophobic, nasty letters that arrive at their home.
But the Buttigiegs just keep moving forward.
“It’s just so important to go out there and do a good job right now,” he tells the Post. “Because for the first time in many people’s lives, they see someone on a national scale that makes them say, ‘Oh, that’s me, too.’”
The Hill is reporting that former Vice President Joe Biden holds a 30-point lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic presidential field, according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll.
• 44% Joe Biden • 14% Sen. Bernie Sanders • 9% Sen. Kamala Harris
All other candidates garnered 5 percent or less.
Biden also has the confidence of voters who were asked who would be the best choice to beat Donald Trump. Forty percent named Biden, while Sanders came in a distant 13 percent.
