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Mayor Pete Buttigieg Is Number One In Latest Iowa Polling

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (via Instagram)
The latest polling from Monmouth University for the upcoming Iowa caucus’ show out Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the top spot for the first time. He edges former Vice President Joe Biden by 3 points and Sen. Elizabeth Warren for 4 points. Here are the results of the latest poll – the numbers in parenthesis represent standing when combining first and second place results:

• Mayor Pete Buttigieg 22% (37) • Former Vice President Joe Biden 19% (29) • Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) 18% (35) • Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 13% (25) • Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) 5% (14) • Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) 3% (9) • Billionaire Tom Steyer 3% (6) • Entrepreneur Andrew Yang 3% (4)

Those numbers show an increase of 14 points for Buttigieg since Monmouth’s last poll in August when he garnered just 8 percent. The South Bend mayor’s gains since the summer have been across the board, with increasing support coming from nearly every demographic group reports Monmouth University. “Buttigieg is emerging as a top pick for a wide variety of Iowa Democrats,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “While he has made nominally bigger gains among older caucusgoers, you really can’t pigeonhole his support to one particular group. He is doing well with voters regardless of education or ideology.” It goes without saying that a first or second-place finish in Iowa would seriously underscore Buttigieg’s standing among the current crop of Democratic White House hopefuls. Mayor Pete is the first openly gay candidate to have a serious shot at the Democratic presidential nomination.

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That said, only 28 percent of likely caucusgoers say that they are firmly set on their choice of candidate. The majority of respondents indicated they would not be overly disappointed if they had to switch their support. There are easily identifiable reasons for the upswing in Buttigieg’s standing. One, the 37-year-old mayor has begun to cast himself as an option for moderate Democrats who are also looking at Biden. Two, when the Buttigieg campaign announced its top funding raising numbers ($24.8 million) after the second quarter of 2019, his team said they would put that money to use, which they have. Buttigieg has more than 100 staffers and over 20 organizing offices across Iowa.

However, it’s worth noting that despite laying out a detailed policy platform to help African Americans he calls “The Douglas Plan,” he faces an uphill battle in attracting the support of black voters, both nationally and in South Carolina where the third primary voting will be held. African-Americans make up about two-thirds of Democratic voters in the Palmetto state. It’s been 31 years since a Democrat won the nomination without majority-black support.

(source: Monmouth University polling)  

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People Magazine’s ‘Sexiest Reality Star’ For 2019 Is…?

Antoni Porowski of Queer Eye (image via Facebook)
Antoni Porowski of Queer Eye (image via Facebook)
In the lead-up to announcing this year’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive,’ People Magazine is releasing the results of its Reader’s Choice polls. And the ‘Sexiest 2019 Reality Star’ title goes to…Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski. The Emmy Award-winning ‘make better’ chef beat out his competition which included The Bachelorette‘s “Air Force” Mike Johnson and Tyler Cameron, Vanderpump Rules‘ Tom Sandoval and Dancing with the Stars’ Val Chmerkovskiy. It’s been a busy year for the avocado lover as Queer Eye took home the Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Structured Reality Program’ for the second year in a row, and he released his new cookbook, Antoni in the Kitchen, which is currently number one among cookbooks on Amazon. Netflix recently dropped a new mini-season of the hit reality show featuring the make-over men in Japan.

Nice to see some LGBTQ inclusion there, folks. In the category of ‘Sexiest Funny Guy,’ The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah slayed a field that included John Mulaney, Rob Delaney, Kumail Nanjiani, and Hasan Minhaj.

Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors was a slam-dunk in the poll for ‘Sexiest Athlete’ taking out competitors Rafael Nadal, Michael Phelps, Bubba Wallace, and Mike Fisher.

High style can catch an eye which is why Crazy Rich Asians‘ Henry Golding was credited with having the ‘Sexiest Funky Fashion Sense’ on red carpets this year coming out a cut above Eddie Redmayne, A$AP Rocky, Donald Glover, and Jeff Goldblum.

Since 1985, when Mel Gibson was named the first ‘Sexiest Man Alive,’ People Magazine has surprised its readers with its pick for next-level hotness. Woofy movie star Idris Elba was crowned ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ last year, but we’ll have to wait one more week to find out who will be People’s 2019 ‘Sexiest Man Alive.’

What do you think, readers? Is Antoni your pick of ‘sexiest reality star?’ Who do you think rocks the reality TV world? (source: People)

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And The Answer is #WeLoveYouAlex

Answer: Alex Trebek being moved by a contestant who can’t win. Question: What is beautiful? When a player on today’s episode of Jeopardy realized he couldn’t win the game show, he decided to use his final Jeopardy answer to send a message of love to host Alex Trebek. Contestant Dhruv Gaur wrote “We love you, Alex” after being stumped on the answer. The hashtag #WeLoveYouAlex soon began trending on Twitter. Trebek was diagnosed earlier this year with stage 4 pancreatic cancer but has announced he has no plans to retire. He is currently undergoing a second round of chemotherapy. And he has yet to miss a show.

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Bottles & Beefcake At The ‘Bad Boy’ Group Session

L-R Drew Canan, Artie O’Daly (screen capture)
Artie O’Daly is back with the latest installment of his Bad Boy web series. The episode opens on Scott (O’Daly) at the LGBT Center where he’s in session with his counselor Jamila (Julia Pace). Scott is frustrated his agent isn’t happy with the state of his most current movie script. “Do we please others or do we please ourselves?,” asks Jamila before offering some homespun advice. “I’m going to tell you something my mama told me: if you’re eating dinner and a friend stops by don’t share too much of your food. Uh-uh, cause then you’ll end up ordering pizza and that’ll take 30 minutes to get there.” Yeah, it didn’t make sense to Scott either. Before a real solution for Scott’s problem can be found, ‘bad boy’ BJ (Braden Davis) wanders in. It seems he always accompanies his mother to her AA meetings because “she’s usually too drunk to drive home after.” And since this is a group thing (psst – it isn’t) he has a problem he’d like to share. It seems his uncle tragically died last week on his farm where he sneezed right before going peacefully. Or, ‘piece-fully’ since the sneeze caused him to lose his balance and accidentally fall into the wood chipper. You know how that happens… Jamila has some sage advice from her mama on this one too: “Sometimes a door opens up and you can walk on through it, or you can stay where you are cause you’re going to be fine either way.” Mama had a way with words, don’t you know? But we can’t ruminate too long on that one because that AA meeting is over, so BJ’s mom Whitney (Theresa Ryan) joins the fun. And – surprise – she has a problem, too. She was apparently squatting in an empty house until ‘these people moved in,’ and now she’s having to hide/sleep in their closet. And before Jamila can solve that quandary, beefcake ‘bad boy’ Jim (Drew Canan) finds the fun. It seems he was having an HIV test because he likes to be sexually responsible. Wait – was that something that actually made sense??? Jim is still coping with the aforementioned tragic wood chipper death of his dad, but taking it well. “He’s on to greener pastures now, at least that’s where I heard they found him,” shares Jim. Not to give too much away, but like everyone we meet in O’Daly’s wacky ‘Bad Boy’ universe, you can’t trust that anyone is exactly who they seem to be. Hit play to see how the ‘session’ comes to a close. I’ve covered previous episodes of the clever (but often confounding) ‘Bad Boy’ web series here.

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Adam Rippon Skates On A ‘River’ Of Ice For His 30th Birthday

Olympic bronze medalist Adam Rippon shares his 30th birthday skate

Olympic bronze medalist Adam Rippon shares his 30th birthday skate Out Olympic bronze medalist Adam Rippon celebrates 30 trips around the sun today! For his birthday, the self-appointed ‘America’s sweetheart’ took to the ice for a skate to Joni Mitchell’s “River,” covered by Tony Award winner Ben Platt in his Netflix series, The Politician. In sharing the video clip, Rippon wrote on Facebook:

“Today is my 30th birthday. I couldn’t be more grateful for everything and everyone in my life.

“Thank you for always sending love and positive energy my way. I hope I’m always able to do the same for you.

“I wanted to do something fun for myself so I asked one of my old skating choreographers, Cindy Stuart, to put this together with me. She is amazing. And Ben Platt is also amazing (duh) and when I heard him do a cover of this song I knew I had to skate to it. A huge thank you to On Ice Perspectives for putting it all together.”

Happy birthday, Adam!

I had the utterly charming experience of interviewing Rippon for the release of his memoir, Beautiful on the Outside. Hit the play button below to take a listen:

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Reporter ‘Deeply Regrets’ Misquoting Buttigieg After Mistake Goes Viral

Mayor Pete Buttigieg on the campaign trail (via Buttigieg campaign/FB)
A reporter for the Los Angeles Times has issued an apology for misquoting Democratic presidential hopeful Mayor Pete Buttigieg in an article published on Sunday. Evan Halper seemed to have gotten a newsworthy quote from Buttigieg where the midwestern mayor appeared to blame President Barack Obama for the election of Donald Trump. At the end of Halper’s article, he quoted Buttigieg as saying, “The failures of the Obama era help explain how we got Trump.” What the openly gay mayor actually said was, “The failures of the old normal help explain how we got Trump.” Halper took to Twitter early Monday morning to apologize saying he misheard what Buttigieg as a “result of transcribing a noisy recording.”

Buttigieg was responding to being compared to former Vice President Joe Biden and billionaire Michael Bloomberg. “My message is not about going back to where we were,” said Buttigieg. “I think because I come from a part of the country where ‘normal’ has been a real problem for a very long time, and I think the failures of the old normal help explain how we got Trump period.” “So, I’m much more interested in running on building a future that is going to have a lot of differences,” he added. Apparently, the communications team for Buttigieg’s campaign records and archives his interviews. They’ve got the receipts and posted the audio recording to YouTube. Buttigieg’s statement comes at the 45-second mark:

Buttigieg accepted Halper’s ‘swift and honest’ apology via Twitter:

Apologies are nice, but in the time that the article was published and the apology was issued, the hashtag #ByePete had begun trending on Twitter. Some folks in the Twitterverse were not happy. Here’s just a sample:

Once seen as a ‘long-shot’ candidate, Buttigieg has continued to rise in the polls. And with higher polling positions, he has attracted closer scrutiny to his policies and public statements. The Real Clear Politics average of national polls currently shows Buttigieg in 4th place behind Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). RCP average of polls for first-in-the-nation Iowa, however, indicates he trails only Warren. A first or second-place finish in the Iowa caucus’ for Buttigieg would give even more credibility to his candidacy.

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Lawsuit Filed After Madonna Can’t Show Up To Work On Time

NBC News reports that Madonna fans are a bit over the Queen of Pop’s habit of being tardy for her own concerts. It seems she was constantly late for performances for her current Madame X tour that showtimes were moved to 10:30 pm to accommodate her preference for later shows. And now, she’s late for those. From NBC News:

Nate Hollander purchased three tickets totaling $1,024.95 for Madonna’s Dec. 17, 2019, “Madame X Tour” at the Fillmore Miami Beach concert venue, according to the suit filed Nov. 4 in federal court in Miami-Dade County.

At the time Hollander bought the tickets, the show was scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m., according to the suit against the pop star and concert promoter Live Nation.

The suit alleges at the start of the tour, which kicked off in September, Madonna repeatedly arrived hours late to her shows.

The singer, 61, has a “long history of arriving and starting her concerts late” and to accommodate her tardiness her shows, including the Miami Beach one, were rescheduled to start at 10:30 p.m., the complaint states.

Hollander did not want to attend a concert that late and Live Nation would not refund him his money, according to the lawsuit.

This past Thursday night in Las Vegas, Madge apparently didn’t take to the stage until well after midnight. The show was scheduled to start at 10:30 pm. According to local news station KVVU in Las Vegas, the fans were booing by the time Madonna got to the stage. And I’ve heard reports that somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 attendees were asking for ticket refunds. And rather than express chagrin or remorse, she informed her fans who paid a minimum of $200-300 that “The Queen is never late” – so get over it:

One fan tweeted that Madge was only 15 minutes late on Friday, but the fan and her group left early because they “wanted more hits” and the new concert focuses primarily on the new Madame X album. Las Vegas entertainment reporter John Katsilometes tweeted that Ticketmaster had taken to warning ticket-holders not to expect the show to start until 12:30 am.

I shared something about Madonna’s issue with time on Facebook last night and it turned into 125+ comments. A couple of people say Madonna has ‘always’ been like this, so no one should be surprised. If you buy tickets and she’s late it’s your own fault because you should know. Others say two hours late is unacceptable and disrespectful to the ticket-buying public. What do you think about this, readers?

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Police Arrest 25+ As Protesters Tried To Disrupt Movie About Two Male Dancers In Love

(image via official website)
From Reuters:

Police in Georgia said on Saturday they had arrested more than 25 people after ultra-nationalist protesters attempting to derail the premiere of an award-winning movie about gay love clashed with security forces.

A few hundred demonstrators blocked the road outside a cinema in the capital’s city center on Friday ahead of the first screening of “And Then We Danced”, which tells the story of two young male Georgian ballet dancers falling in love.

Chanting “Long live Georgia” and “Shame”, the protesters – some holding crosses and religious icons – tried to force their way inside the cinema but where held back by riot police.

“This is not just a movie. This is an insult to our faith, our traditions and all that is holy for us,” said Guram Damenia, who came dressed in a traditional Georgian costume.

Two police officers and a young woman, who was trying to go watch the film, were injured, police said.

The three days of scheduled screenings in Tbilisi sold out immediately. The film, which has won awards at film festivals around the world, premiered to acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival this past spring.

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Helen Mirren & Sir Ian McKellen Read Trump’s Ukraine Transcript

L-R Sir Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren
With Stephen Colbert judging their innocence or guilt, two acting greats – Helen Mirren and Sir Ian McKellen – take on the roles of Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky and read lines from the infamous “transcript.” Mirren sums it up perfectly: “There’s no way of saying that except for ‘guiltily…” Their new film “The Good Liar” hits theaters on Friday, November 15th

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Buttigieg Unveils Plan To Make Public College Free For Middle Class Families

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (via Instagram)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg has released his plan to make college education more affordable.  It would tie the price of attending college to a family’s income. Under Mayor Pete’s proposal, public colleges would be free for students whose families earn less than $100,000 per year. Former Vice President Joe Biden has suggested something similar versus the plans of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders who promise free college for everyone across the board. A sliding scale would come into play for those families whose income lands between $100,000 to $150,000. Families making more than $150,000 would pay full tuition. In his new economic agenda, Buttigieg writes, “Our government can, and should, play a role in setting a level playing field that gives all Americans a chance to succeed.” He adds that “government does need to be a vigorous presence in ensuring that our economy actually works for all.” Buttigieg has previously stated he favors a sliding scale approach because, “I think if you’re a child of a billionaire you can take care of yourself, and you ought to be able to pay some tuition.” Buttigieg’s plan would be financed by raising taxes on the top 1 percent of Americans.