Tag: Ellen Degeneres

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Daytime Emmy Noms Show Big Love For LGBTQ Series ‘After Forever’ & ‘Eastsiders’

Mitchell Anderson & Kevin Spirtas in ‘After Forever;’ the cast of ‘Eastsiders’ (images via Instagram)
The nominees for the 47th Annual Daytime Emmy® Awards were announced on Thursday with some big love to LGBTQ-themed work and artists. The Netflix dark comedy Eastsiders scored 8 nominations including Outstanding Digital Drama Series, RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Willam Belli and Leith M. Burke each got a nod for Outstanding Supporting Actor Digital Series; Lin Shaye for Outstanding Guest Performer Digital Series; Outstanding Writing Team Digital Series; Outstanding Casting; Outstanding Costume Design; and Outstanding Makeup. While RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Willam isn’t the first drag queen to receive an Emmy nod, I believe this is the first time a drag performer has received a nomination in an acting category.

The acclaimed Amazon Video digital series After Forever was honored with 6 nominations including Outstanding Digital Drama Series; Cady Huffman for Outstanding Lead Actress Digital Series; Lenny Wolpe for Outstanding Supporting Actor Digital Series; Mary Beth Peil for Outstanding Guest Performer Digital Series; Outstanding Writing Team Digital Series and Outstanding Art/Set Direction/Scenic Design. This was the second season of the acclaimed Amazon series. Two years ago, After Forever received 8 nominations and won 5 including Best Digital Drama Series. Additionally, series creator Kevin Spirtas scored for Best Actor Digital Series and Best Writing Team.

 

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Mary Beth Peil on joining the cast of AFTER FOREVER in Season 2: “I think the series is quite impressive, not just the story that they are telling but every one of us can relate to losing people,” she added. “It establishes a tone that is very unique and hard to describe. It allows everything to unfold naturally.” Read all about it in @digitaljournal & catch up on the series available on Amazon. #lgbtcommunity #lgbtpride #awardwinning #lgbt #laindiefilmfest #iawtvawards #outonfilmatlanta #outonfilm #accoladecompetition #loveandloss #gay #gaypride #watchnow #bingewatching #bingewatch #gsff2019 #daytimeemmys #indieseriesawards #emmys #emmywinner #afterforevertheseries #amazonprime #bingenetworks #kevinspirtas #mitchellanderson #filmnyc #nyc #marybethpeil

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Afternoon talkfest The Ellen DeGeneres Show added to its long list of Emmy honors with 5 nominations including Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show, Outstanding Writing for a Special Class Series, Outstanding Directing for Talk/Entertainment/Morning Program, Outstanding Sound Mixing, Outstanding Art/Set/Scenic Design. And the innovative lip-sync documentary Stonewall Outloud, which utilized rare recordings of people who experienced the Stonewall uprising in 1969, received a nod for Outstanding Direction – Special Class.

The honors will be presented in a two-hour special on Friday, June 26 (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Since 1974, the Daytime Emmy® Awards have recognized outstanding achievement in daytime television programming. The awards are presented to individuals and programs broadcast between 2:00 am and 6:00 pm, as well as certain categories of digital and syndicated programming of similar content. This year’s nominations were culled from more than 2,700 submissions and judged by a pool of 1,000 peer professionals from across the television industry. Awards will be presented in leading categories during the telecast, with recipients and other special guests appearing from home in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. You can find the full list of nominees at TheEmmys.tv. In case you missed it, you can check out my exclusive interview with the Emmy Award-winning co-creators of After Forever, Michael Slade & Kevin Spirtas, below.

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News Round-Up: April 21, 2020

(via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Woofy Steve_in_LA (above) chilled with his bestie today. What a handsome dog…the canine is a looker, too. Follow Steve on Instagram here. • Instinct Magazine: World of Wonder Productions, in partnership with The Stonewall Inn, will present a live-stream concert on Thursday, April 23rd at 8PM ET/ 5 PT, hosted by Michelle Visage and Tyler Oakley with proceeds from the event to benefit LGBTQ+ nightlife industry professionals affected by COVID-19. Among those scheduled to appear are Alan Cumming, Betty Who, Greyson Chance, John Cameron Mitchell, Kim Petras, Lorna Luft, Peppermint, Rufus Wainwright, Shoshana Bean, Todrick Hall, Troye Sivan, VINCINT and a special performance by Cyndi Lauper. • NBC News: The crew for The Ellen DeGeneres Show is furious over lack of communication from the producers, a proposed pay cut during the coronavirus threat, and the hiring of a non-union tech company to help DeGeneres tape remotely from her home in California. • Advocate: According to a new independent poll from Levada Center almost one in five (18 percent) of Russians believe that LGBTQ people should be “eliminated,” while 32 percent of Russians believe that gays and lesbians should be “isolated from society.” And that’s actually an improvement from past surveys. • Pink News: A trans woman was stabbed 20 times and had her eye gouged out to ‘send a message’ to Colombia’s LGBT+ community, say local leaders. • Politico: The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday reaffirmed its support for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of putting Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Tuesday’s bipartisan report, from a panel chaired by North Carolina Republican Richard Burr, undercuts Trump’s years of efforts to portray allegations of Kremlin assistance to his campaign as a “hoax,” driven by Democrats and a “deep state” embedded within the government bureaucracy. • Out Music: LA-based indie artist Onsen releases the new song “Be There”, a track about the one that got away. Though the track is about lost love, it was written when the epiphany of desire occurred but before the letdown. As a result, it reflects on the relationship in a positive light.

Drew Straus, aka Onsen, gives his side of the story: “After playing it cool for too long, a person I liked had drifted away. ‘Be There’ is a confession, that I took them for granted and realized foolishly late that I’m on board and want to make it work.”

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News Round-Up: April 17, 2020

Sean Hayes on Seth Rudetsky’s Back to School podcast
Some news items you might have missed: • Podcast: Before Sean Hayes (above) was winning Emmy awards, he was winning the Golden Crutch award for being the clumsiest person in his high school drama department. Hear how he earned the title, plus how he coped with getting hazed, on this week’s episode of Seth Rudetsky’s Back to School. Continue reading “News Round-Up: April 17, 2020”

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News Round-Up: April 14, 2020

Former Rep. Aaron Schock (3rd from right – screen capture)
Some news items you might have missed: • Instagram: The rules are clearly different for folks like former Rep. Aaron Schock (above) who doesn’t seem to be keeping any ‘social distance’ down in Cabo. • OUT: Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is making headlines again as thousands of petitioners are asking that she be replaced on her show by Ellen Page in a campaign that seems partially comedic and partially serious. • Twitter: A group of housemates in the UK decided to recreate their favorite nightclub G-A-Y, since they couldn’t visit it in person. Check out the results complete with promo street team, doorman/bouncer, bartender, a couple making out, disco lighting, and Rihanna’s gay anthem, “We Found Love.”

• 48 Hills: San Francisco Pride announced today that it is canceling (not postponing) this year’s June Parade and Celebration—the largest in the Western United States—as COVID continues to take its toll. • Wonkette: Someone should tell Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson that breast cancer and opioid addiction aren’t contagious like COVID-19. • Out Music: LGBTQ singer and TV personality, Trent Crews, drops his new single, “Papi,” which also features transgender rapper, ballroom scene personality and actress Precious (“Viceland’). The new track – a bouncy, urban pop bop – is an undeniably groovy listen. Crews is perhaps best known for his previous role in season 8 of VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: New York. Let me know what you think in the comments 🙂

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Ellen Jokes Quarantining In Her $24 Million Mansion “Is Like Being In Jail”

Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres at home (screen capture)
Ellen DeGeneres began hosting her talkshow from her living room this week in an effort to lift the spirits of her television audience. She began by acknowledging all the folks who are still at work helping to keep the world running including “doctors, hospital staff, first responders, supermarket employees, truck drivers and everyone who keeps us going.” Ellen shared doing the at-home edition of her show is for not only her viewers stuck at home but also for her staff and crew: “I love them and miss them, and the best I can do for them is to keep the show on the air.” But things went a bit awry when she cracked a joke comparing her experience quarantining in her $24 million mansion with folks who are incarcerated. “This is like being in jail, is what it is,” said Ellen. “Mostly because I’ve been wearing the same clothes for ten days and everyone in here is gay.”

The moment the words escaped her lips you could almost sense she regretted the reference as she clapped her hands and dropped her face as she said, “Ah, the jokes that I have.” The Emmy Award-winner went on to say she wants to “spread light where there’s shade,” which is a good thing because a LOT of shade was thrown her way on Twitter after the joke fail.

Ellen has caught some flack in recent months for seeming to be out of touch with the average person after standing up for her comedy pal Kevin Hart during the Oscar hosting debacle, and then palling around with former President George W. Bush. As I was writing this article, the video on YouTube was removed, which is probably for the best. At the end of the day, I don’t think an unfunny joke makes Ellen a bad person. Every comedian has a clunker every now and then. But perhaps cracking wise about a pandemic that’s killed thousands and comparing home situations with prisoners who barely have basic necessities might be put on the ‘no joke’ kill list.

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Viral ‘Shallow’ Singer Delivers Powerhouse Performance On ELLEN

Charlotte Awbery with Ellen DeGeneres (screen capture)
What a great feel-good story to get you over Hump Day! You may have seen the viral video clip zooming around social media of a woman stopped in the London subway by video blogger Kevin Freshwater. In the video, Freshwater thrusts his microphone into the face of Charlotte Awbery asking her to ‘finish the lyric’ as he begins the Lady Gaga smash hit, “Shallow.” Unsure of where the moment was going, Awbery tentatively picks up the next line of the song. And as Freshwater continues to react to her singing, she kept going eventually belting out the high section of the Academy Award-winning tune. It turns out Awbery IS a professional singer who performs at weddings, pubs, and other venues. But when the viral video took off, so did her social media following. Of course, it’s no surprise that Ellen DeGeneres would fly the blond singer to Los Angeles to celebrate the serendipitous episode.
Charlotte Awbery sings “Shallow” on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (screen capture)
After belting out “Shallow” for Ellen’s audience she sat down with the talk show host who ticked off just some of the stats that followed the video including over 60 million views online, a number that Awbery was not aware of. Additionally, the song “Shallow” reentered the Top 40 on iTunes thanks to the video. And her Instagram following has grown from 4,000 to over 480,000 in just a few days. By the way, one of those new followers was Ariana Grande. “I followed her back,” Awbery quickly assured Ellen.

Awbery is disarmingly charming as she is still taking in what it means to have all this attention after being a working singer for fifteen years. With Freshwater sitting in the audience, Ellen also confirms that the video was not a ‘set-up’ as some have posited. Of course, it wouldn’t be ELLEN if there wasn’t some gift-giving involved. So, to make sure Awbery gets to her gigs all across London, the show gave her a year-long pass on the London tubes, and Shutterfly gave the songbird $10,000 British pounds. As her Instagram following has grown exponentially since the video’s release, folks are now discovering past videos by Awbery. Check out her unfiltered take on the Judy Garland classic, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” below. #gorgeous

 

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#somewhereovertherainbow🌈 #live

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Ellen Weighs In On The ‘Great Recline’ Debate

Ellen DeGeneres weighed in today on the “Great Recline” debate. You may have heard about a video that recently went viral of a man punching the back of a woman’s chair on an airplane because she reclined her seat. Social media began debating over the controversy over whether passengers should do this or not. Ellen gave her opinion on the debate and reminded everyone of what she says at the end of every episode: “Recline to one another.”

I’m going to offer my opinion here. I think it totally sucks that the man was stuck in the last row and his seat didn’t recline and he had very limited space. As mentioned in the video above, he asked the woman in front of him to raise her seat up while he ate, and she did. The problem came about after he finished eating and she reclined again. I’m claustrophobic. That said, I spent years getting on a plane every week while traveling with the touring companies of Broadway musicals. Since all our tickets were bought as a big group of 30-40 people, I learned I had to plan ahead to avoid being in a situation like this. I would get to the airport early and try to change my seat assignment if I could. Once or twice, it was unavoidable. I would beseech the passengers around me to consider my plight. Often, someone would take pity on me. Other times, I had to tough it out. I would order drinks and close my eyes and meditate and wait for the flight to be over. I think people purchase their seats with the knowledge that practically all of them recline. To me, you’re paying for that. I repeat that I think it sucked the man was in the position he was in, but as an adult, he could have found a different way to cope.

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Ellen Surprises Teen Told To Cut His Dreadlocks With $20,000 Scholarship

Ellen DeGeneres welcomed Texas high school senior DeAndre Arnold to her show today, who made national news after he was told by school officials that he had to cut off his dreadlocks in order to return to classes. DeAndre sat down with Ellen to share that as it now stands he won’t be allowed to walk at graduation and why he has stood his ground. DeAndre shares that his father is from Trinidad where men wear their hair long as part of their culture. The high school student says he’s surprised schools won’t embrace other cultures outside of Texas. “Like, I’ve worked for this all my life. I’ve strived for this. I deserve this moment, to walk across the stage and enter into life. My parents deserve this. Like, they’re the ones who, you know, they got me through anything. And you know, they just taught me everything. They deserve to see me walk across the stage,” Arnold said. DeGeneres made an on-camera appeal to the Texas school district, asking them to do the right thing. And, of course, it wouldn’t be Ellen without a surprise. Alicia Keys shows up to surprise Arnold with a $20,000 scholarship from Shutterfly. Happy Hump Day!

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Must-See TV: Powerful New DocuSeries ‘Visible: Out On Television’

Ellen DeGeneres (screen capture)
Apple TV+ will debut a powerful, new five-part documentary-series titled Visible: Out On Television on February 14 that will explore how the LGBTQ movement made its way onto the television landscape. Executive produced by out actors Wanda Sykes and Wilson Cruz, the docu-series will feature archival footage as well as interviews with prominent players from the screen and LGBTQ movement. Each hour-long episode will focus on a specific theme such as coming out in Hollywood, homophobia, invisibility and the evolution of LGBTQ characters on TV.
Wilson Cruz, Neil Patrick Harris, Andy Cohen
Narrated by Neil Patrick Harris, Lena Waithe, Janet Mock, Margaret Cho, and Asia Kate Dillon, Visible: Out On Television will also feature interviews with out actors and television personalities including Ellen DeGeneres, Anderson Cooper, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Billy Porter, Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon, Andy Cohen and more.

The trailer opens with DeGeneres explaining how she wanted to come out on her 1990s sitcom and the effect that had on so many lives: “It became bigger than any of us ever anticipated.” “The earliest representations were always people to be mocked,” recalls Cooper. Andy Cohen adds, “The truth is there was no LGBT presence on TV that I can remember.” On the importance of seeing LGBTQ people on TV, iconic talk show queen Oprah Winfrey drops, “When you see images that are reflective of your own life, it is a reminder that your own life matters.” And Lena Waithe shares this compelling epiphany, “I didn’t realize that I was the revolution that I was waiting for.” Boom. Visible: Out On Television premieres February 14 on Apple TV+.

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Recapping The 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards

Kate McKinnon at the 77th Golden Globe Awards (screen capture)
I enjoyed watching the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s 77th annual Golden Globe Awards last night, even though I had hopes that more LGBTQ artists’ work would be recognized. First up – the good news. SNL’s Kate McKinnon paying tribute to Ellen DeGeneres in advance of Ellen accepting the Carol Burnett Excellence in Television Award was easily the most touching LGBTQ moment of the night. “In 1997, when Ellen’s sitcom was in the height of its popularity, I was in my mother’s basement lifting weights in front of the mirror and thinking, ‘Am I gay?’ And I was, and I still am,” McKinnon said. “But that’s a very scary thing to suddenly know about yourself. It’s sort of like doing 23andMe and discovering that you have alien DNA. And the only thing that made it less scary was seeing Ellen on TV.” “She risked her entire life and her entire career in order to tell the truth, and she suffered greatly for it,” continued McKinnon. “Of course, attitudes change, but only because brave people like Ellen jump into the fire to make them change.” “And if I hadn’t seen her on TV, I would have thought, ‘I could never be on TV. They don’t let LGBTQ people on TV.’ And more than that, I would have gone on thinking that I was an alien and that I maybe didn’t even have a right to be here. So thank you, Ellen, for giving me a shot. A shot at a good life, and thank you also for the sweater with a picture of the baby goat on it.”

Elton John and songwriting partner Bernie Taupin picked up the prize for Best Original Song (Motion Picture) with “I’m Gonna Love Me Again” from the musical fantasy biopic of John’s early life, Rocketman. “It’s the first time I won an award with him. Ever,” said the pop music legend while accepting the award. “We never won a Grammy, we never did anything together except for this and I’m so happy, thank you very much.” Taupin added, “This isn’t just a song we wrote for a movie – this is a song we wrote for a movie that deals with our relationship.” And hunky Taron Egerton’s star turn as “Elton John” in the film won for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy). But the movie lost out in the top category of Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood.

Out actors Billy Porter (FX’s Pose) and Ben Platt (Netflix’s The Politician) were nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series in the Drama and Comedy categories, respectively. But the two Tony Award winners went home empty-handed as Porter watched Brian Cox accept the trophy in his category for HBO’s Succession, and writer/actor Ramy Youssef scored over Platt for his turn in Hulu’s Ramy. Porter may not have won during the awards ceremony, but he certainly scored on the red carpet with his ‘vision in white’ feather-adorned tuxedo by Alex Vinash in collaboration with stylist Sam Ratelle.  Embellished with 4,000 Swarovski crystals and a six-foot train paired with a $2 million, 40-carat Tiffany & Co. diamond necklace, Porter was easily one of the fashion highlights of the evening. Standing on the red carpet, Porter announced, “This is not a sitting outfit, this is a standing outfit!”

Out actor Andrew Scott was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series (Comedy) for his performance as ‘Hot Priest’ in Amazon’s Fleabag, but saw the trophy go to Russell Crowe for his performance as Roger Ailes in Showtime’s The Loudest Voice. Out actress Beanie Feldstein received a nod for her high school overachiever in the lauded comedy Booksmart, but the moment would go to Awkwafina in The Farewell, making history as the first Asian-American performer to win a Golden Globe in any lead actress film category. I thought Antonio Banderas would score with his nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) in Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory, but Joaquin Phoenix walked away with the Golden Globe for his terrific performance in The Joker. Some might have been surprised by Renée Zellweger’s win for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) in the Judy Garland biopic, Judy. But it’s a worthy, powerhouse performance in a moving film about the legendary gay icon. Lesbian-centric Killing Eve lost in the Best Television Series (Drama) category to Succession. And Netflix’s gay-themed The Politician was nominated for Best Comedy Series, but the honor went to the Amazon hit, Fleabag. Two queer films – Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory – were nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, but the award went to the widely-acclaimed South Korean thriller, Parasite. While not LGBTQ in regards to the actors or content, I was thrilled that Michelle Williams’ incredible turn as legendary Broadway leading lady Gwen Verdon in the miniseries Fosse/Verdon scored. Months after viewing the series, I think it’s the best thing I saw on television all year.

For a complete list of those who took home Golden Globes last night, click here.