Politics, pop culture and entertainment news of interest to the LGBTQ community
Jake Gyllenhaal recently shared his thoughts on playing a gay cowboy in the acclaimed 2005 film Brokeback Mountain even though there was still a “stigma” attached to taking on queer roles in mainstream movies. Continue reading “Jake Gyllenhaal Reflects On ‘Stigma’ Of Gay Roles”
Some news items you might have missed:
• NBC News: New York City Police officer Michael J. Reynolds (above), who broke into a black woman’s home in Tennessee and threatened her and her sons with a racist slur has resigned from the force. Last month, Reynolds was sentenced to 15 days in jail and three years’ probation after pleading no contest to one count of aggravated criminal trespassing and three counts of assault.
• The Advocate: Hate preacher Steven Anderson, the Arizona minister whose death wishes for LGBTQ people have gotten him banned from more than 30 countries, says Australia is being devastated by wildfires because he was banned from the country.
• Twitter: Singer Lizzo says she’s done with Twitter for now – “Too many trolls…”
Yeah I can’t do this Twitter shit no more.. too many trolls… ✌🏾
I’ll be back when I feel like it.
— Feelin Good As Hell (@lizzo) January 6, 2020
• JoeMyGod: American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer told his listeners gay men founded the Nazi party: “Let’s not forget that the Nazi Party started in a gay bar. The Nazi Party started in a gay bar in Munich, Germany, and the Stormtroopers were Hitler’s enforcers in the early days of the Nazi regime — the S.A., the Stormtroopers. Without exception, the officers in Hitler’s private army were homosexuals. You had no chance of advancing through the ranks unless you were a hardcore homosexual.”
• NewNowNext: Brokeback Mountain star Jake Gyllenhaal has secured the rights to produce and star in the film adaptation of the award-winning Broadway musical, Fun Home. He will play troubled gay patriarch Bruce Bechdel, who runs the family funeral home.
• Delaware News Journal: A Republican County Chairman in Pennsylvania, Chris Rowe, has announced he will resign for using the word “faggots” in a comment on a recent Facebook post. “Faggots cannot handle reality. Bad guy loses FB pisses themselves,” wrote Rowe. He later added on Facebook that he feels he has nothing to apologize for as the comment was “locker room talk” between him and a lifelong friend. #LockerroomTalk
• Apple TV: Check out this first look at the five-part series Visible: Out on Television debuting on Apple TV+ on February 14.
Apple TV’s The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon was thrilling to watch. Just saying…
Some news items you might have missed:
• Pride: We do LGBTQ Pride later in the year here in Las Vegas because June, the traditional month for Pride, is swelteringly hot. That’s Michael and I (above) briefly striking a pose. Check out more from Las Vegas Pride 2019 at the bottom of this post via Instagram.
• Boy Culture: Scotty Bowers, the purported pimp and hustler to a slew of Golden Age of Hollywood stars, praised by some for his frankness and bashed by others as a fabulist, died Sunday at 96.
• Politico: Sen. Elizabeth Warren is increasing pressure on Facebook to police false political ads on the social media platform. Her campaign made an ad with false claims and it was quickly approved.
We intentionally made a Facebook ad with false claims and submitted it to Facebook’s ad platform to see if it’d be approved. It got approved quickly and the ad is now running on Facebook. Take a look: pic.twitter.com/7NQyThWHgO
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 12, 2019
• Unilad: This gay couple from Argentina adopted a baby living with HIV that was rejected by ten other families.
• Instagram: Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Holland (currently starring together in Spiderman: Far From Home) almost broke the internet when jokingly posting, “Forget the Biebers… We’re getting married.”
• Deadline: Billy Porter on trying to break into Hollywood, “We must speak life into ourselves, even when everyone around us is doing the opposite. I never saw anything that looked like me, and visibility – when we see ourselves reflected back – is so important.”
And now, more shiny, happy people (including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Chasten Buttigieg) at this year’s Pride celebration here in Las Vegas:
In this week’s podcast:
• The chief of Customs & Border Patrol told Congress an immigrant’s HIV+ status is enough to justify family separation at the border
• A 90s child actor made an AIDS joke on Twitter, and no one laughed
• George Michael’s ex trashed the deceased pop star’s mansion
• A major LGBTQ news website closes its doors
• Jake Gyllenhaal shares about his iconic Brokeback Mountain role
All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report
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Some news items you might have missed:
• Yes, in case you were wondering, folks do make passes at guys who wear glasses. Especially if you look like Germany’s Obaid Habibi (above).
• The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved a resolution to recognize the South of Market neighborhood as the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, ensuring the location will remain an LGBTQ haven protected from overzealous gentrification efforts.
• The oh-so-handsome Jake Gyllenhaal will portray gay legendary composer (West Side Story, Candide) and conductor Leonard Bernstein in an upcoming film The American. Gyllenhaal is also set to produce the pic.
• As the Boy Scouts prepare to welcome girls into the organization, they are dropping the word ‘boy’ from the name of its signature program. Boy Scouts, which includes kids from 10 to 17, will become Scouts BSA in February.
• Anthony Shelton 20, and Cameron Ajiduah, 19, were sentenced to 20 and 15 years in prison, respectively, after having been found guilty of federal hate-crimes charges for assaulting and robbing gay men in four home invasions in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The two men used the dating app Grindr to target their victims.
• The two black men who were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks while waiting for a business colleague have settled with city officials for a symbolic $1 plus the promise to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs.
• And how about one more shot from “Hunk of the Day,” Mr. Obaid Habibi…
Jake Gyllenhaal makes his musical Broadway debut in the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece Sunday in the Park with George, set to begin previews at the historic Hudson Theatre on February 11.
The official opening of the limited run production (ten weeks only) is February 23rd.
Gyllenhaal shared this video via Facebook featuring a run-though of “Finishing The Hat.”
Watch below:
This is what happens when Riva Marker (the badass president of NineStories) and I invite #CaryJojiFukunaga to rehearsals for our new Broadway musical. Check out this video we made! #SundayintheParkWithGeorge
Some news items you might have missed:
• The brilliant indie film Moonlight received 6 Golden Globe nominations which means even more of the world will be exposed to one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. If you haven’t seen it yet, GO!
• Scientists are downloading and copying government climate data as quickly as possible out of fears a Trump administration might destroy any info showing the reality of climate change.
• Politico is reporting that upwards of 20 GOP Electoral College members are considering not casting their votes for Donald Trump on December 19th. The most EC members to change their votes in one year was 6 in 1808.
• More from the Electoral College – 40 members have asked for an intelligence briefing before December 19th regarding information that Russia actively moved to help elect Donald Trump.
• Oklahoma lawmakers have approved a bill that would require businesses to post anti-abortion signs in their bathrooms.
• Following an acclaimed 4 night concert production at City Center this past October, Jake Gyllenhaal heads back to Broadway in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday In The Park With George for ten weeks at the Hudson Theater.
Diana Ossana, the screenwriter for the highly acclaimed film version of Brokeback Mountain, recently appeared on The Michelangelo Signorile Show to talk on the film’s 10th anniversary.
During the chat, the writer shared that Heath Ledger was at one point considered not “macho” enough.
Via Huffington Post:
[Ennis] was the most difficult role to cast. And that seemed to be the perpetual problem as we went on. And even a little bit for [director] Ang [Lee].
“Another actor had committed [to the role of Ennis] and we had suggested Heath. But the studio [Focus Features] didn’t feel he was macho enough.
“I thought that was a rather odd comment. But we just sort of stuck with it. And when that [other] actor backed out — and he did, after three months — I called Heath’s agent. It was interesting.
“Early on, Ang had wanted both the boys to be lifting weights and get all buff. Heath said, ‘You know, I’m the ranch hand [in the film]. I wouldn’t have time to be lifting weights. I’m kind of scrawny and young.’ He said, ‘I’m not going to do that.’ So he didn’t.”
You can rent the devastatingly moving film with exceptional work by both Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal on iTunes.