Tag: Netflix

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News Round-Up: April 3, 2019

Some news items you might have missed:

• Here’s a t-shirt (modeled by InstaHunk Ramses Principe) that I can totally relate to 😉

• The governor of Utah has signed into law the state’s new, tougher hate crimes law with stricter punishments for those who commit crimes specifically due to bias. Yes – Utah!

• Even though Netflix cancelled the terrific One Day at a Time reboot, the streaming giant may be standing in the show’s way of finding a new home.

• Starting out at a bus stop as young boys, James Corden and Tony Award winner Ben Platt tell the story of a life-long friendship using 9 different sets and 12 carefully curated songs all captured in one take.

• Investigators on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team say the four page letter by Attorney General William Barr didn’t adequately portray the findings of their investigation.

• Stoning gays to death officially became the law of the land in Brunei today. Even Ellen DeGeneres has joined the boycott of hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei.

• Donald Trump’s choices for ambassadorships has been, interesting, to say the least. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates — a wealthy real estate developer with no diplomatic experience. Ambassador to Morocco? A well-heeled car dealer. For Iceland? While well-traveled, the nominee had never even been to the Nordic country.

• The brilliant satirist, Randy Rainbow, offers his parody of the Disney classic, “Cruella DeVille,” with a nod to our current clueless Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

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Podcast: Texas, Bisexual Youth, Trump’s Trans Ban, New Netflix Series ‘Special’

Catch up on the week's LGBT headlines with The Randy Report podcast

In this week’s podcast:

• A majority of Americans say their are more than comfortable with a gay or lesbian running for president

• The U.S. House approved a non-binding resolution Thursday morning rebuking Donald Trump’s plan to ban transgender military service members

• Wisconsin couple told to remove their Pride flag or be evicted

• New data shows there are more bisexual youth and they need our attention

• GOP lawmakers in Texas approved a bill on Monday that would allow state-licensed professionals to discriminate against LGBTQ people, or anyone they want to refuse services, based on their religious beliefs

• Netflix drops the official trailer for ‘Special,’ an offbeat comedy series about a gay man with mild cerebral palsy

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report

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Netflix: Offbeat, Heartwarming New Comedy Series ‘Special’

Ryan O’Connell and Punam Patel in ‘Special’

Netflix drops the official trailer for Special, an offbeat comedy series about a gay man with mild cerebral palsy.

Loosely based on the critically-acclaimed memoir by writer/actor Ryan O’Connell – I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves – the series stars O’Connell as a man who “decides to rewrite his identity as an accident victim and finally go after the life he wants.”

After years of dead-end internships, writing in his pajamas as a blogger, and communicating mainly via text messages, Ryan is hit by a car in the street. When his new co-workers assume his limp is due to the accident, he just never bothers to correct the misunderstanding.

“If you could get rid of the thing you hate most about yourself, the thing no one understands, wouldn’t you do it?”

The hilarious and heartwarming 8-episode series is being produced for Netflix by O’Connell along with Jim Parson’s That’s Wonderful Productions and Warner Bros’ Digital Networks’ Stage 13.

The series also stars Jessica Hecht, Punam Patel, Marla Mindelle, Augustus Prew, and Patrick Fabian.

O’Connell’s past writing includes being a contributor for Buzzfeed, Vice, Thought Catalog and other publications as well as serving as Executive Story Editor for the reboot of the hit NBC series, Will & Grace.

Special makes its Netflix premiere on April 12. Check out the trailer below.

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@Netflix – Please Don’t Cancel ‘One Day At A Time!’

Please don't cancel my One Day at a Time, Netflix!

Netflix hasn’t committed to a 4th season of its terrific reboot of the 1975-1984 sitcom One Day at a Time, kids, so fire up your Netflix and watch because it’s terrific!

The Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer scores are a whopping 100% fresh score for seasons two and three, and a 97% score on season one.

The series has put a spotlight on depression, sexism, homophobia (there’s an openly lesbian daughter) and even more – Rita Moreno stars as the fabulously sassy grandmother, Lydia.

Watch the one minute scene below where Lydia confronts her own homophobia – brilliant!

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Anti-LGBTQ Law Costs North Carolina New $60 Million Netflix Series

North Carolina just can’t get its act together regarding anti-LGBTQ laws.

And now, according to StarNewsOnline, the state may have just lost $60 million in revenue thanks to the inaction of state lawmakers to repeal those laws.

Streaming giant, Netflix, was looking to shoot a new series, OBX, in the Tar Heel state but balked thanks to HB 142.

The law, enacted in 2017 was meant to be a ‘fix’ on previous legislation HB 2, which marginalized transgender people by requiring them to use public bathrooms that align with the gender on their birth certificates.

HB 142 partially repealed HB 2, but left in place bans on local communities passing their own anti-discrimination laws through 2020.

Ten episodes of the new project have been ordered by Netflix, and Jonas Pate, who created the show, wanted to shoot in his hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina. But the ban on local municipalities enacting their own legislation is a sticking point for Netflix.

“This tiny law is costing this town 70 good, clean, pension-paying jobs and also sending a message to those people who can bring these jobs and more that North Carolina still doesn’t get it,” Pate said.

Pate added that the production is projected to spend in the neighborhood of $60 million in whatever state the series shoots.

Pate, and his brother Josh, have previously created the NBC series Surface, which was shot in Wilmington.

But this past weekend, Pate found himself scouting sections of Charleston, South Carolina, for the new production.

Freshman state Sen. Harper Peterson, a Democrat from Hanover, hopes to see the issue addressed this week as the state Assembly is in session.

“That is a decision the legislature has to make and realize that it is one more opportunity we are losing if we don’t,” Peterson told StarNewsOnline. “We have to get back and be competitive with other states. It just hurts to see a production about North Carolina go to South Carolina.”

OBX is described as a coming-of-age story that follows four teens in the Outer Banks whose lives are changed when a hurricane cuts off all power to the islands.

“When these lifelines for teens like phones and Snapchat are gone, it really reorients the generational divisions,” says Pate.

(h/t StarNewsOnline)

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Netflix: Season 5 Of ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Gets Even More Gay (Yay!)

Noah Reid and Dan Levy in 'Schitt's Creek'
Noah Reid and Dan Levy in ‘Schitt’s Creek’

We’re so excited for the new trailer for the upcoming 5th season of the Netflix series Schitt’s Creek.

In case you haven’t been watching the show (and you really should be), the series follows the Rose family, a formerly wealthy family (video store magnate Johnny and soap opera star wife Moira) who find they’re almost broke after an employee embezzles their money.

The only asset they are left with turns out to be ownership of a small town, named Schitt’s Creek, Johnny bought years ago as a joke.

The Roses are forced to relocate to the small town with their two spoiled children, daughter Alexis and uber-gay son David, leaving their pampered, wealthy lives behind.

Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara star as the parents, and Levy’s real-life son Dan Levy co-created the series and plays David alongside Annie Murphy’s Alexis.

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Speaking to the Toronto Star, Dan (who’s openly gay) shared that the fan base for the series is very wide ranging – from seniors to teens, from Democrats to Republicans.

In fact, he says “some of the most touching feedback” has come from conservative, religious viewers who’ve never “understood” the LGBTQ community.

They’d never had an in to that world before, and they’ve fallen in love with the characters,” says Dan. “If we can continue to open people’s eyes to realize that everyone’s deserving of love, that’s a wonderful thing.”

He also celebrates the creative freedom he and the show’s creative staff has enjoyed in exploring gay storylines.

From The Toronto Star:

“As a gay person to tell these stories and to have no questions asked and no notes from network and to feel completely uninhibited in saying, ‘This is a gay couple on TV; they’re going to kiss like any straight couple would” — it’s amazing.

“Gay relationships have historically not been treated the same as straight relationships. You don’t see the same kind of sexuality, intimacy, kissing, because it’s been considered taboo or headline-grabbing for so long. I love that we’ve been able to just tell a relationship as it is, as it exists, for me, for my friends, for people I know, for people out in the world, that doesn’t come with a lesson to be learned. It’s just two people loving each other.”

Calling the show’s 4th season a “midpoint,” Levy feels the series has a “whole half a football field to go” in exploring Schitt’s Creek’s characters.

Season 5 of Schitt’s Creek drops on Netflix January 16. Watch the trailer below.

(h/t Toronto Star)

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Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski in ‘Antoni Psycho’

Antoni Porowski in “Antoni Psycho”

Showing off his Calvins and morning routine, Queer Eye hottie Antoni Porowski appears in a new trailer titled “Antoni Psycho.”

With some morning stretches, a face mask made of greek yogurt and green tea leaves, Antoni takes on a very American Psycho tone as he explains to the viewer that he doesn’t care if his guests like what he cooks for them: “They’ll eat it if they know what’s good for them.”

Cue the scary Halloween sound effects.

The trailer is part of a new series of horror-themed short films now available on Netflix. The collection is cleverly titled Don’t Watch This.

Porowski is exploring several new horizons lately.

I recently reported on his quiet breakup with longtime boyfriend, Joey Krietemeyer, although he did find some respite with new romantic interest Trace Lehnhoff of Flipping Out fame.

He also recently opened a new restaurant in New York City, The Village Den, and now he’s breaking into acting.

Antoni is a very busy boy.

 Check out the trailer for Don’t Watch This below.

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Netflix Claps Back At Social Media Trolls In Awesomely Gay Fashion

(image via Netflix/Instagram)

For some time now, streaming service Netflix has been giving more and more representation to the LGBTQ community with its original programming.

The new Spanish high school drama Elite, for example, features an oh-so-cute gay couple – “Omar” (Omar Ayuso) and “Ander” (Aron Piper).

Over the weekend, Netflix shared a still of the couple (fondly nicknamed “Omander”) just about to lock lips on its Instagram account with the caption, “The only thing I want is to be with you. #Omander”

A post shared by Netflix US (@netflix) on Oct 13, 2018 at 9:46am PDT

Now, as Taylor Swift likes to sing, “haters gonna hate, hate, hate.” And they did.

There were tons of very supportive comments but one, from a user named ‘judas_priest12321’ caught the attention of the folks handling the Netflix account.

The hater left this little bon mot: “Get the f*ckoff my Instagram. Not ever person on the planet is gay. You are trying way to hard.”

Grammar and spelling issue aside, the negativity reeked. But Netflix was not having the hate.

Amid a flood of rainbow emojis, Netflix slapped back writing, “…sorry couldn’t read your comment while surrounded by all these beautiful rainbows…”

That comment inspired thousands of rainbow and pride emoji themed responses.

The post has garnered over 400,000 ‘likes’ so far, and an amazing 12,000 comments.

This isn’t the first time Netflix has defended its LGBTQ-themed programming.

Back in August, when the service announced Dancing Queen, a new docu-series following RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Alyssa Edwards, the folks running the network’s Instagram clapped back at several haters who felt the need to hate on the upcoming series.

You can check out the trailer for Netflix’s Elite below, and find more info about the series here.

And all I have left to say to Netflix is: 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈❤️🧡💛💚💙💜❤️🧡💚💙💜❤️🧡💛💚💙💜❤️🧡💛💚💙💜❤️🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈


(h/t Gay Star News)

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Trailer: Final Season Of Netflix’s “House Of Cards”

Squeee!!!

Streaming giant Netflix released the official trailer for the upcoming sixth and final season of its hit political drama, House of Cards.

As I’ve already reported, we know Kevin Spacey’s “Frank Underwood” is killed off in the new season.

In this new trailer, we get a sense of how Robin Wright’s “Claire Underwood,” who became the first female president of the United States at the end of last season, will handle those around her.

“I’m not going to be told what to do anymore,” she tells one former ally, “not by you or any man.”

Oscar-nominees Diane Lane & Greg Kinnear will play “Annette & Bill Shepherd,” siblings who are apparently behind-the-scenes power players in Washington politics.

Its hard to tell if Lane is Claire’s new ally or foe. At one point, she shares with Claire that she slept with now-dead Frank Underwood years before.

They say timing is everything, so you’ll note the streaming service plans to drop the entire final season on November 2, just four days before the midterm elections.

Watch the trailer below.

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News Round-Up: August 27, 2018

Some news items you might have missed:  • California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law AB 2439 which designates the Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City as the official state LGBTQ veterans memorial. California is the first state to have a designated memorial honoring LGBT veterans. • Streaming service Netflix is catching flak for under-representing lesbians, bisexuals and trans folks in it’s LGBT content.

• Homocon and self-described provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos recently took to Facebook to cry about his ‘ruined life.’ The far-right lunatic says his cancelled speaking events have cost him “tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. And when I get dumped from conferences, BARELY ANYONE makes a sound about it – not my fellow conservative media figures and not even, in many cases, you guys.” • Human Rights Campaign Foundation president Mary Beth Maxwell resigned her position after multiple instances of using the N-word in the workplace. • The Hollywood Reporter calls the upcoming film, 1985, “Sensitively observed, a model of eloguent restraint;” and Variety calls the film an “Excellent drama… nothing here rings false.” Starring Gotham‘s Cory Michael Smith as “Adrian,” eldest son to Texas residents Virginia Madsen and Michael Chiklis, the film follows Adrian as he returns home following the death of his partner to AIDS. Home for the holidays to say goodbye to his family, he reconnects with his old friend Carly (Jamie Chung) and his younger brother Andrew (Aidan Langford). Watch the trailer below. The film is set for limited release October 26.