Tag: Netflix

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‘The Prom’ Serves Up Big Stars & Sweet Same-Sex Romance

Meryl Streep and James Corden in The Prom (image via Netflix)
Netflix has dropped the Glee-tastic first trailer for the upcoming movie musical, The Prom, starring Academy Award winners Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman as well as Tony Award winner James Corden and Andrew Rannells. The film follows Dee Dee Allen (Streep) and Barry Glickman (Corden) as New York stage actors whose latest big Broadway musical flops and the actors scramble to revive their careers. At the same time, high school student Emma Nolan (Jo Ellen Pellman), in small-town Indiana, has been banned from bringing her girlfriend, Alyssa (Ariana DeBose) to prom even though she has the backing of her principal.
The cast of The Prom (image via Netflix)
When Dee Dee and Barry decide that Emma’s predicament is the perfect cause to help resurrect their public images, they hit the road with Angie (Kidman) and Trent (Rannells), another pair of cynical actors looking for a professional lift. But the quartet finds, as often happens on the silver screen, that self-absorbed celebrity activism can backfire, leaving the four thespians in chaos even as they struggle on to give Emma a night where she can truly celebrate who she is. The film’s sweet, teenage love story is balanced by big, splashy production numbers. And let’s face it – does anyone do over-the-top egocentric character roles better than La Streep?
Meryl Streep (center) in The Prom (image via Netflix)
The stage production of the musical opened in November 2018 to rave reviews winning the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical.  When the Broadway cast appeared on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade that year, the performance featured the first-ever same-sex kiss in the history of the annual event. And the show went out with a bang with two same-sex members of the production exchanging vows onstage right before closing night. The cast also includes Kerry Washington, Keegan-Michael Key, Tracey Ulmann, and Nico Greetham. Hollywood wonder-boy Ryan Murphy directs the musical created by Chad Beguelin, Bob Martin, and Matthew Sklar. The Prom arrives on Netflix and in theatres on December 11. Watch the trailer below.

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Teen Suicides Moved Zachary Quinto To Come Out

Zachary Quinto in ‘The Boys in the Band’ (photo: Netflix)
Zachary Quinto, currently starring in the Netflix screen adaptation of The Boys in the Band, recently shared for the first time the reason why he felt moved to come out as gay in 2011. Quinto hit the national spotlight as a series regular in the NBC sci-fi series Heroes in 2006, which he starred in for all four seasons. In 2007, he was announced to play a young Spock in the reboot of the Star Trek film franchise. Quinto told Variety in a recent interview that when he began his career in 1999, he was aware of the “explicit stigma’ that was attached to being an openly gay actor. “I did feel like me coming out would have potentially had an impact on my career and it wouldn’t have been a good one,” Quinto shares. He also recalled being out with a gay friend and running into a studio executive. After the encounter, the actor worried there were “going to be some ramifications” if he even appeared to be gay.
Zachary Quinto in 2012 (photo: Gerald Biggerstaff)
But then, in 2011, after reading the news of a series of teen queer suicides, Quinto had an epiphany. “That was at a time when a lot of young gay kids were killing themselves around the country because of bullying,” says the 43-year-old actor. “There was a huge spate of teen suicides that were happening.” “I just felt like I had an obligation at this point,” he added. “Having enjoyed a certain level of success, I felt like the hypocrisy was too much to bear for me to be enjoying this life that I had created for myself and not acknowledging my identity as a gay man.” “I felt like it was actively harming a group of young people who the choice to come out could benefit.”

Charlie Carver, one of Quinto’s The Boys in the Band cast mates, also shared his own reason for coming out with Variety which involved a colleague slapping him across the face for appearing “gay” at an Emmy Awards party in 2015. The coworker apparently criticized Carver three times over the course of the evening telling him to “get it under control.” When the young actor asked for ‘clarification,’ the man slapped Carver. Said Carver, “That was the moment when I said to myself, ‘I can’t do this. I cannot police myself in that way.’” The new TV adaptation of The Boys in the Band, starring the acclaimed all-gay/bi cast from the Tony Award-winning 2018 Broadway revival, is now streaming on Netflix. In addition to Quinto, the cast includes Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Robin de Jesús, Brian Hutchison, Michael Benjamin Washington, and Tuc Watkins. The new screen version is based on the groundbreaking work of Mart Crowley.

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Charlie Carver Came Out After A Slap In The Face For Appearing ‘Gay’ In Public

Charlie Carver in ‘The Boys in the Band’ (image via Instagram)
Charlie Carver, one of the actors starring in the new Netflix screen adaptation of The Boys in the Band, shares in an interview with Variety that he decided to publicly come out five years ago after being on the receiving end of a literal slap to the face for not appearing masculine in public. According to Carver, he was attending an Emmy Awards party in 2015 when a gay colleague criticized him three times throughout the evening for how he ‘presented’ himself. “I was told that I needed to ‘get it under control’ around people in the business,” Carver shared with Variety. At the end of soiree, Carver ran into his friend while waiting for his car at the valet. Asking his colleague for ‘clarification’ about the earlier comments, the man slapped Carver across the face. “It wasn’t playful but intentional, pointed and meant to be instructive. A slap,” says the actor. “I told him that if he ever touched me again, I would name him.” While the episode was certainly shocking for its physicality, Carver, who is 32-years-old today, says, “That was the moment when I said to myself, ‘I can’t do this. I cannot police myself in that way.’” The actor, who was best known at the time for regular appearances on Desperate Housewives and Teen Wolf, came out a few months later in January 2016 via his Instagram account.

 

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Pt 1: “Be who you needed when you were younger”. About a year ago, I saw this photo while casually scrolling through my Instagram one morning. I’m not one for inspirational quotes, particularly ones attributed to “Mx Anonymous”- something mean in me rebukes the pithiness of proverbs, choosing to judge them as trite instead of possibly-generally-wise, resonant, or helpful. And in the case of the good ol’ Anonymous kind, I felt that there was something to be said for the missing context. Who wrote or said the damn words? Why? And to/for who in particular? Nonetheless, I screen-capped the picture and saved it. It struck me for some reason, finding itself likeable enough to join the ranks of the “favorites” album on my phone. I’d see it there almost daily, a small version of it next to my other “favorites”; I’d see it every time I checked into the gym, pulled up a picture of my insurance cards, my driver’s license…. Important Documents. And over the course of about-a-year, it became clear why the inspirational photo had called out to me. As a young boy, I knew I wanted to be an actor. I knew I wanted to be a lot of things! I thought I wanted to be a painter, a soccer player, a stegosaurus… But the acting thing stuck. It was around that age that I also knew, however abstractly, that I was different from some of the other boys in my grade. Over time, this abstract “knowing” grew and articulated itself through a painful gestation marked by feelings of despair and alienation, ending in a climax of saying three words out loud: “I am gay”. I said them to myself at first, to see how they felt. They rang true, and I hated myself for them. I was twelve. It would take me a few years before I could repeat them to anyone else, in the meantime turning the phrase over and over in my mouth until I felt comfortable and sure enough to let the words pour out again, this time to my family…

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Two years later, Carver made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning revival of Mort Crowley’s iconic play about gay men at a birthday party in Greenwich Village, The Boys in the Band. All of the actors in the highly-acclaimed production were openly gay/bisexual. The entire cast was reunited, along with the production’s director Joe Mantello, by producer Ryan Murphy for the newly-released TV version of the play. Carver stars in Boys as the hunky “Cowboy,” a hustler hired as a gift for “Harold,” the birthday boy in the story played by Zachary Quinto.

Carver is also currently appearing as a series regular in Murphy’s new psychological thriller for Netflix, Ratched, in which the handsome actor plays “Huck Finnagan,” a disfigured hospital orderly. And he’s set to appear in the upcoming The Batman alongside Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz. Carver recently told The Advocate he’s “felt this sort of sense of relaxing” into himself since coming out. “To have kind of other champions in this business who gave me a chance, Ryan Murphy being one of them, they saw something in me and they let me be a part of it,” Carver shared. “Then opportunities led to other opportunities … I started kind of stepping into myself, and I believe when you do that, doors open.” You can catch Carver (and all the ‘boys’) in The Boys in the Band, currently streaming on Netflix.

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What To Watch: New On Netflix ‘Julie And The Phantoms’

Director/choreographer Kenny Ortega (High School Musical, This Is It, Xanadu, Hocus Pocus) knows a little something something about finding magic with a mix of teens, music and passion. His latest is Julie and the Phantoms, a new Netflix series that follows the journey of a gifted teen girl, Julie (played by newcomer Madison Reyes), who’s lost her drive for music after her mother’s death. But when the ghosts of three dreamy musicians from 1995 – Alex (Owen Joyner), Luke (Charlie Gillespie), and Reggie (Jeremy Shada) – appear, they reawaken Julie’s own inner spirit and create a new band together: Julie and the Phantoms. It seems the guys, known back in the day, as pop/punk band Sunset Curve, were on the road to stardom before their untimely deaths due to ‘bad hotdogs.’ But now they’re back to settle some unfinished business. One twist: they can only be seen by mortals when they play their pop bops with Julie. But that doesn’t stop the sparks from flying between Julie and guitar-toting Luke.

L-R Madison Reyes, Charlie Gillepsie (Netflix)
Out actor Cheyenne Jackson (American Horror Story) has a recurring role as mysterious antagonist Caleb Covington who is somehow involved in a limit on the guys’ time among the living. There’s an LGBTQ aspect to the series as Alex, the blond drummer who came out as gay shortly before his death, crushes on Willie (Booboo Stewart), a charming skater boy who might know more about ghostly things than he lets on. Even though the series dropped today, there’s already a tribute video for the show’s adorable gay couple.

Ortega definitely brings some High School Musical vibe (with a touch of Scooby Doo) with some peppy pop song performances (all the songs are pretty catchy) and of course, a blond nemesis for Julie since the series does take place in a high school setting. All nine episodes of the new series, based on the original Brazilian series Julie e os Fantasmas, are available now on Netflix.

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Netflix Drops Official Trailer For ‘The Boys In The Band’

Netflix drops the official trailer for the upcoming screen adaptation of The Boys in the Band which premieres on the streaming platform September 30. From Netflix:

Based on the Tony Award-winning play that changed a generation, The Boys in the Band follows a group of nine gay men who gather for a birthday party in 1968 New York City – only to find the drinks and laughs interrupted when a visitor from the host’s past turns the evening upside down.

Starring Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Robin de Jesús, Brian Hutchison, Michael Benjamin Washington, and Tuc Watkins. Produced by Ryan Murphy. Directed by Joe Mantello. Based on the groundbreaking work of Mart Crowley.

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News Round-Up: August 31, 2020

Cher (photo: Machado Cicala via Karpel Group)
Some news items you might have missed: • Washington Blade: The one and only Cher (above) headlined an LGBTQ fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden Monday evening which raised over $2 million in half an hour. Paraphrasing her hit song “Believe,” the icon asked the viewing audience, “So ask yourself, do you believe in life after Trump?” • Insider: A straight-identifying man in his 20s says he’s only ever slept with women, but lately sex has been slowed up, so he’s been chatting with dudes on Grindr and he’s not sure why, so he’s seeking advice. “I’ve been going on Grindr and talking to other men with no intention of ever meeting them. I just like flirting with the people on there.” • Dad of the Day: Channing Tatum shared the pic below surrounded by unicorns with the news that he’s penned his first children’s book, “The One and Only Sparkella,” dedicated to his 6-year-old daughter, Everly. “Guys, I don’t know about you but things got a little weird for me in quarantine. I ended up accidentally locking myself in my 7-year-old daughter’s room. And I ended up finding my inner child. So this is what I created for my little girl. From what is, I guess, the little girl in me. Thanks for reading.”

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A federal judge on Monday extended the deadline for absentee ballots to be returned in Georgia, ruling that they must be counted if postmarked by Election Day and delivered up to three days afterward. The ruling invalidates Georgia’s requirement that ballots had to be received at county election offices by 7 p.m. on Election Day. • The Gaily Grind: Actress/comedian Niecy Nash dumped her husband in December, and announced her marriage to musician Jessica Betts on Instagram on Monday, coming out in the process. • Instagram: Director/producer Ryan Murphy, who is heading up Netflix’s upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway musical The Prom, shared a cast photo teasing in the caption, “Christmas is right around the corner…” The pic is our first look at several of the stars in costume: Meryl Streep as Dee Dee Allen, Nicole Kidman as Angie Dickinson, James Corden as Barry Glickman, Andrew Rannells as Trent Oliver, Ariana DeBose as Alyssa Greene, Keegan-Michael Key as Mr. Hawkins, Kerry Washington as Mrs. Greene, Kevin Chamberlin as Sheldon Saperstein, and newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman as Emma Nolan.

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News Round-Up: August 21, 2020

L-R Jim Parsons and Matt Bomer in ‘The Boys in the Band’ (image via Netflix)
Some news items you might have missed: • EW: Netflix has released the first look photos (above) of the upcoming movie version of the acclaimed Broadway revival of The Boys in the Band set to premiere September 30. The cast of the Tony Award-winning production is reuniting for the film including The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons, The Sinner’s Matt Bomer, NOS4A2’s Zachary Quinto, Black Monday’s Andrew Rannells and Tuc Watkins, Teen Wolf’s Charlie Carver, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s Michael Benjamin Washington. • Washington Blade: The State Department has stubbornly appealed a federal judge’s ruling that said it must recognize the U.S. citizenship of a gay Maryland couple’s daughter who was born in Canada via surrogate. Section 301(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act that states “a baby born abroad to married parents is a U.S. citizen at birth when both parents are U.S. citizens and one of them has resided in the United States at any point prior to the baby’s birth.” Both parents are citizens, both had resided in the U.S. • Vice: A member of a Facebook group dedicated to taking pictures of loaded weapons pointed at their d*cks finally shot himself in the balls, according to photos and video he posted on social media. The apparent point of the private group Facebook group “Loaded Guns Pointed at [B]enis” is to somehow ‘trigger the libs.’ I’m not sure how shooting your own junk ‘owns the libs,’ but you do you, boo.

• Journal Sentinel: Vandals burned a Joe Biden yard sign, a Pride flag and an American flag at a home in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. “I think it was (a) hate crime ‘cuz someone started the pride flag on fire,” the owner said. “We felt targeted.” • KIT212: Check out Kenneth’s round-up of the latest in local LGBTQ publications. • Washington Post: Trump’s latest attempt to shield his tax records from the Manhattan district attorney was rejected Thursday by a federal judge, who said Trump’s legal team failed to show the subpoena was issued “in bad faith.” • CNN: Anderson Cooper spoke with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell about his campaign for an herbal “cure” for COVID-19 called oleandrin based on the oleander plant. Lindell has no background in medicine or science, but he does donate big bucks to the GOP and is a member of Donald Trump’s inner circle. Oh, and Lindell was added to the board of (and received a financial stake in) Phoenix Biotechnology, which produces the supplement. Trump is now touting the supplement as well.

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Netflix Cancels New Series After Turkey Urges Removing Gay Character

Officials in Turkey reportedly pressured Netflix to remove a gay character from its new series titled, If Only, and so the streaming platform canceled the project. From Deadline:

The eight-part relationship drama was announced in March and was set to be made by Turkish production outfit Ay Yapim, with screen star Özge Özpirinçci leading the cast. But Netflix has scrapped the plans after producers were refused a filming license because of the existence of a gay character.

Per a translation in the Financial Times, If Only’s creator Ece Yörenç told Turkish film website Altyazi Fasikul: “Due to a gay character, permission to film the series was not granted and this is very frightening for the future.”

Responding to a request for comment from the FT, a spokesman for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party acknowledged that concerns were raised about If Only. Deadline understands that rather than caving to creative changes, Netflix decided to abandon the project.

Netflix hasn’t commented on the issue directly, but a spokesman told Deadline the streaming platform “remains deeply committed to our Turkish members and the creative community in Turkey.” “We currently have several Turkish originals in production — with more to come — and look forward to sharing these stories with our members all around the world,” added the spokesman. No word on if any of those other shows in production have LGBTQ characters or storylines. Turkey is one of the more liberal countries in the Middle East. While homosexuality isn’t illegal, same-sex marriage is. Additionally, there are no legal protections for LGBTQ people in the areas of housing, adoption or employment, and gay Turkish citizens are no allowed to serve openly in the military. Özpirinçci posted a photo on Instagram over the weekend from the set with a rainbow series of hearts.

 

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❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤍🤎

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Zac Efron + Netflix’s ‘Down To Earth’ = Furry Goodness

Zac Efron (screen capture via Netflix)
Netflix has a hit on its hands with the new series Down to Earth with a bearded and buff Zac Efron. The travelogue follows Efron as he hip-hops around a pre-COVID-19 world exploring climate-friendly, sustainable living habits. “In this travel show, actor Zac Efron journeys around the world with wellness expert Darin Olien in search of healthy, sustainable ways to live,” Netflix writes of the new show. From eating bread baked in a volcano in Iceland, to experiencing the rarest water in the world, our host shares his furry goodness adventures from around the world and much more. Here’s the trailer. I think you’ll get my drift in just a minute.

Let’s just say the Twitterverse took note 🙂

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A Superhero Smooch To Die For (Unless You Happen To Be Immortal)

L-R Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli (image via Netflix)
LGBTQ comic book fans have been waiting (and waiting, and waiting) to see actual queer superheroes on the silver screen for what feels like an eternity. So imagine my surprise when guy-on-guy lip-lock action between two immortal superheroes occurred halfway through Netflix’s new big-budget action flick, The Old Guard, which premiered this past weekend. The film stars Charlize Theron as the leader of a group of 6,000-year-old badass mercenary warriors. These immortals can feel pain but never die. As one says early in the movie, “Just because we keep living doesn’t mean we stop hurting.” In the first half of the film, there are flickers of something going on between two of the heroes, Joe (Marwan Kenzari, best known for his turn as Jafar in the live-action Aladdin)) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli, honored at the Venice International Film Festival last year for Martin Eden). A smile here, a glance there, but queer audiences have been teased before, so… But near the mid-way point of the movie the two are kidnapped by a squad of military-types. Tied up in the back of a van, Joe checks on Nicky. “I need to know he’s okay,” he tells one of his captors. Military guy mocks Joe saying, “What is he, your boyfriend?” “You’re a child,” says Joe as he launches into a deep declaration of love. “He’s not my boyfriend. This man is more to me than you can dream. He’s the moon when I’m lost in darkness, and warmth when I shiver in cold. And his kiss still thrills me even after a millennium.” Swoon….but wait – there’s more! “His heart overflows with a kindness of which this world is not worthy,” continues the immortal. “I love this man beyond measure and reason. He’s not my boyfriend…he is all, and he is more.” Ignoring their kidnappers, Nicky tells Joe with a smile, “You’re an incurable romantic,” as he leans in for a deeply intimate kiss.

According to Vulture, Greg Rucka – who penned the acclaimed graphic novel and is credited with the movie’s screenplay – stipulated in his contract that if and when a movie of The Old Guard was made, that scene would have to be included. While we’ve certainly seen same-sex kisses in movies before, we can’t recall a smooch like this in a $70 million action film led by star power the likes of Charlize Theron. This is some big-deal exposure. To underscore how big a deal this is, Forbes reports the superhero flick was Netflix’s most-watched movie this weekend and posits there very well could be a sequel ‘in development’ announced after the boffo debut. The Old Guard is currently streaming on Netflix, and you can check out the full trailer below.