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| Bruno Tarchetti (via Instagram) |
Some news items you might have missed:
• Personal trainer and InstaHunk Bruno Tarchetti is today’s Monday Man Crush. #furrygoodness
• Twenty-three year-old Muhlaysia Booker, a Black transgender woman who was beaten in front of several bystanders last month, was fatally shot in Dallas on May 18. She is the 4th transgender person to be killed in the U.S. in 2019.
• Alabama Public Television refused to air an episode of the animated children’s show, Arthur, which featured the character ‘Mr. Ratburn’ marrying his male partner, Patrick.
• FX’s groundbreaking series Pose was honored over the weekend with a Peabody Award, which recognizes “when storytelling is done well; when stories matter.”
• Cathay Pacific Airline has a new ad campaign that’s LGBTQ-inclusive.
• Thousands marched through Belfast in Northern Ireland demanding marriage equality. Northern Ireland is the only region in the United Kingdom which has not legalized same-sex marriage.
FX’s POSE Preps For Season 2: “Joy Is A Choice”
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| Billy Porter as ‘Pray Tell’ |
The acclaimed FX series Pose preps for its return on 6/11.
Season 2 of Pose flashes forward in time to 1990. On the heels of the ballroom community establishing itself in pop culture and going mainstream, the House of Evangelista is forced to reevaluate their goals.
Meanwhile, the AIDS crisis worsens and the reaction from a group of activists reaches a fever pitch. Pose features the largest cast of transgender actors in series regular roles.
In this new promo, Billy Porter as ‘Pray Tell’ extolls the virtues and need for the ballroom scene in 1990:
“Joy is a choice. Choosing life in the darkest of times is a choice. That’s what the ballroom scene is about.”
Watch below.
Podcast: Cuba Marches, Gilead Donates, Indya Moore Covers ELLE, Matt Bomer Stars In ‘Papi Chulo’
In this week’s podcast:
• Pharma giant Gilead will donate up PrEP medications for up to 200,000 American individuals in the effort to stop HIV
• Cuban gays stage an impromptu Pride march after the government cancels the annual parade
• A school in Indiana planned to deadname a transgender student at graduation
• Indya Moore becomes the first transgender woman to cover Elle Magazine
• And Matt Bomer plays a gay weatherman in the upcoming movie, ‘Papi Chulo’
All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report
Hit the play button below.
If you enjoy catching up on LGBTQ news in a quick podcast, I’d appreciate it if you would share The Randy Report with your friends.
I like to think of this podcast as the 60 Minutes of gay news —— only shorter 😉
2019 GLAAD Media Awards Honors Madonna, CNN, Cast of ‘Pose’ & More
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| Madonna speaks onstage during the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards New York. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for GLAAD) |
It was a star-studded night at the Hilton Midtown in New York City as GLAAD – the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization – honored Madonna, Andy Cohen, Don Lemon & CNN, the cast of FX’s Pose and more at the 2019 Annual GLAAD Media Awards.
For 30 years, the GLAAD Media Awards have honored media for fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues.
Introducing Madonna, CNN’s Anderson Cooper told the crowd, “No single ally has been a better friend or had a bigger impact on acceptance for the LGBTQ community than Madonna.”
Accepting the Advocate for Change Award from Cooper, Madonna said in her remarks, “As soon as you really understand what it means to love, you understand what it takes to become a human being and that it is every human’s duty to fight, to advocate, to do whatever we can and whatever it takes.”
Referencing her upcoming album, the Queen of Pop added, “MADAME X is a FREEDOM FIGHTER.”
“Madonna always has and always will be the LGBTQ community’s greatest ally and it is only fitting to honor and celebrate our biggest advocate at GLAAD’s biggest event ever,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.
“From the HIV crisis to international LGBTQ issues, she fearlessly pushes for a world where LGBTQ people are accepted. Her music and art have been life-saving outlets for LGBTQ people over the years and her affirming words and actions have changed countless hearts and minds.”
Following is a complete list of GLAAD Media Awards presented on stage or announced during the event in New York City:
• Advocate for Change Award: Madonna [presented by Anderson Cooper, Rosie O’Donnell & Mykki Blanco]
• Vito Russo Award: Andy Cohen [presented by Sarah Jessica Parker]
• Outstanding Drama Series: Pose (FX) [accepted by: creators Ryan Murphy and Steven Canals, and cast members including Billy Porter, Janet Mock, Mj Rodriguez, Indya Moore, Dominique Jackson, Angelica Ross, Our Lady J, Dyllon Burnside, Hailie Sahar, and Ryan Jamal Swain; presented by Rachel Brosnahan]
• Outstanding Variety or Talk Show Episode: “Trans Rights Under Attack” Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS) [accepted by: Samantha Bee; presented by Adam Rippon and Lilly Singh]
• Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: “Same Sex Couple Reacts to Supreme Court Ruling” CNN Tonight with Don Lemon (CNN) [accepted by: Don Lemon; presented by Mj Rodriguez, Indya Moore, and Dominique Jackson]
• Outstanding Film – Limited Release: Boy Erased (Focus Features)
• Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
• Outstanding Music Artist: Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer (Bad Boy Records)
• Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: “Conversion Therapy: God Only Knows” CBS Sunday Morning (CBS)
• Outstanding Newspaper Article: “He Took a Drug to Prevent AIDS. Then He Couldn’t Get Disability Insurance.” by Donald G. McNeil Jr. (The New York Times)
• Outstanding Digital Journalism Article: “Bermuda Same-sex Marriage Ban Means Trouble for Tourism and Cruise Ships” by Ryan Ruggiero (CNBC.com)
• Outstanding Digital Journalism – Video or Multimedia: “March for Our Lives and LGBT activism. ‘They’re definitely linked for me,’ says Emma González” by Beth Greenfield (Yahoo! Lifestyle)
• Outstanding Blog: Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents
• Outstanding Scripted Television Series (Spanish-Language): Elite (Netflix) and Mi marido tiene más familia (Univision) [TIE]
• Outstanding TV Journalism Segment (Spanish-Language): “Primera Pareja Gay en Casarse en un Consulado Mexicano” Noticias Telemundo Mediodía (Telemundo)
Additional awards were announced earlier this year in Los Angeles.
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| CNN’s Don Lemon at the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards New York. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for GLAAD) |
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| Andy Cohen attends the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards New York. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for GLAAD) |
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| Billy Porter from the cast of FX’s Pose (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for GLAAD) |
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| Janet Mock speaks onstage with the cast of Pose. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for GLAAD) |
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| Caitlin Kinnunen from the acclaimed Broadway musical The Prom performs. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for GLAAD) |
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| Chelsea Clinton speaks at the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards New York. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for GLAAD) |
It’s important to recognize that all of this doesn’t happen through magic. Corporations that choose to support celebrating positive media about the LGBTQ community are important to us.
Make sure you note the companies that join in celebrating us when you think about your consumer dollars.
The 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards are supported by Presenting Partners Delta Air Lines, Gilead, Hyundai, Ketel One Family-Made Vodka, and Wells Fargo.
Additional partners include: Official Partners Bud Light and Google; Titanium Partner AT&T and WEN; Platinum Partners Comcast NBCUniversal-Telemundo, Creative Artists Agency, Disney ABC Television Group, Facebook/Instagram, HBO, Hulu, Kaiser Permanente, MetLife, NBA & WNBA, Netflix, Omnicom Group, PRG, Sheppard Mullin, Turner; Gold Partners CBS/Showtime, Nielsen, PWC, UM, Univision, and VER; and Silver Partners Allstate, Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley, and Warner Bros.
News Round-Up: April 9, 2019
Some news items you might have missed:
• InstaHunk Thara (above) is getting pumped up for the summer circuit (and I don’t mean weight training).
• Quartz reports “former agency officials,” said White House adviser Stephen Miller would leak the monthly number of immigrants apprehended at the border to the Washington Examiner, who would then publish a story about the high numbers.
He would then print out the story and give it to Donald Trump. After seeing the story, Trump would then “pick up the phone and blast (Homeland Secretary) Nielsen.
• FX has announced that the second season of Pose will premiere June 9 at 9pm. The network also confirmed that the second season will time jump to 1990 with vogueing about to the day Madonna released her music video for “Vogue,” causing the ball culture to “reevaluate their goals.”
• Rosie O’Donnell says she greatly regrets giving Ladies Who Punch author Ramin Setoodeh 20 minutes of her time. In those minutes, she revealed she was sexually abused by her father, that she had “a little bit of a crush” on former colleague Elisabeth Hasselbeck and described working with Whoopi Goldberg as “The worst experience I’ve ever had on live television.”
• A tire company in Colorado is paying a transgender man $60,000 and writing a letter of apology after it settled a sex discrimination lawsuit.
• Don’t miss the season finale of Schitt’s Creek on Wednesday at 10 p.m. on POP.
[Spoiler alert] Last week’s episode gave us quite the moment:
Broadway Diva Patti LuPone Set To Join Cast Of FX’s ‘Pose”
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| Tony & Grammy Award winner Patti LuPone |
Producer/director Ryan Murphy made news Saturday night at PaleyFest in Los Angeles when he announced a new diva would be joining the cast of FX’s Pose.
While moderating a panel with cast members of the ground-breaking series, Murphy surprised the audience – and cast – that Broadway icon, Patti LuPone, will be joining the show for season two.
According to Deadline, Murphy told cast members MJ Rodriguez and Billy Porter they would be sharing plenty of scenes with the two-time Tony Award winner.
LuPone is currently appearing in the gender-bending revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company in London, where she has been nominated for an Olivier Award for “Best Actress in a Supporting Role.”
Murphy also told the crowd that the series will time-jump from the late 1980s to the year 1990. The first episode of the new season will take place on the day Madonna’s mega-hit “Vogue” was released.
Expect to hear about Madge’s co-opting of the vogueing/ ball culture of New York City for her now-iconic music video. Plus, since LuPone has been an outspoken critic of Madonna in the past, we’ll be curious to see if any of that animosity surfaces in the diva’s scenes.
The talk-back took place after a screening of episode six from season one of the series, “Love is the Message,” which was written and directed by acclaimed transgender activist Janet Mock. The episode, the first in television history to be directed by a transgender woman, was also Mock’s directorial debut.
And speaking of directing, Murphy announced during the panel that Mock, Porter and producer Our Lady J would all be helming episodes in the upcoming season.
Season two of Pose begins shooting next week and will premiere in June.
Podcast: Ben Platt, Jussie Smollett, Sam Smith, HIV+ Soldiers
In this week’s podcast:
• Chicago police reportedly believe Empire star Jussie Smollett may have staged his alleged homophobic attack
• A federal judge ordered the Pentagon to stop discharging US military service members who are HIV+
• Tony Award-winner Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen) released his new music video and came out at the same time
• Sam Smith stands up against body shaming
• The 2019 NAACP Image Awards snubbed the ground-ground-breaking TV series from FX Pose
All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report.
FX’s ‘Pose’ Snubbed In NAACP Image Award Nominations
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| (image via Instagram/PoseOnFX) |
The NAACP announced the nominees for this year’s Image Awards this week, and noticeable among those not recognized was the ground-breaking series, Pose, from super-producer Ryan Murphy.
Although the show was nominated for 2 Golden Globe Awards, 2 Critics Choice Awards, a GLAAD Media Award and a Gotham Independent Film Award, the nominating committee for the NAACP Image Awards chose to leave the FX series out in the cold.
Note: the show wasn’t nominated for this year’s Emmy Awards due to missing the cutoff date for eligibility.
Many felt principal actors Billy Porter, MJ Rodriguez and Indya Moore would have been included in the nominations thanks to fairly universal acclaim for their performances, as well as a nod for Outstanding Drama Series.
The Image Awards recognize not only performances and creative achievement of people of color, but also projects that promote diversity and inclusivity.
You would think a show like Pose, which chronicles the lives of trans women of color in the 1980s ballroom culture, would be a perfect fit. Five main characters are trans women of color, plus there’s the added diversity of other queer characters.
But, no.
Out received this statement from Robin Harrison, acting director of the NAACP Hollywood Bureau, after this year’s nominations were announced:
“The NAACP Image Awards works with networks, studios, and other industry professionals to make sure we receive nominations that promote the outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts, as well as those who promote social justice, diversity and inclusion through their creative work.
“Each year, our vast field of eligible submissions are voted on by a general committee of NAACP and industry representatives. As an organization, the NAACP is proud of shows like Pose that are breaking new ground and bringing issues that impact the LGBTQ community to the forefront of public consciousness.”
That said, there were several nominations acknowledging the achievements by queer artists of color.
• ABC’s How To Get Away With Murder and Netflix’a Orange in the New Black, which feature LGBTQ characters and storylines, received nominations
• RuPaul for Outstanding Reality Program and Outstanding Host
• Tituss Burgess for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
• Amandla Stenberg for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for The Hate U Give
• Out writer Lena Waithe picked up two nods for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for episodes of The Chi
• Justin Simien for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Dear White People
• Janelle Monae’s Dirty Computer was recognized in both the Outstanding Album category as well as snagging a nom for Outstanding Female Artist
The 50th NAACP Image Awards will be broadcast on March 30 from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on TV One.
Billy Porter: Tips For Living Your Best Life
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| Billy Porter |
On his way to LaLa Land and the 2019 Golden Globe Awards where he is nominated for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series” for his star turn in the FX series, Pose, Billy Porter dropped by Buzzfeeds’ Cocoa Butter to share his ‘Seven Tips To Live By.’
Having survived highs and lows in the business of show for over 30 years, Mr. Porter knows of what he speaks.
1. “Choose yourself, save yourself, bet on yourself!”
How is someone going to believe in you if you don’t? Enough said.
2. “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have!”
Billy adds with a smile, “So if you’re wondering why I’m always turning it with the clothing and the looks, darling, that is why – I have goals.”
3. “Don’t wait for anyone to give you permission to practice your art!”
Porter told me once that Tony Award-winning stage director George C. Wolfe shared this little bon mot with him in the early 2000s when he was an Artist in Residence at the Public Theatre in NYC. “You need to be practicing it always, every day, every moment you get. People usually ain’t listening, but sometimes they do. You’ve got to be ready…when it’s time.”
4. “Be on time!”
Porter explains exactly what that means to him: “Fifteen minutes early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable. The doors will be locked!”
5. “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”
With a glint in his eye, the 49-year-old leans into the camera and continues, “Y’all know what I’m talking about; we got a lot of people we could be talking about.”
6. “Be of service.”
A wider purpose adds dimension to your work. “When your intention is service, everything else will work itself out,” says Porter.
7. “Mean what you say and say what you mean – and deliver. Be impeccable with your word.”
Make sure you watch the 2019 Golden Globe Awards tonight on NBC (8pm EST – 5pm PST).
You know I’ll be cheering for Billy!
News Round-Up: December 9, 2018
Some news items you might have missed:
• You could say things are going “swimmingly” down here in Puerto Vallarta. The views are very nice 🙂
• Speaking to OUT from the set of his new movie, Limited Partners, Billy Porter described the news of his Golden globe nomination for “Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Drama” for Pose as “unbelievable, it’s out of body, it’s surreal, it’s crazy. I’ve been in this business for 30 years, I’m speechless, and I’m a man of many words, so to make me speechless is a big deal.”
• GOP Sen. Marco Rubio warns a presidential pardon for former campaign chair Paul Manafort would be a “terrible mistake” and could “trigger a debate about whether the pardon powers should be amended.”
GOP Sen. Marco Rubio says repeatedly that President Trump pardoning former campaign chairman Paul Manafort would be a “terrible mistake,” and that doing so could possibly “trigger a debate about whether the pardon powers should be amended.” https://t.co/H32i3GVklw #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/Mvfwueb0XH— ABC News (@ABC) December 9, 2018
• Focus Features has acquired Michael Ausiello’s critically-acclaimed memoir Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies with Dan Savage and David Marshall Grant to co-write the screenplay. The memoir is an emotional, often funny, account of Ausiello’s 14-year relationship that ends with the heart-wrenching death of his husband Kit, who succumbed to a rare form of neuroendocrine cancer in 2015. Jim Parsons is set to star.
• Vanity Fair: Donald Trump wonders if he should dump Vice President Mike Pence in 2020?
• Robyn has released the official music video for her hit, “Honey,” featuring dancers cast from a call sent out on her Twitter account.
The chosen dancers were flown to London for the shoot from all around the world.
According to press materials, “Robyn wanted the process of making the video to also embody her mantra of bringing people together and communicating in person…It is a testament to love, sensuality and the loose feeling during the after-hours of a great party.”