A female fan got to kiss singer Ricky Martin—for $90,000, according to NewNowNext.com . Paola Diniz was the highest bidder at an auction raising money for AIDS charities at the amfAR Inspiration Gala in Sao Paulo, Brazil—and Martin made sure she got her money's worth though, as he passionately put his arms around her and gave her a kiss to remember. The event was already significant for the 44-year-old, as it marked the first time he made his relationship public with his boyfriend, Syrian artist Jwan Yosef.
GLAAD will honor singer, songwriter, record producer and actress Mariah Carey at the 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York at the Waldorf Astoria New York on May 14, a press release stated. Carey will receive GLAAD's Ally Award, which is presented to a media figure who has consistently used their platform to support and advance LGBT equality and acceptance. Previous GLAAD Media Awards honorees include Elizabeth Taylor, Patti LaBelle, Janet Jackson, Russell Simmons, Cher and more. Academy Award-nominated director Lee Daniels will present Carey with the award.
On The Wendy Williams Show, R&B singer K. Michelle spoke candidly about her relationship with women as well as with football player/Dancing with the Stars contestant Van Miller, according to Music Times. WIlliams was not bashful in saying it like she meant it when she asked the Memphis native about her dating life and shockingly, her sex life, asking the singer if she was "sexually fluid." After initially saying she didn't know what that meant, Michelle said that she's "gay on holidays."
Speaking of Williams, Holly Robinson Peete responded to the talk-show host's criticism of her reality show, E! Online reported. After Williams said the show is "cute ... [but] I don't think people care," Robinson Peete posted, "Dear @WendyWilliams #ForPeetesSake is resonating deeply esp w special needs #autism families. I know positivity isn't ur thing but it's OK. If u think #ForPeetesSake's only abt cute kids n 80 yr mom dating then u didn't watch it. spraying #shade repellent on U."
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, a close friend of host Kelly Ripa, is a frontrunner to replace Michael Strahan on Live! With Kelly and Michael, ETOnline.com reported. Actor Neil Patrick Harris, who's already proven his hosting skills, is reportedly another strong candidate. Strahan, a former NFL pro, will start working full-time for Good Morning America in September and will become a co-anchor.
Singers Nick Jonas and Demi Lovato have canceled two scheduled concerts in North Carolina over anti-LGBT state law, TheWrap noted. "After much thought and deliberation, Nick and I have decided to cancel our shows in Raleigh and Charlotte," Lovato said in a statement to GLAAD on Monday. "One of our goals … has always been to create an atmosphere where every single attendee feels equal, included and accepted for who they are." The singers, traveling the country for Honda Civic's "Future Now" tour, were slated to appear in North Carolina cities Charlotte and Raleigh on June 30 and July 2.
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie will be released in theaters on July 22. The plot is as follows: Edina and Patsy are still oozing glitz and glamour, living the high life they are accustomed to—shopping, drinking and clubbing their way around London's trendiest hotspots. Blamed for a major incident at an uber-fashionable launch party, they become entangled in a media storm and are relentlessly pursued by the paparazzi. Fleeing penniless to the glamorous playground of the super-rich, the French Riviera, they hatch a plan to make their escape permanent and live the high life permanently.
While he travels, Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis apparently poses with unsuspecting sleeping travelers in public and posts the comical results to his Instagram account, according to Page Six. "It started as a prank to fill time," Lewis told Page Six. "I spend a lot of time in airports and with all the flight delays, I get bored. Some people read or send emails; I photobomb sleepers." The designer now vows to "never fall asleep in public" out of fear of "retribution" from his sleeping victims, and he said the social-media aspect of his photo series has landed him in uncomfortable situations.
Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG and Grammy winner Jennifer Hudson and Tony winner Harvey Fierstein will headline the cast of NBC's Hairspray Live!, set to air Dec. 7, a press release stated. Also joining the creative team will be television director Alex Rudzinski, who helmed Grease Live!; Rudzinski was also the TV director for Dancing With the Stars 2005-14. Hairspray Live! reunites Hudson with executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who worked with her previously on NBC's Smash, and the 85th and 87th Oscar telecasts, which they also produced.
On April 23, the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles ( GMCLA ) celebrated the 5th Annual Voice Awards. Hosted by Pauley Perrette and Ross Mathews, the evening featured special appearances by Paula Abdul, Bob Harper, Wilson Cruz, Daniel Franzese and the hosts of Hollywood Today Live. The evening included three awards to those who use their voice to create social change, including Focus Features, The Trevor Project CEO Abbe Land and LGBT refugee activist Subhi Nahas. The event also included a special tribute to Prince, with GMCLA singing "When Doves Cry."
Sharon Osbourne has revealed she is bisexual, saying she regrets never sexually experimenting with women when she was younger, PinkNews reported. She came out during a discussion on sexuality on The Talk. The staunch LGBT advocate also commented on her former X Factor boss Simon Cowell's sexuality, admitting that people always ask her whether the music mogul is secretly gay. "He does have a very gay-ish—which I think is fabulous—air about him!" she joked.
Onetime Wonder Woman Lynda Carter got into a heated debate with armed Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, according to Page Six. Liberal Carter and lawman Clarke got into an unlikely argument backstage at Fox & Friends. Carter's close with Hillary Clinton and said later on the air: "My husband and I have known [the Clintons] since 1983. I really do know the family. ... There's been a concentrated effort to smear her name for so many years."
Singer Jackie Evancho's sister is speaking out about the transgender bathroom debate in the Pine-Richland School District, CBS Pittsburgh reported. "I'm a human being, and I'm a girl," said Juliet Evancho, a 17-year-old transgender student. "I was born a girl. I was just born with the wrong plumbing." The Pine-Richland School District has had a practice in place that allows students who are transgender to use the bathroom they identify with, rather than the gender on their birth certificate. However, some people have questioned the move.
Singer Frank Ocean has revealed he only began to feel comfortable with his sexuality because of Prince, according to Gay Star News. In am emotionally honest Tumblr post, the music artist credited the Purple Rain singer with changing his life. "I'm not even gonna say rest in peace because it's bigger than death," Ocean posted. "He made me feel more comfortable with how I identify sexually simply by his display of freedom from and irreverence for obviously archaic ideas like gender conformity etc. he moved me to be more daring and intuitive with my own work by his demonstration."
Magnus Hastings' new coffee-table book, Why Drag?, will be released May 17, courtesy of Chronicle Books, according to a press release. Some of the individuals included are Bianca Del Rio, Courtney Act, Jackie Beat, Adore Delano, Jinkx Monsoon, Lady Bunny, Detox, Sharon Needles, JoJo Baby, Sissy Spastic and Kim Chi. Boy George writes the book's foreword.
Caitlyn Jenner got political recently as she addressed an issue close to her heart and those of the rest of the LGBT community and their supporters, E! Online noted. "We all want safety and privacy in public bathrooms," Caitlyn wrote on her website. "But these anti-LGBT bills, like the ones in North Carolina and Mississippi, actually make us less safe, not more safe. They open the door to abuse, aggressive and confrontational behavior in bathrooms, and encourage strangers to demand that women and girls prove that they are actually female in order to use the restroom. No one wants that."
HBO launched a contest in partnership with Bindle & Keep, the Brooklyn-based and LGBTQ-focused tailor whose clients are the subject of the upcoming HBO documentary SUITED, a press release stated. LGBTQ youth ( 13-24 years old ) can visitGetSuitedHBO.com and enter-to-win a custom-made suit from Bindle & Keep, an all-expense paid trip to New York, a chance to meet SUITED producers Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, and more. Entrants are encouraged to upload a video explaining their personal thoughts on fashion and identity, and what a tailored suit would mean to them. Submissions will be accepted through May 6.
The new Key & Peele big-screen comedy Keanu revolves around kittens, gangsters—and even a George Michael-related vision, according to The Toronto Sun. Jordan Peele said that Michael "really helps make the movie iconic. We were so glad to get him." Keegan-Michael Key added, "He's English, so he's incredibly white. But he's also soulful, so he was absolutely the choice to tee up the comedy."
Actor Dax Shepard ( TV's Parenthood ) revealed that he was molested as a child, USA Today reported. "Yeah, I was molested," said Shepard on Sirius XM's The Jason Ellis Show, by an 18-year-old "dude in my neighborhood" when he was 7. Shepard, 41 called the molestation "minimal" but added the experience likely played into his alcohol- and drug-addiction issues later in life.
Actor Matt Czuchry ( The Good Wife; Gilmore Girls ) once revealed he was recognized by a nude man, Page Six noted. "I got recognized in the locker room one time … by a naked man," he revealed at the Tribeca Film Festival's farewell panel for The Good Wife. "I was sitting down and he was standing up. … Things were flopping in all sorts of directions. I have no idea what he said, by the way." The film festival screened one of the final episodes of the series before cast members Czuchry, Julianna Margulies and Cush Jumbo as well as creators Robert and Michelle King sat down for a Q&A.
EJ Johnson has quashed rumors that he's transitioning, Page Six noted. "All the people that are so quick to say that, like, because I wear womenswear sometimes, that means I'm transitioning," the Rich Kids of Beverly Hills star declared in a clip from the show's upcoming fourth season. "People are just so ignorant and dumb sometimes." The 23-year-old—who has shed more than 100 pounds since undergoing gastric sleeve surgery in August 2014—regularly flaunts his style on Instagram.
ESPN has dismissed baseball analyst Curt Schilling after he posted an insensitive message on social media regarding transgender bathroom laws, according to its website. ESPN issued a statement that read, "ESPN is an inclusive company. Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated." Before joining ESPN, Schilling had a 20-year major league career in which he pitched for five teams, finishing with four years as a member of the Boston Red Sox.
Apparently, adult film star Brent Corrigan—real name: Sean Paul Lockhart—isn't going to be a huge fan of James Franco's latest gay-porn drama King Cobra, Gay Star News noted. On Twitter, Corrigan posted, "It's made. And it's not about me. It's Hollywood's attempt at bastardizing my early years in porn, one man's murder, blah blah." The movie—with James Franco and Keegan Allen, among others—depicts the real-life events surrounding the 2007 horrific murder of gay-porn tycoon Bryan Kocis.
The group 98 Degrees is set to tour this summer with O-Town, Ryan Cabrera and Dream, Just Jared noted. The boy band is headlining the My2k Tour, their first major tour since joining New Kids on the Block on the Package Tour in 2013. Among the stops are Tulsa, Oklahoma; Nashville; Biloxi, Mississippi; Glen Allen, Virginia; Rosemont, Illinois; Phoenix; and Las Vegas.
Tony winners Janet McTeer and Liev Schreiber will return to Broadway this fall in the Donmar Warehouse production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton, helmed by Donmar Artistic Director Josie Rourke, Deadline reported. The production begins performances Saturday, Oct. 8, and will open Sunday, Oct. 30, at the Booth Theatre. This is a 15-week engagement through Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017.
The 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards are officially set for Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, according to TheWrap. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association ( HFPA ) and Dick Clark Productions will produce the NBC telecast, airing live coast to coast from the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. Also, the HFPA also listed new rule changes, such as refining the difference between "comedy" and "drama" following the controversy over The Martian's win as a comedy. It's also altering the requirement of screeners ( in addition to screenings ) for foreign language motion pictures to a strong recommendation, among other things.
Beyonce dropped a 12-track album, Lemonade, in the middle of an HBO "visual album" presentation on April 23, TheWrap noted. Some of the songs include "Don't Hurt Yourself," "6 Inch," "Sandcastles" and "Formation," which has already been the subject of much fanfare ( and controversy ). Beyonce is embarking on a world tour that started April 27 in Miami, and recently debuted the music video for her song "Formation" in February, just days before she took the stage at halftime of the Super Bowl.
After voicing initial skepticism over the upcoming Baywatch movie, Pamela Anderson has finally agreed to appear in the reboot of the '90s TV show that made her famous, according to US Weekly. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson ( who takes over for David Hasselhoff as Mitch Buchannon in the film ) made the announcement via Instagram. "She introduced the world to 'CJ Parker' and became one of the most iconic characters of a generation—for the most successful TV show of all time," Johnson wrote alongside a photo of himself and Anderson.
Kanye West and streaming service Tidal have been sued for allegedly deceiving fans into subscribing to what was billed as the only place they would be able to hear West's new album, The Life of Pablo, Pitchfork Media reported. The proposed class-action lawsuit, obtained by Pitchfork and first reported by the AP, claimed West falsely told fans the album would be exclusive to Tidal. Originally released via Tidal in February, Pablo became available on all major non-Tidal streaming services on March 31, landing at number one on the Billboard 200 chart.
Former Glee actress Dianna Agron is listing her 1920s home in Los Angeles for $1.595 million, The Wall Street Journal reported. The French Normandy-style estate in the Hollywood Hills includes a three-bedroom house measuring about 2,200 square feet. Agron purchased the Hollywood Hills estate in 2012 for $1.05 million, according to public records.
