One of our favorite campy queer web series CAPITOL HILL is back with Season 2. Set in Seattle 'the greatest city in the world' it is a perfect parody of some classic O.T.T. T.V. series of the 1970's and 1980's. It follows the fortunes of Rosie Smells (played by Waxie Moon) a young innocent girl who has escaped the backwoods of Portland Oregon and lands herself a job as a TV presenter on her very first day in the City (it's a Fairy tale after all!) Written and directed by Wes Hurley, each episode is introduced by Ben de La Creme who was Miss Congeniality on Season 6 of Ru Paul's Drag Race.
For the second season the Cast will also star Drag performer and RuPaul's Drag Race season five winner Jinx Monsoon, with appearances from Big Brother contestant Kenny Brain (of the infamous leaked Grindr photos too that showed ALL his huge talent) and adult film star Colby Keller.
The Weinstein Company has just released the first preview of a brand new new movie about to hit our screens next month. We'd be surprised if it makes movie theaters everywhere across the country for as brave as they are to make this story about diversity in the LGTBQ community, the subject matter is still a controversial one even though the unveiling of Caitlyn Jenner, and the success of 'Orange Is The New Black' has done much to raise this particular dialogue.
'About Ray' is a film which follows a teenager on the road to transitioning to become a male. The fact that it starsElle Fanning ('Maleficent')has already been questioned on social media with some demands that the part should have been played by a transgender actor (as in the case of 'Boy Meets Girl'when Michelle Hendley played the lead). Directed by Gaby Dellal ('On a Clear Day') from a screenplay by Nikole Beckwith ('Stockholm, Pennsylvania')with a distinguished talented cast, it is definitely one that queerguru has on its 'must-see' list this Fall.
Here'e the official synopsis :
“About Ray tells the stirring and touching story of three generations of a family living under one roof in New York as they must deal with the life-changing transformation by one that ultimately affects them all. Ray (Elle Fanning) is a teenager who has come to the realization that she isn’t meant to be a girl and has decided to transition from female to male. His single mother, Maggie (Naomi Watts), must track down Ray’s biological father (Tate Donovan) to get his legal consent to allow Ray’s transition. Dolly (Susan Sarandon), Ray’s lesbian grandmother is having a hard time accepting that she now has a grandson. They must each confront their own identities and learn to embrace change and their strength as a family in order to ultimately find acceptance and understanding.”
Meryl Streep has another new movie out : this time she plays an aging rockstar who just abandoned her family to go have a good time in 'RICKI AND THE FLASH'. The movie has received mixed reviews but as usual the critics are raving about her standout performance.
She also stars in the much anticipated movie 'SUFFRAGETTE' based on the events of the early feminist movement as they fought for the right to vote. If that is not enough she has just finished filming 'FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS', the true story of the infamous tone deaf aristocrat who couldn't sing a single note in key but still hired Carnegie Hall to give a Recital.
Could this possibly be the year that she gets her 20th Academy Award Nomination, and maybe even win her 4th Oscar? The woman that many critics think is the worlds greatest living actress is just unstoppable. Here's what we think constitutes her best work to date.
OUR TOP TEN MERYL STREEP MOVIES.
(In alphabetical order)
ANGELS IN AMERICA (2003): Technically this film of Tony Kushner’s stunning political epic about the AIDS crisis during the mid-eighties is a TV mini series BUT it would remiss not to include this as Ms. Streep gave unforgettable performances as three different characters (including a male Rabbi) in a piece that is the defining play of that tragic moment in our history.
DANCING AT LUGHNASA (1998): In this adaption of Brian Friel’s play, set in rural Ireland in 1936 when times were very tough, Ms. Streep plays Kate a schoolteacher, and the oldest of 5 unmarried sisters and the one in charge of all their lives. She’s as strict with her siblings as she is with her pupils but always puts their happiness before her own.
DOUBT (2008): As Sister Aloysius Beauvier a Catholic school principal who questions a priest's ambiguous relationship with a troubled young student, Ms. Streep is all fire and brimstone with her unshakeable faith in a performance that netted her, and all three other actors in the film, Oscar Nominations.
KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979) : As the wife and mother who walked out on both her husband and child, Ms. Streep is off the screen for a great deal of the movie, yet in this her breakthrough performance she wowed us all and won her very first Oscar.
POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (1990): in this movie based on Carrie Fisher’s life, a young Ms. Streep brilliantly plays a substance addicted Hollywood actress who can only get a job if she agrees to live with her mother. Naturally the mother is worse than any recreational drug and the two have a tempestuous relationship that reflects the real drama queens that they are. Hard to believe now, but Shirley MacLaine played the mother.
SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1982): Its hard to forget Ms. Streep’s compelling performance as the Polish Holocaust survivor who had lost both her children and is now residing in Brooklyn and trying to find a reason to want to live. It rightfully gained her a second Oscar.
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (1995): Ms. Streep plays an Italian War Bride who in the 1960’s finds herself supplanted in an isolated farm house in Iowa and who, totally put of character, has a 4 day affair with a photographer just passing through. She gives a tender and passionate performance in this very touching romantic story.
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006): As the monstrous fashion supremo a la Anna Wintour, Ms. Streep shines as the acerbic bitter genius who will stop at nothing to get things done her way. It is one of her most joyous performances ever.
THE HOURS (2002): In Stephen Daldry’s deeply moving film of Michael Cunningham’s book, Ms. Streep plays Clarissa a partnered lesbian who is caring for Richard, her best friend and ex lover, who is dying from the ravages of AIDS. After watching her performance in this great ensemble movie, there is not a single dry eye in the house.
THE IRON LADY (2011): Even though the critics were split over this controversial biopic, they did all at least agree that in portraying Margaret Thatcher. Ms. Streep had nailed the character of the late British PM so spot on. It was a riveting performance that snared her yet another Oscar.
Stepping into the giant shoes vacated by Jon Stewart one of America's best loved Television satirists and comedians is going to be one of the very toughest acts to do. The Host of Comedy Central's 'The Daily Show' since 1999 picking up Primetime Emmy Awards for 10 consecutive years, he has become of the most astute and funniest political commentators on television, and even better still, the bane of right-wing Fox TV's life.
President Barack Obama, who made an unprecedented seven appearances on 'The Daily Show' over the years told Stewart that he was going to forbid him to go “I’m going to issue an executive order: Jon Stewart cannot leave the show!" The President knows that o election campaign or any political antics will ever see the same without seeing Stewart just say out loud what most of us do not even dare to think.
The Show's Producers announcement of who would be Stewart's replacement took everybody by complete surprise. They plumped for Trevor Noah a 31 year-old biracial comedian from South Africa, a total unknown in American Television, who has just made three appearances on The Daily Show to date. Noah is a very-laid back charismatic talented performer who will no doubt bring his own brand of humor to the Show. He may not have been an obvious choice but when you watch his routines from his own Stand Up Comedy Shows you can easily see why they went out on a limb and gave him the job.
This first clip covers the events of a trip to Zambia in his IT'S MY CULTURE comedy special when he was advised by his local guide 'Don't Be Gay!'
The second video will also soon become a personal favorite of queerguru was recorded on 'The John Bishop Show' in the U.K. and it is an hilarious routine about their attitude to Immigration after reluctantly relinquishing their role invading countries to form the British Commonwealth.
Noah is slated to host his first Daily Show on September 28th. We are going to sorely miss Jon Stewart, but think that his legacy will hopefully be in a safe pair of hands
Roadside Attractions have just released the first trailer of the much-anticipated movie STONEWALL that is set for a general release in US theaters on 25th September 2015.
The movie written by Jon Robin Baitz (TV's 'Brother and Sisters') and directed Roland Emmerich ('Independence Day' "The Day After Tommorrow') who is openly gay, is a fictional narrative that plays out around the 1969 Stonewall Riots which overnight changed the gay community's attitude and made them for the first time ever want to fight for their rights. It is the story of Danny Winters who is kicked out of his parents home for being gay and is forced to leave his friends and loved ones as he flees to start a new life in N.Y.
When he finds himself alone in Greenwich Village both homeless and destitute, he befriends a groping of street kids who introduce him to the bar that they all hang out in. However The Stonewall Inn is a shady mafia-run club and is far from a safe haven. Danny and his gang experience discrimination, endure atrocities and are repeatedly harassed by the police, and when after a particularly bad raid, the entire crowd that include drag queens, erupt in a storm of anger. With the toss of a single brick, a riot ensues and a crusade for equality is born.
Starring rising Brit star Jeremy Irvine ('Warhorse'), Golden Globe Winner Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Golden Globe winner the veteran actor Ron Perlman and a stunning newcomer Jonny Beauchamp ('Penny Dreadful') As the poster proclaims 'this was where pride was born', and for that reason alone it should be on every gay man's must see list this Fall. It goes without saying that no drag queen will not want to miss seeing how 'her sisters' stood up against all odds and made a real difference for all of us that followed.
The news of some celebrity’s deaths hit you hard personally,
especially when they are somewhat unexpected.
Cilla Black’s was one such case.
I mean, it’s tough when you lose someone you grew up with like I did
with her. Not literally of course as I
was brought up in a nice squeamishly clean middle-class Methodist Orphanage in
the England’s leafy green suburban Home Counties whilst Cilla (then still Priscilla
Maria Veronica White) was raised in
a Roman Catholic working-class terrace house in Liverpool’s rather rough
Scotland Road area.
We didn’t ‘meet’ until I was
sixteen years old in 1964 and had started a phase of dating girls.She helped me enormously as I only had only
to turn on my transistor and play her Number One Hit record ‘Anyone Who Has A Heart’
and I scored.Big Time.She was like my big sister as she was already
21 years old by then and had just enjoyed a modest success with her first
record penned by her Merseyside mates The Beatles who had persuaded their
manager Brian Epstein to take her on.
I got confused later when I
heard the American singing star Dionne Warwick claim that Burt Bacharach
had written ‘Anyone Who Has a Heart’ for her but that Cilla had pipped her at
the post and reached the Number one spot where she stayed for a few weeks.It sounded like sour grapes to me but anyway it
made no difference as Cilla was already one of us and when she quickly followed
her first success with another No I Hit... 'You’re My World'…. I knew she was
singing to me, and whichever girlfriend I was foolishly trying to woo at the time.
These were exciting and
heady times to be a teenager in the Swinging Sixties and we had this whole new
world of fresh clean-cut wholesome pop music with trendy fashions to match.Cilla was part of this vanguard of natural
talent that was simply discovered and nurtured in those days and not
manufactured as is in later generations.Whenever she appeared on Television in her Biba clothes and her Vidal Sassoon
sculptured haircut we couldn’t help but like her, and we wanted to be be just like her too.After all she had been discovered by the
greatest pop band of the last century, so of course we loved her.Then when The Righteous Brothers sang ‘You’ve
Lost That Loving Feeling’ so did Cilla.The
boys made it to the top of the UK charts, but we made sure that Cilla made it
to the No 2 spot the very same week.
As the years passed Epstein
try to transform her from a singer into an actress but her efforts were met
with limited success as she was never any good at playing roles being other people. However what he did establish was that she had a natural
flair for comedy whether it was in TV or on London’s West End stages.What Epstein, and others realized after his
untimely death, that this untrained young singer’s greatest asset was that she
had tapped into our hearts by just being a very natural down-to-earth charismatic
Northerner who had an ability to see the best in everything and everybody.It seemed an obvious step then into hosting
TV shows, and before we could even blink, she was not only fronting two of the
UK’s most successful shows in television history, but she also became the
highest paid person on the small screen for her efforts.
From 18 years we faithfully arranged
our Saturday night schedules around watching ‘our’ Cilla try and help and match
up some lovelorn singles on ‘Blind Date’.This was mainstream television at its very best and although British
inverted snobs liked to pretend that the whole affair was far too lowbrow for
them, in reality none of them, or us ever missed a single week.When it started in 1985 I was married to
Peter and the only time we ever disagreed was when one of the light head bachelorettes
failed to pick the hottest man. I’m kind
of happy that watching ‘Blind Date’ was in fact one of the very last things he
and I did together the night that he passed away too.
Cilia’s other mega-successful
TV show that also ran for some 16 years was ‘Surprise Surprise’ where she
matched up families who hadn’t seen each other for decades.Always a Kleenex grabbing moment, but I made
a point of stressing to Peter that as much as I loved being a voyeur, I would
never ever want to be reunited with any of my dysfunctional family. There is
after all a very good reason why I had not clapped eyes on most of them for 50
odd years.
What Cilla captured so
succinctly was the heart of a nation, as even when she turned into one of the
shrewdest and most professional television of our generation she wanted us to
always remember that she was just one of us, and that life was really a lorra
lorra fun, as she would say in her heavy Mersey accent that she still reveled
in.Attempts at turning her into an
international star failed miserable, but we wonder if she really cared about
that?We certainly didn’t, she was
quintessentially English and we were happy to keep her to ourselves.It is testimony to how popular she was also
within ‘show business’ too as a host of legendary British stars have been lining up
today one after another to pay such very glowing tributes to a woman who will be so
missed by all her peers too.
We loved Cilla Black not
because she outlived and outlasted all those incredible musicians that made up
the Mersey Sound some 50 years ago, but because she was a star when you needed
to have an actual talent to be one on television.Cilla shared it with us with such boundless
enthusiasm and all that goodwill that you almost wanted to be one of the
successful couples that went the whole way on ‘Blind Date’ as you knew she would be at your wedding in
the front row wearing a big hat.
When Pink News made a list of 50 Greatest Gay Icons, Cilla was no.23 which was 9 places higher than Beyonce. However Cilla Black was not just one
of the major popular cultural icons of mine, and other generations, she was always
a 'lorra lorra fun'. When my very inquisitive and innocent 5 year old nephews from Northern Ireland once asked me years ago which really famous people I knew in London, I immediately lied and said 'Cilla'. They were far more impressed than if I had named Beckham their own idol as even they loved her more than even the Royal Family. So farewell Cilla and a big thank you too as we will have nothing but the fondest of memories, and I want you to know that I never blamed you for the fact that your
music way back then made those rather forward girlfriends want to go beyond
‘first base’ with me.Urgh ! I got over them, but never ever over your music or you.
In the after glow of the historic ruling in the US Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage YAHOO NEWS have released a brand new documentary that takes an in-depth look back at our recent past when the for decades the U.S. government systemically persecuted people for just being gay. 'UNIQUELY NASTY' is an investigation by their chief correspondent Michael Isikoff (a former NBC Reporter) that centers mainly on the work on one openly gay man Charles Francis who once served as emissary to the gay community for his close friend George W Bush.
When Bush’s re-election campaign was in serious trouble in 2004 they chose to use the anti-gay marriage movement to whip up the conservative vote. A deeply disenchanted Francis resigned and it spurred him off on a mission to attempt to re-dress this situation and this fledging gay activist started his research to uncover ‘the deleted history’ of the persecution of gays and lesbians under the last six Presidencies.
The story not surprisingly starts with J. Edgar Hoover the notorious FBI Director and closeted gay man. In 1952 he ordered his operatives to track down, identify and expose all homosexuals working for the U.S. Government. He called it the ‘sex deviates’ program, and it ended up containing 333,000 files. Next year President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10458 that declared sexual perversion to be a threat to national security, effectively legalizing blatant homophobe and unfettered discrimination.
The documentary shows how this war on gays shattered and ruined people’s lives and even led to the death of one US Senator. It includes a treasure trove from a cache of secret government files that Francis, and a team of Washington lawyers have uncovered and sifted through. The nightmarish scenarios make for shocking reading and remind you realise that until very recently being gay was still officially considered as immoral, scandalous and uniquely nasty.
This ‘must-see’ 30 minute documentary can be viewed in full FREE below and should be compulsory viewing for every gay man and woman lest any of us forget the nightmares that others lived through before we could enjoy the freedoms and equality we do today.
As well as adding comments Yahoo invite you to also upload personal testimonials, documents, letters, photographs or other material related to this dark chapter in our history
