Check out the latest videos from our WOWPresents Network! Hey Qween, Sarahh Rush, Luke Birch, Paul Richmond, T Kyle, and SO MANY MORE all have new videos from the WOWPresents Network!!! Watch all these and more right now on the WOW Report!

Here are the latest videos from our fabulous partners! Make sure you subscribe to their channels for new videos!

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Tammie Brown
Chelsea Kane
Dan Marino
Dave Annable
Dina Lohan
Heidi Montag
Jessye Norman
Josh Charles
Oliver Stone
Prince Harry
Sophie Dahl
Tom Hardy
Tommy Lee Jones
Tad Speegle

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September 15, 1924– Bobby Short:

“Life is tough and if you’re creative, it’s tougher.”

He was born Robert Waltrip Short, and he began performing as a child in Danville, Illinois. Self-taught on the piano, he was just 9 years old when he began playing in a saloon, but also played at church and at school. On weekend nights, if he had no other engagement, a family friend would take him from tavern to tavern where Short passed the hat as he played and sang.

At 10 years old, he played and sang for a private party at the Palmer House in Chicago. This gig got him an agent and more work in Chicago hotels and supper clubs. When he was 13 years old he moved to NYC after he began he receive offers from Manhattan clubs. Always a natty dresser, even as a kid Short was named on best-dressed lists. As a teenager, he had custom made white tails and an almost ankle-length wraparound camel’s hair coat.

At 14 years old, he was signed to appear at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater. He bombed He was told that the crowd didn’t care that he was short and young; they were interested only in hearing the hit songs of Harlem. Short changed his repertoire and his act improved, but he ran into trouble with child labor laws. His manager arranged to get the birth certificate of a 16 year old boy who had died. The authorities were told Bobby Short was a stage name. By the time he was 18 years old, he was sharing a bill with the great Nat King Cole, who remained his friend for life.

He is a favorite of mine. I am feeling quite old, but never more so than when I am trying to explain pop culture from the 20th century to young people. Despite the fact that I am able to reference Rhianna, Taylor Swift and Drake, theses kids today just stare dumbly, vacant eyed and with a touch of disgust if I try to explain to them the impact of Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Iggy Pop, or even N’Sync had on our cultural history. I am truly old hat, old fashioned, out-of-date, outmoded and worn out.

I am not really dismayed that the kids don’t know Bobby Short. I didn’t expect them to. I am sure that few in my very own circle of friends know of Short. Still, I just can’t seem to get the kids to wrap their heads around the notion of nightclubs, supper clubs, or Manhattan’s Café Society.

Short called himself a saloon singer, a moniker I would have been happy to have lived with. His was my first choice for an avocation. His saloon, from 1968 until his final bow in 2005, was one of the most elegant in the country, the intimate Cafe Carlyle tucked in the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. For six months each year, in a room where he was only a few feet from his audience, Short sang and accompanied himself on the piano. I saw him perform there seven times in the mid-1970s. I couldn’t get enough.

Short was so much more than just cabaret entertainer. He was a NYC institution and an ultimate symbol of civilized Manhattan culture. In Woody Allen‘s films, a visit to the Café Carlyle became an essential stop on a characters’ cultural tour. Short actually appeared, as himself, in Allen’s film Hannah And Her Sisters (1986). Allen later used Short’s recording of Cole Porter’s I Happen To Like New York for the opening title of Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). In 1972, he performed the theme song to Merchant/Ivory’s terrifically odd film Savages. In 1976, Short sang and charmingly appeared in a popular commercial for Revlon’s new scent, Charlie.

Short attracted a chic international fan base that included royalty, film stars, sports figures, socialites and jazz fans. Short’s place as entertainer for high society overshadowed his significance as a jazz pianist, singer and popular song scholar. He dedicated himself to spreading an awareness of the African-American contribution to NYC musical theater. In Short’s roster of Greatest American Songwriters you find: Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and Eubie Blake, along with Cole Porter, who wasn’t a black man, but who preferred black men. Short is often identified with the compositions of Fats Waller, the great African-American songwriter who wrote Guess Who’s In Town, Short’s signature song.

Short had a bout of notoriety in 1980 when Anderson Cooper’s artist/designer mother Gloria Vanderbilt sued River House, a co-op building on the East Side of Manhattan, which had refused to sell her a million dollar apartment. She accused the management of racial bias because of her close association with Short. The landmark building’s board said it wanted to avoid any “unwanted publicity”, a barely disguised reference to “those people”. Later that year, Vanderbilt dropped the law suit. Short generally stayed out of the fray but he did say:

“I’m old enough to be sophisticated about these things.”

This phrase is my new motto.

Short never publicly came out of the closet, but it was known among his friends, fellow cabaret performers, and even among of his fans that he was gay. When asked why he hadn’t taken part in any of the Gay Pride parades, Short’s response was:

“I have a living to make! I can’t afford to march in any Gay Pride Parade.”

Short wrote about his life in two books: a memoir, Black And White Baby (1971), where he says nothing about being gay, and a biography by Robert Mackintosh, Bobby Short: The Life And Times Of A Saloon Singer (1995), where he does. In the memoir Short writes about living as a child among many white people “on a pleasant street, in a pleasant neighborhood where the houses had front and back yards”:

“I am a Negro who has never lived in the South, thank God, nor was I ever trapped in an urban ghetto. There was a total absence of any kind of overt prejudice in those years, and it was kept that way by my teachers, which I was not aware of then. I never expected to be treated differently than my classmates. I didn’t know that colored children anywhere could be given a bad time at school.”

Short took that final bow in 2005, taken by Leukemia at 80 years old. I wonder if he was a rather lonely man. My research shows me nothing of a boyfriend or lover. At Shorts request, there were no memorial services.

 “I felt I had a gift and I enjoyed performing. I didn’t know then and I don’t know now how well or how badly I sing and play the piano but I knew that I was a good performer.”

The post #BornThisDay: Musician, Bobby Short appeared first on The WOW Report.

RuPaul’s Drag Race season six winner (and soon to be bonafide movie star!) Bianca Del Rio doesn’t EVER pull any punches when talking about, well, just about anything.

In a recent Dragaholic News interview, Bianca got real about Mama Ru‘s recent Emmy win. Here’s the tea,

“Here’s someone who’s been doing this longer than I have, which is what, 30 or 35 years of performing and having every opportunity. Ru had a talk show on VH1, Ru had a Vegas show, Ru has done, you know, everything you could possibly do with drag and done it well.

And with this particular show, what’s fascinating to me, as I was saying when you travel with live audiences, a lot of it is a straight audience that comes to see the show.

What I was most impressed by is that the academy, so to speak, was willing to give him an award. I thought that was pretty amazing because when you think about theatre, or you think about Hollywood, and you think how the hell could you put on a movie or make a play without a gay person?

Gay people make everything happen, let’s be honest! But it was great to see them acknowledge someone of his stature, and someone who’s worked very hard. I thought that was great, and it’s a huge milestone.

I think it was surprising. Because even though it’s well deserved, you don’t think they’re going to give it, and I think that’s where he was coming from.

I can’t speak for him, but I definitely think it’s probably given him a huge pep in his step, and he’s going to be one rich bitch now.

But I think that says a lot about the show, and the show humanises drag queens. They get to see us as ourselves. And you realise that we’re not crazy monsters all the time, that we are human beings.”

Can I get an AMEN?! Her movie, Hurricane Bianca will have its U.S. premiere in New York City, September 19 at 7 PM, with additional screenings in San Francisco, September 20 at 7:30 PM and Los Angeles September 21, at 7:30 PM. All will feature a Q & A with director Matt Kugelman and Bianca. Tickets are available here. If you haven’t seen it yet – watch… or if you have, like me, watch again for the 8th time.

(Photo, Magnus Hastings; via Attitude)

The post Bianca Del Rio on RuPaul’s Emmy Win: “Gay People Make Everything Happen, Let’s Be Honest!” appeared first on The WOW Report.

TS Madison has HAD IT with whatever these companies are calling customer service these days. She gives your automated answering service THE ONLY READ on this episode of Wait a Minute!

The post WAIT A MINUTE with TS Madison: Customer Service My Ass! appeared first on The WOW Report.

The Divine Facebook page is reporting the passing of John Water‘s actress, Kim McGuire‘s death,

“Our dear friend Kim McGuire passed away today. Kim was best known for her role as Mona “Hatchet-Face” Malnorowski in John Waters‘ cult film Cry-Baby. Rest In Peace Kim.”

Her death was a hoax in 2008 and we can only hope that’s the case now. If not, RIP baby. Or as Hatchett-Face might say,

“See you in hell, suckers!“

The post #RIP: Actress, Kim “Hachett-Face” McGuire appeared first on The WOW Report.

Brandon T. Snider is a modern day renaissance man: an actor, a comic book writer, and now, he can add playwright to his impressive resume. We caught up with him (if you can catch him!) on his upcoming theater debut “A Weekend Conference,” his new book series Peter Powers, and what he describes as ‘the tragicomedy of gay conversation therapy.’ With his toes dipped into so many rich projects, does he have time for anything else? Why yes, New York Comic Con in October is just one of many things we learned during our intimate conversation with Snider.

Check it out:

WOW: Hi Brandon! Thanks so much for talking with us today. You have lots of theater this week! Tell us about your short play you wrote “A Weekend Conference.” What’s it about and how did it come to life?
Brandon: LOTS of theater. Everyone is excited. Without giving too much away, “A Weekend Conference” is about three strangers on their way to a very curious weekend retreat. It’s a comedy! That’s also tragic. I’m acting in it alongside two fine actors, Mike Houston (Orange is the New Black) and Gabe Fazio (The Place Beyond the Pines). Our director Richard Masur is the best. He’s like the wise shaman of acting. I would do anything he told me to do. And he’s been in every single movie and TV show ever made, I swear to god. I love Richard. I love Mike and Gabe. I can’t wait for people to see their work. It’s really special.

A WEEKEND CONFERENCE CAST PHOTO
Mike Houston, Brandon T. Snider, Gabe Fazio
CREDIT: Brian Hotaling

I was inspired to write the play after watching a documentary about gay conversion therapy. It’s so sad to see men accept their truth and then work backwards to erase themselves. They spout all kinds of bizarre religious reasoning that makes absolutely no practical sense as it relates to human sexuality. What’s intriguing and disappointing at the same time is that many men believe in these programs despite never actually having their desired breakthrough. In the abstract, there’s something really funny to me about the men who rave and gush over these experiences. Some of them are lifers. They talk about how bonded they feel to these other men because they’re all going through the same thing. It’s like of course you love leaving your wives behind to bunk up with twenty other dudes in the woods, getting into massage circles and putting on plays. You are a gay man. I love that bit in Waiting for Guffman (my favorite movie) when Corky St. Clair talks about shopping for his wife. You laugh because at first you think he must be joking then you realize he’s serious and you laugh again because there’s just no way this man isn’t aware of himself. But I also want to say that I have great empathy for these men. Many of them are shut off from reality out of fear. There’s no gay community that they feel safe enough to explore. Some of them come from small rural areas where the hint of gayness might cause them to become the town outcast. We touch a little bit on that aspect in the play.

 WOW: I also see that you’re starring in David Thigpen’s “In Wake of Yesterday.” What’s that about and how did you get attached to the project?
Brandon: “In Wake of Yesterday” is set in a trailer in South Carolina during the mid-90’s and it’s about a bunch of people in the middle of a drug-fueled celebration. A portrait of dysfunction. David wrote this play specifically for the people who’re starring in it which was very cool. We’ve been friends for years and I love the rest of the cast. David and Kevin Kane are directing. I play a semi-closeted redneck named Randall. He dreams of an exciting life beyond the trailer park, knowing full well it’s way beyond his reach. He’s about to lose one of the only people who has ever shown him unconditional kindness and respect. It puts him on edge. He’s had to navigate a lot of abuse and harassment in his life but when push comes to shove, Randall gives as good as he gets. I get to speak in a backwoods Southern dialect which is always exciting.

IN WAKE OF YESTERDAY CAST PHOTO
Booker Garret, Michael Abbott Jr.
Joan Porter, Brandon T. Snider, Swann Gruen, Lacy Marie Meyer
CREDIT: Brian Hotaling

WOW: Tell us a little bit about The Collective and your involvement with them?
Brandon: I came to The Collective through Kevin Kane who’s a good friend and one of the co-artistic directors. We went to college together and were roommates during our early years in NYC. He and a handful of William Esper Studio graduates started the company together almost ten years ago.  Amy Schumer is a founding member. We used to do sketch comedy shows at this synagogue in Midtown called the Actor’s Temple. They were basically fundraisers for whatever play production was going up at the time. That was back in the beginning. The company has grown so much since then and it’s been really amazing to watch it happen. They’re making all kinds of movies and people are popping up on TV like crazy. David Thigpen’s “Turtleface” has been winning awards at film festivals. Sayra Player’s film “Uncle Silas” is hitting that circuit soon. Khalil Muhammad’s one man show about Richard Pryor just killed it at Fringe NYC. Tons of other stuff in the pipeline. They’re a really great group of artists and I love working with them.

WOW: There’s a bajillion things I miss about New York…street fashion, bagels, and of course pizza. But I use to go once a month to Broadway with a coworker from ‘Ugly Betty.’ There’s nothing like NY theater. Why do you think NY theater has successfully managed to continue telling and performing stories for so long?
Brandon: Street fashion! I used to play a game with a friend of mine called “Where are YOU going?” Whenever we’d see, you know, that Asian dude in Soho with the Pocahontas braids who walks around barefoot all day in a Speedo, we’d fantasize about tapping him on his bare shoulder and saying, “Excuse me but where are YOU going?” Like what is his job? Moving on…what I love about this city is that it’s a cross section of culture and it never, ever stops. If you live in Appalachia, your choices are limited. You don’t have access to everything. It’s just how it is. If you live in New York City, you can go see any type of show you could ever imagine. TONIGHT. Just open up a Time Out. You can see a polished Broadway musical or terrible stand-up comedy in a basement. Your options are unlimited. That’s why people come here to find themselves. This city draws the stories out of people. It’s where they get made. People move to New York to work their shit out on stage and that can be thrilling (and painful) to watch.

WOW: Any theater you are looking forward to attending coming up?
Brandon: And now I will share my truth: I’m so behind on current theater, it’s shameful. My writing workload has increased significantly this year and it’s been difficult to find time to see all the things I want to see. I have two beautiful The Humans glasses that I got at Broadway Bets and every time I look at them I’m reminded that I still haven’t actually seen The Humans. I recently downloaded TodayTix though and I’m fairly confident that I’m going to use it by 2017.

WOW: “A Weekend Conference” has gay themes and I know it’s important for you to tell and represent honest stories. How do audiences receive your work?
Brandon: I really want the audience to see the struggle of self-acceptance through the eyes of three very different men. Human sexuality is a spectrum and the characters in this play represent different parts of that spectrum. How they view themselves and each other is part of the play’s conflict. They’re imperfect people who may not make the best choice. We have the luxury, as an audience, of being on the outside looking in. We get to identify what a better choice actually looks like whereas these men may not have that ability. There will be moments that will make your heart hurt a little. That gets balanced out with some genuinely funny moments. What I hope people take away is the idea that we need to be kinder to ourselves and one another. Sometimes we put ourselves through so much pointless suffering because we feel like we’re out of options. It doesn’t have to be that way.

WOW: In “In Wake of Yesterday,” there’s a much larger cast, do you like working in big or small groups? How do you approach each project…both being so different in size and subject matter?
Brandon: I love acting in a good ensemble. Finding the right rhythm to make things work is a challenge I enjoy. It can be a scheduling nightmare but that’s fine. Chaos can be fun. Smaller casts mean individualized attention. In a cast of two or three you can have longer conversations and there’s more room to experiment. When you’ve got five or six people, time is of the essence. 

WOW: What have you learned about yourself and your writing process through both projects?
Brandon: Whenever I act in something I’ve written; I tend to think I already know everything about the role. When we started rehearsals for “A Weekend Conference”, I was pretty sure of the approach I was going to take. I wrote the character for myself. Once we began the rehearsal process it became a different story. Richard opened my eyes to some new possibilities and I was able to let go of my previous ideas and do something that worked better and made more sense for the character. It’s a much more truthful performance because of his direction.

WOW: NY Comic Con is just around the corner. I assume you’ll be there? What can we look forward to about this year’s NYCC and the work you will be showing/sharing? What are you most excited about seeing?
Brandon: I’ll be there! I don’t know my whole schedule yet but I’ll mainly be promoting the debut book in a new kid’s series I’m doing for Little Brown & Company called Peter Powers. He’s a sweet, passionate kid who’s desperate to figure out his terribly lame super powers. Peter wants to be a hero so bad he can taste it. There’s lots of action and humor. Themes revolve around the power of family, friends, and having confidence in yourself. I hope it empowers kids but also reminds them that growth takes time. Patience will be rewarded, just hang in there. Dave Bardin’s art makes me squeal with joy. I’ll also be promoting Teen Titans: Jump City Jive and Doctor Strange: Mystery of the Dark Magic.

WOW: I know you are watching All Stars 2 (we text a lot during it). What are your thoughts on the voting twist and who are your favorites? I know you love Alyssa and Katya, but any new surprises in favor?
Brandon: All the twists are great! It’s exactly what the show needed. I’m really into that moment at the end when the losing queen is feeling defeated and all of a sudden here comes Ru with that mystery message. I love the uncertainty. Usually, I love deconstructing the whole thing to figure out who’ll take the crown but I honestly don’t know how All-Stars will play out. My theory is that all the queens who were voted off are going to come back as some sort of tribal council toward the end. I think that’s just because I want RuPaul to make a “hung jury” joke.

WOW: When are both of your shows and how can people get tickets?
Brandon:
“A Weekend Conference” runs Sept 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23 & 24

“In Wake of Yesterday” runs Sept 14, 16, 17, 21, 23, 24, 25

Ticket Information is HERE: http://www.thecollective-ny.org/4th-annual-collective10-4/

WOW: You worked in fashion for a long time. As NYFW is upon us, do you miss it? Do you still partake in fashion week for fun?
Brandon: I do miss it! But only for a second. Fashion Week was always insane because you’re working like a dog and you’re running on fumes but going out every night. I really miss seeing friends at shows and catching up but my liver is retired. No champagne fountains for me anymore. Nowadays, I’d rather be at home watching Loosely Exactly Nicole and ordering tacos on Seamless.

Read our other story on Brandon from this past year’s San Diego Comic Con. 

PETER POWERS BOOK COVER
Art by Dave Bardin

The post Brandon T. Snider Talks “A Weekend Conference”, the Tragicomedy of Gay Conversion Therapy and His New Book Series Peter Powers. appeared first on The WOW Report.

Lisa Lobree of Philadelphia was walking to her exercise class when she was suddenly “slammed by something.”

“I was like, ‘What!?’ I was freaking out,” she recalled.

Turns out it was a 16-inch catfish. Falling from the sky. And hitting her smack on the head.

Poor dear suffered a small cut under her left eye and some swelling from the flying fish.

And…

“I smelled so bad afterwards,” she told CBS Philadelphia. “I smelled disgusting.”

Why the fish was plummeting to earth, though, remains a bit of a mystery. Most people assume that a bird of some kind had plucked the fish from a local pond then lost its grip. Others speculate that a tornado or hurricane may have lifted the fish into the heavens, then threw it back when the wind subsided. Still others wonder if it was an inter-dimensional fish traveling through a space/time portal.

We may never know the truth.

From HuffPo:

Of course, nobody wants to be smacked in the face by a fish falling form the sky, but Lobree is at least making the best of it.

“It could have been so much worse,” she told the Inquirer. “What if it hit a child? It was a not a fun experience, but there are so many worse things that could’ve happened. It’s probably one of the strangest things that have happened to me in my life.”

The post She Was Catfished. Literally appeared first on The WOW Report.

T. Kyle, WOWPresents partner and the man behind RealityTVGIFs, has his own YouTube channel and it is all sorts of hilarious. From his candle hauls (yes, you read that correctly) to him playing the Britney Spears app to even just plain old story time videos, there is something for everyone. He even has a video with Alyssa Edwards tongue popping it to Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” (hold please, calling my lawyers). Check out some of his videos below and don’t forget to subscribe to his channel here!

Fall Candle Haul (BRB, going out to buy some now):

Alyssa Edward’s “Sorry”:

Reacting to Britney Spear’s “Pretty Girls”:

So subscribe to him now! Because…

The post The Man Behind RealityTVGIFS: Meet T. Kyle! appeared first on The WOW Report.

This powerful image shows you how close Amazon’s ‘Danger and Eggs’ creator and WOWlebrity Shadi Petosky was to Beyoncé last night at LA’s sold out ‘Formation Tour’ at the Dodger Stadium. I too, was one of thousands of Bey-crazy fans in attendance (my seat was like, MUCH further back than Shadi’s). I was able to sit down with the busy show runner  about being literally feet from King Bey and her experience at the concert. Brace yourself, I don’t think either of us have recovered from last night.

Check it out:

[Photos courtesy of Shadi’s Instagram]

WOW: Hey Shadi! Have you recovered from last night? Bey is like, the closest thing to a religious experience.
Shadi: Bey says “God is God and I am not” — that’s one thing I disagree with Beyoncé about — but that was CHURCH.

The post Front Row At Beyoncé With ‘Danger And Eggs’ Creator Shadi Petosky appeared first on The WOW Report.

You may recall, last month former sex kitten Pamela Anderson joined forces with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach to write an op ed piece for the Wall Street Journal in which they called porn “a public hazard of unprecedented seriousness,” saying

 “Simply put, we must educate ourselves and our children to understand that porn is for losers — a boring, wasteful and dead-end outlet for people too lazy to reap the ample rewards of healthy sexuality.”

Which was… odd… coming from the woman who had just recently – and rather gleefully, by all accounts – posed for the last nude issue of Playboy magazine.

Well, the trailer for her new movie The People Garden is out, and it features Pam in a black negligé – sloooooooowly peeling it off, and looking lustily at the camera as gets nekked. And while the movie is a respectable thriller, and not a sleazy blue movie… and Playboy is not Hustler… it does seem to send rather mixed signals from the actress. Just sayin’.

The People Garden tells the story of Sweetpea (Dree Hemingway) who travels to Japan to break up with her rock star boyfriend (François Arnaud), but begins to suspect he has died after he goes missing in a mysterious forest.

The film premiered at the 2016 Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival in April, and will hit US cinemas on September 12.

Watch the trailers here and see the NFW screen grabs below. (via Daily Mail)

The post Anti-Porn Crusader Pam Anderson Is Nude Again in Her New Movie appeared first on The WOW Report.

HEY, DRAG RACE FANS! It’s RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 2, and John Polly is back with his RUcaps of every episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, on Extra Lap Recap! This week John recaps the fourth episode of All Stars 2, “Drag Movie Shequels.”

SPOILER ALERT: The eliminated queen will be revealed, so don’t view the recap if you haven’t watched the full episode!

The post John Polly Recaps RDR All Stars 2 “Drag Movie Shequels” on Extra Lap Recap appeared first on The WOW Report.

Travis Wall
Alexis Bledel
Amy Poehler
B.B King
David Copperfield
Ed Begley Jr.
George Chakiris
Ian Harding
Jennifer Tilly
Katie Melua
Lauren Bacall
Madeline Zima
Marc Anthony
Max Minghella
Mickey Rourke
Molly Shannon
Nick Jonas
Orel Hershiser
Richard Marx
Rossy de Palma
Sabrina Bryan
Tamron Hall
Teddy Geiger

The post September 16th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

September 16, 1924– Betty Joan Perskey:

“You know you don’t have to act with me, Steve. You don’t have to say anything, and you don’t have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and… blow.”

It is my all-time favorite film quote. It’s from Howard Hawke’s To Have Or To Have Not (1944). In the 1990s I had a variation of it as my outgoing message on my answering machine (do you remember answering machines?) until I got too many complaints that it was salacious. She famously uttered those words, but she didn’t write them. Jules Furthman wrote the screenplay based on an Ernest Hemingway novel. It is a testament to her acting that the words seem to be hers.

Betty Joan Perske was born in The Bronx, the only child of Jewish parents. She grew-up in Brooklyn. Her parents divorced, but thanks to a set of wealthy uncles, she attended private school.

When she was 17 years old she enrolled at the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, where Kirk Douglas was a classmate. She made her stage debut on Broadway in 1942 in a small role in Johnny 2 X 4. By then, she was living with her mother in Greenwich Village, where she entered a contest and won the title Miss Greenwich Village.

She found work as a theatre usher and as a fashion model. Diana Vreeland was introduced to her by a friend that had met her in a nightclub and the next day she was photographed in the new Kodachrome for the March 1943 cover of Harper’s Bazaar, a cover that is now considered iconic.

The Harper’s Bazaar cover was admired by Howard Hawks’ wife Slim Hawkes. She suggested Betty Joan be screen-tested for his new film, To Have And Have Not. Hawks asked his secretary to find out more about her, but the secretary misunderstood and sent Betty Joan a ticket to come to Hollywood. At 19 years old, she landed the starring role opposite Humphrey Bogart. The pair married a year later and went on to make five films (and 2 children) together, including The Big Sleep (1946) and Key Largo (1948). She was with him until his death in 1957.

Hawks had signed her to a seven year contract with a weekly salary of $100, and the right to manage her career. She smartly changed her name to Lauren Bacall (her mother’s name had been Bacal). Slim Hawks guided Bacall on how to dress stylishly and prompted her in all things elegant and tasteful. Remember, Bacall was still a teenager.

During her screen tests for To Have And Have Not, Bacall was so nervous that she pressed her chin against her chest, faced the camera and tilted her eyes upward to calm her quivering. The effect came to be known as “The Look”. Bacall made more than 75 films between 1994 and 2012. In a career lasting more than 50 years, Bacall was nominated for an Academy Award only once, for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) as Barbra Streisand’s mother. In 2009 she was honored with a special Oscar for “A Lifetime Of Superior Work In Films”. I love that she continued to work into her golden years. Bacall appeared with Nicole Kidman in two films: Dogville (2003) and Birth (2004). Her final film was a crime caper The Forger (2012); she was 88 years old and still looked seductive.

Her film career slowed down in the 1960s and 1970, so Bacall turned to Broadway, first in the sparkling comedy Cactus Flower (1965) and winning Tony Awards for her roles in Applause (1970) & Woman Of The Year (1981).

After the passing of Bogart in 1957, Bacall had a sizzling affair with Frank Sinatra right after his marriage to Ava Gardner had ended. Bacall wrote that Sinatra abruptly ended their relationship after becoming furious that the story of his marriage proposal to Bacall had been leaked to the press. She was married to actor Jason Robards from 1961-69 and is the mother of actor Sam Robards.

Bacall was a staunch Democrat and defender of liberal causes. 69 years ago, Bacall and Bogart traveled to DC, along with other Hollywood stars, in a group that called itself The Committee For The First Amendment. She appeared alongside Bogart in a photograph printed at the end of an article he wrote, titled “I’m No Communist” in the May 1948 edition of Photoplay magazine, written to counteract negative publicity resulting from his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee. She costarred opposite John Wayne in his last film, The Shootist (1976). They became close friends, despite very real political differences.

Bacall:

“I am an anti-Republican… A liberal. The L-word. Being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you’re a liberal. You do not have a small mind.”

Bacall has produced two volumes of exceptionally written, dry, self-deprecatingly witty, forthright memoirs: By Myself (1978) and Now (1994), plus she published an updated version with a new final chapter published By Myself And Then Some (2004).

Bacall left this world just a month before her 90^th birthday in 2014. She took that final bow at her longtime apartment in my favorite NYC residential building, The Dakota on the Upper West Side overlooking Central Park. I really loved her and I was sad when I heard the news, but I reflected on the career that lasted from 15 years old until her late 80s, a life well-lived.

When I was living in NYC in the 1970s, I once followed her for 14 blocks. At one point I allowed myself to be right beside her. I considered offering myself as her escort to her destination, but just as I finally got up the nerve, she stopped in front of The Russian Tea Room where she greeted Liza Minnelli with a kiss and they swooped inside. A truly great NYC gay moment for me.

“I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.”

The post #BornThisDay: Lauren Bacall appeared first on The WOW Report.

Three-time Pulitzer Prize -winning gay playwright Edward Albee, whose masterworks was Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? died today.

His assistant Jackob Holder said he died at his home in Montauk. No cause of death was given. Given the deaths of Arthur Miller and August Wilson in 2005, he was arguably America’s greatest living playwright. Years ago, before undergoing surgery, Albee penned a note to be issued at the time of his death:

“To all of you who have made my being alive so wonderful, so exciting and so full, my thanks and all my love.”

Albee was proclaimed the playwright of his generation after his blistering Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opened on Broadway in 1962. The Tony-winning play, still widely considered Albee’s finest, was made into an award-winning 1966 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

His unconventional style won him great acclaim but also led to a nearly 20-year drought of critical and commercial recognition before his 1994 play, Three Tall Women, garnered his third Pulitzer Prize. His other Pulitzers were for A Delicate Balance (1967) and Seascape (1975).

Albee was born in 1928 and was adopted by a wealthy suburban New York couple. His father, Reed Albee, ran the Keith-Albee chain of vaudeville theaters; his mother, Frances Albee, was a socialite and a commanding presence who kept a hold on him for much of his life.

Albee was honored by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1996 for his lifetime contributions. Then-President Bill Clinton praised Albee as a man who inspired a generation of American dramatists. Clinton also awarded Albee a National Medal of the Arts that year.

Into his 70s, Albee continued to write provocative and unconventional plays. In The Goat or Who is Sylvia? the main character falls in love with a goat. Albee said in 2001,

“I don’t like the idea of getting older and older because there’s meant to be a time when that has to stop. Dying strikes me as being a great waste of time.”

Albee’s longtime companion, sculptor Jonathan Thomas, died in 2005. Albee told The New York Times in 2007. “

“I couldn’t write for a long time. The mourning never ends; it just changes. But then I got back into a feeling of usefulness.”

Edward Albee was 88.

(via USA Today)

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Serena Chacha
Amy Roloff
Anastacia
Baz Luhrmann
BeBe Winans
Bobby Lee
Bryan Singer
Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson
Constantine Mouralis
Doug E. Fresh
Dustin Nguyen
James Urbaniak
Keith Flint
Kevin Clash
Kyle Chandler
Malik Yoba
Matthew Settle
Nate Berkus
Rita Rudner
Wade Robson

The post September 17th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

On the beach at Santa Monica with Elizabeth Taylor

September 17, 1928– I ran into Roddy McDowall two times. The first time was at the 50th Anniversary of MGM Gala at the Beverley Wilshire Hotel in 1973, which I had successfully crashed. He was there as Elizabeth Taylor’s date, or Taylor as his beard. He could not have been more gracious and warm. He was better looking in person than I had ever found him to be in films. The second time was at a coke fueled all-male party at the home of a famous producer in the Hollywood Hills. He couldn’t have been more gracious and friendly, and from his films I would never have guessed that McDowell was so profoundly “gifted”.

McDowall was thought to be one of the nicest people in show biz ever. He was also known as an especially good friend, known for being able to keep a confidence.

After winning an acting prize in a school play, little Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall was able to secure film work in England beginning at 10 years old with Scruffy (1938). He appeared in 16 movies before his family was evacuated to the USA during the Battle Of Britain in 1940.

McDowall’s arrival in Hollywood coincided with 20th Century Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck search for “The New Freddie Bartholomew”. McDowall screen-tested for the juvenile lead in John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley (1941). He was cast in the role and he received terrific reviews and a contract with Fox.  McDowall was cast with the then unknown Elizabeth Taylor in her first Amercian film, Lassie Come Home (1943). Taylor and McDowall became lifelong, very close friends. Taylor’s casting in this film was an absolute fluke. The director, Fred Wilcox, simply wanted any young girl who could do an English accent.

McDowall’s first adult role was as Malcolm in Orson Welles’ 1948 film version of Macbeth. But for the most part, McDowall left films in the 1950s, preferring television and stage work. Among his Broadway credits were No Time For Sergeants (1955), Compulsion (1957), working with fellow former child star Dean Stockwell, and Lerner and Loewe‘s musical Camelot (1960) as Mordred, a role I played in summer stock a decade later.

McDowall won a Tony Award for his work in a short run of the play The Fighting Cock (1960), by odd coincidence a chapter header in my memoir. He returned to films, spending almost all of 1962 portraying Octavius in the mammoth film production of Cleopatra with longtime pal, guess who?

An accomplished and original photographer, McDowall’s photos of Taylor and other celebrities were frequently published in the leading magazines of his era. He was, briefly, the photographic editor of Harper’s Bazaar and he published the first of several collections of rather extraordinary photographs, Double Exposure (1966).

McDowall went ape shit for his acting gigs between 1968 and 1975, in elaborate simian makeup as Cornelius in the Planet Of The Apes films and the television series. He kept working and did the occasional film role or stage play into the 1990s. McDowall served on the executive boards of the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences.

McDowall was a lifelong film collector, archivist and historian. In 1974, around the time I met him briefly, the FBI raided his home and seized his collection of films and television series during an investigation of film piracy and copyright infringement. His collection consisted of nearly 200 16mm prints and more than 1,000 video cassettes. McDowall had purchased actor Errol Flynn‘s home movies and the prints of his own directorial debut Tam-Lin (1970) starring Ava Gardner, transferring them all to tape for storage. McDowall was open about those who dealt with him: Rock Hudson, Shelly Winters and Mel Tormé were just a few of the celebrities who gave support in his film reproductions. No charges were brought against McDowall, but he was shaken by the experience.

McDowall’s passion was his film preservation and he worked diligently with the National Film Preservation Board. In 1998, he was elected president of the Academy’s Foundation.

He had a special devotion to the great female stars of the past, whom he idolized. McDowall enjoyed unlikely friendships with some of the most elusive women stars of the silver screen, including Jean Arthur, Greta Garbo and Lillian Gish.

McDowall was one of the most loved stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, noted for his kindness, generosity and loyalty. McDowall’s announcement that he was suffering from terminal cancer a few weeks before he died, rocked the film community and many of his friends came to say good-bye to the gravely ill McDowall at his home in Studio City. Shortly before his cancer diagnosis, he had provided a voice-over for Disney/Pixar’s animated feature A Bug’s Life (1998). A few days before McDowall’s final credits rolled in 1999, the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences named its photographic archive for him.

Tab Hunter mentions McDowall in his terrific memoir Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making Of A Movie Star (2005):

“While making shakes at the Rexall drugstore at Hollywood and Highland, I met my first bona fide movie star. It was the night of the big 1948 Christmas parade. Dick Clayton brought along Roddy McDowall. Roddy was only 20, but he’d been in pictures his whole life. We hit it off, gabbing and laughing…”

Hunter and McDowall had posed shirtless for a Photoplay Magazine spread titled Calling All Girls!.

Farley Granger writes about McDowall in his very fun and readable memoir Include Me Out (2008). Granger knew McDowell prior to his joining the Navy at 18 years old. Granger:

“It was 1953. I found an apartment on the Upper East Side in Manhattan… My old pals Roddy McDowall and Monty Clift lived on the same block”.

McDowall and Clift were very close and even lived together for a period, and along with Taylor they were often seen out and about as a trio. During this time McDowall also had a short, but intense, affair with Marlon Brando, but who didn’t.

Eddie Fisher, in his autobiography Been There, Done That (1999), mentions McDowall and his decades of hatred towards him. Fisher had first met Elizabeth Taylor at a party that Merv Griffin and McDowall had thrown in an apartment they were sharing in one of my favorite NY structures, The Dakota Apartments. Fisher:

“She spent most of the evening in a corner with her close friend Montgomery Clift. She was recently divorced from her first husband Nicky Hilton. But that damn Roddy wouldn’t let me near her.”

Lauren Bacall, in her memoir By Myself (1978):

“He was someone I always looked forward to being with, loved seeing, loved hearing from.”

McDowall was with Bette Davis during the last part of her life, taking care of her and watching out for her best interests. When Julie Andrews asked McDowall why he didn’t write a book about his life, he said:

“I have too many friends. I know too much, I couldn’t.”

McDowall has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 6632 Hollywood Boulevard, plus there is an honorary rose garden on the grounds of the Motion Picture And Television Fund with a statue of him in costume and makeup from Planet Of The Apes.

McDowall:

“My whole life I’ve been trying to prove I’m not just yesterday.”

Interesting that in his over 260 film and television roles, none of the characters were gay, but nearly all were gay-coded.

I think that I would really have loved to have been pals with McDowall. True friends are to be treasured.

The post #BornThisDay: Actor, Roddy McDowall appeared first on The WOW Report.

Cattelan’s retrospective, “All” at the Guggenheim in 2012

This solid gold toilet is in a public restroom, in a new exhibit called America at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. It’s the first work of art exhibited by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan since his retrospective hung all of his work like a mobile from the ceiling.

The Guggenheim said,

“Cattelan intends visitors to use the toilet just as they would any other facility in the building.

In a gallery environment where visitors are constantly being told, ‘don’t touch,’ this is an extraordinary opportunity to spend time completely alone with a work of art by a leading contemporary artist.”

It’s located behind a nondescript bathroom door The value of the work was not given, but Gothamist crunched the numbers did the math and found that if it weighs as much as a typical commode, it would be between 70 and 120 pounds ― or worth between $1,474,592 and $2,527,872, given the current value of gold. Cattelan told the museum,

“You should call it ‘Guggen-head’.“

Whatever, just don’t forget to flush.

(T/Y Tad; via Huffington Post)

The post #GameofThrone: Now You Can Pee (or Whatever) in Maurizio Cattelan’s Solid Gold Toilet appeared first on The WOW Report.

Much has been written about the man, but according to the current issue of Vanity Fair,

“What Donald Trump does between tweets, taunts, and tirades has long been a mystery. The veil is parted by an artist well known for discerning the scene behind the scenes.“

The shocking new photographs are by Alison Jackson.

(Photos, Alison Jackson; via Vanity Fair)

The post #PictureThis: Alison Jackson’s Photos Expose Trump’s Private “Me Time” appeared first on The WOW Report.

NYFW is winding down, so lets’s review, shall we? The media FLIPPED when Madonna & Lourdes sat from row at Alexander Wang, Marc Jacobs was blasted for “cultural appropriation” for his white girl dreads, Gigi Hadid fell down and supermodel Donte Hall –aka Taedatea- SLAYED. What?! Never heard of him?

Well, he likes to make videos and the internet seems to like to watch them. Facebook has seen this one alone over three million times, so far. He says,

“Me walking for the new season of Walmart Fashions during New York Fashion Week. BE JEALOUS!”

I think it’s safe to say, you have the raw materials for these fab looks at home too. Work the runway, sweetie, –pillow first!

Watch.

The post #NYFW: Donte Hall Puts the Bass in His Walk with These DIY Walmart Looks. Watch appeared first on The WOW Report.