Tim Gunn penned an essay recently where he went OFF on the fashion industry for refusing to make wearable plus-sized clothes for “real women”. (Read it here if you haven’t yet…) And this week while on Access Hollywood, Mr. Gunn was asked about his thoughts on Kanye West’s Yeezy fashion show #4. He said,

“I’m totally perplexed about why the fashion industry has not looked at these frankly dumb, basic clothes and cried,

‘Hoax! Hoax!‘

I mean Kanye West is a sphinx without a riddle. I just don’t understand why people are so in awe. I mean look at this, they’re basically stretch undergarments.”

Then he fired one last shot,

“I think the only thing dumber than these clothes, would be the people who buy these clothes.“

Bullseye! Take me to the emergency room –I’m DYING!

(via BuzzFeed)

The post #NYFW: Tim “Gunns Down” Kanye’s New Collection – “The Only Thing Dumber Than These Clothes Would Be the People Who Buy Them” appeared first on The WOW Report.

When Emmy nominee, Tituss Burgess, was introduced to RuPaul through a mutual friend at an Emmys event a few years ago, he got down on his knees and bowed for about 40 seconds. Burgess told People at the TV Academy’s Reception on Friday night.

“That’s like the Holy Grail for me, meeting that man. Talk about not giving a fuck, and doing things your own way, but with class and a total disregard for societal norms. Whether it was on purpose or, you know, on a subconscious level, [he] has set into motion a lot of trajectories for a lot of young people, not even just in the LGBTQ community, but everywhere.

He’s just so legendary.“

Can I get an amen to that?! Burgess is nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The Emmys are Sunday, September 18 on ABC.

(via People)

The post #WhenTitussMetRu: The “Kimmy Schmidt” Star Was Introduced To RuPaul & Fell To His Knees… appeared first on The WOW Report.

Dolly Parton and Grammy-winning a cappella group Pentatonix have teamed up for a brand new arrangement of Parton’s Jolene. Originally released in 1973, Parton told NPR in 2008 that it was the most recorded song of any she has written, having been recorded by more than 30 singers around the globe.

“It’s a great chord progression — people love that ‘Jolene’ lick. It’s as much a part of the song almost as the song. And because it’s just the same word over and over, even a first-grader or a baby can sing, ‘Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.’ It’s like, how hard can that be?”

Jolene was ranked #217 by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Dolly tweeted that working with the group was “pure magic” and they answered back that they would “never forget” the experience of singing with the legend.

Watch, look and listen and then, repeat.

(T/Y Tad; via Towleroad)

The post #HelloDolly!!: Stop What You’re Doing & Listen to Parton & Pentatonix Sing, “Jolene” appeared first on The WOW Report.

At 8:40 tonight in Chelsea, a dumpster blew out the lower windows of a 14-story residence for the blind. At least 26 have suffered minor injuries from what may have been an explosive device.

The explosion, described by one neighbor as “deafening,” happened outside the Associated Blind Housing facility at 135 W. 23rd Street. The facility provides housing, training and other services for the blind.

According to the New York Post,

“Police radio transmissions, the people inside the facility have been initially told to remain inside as police began their investigation.

Two buildings to the east of the facility were being evacuated. No fires have been reported, but multiple emergency vehicles, including ambulances, rushed to the scene.

“It was a quiet night, and then I heard this deafening boom,” said Jakir Aussin, who works at a Dunkin Donuts at 23rd and Sixth Avenue. “My first thought was, ‘Oh god, a bomb,’ so I got down on the floor.”

He added “I looked outside and it’s all broken glass, car alarms going off — I still don’t know what happened.”

Witnesses described hearing a massive noise — “100x louder than thunder,” one tweeted.

I live 10-12 blocks south of the explosion and just now police were racing the wrong way up my one way street to Chelsea.

This is a developing story…

A device at a second location in Chelsea appears to be a pressure cooker, according to multiple local and federal law enforcement officials.

(via NY Post)

The post #Update: Explosion Rocks Chelsea –Dozens Injured; 2nd Device Found Nearby appeared first on The WOW Report.

Jinkx Monsoon
Aisha Tyler
Alison Lohman
Ami Onuki
Anna Deavere Smith
Frankie Avalon
Fred Willard
Holly Robinson Peete
Jada Pinkett Smith
James Marsden
Jason Sudeikis
Jeana Keough
Joanne Catherall
Keeley Hazell
Lance Armstrong
Lori & George Schappell
Patrick Schwarzenegger
Ricky Bell
Robert Blake
Sara Haines
Satan’s Angel
Tara Fitzgerald
Xzibit

The post September 18th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Photograph by Beaton

September 18, 1905– Greta Garbo:

“There are some who want to get married and others who don’t. I have never had an impulse to go to the altar. I am a difficult person to lead.”

She was born Greta Lovisa Gustafson in Stockholm. She was lured to Hollywood by MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer who was impressed with her work in the Swedish film Gosta Berlings Saga (1924), which was directed by her mentor, the flamboyantly gay, Mauritz Stiller, who came up with the name Greta Garbo.

Garbo knew how to make an exit. After just 20 years in films and a life as one of the world’s biggest stars of all time, she walked away from acting and public life when she was only 36 years old.

She lived in NYC in virtual seclusion for the next 50 years, refusing all interviews and photographs, emerging from her apartment only when protected from public view by big hats and sunglasses. I spent many hours walking in Manhattan, from The Cloisters to The Battery, with time spent on her block on East 52nd Street, but I never had the thrill of a Garbo sighting, even after spotting several smart looking older women wearing large hats and sunglasses, following them and being disappointed when I finally was able to grab a quick glance.

Garbo made 14 silent films, with a face that was perfect for the expressions of the style of acting of those early black and white films. In fact, she never made a color film. She made the transition to talkies, a move that ruined many screen careers, with no problem at all. Garbo’s beautiful husky, accented voice was a prefect compliment to her unworldly beauty and she gave more complex, nuanced performances in her talking films.

Garbo’s first talkie was Anna Christie (1930), based on the 1922 Eugene O’Neill play. MGM’s market campaign came up with the catchphrase “Garbo Talks!” At the 16 minute mark, she famously utters her first spoken line on film:

“Gimme a whiskey, ginger ale on the side and don’t be stingy, baby.”

She convincingly played a world weary, washed-up ballerina in Grand Hotel (1932) at 26 years old. She gave what I think is her very best performance, charming, funny, electric and full of self-parody, in Ernst Lubitsch’s clever Ninotchka released in what is probably the greatest single year in film history, 1939. The MGM publicity department marketed the film with: “Garbo Laughs!”

Garbo was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress three times, but she never won. She received an honorary Oscar in 1954 for her “luminous and unforgettable screen performances”. She, of course, did not show up to accept the statue.

Garbo required very specific conditions for working on the set. She prohibited any visitors, including the studio brass, and she demanded that black flats surround her between takes to prevent extras and crew from looking at her. When asked about these eccentricities, Garbo said:

“If I am by myself, my face will do things I cannot do with it otherwise.”

During her career, Garbo avoided parties and premiers, preferring to spend her time alone or with a select group of close friends. She never signed autographs or answered fan mail and only rarely gave an interview (she only granted 12 in her lifetime). Her aversion to a public life was undeniably genuine. Garbo claimed:

“As early as I can remember, I have wanted to be alone. I detest crowds, don’t like many people.”

Her standoffish behavior exasperated MGM’s head of production Irving Thalberg, but he eventually capitalized on it and the studio played up her the image of the reluctant and reclusive woman of mystery.

Garbo had a love affair with her frequent costar John Gilbert, an actor who matched her beauty, but she left him standing alone at the altar on their wedding day. Garbo had affairs with women also, including well-known liaisons with actor Louise Brooks, writer Mercedes de Acosta (their affair was on again-off again for three decades), and with the only movie star who was her equal, Marlene Dietrich. She was very close friends with two noted gay men, designer/photographer Cecil Beaton and director George Cukor.

After Garbo’s passing, Swedish actor, Mimi Pollak, her close friend from her early school days, released the letters Garbo had written her. In one, Garbo wrote:

“We cannot help our nature, as God has created it. But I have always thought you and I belonged together”.

In retirement, Garbo claimed that she spent her time “drifting”, her word, used frequently. She lived with a lifelong melancholia. On her 60th birthday, she told her friends:

“In a few days, it will be the anniversary of the sorrow that never leaves me, that will never leave me for the rest of my life.”

Tellingly, in Love (1927) her character’s title card reads: “I like to be alone”. In The Single Standard (1929) she says: “I am walking alone because I want to be alone…” and the her character sails on a boat named the “All Alone”. In Susan Lenox (1931) she says: “This time I rise and fall… alone”. In Inspiration (1931) she tells her lover: “I just want to be alone for a little while”. For Mata Hari (1931) Garbo’s dialogue includes: “I never look ahead. By next spring I shall probably be quite alone.” The theme becomes a joke in Ninotchka  where screenwriters Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder have the officials from Soviet Russia ask her: “Do you want to be alone, comrade?” She answers bluntly: “No!”

Garbo’s final credits rolled in 1990, leaving after a series of illnesses, but finally taken by that damn cancer. She was cremated and her ashes are interred in her native Stockholm. Smart about money, Garbo died rich, with an estate worth more than 50 million, most of it in important art. She left no heir.

Garbo pointed out that her character in Grand Hotel never uttered the famous: “I want to be alone”, but rather: “I want to be let alone”, a big difference and seemingly true of her life.

“The story of my life is about back entrances, side doors, secret elevators and other ways of getting in and out of places so that people won’t bother me.”

The post #BornThisDay: Greta Garbo appeared first on The WOW Report.

“What I mean by an educated taste is someone who has the same tastes that I have.” –Edward Albee

Pulitzer Prize-winning gay playwright Edward Albee, whose masterwork was Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? died two days ago at the age of 88.

Arguably America’s greatest living playwright, Albee penned a note years ago before undergoing surgery 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.”

He had many friends in and out of the theater, writing and LGBT community and I collected a few personal stories from those who knew and loved him or just admired him from afar.

“In 1996, I had emergency open heart surgery. I was in my hospital room overlooking the east river. Edward Albee showed up one day to chat. He just showed up and sat down and spent a few hours. He was always kind to me. We were neighbors for a long time. Seeing him on the street always made me happy. His eyes shined, wicked beacons, his sly, very sly smile parted and he would utter something bone dry about the state of the world. And in his third act, the man wrote The Goat. A young man’s play written by an old lion. Where do they all go, the gods, goddesses and lions of the theatre?” – Robbie Baitz

“I used to see Mr. Albee at the gym or on the subway. He was very approachable, although one might not think so at first. Last time I saw him he told me about the complaint in his wrist (or thumb?) that was affecting his writing. He was very devoted to the gym for many years.” –John Epperson, (Lypsinka)

“Yesterday I read of Edward Albee’s death. I never met Mr. Albee – I was too intimidated. But I devoured his plays, and I was consistently delighted by both how staggeringly brilliant, and how hilarious they were. Albee and Jack Hoffsis were both devoted to the enduring glory of theater, despite every possible obstacle. Such amazing people.” –Paul Rudnick

Illustration, Robert Risko

“Edward Albee was a giant in my life as a young gay man. I remember staying up late to watch Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf while I was in high school and then was lucky to hear him speak at Cornell in the late 1970’s . He was not only a brilliant playwright but a proud out gay man at a time when there were so very few. Thank you, Edward for helping this scared gay kid from Bay Village OH grow up into a proud gay man.” –David Stewart

“Edward Albee. I met him and his late partner J.T. [Jonathan Thomas] in the late 80s in Montauk. I have great memories of the Christmas parties they used to throw in their art filled Tribeca loft (for example, a hilarious episode where a drunk Elaine Stritch steals a jar of mustard from his refrigerator). Edward could, like me, be very aloof, but we shared a bond over personal histories that were almost identical in some respects. He offered great wisdom over the years, and helped me put my personal struggle to understand myself, as an adopted child adrift in the world, in perspective. Never live in fear. Pursue things greater than yourself. Failure in the effort to accomplish something meaningul is better than making no effort at all. Don’t suffer fools, and don’t keep them in your life either. And much more. RIP, Edward. And thank you. I hope you and J.T. have found each other again.” –Fraser Mooney

“A great artist who redefined what American theater could talk about and how that conversation could be held.” – Harvey Fierstein

“I think it must have been in 1963 that I first noticed this dark, brooding, handsome young man in a gay bar on Bleecker Street near the corner of Sullivan.

I was way too shy to approach him so I just observed him. Soon a blond younger man joined him. They talked animatedly. I thought they were arguing. I tried to approach them, but wasn’t able to get close enough to overhear.

A year later I discovered that the younger man was Terrence McNally. He was a classmate of John Corigliano‘s who was then an undergrad at Columbia whom I was dating. They were all involved in the theatre, which bored me, as I was a poet majoring in Latin and Greek at City College.

A long time afterward I saw a picture of Edward Albee on the back of one of his books. It was the brooding man from the gay bar on Bleecker Street.

I remained too shy to talk to Edward until I had a play on Broadway, when I discovered how kind he was to me and other playwrights. His courtly manners seemed then to mask his shyness.

I’ll never forget Three Tall Women, a play that defied pigeonholing and was a deep, fascinating portrait of a family, his family, our family.

Rest in peace, you brilliant playwright and wonderful man…” –William M. Hoffman

“Something Tennessee Williams told me, and something worth knowing and remembering: In the years that Tennessee was regularly vivisected by theatre critics and academics (which is to say, the last twenty years of his life), only one writer came to his side and his defense: Edward Albee. Edward was a constant, and Tennessee said they had waved at each other across some rocky seas. Edward was a great playwright, but he was also a great friend.” –James Grissom

“Edward Albee is dead. I saw his darkness, which was vast and intimidating. I saw his kindness too, which was quiet and unassuming. And I can tell you, in the end, his kindness won.” – John Patrick Shanley

Albee with Tennessee Williams in 1972; Photo, Jill Krementz

The post #RIP: Playwright, Edward Albee Remembered By His Friends & Admirers appeared first on The WOW Report.

Jack Leahy

Tell a New Yorker that you pay $450 a month, and they may get jealous. But Jack Leahy, a 25-year-old musician who moved to New York from Austin, Texas last September, who lives in a 40 square foot crawl space, might not be one of them.

“… they don’t have any idea. It’s like The Phantom of the Opera — how much did THAT guy pay?”

His windowless room measures about 9 feet long and 4.5 feet wide. You can stand up at the entry, but once inside you mostly stoop — as it’s only about 5 feet tall. A twin-size futon mattress takes up most of the space.

Leahy works at Best Pizza in Williamsburg, spends a lot of time watching soccer at a nearby bar, or in his $220-a-month music studio in East Williamsburg, which is about the same size as his crawl space. Of his home he says,

“In a way, it’s kind of awesome. You can get some good sleep in here. And I think it matches my life in ways. I tend to run into odd situations.”

Leahy must keep quiet during rehearsals in the performance space below him, which can be any time between 9AM and 10PM, seven days a week. But, the Wi-Fi is great, so he can always watch TV. He’s also required to maintain a ghostly profile in the kitchen and office in the back of the building, which is where the bathroom is.

“I think I was happy to be in New York and that I actually had a place. It was just kind of comical. It is comical. Whenever I show people where I live, they always laugh.”

He recently decided to stay for another year. Romantic rendezvous here are not a concern at the moment. He got back together with a girlfriend who told him about the crawl space in the first place. She lives in a nearby studio. Some people might think even a good-size studio cramped for two, Mr. Leahy is not one of them.

“Are you kidding me?. It feels like a great hall.”

Feeling a bit better about where you live now?

(Photos, Alex Wroblewski/ New York Times via New York Times)

The post #RealEstatePorn: This Guy Lives in a 40 Sq. Ft. Crawlspace in Brooklyn (& It’s only $450 a month!) appeared first on The WOW Report.

If you ever happen to run into Chelsea Handler and she looks unhappy, whatever you do, don’t tell her to smile. Men that tell women,

“Smile, honey.“

piss her off. She goes off on those who tell Hillary Clinton the same thing.

Watch

The post Chelsea Handler Has Some Choice Words For Men Who Tell Women, “Smile.” Namely, “F*ck You!” Watch appeared first on The WOW Report.

Venus D-Lite
Adam West
Alison Sweeney
Carter Oosterhouse
Cheri Oteri
Danielle Panabaker
Freda Payne
James Lipton
Jarvis Cocker
Jeremy Irons
Jimmy Fallon
Joan Lunden
Katrina Bowden
Kevin Zegers
Kim Richards
Lita Ford
Lydia Hearst-Shaw
Mario Batali
Noemie Lenoir
Rex Smith
Rosemary Harris
Sally Potter
Sanaa Lathan
Soledad O’Brien
Stephanie J Block
Tegan & Sara Quin
Trisha Yearwood
Twiggy
Victoria Silvstedt

The post September 19th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

September 19, 1934– Brian Epstein

Hey, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away…

John Lennon:

“I was on holiday with Brian Epstein in Spain, where the rumors went around that he and I were having a love affair. Well, it was almost a love affair, but not quite. It was never consummated. But it was a pretty intense relationship. It was my first experience with a homosexual that I was conscious was homosexual. He had admitted it to me. We had this holiday together because Cynthia was pregnant, and I went to Spain and there were lots of funny stories. We used to sit in a cafe in Torremolinos looking at all the boys and I’d say, ‘Do you like that one, do you like this one?’ I was rather enjoying the experience, thinking like a writer all the time: I am experiencing this, you know. Eppy just kept on and on at me, until one night, I finally just pulled me trousers down and said to him: ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, Brian, here, just stick it up me fucking arse then.’”

“He said to me, ‘Actually, John, I don’t do that kind of thing. That’s not what I like to do.’ “Well,” I said, ‘what is it you like to do?’ and he said, ‘I’d really just like to touch you, John.’ and so I let him toss me off, and that was it… Yeah, so fucking what! He’s having a fucking hard time anyway. So what harm did it do, for fuck’s sake? No harm at all. The poor fucking bastard, he can’t help the way he is.”

This Spanish holiday was dramatized in the excellent film The Hours And Times (1991), with David Angus as Epstein and Ian Hart as Lennon.

Epstein certainly led an interesting life. Born during the Depression, at 16 years old he started working in his parent’s Liverpool department store and realized he was born to be a salesman. His father promoted him to manager of the record department as the family business expanded.

In December 1961, Epstein started work at his most important job: Manager of The Beatles. After having seen the band play at a Liverpool club, young and hot in their leather jackets, smoking cigarettes and swearing on stage, he immediately decided the lads needed to change their image.

Reimagining The Beatles’ look and stage personalities, Epstein purchased mod mohair suits for the boys, insisted on their signature haircuts and started to find them new gigs. He fired the drummer, Pete Best, so that he could be replaced by Richie Starkey. He pitched The Beatles to the various record labels, determined to get them signed to a recording contract. After being rejected by Decca, among other labels, he managed to get them signed with EMI and he lined up George Martin as their producer.

Initially, The Beatles weren’t completely confident or trustful of Epstein (they called him “Eppie”), but with his hard work and utter devotion he earned their respect and admiration.

It was no secret that Epstein was gay. In school he recalled being “ragged, nagged and bullied”. He dropped out when he turned 16 years old. He was drafted into the British Army, but after 10 months he was discharged for being “mentally unfit” after being harassed and bullied again. Around this time, Epstein began enjoying the special company of other guys. In 1956 he was arrested for propositioning men in a subway lavatory, the victim of an undercover sting.  Epstein pleaded guilty, and was fined and released.

The Beatles always knew that Epstein was gay. Although he was professional and distinguished as a business man, his double life wasn’t always as private as he wanted it to be. There were relentless rumors that Epstein was in love with Lennon. Epstein was very attracted Lennon’s talent, his wit and his good-looks. He was not able to look Lennon in the eye when speaking with him for fear he would reveal his secret. But actually, Lennon was completely aware of Epstein’s feelings and was sometimes teased by his mates about Epstein’s subtle attentions. The gossip began.

Epstein also managed Gerry And The Pacemakers and the late, great Cilla Black. He appeared on television shows and even hosted a regular spot on one of my favorite shows of the 1960s era, Hullabaloo.

As Beatlemania reached a fever, Epstein became less involved in the routine daily operations of the band. The Beatles Empire continued growing, but Epstein felt less secure about his future with them. His contract was due to expire and he feared it would not be renewed (he would remain their manager until his death). He began a downward spiral, becoming depressed and driven by drug addiction. He was drinking, gambling, taking LSD and popping pills. Epstein’s life became more than he could handle.

When The Beatles went to India to meet the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in August 1967, it was the first time they had gone anywhere without Epstein being in charge. He had seemed interested in what Maharishi had to offer, but it was a bank holiday weekend and he decided to spend it with friends. For The Beatles, the trip was like being kids allowed to play without supervision. Lennon:

 “It was like going somewhere without your trousers on!”

In India, Paul McCartney, John, George Harrison and Ringo Starr received word that Epstein had died, disillusioned and alone, from a drug overdose. He was just 32 years old. All four Beatles were completely, utterly devastated. He had been their friend, their enabler, their hero. He was seen as irreplaceable. The shocked and stunned Beatles asked the Maharishi for his advice, and were told: “Being within the direct realm of the physical world, his death is not important”.

Shortly after Epstein’s passing, The Beatles underlying tensions and resentments began to surface. Lennon said it was the beginning of the end. Lennon:

“He was in love with me. It’s interesting and will make a nice Hollywood Babylon story someday about Brian Epstein’s sex life, but it’s irrelevant, absolutely irrelevant.”

Double Life/Double Fantasy, the secret was not buried with Brian Epstein. Male homosexual activity was illegal in Britain until September 1967, when it was decriminalized just one month after Epstein’s death. The Beatles were among the earliest entrants into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but Epstein had not been included in the Hall’s “Non-Performers’ Section” until 2014. The Bee Gees‘ 1968 song In the Summer of His Years is a tribute to Epstein.

Benedict Cumberbatch was set to portray Epstein in a new biopic, directed by his Sherlock director, Paul McGuigan, but this project never got off the ground.

The rights to NY Times #1 bestselling graphic novel, The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story, by Vivek J. Tiwary with art by Andrew C. Robinson and Kyle Baker is being developed as a multi-part event series for television. The project comes complete with Tiwary’s unprecedented access to the Lennon/McCartney song catalog, the first ever Beatles-related biopic to secure such rights.

If things had been different and he had been able to be here today, probably having just barely survived the murder of Lennon in 1980, a wealthy and happily openly gay Sir Brian Epstein might be celebrating his 82nd birthday with a nice quiet dinner, plus cake, at his home in San Francisco along with his longtime husband (a Lennon lookalike), Sean and Yoko, Paul, Ringo, and their children and grandchildren.

The post #BornThisDay: Brian Epstein, The True Fifth Beatle appeared first on The WOW Report.

Lord Ivar Mountbatten, Queen Elizabeth‘s cousin and great-great-great grandson to Queen Victoria, has come out as bisexual. This makes him the very first member of the royal family to come out publicly. He told the Daily Mail,

“I have struggled with my sexuality and in some ways I still do; it has been a real journey to reach this point. I buried it.“

At the age of 53, Mountbatten has found new love when his partner James Coyle, an airline steward, while on vacation to Switzerland. Wen the couple met, James was openly gay but Lord Ivar was still in the closet and not being transparent a real deal breaker for James who said,

“If I was going to be with him, it had to be in the open with friends and family. I wanted us to be honest, not to hide anything, not to be anything else.“

So, Lord Mountbatten came out and the pair have moved into Bridwell Park mansion together. A cozy a 120-acre estate in Devon. Mountbatten married Penny, his first wife, in 1994, but says he was completely open about his sexuality from the start.

“Penny was aware before we got married. I told her I was bisexual, that my attraction went both ways. “We had a lot of fun, we have three fabulous daughters and I don’t regret any stage of my life.“

Penny now lives 200 yards away and continues to visit her ex-husband and their three daughters are completely understanding about the new arrangement.

“I am a lot happier now, though I am still not 100 per cent comfortable with being gay. In an ideal world, I know the girls would like their mother and father still to be together, but they love their 21st Century family that we have built too. Their father has a boyfriend. It’s that complicated and that simple, but finding James means I will not have to lie to anyone or grow old on my own.“

Lord Ivar Mountbatten and James Coyle

(via Gay Star News)

The post #LGBTQ: Queen Elizabeth’s Cousin, Lord Mountbatten, the First Royal To Publicly Come Out appeared first on The WOW Report.

Jimmy Kimmel‘s opening to the 68th annual awards was funny. It was a quest to get to the show where he was picked up Cuba Gooding Jr racing in a white Ford Bronco, by Jeb Bush moonlighting now as an Uber driver, James Corden who ended up kicking him out and finally GOT Khalisi on her dragon who ended up torching Ryan Seacrest yammering on the red carpet. It was pretty funny, as was the opening monologue.

“Tara P. Henson is here… Tara I think you can drop the P. now. Are you getting confused with other Tarai Hensons?“

As expected, Game of Thrones won Best Drama and Veep Best Comedy. Many of the winners and the shows felt less than predictable in their wins and new — or new-ish. The winners seemed actually excited.

Maggie Smith won for her portrayal of Downton Abbey’s Dowager Countess yet again, but it was one of the few wins that felt predictable. That’s not to say it was undeserved; Smith’s ability to deliver a waspish bon mot is one of the most dependable pleasures of the small screen, and Kimmel was able to make a running joke of the fact that Smith rarely makes it to the Los Angeles ceremony.

All awards shows have their but around the one-hour mark host Jimmy Kimmel brought out the kids from Stranger Things on their bikes to hand out peanut butter assumed jelly sandwiches his Mom made. Some had included sweet notes, like Amy Schumer‘s that said she was the funniest person there and to bring back Parks and Rec… she sheepishly gave it up to Amy Poehler a few seats down in the front row.

The People v. O.J. Simpson was one of the night’s big winners, as was the idea that diversifying voices, creators and casts can result in a great deal of Emmy success. Two of the three directors who won in the major television categories — comedy, drama, and miniseries — were women Transparent’s Jill Soloway and Susanne Bier of The Night Manager.

Patton Oswalt won for a comedy special and he thanked two people in particular — his daughter, who was waiting at home, and another who is “waiting somewhere else, I hope.” His wife, Michelle McNamara passed away recently.

The most scathing criticism of Donald Trump came from Transparent creator Jill Soloway, who won the award for best director. Discussing her show’s pushing of boundaries for transgender people backstage after accepting her award, Soloway likened Trump’s rhetoric about minority groups to that which took place in Nazi Germany, where Jews were, as she put it “otherized” by Hitler.

“Right now Donald Trump is doing the same thing. He’s otherizing people; he calls women pigs if they don’t look like beauty pageant contestants; he blames Muslim and Mexicans for our problems; he makes fun of disabled people, this is otherizing with a capital O. It has been used in our history before to start and win wars.”

Jill Soloways creator “Transparent”

Transgender rights were front and center again at the Emmys when winner Jeffrey Tambor referenced the recent controversy over Matt Bomer playing a trans woman in director Mark Ruffalo’s upcoming feature film Anything, Tambor said in his acceptance speech,

“I would not be unhappy if I were the last cisgender male to play a transgender female on television.”

Tambor won for Transparent once again and introduced an in memoriam clip of Garry Shandling, as did Henry Winkler of late TV legend, Garry Marshall.

It was a short, moving speech on a night full of winners who appeared to be by turns surprised, happy, amazed, and shocked. Kimmel held it all together well, and I didn’t even need the chyrons that occasionally popped up at the bottom of the screen, i.e., “Tom Hiddleston in 16 minutes.” It was exciting enough without waiting for Loki to turn up.

Outstanding Drama Series winners, “Game of Thrones”

Here’s a list of winners and nominees from Sunday night’s Emmy Awards.

DRAMA SERIES
The Americans (FX)
Better Call Saul (AMC)
Downton Abbey (PBS)
Homeland (Showtime)
House of Cards (Netflix)
Mr. Robot (USA)
Game of Thrones (HBO)

COMEDY SERIES
Black-ish (ABC)
Master of None (Netflix)
Modern Family (ABC)
Silicon Valley (HBO)
Transparent (Amazon)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix)
Veep (HBO)

ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES
Kyle Chandler, Bloodline (Netflix)
Rami Malek, Mr. Robot (USA)
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul (AMC)
Matthew Rhys, The Americans (FX)
Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan (Showtime)
Kevin Spacey, House of Cards (Netflix)

ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES
Claire Danes, Homeland (Showtime)
Viola Davis, How to Get Away With Murder (ABC)
Taraji P. Henson, Empire (Fox)
Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black (BBC America)
Keri Russell, The Americans (FX)
Robin Wright, House of Cards (Netflix)

ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES
Anthony Anderson, Black-ish (ABC)
Aziz Ansari, Master of None (Netflix)
Will Forte, The Last Man on Earth (Fox)
William H. Macy, Shameless (Showtime)
Thomas Middleditch, Silicon Valley (HBO)
Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent (Amazon)

ACTRESS. COMEDY SERIES
Ellie Kemper, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep (HBO)
Laurie Metcalf, Getting On (HBO)
Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish (ABC)
Amy Schumer, Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central)
Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie (Netflix)

SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES
Jonathan Banks, Better Call Saul (AMC)
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones (HBO)
Kit Harington, Game of Thrones (HBO)
Michael Kelly, House of Cards (Netflix)
Ben Mendelsohn, Bloodline (Netflix)
Jon Voight, Ray Donovan (Showtime)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES
Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones (HBO)
Lena Headey, Game of Thrones (HBO)
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey (PBS)
Maura Tierney, The Affair (Showtime)
Maisie Williams, Game of Thrones (HBO)
Constance Zimmer, UnREAL (Lifetime)

SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES
Louie Anderson, ‘Baskets’ (FX)
Andre Braugher, ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ (Fox)
Tituss Burgess, ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ (Netflix)
Tony Hale, ‘Veep’ (HBO)
Matt Walsh, ‘Veep’ (HBO)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES
Anna Chlumsky, Veep (HBO)
Gaby Hoffman, Transparent (Amazon)
Allison Janney, Mom (CBS)
Judith Light, Transparent (Amazon)
Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Nicey Nash, Getting On (HBO)

LIMITED SERIES
American Crime (ABC)
Fargo (FX)
The Night Manager (AMC)
The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)
Roots (History)

MOVIE
A Very Murray Christmas (Netflix)
All the Way (HBO)
Confirmation (HBO)
Luther (BBC America)
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (PBS)

LEAD ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE
Bryan Cranston, All the Way (HBO)
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (PBS)
Idris Elba, Luther (BBC America)
Cuba Gooding, Jr., The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)
Tom Hiddleston, The Night Manager (AMC)
Courtney B. Vance, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)

LEAD ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE
Kirsten Dunst, Fargo (FX)
Felicity Huffman, American Crime (ABC)
Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (HBO)
Sarah Paulson, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)
Lili Taylor, American Crime (ABC)
Kerry Washington, Confirmation (HBO)

SUPPORTING ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE
Sterling K. Brown, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)
Hugh Laurie, The Night Manager (AMC)
Jesse Plemons, Fargo (FX)
David Schwimmer, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)
John Travolta, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, LIMIT SERIES OR MOVIE
Kathy Bates, American Horror Story: Hotel (FX)
Olivia Colman, The Night Manager (AMC)
Regina King, American Crime (ABC)
Melissa Leo, All the Way (HBO)
Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story: Hotel (FX)
Jean Smart, Fargo (FX)

VARIETY TALK SERIES
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (Crackle)
Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO)
The Late Late Show with James Corden (CBS)
Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO)
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC)

VARIETY SKETCH SERIES
Documentary Now! (IFC)
Drunk History (Comedy Central)
Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central)
Key & Peele (Comedy Central)
Portlandia (IFC)
Saturday Night Live (NBC)

REALITY COMPETITION
The Amazing Race (CBS)
American Ninja Warrior (NBC)
Dancing With the Stars (ABC)
Project Runway (Lifetime)
Top Chef (Bravo)
The Voice (NBC)

REALITY HOST
Ryan Seacrest, American Idol (Fox)
Tom Bergeron, Dancing With the Stars (ABC)
Jane Lynch, Hollywood Game Night (NBC)
Steve Harvey, Little Big Shots (NBC)
Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, Project Runway (Lifetime)
RuPaul Charles, RuPaul’s Drag Race (Logo)

GUEST ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES
Max von Sydow, Game of Thrones (HBO)
Michael J. Fox, The Good Wife (CBS)
Reg E. Cathey, House of Cards (Netflix)
Mahershala Ali, House of Cards (Netflix)
Paul Sparks, House of Cards (Netflix)
Hank Azaria, Ray Donovan (Showtime)

GUEST ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES
Margo Martindale, The Americans (FX)
Carrie Preston, The Good Wife (CBS)
Laurie Metcalf, Horace and Pete (louisck.net)
Ellen Burstyn, House of Cards (Netflix)
Molly Parker, House of Cards (Netflix)
Allison Janney, Masters of Sex (Showtime)

GUEST ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES
Bob Newhart, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Tracy Morgan, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Larry David, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Bradley Whitford, Transparent (Amazon)
Martin Mull, Veep (HBO)
Peter Scolari, Girls (HBO)

GUEST ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES
Laurie Metcalf, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Christine Baranski, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Melissa McCarthy, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Amy Schumer, Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Melora Hardin, Transparent (Amazon)

(via Variety)

The post #Emmy16: All the Winners + the Most Memorable Moments of the Night appeared first on The WOW Report.

The cold opening to the 68th Annual Emmy Awards was a quest by host Jimmy Kimmel to get to the show. He was picked up Cuba Gooding Jr driving a white Ford Bronco, by Jeb Bush moonlighting now as an Uber driver, James Corden who ended up kicking him out and finally Game of Thrones Khalisi on her dragon who ended up torching Ryan Seacrest yammering on the red carpet…

And then he delivered this monologue…

“…if your show doesn’t have a dragon, or a white Bronco in it, go home now.”

Watch.

The post #Emmy16: Jimmy Kimmel’s Hilarious Opening Monologue. Watch appeared first on The WOW Report.

UPDATE: Ahmad Khan Rahami, named as a person of interest in the bombing in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City on Saturday, was wounded and taken into custody after a shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey.

Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said at a Monday press conference that two officers were wounded in a shootout: One was shot in the hand, one in vest. Bollwage said,

“Mr. Rahami also sustained shots and an ambulance has taken him away.“

Authorities had released a photo today of a man sought in connection with the bombing in Manhattan that injured 29 people over the weekend.

The FBI released a wanted poster for Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Afghan descent. His last known address is listed in Elizabeth, N.J., and the poster warns that Rahami

“should be considered armed and dangerous.“

Federal authorities were conducting a raid on Rahami’s apartment above a fried chicken restaurant. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told CNN‘s New Day,

“This is someone who was likely involved in one way or another” with the Chelsea bombing. We need to get this guy right away.“

Physical evidence links Rahami to explosive devices in New York and New Jersey. The explosion happened in Chelsea, Manhattan, on Saturday. An unexploded pressure-cooker device was also found four blocks away and was being analyzed by the FBI. Earlier Saturday a pipe bomb exploded in a trash can in Seaside Park, N.J. No one was injured in that blast.

On Monday, a device found by two men in a backpack near the Elizabeth train station exploded while a bomb squad robot was trying to disarm it, authorities said.

Christian Bollwage, the mayor of Elizabeth, said that two men found a bag containing five devices in a trash can at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday. The bag had wires and a pipe protruding from it. Bollwage said the FBI was attempting to disarm one of the devices when it exploded at around 12:30 a.m. Monday. There were no immediate reports of any injuries or damage.

“I’m extremely concerned for the residents of the community, but more importantly extremely concerned for everyone in the state and country where someone can just go and drop a backpack into a garbage can that has multiple explosives in it with no timers and then you have to wonder how many people could have been hurt.”

This is a developing story. If anyone has any information, they should call 1-800-577-TIPS.

#BREAKING video shows moment bomb robot accidentally detonated device found @ Elizabeth NJ train station. @PIX11News pic.twitter.com/xfO97F2ebm

— Anthony DiLorenzo (@ADiLorenzoTV) September 19, 2016

(via USA Today)

The post #Breaking: Bombing Suspect Apprehended in Shoot-Out appeared first on The WOW Report.

The 68th Primetime Emmy’s were handed out last night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA and everyone who’s anyone was in attendance. There were so many major selfie moments happening, it hardly seems fair to pick just one. You’ll never guess what two actors from “But I’m A Cheerleader” got together for the ultimate selfie picture.

Check it out:


Why it’s RuPaul and Natasha Lyonne!!!

This post is approved by:

The post This “But I’m A Cheerleader” Emmy’s Reunion Is As Cute As It Looks appeared first on The WOW Report.

Michelle Visage
Alannah Currie
Anne Meara
Asia Argento
Debbie Morgan
Deborah Roberts
Gary Cole
Gunnar & Matthew Nelson
Jon Bernthal
Kristen Johnston
Maggie Cheung
Moon Bloodgood
Phillip Phillips
Sophia Loren
 Jeremy Rentfro

The post September 20th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

September 20, 1934– Sophia Loren:

“Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.”

She is Italy’s Cinema Icon, an eternal Diva, and I wish to nominate her to the status of Gay Icon. See if you agree. Loren’s exciting life has taken her from being a street urchin to becoming one of the planet’s most glamorous film stars. She had the pleasure of enjoying the special company of Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, and Richard Burton, along with her Italian soul mate Marcello Mastroianni.

Loren’s story plays just like an Italian film, with her extraordinary rise to stardom as a poor teenager discovered and swooped away by a rich, famous film producer who later marries her and helps make her Italy’s greatest export after pasta.

She was born in Roma as Sofia Scicolone, later changed the spelling of her first name to “ph” and adopting the last name Loren. She was the daughter of a failed performer whose lover, Sophia’s father, refused to marry her.

She grew up poor in Pozzuoli, near Napoli. Her mother eventually took her back to Roma, where Loren earned a small income for both of them by modeling for pulp magazines and winning prizes in beauty pageants. At one contest in the early 1950s, she was spotted by movie producer Carlo Ponti, who found her the first screen roles and devoted the rest of his own life to her career. Loren and Ponti were married for five decades, until his passing in 2007 at 94 years old.

Loren had no formal acting training. Pushed by her mother, her fabulous career began as a fluke when she met director Vittorio De Sica and told him she had never been offered a job after going on hundreds of auditions. Loren:

“I said to him, every time I am auditioning, people never hire me because I’m shy. They think my mouth is too wide, nose too long, there’s something wrong with my face. He told me he didn’t want me to audition, this conversation was just fine. I didn’t know what to say to this wonderful man. I nearly fainted on the spot.”

She made The Gold Of Naples (1954) with De Sica and it became her big break as an actor. The same year she did a comedy Eccato Che Sia Una Canaglia (Too Bad She’s Bad), the first of many films which Loren made with her perfectly matched star, Mastroianni. She immediately found steady work and made many films, including Boy On A Dolphin (1957) with Alan Ladd, Legend Of The Lost (1957) with John Wayne, and The Pride And The Passion (1957) with Grant and Sinatra.

“I have never been beautiful. I’ve never been a beautiful doll. In fact when I started, people didn’t want to hire me because I wasn’t photogenic.”

Loren’s stardom became truly international when she was given a contract with Paramount Pictures in 1958. For the studio she made the screen version of Eugene O’Neill’s drama Desire Under The Elms (1958) with gay actor Anthony Perkins, the sweet comedy Houseboat (1958) opposite Grant, and appeared as a blond in gay director George Cukor‘s unlikely Western, Heller In Pink Tights (1960).

“I didn’t change my face at all. They just got better at photographing it.”

Loren has starred in 100 films, so far, in several languages, projects of every genre: Comedies, Historical Dramas, even Musicals, including the thriller Arabesque (1966), Robert Altman’s romp Prêt-a-Porter (1994) and the delicious Matrimonio All’Italiana (1964) for De Sica.

Loren worked with the best of leading men: Sinatra, Grant, Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Clark Gable, Paul Newman, and with Marlon Brando in Charlie Chaplin‘s final film, A Countess From Hong Kong (1967).

Most significantly, Loren starred in De Sica’s Two Women (1960) a stark, gritty story of a mother who is trying to protect her daughter in war ravaged WW II Italy. The pair are gang-raped inside a church as they travel back to their home city following the end of the bombing. Originally cast as the daughter, Loren fought against type to be cast as the mother. Loren won Cannes Film Festival‘s Best Performance award and an Academy Award for Best Actress, the first for a non-English language performance and the first for an Italian. She skipped the ceremony because she was too nervous & discovered she had won via telephone by Cary Grant.

Loren has won a Grammy Award, five Golden Globes (so to speak), a BAFTA Award and a special honorary Academy Award for her contribution to World Cinema in 1991. In 1995, she received the Academy’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Her most recent role was as the only character in La Voce Umana (2014), from a 1930 play by gay writer Jean Cocteau, directed by her handsome son Edoardo Ponti, a noted stage director. Her other yummy son Carlo Ponti Jr. is a famous orchestra conductor.

“I’m starting to count the hours, count the seconds; everything is important when you reach my age. Every so often you have to explode back into life.”

In 1992, Loren famously spent 17 days in an Italian jail as part of a plea bargain over a failure to file an income-tax return. At the time, she blamed it all on her accountant.

Loren is still ravishingly beautiful. She resides in Geneva and Roma.

“Beauty is not important. You have to be interesting, someone who is different to other people. Otherwise you just turn up and look beautiful, and there’s nothing more to you.”

After Ponti died in 2007 she was asked if she were ever likely to marry again, Loren replied: “No, never again. It would be impossible to love anyone else.”

In 2014. she published a well written, juicy memoir For Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow: My Life.

The post #BornThisDay: Sophia Loren appeared first on The WOW Report.

The man who allegedly planted the bombs in Chelsea and NJ was a dead-beat dad who hated gays, the military and American culture. His high school girlfriend and baby-mama, Maria told FoxNews that Ahmad Khan Rahami, would,

“…speak often of Western culture and how it was different back home. How there weren’t homosexuals in Afghanistan.

One time, he was watching TV with my daughter and a woman in a [military] uniform came on and he told her, ‘That’s the bad person.’”

The explosion on Saturday took place in Chelsea, one of the main gay neighborhoods in NYC, but it’s not clear if that factored into his plans. The dumpster that exploded was also near the PATH train to New Jersey, so it could have just been a convenient location.

Maria, who thinks Rahami was “brainwashed,” said he came back from a trip to Afghanistan nine years ago with a new a wife and kid. The terror suspect is 28 and a naturalized U.S. citizen whose family was granted asylum in 2011. He made multiple trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last 10 years, according to Rep. Peter King. He became noticeably devout after returning from a visit to his homeland two years ago, friends and law enforcement sources said.

Flee Jones, 27, a childhood pal of Rahami, told The Post.

“He had changed. He dressed differently, more religiously, the robe and everything. I really never expected it from him. He was always this fun loving guy, but now he was all quiet. He had found religion. It’s mind blowing.”

A law enforcement source said,

“The sister is shocked. She can’t believe what he’s done.”

Rahami’s relationship with his family was rocky. In 2014 he was arrested on assault charges for allegedly attempting to stab his sister. He later dropped the charges, but he spent over two months behind bars at Union County Jail, law enforcement sources said.

Regulars at his family’s restaurant, First American Fried Chicken, were shocked by Ahmad Rahami’s arrest, describing him as a friendly guy who would sometimes give out free food to cash-strapped customers.

He has fascination with cars — fast ones, several people said. Ryan McCann said,

“All this guy ever talks about is his cars. He loves fixing cars up and making them fast. All I ever heard him talk about was Honda Civics, Honda Accords, maybe an Acura. He would soup them up.”

His sister, Zobyedh Rahami, posted on Facebook saying,

“I would like people to respect my family’s privacy and let us have our peace after this tragic time.”

(via NY Post)

The post #LGBTQ: Was the “Homophobic” Bombing Suspect Targeting the Gay Community? appeared first on The WOW Report.

Filmmaker and YouTube star Casey Neistat documented his 14-hour journey from Dubai to New York aboard one of the fanciest commercial airplanes ever to fly.

Neistat was upgraded from business to first class on United Arab Emirates for FREE. The seat would have cost him more than $21,000. He was treated to caviar, a personal bar, automatic window shades, a bed, swag bag and a full-sized bathroom where he took a shower.

Watch.

(T/Y Tad; via Huffington Post)

The post Casey Neistat Was Upgraded to a $21,000 First Class Seat & Saw TRUE Luxury at 40,000 Feet. Watch appeared first on The WOW Report.