Sad and Useless brings us Russian artist Andrew Tarusov, who created this series of of famous cartoon characters to show us what they’d look like today if they’d all aged like the Hollywood we know. Kinda sad and hilarious –and then sad again.

(via Sad and Useless)

The post #OldToons: What If Cartoons Looked Their Real Age? appeared first on World of Wonder.

Last night, some of our beloved RuPaul’s Drag Race queens, Jinkx Monsoon, Phi Phi O’Hara, and Jiggly Caliente surprised Andy Cohen‘s Bravo Clubhouse by honoring their fabulous guest, Pamela Anderson, with some fierce Pam realness!

Each queen served up an iconic Pam look—Jinkx was Baywatch Pam, Phi Phi was MTV Awards Pam and Jiggly was Playboy Pam.

It's the Pams!!! #WWHL @PamFoundation, @PhiPhiOhara, @JinkxMonsoon, @JigglyCaliente pic.twitter.com/3QYIPFmNbb

— Bravo WWHL (@BravoWWHL) September 25, 2015

It's the Pam Anderson Queens aka @PhiPhiOhara, @JinkxMonsoon, & @JigglyCaliente! #WWHL pic.twitter.com/7gfdAQJ5gn

— Bravo WWHL (@BravoWWHL) September 25, 2015

Pam Anderson crowned Jinkx the winner! YAAASS Miss Jinkx!

The post Jinkx Monsoon, Phi Phi O’Hara, and Jiggly Caliente Stopped By “Watch What Happens Live” to Serve Up Some Classic Pamela Anderson Realness! appeared first on World of Wonder.

“Pay me what you owe me!” sang my future husband Joseph Gordon-Levitt on last night on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. “Don’t act like you forgot!”

JGL was super pumped he got asked to perform with the Tonight Show barbershop quartet.

“I loved seeing it in the past. When you guys sent me the email like, ‘Hey, you wanna do the Ragtime Gals?’ I was like, ‘Oh my god, I get to do the Ragtime Gals!!!’” exclaims Gordon-Levitt, as he claps his hands and bounces up and down.

During his interview, JGL  revealed he was in a band in high school

“It was not a good band name … it was called ‘Foad On the March,’” says Gordon-Levitt, adding that people would pronounce it like it rhymes with “toad,” but actually it was pronounced “foh-add” and they would get so mad when people would mispronounce it, because they were four angsty 16-year-old boys.

Oh, and, one of the original songs was called “Fido’s Quest for the Meaning of Life.” PLEEEEEEASE UPLOAD THIS TO YOUTUBE, OMG

The post The Ragtime Gals (Featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt) Sing “Bitch Better Have My Money” appeared first on World of Wonder.

Here at WOW, we’re having TOO MUCH FUN with our fun t-shirts (and the fabulous queen Alyssa Edwards) as today is fun t-shirt friday! Check out some of the employees of WOW looking super cool in their fun t-shirts!

The post It’s Fun T-Shirt Friday (With Alyssa Edwards!!!) appeared first on World of Wonder.

I mean… How is this even possible? Was he… raised by dolphins? A family of hip-hop dolphins? I think he might be the most talented beatboxer OF ALL TIME. Just watch. Trust me.

The post Vine OTD: Dolphin Boy Makes Dolphin Noise, Then Dolphin Raps appeared first on World of Wonder.

It’s the Big Freedia talking keychain that you never knew you needed until now! Only $10 to have the Queen of Bounce’s greatest sayings at your fingertips. Order yours here (from fleurtygirl)!

Bouncing? Twerking? Whatever…Big Freedia is the queen of it. Hailing from New Orleans, Freedia is bringing it to the world. Now you can always have Freedia around to help you release your wiggle! Sayings include: “You already know!”; “Release your wiggle!”; “Excuse, I don’t mean to be rude”; “Yocka/Glocka”; “Girl down”; “Big Freedia, Queen Diva, you besta believa”.

Listen to them below.

The post Now You Can Have Big Freedia in Your Pocket! appeared first on World of Wonder.

We have an exclusive interview with Shadi Petosky, who experienced a hellacious nightmare with the TSA in Orlando last week. You might not know that Shadi is the Puny Entertainment president, show runner, cartoon creator (Yo Gabba Gabba!), writer, comedian, and all around boss ass bitch. She’s also a dear friend of mine from Minneapolis. I texted her after her ordeal when she was detained by American Airlines TSA. Here’s our interview:

JT: Firstly, I’m outraged. Seeing your picture on the WOW Report this morning, I got SO excited because I was like, “OMG! It’s Shadi! My old boss! My friend!” I was hoping it was about one of your shows, but then I clicked the thumbnail and I saw tears.

I am SO saddened, infuriated and sorry what happened to you. Everyone wants to know, where are you currently? Did you make it back to Minnesota? 

The post WOW Talks to Shadi Petosky – the Trans Woman Who Was Detained At American Airlines appeared first on World of Wonder.

Anne Robinson
Ben Shenkman
Bryan Ferry
Christina Milian
Cindy Herron
Donna Douglas
Jake Paltrow
James Caviezel
Jerry Weintraub
Jillian Barberie
Linda Hamilton
Mary Beth Hurt
Melissa Sue Anderson
Nicki French
Olivia Newton-John
Philip Bosco
Serena Williams
Shawn Stockman
Sheri Moon Zombie
Tracy Thorn
Winnie Mandela

The post September 26: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on World of Wonder.

September 26, 1898– George Gershwin would have celebrated his 117th birthday today. I can only imagine the musical riches that Brooklyn’s own Gershwin would have produced if had not died at just 38 years old.

In his short life he produced a huge catalog of theatre & popular songs that are among the very best ever composed. He worked with several lyricists, but it was his lifelong musical compositions with his own brother, Ira Grshwin, that are, for me, the creamiest cream of American Musical Theatre Music: The Man I Love, Embraceable You, But Not For Me, I’ve Got A Crush On You, Our Love Is Here To Stay, Summertime, & Fascinatin’ Rhythm.

In 1935, after the crushing commercial failure of their opera Porgy & Bess, the Gershwin brothers left NYC & took the train to Hollywood, where the siblings were much in demand writing the songs for a special sort of sparkling sophisticated musical film like Shall We Dance (1936), which included the hit songs Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off & They Can’t Take That Away From Me. The Gershwins found a perfect interpreter for their most sophisticated work in Fred Astaire, on Broadway & in Hollywood.

When he was 25 years old, Gershwin’s jazz-influenced “serious” composition Rhapsody In Blue premiered in NYC’s Aeolian Hall at a concert billed as An Experiment In Music. In the audience that evening: Jascha Heifitz, Leopold Stokowski, Serge Rachmaninov, John Philip Sousa & Igor Stravinsky. The concerto was performed by Paul Whiteman (who had commissioned the piece) & his orchestra with Gershwin at the piano. Rhapsody In Blue received mix reviews from critics, but was immediately very popular with the public. Whiteman’s orchestra performed it concert 84 times within the first year & the recording sold a million copies.

Gershwin followed this success with more orchestral works: Piano Concerto In F, Rhapsody # 2, & An American In Paris.

Serious music critics were at a loss as to where to place Gershwin’s concert music in the standard orchestral works. In 1935 he presented the opera Porgy & Bess in Boston with only moderate success. It is now easily considered to be one of the most loved operas, included in the repertoire of the major opera companies around the world. In the 2011 Broadway season, there was successful revival with a re-worked libretto by Suzan-Lori Parks with a Tony winning performance by the great Audra McDonald. This Porgy & Bess played to sold-out audiences for more than a year. Porgy & Bess contains such memorable songs as It Ain’t Necessarily So, I Loves You Porgy, & of course, Summertime.

Gershwin had planned a string quartet, a ballet & another opera, but these pieces were never written. He had been acting erratically & suffered blackouts at the start of 1937. Medical tests brought no answers. By that time the doctors deduced it to be a brain tumor. At just 38 years old, Gershwin took that final curtain call in July 1937.

Gershwin’s friends & fans were shocked & devastated. Gay poet John O’Hara stated:

“George Gershwin died on July 11, 1937, but I don’t have to believe it if I don’t want to.”

Gershwin received his only Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for They Can’t Take That Away from Me with lyrics by Ira for the film Shall We Dance (1937). The nomination was posthumous; Gershwin was gone 8 weeks after the film’s release. It lost to the classic, often covered Sweet Leilani from Waikiki Wedding, composed by Harry Owens.

78 years after his passing, rumors are still rampant that George Gershwin was a closeted gay man. Michael Feinstein, who got his professional start as archivist for Gershwin’s brother says he never could establish George’s sexual orientation. Gershwin spent a great deal of time, including sleep-overs with BFF, musician/actor/with Oscar Levant.

Feinstein:

“So many people have claimed he was gay. There is no definitive proof that George Gershwin was gay. He might have been, from my point of view, he so sexually confused in a certain way that he was unable to form a lasting relationship. Lyricist Irving Caesar, who co-wrote Swanee with Gershwin, did say in an interview that George Gershwin was certainly homosexual. But, he could have been bisexual or asexual.”

In 2007, the Library Of Congress named their annual Prize For Popular Song after the Gershwin brothers. The prize is to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence in pop music. The first Gershwin Prize was awarded to Paul Simon, followed by Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach & Hal David, Carole King, Billy Joel & this year, Willie Nelson.

How about a film about The Gershwins with Zachary Quinto as George & Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Ira, directed & written by Todd Haynes?

My favorite Gershwin song (I think it is a perfect song, really) is Someone To Watch Over Me. It was first performed by Gertrude Lawrence in the musical Oh, Kay! (1926). I tried to count the recorded versions & lost my place at 101. It has been covered by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Pink, even talented Amy Winehouse does a stand-up job on this rather difficult tune. Men sing it also, including Sting, Elton John & Willie Nelson. I dig Frank Sinatra‘s take on it, sung in a bar, ignored by the crowd but heard intensively by Doris Day in the film Young At Heart (1954). I sang it for auditions for a while in the 1980s without changing the pronouns. I think I like the way Linda Ronstadt & Nelson Riddle did it in 1983 the most.

The post #BornThisDay: Composer, George Gershwin appeared first on World of Wonder.

Emmerich directing HIS version of “Stonewall”

Openly gay director, Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall has been trashed up and down the internet since the trailer premiered. Now that the reviews and the movie itself are out, it faces more accusations of whitewashing. And when Emmerich gave an interview saying “straight-acting” (wtf!?) leading man Jeremy Irvine is an easy “in” for straight audiences, he really didn’t help his case. He told BuzzFeed;

“You have to understand one thing: I didn’t make this movie only for gay people, I made it also for straight people. I kind of found out, in the testing process, that actually, for straight people, [Danny] is a very easy in. Danny’s very straight-acting. He gets mistreated because of that. [Straight audiences] can feel for him.”

Wow. There is SO much wrong with what he said but I’ll let it sink in…

So, to give us an idea of the other biopics that might be greenlit by Emmerich’s production company, Lily White Pictures (I made that up) a parody Twitter account presents Lea Michele as Rosa Parks, Sam Smith as Barry White and someone called Pat St. Clement (a dead ringer for Paula Deen, which might have been a better choice) as Maya Angelou. And FYI, the Stonewall trailer, below has more Dislikes than Likes on YouTube. It was categorized in correctly though, given Emmerich’s past hits, Stonewall is another disaster flick, but not the good kind.

Nina Simone

Barry White

Rosa Parks

Maya Angelou

Destiny’s Child

(via Attitude)

The post After “Stonewall’s” Whitewashing, Will Roland Emmerich’s Next Pic Star Taylor Swift as Nina Simone? appeared first on World of Wonder.

Yes, Variety says Showtime is developing a comedy project to star Alan Cumming, as my old pal, restaurateur Florent Morellet. Florent is set in the mid-1980s against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis. Making use of an old diner in the Meatpacking District, Restaurant Florent drew a broad range of clientele, from cops to club kids to activists. The 24-hour eatery helped revitalize the area and was meeting place for LGBT rights and AIDS activists. Morellet was open about his own HIV-positive status, even posting his T-cell counts on a board with the restaurant’s daily specials.

Today I live around the corner from Florent and it’s in the shadow of the new Whitney museum. New restaurants have tried to open and succeed, but so far none has. Florent left when the rent was raised a stratospheric amount. I said to him once, since they closed, that space seems to be cursed. Florent responded;

“Well…”

Back in the day, this was where you went for dinner before clubs or for a bite after they had closed at 4-5 AM, as well as weekends for brunch. Everyone complains about what NYC has lost, and it HAS been a lot, but Florent is one of the few things I truly miss. It was always a scene –the good kind.

Cumming will serve as a producer and Morellet is on board to help guide the half-hour series. An earlier version of the project was in development last year at SundanceTV.

(via Variety)

The post #LGBT: Alan Cumming Will Star in “Florent” for Showtime! appeared first on World of Wonder.

Michael Roha
Blake Jacobs
A Martinez
Alexis Stewart
Amanda Detmer
Andy Lau
Anna Camp
Avril Lavigne
Carly-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Don Cornelius
Google
Gwyneth Paltrow
Jayne Meadows
Lil Wayne
Liz Torres
Meat Loaf
Patrick Muldoon
Phoebe Price
Shaun Cassidy
Stephen Jenkins
Wilford Brimley

The post September 27: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on World of Wonder.

September 27, 1898– Gifted Human, Vincent Youmans

One of my personal favorites from my much in demand self-created playlists is Stephen’s Happiness Mix. It has proved popular in my circle of friends. The Husband & I listened to it on a car trip & sang along for 180 miles. It contains June Christy‘s version of I Want To Be Happy, which is totally swingin’. This got me thinking about the life of Vincent Youmans, who was born 117 years ago today, just one day after his pal George Gershwin.

Youmans has much in common with his famous friend: they both collaborated with George’s famous brother Ira Gershwin, they both were geniuses at composing sophisticated, smart popular songs & serious music, & they both died tragically young, Gershwin at 39 years old & Youmans at 47 years old. Unlike Gershwin, Youmans left behind only a handful of songs that are truly famous: Tea For Two, I Want To Be Happy, Hallelujah, & the jazz standard Sometimes I’m Happy.

For decades, a legend circulated that Youmans had left behind a trunk of unpublished songs, all notated in a secret code that only he could decipher. Music historians worked for years to determine if this was true. Indeed, the trunk was discovered & it actually did contain hundreds of unheard melodies & scores, written in his mysteriously mirrored & intricate Da Vinci-like code.

Youmans came from privilege, born in Manhattan. He was raised in a spacious apartment on Central Park West. He served in WW1, & while in the Navy, he fell in love with hot men & the musical theater.

After the war, he went to work as a song-plugger for the prestigious music publisher T.B. Harms Company, publisher of the works of the Gershwins & Jerome Kern.

Now, boys & girls, I am going to give you a little history lesson: before digital downloads, before CDs, before phonographs, people purchased sheet music & sat around the piano at home singing the hits of the day. It took talented pianists who could put a song over with panache to sell the sheet music to the music stores. By performing the tunes of the great Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the day, Youmans grew to know the details of the structure of hit songs & quickly decided he could create his own.

As the composer he needed words & he turned to professional lyricists & he collaborated with the greatest: Oscar Hammerstein II, Irving Caesar, Leo Robin, Billy Rose, Mack Gordon, Buddy De Sylva & Gus Kahn. With Ira Gershwin, he wrote songs for Two Little Girls In Blue, a big Broadway smash in 1921.

The greatest theatre triumph of his life was No, No Nanette (1925), with lyrics by Irving Caesar. It became one of the most successful musicals of all time, with simultaneous productions on Broadway & London running for half a decade. No, No Nanette has been revived many times & has been reinvented often through the years. In the 1940s, a version featured the beloved tap dancer Ruby Keeler & played on Broadway even longer than the original production. It proved to be an even bigger hit in a 1971 Broadway revival, again starring Keeler.

Youmans wrote songs for the movies, most famously for Flying Down To Rio (1933), with Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers. But his heart was on Broadway, but unfortunate failures followed, forgotten musicals which bombed & closed quickly, although the songs he wrote for these stinkers were always memorable. In 1932 he took one more chance with a Broadway show titled Take A Chance, but it also failed to find an audience.

Disheartened, Youmans retired from show biz in 1934, after a career of only 13 years, but worked undercover for years producing the songs & scores that went into his secret trunk.

Youmans finally returned to Broadway in 1943 with a colossal & ambitious extravaganza called The Vincent Youmans Ballet Revue, which crossbred classical & Latin music. A disaster of unprecedented proportions, it lost more than 5 million dollars, a great deal of dough in those days. This fiasco might have been the reason for even more of the secret songs in his hidden trunk. Its failure, along with his drinking problem & a life as a closeted gay man brought on Youmans’ final emotional & physical decline. He took his final curtain call all alone & largely forgotten, taken by TB in 1946.

Tea For Two is his most famous song. It is an ideal example of his economic use of short melodic phrases. The lyricist Irving Caesar said that the opening section was actually a dummy lyric tossed off so that Youmans could write the melody, but it worked so well they kept it. The song is unusual as a hit tune; it is written in 2 keys at once: A Flat Minor & C Major, a musical fusion that the Beatles would use 40 later, but which was mostly unheard of in the 1920s. Youmans’ modernization of the American pop song inspired the musicologist & critic Alec Wilder to say that Youmans was “one of the innovators of American popular song, & one of the truest believers in the new musical world around him”.

Youmans is mentioned in a Cole Porter lyric, a verse from You’re The Top:

Your words poetic are not pathetic.

On the other hand, babe, you shine,

& I can feel after every line

A thrill divine

Down my spine

Now gifted humans like Vincent Youmans

Might think that your song is bad

But I got a notion

I’ll second the motion

& this is what I’m going to add:

You’re The Top!

The post #BornThisDay: Composer, Vincent Youmans appeared first on World of Wonder.

On Friday night at the Values Voter Summit, the annual gathering of bigots, uh, I mean conservatives, sponsored by America’s leading anti-gay hate group, Family Research Council, Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis was awarded the group’s “Cost of Discipleship Award”. (You remember the FRC, Josh Duggar was an Executive Director there.) Davis was introduced by her attorney Mat Staver and FRC head Tony Perkins. Staver said:

“These are times in history that are unlike anything that we had before. God birthed Kim Davis, and Joe Davis, and each one of you for this moment in American and world history … [God is] looking for people who love Jesus Christ and who will stand for Him, who will not flinch when their time is called and that person is Kim Davis and Joe Davis. May God raise up more.”

Davis said:

“I feel so very undeserving. I want to start by thanking my lord and my savior Jesus Christ because without him none of this would have ever been possible, for he is my strength that carries me and it is his mercies that follow me every day and it is his love that endures all things. I have realized through all the trials in our lives that if we wait upon the lord he’ll show up just in the right time. His timing is always perfect. I have discovered through all of this that his grace I truly sufficient in all things. I am only one, but WE ARE MANY!”

As long as it’s in the name of God, you can do or say anything in this country, including break the law and then give awards for it. If you think this kind of news shouldn’t be reported anymore, this is just to say, the woman is NOT going away. As much as she’s a villain to the LGBT community, she’s a hero to many. (via Towleroad)

The post #LGBT: Kim Davis Gets a “Cost of Discipleship Award” From an Anti-Gay Hate Group appeared first on World of Wonder.

On Saturday night’s episode of Oprah: Where Are They Now?, former child star Danny Pintauro told Oprah that he has been living with a secret for more than a decade. For eight years, Pintauro played the son of a driven single mother on “Who’s the Boss?”. In his sit-down, Pintauro –who goes by “Daniel” now– begins the interview…

“I wanted to tell you this a long time ago, but I wasn’t ready. I’m ready now. I’m HIV-positive, and I have been for 12 years.”

In 1997, when he was a college student, Pintauro came out as gay..

“I was outed. It wasn’t by choice.”

He says that a tabloid reporter called him back then saying he was going to out him whether he cooperated or not. His former co-star, Judith Light, encouraged Pintauro to participate as a way of controlling the conversation.

“It was the best thing. ‘They can’t misquote you,’ she said. ‘And as long as you give really responsible and mature answers, it can’t be a bad article.'”

Believe it or not, the ‘National Enquirer’ actually did a really fantastic, heartwarming article about it. I was shocked.”

Pintauro says he regularly underwent routine HIV testing every six months. In March of 2003, his whole world changed. Having come out of a two-year relationship, Pintauro admits that he had been looking to explore more sexually and began using crystal meth as a means to that end…

“I was living in New York at the time and completely clueless to the idea that I was positive. I went in for a regular checkup. It was just regular blood work. You go in, and you sort of waited two weeks on pins and needles — or at least I did, because I was just terrified of the idea of getting HIV.

I was doing crystal meth, which completely ruins your immune system. I’d been doing it at that point very briefly, but it was three weeks or so, off and on. I had just come out of a two-year relationship, and I discovered in that relationship that there was more I wanted to explore sexually. Crystal meth takes away your inhibitions… And if you want to explore that adventurous side, taking the drug is going to put you there.

I was experimenting… And believe it or not, I thought that I was being safe in that encounter. I know exactly when it happened.”

Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) had been introduced by the time Pintatuo was diagnosed, dramatically increasing the lifespan of those with HIV and reducing their risk of transmitting the infection to others, but Pintauro was still devastated. He struggled to make sense of his feelings.

“It was terrifying, and there was a sense of relief. It’s backwards. You’ve spent so much time terrified that you’re going to get it, and then you have it. You don’t have to be terrified anymore.”

Today, Pintauro lives with his husband in Las Vegas, and works as a restaurant manager. He said that his dreams in life are to open a bed and breakfast, live a long life and be a beacon of light that can help make a difference to others along the journey. Pintauro also shared an important message for other men in the gay community.

“What I want my community to realize is we need to take better care of ourselves.”

Oprah: Where Are They Now? airs on Saturdays at 10 p.m. ET on OWN.

(via Huffington Post)

The post #LGBT: “Who’s The Boss?” Star Danny Pintauro Tells Oprah, “I’m HIV-Positive, & I Have Been for 12 Years” appeared first on World of Wonder.

Around the corner from me is a beautiful new townhouse. The owners, who shall remain nameless, hired my friend (and theirs) Torsten Schlauersbach and his partner, Annie Lo, of Haute Architecture to reimagine the interior architecture of this Robert A.M. Stern design. They started their firm just two years ago after both working for Norman Foster. I’ve seen it in person, and although these photos are beautiful, they still don’t do it justice. In person, it’s really perfection.

The staircase is made from precast concrete treads and fiberglass and anchored by steel. It looks spine-like and it serves as the building’s centerpiece. Lo and Schlauersbach worked out the geometry through some complicated math and then designed models and two large-scale mock-ups –including one using the actual materials. Their clients have two dogs, a baby, and another on the way, and their design was to have a super-minimal a space, that could still house their growing family. Almost all the wood paneling opens for storage space, and there are dozens of closets throughout the five floors.

The clients wanted their house to be as ecofriendly as possible, with “wellness” aspects incorporated into the design — like electromagnetic shielding to buffer radiation from wires and biophilic plantings to filter the air. There are also radiant-heat concrete floors. They are known for their attention to intricate, precise detailing — and for searching the globe for great design talent; the cabinets were made in Switzerland and the two-ton piece of stone for the master-bath vanity was found in Portugal and was SO huge it had to be brought in through the window. Torsten says;

“We wanted to build a versatile home that was open and light but one that could also be made private.”

They’ve succeeded, don’t you think?

(Fisher Photography; via New York)

The post #ArchitecturePorn: A West Village Townhouse Takes Minimal To the Max appeared first on World of Wonder.

Yes, that are THAT mean. A mock-irate Bette Midler along with Andrew Garfield, George Clooney, and a dozen other celebs joined Jimmy Kimmel this week for another live rendition of fan-fave segment #MeanTweets. Twitter has horrible (and hilarious) things to say about some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Halle read;

“Halle Berry’s boobs are lopsided.”

To which she responds,

“Well, when they’re real, that happens.”

Also Jeff Bridges, Kristen Bell, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Liam Neeson, Emily Blunt, Salma Hayek and more. Watch.

The post #MeanTweets: “Who Has The Biggest Penis in Hollywood? Easy. Bette Midler.” appeared first on World of Wonder.

In a third excerpt on The Wow Report, Grace Jones tells how the trauma of standing up for herself in a man’s world almost led to her being cut-off by her own family. After breaking up with her partner and visual collaborator Jean-Paul Goude, Jones decided she would direct the video for 1986’s ‘I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For You)’ herself. It features an amazing Keith Haring creation and a single comment by Andy Warhol;

“Grace is perfect.”

But ask those around her then and she was FAR from perfect. If you trace it back it’s easy to see how she got branded as being “crazy” and “difficult”… it started a long time ago.

“I’d gotten the idea for ‘I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For You)’ while Mick Jagger and I were playing off each other, which was something we did when we met. Our flirting was often done through games and wordplay, and frolicking about like brother and sister behind our parents’ backs. I had been filming ‘Conan the Destroyer’ in Mexico, and The Rolling Stones were there making a video.

Mick and I started talking about the idea of being in a relationship when you are famous, and having to be as perfect for your partner as you are as a performer. We had an idea for a song. He said, ‘You do one line, I’ll do one line.’ In the end, we only got two lines: I’m not perfect, but I’m perfect for you. That’s as far as we got! I said, ‘I’ll take it on and finish it off.’ He never asked for credit or anything. I completed it by imagining what me and Mick would have done.

Because the track was so personal, I decided I would direct the video for the song, having learned so much, especially from Jean-Paul [Goude]. It was a retort, in a way, to not being able to live up to the image that my lover had literally created for me, so it seemed important that I be in control of the video, rather than act as the subject. It ended up being completely out of my control.

I had to struggle to get respect from the Capitol people [Jones’s record company at the time]. I was in every shot, so I would always have my make-up touched up in a room away from the studio. And when I came back they would be shooting something, or having the cast change clothes. I would say, ‘What’s going on? I am the director. I know what I am doing.’ I got very paranoid.

I had to be a bitch to maintain any kind of authority. Well, if I were a man, I wouldn’t have been considered a bitch. If I were a man, I would simply have been in charge, however aggressive and demanding I was. I wouldn’t have had other people running about filming things behind my back. A man putting his foot down is in control. It’s strong. A woman putting her foot down is out of control. She’s weak.

I had asked for two weeks to do the whole thing, and they chopped the production down first to three days and then two. It was so much pressure. After I finished, I vowed that I would never direct anything again. Instead of having a week in which to edit, I had two days. I was never really given a chance. They treated me as though I was a temperamental, unstable mess, and were so impatient and intolerant it did start to seem to those close to me that I was genuinely going mad.

There was a plot to put me away in a facility, because people thought I was on the edge of insanity. There was an actual conspiracy to have me sectioned. It wasn’t in my head, although, naturally, it was made to seem as though it was. I was being worn down. The circumstances were making me crazy, not mad. I was simply frustrated to such an extent about how the video was going, people thought I was in mental trouble.

My sister, my mom, my dad, Capitol Records – a weird alliance, whose members cared about me from different corners – could easily have convinced people that I was losing touch with reality. My family felt I was being paranoid, but I wasn’t going mad. In truth, I was deeply upset that Capitol was interfering with my vision. I was not being a prima donna: I was just trying to concentrate on a technically difficult task while I was being talked to like I was a silly pop singer who’d gotten carried away with her own ego.

I was female, and they decided that I was rock ’n’ roll insane. Had I been a man, they would have considered that I was merely retaining control, or professionally fretting about the details. Once they start treating you as though you are losing your grip, it becomes kind of true – in reacting to accusations that you are paranoid and incapable of acting responsibly, you end up seeming to confirm that you are paranoid and reckless. They wore me down. They sabotaged me.

You can tell why there are so few female film directors. It’s the same with any job that society has decided can only be done by a man. They find ways to undermine and undervalue a woman doing that job. And the fact that you end up saying ‘they’ makes you sound paranoid. But there is no doubt that a particular job is usually for the boys. If a woman tries to do it, she is treated as though she is doing something wrong, even perverse.

What are the chances of a female president being elected? The men-only corporate reaction is: What about the tampons? Will she bleed everywhere? What if she gets pregnant? What if she is going through the menopause? What if she’s been through the menopause and is therefore old and used-up? It’s the same old caveman shit, a power thing. It’s why I want to fuck every man in the ass at least once. Every guy needs to be penetrated at least once.”

Check out the first two excerpts, here and here. I’ll Never Write My Memoirs is available for advance order on Amazon.

(via Time Out)

The post #Excerpt: Grace Jones on the Music Biz’s Misogyny, “I Want To F*ck Every Man In The Ass” appeared first on World of Wonder.

These little happy couples could get kicked off of Russia’s Apple messaging service because they’re WAY too gay. After months of complaining from politicians about the same-sex emojis, detectives in Russia’s Kirov region are investigating Apple with the charge of producing “homosexual propaganda”. Thanks to a 2013 Law that prevents the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relationships” it could cost Apple up to a million rubbles. Yes, the world’s most valuable company might have to pay $15,000! What’s gonna happen when they find out how to effectively use that eggplant emoji?

The post #LGBT: Russia Is Suing Apple Over Gay Emojis appeared first on World of Wonder.

Tim, 60

Tommy Wu and Alan Reade are tommy+alan photography. They shot their Men Over 50 Project to raise both the visibility and sex appeal of older men. The results are pretty inspiring. But being in that group myself, I’m sorry, I gotta go now –the gym is SCREAMING my name. For more pics of these hot daddies and others, and to hear audio of their experiences, go here.

Dan D., 57

John F., 50

James, 53

Flex, 50

Dennis, 67

Felix, 50

David, 52

Dan G, 52

Carlos, 54

Justin b., 50

Richard Z, 54

Steve, 55

Steve B., 67

Ted, 54

Ted, 54

jT, 51

(via Out)

The post #ManCrushMonday: The “Men Over 50 Project” Might Give You a Daddy Complex appeared first on World of Wonder.