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August 17th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!


#BornThisDay: Mae West

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August 17, 1893Mae West:

“Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.”

Her career started in 1907 and her last public appearance was in 1978. That’s quite a long run. Gay Icon Mae West worked in vaudeville, radio, on stage, on Broadway, in Las Vegas casinos, and, of course, in films. Her 1927 Broadway play Sex opened to bad reviews, did boffo box office, and was ultimately closed down by the police. West was charged with, and served time for, “corrupting the morals of the youth”. While incarcerated, she took her meals with the prison warden and his wife while entertaining them with her shtick. She told the press that she wore her silk panties under her prison uniform.

Early in her Broadway career West was already aware of her sweet spot as a Gay Icon. The Gays had been her most ardent fans from the very start. As the march towards equality moved forward, West’s popularity only continued to soar. Her witty, bodacious, blunt expressions of sexuality were celebrated by gay people for more than half a century and beyond. In the early part of the 20th century, West cultivated a strong following from the female impersonators of the era. Before drag queens impersonated Joan Crawford, Cher, or Barbra Streisand, they were doing Mae West.

Her play The Drag (1927) had a theme of the male homo’s place in modern society. Sex launched her notoriety and her stardom on Broadway, but with The Drag, West did not even write a role for herself. The Drag was her contribution to a period in the 1920s when female impersonators appeared in mainstream stage shows while rues and flappers slummed at gay bars and drag balls. When the casting call for The Drag was posted, hundreds of pansies, fairies and queens showed up to read for it. The play featured a parade of gay characters of all types, and it ended with a 20 minute drag show sparkling spectacular. West was one of the very earliest public advocates for sexual equality in all its forms. A personal hero for me, and for forward thinking people, West spent her lifetime fighting censorship.

“I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.”

West didn’t just write about the roles of women and gays in our society, she also took on racism. She included Black and Latin characters in her plays and in her nightclub act. Among West’s many boyfriends was boxing champion Gorilla Jones. When the management at her apartment building barred the African-American boxer from entering the premises, West simply bought the building and then lifted the ban.

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“I wrote the story myself. It’s about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it.”

She appeared in ten films from 1933-1943; a rather small body of work considering that during the same era Mickey Rooney appeared in more than 50 movies. But, West’s films were anticipated as major cultural events. Yet, by the end of the middle of the 1940s, a new puritanism was on the rise in the USA. The newly formed Hays Code censorship began severely limiting her career in film. After making The Heat Is On (1943), West retired from films and went back to Broadway.

In the early 1940s, West was the guest on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen‘s radio show. The dialogue between West and the show’s hosts, Bergen and the dummy Charlie McCarthy, contained West’s usual risqué wit. Days after the broadcast, NBC received letters calling the show “immoral” and “obscene.” Conservative groups went after the show’s sponsors. The FCC called the broadcast “vulgar and indecent”. NBC banned West from ever appearing on any more of their broadcasts.

In 1954, when she was 62 years old, West began a stage act in which she was surrounded by hot musclemen as her chorus boys. It ran for three years and it was a surprise success.

I think that West is extraordinarily neglected as a writer. Read her collected plays and you will be surprised at the skill, originality and wit in her theatre pieces, and they are still rather shocking today. She is also the author of a highly readable memoir Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It (1959). You can borrow my well read, dog-eared copy.

“I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.”

At 77 years old, West appeared in the demented film Myra Breckinridge (1970) along with Farrah Fawcett, Tom Selleck and Raquel Welch, based on the Gore Vidal bestselling novel. At 85 years old, she made Sextette (1978) with a screenplay written by West and starring Timothy Dalton, Dom DeLuise, Ringo Starr and Tony Curtis as her love interests and in small roles were friends from her Golden Era, George Raft and Walter Pigeon, along with some of the hot guys from her act. Sextette reunited West with Edith Head, her costume designer from She Done Him Wrong (1933).  In 1975, she published a self-help tome: Mae West On Sex, Health And ESP.

In her long career, West came out with 12 albums, including a collection Christmas songs, and she had 12 hit singles. She released an album of rock n’ roll covers, Great Balls Of Fire in 1972; she was 80 years old.

Actor, nightclub performer, recording artist, playwright, screenwriter, Feminist Icon, sex symbol, Gay Icon, West had an entertainment career that spanned seven decades. But for me, West is remembered best for her quips, including Stephen’s Words To Live By:

“Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!”

In the summer of 1980, West was still working on her stage act when she suffered a series of strokes. At the time, her boyfriend was one of the musclemen from the act and 30 years younger than West. His name was Paul Novak and they had been a couple for her last 27 years. Novak stated:

“I believe I was put on this Earth to take care of Mae West.”

West’s private memorial service was in Hollywood, but she is buried with her family in her native Brooklyn.

One of the most revered pieces of the 20th century’s Surrealist Movement is the Mae West Lips Sofa, which was completed by artist Salvador Dalí for yesterday’s #BornThisDay honoree, Edward James.

Bette Midler is set to star in a biopic about West for HBO. It will focus on West’s mounting of Sex on Broadway and her 10 days in jail after it was closed-down for being indecent. The screenplay is by Harvey Fierstein with Boys In the Band (1971) director William Friedkin.

“I’ll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.”

The post #BornThisDay: Mae West appeared first on The WOW Report.

#PictureThis: Lost Polaroids of a 24 Year-Old Madonna By Richard Corman

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In June of 1983, Madonna was an ambitious 24-year-old (there were and ARE a lot of them in NYC.) Photographer Richard Corman met the young singer in her walkup apartment on East Fourth Street between A and B. It was the moment, as Corman says,

literally right before she stepped out and ran into the stratosphere.

The month after they took these casual casting Polaroids, she released her debut album, Madonna, which produced three top-ten hits Holiday, Lucky Star and Borderline. A year later, she was writhing the stage in wedding dress (typed by Maripol) in her career-making MTV VMA performance of Like A Virgin. But when Corman took these Polaroids, she was still just DJ Jellybean Benitez’s girlfriend. As she wrote of that time,

I felt like a warrior plunging my way through the crowds to survive.

Corman was pretty well-connected young man in the early 80s. He had assisted Richard Avedon, and his mother Cis was a casting director who worked on films like Raging Bull and The Deer Hunter. (At the time he was also taking pictures of Keith Haring in Soho and Jean-Michel Basquiat at his Great Jones Street studio.) After 30 years 66 polaroids will finally get their due this fall as a book and an exhibit. Corman shared the story of how they came about with i-D magazine.

“These are images that I shot in 1983. What makes them so charming and special to me is actually the connection to my mother. She had introduced me to Madonna in the spring of ’83, when she was casting a movie called The Last Temptation of Christ, with Martin Scorsese. They auditioned Madonna for the Virgin Mary. As it turned out, Madonna never got the part, but she and I met each other at the time when I was working at Avedon Studios. I was looking constantly for interesting people to photograph. I had never met anyone really like her. She was original.

The Polaroid shoot came a bit later, when my mother was developing a niche musical called Cindy Rella. Madonna was actually at her brother’s apartment, and I needed to send [casting] pictures to Warner Bros ASAP. We didn’t do anything digitally or on an iPhone back then, we had Polaroids. So I shot about 66 Polaroids. We put together a book with a script for a treatment, and the casting. Michael Jackson or Prince would play the prince, Aretha Franklin was going to play the wicked stepmother. As it turned out, the movie never got made and the script and the 66 Polaroids were, I thought, lost for 30 years. Recently when I was going through my warehouse, cleaning it out from the farthest corner, my mouth was wide open to find that these images were just sitting there. In perfect condition.

If we did these pictures today there would be 30 people standing in that apartment. But it was just me and her, it was so simple. She was so accessible, funny, and sexy. She was so cool and had such charisma. So we started with the few pictures where she was cleaning the house as Cinderella, and then she’s getting ready for the ball. She went out and I think she took two hours to find that dress at some vintage store. At the time, she was kind of a local phenom.

I’m not necessarily a Madonna fan, but I’m certainly a fan of her determination, her spirit, and her energy. The pictures today feel a lot more relevant than they did back then. She was always relevant, of course. Just the way she was dressed, her hair, her makeup. Everything about her style and her swag was just 21st century. Between the denim and the red lips, and the cat eyes, the dark roots. Everything about her was now.

She knew exactly the way she wanted it to look. That evening, she met me and my mother and father up at this place on the Upper West Side where every New York City actor hung out. She walked in and she just stopped traffic. Nobody looked like her! She was a visionary in life, and she was certainly 100% original.

When I first met her and went to her apartment, she had to show me up the stairs because it was a building that was full of thugs. They protected her. She said,

Richard, you can’t come into the building until you tell me you’re here so I can tell the guys downstairs.

She was the pied piper of the neighborhood. People would come to her apartment to have pizza, go to the roof to sing and dance. She embraced it, and the city was really rough back then.”

Richard Corman’s 66 Polaroids will be out this fall from NJG, accompanied by an exhibition.

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(via i-D magazine)

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#Vintage70s: Cher Is Returning To TV Next Month (with Sonny & Little Chastity Too!)

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Oldies network getTV will start airing vintage episodes of Sonny Bono and Cher’s three ’70s TV shows every Monday at 8PM, starting on September 12.

First they will air three weeks of the singing duo’s first series, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, which kicks off with its 1971 debut and guest, Jimmy Durante. (Google him.)

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour aired from 1971 through 1974 followed by our girl going solo with Cher in 1975 and after her divorce from Bono, the tried TV again with The Sonny & Cher Show from’ 76 to 77.

They all aired on CBS and many of haven’t been seen on in over a decade, but old YouTube keeps them alive. Here’s the cheesy opening of the The Sonnny & Cher Comedy Hour and an episode that features guest star Farrah Fawcett. They’re not funny, but they’re fun.

Watch.

(via NY Post)

The post #Vintage70s: Cher Is Returning To TV Next Month (with Sonny & Little Chastity Too!) appeared first on The WOW Report.

New Videos From Steven Joseph! Mythica! Lacey Noel! Isley Reust! Feast of Fun!

Oh No She Didn’t: Marina Abramović Just Called Aboriginal People “Terrible”-Looking “Dinosaurs”

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Oh honey, no. Just no. Legendary performance artist (and mentor to both Lady Gaga and James FrancoMarina Abramović reeeeeeeally stepped in it when a passage from her upcoming memoirs Walk Through Walls was leaked. The passage was about a 1979 trip to Australia where she encountered members of the Pijantjatjara and Pintupi tribes and, uh, let’s just say her description was sliiiiiiightly un-PC.

She writes:

Aborigines are not just the oldest race in Australia; they are the oldest race on the planet. They look like dinosaurs. They are really strange and different, and they should be treated as living treasures. Yet, they are not.

But at the same time, when you first meet them, you have to put effort into it. For one thing, to Western eyes they look terrible. Their faces are like no other faces on earth; they have big torsos (just one bad result of their encounter with Western civilisation is a high-sugar diet that bloats their bodies) and sticklike legs.

Online condemnation was swift and appropriately cutting. PAPER magazine called the passage “condescending” “pseudo-anthropological” and “blatantly racist” and said it only “reaffirms how toxic a focus on Eurocentric beauty standards can be.”

OhNoTheyDidnt commenters had a field day:

“Yikes at this display of benevolent superiority.”

“No this Elmer’s Glue looking crocodile did fucking not!!!!!”

“bitch is you serious
with your dinosaur looking face
why does she look so greasy”

Within hours, the hashtag #TheRacistIsPresent was trending (a reference to her iconic New York show at MoMA, The Artist Is Present).

Here’s your pal Marina Abramović being a mental racist in her forthcoming memoir (and daily life) (via @rwetzler) pic.twitter.com/b49paYCzNh

Since the uproar, publishers The Crown Publishing Group have confirmed that the passage will not appear in the final version of the book.

And Marina just released a statement saying that her words were taken out of context:

“The description contained in an early, uncorrected proof of my forthcoming book is taken from my diaries and reflects my initial reaction to these people when I encountered them for the very first time way back in 1979. It does not represent the understanding and appreciation of Aborigines that I subsequently acquired through immersion in their world and carry in my heart today.”

So… all’s well that ends well?

(via i-D VICE, PAPER,and  OhNoTheyDidnt; Photo: Pacific Coast News)

The post Oh No She Didn’t: Marina Abramović Just Called Aboriginal People “Terrible”-Looking “Dinosaurs” appeared first on The WOW Report.

Look For Less: DIY Blue Jean Jacket

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A good blue jean jacket is a must have in my closet. I recently came across this Alice and Olivia cropped denim jacket that I absolutely love..

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…and I could totally have it for a cool price of $695.00. (wishful thinking) Since that is way out of my budget I decided to create my own! The one thing I love about this jacket is the patches and appliqué. It is a super fun way to transform a boring basic outfit into something really special. The best thing about making your own is really making it YOUR own. Just imagine walking down the street and receiving a compliment on your new jacket and being able to reply “thanks I made it.” (wink face) Talk about major style points.  Here is a jacket I put together for only $60.00!
Emily Marston
First you need a jacket, which I am sure most of you have an old one laying around, so why not repurpose it!? If not H&M, Forever21, or any thrift store is a great place to find a cute cheap blue jean jacket. Then you just have to find patches. I found all of these amazing iron-on patches by WildflowerandCompany on Etsy and the best part is they were all about $4.00 each! Of course you can use whatever kind of patches you like to put your own style and personality into it. I also thought it would be fun to add flowers by gluing them on to pins and having the option to take them on and off or switch ’em up ever so often. You can find the flowers and pins at any craft store for only a few bucks! If you would like to have a more acid wash finish on the jacket, just have a spray bottle filled with bleach and have at it.

Happy crafting and remember….more is more! (No? OK.)

 

For more “looks for less” check out my Marc Jacobs’ recreation!

 

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Super-Hunks Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Scott Eastwood (and More!) Take the 22 Pushup Challenge

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Step aside, ALS Ice Bucket Challenge! There’s a new viral campaign to get celebrities shirtless and SWOLE for a good cause. The 22 Pushup Challenge hopes to raise awareness about mental health issues that affect America’s soldiers. Statistics claim that 22 veterans commit suicide each day. To pay tribute, participants are asked to do 22 pushups on social media. So far Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Scott Eastwood, John Kraskinki, The Rock, Kevin Hart, and Ludicris have all contributed Instagram videos. (Scott Eastwood and Kevin Hart do theirs SHIRTLESS!). Watch below.

(via Queerty – oh, and I stole the top screen grab from them, too – thanx Derek!)

The post Super-Hunks Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Scott Eastwood (and More!) Take the 22 Pushup Challenge appeared first on The WOW Report.


All Eyes On Her: Meet Misty Eyez!

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Misty Eyez, WOWPresents Partner, is a showstopping diva who uses YouTube to reach out and give back to her fans. Her series “Ask Misty” is like the Dear Abby of the drag world and we are seriously loving it. Her other series “Get Made Up With Misty” focuses on Misty getting beat for the gods along with some drag friends of hers. She really is not one to miss! Check out some of her fabulous videos below and don’t forget to subscribe to her channel here!

Ask Misty – Drag Is Too Expensive:

Ask Misty – My Family Wont Come To My Wedding:

Get Made Up With Misty Ft. Tatiana Mala Nina:

(Photo by Dario Krakower)

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Discarded Celebrity Wax Statues Populate this Creepy/Fabulous Biblical Museum in Ohio

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Over 300 wax statues of random celebrities (God bless ’em) are posed to recreate Biblical scenes at the BibleWalk museum in Mansfield, Ohio. Included: Prince Philip (as an angel), Tom Cruise (as Jesus), Elizabeth Taylor (in her Cleopatra drag), John Travolta (as King Solomon), Steve McQueen (as a nonspecific shepherd), Prince Charles, George Harrison, and… James Woods?

From Patheos:

The museum, if we must call it that, hosts five tours with recycled wax statues (acquired from closed museums across the U.S.) depicting scenes from the Bible — The Life of Christ, Miracles of the Old Testament, Museum of Christian Martyrs, Heart of the Reformation, and Amazing Grace. For $27, you can take one big 3.5-hour tour, which seems tortuously long, but considering Christ died for your sins, you can suck it up.

One thing is clear: the casting of actual historical figures is no joke to the museum director, Julia Mott-Hardin. If you imply you’re visiting for any reason other than to glorify God, NO TOUR FOR YOU.

“I’ve had calls from people who wanted to take the tour, but only if I accompanied them pointing out the celebrities. I refused. The museum is about glorifying God and his works. That’s what we want to achieve. I just don’t want to take any of the glory away from God. That’s the most important aspect of BibleWalk, God’s glory.”

Check out the nuttiness below.

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Tom Cruise

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George Harrison

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Steve McQueen

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Elizabeth Taylor

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John Travolta

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Prince Philip

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Prince Charles

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August 18th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Robert Redford

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August 18, 1936Robert Redford:

“It’s an honor putting art above politics. Politics can be seductive in terms of things reductive to the soul.”

Redford was born in Santa Monica, a seemingly perfect beginning for a golden boy. A major figure in the world of film, he works behind the scenes and in front of the cameras.

At 13 years old, I remember thinking that he was prettier than his co-star, the young, all-legs, big haired Jane Fonda in the film version of Neil Simon’s Barefoot In The Park (1967), a role he had done on Broadway. I rather like the current Redford: too tan, too much surgery, too weird hair. He was too perfect for too long.

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Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid was playing in theatres 47 years ago. Redford, never giving a bad or false performance (except for maybe that accent in Out Of Africa in 1985), has only been nominated for one Oscar for his acting work, but he does have a bunch of statues on his mantle, including an Academy Award for Best Director for Ordinary People (1981) and another for Life Time Achievement. He should have been nominated in 2013 year for what might be his best performance in All Is Lost.

Surprisingly, Redford was a bit of a bad boy in his youth. The son of an oil company executive, Redford played on the tennis and football teams in high school. But he floundered after his mother died. He had run-ins with the law for stealing hubcaps and sneaking into other people’s backyards to use their pools. Redford:

“I was a failure at everything I tried. I worked as a box boy at a supermarket and got fired. Then my dad got me a job at Standard Oil and I was fired again.”

After high school Redford was accepted at University Of Colorado on a baseball scholarship. Redford says:

“Instead, I became the campus drunk and blew out before I could ever get going.”

He was expelled from the university and he moved to Paris to become an artist. Redford lived as a Bohemian and learned about art and politics. Redford wrote:

“We all lived in a kind of communal way and I was challenged politically. I didn’t have a clue. When I returned to America a year and a half later, I was much more focused on my own country culturally and politically.”

Redford studied design at Pratt Institute and acting at the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts. He made his Broadway debut in a tiny role in the comedy Tall Story (1959), but he landed a better part in the drama Little Moon Of Alban (1960) opposite Julie Harris. Redford finally got that leading role as young newlywed Paul in Barefoot In The Park (1963), playing opposite Elizabeth Ashley and directed by Mike Nichols.

Redford played a sensitive gay 1930s-era actor in the film Inside Daisy Clover (1965) winning a Golden Globe Award for Best New Star. He landed the film adaptation of Barefoot In The Park (1967), showing real chemistry with Fonda. Redford’s star-making role came with the western Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969) with his most perfect costar Paul Newman. The pair proved to have phenomenal onscreen chemistry, and the film was a critical and commercial success, and a cultural phenomenon.

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To avoid being typecast as a “pretty boy,” Redford took challenging projects including the timeless, dark, satirical political campaign drama The Candidate (1970), especially relevant this summer.

1973 was the “Year Of Redford” with both The Sting and The Way We Were. In The Sting he played opposite Newman again, & although he may not have been as pretty as his costar, he showed terrific comic chops. He received his first Academy Award nomination for the film. In The Way We Were, Redford starred opposite Barbra Streisand and this time he was the prettiest again. Their chemistry is steamy hot and both actors are at their most charismatic and at the very top of their considerable movie star wattage.

At a career high, Redford wanted out of the Hollywood scene. He had bought land in Utah and his love of the land moved him to become an environmental activist. In the 1970s, Redford received death threats for his efforts to stop development on public land in Utah. In the 1980s, he tried to show how you could have progress & still respect the land when he formed The Sundance Institute, created to help & support independent filmmakers. He later launched the Sundance Film Festival, the most important showcase for independent films for the past 25 years.

He took more time between acting roles like the baseball classic The Natural (1984), the romantic adventure Out Of Africa (1985) opposite Meryl Streep. Redford directed more often: The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), A River Runs Through It (1992) with Brad Pitt and Tom Skerritt, and the real life story corruption in 1950s game shows, Quiz Show (1994), and the equine soap opera, The Horse Whisperer (2000).

I find Redford to be a skilled craftsman as a director. I like him so much that I find a way to forgive Redford for the miserable, embarrassing, icky Golf Fable-Magical-African-American-Friend tale The Legend Of Bagger Vance (2000).

He is a smart savvy producer, businessman, environmentalist, and philanthropist, an unabashed liberal with strong history of support for Gay Rights, Marriage Equality, and Native American Rights. In 2014, Time Magazine named Redford one of The World’s 100 Most Influential People. He is a true Westerner, the way his friend and co-star Paul Newman was an Easterner.

My favorite Redford performance is in the Watergate thriller All The President’s Men (1976) and I also have a soft spot for Sneakers (1992), a witty early cyber thriller that is even more relevant today than when it was released.

For an old style movie star, Redford has remained rather relevant. 26 years ago, Sundance Institute hosted the Greenhouse Glasnost with scientists from the USSR and the USA coming together to discuss the issue of climate change before climate change was even an issue. As an actor, director and producer, Redford has examined the search for our country’s soul with The Candidate, All The President’s Men, The Electric Horseman (1979), Quiz Show, Lions For Lambs (2007) and The Company You Keep (2012). Last year’s A Walk In The Woods and Truth, where he portrays newsman Dan Rather, follow this familiar theme.

Redford, at 80 years old, continues to work. He can currently be seen in Disney’s unnecessary live-action remake of 1977’s musical Pete’s Dragon

Redford:

“Humor. Skill. Wit. Sex appeal.That order.”

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#TBT: The “Dawson Creek” Moment You Didn’t Know You Needed Today

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The year: 1998. Dawson’s Creek debuted on the then, coveted WB on January 20th to young adult (possibly sexually active) audiences who didn’t know that they would become obtain a musical pension for Paula Cole and an allowance from their parents to purchase everything in the J. Crew  catalogue. But we did, and the series played until 2003 (RIP JEN.)

On this lovely #TBT, I wanted to throw it way the eff back to Season 1, Episode 12: “Beauty Contest” where Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) is made up like Hermione Granger at the Yule Ball. Cheeks carved for days, nose contoured to the back row, and she is covering Les Mis (of all things?). Take a trip down memory lane with me, will you?

This post is approved by Suri Cruise:

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RuPaul Talks Breaking Boundaries, Role Models, and His First Emmy Nomination

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In it’s ninth season of production (and the highly anticipated All Stars 2 coming out on August 25th), RuPaul of the cult-ish RuPaul’s Drag Race, has been nominated for his first Emmy and we couldn’t be more excited for him. Building an empire and following as an outsider, RuPaul spoke with Variety and sprinkled her famous words of wisdom hitting topics like breaking boundaries, role models, and what his greatest accomplishment is.

Check out the interview after the cut:

On breaking boundaries and the most challenging part of his career:

You’ve broken so many boundaries, but what has been the biggest challenge of your career?
There’s so much hypocrisy and bulls–t out there, do I really want to put myself forth and go for it? That’s the biggest struggle. The biggest struggle in my career has been still wanting to do it, especially when you come up against so much bulls–t and when you see that the unwashed masses don’t want to be challenged or don’t want to do anything different…And that’s fine, but when you come up with something that is very special that you put your heart and soul into and you can’t get the support around it, it’s very discouraging. That’s the inner struggle that plagues every sweet, sensitive soul that approaches a career in the arts.

On role models:

Who are some of your role models?
The only person I look up to — and not just in show business but also in the world — is a little lady named Judge Judy! Honestly.

On his greatest accomplishment:

What has been your biggest accomplishment in your career?
“Drag Race” launching the careers of 100 queens that are working non-stop, around the world this very moment.

 

Read the rest of the interview here.

This post is approved by:

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Behind the Scenes at America’s Most Gagworthy Conventions

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From the furry fandom to fetish culture and the brotherhood of bronies to comical clowns, Photographer Arthur Drooker explores subversive and overlooked conventions in his photo series “Conventional Wisdom” dropping on August 22, 2016.

Before attending each conference, Drooker reached out to the organizers to openly disclose his motivation for attending the conference. “I assured them that in no way was I out to make fun of their group,” he said. “Thankfully, they all welcomed me.” Attending the conventions, Drooker was struck by the vibrant energy and camaraderie pulsing through the spaces, whether united by a love of mermaids, taxidermy, clowns or military history.

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Drooker’s photos are easy to love. Chock-full of wigs, latex, face paint, bleached beards, puppets, big smiles and close friends, the series shows that sometimes you have to engage in some intense cosplaying to truly feel like yourself.

Drooker described his involvement as:

I see conventions not as revenue sources but as visual treasures. To me, they’re unique expressions of community, culture and connection.

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Drooker even went to a Bianca Del Rio Convention, REALLY QUEEN?!

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The wisdom I’ve gained from this project has shown me that regardless of what they’re about, where they’re held or who attends them, all conventions satisfy a basic human urge: a longing for belonging.

Much like the conventions Drooker attended in search of community and like minds World of Wonder supports the notion of finding community. Jump on tickets to Rupaul’s DragCon 2017.

C’MON CONVENTION FAMILIES!

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See more photos from photographer Arthur Drooker here or pre-order a signed copy of “Conventional Wisdom” now!

[via Huffington Post]

 

The post Behind the Scenes at America’s Most Gagworthy Conventions appeared first on The WOW Report.


Peep The First Haunting Trailer for the JonBenét Ramsey DocuSeries

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Binge-watch and chilling to crime series has become the new normal in households thanks to Netflix’s “Making a Murderer” and HBO’s “The Jinx.” So it’s no surprise CBS wanted to get in on the action with their very own six-part docu-series about the unsolved, twenty-year old nightmare: “The Case of JonBenét Ramsey.”

Check out the eerie first trailer:

The post Peep The First Haunting Trailer for the JonBenét Ramsey DocuSeries appeared first on The WOW Report.

SNL Eat Your Heart Out: Meet Ryan and Amy!

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Stop what you are doing IMMEDIATELY. I need you to meet Ryan and Amy. These WOWPresents partners and comedy duo are killing it with their YouTube videos. Their mini sketch comedy series are not only hilarious, but so on point. Who hasn’t made fun of those ancestry site commercials? Who doesn’t have that one delusional friend who is not seeing reality? Check out some of my favorites below and subscribe to their channel here! I seriously cannot stop laughing. “I am 10% Tyrannosaurs Rex” DEAD. I can’t.

Delusional Sharlene:

Myancestors.com:

Meeting Baby:

 

 

The post SNL Eat Your Heart Out: Meet Ryan and Amy! appeared first on The WOW Report.

August 19th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Coco Chanel

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August 19, August 19, 1883– Coco Chanel:

“A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.”

She was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel in Saumur, France.

Chanel adopted the name Coco when she attempted a career as a cabaret singer as a young woman. The name came from two popular songs in her act: Ko Ko Ri Ko or Qui Qu’a Vu Coco, a ditty about a girl who had lost her dog. Chanel claimed it was a shortened version of “coquette”, a French word for “kept woman.”

Growing up, her family did not have a permanent place to live. For a while they stayed in an abandoned shack on a primitive farm. Her mother was a laundrywoman and her father was a street vendor who tellingly sold hats.

Chanel was afraid that reporters would find out about her childhood: Her parents lived together without being married; her mother died of bronchitis when she was 31 years old; her father simply gave her to an orphanage when she was 12 years old. Chanel often claimed that when her mother died, her father sailed to America, and that she lived in a lovely house with two very strict aunts, who in reality, never did exist. It wasn’t the only way Chanel worked to reinvent herself. She said that the year of her birth was 1893.  She probably considered that her stories created an alluring sense of mystery, but Chanel didn’t need mystery. She had style, and that was more than enough.

She learned to sew in the orphanage and when she was 16 years old, Chanel found a job as a seamstress.

In her early twenties, Chanel concluded smartly that the most important thing in life was money. In 1905, when a young and wealthy bourgeois Étienne Balsan came into her life, she saw her future. When she moved in to his castle, Chanel took full advantage of her new life.

In 1908, Chanel was introduced to a pal of Balsan, Arthur Edward “Boy” Capel, a handsome English polo player. Capel urged Chanel to open a millinery and promised her financial support. He became her partner in business and life.

She was, however, obliged to Balsan, who had helped to start her career and had taken her in when she was down and out. But, Balsan was all too happy to have Chanel gone from his estate. She settled in his bachelor pad in Paris where he usually had fun with his girlfriends. This was the first spot where Chanel made and sold her hats. Interestingly, Balsan’s other girlfriends became her first clients. They also introduced her to their friends.

In 1910, Chanel finally broke it off with Balsan and she moved in with Boy Capel. She opened a boutique, Chanel Modes at 21 Rue Cambon.

Her millinery business boomed and she moved beyond just hats. Chanel decided to introduce a line of luxury casual wear. The chapeaus remained popular, but they didn’t make Chanel a rich woman. Her unique early clothing designs were a direct result of her thriftiness. At the time, Jersey, a stretchy knit fabric, was commonly used for men’s underwear. But, it had an elegant drape and its comfort proved perfect for Chanel’s line of sportswear, and it could be purchased at a low cost.

The casual knit fashions in Chanel’s boutique were new and exciting for a generation of young French women who had been forced to wear corsets, but who wished to live active lives. Chanel was the epitome of what these young ladies wanted to be: Self-sufficient, strong, slim and sporty. Her cropped hair and boyish figure became the ideal, and the straight lines and boxy silhouettes of her designs were tailor-made for that sort of figure. Her sense of color was a key element in Chanel’s fashion design. At her home and in her wardrobe, Chanel chose classic blacks, whites and beiges. These colors are the essence of the House Of Chanel, particularly the “Little Black Dress,” a modern woman’s wardrobe staple made famous by Chanel.

She even created a style that had been previously unthinkable for women…tracksuits. She dared to appear in public wearing a sailor suit or in tight skirts.

Her boutiques flourished in the 1910s, and by the 1920s her clothing was extremely popular and wildly successful. Her clients came from all over the globe and young women everywhere clamored to wear her designs. Even those who couldn’t afford the couture of the House Of Chanel still went for the look of her clean lines and cropped skirts with few curves. She came up with new ideas, including the first female skinny suit, dress shirts and pants for women, and beach pajamas. The flappers went crazy for Chanel’s comfortable, unrestrained look.

In 1919, Capel died in a car accident. Chanel said: “Either I die as well. Or I finish what we started together.” She was not allowed to grieve officially because she was not married to Capel. There was no business contract that bound them together, just as there was no marriage certificate, but they nevertheless joined together, as the Chanel double C logo seems to suggest.

In the summer of 1920, Chanel opened a shop in the resort town Biarritz where she met a Russian émigré, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich. Their romance was short but important. Pavlovich introduced Coco to a Russian perfumer, Ernest Beaux, who had worked for Russia’s Imperial Court.

The meeting was eventful for both of them. After a year of hard work and many experiments, Beaux placed ten samples in front of Chanel, dividing them into two groups. The first half Beaux numbered from one through five, the second from 20 through 24. Chanel chose the sample No. 5 and when Beaux asked her why, Chanel replied:

“I always launch my collection on the fifth day of the fifth month, so the number 5 seems to bring me luck, therefore, I will name it: No. 5.”

The list of clients who wore Chanel No. 5 perfume included the most beautiful women of the century. Chanel No. 5 was a favorite perfume of Jacqueline Kennedy. The perfume continues to be the ultimate symbol of classy sensuality. Marilyn Monroe:

“What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course”

Chanel No. 5 is still the best-selling perfume in the world.

When WW II broke out in Europe, Chanel closed her shops. She declared that wartime was no a time for fashion. Her connections with the Nazis, mostly because of her affair with a German SS officer, Walther Friedrich Schellenberg, made a dent in the love from her fans in France. About her loyalties said:

My heart is French, my bottom is international”.

But, Chanel was back after the war, more popular than ever. She was driven by a decided distaste for the new fashions of the 1940s and early 1950s.

This era also brought the introduction of the Chanel Handbag: quilted leather with a gold chain with the familiar Chanel logo featured prominently. It remains an enduring classic. The handbag’s basic look hasn’t changed substantially over the decades, and it’s still a status symbol today.

Chic women responded favorably to her classic suit with its slim skirt and boxy jacket. But, it took a while for the Chanel look to take off in the USA, but she got a big boost in the early 1960s when Fashion Icon Jacqueline Kennedy was spotted sporting Chanel. When John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, his wife was wearing a double-breasted pink Chanel wool suit.

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Chanel became one of the most famous and recognizable women in the world. Among her many friends and lovers were Pablo Picasso, ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, Igor Stravinsky, Jean Cocteau, and Winston Churchill. She had a 15 year affair with Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster. She was known to enjoy liaisons with women on occasion also.

She was noted as an especially intelligent, witty and original thinking woman. Picasso called her: “The most sensible woman in the world”. She was irresistibly flirty, sharp, straightforward and a bit cynical.

Through the decades the Chanel Little Black Dress developed in to the classic choice for women. It has been often copied, redesigned and retailored. New versions continue to appear. I can confidently say that this dress will never go out of style.

Chanel said:

“Fashion fades, only style remains the same.”

Her first lover, Balsan, showed a lifelong loyalty to Chanel. He never married. They remained good friends until his death in 1953.

Chanel left this world in January 1971. She went quietly in her hotel room at The Ritz with a view of The House Of Chanel. After her passing, Chanel’s friends found only three dresses in her closet.

The post #BornThisDay: Coco Chanel appeared first on The WOW Report.

Detox and Her BFF Laurie Blitz Play ‘Be$tie$ for Ca$h’

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