December 27, 1901– Marlene Dietrich:

“I am at heart a gentleman.”

Don’t you continue to find her to be fabulous? She had quite the gay life. Marie Magdalene Dietrich, the smoky voiced Gay Icon, always ended her cabaret show in the very dangerously conservative 1950s, with this toast:

“Please try to be gay tonight as I know it is so difficult to be gay in the morning.”

She had her own brand of dangerous glamour and she carried a smoky air of decadence to her work and persona. Blonde, Teutonic, with high cheekbones and a heavy lower lip, displaying the artifice of languor, Dietrich seduced audiences by innuendo.

Dietrich is an Ultra-Icon and she had a personal relationship with Gayness. She picked her men for eye-candy and her women for love, lust and laughs. She was a movie star when movie stars were movie stars.

Dietrich’s thing was to be idolized, indomitable and indifferent. She didn’t like mistakes. She was a perfectionist. When her mentor, Joseph von Sternberg, the director of early films: The Blue Angel (1930), Morocco (1930), and The Devil Is A Woman (1935), would not relinquish control to her, she gave him up. Like Mae West, Dietrich didn’t let a little thing like a film business run by men tell her what she could do.

Dietrich possessed a profoundly complex personality, including her attitude about sexuality. She had a major magnetism for gay people from the very beginnings of her career: the campiness of her films, her casual approach toward convention, the trouser-wearing that nearly got her arrested, her expression of world-weary disillusion, and, of course, her marvelous voice.

German born Dietrich was bravely Anti-Nazi during WW II. She turned her back on her native country and for four years she actively worked against Adolf Hitler and his band of bad buddies. For her courage and her commitment to the Allied cause, she was awarded the Legion d’Honneur in France and the Congressional Medal Of Honor in the USA, both nations’ highest honors that can be bestowed on a civilian.

Dietrich was an atheist, abandoning the Lutheran faith:

“If God exists, he needs to review his plan.”

But, she had honor, humor, and humanity. At a time when it could not have been easily accepted, she gave the world her own eye-popping style of sexual liberation. Fred Astaire stated that no one wore a tuxedo as well as Dietrich. She was a woman ahead of her time.

Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and personally. In 1920s Berlin, she acted on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as the ultimate temptress Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel, directed by von Sternberg, introduced her signature song, Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It), and brought her international fame and provided her with a contract with Paramount Pictures.

Hollywood films such as Shanghai Express (1932) and Desire (1936) capitalized on her glamour and exotic beauty, cementing her stardom, and made her one of the highest paid actors of the Golden Era.

When she got rid of her mentor and frequent collaborator, Sternberg, after their highly stylized The Scarlet Empress (1934) and The Devil Is A Woman (1935) flopped, Dietrich, along with Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo, was labeled “box office poison” by the press. But, she bounced back big when she played a Wild West saloon girl in the fun Destry Rides Again (1939) opposite James Stewart, singing See What The Boys In The Back Room Will Have.

Dietrich became a citizen of the USA in 1939, at the very apex of the troubles in Europe. Throughout WW II, she was a high profile entertainer on the frontlines. She still made the occasional film after the war, but Dietrich spent most of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s touring the world as a phenomenally successful cabaret performer.

Dietrich never fully regained her box-office clout after that, but she did give some of her most interesting performances, working with the very best Hollywood directors: Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and Orson Welles, in popular films: A Foreign Affair (1948), Stage Fright (1950) where she sang my own theme song, Cole Porter’s The Laziest Gal In Town; Witness For The Prosecution (1957); Touch Of Evil (1958) and Judgment At Nuremberg (1961). Her first film was The Little Napoleon in 1923 and her final role was in Schöner Gigolo, Armer Gigolo in 1979, opposite David Bowie. That’s 56 years of great performances!

Dietrich’s love affairs included many women, including: Mercedes de Acosta, Garbo, Eva Le Gallienne, Isadora Duncan, the great French writer Colette, and Edith Piaf. Throughout her career, Dietrich had a long string of sexual and romantic relationships, some lasting for decades. They often overlapped and were almost all known to her husband. She had a novel quirk of passing him the love letters of her lovers, along with her biting commentary.

She had liaisons with many men. During the filming of Destry Rides Again, Dietrich had an affair with Jimmy Stewart, which ended when the filming stopped. In 1938, Dietrich met and began a relationship with the writer Erich Maria Remarque. In the 1940s, she had an affair with the French film star and military hero Jean Gabin. Her last greatest passion, when she was in her 50s, was for hot actor Yul Brynner. Her very active sex life continued well into her 70s. Her many diverse male conquests included: John Wayne, George Bernard Shaw, Gary Cooper, and John F. Kennedy. Dietrich’s household included her husband and his mistress, first in Europe and eventually on a ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Now that is what I would dub “Modern Living”.

She survived cancer in her 60s and 70s, but she became dependent on painkillers, and for the last decade of her life, Dietrich withdrew to her apartment in Paris. She spent her last decade mostly bedridden, allowing only a few family and staff to see her. During this time, she was a prolific letter writer and spent a lot of time on the telephone (which she answered in the character of a maid), talking with friends and world figures, and surviving on a diet of champagne and autographs. She published a well written memoir Take Just My Life (1979).

Even though she gave up on her native Germany, Germany did not give up on Dietrich. She was made an honorary citizen of Berlin in 2002. Her memorial plaque reads:

“Where have all the flowers gone?”

MARLENE DIETRICH

December 27, 1901 – May 6, 1992

“I am, thank God, a Berliner.”

Marlene Dietrich: Anti-Fascist, Bisexual, Movie Star, Vegas Headliner, Fashion Icon, Recording Artist, and Ultimate Gay Icon. She was friendly with Ronnie and Nancy Reagan, but I like to consider what members of today’s American White Nationalist Party might make of Dietrich. Do you think any of them would even know who she was? Just one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century and one of those damn immigrants.

The post #BornThisDay: Marlene Dietrich appeared first on The WOW Report.

George’s Mill Cottage where he was found Christmas morning

“We were supposed to be going for Christmas lunch. I went round there to wake him up and he was just gone, lying peacefully in bed.

We don’t know what happened yet. Everything had been very complicated recently, but George was looking forward to Christmas, and so was I.

Now everything is ruined. I want people to remember him the way he was. He was a beautiful person.”

He had tweeted earlier:

“It’s a Xmas I will never forget finding your partner dead peacefully in bed first thing in the morning. I will never stop missing you xx.”

Paramedics were called to George’s Oxfordshire mansion following the discovery of his body. Thames Valley Police spokesman has said his death was being ­trea­ted as

“un­explained but not suspicious.”

Officers trying to figure out his final hours have asked the Lebanese-born Fadi, 43, whether he could provide any info about what might have contributed to the singer’s death. He is believed to be the last person to see him alive.

South Central Ambulance Service attended the property at 1:42 PM on Christmas Day. According to The Sun,

“Police involvement is focusing on whether there is any criminal activity and the indication at the moment is there was none at all.

People in contact with George and anyone who raised the alarm would be questioned. My understanding is there was no indication of any suspicious circumstances — so it’s just a case of procedure.

It is also highly likely that a file will be prepared for the coroner in any case in view of the circumstances. But the direction of the inquiry is likely to be determined largely by the results of the post mortem and toxicology tests. Police were called by the ambulance service after they were called by somebody who knew George Michael and found him.

If they are satisfied a criminal investigation is not necessary, it will become solely a matter for the coroner to determine the cause of death.”

There is no suggestion that Fadi was interviewed as a suspect. He had been linked to George since they were spotted in Venice together in 2011 following the George’s split with former long-time partner Kenny Goss.

The pair were discreet and had been seen out together on only a handful of occasions and little was known about the star’s new man. In 2011 Fadi stayed with George when he suffered a bout of life-threatening pneumonia.

George had recently rekindled his friendship with “love of his life” Kenny Goss, 58 — while remaining close to Fadi.

One of the last public pics of Michael outside his home in September

In happier times with ex, Kenny Goss

(via The Sun)

The post George Michael’s Longtime Boyfriend, Fadi Fawaz, Found Him Christmas Morning… appeared first on The WOW Report.

Justin Kelly, director of King Cobra released a film at Sundance in 2015 about the infamous Michael Glatze. Titled I Am Michael, Glatze had been a gay rights activist in San Francisco but after a health scare, abandoned the “gay lifestyle” and became a Christian minister. The film featuring James Franco, Zachary Quinto and Emma Roberts, depicts an all real perception of shame that the LGBTQ community sometimes must face in the adversary of devote pious.

Check out the trailer below!

The post “I Am Michael” The Real Life Story Of an Ex-Gay appeared first on The WOW Report.

Transformation Tuesday just got a whole lot QTer…New queers featured every week! Tag us, take a pic of us and follow us on Instagram at QWERRRKOUT, and you too could be the next QT! YOU BETTA QWERRRK!

Asia Hilton

Age: 20

Location:  Miami, Florida

About:

“What made me start drag was being obsessed with the beauty and art worlds. The transformation is amazing! I would say my drag would have to be based upon the 70s/80s/90s/early 2000s high fashion looks. I plan to soon audition for RPDR, once I turn 21. I have upcoming shoots, and an audition tape in the works…so, stay tuned!”

Instagram: jaggermathew

The post #TransformationTuesday: QWERRRKOUT feat. Asia Hilton appeared first on The WOW Report.

Last night HBO premiered Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey‘s Every Brilliant Thing. HBO’s special showing of an Off-Broadway play, is a stark look at depression and finding hope in the ‘little things’ in life. Barbato and Bailey sat down with Daniel Reynolds from Advocate, and spoke about why they chose to do a “not so gay” piece.

“Depression is one of these things where if you don’t experience it yourself, you know someone who does,” said Barbato. “We were inspired by it, and felt it connected with our wheelhouse of work at [our production company] World of Wonder. We like to make films about people or subjects that are often either maligned in the media or not discussed at all in the media.”

Every Brilliant Thing, a filmed version of one of Donahoe’s performances produced by Fenton and Barbato, premieres Monday night on HBO. Its arrival during the holiday season — “a time of personal crisis for many people,” Fenton said — couldn’t be better timed. LGBT people, in the wake of a tumultuous presidential election that has spurred a surge in hate and hate crimes, are particularly at risk for depression during this period.

“Many people struggle with depression in our community for all the reasons that you’d imagine, or that you personally know: the struggle of coming out. The struggle of dealing with homophobia,” said Fenton, who sees a renewed significance of the production in light of Donald Trump’s win.

“If America wasn’t a country facing epidemic depression, the result of the election simply would not be possible,” he said. “We are where we are simply because this country is chronically depressed, I might say suicidally so, since it’s more than likely that the outcome will be devastating. I mean, more than it already is.” (via Advocate)

You can read the rest of the inspiring interview here.

Check out  Every Brilliant Thing now streaming on HBO GO and HBO NOW!

The post Advocate’s Exclusive Interview For “Every Brilliant Thing” appeared first on The WOW Report.

After a weekend spent in the hospital it was reported this morning that the beloved Carrie Fisher (60) has passed away.

It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55 this morning. She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly. Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers. (via NewNowNext)

Here at World of Wonder we cherish and honor Fisher’s unrestrained personality  and honest delicacy that we got to know through Wishful Drinking. We will all miss you dearly and we know that you are outshining yourself in whatever next phase of existence you are in. RIP Rebel Princess.

The post Today We Say Goodbye to Another Great Hero appeared first on The WOW Report.

In 2010, HBO Documentary President Sheila Nevins suggested World of Wonder film Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking, a one woman auto-biographical show about her struggles with addiction, the pressure of “Hollywood in-breeding” and becoming a bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen. With Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey producing and directing the piece, the Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd reviewed the film saying,

This is not one of those emotional journeys in which the teller comes finally to forgive herself and the world and we get out our handkerchiefs. Craziness is Fisher’s baseline — “Wishful Drinking” begins and ends before the image of a padded cell — and clarity the thing she buys with comedy. Life will kill you, she seems to say: You might as well laugh. (via LATimes)

Everyone in the World of Wonder family reaches out to Carrie Fisher’s household, as we send our condolences to her loved ones. Here is a compilation of the finest moments of HBO’s Wishful Drinking as well as a beautiful post from Fenton Bailey.

The post World of Wonder Remembers Carrie Fisher appeared first on The WOW Report.

Death Drop Dancing Diva Laganja Estranja from season 6 of RuPaul’s Drag Race takes on WOW Presents MCN partner Arend Richard in a few challenges after having a few “kikis”!

The post Puff Puff Drag Challenge w/ Laganja Estranja and Arend Richards! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Like the rest of the world, here at World of Wonder Productions, we’re still mourning the unexpected and unfair loss of the iconic Carrie Fisher. It’s been confirmed that her daughter, Scream Queen, Billie Lourd has taken custody of Fisher’s infamous frenchie, Gary. If anything were to happen to Fisher, she always wanted Billie to care for him, and her daughter is fulfilling her mother’s wishes.

Check it out:

Billie has a frenchie named Tina of her own:

The two already act like siblings:

This post is approved by this adorable picture:

The post Billie Lourd To Care For Carrie Fisher’s Dog Gary appeared first on The WOW Report.

For years now, NASA has been puzzled by the vision damage experienced by astronauts who spend time on extended space flights. Many astronauts who have been in space for months at a time experience slowly degrading vision. Now, post-flight inspection reveals that the back of their eyeballs have been “squished down and flattened over the course of their trip.”

Um, ew.

Via Vice/Motherboard:

New research presented this week provides a partial answer to what’s causing this condition: pressurized spinal fluid. Noam Alperin, a researcher at the University of Miami’s Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, presented findings from research he and his peers conducted on 16 astronauts, measuring the volume of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in their heads before and after spaceflight. CSF floats around the brain and spine, cushioning it and protecting your brain as you move, such as when you stand up after lying down.

Alperin and his team found that astronauts who had been in space for extended trips (about six months) had much higher build up of CSF in the socket around the eye than astronauts who had only gone on short stints (about two weeks). They also designed a new imaging technique to measure exactly how “flat” the astronauts eyeballs had become after extended periods in space.

The idea is that, without the assistance of gravity, the fluid isn’t pulled down and evenly distributed, allowing it to pool in the eye cavity and build up pressure, which slowly starts to warp the eye and cause the vision damage, called visual impairment intracranial pressure syndrome (VIIP).

Many astronauts have experienced this unexplained reduction in eyesight after spending months on the International Space Station, some dropping from perfect 20/20 vision to 20/100 in just six months.

With plans to send humans to Mars by the 2030s, a mission that would require nine months of space flight one way, we don’t really want to risk all of our astronauts going blind in the process.

“NASA ranks human health risks and the two top risks are radiation and vision issues,” Smith said.

What a solution to the condition will look like depends what else we learn: it could be a medication, or a mechanical device to help redistribute fluid, or something else entirely. But each piece to the puzzle helps us get one step closer to sending humans to Mars, and not blinding them in the process.

Photo below: NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins performs eye imaging on the International Space Station. 

The post Why Astronauts Have Vision Damage (Two Words: Flattened Eyeballs) appeared first on The WOW Report.

NBC has compiled their list of the top LGBTQ entertainment moments of 2016, and Mama RuPaul has made the list! Find out for what!

They chose RuPaul winning the Emmy award for Best Reality Host! They said:

For years RuPaul has been entertaining the masses with reality television’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” The show has cultivated a massive following and has consistently sparked conversations on social media. Finally this year, seven years after its 20009 debut, RuPaul has received well-deserved recognition by winning an Emmy Award for Best Reality Host.

The post RuPaul Makes the List of NBC News’ Top LGBTQ Entertainment Moments of 2016 appeared first on The WOW Report.

I’m thinking this is probably a good thing.

Hours after releasing the first trailer for Escaping the KKK, A&E announced it has “decided not to move forward with airing this project” due to ethical questions surrounding the production of the docuseries.

“A&E learned last night from the third-party producers who made the documentary that cash payments — which we currently understand to be nominal — were made in the field to some participants in order to facilitate access,” A&E wrote. “While we stand behind the intent of the series and the seriousness of the content, these payments are a direct violation of A&E’s policies and practices for a documentary.”

These payments, A&E explained, also went against commitments it had made to anti-hate organizations before filming commenced. “We had previously provided assurances to the public and to our core partners — including the Anti-Defamation League and Color of Chance — that no payment was made to hate group members, and we believed that to be the case at the time,” the statement read.

“Our goal with this series has always been to expose and combat racism and hatred in all its forms,” A&E wrote, promising that its decision wouldn’t impact its larger goal to address those issues. “Just because this particular show goes away, the issues of hate in America do not. We will still seek to fight hate in America through on-air programming including town halls and documentary programs produced in partnership with civil rights organizations, as well as continue to work with the civil rights community to facilitate a deeper dialogue on ending hate through comprehensive educational and outreach campaigns.”

A&E released a trailer Friday for Escaping the KKK: A Documentary Series Exposing Hate in America, which was slated to debut on Jan. 10. After initially announcing the series Monday as Generation KKK, A&E faced an intense backlash and changed the project’s title. Along with the name change, the network had also shared plans to incorporate additional content from civil rights groups into the documentary.

Last week, EW wrote:

Escaping the KKK follows several families within the Ku Klux Klan, some members attempting to get out, and the activists working to break the cycle of hate. According to a statement from Rob Sharenow, Executive Vice President & General Manager of A&E and Lifetime, the goal of the series is “to expose and combat racism and hatred in all its forms.”

In the trailer, a Klan wizard says, “I wanna be the next David Duke. I want to see him saying my name at presidential debates,” seemingly referring to Duke’s support of President-elect Donald Trump. He later explains, “You gotta be 18 years old to join the Klan, but I have the junior Klan and I bring a lot of the young kids in and I teach ’em how to be a Klansman and how to be a great Klanswoman.”

“In consultation with our partners at the ADL [Anti-Defamation League] and Color of Change, the network is changing the name of the show to ensure that no one can mistake its intent and that the title alone does not serve to normalize the Klan,” A&E said in a statement on Friday. “The new title: Escaping the KKK: A Documentary Series Exposing Hate in America better reflects our longstanding intention and the content itself.”

Even so, I don’t think America needs a KKK reality show at this particular moment in time, no matter how well-intentioned it was.

The post A&E Cancels KKK Reality Show Before It Even Airs appeared first on The WOW Report.

This is a VERY rare occasion – the winners of Universal Show Queen, Miss Gay America, Miss Continental, Miss US of A, and All American Goddess – posed for a photo together in all of their regal glory in a show of unity!

Left to Right: Sofia Andrews – Universal Show Queen, Suzy Wong – Miss Gay America, Jazell Royale – Miss Continental, Aurora Sexton – Miss US of A, and RuPaul’s Drag Race season 3 finalist Alexis Mateo – All American Godess. Photo by Tone Roc Photography

From Suzy Wong:

The history of legendary drag pageants in the US dates back to the 1970’s. This year in Orlando, Florida, some reigning National pageant title holders came together to shoot a commemorative photograph as a symbol of unity and to wish everyone Happy New Year.

ConDRAGulations ladies! You all look GORGEOUS!

The post Pageant Queen Winners Pose Together for UNITY appeared first on The WOW Report.

The Cinnebon chain tweeted a tribute to Carrie Fisher, reading “RIP Carrie Fisher, you’ll always have the best buns in the galaxy” – with a photo of Princess Leia done in cinnamon and sugar with the company’s cinnamon buns in place of the her trademark hairstyle.

Fisher, of course, was the first to compare her Star Wars hairstyle to the sticky treat, but does that make it OK?

Twitter was all up in arms, of course.

@Cinnabon wtf pic.twitter.com/jQ1nQQ4Ror

— Victoria 🦊 (@nicholaswlde) December 27, 2016

I bet that social media intern at Cinnabon feels pretty good about him/herself right about now

— Slegr (@slegrbombs71) December 27, 2016

You could say that tweet got Cinnabon into a…sticky situation pic.twitter.com/a9hBvDMKbW

— David Rudin (@DavidSRudin) December 27, 2016

@Cinnabon pic.twitter.com/cwCFFPIdld

— Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) December 27, 2016

.@Cinnabon pic.twitter.com/KJUjhRD0PJ

— Jamie (@jlew8) December 27, 2016

.@cinnabon what the hell pic.twitter.com/uhgDPg2Agc

— dan mentos (@DanMentos) December 27, 2016

*Cinnabon HQ upon hearing the news of Carrie Fisher’s heart attack*
“GET STARTED ON THE PRINCESS LEIA CINNABON MURAL… PRONTO!” https://t.co/ChlCoi8eDh

— Dick Prescock (@DadSelfie) December 27, 2016

Cinnamon has since apologized.

Our deleted tweet was genuinely meant as a tribute, but we shouldn’t have posted it. We are truly sorry.

— Cinnabon (@Cinnabon) December 28, 2016

Last April, General Mills went through something similar when sent they out a tweet after Prince’s death, featuring the words “Rest in Peace” against a purple backdrop. In place of the dot over the “i” was a single Cheerio.

New York-based crisis management expert Jessa Moore told HuffPost at the time that there is really no good way for a corporate brand to honor a celebrity’s death.

“It’s insensitive,” Moore said. “It’s like they’re saying, ‘We’re going to capitalize on [a celebrity] death so we show up in a search algorithm.’”

The post Cinnebon’s Carrie Fisher Ad – Sweet Tribute or Tasteless Cashing In? appeared first on The WOW Report.

Debbie Reynolds, mother of actress Carrie Fisher, has been rushed to the hospital. According to TMZ, Reynolds was at her son Todd’s house discussing funeral plans when 911 was called. The outlet also reports that Reynolds may have suffered a stroke.

Reynolds was rushed by ambulance to a nearby hospital. Carrie Fisher died yesterday after suffering a massive heart attack on an airplane, December 23.

This is a developing story.

(via TMZ)

The post #Breaking: Debbie Reynolds Rushed To Hospital After Possible Stroke… appeared first on The WOW Report.

A small ray of light in this otherwise gloomy holiday season: Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton were all smiles when they posed for a pic together Christmas Eve at at Kris Jenner’s Christmas Eve bash..

Wrote Paris:

“Lovely evening celebrating the holidays with @KimKardashian”

Lovely evening celebrating the holidays with @KimKardashian. ✨✨✨✨

A photo posted by Paris Hilton (@parishilton) on Dec 27, 2016 at 5:24pm PST

As HuffPo reminds us:

“Ten years ago, Hilton introduced Kardashian to the world when she brought her as her guest to the Lakers’ Annual Casino Night back in 2006. The rest is history.”

Pic, below.

Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian (Photo by Jason Merritt/FilmMagic)

Other pics from Kris Jenner’s Xmas bash:

#Kristmas with Santa & @CaitlynJenner.

A photo posted by Paris Hilton (@parishilton) on Dec 25, 2016 at 12:17pm PST

#GoodTimes celebrating Christmas with these beauties @KhloeKardashian & @NickyHilton. ❤️

A photo posted by Paris Hilton (@parishilton) on Dec 25, 2016 at 4:49pm PST

Santa & the #ChristmasBaes #Kristmas ❤️

A photo posted by Paris Hilton (@parishilton) on Dec 25, 2016 at 4:38am PST

Celebrating Christmas at home with my fam @KimRichards11 @KathyHilton & @OfficialLaToyaJackson. ❤️

A photo posted by Paris Hilton (@parishilton) on Dec 25, 2016 at 11:01pm PST

The post Joy to the World: Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian Pose for a Christmas Instagram Pic Together appeared first on The WOW Report.

On this episode of Fashion Photo RuView, it’s the best reads of 2016 from Raja & Raven!

The post Fashion Photo RuView’s BEST READS of 2016 with Raja and Raven appeared first on The WOW Report.

Debbie Reynolds, a Hollywood icon and the mother of Carrie Fisher, died today.

Her death comes just one day after Fisher’s, who was 60 and had suffered an apparent heart attack on Friday. Reynolds was rushed to the hospital on Wednesday, where she died, her son, Todd Fisher, told the Associated Press. Fisher said from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,

“She’s now with Carrie and we’re all heartbroken.”

He told the A/P that the stress brought on by the death of his sister,

“was too much.”

As we reported, Reynolds had been at her son’s home to discuss funeral plans for Fisher when family called 911 to report a possible stroke.

Reynolds had a fraught relationship with her daughter over the years, and the two were estranged for some time. But they eventually reconciled. A documentary about their lives together,

Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, is scheduled to air next year on HBO.

This is just too fucking sad for words and not how this movie was supposed to end. Here’s Carrie and her Mom singing together for the one and only time, I think, in public. Watch.

Debbie Reynolds was 84.

(via The Washington Post)

The post #RIP: Debbie Reynolds appeared first on The WOW Report.

Alexa Rae Joel
Alison Brie
Andy Wachowski
Dallas Austin
Danny McBride
Diego Luna
Evan Seinfeld
Inga Swenson
Jane Levy
Jennifer Ehle
Jon Voight
Jude Law
Katherine Moenning
La Toya London
Leonor Varela
Marianne Faithful
Mary Tyler Moore
Mekhi Phifer
Patricia Clarkson
Paula Poundstone
Ted Danson
Yvonne Elliman
Teddy Forance

The post December 29th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Tipton, center standing, with the trio

December 29, 1914– Attend the tale of Billy Tipton. I first became aware of her when she died in Spokane, the city where I grew up, and the truth was discovered.

Tipton was a woman who lived as a man for 53 years, from 21-years-old until her final curtain call at 74-years-old. Her three adopted sons never suspected a thing. Here is the fun part: Tipton lived with five women over five decades, all of them attractive gals, even va-va-vavoom hot. She had intercourse with all five, and yet none of them noticed that her man was a woman, well, number four figured it out eventually. Like her thousands of fans, Tipton’s girls were hoodwinked by one of the greatest performances of all time.

Dorothy Lucille Tipton decided to become Billy Tipton in 1935, ostensibly because it was the only way an aspiring female jazz musician could get work in a nearly exclusively male avocation. The ruse wasn’t really all that difficult. Tipton had a boyish face and a figure that wasn’t what they would call “curvy”. She had a big bust, but no waist. With a sheet wrapped around her chest, padding in the crotch, along with a man’s wardrobe, she passed. Tipton was even boyishly good-looking. Girls found “him” adorable, plus Tipton was in a band as a talented pianist, horn player, and singer. Girls liked that.

At the start, Tipton was strictly a crossdresser, making no effort to hide her gender during those times when she wasn’t making music. She lived as a lesbian with a woman with the nutty name of “Non Earl” Harrell. Initially they were based in Oklahoma City, but by 1940 the couple had moved to Joplin, Missouri, unbelievably, at the time, the entertainment center of the Midwest. In Joplin, Tipton began to pretend to be a male full-time, a pose she would adopt for the rest of her life.

Tipton and Harrell split-up in 1942. After a relationship of a few years with a singer named June, Tipton took up with Betty Cox, a pretty 19-year-old. The couple was together for seven years. Cox later claimed that they had a particularly passionate heterosexual relationship. She even believed that she’d had a miscarriage. I sometimes I think I don’t really know my husband, but after the first seven years, I think I figured out which sex he was. Just like my husband and me, Tipton and Cox only made love in the dark. Don’t most people?

Tipton never removed her underwear and she wore a jockstrap that was fitted with some sort of special stuffing. She wore massive chest bindings at all times, supposedly for an “old injury”. She never allowed herself to be touched below the waist. She refused to share a bathroom. Cox may also have been distracted. She dated other men while she was with Tipton.

In 1958, Tipton had her own jazz trio with a growing reputation. She was on the verge of a successful career as a musician. A Reno nightclub offered to book the trio as their house band. But instead, Tipton took a job as a booking agent in Spokane. She also got a regular gig playing with the house band at a club called The Tin Pan Alley (it is still there, but it has been renamed The Bing Crosby Theatre after Spokane’s most famous native). The band played swing standards rather than the jazz that Tipton preferred. Her performances also included sketches where she imitated celebrities like Liberace and Elvis Presley. In some of these sketches, she played a little girl, but she never impersonated a woman, and she would make jokes about the queers. Perhaps she feared fame would lead to her unmasking and she felt she’d gone as far as she dared.

In 1960s Spokane, Tipton married a pretty, but troubled stripper named Miss Kitty Kelly. She later claimed that she and Tipton never had a sex life, but in other respects they lived a stereotypical working-class Spokane life. They adopted three boys, but neither could handle the kids when they became teenagers. After a bitter fight in 1980, Tipton moved into a trailer with her sons. From there it was all downhill. The boys split, Tipton couldn’t find work, and she was afraid to go see a doctor.

This is when I read the astonishing story of Billy Tipton in an article from the Spokesman Review newspaper, sent to me by my parental units who still live there. It seems that Tipton had remained in Spokane, living in poverty, until she collapsed and died in 1989. It was the paramedics who were trying to revive her who uncovered the truth about Tipton. Death must have come as some sort of relief; at that point, Tipton had been pretending for 54 years.

After her passing, Tipton literally became a poster boy for raising consciousness about the confusion of biological sex and gender. Her image appeared in San Francisco on the cover of a how-to book for cross-dressers, transgendered people and transsexuals. Artists appropriated her as a symbol. A group of avant-garde female jazz musicians from Seattle called themselves The Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet. Tipton’s obituary provided the story line for an opera titled Billy. Thinly disguised versions of her story also formed the plots of several plays including Stevie, by Eduardo Machado, that was first staged at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles by gay British actor, Simon Callow, and The Slow Drag by Carson Kreitzer, produced Off-Broadway. Singer-songwriter-cabaret artist Nellie McKay performed her biographical show about Tipton, A Girl Named Bill:The Life And Times Of Billy Tipton at NYC’s 54 Below in 2014.

Tipton’s life demonstrated that gender, unlike sex, is a performance: she was an actor, and Billy was her role. Her initial act of cross-dressing was a brilliant, problem-solving prank, but Tipton soon discovered that being taken for a man provided access to almost everything she wanted: music, travel, adventure and the love of good women.

The post #BornThisDay: Musician, Billy Tipton appeared first on The WOW Report.