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March 4th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!


#BornThisDay: Actor, Catherine O’Hara

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March 4, 1954Catherine Anne O’Hara:

“The people who present themselves as normal and nice and good are often the scariest monsters in the world.”

In the rich, delightful, demented, awkwardly titled Schitt’s Creek, now in its third season, Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy, two truly great comedy legends, have worked together on stage; in films like Christopher Guest’s Waiting For Guffman (1996) Best Of Show (2000), and A Mighty Wind (2003), and on television on SCTV. Though they don’t want to call it chemistry, both actors admit that their familiarity makes producing the Schitt’s Creek easy. O’Hara:

“Half the job is just hanging out together, so it’s really nice to be with good people who are always insanely talented.”

O’Hara, and clockwise: Eugene Levy, Annie Murphy, and Dan Levy

Levy and O’Hara play Johnny and Moira Rose, a video-store tycoon and his wife. With their two adult children, the Roses had to move out of their stately mansion after the video-stores tank, and they take up residence in a small-town of Schitt’s Creek which Johnny Rose purchased online as a joke. The show, from CBC (The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), presents the same sort of surreal, absurdist city-meets-country world as our American sitcom Green Acres (1965-1971), but with an added dash of digital age satire. It is quite popular at my house, most especially for the presence of O’Hara, who I would watch read the phonebook, if we still had phonebooks. I guess, she could read her contact list from her iPhone.

And, gosh almighty, can I tell you how I love Canada? I love the citizens of our neighbor to the north. Vancouver, British Columbia is one of my favorite places on our pretty spinning blue orb. The Husband and I chose to get married there on the 25th anniversary of being a couple, October 9, 2004.

I am zany for so many Canadians that have contributed to out popular culture: k.d.lang, Joni Mitchell, Ryan Gosling, Ryan Reynolds, Robert Goulet, Justin Bieber. Canada even elected that handsome 6’ 2’’ Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau (who I think is married to Jennifer Aniston, do I have that right?). But none are more loved by me than those great comic actors out of Canada: Jim Carrey, Dan Aykroyd, Margaret Atwood, Martin Short, the cast members of Kids In The Hall (1988- 1994) and especially SCTV (1976-1984) starring: Eugene Levy, John Candy, Harold Ramis and Rick Moranis. SCTV made all the difference for my being able to get through the 1970s and 1980s.

I only watch Schitt’s Creek after smoking a little pot, just as I did for my SCTV viewing back in the day. It is aired in the USA on something called the POP Network, channel 4 on the evil Comcast’s Portland lineup.

O’Hara and Levy are such an important part of why those Christopher Guest mockumentary films work so well: Waiting For Guffman, Best Of Show, A Mighty Wind (2003) and For Your Consideration (2006). If that wasn’t enough, O’Hara does such funny, terrific work in my favorite Scorsese flick, After Hours (1985), and she is beyond nutty in Beetlejuice (1988), and Warren Beatty’s Dick, Dick Tracey (1990) that is. Other films include Home Alone (1990), Orange County (2002), Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events (2004). O’Hara also had a swell story arc on one of my all-time favorite television series, gay writer Alan Ball’s Six Feet Under, back in the early aughts.

She is a favorite of director Christopher Guest and also Tim Burton who used her so affectively in Beetlejuice, Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Frankenweenie (2012).

O’ Hara brings depth to many a shallow character. Schitt’s Creek‘s Moira is an actor, an ex-soap star, who became a socialite, chairing major charity events around the world. She has the wildest wardrobe of anyone outside of Empire’s Cookie Lyon and a difficult to place American Eastern Atlantic/English accent. O’Hara really carries the show. Her constant deadpan threats of suicide (“I need a bathtub and a very long extension cord”) are as hilarious as they are relentless. Her harried asides are delivered with the sort of timing only a comic genius could pull off.

It is great fun watching O’Hara and Levy together. They seem even more inventive this season as the Rose family learns to settle into the town. The nice, normal people of Schitt’s Creek could have been portrayed as hillbillies, but they show that the real freaks are this formerly rich couple with their crazy careers, cellphone charms and the dozens of O’Hara’s wigs.

But, O’Hara always brings something so creative to her projects. She has added an extreme affectation for her Moira character that makes her so much funnier than she even needed to be. Her dry wit and trademark deadpan lends a surprising complexity to her crazy characters. She is a fearless actor. Her Cookie Guggelman Fleck in Best Of Show was a performance worthy of an Academy Award, or at least a Blue Ribbon. It is not easy to be talented actor playing a really terrible performer, so I have to name Waiting For Guffman as my favorite of her performances.

In 2014, Canada honored O’Hara with a postage stamp. That’s right, you can lick O’Hara! I wonder if the USPS would ever do that for me. I understand in our country you have to be dead to get a stamp, so, I am working on that.

For her role in the television film Temple Grandin (2010) O’Hara earned her nominations from the Emmy Award, Satellite Award, and the Screen Actors Guild Award. She has won an Emmy for SCTV, and National Board Of Review named her Best Supporting Actress for For Your Consideration and she received an Oscar nomination for Best Song for the title tune from A Mighty Wind.

If you are smart with your arithmetic, I’m not and have to use my fingers, she is celebrating her 63rd birthday today and she still looks smashing. O’Hara is one of those funny women who are also crazy beautiful. She really is the successor to Madeline Kahn. I feel she deserves status as a true Gay Icon.

The post #BornThisDay: Actor, Catherine O’Hara appeared first on The WOW Report.

#ArtWynwood: Fair-Goers Paint the Answer To My Question, “What Kind of World Do You Want?”

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Photo courtesy Art Wynwood


So, my coloring book/ life story by Regan Arts, Yes, Transform Your Life With Color By Number came out on, November 8, 2016, election day and it did not not a happy day, needless to say. In it one of the first images to color, based on a commissioned painting of mine (which was originally based on a rare vintage paint by number from the 50s) was What Kind of World Do You Want? I went on a mini book tour (sponsored by Design Within Reach) that started in New York, continued in Miami for Art Basel, L.A. & then Austin, Texas. Twyla.com is a new artist platform that offer 4 large scale prints of mine, and when visiting their headquarters in Austin, I met their new “Artist Relations” person, Ariel Salvidar. That meeting planted a seed for an important question to take root…

Fast forward to a brand new year, and What Kind of World Do You Want? had become my 2017 theme, so when my curator from Twyla’s Heidi Lee-Komaromi called to ask if I wanted to create a mural for the upcoming Art Wynwood fair in Miami, that image was the first thing that popped into my head. (It was also part of World of Wonder‘s Holiday gift this year. They kindly sent out 1400 copies of my book to Wowlebrities along with cards and markers, and also included it in a new digital version in their exhibit, Surviving Trump: The Art of Resistance at the WOW gallery in Hollywood, two days before the inauguration)

So, 10 days ago I found myself in Miami at Art Wynwood with a fun crew from Twyla and my long-time assistant, Amy Paschall, painting a 16 foot mural of the image, LIVE. Twyla created a limited edition print and and offered it to fair-goers giving part of the proceeds to The Trevor Project which supports LGBT at risk youth. We had an amazing location right at the entrance, and the response over the 5 day fair was overwhelmingly positive. People were there to look at art, but when they were offered the opportunity to paint with us, they were really excited. I’ve done this live painting before with for kids at The New Museum in New York, just before First Lady Michelle Obama arrived to sign my Drink Up mural, in support of her Partnership for a Healthy America. I created another for Squarespace at the Newport Folk Festival in 2014, and over 500 concert-goers helped paint All Over This Land in an installation in Fort Adams over 3 days.

This fair and mural was timed to President’s Weekend, so the question after just a month of Trump being in office hit home especially hard. We also created action cards for people to answer the question, adding a crucial follow-up;

What Kind of World Do You Want?

AND

What Will You Do To Get it?

THAT second part of the question was the sticking point after reading many of their cards. The first part is easy if all that’s required is a wish, but once you put yourself in the equation, the action is the tough part. I’m not saying I aced it either. Myself, along with Amy and the Twyla team; Ariel, Heidi, William Carson, Nick Nadeau, Cornelia Clay and Emilé all talked to people for hours and hours over 5 days and got all sorts of responses that informed our experience. William noted,

Asking people the question, led to discussions of religion, immigration, race, geography, politics, philosophy, and everything in between.

So, that’s what WE did President’s weekend. I made the mural, thanks to the help of lots of folks and the generosity of Twyla. We got lots of press too. At one pint there were 3 camera crews in the booth! Shepard Fairey stopped by the booth and we chatted about how we first met… (I had to remind him, as he didn’t remember) I created a Hope painting for Art for Obama in ’08 and also was part of the Manifest Equality exhibit in L.A. which he helped judge. He was being honored for Lifetime Achievement, something he was happy about but questioned it’s validity in his mid-40s.

I still struggle with the question on a daily basis. What can I constructively do to create that better world that I want? But that’s what art can do –prod us to ask questions we don’t know the answers to…

The post #ArtWynwood: Fair-Goers Paint the Answer To My Question, “What Kind of World Do You Want?” appeared first on The WOW Report.

Australian Drag Queen, Feminem, Sings for Adele & Wows the Audience! Watch

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During her first ever Australian concert ever, Adele invited a member of the audience on stage. But this time, it was drag queen by the name of Feminem, who impersonates Adele for a living. She ended up belting out a few lines from Rumour Has It and wowed the audience.

The two were dressed in nearly matching gowns and took a selfie after. Adele joked,

Why didn’t you tell me I had such a sweaty face? You look better than me, that’s not allowed!

Feminem said she was “overwhelmed” by the experience,

Adele you have sent my world into the most insane tail spin I’ve ever experienced!

I guess so performing AS someone, right in front of them – and 65,000 people!

Watch.

Can you tell I'm happy? @adele you were everything! #adele #adeleperth #feminem

A post shared by Feminem (@djfeminem) on

Selfie with @adele #adele #adeleperth #feminem

A post shared by Feminem (@djfeminem) on

(via Gay Times)

The post Australian Drag Queen, Feminem, Sings for Adele & Wows the Audience! Watch appeared first on The WOW Report.

The Kute Kitties of “Keeping Up With the Kattarshians” Are Just What We Need Right Now. Watch

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I’m not a fan of cats as a rule (I’m allergic) but Keeping Up With the Kattarshians is a streaming video that follows the lives of a group of cats from an animal shelter in Kattavinafélagið, Iceland. It documents their every move –just like the original human version we are all sick of now– with a series of Go-Pros hidden within the dollhouse they call home.

The kittens, Guðni, Briet, Stubbur and Ronja, don’t provide the same level of drama as Kim, Khloé, Kourtney, Kendall & Kylie. Theirs are much more relaxing. Cat videos are undoubtedly cute, but by offering a path to adoption for the adorable ones featured, it helps its stars find permanent homes post-reality stardom –the rare exception of reality TV participants leaving a show better than when they entered it.

Watch.

(via Vogue)

The post The Kute Kitties of “Keeping Up With the Kattarshians” Are Just What We Need Right Now. Watch appeared first on The WOW Report.

#OnThisGayDay: A Supreme Decision

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March 4, 1998– The US Supreme Court decides Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services

Young Joseph Oncale was glad to have found work on an oil-drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico, working for Sundowner Offshore Services. His job was as a roustabout on an eight-man crew. But, he wasn’t happy about the incidents where his coworkers subjected him to sex-related, humiliating actions in front of the rest of the crew. Oncale was taunted, sodomized with a bar of soap, and threatened with rape. He complained to his supervisors, but nothing was ever done. In fact, the company’s Safety Compliance Clerk called him a faggot. Oncale finally couldn’t take it anymore and quit, requesting that his record reflect that he “voluntarily left due to sexual harassment and verbal abuse.”

Oncale filed a complaint against Sundowner Offshore Services in the United States District Court For The Eastern District Of Louisiana, alleging that he had been discriminated against in his employment because of his sex. He lost in The US District Court with the judges writing: “Mr. Oncale, a male, has no cause of action under Title VII for harassment by male co-workers.” Oncale appealed his case to the United States Court Of Appeals For The Fifth Circuit, which affirmed the earlier decision, but taking his case to the Supreme Court, the decision was reversed.

Justice Antonin Scalia, no friend to LGBTQ people, in a terse opinion, rejected the idea that there was no such thing as Male-On-Male sexual harassment, Scalia acknowledged: “It was assuredly not the principal evil Congress was concerned with when it enacted Title VII.” (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination “because of sex.) The principal evil, of course, was male-on-female workplace discrimination. Still, Scalia explained:

“Statutory prohibitions often go beyond the principal evil to cover reasonably comparable evils, and it is ultimately the provisions of our laws rather than the principal concerns of our legislators by which we are governed.”

This statement has formed the basis of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s expansion of Title VII’s protections to sexual and transgender minorities. In a 2012 decision holding that Title VII bars discrimination based on gender identity and transgender status, the EEOC placed Scalia’s “comparable evils” declaration at the center of its policies. That’s right, kids, thanks to Scalia, LGBTQ workers in every state are protected from workplace discrimination by federal law.

He probably never meant to, but Scalia has helped make America a more LGBTQ-friendly nation.

The case set a criterion for analyzing the idea of sexual harassment without motivation of “sexual desire”, stating that any discrimination based on sex is wrong so long as it places the victim in a disadvantageous working condition, regardless of the gender of either the victim or the harasser.

But even after the SCOTUS ruling, lower courts struggled on how to deal with harassment that appears to be based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, because employment discrimination based on sexual orientation was not forbidden by Federal law.  But, in July 2015, the EEOC determined that employment discrimination based on sexual orientation was, in fact, illegal under Title VII, using Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services as a basis. That is why it is a landmark Gay Rights case, even though everyone involved was straight.

Predictably, the big orange POTUS has plans to profoundly defund The EEOC. He named Victoria Lipnic to serve as chairman. Lipnic has a history of viewing discrimination through her very conservative lens, favoring big business over workers. In 2015, she voted that discrimination based on sexual orientation should not be considered a type of gender discrimination, and should not be prohibited under Title VII. She lost that vote, but with the new administration, be prepared for LGBTQ protections in the workplace to be rolled back.

The post #OnThisGayDay: A Supreme Decision appeared first on The WOW Report.

March 5th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Filmmaker, Pier Paolo Pasolini

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March 5, 1922: Pier Paolo Pasolini:

“If you know that I am an unbeliever, then you know me better than I do myself. I may be an unbeliever, but I am an unbeliever who has a nostalgia for a belief.”

Pier Paolo Pasolini has the dubious distinction of being one of only three great filmmakers that I can recall who was murdered. Americans William Desmond Taylor (1872-1922) and Thomas Ince (1882-1924) both were killed under situations murky and still unsolved. Taylor was found dead in his apartment, shot in the back. It has long been suspected that starlet Mary Miles Minter, still in her teens, and her mother were behind his demise. Ince was a guest on a weekend yachting excursion hosted by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. It seems that one of the guests, Charlie Chaplin, was having an affair with Hearst’s mistress, the beautiful, talented Marion Davies. Hearst, seething with jealousy, loaded a pistol and attempted to kill Chaplin, only to accidentally shot Ince by accident instead. Both cases have never been solved to satisfaction. Pasolini’s killing continues to confound.

Pasolini’s murder was most probably an assassination by the Mafia at the request of someone in the Italian Right-Wing who loathed the openly gay, Marxist, atheist, and extrememly popular artist, poet, actor, writer, cinematographer, composer, political theorist filmmaker. At the time of his demise, Pasolini had 25 films to his credit. In the the late 1940s and 1950s, Pasolini was a dedicated Communist.

In November 1975, shortly after the release of his controversial last feature film Salò, Pasolini was run over several times by his own car. His killer has never been found, though he had made so many enemies because of his political views and his connections to the Rome underworld that nearly everybody in the city was a suspect. Pasolini had picked up a teenaged hustler that evening. The young grafter was arrested, but later recanted his confession, claiming that three men with Southern Italian accents killed Pasolini. Details of the crime make it quite impossible to have been the work of just one person.

I saw Pasolini’s most famous film at the Film Forum in NYC in 1976. If you wish to see it, don’t do so on a full stomach. It is the most nauseating work of art I have ever seen. Salò, known here as The 120 Days Of Sodom is an updating of the Marquis de Sade‘s 1780s novel, setting the story to the final days of Mussolini‘s depraved inner circle.

In his poetry, journalism, novels and films, Pasolini championed the poor and disenfranchised of post-war Italy, mingling  intellectual Leftist views with his fierce Franciscan style Catholicism. His best film, The Gospel According To Matthew (1964), was dedicated to John Paul XXIII, the first Pope to connect Catholicism with Marxism. Pasolini pointedly omitted the word “Saint” from the title. It was shot in the lunar landscape of Italy’s Basilicata region, where crazy Mel Gibson filmed his own lurid Christ extravaganza, The Passion Of The Christ (2004).

Pasolini graduated from Bologna University in 1943, after which he moved with his parents to a small town in Fruili near the Yugoslavian border. The great wine region of Fruili was the birthplace of Pasolini’s mother, who played the Mary in The Gospel According To Matthew.

In 1949, Pasolini was charged with “corruption of minors and obscene acts in a public place”, leading to his being kicked out of the Italian Communist party. I know how he must have felt. I’ve been asked to leave a party on occasion. He relocated to Rome with his mother in tow. Post-war Rome was a rough place with gangs of tough young men ruling the city at night. The street violence found its way into Pasolini’s film versions of the Greek Myths Oedipus Rex (1967) and Medea (1970), which starred the great soprano Maria Callas in her only film role, albeit with no singing.

The 1960s brought American style with Coke, jeans and rock music to Rome. This was the backdrop for Mamma Roma (1962), with Mamma played by Anna Magnani as a streetwalker determined to provide for her pretty teenage son. With enough money, she promises him, they can move into a respectable neighborhood. But, the son sinks deeper into the city’s thieving underworld.

I was mesmerized by his film Teorema (1968) where an angelic, and way too handsome Terence Stamp seduces everyone in a bourgeois Milanese household: the religious maid, the icy mother, the homely daughter, the closeted son, even the powerful father. Amid erotic tension and emotional fireworks, each family member comes to a new understanding of their life. Ero pazza per questo cinema, quando ho Frist visto in classe cinema nei primi anni 1970 .

If you are brave (remember that Pasolini’s films were made to outrage), also check out: The Hawks And The Sparrows (1966), The Decameron (1971), and his happiest, hippiest film, Canterbury Tales (1972), with plenty of nudity, sex, and slapstick.

Near the end of his life, Pasolini lived in an opulent apartment in the best neighborhood in Rome. He bought a Maserati and an Alfa Romeo. To the press, he dismissed the poor as having lost their innocence to the consumerism.

I am not certain that I have ever really grasped the meanings of films of Pasolini. Have I ever mentioned that I once had 6 semesters of Film Theory and History Of Film? I often feel like such a dummy, I can’t hammer a nail, I can’t cook, I can’t use a pencil sharpener, but at a cocktail party I am able to spout shit like this.

The post #BornThisDay: Filmmaker, Pier Paolo Pasolini appeared first on The WOW Report.


#TheArtDepartment: Jacques Louis David

#SNL: Kate McKinnon Nails Jeff Sessions as Forest Gump. Watch

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Kate McKinnon‘s moved from her spot-on Kellyanne Conway to U.S. Attorney General under fire. She opened last night’s SNL as Jeff Sessions during the show’s cold open.

The scene opened with a white feather floating across the screen as he asks his bus stop mate, played by Leslie Jones.

Hello. My name’s Jeff. Jeff Sessions. Would you like a chocolate? I’m the attorney general of the whole United States I got to meet the president and everything. He shook my hand like this. [mimes awkward struggle] Being in the government is so fun. Have you ever been in it?

Pulling out a now-infamous photo of Kellyanne Conway kneeling on a couch in the Oval Office he says,

You meet so many nice people like this. This is my best good friend Kellyanne. She ain’t got no legs. … We’re about as close as peas and carrots. She’s the best talker you ever heard. They say she could sell stink to the skunk. But they don’t let her talk no more.

He meets others including Beck Bennett as Vladimir Putin but finally, host Octavia Spencer in character as Minny Jackson from The Help says,

My name’s Minny. You don’t know me, I’m from a different movie…

You might guess what happens next.

Watch.

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#BornThisDay: Actor / Director, Rob Reiner

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Photograph by Marvin Joseph

March 6, 1947Rob Reiner:

“Everybody talks about wanting to change things and help and fix, but ultimately all you can do is fix yourself. And that’s a lot. Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect.”

On a Seattle summer day in 1992, I survived my fifth callback audition for the role of Jay in a new film titled Sleepless In Seattle. I began to have that feeling that I always fought hard against in my acting days: I wanted this role. I wanted it something terrible. I could taste it. I visualized my name as the credits rolled. By this final callback, I was dizzy with the possibility. Jay was a small, yet showy role, well-written and very funny. I had been able to keep Writer/Director Nora Ephron, the casting director, and assorted producers laughing with each read.

Leaving that callback, I found myself passing multi-hyphenate Rob Reiner in a hallway at the production office. After I tossed an “I love your work” to Reiner, I thought to myself:

“I really admire Rob Reiner. I wonder what his connection is with Sleepless? Hmmm… he would be so cool to chat with. Maybe he will notice me as Jay and use me in one of his projects!”

When I returned home, my agent had already called to let me know that Ephron and Co. thought I was “splendidly funny and waggish” and they wished to thank me for sticking through all the auditions, but they had decided to go with Reiner as Jay in Sleepless In Seattle.

Ephron is my one of my top writing inspirations, but I didn’t much care for Sleepless In Seattle when I finally got around to seeing it years later on VHS, watched on a boat floating on Lake Union not far from the film’s actual location. My reaction to the film had little to do with my not being cast (how was I supposed to compete against Rob Reiner?), but I found it rather treacley and twee, plus I felt that the filmmakers got Seattle all wrong.  Everyone else in the world seems to loves it. Maybe I should watch it again.

Reiner is easily admirable. He created an iconic television character, Michael “Meathead” Stivic, son-in-law of Archie and Edith Bunker, on All In The Family (1971-79). He won a pair of Emmy Awards for the role.

Reiner with Sally Struthers, Carroll O’Connor, and Jean Stapleton on All In The Family (1971)

His list of films as a director and/or writer: This Is Spinal Tap (1984), The Sure Thing (1985), Stand By Me (1986), When Harry Met Sally (1989), A Few Good Men (1992). A really nice run of hits that also includes a favorite at my house, The Princess Bride (1987), and just a while ago, I caught Misery (1990) on TCM, and I was surprised at how well this Stephen King adaptation held together as a thriller. It’s funny and suspenseful, with an Oscar winning performance for its leading lady.

His next project is LBJ. A political drama with Woody Harrelson in the title role and featuring Richard Jenkins, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. It received some enthusiastic buzz at the festivals this past autumn. Reiner is currently wrapping film on Shock And Awe, about journalists investigating the assertions by the Bush Administration concerning Saddam Hussein’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction as an excuse for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This one also stars Harrelson, along with James Marsden, Jessica Biel, and Tommy Lee Jones. Reiner is on political themed film bent these days.

My acting nemesis, Reiner, is one of the founders of the American Foundation For Equal Rights, which formed to challenge California’s Proposition 8 in the courts. Five years ago, Reiner presented the star-studded West Coast premiere of “8”, a play by Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black, whose When We Rise miniseries just finished airing on ABC. “8” is about the 2010 fight against Proposition 8, the Marriage Equality ban that California voters had approved in 2008. The piece starred Martin Sheen, my boo George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Jane Lynch, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis, gay hero George Takei, Chris Colfer, Matthew Morrison and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. It raised more than $2 million to help fight for Marriage Equality.

Quite a guy, Reiner, and did I mention that he has famous parents? He is one cuddly Daddy Bear of a Left Coast Liberal Elitist Snowflake, for sure.

“I was raised in a political family. Civil Rights issues were talked about around my kitchen table. People say, ‘Do you remember where you were when President Kennedy died?’ Well, I remember where I was when Medgar Evers died. This was something I was raised in. Gay rights is an extension of the civil rights movement. There are basic civil rights denied to people.”

As you might imagine, Reiner is not big on the current POTUS:

“The problem he has, as far as I can see, is that he’s a pathological liar. There’s nothing he says that you can believe. The guy never says anything that’s truthful… there is no way to believe what he says.”

“This is a man who has no understanding of how government works, who has no understanding of public policy and how that works. He has no understanding of the world and the interconnected-ness of everything. So, this is like we’re living in a dream world where if us out here in Hollywood would ever try to create a satire of a president, if we did this you’d go, ‘Oh that’s ridiculous – nobody would create a president like this!'”

Reiner called that moment at last week’s speech before Congress when there was a standing ovation given to the widow of Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens as “cringeworthy.” That’s in the context of the guy denying he ordered the mission! Not only denying the mission, but blaming the generals for message!”

Reiner is so immersed in politics these days that it is easy to forget that he directed and appeared in so many great films and television shows and is the son of the great Carl Reiner. Asked if he ever felt pressure growing up to be great like his dad:

 “It’s not a pressure to be great. It’s a pressure to just succeed and survive and find your own way in the world.”

The post #BornThisDay: Actor / Director, Rob Reiner appeared first on The WOW Report.

#FromRussiaWithLove: Trump’s “Red Scare” Consumes Washington & Threatens To Derail the Presidency

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According to multiple articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN the mystery over Trump and Russia is threatening to derail his presidency, with accusations and hysteria overwhelming his White House and destroying his credibility. According to CNN,

Washington has become a hall of mirrors, where it’s impossible to distinguish between rumor and fact as conspiracy theories and partisan paroxysms rage — all arising from an alleged Russian spy plot to sway last year’s election that is now clouding the new administration.

The White House is finding it impossible to put to rest claims it has improper ties to Russia. Often, President Trump himself reignites the drama — apparently to his detriment — as with his sensational claim Saturday that his predecessor Barack Obama tapped his phones.

From SNL‘s hilarious send-up of Jeff Sessions as Forest Gump on Saturday night to the round of political shows Sunday morning to Seth Meyers daily take-down of Trump, the “Russia thing” is all anyone is thinking or talking about on social media or at dinner tables across the country.

CNN goes on to say,

“Some observers have also meanwhile wondered why the White House does not simply list all the meetings top Trump aides have held with Russians to avoid the damaging litany of disclosures.

Inside the White House and among Trump supporters outside, there is a strong belief that the President is the victim of an orchestrated campaign of leaks to undermine his authority and discredit his election victory.
The President himself claimed there was a “witch hunt” against him last week.

Given his feud with the intelligence agencies since he won the election, it’s not farfetched to think that disgruntled spy sources sense an opportunity to hurt the President by cooperating with journalists.
There’s also a final reason why the Russia scandal is not going to end any time soon.

Democrats have a clear political incentive to prolong a situation which is helping to unify them, to slow Trump’s agenda by bogging the White House down with investigations and to present the President in a scary light.”

With the SCROTUS’s Twitter rant about Obama tapping his phones and the secret footage shot through the windows of the Oval Office, that “scary light” is coming from inside the White House. Given Trump’s limited experience and interests, is it any wonder that our entire country has been transformed into a reality show?

But the ratings for that reality show are NOT looking good. According to The Washington Post, 58% of the country is embarrassed by Trump. He’s now being talked about for all the wrong reasons.

“For those interested in seeking adulation and acclaim, it’s easy to see why running for president might hold appeal. For a year, two years, you get to be one of the most-talked about people in the most powerful country in the world; on the off-chance that your bid is successful, you then get to extend that attention streak for four more years. That’s six years, minimum, that the country — if not the world — is holding you at the forefront of its attention and consideration.

But there is a downside: The country may not like what it sees.

Note, as will be the case throughout these results, that there’s a wide partisan split on this question. Democrats almost uniformly describe themselves as embarrassed. Republicans describe themselves as proud. (According to the pollsters, those feelings are strong among those who describe themselves as stronger partisans, too.) Overall, though, thanks in part to a majority of independents saying that they’re embarrassed…”

Stay tuned, embarrassed Americans, it’s bound to get weirder!

(Photos, Getty; via CNN)

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#ManCrushMonday: The Rock ‘N Rollers of “Sun Records”

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I have deep interest in the history of the recording industry, and I have a special thing for stories set in the milieu of recording studios. Part of this affection comes from an era in my own life when I made a big chunk of income from doing voice over work. I did about 75 voice overs between 1987-1997, and I loved the work.

I was especially pleased when I would get to record at Bad Animals Studios in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle. At the time, Bad Animals was owned by Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson (of Heart), and walking in the corridors, I would pass Michael Stipe, Eddie Vedder or Joan Jett. I once waited next to Johnny Cash to use the restroom (talk about your Ring Of Fire) and bought a coffee for B.B. King.

Among my favorite films that take place in or around recording studios:

Once (2006), Grace Of My Heart (1996), They All Laughed (1981), the much neglected In A World (2013), and, of course, Dreamgirls (2006). Also, check out the terrific documentary, 20 Feet From Stardom, and its look at the backup singers who have careers just beyond the spotlight.

So, I felt I should check out the new series on something called CMT. This show is set in one of my favorite eras and stories, the birth of Rock N’Roll.

Chad Michael Murray

Kerry Holliday

It takes place in Memphis during the tumultuous early days of the Civil Rights movement, and tells the story of legendary Sun Records, started by Sam Phillips. That’s the spot where young Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis combined the styles of Country Music with the 1950s R&B sound of artists like B.B. King, Fats Domino and Ike Turner. They, of course, changed music forever. The series looks at these young artists’ sudden meteoric rise to fame with a backdrop of sweeping political change and social unrest.

Christian Lees

The mostly unknown singing actors playing these famous musicians are just terrific, and they are total hotties: a sweet, shy Elvis Presley played by Drake Milligan, arrogant fireball Jerry Lee Lewis played by Christian Lees, brooding Johnny Cash played by Kevin Fonteyne, swaggering Ike Turner played by Kerry Holliday, and visionary Sam Phillips played by Chad Michael Murray. Memphis plays itself and does a great job.

Kevin Fonteyne

Drake Milligan

I am only two episodes in, but I already appreciate that Sun Records invests considerable time and effort into the interesting recording-session scenes. Check it out for the music and the guys. Sun Records is based on the Broadway musical Million Dollar Quartet, which played in 2010-11. It airs on Thursdays after Nashville and is available on CMT On Demand.

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#QuoteUnquote: Dolly Parton on Drag Queens, “Some of Them Look More Like Me Than I Do”

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Dolly Parton was discussing drag queens coming to her concerts dressed as her in The New York Times and said,

I think it’s fun! You know, we usually have boys all dressed like me, and so when I do ‘Jolene’ and I see a bunch of drag queens out there, I start singing,

‘Drag queen, drag queen, drag queen! Please don’t take my man!’

[Laughing] I have a huge gay following, and I’m proud of them. Sometimes some of them look more like me than I do.”

(Photo, Ethan Miller/Getty Images; via The New York Times)

The post #QuoteUnquote: Dolly Parton on Drag Queens, “Some of Them Look More Like Me Than I Do” appeared first on The WOW Report.

#QuoteUnquote: Barbra Streisand Says Trump’s Insanity Is Making Her Fat

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Jimmy Fallon as Donald Trump with Streisand on “The Tonight Show”


Barbra Streisand says Trump is making her gain weight. She tweeted Saturday that news involving the president affects her morning routine.

“Donald Trump is making me gain weight. I start the day with liquids, but after the morning news, I eat pancakes smothered in maple syrup!”

Her comments come after Trump recently claimed the Obama administration wiretapped into his Trump Tower phones during the 2016 presidential election. The White House asked Congress to investigate the matter on Sunday.

“Trump just accused Obama of tapping his phones. Seriously crazy times. Time for more pancakes.”

Babs has said that she is NOT a supporter of Trump. She wrote on The Huffington Post in an article titled Clueless, Reckless, Graceless, Mindless and Heartless: Our President Elect, where she expressed that Trump is “dangerous and unfit for office.”

Streisand called into MSNBC‘s Hardball With Chris Matthews and said she agreed with Streep.

“You can’t trust anything he says.”

(via THR)

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#RealEstatePorn: An Airbnb In Trump Tower…? Included; Your Neighbors, The Trumps

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According to a front page article in today’s New York Times an Airbnb listed in what seems to be Trump Tower.

“The apartment has spacious windows, a sleek kitchen and expansive views of Manhattan. It boasts a prime location close to Central Park and Rockefeller Center and promises all the excitement of a luxury apartment in Midtown Manhattan.

And it was available for a substantial, but not completely unheard-of, price of about $300 to $450 a night through the home rental website Airbnb. Renters would just need to go through an extensive Secret Service screening downstairs.

The listing was taken down last week hours after The New York Times contacted Airbnb for comment. But the apartment had been available to rent since at least last September — long after the building that helped make Mr. Trump famous was turned into an operation center for his campaign. And it remained available, and as its Airbnb listing noted, quite popular, for about a month and a half after Mr. Trump’s inauguration.”

How the listing was able to float under the radar in such a high-profile building remains a mystery? It’s illegal in New York State to advertise and rent most apartments in New York City for fewer than 30 days, when the host is not present. When contacted, the owner did NOT want the Times writing a story either, as you can imagine.

It didn’t explicitly advertise that the apartment is in Trump Tower, and Airbnb doesn’t disclose the addresses until a stay is reserved. Two guests did say they had booked the apartment only to be surprised by the address they received in return: 721 Fifth Avenue. Nico Voigtländer, an associate professor at the University of California stayed there in November said,

The host sent me the address, and then I called her and said, ‘I can’t find it, I only see the Trump Tower,’ She said, ‘It’s in the Trump Tower.’”

The listing said that the apartment was in “the most secure and unique building” but it’s unclear whether the Secret Service knew about it. Photos showed the buildings well-known exterior. The listing said,

“Politically neutral please. It is a specific building, so please — political opinions cannot be shown.”

It said that renters not engage in any political displays inside the building. Airbnb said through a spokesman that it had never been contacted by any law enforcement agency about the listing. The company, which has more than 3 million listings around the world, said it believed this was the first time a home in a building occupied by a head of state was available for rent on its site.

Spokesman, Nick Papas, said the company was looking into the matter.

This is obviously a unique situation, so we’ve removed this listing from our platform.

But the apartment’s availability on Airbnb before, during and after the election raises questions about how such a listing was permitted given the heavy security inside and outside Trump Tower.

Airbnb has been challenged by the issue of regulating illegal listings on its site, engaging in a contentious battle with New York City officials last year.

The Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, which is in charge of enforcing local and state laws, said it would investigate the Trump Tower listing. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, which runs the building, said that under condominium rules, listing the units on Airbnb is not permitted.

Oops!

(via The New York Times)

The post #RealEstatePorn: An Airbnb In Trump Tower…? Included; Your Neighbors, The Trumps appeared first on The WOW Report.

#RussianDressingDown: Randy Rainbow’s New Song Parody– “Putin and the Ritz”. Watch

Justin Timberlake Leaves a Message to LGBTQ Kids at the iHeartRadio Music Awards

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Unsurprisingly, Justin Timberlake took home the Song of the Year at the iHeartRadio Music Awards for “Can’t Stop The Feeling“! As he accepted his award he proclaimed support for LGBTQ kids in Trump’s America.

“If you’re gay, or you’re lesbian, or you are trans, or maybe you’re just a sissy singer boy from Tennessee — anyone who has treated you unkindly, it’s only because they’re afraid or they have been taught to be afraid of how important you are. Because being different means you make a difference. So, fuck ‘em.” (via Jezebel)

It’s great to see straight artists rise up and declaring their ally-ship in the current political climate, it lets the ignorant people know that even “normal” people support LGBTQ rights.

The post Justin Timberlake Leaves a Message to LGBTQ Kids at the iHeartRadio Music Awards appeared first on The WOW Report.

Peter Serafinowicz’s Sassy Trump Accent Is Nothing Short of Genius

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Peter Serafinowicz is a genius to redub Trump’s own words in a fay accent. By using a voice that his supporters most despise, he transitions Trump from a macho man into a jaded nelly.

Playing with Trump’s identity is especially brilliant because any kind of fluidity – be it gender fluidity, identity ambiguity, mental flexibility – is as mortal a threat to him and his supporters as the light of day is to vampires. He hated it when a woman played Sean Spicer. Their fraught and fragile identity depends on rigidity… Only white and male is right. There is no other. Everything else must be excluded / demeaned / destroyed. All to support a lie, and live in denial of the most basic facts, like, for example, that America is a nation of immigrants and – going further back – that it was built on the genocide of the people to whom this land belongs.

Check it out:

Personally I love a swishy sassy gay accent. And I especially enjoy it weaponised and used in the war against Trump. It’s a smart bomb. A very smart bomb. I’ve never seen a bomb as smart as this. Believe me. They don’t make bombs smarter than this.

If you aren’t totally familiar with Serafinowicz’ work, here’s some of his other brilliance:

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WATCH RuPaul DJ & Boogie At a Planned Parenthood Benefit

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RuPaul DJ’d a benefit last night for Planned Parenthood in New York City and you’ll be SO jealous after watching all these fan videos as Ru played the jams and bopped along with them. “Resisdance” was the name of the benefit and it’s a new series of dance parties raising funds for various non-profits that advocate on behalf of a more inclusive America.

The invite read:

“The current administration has openly threatened our common principles and values, our civil liberties and constitutional rights. In response, we strive to provide support to the organizations leading the effort to protect those very liberties and rights. Through the power of inclusion, love, and dance, we will come together, find community, raise funds and resist!”

Instagram Photo

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