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WATCH: We Count Down the Hottest Couples of All Time on This Week’s Top Ten Things That Make Us Go WOW! for Radio Andy on Sirius XM!

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From Hollywood Boulevard, it’s The WOW Report for Radio Andy on SiriusXM! That’s right WOWers, World of Wonder Co-Founder Fenton Bailey, Executive VP of Development Tom Campbell, and WOW Report Editor James St. James have collaborated with reality TV guru and friend of WOW, Andy Cohen, on a weekly Top Ten Countdown of the things from the past week that make us go…WOW!

It’s a pop-culture obsessed hour complete with colorful diatribes, opposing opinions, and a dissection-like discussion that will make your drive home from work more fabulous!

You can now WATCH us recording the WOW Report in our gallery storefront on Hollywood Boulevard, just across the street from Hollywood’s oldest restaurant Musso & Frank! And this week, we’re going to be counting down our top 10 most camp movies that you HAVE to see!

We air TODAY at 4PM EST on SiriusXM, and again at 4PM PST (that’s 7PM EST). You can also catch it on the SiriusXM app!

Let’s get started…

10) Nick Lachey & Jessica Simpson 

Skip forward to Nick & Jessica

9) Andy Gibb & Victoria Principal

Skip forward to Andy & Victoria

8) Prince Charles & Diana 

Skip forward to Charles & Diana

7) Sonny & Cher 

Skip forward to Sonny & Cher

6) Burt Reynolds & Loni Anderson 

Skip forward to Burt & Loni

5) Andy Warhol & Edie Sedgwick

Skip forward to Andy & Edie

4) Madonna & Sean Penn 

Skip forward to Madonna & Sean

3) Sid Vicious & Nancy Spungeon

Skip forward to Sid & Nancy

2) David Bowie & Angie Bowie

Skip forward to David & Angie

1) Brad Pitt & Juliette Lewis & Gwyneth Paltrow & Jennifer Aniston & Angelina Jolie

Skip forward to Brad & EVERYONE 

Listen in at 4:00PM EST and again at 4:00 PST (7 PM EST) on SiriusXM! Or listen whenever you want on the SiriusXM App!

And be sure to give your ears the gift of THE WOW REPORT on Radio Andy SiriusXM EVERY Friday.

Do something this weekend that makes YOU go WOW!!!

The post WATCH: We Count Down the Hottest Couples of All Time on This Week’s Top Ten Things That Make Us Go WOW! for Radio Andy on Sirius XM! appeared first on The WOW Report.


A Super-Sweet Cross-Generational Talk Between a Gay Teen and a Gay Septuagenerian

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Very sweet conversation between a 13-year-old gay boy and a 78-year-old gentlemen who was gay when gay was illegal. They each marvel at the other’s experiences: The older man can’t believe how accepting the world is of the young boy, and the young can’t believe life was once so difficult for LGBTQs. Each walks away with a renewed appreciation for the other generation and of gay life in general. A wonderful 11:12 seconds, I highly recommend you stop what your doing and watch. (via BoyCulture)

The post A Super-Sweet Cross-Generational Talk Between a Gay Teen and a Gay Septuagenerian appeared first on The WOW Report.

July 8th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Architect, Philip Johnson

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Photograph by Evan Kafka (1998)

July 8, 1906– Philip Cortelyou Johnson:

“All architects want to live beyond their deaths.”

Ohio born Johnson is one of my favorite figures in the exalted field of Architecture; one of my passions, with 20th century American architecture as my focus. As I type that, I realize that my favorite structure on our pretty planet is probably the 13th century Duomo in Sienna in Tuscany. We are each filled with contradictions, right?

Not all that long ago, any young man who was gay and loved design was expected to become a “decorator”. Brick, steel and concrete were for straight dudes. Queers were supposed to stick to antique furniture and fabric swatches. For most of the 20th century, there was a brilliant exception. Johnson built skyscrapers of steel in nearly every major city in the USA. He also mentored three generations of mostly straight, mostly male architects, and shared his own life with a man he met when Dwight D. Eisenhower was POTUS.

Idiosyncratic in his manner and dress, with his trademark thick round glasses, Johnson caught my interest when I lived in NYC in the mid-1070s and I fell in love with the Seagram Building, designed by Johnson and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. That building has a mention in the Stephen Sondheim musical Company, making me curious about the reference. So, I began a little research.

Even before graduating from Harvard University with an under-graduate degree in History and Philosophy and a graduate degree in Design, Johnson would take entire semesters off to travel in Europe, visiting the great structures in the company of gay Architectural Historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock, a Harvard pal. The pair, along with Alfred Barr, a noted Art Historian, put together a landmark show The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 at the Museum Of Modern Art in 1932. The show had a profound influence with its introduction of Modern Architecture on a surprised, sometimes shocked American public.

In 1928, Johnson met Mies van der Rohe, who was designing the German Pavilion for the Barcelona International Exposition Of 1929. The meeting was a revelation for Johnson and was the seed for a lifelong relationship with the famed designer as a collaborator and as competition.

Johnson founded the Department Of Architecture And Design at MoMa in NYC. He arranged for the first showings of the works by Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, better known to us as Le Corbusier and Marcel Breuer in 1932. Yet, Johnson didn’t actually practice architecture for another decade.

From 1932 to 1940, Johnson was out of the closet as a Nazi sympathizer, and was suspected of being a spy by the US military. He was active in right-wing political movements. He later stated:

“I have no excuse for such unbelievable stupidity… I don’t know how you expiate guilt.”

So, there is that. But, in 1956, Johnson did try to exorcise that guilt by donating his design for the building of a new synagogue for the USA’s oldest Jewish congregation, Kneses Tifereth Israel, in lovely Port Chester, NY.

Johnson’s most iconic work is, of course, his Glass House, which I have actually checked out in person. Built on a beautiful site in New Canaan, Connecticut and completed in 1949, the serene Glass House is a 15 ft. x 32 ft. rectangle. It is considered to be one of last century’s greatest residential structures with pure symmetry, dark colors and a closeness to the earth that brings calm and order. It is rather perfect. The noble beauty of the small structure in its intimate setting proves that Johnson could deliver a significant structure on a small scale.

glass house

Photograph from Philip Johnson Archives

 

The Glass House represents a conundrum of closeted gay life in the mid-twentieth century: anyone can see into it. The traditional living room represents centuries of family living, and at The Glass House the goings-on inside the space are wide open. Johnson’s visitors were often gay, but just as gay people in that era hid in plain sight, they could exhibit their gayness within The Glass House while protected by the sheer barrier of glass walls. The Glass House also has a visual pun with its own Guest House, located just a few yards away. While the Glass House’s walls are a transparent closet door, the totally enclosed Guest House represents the true closet. It is a claustrophobic enclosed space in which gay people are forced to hideaway their hearts and souls.

glass-house. guest jpg

Taken as a whole, this amazing piece of property provides insight into Johnson’s attitudes and beliefs. It serves as a brilliant example of gay influenced 20th century architecture, especially when you consider the time in which it was conceived and built. American society in the 1940s was extremely hostile to fairies and queers. The only way to escape the persecution was to hide one’s true nature in every way one could. For gay men, this was accomplished by playing a role by imitating straight guys for the sake of survival. But, not everyone is a natural pretender, and many gay men were forced to find outlets for their gayness. Wit and sarcasm were the perfect expression because homophobic aggression could be moved aside by a biting bon mot or a sublime one-liner.

The Glass House is beautiful, but it is also a really good joke about voyeurism, and a sly comment about light, beauty, and clarity.  It is a gay home, a place of acceptance, a house where gay people could be together and not have to pretend. Johnson gave gays a gift when he designed The Glass House.

Johnson’s other important structures include: New York State Theatre at Lincoln Center, JFK Memorial Plaza in Dallas, 101 California Street in San Francisco, 191 Peachtree Tower in Atlanta, the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, Tata Theatre in Mombai, and the gorgeous Cathedral Of Hope in Dallas, an openly gay congregation. Johnson not only lived and dined in places of his own design, he also worked in them. For many years his office was in the Seagram Building.

“We still have a monumental architecture. To me, the drive for monumentality is as inbred as the desire for food and sex, regardless of how we denigrate it. Monuments differ in different periods. Each age has its own. Maybe, just maybe, we shall at last come to care for the most important, most challenging, surely the most satisfying of all architectural creations: building cities for people to live in.”

Throughout his career he was as well-known for his quips as he was for his buildings. He famously called Frank Lloyd Wright, whose career lasted from the 1890s to the 1950s, “The greatest architect of the 19th century”.

Photograph by Bruce Davidson (1964)

 

Johnson lived with his partner, curator David Whitney from 1960 until his passing in January 2005. His life was long enough that he is considered both the Staid Elder Statesman and the Enfant Terrible of American Architecture. Johnson took his last breath at The Glass House. He was 98-years-old when he checked out. Whitney joined him less than six months later, just before their 46th anniversary.

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R.I.P. “True Blood’s” Nelsan Ellis

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Photograph from HBO

I loved him so much as that powerful queen Lafayette Reynolds on HBO’s True Blood, and then he blew me away playing an entirely different sort of character in Elementary on CBS.

Nelsan Ellis was taken by complications from heart failure. He was just 39-years-old.

Alan Ball, creator and executive producer of True Blood:

“Nelsan was a singular talent whose creativity never ceased to amaze me. Working with him was a privilege.”

Born outside Chicago, Ellis grew-up with his aunt in Alabama before moving back to Chicago when he was 15-years-old. When he was 17-years-old, he joined the U.S Marines. He received a B.F.A. from The Juilliard School.

Ellis:

“The studies were so intense and the institution is so white, and I’m a black man from the South with a very specific vernacular and palate .I felt like an alien, and I struggled the first couple of years. But it transformed who I am as an actor and a person.”

He had featured roles in Secretariat (2010), The Help (2011), as Martin Luther King Jr. in Lee Daniel’s The Butler (2013), and as Bobby Byrd in the James Brown biopic Get On Up (2014)

But he was most noted for his stand-out work as fierce gay short order cook Lafayette on True Blood for 80 episodes in seven seasons.

Ellis won the NewNowNext’s “Brink Of Fame” Award and a NAACP Image Award.

For the past two seasons, he was amazing in a lead role as an ex-con on Elementary. He was a guest judge on World Of Wonder’s RuPaul’s Drag Race.

He will be missed.

 

The post R.I.P. “True Blood’s” Nelsan Ellis appeared first on The WOW Report.

July 9th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Artist, David Hockney

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Photograph by Dan Kitwood

 

July 9, 1937– David Hockney has always made a big splash at my house.

“The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you’re an artist.”

I currently reside in Portland, Oregon, the West Coast Brooklyn to Seattle’s Manhattan. In summer 2015, a special exhibit at The Portland Art Museum in partnership with Portland Opera and The David Hockney Foundation presented David Hockney: A Rake’s Progress. I enjoyed a fun date with the Husband to see it and we went on Hockney’s birth date. Cool, huh? I mentioned our opera company and art museum, trying to prove to you kids that there is more to Portland than beards, beer and bicycles, although I am a fan of all that.

He was already a noted and accomplished painter in his native England, but Hockney’s style, point of view, and medium changed (from oils to acylics) when he moved to LA, a city he had fantasized about since childhood. Hockney:

“Within a week of arriving there in this strange big city, not knowing a soul, I’d passed the driving test, bought a car, driven to Las Vegas and won some money, got myself a studio, started painting, all within a week. And, I thought, it’s just how I imagined it would be.”

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Portrait Of An Artist (Pool With 2 Figures) 1972

Hockney’s best work has a crazy energy and brashness. He uses color and line with moxie. I am crazy for all of his work, but the Hockney that I love best is the late 1960s-1970s painter of sunny California skies, swimming pools, palm trees and boys. His work in this period seems to me to be a modernist painterly slant on color Polaroids and snapshots from the life I was brushing up against when I attended college in LA from 1972-76. I sometimes attended an all-boy pool party at a famous producer’s home in the Hollywood Hills and one time Hockney was another of the guests. I couldn’t believe it! There he was, wearing a red baseball cap over his shaggy blonde hair, beige baggy pants, a yellow and red striped shirt with a white collar and yellow striped tie, a yellow watchband, red socks and white Jack Purcell’s. Perched on his proper English nose were his trademark round spectacles. He was holding a sketch book and a Polaroid camera. He was alone and mostly ignored by the parade of boys.

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From Hockney Foundation Archives, 1969

We did not speak to each other. I was at this event as the host’s special guest and I was careful not to overstep the bounds of propriety, but we did make eye contact. I like to think that if we had spoken, Hockney would have liked me and I might have become the subject of one his works, possibly the beginning of a series of “Hairy Boy” pieces.

When I asked our host if Hockney might desire some attention, he told me that the artist was not so much reticent, as always working, spending most of his time in his studio in Santa Monica, and that Hockney was always thinking and planning. He explained that Hockney balanced a hedonistic side; enjoying attending his parties, but the famous artist almost always left an event to rush back to his studio rather than to his house in Nicholas Canyon. Our host thought I would be amused to know that Hockney had a sign at the door of his studio that read:

“Thank You For Pot Smoking”

Hockney has always been openly gay and has always enjoyed a variety of relationships with men. With a series of boyfriends, he never married. Hockney describes himself as a “playboy”.

He has had a lifelong fascination with using new technology to make pictures. Hockney’s current work, mostly landscapes, are sketched and then translated onto the screen of his iPad. He uses a drawing app, giving him accessibility to draw at his leisure in any location at any time, without the need of additional materials or supplies. Hockney’s fingertips have replaced his paintbrushes. Hockney:

“It’s all drawing. It’s a new medium for drawing, the iPad, it’s like an endless sheet of paper.”

He is absolutely one of my husband’s and my favorite artists, and although I would love to own one of his paintings (they sell in the millions), as a lowly old gentleman of limited means, I remain content with my Hockney “coffee table” books, including one by the artist that features paintings of his dachshunds, David Hockney’s Dog Days, and postcards of his work. I also own and highly recommend the two volumes of biography by Christopher Simon Sykes: David Hockney: The Biography, 1937-1975 and David Hockney: The Biography, 1975-2012. I also have gotten a lot out of True To Life: 25 Years of Conversations With David Hockney by Lawrence Weschler.

These biographies and even his own diaries show Hockney to be exasperatingly egotistical and positively petulant. I admire that in artist. He is also fiercely pro-smoking. What a great cause in this PC age. He absolutely loathes anti-smoking laws:

“They are dreary, absolutely dreary… You get rid of smoking and they are all on anti-depressant pills. They say smoking is bad for you, but they used to say the same about wanking.”

Hockney is one of the most successful artists in history, with a personal fortune of more than 70 million. His David Hockney Foundation has holdings of his work worth at least 150 million dollars. Gay writer Christopher Isherwood owned the most important private collection of his work. In the 1990s, Isherwood’s partner of 33+ years, Don Bachardy, donated the collection to the foundation.

Besides The Portland Art Museum, Hockney’s work can be viewed in person at great museums around the globe, including: Boston Museum Of Fine ArtsNational Gallery Of AustraliaArt Institute Of ChicagoNational Portrait Gallery and The Tate in London, LAs’ J. Paul Getty Museum and Los Angeles County Museum Of ArtMuseum Of Contemporary Art in LA (Hockney was one of the founders in 1979), Metropolitan Museum Of Art and Museum Of Modern Art in NYC, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Philadelphia Museum Of ArtDeYoung Museum in San Francisco, and The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC. You might say that Hockney is well-hung.

This past spring, The Tate Britain presented David Hockney, an extensive exhibition of Hockney’s most famous works celebrating his achievements in painting, drawing, print, photography and video over the past 6 decades. Hockney says that he is going to give away the paintings held by The David Hockney Foundation foundation, to the Los Angeles County Museum Of Art and The Tate.

Hockney will be designing a stained-glass window in Westminster Abbey to celebrate the Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.

He already had turned down the chance to paint a portrait of the monarch because he was too busy, but now he has decided on “a landscape full of blossom that’s a celebration every year” to be placed in the abbey’s north side in one of the church’s few clear windows. It will be known as The Queen’s Window. So, all you queens need to get a gander at it before you leave this world.

Queen Elizabeth II marked her 91st birthday in April, and last year became the world’s longest reigning monarch, following the death of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

A Westminster Abbey spokesman said Hockney was chosen as he is “probably the greatest contemporary British artist and he will have pretty much free rein because he’s David Hockney.”

Be sure to check out Hockney (2016), the entertaining documentary film by Randall Wright.

The post #BornThisDay: Artist, David Hockney appeared first on The WOW Report.

#ArtDpt: “Manlig Modellakt” by Eugène Fredrik Jansson

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Manlig Modellakt (1910) Oil on canvas, National Museum Of Fine Arts, Stockholm.

Eugène Fredrik Jansson (1862-1915) was a Swedish painter known for his night-time cityscapes dominated by shades of blue. Towards the end of his life, starting about 1904, he mainly painted male nudes. In Sweden, he is referred to as Blåmålaren, or “The Blue-Painter”.

He grew-up in a working-class family, but with parents who had an interest in art and music and with big ambitious for their two sons, Eugène and his younger brother Adrian. Eugène took piano lessons as a youth. He was stricken with scarlet fever when he was 14-years-old, and he suffered from bad health for the rest of his life.

He studied at The Royal Swedish Academy Of Arts, but he did not have the money to follow most of his fellow students to Paris for further studies. He stayed in Stockholm, painting the local scenes surrounding him.

He lived his whole life with his mother and brother in Stockholm. After his father died, they eventually settled in a flat that had a view over most of old part of city. Most of his paintings before 1904 are night views that he could see from his home, or street views from various parts of the city. They are dominated by shades of blue and very visible brush strokes, often crossing one another. By the end of his “blue” period, they were often little more than pictures the street lights and their reflections in the waters can on mass of blue of the canvas.

In 1904, after he had achieved success in Sweden, he stopped participating in exhibitions and began figure paintings. To help with his health issues, he became a diligent swimmer and winter bather, often visiting bathhouses, where he found the new subjects for his paintings. He painted groups of sunbathing sailors, and young muscular nude men lifting weights.

Self Portrait (1909)

Art historians and critics long neglected to mention the homoerotic elements in his later paintings, but Jansson was undoubtedly gay and appears to have had relationships with some of his models. His brother, who was also gay and survived Eugène by a decade, burnt all his letters and papers, probably to avoid a scandal. Homosexuality was illegal in Sweden until 1944.

 

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Shia LaBeouf is in Trouble Again!

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In American Honey (2016 with Sasha Lane, BFI Films

 

Shia LaBeouf is truly America’s bad boy actor par excellence. So far, just in 2017, the actor was arrested for assaulting someone at his Anti-Trump art show at The Museum Of Moving Pictures in Queens. Yelling: “He will not divide us”, a police officer and LaBeouf get into a verbal altercation before the officer placed him in handcuffs and escorted him out of his own event.

In 2015, LaBeouf was arrested in Austin for public intoxication and jay walking. The year before, he had been arrested for smoking and disruptive behavior at a performance at Studio 54 of the Broadway Musical Cabaret starring Michelle Williams and Alan Cumming. Law enforcement officials were notified and handcuffed the actor during intermission, escorting him out of the venue.

Before that he had a string of five arrests dating back to 2005.

Last night, TMZ reported that LaBeouf was arrested in Savannah, Georgia, and charged with obstruction, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness, police said. Witnesses claimed that “he was wasted and losing control of himself.” According to the police report, the incident began when a bystander refused to give LaBeouf a cigarette. When LaBeouf was rebuffed he became disorderly, using profanities in front of the women and her child. LaBeouf was then chased by a police officer from the scene to a nearby hotel where he was arrested in the lobby.

LaBeouf was in Savannah filming The Peanut Butter Falcon opposite Dakota Johnson. He was released from jail after posting a $7,000 bond, police said.

The post Shia LaBeouf is in Trouble Again! appeared first on The WOW Report.

July 10th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Songwriter, Jerry Herman

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Herman with Angela Lansbury and Carol Channing, NYC Public Library Archives

 July 10, 1931– Jerry Herman has had a big influence on my life, although we never met and he has never been bigger than right now.

As a little 10-year-old musical theatre fanatic, I would practice kick stepping my way down a staircase at our house, as my imaginary chorus sang my character’s name (I think sometimes they were actually just singing Steve!). My parental units had just presented me with the Original Broadway Cast album of Hello, Dolly! and I was having a difficult time recovering from the excitement of those infectious tunes.

Herman’s hummable songs personify the term “show tune”. They are tuneful, optimistic, and deceptively simple. I didn’t know it in 1964, but Herman would be providing me with a musical number for descending a staircase for the next six decades.

Herman, who writes the music and lyrics, conjured up super successful and contagious tunes for Broadway musicals: Milk And Honey (1961), Hello, Dolly! (1964), Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), Mack & Mable (1974) and La Cage Aux Folles (1983).

There is a bit of a formula to a Herman show: In all these musicals a misunderstood leading lady introduces a song early in the first act that states her life philosophy: I Put My Hand In ThereIt’s TodayEach Tomorrow MorningLook What Happened To Mabel, and A Little More Mascara.

Act One ends in her big soliloquy, where our heroine lifts her own spirits by singing: Before The Parade Passes ByIf He Walked Into My Life Today, I Don’t Want To Know, or I Am What I Am.

Then, there comes that big “staircase” number, when the chorus celebrates how all our lives have been changed by the mere presence of this amazing woman with the title songs from Hello, Dolly! and Mame, plus When Mabel Comes In The RoomOne Person, and The Best Of Times. The song One from A Chorus Line (1975) is both a parody and homage to these songs.

Despite the easy recipe, these musicals with their wonderful and skillful songs make for superior theatrical experiences. Some were super hits and others became cult favorites. Herman is the only composer-lyricist to have three musicals on Broadway at the same time.

Many of his compositions have become pop standards. Louis Armstrong’s version of Hello, Dolly! sold more records than any Beatles songs in 1964. The film versions of Hello, Dolly! and Mame are considered by most fervent fans of musical theatre to be duds, but as a very young man I was thrilled by the movie version of Hello, Dolly! I must have seen it 20 times. I still enjoy Barbra Streisand as Mae West doing Dolly Levi. She is funny and fresh, if decades too young in the role. I was really very touched that the title character in Wall-E discovered emotions from a dilapidated 20th century tape containing a loop of Put On Your Sunday Clothes.

Herman has been openly gay for decades now, but he once avoided the talk-shows because he wanted to keep his gayness a secret, even if he did write what might be the ultimate Gay Anthem with I Am What I Am.

“In the ’60s, I wasn’t openly gay because I wondered what people would think of me. I was in a business surrounded by gay people, and I was totally comfortable and accepted as an individual. It became very easy and natural for me to be in the closet. But now I think that time and age and good sense have made me more public. I think it is good sense.”

Herman was diagnosed with HIV in 1985. The news was devastating. The news was delivered during an era when an HIV diagnosis was a death sentence. He nearly gave up on his theatre career and stopped writing after his diagnosis was unceremoniously made public by New York Post columnist Cindy Adams in 1992. His fear of becoming seriously ill during a new production, along with the death of his longtime partner took him into seclusion. But, Herman is one of the fortunate ones who survived to see the experimental drug therapies take hold and he is still with us as he turns 86-years-old today, as one of his lyrics proclaims: “I’m alive and well and thriving”.

That partner was Marty Finkelstein. They had started their own business renovating Victorian houses in Key West. They won architecture restoration awards for the 11 houses that they rehabilitated. The two men were happy and productive as a couple. But, after seven years together, Finkelstein left this world. He was just 36-years-old when he was taken by the plague.

Herman:

“I didn’t have to play the big shot with him because he truly respected and cared for me. Being considerate of Marty taught me to talk to everybody like a person, not like an expert. I found that helped me in all my relationships, too. He taught me how to listen to other people’s opinions and how to respect them, even when I didn’t particularly agree with them. He was a wonderful person, and he was very, very good for me.”

“Inwardly, I was empty. I like to write happy, romantic songs, and I didn’t feel romantic or happy. I didn’t feel like a whole person. Then I was frightened by my own diagnosis, which came on the heels of Marty’s death.”

La Cage Aux Folles was huge, a critical and commercial smash, and also a political and social turning point.  It was 1983 and Broadway audiences had never seen a pair of men holding hands, much less singing a love ballad to one another.

George Hearn’s star turn as Za Za, belting out what is probably the most dramatic Act One finale of all time, I Am What I Am, a plea for dignity and acceptance, was a surpassingly stalwart statement in those early days of HIV/AIDS. It is a powerful message from a songwriter who claims that all he ever wanted to do was entertain people.

“In the beginning, people were shocked when they heard about the gay romance and the homosexual themes. But once they became involved in these people’s lives, they realized that the human issues applied to everybody, not just homosexuals. We were not gung-ho about delivering a political message. We were not out to change the world and wipe out bigotry overnight. We were just doing a musical.”

Herman has stated that he will no longer be writing for the theatre:

“I think my style of musical has come (and was very, very good to me), but is gone now. I think it’s better to know when to leave than to end up with two or three shows that didn’t make it. I left at my height.”

I had the happy good fortunate to play Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! at Seattle Civic Light Opera in the late 1980s. During performances, I would close my eyes as the male chorus sang the title number. What I was hearing was “Hello, Horace!” or better yet “Hello, Stephen!”. I pictured myself kick-stepping down that large staircase.

Although facing stiff competition from Funny Girl, the original production of Hello, Dolly! swept the Tony Awards in 1964, winning 10, a record that remained unbroken for 37 years, until The Producers won 12 Tonys in 2001. The Original Broadway Cast album for Hello, Dolly! was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 2002. The album reached number one on the Billboard Album Chart the first week of June 1964 only to be knocked off the spot the next week by Louis Armstrong’s album Hello, Dolly!

Hello, Dolly! has never been more relevant or exciting to musical theatre fans. The current Broadway revival stars ultimate Gay Icon Bette Midler. Previews began March 15, with an official opening on April 20, playing at the Shubert Theatre. Total sales on the first day the box-office opened were $9,082,497, a first-day record for Broadway.

The production is produced by gay producer Scott Rudin, directed by Jerry Zaks and choreographed by gay Warren Carlyle. Gay actor David Hyde Pierce plays Horace Vandergelder, Kate Baldwin is Irene Molloy, and gay hottie Gavin Creel is Cornelius Hackl.

This Hello, Dolly! was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, winning four, including for Midler and Creel, Santo Loquasto’s scrumptious costumes, plus Best Revival Of A Musical.

The production closing is scheduled for January 14, 2018, but who knows, with a tradition of a long line of talented women playing Dolly Levi, it could run for years. I am hoping for Sandra Bernhard to take over.

Herman has been nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles. In 2009, Herman received a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is a recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors. He has published a candid, well-written book, Showtune: A Jerry Herman Memoir (1996).

Even though he is reticent, I hope he has another musical in the wings for us.

 

The post #BornThisDay: Songwriter, Jerry Herman appeared first on The WOW Report.

RuPaul’s DragCon New York is Just Around the Corner, Catch Up on WOWPresents Panels from LA DragCon

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RuPaul’s DragCon New York City is right around the corner (9/9 and 9/10). As we draw nearer to the beginning of DragCon’s east coast adventure catch up on WOWPresents panels from RuPaul’s DragCon LA!

You can’t hold RuPaul’s DragCon without the inclusion of a LIVE Fashion Photo Ruview. This year Raja and Raven held their Question & Answer portion before moving on to TOOTing and BOOTing looks from the Los Angeles RuPaul’s DragCon 2017.

Check out Fashion Photo Review from RuPaul’s DragCon 2017:

Alyssa’s Secret was one of the first major series for WOWPresents and she still reigns supreme with her drag-daughter Shangela by her side as a special guest at this years LA DragCon! Check it out:

Alaska, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 2, joins her brother for a long, but much needed Bro’Laska panel. Their series is perfect for any sibling rivalry and full of love, and reads. Check out this long form version of their amazing web series:

Last, but not least the hilarious duo from season 7 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova. The totally-not-ever-gonna-ship twosome has made waves with their relatively new web series UNHhhh, why not watch the long form?

Get your tickets for RuPaul’s DragCon New York! 

The post RuPaul’s DragCon New York is Just Around the Corner, Catch Up on WOWPresents Panels from LA DragCon appeared first on The WOW Report.

Alaska Thunderfuck, Willam Belli & Misty Violet Perform at Drag Photog Magnus Hastings “Why Not!” Opening

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If you are even slightly clued-in on drag culture, you’re probably already familiar with one of the best visual documentarians of the scene, Magnus Hastings. The British photographer’s work has been featured in GQ, People Magazine, Glamour Magazine (UK) and the Sunday Times…and pretty much on every drag fan T-shirt you can find. In 2016, he published the book Why Drag?– featuring photographs of a diverse selection of drag artists from across the United States, including TONS of your fave RuPaul’s Drag Race alumnae.

Now he’s about to have his first, full exhibition in Los Angeles, benefitting the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Sunday, July 16th, at the Musichead Gallery…featuring images from Why Drag? ladies, including Sasha VelourAdore DelanoBianca Del RioCourtney ActViolet ChachkiKatya Zamolodchikova, and some new and previously unseen pics. PLUS, one of his muses, the reigning queen of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 2Alaska Thunderfuck will be performing…along with past RPDR girl Willam Belli and the super cool Misty VioletFor more info and tix, click HERE!

Instagram Photo
Instagram Photo
Instagram Photo

The post Alaska Thunderfuck, Willam Belli & Misty Violet Perform at Drag Photog Magnus Hastings “Why Not!” Opening appeared first on The WOW Report.

Donal Logue’s Daughter Jade Returns Home Safe

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After a week of heartbreaking uncertainty, the teenage daughter of Gotham star Donal Logue is safely back home. Sixteen-year-old Jade, who is transgender, had been missing for more than a week after last being seen in New York City.

“Donal is incredibly thankful for everyone’s support, and especially to the NYPD and FBI for her safe return,” his rep added in a statement.

Now he can get back to work and clean up the shit show that has become of Gotham.

 

The post Donal Logue’s Daughter Jade Returns Home Safe appeared first on The WOW Report.

In Honor Of Island Hunters’ Return, Here Are 10 Islands You Can Buy RIGHT NOW!

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Always dreamed of owning your own private island?

Who doesn’t dream of that? The ultimate luxury would be to jet off to your own island to relax with no one to disturb you but your travel companions. Your dream could certainly become a reality. Don’t believe me? Just look at our show Island Hunters!

The series, hosted by CEO and Founder of Private Islands, Inc. Chris Krolow, returns on Sunday, July 16th at 10/9c on HGTV and boy does the fourth season have some surprises in store.

While we wait, patiently, for the show to premiere, we’ve gone over to Private Islands, Inc’s website to see just what kind of islands YOU could buy.

Seriously! You could buy an island, there’s plenty available and they’re far more affordable than you think.

Check out these islands you COULD purchase if you wanted to below…

You could buy a 2017 Jeep Wrangler for around $23,000 or this island in Canada!

Sounds tempting, right? All the details are on the Private Island Inc listing!

You could buy a Lotus Evora 400 sports car for around $90,000 OR this island in Ireland for about $84,000!

The old Emerald islands!  Get all the details on the Private Island Inc listing!

You could buy 188 iPad Pros (with money left over) or this roughly $151,000 island in Ontario!

Are you tempted yet? Get more details on the Island Hunter host’s website!

You could buy 36,748 boxes filled with 10 chicken mcnuggets or this island in Belize for $165,000!

Sunny Belize is waiting for you! Snatch up the details on the Private Islands Inc. website!

You could buy 1,286 one-day, one-park tickets to Disney World or this island in Alaska for just under $170,000!

We hear Alaska is nice year round! Get more details from Chris Krolow’s website!

You could buy your own beach house somewhere along the New Jersey shore or own an island in Fiji for $250,000 in Fiji

Who wouldn’t want to have their own island in Fiji? Head over to the website for more info!

You could fly first class on British Airways from LA to London 16 times or buy an island in Saskatchewan for $330,000!

Oooooh Canada! Get all the details on this island AND house HERE!

You could stay at a 3 BR suite at The Plaza Hotel for 117 nights or buy this crazy island in Belize $375,000!

Tempted to buy this one myself (HA HA, jokes.) This island seriously has everything you could ever want!

You could get a 2 bed, 2 BR condo in Los Angeles for $609,000 or buy this $625,000 private island in New York!

Who doesn’t want an island between New York and Canada?!?! Get the details here.

1 bed, 1 bath apartment in a prime New York City location or your own private island in Florida for the same price… $995,000.

Interested yet? Head over to the website for more info.

Island Hunters returns on Sunday, July 16 at 10/9c on HGTV with 2 episodes! Will you be watching?

The post In Honor Of Island Hunters’ Return, Here Are 10 Islands You Can Buy RIGHT NOW! appeared first on The WOW Report.


Tyler the Creator Just Came Out. Maybe. Kind Of

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A line off the a newly leaked track from Tyler the Creator off his upcoming album Flower Boy is being seen by some as a coming out declaration. The album was leaked online over the weekend, two weeks before the official release date.

Fans noticed a line in track “I Ain’t Got Time!” where the rapper appears to come out. He raps: “Next line will have them like woah / I been kissing white boys since 2004.”

It’s not the first time Mr Creator has said something like this. (via i-D; photo: Pacific Coast News)

And there was this, in 2015, when it was reported he was dating Kendall Jenner

So, maybe he is, I don’t know, but it seems likes he’s pretty cool with whatever he is so, yay for Tyler. More queer representation in hip-hop is a good thing.

The post Tyler the Creator Just Came Out. Maybe. Kind Of appeared first on The WOW Report.

Kendall Jenner & Bella Hadid Do London Pride

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Supermodel besties Kendall Jenner & Bella Hadid attended London Pride over the weekend, holding hands and sporting matching rainbow cowboy hats. Saying they were “so supportive” but “so scared for” the LGBTQ community, they exited their car and partied with the throngs of party-goers. Watch the twit vid below.

The post Kendall Jenner & Bella Hadid Do London Pride appeared first on The WOW Report.

Peppermint on Men Who Love Trans Women: “Don’t Have Any Shame, Explore It”

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RuPaul’s Drag Race season 9 runner-up Peppermint talks about men who date trans women in the latest episode of her YouTube series “My Transition.”

“We all need love, we all want love,” she says. “Companionship is a really, really important thing, whether we admit it or not.”

Mentioning stars like Hugh Grant and Eddie Murphy, she acknowledges the stigma attached to men who are attracted to trans women.

“There’s a lot of people who would normally be there to partner with us, to support us, to love us publicly, to be in our lives in more ways than one, who aren’t because they’re afraid of being judged, chastised, rejected in their own lives,” she says.

“If you’re a trans-attracted person, please don’t have any shame. Explore it. And just know that the love that you give to someone else, anyone else, is going to be sent back to you in return.”

(via NewNowNext)

The post Peppermint on Men Who Love Trans Women: “Don’t Have Any Shame, Explore It” appeared first on The WOW Report.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 1 Alum ONGINA on an ALL NEW Hey Qween!

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HEY QWEEN with Jonny McGovern and Lady Red Couture is back today with an ALL NEW episode featuring the OG bald & beautiful queen Ongina from RuPaul’s Drag Race season 1! 

In part 1 of this special episode Ongina shares the her story behind her drag name, her experience on RuPaul’s Drag Race season 1, her drag origins in New York City at Lucky Chang’s and her move to Los Angeles!

Watch Part 1:

In part 2 Ongina discuses her opportunity with RuPaul’s Drag Race, coming out as HIV positive, her drag “break” in San Francisco and more!

Watch Part 2:

The post RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 1 Alum ONGINA on an ALL NEW Hey Qween! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Cosplayers at LA’s Anime Expo Werk It To RuPaul’s “Category Is Work the Runway”

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It’s the largest anime and manga convention in North America. The four-day Anime Expo in Los Angeles – held over the July 4 weekend – features special guests, panel discussions, screenings, and a masquerade ball.

In the video below, adorable cosplayers show off their anime-inspired looks outside the convention center to the tune of RuPaul’s “Category Is…” from his 2016 album, Butch Queen.

Watch Below. (via NewNowNext)

The post Cosplayers at LA’s Anime Expo Werk It To RuPaul’s “Category Is Work the Runway” appeared first on The WOW Report.

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