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Freddie Mercury Biopic is Happening But Will Omit AIDS Crisis?

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Talk about a project with buzz around it! The Freddie Mercury/Queen biopic has been struggling to get off the ground since initial rumors about it years ago. In fact, the film has struggled with a revolving door when it’s come down to it’s writers and directors  who easily have come and gone!

Yesterday, Queen confirmed the film is “finally happening” with Rami Malek attached to star as Freddie Mercury. Bryan Singer, the man that brought us the X-Men franchise films, is set to direct. In 2013, Sasha Baron Cohen was cast as Freddie Mercury, ultimately dropping out due to creative differences. Cohen had been linked to the project since 2010. Despite dropping out as star, Cohen continued to work on the film by bringing in screenwriters and filmmakers, such as David Fincher and Tom Hooper. They, too, did not last long with the project.

Cohen was quoted at the time, saying:

At the end of the day it really was an artistic difference.”

Apparently, the creative differences seem to stem from the surviving members of Queen who wanted a smaller spotlight on their famed lead singer. In an interview with Howard Stern last year, Cohen stated:

[When Queen intervened] it was less interesting a movie. You’ve got to remember, and I understand it – they are a band, they want to protect their legacy as a band… they want it to be about Queen. And I fully understand that.”

Oh, okay!

It’s now being reported that the film will even omit the AIDS crisis. To be honest, we’re a little confused as to how this will be possible. Mercury died from bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS in 1991 which was monumental and heartbreaking at the time. Could it be that new director, Bryan Singer, understood the band’s vision and ran with it?

It seems like time marches on as the surviving members of Queen released a statement just a few days ago:

Rami [Malek] has great presence and he’s utterly dedicated to the project. He’s completely  living and breathing Freddie already, which is wonderful,”

It’s also been said that good things come to those who wait. Time will ultimately tell with this project. Malek is a great actor with skill but is he enough to play one of the most infamous and iconic singers of all time? We think so and will be waiting with baited breath for when the teaser trailer comes out!

[Header Image via CPA/Pacific Coast News]

The post Freddie Mercury Biopic is Happening But Will Omit AIDS Crisis? appeared first on The WOW Report.


Get Ready To Geek Out: Day One of San Diego Comic-Con is here!

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Every year, people flock to San Diego to see what Comic Con will display and premiere. This year is no different! Already, the tweets and photos emerging from day one look so cool and have everyone anticipating what could be next.

Various tweets from the first day’s festivities are giving me major #FOMO. I’ve collected the best tweets that will  make you feel as if you’re there in our #SDCC round up!

 

The cast of the Kingsman tweeted this awesome selfie after Halle Berry downed a LOT of whiskey:

Fans of Barb from Stranger Things got to finally pay their respects to one of the most stand-out characters of the series:

Fans got to see every helmet from the Marvel Universe on display – I am loving Loki’s uniform, also on display:

One movie/novel I’m equally geeked out about is Stephen King’s IT! September needs to hurry up:

The cast of Preacher looked like they were having the time of their lives during their Preacher photo call:


While Aubrey Plaza and Adam Scott had a mini Parks and Recreation reunion while supporting Legion and Ghosted, respectively :

Making his way to the Bright panel (which will premiere on Netflix on December 22nd), Will Smith looks like he’s down for a good time, any time!:

Image result for fun gif

Are you attending Comic Con 2017? Let us know what you’re looking forward to!

[Image via Outlander Twitter.]

The post Get Ready To Geek Out: Day One of San Diego Comic-Con is here! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Werk, B!tch: Taraji P. Henson Plays A Killer Assassin In ‘Proud Mary’!

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What can we say? Taraji P. Henson looks fierce AF in the trailer for Proud Mary. With Empire currently in their off season, this makes up for the lack of Cookie in our lives.

Last year showed us Taraji’s acting chops (as if we had a doubt) in Hidden Figures and now she is coming back on the big screen in Proud Mary. If the trailer is showing us anything, it’s how unbelievably amazing Taraji can be as an assassin.

Can we throw Taraji’s name into the batch of people that could play the next James Bond? How about the female John Wick? Check out the trailer for yourselves:

 

Proud Mary is set to hit theaters on January 12th. Happy New Year’s to us (months in advance)!

[Image via Youtube/Screengrab]

The post Werk, B!tch: Taraji P. Henson Plays A Killer Assassin In ‘Proud Mary’! appeared first on The WOW Report.

July 21st: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: American Poet, Hart Crane

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Crane, 1930 Hart Crane Archives, Columbia University

 

July 21, 1899– Hart Crane:

“One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment.”

Crane was a quintessentially American poet, born and raised in Ohio. His father was the inventor of Life Savers Candy and his mother was overbearing, flashy, and a hypochondriac. The parents drank, fought bitterly and eventually divorced. An unhappy childhood provided the perfect set-up for a young poet’s successful writing career.

Crane began writing verse as a young teenager, and although he was basically self-educated he read the works of the Elizabethans: William ShakespeareChristopher Marlowe, and John Donne, along with the 19th century French poets: Charles VildracJules Laforgue, and Arthur Rimbaud.

Crane finally had enough of family life in Ohio and he dropped out of high school to move to NYC in 1916. He found work as a copy editor and wrote poems for small literary magazines. He often needed to borrow money from his father in order to survive.

In NYC, he partied with many important literary stars of the era: Allen TateKatherine Anne Portere. e. cummings, but his heavy drinking and emotional instability frustrated most attempts at a lasting friendship. Crane admired the poems of T. S. Eliot, and his own work combined the influences of the modern European writers with a particularly American sensibility inspired by our greatest poet, Walt Whitman.

Like Whitman, Crane lived in Brooklyn. With his lover, Emil Opffer, he shared digs at 110 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn Heights. Crane was crazy for the views the house afforded him. In spring of 1924 he wrote:

“Just imagine looking out your window directly on the East River with nothing intervening between your view of The Statue Of Liberty, way down the harbor, and the marvelous beauty of The Brooklyn Bridge close above you on your right! All of the great new skyscrapers of lower Manhattan are marshaled directly across from you, and there is a constant stream of tugs, liners, sailboats in procession before you on the river! It’s really a magnificent place to live. This section of Brooklyn is very old, but all the houses are in splendid condition and have not been invaded by foreigners.”

The Brooklyn Bridge served as the inspiration for his greatest poem, The Bridge (1930), his own answer to Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922). During his time, the area below the bridge on the Brooklyn side was notorious as a place for gay guys to meet to have sex.

As his work was published, some praised his poetry, but most critics scoffed at it. Crane’s poems are often criticized as incomprehensible; he was certainly that for me when I attempted to get through his collected works in American Poetry 301 in college. Crane was emotionally crushed by the bad reviews his poems received.

Tormented by his attraction to other men, Crane had a rapturous affair with Opffer, a Danish sailor, the inspiration for his epic erotic poem Voyages (1926), the center piece of his first book of published poems, White Buildings.

Crane lived a lifetime of profound problems, both social and personal. His failed love life was partly due to his obsession with men from the navy. Ernest Hemingway (they share a birthday) noted:

“Poor Hart Crane, always trying to pick up the wrong sailor.”

Crane’s own self-image held him back from any real lasting happiness, but booze was the major reason for his downfall. Under the influence, he would become flirty; frequently finding himself in the wrong situations at the wrong times. Haven’t we all been in that situation on a lonely Saturday night?

Crane went to live in France as a guest of Harry and Caresse Crosby, an American couple who owned the fine arts Black Sun Press. From their home in the French countryside, Le Moulin du Soleil, Crosby wrote in his journal:

“Hart Crane back from Marseilles where he slept with 30 sailors and he began again to drink Cutty Sark. Crane got drunk at the Cafe Select and fought with waiters over his tab. When the Paris police were called, he fought with them and was beaten. They arrested and jailed him, fining him 800 francs and spent six days in prison at La Santé.”

Crane made an attempt to clean up his act and play it straight to please the people in his life. He tried, but he was miserable. Drinking and rough-trade made his life bearable and yet, made it worse.

Crane attempted to marry a girl, Peggy Crowley, the recently divorced wife if his good friend, writer and critic Malcolm Crowley, but everyone knew it was all a conceit.

On April 26, 1932, while on board a cruise ship in the Caribbean Sea, Crane was badly beaten by a crew member that he had made a pass at. The following morning, a friend found him in his room, drunk and inconsolable. She told him to dress for lunch and left. Shortly before noon, Crane was seen on the deck, looking down at the water. He yelled out: “Goodbye, everybody!” and then he jumped overboard. His body was never recovered. He was just 32-years-old.

Tennessee Williams, the most devoted of all the many writers and artists who venerated Crane, left instructions that his own body was to be buried at sea in the Gulf Of Mexico at the very spot that Crane drowned. Instead, William’s family buried him in St. Louis, the city Williams so desperately tried to escape.

Crane’s life story is a troubled tale of a talented gay man trying to find where he belonged in the world. If he had been born a half a century later maybe Crane would have been able to write and publish his poems with some glimmer of happiness.

James Franco, presented as his Masters thesis for his MFA in Filmmaking from NYU, The Broken Tower (2011) a black-and-white film that he directed, wrote, produced, edited and stars as Hart Crane. It is not exactly a bio-pic, but rather a filming of the poem The Voyage. It is nearly incomprehensible, but then, Crane’s poetry confounds me and his life leaves me circumspect.

From Legend, part of White Buildings:

We make our meek adjustments

Contented with such random consolations

As the wind deposits

In slithered and too ample pockets

For we can still love the world, who find

A famished kitten on the step and know

Recesses for it from the fury of the street

Or warm torn elbow coverts

We will sidestep, and to the final smirk

Dally the doom of that inevitable thumb

That slowly chafes its puckered index toward us

Facing the dull squint with what innocence

And what surprise!

And yet these fine collapses are not lies

More than the pirouettes of any pliant cane

Our obsequies are, in a way, no enterprise

We can evade you, and all else but the heart:

What blame to us if the heart live on

The game enforces smirks; but we have seen

The moon in lonely alleys make

A grail of laughter of an empty ash can

And through all sound of gaiety and quest

Have heard a kitten in the wilderness

 

The post #BornThisDay: American Poet, Hart Crane appeared first on The WOW Report.

Men, Are You Masturbating Enough? (10 Reasons Why It’s REALLY Good For You!)

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Among other things, masturbating often could reduce a man’s risk of prostate cancer.

Research from Harvard University says that men who have 21 or more orgasms per month could cut their odds by 33%. 31,925 men were surveyed, sending them questionnaires about how often they engaged in self-love. They were tracked for 18 years, recording which men developed prostate cancer in that time period. The men were assessed at three different points: the year before the questionnaire was distributed, in their 20s, and again in their 40s.

More frequent rates of masturbation were associated with lower rates of prostate cancer. This the first time researchers came up with an actual jack quota.

Dr. Kerner points out.

There isn’t a difference in whether the ejaculation happens via masturbation or with a partner. So making sex a priority is also helpful.”

It is also recommended to reduce the risk sticking with a plant-based diet, eating plenty of fish rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, and

consuming red foods such as tomatoes that are rich in lycopene, as well as soy products that contain isoflavones.

Get regular physicals that include a prostate exam, and plenty of exercise too. Here are those 10 reasons according to Random Science.

1. It cuts the risk of prostate cancer.

“The more you flush the ducts out, the less there is to hang around and damage the cells that line them.”

2. Masturbation can function as a cardiovascular workout.

People suffering from cardiovascular disorders, say those recovering from myocardial infarction or heart attacks) should resume physical activity gradually. Masturbation can be a good option since it helps proper blood flow and breathing.

3. It releases tension and stress.

Whether from masturbation or intercourse, sexual climax leaves one in a relaxed and contented state. Most usually, it is followed by drowsiness and sleep. Another consequence is that masturbation fights depression.

4. It keeps you in good health.

In a 2008 study at Tabriz Medical University, it was found out that ejaculation reduces swollen nasal blood vessels, freeing the airway for normal breathing. The act stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and its effect is long lasting. Other literatures claim that masturbation also stimulates the immune system and can be a cure for insomnia. In general, masturbation can keep everything about the body – heart rate, blood pressure, reproductive system, brain chemistry – in very good shape.

5. It improves sexual relationships.

Masturbation can be very helpful in relationships where one partner needs sex more than the other. It gives a balancing effect, and thus, a more harmonious relationship. Furthermore, mutual masturbation can aid couple in exploring or revealing each other’s “map to pleasure centers.” In this act, partners stimulate themselves in the presence of each other. This way, one finds out the methods they can use to pleasure him- or herself, allowing each partner to learn exactly how the other enjoys being touched.

6. Masturbation helps combat premature ejaculation.

It is very helpful to get any guy in touch with his body and is a great way to get familiar with its responses to touch. Here, there is no pressure and it allows him to remain calm and pay attention to the experience.

7. It is safe.

Unlike sexual intercourse, masturbation has no risk of contacting gonorrhea, syphilis, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases and infections.

8. It has no performance anxiety.

Masturbation is performed hassle-free. There is no need for any condom, pills or drugs, or worry about a pregnancy. Plus, it can be done anytime or anywhere.

9. It can improve self-confidence and self-awareness.

Masturbation can be called as “Self-Awareness Exercise.” It is the safest and most natural way to explore your sexuality and to know yourself well. Consequently, it develops your self-esteem and makes you confident in what you have and know. In the future when you grow older, a fulfilling sex life is not hard to achieve.

10. It can help earn extra income and give the gift of life.

Not all guys are blessed with the gift to procreate, or are long past the ability. Hence, some couples resort to sperm bank. Masturbation paves the way for sperm donation which helps desperate couple to start a complete family life. For the part of the donor, it is an additional income.

One again, Mama Ru was right, if you can’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else? Can I get an Amen for masturbation!

(Photos, Mathew Camp in “Sock Job”, Instagram; via Health)

The post Men, Are You Masturbating Enough? (10 Reasons Why It’s REALLY Good For You!) appeared first on The WOW Report.

Watch the Trailer for the Upcoming Leatherface Origin Story

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A new Chainsaw Massacre is coming! A new Chainsaw Massacre is coming! The long-running horror franchise that nobody has cared about in literal decades is BACK with a Leatherface origin story, just in time for Halloween!

Now completists will note that there’s ALREADY BEEN a prequel – Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (the sixth movie in the series) – but I suppose that was the prequel for the Michael Bay reboot (starring Jessica Biel IN THE BEST ROLE OF HER CAREER), while THIS is a prequel for the original Tobe Hooper classic, which as we all know is canon.

In case you’re confused, I’ve helpfully cribbed the order and summary of each movie from a YouTube commenter so you can see where we are in the Chainsaw universe:

1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (an original slasher movie from the early 70’s, which helped created the genre alongside Halloween.)

2. Texas Chainsaw 2 (A sequel to the first one that acts as a parody of the first as Tobe Hooper didn’t want to make a sequel as he thought there was nothing else to really expand upon, so he just made it a comedy.)

3. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: LeatherFace (A sequel that ignores the existence of TCM2 as it wants to be a “serious” sequel, hence why it’s not numbered, it takes place after the first.)

4. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (This movie is half serious, half a joke and doesn’t really have enough relevance to the originals to call it a sequel in any way. It’s also pure shit.)

5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (This is a remake of the original TCM but is different enough from the original to make it pretty good in its own right, one of the better horror remakes out there.)

6. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (This is a prequel to the remake.)

7. Texas Chainsaw: 3D (This movie ignores the existence of the remakes and all the previous sequels and marketed itself as being “the only TRUE sequel” to the original TCM. It was shit.)

8. LEATHERFACE (A prequel/remake/reboot of the original TCM)

Got that? Watch the trailer (featuring Lili Taylor! and Stephen Dorf!) below.

I don’t know, though. I always thought the scariest thing about the original was that it existed in a terrifying void, without context, without meaning, and without explanation. I don’t know that I need to know the trauma that led to the first skin mask.

The post Watch the Trailer for the Upcoming Leatherface Origin Story appeared first on The WOW Report.

Grab Your Wigs and Party Hats! Tickets for the Official RuPaul’s DragCon NYC Parties Are On Sale NOW!

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Tickets for the only Official RuPaul’s DragCon NYC parties are on sale now!

Yes, DragCon is throwing two official parties, so you can dance the night away with some of your favorite queens!

The first:

Friday, September 8th join us for Nine From 9 and Tammie Brown
Location: The Town Hall 123 W 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036
Hosts: Bob The Drag Queen & Lady Bunny
Performances: Aja, Cynthia Lee Fontaine, Farrah Moan, Jaymes Mansfield, Kimora Blac, Nina Bo’Nina Brown, Sasha Velour, Shea Couleé, Tammie Brown, Trinity Taylor

The second:

Saturday, September 9th kick your heels off and get ready for Battle On The Runway!
Location: Stage 48 605 W 48th Street, New York, NY 10036
Host: Shangela
DJ: Jodie Harsh
Performances: Derrick Barry, Detox, DiDa Ritz, Kim Chi, Laganja Estranja, Raja Gemini, Sharon Needles, Tyra Sanchez, Violet Chachki, and Vivacious

RuPaul’s DragCon NYC is coming to the Javitt’s center,  September 9 & 10, 2017! Get your tickets here.

REMEMBER: Both parties are 21 and over! BRING YOUR IDS!

 

The post Grab Your Wigs and Party Hats! Tickets for the Official RuPaul’s DragCon NYC Parties Are On Sale NOW! appeared first on The WOW Report.


The Biebs Is Banned from China Due to His Bad Behavior

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Twenty-three year-old mega-pop diva/Tiny Terror Justin Bieber is currently on his third World Tour, with Asian dates in Japan, India, Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia. But NOT China. The “Sorry” singer has been banned from performing in Beijing for “bad behavior.”

According to a statement from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture:

His series of misbehaviors while living abroad and during his performances in China has caused public resentment. To regulate the domestic entertainment market and purify its environment, we find it inappropriate to bring in performers with bad behaviors.”

Via CNN:

CNN called a Chinese ticketing website that is selling tickets for two Bieber concerts scheduled on September 16 in Beijing and September 23 in Shanghai. A website staffer was not aware of the Beijing government’s decision but said it will refund in full if the approval doesn’t come through.

A source at the Shanghai cultural authority, which approves concerts in that city, told CNN that it was unlikely that Shanghai would allow Bieber to perform there, given the decision Beijing has already made.

Bieber is no stranger to controversy, after denying reports for groping and spitting on fans, pleading guilty for illegally street racing and for recently not knowing the Spanish words to his latest hit “Despacito.”

Now, if we can get him banned from the US…. Surely Trump’s travel ban can do SOMETHING good and keep that trouble-making Canadian refugee OUT.

(Photos: Pacific Coast News)

The post The Biebs Is Banned from China Due to His Bad Behavior appeared first on The WOW Report.

LGBTQMustReads: Berserk Beach Books!

RuPaul’s Drag Race’s 8 Emmy Noms! Celebrity Scandals! This Week’s Top 10 Things That Make Us Go WOW!

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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!

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) Hot Doc: The Fabulous Allan Carr

The new documentary from Jeffrey Schwarz – who’s previously done I Am Devine & Tab Hunter Confidential – is all about Allan Carr, the gay producer from the 1970s who we can thank for such masterpieces as Grease, Grease 2, and La Cage aux Folles. It’s currently making it’s rounds in the festival circuit, but look for it soon!

Skip forward to Hot Doc: The Fabulous Allan Car @1:00

9) Netflix Picks: Elizabeth at 90

The BBC’s gift to the queen for her 90th birthday, in Elizabeth at 90: A Family Tribute we get to see Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Prince William, Prince Harry, Princess Anne, and many other royals watch old home movies of the family. Elizabeth at 90: A Family Tribute is currently streaming on Netflix.

Skip forward to Netflix Picks: Elizabeth at 90 @ 8:42

8) South Korea & the DMZ

Fenton recently spent a couple of weeks in Asia, and he visited the DMZ – the Korean demilitarized zone – which is a two mile wide strip of land separating North & South Korea.

Skip forward to South Korea & the DMZ @12:26

7) Films That Make Us Go…Huh?: A Ghost Story

Although James was super-excited to see the new movie starring Casey Affleck & Rooney Mara, Tom actually saw it and it made him go…HUH? A Ghost Story is currently in theaters.

Skip forward to Films That Make Us Go…HUH?: A Ghost Story @19:38

6) We’re Bananas for War for the Planet of the Apes!

The third installment of the Planet of the Apes rebooted franchise is also the first to be told from the apes’ point of view. War for the Planet of the Apes is currently in theaters.

Skip forward to We’re Bananas for War for the Planet of the Apes @24:37

5) Hot Bots: Tokyo’s Robot Restaurant

Another stop on Fenton’s tour of Asia was Tokyo’s Robot Restaurant located in 1-7-1 Kabukicho Shinjuku-ku Tokyo, Japan.

Skip forward to Hot Bots: Tokyo’s Robot Restaurant @28:54

4) Snatchin’ Trophies: RuPaul’s Drag Race is Nominated for 8 Emmys!

We are beyond honored that RuPaul’s Drag Race, which just recently wrapped the ninth season, has been nominated for EIGHT Emmy Awards! Find out what we were nominated for here.

Skip forward to Snatchin’ Trophies: RuPaul’s Drag Race is Nominated for EIGHT Emmys! @35:52

3) Celebrity Scandals: Aaron Carter 

We discuss Aaron Carter‘s recent DWI, and the body shaming he says he has endured after his mug shot was recently released to the public.

Skip forward to Celebrity Scandals: Aaron Carter @40:22

2) Pink Floyd On Display in the UK: Their Mortal Remains

Fenton also hopped over to jolly old London town for Pink Floyd’s exhibit Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains which is  on exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London through October 1.

Skip forward to Pink Floyd On Display in the UK: Their Mortal Remains 46:20

1) Mayor Pete Buttigieg: Our First Gay President?

We absolutely fell in love with the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana Pete Buttigieg. Not only is he smart, handsome, and what America really needs right now, but he’s ALSO GAY! Love him!

Skip forward to Mayor Pete Buttigieg: Our First Gay President? 51:46

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 RuPaul’s Drag Race’s 8 Emmy Noms! Celebrity Scandals! This Week’s Top 10 Things That Make Us Go WOW! appeared first on The WOW Report.

#Gaming: Hot New Dating Sim “Dream Daddy” Lets You Meet & Date Single Gay Dads In Your Gayborhood

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Gay dating sim “Dream Daddy” is the already massively successful game from Game Grumps that allows players to create their own single gay dad character and date other hot dads in the neighborhood. It also features transgender character design options and transgender love interests.

It was released yesterday and immediately went to number one on Steam, outperforming battle royale games “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” as well as “Rocket League” and “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.”  It’s unclear exactly how many copies it’s sold but apparently at one point over 14,000 players were playing the game concurrently.

The response so far has been phenomenal, mostly due to the positive representation it’s giving the LGBTQ community.

Notes ONTD:

Although there was a lot of skepticism prior to release about how these characters would be handled, today it’s being praised for fantastic writing and character development.

Via J Station X:

A fair amount of people have taken interest in the game because they’re looking for games with LGBTQ characters. Games with gay characters are few and far between and even then, those that do offer representation can get it wrong. Mass Effect Andromeda‘s gay romance controversy was due to the fact that it dropped the ball, with LGBTQ players feeling hurt and disappointed.

Dream Daddy also allows players to create non-white dads, as well as transgender dads and there is a transgender romance option too. Given that Andromeda got it wrong with its transgender NPC, it’s no wonder why fans are looking elsewhere for better representation and enthusing about it on social media too.

Also aiding to the game’s success is that it just seems to be fantastically written. Players picking their favourite romance choice in a dating game is par for the course, but Dream Daddy fans seem especially endeared by the variety of dads on offer, livetweeting and liveblogging cute and heartwarming moments with the dad of their dreams and debating how to get the best endings with different dads (getting the good ending for Joseph is one major talking point.)

Watch the game trailer below.

The post #Gaming: Hot New Dating Sim “Dream Daddy” Lets You Meet & Date Single Gay Dads In Your Gayborhood appeared first on The WOW Report.

ICYMI: Stories And Links You’ll Be Gossiping About All Weekend!

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We couldn’t believe the things we read this week: Beyonce’s wax figure was whitewashed, the creators of Game of Thrones announced their new show to a Twitter meltdown, and Sean Spicer resigned. Crack open that boxed wine and jump into this week’s finest gossip and news stories. Ohhhh honey!

 

Island Hunters season 4 was the most watched show on HGTV on Sunday night. Game of Thrones, who? via WOW Report

 14 of the hottest Instagram hunks are cheesing just for you via NewNextNow 

Not cool: Blac Chyna’s mom comes for Caitlyn and it’s awful via Oh No They Didn’t!

NBC’s Megyn Kelly is losing her ratings race to…America’s Funniest Home Videos? via Jezebel

 

 

This trans-woman trolled an anti-trans Governor and please give her all the praise via Huffpost Queer Voices

Ann Coulter tried to come for Bianca Del Rio. Has she ever watched RuPaul’s Drag Race? via WOW Report 

Twitter is mad Billboard called Ariana Grande the ‘gay icon of her generation’ via Queerty

Russia. Yes, Russia is investigating fidget spinners because they are ‘zombifying’ the youth! via The Verge 

 

 

The Freddie Mercury/Queen biopic will not mention the AIDS crisis at all via WOW Report 

Lana Del Rey got really pissed at her fans for downloading her leaked album via Jezebel 

Talk about drama – Salvador Dali’s body was exhumed for a paternity test! via CBC News 

 

 

A man paid $41,000 to look like a Final Fantasy character but I’d just want the $41,000 via Kotaku

The 2018 Pirelli calendar is phenomenal. RuPaul’s look is BEYOND via WOW Report 

These roommates have no boundaries and NEVER leave the apartment. Omg, no. via Towleroad 

Khloe Kardashian is not here for any of your OJ Simpson taunting via Yahoo! News 

 

 

 

[Images of Ariana Grande, Megyn Kelly via Pacific Coast News; Fidget Spinner via Amazon]

The post ICYMI: Stories And Links You’ll Be Gossiping About All Weekend! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Listen to RuPaul’s “Kitty Girl” As a Doo-Wop Song

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Leah Canali, a Toronto-based singer, has teamed up with doo-wop group The Spandettes for a rousing cover of RuPaul’s “Kitty Girl.”

“Following Season 9 I just couldn’t get this song out of my head! Every time I would hear the chorus I would like: “Wow, that would make a really great doo-wop style cover,” Canali told Gay Star News.

“It’s about going out into the world and knowing that you are a queen and owning it,” added Canali. “Also, you only live once so you might as well live it up! That’s the vibe that I get from it.”

Listen to it below.

Also check out Leah’s mashup of Ru’s “You Gotta Be American” with Des’ree‘s classic “You Gotta Be”

…and here’s Leah covering “Sissy That Walk”

Fabulous! (via NewNowNext)

The post Listen to RuPaul’s “Kitty Girl” As a Doo-Wop Song appeared first on The WOW Report.

July 22nd: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!


#BornThisDay: Film Director, James Whale

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Photo, Universal Pictures

June 22, 1889– James Whale:

Boris Karloff’s face fascinated me. I made drawings of his head, adding sharp bony ridges where I imagined the skull might have joined. But, that queer, penetrating personality was more important than his shape, which could be easily altered.

James Whale was a great film director, a true artist, and the subject of one of my favorite films, Bill Condon’s Gods And Monsters (1998) featuring Sir Ian McKellen’s masterful performance as Whale. Thinking of him, I landed on that moment in the film when McKellen’s Whale murmurs about the hunky Brendan Fraser’s “architectural skull”. This, from the man who would design the impressive and imposing head of the Frankenstein monster?

In Gods And Monsters, a geeky young film fan tells the aging Whale: “It’s the horror movies you’ll be remembered for”, and despite his gentlemanly English manners, you can see the irritation in McKellen’s eyes. The young fan is correct of course. Whale’s other films, even his definitive version of the great American musical Show Boat (1936), are mostly forgotten in the 21st century, but people still watch Frankenstein (1931) and Bride Of Frankenstein (1935). The look of the monster: square head, seams, scars and neck bolts, remains one of the greatest visual icons of the 20th century.

Whale was a painter before he was a stage and film director. His keen eye for design is part of what makes his films so memorable. Besides the look of Doctor Frankenstein’s monster, perfectly played by the great Boris Karloff, he also created the hairstyle and elegantly stitched scars of the monster’s Bride played by Elsa Lanchester. Whale had studied the great German expressionist silent horror films that were never widely released in the USA, and from them he took the stark dramatic lighting and impressionistic sets. Along with his art director Charles Hall, Whale created the style now called Universal Studio Gothic: huge dark interiors with enormous doors, imposing staircases and long shadows. Young Frankenstein, Mel Brook’s affectionate 1974 parody of Bride Of Frankenstein, reproduced that Universal Pictures look with an eye for detail. Most of the lab equipment used as props for Brook’s film was created by Kenneth Strickfaden for the 1931 film Frankenstein. To help evoke the atmosphere of the earlier film, Brooks shot his film entirely in black and white, a rarity in the 1970s.

Gods And Monsters considers that a major influence on Whale’s work was his time as a young soldier in the trenches in WW I. The film uses flashbacks of a handsome young man in a foxhole to provide Whale with awful memories of a boyish lover’s death. But experiences in the war to end all wars really did the same for the real life Whale. He was in the thick of some of the most intense battles, before ending up in a POW camp, where he began his directing career by producing amateur theatricals.

There is beauty, perversity and humor in Whale’s horror films. His dark, horrid, witty works portends the movies of directors like Brian De PalmaDavid Lynch, the late George A. Romero, and Tim Burton.

Whale was an openly gay man in Hollywood in the 1930s, not an easy life. While Gods And Monsters is fiction, his actual last lover was his former chauffeur working a gas station operator who had to share Whale with a male nurse. They were a couple for the last five years of Whale’s life.

I have read that the Frankenstein films were a way for Whale to give a coded clue to his sexuality and his feelings of being a misunderstood outsider. Gods And Monsters shows this with an understated intelligence & elegance. Whale’s longtime partner David Lewis stated:

“Jimmy was first & foremost an artist, his films represent the work of an artist, not a gay artist, but an artist.”

Whale probably identified with the monster not just because of his gayness, but also because of his standing as a member of a lower-class in Britain.

Whale directed the play Journey’s End (1928) on London’s West End and then on Broadway. He went to Hollywood to direct the film version and stayed there for the rest of his life, most of that time with Lewis, a successful producer of films including Dark Victory (1939) and Raintree County (1957). They were a couple for 23 years, ending their relationship when Whale invited his young chauffeur to live with them. Lewis bought his own cottage nearby and remained close to the director, helping care for him to the end.

Of course, Whale will always be most noted for the horror films, along with the Frankenstein flicks there is The Old Dark House (1932) and The Invisible Man (1933), but he became increasingly disenchanted with his association with horror and never returned to the genre.

Having experienced WW I close-up, Whale seemed an inspired choice to direct The Road Back (1937), a sequel to All Quiet On The Western, but the film was a critical and commercial failure.

A string of failures followed and by 1941 his film directing career was over. Whale continued to direct for the stage and also returned to his love for painting. He had invested wisely and he lived a comfortable life in Hollywood until he suffered a series of strokes in 1956 that left him frail and in misery.

Despondent, lonely, in intense physical pain, Whale drowned himself in his backyard swimming pool in May 1957. Ironically, Whale never swam in the pool, building it after Lewis had a pool installed at his own home. Whale maintained it as a spot for hosting swimming parties for young guys.

Lewis, close to his own passing in 1987, revealed the details of Whale’s suicide note:

To All I Love,

Do not grieve for me. My nerves are all shot and for the last year I have been in agony day and night, except when I sleep with sleeping pills, and any peace I have by day is when I am drugged by pills.

I have had a wonderful life but it is over and my nerves get worse and I am afraid they will have to take me away. So please forgive me, all those I love and may God forgive me too, but I cannot bear the agony and it is best for everyone this way.

The future is just old age and illness and pain. Goodbye and thank you for all your love. I must have peace and this is the only way.

Jimmy

My lovely friend Christopher Bram, the author of the original novel Gods And Monsters, has a terrific chapter about writing the book and the making of the film version in his terrific memoir Mapping The Territory (2009). I recommend this highly entertaining, emotionally involving book to anyone that is interested in the process of writing.

 

The post #BornThisDay: Film Director, James Whale appeared first on The WOW Report.

#Yaas!: You Won’t Believe What This Old Queen’s Favorite Song To Dance To Is…?

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Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is one of the most famous people on the planet (not to mention the richest) but what do we know about her? On the throne for more than 65 years, she’s the longest-serving monarch in British history.

According to Pink News, somehow we know that Liz is awakened by the “Piper to the Sovereign” at 9AM each morning and she eats Special K for breakfast. She loves gin, champagne and chocolate biscuit cake.

BBC Radio host Chris Evans revealed that at a dinner he attended at Windsor Castle, where the 91 year-old Queen surprised everyone by revealing her favorite song. After dinner was served and post-dinner speeches heard, music began to play in the room and to many people’s surprise, the Queen was delighted with the song playing – ABBA’s disco classic Dancing Queen.

Her Majesty said, apparently so others could hear,

I always try to dance when this song comes on, because I am the Queen, and I like to dance!

Yaaas, queen!

Let’s Dance!

(Photo, ITV; via Pink News)

The post #Yaas!: You Won’t Believe What This Old Queen’s Favorite Song To Dance To Is…? appeared first on The WOW Report.

#AngryBirds: These Days This Pissed Off Cockatoo Is All of Us! Watch

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This video of an angry bird is a couple of years old, but it has aged well. According to the owner,

“Pebble didn’t want to go back to her cage. I think she let me know what she thought about going. She’s not afraid to let her feelings be known….”

Pebble herself says,

“Fucking around up here. Look at fucking marrying me, but tell me who’s marrying you?

At 2:43 the owner asks,

“Do you have an attitude Pebble?”

She says,

“Yeah! That’s right! The fucking veterinarian!”

How many words and phrase can you make out?

Watch.

The post #AngryBirds: These Days This Pissed Off Cockatoo Is All of Us! Watch appeared first on The WOW Report.

#Flashback75: Cher & Bette Midler Sing a “Trashy Lady” Medley. Watch

#BornThisDay: Happy 4th Birthday, Prince George!

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That Prince George is one cute kid! In this new pic by Getty‘s Chris Jackson he certainly looks like a happy boy. This official portrait was released by Kensington Palace to coincide with his birthday today. The Palace said on Twitter,

“(His parents, Prince William and Kate Middleton) are delighted to share a new official portrait of Prince George to mark HRH’s 4th birthday tomorrow. [They] are very pleased to share this lovely picture, and would like to thank everyone for all of the kind messages they have received.”

Jackson tweeted that he was honored the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge released his photo and posted another photo of Prince George taken on the last day of the family’s trip to Germany.

See the next post on The Wow Report to learn what his great grandma’s favorite song to dance to is. (Hint: It’s a gay anthem.)

(Photos, Chris Jackson/ Getty, courtesy Kensington Palace; via CNN)

The post #BornThisDay: Happy 4th Birthday, Prince George! appeared first on The WOW Report.

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