CeCe Peniston
Cisco Adler
Dolores O’Riordan
Elizabeth Vargas
Foxy Brown
Idris Elba
Jane Curtin
Jeff Foxworthy
Jo Ann Worley
Justin Whalin
Justina Machado
Kerry Katona
Macy Gray
Max George
Naomie Harris
Nina Persson
Pippa Middleton
Roger Waters
Rosie Perez
Swoosie Kurtz
Kirsten Schaffer
#TBT
pic.twitter.com/VErs4rGXaD
— Macy Gray (@MacyGraysLife) March 28, 2017
The post September 6th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.
Megatone Records
September 6, 1947– Sylvester James Jr.:
“I know you must’ve had someone in your life that made you feel real.”
John Waters said of the great falsetto-voiced Disco legend:
“Sylvester was a gay, black diva who never really fit into any minority but managed to achieve his dreams of stardom. Now that’s what I call a man.”
Sylvester’s fabulous life as a musician began as a youth at his Pentecostal Church in Los Angeles. Sylvester was an effeminate kid with a stirring voice who sang in the church choir and at regional Gospel Music events. For years, he was molested by one of the church’s ministers. The church blamed the victim, shunning Sylvester.
His relationship with his mother and new stepfather was troubled over his gayness and when he was 14-years-old, he went to live with his grandmother who had been a Blues singer in the 1930s. He idolized her, and she accepted his gayness.
When he was a teenager, he began hanging around with gay boys and transgender women on the Sunset Strip. They called themselves The Disquotays and shared a love of music, glamour, make-up and outrageous fashion. The often found themselves in trouble for being in drag. In the 1960s, a man dressing as a woman was a criminal offense.
In 1969, Sylvester smartly moved to San Francisco where he lived for the rest of his short life. At Chinatown’s Rickshaw Lounge, he dressed in drag and sang Blues and Jazz using the name Ruby Blue. He soon became the talk of the town. Sylvester:
“My life started when I moved to San Francisco.”
He made quite an impact as a singer. The gender-bending cabaret troupe The Cockettes invited Sylvester to be a member. He was given a star spot in their revue Hollywood Babylon singing The Big City Blues.
The Cockettes’ show was campy mayhem, but Sylvester’s act was authentic Blues/Jazz in the tradition of Billie Holiday and Josephine Baker. He became The Cockette’s main attraction. The troupe took their revue to NYC, performing Off-Broadway in 1971. Critics and audiences did not go for The Cockettes’ brand of stage insanity, but they embraced Sylvester, and he decided to make a go of it as a solo act.
He released two albums that sold poorly, but in 1976, Sylvester had the bright idea to hire two plus-sized backup singers, Martha Wash and Izadora Rhodes. They went by the name Two Tons Of Fun. Sylvester and his girls were a big hit in San Francisco and in Europe.
At a dance club, Sylvester was introduced to Patrick Cowley, a gay board-mixer and synthesizer player. Cowley was an Electronic Dance Music pioneer, and he added synthesizer on top of Sylvester’s next singles You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) and Dance (Disco Heat). Both records were massive hits and made Sylvester a star. He appeared on The Dinah Shore Show, American Bandstand and The Merv Griffin Show. He was featured in magazines and played a Diana Ross female impersonator in the film The Rose starring Bette Midler.
Sylvester gained the moniker of the “Queen Of Disco” and toured all over the globe, but he always came home to San Francisco where he was loved. Sylvester appeared with Harvey Milk at the Castro Street Fair and played a significant role of the early Gay Liberation Movement. In 1979, Sylvester received the Key To The City from Mayor Dianne Feinstein. March 11 was declared “Sylvester Day“, and that night he played to a packed house at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House with Two Tons Of Fun, his band and a full symphony orchestra. The stage was filled with gladiolas and a huge banner read: “Flowers While You Live”. The evening was recorded live and was released as an album titled Living Proof. It proved that he could sing not only his Disco hits, but also the Blues and Jazz ballads that he loved. That year, Sylvester also performed on the mainstage of SF’s Gay Freedom Day Parade and released another Disco hit, Can’t Stop Dancing.
Before taking the stage, Sylvester liked to take a hit of Acid with a Champagne and Quaalude chaser, just to take the edge off.
By 1982, Sylvester signed to Megatone Records, a new label created by Cowley. He wrote Sylvester’s next big dance hit, Do Ya Wanna Funk?. Cowley dropped out of Sylvester’s world tour because he wasn’t feeling well. It was 1982, and no one knew that the 32-year-old Cowley had the new plague. HIV/AIDS still didn’t have name. Within a year, it was killing an entire generation of gay men. Sylvester bravely volunteered at the hospital AIDS ward, at a time when doctors didn’t know how it was spread. He performed at the first AIDS benefits.
Disco, in the 1970s, was the friendliest form of music for gay performers. That welcoming of gay people created a violent backlash against Disco by some rock fans. Bruce Springsteen wrote a Disco tune, Protection, for Donna Summer to push against: “The subtle homophobia and racism of the anti-disco movement.” Sylvester recorded traditional R&B albums, including one that had him dressed as a dude on the album’s cover, but he could never match the success that he found in Disco. He was also a great Rock singer. His first album, recorded as Sylvester And The Hot Band, has ferocious covers of songs by Neil Young, James Taylor, and Lieber And Stoller. Promotor Bill Graham booked Sylvester to play a Rock show, but never booked him again after he showed up on stage in silver sequined chaps. After that, he refused to perform as anyone but his over-the-top, flamboyant, drag wearing self.
The Disco era began to ebb, but Sylvester continued to tour. He continued to have Dance Music hits with the prophetically titled All I Need, Too Late, Take Me To Heaven, Living For The City and Someone Like You. He also sang on Aretha Franklin’s Freeway Of Love.
Sylvester appeared on The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers in December 1986. He sang and then matter-of-factly talked of his marriage to his partner, showing his wedding ring for all of America to see. When Rivers described him as a “drag queen”, Sylvester corrected her with:
“I’m not a drag queen… I’m Sylvester.”
Sylvester’s husband was Rick Cranmer, a tall blonde, blue-eyed architect that he met backstage in 1984. Cranmer was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987. The night after Carnmer passed, Sylvester performed at the Gay Softball World Series Party, singing a new song, You Are My Friend.
Sylvester was diagnosed soon after. He was put on the experimental anti-viral drug AZT, but it made him sicker and he stopped taking it. Sylvester went public about his diagnosis, and at that year’s Gay Pride events, speaking from a wheelchair, he said:
“Down the line, I hope I won’t be in a lot more pain. But I don’t dwell on that. I’ll be fine, because my spirit is fine. I’d like to think that by going public myself with this, I can give other people courage to face it.”
During the 1988 Castro Street Fair, the crowd was told to chant Sylvester’s name so he could hear their tribute while he was in bed two blocks away at his apartment.
Megatone Records
Sylvester left this world on December 16, 1988, taken by the plague at just 41-years old. His memorial was held at the Love Center Church in East Oakland and he is buried in L.A.’s Inglewood Park Cemetery.
Sylvester is honored with a panel on the AIDS quilt and an engraved boulder at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park.
Royalties from his music still go to a pair HIV organization in San Francisco. Two Tons Of Fun achieved mainstream success as The Weather Girls and had a mega-hit with It’s Raining Men. They continued to work with Sylvester until his passing.
From Warner Bros. Records Archives
Sylvester’s soaring falsetto marks him as one of America’s greatest singers, performing songs in nearly every genre. From an early age to the final years of his short life, he personified strength and courage. Sylvester was a rebel. He was black, but didn’t really identify with the Black Community. He was gay, but didn’t quite fit in with the Gay Community. He wore drag, but didn’t consider himself a Drag Queen. He was a Christian, but did not fit in with his church. Sylvester used his considerable talent as a radical visionary of music, identity, and authenticity. Sylvester was a rebel. I love him for that.
The post #BornThisDay: Musician, Sylvester appeared first on The WOW Report.
Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency warns Florida residents not to wait to see what happens, even though computer models show different paths for Hurricane Irma. He urged everyone to take the evacuation orders seriously, no matter where they live.
“The entire state needs to be prepared. We can rebuild your home, but we cannot rebuild your life. Take what you need, but only what you need.“
It’s not clear if and where Irma will hit Florida, but Scott warned that it could still have a major impact on the state from the storm surge alone.
Irma is one of the most powerful Atlantic storms ever recorded with winds of 185 mph. Gov. Scott said the approaching storm was “bigger, faster and stronger” than Andrew, which hit in 1992 as a Category 5.
1,000 National Guard troops will be on duty in Florida by tonight.
France’s Interior Minister Gérard Collomb says the four strongest buildings on Saint Martin have been destroyed and t’s possible that all other old buildings on the territory have been totally or partially destroyed.
See the video of its destruction hitting St. Martin below.
(Photo, YouTube; via CNN)
The post #Breaking: Hurricane Irma Is Coming –Florida Gov. Says, “Do Not Sit & Wait” appeared first on The WOW Report.
Cher’s Twitter feed is a reason to stay on social media. She tweeted yesterday after Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Obama-era legislation will end in six months unless Congress figures something out.
Cher said. of course in Twitter/ Cher emoji-ese,
“Those who can must take a DREAMER into their home and protect them”
A follower tweeted back,
“Sure you will. I’ll believe it when I see it!”
Then Cher clapped back with,
“Then keep your eyes open bitch.”
After responding,
“I sure will”
the follower changed her privacy settings and deleted her tweets, but not before the rest of the social media jumped in squealing in delight.
It’s the little things that keep you going.
(via Huffington Post)
The post Cher Tweets About DACA Repeal & a Twitter Follower Gets Spanked By an Icon… appeared first on The WOW Report.
Photograph from Wikimedia Commons
September 6, 1997– Princess Diana’s Funeral is watched by a billion people. I watched at my home in Seattle. I had recovered from the shock of her death in that car crash, but I was feeling a bit cynical about broadcasting a funeral on television until that jaw-dropping eulogy, and then with the Elton John moment, I lost it.
Princess Diana’s coffin was brought to London from Villacoublay Air Base, outside of Paris, by her ex-husband Prince Charles of Wales and her two sisters on August 31, 1997. After being taken to a private mortuary the coffin was placed in the chapel at St. James’s Palace.
A week later, on September 6, a billion people were focused on London, where Diana’s funeral was taking place. Over one million people lined the streets of the city for the somber occasion, which included a minute of silence to honor the People’s Princess.
It wasn’t an official state funeral. Instead, it was a Royal funeral with royal pageantry and an Anglican liturgy. Huge arrangements of flowers were placed at the gates of Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace. Eight of The Queen’s Welsh Guards accompanied Diana’s coffin, draped in the Royal flag, on the 90-minute trip through London streets. On top of the coffin were three wreaths of white flowers, one from her brother, Charles Spencer, and one each from her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
At St. James’s Palace, the Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, joined his son the Prince of Wales, Diana’s sons and her brother, as they all walked behind the coffin. 500 representatives of charities that Princess Diana worked with joined behind them, including actor Andrew Lincoln, who represented The Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art (RADA) of which she was a patron. The procession moved past Buckingham Palace where Queen Elizabeth II bowed her head as it went by. Millions of flowers were tossed by the mourners on the streets.
The ceremony at Westminster Abbey was 80 minutes long. Members of the Royal Family placed more wreaths alongside Diana’s coffin. British Prime Ministers Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, James Callaghan and Edward Heath, plus Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Bernadette Chirac, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Elton John, George Michael, Mariah Carey, Richard Branson, and Luciano Pavarotti were in attendance. Among other invitees were Jordan’s Queen Noor, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Princess Margriet of The Netherlands, Constantine II of Greece, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Japan, and Nelson Mandela.
The organist played pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonín Dvořák, Camille Saint-Saëns, Johann Pachelbel and Gustav Holst. Elton John sang Candle In The Wind which Bernie Taupin rewrote in tribute to Diana. Taupin:
“I thought it was very important to project it from a nation’s standpoint. I wanted to make it sound like a country singing it. From the first couple of lines I wrote which began “Goodbye England’s Rose”, the rest sort of fell into place.”
Only a month before Diana’s death, she had been photographed comforting John at the funeral of their murdered friend Gianni Versace.
Diana’s brother Charles gave the eulogy, bitingly taking on The Royal Family and the media for their treatment of his sister. Spencer:
“She talked endlessly of getting away from England, mainly because of the treatment that she received at the hand of the newspapers.”
He also vowed to protect William and Harry. The Queen reportedly refused to clap following the eulogy.
William and Harry, just 15-years-old and 12-years-old, followed the casket out of Westminster Abbey and through the streets of London. Television cameras featured closeups of her casket, and among the white lilies, tulips and roses viewers could see a card that read “Mummy”.
Because of the demand from the public, an additional service for Diana was performed at Westminster Abbey the next day.
Harry:
“My mother had just died, and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television. I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today.”
Diana’s Memorial at Althorp Park, Photograph from Wikimedia Commons
Following the procession, a motorcade transported Princess Diana to her ancestral home in Althorp Park, 75 miles north of London. She is buried there.
The post #OnThisDay: 20 Years Ago, Princess Diana’s Funeral appeared first on The WOW Report.
We’re only DAYS away from RuPaul’s DragCon NYC 2017 and boy are you about to have an amazing time. It’s going to be incredible! Sickening! Fantastic! Everything you dreamed and MORE!
Since this is the first time the convention is traveling to New York City, we decided to talk to some NYC natives about the best drag spots, shopping, boy-watching places and SO much more.
So, of course, we had to talk to our good judgey Judy Mr. Carson Kressley to get his input on ALLLL the best places around NYC to go during the after-hours of DragCon.
If you haven’t snatched up your tickets yet (Seriously, WHAT are you waiting for a lot of stuff is already SOLD OUT!) get them ASAP and then check out Carson’s recommendations below!
I’m old school so I love Barracuda. I’m also lazy, and it was accross the street from my former apartment! It’s small and intimate and has had great drag shows for YEARS!
Well I personally go to Whole Foods in Union Square to find the cuties. They eat well and have jobs! What more could I want!? But for most people I’d recommend the bike/running path on the west side highway. Lots of shirtless athletic types rushing past you at all hours.
Yes I love Barwine in Harlem. The food is so good and there’s zero pretense.
My favorite place is Century 21 department store all the way downtown accross from the Freedom Tower. Their stores are only in the NYC area and their stock goes from runway samples to underwear. I’ve scored lots of D Squared here in my lifetime. They also have amazing Pratesi sheets on sale in the basement. Bargains galore!
I’ve lived in NYC for 25 years and I’ve done ’em all (statue of liberty, circle line, Empire State Building). They are all great but why not just go to Bergdorf Goodman. Equally impressive, and only in New York!
[Image via Carson Kressley Instagram.]
The post Carson Kressley Talks Hot Spots, Boy-Watching, & MORE For RuPaul’s DragCon NYC 2017 appeared first on The WOW Report.
CNN got Hillary Clinton‘s book — What Happened (Simon & Schuster, 494 pages) –from a Jacksonville, Florida, bookstore a week before its widespread release and read it.
The defeated presidential contender concedes that the loss was her own fault.
“I go back over my own shortcomings and the mistakes we made. I take responsibility for all of them. You can blame the data, blame the message, blame anything you want – but I was the candidate. It was my campaign. Those were my decisions.“
But there is also plenty of blame to go around. She about the sexism hampered her ability to reach voters and talks about Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former FBI director James Comey.
The book oozes with contempt for Trump and the President he has become.
Clinton admits she suffered an inability to say what she really felt on the campaign trail, seems to drop many of those tendencies here. She wonders why, after terms as first lady, US senator, secretary of state and two-time presidential candidate, the public still just doesn’t seem to like her.
“What makes me such a lightning rod for fury? I’m really asking. I’m at a loss. I think it’s partly because I’m a woman.“
She says has spent the months since reading studies, reports and news articles since her loss.
“I think it’s fair to say that I didn’t realize how quickly the ground was shifting under all our feet. I was running a traditional presidential campaign with carefully thought-out policies and painstakingly built coalitions, while Trump was running a reality TV show that expertly and relentlessly stoked Americans’ anger and resentment.“
Clinton is intent on staying in public life. No seething in solitude.
“There were plenty of people hoping that I, too, would just disappear. But here I am.“
(Photos, Simon and Shuster/ YouTube; via CNN)
The post #WhatHappened: In Her New Book, Clinton Says, “I Was Running a Traditional Campaign, While Trump was Running a Reality TV Show” appeared first on The WOW Report.
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 8 finalist Kim Chi stars in a new music video for “Me4U’ ft Morrie from PC music master Danny L Harle while serving you anime-doll realness!
Harle who has created other bangers like “Broken Flowers” and “Super Natural” ft. Carly Rae Jepsen. (YES, your girl Kim Chi is 1 degree separated from QWEEN CARLY!)
Kim Chi shared the good news via Instagram early Tuesday and we were LIVING!
Check out the video:
The post RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Kim Chi Stars in New Music Video for Danny L Harle appeared first on The WOW Report.
NYC’s dynamic duo of the fashion scene and seen, MAO Public Relations, aka Mauricio and Roger Padilha, are celebrating 20 years of representing top designers, introducing new talent to the fashion industry, and serving up some of the most phat fêtes internationally! Now, the brothers glam have garnered the much deserved reputation as one of the most prominent and innovative fashion PR agencies, having helped launch the careers of notables such as Jason Wu, Rochambeau, Georgine, The Blonds, Kimora Lee Simmons Baby Phat, Zaldy, Keanan Duffty, Chris Habana, and more!
In addition to their public relations showroom, MAO’s productions of events for Marc Jacobs, M.A.C. Cosmetics, Adel Rootstein, and Patricia Field..over 350 runway shows…and their penning of critically acclaimed fashion books The Stephen Sprouse Book, Gloss: The Work of Chris von Wangenheim, and Antonio Lopez: Fashion, Art, Sex, and Disco have made them one of the top tastemakers around, receiving praise from Vogue Magazine, The Council of Fashion Designers of America, and former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. CONGRATS Mauricio and Roger…can’t wait to see what the next 20 years brings! Check out Mao PR’s new website HERE…and a few pics below of some of the most FAB moments, courtesy of MAO PR! (Photogs Santiago Felipe, Patrick McMullan, Joshua Janke, Dan Lecca)
Jay Manuel, June Ambrose, Mx Qwerrrk at Gloss Book Launch
Roger Padilha, Valentino, Mauricio Padilha at Antonio Lopez Party
Mauricio Padilha, Phillipe Blond, David Blond, Roger Padilha at Rootstein x Agyness Deyn Launch
NYFW backstage Roger, Grace Jones, Mauricio
Polly Mellen receives honorary award at the Fresh Faces in Fashion
Dita Von Tease at Stephen Sprouse Book launch party
Anna Sui drops by at Gloss signing at Bookmarc
NYFW Georgine runway show
Patricia Field and Patrick McDonald at Bowery store opening
Ellen von Unwerth at
MAC Cosmetics Pro to Pro event
Roger Padilha, Mauricio Padilha & Mermaids at MAO MAG 9 launch
Amanda Lepore Book launch party at Top of the Standard with Susanne Bartsch
Bill Cunningham at MAO MAG 3 launch party
The post #NYFW: NYC Fashion Power Duo “Mao PR” Celebrate 20 YEARS of Servin’ Up Looks!!! appeared first on The WOW Report.
AHHHHHHH! Can you even handle the excitement? You’ve gotten your tickets, right? Phew. Great. You should also snatch up your tickets to the Friday and Saturday night parties for some extra after-hours fun at DragCon NYC!
Interested in showing off your RuPaul’s DragCon swag long after you leave the Javits Center? Pick up some of our cute & exclusive 2017 pins at the World of Wonder Productions booth before they’re sold out!
If you aren’t into the whole enamel pin thing, but are really into caffeine, don’t worry we have you covered there with exclusive coffee cups for your next caffeine fix!
Did you buy a VIP pass? If you did get ready for those extra merch perks including a lanyard to swap and trade pins throughout the course of the weekend!
If kitsch is more your thing, why not one of these super cute WOWL?!
Get your tickets for RuPaul’s DragCon New York!
The post EXCLUSIVE RuPaul’s DragCon NYC Merch is Available this Weekend, Don’t Miss Out! appeared first on The WOW Report.
It was just announced today that yummy Billy Magnussen is joining Disney’s live-action Aladdin as Prince Anders, a new role created just for the movie musical. And while I’m probably Billy’s biggest cheerleader (he was absolutely brilliant in Ingrid Goes West – and I’ve been a fan of his since he was Casey on As the World Turns) – internet reaction has been – how shall we say? – less than kind.
A sampling from the ONTD comment section:
Of course they’d fucking put in a white person in this movie. Get ready for some fucking white people in Mulan too.
Oh. They just needed to white it up a little huh Disney.
Thank you bland generic white guy whose name I can’t be bothered to scroll up to copy and paste for bringing some much needed star power and name recognition to this film.
thank goodness, now white people know the movie is for them too
Oh FFS
This mess
lol, he is the same actor who is going to portray the white guy in the Bruce Lee biopic, so he is always going to be the unnecessary white guy?
This is really stupid. They had trouble finding Middle Eastern or Indian actors for the roles of Aladdin and Jasmine, but they can just invent a white character out of thin air for funsies? Fuck that.
White people have an amazing way of trying to insert themselves where they’re not necessary.
Of course there can’t be a movie without a white person. Of course
Fucking no. why. no.
Is he going to colonize Agrabah?
Exclusive: @Disney‘s live-action #Aladdin casts @BillyMagnussen as a new character https://t.co/kpOdK2u8nA pic.twitter.com/3eyVe4NfVw
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) September 5, 2017
More on Aladdin – and Billy’s role – from THR:
The Guy Ritchie-directed movie based on the 1992 animated pic will star relative newcomer Mena Massoud as the street rat turned prince. Power Rangers actress Naomi Scott will play Princess Jasmine, with Marwan Kenzari (Murder on the Orient Express) portraying the villain Jafar and Will Smith playing Genie.
Magnussen will take on the new role created for the movie musical, with all other character details remaining buried in the Cave of Wonders. He joins Saturday Night Live alum Nasim Pedrad, who is set to play the original character Mara, a handmaiden and friend to Jasmine.
John August (Big Fish, Corpse Bride) penned the script. Dan Lin, who worked with Ritchie on Sherlock Holmes, is producing through his Lin Pictures banner.
Magnussen has some experience playing a Disney prince. The Tony nominee appeared in Rob Marshall’s Into the Woods as Rapunzel’s prince, performing the duet “Agony” with Chris Pine.
(Top pic: Pacific Coast News)
The post Billy Magnussen Cast in Aladdin Reboot – But Does It REALLY Need an “Unnecessary White Guy”? appeared first on The WOW Report.
In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Sharon Osbourne went off on Kim Kardashian and her reasons for posting nude or semi-nude selfies.
“Kim says she’s doing everything in the name of feminism, but that’s not feminism! Those girls live off their bodies, half of LA has been through them, and everything they do from the sex tape to the plastic see-through dresses and the gym wear is about sex, not female progress. God bless them. If Kim wants to show off her body, fine. But that’s not feminism, that’s being a ho. And there’s nothing wrong with being a ho, but always remember what you are.”
Sharon Osbourne Slams Kim Kardashian West’s Nude Selfies: ‘That’s Not Feminism’ https://t.co/QWyI0uijl9
— People (@people) September 4, 2017
Last August, you might recall, Kim posted a personal essay on her website and app titled “Why I Don’t Label Myself a Feminist”
“For me, feminist is someone who advocates for the civil and social rights and liberties of all people, regardless of their gender; anyone who believes that women should have the same choices and opportunities as men when it comes to education and employment, their bodies and their lifestyles,” Kardashian West wrote. “Of course I want these things! I’m all about empowering and uplifting women.”
“Obviously, there are things about me that people might say make me a feminist: I work hard, I make my own money, I’m comfortable and confident in my own skin, and I encourage women to be open and honest about their sexuality, and to embrace their beauty and their bodies,” she wrote. “But why do we have to put labels on things? You’re Republican, you’re Democrat, you’re bisexual, you’re plus-size, you’re poor, you’re a criminal, you’re a mother, you’re a feminist. I’m a human being, and I have thoughts, feelings and opinions about a lot of different things.”
What do YOU think? Is Kim a feminist? Does Sharon have the right to call her out on it? What defines a feminist, anyway? Is Sharon one?
(Top photos: Pacific Coast News)
The post Sharon Osbourne Comes for Kim K: “That’s Not Feminism, That’s Being a Ho” appeared first on The WOW Report.
The QUEEN of catchphrases, Gia Gunn from RuPaul’s Drag Race season 6 stopped by WOW recently for an exclusive podcast.
Gia talks with James St. James about her recent trip to Japan and her upcoming plans for RuPaul’s DragCon.
Catch the interview on Soundcloud!
Get your tickets for RuPaul’s DragCon New York!
The post Gia Gunn Stops by World of Wonder for an Exclusive RuPaul’s DragCon NYC Podcast! appeared first on The WOW Report.
“Not again! Not again!”
Yes, again.
The salad-eating wife of a stressed-out gentleman who just needs a XXX rub-down is back in the delightful sequel to “Not In Front of My Salad.”
Jaxton wants to make it up to his wife with a nice in-home massage but things don’t go as planned when masseur Luke offers up some extra lip service and ass. Little does he know he’s about to get caught and right in front of that salad again!
Watch the trailer here.
Mind you, there are DEFINITELY some XXX rated bits, so consider yourself warned.
(Screen grabs via Men.com)
The post The NSFW Trailer for the “Right In Front of My Salad” Sequel Is Here appeared first on The WOW Report.
Just in time for the holidays, the bad moms from last years surprise hit Bad Moms are back! Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell star alongside their “moms” Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski and Cheryl Hines in the naughty follow-up.
In the recently released red band trailer, This Is Us cutie Justin Hartley is a sexy Santa stripper who hooks up with Kathryn Hahn while she waxes his, um, swimsuit area.
“Slight sting on your nut sack…” she warns him.
“I can pull my butt crack open for you if you want,” he offers, helpfully.
“Awww. No-one’s ever asked if they could hold their butt crack open for me,” she says demurely.
“I’ll hold my butt-crack open for you anytime you want, Carla,” he tells her.
“That is so romantic,” Carla’s friend says when she relays the story to her friends…
I’ll say.
Watch below.
The post Justin Hartley Romantically Offers to Hold Open His Butt Crack in the New “Bad Moms’ Christmas” Trailer appeared first on The WOW Report.
TMZ is reporting that Leslie Van Houten, the youngest member of the murderous Manson family, went before a parole panel for the 21st time today and was granted parole suitability at a hearing at the California Institution for Women in Corona, California.
That doesn’t mean she’s a free woman just yet, but it’s a big step toward that.
There’s a 5-month process in which all of her records will be reviewed and the file will then go to Governor Jerry Brown, who can either uphold the parole recommendation, reverse it or modify it.
She shouldn’t get her hopes up … last year the Board made the same recommendation and Brown nixed it.
As we reported … Van Houten was equipped with a 13-page report saying she was immature and brainwashed by Charles Manson as a 19-year-old when she stabbed and murdered Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.
Fellow Manson family killer, Patricia Krenwinkel, was denied parole in June.
Via Wikipedia:
The 68-year-old was convicted and became the youngest woman ever sentenced to death in California. However, executions were halted in the state in 1972 after the California Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional in The People of the State of California v. Robert Page Anderson. She was granted a new trial at which her defense to the charge of first degree murder was diminished responsibility, but the jury could not agree on a verdict. At a third trial, she was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, although with a possibility of parole. In relation to her case, high courts, parole boards, and the state governor have said that an inexplicable or racial motive for murder could merit exemplary punishment and outweigh any evidence of subsequent reform.
The post Manson Family Killer Leslie Van Houten Granted Parole – What Happens Now? appeared first on The WOW Report.
Angie Everhart
Chrissie Hynde
Corbin Bernsen
Dario Argento
Devon Sawa
Diane Warren
Evan Rachel Wood
Gloria Gaynor
Julie Kavner
Michael Emerson
Mira Furlan
Oliver Hudson
Rudy Galindo
Shannon Elizabeth
Toby Jones
Tom Everett Scott
Leslie Jones
The post September 7th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.
Photograph from Penguin Random House
September 7, 1951– Chrissie Hynde:
“I can’t remember having sexual fantasies about actually getting it on with one of my rock-star heroes. I wanted to be them, not do them.”
In 1979, I fell deeply in love with a talented artist/set designer, who would become my boyfriend and eventually my husband. I also fell deeply in love, that same year, with the sound of Chrissie Hynde’s voice. Second only to Annie Lennox, Hynde’s amazing alto really speaks to me. If I was to “flip” for a woman, this is what I would have in mind, because if I am going to be with a woman, I would want her to be butch top.
I have loved the music of The Pretenders from their start and I have followed them and collected their music for 38 years. My favorite album is the beautiful and haunting The Isle Of View (a pun on “I Love You”, get it?). It’s a collection of The Pretenders songs performed with a string quartet in front of a live studio audience in concert. The songs serve as impossibly beautiful art songs and as always with Hynde, the lyrics are crystal clear.
Hynde’s bad attitude has always been refreshing. She has no patience for celebrity. When I listen to her sing, she barely even seems to be giving me the time of day. I find that intriguing.
“My only advice is never get on a plane with anyone who’s more famous than you or else you’ll come under the bit that says, ‘Also killed was…'”
Like me, Hynde is a long-time vegetarian, and her concern for animals endears me to her. And, isn’t she just the coolest looking woman? Her voice, her look and her ennui are perfectly suited to my sensibilities.
The original The Pretenders; Pete Farndon, Martin Chambers, Hynde, and James Honeyman Scott (1980) Photograph by Simon Fowler, from Sire Records
Her very readable, but perplexing memoir Reckless (2015) is as carefully constructed as Hynde’s stage persona. In life and in art, she pushes against the parts of fame that are the most unsettling to her. Reckless is the literary equivalent of a long set of bangs, obscuring heavily mascaraed eyes. Hynde is a very cool enigma and her memoir is a story of a messily lived life.
One of my favorite anecdotes is about when she moved from Akron to London and gets a job working at SEX, Vivienne Westwood’s and Malcolm McLaren’s Punk boutique. This is where Hynde gets an education in the look and style of Rock ’N’ Roll.
Hynde:
“Nobody I knew thought about fashion. Designer labels didn’t exist, not to people like us, anyway. Gucci? That was for someone’s sad auntie. But being around Malcolm and Vivian, I started to understand the meaning of glamour, that how you present yourself to your fellow man is a way of communicating ideas. The idea of trying to be sexy was repellent to me. Something I’d never deliberately do.”
She recounts a story of the time she made an exception to her sexiness rule. She purchased a rubber bondage skirt from SEX and was wearing it out to go see bands. Hynde passed out in a club’s bathroom after too many shots of Southern Comfort, hugging the toilet bowl, her skirt around her waist, one leg sticking out into the next stall. Eventually a cleaning woman found her, and after some effort, managed to pull the skirt back down over Hynde’s sweaty body.
Hynde:
“How embarrassing. Painful too. I never tried to dress sexy after that. Fuck that. Over-the-knee boots was the limit.”
Reckless has stories that might make most people feel especially vulnerable: Being beaten by a boyfriend while at work, getting sexually assaulted, being robbed, and being kidnapped by a stranger while hitchhiking and living to tell, but somehow, it’s that rubber skirt story that I always think about when I think about Hynde.
The memoir brought mass outrage sparked by the section where she writes about the sexual assault by a bunch of bikers when she was 21-years-old, and taking “full responsibility” for it. Hynde:
“I was so stoned. I didn’t even care. That’s what I was talking about, I was talking about the drugs more than anything, and how fucked up we were. And how it impaired our judgment to the point where it just had gotten off the scale.”
I know the section in the book is provocative, but she does describe it as traumatic and vicious assault. I do realize that writing about how women can be to blame for being sexually assaulted is wrong and upsetting to many victims, but Hynde took such a beating in social media for it that she now says that she feels bullied for writing about it at all. I think she had no idea how provocative her story would be. In her mid-60s, she’s maybe not as informed about sexual assault as younger social-media savvy people. She seems genuinely shocked at the reaction. Hynde is not contrite, but I sort of admire that in this age of outrage, she did not apologize and then go into rehab.
Her latest album is Alone (2016). It’s her the tenth studio album and it’s a collaboration with fellow Akron resident Daniel Auerbach, vocalist for the Black Keys. Hynde released it as a The Pretenders album, although her band doesn’t play on it. Such is her way. It’s very good, by the way.
I admire her lack of sentimentality and her disregard for the flattery, praise and awards that come with such a long, successful career:
“I fucking loathe the Grammy Awards with a vengeance. The whole idea of it, I don’t understand it, I don’t respect it, I don’t get it at all. I think it’s bullshit. And the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is the Rock and Roll Hall of Shit. It’s everything that Rock ’N’ Roll isn’t. It sort of desecrates the name of Rock ‘N’ Roll.”
I just love Hynde’s cool reserved voice, solo or with one of the incarnations of her crackerjack band, The Pretenders. Only a brilliant, ballsy, brave songwriter would know that her hard-hitting rock songs could be delivered with such grace and dignity.
“I’ll make music as long as I can sing and stand up and hold a guitar and I feel like doing this.”
The post #BornThisDay: Singer / Songwriter, Chrissie Hynde appeared first on The WOW Report.
Polydor Records
As Houston dries out and begins to rebuild, and Irma takes aim at Florida and the East Coast, and while the West Coast burns, here is a consideration of a certain song on Gloria Gaynor’s birthday.
Gaynor:
“People always want to ask me about my drug problem. I never had a drug problem; I had a self-esteem problem!”
I only have a single song by Gloria Gaynor in my music collection, but what a major song it is. It just hits me on a visceral level and it has since I was a tender 24-years-old. I have several cover versions from such dispiriting artists as Diana Ross, Johnny Mathis and Cake, but the original is the best and it just cuts like a knife.
At first, I was afraid I was petrified
Kept thinking
I could never live without you by my side
But then I spent so many nights
Thinking how you did me wrong
And I grew strong
I learned how to get along
And so you’re back from outer space
I just walked in to find you here
With that sad look upon your face
I should have changed that stupid lock
I should have made you leave your key
If I’d have known for just one second
You’d back to bother me
Go on now
Go walk out the door
Just turn around now
You’re not welcome anymore
Weren’t you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye
Did I crumble?
Did you think I’d lie down and die?
Oh, no
I will survive
As long as I know how to love I know I’ll stay alive
I’ve got all my life to live
I’ve got all my love to give
And I’ll survive
I will survive
It took all the strength I had not to fall apart
Kept trying hard to mend the pieces of my broken heart
I spent oh so many nights
Just feeling sorry for myself
I used to cry
But now I hold my head up high
And you see me, somebody new
I’m not that chained up little person still in love with you
And so you feel like dropping in
And just expect me to be free,
Now I’m saving all my loving
For someone who’s loving me
Go on now…
I Will Survive, as sung by Gaynor, was released in September 1978. It was written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris in 1975. The song received heavy airplay in 1979, reaching Number One on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2016, the Library Of Congress named Gaynor’s original recording as “Culturally, historically, or artistically significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
It was originally the B-side to a cover version of Substitute by The Righteous Brothers, but it became a worldwide hit for when DJs played that side of the record instead. Substitute peaked at Number 107 in October 1978, but I Will Survive entered the Billboard Hot 100 in December and reached Number One by March 1979.
As a Disco song, Gaynor’s version is unique for not using background singers. Most Disco hits were heavily produced, with multiple voices, overdubs, and adjustments to pitch and speed. For its era, I Will Survive has a much more clean, economical sound.
It won the Grammy Award for Best Disco Recording in 1980, the only year that award was given. It is on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and Billboard’s All-Time Hot 100.
How many times in the late 1970s did I dance at some disco, with some guy shoving a little brown bottle under my nose, while this tune was playing? How many times in the past three decades have I gone to bed angry at my husband with that tune spinning in my head? It even, eerily, played on shuffle on my iPod while I was hooked up to five IVs at the hospital when I was doing battle with that damn cancer.
In the 1980s, with Disco on the way out, Gaynor did the only thing a smart Diva could do; she traveled around playing in cabarets, consoling herself with bunches of money. She even had more than one hit. There was Never Can Say Goodbye, plus her version of Jerry Herman’s hymn to Gay: I Am What I Am from the musical La Cage Aux Folles. But, her signature song will always be I Will Survive, ironically recorded while she was recovering from major surgery and just after her mother had died.
“I was standing there in that back brace and thinking of those two things while I was singing that song. It enabled me to sing it with conviction.”
In the 1970s, Gaynor played gay clubs, drinking champagne and smoking something or another, but then she found Jesus. Gay people loved her, but did she love the gays? Gaynor:
“I had a backlash from gay fans for a tiny period. They didn’t understand where I was coming from. Now they recognize that my beliefs are my beliefs and that I have no opinions separate from the Bible. There are areas that we agree to disagree on. It’s as simple as that. I don’t have a problem with them having their beliefs, because my feeling is that God gives each and every one of us the right to not even believe in him. So who am I to try to take that away from somebody? I will always try to share my faith with any person who is willing to listen. When I feel a wall go up, we can talk about something else … and I will pray for you.”
Holy shit!
Here is how I hold I Will Survive in my heart: The Disco Era, with its new style of music, fashion, hair, platform shoes, mirror balls; and for many, it was a sin against God and good-taste. But, I Will Survive is still a dramatic, dynamic recording, with a great hook, a great beat, and it makes me want to dance. It also has an almost mystical power to bring back a feeling from the past and capture my imagination. As a gay guy of a certain age, it has special power to heal the loss of all the friends and colleagues I lost to the plague. Transcendent Melodrama, is that a genre? Even when I am hearing the song for the thousandth time, I hear it as if for the first time in my life.
The post #FlashBack78: Considering “I Will Survive” on Gloria Gaynor’s Birthday appeared first on The WOW Report.
What it would be like to smell Fucking Fabulous? A bit of almond, bitter oil, tonka resinoid, orris accord, cashmeran, leather accord and clary sage oil. And it retails for $395 for a 50 ml bottle and $495 for the atomizer. Smelling this “Fucking Fabulous” ain’t cheap!
Tom Ford just presented his latest SS18/ Women’s Collection at New York Fashion Week live on Instagram last night. It was pretty fucking fabulous too.
The post #F*ckingFabulous: Tom Ford’s New Fragrance IS F*cking EXPENSIVE! appeared first on The WOW Report.
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