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From “Messages From Bhupen Khakhar (1987)” via YouTube

Two Men In Banaras (1982)

Bhupen Khakhar (1934-2003) was a leading artist in Indian contemporary art. He was a self-trained artist and started his career as a painter relatively late in his life. His works are figurative, concerned with the human body and its identity. Gender definitions and gender identity were major themes of his work. His paintings often contained references to Indian mythology.

Khakhar grew up in Mumbai. His family were originally artisans who came from the Portuguese colony of Diu. At home they spoke Gujarati, Marathi and Hindi, but not much English. He studied Economics at the University of Bombay, and worked as an accountant for many years, pursuing his artistic inclinations in his free time. He also studied in Hindi mythology and literature, and became well informed about the visual arts.

In 1958, Khakhar met the young Gujarati poet and painter Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, who encouraged Khakhar’s interest in art and encouraged him to come to the newly founded Faculty of Fine Arts in Baroda.

Khakhar’s works are narrative and autobiographical. His first exhibited pieces presented pictures of deities cut from books, glued onto mirrors, with added graffiti. He began to show his work in 1965, which soon garnered attention and critical praise. By the 1980s, Khakhar had solo shows in galleries in London, Berlin, Amsterdam and Tokyo.

Untitled (1970)

Idiot (2003)

The work celebrates the day to day struggles of India’s common man. Khakhar’s paintings depict average people, such as the barber, the watch repairman, and an accountant with whom he worked. He reproduced the look of small Indian shops in his paintings and reveals a talent for seeing the intriguing within the mundane.

Window Cleaner (1982)

Escape Into Life Half. (2000)

My Dear Friend (1983)

I find him to be a sort of Indian David Hockney (with a dash of Marc Chagall). He was certainly influenced by Pop Art movement, but Khakhar understood that western versions of Pop Art would not have the same meaning in India.

Khakhar’s gay themes attracted special notice. In that era, homosexuality was something rarely talked about in India. He explored his own gayness in extremely personal ways, touching on both its cultural implications and its romantic and erotic manifestations. Khakhar painted scenes of gay life and love from a distinctively Indian perspective. The autobiographical element of his work is a starkly honest act of confession, which is both provocative and moving.

Man In Pub (1979)

He was portrayed as “the accountant” in Salman Rushdie’s novel The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995). Khakhar later made a portrait of Rushdie that he called The Moor, and which can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery, London.  My favorite of his works is You Can’t Please All (1981) a life-size naked figure, a self-portrait, watches from a balcony, as father, son and donkey enact an ancient fable.

His works have won many awards amd can be found in the collections of the British Museum, The Tate, and The Museum of Modern Art in NYC, among others.

Medhavi Gandhi (1997)

De-lux Tailor (1972)

Grey Blanket (1997)

You Can’t Please All (1981)

All pictures from Estate of Bhupen Khakhar from The Tate online archives

Self-portrait, 1977

Photographer Peter Hujar, (1934–1987) who died of AIDS in 1987 at the age of fifty-three, has a new retrospective, Speed of Life, up now through May 20 at the Morgan Library & Museum. The works in the Morgan show range across the genres of portraiture, nudes and cityscape as well as some starting portraits, sometimes of the famous.

Hujar met David Wojnarowicz as a young hustler in late 80s (and who died from AIDS himself in ’92) and became soul mates in art. According to Peter Schjeldahl in The New Yorker, Wojnarowicz said that Hujar,

“was like the parent I never had, like the brother I never had.”

Peter Hujar, Christopher Street Pier, 1976

Peter Hujar, Gary Schneider in contortion, 1979

Peter Hujar, Boys in car, Halloween, 1978

Peter Hujar, Gary Indiana, 1981

Peter Hujar, Susan Sontag, 1975

Peter Hujar, Candy Darling on her deathbed, 1973

David Wojnarowicz (1954–1992) has an upcoming show, History Keeps Me Awake at Night opening this summer at New York’s Whitney museum. It’s the first major exhibit of his fiercely political and highly personal and work in over decade.

Portrait of David Wojnarowicz (1981) by Peter Hujar

An upcoming documentary on Wojnarowicz is being directed by Chris McKim (Out of Iraq) and produced by World of Wonder‘s Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.

40th anniversary spread of Aperture. Design, Trey Speegle

David Wojnarowicz, self-portrait

David Wojnarowicz, Arthur Rimbaud in New York, 1978-1979

David Wojnarowicz, Arthur Rimbaud in New York, 1978-1979

David Wojnarowicz, ‘Untitled (Buffaloes)’ (1988-89), sold at auction for a record $125,000

David Wojnarowicz, Peter Hujar

Mark Morrisroe, Untitled (Self Portrait) [Sweet 16: Little Me as a Child Prostitute]

His solo exhibition of photographs Boy Next Door (Beautiful But Dumb), is up through March 24 at Clamp Art in NYC. Morrisroe grew up, north of Boston, and went to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts with artists like Doug and Mike Starn, Jack Pierson & Pat Hearn. (Hearn & Pierson are pictured below.) ClampArt’s show comes from photographs acquired from Hearn before her death at 45 in 2000. Sadly, Mark died of AIDS a decade before at age 30 in 1989.

All three photographers are worth exploring further in these exhibits and all are an amazing record of their time, exciting, inspiring, as well as a sad reminder of the great talent lost what now seems like long ago.

Exhibition invitation/ poster, 1986. Design, Trey Speegle

Mark Morrisroe, Untitled (Trey with Spot)

Mark Morrisroe, self-portrait (bed)

Mark Morrisroe, Pat Hearn

Mark Morrisroe, Jack Pierson

Mark Morrisroe, Untitled (Nathan Shapiro)

Mark Morrisroe, Boy Next Door (Beautiful But Dumb)

Reluctant FLOTUS Melania Trump got a visit from other former first ladies –who had some words of wisdom for her including Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy reprising her role in Jackie,

Portman’s Kennedy then appears from a puff of smoke in Melania room,

“Hello, Melania, it is me, Jackie Kennedy. I have come to you in your hour of need, because I know how trying being first lady can be. All first ladies have a platform. Yours is bullying, mine was little hats.“

Kate McKinnon‘s Hillary Clinton also appears saying,

“Melania, I feel your pain, but you married him. And like America you had a choice, so don’t choose to eat 7-11 sushi and then come to me saying, ‘Something’s wrong!‘”

And Leslie Jones‘s Michelle Obama appears, and says,

“Look, Barack and I have a perfect relationship. It’s like The Notebook, but black and rich.“

Hillary says that’s not helpful, and Obama responds,

“Whatever –my arms rule, I love vegetables and I can be president whenever I want.“

Watch.

Photo by Pete Sekesan via Wikimedia Commons

I don’t know if you have heard of her, but Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is an exception singer/songwriter. She is lead vocalist of the R&B girl-group Destiny’s Child and I think she is really going places.

Beyoncé established Formation Scholars Awards to encourage and support young women who are unafraid to think outside the box and are bold, creative, conscious and confident. Four scholarships are awarded each year, one per college, to female incoming, current or graduate students pursuing studies in creative arts, music, literature or African-American studies. The schools participating are Berklee College of Music, Howard University, Parsons School of Design and Spelman College. Details and application deadlines are available directly from the colleges.

Between Beyoncé, Michelle Obama and other notable women, I think no matter what happens with our current POTUS and his gang, girls still have remarkable role models to look up to. And Ivanka, she ain’t one of them.

If you watch The Bachelor, you know Rebekah Martinez as a free spirit who had great chemistry with the former race car driver, Arie Luyendyk, looking for true love. She is on the missing persons list in Humboldt County, California.

A news release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office says that Martinez’s mother said her daughter called November 12, using a friend’s cell phone, and told her,

“she was going to work on a marijuana farm and would see her in seven to eight days.“

Martinez’s mother filed the missing person report November 18, and deputies who tried unsuccessfully to reach her, turned over to the criminal investigations division.

Her mother that Martinez had called her November 18 — the day the missing person report was filed — and was heading home. But the deputy was unable to make direct contact with the Martinez, so she remained listed as “missing.”

An ABC spokeswoman Courtney Kugel said that during part of the time she was “missing”, Martinez was working on The Bachelor, filming in September, October and November of last year.

Martinez, known as Bekah M, she appeared on weekly episodes that aired January 1-29. One of the season’s most dramatic moments occurred when she dined with the bachelor, former race car driver Arie Luyendyk Jr., and revealed her true age, 22 to Luyendyk’s 36.

Meanwhile, back in California, a reader called the sheriff’s office and told them she’d seen one of those missing people alive and well on TV!

The sheriff’s office contacted the mother again, who said Martinez really had tried to contact the sheriff’s office back in December but couldn’t get through to a deputy. An officer finally spoke with Martinez on Wednesday afternoon and, assured she was OK, changed her status to “found.”

(via CNN)

FYI, in case those rumors were still floating around, Janet Jackson will NOT be performing with Justin Timberlake at the Super Bowl halftime today. In a tweet yesterday she said,

“To put to rest any speculation or rumors as to whether I will be performing at the Super Bowl tomorrow; I will not. Thank you for your support and I do look forward to seeing you all very soon.”

At the 2004 Super Bowl there was the now infamous “wardrobe malfunction” aka, “nipple gate”. Timberlake ripped off a cover over one of Jacson’s breasts during the lyric I’ll,

“have you naked by the end of this song.”

The FCC fined Jackson and CBS $550,000 (which was ruled eventually that the fine was just) Jackson’s got was damaged. Timberlake’s didn’t.

JT’s selection to perform at Super Bowl 52 has stirred up the old controversy that people were still angry about the was he largely hung Jackson out to dry. Three years later that the singer really acknowledged that he got off lightly.

“In my honest opinion now … I could’ve handled it better. I probably got 10 percent of the blame, and that says something about society. I think that America’s harsher on women … And I think that America is, you know, unfairly harsh on ethnic people.”

As Vox’s Alex Abad-Santos recently said, Viacom, the parent company of MTV, which produced the 2004 show, blamed Jackson. They blacklisted her music videos from airing and her songs from playing on their radio stations and CBS too back Jackson’s invitation to present at the Grammy’s. She was reportedly pressured into skipping the ceremony but Timberlake, on the other hand, attended and won two awards.

Jackson’s still a cultural icon but Jackson’s father, Joseph Jackson, told the New York Post he still hasn’t gotten over the incident.

“If [Timberlake’s] such a gentleman, he’d make sure Janet is there.”

pic.twitter.com/W2ZsGkTFs2

— Janet Jackson (@JanetJackson) February 4, 2018

(via Vox)

It’s been many long years since a new boy band has swept the globe, setting our hearts ablaze with floppy hair, youthful shenanigans, and sexually non-threatening good looks. Leave it to super-producer Simon Cowell, though, to fill the void left by One Direction. His new pre-fab fivesome some is PRETTYMUCH and they are pretty much EVERYTHING (see what I did there?). Brandon! Nick! Zion! Austin! and Edwin! AKA The One Most Likely to Go Solo! The Boy’s Boy! The Ethnically Diverse One! The Weird One Who Can Harmonize! and The Dreamy One with the Puppydog Eyes! Watch them perform on GMA, below.

And if you’re STILL not sure who’s who, watch this TRL breakdown as the boys play a quick game of “Most Like To” (As in: Which one is most likely to wear a robe all day? Pee on the seat? Stink up the house? – YES EVERYTHING YOU’VE BEEN DYING TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE NEW BAND!) below:

Hosting a party isn’t just something ANYONE can do. It takes skill, finesse, and a keen sense of people skills to set yourself apart from rabble. In today’s all new episode of “The Brill of it All,” the inimitable Dianne Brill lays out THE NUMBER ONE MOST IMPORTANT thing a good host or hostess can do to ensure the success of their party. Can you guess what it is? Watch below to get the answer.

Natalie Portman first hosted SNL in 2006, and created a video where she poked fun at her image as a positive role model with a rap about fighting, drinking, and cheating at Harvard. Saturday Night she revived the the idea with some new references, including the Star Wars prequels.

Beck Bennett is interviewing her and at one point asks if she’s seen the latest Star Wars films when she cuts him off. He starts to say that they’re better than the prequels, when Padmé Amidala violently drops the beat…

Watch.

Here’s the first Natalie Raps from 2004. (Look out for ex Carl again…)

Watch.

(via The Verge)

Samuel Woodward (left), 20, of Newport Beach, California, has pled guilty in the stabbing death of his former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein (right). He was arrested early last month on suspicion of homicide and charged with one felony count of murder with a sentencing enhancement of the personal use of a knife, although questions still remain whether or not he should be charged with a hate crime.

via New York Daily News:

Authorities have not revealed a motive for the killing. But a source, who spoke to the Los Angeles Times on condition of anonymity, said Woodward claimed that Bernstein had kissed him.

Bernstein, who was home visiting his parents on winter break from the University of Pennsylvania, was found with more than 20 stab wounds.

If convicted of the murder charge, Woodward could face a maximum sentence of 26 years to life in state prison. He has also been charged with one felony count of murder with a sentencing enhancement of using a knife.

Woodward is allegedly an “avowed Nazi” and a member of Atomwaffen Division, an extremist neo-Nazi group.

He was held on $5 million bail, which was raised from $2 million after the judge deemed him a flight risk.

He will return to court on March 2, according to reports.

More on that story as it develops.

And for more on the Blaze Bernstein murder, including an in-depth analysis of whether or not his death constitutes a hate crime, read this.

WERQ the World Tour is coming to YOU!

Are you ready for it?!? Have you gotten your tickets yet?!? Thanks to Voss Event the WERQ the World Tour is coming traveling the world (seriously) and coming to YOU in the near future. Trust us, you definitely do not want to miss it!

“After sold-out shows across the globe in 2017, the only Official World Tour of the hit television series RuPaul’s Drag Race returns with an all new show for 2018. Tour stops include Latin America, Europe, & North America. Visit WerqTheWorld.com for tickets.”

But, what is the Werq the World Tour?

Well, it’s pretty much everything you could ever want from a drag tour and so much more! The line-up varies by city and subject to change, so please check local listings, but it features Alyssa Edwards, Shangela, Detox, Kim Chi, Valentina, Peppermint, Latrice Royale, and is hosted by Michelle Visage!

Seriously look at all these amazing queens!

Buy your tickets for the tour stop coming near you right here at WerqTheWorld.com!

Watch the trailer for the show here!

Snatch up your tickets today!

Here are all the current dates for the tour. More cities being announced soon, so stay tuned!

NORTH AMERICA
Line-up varies by city and subject to change. Please check local listings.

Wed Feb 7 2018
Houston
Jones Hall
7:00 pm

LATIN AMERICA
Line-up varies by city and subject to change. Please check local listings.

Fri Feb 9 2018
Mexico City
Auditorio Blackberry
9:00 pm

Sat Feb 10 2018
Monterrey
Escena Monterrey
9:00 pm

Sun Feb 11 2018
Guadalajara
Teatro Diana
9:00 pm

Thu Feb 15 2018
Buenos Aires
Teatro Vorterix
8:00 pm

Fri Feb 16 2018
Buenos Aires
Teatro Vorterix
8:00 pm

Sat Feb 17 2018
Santiago
Teatro Cariola
8:00 pm

Sun Feb 18 2018
Lima
Barranco Arena
8:00 pm

Thu Feb 22 2018
Porto Alegre
Teatro Do Bourbon Country
9:30 pm

Fri Feb 23 2018
Rio De Janeiro
Teatro Bradesco Rio
9:30 pm

Sat Feb 24 2018
Sao Paulo
Teatro Bradesco
9:30 pm

Sun Feb 25 2018
Sao Paulo
Teatro Bradesco
9:30 pm

EUROPE
Line-up varies by city and subject to change. Please check local listings.

Fri May 18 2018
Berlin
Admiralpalast Berlin
9:00 pm

Sat May 19 2018
Copenhagen
DR Koncerthuset
10:00 pm

Mon May 21 2018
Hamburg
Stage Operettenhaus
9:00 pm

Tue May 22 2018
Cologne
Gloria Theater
9:00 pm

Thu May 24 2018
Rotterdam
Villa Thalia
9:00 pm

Fri May 25 2018
Amsterdam
Theater Amsterdam
9:00 pm

Sat May 26 2018
London
Troxy
7:00 pm

Sun May 27 2018
Birmingham
Symphony Hall
9:00 pm

Tue May 29 2018
Cardiff
St David’s Hall
9:00 pm

Wed May 30 2018
Manchester
Palace Theater
9:00 pm

Fri Jun 1 2018
Belfast
Waterfront Hall
9:00 pm

Sat Jun 2 2018
Dublin
Olympia Theater
9:00 pm

Sun Jun 3 2018
Glasgow
SEC Armadillo
7:00 pm

Wed Jun 6 2018
Paris
Salle Wagram
8:00 pm

Thu Jun 7 2018
Antwerp
Stadsschouwburg
9:00 pm

Fri Jun 8 2018
Barcelona
Razzmatazz
8:00 pm

Sat Jun 9 2018
Madrid
Sala La Riviera
8:00 pm

Thu Jun 14 2018
Stockholm
Gota Lejon
8:00 pm

Fri Jun 15 2018
Stockholm
Gota Lejon
8:00 pm

Sat Jun 16 2018
Oslo
Folketeateret
8:00 pm

Sun Jun 17 2018
Helskinki
Finlandia Hall
9:00 pm

Mon Jun 18 2018
Helsinki
Finlandia Hall
9:00 pm

[Image via Voss Events.]

The divas may be done but the egos are OUT. TO. PLAY.

It may only be Monday but we are SO ready for Thursday to watch the next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3.

Milk and Kennedy Davenport feel some tension in the workroom. RuPaul swings by to give the queens their next challenge! The queens must improv their way through a dating show called, The Bitchelor. Except all the queens are given extreme personalities to play!

YASSS! Bring it on!

You can watch the first ten minutes of Thursday night’s episode RIGHT NOW!

 Watch new episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3 on Thursday nights at 8 PM ET / PT on VH1.

content via VH1.

Gay Times UK has four, count ’em FOUR, covers his month… one of which features our very own Peppermint! (

Peppermint is on a career high right now after it was announced earlier this week that she will make history as the first trans woman to originate a principal role on Broadway in the upcoming Go-Go’s jukebox musical Head Over Heels.

AMAZING! Congratulations!

From the interview:

Peppermint was the first openly trans contestant to appear on RuPaul’s Drag Race, and is the first trans woman to appear on the cover of Gay Times. Not only a fierce queen, Peppermint is fiercely political and looks forward to the bright future of further trans representation in media.

“We need lawmakers in our favour. Lawmakers must be diverse as possible from all races, genders and sexualities to reflect the societies they are representing. We’ve had a number of lawmakers around the world step into the light who are queer and that’s fantastic and it feels
essential now.”

On the inclusivity of RuPaul’s Drag Race when it comes to trans contestants:

“It’s not a show about trans folk or trans issues and it’s not necessarily supposed to educate the community. It’s just the model they have. I don’t know if they’re planning on changing it soon, but I would personally like to see all kinds of queens on the show -— not only different types of drag queens but different types of people doing drag.”

Photo from CNN via YouTube

John Mahoney, best known as Martin Crane, the irascible father of Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce on Frasier, passed away Sunday night. He was 77-years-old.

A Chicago medical magazine editor, Mahoney quit his day job when he was 37-years old to study acting. He became a member of Chicago’s fabled Steppenwolf Theater where he appeared in Lyle Kessler’s brutal play Orphans, going with the production when it played Off-Broadway in 1983, receiving a Theatre World Award.

Mahoney won a Tony Award in 1986 for his performance in a revival of John Guare’s The House Of Blue Leaves. The production was videotaped for PBS’ Theatre in America series. In 2007, he was back on Broadway in a revival of Craig Lucas’s Prelude To A Kiss.

He had the double-whammy of appearing Barry Levinson’s Tin Men in 1987, the same year  he was so memorable in Moonstruck as a depressed college professor dad who regularly had affairs with his students.

Although he was offered numerous series after Frasier, Mahoney moved back to Chicago in 2003 and began acting again with Steppenwolf, first starring in I Never Sang For My Father, and the following year, playing Sir in The Dresser.

He was much praised for his performance as an anguished CEO in psychological counseling on Season 2 of HBO’s In Treatment in 2009. From 2011 to 2014, Mahoney had a recurring role on Hot In Cleveland the love interest of Betty White’s character.

I was always such a huge fan of the Frasier (1993-2004), but even more so during the year that I was in cancer treatment and I found a channel that seemed to only play Frasier reruns that kept me laughing. It certainly is one of the gayest series of all time, with openly gay cast members: Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce as Niles Crane, Edward Hibbert as Gil Chesterton, station KACL’s premier food critic, Dan Butler as sports reporter Bulldog Brisko, and Mahoney who was quietly gay, never talking about his private life in interviews, but well known in the Chicago GLBTQ scene. Maybe because no one has ever asked him if he was gay, he never felt the need to make a public statement about it.

Born in England, Mahoney first discovered acting at the Stretford Children’s  Theater. He took acting classes at St. Nicholas Theatre in Chicago which was where he was encouraged by John Malkovich to join Steppenwolf Theater. While there, he won the Clarence Derwent Award as Most Promising Male Newcomer… at 40-years-old.

His resume is filled with impressive roles in iconic films: Say Anything… (1989), Reality Bites (1994), the thriller In The Line Of Fire (1994), the baseball flick Eight Men Out (1988) plus the Coen Brothers’ Barton Fink (1991) and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994).

A versatile actor, he plays a murdering racist in Costa-Gravas’ Betrayed (1988), giving a powerful, restrained performance. He is equally moving, hilariously, and quite romantic in Moonstruck, and memorable as the quintessential icy bureaucrat in Roman Polanski’s Frantic (1988).

Mahoney was also known for his voice work in many classic animated features including The Iron Giant (1998) and Antz (1999). In 2007, he reunited with his Frasier co-stars on The Simpsons and as Dr. Robert Terwiiliger, Sr., the father of Grammer’s Sideshow Bob and Pierce’s Cecil.

He played gay in The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000) as a restaurant owner who provides advice for a group of gay friends in West Hollywood played by Timothy Olyphant, Dean Cain, Zach Braff, and Billy Porter.

His final performance was Foyle’s War is a British detective drama in 2015.

Frasier, with Moose as Eddie, via YouTube

Yet, it was his role in Frasier as the fussy, unfiltered Martin Crane that earned him the most recognition. The role earned him two Emmy Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations and a Screen Actors Guild Award win. That role will cause most of our tears to be shed at his loss.

Van Doren at 80-years-old, photograph by Alan Mercer via YouTube

”I came to Hollywood determined to follow in Jean Harlow’s footsteps, but I was determined not to die young. My hope was to endure. And endure I have.”

It is unfair to lump Mamie Van Doren (born 1931) into a convenient little group of bombshells along with Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. She has a kind of Rock ‘N’ Roll sensibility that those other girls lacked, plus her story is not tragic. And, most important, she is still with us, looking like a million bucks.

Van Doren says that she had her way with Rock Hudson after they went on a studio arranged date to the 1953 Photoplay Awards. While filming Yankee Pasha (1953), she enjoyed the special company of the director Joe Pevney and the film’s star, the very yummy Jeff Chandler. She had a liaison with fellow actor Jack Palance, and prolific songwriter Jimmy McHugh (Let’s Get Lost), at the time columnist Louella Parson’s boyfriend, making a lifetime enemy of the notorious gossip writer.

Van Doren had a string of affairs in the 1950s, including Dragnet’s Jack Webb, Denmark’s Prince Alex, abusive millionaire drunk Conrad ”Nicky” Hilton, Jr. (one of Elizabeth Taylor’s exes), before she became engaged to big band leader Ray Anthony. Around the same time, Confidential Magazine threatened to run a story claiming that Van Doren and her mother had a side business as call girls, but her lawyer had the story stopped.

She had a son with Anthony, before they split up. After that, Van Doren had a fling with Elvis Presley in 1957. The next year she had her best screen role yet with the Clark Gable / Doris Day comedy Teacher’s Pet. During filming Van Doren enjoyed the special company of the aging Gable, before moving on to actors George Hamilton, Yves Montand and bisexual Laurence Harvey. She even dropped LSD with Cary Grant!

I am not just coming up with the list of men in Van Doren’s life out of my imagination. In her terrific memoir, Playing The Field: Sex, Stardom, Love, And Life In Hollywood (2013), and on her candid blog, Van Doren is very forthcoming about the men in her long life.

Oh, by the way… she was #BornThisDay!

Quentin Tarantino is in the news this week, after Uma Thurman told the New York Times about a car crash she had on the set of Kill Bill (caused because Tarantino wouldn’t let her use a stunt double) and how the director also spit on her in one scene and choked her in another.

Shortly after the Times piece came out, the following 2003 Howard Stern interview resurfaced in which Tarantino defended Roman Polanski for raping a 13-year-old girl back in the 1970s, saying the girl “was down with” it.

The mind reels.

Listen to the whole interview below.

Tarantino: I don’t consider [Polanski] to be a rapist…

Howard Stern: See I don’t understand this. How can you defend… Why is it that Hollywood embraces this mad man, this director who raped a 13-year-old…

Tarantino: “He didn’t rape a 13-year-old. It was statutory rape…he had sex with a minor. That’s not rape. To me, when you use the word rape, you’re talking about violent, throwing them down—it’s like one of the most violent crimes in the world. You can’t throw the word rape around. It’s like throwing the word ‘racist’ around. It doesn’t apply to everything people use it for. He was guilty of having sex with a minor…”

Robin Quivers: That she didn’t want to have!

Tarantino: No, that was not the case AT ALL. She wanted to have it and dated the guy and—

Quivers: She was 13!

Tarantino: And by the way, we’re talking about America’s morals, not talking about the morals in Europe and everything.

Stern: Wait a minute. If you have sex with a 13-year-old girl and you’re a grown man, you know that that’s wrong.

Quivers: …giving her booze and pills…

Tarantino: Look, she was down with this.

Yeah, you know you’re on shaky moral ground when Howard Stern is the voice of reason.

(via Jezebel; Top photo: Pacific Coast News)

Transformation Tuesday just got a whole lot QTer…New queers featured every week! Tag us, take a pic of us and follow us on Instagram at QWERRRKOUT, and you too could be the next QT! YOU BETTA QWERRRK! (Mx Qwerrrk pic by celebrity photog Santiago Felipe, illustration by Piepke)

Kenzie Couleé

Age: 23

Location: Chicago, Illinois

About:

“I started drag originally because I was designing clothes and accessories in college, and I needed a reason to wear them out. I started off by styling photo shoots for queens and nightlife events, until I built up my own makeup skills and presence to be able to host and perform regularly.

I’m inspired by my culture and life experience as a first generation Chinese American and Black American, by food and travel, nature, sex, fantasy, fashion (particularly the 16th century), music in most genres, and playing my violin.”

Calvin Klein designer Raf Simons has been collaborating with the Andy Warhol Foundation to create the perfect Valentine’s Day gift, a a capsule collection of sexy underoos featuring images from Warhol’s underground film Kiss (in which couples of the opposite and same gender kiss on camera for an extended period of time).

via PAPER:

Calvin Klein’s relationship with The Andy Warhol Foundation is reportedly set to continue through until 2020, so we’re about to see a whole host of Warhol content appearing on Simon’s designs. Too blessed.

The Twitterverse went into meltdown the other day when it was announced that PepsiCo was looking to develop women-friendly Doritos that didn’t leave flavor residue on fingers and had a less audible crunch.

According to PepsiCo’s longtime CEO, Indra Nooyi, these were two traits of its chips that women don’t like.

“As you watch a lot of the young guys eat the chips, they love their Doritos, and they lick their fingers with great glee, and when they reach the bottom of the bag they pour the little broken pieces into their mouth, because they don’t want to lose that taste of the flavor, and the broken chips in the bottom,” Nooyi told Freakonomics.

She said: “Women I think would love to do the same, but they don’t. They don’t like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don’t lick their fingers generously and they don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth.”

As I mentioned, Twitter was having none of it, rightly accusing the company of being slightly tone-deaf.

Good news, ladies. We got a female Colonel Sanders and Doritos that don’t crunch, so feminism is cancelled. We’ve achieved equality.

— OhNoSheTwitnt (@OhNoSheTwitnt) February 5, 2018

Cheer up, gals! We may not get a lady president, but we do get lady Doritos!

— 𝕁𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕖 𝔻𝕖𝕒𝕟 (@NicCageMatch) February 5, 2018

Now that Doritos has delivered us from sexism, what are we gonna do instead of a women’s march next year, gals, should we just hang out quietly eating chips?

— OhNoSheTwitnt (@OhNoSheTwitnt) February 5, 2018

Has anyone at Doritos ever met a lady

— Danielle Sepulveres (@ellesep) February 5, 2018

WE DO NOT WANT: #LadyDoritos
Lady Laxatives
Lady Power Tools
Lady Shavers
Little Lady Lego
Lady Wages

WE DO WANT:

Lady Prime Minister
Lady Leaders
Lady Pope pic.twitter.com/7W8nmvIhfd

— Julia Baird (@bairdjulia) February 6, 2018

What if Lady Doritos are just regular Doritos but when a woman buys a bag she only gets 77% of the chips a guy would.#LadyDoritos

— Geraldine (@everywhereist) February 6, 2018

Said other commenters:

“I see your Lady Doritos and raise you my ‘Manpons’ . Tampons for men. Stick them in your mouth and shut the f—k up,” one angered commenter wrote.

and

“Lady Doritos sums up sexism in one chemically-flavored, chewy package. Women are not to be heard. Men can be heard. Women are not to be messy. Men can get as messy as they like. Women are to settle for less. Men have no need to settle.”

All of this led PepsiCo to backtrack on Nooyi’s statement, saying today:

“We already have Doritos for women — they’re called Doritos,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.

So….. Not happening. Chill out. Tempest in a teapot. (via CBS)