Last week Drag Race Thailand premiered and you got to start the journey with 10 queens as they battle it out for the title of Thailand’s Next Drag Queen Superstar! Keep up with the competition and watch episode 2 now on WOW Presents Plus! This week we’re hearing wedding bells with the mini challenge and everyone loves a good wedding, right?! Watch now! And if you can’t get enough of Drag Race Thailand, come out to RuPaul’s DragCon LA, and meet Art Arya & Pangina Heals!
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!
This week, we have RuPaul’s Drag Race season six crowned queen Bianca Del Rio filling in for Fenton who is out on assignment. Buy Bianca’s new book Blame It On Bianca: The Expert on Nothing With An Opinion On Everything – Available May 22!
We air TODAY at 3PM EST on SiriusXM, and again at 3PM PST (that’s 6PM EST). You can also catch the show on the SiriusXM app!
Let’s get started…
Skip forward to Hot Play: Boys in the Band on Broadway @1:45
Skip forward to James St. James Does the UK! @8:09
Buy Bianca’s new book Blame It On Bianca: The Expert on Nothing With An Opinion On Everything – Available May 22!
Skip forward to Blame It On Bianca: The Expert on Nothing With an Opinion on Everything @14:23
Skip forward to Hot Musical: Mean Girls on Broadway @21:00
Skip forward to WOW! Childish Gambino’s “This is America” @26:11
Skip forward to Madonna Wins the Met Gala @30:25
Skip forward to Lizzo Conquers Radio City Music Hall @38:56
Skip forward to James Reviews Infinity War @43:35
Skip forward to Blake Reviews Overboard @48:00
Skip forward to RuPaul’s DragCon LA @53:42
Listen in at 3:00PM EST and again at 3:00 PST (6 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 time of year you wait for is finally here! It’s RuPaul’s DragCon weekend kitty girl and you better get ready to serve lewks to the gawds because the photo ops available at RuPaul’s DragCon LA are to die for! Check out some sneak peeks at the photo ops and be sure to get your tickets today so you don’t miss your chance to snap a pic!
In honor of Day 1 RuPaul’s DragCon LA, here are the queens from Drag Race #AllStars2
giving Harvey Fierstein a gagworthy musical performance of the iconic number, I Am What I Am from the Broadway musical La Cage Aux Folles for Logo’s Trailblazer Honors.
Led by Ginger Minj (what a voice!) at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine no less (Did someone say Divine?!)… here are Alaska, Phi Phi O’Hara, Tatiana, and THE Alyssa Edwards backing her up. (The moment he sees all of the queens, Harvey bursts into tears…)
Watch.
1957 poster
Was there ever a gayer film than Stage Door (1937) where Katharine Hepburn as an ingénue utters the famous line: ”The calla lilies are in bloom again”? Cast alongside Gay Icons Eve Arden, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller and Ginger Rogers, Hepburn played it broadly and autobiographically, as the daughter of a wealthy businessman who wants a career in the theater with no prior training. It remains one of my favorite Hepburn performances.
The original Broadway play Stage Door by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman was a deeper look at the lives of a group of young women living in a theatrical boardinghouse in Manhattan while waiting for their big showbiz breaks. Ferber and Kaufman were good friends and members of the famed literary group The Algonquin Round Table.
Stage Door was first produced in 1936 at the intimate Music Box Theatre. It ran for 169 performances. It is the story of young ladies who all live together in The Footlights Club, a house exclusively for female performers. The show explores success, failure, love, comradeship and perseverance. Playing in the middle of The Great Depression, the play served as a love letter to the American Dream and the persistence of all starving artists.
Kaufman also directed the premiere production of Stage Door. He had his first hit in 1925 with The Butter And Egg Man. Between 1921 to 1958, there was a Broadway play either written or directed by Kaufman every year. He collaborated with the Marx Brothers, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, and Stephen Sondheim. He won two Pulitzer Prizes: Of Thee I Sing (1932) and You Can’t Take It With You (1937); he won the Tony Award for Best Director in 1951 for Guys And Dolls.
The prolific Ferber wrote short stories, novels, magazines pieces and plays, adaptations of all of her work have been made into films. So Big (1924), won her the Pulitzer Prize. From 1925 to 1949 her partnership with Kaufman turned out six plays.
Margaret Sullivan (center) with five of the 17 women on the original Broadway cast, photo via NY Public Library archives
Margaret Sullivan played Terry Randall in the original production of Stage Door. Her life ironically parallels the play’s plot. She had her first Broadway success in 1933 in Dinner At Eight, and she gained the attention of Universal Studios, being signed to a three-year contract. It was on her own terms of: $1,200 a week for three years, non-exclusive and with approval rights. In 1933 she made her film debut in Only Yesterday. Once her contract expired she returned directly to Broadway, starring in Stage Door as a character who is vehemently loyal to theatre.
One year into her contract, after making her second film for Universal, she told Photoplay Magazine:
”I still hate making pictures! And I don’t like Hollywood any better! I detest the limelight and love simplicity, and in Hollywood the only thing that matters is the hullabaloo of fame… at present Hollywood seems utterly horrible and interfering and consuming. Which is why I want to leave it as soon as I am able.”
The play was very popular, yet it was changed almost completely when moved to the screen. The characters’ names stayed the same, but Terry Randall, played by Hepburn, was no longer a simple Midwestern girl but rather a rich heiress with an obnoxious self-assuredness that pisses off her new housemates. Ginger Rogers plays Jean Maitland, a secondary in the play, but in the film the character gets pushed to the forefront. She’s a streetwise dancer who is fiercely loyal to her friends, and, as Hepburn’s Randall puts it, never sees past the next wisecrack. Miller, Ball and Arden were all at the earliest stages of their careers.
During filming, it became apparent that these young women were as talented off-screen as they were on. Screenwriters Morrie Ryskind and Anthony Veiller hung out with cast between scenes and began writing down their witty quips. The director Gregory La Cava encouraged the girls to ad-lib. The effervescent dialogue included withering conversations between Rogers and a snooty Gail Patrick, and witty asides from Ball and Arden.
The dialogue is highly quotable: ”Hey, you’re not gonna catch the opening tonight?” someone asks. The reply: ”No, I’m going tomorrow to catch the closing.” When she’s told she must have heard of Hamlet, Arden responds with a shrug: ”Well, I meet so many people”.
Adolphe Menjou portrays a lascivious theater producer who is primarily there to be fought over. Rogers as Jean:
”He kinda makes you feel like you ought to run home and put on a tin overcoat.”
The plot hardly matters compared to the snappy dialogue. The best scenes just involve the girls cracking wise from the sad sofas in the Footlights Club’s living room.
Rogers and Hepburn did not get along when they were making Stage Door. Rogers was on her lucky streak of musicals with Fred Astaire. Those films brought a glamorous escapism from the Depression, but Stage Door delivered a more detailed depiction of the era, with young people looking for work and eating boardinghouse meals: ”If that vegetable soup had been just a little thicker, it might have made great hot water…”. It also showed that Rogers was a better actor than her musical films suggested. It also predicted the long comedy careers of Ball and Arden, dryly dropping bon mots while hanging around the communal living room.
Rogers gets to dance in the nightclub scenes, yet her number is short and indifferent, but Rogers was a first class wiseacre in this film. Ball often cited this film as her break in the business; it’s easy to see why. Miller was 14-years-old when she made the movie, playing an adult and holding her own next to Rogers as a dancer.
What struck me about watching it today was what a feminist piece it is. The men there are weak, or weasels, or worthless. The variety of indelible women’s roles in this film is astounding. More than that, it has an expansive idea of what constitutes femininity. Jean’s hard-boiled slang is the equal of any contemporaneous male jargon, while Terry’s defiant desire to make it on her own is Hepburn’s apotheosis as the previous decade’s “new woman.” Watching Hepburn fence with Menjou is one of the film’s pleasures, given that his character is the era’s typical man on the make, and he’s thoroughly outclassed.
Photo via YouTube
The gender equity in this film is surprising in another way, too: Stage Door was made during the era of the Motion Picture Production Code, a set of industry moral guidelines that was applied to most American films released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. The Code was notoriously retrograde when it came to women’s roles. It was as much an instrument of conservative social engineering as it was an expression of moral outrage. Stage Door seems as if it was made in the pre-Code era. The hints of prostitution are salacious enough, even smothered under the Code’s propriety. This film deftly smuggles what would have been more explicit three years earlier in deeper levels of innuendo or subtext. Is the film stronger for it, as some of the Code’s apologists might have you think? Who’s to say? I know that I’d prefer it to be bawdier, but that’s mostly because I have a dirty mind.
The film received very good reviews but was only a moderate success at the box-office. Prior to this movie, Hepburn’s last four films had flopped commercially. However, because of the positive response to her performance in Stage Door, RKO immediately cast Hepburn opposite Cary Grant in the great screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby (1938). Stage Door made a small profit of $81,000. It did well enough, with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Picture and for Andrea Leeds (as Kay) for Best Supporting Actress. But, it hardly relates to the stage play.
The character of Kay committing suicide is one of the few consistencies between the play and the film, but with very different intentions. The themes so evident in the play do not cross over into the film version, which dilutes the storyline into a cautionary tale about showbiz.
Hepburn’s role in this movie is smaller than you might expect, given her billing, but this is an ensemble piece. This film was made during her “box office poison” years, and the execs at RKO were penurious with roles for her. It is amazing to me that her box-office poison includes this film, Bringing Up Baby, and Holiday. Hepburn was specializing in spoiled heiresses during this period, and this film is typical. Her performance lies somewhere between the lunacy of Bringing up Baby and the melancholy of Holiday.
Hepburn’s famous lines during the play within the film: “The calla lilies are in bloom again. Such a strange flower, suitable to any occasion. I carried them on my wedding day and now I place them here in memory of something that has died…” are from The Lake (1934), the play for which Dorothy Parker panned Hepburn’s performance with the best bad review of all time:
“Hepburn runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.”
Some people (who shall remain nameless) had problems with their impression of Rep. Maxine Waters on the latest Snatch Game but make no mistake, the Maxine has NO PROBLEM reading you up and down. Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania took it upon himself to point his finger at Waters and tell her to stop talking about discrimination.
Oh, no she didn’t!? Yep.
Let’s back it up a sec… the dispute started with a discussion of auto lending and the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans are trying to roll back Obama-era legislation that prevents auto lenders from discriminating against potential buyers. Kelly HAD to lecture lecture Waters that,
“We’re making America great… And the best way to do that is to stop talking about discrimination.“
Here it comes,
“Mr. Kelly, please don’t leave because I want you to know that I am more offended as an African-American woman than you will ever be…“
Then the chair interrupted Waters, asking her to direct his remarks to him.
“I respect the chair but don’t stop me in the middle when you didn’t stop him in the middle, and so I will continue….
Having said that, I reserve the balance of my time. I do not yield. Not one second. Not one second to you. Not one second!“
Watch.
(Photo, screen grab; via Elle)
Yes, we all GAGGED over the red carpet looks (not all were winners) but one of the best Met Gala red carpets in a while, if you ask me. But you know, all of the hoopla and Instagram postings were for an exhibition –Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination at both The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. It is an ongoing dialogue between fashion and medieval art examining the ongoing love for all things glittery and gold, namely Catholicism.
Papal robes and accessories from the Sistine Chapel sacristy, many which have never been seen outside The Vatican, are on now view at the Anna Wintour Costume Center along with fashions from the early twentieth century to now being shown in the Byzantine and medieval galleries.
Newsweek declared in 2005, “The Pope Wears Prada”, not the devil, as fashion now dictates (little Anna nod there.) In an article describing Benedict XVI‘s sartorial inclinations they said,
“He may never make the best-dressed lists but Pope Benedict XVI is nothing short of a religious-fashion icon, riding in the Pope mobile with red Prada loafers under his cassock and Gucci shades.”
But within two years the pontiff DID make a best-dressed list on account of those red shoes. Esquire named him “Accessorizer of the Year” for his red shoes, made by Adriano Stefanelli, a cobbler from Novara, Italy. The color signifies the blood of Christ’s Passion and of Catholic martyrs as well as the devil and sin.
A martyr for sin AND fashion? Two things worth adoration…
Can I get an Amen?
Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination runs through October 8, 2018.
Left: Processional cross, ca. 1000–1050. Byzantine. Silver, silver-gilt, overall: 23 7/16 x 16 15/16 x 7/8 in. (59.5 x 43 x 2.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1993 (1993.163). Right: Gianni Versace. Evening dress, autumn/winter 1997–98. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Donatella Versace, 1999 (1999.137.1). Digital composite scan by Katerina Jebb
Left: Fragment of a floor mosaic with a personification of Ktisis (detail), 500–550, with modern restoration. Byzantine. Marble and glass, 59 1/2 x 78 5/8 x 1 in. (151.1 x 199.7 x 2.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund and Fletcher Fund, 1998; Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, Dodge Fund, and Rogers Fund, 1999 (1998.69; 1999.99). Right: Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana for Dolce & Gabbana. Ensemble, autumn/winter 2013–14. Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana. Digital composite scan by Katerina Jebb
Left: Reliquary cross, 14th century. Italian. Enamel, silver-gilt, coral, glass, rock-crystal, gold leaf, overall (without tang): 16 15/16 x 14 1/2 x 1 1/8 in. (43 x 36.9 x 2.9 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of J. Pierpoint Morgan, 1917 (17.190.497). Right: Karl Lagerfeld for House of Chanel. Gilet, autumn/winter 2007–8 Métiers d’Art. Courtesy of CHANEL. Digital composite scan by Katerina Jebb
(via The Met)
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3 winner Trixie Mattel opened RuPaul’s DragCon LA yesterday with an acoustic set of Mama Don’t Make Me Put On The Dress from her debut album Two Birds. She told the crowd,
“We’re here to celebrate all different types of drag. However, bitch, I hate getting in drag — and that’s what inspired this song.”
Then she did a cover RuPaul’s Kitty Girl, asking a fan to come on stage to perform BeBe Zahara Benet’s part and closed the performance with two tracks, Little Sister and Moving Parts, from her latest album One Stone.
Trixie is in the middle of her Now With Moving Parts tour through the end of July.
You can still get tickets to DragCon which runs through Sunday here.
Watch.
(via Billboard)
Photo via YouTube
This week, The White House revoked Obama-era policies for Transgender prisoners protecting them from rape and violence from other prisoners. The Trump/Pence administration continues to roll back LGBTQ Rights, turning its aim towards the transgender community.
The current administration ordered the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to use ”biological sex” in determining how transgender prisoners are assigned housing and services, putting them at risk of assault and sexual abuse.
The Obama administration issued a guideline for the Bureau of Prisons with directions on the intake and supervision of transgender inmates, including medical treatment, housing guidelines, and use of pronouns. In a memo, the Obama White House noted that transgender inmates are at increased risk of suicide, mental health issues and victimization. The Obama directive was put into place after an extensive review to develop workable and reasonable procedures that would protect some of the most vulnerable people in our prison system.
The new Trump/Pence guideline inserts the word ”necessary” in managing medical care and hormone therapy for transgender prisoners, allowing officials to decide when or whether inmates will receive medically services for transitioning.
The memo undoes the regulations first implemented in 2012. The Trump/Pence Administration’s new directive also conflicts with protections under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2002 passed by congress during the George W. Bush administration.
The new guideline reads:
”The designation to a facility of the inmate’s identified gender would be appropriate only in rare cases.”
The decision to disregard a transgender prisoner’s gender identity is dangerous and disrespectful. It ignores medical expertise and defies common sense. Transgender people under the control of the Bureau of Prisons will face greater risk of abuse, discrimination, assault, rape, and possible death.
Also this week, charming Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed a bill that would allow child welfare organizations, including adoption and foster care agencies, to turn away LGBTQ couples, interfaith couples, single parents, married couples in which one prospective parent has previously been divorced, or other parents to whom the agency has a religious objection, can now be legally turned away.
The best interests of children is now is less important than the religious beliefs of social workers in Oklahoma. The bill is discriminatory, harmful to kids and completely unnecessary.
Congrats, Oklahoma! You now have the distinction of being the only state to sign an anti-LGBTQ bill into law so far in 2018. Governor Fallin and Oklahoma Republicans think nothing of discriminating against LGBTQ parents, stripping qualified potential parents and foster-parents of their ability to provide for children in need.
Oklahoma has more than 16,000 children seeking adoption.
South Dakota, Michigan, Alabama, and Texas already have similar legislation.
When the queens pull out all the stops you know it’s gonna be a damn good time! If you didn’t catch the ribbon cutting or queens’ entrance today, you can still see the queens on the floor and in all the amazing panels tomorrow so be sure to get your tickets and come on out for the last day of RuPaul’s DragCon LA!
We knew that we were going to be served lewks for the gawds, but everyone showed out today at RuPaul’s DragCon! Check out some of our favorite lewks from the day! And pull out your best outfit and show it off tomorrow at RuPaul’s DragCon LA!
Billy on the Street decided to come in off the street and chat with Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 and Peppermint at RuPaul’s DragCon LA. Billy Eichner chatted with Alaska and Peppermint about Glam Up the Midterms! Glam Up the Midterms is a non-profit that encourages everyone to vote in the midterm elections. You may have missed the panel but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a part of the movement! Register to vote, go out to vote and then come to the last day of RuPaul’s DragCon LA tomorrow! And enjoy some pics from the panel!
Joan and Melissa, 1968, NBC via YouTube
For Mother’s Day 2018, people will spend a total of $23 billion celebrating mom on her special day, an average of $180 per mother.
Anna Jarvis, the holiday’s founder, admitted she had some regrets about starting Mother’s Day.
Before her death, Jarvis’ mother Ann Reeves Jarvis hoped someone would dedicate a special day in honor of mothers. When she died on May 9, 1905, her daughter decided she would do just that. She began campaigning not only for her own mother but for all mothers everywhere.
Jarvis began in her hometown, Grafton, West Virginia, which hosted the first official Mother’s Day celebration in 1908 at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church. Ever since, the church has become known as the “International Mother’s Day Shrine.”
In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order recognizing Mother’s Day as a national holiday.
There’s a reason it is called ”Mother’s” Day, singular. Jarvis was very intentional about the name of the holiday. It’s Mother’s Day, as in one mother. Jarvis demanded that Mother’s Day be:
“… a day to honor the best mother who ever lived, yours.”
Jarvis 1910, vi Wikimedia Commons
But, Mother’s Day became way more popular than she expected. So, Jarvis disavowed her own holiday. She didn’t like the idea of people spending so much money on flowers, cards and chocolates. She went after florists first, protesting the marketing of the extravagant bouquets. Her protests escalated to arrests for public disturbances. Jarvis:
“A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother—and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment.”
Jarvis took First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to task for using Mother’s Day as a way to promote the health and social welfare of women and children. Jarvis’ mother was a community health advocate, yet, Jarvis still didn’t like the association.
The commercialization of the holiday made her cray-cray, and in 1943, as she she began organizing a petition to rescind Mother’s Day, her efforts were halted when she was placed in a sanitarium. The floral and greeting card industries paid to keep her in the sanitarium. Jarvis died there in 1948. She was buried next to her mother.
In our own era, children purchase more flowers and plants for Mother’s Day than for any other holiday except Christmas/Hanukkah. But, the most money spent on mothers is spent on jewelry: $4.6 billion.
LSD, is a new supergroup featuring U.K. singer Labrinth, Sia and Diplo. They just released a new video for their latest song, Audio to go a long with the first track, Genius.
The new group is prepping a studio album, but a release date and title haven’t been announced. Sia has collaborated with both her LSD bandmates before, most recently partnering with Labrinth on To Be Human, her contribution to the Wonder Woman soundtrack and Diplo and Sia worked together on the original version of Elastic Heart, which appeared on the Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack.
The graphics alone for this supergroup get me exited –very Lucy in the Sky meets Yellow Submarine.
(via Rolling Stone)
Lena Dunham broke up late last year with boyfriend of 5+ years, Jack Antonoff. She writes in Vogue about the break-up, being alone and getting your single mojo back…
“‘I’m going to die alone.‘
It’s a refrain often uttered by women, with a kind of tragicomic self-awareness, after a bad date or the breakup of a brief romance or the adoption of a calico cat. I can hardly count the rom-coms that hinge on this premise (a woman has resigned herself to a life of takeout, cheap Chardonnay, and quirky pajamas). But even said jokingly, the words are possessed of a horrible tyranny, as though aloneness is an island on which, as punishment for failing to successfully adapt yourself to romantic love, you are marooned. Alone is a place that nobody would want to go on vacation, much less live permanently.
It was December when we broke up, that kind of confusing weather where glaring sunlight makes the cold air feel even colder. We sat in our shared kitchen of nearly four years and quietly faced each other, acknowledging what nobody wanted to say. That obsessive connection had turned to blind devotion, and the blinders were coming off to reveal that we had evolved separately (the least shocking reason of all and perhaps the most common). That anger wasn’t sexy or sustainable. That our hearts were still broken from trying so hard to fix it but no longer uncertain about whether or not we could. The finality nearly killed me, and I remember muttering,
‘But what if we still went on dates?‘
He laughed sadly.
‘Whatever you want.‘”
Somewhat oddly (I think) they decided that Antonoff would remain in their Brooklyn home, which he “fiercely” loved, and that Dunham would move in with her parents.
“As my relationship had unbraided itself, I would often fantasize about my own space… But that was easy to imagine with a living, breathing body beside me, the constant option to call someone and complain about the chaos of my day or the stain on my skirt or the irritatingly apologetic way in which the woman at the pharmacy had asked for two forms of I.D.. Now, security blanket removed, folded and shipped to some distant warehouse, I moved in with my parents and lay across their spare bed texting everyone I knew,
‘sup?‘”
So how do you get back your taste for solo life, overcome the fear of your own thoughts? Even when my partner was away for work, the house had always been full with his presence—a wayward red sock, a pile of used earplugs. A Batman watch bought on eBay but never worn.
You can read the whole thing here…
(Photos, Instagram; via Vogue)
Amy Schumer hosted SNL last night and by all accounts it well well, thanks in part maybe to some off-site rehearsal…
Schumer showed up unannounced at Carolines in NYC last week with the hopes of running through her upcoming SNL monologue from last night’s show while up-and-coming comic, Brendan Sagalow was headlining. The New York Post reported,
“She basically came in and went to the manager and asked if she could get up [on stage]. The manager said Brendan has just gotten up. She asked for 10 minutes and the manager was explaining how he was doing a long set to which she said,
‘But, I’m Amy Schumer!'”
Schumer asked another comic who Sagalow was and was told this night was a big deal and his friends and family were there. But Post reported,
“After he said that, she literally barged on stage.”
In video posted on the Carolyn’s Instagram page (since deleted) Schumer can be heard saying,
“Brendan! It’s Amy Schumer, can I do 10 minutes really quick?”
Sagalow responded,
“Of course.”
The Post’s spy reported,
“It was pretty fucked up, but I think it was pretty amazing.”
Schumer’s set went well, according to another audience member
“The crowd was happy to see her, and Brendan crushed when he got back on stage… despite such an odd thing happening.”
Sagalow recounted the experience on his podcast, The Stupid Little Podcast, Wednesday.
“I’m five minutes into my set, I’m doing some crowd work … and then from off to the side, I hear,
‘Hey Brendan! It’s Amy Schumer! Can I do 10 minutes?’
In the middle of my set … I look over and it’s Amy, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, of course!’ I had no other reaction … When I’m walking off I’m like, ‘OK …’ But I’m actually happy — I’m like,
‘This is a good thing! This is a great thing!’
Everybody thinks I’m friends with Amy, she knows my name, she said she follows me on Instagram, which she mentioned. She said she ‘loves Brendan as a comic.’ She doesn’t. You put the quarter in, you play the game.”
Everybody was like, ‘You should be mad, what a bitch, that’s an awful thing to do.’ Which.. it is. It is a pretty shitty thing to do at my first headlining set with all my friends and family there, but I think it’s a good thing.. I thought it was awesome, because everybody else’s headlining set at Carolines, nobody talks about it.”
A source close to Schumer told The Post that she said she had texted Sagalow beforehand letting him know she would come by and that the two are “good friends.” A rep for Schumer declined to comment.
Below is her opening monologue, which one assumes is some version of the set she performed. (Bottom line: she IS funny.)
Watch.
(Photo, NBC/SNL; via NY Post)
National Portrait Gallery
This portrait from late 18th century, titled Portrait Of A Woman With A Feather In Her Hat, is signed ”T. Stewart, 1792”, thought to be Thomas Stuart. Not much is known about Stewart. He must have had a fairly successful portrait practice in London in the late 18th Century, he exhibited 24 works at the Royal Academy between 1784 and 1801, including a portrait of King George III, although he painted mostly actors and singers.
If not for the lace fichu, the subject in the picture might seem more masculine, if slightly less flamboyant in his dress, than any other 18th century gentleman. He (she) was French spy, diplomat and transgender woman, The Chevalier d’Éon, whose real name is easy to mangle: Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée d’Éon de Beaumont (1728 -1810).
The five o’clock shadow is a tip off, plus d’Éon was also a bit burly. Although he spent extravagant amounts of money on dresses and accessories, he continued to wear stubble and it was reported that he would hitch his skirts up while climbing stairs.
D’Éon joined the French civil service when he was young, progressing through the ranks until being appointed Ambassador to Russia in 1756. He was tasked with winning the support of Russian Empress Elizabeth, as well as promoting French interests in Russia.
D’Éon’s time in Russia also saw his first encounters with cross-dressing. Empress Elizabeth held regular drag balls where all attendants were obliged to arrive in a dress, regardless of their gender.
D’Éon’s spent two periods in London during his lifetime. First, in the 1760s when King Louis XV sent d’Éon to London as a spy but soon replaced him and demoted him after just a year in the city. He went public as a cross-dresser soon afterwards, possibly to spite the King Louis.
In 1764, he gave his first warning to the French authorities, publishing a tell-all memoir which contained all of his personal correspondence with the French royal family; embarrassing revelations about their sex lives which served to isolate him from France but win popularity in England. The result was 14 years of political exile in London, with a shaken King Louis afraid to let him back into France.
The rumors swirled about d’Éon’s gender and sexual habits. When he finally returned to Paris, he was impoverished, and started performing as a female fencer.
His life in Russia, Paris and London was distinguished by the fact that he spent 49 years as a man, and then 33 years as a woman. In the portrait, the flamboyant nonconformist looks rather ordinary. The fichu hides no décolletage. D’Éon called himself ”Mademoiselle”, and claimed that he was born ”coiffé” (covered in foetal membranes), which may be where our current president came up with the term ”cofefe”. D’Éon’s gender, he insisted, was a mystery from the start.
Mademoiselle de Beaumont, Chevalier d’Éon by
Pierre Adrien le Beau (1744-1817)
It was just the sort of contradictory status D’Éon relished. In London, he spent lavishly and schmoozed key British aristocrats. London society was perplexed; diplomats rarely tried to keep their sex mysterious. D’Éon bemused Londoners so much that people taking bets about his sex. He also had friendships among the ”libellistes”, French expatriates who, from the safety of London, produced pornographic publications about the royals at home.
He blackmailed King Louis and used the windfall to amass more than 6,000 rare books and manuscripts. Then, when Louis died in 1774, he demanded that the French government recognize him as a woman. The new king, Louis XVI ordered that D’Éon dress full-time as a woman.
King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette received d’Éon at court. Four years before the start of the French Revolution, she finally threw in the towel and returned to London. When the Bastille was taken in 1789, her military enthusiasms were reawakened, but no one took up her up on her offer to lead a women’s brigade. D’Éon found herself a victim of the patriarchal society of the day. Politically her voice was silenced. She also lost her pension. D’Éon was forced to sell her rare books. A celebrity to the British public, to make ends meet she began staging and taking part in fencing competitions, mesmerizing her fans as a ferocious woman sword fighter. Into her 60s, she continued the matches, until an injury forced her to retire.
The Fencing Match Between the Chevalier de Saint-George and the Chevalier d’Éon by Alexandre-Auguste Robineau
For the final years of her life, D’Éon lived in obscurity, lodging in the boarding house of an elderly woman in London and increasingly vanishing from the public eye. It was only when she passed away in 1810 that a mortician discovered she was biologically male.
Today, she is remembered as namesake of the Beaumont Society, a British cross-dressing and the transgender rights organization.
In honor of Mother’s Day, let’s hear a SICKENING tune with choreography that SLAYS. Brian Friedman‘s studio had a dance off, of sorts to RuPaul‘s Call Me Mother. Friedman himself along with Derrell Bullock & Noel Bajandas is group 1; Group 2 is Zack Venegas & Charlize Glass; Jade Chynoweth is solo, followed by Kaelynn Harris & Nika Kljun in group 4 and Noelle Marsh, Ryan Ramirez, Abby Lett, Jazz Smith, Marie Spieldenner & Tori Caro are last.
Friedman is a pro, receiving Male Choreographer of the Year from World of Dance Awards in 2016 and on and on. In other words she knows her stuff.
Watch.
Did you miss all the amzing panels we had yesterday? Well gurl have no fear, because we still have plenty of panels today! Get your tickets and get down to the LA Convention Center now for the last day of RuPaul’s DragCon LA! And the cherry on top of it all is that you can still make RuPaul‘s keynote! And check out some pics from yesterday’s panels, captured by Tom Vickers of MOVI Inc.
We know it feels like RuPaul’s DragCon LA has just ended… oh wait. It DID just end! Well, we’re too excited about RuPaul’s DragCon NYC to wait any longer!
First things first, Mama Ru and RuPaul’s DragCon NYC return to the Javits Center on September 28th, 29th, & 30th on 2018! So, mark your calendars now!
Next up… tickets are officially on sale RIGHT NOW!! Go scoop up those VIP badges before they sell out or snatch
Are you ready, hennies?!? Buy your tickets and start planning for the best weekend of your life, NYC version!
: @voguemagazine #metgala #metgala2018 #metheavenlybodies #heavenlybodies
