OMG, do we all need to laugh these days or what? We need Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life, which just arrived on Netflix.

The evening starts out with them paying each other compliments, Hollywood style. Martin says,

“You know what I love about touring with Marty? No paparazzi.”

Short gets in a dig about how white Steve is,

“You look like Anderson Cooper froze to death on New Year’s Eve.”

When going through projected childhood pics for the audience, Marty says about the photo below,

“This is me on the beach with my parents at age 13. You know what’s so amazing about this picture? How well my parents are hiding their disappointment.”

“This was me right before I was sent away to camp to pray the gay away…”

One of the funniest LOL moments was Martin describing talking with his senile 91 year old mother who asked him,

“Where’s Glen?“

(Glen was Martin’s father) Steve said,

“He died three years ago.“

To which Martin’s mother said,

“Well, THAT explains a LOT.“

Here’s the trailer. The special is on Netflix now. It’s funny.

Watch.

A Manhattan grand jury has indicted Harvey Weinstein on charges of rape and a criminal sexual act in connection with allegations by two women.

“This indictment brings the defendant another step closer to accountability for the crimes of violence with which he is now charged,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement.

“Our office will try this case not in the press, but in the courtroom where it belongs. The defendant’s recent assault on the integrity of the survivors and the legal process is predictable. We are confident that when the jury hears the evidence, it will reject these attacks out of hand.”

“I thank the heroic survivors for their strength throughout this process. I also thank Commissioner James O’Neill and members of the New York City police department for their dedication to this case. This investigation remains active and ongoing.”

This comes hot on the heels of a statement issued in which Weinstein’s lawyers argued there was not enough time to prepare him to testify.

via The Guardian:

They say he learned the specific charges and the accusers’ identities only after turning himself in last Friday, with a deadline set for Wednesday afternoon to testify or not. They say his request for more time was denied.

Weinstein’s principal lawyer, Ben Brafman, held a closed door meeting with others in the judge’s chambers on Tuesday, during which he argued that bad publicity around his client would affect a potential jury. He later maligned one of the alleged victims in the case, saying she had had a romantic relationship with Weinstein before and after allegedly committing sexual misconduct.

I wouldn’t count on a slam-dunk guilty verdict for Harvey just yet though. I remember his lawyer Ben Brafman from a particular trial in the ’90s. He was a shark then and he’s an even more skilled shark now. Watch out DA Vance.

(Photo: Pacific Coast News)

I really don’t know how to explain this episode except to say that it’s absolutely brilliant and you need to DROP EVERYTHING and watch it ASAP. Imp Kid aka Imp Queen aka Chicago’s nuttiest club personality, counts Kim Chi and Jojo Baby as major aesthetic influences and early supporters of her work. She recently dropped by the Transformations studio to gussy me up in one of her weirder looks– a blobby foam outfit that looks like giant technicolor innards with balloon hair and HUMUNGOUS construction paper eyelashes. It’s pretty brilliant.

Watch exclusively on WOW Presents Plus!

Season nine, ABC via YouTube

If you are old enough, think back on how television dealt with gay plots and characters before the original Roseanne aired. There were a lot of gay prostitutes, cross-dressers used as gags, sissies, and tragic gay characters infected with HIV. Some examples:

Linda Gray played transgender fashion model Linda Murkland, the first transgender series regular on American television on the Norman Lear sitcom All That Glitters (1977). She was played for cheap laughs, but no one watched, and the show only lasted one season.

Jodie Dallas was a character from the sitcom Soap (1977-1981), played by Billy Crystal. Also played for laughs, he was one of the first gay characters on American television. Despite being gay, Jodie fathered a child from a one-night stand, and many of his storylines throughout the series centered on his involvement with women. Religious organizations disapproved of his sexual orientation, while Gay Rights activists saw his portrayal as stereotypical.

Love, Sydney (1981-83) had Tony Randall playing the first gay lead character in a network series, although the character was deeply in the closet for all 40 episodes. In a special hour-long episode, aired 35 years ago, May 1983, Sidney agrees to date his new co-worker, but the courtship ends because of Sidney’s lack of passion. He explains that his heart had been broken by a previous love, and he could never love anyone again. Left alone, the date tearfully remarks about Sidney’s former lover: “…if only she knew what she was missing” and the camera pans to a framed photograph of Sidney’s former lover Martin from the pilot. The following episode, the next-to-last in the series, has an openly gay guest character: a psychiatrist who befriends Sidney after he talks him out of suicide. Oh, and it was a comedy.

On Dynasty (1981-89), Blake Carrington (John Forsyth) reveals he is disgusted by Steven’s (Jack Coleman, and later Sarah Chalke)  homosexuality, and Steven’s refusal to “conform” sets father and son at odds.

Hill Street Blues (1981-1987) had Eddie, a gay male sex worker who becomes friends with Sgt. Belker (Bruce Weitz) after helping him take down his pimp. He appeared on several episodes of the show before dying of AIDS.

NYPD Blue (1993-2005) had regular minor gay character, the terrific Bill Brochtrup‘s John Irvin, an administrative assistant who had little to do but sit behind a desk and look bemused or throw shade.

On L.A. Law (1986-1994), Amanda Donohoe played C.J. Lamb, a British bisexual lawyer who has a brief involvement with Abby  (Michele Greene) in Season 5. The two share a kiss in the 1991 episode He’s A Crowd and America went bananas.

David Marshall Grant and Peter Frechete were the first two men to be shown in bed together on network telelvsion, in the 1989 episode, Strangers, on thirtysomething (1987-1991). Afterwards, five of the show’s ten sponsors dropped out, costing ABC $1.5 million in revenue.

Things got better when Carol, Ross’s (David Schwimmer) ex-wife, who had realized that she is a lesbian, marries her partner Susan in network television’s first lesbian wedding on Friends (1994-2004).

All those baby steps, yet Roseanne (1988 – 1997), was for me, a very funny, realistic look a working-class American family, the Conners who happened to have gay friends and family. The series was Number One in the ratings, the most watched television show in the United States from 1989 to 1991. The show remained in the top four for six of its nine seasons, and in the top 20 for eight seasons.

Roseanne had one of its main characters, Nancy, played to perfection by the lovely Sandra Bernhard come out in the cold opening of the episode Ladies’ Choice, becoming the first openly lesbian recurring character on an American sitcom. What’s interesting about the decision to make Nancy a lesbian is that she’d previously been a romantic interest for Dan’s friend Arnie (Tom Arnold, at the time married to Roseanne the actor), and there had never been any hint of her being anything other than straight. Roseanne and her sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) are stunned.

Jackie points out that sleeping with Arnie could be enough to turn any woman gay, before she catches and corrects herself with “some women”. The joke is that Jackie herself once hooked up with Arnie. Jackie’s lesbian-ness comes up throughout the episode. Roseanne remarks that Nancy doesn’t look like a lesbian, because: “lesbians are big ol’ truck drivers that wear flannel shirts and faded jeans”. They both laugh, then Jackie catches herself again. She is wearing a flannel shirt and faded jeans, and she has worked as a truck driver.

Bernard and Fairchild, ABC via YouTube

In the episode Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,  Nancy and her girlfriend Marla (Morgan Fairchild) take Roseanne, who wants to prove how cool she is, to a gay bar, and while there Roseanne gets a long, deep kiss from Mariel Hemingway. After the fact, Roseanne begins to realize maybe she wasn’t as cool as she’d like to be, and she freaks out. But, remember, the character is a blue-collar straight woman living in Lanford, Illinois; wanting to prove that she is modern, until she realizes maybe she not.

ABC threatened to pull the episode, with network executives telling the writers:

”A woman cannot kiss a woman. It is bad for the kids to see.”

Roseanne told them that if Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell didn’t air, she would move her hit show to another network. It aired March 1, 1994.

Mull and Willard, ABC via YouTube

There was also the wedding of Roseanne’s boss, Leon, the great Martin Mull, to his boyfriend, Scott, the even greater Fred Willard. Roseanne, who’s acting as the wedding planner, adds every gay stereotype imaginable to the ceremony, including male strippers, flamingos, and a sign proclaiming ”Gay Love, Gay Power”.

Cringe inducing, but it is supposed to be, Roseanne was a comedy. The writers didn’t need to include gay characters or gay kisses or gay weddings. In the mid-1990s, most shows didn’t.

This exchange, between Roseanne and Leon after he begins freaking out about getting married, reveals the era:

Leon: ”What if I’m not even gay?”

Roseanne: ”You couldn’t be any gayer if your name was Gay Gayerson.”

Leon: ”Think about it. I hate to shop, I’m positively insensitive, I detest Barbra Streisand, and, for God’s sake, I’m a Republican!”

Roseanne: ”But do you like having sex with men? ”

Leon: ”Well…”

Roseanne: ”Gay!”

In a confusing set of plot twists during the show’s final season, Bev (Estelle Parsons), Rosanne and Jackie’s mother, comes out as a lesbian according to one of Roseanne’s fictional twists on her family, along with winning the lottery. In the series finale, Roseanne states that her mother is not a lesbian, but Jackie is; she just thought it’d be interesting to put a radical twist on her mother, who lived her life according to her husband’s rules, and because she wished her mother had a better sense of herself as a woman. Bev’s relationship with her own mother (Shelly Winters) is very similar to the one her daughters have with her.

We’re lucky to live in a time where there are now 58 LGBTQ characters out of 901 regular characters on broadcast television identified as LGBTQ, and on cable the number of regular LGBTQ characters is 92.

Interesting that the season after Roseanne folded, NBC debuted the truly groundbreaking Will & Grace, from creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, who know how to do a reboot. After the final episode of the original run aired in 2006, Will & Grace was credited with improving public opinion of the LGBTQ community, with former Vice President Joe Biden commenting that the show “probably did more to educate the American public on LGBT issues than almost anything anybody has ever done so far.”

In the 21st century, other shows have handled LGBTQ characters with more tact and grace: The Sopranos, The Wire, The Office, Glee, Modern Family, Nurse Jackie, Roseanne was one of the first.

Twitter is playing a game right now that is pretty fun and simple. What’s the #1 song on your 14th birthday? It defines your life. Who knows if it really works, but it’s fun to play. You can find out easily here.

What’s yours? Mine has a sickening video that I never saw before…

Watch.

In “Bangkok Hilton” (1989) via YouTube

May 31, 1922 – Denholm Elliot

“I’m often given parts that aren’t as big as they are colorful, but people remember them. When it’s a minor or supporting role, you learn to make the most of what you’re given. I can make two lines seem like ‘Hamlet’.”

Denholm Mitchell Elliott was a quite a distinguished British character actor, noted for his stage, film and television work. His specialty was playing slightly sleazy/slightly eccentric, flawed upper-middleclass English gentlemen. His career spanned 40 years. He was one of those actors who possessed a well-known face, if not name. He was a complicated, slightly disturbing actor. His delivery could be dry, witty and veddy, veddy English, but by simply arching his eyebrow or curling his lip his portrayals of slightly menacing individuals were extremely convincing.

In the spring of 1992, the film Noises Off directed by Peter Bogdanovich limped into movie theatres, a co-production between two companies known for box-office successes, Disney Studios and Steven Spielberg‘s Amblin Productions. In fact, a rerelease of Spielberg’s Hook (1991), a film as misconceived as any ever made, was the top film. On stage, the rollicking farce Noises Off, by Michael Frayn, ran for five years on the West End and for 553 performances on Broadway, and even though Frayn endorsed the film version, the few of us who did see it laughed on occasion, one of its joys was the wonderful teamwork of a cast: Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, Christopher Reeve, John Ritter, Marilu Henner, Nicollette Sheridan, Julie Hagerty, Mark Linn-Baker and Denholm Elliott. Elliott was especially good as an ageing British actor (the rest of the cast, except Caine, played Americans), who drinks a bit, forgets his lines and turns up in the wrong place at the wrong time. As so often with Elliot, he stole the show.

Elliott was born in London. After an especially unhappy childhood, he studied at The Royal Academy Of Dramatic Arts (RADA), on the advice of his psychiatrist, but he left after a year. He served with the RAF in WW II, captured by the Nazis, it was his three years as a prisoner of war in Germany, playing in the POW camp amateur productions, that intensified his interest in acting.

From “The Ringer” (1952) via YouTube

After being liberated by the allies, Elliot found steady work on the London and NYC stages, and making his film debut in 1949. He went on to play an enormous range of parts in more than 75 films of all genres: Alfie (1966), Trading Places (1983), Brimstone & Treacle (1982), Maurice (1987), and in one of my own top favorite films of all time, A Room With A View (1985) from Merchant/Ivory a film that brought Elliott an Academy Award nomination for his role as Mr. Emerson.

Elliott’s rather remote, aristocratic style, later used to good advantage, was never likely to make him a popular movie star, which he realized, continuing to act on the stage, notably in T.S. Eliot‘s The Confidential Clerk (1953) and in Tennessee Williams‘s Camino Real (1957). His career included many stage performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and an acclaimed turn as the twin brothers in Jean Anouilh‘s Ring Round The Moon on Broadway in 1954. His scene-stealing abilities led Gabriel Byrne, his co-star in the film Defence Of The Realm (1986) to tell the press: “Never act with children, dogs, or Denholm Elliott.”

He did his first film in Hollywood, King Rat (1965), as one of the most cynical of the prisoners, but it was his role as a sleazy back-street abortionist in Alfie that really attracted attention. He returned to Hollywood to play a self-appointed crusader against vice in The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968). He was great at playing villainy, and although too varied as an actor to be typecast, he seldom escaped from this, but he did in Sidney Lumet‘s excellent film version of Anton Chekhov‘s The Seagull (1968), in which he was the kindly doctor.

He had rare leading role in a version of A Doll’s House (1973), with Claire Bloom, playing Krogstad, the conniving bank official aiming to replace Torvald (Anthony Hopkins), but was back to character roles with The Apprentice Of Duddy Kravitz (1974), as a drunken has-been British director used by Richard Dreyfuss in his rise to the top. He worked almost non-stop in films in the 1980s, in parts big and small, including Harrison Ford‘s academic superior in Raiders Of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1986); September (1987) by Woody Allen, a gender-switch version of Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya; and as Elliott Templeton in the 1984 Bill Murray version of The Razor’s Edge, the third film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s 1944 novel. I love him as a sad heterosexual in the thriller Bad Timing (1980) directed by Nicolas Roeg.

Although he was gay, Elliott was married twice; the first time to the British actor, Virginia McKenna, and beginning in 1962, he had an open marriage to American actor Susan Robinson, with whom he had two children.

Robinson was reconciled to her husband’s boyfriends and seldom felt jealous. On one occasion, he brought one of them, a young Moroccan guy, to their home in London. In a gesture of defiance, Robinson immediately started an affair with a famous French actor while on vacation on Ibeza and was reassured to find herself still attractive and desirable and with no guilt. Robinson claimed that her sex life with her husband always remained active:

“Between us, he was always 100 percent masculine, both in bed and in taking decisions in our home life.”

In turn, Elliott never stood in the way of Robinson’s affairs. Their rule, like so many open-relationships was:

“As long as you don’t fall in love and as long as you don’t have anyone else’s baby…”.

In her readable biography Denholm Elliott: A Quest For Love (1994), Robinson wrote that on a night not long after her marriage, she was out with the artist Francis Bacon and his boyfriend Jonathan Edwards. The two handcuffed her to a bar stool and then went home with the key. She got home and managed to slide into bed beside her husband without disturbing him, the stool beside her on the floor. He left the next morning without ever seeing it, and Robinson took a cab to Bacon’s studio, where her freed her from her accessory and then took her to lunch.

She also wrote that Elliott’s assignations with men increased in number and frequency as the years passed until her husband’s promiscuity became “an almost a psychological disorder“. She wrote that his tastes ran to the rather exotic: “Moroccan gigolos, Chinese waiters, Spanish garage attendants, a hunchbacked Haitian dwarf”.

Elliott was diagnosed with HIV in 1987. He took his final bow in 1992 at his private place on Ibiza, gone from HIV-related TB. He was cremated. His widow set up a charity, The Denholm Elliott Project, a collection of cottages on Ibiza, providing HIV positive people with a free holiday at no cost. The charity continues to this day.

Susan Robinson Elliott died in a fire at her home in London in spring 2007.

Archie Panjabi
Azealia Banks
Brooke Shields
Chris Elliott
Clint Eastwood
Colin Farrell
Corey Hart
Eric Christian Olsen
Farrah Abraham
Joe Namath
Lea Thompson
Patti Stanger
Phil Keoghan
Roma Maffia
Sandrine Bonnaire
Sharon Gless
Susie Essman
Tom Berenger
Wacka Flocka Flame

Photo credit: O0bg.com

When I write about individuals from before the 20th century that happen to have been homosexual, I usually avoid using the term “Gay” because there really was no Gay before the 20th century… until I consider Walt Whitman. Whitman really was Gay, using the whole 20th/21st century definition.

Has there ever been a poet so thoroughly American as Whitman?  His book of verse, Leaves Of Grass (1855), holds the essence of being an American. It also reflects on the ways in which our country’s ideals have been forsaken. Whitman’s personal life suffered much because of our American Puritan taboos against sex.

For too many people, and you know who I mean, Whitman is also the USA’s biggest embarrassment. He writes that for our democracy to be true, the American ideal of universal equality must embrace gay people. Whitman is a subversive and radical poet. American school children for the past 60 years have been carefully protected from exposure to him. I did not read Whitman until I was finished with college, when my mother, of all people, gave me a volume of Leaves Of Grass as a gift.

 A leaf for hand in hand;

You natural persons old and young!

You on the Mississippi and on all the branches and bayous of the Mississippi!

You friendly boatmen and mechanics! You roughs!

You twain! And all processions moving along the streets!

I wish to infuse myself among you till I see it common for you to walk hand in hand.

I identify as bohemian, but Whitman was a true bohemian. He never gave into having a regular occupation and he was a singularly solitary man. Probably, not by choice.

Whitman was born on Long Island in NY. He did the usual boy things until he was 11-years-old, when he quit school. He ran errands for a lawyer and a doctor, and then became an apprentice typesetter for a Brooklyn newspaper.

He then taught school in several small villages while contributing articles to various periodicals. In 1844, he left country life for the big city. In NYC, he worked for newspapers, starting as a typesetter and then working his way up to reporter, feature writer and eventually an editor. Whitman also took to a life of enjoying theatre, cafes and nightclubs. He went to art exhibitions, museum openings and the opera. He watched the ships come into the harbor and walked among the people of the great city. He had a habit of sitting near the hot, rugged carriage drivers. He crossed back and forth on the Brooklyn ferry to gaze at the deck hands.

Sometime after 1855, when Leaves Of Grass was first published, Whitman experienced a kind of emotional/spiritual crisis that transformed him from a really good newspaper man to an extraordinary poet. In the manner of so many gay men in NYC and San Francisco in late 1970s, he gave up being a dandy and he became a butch clone.

Nowadays, if Whitman is taught in our schools as part of the canon of American literature, there is still much resistance to identifying him as gay. Maybe, because of passages like this:

I share the midnight orgies of young men

I pick out some low person for my dearest friend,

He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate, he shall be condemned by others for deeds done

I will play a part no longer, why should I exile myself from my companions?

As the years passed, Whitman continued to revise Leaves Of Grass, with the 1882 version becoming the most significant. That edition was released by a prominent Boston publisher. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts declared the book obscene because of its references to same-sex love, birthing the term: “Banned in Boston”

Photo credit: O0bg.com

The obscenity charges brought world-wide attention, and of course Leaves Of Grass sold even more copies, becoming a bestseller. Whitman emerged from the controversy rich and famous. How American is that?

America’s very unfortunate Secretary Of Education, Betsy “Boom-Boom” DeVoss has acknowledged support for removing references to Gay History from the curriculum of public schools. Of course, she then plans to get rid of public education all together, and I don’t think they plan to teach Walt Whitman at Michael Richard Pence High School.

Whitman celebrates his 199th birthday today. Let’s take him out for cocktails.

Frameline Festival is gonna be more of a drag with World of Wonder‘s episodic docuseries premiering during the festival. Follow Me: Gia Gunn and Follow Me: Aja are both premiering during the Frameline Festival. If you have ever wondered what a day in the life of a drag queen, better yet some of your favorite drag queens are like, you won’t want to miss the premiere.

You can get your tickets for the premiere on Saturday, June 23rd at 1:15pm at the Victoria Theatre.

#LightsCameraTakeAction! Frameline42 has unveiled our full program: https://t.co/YVQrUeA5TR … See all the films in the lineup and get ready for the largest and longest-running showcase of the best LGBTQ content on the planet! #FL42 #Frameline42 pic.twitter.com/yjrtsDqxhx

— Frameline (@framelinefest) May 23, 2018

Don’t forget to get your tickets for the West Coast premiere of When The Beat Drops. That documentary tells the story of the dance style bucking. The documentary is the directorial debut of Jamal Sims.When the Beat Drops premieres Monday, June 18th at the Castro Theater during the Frameline Festival! Check out the trailer!

Make sure you get your tickets for the Frameline Festival so that you don’t miss the premiere of When the Beat Drops and Follow Me!

Smallville actress-turned-human sex slave trafficker Allison Mack – currently facing charges for her actions with the NXIVM cult – has given a surprising interview to New York Times Magazine, to be published this Sunday. In it, she blithely takes responsibility for the branding of women with her and her cult “master” Keith Raniere’s initials, insisting that it was about female empowerment. She says that someone originally suggested tattooing the women:

“I was like: ‘Y’all, a tattoo? People get drunk and tattooed on their ankle ‘BFF,’ or a tramp stamp. I have two tattoos and they mean nothing.’ ” She says some of the women wore surgical masks to help with the smell of their own burning flesh but were still able to cry out as they were branded: “Badass warrior bitches! Let’s get strong together.”

She also goes on to talk – rather chillingly – about the “collateral” that the slaves were to give their master to prove their commitment to never leave the group, and what she gave to Raniere as her own collateral

Mack says that in addition to nude photos of herself, she also gave Raniere a signed contract agreeing that if she ever left him or NXIVM, her house would be transferred into his name and that any future children she birthed would be his – and she gave him a letter addressed to Social Services in which she admitted to abusing her nephews.

This story gets more twisted by the minute.

Read the whole New York Times interview here.

Lembra da Allison Mack, atriz de Smallville que foi acusada de comandar uma seita de escravas sexuais? Pois bem, de acordo com o The Sun, a prisão de Allison pode ser anunciada em breve. Entenda o caso acessando o link que está na bio. #smallville #allisonmack

A post shared by Cineclick (@cineclickoficial) on Mar 29, 2018 at 10:38am PDT

Australian YouTube sensation Nick Bertke aka Pogo –who made a name for himself remixing classic Disney movies into electronic dance music and has amasses over 110 million views on his channel – released a startling statement detailing his hatred of gay people:

“I’ve always had a very thorough dislike of homosexuals. I’ve never liked a grown man acting like a 12-year-old girl. I’ve always found that to be quite disgusting. And so I thought to myself, how best can I express to the world that gays are just an abomination?”

He goes on to say: “I think nothing encapsulates the sissiness of a guy quite like the word ‘faggot.’ I have a fairly robust resentment of the gay community. I don’t want to really get into this, but when there was the Orlando shooting and the guy was shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ or something I was like (pumps fist). But yeah, I’ve got to be a bit careful with that because well, you know, I don’t like gays, but I don’t want to see people getting killed in nightclubs either. But still, I mean, it’s just fantastic.”

Wow. I’ll be interested to see how this plays out. Will his fans celebrate this or will there be a swift condemnation? In today’s Upside Down world, I just don’t know anymore.

Watch a copy of his video below (I think he took down the one on his channel)

There’s no new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race this week and trust us, we know how devastating that is. What’s a Thursday without a mini challenge that may have us looking at the butts of the Pit Crew and a maxi challenge that really shows who is here to play? Well don’t fret you can relive some of your favorite moments by watching the Extra Lap Recap with John Polly and enjoying some of our favorite moments from this season.

Of course one of our favorite moments of this season was by far the most memorable, memed and enjoyed moment of the season — Miss Vanjie‘s post elimination exit.

The ICONIC buttrface moment from Asia O’Hara!

Eureka slapping Miz Craker!

This LEWK from Mama Ru!

Miz Cracker reignited our love of pickles!

Monet X Change serving the Sunday Best lewk! Can we get an AMEN!

And of course Monet X Change‘s Maya Angelou during Snatch Game!

The most spot on impersonation of Melania Trump from Aquaria!

The hilarious Honey BooBoo Snatch Game performance from Eureka!

RuPaul actually SLAPPING Asia O’Hara! (The fun starts around 7:20)

The double splits of Eureka and Kameron Michaels before they were both saved during their Lip Sync for Your Life!

Miz Cookie first time in full drag and LOVING herself, because henny, if you can’t love yourself how the hell you goin’ love anybody else?

Eat it up! We are living for your lewk, Miz Cookie!

Snatch up these goodies, henny
Full Episode: https://t.co/MXHcr9SdjK
#Untucked: https://t.co/MXHcr9SdjK pic.twitter.com/R5abdm7ycB

— RuPaul’s Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) May 25, 2018

Be sure to catch the rest of the season with new episodes back again next Thursday, June 7th at 8/9c on VH1!

JK Kimora. The WoW Report doesn’t have a privacy policy.

For when you want lo laugh alone from r/funny

I think I’m hiLARious!

It is true though from r/funny

And that’s a fact. And facts are facts. But there are also a lot of things healthier than donuts. I have to ruin everything.

Swagged out

A post shared by Jude Angelini (@onemorejude) on May 26, 2018 at 2:07pm PDT

Yas Queen! Yas Queen! Yas Queen!

teenagers

Teenager or not that little shit better clean the window later.

real and rare video of me @ homophobes. from r/gay

Thank you for your attention and, I hope, for your support.

And Remember:

We have updated our privacy policy. #GDPR pic.twitter.com/IJFIoNKCnZ

— Matt Suiche (@msuiche) May 27, 2018

Oh! That I have lived to see such a day!

Twinkly pop superstar/skinny legend Troye Sivan appeared on the Today Show this morning to sing two songs “Bloom“ & the first single from his new album “My My My.” Not sure whether the audience was aware of it, but the song “Bloom” is a delightful ode to having anal sex for the first time.

Watch below:

The lyrics:

And it’s true, baby
I’ve been saving this for you, baby

I guess it’s something like a fun fair
Put gas into the motor
And boy I’ll meet you right there
We’ll ride the rollercoaster

Tell me right before it goes down
Promise me you’ll
Hold my hand if I get scared now
Might tell you to
Take a second, baby, slow it down
You should know I, you should know I…

(Yeah I bloom) I bloom just for you
(I bloom) just for you
(Yeah I bloom) I bloom just for you
(I bloom) just for you
Come on, baby, play me like a love song
Every time it comes on
I get this sweet desire
(Yeah I bloom) I bloom just for you
(I bloom) just for you…

Although Sivan has yet to acknowledge the song’s true meaning he did say to Popjustice back in February

“I wrote it with [songwriter] Leland and we were dying laughing and just having the best time writing it. Lyrically I think it’s the most subversively queer song on the album. That’s kind of what makes me like it so much — it’s almost like a little inside joke.”

“I wanna play that song at every Pride,” he added in a recent interview with Dazed. “There’s almost a radicalism in just truth, you know? The most radical thing that I can do is share how happy I am.”

Sivan recently told Another Man magazine he didn’t want to be referred to as a a gay icon, but I think after today’s performance there’s no denying this kid is well on his way to earning that moniker.

Former YouTube sensation Nick Bertke aka Pogo used every excuse he could possibly think up to justify the virulently homophobic rant that surfaced yesterday in which he said he “cheered” the Pulse nightclub massacre.

“The things I said in this video I think have deserved the reception that that the video has had…I love confusing people…Then I took it too far [and created the ‘fagottron’ video].”

“There is no pinch of salt big enough to be taken with what I have said. It’s all good and well for me to open a valve and to draw people out into the open – people I don’t like, you know, hypocrites etcetera, but I feel very strongly that it’s been very naive behavior on my part. If I’m going to tuck my tail between my legs and admit anything it’s that these posts and these videos and these things I’ve made for the sake of being edgy have not contributed to any productive conversation.”

“I like some of the things people like Milo Yiannopoulos say, but I don’t like the way he says them. He’ll get up in front of a crowd of people and bash the indigenous people of Australia. He’ll speak in a very sort of derogatory, very provocative way, and I’ve often found myself thinking, ‘is that productive?’ Compared to someone like Jordan Peterson, someone like Stefan Molyneaux, Christina Hoff Sommers, Steven Crowder, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan…these are guys who I think have very calm and collected discussions. These are people I could only hope to become like one day.”

Added Bertke: “Apparently I hate gay people…Many of my friends and supporters are gay. There is definitely a degree of irony.”

“It has never been my intention to hurt people.”

Bertke concluded: “You’re within your rights not to believe anything here because I’ve pretty much said that all my words up till now have been bullshit, so all I can say to you is that if you ask my family members, and closest friends, they’ll all tell you the same thing, ‘Nick’s just being an asshole’…It’s a part of me that I think is slowly growing up…if you have recognized the jokes you have my deepest appreciation.”

He also wrote some text to accompany the video, saying:

“I don’t hate gays. I am in fact bicurious myself, and it has not been easy within the culture I have been raised. The 2016 video circulating was a satirical sh*tpost made in bad tastes and I never intended for it go public. I have Asperger’s and Bipolar disorder so my sense of humour and empathy for people is often very muddled. It’s a condition I’ve struggled with for many years as an artist who feels passionately about things and who faces the public eye every hour of my life. The internet has taken the video very far out of context and proportion, but I am very sorry to the people who I the video has hurt or confused.”

I WAS JOKING! I’M AN ASSHOLE! I WAS BEING IRONIC! I HAVE ASPERGER’S! I’M BIPOLAR! I CAN’T BE HOMOPHOBIC, I HAVE GAY FRIENDS AND FANS! I MIGHT BE BI-CURIOUS MYSELF! HAVE I LEFT ANYTHING OFF?

Ugh. Just go away, dude.

Mike and Zack, a.k.a. the Zakar Twins are tattooed Arab-American bros making Instagram thirsty with their sexy, near naked pics.

The guys (of course) also have a YouTube channel where they regularly post vlogs and each other’s Grindr messages, wax each other’s butts, and use make-your-own-dildo kits to, you know…

Just two bros hangin’ out…

They have a book, hilariously called Pray the Gay Away, which you can get here. In the video they posted about coming out, they say they really didn’t the other was gay until their junior year of high school (7 years ago, btw). Mike says,

“We both didn’t know that each other were gay. Zach was a jock who played rugby and I, Michael, was the artsy, loner kid.”

They accidentally found out when they both hooked up with the same guy on different days in their high school bathroom. The guy (described as an “emo string bean”) didn’t realize he was hooking up with two different people.

Rumors began circulating that one of the brothers were gay, they did the math and realized they’re both gay! Mike says,

“I’m glad it happened. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Watch.

Gay-rabianBro-mos

A post shared by Zakar Twins (@zakartwins) on May 28, 2018 at 4:04pm PDT

While taking this photo our Mom walked in and said: "you have to have good bodies to wear those types of outfits…you boys do." Thanks Mom, this one's for you.

A post shared by Zakar Twins (@zakartwins) on May 17, 2018 at 4:15pm PDT

We want to be a voice for those who can’t speak. We’re loud, we’re #proud.

A post shared by Zakar Twins (@zakartwins) on Apr 29, 2018 at 9:11am PDT

Be true, be you. #HiMom

A post shared by Zakar Twins (@zakartwins) on Mar 5, 2018 at 12:03pm PST

(Photos, Instagram; via Queerty)

TMZ is reporting that four-year-old Prince George – third in line to the throne of England – has been the target of an ISIS terror attack. Apparently British ISIS supporter Husnain Rashid – who is currently in custody and has pleaded guilty to terrorism offenses – encouraged ISIS to attack the young prince at his school.

Rashid wrote messages online encouraging militants to carry out attacks, including a pic of Prince George next to a silhouette of a jihadi fighter. He posted the address of George’s school and wrote, “even the royal family will not be left alone.”

TMZ goes on to say that the royal family will absolutely not retreat from public view, that Prince George is scheduled to appear June 9 with his family on the Buckingham Palace balcony for a ceremony in full public view, and the event will definitely take place.

As for attending school, the Palace is well aware the location of the school is public record and the boy will continue attending.

(Mug shot courtesy of TMZ; Prince George pics via Paciific Coast News)

World of Wonder Co-Founder Fenton Bailey, Executive VP of Development Tom Campbell, and WOW Report Editor James St. James have collaborated with reality TV guru and friend of WOW, Andy Cohen, on a weekly Top Ten Countdown of the things from the past week that make us go…WOW!

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

You can now WATCH us recording the WOW Report in our gallery storefront on Hollywood Boulevard, just across the street from Hollywood’s oldest restaurant Musso & Frank!

We air TODAY at 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…

10) Roseanne Axed at ABC 

Skip forward to Roseanne Axed at ABC @01:24

9) James’ Current Obsession: Japanese Teen Dramas 

Skip forward to James’ Current Obsession: Japanese Teen Dramas @07:35

8) Hate Watch This – Trump: American Dream 

Skip forward to Hate Watch This – Trump: American Dream @13:05

7) Star-Studded Beauty & the Beast at the Hollywood Bowl

Skip forward to Star-Studded Beauty & the Beast at the Hollywood Bowl @21:24

6) Hot Toon: Archer 

Skip forward to Hot Toon: Archer @27:24

5) True Crime: Evil Genius 

Skip forward to True Crime: Evil Genius @32:55

4) Netflix Pick: The Break with Michelle Wolf 

Skip forward to Netflix Pick: The Break with Michele Wolf  @41:06

3) Hot Superfood: Cockroach Milk 

Skip forward to Hot Superfood: Cockroach Milk @46:10

2) Pervy Brits: A Very English Scandal 

Skip forward to Pervy Brits: A Very English Scandal @49:59

1) Hot Flick – Solo: A Star Wars Story

Skip forward to Hot Flick – Solo: A Star Wars Story @57:51

Resistor of the Week – Yankee Fans

Skip forward to Resistor of the Week – Yankee Fans @01:04:20

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!!!

Pop artist/wowlebrity Sham Ibrahim is currently recovering in the ICU unit at Dessert Regional Hospital in Palm Springs after being severely injured in a car accident.

Writes his mother:

[He] was found In the middle of the desert in Palm Springs in the early morning hours of Wednesday morning. All airbags were deployed and the car has been determined totaled. Sham lost consciousness and has suffered broken ribs, a broken jaw, a broken leg, bleeding in the brain, liver, and spleen.

The accident happened shortly after the artist gave Stormy Daniels, President Trumps alleged mistress, a portrait during a public event in West Hollywood where she received a key to the city given by mayor John Durham. Suspiciously, the front passenger side tire was detached from the vehicle at the time of finding Sham at the scene of the accident. Prior to the accident, Sham discovered several lug nuts missing from his tire and quickly replaced them. The mechanics expressed suspicion and concern about the missing lug nuts. Sham attended his regular job as host of Drag Queen Bingo at the Hood Bar and Pizza in Palm Desert, CA and parked the car In the same parking spot Sham always parks in, behind the bar. An investigation with the Palm Springs police is underway.

Get well soon, Sham! Big hug from everybody World of Wonder!

Pics taken by permission by Salwa Ibrahim, Sham’s mother.

Legendary Thai drag queen/fashion icon/stylist and designer Art Arya is one of the superfab hosts of Drag Race Thailand (alongside the equally stunning Pangina Heals). As well as appearing on Drag Race Thailand, the iconic beauty has also appeared on The Face Thailand for two seasons, is the creative director of Thai label THEATRE, and has worked in the fashion industry for 30 years.

I sat down with her the day after RuPaul’s DragCon Los Angeles to chat about her incredible look, the differences between American drag queens and their Thai counterparts, what we can expect from Drag Race Thailand Season Two, and her experience at DragCon. Watch below!

And be sure to watch the brand-new episode of Drag Race Thailand (it’s the Snatch Game episode) available on WOW Presents Plus (only in the US)

Best. news. EVER! There’s a new episode of #DragRaceThailand streaming right now in the US on WOW Presents Plus! This is the Snatch Game episode and, well, you’ve GOTTA watch! Sign up for your first 30 days FREE and only $3.99 a month after that! Link in our bio!

A post shared by World of Wonder (@wowreport) on Jun 1, 2018 at 11:35am PDT