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#ArtDept: Dudes in Pantaloons

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Portraits of Charles V (Left), Henry VIII (Center), Pedro Maria Rossi (Right)

Louis XIII, Roi de France et de Navarre by Frans Pourbus II (1569–1622)

 

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1616) by William Larkin (1585-1619) – National Portrait Gallery, London

 

 

Sir Thomas Winne– Artist Unknown circa 1660s

 

Captain Sir Thomas Dutton– Artist Unknown, circa mid-1600s, National Trust, Lodge Park and Sherborne Estate

 

The Archduke Albert of Austria by Juan Pantoja de la Cruz (1553-1608),  The Bowes Museum

 

The post #ArtDept: Dudes in Pantaloons appeared first on The WOW Report.


#ToldUSoHunty!: Caitlyn STILL Cannot Get Over How Much She F*cked Up By Supporting Trump

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Trump voter Caitlyn Jenner is NOT happy with Trump.

She ignored warnings from her trans friends and supported Trump last year, INSISTING he could help influence him on LGBT rights.

This week the Trump administration rolled back civil rights protections for transgender employees, and also went to court to defend its plans to ban transgender people from the military.

Jenner tweeted,

Trump administration’s latest in a string of attacks on trans people: trans students, trans service members, & now employment protections for trans workers.

“This systematic gutting of non-discrimination protections for trans people is a disgrace!”

As you might imagine, her comments caused a GIGANTIC uproar and a collective.

We told you so, bitch!

from the LGBTQ community who spent months pointing out the dangers of a Trump-Pence administration before the election. One Twitter commenter wrote:

Yea… You voted for him. You knew his party feel this way about your community. Don’t look so shocked.

Another chimed in:

“You didn’t just vote for him you were a huge supporter of him throughout the entire election. Don’t fucking be outraged now.

And another said,

Sis, he specifically said he was going to do all of this and you still stood up and said to vote for him!

You played a hand in all of this happening. But you only care about an issue if it somehow reflects you, so I guess it’s expected.“

Jenner offered herself up as a trans ambassador for the Trump administration claiming,

Republicans need help understanding LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 issues and I’m here to help!

Jenner was recently confronted by a trans activist on camera over her continual overtures to Trump.
Ashlee Marie Preston told Caitlyn:

It’s really fucked up that you continue to support him. What makes me mad is I supported you, and so many of us supported you.

Caitlyn responded:

You don’t know me.

Preston responded:

Yes I do. Oh my god. I’m getting so mad… you’re a fucking fraud and a fake.”

Someone needs to admit they are wrong and become a Democrat, if they have any chance of saving face.

(Photo, YouTube; via Pink News)

The post #ToldUSoHunty!: Caitlyn STILL Cannot Get Over How Much She F*cked Up By Supporting Trump appeared first on The WOW Report.

Harvey Weinstein Fired By The Weinstein Co. (It’s Called “Trying to Save the Company”)

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Harvey Weinstein has been fired from his position at a film company he co-founded. Just three days after a New York Times investigation detailed numerous incidents of alleged sexual harassment by the media mogul, the remaining board of directors at The Weinstein Company said the decision was made

in light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days.

Harvey’s brother Bob, was one of the board members who made the decision. A statement from the company tonight said,

The directors of The Weinstein Company — Robert Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar — have determined, and have informed Harvey Weinstein, that his employment with The Weinstein Company is terminated, effective immediately.

According to the Times, three board directors resigned on Friday as the scandal became international news,

The remaining four board members originally said they supported Weinstein’s decision to take a “leave of absence”
and they left the door open for his return to the film company. They said on Friday.

As Harvey has said, it is important for him to get professional help for the problems he has acknowledged. Next steps will depend on Harvey’s therapeutic progress, the outcome of the Board’s independent investigation, and Harvey’s own personal decisions.

But some clients of the Weinstein Co. said they would stop working with them if Harvey was still associated with it.

Actress Ashley Judd was among those who spoke to the Times for the story and made an accusation of inappropriate conduct. Harvey issued a statement, in which he denied some of the allegations, but also admitted that he had behaved improperly at times during his career. He apologized for causing pain. Weinstein said,

I cannot be more remorseful about the people I hurt and I plan to do right by all of them.

In case you don’t know or care, the companies that he ran with brother Bob — first Miramax, then TWC — had at least one best picture nominee and at least one major win almost every year since 1990. Some years, his little independent operation garnered more Oscar noms than any of the major studios, topping out at 40 (including three of the five for best picture) in 2003, more than any company had garnered since 1940. And five of his films won best picture: The English Patient in 1997, Shakespeare in Love in 1999, Chicago in 2003, The King’s Speech in 2011 and The Artist in 2012.

But those days of the big little company that could appear to be over. And those big box office takes? Those days may be in the rear view too. The Weinstein Company’s top five highest-grossing films, all in the last decade, are:

1. Django Unchained, 2012, $162,805,434
2. Lion, 2016, $140,302,754
3. The King’s Speech, 2010, $138,797,449
4. Silver Linings Playbook, 2012, $132,092,958
5. Inglourious Basterds, 2009, $120,540,719

(Photo, Pacific Coast News ; via CNN)

The post Harvey Weinstein Fired By The Weinstein Co. (It’s Called “Trying to Save the Company”) appeared first on The WOW Report.

Meryl Streep Speaks Out Against Harvey Weinstein –”The Behavior is Inexcusable, But the Abuse of Power Familiar”

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Meryl Streep has spoken out against Harvey Weinstein.

Since The New York Times‘ report which laid out decades of allegations of Weinstein’s sexual harassment and abuse, some of which resulted in paid settlements — many have called his behavior an industry secret that was widely known but never reported on the record.

But Meryl — who once referred to Weinstein as “God” in an acceptance speech and previously collaborated with him on films like August: Osage County and The Iron Lady– told the Huffington Post that she was unaware of the producer’s “inappropriate, coercive acts,” and called them “disgraceful,” “inexcusable,” and an “abuse of power.”

The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported. The intrepid women who raised their voices to expose this abuse are our heroes.

One thing can be clarified. Not everybody knew. Harvey supported the work fiercely, was exasperating but respectful with me in our working relationship, and with many others with whom he worked professionally. I didn’t know about these other offenses: I did not know about his financial settlements with actresses and colleagues; I did not know about his having meetings in his hotel room, his bathroom, or other inappropriate, coercive acts. And If everybody knew, I don’t believe that all the investigative reporters in the entertainment and the hard news media would have neglected for decades to write about it.

The behavior is inexcusable, but the abuse of power familiar. Each brave voice that is raised, heard and credited by our watchdog media will ultimately change the game.”

Kathy Griffin talked about Weinstein on the stage last night saying,

That guy seems to be what’s called a rapist. I’m using it as a broad term. There’s a lot of them and they are everywhere. So it’s time we started to fucking look out for each other because this shit has been going on for way too long.

Even Trump commented on the claims.

I’ve known Harvey Weinstein for a long time. I’m not at all surprised.

(We’re not surprised they know each either. Did they exchange stories and techniques?)

In addition to being fired from The Weinstein Company, Weinstein’s political donations to Senate Democrats were given away. His legal advisor Lisa Bloom has resigned from his case.

Streep won an Oscar for playing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady” produced by The Weinstein Company. Photo, TWC

(Photo, Pacific Coast News; via THR)

The post Meryl Streep Speaks Out Against Harvey Weinstein –”The Behavior is Inexcusable, But the Abuse of Power Familiar” appeared first on The WOW Report.

Get to Know the Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Season 2 Cast : The Top 5 Hottest Instagram Lewks of Dahli Delia

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OMGOMGOMG, the all-new season of The Boulet Brothers‘ Dragula: The Search for the Next Drag Supermonster is just a little more than TWO WEEKS AWAY!

The series returns on Tuesday, October 31, airing on WOW Presents and Out TV in Canada ! After Halloween, the rest of the episodes (10 total!) will air every Tuesday following the premiere.

Between now and then, though, I thought we should get to know this season’s contestants. Up today, my top 5 fave Instagram looks of Dahli Delia!

#dahlidelia

A post shared by ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀🐷DAH-LEE🐷 (@thedahli) on

#dahlidelia – Lips are @sugarpill #detox – maybe it’s my imagination, but I swear it smells and kinda taste like orange.

A post shared by ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀🐷DAH-LEE🐷 (@thedahli) on

The post Get to Know the Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Season 2 Cast : The Top 5 Hottest Instagram Lewks of Dahli Delia appeared first on The WOW Report.

Vaguely Creepy Statue of Anton Yelchin Unveiled at Hollywood Forever Cementary

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Jennifer Lawrence, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, JJ Abrams, Demi Moore, and Rumer Willis  were among those who joined joined Anton Yelchin‘s mother (the legendary Russian figure skater Irina Yeltsin) at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery yesterday in Los Angeles to honor late Star Trek actor, who died last year after being pinned by his own car outside his home.

A statue made in this likeness, created by sculptor Nick Marra and FX artist Greg Nicotero, was unveiled in the Garden of Legends at the cemetery, near late singer Chris Cornell’s memorial. The memorial also included readings, and remarks by friends and family.

Sweet, but why do I find statues so creepy?

Anton. #hollywoodforevercemetery #hollywood #antonyelchin

A post shared by Chris Ruzin (@cruzinfilm) on

#StarTrek stars pay tribute to #AntonYelchin during the unveiling of his statue #DubaiOneTv

A post shared by Dubai One دبي ون (@dubaionetv) on

(Top photo: Pacific Coast News)

The post Vaguely Creepy Statue of Anton Yelchin Unveiled at Hollywood Forever Cementary appeared first on The WOW Report.

How To Make Terrifying and Delicious Zombie Mouth Cupcakes

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Instructables has an easy-peazy realistic zombie mouth cupcake for Halloween, using fondant and food coloring, that can be made in seven simple steps. Check it out below. 

Screen Shot 2015-10-09 at 12.37.50 PM

Step 1: Preparations: Coloring the fondant

Make a basic cupcake with your chosen flavor, (mine are vanilla cupcake).

For the topper, you’ll need to color your fondant (I used Wilton) as follows: for the skin tissue- use small drop of Ivory gel paste food coloring with a tiny drop of rose. for the gums- use a drop of rose with a tiny drop of red for the teeth- use a drop of Ivory.

Screen Shot 2015-10-09 at 12.38.09 PM

Step 2: Preparing a base to the cupcake topper

We will start with the base of the topper, roll the skin tissue fondant about 1/8 inches thick, and by using a round cookie cutter about the same size of your top surface of your cupcake, cut a circle and place it on top of a cup or a small bowl to support the topper while working and give it the shape of a dome.

Screen Shot 2015-10-09 at 12.38.17 PM

Step 3: Shaping the gums

To shape the gums, create two small snakes of the “gum fondant”, flat them a little, and by using a “Dresden tool”, create the cavities for the teeth and make the dents between every tooth.

Attach to the circle base by using a wet brush. (the pre-made cavities should face one another).

Screen Shot 2015-10-09 at 12.38.23 PM

Step 4: Shaping the teeth

Make the teeth- shape small pieces of ivory fondant to the shape of teeth, including their roots, let them dry for about an hour. you may use tylose powder or CMC to make them sturdier. when they are firm, take each tooth and push it to it’s designated cavity in the gums we’ve made earlier. make sure to apply it by using a wet brush to stick the root to it’s place. You may skip one or two, to make the impression the zombie had lost a tooth…

Screen Shot 2015-10-09 at 12.38.31 PM

Step 5: Shaping the skin tissue

Now, take the leftover “skin tissue” fondant and roll it really thin. break it to little pieces and apply around the gums, creating effect a ripped skin around the gums. it doesn’t have to be accurate.

Let dry completely before coloring.

Screen Shot 2015-10-09 at 12.38.37 PM

Step 6: Coloring & creating realism impression

To finish the realistic effect, we will create: fresh blood finish: mix red coloring gel with drops of vodka of lemon extract dried blood- mix red with a drop of royal blue and add drops of vodka/lemon extract. using a brush, apply the “fresh blood” color mix around the torn skin tissue, apply the “dried blood” color mix around the gums, especially where the gums meet the skin tissue. and around the teeth contour, and the dents, to give it a more 3D impression. Let it dry, and assemble the cupcake topper on top of the frosting of your cupcake.

Step 7: ENJOY!

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The post How To Make Terrifying and Delicious Zombie Mouth Cupcakes appeared first on The WOW Report.

From the WOW Vault: We Celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day with “Miss Navajo”

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“From the Vault” is our EXCLUSIVE daily peek into the extensive library of WOW shows, interviews, and pop culture ephemera we’ve collected over the last three decades.

Today: In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we look at the 2007 World of Wonder/Sundance fave Miss Navajo which explores the role of women and tradition in Navajo culture, as experienced through a young girl’s quest for the Miss Navajo Nation crown.

Crystal Frazier, a twenty-one year old Navajo, lives on the reservation in Table Mesa, New Mexico. A tom-boy and former high school basketball champ, the beauty pageant presents a new set of challenges for Crystal as well as the responsibilities that come with the crown. Miss Navajo Nation is a fifty-four year old pageant that celebrates traditional values and language. Contestants must compete in rounds in which the women must showcase their skills as Navajo women, skills they were taught by their mothers and grandmothers, skills that are crucial to Navajo daily life: sheep butchering, fry bread making, and rug weaving are just some of the challenges. Crystal experienced the typical life of a Navajo girl growing up. She understands that the lessons and beliefs taught to her are very important to her and her familys future. For Crystal, the pageant presents an opportunity for her to complete her college education and to continue to pursue her dream of becoming a mechanical engineer. Crystal has rarely faced challenges she cannot win. Crystal will compete in the five-day pageant and will be mentored by her mother and sisters, who will be with her every step of the way. Embarking on this journey with her family she learns more about her culture to prepare for the competition. She is experienced with the ritual of sheep butchering, but requires instruction to fine tune her technique for the judges. When it comes to making the best fry bread in the world, shes more used to eating her grandmothers than preparing her own. Crystals biggest weakness is her grasp of the Navajo language that her father vows to practice with her in the mornings. Through Crystals journey leading up to the competition, former Miss Navajos from the past half-century will share their memories of the pageant. Each crowned queen experienced life on the reservation and also faced the challenges of leadership in the preservation of their society. In sharing their memories of growing up Navajo, each will provide a different perspective on what the pageant meant to them. These stories will be intercut and woven together to provide invaluable background and context for Crystals story. MISS NAVAJO is a celebration of women and tradition in Dine (Navajo) culture explored through one young woman’s quest for the Navajo Nation Crown.

Produced & Directed by: Billy Luther
Co-Producer: Duana C. Bulter
Editor: Mike Rysavy

The post From the WOW Vault: We Celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day with “Miss Navajo” appeared first on The WOW Report.


Ru’s In Depth Interview with The Hollywood Reporter

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Our nation’s great soothsayer, RuPaul, sits down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss his Emmy wins, why he thinks Drag Race has gone mainstream, and how Trump’s America is a lot like his desire for berry buttercake (trust me, it’ll make sense when you hear it).

The post Ru’s In Depth Interview with The Hollywood Reporter appeared first on The WOW Report.

Your Ultimate Halloween Transformations Playlist!

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Are you spinning your wheels, unable to come up with a decent Halloween outfit? Does the idea of being Kellyanne Conway or Pennywise leave you flat? FEAR NOT! I’ve compiled a MASSIVE playlist of Halloween-themed or Halloween-adjacent Transformation episodes that’s sure to jumpstart your creative juices! Thirty-two episodes in all! Including (but not limited to) Mathu Andersen! Dax ExclaimationPoint! Ginger Minj! Detox! Sharon Needles! Manila Luzon! AND MORE! Hours (and hours… and hours…) of pure Transformational BLISS at your fingertips. Start watching NOW!

The post Your Ultimate Halloween Transformations Playlist! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Harvey Weinstein Begged Hollywood Bigwigs to Support Him: “I Am Desperate… Do Not Let Me Be Fired”

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In a flailing attempt to save his career and his reputation, beleaguered producer/predator Harvey Weinstein fired off an email to other studio execs, begging for their support in his hour of need.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ron Meyer and Jeffery Katzenberg were among its recipients. (They did NOT offer to help)

Read it below.

So…. The allegations are false, but I’m gonna go to therapy to help fix the things that I didn’t do.

OK.

Also in today’s Weinstein news: Did Matt Damon and Russell Crowe try to cover up a 2004 New York Time’s story outing Weinstein’s nefarious misdeeds? Seems like it….

(Photo: MediaPunch)

 

The post Harvey Weinstein Begged Hollywood Bigwigs to Support Him: “I Am Desperate… Do Not Let Me Be Fired” appeared first on The WOW Report.

#BornThisDay: Filmmaker, Ed Wood

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Valiant Pictures, from Wikimedia Commons

 

October 10, 1924Ed Wood:

“No, I’m all man. I even fought in WW II. Of course, I was wearing women’s undergarments under my uniform.”

Ed Wood is only really referenced by hardcore film fans, and even that group has probably only seen one of his films. Creepy Conservative Republican Michael Medved’s book The Golden Turkey Awards declared Wood The Worst Director of All Time, and his film Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) the Worst Film Ever Made. People seemed to grab hold of those titles and they still get repeated.

The Golden Turkey Awards was published after Medved’s The 50 Worst Films Of All Time, a book in which Wood’s name, nor any of his films are even mentioned. Before Golden Turkey, no one had heard of Ed Wood. Wood’s films weren’t screened all that often, not even at revival houses, but they were sometimes shown on late night television horror programs. The royalties wear cheap because Wood never had them copyrighted.

But since a certain Tim Burton biopic, Wood has become a camp and geek favorite. Yet, Wood’s legacy is filled with myths and misinformation. He did not use pie tins as UFOs in Plan 9 From Outer Space, but hobby shop plastic models. Near the end of his life, Bela Lugosi may have had a morphine addiction, but he was never shooting-up formaldehyde. Lesser directors, if forced to make films under the conditions Wood faced, would just have given up.

I find Burton’s Ed Wood (1994) starring Johnny Depp, with the late, great Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, and featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, and Bill Murray, is a sweet love letter to Wood, low-budget filmmaking, Hollywood sleaze, and dreamers of all stripes.

Ed Wood (1994), Touchstone Pictures, via YouTube

 

Ed Wood, the film, not the man, was in development at Columbia Pictures, but the studio passed when Burton insisted on shooting it in black-and-white. Ed Wood was picked up, ironically, by Disney Studios. The film was released to critical acclaim, but was a box-office bomb, making only $6 million against an $18 million budget. But, it won two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Landau and Best Makeup for Rick Baker.

It really is a fabulous, funny film, with outstanding cinematography (something missing in Wood’s movies). But, it still plays on the idea that Wood was the Worst Director of All Time and Plan 9 From Outer Space is the Worst Film.

Woods was no James Ivory, David Lean or even Ken Russell, for sure, but let’s be honest,  Jerry Bruckheimer’s, Michael Bay’s, Roland Emmerich’s stuff is not nearly as entertaining, fascinating, even thought-provoking as any of Wood’s.

As a child, Wood loved films and it shows. He was born Edward Davis Wood, Jr. in Poughkeepsie. Legend has it that his mother always wanted a girl and until Wood was 12-years-old she dressed him in girls’ clothing. Young Ed got a job as a movie theatre usher. He also played musical instruments and formed a band called Eddie Wood’s Little Splinters. Wood received his first film camera as a gift on his 17th birthday and his first “film” was of the crash of an airplane. When he was 18-years-old, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Wood joined the Marines.

After WW II, Wood chased his embrace of all things bizarre by joining a freak show with a traveling carnival. He played the role of the bearded lady and created his own prosthetic breasts.

During the 1950s, he wrote, produced, and acted in a series of extremely low-budget Science Fiction, Horror, and Western films. Today, these movies are loved and derided in equal measure for their many obvious flubs, cheap special effects, odd dialogue, miscasting, and insane plots. Wood struggled to make ends meet and was often forced to turn out screenplays in a single night to keep on schedule.

In 1952, Wood was introduced to actor Bela Lugosi by writer-producer Alex Gordon, Wood’s roommate at the time, who went on to help start American International Pictures, producer of low-budget fare aimed at teens. Lugosi’s son, Bela Lugosi Jr., claimed Wood exploited his father’s fame, taking advantage of the fading actor when he could not refuse any work. But others who knew them say that Wood and Lugosi were genuine friends and that Wood helped Lugosi through the worst days of his depression and addiction.

Wood worked as an actor in his own films under different pseudonyms, including Ann Gora and Akdov Telmig (The backwards form of his favorite drink, the vodka gimlet).

He made 10 films in less than a decade. My favorite, of course, is 1953’s Glen Or Glenda (originally titled I Changed My Sex!) which starred Wood, billed as “Daniel Davis”, his girlfriend Dolores Fuller and Lugosi as the narrator. The film was loosely based on pioneering transwoman Christine Jorgensen. While panned by critics then and now, considered as one of Wood’s worst films, it is plenty camp, but also notable for its groundbreaking empathetic look at LGBTQ issues at a time when no one else dared.

Wood really was a cross-dresser, who found comfort rather than excitement from Angora fabric. The only time he directed a film while in drag was during Glen Or Glenda, when he was directing himself in the Glenda scenes. Wood was not shy about going out in public dressed as Shirley, his female alter ego. Shirley also appeared in many of his screenplays and stories.

Glen And Glenda, Screen Classics, via YouTube

 

When his film career ran out of steam, mostly because of no funding, Wood turned his prolific creative energy to churning out sex novels, pulp fiction, and horror stories. The lack of money took its toll and Wood struggled with his health because of alcohol addiction. Eventually he and his wife were kicked out of their apartment and had to move in with a friend in North Hollywood where he drank more and wore women’s clothes less. It was there that Wood was taken by a heart attack on December 10, 1978. He was just 54-years-old. When his wife found him, she writes:

“I still remember when I went into that room that afternoon and he was dead, his eyes and mouth were wide open. I’ll never forget the look in his eyes. He clutched at the sheets. It looked like he’d seen hell.”

 

Wood’s legacy continues. In 1998, Wood’s previously unproduced script I Woke Up Early The Day I Died was finally filmed, starring Christina Ricci, Tippi Hedren, Bud Cort, Sandra Bernhard, and Karen Black. Of course, it did not receive a commercial release. Wood can’t even catch a break in death.

The Film Department at USC holds an annual Ed Wood Film Festival where students write, film, and act in an Ed Wood-esque short film based on a predetermined theme. His bizarre transvestite-themed sex novels have been republished.

People can laugh about Wood’s pictures, but after all the super hero reboots, mutant origin stories, and Alien sequels are forgotten in a generation, fans will still be watching Plan 9 From Outer Space and Glen And Glenda and they’ll still be having fun.

The post #BornThisDay: Filmmaker, Ed Wood appeared first on The WOW Report.

October 10th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

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#QueerQuote: Tallulah Bankhead

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Photograph by Mortimer Offner (public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

 

“I’ve had a man and I’ve had a woman, and there’s got to be something better.”

Tallulah Bankhead (1902-1969)

The post #QueerQuote: Tallulah Bankhead appeared first on The WOW Report.

From the WOW Vault: A Happy Birthday Flashback to Mario Lopez’ BREATHTAKING Mexican Wedding to Courtney Mazza

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“From the Vault” is our EXCLUSIVE daily peek into the extensive library of WOW shows, interviews, and pop culture ephemera we’ve collected over the last three decades.

Today, we make a BIG FUSS over one of all-time favorite WOWLebrities… the man with the million-dollar dimples… MARIO LOPEZ! It’s his birthday today (OMG YAY!) so we thought we’d dig up some old footage from a TLC special we did that followed him and his gorgeous bride Courtney Mazza as they prepared for their 2012 nuptials.

Mario Lopez and Courtney Mazza are planning a spectacular wedding in exclusive Punta Mita, Mexico. Every detail is high-priority, so Courtney must locate the perfect dress, wrangle her wayward wedding planner, and mend her strained relationship with her father—all while chasing after their toddler!

Meanwhile, Mario’s schedule gets more hectic by the day as he takes on more work hosting X Factor and Extra, tries to squeeze in some alone time with Courtney, and jets to Las Vegas for a blowout bachelor party.

Can these two nail down every element, hold their family together, and make it down the aisle on time?

Below: The utter GORGEOUSNESS of Mario and Courtney’s Wedding Fiesta. Take it all in! The pomp! The pageantry! The gasp-worthy gown! Mario grinning from ear-to-ear! BFF Eva Longoria breaking down in tears! The family! The Mariachi band! It’s all TOO TOO FABULOUS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARIO! WE LOVE YOU!

The post From the WOW Vault: A Happy Birthday Flashback to Mario Lopez’ BREATHTAKING Mexican Wedding to Courtney Mazza appeared first on The WOW Report.


So… Add Rob Schneider to the List of Hollywood Stars Who Have Been Sexually Harassed by Directors

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It’s a veritable avalanche of stars coming out with stories of unwanted sexual harassment at the hands of Hollywood’s power elite. Just today, actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Rosanna Arquette, Asia Argento, Mira Sorvino, Judith Godrèche, Katherine Kendall, and Dawn Dunning all claimed that they were victims of Harvey Weinstein‘s. Which is sad and disturbing and says so much about the toxic nature of Hollywood. But, remember it’s not ALWAYS male-on-female harassment. There have also been two male stars who are grabbing headlines, as well.

First: Rob Schneider tells TMZ about an experience he had many years ago in which a “gross director” (now deceased) made a semi-nude pass at him in a hotel room. Listen to the story below.

Then: Terry Crews took to Twitter to tell HIS story.

This whole thing with Harvey Weinstein is giving me PTSD. Why? Because this kind of thing happened to ME. My wife n I were at a Hollywood function last year n a high level Hollywood executive came over 2 me and groped my privates. Jumping back I said What are you doing?! My wife saw everything n we looked at him like he was crazy. He just grinned like a jerk. I was going to kick his ass right then— but I thought twice about how the whole thing would appear. “240 lbs. Black Man stomps out Hollywood Honcho” would be the headline the next day. Only I probably wouldn’t have been able to read it because I WOULD HAVE BEEN IN JAIL. So we left. That night and the next day I talked to everyone I knew that worked with him about what happened. He called me the next day with an apology but never really explained why he did what he did. I decided not 2 take it further becuz I didn’t want 2b ostracized— par 4 the course when the predator has power n influence. I let it go. And I understand why many women who this happens to let it go. Who’s going 2 believe you? ( few) What r the repercussions?(many) Do u want 2 work again? (Yes) R you prepared 2b ostracized?(No) I love what I do. But it’s a shame and the height of disappointment when someone tries to takes advantage of that. He knows who he is. But sumtimes Uhav2 wait & compare notes w/ others who’ve been victimized in order 2gain a position of strength. I understand and empathize with those who have remained silent. But Harvey Weinstein is not the only perpetrator. Hollywood is not the only business we’re this happens, and to the casualties of this behavior— you are not alone. Hopefully, me coming forward with my story will deter a predator and encourage someone who feels hopeless.

See also: Feldman, Corey

(Top photos: Pacific Coast News; screen grab: TMZ video)

The post So… Add Rob Schneider to the List of Hollywood Stars Who Have Been Sexually Harassed by Directors appeared first on The WOW Report.

#ClickWithCompassion: Monica Lewinsky’s Anti-Cyberbullying Mission

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Wowlebrity/anti-bullying advocate Monica Lewinsky appeared on CBS This morning to discuss the new “In Real Life” campaign she collaborated on which urges viewers to #ClickWithCompassion.

“This is very much about showing the disparity between how we behave online and how we behave offline when we’re face-to-face,” she said Monday on “CBS This Morning.”

“Before you post something online, think about what you’re clicking. Think before you click. And so what that means is think about the face test. Would you say that to someone offline, just as we’re sitting here? And if not, then don’t post it,” Lewinsky said.

Watch the Click with Compassion PSA below.

“The core in what fuels bullying is shame and public humiliation,” Monica continued. “So clickbait, which we’re all pretty familiar with, is also fueled by those same things. So another way to click with compassion is to not click on clickbait that we’re seeing so we can contribute to an algorithm which supports a culture of compassion versus a culture of humiliation.”

Lewinsky also urged people to “use your click” to support someone who’s a target of bullying online.

“I can relate to this from myriad ways,” she said. “Even hearing from a stranger to show support to a target can actually really shift the situation and make sure that you don’t feel alone.”

While the Lewinsky scandal unfolded in an era before social media, Lewinsky found out “there’s no border on the internet.”

“There’s kind of no parameter around how many people it feels like are laughing at you,” Lewinsky said. “I think what happened later on, back in 1998, you know, was — there was no role model, there was no playbook, no one else had gone through a public shaming online like what I had experienced. And so I was very blessed in terms of having an incredible family and friends, and I also heard from a lot of strangers, so — which connects really to the other part of the campaign with it, #BeStrong emojis which came from this experience I had of having gotten letters from strangers. Some you wouldn’t want to read on TV, but lot of them were letters of compassion and support and that really helped me through. Sometimes that’s what got me through a day.”

Lewinsky has taken ahold of her narrative in recent years, she said, insisting on “a different ending to our story.”

“There were many times over the last two decades when I wasn’t sure I would make it, and so I can really relate in a way to how a lot of people are feeling in today’s world, even though it’s for different reasons and now we have social media,” Lewinsky said. “So for me this sense of being able to use some of my experiences to help other people is —in an impactful way —I’m incredibly grateful.”

(Photo: Pacific Coast News)

The post #ClickWithCompassion: Monica Lewinsky’s Anti-Cyberbullying Mission appeared first on The WOW Report.

#BornThisDay: Dancer / Choreographer / Director, Jerome Robbins

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Photograph from PBS American Masters via YouTube

 

October 12, 1918Jerome Robbins:

“Dance is like life. It exists as you are flitting through it, and when it’s over, it’s done.”

There is this famous anecdote about Jerome Robbins. I first heard it when I was a high school drama nerd. Robbins was known for dressing down his actors in rehearsal. He was not kind. It seems that he had a tantrum while directing West Side Story (1957) in previews in Washington DC. In a pique, while ranting, Robbins backed up and fell into the orchestra pit leaving the cast with great big smiles on their faces.

Robbins was both a great choreographer of classical ballet and a Broadway innovator. From 1944-1997, he choreographed 66 ballets and choreographed and/or directed 15 Broadway musicals. During his extraordinarily prolific career he not only excelled in two different fields, but he also worked with uncommon versatility.

But, Robbins was so afraid that he might be outed as gay, that he “named names” during a meeting of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Many major figures in the arts never could forgive him.

Dance and Theatre critic Clive Barnes:

“Jerome Robbins was an extremely demanding man, not always popular with his dancers, although always respected. He was a perfectionist who sometimes, very quietly, reached perfection.”

Born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz in NYC, not far from where West SideStory was filmed, he changed his last name to Robbins to hide his Jewishness. He accompanied his sister to dance classes, and at 19-years-old, he made his professional debut at the Yiddish Art Theater. In the summers, Robbins choreographed and performed at a Jewish resort in the Poconos during the day while dancing in Broadway musicals in the evenings. In 1940, he joined Ballet Theatre (later to become American Ballet Theatre) where he danced as a soloist.

For Ballet Theatre, Robbins choreographed and performed in Fancy Free (1944), a new ballet about sailors on shore leave in NYC, with sets designed by gay Oliver Smith and a score by gay composer Leonard Bernstein. Robbins Smith, and Bernstein were all just 25-years-old when their collaboration became a phenomenal success. In 1945, the same team put together On The Town, a musical inspired by Fancy Free, launching their Broadway careers. In 1947, Robbins created the dances for the musical High Button Shoes, celebrated for his crazy Keystone Kops Ballet, bringing his first Tony Award for Best Choreography.

Robbins directed and choreographed Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam (1950) with a score by Irving Berlin. He created the dance sequences for Rodgers And Hammerstein’s The King and I ( 1951), famous for his March Of The Siamese Children, the ballet The Small House OfUncle Thomas and the Shall We Dance polka.

Throughout his career, Robbins was discreetly noted as a “show doctor”, offering uncredited help for troubled stage musicals, including Bernstein’s Wonderful Town (1953), The Pajama Game (1954) and the Mary Martin version of PeterPan (1955). All the while, Robbins officially directed and choreographed Bells Are Ringing (1956) with Judy HollidayGypsy (1959) with Merman, and Fiddler On The Roof (1964) with Zero Mostel.

Robbins had ratted out Mostel to The House Un-American Activities Committee the decade before. Mostel and the great Jack Gilford (whose wife Robbins had also been named to HUAC) had already worked with Robbins when he unofficially staged the opening Comedy Tonight number for Stephen Sondheim’s AFunny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1962).  Sondheim pitched Robbins to producer Harold Prince as the savior of Forum which was floundering in its out-of-town tryouts. Prince phoned Mostel to ask whether he might be prepared to work with Robbins.

Mostel: “Are you asking me to eat with him?”

Prince: “I’m just asking you to work with him.”

Mostel: “Of course I’ll work with him. We of the Left do not blacklist.”

When Robbins showed up at his first rehearsal, Mostel greeted him with: “Hiya, Loose Lips!”

Unlike other directors of musicals, Robbins demanded that his actors dance as well as sing. His high expectations of the cast of West Side Story created what we now know as the “triple-threat performer”: actor/singer/dancer.

The extraordinary West Side Story was the product of a seven member creative team of gay geniuses: Robbins, book writer Arthur Laurents, Bernstein, Sondheim, set designer Smith, lighting designer Jean Rosenthal, and costume designer Irene Sharaff, plus to the original actor to play the male lead Tony, Larry Kert was also gay.

Robbins was a driving force with West Side Story, coming up with the original idea of a modern, urban retelling of Romeo And Juliet. Bernstein and Laurents brought in the idea of rival street gangs in a turf war to serve as Shakespeare‘s Montagues and Capulets. The gangs were divided into Puerto Ricans against Anglos. The story served as an allegory of love surviving the violence of a society built on prejudice.

Making the whole process of collaborating on West Side Story particularly interesting, both Bernstein and Laurents had been blacklisted, during the McCarthy era. Robbins had cooperated with the House Un-American Committee by naming names, mostly out of fear of being discovered as being a gay. Somehow, being a dancer and choreographer was not thought to be a tip-off in those days. It says something about Robbins singular talent that creative people continued to work with him for the rest of his career even after nearly ruining their lives, if not actually forgiving him. He was a self-proclaimed:

 “Jewish ex-commie fag who had to go into a mental hospital.”

The creative flexibility, plus the artistic give-and-take among the young, gay Jewish West Side Story team was extraordinary. Each member brought out the best in the others, each one an absolute genius.

Laurents:

“I think the difficulty was having death, rape and murder in a musical.  The subject matter: bigotry, violence and prejudice, might have precluded people from paying money to see that sort of thing with dancing and an orchestra.”

Actor, Carol LawrenceWest Side Story’s original Maria at just 19- years-old:

“The opening night in 1957 in Washington, DC, when the curtain went up for our curtain calls (after Tony’s lifeless body had been taken away and the strains of Somewhere played under the tolling of a single bell, it still breaks me up) we ran to our places and faced the audience holding hands. As the curtain went up, and we looked at the audience, they just looked at us, and we at them, and I thought, ‘Oh, dear Lord, it’s a bomb!’ and then, as if Robbins had choreographed it, they all jumped to their feet. I never saw people stamping and yelling, and by that time, Bernstein had worked his way backstage, and he came at the final curtain and walked to me, put his arms around me, and we wept.”

WestSideStory-ProductionTeam

The West Side Story Broadway production team (1957), left to right: Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, Hal Prince and Robert Griffith (seated), Bernstein and Robbins (on ladder). Photo by Friedman-Abeles, New York Public Library Performing Arts Archives

West Side Story, a groundbreaking landmark musical, lost the Tony Award for Best Musical to The Music Man, but Robbins won Best Choreographer. The film version won the Academy Award for Best Picture with Robbins winning for Best Director, along with eight other Oscars, the most ever for a movie musical.

With Robert Wise (R) directing the film version of West Side Story (1961), United Artists

 

Robbins suffered a massive stroke and took that final curtain call at his home in NYC in 1998. On the evening of his passing, the lights of Broadway were dimmed for a moment in tribute. Among his many lovers were actor Montgomery Clift, Broadway dancer Buzz Miller, photographer Jesse Gerstein and filmmaker Warren Sonbert.

Robbins:

“I told you to sell it, not give it away.”

The late, great Beatrice Arthur, who was directed by Robbins in Fiddler On The Roof:

“Talk about a gift from God! But he really wasn’t a very nice person. Actually, he was the only director who ever made me cry. He was a really dreadful human being. Everybody hated him. I was friends with a dancer called Sven who raised Yorkshire terriers who would do dog tricks. Whenever Sven had a party, he always left the door open. At some point in the evening, he’d go to the doorway and look out and say, ‘Oh my God, here comes Jerry Robbins!’ and the little dogs would fling themselves against the door and slam it shut.”

Check out PBS’sGreat Masters, Jerome Robbins: Something To Dance About available on PBS archives and the biography Dance With Demons: The Life Of JeromeRobbins (2001) by Greg Lawrence.

The post #BornThisDay: Dancer / Choreographer / Director, Jerome Robbins appeared first on The WOW Report.

October 11th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

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QueerQuote: David Rakoff

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