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Entertainment: 'Broadway Bares' news; Grindr awards; Robyn's new CD
Special to the online edition of Windy City Times
2014-12-17

This article shared 5511 times since Wed Dec 17, 2014
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Tony winner Jerry Mitchell, who created and is the executive producer of Broadway Bares, will return to the director's chair to helm the 25th edition of that famed burlesque show, which is produced by and benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, according to Playbill. Broadway Bares will be presented twice on June 21, 2015, at the Hammerstein Ballroom. More than 200 of the hottest male and female dancers in New York City will take to the stage; this year's theme and special guests will be announced in the spring.

Social-networking app Grindr announced its "Best of" 2014 Awards, according to a press release. Among some of the recipients are "Kimye" ( Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, for Next Celebrity Train Wreck ), Neil Patrick Harris ( Gay Icon of the Year ), Hillary Clinton ( Straight Ally of the Year ), X-Men: Days of Future Past ( Best Movie of 2014 ) and money ( Must-Have Holiday Item of 2014 ).

Robyn has announced she is working on a new album and EP, Digital Spy noted. She revealed the news during a Tumbler Q&A, confirming that work is ongoing on a new EP with Markus Jagerstedt, saying: "The new material I played on tour this summer is from that record." She then added when asked if a full-length album would be coming soon: "I'm working on it."

Sam Smith's debut album, In The Lonely Hour, has been certified platinum by the RIAA, following multi-platinum ( 4X ) certification for his debut single, "Stay With Me," and his current platinum smash, "I'm Not The Only One," a press release stated. Smith, 22, is the recent recipient of six Grammy Award nominations, including Album Of The Year for In The Lonely Hour, Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year for "Stay With Me," and Best New Artist.

TLC is taking a shot at a latenight talk-show franchise, tapping Margaret Cho to co-host a panel focused on sex, Variety reported. Cho will host All About Sex with fellow comedian Heather McDonald, actress Marissa Jaret Winokur and Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry, an Atlanta-based sex and relationship counselor. The show is set to bow Jan. 10 in the slot following the popular series Sex Sent Me to the ER.

Justin Bieber got rejected by a potential hookup who said the pop star resembled Ellen DeGeneres a little too closely for her taste, according to Page Six. The newly platinum-blond pop star reportedly asked a woman for her phone number while out to lunch at Fresh Corn Grill in West Hollywood over the weekend. She turned him down, saying he looks like the 56-year-old talk-show host "in person."

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Green Day, Bill Withers, Lou Reed, Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band make up the class that will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame come April—with disco band Chic getting snubbed for the ninth straight year, The Washington Post noted. Candidates for induction into the Hall of Fame are eligible 25 years after the release of their first album. Half the inductions will be posthumous: Paul Butterfield died in 1987, Vaughan in 1990, and Reed just last year. Jett told Rolling Stone of the honor, "It's surreal. I'm sure a big smile came across my face. It's incredible. I'm very flabbergasted."

American's Next Top Model host Tyra Banks is being sued by a former contestant on her modeling reality show, The Wrap noted. Angelea Preston, who appeared on season 17 of The CW show, alleges she was wrongfully denied the show's grand prize because of her background as an escort. Preston is seeking at least $3 million in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court that names Banks and the network as defendants.

Singer Taylor Swift turned 25 recently, and just had a few guests at her birthday party—such as Jay Z, Beyonce, Sam Smith and Justin Timberlake, The Huffington Post noted. Swift tweeted and posted a photo to Instagram with the hashtag "#bestbirthdayEVER." Aretha Franklin actually kicked the Swift festivities off at Billboard Magazine's #WomenInMusic panel, serenading Swift with "Happy Birthday."

At the opening night of The Elephant Man on Broadway—during a climactic moment in Act 2 with Bradley Cooper, Patricia Clarkson and Alessandro Nivola—a quacking erupted from the audience at least six times, Page Six revealed. It turned out it was someone's ringtone, but the actors reportedly persevered. Attendees included Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt, Emma Stone, Emily Blunt, Amy Adams, Anna Wintour and Harvey Weinstein.

Joan Rivers willed her estimated $150-million fortune among family, friends, staff and charities—including a group that supports guide dogs, Page Six noted. Rivers' only child, Melissa, who was named an executor of the estate, also will get all of her mother's tangible property. Rivers bestowed funds upon her favorite charities, including Guide Dogs for the Blind, in California; and the Queens-based food pantry God's Love We Deliver, which delivers meals to people impacted by HIV/AIDS.

Sir Elton John is still standing after tumbling off his chair during a charity tennis match, the London Evening Standard reported. The 67-year-old "Bennie and the Jets" singer was watching Team Elton John take on Team Billie Jean to raise funds for his AIDS Foundation. He quickly brushed off the incident and got back to his feet as he watched his team suffer a 22-16 defeat.

Cyndi Lauper has claimed that rapper/actor 50 Cent is now a "good guy"—despite the fact he once told gay men to kill themselves, according to Pink News. Despite his anti-gay record, the rapper was announced as part of the line-up for Cyndi Lauper's annual Home for the Holidays charity concert that supports LGBT homeless youth. Lauper paid tribute to his "evolution" in an interview with Buzzfeed, saying, "50, God bless him—he's a good guy. People evolve. ... That is what you have to leave yourself open for. You change the world when you change your mind."

Out actor Andy Mientus, 28—who was a regular during the second season of NBC's Smash until his character was killed off—will debut next month as Pied Piper on the CW show The Flash, Gay Star News noted. The Pied Piper ( aka Hartley Rathaway ) will be the first openly gay supervillian to be featured in a comic book TV show or movie. Mientus, currently starring as Marius in the Broadway revival of Les Miserables, had auditioned for the lead role of The Flash ( aka Barry Allen )—but the part went to Grant Gustin.

Speaking of the 4th Annual Home for the Holidays concert, Lauper hosted this year's event with Rosie O'Donnell and Orange Is the New Black's Laverne Cox, the Daily Mail noted. Also attending the star-studded gala was Today show co-host Hoda Kotb, with musical performances by Lauper, 50 Cent, Natalie Maines and Rob Thomas, among others. The benefit concert was in support of Cyndi's True Colors Fund, which works to raise awareness and bring an end to LGBT youth homelessness.

Penny Marshall will take a swing at the subject of women in baseball again, The Hollywood Reporter noted. The director of A League of Their Own will helm a film about the story of Effa Manley, the first woman to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The project is scheduled to begin principal photography in early 2015 in Savannah, Georgia.

Jennifer Lopez: Dance Again will debut simultaneously on HBO and HBO Latino Wed., Dec. 31. The docu-concert goes behind the scenes of Lopez's first world tour, which visits 65 cities and five continents, travelling 100,000 miles and reaching 1 million fans. In addition to the debuts, the exclusive presentation will run in a 24-hour round-the-clock marathon on HBO Zone starting at 10:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve and continuing through New Year's Day.

Sinead O'Connor, long a critic of church and state in Ireland, says she's joining the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party—and wants its leaders to step aside for younger voices free of Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) connections, Page Six reported. O'Connor—who recently released her 10th album, I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss—said Sinn Fein is the only left-wing party able to steer Ireland toward social equality. But O'Connor says senior figures Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, who oversaw the outlawed IRA, should retire.

American Idol isn't going to make its viewers wait a day to find out who's eliminated during its Top 10 portion of its upcoming 14th season, according to The Wrap. "[It will be] one night when we get to the final stage, the Top 10, there will be one night of performances and results all in one night," host Ryan Seacrest said. The move takes a page from ABC's Dancing With the Stars playbook, which consolidated much of its season to one night as ratings began to fall for the show ahead of its 17th season last year.

The full list of nominations for the 21st annual SAG Awards was announced Dec. 10 at Los Angeles' Pacific Design Center. Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for portraying the late gay codebreaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. In the area of television, Cumberbatch was nominated as well—for his role as Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock: His Last Vow. Larry Kramer's AIDS drama The Normal Heart received some SAG love, as Mark Ruffalo ( who also got a movie nod for his role in Foxcatcher ) and Julia Roberts were nominated. Awards will be handed out Sunday, Jan. 25, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in a ceremony airing live on TNT and TBS.

Groundbreaking Amazon Studios series Transparent ( which focuses on a father and his journey toward becoming a woman ) was among those projects receiving Golden Globe nods; however, established comedy Modern Family was completely shut out. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's nominations were announced Dec. 11, the day after the Screen Actors Guild ( SAG ) nods were revealed. Movies The Imitation Game and Pride—about London-based gays and lesbians who support striking coal miners in 1984 Wales—received nods. In the area of television, Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart received multiple nominations, including acting nods for Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will host the Golden Globe awards telecast on NBC Jan. 11.

The NFL announced it would reach out to LGBT-owned businesses for the first time as part of its Business Connect program ahead of the Super Bowl in 2016, to be held in San Francisco, BloombergView.com reported. The program works in conjunction with a city's host committee to court small businesses owned by women, minorities and disabled veterans for potential contracts for the various parties and events in the week leading up to the big game. The Super Bowl will take place at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California—home of the San Francisco 49ers—on Feb. 7, 2016, Outsports noted.

A TV docuseries about a teenage boy whose transgender father is becoming a woman is filming in the Chicago suburbs. ABC Family announced it picked up the reality series My Transparent Life from Ryan Seacrest Productions ( Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Shahs of Sunset ). The story revolves around a teen named Ben who learns that his parents are getting divorced and that his dad is transitioning into a woman, going from Charlie to Carly.

ABBA fans will soon be able to play Monopoly based on their favorite band, according to Music-News.com . In the ABBA special edition of Monopoly, players purchase single records and recording studios instead of streets. The six tokens relate to ABBA songs—the Napoleon hat is from the 'Waterloo," and there are a platform boot, a vinyl record, a money bag, a telephone relating to the early ABBA single "Ring Ring" and Bjorn's star-shaped guitar. All copies of ABBA Monopoly will also feature text in both Swedish and English.

Recording artists Ariana Grande and Idina Menzel were among the honorees at this year's Billboard Women in Music Awards, held Dec. 12 in New York City, according to Playbill. Grande received the 2014 Billboard Rising Star Award, and Menzel accepted the Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award, a new honor at this year's ceremony. Taylor Swift was named the 2014 Billboard Woman of the Year, and Aretha Franklin received the first Billboard Women in Music Icon Award.

L.A.-based bio-soul artist Ryan Amador has released a new video for "Fireplace," and is selling the song for $25—all of which will be donated to the Desert AIDS Project, according to a press release. Donations are open until Dec. 25, and can be made at ryanamador.bandcamp.com . "Fireplace" follows the musical trajectory of Ryan's latest EP, "4S," classified as "biological soul."

Some members of the cast of the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black ( such as Lea DeLaria and Danielle Brooks ) were among 30,000 people who took part in the Millions March NYC, one of several demonstrations across the city against police slayings, NewNowNext.com reported. Some of the other celebrities who marched were hip-hop figures Russell Simmons and Nas. Participants shouted "Hands up! Don't shoot!" and "Justice! Now!" as the demonstration made its way back downtown to NYPD headquarters at One Police Plaza.

"She's back, we've got her and we couldn't be more pleased," exclaimed Directors Guild of America ( DGA ) President Paris Barclay in announcing that Jane Lynch is returning to host the DGA Awards 67th edition, according to Deadline. An Emmy, SAG Award and Golden Globe winner, and a veteran of such comedies as Role Models and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Lynch has made her mark on Fox's Glee for six seasons as the pungent gym instructor Sue Sylvester. This year's ceremony will take place Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

Grammy-winning musician Sting, who joined the Broadway cast of his new musical The Last Ship for an announced five-week run on Dec. 9, will extend his engagement with the production for an additional two weeks of performances through Jan. 24, Billboard noted. Sting is making his Broadway songwriting debut with the new musical that has struggled at the box office since it opened Oct. 26 to mixed reviews.

A Hungarian folk singer is suing Beyonce, claiming the superstar songstress stole her voice for her hit song "Drunk in Love" featuring her husband, Jay Z, Page Six reported. Monika Miczura Juhasz, known as Mitsou, says in the new Manhattan civil suit that Beyonce recorded her voice in 1995 while she was singing a traditional Roma folk song she learned from her grandmother.

Neil Patrick Harris' writing team for the 87th Oscars has been revealed, The Wrap reported. The How I Met Your Mother star and veteran awards-show host will head the special material writing team for the ABC broadcast, along with Emmy Award winner Dave Boone, according to Oscars producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. The special material writing team also includes writer-producer Paul Greenberg, Mason Steinberg, Derek DelGaudio, Liz Feldman, Paula Pell and Tim Carvell. Boone is an Oscar veteran who has previously worked on eight telecasts.

A record-breaking winner of 18 grand slam singles titles, Martina Navratilova is to join the ranks of tennis' "supercoaches," CNN noted. The 58-year-old will work with world number-six player Agnieszka ( or "Aggie" ) Radwanska next season in her first major coaching role. Radwanska, who reached the Wimbledon final in 2012, hopes appointing Navratilova will help end her quest for her first grand slam.

Matt Schulte, the 27-year-old marketing coordinator for Major League Baseball team the Kansas City Royals, has come out, according to Towleroad. As team victories mounted this year and the elusive World Series drew near, his confidence grew and he began to find inner pride in a way he had never experienced before: "The Royals' success just made me decide to be proud and just own it—to just be who I am." The Royals lost to the San Francisco Giants in seven games in the World Series.

For years, R&B singer Johnny Gill has been dogged by rumors of his being gay and that he was in a long-term relationship with Hollywood titan Eddie Murphy—so Gill took a lie-detector test in an attempt to squash those rumors, according to The Chicago Defender. Talking with Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club, Gill ( promoting the album Game Changer ) said, "So my thing was I'm not laying in bed next to a woman that I'm supposed to be married to and worried [if she has] any doubts. For her, I wanted to make sure there was no question."

OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network will air the exclusive documentary Michael Sam on Saturday, Dec. 27 ( 9-10:30 p.m. ET/PT ). The 90-minute documentary follows the life of Sam, who made history when he became the first openly gay football player drafted into the NFL. Following the documentary special, Oprah Winfrey will speak with Sam— in his first television interview since being cut from the NFL—on a special episode of Oprah Prime.

Producer Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Amy Pascal have issued public apologies for the racially insensitive comments that surfaced in an exchange of hacked private emails between them, Deadline reported. "Private emails between friends and colleagues written in haste and without much thought or sensitivity, even when the content of them is meant to be in jest, can result in offense where none was intended," he said. Among other things, the emails called actor Kevin Hart a "whore," Angelina Jolie a "brat" and Leonardo DiCaprio "despicable."

Speaking of Jolie, she surprised two inner-city high school girls with full-ride scholarships to Loyola Marymount University ( LMU ) at The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment Power 100 breakfast. The two scholarships—whose value totals more than $400,000—were handed out to the girls, both about to graduate from THR's Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program. The first scholarship was fully funded by LMU; the second by the William Morris Endeavor Foundation.

A new geosocial dating app created in Chicago aims to create a "mind-blowing" experience for lesbians, DNAInfo.com noted. Gold Coast resident Allison Ullrich has created the mobile app Scissr, a dating app that caters exclusively to lesbians. Scissr is like the location-based gay hookup app Grindr, "only classier," Ullrich said.

CBS and Worldwide Pants have set David Letterman's final Late Show for Wed., May 20, 2015, according to The Wrap. Letterman, who has hosted CBS' Late Show for 22 years, announced in April that he was stepping down from the job; he'll be replaced by Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central'sThe Colbert Report.


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