My grandmother (in the middle) and my Aunt Sheri (on the right) both called me the day after the Oscars because I never told them I was a survivor. I was too ashamed. Too afraid. And it took me a long time to even admit it to myself because I’m Catholic and I knew it was evil but I thought it was my fault. I thought it was my fault for ten years. The morning after the Oscars when I talked to my grandmother Ronnie, with tears in her eyes I could hear them welling through the phone she said to me “My darling granddaughter, I’ve never been more proud of you than I am today.” Something I have kept a secret for so long that I was more ashamed of than anything– became the thing the women in my life were the most proud of. And not just any women, the ones I look up to the most. #BeBrave #speakup #tilithappenstoyou

A photo posted by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on Mar 1, 2016 at 5:04pm PST

Lady Gaga went public with her story of being raped in 2014 but apparently not everyone in her family heard about it. She just revealed that her grandmother and aunt didn’t know she was a survivor until Oscar performance. Gaga wrote in the caption of a family photo she posted on Instagram,

“My grandmother (in the middle) and my Aunt Sheri (on the right) both called me the day after the Oscars because I never told them I was a survivor.”

At the Academy Awards on Sunday night, Gaga performed Til It Happens to You, the Oscar-nominated song, co-written with Diane Warren for The Hunting Ground, a documentary about rape and assault on college campuses. Vice President Joe Biden introduced her performance, and she was joined onstage by other survivors.

Gaga explained in her post that she was “too ashamed. In 2014, she told Howard Stern that an older man took advantage of her and she never confronted him. She wrote in her Instagram post,

“I thought it was my fault for ten yearsThe morning after the Oscars when I talked to my grandmother Ronnie, with tears in her eyes I could hear them welling through the phone she said to me ‘My darling granddaughter, I’ve never been more proud of you than I am today.‘”

Terrible to go through such a thing but coming out about it so publicly must have helped SO many people. Brava Gaga!

Talk about good company when you want the world to listen. THANK YOU JOE BIDEN and family you are a true leader. The kind we need.

A photo posted by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on Feb 29, 2016 at 2:56pm PST

Tears and hugs, matching tattoos and pictures, storytelling and encouragement. These survivors represented for others all over the world and I was so honored to be up there with them. 50+me= 51 #tilithappenstoyou

A photo posted by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on Feb 29, 2016 at 4:19pm PST

51 🤘surviving and thriving

A photo posted by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on Feb 29, 2016 at 4:22pm PST

(via CNN)

The post Lady Gaga’s Family Found Out About Her Rape Watching the Oscars appeared first on The WOW Report.

In an except from a wide-ranging interview in Out, comedian Kathy Griffin lays into Caitlyn Jenner,

“Let me just cut to the chase: Of course I support Caitlyn and her journey, but as someone who’s worked in the LGBTQ community for many decades, most of the people that I know who are transitioning, or dealing with transition, are not like multi-millionaires who have full-time hair and make up squads and Versace bags. So what’s humorous about the series, and the reason that, thank God, I can make fun of her –because I make fun of everybody– is because, as we’re watching a show that’s supposed to be an important statement about people who transition, she’s really kind of an airhead.

She is a little clueless, yeah. And that is the part that is funny, because they bring in all these experts, like Professor Jenny Boylan, who’s a professor at Columbia University, so smart, and who’s really walked the walk — she decided to stay married to a woman. She’s just very knowledgeable. There’s one scene in I Am Cait where Jenny Boylan says to Cailtyn

‘I feel like I’m losing brain cells just talking to you.‘”

See the next post about Caitlyn backing Ted Cruz, and you’ll agree with Kathy even more. And check out the rest of the interview with Kathy here. (via Out)

The post #LGBTQ: Kathy Griffin on Caitlyn Jenner, “She’s Kind of an Airhead” appeared first on The WOW Report.

On the GOP side, this election cycle has been nothing if not undignified, childish and gross. A perfect illustration of that happened during the eleventh Republican debate. There was LOTS of name-calling, mindless anger, uninformed talking points, and accusations flying around like pooping pigeons in the park but the perfect metaphor was as plain as that “thing” ON one candidates face. It sure looks like…

Senator Ted Cruz ate a booger LIVE on national television.

Watch.

The post #GOPDebate: Ted Cruz Ate a Booger on Live TV! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Alaska
Norman Korpi
Tyler, The Creator, 23
Beanie Sigel, 40
Shaquille O’Neal, 42
Amy Pietz, 45
Moira Kelly, 46
Connie Britton, 47
Madonna Wayne Gacy, 50
D.L. Hughley, 51
Tom Arnold, 55
Alberta Watson, 59
Jacklyn Zeman, 61
Anna Maria Horsford, 66
Stephen Schwartz, 66
Rob Reiner, 67
Kiki Dee, 67
Mary Wilson, 70
Gabriel García Márquez, 87

The post March 6: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Photo by Scott Gries

March 6, 1947– Rob Reiner:

“Everybody talks about wanting to change things and help and fix, but ultimately all you can do is fix yourself. And that’s a lot. Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect.”

On a Seattle summer day in 1992, I survived my fifth callback for the role of Jay in a new film titled Sleepless In Seattle. I began to have that feeling that I always fought hard against in my acting days: I wanted this role. I wanted it something terrible. I could taste it. I visualized my name as the credits rolled. By this final callback, I was dizzy with the possibility. Jay was a small, yet showy role, well-written and very funny. I had been able to keep Writer/Director Nora Ephron, the casting director, and assorted producers laughing with each read.

Leaving callback number five, I found myself passing multi-hyphenate Rob Reiner in a hallway at the production office. After I tossed an “I love your work” to Reiner, I thought to myself:

“I really admire Rob Reiner. I wonder what his connection is with Sleepless? Hmmm… he would be so cool to chat with. Maybe he will notice me as Jay & use me in one of his projects!”

When I returned home, my agent had already called to let me know that Ephron and Co. thought I was “splendidly funny and waggish” and they wished to thank me for sticking through all the auditions, but they had decided to go with Reiner as Jay in Sleepless In Seattle.

Ephron is my one of my top writing inspirations, but I didn’t much care for Sleepless In Seattle when I finally got around to seeing it years later on VHS, watched on a boat floating on Lake Union not far from the film’s actual location. My reaction to the the film had little to do with my not being cast (how was I supposed to compete against Rob Reiner?), but I found it rather treacley and twee, plus I felt that the filmmakers got Seattle all wrong.  Everyone else in the world seems to loves it. Maybe I should watch it again.

Reiner is easily admirable. He created an iconic TV character, Michael “Meathead” Stivic, son-in-law of Archie and Edith Bunker, on All In The Family (1971-79). He won 2 Emmy Awards for the role.

His list of films as a director and/or writer: This Is Spinal Tap (1984), The Sure Thing (1985), Stand By Me (1986), When Harry Met Sally (1989), A Few Good Men (1992). A really nice run of hits that also includes a favorite at this house, The Princess Bride (1987), and just  a few nights ago, I caught Misery (1990) on TCM & I  was surprised at how well this Stephen King adaptation held together as a thriller, funny and suspenseful, with an Oscar winning performance for its leading lady.

Reiner’s newest film, Being Charlie (2015), a thinly disguised story of Reiner and his wife’s struggle with their son Nick’s addiction to heroin and his years of rotating in and out of rehab facilities. Directed by Reiner and written by his son and fellow addict Matt Elisofon, Being Charlie features Cary Elwes, reuniting with his Princess Bride director, as a successful screen actor with political ambitions. Charlie, his son, is a privileged child who has lost himself to a life of drugs. The film is making the rounds at the world’s film festivals now.

My acting nemesis Reiner was one of the founders of the American Foundation For Equal Rights, which formed to challenge California’s Proposition 8 in the courts. Four years ago, Reiner presented the star-studded West Coast premiere of “8”, a play by Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black about the 2010 federal court fight against Proposition 8, the gay-marriage ban that California voters approved in 2008. The piece starred Martin Sheen, my boo George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Jane Lynch, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christine Lahti,  gay hero George Takei, John C. Reilly, Chris Colfer, Matthew Morrison and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. It raised more than $2 million for Marriage Equality.

Reiner had a cameo in The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013) along with two other prominent directors in acting roles: Spike Jonze and Jon Favreau.

Quite a guy, Reiner, and did I mention that he has famous parents? He is one cuddly Daddy Bear of a Left Coast Liberal Elitist.

“I was raised in a political family. Civil rights issues were talked about around my kitchen table. People say, ‘Do you remember where you were when President Kennedy died?’ Well, I remember where I was when Medgar Evers died. This was something I was raised in. Gay rights is an extension of the civil rights movement. There are basic civil rights denied to people.”

The post #BornThisDay: Actor/Director, Rob Reiner appeared first on The WOW Report.

Maybe it’s not appropriate to say this now. Maybe it’s bad timing, since Nancy Reagan has just passed. But hey, sometimes timing is everything –especially when you’re dying. Yes, as the headline says, First Lady Nancy Reagan turned down Rock Hudson’s plea for help nine weeks before he died. Hudson was desperately trying to get treatment for AIDS in France in 1985. After a simple plea came in for White House help to get Hudson transferred to another hospital.

You can read the full story here on BuzzFeed. Hudson was critically ill at the time. From the story;

Three days after Hudson’s collapse, he still lacked permission to go to the French hospital or to have Dormant see him in the American Hospital. His team’s initial attempts on the ground in Paris were not working.

In a desperate telegram sent at 12:22 p.m. ET on July 24, 1985, Olson made his case directly to the White House in a message addressed to Mark Weinberg — a special assistant to the president and deputy press secretary in the White House.

“Doctor Dominique Dormant specialist treating Rock Hudson in Paris, reports only one hospital in the world can offer necessary medical treatment to save life of Rock Hudson or at least alleviate his illness. This hospital is Ministere du la Defence Centre d’Researches du Service de Sante des Armees Percy Hospital in the city of Clamart,” the telegram read, with Olson going on to give the phone number to the hospital.

“Commanding general of Percy Hospital has turned down Rock Hudson as a patient because he is not French. Doctor Dormant in Paris believes a request from the White House or a high American official would change his mind. Can you help by having someone call the commanding general’s office at the Percy Hospital at the above number,” the telegram stated.

“Please advise what can be done.”

The White House logged its receipt of the telegram at 2:07 p.m. on July 24, 1985, a copy of the telegram in the archives of the Reagan administration stored at the Reagan Library shows.

After Weinberg received the telegram, he spoke with the first lady.

“I knew the Reagans knew Rock Hudson, obviously from their years in Hollywood, and for that reason I decided to call her,” Weinberg told BuzzFeed News in a recent interview about the 1985 request.

Would the White House intervene on Hudson’s behalf? That was what the publicist was asking for — help getting the actor, lying in the hospital in a dire condition, transferred from hospital to hospital.

Weinberg recommended to Nancy Reagan that the White House refer the matter to the U.S. Embassy in France, because, as he told BuzzFeed News, “This is probably not the [last] time we’re going to get a request like this and we want to be fair and not do anything that would appear to favor personal friends.”

“The Reagans were very conscious of not making exceptions for people just because they were friends of theirs or celebrities or things of that kind. That wasn’t — they weren’t about that. They were about treating everybody the same.”

“The view was, ‘Well, we’re so sorry’ — and she was, they were both very sorry for Rock’s condition and felt for him and all the people — but it just wasn’t something that the White House felt that they could do something different for him than they would do for anybody else,” Weinberg said.

For me, this is her legacy –one than she can never live down. Say hi to Rock, Nancy.

(via BuzzFeed)

The post Dying of AIDS, Rock Hudson Turned To Nancy Reagan For Help… appeared first on The WOW Report.

A pop-up exhibit featuring works of the late Robert Mapplethorpe is presented on a scale worthy of his impact on art. In the 90s, Senator Jesse Helms gave Mapplethorpe a platform and power by denouncing his photographs saying,

“Look at the pictures.”

More than 25 years later, directors Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato along with HBO Documentary Films present Mapplehorpe: Look at the Pictures, an unflinching, unprecedented look at the artist, the man and his most provocative work.

The J. Paul Getty Museum and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art are preparing to open landmark Mapplethorpe retrospectives (both this month) and, the film goes inside the preparation for the exhibitions, as a jumping-off point to tell the complete story of his life and work. It explores the interplay between his personal and professional lives.

With complete and unprecedented access to The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, the documentary draws upon archival materials and features never-before-seen photographs and footage. Mapplethorpe himself is a strong presence, telling his story in his own words with complete honesty and often shocking candor through rediscovered audio interviews.

Many people have had plenty of things to say about Mapplethorpe over the years, and the film has great interviews, but more importantly, we as viewers get the opportunity to hear Robert speak for himself.

Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures Pop-Up Exhibit is in Miami now at 300 NE 2nd Ave. In New York‘s Flatiron District by Madison Square Park, March 18 & 19 and in San Francisco at PROXY in the Hayes neighborhood and March 25 & 29. Mapplehorpe: Look at the Pictures premieres April 4, on HBO at 9PM.

The post #LookAtThePictures: A Traveling Mapplethorpe Pop-Up Exhibit Hits Miami, New York & San Francisco appeared first on The WOW Report.

Oscar-winner Sam Smith and Adam Lambert just got caught getting cozy at No. 8 in New York City. (Here’s a weird connection. The last time I was at No. 8 two weeks ago, I was at a party for Alex Newell‘s new record POWER and he is touring with Adam very soon. Not all that weird, I know…)

Anyway, the photo was originally posted by DJ Dawson but Lambert reposted cropping DJ out. Sam didn’t repost because, well, he’s taking a break from social media after getting busted for saying he “might be” the first openly gay man to win an Oscar last week.

So, what’s the story here? This looks more than a friend selfie hug to me? What do you think? Just gay buds? Dating? One night stand? (I say they fooled around that night.) Tell us what you think on Facebook.

Booth moments with @AdamLambert & @SamSmithworld last night at @no8ny. Thanks for coming thru boys. #djlife #DJDawson #samsmith #adamlambert @_8nyc

A photo posted by DJ Dawson (@djdawsonnyc) on Mar 4, 2016 at 6:33pm PST

@samsmithworld camera shy

A photo posted by ADAMLAMBERT (@adamlambert) on Mar 4, 2016 at 7:38pm PST

(T/Y Tad)

The post Um,… Did Sam Smith & Adam Lambert Just Hook Up? appeared first on The WOW Report.

A faux campaign video for Donald Trump aired on SNL NAILED the subtext of his meteoric rise in the GOP. The candidate has tossed out Black Lives Matter protesters, been slow to deny KKK support and suggested barring Muslims from entering the U.S.. The New York Times found in an exit poll, only 69 percent of Trump’s supporters disagreed with the sentiment of white supremacy, and just 20 percent of them disagreed with the Emancipation Proclamation which ended slavery in 1863. Even if Donald Trump isn’t racist himself, a good percentage of flock sure is. Watch.

The post #ViralVideo: SNL’s “Racists For Trump” Ad Nails His Supporters appeared first on The WOW Report.

Laura Prepon, 34
Jenna Fischer, 40
Peter Sarsgaard, 43
Matthew Vaughn, 43
Rachel Weisz, 44
Cameron Daddo, 49
Bret Easton Ellis, 50
Wanda Sykes, 50
Taylor Dayne, 52
Donna Murphy, 55
Bryan Cranston, 58
Iris Chacón, 64
John Heard, 69
Michael Eisner, 72

The post March 7: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

March 7, 1942– Tamara Faye LaValley Bakker Messner:

“Don’t Give Up When You’re On The Brink Of A Miracle.”

Sometime in the early 1980s, my boyfriend (now The Husband) called me to the television set to catch The Jim & Tammy Show with the demented hosts, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. We laughed and cried until our mascara was running down our cheeks and on to our white summer clothing. In that moment, I would not have believed 25 years later, I would actually shed a real tear when it was announced that Tammy Faye had taken her final bow and had gone to be with Jesus.

When she was 6 years old, Tammy Faye found Jesus. When she was 16 years old she found makeup, and she stayed with both of them through her 65 years in this incarnation. She and first husband Jim Bakker began as traveling evangelists, parlayed a puppet show into television stardom, created three TV networks, were the first Christian broadcasters with their own satellite, and they built the theme park Heritage USA near Charlotte, North Carolina while Reverend Jim was busy defrauding his viewers of millions of dollars.

I must confess to watching them, not because I was saved, but because I was mesmerized. They were like Howdy Doody and Betty Boop come alive. Tammy Faye cried on nearly every show and sang with the power of Brenda Lee. When she would sing her famous version of We’re Blest, I would sing along with her.

When Tammy Faye sadly took her final bow in summer 2007, the outspoken, diminutive, fake eyelash wearing, emotive evangelist had gone from ridiculous Christian TV host to vilified woman to the highest honor a human can hold: Gay Icon.

Tammy Faye really is a Gay Icon, indeed, because of her fabulousness and her honesty. She is celebrated today for her perseverance. She fell from grace and lost her fortune when her first husband was found cheating on her and swindling their Christian followers out of $160 million. Tammy Faye talked plainly about her pain in interviews and she stood by her man after his conviction. Three years later, she divorced Bakker, who was serving a 45 year prison sentence.

In 1993, she married Roe Messner (after he had divorced his own wife), a wealthy contractor and former business associate of Bakker. Bakker’s sentence was eventually reduced, and he was paroled in 1994. In 1996, Messner was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for bankruptcy fraud. How Nicky Arnstein is that?

Tammy Faye is a Gay Icon because she refused to change her unique style of runny mascara and garish jewelry to suit her Christian TV watching critics. Tammy Faye:

 “Without my eyelashes, I wouldn’t be Tammy Faye. I don’t know who I would be.”

She had long refused to denounce homosexuals on the PTL Network broadcasts. Instead, she had urged understanding and sympathy for those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

When the Bakkers were living the good Christian life, they enjoyed two lavish homes and matching Rolls Royces, plus an air-conditioned dog house.

Tammy Faye’s travails with drugs and depression made her a target of tabloid talk. In the era when I discovered her, when she became a major Camp figure making her the subject of many a drag queens’ creations, she had embraced her gays. She began attending Gay Pride events, and in 1996, she became the co-host of a nutty syndicated television talk show with openly gay actor, Jm J. Bullock.

Tammy Faye:

“I refuse to label people. We’re all just people made out of the same old dirt, and God didn’t make any junk.”

That same year, Tammy Faye was diagnosed with that damn cancer. She was told in 2004 that it had spread from her colon to her lungs. She was open and funny about her illness on television. In her memoir, I Will Survive And You Will Too! (2003), she wrote:

“I want my funeral to be a real happy time. I want everybody laughing & remembering how crazy I was.”

The Eyes Of Tammy Faye (2000) is a terrific documentary film directed by my friends Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato of World Of Wonder Productions. A decade and a half later, it remains a cult classic. The film is smartly narrated by the most famous and fabulous Drag Queen of all time, our very own RuPaul.

The documentary reveals that she was a bundle of nerves in those days, as her husband became more and more obsessed with Heritage USA fund-raising and mooning over Jessica Hahn and their single night of love. Barbato and Bailey expertly use video snippets like the one when Rev. Jim Bakker says: “Now Tammy’s going to sing for us”, and Tammy Faye, high on pills, is seen wandering aimlessly around backstage, holding a prop and stating: “I’m looking at this boat”. Yet, I have to say, Tammy Faye had real show biz chemistry and a natural presence on camera. RuPaul tells about how she’d do three shows in a row, entirely ad-libbed, completely comfortable without a script.

In one amazing scene, Tammy Faye gives a tour of all the assorted contents of her makeup kit. About one item she quips: “I don’t know what this is!”

In another scene, she walks through what is left of Heritage USA, which had been boarded up for a decade and laughs: “I’d love to give this place a good coat of paint…”

She lived more of her life on live television than perhaps anyone else in history. The Eyes Of Tammy Faye is an example of fine documentary film-making, and it really shows her heart and her generosity of spirit. It makes it really difficult not to totally fall in love with Tammy Faye. You can currently find it on HULU.

I like to think how powerful and loving her voice would be now and how entertaining she would have been if she had made it to this age of Social Media. Can you just imagine Tammy Faye Tweets?

Days before Tammy Faye’s passing in summer 2007, appearing on Larry King Live , weighing 68 pounds and ravaged by that fucking cancer, yet still made up in true Tammy Faye fabulousness, speaking barely above a whisper, she reached out with:

“You know, when we lost everything, it was the gay people that came to my rescue, and I will always love them for that.”

The post #BornThisDay: Tammy Faye LaValley Bakker Messner appeared first on The WOW Report.

Last week James posted a notice here “Calling all L.A. Drag Queens!” for an historic shoot. Well, here’s the result, photographer Austin Young said, posting these pics,

“It was EPIC. I took a individual portraits and a group photo of every amazing Drag Queen that came.“

The final group photo will hang up in the West Hollywood Library as part of A Brief History of Drag is a collaboration between the City of West Hollywood (through WeHo Arts and One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival), Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Advocate & Gochis Galleries, and CAP UCLA with assistance from the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives. The exhibition is curated by Katie Poltz and Jessica-Jean Fowler Center (both from Los Angeles LGBT Center), and David John Attyah (Glendale Community College).

Have a look. I hope someone shot video too!

(Photos, Austin Young)

The post #DragHerstory: Inside Austin Young’s EPIC “Drag Angeles” Photo Shoot appeared first on The WOW Report.

Last week Zara released its first collection specifically focusing on androgynous style, appropriately called “Ungendered“. Being sold on Zara.com, the pics for the collection feature male and female models wearing the same pieces. The collection is small, less than 10 pieces total, and each piece is less than $50. Shortly after it was announced, some people expressed their appreciation, but naturally, masses of people on Twitter had complaints about the idea. Is this a step in the right direction or just a marketing ploy? Tell us what you think on Facebook.

(via BuzzFeed)

The post #LGBTQ: Zara Announces a New “Ungendered” Clothing Line & It Pissed Off the Internet appeared first on The WOW Report.

Freakin’ coyotes, man. They’re everywhere these days. I just saw one walking down Hollywood Boulevard – WALKING DOWN HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD! Like it had good sense! It’s because of the drought, you know. Looking for water. Looking for for food. Searching new places. But who’s most at risk when coyotes come down from the hills and into your neighborhood? YOUR LITTLE POCKET POOCH. Yes, tiny dogs are getting gobbled up at an alarming rate. One bite and they’re goners. I never quite understood canine-on-canine violence – why can’t they see they are brothers under the fur? – but there you have it. It’s a big problem in Southern California. So what’s a pet owner to do?

Luckily, a couple from Scripps Ranch, California have created a cool AF punk-rock-looking anti-coyote vest made of Kevlar, with plastic spikes around the collar, spikes down the length of the torso and long plastic quills shooting up along the center from the neck to the booty.

From Oddity Central:

The basic CoyoteVest offers protection for the dog’s neck with twelve 1″ spikes and covers his back with a layer of Kevlar that can resist sharp canine teeth. But if you want better protection, you can fork out a little extra for 26 more plastic spikes that attach to the sides of the vest, and three sets of nylon bristles designed to get into the eyes and mouth of the coyote as he tries to bite down.

If you want even more protection out of the CoyoteVest, you can shell out an extra $59.95 on the Coyote Zapper system – a safety system that will shock the coyote with electricity, forcing him to let go of the dog. The owner has a remote he or she can press to activate the electric pulse that runs through the metal fibers embedded in the fabric.

“I just wanted to save my dogs, and then I realized maybe this invention can save someone else’s dog,” said inventor Paul Mott. So now he and his wife Pamela are selling the CoyoteVest and accessories online. They have already sold over 120 of them so far and have recently met with a manufacturer to help them keep up with demand.

Get yours here.

The post Invention OTD: New Spiked Vest Protects Little Dogs from Coyote Attacks appeared first on The WOW Report.

The 90-minute premiere episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race is only hours away, and joining the judges Michelle Visage, Ross Matthews, and Carson Kressley is none other than our squirrel-friend, the star of Candidly Nicole Nicole Richie!

Don’t forget to tune-in to Logo at 9/8c to GAG over the first episode of Season 8!

1 drag queen, and RuPaul.

A photo posted by @nicolerichie on Mar 7, 2016 at 3:10pm PST

The post Gentlemen, Start Your Engines! The ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 8 Premiere Is Only Hours Away! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Former Copacabana chorus girl Edna Ryan – who was frequently described in gossip columns as a “one-girl traffic jam” and a “long-legged blonde stunner out of the front line” – has died at the age of 95. Edna began working in the chorus at the Copacabana in the mid-1940s. The club was famously bankrolled by the mobster Frank Costello and was a celebrity hotspot where wealthy society types dined alongside film stars, sports heroes, and foreign dignitaries. The club was particularly noted for its chorus girls, and Edna was one of its most popular. It was Hugh Hefner who famously said the ultra-glam Edna had the “finest pins on the planet.”

After being dumped by baseball player Leo “The Lip” Durocher (love that name!) in 1946, Edna left Manhattan for Hollywood, signing a one-year contract with 20th Century Fox where, sadly, she did little more than work as an extra and pose for publicity photos.

During her Hollywood years, from the late 1940s to the later 1950s, she had a string of minor film roles, often in musicals. In 1948 he played George Raft’s buttoned-up secretary in Race Street and a party girl in the noir thriller Raw Deal (both 1948). The same year she appeared uncredited in Ladies of the Chorus with Marilyn Monroe and in When My Baby Smiles at Me alongside Betty Grable. In 1955 she danced in a short pink tutu with Ann Miller in the musical Hit the Deck. The following year she appeared in Meet Me in Las Vegas.

Edna Ryan modelled for advertising campaigns for Alka-Seltzer, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and Delsey luggage and continued to dance on television shows such as The Dean Martin Show and The Eddie Fisher Show. In later life she made guest appearances in the television series The Incredible Hulk and Charlie’s Angels and was a member of the Copa Club, a group for former Copacabana dancers.

I’d love to find that Charlie’s Angel’s episode. I wonder if the Angels knew who she was?

Living in Hollywood, you so often see very well-put-together older women and wonder what if they were once “somebodies” – if they were starlets or chorus girls or Hollywood wives or heiresses. Were they once the third nun from the left in some movie? Did they once date Errol Flynn? Were they in all the society columns? And I love finding these stories about stars I’ve never heard of – “The Girl with the Million Dollar Smile!” “Miss Golden Gams!”. It makes me think that in 60 years or so, people will be reading the obituaries of our reality stars and viral stars and underground celebrities and have no idea who they were or why they were famous. Dust in the wind, and all that. Anyway. RIP Edna Ryan.

Full obituary here.

The post #RIP: ’40s Chorus Girl Edna Ryan, the Girl with “the Finest Pins on the Planet” appeared first on The WOW Report.

HEY, DRAG RACE FANS! It’s Season 8 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which means it’s time for a brand new season of Extra Lap Recap where WOWlebrity John Polly RUcaps every episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. This week he recaps the 100th episode which also happens to be the first episode of season 8 and features the 100th queen to enter the work room! This week’s episode features a walk down memory lane, the entrances of the queens, and the eight reasons John is excited for season 8!

SPOILER ALERT: This season’s first eliminated queen gets dished, so don’t view the recap if you haven’t watched the full episode!

Don’t miss Untucked: RuPaul’s Drag Race tomorrow morning on WOWPresents and an all-new RuPaul’s Drag Race next Monday at 9PM on Logo!

The post John Polly’s Extra Lap Recap, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 8 Episode 1| Keep It 100! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Mary Ann Heagerty
Aidan Quinn
Boris Kodjoe
Camryn Manheim
Carole Bayer Sager
Freddie Prinze Jr.
Gary Numan
Hines Ward
James Van Der Beek
Kat Von D
Kathy Ireland
Lester Holt
Micky Dolenz
Nick Zano

The post March 8: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

March 8, 1943– Lynn Redgrave has been a longtime favorite at this house. Even by the zany standards of her own talented family’s public profile & professional achievements, Redgrave, was an exceptional personality. Her death in 2010 seemed particularly cruel after the loss of both her niece, Natasha Richardson and her brother, Corin Redgrave, all within months of each other.

For much of her life, Redgrave was defined by who she was not. Her father, actor Michael Redgrave (who was gay), gave all his attention to his first two children, Vanessa and Corin, and asked for, and expected little, from his youngest child. When she found his diaries many years later and looked up the day of her birth, she found a lunch appointment and a note about his previous evening performance in a play, but nothing of her own arrival in this world.

Her mother, actor Rachel Kempson had a busy career, and her father was busy with a longtime affair with Noël Coward,  and they both had little time or affection for their third child. She was a desperately shy child, not destined to follow the family trade and her parents offered her little encouragement.

Redgrave trained at the Central School of Speech And Drama. Whjen she was just 18 years old she was asked to be a company member of The Royal Court Theatre. She made her professional debut as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by her soon to be brother-in-law Tony Richardson (also gay). Richardson cast her in his film Tom Jones (1963) in a role that consisted of a single scene where she screams: “Rape!”. But, she impressed Sir Laurence Olivier who invited her to be part of his new National Theatre Company where she played Ophelia opposite Peter O’Toole’s Hamlet and her father’s Polonius. In 1964 she played the featherbrained flapper Jackie in a famed production of Noël Coward’s Hay Fever. She won over audiences and impressed critics with her comedic flair. The cast included Edith Evans, Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens and Derek Jacobi. Coward: “That cast could play the Albanian telephone directory.”

Tall, with grey eyes and an attractive, intelligent face, Redgrave  first made an impression as the plump, pathetic protagonist in the film Georgy Girl (1966) when she was 23 years old. Her sympathetic, but funny performance brought her an Academy Award nomination, a Golden Globe Award, plus a New York Film Critics Best Female Actor Award.

After her success in Georgy Girl, Redgrave made her Broadway debut in in Peter Shaffer‘s eccentric Black Comedy (1967). She adopted this country for living and for working. Less politically engaged than her older siblings, she was no less a remarkable talent.

During the first Gulf War on 1991, Redgrave and her sister Vanessa had a very public feud while they were performing on Broadway together in Chekov’s The Three Sisters, when Vanessa condemned the Americans as imperialist pigs, with Lynn claiming she could not cope with her sister’s views and was seriously considering changing her last name.

But they worked together again in a television remake of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1992) with Lynn and Vanessa in the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford roles. The remake was considered a gay sacrilege, but being a fan of the sisters, I thought it was pretty swell.

Redgrave’s legal battles and married life were the stuff of soap opera. In 1981 she sued Universal Television for wrongful dismissal, claiming she was not allowed to breast-feed her baby on set during the filming of the CBS sitcom House Calls. The litigation lasted 13 years. She lost the suit and declared bankruptcy.

In 2000, Redgrave divorced her longtime husband/manager John Clark after 32 years of marriage when he revealed that he had an affair with their personal assistant, and that her grandson Zachary was in fact Clark’s own son by the assistant, who later married and then divorced Clark and Redgrave’s son Benjamin. At the same time her daughter came out of the closet as gay. Could you follow that? A Hollywood script with such an entanglement would have been rejected as too absurd.

Redgrave battled with her weight for most of her life. She was a spokesperson for Weight Watchers in the 1980s.

Redgrave’s comic chops proved useful in Woody Allen‘s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask (1972), and in the title role in a low-budget version of Xaviera Hollander‘s The Happy Hooker (1975). One of her best starring screen roles was the jaded London hostess in Getting It Right (1989).

Redgrave gracefully moved to supporting roles in Shine (1996), and Gods And Monsters (1998), with Ian McKellen as gay film director James Whale. Her performance as Whale’s longtime housekeeper is my personal favorite of all her performances, and she was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress. I thought she was also superb in David Cronenberg’s Spider (2002), Peter Pan (2003), and astonishingly moving in her 5 minute role in Kinsey (2004).

I have always held that Lynn was as great an actress as Vanessa. It just never really seemed like it.

Redgrave was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. She had a mastectomy and produced a journal of her recovery with photographs by her daughter Annabel.

In 2005, while living with a second cancer, Redgrave appeared on Broadway at the same time as both her niece Natasha (in A Streetcar Named Desire) and Vanessa (in Hecuba), receiving the best reviews in the family, plus a Tony nomination for her performance in Somerset Maugham‘s The Constant Wife. Redgrave:

“Every night, for a couple of hours, I wasn’t a person with cancer. You almost feel like yourself when there’s so much evidence, mainly the mirror, to show you you aren’t. It was true ‘Doctor Theatre’.”

In May 2010, I cried with news that she had gone on to the great curtain call in the beyond, taken by a third visit from that damn cancer. Redgrave is missed.

“I suppose you mourn the loss or the death of what you thought your life was, even if you find your life is better after. You mourn the future that you thought you’d planned.”

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The 100th episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race is already off to a shady start! The queens get to know each other and talk about who’s on top and who’s on bottom and have a runway critique all their own. Alliances develop, but tempers start to flare as the queens talk about their runway looks.

New episodes of Untucked every Tuesday morning on WOWPresents!

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