Adrian Pasdar
Amanda Palmer
Burt Young
Cloris Leachman
David Miscavige
Dianna Agron
Jane Campion
Jeff Timmons
Johnny Galecki
Kirsten Dunst
Lars Von Trier
Stephen Harper
Willie Nelson

The post April 30th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Toklas (R) with Stein and their poodle, Basket

April 30, 1877– Alice B. Toklas

Alice Babette Toklas left Seattle for Paris when she was 30 years old. In Paris she met another American dyke, Gertrude Stein. The two women were a couple for the next 39 years, living through WWI and WWII, the apex of the age of The Lost Generation, and a collection of very famous friends. They were positively partners in every way. Toklas was Stein’s secretary, editor, critic and muse.

Their books’ titles were quite deceptive; The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas was actually written by Stein and had next to nothing to do with Toklas, and The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, although it contains many recipes, was more a memoir of a life with friends like ex-patriots Janet Flanner, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Thornton Wilder, and Virgil Thomson, along a collection of over 300 ideas for cooking.

Toklas and Stein were inseparable companions, faces in the mirror to each other, and hosts of probably the most renowned cultural salon of all time. Their Paris flat was the gathering place, a dazzling array of the famous, the ambitious, the wealthy, and the curious: Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Stephen Rutledge, Charles Chaplin, Paul Robeson, and Ford Maddox Ford, to name just a few.

Toklas stood so much in Stein’s large shadow that it was said that: “Alice sat with the geniuses’ wives in another room”. In fact, Toklas was by no means such a diminished or retiring figure. But, she was mainly content to let Stein scintillate the public, while she operated their household. She ran the house, ordered the meals, cooked, and typed out everything that Stein had written into her notebooks.

Toklas and Stein were an odd couple. Stein was formidable in girth, with a large face and close-cropped gray hair. Toklas was small and wispy and had brown hair which she wore in a bob with bangs.

Portland’s own famous gay chef, James Beard, wrote:

“Alice was one of the really great cooks of all time. She went all over Paris to find the right ingredients for her meals. She had endless specialties, but her chicken dishes were especially magnificent. The secret of her talent was great pains and a remarkable palate.”

That much renowned recipe for marijuana brownies started when Toklas signed a contract with Harper’s to write a cookbook in 1952. She was a known to be an excellent cook, but what her publishers wanted was not so much recipes, but tales of her life with the more famous Stein.

Toklas, then in her mid-70s, didn’t have enough pages to call her tome a book. So, she padded it with the recipes, including that certain one that would become renowned:

“This is the food of Paradise. It might provide an entertaining refreshment for a Ladies’ Bridge Club or a chapter meeting of the DAR, with euphoria and brilliant storms of laughter, ecstatic reveries & extensions of one’s personality on several simultaneous planes are to be complacently expected. Almost anything Saint Theresa did, you can do better.”

Her editors at Harper’s spotted the suspicious special canabis ingredient and cut the recipe out, but the publisher of the British edition didn’t. The press promptly went positively nuts. The London Times wrote:

“The late poetess Gertrude Stein and her constant companion and autobiographee, Alice B. Toklas, used to have gay old times together in the kitchen. Some of the unique delicacies that were whipped up will soon be cataloged, in a wildly epicurean tome which is already causing excited talk on both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps the most gone concoction was her hashish fudge.”

The book would go on to be the most successful bestseller for either of the famous lesbian pair.

Here is the recipe:

“Take 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, 1 whole nutmeg, 4 average sticks of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon coriander. These should all be pulverized in a mortar. About a handful each of stone dates, dried figs, shelled almonds & peanuts: chop these and mix them together. A bunch of Cannabis Sativa (my favorite strain) can be pulverized. This along with the spices should be dusted over the mixed fruit and nuts, kneaded together. About a cup of sugar dissolved in a big pat of butter. Rolled into a cake and cut into pieces or made into balls about the size of a walnut, it should be eaten with care. Two pieces are quite sufficient. Obtaining the cannabis may present certain difficulties. It should be picked and dried as soon as it has gone to seed & while the plant is still green.”

Just a few years ago, I had an acquaintance (now living in San Francisco with a rich boyfriend) that made a variation of this recipe. With only one half of a serving, I was unable to raise my head off the pillow or function for 12 hours. His advice:

 “Don’t sit down. After you eat one you need to go hiking or dancing. Keep moving.” 

I was left giggling, horny and hungry and unable to move.

Toklas lived another 20 years after Stein left this world. At the end of her life she was broke. The family of Stein had claimed the famous paintings and royalties from Stein’s works. In those final years, Toklas was plagued with financial difficulties. She had no choice after Stein’s heirs took everything, except to write a real memoir.

Toklas did write about Stein this time (she called Stein “the mother-of-us-all”) in an actual memoir, What Is Remembered (1963). Her style, in sharp contrast to Stein’s convolutions, was simple and spare.

Although Toklas converted to Catholicism late in life, the pair of Jewish lesbians are buried next to each other in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

The Toklas name would, of course, become a part of the vernacular of the pot smoking world with the terminology: “toke”. There is even a legal marijuana store in Portland named in her honor.

“But, I don’t want nutrition! I want food!”

The post #BornThisDay: Alice B. Toklas appeared first on The WOW Report.

You don’t want to miss one second of our coverage of the 2nd annual RuPaul’s DragCon on May 7 & 8, 2016, so make sure to subscribe to the brand-new RuPaul’s DragCon YouTube channel!

That’s right, children! This is the OFFICIAL RuPaul’s DragCon YouTube channel. RuLive last year’s panels before we jump into RuPaul’s DragCon 2016, and subscribe to the new channel to be the first to see the brand new content from next weekend!

The post 6 Days to RuPaul’s DragCon: Subscribe to the Brand-New RuPaul’s DragCon YouTube Channel appeared first on The WOW Report.

In English it means, “Love and Let Love”

Cuba Inspires was founded just this year after the United States and Cuba reestablished diplomatic relations and services individuals, corporations and non-profits traveling between the two countries, the trans actress and activist,

“will become a direct bridge between both worlds, giving her the unique and historic position during the event that includes symposiums, lectures, films, art exhibits and a theatrical festival in Havana and Matanzas.”

While in Cuba, Cayne will meet with Dr. Mariela Castro-Espin, director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX) and the daughter of Cuba’s President, Raul Castro, and the niece of Fidel Castro, to speak on an activist panel, participate in Cuba’s fourth Pride Parade and attend CENESEX’s Gala.

CENESEX, which was founded by Castro-Espin, campaigns for LGBT rights and has been at the forefront on AIDS prevention education. Cayne told The Huffington Post,

“I’m honored to be the first honorary LGBT ambassador to Cuba joining Mariela Castro-Espin for this unique collaboration on behalf of the LGBT community.”

You can find out more about Cuba Inspires here and follow Candis on Twitter.

(via Huffington Post)

The post #CubaInspires: Candis Cayne Named LGBT Ambassador To Cuba appeared first on The WOW Report.

Conservative groups are taking aim at Target, but retail analysts don’t think they’ll leave a mark.

Target‘s announcement on its website a week ago saying that transgender employees and customers could use the restroom (or fitting room) that corresponds to their gender identity, in response to North Carolina’s so-called “bathroom law,” kicked off a HUGE firestorm of opposition from right-wing (hate) groups.

The company said on its site, referring obliquely to the debate over North Carolina’s law, which requires people to use public bathrooms that correspond to their birth certificate rather than their gender,

“Target supports the federal Equality Act, which provides protections to LGBT individuals, and opposes action that enables discrimination.

Given the specific questions these legislative proposals raised about how we manage our fitting rooms and restrooms, we felt it was important to state our position.”

Supporters of the North Carolina law — plus others like it being put forward in other states — responded in kind. A petition to boycott Target circulated online by the American Family Association, which supports the North Carolina law, had nearly a million signatures a week after Target’s announcement.

Some evidence that this could translate into business trouble for the giant retailer is poll data from YouGov BrandIndex. YouGov measures consumer perception of a brand and they found that Target’s reputation fell by nine points, with a more negative perception among women. YouGove’s CEO Ted Marzilli said,

“This is more than just about Target. This is about a political debate that’s been brewing over the last couple of months. The reality is I think Americans are uncertain about this — or there are many that are certain, but on both sides of the issue.“

Some already have, and as more companies say customers and workers can use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity, responses could shift the spotlight away from Target, Marzilli added,

“I think you’ll see a reversion back towards normal.“

Bob Witeck of Witeck Communications, Inc., a public relations and marketing communications firm that focuses on the LGBT market suggests that the strength of “bathroom law” support stemmed from advocates successfully framing it as an issue of safety.

“They’ve got the upper hand in terms of a message that works… and they’re using it very effectively. More corporations are going to push back.“

Most analysts believe this will blow over without damaging the retailer. Joe Feldman, senior managing director at Telsey Advisory Group says,

“I don’t foresee this having a material impact on sales or earnings. If you look historically at corporations attacked or boycotted, there’s no empirical or market evidence that they ever suffered any specific losses.

To the extent that Target is trying to resonate with millennials… presumably, this helps promote that.“

Witeck added,

“None of these boycotts have legs, they don’t last for a long time.“

IT’S PERSONAL…
Target employee Maxwell Jamison had this to say about the policy;

“Hi there! My name is Max. I’m a Target team member, and I also happen to be transgender.

Over the past week since Target announced their inclusive restroom policy following the North Carolina bathroom bill, I’ve had to endure multiple conversations regarding what rights trans people deserve, these comments coming from the guests at my store, my fellow coworkers, and even a few of my supervisors. I have been told that trans people ought to use “the bathroom that matches their junk,” that a “man in a dress” is going to sexually assault everyone’s daughters, our store has been threatened and cursed out by guests, and the amount of rampant transphobia that’s taken place in store and online this past week has been nauseating.

So, here I am, in the men’s restroom at Target, a trans man, standing up for my trans siblings out there who’ve had to listen and read the same bullshit I’ve been experiencing. Know that for every negative thought some bigot has had about us, there are other gender-dismantling folks out there standing up for our right to use whatever restroom we please, in Target, in restaurants, in shopping malls, wherever. Stand up for your right to gain access to relieve basic human functions and feel safe doing so. Trans ladies, use the women’s restroom with pride, check out your cute blouse in a mirror without fearing for your safety. Trans guys, don’t feel ashamed waiting for a stall to open up. Gender queers, go, and I mean GO, wherever you feel fits your vibe that day.

You’ve come a long way in your personal journey, and we’ve got a long way to go until we’re recognized as valid, beautiful, powerful human beings. We’re getting there, slowly but surely.

Keep going. Fight with the rest of us and shut out the negativity. Don’t let the problematic idea of “passing” decide where you drop trou. Don’t let some shitlord’s comment on a Facebook news post about North Carolina dictate where you pee. #LetUsPeeInPeace

#WhatHeSaid Make you want to go pick up a few things at Target, huh? (via NBC News)

The post #LGBTQ: Groups Boycott Target Over Inclusive Bathroom Policy; A Trans Employee Weighs In appeared first on The WOW Report.

D’Arcy Wretzky
Glen Ballard
Joanna Lumley
John Woo
Judge Marilyn Milian
Judy Collins
Julie Benz
Ray Parker Jr.
Rita Coolidge
Tim McGraw
Tim Urban
Wes Anderson

The post May 1st: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

May 1, 1946– Joanna Lumley:

“I’ve never felt the constraints of social acceptability.”

As if the month isn’t already promising to be brimming with emotion, with the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, plus the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and the Democrats having their big shindig in Philadelphia the following week, is it all just too heady? Plus, aren’t you kids just a tiny bit excited about the upcoming Absolutely Fabulous feature film set to open in July?

Of course I am simply mad for the television series Absolutely Fabulous (1992-2002). I am, after all, a modern homosexual gentleman of excellent breeding and discerning good taste. The tales of Edina Monsoon and her BFF, Patsy Stone, forever boozing, smoking, sexing, and taking drugs; the two girlfriends spending their free time taking pot shots at celebrities while abusing Edina’s straight-laced daughter Saffron was a favorite at this house for a decade, with frequent visits to the re-runs. These pair of outrageous broads brought to life the funniest television characters conceived in a long time. Lucy and Ethel they’re not. Ever since the ten years spent watching this series, I really like it when anyone calls me “sweetie darling”!

Ab Fab, as we fans are driven to call it, was written by and starring the delectable Jennifer Saunders and it showcases Lumley as her enabler, whose drug use, alcohol consumption, and promiscuity far eclipse her pal’s comparatively benign self-destructive behavior. In our current climate of political correctness, there is something very liberating about watching these characters do all the things society tells us are wrong without any sort of regret. It is made even more powerful by having the characters be a couple of middle-aged, upper-class women who should know better.

Saunders has stated that she was really surprised by her show being so loved by the gay audience in the USA. In the UK, Absolutely Fabulous was a more mainstream sort of hit. But here, it has sort of become thought of as a “gay” show, even though it’s really not about gay people (except for Serge, Edina’s gay son who makes a single hysterical appearance in the special episode when the girls travel to NYC).

What I didn’t understand when I first began watching Ab Fab was that Lumley is one of Britain’s most cherished and accomplished actors, with plenty of stage and film credits.

She was born in Kashmir, India, the daughter of a military officer. She attended a convent school in England.

She began her career as a model in the 1960s, and first gained attention as a Bond Girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). That’s the single Bond flick with model, George Lazenby playing the role of James Bond.

On Britain’s favorite soap opera, Coronation Street (1960-2016) Lumley had her first steady gig as an actor.

Her real life in the 1960s was far more interesting than most of the characters she has played. She had a child, but refused to name the father, and she resolutely refused to apologize for being a single mother.

Lumley’s first iconic role was as Purdey in the BBC series The New Avengers, (1976-77) with the original series Patrick Macnee as Mr. Steed and Lumley replacing Diana Rigg’s Emma Peel. The show was sort-lived, and like Jennifer Aniston on Friends, her haircut received as much attention as her acting.

She also found work on stage, in plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov and Ibsen like Desdemona in Othello in 1975, Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard in 2007, Hedda Gabler in 1984, plus The Lion In Winter on the West End in 2011. She starred on Broadway in David Hirson‘s La Bête  with David Hyde Pierce and this year’s Oscar winner, Mark Rylance, and was nominated for the Tony Award for her performance.

She has produced and hosted a series of in depth travel documentaries for television: Joanna Lumley In The Land of the Northern Lights, about her search to see the Northern Lights in Norway; Joanna Lumley’s Nile, where she journeys up the Nile from the Mediterranean Sea to its source in Rwanda; Joanna Lumley’s Greek Odyssey; Joanna Lumley’s Ark, where she searches of Noah’s Ark on three continents; and Joanna Lumley’s Trans-Siberian Adventure, where Lumley traveled 6400 miles from Hong Kong to Moscow on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Lumley is also a busy social activist. She is a foremost champion of the Gurkhas, the exiled Tibetan people and government, and the Kondha indigenous people of India. So skilled are her impassioned speeches that there were calls for Lumley to run for Parliament.

Like me, she is a longtime vegetarian who has campaigned for animal rights organizations. And also like me, Lumley is a member of The Green Party. Unlike me, she is a close confidante of the British Royal Family, and I am hoping that she might introduce me to a certain Ginger Prince.

Besides Absolutely Fabulous, which really is an absolute favorite show, I especially like her performance in one of my favorite films, John Schlesinger’s Cold Comfort Farm (1995) as  Mrs. Mary Smiling. She has worked with director Tim Burton on two projects: James And The Giant Peach (1996) and Corpse Bride (2005). She appeared in the Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013), where she gets to make-out with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Ab Fab: The Movie finds the ever glamorous and self-indulgent Patsy and Edina at the center of a media frenzy when they accidentally kill Kate Moss. It is only three months away from opening in theatres!

Lumley has been married to orchestra conductor Stephen Barlow for the past 30 years. They live in London and Scotland. She is twice a grandmother. She published an autobiography, Absolutely: A Memoir (2011) that reveals just how absolutely fabulous her life has been, including this tid-bit:  she was AOL’s “You’ve Got Mail” notification voice.

“When I look in the mirror I see a tired, familiar, friendly old woman. Once I was on a desert island and didn’t see my face for nine days. When I looked in a mirror, it was the biggest shock of my life. I saw a total stranger. Terrifying.”

The post #BornThisDay: Actor, Joanna Lumley appeared first on The WOW Report.

New York has had plenty of crazy-rich families (yes, we’re looking at you Donald) but few were as mysterious as the Wendels. The siblings were born in the 19th century, never married, rarely went out in public, and grew old together behind brick walls inside the last private mansion on Fifth Avenue.

Their father made a fortune in fur and real estate and in the 1850s he built himself a big ol’ mansion on the fashionable, once-residential Fifth Avenue, at 39th Street. With all their money, you would expect the Wendel siblings—brother John and his six (some sources say seven) sisters—to live it up in high society. Wrong.

The all kept to themselves, rumors spread and John, who collected rent from his father’s vast real-estate holdings, became known as the “recluse of Fifth Avenue.” A newspaper story back in the day said,

“[John] frowned on marriage for his sisters and decreed they should stay out of society, live in the simplest possible style and wear the fashions of their youth.

All of the siblings lived “in an antiquated house of mystery amid the cacophonous commerce of midtown Manhattan.

There, starved of society by a tyrannical brother, the sisters cuddled lapdogs instead of sweethearts. With stingy allowances and shabby clothes, they slipped into spinsterhood—and perhaps, it was whispered, insanity.” ”

As the 20th century arrived and Fifth Avenue’s mansions were replaced by office buildings, the Wendel home—without electricity, telephones, or other conveniences—and its occupants fueled more rumors. The article goes on

“Spouses meant dispersal of the family fortune, so gossiped the gossips, and thus the seven Wendel sisters were kept moldering in the upper stories of their mansion, as brother John pinched their pennies.”

John died in 1914 in his 70s. Over the next decades the sisters began dying off as well (one did get married—in her 60s!). By the 30s, only Ella was left, seen only at night to give her poodle a chance to run around the backyard (Btw, a backyard that faced Fifth Avenue that was worth millions that she constantly turned down huge sums of money for!)

Ella died in her sleep at age 80 in 1931 and the public finally learned where at least part of the Wendel’s $100 million fortune would go: Drew University in New Jersey. Drew inherited the Fifth Avenue property and it was razed in 1934.

The University put up a plaque there in the family’s memory and you can see below that a Staples and a Panera Bread stands in the very spot where the family once lived.

The Wendels

The Wendel mansion in the 1930s

The site of the Wendel mansion today

A plaque commemorates the family

The post #RealEstatePorn: Before the Trumps, New York City Had the Wacky Wendels appeared first on The WOW Report.

Harry and his gran star in a video with the Obamas to promote the Invictus Games

Now, the 232-acre Woolmers Park, along with its 1730s mansion, once belonging to Earl and Countess of Strathmore, grandparents of QEII is on the market. As a child, the Queen regularly spent time there. One of the big selling points is the privacy, with a rumored asking price of $45 million, and in addition to being an posh English estate on steroids, there are no public rights of way, which I’m told, is unusual for such a large estate.

You’d think Her Majesty might buy it herself with the proceeds from some loose diamonds or the odd brooch she might have lying around to add it to her vast real estate holdings. FYI, as head of state of the United Kingdom and of 31 other states and territories, she is the legal owner of about 6,600 million acres of land, one sixth of the earth’s non-ocean surface. She is the only person on earth who owns whole countries, and who owns countries that are not her own domestic territory. So, what’s 232 more acres?

(T/Y Tad)

The post #RealEstatePorn: Queen Elizabeth’s Grandparents’ Vast Estate Can Be Yours – For $45 Million appeared first on The WOW Report.

The Empire State Building was dedicated on this day, May 1, 1931. The star of more than 200 films, including An Affair To Remember (1957), Annie Hall (1977) and Auntie Mame (1958), it has been scaled by a giant ape and blown to smithereens, and yet, The Empire State Building still looks great at 85 years old.

A B-52 flew into it in 1945. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a plunge of 75 stories inside one of the elevators (a record that still holds). Dozens of people have jumped off of it, some survived. In 1964, Andy Warhol released an 8-hour long film of a static shot of the building. That film is now owned by MOMA.

The Empire State Building figures in the sexiest scene of my favorite novel of all-time, The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay (2000) by Michael Chabon. I have been to the observation deck at least 10 times & I was always thrilled by the architecture & the view. I am just crazy for big things.

On this day in 1931, President Herbert Hoover officially dedicated The Empire State Building, pressing a button from the White House that turned on the building’s lights. Hoover’s gesture was symbolic; he was in DC & someone else flicked the switches in NYC. The building is still lit up with special LED colored lights in celebration of important events including when marriage equality came to NY State.

Endangered Species projected on the building as part of a promotion for the Discovery Channel documentary, Racing Extinction in December 2015

The idea for the Empire State Building came from a competition between Walter Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation and John Jakob Raskob of General Motors, to see who could erect the taller building. You kids know how guys get about whose is bigger. Chrysler had already begun work on the stunning Art Deco Chrysler Building in midtown. Raskob gathered together a group of smart, famous investors, including former NY Governor Alfred E. Smith. They picked Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Architects to design the building. The group approved an Art Deco inspired plan, based in large part on the look of a pencil. The entire building went up in just over a year, under budget and well ahead of schedule, averaging an astonishing five stories a week.

When it was finished, The Empire State Building, at 102 stories and 1,250 feet high, was the world’s tallest skyscraper. The Depression-era project employed 3,400 workers on any single day, most of whom received excellent pay, especially considering the economy of the era. The new building gave NYC with a deep sense of pride, bolstering spirits in The Great Depression, when many New Yorkers were unemployed & prospects were bleak. Things were so bad that when it opened only 25% of the building’s offices were leased.

In 1972, the Empire State Building lost the title World’s Tallest Structure to the World Trade Center, which was the tallest building for just a year, displaced by The Sears Building in Chicago. Now the tallest building on the planet is not in the USA, because we failed to Make America Great Again.

I find the island of Manhattan to be the greatest of human accomplishments. The place is the home to some of my favorite structures. When I lived in NYC in those crazy 1970s, I never stopped feeling gobsmacked when I ever I caught a glimpse of The Empire State Building while traveling around the island. From far away or standing on the same block, it always gave me a building boner, proving that size does matter.

The post #RealEstatePornThisDay: The Empire State Building appeared first on The WOW Report.

The RuPaul’s DragCon Opening Night Spectacular takes place on May 6th and has a SICKENING lineup of fabulous performers! Come see Alyssa Edwards, Gia Gunn, Jessica Wild, Jujubee, Katya, Kennedy Davenport, Lady Bunny, Laganja Estranja,Latrice Royale, Raven, and Trixie Mattel slay the house down!

You can get two types of tickets: $40 for general admission and $65 for reserved seats.

The party will pop off at the Belasco Theater in Downtown Los Angeles (and will be 18 and over.)

Get your tickets here before they sell out!

The post 5 Days to RuPaul’s DragCon: Do You Have Your Tickets for the Opening Night Spectacular Friday, May 6? appeared first on The WOW Report.

The late Warhol Superstar Jackie Curtis is well-known, but this new exhibition in New York the cultural and historical impact of both Curtis (1947-1985) and the lesser-know, but phenomenally talented, Ethyl Eichelberger (1945-1990) are reconsidered. They were two of the most influential figures from the 70s and 80s in the East Village’s heyday. Oddly, even thought the title suggests otherwise, the press release says “they are not believed to have known each other.” So odd. I knew them both from my Pyramid days. A little background first. From the press release,

Jackie by Jack Mitchell

Jackie Curtis was born John Curtis Holder, Jr. on the Lower East Side, and mostly raised by his maternal grandmother, known as Slugger Ann, whose eponymous bar on 2nd Avenue was a well-known refuge for social misfits. A member of Andy Warhol’s original network of Superstars –along with Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn –, Curtis’ stage debut was at age 17 in Tom Eyen’s Miss Nefertiti Regrets, followed by roles in the Paul Morrissey films Flesh (1968) and Women in Revolt (1971). Aside from possessing a mesmerizing screen presence, Curtis’ greatest artistic influence was as playwright and songwriter for the productions Glamour, Glory and Gold; Vain Victory; and Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit, all of which featured transsexual characters. The Jackie Curtis signature ‘look’ –glitter and lipstick combined with ripped stockings and/or housedresses – was widely adopted in the 1970s and 1980s, and in 2004 the documentary Superstar in a Housedress brought the Curtis legend to a new generation.

Ethyl by Peter Hujar

Ethyl Eichelberger was born James Roy Eichelberger in rural Illinois, and spent much of his first thirty years studying acting and working in regional repertory theater, eventually becoming an expert wigmaker and member of Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company. In 1975 he legally changed his first name to Ethyl and introduced a flamboyant stage presence, singing while playing piano and accordion, and radically re-conceiving classic characters like King Lear and Medea as drag cabaret. Although Eichelberger appeared in films, Broadway theater productions, and an HBO series for kid, and was a successful commercial actor, his main impact was as a performer in intimate East Village venues like P.S. 122, Pyramid Lounge, 8BC, and s.n.a.f.u.. In the course of more than thirty original and adapted plays, his was nearly always the title role, often with multiple male and female characters switching parts, and occasional acrobatic or circus stunts thrown in for equal measure.

Ethyl onstage at The Pyramid MCing a “Straight To Hell” cover boy contest. Photos, Trey Speegle

STH posters featuring Ethyl, John Sex & Cookie Mueller, designed by Trey Speegle

Jackie Curtis holding an issue of STH with Trey Speegle on the cover at The Pyramid.
Photo, Trey Speegle

Ethyl was a wonderful person and an amazing performer. (Watch the clip below) I was lucky enough to share the stage with a couple of times, MCing with her for my show, Straight to Hell, at the Pyramid. Our schtick was that neither knew what we were supposed to be doing and without any script or rehearsal, it wan’t a stretch. Ethyl was quick on her feet and judged a contest to be on the cover of STH magazine, left. Later for the STH reboot, Bad Boy at Danceteria, my DJs for the monthly party were none other than WOW’s Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato, which featured strippers from the infamous Gaiety Male Burlesque, plus various side shows, like the Porno Swap Meet and Wet Underwear Contest. The photo below is of Ethyl flat onstage with the judges one night, all old pals of mine, Keith Haring, Cookie Mueller and John Sex. Years later when I saw this photo it summed up the fun and also the sadness of that era. Keith, Cookie and John all died from AIDS-related causes and Ethyl was HIV-positive and committed suicide in 1990.

Jackie I knew less, but we shared one memorable night when she spoke at a Straight To Hell night at the Pyramid. (That’s me on the cover of the magazine at just 19.) I recently donated a print of the picture, left, which I took in ’85, for auctioned to benefit the AIDS charity, Friends In Deed, which is sadly now defunct. Happily, the photo is now in mega-collector Beth Rudin DeWoody‘s hand. Jackie died just a few months later in ’85, so that was one of her last appearances, I think.

The exhibit will feature videos by the late, great Nelson Sullivan and others, and images of Eichelberger and Curtis by photographers Peter Hujar, Dona McAdams, Jack Mitchell, Billy Sullivan, Ande Whyland, and Kirila Faeh and many more. When Jackie Met Ethyl, curated by Dan Cameron is at Howl Arts. It opens, Thursday, May 5 and runs through June 1, 2016. For more info you can go here.

Keith Haring, Cookie Mueller, John Sex and Ethyl Eicrhelberger at Trey Speegle’s Bad Boy night at Danceteria, circa ’86

The post #DragHerstory: “When Jackie (Curtis) Met Ethyl” (Eichelberger) In NYC appeared first on The WOW Report.

Amy Schumer is back up in your face again to mock the country’s lax gun laws. On last night’s episode of Inside Amy Schumer, she and her co-star play two hosts on a home shopping network eager to sell you a gun. Taking some calls from shoppers at home,

“Here’s what great about this…pretty much anyone can purchase this!“

A caller expresses interest in buying “a lot of these,” but is afraid he can’t, because he’s a suspected terrorist on the no-fly list.

“Aw, you’re fine, sweet potato fries,. No one can you tell you that you don’t have a right to buy a gun in this country you’re trying to destroy!“

Amy signs off with a promo for her next product,

“We’re going to be selling you United States congressmen and senators whose influence can be purchased much cheaper than you think.“

Watch. It’s funny because guns aren’t.

(T/Y Tad; via Mother Jones)

The post #WatchNow: Amy Schumer Is Selling Guns on Home Shopping! appeared first on The WOW Report.

You remember Pietro Boselli, “the world’s sexiest math teacher”? After photos of him teaching math classes at University College London went viral last year, he been supporting himself through a PhD program with modeling gigs for Charlie by Matthew Zink, Moschino, and Armani. Judging by this new Vogue Hommes, life looks pretty good..

He’s in Milan for Menswear Week and Vogue Hommes followed him for 24 hours to get an idea of what a day in the life of is like. As all good things do, it starts out naked in a towel…

“At first I never realized that people were taking pictures in the classroom. The first time is when I saw it reposted on Facebook. I saw it happen a few times until The Daily Mail picked it up and reposted it and it just went all crazy on the Internet.”

“I started having more people showing up at the class, people who had nothing to do actually with the course. [Laughs]”

You can see why. Watch.

Untitled by trey-speegle

(via NewNowNext)

The post #ManCrushMonday: Vogue Hommes Follows the World’s Hottest Math Teacher Turned Model appeared first on The WOW Report.

I posted this before back in September in honor of brother Barry Gibb‘s birthday (sorry, Barry)… oh, I won’t try to explain who or what the hell this is. (It appears to be just one guy) but these are two of the funniest videos I’ve seen in a long time.

“Windy Ocean. Lettuce Pee.”

(I think a little pee just came out.) Watch.

The post #MisheardLyrics: The Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Rug?” & “Nice Beaver” appeared first on The WOW Report.

Oh, look! I’m on today’s all-new episode of Hey Qween! I can’t watch it because I don’t watch myself on ANYTHING anymore, but I was there, and I remember I had a good time, so yes, I heartily endorse this episode. My look? Drag road kill. The conversation? We chat about everything from my childhood to club kidding to my upcoming movie Freak Show. And of course during the “Look at Huh” segment I drag everybody I’ve ever met (RuPaul! Michael Alig! Lady Bunny!) THROUGH THE MUD. Watch the shenanigans below.

The post James St James on Hey Qween! appeared first on The WOW Report.

On this episode of Alyssa’s Secret, the Monday before RuPaul’s DragCon, Alyssa Edwards sits down with makeup mogul and internet sensation Jeffree Star to discuss all things RuPaul’s DragCon! Do you have your tickets to RuPaul’s DragCon yet?

The post Alyssa’s Secret: Alyssa Edwards Dishes on RuPaul’s DragCon with Jeffree Star! appeared first on The WOW Report.

It’s the biggest, most fabulous, most important party of the year – THE OSCARS OF THE FASHION WORLD! –and you are probably never, ever going to to get to go. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit – held the first Monday in May  – i.e. TONIGHT!– is the only one of the Met’s curatorial departments that has to fund itself, and prides itself on it exclusivity and mega-watt star power.

This year, the exhibit is “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” and the hosts are Anna Wintour, chairwoman of the gala; Jonathan Ive, chief design officer of Apple; Taylor Swift; and the actor Idris Elba, with honorary chairmen Karl Lagerfeld,Miuccia Prada, and Nicolas Ghesquière. Tickets this year are $30,000 apiece, and tables are $275,000. Nearly 600 people will be attending. Not everyone pays for a ticket, though. Brands often invite celebrities to be their guests and sit at their table, and Ms. Wintour also often invites up-and-coming designers who might not be able to afford a ticket and scatters them around the event.

According to the New York Times, even if you can afford a ticket, can you, you know, just GO to the ball?

Dream on. Unlike other cultural fund-raisers, like the New York City Ballet gala or the Frick Collection’s Young Fellows Ball, the Met gala is invitation-only, and there is a waiting list to get on the invitation list. Qualifications for inclusion have to do with buzz and achievement (and beauty) more than money. Ms. Wintour has final say over every invitation and attendee, which means that even if a brand buys a table, it cannot choose everyone who sits at its table: The brand must clear it with her, and Vogue.

O.K., you’re saying I can’t go. So why should I care?

It’s reality TV at its most glamorous. Watch Justin Bieber schmooze with Rihanna! See Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady greet Donatella Versace! Check out Chelsea Clinton kissing Diane von Furstenberg! Judge whether you approve of their outfits! You get the idea. (And where can you watch? On our Facebook live stream or on E!, starting at 7pm ET.)

Speaking of outfits, do attendees have to dress in theme?

It isn’t explicitly stated that attendees have to dress like the exhibition, but it is encouraged. This can sometimes backfire. In 2013, for example, the theme was “Punk,” and the red carpet, which featured Sarah Jessica Parker in a Philip Treacy fauxhawk hat and graffiti gown, and Madonna in fishnet shorts and a studded plaid jacket, was widely panned.

Last year, the exhibit was “China: Through the Looking Glass,” and it created some politically incorrect moments when celebrities and the designers who dressed them got their Asian references muddled. (Lady Gaga, for example, wore a Balenciaga kimonolike look, which seemed to lean toward the Japanese; ditto Georgia May Jagger in Gucci.) Generally, it is advisable to play it safe and just get really, really dressed up.

That said, what is not negotiable is that if celebrities are invited to the gala by a brand, they have to wear clothes from that brand. This encourages brands to get the best celebrities because they can act as something of an advertisement for a house. It is also why, whenever designers are photographed on the red carpet, their “dates” are almost always famous people. Last year, for example, Marc Jacobs took Cher; Christopher Kane, FKA Twigs; Alexander Wang, Taraji P. Henson; and Jeremy Scott, Katy Perry.

How long has this been going on?

The publicist Eleanor Lambert started the gala in 1948 as a typical philanthropic endeavor for the great and good of New York society. Pat Buckley, the wife of the conservative pundit William F. Buckley Jr., took over as chairwoman in 1979, but it has morphed into its current form only since the turn of the millennium. Ms. Wintour now oversees every detail, down to timed entrances for guests.

What happens when guests get inside?

It’s a secret! Since last year, posting on social media has been banned after the red carpet. What I can tell you is this: There is a receiving line inside with all the hosts, and guests have to file by and air-kiss them; then they tour the exhibit on their way to the cocktail party, so they are at least theoretically forced to see the culture. After cocktails, they are called in to dinner, and there is always some form of entertainment (last year, it was Rihanna; the year before, Frank Ocean). This is good, because as the red carpet part of the evening has become a giant marketing event, the fact that the main part of the event is private allows guests to relax and have fun.

Read the full article here.

We will be, no doubt, posting 10,000 pictures in the coming days. Stay tune for massive media over-saturation….

The post What Is the Met Ball and Who Gets to Go? The New York Times Breaks It Down for You appeared first on The WOW Report.

The panels at RuPaul’s DragCon on Sunday run the gamut from Dance Your Padded *** Off to RuPaul’s Keynote Speech! Find out which panels you want to put on your AllCal calendar so you don’t miss a thing. And get your tickets at www.rupaulsdragcon.com!

The Business of Drag: Life Beyond the Nightclubs

Learn how to build your brand, navigate the marketplace and maximize your earning potential. Or in the words of economist RuPaul: “Scamming money don’t make no money, but freaky money do get the money.” Panelist: Latrice Royale and Mimi Imfurst moderated by Merle Ginsburg

Theater Queens!

All the world’s a stage and comedy greats Love Connie and Drew Droege are merely players. Join us for a sit-down like none other, as these two Marys are joined by DJ Paul V. of Dragstrip 66 and the The Cavern Club Theatre to discuss how they been making underground theater cool again. Panelist: Drew Droege, Love Connie, and Dj Paul V. moderated by Billy Francesca

The Library Is Open: The Art of Reading

Trigger warning! Shade will be thrown as some of  Drag Race’s most notorious readers school the children in the fine art of reading. Darienne Lake, Jujubee, Trixie Mattel, Mariah Balenciaga, and Robbie Turner. Moderated by Wendy Ho

#Famous: The Secrets of Social Media Success

Social media mavens Todrick Hall, Camm Jay, Manny Mua, Patrick Starrr, and Steven Joseph share their secrets on how to make a big impression in a world dominated by social media.  Moderated by Nadya Ginsburg

Brand Me

Having trouble getting your name out there? Our panel of brand boosters shows you how to stop fitting in and start standing out. Panelist AB Soto, Laganja Estranja, Manila Luzon, Moderated by best selling author and Forbes Contributor Jackie Huba

Season 1 : The Ru-Union

You’re cordially invited to the most epic high school reunion of all time. Join us as we take an episodic trip down memory lane to the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Raceand find out what it was like to be an original member of Drag Race herstory. Panel includes living legends Jade Sotomayor, Merle Ginsberg, Ongina, Tammie Brown, and, Victoria “PorkChop” Parker. Moderated by the incomparable John Polly.

Transcendent: Meet the Ladies of AsiaSF

The cast of the hit FUSE TV series, Transcendent, discuss what it’s like to be young, talented and trans as they prepare to launch the second season of their GLAAD Media Award nominated docuseries. Join Bambiana, Bionka, Nya, Xristina with founder and CEO  of Asia SF Larry Hashbarger, moderated by Writer, Director, Producer, and Activist Andrea James

Big Freedia Sneak Peek

You better sissy your bounce to a special sneak peek of the latest season of Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce followed by a Q & A with the queen diva herself. Who knows, she might even show us a few dance moves in the process! This is one panel that’s sure to put the werk in your twerk.

Size Queens: Big Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Meet some of the biggest and baddest girls in the game as they discuss body positivity, self-love, and working what your mama gave you. Ginger Minj, Jiggly Caliente, Stacy Layne Matthews, Darienne Lake, with Ashley Nell Tipton (Project Runway Season 14), Moderated by pop culture pundit and celebrated author Frank DeCaro.

Dance Your Padded A** Off!

Bust a move as our panel covers bucking and twerking and things of that nature. Panelist: Chi Chi Devayne, Kennedy Davenport, Coach D (Bring It), Larry Sims, and Jamal Sims (Step It Up)

Celebrity Impersonators: How to Lip Sync for a Living!

These queens have turned lip syncing into an art form and make a living doing it better than everybody else. Read their lips as our panel discusses what makes for a killer lip sync. Panelist: Chad Michaels, Coco Montrese, Derrick Barry, Hot Chocolate, and Venus D’Lite. Moderated by Christian Zamora of Buzzfeed

The Drag Queens of Comedy

If laughter is healing, then these funny b*tches just might find a cure for cancer. LOL with Panelist Bob The Drag Queen, Heklina, Jackie Beat, Peaches Christ, Sasha Soprano. Moderated by Alec Mapa (Baby Daddy)

RuPaul’s Keynote

From runway walking to life advice, RuPaul is back to give another keynote address. Don’t miss this Keynote! Time and location will be announced closer to the event!

The post 4 Days to RuPaul’s DragCon: Sunday Panels appeared first on The WOW Report.

People have lost their minds. Anti-LGBT Bible-bearing ‘Christians’ went into Target stores in Tennessee, Illinois, and Oregon this week accosting customers to tell them they need to repent because of their transgender bathroom policy,

A man in Portland paraded around the Target store yelling at people,

“Target this is your wake up call. The Bible says that from the beginning God made them male and female. He didn’t make them transvestites. He made them male and female…Target, this is your warning. You will be judged according to God’s standards. Not man’s, but God’s…You need to repentYou will be judged. And if there are Christians in here, supporting this abomination, shame on you! … But you justify this place. You have to stand by the bathrooms because perverts can go in there. Because transvestites allowed.”

Customers aren’t having it, most of them telling him to “shut up and leave.”

In Bradley, Illinois one of these devout “Christians” put a mall on lockdown which prompted a HUGE police response because store shoppers thought he was an “active shooter”, NBC Chicago reported,

Michael Merichko was charged with disorderly conduct following a disturbance inside a Target store at 1615 N. State Route 50 in Bourbonnais, about 55 miles south of Chicago, according to the Bradley Police Department.

Merichko was allegedly protesting Target Corporation’s newly announced policy on letting transgender people use the bathroom that conforms to their identity. Police said his actions caused “panic among store employees and customers.”

Just after 1 p.m., multiple police agencies responded to the Target after receiving a 911 call about an active shooter inside the store, according to authorities.

And another in Tennessee went off,

“Wicked. Wicked. It’s time to repent. Rip up your Target cards. It’s time to get rid of the rainbow. The rainbow belongs to God, not to you. Target is the lowlife of places to work. You need to repent. Homosexuals shall not inherit the kingdom of God!”

Watch.

(T/Y Tad; via Towleroad)

The post #LGBTQ: Bible-Bearing “Christians” Scream at Target Customers To “Repent” For Shopping There. Watch. appeared first on The WOW Report.