Actor Anton Yelchin, who appeared in the Star Trek films and Terminator Salvation, died early this morning in his rep has confirmed to People. Yelchin’s representative said in a statement,

“His family requests you respect their privacy at this time.“

The L.A. County Medical Examiner‘s office confirmed that Yelchin’s body was found pinned between a car and a gate at a home in Studio City, California. No cause of death has been declared yet while the coroner completes the autopsy. However, preliminary results were that he had head and chest injuries.

It is believed the vehicle was not properly parked before Yelchin walked to the rear of the vehicle and that it rolled and pinned him against the gate.

Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Yelchin and his family moved to the United States in 1989. His parents were celebrated Russian ice skaters Irina (Korina) and Viktor Yelchin. His last photo, a selfie during a trip to Nantasket, Massachusetts, was posted two weeks ago on Intstagram.

Yelchin is in the third entry in the rebooted Star Trek film, Star Trek Beyond due out this summer. The actor’s final film will be Thoroughbred, which he wrapped in Boston just two weeks ago.

He was 27.

(via People)

The post #RIP: Actor Anton Yelchin Killed in Freak Car Accident appeared first on The WOW Report.

Alexis Neiers
Anne Murray
Bob Vila
Brian Wilson
Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Danny Aiello
Dreama Walker
Frank Lampard
John Goodman
John Mahoney
Josh Lucas
Lionel Richie
Martin Landau
Nicole Kidman
Olympia Dukakis
Peter Paige
Robert Rodriguez
Stephen Frears
Tika Sumpter
Tina Sinatra
Twiggy Ramirez

The post June 20th: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

June 20, 1905– I am a fan of the writing and the life of Lillian Hellman. I find her great play The Little Foxes to have a top place in the cannon of the Best American Plays. But mostly, I was crazy, not about her works for the theatre, but her three volumes of memoirs: An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir (1969), Pentimento (1973), and Scoundrel Time (1976). The Academy Award winning film Julia (1977) is based on a section of Pentimento, with Jane Fonda playing Hellman. Hellman had a 30 year romance with writer Dashiell Hammett (played perfectly by Jason Robards in Julia, he won an Oscar), and it is said that she was the inspiration for his character Nora Charles in The Thin Man. Hellman was also a lifelong friend and the literary executor of famed wit Dorothy Parker. Hellman is nicely portrayed by the great Judy Davis in the swell film Dash And Lilly (1999), directed by actor Kathy Bates.

Hellman was called to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1950. At the time, HUAC knew that Hammett had once been a member of the Communist Party. Asked to name names of any acquaintances with Communist affiliations, Hellman delivered a prepared statement, which read in part:

“To hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago in order to save myself is, to me, inhuman and indecent and dishonorable. I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions, even though I long ago came to the conclusion that I was not a political person & could have no comfortable place in any political group.”

As a result her appearance before the committee, Hellman was blacklisted by the Hollywood film studios for many years.

She became a writer during an era when writers were big celebrities and audaciousness was considered enviable. In popularity, Hellman was an equal to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and even to her beloved Hammett. She was a real tough cookie. She tossed off the swear words with ease and she slept around. She smoked cigarettes and marijuana. She was a boozer. Hellman lived a social and political life as out loud as her talent. Her plays are a constant challenge to prejudice, small-thinking and oppression. Her memoirs are personal accounts of the intriguing and turbulent life behind her plays.

Hellman didn’t need a man. She was self-supporting. She felt no need to apologize for demanding to be paid what she thought she was worth. She even haggled over the royalties of her plays for use by high school drama clubs and community theatres. Hellman took on the tough political battles of her time, actively supporting the Spanish Loyalists, working against the Nazis, and standing up to Senator Joseph McCarthy and his gang of thugs.

Hellman was the most famous American female playwright of the 20th century. She is a feminist icon. Not pretty and rather butch, she still had many lovers and lived a life filled with sex and scandal. Hellman had to constantly push back against sexism and anti-Semitism. She had many detractors. Writer Mary McCarthy, a former friend who had a decades-long feud with Hellman, appeared on The Dick Cavett Show in 1979 and famously stated about her:

“Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’.”

The two writers sued each other and the litigation went on for years, only ending when Hellman left this world in 1979. Their war of words is the basis of Nora Ephron‘s nifty little play Imaginary Friends (2002). Her story that became the basis for the film Julia is considered by many people to be fiction, but she always defended the tale, making Hellman a perfect celebrity for our own age. Can you just imagine her Tweets?

At the 1977 Academy Awards Hellman presented the Oscar for Best Documentary. She was greeted by a standing ovation. She told the crowd of show biz types:

“I was once upon a time a respectable member of this community. Respectable didn’t necessarily mean more than I took a daily bath when I was sober, didn’t spit except when I meant to, and mispronounced a few words of fancy French. Then suddenly, even before Senator Joe McCarthy reached for that rusty, poisoned ax, I and many others were no longer acceptable to the owners of this industry. They confronted the wild charges of Joe McCarthy with a force and courage of a bowl of mashed potatoes. I have no regrets for that period. Maybe you never do when you survive, but I have a mischievous pleasure in being restored to respectability, understanding full well that the younger generation who asked me here tonight meant more by that invitation than my name or my history.”

I once stood next to Hellman in line at Zabar’s on the Upper West Side of the island of Manhattan on an autumn Sunday morning in 1976. She was in her 70s then. She was smoking a cigarette and was wrapped in a large mink coat. I had recently read and had been absorbed by Pentimento. I excused myself for bothering her and then gushed about how much I admired her work, especially the memoir and how gobsmacked I felt to be standing next to her at a delicatessen.

Stephen: “… so you see, Miss Hellman, you simply must understand how much your work and your life have impressed and inspired me.”

Lillian Hellman: “Of course they have. Now, be a dear and pay for my Danish. That’s being a sweetie.”

Off she went. That scene could be perfectly reenacted by Nicole Kidman (also born this day), with a prosthetic nose, wrapped-up in a fake mink as Hellman, and a shirtless Zachary Quinto as me circa mid-1970s. Why a shirtless hero at Zabar’s? Because, it’s show biz, kids.

Gay Icon? I kind of think so. I would certainly like to see some queens do Lillian Hellman drag.

Hellman turns 111 years old today and she looks much the same as she did when our paths crossed 40 years ago.

The post #BornThisDay: Writer, Lillian Hellman appeared first on The WOW Report.

People really ARE horrible. On Saturday Chelsea Clinton and husband Marc Mezvinsky gave birth to their second child, Aiden. Chelsea released a statement on social media to celebrate the birth and thank everyone for their support during this joyous time in their lives.

“Marc and I are overwhelmed with gratitude and love as we celebrate the birth of our son, Aidan Clinton Mezvinsky.”

But with partisan politics and social media these days, Hillary haters wasted NO TIME saying nasty things about the baby, Mom and Grandma & Grandpa Clinton in vicious, inappropriate comments.

Kind of sickening, but par for the course this election. Chelsea isn’t an elected official and children, even newborns should be off limits. Maybe these assholes below are just pissed because they know baby Aiden might be taking his first steps in an oval office on Pennsylvania Avenue this time next year.

(via Winning Democrats)

The post Chelsea Clinton Gives Birth & Hillary Haters Go Baby Bashing appeared first on The WOW Report.

Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen will be bringing their AC2 show to Orlando. 100% of proceeds from the performance will benefit the OneOrlando Fund.
The press release says,

“In light of the horrific attack at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen are pleased to announce a special live benefit AC2 show at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. All proceeds raised will benefit the OneOrlando Fund. Cohen, Cooper and the Dr. Phillips Center have joined together to donate services to produce the one-night-only benefit.”

OneOrlando Fund was created by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to provide a way to help respond to the needs of the community, now and in the time to come. #OrlandoUnited

AC2 is an unscripted, unpredictable night of laughs and conversation with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen. Tickets start at $55.00 and may be purchased online at drphillipscenter.org, by calling 844-513-2014.

Anderson Cooper reported extensively from Orlando in the wake of the tragedy and looks forward to raising money for the community, with a much needed night of laughter, deep talk, and shallow tales. Andy Cohen is an Emmy® Award-winning host who recently spoke at a vigil for the victims of Sunday’s attack in NYC outside the Stonewall Inn.

AC2 is on Thursday, June 30, 2016 at 8:00 PM. Tickets on sale tomorrow, Tuesday, June 21, 2016 at 10 AM. For more info or to make a donation go to OneOrlando.

The post Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen’s “AC2” Show To Benefit OneOrlando, June 30 appeared first on The WOW Report.

Yes, the depths of tasteless and disrespectful has reached a new low. In the wake of the Orlando massacre, Greg Evers, who is running for Congress in one of Florida’s most conservative districts, announced he’s giving away an AR-15 rifle (the same kind used to killed 49 people and injured 53 others in Orlando) to a random person who shares or likes his Facebook page.

Evers wrote,

U.S. Congressional Candidate Greg Evers today announced a Facebook contest to award a custom-built AR-15 rifle to one randomly chosen resident of the 1st Congressional District who has liked and shared his Greg Evers for Congress Facebook page. The winner will be chosen on July 4th, and the rifle will be awarded after verification that the contestant meets strict eligibility requirements, including all required background and security checks.

“With terrorism incidents on the rise, both at home and abroad, protecting our constitutional rights has never been more important,” Evers said. “With all that’s happening in the world today, I’ve never felt stronger about the importance of the second amendment in protecting our homeland than I do now.”

Evers is seeking the Republican nomination for Congress in the August 30th primary. For the past 14 straight years, he has earned an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association as a member of the Florida Legislature.

Politico said,

For 14 years, Evers has earned an A-plus rating from the NRA.

Evers has repeatedly tried to pass a law allowing concealed weapons permit holders to carry firearms on campus. Evers also passed the so-called “Pop Tart Law” — so named after a child was suspended from school for chewing the pastry into a gun shape — that prohibited schools from punishing kids for playing with simulated weapons. He also sponsored successful legislation that blocks lawmakers from siphoning money out of a trust fund established to regulate concealed weapons permits. And he was a sponsor of the so-called “Docs n’ Glocks” bill that limited physicians from inquiring about firearms in the home. A challenge to the law, spearheaded by pediatricians, is scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

To counteract this madness, why don’t you find out who your congressman is (if you don’t already know) and tell them that the AK-15 has no place on the streets of the United States? As John Oliver reported last night on Last Week Tonight the NRA is very organized and while we may be on gun control NOW, they were on it two weeks ago and will be two weeks from now. Go here and type in your zip code for an email address or phone number of your representative in Congress. (via Towleroad)

The post Florida Candidate For Congress Launches AR-15 Gun Giveaway on Facebook appeared first on The WOW Report.

Comedian Hasan Minhaj was asked to speak at The Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner —aka the less cool White House Correspondents Dinner. He’s funny and everyone is laughing. But at the end of his time (about the 18:00 minute mark) he shifts the tone entirely to address the massacre in Orlando,

“What we say in Orlando was one of the ugliest cocktails of problems that we still see here in America, a cocktail of homophobia, xenophobia, lack of access to mental healthcare and sheer lack of political will.

Everyday in our workplaces, our homes and our religious institutions there is cover or overt discrimination or phobia towards people of different religious, racial or sexual walks of life. And we just sit there and we let it happen, because it doesn’t affect our bottom line.

The sad reality is that stuff like this is going to continue to happen unless we realize that civil liberties are an all or nothing game… So whether you like it or not we all have to step up and fight for each other, otherwise the whole thing is a sham.

You get paid almost $200,000 a year to write rules, to make our society better. Not tweet, not tell us about your thoughts and prayers. To write rules to make our society better.

Right now, since 1998, the NRA has given $3.7 million to Congress… So I don’t know if this is like a Kickstarter thing, but if $3.7 million can buy political influence to take lives, if we raise $4 million would you guys take that to save lives?”

Hasan, you’re my new hero. Watch.

The post Comedian Hasan Minhaj Blasts Congress For Failing on Gun Control – To Their Shocked Faces. Watch. appeared first on The WOW Report.

If you weren’t aware of Tom Hiddleston‘s allure, a revealing new spread of the man is in the new issue of W. He jokes about why his tush was edited out of his AMC series, The Night Manager,

“I was surprised to hear that they cut my butt out! I’m here to tell you that my butt is not dangerous. And there are many, many more dangerous things that people are happy to broadcast. I don’t know what that says about the world we live in, but it probably says something.“

Hiddleston was caught on camera kissing and holding hands with Taylor Swift on a romantic stroll on the coast of Rhode Island last week. Social media went nuts. Now WE can see what Taylor has been treated to.

(via W, photos, Mona Kuhn)

The post #ManCrushMonday: Wanna See Tom Hiddleston Practically Naked..? appeared first on The WOW Report.

Selma Blair was removed from a Delta flight on a stretcher, this evening, after a bizarre on-air freakout in which the The People VS OJ Simpson star seemed to hint that something deeply troubling was going on in her life.

According to TMZ

Witnesses on a flight from Cancun, Mexico to LAX tell us, Blair was in first class and drinking wine. The witnesses say it appeared she put something in the glass and mixed it in.

We’re told she suddenly started crying, “He burns my private parts. He won’t let me eat or drink.”

The witnesses say she continued, “He beats me. He’s going to kill me.”

We’re told 2 nurses on board came over to help and checked her bags for pills.

TMZ sources say the pilot radioed ahead saying there was a passenger on board who had been mixing alcohol and meds. When the plane landed, Blair was taken off on a stretcher and taken to a nearby hospital.

This is all very peculiar. What could she have been talking about? “He burns my private parts” “He beats me” “He’s going to kill me”?

I hope it’s just drug paranoia and not something more worrisome. Well, that’s not true: I hope it’s NOT drug paranoia either… But either way, I think it’s time somebody took a deeper look into what’s going on with Selma.

RADAROnline has photos of Selma in Cancun with her four-year-old son, Arthur Saint, and his father, her ex, Jason Bleick. Hmmmm.

(Photo: Pacific Coast News)

The post BREAKING: Selma Blair Has Disturbing Freak-Out on Airplane and Is Removed on a Stretcher appeared first on The WOW Report.

Benjamin Walker
Brandon Flowers
Carrie Preston
Chris Pratt
David Morrissey
Doug Savant
Erica Durance
Gretchen Carlson
Jujubee
Juliette Lewis
Kris Allen
Lana Del Rey
Lana Wachowski
Marcella Detroit
Mariette Hartley
Meredith Baxter
Michael Gross
Prince William
Rebecca Black
Sonique

The post June 21st: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

June 21, 1925– Maureen Stapleton is one of those great character actors that I am just crazy about. I loved the film version of the musical Bye Bye Birdie (1963) as a child, and I still do. Stapleton played Dick Van Dyke’s mother in the film and she received an Academy Award nomination for it, although, at 36 years old, she was only six months older than Van Dyke. When she was asked her if she minded being regularly cast as an older woman she merely shrugged and said:

“I was born old.”

At the finish of filming Bye Bye Birdie there was a wrap party. The director George Stevens, the producers, and the cast, including stars Van Dyke and Janet Leigh, each gave speeches extolling the extraordinary special gifts of newcomer Ann-Margret.  When it was her turn to speak, Stapleton announced:

“I guess I’m the only person in the room who doesn’t want to fuck Ann-Margret.”

It is one of the oldest stories in show biz: The small-town girl spends her afternoons at the movie theatre, she then moves to NYC dreaming of becoming a star on the Broadway stage. She works, taking employment as a retail salesperson, hotel clerk, and artists’ model, just to afford acting classes. She finds work in summer stock and then gets small roles in Broadway shows. Then, at last, the girl gets that special big break, and what a break! She lands the lead role in the new play by celebrated gay writer Tennessee Williams, fresh off A Streetcar Named Desire.

Williams had written The Rose Tattoo for Italian actor Anna Magnani to play the lead role, but Magnani declined. Other actors were auditioned, but none fit the bill for the character of Serafina delle Rose, an earthy Italian-American widow looking for love. Magnani had declined the offer, feeling that her English was not proficient enough for Broadway. Influential director Harold Clurman, who had directed Stapleton in small role in a play by gay writer Arthur Laurents earlier that year, 1950, suggested that Williams and company give her an audition. After a set of grueling callbacks, she won the role.

Stapleton became a muse for Tennessee Williams with The Rose Tattoo. Her performance was a triumph and she won the Tony Award. It played for 300 performances and then toured for six more months. Stapleton went on to rave reviews for Williams’ The Glass Menagerie and Orpheus Descending. In the next decade she became a favorite of Neil Simon who wrote Plaza Suite for her, bringing her another Tony nomination. In 1971 she won another Tony Award for Simon’s The Gingerbread Lady about an alcoholic actor, somewhat based on Stapleton’s own life.

Stapleton liked to drink a bit, although she claimed that she only indulged after a performance. Suffering debilitating stage-fright and self-doubt, she always vomited just before curtain time. To counter her phobias, Stapleton would constantly walk all over the stage during her performances. Her long affair with famed director George Abbott began when she was in her early 40s and he was in his 70s and ended when he left her for a much younger woman, sending her into a tailspin. Booze was as much fixture in her dressing room as stage make-up and wigs. Stapleton:

“The curtain came down and I went into the vodka!”

She was also convinced that someday, somehow, someone in the audience was going to try kill her. She also had a lifelong terror of elevators and flying. She was in and out of therapy most of her adult life.

Stapleton had plenty of awards for her mantle. She won an Emmy for Among The Paths To Eden (1967), adapted from a short story by gay writer Truman Capote. She was nominated for an Oscar for Airport (1970) the same year that she won the Tony for The Gingerbread Lady. She received an Emmy Award nomination for the heartbreaking Queen Of The Stardust Ballroom (1975) in which she and Charles Durning played an older couple who warm to romance when they meet at a dance hall. Stapleton received another Academy Award nomination for my favorite of her roles, Pearl in Woody Allen‘s shockingly unfunny Interiors (1978), a fascinating but excruciating study of an extremely dysfunctional family in NYC, led by humorless parents played by E.G. Marshall and Geraldine Page, both costumed in various shades of beige. Into the picture saunters saucy Stapleton in a bright red dress, ready to steal patriarch Marshall away from the family, much to the horror the very beige daughters played by Diane Keaton and Mary Beth Hurt.

In 1981, she was nominated for another Tony Award for yesterday’s #BornThisDay honoree Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes where she held her own opposite Elizabeth Taylor. I bet there were some liquor bottles in those dressing rooms.

I only saw Stapleton on the stage one time, in Sean O’Casey’s Juno And The Paycock opposite Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, presented at the Mark Taper Forum in LA, in 1974, a truly memorable night at the theatre, filled with jaw-dropping talent. I remain inspired by her work in that play, proof that you don’t have to be traditionally pretty to be a true star.

When Stapleton won the Academy Award for her small but powerful role as American anarchist Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty‘s masterpiece Reds (1981), she gave what I consider the best acceptance speech of all time:

“I want to thank everybody I ever met in my entire life.”

Minutes after winning her Oscar, a reporter asked her how it felt to be recognized as one of the greatest actors in the world. Stapleton:

“Not nearly as exciting as it would be if I were acknowledged as one of the greatest lays in the world.”

When they asked her if she had expected to win, she answered:

“Yes, because I’m old and tired and I lost three times before.”

I cannot recall another actor with such a down-to-earth personality, completely devoid of pretension. When asked the key to good acting, Stapleton stated:

“As far as I’m concerned, the main thing is to keep the audience awake.”

Maureen Stapleton took her final curtain call in 2006, taken by lung disease after a life of smoking. In her memoir, A Hell Of A Life (1995) she says of her career:

“I did the best I could.”

The post #BornThisDay: Actor, Maureen Stapleton appeared first on The WOW Report.

On June 22, The Private Collection of Joan Rivers will be auctioned off at Christie’s in New York. The items from the late comedian range from wildly opulent to surprisingly mundane.

Jonathan Rendell, Deputy Chairman of Christie’s in America, introduced the collection which include everything from French and English antiques to Chanel bags, Bob Mackie gowns, and a silver Tiffany dog bowl for her beloved Yorkie, Spike.

“She understood what she was she was putting together. There’s a conversation that goes on very comfortably between the objects. And she collected serious stuff.”

The acerbic comedian’s wit was on display in the items that were laid out exactly as they were in Rivers’s 11-room home. The walls were embellished with some of her wittiest one-liners like,

“I don’t exercise. If God wanted me to bend over, he would have put diamonds on the floor.”

Her daughter Melissa Rivers jokingly referred to this as “rich people hoarding” and said,

“My mother used to say her apartment was how Marie Aintoinette would have lived if she had money and taste.

One of my mother’s dreams was to be left alone in a Christie’s warehouse with a satchel and nobody supervising her.“

On the tough decision to auction her mother’s things,

“There is not one piece in this collection that I would not take back. But I know in her heart, and in my heart, that I’m doing the right thing because my mother maintained that things were meant to be used and loved, and they should go to places where they’re going to be used and loved.“

The Private Collection of Joan Rivers live sale takes place at Christie’s New York on 22 June, while the online auction runs 16-23 June. Proceeds will go to Joan’s favorite charities.

Dress on the far left is a lace and velvet evening gown. Estimated at $200 to $400.

A diamond and platinum flower brooch. Estimated at $30,000 to $50,000.

A pair of Louis XVI style five-light ormolu and cut-glass candelabra, early 20th century. Estimated at $2,000 to $3,000.

A sapphire and diamond brooch. Estimated at $10,000 to $15,000.

A pair of Russian ormolu-mounted malachite and gilt-decorated glass cornucopia, 19th century. Estimated at $2,000 to $3,000.

A jeweled silver-gilt mounted nephrite and rhodonite picture frame marked Fabergé, workmaster’s mark of Henrik Wigström, St. Petersburg, circa 1915. Estimated at $30,000 to $40,000.

A silver topped gold-mounted star sapphire and diamond pendant brooch by Fabergé, with the worksmaster’s mark of August Holmström, St. Petersburg, 1899-1903. Estimated at $70,000 to $90,000.

A turquoise and pearl-set silver bracelet retailed by Gustav Fabergé, circa 1850. Estimated at $8,000 to $12,000.

A gem-set silver-mounted malachite and wood salt throne marked Khlebnikov, Moscow, 1908-1917. Estimated at $1,500 to $2,500.

A ruby, emerald, and amethyst bead necklace, by Iradj Moini. Estimated at $10,000 to $15,000.

A celadon silk and passementerie upholstered dog house with hinged pagoda roof, 20th century. Estimated at $1,000 to $1,500.

A black and white feather coat, lined with white and red sequins inscribed E! to each side. Estimated at $800 to $1,200.

(T/Y Tad; photos, Christie’s; via Vanity Fair)

The post “Rich People Hoarding”: The Private Collection of Joan Rivers on View at Christie’s In NYC appeared first on The WOW Report.

Using the term “mega-mansion” is not exaggeration here. At 30,000 square feet with 10 bedrooms and 20 bathrooms, this place is big.

There aren’t many interior pics of the YUUGE spec contemporary villa, but from the looks here it has more in common with a boutique hotel than it does with a private residence. The master suite alone is 5,300-square-feet and opens to a heated, covered veranda.

The estate incorporates a sprawling entertainment complex, uh, nightclub, with a lounge, wine room, and professional-grade movie theater. There’s an indoor waterfall that drops into a lap pool, beauty salon (glam squad alert!) mani-pedi station, massage room, and steam facilities. Listing details say there’s off-street parking for 50 cars and a 10-car underground garage. The grounds offer a resort-scaled swimming pool, terraces, numerous fire pits, both tennis and basketball courts, plus a private “hiking” trail.

Jay Z and Beyoncé, who have bounced around to several super-luxe and outrageously expensive rentals over the last couple of years, have been on a long and well-documented search for a residence in L.A. They can get whatever they like as Forbes recently estimated their combined net worth at nearly $900 million.

In New York City, they have an 8,309-square-foot penthouse and last year they were reported to have shelled out $2.6 million for a 13,292-square foot, odd Spanish style mansion that was once a Presbyterian Church in New Orleans’ Garden District.

UPDATE: This just in. Variety just got word from listing agent Ginger Glass at Coldwell Banker Previews International who said,

“Contrary to speculation about Jay-Z and Beyonce, 301 Carolwood Drive is not in escrow and is still available for purchase.”

So after all that, maybe they’re NOT buying this place. Too bad, it looks perfect for a modern-day Queen.

(T/Y Tad; via Variety)

The post #RealEstatePorn: Are Beyoncé & Jay Z Buying This $93 Million Hollywood Mega-Mansion? appeared first on The WOW Report.

Kentucky’s new Bible-themed theme park is going to debut its $100 million life-sized replica of Noah’s Ark this summer. Ark Encounter — a sister attraction to the nearby Creation Museum — released this footage of the under-construction boat in landlocked Williamstown ahead of its July 7 grand opening.

The religious attraction has faced an onslaught of criticism ahead of its summer debut. While hiring for the grand opening, Ark Encounter announced it would require all park employees to be Christian — and sign a “statement of faith” disavowing same-sex marriage. Critics have slammed the hiring practice as a violation of the separation of church and state since the park gets state tax breaks.

The flyover video the 510-foot ark, which the park claims to be the biggest timber-frame construction in the U.S. The ark-centered theme park will also boast a petting zoo full of live animals and sculptures of exotic creatures not native to Kentucky.

Ken Ham — president of Answers in Genesis, the religious group behind both the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter — insisted that the soon-to-open ark is being built through private funding.

“We are an overtly Christian organization — we don’t hide that fact. What we’re doing in using our religious preference is saying that people who work at Ark Encounter will need to testify that they’re Christian.”

Tickets to the Ark alone cost $40 for adults. Combo-passes for Ark Adventure and the Creation Museum range between $60 and $45. I’ll mark that on my “places not to visit this summer” calendar.

(via The Daily News)

The post Noah’s Ark Theme Park Makes Workers Say They Are Against Same-Sex Marriage appeared first on The WOW Report.

YouTube lauches #ProudToBe campaign and RDR Queens Alaska, Jiggly Caliente, Raja, Kim Chi, and Mariah Balenciaga all lend their voices and support to the cause.

Check out the video here:

From YouTube:

This year, we want to celebrate the full spectrum of sexuality and gender within the LGBTQ community by asking individuals to share their stories about who they are and how they embrace it. This follows our previous Proud To Love efforts, as stories of acceptance and love, regardless of your identity, are so needed this year. After the tragic events in Orlando, we stand together to show the power of solidarity, love and pride.

Thank you for your help in making #ProudToBe a success, and your continued courage and perseverance to show the world your pride.

The post Alaska, Jiggly Caliente, Raja, and More Appear In YouTube’s ‘Proud To Be’ Campaign appeared first on The WOW Report.

Transformation Tuesday just got a whole lot QTer…New queers featured every week! Tag us, take a pic of us and follow us on Instagram at QWERRRKOUT, and you too could be the next QT! YOU BETTA QWERRRK!

Cheddar Gorgeous

Age: 33

Location: Manchester, England

About:

I started doing drag about six years ago when there wasn’t such a big drag scene in the UK. I like playing with masculine and feminine beauty in my drag as well as transforming into monsters, aliens and mythical beasts. With my partners in crime Anna Phylactic and DJ Danny Olsson Lane, I run Manchester’s home of fabulous Cha Cha Boudoir, a club cabaret for kings queens, club kids and drag monsters.

I have been traveling a ton this year, which has been so much fun! I did the European Gay Ski Week in March, and four of my drag family just got back from a trip to the states, visiting San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and the Austin International Drag Festival… but it’s not too long till I am back on the road. I am really excited to be at Milkshake Festival in Amsterdam in July, and later in the year will be going to Croatia for DRAGram… so if you are in that part of the world, come say hi! But before that I have a ton of events over here in the UK.

The drag scene has exploded in the last couple of years, and there’s such a great and diverse mix of amazing drag creatures and club nights. Currently I am helping George House Trust– a charity supporting people living with HIV in the north west, with their 2nd annual Manchester Drag Ball… and then in November, I am working on a big drag pageant with Homolicious UK. It will be the first of its kind with several heats over one weekend in a holiday camp… and a BIG CASH prize! When I am not doing drag, I spend my time writing and drawing…which at the moment isn’t very often

 

The post #TransformationTuesday: QWERRRKOUT feat. Cheddar Gorgeous appeared first on The WOW Report.

June 22, 1949– Mary Louise Streep is probably the greatest actor since the invention of film.

“Instant gratification takes too long.”

To prepare for today’s #BornThisDay I watched last year’s Ricki And The Flash which I had somehow missed. This Jonathan Demme film has Meryl Streep playing a 60-ish year old former rock musician, who plays gigs at a bar by night, but by day works as a cashier at a supermarket. One day she gets a call from her ex, well played by Kevin Kline, saying their daughter Julie, played by Streep’s actual  talented daughter, Mamie Gummer, is in the middle of a breakdown after her marriage fell apart. I usually love Demme as a director, and I am zany for Kline, but mostly I was glad I caught this film so that I could realize that Streep can appear in a mediocre movie and give a somewhat less than stellar performance. It was character building for me to understand that Streep is human, even if she is in possession of a talent that is unrivaled.

I also recently caught The Devil Wears Prada (2006) again while channel surfing. The film certainly still stands up. Streep’s Miranda Priestly may be her greatest achievement in her long career so far.

She is not gay, of course, although she could play a lesbian. She is neither needy nor tragic, or outrageous in her private life. But I feel that Streep has the making of a true Gay Icon. She turns an astonishing 67 years old today and she has never been bigger at the box-office. Only a handful of female stars can guarantee a winner at the box-office, and even fewer who are over 50 years old. Even the rather dismal Ricki And The Flash made money.

Streep has received 19 Academy Award nominations (winning three) & 29 Golden Globe nominations (winning seven), more than any other actor in film history. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival Award, five New York Film Critics Circle Awards, five Grammy Award nominations, 14 nominations and two BAFTA Awards, plus a couple of Tony Award nominations. In 2004, she was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award and she received the Kennedy Center Honor. President Barack Obama awarded her the 2010 National Medal Of Arts and in 2014 the Presidential Medal Of Freedom, our country’s highest civilian honor. France made her a Commander Of The Order Of Arts And Letters. In fact, I don’t consider it an awards season without Streep. Beginning in 1979, when she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Deer Hunter, and then winning in that category the next year for Kramer vs. Kramer, we just never get weary of celebrating Streep.

I think it says something of her sense of craft and sense of adventure that a star of her caliber will take on supporting roles. Streep was nominated in the Academy’s supporting category two more times, for Adaptation (2002) and for Into The Woods (2014). Those four supporting nods are the whipped cream and cherry on top of the 15 Oscar nominations for Best Actress.

Streep moves easily between large and small films, between comic, musical and dramatic roles. Since she turned 50 years old, ancient for a female film actor, she has showed her age gracefully, grandly & seductively.

A consummate craftsman, Streep is also, undeniably, a genuine film star. This is my favorite part of her story because it happened so late in her career. An admired actress for 30 years, she became a surprising box-office draw with The Devil Wears Prada, Mamma Mia! (2008, Streep’s highest grossing flick to date), Julie & Julia (2009) and It’s Complicated (2009). In the 21st century Streep has become the sort of actor whose name can guarantee a film’s success. Esteemed since her first films in the 1970s, she is now one of the most beloved movie stars.

I was initially reluctant to give her my love. At the start of her career, I thought her performances were all about technique and they lacked heart. Sophie’s Choice (1982), Silkwood (1983) and A Cry In The Dark (1988), as well as the other stuff from that period, seemed to be all about the accents and the wigs, nuanced gestures, high craftsmanship. It was if her audiences were being asked to stand in awe of her remarkable range and her ever changing, fully committed, controlled, calculated character choices and hairstyles.

But, then along came She-Devil (1989), Postcards From The Edge (1990) and Death Becomes Her (1992) and suddenly our Streep seemed to tone down the technique and her performances were less intimidating and had gained a lightness. She seemed to be having fun with her characters without being less ambitious, working in unapologetically commercial projects for the entertainment of adults.

It is not that Streep gave up on her jaw-dropping acting chops or challenging accents and looks. One of my favorites of her varied roles is the bored, Italian war-bride farmer’s wife in Clint Eastwood’s underrated Bridges Of Madison County (1995). I still like her to break my heart, but Streep shines when she is playful and impish. Her formidable timing and technique are well served in comedies and musicals. I love that she seems to be enjoying herself. She is light as air as the spacey folk singer in A Prairie Home Companion (2006), and as a romantically confused California bakery owner in It’s Complicated, or as the lady fox married to George Clooney in Wes Anderson’s fantastic Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009).

My first experience seeing Streep was not on film, but on stage, in The Taming Of The Shrew opposite the much missed Raul Julia at The Public Theatre in 1975. In my own NYC era, I also saw Streep in Trelawny Of The Wells by gay writer Arthur Wing Pinero and in Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, both at Lincoln Center. Streep’s work on stage and her beauty felt inspired, heartfelt and even transcendent. Yet, I am such a fan of this current period, now in Streep’s authentic prime. Real film stars belong to everyone and that is what has happened to Streep. With nothing left to prove, she has become easy to love.

I am looking forward to seeing Streep do her magic act as the famously dreadful real life opera singer in Florence Foster Jenkins opposite Hugh Grant, from director Stephen Frears. It opens in August, and I can already smell the awards.

The post #BornThisDay: Meryl Streep appeared first on The WOW Report.

Seriously, let me get this sentence out before you start cracking up. Wait. Hold on…

OK. According to the Daily Mail, Donald Trump intends to put up his wife Melania as the “Jackie O for the 21st century” at the Republican convention next month. He’s even enlisted the help of a producer from his show The Apprentice to make the idea… believable? Interesting? Plausible?

The focus in Cleveland will supposedly be on celebs, rather than politicians, and the billionaire businessman’s family and his famous friends (Scott Baio? Ted Nugent?) will be the stars of the show.

Melania, the Slovenian-born, former model, along with Trump’s children will deliver testimonials at the event from July 18 to 21. OMG! This is going to be better that RuPaul’s Drag Olympics!

When Trump explored the possibility of a presidential run in 1999, Melania was asked what kind of role she would play if he ever became commander-in-chief.

“I would be very traditional, like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy.“

Stop laughing!!

But as well as having his family sing his praises at the convention the presumptive GOP nominee also reportedly wants every kind of sycophantic supporter in the celebrity realm to speak out on his behalf. Sports figures like UFC president Dana White, Nascar CEO Brian France and former basketball coach Bobby Knight, according to the NY Post. Tom Brady says he’s for Trump but SURELY he won’t be part of this spectacle, will he?

A movement still exists among some conservative delegates and operatives to change party rules to allow a different nominee, though it’s a longshot effort that lacks sufficient backing as well as a candidate to offer up at an alternative.

Trump wondered who his opponents would pick as a replacement, a problem that has plagued the ‘Never Trump’ movement for months.

“Who are they going to pick? I beat everybody. But I don’t mean beat — I beat the hell out of them.“

Classy as always. I think we need to start planning drag Republican National Convention viewing parties with hybrid Jackie/ Melania looks… and orange-face with cotton candy hairdos. This is going to be GOOD. If you want to see what kind of public speaker Melania might be as First Lady, check out the video below.

(via Daily Mail)

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He’s not a national figure (yet) but he’s my City Council representative in New York City. Corey Johnson is openly gay and last night he had a lot of questions for Chris Barron, founder of the (now defunct) gay conservative group GOProud, who launched a “gays for Trump” campaign. Johnson pointed out last night on Don Lemon‘s show on CNN that Barron called Trump a “sociopath” on Twitter.

Johnson said,

“I think it’s funny that just because [Trump said] the four letters LGBT that [he is] somehow the champion of the LGBT community. He met today in New York with a thousand evangelical leaders – a who’s who of the gay right – people who have made a professional career of demonizing and denigrating gay people. Donald Trump is against marriage equality, Donald Trump says he wants to remake the Supreme court and make it even more conservative. Donald Trump has never been there for the gay community – he is a megalomaniacal, arrogant crazy person.”

When Johnson also brought up that Barron once called Trump a “sociopath,” Barron came back with Trump has a business record of protecting people on LGBT rights while Clinton evolved to the issues when it was politically expedient.

“Hillary Clinton is a bigger sociopath than Donald Trump will ever be.”

The host tried to interject and offer a few questions to Barron to make some sense of all this, but Barron said,

“I know the left wants to scare gay people into not even thinking about voting for Donald Trump…If you want people to have equal rights and dignity, then talk about combating radical Islam.”

And for the record, if you watch the video, Trump says,

“LBGT“

Whatever. Watch.

Here's the link to the clip of me on @CNN w/ @donlemon debating Chris Barron on Trump & LGBT people! @dominiclowell https://t.co/7jBSXdOOwQ

— Corey Johnson (@CoreyinNYC) June 22, 2016

(via Towleroad)

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Yep, if this isn’t the perfect metaphor for who Trump is and hopes to be as POTUS, Donald Trump has been giving out diamond cuff links to his pals for years. But in reality, they’re as fake as his tan.

At least three receivers later learned that the Trump gifts were not what they appeared to be.

Charlie Sheen recently called out The Donald for the ruse, saying Trump once gave him his own cuff links as a wedding present and bragged they came from one of the city’s leading jewelers.

Sheen told the BBC’s Graham Norton, referring to a time he ran into Trump and his wife in a restaurant about five years ago,

“He says . . .‘I want to give you an early wedding gift as a gesture from me and Melania — and she doesn’t say a word, she’s very sweet and very pretty but just kinda sits there.

He says, ‘These are platinum diamond Harry Winston,’ and he pulls off his cuff links, and he gives them to me.”

The actor said he took the links to an appraiser six months later (why would he do that?) only to learn that they were worthless.

“She took [her magnifying] loupe, spent about 4 seconds and kind of recoiled from it… Sheen quipped. “She says, ‘In their finest moment, this is cheap pewter and bad zirconias.’ And they’re stamped ‘Trump.’”

According to the NY Post, the real estate mogul pulled the same thing on his mentor, the late Roy Cohn, years earlier, according to another report.

Trump gave Cohn a pair of “diamond-encrusted’’ cuff links and buttons in a box from famed jeweler Bulgari as a present, said the New York Times.

Cohn’s partner, Peter Fraser, who inherited the items , said he later had them appraised, and they turned out to be knock-offs.

A Trump source told The Post on Tuesday that after The Donald engaged in a fake ringside take-down of wrestling honcho Vince McMahon in 2007, he griped to the promoter that he lost one of his ‘Trump-stamped’ cuff links worth $50,000.

The source said the links were actually valued at less than $100.

But “that’s just Donald. It’s just very Donald,” said the insider, who heard the mogul tell the story.

“Very Donald”, means a liar? Anyway, Trump sells his own line of cuff links through his Donald J. Trump Signature Collection that are made in China of cheap metal and they go for $39.99. The Post says a spokeswoman for Trump did not return a request for comment.

(via NY Post)

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