(Video still via Instagram @shuttrbear)
Steve Grand made his Broadway Bares debut in San Francisco as part of this year's show, ManuSTRIPT.
Check out his big finale, in which — in keeping with how these shows are always choreographed — he bares his A-plus ass ...
It's not that deep. (GIF via YouTube @ Deadline Hollywood)
OMG Blog: This trailer for Anything, showing Matt Bomer as a trans prostitute, is PAINFULLY awkward.
CNN: Special prosecutor Mueller is investigating Trump for obstruction of justice. Trump tweets outrage over “witch hunt.”
Most honest people I know are not under FBI investigation, let alone two. https://t.co/UcSmSA5aTj
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 29, 2016
ABC News: UPS shooter had reportedly fired a grievance over excessive overtime, had mental illness history.
ExtraTV: YouTube star Austin Jones arrested on two counts of child-porn production for soliciting sexual videos from minors.
Sligh (L) & Jones (R) (Images via mugshot & Instagram)
Crime Watch Daily: Actor Corey Sligh indicted on federal child-molestation charges stemming from incidents in two states.
The Hawn-ting (Image via Bryan Hawn)
YouTube @ Bryan Hawn: Bryan Hawn unveils a dramatic Wonderful World that could play during a Hunger Games procession, after the jump ...
Gilbert Baker: June 2, 1951—March 31, 2017 , with President Obama in 2016 (Image by Amanda Lucidon/The White House)
Gilbert Baker, the creator of the internationally recognized — and reviled, by villainous conservatives! — rainbow flag, has died at 65 at home in Manhattan.
Baker's death from natural causes was confirmed by publicist Jay Blotcher.
Along with inventing the flag, unveiled June 25, 1978, Baker also imbued each color on the flag with meaning:
Red = life
Orange = healing
Yellow = sunlight
Green = nature
Turquoise = magic/art
Blue = serenity/harmony
Violet = spirit
Baker served in the army from 1970-1972, depositing him in San Francisco at a fortuitous moment in gay history. His time in the military was recorded in Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military (St. Martin's Press, 1993) by the late Randy Shilts.
I've shown my copy of Conduct Unbecoming that I read en route to the 1993 D.C. March, but here's the rainbow bracelet pressed into it. (Image by Matthew Rettenmund)
Baker taught himself to sew, often creating banners and flags for marches against the war and for gay rights. He created flags for Mayor Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco and for various heads of state in his career. His mile-long rainbow flag, displayed for the 25th anniversary of Gay Pride in NYC in 1994, was carried by 5,000 marchers, breaking a record as the world's biggest flag, a record he topped in 2003.
(Image via Gilbert Baker)
According to Blotcher, Baker's final creation was a rainbow flag with nine colors — lavender was added to signify diversity. His new flag was designed to celebrate the 39th anniversary of the rainbow flag, and will be on display in San Francisco during Gay Pride.
He is survived by his mother and his sister.
SFGMC: Kathy Griffin will be honored at Crescendo, the annual San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus charity event. Also at the gala: Jinkx Monsoon,
Chely Wright.
Alternet: WaPo broke Sessions story, framed it to minimize political fall-out.
Update from HuffPost: Sessions recused.
WaPo: Six times Jeff Sessions has spoken out about perjury and special prosecutors.
The Wrap: The Oscars' veteran stage manager juicily describes incompetence of the PwC accountants!
Kenneth in the (212): Lena Dunham is matching donations to an LGBTQ center in Detroit. You go, Girls.
(Video still via BBC)
Gay Times: BBC forced to explain why it de-gayed a cover of Lady Gaga's “Born This Way” on the TV show Let It Shine.
After the jump, watch the bowdlerized “BTW” ...
Exclusive: US intel officials believe Pres. Putin personally involved in US election disruption - @CynthiaMcFadden https://t.co/yr6leXV8kv
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) December 14, 2016
Intel: Putin himself directed how to use materials hacked from DNC.
Twitter was kept from Trump's big tech meeting ... because it had refused to allow a Crooked Hillary emoji.
Russia forces National Security Council to avoid mentioning LGBTQ issues in praising Sec. Gen. Ki-Moon.
If the San Francisco mayor offered your father head, he'd probably say yes, too.
Leonardo DiCaprio & Lukas Haas wash up on shore.
Pittsburgh bans conversion therapy.
(Video still via Tom Andersen)
I've posted this in previous years, too, but it's always worth watching/hearing again ...
(Video still via Scott Wiener)
Scott Wiener's drag-driven election ad has won him my vote—and I don't even live in San Francisco!
From the YouTube description:
Hope you enjoy this fun video we made to highlight the work Scott Wiener is doing to create a more affordable and livable community. We want to thank the amazing queens - Carnie Asada, Au Jus, and Miz Palou - who starred in and helped communicate Scott's message, with a beat you can dance to!
Watch the terrific ad after the jump ...
Bruce Vilanch (Image via Help Is on the Way)
When you get an opportunity to interview Bruce Vilanch, one of the most celebrated comedy writers in history and a way-out gay man to boot (and boots go with anything), you do not pass it by.
Vilanch spoke with me last week about a cause close to his heart, the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation and the great work it does and will continue to do thanks to the bucks it seeks to rake in from a one-night-only Help Is on the Way cabaret benefit: the Broadway touring cast of Beautiful will perform in Motown & More on Monday, September 12, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. at the Marines' Memorial Theater in San Francisco.
(Image via Help Is on the Way)
The highly anticipated show will be co-hosted by Vilanch and operatic drag diva Katya Smirnoff-Skyy. Get your tickets here.
Vilanch's career took off when a friendship with Bette Midler (before she was Bette Midler!) led to him writing for her 1974 Broadway show Clams on the Half Shell. He's collaborated with her many times, and has written for a dizzying array of TV shows and performers, from Donny Osmond to Elizabeth Taylor, and for some of the funniest people of our time: Robin Williams, Roseanne Barr (she really did used to be funny), Billy Crystal, Lily Tomlin and more.
Help Is on the Way performers speak out about the charity:
Somehow, Vilanch has been able to be a part of the best and worst of pop culture, writing for the Oscars for 27 years and counting, and also counting The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (1976-1977) and that infamous Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) among his credits. He is the nuclear cockroach of HA!, and always the best thing about whatever project he's tackling.
Vilanch survives in any milieu because everyone knows he knows from funny. He's beloved because, unlike some very funny people, he also has a sense of humor about himself, and a sense of duty toward the gay community and people in need.
Read on for my chat with the most hilarious person in the room, because the room is usually filled with people delivering lines he's given them to say ...
