10 posts categorized "TRANSPARENT"

May 06 2019
Madonna, Andy Cohen & More Honored At GLAAD MEDIA AWARDS; Queen Of Pop Urges Everyone To Give Back, But Never Give Up Comments (0)

IMG_1032Unyielding advocate for personal power and giving back (All images by Matthew Rettenmund)

I bought my ticket for the 30th GLAAD Media Awards upon learning that Madonna would be honored there as a tireless Advocate for Change, a much-needed reboot of our appreciation for all she's done for LGBTQ people over the years.

I always cover the carpet, but figured she would not walk — and was right — so wanted to be sure I had a nice spot inside.

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IMG_4044Getting with the programs

In the meantime, sadly, one of my dogs has been caught in a life-or-death health battle, so I thought I'd have to pass up the awards. As it turned out, he was in good hands Saturday, so I was able to take a breath, Screen Shot 2019-05-06 at 11.56.56 AMgo and enjoy a very memorable night.

Pictured with my longtime buddy Lav ->

I did the carpet with my old friend Peter Dee, who manned the Q&A part while I filmed. (It's Boy Culture, not Dad Culture.) I wore my familiar CK jacket but accessorized with a vintage Madonna purse to hold my video cam.

The carpet's always fun — you're stressed out that you don't deserve to be next to major news orgs, then overhear that they'd accidentally been recording their interviews on slow-mo, or that someone will IMG_4046hog too much time with the best gets, leaving you with the dregs, then find out the ones you really want have no problem circling back to you anyway.

My own snafu — my video sometimes records with all the audio pitched to one side, not stereo. And I can't figure it out. So watch our supercut of snippets from Shangela (she tackles MAYOchella), Gus Kenworthy (got to say hello to his boyf Matt Wilkas), May Hong of Tales of the City, the Pose cast, Trace Lysette and Alexandra Billings of Transparent, Yuval David (Madam Secretary), Jonathan Van Ness, Sonja Morgan, Adam Rippon, Benito Skinner and more ... but do so with one ear:

With the carpet behind me, I dashed inside to find I was seated at a great table, where I met the owners of the Stonewall Inn. (We also had a Jennifer Coolidge caricature at the table who was apparently a Trumper, as she loudly complained about a very pregnant Chelsea Clinton's passionate speech about tolerance.

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IMG_0966The dress was exquisitely, appropriately over-the-top-and-beyond ...

The show was one of GLAAD's best, with participation from the Pose cast, Rachel Brosnahan, and a hilarious presentation by Sarah Jessica Parker of the Vito Russo Award to Andy Cohen, who she teased for his younger wild ways. Shangela was a most capable hostess. One could even say she had the mostess.

I realized right away my camera gave me carte blanche, so I went from table to table getting lovely posed pics of Sarah Jessica Parker and Anderson Cooper, Sarah Jessica Parker and Andy Cohen, Rosie O'Donnell and more.

Screen Shot 2019-05-06 at 1.26.24 AMI was thrilled with my SJP shots

When Madonna strolled into the banquet room about 25 minutes before her presentation and took a seat, shielding her eyes with red sunglasses, I did not hesitate. I was the first photographer to approach and politely ask for a shot. She turned her head and said, “Nope, nope, nope.” Asked and answered!

IMG_1134Yes, Madonna got teary-eyed.

Still, I was able to park by the stage, so I got excellent close-ups when she was affectionately lampooned by Shangela (in a cone bra) and celebrated by Anderson Cooper, Rosie O'Donnell and queer rapper Mykki Blanco. Taking the stage to the strains of her new empowerment anthem “I Rise,” Madonna gave a lovely, funny, bittersweet speech, in which she thanked Christopher Flynn, Keith Haring and her best friend Martin Burgoyne for helping to form her values, remembering through some tears the plague years, when she went to St. Vincent's and embraced dying men in their beds to give them humanity. 

Screen Shot 2019-05-06 at 1.16.54 AMAt Madonna's feet

She spoke of her refusal to turn her back on marginalized people, promising to never let her LGBTQ fans down.

IMG_1077The gays — including actual gay Gus Kenworthy & honorary gay SJP back there — watching Madonna speak

She was most emotional when talking about how her commitment to fighting AIDS led her to champion Malawi, from which she adopted four of her six kids.

IMG_1197Like it or not ...

For comedy, Madonna recalled making Truth or Dare and having had no idea it would inspire men to come out as gay, let alone suck off so many Evian bottles.

Best of all, Madonna delivered a rousing reminder that we need to be who we are, whether people like it or not. She raised two middle fingers as she made this evergreen pronouncement, which came minutes after she'd pledged $25,000 to GLAAD during an auction run by celebrity benefit auctioneer Erin Ward that evening.

Madonna's gratitude to gay men in particular (no mention of her gay, estranged bro Christopher Ciccone) was palpable, her wit was in good order and she was, as ever, unready to back down from anyone or anything.

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IMG_1208Wrapping up

I also loved her use of a James Baldwin quote about how we don't own anything, but are mere shepherds of our talents — and we owe it to everyone to give back.

All this, and she was 15 feet away from me!

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IMG_1259Madonna was feeling both Rosie and Shangela — and Shangela had made fun of her cone bra!

After that, she sneaked back through the stage and vanished, hand-in-hand with Rosie O'Donnell, but everyone else stayed and after-partied. She had, after all, told us in parting that Madame X is a freedom fighter, and a freedom fighter's work is never done.

Check out a chunk of Madonna's speech here:

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Feb 16 2018
Olympic Butt-Grab + Shawn Roberts Strips + Tambor Canned + Mueller Indicts Russians + Liza's Auction + Kenworthy's Bum Thumb + New Trump Affair + MORE! — 12-PACK! Comments (0)

Above: And suddenly, I am a cat lover!

Below: Hands-on bobsledders, hot playlist, Shawn Roberts's booty, Jeffrey Tambor shit-canned, Robert Mueller indicts a buncha Russians, Liza auction, Kenworthy breaks thumb, another Trump affair, Cuomo vs. gan-panic, Matt Palmer's latest, Trump's new anti-gay court pick and Kimmel gunning for Trump's false condolences ...

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May 28 2017
6-PACK — Have Yourself A Ball + Irish Gays Are Smiling + The Icing on Tom & Lance's Wedding Cake + Nyle DiMarco's Outrage + Jill Soloway's Personal Journey + Can We Say That?! Comments (0)

Daniel-Rumfelt(Video still via Team Coco)

WIDGETtheOUTfront: Hot model Daniel Rumfelt shows off how he dries his scrotum after he showers. This is allegedly humorous, but I was too busy to smile.

WIDGETNew York Post: Ireland set to elect openly gay PM 24 years after decriminalizing homosexuality. Also, he'd be the youngest PM in the country's history. Also, he's Indian.

WIDGETYouTube @ Tom Daley: The wedding cake that was probably mostly photographed and not eaten at Tom Daley and Lance Black's wedding: 

WIDGETExtraTV: Nyle DiMarco comes after Jamie Foxx and Jimmy Fallon for spontaneous goof on sign language: “What Foxx did on Fallon tonight made our struggle that much harder.” Bad 10 or so months for Fallon.

WIDGETThe Guardian: Transparent creator Jill Soloway comes out as non-binary and trans, is asked if that means they are rejecting femaleness.

WIDGETYouTube @ Michael Henry: Can gay men still say faggot? Or should nobody be saying it? Watch and decide:

 
Feb 08 2017
6-PACK — Trump Leaks + Otterly Amazing + Hiddleston For GQ + K-Y V-Day + Ariana's Shockable Gran + Soloway's Gender Talk + The Killing Of Sister Gigi! Comments (0)

Screen Shot 2017-02-08 at 10.33.39 AMAlso, Trump has now pre-blamed the judiciary for any new terror attacks. (Image by Matthew Rettenmund)

WIDGETTrump's own people are leaking that they fear he is fundamentally unfit for office.

Screen Shot 2017-02-08 at 10.20.55 AM(David Burton for GQ)

WIDGETTight-bodied otter. Would you like to be snowman in the middle here? Porn bottom sighting. Tom Hiddleston for GQ.

UnnamedCarter Wilson has a V-Day package for you. (Image via Carter Wilson)

WIDGETK-Y offers a load of Valentine's Day e-cards to grease the wheels of your romance.

WIDGETSo hilarious: Ariana's gays are feelin' it, her grandma is feelin' shocked by her potty mouth.

WIDGETJill Soloway's gender speech at the 2017 MAKERS Conference: “'Cute shoes' as a greeting did not work with my gender identity.”:

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Jun 01 2016
Gimme Maura: Jeffrey Tambor On His TRANSPARENT Responsibility Comments (0)
Screen Shot 2016-06-01 at 12.12.23 PMJeffrey Tambor (

One thing I am now thinking is that Tony Hale and Jeffrey Tambor should play father and son in something funny.

But beyond that, they join Jerrod Carmichael, Anthony Anderson, Rob Lowe, Aziz Ansari and Keegan-Michael Key in an entertaining most-embarrassing-moments roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter.

Tambor touches on the unfunny responsibility that comes with his starring role on the (you must watch if you haven't already) Transparent:

I'm a cisgender male actor assaying this role, so it's a great privilege and a huge responsibility that even in the third season just keeps tapping at me... My motto is do it right. It weighs on me. It really weighs on me ... I'm having these conversations in life, people are coming up to me, and I remember a gentleman coming up to me on the plane, and he was all Zegna'd and cufflinked and coiffed and shoed and everything like that and he [wagged his finger at me], and I went, “Here it comes, here it comes.” ... He put his hand in mine and he said: “You. Thank you for introducing me to a subject I had no knowledge of.” And I went, “Well, there's the revolution.” And I've had the other conversation, where I say, “You can't say that word, you can't talk like that.”

 
Apr 04 2016
6-PACK — North Carolina Feeling The Pain + Trump & Cruz Nudge Out Kasich + Sanders Could Have Been In The Lead If ... + Sean Young's Must-Read Interview + Caitlyn's Motive: TRANSPARENT + That's Mr. L.A. Leather To You, Boy! Comments (0)

*widget boy cultureThe ways in which anti-LGBT North Carolina is suffering. Ha!

*widget boy cultureTrump & Cruz join forces to keep Kasich OUT of contention.

*widget boy cultureBernie Sanders paying for his own early doubts he could win.

6a00d8341c2ca253ef0168e9fdf873970cYoung as she appeared four years ago (Image by Matthew Rettenmund)

*widget boy cultureSean Young's OMG, what? interview on her tumultuous career.

*widget boy cultureCaitlyn Jenner is joining Transparent.

*widget boy cultureJeffrey Erdman is Mr. Los Angeles Leather 2016. Photos.

12924548_978021118948339_859892381135029934_nMr. L.A. Leather (Image by Motorboot Photography)

 
Dec 08 2015
TRANSPARENT's Parents Comments (0)

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Transparent creatives Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst sit down with Raymond Braun to talk up Season 2 ...

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Nov 20 2015
Need To Know: About Face + Sending Refugees To Their Doom? It's On The House + Heil Trump + Lovers Lane + What They Were LOOKING For + MORE! Comments (0)

Dylan-modern-family-8936836-624-351As hard as it is to believe, Ewing was beside himself over his looks by age 19.

*widget boy cultureModern Family's Reid Ewing writes movingly of his botched plastic surgery. Images

*widget boy cultureEvery House Republican & 47 dirty Dems are scared of refugees.

*widget boy culture47 dirty Dems include out Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colorado).

*widget boy cultureTHE GOOD (S)WORD: Sarah Palin misreads the Bible.

*widget boy cultureGOP group gunning for The Donald.

*widget boy cultureTrump ready to do “unthinkable” things to Muslims ... register them? Jackd

*widget boy cultureGay hookup apps as ranked by whores users. Images

*widget boy cultureNathan Lane ties the knot!

*widget boy culture10 things for which gay guys can be grateful.

*widget boy cultureCampbell's Soup DILFs.

*widget boy cultureIs THR's annual Hollywood Issue whiter than rice?

*widget boy cultureRussell Tovey almost replaced Jonathan Groff as Looking's lead.

*widget boy cultureDEEP SOUTH: Alexander Skarsgård's hottest snap ever.

*widget boy cultureTransparent Season 2 trailer is here.

*widget boy cultureZayn Malik covers The Fader. Images

Rs_634x765-151118095640-634.zayn-malik-cover-the-fader.111815His hand is heading in one direction and one direction only.