Why Rosie O'Donnell won't be going to see the new James Franco flick The Interview
Hackers behind the Sony cyber attack vow to carry out 9/11-style attacks on theaters that show the Franco-Seth Rogen comedy
gregh
Daily Archives: December 17, 2014
Capital Cities Join HRC’s Equality Rocks Campaign
Capital Cities Join HRC’s Equality Rocks Campaign
Indie electro band Capital Cities has joined HRC’s Equality Rocks campaign in support of marriage equality.
HRC.org
Study: LGBT athletes change hearts & minds, straight people don't
Study: LGBT athletes change hearts & minds, straight people don't
A new study shows that the only way to truly change people on LGBT issues is to have more LGBT people share their true selves. The role of straight people is to open opportunities for said…
Justice Thomas to Consider Extending Hold on Fla. Marriages
Justice Thomas to Consider Extending Hold on Fla. Marriages
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has seemed amenable to similar requests in other states, so marriage equality may not be quite so imminent in Florida.
Trudy Ring
Here’s What You Need To See At Sundance 2015
Here’s What You Need To See At Sundance 2015
Just to remind everyone what a bellwether of LGBT cinema it is — last year’s Sundance Film Festival brought us the U.S. (and often World) premieres of such exciting LGBT films of 2014 as Love Is Strange, Stranger By The Lake, Lilting, To Be Takei, The Skeleton Twins and the Oscar-shortlisted The Case Against 8 just to mention a few. So basically you can expect that many of the films listed below will become the hits of 2015! This year’s festival runs January 22- February 1 in Park City, Utah. Nearly 120 films will be shown (selected from amongst the more than 12,000 submissions the festival received this year: approximately 4,000 features and 8,000 shorts). Here’s a quick A-Z list (these are the festival’s official descriptions from their LGBT film list), click thru on the titles to investigate further. And if you are actually going to attend the festival don’t miss the annual Outfest Queer Brunch on Sunday, January 25th from 11-1 at the Grubsteak Restaurant (but be sure to subscribe to the Outfest email newsletter to get on the list so you can actually get in).
The Amina Profile / Canada (Director: Sophie Deraspe)
During the Arab revolution, a love story between two women — a Canadian and a Syrian American — turns into an international sociopolitical thriller spotlighting media excesses and the thin line between truth and falsehood on the Internet. World Documentary section.
Call Me Lucky / U.S.A. (Director: Bobcat Goldthwait)
Barry Crimmins was a volatile but brilliant bar comic who became an honored peace activist and influential political satirist. Famous comedians and others build a picture of a man who underwent an incredible transformation. U.S. Documentary section.
The D Train / U.S.A. (Directors and screenwriters: Jarrad Paul, Andrew Mogel)
With his 20th reunion looming, Dan can’t shake his high school insecurities. In a misguided mission to prove he’s changed, Dan rekindles a friendship with the popular guy from his class and is left scrambling to protect more than just his reputation when a wild night takes an unexpected turn. Cast: Jack Black, James Marsden, Kathryn Hahn, Jeffrey Tambor, Mike White, Kyle Bornheimer. U.S. Dramatic section.
Dope / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Rick Famuyiwa)
Malcolm is carefully surviving life in a tough neighborhood in Los Angeles while juggling college applications, academic interviews, and the SAT. A chance invitation to an underground party leads him into an adventure that could allow him to go from being a geek, to being dope, to ultimately being himself. Cast: Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons, Blake Anderson, Zoë Kravitz, A$AP Rocky. U.S. Dramatic section.
Grandma / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Paul Weitz)
Self-described misanthrope Elle Reid has her protective bubble burst when her 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage, shows up needing help. The two of them go on a day-long journey that causes Elle to come to terms with her past and Sage to confront her future. Cast: Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Marcia Gay Harden, Judy Greer, Laverne Cox, Sam Elliott. Premieres section.
I Am Michael / U.S.A. (Director: Justin Kelly, Screenwriters: Justin Kelly, Stacey Miller)
The controversial true story of a gay activist who rejects his homosexuality and becomes a Christian pastor. Cast: James Franco, Zachary Quinto, Emma Roberts. Premieres section.
Larry Kramer in Love and Anger / U.S.A. (Director: Jean Carlomusto)
Author, activist, and playwright Larry Kramer is one of the most important and controversial figures in contemporary gay America, a political firebrand who gave voice to the outrage and grief that inspired gay men and lesbians to fight for their lives. At 78, this complicated man still commands our attention. U.S. Documentary section.
The Mask You Live In / U.S.A. (Director: Jennifer Siebel Newsom)
Is there a “boy crisis” in America? Is our male population suffering due to our emphasis on power, dominance, and aggression? The Mask You Live In explores how our narrow definition of masculinity is harming our boys, men, and society at large and unveils what we can do about it. Documentary Premieres section.
Nasty Baby / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Sebastian Silva)
A gay couple try to have a baby with the help of their best friend, Polly. The trio navigates the idea of creating life while confronted by unexpected harassment from a neighborhood man called The Bishop. As their clashes grow increasingly aggressive, odds are someone is getting hurt. Cast: Sebastian Silva, Tunde Adebimpe, Kristin Wiig, Reg E. Cathey, Mark Margolis, Denis O’Hare. NEXT section.
The Royal Road / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jenni Olson)
This cinematic essay, a defense of remembering, offers up a primer on the Spanish colonization of California and the Mexican American War alongside intimate reflections on nostalgia, butch identity and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo — all against a contemplative backdrop of 16mm urban California landscapes. Cast: Jenni Olson, Tony Kushner. New Frontier section.
The Summer of Sangaile / Lithuania, France, Holland (Director and screenwriter: Alanté Kavaïté)
Seventeen-year-old Sangaile is fascinated by stunt planes. She meets a girl her age at the summer aeronautical show, nearby her parents’ lakeside villa. Sangaile allows Auste to discover her most intimate secret and in the process finds in her teenage love, the only person that truly encourages her to fly. Cast: Julija Steponaityte, Aiste Dirziute. World Dramatic section.
Take Me to the River / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Matt Sobel)
A naive California teen plans to remain above the fray at his Nebraskan family reunion, but a strange encounter places him at the center of a long-buried family secret. Cast: Logan Miller, Robin Weigert, Josh Hamilton, Richard Schiff, Ursula Parker, Azura Skye. NEXT section.
Ten Thousand Saints / U.S.A. (Directors: Robert Pulcini, Shari Springer Berman, Screenwriters: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini)
Based on the acclaimed novel, Ten Thousand Saints follows three lost kids and their equally lost parents as they come of age in New York’s East Village in the era of CBGB, yuppies, and the tinderbox of gentrification that exploded into the Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1988. Cast: Ethan Hawke, Asa Butterfield, Emily Mortimer, Julianne Nicholson, Hailee Steinfeld, Emile Hirsch. Premieres section.
Tig / U.S.A. (Directors: Kristina Goolsby, Ashley York, Screenwriter: Jennifer Arnold)
This documentary explores comedian Tig Notaro’s extraordinary journey as her life unfolds in grand and unexpected ways, all while she is battling a life-threatening illness and falling in love. Documentary Premieres section.
For complete information about all the other great movies at this year’s Sundance Film Festival be sure to visit the official website.
Jenni Olson (@JenniOlsonSF) is VP of e-commerce at WolfeVideo.com and has been writing about LGBT film since 1986. She is a card-carrying Sundance Film Festival member and is now a five-time festival alum as she will be attending this year with the world premiere of her new film, The Royal Road. This piece is cross-posted on FilmmakerMagazine.com, Queerty.com and AfterEllen.com — whichever of these you’re NOT currently reading warrants your attention as well.
Jenni
feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/REu6PE7xo7Y/heres-what-you-need-to-see-at-sundance-2015-20141217
Towleroad's Top 10 Plays and Musicals of 2014
Towleroad's Top 10 Plays and Musicals of 2014
BY NAVEEN KUMAR
Theatre is risky business. Trusted safety precautions include movie adaptations (What’s your damage, Heather?), stars above the title (NPH, lick my glasses!) and proven classics with stars above the title (Swooning for Denzel? Get in line). Though some hedged their bets, the year’s best plays and musicals took big risks that paid off. Whether breathing new life into beloved stories or creating new ways of telling (with puppets!), the top of the crop never failed to thrill, entertain and enlighten. From highbrow to lowbrow and, well, Hedwig—read on for a list of my top 10 favorites.
10. Heathers: The Musical: Transforming the treasured and twisted 1988 teen flick into a stage musical was no easy feat, but writers Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy pulled it off with an intoxicating mix of verve and camp. Profane, over-the-top and, yes, ballsy—Heathers wins the award for this season’s guilty pleasure most likely to get stuck between your teeth. But the musical also toed a fine line with its carefully crafted tone, balancing its bubblegum cynicism with genuine sympathy for every social strata of high school hell.
9. This Is Our Youth: Director Anna Shapiro’s fine-tuned production of Kenneth Lonergan’s seminal Gen-X comedy about twenty-somethings stalling to come of age in NYC marks the play’s Broadway debut, and a high point in both its nearly 20-year history and the fall season. With dynamite performances from Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin and Tavi Gevinson, Lonergan’s trio of hyper-articulate, aimless thrill-seekers buzzes with the hallmark frenetic energy of youth in any age.
8. The Bridges of Madison County: With a soaring, resonant score by Jason Robert Brown (sung to perfection by Kelli O’Hara and Stephen Pasquale) and book by Marsha Norman, Bartlett Sher’s Broadway production elevated its Harlequin romance-inspired material into a vividly intimate and deeply felt love story. Also based on James Waller’s best-selling novel, Sher’s production was as nuanced and graceful as Clint Eastwood’s 1995 film is sappy and melodramatic.
7. Bootycandy: Writer-director Robert O’Hara’s semi-autobiographical and provocative coming-of-age tale about growing up black and gay defied generic formula for a more daring, fractious kind of storytelling. From outrageously funny to touchingly intimate, O’Hara’s collage of colorful snap-shot scenes assembled into a refreshingly inventive and wholly effective big picture of life outside the margins.
Countdown continues AFTER THE JUMP…
6. Casa Valentina: Provocateur Harvey Feirstein’s fascinating new play based on a Catskills retreat for heterosexual (and variously homophobic) transvestites in the early ‘60s threw open the door on a little-known slice of history and grappled with its most troubling implications. Led by Patrick Page and Reed Birney (Tony nominated for his performance), the stellar cast of Joe Mantello’s Broadway production for Manhattan Theatre Club delivered a dynamic and captivating look at the slippery nature of gender and sexual identity.
5. Hedwig and the Angry Inch: Cult fanatics and green inductees alike feel their hearts thump and jaws hit the floor in Michael Mayer’s high-octane Broadway production of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s 1998 downtown classic, which brought home this year’s Tony for Best Musical Revival. The production’s original stars Lena Hall and Neil Patrick Harris also nabbed their own Tonys, while Michael C. Hall (starring as Hedwig through Jan. 18) is considered a must-see, and anticipation is running high for Mitchell to join the show for an eight-week run beginning Jan. 21.
4. A Raisin in the Sun: Denzel Washington was the big-name draw of this exquisitely acted production of Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 drama (this year’s Tony winner for Best Revival), but the supporting cast of women walked away with the show—led by Sophie Okonedo (who won a Tony for her performance), a tremendous LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Anika Noni Rose. Director Kenny Leon’s uncluttered storytelling and attention to the Younger family dynamic brought this tale of black struggle in mid-century Chicago pulsing to new life.
3. Hand to God: Playwright Robert Askin’s searing, incisive and wildly entertaining dark comedy about an awkward boy and his possessed sock puppet hacks away at the bedrock of western religion with shocking humor and stark insight. MCC’s riotous and bracing Off-Broadway production, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, transfers to Broadway’s Booth Theatre this March, featuring a must-see, virtuoso performance by Stephen Boyer as both the boy and his puppet.
2. Disgraced: Smart, sleek and tightly woven, director Kimberly Senior’s Broadway production of Ayad Aktar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama unfolds slowly and carefully before reaching its explosive, starling climax. The story of a second-generation Pakistani man, his artist wife and their two friends raises challenging and provocative questions about identity, race, sex, art, faith and more—all in 90 enthralling minutes of grounded, scintillating human drama.
1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: Director Marianne Elliot’s production of Simon Stephen’s propulsive play is imaginative and transporting and in a way rarely ever achieved onstage. Based on Mark Haddon’s best-selling 2003 novel of the same name, this story about a boy investigating the murder of his neighbor’s dog and unraveling the secrets of his own past burrows into the mind and sticks hard and fast—with minimal sets, nimble actors and a breakout performance by Alex Sharp.
Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar (photos: joan marcus, chad batka, brigitte lancombe, matthew murphy)
Naveen Kumar
www.towleroad.com/2014/12/towleroads-top-10-plays-and-musicals-of-2014.html
Same Sex Engagement Session
Warwick Rowers Release Full Frontal Nude Video (NSFW)
Warwick Rowers Release Full Frontal Nude Video (NSFW)
The Warwick Rowers, everyone’s favorite naked college athletic organization and international queer allies, have released another video this week that leaves very little to the imagination.
The eight minute NSFW video depicts the men rowing and discussing the logistics of playing their sport while completely naked. Check it out above.
Don’t forget to buy the Warwick Rowers calendar, the proceeds of which go towards fighting homophobia.
Want to see more from the Warwick Rowers? Check out their HuffPost Live interview here.
Clarence Thomas To Consider Staying Same-Sex Marriage in Florida
Clarence Thomas To Consider Staying Same-Sex Marriage in Florida
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted a request from Florida’s Attorney General Pam Bondi to hear arguments on a federal judge’s ruling that overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. The ruling in question comes from Judge Robert Hinkle. Hinkle found that Florida’s voter-approved marriage ban violated the U.S. Constitution and, after some legal rigmarole, declared that same-sex couples must be allowed to marry in the Sunshine State starting January 6. Bondi for her part has appealed that ruling to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and wants Justice Thomas to stay Judge Hinkle’s ruling so that it will not go into effect until the 11th Circuit has a chance to consider the question. Bondi is hanging her hopes on the incongruency that now exists in the wake of the 6th Circuit upholding a state’s ban on same-sex marriage, becoming the only circuit court to uphold such a ban. The Sun-Sentinel reports:
[Pam Bondi] pointed out there is a conflict among federal appellate rulings — the sixth district upheld a state marriage ban while all other federal appeals courts that have heard such cases have overturned these bans.
Bondi also claimed the likelihood was the Supreme Court would have to hear this case, and that it would, upon review, “likely reaffirm the States’ nearly exclusive authority to define marriage and hold that the Fourteenth Amendment allows states to define marriage as Florida has.” […]
Attorneys seeking same-sex marriage have until 5 p.m Thursday to present their case for why the hold should be lifted.
Thomas is the justice who accepts requests from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Florida, Georgia and Alabama. On December 3, that appellate court refused to delay Hinkle’s ruling.
After receiving arguments from all parties involved in the suit, Thomas can either act alone to continue the hold, allow it to be lifted on January 5, or else bring the matter to his colleagues on the Court.
This is not the first time the Supreme Court has been asked to continue such a stay, but it has previously turned down such requests.
However Thomas “has indicated in previous, similar cases that he would have granted a stay,” said Elizabeth Schwartz, an attorney involved in same-sex marriage lawsuits in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties that are going through state appellate court.
Thomas has no deadline by which to decide what to do in this case, but in previous instances, the court and individual justices have ruled quickly.
“I don’t think anyone was surprised that [Thomas] asked for more information, and I think it’s also likely he’ll want to continue this with the full court,” Schwartz said. “I do think they’ll rule on it possibly on Friday.”
Sean Mandell
www.towleroad.com/2014/12/clarence-thomas-to-consider-staying-same-sex-marriage-in-florida.html
Christian Man With Way Too Much Time On His Hands Harrasses Bakeries
Christian Man With Way Too Much Time On His Hands Harrasses Bakeries
Apparently retaliation is a Christian value.
In light of all the bakeries that refuse to serve gay customers, citing religious beliefs as their justification for discriminating against them, Theodore Shoebat of Shoebat.com (a site that accepts donations to rescue persecuted Christians) decided to turn the tables, so he called bakery after bakery asking if they’d make him a cake for his pro-traditional marriage celebration with the phrase “gay marriage is wrong” written on it.
And he captured it on video.
The first call is by far the best because the woman who answers the phone turns out to be a right-on lesbian who goes off the minute he starts spouting his hate smack. (And P.S., after five-and-a-half minutes, she actually does agree to make him an antigay cookie — this particular bakery doesn’t make cakes — at which point the video cuts to another call.)
Every other person he calls does turn him down, to which he replies “I thought you guys were for equality” — even though at no point does any person he speaks to actually say they’re for equality.
What this guy clearly doesn’t get is that there’s a big difference between refusing to serve a customer and refusing to serve a customer in a certain way. For the sake of fairness, he should have also asked each bakery if they’d make a cake that said “religious fanatics are douche bags.” Because chances are, all of them would have said no to that as well. Asking someone to make a cake with a “pro” message is entirely different from asking someone to make one with an “anti” one.
In actuality, he’s not asking for equality; he’s asking for inequality.
Even more annoying is his constant misuse of the reflexive pronoun “myself”: “What about people like myself?” he asks ad nauseum, when he should be asking, “What about people like me?”
But here’s the real question: If you have this much time on your hands, dude, why aren’t you using it for something good? Wouldn’t that be the true Christian thing to do?
Watch the videos below.
Winston Gieseke