Kylie Minogue’s homeware range will make you feel like royalty

Kylie Minogue is showgirl through and through – and her At Home collection helps fans give their apartments the same character.

Inspired by the glitz and glamour of showbiz, the Kylie Minogue At Home collection focuses on home textiles focusing on the living- and bedroom.

Neutral colors, ranging from grey to pearl or deep amethyst, fit into every bedroom.

Spot on the trend of elegant, glamorous interiors in dark neutrals and bright highlights, the collection combines the gay icon’s love of stylish interiors with glitzy, yet sophisticated items fit for a princess’s chambers.

Held in gold and silver, offset against black, grey and cream tones, the pieces are have a decadent, yet at the same time delicate appearance due to the attention paid to every detail.

Dripping in diamants, the Mezzano line sparkles like the skylines of London, Paris or New York.

Whether they’re generously covered in tiny sequins, encrusted with or featuring a trim of sparkling, delicate diamantes or simply embossed, the lush linens, dazzling pillows and indulgent throws turn inner-city apartment bedrooms into miniature palaces.

High-quality materials, including soft velvet and exquisite satin ensure the collection feels as good as it looks – like freshly laundered sheets in a luxurious hotel, sinking into the pillows becomes a whole new experience.

The soft oyster of the Astor line shows that sometimes, understatement can be just as effective.

The golden Alexa line will add a touch of Kylie glitz to bedrooms, while the rich, dark satin of the Mezzano – working exceptionally well with the Jayza velvet boudoir cushion – makes you want to never resurface again.

But it’s not always about the bling: lines like Astor, available in deep amethyst or soft oyster tones, don’t hold back on the sparkles, yet embrace the idea of understatement being one of the pillars of sophisticated design.

Light or dark, Kylie Minogue’s collection helps turn city apartments into miniature palaces.

Available from selected online and stationary retailers, including Debenhams, Next and House of Fraser, prices start at £16 (€21.61, $24.32) for a pillowcase, with cushions clocking in at a minimum of £30 (€40.52, $45.61).

Duvet covers are priced between £50 (€67.53, $76.01) and £150 (€202.60, $228.05), and throws have a starting price of £145 (€195.85, $220.45).

The post Kylie Minogue’s homeware range will make you feel like royalty appeared first on Gay Star News.

Stefanie Gerdes

www.gaystarnews.com/article/kylie-minogues-homeware-range-will-make-you-feel-like-royalty/

HRC: Arne Duncan Helped Lead Fight Against Discrimination and Move Toward More Inclusive Classrooms

Through Secretary Duncan’s leadership, the Department of Education has become a trailblazer in protecting LGBT students
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/hrc-arne-duncan-helped-lead-fight-against-discrimination-and-move-toward-mo?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Natasha Lyonne Reteams With Her “But I’m A Cheerleader” Director In New Comedy

With her doe eyes, wild tangle of blond curls and deadpan line readings, Natasha Lyonne made a big impression during the late ’90s with comedies such as American Pie, The Slums of Beverly Hills and the queer-themed cult classic, But I’m a Cheerleader. After a celebrated career comeback (and an Emmy nomination) for Netflix’s buzzy ladies prison series Orange is the New Black,  Lyonne has reteamed with Cheerleader director Jamie Babbit for Addicted to Fresno, a comedy trifle that opens in select theaters today. The 36-year-old actress plays against type as hotel maid Martha, the responsible sister to unstable sex addict Shannon, played by Judy Greer. Queerty spoke with Babbit and Lyonne about reuniting for the film.

Queerty: Addicted to Fresno was written by your wife, Karey Dornetto. Was there any apprehension about going to her with story or writing notes considering you had to go home together later?

Jamie Babbit: [Laughs] Well, we’re still together. Working with Karey was great. It’s really great to have a collaborative experience between the writer, director and actors.

The role of Martha was written with Natasha in mind.

Natasha Lyonne: I was super flattered to hear that Jamie wanted to work with me again. She sent me the script and I was just shocked that she had thought of me for it.

The city of Fresno gets such a bad wrap.  Why did you decide to set the film there?

Babbit: Karey researched cities in California and found that the top two places people say they want to escape are Bakersfield and Fresno. She chose Fresno. It’s one of the most polluted cities in the United States. I’m interested in that kind of subject matter; people that are either trapped in cities or trying to get out. It’s a theme I continue to explore.

Natasha and Judy Greer have such great chemistry. How much of the script was improvised and how much was on the page?

Lyonne: Emotionally and artistically speaking, it was a real joy to be able to feel such a state of freedom. I could really explore things and make things up. Judy Greer is such a master. She is a great person to have as your number one on the call sheet.  You’re in safe hands. She is incapable of having a false moment. She’s always stellar.

What do you think your character, Megan in But I’m a Cheerleader would be up to now? Would her life resemble Martha’s at all?

Lyonne: I think Megan is a little more of a natural overachiever than Martha. I feel like Megan could be like a political advisor. Megan is a like lesbian Republican but still anti-Trump.

How difficult is it to be a hotel maid? Did you undergo training?

Lyonne: We went out to the desert in Simi Valley during the apex of summer. I remember that first day I pulled up 15 minutes late, panting from the heat with the air conditioner blasting, chain smoking and drinking a Red Bull. I was wearing a black blazer, black jeans, black boots and thinking, “Why is it so fucking hot out here?!”

Judy shows up with a picnic basket and homemade cupcakes. She’s wearing a sundress and smiling. And I thought in that moment, “Wait a minute, they got the parts wrong.” Then we went upstairs to a motel room and began our housekeeping lessons. We followed a housekeeper around.  Judy excelled at it. I was a failure.

First of all, they work very quickly. The woman was drenched in sweat because she would clean the room so quickly. They all have serious hairdos and full makeup and sweat profusely. There is only one cleaning product, Lysol. And it gets sprayed on everything.

There’s a scene in the film in which Natasha and Judy are styling Natasha’s hair.  It’s wildly comical as I feel like Natasha’s hair is often its own character in films.

Babbitt: It was actually Natasha’s idea that she wanted to look like Gilda Radner in that scene. So she brushed her hair out and it’s enormous. Natasha’s hair is its own character. Natasha did her impression of Cousin It for us and it was so funny. She did it one of the takes and I liked it so much I reshot the master because I knew I wanted to use it. It was all totally improvised.

Natasha’s character, Martha is much more of the adult, responsible sister and goes to great lengths to help her older sister Shannon. It was great to see Natasha cast against type.

Babbitt: Natasha was definitely cast against type in this film. I think it was a nice break from her Orange is the New Black character where she is playing someone a little closer to herself.

She’s such a phenomenal actress and comedian so I think this movie shows what a remarkable range she has. I hope it inspires other directors to cast her against type because she is truly, truly gifted.

Watch the film’s trailer below.

Jeremy Kinser

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Cops Hunt Suspect in Anti-Gay NYC Subway Attack

The NYPD is searching for a suspect who attacked a man on the NYC subway last week, the NY Daily News reports:

The victim had just exited a train at the 50th St. No. 1 train station and was approaching the turnstiles when the creep kicked him from behind about 6:45 p.m. Sept. 23.

“Puto!” the man screamed, using derogatory Spanish slang for gay men.

The victim tried to run but his attacker grabbed him and punched him twice in the face before fleeing the station. The victim, who was not seriously injured, told police he had been on the train with the suspect but had no interaction with him before the attack.

The suspect is described as  a Hispanic man, between 30 and 40 years old, about 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall, with long dark hair, wearing a black T-shirt, black shorts and red sneakers. They also released the above sketch and a surveillance video.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call 800-577-TIPS.

The post Cops Hunt Suspect in Anti-Gay NYC Subway Attack appeared first on Towleroad.

Andy Towle

Cops Hunt Suspect in Anti-Gay NYC Subway Attack

Vatican Disputes Kim Davis's Version of Papal Meeting

Papal spokesman Federico Lombardi is disputing Liberty Counsel’s version of the meeting between renegade antigay county clerk Kim Davis and the pope, saying people shouldn’t read too much into it.

After Davis recounted the experience to ABC News and her attorney, Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver, claimed the pope told the defiant antigay clerk to “stay strong,” the Vatican now says Pope Francis did not talk about Davis’s defiance of federal law in denying same-sex couples marriage licenses. In fact, the Vatican claims that Davis’s audience with the pope wasn’t even a private meeting, as she and Staver have repeatedly claimed.

“The pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs. Davis, and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects,” Lombardi said in a prepared statement this morning. “Pope Francis met with several dozen persons who had been invited by the Nunciature to greet him as he prepared to leave Washington for New York City. Such brief greetings occur on all papal visits and are due to the pope’s characteristic kindness and availability. The only real audience granted by the pope at the Nunciature was with one of his former students and his family.”

An unnamed Vatican official told Reuters the Holy See had a “sense of regret” that Pope Francis had any face-time at all with the antigay clerk. Lombardi’s assistant, Canada’s Father Tom Rosica, told Reuters that the Vatican underestimated the significance of a papal audience with Davis, who has become the figurehead of religious-based opposition to civil marriage equality in the U.S. He also rejected Davis’s claim that the pope spent 15 minutes speaking with Davis and her fourth husband, Joe. “There simply was not enough time” during the pope’s six-week tour of the country, he said.

“I’m not sure that [the embassy] realized how significant it would be,” Rosica told Reuters. “The visit was extraordinary … so to allow this to kind of overshadow it would be very unfortunate. This is not the centerpiece of the papal visit. This is one small part of it, but it is a loaded centerpiece.”

According to Chicago’s CBS2, Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich also denied the meeting was requested and a source inside the Vatican told the television station the Pope was “blindsided.” According Vatican officials, Davis met the Pope as part of a receiving line of “dozens” of people, although Davis’s attorney disputes that claim.

Staver, who leads the right-wing Liberty Counsel, a certified anti-LGBT hate group, told the Associated Press that Davis was invited by the Papal ambassador and was picked up at her hotel by a car dispatched by the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C. Staver said Vatican officials asked Davis to change her hairstyle for the trip so she wouldn’t be recognized, and stood by his claim that the meeting was private and not part of a receiving line.

After Pope Francis departed, Liberty Counsel announced that the pontiff had met with the antigay clerk, explaining that the meeting was kept secret until the pope left the United States because the group “didn’t want the pope’s visit to be focused on Kim Davis.” He contends that the Davises snuck into the Vatican embassy for a 15-minute meeting with the Holy Father, wherein Pope Francis gave the Apostolic Pentecostal Christian Davis a pair of rosary beads he personally blessed, which she then gave to her Catholic parents.  

An advisor to Pope Francis has claimed on Twitter that the pontiff was “exploited” by Davis and her attorneys, calling it a “meeting that never should have taken place.”

This wouldn’t be the first time Liberty Counsel has been caught in a fabrication about international support for Davis. Earlier this week, leaders in the right-wing group were forced to admit that a photo they claimed showed 100,000 people praying for Davis in Peru was a fake after ThinkProgress blogger Zack Ford exposed the fraud. The photo was actually taken in May 2014 at a multi-day religious event. Staver now admits that no prayer rallies were held specifically for Davis as he previously claimed, saying some people prayed for her instead.

Bil Browning

www.advocate.com/religion/2015/10/02/vatican-disputes-kim-daviss-version-papal-meeting

Why It's So Hard To Admit When You're Wrong

Recently, Matt Damon came under fire for making tone-deaf comments during an episode of HBO’s “Project Greenlight.” The actor (poorly) attempted to explain diversity in film while speaking with producer Effie Brown, a black woman who knows a thing or two about diversity (or lack there of) in Hollywood.  

Damon later addressed his remarks, saying in part, “I am sorry that they offended some people, but, at the very least, I am happy that they started a conversation about diversity in Hollywood.”

However pure his intentions, his apology was missing something pretty imperative: An actual apology. 

Damon was later more contrite about his diversity comments in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, but not before making another set of offensive remarks suggesting gay actors shouldn’t come out.

Of course Damon isn’t the only high-profile offender. There’s a legacy of non-apologies in the public eye, from Jonah Hill to Miley Cyrus. The pattern is familiar, with perpetrators saying, “I’m sorry you’re offended” rather than “I’m sorry I offended you.”

Their behavior poses a pretty powerful question: Why do we have such a hard time owning up to our wrongdoings?

The secret to our apology aversion may lie in a neurological bias toward taking a rosy view of ourselves. According to social psychologist Elliot Aronson, co-author of the book Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), our brains believe that we’re always doing “the right thing” despite our behavior showing the contrary. 

This sometimes creates mental tension, frequently referred to in psychology as cognitive dissonance, and occurs when our actions don’t follow our beliefs. It’s the same phenomenon that allows a smoker to both know cigarettes are unhealthy and still blow through two packs a day, Aronson wrote.

Many people naturally behave in a way that aligns with a certain self-concept, agreed Alex Lickerman, assistant vice president for the University of Chicago’s student health and counseling services and author of The Undefeated Mind: On the Science of Constructing an Indestructible Self. So when we apologize for something we did or said, our subconscious feels somewhat fraudulent.

“It’s admitting that you’re not consistent with your self-concept, which is very difficult to tolerate,” Lickerman told The Huffington Post. “If you claim you’re not a bigot, or whatever it is you identify with, to apologize for doing the contrary is to admit you did those things.” 

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The key to getting better at apologizing is freeing ourselves from labels, according to Lickerman.

“Just because you failed doesn’t mean you’re a failure,” he said. “To get better at saying you’re sorry, you first need to disconnect from the idea that a mistake turns you into someone you know you’re not.”

There are also a few other pointers to keep in mind when it comes time to fess up to an error, Lickerman explained. Here are a few hallmarks of a good apology:

• Take responsibility. If you’re apologizing for something, you need to own what you did, Lickerman advises.
• Offer an honest explanation. “It needs to be genuine,” Lickermain said. “People can spot a disingenuous attitude from a mile away.”
• Determine to do better in the future. An apology doesn’t mean anything if it isn’t a lesson.
• Be done with it. “Don’t fawn over it, don’t draw it out,” Lickerman said. “Apologize then move on.”

Ultimately, Lickerman said, apologizing for something we know is wrong will help clear that tension that cognitive dissonance creates. And isn’t that a lot easier than living our lives defending poor behavior?

Just a little food for thought for Damon’s next press tour.

Also on HuffPost:

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Gok Wan: ‘Warsaw has the best gay clubs’

It’s not known as the most LGBTI-friendly of countries – but Poland has a big fan in the form of openly gay TV presenter Gok Wan.

In a new interview with the Independent about his travel experiences, the star says he ‘fell in love’ with Warsaw while making a show in the city.

‘There’s an incredible underground art scene and brilliant clubs,’ he said. ‘I love the food; I love Polish people and their language. And the countryside is just beautiful.’

In the interview, He also sings the praises of The Savoy in London, saying: ‘I have always said I will probably die at the Savoy.’

He added: ‘I love the hotel so much. I actually just really love hotels: I love service; I love hospitality; I like nice things; I like food; I like booze; I love design; I like interiors; I like the comfy beds; I like not making my bed; I love travel toiletries.’

The post Gok Wan: ‘Warsaw has the best gay clubs’ appeared first on Gay Star News.

Jamie Tabberer

www.gaystarnews.com/article/gok-wan-warsaw-has-the-best-gay-clubs/

Have You Met Mr. Right Yet?

Each week online comedian, voice actor and chest hair model Sam Kalidi creates a new meme for Queerty readers. This week he examines the eternal question: How do you know when you’ve found Mr. Right? Sam looks forward to all your hate mail. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and at your local glory hole.

Jeremy Kinser

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/YyQV-lO-pvc/have-you-met-mr-right-yet-20151002

After Pope Pushback, Attorneys Post Photos of Kim Davis in Vatican Embassy Waiting Room

Kim Davis’s attorneys at the Liberty Counsel are pushing back after a Vatican statement this morning that Pope Francis did not request a meeting with Kim Davis, nor did he offer her unconditional support.

The Liberty Counsel posted several photos featuring Davis and her husband allegedly waiting in the Vatican Embassy waiting room, and of the alleged van in which Vatican security picked them up.

Writes the Liberty Counsel:

Despite a statement this morning by a Vatican official, the Pope’s own words about conscientious objection being a human right and his private meeting with Kim Davis indicate support for the universal right of conscientious objection, even for government officials. The meeting with Kim Davis was initiated by the Vatican, and the private meeting occurred at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, September 24. This meeting was a private meeting without any other members of the public present.

Developing…

#KimDavis & Joe Davis waited in a room at Vatican embassy & took pictures before Pope arrived w/ photographers. pic.twitter.com/gt3UBKz1PB

— Liberty Counsel (@libertycounsel) October 2, 2015

Vatican sent security team to pick up Kim and Joe Davis from Omni in DC on 9/24 about 1:15 pm to meet Pope Francis pic.twitter.com/3zygb5J3yY

— Liberty Counsel (@libertycounsel) October 2, 2015

The post After Pope Pushback, Attorneys Post Photos of Kim Davis in Vatican Embassy Waiting Room appeared first on Towleroad.

Andy Towle

After Pope Pushback, Attorneys Post Photos of Kim Davis in Vatican Embassy Waiting Room

Kim Kardashian Reveals How She First Discovered Caitlyn Jenner Is Transgender

Kim Kardashian was just 11 years old when she first heard her father, Robert Kardashian, talking about Caitlyn Jenner, then known as Bruce, wearing women’s clothing.

“I overheard my dad and his friends talking about Bruce cross-dressing and I always thought he was just being a hater [of] the new husband, and he was jealous and made this up,” she told Ellen DeGeneres Wednesday. “So I totally let it go and I didn’t think about it again.” 

But in her early 20s, after moving back in with her mom, Kardashian walked in on Jenner in the garage dressed in women’s clothing. Kim panicked, packed a bag and stayed with sister Kourtney Kardashian for the rest of the weekend. The two watched “Oprah” episodes to try and understand things better. 

Kardashian has been a vocal supporter of Jenner since she came out as trans during a “20/20” special back in April. At the time, Jenner revealed Kardashian was one of the most supportive of her children, thanks in part to Kanye West.

“They were talking about it and [Kanye] said to Kim, ‘Look, I could be married to the most beautiful woman in the world, and I am. I could have the most beautiful daughter in the world. I have that. But I’m nothing if I can’t be me. If I can’t be true to myself, they don’t mean anything.'” 

While with Degeneres, Kardashian echoed these comments. 

“It’s not really for us to judge,” she said. “If that’s how Caitlyn wants to live her life, then I support it, and I’m so happy for her and I’ll try to do whatever I can to make it an easy transition for the other family members.” 

H/T Towleroad

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