Netflix has launched The Gay Agenda, a podcast that looks at the lives of LGBTQ creatives at the top of their fields across different industries, NBC News noted. The goal, the streaming service said, is to be celebratory, championing success stories "through a loving and humorous lens." The podcast is the brainchild of lesbian actress, singer/songwriter and podcaster Jasmin Savoy Brown, who appears in the new streaming hit Yellowjackets and the newest Scream reboot.
Elliot Page has joined the transgender-themed documentary Nel Mio Nome (Into My Name), by Italian director and producer Nicolo Bassetti, as its executive producer, Variety noted. The doc—which will have its world premiere during February's Berlin International Film Festival, in the Panorama Dokumente section—stems from Bassetti's personal experience with the gender transition of his child, Matteo. Into My Name provides an intimate look at the universal challenges of gender transition by observing the transition within a tight-knit group of friends in the central Italian city of Bologna.
Jamie Auld—a newcomer to acting who portrayed Madonna in the 2019 docufilm Madonna and the Breakfast Club—has died at age 26, Extra noted. A native of Pasadena, California, Auld was a Fashion Institute of Technology student working at Doughnut Plant in NYC when she was approached by filmmaker Guy Guido to star in a film that he envisioned as part documentary and part dramatic reenactment of Madonna's early years, with an emphasis on her musicality.
The NFL's New England Patriots welcomed two out cheerleaders, Driss Dallahi and Steven Sonntag, to their squad in 2019—and this year, they welcomed a third: rookie Parker West, out.com . Sonntag is a school administrator from Colchester, Vermont; Dallahi is an HR operations generalist from Londonderry, New Hampshire; and West is a brand and culture coordinator from Byfield, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, the Buffalo Bills ended New England's season Jan. 15, routing the Patriots 47-17. However, out L.A. Rams cheerleaders Napoleon Jinnies and Quinton Peron had better news, as their team beat the Arizona Cardinals 34-11 on Jan. 17.
Speaking of football, Carl Nassib recently became the first out gay player to participate in an NFL playoff game, LGBTQ Nation noted. Unfortunately, it was in a losing cause, as the Raiders fell to the Cincinnati Bengals. The Raiders, with a record of 10-7, made the playoffs by securing a wild-card spot with an overtime victory over the Los Angeles Chargers.
The younger brother of Super Bowl MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes was subjected to homophobic taunting just prior to a recent NFL game in Denver between the host Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs, out.com noted. Jackson Mahomes, 21, was on the sideline taking pictures and videos of his brother's fiance, Brittany Matthews, when a fan in the stands hurled an anti-gay slur: "Ma-h*m*! Ma-h*m*!" The younger Mahomes has had to deal with similar insults and use of the anti-gay slur in the past on his social media. He posted a video to his YouTube channel saying he was "not gay" and "attracted to girls."
Willie O'Ree, who made history by breaking the NHL's color barrier as the league's first Black player in 1958, had his No. 22 jersey retired by the Boston Bruins, The Winnipeg Sun noted. O'Ree, 86, was the 12th player in team history to have his number honored, joining such standouts as Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque and Cam Neely, among others. Among those lauding his was U.S. Congressman (and hockey enthusiast) Mike Quigley, D-Illinois, who said, "Most importantly, I would like to thank Willie O'Ree for the example he has set and the opportunities he has opened for young people to not only get involved in hockey, but to know that barriers are meant to be broken."
Rock Hudson's Home Movies is among Kino Lorber's home-video releases for March, a media release noted. Rock Hudson's Home Movies (1992), a film essay from Mark Rappaport (From the Journals of Jean Seberg), uses a collage of film clips from throughout Hudson's career and a winking performance by Eric Farr as a Hudson stand-in to highlight gay subtexts. Some of the other releases include Let Me Be Me, about a child on the autism spectrum; and Man, the first-ever, feature-length documentary about the design visionary Bruce Mau.
The Harder They Fall, Insecure and singer H.E.R. led the pack of film, TV and music nominees for the 53rd NAACP Image Awards, while Jennifer Hudson, Lil Nas X, Megan Thee Stallion, Regina King and Tiffany Haddish will face off for the 2022 Entertainer of the Year prize, Variety reported. Hudson earned plaudits for portraying Aretha Franklin in the movie Respect; 2021's other Aretha Franklin-centric project, Nat Geo's Genius: Aretha, earned five nominations, including for Cynthia Erivo (outstanding actress in a television movie, limited series or dramatic special). Also, Pose star Billy Porter earned three nominations, and Pose will compete in the Outstanding Drama Series category against 9-1-1, All American, Godfather of Harlem and Queen Sugar.
King Richard and The Harder They Fall each won four AAFCA (African American Film Critics Association) Awards, with the former taking top honors for Best Actor (Will Smith), Best Supporting Actress (Aunjanue Ellis), Breakout Actor (Saniyya Sidney) and Emerging Director (Reinaldo Marcus Green); and the latter winning Best Picture, Best Ensemble, Best Music (Jeymes Samuel, Kid Cudi, Jay-Z) and Best Director (Jeymes Samuel) honors. Other winners included Best Actress Jennifer Hudson (Respect), Best Supporting Actor Corey Hawkins (The Tragedy of Macbeth), Best Screenplay (Don't Look Up, written by Adam McKay), Best Independent Feature Who We Are and Best Documentary winner Summer of Soul. Winners will be celebrated at the 13th Annual AAFCA Awards on March 2 at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles.
The Grammy Awards will now take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3 (after the original date was postponed because of the recent COVID-19 surge), Variety reported. The CMT Awards, originally scheduled for that day at the venue, will be moved to a later date. Trevor Noah, the long-running host of The Daily Show and host of the 2021 Grammys, will return as master of ceremonies.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said Sidney Poitier died in early January from a combination of cardiopulmonary failure, prostate cancer and Alzheimer's dementia, Deadline reported. The death certificate makes clear that the 94-year-old trailblazer died at his home in Beverly Hills on Jan. 6—the day before news of his passing became known to the world.
Actress/director Regina King's son, Ian Alexander Jr., 26, died by suicide, NBC San Diego noted. The only child of the Oscar-winning actor, she shared him with ex-husband Ian Alexander Sr. She was married to the record producer for a decade beginning in 1997. In honor of her 50th birthday in 2021, Ian Jr. paid homage to his mom by dedicating an Instagram post to her.
Adele indefinitely postponed her planned residency at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, blaming an outbreak of COVID-19 among her team and crew, Deadline noted. She made the announcement in a tearful Twitter video. The shows, called "A Weekend with Adele," were expected to be the most lucrative residency in Las Vegas history.
Apple TV+ announced that Central Park, its hit animated musical-comedy series, will return with eight all-new episodes on Friday, March 4, per a press release. The show stars a voice cast that includes Josh Gad, Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Kathryn Hahn, Tituss Burgess and Stanley Tucci. New guest stars featured this season include Aparna Nancherla, Billy Porter, Catherine O'Hara, Ellie Kemper and Naomi Ekperigin.
NBC has canceled Ellen DeGeneres' game show Ellen's Game of Games after four seasons, per Deadline. The series launched with an eight-episode order in 2017 and its fourth season, which debuted in October 2020 and ran through May 2021, featured 20 episodes. The news comes as The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which airs on a number of NBC-owned affiliate stations, is ending later this spring with its 19th season.
EGOT winner John Legend has become the rare mid-career musician to sell his catalog, EW.com noted. Global music company BMG and global investment firm KKR acquired Legend's portfolio of songs that goes back to his first album. BMG also struck a new deal to administer Legend's future compositions, while it continues to administer his past library. The financial details of the deals are unknown.
Another out actor is joining the cast of Disney+'s upcoming Beauty and the Beast prequel series Little Town, out.com noted, citing Deadline. Gay Irish actor Fra Fee (Marvel Studios' recent Hawkeye show) is joining the cast of the musical series that is going to be focusing on the friendship between LeFou (Josh Gad) and Gaston (queer actor Luke Evans), as well as LeFou's stepsister Tilly (Briana Middleton).
After six years of legal quarrels, all parties have agreed on a value for legendary singer Prince's estate, EW.com noted. The Internal Revenue Service and the estate's administrator, Comerica Bank and Trust, have agreed to a value of $156.4 million, a figure that the heirs to the estate have also accepted, according to Minnesota's Star Tribune. The final valuation exceeds the $82.3-million valuation that Comerica initially submitted. Prince (who did not leave a will) died in April 2016 of an accidental fentanyl overdose at his Paisley Park home in Minnesota at age 57.
Olympian Adam Rippon married longtime boyfriend Jussi-Pekka "JP" Kajaala in a small and private ceremony on New Year's Eve, out.com noted. "Surprise! We are Married!" Rippon posted on social media earlier today. "One afternoon JP and I looked at each other and said the very classic *romantic* phrase of 'let's just go do it now.' So we did. It was just the three of us [including the couple's dog, Tony] and it was perfect. 12/31/21." Rippon and Kajaala first met on Tinder back in 2018, and in early 2021, they proposed to each other while Rippon was visiting Finland.
Nick Jonas stunned fans when he announced that he and wife Priyanka Chopra Jonas have welcomed their first child together, iHeart.com noted. He shared in a statement, "We are overjoyed to confirm that we have welcomed a baby via surrogate. We respectfully ask for privacy during this special time as we focus on our family. Thank you so much." Jonas is the last of the Jonas Brothers members to become a father; Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner share one child together, and Kevin Jonas and wife Danielle have two children.
Figure skating's Tara Lipinski—the 1998 Olympic gold medalist and now an analyst for NBC—partnered with husband Todd Kapostasy on a four-part documentary series on Peacock, The Miami Herald noted. The series, called Meddling, looks deeply into the impact judging misdeeds had on the two pairs teams involved in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah: Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, and Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. Just after improprieties in the scoring centering on French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne surfaced, Sale and Pelletier, who had finished second to the Russians, were elevated to co-gold medalists.
Cypress Hill has returned with their 10th studio album, Back In Black, produced entirely by Black Milk and due March 18 via MNRK, per a press release. To ring in the announcement, the group has shared new single "Bye Bye," featuring rapper Dizzy Wright. Also, the group announced a new documentary, Insane In The Brain: Cypress Hill, which will be released this spring.
Comedian, game-show host and three-time Emmy winner Louie Anderson has died at age 68, Deadline reported. The Baskets star passed away in Las Vegas, where he had entered a hospital for treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a form of cancer. A constant presence on stage and screen since the mid-1980s, Anderson won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2016 for his role as Christine Baskets, the mother of the Zach Galifianakis on the FX series.
The Fugees—Ms. Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel—have canceled their reunion tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of the release of their 1996 blockbuster album The Score, per Variety. On social media, the group wrote, "The continued [COVID] pandemic has made touring conditions difficult, and we want to make sure we keep our fans and ourselves healthy and safe. … If opportunity, public safety, and scheduling allow, we hope to be able to revisit this again sometime soon. Thank you for all of your love and support throughout the years."
Chicago rapper Vic Mensa was arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport after U.S. customs agents reported they found a cache of drugs in his baggage, The Chicago Tribune noted. During a secondary examination of his baggage, customs officers found the drugs, including about 41 grams of liquid LSD, about 124 grams of psilocybin capsules, 178 grams of psilocybin gummies and six grams of psilocybin mushrooms. Mensa, who grew up in the Hyde Park neighborhood, was a member of the band Kids These Days and released a solo album, The Autobiography, in 2017.
Filmmaker Joss Whedon broke his silence over multiple allegations of misconduct by him on productions he oversaw, including the 2017 film Justice League and his TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Variety noted. In a lengthy interview with New York magazine, Whedon (among other things) denied Gal Gadot's allegation that he "threatened" her career while working on Justice League, and called co-star Ray Fisher "a bad actor in both senses."
ABC has canceled Rebel Wilson's dog-grooming competition series Pooch Perfect, Deadline noted. Separately, ABC has parked the Jimmy Kimmel-hosted Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. While the game show, which is based on the long-running British format, has not been officially axed and its status is currently to be determined, there are no plans to make further episodes.
Whoopi Goldberg is returning to the Star Trek universe in season two of Paramount+'s Picard, reprising the role of Guinan in multiple episodes, Deadline noted. She played the El-Aurian bar hostess on Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1988 to 1993. Stewart invited Goldberg to join him in the new series while visiting her ABC talk show The View in January 2020 while promoting the first-season premiere.
Daniel Radcliffe (The Lost City; Harry Potter franchise) is slated to play musician "Weird Al" Yankovic in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story—a Roku Original biopic from Funny or Die and Tango that will be available for streaming exclusively on The Roku Channel, Deadline noted. Yankovic and Eric Appel penned the feature, with the latter Funny or Die alum set to direct.
Pamela Anderson filed for divorce from her fifth husband, Dan Hayhurst—reportedly because he was "unkind, unsupportive" and "a d—k," according to Page Six. The Baywatch star is filing for divorce in her native Canada , where she and her now-estranged husband have been living since they wed on Christmas Eve 2020 on her Vancouver Island home. Page Six exclusively revealed in 2020 that Anderson was dating Hayhurst after divorcing then-husband Jon Peters, to whom she was married for only 12 days.
