Said Joy Behar: “He’s a moderate. … People are excited about Buttigieg. He’s fresh, he’s new, he’s … gay. He’s a serviceman. He served in Afghanistan. Unless you are a homophobe, he’s married in a very traditional marriage, totally monogamous. That should appeal to the silent majority out there, whoever they are. Also he’s openly religious, which is also another positive in this country. Unless people are going to not vote for someone like him because he’s gay, I think he’s got a shot.”
Meghan McCain disagreed: “I’m not going to try to burst the bubble here. But, here’s always a sparkly, shiny object in primary politics. I can remember when Herman Cain was polling really high, Newt Gingrich at one point. There’s always a bright, shiny candidate. Howard Dean, and then infamously yelled, whatever. I don’t know if we would be talking about a candidate polling with 0% or 1% with white voters the way we’re talking about the candidate with 0% or 1% with black voters. He has a serious problem and blind spots with the African-American community.”
BUTTIGIEG LEADS IN IOWA POLL: The co-hosts weigh in on Mayor Pete Buttigieg being the frontrunner in a new Iowa poll, surpassing 2020 candidates Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders. t.co/MopPyhxIW0pic.twitter.com/gy0bSxw0cP
A Gay Man Goes ‘Way Way Back’ at a Hometown Funeral and Finds a Love from His Past: WATCH
Singer-songwriter Christopher Sorensen has debuted a new music video for his track “Way. Way. Back.” Towleroad readers may recall the video for Sorensen’s “Afterglow“, in which a closeted 18-year-old teen and an older man meet on a gay hook-up app.
Said Sorensen: “‘Way. Way. Back’ tells the story of a gayman who returns to his hometown for a funeral. He’s haunted by memories of a former love from his youth and the events that tore them apart. The video shows how we collect trauma throughout our lives, weighing us down as we try to move on. Maybe by facing our pasts we can find a new beginning.”
“As an openly-gay singer and songwriter, I’ve been compelled to tell stories about coming to terms with identity and the challenges I and others have overcome,” added Sorensen. “I’m also a screenwriter, so I like to use my music videos as an opportunity to create short films. The music track was created with Australia-based producer, Arizon. The video was directed by Jasmine Sorensen and was the collaboration of a lot of wonderful people, who donated their time and support to make this possible.”
Do You Want Out of ‘Empty’ Gay Hook-Ups? So Does This Pop Star: WATCH
Towleroad readers may remember Wils, a rising star in Singapore’s pop scene, who got dropped by his label after he came out to them. At that time, Wils went independent and released a gorgeous music video that served as his official coming out.
Now, Wils has released his latest track, “Empty”, which takes on the loneliness of gay hook-up culture.
Said Wils: Sometimes the biggest challenge we have to face is the internal struggle we have with ourselves. ‘Empty’ is about facing that loneliness when we’re looking for love outside of ourselves instead of within ourselves.”
“Growing up, I used to hide my sexuality because I felt like being gay was wrong,” Wils added. “I didn’t feel like I belonged and I never knew how to find my community. It was terrifying to grow up hiding like that. I hope that LGBTQ-inclusive media and art will help others that feel underrepresented understand that it’s okay to be gay.”
John Oliver Destroys Laura Ingraham and Jim Jordan’s Arguments About Trump’s Innocence: WATCH
John Oliver ripped GOP attempts to excuse Trump’s impeachable offenses on last night’s Last Week Tonight on HBO, specifically targeting FOX News host Laura Ingraham, who clucked, “attempted bribery isn’t in the constitution!”
Replied Oliver: “Crime doesn’t stop being a crime if it doesn’t work. If you tried to blow up an airliner and your vest doesn’t go off, you don’t get to go ‘welp, no harm no foul,’ and then sit there watching Detective Pikachu for the rest of the flight. Also, Ukraine only got its aid after the House started asking questions. And the Ukrainian president was days away from publicly announcing investigations, but canceled his announcement at the last minute after this story started breaking. So, the nothing to see here defense’ is pretty shaky.”
Oliver also destroyed the “hearsay” argument pushed by loudmouth Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), adding: “Multiple people have gone on record saying the President was pressuring Zelensky for his own political gain, including his own chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who did so on camera. So yes, the fact that there was quid pro quo is all ‘hearsay,’ in that you hear people say it all the f**king time.”
On Broadway, ‘The Inheritance’ Sprawls but Rarely Cracks the Surface: REVIEW
A dozen men lay scattered across a blank page, wondering where to begin. They want to tell a story that will help them understand what it means to be twenty-first-century gaymen. It’s a daring ambition they share with Matthew Lopez, whose two-part play The Inheritance opens on Broadway tonight, attempting to wrestle with and reconcile several decades of gay history. That these particular men have the luxury to loll around and ponder storytelling is our first indication of what kind it’s going to be.
As his on-stage mentor E.M. Forster suggests, where Lopez begins hardly matters. The more important questions are what story he’s going to tell and how.
Howards End at least partiallyanswers that first question; Forster’s 1910 classic serves as loose inspiration for the play’s personae and plot. It’s in the how that the trouble with The Inheritance begins. Lopez attempts the bold sprawl of a novel without plumbing the same psychological depths, and faces the formal demands of a near-seven-hour play without generating sufficient stakes or forward momentum. As the actors toggle between narrating their story and embodying it, the stage fills and fills with lovely words, but they rarely add up to blood-pounding drama.
The world these men inhabit is recognizable if rarified; they shuttle between Manhattan and the Hamptons, flit from the Whitney Museum through literature-stuffed shelves at The Strand. The homogeneity of their cultural elitism surpasses personal differences — regardless of race or upbringing, they all have opinions on Ravel’s “String Quartet in F Major.” Often, they operate as a sort of Greek chorus who speak from a unified point of view. When talk turns, at various brunches and dinner parties, to contemporary politics or issues facing broader queer communities unrepresented here, it’s intellectual lip service ultimately untethered to plot. None of these men would disagree they have it easier than others.
An ill-fated, messy romance between two lead narrators serves as a primary through-line. One (played by Andrew Burnap) is brash and a bit conceited, partial to loud prints and crop tops. He ironically proclaims himself a “child of privilege,” but has spent his life running from difficult beginnings. Though he’s written a play about it, we don’t learn his backstory until it’s too late to win fresh sympathy. The other (Kyle Soller) is an actual beneficiary of both inordinate privilege and serendipity; he’s evicted from an inherited rent-controlled three-bedroom into the arms of a billionaire (standout vet John Benjamin Hickey). The biggest obstacle he faces is not recognizing that, underneath his cardigans, he’s beautiful and extraordinary. He eventually does, not to spoil the suspense.
The play proves most affecting in weaving intergenerational connections, and Lopez is adept at playing readily on heartstrings. Loss, regret, and the painful legacy of the AIDS crisis color the play’s more moving moments. Quieter and more mournful than its raw and harrowing predecessors, The Inheritance lovingly turns to survivors for stories they have to bestow with the wisdom of hindsight.
Performances from Paul Hilton, and especially Lois Smith, breathe a haunting humanity that sometimes stands in sharp contrast to more surface portrayals of younger characters. This is at least partially due to the play’s uneven mix of evocative, time-traveling prose that unfurls in extended monologues, and snappy dialogue that turns its soapy gears. Pacing languishes and then jerks awake, particularly in a rush toward tying up loose ends.
Director Stephen Daldry’s physical production is restrained to the point of seeming curiously barren, with only a handful of modest flourishes. For a play of such length, it’s a lot to ask of audience imagination. The muted aesthetic of Bob Crowley’s blank-page design only makes the play appear more insular and disconnected from a broader context. These men may no longer be the outsiders they once were, but they exist in a kind of private society inoculated from a more dominant culture. It may be nice to imagine, but it evades a more messy kind of truth.
Because The Inheritance dares to ask big, meaty questions — “what does it mean now to be gayman?” chief among them — it can’t help but offer itself up as a kind of answer. For an endeavor so sweeping in scope, its findings are surprisingly narrow.
The Thirst Is Real on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K.’ [RECAP and RANKINGS]
If there’s one thing this easy, breezy season of RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K. has been missing, it’s a little drama. Luckily last night’s ep ratcheted up the tension between remaining queens while increasing the pressure on the middle-of-the-pack performers.
It was perfect timing to inject a little adrenaline. It’s around this episode each season that Drag Race starts to, well, drag. With a smaller starting cast (truly, ten is the optimal amount of queens to begin with), the finish line comes into focus much sooner. Another bonus is it feels like we’ve spent more extended, quality time with each of the queens remaining.
Things boil over pretty quickly this week, immediately following Crystal’s elimination. Vivienne is still shaken when the girls ask if she would have chosen the same team in hindsight. She sticks with Cheryl, but would have picked Divina and Baga instead of the dearly departed Crystal.
Not being Viv’s first pick sends Divina over the edge. She feels she’s being wildly underestimated, which, while true, is still no grounds for the full-out diva fit she throws in the workroom. It’s mostly focused at Vivienne, but she rattles off her C.V. all indignantly until Vivienne gets exasperated. She spits back a killer backhanded compliment about how much more she respects Divina now, because out in the real world she’s only ever seen her in a red wig and silver dress.
YIKES. That was like sniper shade.
By the next day, they allegedly squashed their beef, but there’s clearly still tension. Ru arrives for this week’s silly little mini-game, BBC. The Brit Crew is out in very snug shorts, and the gals have to guess if they are wearing boxers, briefs or “commando.” (Tuck it behind your belt, fellas. The commandos are just wearing camo briefs.) Like Ru, I also couldn’t tell you exactly what happened here, because in all the ensuing excitement, I think I went c*ckblind and couldn’t process details.
This week’s main challenge is to create and market their own brand of bottled water. They’ll need to design the product, write the script and plan their commercial. Divina and Vivienne have a strong vision, but the other three queens are struggling. Baga can’t sell Ru on her concept. Blu wants to lean on the dirty jokes that shined in Snatch, but Ru pushes her to bring more. Then there’s poor Cheryl, who burned her season-high performance on the losing team last week. Cheryl is the only queen remaining with no RuPeter Badges, and she’s feeling the pressure.
The ladies shoot with Graham, and it’s a mixed bag. Blu throws a lot of things at the wall, none of which seem to stick. Cheryl executes her vision, but the vision isn’t particularly entertaining or clever. Vivienne confidently delivers a dowdy housewife character.
But there are some strange surprises. Divina, whose artistic talents have been the focal point of the last two episodes, seems to be out of sorts. She has a lot of script, props and ideas. Nothing seems to hit super hard while filming, but she assures us it will come together in the edit. Conversely, Baga is racking in the laughs, but I couldn’t explain the concept very easily.
Viv and Divina seem to officially put the squabble behind them (even though it came up again earlier at Ru’s prodding). More importantly, the makeup mirror moment opens up a really interesting conversation about drug use in the gay community, and in the nightlife community more specifically. Vivienne breaks down in interview, revealing her own struggles with drug addiction. It’s raw, it’s powerful, it’s emotional. It’s the kind of honest conversation between queer people that you so rarely see on a platform like this. As the RuPaul empire grows and becomes more mainstream, I’m still thankful for these small moments.
The queens walk their fiercest rainy day lewks down the runway for the judges, including Cheryl Cole. Yes, the same Cheryl after whom our own Cheryl Hole chose her name. (We’ll remark on the outfits in our rankings below.)
Divina proves she was right all along. Her commercial is the most ambitious, cohesive and successful of the bunch. The judges love her forethought, and she made the most of her time filming. Cheryl was a little flat, but they like her outfit. Baga made nearly no sense, but you can’t help but laugh at her stuffing her face with sausages. Vivenne kept her concept very straight-forward, but on the runway, her witchy La Llorna-esque ensemble is anything but ordinary. Blu got a little political dig in her video, but it’s mostly a miss.
As the ladies untuck, it seems as if Baga is about to throw in the towel. She’s not even going to bother learning the lip sync. Toodle loo, it’s been real! Her defeatist attitude rubs the other competitors the wrong way, but her worries are for naught.
Ru puts Cheryl and Blu in the bottom, giving Cheryl the opportunity to dance for her idol to one of Cheryl Cole‘s songs. At one point, Cheryl does a death-drop that really does seem deadly, as she appears to fling her body and head down at full force. As a pro-wrestling fan (there’s a lot more in common with drag than you think!), we’d call that a “bad bump.”
Cheryl’s all-out performance edges out Blu, and she gets to stay. Blu shantays away, and we are left with our final four.
Let’s discuss where the rest of the girls stand in our rankings below.
It’s really neck-and-neck between Vivienne and Divina, so it makes sense there’s tension. If I had to choose, I’d put my tuppence on Divina. I could see Viv conquering challenges, but Divina ultimately walking away with the crown. Her runway this week was built around a reveal, but it sidled her with this ugly yellow raincoat much too long. The outfit underneath was interesting, but not necessarily a gag.
Seeing the softer side of Vivienne helped add a little tenderness to the top queen. Hearing her speak about her relationship with drugs was heartbreaking and also inspiring. It was brave of her to share, and it was presented in a way that felt authentic, not exploitative. I adored her runway, which is why I think she edged out Divina.
I almost hate to put Baga this high on the list after this week’s paltry showing. It’s not even what she presented; it’s about her attitude. It just doesn’t seem like she wants to push herself, which is a shame, because she’s already so great when she’s only giving us 60 percent.
Cheryl earned her spot in the top four this week, but just barely. Since she doesn’t seem destined to ever get a RuPeter badge, getting to save herself on stage in front of her idol is a pretty good memory to take home.
Oh, Blu. I really grew to love your sweet face and shady comments. I so wish we could have had Blu on season four or five of Drag Race U.K., when she’s had a few more years of experience under her belt. As it were, I always felt like I saw the gears turning as she worked. The advert felt particularly forced, mixing blu(e) humor, political messages and an earnest “love yourself” theme. I’m certainly a fan, but I think top five feels like a proper finish for our Northern Irish queen.
Celine Dion Has Settled the ‘Titanic’ Door Debate: WATCH
Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon asked Celine Dion, as an authority on Titanic, to comment on one of the movie’s longstanding debates: was there enough room on that door for both Rose and Jack?
Said Dion: “First of all, if you look closely [at] the picture, Rose is maybe dead or totally frozen, and she’s not quite all there, okay? Second of all, he doesn’t need an invitation. Come on, baby! Make himself comfortable. Jump in. You know? And then who did not think about this guy who is in the middle of the frozen ocean and that maybe all his body is so frozen that he didn’t have the strength to…”
“He made a mistake,” @SpeakerPelosi says on Trump’s tweet about Yovanovitch during her testimony. “I think part of it is his own insecurity as an impostor…he knows full well he’s in that office way over his head. And so he has to diminish everyone else.” t.co/F2Q7vnseuupic.twitter.com/0FjTmQhz5P
Says Pelosi: “He should not frivolously throw out insults, but that’s what he does. I think part of it is his own insecurity as an imposter. I think he knows full well that he’s in that office way over his head. And so he has to diminish everyone else.”
Hall and Jordan noted that his bully is now getting attacked on social media, and Jordan told Hall he wants it to stop: “I want all the negative comments going towards him to stop. I have no idea what’s going on in his life, as he has no idea what’s going on in mine. I can’t hold what he said accountable against him, because I don’t know how he was raised. … I don’t know if it was a heat-of-the-moment thing. I don’t know if it was what he truly believes in. But I can’t hold him accountable for being bullied against hundreds if not thousands of people.”
Jordan is leaving LaPorte High School to be home schooled after the incident. He doesn’t appear to be happy about it.
TAX RETURNS. Trump asks SCOTUS to bar their release: “The case, the first concerning Mr. Trump’s personal conduct and business dealings to reach the court, could yield a major ruling on the scope of presidential immunity from criminal investigations.”
MISSOURI. Kansas City and Columbia ban gay conversion therapy. ‘The Kansas City Star reports the city’s ban will apply only to minors and to licensed medical or mental health professionals. It does not bar religious leaders from talking to young people about their sexuality or gender identity.’
SWEDEN AND DENMARK. Suicide rates fall after passage of marriage equality. “The joint study by the Danish Research Institute for Suicide Prevention and researchers from Stockholm University compared suicide rates for people in same-sex and heterosexual relationships in the periods 1989-2002 and 2003-16.”
UNSEXY. Trevor Noah unloads on FOX News coverage of the impeachment hearings.
KIM PETRAS. Transgender pop star’s billboards pop up in Topeka, headquarters of the Westboro Baptist Church: “Sources connected to Kim tell TMZ … they don’t know who put the billboards up but they were clearly designed to yutz the church — known for its campaigns against several entertainers, gay and straight. They once went after Blake Shelton simply because he supports the LGBTQ community.”
STUDY. E-cigarette use high among LGBTQ adults. ‘Dr. Salim Virani, professor of cardiology at Baylor and the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety (IQuESt) at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, and Dr. Mahmoud Al Rifai a fellow in training at Baylor, said the findings from the study show that people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual are more prone to report vaping use and risky behaviors than those who identify as heterosexual.’
EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING. Lil Peep’s second posthumous album has arrived. ‘The album drop coincides with the theatrical release of the documentary by the same name. The highly anticipated film, Everybody’s Everything, is an intimate portrait of the late rapper, as told by his friends and family.’
NEW TUNE OF THE DAY. Taylor Swift “Beautiful Ghosts” from Cats.
