Queer actress/model Cara Delevingne talked with The Sunday Times about her sobriety journey, according to People. In part, she said that actually became intoxicated when she was 8, adding, “what a crazy age to get drunk.” She also spoke about the massive fire that engulfed her Los Angeles home in March, causing the roof of the unique house to collapse: “It sucks but everyone was safe and, like anything, if I’d not been sober I would still be reeling over that.” Delevingne also said, “I used to think drugs and alcohol helped me cope … but they didn’t, they kept me sad and super depressed. I feel like I’ve got my power back and I’m not being controlled by other things.”
Queer German DJ Felix Jaehn and pop icon Sophie Ellis-Bextor have joined forces to release the dance single “Ready For Your Love,” per a press release. The movie Saltburn featured the return of Ellis-Bextor’s 2002 hit “Murder on the Dancefloor,” leading to a huge comeback for the single. Accumulating more than 10 billion streams across platforms and a loyal fan base of over 23.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, Jaehn is behind global hits such as “Cheerleader,” which topped the charts in 55 countries and reached number one on the United States’ Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2015.
Ana Gasteyer, Tony Hale, Dule Hill, Gillian Jacobs, out actor Jim Rash and Sasheer Zamata are set to star in a live reading of Beverly Hills, a soap opera written by openly gay TVLine founder and Spoiler Alert author Michael Ausiello when he was 13, Deadline noted. The actors will get to read the script for the first time when they take the stage on July 16 at Los Angeles’ Hayworth Theater (aka Dynasty Typewriter). Proceeds from the event, which will be livestreamed, will benefit The Trevor Project. Ausiello and LA theater vet Tom DeTrinis will co-direct the performance.
Eight new theater artists—including out Tony-nominated actor/playwright Charles Busch and openly gay two-time Tony-winning composer William Finn—have been inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame, which annually honors lifetime achievement in U.S. theater, Broadway.com noted. Other inductees for the 53rd annual edition are the Tony-winning actress Elizabeth Ashley, the four-time Tony-winning actor Boyd Gaines, the Tony-nominated actor Stephen McKinley Henderson, two-time Tony-winning actress Donna Murphy and the Tony-winning playwright David Rabe; Todd Haimes, the late artistic director of Roundabout Theatre Company, was inducted posthumously. The induction ceremony will take place at Broadway’s Gershwin Theatre on Nov. 18.
The Devil Wears Prada screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna has been tapped to pen a sequel in early development at Disney, Deadline reported. Who from the original cast will return is not yet clear. (It should be noted that in an interview with E! News just a few months back, Hathaway expressed skepticism that “a continuation of that story” was “ever gonna happen.”) There was a Devil Wears Prada reunion of sorts at this year’s SAG Awards, when stars Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt presented that night’s first award, which went to The Bear star Jeremy Allen White.
The Surreal Life is returning this summer with a new cast that includes out Olympian Johnny Weir, Real Housewife Kim Zolciak, singer Macy Gray, Tom Hanks’ rapper son Chet, rapper O.T. Genasis, former Fifth Harmony singer Ally Brooke, model Josie Canseco and queer Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey—who admits in the trailer that his first guy he hooked up with was a male sex worker, according to Queerty. The series—subtitled Villa of Secrets and filmed in Medellín, Colombia—will return July 23 on MTV.
New York Stage and Film (NYSAF) announced additional casting for its 2024 summer season, which kicks off July 16 at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, according to Broadway.com. Queer actor McKinley Belcher III (Death of a Salesman) has joined the presentation of Game Night—a show about a gathering of friends, told through dance and spoken word. And Taran Killam (Spamalot) and gay actor Larry Owens (A Strange Loop) have joined the presentation of Bigfoot, a musical about a small town mayor scapegoating Bigfoot with a book by newly out author/talk-show host Amber Ruffin.
Madonna took a moment to celebrate her life as she marked a year since she struggled with a life-threatening bacterial infection, American Songwriter noted. On Instagram, the “Vogue” singer took fans on a journey through her life with photos that featured the singer enjoying herself. The caption read, “Happy 4th of July! A year ago today, I had just come home from the hospital after surviving a life-threatening illness, I could barely stand in my backyard holding one sparkler. I made a miraculous recovery and had an amazing year. Thank you God. Life is beautiful!”
Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts revealed that, while considering whether to publicly come out, she feared people wouldn’t be able to reconcile her Christianity with her sexuality, per LGBTQ Nation. On a podcast, Roberts admitted that her family and colleagues already knew that she was a lesbian before she came out publicly in 2013; however, she had reservations about disclosing her sexuality to the public. She was even hesitant to sit down with then-President Barack Obama in 2012 for an interview in which he came out in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. Roberts, who is Presbyterian, eventually came out in a December 2013 Facebook post referring to Amber Laign as her girlfriend—and Roberts received a supportive letter from the National Office at the Presbyterian Church.
Track-and-field athlete Trey Cunningham has come out as gay, The Washington Blade noted. However, his sexuality isn’t exactly a secret, as Cunningham came out to his parents and friends by phone five years ago, at age 20. Cunningham described his hometown of Winfield, Alabama, to The New York Times as “rural, quite conservative, quite religious—the sort of place where you did not want to be the gay kid at school. So, I had certain expectations of what my life would look like, and it took me a little while to get my head around it, looking different to that.”
Out actor Luke Evans has joined the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series Criminal in a lead role, Variety reported. The cast will also include Emilia Clarke, Charlie Hunnam, Richard Jenkins, John Hawkes and Adria Arjona, among others. Evans will play Tracy Lawless in the movie, which is based on the graphic novels of the same name created by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.
Matt Bomer (Fellow Travelers; Doom Patrol) recently claimed he was passed over to play Superman in the 2000s because of his sexuality, People Magazine noted. On an episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, the actor said he was, at one time, under heavy consideration to portray Clark Kent/Superman in a film that was ultimately never made. When Bomer—who did not publicly come out until 2012 at the Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards—was asked if his sexual orientation ultimately affected his casting, he said, “Yeah, that’s my understanding.” In 2006, filmmaker Bryan Singer released the next film in the franchise, Superman Returns, with Brandon Routh in the title role.
And speaking of Routh (who is joining Mena Suvari, Cheech Marin, Faye Dunaway, Harvey Keitel and Andrew McCarthy in Fate the Movie), he has offered new Man of Steel David Cornsweet (Hollywood) some advice, according to Yahoo! Entertainment. Nerdpolis asked Routh what advice he’d give Cornsweet, he responded, “I think the biggest thing for me about Superman is always recognizing the non-physical superpowers that he has. It can be cheesy to relate it to the ‘teach a man to fish’ story, but quite literally that is how I see it, and it’s very apropos to being the thing.”
British musician Sam Smith shared with fans that they recorded a new version of “Stay With Me” in honor of its 10th anniversary—and changed one of the song’s lyrics in the process, Billboard noted. In part, they stated, “Including the updated lyric ‘but I still need love, baby understand’ which felt really important to me. It’s beautiful to know that sometimes, we can change the past.” The song’s original lyric saw Smith saying that they “still need love, because I’m just a man,” and the new lyrics reflect their nonbinary identity.
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department achieved an 11th consecutive and total week at the top of the Billboard 200 (dated July 13)—tying 1989 and Fearless as her longest-leading No. 1 albums, per Billboard. The last album by a woman to spend 11 weeks at No. 1 was 1989, which had 11 nonconsecutive weeks atop the list in 2014-15. If Poets reaches a 12th week at No. 1, it will be the first album by a woman with at least 12 weeks at No. 1 since Adele’s 21 was on top for 24 nonconsecutive weeks in 2011-12.
Queer artist Micah McLaurin released his new summer anthem “Call Me” via Casa Doce Music, per a press release. “Call Me” was produced by Fernando Garibay (Lady Gaga) and co-written with Simon Wilcox (Carly Rae Jepson). McLaurin recently made waves when he performed a reimagined version of “MacArthur Park” for a crowd of thousands at Chicago Pride Fest with Amber Riley, and he also recently performed at Dolce and Gabbana’s Alta Gioelleria in Sardinia.
Former American Idol runner-up/political candidate Clay Aiken revealed in multiple interviews that son Parker is a “typical teen” who’s “embarrassed” by his dad and has no plans to follow in his footsteps, according to Heavy. He’s chosen a different path,” Clay told E! News. “He has something else he wants to do with his life. And I’m excited for him.” Five years after skyrocketing to fame on Idol, Aiken announced on his website that he became a first-time dad on Aug. 8, 2008; Several months prior, the outlet reported, it was confirmed that the baby’s mom was music producer Jaymes Foster—the sister of famed music producer David Foster, who’s married to another former Idol competitor: Katharine McPhee.
In the wake of the release of his new album God Said No, queer musician Omar Apollo is sharing his “God Said No (Live Performance)” video, which features a 14-piece ensemble and some of Apollo’s closest friends and collaborators, a press release announced. The performance includes album tracks “Dispose of Me,” “Drifting,” “Glow” and “Done With You.” Apollo will embark on his God Said NoTour starting Aug. 20 in Indianapolis (in his home state); a few of the other stops include Chicago (Aug. 23), Toronto (Sept. 4), Atlanta (Sept. 14), Vancouver (Sept. 29), Los Angeles (Oct.5) and the conclusion in San Diego (Oct. 11).
Out Scottish-American actor John Barrowman (Torchwood; Doctor Who) recently spoke about cancel culture—saying “sick” people tried to ruin his career over on-set behavior he apologized for in 2008 when a video resurfaced in 2021 of co-stars talking about Barrowman exposing himself at work, according to NZHerald.co.nz. Barrowman said some of what he was accused of was incorrect, but he took ownership of his mistakes: “When I was doing nude scenes and if I was doing something silly to make myself feel more comfortable and having a little bit of silly behavior, it was amongst peers and it was amongst colleagues, and none of them complained. I would never do anything like that now, I’d never do silly things like that again.” He added, “The people who throw the stones, your life is not perfect either and you’ve made mistakes, and how dare you try to destroy my life because of some stupid thing that I did a long time ago,” also saying that he believes some of the attacks happened because he’s gay. After stories of his behavior resurfaced, Barrowman said he was starting to see his face removed from DVD box sets and books that fans were getting him to sign.
Halle Berry and Glenn Close have joined the ensemble cast of Hulu‘s All’s Fair, a new legal series from Ryan Murphy and Kim Kardashian, Deadline noted. All four are executive producers. Kardashian will play Los Angeles’ most successful divorce lawyer and the owner of an all-female law firm in the legal drama. Up next, Berry will be seen opposite Mark Wahlberg in Netflix’s action thriller The Union starting Aug. 16.
RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni BenDeLaCreme (she/her) and Jinkx Monsoon are embarking on a joint holiday tour, per a press release. “The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show” 2024 Tour will begin with Nov. 7 previews in Charlotte, North Carolina, followed by stops in Atlanta (Nov. 11), Dallas (Nov. 20), Philadelphia (Dec. 1), Chicago (Dec. 8), San Francisco (Dec. 18-19) and Portland (Dec. 29), among other cities. This marks the dynamic duo’s sixth live holiday-show production, following the five previous holiday tours and a cult-classic holiday film (The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Special in 2020). Since its inception, BenDeLaCreme and Monsoon have written a new holiday show every year and are the sole writers of the production.
Actor John Cena (Trainwreck; Peacemaker)—who many remember for being almost nude on stage at this year’s Oscars—announced his retirement from the wrestling ring, saying that next year’s WWE WrestleMania will be his last one, per NBC News. “The 2025 Royal Rumble will be my last,” Cena told a crowd in Toronto. “The 2025 Elimination Chamber will be my last. And I’m here tonight to announce that in Las Vegas, WrestleMania 2025 will be the last I compete in.” Toward the end of the speech, the audience chanted “Thank you, Cena,” which he called an “incredible gesture of kindness.”
Sharon Stone doubled down on comments about embattled actor Kevin Spacey, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen men since 2017. according to EW. “People are mad at me for that,” Stone told The Hollywood Reporter of her previous comments on the matter. “I said that after being in therapy for seven years, not being allowed to work, losing his home, losing everything, he should be allowed to come back. He’s reached out to everybody he’s offended and said he’s sorry.” She also said, ““Kevin grabbed people by their genitals. Many people. But nobody [has publicly said] he’s raped them or forced them into a sexual encounter. But there’s so much hatred for him because in his case it was man-on-man.” In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Stone clarified her comments: “I did not defend him and I am not defending him. … My observation is that this is because it is a man-on-man sex crime. And we have not been responsible at all for men-on-women sex crimes and that there must be a middle line.”
Mike Heslin—an out Los Angeles-based actor who starred in Lioness and The Holiday Proposal Plan—passed away on July 2 at age 30, per Out. “On July 2nd, my husband, best friend, and soulmate @mikeheslin passed away from an unexpected cardiac event after a week long battle in the hospital,” husband Scotty Dynamo (born Nicolas James Wilson) wrote in an Instagram post. “Michael was young, in perfect health, and the doctors have no explanation for what happened.” They had only been married for eight months.
On social media, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 star Amethyst has come out as trans, Out noted. In a letter, she stated, in part, “”The truth is, I’ve been struggling severely with my gender dysphoria more than ever in recent months. It’s something that I’ve always concealed in the back of my mind, and through the years has slowly crept its way to the front. … I knew what needed to be addressed but always told myself that I’ll get to it when I’m ready,” adding, “I wanted to let you all know that I’m trans and began HRT a little over a month ago.”
OMG Fashun host/actress Julia Fox seemingly came out as lesbian on July 8, per E! News. Fox was in relationships with men prior to coming out, as she married Peter Artemiev—with whom she shares 3-year-old son Valentino—in 2018, but their divorce was finalized in 2020. She also had a short-lived romance with Kanye West in 2022. “The only time he engages is when the camera is on us,” she wrote in her 2023 memoir, “when he will grab me and kiss me passionately.”
The manager of the rap-rock act Crazy Town said the cause of death for Seth Binzer (stage name: Shifty Shellshock) was an accidental drug overdose, Billboard noted. “Seth Binzer, after struggling with addiction and Crazy Town’s rapid success with ‘Butterfly,’ never was able to reach out on a more successful level to deal with his addictions,” Howie Hubberman told People Magazine. “We all tried, but ultimately we all failed, or Shifty would still be here.” On June 24, it was revealed that Shellshock died at home at age 49, per the Los Angeles County medical examiner.
Diplo is facing a civil lawsuit accusing him of posting “revenge porn” by sharing sexually-explicit videos and images of a former romantic partner without her consent, per Billboard. An unnamed Jane Doe accuser claimed that the DJ (real name Thomas Wesley Pentz) recorded their sexual encounters and shared the materials with others on Snapchat “without plaintiff’s knowledge or consent.” In an email to Billboard, the NYPD confirmed that a report had been filed and that there was an active investigation, but declined to comment on the claims of an arrest warrant. Diplo’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, strongly denied the new allegations by referencing earlier lawsuits against the DJ.