The United States Olympic & Paralympic Endowment presented honors at its annual awards ceremony on Dec. 6 at the New York Athletic Club in New York City—and among the honorees was out former Olympic skater Johnny Weir, per a press release. Weir—a two-time U.S. Olympian and three-time national champion—and close friend/co-commentator Tara Lipinski were recognized with the William E. Simon Award. Also, Cindy Parlow Cone and Brad Snyder were the recipients of the George M. Steinbrenner III Sport Leadership Award while Dr. David Weinstein was honored with the General Douglas MacArthur Award. On Instagram, Weir posted, “Tara and I share much of our lives with one another, and this moment was made all the sweeter because I got to stand next to my girl.” Past William E. Simon Award recipients include the late diplomat Henry Kissinger; former figure skaters Michelle Kwan and Scott Hamilton; ex-Olympic track-and-field stars Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Edwin Moses; and former gymnast Mary Lou Retton, among others.
Openly LGBTQ+ skater Amber Glenn (who identifies as pansexual) capped her breakout 2024 by earning the biggest title for a U.S. women’s singles figure skater since 2010 in taking the Grand Prix final, according to NBC Sports. Glenn, 25, won over the rest of the world’s top-ranked women. Glenn became the first U.S. woman since Alissa Czisny in 2010 to win the Grand Prix Final—the sport’s third-most prestigious event after the Olympics and World Championships. In winning, Glenn prevailed over Mone Chiba; three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto was third—her first defeat in top-level competition since the 2022 Grand Prix final. Also, U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin defended his men’s title while Madison Chock and Evan Bates claimed ice dance gold to make it a clean sweep for the United States on the closing day of competition in Grenoble, France, The Guardian noted.
Variety will honor two-time Oscar nominee, Tony, Grammy and Emmy winner, and Wicked star Cynthia Erivo at the 2025 Palm Springs Film Festival with its Creative Impact in Acting Award. The award will be given as part of Variety’s annual 10 Directors to Watch and Creative Impact Awards brunch on January 4. Grammy-winning singer and Wicked co-star Ariana Grande will present Erivo with the award. Erivo will be recognized for her performances in Harriet, Drift, Bad Times at the El Royale and Wicked.
Wicked was named the Best Film of 2024 by the National Board of Review, the oldest organization to give out film awards, per AwardsWatch. The organization also gave the film the directing prize for Jon M. Chu and the NBR Spotlight Award for the collaboration of stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Daniel Craig won Best Actor for Queer, and Nicole Kidman won Best Actress for Babygirl. In the supporting categories, Kieran Culkin won for A Real Pain and, in a big surprise, Elle Fanning was named Best Supporting Actress for her turn in the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.
American Cinema Editors (ACE) announced the nominations for the 75th Annual ACE Eddie Awards, recognizing outstanding editing in 14 categories of film, television and documentaries, per a press release. The winners will be announced live during the ACE Eddie Awards on Jan. 18, 2025 at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Wicked filmmaker Jon M. Chu will receive the ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award; film editors Maysie Hoy, ACE and Paul Hirsch, ACE will receive Career Achievement Awards for their outstanding contributions to film editing. Productions receiving nods included Emilia Pérez, Wicked, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Will & Harper, Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Baby Reindeer, Ripley, X-Men ’97 and Shogun, among others.
And Universal Pictures announced Christmas Day sing-along screenings of Wicked, as the box-office phenomenon continues its record-shattering theatrical run, a press release noted. More than 1,000 theaters throughout the United States, Canada and select international markets will host interactive sing-along screenings that will feature on-screen lyrics and a special introduction from stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. The sing-along screenings will be presented in standard format theaters, with most locations offering multiple showtimes on Dec. 25. For more information about showtimes and tickets, visit http://wickedmovie.com/singalong/. The film will continue to play in standard format at theaters nationwide.
Out issued its list of the 10 best LGBTQ+ movies of the year. The media outlet stated, “2024 will go down in history as one of the best years ever for queer film, with all the movies in this year’s top five being instant classics that we here at Out.com believe will stand the test of time and be seen as some of the best queer movies of the century.” Numbers 10 through six are occupied by (in order) Stress Positions, Queer, Mean Girls, Problemista and The People’s Joker, with Challengers snaring the top spot. Of the Luca Guadagningo-directed film, Out said, “Josh O’ Connor, Mike Faist, and Zendaya make up one of the sexiest love triangles ever on film in this movie that asks if there’s a difference between competition, sex, and brotherhood.”
Queer Moana 2 star Auliʻi Cravalho is Out’s latest cover star. Cravalho—who is also in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club on Broadway in the iconic role of Sally Bowles—talked about both of those roles in addition to having portrayed Janis in the latest Mean Girls film. In part, she said, “I realized that by simply being here, by being alive, by continuing to take on roles that challenge me, by continuing to date women, by being authentically myself, that that alone inspires people to do the same—which, as a 24-year-old, is crazy, by the way, but it’s also like what a blessing. What a strange time to be alive.”
Broadway star Laura Benanti recently told Eric Williams on his That’s a Gay Ass Podcast that she never liked her She Loves Me co-star, actor Zachary Levi (Shazam!), per The Hollywood Reporter. Benanti said, in part, “Everyone was like, ‘He’s so great!’ And I was like, ‘No, he’s not. He’s sucking up all the fucking energy in this room. He wants to mansplain everybody’s part to them.’” And Benanti also resents Levi for what he said about Gavin Creel passing from a “turbo cancer” that was a result of the COVID-19 vaccine. Benanti said, “To use [Creel’s] memory for his political agenda and to watch him try to make himself cry until he had one single tear, which he did not wipe away, I was like, ‘Fuck you forever.’”
R&B singer and LGBTQ+ ally Tank talked about homophobia and spirituality on an episode of the Holdin Court podcast, Out noted. “There’s something about Black men and the homosexual conversation that is a mess,” Tank said. “The phobia as it relates to Black men is the elephant in the room. No one will actually articulate their devastation. You have to think, for a Black man the worst thing to be called is gay. The first thing somebody’s gonna allude to whether you are gay or not, when they’re trying to assassinate your character or get off the highest joke imaginable, they’re going gay first.” Also, Tank dispelled the supposed “gay agenda” argument by saying, “I’ve never seen anything that made me say, ‘Oh, wow—I wanna be gay. I’m inspired to be gay because I saw that outfit.'”
In an interview with The Times, Tom Ford, who was just honored with the Outstanding Achievement Award at the 2024 Fashion Awards, talked about wanting to adapt Anne Rice‘s novel Cry to Heaven, according to Instinct Magazine. Ford—who has made films like A Single Man (2009) and Nocturnal Animals (2015)—said “I met with [Rice] in New Orleans before she died [in 2021] and I’ve drafted the screenplay.” The premise of the book reads, “Taking place in 18th-century Italy, it follows the paths of two unlikely collaborators—a Venetian noble and a maestro castrato from Calabria—both trying to succeed in the world of the opera.” When Ford received the Outstanding Achievement Award from Vogue editor Anna Wintour, she described his life’s purpose as “raising his son Jack.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race officially revealed the 14 new drag queen contestants who will vie for the $200,000 grand prize when the show debuts its 17th season on Jan. 3 on MTV, per Variety. The show will premiere with the competitors showing off their skills in the annual talent show; they will also continue the “Rate-A-Queen” system introduced last season, but with an unspecified “all-new twist,” MTV stated in a press release. The season-17 queens include Acacia Forgot, Arrietty, Crystal Envy, Hormona Lisa, Jewels Sparkles, Joella, Kori King, Lana Ja’Rae, Lexi Love, Lucky Starzzz, Lydia B Kollins, Onya Nurve, Sam Star and Suzie Toot.
Also, MTV announced the star-studded lineup of guest judges who will join Emmy-winning host RuPaul and mainstay judges Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley, Ross Mathews and Ts Madison for the 17th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, per a press release. The network also released the trailer for the upcoming season, featuring global pop star Katy Perry as the premiere guest judge airing on Friday, Jan. 3. Other guest judges include Doechii, Sandra Bernhard, Julia Schlaepfer, Paul W. Downs, Hunter Schafer, Quinta Brunson, Jamal Sims, Law Roach, Adam Lambert, Betsey Johnson, Whitney Cummings, Sam Smith, Jerrod Carmichael, June Diane Raphael and Tracee Ellis Ross. Also, there will be a new twist—The Badonka Dunk Tank—that can save competitors from elimination.
Jacques Audiard’s trans-centered movie Emilia Pérez dominated the European Film Awards in Lucerne, Switzerland, taking Best Film, Actress, Screenplay and Director, according to Deadline. The Netflix crime drama won all four of its nominations. (Audiard’s work came into this evening tied with Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Next Door for the most noms.) Flow won for best animated film and the Palestinian-Israeli film No Other Land took the Best Documentary prize; Isabella Rossellini was honored with the European Achievement in World Cinema award.
And speaking of Emilia Pérez, co-star Selena Gomez defended herself from actor Eugenio Derbez‘s criticism of her work in the movie, per Deadline. Derbez was a guest on the Hablando de Cine podcast, and he said that Gomez’s acting was “indefensible.” Gomez is not fluent in Spanish but, in the film, she speaks that language—something that Derbez didn’t think was right. On social media, Gomez responded by posting, “I understand where you are coming from. I’m sorry; I did the best I could with the time I was given. Doesn’t take away from how much work and heart I put into this movie.”
Pride ran an article titled “Golden Age of Hollywood stars you probably didn’t know were LGBTQ+,” although the jury is out on some of them. The list included such people as Marlene Dietrich (who was romantically linked with Edith Piaf and Greta Garbo); Cesar Romero, who was best known for playing the Joker in the ‘60s Batman TV series; Joan Crawford, who reportedly had affairs with Barbara Stanwyck and Marilyn Monroe; Rock Hudson, whose story was even included in Ryan Murphy’s 2020 Netflix series Hollywood; bisexual actress/socialist Tallulah Bankhead; Robert Reed, who portrayed the dad on the TV show The Brady Bunch; James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause); and iconic actor Marlon Brando, among others.
LGBTQ+ singer/actress Halsey is currently developing a dark comedy TV series at Amazon Prime Video, per Variety. She/they will be the creator, writer and executive producer of Bloodlust for Amazon but is not going to star in the show. The series would reunite Halsey and director/executive producer Ti West, who recently wrote, directed and produced the horror feature MaXXXine—the third film in the X film series, with Halsey appearing in the role of Tabby Martin.
Taylor Swift‘s 159-date Eras Tour went into the record books as pop history’s first $2 billion tour, Variety noted. The official tally for the 21-month stadium run is a gross of $2,077,618,725, based on a total sold-out attendance of 10,168,008. That $2 billion number is about double the previous figure for a tour gross. The average initial-point-of-sale price for a ticket to the Eras Tour was $204; the average price on the secondary market, meanwhile, was more than 10 times that—$2,952 per ticket. The only other tour that has officially crossed the $1 billion mark is Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour, which spanned two-and-a-half years.
Trans actor Elliot Page said he regrets making a homophobic joke in the beloved 2007 comedy Juno, per PinkNews. Page played the title character, the teenager at the center of the film, while Jennifer Garner played Vanessa, a woman who is desperate to adopt Juno’s baby; JK Simmons played Mac, Juno’s father. Reflecting on the outrage that a joke about the name Madison sounding “a little gay” caused among the LGBTQ+ community, Page told Bustle that it “’wasn’t something I totally registered at the time. Of course, now that I’m older, [it does register]. So many movies I loved as a kid are just rampant with homophobia and transphobia and biphobia, and I’m not excusing it by any means.”
From Crave, World of Wonder and Blue Ant Studios, the new, six-episode Crave Original series Slaycation will be available for a New Year’s Eve, stay-at-home binge-watch, on WOW Presents Plus on Tuesday, Dec. 31, per a press release. The show follows six larger-than-life queens from across the international Drag Race family—BOA, Jada Shada Hudson, Kandy Muse, Kerri Colby, Lawrence Chaney and Luxx Noir London—as they vacation together at a Canadian winter cabin.
Nadia Hallgren, who directed the Michelle Obama doc Becoming, is helming Victoria Beckham‘s upcoming Netflix documentary, per Variety. The still-untitled series, which started production in August, will follow Beckham’s journey from Spice Girls superstardom in the ‘90s to modern fashion designer. The project follows hot on the heels of David Beckham’s Fisher Stevens-directed Netflix docuseries Beckham,”which launched last year to critical acclaim and received five Emmy nominations.
While speaking with Time magazine—which selected him as its 2024 Icon of the Year—Sir Elton John opened up about his past drug use and expressed his strong opinions against the legalization of marijuana in the U.S. and Canada, Variety noted. “I maintain that it’s addictive. It leads to other drugs,” John said. “And when you’re stoned—and I’ve been stoned—you don’t think normally. Legalizing marijuana in America and Canada is one of the greatest mistakes of all time.” John has helped several other artists recover from their addictions since going sober himself, including Eminem and Robbie Williams, although Time also pointed out that he couldn’t help George Michael.
Warner Bros. Pictures’ Joker: Folie À Deux will make its global streaming debut on Dec. 13 exclusively on Max, and will debut on HBO linear the following evening, per a press release. Joaquin Phoenix stars once again in his Oscar®-winning dual role as Arthur Fleck/Joker, opposite Oscar winner Lady Gaga. The film finds Arthur Fleck institutionalized at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that’s always been inside him. According to Variety, the movie was a box-office flop and, at one point, was expected to lose $150 million to $200 million.
Chris Evans is coming back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Avengers: Doomsday, according to Deadline. The role isn’t entirely clear, as Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson character will also return as Captain America; however, Evans may reprise the Steve Rogers character. Evans was last seen as Rogers in Avengers: Endgame. The new Fantastic Four of Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Vanessa Kirby and Ebon Moss-Bachrach are also set to star in Avengers: Doomsday.
Real-estate agent Nikko Santo Pietro—who also happens to be Vanna White’s son—discussed his recent viral appearance in an Instagram cooking video with mom and fans thirsting over him, Just Jared noted. “People see me as this heartthrob and they’re thirsty for me and all this stuff,” Santo Pietro said. “I love it all, but at the same time, it’s really good to remember the meaningful things in life and just kind of dial it back, doing a lot of charity work, working hard every day.” Also, he has a girlfriend, Easae, although he once had a relationship with a Hare Krishna monk named Jaycee Akinsanya, according to Out.