Dick Button—an entrepreneur and figure-skating commentator who won two Olympic gold medals (in 1948 and 1952) and five consecutive world championships—died in North Salem, New York, at age 95, the AP reported. The death of Button (who invented the flying camel spin) further shook a tight-knit figure-skating community already devastated from the collision of an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people, including 14 people from that community. “Dick Button is the custodian of the history of figure skating and its quintessential voice,” Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion, said in Button’s autobiography. “He made the words ‘lutz’ and ‘salchow’ part of our everyday vocabulary.” Button is survived by his longtime partner, Dennis Grimaldi; and his two children, Edward and Emily.
Tibet House US announced that out gay award-winning country music recording artist, songwriter and actor Orville Peck has joined the lineup for this year’s Annual Tibet House US Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall on March 3, per a press release. Peck will perform alongside Tune-Yards, the duo of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner. Previously announced performers include Laurie Anderson;legendary rocker Patti Smith; AG and Critics’ Choice Award winner and Golden Globe nominee Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear); African music icon Angélique Kidjo; and many more. Uma Thurman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Arden Wohl and Jonah Freeman will be the evening’s honorary chairs.
Queer comic Amber Ruffin will be the featured entertainer at the next White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, slated to take place April 26, per Deadline. “When I began to think about what entertainer would be a perfect fit for the dinner this year, Amber was immediately at the top of my list,” said Politico’s Eugene Daniels, who is president of the association. The big question is if President Donald Trump will attend the dinner, held at the Washington Hilton; he skipped the event in each of the four years of his term, but President Joe Biden attended. Ruffin appears on the comedy news series Have I Got News For You, is a writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers and wrote for HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show.
In celebration of Women’s History Month, queer icon Bitch announced co-headlining West Coast tour dates with the Bay Area “black dyke rock” legends Skip The Needle, according to a press release. Bitch will be fresh off an off-Broadway run of her one-woman show Bitchcraft, based on songs from her recent Kill Rock Stars album of the same name. The act Skip the Needle will be performing tracks off its newest EP, Wake Up Wake Up Wake Up, which will be released on Soulectric Records on March 7. Skip The Needle is an Oakland-based queer female quartet made up of Vicki Randle, Shelley Doty, Kofy Brown and Katie Cash. The Never Going Back Tour will make stops in Bellingham, Washington; Seattle; Portland; Baker City, Oregon; Santa Cruz, California; and Berkeley, California, all in early-to-mid March.
At this year’s Grammys, Lady Gaga expressed her support for the LGBTQ+ community after she and Bruno Mars won in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category for their song “Die with a Smile,” according to Deadline. “Trans people are not invisible,” she said. “Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up.” Lady Gaga has been one of the most vocal allies of the queer community throughout her career. Fellow singer and LGBTQ+ ally Madonna recently took to social media to call out President Donald Trump, saying on X, “It’s so sad to watch our new Government slowly dismantling all the Freedoms we have been fighting for and WON over the years. Don’t give up the Fight!”
An Associated Press reporter apologized after a mistake on the Grammys red carpet, USA Today noted. Leslie Ambriz, alongside Krysta Fauria, greeted Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds during AP’s live red carpet show by calling him a “legend.” However, when Ambriz asked Edmonds about the rising trend of artists, Fauria began screaming at Chappell Roan to get her attention. Edmonds then encouraged the reporters to chat with the “Pink Pony Club“ artist and handed back the microphone. “I’m so sorry,” Ambriz said.
Sandra Bernhard announced Shapes & Forms, a tour of her one-of-a-kind new live show for 2025, per a press release. Bernhard said, “When you find yourself back in the swing of things, you’ll arrive at my doorstep just in time to celebrate. Shapes & Forms is going to turn your world upside down with stories of recent dinners out east to exotic adventures around the globe, interwoven with the songs you’ve come to expect … and a million surprises. Kick off your Manolo’s, shimmy out of your Dior and drop by. Don’t worry, you’ll find a cozy spot somewhere.” Tour stops include Peeskill, New York (April 24); NYC (April 29-May 3); Minneapolis (June 12); and Chicago (at the Park West on June 14), among other cities.
The ninth annual Blue Jacket Fashion Show—which promotes prostate-cancer awareness—kicked off New York Fashion Week on, fittingly, World Cancer Day (Feb. 4), according to a press release. Among the celebrities making appearances were Bill Nye, Mario Cantone, J. Harrison Ghee, Don Lemon, Jeezy, Nigel Barker, Phillip Bloch, Wilson Cruz, Tamron Hall, Alex Lundqvist, NYC Council Member Erik Bottcher and Meredith Marks. Additionally, community members, event participants and guests were invited to get screened for prostate cancer with a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test provided by NYC’s Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among cisgender U.S. men.
LGBTQ+ WNBA veteran center Brittney Griner signed a one-year deal with the Atlanta Dream, ending her 11-season run with the Phoenix Mercury, per Gay City News. “So free agency has been everything I wanted it to be,” Griner said in an Instagram video. “I was able to find where I wanted to go. And honestly, what led me to that decision ultimately was the team, the players, as individuals, and then also my family.” Describing it as a “hard decision” to leave Phoenix, Griner acknowledged that there is an “exciting factor of, like, OK, this is a rebrand now. I get to show them something different.” It represents the first time Griner has switched WNBA teams in her career.
Beyoncé announced her Cowboy Carter Tour in support of her Renaissance: Act II project after initially delaying a planned news release Jan. 14 due to the Los Angeles wildfires, according to Deadline.The “Get Me Bodied” singer made the announcement via an Instagram video, which features a large neon sign flickering on the words “Cowboy Carter Tour” in all-caps. The tour announcement follows her energizing Christmas Day Halftime performance during Netflix’s streamed NFL game, held in Beyoncé’s hometown of Houston. (She will perform in Chicago’s Soldier Field on May 15 and 17.)
Emilia Pérez co-star Zoe Saldaña said she was “saddened” by trans star Karla Sofia Gascón’s resurfaced, racist tweets, adding that she “does not support” the actresses’ past statements, per TheWrap. “I’m still processing everything that has transpired in the last couple of days, and I’m sad,” Saldaña said during a Q&A in London. “It makes me really sad because I don’t support [it], and I don’t have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group. I can only attest to the experience that I had with each and every individual that was a part, that is a part, of this film, and my experience and my interactions with them was about inclusivity and collaboration and racial, cultural, and gender equity. And it just saddens me.”
The Trump administration fired back at Selena Gomez after the singer/Emilia Pérez actress shared (and shortly deleted) a tearful video in which she apologized for the deportation of undocumented immigrants in the United States, Yahoo! noted. The White House shared a video featuring mothers of children who were killed by undocumented people with the caption, “Their courageous mothers had something to say to @SelenaGomez and those who oppose securing our borders.” The video called Gomez’s character into question, baselessly implied she has no empathy for the victims and accused her of faking her reaction to the mass deportations. In her original video, Gomez discussed children and other innocent people being deported despite the Trump administration’s claim that the actions are targeted only at criminals.
Openly LGBTQ+ actor Dan Amboyer (TV’s Younger) and Tony nominee Elizabeth A. Davis (Once) will co-star in the off-Broadway Abingdon Theatre Company production Maybe Tomorrow, per a press release. The production will run at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres from March 15 through April 6. The plot is described thusly: “In Maybe Tomorrow, Gail and Ben’s nearly ten year relationship appears to be thriving: a new job, a new city, and a baby boy on the way. But as the challenges of reality come to light, they must navigate the complexities of a relationship tested by time. In desperate need of a break, Gail retreats to her pause room; the bathroom of their mobile home. As the outside world slowly slips away from her, we are left to wonder: was it ever there to begin with?”
Out LGBTQ+ musical icon Amy Ray (best known for being half of Indigo Girls) and her band are joining country artist Morgan Wade for a series of February dates across the States, a press release announced. (Wade had previously been in the news for befriending Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Kyle Richards.) The band will support Wade in Nashville, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. As half of Indigo Girls, Ray spent most of 2024 on the road on co-headline dates with Amos Lee and Melissa Etheridge, and the duo will be joining Etheridge for co-billed dates this fall.
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics announced key dates for the third annual Dorian Theater Awards, which will honor Broadway and off-Broadway productions of the 2024-25 season, a press release noted. Nominees for the 2025 Dorian Theater Awards will be unveiled Tuesday, May 13; winners will be revealed on Monday, June 2. To be eligible for the 2025 awards, Broadway productions must open by Sunday, April 27 while off-Broadway productions must open by Monday, March 31. Last year, the off-Broadway staging of Oh, Mary! and the Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along topped the Dorian Theater Awards, with each winning four prizes.
Sunrise Films, the new U.S. arm of Vertigo Release, is slated to release the coming-of-age queer romantic comedy Bonus Track on Cable VOD and Digital HD platforms on Feb. 11, per a press release. The feature debut from director Julia Jackman, and written by Mike Gilbert, Bonus Track was based on a story by Gilbert and Josh O’Connor (Challengers; La Chimera). The movie stars Joe Anders (1917) and Samuel Small (So Awkward); Bonus Track follows 16-year old budding musician George (Anders), who meets popular new student Max (Small), the son of a famous musical duo, when he enrolls in his class.
Out actor/entertainer Cheyenne Jackson is taking audiences on an intimate ride through his career and life with his Cheyenne Jackson: Signs of Life tour, Instinct noted. In the 2000s, after a series of understudy roles, Jackson landed his first leading role in All Shook Up, which earned him a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut. Beyond his Broadway credits—which include La Cage aux Folles and The Power of Two—Jackson also gained a following through his television roles on 30 Rock, American Horror Story and Glee. The tour will take him to the Brickbox Theater in Worcester, Massachusetts, on March 7.
Breaking Glass Pictures announced the North American release of B.O.Y. (Bruises of Yesterday), described as “a heart-wrenching and beautifully crafted LGBTQ+ coming-of-age drama from acclaimed Danish filmmaker Søren Green.” Currently available on major VOD platforms, the film stars Noa Risbro Hjerrild, Jens Jørn Spottag, Alexander Mayah Larsen, Bodil Jørgensen, Paw Henriksen and Iben Dorner. According to the logline, a 16-year-old boy spends the summer with his grandparents and falls in love with an older young man; when tragedy strikes, the boy spirals into a dark hole of self-harm, lust and loneliness.
A newly remastered version of Crocodile Dundee removes the notoriously transphobic scenes from the 1986 Australian classic, according to QNews. Just shy of the flick’s 40th anniversary, a 4K remastered version of the Paul Hogan film, titled Crocodile Dundee: The Encore Cut, premiered in Sydney. (The film will be re-released in theaters in May.) In the new version, two and a half minutes of footage have been excised, including a scene in which Paul Hogan’s Mick Dundee grabs a bar patron in the groin and says, “That was a guy, dressed up like a Sheila,” while someone else yells “f___t.” Production company Rimfire Films told Nine newspapers, “Some years ago, Paramount Pictures and other distributors requested the reference to the crossdresser [sic] be edited from the original film, as they found it offensive. We agreed to that request.” Hogan said he agrees with the cuts.
LGBTQ+ actor Tituss Burgess will take over the role of Mary Todd Lincoln in Cole Escola’s hit Broadway comedy Oh, Mary! for a limited engagement spanning March 18 through April 6, per Deadline. “Oh, Mary! blew me away when I saw it on Broadway,” Burgess, a six-time Emmy nominee, said in a statement. “Cole Escola is a genius. The show is fresh and impossibly funny. I understand the role of Mary Todd Lincoln maybe a little too well. I’m over the moon with joy that I get to join the company at The Lyceum Theatre.” He will be the third actor to play the role, following Escola, who created it, and Betty Gilpin, who’s currently in the show.
Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin and Samantha Morton have officially been recruited to join the new Christopher Nolan film Odyssey, AV Club noted. There aren’t yet any details on which gods or mortals each actor will be playing, but Odysseus visits a lot of people on his journey. Previously announced cast members include Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo and Benny Safdie. The film—which is supposed to debut a new type of IMAX technology—is currently slated to premiere July 17, 2026.
After the Canadian Screen Awards qualification theatrical run in Toronto last October, Rez Comedy—promoted as the first all-Indigenous stand-up comedy feature documentary—will premiere on SVOD on AAM.tv and TVOD on Amazon Prime on Friday, Feb. 14, according to a press release. The feature film is produced and co-directed by Keith Nahanee, rising Squamish nation comic and filmmaker, and Comedy Invasion creator Quentin Lee, a 2024 Canadian Screen Award winner. Among the performers are three members of the LGBTQ+ community: Janelle Niles (from Sipekne’katik First Nation, Nova Scotia), Andrea “Drea” Omer (from Saskatchewan) and Denise B. McLeod (from Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, north shore of Lake Huron, Ontario).
The film Twinless—starring Dylan O’Brien as twins (one straight, the other gay)—was pulled from Sundance’s streaming site due to piracy, according to Deadline. (It follows the award-winning documentary Selana y Los Dinos, which was pulled from the Sundance site after making its way on TikTok, etc.) Twinless won the Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic and a Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting for O’Brien. Sundance began streaming its lineup during the COVID pandemic, and continued the practice after the live edition returned in 2023.
When guests arrive at the 2025 Met Gala for “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”—the spring 2025 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute—they will hopefully have considered the dress code, announced on Feb. 4 as “Tailored for You,” according to Vogue. Per the Met, the dress code is a nod to the exhibition’s focus on menswear and is “purposefully designed to provide guidance and invite creative interpretation.” Composed of clothing, photographs, fine art, historical texts and artifacts, “Superfine”—a tribute to diversification—is the first Costume Institute exhibit to focus on menswear since 2003’s “Men in Skirts,” and was inspired by guest curator Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. According to the Met, the dress code is a nod to the exhibition’s focus on menswear and is “purposefully designed to provide guidance and invite creative interpretation.”
On Feb. 2, the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) hosted the 2025 Special Achievement Awards Luncheon honoring cinematic excellence at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, per a press release. Attendees included honorees Lynn Whitfield (Legacy Award), Brandon Wilson and Ethan Herisse (Next Gen Award), the film Nickel Boys and RaMell Ross (Karen & Stanley Kramer Social Justice Award), Amber Rasberry (Horizon Award) and Taura Stinson (Ascension Award). Presenters and special guests included Keith David, Deric Augustine, Kathryn Bostic and Kelly Rowland, along with AAFCA President and Founder Gil Robertson, who presided over the event.
More than two decades after Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended its seven-season run, the supernatural drama may be revived on Hulu, per Deadline. A followup series is nearing a pilot order from the streamer, with Sarah Michelle Gellar expected to star, reprising her signature role as Buffy Summers. Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, a self-professed lifelong Buffy fan, is set to direct the pilot. Buffy creator Joss Whedon, who also wrote the 1992 movie the series was based on, has no involvement in the reboot; he has not worked in Hollywood in any official capacity since facing misconduct allegations in 2021.
Rapper and LGBTQ+ ally NLE Choppa is commemorating Black History Month with the release of “Can We Live?,” a call to action against gun violence, per a press release. Out now via NLE Entertainment/Warner Records, the song anchors a series of new releases Choppa—who has 24 RIAA-certified plaques—will unveil weekly throughout February. The new single follows the momentum of Choppa’s collaboration with Imagine Dragons on “Dare U,” which has earned more than 12 million global streams.
The Grammy-nominated NYC electronic duo The Knocks and Canadian dance-pop diva Dragonette (aka Martina Sorbara) revealed the first installment of their collaboration journey entitled “Revelation,” per a press release. The collaboration is a follow-up to their 2019 Grammy-nominated single “Slow Song.” The campaign is set in a 1980’s corporate liminal space at the fictional company Revelation Technologies and the video stars RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Aquaria, who is the muse behind “Revelation.” Moreover, the collaboration will result in a full album being released this summer; the nine-track work, Revelation, will contain the title tune, a remake of “Let My Love Open the Door” and “Thorn,” among other songs.
In Blake Lively news that does not involve It Ends With Us, Conference and Festivals announced that SXSW 2025’s opening night film premiere will be the Amazon MGM Studios feature, Another Simple Favor—the sequel to A Simple Favor, which starred Lively and Anna Kendrick, per a press release. The sequel (also starring Lively and Kendrick) will launch globally on Prime Video May 1, and will make its world premiere at the festival on March 7 at the Paramount Theatre. The plot description is as follows: “Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) reunite on the beautiful island of Capri, Italy, for Emily’s extravagant wedding to a rich Italian businessman. Along with the glamorous guests, expect murder and betrayal to RSVP for a wedding with more twists and turns than the road from the Marina Grande to the Capri town square.”
Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Potomac season-nine reunion will begin Feb. 16, according to a press release. Housewives Gizelle Bryant, Ashley Darby, Dr. Wendy Osefo, Mia Thornton, Stacey Rusch and Keiarna Stewart, as well as friends Jacqueline Blake and Jassi Rideaux, will be present. A sneak peek is at this link: https://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-potomac/season-9/videos/your-first-look-at-the-real-housewives-of-potomac-0.
Rebecca Minkoff is leaving Bravo‘s The Real Housewives of New York City after one season, per Deadline. On Instagram, she stated, “2025 is a new beginning for me and with current events in the world, I am reminded of the importance of family, friends and community now more than ever.” Minkoff joined the franchise in season 15 as a recurring and not a full-time cast member; the entrepreneur seemed to struggle with confrontation, especially when her co-stars questioned her Scientology beliefs.
There are no new charges in the indictment that the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed against Sean “Diddy” Combs in his sex-trafficking case—but two new victims have been added to the New York case, which is scheduled to go to trial in May, according to Deadline. In addition to Victim-2 and Victim-3, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has extended the term of the racketeering charges from having started in 2008 to 2004. Arrested by the NYPD last Sept. 16, Combs is charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution; if Combs is found guilty, he is looking at life in prison.
Netflix announced that the upcoming second season of The Sandman will be the show’s last, per Deadline. The official announcement is the latest develop.m.ent amid sexual assault and misconduct allegations against Neil Gaiman, who created the comic on which the series is based and developed and executive-produces the series. Gaiman has denied the claims.