Netflix has set a new six-part limited series based on the Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice with non-binary actor Emma Corrin (Nosferatu; Deadpool & Wolverine), Jack Lowden (Slow Horses) and Oscar winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite; The Crown) to tackle the well-known literary characters of Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy and Mrs. Bennet, respectively, according to Deadline.
In a statement, Corrin said, “Playing Elizabeth Bennet is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To be able to bring this iconic character to life, alongside Olivia and Jack, with Dolly’s phenomenal scripts, is truly the greatest honor. I can’t wait for a new generation to fall in love with this story all over again.”
Out gay actor Wilson Cruz angrily responded to a comment that fellow actor Terrence Howard (Crash; TV’s Empire) made, per Queerty. On the PBD podcast, Howard said, among other things, that he refused to play gay roles: “I’ve lost businesses because I don’t bend over in that way. I don’t compromise. I don’t play gay roles. I don’t kiss a man. I don’t do that s**t because the man card means everything.” Cruz reshared a video of Howard on PBD and said, “He sure did talk a different talk and act in a different way when it came to working with me in the 90’s. Loved my work, loved my choices, etc. … The truth is no one wants to work with his tired a**, anyway, due to his ego and lack of work ethic. So. quite literally, go f*ck yourself. You are the sellout here.”
Rapper Lil Nas X required a visit to the hospital—and the hitmaker posted a video to his Instagram account letting people know that he was experiencing facial paralysis, Queerty noted. “I can’t even laugh right, bro. What the f–k?,” he stated in the video. Many social-media users speculated that it looks like a classic case of Bell’s Palsy. The cause of the palsy is unknown but viral infections or autoimmune conditions can contribute toward the condition developing. In 2022, Justin Bieber experienced facial paralysis; however, further tests revealed it to be Ramsay Hunt syndrome—the reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus (shingles and chickenpox virus) in a facial nerve.
Music legend Barry Manilow said he was insulted that there wasn’t a bigger deal made after he came out in 2017 at age 73, The New York Post noted. “You know, it was a non-event,” the Brooklyn-born singer, 81, exclusively told The Post. “I was kind of insulted. I thought it was gonna be a big deal.” However, Manilow said his fans were not really surprised. “At that point, they all knew immediately,” he said. “They liked my music, they liked me. And they were happy that I had somebody to come home to [Garry Kief, Manilow’s husband and manager].”
NewFest and Frameline—the two largest LGBTQ+ film festivals in the country—jointly announced that Jimpa will be the opening-night film for the 2025 editions of NewFest Pride and Frameline49, the 49th San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, on Thursday, May 29, and Wed., June 18, respectively, a press release noted. Directed by Sophie Hyde and starring award-winning actors Olivia Colman and John Lithgow, the drama made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this past January. Jimpa follows filmmaker Hannah (Colman), who takes her trans non-binary teenager Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde) to Amsterdam to visit their gay grandfather—lovingly known as “Jimpa” (Lithgow).
Actor Matt Bomer (Mid-Century Modern), while on Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast Dinner’s on Me, talked about how “unfair” it was for outlets to speak about his sexuality before he had a chance to address it earlier in his career, according to Them. Bomer said that outlets started to talk about his sexuality shortly after he gained mainstream recognition, even though he “never did” hide his sexuality from people he knew. “I remember outlets like Perez Hilton and things, talking about my personal life before I even had a chance to do it myself,” Bomer stated, adding that if he were denied work after being outed, he would have been fine because of his supportive family.
Warner Bros has set plans to remake The Bodyguard, the 1992 romantic drama thriller that teamed superstars Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, Deadline noted. The studio, which released the original, has set Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour director Sam Wrench to helm the project. The original plot centered on Costner’s former Secret Service agent Frank Farmer, who takes a job as bodyguard to famous R&B star Rachel Marron, played by Houston at the height of her pop-star fame.
And in another ‘90s twist, a Clueless TV series with original lead actress Alicia Silverstone attached to star and executive-produce has landed at Peacock for development, also per Deadline. It is written and executive-produced by the Gossip Girl duo of Josh Shwartz and Stephanie Savage of Fake Empire as well as Dollface creator Jordan Weiss, with the 1995 movie’s writer-director Amy Heckerling and producer Robert Lawrence also executive-producing. The Clueless movie (and 1996 series)—loosely adapted from Jane Austen’s 1815 novel Emma—chronicled the adventures of Cher Horowitz, a stylish, wealthy and popular California girl who attends Bronson Alcott High.
TV personality Ross Mathews (RuPaul’s Drag Race; The Drew Barrymore Show) and his husband, Dr. Wellinthon García-Mathews (an educational leader and advocate for inclusive learning), released their debut picture book, TÍO & TÍO: The Ringbearers (and in Spanish as TÍO Y TÍO) as they venture into the world of children’s literature, Instinct noted. Inspired by their own wedding in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Mathews and García-Mathews’ book follows two young brothers, Evan and Andy, as they take on the important responsibility of being ring bearers for their uncles’ wedding.
Cate Blanchett—the two-time Oscar winner who has done queer films such as Tar and Carol—said that she is “giving up” acting to do other things “with [her] life,” The Guardian noted. In an interview with Radio Times, Blanchett suggested she was uncertain over calling herself an “actress,” saying, “It’s because I’m giving up.” Blanchett was speaking as BBC Radio 4 prepared to air her first major radio play, an adaptation of Wallace Shawn’s play The Fever, which is about a woman who undergoes a political and spiritual awakening. Her most recent major film role—opposite Michael Fassbender as a married spy in the Steven Soderbergh-directed thriller Black Bag—was released in March.
Rosie O’Donnell told The New York Times about her unlikely relationship with convicted killer Lyle Menendez, per Us Magazine. “He started calling me on a regular basis from the tablet phone thing they have,” O’Donnell said. “He would tell me about his life, what he’s been doing in prison and, for the first time in my life, I felt safe enough to trust and be vulnerable and love a straight man.” In 1996, while on Larry King Live, O’Donnell told host Larry King that she believed the brother’s defense—that they had been abused and molested as children by their parents, and their decision to kill their parents was an act of self-defense. Shortly after that appearance, O’Donnell received a letter from Lyle. It wasn’t until she saw a 2022 documentary about the brothers and discussed their case on TikTok that she reconnected and established consistent contact with Lyle.
Following its North American debut during the sold-out Hit Me Hard And Soft: The Tour, Billie Eilish and Support+Feed will announce the fourth and fifth sessions of Overheated, set to take place in Berlin at the Festsaal Kreuzberg on May 9 as well as London at indigo at The O2 on July 14, per a press release. Overheated will bring together climate activists, music fans and others for two days filled with discussion, community building and resources to help tackle the climate crisis. The events will be streamed globally via Eilish’s Official YouTube Channel.
The festival All Things Go (ATG) 2025 has released its D.C. lineup, per a press release. Headliners will include Noah Kahan, Doechii (performing her first-ever festival headline show), Lucy Dacus, Clairo, Kesha and The Marías, with Joy Oladokun, Paris Paloma, Lola Young and Hippo Campus among the many other acts. Set for Sept. 26-28, the festival returns to the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. The fan pre-sale is set for Thursday, April 17, at 10am; and the public sale is Friday, April 18; visit this link. The lineup announcement for ATG Festival 2025 in New York at Forest Hills Stadium will be announced soon.
British artist/filmmaker Sir Isaac Julien’s first-ever exhibition at a U.S. museum is “I Dream a World,” which opened April 12 at San Francisco’s de Young Museum, per Queerty. Titled after Langston Hughes’ famous poem, the exhibition features 10 major video installations from 1990 to 2022, including Looking For Langston, a black-and-white meditation on the Harlem Renaissance and Black queer desire; and This Is Not an AIDS Advertisement, a response to the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s. A website description reads, “The works’ themes range from global migration to the collection and appropriation of African artists and art by Western museums to the celebration of cultural figures who overcame racial oppression. Shot across Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas, and Asia, Julien’s works untangle the complex web of post-colonial conditions that has shaped the lives of individuals and societies across the globe.”
The experience of being on a predominantly queer set for the rom-com The Wedding Banquet—a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 queer cult classic from Fire Island director Andrew Ahn—led to a watershed moment for star Kelly Marie Tran once filming came to an end: a public coming-out, according to EW. “I didn’t really mean to come out initially,” Tran told EW. “Basically, this reporter from Vanity Fair, David Canfield, came to [the] set when we were shooting the Korean wedding scene, and the first question he asked me was, ‘What are you the most excited about in regards to this project?’ And I said, ‘I’m so excited to tell a queer story as a queer person.’” Fortunately, Canfield, a former EW staffer, worked with Tran to decide what to do next. Tran portrays Angela, a young woman who, alongside her partner Lee (Lily Gladstone), has been in the midst of a series of unsuccessful and costly IVF treatments as they try to start a family.
Daniel Kyri and Jake Lockett will not be returning to NBC’s Chicago Fire if the show comes back for a 14th season, Deadline noted. As a cost-saving measure, the Chicago and Law & Order franchises, two years ago, reduced the number of episodes for most longtime cast members; Kyri’s and Lockett’s departures are believed to be part of an effort to trim the show’s budget. Kyri—a former Windy City Times 30 Under 30 honoree—joined Chicago Fire in season seven as Firefighter Darren Ritter in a recurring role before getting promoted to the main cast two seasons later; the recent focus of the character has been around his love life, with seasons 12 and 13 delving into his relationship with Officer Dwayne Monroe.
My First Ex-Husband—the show from comic and The View co-host Joy Behar that began previews Jan. 29 at the newly renovated MMAC Theater—will play its final performance off-Broadway on May 18, Playbill noted. Behar will also appear in special Wednesday matinees April 30 (joined by her View co-host Whoopi Goldberg), May 7 and May 14. A national tour is also expected to begin this summer with details to be announced. In the 90-minute series of monologues, the actors “reveal riveting true stories, which will shock, thrill, titillate, and ultimately tug at your heart strings,” according to press notes. “In the world of the play, you’ll meet women married to the mob, to their jobs, to their faith, to money, and ultimately to the wrong man.”
The Broadway musical Death Becomes Her, currently running at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, digitally released an original Broadway cast recording via Concord Theatricals Recordings on April 17, per Playbill. Directed and choreographed by Tony winner Christopher Gattelli, the cast is led by Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard, co-starring Christopher Sieber and Michelle Williams. Death opened Nov. 21, 2024.
On the podcast Boyfriend Material (hosted by reality-TV figure Harry Jowsey), Bob The Drag Queen said he’s pretty much done with RuPaul’s Drag Race, according to Them. When the host asked the drag performer if he would ever appear on the show again, Bob—who won season eight—responded, “I think I’m good.” The drag figure added, “I mean, I won already. Also, going on All Stars is, no shade, … for losers.” Although Bob did acknowledge that there was once an all-winners season of Drag Race: All Stars, he said he wasn’t invited, but that “in their defense, I was busy.” (However, in a 2022 episode of her podcast with Monét X Change, Bob said, “I want everyone to know I was not busy. I literally just did not get a call,” according to Out.)
Netflix and Jennifer Lopez are building on their strong partnership for the superstar’s next project, as Oscar winner Robert Zemeckis has come on to direct her in an adaptation of The Last Mrs. Parrish, Deadline noted. Based on the Liv Constantine novel, the story follows a con artist (Lopez) who targets a wealthy couple—the Parrishes—as her next victims. She befriends the wife and seduces the husband, with the master plan of becoming the next Mrs. Parrish—but there are complications. Lopez has been working with prolific directors as of late, including Bill Condon, who directed her movie Kiss of the Spider Woman, which will be released this fall.
Comedian Nate Bargatze will host the 77th Emmy Awards on CBS on Sept. 14, per Deadline. Bargatze’s comedy shows sold more than 1.2 million tickets around the world last year and he hosted SNL for the second time last fall. Emmy noms will be announced by the Television Academy on Tuesday, July 15 and will stream live at 8:30 a.m. PT on Emmys.com. The Emmys will be preceded by the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sept. 6-7.
Out actor Jai Rodriguez is returning to daytime TV for a guest role on The Young and the Restless playing Pietro, “a successful and sought-out party planner to the movers and shakers in Genoa City,” Queerty noted. Rodriguez is a soap veteran, having appeared on All My Children in 1993 and Days of Our Lives in 2012. Rodriguez will appear in four episodes, with the first airing on May 28.
Veteran actor Eric Dane (Euphoria; Grey’s Anatomy) announced that he has ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), Deadline noted. Dane, 52, made the revelations in an interview with People, and said that he will continue working. According to the Mayo Clinic, ALS “is a nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. ALS causes loss of muscle control. The disease gets worse over time.” Season three of HBO’s Euphoria went into production in early February after long delays; Dane stars as Cal Jacobs, father to Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi), on the show. He was set to go into production on April 14, according to People.
Tennis icon Serena Williams is set to executive-produce the Netflix series adaptation of Carrie Soto Is Back—Taylor Jenkins Reid’s tennis-themed best-selling novel, according to Deadline. The book focuses on the title character, who makes a decision (at age 37) to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim a record. The TV series adaptation also is expected to be loosely inspired by Williams’ story.
On the season-six finale of The Kardashians, Khloe Kardashian said that she would end her celibacy for renowned British hairstylist Chris Appleton—who happens to be gay, per Page Six. “I don’t know if he would f–k me!,” she said, laughing. “But I would f–k him.” She has been single since ending her on-and-off relationship with Tristan Thompson in late 2021. Appleton married and divorced actor Lukas Gage in 2023.
Texas Christian University (TCU) women’s basketball player Sedona Prince was not picked in the televised WNBA draft as she faces various charges of abuse from several former partners, according to Them, citing ESPN. In January, both the 6’7” Prince and an ex-girlfriend filed police reports alleging assault, though neither were charged with a crime. Last year, Olivia Stabile, another ex of Prince, posted TikTok videos in which she alleged that Prince hit her, pushed her off a moving ATV and abandoned her in the jungle in the middle of the night while they were on a trip together in Mexico. Front Office Sports noted that at least two other women have accused Prince of violence or abuse since 2019. Prince has denied all allegations.
On the UK edition of the show Celebrity Big Brother, Mickey Rourke was kicked off the show by producers after an “unacceptable” run-in with fellow cast member Chris Hughes, The Independent noted. The controversy began with Rourke “ogled” the reality show’s co-host AJ Odudu upon his entrance, which had caused viewers to call for the 9 1/2 Weeks actor to be axed from the series. Earlier in the series, Rourke apologized to queer contestant JoJo Siwa after making homophobic comments. After Rourke’s eviction, former Tory MP Michael Fabricant—another LGBTQ+ contestant, and the first to be eliminated—posted, “He wanted to leave on Day One!” Missing Danny, Jack, Donna, Jo Jo and nearly all of the others. I WANT TO GO BACK IN!!,” according to Yahoo! News.