Adam Lambert and Jesus Christ Superstar composer Andrew Lloyd Webber will unveil a new studio recording of “Heaven on Their Minds,” the number that opens the musical, Variety noted. The release of the single will coincide with the opening date of a three-night production (Aug. 1-3) at the Hollywood Bowl that stars Lambert as Judas Iscariot—and Cynthia Erivo in the title role. Sergio Trujillo is the director and choreographer.
Fashion label Zero Waste Daniel announced an immersive store takeover and a limited-edition capsule collection as part of Disney Entertainment Television’s summer-long celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Emmy-winning series The Golden Girls, per a media release. The Brooklyn store’s 25-piece clothing capsule collection is gender-neutral, encompassing banana-leaf wallpaper, couch-cushion florals, cheesecake motifs and memorable one-liners—and there’s even a “St. Olaf 40” varsity jacket. The takeover will run July 31-Aug. 17.
LGBTQ+ folk-pop singer-songwriter Rachael Sage and her longtime band The Sequins have released their new single “Live It Up” from their upcoming full-length album Canopy, out later this year via MPress Records, per a press release. “With ‘Live It Up,’ I endeavored to write a neo-classic, pop-rock tune with a positive, hopeful message as a musical antidote for these tumultuous and divisive times.” Sage stated. “I wanted it to have the widest dynamics on my album Canopy and to also have a feel-good, uplifting ’70s-reminiscent sound encompassing themes of inclusivity, love and acceptance.”
Non-binary Tony winner Cole Escola (Oh, Mary!) is set to star opposite Melissa McCarthy in Margie Claus, an upcoming holiday musical comedy from Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, per Deadline. In the movie, Santa goes missing on Christmas Eve, with wife Margie assembling a ragtag team of long-retired reindeer to rescue Santa and save Christmas. Escola will portray Levi, Margie’s “right-hand elf.”
Mario Paglino and Gianni Grossi—a couple who were famous for collaborating with Mattel on custom Barbie dolls, including a Madonna-inspired doll—died in a car accident in Italy, Out noted. According to an Italian publication, the older man involved in the collision, Egidio Ceriano, 82, and the passenger in the couple’s car died. The Daily Beast also reported that Ceriano renewed his license in 2023 and was driving on the wrong side of the road for a little more than four miles. The couple owned a company called Magnia2000, where they created tribute dolls to icons like Cher, Victoria Beckham, Lady Gaga and Sarah Jessica Parker.
The Television Academy’s inaugural Televerse festival—a celebration of TV past and present that will roughly coincide with the start of the final round of Emmys voting—will include a 25th anniversary reunion of the creators and stars of the U.S. version of Queer As Folk, among other things, per The Hollywood Reporter. The festival, which will be open to TV Academy members and non-members, will run Aug. 14-16 at the JW Marriott at L.A. Live. Some of the other scheduled events include the premiere of the USA Network’s new legal thriller series The Rainmaker, adapted from the John Grisham novel; a 20th-anniversary reunion of the cast and creators of Bones; and “Scene by Scene with Tommy Schlamme,” with the director doing a deep dive into iconic scenes from his career.
A concert featuring queer Wicked star Cynthia Erivo at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) has been canceled due to scheduling conflicts—but a Grammy winner has stepped in, per New York Upstate. The event, “An Evening with Cynthia Erivo,” was part of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s three-week residency at SPAC, running Aug. 6–23. Laufey, a Grammy-winning jazz-pop artist who sold out concerts at SPAC and Rochester Jazz Fest last year, is scheduled to perform with this series on Saturday, Aug. 9. Also, Grammy- and Oscar-winning artist Jon Batiste will perform at SPAC on Aug. 22—the same day his new album, Big Money, is released. Tickets for Erivo’s concert will be automatically transferred to the Batiste performance; those who do not wish to attend have until Aug. 1 to request a refund.
While promoting the critically acclaimed and commercially successful film The Fantastic Four: First Steps, queer ally Pedro Pascal revealed his first celebrity crushes, Out noted. In an interview with Fotogramas, the actor and his MCU co-stars were asked about crushes. Pascal’s list included Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, Marlon Brando, Olivia Newton-John and Michelle Pfeiffer (as Catwoman in Batman Returns). When referencing Newton-John as an early celebrity crush, Pascal’s co-star and on-screen wife Vanessa Kirby not only agreed but also specifically referenced Newton-John wearing her “tight catsuit” in Grease.
British actress and staunch queer ally Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton) is leading the BAFTA-winning anthology series I Am’s fourth season, per Variety. Kate Winslet, Letitia Wright, Lesley Manville and Samantha Morton are among those who have starred in the series. I Am Helen (starring Coughlan) follows the success of three previous I Am series, exploring the personal experiences of women through what is described as “provocative, emotionally raw storytelling.”
HBO has renewed the show The Gilded Age—Julian Fellowes’ period drama that has emerged as a queer favorite—for a fourth season, per Deadline. The series, which leans into the New York theater community (e.g. Audra McDonald) for its wide-ranging ensemble cast, has been a word-of-mouth phenomenon. Besides McDonald, the season three cast includes Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Morgan Spector, Louisa Jacobson, Denée Benton, Taissa Farmiga, Harry Richardson, Claybourne Elder, Leslie Uggams and Merritt Wever, with Bill Camp and Phylicia Rashad, among others.
The American Civil Liberties Union announced that award-winning fashion designer Willy Chavarria will join the organization’s Artist Ambassador Program to advocate for immigrants’ rights and LGBTQ+ rights. Chavarria is a Mexican American and founder of the eponymous fashion label WILLY CHAVARRIA. Throughout his career, he has combined politics, race, and sexuality into his designs, using his platform to advocate and raise awareness for social-justice causes. His work with the ACLU ranged from his collaboration at New York Fashion Week with an ACLU-branded T-shirt to helping to launch Creatives for Freedom. In addition to his many awards, Chavarria was named to TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025 list; also, his namesake label garnered 2023 and 2024 CFDA Award nominations for menswear designer of the year.
HBO Max unveiled the official trailer for season two of Peacemaker, from DC Studios and Warner Bros. Television, during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) featuring James Gunn, John Cena (who plays the titular LGBTQ+ hero), Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma, Steve Agee, Frank Grillo, Tim Meadows and Sol Rodriguez, per a press release. The series, created for television by Gunn and starring Cena, returns for its eight-episode second season on Aug. 21. In season two, Peacemaker discovers an alternate world where life is everything he wishes it could be; however, this discovery also forces him to face his traumatic past and take the future into his own hands.
Out theater actor Conrad Ricamora announced that he is launching a scholarship fund for Asian American male actors, Playbill noted. He calls it “The Right to Be There” fund “for Asian American male actors pursuing a BFA or MFA in acting, and began the fund by donating $18,000; a GoFundMe page is here. The action was prompted, in part, when Andrew Barth Feldman was announced as the new lead of the Tony-winning musical Maybe Happy Ending; many artists of Asian descent expressed their disappointment at the casting decision on social media.
Queer Grammy-nominated artist/actor Omar Apollo has teamed with alt-pop trio Latin Mafia on a new cumbia single called “Hecho Para Ti” (“Made For You”), Variety noted. The Spanish-language single is co-produced by Tyler Spry (who contributed to Bad Bunny’s hit “DTMF”). The song was first performed live during Latin Mafia’s July 5 show at Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes, where they surprised fans with Apollo and the unreleased preview.
British songstress Sophie Ellis-Bextor (“Murder on the Dancefloor”) is sharing her new track “Dolce Vita” ahead of the release of her eighth studio album release, Perimenopop, on Sept. 12 via Casablanca Records, per a press release. Ellis-Bextor said, “‘Dolce Vita’ is inspired by the way you feel about yourself when you’re somewhere unfamiliar. You can reinvent yourself and no one knows your story. When I was writing it, I had this little subplot in my head of someone with a criminal past longing to flee and start again somewhere new! But it works too that it’s just the nostalgic pull of a foreign trip where you really got to escape for a little while.”
The New York Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that LGBTQ+ Food Network chef/host Anne Burrell died by suicide, per Variety, citing The New York Times. The examiner listed the cause of death as “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of diphenhydramine, ethanol, cetirizine and amphetamine.” Burrell, who hosted the Food Network‘s Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and co-hosted Worst Cooks in America, was discovered unconscious and unresponsive in her Brooklyn home on June 17; she was 55.
Queer stylist Law Roach revealed that his client, Zendaya, and actor Tom Holland are in no rush to get married, per Page Six. “The process hasn’t even started yet,” Roach told E! News. “Zendaya is working on so many movies. She’s now filming the next iteration of Dune, so she’s away doing that.” Roach, a judge during the current season of Project Runway, has been working with Zendaya since 2011.
Damon Evans—who portrayed Lionel Jefferson on the TV comedy classic The Jeffersons for three seasons—recently talked about being an out gay Black man, per The Advocate. He also talked about show lead Sherman Hemsley, saying, “There wouldn’t have been a Jeffersons without Sherman—and yet, even after 11 seasons, he was only nominated once for an Emmy.” Evans, who said he was at the Stonewall Riots of 1969, also claimed that Hensley (who never came out before passing away in 2021 at age 74) was also gay, saying, He was dating a Puerto Rican guy. They lived together. His boyfriend came to our tapings. They even did a lounge act in Vegas during hiatus. … We cruised the same places, went to the same parties. The same bars. But it wasn’t something we talked about.” In addition, “the show also had the first depiction of a Black trans character on network television,” Evans recounted, referring to the character played by cisgender actress Veronica Redd.
So far, eight men have accused gospel singer Michael Tait of sexual assault, per Out. After the first set of allegations from three men, Tait published a confession on Instagram in which he admitted that “recent reports of my reckless and destructive behavior, including drug and alcohol abuse and sexual activity, are sadly, largely true.” Jason Jones, the founding manager of Evanescence, told The Guardian that he was fired from the band after he spoke about his alleged encounter with Tait (which co-founder Ben Moody has denied). Jones has claimed that Tait would take him out drinking and smoking marijuana, confessing that he was “living a double life as a closeted gay man.”
Law & Order: Organized Crime actor Christopher Meloni is set to star in Hulu’s upcoming Dan Fogelman drama series that is set inside the world of the NFL, per Deadline. The untitled drama, from 20th Television and Skydance Sports, is written and executive-produced by This Is Us and Paradise creator Fogelman. Meloni will next be seen in the upcoming Netflix comedy film Little Brother with John Cena and Eric André.
Singer Justin Timberlake that he was dealing with Lyme disease throughout his Forget Tomorrow World Tour,, per Yahoo! On Instagram, the star shared images from his tour and wrote, “As I’m reflecting on the tour and festival tour—I want to tell you a little bit about what’s going on with me.” He continued, “If you’ve experienced this disease or know someone who has[,] then you’re aware: Living with this can be relentlessly debilitating, both mentally and physically.” According to the Mayo Clinic, Lyme disease is caused by borrelia bacteria, which is carried by some ticks; symptoms of the disease include rashes, body pain and stiffness, muscle weakness and immune-system issues.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) athlete Sean Strickland—who previously called transgender identity a “mental illness” and said he’d consider his son “weak” and himself as a “failure” if his son ever came out as gay—has been suspended indefinitely from competing, LGBTQ Nation noted. The Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended Strickland after the Tuff-N-Uff event on June 29 in Las Vegas in which he attacked another boxer, Luis Hernandez. Fox News host Jesse Watters and current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have praised Strickland In the past for his anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
Media mogul Tyler Perry doesn’t believe in financially supporting his family members just because he’s a billionaire—and he once fired his aunt from a job because she didn’t take it seriously, Page Six noted. On the YouTube series Den of Kings, Perry said he told her, “‘Listen, I want to help you. I want to help you build this thing, not be welfare to you. So, let me give you a job.’” However, he added that the aunt didn’t come in to work and constantly called off, prompting him to tell her “you gotta go.”