Sunday Sauce—a new short film starring Oscar nominee Cathy Moriarty (Raging Bull)—has been officially selected for the 2025 Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival, per a press release. The 14-minute LGBTQ+work, directed by and co-starring Matt Campanella, “takes audiences on a rollercoaster of humor, body horror, and heart to explore the messy collision of identity and inheritance,” the release noted. “Set over the course of one pressure-cooked Sunday dinner, the film follows Gino, a middle-aged man navigating the rituals, expectations, and landmines of his Italian-American family.” TV veteran Matthew Risch, Nicole Ehinger and Vincenza Campanella, the director’s real-life nonna, co-star. The 21st annual festival runs Aug. 7-17.
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics announced that former Pride Media CEO Diane Anderson-Minshall has been named executive director, alongside a new board of directors, MSN noted. Anderson-Minshall is set to be the first woman to lead the LGBTQ+ journalism organization. Alongside Anderson-Minshall’s new role, founder John Griffiths—who launched GALECA in 2009—will step back from day-to-day operations. The 2025-2027 board of directors will include Pulitzer Prize winner Walter Hickey returning for his last term as president; author/journalist Gerrick Kennedy joining as vice president; Looper writer and actor Reuben Baron as treasurer; Asian Movie Pulse’s Grace Han returning for last term as secretary; international journalist Triston Brewer returning as diversity director; Jorgie Rodriguez joining as membership director; and culture writer Shelli Nicole serving as outreach and social media director.
Cher will release her classic concert album, The Farewell Tour, on 2-LP vinyl and streaming platforms for the first time ever on Sept. 26 via Warner Records, a press release noted. (The exclusive physical edition will be pressed on hot pink and purple 2-LP vinyl.) The newly remastered collection features three tracks—“Save Up All Your Tears,” “We All Sleep Alone” and “Different Kind of Love Song”—that were previously only included on the Emmy-winning special and multiplatinum concert film Live! The Farewell Tour. Some of the other songs on the new album include “Dark Lady,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “After All,” “Strong Enough,” “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” and, of course, “Believe.”
The Gayming Foundation recently launched with the goal of supporting those who identify as LGBTQ+ within the gaming industry, per Bleeding Cool News. This new 501(c)(3) organization has the goal of uplifting and empowering those individuals to effect change. Based on research findings where 27% of workers identified as LGBTQ+, there are an estimated 72,000 LGBTQ+ games industry workers in the United States alone; this figure does not take into account individual solo developers so this figure could be significantly higher.
BC Ventures creator/CEO Brian Christopher warned that a recent launch from Wicked Games is damaging to any platform directly or indirectly associated with it, per iGaming Expert. The game Transformers—which Christopher described as a deeply misguided attempt to be clever and irreverent—features a masculine weightlifter dressed in women’s clothes and has many anti-trans symbols; it also has a mystery symbol in which pink lingerie drops to reveal blurred out genitalia. When asked about the game, Wicked Games CEO Igor Samardziski said that he doesn’t believe the criticism is a fair assessment that the game is an attack on the LGBTQ+ community.
Out rapper Lil Nas X and queer singer Chappell Roan are featured on EA Sports’ football game Madden 26, which has 77 songs on it, per Sports Illustrated. Lil Nas X’s “HOTBOX” and Roan’s “HOT TO GO!” are part of the soundtrack, along with tunes like Aitch’s “Bounce,” Rizzo’s “Happy 2 Be,” Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” Flo Rida with Kesha’s “Right Round,” Wolfmother’s “Joker and the Thief,” Run DMC’s “It’s Tricky” and many other songs. Early access to the game is now available.
Taylor Swift announced the title of her 12th studio album—The Life of a Showgirl—during her soon-to-be-released appearance on her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast, Page Six revealed. The announcement was met with a scream from Travis’ brother, former NFL player Jason Kelce. The announcement came after she purchased back her masters to her first six studio albums—Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation—in May. Without Swift’s permission, Scooter Braun notoriously purchased the rights to the pop star’s first six albums for $300 million in 2019 before Shamrock Capital acquired them a year later. The newest album will be released worldwide at 12:01 a.m. ET on Oct. 3, MCA noted.
Beyoncé has her first Primetime Emmy—winning as a costume designer for her Netflix special Beyoncé Bowl in the category of outstanding costumes for variety, nonfiction or reality programming, Billboard noted. These juried awards will be presented at the 77th Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which will take place at the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live over two nights: Sept. 6 and 13. Beyoncé (who has won 35 Grammys) is also nominated in two other categories for Beyoncé Bowl—outstanding variety special (live) (as performer/executive producer) and outstanding directing for a variety special (with Alex Rudzinski).
Modern Family star Aubrey Anderson-Emmons—who, under the name Florence Anderson, has released her first EP, Drown—recently talked with Them. Regarding her revealing her sexuality she said, “I didn’t even mean to come out, I just thought the video was really fun. I just thought it was kind of funny. And I was like, ‘People will find this funny.’ And, indeed, they did but I didn’t even think of it as, ‘Oh, I’m coming out to the world as bisexual, this [is a brave thing] that I’m doing,’ because it shouldn’t have to be something. It shouldn’t have to be a moment of bravery to come out because it should just be normalized.”
The decision to replace lead Maybe Happy Ending actor Darren Criss with Andrew Barth Feldman has continued to provoke responses throughout the theater community, Playbill noted. An open letter written by queer Tony winner BD Wong has been signed by more than 2,400 people—many of them theater artists, including two-time Tony winner Donna Murphy, Golden Globe winner Awkwafina, Bowen Yang, Ann Harada, Jose Llana, Anthony Rapp, Telly Leung and Leigh Silverman. Currently in Maybe Happy Ending, Criss plays Oliver, a humanoid robot living in South Korea. The role has historically been played by actors of Asian descent; Criss has Filipino heritage and, in winning a Tony for his performance in the show, he was the first Asian American actor to win Lead Actor in a Musical. The role of Oliver will be played by Andrew Barth Feldman, who is white; he will play the role Sept. 2–Nov. 1.
Out WNBA legend and retired WNBA player Diana Taurasi—as great as she was—suffered the same fate as almost every other WNBA player in the past and today: feeling underpaid, per Basketball Network. The salary in the WNBA was so low in the past that players had to augment their income by playing overseas during the offseason—and Taurasi played abroad, mostly in the Russian league (which paid 15 times what she made in the U.S.), during 2005-17. “I’m the best player in the world and I have to go to a communist country to get paid like a capitalist,” Taurasi said during a teaser for the three-part Prime Video series documentary on her career entitled Taurasi, which is out now.
The Boys’ prequel Vought Rising has started production—and the upcoming series has added gay Sense8 star Brian J. Smith to the cast, per PinkNews. Smith played grieving police officer Will Gorski in the cancelled queer sci-fi drama Sense8 from 2015 to 2018. The series was ordered to Prime Video last July, and has been dubbed a “twisted murder mystery” set in the 1950s. It is the third spin-off series for the franchise, following the superhero training university-set series Gen V and the animated miniseries The Boys Presents: Diabolical.
Actor Hunter Doohan (Wednesday) recently talked about his sexuality in an interview, Queerty noted. Screen-testing for Your Honor (which starred Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston) in 2019, Doohan told the podcast The Zach Sang Show that he was cautious about revealing his sexuality—so much so that he erased images of him and his boyfriend from his Instagram. However, he eventually came out to Cranston. Doohan married his husband, Fielder Jewett, in 2022, during a wedding that Cranston officiated; the couple met a decade ago on Tinder.
On Sirius XM’s Andy Cohen Live, the openly gay host criticized lesbian tennis icon Martina Navratilova’s viral anti-surrogacy opinion as ignorant and wrong, Page Six noted. He said, in part, “What Martina tweeted was, ‘Surrogacy is wrong.’ She said, ‘Surrogacy is just wrong. Sometimes you can’t have it all.’ Well, here’s the deal: That’s just ill-informed and dumb—and, yes, we will talk about it at the reunion.” Cohen mentioned he asked Navratilova’s wife, Real Housewives of Miami star Julia Lemigova, about the comment when she appeared on the July 30 episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
A Downton Abbey primetime special is set to air on NBC on Sept. 10 to celebrate the third and final film in the franchise before its theatrical release, per Variety. NBC will air Downton Abbey Celebrates the Grand Finale, with the special streaming the next day on Peacock. The one-hour special will feature conversations with the cast of the film as they reunite in London at the Savoy Hotel to share memories and never-before-heard stories connected with the series and the related movies.
The popular UK LGBTQ+ event known as FrightFest 2025 is returning to The Odeon LUXE Leicester Square on Aug. 21-25, per a press release. FrightFest will showcase 69 features from across the world, embracing 25 main screen premieres and 44 Discovery Screen titles. From Australia, FrightFest will welcome back transgender filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay, who brings The Serpent’s Skin. Also, the work of veteran Belgian filmmaker Harry Kümel will be celebrated with 4K restorations of two films from 1971—his erotic vampire tale Daughters of Darkness; and Malpertuis, a surreal gothic tale of warlocks and imprisoned Olympian gods. Another eagerly awaited work is Andreas Zerr’s Sane Inside Insanity: The Rocky Horror Phenomenon; this year marks the 50th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum musical act Jonas Brothers released their seventh studio album, Greetings From Your Hometown, out now via Republic Records, a press release noted. Drawing inspiration from their New Jersey roots and lifelong musical influences, this album serves as a love letter to their hometown. The band teamed with notable songwriters and producers on the record, including Ryan Tedder, Justin Tranter, Julian Bunetta, Alexander 23, MUNA’s Josette Maskin, Mikky Ekko and more. The brothers also started their Greetings From Your Hometown Tour with a hometown show at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.
This fall’s world premiere in Minneapolis of the stage musical Purple Rain will star an up-and-coming musician-songwriter named Kris Kollins in the main role of The Kid, made famous in the 1984 film by iconic musician Prince, Deadline revealed. Also, & Juliet star Rachel Webb will co-star as Apollonia. Purple Rain will play at the State Theatre in Minneapolis during Oct. 16-Nov. 16; a Broadway timeline has not been disclosed. The musical features a story by Prince as well as a book by queer two-time Tony winner and Pulitzer Prize recipient Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
Nearly two years after filing for divorce from actor Lukas Gage, hairstylist Chris Appleton opened up about their short-lived marriage and what he’s learned along the way, per Instinct. Speaking on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, Appleton said, “You can love someone and there not be a forever happy ending—and just because it’s not forever doesn’t mean it didn’t mean something.” He added (possibly talking about his quick marriage to Gage), “We shame people too much for leading with an open heart, especially when it doesn’t work out. And the sad part about that is you can learn to retract and protect yourself, but I would rather love and fall than to never feel anything at all.” In addition, Appleton stressed that his top priority was, and still is, his family; he shares two children—Billy, 22, and Kitty-blu, 20—with his former partner, Kate Katon.
Non-binary Australian influencer Kath Ebbs confirmed they have a new partner after splitting up from JoJo Siwa, per PinkNews. “The rumours are true! YES I still (stupidly) believe in love!!,” Ebbs captioned photos of them with Australian soccer player Tilly Lucas-Rodd. Lucas-Rodd—who is also non-binary and uses they/them pronouns—commented, “Thanks for sliding in (sorry for making you wait 2 years).” Ebbs alleged that Siwa “dumped” them at the Celebrity Big Brother after-party. “I was told that there are confused feelings there, and that they had realized in the house that I wasn’t the person that they wanted to spend the foreseeable [future],” Ebbs said at the time.
On Sept. 12, NYC’s Film Forum will present the U.S. theatrical premiere of Dreams—part of Norwegian novelist/filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud’s LOVE – SEX – DREAMS: THE OSLO TRILOGY, a press release noted. “In this third installment of the trilogy, 17-year-old Johanne drifts and daydreams like any teenager, until one day her restlessness morphs into all-consuming passion for her charismatic French teacher, Johanna,” the release stated. Dreams had its world premiere at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival, where it was awarded the highest prize, the Golden Bear; in doing so, it became the first Norwegian film to win the honor.
Angelina Jolie is set to star in the new spy thriller The Initiative, reuniting with Mr. and Mrs. Smith director Doug Liman, per Variety. Like Liman, producer RK Films also has a relationship with Jolie as the company backed Disney’s hit Maleficent movies, in which she played the title role. Oscar winner Jolie was most recently seen in Pablo Larraín’s Maria, where she received praise for portraying famed soprano Maria Callas.
Hulu has ordered Count My Lies, a limited series starring Lindsay Lohan and Shailene Woodley, per Deadline. The project was set up for development at Hulu this spring with Lohan attached; she has now been joined by Woodley, with both set to executive-produce in addition to starring in the series. In Count My Lies, when compulsive liar Sloane Caraway (Woodley) lies her way into a nanny position for the gorgeous and charismatic Violet (Lohan) and Jay Lockhart, it seems she’s finally landed her dream job; however, little does Sloane know that she’s just entered a household filled with secrets that are about to explode.
Jennifer Lopez was reportedly refused entry into an international Chanel store, per Page Six. A security guard inside the Istanbul boutique reportedly prevented Lopez from entering, which apparently didn’t bother her, as she replied, “Okay—no problem.” Later, the store’s employees reportedly approached the pop star with an invitation to come back, but she declined. Lopez was on a 19-stop summer tour titled “Up All Night” that began July 8 in Vigo, Spain, and ended Aug. 10 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
As the new chair of the Kennedy Center, President Donald Trump added a highly personal twist to this year’s announcement of the recipients of the annual honors, the AP noted. He named this year’s recipients—country music star George Strait, Rocky actor Sylvester Stallone, disco and gospel singer Gloria Gaynor, rock band Kiss and actor-singer Michael Crawford—and said he plans to host this year’s event as well. Trump also said he was heavily involved in the selection process.
Ezra Ray Hart—consisting of iconic rock frontmen Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray, Kevin Griffin of Better Than Ezra and Emerson Hart of Tonic—will return to the road this fall on their debut headline run with inaugural “Never Ending ‘90S Presents: Ezra Ray Hart 90S Hits & Xmas Riffs” tour, per a press release. Tour attendees can expect Sugar Ray’s “Every Morning,” Better Than Ezra’s “Good” and Tonic’s “If You Could Only See” to the likes of “Little Saint Nick” as well as other seasonal anthems. In the spring, Ezra Ray Hart played at the Tortuga Music Festival, joining acts such as Jelly Roll, Keith Urban, Luke Combs and Shaboozey.
LGBTQ+ Disney Channel and Nickelodeon alum Alyson Stoner was left with no money—despite 15 years appearing in millennial staples—because of their business team’s mismanagement of funds and their mom withdrawal of “several thousand” dollars, The New York Daily News noted. Stoner recounts discovering the empty bank account in the new memoir, Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything. The performer-turned-mental health advocate wrote that roughly 35% of their earnings would go to commissions for their team, with “another 35%” going to taxes; she also penned about coming out as queer, the perils of child stardom and other items.
LGBTQ+ sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson addressed her recent domestic violence arrest in a video on social media and apologized to her boyfriend, Christian Coleman, per ESPN. “I love him & to him I can’t apologize enough,” the 100-meter world champion wrote in all caps on Instagram, adding that her apology “should be just as loud” as her “actions.” Days before she recently ran the 100 meters at the U.S. championships in Eugene, Oregon, Richardson was arrested on July 27 on a fourth-degree domestic-violence offense for allegedly assaulting Coleman at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
SKIMS, Kim Kardashian’s apparel brand, will open a second Chicagoland location—this time, at the Oakbrook Center, although no opening date has been confirmed, per NBC Chicago. Previously, Crain’s Chicago Business reported that SKIMS will open a standalone store in Chicago at 1000 N. Rush St., although the brand has still yet to announce an opening date or confirm further details. Oakbrook Center comprises more than 100 stores, including Aritzia, Lululemon and Zara.
Dancing with the Stars judge and six-time Mirror Ball trophy winner Derek Hough is taking over as host of the entertainment show Extra on Sept. 8, according to Deadline. Hough replaces Billy Bush, who revealed in May that he’s leaving the syndicated entertainment news series after five seasons. Besides Hough, senior correspondent and weekend host Mona Kosar Abdi as well as correspondent Terri Seymour will continue to cover the industry.