Starring Academy Award winner Helen Mirren, Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection debuts on DVD from Acorn Media Sept. 7. Mirren (The Queen) stars as Detective Jane Tennison in this police drama broadcast on PBS to universal acclaim and more than 20 major international awards, including seven Emmys, eight BAFTAs and a Peabody. The nine-disc set includes nine feature-length mysteries as well as a 50-minute behind-the-scenes special. The set retails for $124.99; see www.AcornOnline.com.
Earloomz, LLC, has announced new licensed Bluetooth headsets that feature superstar Lady Gaga. To celebrate the launch, Earloomz is sending two people to meet Gaga at her sold-out concert in Las Vegas Aug. 13. (The prize includes airfare, transportation and hotel accommodations.) Contestants will receive one entry for each Bluetooth purchased before midnight on Aug. 10; visit www.Earloomz.com for more info.
Fashion designer Marc Jacobs and fiancé Lorenzo Martone have called off their engagement, according to Digital Spy. Martone actually tweeted that they split some time ago: “Thanks for t notes. yes, I saw t press today. We are not together, haven’t been in 2 months. And we will not comment on it. Sorry. We r fine (sic) ” Jacobs and Martone became engaged March 2009.
Real World: New Orleans cast member Ryan Leslie has apologized for an anti-gay item he recently tweeted, according to Advocate.com. Responding to someone who called him homophobic, Leslie posted, “I would love to see you in person, and smash your gay f*cking face in.” After a deluge of follow-up messages and a demand from GLAAD, Leslie tweeted, “Want to apologize to the gay community—tweet not meant to offend. I take responsibility for what I said on Friday and I am sorry.”
Superstar Madonna is planning an all-star concert in September for her Raising Malawi charity, according to an Advocate.com item. Madonna plans to give away 60,000 free tickets to fans for the stadium concert in Malawi, and wants the event televised worldwide, much like Live-Aid. Madonna has adopted two children from the African country: David and Mercy.
Openly gay actor/Broadway figure Cheyenne Jackson will be a part of the TV show Glee next season, according to E! Online. Jackson will portray the new coach of Vocal Adrenaline, which competes against the cast members’ New Directions group. His role will be a recurring one.
In an interview with NOW magazine, Inception actor Tom Hardy talked about having sex with other men, according to a Huffington Post item. When asked if he’d engaged in sex with other men, Hardy replied, “Of course I have. I’m an actor for f*ck’s sake. I’ve played with everything and everyone. I love the form and the physicality, but now that I’m in my thirties, it doesn’t do it for me.” He added, ” I’m done experimenting but there’s plenty of stuff in a relationship with another man, especially gay men, that I need in my life.
The new talk show that will be produced/co-hosted by out actress Sara Gilbert will be named … The Talk, according to the Huffington Post. The co-hosts (Gilbert, Leah Remini, Holly Robinson Peete, Sharon Osbourne and Marissa Jaret Winokur) have said that The Talk will be an honest discussion about everything from current news to their own personal lives.
Novelist Anne Rice—the mother of gay writer Christopher Rice and the best-selling author of such works as Interview with a Vampire—has quit Christianity, saying she refuses to be “antigay,” “anti-Democrat” and “antifeminist,” according to Advocate.com. On her Facebook page, the elder Rice wrote, “It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outside. My conscience will allow nothing else. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian.”
In response to CBS’ poor showing on GLAAD’s Network Responsibility Index, network president Nina Tassler has said that new gay characters will be added to current shows, according to Advocate.com. Tassler said that there will be a new character on The Good Wife, with lead character Alicia Florick (played by Julianna Margulies) having a gay brother; there will also be gay individuals on the current program Rules of Engagement and the upcoming show S*** My Dad Says, which stars William Shatner.
Openly gay celebrity publicist Howard Bragman has talked with Entertainment Weekly magazine about his new show, Coming Out, which will help famous people do just that. He said that the show will “very documentary-esque. We’re going to be telling people’s stories, and you have to do that with a certain amount of sensitivity.” He added that coming out is generally harder for actors than musicians.
Singer Kelis—riding high on her current hit, “Acapella”—will headline England’s Manchester Pride Aug. 29, according to Pink News. In addition to the “Milkshake” singer, acts slated to perform during the event include Belinda Carlisle, English electronic dance-music act Chicane and British singer/model Adam Rickett. See www.ManchesterPride.com.
Kansas’ anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church has teen superstar singer Justin Bieber in its sights, according to AllHeadlineNews.com. The church—which as protested everything from Lady Gaga concerts to soldiers’ funerals—wrote on its website, “Justin Bieber has a platform given to him by God to speak to this world; he has a duty to teach obedience by his actions and words. He refuses to do that because he knows his concert halls would be empty! So, he teaches you to sin and rebel against God’s commandments.”
Ian Bernardo, an American Idol also-ran who took the mic from comedian Dane Cook during last season’s finale, is suing the show for $300 million, claiming producers told him to “gay it up” and then rejecting him when the idea didn’t work, TMZ.com reported. In courtroom docs, Benardo claims the problems started when he first auditioned four years ago, when producers “exploited … my sexual orientation” by asking him to “gay it up.” Bernardo claims that they urged him to do the same thing for the finale earlier this year.
Rosie O’Donnell feels that President Obama should not have appeared on The View, according to LezGetReal.com. (The appearance aired July 29 but was taped the previous day.) O’Donnell—who moderated the talkfest 2006-07, until her infamous falling-out with co-panelist Elisabeth Hasselbeck—said on her radio talk show, “I don’t really think sitting presidents should do fluffy daytime TV shows.” The White House responded that Obama’s visit was important because its aim was to reach the average U.S. resident, especially women.
Speaking of Hasselbeck, the women of the show The Real L Word are reportedly upset with the conservative View panelist, calling her “ignorant,” AceShowBiz.com reported. In a July 28 episode, Hasselbeck said she believed that older women become lesbians because they are unable to find men to date. When asked for a comment, Real L Word cast member Nikki Weiss said, “I know that Elisabeth is really conservative, but it was also a really hurtful and ignorant comment. I don’t know why she’d say it. [Maybe because] she doesn’t usually have anything smart to bring to the table.”
Kevin Williamson—the openly gay writer/director behind the movie Scream and as well as the TV series Dawson’s Creek—has said that one of the TV characters in his newest TV hit, The Vampire Diaries, will come out of the closet, Advocate.com reported. Williamson said he that it’s crucial to him to have an out character on Diaries, a show on The CW, saying, “I always feel like I don’t have enough diversity on my show, and that is one of the things I’m very conscientious of. … In anything, I want everyone represented. I want everybody on the show.”
Elizabeth Edwards, the estranged wife of embattled public figure John Edwards, will sit down with openly gay daytime host Nate Berkus during the Sept. 13 premiere week of The Nate Berkus Show to reveal how she is beginning a new chapter in her life focusing on her relationship with her children as well as her love of design. Last year, Elizabeth opened Red Window, a home furnishings business in Chapel Hill whose name was inspired by a shop run by her mother in Japan. Berkus is a popular design expert, best-selling author and regular contributor to The Oprah Winfrey Show since 2002.
Lady Gaga has dominated the MTV Video Music Award nominations, nabbing a record-setting 13, including Best Pop Video and Best Female Video, according to a press release. Gaga said, “A long time ago the world told me and my little monsters we would never be heard, together we changed the rules. God put me on Earth for 3 reasons: To make loud music, gay videos, and cause a damn [ruckus]. Thank You MTV!” The show will air live Sunday, Sept. 12.