Queer, non-binary actor Carl Clemons-Hopkins (they/them and he/him) told Out Magazine he is elated with the warm reception received by the show Hacks and his character. "When I started in this years and years ago, there really wasn't the concept of different types of queer Black characters to be played," explains Clemons-Hopkins, whose prior credits had been largely in the theater world, such as the Chicago production of Hamilton. Clemons-Hopkins has received critical acclaim for their role, including a 2021 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, and also co-starred in the 2021 film Candyman.
Creekwood is back in session for one final semester with season three of the show Love, Victor on Hulu, a press release noted. The last season of the series premieres with all eight episodes on Hulu and Disney+ on June 15. This season finds Victor (played by Michael Cimino) going on a journey of self-discoverynot only deciding who he wants to be with, but more broadly, who he wants to be.
In pro-racing action, the DHL-sponsored entry driven by France's Roman Grosjean will sport the rainbow colors in front of 350,000 fans and a global television audience, Outsports noted. The "Delivered In Pride" look will return in the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29. Also, replica team jerseys with the DHL rainbow logo will be available for sale in May at indycar.com and at official Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar shops at the track. Proceeds from the sales will benefit GLSEN.
Queer Oscar winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) will host the 75th Tony Awards, Deadline noted. DeBosewho was Tony-nominated in 2018 for her performance in Summer: The Donna Summer Musicalwill host live from NYC's Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 12. DeBose's breakthrough role came in 2015 when she appeared in Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton as an original member of the off-Broadway and Broadway productions; she reprised the role in the subsequent Disney+ filmed version.
British singer-songwriter Emeli Sandewho recently came out as part of the LGBTQ+ communityshared her new album Let's Say For Instance, available to stream and download now via Chrysalis Records, a press release noted. The album, which marks her first release on an independent label, features songs such as "Ready to Love," "Oxygen," "World Go Round" and "September 8th."
Queer alt-pop artist Clay has shared her new EP Breathing Into Bloom, per a press release. On the six-track EP, Clay (who also co-produced the work) delves into her experiences with the delicate topics of mental health and unrequited love. Songs include "Sunday," "Artery," "Numb," "WTSGD" (with Alessia Cara), "Undertow" and the title track.
Kyan Douglasone of the original Fab Five cast members from Bravo's 2000s reality makeover series Queer Eye for the Straight Guyis officially retiring from television, Out Magazine noted. Douglas announced his retirement from TV on The Rachael Ray Show, where he had appeared in 115 episodes. "I just feel ready to move on to something else," he explained. "I don't know what that is yet…But you know, things come to an end and the universe will fill a void. So it's time to step away and see what's next."
And speaking of Queer Eye, Netflix announced that the new version has been renewed for a seventh seasonand will be set in New Orleans, per Out Magazine. Also, all the main cast membersAntoni Porowski (food), Bobby Berk (design), Jonathan Van Ness (grooming), Karamo(culture) and Tan France (fashion)are set to return. In previous seasons, the group has helped people from Georgia, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas, Australia and Japan.
Prime Video acquired two new queer-centered filmsMy Fake Boyfriend and 1Up, from BuzzFeed Studios and Lionsgateand will release them this summer, Out Magazine noted. My Fake Boyfriend is a queer rom-com starring Keiynan Lonsdale, Dylan Sprouse and Sarah Hyland; 1Up is a more Sapphic film that stars Ruby Rose and Paris Berelc, and it's about a women's collegiate esports team.
Issa Rae has been tapped to serve as the ambassador for the 2022 American Black Film Festival (ABFF), and she will screen her HBO Max series Rap Sh*t for the festival's closing night in Miami Beach, Variety noted. The festival, widely recognized as a leading platform for Black content creators, returns live to Miami Beach on June 15-19. Following the in-person segment of the festival, ABFF continues with virtual events on June 20-30 on ABFF PLAY, the festival's custom-designed online platform. Previous ABFF ambassadors include Halle Berry, Mary J. Blige, Idris Elba, Tracee Ellis Ross and Regina Hall, among others.
Top Hollywood publicists who have been boycotting the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) met with the group recently in an attempt for the embattled group to win over the publicity executives with reform efforts that could restore the Golden Globes, TheWrap reported. Some 75 publicists met with HFPA president Helen Hoehne along with board members and Chief Diversity Officer Neil Phillips, according to several attendees. Publicists who represent Tom Cruise, Scarlett Johansson, Nicole Kidman, Serena Williams, Ben Stiller and many others reportedly attended.
The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on May 1 in Nashville in an emotional medallion ceremony that went on as scheduled the day after Naomi Judd's death, Variety noted. Wynonna Judd gave more details on her mother's death at the ceremony, the Tennessean reported. She said that Naomi died at 2:20 p.m. CT on April 30 and described how she kissed her mother "on the forehead and walked away" after family members recited Psalm 23 together over her body. Out singer Brandi Carlile had been scheduled to sing the Judds hit "Love Can Build a Bridge" at the medallion ceremonybut couldn't perform because she had COVID. (The New York Daily News cited a report in People Magazine that Naomi allegedly died by suicide.)
Also, Naomi Judd was on the minds of performers at the Stagecoach Music Festival in Indio, California, according to Variety. Without even saying a word about Judd, Brothers Osborne (a sibling duo that includes a gay brother) simply broke into an acoustic version of one of the Judds' signature songs, "Why Not Me." Carrie Underwood mentioned Judd during a set that included Guns 'N Roses songswith Axl Rose.
The Daytime Emmy nominations were revealedand Beyonce earned her first nod, Variety noted. Overall this year, CBS' The Young and the Restless received the most Daytime Emmy nominations, with 18, followed closely by ABC's General Hospital, with 17. The 49th Annual Daytime Creative Arts & Lifestyle Emmy Awards will place June 18 at the Pasadena Convention Center; the 49th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards will follow on June 24 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
Eight-time Grammy nominee and SAG winner Janelle Monae (Hidden Figures; Moonlight) is set to star as iconic entertainer and freedom fighter Josephine Baker in TV series De La Resistance, Deadline reported. The focus of the drama will be on Baker's role as a spy for the Allies during the French resistance helping defeat the Nazis, and on her experience as one of the world's most iconic, talented and glamorous entertainers.
Just two weeks before the release of his Harry's House solo album (his third), Harry Styles has announced the dates for "Love on Tour 2022," Variety noted. The tour works the "Harry's House" theme by turning arenas in New York and Los Angeles (10 nights each), Chicago and Austin (five nights each) and Toronto (two nights) into Styles' de facto house.
Macmillan Audio announced that actor, dancer and activist Rosie Perez will narrate the audiobook version of Ronnie Spector's memoir, Be My Baby, which will be published June 7, per a press release. The audiobook will follow the new hardcover version of Be My Baby that came out May 3, and which features a new introduction written by Keith Richards.
For the first time since their departure from The Real Housewives, several of the most unforgettable ex-Housewives will collide at a vacation spot when The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip returns to Peacock on June 23, per a press release. The new season will feature eight all-star Housewives alumnae from coast-to-coast, including Dorinda Medley and Jill Zarin of The Real Housewives of New York City; Phaedra Parks and Eva Marcille of The Real Housewives of Atlanta,; Vicki Gunvalson and Tamra Judge of The Real Housewives of Orange County; and Brandi Glanville and Taylor Armstrong of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Three of the seven episodes will drop on premiere day, with a new episode available to stream each Thursday following.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, The Bob Dylan Center (BDC) opened its doors to visitors for the first time, launching its VIP grand opening celebration that attracted hundreds of invited luminaries and members of the media from around the world, per a press release. Visitors were welcomed to a 29,000-square-foot complex of curated exhibitions drawn from more than 100,000 items created and/or collected by Dylan throughout his seven decades as a cultural figure. Artifacts on display include handwritten lyric manuscripts to some of the world's most treasured songs, previously unreleased recordings, never-before-seen film performances, rare and unseen photographs, visual art and other items. Performers during the celebration included Mavis Staples, Patti Smith and her Band, and Elvis Costello and the Imposters.
The original cast of the Emmy-nominated Comedy Central series is in Reno 911! The Hunt for QAnon, arriving on DVD July 19, from Paramount Home Entertainment, a press release announced. In this moviethe first Reno 911! film since Reno 911! Miami in 2007the deputies from the Reno sheriff's department are on a mission to track down the one and only Q behind all QAnon conspiracies. Ordered to serve court papers to the mysterious Q, the team goes deep undercover on Q's Booze Cruiseand end up somewhere they hadn't planned.
Showtime released the official trailer for the fifth season of its hit drama series The Chi, per a press release. The Chi will return with its first new episode on Friday, June 24available on streaming and on demand for all Showtime subscribersbefore making its on-air debut Sunday, June 26. Common and Lena Waithe are among the show's executive producers.
Sidewinder Films' award-winning documentary about surfer Duke Paoa Kahanamoku will soon be available to audiences nationwide with the May 10 PBS premiere of American Masters: WatermanDuke: Ambassador of Aloha, a press release noted. Narrated by Jason Momoa and directed by Isaac Halasima, this new documentary reveals Kahanamoku's influence on surfing's global spread, his life-saving achievements and the obstacles he conquered both within and outside the sporting world.
The Prince of Tides is the latest high-profile feature film that is being eyed for a television spinoff, per Deadline. The Help director Tate Taylor is developing a small-screen adaptation of the 1991 Barbra Streisand-fronted film for Apple; the movie also starred Blythe Danner and Nick Nolte.
CBS has renewed The Equalizer, starring Queen Latifah, for seasons three and four, Deadline noted. The Equalizer is Sunday's #1 scripted series, averaging 9.46 million viewers. The Equalizer joins CBS' previously announced renewals for The Amazing Race, Blue Bloods, Bob [Hearts] Abishola, CSI: Vegas, Ghosts, NCIS, NCIS: Hawai'i, NCIS: Los Angeles, The Neighborhood, Secret Celebrity Renovation, Survivor, S.W.A.T., Tough As Nails and Young Sheldon.
David Birney, who starred with his future wife Meredith Baxter on the CBS sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie, died at 83, The Hollywood Reporter noted. Birney and Baxter (who had two kids from her first marriage, and who later came out as a lesbian) wound up getting married for real in May 1974 and divorced in 1989. In her 2011 book Untied: A Memoir of Family, Fame, and Floundering, Baxter wrote that Birney was emotionally and physically abusive to her, which he denied.
Disney is severing ties with Fred Savage following multiple complaints of misconduct in his role as executive producer and director on the freshman ABC comedy series The Wonder Years, Deadline noted. The allegations were investigated, leading to Savage's dismissal. The Wonder Years, a reboot of the beloved 1988 series that starred Savage, has not been renewed for a second season yet but remains in contention.
Speaking of ABC, the network has canceled the show Queens after one season, per Deadline. The seriesheadlined by Brandy, Naturi Naughton, Eve and Nadine Velazquezwas one of the hottest pilots last season and carried a lot of expectations heading into the fall. Possibly factoring into the show's ratings performance was the fact that, during its run, Queens had to overcome the departure of one of its stars, Eve, who took a break from the series upon announcing her pregnancy.
Rapper Kidd Creolea founding member of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for stabbing a homeless man to death in 2017, ABC 7 New York reported. The 62-year-old (real name: Nathaniel Glover) was found guilty of manslaughter in the first degree last month for the deadly stabbing of 55-year-old John Jolly in Midtown in 2017. Prosecutors said he stabbed Jolly twice in the chest with a steak knife after becoming angry because he thought Jolly was gay and hitting on him.
Selling Sunset co-star Chrishell Stause has moved on five months after splitting from boss Jason Oppenheim, as she confirmed she is dating non-binary Australian singer G Flip, Yahoo! News noted. Stause and G Flip met while filming their new music video for "Get Me Outta Here." In the video, Stause shares a kiss with the "GAY 4 ME" singer.
A Los Angeles jury found that Kim Kardashian and her family did not unjustly harm the career of Blac Chyna (legal name: Angela White), NBC News noted. After the verdict, attorneys for the Kardashian and Jenner family "expressed appreciation" for the jury and said they were "thankful for the steady hand" of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gregory Alarcon. Chyna's attorney, Lynne Ciana, claimed in a statement that the jury was given a verdict sheet that was "confusing and unduly prejudicial."
This Joka, a stand-up comedy series exec-produced by Will Smith, will not be returning for a second season on Roku, per Deadline. The streaming service launched the series, which came via its acquisition of short-form service Quibi, in March. The decision reportedly had nothing to do with the Oscars incidentwhere Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock on stagebut an issue with timing.
Former United States women's national team goalkeeper Hope Solo tweeted that she was voluntarily entering an in-patient alcohol treatment program and requested that her induction into the National Soccer Hall of Fame be postponed until 2023, ESPN noted. Solo was arrested on March 31 after she was found passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle in North Carolina with her 2-year-old twins inside. After spending part of the night in jail, she was released and is scheduled to appear in court on June 28.