THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Zendaya is featured on the cover of this month's Vanity Fair for its annual Hollywood Issue—and took on a question regarding gender, flipping it, E! News noted. As part of the feature that was released online Tuesday, Feb. 23, Zendaya took part in the publication's video series The Proust Questionnaire, answering 35 probing queries about her life and personality. One of the questions was, "What is the quality you most like in a man?" and the Euphoria performer quickly rephrased it so it wouldn't be gendered. "I most like in a person, how about that?" Zendaya replied.

Season four of the Emmy-winning dystopian drama The Handmaid's Tale, based on Margaret Atwood's acclaimed 1985 novel, is set to launch on Hulu on April 28, Deadline noted. Similar to previous seasons, this 10-episode cycle of Handmaid's will return with three episodes at once. The new season sees Moss' character recovering from her bloody injuries and instigating a new insurgence.

In addition, Hulu's LGBTQ teen dramedy Love, Victor will return with all 10 episodes on Friday, June 11, a press release announced. Season two picks up with a newly out-of-the-closet Victor (Michael Cimino) entering his junior year at Creekwood High. The streamer has also picked up the eight-episode limited series Iron Mike (about Mike Tyson); a third season of Animaniacs; the third and final season of Shrill, debuting Friday, May 7; and the adult animated comedy series Marvel's M.O.D.O.K., launching Friday, May 21. However, Tyson has slammed the biopic, according to Deadline, calling the series "cultural misappropriation" and "tone-deaf" to announce, particularly during Black History Month.

Singer-songwriter Chaka Khan has re-released Epiphany: The Best of Chaka Khan—this time on burgundy vinyl, AfricaNews.com noted. In a statement, Khan said, "I'm honored that during this designated month that they gave us to celebrate Black history, that it's also being dropped now." Known as "The Queen of Funk," she has won 10 Grammy Awards and has sold an estimated 70 million records worldwide.

A call for entries has opened for the 34th edition of Atlanta's LGBTQ film festival, Out on Film, a press release noted. Taking place Sept. 23-Oct. 3, the film festival plans to be a hybrid event with a combination of in-person, drive-in and virtual presentations. One of the rare film festivals that has grown in recent years, Out On Film presented a virtual festival with 133 films over an eleven-day period last year; guests included guests Margaret Cho, Kevin Williamson and Margarethe "Grethe" Cammermeyer. Submissions can be made at https://filmfreeway.com/OutOnFilm.

On Feb. 24, Q.Digital and Lexus presented Angelica Ross with the Groundbreaker Award at this year's Queerties, the annual award show produced by Queerty celebrating the best in LGBTQ culture and media, according to a press release. Billy Eichner received the MVP award for inspiring a get-out-the-vote campaign while staying safe throughout the pandemic. For the first time, Revry aired the event (including Revry's third-party channels on Samsung TV Plus, Roku Channels, Xumo, Stirr and Apple TV). Some of the winners included Elliot Page, Jinkx Monsoon and social-media figure Joaquin Bondoni.

Non-binary comedian Rhea Butcher (Take My Wife; Ellen) has released their new album, Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootleg, a press release noted. Recorded live in Denver (pre-pandemic) as the full length follow up to their chart-topping debut stand-up album, Butcher, they talk about their experiences with everything from gender pronouns to puppy training, getting confounding parental advice to their love of gummies and more. See RheaButcher.com for more.

The documentary series Trans in Trumpland debuted Feb. 25 to U.S. and Canadian audiences on Topic through Topic.com as well as Topic channels through AppleTV & iOS, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android and Amazon Prime Video Channels, a press release noted. The four-part series, from TransWave Films, is directed by Tony Zosherafatain and produced by Jamie DiNicola. Trace Lysette (Hustlers; Transparent) executive-produces alongside trans activists Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Chella Man as well as Topic's Ryan Chanatry and Jeff Seelbach. Each episode of the series focuses on a different trans person who is living in "Trumpland"—states where they face transphobic laws as well as discrimination and violence.

LGBT actor/musician Keiynan Lonsdale has joined the cast of the new Starz TV reboot of dance film franchise Step Up, based on the popular movies about a ragtag dance crew overcoming the odds and finding family, according to an out.com item that cited Deadline. Lonsdale is playing Tal, the lead dancer on the High Water dance team, who is described as "lean, graceful, and courageous." He's also known for his roles as Blue in the gay high school film Love, Simon; and as Kid Flash/Wally West on the CW series The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.

This fall, Mr. Potato Head will be branded the gender-neutral Potato Head "to better reflect the full line,"according to a Yahoo! Item that cited a Hasbro press release. However, the company added, "But rest assured, the iconic Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head characters aren't going anywhere and will remain Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head." Hasbro is also launching a "Create your Potato Head Family" toy as "a celebration of the many faces of families" including two large potatoes, one small fry and 42 accessories.

The annual Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala, which has taken place the night before the Grammy ceremony since 1976, has been postponed for several weeks, as Davis has been diagnosed with Bell's Palsy—a serious but temporary condition that causes sudden weakness in facial muscles, among other symptoms, Variety reported. Davis is expected to make a full recovery in six to eight weeks, and the party is expected to be rescheduled for May.

Demi Lovato took to Instagram to share a post called "Why gender reveals are transphobic," out.com noted. She reposted the images from trans activist Alok Vaid-Menon, and helped to explain how gender reveal parties are transphobic and do more harm than one might think. In part, the caption read, "Transphobia is not just prejudice or violence against an individual trans person[;] it is a belief system that presumes non-trans people to be more 'natural' than trans people. Only individual people can self determine their gender."

Coming off playing renowned 20th-century British political figure Margaret Thatcher, Gillian Anderson is taking on a U.S. 20th-century political icon, Eleanor Roosevelt, Deadline reported. Anderson is set as the co-lead opposite Viola Davis and Michelle Pfeiffer in The First Lady (working title), Showtime's anthology executive-produced by Davis and directed/executive-produced by Susanne Bier. Season one of The First Lady focuses on Eleanor Roosevelt (Anderson), Betty Ford (Pfeiffer) and Michelle Obama (Davis).

America's Got Talent (AGT) judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel and Sofia Vergara are all returning for season 16 set to air this summer on NBC, and Terry Crews will return as the show's host, a press release noted. To celebrate the return of America's favorite judging panel, AGT will be hosting one final nationwide "Last Chance Audition" for the upcoming season on Saturday, March 6. Interested acts can register at AGTAuditions.com for a virtual audition slot where they will perform live for show producers.

Daft Punk—the Parisian duo responsible for some of the most popular dance and pop songs ever made—have split, Pitchfork reported. They broke the news with an eight-minute video titled "Epilogue," excerpted from their 2006 film Electroma. Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo formed Daft Punk in Paris in 1993, helping to define the French touch style of house music. Some of the duo's singles include "Around the World," "Get Lucky" (with Pharrell Williams), and "I Feel It Coming" and "Starboy" (collaborations with The Weeknd).

White voice actor Harry Shearer will no longer voice Black character Dr. Hibbert on The Simpsons—and he will be replaced with African-American voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson, TheWrap reported. Shearer had voiced the character of Hibbert since the show's second season in 1990. The recasting of Hibbert comes after Fox said last June that The Simpsons will no longer have white actors voice non-white characters on the animated series. However, in August, CNN.com noted that Shearer said of his voiceover work, "I have a very simple belief about acting. The job of the actor is to play someone who they're not." And, recently, creator Matt Groening said he didn't have a problem with white actors taking on non-white roles, Deadline noted.

The classic film My Fair Lady is debuting on 4K Ultra HD on May 25, from Paramount Home Entertainment, a press release noted. Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, My Fair Lady also won the Best Picture Golden Globe and was selected for the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. Adapted from the Broadway stage hit, the film stars Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins, a role that earned him the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role; and Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle.

Sean Young and Ed Asner are among the stars of the movie Rain Beau's End, available on global video-on-demand (VOD) service LesFlicks on March 8, a press release noted. Janelle Snow, Amanda Powell, Christian Stolte, Melanie Chandra and Kirk Kelleykahn also star in the Tracy Wren-directed film—an intimate drama set in the late 1990s depicting how a progressive lesbian couple's relationship is tested when their adopted son is mislabeled with a genetic predisposition for violence.

Rapper/actress/former The Talk co-host Eve is set to play a leading role in the ABC drama pilot Queens, Variety noted. The pilot is about four estranged and out-of-touch women in their 40s who reunite for a chance to recapture their fame and regain the swagger they had as the Nasty Bitches—their '90s group that made them legends in the hip-hop world. In addition to starring, Eve will be rendering original music for the show as her character.

Fashion icon Andre Leon Talley is reportedly being dragged out of his $1 million New York home by the Manolo Blahnik USA former CEO, who alleges the former editor is $500,000 behind in rent, The New York Post reported. Talley has dramatically fallen out with his former close friend, high-powered shoe exec George Malkemus, who launched legal action against Talley in a bid to get him out of the palatial White Plains property. Talley has long insisted that the historic 11-room colonial home, at 75 Worthington Road, is his own, telling the New York Times in 2018, "It is my sanctuary." But new court papers seen by Page Six allege that the real owners are Malkemus and his husband/business partner, Anthony Yurgaitis, who bought the home in 2004 for more than $1 million.

The Rise and Fall of Victoria's Secret, a new docuseries from Peter Berg and Matt Tyrnauer, has landed at Hulu, Deadline noted. The series—which will shed light on the inner workings of a once-powerful sector of the world of fashion, adding context to both the positive and negative aspects of a rapidly transforming industry—is in production.

RuPaul Drag Race's Ross Mathews revealed that he's engaged, out.com noted. "Fiance you stay!" Mathews wrote to Twitter, doing a play on the now ubiquitous RuPaul phrase. With the photo of the couple, Mathews also captioned, "I am so proud to announce that after over a year together - navigating a pandemic, quarantine and opposite coasts - the smartest, funniest and kindest man I've ever met said, 'Yes!' Dr. García, I love you. A lifetime of adventure awaits."

Season six of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars is set to premiere on Paramount+, out.com noted. The show is in a slate of new reality television shows that will air on the new streaming service that includes Road Rules, The Real World Homecoming: New York, The Challenge: All Stars—and another drag-competition show, Queen of the Universe.

Taylor Kitsch will star opposite Chris Pratt in Amazon's conspiracy thriller series The Terminal List, based on Jack Carr's best-selling novel, Deadline noted. The Terminal List follows James Reece (Pratt) after his entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission. Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event and questions about his culpability. However, as new evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him, endangering not only his life but the lives of those he love.

Taylor Swift's re-recording of "Love Story"—called "Love Story (Taylor's Version)"— debuted at the top spot on the Hot Country Songs chart, according to a CNN.com item that cited Billboard. The song is, interestingly, Swift's first No. 1 debut on that chart; it is also her eighth career No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, the last one being 2012's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." Swift has been hard at work re-recording the album Fearless after losing the rights to her master recordings pre-dating 2019's Lover after they were sold to a company owned by music manager Scooter Braun. (Braun's company sold them in late 2020.) According to CMT.com, "Love Story" joins Dolly Parton's iconic "I Will Always Love You" as the only songs to have hit No. 1 on the chart as originals and then as revisions by the same artist.

Moby, the punk rocker-turned-electronic music pioneer, will get the documentary treatment, Deadline noted. Greenwich Entertainment has picked up the North American distribution rights to the feature film Moby Doc, and will release it in theaters and digital platforms on May 28. The surrealist biographical documentary is narrated by Moby himself, a man who has appeared in numerous music docs as a talking head.

Josh Groban has released Harmony Deluxe, via Reprise Records, a press release noted. The new deluxe edition is an expansion of his ninth studio album, Harmony, originally released last November. The record features six additional renditions of timeless classics, including "Nature Boy" (written by eden ahbez and performed by the legendary Nat King Cole); "April Come She Will" (written by Paul Simon and performed by Simon & Garfunkel); and a special guest performance from German artist Helene Fischer, who performs with Groban on "I'll Stand By You" (written by Chrissie Hynde, Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, and performed by The Pretenders).

Deadline confirmed that author Ta-Nehisi Coates is writing a Superman reboot feature for Warner Bros and DC, which J.J. Abrams is producing under his Bad Robot label. Coates is attached to a Ryan Coogler-directed drama feature entitled Wrong Answer, about a math teacher in Atlanta who is scandalized when he looks to get funding for his school by altering his students' test scores. (Also, Coates will be honored at Chicago's Printers Row Lit Fest in September. Coates—a New York Times best-selling author and National Book Award winner—will be the recipient of the 2021 Harold Washington Literary Award.)

It's been just more than a year since Showtime canceled its Emmy-nominated series Ray Donovan after seven seasons—but the show is being revived with a movie, EW.com noted. Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight (Ray's dad, Mickey), and Kerris Dorsey (Ray's daughter, Bridget) will all reprise their roles. The plot is as follows: "The new film picks up where season 7 left off, with Mickey in the wind and Ray determined to find and stop him before he can cause any more carnage. It will also weave together the present-day fallout from the Donovan/Sullivan feud with Ray and Mickey's origin story from 30 years ago."

Grey's Anatomy actress Ellen Pompeo penned an open letter the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and "White Hollywood" a day before the 2021 Golden Globes, Deadline reported. Shared to her Instagram post, Pompeo's letter called out the HFPA for its lack of diverse members—a criticism that has echoed throughout Hollywood since an Los Angeles Times article revealed that the industry body has no Black journalists among its 87 members.

In Indiana, the LaPorte County Fair has canceled this summer's Morgan Wallen concert after the country-music star was caught on camera using a racial slur, WNDU.com noted. Ticket refunds will be issued. Wallen has asked fans not to downplay the racist language he was caught saying on camera and said that he accepted the punishments he faced.

Controversial rapper Azealia Banks announced her engagement to artist Ryder Ripps by posting a photo on Instagram of a ring with a menorah on it and writing "I'm Jewish now. MAZEL TOV BITCHES!" in the caption, JTA.org noted. Some social media users took issue with the proclamation, implying that Banks could not assume a Jewish identity by marrying a Jewish person or that wearing a symbol of Judaism was disrespectful. Banks then engaged in several online exchanges—and, in one, Banks likened her connection to Judaism to the gender identity of transgender people, in an analogy that some decried as transphobic.

Woody Allen slammed the new HBO documentary series about the sexual-abuse allegations against him as a "hatchet job" that was "riddled with falsehoods." Page Six stated. The decades-old accusations that Allen molested Dylan Farrow when she was a child are "categorically false," the director and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. The couple broke their silence about Allen v. Farrow shortly after the first of four episodes in the docuseries aired. Also, Skyhorse Publishing is contemplating a copyright-infringement lawsuit against HBO and the filmmakers behind the four-part docuseries for unauthorized use of audio from Allen's 2020 memoir Apropos of Nothing, Deadline noted.

Gina Carano went on The Ben Shapiro Show to continue to unpack the recent events surrounding her firing from Disney+'s The Mandalorian—particularly her relationship with her former costar Pedro Pascal, according to Deadline. Carano talked about how Pascal wasn't fired for posting a 2018 tweet where he compared undocumented children in cages in the U.S. to Jewish people in concentration camps, saying her treatment seemed like a double standard. She added about Pascal, "I know that we both have misstepped on our tweets. We're not perfect. We're human beings. But he's not a bad human being. He's a sweet person."

Time's Up criticized Brett Ratner—the director behind the Rush Hour film series and X-Men: The Last Stand who was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017—for his planned return to filmmaking, Variety reported. Ratner is set to helm a longtime passion project, a biopic about R&B duo Milli Vanilli, as reported by Deadline.

Former NFL linebacker and Fox Sports analyst Emmanuel Acho will host The Bachelor: After the Final Rose that's set to air March 15, filling the vacant spot left by former The Bachelor host Chris Harrison, Deadline noted. Acho will fill in for Harrison, who stepped aside form hosting duties the show following his divisive comments in an interview with contestant Rachel Lindsay. In the Extra interview, Harrison defended Rachael Kirkconnell, who came under after photos of her attending a plantation-themed fraternity party in 2018 resurfaced on the internet.

Actress Hilary Duff and talk-show host Wendy Williams are accused of libel and slander in a lawsuit by a man who claims the actress called him a child predator and the host repeated the claim, according to The Blast. Court documents say Darryl Wilkins is suing Duff and Williams after the Disney star's rant about Wilkins on Instagram got picked up on Williams' show. The actress had a run-in with the man in a public park and filmed it for Instagram.

Hip-hop mogul Jay Z and luxury-goods giant LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) are 50/50 partners in his popular champagne brand Armand de Brignac, also known as "Ace of Spades," The New York Daily News noted. LVMH is the French empire that owns high-end champagne brands such as Dom Perignon and Moet & Chandon. With prices ranging between $300 and $64,999, for a 30-liter Midas bottle, Jay-Z acquired the brand in 2014.