WATCH: Mariah Careys Music Video Just Released! Featuring: Jeff Beacher, Tyson Beckford and Jussie Smollett
- June 2, 2015 - 1:45am
Mariah Carey has just released the official music video to her hit song 'Infinity' linked below.
The video features live clips from her new show 'Mariah #1 to Infinity' which is scheduled to return to Caesars Palace in July.
The 'Infinity' music video features a few cameos, one from ‘Empire’ Star Jussie Smollett, who recently came out as gay during a backstage interview with Ellen DeGeneres.
In the music video Mariah Carey is being wooed by Jussie, Jeff Beacher of 'Beachers Madhouse' and actor & model Tyson Beckford.
Tyson had just finished being a celebrity guest host for the Chippendales show inside the Rio All-Suite Las Vegas Hotel and Casino.
In fact, only weeks ago Mariah received a lap dance from Tyson at the all male revue show.
Check out Mariah's new video and fun cameos linked below:
Fearless Jeff Sheng
- June 1, 2015 - 8:45am
There are many ways for athletes to be fearless. They can stand at the plate with the bases, in the bottom of the ninth. They can attempt a difficult dive. Rocket down an icy ski jump. Or they can come out of the closet as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
It took Jeff Sheng many years to overcome his fears. But in the years since, he has made it his life’s work to honor the fearlessness of over 200 young men and women.
Growing up in Southern California, Sheng was a competitive tennis player. Yet fear overtook him as a high school senior. He was starting to come out as gay. Unable to reconcile his sexuality with his sport, he quit playing.
The next year, at Harvard University, he met a closeted water polo player. Sheng could not go to games as his boyfriend – that fear again – and after a few months the relationship ended.
By senior year, Sheng’s ex was out – and on the cover of Genre Magazine. “He was confident – an inspirational figure,” Sheng recalls. Having studied photography, he decided to focus his talents on gay college athletes. It seemed like a good way to honor their fearlessness.
In 2003, the universe of out sports figures was small. Friends of friends recommended subjects: a rugby player and squash player at Brown. A Harvard rower. A high school athlete, the first Sheng had ever heard of.
He photographed them after their workouts. They were sweaty and tired – but comfortable, and in their elements. The shots were powerful, and moving.
The first 20 or so subjects were almost all white, and lesbian, gay or bi. In 2005 Sheng began meeting athletes who called themselves ‘gender queer.” He knew he had to be more inclusive.
The next year, the Queer Alliance at the University of Florida – where he’d photographed a female softball player who filed a lawsuit alleging discrimination – invited him to show his photos. A mix-up prevented gallery space from being used. Sheng suggested a hallway nearby. Despite fears of vandalism, he mounted the exhibit. The final piece was text, explaining that every photo showed an LGBT athlete.
A high school debate meet was going on. The teenagers looked at the exhibit, then read the statement with shock. They seemed awed and impressed – not giggly or nasty.
“I realized I needed to put the photos in student centers and athletic buildings, where everyone could see them and have their assumptions challenged,” Sheng says. Around the country – at schools from Penn to USC – the reaction was always: “I didn’t know gay people looked like that!”
He kept working too. By 2010, he’d photographed 100 athletes.
Despite positive attention on college campuses, the project – called Fearless – did not receive mainstream attention. Sheng suspected it was because he was an Asian tennis player – not a white football star.
But now he was not fearful. He was angry. He redoubled his efforts.
“I could have stopped,” he says. “But I wanted to make this project so big, no one could ignore it.”
Now, no one can. Sheng has amassed 202 photos of LGBT college and high school athletes. They play every conceivable sport, and represent every type of self-identification. They look strong, proud, happy – and fearless.
They are also no longer solely photographs in a traveling exhibit. Three years ago, Sheng began work on a book. Fearless: Portraits of LGBT Student-Athletes will be published next month.
Sheng has taken the title literally. Sandwiched in between the stunning photos (with accompanying explanatory text) is the photographer’s own story. He’s taken 30 years of his life and shared it with readers. Sheng includes unpublished photos from his first relationship with the water polo player – and details about the two times he considered suicide.
A Kickstarter campaign raised $50,000 – half the amount needed to self-publish. (Mainstream publishers told Sheng there was no audience for his book.) The money covered a fantastic design team – a young gay male couple, and their female assistant. They came up with the idea of eight different covers – and eight spines, each a different color. When placed together in stores, they’ll form a rainbow flag.
Fearless is a gorgeous, 300-page full color book. The photos and layout symbolize “the very beautiful, diverse community I’ve grown into,” Sheng says. They include a number of trans athletes. As part of Sheng’s own journey, he no longer uses headings like “Boys Tennis” or “Women’s Crew.” Now it’s “Casey, Soccer, University of Wisconsin.” The message is simple, proud, fierce – and very fearless.
Fearless will be introduced at the Nike LGBT Sports Summit in Portland next month. On July 21, it will be featured at the WNBA Los Angeles Sparks’ “Pride Game” at the Staples Center. To order a copy, go to www.fearlessproject.org.
Everything’s Coming Up Rose
- May 22, 2015 - 1:49pm
Rose Byrne is up to no good again.
After driving Kristen Wiig further into cupcake-consuming meltdown mode during 2011’s Bridesmaids, the Australian actress goes full-on diva in Spy, which reunites her with director Paul Feig and co-star Melissa McCarthy. As McCarthy’s dead-serious, fashion-challenged Spy foe, Byrne – also known for roles in Neighbors, Damages and the X-Men movies – stars as the wickedly divine Raina Boyanov.
During our recent interview, Byrne talked about how her onscreen bouffant caused a hairy situation with the studio, the disparity between women and men in Hollywood films (“It’s discrimination”) and her caveat when it comes to playing gay.
I know lots of queens who’d kill for your Raina hair in this movie. Who was your drag queen consultant?
(Laughs) I’m very honored and flattered you say that. As long as I have their approval, I’m done! (The studio) didn’t actually want my hair like that. Paul and I really had to fight for it. We had a specific idea of where she was from and what she looked like – a lot of money, no taste, and very Eastern European. Very Marie Antoinette. And it’s a spy film, so style is such an important element of it – even if it’s bad style!
I’m glad everyone could agree that bigger is better in this case. How did you convince the studio to see it your way?
Once it was all together and we were on camera. It just all came together – the costume, the makeup, everything. And it just needed a little more. She’s quite still as a character, and I think (the hair)… it says a lot! (Laughs) It was the stronger choice! That’s how we convinced them.
What did it feel like on top of your head?
It felt… good! I mean, it was heavy. It would move a lot too. Oh my goodness. It was constantly shifting because it was so big, and if I was waiting around, it would start to, like, deteriorate. Sarah Love, the hair designer on the film, did a brilliant job, because it was a lot.
And how about all those flamboyant costumes you wore? How much fun was it to play dress up? I mean, leopard pants!
My leopard pants! And Neoprene, which is an interesting fabric. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it...
What’s it like wearing Neoprene?
It’s weirdly comfortable. A bit like a wetsuit. But yeah – it was a lot of fun. She’s a delectably delicious bad villainous.
Did you feel like a drag queen on set?
(Laughs) The shoes are pretty drag-ish. The shoes were major. They were about 5-inch pumps. Maaajor!
Have you had a lot of wig experience prior to this movie?
A little bit here and there. It actually wasn’t a wig; it was a piece. It was all my hair, and at the back she had a piece and then that had a big, long tail coming down. I have kind of big hair, so it was a bit of both.
Between this movie and Bridesmaids, you really know how to play up the diva role. As an actress, where do you go, and who or what do you riff on, to achieve ultimate divadom?
You know, probably RuPaul or someone fabulous like that. That’s a great diva! Or someone like Dame Edna Everage – she’s a fantastic drag character by Barry Humphries, an Australian comedian/actor.
(Raina’s) very humorless. And really psychotic, I suppose! I mean, she has no empathy with regard to anybody. Everyone is a servant. Playing real entitlement – sort of beyond entitlement, where she’s like royalty – was an interesting place to start from. (Laughs)
Spy demonstrates that women can be as fearless and fierce as men in movies. Do you see this film making a feminist statement?
I see it doing a few things. Paul Feig just breaks every convention, and he’s such a lover of women and continues to redefine gender roles in film. You see it in his films, which are really big films with big audiences that are entertaining and appealing.
Now, he’s putting Melissa, his muse, in the lead, and the lead antagonist is my character, who is also a woman. What other big films are doing that with budgets of this scale? Not many, if any, is the answer. So, I take my hat off to him for how much he’s done in the business in a very significant way.
You co-founded an all-female production company called The Dollhouse Creative, and you’ve starred in several films that pass the Bechdel Test. Why are films like Spy, films that close the gender gap, important?
The statistics are still so dreadful for women in film. Now the ACLU is doing an investigation into it because they’re starting to realize it’s actually discrimination – it’s not just good ol’ fashioned misogyny that everyone’s quietly tolerated for years. The business is sort of the wrong way in the sense that the statistics are just really dreadful for women in terms of speaking parts and paychecks for women. All that stuff that was leaked through the Internet when Sony was hacked – it all speaks for itself. So, it is beyond just misogyny. It’s legitimate discrimination based on gender, which is illegal. Any discrimination is, whether it’s sexuality, race or gender.
With that said, do you plan on producing any films that feature lesbian women in lead roles?
I hope so! I mean, two of my best friends are gay, a man and a woman – and during my life I’ve been surrounded by people from all different walks of life – so I’d love that. I mean, I just watched all of Transparent in a day and a half. It was the most entertaining and moving piece of work I’ve seen in years. I just thought it was beautiful and brilliant.
Though you’ve played lesbian on the Australian TV show Fallen Angels, you’ve never actually been lesbian on the big screen. What kind of character would intrigue you enough to take on a lesbian role in a film?
I would be honored to do something like that. I suppose it would be interesting to play a character who wasn’t defined by that, who just happened to be. Where it’s less of a defining thing and more of just a, “Why does it have to be such a big deal?” Like, why it is such a big deal that women are funny. Same thing. I know we’re not there yet, but for sure, as an artist, I would love to tackle that.
Your girl kiss with Halston Sage in Neighbors nabbed you an MTV Movie Award nomination. Can we talk about that kiss?
(Laughs) I had a lot of fun! A lot of questions about that. I was very lucky. She’s a gorgeous young belle.
How much more aware were you of your lesbian admirers after that kissing scene?
Really just when I get interviewed by people, yeah.
That’s really the only time it comes up?
Yeaaaah. I’m not kidding. (Laughs)
From your experience with the LGBT community, why do you think gay men are attracted to strong, empowered women like yourself and Melissa in Spy?
Probably because we are both part of groups that have been marginalized in some way. People who are gay and people who are women get generally marginalized just simply based on that, with no other merit added to the equation. I think there’s definitely a bonding over that.
Last year you helped bring Annie back to the big screen. What other musicals would you be interested in starring in?
I’m not sure if you read the reviews for Annie, but…. (Laughs). It did not get well received.
I did, and I didn’t wanna bring those up. But since you did...
(Laughs) No plans yet, put it that way.
Please tell me that you’ll at least have a cameo in Paul’s all-female Ghostbusters reboot.
I know! We’ll see. He’s such a great guy and I’d be a part of anything he does, so absolutely.
Who are some ladies in and out of Hollywood who empower you?
I admire Glenn Close so much. She’s a dear friend, and she’s just wonderful. An incredible mother, wife and activist, and she does a lot for the mental health industry. She juggles a lot of hats and does it really gracefully. I really admire Glenn. Also: Rosa Parks and Marie Curie – people who have really changed the world.
Summer Style Sheet: Beach-Ready Accessories That Make a Splash
- May 20, 2015 - 2:27pm
Just because summer is cause to shed the confines of clothing to celebrate the skin you’re in, reality is, we can’t go commando everywhere. For those times that you legally have to cover your bits, here are our picks for summer essentials to keep you looking fly and having fun.
Shark-Print Swimming Trunks
Like the Republican and Democratic parties, it seems that America is equally divided between two swimwear categories: bulky board shorts or barely-there Speedo-style suits. If you prefer to stay somewhere in the middle, Maui & Sons’ Shark trunks let you show a little leg while leaving the size and shape of your little swimmer to your admirers’ imaginations. pacsun.com
Polarized Bold-Color Frames
It’s a crime against fashion to step into those harmful UV rays without a posh pair of polarized glasses, but the Westbrook New York Shades in blue can help keep the style citations at bay. Designed by NBA All-Star Russell Westbrook, these funky, chunky wayfarer frames are made from durable acetate and feature five-barrel hinges built to handle summertime wear and tear. jackthreads.com
3-in-1 Beach Game Set
So what if you weren’t invited to play volleyball with Chip and all his glistening, bare-chested country-club cronies. Make your own fun with three-in-one game sets that offer hours of friendly competition. The Sportcraft combo pack features quick-and-easy setup of ladder ball, washer toss and beanbag toss games, all housed in one convenient carrying case. (Besides, you know one of ’em is at least bi, so you’re not completely out for the count.) kmart.com
Old Skool Flamingo Sneakers
Rock out with your flock out in the flamingo-print Old Skool sneaks from Vans, inspired by a reissued print from the shoemaker’s archives. Constructed in the Van Doren style, these kicks feature a low-top lace-up with a suede upper, padded tongue and lining, metal eyelets and Vans original Waffle Outsole. Something flamboyant this way comes. vans.com
Neon Throwback Shorts
If all this talk about “dad bod” lately has you feeling several sorts of nostalgic, take a trip back in time with the Rooster Tails from Chubbies, rainbow-patterned shorts reminiscent of your pa’s sky’s-out-thighs-out weekend wear. Made of everybody’s favorite ’80s fabric – nylon – these fresh vestiges of what once was makes showin’ off your feet trophies all the more dad-tastic. chubbies.com
Mini Bluetooth Speaker
You’ll want to pump up the jams on that prime piece of real estate you’ve nabbed on the sand – if only to drown out the sound of all those “pretty girls” – and the iBT72 expandable Bluetooth mini speaker from iHome helps you make that beat drop. This compact, accordion-style sound box has two audio sources: wireless streaming from your mobile device or direct line-in via the included cable and any device with a headphone jack. ihome.com
Tropic Time Snapback Hats
You don’t have to be a sports fan (though it doesn’t hurt) to appreciate the Tropic Time snapback hats from New Era – full-cap and bill-only floral prints available in MLB and NBA teams. Pick from your favorites or choose one that gels well with your summer style, like the Miami Marlins 9FIFTY cap that’s inherently breezy. newera.com
Blue Pine Watch
Watches aren’t worn for practical purposes any more – nowadays we’re all conditioned to check our pockets for the time – but a whimsical hand clock can add that extra umph your outfit might need. Take Swatch’s Blue Pine wristwatch, for instance. It’s like looking out from your private cabana in Fiji, wishing that time would stop altogether (and never start again), making it an ideal conversation piece at a seaside dinner with the new friends you’ve made on vacay. swatch.com
Embroidered Hula and Palms Oxford
Alas, you can’t wear flip-flops and tank tops everywhere you go from May to September, so it’s best to keep some fancier duds in your duffel. Class up the joint while staying summer-festive in the slim lightweight oxford with embroidered hula and palms from J. Crew, which is easily dressed up or down depending on the occasion. Dapper button-downs also are available in embroidered anchors and woven pelicans. jcrew.com
Hemp Duffel Bag
Speaking of duffels, you’ll need to conveniently carry all your summer style essentials (and souvenirs!), and the Natural Hemp Novel Duffel from Herschel Supply Co. is both lightweight and heavy duty simultaneously. The natural hemp fabric construction is contrasted by chambray details and features a cotton chambray liner with silver pin detailing. Herschel’s signature shoe pocket also is built in – because it already knows and loves you. herschelsupply.com
'Three Generations,' the O.J. show, Anthony Rapp, The Fifth Beatle
- May 20, 2015 - 2:11pm
Three Generations puts trans teen story in spotlight
British filmmaker Gaby Dellal, mostly known for her work as a director and actor in the U.K., just found herself in the middle of the deal-making world of the Cannes Film Festival. Her feature, Three Generations was the object of a $6 million buy from The Weinstein Company, who’ll now distribute in the United States. And the story is a timely one: a transgender teenager (Elle Fanning) begins the process of identifying as male, while the young man’s single mother (Naomi Watts) and lesbian grandmother (Susan Sarandon) do what they can to help. It has all the earmarks of a high-quality production, but will it be well received by trans audiences, who’ve become much more vocal lately about the cisgender (non-trans) casting choices employed in most trans stories? That’s the hope. But with the pool of real trans actors growing and their employment on the rise (Orange is The New Black, The Fosters, Transparent), the clock is ticking on how long this sort of thing can continue unquestioned.
The O.J. show is coming. You ready?
American Crime Story, the new series created by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, is on its way, filling the void left by Glee and – oh, wait, it’s not a musical? It’s not even occasionally a musical, like that one time when Stevie Nicks guested on American Horror Story? Well… we might still watch it, if only because the first season will be devoted entirely to the O.J. Simpson murder trial and the cast is just oddball enough: Cuba Gooding Jr as Simpson, as well as Sarah Paulson, John Travolta, David Schwimmer, Courtney B. Vance, Jordana Brewster, Selma Blair, Billy Magnussen, Connie Britton, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Kenneth Choi, Evan Handler and Cheryl Ladd (!), all recreating the Trial of the Century. And when it airs in 2016 we’ll find out if they convinced Travolta to sing something. You know he’d be into it.
Seasons of Love with Anthony Rapp and Kate Walsh
The gay indie film is in a weird place these days. There are more of them than ever, some good and some bad, and yet few of them, regardless of quality, seem to make much impact unless they come front-loaded with well known names in front of or behind the camera. That means it’s all on you, Kate Walsh and Anthony Rapp, best known for Grey’s Anatomy and Rent, respectively; you are the pair who’ll have to carry the weight of Modern Love on your shoulders, and we hope you’re up to the task. The film is from first time feature writer-director Joshua Tunick and it’s a small ensemble comedy starring Walsh and Rapp (as well as Mean Girls alum Jonathan Bennett), and it’s about a group of friends who help out a gay couple when their wedding plans hit the rocks. It starts shooting in June and that ought to put it in position for the 2016 festivals where, fingers crossed, the right people will 1) Like it. 2) Buy it. And 3) Get it out to the world of real audiences.
The Fifth Beatle was gay
Brian Epstein was the manager of the Beatles. He discovered them performing in a basement in Liverpool, England, and rode with them on the wave of massive success that followed. Another fact about Epstein: he was gay. And he struggled with that. It was the 1960s, after all, when just being gay was still illegal in America and the United Kingdom. Not exactly an easy life, no matter how much money you had or cultural capital you possessed. At age 32 he died of a drug overdose. A biography in graphic novel form, the acclaimed The Fifth Beatle, by Vivek J. Tiwary, is on bookstore shelves right now, and it has a fan in Simon Cowell, who plans to produce the film version. Tiwary has written a screenplay and will co-produce. And that’s everything right now: no director or stars just yet. So this one will keep developing.
