Accounting Firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Apologizes for Massive ‘Best Picture’ Oscar Flub

From: Towleroad

Moonlight took home the Oscar for Best Picture Sunday night after the most massive mistake in Oscar history in which La La Land was initially handed the award after a wrong envelope was given to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm behind the Oscar ballots, issued an apology late last night:

“We sincerely apologize to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture. The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.

“We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.”

pic.twitter.com/oGJkXytnQ2

— PwC LLP (@PwC_LLP) February 27, 2017

Academy Awards Ads Embrace Love, Inclusion And The LGBT Community

The commercials really are the best part.
From: NewNowNext

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about uniting the country, but it was advertisers who offered a glimmer of hope and empathy.

Cadillac’s latest “Dare Greatly” commercial, which debuted during Sunday’s ceremony, showed people gathering for protests and vigils, as well as moments of bravery and perseverance. Among the images were signs supporting LGBT rights and Muslim Americans, as well as shots of iconic Americans like Muhammed Ali and Marilyn Monroe.

“There’s quite a bit of soul-searching going on in the nation right now, and the creative community, in particular, is experiencing it at an intense level,” said Melody Lee, director of brand marketing at Cadillac. “It was important for us, as a brand, to try to make a statement, not politically and not necessarily socially, but to remind the country that we’re at our best when we come together.”

An earlier ad in the “Dare Greatly” series featured designer Jason Wu discussing his mother had been supportive of his playing with dolls and designing clothes from a young age.

“The Oscars is the Super Bowl of pop culture,” Lee told AdWeek. “It has the second-largest live audience after the Super Bowl, so it fits with our strategy of putting Cadillac at the center of culture. Our efforts are built around restoring the brand to where it used to be, as an icon of pop culture. Our goal is to build emotional resonance with the Gen X and Gen Y crowd, and this year, we’re trying to build historical relevance as well.”

But Cadillac was hardly the only sponsor to acknowledge the Oscars, one of the priciest nights of the year to buy ad space, have a sizable LGBT following: A same-sex wedding was among the events featured in a spot for Google Photo that aired several times.

And YouTube ran a spot for the new Gigi Gorgeous documentary, This is Everything..

Lady Gaga and Ellen DeGeneres appeared in an announcement for The Love Project, a Revlon-sponsored campaign supporting nonprofits including the Born This Way Foundation and The Trevor Project.

Google Doodle for February 28, 2017

Abdul Sattar Edhi’s 89th Birthday

Today's Doodle honors Abdul Sattar Edhi, a global-reaching philanthropist and humanitarian who made it his life’s mission to helping those in need.

Edhi was born in India but moved to Karachi shortly after Pakistan was formed. He soon noticed that many Pakistanis lacked shelter, medicine, education, and other essentials, and was moved to help in any way he could. He began by simply asking others around him to contribute time or money, especially when a flu epidemic hit Karachi. In a 2009 interview with NPR, he said, "I got medical students to volunteer. I was penniless and begged for donations on the street. And people gave."

In 1951, he established the Edhi foundation, which is funded solely by private donations. The foundation, which operates 24 hours a day, provides a variety of social services from homeless shelters to medical care — all free of charge — and has helped thousands of people around the world in times of need. Most notably, the foundation operates the world’s largest volunteer ambulance network in Pakistan. "In my entire life I have driven no other car except my ambulance," Edhi said.

Edhi was directly involved with the foundation throughout the rest of his life. He always focused more on those around him than on his own comfort or needs. In fact, he and his family slept in a room near the foundation's headquarters and had only a few belongings. But his charitable empire and "family" were vast — at the time of his death, he and his wife Bilquis were registered as parents or guardians of tens of thousands of Pakistani children. “My mission is to love human beings," he said in an interview. "Each day is the best day of my life."

Here’s to Edhi, whose unwavering commitment to others will always be remembered.

WHEN WE RISE: A Valiant Effort

From: Boy Culture

 When We Rise, ABC's miniseries event written by Dustin Lance Black to capture the long arc of the gay-rights movement, debuted, last night,  February 27 on ABC at 9 p.m. Positioned as a gay Roots, it isn't, at least judging from the opening installment.

Charlie Carver & Jonathan Majors seek a reprieve from the horrors of Vietnam.
 (Video still via ABC)

 A terrific idea bogged down by too broad a scope — the creatives seemingly try to jam in every aspect of the LGBTQ movement from the early '70s on  — When We Rise is further done in by a canned, stagey quality with dialogue that's forced to cue viewers about significant milestones rather than allowed to serve the characters. That makes it more docu than drama, and leads to a preachy tone.

 Among the performances, Jonathan Majors & Charlie Carver are briefly sweet together in a Vietnam War romance, Austin P. McKenzie has an ethereal idealism as young activist Cleve Jones and Emily Skeggs, whose character finds herself caught in the crossfire between the feminist and lesbian movements, nails the mix between personal coming-of-age and finding one's greater purpose.

Guy Pearce doesn't come off nearly as well.

Famous faces like him— Rosie O'Donnell, Whoopi Goldberg, Rachel Griffiths — tend to feel like stars whose presence helped get this made; friendly faces, but distracting more than acting.

Austin P. McKenzie as Cleve Jones
 (Image via ABC)

Though When We Rise is by no means great drama, let's hope it will draw in some non-gay viewers desperately in need of some enlightenment, and some LGBTQ viewers desperately in need of reminding that people fought and died for their rights — and that those rights could be in the process of going up in smoke.

Bottom line: Commendable endeavor, informative, occasionally quite watchable, but not great art. If you can live with that, you might find yourself hooked for the run.

A look inside Hollywood’s shameful absence of LGBTQ leading men & women

From: Queerty

 Fans of diversity at the Oscars have plenty of reason to celebrate. In a striking contrast with the nominees of the past two years, 2017 set a new record for inclusion. For the first time, each major category featured a person of color as a nominee, and in some cases, more than one. The Best Supporting Actress category featured an impressive three African-American nominees, including Naomie Harris, previous winner Octavia Spencer, and gay icon in the making Viola Davis.

This new level of inclusion extends beyond just African-Americans as well; the Indian Dev Patel picked up a Best Supporting Actor nomination, while rising Latino star Lin-Manuel Miranda took a nomination for Best Song. Much of this year’s diversity comes from the success of one film in particular—Moonlight, the story of a gay, African-American man growing up in Miami. And it could not have come at a better time with an unhinged “president” afflicting minorities of all sorts, in all sorts of ways.

But where does our community stand in terms of inclusion? Contrary to the claim of Oscar-winning musician Sam Smith in 2016, plenty of gay men have won Academy Awards. That said, acknowledging past queer winners and nominees becomes tricky. Laurence Olivier, George Bernard Shaw and Charles Laughton all took home Oscars, though none could live as openly gay in their day. Indeed, the Academy Awards have always loved diversity in more technical and behind the scenes roles, with the community racking up dozens of Oscars and nominations in categories like writing, directing and art direction. People have color have done better there, too, though that Barry Jenkins’ double nomination as the writer/director of Moonlight marks the first time since 1992 that an African-American has scored both says a lot.

Thus, the real diversity challenge at the Oscars becomes evident. It’s not that the Academy has a problem with queer artists; rather, it has a problem with out gay artists–particularly in front of the camera. While openly gay men like Bill Condon (writer of Gods and Monsters), Dustin Lance Black (writer, Milk) or Elton John have all taken home the statue, and while other out-and-proud cinephiles (Scott Rudin, producer of The Hours, Lee Daniels, director of Precious) have scored nominations, few actors could say the same.

While queer actors have won Oscars, only one openly gay actor has won an Academy Award: Linda Hunt. While the bisexual Angelina Jolie also has Oscar gold, the world tends to think of her as Hollywood’s first humanitarian mom, rather than the sexually fluid woman of her youth. Twice-winner Jodie Foster, while never denying her lesbianism, never made any public acknowledgement of her sexual orientation before her wins. Ian McKellen has also come close with two nominations to his name, though while tipped to win both times, he has yet to take Oscar home. Though Hollywood loves to award straight actors who play gay (Tom Hanks), lesbian (Charlize Theron), bisexual (Nicole Kidman) or transgendered (Hillary Swank) characters, recognizing queer actors for real-life achievements still makes tinsel town uncomfortable. Moreover, that only one said example—Daniels—is a person of color, further speaks to Hollywood’s issues with racial diversity.

Systemic Issues?

Where are the out gay actors? In general, women tend to have a bit of an easier time scoring big parts. Lesbians like Foster, Jolie, Ellen Page, Kate McKinnon and Ruby Rose all work often, and in a variety of roles. Out gay men have it much harder, particularly when it comes to leading parts. Rupert Everett, Zachary Quinto, and Matt Bomer all continue to work in film, though usually in supporting roles. That Quinto and Bomer, along with out actors Jim Parsons, Neil Patrick Harris, Luke Evans and Nathan Lane have all fared far better on television should also raise eyebrows. With the announcement of the GLAAD awards on January 31 including only two wide-release film nominees (one, Star Trek Beyond, had little queer content beyond an ambiguous hug) scored nominations, while comedy and drama TV series had ten contenders each.

Given the popularity and much broader success of gay performers on TV, the dearth of out leading actors in film becomes all the more questionable. While the industry often blames a resistance from the audience, the success of television performers suggests that viewers have no problem with gay actors in leading roles. The real problem, then, rests elsewhere. Part of the long-running issue with racial diversity and the Oscars has less to do with voter attitudes than with a lack of good roles for people of minority races.

With the queer community, the case is a bit different; it’s not that there aren’t parts for gay actors. Rather, Hollywood seems opposed to casting gay actors at all. For those of us that live and work “in town,” whispers about sexuality fuel a nonstop rumor mill. For that matter, so do the cautions against gay actors: sex scenes are fine, but never have a same-sex kiss (Hollywood considers the former “brave,” and the latter icky) .Avoid playing physical stereotypes like the butch lesbian or effeminate gay guy. Beware an actual coming out–casting directors will only cast gay actors as gay characters, and getting an agent will become even harder. The uber-macho and often sociopathic agents, managers and lawyers who to this day have open disdain for queer artists, often will accept them only begrudgingly as clients, it at all. Studios too might shoulder some of the blame, though the number of openly gay executives working in Hollywood would make such an assumption somewhat counter intuitive.

All the out-gay-successful performers chronicled here share another unnerving similarity—they’re all white. To come full circle on racial diversity, where are the out people of color—African-Americans, Latinos and especially Asians—in front of the cameras? Common sense recognizes that queer people of color exist in real life, so why do so few characters in the movies reflect as much? Movies love to cast gay characters as the best friend or as comic relief. Why can’t queer men and women kick ass in action pictures, or find love in mainstream romantic comedies?

The problem of Hollywood diversity, both in terms of race and in terms of sexuality & gender, extends far beyond Oscar recognition. Like other issues of race and homophobia in America, the lack of inclusion comes from systemic prejudice, and from a bigoted power class bent blocking progress for the sake of their own self-satisfaction. The lack of queer people of color, too, might have roots in the views on sexuality and gender within those racial communities—the way African-Americans, Latinos or Asians view LGBT folk within their own populations. Both the racial civil rights and LGBT movements have affirmed the same solution to both issues: courage and leadership. Only through trailblazing leaders, unafraid to suffer the wounds of standing on the front lines can progress come to fruition. It will take queer leaders from the African-American, Latino and Asian communities to help broaden the still-myopic view that only white, queer actors, or white, queer characters belong in the movies.

The success of the film Moonlight hints that perhaps those walls have begun to crumble, though even if true, tinsel town still has a long road to sojourn. Hollywood loves to put forward the image of celebrated diversity with award-bait movies.

The lack of openly gay performers in the movies, though, suggests real inclusion is little more than movie make-believe.

“Moonlight” Wins Best Picture In Unbelievable Upset

Review the full list of winners from the 2017 Oscars.
From: NewNowNext

 Right when it felt like Sunday night’s 89th Academy Awards ceremony was going to end without any surprises, there was a last-minute double shocker that stunned everyone—Moonlight beat out La La Land for Best Picture, but only after the movie musical’s name was mistakenly called first.

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway first announced La La Land as the winner of the night’s biggest prize, but halfway through the producers’ acceptance speeches, a shocking twist revealed that there had been a mistake, and Moonlight was the actual winner.

 Besides the last-minute upset, most of the other predicted winners walked home with trophies, including Emma Stone’s Best Actress win for La La Land and Viola Davis’ Best Supporting Actress victory for Fences.

Check out the full list of winners below:

BEST PICTURE

Arrival

Fences

Hacksaw Ridge

Hell or High Water

Hidden Figures

La La Land

Lion

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight (WINNER)

=============================

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea (WINNER)

Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge

Ryan Gosling, La La Land

Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic

Denzel Washington, Fences

=============================

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Isabelle Huppert, Elle

Ruth Negga, Loving

Natalie Portman, Jackie

Emma Stone, La La Land (WINNER)

Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

=============================

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Mahershala Ali, Moonlight (WINNER)

Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water

Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea

Dev Patel, Lion

Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals

=============================

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Viola Davis, Fences (WINNER)

Naomie Harris, Moonlight

Nicole Kidman, Lion

Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures

Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea

=============================

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Kubo and the Two Strings

Moana

My Life as a Zucchini

The Red Turtle

Zootopia (WINNER)

=============================

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Arrival

La La Land (WINNER)

Lion

Moonlight

Silence

=============================

COSTUME DESIGN

Allied

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (WINNER)

Florence Foster Jenkins

Jackie

La La Land

=============================

DIRECTING

Arrival

Hacksaw Ridge

La La Land (WINNER) 

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

=============================

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

Fire at Sea

I Am Not Your Negro

Life, Animated

O.J.: Made in America (WINNER)

13th

=============================

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

Extremis

4.1 Miles

Joe’s Violin

Watani: My Homeland

The White Helmets (WINNER)

=============================

FILM EDITING

Arrival

Hacksaw Ridge (WINNER)

Hell or High Water

La La Land

Moonlight

=============================

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Land of Mine

A Man Called Ove

The Salesman (WINNER)

Tanna

Toni Erdmann

=============================

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

A Man Called Ove

Star Trek Beyond

Suicide Squad (WINNER)

=============================

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

Jackie

La La Land (WINNER)

Lion

Moonlight

Passengers

=============================

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

“Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” from La La Land

Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

“Can’t Stop The Feeling” from Trolls

Music and Lyric by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster

“City Of Stars” from La La Land

Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (WINNER)

“The Empty Chair” from Jim: The James Foley Story

Music and Lyric by J. Ralph and Sting

“How Far I’ll Go” from Moana

Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda

=============================

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Arrival

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Hail, Caesar!

La La Land (WINNER)

Passengers

=============================

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

Blind Vaysha

Borrowed Time

Pear Cider and Cigarettes

Pearl

Piper (WINNER)

=============================

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

Ennemis Intérieurs

La Femme et le TGV

Silent Nights

Sing (WINNER) 

Timecode

=============================

SOUND EDITING

Arrival (WINNER)

Deepwater Horizon

Hacksaw Ridge

La La Land

Sully

=============================

SOUND MIXING

Arrival

Hacksaw Ridge (WINNER)

La La Land

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

=============================

VISUAL EFFECTS

Deepwater Horizon

Doctor Strange

The Jungle Book (WINNER)

Kubo and the Two Strings

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

=============================

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

Arrival

Fences

Hidden Figures

Lion

Moonlight (WINNER)

=============================

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

Hell or High Water

La La Land

The Lobster

Manchester by the Sea (WINNER) 

20th Century Women

Welcome To My Private Grotto

From: Brent's Auto Walls

“Moonlight” Takes Home Oscar For Best Adapted Screenplay

"We have your back, and for the next four years...we will not forget you."

From: NewNowNext

Director Barry Jenkins and original playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney accepted the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay on Sunday for turning McCraney’s play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, into a feature film.

The movie tells the three-part story of Chiron, a poor gay black man coming to terms with his sexual identity while growing up in Florida.

Both men used their Oscars speeches to offer hope and gratitude to disenfranchised viewers.

“All you people out there who feel like there’s no mirror for you, that your life is not reflected—the Academy has your back, the ACLU has your back, we have your back, and for the next four years, we will not leave you alone,” promised Jenkins. “We will not forget you.”

McCraney doubled down on the director’s sentiments with a special dedication.

“This goes out to all those black and brown boys and girls and non-gender conforming who don’t see themselves,” the playwright said. “This is for you.”

“Moonlight” Stars Dazzle In New Calvin Klein Underwear Campaign

"Everything I’ve wished for is happening.”

From: NewNowNext

Moonlight made history as the first LGBT-themed movie to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Now the film’s stars are giving us even more of a reason to celebrate: Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders and Mahershala Ali are appearing in an eye catching new campaign for Calvin Klein Underwear.

 We expect to hear a lot more from these handsome men: Ali, of course, took home the Best Supporting Actor award last night and 27-year-old Rhodes, a former track and field sprinter, is shooting two big-budget action films back-to-back—Horse Soldiers and a reboot of the Predator franchise.


 The shoot also had 21-year-old Sanders modeling his CK briefs, and 12-year-old Alex R. Hibbert, who played Chiron as a child, keeping it cool in a black t-shirt.





 “I’m a very spiritual person, but I’m realizing I have to be careful what I put out there,” Sanders confesses, “because everything I’ve wished for is happening.”

“Moonlight” Director Delivers Insight Into Film’s Suspenseful Diner Scene

Barry Jenkins spoke to "Entertainment Weekly" about his inspiration for the tense moment.
From: NewNowNext

 Moonlight was nominated for several Oscars this weekend, including Best Picture, for its groundbreaking portrayal of a young gay black man. Writer-director Barry Jenkins sat down with Entertainment Weekly recently to break down one of the film’s most poignant moments ahead of Sunday night’s Academy Awards.

Jenkins, who was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, discussed the scene in which the adult version of main character Chiron meets up with Kevin, the childhood friend he shared an intimate moment with when they were younger.

 The director discussed how he created the scene out of tense exchanged glances, and why the diner setting was so important.

“The idea for me was to place the characters in a scenario where there was no room for evasion,” Jenkins explained to EW. “I wanted them, in very simple terms, to have to look at one another in the eye.”

“It was wonderful to have a situation where we could see what time had done to these two people, to see how the world had reshaped them,” he added. “It was about trying to find the simplest setting for that.”

 Jenkins explained that the jukebox song, “Hello Stranger” by Barbara Lewis, was something he originally heard at a bar in San Francisco and couldn’t get out of his head.

“Later when I was writing, I’m basically sitting in a bar in Brussels, and I’m hearing this song in my head and typing the lyrics into the script, which I never do,” he said. “It was one of those things, again, where it didn’t come to me intellectually. The song had wormed its way into my heart.”

“It’s interesting because even in this script, we have these door bells visually, but even those were written into the script,” Jenkins explained. “The whole sequence in the diner is meant to function as time outside time because this character is being shaped by society so much.”

“Once we’re in this diner, society doesn’t exist,” he added. “It’s just me and another human being. If you want to choose to not open, it’s a choice. It’s not the result of outside pressure. That was the guiding principle for the whole sequence, but it was meant to come to a head in this booth.”

Head here to read his full breakdown of the scene with Entertainment Weekly.

“HOT LAD OF THE DAY!”

‘Tickled’ Filmmaker Discusses How His Twisted Doc Is Like Trump, Scientology and Gay-For-Pay Adult Films

From: Towleroad

 It’s no secret the internet is a strange place, but there are few recesses of the web more bizarre than the world of competitive endurance tickling — and not just for the reasons you might assume.

The documentary Tickled may have started as a curious look at another unusual sexual kink, but the resulting work is less about fetish and more about the money, harassment and legal positioning behind one of the largest purveyors of tickling videos.

When New Zealand filmmaker David Farrier began his outreach to Jane O’Brien Media, he was immediately met with hostility. The initial response aggressively asserted their objection to associating with a homosexual journalist. (Farrier identifies as bisexual.) The ensuing search for the powers behind Jane O’Brien truly must be seen to be believed, uncovering a 20-year-plus history of exploitation, manipulation and even “tickle cells” that recruit men throughout the country.

The film premiered on HBO and its streaming platforms tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern. The film has drawn so much ire from Jane O’Brien Media and the other associates featured in the film, it’s necessitated a short follow-up doc, The Tickle King, which will exclusively debut  tonight on HBO Now, HBO Go, HBO On Demand and affiliate portals.

Ahead of the film’s HBO premiere, we spoke with Farrier about how he approached the film, parallels to the porn world and what kind of guys are targeted for tickling.

I’m not the first person to make the connection, but I couldn’t help but notice the parallels here to Scientology.

It’s almost comically similar in their reaction to everything, whether it’s turning up to screenings, protesting websites, getting on Twitter. After Sundance, Kevin [Clarke, a Jane O’Brien Media associate] was tweeting journalists directly telling them that what they just watched was full of lies. Scientology parallels it pretty close.

It also feels like part of this bigger “fake news” discrediting culture.

Oh, totally! All this stuff happening in America at the moment resonates, I think, with Tickled, even though that wasn’t happening when we made the film. Donald Trump is President, and he is someone who I see as a bit of a bully. He harasses people on Twitter. He sues people. And this is all the behavior from Tickled. And then the whole fake news things. There is fake news, and then you’ve got President Trump coming in and co-opting that fake news thing to shut down the real news. It’s all this misinformation flying around. And that’s what we experience with the fallout to Tickled, this whole idea of the film being full of lies and being fake and ‘this is the truth is over here’ and ‘don’t look there, look here.’ It’s kind of mad.

That sort of cuts right to what this film is really about, because it’s not just a film about competitive tickling.

I think a documentary about tickling and the tickling fetish would be interesting and entertaining for about a half an hour. But beyond that, it wouldn’t be. And this very quickly becomes something that happens to be about tickling, but it’s not about tickling. It’s about power and control and harassment and all those things.

When you first learned about competitive tickling, what is the story you thought you were going to tell?

I just thought it was a weird, quirky, extreme sport that someone came up with. I thought it was like another ultimate Frisbee. Just some rich person’s idea of a sport. I just remember sitting in the newsroom in New Zealand, watching these very surreal tickling videos.

I was sitting in the sports department at the time for some reason, and I was showing the sports guys these tickling videos. And we’re all just crowded around the screen and just couldn’t believe what we were watching. They were unsettling, they were strange. The production values were quite high, like it was shot in high-def. They were long, like a half an hour. They’re in Adidas sportswear, and Adidas isn’t cheap. It’s like what is happening?

I just remember being dumbfounded by it and just immediately started emailing and posting on their Facebook wall trying to get someone to talk about it.

Did you also realize there was a sexual fetish aspect to this right away?

I didn’t instantly look at the videos and think this is definitely a fetish thing or a sex thing, but I definitely thought it was a possibility. I don’t know why. There was just something about it that seemed erotic in some way, and yet everyone had their clothes on. They were just young, fit, good-looking guys … I think there’s something in the back of anyone watching any of those videos’ mind that goes there’s something more to it.

Of course there was much more to it. There were so many red flags along the way, but what was the moment when you knew there was something much bigger at play?

When they flew three people from New York to Auckland, New Zealand to tell us specifically not to make the movie. By that point we had launched a Kickstarter campaign. When they flew in, that’s when we knew we had to make a film, it was obvious. Before that, when they hired an attorney in New York and New Zealand to write us letters, that was another red flag. But flying people physically to us was the big one.

That was a pretty provocative first meeting. I feel like there are points in this when it’s tense as a viewer to watch. Were there parts of filming when you were afraid?

Something for a New Zealander coming to America, I think I’m always paranoid that everyone will have a gun, because guns are big here. We were shooting in Florida and Missouri, and we’re in New York, and we’re in California. Each state felt a little dangerous for a different reason, in a way. Certainly approaching people in the street who didn’t want to be approached, we’re always very aware that things can turn darker quickly.

Other than that, I guess the main concern was just this constant fear of being sued more or coming under more legal threats. When we were filming, we were just super aware that we couldn’t trespass, we could’t do anything wrong. We had to be careful when we would record phone conversations, because in some states you’re allowed to record phone conversations, in some states you aren’t.

So we just had to be hyper aware of that, because we knew we were dealing with a company, like Scientology, that had more resources than us and could come after us, so we just didn’t want to make any obvious, silly mistakes.

One scene I found really interesting was the one with Richard Ivey. The way that scene is shot, it gets an aesthetic shift. It’s slowed down and eroticized a bit. What was your intent presenting that scene in that way?

Richard Ivey, we call him the good tickler. We didn’t want to demonize the whole of the tickling community. There’s nothing wrong with the fetish, it’s absolutely fine. With the slo-mo tickling, the idea of that was that you were almost in Richard’s head. Richard is someone who loves tickling, and going into slow-mo, and having that music and having that drama, it was kind of just showing how this tickling could be kind of beautiful and erotic and strange and interesting.

We did that again later when it came to shooting the MMA fighting, because we learned later in the film there was a tickling cell — tickle cell is such a weird term — in this MMA community. You can see the parallels between this hyper-masculine sport of MMA, where everyone is just all over each other and then tickling eroticism. There are similarities there. With Richard, it was mainly to put you in his head and see tickling like you hadn’t seen tickling before.

Most people, I think, see tickling as what you do with your kids or, when you’re growing up, your parents tickled you. You don’t see it in that other way … Everyone initially goes, ‘That can’t be a thing,’ and then they think about it for a bit and obviously it’s a thing. Why would it not be? As Ricahrd Ivey says, it’s like BDSM, but brought way down. It’s that kind of thing.

Did you find commonalities between the guys targeted for these tickle videos?

Absolutely. Most of the people that get involved in competitive tickling, they’re poor, they’re straight and they usually come from some kind of conservative background. That just seems to tie in to the next level of what we found, which is these tickling videos, once people are on tape, that’s used against them later down the line.

If you had an out and proud gay man with an accepting family and friends in these videos, all that harassment wouldn’t work. The reason it works is because, for these guys, being seen as being gay is a problem, and that’s what’s preyed upon. The people that get involved in competitive tickling are picked, I believe, very specifically.

I definitely got the sense these guys were vulnerable, but I also wondered if the type of guys used was part of the kink, like Gay For Pay porn.

It seems to me that part of the game is how do you get straight men to tickle each other? You make it a sport. Then it’s not gay, and it’s acceptable. That’s how everyone is drawn in. I think that’s part of the kink, so to speak.

Do you see any other parallels between what you uncovered in Tickled and the larger adult industry?

The parallels to the porn world are interesting. I don’t know a lot about the porn world apart from what I’ve read, and I’ve seen a few documentaries about it, but I think, like with tickling, there are people involved that are good, and there are people involved that are bad.

Richard Ivey, the good tickler, is an example of someone who is very clear about what the payment is, what the videos are for, how long are you going to work for, he’s got a safe work environment. He takes that very seriously and very personally. I think some pornography is hopefully like that. You get the other side, which is an industry that preys on people that want fame or success or money. Part of what you get with competitive tickling is you get to take some headshots to take home. Part of the deal is you get a portfolio of beautiful modeling shots.

A lot of these young people, they want to be models, or they want to be actors. For them, part of the joy of going to this tickling competition is the fact they might break out. Again, I think that’s for people going into porn, too. I think that’s what some people think they’re going in for, whereas they’ll just be used and discarded.

What have been some of the most surprising responses you’ve received to the film?

The most surprising thing is people that came to see Tickled — and I should reiterate, Tickled is not a fetish film, you’re not going to watch an hour and a half of erotic tickling, but there are a few little scenes in there that do touch on that — a few people have seen the film and have come up to Dylan and I and said ‘We didn’t know this, but we love tickling.’ And they’ve discovered in watching it, that it’s something they love. So that’s been funny and interesting and rewarding.

The other thing has been meeting people involved with Jane O’Brien media. This is a story that stretches back 20 years. The harassment has been going on for about 20 years. People have come to the film not knowing what it’s about and gone ‘Oh god, that’s happened to me 15 years ago!’ They come with this specific story, and that’s been really fascinating.

What do you hope is the lasting impact of the film?

I hope at some point that the authorities perhaps take action and look at stopping this ongoing harassment. I hope that happens. And I hope people watch it and are aware that you can still be tricked on the internet. I think a lot of people who grew up with the internet think they know it all. But there are still ways you can be tricked.

I hope that, it sounds too grand, but I hope that people watch it and just feel angry at this system we’re in at the moment, where the rich and powerful can completely shit all over the poor and powerless. .. And at the very simplest, I hope it’s a warning for people thinking of taking part in a competitive tickling competition. They can watch this and go, ‘Oh maybe I should think twice about doing this.’

Tickled premiered on HBO tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern.

‘Moonlight’ Wins Big at Independent Spirit Awards, Taking ‘Best Feature’ and 5 Other Trophies

From: Towleroad

The Barry Jenkins drama Moonlight, up for Best Picture and a number of other categories at tonight’s Oscars, took home six Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday including Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Cinematograpy, Editing and the Robert Altman award (for best cast/casting).

Highlights from the awards:

Here’s a winner’s list:

BEST FEATURE

Moonlight

Producers: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Adele Romanski

BEST MALE LEAD

Casey Affleck

Manchester by the Sea

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Isabelle Huppert

Elle

BEST DIRECTOR

Barry Jenkins

Moonlight

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Molly Shannon

Other People

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD

(Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast)

Moonlight

Director: Barry Jenkins

Casting Director: Yesi Ramirez

Ensemble Cast: Mahershala Ali, Patrick Decile, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monáe, Jaden Piner, Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

Toni Erdmann (Germany and Romania)

Director: Maren Ade

BEST SCREENPLAY

Moonlight

Barry Jenkins

Story By Tarell Alvin McCraney

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD

(Given to the best feature made for under $500,000)

Spa Night

Writer/Director: Andrew Ahn

Producers: David Ariniello, Giulia Caruso, Ki Jin Kim, Kelly Thomas

BEST DOCUMENTARY

O.J.: Made In America

Director/Producer: Ezra Edelman

Producers: Nina Krstic, Tamara Rosenberg, Caroline Waterlow

BEST FIRST FEATURE

The Witch

Director: Robert Eggers

Producers: Daniel Bekerman, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Jodi Redmond, Rodrigo Teixeira

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Moonlight

James Laxton

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

The Witch

Robert Eggers

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Ben Foster

Hell or High Water

BEST EDITING

Moonlight

Joi McMillon, Nat Sanders

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD

(Honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality, independent films. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget.)

Jordana Mollick

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD

(Presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.)

Nanfu Wang

Director of Hooligan Sparrow

KIEHL’S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD

(Recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Kiehl’s Since 1851.)

Anna Rose Holmer

Director of The Fits

‘La La Land’ producers accept ‘Moonlight’s’ best picture Oscar in massive flub

From: Queerty

There are flubs, and then there are flubs.

Presenters Warren Beaty and Faye Dunaway had the honor of awarding the Oscar for Best Picture at tonight’s 89th Academy Awards, announcing to the packed house and millions of TV viewers that La La Land was the victor.

The crowd erupted into applause, and amateur Oscar predictors the nation over breathed easy. Everyone expected the film to win.

But then something truly strange happened. A member of team La La Land took the mic to announce that there had been a mistake. “Moonlight won best picture.”

Apparently, Beaty and Dunaway read off the wrong card — one that listed Emma Stone winning for best actress — when they announced the winner.

As Moonlight’s shocked cast and crew assembled on stage, host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke out of the enormous mistake, telling the La La Land producers, “I’d like to see you win an Oscar anyway. Why can’t we give out a whole bunch of them?”

Well, because Moonlight won, and deservedly so. That’s why.

Watch the awkwardness below:

STILL SPEECHLESS pic.twitter.com/qe3NUDWAHM

— Barry Jenkins (@BandryBarry) February 27, 2017

Below, watch Mahershala Ali’s emotional acceptance speech after he was awarded the best supporting actor statue for his work in Moonlight:

‘Biggest Loser’ Fitness Coach Bob Harper Unconscious for Two Days After Serious Heart Attack

From: Towleroad

Biggest Loser fitness coach Bob Harper was hospitalized for 8 days after collapsing from a heart attack in a NYC gym two weeks ago, TMZ reports.

A doctor who was also working out administered CPR and used paddles to keep Bob alive.

The 51-year-old was taken to the hospital and says he woke up 2 days later. He was hospitalized for 8 days and is still in NYC — he lives in L.A. — because his doctors have not cleared him to fly.

He’s doing a lot better and his exercise for the time being is limited to walking. Bob — a fitness nut — says the heart attack is all genetics. His mom died from a heart attack.

We wish Harper the best of luck with his recovery.

trainerbob

My word of the day... LUCKY

He’s Naked: MTV’s ‘The Valleys’ Series 3 Reality Star Jack Watkins

From: OMG

 Jack Watkins, the muscle-bound reality star of MTV’s ‘The Valleys’ Series 3, showed off a non-tatted part of his body recently which you can find below!

Dish of the Day #95

From: Deep Dish

He’s Naked: Model and Katie Price-ex, Leandro Penna

From: OMG

 Model Leandro Penna is most known for dating UK page six girl, tabloid icon and refined flower Katie Price. You can find him showing off his own ‘penna’ on Skype below!