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| Ben Yehuda Street, Tel Aviv |
Sunday, June 11, 2017
365 Groovy Books Worth Reading
From: Deep Dish
83
David Merrick: The Abominable Showman
by
Howard Kissel
1993
I will let Carol Channing describe this interesting book about the Tony Award-winning producer (1911-2000):
"One of the most magical biographies of the theater I have ever read. Kissel spotlights in fascinating detail the legendary theatrical career of David Merrick. But he has also pulled back the curtain on a fallible, mortal and very complicated man."
Mr. Merrick's Broadway credits include Gypsy (1959), Subways Are for Sleeping (1961), Oliver! (1963), Hello, Dolly! (1964), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1966), Promises, Promises (1968), Mack & Mabel (1974), 42nd Street (1980) and State Fair (1996).
100 Most Eligible Bachelors, 2017
From: OUT
Alex Newell
Alex Newell is the singer and actor, best known for playing transgender student Unique Adams on the hit TV show Glee.
Alex Newell Āoncè (born Alex Eugene Newell) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for playing the transgender student Unique Adams on the Fox musical series Glee.
As a singer, Newell released tracks with Clean Bandit, Blonde and The Knocks. "This Ain't Over" is the first track on his 2016 debut EP, entitled POWER.
Top Dem Donor Calls On Lawmakers To Take Up Trump Impeachment
The base wants it. Now a big-name funder does too.
From: Huffington Post
One of the Democratic Party’s top donors is urging lawmakers to begin impeachment proceedings for President Donald Trump.
Tom Steyer, the wealthy environmentalist turned super PAC funder, has penned a letter laying out the case that Trump has met the definition of obstruction of justice, and compelling lawmakers to act accordingly.
“The clear and undisputed facts about Mr. Trump’s attempt to impede an FBI investigation demand an immediate impeachment inquiry by the House of Representatives,” Steyer writes. “The facts that we know already exceed standards for presidential impeachment for obstruction of justice set in 1974 and 1998.”
Written as a plea to Republicans, Steyer’s letter is likely to fall on deaf ears. GOP lawmakers tend not to take directives from major Democratic funders. But within Democratic circles, it represents an important legitimization of the impeachment push.
To date, Democratic leadership has left impeachment talk to the far corners of the party, fearful that anything more would risk turning off voters. Indeed, operatives tasked with regaining seats in Congress have openly stated that they prefer that discussion be on health care reform rather than removing the president from office.
Steyer isn’t part of the party fringe. He is a major player within the moneyed ranks. And in stating forcefully that he believes Trump has met the standards of impeachment, he is signaling to lawmakers that there is support for the idea not just among their grassroots supporters but among the donor class too.
His full letter is both HERE and below:
Republicans Set A Standard For Impeachment — And Trump Has Met It
Former FBI Director James Comey’s explosive testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee began with an unambiguous declaration that the President of the United States lied about his firing. He went on to raise serious questions about Trump’s efforts to impede an FBI investigation into possible collusion between Trump or his associates and the Russian government. These questions require immediate investigation by an independent commission free of Trump’s interference.While there is much that requires further investigation, we cannot continue to stick our heads in the sand in avoidance of what is already known. Impeachment of an elected president is an act of enormous magnitude that must not be undertaken lightly or in response to routine political disagreements or policy differences. But the seriousness of the remedy speaks not only to the danger of its misuse, but to the importance of using it when appropriate. Our system depends on trust and goodwill. Breaking of norms and disregard for decency have huge, long-term costs. No one can be immune from our laws; everyone must be held to account. If Congress does not uphold that principle, it will have done more damage to our democracy than Russia could ever hope to.The clear and undisputed facts about Mr. Trump’s attempt to impede an FBI investigation demand an immediate impeachment inquiry by the House of Representatives.
- While running for office, the president of the United States publicly asked Russia to reveal his opponent’s email correspondence.
- Russia successfully interfered in our presidential election with the intent of helping Trump, by hacking the computer systems of his opponent
- The president’s closest associates, including his Attorney General, former National Security Adviser, and son-in-law have made false claims under oath during background checks and confirmation hearings about their contacts with agents of the Russian government
- The President has said on national television that he fired the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation because of the FBI’s investigation of Russian electoral interference.
These facts are not in serious dispute ― indeed, two of them are simply the president’s own televised words. Other recent revelations are similarly concerning:
- Trump reportedly asked the Director of National Intelligence, in presence of the Director of the CIA, to impede the FBI investigation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, a close Trump associate who kept secret his contacts with Russia..
- Former FBI Director James Comey has testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that Trump requested his “loyalty” ― a request House Speaker Paul Ryan acknowledges is an inappropriate threat to the FBI’s independence ― and urged him to drop the Flynn investigation.
- Trump reportedly told Russian officials that firing Comey had relieved “great pressure because of Russia.”
The facts that we know already exceed standards for presidential impeachment for obstruction of justice set in 1974 and 1998.The first article of impeachment recommended by the House Judiciary Committee in 1974 stated that President Nixon, “in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice.” The Committee specifically accused Nixon of “interfering or endeavouring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by … the Federal Bureau of Investigation” and “endeavouring to misuse the Central Intelligence Agency.”When House Republicans impeached President Bill Clinton in 1998, they cited his alleged obstruction of an investigation into a matter far less consequential than possible collaboration with a successful Russian attack of American democracy. One of two articles of impeachment passed by the House asserted that Clinton, “in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice.” Explaining his support for Clinton’s impeachment, Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte said: “the President knowingly engaged in a calculated pattern of lies, deceit, and delay in order to mislead the American people [and] impede the search for truth.” Rep. Goodlatte now serves as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, which has responsibility for conducting impeachment hearings.The facts we already know ― facts that are not in dispute, including the President’s own televised statements ― easily meet the standards for impeachment set by Congressional Republicans in 1998, many of whom are still in office.The President of the United States has admitted firing an FBI Director over an investigation into Russian election interference on his behalf ― the most serious foreign attack on American democracy since our nation’s founding. We must demand answers to many grave questions arising from this crisis, but the most urgent is this: How are Congressional Republicans going to hold to account a president whose efforts to obstruct an FBI investigation clearly meet the standards for impeachment articulated by Congressional Republicans fewer than twenty years ago?
D.C. Capital Pride Parade Rerouted Over No Justice No Pride Protest
From: Boy Culture
A day ahead of the National Equality March in D.C., the D.C. Capital Pride Parade was disrupted by a group of protesters representating No Justice No Pride, who sought to call attention to the parade's “deeply problematic” sponsors.
Joe.My.God. reports the protesters successfully blocked the parade, which had to be rerouted in order to proceed.
— Mijente (@ConMijente) June 10, 2017
Among the sponsors the protesters find inconsistent with LGBTQ rights and equality: the FBI, the NSA, the CIA, Wells Fargo, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
I must say, I do find some of those to be gross, er, partners, and it surprises me some would even want to sponsor Gay Pride, let alone be welcomed to do so. However, an argument could be made that we're taking back some of their money and using it to promote our equality and visibility; the money isn't going in the opposite direction.
And this year, with our rights on the line, it feels counterproductive to attempt to rob tens of thousands of people of their annual chance to march and show LGBTQ pride and have fun.
I can only surmise it will pit most of the community against this group and have the opposite effect.
History's 125 Hottest Gay-Porn Stars
From: Boy Culture
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| Queens' Branson |
44
Mike Branson
One of the biggest superstars of the 1990s, Branson was renowned as a top not only for his ability to always be hard at work but to always have something nasty to say to whomever was on the receiving end of his claim to fame. Mountainous and manly and as good-looking as they come, he's burned into many a brain from his appearances in The Freshmen (1997), The Chosen (1997), Manhandlers (1997), Hardline (1997), California Kings (1997) and especially Basic Plumbing II (1998). Rumors abound as to what he's been up to for the past 14 years—an engineer, a lawyer, an environmental activist, a...circuit judge? (maybe a judge at a circuit-party wet teabag contest), suggesting he may be one of the most sought after whatever-became-ofs in porn.
Arizona Diamondbacks hosting LGBT Pride Night June 27
Outsports partnering with Diamondbacks on Pride Night
From: OutSports
From: OutSports
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| The Arizona Diamondbacks will celebrate Pride Night on Tuesday, June 27. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images |
They are at least the 12th Major League Baseball team to announce a Pride Night during Pride Month, and over half of the teams are having one this season.
The team has hosted smaller LGBT events in the past, but this is the first time the organization is putting all of its muscle behind an LGBT Pride Night.
The Diamondbacks are partnering with various organizations, including Outsports, to promote the night and make it as powerful as possible. They will be announcing other special additions to the night in the next few days. The team is already including a special LGBT reception before the game.
Ticket prices for the event start at $20. So if you’ll be in Phoenix that night, be sure to grab your friends, grab some tickets and help make the Diamondbacks’ Pride Night a big success.
For tickets to the Arizona Diamondbacks Pride Night, click here.
Kylie Minogue’s 49 Best Songs, Ranked!
From: NewNowNext
44.
“Illusion”
They’re often compared, but Kylie Minogue comes closest to entering Robyn’s world of dizzy dance floor wonderment on “Illusion,” the Aphrodite non-single that loses itself in a hypnotic, beeping motif in every chorus. An underrated Kylie moment.
Olivia Newton-John's 69 Greatest Songs, Ranked!
From: NewNowNext
64
RECOVERY
1981
An overlooked gem from Physical, the biggest selling studio album of her career.
The Story Behind Pulse's Unclaimed Victim
The young man's father refused to accept his son's remains after discovering he was gayFrom: The Advocate
The news had to hit hard. For those families who waited all day after news of the Pulse Nightclub shooting first broke, the confirmation process moved at a painfully slow pace. Many parents had to wait more than 24 hours to find out for certain why their child would not pick up the phone and verify they were OK. The loved ones of the 49 killed that night learned heartbreaking news that suddenly shifted their emotion from worry to sorrow and redirected their energy toward funeral plans.
But one father greeted news a different way, not by weeping for his son but in anger toward a child he refused to accept. Why? Because the child was gay. The father wouldn’t even take the body from the morgue.
That one father who responded to the worst mass shooting in U.S. history by rejecting his gay son’s remains struck a chord far too familiar to many LGBT people. For journalist Maria Padilla, who broke the story on her website, Orlando Latino, it showed not only the tragic consequences of an attack so squarely striking the gay community but also the particular social stigma poisoning families in socially conservative Puerto Rico, where the young man was from. “It was one of those things brought to light by what happened in Pulse,” Padilla says, “one of the things many people in the Orlando community didn’t know was happening at all.”
People found out quickly. Suddenly, Padilla’s story won attention from national and international media outlets, including The Advocate.
Padilla elected not to reveal the name of the victim or his father in her story, and she still will not do so because of concern about revictimizing anyone in the family. The Advocate did confirm the account through other sources, many of whom could not identify the victim because of medical confidentiality.
Nearly a year after the shooting, the tale continues to compel, and it’s only one story from the tragedy spotlighting how homophobia only worsened a tragedy already tearing families apart.
Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan can get overwhelmed discussing the family issues surrounding Pulse, particularly since the issue of sexual orientation so dominated the narrative of the tragedy. Sheehan isn’t squeamish discussing sexuality; in 2000 she became the first openly gay elected official in central Florida. But while details of her identity have been plastered in headlines for decades, the sexual orientation of numerous victims had been a private matter until their deaths. After the crime occurred in her district, she found herself on the phone with several confused parents who had the same question: “What was our son doing in that club with that man?”
It’s to be expected with a tragedy at a gay club where most victims were in their 20s. That the shooting took place on Latin night meant the majority of the dead hailed from Orlando’s substantial Puerto Rican community. The fact that millennials come out at a younger age than previous generations means less in Hispanic cultures. “In Latin America it’s not as accepted,” Sheehan says. Speaking with local Latino business leaders, Sheehan has learned many remain fearful about a child growing up to be gay. “There’s still a lot of machismo,” she says. “A different level of pressure comes with that.”
Even so, it surprised her to learn a father had refused remains. She researched and found that before the shooting this father had indeed been unaware that his son was gay. That news tore at the family when they already had to reckon with the son’s unexpected death.
After being contacted by the medical examiner’s office, Sheehan started researching what the city could do to claim the victim as a ward of the state. Orlando had already promised that any Pulse victim would be provided a burial plot, if necessary, at city-owned Greenwood Cemetery. If no family member would accept the remains, the person would be buried there, alongside four other victims.
In the week after the Pulse shooting, the Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office had to deal with one of the deadliest crime scenes in U.S. history but still manage to get the remains of all victims of the attack into the hands of next of kin within four days. Joshua Stephany, who was promoted to chief medical examiner two days after the attack, says the greatest delays related to the criminal investigation, not reluctance on the part of family to accept the bodies. Even after national media descended upon Orlando, most of the victims who died inside the club lay on the ground at the crime scene while the FBI did its initial work.
The majority of the bodies were transferred to family by the close of business June 14. On June 15, the remains of Amanda Alvear and of Javier Jorge-Reyes were claimed by family, and Akyra Murray, the youngest victim of the attack, was picked up June 16.
Technically, the last “victim” remains released were those of shooter Omar Mateen, who was killed by police in the attack. That wasn’t because of any dispute with family but because the FBI wanted a complete autopsy of the killer. His remains would be released June 19. During the time his body remained at the same facility as the victims,’ it was kept in a separate area out of respect for the families.
What happened once families received remains, though, showed various definitions of “acceptance.”
The family of Shane Tomlinson, a singer who performed at clubs throughout the Orlando area, initially had trouble finding a church to host the Pulse victim’s funeral. “They wouldn’t give him a service because he was gay,” mother Corliss Tomlinson told CNN’s Don Lemon.
There have been other issues as well, often with divorced parents fighting about what should take place with remains. Christopher Hansen has been working with artist Michael Pilato on a mural honoring the victims in Orlando, and said in the course of research the team learned of a father who took a son’s remains back to Puerto Rico and promised he’d be buried in a family plot, then elected instead to move him to a nearby pauper’s field.
Sheehan has worked with that victim’s mother, who lives in Orlando, to look into having the remains moved back to the U.S. to be interred at Greenwood Cemetery. She can’t say for certain the cause of friction over the victim’s remains, but she knows that about 10 of the victims of the attack had divorced parents who could not agree on how to handle remains. “There’s a lot of drama that goes on, especially when you have warring parents,” Sheehan says. “We have some parents who accepted their kids were gay, and some who didn’t.” The variety in stories can extend from Brenda Marquez McCool, who was in the club with her gay son and died protecting him, to the father who wouldn’t take remains after his son had died.
“There’s at least four situations where one parent accepted their child and one didn’t,” Sheehan says. “This only happens in the LGBTQ community. It’s horrible.”
At least in the instance of the victim not claimed by his father, his sister ultimately stepped in and accepted the body.
Padilla says she has tried to reach out to that victim’s family on occasion over the year, hoping to learn more about where the family stands today. Loved ones thus far have remained reluctant to speak too much about the tragedy.
While the story of the unclaimed victim showed the world a troubling reality, it never truly shocked the reporter. And the tale seemed an important one to tell, but it still took Padilla aback how many wanted to read about it. “I was not aware of how much that story was going to resonate with people,” she recalls. “I was unprepared for the rush of phone calls, emails, and all the reaction I got.”
To her, the tale seemed symptomatic of a broader lack of acceptance of homosexuality within the Latin world. She notes that the lone Hispanic member of the Orlando City Commission, Tony Ortiz, in 2014 voted against the city supporting a lawsuit fighting the state’s same-sex marriage ban. “One of the things I did [after Pulse] was to talk to churches after the vigils,” she says. “What I found out is not much has changed.” Many church leaders in Orlando even today decry homosexuality as a sin.
That in the year after the Pulse massacre, the shooting would become widely associated with LGBT people ahead of Latinos only exacerbated emotions in many quarters of Orlando. Some of that stems from thoughts of erasure; stories may mention it was Latin night at Pulse when the shooting occurred, but almost all refer to Pulse as a gay club, while very few news accounts note that more than half the victims were Puerto Rican. “The LGBTQ community was really quick in embracing what happened,” Padilla says, “and really came out strongly because they were so outraged by it. But that may have overshadowed everything else.”
Orlando Police Show Off Pulse Murals — Amazing Work!
What breathtaking murals!
From: Boy Culture
From: Boy Culture
This amazing mural at the #Pulse site tells 1,000 stories. And also features our beloved OPD Lt. Debra Clayton. ❤️💛💚💙💜#OrlandoUnited
Sport Sunday: Sidney Crosby in the pool, Rafa Nadal and the Old Dark Navy Blues
From: Speed o Rex
The Pittsburgh Penguins could take all the glory tonight, at the Nashville Predators, in game 6 of the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup finals. Pittsburgh leads the series, and could win it. Nashville, though, wants to measure up to their name, and tie the series, which the Penguins lead 3-2. This series has been about home field advantage, with the hosts winning each game. Pittsburgh didn't disappoint the home crowds on Thursday, pulling out a win to get the go ahead game. Penguins' Sidney Crosby has played aggressively in the series, and several altercations have broken out between him and Predators P.K. Subban. "Still a lot of work to be done," Crosby said. "We know we're going to face a desperate team. We've already played two games there and know the atmosphere and know how much they feed off their fans. We've still got a lot of work to do there." Crosby has been so invested in the action, that while on the bench Thursday night, he actually threw a water bottle onto the ice to protest a call. The Penguins have a chance to win the fifth Stanley Cup in franchise history and capture the first back-to-back Cup wins in the salary-cap era (since 2005) when Game 6 travels to the madhouse in Nashville tonight.
In France: Roland Garros stadium will see an exciting French Open final between two veterans, Rafael Nadal vs. Stan Wawrinka. Nadal, aiming to be the first man to ever win a grand slam singles title 10 times, has a perfect 9-0 record in his previous nine appearances in the closing match of the tournament, he absolutely dominated on clay from his premier at the highest levels until 2014. Wawrinka has a perfect record in grand slam finals. He is a bit older than Nadal, but in his career he has played three and won three. He beat an injured Nadal in the 2014 Australian Open, and he convincingly beat No 1 Andy Murray on Friday. Wawrinka is strong both physically and mentally. He was the better player against Murray on Friday, and despite being a break up conspired to drop the first set. Nadal is the favorite, though, for Sundays meeting, but he faces in Wawrinka a very capable and strong opponent.
In Bermuda, in America's Cup action, Sweden is in the middle of the "final" series of the round robin, facing New Zealand. The winner of this final will meet the United States in the overall final when these nine days of racing are over.
In Australia, in Football Action, today the featured match pits the Greater Western Sydney Giants against the Carlton Blues at the Etihad Stadium, home of Aussie Rules Football. In this season, it seems nothing is certain. The Giants sit atop the AFL ladder for the first time and have defeated the Blues in their past four encounters. They are burdened under injuries, though, and are not playing at full strength. Carlton, though is coming off a bye and so is rested and hopeful, despite losing the past three games. The Blues are a young team, and poorly placed, at 17th. Every week, though, they seem to improve. Carlton has not beat the Giants since 2013, but are primed to do so this afternoon. How could you not love Carlton's fight song?
We are the Navy Blues
We are the Old Dark Navy BluesWe're the team that never lets you downWe're the only team old Carlton knowsWith all the championsThey like to send usWe'll keep our end upAnd they will know that they've been playingAgainst the famous Old Dark Blues
8 Beautiful Broadway Boys To Leave You Thirsty
Kevin Spacey is hosting Broadway's biggest night on June 11
From: NewNowNext
From: NewNowNext
From performances to choreography, the Tonys will celebrate the best of Broadway when they air this tonight. One award we won’t see given out during the telecast, however, is Best Broadway Body.
But since the men of The Great White Way work tirelessly to keep themselves in performance shape, we’re listing eight of our favorites to help whet your appetite before Sunday’s ceremony.
1
Ramin Karimloo
from
Anastasia
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The Family That Slays Together: A Review of MENENDEZ: BLOOD BROTHERS & A Discussion With Directors Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato
From: Boy Culture
(All images via Lifetime)
(All images via Lifetime)
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| Myko Olivier (L) & Nico Tortorella (R) as Erik & Lyle Menendez |
“This is a case Randy and I were gripped by when it happened,” acclaimed filmmaker Fenton Bailey told me of his work with Randy Barbato co-directing a new scripted film about the Menendez Brothers' murders. “Now, 25 years later, it felt like, 'You can take a new look at the story.' We're always drawn to stories where people are overexposed but, we feel, underrevealed.”
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| The Menendezes as envisioned by Bailey & Barbato |
From its creepy opening, showing idyllic images of Beverly Hills while the late Kitty Menendez (Courtney Love) types up her son Erik's (Myko Olivier) gory manuscript — ahead of a nightmarish sequence depicting the shotgun killings of Kitty and her husband Jose (Benito Martinez) by their sons — Menendez: Blood Brothers is a gripping, suspenseful, stylish take on one of the most shocking crimes of the late 20th Century.
It is also, as promised, revelatory.
You will never touch him again, and if you do, everyone will know what you did to him. What you did to both of us. — Erik Menendez, Menendez: Blood Brothers
Thanks to the unblinking but never leering eye of Bailey and Barbato (RuPaul's Drag Race, I Am Britney Jean, The Eyes of Tammy Faye), the film has none of the cheese factor of other Lifetime fare, like Britney Ever After, and gutsily dares to operate from the premise that the infamous Menendez Brothers — while not justified in offing their parents — may be telling the truth regarding their motivation, namely, that their dad was molesting Erik and had done the same in the past to Lyle (Nico Tortorella).
“At the time,” Bailey says, “it was all about the 'abuse excuse' and doubting that they were molested. But we thought, 'What if they were just telling the truth? What if they were molested by their father?' The more research we did, the more sense it made that they probably were.”
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| Were they raised to kill? |
When the crime occurred in 1989, part of the brothers' defense — they were tried twice and convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1996 — was that they had been abused emotionally, physically and sexually by their music-mogul dad, and that their mother had known and done nothing. But did the jury take the alleged abuse seriously?
Twenty-five years ago, did America even see sexual abuse in the same light as it is seen today?
Bailey told me, “Now, we know so much more about sexual abuse. Even then, the idea of battered-woman syndrome was a really new, novel defense. I think we became more convinced this was not a normal, healthy family situation; this was a very dysfunctional family. Not that that’s an excuse for doing what they did.”
Erik Menendez is a homosexual. Now, if the defendant were engaging in consensual homosexual sex, wouldn't that explain how he could describe such graphic sexual encounters with his father? — Deputy D.A., Menendez: Blood Brothers
Let's not forget what they did, but there is room to ask why they did it.
Menendez: Blood Brothers is not a documentary, so while it is fact-based, it has a point of view, one in which the brothers believed their parents were about to kill them, fearing exposure of Jose's sexual abuse, and acted preemptively, gunning down their parents and then euphorically spending some of their fortune before being apprehended and facing justice.
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| Olivier's Erik is the soul of the film; if you have any empathy for the brothers, it's through Erik. |
The film contains a lovely, fragile performance by Olivier and a surprisingly stolid one from Tortorella as the mastermind who hasn't thought things through; you can see the wheels turning in his head, but his dead gaze betrays his lack of true cunning. The film also finds a way — that you will love or hate — to feature plenty of screen time for Love, even though her character is eliminated early on. Similarly, her take on a feckless, enabling society wife will either excite you or leave you cold, but her director Barbato boldly calls her a “contender” in the role. Will she generate Emmy buzz the way she once generated Oscar buzz, for The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)?
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| Love is the third actress to portray Kitty Menendez, after the late Jill Clayburgh & Beverly D'Angelo. |
“She was the first choice from the get-go,” he says. “She just embodies the character in so many ways.”
Interestingly, the movie is devoid of camp, even though it features a scene in which Courtney Love's Kitty tears off Lyle's toupee — and that's a neat trick.
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| Why? |
It does, however, have a lot of skin. “Sex is present in the whole story,” Bailey stresses. “We don’t shy away from that at all. There were rumors about Erik being gay and Lyle being gay ... In talking with people who’ve been sexually abused and victims of incest, they question their own sexuality and their own willingness to be in that situation. It’s very complex, it’s very layered.”
Indeed, though the film is steeped in sex, it's unlikely to provide jack-off material. Barbato says, “We don’t shy away from controversial material. This is controversial on many levels. Just having a discussion about sexual abuse with men is still, to this day, not really something that’s discussed in the mainstream, yet it is something that occurs.”
Ms. Abramson, you are presenting a case based on battered-women syndrome. The defendants are men! ... You can't be a battered woman, Ms. Abramson, if you're a man. — Judge, Menendez: Blood Brothers
The film's sexuality is dead-serious, but at the time the boys used their alleged molestation as a defense, people mocked it. Bailey argues, “You see things that are on the edge of the culture ... people laugh about it and mock it at first. We’ve seen the same thing regarding gender in the last few years — there’s been so much change.”
If there is anything lacking in the engrossing film, it might be that it doesn't have adequate time for the many emotional beats screenwriter Abdi Nazemian manages to fit into its script. But considering how two-dimensionally the case was covered by the media way back when, seeming to be more interested in the Menendezes' flamboyant attorney's (a pitch-perfect Meredith Scott Lynn) antics than in genuinely trying to understand why two young men who had everything threw it all away with the squeeze (okay, 15) of a trigger, Menendez: Blood Brothers goes deep.
Do the co-directors want their film's subjects — still imprisoned, still housed separately after all these years — to see the work of art they've inspired?
“Not sure if they get Lifetime in prison, maybe there's some streaming,” Barbato jokes. Then, more seriously, he tells me, “I hope they see it. The majority of the film is rooted in fact, all of the procedural stuff is based on court documents, and while we took artistic liberties, we hope they get to see it because I do think it’s the beginning of imagining ... 'What if they’re telling the truth?'”
Watch Menendez: Blood Brothers tonight on Lifetime.
Scissor Sisters And MNDR Release “Swerlk,” A Collab Song To Honor Pulse Victims
From: NewNowNext
“SWERLK?”
No, that’s not a typo. It is, however, the latest musical collaboration from MNDR and Scissor Sisters, released Friday by GLAAD and the Huffington Post.
The brainchild of two LGBT-friendly music powerhouses, “SWERLK” is a track that aims to foster unity and honor the 49 lives lost in last year’s Pulse Nightclub shooting. The title is a clever fusion of popular ways to shimmy in the club; it’s what you get when you combine twerk, twirl, werk, swirl, and swerve.
“MNDR and I were talking about how we wouldn’t exist without the culture around the clubs and the bars and the kind of escapes they provided and complete support system for what we were both doing when we started our projects,” Babydaddy of Scissor Sisters told HuffPost. “So it was this sort of, We’re not just supportive but also in debt to this culture.”
The track is an EDM anthem for the ages, packing dance-worthy beats and catchy lyrics into an infectious 5-minute jam. You’ll definitely want it on your Summer 2017 playlist.
All of the proceeds from “SWERLK” will be donated to the Contigo Fund, an organization formed in the wake of of the Pulse massacre to support LGBT and Latinx communities in the Central Florida area.
Listen to “SWERLK” on Spotify.
Roger Smith, ‘77 Sunset Strip’ Star and Ann-Margret’s Husband, Dies at 84
From: Variety
Roger Smith, who starred in the series “77 Sunset Strip” and was married to actress Ann-Margret, died June 4th in Sherman Oaks. He was 84.
The handsome leading man retired from acting after being diagnosed with myasthenia gravis in 1980. After that, he managed his wife’s career and produced several of her TV specials. The couple had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on May 8.
On “77 Sunset Strip,” Smith played detective Jeff Spencer, who partnered with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as his partner. The show ran from 1958 to 1964, though Smith left in 1963. His Spencer character made appearances on other detective shows of the period including “Surfside 6” and “Hawaiian Eye.”
After “77 Sunset Strip” ended its run, Smith had the title role in the comedy series “Mr. Roberts,” adapted from the movie about a World War II Navy lieutenant.
He also appeared in movies including “Man of a Thousand Faces,” “No Time to Be Young” and “Auntie Mame.”
He is survived by his wife, and a daughter and two sons from his first marriage.