Spring is in the air! Time to get outside and revel in that special time between mudslide and fire season and before the next COVID surge hits.
Don't Say Gay
Jojo Siwa, pop singer, dancer and outspoken advocate for LGBTQ civil rights, wasn't invited to the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, but her song was played. So the social media queen who last week traded her trademark ponytail for a super cute soft butch short do, took to Instagram to say, "I don't want anyone to think it was my choice not to go. I simply didn't get an invite."
Siwa said that her song "One Chance" was used during awards show. "My song made the cut, but not me."
Since coming out as "gay" and "queer" in January 2021, the 18-year-old film and TV star has been using her many platforms to spread the LGBTQ love. Fie on Nickelodeon for bowing to Don't Say Gay pressure.
The First Lady
We saw Oscar/Emmy/Tony-award winner Viola Davis on Jimmy Kimmel Live the other night sporting a green velvet pantsuit, a purple blouse and a big laugh. Davis was there to tout her latest project, The First Lady.
The anthology drama series, created by actor and screenwriter Aaron Cooley, premiered on Showtime April 17. The First Lady stars Viola Davis as Michelle Obama, Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford and Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt.
British actor O. T. Fagbenle stars as Barack Obama and Aaron Eckhart is Gerald Ford. Keifer Sutherland plays FDR and Lily Rabe plays Eleanor's lover, journalist Lorena Hickok. Also starring are Dakota Fanning as Susan Ford, Julian DeNiro as the young Obama, out lesbian actress Clea DuVall as Malvina "Tommy" Thompson, Eleanor's private personal assistant, and a plethora of other actors including Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn as Sara Delano Roosevelt.
Davis is flat-out brilliant as Michelle Obama, a role she told Kimmel made her anxious about what the former first lady, for whom she has tremendous respect, might think. Pfeiffer is a surprise as Ford, bringing a wholly different dimension to what we thought we knew about her.
Anderson, who played British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the fourth season of Netflix drama series The Crown so convincingly her portrayal had her trending on social media, brings Eleanor to vivid life.
Unlike Michelle Obama, who we all got to see evolve in real time over eight years in the White House, Eleanor Roosevelt is known to us via a pastiche of newsreel footage and PBS specials. Anderson makes her a woman of deep emotion and quiet elegance, infused with a passion for creating change and helping others. The First Lady is a must-see series.
Law & Order: Organized Crime
On Law & Order: Organized Crime, Danielle Moné Truitt plays Sgt. Ayanna Bell, detective Elliot Stabler's (Chris Meloni) partner. Truitt portrays the only lesbian character in a starring role on network TV. Bell's wife, Denise Bullock (Keren Dukes), just had a baby. Emmy-winner Ron Cephas Jones plays Congressman Leon Kilbrideand a powerful and corrupt Black politician trying to propel Bell forward, with him as her handler.
During an interview with NBC's TODAY show, Truitt talked about the response of gay and lesbian fans to her representation of Black gayness on TV.
"Someone walked by, and he was like, 'Thank you for being an ally for us!'" Truitt said. "I was like, 'You're welcome!' Very cool."
"I've had lesbian women, especially Black lesbian women, message me and say they feel seen and supported by having Bell on their TV every Thursday," she said.
Truitt spoke about how acting "is something that you love to do and fun," but added that there was this other aspect as a Black actor playing a character like Bell. "They [viewers] feel seen," she said, "and that's kind of like a gift that comes along with being in this profession." (www.today.com)
Tuckered out
Fox's ratings king Tucker Carlson has been bragging about being unvaccinated. The Fox 'News' host announced at an evangelical church event that he's unvaccinated against COVID-19. This goes against Fox policy which mandates employees be fully vaxed, but it's unlikely there will be any repercussions.
Yet that isn't the most stunning Tucker Carlson news. Rather, Carlson has been reporting —in as much as anything on Fox News can be called that— on the low testosterone crisis among American men over 40. Carlson, whose frequent high-pitched squeals often suggest his own testicles have yet to drop, is more obsessed with balls than the NBA.
Among Carlson's new series of documentaries for Fox Nation is The End of Men. Carlson opens by explaining the crisis:
"One of the biggest stories of our lifetimes is the total collapse of testosterone levels in American men. Those levels are declining by roughly 10 percent per decade, completely changing the way people are at the most fundamental level. The NIH doesn't seem interested in this at all (sarcastically) 'It's not a big deal.' We think it is a huge deal, so we wanna know what's causing it and what we can do about it."
The trailer that Fox Nation put out, though, replete with their logo in the left corner, is ... wow. This is categorically one of the gayest, most porn-y things we have ever seen on TV. On April 16 when the trailer dropped, Star Trek alum and gay hero George Takei tweeted it to his 3.3 million followers with this simple comment: "This is so gay."
Totally ripped shirtless men (white, natch) hefting sledgehammers and flipping monster truck tires and dunking in hot tubs are very hot. But the final image in the trailer of a naked man, arms outstretched, his penis and testicles shimmering in an infrared glow is ... something (www.mediaite.com www.newsweek.com)
So that infrared genitalia is apparently a thing. Carlson had Kid Rock, one of his fave MAGA celebs, on to chat about cancel culture and other GOP extremist nonsense. But the two over-50 guys also discussed that low T problem and one of the cures being touted, which is —wait for it— "testicle tanning." You cannot make this stuff up, kids.
Better call
New seasons of some truly fabulous TV are streaming this week and next. Better Call Saul, the dark comedy which our beloved adores, returned to AMC April 18 for its sixth and final season.
Russian Doll, created for Netflix by Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler, is back for a second season April 20. This show is for fans of Lyonne, who also stars, and fans of the improbable meeting the unlikely, which is pretty much how the past two years have gone for us all.
Lyonne plays Nadia Vulvokov, a game developer who repeatedly dies and relives the same night in an ongoing time loop and tries to solve it. It's as wild as it sounds.
The Flight Attendant, the quirky thriller/spy series/comedy in which star Kaley Cuoco is just so good, is back for a second season on HBO Max April 21.
Barry returns for a second season on HBO April 28 after a ridiculously long hiatus. It's been since 2019 when we were left hanging on that cliff! The spectacular Bill Hader is why you must watch.
Ozark, which we love for Jason Bateman, Julia Garner, Laura Linney and the quixotic nature of greed, ends its fourth season on Netflix when it drops April 29. We hate to see this terrific series end.
News you're not seeing
Ed Buck, once a fixture of West Hollywood's political scene and a major gay voice and face of LGBTQ Democratic politics, was sentenced to 30 years in prison on April 14 for injecting two Black gay men with lethal doses of meth as part of Buck's sexual fetish that turned fatal.
Buck was convicted of "distribution of methamphetamine resulting in the deaths of Gemmel Moore in 2017 and Timothy Dean in 2019." He was also convicted of "four counts of meth distribution, two counts of enticing men to travel across state lines for prostitution and a count of maintaining a drug den."
Throughout his trial, testimony explored how Buck "enticed many vulnerable Black men" to his home, some of them homeless with promises of sex, drugs and money. It's a horror story that will no doubt become the stuff of true crime TV soon.
Robin's recovery
Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts celebrates 20 years at ABC's flagship morning show this month. Roberts has been on TV longer than any other out LGBTQ newscaster. Her team celebrated with her on April 14 and she sat down with GMA3 co-host T.J. Holmes that afternoon to talk about her time at ABC.
Twitter
Roberts also talked about Amber Laign, her partner of 17 years, who has been battling breast cancer. Laign appeared for the GMA celebration of Roberts.
During an April 12 interview with Tamron Hall, Roberts talked about how she was coping with Laign's diagnosis and cancer journey. "I didn't get terrible [emotional] till the end [of the video] about Amber," Roberts told Hall about the highly emotional video she had posted on Instagram in which she revealed Laign's diagnosis. ET Online
We wish Robin Roberts congratulations on her milestone, we wish Amber Laign healing and recovery and we once again note how crucial it is that we have this representation on TV.
So for the zenith and the nadir, you know you must stay tuned.
Help keep the Bay Area Reporter going in these tough times. To support local, independent, LGBTQ journalism, consider becoming a BAR member.