One of this year’s TV pleasures has been watching a homebound Selena Gomez earnestly trying to learn to cook via Zoom calls with various famous chefs on her HBO Max series Selena + Chef. We had no idea that in between mastering the mechanics of a proper French omelette she was negotiating new deals for herself, but coming soon(ish) she’ll take on the role of real-life lesbian mountain climber Silvia Vásquez-Lavado. Writer-director Elgin James (Little Birds) will adapt Vásquez-Lavado’s memoir, In the Shadow of the Mountain, as a starring vehicle of Gomez (whose casting got a nod of approval from the queer Peruvian climber herself). Vásquez-Lavado not only climbed Mount Everest but became the first out lesbian to climb the highest mountain on each continent, a challenge known as the Seven Summits. No production or release dates are known yet, but this is already Appointment Cinema.
Guess what pandemic The Second Wave will be about
Queer screen darling Taylor Schilling (Orange is The New Black) is back for an upcoming limited series from Michelle and Robert King (The Good Wife, The Good Fight). It’s called The Second Wave, and it’s about two neighbors, played by Schilling and Audra McDonald, who find themselves locked down again in New York City when an unexpected second wave of the coronavirus breaks out. The women are forced to handle their lives and jobs from the confined space of their apartments, while contending with an even more deadly version of the virus, one that may spell the end of humanity itself. The six-episode series will co-star Leslie Uggams (Deadpool), Steven Pasquale (The Good Wife) and Hamilton’s Phillipa Soo, and with vaccines currently rolling out, maybe by the time this series hits your TV screen, it’ll have the retro feeling of scary science fiction that can’t possibly happen again. Fingers crossed!
Billy Porter rocked your New Year’s Eve
Billy Porter loves to work. We recently reported that he’ll be directing the high school trans coming-of-age film What If?, and Pose is due to return for a third season sometime in 2021, but in the meantime, he commanded the ball to drop in New York City’s Times Square on December 31st. That’s when he joined Ryan Seacrest and Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale as a co-host of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2020. The broadcast was officially closed to the public this year due to COVID-19 (of course, an official closing didn’t stop crowds from gathering on sidewalks for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but there’s no telling people anything these days), and it’s assumed that the three hosts were separated in various locations, introducing musical acts as well as other celebrities. But despite what was sure an unusual production process for this year’s event, Tony-and-Emmy-winning Porter to showed up ready for performance in one (or several) of his bold signature looks. After all, it’s not like you’re tuning in to see what Seacrest is going to do, say, or wear. Porter made it worth staying up to witness.
Guardians of The Galaxy hero Star-Lord is bisexual and polyamorous. Now what?
This isn’t an announcement, really, even though it is. And it hasn’t made an official impact on the films that draw inspiration from Marvel Comics canon. But Guardians of the Galaxy protagonist Star-Lord has been revealed to be both bisexual and polyamorous in the ongoing comic book series. This is both a very significant development and, annoyingly, possibly not going to matter at all when it comes to the film adaptations. That’s because Star-Lord is played in the films by Chris Pratt, an actor who has always been quietly friendly to the LGBTQ+ community, but whose recent surge of public religious devotion has made the prospect of him playing a bisexual space hero somewhat unlikely, given his association with an anti-queer church. The Guardians film franchise continues, of course, and not everything canon in the source material finds its way into comic book-based films, but if queer fans were to consider lobbying hard for a little inclusion, now would be the time to start. And while we’re waiting for some official Pratt reaction, here’s what we’d like for starters: some cuddling with Drax. We’re pretty certain that the perpetually shirtless Dave Bautista would be up for that.
Romeo San Vicente is giving to his local food bank and wants you to do the same.
