Entertainment

After 27 seasons, Waylon Smithers finally comes out of the closet on Sunday’s episode of the The Simpsons. As it turns out, there’s a great inside story too. Eric Hegedus reports at the New York Post: Longtime show writer Rob LaZebnik tells The Post he penned the episode in support of his own 21-year-old son, Johnny, who is gay. “I …

Variety reports: A+E Networks and 21st Century Fox may refrain from filming future projects in North Carolina if the state does not repeal a controversial law that bars local LGBT anti-discrimination ordinances. The companies have stopped short, however, of withdrawing current projects from the state. Principal photography on “Shots Fired,” a drama series for Fox Broadcasting produced by 20th Century …

Via Entertainment Weekly: It’s getting harder for Stephen Colbert to repress his inner musical urges. After recently dueting with Anna Kendrick and Tom Hiddleston, the Late Show host got another huge opportunity to show off his pipes when Crazy Ex-Girlfriend co-creator and star Rachel Bloom stopped by Tuesday’s show. Colbert began by asking Bloom, in his standard interview style, about …

Via USA Today: Patty Duke, the teen who won an Oscar for The Miracle Worker and later played “identical cousins” in her own TV sitcom, has died. She was 69. The news was confirmed Tuesday by one of her representatives, Mitchell Stubbs. “Anna ‘Patty Duke’ Pearce passed away this morning March 29, 2016 at 1:20 am,” his statement read. “Her …

TIME recaps: HBO released the latest trailer for the sixth season of Game of Thrones and if one thing is (unsurprisingly) clear, there’s going to be a lot of death. The 30-second clip begins with Tyrion cautioning someone: “Are you afraid? You should be. You’re in the great game now.” “We are sinful creatures. We deserve death. We all do,” …

An avalanche of major Hollywood production companies and networks are backing ABC/Disney in pressuring Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal to veto his state’s pending anti-LGBT bill. Deadline reports: In what is virtually now a unanimous and united stance against Georgia’s move to allow discrimination against the LGBT community, CBS, NBCUniversal, Discovery and Open Road Films have joined the effort to get …

Variety has the story: Comedian, actor, writer and producer Garry Shandling, known for “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” and “The Larry Sanders Show,” has died, TMZ reported on Thursday. He died at an L.A. hospital on Thursday, according to the outlet. A cause of death has not been released. He was not known to be suffering from any illnesses, and just …

A coalition of major Hollywood figures have signed a joint letter urging Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal to veto his state’s pending anti-LGBT bill. Among the boldface names are Rob Reiner, Lee Daniels, Anne Hathaway, Julianne Moore, Gus Van Sant, and Harvey Weinstein. Read it below. The letter was coordinated by the Human Rights Campaign, which earlier this week pressured Disney …

Last night I had the pleasure of once again attending Broadway’s greatest and gayest night, the 11th annual Broadway Backwards, a fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the NYC LGBT Center in which show tunes written for women are sung by men and vice versa. Watch this year’s highlight reel below and see a cavalcade of Broadway royalty including …

Via Rolling Stone: No matter how many delegates Hillary Clinton picks up during Tuesday’s primaries, the Democratic frontrunner will undoubtedly receive a bigger boost among young voters the next night: She’s making a guest appearance episode of Broad City. Comedy Central has released a preview clip of the candidate’s cameo, and — given the extent to which Abbi and Ilana …

Via Jezebel: It was never outright stated that our ’90s childhood icon Xena: Warrior Princess was gay, but plenty of subtext was given to those who watched the series religiously. Well, Xena will definitely be gay in the reboot. This time around, there won’t be any suggestiveness about Xena’s (Lucy Lawless) relationship with her sheroic partner Gabrielle (Renee O’Connor). Xena …

Deadline calls this a “filthy masterpiece.” They write: “What the [expletive] did I just watch?” That’s the first thing I tweeted after the credits ended on Sausage Party. The eight-years-in-the-making animated film — directed by Greg Tiernan (Thomas & Friends) and Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2, Monsters vs. Aliens) and written by Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen, Kyle Hunter, and Ariel Shaffir …

Coolest president ever. CNN reports: It’s not every day the President of the United States plays back up to someone else — let alone tells someone to “drop the beat” — but that’s just what happened in a video the White House posted on Monday evening. President Barack Obama flipped through cue cards as Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Broadway …

From the Chicagoist: The second creator behind the Matrix trilogy and other reality-contorting content has come out as transgender today. In a letter released to Windy City Times, writer-director Lilly Wachowski explained why she’s making the announcement now. “In response to this threatened public outing against my will,” Wachowski wrote. “I had a prepared a statement that was one part …

The Verge recaps: The sixth season of Game of Thrones begins on Sunday April 24th, and this new trailer has us near trembling with excitement. Set to the melancholic strains of James Vincent McMorrow’s “Wicked Game,” it promises a difficult future for the main characters, including the imprisonment of Daenerys Targaryen, the introduction of Sansa Stark to the “great game,” …

Metro reports: Get ready to channel your inner Regina George once again – because Mean Girls is all set to make a comeback as a musical. Rumours that the 2004 movie that inspired us to wear pink on Wednesdays is being given a stage makeover have been circulating for some time now – but its creator Tina Fey has finally …

Mediaite reviews: This week’s scattershot Saturday Night Live cold open featured round-robin “campaign coverage” of the 2016 presidential race, including shots at that Chris Christie endorsement/hostage video that now seems like ancient history, Ted Cruz‘s debate booger incident, but most of all, Donald Trump cutting right to the chase about his “manhood.” “P.S., America, I have a great big huge …

“Sam Smith just won an Oscar and noted that he’s the first openly gay man to win an Academy Award — but wait, that can’t be right, can it? Well, no. Here some of Oscar’s queerest moments — and honestly, I think it’s a GOOD thing that Sam lost count.”

NBC News reports: George Kennedy, who won an Academy Award for his bruising performance in “Cool Hand Luke” and later starred in the goofy “Naked Gun” franchise,” died Sunday in Idaho. He was 91. Cory Schenkel, Kennedy’s grandson, told the Associated Press that he died of old age. Kennedy, who stood nearly 6½ feet tall, was a World War II …

Mediaite recaps the highlight of Jimmy Kimmel’s post-Oscars special: Perhaps the greatest moment of the night occurred when he had Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprise their legendary roles from The Producers to poke fun at Donald Trump in a big way. The original musical focuses on two Broadway producing con-artists who plot to create a show guaranteed to fail …