JMG Community

From the Hollywood Reporter: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has expelled Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski from its membership, the organization said Thursday. The Academy’s board of governors, following its new procedure for enforcing a Standards of Conduct that it adopted in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, voted to expel the comedian and the director …

Theater Mania reports: Jake Gyllenhaal is set to produce and star as Leonard Bernstein in the upcoming biopic The American. Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective) will direct the film, with screenwriter Michael Mitnick adapting Humphrey Burton’s biography Leonard Bernstein. The film will reportedly be structured in five moments and follow Bernstein’s life from age 25, when he first conducted the …

Playbill reports: The 25th anniversary production of Tony Kushner’s two-part epic Angels In America is now the most Tony-nominated play in history. The revival earned 11 Tony nominations, placing it behind only Mean Girls and SpongeBob and tying it with The Band’s Visit and Carousel. With the 11 nods, Angels in America beats out former record-holders The Coast of Utopia …

Britain’s The Sun reports: Green Day fans are campaigning to get “American Idiot” to Number 1 in time for Donald Trump’s visit to the UK. The scheme was announced in January last year but has gained momentum after the President confirmed he was making a “working visit” to Britain on July 13. A statement said: “We have a date, he’s …

Billboard reports: Back in December, Irish rock mainstays U2 returned with their 14th studio album, Songs of Experience. The release, which is a companion piece to 2014’s Songs of Innocence, features their latest single “Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way” — and a visual for the moving track premiered Friday (April 27). The video was filmed in U2’s …

The Hill reports: Olympic freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy will headline the Democratic National Committee’s LGBTQ gala this summer. Kenworthy told ABC News that he would attend the event in New York City as a special guest, in defiance of what he called President Trump’s attacks on LGBTQ people. “I couldn’t be more excited to join the DNC at their LGBTQ …

Just in from Broadway Cares: At the 32nd Annual Easter Bonnet Competition, the talented young cast of School of Rock – The Musical joined forces with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students Sawyer Garrity and Andrea Peña to perform the students’ inspiring original song, “Shine.” Garrity and Peña wrote the song in response to the shooting at their Parkland, FL, …

A warning shot to Trump today from the Senate: The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday to give protections to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, which senators said sent a message to President Donald Trump even if it has major hurdles to ever becoming law. Although the 14-7 vote on the measure split Republicans, the message from the …

This week marks the fourteenth blogiversary of this here website thingy. Counting this one, we’re at 75,285 posts over 14 years, the last ten of which have been without a day off. Whether I am insanely committed or am insane and should be committed – that is your call. The actual launch date anniversary comes this weekend, but since more …

Our pal Matt Baume looks at The Simpsons and homophobia: The 1997 episode of The Simpsons entitled “Homer’s Phobia” doesn’t just mark a turning point for queer characters on television — it’s a turning point for homophobia on television as well. With an unlikely appearance by cult filmmaker John Waters, the episode features a groundbreaking depiction of intolerance, a crash …

Some Broadway news to start you off: Harry Potter has come to Broadway. But The Boy Who Lived is a boy no longer: He’s 37 years old and going through a magical midlife crisis in J.K. Rowling and Jack Thorne’s outstanding play, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which opened Sunday night. And Broadway’s never seen anything quite like it. …

Today in air travel news: Crystal Tadlock told KDVR-TV she wasn’t hungry when the flight attendant gave out apples to passengers at the end of her trip from Paris this month. She put the apple in her bag so she could eat it later. But when she went through customs, an agent pulled out the apple wrapped in a plastic …

Some Michael Cohen news from yesterday: A federal judge on Friday told President Donald Trump’s personal attorney that he must declare in writing that his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination will be compromised unless there’s a delay in a lawsuit filed by adult film star Stormy Daniels. U.S. District Judge S. James Otero said at a hearing in Los Angeles …

NPR reports: The lead-in to Ariana Grande’s comeback single, as per most pop diva returns, was ecstatic. Memes abounded online — of her cryptic, upside-down tweets, her low-slung ponytail. She rolled out a preview of her voice in an echo chamber of melisma. It’s a traditional pop roll-out, except with the gravity of loss and tragedy still hanging in the …

Gentle readers: As you surely have seen, news sites are increasingly transitioning away from display and banner ads, which now pay a fraction of what they used to, in favor of page takeovers, in-post videos, pop-up videos, sidebar videos, and other more intrusive means of collecting eyeballs. In an effort to keep the lights on here at JMG, please consider …

Oral sex news to start you off: Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has said “outsiders” are trying to corrupt his people by convincing them to have oral sex. During a public speech on Sunday, Museveni said that oral sex is “wrong” because mouths are “meant for eating.” “Let me take this opportunity to warn our people publicly about the wrong practices …

The name of a 68-year Broadway tradition will change: Actors’ Equity Association has announced that the organization’s National Council has voted to retire the name “Gypsy Robe” — the name of the ritual that occurs on the stage of every Broadway musical with a chorus on opening night before the audience is admitted — at the end of the current …

Some gay show biz news to start you off: One of Baltimore’s finest has gone international. Filmmaker, artist and author John Waters has been named an officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres). The honor, announced Monday, is awarded to artists “who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and …

There’s a new children’s book about the rainbow flag: In this deeply moving and empowering true story, young readers will trace the life of the Gay Pride Flag, from its beginnings in 1978 with social activist Harvey Milk and designer Gilbert Baker to its spanning of the globe and its role in today’s world. Award-winning author Rob Sanders’s stirring text, …

Destiny’s Child reunited at Coachella last night: “Thank you for letting me be the first black woman to headline Coachella,” said Beyoncé on Saturday night. “Ain’t that ’bout a bitch?” An unprecedented move in the luxe festival’s 19-year history, one-third of this year’s lineup is comprised of female artists – and at the helm of this progress is none other …