LOS ANGELES (AP) – Mariah Carey is no stranger to honors and awards, but the pop star said that her GLAAD Ally Award, which she received at the annual event May 14 in New York, was something more.
“Some awards are about statistics and things like that, and some are about like something a little more real. Do you know what I mean?” Carey said on the red carpet. “This feels like one of those moments, so I think it’s great.”
Oscar night is often filled with award shocks and surprises and the 88th Academy Awards did not disappoint as Sam Smith becomes the first openly gay man to win an Oscar. Well, okay so he wasn’t, but he wasn’t sure about it so he said it anyways.
Sam Smith was among the winners considered an upset by Oscar experts. The winner of the Best Original Song for “Writing’s on the Wall” from the James Bond film Spectre was as shocked as the rest of the viewing world when his name was called instead of Lady Gaga and Diane Warren for the emotional song “Til It Happens to You” from The Hunting Ground, a documentary about campus rape in the United States.
Few filmmakers write LGBT stories with equal parts humor and heart and even fewer are able to take that story to cult status, but one who seems to do it with ease is Del Shores, writer/director of the successful 2000 cult film Sordid Lives. Shores is heading to The Cuban Club in Ybor with his one man show, SINgularly SORDID, where he talks about politics, religion and returning to the dating world after getting divorced in his 50s. Tinder and Grindr and Scruff, oh my! Shores was gracious enough to speak with Watermark ahead of his Tampa Bay show about Oscar diversity, election coverage and a much talked about sequel in the Sordid franchise.
SINgularlySORDID is your one man show that you are bringing to Tampa. What can we expect to see from you?
I always consider myself a storyteller or a humorist: I observe, I sometimes steal from my own life and other people’s lives and talk about it on stage. This piece has become very personal, because I have gone through a divorce in my 50s and getting back into the dating scene has been crazy, so a lot of that is the SINgularly Sordid part of this. I just tell tales about Leslie Jordan and Dolly Parton and people I have had encounters with, good and bad. I love politics and controversy. My dad was a Southern Baptist preacher, so we’ll cover religion.
Watermark is celebrating the 2016 WAVE Award winners with two great events, and YOU are invited!
Find out the details after the jump:
Yes, the presidential primary is imminent, but there are other down-ticket races we’ll be following through the August primary and the November general election. We talked to some people; we learned some things.
Read about our races to watch (and the candidates vying for those seats):
Billy Manes
I pull my shirt off and pray.
It’s a bit of a conundrum, this political primary. Though Florida’s presidential-preference primary parade won’t hit the pavement until March 15, so-called Super Tuesday is blowing up in our faces on March 1, meaning, of course, that we have to sound our golden horns, decorate our cars and reach for the sky, or engage in something else that screams “occasion.”
At their Legacy of Action Awards reception, the Orange County Democratic Executive Committee celebrated the lives and legacies of local grassroots activists Feb. 19 at Elixer in downtown Orlando.
The DEC presented the Harris-Namey-Waxman Lifetime Legacy Award, Cannon-Porta Woman of Action Award and The Bill Nelson Activist in Government Award in honor and celebration of exemplary service, patriotism and dedication to the values of the Democratic Party and the people of Central Florida.
Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels
Like many Steve Jobs inventions, this excellent movie flopped. Why? How?
It isn’t the subject; Steve Jobs is one of the most intriguing persons of the last century. The film’s production team includes writer Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, The West Wing), director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting), and Oscar nominees Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet. When this brilliant three-act movie opened in early October last year, the critical praise was high, and there was a lot of Awards buzz.
Hey there! I’m Adam and I’m Watermark’s Spring 2016 intern.
I ran the InternPursuit event at UCF (found: a picture of me with said event, not found: a retoucher with a soul), where Watermark interviewed journalism students hoping to find The Best Intern in the World. I sat down with Rick (Claggett, publisher) and Jamie (Hyman, Digital Media Director) last minute as an unscheduled interviewee. They loved me and I loved them. Now here I am typing into a computer screen between a “Hate Free Zone” sticker and a series of Best Website WAVE awards.
CBS announced that The Late Late Show host James Corden will be hosting to a bit of a larger audience this summer as he has been tapped to emcee the 2016 Tony Awards.
Corden took over hosting duties of The Late Late Show last March from Craig Ferguson and gone viral recently due to a hugely popular segment on his show, Carpool Karaoke.
Los Angeles (AP) – “The Danish Girl” is up for a GLAAD Media Award in a year where a record number of nominees feature transgender characters and subject matter.
The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy group has announced the 101 nominees for its 27th annual honors. The awards honor outstanding images of the LGBT community in film, TV, music and journalism.
Melissa Etheridge has been a very public face to many groups who needed a voice. She showed young girls that a woman can rock as hard, if not harder, than the good ol’ boys of the music industry. She proved that being openly gay was not an instant death sentence to a career in music. She exclaimed, “I am more than a disease!” (she was so inspiring that India.Arie penned her hit song “I Am Not My Hair” about Etheridge after seeing her perform at the 2005 Grammy Awards bald from chemotherapy) after a cancer diagnosis, and her following treatment that brought her back stronger and healthier than ever.
Now, after nearly 25 years in the public eye, Etheridge has taken up another cause: legalizing cannabis.
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