Connect with us

Celebrity News

Queer nominees leave empty handed from disastrous Golden Globes

On the road toward a very ‘straight and narrow’ Oscar night?

Published

on

Matt Bomer was one of a few queer nominees but lost the Golden Globe. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

By now, even if you didn’t watch them, you probably already know that Sunday night’s presentation of the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards was pretty much a debacle.

From its tense first few minutes, when host Jo Koy (seriously, how many people had to say “no” to the job before they got to Jo Koy?) took his opening monologue rapidly past “irreverent” to “disrespectful” as his audience squirmed uncomfortably, it was clear that the evening’s attempt at a free-wheeling but good-natured roast of Hollywood disguised as an awards show was not going to go as planned. Koy’s efforts at snark were met with palpable hostility from the celebrity crowd, most of whom looked like they would rather be anywhere else but in the audience at the Beverly Hilton, and things just got worse from there.

We could go on about the lackluster, often tone-deaf writing, or the poorly conceived “stunt pairings” of stars as presenters, or the general sloppiness that made the show feel precarious from beginning to end, but fortunately, there’s no need for us to relive all that here. The reason you’re reading this (since this is the Blade, after all) is to find out about the “queer take” on the Golden Globes; unfortunately, the only one we can offer is that there really was no queer take on the Golden Globes.

Going into the ceremony, which, as always with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s annual awards show, bestowed the organization’s honors for both film and television, there were only a handful of out queer acting nominees. Two of these competed in a single category (Best Male Actor in a Motion Picture Drama): Colman Domingo, nominated for his star turn in the title role of “Rustin,” and Andrew Scott, who was up for his widely acclaimed performance in Andrew Haigh’s ethereal gay ghost story, “All of Us Strangers.” Both lost the award to Cillian Murphy, the star of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”

The other out nominee in the film acting categories, previous four-time Golden Globe winner Jodie Foster, was competing as Best Supporting Female Actor in Any Motion Picture for her performance in the Netflix biopic “Nyad,” but she lost to Da’Vine Joy Randolph of Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers.”

On the TV side, out gay performer Matt Bomer, nominated as Best Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or TV Movie for Showtime’s queer historical romance “Fellow Travelers,” lost to Steven Yuen in the Netflix smash, “Beef.” Natasha Lyonne – who identifies as straight but has always been open about her bisexual attractions – was up for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Series as the star of “Poker Face.” That award went instead to Ayo Edebiri of “The Bear.”

It’s true that Billie Eilish – who was nominated alongside brother Finneas O’Connell for co-writing Best Original Song nominee “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,” an award that they went on to win – has identified publicly as being attracted to both males and females, something she recently reasserted in a Variety interview (before following up with an Instagram post commenting that “literally who cares” about her sexuality), so at least there was one winner from the queer community during the evening.

As for the movies and shows themselves, several of the nominated titles included queer characters and themes, with Best Picture nominees “Maestro” (about bisexual composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein) and “May December” (from pioneering “New Queer Cinema” filmmaker Todd Haynes) as the most obvious examples. Both films received multiple nods; neither walked away with a single win. In the TV division, several queer-oriented shows, from “Fellow Travelers” to “The Last of Us” to “Ted Lasso,” lost in their respective categories, and “Wanda Sykes: I’m An Entertainer,” the out lesbian comedian’s Netflix special nominated for the newly added Best Standup Performance category, lost to former Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais’ “Ricky Gervais: Apocalypse.”

There were few queer moments of note, in fact, during the event, though the presence of trans “Euphoria” star Hunter Schaefer onstage as a presenter was a welcome nod to inclusion. A more positive spin can be found by acknowledging the show of diversity – an issue around which the Golden Globes has long been deservedly criticized – among the winners. Several acting wins went to Black performers (Randolph, Edebiri) and performers of Asian descent (Yuen and “Beef” co-star Ali Wong), while Lily Gladstone became the first indigenous American performer to win a Golden Globe as Best Leading Female Actor (Motion Picture Drama) for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” (Note: Gladstone has identified as “middle-gendered” in subsequent interviews and uses she/they pronouns.) We can only be thrilled for these well-deserved wins.

Still, if the Golden Globes are – as they’ve long been considered – the official “kick-off” of Awards Season and an important (if not always accurate) indicator of the likeliest big contenders at the subsequent (and more prestigious) ceremonies to follow over the next few weeks, it looks like we might be on the road toward very “straight and narrow” Oscar night.

The complete list of nominees and winners can be found at the Golden Globes website.

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

Celebrity News

Cynthia Erivo to headline WorldPride Saturday concert

‘An extraordinary moment of unity, celebration, and visibility’

Published

on

Cynthia Erivo will headline the WorldPride 2025 Saturday night Street Festival and Concert. (Photo courtesy of WorldPride)

WorldPride DC 2025 announced today that “Wicked” star, LGBTQ icon, and award-winning performer Cynthia Erivo will headline the WorldPride 2025 Saturday night Street Festival and Concert on the Capitol Stage following the parade. 

A multi-week long series of events, WorldPride DC 2025 culminates in a free, inclusive, two-day event June 7-8, 2025. The event features a mix of local artists, DJs, and performers alongside big names in entertainment like Erivo. Taking place June 7-8 along Pennsylvania Avenue, the weekend WorldPride spectacular is to be a display of “pride, music, and unity.” 

Erivo delivers “a powerhouse headlining performance against the iconic backdrop of the U.S. Capitol Building,” according to organizers.

“As the culminating event for the parade, the Saturday night concert will be an extraordinary moment of unity, celebration, and visibility for our global LGBTQ+ community,” said Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance, host of WorldPride 2025. “Cynthia Erivo’s powerful artistry and unwavering advocacy make her the perfect artist to headline this momentous event.”

An actress, producer, singer, songwriter, and advocate for the LGBTQ and Black communities, Erivo has been making even larger headlines after starring in the award-winning “Wicked” movie alongside Ariana Grande. Having recently embraced her LGBTQ identity, Erivo has been using this platform to promote representation. 

The free WorldPride 2025 Street Festival and Concert takes place in front of the U.S. Capitol building. The event is set to bring together visitors from across the U.S. and the world, featuring exhibitors, artisans, food and beverage gardens, and a diverse range of local, national, and big-named artists. 

WorldPride plans to announce the names of additional artists and performers in the coming days.

According to WorldPride organizers, the theme The Fabric of Freedom “symbolizes the unity and resilience of the LGBTQ+ community. Following the 2024 presidential inauguration, it serves as a reminder of the ongoing fight for equality and the strength found in diversity.”

Outside of the official WorldPride events, other associated concerts will be taking place that weekend, including the recently announced Project Glow-organized World Pride Music Festival featuring Jennifer Lopez and Troye Sivan, which garnered some controversy by including the artist Grimes, a former partner of Elon Musk.

Continue Reading

Celebrity News

Colman Domingo is riding high ahead of the Oscars

Actor is star, executive producer of ‘Sing Sing’

Published

on

Colman Domingo speaks at the 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival after he received its Montecito Award. (Photo courtesy of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival)

Colman Domingo is riding on a career high, with back-to-back Best Actor Academy Award nominations–last year, playing Bayard Rustin, the gay advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. and this season, starring and executive producing Greg Kwedar’s mesmerizing film, “Sing Sing.”

One thing is clear watching any of Domingo’s films and television series–among them being “Selma,” “The Color Purple,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “HBO’s “Euphoria”—he completely gives his heart and soul into every role he takes on. 

It’s no wonder then, why the charismatic performer recently received the Montecito Award from Executive Director Roger Durling at the 40th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival. 

“As a devoted admirer of Colman Domingo for so long, what is enthralling to see is how his early work in theater—the specificity, the dexterity, the research, the conviction and the intelligence that this performer displayed on the boards is now being finally utilized,” said Durling. “His potential that always was there is now realized.” 

In a lengthy chat about his career with Durling, Domingo addressed his perseverance throughout his illustrious television and film career, telling attendees, “I just kept going and believed that the love I was seeking would also be seeking me. I just always believed that.”

The evening highlighted Domingo’s powerhouse performance as John “Divine G” Whitfield in “Sing Sing.” In the film, which is based on a true story, an imprisoned man—wrongfully put in jail for a crime he didn’t commit—finds a renewed sense of purpose by acting in a theatre group, “Rehabilitation Through the Arts,” also known as RTA, alongside other incarcerated men.

The riveting script had immense appeal to the veteran actor.

“I started my career in educational theater,” said Domingo. “I would go to local San Francisco Bay Area high schools to perform while also teaching kids about important issues such as HIV, AIDS, or conflict resolution. We were the arts program, coming in, performing, and maybe doing a few classes. And influence the children with art, in much the same manner that RTA did in the New York prison system.”

He continued: “So I already understood it—the idea of an arts program coming into a maximum security prison is revolutionary. It goes completely against the system that got them there in the first place.” 

Domingo saw “Sing Sing” not as a prison story, but as a human story. 

“It is a triumphant story, of course and determination, of fighting against a system that’s broken,” he noted. “Rodessa Jones said, ‘But art just might be the parachute that saves us all.’ That is certainly true of the men of RTA. We all have choices we make—every day—to try to be better, to go to our better angels. That’s what this film is about, ultimately.”

Domingo’s interest and passion for the film transcended signing onto the role; he and his husband Raúl Domingo’s production company, Edith Productions, joined to executive produce. They were instrumental in helping assemble the cast and faithfully guide the storytelling.

He referred to the film as a “quiet act of revolution” because of its poignant depiction of tenderness and compassion between Black men.

“It’s about putting myself on the line in every single way as an artist. If I’m going to have an impact, if I’m going to do this work that I think is meaningful and can really change lives … I think a film like ‘Sing Sing’ is really changing lives. It’s actually doing work. So, I have to give everything.”

Being able to connect deeply with his characters has always been an important part of Domingo’s acting process. During the q and a, describing his performance in “Rustin.” he noted how connected he felt portraying the role.

“It felt like we were in alignment. That Rustin’s journey and my journey were meeting at the exact moment, and I was the actor to help pull this black, queer, civil rights revolutionary out of the shadows of history, while I was being pulled into new history. I needed every year, every step, every misstep in my career, to enable me to play Bayard Rustin.”

The Santa Barbara recognition follows his win at New York’s Gotham Awards, where Domingo took home the honor for Outstanding Lead Performance. 

He also received the Spotlight Award at the Palm Springs Film Festival. Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi acknowledged Domingo’s “raw and captivating” performance. “We are so thrilled to honor the remarkable talent of Colman Domingo at the Palm Springs International Film Awards for the second year in a row.”  

Domingo ongoingly keeps a busy schedule–he can currently be seen in Netflix’s series “The Madness” created by Clement Virgo. He also recently wrapped production on ‘Michael’ playing Joe Jackson, directed by Antoine Fuqua. Lionsgate will release the film Oct. 3, 2025. 

And that’s not all–he will voice Norman Osborn in the upcoming Disney+ animated series “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man,” and is currently in production on NETFLIX’s “The Four Seasons,” alongside Tina Fey and Steve Carrell. He will play Michael Jackson’s dad in “Michael.”

Continue Reading

Celebrity News

Jane Fonda takes a stand at SAG Awards

Hollywood icon urged peers to resist once more

Published

on

Jane Fonda at the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 23, 2025. (Screen capture via Netflix)

If there was any clear takeaway to be had from last Sunday’s 31st Annual Screen Actors’ Guild Awards, it’s that the trophies are very heavy.

After the evening’s first winner — Kieran Culkin, as Best Supporting Motion Picture Performance by a Male Actor for “A Real Pain” — used most of his acceptance speech for an off-the-cuff comedic riff about the weight of the statuette he had just been handed, the topic became a theme, a seemingly impromptu running gag exemplifying the overall high spirits that marked the affair.

A palpable camaraderie among peers has always been a hallmark of the SAGs, and this year was not an exception — despite the ongoing aftermath of LA’s recent devastating wildfires, which personally impacted many of the individuals that were present, the overall tone of the event was more celebratory than somber.

Yet there was also another elephant in the room. While there was clear hesitation to directly address the cloud cast over the famously (though not exclusively) liberal entertainment community by the advent of the new Trump regime, host Kristen Bell kept things light during her “Frozen”-inspired opening sequence and other scripted “bits” throughout, conspicuously avoiding overtly political material. Most of the presenters and winners, occasional remarks about the importance of empathy aside, seemed to be playing it safe.

At least, they did until it was time for Jane Fonda to take the stage. The legendary star, receiving SAG’s prestigious Life Achievement Award, delivered a lengthy and impassioned speech that began as she tied her professional career directly to the political activism for which she is perhaps equally famous. Then, the 88-year-old screen icon — perhaps best known to the youngest generations among us for her long-running role opposite longtime friend (and “9 to 5” co-star) Lily Tomlin in “Grace and Frankie” — segued into a fiery call for her industry peers to resist once more; citing the need to stay “in community” and crystalizing remarks by earlier speakers about empathy into an impassioned description of an actor’s ability to promote understanding of other people’s experience through their work, she stressed the importance of bridging divisions because “a whole lot of people are going to be really hurt by what is happening, what is coming our way,” and encouraged welcoming those with political differences “into our tent, because we are going to need a really big tent to resist what’s coming at us.”

Recalling that her career began in the wake of the 1950’s “Red Scare,” when she observed first-hand the resistance with which many of Hollywood’s “biggest names” stood up against Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s congressional hearings during his infamous anti-Communist “witch hunt,” she implored her fellow actors to do the same. “This is it, and it’s not a rehearsal,” she said. “This is big-time serious, folks, so let’s be brave.”

The crowning moment of her speech, however, was her characteristically blunt and fiercely intelligent observation that “empathy is not ‘weak’ or ‘woke’ — and by the way, ‘woke’ just means you give a damn about other people.”

Despite her clearly focused messaging, Fonda never referenced Donald Trump by name — but she did deliver a particularly cutting swipe when, in providing an example or the need for actors to understand and empathize with the “traumatized characters” they play even when they “hate the behavior” they have to portray, she cited Sebastian Stan’s performance in “The Apprentice,” in which the actor delivers a critically-lauded portrayal of the currently-sitting president in his younger years, during his mentorship with infamously amoral closeted homosexual Roy Cohn.

As for the winners in the year’s competitive categories, there was a mix between the predictable and the unexpected. 

“Shōgun,” FX’s acclaimed adaptation of the 1975 James Clavell historical epic novel about power struggles in 17th century feudal Japan, dominated SAG’s Television Drama categories much along the same lines as it did at last fall’s Primetime Emmy Awards, winning in both the Lead Actor categories (Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai, Best Male and Female performance, respectively) as well as taking Best Ensemble Cast, SAG’s equivalent of the Best Drama Series award. The show, which has been renewed for a second and third season, also received the Best Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a TV Series.

Culkin’s aforementioned win as Supporting Male Actor in a Motion Picture was the latest in a long list of victories, cementing his likelihood of winning the same category in the upcoming Oscar race; likewise, Zoe Saldaña’s victory in the Supporting Female Actor category for the controversy-plagued “Emilia Pérez” makes her win at the Academy seem all but inevitable.

Jessica Gunning was named Best Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series for the Netflix hit stalker drama “Baby Reindeer,” and Jean Smart racked up yet another win as Lead Female Actor in a Comedy Series for “Hacks.”

Somewhat less predictable was Demi Moore’s win as Best Leading Film Performance by a Female Actor for “The Substance,” which places the veteran screen star — once considered a “dark horse” in this year’s awards race — as a favorite to repeat her growing list of victories on Oscar night. Colin Farrell’s chameleonic turn as the title character in “The Penguin” earned the Irish performer the award for Best Lead Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series,

Reasserting its growing acclaim by taking the prize for Best Ensemble in Motion Picture – the equivalent of Oscar’s Best Picture award — was the UK-produced “Conclave,” following its BAFTA win in the same category and making it a firm front-runner to clinch Academy honors as well.

A pair of refreshingly unexpected victories were claimed by Hulu’s popular “Only Murders in the Building,” whose fourth season picked up wins for both Ensemble in a Television Comedy and Lead Male TV Comedy Performance for co-star Martin Short; but perhaps the evening’s biggest surprise was Timothée Chalamet’s win as Best Lead Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture for playing Bob Dylan in the biopic “A Complete Unknown,” which sparked a rare moment when all of the young star’s competing nominees — including widely-assumed favorites Adrien Brody and Colman Domingo (for “The Brutalist” and “Sing Sing,” respectively) — were seen to react with visible enthusiasm when his name was announced.

In its intriguing mix of the sure bets and long shots in the winners’ circle, the SAG Awards seemed to suggest a new “normal” among Hollywood’s elite players, emphasizing diversity and empathy in its choices over the “buzz” and prestige that typically drive such industry ceremonies. Ultimately, though, the results in the SAG competition feel less noteworthy than the inspiring spirit of resistance bestowed by Fonda’s use of her acceptance speech as a thrillingly defiant call-to-arms against the encroaching fascism of Donald Trump’s return to power.

The complete list of winners is below.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role: Timothée Chalamet in “A Complete Unknown”

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role: Demi Moore in “The Substance”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role: Kieran Culkin in “A Real Pain”

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Zoe Saldaña in “Emilia Pérez”

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture: “Conclave”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series: Colin Farrell in “The Penguin” 

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series: Jessica Gunning in “Baby Reindeer”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series: Hiroyuki Sanada in “Shōgun”

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series: Anna Sawai in “Shōgun”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series: Martin Short in “Only Murders in the Building”

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series: Jean Smart in “Hacks”

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series: “Shōgun”

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series: “Only Murders In The Building”

Life Achievement Award: Jane Fonda

STUNT ENSEMBLE HONORS

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture: “The Fall Guy”

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series: “Shōgun”

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement

Sign Up for Weekly E-Blast

Follow Us @washblade

Advertisement

Popular