This one goes out to every young LGBTQ kid out there, who has any doubt, whatsoever, that because of who they are or how they LOVE, they can’t achieve their dreams. ¡Si se PUEDE, mi amor! ¡Si se PUEDE!
Thank you @entertainmentweekly for the honor of gracing your #PRIDE issue! pic.twitter.com/4G2gwye0b9

— Wilson Cruz (@wcruz73) June 5, 2019

Entertainment Weekly is running six different covers to celebrate Pride Month, all of them are beautiful. The other covers feature gay trailblazers such as Neil Patrick Harris, Ruby Rose, Janet Mock, Anderson Cooper and Melissa Etheridge, But the one I want to discuss is Wilson Cruz’s cover story. Wilson plays Dr. Hugh Culber on Star Trek: Discovery who is partners with Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), making them the first openly gay couple on a Star Trek series. But this wasn’t Wilson’s first trailblazing role. Prior to Discovery, Wilson was the first openly gay actor playing an openly gay character on TV in his role as Ricky Vasquez on My So Called Life at the age of 19. Wilson was still in the closet when he auditioned for Ricky but promised himself that if he got the role, he would come out to his parents, which is what happened on Christmas Eve 1993. Unfortunately, his parents did not take it well and kicked Wilson out of the house.

There was more than just a paycheck at stake for Wilson Cruz while he waited to see if My So-Called Life would be picked up to series.

“I was still in the closet when we made the pilot, but I had made an arrangement with myself that if the show got picked up, that I would come out to my parents,” the actor recalls in the current issue of EW.

It took months, but Cruz eventually got the call—and on Christmas Eve 1993, he told his mom and dad that he was gay.

“It didn’t go well with my dad,” says the actor, who was 19 at the time and living at home. “He kicked me out. I lived in my car. I slept on friends’ couches.”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

Wilson’s story is, sadly, not unique. 40% of homeless teens identify as LGBTQ, most forced from their homes by disapproving parents or grandparents. Wilson did not begin filming My So Called Life for three months after he was forced out of his home. However, he remained committed to his decision because he felt playing Ricky was, “an opportunity to shed light on LGBT youth issues and give a voice to young people,” and the only way he could do that earnestly was to be out himself. It was admirable and extremely brave, and Wilson paid a high cost for his convictions. But his commitment to these values was incredibly important to so many kids watching. As many gay actors and advocates discussed at the Paley Honors last month, characters such as Ricky are sometimes the only role models LGBTQ children, especially closeted children, have. The tides have changed somewhat since 1993 but there are still plenty of LGBTQ kids living in inhospitable environs. So it’s important to support shows with positive LGBTQ representation to keep them on the air *coughOneDayAtATimecough*.

But it’s Friday so let’s end on a positive note. Obviously, Wilson went on to a successful career and continues to use his platform to advocate for the LGBTQ community. In December 1994, four months after My So Called Life first aired, they had an episode in which Ricky was kicked out of his house for being gay. The show’s creator, Winnie Holzman, worked with Wilson to get the episode right and to make sure he was comfortable with what was put in. By this point, he was in communication with his mother, but his father was still not speaking to him. Wilson told Vulture in 2014 that his father reached out to him after watching the episode, which eventually led to a full reconciliation.

If anyone wants to help homeless LGBTQ teens, here is a link to donate to Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors United Fund.

Photo credit: Twitter and WENN Photos

I’ve mentioned this before, but Billions is one of the few current shows I’m watching. I love it – I started watching it because I’m a Damian Lewis fan, and now I’m watching it because I’m a huge Asia Kate Dillon fan. The rest of the people can and should burn in hell for what they’ve done, just leave me Taylor Mason, the non-binary mathematical savant who can make billions of dollars in their sleep. Asia Kate – like the Billions character they play, Taylor Mason – prefers they/them pronouns, so that’s what I’m using in this post. It takes a minute to get used to writing that way, just as it takes a minute to normalize the non-binary language on Billions. Anyway! Asia Kate covers New York Magazine and it’s a wonderful profile. I came into it thinking “I hope New York Magazine doesn’t make them talk about being non-binary instead of talking about their work,” but Asia Kate is clear: their non-binary identity is so central to the role and to their life. You can read the piece here. Some highlights:

Even their dog is non-binary: “My dog, I just call Herbert or buddy. I do think it’s fascinating though that primarily the first question when one asks about Herbert is, is Herbert a boy or a girl? As if the context is needed for them to understand something greater about the dog.”

Asia Kate’s style: “I want to be comfortable above all else — I’m pretty much always wearing a sensible sneaker,” though they say they’ve been dipping back into stereotypically feminine clothing since coming out as nonbinary because “that didn’t make me feel like I had to be a girl or a woman, just because I was wearing a dress or a skirt or a full face of makeup.”

Their partner: They refer to their partner, a nonbinary playwright, as their “sweetheart.” (For instance, when explaining why they use a flip phone: “if my sweetheart and I are going out on a date or whatever, I’m not even tempted to check anything.”)

Their sexuality: They tried coming out as a lesbian, but that didn’t feel quite right, nor did saying they were bisexual. They now identify as pansexual, saying they are “a human being who is attracted to other human beings.”

Asia Kate wanted to blend with Taylor Mason: “Right from the beginning, I didn’t feel any kind of pressure or like, Oh my God, what did I get myself into? Because I felt immediately like the autonomy was mine. And then, on top of that, I spent almost 32 years not living in the full truth of my experience. I was more than ready to talk about it as much as I could, engage with my newfound community, and really just live fully in my truth for the first time in my life.”

Whether they’re a trailblazer: “I am one part of the community, whose visibility would not be possible without the work that had been done before me by the people who continue to be the most marginalized from the movement. That trail existed long before me.”

[From The Cut]

As I said, I love the Taylor Mason character. They steal every scene they’re in and they make the men of the show – especially Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis’ characters – seem so petty, arrogant and self-involved. Plus, Asia Kate makes the other actors look like they’re overacting – Asia is a model of minimalism, and you only know their reaction to some particular piece of news by a bare flicker of an eyelid, a hint of a smirk, a faintly parted lip. They’re incredibly watchable. My hope for the season finale (this coming Sunday) is that all of the male leads die or go to prison and that Billions just becomes The Taylor Mason Show.

I wrote The Cut’s June cover story on Asia Kate Dillon, as part of my quest to profile every single person on Billions https://t.co/XpCc9yXNBt pic.twitter.com/rGEPr5KV2g

— Gabriella Paiella (@GMPaiella) June 3, 2019

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Ellen Pompeo was interviewed by Taraji P. Henson for Variety in the Actor to Actor series. Ellen will star in the 17th – and possibly last – season of Grey’s Anatomy. She’s been speaking a lot about what the show is and was like behind the scenes lo these many years, including all the challenges and hardships. During her discussion with Taraji, Ellen didn’t mince words and declared the Grey’s set “toxic” for the first decade it was filmed.

How did you do 15? Was there any moment where you were like, “Child, I want off this bus”?

There were many moments. It’s funny: I never wanted off the bus in the year that I could get off. The first 10 years we had serious culture issues, very bad behavior, really toxic work environment. But once I started having kids, it became no longer about me. I need to provide for my family.

At 40 years old, where am I ever going to get this kind of money? I need to take care of my kids. But after Season 10, we had some big shifts in front of the camera, behind the camera. It became my goal to have an experience there that I could be happy and proud about, because we had so much turmoil for 10 years. My mission became, this can’t be fantastic to the public and a disaster behind the scenes. Shonda Rhimes and I decided to rewrite the ending of this story. That’s what’s kept me. Patrick Dempsey left the show in Season 11, and the studio and network believed the show could not go on without the male lead. So I had a mission to prove that it could. I was on a double mission.

My husband says, “Closed mouths don’t get fed.” But if you have to walk, don’t be a victim. If you don’t get what you want, put your big-girl panties on…
You can know your worth, but if they don’t know it, you can’t cry.

I now have three kids. And we turned the culture around. I’ve hit some marks that have made me feel accomplished in a different way. Shonda Rhimes has been amazing. She lets us be mothers. I don’t have to travel. I don’t have to go anywhere.

I haven’t been challenged creatively at all. Every once in a while we do an amazing storyline. But for the last five years, I’ve had other milestones that we were trying to achieve behind the camera.

[From Variety]

I really appreciate everything Ellen has gone on the record for regarding pay disparity. She mentioned again in this interview that she once asked for $5K more that Patrick Dempsey just on principle because it her character’s name in the title and they simply wouldn’t give it to her. I admire her for standing up for herself and getting what she deserves. It is widely assumed that Ellen and Patrick were at odds for more than just inequal pay and once he left, it probably lessened the toxicity considerably, even though Ellen has never directly said this. Of course, those first 10 years also saw the Isiah Washington controversy as well as weathered Katherine Heigl’s dissatisfaction with the show.

Shonda Rhimes and Ellen must have a rock-solid bond because every interview Ellen gives, she throws in a line about the show that, well, just isn’t nice. I’m sure it’s all true, but I can’t imagine her boss loves hearing that Ellen has been stifled creatively for so long.

Photo credit: WENN Photos

I have a love-hate relationship with helicopters. They’re terrifying. They’re cool. A couple of weeks ago, Jacek showed me this video of a helicopter pilot trained to do trick moves, like spins and flips, and I get the adrenaline junkie appeal of that sh-t…but there is no f-cking way I would ride al…

I have a love-hate relationship with helicopters. They’re terrifying. They’re cool. A couple of weeks ago, Jacek showed me this video of a helicopter pilot trained to do trick moves, like spins and flips, and I get the adrenaline junkie appeal of that sh-t…but there is no f-cking way I would ride al…

I have a love-hate relationship with helicopters. They’re terrifying. They’re cool. A couple of weeks ago, Jacek showed me this video of a helicopter pilot trained to do trick moves, like spins and flips, and I get the adrenaline junkie appeal of that sh-t…but there is no f-cking way I would ride al…

With Disney taking over Fox, and the X-Men returning to Marvel Studios’ control, the X-Men franchise is now a lame duck. Dark Phoenix, which should have been the next stop in the two-decade-long franchise, is now the culmination of the franchise that began with 2000’s X-Men. (New Mutants, which was …

With Disney taking over Fox, and the X-Men returning to Marvel Studios’ control, the X-Men franchise is now a lame duck. Dark Phoenix, which should have been the next stop in the two-decade-long franchise, is now the culmination of the franchise that began with 2000’s X-Men. (New Mutants, which was …

Ryan Reynolds owns a gin company, Aviation (aggressively featured in Blake Lively’s movie, A Simple Favor), and he does Maximum Ryan Reynolds ads for the company. His newest ad is called “Dedication”, and it is advertising Aviation’s “signature bottle”, a bottle “signed” by Reynolds (it is real, and…

Australian TV is wild and the producer that came up with this segment deserves a raise (and must have done his/her research – in 2018, Kevin Hart and Ice Cube were surprised on Australian TV with a snake). “I just want to go on record and say this is why white people die!” killed me.

T…