President/Founder of The Hollywood Museum, Donelle Dadigan, along with Council Member Mitch O’Farrell and Board President Esteban Montemayor of Christopher Street West, kicked off Pride weekend with the annual “Real to Reel” exhibit that shines the spotlight on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBTQ) community in television and film through the decades. This year’s event also feature a special recognition with The Future of Hollywood Award presented to actress Stephanie Beatriz and the Legacy Award to TONY Award winning actress, Julie Newmar.

“I was thrilled to attend The Hollywood Museum for the opening of the REAL TO REEL exhibit the other evening, to kick off Gay Pride here in L.A,” said Geri Jewell of Deadwood fame. “It was wonderful coming together with friends and colleagues in support of another part of the spectrum of diversity.”

Reminiscent of Mae West, Ms Julie Newmar was carried on stage in the arms of two bodybuilders, stating “This what happens when you’re a legacy. You don’t have to walk anywhere. You are carried.”

“Thank you all for this lovely tribute,” she added. “It’s so wonderful to receive it in this building, the old Max Factor salon, where for so many years so many of the greats found their external beauty and also discovered their internal beauty. Donelle Dadigan (Founder/President of the Hollywood Museum, formerly The Max Factor Studios) has given the world a priceless time capsule for generations to enjoy for years to come. Im particularly thrilled to get this recognition right now in the midst of the Me Too and Times Up moment of our history,” remarked Ms Newmar.

“I always had my own way of dealing with those situations. First of all, I was taller than most of the men. So right away, I had an advantage. And one of my early roles, on Broadway and on film, was a gal called Stupefyin Jones in LI’l ABNER. Men saw her and they turned to stone. And this was before Viagra. I think some of them thought I actually had that power. And perhaps I did. Im also delighted to receive this acknowledgment in conjunction with all the LGBT pride activities here at the Museum and around the country this month. Of course, there has always been a strong LGBT presence in my life … even BEFORE Catwoman. But to be reminded of it at this critical time, and to know that it is indeed part of my legacy, and that my legacy is not only an artistic one, but one of feminine strength, power and, lets never forget, fun thats a very, very good thing and it fills me with overwhelming gratitude.”

Honoree, Ms Stephanie Beatriz, commented on similarities of her Brooklyn Nine-Nine character, Rosa Diaz’s sexual identity struggles and her own experiences since she came out to family and friends about her own life. “Just like Rosa, I found support from my friends and colleagues, but less so from my family and the Latin community.”

The Hollywood Museum’s REAL to REEL: Portrayals and Perceptions of LGBTQs in Hollywood exhibition opened to the public on Friday, June 8th, to coincide with the annual Christopher Street West Pride activities. Spanning 100 years, the 2018 exhibit is a salute to the LGBTQ community’s contributions to the entertainment industry. Now, in its fifth successful year, the REAL to REEL: Portrayals and Perceptions of LGBTQ in Hollywood exhibit, is offered in partnership with Los Angeles City Council member Mitch O’Farrell (CD-13) and LA Pride, as an educational, entertaining and informative retrospective of LGBTQ images in film, TV, new digital platforms featuring costumes, props, photos, and iconic imagery all telling the story of the milestones and influence that LGBTQ characters and plot lines have had in Hollywood from early stereotypes in silent films to modern-day representations. Additionally, REAL to REEL celebrates LGBTQ Icons by paying homage to those individuals who support the LGBTQ community.

“We are both honored and humbled by the response to last nights program for the 5th annual REAL to REEL exhibit opening. The outpouring of love and positiveness was shared by both the entertainment and LGBTQ communities. The words of inspiration from actress Stephanie Beatriz, the Future of Hollywood Award recipient, blessed all that were in attendance and the overwhelming applause and response to comments from our Legacy Award honoree, TONY Award winning actress Julie Newmar, was worthy of her iconic stature. We are grateful to Council member Mitch O’Farrell and LAPD Assistant Chief Beatrice Girmala, LA City Controller Ron Galperin and Board President Esteban Montemayor of Christopher Street West for their trust in us. Without their integrity and support, all this effort would mean nothing.”- Donelle Dadigan (President/Founder of The Hollywood Museum)

The Hollywood Museum’s presentation places the exhibit in the historical context of Hollywood, which is home to a large LGBTQ entertainment industry population. The exhibit revisits monumental LGBTQ moments in history with Rev. Troy Perry, including the Black Cat riots (1967), and the infamous sign that once hung at the entrance of West Hollywood’s Barney’s Beanery. Exhibit highlights include costumes from Transparent, How to Get Away with Murder, Brokeback Mountain, Superstore, The Walking Dead, Empire, Trans America, Sordid Lives, Cruising, Orange is the New Black, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Ray Donovan, Mad Men, Arrested Development, Cabaret, K-11, After Forever, Orphan Black, Roseanne, Will & Grace, To Wong Fu Julie Newmar, etc. Additional exhibit items include famous costumes from Hollywood’s leading designers; Mr. Blackwell, Bob Mackie, Ret Turner, Nolan Miller, Zac Posen, Rudolf Nureyev and Edith Head to Project Runway with Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum, as well as Days of Our Lives, The Bold and the Beautiful, Scandal, Two in a Half Men, True Blood, The Good Wife, much more. This year’s exhibit also includes, LGBTQ Icons including Judy Garland, Betty Davis, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Cher, Rock Hudson, Liza Minnelli, James Dean, Bette Midler, Ramon Navarro, Rudolf Valentino, Charles Laughton, Sam Harris, Bruce Vilanch, Sherman Hemsley, Geri Jewell, Jerry Herman, Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner and many more.

Recording artist Roslyn Kind exclaimed, “What a GREAT Evening at The Hollywood Museum and the perfect way to kick off PRIDE month 2018, by celebrating all the wonderful contributions of the LGBTQ community to Hollywood’s rich history in the Arts and Culture with the “Real To Reel” Exhibit. Donelle Dadigan does a fantastic job.”

The museum houses more than 10,000 Authentic Show Business Treasures spotlighting more than 100 years of Hollywood history – from the Silents to Talkies, to Hollywood’s Golden Era, Film Noir, Television and its Pioneer Years, through the rebellious 60s, special effects 70s, evolving 80s, involved 90s, technological 2000s, and beyond to current day heartthrobs! The Hollywood Museum’s exhibits showcase the best in film, network and cable television, and new digital platforms featuring iconic and fan favorites! Named one of the top tourist attractions by LA Weekly, voted one of the Top 10 Museums in LA by the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, and annually receives the Certificate of Excellence from Trip Advisor. Located in the heart of Hollywood, at the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave – The Hollywood Museum in the historic Max Factor Building is the “Official Museum of Hollywood” and offers visitors the most extensive collection of Hollywood memorabilia in the world featuring the glamour of Hollywood legends and stars – past, present and in the making…. See one-of-a-kind costumes, props, photographs, scripts, stars’ car collections, personal artifacts, posters, and memorabilia from favorite stars, films and TV shows. The Hollywood Museum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

The post The Stars Come Out in Support of LGBTQ Community and to Honor Stephanie Beatriz and Julie Newmar first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

He’s a comedy writer but, for Bruce Vilanch, there was nothing funny about Election Day 2016.

As the results came in, Vilanch was working on a project in Los Angeles.

“I was writing, and every now and again, I would shift from my work to go online to see what was going on,” said the “Hollywood Squares” alum.

“At first I went to Facebook and there were all these people saying, ‘This is getting scary,’ ” Vilanch, who supported Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, said. “And I thought ‘gee, you mean she’s not winning?’ ”

“And it just got worse, and worse, and worse,” said Vilanch — sporting a shirt with the message “Dance Like Russia Isn’t Watching” on it, along with his signature red-framed glasses.

“And then people began calling. It was like that scene out of ‘American Horror Story’ this season, where people can’t believe what’s going on and have to share,” he said.

“So it was a strange, surreal evening,” Vilanch, a writer for the Academy Awards, said. “You step into an episode of ‘Twilight Zone,’ or something.”

The post Bruce Vilanch: ‘And it just got worse, and worse, and worse’ first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

The Hollywood Museum is thrilled to announce its 2017 salute to the LGBTQ community‘s contributions to the entertainment industry. The fourth annual “REAL to REEL: Portrayals and Perceptions of LGBTQs in Hollywood” exhibit, in partnership with Los Angeles City Council member Mitch O’Farrell, is an educational, entertaining and informative retrospective of LGBTQ images in film, TV, new digital platforms featuring costumes, props, photos, and iconic imagery all telling the story of the milestones and influence that LGBTQ characters and plot lines have had in Hollywood from early stereotypes to modern-day representations. Additionally, REAL to REEL celebrates LGBTQ icons those individuals and couples who may be openly LGBTQ or not, and who support the LGBTQ community.

The Hollywood Museum’s REAL to REEL exhibition, which coincides with the annual Christopher Street West Pride activities, offers a historic perspective spanning 100 years from silent films to today’s films, TV shows, and digital platforms. “The museum welcomes the opportunity to create and showcase this important exhibition, sharing with the public the artistic expression and extraordinary significance of the LGBTQ culture and its effect and impact on the world through the medium of entertainment,” says Donelle Dadigan, Founder and President of The Hollywood Museum located in the Historic Max Factor Building.

The exhibit revisits monumental LGBTQ moments in history with Rev. Troy Perry, including the Black Cat riots (1967), and on display – the infamous sign that once hung at the entrance of West Hollywood’s Barney’s Beanery. Exhibit highlights include costumes from Transparent, How to Get Away with Murder, The Walking Dead, Empire, Trans America, Sordid Lives, Cruising, Orange is the New Black, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Ray Donovan, Mad Men, Arrested Development, Cabaret,K-11, as well as Cyndi Lauper’s Grand Marshall Costume (Toronto’s Gay Pride parade, 2015. Additional exhibit items include famous costumes from Hollywood’s leading designers – Mr. Blackwell, Bob Mackie, Rett Turner, Nolan Miller, Edith Head – to today’s Project Runway with Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum, as well as Days of Our Lives, The Bold and the Beautiful, Tyler Perry’s The Haves and Have Nots, Scandal, Two in a Half Men, True Blood, The Good Wife, and more. This year’s exhibit also includes, Icons in the Community such as Betty Davis, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Liza Minnelli, Bette Midler, Ramon Navarro, Greg Louganis, Charles Laughton, Sam Harris, Bruce Vilanch, Sherman Hemsley, Gere Jewell, Jerry Herman, Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner and many more.

The Hollywood Museum gratefully acknowledges the following ABC, Amazon Studios, BBC America, CBS, Discovery Life, Focus Features HBO, Logo, NBC, Netflix, OWN, Showtime, TLC and 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, as well as organizations serving the LGBTQ community including ONE Archives, Christopher Street West, The Lavender Effect, and The Glaad Awards, amfAR and more

ABOUT THE HOLLYWOOD MUSEUM IN THE HISTORIC MAX FACTOR BUILDING:
See 10,000 Authentic Show Business Treasures spanning more than 100 years of Hollywood history! Located next to the world famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Hollywood Museum in the Historic Max Factor Building houses the largest collection of entertainment memorabilia on display in the world. It is home to thousands of costumes, props, photographs, posters, celebrity automobiles and other treasures from some of the most iconic films and TV shows ever made! See Hollywood legends – past, present, and in the making! The museum attracts thousands of fans from around the world and was recently named one of the top tourist attractions by LA Weekly and by Trip Advisor, and was voted one of the Top 10 Museums in LA by the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board. The Hollywood Museum is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.

REGULAR HOURS: Wednesday – Sunday: 10:00am – 5:00pm (Exhibit: Fri, June 10th – Sun, Sept 4th)
TICKETS: $15 Adults: $12 Seniors (62+): $12 for students with ID and $5 Children under 5.
ADDRESS: 1660 N. Highland Ave. (at Hollywood Blvd.), Los Angeles, CA 90028 MUSEUM INFO: www.TheHollywoodMuseum.com or Tel: (323) 464-7776

FOLLOW THE MUSEUM:
WEBSITE: www.TheHollywoodMuseum.com

FACEBOOK: Facebook.com/TheHollywoodMuseum

The post The Hollywood Museum Announces Fourth Annual Real to Reel: Portrayals and Perceptions of LGBTQs in Hollywood Exhibit first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Bruce Vilanch was toiling away in a perfectly adequate newspaper job in Chicago when Bette Midler came to town. She wasn’t quite famous at that point — an appearance on Broadway and some bathhouse concerts were her credits — but Bruce went to check out her show. Afterwards, he wrote a glowing review, and she called to thank him.

“You should talk more,” he told her.

“You got any good lines?” she asked. He did, and she hired him.

Forty years later, Bruce’s work has touched just about everyone in America. He’s written some of the most famous variety shows ever broadcast, crafted jokes for the Oscars and Emmys and Tonys for decades, and has appeared on everything from RuPaul’s Drag Race to Hollywood Squares to The Simpsons.

I interviewed Bruce Vilanch on my podcast The Sewers of Paris, where every week I talk to gay men about the entertainment that changed their lives. For Bruce, an important early influence were big movie and stage extravaganzas like The Greatest Show on Earth and a Carol Channing flop called The Vamp.

“I taught myself to read with the movie ads,” he recalled. He was obsessed with showbiz from an early age, though his parents tried to steer him toward more reliable work as a doctor or lawyer. They’d take him to films set in courtrooms and point out that attorneys get to perform; but he knew he needed a different kind of limelight.

“I used to have a routine in a hula skirt that was embarrassing to everyone,” he said. “I would have taken a job on the hood of your car, jiggling as you drove.”

An adventurous aunt told him stories of the world and accompanied him on trips into Manhattan. He attempted a career on stage, but discovered that his look and his skills were a little too idiosyncratic. So he went into journalism, and that’s where he had his big break when he wrote about Bette Midler.

“She found the beauty in trash,” he said of her at the time. She’d come out on stage looking a little disheveled and unpredictable, though “the talent was there.” Audiences loved it, particularly when she was on tour and told jokes about local landmarks and figures. The secret of those jokes was that Bruce would leverage his journalism connections to write them, calling colleagues at local papers to find out what the big scandals were before Bette arrived in town.

Eventually, he made his way to Los Angeles, where he’d get his start writing variety shows for Cher, the Brady Bunch, and the Manhattan Transfer. When he could, he’d slip sly queer references into the shows, though they always had to be coded.

“Did you feel exasperated that you couldn’t say gay?” I asked him during our chat.

“It was challenging,” he replied. “It wasn’t frustrating because it hadn’t been done. … That was a couple years off.”

Nevertheless, he still delighted in the sly gay references he was able to place in shows like Hollywood Squares. “It was ‘inside,’ we called it,” he said. “The ones who get it will laugh and the ones who don’t will say ‘what was that?’”

It’s a vastly different world now, of course. But the freedom that gay writers and comedians now have on television is only possible because of pioneers like Bruce.

Listen to the full interview with Bruce below or at SewersOfParis.com.

The post TV Writer Bruce Vilanch Tells Us How He Slipped Sly Gay Jokes Past the Censors first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

When Tom Atwood decided to launch himself into fine art photography, it was mostly because he wanted to see a different image of gay men. Until not long ago, most photographic images of gay men fell into one of two categories: a display of the ravages of AIDS or a paean to the idealized, sexualized beauty of the masculine form (usually nude or in advanced stages of undress).

Atwood’s new book, “Kings & Queens in Their Castles,” offers an alternative view. His style, the photographer says, is a studied melange of portraiture and architectural photography.

“I try to challenge my subjects by showing as much of their environment as possible in the frame of the camera,” he says. “I also use a wide-angle lens and a wide depth of field so that both the subject and the background are in focus.”

Atwood, 45, a self-proclaimed autodidact, has no formal background in photography or art history. His approach was honed through trial and error and a passion for his subject matter.

“I started out photographing gay people at home because I am gay and knew a lot of gay people,” he says. “And I think a lot of gay men especially have a flair for design and live in some really playful places.”

Atwood’s subjects in “Kings & Queens” include more than 160 members of the LGBT community. They’re urban and rural, famous and anonymous, beautiful and plain, extraordinary and decidedly ordinary. His work, displaying an intimacy sometimes bordering on voyeurism, captures LGBT men and women in the process of living their private lives.

Some of today’s tumultuous social movements rely on a fair amount of identity politics. This book isn’t about that. Says Atwood: “I thought it would be interesting to photograph this group of people just in everyday moments since, for most people, their sexuality is a part of who they are, but it’s not the predominant part of who they are.”

Here are six of the book’s compelling stories:

When Atwood arrived at Don Lemon’s Harlem home, the CNN anchor was getting ready to walk his dog. “He’s very friendly, very easygoing, very approachable,” Atwood says. “I realized he’s just a really a social person that’s part of a neighborhood.” He shot Lemon sitting on a skateboard on his balcony, his neighborhood as a backdrop. “I really wanted to shoot people in their everyday environment and show what their private lives are like rather than focus on their public images.”

Atwood photographed the women in the garden of their Jericho, Vt., home. Holly Taylor, a self-declared “compost maven,” and Alison Bechdel, a cartoonist and the author of the Broadway musical “Fun Home,” live in the woods. “I love this photo,” says Atwood, himself a Vermonter. “I think it really shows a real Vermont sensibility in a number of ways. They’ve got a garden. They chop their own wood. They heat their house with wood.”

Considered a pioneer in the transgender and gay communities, Mother Flawless Sabrina ran a national drag pageant enterprise between 1959 and 1969 that put on shows across the country, culminating with an extravaganza in New York. The 77-year-old lives on Manhattan’s Upper East Side surrounded by a bevy of quirky possessions: a 1980s-era telephone with giant buttons, wigs strewn about, jewelry draped on an ornate desk. “She’s a female impersonator, which I guess is a little different from a drag queen, but don’t ask me the difference because I’m not sure I know,” Atwood says.

The former governor of New Jersey will always be famous for the 2004 news conference in which he publicly came out of the closet, his pained wife by his side. “My truth is that I am a gay American,” he declared. Today McGreevey is a Prius-driving resident of Plainfield, N.J., where Atwood photographed him, clad in shorts and a hoodie, pruning ivy in front of his house. “He did go through some difficult times,” Atwood says, “but he seems to be still happy and proud and willing to share his life through this book.”

Loyal viewers of the television game show “Hollywood Squares” will surely recognize the unruly mop of comedian Bruce Vilanch, whom Atwood photographed ferrying groceries back to his West Hollywood apartment. “I think this is a fun shot because Los Angeles has a lot of outdoor/indoor living spaces,” Atwood says, and Vilanch’s apartment building has hallways that are outside rather than inside.

“I don’t think it’s that common to keep barn animals in Los Angeles,” Atwood says of the menagerie of pets that share the home of film director Randal Kleiser. “It was an otherwise suburban ranch house.” Kleiser, known for such films as “Grease” and “Big Top Pee-wee,” enjoys a spectacular view of the L.A. skyline from his swimming pool. “I like that there’s this strong light from the side in this picture and you can see a lot in both the foreground and background,” the photographer says. (Can you find BOTH horses?)

The post ‘Kings & Queens in Their Castles’ is an intimate look at LGBT lives first appeared on We Got Bruce!.