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  • Ben Haenow Dropped By Syco Is Louisa Next

    Odds aren’t looking for Simon Cowell’s roster at Syco as Ben Haenow gets the chop and Louisa’s future hangs in the balance.

    Plummenting viewing viewers and even poorer record sales Simon Cowell’s winners aren’t doing well.

    Ben Haenow who won the X Factor in 2014 has been dropped from Simon’s Sony imprint Syco following in the footsteps of Steve Brookstein, James Arthur and Leon Jackson.

    William Hill is offering odds of 5/1 that 2015’s winner Louisa Johnson is dropped before the end of 2016.

    “There has been a growing voice suggesting that the X Factor should at the very least be given a rest,” said William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly. “The fact that the winner from just 12 months ago has already been dropped is only going to add fuel to that fire.”

     

  • Hottest Calvin Klein Underwear Models

    Okay, it’s not qute naked, but we love a good CK campaign, here we look at some of our favourites. Clearly this was a difficult job, so we’re taking this very seriously. (more…)

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Macbeth, Birmingham Rep

    When a story is often told, there is a risk of it getting old, however, with Carrie Cracknell and Lucy Guerin’s Macbeth told the same story but through a completely new lens. It was Stargate meets Resident Evil bent of Macbeth. It had moving chambers and symbols that lit up, just like in the pyramids of the former film, and it had the underground facility feel of Resident Evil, with dim lights, almost appearing like they were trapped in the sewers. ★★★★

    Having watched Macbeth the film starring Michael Fassbender, expectations were always going to be high. With this production, you just didn’t know what you were going to get, which made it so much more exciting, and John Heffernan’s Macbeth was his own, and it was genius.

    The marvel that was the set made the show start before the actors had even walked on, as the tunnel type design, by Lizzie Clachan, let your mind loose imagining what would be happening first. The set is worthy of stealing all awards for a production’s visual masterpiece.

    When the show did start, and through to the end there were no disappointments with the visual of this Macbeth, as every scene was coloured differently with physicality that was otherworldly. Particularly the witches of Macbeth, played by Ana Beatriz Meireles, Jessie Oshodi and Clemmie Sveaas, who stunned the senses with their movement, voice and visual shapes they created as an instrument of telling the story. I was glad to see them throughout the performance.

    John Heffernan owned the show with his careful, precise, yet troubled portrayal of Macbeth, where the transitions of the character were strategic and well thought out. There were no exaggerations or contrivance, and there were plenty of shades of Macbeth oozing out of Heffernan, and I particularly loved the end where his last soliloquy was quiet and understated, giving it more a solid effect, as it drew people in to listen.

    Unfortunately, Anna Maxwell Martin’s Lady Macbeth was not on the same level. The way she spoke was too quick, making it hard to understand what she was saying, and also overly predictable with presenting herself as mad throughout, not showing much depth to the character. The mad scene became expected and obvious.

    Overall, a stunning visual and an outstanding version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth that needs to be seen all over the country and beyond.

    Macbeth plays at The Birmingham Rep until 30th January, 0121 236 4455

     

     

  • January 2016

    January 2016

    Issue 18 TheGayUK January 2016

    Inside Issue 18

    Start the New Year with Kelly Mantle, Margaret Cho, Sister Sledge and Jahméne Douglas… Plus: Party Canapé Recipes, Amazing Suits and what we’ve learnt from Sir Ian McKellen. Oh and all your usual tips and advice including our Legal and Sex clinics, Garden and Motoring and a rather opinionated Aunty!

  • Christopher Maloney The Fifth Housemate To Be Evicted

    Over the weekend, Big Brother gave housemates the opportunity to win immunity from tonight’s eviction in a series of tasks in the Forgotten Theatre.

    Gemma, Stephanie and Darren were all successful, meaning that Scotty T, Danniella, Jeremy, Christopher, John and Tiffany had to face eviction. The public has since being voting to save. During tonight’s 9pm Channel 5 programme, Emma Willis announced live to the house that the fifth person to leave would be Christopher.

    Following the announcement, Christopher had 30 seconds to say his goodbyes and left the house to cheers from the crowd; then was greeted by Emma.

    Asked how he felt about leaving the house, Christopher told Emma, “I’m so glad to be out of there to be honest with you.”

    Emma asked him how he thinks Danniella feels about his departure. He told her, “she’s going through an emotional rollercoaster at the moment. She’s getting a little bit upset and I’ve been there for her and stuff. She’s a great girl, good luck to her. She’s doing really well in there.”

    Emma then goes on to ask how it was on the first night when Christopher and Danniella saw each other for the first time following a period of not speaking. He said, “I was sh*tting myself. What did she say to me? We’ll have words, we’ll speak later. But we sorted it; you know it’s been great. I’m glad we sorted it because it wasn’t even anything to do with us, it was other people that were trying to stir sh*t.”

    Quizzed about his relationship with Gemma in the house, Christopher told Emma “I’ve got to say, I didn’t really get her at the beginning and I’d rather please her than upset her. But since we had that conversation the other day, I got her. I got who she was and what kind of a person she is. I found her intimidating a little bit, I found her a bit overpowering. She’s a great housemate and she’s doing really well.”

    Emma asked Christopher who he wants to win and he told her Danniella and Darren.

    Tonight, viewers also saw holistic food & lifestyle guru, Gillian McKeith, pay an unexpected visit to the Big Brother house. In the Diary Room, Big Brother informed her that there are high levels of toxicity in the house; she said “absolutely, could not agree with you more. I’m definitely the best person for the job. Bring it on, somebodies got to sort out the mayhem in this place. Shenanigans no more.”

    Gillian then entered the house and had to pick who she believed to be the four most toxic housemates to take part in her detox clinic. She chose Stephanie, Scotty T, John and Tiffany.

    Celebrity Big Brother returns tomorrow at 9pm on Channel 5. Emma will be back on Friday at 9pm for the next eviction.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Alright Bitches, Above The Stag

    THEATRE REVIEW | Alright Bitches, Above The Stag

    ★★★ Alright Bitches | Let’s go on a trip to Gran Canaria via Above the Stag Theatre in their newly-penned play ‘Alright Bitches.’

    (more…)

  • HOUSE OF CARDS Teaser Released

    HOUSE OF CARDS Teaser Released

    Frank… Frank… Frank (more…)

  • Zayn Malik Wants To Sing About Sex

    So we now know the reason why Zayn left the most successful band on the planet and that is he has sex on his mind and wants to tell us all about it in song.

    The former One Direction singer took to Twitter on Sunday morning to reveal that his first ever single, ‘Pillow Talk’, will be coming out on Friday. He posted the artwork of in a shirtless black-and-white photo showing all his tasteful tattoos together with a 50-second clip of the video on YouTube. So what does it sound like? Well just imagine the next Nick Jonas single with a slight dancier edge and you will have it, yep Zayn wants to sound very American with his music maybe with his eye on that market but it is pure pop with a decent hook.

    This will mark the first material fans will hear from his upcoming debut solo album, this follows his sudden departure from One Direction a year ago as he wanted to have ‘the normal life of a young guy his age’ a young guy with a few million in the bank and an international recording contract of course! There was a lot of atmosphere in the group and Zayn seemed to become the odd one out and the band have ploughed on successfully as a four piece with a number one album and single all over the globe in the run-up to Christmas.

    Zayn had lead with a short clip of a song called ‘Be Four’, which appeared in a special video for Fader magazine 10 weeks ago. Speaking about what fans can expect from his solo material, Zayn explained in that article: “I don’t feel like people really know what I’m going to give them, musically. And once they hear it, I feel like they will understand me a little bit more, and they’ll understand why I did what I did, and why I left the band, and why I had to write this shit down.

    “Because for five – not even for five years, for ten years, this album has been in my brain, and it’s just been there, sat with me, needing to be out.”

    He went much further telling the Sunday Times this week the real meaning of his music – Sex “Everybody wants to have sex and it’s something people want. It’s part of everybody’s life and you don’t want to sweep it under the carpet. It has to be talked about ”

    The release of ‘Pillow Talk’ will be followed the same night by an appearance on the Graham Norton Show which will be his first TV interview and performance as a solo star. The song will then, of course, have a clear seven days of sales, downloads and streamlining to see if it can usurp Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber from the top of the charts. Of course with his band mates currently flying high in the top 10 with their third single from the massive current album, there will be an instant judge as to whether Zayn has made the right move or not.

    Let the 1D chart battle commence. Have the fans forgiven him for splitting from 1D or will they turn their backs on him and stick with the other four and their new faves Shawn and Bieber. The industry is keen to see whether Zayn is the next Robbie Williams, Ronan Keating or Justin Timberlake that were right to jump ship or whether he is the latest Charlie Simpson from Busted, Brian McFadden from Westlife or Gary Barlow from Take That who all left hugely popular outfits for very indifferent solo careers and poor sales.

    There are many rumours flying about that Harry Styles has officially recorded several solo tracks after collaborating with Snow Patrol so may fancy the soloist route himself too.

    Ironically Zayn’s announcement came on the same day as pictures were released of the first 1D baby. Louis Tomlinson’s son with Briana Jungwirth had a child last week and although as the couple are not married it is uncertain as to who’s name the young lad will take we do know that they have chosen the names Sydney Rain for him. The couple is no longer romantically involved although Louis did attend the birth and instantly tweeted the lyrics to Boney M’s debut hit ‘Daddy Cool’ and added: “I’m pleased to say my baby son was born yesterday; he is healthy and pretty amazing, i am very happy”.

    One Direction famously all auditioned separately for the X-Factor where Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger put the five lads together as a boy band after they failed to get picked as individuals.

    Four of them were keen but it was Liam that was the most reluctant as he still wanted to go forward as a soloist which may indicate that he will be the next on his own into a studio now the band are on an 18-month break. The boys after coming third in the X-Factor then found a great first song in What Makes You Beautiful which lead to 5 hit albums breaking America and everywhere else, movies, awards and endless merchandise before taking over the entire known universe. At THEGAYUK we love anything 1D orientated so we will keep our ears to the ground on all the developments of all 5 lads as they go forward with their many projects.

  • Gillian McKeith is to enter the Big Brother house

    Celebrity Big Brother producers have announced that holistic food & lifestyle guru Gillian McKeith will enter the Big Brother house in tonight’s live show.

    As part of this week’s task, tonight Gillian will be asked by Big Brother to select the four housemates whom she believes to be the ‘most toxic’.

    During her time in the house Gillian will not be treated like a housemate and will not be up for nomination or eviction.

  • Rainbow Lanyards Promotes Pro LGBT Environment in NHS

    A scheme which allows LGBT workers and their allies at a London NHS trust to wear rainbow lanyards has been hailed as a success.

    Last year Central and North West London Trust launched a scheme that introduced rainbow-coloured NHS lanyards for staff to reinforce the Trust’s values and promote an environment of openness in all the Trust’s services.

    Over a thousand staff members at the CNWL trust now wear the lanyards including 500 straight allies.

    Alison Devlin, CN WL’s Equalities and Diversity Manager, said,

    “The initiative has been a phenomenal success. Once a few people started wearing the lanyards then they quickly spread across our sites and services.

    “The lanyards are completely optional – Staff can choose to wear the rainbow version instead of the standard NHS blue ones to highlight their support for LGBT colleagues, patients and the public and to get people talking about LGBT topics in a more confident and open way.”

    Mrs Devlin first came up with the initiative after a Patient Experience Survey, carried out by The Advocacy Project (an independent advocacy organisation) on nine of the Trust’s inpatient mental health wards found that some patients preferred not to be open about their sexuality for fear of judgement from staff and other patients.

    Mrs Devlin continues:

    “This report really highlighted the importance of creating a more open environment and a better experience for LGBT patients. As a result of the findings we rolled out LGBT awareness training sessions for inpatient staff which, together with the lanyard scheme, has helped to encourage openness on the wards and transform the patient experience. They give a powerful message to people at a time when they might be feeling at their most vulnerable.”

    Lanyards are distributed with an information booklet that explains the scheme and includes signposting information to a variety of local, London-wide and national LGBT organisations. Staff are also automatically signed up to receive Straight Allies bulletins and educational links to further educate them about LGBT equality issues.

    Claire Murdoch, CNWL Chief Executive, said:

    “This was a really good initiative that raised issues in an unusual but everyday way and quite colourfully. We’re a diverse Trust and these small reminders add to a positive atmosphere.”

    The lanyards were rolled out in February 2015 during LGBT History Month and are promoted to staff continuously throughout the year.

  • Ofcom Will Not Investigate Channel 5 Over Winston McKenzie’s “Homophobic” Remarks

    Ofcom has announced that it won’t investigate remarks made by Winston McKenzie in this series of Celebrity Big Brother even though it has received nearly 400 official complaints.

    The media watchdog Ofcom has said it won’t be investigating Channel 5 after it broadcast the “homophobic” and bigoted views by London Mayoral hopeful Winston McKenzie.

    When questioned whether he could deal with gay people during his time in the Celebrity Big Brother house, McKenzie said in his initial VT he,

    …Could cope with a homosexual in the house. I guess I’ll just have to stand with my back against a brick wall all the time,” he said.

    A statement released by the watchdog said,

    “We are satisfied that Channel 5 broadcast clear and appropriate warnings about the potentially offensive content, and intervened in heated exchanges and situations at appropriate times.

    “We have also taken into account the audience’s expectations of this well-established reality format, and that the series is aired after the watershed.”

    During his time in the house McKenzie tried to explain his feelings about same-sex parenting, which he said he feels is akin to child abuse. McKenzie was nominated by the LGBT charity Stonewall as Bigot Of The Year in 2013 for the comment.

     

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