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  • Stonewall FIlm Slips Further Down The Chart

    Things are going from bad to worse as Stonewall slips from 37 to 41.

    Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall has slipped from number 37 in the box office charts to number 41, taking in a just $60,460 in B.O. receipts last week. The controversial film, which has been accused of “white washing” the history of the Stonewall riots has been panned by critics, despite audiences loving it.

    Emmerich’s choice of focussing his film’s story on the fictional character of Danny, was because he thought that the character would be more relatable to a straight audience. Speaking to Buzzfeed he said,

    “You have to understand one thing: I didn’t make this movie only for gay people, I made it also for straight people. I kind of found out, in the testing process, that actually, for straight people, [Danny] is a very easy in. Danny’s very straight-acting. He gets mistreated because of that. [Straight audiences] can feel for him.”

    According to RottenTomatoes.com critics are rating the film at 9% whilst actual audiences are rating it as high as 93%.

    The film had been ranked at 193 in all “gay and lesbian” films over at BoxOfficeMojo.com however it has crept up to 180.

     

  • All Set For The Inaugural Icon Awards In Scotland As Conchita Flies In

    The Scottish LGBTI community is set for the inaugural Icon Awards, set to hit Glasgow this October 9th. The awards aim to reward and celebrate the LGBTI community of Scotland with what’s being penned as the night of the year in the Scottish LGBTI calendar.

    Scotland is leading the way in the race for equality and inclusion, with the passing of the gay marriage bill, and the recent accolade of being the most progressive country in Europe, but there is still a “long way to go” says event manager and organiser Michael Macfarlane.
    He added,

    “The Icon Awards will be an inclusive event, inviting people from all over Scotland to come together and celebrate diversity. The awards will go to individuals, businesses and organisations that are going the extra mile, and are working towards equality for all.”

    Eighteen categories span the full spectrum of the LGBTI community and their achievements.

    Music legend Horse MacDonald also commented saying; “It is so important for the LGBTI community to identify with and have role models, when I was growing up there were so few people to look up to and aspire to. It’s the role models of today’s society who are challenged with helping people accept who they are, and in turn help the endless battle towards full equality for the LGBTI community across Scotland and the world” Horse added,

    “A ceremony like this is long overdue in Scotland, and will help create new role models, and highlight areas that still have a long way to go like sport, as well as creating an inclusive event for all to come and enjoy”.

    One Scottish sporting star who believes in the cause is former Glasgow 2014 team Scotland swimmer, and British LGBT sporting personality of the year finalist Martin Cremin.

    Born in Dunblane, Martin was at the forefront of Scottish sport, now living in London he is still a firm supporter of the LGBTI sporting scene.

    Conchita Wurst and Michelle Visage will be in attendance for the very first awards.

  • Gay Escort Jailed For Blackmailing Married Man

    A gay escort has been jailed for the blackmailing of a married businessman and sending his wife a picture of him wearing women’s underwear.

    John Walker, 29 has been sentenced to 32 months in jail after he was found guilty of blackmailing a businessman. The Leeds Crown Court heard that Walker had managed to extort nearly £5000 from the man.

    According to the Times Walker threaten to expose the unnamed 49-year-old victim with pictures of him wearing women’s underwear, watching gay porn and taking drugs during a scheduled meeting in Feb this year after the pair met on a gay escorting website and had agreed on a £1800 fee.

    David Lampitt, the prosecutor said that during a conversation between the two, Walker told the victim

    “that he was cheating on his wife and thought it was disgusting. He warned the complainant that he should be more careful with his phone and wallet because people could extort money from him.”

    The day after their meet the victim was sent a text message in which he threatened to ring the man’s wife.

    The victim sent his blackmailer £3000 but the blackmailing didn’t stop. In March Walker sent a video text of his victim wearing women’s underwear to the man’s wife.

    It was then that the victim admitted what he had done to his wife and reported the incident to the police.

  • BRITISH MEN Are Clueless When It Comes To Calories and Overeating

    British men are clueless about the calories in their favourite foods, according to a new study.

    One in six blokes believe they are allowed to eat between 3000 and 5,000 calories a day – considerably more than the recommended 2,500.

    And many men think that consuming 53 grams of saturated fat daily is within the recommended amount, when this is also twice as much as they should be having .

    So great is the lack of awareness that the average man will unknowingly consume DOUBLE their daily intake of calories on an evening out with their mates.

    The poll of 2,000 men, commissioned by Fitness First, reveals blokes are baffled by the nutritional content of foods such as burgers, kebabs, crisps, curry and pizza.

    The research revealed that alarmingly, on an average night on the town, men consume at least three pints, a bag of sharing crisps and a portion of chips – which equates to an additional 2,544 calories.

    Indeed more than half of blokes admit they have no self-control when it comes to what they eat and drink on a lad’s night out.

     

    Kate Toland, Head of Marketing at Fitness First said: “We were really surprised by the findings of this report – the level of confusion about calorie content is more prevalent than we’d anticipated.

    “It’s good that men are taking a relaxed approach to food – we would never encourage obsessive calorie counting. However, it’s the difference between being fanatical and understanding that a curry and a few pints will take you way over the recommended daily allowance.”

     

    The study found the average male believes there are only 350 calories in a standard 225g bag of sharing crisps, when in fact there are almost 1200.

    Blokes also assumed there were only 444 calories in a portion of chips, when the reality is at least 795.

    And many men would think nothing of consuming a chicken korma curry with rice and naan, but would underestimate the number of calories by 400.

    Even a pizza can leave blokes puzzled – with many assuming a cheese and tomato is 706 calories rather than the actual 1296, and a pepperoni is thought to be 787 calories rather than a stonking 1712.

    Other foods which caused bewilderment include hotdogs, salted peanuts, tortillas and kebabs.

    In fact, the only snack food where men OVER-estimated the calorie content was a standard cheeseburger, with men guessing the calorie content to be around 540, when it’s closer to 300.

    Kate Toland from Fitness First continues:

    “Our researchers discovered that while the average male likes to look lean and stay fit, being low on time or energy can affect their approach to food.

    “Most men cite their busy lifestyles as the reason why they don’t pay much attention to what they eat, and this is likely to affect the amount of times they exercise as well.

    “Exercising regularly to counteract calorie intake is a great way to achieve all round health. Even 30 minutes of exercise three times a week will put men on track for a win in the fitness stakes.”

     

    FOOD TYPE ESTIMATED CALORIE CONTENT ACTUAL CALORIE CONTENT

     

    Cheeseburger 539 316

    Doner Kebab, 600g 741 1000

    Chips, 333g 445 795

    Sharing crisps, 225g 350 1179

    Sharing tortillas, 225g 362 1117

    Pint of beer / lager 343 180

    Pint of cider 342 210

    Korma curry, naan, rice 637 1069

    Margherita pizza, 8 slc 707 1296

    Pepperoni pizza, 8 slc 787 1712

    Hotdog, 455g 494 1078

    Salted peanuts, 100g 410 619

     

    by Emma Elsworthy

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Showstoppers show themselves up in the West End

    Long form improv is the high-wire act of this performing spectacle in this impromptu musical theatre delight.

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  • THEATRE REVIEW: Pam Ann Queen Of The Skies, Leicester Square Theatre

    She’s still got it. Forty-Six she reminds us, and still has lots of wear left in those knees. ★★★★

    And as those noisy punters she had removed from the front row will attest, as feisty as ever. Pam Ann is the unchallenged Queen of the skies and looking around at the packed Leicester Square theatre – queen of the gays as well – with every c*ck joke, every rim job mention provoking whoops of excitement that explode across the small auditorium.

    It’s not hard to understand why the gays have taken Pam under their collective wing for nearly 20 years, in an interview with this very magazine in 2013 she said about the gay community,

    “They didn’t create Pam Ann; they created my whole fking life and my existence. That’s why I have not got married. I have not had kids. I am a fking gay man, 99 per cent of my friends are gay so they can take responsibility for everything. My vocabulary is gay, I speak gay, everything is gay. I f**k like a gay so you know, I say they created my whole existence and Pam Ann.”

    There’s something different though with Pam Ann, perhaps a little more self-aware than her usual, it feels a little Pam Ann 2.0. In this show there’s a lot less “air” jokes and hardly any of her beloved characters, such as Lily, Valerie and Helga. The first part gives way to a full on stand up routine and while much is in the character, Caroline Reid (Pam Ann’s creator and body) is it seems, breaking and aching to get out.

    Don’t get me wrong; she still gets in the ‘ass-like-a-hippo’s-yawn’ gag (it was at 3 minutes and 42 seconds, but who’s counting) and she still flies in the headwind of the PC brigade, using race, religion, heterosexuals and class as her bread and butter material, much to the applause of the crowd.

    While some media outlets will call her shtick out-dated and a product of days past, our community needs levity and moment to stop eating itself from the inside and listen to some of the pearls that fall from Reid’s mouth – and she knows that. With a knowing eye she momentarily tips her hat off to one particuarly hotly contested word – to the delight of the audience.

    But what if Pam wasn’t Pam anymore? Instead we have Caroline… I’m excited about the prospect; does she need to be dressed up in the uniform to still be hailed high as one of the campest comic creations by the gay community? The question is will we let her flamboyant, coked up stewardess character go? Will we let Reid fly, shed the wingtips and become a fully-fledged real person rather than the institution she’s become?

    Pam Ann Queen of The Skies is on at the Leicester Square Theatre until November 30th.

     

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Roaring Trade – bankers misbehaving in a play with very little bark

    The strange world of bond trading and the lives of the traders who inhabit it is explored in the new play “Roaring Trade.” ★★

    There are four desks in an office in Canary Wharf where four unique personalities ply their trade day in and day out. Their goal, of course, is to make money. But not all of them do. Fortunes are made, and lost, in a single second. It’s a very stressful job, one that has direct effects on their families.
    ‘Roaring Trade’ is set on a bond trading floor of a fictional investment bank called ‘McSorleys.’ It introduces us to the four people who live and breathe their jobs. We’ve got beautiful blonde Jess (Lesley Harcourt), confident but not cocky. She’s got more balls than some of the men she works with, including Donny (Nick Moran), who’s putty in her hands, and is the cocky one. Then there’s PJ (Michael McKell), burnt out yet still slaves away at his job to appease his keeping up appearances wife Sandy (Melanie Gutteridge). Spoon (Timothy George) arrives as a new team member, very young, getting the job because his father is a fat cat in the City.
    For these four, it’s all about the money, and the bonus that validates their performances. It’s what drives them to succeed, at any cost, and whether that puts another team member at risk, so be it. When newbie Spoon makes £3.6 million on a trade, he suddenly becomes the golden boy. And when it comes to bonus time, Donny is oh so curious as to how much Spoon has received, enough so to attempt to take a peak at Spoon’s bonus letter. But when PJ receives less than what he’s expecting (a luxury trip to Barbados is cancelled for a trip to Brussels), this means his wife Sandy will not get her new kitchen, and their seven bedroom house will have to be put up for sale. Sandy says she’s worried that they will be the target of gossip if they sell their house, though PJ says that she likes to be the center of good gossip when the money is coming in and she is spending.
    Meanwhile, Donny instills his work ethic on to his son Sean (William Nye), teaching him how to make money using a sachet of ketchup as an example. He tells Sean that in the bond world, money can be made by selling something one doesn’t own, and making money off of it. It’s an example the son takes to heart.
    But things get very tense on the trading floor when Donny is down £8.6 million on a trade, and it gets even more tense when PJ is offered a head trading role at fictional investment bank Shads, and he wants to take the rest of the team with him. But when one trade goes in a different direction than expected because of internet chat room gossip, it’s anyone’s guess whose going to be in the money and whose going to be out of the money. And it’s not who you would expect.
    ‘Roaring Trade’ takes the ‘bankers are wankers’ phrase and runs with it. Donny, the veteran, seems to just care about making money. Jess appears heartless but always in control, while Spoon the newbie is so green that he will take risks just to get ahead. We get a different message from PJ – that not all bankers are bad. While the acting is not bad (George is superb as the new kid on the block) and Harcourt nails it as the tough-as-nails Jess, Mckell’s acting is a bit over the top, and the character behaviour not quite believable. Originally written for the stage in 2009 and quickly updated to reflect today’s news (a line in the show is “bonds are dropping like VW”), ‘Roaring Trade’ has more of a yelp than a roar. And while our real banks have taken risks in the past and are paying heavily for it now, as Donny says in the play – ‘There’s risk in everything that matters.’
    ‘Roaring Trade’ is playing until 24 October 2015 at The Park Theatre in Finsbury Park. To buy tickets, click here

  • THEATRE REVIEW | 5 Guys Chillin At The Kings Head Theatre

    5 Guys Chillin’ is a verbatim drama adapted from over 50 hours of anonymous interviews about the world of chem-sex on the gay scene. ★★

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  • REVIEW: Domyos Expander

    Lightweight weight training kit on the go. Domyos expander – fit for purpose?

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  • Priest Comes Out As Gay And Is Promptly Sacked By Vatican

    A Polish priest has been sacked by the Vatican after coming out as gay.

    Monsignor Krzystof Charamsa,43, a priest who has worked in the Vatican’s doctrinal arm since 2003 has been fired by Vatican officials after coming out as gay and as having a partner. He announced his sexuality in an interview with the Italian paper Corriere della Sera.

    Charamsa held a press conference with his Spanish partner to announce his partnership and sexuality. The Vatican have said that its decision to remove Charamsa was nothing to do with his coming out, but that giving an interview and planning a news conference was “grave and irresponsible”.

    Speaking about the Church’s views on homosexuality and how the Church treats gay people he said their views were “inhuman”,

    “It’s time for the Church to open its eyes about gay Catholics and to understand that the solution it proposes to them – total abstinence from a life of love – is inhuman.”

    The news of the sacking comes after the news of an alleged meeting between Kim Davis, the Rowan County clerk who spent time in jail recently after refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples and the Pope during his recent visit to the United States.The Vatican said that the only “audience” the Pope had was with a small group, which included a gay couple.

    In a statement about Charamsa’s announcement, the Vatican said,

    “Msgr. Charamsa will certainly be unable to continue to carry out his previous work in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical universities, while the other aspects of his situation shall remain the competence of his diocesan Ordinary [local bishop].”

    Krzystof Charamsa, dedicated his coming out to all gay priests, saying,

    “I dedicate my coming out to all gay priests. I wish them happiness even if I know that most of them will not have the courage to make the gesture I have made today.”

  • Ray The Gay Builder Gets Married

    Gaydio-celebrity, eastender, ex-boxer, and pink helmet-donner Ray Bulloch the self-proclaimed first openly gay builder has just tied the rainbow-knot.

    Ray sprinkled his fairy dust all over the press last year when his fifteen-year-old building company came screwing, hammering and drilling its way out the closet, pink transit van in tow.
    We’ve all heard: “Why have a gay friendly builder, when you can have a friendly gay builder” – that’s our Ray.
    Bulloch met his long term partner Micky (Michael Watson), 52 who works in the theatre, fifteen years ago on an AOL chat room. Their first date was a trip to London’s Victoria to see Bombay Dreams at the Apollo – Ray said, “we are like chalk and cheese, but it was love at first sight”.
    Ray and Micky decided to walk down the Chelsea Town Hall aisle on Sunday 27th September at 1pm – not only because they love each other, but they wanted to give one another peace-of-mind if anything happened in the future. Bulloch said, “Micky doesn’t have a big family, and now he will”.
    Ray decided to lose the pink tool belt, helmet and drill and opted for matching grey, with subdued light grey over check, Hugo Boss whistle-and-flutes – with of course, matching powder pink shirts and cerise pink paisley ties.
    The wedding reception was held at Bluebird on the Kings Road, a handful of confetti throw away from the wedding venue. Bulloch said “I just want our 50 guest to celebrate our wonderful day”.
    The only sad thing about the day is that Reggie (a shiatsu), Scooby (half staffie half english bull terrier), Ronnie (tabby cat), Louise (a one-eyed cat) and Elvis (a blasphemous parrot) couldn’t attend – they all live with the newlyweds and are a big part of their family.

    No doubt the five family members that weren’t allowed at the wedding, were treated to a piece of the Choccywoccydoodah wedding cake when Ray carried Micky over the threshold.

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