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  • James Franco Debuts Blonde Ambitions

    James Franco, the man who can create publicity by just breathing, has debuted his 90’s inspired blonde look.

    The actor James Franco ,35, has debuted his blonde look in a post on Instragram in which he said, ‘That Late 90s bleached look.’

    And we have to say we’re loving it. He looks like a cross between an NSyncer and Backstreet Boy.

    Franco is currently working on a film called Michael, with Zachary Quinto and Emma Roberts. The film is about a pastor who was once gay.

    The actor who starred in Milk, is no stranger to playing gay for the camera, but this is the first time he has played an ‘ex-gay’. The film is based on ‘My Ex-Gay Friend,” a New York Times Magazine article by Benoit Denizet-Lewis, about Michael Glatze, a Christian minister who ‘rejected’ his homosexuality.

    So what do you think, do you like his blonde look?

  • Lionel Blair Put Man In Hospital Who Called Him A Fairy

    Lionel Blair, in an interview with the Daily Mail has described how he put a man in hospital because he called the star a ‘fairy’ and can’t bear same-sex marriage

    During the interview, Lionel Blair, 82, admits to the disproportionent and violent act, because the man called him a fairy in front of his daughter, Lucy.

    Blair, punched him, ‘He had to go to hospital!’, said the 82-year-old television presenter.

    He remarked that the jokes and speculation about his sexuality were trying saying, ‘It isn’t nice when you have a family.’

    When questioned on whether he supported the right for same-sex marriage he said, ‘I can’t bear it, I’m afraid. Look, if people want to live together, fine. And I do believe in civil partnerships. But marriage is between a man and a woman.

    ‘The world has changed. What has happened to my beautiful England?’

    Blair starred in Celebrity Big Brother in January 2014 and became the third housemate to be evicted from the series. The series would go on to be one of the most controversial after former boxer Evander Holyfield made a series of homophobic remarks.

  • That Time Mark Byron Auditioned For X Factor

    Mark Byron became one of the most talked about contestants in this year’s Big Brother – but do you remember when he auditioned for The X Factor back in 2011?

    It seems as Mark Byron has a bit of a reality TV streak in him as this video of him auditioning for The X Factor show.

    He auditioned in front of Gary Barlow, Kelly Rowland, Louis Walsh and Tulisa, with an out of tune rendition of Rihanna’s Only Girl In The World. After getting 4 No votes Mark vowed to ‘leave the country!’

    Mark was booted out the Big Brother house on Friday in a surprise double eviction with Winston.

    But The X Factor isn’t all Mark’s tried his hand at; he also starred in Channel 4’s Shipwrecked when he was 18. Check out his intro here!

  • Life Assurance Policies Up 140% For People Living With HIV

    A new report out today shows that those men and women living with HIV are taking out more life assurance as new policies soar by 140%.

    However, the report also highlights that the average amount for which people are insuring themselves has decreased year-on-year to just £114,607.

    In 2013 the amount that people were insuring themselves for £134,667 and £134,130 in 2012, showing a decrease of just over £20,000 a survey showed.

    Chris Morgan, Marketing Manager of Unusual Risks, Mortgage & Insurance Services says,

    ‘It has come as a complete surprise that the average sum Assured of an HIV Life Assurance Policy has decreased over the last year to £114,607. However, at the same time over the last twelve months we have also seen a rapid increase in the number of people taking up HIV Life Assurance products.

    ‘We believe the volume of people taking HIV Life Assurance has increased by around 140% over the last two years, which seems to have had an effect on the average sum-assured being taken by policy holders. We are of course delighted to see that more people with HIV are protecting their homes, mortgages, families and children’.

    In last year’s HIV Life Assurance Survey it was established that 70% of Life Insurance providers now offer cover to people with HIV. However, the terms and premiums they offer vary wildly between different insurance companies. Those looking for HIV Life Assurance are urged to seek specialist advice before applying for insurance.

  • Lady Gaga showcases new perfume artwork

    Lady Gaga has shared the artwork of her brand new perfume to be released later this year.

    The perfume is to be called EAU DE GAGA and will be the 2nd fragrance that the singer has released. The first, a unisex scent called ‘Fame’ has sold over 30 million bottles and created over $1.5billion in revenue.

    Taking to social media Gaga wrote, ‘EAU DE GAGA coming this season. Artwork By Steven Klein @skstudly’.

    The perfume will be mostly likely be released by her Haus Laboratories company.

  • INTERVIEW | Kate Clinton, The First Lady Of Comedy

    Every summer for the past 15 years THEGAYUK’s British/American movie critic Roger Walker-Dack has hot tailed it to spend his entire summer in Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod.

    A lot has changed since the first Brits landed there when the Mayflower docked in 1602. They only stayed five weeks then before sailing on to their final destination at Plymouth Rock, and they really don’t know what they missed. This captivating beautiful small seaside town has been an artist’s colony, a Portuguese haven, and now it is an enchanting gay mecca that each summer sees the all-year round population of less than 3000 swell to over 60000 people.

    In a series we are calling POSTCARDS FROM P.TOWN, Roger Walker-Dack will introduce some of the people and things that create the magic that make this such a ‘must see’ destination for gay people from all over the world.

    Kate Clinton describes herself as a faith-based, tax-paying, America-loving political humorist and family entertainer. She is also one of the funniest and quick-witted lesbian comics with her no-holds barred, often-controversial take, on all the hot button topics of the day. Now in her third decade of performing, the woman is seemingly unstoppable with TV appearances ranging from ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ to ‘The L Word’, several off-Broadway shows, countless sold-out nationwide tours, movies, radio, MC‘ing events and even doing a turn at The Gay Games in Chicago one year. She has worked with some of the greatest performers of her time from Lily Tomlin to Oprah Winfrey. Her summer show is one of the first dates I put in my diary when I arrive here in P.Town. I’ve sat in her audience at least once a year for the past 15 years, and have also exchanged the odd quip or two as we passed each other at Joe’s Coffee Shop, but now she is taking time out of her busy schedule to give her first ever UK magazine interview to The Gay UK:

    RWD: You shocked me one year by revealing in your show that you were once a schoolteacher.
    KC: Yes, I taught English in High School for years but I always wanted to try my hand at Stand Up Comedy. In March 1981, after I only had just ‘come out’, a friend booked me into a local gay club in Syracuse New York. To my great relief it was a huge success, although it did help that all my friends had turned up to support me. However two weeks later I did the same show at a Women’s Club in Boston where they had no idea of who I was. And the same lines that had slayed them before, now just died an instant death, and from the back of the room a voice shouted out in a broad South End accent ‘you’re on your own now dahling!’ And I was.

    RWD: Did that floor you?
    KC: (laugh) No. I knew from Teaching just to go on regardless. So I did, and got through it.

    RWD: How long did you juggle both careers?
    KC: Actually I didn’t. My partner at the time said after my first show ‘I don’t know how to tell you this, but you have to do it again.’ So I immediately gave up teaching and went into performing fulltime and she became my manager. Then another good friend who used to perform in a band booked me for a first summer season touring the North West in a red camper van called Ruby, playing one nighters in an a varied assortment of small and… how can I put it politely… ‘interesting venues’.

    RWD. Wow! The touring part doesn’t amaze me but the camper van part is too hard to swallow. You are without doubt THE most elegantly-dressed woman in P Town and even when you whizz past on your bike here you look like you are suitably attired to have tea with The Queen…or a queen at least.
    KC: (laughing very loud) I only had a few outfits in those days. But in 1985 I started travelling more and Eastern Airlines had this amazing deal where you could fly to 21 cities for a pittance. The only catch was that you always had to fly through Atlanta, so if you wanted to go from Portland Oregon to Seattle it added 5000 miles to a 173-mile journey.

    1985 was also a turning point for me as the AIDS crisis started to hit hard and I played less lesbian only audiences and began playing more gay audiences along with fund raisers and benefits as well. And then I also went on to do memorials and services for friends that were lost.

    RWD: A very tough time…
    KC: Yes, but I also saw it as a great coming together of our community too, as a way of healing.

    RWD: Have you always been so very political?
    KC: Coming out as a lesbian in those days was in itself considered a political act. After all, some women can’t say the word lesbian… even when their mouth is full of one.

    But on a professional level I feel that we have to deal with a barrage of news and information on a daily basis and I think it is the job of the comic to filter and give it the benefit of a thought that people generally don’t tend to do. I like to contextualize it and to put it in historical context.

    RWD: I find what you do is to articulate something that concerns us all and put a funny spin on it, even topics that are considered very serious. You are unashamedly a fervent and passionate Democrat and so I love the stand you take on every issue as I feel completely in tune with your political beliefs, however I am wondering how they go down with an audience that is a tad more conservative?
    KC: Maybe it’s the teacher in me, but I think it’s all-educational still, and anyway I just presume that we are all in it together.

    RWD: Even though a third of gay people voted for George Bush. Twice?
    KC: That’s still hard to believe, but people do come up to me afterwards and say I’m a Republican BUT I loved your show.

    RWD: And those that don’t?
    KC: When they find it too tough to take, like when I was including pieces on the Iraq war, I simply pretended that all the people who walked out during my performance had just gone to the bathroom and so I carried on. And anyway, I’m a moderate lesbian, I only hold grudges for six generations.

    RWD: (laugh) But do you ever censor yourself thinking you may be going too far?
    KC: I don’t deliberately set out to provoke outrage. If I am confident in any piece and feel good about it, then I will do it.

    RWD: P Town is not just the place you perform. It is also very much home for you and your partner.
    KC: I came here first in 1984 and performed for a week. The next year I did two and so on, and I very quickly fell in love with the place. I started to think why am I going back to Upstate NY when this is the place to be all summer. I love all the natural beauty of the town, and the way that people still come here for both that, and also the wonderful sense of community we have here.

    RWD: The thing most baffling about you is why have you never ever performed in the UK? Many of your books and CDs are available on Amazon there and sell very well so I know you have a big British fan base.
    KC: I’ve got very close to it twice but on each occasion I had family emergencies and had to cancel. BUT I am really hoping it‘s going to be 3rd time luck. I do get a lot of Facebook mail from the UK from people who seem to like that my take on the US is quite raw.

    RWD: You would have a great deal of fun giving us your very incisive take on British politics too. I think if you had been born there you would have become one of our great stately Institutions, the sort of person the Queen would have made a Dame.
    KC: Thank you.

    RWD: Here in Provincetown despite all the many changing fads and trends that have occurred over the years you are still here, and obviously having a great deal of fun, and in fact this season you are the ONLY lesbian comic performing. Whilst all the other acts are ‘barking’ on the street trying to entice people in to see the shows, you don’t and yet you play to packed houses every night.
    KC: I think sometimes they come simply because I don’t plaster the beaches with flyers when everyone is simply trying to catch some rays! (laugh) But it’s also a longevity thing, as after all these years I have become part of people’s regular schedule. In the winter I travel a lot around the country: I do workshops, conferences, host award dinners etc. and so many of the people I meet there come to see me when they are on vacation here.

    RWD: Over all these years that you have been performing you have won countless Awards, been lauded with praise from the likes of writer TONY KUSHNER (Angels In America) who called you a ‘political visionary’ and ‘incredibly funny’, and rave reviews from the media such as the NY TIMES whose critic said he was in tears from laughing so much, but I am wondering what your favourite compliment is that you have ever received after a show.
    KC: After a show in Lexington, Kentucky, I was having dinner with the producers and a young woman came up to me and clapped me a good one on the back, and exclaimed, “Kate Clinton! You made me want to f**k again!”

    RWD: (laughing) I am for once speechless.

    Follow Kate Clinton on Facebook

  • FILM REVIEW | Lilting Reeks of good intentions but never really takes off.

    Junn is a rather disgruntled 60-something year old Chinese woman who has been co-coerced against her will into moving into a care facility for Seniors by Kai her son. The opening scenes of this wee British drama see the unhappy mother berating her only child for her present predicament, which is, exasperated by the fact that although she has lived in London for decades she has never learned to speak English. ★ ★

    It is soon revealed that Kai had recently died under mysterious circumstances and what we are watching now are in fact her memories. Richard who was Kai’s boyfriend for the past few years feels it’s his duty to take over from his late lover and starts to regularly visit Junn in his place. The trouble is Junn never knew her son was gay (or refused to admit it anyway) and really loathes Richard who she felt usurped her place in Kai’s life. And to make matters worse as Richard cannot speak Mandarin, the two of them have no way to communicate.

    When Junn gets hit on by the home’s resident lothario, Richard seeing a glimmer of hope of some happiness for the perpetually melancholic Junn, hires a translator to help the lovebird’s potential courtship. It also serves as a means for him to start a dialogue with the old woman too, which is no easy task, as she seemingly has no concept of the fact that Richard is grieving for his loss too.

    It’s a very slight story and as it is essentially about these strained relationships between different cultures and generations, a lot of the emotions literally get lost in the translating. Richard seems to spend much of his time in tears whilst on the other hand Junn just sits and stares with he big wide eyes.

    This debut movie from filmmaker Hong Khaou reeks of good intentions but never really takes off. He had the good fortune to cast veteran Chinese acting legend Pei Pei Cheng as Junn, and had managed to snare Ben Whishaw to play Richard. Most indie films would kill to get stars like this, but in this case, Whishaw’s uneven performance seemed to unsettle the balance between him and the other actors, particularly Andrew Leung, who played his on screen boyfriend Kai.

  • Gay Ugandans Hold Pride After Anti-Homosexuality Bill Annulled

    Hundreds of LGBTs and allies have turned out to a Pride event in Uganda after the annulment of the anti-homosexuality bill.

    Around two hundred people turned up to a pride event in Entebbe, 25 miles away from the Ugandan capital Kampala yesterday, after the anti-homosexuality law was annulled last week. The law was reversed on a technicality, because the law had been passed by a parliament without quorum.

    This is he third ever pride event in Uganda.

    ‘We are a group of people who have suffered enough,” said Ugandan lesbian activist Jacqueline Kasha. ‘We are Ugandans who have the right to gather in a public place … and we are going to have fun.’

    Many of the attendees wore face masks to protect their identity, fearing violent repercussions. The vast majority of Ugandan society sees homosexuality as morally wrong and sinful.

    The law that was signed by President Yoweri Museveni in February introduced tough penalties including life sentences on anyone who is caught engaging in same-sex relationships.

    Lawmakers in Uganda are already working to restore the law once parliament returns recess.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Picture Of John Gray, The Old Red Lion Theatre, London

    ★★★★ | The Picture Of John Gray, The Old Red Lion Theatre, London

    ‘We all hide – the only choice is where.’

    Based on a true story, C.J. Wilmann’s play is an unconventional love story about secrecy, denial and compromise.

    In the summer of 1889, Oscar Wilde began a love affair with a young working class poet whose beauty seemed to defy Time itself. Months later, he would use this man’s surname for his most infamous creation. Immortalised in The Picture of Dorian Gray but soon ditched by its author, John Gray is left to grow up and become his own man.

    Meanwhile Oscar is playing out his own downfall on the most public of stages. He is imprisoned for acts of ‘Gross Indecency’ with other men, and the community of poets and artists he had mixed with is fractured as a hunt for Sodomites sweeps London. As around him the most resilient of relationships are pushed near breaking point, John must choose sanctuary in the purity of his faith or the dangerous arms of a man who offers him love.

    I’ve always been ambivalent about Oscar Wilde, finding his works amusing and sparkling with genius but also annoyingly pompous and at times grating. I had a little trepidation about this play but I was quickly proved wrong. This is a very well written and staged play with a strong storyline and a moving and emotive theme. The five young actors portray the circle of Victorian gay men with convincing panache and although there are Wilde-like moments in the banter within the script, this is so much more than a story about the effect of Oscar Wilde but more a depiction of what must have been a terrifying time to be gay.

    The two leads, Patrick Walshe McBride and Christopher Tester, are outstanding in their performances and are ably supported by the rest of the cast on a stark stage set with a backdrop of an oversized fragment of a painting of a young man. Tester’s powerful performance (as Gray’s lover. Andre Raffalovich) moved me close to tears and Walshe McBride subtly takes the viewer through Gray’s evolution from foppish young poet through to a wiser, more measured man. These are definitely actors to watch out for.

    This is a play that is well worth seeing, with major themes that are still relevant today but equally as important, it’s an entertaining, moving and often comedic play. Whether you love, loath or are indifferent to Wilde is irrelevant. This is a great piece of theatre.

    The Picture of John Gray runs until the 30th of August 2014
    There are also various post show events:

    Post-show talk with Martin Bowley QC, legal barrister and prominent gay rights campaigner, Tuesday 12th August
    Post-show Q&A with the cast and crew, Wednesday 13th August

    Post-show open discussion on Oscar Wilde with CJ Wilmann and special guest Neil McKenna (author of The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde), Friday 15th August

    Buy tickets here: http://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/the-picture-of-john-gray.htm

  • FILM REVIEW | Boyhood

    ★★★★★ | Boyhood

    This engrossing story of Mason Jnr. growing up from a kid to a young man starts when he is just 6 years old.

    He lives with his older sister Samantha and their mother Olivia in an ordinary suburban home that they simply cannot afford. His rather immature father Mason Snr. who acts like a big kid himself at times, roars into his life occasionally and apart from trying to play the role of Dad for a whole 12 hours at a time, contributes little else to help the family survive. So Olivia decides it’s time to make what will turn out to be the first of many moves as she continually struggles with both paying bills and leaving the drunks that she, unfortunately, marries along the way.

    This initial move is to Houston to be near the children’s Grandmother and to enable Olivia to study for the first of the degrees she will earn, and also juggle holding down a full-time job. Along the way, she marries her professor who has a son Mason’s age and a daughter too, and for a few years, they all get to play happy families. When the Professor’s alcoholism manifests into bullying Mason and the other children and physically abusing Olivia, she walks out of the house taking Mason and Samantha with literally only the clothes on their backs.

    For shy and somewhat introverted Mason this needs to start all over again in a strange school without any friends is tough. Samantha is more outspoken and angry with her mother about it, but she at least has the outgoing personality to adapt more easily to their new environment.

    Complete with her Degree and now studying for her Masters, Olivia has moved the family again so that she can start teaching in a small town outside of Austin. One of her mature students becomes both her next husband and the next alcoholic who tries to manipulate her and the children. Mason by now is a troubled teenager struggling with his adolescence and about to graduate high school. His father has remarried and with a new baby in tow and has become the respectable adult that Olivia had wanted him to be 16 years ago, so he can at least help his confused son move forward to deal with whatever new challenges college life will have in store for him.

    This remarkable film made over 12 consecutive years sees this tender and profound story unfold in real time as we witness this cast of actors playing the family grow up and grow old in front of our very eyes.

    There is such a fluidity to the whole piece that it’s hard to even consider the notion that when the Richard Linklater the director/writer started this project in the summer of 2002 that he knew exactly how this extraordinary movie of his would pan out. To see a family mature together and somehow pull through a whole series of near-catastrophic scenarios like this and come out stronger and intact at the end is nothing less than astonishing. At the end when Olivia is single again and just about to watch Mason finally leave her to go to college she has a small meltdown as she looks back at the past 18 years and cries out ‘I just wish it could have been better.’ But even she could not deny that what she had enabled them all to achieve was incredible.

    In this epic masterpiece of a flawless movie, Linklater’s attention to every single detail paid off so handsomely. Starting with the cast of Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke as Olivia and Mason Snr but more especially the unknown young Ellar Coltrane with a superb breakthrough performance as Mason Jnr that was totally pitch perfect and wonderfully fresh as too was Linklater’s own daughter Lorelei who played Samantha. He needed actors of this calibre for as the years rolled on, each of the characters developed in a much deeper and profound way than one would have initially have imagined, especially Mason Snr. who we were ready to write off as lightweight in the beginning.

    Linklater’s attention to every aspect got personal too as he owns the GTO that Mason Snr. drove as his pride and joy as it somehow made him feel like the rock star he never was.

    This audacious experiment that has resulted with such a brilliant and compelling cinematic treat will undoubtedly end up on many ‘best movie lists of 2014’, including mine.

    P.S. This concept of making a movie in real time seems so brilliant now that it’s a surprise that more filmmakers haven’t tried it before. Acclaimed Brit. director Michael Winterbottom’s ‘Everyday’ released in 2012 was filmed over 5 years but with a very little plot this very tedious drama turned out to be his worst movie to date. The nearest equivalent is Micheal Apted’s award-winning documentary TV series ‘7 Up’ that has revisited a group of ‘children’ every 7 years for 5 decades now.

    Is in cinemas Nationwide

  • Mark And Winston Become The Latest Housemates To Be Evicted From BBUK

    With just one week till the Big Brother Final, tonight’s show saw a surprise double eviction with two Housemates leaving the Big Brother House.

    Mark became the 11th Housemate to be evicted, leaving to a mixed reaction from the crowd.

    Mark told Emma, ‘I had such an amazing experience for the most part…there are people in there who would be better finalists…Nothing went wrong for me…it was just a brilliant summer’

    Emma asks about the pact to split the money, which caused some arguments in the House, and he agrees it was a bad decision. When asked why he didn’t share his reasons to the Housemates, Mark admitted ‘I just thought I was defusing the situation a little bit by not giving a million and one reasons…I didn’t tell everybody my entire thought process…If me and Ash did the same, we’d have got it in the neck too’

    Emma then moves the conversation on to Christopher and asks if Mark was jealous when he defended Chris. Mark says that Chris ‘just sat back and let Christopher fight his battle for him…I think I was a little bit jealous’

    Emma then shows Mark some highlights of his relationship with Christopher. After seeing some of their many arguments, Mark says he doesn’t know when it started to slip but suggests that it was when Christopher didn’t defend him during the Strongest Housemate task.

    When asked if he thinks they have a future, Mark said ‘I was starting to trust him and open up…me and Christopher have a lot in common but we argue too much…I’m not going to write him off now’ before adding that he’s taken advice from his friends in the House.

    Mark admits that things changed for him when the three new Housemates came in and that he didn’t think he could compete with them, ‘It was then that I lost faith in myself’

    Emma asks about one of his best friends in the House, Helen who he describes as being ‘tough…but she has a massive heart…she’s an amazing person…I’d be more than happy if she won’

    On the divide in the House, Emma suggests that it will be more evident now he’s gone and Mark admits, ‘It’s going to be weird…it’s going to be a tough week’

    Emma then reveals that it’s a double eviction and Mark jokes, ‘I’m a bit gutted…I was looking forward to a night by myself!’

    The shock 12th Housemate to be evicted, causing shockwaves around the House, is Winston who leaves to loud cheers from the crowd.

    Emma tells Winston that everyone was shocked and he admits that he’s ‘a little bit shocked…I am a bit gutted…I’d have loved to make the final’ Emma asks why he thinks he was evicted and he wonders if it could have been to do with breaking out of the House yesterday.

    When asked about Ash, Mark and Chris’ decision to take the money, Winston tells Emma he was “disappointed” with Chris for breaking the pact. Emma explains that Mark also had a thought process. Winston says that he would still be friends with Chris but admits he didn’t “have the balls” to speak up to people.

    Emma observes that he didn’t get into many arguments in the House and asks how he decided to get involved. Winston said ‘If I felt in my gut it was wrong’ he would speak up.

    Winston is then shown a montage of his “romance” in the House…with Ash! “He’s just a laid back guy…we’ve got so much in common…he’s the best guy…I’d introduce him to my sister, and I wouldn’t introduce anyone to my sister!”

    When quizzed about some of the other romances in the House, Winston admits that he would like to meet up with Tamara again. He admits that there was never going to be a relationship with Danielle and that Biannca was “fun” but a bit full on.

    At the end of the show, Winston reveals “It’s been the best time of my life” before Emma tells him that all the Housemates are convinced it’s a fake eviction.

    Join Emma next Friday for the Big Brother 2014 Final

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