Cyndi Lauper on Jay Leno

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Meme: Cyndi Lauper Wants Jay Leno In Her Kinky Boots, Hugh Jackman Assaulted With Pubic Hair, and “Top Model” Goes Coed

by Ed Kennedy | April 15, 2013

Cyndi Lauper took to The Tonight Show to talk about her long career, including her new musical Kinky Boots which is opening on Broadway. She even brought Jay Leno a gift for having her on, which is only polite, right?

Partial articles from AfterElton

[Source]

Briefs: Darren Criss Reaches That High Note and “Romeo & Juliet” Prepare To Die Again

Posted by snicks on April 12, 2013

• Introducing our new feature – The Weekly ShoutOUT™. Each week we’re going to focus on one out athlete/performer and feature a daily pic and career timeline. We’ll be showcasing the big names, but also the lesser-known gay celebs who deserve more recognition. This week we give a ShoutOUT to … Zachary Quinto. Wrapping up our week with Zachary, in between Trek films, Zach returned to TV as part of the Ryan Murphy ensemble for the American Horror Story series. He’s also a Hollywood Super Couple with Jonathan Groff. It’s not fair. 

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[Source]

Briefs: Margaret Thatcher is Top Of The Pops, James McAvoy’s “Filth,” and Kellan Lutz Eats Fruit

Posted by snicks on April 11, 2013

• Introducing our new feature – The Weekly ShoutOUT™. Each week we’re going to focus on one out athlete/performer and feature a daily pic and career timeline. We’ll be showcasing the big names, but also the lesser-known gay celebs who deserve more recognition. This week we give a ShoutOUT to … Zachary Quinto. After Heroes, Zach nabbed his biggest role to date, as Spock in the megasmash reboot of Star Trek (he’ll reprise the role in the sequel out next month). Tomorrow – Zach returns to TV, and becomes half of a hot celeb couple.

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Briefs: Alexander Skarsgard's Loincloth Is Stripped, A Klaine Reunion, and Satan's Ten Commandments

Posted by snicks on April 10, 2013

• Introducing our new feature - The Weekly ShoutOUT™. Each week we're going to focus on one out athlete/performer and feature a daily pic and career timeline. We'll be showcasing the big names, but also the lesser-known gay celebs who deserve more recognition. This week we give a ShoutOUT to ... Zachary Quinto. After 24 and So noTORIous, Zach hit the big time as Sylar on Heroes, becoming a classic TV villain and awarded his first action figure (but not his last) Tomorrow - Zach's other action figure.

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[Source]

Briefs: A "Glee" Shocker, The Brendon Ayanbadejo Workout, and Tasty Two For Tuesday With Matt Bomer

Posted by snicks on April 9, 2013

• Introducing our new feature - The Weekly ShoutOUT™. Each week we're going to focus on one out athlete/performer and feature a daily pic and career timeline. We'll be showcasing the big names, but also the lesser-known gay celebs who deserve more recognition. This week we give a ShoutOUT to ... Zachary Quinto. After 24., Zach spent a season as Tori Spelling's gay BFF Sasan on So noTORIous (below you can see him with Sasan's real life inspiration, Mehran). Tomorrow - Zach plays a classic baddie.

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[Source]

Briefs: Cher Is Not Dead, A Boy Band Twitter War, and A&E Will Keep "Bates Motel" Open For Business

Posted by snicks on April 8, 2013

• Introducing our new feature - The Weekly ShoutOUT™. Each week we're going to focus on one out athlete/performer and feature a daily pic and career timeline. We'll be showcasing the big names, but also the lesser-known gay celebs who deserve more recognition. This week we give a ShoutOUT to ... Zachary Quinto. Thirty-five-year-old Zachary made his debut in the short-lived series The Others in 2000, and then spent the next several years in guest appearances on various TV shows (including "Hip Student" on an episode of Six Feet Under). In 2003 he got his big break, spending a season as computer expert Adam on 24. (below). Tomorrow - Zach plays a fictional BFF

From AfterElton - Matt Bomer pictures

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Briefs: A "Glee" Shocker, The Brendon Ayanbadejo Workout, and Tasty Two For Tuesday With Matt Bomer

Posted by snicks on April 9, 2013

• Here's your Tasty Two For Tuesday With Matt Bomer™. First up, here's Matt with Nick Zano at the "Meditation In Education" Global Outreach Campaign Event. I think I have the vapors. And you can look, lady on the right, but don't touch.

• And here he is solo at the same event.

Adam is ... single again

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Adam Lambert and Sauli Koskinen Call It Quits
Posted by snicks on April 5, 2013

Relationships aren't easy, and celebrity relationships have their own added problems. But in a sad and surprising turn, Adam Lambert has announced that he and Sauli Koskinen have to decided to end things:

“Sauli and I remain really good friends, and I know it's a cliché thing to say. But it's totally true,” he said. “I just gave him a coffee and bagel earlier today. He's a great person and we've had an amazing couple of years together. Things have just run their course.”

In what must be devastating to the tabloids, there was nothing scandalous about the reasons why ... it was just a question of hectic schedules.

“I've been getting really busy and traveling a lot and and he's been getting really busy because he has a show he's filming for Finnish television,” he said. “So we just decided to part ways.”

They were an adorable couple, and its a shame things couldn't work out, but of course this does mean that Adam is ... single again.

The line forms behind me.

From AfterElton

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Briefs: Michael Urie's "He's Way More Famous Than You," A Big "Vampire Diaries" Spoiler, and Darren Criss is a Triple Threat

Posted by snicks on April 5, 2013

• Below you can see the trailer for He's Way More Famous Than You, directed by and co-starring Michael Urie, with his Ugly Betty co-stars Vanessa Williams and Ralph Macchio as "themselves."

Partial articles from AfterElton

[Source]

Briefs: Michael Urie's "He's Way More Famous Than You," A Big "Vampire Diaries" Spoiler, and Darren Criss is a Triple Threat

Posted by snicks on April 5, 2013

• Introducing our new feature - The Weekly ShoutOUT™. Each week we're going to focus on one out athlete/performer and feature a daily pic and career timeline. We'll be showcasing the big names, but also the lesser-known gay celebs who deserve more recognition. This week we give a ShoutOUT to ... Russell Tovey. Wrapping up our week with Russell, up next he'll star as the lead in the 4 part BBC murder mystery series What Remains: "A young couple move into an apartment only to find the body of a girl that had been missing for 2 years but never registered as missing which leads to a deeper investigation into what actually happened." And here's the greatest pic of Russell that has ever been, or ever will be. 

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Briefs: "In The Flesh," Ryan Murphy's Sex Show, and Magic Johnson Supports His Gay Son

Posted by snicks on April 4, 2013

• Introducing our new feature - The Weekly ShoutOUT™. Each week we're going to focus on one out athlete/performer and feature a daily pic and career timeline. We'll be showcasing the big names, but also the lesser-known gay celebs who deserve more recognition. This week we give a ShoutOUT to ... Russell Tovey. Russell left Being Human after the third season to concentrate on his BBC sitcom Him & Her, in which he plays one half of a lazy straight couple. The third season ended in December. And he stills find time to be one of the Guys With iPhones. Tomorrow - The greatest Russell pic ever.

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Briefs: Adam Lambert's Narrow Escape, GLAAD Will Honor Bill Clinton, and The Science of Cats

Posted by snicks on April 3, 2013

• Introducing our new feature - The Weekly ShoutOUT™. Each week we're going to focus on one out athlete/performer and feature a daily pic and career timeline. We'll be showcasing the big names, but also the lesser-known gay celebs who deserve more recognition. This week we give a ShoutOUT to ... Russell Tovey. Russell had his biggest role to date on the BBC series Being Human. For three seasons he played loveable werewolf George, which fortunately gave him plenty of opportunities to get his kit off. Tomorrow - Russell goes for laughs.

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Briefs: "Finding Dory," Chris Colfer's "Enchantress," and The Ten Hottest Doctor Who Companions

Posted by snicks on April 2, 2013

• Introducing our new feature - The Weekly ShoutOUT™. Each week we're going to focus on one out athlete/performer and feature a daily pic and career timeline. We'll be showcasing the big names, but also the lesser-known gay celebs who deserve more recognition. This week we give a ShoutOUT to ... Russell Tovey. After The History Boys, Russell had a memorable turn in the Doctor Who episode Voyage Of The Damned, opposite Kylie (a role he would reprise in David Tennant's final episode). He so impressed Russell Davies that his name was bandied about as a possible future Doctor. Below you can see him having fun with himself. Tomorrow - Russell gets naked ... a lot.

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Briefs:"Under The Dome," Remembering Howard Ashman, and Matt Bomer is Unbound

Posted by snicks on April 1, 2013

• Introducing our new feature - The Weekly ShoutOUT™. Each week we're going to focus on one out athlete/performer and feature a daily pic and career timeline. We'll be showcasing the big names, but also the lesser-known gay celebs who deserve more recognition. This week we give a ShoutOUT to ... Russell Tovey. The thirty-one-year-old Englishman had quite a few stage roles and TV guest appearances before nabbing a memorable role as Rudge in the London stage and the film version of The History Boys. Below you can see him ... well, rolling around in mud. Tomorrow - Russell Meets Kylie ... and a certain Doctor.

Monday Matt Bomer™. From WonderCon

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Briefs:"Under The Dome," Remembering Howard Ashman, and Matt Bomer is Unbound

Posted by snicks on April 1, 2013

• Here's your Monday Matt Bomer™. From WonderCon. Has a pit stain ever been hotter?

Jonathan Groff - 28 pics from AfterElton

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28 Pics Of Birthday Boy Jonathan Groff

Posted by snicks on March 26, 2013

We've been following the career of Broadway babe Jonathan Groff since his explosive debut in Spring Awakening, for which he was nominated for a Tony (one of the youngest Best Actor nominees ever) for the role of Melchior Gabor

Since then, we've watched his career grow, with a season-long role on the show Boss, appearances in Broadway's Hair and the movie Taking Woodstock, and most notably, his role of Jesse St. James on Glee.

We look forward to seeing him in an upcoming HBO comedy in which he'll play a intelligent, witty, well-educated gay video game developer, and hearing him as extreme mountain man Kristoff in the Disney animated film Frozen.

To celebrate his 28th birthday today, here's a pictorial look at Jonathan celebrating career milestones, in some of his career-defining roles, and well ... just being adorable.

With John Gallagher Jr., Billy Joel, and Lea Michelle at Spring Awakening

With John Gallagher Jr. at the Tony Awards

With Lea Michelle and Amanda Bynes (before the troubles) at Spring Awakening

Performing at the Tony Awards

With Will Swenson in Hair

With John Gallagher Jr. and Lea Michelle at the Tony Awards

With Lea Michelle

With John Gallagher Jr. and fellow Birthday boy TR Knight

At the Taking Woodstock premiere

At the opening of The Bacchae

With Gavin Creel at the National Equality March

At Rosie's Broadway Extravaganza

With Lea Michelle, Cyndi Lauper and Van Hansis

At the Paleyfest tribute to Glee

At the Season Premiere celebration for Glee

Adorable

 With Hunter Parish

Dapper

Presenting at Glamour's Women of The Year Awards

At Sundance

With Casey Wilson at the premiere of C.O.G.

With Denis O'Hare at Sundance

From Glee

Romantic

Splayed

From Boss

Just Hot

With boyfriend Zachary Quinto

Awesome article from AfterElton

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5 Awesome Current Artists Who Need Grammy Awards

Posted by Louis Virtel on February 6, 2013

The Grammys are this Sunday, which is exciting for award show fans and depressing for people who think those awards should go to the right people. Sigh. Here are five current artists still in need of official Grammy love.

5. Scissor Sisters

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Since the Scissor Sisters emerged a decade ago, their style has remained as quirky and danceable as anything Lady Gaga's ever produced, yet the Grammys haven't been as keen to reward the ragtag group with their due props. They've only been nominated once in the Best Dance Recording category, where the group's take on "Comfortably Numb" lost to Britney Spears' sole moment of brilliance, "Toxic." Where's the love for "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'"? Or this year's wickedly saucy "Let's Have a Kiki"?


4. Adam Lambert

(source)

Get this: Zero male American Idol contestants have a Grammy to their name. Nope, not even Kevin Covais. Adam Lambert earned a nomination for "Whataya Want From Me?" last year (and lost to Bruno Mars in the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category), but if anyone deserves multiple Grammys from the past five seasons of Idol, it's Lambert. Surely his latest album Trespassing is his best work to date, and if you can't even earn a Grammy nomination for notching a #1 album as a self-defined gay artist with a distinct pop sound and an otherworldly voice, maybe it's time for Grammy voters to revise their rubric.


3. Tori Amos

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Tori Amos is not only an accomplished songwriter who has released an unreal amount of material; she's also one of the most confessional and ambitious singer/songwriters of the past 20 years. Who else combines the eerie vulnerability of Laura Nyro with the beguiling angelic feminity of Kate Bush? This is a woman who had the nerve to organize a greatest hits package using the Dewey Decimal System (please see Tales of a Librarian for proof), and if the woman who's given us everything from "Silent All These Years" to "A Sorta Fairytale" doesn't have a Grammy, then what are we doing not protesting the fact that Sheryl Crow has nine?


2. PJ Harvey

 (source)

PJ Harvey has won an unprecedented two Mercury Prizes, rejiggered her stark musical stylings time and again, and successfully reinvented her image so many times over her two-decade career that it's hard to believe she's not often described as Madonna's gritty, art-school cousin. If she's not wailing about a botched abortion in her classic '95 jam "Down By The Water," she's toasting New York on her brilliant Stories From The City, Stories From the Sea album or exploring Victorian stoicism on 2006's chilling White Chalk. How is it possible that this fabulous original has zero Grammy awards? Did I mention who she beat out last year for that Mercury Prize? None other than the Grammys' reigning queen Adele. Yeah. Woah.


1. Bjork

(source)

There are geniuses, and then there is Bjork, the undisputed champ of unpredictable style transformations, technological breakthroughs in music, and a completely enigmatic image. When has this woman been anything less than a staggering, life-giving anomaly in music? From Debut through Post, Homogenic, Vespertine, Medulla, and her latest Grammy-nominated work Biophilia, Bjork has remained consummately committed to exploring her one-of-a-kind vision through some of the most fascinating recordings of our time. Listen to that percussion in "Joga." That tribal creepiness in "Human Behaviour." The lovely sentiment of "I've Seen It All." The cinematic grandeur of "Oceania." To make her Grammy-less situation even worse, her unforgettable music videos have garnered four separate nominations without a win. Ugh! There's definitely, definitely, definitely no logic to Grammy behaviour.

Our colleagues over at MTV.com have you covered on Sunday with a live Grammy red carpet stream...

FIND OUT EVERYTHING GRAMMYS AND GET LIVE REPORTS FROM SWAY ON THE RED CARPET HERE

WE GOT GRAMMYS STYLE AND THE RED CARPET COVERED WITH KARLIE KLOSS HERE

R.I.P. AfterElton.

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R.I.P. AfterElton. And What the Hell is "The Backlot"?

Posted by Dennis Ayers, Editor on January 31, 2013

You may be wondering why there's a bright blue box and new graphics on the AfterElton homepage called TheBacklot. Glad you asked! We wanted to introduce you to the phrase and premise because come April, 2013 AfterElton.com will be changing its name.

That's right, TheBacklot is what comes after AfterElton.

Oh, I know, it seems like the end of an era. But honestly, the name "AfterElton" never quite worked as well as our sister site's moniker. AfterEllen was so named to commemorate that watershed moment when Ellen DeGeneres and her TV character came out on national television.

AfterElton was chosen mostly because it sounded similar.

We aren't really AfterEllen's little brother site any more. Our readership has expanded dramatically since we launched in 2005, our content mix has evolved. And frankly, we got tired of having to explain to people what "AfterElton" meant.

No knock on Elton John, we love the guy – it's just that our site never had anything to do with that music legend or any watershed cultural moment that sprang from his storied career. (And it even got a little awkward that time he played Rush Limbaugh's wedding!)

Truth is, we've been tossing around possible new site names for over a year now. AfterAfter? FopCulture? Or Louis' suggestion, BeforeLautner.
Kidding!

In the end we settled on TheBacklot.com. It's easy to remember, indicates our focus on Hollywood and the film and television industry, and we think it has a great ring to it.

To go along with our new name we're also going to launch a completely redesigned site. Right now the whole thing sits on a content management system called Drupal. In April we're moving everything over to WordPress. This will put us on the same platform as most of Viacom Media Networks' websites and will make it possible for us to borrow cool site features from our colleagues at MTV.com, LogoTV.com and the like.

Our new website design will also be "responsive"– a popular buzzword these days. Meaning it will adjust and optimize the display no matter how you come to us (PC, smartphone, tablet, etc.)

We're bracing for some technical bumps along the way, that's inevitable, but we're also really excited about the redesign and the opportunities it will offer. And we think you're going to like the new look! More details as we get closer to the April re-launch.

Now, some of you may be asking: "Will TheBacklot still be a 'gay' site?"

Rest assured, the name change and site redesign won't mean the end of what you know and love (and yes, possibly sometimes hate) about AfterElton. Our DNA stays the same, gay as it ever was. We are thrilled with our brilliant stable of contributors and quite pleased with our current content mix. The Backlot will still feature Ed Kennedy's Morning Meme, Brian Juergens' incisive film reviews and TV recaps, snicks' Daily Briefs and Days of Our Lives liveblogs, Jim Halterman's exclusive interviews with hot Hollywood talent, and Louis Virtel's witty pop culture commentary and wicked weekly Weeklings! rantings. Plus, all the other great writers and features you visit us for...

Glee and Teen Wolf recaps from Heather Hogan
Langford on Soaps
The Shipping News
Lyle Masaki's TV on Tap
Best. Movie. Ever.
Our Annual Hot 100

…and much much more!

Change is never easy, but the whole gang here at AfterElton is excited and ready to take the leap. We hope our regular readers take it with us!

 Sincerely,

Dennis Ayers, Editor
AfterElton/TheBacklot