CBS MorningsChristina Ruffini sits down with Jinkx Monsoon at the historic Stonewall Inn and talks to the RuPaul’s Drag Race winner about her broadway debut, gender identity and coping with fame.
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin certainly have chemistry as we saw for seven seasons on TV’s Grace & Frankie and before that, the classic film 9 to 5. Then, of course, there is 80 For Brady which comes out this weekend.
And yet, there is another project for these co-stars and longtime friends that will be hitting screens next month: Moving On.
They star as estranged friends who reunite to seek revenge on the petulant widower (Malcom McDowell) of their recently deceased best friend. Along the way, Fonda’s character reunites with her great love (Richard Roundtree) as each woman learns to make peace with the past and each other.
Am truly so very sad about the passing of Jeffrey Ballard who was one of the most likable publicists I have ever come across in the entertainment business and certainly my most favorite.
He would go the extra mile to get you what you needed and arranged so many terrific interviews for me over the years including one with Betty Buckley which he arranged in fall 2019 from his hospital bed while undergoing cancer treatment.
Other interview subjects included Brandon Beemer, Christopher Atkins, Casey Deidrick and Broadway’s Michael Arden. The first-ever interview we did was with Dick Van Patten and his wife, Pat, over morning coffee at their home for my LA Daily News column.
But Jeff really came through for me time and time again when it came to interviews with Chandler Massey for Gay Star News and Greg in Hollywood when Chandler’s Days of our Lives character Will Horton’s coming out storyline was such big news.
I missed the Daytime Emmys (they conflicted with my mom’s 75th birthday) the year Chandler won his second of three Emmys and Jeff had him call me from backstage so I would have my own interview.
Jeff’s many clients over the years also included Charlie Sheen, Zac Efron, Paula Abdul, Rob Gronkowski, Justin Guarini, and Jim Verraros among many others. He was one of a kind, a joy to talk to or have lunch with, and I know he will be missed by so many.
Thanks for everything Jeff. I will never forget you.
James Franciscus was a very handsome actor and tennis enthusiast who died far too young.
Today would have been his 89th birthday.
He was best known for his roles in such feature films as Beneath the Planet of the Apes, The Amazing Dobermans and Great White and in four television series, Mr. Novak, The Naked City, The Investigators, and Longstreet.
Franciscus was also a Yale grad and was one of the best celebrity tennis players of the 1970s when the sport was at the peak of its popularity.
Sadly, he was just 57 when he died 1991 from emphysema. He left behind four children. ]
The White Lotus star Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman are acting out a post-apocalyptic love story in their new series, The Last of Us, airing Sunday nights on HBO. He spoke with Stephen Colbert about in on last night’s episode of The Late Show.
Very sad to hear that actress Cindy Williams has died at the age of 75.
She was still active doing a one-woman show and TV interviews and it just seems too soon to lose this television icon who starred alongside Penny Marshall on the classic Laverne & Shirley sitcom in the mid-1970s through the early 1980s.
They were never nominated for Emmys which seems insane in retrospect because this was the best female comedy team in TV history next to Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance. They were magic together.
Williams died in Los Angeles on Wednesday after a brief illness, her children, Zak and Emily Hudson, said in a statement: “The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed,” the statement said. “Knowing and loving her has been our joy and privilege. She was one of a kind, beautiful, generous and possessed a brilliant sense of humor and a glittering spirit that everyone loved. We have always been, and will remain, SO proud of her for many things…her lifelong mission to rescue animals, her prolific artistry, her faith, and most of all, her ability to make the world laugh! May that laughter continue in everyone, because she would want that. Thank you for loving our Mom, she loved you too.”
NBC News correspondent Harry Smith sits down with Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno to discuss their new film, “80 for Brady.” The women chat about working together for the first time, finding joy in their work, and their communal love of Tom Brady.
Hard to believe it’s been more than 14 years since Adam burst onto the scene on American Idol and finished as the most successful runner-up in the show’s history (sorry Clay Aiken and Katherine McPhee!).
I’ll always appreciate the fact that Adam came out publicly as a gay man after the show ended in a Rolling Stone cover story. What a powerful statement to the world and to young kids out there who watched the show.
We all know what’s happened to Adam since then. The solo albums For Your Entertainment, Trespassing, and The Original High, a Grammy nomination for the single Whataya Want from Me, and more than 3 million albums and 5 million singles sold worldwide. He released Velvet in 2020 along with Live Around the World with Queen. His next album, High Drama, is slated for release on February 24, 2023. It is a genre-spanning collection of reimagined cover songs that he flips to embrace his own sensibilities. He recently released the single Holding Out for a Hero that is part of the forthcoming album.
When Trespassing premiered at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, Adam became the first openly gay artist to top the album charts. Elton John and Barry Manilow were not out when they premiered at number one.
And, of course, Adam has juggled his solo career with a very successful collaboration with rock band Queen as lead vocalist for Queen + Adam Lambert since 2011, culminating in a successful worldwide tour that began in 2014 and is still going strong. Lambert and Queen were the first rock band to open the Oscars with an “explosive” performance of two classic Queen songs in 2019 that earned a standing ovation.
But Adam’s power as a solo performer was never more apparent than in December 2018 when he performed a stupendous version of Believe for Cher at the Kennedy Center Honors that was one for the ages (see video below). I was thrilled when he released it as a single in late 2019.
Can’t wait to see what Adam has in store for us next. When you have such talent and vision and drive, anything is possible.