Blackpool FC forward Jake Daniels has come out, becoming Britain’s first active openly gay male professional footballer. He is constantly helping countless queer athletes whether they are pro or in school, know that they are not alone – and that there is nothing wrong with them.
He writes in a statement released by his team:
This season has been a fantastic one for me on the pitch. I’ve made my first-team debut, scored 30 goals for the youth team, signed my first professional contract and shared success with my team-mates, going on a great run in the FA Youth Cup and lifting the Lancashire FA Pro-Youth Cup.
But off the pitch I’ve been hiding the real me and who I really am. I’ve known my whole life that I’m gay, and I now feel that I’m ready to come out and be myself.
It’s a step into the unknown being one of the first footballers in this country to reveal my sexuality, but I’ve been inspired by Josh Cavallo, Matt Morton and athletes from other sports, like Tom Daley, to have the courage and determination to drive change.
In reaching this point, I’ve had some of the best support and advice from my family, my Club, my agent and Stonewall, who have all been incredibly pro-active in putting my interests and welfare first. I have also confided in my team-mates in the youth team here at Blackpool, and they too have embraced the news and supported my decision to open up and tell people.
I’ve hated lying my whole life and feeling the need to change to fit in. I want to be a role model myself by doing this.
There are people out there in the same space as me that may not feel comfortable revealing their sexuality. I just want to tell them that you don’t have to change who you are, or how you should be, just to fit in.
You being you, and being happy, is what matters most.
Pierce Brosnan is the kind of guy who is so good looking that you want to either kiss him or slap him! He turns 69 today and is as handsome as ever,
He may be best known for the four James Bond movies he starred in but Pierce has been making our hearts beat just a little faster since he came onto the scene in a big way back in 1982 as the star of NBC’s Remington Steele. He was so dapper that he was tapped to replace Roger Moore in the Bond franchise in the mid-80s but was contractually bound to do Remington Steele.
Timothy Dalton may have gotten the role for a few films but Brosnan’s time finally came in 1995. He’s made many other films along the way including such hits as The Thomas Crown Affair, the Mirror Has Two Faces, Mrs. Doubtfire and Mamma Mia! In the latter, he was so charming opposite Meryl Streep even if his singing was dreadful! He was also in the sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again .
What I really like is that Brosnan has always been willing to segue between leading man roles and supporting parts that allow him to so something unexpected – like have an orange thrown at him by Robin Williams in drag in Doubtfire!
My two all-time favorite Brosnan performances were in The Matador (he was brilliant as a boozy assassin) and Evelyn in which he played a man fighting the Irish courts to be reunited with his children.
Patti Lupone made headlines last week for telling an unmasked audience member to “get the f*ck out” of the theater if they didn’t want to follow the rules.
It was another example of this legend of the Broadway stage and London stage taking a stand.
But I don’t want to let her outspokenness overshadow one of the greatest careers in the theater in history and one that is still going strong. Last week the two-time Tony winner received her eighth Tony nomination for Company and has got to be considered the front-runner to take the award for featured actress in a musical. She’s already won the Olivier Award (her second) for the role in the London production.
Below are performances from some of the great star’s most memorable shows including Sweeney Todd, Evita, Sunset Boulevard, Gypsy, Anything Goes, and Les Miserables.
For seven seasons on the CBS drama The Good Wife, Julianna Margulies as attorney Alicia Florrick excelled at keeping a cool exterior. She was rarely ruffled and almost always thinks through what she is going to say, choosing her words for maximum impact or sting.
But during the first episode of the show’s second season, Alicia set aside the cool exterior during a confrontation with a judge who tries to circumvent her client pleading the fifth amendment.
Alicia wasn’t having it. Not at all. In the end, she just owns this judge and I just love this scene.
Beatrice Arthur, born 100 years ago today, will never be forgotten after leaving us with two classic television characters that live on: Maude Findlay on the 1972-78 sitcom Maude and Dorothy Zbornak from The Golden Girls which ran from 1985-92.
One of my favorite theatrical experiences ever was seeing Miss Arthur perform her one woman show at the El Portal in North Hollywood back in 2004. Dixie Carter and Hal Holbrook were sitting near us and a few rows away was Nancy Sinatra.
And onstage in her bare feet with Billy Goldenberg at the piano was Bea Arthur, a decade after The Golden Girls, reminding the world what a great Broadway star she had been. She won the Tony Award for Mame and had originated roles in Fiddler on the Roof and Three Penny Opera.
This one-woman show, Bea Arthur on Broadway–Just Between Friends, was Tony nominated for its 2002 Broadway run but Miss Arthur also had a successful national tour and had a run in Canada.
So, the opening of the show is so random and just delicious! Miss Arthur details for us how she prepares a leg of lamb for a small dinner party and for some reason – then and now – I find it so mesmerizing.
This is absolutely heartbreaking. Actress Ashley Judd told Diane Sawyer of ABC News that it was important for her family to talk about what happened to her mother Naomi Judd before things “become public without our control.” The day before she and daughter Wynonna Judd were to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Naomi shot herself to death. Ashley discovered the body.
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Hooray for his courage – and at 17!
Pierce Brosnan is the kind of guy who is so good looking that you want to either kiss him or slap him! He turns 69 today and is as handsome as ever,
Patti Lupone made headlines last week for telling an unmasked audience member to “get the f*ck out” of the theater if they didn’t want to follow the rules.
Beatrice Arthur, born 100 years ago today, will never be forgotten after leaving us with two classic television characters that live on: Maude Findlay on the 1972-78 sitcom Maude and Dorothy Zbornak from The Golden Girls which ran from 1985-92.
