RuPaul talks with Jimmy Kimmel about his clothing style, teaching our staff how to play Dirty Charades, DJ-ing all over the world, going to prom in the 80s, being in a punk band called Wee Wee Pole, his new movie Stop! That! Train!, whether or not he’d ever run for President, parodying old disaster movies, and dangerous animals.
Cher is so good in interviews because she always tells it like it is – or of she doesn’t want to, she’ll say none of your business.
When I watch her interviews, and I have been watching them for a long time, she always seems to know who she is and what she’s about.
In addition to being so damned talented and delivering fabulous entertainment on stage, on records and on screens large and small, I think that’s why she has remained an in-demand showbiz icon for more than 60 years.
On her 80th birthday, I’ve selected five interviews that I think are worth watching – or rewatching.
Was only going to feature a handful of Cher movies but what fun it was to include almost all of them. Decided to leave out Faithful, Good Times and Chastity but found delicious stuff in all of the others.
Of course we start with the Oscar-winning performance in Moonstruck, Oscar-nominated performance in Silkwood, Cannes Film Festival best actress winning performance in Mask, and Golden Globe-nominated performances in Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Jean Jimmy Dean and If These Walls Could Talk.
Cher has some wonderful moments in The Witches of Eastwick, was solid in Suspect, delicious in Mermaids and all kinds of fun in Stuck on You as an extremely fictionalized version of herself.
Looking back, we wish Cher had made more movies – especially during the time when she turned down such films as Thelma & Louise and War of the Roses. But rock stardom and endless arena tours were clearly more exciting than sitting around waiting to be called to the movie set.
Today is the perfect time to celebrate the music of Cher who was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a few years ago. Her omission until then was such a glaring oversight that, to me, the credibility of the entire organization was in doubt. On the US Billboard Hot 100, Cher has achieved five number-one singles, 17 top-ten singles, 32 top-40 singles and a total of 52 charting singles. She has reached the Hot 100’s Top 10 at least once during each of four decades—the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
On her 80th birthday, here are eight of my favorite Cher songs although I could easily come up with eight more then eight more again and even eight more after that.
Wanda Sykes talks about being our scheduled guest the night Kimmel’s show got suspended, Trump’s job performance so far, not being worried about Hantavirus until he started talking about it, trying to teach her kids how to drive, shooting her new comedy special “Wanda Sykes: Legacy” at her alma mater Hampton University in Virginia, the “Gravy Lady” in her college cafeteria, and her first dramatic role in the new movie Undercard.
Before Joel Kim Booster became an Emmy-nominated writer, actor, producer, stand-up comedian, and the star and creator of Fire Island, he was a 17 year old kid living in his car, kicked out by his adoptive parents for being gay, and convinced he was going to hell. Then Sarah Casey, a classmate he barely knew, turned around in choir and said the words that changed everything: “If you ever need a place to stay, you can come and stay with me and my family.”
In this deeply personal and unguarded conversation, one of comedy’s sharpest voices sits down with David Begnaud to share the story of the girl who became his chosen family when his own family walked away. What she gave him was a place to belong when the world said he didn’t. And sometimes, that’s all you need to become exactly who you were meant to be.
In a heartfelt sign-off, Anderson Cooper reflects on the stories, risks, adventures, and human connections that defined his two decades with television’s most iconic newsmagazine, 60 Minutes.
All hail the Pope of Trash/Filth Elder/Sultan of Sleaze, the one and only John Waters is on the Las Culturistas podcast fresh off his 80th birthday. The boys talk to him about bonus holes, shooting machine guns, and somehow stepping into respectability in spite of those topics.
Sir Ian McKellen reflects on having not had kids, and the joy of chosen family in a new interview with Attitude. “I’ve got young people I’m allowed to criticize and befriend and love,” he said. “They don’t need to come from your loins for you to feel that they’re family.” \The acting legend plays a queer man who’s a father of middle-aged children in new film The Christophers. He will soon return to the role of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
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