TransTainment!
Richard E. Grant as Loco Chanelle
Richard E. Grant, recently seen in Dispatches from Elsewhere, struggled with his drag costume in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. The 63-year-old actor plays Loco Chanelle, the drag queen alter ego of Hugo Battersby, in the film adaptation of the popular stage musical. Jamie is a young person who wants to be a drag queen and Loco takes the teen under her wing and teaches her how to be fabulous. Grant explained to the press that his corset was too tight and he needed padding to give him womanly hips. And, his custom-made Jimmy Choos hurt. Richard! There are girls who would die for custom-made Jimmy Choos. Get more about the film and the role from this article.
Kim Petras, Malibu
A few weeks ago we alerted you to the fact that Kim Petras had a new single titled Malibu. At that time it was only available as audio. Now can let you know that a video, quarantine friendly, has dropped and it features a host of celebs, from Paris Hilton to Demi Lovato, Jessie J and Charlie XCX to Pabllo Vittar, and many more, plus ordinary Petras fans who sent videos. All of them are performing from remote locations and as fun filled and exiting as that is the real star of the video is the editor who had to put it all together. Kudos! Give that person an award. Get set to dance around your house. Here’s the Malibu video.
GLOW
The ladies’ wrestling, comedy/drama GLOW is set in the mid 1980s. In season three, which aired in 2019 and is now available for streaming on Netflix, the ladies wrestling show within a show was canceled on the local cable network it had called home and was offered a chance to do the show live in Las Vegas. That allowed the writers to insert a new character, a glamorous drag performer called Bobby Barnes.
Cahoon as Bobby doing Barbara Streisand.
The mid ‘80s were a time of change. Transgender people, crossdressers and the like were flexing their wings and getting uncomfortable in the closet. But Las Vegas performers who worked in drag billed themselves as “female impersonators” and kept their gender and sexuality behind closed doors. Bobby Barnes is one of those. In the show the actor who portrays Bobby, Kevin Cahoon, impersonates several female stars. He’s no stranger to wigs and makeup though. He took over the role of Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch from John Cameron Mitchell. He said taking that role opened a door that unleashed his drag diva tendencies. Learn more about Kevin Cahoon in an interview with Gold Derby.
Smokin’ Hot
Laganja Estranja
Drag queen pot fan, and music artist Laganja Estranja has not let isolation stop her from connecting with fans. She is out there digitally giving them a show. But just entertaining the fans online is not all of her motivation. It may be the wacky weed talking but she is on a quest to become a superstar. Forbes has more on Laganja.
Welcome to The Matrix
When the Wachowskis first pitched The Matrix idea to the studio back in 1998 they had a character that was a female inside The Matrix and a male in the real world. The studio didn’t like that kind of casting and nixed the idea. While the original character will not be in the next film in The Matrix series, The Matrix 4, the idea of a character switching genders inside The Matrix might make a comeback. A new character of course, and we don’t have too much information as the production is shut down at the moment due to the pandemic. Read the speculation on the Screen Rant website.
Zion Moreno
Control Z is a new Mexican series on Netflix which has been compared to the hit Spanish series Elite. A group of students work to uncover the identity of a hacker who threatens to reveal the secrets of everyone at their school. Isabella, is one of the popular girls in the school has a gender-related secret. She is portrayed by Zion Moreno, a trans woman actress from El Paso, Texas. Moreno next is set to appear in a reboot of the Gossip Girl series slated at this time for a premier in 2021.
Zoe’s Extraordinary Playlist News
We were excited earlier this year when non-binary actor Alex Newell landed the role of the drag queen neighbor of the title character of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist on NBC. But, while hailed by some as a mid-season hit, NBC wanted more viewers that the 2 million the show attracted. Based on the ratings for the first two shows NBC pulled the plug and there will be no second season. Could it be the network execs were afraid of a fierce drag character on broadcast TV? We may never know. The Sioux City Journal has an in-depth interview with Alex Newell done before the show was canceled.
We leave you today with some comedy from transgender comic Alison Grillo.
Like to make a comment? Login here and use the comment area below.
Category: Transgender Community News, Transgender Fun & Entertainment
About the Author (Author Profile)
Angela Gardner is a founding member of The Renaissance Transgender Assoc., Inc., former editor of its newsletter and magazine, Transgender Community News. She was the Diva of Dish for TGF in the late 1990s and Editor of LadyLike magazine until its untimely demise. She has appeared in film and television shows portraying TG characters, as well as representing Renaissance on numerous talk shows.Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
