Randy Barbato Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Angelique Jackson Film Independent has made notable additions to its ranks with Dan Stern elected to the board of directors, while Chaz Ebert, Kasi Lemmons and Lulu Wang join the nonprofit arts organization’s advisory board. The new appointees are the first under Film Independent board chair Brenda Robinson’s tenure after her January 2022 election.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor RuPaul, the host of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” has won the Emmy for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program and continues to reign as the most-awarded host in Emmys history. This marks the eighth consecutive win for RuPaul, who also holds the record for most wins by a person of color. During his speech, the producer and host said, “I’m so proud to be a part of this medium, you invited me to be a part of this.

The new season of RuPaul‘s Drag Race has set up an all-star lineup to guest judge Season 16, including Oscar winner Charlize Theron, music star Becky G and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer alum Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Andy Cohen will never forget when he first met Britney Spears… and her very “captor.”

Andy Cohen is recalling what it was like interviewing Britney Spears several years ago while she was still under her conservatorship.

Super exciting news has been revealed for fans of Drag Race!

World of Wonder has announced the drag queens who will compete in season one of “Drag Race Germany,” the first German iteration of the award winning “RuPaul’s Drag Race” franchise. The show is set to premiere on Sept.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Drag Race” fans rejoice. Full 90-minute episodes of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 15 are headed to Paramount+. From Aug.

Naman Ramachandran “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” Season 8 winner Jimbo and runner up Kandy Muse will each be headlining their own WOW Presents Plus original series, producer World of Wonder has revealed. “Jimbo Presents: It’s My Special Show!” marks the first WOW Presents Plus original series to be filmed in front of a live studio audience. The talk show will feature celebrity guests Nicole Byer, Charo, Dustin Milligan, Daniel Franzese, Heidi N Closet, Deja Skye, Pangina Heals, and Rock M Sakura. “Inside the Producer’s Studio” will see Kandy Muse interview fellow “Drag Race” queens. Guests include Vanjie, Jimbo, Morgan McMichaels, Kerri Colby, Kimora Blac, Scarlet Envy, Aja and Gottmik.

Naman Ramachandran Following its run on Paramount+, the second season of “Queen of the Universe” will land on streaming platform WOW Presents Plus as a box set. Produced by “RuPaul’s Drag Race” producers World of Wonder, and hosted by BAFTA-winner Graham Norton, the Eurovision-style series finds countries going head to head with their top drag queens putting their real singing voices to the test. In the second season, former Spice Girl Mel B joins returning judges including recording artist, three-time Emmy-winning producer and judge of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ Michelle Visage, multi-Emmy and Grammy nominee Vanessa Williams and American drag superstar Trixie Mattel.

Sophia Scorziello editor HBO’s “The Last of Us” took home the program of the year award at the 44th Banff World Media Festival. The series was awarded at the 2023 Rockie Award Gala on Tuesday evening alongside other individuals, programs, films and media outlets. The event is held annually in Banff, Alberta in the Canadian Rockies. Craig Robinson, actor and producer with credits on programs like “The Office,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Killing It,” was awarded with the Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award. Robinson was also the host of the festival’s flagship awards program. The Grand Jury Prize was awarded to “Eternal Spring” and the Buffalo Rock Award went to “Star Trek” for its legacy in TV programming.

Naman Ramachandran “RuPaul’s Drag Race” producer World of Wonder has revealed a trailer for “Big Freedia Means Business,” an eight-part docu-series that follows “Queen of Bounce” Big Freedia. A subgroup of 1980s hip-hop music, Bounce music has defined much of contemporary hip-hop culture. The series follows New Orleans choirboy-turned-Bounce rapper Freddie “Big Freedia” Ross, Jr., as she juggles new business ventures, touring, and the ups and downs of her personal relationships. This season Freedia begins work on opening a hotel; starts a cannabis line; and prepares to launch her own beauty and fragrance lines. The series will also chronicle the launch of a new album, set to drop later this year.

famously protested taking off her facemask during her elimination lip-sync against Nina Bonina Brown, placing seventh.She would later compete in “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 4,” also finishing seventh. She’s appeared in her own WOW Presents Plus series and modeled in several fashion magazines, including Vogue Mexico, and appeared in Fox’s live musical “Rent.”Born in Mexico City and based in Paris, Lolita Banana, is the first Mexican-born queen to have participated in the “Drag Race” franchise and is positioned as one of the most important drag queens in France.

K.J. Yossman Actors and creatives from “Star Trek” and “Ghosts” are set to host Master Classes during the Banff World Media Festival in June, Variety can confirm. The two Paramount Global shows will be repped at the 44th edition of the festival, which is set to take place in Banff, Alberta, Canada from June 11-14. The “Star Trek” masterclass will feature “Star Trek: Discovery’s” Sonequa Martin-Green, “Star Trek: Lower Decks’” Tawny Newsome, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’” Ethan Peck plus Alex Kurtzman, who is an executive producer for the “Star Trek” franchise, and CBS Studios president David Stapf. They will all be on hand do discuss “ushering in the golden age of ‘Trek,’ growing the franchise, and introducing a new generation to this universe all while staying true to what made it a cultural phenomenon 56 years ago,” according to the festival.

McKinley Franklin author SeriesFest has announced the official lineup for SeriesFest: Season 9, which will be held from May 5 to 10 in Denver. “RuPaul’s Drag Race” producers will be presented with the SeriesFest Impact in Television Award at the annual festival, Variety can exclusively reveal. SeriesFest: Season 9 has slated a wide variety of screenings, panels, workshops and sneak peeks/television premieres at this year’s festival. The non-profit organization is committed to showcasing and uplifting rising talent and underserved communities through episodic storytelling. This year’s Impact in Television Award will be presented to “RuPaul’s Drag Race” producers Randy Barbato, Fenton Bailey and Tom Campbell, for their pioneering and creative developments in the world of television production. Barbato, Bailey and Campbell will also participate in a panel on Monday, May 8, where audiences can ask the creatives questions.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, the Emmy-winning producers behind “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and co-founders of World of Wonder, have responded to the wave of anti-drag legislation being introduced by GOP lawmakers, calling it “un-American.” Speaking with Variety over Zoom, Barbato said the bills — which are working their way through at least 11 state legislatures and threatening to restrict or prohibit drag show performances — are all part of an “insidious” campaign. “It’s been going on and it’s orchestrated by a minority,” Barbato said. “They have been successful in these hideous laws. That same minority is threatening the civil rights of the LGBTQ+ community. They are a threat and we must take them seriously.”

EXCLUSIVE: AMC Networks is continuing its true-crime drive.

Italy has become the latest territory to jump on the RuPaul’s Drag Race hype.

EXCLUSIVE: A ban on drag performances in public places has been enacted in Tennessee, and more than a dozen other states may follow suit, a movement predicated on the fear that children who might glimpse such a show would be scarred by it. But an upcoming documentary defies that demonization by portraying drag performers as a force for good in their community.

Drag Race is expanding again. Three new editions are planned for Brazil, Germany and Mexico that will air on MTV/Paramount+ in their respective territories. As part of the expansion, RuPaul’s Drag Race heads to MTV for its 15th season in January, while RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race will return for season 3 in 2023 on VH1.

Roku is cooking up a pair of new original non-scripted series.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorThere’s not enough RuPaul to go around the world. But the drag competition show he created in 2009 along with World of Wonder co-founders Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey continues to spread into new territories with his trademark spirit intact.“Drag Race Philippines” will become the latest spinoff when it launches on Aug.

“You always hope every show you do is a massive revolutionary force that changes people’s lives,” says RuPaul’s Drag Race producer Fenton Bailey, “but so rarely is that the case.” But by any metric, World of Wonder’s long-running reality show — in which ever more outrageous drag queens compete for the approval of its imperious host RuPaul — is exactly that show. Across all of its TV and digital properties, the franchise received 11 Emmy nominations this year, and if the main Drag Race competition show wins six, it will make it the fifth most Emmy-winning TV show in history. And that’s not all: After spawning 14 U.S. seasons since it first appeared in 2009, the show’s format has been exported to the UK, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Thailand and the Philippines, with Belgium and Sweden to follow next year.

“The Real Housewives of Miami” revival after the show stopped running regularly in 2014.“Million Dollar Listing New York.” which premiered in 2012 and ran for nine seasons, is a spinoff series of “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles,” which debuted in 2006 and ran for 12 seasons. In its ninth season, which premiered in May 2021, the New York edition of the franchise followed the lives of luxury real estate agents as they navigated the real estate landscape during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.Its most recent season also saw the entrance of the show’s first female broker, Kirsten Jordan, who fought for her place alongside original cast members Ryan Serhant and Fredrik Eklund.

Carson Burton The world is Nat Geo’s playground with the network’s newly announced slate of unscripted content.Ahead of Disney’s upfront presentation on Tuesday in New York City, National Geographic on Monday announced a new slate of six personality-driven series aimed to showcase various aspects of culture from around the world. The new shows will feature notable personalities Derek Hough, Kristen Kish, Jeff Jenkins, Indy Srinath and Christian Cooper — as well as high school competitors of a global science fair competition.Renowned dancer Derek Hough will guide viewers around the world on an exploration of dance history and trends in the new show “Dance the World With Derek Hough.” In each episode, Hough will team up with a celebrity guest to embark on a journey to uncover the global cultural traditions that shape dance.

EXCLUSIVE: WOW Presents Plus has unveiled its latest original series Bring Back My Girls and shared that the upcoming project will be filmed live at DragCon LA 2022. Bring Back My Girls will feature a series of exclusive DragCon panel conversations with the casts of RuPaul’s Drag Race (Season 12), RuPaul’s Drag Race vs. The World, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (Seasons 1 & 2), RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, Canada’s Drag Race (Seasons 1 & 2) and Drag Race Holland (Seasons 1 & 2), hosted by TV personality and LGBTQ+ activist Ts Madison.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorAs “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 14 ends this Friday, the show will be filmed live from Las Vegas, home to the “RuPaul’s Drag Race Live” extravaganza. “Las Vegas is a city in drag.

Sweden has become the latest territory to order a local version of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the first from Scandinavia, as the hit format’s producer World of Wonder pushes it at this week’s Mip TV.

You likely are unaware of their names, but Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey have produced and/or directed some of the most influential pieces of filmed content over the past thirty years. Through their production company, World of Wonder, they have won five Emmy Awards for “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” a global phenomenon that has spawned seven international spin-offs, including a BAFTA-nominated entry for the BBC.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorLifetime’s newest reality show, “Leave It To Geege,” sees Geege Taylor, a single mom and breast cancer survivor, on a mission to help other people on their journey of raising an autistic child.The show debuted on Lifetime in January and from Feb. 10 will be transitioning from linear to digital, starting with a two-episode drop followed by weekly episodes rolling out on mylifetime.com, the Lifetime app and VOD.Taylor, whose 19-year-old son Pootie was diagnosed with autism as a young child, says she had first wanted to open her doors to TV cameras over seven years ago.

John Wirth Guest ColumnistFor Variety‘s Writers on Writers, John Wirth pens a tribute to “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” (screenplay by Abe Sylvia; based on the documentary by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato).Abe Sylvia has written a script about two hapless bible students who create with nothing more than a hymn, a bible and a puppet their wildly successful televangelist empire. It’s no small miracle that he’s accomplished this without commenting on the immoral hellscape the story stands upon.

EXCLUSIVE: World of Wonder’s Painted with Raven, just a week after its Thanksgiving debut, has been picked up for Season 2. Hailing from the team behind the Emmy-winning RuPaul’s Drag Race, Painted with Raven will see the eponymous Drag Race alum and Emmy-winning makeup artist back as host to continue the hunt for new make-up superstars.

Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes,” Farrow said. “This series wouldn’t exist without Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller and their team at HBO—or our filmmakers, Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, and the many creative people they worked alongside at World of Wonder.

NEW YORK -- In the nearly 10 years it took for Jessica Chastain to get made a film about the Christian televangelist Tammy Faye Messner, she studied many of the kinds of things you'd expect — the hours of television footage, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s 2000 documentary.

Elliot Page will be honored at the 2021 Outfest LA LGBTQ Film Festival with the Annual Achievement Award.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorDocumentary filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato are giving a face to the voices behind Ronan Farrow’s 2019 book “Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators” and subsequent podcast series.In “Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes,” six half-hour episodes follow Farrow as he works to report on Harvey Weinstein’s predatory behavior.Never before seen (only heard) interviews with the Weinstein survivors Rose McGowan and Ambra Gutierrez remind