Drag Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Drag March LA will take place Sunday in West Hollywood to protest the more than 400 pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation lawmakers have proposed or passed in 2023. Photo: Provided

Famed drag performer Heklina has died.

Legendary drag queen Darcelle has died at age 92.

Careful, spoilers ahead!RuPaul’s Drag​​ Race has become one of the most popular shows on television, gaining a massive following over the years. The reality staple has an undeniable ability to make stars out of its contestants, and it can also propel songs featured on the show to newfound popularity.This week, Doja Cat’s single “Boss Bitch” made its way back to a number of Billboard charts, thanks in large part to its prominent feature in a recent Drag Race episode, and the song’s resurgence on the charts is a testament to the show’s reach and influence.“Boss Bitch” reappears on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales chart this week at No.

Warning: RuPaul’s Drag Race spoilers ahead!On last week’s episode, Salina EsTitties was sent home after performing brilliantly in the main challenge. She gave a stunning and emotional performance, and she served it up in the lip sync, but sadly it wasn’t enough to save her.This may be the case for almost every queen who walks into the werk room, and though most of them take the rejection in stride, that is not the case with EsTitties, who is apparently very unhappy about her elimination.While on stage at a viewing event in West Hollywood, she was not shy about sharing her thoughts.

Long Beach Post, a website devoted to local news and sports reporting, recusing himself from editorial duties when he ran for Long Beach City Council.In 2009, he was elected to represent much of the city’s downtown area, serving for five years before being elected as mayor of Long Beach in 2014. After serving two terms, he ran for an open congressional seat last year in a newly redrawn district representing his hometown, winning the election with over 68% of the vote.While Garcia is now a Democrat, his first forays into politics were as a Republican.

Noitada, which includes a collaborative single with 2023 Best New Artist Grammy nominee Anitta. The two have worked together before, and clearly they have amazing chemistry.We spoke with Vittar about her new album, working with Anitta, and why she’s chosen to pursue her music career in this manner when so many others haven’t been able to make it work.Congrats on the new album! Tell me what it’s about.Thank you! This album is all about nightlife and how a night out with me would be.

William Dorsey Swann was known to his friends as “the Queen.”

So You Think You Can Drag, a live drag reality competition held in New York City. Her act, writes Broadway World, feels like “a cross between Debra Messing and Elle Woods, with a little retro flair and a whole lot of musical theater.”Turner gained attention outside of New York for her YouTube musical parodies, most famously spoofing Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” and The Muppets’ “Rainbow Connection,” which she renamed “Grindr Connection.”Turner returns to Crazy Aunt Helen’s with her show Tucking Myself In, “an all-live sung slumber party” full of mayhem and camp foolishness, including song parodies of everything from Hairspray to Taylor Swift.Saturday, Oct.

Saturday Night Live cast members, new and old, plus the return of David Sedaris, Paula Poundstone, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Heather McDonald, Alton Brown, and ALOK. Miss Richfield 1981, too!Editor’s Note: This column has been modified slightly from the magazine edition.McLean Community Center 1234 Ingleside Ave. McLean, Va.

RuPaul’s Drag Race brought drag into millions of homes, events like Miss’d America, which will hold its 31st pageant this weekend, put the spotlight on the drag community.Taking place in Atlantic City at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, the weekend will kick off at 9 p.m. on Friday, Sept 23, with drag bingo hosted by last year’s pageant winner, Amanda Pörq.Guests will have the chance to win cash and prizes and watch special performances by Sandy Beach, Morgan Wells, and Miss Elaine.On Saturday, eight contestants will take to the stage of Hard Rock’s Sound Waves Theater, starting at 7 p.m., for the chance to be crowned Miss’d America 2023.They’ll compete in the categories of swimsuit, talent, and evening gown, and will be interviewed by the judges.The evening promises to feature over-the-top productions, overseen by the pageant’s celebrity emcee Carson Kressley.Tickets for Miss’d America start at $25 and can be purchased online.VIP tickets are also available at $100 each, and include one complimentary drink and admission to an exclusive post-pageant meet and greet reception.

Werq the World, in which, as the press release puts it, “an experiment gone wrong sends audiences spiraling through time with no way of returning to 2022!The queens will whisk fans on a magical journey through iconic periods of history in hopes of returning them safely home.”If not a safe return, would it be too much to ask for a happy ending from the queens participating in this Official RuPaul’s Drag Race World Tour? We’re talking repeat offenders Kameron Michaels, Rosé, Vanjie, Jaida Essence Hall, plus perennial host Asia O’Hara, and fresh blood from Season 14 finalists Angeria Paris Van Micheals, Daya Betty, and Jorgeous.All told, the coterie of queens will be entertaining fans in over 50 cities across North America this summer on behalf of Voss Events, World of Wonder, and VH1.“This is the biggest, most spectacular drag show on earth,” says Brandon Voss, the show’s lead producer, in a press release. “Audiences will be in awe as their favorite queens from past seasons and the newest stars of Season 14 come together on some incredible numbers. The music, sets, fashion, choreography, and lighting in the 2022 production are the largest to date and like nothing fans of drag have ever seen before.”The tour stops in D.C.

Werq the World, in which, as the press release puts it, “an experiment gone wrong sends audiences spiraling through time with no way of returning to 2022!The queens will whisk fans on a magical journey through iconic periods of history in hopes of returning them safely home.”If not a safe return, would it be too much to ask for a happy ending from the queens participating in this Official RuPaul’s Drag Race World Tour? We’re talking repeat offenders Kameron Michaels, Rosé, Vanjie, Jaida Essence Hall, plus perennial host Asia O’Hara, and fresh blood from Season 14 finalists Angeria Paris Van Micheals, Daya Betty, and Jorgeous.All told, the coterie of queens will be entertaining fans in over 50 cities across North America this summer on behalf of Voss Events, World of Wonder, and VH1.“This is the biggest, most spectacular drag show on earth,” says Brandon Voss, the show’s lead producer, in a press release. “Audiences will be in awe as their favorite queens from past seasons and the newest stars of Season 14 come together on some incredible numbers. The music, sets, fashion, choreography, and lighting in the 2022 production are the largest to date and like nothing fans of drag have ever seen before.”The tour stops in D.C.

her as Sherry Vine — a name Levy devised on a lark to suit the drag persona he essentially conjured up as a gimmick roughly 30 years ago, shortly after Levy moved to L.A.“Sometimes I regret not having a wittier name,” Vine told Metro Weekly in a previous interview. “Unless I tell you the story, it doesn’t really make any sense or anything.”Of course we needed to know the story! And after a little prodding, she coughed it up, explaining that her drag persona was named after the place of conception: a former whorehouse called The Sherry on Vine Street in the Hollywood Hills.Last year, the week before Christmas, Vine showed up LIT for the Holidays to help christen Crazy Aunt Helen’s and its upstairs cabaret space with her debut holiday show.And just like that, she’s already ready for a return.

War on the Catwalk, revived and ready for its first go-round since the pandemic.The 2022 drag battle features a truly international mix of queens as seen in one series or another of RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise.Miz Cracker, All-Stars 5 runner-up and Season 10 Miss Congeniality, will host the upcoming stop in D.C. with additional performances from The Vivienne, UK Season 1 Winner, Krystal Versace from UK Season 3, Kita Mean, Down Under Winner, Kornbread, Season 14 Miss Congeniality, Kylie Sonique Love, All-Stars 6 Winner, Crystal Methyd, Season 12 Runner-up, and Olivia Lux of Season 13.

After the muted and makeshift celebrations of the past two years, Pride month is busting out all over in 2022. And one of D.C.’s newest LGBTQ-owned venues is working to establish itself as a hub of Pride-related activity.Over the next couple of weeks, Crazy Aunt Helen’s will host a variety of shows offering a veritable smorgasbord of LGBTQ-identified drag performers, comedians, and nascent playwrights and local actors.The latter comes courtesy of a new play reading series that launched last month from D.C.’s queer-focused Rainbow Theatre Project.The series, featuring casts of assembled local actors giving rehearsed, dramatic readings of stage works in development, continues with a reading of Faux Flowers, Anthony Green’s tale, set in present-day D.C., of “trauma turned to murder during an Easter dinner,” presented with a brief post-reading discussion with the playwright and cast.

“That was totally by accident and not by design,” he laughs. “I didn’t know what I was doing when I started, and I could never quite do it right. And so I would overdraw because the more you try to get it even, and it’s not quite even, the more you draw.

Drag Race All-Stars winner had her hand in a number of different industries and projects before the world shut down, and now that people can travel again and attend large in-person events once more (relatively safely, that is), the drag queen otherwise known as Brian Firkus is working overtime.In 2022 alone, Mattel has all of the following projects coming up or currently in progress: a drag tour with best friend Katya that extends into the end of the year; a musical tour of Europe that will see Trixie performing her signature blend of country, pop, and Americana; her two web series UNHhhh and Netflix’s I Like to Watch (both with Katya), each of which have new episodes on the horizon; a new book (again with Katya) about God and drag, publishing in October; running her company Trixie Cosmetics; her weekly newsletter GOOPED (once again, with Katya); the summer release of her double CD The Blonde & Pink Albums, which have already launched several singles; and the opening of her Palm Springs motel, the creation of which will be chronicled in her upcoming docuseries Trixie Motel, scheduled to begin airing on Discovery+ on June 1.Just one of those projects would be enough to keep anyone busy, but somehow, Mattel has the energy, time, and talent to not only keep them all going, but to ensure they’re all going to be incredibly successful.Her track record as one of the hardest-working and potentially one of the wealthiest queens to emerge from Drag Race (though Mattel is shy about touting her own financial prowess) suggests that her empire will only keep expanding, and at a surprisingly rapid rate.

Phil Connell’s Jump, Darling (★★★☆☆) is perhaps most notable for featuring one of the last performances of Cloris Leachman’s career.The legendary actress, who passed away at the age of 94 in January 2021, offers a quietly profound, poignant look at Margaret, an elderly woman for whom life no longer has a discernible point. Lonely and isolated in her spacious home in Prince Edward, Canada, Margaret is more than ready to leave these corporeal confines for what lies beyond.When her 30-year-old grandson Russell (Thomas Duplessie) arrives on her doorstep, following a breakup with his boyfriend (the narrative’s weakest storyline), she finds temporary reprieve from her pain.Russell, however, has his own agenda, and as loving as he is, he can be curt and dismissive.

Starring the late Oscar- and BAFTA Award-winning actor Cloris Leachman, the Breaking Glass Pictures film “Jump Darling” premieres in theaters March 11.

The Guardian in a 2016 profile of Hill. “He always took being a drag king to a new level, which was more fully realized than most kings.” As the years have gone by, Hill has become far more than a pioneering drag king, queer New York nightlife fixture, or campy, charismatic trans comedian/actor. The 50-year-old has long struggled to find the right words and terminology to describe himself.“I keep saying, when I talk to young people: We just didn’t have the language and the ID politics, we had nothing.

RuPaul’s Drag Race.“We were actually on the Season 8 finale of Drag Race where, spoiler alert, Bob The Drag Queen won,” says Spencer Brown, who portrays Trampolina. “We ended up performing an a cappella rendition of the theme song to Drag Race…cut down to about five seconds.”Mainstream interest in drag over the last decade has been a boon for the nearly 30-year-old ensemble.

We’re Here.The series, hosted by Drag Race stars Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara, and Shangela, features its three hosts traveling across small-town America to stage one-night-only drag shows featuring local residents. Pastor Craig Duke was reportedly “relieved of pastoral duties” by Newburgh United Methodist Church in Evansville, Ind., after the LGBTQ ally underwent a drag makeover in an episode of We’re Here that aired last month.Duke, an outspoken LGBTQ ally whose daughter came out as

told GQ in a recently published interview that he hit a low and even considered taking his own life in 1993 after his coach, Chuck Daly, whom he viewed as a father figure, left the team.He moved to Texas to play for the San Antonio Spurs, and began going to gay and drag clubs, inspired by the people he met, who he said lived life on their own terms.“When you talk to people in the gay community, someone who does drag, something like that, they’re so fucking happy,” Rodman recounted.

–Doug RuleRaven’s Night is Saturday, Oct. 16, at 7:30 p.m., at the Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria, Va.

Pussy Noir is no stranger to the Kennedy Center. “I went to Duke Ellington School of the Arts for high school, so we sang there quite often,” says the D.C.

The Alaska Thunderfuck Extra Special Comedy Special, premiering this month on OUTtv. Getting into drag — transforming from L.A.-based performer Justin Andrew Honard into Alaska the glamazon, recording artist and Drag Race All-Star — she describes her character as “more like Bea Arthur, in the sense that Bea Arthur is funny because she’s really serious.

The thirteenth season of the well-loved LGBTQ franchise, “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” just premiered, and the uber talented and fabulous lineup of 13 queens includes two from Atlanta. Tamisha Iman and LaLa Ri are representing the gay mecca of the South on the show.

Trevor Ashley is back to celebrate Christmas with you in 2020 and he’s bringing his good friend Liza along for the ride in his show Ring Them Bells! A Very Liza Xmas at the Paddo RSL and Riverside Theatre in November and December.Accompanied by a sumptuous, yet socially distanced band led by Andy Davies, Liza will perform songs gorgeously arranged by James Simpson and will take you on a journey with stories from her childhood with Mama, under the tree.And you’re in good company, with Ashley

Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas. The concert, co-hosted by Vanessa Willams (see pg.

Reality drag empires RuPaul’s Drag Race and The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula are both releasing spooky Halloween specials later this month.

RuPaul’s Drag Race royalty. The effervescent quality certainly can be fun and entertaining.

Legendary drag photographer Just Toby reads one of his recent articles he wrote for the Georgia Voice, Memoirs of the Atlanta Drag Scene, all about the different drag styles, performers, and scenes you can find across Atlanta. Watch below:

As TikTokkers are finding viral fame during lockdown with a myriad of entertaining dances and mindless hours throwing ping-pong balls into cups, Australian drag artists are sharing their own versions of the “#passthebrush” internet challenge.

Ella Fitzgerald at Ziegfeld’s/Secrets – File Photo by Ward Morrison

Australia’s biggest online vogue battle, music and drag performances, comedy sketches, hip hop, all this and more are coming to your screen this Saturday.