RuPaul's Drag Race is Back, Squirrelfriends

The wait is over, chickadees! Rupaul's Drag Race returns for its eighth season on March 7. Also the show is celebrating in centennial fashion: not only has it hit 100 episodes, but now the show has now ushered 100 drag queens to our tv screens

After an underwhelming seventh season that nevertheless brought new fan favorites like Katya, Trixie Mattel, and winner Violet Chachki, our favorite not-so-guilty pleasure is back with a new batch of queens to adore. And the new crew looks promising, from big names like Derrick Barry (the Britney Spears impersonator) to new blood like Naomi Smalls. Expect the hilarious Bob the Drag Queen to give good quote, with Robbie Turner (part of the same Seattle gang as Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme) the frontrunner for the all-important Snatch Game.

The brief glimpse so far is already more enticing than the drab presentation Logo gave the contestants last year - hopefully we have a true return to form.

This season's queens, from left to right:

• Dax Exclamationpoint (Savannah, GA)
• Acid Betty (New York, NY)
• Kim Chi (Chicago, IL)
• Thorgy Thor (Brooklyn, NY)
• Naomi Smalls (Redlands, CA)
• Derrick Barry (Las Vegas, NV)
• Robbie Turner (Seattle, WA)
• Cynthia Lee Fontaine (Austin, TX)
• Naysha Lopez (Chicago, IL)
• Laila McQueen (seated) (Gloucester, NH)
• Chi Chi DeVayne (Shreveport, LA)
• Bob the Drag Queen (New York, NY)

Check out the first look below! Has anyone seen any of these gals live?

(Do) We Need To Talk About Channing

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HBO’s LGBT History: The Out List (2013)

Manuel is working his way through all the LGBT-themed HBO productions.

Last week we looked at Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, a horror movie of sorts which we all agreed is not as good as the sum of its talented parts. This week we look at Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’s The Out List (Watch Online), a documentary that’s easier to admire than to enjoy.

I actually hesitate in calling it a “documentary” since it’s just a collection of on-camera interviews seemingly strung together one next to the other. Thus, we spend a couple of minutes with Neil Patrick Harris as he discusses his struggles as an out actor. We then hear about Janet Mock’s decision to take up trans rights activism in earnest. We move onto Dustin Lance Black’s experience of growing up in a religious family… and so on and so forth. Each interview is its own mini-doc; the result would, presumably, be a quilted canvas of the contemporary LGBT movement. [More...]

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ICYMI

Hello all. Nathaniel, returned home, back from vacation. You may not have even noticed that I'd gone but I was almost completely offline for the past 5 days. I was in Austin, TX to visit a friend I hadn't seen in a few years and we had a ton of fun. While travelling I read "The Devil in the White City" and y'all were right -it's absolutely gripping. It's also so dense with information and fascinating details that Leo & Marty may well have a tough time pulling it off. Especially if they make it a star vehicle since the book screams for more of an Altman Ensemble feel. 

On the trip home my friends and I discovered we were sharing the flight with Pearl (from RPDR) so the return to NYC felt even more glamorous than usual. This long weekend vacation was the last movie and computer free moment before The Season which, roughly speaking, consumes my entire life from mid-September to late-February each year. Thank you to Jose and Manuel for keeping the lights on while I was out and to Murtada, David, Kyle, Glenn, Sebastian, Amir, and Margaret who also pitched in.

Why not catch up on anything you missed this morning? I'll be doing the same. 

A Heaping Handful of Highlights
Chris Eigeman talks Metropolitan - This uniquely pleasurable 1990 indie just turned 25
100 Things I Love About Movies - off the top of my head
HBO LGBT: "Normal" - Manuel's great series is revealing that HBO has really been ahead of the curve
Bergman Kisses - a grand swooney journey through Ingrid Bergman's onscreen love life - she may be well be the greatest romantic heroine of the movies
Mr Robot and Humans - we started a new weekly TV discussion series with these two paranoid examples of our current communal disconnection. The series continues tonight with Masters of Sex
Smackdown 1995 - that's how we started the month and Smackdown 1954 is how we'll end it 
Disney's Upcoming Slate - Moana, Zootopia and more 

Meanwhile in Oscar Land
The forthcoming Oscar race is all starting to feel very real what with the releases of Hateful Eight's trailer, Germany's long list, Carol's teaser, and that image of Tom Hiddleston in a big hat...

Reviewed Recently
Fantastic Four (Tim), The Gift (Jose), Man From U.N.C.L.E. (Kyle), M:I - Rogue Nation (Tim), Ricki & The Flash (Nathaniel) and Woman in Gold (Nathaniel) 

Alexander/Alexandra

From the "We Nearly Forgot To Mention It And What Is Wrong With Us" Folder:
Alexander Skarsgård, currently untethered to a particular role/screen persona post-True Blood, came to the premiere of The Diary of a Teenage Girl (opening tomorrow) in drag. For reasons we know not...

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