Doc Corner: Susanne Bartsch and Antonio Lopez Take the Center Stage

By Glenn Dunks

Almost as ubiquitous as biographies of famous musicians (several of those coming in the next month) are documentaries about party icons of queer history. We’ve already had the exploits of The Fabulous Allan Carr and Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood in 2018 s, and now we can add two more titles: Susanne Bartsch: On Top and Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco.

Mother of the club kids, the nicknamed “Queen of the Night” and party planner extraordinaire, Susanne Bartsch is probably best known for her role in putting together the Love Ball in 1989. The AIDS fundraiser with people like Madonna in attendance (no doubt a formative moment in the creation of her single “Vogue”) was iconic in ways that likely gets forgotten about without films like this one to thrust it in their face and remind them. Footage from the ball is pivotal to On Top to contextualize her notoriety as more than just a famous-for-being-famous type of social queen, the likes of which flourished in the time after Warhol in New York City...

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Tweetweek: "Eighth Grade" Causes All the Feelings...

Let's begin with a perpetually relevant tweet

yes, keep going, maybe you can post the entire fucking plot of the movie before it opens on friday, I believe in you

— Danny Bowes (@bybowes) July 24, 2018

And don't you love it when one celebrity says something on twitter and another turns it into a funny joke with a reply?!

Ansel, I’ve been sitting in this restaurant for 45 minutes already.

— edgarwright (@edgarwright) July 26, 2018

AFTER THE JUMP sound advice from RuPaul, a funny joke about the Thor franchise, Jeff Goldblum statue, and much more in a curated sampling of good tweets for you that ends with a ton of thoughts on Eighth Grade because the movie is a modern miracle. Go see it!...

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Showbiz History: Robert Preston Centennial, Audra's Sixth and More

Happy Robert Preston Centennial! He was born on this day in 1918 and went on to  screen immortality via The Music Man (1962, Tony win for the stage version) and Victor / Victoria (1982, Oscar nomination). Other famous films include: Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960), Mame (1974) and his last feature film The Last Starfighter (1984). We had planned a whole thing but this week has been bu-sy.

Here's what else was happening on this day in showbiz history...

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RPDR: Social Media Kings/Queens

by Nathaniel R  

Let us begin by bowing down to the writers on RuPaul's Drag Race for so many new and witty mini-challenges for Season 10. They knew this season was important and they're clearly reinvigorated. In a tenth season when most writers rooms have given up. This week's "Rough Trade" opener was truly funny as the six remaining queens had to summon their inner neanderthal in straight drag. Naturally Kameron with her muscle body and ripped tee most looked the party but Eureka won with her outlandishly butch slob "BJ" (Being a Jokester). Asia, Aquaria, and Miz Cracker couldn't really leave the femme behind and Monét memorably struggled to stop the swivel in her hips.

On to the maxi-challenge, drag makeovers for "Social Media Kings" all of whom I was personally unfamiliar with save Tyler Oakley and Frankie Grande. Hmmm, I might be gay and not in my *cough* twenties? Shut up!

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"Cher: The Unauthorized Rusical"

by Nathaniel R

 

S10E8 Well, so that was a perfect episode. Not at all Suspect. Sorry for the Cher pun but Season 10 has been on fire with smart casting, great episodes, rainbow colored madness, inspired mini-challenges, and memorable runway themes. The writers and editors aren't sleeping through it either. Note how well Monét's silly RuPaul mimicry (pictured above) kicked off the episode with bad celebrity impersonation and Ru's campy-funny "slap out of it" mini-challenge both dovetailed so neatly into the CHER homage maxi-challenge...

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