A First Look at the Season 9 Queens of RuPaul's Drag Race

Chris here and can you believe it's already time to start your engines for a new season of RuPaul's Drag Race? That All Stars extravaganza truly spoiled us after a great season eight! But now meet the new set of queens to obsess over, and from this first glance season nine can already be called the return to fish - especially for the jawdropping Farrah Moan.

Here's the full cast:

• Aja (Brooklyn, NY)
• Alexis Michelle (New York, NY)
• Charlie Hides (London, UK)
• Eureka O'Hara (Johnson City, TN)
• Farrah Moan (Las Vegas, NV)
• Nina Bo'nina Brown (Atlanta, GA)
• Peppermint (New York, NY)
• Sasha Velour (Brooklyn, NY)
• Shea Coulee (Chicago, IL)
• Trinity Taylor (Orlando, FL)
• Valentina (Los Angeles, CA)

While this lineup lacks a certain diversity of styles and influences, each of these girls are instantly charming enough to bet on an entertaining season. The current standouts for me are the Almodóvar-referencing Valentina, polished and confident Alexis Michelle, and the coolly hilarious Shea Coulee. My heart so wants to root for brit Charlie Hides (who you can bank on taking Snatch Game), but a win for a comedy queen after Bob the Drag Queen seems like a lofty order. Almost as lofty as the wait we must endure until the show returns in March.

What queen do you love most based on the first look?

Foxy

Three Fittings: High Glamour and Low Spies in "Allied"

[New Series! Three Fittings will celebrate costume design in the movies. The number is necessary self-restraint for we love the art of costuming too much. We kicked off last week with La La Land icymi.]

Allied begins strongly with a weirdly lulling quiet parachute descent into the Moroccan dessert. Moments later the man from the sky is all wrapped up a stone blue headscarf, his face obscured, presumably to protect it from the sun and sand. This obscures the movie star within which is never a good thing so the scarf loses its functionality almost immediately. It's suddenly an accessory rather than a tool, just another texture and a complimentary color to the fetching earth tone ensemble on a ridiculously handsome man walking toward a car far off in the distance.

Who knew that an empty road in the desert could double as a runway?

Costume designer Joanna Johnston clues you in immediately that you're looking at a movie that's aiming for the glamorous illusion of Old Hollywood...

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Watching "The Man in The High Castle" As Democracy Crumbles

by Deborah Lipp

It’s possible that The Man in the High Castle was born to drive us all insane. It’s possible that Philip K. Dick dropped a lot of acid, looked into the future, saw our current political situation, and sent The Man in the High Castle to try to save us. It’s also possible I have been watching too much cable news. 

The Man in the High Castle is the second-best show on Amazon Prime. Based on the 1962 novel by renowned mind-bender (and acid-dropper) Philip K. Dick (who brought us Blade Runner and Total Recall), the show depicts an alternate history, in which Germany and Japan won World War II, and divided the US between themselves. Our characters take us inside both the Japanese and German regimes, as well as inside the resistance movement operating against each. 

I am watching a TV show about resistance movements. My Facebook feed says “resist”. The “RESIST” sign in Washington Square Park, protesting on behalf of Muslim immigrants, glowed in the dark. Resist...

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Trevante Rhodes Incinerates OUT Cover

It's been a long week already, so how about some eye candy? And once you've finished ogling this marvelous photograph of breakout talent and great beauty Trevante Rhodes, be sure to read OUT Magazine's cover story on Moonlight and its influences, production history, and perspective on black culture and identity - guided by the voices of director Barry Jenkins, playwright/co-screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney, and Rhodes.

Here's an idea: let's never stop talking about how brilliant a debut Rhodes delivered in this film until he receives his first Oscar nomination.