featured: Celebs Rumors

+184

All news where featured is mentioned

metroweekly.com
Bud Light Boycott Cost Company $1.4 Billion in Sales
partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for an online promotion last year.Mulvaney appeared in a TikTok video highlighting Bud Light’s “March Madness” promotion during the annual NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournament.She also appeared in an online ad where she sat in a bubble bath, clad in a bathing suit, sipping Bud Light.As part of that promotion, the company also sent Mulvaney a commemorative can with a picture of her face on the exterior, celebrating the first anniversary of her “Days of Girlhood” video series documenting her gender transition.The can did not go on sale to the public. Still, many conservatives and anti-transgender advocates took offense at what they saw as Mulvaney’s caricature of womanhood, as well as the idea of transgender visibility, and called for boycotts not only of Bud Light, but other products of Bud’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev.Anheuser-Busch InBev reported record revenues for 2023 but said its “full growth potential was constrained” by the decline of sales in the United States, where the boycott was the strongest.In total, organic revenue in North America decreased by $1.4 billion due to a decline in beer sales, reports CNN.As a result, Mexican beer Model Especial dethroned Bud Light as the United States’ top-selling beer.From May through February, Bud Light recovered only 1.2 percentage points of lost market share, CEO Michael Doukeris told investors on Thursday.
metroweekly.com
Russian Agents Raid “My Little Pony” Convention
My Little Pony franchise, deeming it a hotbed of “LGBT propaganda.”The impetus for the raid appears to be objections to furries — a minority sub-culture of primarily adults, some of whom may identify as LGBTQ, with an interest in roleplaying and dressing up as anthropomorphic non-human animal characters — who may have been present at the conference, known as “Mi Amore Fest.”Furries have commonly been associated with “deviant” expressions of sexuality. They are often accused of trying to entice or indoctrinate children into embracing “non-traditional lifestyles,” as Russian politicians often refer to LGBTQ identity.Other objections seem to be related to the character Rainbow Dash, a pony with a rainbow-colored mane who is one of the chief protagonists of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series, as well as the presence of characters — both male and female — with gender-nonconforming character traits in various iterations of the My Little Pony cartoon series, which first aired in 1986.Organizers of “Mi Amore Fest” had changed depictions of Rainbow Dash to include the colors of the Russian national flag.Still, Russian authorities appear to believe that the series is sending subtle messages to viewers about support for LGBTQ causes.“Eric Myval,” who appears to be a furry, anime, and cartoon enthusiast based on their social media channels, wrote a series of posts on Telegram informing followers about the raid in real-time.“Apparently, you won’t be able to get to the fest anymore,” Myval wrote.
metroweekly.com
‘Private Jones’ is a Thrilling Musical Adventure (Review)
Private Jones poses a thrilling musical adventure in story and in form.The company’s first world-premiere musical since the pandemic, produced in association with Goodspeed Musicals, shrewdly deploys sign language, practical sound effects, and silence, along with Pailet’s compelling score, to shape the world of Private Gomer Jones, a deaf Welsh sniper in World War I.Inspired by a real-life WWI marksman who was deaf since infancy, Private Jones comes firing to life in Johnny Link’s feisty take on the role.Gomer, who loses his hearing as a child, is gutsy enough at 16 to fake his way past British Army recruitment officers so he can join up and fight alongside his fellow Borderers from Breconshire.Backed by the production’s robust ensemble, he sings, bursting with hope, in “The South Wales Borderers” of answering the nation’s call. Moments later, innocence still guides him, as Gomer and company march through “Part of the Sound,” his vow to not simply soldier in step, but truly prove his value in combat.Link ably captures Gomer’s boyish voice and outlook, and evolves the character in his dark, humbling descent into the trenches of war, though it’s not the performer’s singing that carries the characterization.Distinctly pleasing voices do surround him — notably, David Aron Damane, lending his deep baritone to Gomer’s father and other roles, and Leanne Antonio as Army nurse Gwenolyn, leading the transporting ballad “Every Soul’s a Soul.”Later reprised as “Every Soldier,” the intoxicating melody ripples like water, floating Gwenolyn’s simple wisdom, that every soul is a soul.
metroweekly.com
The Gay Education of Matt Bomer
Fellow Travelers, in which Bomer and Jonathan Bailey star as secret lovers who meet in McCarthy-era Washington.While a rapt audience inside the screening room enjoyed the series’ racy, ’70s-era Fire Island episode, Bomer, prompted by our discussion of whether actors are destined for certain roles, mused on his uncertain path to his SAG Award-nominated role as closeted WWII vet turned State Department official Hawkins Fuller.“It’s so interesting, because this came to me early on and I was so pessimistic about it,” he says. “I started out in this industry — I’ve been doing this almost 30 years — at a time when something like this just wouldn’t get made, period.”Still, throughout his career, the erstwhile White Collar lead has represented the LGBTQ community admirably offscreen, and in stage and screen revivals of The Boys in the Band, and his Golden Globe-winning portrayal of a writer with AIDS in HBO’s The Normal Heart.“We have seen this slow ebb of progress happening in Hollywood in our storytelling,” he says, citing Fellow Travelers creator Ron Nyswaner’s “beautiful scripts,” and the support of Showtime and Paramount for the show as prime examples of that progress.
metroweekly.com
‘Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero’ Creates Space for Greatness Without Filling It
Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero, the artist known as Lil Nas X lays down his ambitions to achieve something “great, super grand, BIG.”He might be referring to his trailblazing career as a Grammy-winning rapper-singer-songwriter, whose unabashedly queer persona and presentation garner admiration and controversy in equal measure.He could mean his first concert tour as a headliner, the Long Live Montero Tour, the American leg of which is chronicled in this film by directors Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel.There’s little doubt he envisions greatness for himself, Montero Hill, the self-described brat from Lithia Springs, Georgia, who uploaded his modest country-rap banger “Old Town Road” to his socials and became a global sensation.The film, a verité-style tour diary in three acts, doesn’t achieve greatness of its own, but offers glimpses at those aforementioned aspects of Montero’s super grand life.Whether rehearsing for opening night at Detroit’s legendary Fox Theatre, getting a surprise pre-show visit from Madonna, or donning his drag persona to meet his uncannily accurate Madame Tussaud’s wax figure, he rides the dizzying whirlwind of music stardom with aplomb, clearly living out a dream.Among the most compelling footage presented here is the video he shot himself in 2018, as a striving but confident 19-year-old, a month after releasing “Old Town Road” to the internet. Looking into the camera, he tallies his current follower count, promising that in a year the count will look different.
metroweekly.com
What You Need To Know About Florida’s Defamation Bill
bill asserts that claiming someone has discriminated against another person or group because of their identity will be considered “defamation per se” — meaning the accuser could find themselves facing costly legal bills for simply expressing their opinion.The bill does not appear to address what happens if the alleged discrimination is a matter of fact or public record — rather, just making an accusation of discriminatory behavior appears to be enough to land them in trouble legally.Under the bill:Under current defamation and libel laws, a subject must prove that a speaker or journalist acted with “actual malice.”This typically makes it harder for public figures, such as celebrities, to sue for defamation or libel, as they must prove the person they are suing either knew the information wasn’t true or demonstrated “reckless disregard” for its falsity.But now those in the public eye who find themselves accused of discrimination have nothing to fear — because the bill redefines what constitutes a “public figure.”The bill also eliminates the requirement that a person accused of discrimination prove their accuser acted with “actual malice” in cases where “the allegation does not relate to the reason for his or her public status.”Essentially, it means that it’s more likely that anyone making an accusation alleging discrimination will be found guilty and fined when the case goes to court.As reported by The New Republic, a person may not be considered a “public figure,” even in a limited context, if their fame or notoriety stems from:For example, if the bill becomes law, a podcaster who rants about gay marriage and calls LGBTQ people “diseased,” “perverse,” or makes other disparaging remarks could sue any person or entity
DMCA