Elliz Haizlip put Black joy at the center of his hit 1970s PBS show, Soul!

Elliz Haizlip, the trailblazing gay Black host of the pioneering variety show Soul! (1968 - 1973), is the center of a new award-winning documentary, Mr. Soul. 

For five years, Soul! carved a space for Black joy on television by celebrating Black culture, community, art, and life with an array of Black musicians, activists, and political luminaries like Sidney Poitier, Muhammad Ali, Cicely Tyson, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Patti LaBelle, Roberta Flack, and a young Stevie Wonder.

Mr. Soul premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won several awards on the festival circuit. Produced and directed by Haizlip’s niece, Melissa Haizlip, the film strongly highlights her uncle’s pursuit toward carving a space created by and for Black people.

"Ellis knew that Black joy was revolutionary. Carving out a space to be joyful. In curating the culture, he was also curating the joy,” Melissa said of her uncle in a recent online discussion (see below). 

Blair Underwood, who was also part of the online discussion, added of Soul!, "It was unabashedly, unapologetically Black. For us, by us. It was rare. We don't even have that now."

"It is absolutely the artists throughout history who heal, and project and interpret, what the streets are saying, what the community is saying," said Underwood. "That's what this show did then, and that's what our job is now."

Haizlip was the first Black producer at WNET (then WNDT), the primary PBS station for the New York City Market, having joined the station in the mid-1960s.

When he was approached by Christopher Lukas, the station’s white director of cultural programming, to create an arts program for Black audiences, the young visionary conceptualized a variety show format to celebrate the diversity of Black culture and to challenge viewers by asking questions about the nuances therein — at the height of the Civil Rights movement, no less. 

Soul! had a majority Black creative team — from the camera operators, set designers, and producers, according to Thirteen. One of them was Alice Hill, one of the first Black women to be an associate producer on a national TV series, who became Haizlip’s closes collaborator.

Haizlip was a frequent host and interviewer and was always sharply dressed and unassuming on air. When he spoke to his subjects it was clear that his motivation was to push the conversation as far as executives would allow him to go.

Born in Washington, D.C., in 1929, Haizlip was an out gay man in an era preceding Stonewall. Though executives at the network tolerated his queerness, according to reports, they made it clear that they were worried a gay man wasn’t an appropriate embodiment of Black masculinity on-camera. But that certainly didn’t stop him.

Haizlip also never shied away from speaking on LGBTQ+ issues. When Islamic leader Louis Farrakhan appeared on the program, Haizlip asked him whether the Nation of Islam welcomed Black gays and lesbians while also reminding him that many Black people had experienced conversion to Islam while in prison. (see the clip below) 

By 1973, the show ran out of funding despite a strong viewership after PBS picked it up for national syndication.

Toward the end of its run, Haizlip was under serious pressure to integrate the show for white audiences after executives deemed anything celebrating Black power as a threat. That’s when, according to Thirteen, Haizlip was given the choice: integrate Soul! or have it cancelled.

The last episode aired on March 7, 1973, and Haizlip made no secrets as to why. He told the Washington Post at the time that the cancellation was “part of a policy to destroy all Black programming on the network. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting … preferred a sociological production rather than a cultural one, which is really no reason for canceling Soul!”

Haizlip was diagnosed with lung cancer in the 1980s, then a brain tumor shortly after. He died in 1991 at the age of 61.

Find out more about the documentary at MrSoulMovie.com. 

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After months of uncertainty, it looks like FX's much-lauded Pose series is starting up the gears again. 

Earlier this year, the show had to pause its production in the wake of the ongoing global pandemic. At the time they were quite early in the process, reportedly only having filmed for the first episode. The pandemic threw a wrench in everything.

Not only was production paused indefinitely, but it called into question the possibility of doing certain types of scenes when things started back up.

"Things like kissing — we will likely forgo those moments," show creator Steven Canals told Variety over the summer. "The place on our show where the biggest impact will be felt will be the ball scenes: Those scenes have 125 to 150 background actors. That’s tricky, because that’s such an important and critical part of our show and the narrative. We’re just, only now, having conversations of ‘Is there a world where we forgo these things?’”

While that hasn't been answered publicly, according to Variety, filming is slated to start back up in October. The trade journal wrote that the cast is being tested for the virus at the center of the pandemic prior to the start of filming.

Thre isn't much information on the third season's plans. When we left them, the original House of Evangelista had all but disbanded as Blanca's children had grown up and begun to leave her nest. In their place, Blanca had seemingly found two new house children.

Billy Porter is reportedly set to direct an episode of the third season. 

RELATED | 'Pose' Actress Leiomy Maldonado Says It Isn't a Ballroom Show

The controversial televangelist and Christian media mogul decried the movement as being a 'anti-capitalist Marxist revolution.'

Noted televangelist Pat Robertson has taken once more to the airwaves with inflammatory proclamations, opining the Black Lives Matter movement is a lesbian-led “anti-family, anti-capitalist Marxist revolution” that is not right for America. The host of The 700 Club made the statements last night on his long-running television show, finding time to also criticize athletes like Colin Kaepernick for supporting what he described as “a stalking horse for a very, very radical anti-family, anti-God agenda.”

“It’s amazing that these people or these athletes to get sucked into this, and so-called fellow travelers and even businesses,” Robertson said. “Athletes used to be terribly admired by all of society, a very, very positive rating. That rating has gone to negative because of their association with Black Lives Matter.”

The term “fellow travelers” appears to be a reference to people during the 1940s and ‘50s who were sympathetic to communism while not actual members of the communist party.

“They’re talking about Marxist communism,” the 90-year-old minister and religious television mogul said. “They’re talking about destroying the nuclear family. They’re talking about destroying essentially Christianity as being racist. And all the way through they want to upend the capitalist structure and destroying America.”

Robertson was quick in his attempt to distinguish between the BLM organization and the statement that Black lives matter, saying that he and “everybody who’s got any sense” obviously “care about oppression against poor people.” He claimed that concern about issues like police brutality and “some of those things” are legitimate, but that valid concerns about social injustice have been “hijacked by these radicals” with the purpose of implementing a secret agenda.

“Of course, we want to stand with oppressed people against police brutality, of course we do,” Robertson claimed. “But we don’t want to go along with a lesbian, anti-family, anti-capitalist Marxist revolution. We don’t want that for America.”

Robertson is no stranger to controversy. He frequently rants against the LGBTQ+ community on The 700 Club, which airs on the Christian Broadcasting Network as well as twice daily on Freeform, Disney’s youth-oriented network known for its queer-inclusive entertainment. Most recently, he claimed the coronavirus was a “terrible plague” resulting from “terrible things” such as marriage quality and abortion, which he claimed violated humanity’s covenant with God.

RELATED | Pat Robertson: Same-Sex Marriage ‘Plague’ Caused Coronavirus

The Ratched star has been notoriously private about her identity.  

Actress Cynthia Nixon confirmed she identifies as queer in a new interview with Attitude magazine.

The revelation comes two years after she was first asked if she identified as queer. At the time she was mum about, telling a reporter simply, “It’s personal.” Now, she says that she's had time to reflect, explaining that lesbian, gay, or bisexual never seemed “particularly right” for her.

"To say ‘queer’ means, 'I’m over there, I don’t have to go into the nuances of my sexuality with you,’” said Nixon, who began dating her now-wife, Christine Marinoni, in 2004, after splitting from her husband of 15 years. "Falling in love with my wife was one of the great delights and surprises of my life, but it didn’t seem like I became a whole new person, or like some door had been unlocked.”

“It was like, ‘I have fallen in love with different people in my life and they’ve all been men before. Now, this is a woman and she is amazing,’” she reflects. "So I feel like ‘queer’ is an umbrella term, and it includes my formerly straight self, too."

Discussions about gender identity and expression have been a hot topic at Nixon and Marinoni’s dinner table. Her eldest child, Samuel, identifies as transgender. Nixon has also been actively protesting on the streets against white supremacy and police brutality, having attended the Queer Liberation March in June as well as the Black Lives Matter protests.

"I feel like there are certain issues that the right wing seizes on again and again,” she said. "They won’t let go of abortion. They seem to have let go of a lot of the anti-gay rhetoric and antigay actions, but as they have sort of accepted gayness, they have focused on trans people, and on immigrants and on people of color."

Nixon famously ran to be the Democratic nominee for governor of New York in 2018. This month, she is returning to the small screen in Ryan Murphy's new Netflix series Ratched (premiering September 18), opposite Sarah Paulson’s Nurse Mildred Ratched.

In the series, Nixon plays Gwendolyn Briggs, a lesbian who is not out publicly and who begins a close relationship with Mildred.

"It’s a really peculiar thing, how much they [radical conservatives] try to separate us as a community," she said. "But [after marriage equality] we saw a great divide in our own community, too, between those who thought, 'I got my wedding ring, I can pass my money on to my spouse and not pay taxes, so I’m good, I’m done', as opposed to, ‘We have so far to go for so many members of our community, we are still so far from the promised land, we’re so far from having our full civil rights.’”

"Trans people are a case in point, but also young, queer people of whatever stripe who are still, were being, tossed out of their homes and are living on the streets, many engaging in sex work to survive,” added Nixon, who formerly supported Bernie Sanders as president but is now fully on board the Biden/Harris train.

"I'm really hopeful that we will all turn out in November, because we have to. We have to do it for our country and we have to do it for our planet."

The actresses revealed the information in a new interview.

Ryan Murphy's next project is only days away from debuting. The new Netflix series Ratched premieres on September 18, and draws from the pool of actor that have become staples of the Murphy Universe. That said, for Sarah Paulson (who leads the series) and Cynthia, there was a specific reason for their casting, as revealed in a new interview.

“It was very important to me and I know to Ryan, he was very invested in Cynthia and I doing this together and having two queer women playing two queer women,” Paulson told GLAAD's Anthony Ramos in a new interview, noting the power of “just even a snapshot image” of the two queer actors was “something that was very, very important to him.” Murphy is also carrying that same energy over to his film adaptation of Boys In the Band, which has cast all gay men in the gay roles. 

Paulson appears in the titular role of Mildred Ratched for the streamer which is a prequel inspired by the cult 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. The novel was later made into a classic movie in 1975 starring Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy and directed by Milos Forman. Louis Fletcher won an Oscar for her performance as Nurse Ratched in the film.

Paulson’s co-star Nixon, who plays the role of Gwendolyn Briggs, was just as effusive in her praise of Murphy, noting the importance of his ability to take “different historical periods in which there were people of color and there were queer people” who were erased from the narrative, and then reinsert queer people back into their rightful and historically accurate place. This was done most clearly with Hollywood but is a tool Murphy employs elsewhere as well.

“We’re not in the movies of the ‘40s and ‘50s, you know. I mean, I think of Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca,” Nixon said, referring to the antagonist of the Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel.

“I really can barely think of another lesbian character,” Nixon continued, noting that “gay men” were “more plentiful” in the movies of that era but were “barely there” and then only for purposes “comic relief.”

In Ratched, the two are entertwined in a love story. "[Sarah Paulson] and [Cynthia Nixon] are simply luminescent when they share a scene," Murphy wrote to Twitter, sharing a montage of the pair's on-screen relationship. "Get ready for the romance you deserve."

Both Paulson and Nixon agree Murphy’s decision was important and impactful.

“Anytime you can go back and look at our history to inform where we are today and sort of see where we’re still making the same mistakes is a learning opportunity,” Paulson observed.

Nixon concurred with her co-star.

“To have Ryan go back and look at this period and reinsert us into the history that we’ve been erased from and really talk honestly and shine a spotlight on all the many trials and tribulations and obstacles and persecutions that we underwent is really, really important and really overdue.”

RELATED | Watch Netflix's Final Ratched Trailer Introducing Nurse Ratched

Money isn't everything!

Drag Race Holland is almost here! On September 18, the latest addition to the RuPaul's Drag Race franchise will make its debut, ushering ten new performers into the family. They will compete against one another week after week for the crown as well as the title of the First Dutch Drag Superstar. And while a title like that usually comes with a little extra something-something to pad the purse, it's not so in The Netherlands.

It's important here to point out that winning top prize in a season of Drag Race and not taking home cash isn't without precedent. Last year RuPaul's Drag Race U.K. put on its debut season and The Vivienne went home with a plane ticket to LA, a crown, and some RuPeter badges — because of how the network was set up, the show couldn't give out cash prizes at all. That said, it's extremely common for the winning queen to get some money. Drag Race Thailand, Canada's Drag Race, All Stars, The Switch, and the original Drag Race all had a check attached. But that's not going to be the case with the Dutch version.

A Drag Race Holland representative has confirmed to Out that the winning prize will be a crown provided by Fierce Jewels, a cover shoot and 10-page feature in Dutch Cosmopolitan, and a custom dress by Dutch designer Claes Iversen. 

After a cursory glance around, it doesn't look as if there are any restrictions from the network (it's a commercial network) that would prohibit a cash prize, but there's no telling what kind of red tape they are facing. And while we would never say "exposure" is a replacement for pay, the queens are definitely getting that in spades; Since being announced on the cast Envy Peru has gained 20,000 followers on Instagram and Roem has gained 10,000.

RELATED | 'Drag Race Holland:' The Queens and Everything You Need to Know

The Emmy-nominated actress will join Brad Goreski and Nina Parker for the first hour-and-a-half of E!'s red carpet celebration. 

Oh, and just the smallest glimpse of the Pit Crew.

Calling to the stage: Holland!

Only days ahead of the season one debut of Drag Race Holland, the series has released an extended first look. And, unsurprisingly, it's the same show we've come to know and love. 

The show is set to be hosted by Fred van Leer, celebrity stylist and former Holland's Next Top Model judge. In the new extended trailer, Leer makes his television debut in drag though he reportedly had done drag for about 10 years prior to making it big. For the show, a drag performer that goes by The Countess on Instagram does his face — much like Raven paints RuPaul now, and Mathu Andersen before her.

For his judging duties, Leer (who like Ru will appear both in and out of drag on the series) will be joined by designer Nikkie Plessen as right hand. Throughout the season others like YouTube superstar NikkieTuotrials, singer Roxeanne Hazes, model Loiza Lamers, comedian Sanne Wallis de Vries and even designer Cleas Iversens will also serve as guest judges. Iversens will design a custom gown for the winner of the First Dutch Drag Superstar title.

None of those judges are seen in the preview but the ten queens are. Debuted earlier this month, they include Envy Peru, Madame Madness, Roem, ChelseaBoy, Janey Jacké, Ma'MaQueen, Megan Schoonbrood, Miss Abby OMG, Patty Pam-Pam, Roem, and Sederginne.

“I still can’t believe I’ll host Drag Race Holland with the blessing of RuPaul! What a dream! This program is everything I believe in and stand for!” Fred said in a statement. “It’s all about charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent and I can’t wait to see all the fantastic creations of the queens on the runway, the lip syncs and all the challenges we created. A first message to our queens: You’d better work bitch! Good luck and don’t fuck it up!”

The series will premiere Thursday, September 17 at 3PM PST in the U.S. on WOW Presents Plus. It will boast video messages from RuPaul and subtitles in French, Spanish, and English as well as a few words in English as well.

The preview also gives a half-second glimpse of the franchise's latest Pit Crew. That cast has yet to be announced.

You can stream titles like Queer Eye and Orange Is the New Black in the conservative country, because of this 'troubling' deal

Although Saudi Arabia has a history of censorship when it comes to queer-inclusive film and television, there is plenty of LGBTQ+ content (like Queer Eye and Orange Is the New Black) for users in the conservative country to stream on the popular Netflix streaming service. But how, you ask? Especially since other queer-friendly titles have been so easily banned? Well, one of Netflix's top execs is shedding light on the situation.

In an interview with CNN, the streaming giant's co-CEO Reed Hastings explains that in order to keep beloved queer titles up on the Saudia Arabian version of its platform, the team had to make compromises in regards to some other Netflix projects — namely comedian and writer Hasan Minhaj's Patriot Act. 

Back in January of last year, Netflix pulled an episode from the first season of Minhaj's (now canceled) political comedy/talk show that was critical of an account given by Saudi officials about the killing of writer and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. According to The Verge, the Saudi government requested that Netflix take down the episode as it violated the country's cybercrime laws. The streaming service eventually did take the episode down (although it can still be watched in Saudi Arabia on the show's YouTube channel), effectively censoring Patriot Act in order to save their LGBTQ+ lineup of shows from their own censorship.

"It was a very difficult decision," Hastings told CNN about the reasons behind pulling a critical episode of Patriot Act. "We ended up being able to keep the episode up in Saudi Arabia on YouTube, strangely, not on Netflix."

He continued: 

"With that, we are able to have all of our other content, like Queer Eye, Sex Education, and Orange Is the New Black, available in Saudi Arabia. It is a troubling compromise, it is not something we approached easily or lightly. But, on balance, we think it’s a good move."

Saudi Arabia has a long, complicated past when it comes to the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. PinkNews reports that religious morality laws are often used to persecute the middle eastern country's queer citizens. And media that is seen including and promoting queerness often gets censored/banned. 

Netflix Made This Compromise To Air LGBTQ+ Shows in Saudia Arabia

There are a few things we love to see — here's two.

The first leg of Emmys week and some of our favorite shows has picked up trophies! We love to see it.

Earlier this week the RuPaul's Drag Race team began racking up wins. Over the past few days they've won Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program, Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Competition Program, Outstanding Contemporary Hairstyling for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program, and Oustanding contemporary Makeup for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program — that latter category meant Raven picked up her very first Emmy. But they aren't our only favorite taking home the wins.

Ahead of the main event Sunday, a few other queer shows have won Emmys. Namely, there's Netflix's Queer Eye revamp which took home Outstanding Structured Reality Program, a category the show has won over the last two years. Oh, and Euphoria and Schitt's Creek both won their first Emmys.

This year marks Euphoria's first year of eligibility for an Emmy and the show racked up six nominations. Of those, they were rewarded with Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. Going into Sunday, Zendaya could still win Lead Actress for her work on the show. But they weren't the only ones who snagged a first.

Schitt's Creek's sixth season made history this year as having the most Emmy nominations for a comedy in its final season. The show scored a whopping 15 nominations. The nods mark the second year of nominations for the show. That said, last year our favorite homophobia-free fictional town was snubbed. This year, they are walking home with at least one.

Ahead of Sunday's event, Schitt's has already been awarded Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series. The show could still very much win quite a number of trophies though, given Dan Levy, Annie Murphy, Catherine O'Hara, and Eugene Levy are all up for acting nods. May the best Rose win!

RELATED | 'Drag Race's Raven Just Won Her First Emmy

The show has taken home every award announced so far.

The 2020 Emmy awards have started and Schitt's Creek has swept the comedy category completely. The Canadian series that has grown to build a global audience took home all seven of the first seven awards of the night.

"This tent’s on fire," co-creator, star, and writer Dan Levy said while picking up the award for Best Writing on a Comedy. "Writers don’t get awards what is this?! First of all, I just want to say thank you to my dad for giving me the reigns to this show even though I didn’t have any experience in a writer’s room even though saying that out loud right now sounds like a wild choice on your part."

"Getting to write David Rose, getting to write this show, getting to tell these stories has been the greatest most arthritic experience of my life," Levy continued from the small gathering he and the Schitt's Creek cast and crew were celebrating the event at in Toronto.

Of the awards, Schitt's Creek won Best Actress of a Comedy which went to Catherine O'Hara, Best Actor in a Comedy which went to Eugene Levy, Outstanding Writing in a Comedy which went to Dan, Outstanding Directing in a Comedy went to Dan as well as Andrew Cividino, Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy went to Dan, Best Supporting Actress went to Annie Murphy, and Outstanding Comedy Series went to Dan and Eugene.

Through his speeches, Dan Levy thanked CBC and PopTV for "broadcasting these stories without hesitation." 

"Our show at its core is about the transformational effects of love and acceptance and that is something that we need more of now than we've ever needed before," he said while picking up Outstanding Comedy. "I just wanted to say for any of you who have not registered to vote, please do so and then go out and vote because that is the only way we are going to have some love and acceptance out there." while picking up the writing award, the multiphyphenate, who is in a deal with ABC, called Insecure"some of the funniest, most heartfelt television of the year."

The night's awards add to two other Emmy awards the show previously won last week. The show won Outstanding Casting for a Comedy as well as Outstanding Contemporary Costumes. Collectively, the trophies cement the fact that Schitt's is going out on its highest point. 

RELATED | This Is How Much 'Schitt's Creek's Budget Changed From Season 1

This is Drag Race's sixth award this year alone.

Everything is coming up RuPaul's Drag Race!

After putting on more Drag Race than ever before — that's the original, All Stars, Secret Celebrity Drag Race, Canada's Drag Race, Vegas Revue, and Drag Race Holland — and with RuPaul out and about — magazine features, a Saturday Night Live hosting gig, and game show spots — it looks like RuPaul is having his most successful Emmy season yet. After picking up five awards over the past week, one of which was Ru's very own record-breaking fifth consecutive hosting award, the series overall took home Best Competition Series.

“Oh my goodness, thank you so much!" RuPaul said in the live video sitting in a chair wearing one of his now-signature Klein Epstein & Parker suits. Beside him was a spring-loaded box that surprised the longtime host with an Emmy trophy. "That’s so very kind of you. Thank you to The Academy for this honor. We love to make television and it’s an honor to make television. All the kids get to tell their story on our show and it’s beautiful." The line is one he has often used, referring to how Drag Race is not only a competition but a reality show wherein the performers get to tell their stories and life experiences in the Werk Room. It is ultimately where the true power of the series lies, allowing a new crop of queer people with their own unique experiences, into households worldwide to share their stories.

"And a special thank you to the viewer," Ru continued in his speech. "A special note to the viewer. Kiddo, I know how you feel right now, just know that you are loved and don’t give up on love. Believe in love and the power of love, ok? Thank you so much – thank you.”

For about a half-second, Drag Race season 12 competitor Widow Von'Du, season 12 Miss Congeniality Heidi N Closet, and season 12 winner Jaida Essence Hall appeared onscreen. As the show has now won six Emmys in 2020, they have won more than they ever have before. In 2018 the series won 5 Emmys. 

RELATED | 'Drag Race's Raven Just Won Her First Emmy

The host reiterated in the season premiere of her talk show that it’s tough being the 'be kind' lady.

Ellen DeGeneres has had quite a summer, and the host wasted no time in addressing it when she returned to the studio this morning.

During her opening monologue, the lesbian trailblazer spoke candidly about allegations of a toxic work environment that have plagued The Ellen DeGeneres Show since July, when a Buzzfeed report jumpstarted an intense dialogue among former staffers who accused top producers of harassment, intimidation, and racism.

"As you may have heard, this summer there were allegations of a toxic work environment at our show and then there was an investigation. I learned that things happened here that never should have happened. I take that every seriously and I want to say I am so sorry to the people that were affected. I know that I am in a position of privilege and power and with that comes responsibility and I take responsibility for what happens at my show," she said, adding that she is now "taking responsibility for what happens at my show."

Following the BuzzFeed report, WarnerMedia, the parent company for the studio that produces the show, launched a third-party investigation. DeGeneres remained silent through the summer until news leaked that she had apologized to staff for the allegations.

“As we’ve grown exponentially, I’ve not been able to stay on top of everything and relied on others to do their jobs as they knew I’d want them done. Clearly some didn’t,” she wrote in the email.

During today's premiere, the host also acknowledged that the show has since made "the necessary changes,” alluding to the firings of producers Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman, and Jonathan Norman, who were at the center of the harassment allegations.

“Sometimes I get sad, I get mad, I get anxious, I get frustrated, I get impatient,” she said in reference to claims that she hasn’t been nice to her staff over the years. “And I am working on all of that. I am a work in progress. I am especially working on the impatience thing, and it’s not going well because it’s not happening fast enough, I will tell you that.”

"We have had a lot of conversations over the last few weeks about the show, the workplace and what we want for the future. We have made the necessary changes and today we are starting a new chapter," she said. "Being known as the 'be kind' lady is a tricky position to be in. So let me give you some advice out there if anybody's thinking of changing their title or giving yourself a nickname, do not go with the 'be kind' lady. Don't do it. The truth is I am that person that you see on TV."

Watch the clip below: 

RELATED | Mariah Carey Recalls 'Extremely Uncomfortable' Ellen Interview

Ahead of the announcement, creator Dan Levy said that given the show's season one performance, it could have been cancelled.

After a historic Emmys week, looks like we have one more last bit of Schitt's Creek news for you. Having aired its sixth and final season on PopTV in Canada earlier this year, it's finally coming to the streaming giant Netflix.

Now is as good a time as ever to really take stock of the Schitt's Creek trajectory. The show started as a small half-hour ideated by father and son duo Eugene and Dan Levy. To cobble together a budget they inked multiple deals in a piece-meal project that wrangled just enough to cover it all. And where the budgets didn't cover (namely in the lavish wardrobe Dan had in mind to clothe the Rose family) Dan pitched in himself.

The plot is simple enough: the moneyed Rose family was now without their riches. The only possesseions of substance they had left to their names were the aforementioned clothes and the ownership of a small town named Schitt's Creek that the father Johnny Rose, played by Eugene, bought for his son David, played by Dan, as a joke. And so the first season started, and not necessarily to rave reviews.

"A gentle reminder that TV shows need time and space to lay foundation, to develop, and to grow," Dan wrote to Twitter Monday, following a historic sweep at the Emmys. "In the wrong hands, this show would have been yanked off the air in season 1 for 'underperforming.' Thank you [CBC and Pop TV] for letting us fly." And fly it did (with a budget that didn't change much apparently.)

After Dan Levy took a more leading role behind the scenes as head writer (this change happened in season three) and even sometimes director (the first episode of season six was his solo directoral debut,) the series began to really come into its own. Schitt's Creek was famously a town without homophobia, and David Rose's pansexual character was finding himself outside of the high society snobbery he had grown up in. This alongside the delightfully comedic Alexis Rose who also began to mature, in a truly amazing portrayal by actress Annie Murphy. Round that out with the verbose Moira Rose played by Catherine O'Hara and the dad-in-dad-jokes Johnny, and it's a family anyone could fall in love with. Pair all of this with Netflix picking up the show for global audiences and the show was ready for an explosion. Explode it has.

Schitt's Creek's sixth and final season will hit Netflix in the U.S. and Canada on October 7. The news comes on the heels of the show picking up a historic nine Emmy awards, the first time any show has ever won all of the acting awards for its genre (in this case comedy.) And while it still doesn't sound lik Levy has any plans on getting the gang back together any time soon, we can't wait for what the past Out100 honoree and Out cover star has in store next.

RELATED | How 'Schitt's Creek' Changed Cover Star Dan Levy's Life — and Career

Cynthia Nixon weighs in on the power of two queer leading women in an addictive Netflix series.

There’s a scene early in the new Ryan Murphy series Ratched in which Cynthia Nixon’s character Gwendolyn, press secretary to the California governor, not only teaches Sarah Paulson’s Mildred Ratched how to eat an oyster, but feeds it to her. It’s an over-the-top nod to old euphemisms for sex acts, made even more delicious by the fact that Gwendolyn is assuredly queer and secure in her identity. The fact that Nixon and Paulson are both out actresses is essentially the mignonette sauce atop of the oyster, as it were.

Ratched takes place circa 1947 and is an origin story for the sadistic Nurse Ratched from Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Louise Fletcher won the Academy Award for her portrayal of the character in the acclaimed 1975 film, and it's currently available for streaming on Netflix). Saturated in technicolor and punctuated with dramatic lighting and shadows and low angle camera work, it’s also an homage to several styles of filmmaking including noir, horror, and melodrama popularized in Hollywood’s heyday.

Unlike the coded LGBTQ+ characters in that era of moviemaking, lesbianism is front-and-center in the series in which Murphy and creator Evan Romansky hand back powerful stories to the queer people and women of a certain age who were systematically stereotyped and sidelined.

“The character Gwendolyn that I play is so different from the characters I usually play,” Nixon tells Out. “I usually play people who are far more divided upon themselves and far darker and quirkier. And Gwendolyn is so purely who she is and so complete.”

“Some people have asked me if she’s struggling with her sexuality,” Nixon says. “She’s not struggling at all. She understands exactly who she is and what she wants. And she’s trying to make it happen in 1947, which is very difficult. But she is the only person in Ratched sort of advocating the path of light.”

One way Gwendolyn moves through the world fairly undetected as she hits up secluded women’s bars, like the one where she takes Mildred for a nightcap, is with a lavender marriage to Trevor Briggs played by The Boys in the Band’s Michael Benjamin Washington. The marriage is a nod to LGBTQ+ history wrapped in a show that shines a light on Hollywood’s history.

Gwendolyn and Mildred first lock eyes at an institution in California’s Central Coast where Mildred has mysteriously arrived just ahead of the infamous killer Edmund Tolleson (Finn Wittrock) whose mental state is to be determined. Where Mildred is guarded, controlling, and overly concerned with her own definition of scruples, Gwendolyn is confident and bright — a success story for women in the workplace at the time, even if she works for a sexist nihilist played by Vincent D’Onofrio.

Aside from the queer storyline, Nixon was intrigued by the show’s depiction of women at that moment. Ratched also stars Judy Davis as the head nurse Betsy Bucket, who delivers dry one-liners throughout; Sharon Stone as Lenore, a socialite with an ax to grind; and Amanda Plummer as a motel owner with a proclivity for booze and an over-interest in the sex lives of her guests.

“[Murphy] pitched it to me as a series about that moment in American history when people of color and women had been such a big part of the war [World War II] effort and had been given all of this opportunity. As soon as the war was won and the GIs came home, it was kind of like, ‘Thanks so much. Y’all can go sit down now,’” Nixon says. “We see so many women in our story who have so much ambition for themselves and their careers but are struggling against the old patriarchal mores that have returned to roost.”

Nixon, a 2018 New York gubernatorial candidate best known for playing Miranda on Sex and the City, has been out since 2004 when she began dating her now-wife Christine Marinoni. She pulls no punches about the revered best picture winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

“I thought that reclaiming the Mildred Ratched character in a kind of a feminist way was a brilliant stroke,” Nixon says. “Obviously, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a great movie and she’s a great character, but it’s also a deeply misogynistic worldview.” The film’s nurse was presented as monstrous in part because of the way she emasculated her male mental patient charges.

“Let’s take a look at Mildred and where she came from and is she really a monster?” Nixon asks rhetorically of the series that gives Mildred a complicated backstory and, for a time, a little joy. “Are monsters born, or are monsters created, and what went into creating her?”

Nixon also commends the setting in what feels like the dark ages of psychiatric medicine for creating a space to explore the institutionalized ways in which people have been labeled sick and othered.

“We certainly see a whole host of people, including queer people, who are defined as mentally ill and are subjected to sadistic tortures and lobotomies as a curative means,” Nixon says.

“One of the big themes of Ratched is if there is some part of you that either you don’t like or society doesn’t like, trying to cut it out of yourself or suppress it is not going to, in any way, eradicate it from you. Pushing it down is only going to make it spring back bigger and stronger than before,” she says. “The only way to actually deal with parts of yourself that you might not be happy with, or somebody might not be happy with, is to own them and accept them and bring them out of the shadows into the light of day.”

Without spoiling Ratched for those who didn’t immediately binge it when it dropped on Netflix earlier this month, the show is endlessly enjoyable as it invokes humor, horror, and old Hollywood, often all in the same scene. But it also confronts Tinsel Town’s Golden Age by continually subverting the expectations of queer viewers who’ve become accustomed to bad things happening, especially to lesbian and bisexual female characters who often ended up forced back into a relationship with a man, dead, or institutionalized. It was a bonus that Nixon and Paulson are both queer and that they were able to have thoughtful conversations with the writers, who Nixon says were “amazing and listened.”

“I don’t think there should be any kind of litmus test for who gets to play what kind of parts, but I think having two queer women playing these two queer characters was an enormous boon,” Nixon says, acknowledging conversations in the zeitgeist about whether or not it should be compulsory that queer actors play queer characters.

“There was a whole bunch of different things that happened, particularly later in the series, where Sarah and I went in and spoke to the writers and said, ‘This can’t happen. Can’t we have more of this? Why does this have to happen that way?’”

“They were originally going to have my character die at the end of season one, and she doesn’t. I think that’s a boon in and of itself,” Nixon says.

But, since it is a thriller and those familiar with the source material are aware of what Mildred’s future holds, Nixon knowingly adds, “I’m sure there’s lots of heartbreak and pathos ahead, you know, around the corner.”

Ratched is currently streaming on Netflix. 

There's always another island. 

Talk about a plot twist. 

Viewers were left with no explanation when Noah Purvis, a contestant on CBS’s straight matchmaking show Love Island, quietly disappeared from the show.

It’s since been revealed that Purvis has a not-so-secret gay porn past, and according to some reports, executives at the network didn’t like it.

The news was first surfaced on Twitter, when users uncovered Purvis’s alter ego, Ethan, who has credits for popular gay porn studios like Corbin Fisher.

Purvis, 24, is a home health care provider and is currently pursuing his credentials to be a massage therapist, according to his Love Island bio, which also explains that he sees “himself as a true Southern gentleman who knows when to close his mouth and listen to a woman’s needs. Outside of work, he spends his time bodybuilding and making comical videos for his YouTube channel.”

Following his abrupt departure from the show, he was removed from the Love Island website. CBS also shared a statement with the Sun.

“It has been brought to our attention that cast member Noah Purvis provided false information on his application to Love Island, which violates his contestant agreement,” the statement read. “He has been removed from the show.” Purvis was edited out of footage.

The show itself is based on a British version of the same name, in which contestants known as “insiders” live in Fiji isolated from the rest of the world and must couple up with another islander to win the final prize of $100,000. While they first couple up based on first impressions, they are later told to re-couple or can choose to remain with their original partner.

Each of them can be eliminated either by public vote or if they end up single with no one wanting to couple with them. It would be interesting to hear what, exactly was the "false information." Unless they specifically asked whether or not he had done adult content before, one could certainly both have sex with a man and then look for a woman to marry!

Heidi N Closet, Mariah Paris Balenciaga, Mayhem Miller, Latrice Royale, and The Vixen re-introduce themselves to the followers of the show.

For years RuPaul's Drag Race has had deep-seated issues within its supposed fandom. Viers of the show have criticized, ridiculed, and otherwise abused the show's stars, the worst has been consistently reserved for Black contestants. Black performers have had their social media accounts hacked with racist epithets posted, and they've been threatened with murder. This hasn't just been aimed at the contestants, but judges as well. The attacks have pushed some to withdraw from public life and for the most part, the show itself has done nothing. Now, Drag Race has released a public service announcement featuring a few of the show's Black contestants. 

"What's up y'all," Widow Von'Du says at the beginning of the video, out of drag. "I'm Ray."

The clip is an attempt at humanizing the performers we have come to know and love by showing the people behind the drag. Von'Du, Heidi N Closet, Latrice Royale, The Vixen, Mariah Paris Balenciaga, and Mayhem Miller, become Ray, Trevien, Tim, Tony, Elijah, and Dequan. They are husbands, friends, uncles, and "favorite aunties" of our community, in addition to being the high-glam stage performers we've come to know and love.

"I'm a hairstylist by trade," Balenciaga says. "I enjoy spending so much time with my friends."

"I am someone that has experienced racism and injustices from a very young age first-hand," Closet says. "And even though I've endured those things, i still try to look at the positives and look at the good in people and in the world as a whole."

The group say explicitly that they are re-introducing themselves to remind fans that there are humans underneath the makeup and "eleganza."

"We need to collectively stop the threats, stop the racism that is effecting this community," Von Du says. They go on to ask followers to make a pledge to spread "joy and kindness to all of us," reminding all that "words have power."

The video is a marked change from the show which has shied away from overt condemnations in the past. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests this summer Drag Race began to come out against the cyberbullying queens have long been subjected to, sometimes posting on their social media channels in lieu of live-tweeting episodes as they aired. 

The four-part series follows the beginning of the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.

HBO Max just dropped the trailer for Equal, their must-see new docudrama series chronicling the genesis and evolution of the LGBTQ+ movement. Narrated by Emmy-winning actor Billy Porter, the four-part series will feature archival footage alongside dramatic recreations by notable queer stars like Cheyenne Jackson, Samira Wiley, Anthony Rapp, Shannon Purser, Gale Harold, Sarah Gilbert, Heather Matarazzo, Jamie Clayton, and Isis King.

“Equal honors the rebels of yesteryear with never-before-seen archival footage along with stylistic depictions that bring to life the gripping and true backstories of these leaders and unsung heroes,” HBO Max said in a press release.

According to HBO Max, the series is divided into four chapters that cover distinct periods in the historical timeline of the LGBTQ+ movement. Part one “The Birth of a Movement” explores the origination of groups like The Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis. Part two “Transgender Pioneers” looks at the 1966 Compton Cafeteria riots in San Francisco and the early fight for trans rights and acceptance. Part three “Black is Beautiful, Gay is Good!” reveals the instrumental role the Black community played in the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. The series concludes with part four “Stonewall: From Rebellion to Liberation” which shows how the previous struggles culminated in the seminal event in the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights.

Among the series’ executive producers are Scout Production, Greg, Berlanti, and Jim Parson. Directorial duties for all four episodes was split between Kimberly Reed and Queer Eye‘s Stephen Kijack, who directed episodes one, three, and four.

All four episodes of Equal premiere October 22 on HBO Max. You can check out the official trailer below.

RELATED | See LGBTQ+ Icons Reincarnated In HBO Max's New Series 'Equal'

If you don't have a grin on your face after this, you don't have a heart.

Nyle DiMarco has proven himself as a model, winning America's Next Top Model. He's proven himself as a dancer, having won Dancing With the Stars. The multihyphenate has also proven himself as as an actor and staunch activist for deaf communities. And now, he's going to behind the camera as executive producer for Netflix's heartwarming and relatable Deaf U.

If there's one thing we've found Netflix can do extremely well, it's finding a binge-worthy docuseries — Tiger King and Cheer anyone. If the trailer for Deaf U is any indication, the streamer has another hit on its hands. 

The show revolves around a group of college students attending Gallaudet University, a private college for deaf and hard-of-hearing students — DiMarco graduated from there in 2013. Throughout the series they live their lives: class, relationships, and more. 

"Gallaudet's undergrads are 700 women and 300 guys," one woman signs in the trailer. "And the women here are just wow." And there we have it, our first lesbian kiss of the season.

The show depicts the same sort of run of the mill college drama we've come to love and expect — one character is complaining that people think he's a fuck-boy while his friend confirms that's what he acts like — while also giving visibility and representation of deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. We see this in big moments when cast members discuss coming from a hearing culture and how some find issue with their mouthing, and others like when a server puts a bottle between two people at a dinner — the bottle, ostensibly would block the view of their hands making it more difficult to communicate. The series will debut on Netflix on October 9.

The project is one of a few DiMarco has in the pipeline. In July he sold a comedy starring him as a deaf man as a half-hour project.  That month, he also revealed he is developing a feature film based on the book Deaf President Now! The 1988 Revolution at Gallaudet University.

"The project is set during the week of protests at Gallaudet in 1988 after the University's board of trustees selected a hearing candidate for president of the school over several equally qualified deaf candidates,"The Hollywood Reporter reports. "After eight days of rallies, boycotts and protests — known as 'The Week of DPN'— the selected hearing president resigned and Dr. I. King Jordan was named the university’s first deaf president."

RELATED | Nyle DiMarco Shows Us How to Sign Dirty Words for Speechless Moments

Thank god it's the opposite.

Pose's Elektra Wintour is a strong figure — polarizing even. Surviving as she has in life, fending for her children, she's learned to read first and apologize later — if ever. And while that makes for some truly stand out scenes, when Dominique Jackson was first reading for the role, it gave her second thoughts.

"When I first read for the auditions, I saw the power in her, but when we actually convened on set and I had to deliver those lines to beautiful Blanca and speak to my children that way—it was so far off from me," Jackson, whose become a star playing the role, told V in an interview. "Realizing that [Elecktra] was the antagonist was kind of hard. I felt like 'Oh my gosh, the world is going to hate me and I'm always going to be the bad guy'. I went through it and did my best but on the inside, I was kind of going through a bit of depression [from it]."

And, as Jackson would soon find out, those fears were not without basis.

"You know, I was outside of Saks [one day] and this Caribbean woman comes up to me and she says to me 'Oh, you play Electra!' and she just goes off on me!" she recalled. "She's like 'You're not acting! That is who you are! You are a wicked woman! How could you do that to Blanca?' And she read me to filth. But in that instance, I had to stop and think, you know what? She's not separating Electra from Dominique. So I smiled and said 'Well thank you, ma'am. You're letting me know that I'm doing a good job.' and that was how I was kind of able to overcome that. For a very long time, I felt really horrible about being this evil Elektra so I had to really reevaluate her. Once season two came along, I understood where she was going."

If only we could find out where she's going in season three.

RELATED |  Watch All of Elektra's Best Reads from FX's Pose