Every week, The GLAAD Wrap brings you LGBT-related entertainment news highlights, fresh stuff to watch out for, and fun diversions to help you kick off the weekend.
1) Focus Features is releasing For a Good Time, Call… in select theaters on August 31 with a wider release on Friday, September 7. The film debuted earlier this year at Sundance. For a Good Time, Call… is from writers Lauren Miller (who also stars), Katie Anne Naylon and out filmmaker Jamie Travis. It follows the blossoming friendship between two former college nemeses who end up roommates and eventual business partners running a phone sex line. The hilarious and ultimately touching film got an enthusiastic audience response at its screenings, as did Justin Long’s largely improvised performance as the gay friend who brings the girls together, which was partly based on his impression of the film’s director.
2) Tello Films’ new webseries The Throwaways debuted online this past week. The series follows newly out teen Olivia who has run away from home after her mother makes plans to send her to an “ex-gay” therapy camp. Olivia is taken in by a group of lesbian misfits and they become a family trying to get by in the world. Viewers can watch the series with a premium subscription on the Tello Films website. Creators are currently publishing free “Meet the Characters” episodes to the site as well. Check out the trailer below.
3) Ester Dean will be playing a lesbian a capella singer in the upcoming musical movie Pitch Perfect, out October 5. Dean’s character, Cynthia Rose, will help her team, The Bellas, take on their male rivals in a fierce competition. Check out a clip of Cynthia Rose and The Bellas below.
4) Entertainment Weekly has posted character profiles for the new season of Ryan Murphy’s FX hit, American Horror Story, which was nominated for 17 Emmys this year. Out actress Sarah Paulson returns from the series’ first season, but as a new character in the revamped second season taking place at an insane asylum named Briarcliff in 1964. Paulson’s character, Lana, is a lesbian journalist who was committed by her girlfriend after she nearly exposed the asylum’s darkest secrets.
5) The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Board of Governors voted to bestow the prestigious Governors Award to the “It Gets Better Project.” The Governors Award was created in 1978 and salutes an individual, company or organization that has made a substantial impact and demonstrated the extraordinary use of television. The MTV “It Gets Better” special is nominated this year for an Emmy in the Outstanding Children’s Nonfiction, Reality or Reality-Competition Program category. Awards will be presented for both categories during the 2012 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 15. Two hours of highlights from the Creative Arts Emmys will air Saturday, September 22, at 8:00 ET/PT on ReelzChannel.
6) Openly bisexual singer Meshell Ndegeocello released a pared-down cover of Nina Simone’s “To Be Young, Gifted and Black.” The track is included in Ndegeocello’s 10th album Pour une âme Souveraine (For a Sovereign Soul), A Dedication to Nina Simone which drops October 9. “She was a loud, proud Black, female voice during a time when Black female voices were not encourage to make themselves heard,” Ndeogeocello said of her decision to honor the legendary singer.
7) We Are New Hampshire: Transgender Lives in the Granite State is a new book featuring ten stories about transgender people and their families. Published by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) and TransGender New Hampshire, the stories stem from residents living in the only New England state that does not have laws protecting them. The book is an effort to educate New Hampshire residents on the importance of having these protections, and contains stories about a mother with a transgender son and a couple who faces coworkers’ intrusive questions. Click here for more information.
8) Today is the last day to vote for Greg Louganis Back on Board for project of the month on Indiewire. The film is about Olympic gold medal winner Greg Louganis and his journey from child prodigy to Olympic diving champion, from pioneering gay, HIV-positive athlete to overlooked sports icon. The film was featured as a project of the week earlier this month, and it faces off against three other entries. The winner gets the chance to have a consultation with the Tribeca Film Institute in an effort to get the project finished and distributed to the viewing public. Click here to vote and check out the Kickstarter video for the project below. Voting ends at 5 p.m.