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) The new Ira Sachs-directed film Love is Strange opens in Los Angeles and New York today. The drama follows longtime partners Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) who finally get married after four decades together, but George loses his job at a Catholic school soon after. The couple must sell their apartment and temporarily live apart as they find a way to make ends meet. Check out the trailer below.
2) To Be Takei opens in select theaters today, and is also available on demand and through iTunes. The documentary is a look at the remarkable life and career of TV icon and LGBT advocate George Takei, who was honored with GLAAD's Vito Russo Award at the 25th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York City. The actor, advocate, social media star and author has remained one of the most intelligent LGBT voices in Hollywood. Check out the trailer below and find a screening near you.
3) Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American distribution rights to the Sundance comedy Appropriate Behavior, directed by and starring Desiree Akhavan. The film follows Shirin, who is struggling to find a balance of her identities as a Persian woman, a bisexual and a hip Brooklynite. Appropriate Behavior won the screenwriting Grand Jury Award for U.S. dramatic feature at Outfest last month, and you can check out a clip below.
4) Max Adler will return for a major arc in Glee's final 13-episode season, but according to sources his character Dave Karofsky might now be romantically entangled with Blaine (Darren Criss). The fifth season ended with Blaine and Kurt (Chris Colfer) engaged and seemingly happier than ever; Adler is set to be in four episodes.
5) The new BBC Two drama Life in Squares will explore the relationships of the "Bloomsbury Group," which was made up of some of Britain's greatest 20th century artists, including gay painter Duncan Grant (to be played by James Norton). The three part drama is currently filming and is set in the period from the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 to the outbreak of World War II.
6) Bex Taylor-Klaus (The Killing, House of Lies) has been cast on the new MTV series Scream, the TV adaptation of the 90s classic horror film of the same name. She replaces previously cast Amy Forsyth as Audrey Jensen, "the bi-curious daughter of a Lutheran pastor" who wants to become a filmmaker.
7) Kele Okereke, front man of British indie rock band Bloc Party, has released the first single "Doubt" from his upcoming second solo albumTrick. His first solo album, The Boxer, was released in 2010; Trick is set to hit stores in October and is available for iTunes preorder now. Listen to "Doubt" below.
8) "I Can't Give You Anything but Love," the first track from Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett's upcoming duets albumCheek to Cheek was released this week. The album is due out September 23 and will be accompanied by two TV specials. Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek will air on HSN September 13 and include a behind the scenes look at the recording process, and Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live! will air on PBS' Great Performances on October 24. Listen to "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" below.
9) Out singer Doug Locke released a video this week for his single #ThisCouldBeUs. The video starts in the present day with an older Doug visiting a sick friend named Brandon, but the audience soon finds through flashbacks to 1969 that Brandon and Doug were once a couple. Check out #ThisCouldBeUs below, the song is available on iTunes now.
10) Marvel has announced that out anchor Anderson Cooper and his CNN show Anderson Cooper 360˚ will be a "catalyst for a major event in Black Widow's journey" in Black Widow #12, scheduled to hit store shelves in November. This will be Cooper's Marvel Universe debut; fellow out news anchor Thomas Roberts has appeared in small cameos in the Marvel films The Avengers and Iron Man 3.
11) Far Between, a documentary about the stories of LGBT Mormons, is looking for funding help on Kickstarter to finish editing and post-production. Filmmaker Kendall Wilcox, a gay Mormon himself, has travelled the country to compile the stories of over 200 LGBT Mormons and former-Mormons in hopes of changing the discussion around the intersection of LGBT and Mormon identities. Learn more at the Far Between Kickstarter page, and watch the trailer below.