Wes Smoot 4/25/23 Wes Smoot 4/25/23

Billy Eichner and Dyllón Burnside Join Unleashed LGBTQ Live Event - September 2023

Joining a Powerful Lineup of Talent, including Antoni Porowski, Indya Moore, Shangela, and other Industry Leaders making Noise in the LGBTQ+ Market

DALLAS — APRIL 25, 2023 — Unleashed LGBTQ, a first-of-its-kind conference and entertainment festival creating a space for brands, artists, and LGBTQ+ professionals to connect, is thrilled to announce new talent joining its lineup, including Billy Eichner and Dyllón Burnside, for its first live and in-person Unleashed LGBTQ 2023 conference, taking place at Gilley’s in Dallas, Texas, from September 22 - 24, 2023. Unleashed event organizers also welcome iHeartMedia back as media partners to activate the programming as the official audio partners for the festival’s first ever in-person event.

"Our first live, in-person, event is going to create a synergy between talent, the business community and the entertainment industry in a way no LGBTQ+ event has ever done before,” said Founder, Wesley Smoot. “Companies sending representatives to our event will be able to take advantage of all opportunities available, whether it’s for educational purposes, networking or entertainment, LGBTQ+ professionals or others focused on allyship, will reap the benefits of our educational and entertainment-based lineup. We have dedicated an entire area to workshops for attendees to learn new skills from today's thought leaders and we’re confident companies sending entire departments to Unleashed LGBTQ 2023 will have a more informed, supercharged team that will be lightyears ahead of other brands.”

Each day at Unleashed LGBTQ will begin with educational topics — from workshops and panels discussing business (advertising, marketing, DEI), society (non-profit, advocacy), and personal (financial planning, continuing education) development – and will feature high-tech brand activations and experiential marketing installments throughout the venue, before transitioning to entertainment that will include screenings, drag shows, stand-up comedy, and musical performances. Attendees will be enriched by professional development and networking opportunities through the Unleashed LGBTQ event app (developed by WebEx/Cisco) and at specialized mixers and unique branded activations through the award-winning Freeman event services.

The growing lineup of talent will include:

● Billy Eichner Co-writer and Star of Bros (Universal Pictures), Billy on the Street, The Lion King (Disney), American Horror Story (FX), Difficult People (Hulu)

● Antoni Porowski Emmy-Award Winning Show Queer Eye (Netflix), Host of Easy Bake Battle (Netflix), Author of Antoni in the Kitchen & Antoni: Let's do Dinner

● Indya Moore Emmy Award-Winning Show POSE, Yves Saint Laurent Cosmetics, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

● Shangela Emmy Award-Winning Shows We're Here (HBO), RuPaul's Drag Race, & RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (MTV)

● Dyllon Burnside Emmy Award-Winning Show Pose,Emmy Award-Winning Show POSE, Emmy-Award winning PBS docuseries PRIDELAND, Golden Globe nominated limited series MONSTER. GLAAD & HRC award recipient

● Daniel Franzese, Mean Girls (Paramount Pictures), Ru Paul's Drag Race (MTV), Looking (HBO)

● Kelly Ann Winget, Founder & CEO of Alternative Wealth Partners, Over $1B in private equity raised, Host of The Wealth Alpha podcast, and Author of Pitch the Bitch (April 2023)

● Brian Sims, Former Penn State Rep., LGBTQ+ Advocate & Speaker, Managing Director of Government Affairs & Policy at Out Leadership, Board Member at Campus Pride & GLSEN

● Naomi Green, MBA Speaker, Marketer, Professor, and Transgender Advocate

● Ashley Brundage, President & CEO of Empowering Differences, Author of Empowering Differences, Transgender Advocate, Former DEI Vice President at PNC Bank, Mother

● Dr. Carlton Thomas, Gastro-Intestinal Medical Doctor, Social Media Sensation, Contributor to Men's Health Magazine, LGBTQ+ Consultant to the White House & the CDC

● Matt Skallerud, Founder & President of Pink Media, Host of #iLoveGayToday, former President of IGLTA, Award-Winning Online Marketer connecting businesses to the LGBTQ+ consumers

● Vicky & Charisse Pasche, Co-Founders of Dapper Boi – body-inclusive and gender-neutral apparel – Marketing, Sales, and Entrepreneurial Experts, Wives and Mothers of Twins

● Stacey Stevenson, CEO of Family Equality, Co-Founder of The Changists (Law Firm Consulting), LGBTQ+ Activist, Speaker, Mother of Two

● Gary Sanchez Sr., Director of Community Impact at Visit Dallas, Former Chairman at North Texas LGBT Chamber of Commerce, Chairman at Chamber Foundation

● Brad Pritchett, Award-Winning Marketing Executive, Chief Experience Officer at DMA (Dallas Museum of Art), Host of The Good, The Brad, & The Ugly podcast

Unleashed LGBTQ is also partnering with the iconic Alamo Drafthouse to host screenings of new LGBTQ+ content from streaming services, movie studios, and television networks. Independent filmmakers can submit works for Unleashed LGBTQ 2023 Film Festival at:

https://www.filmfreeway.com/unleashedlgbtq

Unleashed LGBTQ, LLC is proud to have received support, endorsements, and/or grants from the following organizations: DTPID (Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District), Visit Dallas, North Texas LGBT Chamber of Commerce, NLGCC (National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce), & IGLTA (International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association).

Other partners include Gilead Sciences, iHeart Media, equalpride, and Kelly Ann Winget.

About UNLEASHED LGBTQ, LLC

Unleashed LGBTQ, a space for brands, entertainers, and LGBTQ+ professionals to connect, will host its inaugural, live event September 22nd - 24th, 2023, in Dallas, Texas. Attendees can learn about the latest products, services, and campaigns debuting in the LGBTQ+ market in a fun and interactive environment. Unleashed LGBTQ provides premier networking opportunities for professionals in a variety of industries. Unleashed LGBTQ will host speakers, panels, and performances from some of the biggest names in LGBTQ+ culture, including film, television, music, and business. Stay tuned for additional Talent announcements.

Tickets are currently on sale on the event website here: https://www.unleashedlgbtq.com For more information on partnerships and company group rates visit: www.unleashedlgbtq.com

CONTACT:

Nicole Rodrigues

NRPR Group for Unleashed LGBTQ

Nicole@nrprgroup.com

424-421-9610

To request press credentials email:

press@unleashedlgbtq.com

Wes Smoot 6/9/22 Wes Smoot 6/9/22

Mr. Man Unveils “Battle of the Streaming Services” Pride Guide

Netflix Wins Title of Streamer with the Most-Gay Content

This Pride, Mr. Man is pitting the top streaming services up against one another to determine which network is the gayest with the best male nudity. The editorial team at Mr. Man had the laborious task of combing through all of the content on Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Showtime, and Prime Video to find their gayest titles. They then went even further, counting the number of intimate gay scenes within each title! Results for “Mr. Man’s Battle of the Streaming Services” Pride Guide were broken down into four categories: the series with the Most Gay Scenes, those with the Most Nude Scenes, and those with the Most Full Frontal and the Most Butt Scenes.

Netflix wins the Most Gay Scenes category. It comes as little surprise as Netflix is the network behind such LGBTQ hits as Grace and Frankie, Orange Is the New Black, Queer Eye, and its latest phenomenon Heartstopper, starring cutie Kit Connor. But it is the network’s other Kit, Kit Williamson, who stars in its gayest title. With 28 steamy gay scenes in it, Eastsiders, the popular series about a tangled web of gay relationships, has the distinction of being the gayest title on the gayest streaming network.

HBO comes in second place with 128 gay scenes, 17 of which come from Looking, HBO’s very first series to center around the lives of gay men. The show starring Jonathan Groff, Russell Tovey and Murray Bartlett enjoyed two seasons and a TV movie and nearly every episode featured a steamy gay scene.

In the Most Nude Scenes category, Netflix once again dominates with over 700 male nude scenes! El Marginal, the Argentinian cops-and-criminals show tops all other series with 28 scenes, ten of which are full frontal. Elite, its teen series features the most rear scenes with 26 bare bottoms!

HBO comes a close second in the Most Nude Scenes category with Oz, the series about inmates and correctional officers battling for power and survival, scoring the most naked scenes on the network. Mr. Man counts 72 nude scenes in Oz, with 43 being full frontal! In fact, the one category HBO leads in “Mr. Man’s Battle of the Streaming Services” is in Most Full Frontal Scenes, and it is in large part thanks to Oz.

Showtime, the network that introduced Queer as Folk to the world, ranks as the #3 streaming service in all categories in the battle. It’s show, Shameless, features male nudity in nearly every one of its 134 episodes and Gigolo, it’s reality series about real life escorts in Sin City, is second only to Oz for its number of full-frontal scenes.

Prime Video and Hulu consistently rank at the bottom of “Mr. Man’s Battle of the Streaming Services” Pride Guide but special recognition goes to Prime Video’s El Juego de las Llaves, the only series to be named in all four categories, and to Hulu, for scoring big in gay hearts with its two endearing series, Love Victor and Normal People.

All scenes featured in “Mr. Man’s Battle of the Streaming Services” Pride Guide are viewable in their entirety with free signup at https://www.mrman.com/promos/tv-pride-guide.

Wes Smoot 6/1/22 Wes Smoot 6/1/22

Fire Island | FILM REVIEW

By Arnold Wayne Jones

What a difference a generation – and medical advances – can make. More than 30 years ago, the seminal gay movie Longtime Companion opened with a sense of orgiastic abandon: A group of gay friends embrace their unabashed sexuality by ferrying to queer summer Mecca Fire Island, frolicking at unbridled, sweaty, molly-fueled tea dances, cruising other bikini-wearing studs and hooking up in the dunes with flagrant horniness. The next 90 minutes of that film, though, then portray the ravages of the then-rampaging AIDS epidemic. It’s a beautifully humane tragedy full of both empathy and rage, a movie every gay man knows (or should know) but which doesn’t enjoy the legacy it deserves because of its downbeat, political tone.

(From L-R): Margaret Cho, Tomas Matos, Bowen Yang, Joel Kim Booster, and Matt Rogers in the film FIRE ISLAND. Photo by Jeong Park. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved

So when the new hom(0)-rom-com Fire Island (which debuts June 3 on Hulu) opens with virtually the exact same establishing montages (helicopter shots of gayboys about to dock, overhead shots of throngs of half-naked partiers, flirtatious tracking shots of men strutting along wooded walkways), it’s impossible to ignore the probability that director Andrew Ahn and writer-star Joel Kim Booster know exactly what they are doing: They are reclaiming the images of an iconic gay drama for a world were PrEP, the “cocktail” and same-sex marriage rights have transformed the gay community … mostly (but not exclusively) for the better. The world of Fire Island is one of sexy bodies, romantic cliches … and NO disease (not even COVID!). It exists, happily, in the artificial twilight of skin-deep emotions, cheesy plot complications and tidily upbeat conclusions for all the characters we like (and humiliating sadness for those we don’t).

Which is to say, it’s awesome.

OK, so it’s not exactly “awesome,” but it does exude a sexy, post-lockdown energy that feels like a welcome relief after two years of quarantine. It is decidedly not Longtime Companion… or Moonlight, or Brokeback Mountain. Instead, Fire Island romps perkily through the garden of earthly delights previously relegated to heteronormative romances, joining that club while also subversively undermining it.

(From L-R): Matt Rogers, Bowen Yang and Tomas Matos Photo by Jeong Park. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved

The gay rom-com is nothing new, of course, but the sly uniqueness of Fire Island is the decision to simultaneously wallow in the eye-candy of ripped, youth-centric Millennial self-indulgence while also arguing for diversity and body positivity. The three main characters – hunky, shallow Noah (Joel Kim Booster), his Eyeore-like buddy Howie (Bowen Yang) and his fussy rival Will (Conrad Ricamora) – are all Asian, as is the de facto comic den mother, played by Margaret Cho; but while ethnicity factors into the plot briefly, it’s not the point: These people are friends… they are gay friends… but this is not a variation of the yellowploitation genre. Booster and Ahn aren’t making a cultural document that aims to be both woke and celebratory, as you could say a Crazy Rich Asians is… unless that culture is angsty 30-something, gig-economy gays. Its agenda, if any, is couched in its casualness. Don’t misunderstand: it definitely traffics in the predictable – characters include a rail-thin chulo drag queen; a sexless, bearish Black comic relief; and a bitchy, Botoxed, roided-up golddigger. But the friendships are from a varied group of types where white boys aren’t the enemy and some Asian guys are dicks.

(From L-R): Torian Miller, Bowen Yang, Margaret Cho, Tomas Matos and Joel Kim Booster in the film FIRE ISLAND. Photo by Jeong Park. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved

The plot hinges on people not saying things any normal person would in a similar situation because that would derail all the complications – but it also undercuts them with its quirky lightheartedness. I have to say, this is not something I was expecting from Ahn, whose first feature, Spa Night – a brooding drama about a closeted Korean teen working at a bathhouse – makes Longtime Companion look like a Bugs Bunny cartoon. He demonstrates effortlessness with the cotton candy plot, which involves (no surprise) a quintet of friends reuniting for what may be their last week together at their gay getaway. Promiscuous Noah has decided to keep his penis in his pants and instead dedicate his efforts at getting schlubby depressive Howie laid. There appears to be a prospect in Charlie (James Scully), a recently single doctor, but Charlie’s obnoxious rich buddies think Howie and company are beneath them (sadly, they are sorta right: they behave like assholes at a fancy party) which sparks some social dueling a la Revenge of the Nerds: Can Noah outfox the roadblocks erected by Will and Cooper (Nick Adams), while lightly pursuing daddy-in-training Dex (Zan Phillips)? But might Will not be the villain he seems?

That’s where the script goes off track. Will is less a hard-to-get romantic interest in the way of, say As Good As It Gets, than he is an outright humorless prig, whose sympathies come late and feel forced. Ricamora strives gamely to make him relatable, but the screenplay always goes for the easy gag in place of a character-driven motivation. You never really feel that Will and Noah would be right for each other, just as you don’t really dislike Dex as much as you’re supposed to when he turns out to be the “bad guy” everyone says he is.

No matter. There are too many snarky one-liners, too much joyously queer enthusiasm, too many sexy rippling abs to hold any animosity against the film. Yang reminds us why he’s such a charismatic presence on SNL, and Booster makes for a credible leading man, but the success owes as well to its decision to recast the imagery of Fire Island for froth, not death, with an inclusive cast where inclusivity is neither the gimmick nor the point. It’s the perfect kick-off to Pride Month and a shiny summer of cinema.

Wes Smoot 5/10/22 Wes Smoot 5/10/22

FIRE ISLAND | AVAILABLE ON HULU JUNE 3

Rising comedy star and screenwriter Joel Kim Booster (The Other Two, Big Mouth) and Emmy® Award-nominated SNL favorite Bowen Yang partner for a wildly original romantic comedy—FIRE ISLAND. Set in the iconic Pines, the film is an unapologetic, modern day romantic comedy showcasing a diverse, multicultural examination of queerness and romance. Inspired by the timeless pursuits from Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice, the story centers around two best friends (Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang) who set out to have a legendary summer adventure with the help of cheap rosé and their cadre of eclectic friends.

Searchlight Pictures presents a Hulu Original FIRE ISLAND, directed by Andrew Ahn, written by Joel Kim Booster. The film stars Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, Conrad Ricamora, James Scully, Matt Rogers, Tomás Matos, Torian Miller, Nick Adams, Zane Phillips, Michael Graceffa, Aidan Wharton, Peter Smith, Bradley Gibson and Margaret Cho. The creative team includes producers John Hodges, Tony Hernandez, Brooke Posch, director of photography Felipe Vara de Rey, production designer Katie Hickman, costume designer David Tabbert, and film editor Brian A. Kates.

Noah (Booster) is happily, defiantly single. Cash might be hard to come by, and sure, his New York apartment might be cramped and disorganized, but Noah delights in his freewheeling independent lifestyle. Every summer, he and his boys, including BFF Howie (Yang), and their friends Luke (Matt Rogers), Keegan (Tomás Matos) and Max (Torian Miller), head to FIRE ISLAND for a week of non-stop partying and hooking up with hot guys. After arriving at the house on Tuna Walk owned by their friend Erin (Margaret Cho) where the group has always stayed, they’re greeted with unsettling news: Erin has run into financial trouble and will soon be forced to sell the vacation house they considered a second home.

“Fire Island is such a specific place,” says director by Andrew Ahn. “When I got there for the first time, I just was like a sponge trying to soak it all in and I was struck by how much of a queer enclave it is.”

Determined to make what might be their last summer together in Fire Island especially memorable, Noah resolves to help lovelorn Howie find the man, or men, of his dreams. To prove just how serious he takes his mission, Noah promises Howie that he will remain abstinent until he succeeds (yeah, right). The week gets off to a promising start after Howie meets charming doctor Charlie (James Scully), and the two quickly hit it off. But the members of Charlie’s wealthy, accomplished social circle vacationing at their house on Ocean Walk seem to look down on Noah, Howie and their crew. The devastatingly handsome Will (Conrad Ricamora) seems especially disapproving and condescending; yet for some infuriating reason, Noah can’t seem to stop thinking about him.

Amid a classic Fire Island week fueled by underwear parties, dance challenges, karaoke performances, and general debauchery, the gang bickers and banters over potential romantic entanglements. Howie longs for a monogamous partnership like something out of a fairy tale, or at least a 1980s John Cusack movie and Noah can’t imagine ever devoting his life to only one person. As the days roll by, they both find themselves in surprising circumstances and unexpected emotions that just might shape the course of the rest of their lives. Adds producer Brooke Posch, “It’s about identity and being comfortable in your skin. I think the family part is definitely just having people around you who support who you truly are. Good and bad.”

Comments producer John Hodges, “The structure of the story and the narrative that Joel created is very finite. There is just such beautiful arcs between everything, including the exploration of family, and chosen family.”

Directed by Andrew Ahn (Spa Night, Driveways) from a script by Joel Kim Booster (Sunnyside), Searchlight Pictures presents FIRE ISLAND, premiering on Hulu June 3, 2022.

Fire Island | Official Trailer | Hulu