a&e features
‘Deep Talk’ with Andy Cohen
‘Real Housewives’ mastermind coming to Baltimore with pal Cooper
Andy Cohen, left, and Anderson Cooper in their joint show AC2. Cohen says it works because they’re friends in real life. (Photo by Glenn Kulbak)
AC2
An Intimate Evening with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen
‘Deep Talk and Shallow Tales’
Hippodrome Theatre
12 N. Eutaw St., Baltimore
Friday, April 28
8 p.m.
Some celebs are witty and fabulous enough, they don’t need a script. They can just get on stage and start gabbing and people eat it up.
Such is the case with gay pals Anderson Cooper (of CNN fame) and Andy Cohen, who almost gives Ryan Seacrest a run for his money in terms of having his hand in the most pop culture pots, with their show “AC2: Deep Talk and Shallow Tales.”
Cohen is an Emmy-winning host of “Watch What Happens: Live” on Bravo late night, executive producer of the “Real Housewives” franchise and a New York Times bestselling author.
The pair were last here in 2015 at the Warner Theatre in Washington. This is the first AC2 show in Baltimore. Cohen spoke to the Blade last week by phone from his home in New York.
WASHINGTON BLADE: What’s your favorite on-stage conversation you’ve ever had with Anderson?
ANDY COHEN: It’s really like going out to a bar with us and just hanging out. Just a night of storytelling and fun conversation. There’s a story in the show that kind of just stayed in the show and we don’t really tell it outside of the show which involves a near-death experience that Anderson had that I was involved in that’s quite shocking and terrifying. I don’t know that that’s my favorite, but it’s certainly one of the more shocking ones.
BLADE: What’s the most outrageous audience question you ever got during one of these?
COHEN: Oh my God, I’ve had someone ask how hung we are. I’ve had people ask if we’re tops or bottoms. We’ve gotten everything.
BLADE: Do you playfully deflect?
COHEN: Well I try to answer everything. Anderson has a little more decorum than I do.
BLADE: Are you ever offended? Nobody would have asked that 30 years ago.
COHEN: Yeah, I know. No, because I like it and think it’s fun. I think people expect me to be open about anything, so I’m OK with it.
BLADE: Do you ever have to steer the tone to keep it from getting to heavy or serious or silly or whatever?
COHEN: We’re pretty good. We vibe it out pretty well with each other. We really just talk to each other and then we open it up towards the last half hour. We keep it on track pretty well.
BLADE: You’re both well versed in both hard news and pop culture. Is that partially why it works?
COHEN: Yeah, I totally think so.
BLADE: How do you coordinate your schedules. You’re both crazy busy.
COHEN: We just book it far, far in advance and pray for the best.
BLADE: Your career path is so unusual from going behind the scenes to being a host and celeb. That would seem like such a different skill set. Is it as unusual as you’d think?
COHEN: It is unusual but it’s been kind of organic and I think that’s why it’s worked. One thing has led to the next, so I don’t question how it happened. I’m thrilled about it.
BLADE: By the time you did get in front of the camera, you were pretty high up. Was it ever scary not getting to make your rookie mistakes on a smaller stage?
COHEN: Not really, no. I think it all happened for a reason.
BLADE: Trump has brought narcissism into the national dialogue in a way we haven’t seen before. Does everyone who signs up for a reality show like “Real Housewives” have some narcissism issues in your experience?
COHEN: Yes, I think absolutely. I think anybody who opens themselves up to that kind of moment, you know, open up their lives in that way in that way I think, for sure. I think all of us who decide to go in front of the camera have some level of narcissism. I don’t know if it’s a bad thing or what.
BLADE: Dealing with a whole cast of those types sounds like a nightmare. Is it?
COHEN: Oh absolutely. That’s why these shows are so successful still. People ask that and it’s because of the casting. People ask if they’re real or not and they’re definitely real. We cast people who are dramatic by nature and I think that’s why the shows are still going.
BLADE: You and Teresa Giudice from “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” were friends at the time she and her husband were sentenced to jail. Was it hard being friends but also covering it for the show?
COHEN: Not really. I think we have good relationships, so yeah.
BLADE: What’s been your favorite moment from one of the reunions?
COHEN: Oh wow. There’s a moment involving a bunny that’s coming up in the Beverly Hills reunion. That was pretty kind of hilarious. That’s coming up in the next couple of weeks.
BLADE: You’ve said Kellyanne Conway would make a great housewife. What would her opening tagline be?
COHEN: (pauses) I think it would be about alternative facts. I think hers would be the only truth that matters are my alternative facts.
BLADE: Are you cool with it if it turns out “Real Housewives” is your legacy?
COHEN: Yeah, I would be OK with that. I was always a big soap opera fan and I think it has replaced the soap opera. I think it’s today’s modern-day version of a soap opera so I think that’s an absolutely fine thing.
BLADE: Does it ever surprise you which cast members end up becoming huge in pop culture?
COHEN: Sometimes. It used to surprise me more but now kind of nothing surprises me. You know, because we’ve been through it so many times.
BLADE: Pop culture is so instant gratification, like junk food. Not to be all Oprah or anything, but you’re so immersed in it, is it a soul drain over time? Do you meditate or anything?
COHEN: Well, I think in the last few years my social life has actually — I’m probably working much more than I was, but I used to go out almost every night after the show so I don’t anymore. I’m still obviously a very social person, but I’m much less so than I was before and I think there’s something — I’m a little more calm now.
BLADE: There must be moments where you just wish everybody would go away.
COHEN: It’s all right. It’s all fun, you know what I mean? I consider myself very blessed. I know it sounds trite or lame or whatever, but it’s good problems to have. I’m sure, by the way, that in a couple years there will be a lot less demand for my services or interest in me and then I’ll have more time.
BLADE: You and Anderson like to egg each other on. Are you ever afraid you’ll say something on TV or stage and suddenly be in really hot water? Like some Natalie Maines moment or something?
COHEN: Yeah, I worry about that all the time and it was a theme in my last book actually. It was just me kind of always wondering if this would be the moment that I would wind up blowing it all.
BLADE: Why did you open “Superficial,” your last book, with the death of Joan Rivers?
COHEN: Because the last book ended right around the time. I took a couple weeks off from writing and it was just the day that I decided to start writing again.
BLADE: You were a little nervous when that book first came out that it would piss people off. How did it play out?
COHEN: It turned out OK. Whoever’s mad at me hasn’t told me they’re mad at me. I’m sure there are people.
BLADE: Any truth to the rumor that Caitlyn Jenner might join the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”?
COHEN: Totally not true.
BLADE: Who’s somebody famous whose house you’ve been to that was totally not what you expected?
COHEN: (pauses) I don’t know. Everybody kind of seems to live how I expect them to. If it’s someone rich and fancy, they usually have a rich and fancy house. When I went to Anderson’s many years ago, I was surprised it wasn’t nicer. But now he has a really nice house. But the first apartment of his that I went to, I was like, “This is not —,” you know.
BLADE: He officially came out pretty late but you’ve known him for ages. Did he ever talk to you about if he should come out or not come out?
COHEN: We had some — he was out to all his friends so it didn’t really seem like a big thing.
BLADE: Who’s the most different when the camera’s rolling vs. not?
COHEN: Oh, many people. Well, not really. I don’t want to sell anybody out.
BLADE: But it’s not uncommon for some people to just come alive when it’s on?
COHEN: Well, now that I think about it, no, it’s not really that much different.
BLADE: There was some almost scoffing when Barry Manilow finally made it official that he’s gay a couple weeks ago. Do you think with some celebrities it gets to the point that it’s so long and so widely assumed that it just gets almost ridiculous?
COHEN: Well look, I’m all for everybody coming out. Look, he did it in his own time and he had his own reasons and so, you know, I can’t speculate on someone else’s reasons and what they may be.
a&e features
New book celebrates 1970s dance music icons
‘A Night at the Disco’ features interviews with Donna Summer, Debbie Harry, more
If you’re a fan of 1970s-era dance music, don’t miss the irresistible new book by Christian John Wikane and Alice Harris, “A Night at the Disco,” which revisits more than 90 interviews conducted with some of the biggest names in pop culture.
“A Night at the Disco” (ACC Art Books) was published on March 24, and distributed by Simon & Schuster. It celebrates more than 100 artists who sparked a phenomenon in dance music from 1970-1979 and features excerpts from interviews with everyone from Donna Summer to Debbie Harry.
Lost City Books (2467 18th St., N.W.) will welcome author Christian John Wikane for a book signing and conversation about “A Night at the Disco” on Thursday, April 16 at 6 p.m. Details at lostcitybookstore.com. Bird in Hand Coffee & Books in Baltimore (11 E. 33rd St.) )will also host a Q&A with the author on Wednesday, April 15 at 6 p.m. Details at theivybookshop.com.
Below is an excerpt from “A Night at the Disco.”
“I’ll let in anyone who looks like they’ll make things fun.” Steve Rubell is guiding a New York Times reporter through Studio 54 as resident DJ Richie Kaczor dazzles the crowd with records by CHIC, Odyssey, and T-Connection. “Disco, that’s where the happy people go,” The Trammps sing as dancers spin and twirl underneath tubes of flashing lights. Seven months since Rubell and co-owner Ian Schrager opened Studio 54 in April 1977, it’s welcomed untold numbers of “happy people” … at least those lucky enough to pass through the doors.
“We were part of the chosen few,” says André De Shields, who immortalized the title role in The Wiz on Broadway at the time. “We could show up at Studio 54 and the doorman at the velvet stanchion would look over everyone and point to us from The Wiz to come in, that kind of thing.” As the lead vocalist in the GRAMMY-nominated Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, whose debut modernized big band sophistication for the discothèques, Cory Daye had carte blanche in the club. “The energy was like a New Year’s Eve party every night,” she says. “I would go up to the mezzanine and watch the mechanical light pillars go up and down, metallic confetti falling from the ceiling, the spoon and the moon. I was so fascinated and enamored by it.
“When a certain song came on, the people would just rush to the dance floor. There was no contact dancing — the hustle was pretty much on its way out — but it was just an amazing experience to see all the cultures together. It was a fusion of cultures, which described my life and my band, so I was right at home there.”
“Studio 54 was the place,” adds Linda Clifford. “Crazy parties. If you could think it, you would see it. It was like a circus. Just an amazing place to be. I worked 54 so many times. It was like a second home to me. The people there treated me so well. The crowd always seemed to enjoy my show. I always had a good time with them. That was the most important thing: making sure that they had fun.”
Well before Studio 54 opened, disco had become a business juggernaut. “A four billion dollar market and still growing,” Billboard announced in February 1977, with dance music offering more variety than ever. “There is no longer a single, readily identifiable disco beat, but a kaleidoscope of sounds that are melodic and danceable,” Tom Moulton told the magazine. In the clubs, records by veteran artists like Stevie Wonder and the Bee Gees were mixed in with a range of new acts like Grace Jones, Boney M., and The Ritchie Family, while everyone from ABBA to Marvin Gaye scored number one pop hits with songs that had club-centric storylines.
Beyond the charts, disco itself remained as idiosyncratic as ever, especially on several productions by Laurin Rinder and W. Michael Lewis, whose studio creations, El Coco (“Let’s Get It Together,” “Cocomotion”) and Le Pamplemousse (“Le Spank”), joined their own “Lust” from Seven Deadly Sins (1977) among the most tantalizing releases on AVI Records. Rinder & Lewis also produced acts for the newly hatched Butterfly Records in Los Angeles, where Saint Tropez (“On a Rien à Perdre”) and Tuxedo Junction (“Moonlight Serenade”) reflected the duo’s high gloss sound, spanning everything from European sophistication to a more literal translation of the ’40s sensibilities popularized by Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band.
12-inch singles had also grown as the preferred format to approximate the club music experience at home. Nearly a year after Atlantic Records introduced its series of promotional 12-inch singles for DJs, New York-based Salsoul Records released the industry’s first commercially available 12-inch single, “Ten Percent” by Double Exposure, in May 1976. A year later, T.K. Records was the first label to certify a gold record for a 12-inch single when Peter Brown’s “Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me” tallied one million sales.— Christian John Wikane
(From “A Night at the Disco” by Alice Harris & Christian John Wikane. Published by ACC Art Books.)
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
a&e features
Award-winning D.C. chef reaching new culinary heights
Anthony Jones of Marcus DC competing on ‘Top Chef’
In Anthony Jones’s kitchen, all sorts of flags fly, including his own. Executive chef at award-winning restaurant Marcus DC, Jones has reached culinary heights (James Beard Award semifinalist for Emerging Chef, anyone?), yet he’s just getting started.
Briefly stepping away from his award-winning station, Jones took a moment under a different set of lights. Recently, he temporarily gave up his post at the restaurant for a starring small-screen slot on the latest season of “Top Chef,” which debuted in March. (The show airs weekly on Bravo and Peacock).
Before his strategic slice-and-dice competition, however, Jones, who identifies as gay, draws from his deep DMV roots. In the years before “Top Chef” and the top chef spot at Marcus, he was born and raised in Sunderland, Md., in southern Maryland, near the Chesapeake.
Early memories were steeped in afternoons on boats with his dad bonding over fishing, and wandering the garden of his great-grandparents spread with fresh vegetables and a few hogs. “It was Southern, old-school ethics and upbringing,” he said. “Family and food went hand in hand.” Weekends meant grabbing bushels of crabs, dad and grandma would cook and crack them. Family members would host fish fries for extra cash. In this seafood-heavy youth, Jones managed time to sneak in episodes of the “OG” Japanese “Iron Chef” show, which helped inspire him to pursue a career in the kitchen.
Jones moved to D.C. after graduating from college, ending up at lauded Restaurant Eve, and met famed chef Marcus Samuelson, who brought him to Miami to be part of the opening team for Red Rooster Overtown. After three years, Jones moved back to D.C., where he ran Dirty Habit, reinventing and reimagining the menu, integrating West African flavors and ingredients.
Samuelson, however, wouldn’t let a talent like Jones stay away for too long. Pulling Jones back into his orbit, Samuelson elevated Jones to help him open his namesake restaurant Marcus DC, which has been named a top-five restaurant by the Washington Post. Since then, Jones has been nominated as a semifinalist for the RAMMYs Rising Culinary Star in 2026 and won the Eater DC’s Rising Chef award in 2025.
Samuelson’s Marcus is a tour de force interpreting the Black Diaspora on the plate, from the American South to West Africa, along with his signature “Swedopian” touches. Yet it’s Jones who has deeply informed the plate, elevating his own story to date. Marcus DC is primarily a seafood restaurant, which serves Jones well.
“Where I’m from is seafood heavy, and as I’ve progressed in my career, I’ve moved away from meat.” Veggies and fish are hero dishes. His own dish, Mel’s Crab Rice, was not only lauded by the Washington Post, but is framed by his youth carrying home the crustaceans from Mel’s crab truck. It’s a bowl of Carolina rice, layered with pickled okra, uni béarnaise, and crab. Jones also points to a dish on the opening menu, rockfish and brassica, paying respect to a landmark D.C. institution, Ben’s Chili Bowl. Jones reverse engineered a favorite bowl of chili that’s seafood instead of meat forward, leveraging octopus and rockfish along with different riffs of cauliflower: showing his intellectual, creative, and cultural sides.
While “Top Chef” is showing Jones’s spotlight side, he also lets his identity show at work. “In the kitchen, I make sure we’re inclusive. We don’t tolerate discrimination. Everyone that’s here should feel confident to express themselves. There are so many different flags in the kitchen.”
Jones says that he didn’t fully express his gay identity until fairly recently. He felt reluctant coming out to certain family members, “you’re scared to tell them about being different,” he says, and while that anxiety ate at him, “I’m lucky and fortunate to have unconditional love and that weight off my shoulders.”
Today, “I’m me all the time, Monday to Sunday. I’m honest with people, and my staff is honest with me.”
“Being a chef is hard,” he says, “and being a chef of color is even more difficult.”
Yet his LGBTQ identity is a juggling act, he says. “I need to keep that balance, because once someone finds out something about you, their opinion can change, whether you want it or not.”
Being on a whole season of TV cooking competition, however, might mean millions more might have an opinion of him (Jones has appeared on TV already, on an episode of “Chopped”). To prepare, he says, “I’ve just kept a level head. It’s just an honor to be on top chef with amazing people happy to be there.”
Plus, this season is set in the Carolinas, and Jones attended Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C. “It’s a full story of my life, now a monumental moment for me.”
Jones also recently was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award. “JBF has been a north star, a dream for so long. I always had this goal on my wall.”
Being at the top spot at Marcus DC, making waves through his accolades, and cooking on Bravo means that Jones is highly visible. “I think that if someone has a similar background to me, and can see our story, trajectory, and success, they can have more ability to be themselves. This is my goal.”
Back at Marcus, Jones has plenty up his chef’s white’s sleeves. A new spring menu is in the works. He’ll be launching a new tasting menu “dining experience,” he says, and has plans to work on more events and collaborations with chefs and friends to bring in new talent and share the culinary wealth.
a&e features
Introducing the Torchbearers Awards honoring queer, trans women and nonbinary people
Meet the Legends and Illuminators lighting new paths
The Torchbearers Awards are more than recognition—they are a continuation of legacy. They honor the quiet architects of progress in our community: those who organize, advocate, build, and protect, often without fanfare but always with purpose. Rooted in a belief in intentional recognition, this honor names those who carry our movements forward—those who make room for others, who remind us that change is both generational and generative. In a time marked by uncertainty and challenge, these leaders push forward with courage, clarity, and an unwavering commitment to expanding opportunity and equity.
This year’s honorees reflect the full breadth of our community, spanning generations, backgrounds, identities, and industries. From Legends, with decades of leadership and having created pathways for others, to Illuminators, who are lighting new paths with creativity and innovation, each Torchbearer represents the power of intergenerational leadership and the strength found in our diversity. They are organizers, advocates, artists, policy leaders, healers, and changemakers whose lived experiences shape a shared vision for equity and liberation.
This award is our love letter to queer and trans women and nonbinary people who carry the flame when it would be easier to let it dim. To those who consistently show up, who use their voice and visibility and stand firm, often without recognition, so that others may live more freely and fully. The Torchbearers Awards celebrates not just what has been done, but the enduring spirit, responsibility, and collective care that ensure the work continues, and that the flame is always passed forward.
Co-Creators of the Torchbearers Awards: Shannon Alston, June Crenshaw, Heidi Ellis
Torchbearers Awards Advisory Board: Aditi Hardikar, Lesley Bryant, Jasmine Wilson-Bryant, Stephen Rutgers
ILLUMINATOR AWARDEES
- Representative Sharice Davids (she/her), (D, KS-03)
— U.S. House of Representatives - Greisa Martinez Rosas (she/her/ella)
— Executive Director, United We Dream - Paola Ramos (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Meagan A. Fitzgerald (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Jessica L. Lewis (she/her)
— Founder / Producer, Play Play DC - Savannah Wade (she/her)
— Founder, OAR Agency - Suhad Babaa (she/her)
— Filmmaker/ Former Executive Director of Just Vision - Ashlee Davis (she/her)
— Global Head of Inclusive Outcomes, Ancestry - Jazmine Hughes (she/her)
— Journalist and Former Editor at New York Times Magazine - Queen Adesuyi (they/she)
— Policy Advisor & Organizer, ReFrame Health & Justice - Michele Rayner, Esq. (she/her)
— Civil Rights Attorney, State Representative (Florida House of Representatives) - Gaby Vincent (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Jenny Nguyen (she/her)
— Founder & Owner, The Sports Bra - Denice Frohman (she/her)
— Independent Artist, Poet / Performer - Vida Rangel (she/her)
— Founder, Our Trans Capital - Roxanne Anderson (they/them)
— Executive Director, Our Space - Ann Marie Gothard (she/her)
— Co-Founder & President, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Diana Rodriquez (she/her)
— Co-Founder & CEO, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Wendi Cooper (she/her)
— Founder / Executive Director, Transcending Women - Toya Matthews (she/her)
— City of San Antonio, Texas - Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Charity Blackwell (she/her)
— Poet, LGBTQ Advocate & Community Leader - Wilhelmina Indermaur (she/her)
— Director of Communications, Tyler Clementi Foundation - Em Chadwick (she/her)
— CMO, For Them & Autostraddle - Kylo Freeman (they/he)
— CEO, For Them & Autostraddle
LEGEND AWARDEES
- Sheila Alexander-Reid (she/her)
— Executive Director, PHL Diversity, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau - Cassandra Cantave Burton (she/her)
— Interim Director of Thought Leadership & Senior Research Advisor, AARP - leigh h. mosley (she/her)
— Photographer / Educator, PhotoFlo Photography - Jenn M. Jackson, PhD (they/them)
— Assistant Professor of Political Science; Author & Columnist, Syracuse University - Jordyn White (she/her)
— COO, Washington Prodigy / VP of Leadership Development & Research, HRC Foundation - AJ Hikes (they/them)
— Deputy Executive Director, ACLU - RaeShanda Lias (she/her)
— Digital Creator, RL Lockhart - Donna Payne-Hardy (she/her)
— Educator, EEO Specialist, Founder of NBJC, Former Leader at the Human Rights Campaign - Courtney R. Snowden (she/her)
— Principal, Blueprint Strategy Group - Gaye Adegbalola (she/her)
— Musician & Activist, Musician / Inductee of the Blues Hall of Fame - Cheryl A. Head (she/her)
— Independent Author, Novelist (Crime Fiction) - Letitia Gomez (she/her)
— The American LGBTQ+ Museum, Board Chair - Lynne Brown (she/her)
— Publisher, Washington Blade - Shay Franco-Clausen (She/Her/Ella/Queen)
— Political Strategist and Organizer - Melissa L. Bradley (she/her)
— Founder & Managing Partner, New Majority Ventures - Meghann Burke (she/her)
— Executive Director, NWSL Players Association - Victoria Kirby York, MPA (she/they)
— Director of Public Policy & Programs, National Black Justice Collective - Joli Angel Robinson (she/her)
— CEO, Center on Halsted - Jeannine Frisby LaRue (she/her)
— CEO, Moxie Strategies - Alice Wu (she/her)
— Film Director (Saving Face, The Half of It) / Screenwriter - Storme Webber (she/her)
— Interdisciplinary Artist / Educator, University of Washington - Kim Stone
— CEO of the Washington Spirit, Washington Spirit - Mickalene Thomas
— American Visual Artist, Mickalene Thomas Studio - Erika Lorshbough (any/they/she)
— Executive Director, interACT - J. Gia Loving (she/ella)
— Co-Executive Director, GSA Network
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