a&e features
Jillian’s softer side
‘Biggest Loser’ taskmaster opens up on new reality show
Jillian Michaels says her new show ‘Just Jillian,’ an eight-episode reality series that debuted on E! in mid-January, shows she’s more than a shrill fitness tyrant. (Photo by Don Flood; courtesy True PR)
Jillian Michaels is infamous for screaming at people on the treadmill, but even a fitness tyrant has days off. Her new reality show “Just Jillian” shows she’s also a mom, partner and everyday human being.
The show, which airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. on E!, follows Michaels as she attempts to juggle her personal and professional life with her partner Heidi Rhoades and their two children, Lukensia and Phoenix. Michaels takes care of her children and runs her career all while dealing with pressure from her partner to get married.
We spoke with Michaels about her softer side, why aggression is her training technique and how photography safaris could be her secret calling.
WASHINGTON BLADE: “Just Jillian” definitely puts you in a different light than we’re used to seeing on “The Biggest Loser.” Were you worried about losing your tough image?
JILLIAN MICHAELS: The interesting thing about this show is it’s just me. It’s not a cartoon character. Sometimes I’m an idiot, sometimes I’m an asshole and sometimes I’m a good friend and a good partner and good mom, just like everybody else. We all have our better moments and our worse moments. I think that’s what’s going to be really interesting for people is that I am human just like everybody else. And we’re all kind of on this journey trying to build a better life and trying to be the best partner, boss, co-worker, parent. It’s filled with comedies of errors and that’s what I think is interesting. So as much as I appreciate the platform “Biggest Loser” gave me, it was also very limiting because it doesn’t show me as who I am as a whole person. That’s kind of why I think this will reshuffle the deck so to speak.
BLADE: Did you approach it with that goal?
MICHAELS: The reason I wanted to do it was simply because, for me, it was never about building a better body. I always saw health as the platform you build a better life on top of and fitness is just one tool you utilize to help you do that, to empower you, to redefine self image. But the bigger picture has always been: how do we get empowered, how to do we get inspired, how do we get motivated, how do we get educated to build a better life overall? That’s why I wanted to do the show because I thought, you know, what I want to just open it up and be transparent and be honest and let people go on these journeys with me. And along the way hopefully you’ll laugh, hopefully you’ll cry. It’s pretty much guaranteed you’ll be entertained because we’re a cast of lunatics. I don’t think the intention was ever, “Gosh, I want people to like me more.” There are two kinds of people when it comes to me. There are the people that think I’m an idiot and just hate me and I’m this monster. And then there are the people that kind of idealize me and think I’m this great person who has my shit together and is this great inspiration. Neither one of those things are true. So I think I’ll lose some fans for sure, but I think I may gain some. At the end of the day, all I can do is be true to who I am and be proud of what we produced and see what happens.
BLADE: On the show you’re a mom, a romantic partner, a business partner, a celebrity. How do you juggle all these different people you have to be at once?
MICHAELS: I don’t. I try, but a lot of balls drop. There’s definitely an element of that in the show because I think so many of us are struggling with all those different things. And I know the answer, the answer obviously is to progress and to let go of the concept that anything could be perfect. And while I know that answer and I preach it often, I haven’t fully come to accept it in my own life. It definitely creates some turmoil along the way for me, for my loved ones. I don’t know the answer and that’s one of the things the show seeks to do. It seeks to find that answer. How do we find that balance and what does that balance look like in each of our lives? It’s a challenge and that’s what I’m hoping to figure out on the show. If we get an extra season maybe it’ll happen in season two.
BLADE: You’ve been candid about your parents’ divorce and your own weight loss journey and show the same vulnerability in the show. Do you ever get scared being so naked emotionally in the public eye?
MICHAELS: I really don’t. At the end of the day, I think transparency is critical. One of the reasons I have been so successful professionally is because the audience that I have managed to attract appreciates candor. And even if you don’t like me, you know, “Well I hate her but at least I know whatever she’s saying she really believes to be true.” You can take me at face value and I think that’s important in the world right now. There are very few people that are going to tell it to you straight, that are going to say it like they see it and are going to present an honest representation for the most part of who they are. So it is what it is. I’ve been under fire at so many different points in my life that I think at this point I’m forged in that fire. I’m pretty comfortable there.
BLADE: Were you nervous about putting your family in the public eye especially with a female partner?
MICHAELS: The only one I did have some reservations with was Heidi. I’m an executive producer on the show. I can control exactly how my kids are portrayed. I would never put them in a position where I couldn’t. As much as they’re on the show, they weren’t actually shooting the show very often. They might be on the show for five minutes, but they’re not actually shooting or working very often. It’s nice in my opinion when you see them because they really do bring that kind of levity and joie de vivre and that’s what they are in my life. They’re that magic spice in the soup. Heidi on the other hand, she’s very calm, very laid back, doesn’t like the spotlight. It’s been very funny to me to watch her adjust to all of this. But she’s doing a great job. It’s cute.
BLADE: You’re notorious for being hard on people to transform their bodies and lives. Are you just as hard on yourself?
MICHAELS: I would say I’m harder on myself because I’ve been given so many opportunities in life. There’s this great quote, “To whom much is given much is required.” In order to reconcile how unfair life is to so many people, I feel that those of us who have been given more opportunity and have been born into it like being born into America, granted to be born into a situation where education was accessible. When you’ve been given so much, you have to find a way to do something with that and have to give back and have to try to set a better example. I definitely do hold myself and those around me to a pretty high standard.
BLADE: What’s the biggest misconception about you?
MICHAELS: It’s so cliche, I hate to say this, but I do think that the people who say, “She’s this monster, she so awful,” of course that’s not true. When you look at “Biggest Loser,” it’s quite simple. It’s a life or death intervention that exists on a ticking clock. It’s a very specific kind of job that requires aggressive techniques to move people through a series of benchmarks they have to hit. It’s everything from a rock bottom moment where they feel that the way they’ve been living is more painful than the work and the fear associated with where they need to go. They need to be able to take responsibility for where they are at. And they need an achievement, they have to be successful in that gym because it’s the small achievements that gradually will allow you to redefine the way they see themselves and what they’re capable of doing. If they don’t hit those benchmarks before they leave, there is no shot in hell of them ever losing weight and being successful. So this person is 400 pounds and they may have five years to live, it’s a very dire situation. For those people who took it at face value and believe the cartoon character aspect, it’s absurd. It’s not true. I’m also not a saint either so I’m not the devil, I’m not a saint, I’m just a regular person.
BLADE: If you weren’t building your fitness empire what would you have liked to do?
MICHAELS: That’s a great question. I used to say I wish I could have been a doctor but I can’t stand the sight of blood, no way. Then I wish I could have been a rock star because I love music but I can’t sing, can’t play an instrument, can’t dance. But then recently, I’ve started to learn a little bit about the hospitality business, which would seem like why would anyone want to do that? But now that I know a little bit about it, it just seems like an amazing job. You can travel the world and meet all kinds of amazing people. I met this guy who was buying hunting lodges in Africa and turning them into photography safaris. I would love to do something like that. I’d love to be a citizen of the world. Maybe down the road.
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.)
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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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New book celebrates 1970s dance music icons
