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Kevin Hart steps aside as 2019 Oscar host after protests

In the age of #MeToo, a controversial host is toast

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Kevin Hart. (Photo Facebook)

UPDATE:Ā Comedian and actor Kevin Hart says he has stepped down from hosting the 2019 Oscars following a controversy over homophobic tweets and comments from his stand up act from as far back as 2009.

Hart said he does not wish to be a distraction and that he is “sorry he had hurt people” afterĀ calls for the Academy to drop him went viral.

Hart had said hosting the Oscars was “a goal on my list for a long time.”

On Thursday, Hart initially responded to outcry over his being named by the Academy as host of the ceremony with a video posted on Instagram, in which he said, ā€œGuys, Iā€™m nearly 40 years old. If you donā€™t believe that people change, grow, evolve as they get older, I donā€™t know what to tell you. If you want to hold people in a position where they always have to justify the past, do you. Iā€™m the wrong guy, man.”

This was followed later on Thursday evening with another video, in which the comedian told followers the Academy had called him and offered him an ultimatum: apologize for the tweets or step down as host.Ā  He refused to apologize, saying he had “addressed this several times.Ā  This is not the first time this has come up.Ā  I’ve addressed it.Ā  I’ve spoken on it.”

Finally, late in the day, Hart announced via Twitter that he had chosen to step down “because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists.”

“I sincerely apologise to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words of the past,” he said.

As its much-criticized (and now recanted) decision to add a ā€œBest Popular Filmā€ category to its awards roster earlier this year clearly revealed, the Oscars are desperate to increase their ever-declining ratings.

Has the Academy Award lost its way? That question is increasingly being asked.

For the broadcast of the Academy Awardsā€™ 90th annual ceremony in 2018, viewership was about 26.5 million people ā€“ around 20% lower than the previous year, it was the first time the figure had dropped below 30 million and the lowest number since Nielsen started tracking Oscar ratings in 1974.

The Hart fiasco was born of a reckless effort to boost its relevance and regain audience.

At first glance, it seemed like the perfect solution to their problem. Hart is immensely popular, performing to sell-out crowds in huge venues like the 69,000-seat Lincoln Financial Field in his hometown of Philadelphia. He topped Forbesā€™ 2016 list of the highest-paid comedians, and heā€™s proven his appeal to movie crowds with box-office hits, like this yearā€™s ā€œNight Schoolā€ and ā€œJumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.ā€

His films have grossed $3.5 billion worldwide, and his social media presence (35 million followers on Twitter, 65 million on Instagram) is impressive. The chance to see what he does as an Oscar host obviously had the potential to draw a lot of viewers that wouldnā€™t normally tune in.

In addition, Hart had been vocal about his desire to host the Oscars for several years now.

Itā€™s a job that has proven thankless for many celebrities who have done it in the past ā€“ from Chevy Chase to David Letterman to Seth McFarlane, the ceremony has been fronted by a long list of popular comedians who were deemed to have failed spectacularly, and thereā€™s an even longer list of personalities who have been asked and turned it down (as detailed in a recent piece by the Hollywood Reporter).

But Hart had actively been after the gig since at least 2015, when the Los Angeles Times reported him as saying, “If I can start the campaign now and get them into it, I’m all for it. I would just jump at the opportunity.”

Lastly, as only the fourth African-American person ever to host the ceremony (following Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, and four-time host Whoopi Goldberg), Hart would potentially have helped to smooth over the lingering criticism stemming from the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of two years ago, when the lack of diversity among the Academyā€™s award nominations ā€“ and onstage at its ceremony ā€“ underscored the inadequate representation of non-whites within the content produced by the Hollywood film industry. In a year when most of the apparent front-runners seem, yet again, to be white, having a black host might be a way to stave off any resurgence of backlash.

Unfortunately, this solution failed to take into account the messaging it sent on another front.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Stop looking for reasons to be negative…Stop searching for reasons to be angry….I swear I wish you guys could see/feel/understand the mental place that I am in. I am truly happy people….there is nothing that you can do to change that…NOTHING. I work hard on a daily basis to spread positivity to all….with that being said. If u want to search my history or past and anger yourselves with what u find that is fine with me. Iā€™m almost 40 years old and Iā€™m in love with the man that I am becoming. You LIVE and YOU LEARN & YOU GROW & YOU MATURE. I live to Love….Please take your negative energy and put it into something constructive. Please….Whatā€™s understood should never have to be said. I LOVE EVERYBODY…..ONCE AGAIN EVERYBODY. If you choose to not believe me then thatā€™s on you….Have a beautiful day

A post shared by Kevin Hart (@kevinhart4real) on

The Academy ā€“ in typically tone-deaf fashion ā€“ may have chosen a host who checks off several important boxes for image-conscious Hollywood, but in doing so it ignored Hartā€™s problematic history of homophobia.

And as you can see from the Instagram post above, Hart is now positioning himself as a victim of PC culture run amok.

It’s not all that different from the notorious comedy routine for his 2010 TV special, ā€œSeriously Funny,ā€ Hart joked that as a parent, ā€œone of my biggest fears is my son growing up and being gay.ā€ After quickly adding that he had ā€œnothing against gay people,ā€ he went on to say that ā€œas a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my son from being gay, I will.ā€ He went on to joke that every kid has a ā€œgay momentā€¦ but when it happens, you gotta nip it in the bud.ā€

In a 2015 interview withĀ Rolling Stone, Hart confessed that he ā€œwouldnā€™t tell the joke today.ā€ His reasons, however, had nothing to do with the obvious anti-gay bias involved; instead, he deflected by saying, ā€œthe times werenā€™t as sensitive as they are now. I think we love to make big deals out of things that arenā€™t necessarily big deals, because we can. These things become public spectacles. So why set yourself up for failure?ā€

He also responded in an interview with Parade, by saying, ā€œI had one gay joke in my career and it was about my son at a birthday party, and it was before things got as PC as they are now.ā€

In other words, his only remorse was over how it affected his image.

Blaming the current #MeToo movement for creating this atmosphere is not a show of remorse. Neither is saying it’s something he’s sorry about while he keeps doing it.

Apparently, that remorse has not been strong enough to keep him from making more homophobic comments. His Twitter feed has been laced with them throughout his career ā€“ things like ā€œYo if my son comes home & tryā€™s 2 play with my daughterā€™s doll house Iā€™m going 2 break it over his head % say n my voice ā€˜stop thatā€™s gay.ā€™ā€

In one particularly offensive tweet, he called out another Twitter user by saying their profile picture looked ā€œlike a gay billboard for AIDS.ā€

He has repeatedly used phrases like ā€œno homoā€ and ā€œno homo gay,ā€ and lambasted his critics by calling them such names as ā€œf*g boy,ā€ ā€œgay face,ā€ ā€œfat faced f*g,ā€ and ā€œman bitch.ā€

According to an article published by Queerty just this morning, Hart had been deleting many of these posts ā€“ most of which had already been re-Tweeted in protest by thousands of Twitter users after news broke of his Oscar gig.

Thereā€™s also the matter of his treatment of ex-wife Torrei Hart, to whom he admitted being physically abusive in his 2017 memoir, ā€œI Canā€™t Make This Up.ā€ He also confessed in a radio interview last year to having cheated on his current wife, Eniko Parrish, just a few months earlier ā€“ while she was pregnant.

With LGBTQ-focused films like ā€œBoy Erasedā€ and ā€œBohemian Rhapsodyā€ predicted to be in the running, as well as ā€œA Star Is Born,ā€ which features gay icon Lady Gaga, this yearā€™s Oscars are shaping up to have a strong queer presence. With this in mind, placing Hart in the center of the proceedings ā€“ when his long track record of homophobic remarks was already well-documented and should have been taken into account by the Academy before offering him the job ā€“ was always a bad idea.

Whether or not the comedian really believes the homophobic viewpoints he has projected in his comedy ā€“ which, for the record, he has repeatedly insisted he does not ā€“ his selection as host sent a mixed message from the Academy to its membership and to its millions of avid followers, many of whom are either LGBTQ or allies.

It’s not the first time the organization has faced this issue.Ā  In 2011, Brett Ratner was forced to resign as producer of that yearā€™s Oscar ceremony due to his record of homophobic slurs.

As for the Hart debacle, the Academy has yet to issue a statement.

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Movies

Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells want to adopt baby in ‘I Don’t Understand You’

Film premiered at SXSW in Austin

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(Courtesy photo)

Editor’s note: Jack Morningstar attended SXSW in Austin, Texas.

“I Don’t Understand You” focuses on a couple whose romantic Italian getaway devolves into bloody chaos while they prepare to adopt their first child.Ā 

The film, while veering into hilariously gruesome hijinks, tells the story of a gay couple who is willing to kill for a chance at fatherhood. It sheds light on the hurdles that same-sex couples often go through in the adoption process: Financial burdens, time constraints, fraud, and in this case, a rural Italian family.

The film premiered last weekend at SXSW in Austin and stars Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells along with Nunzia Schiano, Morgan Spector and Eleonora Romandini. It was written and directed by Brian Crano and David Craig, who are married. They sourced inspiration from their own adoption struggles and an Italian vacay gone wrong. 

ā€œWe were about to leave for Italy when we found out that we had matched with a birth mother and our son would be born in about six weeks,ā€ said Crano. 

According to Craig, the trip was tense and it culminated in their car getting stuck in a ditch on their way to an anniversary dinner.

ā€œWe ended up at an old ladyā€™s house after she rescued us in her Fiat. Her family cooked us a meal and we stayed up drinking with them until 3 a.m., not understanding a word they were saying,ā€ he said.

Without spoiling anything, the couple in the movie go to absurd lengths to ensure that their adoption goes through. Craig explained that the theme of the movie was “what would you do for your kid.”Ā 

“We were three years into our own journey at the time and realized we would literally do anything to make that dream a reality. Itā€™s really a love letter to our son,ā€ he said.

The film is hard to relegate to a single genre. 

ā€œWhen conceiving the story, we saw it as different parts ā€” romantic comedy, horror movie, murder play ā€” but I think by bringing in Nick and Andrew that blend actually became much more of an organic mix where the comedy sustained throughout. They elevated it in a more elegant fashion,ā€ said Craig. 

“I Donā€™t Understand You”was produced by Pinky Promise, a women-led production company with the mission to elevate diverse voices in their storytelling. Kara Durrett, Pinky Promiseā€™s current president was a champion of this script from the beginning. Founder Jessamine Burgum recounts that when Durrett was onboarding, she said ā€œIf you donā€™t get [“I Donā€™t Understand You”] I donā€™t know if this is going to work.ā€ 

It ultimately became one of the first projects Burgum and Durrett collaborated on.Ā 

Kroll and Rannellsā€™ chemistry carried the film. 

ā€œThere was a desire to work with each of them because they had both separately been in such amazing comedian teams ā€” like Andrew with Josh Gad and Nick with John Mulaney. Nick and Andrewā€™s characters are in almost every scene of the movie together, so they needed to be adept to basically doing a shared performance. There was no one more well-positioned to do this as naturally as possible,ā€ said Crano. 

Their characters are easy to root for, yet also deeply flawed. 

ā€œA big thing we wanted to do with this movie, and with all of our work in telling stories, is avoid telling a cliched gay trauma film. Weā€™ve never ascribed to the idea that there is a subcategory to film that is LGBTQ, rather ā€” movies are for everyone. We want to make a movie where gay characters are flawed, not for being gay, but because of who they are. They can be villains, but they are our protagonists,ā€ said Craig. 

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Out & About

Celebrate spring with these D.C.-area events

Galas, Cherry Weekend, Pride, and more on tap

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The annual Pride on the Pier with fireworks show is set for Saturday, June. 8 at the Wharf. (Photo courtesy of The Wharf DC)

Temperatures outside are starting to rise and the sun is shining again. Hereā€™s a list of upcoming D.C. events that can make enjoying the good weather even that much more thrilling.

Cherry Weekend Washington begins on Thursday, April 4. The Cherry weekend is a spectacular and joyous event held over four days featuring 16 world renowned DJs, nine different events and four fun daytime parties.

3rd Friday Night Open Mic will take place on Thursday, March 15 at 9 p.m. at the Bus Boys and Poets location in Brookland. This event will be hosted by Mariah Barber (they/she), a queer storyteller, consultant, spoken word artist, and activist who has been creating social justice-oriented art for the last 15 years. Tickets start at $5 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.Ā 

RuPaulā€™s Drag Race Season 15 winner Sasha Colby will bring her Sasha Colby: Stripped Tour to the Howard Theatre on Wednesday, March 27 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $75 and can be purchased on the Howard Theatreā€™s website.Ā 

Decades DC returns with Throwback Thursdays on Thursday, March 14 at 10 p.m. This event will have an open air rooftop and the first drink is on the house. Entry is free until midnight and more details are available on Eventbrite.Ā 

Skin and Wellness Center will host Equinox Celebration on Tuesday, March 19 at 7 p.m. at 929 W. Broad St. This event will involve movement, breath work, meditation and community connection to celebrate the spring equinox and embrace energies of rebirth, fertility, creativity, balance, and expansive growth for mind, body, and spirit. Tickets cost $28.52 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.Ā 

Models Inc. will host The Front Row! Fashion Show on Saturday, March 30 at 7 p.m. at the Silver Spring Black Box Theatre. This is the ultimate destination for designers seeking to showcase their talent and brand. This exclusive event provides a platform to promote artistry and visions, featuring various artists, creatives, fashion enthusiasts, models, stylists, and visionaries. Tickets start at $35 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.Ā 

Spring Bling Adult Prom will be on Friday, April 26 at 8 p.m. at Graces Event Center. Guests are encouraged to wear their favorite spring colors and show up for a night of dancing, food and fun.Tickets cost $92.55 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.

TSR Productions will host Spring Salsa Bash on Saturday, March 23 at 8 p.m. at The Salsa Room Tysons. This event will feature Hermanos Galvan and Orquesta live in concert playing the best salsa, bachata, and merengue. There will also be top DJs playing the best in Latin trap, urbana, reggaetton. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.Ā 

We Will Survive Cancer will host Spring Fling Cocktail & Dance Party on Saturday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Whino. This event will be hosted by DJ Steve. Tickets cost $25 and all proceeds are donated to cancer patients. More details are on Eventbrite.

Chase Brexton Health Care hosts its 2024 Gala at the Baltimore Museum of Art, with the theme centered around the NEW Roaring ā€˜20s on Saturday, March 30. Details at chasebrexton.org.Ā 

CAMP Rehobothā€™s annual Womenā€™s FEST is scheduled for April 25-28. Lea DeLaria will headline with Crys Matthews opening. Visit camprehoboth.org for details.

Trans Pride Washington, D.C. is scheduled for Saturday, May 18. The full day of conference activities will take place at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Visit transpridewashingtondc.org for details.

The Bladeā€™s 17th annual Summer Kickoff Party in Rehoboth Beach is scheduled for Friday, May 17; details to be announced soon.

D.C.ā€™s 49th annual Pride celebration kicks off May 31-June 9, culminating with the parade and festival. Visit capitalpride.org for details. The annual Pride on the Pier with fireworks celebration is slated for Saturday, June 8, 2-9 p.m. at the Wharf. Visit prideonthepierdc.com for details.

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Travel

Gay hotel company brings luxury to Puerto Vallarta

Tryst Puerto Vallarta to open this spring

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Tryst Puerto Vallarta (Photo courtesy of Tristan Schukraft)

The Tryst Puerto Vallarta begins welcoming discerning gay guests this spring, just in time for the Mexican resort city’s Pride celebrations. 

The 55-room resort includes a penthouse suite featuring two terraces, three large suites with expansive living areas and terraces and several junior suites with unique features. A highly anticipated rooftop pool with a bar area and restaurant offering fine Mexican cuisine are just some of the highlights. 

ā€œYou can stay here and never leave the resort,ā€ said Tristan Schukraft, the driving force behind Tryst Hotels, and self-described CEO of “everything gay.”

While he started out in his career working in the early days of electronic ticketing, Schukraft may be more known for his work with MISTR, a popular online source for PrEP. He also recently entered into an agreement to purchase the Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif.

With Tryst he promises “itā€™s a fun, exciting atmosphere.” 

“The idea is not just the guests are coming to the resort, but locals,” said Schukraft. “So, when you stay here itā€™s the way to mingle with the local gay community.ā€

To welcome and include both guests and locals, the resort will host drag brunches in the hotel restaurant. Weekend parties featuring DJs on the eighth floor pool and bar area also seeks to make this not just a place to stay, but one to celebrate with the community.

Schukraft hopes visitors will get to know guests or locals poolside, or in the restaurant, and make lifelong friendships. 

Or perhaps find a bit of romance: After all the hotel is set in the famed Zona RomĆ”ntica.  

ā€œTryst Hotels are not merely luxury destinations; they are a celebration of gay culture, where every guest is embraced,” said Schukraft. “Our mission is to create spaces where luxury and identity flourish without compromise.ā€

Tryst Hotels CEO Tristan Schukraft. (Photo courtesy of Tristan Schukraft)

The D.C. Travel and Adventure Show took place last month in D.C., and LGBTQ-specific travel was among the topics the convention highlighted. The Washington Blade in its preview of the expo noted LGBTQ travelers may book a resort or vacation that promises “everyone is welcome,” but upon arrival feel uncomfortable by reactions of staff or other guests due to expressing their identity as queer people. 

Schukraft has experienced this. 

ā€œI was at a hetero-friendly hotel Miami, but it was also marketed to gay men,” he explained. “So, you have two guys kissing at the pool and you have a straight couple looking over and wondering are they staying at a gay hotel. Itā€™s sort of an awkward occurrence.ā€ 

Everyone, therefore, is welcome at Tryst resorts, but it is not being marketed outside of the community. 

ā€œMy boyfriends and I have even experienced side-eye glances for our choice of swimwear,” Schukraft said. “You wonā€™t find that at Tryst Hotels.ā€

Speaking of attire: Many luxury guesthouses, inns and hotels catering to gay men offer clothing-optional zones for guests. Itā€™s an allure for some travelers. 

But, not at Tryst.

ā€œDonā€™t get me wrong, clothing optional resorts are fun, but thatā€™s not our concept. Our concept is a luxurious, inclusive resort,ā€ Schukraft said with a touch of elan apropos for the “CEO of everything gay.” ā€œOf course wear your thongs [and] Speedos.ā€

Tryst Puerto Vallarta and Tryst San Juan in Puerto Rico, which is slated to open in 2025, are being marketed as gay-owned, gay-focused resorts with luxurious offerings and amenities. Many resorts known to epitomize luxury may be seen as slightly conservative or ā€œstuffy.ā€ 

Luxury promises not to come only in the form of superior bedding, bathrobes, slippers and skincare products, but also in the stunning interiors. 

The Puerto Vallarta property engaged the same studio known for their acclaimed work at the Four Seasons Tamarindo. Designers from Estudio Esterlina bring a refined mix of minimalism, modernism and Mexican.Ā 

ā€œWhy canā€™t you have fun and luxury in the same space? Here, you let your hair down by the pool, enjoy a pool party, a fine Mexican meal in our full-service restaurant, a drag brunch on weekends and socialize with new friends all while feeling safe,” Schukraft said. “Our goal is to show luxury doesnā€™t have to mean stuffy.ā€

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