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Wonder Woman’s heart is key to film’s success
The Amazon princess finally comes to the big screen
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman with Henry Cavill as Superman and Ben Affleck as Batman in ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.’ The film opens March 25. (Photo courtesy Warner Bros.)
Wonder Woman has finally made it to the big screen.
The Amazon princess, who debuted in comic book form in 1941, makes her silver screen debut in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” the estimated $250-million spectacle from director Zack Snyder with Henry Cavill reprising his role as Superman, Ben Affleck debuting as Batman and Gal Gadot (“The Fast and the Furious”) as Wonder Woman.
The movie, which opens March 25 on an estimated 30,000 screens in 61 markets around the globe, is part of the D.C. Extended Universe series that launched with “Man of Steel,” a 2013 Superman reboot. “Suicide Squad,” featuring the D.C. Comics anti-hero team, is slated for an August release. Wonder Woman will finally get her own film with an eponymous release slated for June 2017 in which Gadot will star.
For many Generation X gays, the 1975-1979 TV show “Wonder Woman” starring Lynda Carter, who has enjoyed decades of adoration because of the role, is beyond iconic. She performs her concert “Long-Legged Woman” at the Kennedy Center at 7 p.m. on April 2.
Carter does not have cameos in either “Dawn of Justice” or next year’s film and has focused on her singing in recent years. A resident of D.C. suburb Potomac, Md., she has appeared at LGBT events such as AIDS Walk Washington in 2010 and the Capital Pride parade in 2013, where she was grand marshal. She performs annually at the Kennedy Center and has earned acclaim for songs she recorded for the video game “Fallout 4.”
Lynda Carter was grand marshal in the Capital Pride parade in 2013. She says she understands filmmakers wanting their own platform for the new films. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
But for many, she’ll always be known as Wonder Woman. Her performance was so indelible that merchandise featuring her likeness continues to be churned out with items such as the “Wonder Woman ’77” comic series, a Hallmark ornament of her as the character and more.
She told superfan Mike Pingel, author of “The Q Guide to Wonder Woman” (2008) and “Channel Surfing: Wonder Woman” (2012), in a Frontiers interview published last week that she’s honored by the attention.
“It’s a thrill to have my Wonder Woman image resurrected after all these years,” she said. “In life, you carry around these memories. Then you meet people who share their memories and you end up experiencing it all over again through their eyes. It’s great to have a big resurgence of relevance, not just being in the past but something happening right now.”
So if the character is so perennially popular, why did it take so long to bring her to the silver screen when male superhero films have been made about even lesser-known characters like “Iron Man” (2008), “Jonah Hex” (2010), “Thor: the Dark World” (2013) and more? The Wonder Woman movie has languished in development limbo since the mid-‘90s. A 2011 pilot for a possible NBC series was not picked up. The CW abandoned another TV project in 2014.
Lynda Carter with author Mike Pingel. (Photo courtesy Pingel)
“Honestly I think it could be that they just didn’t know what to do with her,” says Pingel, who’s gay and is now working on books about “The Bionic Woman” and “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.”
“Hollywood is so male-dominated, sometimes I think men don’t know what to do with her. They have a woman director, though, now [Patty Jenkins] and hopefully she’ll be able to bring the heart and soul back to Wonder Woman that they had on the TV show. The show they tried in 2011 was just horrific. They didn’t understand the essence of who she was, her quality in helping the underdogs. … She was so mad and so angry and they couldn’t find the heart of the character. It wasn’t the actress’s fault. Even though she’s changed a lot in the comics, too, she’s always standing up for the rights of people who can’t do it for themselves. … That’s really the basis of why she does it — the heart, not the glory.”
Washington resident Walter Forbes says the ‘70s show and Carter are special to him because he watched the show growing up with his mother, who died of cancer in 1999. He first met Carter 10 years to the day after his mother died.
“I always saw her as kind of a mother, nurturing-type figure,” Forbes, 37, says of Carter. “When I met her, she was all that and more. Just like I’d hoped she would be.”
Forbes, who’s gay and says his boyfriend does not mind his Wonder Woman obsession, thinks finding the right level of toughness versus vulnerability was a lot of the delay.
Walter Forbes with his Wonder Woman collection. He owns replicas of Wonder Woman’s bracelets and tiara and has several photos and items signed by Lynda Carter. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
“When people hear the word Amazon, most people think of Xena or almost like a Red Sonja-type of character. She’s a woman but they want her to be almost like a man. Lynda didn’t look like a man, she wasn’t built like a man, but at the same time she wasn’t too prissy or sexy or anything like that. I think a lot of the directors have wanted to take that role and turn her into something she wasn’t and they got hints from the fans that they weren’t going with that.”
He agrees with Pingel that the failed TV pilot was a good indication of how bad a bad Wonder Woman could be.
“It sucked,” he says. “They had her going around choking people, it was so violent, everybody knew her identity. I’m like, ‘OK, what is this show about? You’ve just stripped everything away.’ Even in the comic books, she was a loving person. She didn’t parade around like some barbarian. … That just wasn’t the essence of who Wonder Woman was.”
Carter said in a 2010 Blade interview that although she loved doing the role and has enjoyed the fans over the years, she’s moved on.
“I really love her and I really think she’s great and I particularly love the idea of her,” Carter said. “There’s so many things I like about it, but I’m busy living my life now, so I don’t think about it a lot. It’s a little like something really outstanding in your life that everybody talks about and that is wonderful and you loved doing it … but you’re busy doing other things so you really only think about it when somebody else brings it up.”
Despite fan speculation, Carter told Pingel a cameo didn’t happen because of scheduling conflicts.
“I had some nice conversations with Patty Jenkins, and we couldn’t get my schedule and their schedule to meet up. It didn’t work out, but I wish them well. Understandably they want a platform that is uniquely their own. I believe it’s an homage to the original in regards to the heart of the character. That is what matters.”
Wonder Woman memorabilia (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Forbes says it would have been an insult if Carter had been offered just a brief appearance.
“I don’t want to see her in just some walk-by role,” Forbes says. “Like Lynda Carter just happens to be in Starbucks or something. I think that’s kinda tacky. Like when Lou Ferrigno was in one of the Hulk movies and he was a security guard or something. I was like, ‘Are you serious? He brought this character to life and now he’s at the front desk?’ … If all they gave her was a walk-by role, it wouldn’t be worth her time. It would be an insult.”
Forbes says even if Wonder Woman only has a small role in “Dawn of Justice” — as of press time, the extent of her part is largely unknown — and her own film bombs, it will not diminish what Carter accomplished.
“I’ll definitely see it and support it and I’m open to giving Gal Gadot a chance to feel the role,” he says. “I’m just glad to see this character back. … The fans need to give it a chance, too. Already, online people are saying, ‘Oh, they changed the uniform, it’s too dark, it looks like Xena,’ and so on. I mean, come on, give it a chance. The uniform changed in the comic books, why wouldn’t they change it for the movie? … I’m excited about this new franchise.”
A 2015 Wonder Woman Christmas tree ornament in Lynda Carter’s likeness could be found at Hallmark. (Washington Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)
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
Calendar: April 10-16
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
The ‘X’ returns to court
LGBTQ community explores arming up during heated political times
Risking it all for love during World War II
D.C. is the place for the Democratic Socialists of America
PHOTOS: The Bonnet Ball
Key lifestyle changes can help patients cope with diabetes
