Podcast: Trump Administration Allows Doctors To Turn Away LGBTQs. GLAAD honors Madonna, 'After Forever' Takes Home 5 Emmy Awards

In this week's podcast:

• The Trump administration grants healthcare providers, like doctors and nurses, the right to deny care to LGBTQ people

• A new medical study confirms previous HIV research that undetectable equals untransmittable

• The Equality Act advances out of committee in the House of Representatives

• The GLAAD Media Awards honors Madonna

• Amazon series ‘After Forever’ cleans up at the 2019 Daytime Emmy Awards

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report

Amazon Series 'After Forever' Honored With 5 Daytime Emmy Awards

Kevin Spirtas and Mitchell Anderson in 'After Forever'

UPDATE - Oh yes, After Forever won for Outstanding Digital Daytime Drama Series at tonight's 2019 Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, bringing the total number of Emmy Awards to five!

Congratulations to the guy who had the idea from the beginning, newly-minted Outstanding Lead Actor in a Digital Daytime Drama Series, Kevin Spirtas!

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At the 2019 Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards last night at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, acclaimed LGBTQ-themed Amazon series After Forever picked up 4 Emmy Awards.

After Forever is the story of Brian and Jason, a 50-ish New York City gay couple, who have it all until they don't. The 8-episode first season follows them and their friends through a journey of love, loss and moving on.

The series (with 8 nominations) won last night at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium for:

• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Digital Daytime Drama Series - Kevin Spirtas (Mitchell Anderson also nominated)

• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Digital Daytime Drama Series - Erin Cherry (Cady Huffman also nominated)

• Outstanding Writing for a Digital Drama Series - Kevin Spirtas, Michael Slade

• Outstanding Directing for a Digital Drama Series - Jennifer Pepperman

Broadway veteran Anita Gillette was also nominated for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Daytime Drama Series

And its not over yet...

During the Sunday night broadcast of the 2019 Daytime Emmy Awards, After Forever is nominated for Outstanding Digital Daytime Drama Series.

Last spring, I interviewed writer and lead actor Kevin Spirtas on the journey and evolution of After Forever. You can check out our chat below.

Find more info about the acclaimed digital series at the official website here.

Amazon's "AFTER FOREVER" Nominated For 8 Daytime Emmy Awards

Kevin Spirtas & Mitchell Anderson in 'After Forever'

Amazon Video’s AFTER FOREVER, the gay-themed series created by actor/producer/writer Kevin Spirtas and his creative partner, Michael Slade, has received a whopping eight 2019 Daytime Emmy Award nominations.

AFTER FOREVER is the story of Brian, played by Kevin Spirtas (Days of Our Lives) and Jason, played by Mitchell Anderson (Doogie Howser, Party of 5), a “50-ish” New York City gay couple, who have it all - until they don't.

The 8-episode first season follows them and their friends through a journey of love, loss and moving on.

The series also features Tony Award winner Cady Huffman (Will Rogers Follies, The Producers), Tony Award nominee Anita Gillette (Chapter Two), and tons of TV & Broadway veterans like Jamison Stern, Jim Newman, Colleen Zenk and Michael Urie (Ugly Betty).

Jamison Stern & David Dean Bottrell

Speaking to The Advocate last year, Slade shared that the depiction of 35+ year-old gay men in series television has been missing in his estimation.

“We as gay men, after we’re no longer 35, we tend to disappear from popular culture until we’re Christopher Plummer — asexual down the hall with a cat,” Slade told The Advocate.

And co-creator Spirtas underscored the universality of the series’ love story.

“I think you can look at this story about love between two people and realize it’s two people anywhere,” said Spirtas. “It’s two men, it’s two women, it’s a male and a female, it’s older, it’s younger, it’s same age.”

The series’ 2019 Daytime Emmy nominations include:

• Nomination for Outstanding Digital Drama Series

• Nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Digital Drama Series: Michael Slade and Kevin Spirtas

• Two nominations for Outstanding Actor in a Digital Drama Series: Kevin Spirtas, Mitchell Anderson

• Two nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Digital Drama Series: Erin Cherry, Cady Huffman

• Nomination for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Digital Drama Series: Anita Gillette

• Nomination for Outstanding Director of a Digital Drama Series: Jennifer Pepperman

AFTER FOREVER was also honored with a writing nomination for Michael Slade & Kevin Spirtas last month at the 2019 Writers Guild Awards in the Original Short Form New Media category.

You can watch the first episode of the series here for free and check out my interview with co-creator and lead actor Kevin Spirtas below.



In related Daytime Emmy Awards news, veteran daytime drama actor Greg Rikaart picked up a 2019 Best Supporting Actor nomination as well for his work as “Leo Stark” on Days of Our Lives.

Already a Daytime Emmy Award winner for his longtime role as “Kevin Fisher” on The Young and the Restless, should the 42-year-old actor win, he would become the first to win Best Supporting Actor for a gay role, and the first openly gay actor to win for a gay role in any category.

The 46th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards will be held May 5 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Podcast: Pete Buttigieg, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, Digital Series 'After Forever' Gets Emmy Noms

In this week's podcast:

• Openly gay presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg surges in a new Iowa poll

• Alabama lawmakers are trying to eliminate marriage licenses entirely because they don’t want LGBT couples to have them

• A Missouri couple were turned away by a homophobic dance instructor

• Tennessee teens actually found acceptance and support as they prepared to attend prom together

• Digital series 'After Forever' gets a LOT of Daytime Emmy nominations

All that and more on this episode of The Randy Report.

News Round-Up: September 18, 2018

Some news items you might have missed:

• Just to prove folks can be oh-so-sexy fully clothed, check out all of what med student Marco has going on underneath. Oh, yeah, and there's that easy-on-the-eyes face. #woof

• The security guards who ejected fans waving rainbow flags at a concert by pop phenom Dua Lipa concert last week have been arrested for their actions.

• Out Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon is donating a pair of skates and the competition outfit he wore when he helped Team USA win a bronze medal at the 2018 games to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

• Britain’s High Court has overturned pharmaceutical company Gilead Science’s patent extension on Truvada. This ruling could mean affordable, generic versions of the drug could be available in the UK by April 2019.

• Roseanne Barr says the upcoming Roseanne spinoff, The Connors, will kill off her character by having her die of opioid overdose as a 'screw you' to Trump supporters. However, in the recent season of the rebooted Roseanne, writers had laid the groundwork for her character to struggle with prescription pain killer addiction.

• Digital series After Forever won "Best Short Film Ensemble" at the L.A. Indie Film Festival this weekend.

• A Sesame Street writer admits he always considered and wrote the longtime characters Bert & Ernie as a "loving couple."

The folks at Sesame Street did respond to the recent revelation by tweeting a statement about the "best friends" which read, in part, "Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation."

Please see our statement below regarding Bert and Ernie. pic.twitter.com/6r2j0XrKYu

— Sesame Workshop (@SesameWorkshop) September 18, 2018

Podcast: Kevin Spirtas Talks On His New Amazon Series, "After Forever"

Out actor/producer/writer Kevin Spirtas has spearheaded a new digital series set to premiere on Amazon Video April 24th titled, After Forever.

With a tag line that reads, “A story about love, loss and new beginnings,” the series chronicles the journey of a gay couple, their group of friends, and how they deal with the losses in their lives.

Kevin chats with me about After Forever in this episode of The Randy Report.



Fans know Kevin not only from his long-running role as "Dr. Craig Wesley" on Days of Our Lives, and films like the Friday the 13th series, but he's also an Indie Series Award winner and garnered an Emmy nomination for his work on the digital series Winterthorne; plus there's his many appearances on Broadway in hits like A Chorus Line, Hairspray, Meet Me In St. Louis and The Boy from Oz where he stood by for superstar Hugh Jackman.

He’s also had a second parallel career as a producer of projects like staged readings at the New York Shakespeare Festival (starring Meryl Streep no less!), and was on the producing teams that brought the Finian’s Rainbow revival as well as Priscilla Queen of the Desert to Broadway.

The series features also features terrific actors like Mitchell Anderson (Doogie Howser, Party of Five), Tony Award winner Cady Huffman (Will Rogers Follies, The Producers), Tony Award nominee Anita Gillette (Chapter Two), and tons of TV & Broadway veterans like Jamison Stern, Jim Newman, Colleen Zenk and Michael Urie (Ugly Betty).

For more info about the show, head to the official website AfterForeverTheSeries.com

After Forever stars Mitchell Anderson (L) and Kevin Spirtas (R)