Meanwhile, back in California, Marissa Jaret Winokur is returning to the world of Hairspray.  Last week, 5-Star Theatricals announced a three-week run of the beloved Broadway musical, which will be directed by Winokur.  And she’ll be in familiar company.  Her best friend, Ryan O’Connor, will be playing Edna, and Becky Lythgoe will take on the role of Velma.  As to Corny Collins, she’s enlisted the aid of Link from Hairspray LIVE! – our own Garrett Clayton!  “I knew he had to be my Corny Collins!  He was so fantastic as Link.  I always said Link would grow up to be Corny!  So this was the easiest casting of all times!  I started begging lol and he stopped me and said yes!!  I feel so grateful!  Can’t wait to get started!”  The show opens on October 10^th at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center in Thousand Oaks, California.  Grab your tix at 5StarTheatricals.com.

The Hairspray connection continues with news that another beloved movie is making the transition to the stage.  Romy and Michele: The Musical will open off-Broadway on October 28^th.  Taking on the role of Romy (played in the film by Mira Sorvino) will be Laura Bell Bundy, who created the role of Amber von Tussel in Hairspray on Broadway.  Fun fact – this week, Mira Sorvino is making her Broadway debut in Chicago as Roxie Hart.

Another former Roxie, Pamela Anderson, is considering appearing in another musical – but this time on film.  Queen of the Falls is described as a tale about two lovers on the run.  Obviously Pamela would be one of the leads, and her lover may very well be played by Guy Pearce.  Stay tuned.

Julie Chen recently revealed that she was not the first choice to host Big Brother.  Tell us something we don’t know?  Julie’s rarely the first choice for anything, including the role of Mrs. Moonves (that honor goes to Nancy Wiesenfeld, who Leslie married back in 1978).  Julie says that the network’s first choice for hosting the reality show was Meredith Vieira.  How one goes from Meredith to Chen is another of those unsolved mysteries.  What I couldn’t have predicted was that Julie initially turned down the gig.  Why?  Because she had aspirations to be a correspondent on 60 Minutes!  The brass assured her that hosting a reality show would have no bearing on her chances to join 60 Minutes.  Either way, she’d never get that gig.

Deep in my Ask Billy sack was a question from Jason in New York City with a reality TV connection: “Who is Freddie Stroma, the hot blond on Peacemaker?  I think you’ve written about him before.”

I have indeed, but it’s been a while.  I first discovered Freddie in 2015 when he starred in UnREAL, Lifetime’s spoof of The Bachelor.  That’s also where he met his future wife, but we don’t need to go into that.  Fun fact – Freddie’s legal name is Frederic Wilhelm C. J. Sjöström, which is of some sort of Scandinavian derivation and may very well be the name of the leading man in A Little Night Music.  Since I don’t watch Peacemaker, I did have to research this and was delighted to find the footage of Freddie clad only in his tighty whities while being doused with some sort of alcoholic beverage.  It must be a straight thing, but you can see it on BillyMasters.com.

When we’re featuring a straight thing on a very gay website, we’ve definitely come to the end of yet another column.  I am delighted to report that the intervening decade has not taken too much of a toll on Stroma’s stamina.  In fact, he’s still as energetic as ever, which fits in well on  www.BillyMasters.com – the site that’ll leave you breathless.  If you’ve got a question for me, send it along to Billy@BillyMasters.com and I promise to get back to you before Tucker proves Pete’s gay.  So, until next time, remember, one man’s filth is another man’s bible.