{"id":94212,"date":"2025-09-07T22:19:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=94212"},"modified":"2025-09-07T22:19:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:19:23","slug":"a-piece-of-peacemaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2025\/09\/07\/a-piece-of-peacemaker\/","title":{"rendered":"A Piece of Peacemaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meanwhile, back in California, Marissa Jaret Winokur <\/strong>is returning to the world of Hairspray<\/em><\/strong>.  Last week, 5-Star Theatricals <\/em>announced a three-week run of the beloved Broadway <\/em>musical, which will be directed by Winokur.  And she\u2019ll be in familiar company.  Her best friend, Ryan O\u2019Connor<\/strong>, will be playing Edna, and Becky Lythgoe <\/strong>will take on the role of Velma.  As to Corny Collins, she\u2019s enlisted the aid of Link from Hairspray LIVE! <\/em><\/strong>\u2013 our own Garrett Clayton<\/strong>!  \u201cI 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\u2019t wait to get started!\u201d  The show opens on October 10th<\/sup> at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center <\/em>in Thousand Oaks, California.  Grab your tix at 5StarTheatricals.com<\/u><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Hairspray<\/em> connection continues with news that another beloved movie is making the transition to the stage.  Romy and Michele: The Musical<\/em><\/strong> will open off-Broadway <\/em>on October 28th<\/sup>.  Taking on the role of Romy (played in the film by Mira Sorvino<\/strong>) will be Laura Bell Bundy<\/strong>, who created the role of Amber von Tussel in Hairspray<\/em> on Broadway<\/em>.  Fun fact \u2013 this week, Mira Sorvino is making her Broadway <\/em>debut in Chicago<\/em><\/strong> as Roxie Hart.<\/p>\n

\"colorbar1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another former Roxie, Pamela Anderson<\/strong>, is considering appearing in another musical \u2013 but this time on film.  Queen of the Falls<\/em><\/strong> 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<\/strong>.  Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

\"colorbar1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Julie Chen <\/strong>recently revealed that she was not the first choice to host Big Brother<\/em><\/strong>.  Tell us something we don\u2019t know?  Julie\u2019s rarely the first choice for anything, including the role of Mrs. Moonves (that honor goes to Nancy Wiesenfeld<\/strong>, who Leslie married back in 1978).  Julie says that the network\u2019s first choice for hosting the reality show was Meredith Vieira<\/strong>.  How one goes from Meredith to Chen is another of those unsolved mysteries.  What I couldn\u2019t have predicted was that Julie initially turned down the gig.  Why?  Because she had aspirations to be a correspondent on 60 Minutes<\/em><\/strong>!  The brass assured her that hosting a reality show would have no bearing on her chances to join 60 Minutes<\/em>.  Either way, she\u2019d never get that gig.<\/p>\n

\"colorbar1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Deep in my Ask Billy<\/em><\/strong> sack was a question from Jason <\/strong>in New York City with a reality TV connection: \u201cWho is Freddie Stroma<\/strong>, the hot blond on <\/em>Peacemaker<\/strong>?  I think you\u2019ve written about him before.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I have indeed, but it\u2019s been a while.  I first discovered Freddie in 2015 when he starred in UnREAL<\/em><\/strong>, Lifetime<\/em>\u2019s spoof of The Bachelor<\/em><\/strong>.  That\u2019s also where he met his future wife, but we don\u2019t need to go into that.  Fun fact \u2013 Freddie\u2019s legal name is Frederic Wilhelm C. J. Sj\u00f6str\u00f6m<\/strong>, which is of some sort of Scandinavian derivation and may very well be the name of the leading man in A Little Night Music<\/em><\/strong>.  Since I don\u2019t watch Peacemaker<\/em>, 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<\/u><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"colorbar1\"<\/p>\n

When we\u2019re featuring a straight thing on a very gay website, we\u2019ve 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\u2019s stamina.  In fact, he\u2019s still as energetic as ever, which fits in well on  www.BillyMasters.com<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 the site that\u2019ll leave you breathless.  If you\u2019ve got a question for me, send it along to Billy@BillyMasters.com<\/a><\/strong> and I promise to get back to you before Tucker proves Pete\u2019s gay.  So, until next time, remember, one man\u2019s filth is another man\u2019s bible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019ll be in familiar company.  Her best friend, Ryan O\u2019Connor, will be playing Edna, and Becky Lythgoe will take on the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94213,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94212\/revisions\/94213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}