The Actors Fund and Doyle Auctioneers & Appraisers have teamed up for “an auction event without precedent,” featuring a diverse array of rare and one-of-a-kind memorabilia from stars of Hollywood, Broadway, and beyond. This “landmark live auction,” set for Wednesday, April 28, will allow collectors and fans around the world to participate digitally, with live online bidding through BidLive!
The Actors Fund, the nonprofit that serves as a “safety net” for workers in the performing arts and entertainment industry, has provided more than $20 million in emergency financial assistance to more than 15,800 performers nationwide during the first year of the pandemic.
To continue supporting those still sidelined by the pandemic, The Actors Fund will receive all proceeds from items sold at the auction as well as all proceeds from donations by the auction’s online viewers. Additionally, the organization will reap 100 percent of sales from auctioned items in a collection of donated goods specially curated by the auction’s third partner and driving force behind the event, stage and screen star Christine Baranski.
“I asked my friends and colleagues of stage and screen to lend support to this meaningful auction, and the response has been extraordinary,” Baranski says in an official release. “Our colleagues in the performing arts need our support during this incredibly difficult time of crisis. The Actors Fund has provided a much-needed lifeline to our industry, and their work is nothing short of miraculous. I know I’m excited to see what Dolly Parton, Cher, Julie Andrews, Bruce Springsteen, and over 20-plus incredible stage and screen legends are pulling out of their closet!”
Some of the many highlights up for bid include an autographed pair of black-and-brown boots that Lin-Manuel Miranda wore in Hamilton; iconic glasses from Elton John; the leather suit Alan Cumming wore when he won a Tony in 1998 for Cabaret; Bob Mackie dresses from Carol Burnett; an autographed, limited leather-bound copy of the Downton Abbey screenplay; original drawings by Oscar- and Tony-winning costume designer Cecil Beaton, including a hat design from My Fair Lady and an ensemble for Barbra Streisand’s character in On A Clear Day You Can See Forever; gowns Baranski wore to the Golden Globes, the Emmys, and the Kennedy Center Honors; and celebrated dresses worn over the past decade by Tina Fey, Bette Midler, and Glenn Close. –Doug Rule
The “Stage & Screen” Live Online Auction is Wednesday, April 28, starting at 10 a.m. Visit www.doyle.com for more information including an interactive auction catalog.
More than 100 prominent celebrities have signed on to a letter urging President Donald Trump's administration to hold off on implementing budget cuts that would eliminate specialized services for LGBTQ youth who contact the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
Since its launch in 2022, callers to contact the national suicide prevention lifeline by dialing 988 have been given the option of speaking with counselors trained to work with specific populations, from Spanish-language speakers to LGBTQ youth.
The 988 service for LGBTQ youth has received nearly 1.3 million calls, texts, and chat messages since launching three years ago, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In February alone, the program received a daily average of 2,100 crisis contacts, reports The Hill.
"Here are my dad's parents. And that's my mom's parents And these are all the houses my parents have owned -- my sister and I made this collage for them."
Michael Urie is using Zoom to pilot me around a room he's currently occupying. He's visiting his parents in Texas over the Memorial Day Weekend, a brief respite from filming season three of Shrinking, the hit Apple TV+ comedy series he stars in alongside Jason Segal, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, and Christa Miller. Urie's better half, actor and filmmaker Ryan Spahn, is in Chicago wrapping up a show.
There isn't a great deal of originality in Jamie Wax's new play, Call Me Izzy, but it may well mark the first time a white porcelain toilet has been featured so prominently in a Broadway production.
The 90-minute, one-woman show opens in the bathroom of a mobile home, situated in a trailer park in rural Louisiana, where Isabelle "Izzy" Scutley (Jean Smart, Hacks) spends much of her time, scribbling on sheets of toilet paper with a mascara pen. Poetically, she describes the various shades of blue produced by the disinfectant tablets that she gingerly drops in the tank. To her, they are beautiful. To her husband, Ferd, not so much.
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