Kenny Leon likes to keep busy. As if he weren’t swamped directing Broadway shows, he’s written a book “Direction: Making the Most of the Performance of Your Life” coming from Regalo Press on Dec. 1.
With a foreword by Tom Hanks, it brings together 21 lessons from Leon’s life and his work as a Tony Award-winning director.
He’s helming “The Conversation” starring Joshua Henry and Julia Harriman at Astor Place Theater. The musical begins previews Nov. 17 and opens Dec. 7 for a 10-week run.
Leon, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, was sitting on his porch when I phoned him. He said he wrote the book “to share some lessons that I’ve learned.”
One lesson came when Leon was a student at Clark Atlanta University competing in a sorority-sponsored Mr. Irresistible contest. Asked to name his heroes. He cited Richard Pryor and Muhammad Ali.
One woman in the audience stood up and protested, creating an uproar, and Leon, after waiting for the hubbub to die down, said, “Let me tell you why these men are my heroes.”
“I went on to talk about how Richard Pryor consistently exposed the rawest, most vulnerable parts of himself and dug up humor from the toughest, sometimes most-traumatic depths of his life — things like drug abuse, health scares, and relationship problems — just so he could make us laugh.”
As for the heavyweight champ, he said, “Muhammad Ali had refused to serve in the Vietnam War, saying he wasn’t going to go across the world to kill people who had never done him any harm on behalf of a nation whose policies and practices negatively impacted its Black citizens every day … The dude risked everything … even when his own people, and country, didn’t stand with him.”
“These men get us,” I said. “They understand how hard life is for us as young Black people … whether we admit it or not, we all benefit from their bravery.”
The audience went wild with approval and Leon won the pageant.
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Ivy Supersonic went to France where they named a school after her cousin, a lesbian pioneer who also changed her name.
Born Chawa Zloczewer into a Jewish family in Poland, Eve Adams emigrated to the US in 1912, took a new name, befriended anarchists, and ran lesbian-and-gay-friendly speakeasies in Chicago and New York. Then, in 1925, Adams risked all to write and publish a book titled “Lesbian Love.”
Adams’s bold activism caught the attention of the young J. Edgar Hoover and the US Bureau of Investigation, leading to her arrest. Adams was convicted of publishing an obscene book and of attempted sex with a policewoman sent to entrap her.
“My grandfather Alexander Migdall tried to pay to stop Eve from being deported but they jailed her and sent her back to Poland,” Ivy told me. “The Nazis murdered her, her mom and four siblings and their children for being Jewish. Never forget!”
“The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams” by historian Jonathan Ned Katz came out in 2021. “Universal is making the movie,” Ivy said.
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If Odysseus and Penelope were alive today instead of during “The Odyssey” they might drive Harleys. That’s what Anne Hathaway thinks.
She also says waiting 10-plus years for her man was her only choice.
“Odysseus is one of one and she loves him, she just doesn’t know where he is. I always felt Penelope was 100 percent ‘ride or die’ for him and if they lived in modern times they’d do things like ride motorcycles together. Not on the same one. She could handle her own bike.”
Hathaway revealed all this during a recent Critics Choice roundtable discussion. What she rode home in, or on, afterward wasn’t disclosed.
Anne Hathaway attends Amazon MGM Studios’ “Verity” New York Premiere at AMC Lincoln Square 13 on Sept. 29, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
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The dead don’t rest — they roast!
The Dead Comedian Contest is part comedy show, part Halloween party, and part live impersonation competition where performers bring their favorite late comedy legends back to life at the Comic Strip on Oct. 14.
Contestants dress as a deceased comedian, learn 3–5 minutes of their classic material, and recreate their voice, mannerisms and timing.
Three judges critique the performances, and the audience gets a vote too. Come and cheer your favorite dead ringer, and find out who can bring a comedy legend back from the grave.
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Fashion designer Frederick Anderson seems to draw bigger celebrities for The Blue Jacket Fashion Show out in Los Angeles than he did in New York.
The event — highlighting the importance of early detection to cure prostate cancer — marked its 10th anniversary on the rooftop of the W Hotel in Hollywood, its third year in LA.
Models included NFL legend Rodney Peete, “Dancing With the Stars” pro Gleb Savenchko, pro cyclist Dante Young, Britney Spears’ ex Sam Asghari and actors Ian Ziering, Terrence Terrell, Brett Brown and Everett Osborne.
Cheering them on as they strode the catwalk were LeBron’s wife Savannah James, Rod’s son Sean Stewart, and Tom Sandoval of “Vanderpump Rules.”
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Melissa Etheridge will be honored at Audrey Gruss’ Hope for Depression Research Foundation’s 20th annual luncheon and seminar at The Plaza on Nov. 10.
The singer founded the Etheridge Foundation following the tragic loss of her son Beckett to opioids in 2020, and has continued to support the development of transformative plant medicine treatments for opioid abuse.
“When I lost my son, I learned how much my capacity for love was,” she said. “Not only loving him and missing him … but loving myself enough not to go into a major depression.”
Other honorees have included Dakota Johnson, Michael Phelps and Anderson Cooper.
Melissa Etheridge speaks onstage at An Evening With Melissa Etheridge at Grammy Museum on Aug. 24, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
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The Ned’s Club NoMad on Broadway is gaining a world class health and wellness center of 20,000 square feet being developed by its sister club Soho House (for its own flagship North America Health Club.)
Ned’s members and hotel guests will have access to the fitness center, Pilates classes, ice baths, sauna, personal trainers, cryotherapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
The interiors reflect the historic character of the 1903 Beaux-Arts building with wood-paneled walls, antique lighting and sculptural stone ice baths beneath tall arched windows.
“Our members have told us they want their club to be part of their whole day, not just their evenings,” said a Ned spokesperson.
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October — Breast Cancer Awareness Month — will be marked by events from coast to coast.
Susan G. Komen’s Party in Pink will be held Oct. 14 in New York, while the artist Mike Han kicked things off in Detroit by transforming a Hermès Birkin with his calligraphy artwork.
The iconic handbag, named after the actress Jane Birkin, is a favorite of celebrities including Victoria Beckham, Kendall Jenner and Jennifer Lopez.
Han donated the one-of-a-kind piece to the Dynami Foundation, a charity dedicated to breast cancer research.
The Birkin is being auctioned online at charitybuzz.com, with an estimated value of over $40k.
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Cynthia Bailey, of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” will be honored at the Park Lane New York on Oct. 14 for taking care of her mother, a breast cancer survivor.
The CABS Health Network will also honor NYC Council Member Mercedes Narcisse and SOMOS executive director Rosa Maria Pelton Alcantara.
Cynthia Bailey, star of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” arrives on the pink carpet at Australia’s first-ever exclusive reality TV event, Hayu FanFest Sydney on Aug. 15, 2026 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Wendell Teodoro/Getty Images for Hayu)
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Out & about: Wendy Williams, looking better than ever, dined on waffles with her bodyguard at Carnegie Diner & Cafe in the new Voco Times Square Broadway Hotel … Candace Bergen and Marlo Thomas saw “Every Brilliant Thing” at the Hudson Theater … Nathan Lane, Hank Azaria, Jamie de Roy, Richard Ridge, Steve and Debbie Garrin celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Robin Williams Center with a screening of “The Birdcage.”