Queer TV Fix: Laura Prepon’s In For S2 of “Orange,” Demi Lovato Is In Santana Lopez’s Pants on “Glee”

Orange is The New Black:

Big news, ladies: Alex Vause isn’t quite done with you yet.

At the Variety/Women in Film Pre-Emmy Party last Friday, Prepon “aimed to counter reports that she would not be a presence in the sophomore year of Orange Is the New Black,” assuring reporters that she is “definitely coming back for season two.” Prepon added: “I know what’s happening, but I can’t spoil anything… I know there’s a lot floating around, but I can’t wait to get back there. It’s exciting.”

When asked if she was prepared for the show to be as successful as its been, Prepon responsed: “I don’t think anybody was. It’s so awesome, and the fans have just been so supportive. It’s really unbelievable. People have said a bunch of really nice things.”

Prior to this piece of news, rumor had it that Prepon would return for one episode only. Although filming has begun, it seems Prepon hasn’t yet returned to the set, which means there’s still plenty of room for us to nervously speculate while maniacally cruising tumblr for Alex Vause gifs.

In other Orange is the New Black news, it appears Natasha Lyonne and her But I’m a Cheerleader co-star Clea Duvall reunited at the Emmys on Sunday. From Natasha’s instagram:

natasha-instagram-2

natasha

Glee:

Everybody’s pretty pumped for Demi Lovato to join the cast of Glee as Santana’s new girlfriend, debuting in Episode 502, “Tina in the Sky With Diamonds,” which promises Santana finding a “potential new love interest” at The Spotlight Diner, “if only she has the courage to seize it.”

The folks at ET Canada asked Lovato about kissing scenes with Naya Rivera, to which Lovato noted, “She’s gorgeous, so it’s not hard.” Furthermore: “I am just really honoured I get to play one of the first young lesbian couples on primetime TV.” Lovato talked to ET about her work raising awareness around eating disorders and mental health, adding that she hopes her role on Glee will remind her fans that it’s “cool to be who you are.”

Naya Rivera spoke to E! News yesterday about the new storyline. When asked if there’d be any love scenes, Naya responded, “There is no love scene. I don’t do love scenes. Well, there is no love scene yet.” However, were there to be a love scene, Naya joked that her boyfriend Big Sean “definitely has to direct it.” That sounds like the worst idea ever, but moving on to additional pressing questions, E! asked Naya if it was “easier” for her to kiss a man or a woman, to which Naya responded, “on Glee, I have to kiss both women and men, and I would say it is easier to kiss women.”

Naya Rivera Dot Com also has some new photos of Rivera and Lovato on set:

via-naya-rivera-dot-com

well, a movie sounds nice, but oral sex sounds even nicer!

caption

i can’t wait to get you home and unbutton all 56 of those buttons

i'm already wearing my rodeoh

yup, i’ve already got my rodeoh on

Judging by these photographs, it seems their place of employment, The Spotlight Diner, will be the Fake Glee version of Ellen’s Stardust Diner in Times Square, where the servers, mostly aspiring actors, are required to sing all the time. It’s actually a profoundly irritating place to attempt to consume food, but I digress.

Fox has released a few additional videos in anticipation of Thursday’s premiere, including Rachel Berry’s 30-second callback for Funny Girl..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL6FEU0IL0M

…and Sue Sylvester’s return to McKinley, as principal…
http://youtu.be/XV_Gt-zJXLA

…and Darren Criss taking on some Beatles Trivia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hvX1N2SloE

Meanwhile, I am emotionally preparing myself to recap yet another season of this strange situation starting Thursday night. Pray for me.

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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3271 articles for us.

26 Comments

  1. The captions on those Glee photos made me LOL at my desk. Riese, I am really looking forward to the return of your Glee recaps, even if you are not looking forward to writing them.

  2. Glee is like a cheap donut — I know it will probably make me sick after I eat it, I spend a fair amount of time thinking about changing my diet so I don’t crave one anymore, it never actually fills me in a substantial way, but goddamnit if I don’t grab and buy one every time I see it and hope for the best.

    Be a good donut this season, Glee. Be the donut that I’ve always hoped for.

  3. Wow, ambition affects your judgment in terrible ways. Does Naya think saying it’s easier to kiss women than men somehow makes up for saying her b/f should direct a love scene, should there be one with Demi? As if that’s walking the line? I’m confused as to why she even said it, though she probably had to fill her quota of Big Sean mentions given the subject was her lesbian storyline. Someone’s keeping score.

    • I think she just meant that she would feel more comfortable, that if ever she did a sex scene, that her partner would be the one directing it. I went back to re-read, I don’t see what’s wrong with her preferring her boyfriend to direct said scene that is upsetting. I don’t mean to be rude, but did I miss something?

      • That would be fair, but I think 1) Naya’s not that shy re: PDA, and 2) she knows that a significant percentage of her lesbian fanbase, which she continues to play to, feels about her recent hyper-heterosexualized image projection (saying she’s straight only capped it). He’s not a bad guy (I like him), but she mentions him as much as possible, and if I didn’t think she was hiding her queerness, I’d think it odd that she feels the need to mention her b/f so often when the context is queerness of any kind. It sounded like she felt pressured/cornered to say she’s straight in that recent interview, but anyone with eyes knows she’s not (and many people know a bit more than that). Her relationship with Big Sean could be real, but I’m personally suspicious of the timing and clear opportunism of all of this. Naya strikes me as highly strategic and deliberate, so I don’t think it was something that just slipped out.

        I also realize she’s compelled to do this if she wants to be a huge success, but I

        • I think I see what you mean now. I don’t know Naya, just know her from the Glee fame, but what I’m gathering is that she queer-baits & back-peddles? that would erk me as well.

          Whether it was a calculated move, or she is not at a comfortable place to be herself publicly, that is something I will stay away from lol

        • Not to turn this into a comment thread about Naya, but I feel like if she says she’s straight we should respect that. I don’t know that she’s ever been asked point blank about her sexuality in an interview like that before. She obviously doesn’t have a problem with queer people or queerness in general, but if she’s not “one of us” she’s not. Also her and Big Sean are super cute together, so.

    • I don’t know Naya so I may be way off-base with what I am about to say but sometimes I feel like she’s using Big Sean to boost her music career. She does talk about him a lot in interviews. They did that photoshoot together recently and they often make appearances together. Not that other celeb couples don’t do that as well but their is just something about this particular couple’s self-promotion that irks me lately. Especially when you consider the timing of it all(both with new albums to promote and a new season of Glee premiering). We’ve never seen Naya like this before with anybody so that may be where some of my skepticism comes from.

    • In the interview where she jokingly said her boyfriend should direct the love scene, the interviewer (Billy Bush, IIRC) brought it up, saying something like “How does your boyfriend feel about that, does he get to be there?” Basically being gross. And Naya laughed it off and said something like, “Yeah, he’d direct.”

      Two interviews that she’s done recently, on Access Hollywood and E! News, the male interviewers have been pretty gross in the way they’ve asked her about her same-sex relationships on Glee, and I don’t really fault her for just laughing it off, because really what is she supposed to say? She doesn’t have the clout of an Anne Hathaway or a Scarlett Johannson, who are both known for putting interviewers in their place when they ask degrading questions.

    • really i think of myself more like moses, commanded by a burning bush to fulfill these duties in g-d’s name

  4. Well Laura Prepon says that she’s coming back, but now for how long, so maybe she was just addressing the earlier rumors that she won’t be in S2 at all and not the latest ones. She’s a scientologist (ugh) and I’ve heard rumors that the “church” isn’t happy at all with all the homogayness in OITNB, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she only ends up in a few episodes or bumped down to a tertiary character.

    Also I’ve quit Glee in the beginning of S3 but still read Riese’s recaps because they’re hilarious, but this year I’ll try to boycott them because I feel guilty supporting such inhumane mind torture with pageviews.

    • Maybe I’m thinking of someone else, but I think I heard that she quit Scientology and was only really in it because she was IRL dating the dude who played Hyde on “That 70s Show,” who is a big Scientologist.

      • Must have been someone else. Laura was just at that big Scientology charity event a few weeks ago. A lot of celebs went to that.

  5. As much as I adore Naya Rivera the constant ‘promotion’ of her relationship is becoming somewhat tiresome. I’m surprised she hasn’t officially changed her name to Big Sean’s Girlfriend.

  6. okay, this sentiment contradicts all my good judgment of how things realistically go for young aspiring actors in new york, as well as my usual feelings about glee…

    but that clip of rachel was so endearing that I hope she gets the part.

  7. Sometimes I think, “hmm, compared to some people I guess I don’t really have much of a “type” when it comes to women” and then I see something like this and realize wait, yes I do and it’s basically just Clea DuVall. (Why isn’t she in OINTB yet? That seems like it should definitely happen somehow. Natasha, get on it!)

    (Also in Googling Clea DuVall just now I came across this amazing bit of reportage: “Argo star Clea DuVall shares lesbian kisses with female friend during day of passion”!)

  8. So, is Laura Prepon going to be in more than one episode? 2 episodes? 3 episodes? She’s not even my favorite character but I can’t imagine her not being in the show. When I first heard those rumors, I was SO disappointed.

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