Porn performer James Deen will not discuss his Canyons costar Lindsay Lohan. But he will discuss his experiences with gay sex, both onscreen—in Paul Schrader’s aforementioned bizarrely mesmerizing and already-storied thriller—and in his real life. What does that say about a performer whose heterosexuality is a commodity that’s sold countless straight porn movies, including Farrah Abraham’s “sex tape?”

It's hard to say which is rarer: meaty, star-making roles for trans actors or careers that cross over from reality TV to acting. Laverne Cox has both. She competed on VH1's I Want to Work for Diddy, developed/starred in that network's makeover show TRANSform Me, and now she steals scenes as Sophia on Netflix's phenomenal women's prison comedy-drama Orange is the New Black. In case you are behind, OITNB is so compulsively captivating that it feels less like a show and more like a life event: I didn't so much watch it as I felt it happening.

I could hardly believe how easy director Brian De Palma was to talk to when I spoke to him in advance of the release of his 29th feature film, Passion (out on VOD August 1 and in select theaters August 30). He was generous with his time and refeshing with his candor. He was relaxed, open to critique, and surprisingly humble for someone who's directed bonafide classics (Carrie, The Untouchables and Scarface) and cult favorites (Body Double, Dressed To Kill, Femme Fatale), alike. He was willing to discuss subjects that might make other directors bristle—the possibility of unintentional comedy in his work, or the idea that his films are "camp." He even came come close to admitting that at 72, he's most likely peaked as a director.

Jack Handey has written "Deep Thoughts" for Saturday Night Live, "Shouts and Murmurs" for The New Yorker, and last week published his first novel, The Stench of Honolulu. He is one of the funniest living writers in the world today. He spoke to us via email about comedy, the perils of notoriety, and the best nut.

Adelle Waldman originally set out to write a response to all the novels about young literary men coming to New York. For her, there always seemed to be a key element missing from the romantic relationships in these books; The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. and its central character directly addresses the complications of love affairs that are so often glossed over.

Alec Baldwin is cranky. Alec Baldwin doesn't know "what the young people listen to," and Alec Baldwin definitely doesn't want his unborn child's future best friend Susie to recognize him on the tellyvision. So Alec Baldwin is quitting Twitter and (threatening) to quit acting forever.

Welcome to Next Question With Michael Musto, a regular feature in which the veteran La Dolce Musto writer uses his time-honed skills to interrogate big celebrities, former celebrities, and wannabe celebrities. Musto is a pop culture icon, regular TV presence, and the author of four books, including his latest collection, Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back.

When the Guardian and Washington Post published their blockbuster NSA reports based on Ed Snowden's leaks, journalists lined up conga-style to congratulate them on the scoops. Not Cryptome. Instead, the secret-killing site blasted the Guardian and Post for only publishing 4 of the 41 slides that Snowden gave them about PRISM, the NSA's system for spying on the internet.

Today marks the eighth day of Bradley Manning's court-martial for leaking more than 700,000 United States government documents to Wikileaks. Although the 25-year-old former Army intelligence analyst has confessed to disclosing classified information, including diplomatic cables and war logs from Afghanistan and Iraq, Manning has not pled guilty to his most serious allegation, “aiding the enemy,” a capital offense that could result in a life sentence.

Welcome to Next Question With Michael Musto, a regular feature in which the veteran La Dolce Musto writer uses his time-honed skills to interrogate big celebrities, former celebrities, and wannabe celebrities. Musto is a pop culture icon, regular TV presence, and the author of four books, including his latest collection, Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back.

Lovable crabby old lady Elaine Stritch tells Vanity Fair, "I’m about as unhappy as anybody can be." Interview's still a hoot, of course.

In case you didn't get the messages he left on your machine telling you about it, Kanye West has just given a textbook-crazy Kanye West interview (long; intermittently lucid; featuring a name drop of former Balenciaga creative director Nicolas Ghesquière) to the New York Times. You can read the gospel here.

GQ has published an amazing interview with comedian/smirking beet Ricky Gervais, in which writer Chris Heath calls him on his arrogant shit, Gervais faintly protests and then backs right into confirming the accusations of assholery anyway. This happens again and again. If self-awareness is the string, Gervais is a yo-yo.

Endlessly malfunctioning pop cultural disaster Michelle Shocked appeared on last night's Piers Morgan Live to clarify last month's seemingly anti-gay babble that pushed her into the spotlight like never before. She was, in a word, opaque.

Proving that even at his worst, he is among the best, impish rapper Lil Wayne appeared on L.A.'s Power 106 to discuss his new album, I Am Not a Human Being II, and not dying. Wayne added his voice to the chorus disappointed by his new set of songs — Human Being II has received mixed reviews and is one of the most tepidly received releases in the critical darling's oeuvre.

Anyone with eyes and a memory that goes back at least to the early '00s advent of Bad Boy Records knows that the meme or whatever it is of people convulsing arhythmically that is currently masquerading as the "Harlem Shake" is not the Harlem Shake. A filmmaker named Chris McGuire took to Harlem for man-on-the-street reactions and what starts as a jokey sort of montage gains intensity for the impassioned anti-appropriation sentiment the nu-Shake provokes. "It's not no dance, it's really a lifestyle," says one guy. "It's actually an art form, a dance art form that doesn't have the respect it deserves," says another. "Injustice," says yet another.

Last night, two space aliens sat down on a couch and drooled at each other in a pantomime of human interaction on Oprah's Next Chapter. For an unilluminating hour Oprah Winfrey surrendered her usual alpha role probably because that was part of Beyoncé's intergalactic rider. With the big, timely but ultimately fluffy interviews, Oprah tends to endlessly ass kiss, but this was over the top even for her. She referred to Beyoncé as the "preeminent mistress of the universe"" praised Bey's small number of cell phones and unleashed a string of adjectives to praise Beyoncé's anti-exposé of an HBO documentary, Life Is But a Dream, which ran immediately after. In Oprah's estimation, the film is "familiar, unfamiliar, exciting, exhilarating, riveting and personal and intimate and empowering."

Allison Williams, co-star of the HBO hit Girls, is the daughter of NBC News anchor Brian Williams, a man who makes his living by asking the tough questions. A cynic might even allege that Allison Williams would not be a famous TV star now were it not for her famous newsman dad. It would seem ironic, then, for Allison Williams to be instructing her PR soldiers to CENSOR even the gentlest of puff interviews.

The best interviews either confirm something that viewers have always hoped to be true or surprises them utterly; Emmanuelle Riva does both. Of course she is too tired to attend the BAFTAs; of course she is happiest when she is working. She is everything we want an 85-year-old Frenchwoman in the middle of an unexpected career resurgence and more.

In a Fuse interview with pop cultural cockroach Alexa Chung (she will not go away), Justin Bieber's mom Pattie Mallette revealed her displeasure over his lack of nominations for the upcoming Grammy Awards. Just like everyone in his circle, including his own self-entitled ass, she has an issue with him being denied the possibility of a trophy to recognize his popularity.