Gay-Friendly Las Vegas: Shows, Bars and Resorts
Las Vegas never grew a Castro or a Boystown, and the reason is revealing. In most American cities, gay culture built its own district…
The Casino as a Film Set: From Ocean’s to Uncut Gems
Few locations do as much narrative work for a filmmaker as a casino floor. The space explains itself instantly: money is present, risk is…
Why Reality TV Finales Still Draw Big Ratings
Television audiences have scattered across a dozen streaming platforms, appointment viewing has largely collapsed, and yet one format keeps producing genuinely large live numbers:…
Residency Economics: What Headliners Actually Sign
In the summer of 1969, Elvis Presley opened at Kirk Kerkorian’s International Hotel on a deal reported at $100,000 a week, an arrangement Colonel…
A History of Betting on the Oscars
Betting on the Academy Awards is an odd proposition when examined closely. The result is not uncertain in the way a football match is…
The Economics of the Music Biopic
In the autumn of 2018, a Queen biopic that had lost its original director mid-shoot and drawn lukewarm reviews became one of the most…
Drag Race as a Global TV Franchise
When RuPaul’s Drag Race premiered on the niche cable channel Logo on 2 February 2009, it looked like an affectionate, low-budget curiosity: nine queens,…
How the Preferential Ballot Decides Best Picture
Since the ceremony honouring the films of 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has chosen its top prize through a system…
A Brief History of the Christmas Number One Race
Every December, the United Kingdom stages a pop ritual with no real equivalent anywhere else: the race for the Christmas number one. The prize…
The Drag Residency Boom in Las Vegas
“RuPaul’s Drag Race Live!” opened at the Flamingo on January 30, 2020, six weeks before Nevada shut every showroom in the state. It was…