“You shouldn’t stress yourself or ever try and compare yourself to be like anybody else,” says Rumer Willis. “You just have to show people who you are. Go out there and interact, and really give people a chance to get to know you.”
It’s a mantra the oldest daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore clearly lives by. If she ever feels burdened to prove herself or her talent because of her celebrity parents, she doesn’t let on. Instead, over the past few years Willis has quietly, diligently, been plotting her own course to fame, reaping both recognition and rewards entirely of her own making. Most notably, Willis pushed herself to have all the right moves last year, winning season 20 of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars. “I didn’t grow up with any kind of formal dance training,” she says, “so that was definitely a new experience for me.”
It was also great preparation for her debut on Broadway a few months later, as Roxie Hart in Chicago. “I’ve wanted to do Broadway my entire life, and I especially love Chicago. It was really kind of a surreal experience. It was just such a dream come true.” But the best was yet to come, when Willis earned perhaps the highest praise of her career so far in a glowing review by the New York Times of the 28-year-old’s cabaret debut at the Cafe Carlyle.
“Her voice is strong with a wailing upper register,” wrote Stephen Holden. “She didn’t overdo it…. She’s a natural.” No wonder other cabaret venues, including Amp in North Bethesda, were eager to book Willis to reprise the show, which includes covers by artists as diverse as Billie Holiday, Brandi Carlile and Fiona Apple, in addition to a Chicago standard or two. “I want to give more people in the country a chance to kind of see what I’m doing and hear me sing,” Willis says.
She sees her cabaret as an interactive form of expression. “It’s a mix of singing, storytelling and hopefully a lot of laughter,” she says. “I go out into the audience and ask people about their stories and give them a chance to really get to know me and me to get to know them.”
In addition to that refreshing sense of humility and geniality, Willis also strives to make everyone feel welcome. “I’m a huge supporter of the LGBT community. My goal and my dream is to hopefully do anything and everything I can to create a world where there’s more acceptance and love for everyone.”
Rumer Willis performs Wednesday, Oct. 26, at 8 p.m., at Amp by Strathmore, 11810 Grand Park Ave. in North Bethesda, Md. Tickets are $40 to $50 and include a meet-and-greet with Willis after the show. Call 301-581-5100 or visit ampbystrathmore.com.
Nearly 1 in 4 of the corporate donors of New York City's annual Pride festivities have pulled support for 2025, citing economic uncertainty and fear of retribution from the Trump administration.
Heritage of Pride, the organization that produces New York City's Pride festivities, now faces a shortfall of nearly $750,000, according to the New York Times.
The loss has prompted organizers to launch a grassroots fundraising campaign, hoping to raise $25,000 by the end of June to keep Pride events "free and accessible for all."Ā
Only one of five "Platinum" sponsors ($175,000 donation) from last year has re-upped its commitment: cosmetics giant L'Oreal, which donated through an LGBTQ employee group.Ā Garnier, Skyy Vodka, and Mastercard have either scaled back their financial support or withdrawn support completely.
A fundamentalist church in Indianapolis is defending a June 29 sermon in which a lay preacher urged congregants to pray for LGBTQ people to die and suggested they kill themselves.
The remarks, delivered by Stephen Falco during a āMenās Preaching Nightā at Sure Foundation Baptist Church, included multiple homophobic slurs, biblical references, and rants against Pride Month, LGBTQ rights, and what he called ādisgustingā and āevilā behavior, according to TheĀ Indianapolis Star.Ā
"Why do I hate sodomites, why do I hate f****ts? Because they attack children," Falco ranted in the sermon, video of which was posted to Sure Foundation Baptist Church's YouTube channel. "They're coming after your children, they are attacking them in schools today, and not only schools, in public places, and they're proud about it!
A masked assailant threw a sharp rock through the front window of a gay couple's home in Northeast D.C., striking one of the men in the head.
The attack occurred last Friday in the cityās Kingman Park neighborhood, just as WorldPride weekend festivities were set to begin.
Surveillance video captured the assault. In the footage, a masked individual approaches the coupleās house -- decorated with rainbow Pride flags in the front yard -- and hurls a rock through the front window before fleeing. A cry can be heard from inside the home.
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