Filmmaker John Waters made a splash on Netflix last week for defending Baltimore’s honor and finally meeting fellow Baltimore comedian Stavros Halkias on John Mulaney’s new variety show, but other familiar faces from John Waters movies are getting attention too.
Divine, the drag star who appeared in eight of Waters’ 16 movies, and actresses Ricki Lake and Mink Stole have all been making headlines this spring. Also, a new tavern just opened in Baltimore that shares the name of a John Waters movie. Here’s a recap:
Dishin’ With Divine
Divine, who passed away in 1988 at age 42, is the subject of a new one-man play that had two invitation-only “industry readings” on April 4, two days after Waters appeared on “Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney” on Netflix.
“Dishin’ With Divine” is the title of the play, written and directed by Donald “Donnie” Horn, who goes by Donnie. He’s the creator of the Off-Broadway show “Make Me Gorgeous!”
Josh Lamon, who is currently playing Stefan in “Death Becomes Her” on Broadway, stars as Divine, the name Waters gave his friend and muse from Lutherville, Maryland, Harris Glenn Milstead. Lamon has also appeared on television in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Blacklist,” “30 Rock,” and “Inside Amy Schumer.” Details about the play and the read-throughs were first reported last week by Playbill.com, Broadwayworld.com and other trade publications and websites.
An industry reading is a workshop session in which producers invite guests to preview a play that’s in its early stages, not intended for paying audiences. The two readings for “Dishin’ With Divine” were held at the Ripley Grier Studios in Manhattan.
In this solo show about the star of “Hairspray” and “Pink Flamingos,” “audiences will meet the man behind the dress, Harris Glenn Milstead, as he relives the ups and downs of his remarkable career, cut short at only 42 years of age,” the producer said in announcing the industry readings.
Waters and Divine grew up near each other in Lutherville and became friends. Waters came up with the name Divine and made his friend part of his Dreamlanders film ensemble, casting him in his films from 1967 to 1988. In addition to “Pink Flamingos” (1972), and “Hairspray” (1988), Divine appeared in “Roman Candles” (1967); “Eat Your Makeup” (1968); “Mondo Trasho” (1969); “Multiple Maniacs” (1970); “Female Trouble” (1974); and “Polyester” (1981).
Starting in the 1970s, Divine performed in theater and film productions that weren’t John Waters projects. He appeared in several avant-garde performances with the San Francisco-based drag collective, The Cockettes, and two plays written by Tom Eyen, “Women Behind Bars” and “The Neon Woman.” He was in two 1985 movies, “Trouble in Mind” and “Lust in the Dust.”
During the disco era, he embarked on a singing career and had success with songs such as “You Think You’re a Man,” “I’m So Beautiful” (the inspiration for a mural by Gaia at 106 E. Preston Street in Baltimore), and “Walk Like A Man,” all performed in drag.
A Baltimore native like Waters, Harris died in California of a heart attack caused by an enlarged heart, just as he was about to film an appearance on the Fox TV sitcom, “Married…with Children.” He would be 79 today. He’s buried at Prospect Hill Cemetery, 701 York Road in Towson, where Waters also plans to be buried.
After his death, People magazine called Divine the “Drag Queen of the Century.” He has been the subject of previous books and films, including “Divine Trash,” a 1998 documentary directed by Steve Yeager, and “I Am Divine,” a 2013 documentary directed by Jeffrey Schwarz, and “My Son Divine,” a biography written by his mother, Frances Milstead, in collaboration with Yeager and Kevin Heffernan. His influence continues to be felt in the worlds of drag, film and popular culture, particularly in the LGBTQ community.
March 7 marked 37 years since Divine died, and visitors paid tribute to him by leaving tokens of affection at his grave, from flowers to coins to a shard of glazed pottery bearing the word ‘Divine.’ His tombstone was free of lipstick and other markings that have marred it in the past – an indication that visitors are obeying a sign that the cemetery management placed at the gravesite four years ago to discourage vandalism.
According to his website, Donnie is a playwright, author, historian, LGBTQ leader, director, documentarian, activist, set designer and producer. He founded Triangle Productions in Oregon in 1989 and remains the driving force behind the non-profit company, opening two performance spaces and writing more than 40 books, plays and musicals. In 2021, he and his theater company received the Oregon Heritage Excellence Award from the State of Oregon for his “Darcelle Project,” which resulted in the first LGBTQ places of business in Oregon being listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The playwright says he wants to tell the story of Divine’s rise to fame and what made him the gay icon who remains popular and relevant 37 years after his death. He says he’s particularly intrigued by Divine’s approach to and attitude about performing in drag.
“Divine said, ‘I am an entertainer, an actor, not a drag queen. My favorite part of dressing in drag is getting out of it. Drag is my work clothes. I only put it on when someone pays me to.’ I found that statement interesting. That’s what drove me to delve as much as I could into Harris Glenn Milstead’s life, which included Divine but not exclusively,” Donnie said in a statement.
Divine was “a son, a friend, a lover and yes, an actor/entertainer that just happened to be outrageous and whom the press called ‘The First Lady of Trash Cinema,’” Donnie continued in his statement. “I want the audience to get to know what made Harris tick — what John Waters saw and what as People magazine coined ‘The drag queen of the century.’ I love writing shows that explore gay icons and how they succeeded.”
The industry reading was presented by Triangle Productions. Visceral Entertainment is the general manager. Becky Abramowitz is the stage manager.
Noah Brodie, who oversees Divine’s estate as CEO of Divine Official Enterprises LLC, said in an email message that he recently learned about the play and he has reached out to the playwright’s production company. More information about “Dishin’ With Divine” is expected to come out as the project moves ahead.
Rising from the ashes
In 2024, actress and former talk show host Ricki Lake received widespread attention for losing more than 30 pounds “without relying on a pharmaceutical,” including semaglutide products. This year she’s received even more attention for a different sort of loss – the destruction of her Malibu “dream home” in the Palisades Fire in early January. For many, she has become the face of the Los Angeles fire victims.
Lake, 56, made her film debut as Tracy Turnblad, the lead character in the 1988 film “Hairspray.” Lake also appeared as Pepper Walker in “Cry-Baby” (1990); as Misty Sutphin in “Serial Mom” (1994) and as Libby in “Cecil B. Demented” (2000). She had a cameo role in the 2007 remake of “Hairspray” as a William Morris talent agent and teamed up with Nikki Blonsky and Marissa Jaret Winokur, two other Tracy Turnblads, to record “Mama I’m A Big Girl Now” for the soundtrack for the 2007 movie (the song is played during the film’s end credits.)
Lake and Waters have made joint appearances on TV and in person over the years to mark various anniversaries of movies she was in. She has been a counselor at Camp John Waters, the annual adult sleepaway gathering in Connecticut for John Waters superfans. She and Mink Stole appeared together onstage at the American Cinema Editors’ 2024 awards ceremony, where Waters received the ACE Goldie Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award.
Lake’s efforts with husband Ross Burningham to rebuild their home after it was destroyed by fire on Jan. 7 have been covered by numerous media outlets, including People; The Daily Mail; Entertainment Tonight; Sky News; The Hollywood Reporter; Fox News; Deadline; Newsweek; Good Morning America; Yahoo; Parade and The New York Post. Video clips of her fire-damaged property have been seen by millions on Instagram; YouTube; TikTok, Facebook and other social media platforms.
Lake’s story stood out because it was the home where she and Burningham were married in 2022; it was beautiful and featured views of the Pacific Ocean, and she has been both vocal and articulate about the loss — filming and narrating videos that show the devastation and its aftermath and posting them on social media.
She posted one video on Instagram showing her and her husband’s efforts to save their home, including setting up a fire defense system and hosing down a neighbor’s palm tree. She has shared her grief and the “unspeakable” loss of her home, describing the experience as “exhausting and paralyzing.” One of the more unusual details she shared is that she believes Tyler Henry, a medium on Netflix’s “Live from the Other Side” series, predicted that her house would burn down five months before it happened.
“It’s all gone,” she wrote on Instagram shortly after the fire. “After a valiant and brave effort by our friend and hero @kirbykotler_ Ross and I lost our dream home. This description ‘dream home’ doesn’t even suffice. It was our heaven on earth. The place where we planned to grow old together. We never took our heavenly spot on the bluff overlooking our beloved malibu for granted, not even for one second…The loss is immeasurable. It’s the spot where we got married 3 years ago. I grieve along with all of those suffering during this apocalyptic event.”
Through it all, Lake and Burningham have expressed gratitude for the support they’ve received from fans and friends, and they’ve offered a positive message by vowing to rebuild. In doing so, Lake has been a beacon of hope for a region filled with despair, many feeling the same sense of loss that she felt.
“It’s so weird to be in a place of need,” she said in a message on January 25. “I don’t come from money. I don’t come from any handout or nepotism. I just built this life for myself and my husband and my kids. It’s just so weird to have it be gone in one event.”
Lake promises in the video that she and Burningham are going to create “a new magical spot” where the old one burned down. But in the meantime, she asks, “keep us in your thoughts please and all of us who are going through this nightmare of having to rebuild our lives.”
‘Idol Worship’
Like Divine, Mink Stole is a Baltimorean who got her name from Waters and was part of his Dreamlanders coterie of filmmakers. Her parents named her Nancy Paine Stoll. She met Waters in Provincetown in the 1960s and they have remained friends through the years.
Now 77, Stole is one of only two actors to appear in every feature film Waters has made. She is one of four Dreamland crew members who were arrested and charged with “conspiracy to commit indecent exposure” in 1968 when Waters was filming a scene of “Mondo Trasho” without permission on the Johns Hopkins University campus; the police famously caught up with her while she was in the bathtub in her apartment on East 25th Street.
In 2022, the fashion designer Calvin Klein featured Mink Stole and John Waters in his “This is Love” campaign, which celebrated “chosen families” by highlighting different sets of “non-traditional” lovers discussing their relationships and what family means to them, all while sporting items from the designer’s latest collection.
Stole now lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Tom, and she hasn’t slowed down. She’s the focus of several fan websites on social media, including the Mink Stole and Mink Stole Appreciation Society pages on Facebook, and frequently interacts with fans on the internet. She performs weddings as an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church and she’s a counselor at Camp John Waters. She also tours the country with another Maryland native, drag impresario and filmmaker Peaches Christ (the stage name of Joshua Grannell) in a cabaret-style show called “Idol Worship.”
Although she spends much of her time on the West Coast, Stole said she still follows the news in Baltimore. In a conversation last year, she asked about the sale of The Baltimore Sun and how the publication has changed. She often meets up with Waters when he’s in Los Angeles and joined him in February when he paid tribute to another Dreamlander, the late costume designer Van Smith, at the 27th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards ceremony at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.
This month, Mink Stole and Peaches Christ are in Texas, where they’re making three stops. On Saturday, they performed at the Texas Theatre in Dallas. On Monday, April 7, they will be performing at The Highball in Austin, and on Wednesday April 9 they’ll be at the River Oaks Theater in Houston. Other stops on the “Idol Worship” tour have included New York; Philadelphia; Washington, D. C.; Providence; Salem; Atlanta; Seattle; San Francisco; San Diego; Los Angeles and Palm Springs.
“Mink and Peaches have been close friends for over two decades, and they would like you to join them for an evening of storytelling, film clips and live song in a wildly entertaining and uncensored expose that is as hilarious as it is revealing,” they say on the website Peacheschrist.com. “If you’re a fan of John Waters’ films, Divine, drag history or cult movies, you don’t want to miss this one of a kind event.”
More information is at peacheschrist.com.
Pink Flamingo takes flight
Another reminder of John Waters’ staying power and marketing prowess is the name of Baltimore’s newest tavern: Pink Flamingo in Remington.
Pink Flamingo opened over the weekend at 300 W. 30th Street, where The Dizz and Let’s Brunch Café used to be. Waters has no financial stake in the business, which is co-owned by Brendan Dorr and Eric Fooy, but the name instantly triggers thoughts about the filmmaker and his movies. Open from 4 p.m. to midnight, it isn’t hard to find – potential patrons can just look for the new Pink Flamingo sign hanging off the side of the building. It’s yet another way that John Waters’ legacy endures, especially in Baltimore.
