Pose (2018) s02e01 Episode Script
Acting Up
1 (MOTOR WHIRRING) BLANCA: Why are we the only ones out here? PRAY TELL: Who wants to come to the most remote part of New York? You'd think people would come to pay their respects.
Out of sight, out of mind.
(EXHALES) I'm tired.
I've been to three funerals this week.
Three.
Where's the cure? BLANCA: Look, we got to keep it together today, Pray.
We got a long day ahead of us.
I know.
I'm sorry, I just It upsets me.
(DOOR OPENS, CLOSES) His name is was Keenan.
Keenan Howard.
I'm here to see his burial site.
He's a relation of yours? Not exactly.
We dated, we broke up.
Listen.
He died of pneumonia - and I was told he was buried here.
- Here's the thing.
Names don't matter here.
Just a bunch of pine boxes in a ditch.
- So no headstones? - Welcome to Hart Island.
Just a mass grave of people whose families couldn't afford a burial or unclaimed bodies from the morgue.
Infants are out back in Potter's Field.
We quarantine the ones that died of AIDS, don't want them infecting anyone else, you know.
But they're already dead.
Sweetie, we don't know how this thing is spread.
Come on, Pray.
(MACHINERY CLANKING IN DISTANCE) How did Keenan end up here? - I thought he had family.
- No.
Orphaned just like the rest of us.
After we broke up, I heard that he had gotten sick and I tried to reach out.
But I think that he he was embarrassed about getting sick.
He died alone.
In that tiny studio apartment.
In the dead of summer.
Three weeks before anybody found him.
Was lying in the heat for so long, I heard that his body just melted into the mattress.
Mm-mmm, mm-mmm.
I'm not settling for this, Pray.
We got to do something.
- Right? - Yeah.
(SNIFFLES) PRAY TELL: Only way this isn't gonna be our reality is if we help each other.
'Cause they sure as hell aren't gonna do anything.
Trust.
There it is.
Judy told me about this place and I didn't believe her.
She she said this island used to be a tuberculosis ward.
Now it's a burial site.
(SNIFFLES) Each one of these heart-shaped rocks represents someone buried here, left by someone left behind.
(KISSES) So, what now? We pray.
(PRAY TELL SNIFFLES) We pray for strength to keep fighting.
Yeah.
(SNIFFLES) (DOOR OPENS) (FOOTFALLS APPROACH) PRAY TELL: The category is Live Work Pose! Pose 2x01 Acting Up (INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMENT OVER P.
A.
) - Hi, Blanca.
You want to come in? - Hi.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(EXHALES) This place is like the Taj Mahal compared to St.
Vincent's.
You know they had me on a six-week waiting list just to get a doctor to read my labs.
By the way, thank you for squeezing me in like this.
Anything for family, kid.
So, what does it say? I tried reading my labs when I picked it up, but it all looked like Klingon to me.
Well, your red blood cells are good.
- I'm just checking out your CD4s.
- See? There you go again speaking that Klingon.
English, please? CD4s, or T-cells, are what we want a lot of.
So how many I gots? 'Cause I know I got a lot.
I stopped drinking, I take my Flintstone vitamins every day.
Well, sometimes being healthy isn't enough for this virus.
Your T-cells have fallen bellow 200.
What's So? What's that mean? It means we have to start monitoring you once a month instead of every three months.
And we have to move your diagnosis of being HIV-positive to having AIDS.
What? S So I have AIDS now? Well, it's-it's just a number.
It's a way of flagging how much care a patient needs.
Nah, I've been feeling fine.
I've been feeling amazing, actually.
Last winter, when my kids got sick, I didn't have a sniffle at all.
I mean, sometimes you can't tell what HIV is doing - to your immune system.
- So I'm dying.
No.
You're not dying.
You still have plenty of T-cells to fight with, but we can't let those numbers drop any lower.
So what do I do? It ain't no cure for this thing.
Not yet.
But there is this.
AZT.
It helps slow the progression of the virus - and it's all we've got.
- Ain't that stuff for rich folk? Well, pharmaceutical companies are in the business of making a profit, but there are folks in our community who care about the less fortunate.
And they're the ones who can get us this shit for free.
When the wealthy white queens and their friends know that the end is coming close, they call us.
It's the same thing every time.
We pay our respects.
We say our goodbyes.
And then we collect the leftover meds.
Their dying wishes are to make sure that the grief isn't the only thing they're leaving behind.
Some of them just have antibiotics.
But the rich ones always have AZT.
BLANCA: Pray Tell told me about a friend of his who was on these meds.
He said it was as toxic as chemo.
And once he got on 'em, his body completely gave out.
Blanca, I'm gonna be straight with you because you need to hear this.
You're in denial of what HIV is doing to your body.
If you don't do something about it soon, - you're gonna be dead in six months.
- No.
Listen, they're working on new drugs every day.
You just got to stay alive long enough for something better to come along.
You know it's moments like these that make your life flash right before you.
Crazy thing is, it's not my life I'm seeing right now, it's my kids.
It's my kids.
(TAKES DEEP BREATH) Everything in this life is set up to work against them.
There is still so much in their lives that I have to fix.
We have a saying around here: either get busy living, or you get busy dying.
And you've got a lot to live for.
(ANGEL CHUCKLES) - (CAMERA WHIRRING) - LIL PAPI: Darling.
That one's gonna be good.
- (ANGEL CHUCKLES) - (CAMERA WHIRRING) LIL PAPI: Yeah.
- Hey, can you do me a favor? - ANGEL: Stop.
LIL PAPI: Just look this way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right there, right there.
Give me that smile.
That one's great, actually.
Um yeah.
What are you looking at? (CHUCKLES) ("VOGUE" BY MADONNA PLAYING) (CAMERA WHIRRING) Strike a pose (WARMER BEEPS) Vogue, Vogue Oh, shit.
(LAUGHS) Y'all hear that? (CHUCKLES) CHANEL: That's the new Madonna single.
It's been on constant repeat on Z100.
- (BLANCA WHOOPS) - It's gonna be the song of the summer.
The most famous woman in the world signing about us.
- Mm! (CHUCKLES) - Strike a pose.
The category is Runway Mo-del - Effect.
- (CROWD CHEERING) BLANCA: Everything is about to change.
I can see it as clear as day.
Well, your vision must be cloudy 'cause ain't shit about to change for our black asses.
Madonna is shining a bright spotlight on us, girl.
- (SCOFFS) - We've been underground for how long? About 20 years.
Since Crystal LaBeija lost one too many titles to white girls.
PRAY TELL: Ha-ha! Yes, baby! Let us have it.
These walks are turning me on, kids.
Who's next? - Oh sookie, sookie, now.
- Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers PRAY TELL: Are you gonna show us your face, baby? Rita Hayworth gave good face (CROWD CHEERING) That's my baby! Ladies with an attitude Fellows that were in the mood BLANCA: Mark my words.
"Vogue" will make us stars.
Madonna lives on the edge for what's next.
And what's newer than an entire world, undiscovered, brimming to the rim with guts, gorgeousness and raw talent? I mean, look.
CROWD (CHANTING): Angel! Angel! Angel (CROWD CHEERING) PRAY TELL: Get up, get up.
Oh! Booty! Booty! Booty! Booty! - (CROWD CHEERING, CHANTING) - PRAY TELL: Don't, don't, don't hurt us.
Don't hurt us, baby.
Madonna's gonna want our faces and when she comes with her spotlight, the Evangelistas are gonna be ready.
- Girl - PRAY TELL: Judges have spoken.
The cards never lie.
The cards never lie, my darlings.
Grand prize goes to the most luminous girl in the room Miss Angel Evangelista.
CROWD (CHANTING): Evangelista! (CHANTING CONTINUES) - Evange - Evange - lista! - lista! - Evange - Evange - lista! - lista! Vogue, Vogue, Vogue, Vogue.
Hey, baby.
Girl, what are you doing out here? We talked about this.
You said you wasn't gonna walk the piers no more.
- There are more options out there.
- Like what? Mopping floors and waiting tables? No.
No, thanks.
I like being my own boss.
BLANCA: Well, I got a plan.
Get in.
Just tell me where we're going.
I was at work and I was flipping through Elle magazine while I was on my lunch break and I saw this advertisement for a modeling contest.
(ANGEL SCOFFS) Do you see her? Yes.
I'm not the face they're looking for.
- I ain't no model.
- Yes, you are.
Look at these.
That's just me and Lil Papi playing around.
BLANCA: Do you see what I see? These photos prove you got the look.
You've got a light that shines so bright right inside of you, and I just wish you could see it.
Plus, we about to go mainstream with this Madonna song.
Mainstream? - Yeah, until they find out who I really am.
- Oh, girl.
All we need to get is our foot into the door.
This song is our ticket to acceptance.
Once they see that you're in the ball, they won't even turn you away.
(BLANCA CHUCKLES) My Lord (HUMMING) Sing, sister Lulu.
Girl, who the hell chose those tacky-ass flowers? All these candles and flaming homos, surprised God don't burn this bitch to the ground.
(BOTH LAUGH) Funerals are bullshit.
(HUMS): Mm-hmm.
(LAUGHS) I want a head count of exactly how many people love me before I die.
- Mm.
- And I want a chance to defend myself, in case anyone even try to tarnish my good name.
What's the point of spending all that money on a corpse? Give me my damn flowers when I can smell them.
And give me a chance to read all these bitches before I'm put in the motherfucking ground.
(LAUGHS) Y'all are some hard-hearted hos.
Show some damn respect.
(ORGAN MUSIC PLAYING QUIETLY) Well, she's on CP time tonight.
He's not going anywhere.
- (SCOFFS) - (SIGHS) What's your head count? This is my 452nd memorial.
Two hundred and ten.
First one to get to a thousand gets a free toaster.
- (CHUCKLES) Uh - (GIGGLING NEARBY) Look at these unquenchable hos thirsting for dick.
Since when did funerals become the new cruising spot? Oh, she's found morality.
(LAUGHS) Come on.
Let's pay our respects.
Interesting choice.
Why is he dressed like a flamenco dancer? I can get over the outfit, but that makeup is terrible.
Joe always preferred a nude matte lip.
Well, red is a tough color.
Only tramps can pull it off.
Shocking you never could.
(CHUCKLES, CRIES) (SNIFFLES) Oh He was so young.
Just barely started living.
I don't know how much more of this I can take.
- 790, until you get your toaster.
- (EXHALES) (LAUGHS) (GROANS) I need a drink.
You coming with me to the diner? Not tonight.
I've got someplace to be and you're coming with me.
PRAY TELL: Where are you taking me? - I'm hungry.
- (CROWD CHANTING) Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
My black ass does not need to join your group of preppy white queens and ill-fitted Gap chinos who have never had to fight for a goddamn thing in their lives.
- CROWD: Act up! Fight back! - Listen, there are dikes, too, running these meetings, of all shades.
Pray, you've got to put your pain to good use, or I swear to God, it will eat you alive.
CROWD (CHANTING): Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Welcome to your first Act Up meeting.
CROWD (CHANTING): Fight AIDS! Act up! Ah, well, I was beginning to think Miss Wanda didn't exist.
I'm not the going out type.
I've got other things on my mind.
- I told you she was hot.
- (CHUCKLES) - Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! - SYD: All right.
- All right.
- (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) Listen up, folks.
Last week's fund-raiser brought in $650,000.
(CHEERING) And and now that we finally have the cash to meet our momentum, this Sunday's protest up at St.
Patrick's Cathedral is an even more crucial step in starting a global conversation around HIV and AIDS.
(CHEERING) The Catholic Church has spent millions of dollars putting the false message into the world that condoms don't work and that abstinence is the only way - to fight HIV.
That is a lie.
- (BOOING) And that is morally wrong.
So, we're staging a die-in in the middle of that congregation as a peaceful protest against the annihilation - of our community! - Yes! (CHEERING) Cardinal John O'Connor has said, "Good morality is good medicine.
" He might as well say, "Let them get AIDS.
" And it's not just the board of education or the city council that Cardinal O'Connor is influencing, no.
He has a direct line to the Pope himself.
We will not allow his racist, sexist, homophobic ideologies to affect the health of every single person on this planet! (CHEERING) Act up! Fight back! ALL: Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! - Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
- Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! (LAUGHING) Damn, all these girls look the same.
- Nothing at all like me.
- Girl, stop comparing yourself.
You are an original, a star of ballroom.
I got to ask you something serious.
You think I pass? Hmm.
With the best of them.
None of these girls can hold a candle to you.
Angel, you're the prettiest thing I've ever seen.
You Dominicans got a slick tongue.
- Come on.
- (LAUGHS) We need to sign you in.
(CHUCKLES) This your first time? - Don't be nervous.
- I'm not.
Well, I was in your same spot three years ago, and I was scared as hell.
I thought my skin and frizzy hair wouldn't get me past the open call, but those things actually made me stand out.
You're gonna be the face of 1990, girl.
Watch.
Okay, now hurry up and fill this out.
And don't forget to mention that you can Vogue - in the special skills section.
- Oh, that's right.
Duh.
(QUIETLY): Come on, let's go.
Blanca, you can't leave me here like this.
Girl, if I walk into that room, you know the jig is up.
- You must do this on your own, Angel.
- (MOANS) You got this, you can do this.
Just be yourself.
Just be yourself.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER) (SHUTTER CLICKS) So, what have we here? Angel.
22.
- Mm-hmm.
- The Bronx.
You used an instant camera.
Yes.
I did.
Hmm.
Impressive.
But if you want to be a professional, you need a professional to capture you.
That sounds like that costs money.
I don't have a job right now, that's why I'm here talking to you.
Every model must pay her dues before she gets paid herself.
It's an investment in your future.
- So, you can Vogue.
- Mm-hmm.
- Like the new song? - Mm-hmm.
I like that.
(CHUCKLES) Here's a photographer I know.
Tell him I sent you.
He'll give you my discount.
Bring the new photographs to me for the semi-finals.
I did it.
I made it to the next round.
- Ah! - I knew it.
I knew it! (ALL LAUGHING) Did you put oregano in my sauce? Your sauce? It's Ragú.
This shit came out of a jar, bitch.
Relax.
- (LAUGHING) - What's so funny, Cubby? What's wrong with oregano? I thought it was healthy to eat more green vegetables.
Oregano is a herb, not a vegetable, darling boy.
Who is educating these children on their nutrition? And when is your man coming home? Well, darling sir, the Al B.
Sure tour is almost over.
He told me he would be home next week.
I'm so excited, I can't even sleep.
(CHUCKLES) Oh, no.
Please don't go planning no romantic reunion dinner at Roy Rogers or nothing.
If he's back in town, then he's back under my roof, and Friday family dinner is mandatory.
Yeah, unless you're glued to the MTV waiting for your favorite song to come on.
Uh-uh.
That ain't recreation, girl.
They play that Madonna "Vogue" video once an hour.
I need to study it and I ain't got no VCR.
Listen, y'all are just not getting it.
We are on the cusp of a revolution.
We've been doing those dance moves in that video for years.
That's our culture on MTV.
We about to go mainstream.
Yes.
Just like when all those suburban kids started singing "Y.
M.
C.
A.
" and the leather bars in The Castro went mainstream.
- (ALL CHUCKLING) - This is different.
We're talking about Madonna.
Something is happening, I can feel it.
PRAY TELL: Yeah.
That's the same shit they said about disco.
Studio 54 stayed open for three years, and when the Man shut it down, all those angry black and homo-hating white boys they took their disco records to the baseball stadium and blew 'em up.
Every generation thinks that they're gonna be the ones that are finally invited to the party.
- (BOTH CHUCKLE) - Put your glass slippers away, Trans-erella.
It ain't never gonna happen.
(LAUGHS) Really? Angel, will you tell them your news? ANGEL: Mm-hmm.
Blanca made me audition for the Fresh Faces modeling competition.
And she made the semi-finals, too.
What's good? - (CHEERING) - Why you got to steal my thunder? DAMON: Our girl's a star.
Don't get all crazy yet.
The modeling woman said I need professional headshots, - and those "costeses" money.
- Mm-hmm.
And you next, Damon.
No more Saturdays sitting around the house, reading dirty magazines.
From 3:00 until 5:00, you're gonna be teaching a Voguing class down at the YMCA.
- They don't have a Voguing class.
- Well, they do now.
I told them if they put up a sign-up sheet, more people would come.
They got six people already and the numbers are going to grow.
Y'all need to trust this mother's intuition.
Y'all are whistling past the graveyard.
BLANCA: Really? 'Cause I heard the other emcees talking about how Sue Simmons from Live at Five wants to interview you about the scene.
It's not a scene.
It's our lives.
Why do you have to be such a downer? PRAY TELL: We should all be going to that church for the protest on Sunday.
Together.
As a house.
I can't make it on Sunday.
I have to meet the photographer.
Reschedule.
We're all being chased by the same monster.
You saying it's wrong for me to get a little something for myself while I'm running away? I could die, so I should stop living? Come on.
BLANCA: But we need to let them know - that we care about us.
- (DOOR OPENS) Y'all are going.
What's the point of raising the profile of our community if there's no community left within a couple of years? You're late, Elektra.
From the looks of things, not late enough.
Mother Blanca, this house is suffering from a major deficiency in terms of closet space.
I do not understand how you expect me to just toss my finery on one of these flea-filled reclamation projects like a savage.
What kind of tips is you making at, um, - Indochine to buy this mink? - (LIL PAPI CHUCKLES) She mopped this shit from the coat room.
Miss Elektra does not mop.
LEMAR: Or dust - or cook.
- CUBBY: Mm-hmm.
LEMAR: Or wash a dish.
But she has been helping with the rent and expenses for the past two months, which I can say more than any of you freeloaders have done.
Thank you, Mother Blanca.
And I do apologize for missing last week's supper.
While I don't always enjoy the company and the sauce could use some seasoning, I do think it's good for morale to do things as a family.
BLANCA: Well, good, because we're all going with Pray to that big Act Up protest at the church on Sunday.
Count me out.
I'm not posing for a mug shot.
Oh, no, uh-uh.
Ain't none of y'all ever given me lip when I say we're walking a category together at the ball.
Well, this Sunday, the ball is at the church, and the categories are family and standing up for ourselves and our community, and all of y'all are going.
- All right.
- Okay.
I just booked you an 11:10 and a 12:15.
I'm sorry, Ms.
Rose.
You gonna have to give this to someone else.
I'm the owner, I need you to work.
You know I never turn down work, but my friends are counting on me.
You're ungrateful.
I let you work here because I am a good Christian and Please.
I have to leave.
So quit.
You know what? You're right.
I quit.
I'm not wasting whatever time I have left on this Earth to give any part of me to you.
You should kiss my feet for hiring you.
No one else will.
You will see.
Ladies like getting their nails done by ladies.
So then I'll get my own salon, and make twice the business you make in here.
Oh, and I'll call it Vogue Nails after the Madonna song.
Then when I get back, I'll come buy this dump from you.
(ORGAN PLAYING, CHOIR SINGING) Mm This look like a lot of money.
Mm-hmm.
And you know they ain't paying taxes on any of this shit.
I bet you those vestments cost more than Chanel's - entire spring 1990 collection.
- Hmm.
O'CONNOR: and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not be lenient, since you are looking for proof of Christ speaking in me.
Finally, brothers, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another.
Agree with one another.
Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss - All the holy ones greet you.
- (WHISPERS): Pass it down.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
CONGREGATION: And also with you.
O'CONNOR: The gospel of the Lord.
CONGREGATION: Praise be to Jesus Christ.
O'CONNOR: Today's reading really reminded me of my father.
Paul's letter to the Corinthians.
It's written with love.
But it's (COUGHS) (CONGREGATION MUTTERING) Could everyone here please stand and pray? Prayer won't cure AIDS.
Prayer won't stop the spread of HIV.
Only condoms will.
Abstinence is not a human solution, abstinence is the erasure of our sexuality.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! (CHANTING): Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! - (CHANTING CONTINUES) - (DOOR OPENS) (WHISTLE BLOWING) (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) - (APPLAUSE) - (CHEERING) - Get 'em out of here! - Get out of here! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Arrest the cardinal! He's the criminal! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Shame on you.
Stop killing us! Stop killing us! (SHOUTING) Stop killing us! (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) (CHANTING CONTINUES) Stop killing us! - I love this hairstyle so much.
- ANDRE: Give me the room.
How many looks are we shooting? I was thinking just one.
- I can't afford a full-on shoot.
- That's not how it works.
We have a whole team booked for today.
Well, maybe we could work something out.
Like, layaway? - Don't you have a job? - Not at this moment.
You know, I've seen you at the piers.
You must have mistaken me for someone else.
- I have one of those faces.
- No, you don't.
A face like yours I'd never forget.
Well, I don't do that anymore.
- You still gonna shoot me? - I'm the only person who can.
You're a very special beauty.
Very specific.
Mm.
Ain't nothing free.
What you want me to do in return? A private sitting.
Some shots for my personal collection.
I'll do it as a trade.
Won't cost you a dime.
Three, two, one.
Beautiful.
Good, good, good, good.
Keep going.
Hands up, hands up.
You are beautiful.
Walking like a man, hitting like a hammer She's a juvenile scam, never was a quitter Tasty like a raindrop, she's got the look - Heavenly bound, 'cause heaven's got a number - Chin down.
When she's spinning me around, kissing is a color Her loving is a wild dog, she's got the look She's got the look, she's got the look She's got the look, she's got the look What in the world can make a brown-eyed girl turn blue? Yes.
When everything I'll ever do - I'll do for you - Beautiful.
And I go la, la, la, la, la She's got the look Yes, towards me.
Towards me, move them.
Yes.
Three, two, one.
Yes, beautiful, beautiful.
One more, just like that.
Just like that.
Three, two, one.
Yes, yes.
Perfect, perfect What do you want? Take that off.
(EXHALES) (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS) And that.
N-No.
Yeah.
Touch it.
(CHEERING, APPLAUSE) The category is Runway.
Bring it like a French Revolution.
Poverty and abundance personified, and a goddamn category I like.
We have much to fight back against, children.
And what have we here? Miss Candy and Miss Lulu serving up Les Misérables peasant slut realness.
You got some ghetto proppage.
Piece of French baguette and a pitchfork? What is this, Hee Haw? You got enough to feed the multitudes, baby, with your five fish and three loaves of bread.
(LAUGHS) We got a horse mouth up there, though.
Here.
(LAUGHTER, BOOING) Judges, your scores.
Seven, seven, - six, eight, seven.
- (GASPS, LAUGHS) House of Ferocity Ain't so ferocious Ain't so ferocious.
See you later, my darlings.
Always.
I mean, you think she would learn by now, right? Who's next? Who's gonna be next up in here? (CHEERING, SCREAMING) (FANFARE PLAYING) Yes, okay.
Uh-huh.
Here comes Miss Elektra serving us Marie Antoinette.
How apropos, a queen who cares nothing for her kingdom.
Oh Yes, and the children are serving us narrative.
It's early morning in Versailles, and Queen Marie is being serviced by her dutiful young men.
Let them eat cake.
Ah, the carousel twirls, the carousel twirls.
Remember when things were simpler, Elektra? Before our young men were dropping dead before our very eyes.
And they're still going.
There's even more story.
Y'all created a guillotine for this mess? (CROWD SCREAMING) For real? Mm.
(CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Bravo, bravo.
I must admit, that was very well done.
So tell me something.
How long did you rehearse that? Is that where you were instead of showing up for your dying community? (GASPING, SHOUTING) Way to set an example for the kids, Elektra.
What's your problem, Pray Tell? Get off your soapbox and ask the judges for their scores.
Oh, I don't need to ask the judges for scores.
I know what they are, and everybody in this room knows what they are.
Miss Elektra Abundance Evangelista, grand prize, this week and last week and the week before that and the week before that and the week before that, granny! Here, here.
- Take your trophy.
- (GASPING) Bitch, you better get me a new trophy and then come down here so I can shove it up your ass.
(OOHING) I'm gonna lay it out for you.
One time your community needed you at that protest, and you didn't show up.
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER) - ATTENDEE: That's right.
- I was working.
- PRAY TELL: Yeah.
- You work the night shift.
- (CROWD OOHING) The protest was in the morning.
Don't give me that bullshit.
So, what did I miss? A bunch of fags holding hands, screaming into the wind? ATTENDEE 2: Shame! I went to jail.
111 people went to jail.
You are more concerned about winning a trophy than you are about our government spreading lies about us in an effort to kill us! And you want to know why they want us dead? Because we're black and we're brown and we're queer.
They don't give a shit about us, so we better start caring about ourselves.
Show up for your lives! Wake up! Jack, where are you? Come on up here and call out the rest of these categories before the back of my head blows off.
- (CROWD OOHING) - I got to go home.
(CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Wake the fuck up.
ATTENDEE 3: That's right.
- Back to life, back to reality - MIZRAHI: The category is (ROLLING R): Runway.
Bring it like the booked black beauties in Vogue.
You ain't never gonna hit no real runway, we all know that.
But you can serve a look so flawless that you fool us like little Miss Grace Jones-ish is doing right here, baby.
She's over here serving you trash bag realness, darlings.
Sponsored by Glad.
Hefty, hefty, hefty.
Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy.
She came to take all the garbage out tonight.
Now who do we have here? (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Yes, Miss Pat Cleveland, I see.
Oh, she's twirling and a-trotting like no other for you.
Goddess! Athena! Aphrodite! Minerva! Okay, anybody else walking? I see commotion back there.
Okay, I see it.
(CHEERING) Remember when I said ethereal? Otherworldly? Miss Angel, you are giving just that, baby.
Her homage to It girl Veronica Webb.
Oh, please, she is truly unmatched.
This is how you do it.
That is a model.
That is a cover girl.
Now, judges, our girls are serving a fantasy, one that requires you to suspend disbelief and imagine them on the real runway, in actual print.
Would they stack up on the newsstands? Scores for Miss Grace Jones and her glistening cocoa skin? Ten, ten, nine, nine, ten.
Well done.
And Miss Pat Cleveland and her flight of fancy? Ten, nine, nine, ten, ten.
And what about Miss Angel Evangelista? (CHEERING) Tens across the board.
Come and collect, girl! This is what I am talking about.
On the way to legendary, a feared name in ballroom.
Structure, beautiful, poised, attitude.
She has the makings of a star girl, a cover girl! (CHEERING) (CRYING) What's going on, mama? You're supposed to be celebrating.
You the queen of that model category.
Yeah, in there.
I want a victory outside of the ballroom, Papi.
(CRYING): I'm never gonna be a real model.
That may be true for them girls in there, but that is not your destiny, Angel.
I got to tell y'all something.
What's up? Please, y-you have to promise you're not gonna be disappointed.
Never.
That photographer clocked me.
He recognized me from the piers.
And, look, I didn't have enough money to pay for the photo shoot.
So he - so he took dirty pictures of me.
- What? He took pictures of everything, Papi.
He saw everything.
What if he sells them to some-some porno magazine? And then I'm branded as a dirty transsexual hooker for the rest of my life.
- Mama, the whole world will know.
- Nah.
Nah.
- The whole world.
- Nah, this is not happening on my watch.
Do you hear me? With what I got planned? With what you deserve in this world? Hell no.
Hell no.
We getting what's yours.
What's his address? Where the fucking pictures at, huh?! Give Angel her fucking pictures.
I want my photos! Where are they? - They're over there.
- Be more specific.
Point! On the corner of the desk.
Angel, baby, you are stunning.
- Really? - Yeah.
Where the negatives? They're locked in the bottom cabinet.
The key is on the desk.
- ANGEL: Come on, come on - Y'all good over there? These all of them? If you ever try exploiting my daughter again, I'm not coming with my son's fists the next time.
Yeah, you hear that, you punk-ass bitch? You don't know what it took for me to get here, Ms.
Ford.
I want a shot.
A real shot.
Hmm.
Absolutely beautiful.
(SCRUBBING CONTINUING) - Ain't no dirt on that floor.
- (LAUGHS) You need a new job, Mother.
You don't do well with too much time on your hands.
In a few days, you'll have scrubbed the paint off all the walls and forced Lil Papi to run for mayor or some shit.
(SIGHS) Maybe I'm going a little crazy.
Quitting a good job and thinking I could create some kind of immortality to (SIGHS) see through my house and my my children.
Maybe it's better to dream small or not dream at all.
At least then you can die with some dignity still intact.
(CHUCKLES) I'm sorry, I'm (SIGHS) My T cell count is low, and I'm feeling morbid.
How low? Well, not low enough to stop scrubbing these damn floors.
Mama.
(SIGHS) - I made top ten.
- What? Angel Angel, are you serious? Yes.
(LAUGHING): What? Oh, my Well, Miss Angel, you better get ready for the ride of your life.
(CHUCKLES) I'm ready.
Hear, hear! To Miss Angel Evangelista purring down every catwalk.
(MOUTHS) From New York to Paris to Milan.
- Meow.
- To Angel.
ALL: To Angel! And, and - to Miss Blanca Evangelista - Me? the mother who made it all happen.
She seems to see the future better than any fortune teller that I've ever been to.
- Come on, Mother.
- (CHUCKLES) ANGEL: You know it.
How-some-ever (OVERLAPPING CHATTER) I still ain't gonna let Sue Simmons up into my balls to ruin all of our lives with her tabloid news stories.
- Oh, boy.
- Okay? - LIL PAPI: He said that's it.
- To Mother Blanca Evangelista! - ALL: To Blanca! - Mother Blanca! All right, well, listen, I love you, too, Pray, but I'm not giving up on letting them reporters in to seeing how amazing and magical our community is.
And you know that I am as stubborn as an old drag queen with a 5 o'clock shadow at 3:00 in the "morn-ting.
" (LAUGHTER) - Okay? - Okay, fine.
So good luck with that, bitch.
Look at what the cat dragged in.
Somebody please hospitalize me so I can have a decent meal.
What? Excuse me? You know that Friday night dinner starts at 8:00 p.
m.
sharp, and you didn't even set the table this week.
How much effort does it take to throw down some paper plates? Why is it so hard for you to be nice? Like, why can't you say, "I'm sorry" or "I was late" or "I made a mistake"? You want to talk about being nice? I recall that it was just last weekend when Pray Tell disrespected me in front of all my peers at the ball.
Ain't nobody disrespect you.
I called your black selfish ass out for being a bad example, and it's about time somebody did.
And this is not about your stank-ass attitude, Elektra, this is about you showing up to be a part of the house.
And you didn't pay your share of the rent this month.
Neither did any of these little bottom feeders! Elektra, they ain't got no money.
But you, with all these new furs and jewelry, strutting around, but you must be getting plenty of money from somewhere.
Where is you getting all this money from, Queen of the Nile? Where is you getting all this finery? I don't owe you an explanation for anything.
I've had enough of this abuse.
Just because I was down on my luck for a moment does not mean I'll spend the rest of my life living like some indentured servant.
I am not a slum rat like the rest of you whores! I don't owe you any answers, I don't owe you any manners, and I most certainly don't owe you a goddamn apology for being late to a 99-cent meal made from canned meat and prison-grade toilet wine! Guess what.
You don't have to tell me I'm out of the house.
I quit, bitch! And you best not ever show your face in the ballrooms again.
I'm going to eat you alive on that runway.
Of that you can be sure! ("VOGUE" BY MADONNA PLAYING) (DOOR SLAMS) - Can I have her bed? - (SIGHS) (DOORBELL RINGS) I'm joining your house.
You're welcome, bitches.
How's everybody feeling tonight? (CHEERING) PRAY TELL: All right, all right.
So, listen, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge one of the pioneers of the ballroom.
In 1970, Pop, Spin, Dip was introduced right here on the ballroom floor.
Now, as legend would have it, Paris Dupree was flipping through a Vogue magazine and saw the poses that the models were doing.
She brought it right back here to the ballroom floor, imitating the models to the beat.
This is the category as we know it today.
Know your history, children.
Now, let's Vogue like Paris! Come on, Vogue Let your body move to the music - Move to the music - Hey, hey, hey Come on, Vogue Let your body go with the flow - Go with the flow - You know you can do it Beauty's where you find it Not just where you bump and grind it Soul is in the music, oh That's where I feel so beautiful - Magical, life's a ball - (SHOUTS) So get up on the dance floor Come on, Vogue (LAUGHING) Let your body move to the music - Move to the music - Hey, hey, hey I told you, everything is changing.
This is just the beginning.
(CHEERING) You know you can do it Vogue, Vogue, Vogue, Vogue.
Out of sight, out of mind.
(EXHALES) I'm tired.
I've been to three funerals this week.
Three.
Where's the cure? BLANCA: Look, we got to keep it together today, Pray.
We got a long day ahead of us.
I know.
I'm sorry, I just It upsets me.
(DOOR OPENS, CLOSES) His name is was Keenan.
Keenan Howard.
I'm here to see his burial site.
He's a relation of yours? Not exactly.
We dated, we broke up.
Listen.
He died of pneumonia - and I was told he was buried here.
- Here's the thing.
Names don't matter here.
Just a bunch of pine boxes in a ditch.
- So no headstones? - Welcome to Hart Island.
Just a mass grave of people whose families couldn't afford a burial or unclaimed bodies from the morgue.
Infants are out back in Potter's Field.
We quarantine the ones that died of AIDS, don't want them infecting anyone else, you know.
But they're already dead.
Sweetie, we don't know how this thing is spread.
Come on, Pray.
(MACHINERY CLANKING IN DISTANCE) How did Keenan end up here? - I thought he had family.
- No.
Orphaned just like the rest of us.
After we broke up, I heard that he had gotten sick and I tried to reach out.
But I think that he he was embarrassed about getting sick.
He died alone.
In that tiny studio apartment.
In the dead of summer.
Three weeks before anybody found him.
Was lying in the heat for so long, I heard that his body just melted into the mattress.
Mm-mmm, mm-mmm.
I'm not settling for this, Pray.
We got to do something.
- Right? - Yeah.
(SNIFFLES) PRAY TELL: Only way this isn't gonna be our reality is if we help each other.
'Cause they sure as hell aren't gonna do anything.
Trust.
There it is.
Judy told me about this place and I didn't believe her.
She she said this island used to be a tuberculosis ward.
Now it's a burial site.
(SNIFFLES) Each one of these heart-shaped rocks represents someone buried here, left by someone left behind.
(KISSES) So, what now? We pray.
(PRAY TELL SNIFFLES) We pray for strength to keep fighting.
Yeah.
(SNIFFLES) (DOOR OPENS) (FOOTFALLS APPROACH) PRAY TELL: The category is Live Work Pose! Pose 2x01 Acting Up (INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMENT OVER P.
A.
) - Hi, Blanca.
You want to come in? - Hi.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(EXHALES) This place is like the Taj Mahal compared to St.
Vincent's.
You know they had me on a six-week waiting list just to get a doctor to read my labs.
By the way, thank you for squeezing me in like this.
Anything for family, kid.
So, what does it say? I tried reading my labs when I picked it up, but it all looked like Klingon to me.
Well, your red blood cells are good.
- I'm just checking out your CD4s.
- See? There you go again speaking that Klingon.
English, please? CD4s, or T-cells, are what we want a lot of.
So how many I gots? 'Cause I know I got a lot.
I stopped drinking, I take my Flintstone vitamins every day.
Well, sometimes being healthy isn't enough for this virus.
Your T-cells have fallen bellow 200.
What's So? What's that mean? It means we have to start monitoring you once a month instead of every three months.
And we have to move your diagnosis of being HIV-positive to having AIDS.
What? S So I have AIDS now? Well, it's-it's just a number.
It's a way of flagging how much care a patient needs.
Nah, I've been feeling fine.
I've been feeling amazing, actually.
Last winter, when my kids got sick, I didn't have a sniffle at all.
I mean, sometimes you can't tell what HIV is doing - to your immune system.
- So I'm dying.
No.
You're not dying.
You still have plenty of T-cells to fight with, but we can't let those numbers drop any lower.
So what do I do? It ain't no cure for this thing.
Not yet.
But there is this.
AZT.
It helps slow the progression of the virus - and it's all we've got.
- Ain't that stuff for rich folk? Well, pharmaceutical companies are in the business of making a profit, but there are folks in our community who care about the less fortunate.
And they're the ones who can get us this shit for free.
When the wealthy white queens and their friends know that the end is coming close, they call us.
It's the same thing every time.
We pay our respects.
We say our goodbyes.
And then we collect the leftover meds.
Their dying wishes are to make sure that the grief isn't the only thing they're leaving behind.
Some of them just have antibiotics.
But the rich ones always have AZT.
BLANCA: Pray Tell told me about a friend of his who was on these meds.
He said it was as toxic as chemo.
And once he got on 'em, his body completely gave out.
Blanca, I'm gonna be straight with you because you need to hear this.
You're in denial of what HIV is doing to your body.
If you don't do something about it soon, - you're gonna be dead in six months.
- No.
Listen, they're working on new drugs every day.
You just got to stay alive long enough for something better to come along.
You know it's moments like these that make your life flash right before you.
Crazy thing is, it's not my life I'm seeing right now, it's my kids.
It's my kids.
(TAKES DEEP BREATH) Everything in this life is set up to work against them.
There is still so much in their lives that I have to fix.
We have a saying around here: either get busy living, or you get busy dying.
And you've got a lot to live for.
(ANGEL CHUCKLES) - (CAMERA WHIRRING) - LIL PAPI: Darling.
That one's gonna be good.
- (ANGEL CHUCKLES) - (CAMERA WHIRRING) LIL PAPI: Yeah.
- Hey, can you do me a favor? - ANGEL: Stop.
LIL PAPI: Just look this way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right there, right there.
Give me that smile.
That one's great, actually.
Um yeah.
What are you looking at? (CHUCKLES) ("VOGUE" BY MADONNA PLAYING) (CAMERA WHIRRING) Strike a pose (WARMER BEEPS) Vogue, Vogue Oh, shit.
(LAUGHS) Y'all hear that? (CHUCKLES) CHANEL: That's the new Madonna single.
It's been on constant repeat on Z100.
- (BLANCA WHOOPS) - It's gonna be the song of the summer.
The most famous woman in the world signing about us.
- Mm! (CHUCKLES) - Strike a pose.
The category is Runway Mo-del - Effect.
- (CROWD CHEERING) BLANCA: Everything is about to change.
I can see it as clear as day.
Well, your vision must be cloudy 'cause ain't shit about to change for our black asses.
Madonna is shining a bright spotlight on us, girl.
- (SCOFFS) - We've been underground for how long? About 20 years.
Since Crystal LaBeija lost one too many titles to white girls.
PRAY TELL: Ha-ha! Yes, baby! Let us have it.
These walks are turning me on, kids.
Who's next? - Oh sookie, sookie, now.
- Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers PRAY TELL: Are you gonna show us your face, baby? Rita Hayworth gave good face (CROWD CHEERING) That's my baby! Ladies with an attitude Fellows that were in the mood BLANCA: Mark my words.
"Vogue" will make us stars.
Madonna lives on the edge for what's next.
And what's newer than an entire world, undiscovered, brimming to the rim with guts, gorgeousness and raw talent? I mean, look.
CROWD (CHANTING): Angel! Angel! Angel (CROWD CHEERING) PRAY TELL: Get up, get up.
Oh! Booty! Booty! Booty! Booty! - (CROWD CHEERING, CHANTING) - PRAY TELL: Don't, don't, don't hurt us.
Don't hurt us, baby.
Madonna's gonna want our faces and when she comes with her spotlight, the Evangelistas are gonna be ready.
- Girl - PRAY TELL: Judges have spoken.
The cards never lie.
The cards never lie, my darlings.
Grand prize goes to the most luminous girl in the room Miss Angel Evangelista.
CROWD (CHANTING): Evangelista! (CHANTING CONTINUES) - Evange - Evange - lista! - lista! - Evange - Evange - lista! - lista! Vogue, Vogue, Vogue, Vogue.
Hey, baby.
Girl, what are you doing out here? We talked about this.
You said you wasn't gonna walk the piers no more.
- There are more options out there.
- Like what? Mopping floors and waiting tables? No.
No, thanks.
I like being my own boss.
BLANCA: Well, I got a plan.
Get in.
Just tell me where we're going.
I was at work and I was flipping through Elle magazine while I was on my lunch break and I saw this advertisement for a modeling contest.
(ANGEL SCOFFS) Do you see her? Yes.
I'm not the face they're looking for.
- I ain't no model.
- Yes, you are.
Look at these.
That's just me and Lil Papi playing around.
BLANCA: Do you see what I see? These photos prove you got the look.
You've got a light that shines so bright right inside of you, and I just wish you could see it.
Plus, we about to go mainstream with this Madonna song.
Mainstream? - Yeah, until they find out who I really am.
- Oh, girl.
All we need to get is our foot into the door.
This song is our ticket to acceptance.
Once they see that you're in the ball, they won't even turn you away.
(BLANCA CHUCKLES) My Lord (HUMMING) Sing, sister Lulu.
Girl, who the hell chose those tacky-ass flowers? All these candles and flaming homos, surprised God don't burn this bitch to the ground.
(BOTH LAUGH) Funerals are bullshit.
(HUMS): Mm-hmm.
(LAUGHS) I want a head count of exactly how many people love me before I die.
- Mm.
- And I want a chance to defend myself, in case anyone even try to tarnish my good name.
What's the point of spending all that money on a corpse? Give me my damn flowers when I can smell them.
And give me a chance to read all these bitches before I'm put in the motherfucking ground.
(LAUGHS) Y'all are some hard-hearted hos.
Show some damn respect.
(ORGAN MUSIC PLAYING QUIETLY) Well, she's on CP time tonight.
He's not going anywhere.
- (SCOFFS) - (SIGHS) What's your head count? This is my 452nd memorial.
Two hundred and ten.
First one to get to a thousand gets a free toaster.
- (CHUCKLES) Uh - (GIGGLING NEARBY) Look at these unquenchable hos thirsting for dick.
Since when did funerals become the new cruising spot? Oh, she's found morality.
(LAUGHS) Come on.
Let's pay our respects.
Interesting choice.
Why is he dressed like a flamenco dancer? I can get over the outfit, but that makeup is terrible.
Joe always preferred a nude matte lip.
Well, red is a tough color.
Only tramps can pull it off.
Shocking you never could.
(CHUCKLES, CRIES) (SNIFFLES) Oh He was so young.
Just barely started living.
I don't know how much more of this I can take.
- 790, until you get your toaster.
- (EXHALES) (LAUGHS) (GROANS) I need a drink.
You coming with me to the diner? Not tonight.
I've got someplace to be and you're coming with me.
PRAY TELL: Where are you taking me? - I'm hungry.
- (CROWD CHANTING) Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
My black ass does not need to join your group of preppy white queens and ill-fitted Gap chinos who have never had to fight for a goddamn thing in their lives.
- CROWD: Act up! Fight back! - Listen, there are dikes, too, running these meetings, of all shades.
Pray, you've got to put your pain to good use, or I swear to God, it will eat you alive.
CROWD (CHANTING): Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Welcome to your first Act Up meeting.
CROWD (CHANTING): Fight AIDS! Act up! Ah, well, I was beginning to think Miss Wanda didn't exist.
I'm not the going out type.
I've got other things on my mind.
- I told you she was hot.
- (CHUCKLES) - Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! - SYD: All right.
- All right.
- (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) Listen up, folks.
Last week's fund-raiser brought in $650,000.
(CHEERING) And and now that we finally have the cash to meet our momentum, this Sunday's protest up at St.
Patrick's Cathedral is an even more crucial step in starting a global conversation around HIV and AIDS.
(CHEERING) The Catholic Church has spent millions of dollars putting the false message into the world that condoms don't work and that abstinence is the only way - to fight HIV.
That is a lie.
- (BOOING) And that is morally wrong.
So, we're staging a die-in in the middle of that congregation as a peaceful protest against the annihilation - of our community! - Yes! (CHEERING) Cardinal John O'Connor has said, "Good morality is good medicine.
" He might as well say, "Let them get AIDS.
" And it's not just the board of education or the city council that Cardinal O'Connor is influencing, no.
He has a direct line to the Pope himself.
We will not allow his racist, sexist, homophobic ideologies to affect the health of every single person on this planet! (CHEERING) Act up! Fight back! ALL: Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! - Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
- Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS! (LAUGHING) Damn, all these girls look the same.
- Nothing at all like me.
- Girl, stop comparing yourself.
You are an original, a star of ballroom.
I got to ask you something serious.
You think I pass? Hmm.
With the best of them.
None of these girls can hold a candle to you.
Angel, you're the prettiest thing I've ever seen.
You Dominicans got a slick tongue.
- Come on.
- (LAUGHS) We need to sign you in.
(CHUCKLES) This your first time? - Don't be nervous.
- I'm not.
Well, I was in your same spot three years ago, and I was scared as hell.
I thought my skin and frizzy hair wouldn't get me past the open call, but those things actually made me stand out.
You're gonna be the face of 1990, girl.
Watch.
Okay, now hurry up and fill this out.
And don't forget to mention that you can Vogue - in the special skills section.
- Oh, that's right.
Duh.
(QUIETLY): Come on, let's go.
Blanca, you can't leave me here like this.
Girl, if I walk into that room, you know the jig is up.
- You must do this on your own, Angel.
- (MOANS) You got this, you can do this.
Just be yourself.
Just be yourself.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER) (SHUTTER CLICKS) So, what have we here? Angel.
22.
- Mm-hmm.
- The Bronx.
You used an instant camera.
Yes.
I did.
Hmm.
Impressive.
But if you want to be a professional, you need a professional to capture you.
That sounds like that costs money.
I don't have a job right now, that's why I'm here talking to you.
Every model must pay her dues before she gets paid herself.
It's an investment in your future.
- So, you can Vogue.
- Mm-hmm.
- Like the new song? - Mm-hmm.
I like that.
(CHUCKLES) Here's a photographer I know.
Tell him I sent you.
He'll give you my discount.
Bring the new photographs to me for the semi-finals.
I did it.
I made it to the next round.
- Ah! - I knew it.
I knew it! (ALL LAUGHING) Did you put oregano in my sauce? Your sauce? It's Ragú.
This shit came out of a jar, bitch.
Relax.
- (LAUGHING) - What's so funny, Cubby? What's wrong with oregano? I thought it was healthy to eat more green vegetables.
Oregano is a herb, not a vegetable, darling boy.
Who is educating these children on their nutrition? And when is your man coming home? Well, darling sir, the Al B.
Sure tour is almost over.
He told me he would be home next week.
I'm so excited, I can't even sleep.
(CHUCKLES) Oh, no.
Please don't go planning no romantic reunion dinner at Roy Rogers or nothing.
If he's back in town, then he's back under my roof, and Friday family dinner is mandatory.
Yeah, unless you're glued to the MTV waiting for your favorite song to come on.
Uh-uh.
That ain't recreation, girl.
They play that Madonna "Vogue" video once an hour.
I need to study it and I ain't got no VCR.
Listen, y'all are just not getting it.
We are on the cusp of a revolution.
We've been doing those dance moves in that video for years.
That's our culture on MTV.
We about to go mainstream.
Yes.
Just like when all those suburban kids started singing "Y.
M.
C.
A.
" and the leather bars in The Castro went mainstream.
- (ALL CHUCKLING) - This is different.
We're talking about Madonna.
Something is happening, I can feel it.
PRAY TELL: Yeah.
That's the same shit they said about disco.
Studio 54 stayed open for three years, and when the Man shut it down, all those angry black and homo-hating white boys they took their disco records to the baseball stadium and blew 'em up.
Every generation thinks that they're gonna be the ones that are finally invited to the party.
- (BOTH CHUCKLE) - Put your glass slippers away, Trans-erella.
It ain't never gonna happen.
(LAUGHS) Really? Angel, will you tell them your news? ANGEL: Mm-hmm.
Blanca made me audition for the Fresh Faces modeling competition.
And she made the semi-finals, too.
What's good? - (CHEERING) - Why you got to steal my thunder? DAMON: Our girl's a star.
Don't get all crazy yet.
The modeling woman said I need professional headshots, - and those "costeses" money.
- Mm-hmm.
And you next, Damon.
No more Saturdays sitting around the house, reading dirty magazines.
From 3:00 until 5:00, you're gonna be teaching a Voguing class down at the YMCA.
- They don't have a Voguing class.
- Well, they do now.
I told them if they put up a sign-up sheet, more people would come.
They got six people already and the numbers are going to grow.
Y'all need to trust this mother's intuition.
Y'all are whistling past the graveyard.
BLANCA: Really? 'Cause I heard the other emcees talking about how Sue Simmons from Live at Five wants to interview you about the scene.
It's not a scene.
It's our lives.
Why do you have to be such a downer? PRAY TELL: We should all be going to that church for the protest on Sunday.
Together.
As a house.
I can't make it on Sunday.
I have to meet the photographer.
Reschedule.
We're all being chased by the same monster.
You saying it's wrong for me to get a little something for myself while I'm running away? I could die, so I should stop living? Come on.
BLANCA: But we need to let them know - that we care about us.
- (DOOR OPENS) Y'all are going.
What's the point of raising the profile of our community if there's no community left within a couple of years? You're late, Elektra.
From the looks of things, not late enough.
Mother Blanca, this house is suffering from a major deficiency in terms of closet space.
I do not understand how you expect me to just toss my finery on one of these flea-filled reclamation projects like a savage.
What kind of tips is you making at, um, - Indochine to buy this mink? - (LIL PAPI CHUCKLES) She mopped this shit from the coat room.
Miss Elektra does not mop.
LEMAR: Or dust - or cook.
- CUBBY: Mm-hmm.
LEMAR: Or wash a dish.
But she has been helping with the rent and expenses for the past two months, which I can say more than any of you freeloaders have done.
Thank you, Mother Blanca.
And I do apologize for missing last week's supper.
While I don't always enjoy the company and the sauce could use some seasoning, I do think it's good for morale to do things as a family.
BLANCA: Well, good, because we're all going with Pray to that big Act Up protest at the church on Sunday.
Count me out.
I'm not posing for a mug shot.
Oh, no, uh-uh.
Ain't none of y'all ever given me lip when I say we're walking a category together at the ball.
Well, this Sunday, the ball is at the church, and the categories are family and standing up for ourselves and our community, and all of y'all are going.
- All right.
- Okay.
I just booked you an 11:10 and a 12:15.
I'm sorry, Ms.
Rose.
You gonna have to give this to someone else.
I'm the owner, I need you to work.
You know I never turn down work, but my friends are counting on me.
You're ungrateful.
I let you work here because I am a good Christian and Please.
I have to leave.
So quit.
You know what? You're right.
I quit.
I'm not wasting whatever time I have left on this Earth to give any part of me to you.
You should kiss my feet for hiring you.
No one else will.
You will see.
Ladies like getting their nails done by ladies.
So then I'll get my own salon, and make twice the business you make in here.
Oh, and I'll call it Vogue Nails after the Madonna song.
Then when I get back, I'll come buy this dump from you.
(ORGAN PLAYING, CHOIR SINGING) Mm This look like a lot of money.
Mm-hmm.
And you know they ain't paying taxes on any of this shit.
I bet you those vestments cost more than Chanel's - entire spring 1990 collection.
- Hmm.
O'CONNOR: and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not be lenient, since you are looking for proof of Christ speaking in me.
Finally, brothers, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another.
Agree with one another.
Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss - All the holy ones greet you.
- (WHISPERS): Pass it down.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
CONGREGATION: And also with you.
O'CONNOR: The gospel of the Lord.
CONGREGATION: Praise be to Jesus Christ.
O'CONNOR: Today's reading really reminded me of my father.
Paul's letter to the Corinthians.
It's written with love.
But it's (COUGHS) (CONGREGATION MUTTERING) Could everyone here please stand and pray? Prayer won't cure AIDS.
Prayer won't stop the spread of HIV.
Only condoms will.
Abstinence is not a human solution, abstinence is the erasure of our sexuality.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! (CHANTING): Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! - (CHANTING CONTINUES) - (DOOR OPENS) (WHISTLE BLOWING) (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) - (APPLAUSE) - (CHEERING) - Get 'em out of here! - Get out of here! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Arrest the cardinal! He's the criminal! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Stop killing us! Shame on you.
Stop killing us! Stop killing us! (SHOUTING) Stop killing us! (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) (CHANTING CONTINUES) Stop killing us! - I love this hairstyle so much.
- ANDRE: Give me the room.
How many looks are we shooting? I was thinking just one.
- I can't afford a full-on shoot.
- That's not how it works.
We have a whole team booked for today.
Well, maybe we could work something out.
Like, layaway? - Don't you have a job? - Not at this moment.
You know, I've seen you at the piers.
You must have mistaken me for someone else.
- I have one of those faces.
- No, you don't.
A face like yours I'd never forget.
Well, I don't do that anymore.
- You still gonna shoot me? - I'm the only person who can.
You're a very special beauty.
Very specific.
Mm.
Ain't nothing free.
What you want me to do in return? A private sitting.
Some shots for my personal collection.
I'll do it as a trade.
Won't cost you a dime.
Three, two, one.
Beautiful.
Good, good, good, good.
Keep going.
Hands up, hands up.
You are beautiful.
Walking like a man, hitting like a hammer She's a juvenile scam, never was a quitter Tasty like a raindrop, she's got the look - Heavenly bound, 'cause heaven's got a number - Chin down.
When she's spinning me around, kissing is a color Her loving is a wild dog, she's got the look She's got the look, she's got the look She's got the look, she's got the look What in the world can make a brown-eyed girl turn blue? Yes.
When everything I'll ever do - I'll do for you - Beautiful.
And I go la, la, la, la, la She's got the look Yes, towards me.
Towards me, move them.
Yes.
Three, two, one.
Yes, beautiful, beautiful.
One more, just like that.
Just like that.
Three, two, one.
Yes, yes.
Perfect, perfect What do you want? Take that off.
(EXHALES) (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS) And that.
N-No.
Yeah.
Touch it.
(CHEERING, APPLAUSE) The category is Runway.
Bring it like a French Revolution.
Poverty and abundance personified, and a goddamn category I like.
We have much to fight back against, children.
And what have we here? Miss Candy and Miss Lulu serving up Les Misérables peasant slut realness.
You got some ghetto proppage.
Piece of French baguette and a pitchfork? What is this, Hee Haw? You got enough to feed the multitudes, baby, with your five fish and three loaves of bread.
(LAUGHS) We got a horse mouth up there, though.
Here.
(LAUGHTER, BOOING) Judges, your scores.
Seven, seven, - six, eight, seven.
- (GASPS, LAUGHS) House of Ferocity Ain't so ferocious Ain't so ferocious.
See you later, my darlings.
Always.
I mean, you think she would learn by now, right? Who's next? Who's gonna be next up in here? (CHEERING, SCREAMING) (FANFARE PLAYING) Yes, okay.
Uh-huh.
Here comes Miss Elektra serving us Marie Antoinette.
How apropos, a queen who cares nothing for her kingdom.
Oh Yes, and the children are serving us narrative.
It's early morning in Versailles, and Queen Marie is being serviced by her dutiful young men.
Let them eat cake.
Ah, the carousel twirls, the carousel twirls.
Remember when things were simpler, Elektra? Before our young men were dropping dead before our very eyes.
And they're still going.
There's even more story.
Y'all created a guillotine for this mess? (CROWD SCREAMING) For real? Mm.
(CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Bravo, bravo.
I must admit, that was very well done.
So tell me something.
How long did you rehearse that? Is that where you were instead of showing up for your dying community? (GASPING, SHOUTING) Way to set an example for the kids, Elektra.
What's your problem, Pray Tell? Get off your soapbox and ask the judges for their scores.
Oh, I don't need to ask the judges for scores.
I know what they are, and everybody in this room knows what they are.
Miss Elektra Abundance Evangelista, grand prize, this week and last week and the week before that and the week before that and the week before that, granny! Here, here.
- Take your trophy.
- (GASPING) Bitch, you better get me a new trophy and then come down here so I can shove it up your ass.
(OOHING) I'm gonna lay it out for you.
One time your community needed you at that protest, and you didn't show up.
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER) - ATTENDEE: That's right.
- I was working.
- PRAY TELL: Yeah.
- You work the night shift.
- (CROWD OOHING) The protest was in the morning.
Don't give me that bullshit.
So, what did I miss? A bunch of fags holding hands, screaming into the wind? ATTENDEE 2: Shame! I went to jail.
111 people went to jail.
You are more concerned about winning a trophy than you are about our government spreading lies about us in an effort to kill us! And you want to know why they want us dead? Because we're black and we're brown and we're queer.
They don't give a shit about us, so we better start caring about ourselves.
Show up for your lives! Wake up! Jack, where are you? Come on up here and call out the rest of these categories before the back of my head blows off.
- (CROWD OOHING) - I got to go home.
(CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Wake the fuck up.
ATTENDEE 3: That's right.
- Back to life, back to reality - MIZRAHI: The category is (ROLLING R): Runway.
Bring it like the booked black beauties in Vogue.
You ain't never gonna hit no real runway, we all know that.
But you can serve a look so flawless that you fool us like little Miss Grace Jones-ish is doing right here, baby.
She's over here serving you trash bag realness, darlings.
Sponsored by Glad.
Hefty, hefty, hefty.
Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy.
She came to take all the garbage out tonight.
Now who do we have here? (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Yes, Miss Pat Cleveland, I see.
Oh, she's twirling and a-trotting like no other for you.
Goddess! Athena! Aphrodite! Minerva! Okay, anybody else walking? I see commotion back there.
Okay, I see it.
(CHEERING) Remember when I said ethereal? Otherworldly? Miss Angel, you are giving just that, baby.
Her homage to It girl Veronica Webb.
Oh, please, she is truly unmatched.
This is how you do it.
That is a model.
That is a cover girl.
Now, judges, our girls are serving a fantasy, one that requires you to suspend disbelief and imagine them on the real runway, in actual print.
Would they stack up on the newsstands? Scores for Miss Grace Jones and her glistening cocoa skin? Ten, ten, nine, nine, ten.
Well done.
And Miss Pat Cleveland and her flight of fancy? Ten, nine, nine, ten, ten.
And what about Miss Angel Evangelista? (CHEERING) Tens across the board.
Come and collect, girl! This is what I am talking about.
On the way to legendary, a feared name in ballroom.
Structure, beautiful, poised, attitude.
She has the makings of a star girl, a cover girl! (CHEERING) (CRYING) What's going on, mama? You're supposed to be celebrating.
You the queen of that model category.
Yeah, in there.
I want a victory outside of the ballroom, Papi.
(CRYING): I'm never gonna be a real model.
That may be true for them girls in there, but that is not your destiny, Angel.
I got to tell y'all something.
What's up? Please, y-you have to promise you're not gonna be disappointed.
Never.
That photographer clocked me.
He recognized me from the piers.
And, look, I didn't have enough money to pay for the photo shoot.
So he - so he took dirty pictures of me.
- What? He took pictures of everything, Papi.
He saw everything.
What if he sells them to some-some porno magazine? And then I'm branded as a dirty transsexual hooker for the rest of my life.
- Mama, the whole world will know.
- Nah.
Nah.
- The whole world.
- Nah, this is not happening on my watch.
Do you hear me? With what I got planned? With what you deserve in this world? Hell no.
Hell no.
We getting what's yours.
What's his address? Where the fucking pictures at, huh?! Give Angel her fucking pictures.
I want my photos! Where are they? - They're over there.
- Be more specific.
Point! On the corner of the desk.
Angel, baby, you are stunning.
- Really? - Yeah.
Where the negatives? They're locked in the bottom cabinet.
The key is on the desk.
- ANGEL: Come on, come on - Y'all good over there? These all of them? If you ever try exploiting my daughter again, I'm not coming with my son's fists the next time.
Yeah, you hear that, you punk-ass bitch? You don't know what it took for me to get here, Ms.
Ford.
I want a shot.
A real shot.
Hmm.
Absolutely beautiful.
(SCRUBBING CONTINUING) - Ain't no dirt on that floor.
- (LAUGHS) You need a new job, Mother.
You don't do well with too much time on your hands.
In a few days, you'll have scrubbed the paint off all the walls and forced Lil Papi to run for mayor or some shit.
(SIGHS) Maybe I'm going a little crazy.
Quitting a good job and thinking I could create some kind of immortality to (SIGHS) see through my house and my my children.
Maybe it's better to dream small or not dream at all.
At least then you can die with some dignity still intact.
(CHUCKLES) I'm sorry, I'm (SIGHS) My T cell count is low, and I'm feeling morbid.
How low? Well, not low enough to stop scrubbing these damn floors.
Mama.
(SIGHS) - I made top ten.
- What? Angel Angel, are you serious? Yes.
(LAUGHING): What? Oh, my Well, Miss Angel, you better get ready for the ride of your life.
(CHUCKLES) I'm ready.
Hear, hear! To Miss Angel Evangelista purring down every catwalk.
(MOUTHS) From New York to Paris to Milan.
- Meow.
- To Angel.
ALL: To Angel! And, and - to Miss Blanca Evangelista - Me? the mother who made it all happen.
She seems to see the future better than any fortune teller that I've ever been to.
- Come on, Mother.
- (CHUCKLES) ANGEL: You know it.
How-some-ever (OVERLAPPING CHATTER) I still ain't gonna let Sue Simmons up into my balls to ruin all of our lives with her tabloid news stories.
- Oh, boy.
- Okay? - LIL PAPI: He said that's it.
- To Mother Blanca Evangelista! - ALL: To Blanca! - Mother Blanca! All right, well, listen, I love you, too, Pray, but I'm not giving up on letting them reporters in to seeing how amazing and magical our community is.
And you know that I am as stubborn as an old drag queen with a 5 o'clock shadow at 3:00 in the "morn-ting.
" (LAUGHTER) - Okay? - Okay, fine.
So good luck with that, bitch.
Look at what the cat dragged in.
Somebody please hospitalize me so I can have a decent meal.
What? Excuse me? You know that Friday night dinner starts at 8:00 p.
m.
sharp, and you didn't even set the table this week.
How much effort does it take to throw down some paper plates? Why is it so hard for you to be nice? Like, why can't you say, "I'm sorry" or "I was late" or "I made a mistake"? You want to talk about being nice? I recall that it was just last weekend when Pray Tell disrespected me in front of all my peers at the ball.
Ain't nobody disrespect you.
I called your black selfish ass out for being a bad example, and it's about time somebody did.
And this is not about your stank-ass attitude, Elektra, this is about you showing up to be a part of the house.
And you didn't pay your share of the rent this month.
Neither did any of these little bottom feeders! Elektra, they ain't got no money.
But you, with all these new furs and jewelry, strutting around, but you must be getting plenty of money from somewhere.
Where is you getting all this money from, Queen of the Nile? Where is you getting all this finery? I don't owe you an explanation for anything.
I've had enough of this abuse.
Just because I was down on my luck for a moment does not mean I'll spend the rest of my life living like some indentured servant.
I am not a slum rat like the rest of you whores! I don't owe you any answers, I don't owe you any manners, and I most certainly don't owe you a goddamn apology for being late to a 99-cent meal made from canned meat and prison-grade toilet wine! Guess what.
You don't have to tell me I'm out of the house.
I quit, bitch! And you best not ever show your face in the ballrooms again.
I'm going to eat you alive on that runway.
Of that you can be sure! ("VOGUE" BY MADONNA PLAYING) (DOOR SLAMS) - Can I have her bed? - (SIGHS) (DOORBELL RINGS) I'm joining your house.
You're welcome, bitches.
How's everybody feeling tonight? (CHEERING) PRAY TELL: All right, all right.
So, listen, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge one of the pioneers of the ballroom.
In 1970, Pop, Spin, Dip was introduced right here on the ballroom floor.
Now, as legend would have it, Paris Dupree was flipping through a Vogue magazine and saw the poses that the models were doing.
She brought it right back here to the ballroom floor, imitating the models to the beat.
This is the category as we know it today.
Know your history, children.
Now, let's Vogue like Paris! Come on, Vogue Let your body move to the music - Move to the music - Hey, hey, hey Come on, Vogue Let your body go with the flow - Go with the flow - You know you can do it Beauty's where you find it Not just where you bump and grind it Soul is in the music, oh That's where I feel so beautiful - Magical, life's a ball - (SHOUTS) So get up on the dance floor Come on, Vogue (LAUGHING) Let your body move to the music - Move to the music - Hey, hey, hey I told you, everything is changing.
This is just the beginning.
(CHEERING) You know you can do it Vogue, Vogue, Vogue, Vogue.