• Home
  • popular
  • EVENTS
  • submit-new-event
  • CHARITY GUIDE
  • Children
  • Education
  • Health
  • Veterans
  • Social Services
  • Arts + Culture
  • Animals
  • LGBTQ
  • New Charity
  • TRENDING NEWS
  • News
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Home + Design
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Innovation
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • subscribe
  • about
  • series
  • Embracing Your Inner Cowboy
  • Green Living
  • Summer Fun
  • Real Estate Confidential
  • RX In the City
  • State of the Arts
  • Fall For Fashion
  • Cai's Odyssey
  • Comforts of Home
  • Good Eats
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2010
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2
  • Good Eats 2
  • HMNS Pirates
  • The Future of Houston
  • We Heart Hou 2
  • Music Inspires
  • True Grit
  • Hoops City
  • Green Living 2011
  • Cruizin for a Cure
  • Summer Fun 2011
  • Just Beat It
  • Real Estate 2011
  • Shelby on the Seine
  • Rx in the City 2011
  • Entrepreneur Video Series
  • Going Wild Zoo
  • State of the Arts 2011
  • Fall for Fashion 2011
  • Elaine Turner 2011
  • Comforts of Home 2011
  • King Tut
  • Chevy Girls
  • Good Eats 2011
  • Ready to Jingle
  • Houston at 175
  • The Love Month
  • Clifford on The Catwalk Htx
  • Let's Go Rodeo 2012
  • King's Harbor
  • FotoFest 2012
  • City Centre
  • Hidden Houston
  • Green Living 2012
  • Summer Fun 2012
  • Bookmark
  • 1987: The year that changed Houston
  • Best of Everything 2012
  • Real Estate 2012
  • Rx in the City 2012
  • Lost Pines Road Trip Houston
  • London Dreams
  • State of the Arts 2012
  • HTX Fall For Fashion 2012
  • HTX Good Eats 2012
  • HTX Contemporary Arts 2012
  • HCC 2012
  • Dine to Donate
  • Tasting Room
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • Charming Charlie
  • Asia Society
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2012
  • HTX Mistletoe on the go
  • HTX Sun and Ski
  • HTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • HTX New Beginnings
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013
  • Zadok Sparkle into Spring
  • HTX Let's Go Rodeo 2013
  • HCC Passion for Fashion
  • BCAF 2013
  • HTX Best of 2013
  • HTX City Centre 2013
  • HTX Real Estate 2013
  • HTX France 2013
  • Driving in Style
  • HTX Island Time
  • HTX Super Season 2013
  • HTX Music Scene 2013
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013 2
  • HTX Baker Institute
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • Mothers Day Gift Guide 2021 Houston
  • Staying Ahead of the Game
  • Wrangler Houston
  • First-time Homebuyers Guide Houston 2021
  • Visit Frisco Houston
  • promoted
  • eventdetail
  • Greystar Novel River Oaks
  • Thirdhome Go Houston
  • Dogfish Head Houston
  • LovBe Houston
  • Claire St Amant podcast Houston
  • The Listing Firm Houston
  • South Padre Houston
  • NextGen Real Estate Houston
  • Pioneer Houston
  • Collaborative for Children
  • Decorum
  • Bold Rock Cider
  • Nasher Houston
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2021
  • CityNorth
  • Urban Office
  • Villa Cotton
  • Luck Springs Houston
  • EightyTwo
  • Rectanglo.com
  • Silver Eagle Karbach
  • Mirador Group
  • Nirmanz
  • Bandera Houston
  • Milan Laser
  • Lafayette Travel
  • Highland Park Village Houston
  • Proximo Spirits
  • Douglas Elliman Harris Benson
  • Original ChopShop
  • Bordeaux Houston
  • Strike Marketing
  • Rice Village Gift Guide 2021
  • Downtown District
  • Broadstone Memorial Park
  • Gift Guide
  • Music Lane
  • Blue Circle Foods
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2022
  • True Rest
  • Lone Star Sports
  • Silver Eagle Hard Soda
  • Modelo recipes
  • Modelo Fighting Spirit
  • Athletic Brewing
  • Rodeo Houston
  • Silver Eagle Bud Light Next
  • Waco CVB
  • EnerGenie
  • HLSR Wine Committee
  • All Hands
  • El Paso
  • Avenida Houston
  • Visit Lubbock Houston
  • JW Marriott San Antonio
  • Silver Eagle Tupps
  • Space Center Houston
  • Central Market Houston
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Travel Texas Houston
  • Alliantgroup
  • Golf Live
  • DC Partners
  • Under the Influencer
  • Blossom Hotel
  • San Marcos Houston
  • Photo Essay: Holiday Gift Guide 2009
  • We Heart Hou
  • Walker House
  • HTX Good Eats 2013
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2013
  • HTX Culture Motive
  • HTX Auto Awards
  • HTX Ski Magic
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2014
  • HTX Texas Traveler
  • HTX Cifford on the Catwalk 2014
  • HTX United Way 2014
  • HTX Up to Speed
  • HTX Rodeo 2014
  • HTX City Centre 2014
  • HTX Dos Equis
  • HTX Tastemakers 2014
  • HTX Reliant
  • HTX Houston Symphony
  • HTX Trailblazers
  • HTX_RealEstateConfidential_2014
  • HTX_IW_Marks_FashionSeries
  • HTX_Green_Street
  • Dating 101
  • HTX_Clifford_on_the_Catwalk_2014
  • FIVE CultureMap 5th Birthday Bash
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2014 TEST
  • HTX Texans
  • Bergner and Johnson
  • HTX Good Eats 2014
  • United Way 2014-15_Single Promoted Articles
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Houston
  • Where to Eat Houston
  • Copious Row Single Promoted Articles
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2014
  • htx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Zadok Swiss Watches
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2015
  • HTX Charity Challenge 2015
  • United Way Helpline Promoted Article
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Fusion Academy Promoted Article
  • Clifford on the Catwalk Fall 2015
  • United Way Book Power Promoted Article
  • Jameson HTX
  • Primavera 2015
  • Promenade Place
  • Hotel Galvez
  • Tremont House
  • HTX Tastemakers 2015
  • HTX Digital Graffiti/Alys Beach
  • MD Anderson Breast Cancer Promoted Article
  • HTX RealEstateConfidential 2015
  • HTX Vargos on the Lake
  • Omni Hotel HTX
  • Undies for Everyone
  • Reliant Bright Ideas Houston
  • 2015 Houston Stylemaker
  • HTX Renewable You
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • HTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Kyrie Massage
  • Red Bull Flying Bach
  • Hotze Health and Wellness
  • ReadFest 2015
  • Alzheimer's Promoted Article
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Professional Skin Treatments by NuMe Express

    TV Wonderland

    Behind the scenes with Joan Rivers at Fashion Police — and Jimmy Kimmel, too!

    Clifford Pugh
    Nov 4, 2013 | 12:11 pm

    HOLLYWOOD — It's barely 8:30 in the morning, but a perfectly-coiffed Joan Rivers, in a tailored metallic gold jacket with fur collar and dripping in jewelry, looks like an affluent, plastic-surgery lovin' lady-who-lunches on her way to lunch.

    Until she opens her mouth. Then the Joan we know and love comes forth.

    At 80, Rivers remains one of the hardest-working entertainers in show business, so it's not surprising that she's first on the set of Fashion Police, sitting in her customary chair, rehearsing lines as she looks into a teleprompter before the panel — Kelly Osbourne, George Kostiopoulos and Dancing With The Stars contestant Christina Milian, who is subbing for regular Giuliana Rancic on this episode — arrive.

    Why has Fashion Police been so successful? "We love each other as a group," Rivers explains. "And E! lets us say just about anything."

    For the next two-and-a-half hours, during a recent taping of the hit E! show, Rivers is all business, with a lot of laughs in-between. Make no mistake: It may be called Fashion Police, but it's the Joan Rivers show. Without her sometimes tasteless, always acerbic putdowns of foolishly-dressed notables, the show would be a real snoozefest.

    During a break Rivers engages in conversation with the 30 or so "guests" on the set. Because the studio located in a nondescript office building that houses most of the E! operations is so tiny, there is not room for much of an audience. Since the show has become a hit in the U.S. and is shown in 160 countries, parent company NBC Universal has offered a much bigger studio on the Universal lot, Rivers says, but she won't move from this studio where the show has been taped for three years. "I'm superstitious," she says.

    CultureMap was allowed to observe a recent taping, with a plea not to reveal too much about how the magic happens. A TV taping can be tedious and a bit messy — it's a bit like watching sausage being made — but Fashion Police proceeds crisply, although the segments are shot out of order and, occasionally someone muffs a line, so it has to be re-shot.

    The "guests" on this day are predominately gay, as are many of the show's regular viewers, and the show's warm-up comic Nina Manni and head writer Tony Tripoli urge us to laugh heartily, which isn't that hard to do. "I need you to all embrace your inner gay man and get rowdy like you're at the Abbey after three martinis," Manni says, refering to a popular Los Angeles bar.

    (Upon hearing we're from Houston, Tripoli reveals that relatives started the Truluck's chain of seafood restaurants. "I'm in the wrong line of business," he laments.)

    To keep our stomachs from growling at the early hour, a large basket filled with chocolate bars and assorted candies is passed around, and as a reward for attending the show we receive a plastic sheriff's badge, officially designating us as a member of the "Joan Rangers."

    As any viewer of the show knows, many of Rivers' jokes skirt the edge, and we are told to laugh even if we find a joke shocking. On this show, Rivers picks on regular targets Anne Hathaway, Tom Cruise, Peter Dinklage, Paula Deen, Oprah Winfrey, Betty White and the Kardashian clan in an especially funny joke about Kim and Kanye that is too R-rated to recount here.

    Overseeing it all is Rivers' daughter Melissa, who stands behind a camera and communicates with the control room while finding time to banter with the audience about her tattoos, boob jobs and love of shoes. Melissa is wearing a killer pair of Chloe ankle booties, which she proudly shows us during a break.

    It's our lucky day because instead of featuring a no-name starlet, a staple of the show as it expanded to an hour, comedienne Margaret Cho is a guest and she and Rivers easily exchange jokes like the pro's they are for a good 10 to 15 minutes. Only about three minutes of their conversation makes it into the televised show. (Off camera, Cho and Osbourne, who are both heavily tattooed, show off their favorites.)

    During a break, Rivers takes questions for the audience, talking about Michael Jackson, Cher, what she wears and why the show has been so successful. "We love each other as a group," she explains. "And E! lets us say just about anything."

    Jimmy Kimmel's world

    I was hoping to also get a behind-the-scenes look at Jimmy Kimmel Live! and made that clear with the show's publicity team. But when I arrived for the 4:30 p.m. taping of the popular late-night ABC show, a publicist escorted me and a guest to the green room, where drinks and food were available, along with an adjoining game room, with pool table and old-fashioned video games. She told us to watch the show here and about 15 minutes before it ended, she would escort us to an outdoor stage to watch John Mayer perform.

    Even though we were disappointed, it's hard to complain when you're in a room with free food and booze — along with a TV that shows NFL football games on a rival network.

    When I protested, she explained there were only 180 seats in the auditorium. Then she disappeared and we never saw her again.

    Even though we were disappointed, it's hard to complain when you're in a room with free food and booze — along with a TV that shows NFL football games on a rival network. By the time the Kimmel show started taping at 6 p.m. (despite the title, it's not "live," although it is taped as if it is) and the TVs in the green room switched to his show, nobody was paying attention. Which is just as well, because it seemed like an off night for the talk show host, with an opening monologue that fell flat and only the charisma-challenged Mayer and a supporting actress in the ABC soap, Scandal, on hand as guests.

    We stayed around to watch Mayer perform on the Sony Studio Stage. On TV, it looks like the stage is on a cool rooftop, but it's actually in a depressing asphalt parking lot behind the Kimmel studio on Hollywood Boulevard. Kimmel introduced Mayer and then quickly disappeared (it was a Thursday night and Kimmel doesn't work on Fridays) and, after two Mayer songs, we vanished, too.

    Jimmy Kimmel

    Austin Photo Set: News_Shelley_CTC_jimmy kimmel_dec 2012_4
      
    Courtesy photo
    Jimmy Kimmel
    unspecified
    news/entertainment

    Rich's reborn

    Essential Houston LGBT dance club reopens in original Midtown location

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 17, 2025 | 1:00 pm
    Rich's nightclub Houston
    Courtesy of Rich's
    The new Rich's intends to be a concert venue.

    Houston nightclub Rich’s has reopened its original location on San Jacinto, but the venue aims to reach a broader audience than it did as a LGBTQ-focused dance club.

    First opened in 1983, owner Jeff Harmon moved Rich’s to 202 Tuam in 2019. Earlier this year, Harmon rebranded the property that property as the Montrose Country Club, an all-day restaurant and bar with a pool. Those changes paved the way for Rich’s to return to 2401 San Jacinto with an upgraded audio-visual system and a refreshed interior.

    While Rich’s will always welcome the LGBTQ community — it will host the official afterparty for this year’s Pride Parade on Saturday, June 28 — its new iteration is primarily an event space that will host everything from weddings and corporate meets to concerts of all musical genres. Notably, Rich's will only be open for events and concerts. It won't be open on weekends for regular service.

    “It is now a multipurpose venue open to all types of events,” entertainment consultant and talent booker Rich Pangilinan tells CultureMap. “It is no longer strictly a nightclub. It is no longer just a LGBT venue.”

    One of the most noticeable changes is the interior. Instead of the dark walls one might expect in a nightclub, the walls and floor are a more neutral shade.

    “Event planners can come in and hold different types of events that are catered to their needs. There’s no limitations to this venue now,” Pangilinan says.

    Harmon also invested $1 million into upgrading the lights and sound, according to Pangilinan. Rich’s is one of a handful of venues in Houston using Void speakers, an internationally-recognized name for venues of this type. Since it reopened in April, the venue has hosted hip hop concerts and a performance by superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold.

    “Jeff is proud of the way the renovations have turned out. It’s a lot more upscale,” Pangilinan says. “Previously, the second floor had multiple rooms. They've been removed. It’s one big space with areas for people to socialize.”

    For the Pride Parade party, Rich’s will host Italian DJ Danny Verde. The evening will also include photo installations, surprise performances, and pride-themed cocktails. Tickets start at $25 for general admission with various VIP packages available. Get more details at the Rich’s website.

    Rich's nightclub Houston
      

    Courtesy of Rich's

    The new Rich's intends to be a concert venue.

    nightlifeopeningrich's houston
    news/entertainment
    CULTUREMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME
    Get Houston intel delivered daily.
    Loading...