The 41 hottest lesbians and sapphics of all time
Queer women are some of the most beautiful people on earth.
Harper's Bazaar recently released its list of the 50 Hottest Men of All Time, including men like James Dean, Tupac Shakur, Pedro Pascal, Bad Bunny, and Marlon Brando.
Esquire followed up with a list of the Most Beautiful Women of All Time. Its list included Lupita Nyong'o, Audrey Hepburn, Freida Pinto, and Brigitte Bardot.
Now, it's time for the lesbians.
These queer women and nonbinary sapphics are beautiful, they're elegant, they're handsome, and they're strong. They are artists, actors, musicians, activists, writers, and history-makers. And all of them are extremely hot.
Our list goes back to Ancient Greece, Vaudeville, and Old Hollywood, and features some of today's hottest stars.
Are your favorite lesbians and sapphics on the list?
Sappho
Dima Moroz/shutterstock
Sappho
Sappho, an ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos, is the namesake of both the sapphic and lesbian communities. Widely considered one of the greatest lyric poets of all time, Sappho's love poems have stood the test of time and still exist in fragments today. One of her most famous poems says, "Sweet mother, I cannot weave – slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl."
Frida Kahlo
public domain via wikipedia
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo is one of Mexico's greatest painters and cultural icons. Born in 1907, she is known for her magical realism and self-portraits, as well as her embracing of pre-Spanish Mexican culture. She spent much of her adult life married to fellow artist Diego Rivera and had several affairs with women.
Josephine Baker
public domain via wikipedia
Josephine Baker
Baker was a bisexual singer, dancer, and performer who was born in 1906. She gained fame on Vaudeville, as a part of the Harlem Renaissance, and later in Paris. When World War II began, she became a spy against the Nazis. She spent her life fighting for racial justice and adopted 13 children from various countries.
Gladys Bentley
Public Domain, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture via wikipedia
Gladys Bentley
Bentley was a blues singer, pianist, and fashion icon born in 1907. She was a star in Harlem Renaissance clubs, often performing in a tuxedo with tails and a tophat. She would perform bawdy songs, talk about her sex life onstage, and flirt with women in the audience. In her later life, she claimed she was "cured" of her queerness by taking hormones and married a man.
Anna May Wong
Public Domain, United States Library of Congress via wikipedia
Anna May Wong
Wong is considered by many to be the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood. She starred in films like Piccadilly, Daughter of the Dragon, Shanghai Express, and Daughter of Shanghai. She was also a producer and fashion icon known for her flapper look. She was rumored to have romances with fellow actresses Marlene Dietrich and Dolores del Río.
Marlene Deitrich
emka74/Shutterstock
Marlene Deitrich
One of the greatest legends of classic Hollywood, Marlene Deitrich is known for films including Shanghai Express, Morocco, A Foreign Affair, Witness for the Prosecution, Touch of Evil, and Judgment at Nuremberg. Leading up to World War II, she and Billy Wilder created a fund to help Jews and other dissidents escape from Germany.
Stormé DeLarverie
Vicente Photography Studio via New York Public Library
Stormé DeLarverie
DeLarverie was a butch lesbian, gay rights icon, entertainer, and bouncer who was instrumental in the Stonewall riots. She was born in New Orleans and later moved to New York, where in 1969 she was among those at the Stonewall Inn when police raided. According to some reports, including her own, DeLarverie was arrested and clubbed by police. She claimed she threw "the first punch" of the riots, and others joined in.
After the incident, she became a member of the Stonewall Veterans Association and was a fervent fighter for LGBTQ+ rights. She would also patrol around gay communities and check in on lesbian bars, and soon became known as the "guardian of lesbians in the Village." She passed away in 2014 at the age of 93.
Kitty Tsui
footge still via Gerber Hart Library and Archives
Kitty Tsui
Tsui is a writer, artist, activist, bodybuilder, and a groundbreaking Chinese-American lesbian author. As a bodybuilder, she won the gold medal in women's physique at the 1990 Gay Games. She is also longtime leader in San Fransico's AAPI lesbian community.
Leslie Feinberg
Robert Giard via New York Public Library
Leslie Feinberg (in black) with Minnie Bruce Pratt
Feinberg was an activist, speaker, and writer who identified as an "anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist." Hir 1993 novel Stone Butch Blues is considered a groundbreaking classic in lesbian and trans literature. Zie passed away in 2014.
Joan Jett
Aija Lehtonen/Shutterstock
Joan Jett
Rock and roll icon Joan Jett was an original member of the punk band The Runaways in 1975. She later went solo and was the leader of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Songs like "Bad Reputation" and "I Love Rock 'n Roll" are considered classics, and Jett is considered by many to be one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
Jenny Shimizu
David Turner/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images
Jenny Shimizu
Jenny Shimizu is a model and actress who has appeared in queer films like Foxfire and Itty Bitty Titty Committee. While filming Foxfire, she met Angelina Jolie, and the two began a relationship. She has been a model for Calvin Klein and was the first Asian model to walk a catwalk for Prada.
Angelina Jolie
B. Lenoir/Shutterstock
Angelina Jolie
Bisexual actor, producer, and humanitarian Angelina Jolie won an Academy Award for Girl, Interrupted in 1999, and won a Tony as a producer on the musical The Outsiders. She's starred in films like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Salt, Maleficent, the Kung Fu Panda franchise, Changeling, and Maria. She's also known for her humanitarian work with refugees, education, and women's rights.
Queen Latifah
Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock
Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah is a successful rapper, singer, and actress who has won a Grammy, an Emmy, and a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar. She began her career as one of the most popular female rappers, and by the 1990s, was also a popular actor. She's starred in films like Chicago, Last Holiday, Beauty Shop, Hairspray, and Girls Trip, as well as TV shows like Living Single, Star, and The Equalizer. She publicly acknowledged her partner, Eboni Nichols, for the first time at the 2021 BET Awards.
Niecy Nash-Betts
www.instagram.com
Niecy Nash has been making fans crack up for over 20 years. From 2003-2009, and again from 2020-2022, she played Deputy Raineesha Williams on Reno 911!, and also hosted and produced the Style Network show Clean House, for which she won a Daytime Emmy.
Nash started to get more dramatic roles in shows like Getting On and Claws, and in miniseries, including When They See Us and Mrs. America. In 2022, she starred as Jeffrey Dahmer's neighbor Glenda in Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and won her first Primetime Emmy. She is married to Jessica Betts and has three children from previous relationships.
Kate Moennig
www.instagram.com
Ever since she swaggered onto The L Word as the androgynous heartthrob Shane on The L Word, Kane Moennig has been making queer women and sapphics swoon. Moennig is also known for roles in shows like Ray Donovan and Grown-ish. She hosts the podcast PANTS with her longtime best friend and L Word costar Leisha Hailey.
Lea T
Renan Katayama via wikipedia CC BY-SA 2.0
Lea T
Lea T is a Brazilian-born and Italian-raised model and transgender advocate. In 2014, she became the first out trans model to land a major beauty campaign when she signed with Redken hair. In 2018, she became the face of Givenchy. She has appeared on the covers of international editions of magazines like Elle, Marie Claire, and Glamour.
Angelica Ross
www.instagram.com
Businesswoman, actor, advocate, and computer programmer Angelica Ross appeared in the Emmy-nominated web series Her Story in 2016. She's also appeared in shows like Transparent, Claws, Pose, and American Horror Story: 1984. In 2022, she made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in Chicago. She is also the founder of TransTech Social Enterprises and the creator of the TransTech Summit.
Megan Rapinoe
www.instagram.com
Megan Rapinoe is recognized not only for her stylish play and immense talent on the soccer pitch but also for being an activist who fights for equal pay, LGBTQ+ rights, and social justice. As a player, she won two World Cup titles with the USWNT, as well as an Olympic gold medal. She played professional soccer from 2009 to 2023, mainly for OL Reign in the NWSL. She is in a relationship with WNBA star Sue Bird.
Brittney Griner
www.instagram.com
The 6'9' Griner is a basketball legend who has played in the WNBA since 2013. She's won three gold medals with the US Olympic team, is a ten-time all-star, and has made the All-WNBA team six times and the All-Defensive Team seven times. She is married to Cherelle Watson.
Munroe Bergdorf
www.instagram.com
Bergdorf is a groundbreaking trans model and activist from England. In 2017, she became the first trans model to be the face of a L'Oreal campaign in the UK. She is also a fierce advocate for trans and racial equality and has written two books.
Lena Waithe
www.instagram.com
Waithe is an actor, writer, and producer known for creating the Showtime series The Chi and the BET series Boomerang and Twenties. She won an Emmy for writing for the "Thanksgiving" episode of Masters of None. She is in a relationship with Cynthia Erivo.
Cynthia Erivo
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British singer and actor Cynthia Erivo is just an Oscar away from being an EGOT winner. She won an Emmy, Tony, and Grammy Award for her role in The Color Purple, and has been nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Harriet and Wicked. Erivo is dating actor and producer Lena Waithe.
Janelle Monáe
www.instagram.com
Multi-hyphenate Janelle Monáe is a music, film, and fashion icon. The nonbinary star has received 10 Grammy nominations, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Children's and Family Emmy Award.
They've released groundbreaking albums like The ArchAndroid, The Electric Lady, Dirty Computer, and The Age of Pleasure, and have starred in movies like Harriet, Moonlight, Hidden Figures, and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
Megan Foxfor Uber
Megan Fox
As the titular character in Jennifer's Body, Megan Fox became the queer awakening for countless girls across the country. She has also starred in major franchises, including Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and in television shows like New Girl.
Christen Press
www.instagram.com
Press is a soccer player, podcaster, and entrepreneur who won two World Cup titles and an Olympic bronze medal with the US Women's National Team. She has 64 goals in 155 appearances for the team, good enough for ninth most all-time. She currently plays for Angel City Football Club in the NWSL and hosts the RE-CAP Show podcast with her wife, fellow soccer superstar Tobin Heath.
Young M.A
www.instagram.com
Thirty-three-year-old rapper Young M.A, real name Katorah Marrero, released her debut single "Ooouuu" in 2016. The song peaked at number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. Three years later, she released her debut album Herstory In The Making, which peaked at number 16 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Katy O'Brian
www.instagram.com
O'Brian had her biggest breakout when she starred in the crime thriller Love Lies Bleeding opposite Kristen Stewart. In the film, she played a bodybuilder named Jackie and got to show off her incredible muscles as well as her talent. She has also appeared in the Disney+ show The Mandalorian, as well as blockbusters like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Twisters, and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
Kristen StewartKristen Stewart
Stewart is an Oscar-nominated actress known for playing Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga. She was nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards for portraying Princess Diana in Pablo Larrain's film Spencer. She's also starred in queer roles in films like The Runaways, Happiest Season, Love Lies Bleeding, and Certain Women.
Tessa Thompson
www.instagram.com
Actor Tessa Thompson is known for films like Selma, Sorry to Bother You, Annihilation, and Passing. She stars in the Creed franchise as Bianca Taylor and as Valkyrie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She has said that she is attracted to both women and men.
Kehlani
www.instagram.com
A nonbinary lesbian, Kehlani is a popular singer known for albums like SweetSexySavage, Blue Water Road, and Crash. She's been nominated for five Grammys, including Best R&B song at the 67th Grammys for "After Hours." They came out as nonbinary in 2019 and came out as a lesbian in 2021 after previously identifying as queer.
Doechii
www.instagram.com
Rapper and singer Doechii had her first viral hit, "What It Is (Block Boy)" in 2023. She released her second mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, in 2024. The album peaked in the top ten on the Billboard 200, and won the Grammy for Best Rap Album, making Doechii the third woman after Lauryn Hill and Cardi B to win the award.
Lauren Chan
www.instagram.com
Chan made history in 2025 as the first out lesbian model on the cover of Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue. She previously founded the plus-size clothing brand Henning and served as fashion news editor for Glamour.
Aubrey Plaza
Featureflash Photo Agency via Shutterstock
Aubrey Plaza
Bisexual comedian and actor Aubrey Plaza became famous for playing intern April Ludgate on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation from 2009 to 2015. She's also appeared in the show Legion, as well as films like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Ingrid Goes West, Happiest Season, and My Old Ass. In 2022, she starred in the second season of The White Lotus and was nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the role. In 2024, she starred as Death in the MCU miniseries Agatha All Along.
Keke Palmer
www.instagram.com
Keke Palmer has been a singer and actor since she was a child, starring in Akeelah and the Bee, the Disney Channel Original Movie Jump In!, and the Nickelodeon series True Jackson, VP. As an adult, she has starred in projects like Scream Queens, Hustlers, Nope, and One of Them Days. She is also the Emmy-winning host of the game show Password.
Megan Thee Stallion
L Paul Mann/Shutterstock
Megan Thee Stallion
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion has won three Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist in 2021. She was just the second female rapper to win the award after Lauryn Hill in 1999. With songs like "Savage," "Body," "Hiss," and "WAP" with Cardi B, she is widely considered one of the best and sexiest rappers in the game today.
Tanner Adell
www.instagram.com
The pansexual country pop singer was part of history when she joined Beyoncé for the tracks "Blackbiird" and "American Requiem" on the artist's Cowboy Carter Album. In 2023, she released her debut solo album, Buckle Bunny. She came out as pansexual in 2025.
Meg Stalter
www.instagram.com
Meg Stalter is one of the funniest actors and comedians working today. She rose to prominence starring as entertainment manager Kayla Schaefer in the hit HBO sitcom Hacks. She is also the star of Lena Dunham's romantic series Too Much.
Diane Guerrero
www.instagram.com
Fans got to know Diane Guerrero when she played prisoner Maritza Ramos on Orange Is the New Black and have continued to love the actress and activist ever since. She also appeared in 24 episodes of Jane the Virgin and starred as Crazy Jane in the superhero show Doom Patrol.
The Colombian-American actress also wrote a memoir titled In the Country We Love: My Family Divided. The book explores Guerrero's parents being detained and deported when she was 14.
Alexandra Shipp
Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
Alexandra Shipp
Shipp had two early roles in music-based projects, playing Aaliyah in Lifetime's Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B and Kimberly Woodruff in Straight Outta Compton. Later, she played the superhero Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse and subsequent films. More recently, she appeared in Love, Simon, tick, tick… BOOM!, and in Barbie as a Barbie. Shipp is also a certified lesbian Video Vixen, starring as the love interest in music videos for Hayley Kiyoko ("Chance") and Reneé Rapp ("Mad").
Reneé Rapp
www.instagram.com
As an actor, Rapp is known for roles such as Regina George in the Broadway and movie musical versions of Mean Girls and the Max comedy series The Sex Lives of College Girls. She's also a talented singer, releasing her first studio-length album, Snow Angel, in 2023 and her second, Bite Me, in 2025. She came out as a lesbian in 2024 and is in a relationship with musician Towa Bird.
Hunter Schafer
www.instagram.com
With her elf-like beauty, Schafer has made a career as an actor and model. The 26-year-old Schafer had her big breakout starring as trans high school student Jules Vaughn in Euphoria. She has also appeared in films such as The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and Cuckoo. As a model, she has worked with renowned brands such as Dior, Marc Jacobs, Gucci, and Miu Miu.
This article originally appeared on Out: The 41 hottest lesbians and sapphics of all time
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Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
The Proof That Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner Hasn't Lost His Magic Touch
Media companies don't come much more historic than Disney. The eponymous studio was founded by Walt Disney and his brother Roy 101 years ago and, to this day, only two other executives have been as synonymous with the company as they were. Disney's current chief executive Bob Iger will forever be associated with the Mouse thanks to his acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox. They turned Disney into a titan which consistently ranks as the highest-grossing studio in the movie industry. However, neither Iger nor even Walt himself laid the modern-day foundations that Disney is built on. Iger's predecessor Michael Eisner can take the credit for that and his track record at Disney really is the fairest of them all. Few executives have cast as powerful a spell on the entertainment industry as Eisner. When he became Disney's chief executive on September 22, 1984 its stock price was just $1.24 and the studio was in the doldrums. However, by the time he handed over the hot seat to Iger 21 years later, each share was worth $23.80 and Disney was the world's biggest media company. Impressive as this is, it isn't the clearest evidence that Eisner really does have a magic touch. The New York native joined Disney after an eight-year stint as chief executive of Paramount where he launched ground-breaking movies like Saturday Night Fever, Beverly Hills Cop and Raiders of the Lost Ark. At the time, Disney was a shadow of what it is today. Construction costs at Walt Disney World in Orlando had spiralled and attempts to make more modern movies had led to forgettable live-action films such as sci-fi flop The Black Hole and Condorman, starring Michael Crawford. Combined with a failure to focus on new animation, repeated re-releases of its back catalogue and declining quality standards at its theme parks, Disney was at risk. "They lost the company basically by overspending on Walt Disney World," explained Eisner in an interview with this author. "People don't remember that but Walt, and particularly his brother, coming out of the Depression, were afraid of debt, so instead of using debt to build a pretty much over budget theme park in Florida, they used their equity. They sold. They lost control. They also way overspent and they didn't have the attendance so between losing control, not having the attendance, not doing new animation, having very few live-action pictures, re-releasing the old library theatrically prior to home video, the company was at risk." He added that "it was being torn apart. It could have been over in six weeks. When we walked down Main Street the second day in Disneyland I realised what a valuable asset it was." Eisner knew what was needed. "[George]With a wave of his magic wand, Eisner brought Disney back to its roots of hand-drawn animation yielding beloved favourites like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. "We concentrated on reinvigorating animation, particularly musical animation," he explained. "We obviously made an early deal with Lucas for Star Tours and Raiders of the Lost Ark because we had no recent movies for which to put in the parks. We then had a lot of recent movies, whether it was the Roger Rabbits, or the Aladdins, or Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King or whatever." Eisner then commissioned rides based on them as well as merchandise to sell in the theme parks so the films acted as promotion for Disney's resorts which in turn drove the sale of toys that would fuel kids' interest in the movies. Eisner doubled down on this spellbinding cycle by building two new theme parks in Florida as well as others in California, Paris and Hong Kong. The 1990s were a golden era for the theme park industry and Disney was at the vanguard of it. So much so in fact that it was referred to as the Disney Decade. As Eisner explained, "we went to Europe. We went to Japan. We started negotiating in Hong Kong. We opened in Hong Kong. All that before I left." In turn, Hong Kong Disneyland paved the way for the opening of the Shanghai Disney Resort in 2016 which, until recently, was the studio's latest park. That only changed in May when it announced that one of its outposts is coming to Abu Dhabi's Yas Island after Iger signed a deal with Mohamed Al Zaabi, the trailblazing chief executive of Miral, the world's leading theme park operator outside Disney and Universal Studios. The impact of Eisner's expansion was magnified by his emphasis on quality and details. He describes his legacy as "the strategy of excellence. The strategy of whatever you do, do it really well." It is no exaggeration. When Disneyland Paris (Euro Disney as it was then known) was being developed, Eisner amassed a team of the world's best designers to make it the most immersive theme park ever built. They included Eddie Sotto, who meticulously created the park's turn-of-the-century themed Main Street, and Tom Morris, the architect of its majestic castle. The clearest evidence they succeeded is the fact that the Disneyland Paris is still Europe's most-visited theme park even though a new attraction hasn't been built there for several decades. As this report revealed, launching Disneyland Paris may actually be the studio's best-ever deal. Eisner's effect didn't just extend to expansion. "We improved the food at Walt Disney World which was terrible in 1984. We built 30,000 hotel rooms, high-quality hotels, which they didn't have - they had two." He added that 'we did that in architecture. We built 80 buildings around the world at Disney. They had never done this before at Disney, they had always done it internally. We went with the best architects around the world.' Eisner's expansion helped Disney to become the world's most-visited theme park operator with 142.1 million guests streaming through its turnstiles in 2023 according to the latest data from the Themed Entertainment Association. That's just the start. In order to ensure that the studio didn't get left behind by the rise of computer-animated movies, Eisner signed a pioneering deal in 1991 to distribute Pixar's modern-day fairytales. Its films like Finding Nemo and Toy Story grossed a total of $3.4 billion during Eisner's tenure paving the way for Disney's $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar in 2006. Ten years after he took over the top job at Disney, Eisner created a new category of entertainment when he gave the green light to a Broadway show based on Beauty and the Beast. It opened at the Palace Theatre in New York in 1994 and was such a success that it set the stage for other shows based on The Lion King, Aladdin, and Frozen. Since then, Disney Theatrical Group's 10 titles have been seen by around 230 million theatergoers in 38 countries with The Lion King alone becoming the most successful show in theatre history playing to more than 115 million people in 100 cities. Instead of resting on his laurels, Eisner pushed the boat out and in 1998 launched Disney Cruise Line which now generates more than $2 billion of annual revenue as I revealed in British newspaper City A.M. Eisner declines to comment on the future of Disney and who should replace Iger. However, he is happy to look back and says that his turnaround of the company was driven by 'new content, invigorated management, diverse management, which we didn't have when I got there, great assets that Walt created that you had to build upon. No one big thing to put the company at risk. Motion pictures that were less than the industry average. All of those things together were a result of what turned Disney around. Going to Broadway, which has been a giant success. And I think the businesses that we put together in those 21 years are still the businesses that Disney is [today].' As the chart below and data here shows, by the time that Eisner stepped down on September 30, 2005, Disney's stock price was $23.80 which was a staggering 19.2 times higher than when he joined the company. It comfortably makes him the most successful boss in Disney's history as its stock price only rose 5.4 times during Iger's initial term which ran until February 25, 2020 when each share was worth $128.19. Former theme parks chief Bob Chapek took over the driving seat and although the stock price hit an all-time high of $201.91 under him, by the time he handed the reins back to Iger on November 20, 2022, it had slumped to just $97.58 which was lower than when he became Disney's boss. When Eisner stepped down he could have retired thanks to his sizeable pile of Disney stock which has soared even higher in value under Iger, closing at $119.35 today. Instead, he built up a boutique media company called Tornante after seeing signs showing the word on a cycling trip through Italy. Meaning 'hairpin turn', the name was fitting as Tornante headed in a completely different direction to Disney by producing hit adult animation series on Netflix such as Bojack Horseman and Tuca and Bertie. Despite his close ties to streaming, Eisner is still a big believer in movie theaters as this reporter revealed in the Daily Mail in 2023. He has also recently written a book called Camp, about the lessons he learned at summer camp, and has diversified outside media. Tornante has made investments in prize-draw company Omaze and trading card business Topps, which was sold to Fanatics in 2022 for an estimated $500 million. However, they were just trailers for the main event. Soon after Eisner turned 75 in 2017 he took perhaps his biggest swing yet when he acquired British soccer club Portsmouth FC. The team was founded in 1898 and was experiencing one of the toughest times in its history. In 2012 the historic team had fallen two tiers below the top flight Premier League after collapsing into administration – the British equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy – for the second time in two years. Its plight was so serious that it had to be rescued by its fans before its real life prince charming came along. Eisner had some experience in sports as under his leadership Disney bought the Los Angeles Angels baseball team and founded the Anaheim Ducks NHL squad which went on to win the World Series and the Stanley Cup respectively. Accordingly, making a success of a soccer team may sound like a cinch, especially for someone who built up the world's biggest media company. However, Eisner wasn't willing to buy his way to the top and burn up blockbuster losses. There is good reason for this. Eisner was one of the first of a string of American celebrities to invest in British soccer teams. He was followed by Ryan Reynolds, Michael B Jordan and Will Ferrell who invested in Wrexham FC, AFC Bournemouth and Leeds United respectively. Eisner wasn't jumping on a bandwagon and instead bought Portmouth FC, or Pompey as it is affectionately known, because he is a devoted soccer fan himself. He even invited Ferrell to matches leading to his investment in Leeds. Eisner's goal is getting Portsmouth back into the prestigious Premier League by building it up organically. What's more, he wanted it to be the springboard for a behind the scenes show along the lines of the hit Ryan Reynolds Disney+ docuseries Welcome to Wrexham. Eisner revealed the rationale behind it in a 2019 interview with this author for the Daily Mail at his office in Beverly Hills. When asked why a media boss would want to own a soccer team he replied 'football is the most direct [investment of my] media strategy. It is the most obvious and the clearest as opposed to the least obvious.' He explained that 'content, in my opinion, is still the essential ingredient in the media and having content is still the most important thing in platform that is appealing to an audience has to have something that lights up the Christmas Tree. And what lights up the Sky Christmas Tree or the ESPN Christmas Tree is live sports.' Known as appointment viewing because fans have to tune in at a specific time to watch it live, sport commands premium prices by broadcasters. "The only thing that demands viewing when it happens is sports. Yes, you have replays and you have all sorts of analysis of sports but if you know the score at the end of the game, the rest is really just icing on the cake." The drama of live sport also yields immensely passionate fans who crave content about their heroes. It explains why Welcome to Wrexham has been so popular but it wasn't the first mover in the streaming space. That accolade goes to Sunderland Til I Die, a 2018 Netflix series about the disputes and dilemmas behind the scenes at Sunderland AFC which had just been relegated from the English Football League Championship to League One. As Eisner explained, "all you have to do is watch Sunderland Til I Die on Netflix to understand the emotion of a team going into dissent." In fact, it was this show that convinced the actor Rob McElhenney to buy a soccer team leading to his investment in Wrexham with Reynolds. At the end of last season Wrexham was promoted to the Championship, one step below the Premier League. The odds seemed stacked against Eisner getting Portsmouth back to the top as English soccer is full of team owners who are prepared to pour billions into their squads in a bid to win on the pitch and earn international acclaim. However, afer seven calendar years in charge, his happy ending is within striking distance. Portsmouth won the League One title in the 2023-2024 season and was promoted to the Championship after a 12-year absence. Since then, the team has retained its place there and will make a renewed charge for promotion to the Premier League when the upcoming season gets underway on Friday. Perhaps indicating Eisner's confidence in its chances, he recently announced that Portsmouth is planning to film behind-the-scenes content over the coming year. It is a momentous milestone as it will give him the content he envisaged back in 2019. Most impressively, Eisner has managed to get this far without burning up blockbuster losses and putting the team in jeopardy. Quite the opposite actually as analysis of its latest financial statements reveals that the team now has the strongest capital structure in its 127-year history with no debt and net assets of $33.5 million (£26.5 million) as of June 30, 2024. Its net asset value has increased more than five fold since the supporters took over the club in 2013 which shows how strong the business has become. The metric is calculated by deducting a company's liabilities from the value of its assets so the higher the value, the lower the level of risk. The net result can be a sign of impending peril and, testimony to this, Portsmouth had net liabilities of $93.8 million (£47.5 million) in 2008 before it collapsed less than two years later. Since Eisner bought the team its cash reserves have risen 16.3% to $3.9 million (£3.1 million) which also gives strong confidence in the business. Its success has been shared amongst its staff as their pay has almost doubled to $13.4 million (£10.6 million) since Eisner took control even though employee numbers have decreased by 26.1% to 275. Staff and players were paid bonuses after the team was promoted and this partly fueled a $7.1 million (£5.6 million) net loss last year which pales in comparison to the red ink burned up by its counterparts in the Premier League. Everton FC for example reported a $67.3 million (£53.2 million) net loss last year whilst Tottenham Hotspur lost $33.1 million (£26.2 million). Both clubs have hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue as they share in the proceeds of the league's broadcast deals which are amongst the biggest in world soccer. It explains why Portsmouth's revenue is far lower though it rose 8.9% last year to $17.2 million (£13.6 million), the highest level since Eisner bought the team. Last year alone, matchday takings increased 6.3% to $8.7 million (£6.9 million) whilst broadcasting revenue rose by almost double that percentage to $3.2 million (£2.5 million). The increased broadcast exposure gave a 21.4% boost to the team's commercial and sponsorship revenue with partners including Nike and Uber Eats paying a total of $2.3 million (£1.8 million) in 2024. It was a family effort as the team is run by Eisner's dynamic entrepreneur sons Anders, founder of zero-sugar brand Activate Drinks, producer Eric and director Breck who made 2005 adventure film Sahara starring Matthew McConaughey and Penélope Cruz. They are accompanied by talented managers including chief executive Andrew Cullen, chief marketing officer Matthew Barker, chief commercial officer Mark Judges and the coach John Mousinho. Although Eisner's spending on Portsmouth hasn't been unchained, he hasn't left the club wanting. Its 2018 financial statements revealed that "the purchase of the club by Tornante resulted in an injection of £10 million [$13.2 million] new working capital which bolstered the balance sheet to a new positive total of £12.6 million [$16.6 million] net assets." It didn't stop there. As of June last year the Eisner family had invested $46.8 million (£37 million) in the club including $24 million (£19 million) alone on the redevelopment of its Fratton Park stadium. This began in June 2021, well ahead of the club's 125th anniversary, and was handled by Robert Stern who Eisner knew through his work at Disney. Stern designed Disney's Feature Animation Building in Burbank, California, with its soaring blue replica of Mickey Mouse's pointy sorcerer's hat. Stern was also behind Walt Disney World's lavish Yacht and Beach Club Resorts, which look like sprawling New England mansions, and their counterpart at Disneyland Paris, the Newport Bay Club. His work on Fratton Park had a magic touch as average attendance increased by around 1,000 to 18,952 in the year to June 30, 2024 and on February 17 last year Portsmouth had its first crowd of more than 20,000 spectators in 13 years. Its latest financial statements add that "in the second half of the season, we capped our season tickets to 15,000 and introduced a season ticket waiting list at Fratton Park for the first time in many years." In turn, the surge in spectators led to record hospitality kiosk and merchandising sales which is perhaps as significant a home run as the team's success on the pitch. "It is a game about winning. It is a game about progressing upwards. It is a game about strategy. It is a game about intelligent management," says Eisner. "Just like in the entertainment business."
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Jessica Biel Sparks Huge Debate About Moms Giving Their Kids Fast Food: ‘I'd Rather Pay More'
Did Jessica Biel know what she was getting into when she casually told a magazine that she doesn't take her kids to McDonald's? In an interview with Parade, the actress, 43, said that when it comes to feeding Silas, 10, and Phineas, 4 — the two boys she shares with husband Justin Timberlake — the global fast food giant is her big dealbreaker. And, unsurprisingly, it has sparked a big debate. 'I'm like, 'Sorry, guys, I'm not doing it',' she said. 'They don't get McDonald's. I just feel like I don't know what's going on with [the] quality of that food. It's stuff like that that I'm like, 'No, we're not.' Let's go have a great burger and fries at a fancy place. I'd rather pay more for you to have something fancy than something like that.' Biel added: 'I guess I'm not crazy, rigid and strict, but that would be something that, if they asked me for, I would just be like, 'Next! Next place. Next down the line!'' Famous or not, in 2025, it feels like airing any views at all on kids and food is a surefire way of causing controversy. Because, from the moment a baby is conceived — in fact, sometimes even before, since women are even told what to eat when merely trying to get pregnant — moms are judged for their dietary choices. Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake's Cutest Family Moments It reaches a crescendo when it comes to breast-feeding versus formula feeding and baby-led versus traditional weaning — but that doesn't mean it's over by the time the baby turns 2. In these days of extreme wellness, letting your kids eat fast food can be pretty controversial. While some families see a trip beneath the golden arches as a rite of passage and warmly recall their own childhood memories of Ronald McDonald birthday parties, others make it sound like they would rather hand their kids a cigarette. Biel, for her part, is under a bit of fire for bringing money into it. She's not saying she doesn't let her boys have burgers and fries; she's saying she only lets them have expensive burgers and fries. And to add to the awkwardness, there's the fact that some of Biel's family wealth is actually thanks to McDonald's: Timberlake was paid $6 million in 2003 for singing the 'I'm Lovin' It' jingle (although he did later say he regretted it). So, while some commenters on social media chimed in with Biel's view, writing 'It's so unhealthy, I agree,' others pulled her up for speaking from a place of obvious privilege: 'So here's the thing, Jessica, some of us are poor.' By implying McDonald's isn't good enough for her kids, Biel was inadvertently shaming the millions of families who happily eat there — whether every week, or once in a while. But, in turn, she's now being shamed for judging them. Yet again, moms can't win: if we do what we think is best for our kids, it feels like we're judging other people. And if we succumb to the lure of junk food, we're making bad choices. Ultimately it's better to keep quiet about your personal parenting choices — but it gets problematic if your kids are invited to McDonald's by another family, just like it can get problematic if they go for a playdate with different rules around screens, or have some friends who are allowed sleepovers or pierced ears before others. Navigating this stuff is a freaking minefield for moms, and even celebrities aren't immune to it. Solve the daily Crossword
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Tom Holland's sexy & tight 'Spider-Man' suit is making gays go feral
Our Spidey senses are tingling! Tom Holland is gearing up for his highly anticipated return to the big screen in the upcoming movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Lucky fans in the streets of Glasgow, Scotland got to see Holland rocking his brand new Spider-Man suit over the weekend as filming officially began on Friday. Thankfully, cameras captured the Hollywood hunk in his element and as he waved to fans watching nearby. People went feral for the photos as they began circulating online, so check out some of the hilarious reactions below! This article originally appeared on Pride: Tom Holland's sexy & tight 'Spider-Man' suit is making gays go feral RELATED Tom Holland Still Wants a Gay Spider-Man Tom Holland's Iconic 'Umbrella' Lip Sync Almost Didn't Happen Hugh Jackman wants to 'pile on & abuse' Tom Holland with Ryan Reynolds and we have thoughts
