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From Halle -loo to Hollywood, three-time RuPaul’s Drag Race eliminee Shangela is sashaying proof you don’t need a crown to hone a royal strut. She made a name for herself in 2011, popping out of a Tiffany box and into the reality competition show’s third cast of competing queens, among which she’d ultimately finish in sixth place. Now, nearly a decade later, the 36-year-old is about to pop off at the box office at the top of her game with a scene-stealing role as the drag mother to Lady Gaga’s bar-singing budding superstar, Ally, in Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut A Star Is Born .  ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Shangela, it’s so great to speak with you. We  can’t get rid of you! SHANGELA:  Baby, I’m back again! That’s what I always do: I come back. I just keep popping up everywhere, honey. But no one’s complaining. You’re at the top of your game on this huge tour and starring in this huge film with  lots of Oscar buzz , so I think I speak for everyone who was with ...

It is far easier to forgive a film for a weak first half than a weak second half. The films I’ve been seeing at Venice this week almost all pass the two-hour mark — a lot of big, long movies that beg a joke about the nearly all-male competition lineup that I am just going to let you make for yourself. But it should be noted that some have had an easier time sustaining themselves through that run time than others. Two of the most anticipated titles of the festival had their premieres on Friday, and you could feel the security tighten on the Lido in preparation for Lady Gaga’s plumage to land on the red carpet (it was not a victimless frenzy). The first half of A Star Is Born, Bradley Cooper’s remake of Hollywood’s favorite story it tells itself, are among the most exhilarating of any film you’ll see this year; unabashedly wish-fulfillment porn but through an electrically intimate, contemporary lens. Lady Gaga, famously made-under in her feature film debut, is Ally, a food service emp...