Gay ice hockey drama 'Heated Rivalry' becomes a surprise hit in Russia despite anti-LGBTQ+ laws
If you haven’t heard of gay ice hockey TV drama “Heated Rivalry” and its two lead stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie yet ... then get your skates on. Its stars have rocketed from unknowns to cultural icons in the space of weeks, appearing on stage at the Golden Globes, sashaying down the Milan catwalks to, this week, carrying the torch for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. Based on the 2019 novel by Rachel Reid, the story traces the decade-long secret relationship between Canadian Shane Hollander (Williams) and Russian Ilya Rozanov (Storrie), mixing slow-building yearning with explicit sexual scenes.