He's shirtless everywhere...but in a fitness mag??? One more after the jump...
I was flipping through GT (November 2009) when I realized Alison Moyet—who I saw just a year ago, when she was still as heavy as ever—must have had a gastric bypass: she's positively gaunt. In a good way. (My mom used to say, before it was un-PC, "you can never be too rich or too thin"—and you can't!) Then I discovered this gorgeous live performance, which proves you can be a skinny bitch and still sing:
Malachi Marx, gay pornstar and hustler, is retiring. To celebrate, he's written a book called Gay 4 Pay: The Revealing Life of a Gay Porn Star and Escort, and he's given a juicy interview to The Sword all about his exploits as a now bi-incurious sex-for-salesman.
Tidbits:
"I would say that of all the 'straight' escorts and porn stars I meet, about 60% are gay or will be very soon."
"So, I'm sitting there shoving a banana in and out of his ass, and then I thought it was over. But he said, 'No. For another thousand I want you to peel the banana and eat it."
"One client hired six escorts at the same time. It was like after a varsity game in the shower of a locker room. There were just a bunch of hot naked guys walking around the hotel room. 'Okay, who's next?' 'No, you go in there!' 'No, you!'"
You can buy the book here, and it's a lot cheaper than Marx's price—$500/hour.
The Cornell sex scandal—married female and married male staff members accidentally forward a raunchy series of e-mails about the affair they're having to a large group of others at the school—is about more than just wet panties and their desire to tie each other up. What about the fact that they're both anti-Obama nutjobs? Check out her e-mail asking to read that article he'd forwarded about Obama's "one world, NWO" [New World Order]?
Oh, well, they're fucked anyway.
In a no-holds-barred interview with Kevin Sessums for The Advocate, Tom Ford discusses his Oscarbait movie A Single Man, his brilliant career and the first blowjob he ever gave, in the backseat of a Checker cab after a Studio 54 excursion.
On the one hand, the idea that A Single Man's marketing was de-gayed is re-gayed by Ford's unapologetically out attitude. On the other, he sees fit to say stupid things like, "If you said name 10 things that define me, being gay wouldn't make the list."
Still, I'm dying to see his movie.
AmericaBlog has announced the cleverly titled "Don't Ask, Don't Give" to urge voters not to donate another penny to the DNC, Organizing for America or the Obama campaign until "the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is passed, Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) is repealed, and the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is repealed—all of which President Obama repeatedly promised to do if elected."
Their announcement includes a lengthy list of things the president and Democrats have done to earn this dishonor. Most of the items are indisputably offensive to the LGBT community; only a few are really silly and petty (he looked "uncomfortable" talking about gay rights, he "flubbed" a question on gay issues).
They don't address this, but I imagine they are not against directly supporting progressive candidates, which is good. Part of our problem is we have a supermajority of Democrats, not of progressives.
My reaction is that this kind of thing is fair, but I only want to involve myself in a boycott if it's going to work. This one is already impossible; we simply do not have the votes to toss out DOMA, for example. Right now, we're several votes away from ENDA, the easiest of the litter.
Above from OK! (November 16, 2009): Check out Melrose Place's adorable Michael Rady. Even Ashlee Simpson could act impressed with how hot he is. Below, In Touch (November 16, 2009) comes through with a shot of 25-year-old teacher Stephen Stagliano, who has somehow gotten mixed up in a lame post-show Bachelorette affair:
Esquire's Fall 2009 Platinum Edition Big Black Book has one spread that caught my eye—Tim Simmons shoots this hirsute hottie for an editorial on the versatility of gray:
More after the jump...
Something that didn't cross my mind but did cross the collective minds of VGL and The Advocate: Is the marketing for Tom Ford's film A Single Man (adapted from Christopher Isherwood's classic gay novel) too straight?
I don't know if it's a bad thing that the Weinsteins are attempting to lure a broader audience in this way...for me, the real tragedy would be if the film were de-gayed.
For the first time since Medicare (44 years ago!), comprehensive health care reform has passed the House—with 220 votes. It needed 218, so let's thank the Republican from Louisiana who made a liar of Boehner (who'd vowed NO Republican votes) and, of course, Bill Owens from NY-23—who wasn't going to win his election last week until Sarah Palin started her "Hoffman, baby, Hoffman" interference!
Hopefully Stupak gets stripped before the final vote.
Now, on to the Senate...which'll be a push-over! (Um...yeah.)
"Fat pride" groups are upset that health care reform might reward things like weight loss.
I have no issue with the idea that bone-skinny isn't the ideal, or that perfect bodies are perfectly rare. I'm not skinny, and have been even more not skinny in the not-so-distant past. But being fat is unhealthy, period. Don't ask me to embrace it as if it's a positive. Someone's weight does not mean they're unworthy of support or respect, or that they're incapable of doing things a slimmer person might be able to do in life. But fat pride is idiotic and any truly fat person who would like to argue that their health is ideal at any weight will think twice when they likely die of a weight-related issue.
(In other news, smokers are a discriminated-against minority, too! Honest! They're just like black people...except the discrimination is even worse.)
Best movie poster ever.
If you're going into Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire expecting sadness porn, as one review stated, you'll be disappointed. True, the issues portrayed in the film are shocking and devastating in nature—incest for starters—but amazingly, this adaptation by out director Lee Daniels has an indomitable, unextinguishable buoyancy that comes in handy for both the heroine and her audience.
Queen Latifah should have begged for this; it's a surefire Oscar and instant legendary role.
Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe) is 16, morbidly obese and pregnant for the second time by her father, but nothing is a greater challenge than her day-to-day ghetto-unfabulous existence under the thumb of her outrageously abusive mother, Mary (Mo'Nique). Mary so resents her child for stealing her man that she flies into violent rages whenever she isn't ordering her daughter to wait on her, buy her cigarettes, play her numbers, lie to help keep welfare coming in or worse.
Life is short, but precious.
To get through all of this, Clarice daydreams in elaborate, intentionally cheesy sequences (that reminded me of My Own Private Idaho's talking porn covers)—Precious glad in red velvet at a movie premiere, bubbly and beloved by a tight, light-skinned boyfriend, Precious as the star singer in a glitzy gospel choir, even Precious and Mary in Two Women, the dialogue perhaps a bit too hilariously altered.
Dreams like this signal that Precious has an imagination—and a desire to better herself. In the nick of time, she's rescued by a concerned counselor (Nealla Gordon) who directs her to Each One Teach One, a school where she can get her GED (were girls really suspended from school for being pregnant in 1987? I didn't realize). There, Ms. Rain (a luminously pretty Paula Patton, pictured) inspires Precious and a hysterically funny batch of misfits (Stephanie Andujar, Chyna Layne, Amina Robinson, Xosha Roquemore and Angelic Zambrana, among others) to think for themselves and, more importantly, to express themselves through reading and writing. Ms. Rain helps to wash away the layers of self-loathing and resignation that had threatened to destroy Precious, and that will not leave without marking her for life.
The Twilight Saga's star Taylor Lautner—who is the male lead of New Moon over Robert Pattinson—recently stated he was through with being shirtless, though he did use the caveat "if I have a choice." Hopefully, future jobs will hinge on nudity or close to it—if he looked this good (see above) at age 16, he's only gonna get better.
Choice quote from the above vintage shoot: "[Taylor] is willing to do whatever it takes to get the best shot possible."
The Octobre 2009 issue of TETU has coverguy Raphael Lacchine by Lucio Luna, shots that remind me of Jesse Spencer:
More after the jump...
Just read the most adorrrrrrrrrable article ever from Vanity Fair (December 2009) by Jim Windolf all about the rise of cuteness overkill in America over the past decade, and how it could all be, in a strange way, fall-out from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No, really!
A rather dispiriting thread at AmericaBlog on the topic of (what else?) a gay boycott of Obama/the DNC vs. sticking with the Democrats.
DNC Treasurer Andy Tobias (pictured), himself an out gay man, argues with AmericaBlog's John Aravosis and is skinned alive by commenters who simply are not moved by the idea that the president has done anything positive for gay people and/or who are not going along with "better the Democrats than the Republicans."
A three-fer from Alfredo Piola above, as they appeared in TETU (Octobre 2009). Butt wait, there's more...including hot Dave Salmoni from People (November 16, 2009):
The same issue has this adorable shot of Chef Sam Kass, the man who makes food for the Obamas. Now yer cookin':
Had never heard of or seen Bleu (No. 10 Issue, 2009), but Justin Farkas shoots this guy for the cover:
...and model James Rosario has his best side memorialized by shooter Ashley Walker:
The shootings at Fort Hood are just shocking—how can someone rise to the rank of Major and consider such a thing? To shoot down your own fellow soldiers???
Also appalling—right-wingers are taking to Twitter in droves to complain that President Obama's remarks on this tragedy weren't eloquent enough ("he uttered 'uh' so many times") and/or that it was wrong for him to say anything about the conference he was at prior to launching into a statement. When George W. Bush fucked up, he was not criticized until he had well and truly fucked up. The bit about him sitting in the school during 9/11 was not instantaneous. And he wouldn't have been criticized for Katrina had he responded appropriately. Obama could have said ANYTHING and been roasted for it by these ass clowns. Not the time for politics!
PopEater has posted on the battle to out Anderson Cooper, including fresh quotes from Perez Hilton, Gawker's Brian Moylan and Out's Aaron Hicklin. Even though all three raise great points as to why it's okay to discuss Cooper's sexuality openly (Perez says he treats him like anyone else, Gawker persuasively says the guy has outed himself by appearing in public with his boyfriend and Hicklin sneers at the phony outrage surrounding the "outing" debate), the site's poll shows 91% believe the media should not "pry into the sexuality of others." (Okay, the word "pry" is about as leading as it gets!)
My position is principled and well known to anyone who's read my site—it's not "outing," it's telling the truth. There is no reason to protect closeted gays when the media routinely discusses much MORE damaging and private things about straight stars. None whatsoever.
But if one argument in Cooper's case is "who cares?" and another is "everybody already knows," check it out: The other poll asks if readers had heard rumors of Cooper's sexuality before...and 51% said no!
In the news of the day, AARP and the AMA have endorsed the House health-care reform plan. Boo-ya. Oh, and a few thousand loonies descended on the Capitol brandishing Holocaust images and frothing at the mouth about their rights being taken away (somehow, not sure how). As Kos points out, the scary thing is that this event was staged and endorsed by actual elected officials. The fringe has invaded. I hope it's not like mold that you can never get rid of.
The House Republican alternaplan for health care covers (almost) no one, so it's cheap.
Oh, and some douchebag who thinks it's funny to say liberals can't stand the Pledge of Allegiance got up and said it—leaving out "indivisible."
Certifiable lunachick Michele Bachmann has encouraged her incorrigible supporters to descend on Congress today in order to QUOTE scare UNQUOTE the Democrats out of health-care reform because if they can derail it it won't come up again for another decade. This is what we are up against and our side is pissing and moaning about not having enough progress yet? Guess how much progress we'll have on ANY progressive issues if this nutjob's party took over? Would you still say, "At least they're decisive!" when they're decisively destroying us on every issue and rendering President Obama incapable of getting anything done?
However, on the flip side, Democrats—pass the fucking bill already. You've had enough time to decide. Harry Reid has done well so far but should be ashamed to be saying the Senate can't act until next year. We need this locked down because two months is enough time for anti-healthers to do damage.
Brava to Nancy Pelosi if she gets her version voted on in short order.
