Gay
Sarah and Flo have much in common. They both get too much airplay, they're both folksy and they're both selling you sumthin'. Palin's $100,000 speech at the first Tea Party Convention was warmly embraced as she asked the adoring audience: "How's that hopey, changey stuff working out?" A speech short on specifics but peppered with little zingers at Obama and Democratic party, the tea party enjoyed Palin as they chanted. "run Sarah, run" referring to the possibility that she might run in the next presidential election.
Sarah Palin is many things: charismatic, attractive, popular, but bright she ain't, and this doesn't seem to bother Americans. Facts have become a lost art, truth is a mirror and depends on who is peering into it, for surely many of Palin's assertions simply have no factual basis, but again, it doesn't seem to matter. This is what we now call politics. Palin represents something, something in the consciousness of many, many Americans that they find assuring. That she is a woman is certainly part of it. Rogue? What is rogue? Rogue is no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable. She may indeed be rogue, because most of her speeches make little sense. She delivers the needed zingers that only because she is a woman seem "pit bullish". Going after Sarah is tricky stuff because her being a woman entitles her to a gentler whipping (think vice presidential debates), but at some point, someone needs to call her out. That calling out may be the election of 2012, and should she decide to run, hopefully, the confrontation between facts and fiction can be clearly illuminated.
She is not to be underestimated though. She has a following, a large cult-like following that are blind to facts in favor of her particular fictions. Republicans, as usual, have done a great job marketing their special form of fear, for fear does not require action, it simply latches onto the anxiety at hand and multiplies.
SNL opened with a parody of "On The Record With Greta Van Susteren," last night as the Fox News host (Kristen Wiig) welcomed a panel consisting of Karl Rove, Col. Oliver North, and an attractive blonde lady.Also joined by an obligatory Democrat, Robert Gibbs, Van Susteren tackled the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, posing the question, "Should homosexuals be allowed to prance around our military like it's Cirque Du Soilel?"The views of the guests were as homophobic as you'd expect. Rove (Bobby Moynihan) put it bluntly: "DADT allows members of our military to be gay, but not too gay. So we get the Wills from Will and Grace, but not the Jacks." North (Will Forte) agreed, adding, 'The Neil Patrick Harrises, but not the Elton Johns."
From TV Notas (Febrero 9, 2010), we're treated to some delicious vintage modeling shots by William Levy. Above was the only one I could publish. Also from this issue, check out Bobby Larios from a trip to Cancun, below:
Robert Manrique (what a great fake name, except it's real) looks sultry in TV y Novelas (Febrero 8, 2010):
More after the jump...
Whether or not he's making Madonna see Jesus, Jesus Luz still looks good hitting the beach in Us (February 15, 2010):
I guess I have a soft spot for rock-hard The Situation, as captured in Life & Style (February 15, 2010), even if this shot reveals a face only a mother could love:
The same magazine offers up this angelic shot of 90210's Matt Lanter:
I love Sarah Silverman anyway—The Sarah Silverman Program is hysterical in every way—but reading her Advocate interview makes me love her even more.
For example, her smart observation about marriage equality:
"[L]ately I've been really annoyed by any liberal person getting married who says they stand for gay rights. How can anyone in good conscience get married right now? How is that different than joining a country club that doesn't allow Jews or blacks?"
Maybe she'll follow Al Franken into the Senate during the wave-election year that brings us the Stewart/Colbert presidential ticket.
STEFANO FOSTER WANTED TO BE AN ACTOR FOR AS LONG AS HE CAN REMEMBER. BORN IN ROME, AND GROWING UP ALL OVER EUROPE, HE REALIZED THAT IF HE WANTED TO MAKE IT, AND MAKE IT BIG, THERE WAS ONLY ONE...
American starlet Anne Hathaway revealed in an interview published in British GQ's March issue that her entire family left Catholicism after her brother came out of the closet. From Pink News, "The whole family converted to Episcopalianism after my elder brother came out. Why should I support an organisation that has a limited view of my beloved brother?"
What a refreshing perspective compared to the other stories we often hear about gay American kids whose fundamentalist religious families try to have them "fixed" or even kick them out of the house in shame. Way to go, clan Hathaway, for choosing the well-being of your family over the extreme dogmas of faith-based hate.
Hedda Lettuce didn't make it onto RuPaul's 2nd Season of Dragrace and as Lettuce reports, she may be better off. If you haven't seen the Logo series, what Lettuce says is actually kinda true. In one scene they bring out celebrity photographer Mike Ruis, who doesn't get to say much, but shows off his enormous 18" biceps and as they indeed turn a blasting fan onto the faces of each contestant, the casual observer does have to wonder if this wasn't some kind of humiliation. It was really funny.
Jemma Thomas, the soon to be ex-wife of sporting legend Gareth Thomas who in December 2009 annouced publicly that he was gay, spoke openly this week on the BBC Radio 5 Live show with Victoria Derbyshire about the moment when Mr. Thomas came out to her in the summer of 2006. Although the couple has been separated since then, with divorce proceedings currently being finalized, Ms. Thomas, who now lives in Spain, said that she has no regrets about her relationship with the rugby superstar:
"There is a part of me that thinks he should have been more honest with me sooner, but then again...I wouldn't want to change the time we had together...I think the time we spent together made us the people that we are now."
Hear, hear. Such remarkable existential wisdom from a strong woman who, incidentally, had already gone through three miscarriages during her life with Mr. Thomas.
UPDATE: President Obama also called out the proposed "odious" kill-the-gays law in Uganda.
President Obama attended the National Prayer Breakfast, something that pisses off some on the left because The Family is behind it—you know, the monstrous religious zealots who seek to turn our country into (more of) a theocracy?
If I were advising him, I certainly would not have advised him to skip an event that's been attended by every president, right and left, for 50 years. If he's willing to have talks with terrorist states, I don't see why he wouldn't appear in this lion's den. Personally, I'd love a president who was flatly against religion, period, but that's not possible so why bother with that battle?
More interestingly, it gave him the opportunity to continue his sassy streak by telling some of his fiercest opponents directly, in what will hopefully be a much-discussed soundbyte:
"Surely you can question my policies without questioning my faith...or for that matter, my citizenship."
Nice one. He's been on a roll for the past couple of weeks, which would rock even harder if he weren't celebrating having been in office a full year.
Via Towleroad: Incredibly, the only known amateur footage of the explosion of Challenger in 1986 has just now surfaced. It's haunting to watch, knowing what's coming, and listening to the spectators' innocent reactions as they pieced together that something was not right. The man who filmed it knew it was a historical moment caught on video (he says as much at tape's end), but he kept it in a box in his basement for over two decades before dying of cancer late last year. The only reason the film surfaced is he had told a friend about having witnessed the explosion and said, "Yeah, I even have it on video."
Thinking how this unique perspective was almost lost, and about the enormous loss represented by the explosion (the lives of those involved as well as the wounds to the American psyche) saddens me. Reading the comments on YouTube, which immediately turn to Obama-bashing, are even more depressing.
The main thing I remember about this was being in my high school lunch room and someone (I think Adam Martin) came in and said something to the effect of, "Did you hear the space shuttle blew up?" and we didn't believe it at first.
White Collar's Matt Bromer models how to stand out in neutrals for "Put the Accent on Gray" by Eric Ray Davidson from Men's Health (March 2010):
More after the jump...
What horny queen ordered this shoot and orchestrated that title?
...that's what The Bachelor's Jake Pavelka was called in high school. "Mr. Dateless!" And now, he's steaming up Us (February 15, 2010) in nothing but a towel and a smirk:
Keep reading for more Jake, and for a taste of the equally sexy Jessie Pavelka...
In Life & Style (February 15, 2010), Jake is also featured talking about his datelessness in high school. His loneliness ended when he started working out. I didn't start working out until after the age of 35. Hm. Oh, and the other guy is the similarly named Jessie Pavelka (Jake's cousin, whom he's never met):
Paul Walker is so hot he earns the front and back covers of Men's Health (March 2010). Inside, he pines for something more meaningful than mere acting. Perhaps he could eventually follow in the footsteps of his look-alike, Paul Newman, and give back in ways so powerful you remember his big heart every time you toss a salad:
More of Paul after the jump...
Democratic douchebaguette Sen. Blanche Lincoln made a damned fool of herself by questioning President Obama at today's Q&A on whether he'll start to work more with Republicans. Obama's response was that if by working with them it meant he wasn't supposed to fix healthcare or touch the way we do business, that meant being Republican and he wasn't about to do that. He rapped Lincoln and her fellow conservaDems for their "timidity" and reminded them all that the Republicans do not have a massive leadership advantage of 59-41, the Democrats do.
More tough talk...or is this Plouffe talk? I like the trend and only wish it had started six months or more ago.
Madonna's year-long love affair (if you believe Madonna) or showmance (if you believe some of her suspicious fans) with Jesus Luz is reportedly—accent on reportedly—ovah (if you believe the Chicago Sun-Times). He didn't like it, so he didn't put a ring on it, but that's okay—Madonna's more fun as a single lady with various suitors.
A graph illustrating that Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll of 2,003 self-identified Republicans. I know that good people should be able to disagree, but at least according to these results, Republicans are not good people. (Or very smart.) I mean...57% think President Obama wants the terrorists to win or are "not sure"?
Next, I'd like to poll America on if it should be illegal to cheat on your wife, marry outside your race, have children if you make under a certain amount of money, be a practicing Muslim...and other juicy topics.
VGL has the first look at Twilight Saga star Kellan Lutz in his skivvies for Calvin Klein's new X line. Kellan looks great (his face has been given an assist to the point where he registers more as a hot model than as hot Kellan Lutz) and I love the X (of course!), but I don't like the underwear...something about that huge band and huge lettering.
Even weirder, Kellan is just one of several guys advertising the line (others here, some even hotter!), so it's definitely not like when Marky Mark became THE face of CK.