Out.com | Popnography

May 13, 2008

Tube time: Eli, Greek
and kissing lessons from Nuke

Inturn_2

> Hit maker Greg Berlanti's weirdest show on ABC, Eli Stone, has been picked up for another season. No word yet on whether George Michael's contract has been similarly extended.

> Over at Big Gay Network,Jr., the official poll for ABC Family's Greek wants to know who you think is the best couple of the show. While Calvin and his new love interest (Ugly Betty and Veronica Mars alum Max Greenfield) aren't (yet) on the list, they do offer you the Odd Couple option: Rusty, the show's sweet, nerdy protagonist) and Dale, his Confederate flag-flying roomie. Hey, I love Casey and Cappie, too, but Team Gay is losing by a ridiculous amount.

> CBS's online-only reality casting show -- In Turn, where actors compete for a slot on soap As the World Turns -- put the kids up to the ultimate test: an on-camera kissing scene. And they snagged their most famous smoochers, Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann (aka Nuke), to prep the actors and help judge the results. My pick for best surprise twist this week: Two of the three couples are same-sex. This is strangely, totally compelling not-quite-TV:

Previously > Greek's family values > Going Nuke-lear

Get it while it's hot!
Cry-Baby kicks off our list of summer lovin'

Hotlist_2008
Photo: M. Sharkey

What's summer without a little lovin' and a lot of sweaty, sexy subjects and objects of our affection? The boys of Out have collected in one easy location all the hottest things to do and lust after as the weather (finally) kicks into high gear. I highly recommend picking up the actual issue -- a hefty, but worthwhile lug to the beach or wherever your holidays may take you -- but for those still chained to our desks, we'll also be offering a daily dose of all the who, what, where you’ll be glad you knew first.

Get off on the right foot with Broadway's latest John Waters adaptation star, Cry-Baby's James Snyder (that's him in the yellow, above, with co-stars Marty Lawson, Spencer Liff and Charlie Sutton, left to right). And as he told Out's Bruce Shenitz, it's obviously the part he was born to play:

"One of my early memories was of a local video store, where there was a Cry-Baby poster, and I was, like, 'Johnny Depp cries!'" says James Snyder in his dressing room at the Marquis Theater. "It was around fifth grade, and I had cried on the bus for something...I remember thinking, All these women think it's sexy that he cries, so I guess I'm allowed to do that."

Not just the women, honey, but you go on ahead and wipe your eyes all pretty-like!

Your date with the Hot List starts here.

Quickies: A comeback, a complaint
and a celebrity chef's seasonal demands

Jimmy
Photo: Getty Images

> It's official -- Jimmy Fallon will take Conan O'Brien's night shift when O'Brien is handed the reigns to Jay Leno's late show. The game of talk show host musical chairs is scheduled to happen next year when Leno is due to retire. Speaking of the appointment, Fallon told journalists, "It’s going to be a grind, it’s going to be hard, but I’m going to go at it full force." Hard? Maybe. But we think this could be a really good thing for him and for us. And it surely can't turn out any worse than those movies -- Taxi, anyone? -- he left SNL to do.

Isaiah Washington has a new beef with ABC, the station that canned him after he made a homophobic slur against Grey's Anatomy cast mate T.R. Knight. It seems the medical drama used a photo of him in a mock newspaper article about his character receiving a surgeon's award. Washington filed a complaint with the Screen Actor's Guild claiming that the producers never asked his permission to use his image. Washington's lawyer explained, "They have the rights of the character to advance the story, but not the image," and that he expected his client to receive some kind of "financial settlement." What? Your gig at Bionic Woman isn't keeping you busy and well fed enough? Ohhhh -- right! -- that got canceled.

> Gordan Ramsay --  top rated chef and star of Hell's Kitchen -- wants to make it illegal for restaurants to serve fruits and vegetables that are out of season. The quick tempered chef told the BBC: "I don't want to see asparagus in the middle of December. I don't want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March. I want to see it home-grown." Ramsay is demanding both "stringent licensing laws" regarding ingredients and the fining of restaurants that use items that are not in season. Sounds good to us. Now, just as importantly, who do we talk to about making poofy houndstooth chef pants and Crocs in the kitchen illegal?

-- NOAH MICHELSON

May 12, 2008

And now it's time
for the hiatus honeymoon...

112731_5117_pre
Photo: ABC/MICHAEL DESMOND

In true soap opera fashion -- you say "family drama," we say "why split hairs?" -- Brothers & Sisters ended its très gay season last night with a fittingly faggy finale.

(Though we gave away the main event in our story about executive producer Greg Berlanti, I'll do the many "time-shifting viewers" a favor and put the spoilers after the jump...)

Continue reading "And now it's time
for the hiatus honeymoon..." »

Revealing Ryan

It's a new week, a new day, and, as promised, a new set of exclusive outtakes from Out's June/July fashion cover shoot "Vs." photographed by Richard Phibbs.

Here's Ryan:

Ryan1
...Multi-tasking in the makeup chair.

Ryan4
...The strangely alluring combination of Coca Cola, long johns, an Ace bandage, and a pea coat.

Ryan5
...Prepping for the ring.

Photos: Brent Coover

Craving more Ryan? Fear not! Out.com's Model Citizen has exactly what you're searching for.

Previously > Blake > Caleb > Fulton > Parker > Terrence

Yes, we do want to believe

The X-Files: Fight the Future, 1998

I am fairly sure this is the first piece of online video I ever painstakingly downloaded and then analyzed frame by frame. Long before such nerdy pursuits became something of a national pastime (thank you, YouTube!), those of us unfortunate enough to be afflicted with a burning case of obsession over the X-Files fretted and twirled our thumbs and crossed our fingers and hoped the little sci-fi show that could would successfully make the leap to theaters.

Yeah, it sort of feels the same now, higher tech and all. Mulder and Scully will be back on the big screen this summer, being all angsty and kissy and chasey and conspiracy-y. Here's a sneak peek at that: 

The X-Files: I Want to Believe, 2008

If you'd like a stricter comparative exercise, this long-form trailer from '98 (the one above was the very first teaser aired -- I think? -- during a TV broadcast of the show) has the same sountrack, half the same dialogue, and similarly staged shots as the new one:

[Thanks to Liz M. at NewTeeVee for helping dig up our past.]

Donna Martin graduates, still can't get out of 90210?

Tori
Photo: Getty Images

Tori Spelling co-hosted our Out 100 awards, graces this month's Hot Issue as our girlfriend of the month and -- if Deadline Hollywood Daily is right, which it usually is -- will return to our small screens in some capacity on the 90210 spin-off! Plus Jennie Garth is already in the mix, playing herself Kelly Taylor, now consigned to guidance counselor duties at West Beverly High. Does that mean Tori will be back as Donna Martin? We can only hope so.

In the meantime, here's some selected blunt advice from Tori's Out piece:

3. I secretly love it when you quote my Lifetime movies and compare seemingly hopeless situations to Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?

5. Stop trying to make us over into your teen boy-toy fantasy. I paid too much money for these tits to cover them up with plaid shirts and rocker tees.

7. Bite the bullet and buy your own concealer already.

Get all 10 tips at Out.com.

While you were out...

Rdjlakers
Photo: Getty Images

I went away for a week, leaving these hallowed halls of off-color gay jokes safely in the hands of Jason, Noah and company. I'd been mentally composing a list of rumors they forgot to spread and celebrities whose dubious denials they forgot to defame -- only to find upon my return from paradise that no such absences had occurred! Go Team Popnography!

In case you were off globe-trotting yourself (or, whatever, actually working), here were a few of my favorites:

> Popnography's review of the excellent Iron Man. Watching Robert Downey Jr. of all people play a (super)man reborn from narcissism into a fearsome, fierce machine of justice was strangely redemptive and more than a little aww-inspiring. There were some long years there where it really didn't seem like the guy was going to make it back from the brink, so it's especially satisfying to see him do so well upon this now-undeniably triumphant return. Whatever, mostly this was an excuse to post the picture above: Downey with his super-cute son, Indio (age 14), at a recent Lakers game. Look how proudly dad wears his purse!

> Noah's rant about Made of Honor totally made my week. (Not to mention he did his due diligence in keeping you posted about Pete Wentz.)

> And, a full week of behind-the-scenes snapshots of our Hot List models. (I'm personally particularly fond of Fulton.) 

Quickies: Paula's cuckoo for queers,
Justin won't take his own advice
and McDreamy's made of manly ambitions

Paula
Photo: Getty Images

> In a new interview with Logo, Paula Abdul weeps, makes Twilight Zone noises, and generally provides us with exactly the kind of entertainment we've come to expect and love from her. The interview is billed as the first to discuss her feelings about us gays and also reveals how she "single-handedly brought in" gay contestants Danny Noriega and David Hernandez on American Idol. The AI judge claims, "I feel that, in many ways, I'm more understood by the gay community than I am anywhere else." Awwww. Wait a second -- Is that really a compliment?

> Justin Timberlake is producing a new reality TV show for MTV. The Phone, based on a Dutch game show, will play out as follows (according to Access Hollywood):

Each episode will begin with two strategically placed cell phones ringing at opposite ends of a major metropolitan city. Once answered, a mysterious guide gives contestants five seconds to decide if they want to play the game.

If they accept, the competition begins, throwing the two contestants into an intense race, where they must communicate via cell phone to succeed.

The guide will also be communicating with the game players via cell phone, as a helicopter in the sky tracks their every move, exploit and error – with each failed task chipping away at the cash prize.

All this from the man who said, "Play more dayum videos. We don't want to see the Simpsons [sisters] on reality television -- I want to challenge MTV to play more videos," when receiving an MTV video music award in 2007.

> In an interview with the Advocate to promote his new film Made of Honor (the marketing campaign of which I threw a hissy fit about last week) Patrick Dempsey tells us about his most feminine qualities (he cries "at the drop of a hat"), dropping out of high school to star in a production of Torch Song Trilogy ("the gay community was always incredibly kind to me"), and the male celebrity he finds sexiest (Johnny Depp). Though we agree with his taste, he loses a point for unoriginality (Depp is the new Jolie for safe straight lust). Still -- should you guys ever choose to venture into the world of intimate male encounters -- send us a photo!

-- NOAH MICHELSON

May 09, 2008

A week of Wentz (and Ashlee)

Pete
Photo: Getty Images

Before Popnography's fearless and intrepid editor, Shana Naomi Krochmal, took off for a week of well-deserved vacationing she made me promise her that I would blog about any Pete Wentz gossip I happened upon while she was gone. So without further ado -- here is a week of Wentz (and Ashlee):

> While on a French press tour for her new album, Bittersweet World, Ashlee Simpson told journalists that Pete keeps her "grounded." The singer continued: "I don’t see myself following the path those girls (Lohan, Spears, Hilton, etc.) take. I’m almost 24. I’m pretty together and I’m getting married to a great guy. I wouldn’t ever let myself get that way and I don’t surround myself with ‘yes’ people. I think that’s the most important thing."

> Pete and Ashlee returned home to LA from France on Thursday amidst still swirling rumors that the couple is expecting a baby by the end of the year. When asked about Simpson's visibly growing chest -- a sure sign of having a baby on board -- a representative told the New York Daily News "It’s probably just a great bra, like any girl’s secret.”

> When staffers from New York magazine ran into Pete at his bar Angels&Kings on a newly established gay night, they asked if he liked "running with the gays." Pete replied, "It seems sometimes like nobody knows how to have a good time anymore. But the gays are always having a good time." Damn straight! Er, gay?

-- NOAH MICHELSON

We brake for Blake

To end the week right we bring you yet another sumptuous set of exclusive outtakes from Out's June/July fashion cover shoot "Vs.," shot by Richard Phibbs.

Behold our model du jour, Blake:

Blake1
...getting zen while getting prepped.

Blake2_2
...stripping down to the bare necessities.

Blake4
...ready for action.

Blake7
...sweltering in the shadows.

Now that we've got your attention, head over to Out.com and check out Blake's full Model Citizen profile. And tune in to Popnography all next week as the male-model madness continues!

Previously > Caleb; Fulton; Parker; Terrence

Quickies: Fruitcake you'll actually look forward to,
looking to adopt, and an ideal date

Parker
Photo: Getty Images

> Parker Posey and Johnny Knoxville will star in the upcoming John Waters' Christmas film Fruitcake. Though the plot is being kept secret, the Hollywood Reporter learned that the film centers around a boy named after the festive dessert who "runs away from home during the holidays after he and his parents are caught shoplifting meat, then meets up with a runaway girl raised by two gay men and searching for her birth mother." John Waters? Parker Posey? Johnny Knoxville? Shoplifting? Meat? Runaways? Gay men? We're already ready to declare this the best movie of 2008 or 2009 or whatever year it comes out.

> T.R. Knight tells OK! Magazine that he loves boyfriend Mark Cornelson "to pieces" and they are already thinking about adoption somewhere down the road. The 36-year-old Gray's Anatomy star says, "“I wouldn’t rule [adoption] out at all. I think it would be adopting versus any other route. But yeah. I mean, there are a lot of kids who need homes.” Perhaps Knight could just adopt 19-year-old Cornelson?

> Chase Crawford lays out the perfect date for People magazine: "The ideal, I think, when you're starting out, is something low-key, like playing the [Nintendo] Wii, ordering in pizza and then grabbing a beer." But once it's time to actually make an appearance in public he prefers going "to a concert in Central Park or an NBA basketball game, if she likes sports." The gossip guy, who claims to be unattached right now continued, "Part of me being single is focusing on my work right now. I've been dating my gym bag for a while now." We have to admit, "gym bag" is a cuter nickname for JC Chasez than "colostomy bag."

-- NOAH MICHELSON

May 08, 2008

Catching up with Caleb

You know what time it is? Male model time! Today we bring you another set of exclusive outtakes from the set of Out's June/July fashion cover shoot "Vs.," shot by Richard Phibbs.

Heeeeeere's Caleb:

Caleb1
...immersed in literary pursuit

Caleb2
The transformation begins.

Caleb5
Nothing pleases quite like a nude, skin-tight body suit.

Caleb7
Being a model doesn't mean Caleb can't be street.

Photos: Brent Coover

And, of course, there's plenty more Caleb to be had at Out.com's Model Citizen page.

Previously > Fulton; Parker; Terrence

The goodness of drag is now only a click away

This morning, while stumbling around the Internet looking for fresh gossip, I ran into my new favorite YouTube channel, WAD (a.k.a. What A Drag). Thanks to modern technology, we no longer need to pay a cover, buy gag-tastic well drinks, or wear a necklace of Mardi Gras beads to enjoy the fine art of drag performance.

Below I've posted a few of my favorite clips so that you can see exactly what all the fuss is about.

> Here's Chrissy Present "singing" Robyn's hit "With Every Heartbeat":

I love how even though Chrissy appears to have been caught up in a radioactive sewage spill on her way to the WAD studios, causing anything she touches to swirl in tie-dyed electricity, she remains a professional and will let nothing stand in her way of expressing how distraught she is over the tragic demise of her relationship.

I'd also like to venture a guess that this video would be highly enjoyable after an evening spent ingesting large quantities of high-quality psychedelics.

> Next up is Violet Trakmarxx "singing" Tori Amos' "Big Wheel":

I never cared for this song until I saw this video. Something about Violet's ability to sassily load a dishwasher makes listening to Tori's misguided attempt to go country downright pleasurable! The girl gets big bonus points for her literal interpretation of the line "I've been drinking down your pain" at a minutes and 50 seconds into the video. Props sometimes seem like superfluous bric-a-brac, but in the world of drag they can mean the difference between going home with a wad of singles or a bra stuffed full of fivers. I love that Ms. Trakmarxx carries that little touch over to the cyber realm.

> Finally, no drag show -- live or not -- would be complete without a performance of Heart's "Alone," here performed by Amber Vision:

With its black-and-white palate, wind machine, and fog rolling in from off screen, this is certainly the most dramatic of the three clips. It reminds me of the videos for Madonna's "Vogue," Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back To Me Now," and the Divinyls' "I Touch Myself." No hysterical flicker of the eyes is too much for Amber to conjure, no saucy pout is too much for her to emote. And the bellow she unleashes at two minutes and 14 seconds into the clip is the stuff drag fairy tales are made of.

-- NOAH MICHELSON

Quickies: Keeping a personal life personal,
beef over biceps, and the tell-all
that's telling all

Leisha
Photo: Getty Images

> While Leisha Hailey has no problem discussing her role as bisexual journalist Alice Pieszecki on The L Word or the difference between her old band, the Murmurs, and her new band, Uh Huh Her, in an interview with CreativeLoafing.com, the actress-musician refused to discuss personal issues. Whenever the interviewer got even remotely close to talking about Hailey's love life, the "world's sexiest woman" -- as named by AfterEllen.com -- simply offered an "I'll pass" or "I don't want to talk about it." We get the whole "keep work and business separate" bit, Leisha, but would it kill you to give us just a smidge of dirt?

> Apparently Mario Lopez is even vainer than we thought (and we assumed he was pretty vain.) The New York Post is reporting that the new star of A Chorus Line was unhappy with his costume -- a tan sweater with long sleeves, based on the outfit worn by A Chorus Line creator Michael Bennett and countless other actors playing the character of Zach. Lopez was miffed that the shirt hid his biceps, so he demanded it be made short-sleeved. But wait, it gets better (or worse, depending on how you look at it): Lopez also demanded that his costar Nick Adams, who plays Zach's assistant in the show, wear a hoodie over his tank top whenever the two are near each other on stage because Adams' biceps are bigger than Lopez's. Officials for the show claim they merely changed up Adams' costume because the actors looked too similar -- but we know what a couple of theater queens in a cat fight looks like when we see it.

> The media is all riled up about the new Barbara Walters tell-all that just hit shelves. In the book Audition the newscaster and talk-show host claims she had an affair with then-married Sen. Edward Brooke, and says of their time together, "Sometimes when he said that I was the oldest woman he had ever been with, I thought of telling him: 'Oh yeah? Well, you are the blackest man I have ever been with.' But the truth is, it didn't matter." She also tells her side of the story involving her tempestuous relationships with The View cohosts Rosie O'Donnell and Star Jones. Of Jones' departure from the show she says, "I still feel it might have been easier for her to find a new position if she had left the program in the graceful way we had suggested." In other words, don't mess with Mama Walters or you'll be begging Court TV to let you cover the parking ticket circuit.

-- NOAH MICHELSON



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About Popnography

An enthusiastic, obsessive blog designed to push your buttons and play with your heart—and make you love every minute of it.

Out.com editor Shana Naomi Krochmal and her team of Popnographers are always looking for new addictions! E-mail us with your shameless self-promotion or most amazing discovery.



Recent Posts

  • Tube time: Eli, Greek and kissing lessons from Nuke:
    > Hit maker Greg Berlanti's weirdest show on ABC, Eli Stone, has been picked up for another season. No word yet on whether George Michael's contract has been similarly extended. > Over at Big Gay Network,Jr., the official poll for...
  • Get it while it's hot! Cry-Baby kicks off our list of summer lovin':
    Photo: M. Sharkey What's summer without a little lovin' and a lot of sweaty, sexy subjects and objects of our affection? The boys of Out have collected in one easy location all the hottest things to do and lust after...
  • Quickies: A comeback, a complaint and a celebrity chef's seasonal demands:
    Photo: Getty Images > It's official -- Jimmy Fallon will take Conan O'Brien's night shift when O'Brien is handed the reigns to Jay Leno's late show. The game of talk show host musical chairs is scheduled to happen next year...
  • And now it's time for the hiatus honeymoon...:
    Photo: ABC/MICHAEL DESMOND In true soap opera fashion -- you say "family drama," we say "why split hairs?" -- Brothers & Sisters ended its très gay season last night with a fittingly faggy finale. (Though we gave away the main...
  • Revealing Ryan:
    It's a new week, a new day, and, as promised, a new set of exclusive outtakes from Out's June/July fashion cover shoot "Vs." photographed by Richard Phibbs. Here's Ryan: ...Multi-tasking in the makeup chair. ...The strangely alluring combination of Coca...
See all posts.




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