Plus! N2N Bodywear is so excited about summer being just around the corner that they're offering up five free square-cut trunk suits for Popnographers to splash around in. E-mail me your size and address and the first five guys who ask get to add one more item to their summer wardrobe!
The justices released the 4-3 decision Thursday, saying that domestic
partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage in an
opinion written by Chief Justice Ron George.
The
cases were brought by the city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and
lesbian couples, Equality California and another gay rights group in
March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco's monthlong same-sex
wedding march that took place at Mayor Gavin Newsom's direction.
And if you just want more dish about Jodie -- what the hell is wrong with you! Go celebrate our almost-personhood! Gossip will still be here tomorrow! Go dance in the streets already!
Grand Theft Auto is known for its sexy women -- porntrapreneur Jenna Jameson and Entourage hottie Debi Mazar have both made joysticks-jumping cameos -- but what about the gruff, gun-toting anti-hero characters we're actually posing as on screen?
I'll keep pushing GTA IV's Niko Bellic to "experiment," but in the meantime here's a scenic trip through memory lane of his thuggish, rugged predecessors.
GRAND THEFT AUTO (1997) and GRAND THEFT AUTO II (1998) > Main character: An ant-sized stick man. > How hot does it get?: As hot as Bea Arthur grinding David Gest. > Best pick-up line: He's asexual, but compensates by shooting random people.
GRAND THEFT AUTO III (2001) > Main character: Anonymous Mafia thug in a New York City knockoff. Favors a thick Ray Liotta -- if he was made of oblong squares. > How hot does it get? Invites prostitutes into his vehicle, has sex in driver's seat, makes car (and joystick) vibrate. Kicks woman out onto cold street when done. > Best pick-up line: He has no game, but drives a nice stolen car.
GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY (2002) > Main character: Tommy Vercetti, a '80s-era Mafia thug in South Beach-inspired Vice City. Strangely, looks just like anonymous Mafia thug from GTA III. > How hot does it get? Imagine GTA III, except with acid wash jeans and pink shirts. > Best pick-up line: Still no game, just a Members Only jacket.
GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS (2004) > Main character: CJ, a rough, but intelligent black teenager from (virtual) Compton. > How hot does it get: Skilled players found the hidden soft-porn minigame "Hot Coffee," which features fully-clothed CJ getting a blowjob, and later some missionary action, with a topless female date. It was crude enough to get the game recalled and re-rated as an Adults Only (i.e. X-rated) title. > Best pick-up line: "I would love to come in for some coffee."
GRAND THEFT AUTO IV (2008) > Main character: Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant in New York City-clone Liberty City. Favors an unshaven Dr. Luka Kovac from E.R. after a long vodka bender and several fist-to-face collisions. You've seen him glowering at you from billboards and bus ads all month. But look at him up there, making time with a crooked cop as they stare out into the sunset! > How hot does it get? Niko's accent gets him several girlfriends -- the first serial monogamist game hero, anyone? -- but getting lucky only gets you a view from outside the apartment building and a few realistic moans. At least you can still get busy in the car. > Best pick-up line: "Would you like to, uh, spend some time? I would like that."
> Perez Hilton is claiming former Desperate Housewives star Jesse Metcalfethreatened to murder him after the gossip columnist joked the actor was gay. Perez says, "That was quite negative energy. He was drunk and said he wanted me dead. I was quite shocked." If a few gay jokes is enough to warrant that kind of existential bad vibe, we're a little scared what the future holds for Popnography's sunny mood.
> Dolly Parton is hoppin' mad about a sketch recently featured on the Howard Stern show. It seems Stern cut and spliced bits of Parton's audio books to create racist and incredibly sexually graphic sound bites, which he then passed off as authentic passages from the books. The offensive instances include Dolly "saying" "Kenny Rogers loves to piss inside little boys' assholes" and claiming that Johnny Carson and Burt Reynolds liked to double team young boys. Dolly issued a statement saying: "I have never been so shocked, hurt and humiliated in all my life. If there was ever going to be a lawsuit, it's going to be over this." Give 'em hell, Dolly! You can listen to the Howard Stern show in question below, but we warn you -- it's certainly not for the faint of heart, the delicate of constitution, or any of Dolly's younger or more tender fans:
A little legitimate, state-sanctioned recognition of a long-term relationship never hurt anyone. (In fact, it's kept millions of disgruntled couples hanging in there a while longer, for better or worse.) Come on, Jodie. Give it another day!
If you don't know Diamanda Galas -- and many people don't -- you'd think just by looking at her that she's some kind of Marilyn Manson meets Morticia Adams goth freakshow. You know -- the kind of chick who spends her days gargling the blood of snow-white virgins and her nights in an East Village dungeon punishing badly behaved pencil pushers with a cat o' nine tails fashioned from rusty Diet Pepsi cans.
And you'd kind of be right. Galas is interested in the darker elements -- death, decay, disease -- but as implements to examine society and culture and to try to understand where we stand at this particular moment in history and why.
I got the chance to speak with the classically trained pianist with a three and a half octave range a few weeks ago and I have to say that it was hands down my favorite interview that I have ever done. We chatted on the phone for nearly an hour and I was at turns terrified, mesmerized, shocked, and several times I laughed so hard that at the end I was left with a t-shirt covered in little patches of snot and tears.
The thing that I love the most about Diamanda is that in an era of growing complacency -- with AIDS on the rise and many people more concerned with who's going home on American Idol than who's going to be our next president -- she is a true activist. While you may not like everything she has to say -- or find some of her opinions a bit hard to swallow -- she's out there tirelessly campaigning to remind people that there are still fights to be fought, battles to be won, and if we aren't going to tackle them -- no one else will. She's an amazing walking, shrieking, singing, cackling wake up call. And she takes no prisoners, has no time for petty bullshit, and really could care less if someone dislikes her or what she has to say.
On top of all that, she effortlessly drops some of the best sound bites you'll ever read. Like calling Elton John a "horrible little midget corpse." Or this gem comparing Britney Spears' voice and the sound of the radioactive worms from the 70's sci-fi horror flick Squirm:
[The filmmakers] took these worms that they had and put them through electroshock. They’d put water
on them and they shocked them -- and they got the sound of them. It’s
horrifying. And they interfaced that with some really sleazy analog
synthesizers. That’s what I think of when I hear Britney. I like
Britney for all the wrong reasons -- I like her because there’s a total
pedophilic worshipping station there but it sounds like radioactive worms!
Crank your speakers and check out the sweet sound of electrocuted worms here:
While out in a gay club in Chicago this weekend, I ended up zoning out of a conversation because the new Kylie Minogue video came on the multiple large screens around me. The "Justify My Love" look of "All I See" caught my attention, but what kept me transfixed was the shot of a slinky man dancing shirtless, showing off his ... chest surgery scars? OMG, Kylie cast an FTM in her video!?! I didn't know it was possible to love her more!
Upon further inspection, it became clear it was tattooed script along the bottom of his chest pics, in the exact location where many FTMs have surgery scars. I was still convinced he got the tattoos to cover the scars. All of his ink in general -- hipster stars, kanji characters, bluebirds -- I could name half a dozen other transmen in Chicago alone who have these same design themes on their body.
My friend Mickey found the guy's MySpace page for me and I made my way through several photos to further investigate my theory. In several of them, TattooModel (aka Marco DaSilva) is also sporting a chin-strap beard, or as I like to call it, "trannyboy beard," as dozens, if not hundreds of transmen I have come across (myself included) have grown this beard during some stage of hormonal transition.
Marco's orientation is listed as "not sure," his favorite movie Brokeback Mountain, and nowhere in his profile does it clarify that he's NOT trans. So I will continue to maintain my fantasy, both of Kylie's forward thinking in casting her dancers, and of Marco's desire for brotherly love from me to help figure out what orientation might suit him best.
> Beyonce and Jay-Z still have not confirmed whether or not they were married on April 4th (we're pretty sure they were) and now refuse to confirm or deny reports that they are expecting their first child. When asked to comment on the possible pregnancy a rep told the New York Post, "I don't know if she's pregnant. Let me perform an ultrasound and get back to you." Which leads us to wonder if Beyonce, knowing she'd be pregnant soon, was clever enough to hire a rep who also moonlights as an ultrasound technician -- or if her rep was just feeling especially sassy that day.
> Al Reynoldsis talking about the end of his marriage to Star Jones using the classiest, more dignified medium available to him -- a MySpace bullentin. In the post Reynolds claims, "I know in my heart that I entered my marriage with love and the best of
intentions and leave it with great sadness that it didn't work." He also wants all of us to know that:
I am not the caricature portrayed by
the media. I am complex, contradictory and capable of great
intelligence but also remarkable stupidity. In other
words, I am a human being. To me, labels are for clothes, not people.
So ... Please don't try to define me; don't try to categorize me; and
most of all, don't label me. Instead, JUST GET TO KNOW ME. And if you
see me, just call me Al.
We're going to go ahead and say the barfy attempt at being cute with the Paul Simon reference falls into the "remarkable stupidity" pile.
> Spunky Swedish pop star Robyn was forced to cancel several west coast shows this week due to her securing a spot on one of the most coveted television programs imaginable: The View. But fear not -- the singer will be making up the dates when she swings back across the US on another leg of tour dates this August. You can check out Robyn.com for more info on the rescheduled dates and all your other naughty Robyn needs.
Out hosted a book party for our beloved columnist Josh Kilmer-Purcell (above) at the New York bar Bowery Electric last night. In keeping with theme of Candy Everybody Wants, Josh's newest novel, Out's editor in chief, Aaron Hicklin, and art director Nick Vogelson even took to DJ'ing a long list of awful '80s music.
The real hit, however, is this recreation of the fictional soap opera that plays a starring role in the book:
He got a second act. He got another chance. Look what he did with it.
He stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park. No more lying,
no more melodrama, still run-on sentences still funny punctuation but
so what. He became a furiously good storyteller this time.
I don't know: Maybe he doesn't feel so lucky, but it seems like something of an honor to have the venerable critic turn her eye your way. Maslin has a way of making you fall in love, splat, just by telling you why something (a movie, a book) is worth your time.
> 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.
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!
> 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?
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.
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.
Hip to be square-cut suits: In non-marriage news -- unless we're talking How to Marry a Millionaire-style set-up -- today's Hot List is all about some seriously sexy swimsuits. Luckily our fashion advisers are also standing by and ready to tell you how to pick...
They do! We do!: Photo: Getty Images Pick your breaking news site of choice, but get out your cell phones and call your favorite California gay and say congratulations! The California Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriage, paving the way for...
Bad boys: The men of Grand Theft Auto: Still terrified by that alleged ad for Playstation 3? Let us help you get your gaming groove back. Grand Theft Auto is known for its sexy women -- porntrapreneur Jenna Jameson and Entourage hottie Debi Mazar have both made joysticks-jumping...
Ai Ai Ambrose!: If you spent yesterday in a gloomy funk because there were no new exclusive outtakes from Out's June/July cover fasion story "Vs." shot by Richard Phibbs to cheer you up, we apologize. And to make up for it -- we...
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