TALK, TALK. ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS TALK, TALK
I thought for sure the market for talk shows had to be saturated back when Rosie debuted. Then again, I thought buying Starbucks stock back in the early 90's was a waste of money. Proving me wrong yet again is Herndon Davis, the black, gay, Christian author whose Herndon Davis Reports debuted July 17th on Comcast Cable and goes into wider distribution on the Healthy Living Channel in September. Herndon says his show is "a cross between the Oprah Winfrey Show and the Chris Matthews show." Does that mean he and his guests will be having screaming matches about feng shui-ing in breakfast nooks?

"WE'RE SO SORRY ABOUT WILL AND GRACE"
In a move that I'm sure is intended to save their last shred of their karma, NBC has picked up a promising new drama called The Book of Daniel as a mid-season replacement. Starring Aidan Quinn as a drug addicted priest, the show also features Christian Campbell as a gay Log Cabin Republican. Christian, who first made a splash in Trick, looks as adorable as ever (check him out yourself here). NBC calls the show "A darkly comic drama." HBO calls it "Six Feet Under Lite."

DIRE SITUATION
Tuesday night brought us the premiere of Sean Hayes's new reality show,
Situation: Comedy. The gimmick is that we get to watch shows being pitched and developed, and the audience gets to choose the winner which will then actually appear on Bravo. Sadly, Situation: Comedy is eight years too late to keep Will and Grace off the air. This completes Bravo's powerhouse line-up of reality television. Thank heavens for that.

WHAT'S UP WITH STEREOTYPICALLY GAY ROBOTS?
First we had C3PO and now we have Gus, the depressive, robotic Chief Engineer on the SciFi Channel's audacious animated series Tripping the Rift. Gus is every bit as fussy as C3PO and vehemently denies he's gay. (In completely unrelated news, Tom Cruise's War of the Worlds continues to do boffo box office.)

Tripping the Rift is lewd, crude and bawdy as hell. I can't wait until its second season debuts July 27th.

BLACK IS THE NEW BLACK
Logo debuted two new movies with black gay men this week. Ski Trip, which won the Best New Feature Film at the Oakland Black, Gay, and Lesbian Film Festival, premiered July 17th and tells the story of a young, black New Yorker who turns 30 and finds out his life isn't what he expected. Well, duh. Apparently hurtling down a ski slope brings him fresh insights. Yeah, life is just that easy.

Then on July 19th, Logo began airing Holiday Heart, the 2000 TV movie starring Ving Rhames and Alfre Woodard, based on the terrific play by Cheryl West and directed by Robert Townsend. Do yourself a favor and skip the cineplex to watch this drama if you didn't catch it the first time around.

FIENNES TO PLAY GAY BUTLER
Susan Sarandon and Ralph Fiennes are in final negotiations to star in Doris and Bernard which tells the story of tobacco billionairess, Doris Duke. Ms. Duke did not exactly have a happy life and wound up leaving her fortune to her gay Irish butler. Mr. Fiennes will play the butler, which is good casting, because Ralph is, well, Ralph.

YOU TAKE THE HIGHBROW AND I'LL TAKE THE LOWBROW AND I'LL BE IN SCOTLAND BEFORE YOU
For our more sophisticated readers, I'm happy to announce that the newest Terrence McNally play debuts July 26th off-Broadway. Starring Nathan Lane, the play is called Dedication, or The Stuff of Dreams. Or as I call it, Pretentious Title, Makes No Sense. Get your tickets at offbroadway.com.

And for those of you who like your entertainment a little more plebeian, the Ultimate Fighting Championship's next bout is August 20th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (available on pay-per-view). For those not familiar with ultimate fighting, it involves very hot men wearing skin-tight shorts and wrestling each other into submission. Some of the lingo includes the mount position, the rear choke, and being "well-versed in submission". The only time I've ever seen men maneuver like this is after the letters "XXX" scroll across the screen.

NO, SERIOUSLY...
Star Magazine announced that it will no longer "out" gay celebrities. "I don't believe there's still an appetite out there for that kind of information," American Media spokesman Stu Zakim told Fox News this week.

In a related story, Satan announced that hell has frozen over.

Now I’ll shut up so you can have the BEST. GAY. WEEK. EVER.

That's it for this week! Check back next Friday for a new installment of Best. Gay. Week. Ever., or read previous installments here.