That was good enough for Lloyd who cast his lot with Ari. In a nice scene that followed, we learned Lloyd was more than a mincing assistant, having graduated from Stanford with high-powered dreams of his own. It was a much needed bit of character development that made Lloyd into an actual person rather than another gay Asian cliché.

And that gives me hope that when Entourage returns this Sunday (June 11) Lloyd's role might actually grow into something significant. Yes, it will still be as the sidekick to the macho straight guy, but these days we have to take what we can get. Further raising hopes Lloyd will be at least a little more central to the goings on is the scoop from Michael Ausiello who reports that in an upcoming episode Ari will attempt to pimp Lloyd out in order to land a high profile writer who happens to be gay. Okay, that doesn't exactly sound like great character development, but Ausiello goes on to add, “[...] the whole sordid plot takes Ari and Lloyd's relationship to a surprising new place.” I doubt Ausiello means to imply something romantic, but I am definitely curious to see what happens.

SPEAKING OF VITO…
Even though James Gannascoli's Vito got rubbed out several weeks ago on The Sopranos, the actor has managed to keep extending his fifteen minutes of fame. Given how funny and pro-gay he is, I don't mind a bit. But this isn't the sort of publicity Gannascoli hankers after (although even bad publicity is better than no publicity). NVE Pharmaceuticals filed a lawsuit against the zaftig actor claiming he hasn't done enough to promote the diet pill the company paid him several hundred thousand g's to shill. NVE claims Gannascoli's weight kept going up and down as he started and stopped exercising. (Hmm, I thought the point of a diet pill was that you didn't have to exercise?) That, in turn, made them look bad when he did appearances for the company.

Gannascoli fired back saying NVE is actually homophobic and was fine with him until their best known client played a gay mobster. Who knows what the truth is, but I have to say I suspect NVE is simply looking for a way to get some cash fast. Why? Because NVE recently filed bankruptcy due to costs incurred fighting 140 wrongful death suits arising from its last diet pill that contained now-infamous substance Ephedra. (That's why I stick with working out at the Y.)

In other Sopranos news, ratings were way down for the finale and there has been a lot of carping about how bad the show has been this season. I have to say I detect a whiff of homophobia here. Indeed, a number of articles have mentioned Vito's gayness as part of the show's problems with “weak” stories. Hmm, I guess sex, love, betrayal and violence are only entertaining when they involve straight people.

WE'VE GOT THE DIRT ON DIRT (AT LEAST THE BISEXUAL DIRT ANYWAY)
FX picked up Courtney Cox's new series Dirt, the aptly titled comedy about a tabloid editor and her life covering celebrities. Dirt includes Will McCormack (Syriana, Prime) as the bisexual Leo. We got our hands on an early script (we have our ways!) to check out just how “bi” Leo will be. Too often these characters are bi in name only, but I'm happy to report early indications are that Dirt doesn't shy away from Leo's attraction to men. Indeed, the script I saw has Leo making at least one overt reference to his interest in men. Let's hear it for Dirt!

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