Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (May 29, 2009)

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION
Good grief! I don't think I've ever had so little to IMHO before. Oh, well, as soon as June gets underway we'll have Nurse Jackie, Weeds, Kathy Griffin and more! Until then...

PARTY DOWN: Starz's series about a group of wacky caterers ended with a gay wedding that left me kind of "meh." George Takei played himself and wound up with a cliched storyline about a Star Trek nut trying to pick Takei's brain as if the show was actually real. And I thought Kristen Bell rather wasted a Nazi-like boss.

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE: Give this one another sideway "meh" as I didn't love it the way some folks did, but I also thought it had potential. I'll keep an eye on it.

OUT OF THE WILD: I'm sorry, but what is not to love about Jake Nodar. He's turned out to be one of the toughest folks on the show, he can hunt, chop wood, lug a 75 lb pack up mountains and still give a depressed fellow hiker a make-over? This guy is gold! And a bit later, I've got a pic of Jake wearing nothing but a fox fur!

THE GOODE FAMILY: If my writing were as cliched and clunky as this show's, I'd write a review titled THE GOODE FAMILY IS A BADE SHOW, but I'd never stoop that low. It's actually not a bad premise for an animated comedy, but if a first episode is like a first date, this one made me want to take a vow of chastity.

THE VIEW: Both David Hyde Pierce and the ladies The View (not counting Elisabeth Hasseltwit and Sherri 'Flat Earth' Shepherd) have become great spokespeople for gay issues. Case in point, Thursday's episode had Pierce dropping by to announce he and his partner had gotten married when it was still legal in California. That led to a nice discussion about the Supreme Court ruling and how ridiculous it was anyone got to have a say about whom Pierce — or anyone else — marries.

OH, YES HE DID SAY IT!
Everyone who thinks I'm talking about Adam Lambert raise your hand. Ha, I thought so! No, I'm not talking about Adam finally saying, "Yep, I'm gay" since he still hasn't been quite that blunt. I'm actually talking about Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak of Norway.

Last week I mentioned that Rybak was quoted as being critical of the GLBT protesters in Moscow who tried to march for their rights hours before the Eurovision final. Rybak said the marchers were "sad" and missed the "biggest gay parade in the world" for which I labeled him a wanker.

Some folks said Rybak's comments were taken out of context by the Associated Press, but thanks to the industrious work of AfterElton.com reader SERGAY, who dug around on the internet until he found this clip from Rybak's press conference, you can see for yourself what Rybak meant.

So that should settle that. Rybak is indeed a bit of a wanker, especially since he apparently has a bit of a gay fanbase.

BTW, I have to say this interactivity is one of the things I most love about writing for the internet. There is a give and take in writing for the web that not only doesn't exist in the traditional media, but frankly scares the pants off of many of them.

Yes, some times we get called out for mistakes (a special thanks to those of you who send nice private messages pointing out the occasional typo! It's like having an extra set of fact checkers and copy editors!), but just as great is how often folks on the site end up having fascinating and passionate discussions both with other readers and with the staff — though we try to refrain from saying too much as we always get to go first. And I love how everyone occasionally ends up learning something that leads us to change our minds.

While it's certainly no fun to be criticized or be called names, it's not only incredibly gratifying to get praise for what we write, but it's amazing to see how quickly you folks come to our defense when you think criticism is unjust.

In other words, you guys rock!

Next page! Discussing the pink elephant in the room!