Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (July 18, 2008)

Out on DVD

Is it possible only one item of gay interest was released on DVD this week?. Sure seems that way. That one release worth noting is The Curiousity of Chance, which made the rounds at the gay festival circuits for a couple years and is just now being released on DVD.

This one plays like a John Hughes teen comedy, only swapping out Molly Ringwald for a gay kid. It's even set in the eighties, making the comparison to Hughes films such as Sixteen Candles all the more obvious.

New kid at school Chance Marquis (Tad Hilgenbrinck) is trying to find new ways to stand out. Being an odd and somewhat awkward teenager makes him the target of the school bully. To deal with this dilemma, Chance turns to the opposite ends of the high school spectrum for help. On one side is the flamboyant drag queen and on the other the varsity jock (Brett Chukerman of Eating Out 2) with whom Chance develops a unique friendship. Chock-full of the comic conventions of the high school genre (the idiot faculty, the good-hearted but delusional parents, the fairy tale reversal of popularity), The Curiosity of Chance is a frothy bit of nostalgic filmmaking. But knowing the genre doesn t mean its story won t also touch your heart as Chance battles the bigots to make high school the diverse utopia it should have always been.

Essential Web Diversions

It’s official, Neil Patrick Harris has become a singing, dancing internet juggernaut. This week saw the release of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. The best part about the production is Harris, who plays a wannabe supervillain. He’s a cutie in those oversize goggles and lab coat, and there's no denying the guy has pipes.

According to creator Joss Whedon, the three-part web production had a budget “in the low six figures.” Seems like a lot of greenbacks for a parody of a video blog, but no doubt it already recouped its production costs. The first episode was supposed to be made available on the web for free on Tuesday, but the official site was swarmed with so much traffic that it crashed for the rest of the day. Meaning, at the height of people’s interest in it the only available download source for Dr. Horrible was iTunes. At $3.99 a pop. Ka-ching!

For now you can catch the first episode for free here.

And the second episode for free here!

Chapter 3 will be available here on Saturday, but note that by Saturday midnight all three free download links will be gone forever — so check it out gratis while you can.

Hey if you haven’t seen it already, the second episode is a bit darker in tone than the first. But there are some funny bits. Like when Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) explains to Dr. Horrible that the “hammer” in his name doesn’t refer to his fists.

Dr. Horrible may be grabbing all the attention this week, but Brian Juergens reminded me you can also find NPH doing a great little song and dance number over on the Sesame Street website. He plays the shoe fairy, which if nothing else is proof that the man doesn’t take himself too seriously. You can check out his muppet-assisted musical number here.