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

One memory I have that utterly refuses to go away is wandering into the sports bar of the Frankfurt Marriott one night searching for food.  Naturally they had football (or as we would call it, soccer) on the screens.

I watched in idle curiousity as some cute hottie scored a goal.  His teammates immediately grabbed him, threw him to the ground and (I swear to God) proceeded hump him!

At least that's what it looked like.  While I was sitting there slack-jawed and wondering if maybe the beer was stronger than I thought nobody else seemed to take particular notice of this behavior. All that I could conclude was that European contact sports apparently involve more "contact" than American ones.

Plus it seems like almost every photo I've ever seen of the German national team captain Michael Ballack involves him touching, hugging or nuzzling his teammates.  

And don't even get me started on what German politicians do on talk shows! 

that we are a cold nation unable to show emotions. ;-)))

To understand the tears, remember the scene was a flashback to 21 months ago in the storyline. Ianto was crying because he needed the job with Cardiff Torchwood so badly (and so quickly) to save his cyborg girlfriend Lisa who was damaged when London Torchwood was gutted in the Metal Men mass attack (which I believe was a Doctor Who episode as I recall). He plopped his cybernetic squeeze into the basement of Cardiff Torchwood and we all know what came of that (bad cyborg, stay cyborg, and all that!). Ianto is apparently very sensitive and very bi and perhaps very cold hearted because he cleans up the bodies and other mistakes for Torchwood, but he's cute so all's forgiven.

On a completely unrelated note, but relevent, that interview Cheyenne Jackson gave in the Advocate was rather creepy IMHO.

I was fortunate enough to have visited Australia back in the early 90's and went to one of their football games. They play from March until the Grand Final in September. The Grand Final is like the US's Super Bowl. I really didn't want to go because I'm not that fond of football. I love watching baseball instead. To my surprise, I was salivating during the entire game. Here are a bunch of hot Aussies tossing a football continously around, playing in what looks like their undies! With all the rough grabbing and banging into each other, several players were very close to losing those skimpy shorts! Also got a lot of shots of bare skin from that. I swear a lot of them weren't even wearing a jock either. Needless to say, those games are still embedded in my memory cells. ESPN used to televise some of the game here stateside, but I haven't seen any for a couple of years.

was the first hit of the great Danish director Carl Th. Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr, Day of Wrath, Order, Gertrud.) It starred Benjamin Christiansen (a great director in his own right) as the old gay artist Zoret, a young an exceptionally buff Walter Sleazak) as Michael, and Nora Gregor (Christine in Renoir's classic The Rules of the Game) as the woman who comes between them. It was a HUGE GAY DEAL in its day. Dreyer, BTW, had his Uncle Saul Moment during the shooting of Vampyr when he fell madly in love with his cinematographer, Rudolph Mate. So badly flipped out was Carl that he later claimed not to recall making the movie at all. Hot Men can do that to people.

I believe Mr. Tudyk played a rather flamboyant gay german character in the movie "28 Days" with Sandra Bullock.

I actually have been watching Oprah's Big Give. The show has a good message but kinda lacks the must see factor that most people require in TV. I hope that after Sunday's finale we get to see Nate Berkus in another project real soon. Top Chef is a great show. I am rooting for OUT lesbian Jen to take Chicago! I would like Andrew to end up with Tuc Watkins' character on Desperate Housewives!!!!! I was disappointed in last week's episode as well so hopefully Sunday night will be better!!! Can't wait for Ugly Betty!!

On the German VL forum, people are debating Chrolli, sorry, Ollian quite a bit too obviously. Some say they want Ollian to go all the way towards marriage. Others say they don't want that for Ollian. One fan says, that if they did get married, it would be a first male-gay wedding on a soap. But I think that's not correct. There have been male-gay weddings on soaps before.

I mentioned in a previous post, a few weeks ago, that BBC1 has a daily series/soap called "Doctors" which airs at 1:45pm UK time. When I started watching it, there was Oliver/Ollie - no kidding (played by Laurence Penry-Jones (brother of Rupert)), a gay locum. A few months into the show, arrives another locum Greg (Ben Jones) and they become an item. Oliver leaves the show and Greg stays. Greg then meets Tom (Marc Healy) - a patient (oh la la!) and they end up becoming a couple. I liked them! Sadly, Tom dies of cancer.. Greg has a very hard time getting over Tom (me too), but eventually meets Rico (Felix D'Alviella) on a trip to Brazil. Their story unfolds quite beautifully and they get married!

I did not know it was on YouTube! Found out today!! Watch part of their story in 12 parts here: www.youtube.com/results?search_query=greg+rico+doctors&search_type=

Turns out Rico has a son who he hid before Greg. Greg is furious and their couple splits.. Rico moves to Denmark (where the child's mother lives) to be closer to his toddler son. On of Greg's colleagues and good friend Jimmi (Adrian Lewis Morgen - who btw sings beautifully!) tells him to not let that 'lie' be reason to split and he tells him he should go after Rico and move to Denmark (they need doctors there too, you know). And that's exactly what Greg does and all ends well!!!

Edit to add: last episode of "Doctors" with Greg (Ben Jones) is on YouTube. It's in 7 parts. Here is the link to the very last part were Greg and Rico re-unite in Denmark.

Happy end! -> www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQxUVsYPYRQ

• R.I.P. - Heath Ledger [1979 - 2008]

The reason for Ianto crying after he got the job was because at that time, he was using Jack to get into Torchwood to save his girlfriend (the Cyberwoman).

Michael,

Isn't it impolite to self-promote your charity interests. Nat Berkus is hardly in the show anyway. What keeps me coming back is 22 year old Cameron, already an Internet millionaire with a nerdish/preppy kind of charm who really produces amazing results. Okay, he's straight but I guess David Bohnett and Tim Gill weren't available to do the show.

Hi ! Thanks for the topic ! "Ich bin ein Verboten Liebe" is funny, but better would be : "Ich liebe Verbotene Liebe" (I love "Forbidden love") :p.

About football, I've always liked seeing those men hugging and getting their shirts off(like Cristiano Ronaldo, a famous portuguese player : http://www.goalvideoz.com/images/players/11933Cristiano_Ronaldo.jpg or http://83.img.v4.skyrock.com/832/the-best-man02/pics/1004013832.jpg ...cute isn't he ?). In France every year a calendar is made with naked rugby players on it. Google "Dieux du stade" (Gods of the Stadium) and have fun ^^.

Just another thing about the french series "Les Bleus". You've translated the title into "The blue ones", which is more a literal translation. "Les bleus" does mean "The blue ones", but in this context, the exact translation (we have to choose the figurative sense) is : "The rookies" or "The tenderfeet" ;-). Doesn't that make them cuter ? ^^

I really don't know if you've commented this one over here, so if it's already been mentioned, I apology.

There's a Catalan soap opera called "El Cor de la Ciutat" with a good amount of gay content in the face of Max, Enric and Iago. You can watch some episodes in these youtube channels: 

http://www.youtube.com/user/maxenricfan http://www.youtube.com/user/Alejandro0720

Regarding gay weddings. A few months ago in the Spanish soap "Yo soy bea" there was one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrqsuZMtzp8

Also, in Spanish dance reality "Fama", a love story between two dancers, Juan Carlos and Jandro, have been covered. You can follow it in these videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7RviZHcR9E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7MxxwqidY4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UycE8i7OWWA

And in the same program, this is what they show us at 3 pm in Spanish tv when everybody is finishing lunch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PULzts_lbyA&feature=related

 

Thank you amc! I know about French tv/movies, but not much about Spanish TV. I have heard/seen some of "El Cor de la Ciutat" though.

But hey, who can forget Antonio Banderas from when he was appearing in some of Pedro Almodovar's movies! *hot*

I'll check out your links!

R.I.P. - Heath Ledger [1979 - 2008]

Did you miss the little homoerotic play between Spike and Mark in the two man bathtub at the Top Chef House? Spike (presumed straight,bit of an A-hole) shares a very bubbly bath in shorts with Mark (curly haired New Zealand hotty)and says in effect, Mark is cute and sweet and if I want to share a bath with him that's my business. Of course the fat, plain straight woman has to jump in with comments about his masculinity, which he casts off. Mark just giggles. Very daring scene for Top Chef which usually keeps out of personal lives and stays concentrated on the cooking, food and competition.

CM has actually had a gay unsub before in the episode "Identity." Before that, a character was discounted as a suspect because he was gay and at some point there was this random extra that was gay. It's always been a non-issue and was always just a part of the profile. The episode of SVU that aired before the gay ep had a rapist that was, at the end, implied to be gay, just for the record.