Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (August 29, 2008)

FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE

Movies
Meh. This might be the best gay week ever, but that's no thanks to the dreck opening at the multiplex today.

Here are your options:

Babylon A.D.

Starring Vin Diesel. Does that count for gay interest? Probably not. At least here Diesel has returned to the sci fi genre, so the gay geeks among us might be curious. But note, there's been a lot of bad buzz on this one and also it was not screened for critics in advance. The trailer at least looks cool...

No doubt there will be some gay panic jokes in there somewhere. I made the mistake of seeing an earlier installment of this franchise (Date Movie)and was scarred for life by its badness. And so, while I haven't seen this latest one myself and it hasn't, quelle suprise, been screened for critics, I think it's a good bet to pass on this one.

Traitor

Spy thriller starring Tim Meadows Don Cheadle and gay fave (since Priscilla) Guy Pearce.

Finally, there's College - which is a teen comedy starring Drake Bell and Kevin Covais (A.K.A "Chicken Little" from American Idol season 5).

Pretty slim pickings right? Better to go see something held over from last week - like maybe Tropic Thunder or Hamlet 2!

TV
Or better yet, skip the cineplex altogether. Stay home and watch television! In case you missed them, earlier this week we published a detailed Fall Gay TV Preview Guide for you as well as a handy Weekly Gay TV Calendar to help you plan your viewing schedule this fall. Next week sees the return of several popular shows.

On Monday Gossip Girl kicks off its second season. All the pretty private school kids are returning to campus, and no doubt we'll find out they got up to some scandalous things over the summer months. No word on specifically gay content, but this show is cheesy good fun anyway.

From left to right: Gossip Girl's Blake Livey,
Penn Badgely, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick

Also on Monday, the premiere of Raising the Bar on TNT. The show features Mark-Paul Gosselaar as a somewhat unhealthy looking young public defender. (Uh, I understand Gosselaar might want to get away from the golden tan and blonde highlights he sported on Saved By the Bell, but on this show he looks like a greasy, strung out heroin addict!) Even more distracting than Gosselaar's appearance is a particularly strident turn by Jane Kaczmarek as a bonkers judge determined to make his life hell. The judge is having a clandestine affair with her law clerk. But he's got some secrets of his own. (Wink!) Worth checking out.

Jane Kaczmarek (left) & Mark-Paul Gosselaar in Raising the Bar

On Tuesday at 10:00PM TNT launches the seventh and final season of The Shield. Perhaps we'll finally get some resolution on the show's troubled closet case character, Julien Lowe (played by Michael Jace).

Next page! ANTM's Oh Mighty Isis. Plus Bollywood's gay twist