Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (September 5, 2008)

Lloyd (Rex Lee) returns Sunday on HBO's Entourage, but he doesn't have much to do and the first episode reminded me how much I loathe most of those characters. What was fresh and funny in the first season is starting to feel like yesterday's news.

I suspect folks might be more interested in Alan Ball's new gay-inclusive vampire series True Blood which our own Brian Juergens absolutely loved. I'm a little more ambivalent about it, but am curious to see where it goes.

Also on Sunday night is a new episode of AMC's Mad Men with Bryan Batt as closet case Salvatore. Or you can watch BBC America's Skins. We're still waiting for a Maxxie-centric episode and the first one takes place a week from Sunday and involves Tony trying to seduce Maxxie who has a falling out with Anwar over Anwar's religious attitudes toward Maxxie's sexuality.

Mitch Hewer, Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel

If I haven't completely turned you off of TNT's Raising the Bar, then I haven't done my job. But if not, the second episode airs on Monday night. I've seen it and it's pretty much more of the same. FYI, Jonathan Scarfe who plays the closeted Charlie Saganski is perfectly fine. The problem is the writing, not the acting.

Greek is back on Tuesday and Calvin actually has a couple of lines! Okay, he's bascially a prop to move the plot along. Call Calvin officially a barely-there gay character and me annoyed with the show.

If Privileged isn't canceled, checkout Allan Louis in the show's second episode along with The Shield and Gavin & Stacey both which potentially have some gay content. Also Tuesday is more of the looney half-naked shenanigans of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, Bravo's Million Dollar Listing with Madison Hildebrand, the very gay-friendly General Hospital Night Shift, Ted Allen's Food Detective, and Carson Kressley's How to Look Good Naked.

And in a special programming note for Tuesday night, our own Daniel Leary who brings you Mores for Gays every week is part of Logo's world premiere of Laughing Matters...Next Gen showcasing up and coming stand up comedians. Be sure not to miss it at 8 PM.

Wednesday brings new seasons of Top Design as well as America's Next Top Model. Also on the schedule is Project Runway (now sans Keith Bryce), Sordid Lives on Logo and Tom Filicia's Dress My Nest on Style.

Come the end of the month, Thursdays are going to be ridiculously gay, but for now there is just The Cho Show, Tabatha's Salon Takeover and Glam God.

BTW, if you're not sure when a show airs, be sure to consult our handy dandy Fall TV Grid to help you program your DVR> 

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
Can you believe that mean ol' Pope is separating dead gay lovers by digging one up and reburying him? According to Peter Tatchell, that's just what the Vatican wants to do to Cardinal John Newman who is buried alongside the man he lived with for thirty years Ambrose St. John.

Cardinal John Newman, Ambrose St. John

Why the grave-swapping? Newman is scheduled to be beatified next year and Tatchell says the Vatican finds it unseemly to make a saint out of a man who might have shared more than rosary beads with a fellow priest. In Newman's will he insisted he buried with Ambrose, stating, "I wish, with all my heart, to be buried in Father Ambrose St John's grave - and I give this as my last, my imperative will."

Ambrose preceeded Newman in death, an event which caused Newman to say "I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband's or a wife's, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or anyone's sorrow greater, than mine."

Hard to know exactly what the story is here as Newman died in 1890, but I find it hard to believe that separating the two men is what Jesus would do.

Speaking of sad, gay deaths, learn a lesson from Keith Pravia and be careful what you get up to.