Star Trek's Takei -- turning into a bigger ham than Shatner.

Coming out of the closet seems to have done wonders for the career of George Takei ("Sulu" on the original Star Trek). Since making his coming announcement in October 2005, the Japanese-American actor has been very busy. He's the official announcer for Howard Stern's Sirius satellite radio show, and he also now plays the father of time-bender Hiro Nakamura on Heroes. My guess is it's only a matter of time before he takes over the Priceline pitchman gig from William Shatner and supplants the Shatman as "top ham" in the Star Trek universe. Feast of Fools has an an audio interview with Takei on their podcast today. He comes across as a very earnest and kind man and, among other things, talks about his relationship of 19 years with partner Brad Altman, confirms Sulu's heterosexual status, and discusses what it's like working with Howard Stern. (In case you're not familiar with Feast of Fools, it is the most downloaded gay podcast on the web and won the 2006 People's Choice Podast Award for best GLBT Podcast.) You can find the audio interview in mp3 format here.