I was curled in front of my TV, laptop on my knee, contemplating how lucky I am to have a job where I am paid to watch Project Runway and tell people what I think about it. Life, I thought, is very good.

I was floating on a little riff of the show's trademark workroom banter between two of the show's out gay contestants, Chris March and Ricky Lazade. Chris had a joke:

"What would you call the Flintstones if they were gay?"

Ricky didn't know.

"Fags," Chris replied, laughing.

Now, I did laugh. I get the joke. I even get that it's not anti-gay, and not simply because it was a joke between two gay men. I mean, the whole premise of it is that if you're gay, that's all homophobes will see. It doesn't matter if you're a college professor, auto mechanic, ballroom dance instructor, or paleolithic cartoon character: You're just a fag.

So I'm not casting any aspersions on my beloved Chris or Ricky. I love you both, you know that, guys, right?

No, I'm wondering about Bravo. And this isn't your usual rhetorical, fake-concern, I-already-know-the-answer type wondering, either. It's genuine, and it's this: Would Bravo have aired a similar exchange between two African-American designers joking about the word "n****r"?

I don't watch much reality TV, and I never watch the kind where the focus is the backstage drama and backstabbing. Perhaps Bravo not only would air such an exchange, but already has. Those wiser in the ways of reality television can probably answer that question, and I hope one of you does.

But it did give me a tiny pause, in the moment before I laughed, and again after. Just a little question in my brain, wondering what Bravo was thinking when they edited this episode, and made the decision to include this joke, and that word.

Check out the whole recap here!

Okay, the whole reason I write for this site is so I can say stuff like this: “When I was chatting with Wilson Cruz yesterday, he told me….”

Of course, I realize that my ability to drop the names of Very Important Gay Personages that I’ve interviewed is not why you read what I write, so let me get to the part you will care about: Guess what Wilson Cruz said he’d be doing come November?

He’ll be filming the Noah’s Arc movie! Yes, for all of us who have been in withdrawal since the end of the second season, it looks like our long dark night of the soul will soon be over.

I asked Wilson about his upcoming projects, and he casually mentioned he expected to start filming the Noah’s Arc movie soon. I perked up and, showing the amazing journalistic skills for which I’m justly renowned, gushed a little and said, “Oh wow, what’s going on with that?”

Wilson Cruz: Well, we have a script. We should be shooting before the end of the year, maybe November-ish.
Me: Is it definite?
Wilson Cruz: It looks that way, yeah.

As you know, I’m all about the fluff, so when there’s news about Dante’s Cove, I’m all over it.

Okay, seriously, I put Dante’s Cove in my Google alerts back when I was writing my article on the most groundbreaking gay sex scenes in television history and I’ve been too lazy to remove it. So today I got an alert that the third season trailer is up on actor Greg Michael’s (Kevin) MySpace page, and it looks like the show will be as hard-hitting, gritty, realistic, and powerful as the first two seasons, which is to say, not at all, because if what you’re looking for is serious drama, Dante’s Cove is not where you go.

No, Dante’s Cove is where you go if you’re looking for guys with their shirts off rolling around in the sand making glorious love while ancient curses drive immortal beings to wreak havoc on the lives and loves of everyone they come in contact with.

And did I mention the guys keep taking their shirts off? I really need to mention that because if the first two seasons are anything to go by, that’s the main focus of the entire series. I guess it’s all highly metaphorical.

There are lots of new actors joining the cast this season, including the man with the most perfect eyebrows in television history, Noah’s Arc’s Jensen Atwood (who promises he’ll be taking his shirt off, although he told Greg Hernandez that he doesn’t actually think it’s possible to take it off more frequently than he did in Noah’s Arc). And journalistic integrity does force me to note that my friend, blogger Rod McCullom, feels that Atwood has more to offer than just those beautiful eyebrows, and also has some stills from the upcoming season over on Rod 2.0.)

Also taking his shirt off joining the cast this season is former Lance Bass boy-toy Reichen Lehmkuhl, as well as out actresses Jenny Shimizu and Jill Bennett, who rumors have forming two sides of a hot love triangle with the Cove’s sexy Britt (out actress Michelle Wolff). Wow, a three-way with three out actresses. Pardon me while I make sure my local cable system carries here! network.

Where was I? Oh, right, guys with their shirts off. Series regular Gabriel Romero (Marco) told Hernandez that the first ten minutes of the season premiere would blow the tops of people’s heads off, and that he and Atwood were going to get to know each other in a very special way:

“I have a very steamy scene with [new cast member] Jensen [Atwood]. It was very powerful and was supposed to be the biggest orgasm of my life."

Nothing makes me laugh quite like a little gay-bashing humor. How about you?

Last night Tucker Carlson, Dan Abrams, and Joe Scarborough had a falling-down-laughing good time with the Larry Craig story on MSNBC. When Abrams seemed curious as to why Tucker had once indicated a person's sexual orientation wasn't actually anyone else's business, Carlson hastened to reassure him of the most important thing:

“Let me be clear, Dan. I’m not gay. I’ve never been gay. Over-reacted and made a poor decision…” (laughter)

To which Abrams, who isn’t just a big name at MSNBC but an attorney, responded, also laughing:

“And let me just say for the record, I’m not gay either.”

I mean, come on. This is funny stuff. But not anywhere near as funny as Abram's reaction when he found out Carlson has been approached by men for sex in public places; such things have apparently never happened to Abrams. What exactly did Carlson do, he asked, when he was approached?

In the manliest tone possible to use when one is giggling, Tucker replied:

“I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy.. and grabbed him… and hit him against the stall, actually.”

Then they all basically wet their pants laughing.

Randy Harrison, the out gay actor who played Justin in Showtime's Queer as Folk (and was number 34 on AfterElton.com's Hot 100) left television behind when that series wrapped in 2005, saying he wanted to focus on the stage. Lots of television actors say that's what they're doing even though secretly all they really want out of life is to be a movie star, but Randy seems to mean it — and have the chops to do it, too.

He's appeared on stage in Equus (and here I will shallowly admit that his hair in the promotional photographs was the kind of thing that sustains my belief in a benevolent deity ruling over a peaceful universe), as Mozart in Amadeus, as Boq in Wicked, and most recently as Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, all to reviews ranging from good to glowing.

And now he's grabbing a surprisingly large and positive amount of critical attention as the charming cad Frank Gardner in Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession at the prestigious Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, MA. While one critic did seem to think he fidgeted too much, whatever that means, all the other critical mentions have been positive — too many to list, in fact, so here are just a few:

The Boston Globe described Frank as "the young ne'er-do-well next door (Randy Harrison of "Queer as Folk," summoning some of the ludic qualities that made him such a superb "Amadeus" at BTF last season)." Theatermania didn't care for the production but singled Harrison's performance out for a positive mention. NewBerkshire.com loved him:

Frank, (Randy Harrison) the youngest of the quartet is charming, ardent, fickle, an amiable weakling, supportive of Vinie and loving her, but practical enough to know without her mother’s money to back them marrying her would never work because he is well aware he is incapable of earning any. A well-defined character, and one distinctively different from those leads he has played with skill in “Equus” and “Amadeus.”

From TheTranscript.com:

Randy Harrison plays ... Frank, with a persuasive charm that, aside from his Adonis-like handsomeness, is his chief means of survival. But Harrison, who seems to improve on excellence each successive year at BTF, provides dimension in also emphasizing the humanity Shaw has given him.

Of course, real Randy fans will never forget his stage debut as Winthrop in The Music Man in 1987, when he was 10 years old. Personally, while I'll concede he's grown up since then (he's now 29), I admit I'm wondering if in addition to having the best hair ever, he's been bathing in the blood of virgins or something, since no matter how hard I look at the photos from Mrs. Warren's Profession, he doesn't seem to look any older as the years go by.

One thing's for sure: If it's really what he wants, it looks like Harrison has a glowing career in the theater ahead of him. Even if I do still kind of miss seeing him on TV.

Okay, when I think of timeless design and endless love, I don’t think any of the following words: Las Vegas, dice, casino, rockabilly.

Tragically, the couple whose wedding reception was this week’s Design Star challenge didn’t feel that way, and thus a hellish red, black, lavender and white wedding was born, designed by the most irritating contestant of all, Robb, who observed when the challenge was announced, “I’ve never done a wedding before.”

It’s my most fervent hope he never does another, but given that the judges keep not sending him home, I don’t think that hope’s going to be realized any time soon.

Last week, one of this season’s two gay contestants, Santa Barbara wedding and event planner Scott Corridan, got canceled, which is an irony and a shame because I’m very sure that this tragic design could have benefited greatly from a nice gay wedding planner like Scott. The queer sensibility was left up to the always-sparklicious Josh Johnson, and for my money, he’s the one I’d have hired to do my Vegas wedding if, one, the laws of our nation were changed to recognize my right to marry, and two, I were drugged and forced at gunpoint to get married in Las Vegas.

But this isn’t about my big lesbian wedding, it’s about Stephanie and Bruno’s big traditional fairy tale princess rockabilly Vegas casino wedding. The remaining designers had one night to come up with a presentation for the happy couple, and all the designers pull an all-nighter so they'll be ready for the 6 AM presentation.

Each designer presents his or her idea to Bruno and Stephanie, who rank the presentations and choose the one they want for their actual wedding reception. Christina, who I’ve never been wild about, had been appropriately horrified at the groom’s rockabilly casino idea, and did what smart wedding planners have been doing for generations and ignored the groom and focused on giving the bride the fairy tale white and lavender wedding she’d asked for. I’m sure it was totally unprofessional of her and it got her booted off the show in the first ten minutes, but I went from finding her annoying to shouting “You go girl!” just in time to see her, well …. Go. Sigh. This show hates me.

This was the moment I had a very bad feeling about our boy Josh, who is not looking as sparkly as he did when the show began. The bride and groom don’t seem enamored of his presentation, and I couldn’t get a feeling for how it was supposed to look from the camera angles we were given on it.

It was really hard for me when HGTV decided to do a reality competition show last year. I kind of hate reality TV and competitions make me horribly anxious, and yet, if you don’t count my Xena: Warrior Princess DVDs, HGTV is pretty much the only reason I have a television. In fact, the first blog post I did here was all about my big gay home decorating network.

I got over my internal conflict and watched the first season of Design Star. And I loved it, because it was backstage drama-lite and design-heavy, and of course, it brought the world David Bromstad as the first out gay design star. And when I heard there were actually two out gay contestants on this season’s show, I was bouncing up and down going “Me! Me! Pick me!” when AfterElton.com was looking for someone to interview them. When I turned in the interview, I said to Michael in a really offhand way that if he’d like someone to recap the show I might possibly be willing to consider it.

The original Design Star was set in New York, a place actually famous for design, art, and culture. The current season is set in Las Vegas, which I find somewhat terrifying as a design concept, but so far hasn’t impinged noticeably on the content of the show. (Next week it probably will, as they’re designing wedding chapels.)

The first season was also less about the drama and more about the design, a ratio that’s been a bit altered this season, and not for the better. I may be in the minority, but I don’t actually like seeing all the behind-the-scenes stuff, and I could live the rest of my life happily without ever again seeing a designer shed tears or indicate in a quavering voice that they have failed to do their best.

Oh, Rufus Wainwright, how you sparkle.

Oh, audience who went to see Rufus Wainwright at the San Francisco Masonic Auditorium last Friday, what’s wrong with you?

I refer specifically to the absolute flat-boring way the audience was dressed. There were perhaps five of us wearing anything that could remotely be considered sparkly, except, of course, for Rufus and his band, who were appropriately blinding in their shininess.

I don't know when or where I first heard of something called "mpreg," although I know it was online. I didn't know what it was, and oh, how I long for those innocent days of yesteryear.

"What do you mean?" I bleated to the friend who explained it was fan fiction written about male pregnancy.

She patted my hand. "It's stories about men from television shows, books, and movies who get pregnant." She looked at me, as if wondering whether to go on. "They have the babies out of their butts." (She didn't actually say "butt.")

After I soaked my brain in bleach for a few hours, I called her just to make sure it wasn't a hallucinatory nightmare. No, apparently it's real.

Now, I did go to journalism school and I sincerely try to investigate all my stories. I actually watched reality TV once. I'm brave like a war correspondent. And yet ... I couldn't bring myself to read even one mpreg story.

Instead, I emailed a fan fiction author who, under the pen name “vamphile,” writes fan fiction set in the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Queer as Folk worlds, and asked what she thought of mpreg.

"Oh, that," she snorted contemptuously. "Yes, you see, the author is in love with some guy in her fandom, say Brian Kinney, and so she writes her ultimate fantasy, pregnancy. The fact that this requires assbabies, medical impossibilities, turning Brian into something he's not, turning Justin into, essentially, a woman, makes not a bit of difference to her. You see, being pregnant is no fun and the guy of her dreams being there would make it fun and thus, she would write the ultimate in fantasy, she would make pregnancy sexy."

I rubbed my aching head.

For a totally conventional hetero Cinderella romantic comedy without even an Obligatory Gay Best Friend, Falling for Grace, which opens this weekend in San Francisco and next weekend in Washington, DC, is kind of a who's who of the queer and near-queer.

It stars Queer as Folk's Gale Harold as the JFK Jr-esque Andrew Barrington, Jr. He's vying for the affections of Grace Tang (Faye Ann Lee) with Steven, played by gay actor B.D. Wong (M. Butterfly, Law & Order: SVU). When Grace, who has been mistaken for a Hong Kong heiress by a group of upper-crust New Yorkers, falls for Andrew, Steven turns his sights on her best friend, Janie, brought outrageously to life by every gay boy's best friend, Margaret Cho.

And there's more: Andrew's brittle socialite mother is played by the brilliantly funny and gay-friendly Christine Baranski (Birdcage, Jeffery). Baranski is currently on Broadway, starring in Paul Rudnick's Regrets Only, where she plays a different kind of socialite mother, one who's torn between her husband, a conservative lawyer helping the president write an anti-gay marriage amendment, and her gay best friend, Hank.

It's also something of a Law and Order who's who, because in addition to Wong and Baranski, both L&O franchise alums, Andrew is about to become engaged to Kay, played by Stephanie March (SVU's ADA Alexandra Cabot). She's kind of WASP-y and uptight but her hair looks really fabulous in this movie, and there just has to be something gay about that.