AfterElton Briefs: James Franco bares it for Milk, the GayVN Awards, and more!

In a continued effort to bring you all that is important in the world of gay entertainment and ensure that you are being spoon-fed images of gorgeous, commoditized manflesh, we present the newly-minted AfterElton Briefs. Following the usual assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.

• James Franco may be stripping for Milk. I like how, when asked if there will be sex scenes in the film, the source says, "these were gay men in the 70's." I also like how this opens up a whole new world of Hobgoblin references.

• Tom Andersen, the out singer/songwriter best known for the AIDS song "Yard Sale", will perform this coming Wednesday at the Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble as a part of their "Any Wednesday" free concert series. For more on the artist and performance details, check out his website.

• The good news: they have identified the remains of Edward II's reputed gay lover, Sir Hugh Despenser the Younger, in an abbey graveyard. The bad news: he was a notorious villain who was stabbed, hanged, castrated, disembowelled, and drawn and quartered.

• Just in case you have never seen the brief but hilarious "gay-off" moment between John Barrowman and Simon Amstell on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, here it is...

• The Whitest Kids U Know are "Totally Gay for America". Unfortunately, their show is still "Totally Too Stupid for Words".

• Gay auteur Pedro Almodovar will be tackling the story of Spanish poet Marcos Ana, a communist who was imprisoned for 23 years by Franco's regime (not James Franco, Ferdinand) and who upon release instantly fell for a prostitute who found him so charming that she didn't charge him for his celebratory transaction. It's a tale as old and beloved as Heidi of the Mountains, no?

And today's Briefs are brought to you by...

These two underwhelmed greeters at this past weekend's GayVN Awards! (photo credit to Fleshbot, whose hilarious liveblog of the event is just like the ones we do here, only with more cocaine references and sex toys.)