AfterElton Briefs: Twitter hackings, sad passings, coverboy Luke and more

 
All together now: "Awwwww...." (Luke Macfarlane as coverboy)

Following this 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.

• Either I've died and gone to heaven or this is Liza Minnelli ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. Ring them bells, Liza!

• Legendary diva Eartha Kitt passed away over the holidays at age 81 from colon cancer. Perhaps fittingly, the star of stage and screen who first rose to fame thanks to her sexed-up 1953 holiday song "Santa Baby" passed away on Christmas Day. She will be missed, purrrrrrr.

• The BBC has come under fire for homophobic comments made about Lindsay Lohan in the show The Most Annoying People of 2008.

Joseph R. Gannascoli and John Costelloe on The Sopranos
 

• Some more sad news from over the holidays: Sopranos actor John Costelloe, who played gay character Jim "Johnny Cakes" Witowski, was found dead in his NYC apartment after having committed suicide at age 47.

• Gay writer Benoit Denizet-Lewis has a new book out about addiction called America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of a Life. In this excerpt adapted for the NY Times Magazine, he talks about his own addiction to anonymous sex.

• There has been a rash of Twitter hackings as of late, with FOXNews's feed being hacked to read "Bill O Riley is gay" and CNN's Rick Sanchez's feed reading "i am high on crack right now might not be coming into work today". Meanwhile, AfterElton's Twitter feed was briefly hacked to read "bros b4 hos" but we've remedied the situation.

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

This guy!