AfterElton Briefs: Rugby Takes Action Against Homophobic Fans, The Trevor Project Honors Vanessa Williams, and Lafayette Speaks

Plus Jane Lynch hosts the Do Something Awards, Frameline honors Undertow, and Leonardo DiCaprio talks J. Edgar Hoover.

Dayle Reyfel, Bruce Vilanch, John Cameron Mitchell, B.D. Wong, Eugene Pack, Rachel Dratch, Mario Cantone  and Cheyenne Jackson / Photo credit Peter James Zielinski for Broadwayworld.com

• Above you can see some of the participants in Celebrity Autobiography: Gay Pride Edition. They did readings from a variety of celebrities' autobiographies, and it may be one of my favorite photo galleries ever. Cheyenne Jackson's facial expressions while reading David Hasselhoff are priceless.

• The Rugby Football League today fined Castleford £40,000 for homophobic chanting directed at Gareth Thomas on March 26. The league said:

Castleford were found guilty of unacceptable behaviour, of breaching the RFL's respect policy, of misconduct by their supporters and of conduct prejudicial to the interests of the sport.

The tribunal was chaired by his Honour Judge Rodney Grant, who criticised the club for failing to take steps to stop the homophobic chanting, for failing to identify the perpetrators, for failing to challenge the chanting and for their failure to undertake a meaningful inquiry afterwards.

• Gareth Thomas is doing an interview about the decision tonight, but his management released a statement today:

Today has been an historic day. Gareth Thomas is all about delivering positive messages and positive changes, and to that end today was a huge step forward for Gareth and the world of sport. It is not about the fine, but rather recognition that this behaviour from a small section of the Castleford fans is not acceptable in 2010. Unfortunately what happened at Castleford could not be ignored. We are delighted that the RFL have taken action against what is a serious and upsetting incident for all parties. Their stance makes it clear that behaviour like this is not, and should not be acceptable in the world we live in today.

• Last night, The Trevor Project, the only national 24/7 suicide intervention line for GLBTQ youth,  honored Vanessa Williams for her work with the organization. MyFoxNY was on the red carpet with Vanessa and musical guest Jason Mraz.

• CNN has a long piece entitled The Last Person Out of the Closet? The Bisexual Male that makes an interesting read. I felt it was lacking balance in the time spent interviewing the bisexual man in relationship with a man, but it captured the additional stigma that bisexual men face from some gay men.

• Lady Gaga is in the DLC for DJ Hero ("Poker Face") and Guitar Hero ("Just Dance") that were just announced. I'd try to be excited, but I am terrible at these games.

• Kylie Minogue is taking center stage at Madrid Pride this Saturday. Madrid holds Europe's largest gay festival. She just recorded "All the Lovers" in Spanish.

• Willie Nelson sat down with Parade recently and talked about country music's wide appeal. He's said gay-positive things before, and done quite a bit of work for AIDS charities, but I like how he just inserted us into the conversation.

Anybody can be unhappy. We can all be hurt. You don’t have to be poor to need something or somebody. Rednecks, hippies, misfits—we’re all the same. Gay or straight? So what? It doesn’t matter to me. We have to be concerned about other people, regardless.

• A new piece of promo work for Inception has Leonardo DiCaprio talking about playing J. Edgar Hoover in the Clint Eastwood-directed/Dustin Lance Black written biopic. About dealing with the rumors of Hoover's crossdressing, Leo says "We haven't done the fitting for [dresses]. So I don't think so." 

• The latest NewNowNext Music features interviews with Alphabeat. The piece of music that had me nodding my head in rhythm was the drumbeat of "We Want War" by These New Puritans, and that was before I looked at the video and saw hot men flying through the air.

• Frameline Film Festival closed Sunday night in San Francisco with a screening of James Franco's Howl. The nation's oldest GLBT film fest honored several films, including Undertow, which our own Flying Monkey was very fond of himself.

• Nelsan Ellis sat down with Vibe for a very frank interview about Lafayette on True Blood. The answers about the character were thoughtful, and I'm loathe to pull anything out of context because the answers are so honest you could twist them to say something he didn't mean, which is what makes them worth reading. So I'll just pull his answer to whether he supports gay marriage.

I support it. I think anybody should—I mean—I have my religious views but I don’t choose to oppress them on anybody. I think in this country, anybody can do whatever they want to do as long as it’s not hurting anybody else or violating the laws of society. If you want to get married to a man then get married to a man. If two women want to get married they should get married. It’s not hurting me. The beautiful thing about this country is that I can be a Christian and feel free to do so. Or somebody cannot be a Christian and do whatever that entails. Or somebody can be a Christian and still be gay and I support it. Let gay people get married.

• Jane Lynch (who was hysterical last night in Neighbors From Hell) will host the Do Something Awards on VH1 July 19 at 9pm. The awards "celebrate a new generation of do-ers and world changers by honoring five young people for their commitment to social change."

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