Afternoon Meme: Stephen Gately's Final Hours, Justin Timberlake Back On "SNL" and "USoT"'s Marshall Has the World's Best Dad

Plus Andy Rooney is old, Doug Reinhardt strips down to benefit your testicles, just how gay is Spongebob Squarepants, and is Idol still wooing Sir Elton?

Some folks are claiming you can tell which shows NBC intends to order by checking to see if they’ve reserved the Twitter name. Among the unannounced shows where NBC has invested 30 seconds of time and no money, you can see that Matthew Broderick’s Beach Lane may be happening.

Fox has announced that So You Think You Can Dance isn’t just shaking things up with all-stars for partners this season, they’ve also shuffled the judging panel around to have Nigel Lythgoe, Adam Shankmann, and Mia Michaels as the permanent judges, no doubt after too many lawsuits about Mary Murphy’s screaming damaging viewers televisions.

The Gumball 3000 is a pseudo race/rally for charity that draws exotic cars like the Batmobile, and exotic drivers like David Hasselhoff. It’s well worth the time to flick through the 64 cars participating to see some of the most incredible vehicles to grace the road, including my personal favorite, a 2009 Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR Stirling Moss.

On Friday, the FCC gave Hollywood permission to disable your DVRs under limited conditions. There’s been a digital switch available to remove recording capability since the new standard came into play, but it wasn’t approved for use. Now Hollywood can turn off recording and TV output electronically for movies they choose to broadcast prior to their DVD release. This means in theory, I never have to go to the movies again, and could have seen Iron Man 2 in my underwear.

Rather than focusing on the Ten Times The Simpsons Jumped the Shark, I really think we should focus on the fact that they can keep jumping the shark, and we’ll still tune in to watch. Never before has a show had so much goodwill that we forgive so much.

Outsports asks whether Nick Ring, contestant on The Ultimate Fighter is gay, or just playing gay on television. I think there’s another possibility, which is he’s trying to win the game and is willing to make the other contestants' homophobia his advantage. Or even a fourth possibility, which is that most reality shows are fake. And why are we questioning his sexuality, when he was receiving the massage from another competitor? Why isn’t anyone questioning the guy giving a 2 A.M. massage?

Sara Isaacson, a college senior, is on the hook to repay $80,000 in tuition after she came out as lesbian and would be unable to serve under Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. At what point do we say this policy is untenable?

Here are 10 Drinks You can Light On Fire. I always loved a Flaming Dr. Pepper (hush!), but I’m fascinated by the detailed mechanics of the Backdraft. There isn’t this much etiquette to attending a state dinner.

Stephen Gately died happy, and he did not die alone as was reported, according to a new interview with his widower Andrew Cowles. He died sleeping in Andrew's arms, which is still sad, but maybe in a different way.

OK! Magazine (yeah, I know, grain of salt and all that) swears that Fox is dangling a $33 million check in front of Sir Elton John to convince him to change his mind and take Simon Cowell’s place at the American Idol judges table. They’re also promising more charity fundraising as part of the incentive. Me, I’m against the idea, because that means someone here has to watch as much as nine hours/week of American Idol. I’m fairly certain it’s toxic at those levels.

Rumor has it that Justin Timberlake has taped one of his special Digital Shorts for Saturday Night Live’s season finale, hosted by Alec Baldwin. I agree with most critics, SNL needs to cancel the final show and end the season on the Betty White high note.

Buried in a description of episode 27 of True Blood is the line “Eric bequeaths a gift to Lafayette” which makes me wonder just how special that gift is?

I’m guessing Gossip Girl needed a way to make sure Eric’s life happens off screen, so they’re shipping Blair, Chuck and Serena to Paris for a couple episodes next season, and unlike Eric’s trips, the cameras are going with them.

I’ve had an airline lose my luggage more than once, and all but once they managed to find it. But what if part of your luggage was your dog, and they lost him? What is compensation? A $200 voucher for future travel?

Hunky Matt Taibirips apart the Tea Party movement not on their beliefs, but on their logical inconsistencies, like demanding a federal amendment to block gay marriage while demanding states rights on abortion.

If you live in New York City, your roof was just scanned with lasers by the government. The upcoming 3D maps are intended to be used for solar projects, parks, and energy projects. Or for super villains. Never forget about super villains.

I totally support boys kissing boys and girls kissing girls, so I can throw my support behind the Great Global Kiss-in in support of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. Now who wants to kiss me? Anyone?

Doesn't he look intimidating? I think we've found the costar for the upcoming Godzilla movie.

If this igloo is occupied by humans, I hope they cut a hole in the ice for indoor plumbing.

Cosmopolitan UK has a habit of getting male celebrities to strip for the centerfold (Mitch Hewer being a personal favorite). This month, it's all in the name of testicular and prostate cancer awareness. But the definition of celebrity gets stretched a bit with Doug Reinhardt, most famous at this point for not having caught a communicable disease from anyone he dated. h/t Carlton

Still, not bad to look at.

Maybe the religious right had a point about Spongebob.

With the boa, I'm assuming the bird is a drag queen.

Despicable Me may turn out to be a family film about an unlikely family. But I'm not entirely sure that he should let the minions babysit.

So excited by this movie.

I'm still trying to shake Monday off.

Andy Rooney is that embarrassing uncle you hope doesn't show up to your graduation because you just know he's going to ruin the rep you spent 12 years building in school. Here he complains that nothing on the pop music charts is anything he's heard of, including our Lady Gaga and our Justin Bieber. He wants to know why Billboard isn't featuring Ella Fitzgerald. Now I love Ella, but maybe the reason she's not at the top of the new releases is that she's been dead since 1996?

Speaking of a classic songbird, I have to report that Lena Horne has passed away at age 92. She broke barriers for African-American singers and actresses, and the obituary in the New York Times takes time to note the love of her life was openly gay pianist Billy Strayhorn. I went looking for some video of Lena singing, but when I searched for her on MTVMusic.com, it came up blank, asking me if I meant to type "Me So Horny" so we'll have to make due with this video from the CBS Early Show.

These previews for The United States of Tara really bring to the front one of my problems with the show this season. Tara is so disconnected from her family that she refers to Marshall's "decision about being gay" in a very remote sense, which she never would have demonstrated in the first season.

The second clip shows everything that The United States of Tara does right by showing Marshall's relationship with his father. Max thinks nothing of his son being gay or inviting a potential boyfriend to dinner. This casual integration with reality just make my heart melt.

This video just goes to prove that even left lying around in public, you still can't afford to pick up a copy of Microsoft Office Ultimate Edition.

I admit to my musical tastes stagnating, but not as badly as Andy Rooney. But still, I'd heard the name Levi Kreis but never listened to his music. "Nothing At All" could be a soul song from the 1940s and the gospel arrangement really helps draw out the emotional hooks to the song. To the photograph record store!