Morning Meme: David Anders Gets Bitten, Sweaty Nestor is a Bad Boy, "Toy Story 3" Characters, and Baby Animals

Allow me to take a moment to do my Happy Dance, because my state legislature managed to defeat a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage yesterday. So much for us being a bunch of “bigoted a-holes” and “toothless wonders.” I still can’t get married, but it’s better than a lot of states.

One more political piece – out Rep. Jared Polis has a bill to help prevent anti-gay bullying in schools. Fox news took a “fair and balanced” look, and while they never come out and say it’s bad, they only talk to people who say it is. Plus, as the boss pointed out, the picture they used makes it seem like To Catch A Predator host Chris Hansen. should be walking into the frame.

I don’t know what to make of the latest casting decision from Vampire Diaries – it’s another hot guy, which I like. But it’s also a tan blond, so he’s going to stick out on this show like a sore thumb. I suppose wishing for an omnisexual vampire on this series is a step too far? David Anders joins the cast as one of Elena’s ancestors.

My friend David Badash over at The New Civil Rights Movement is getting fried for calling out Chelsea Handler for a recent tweet. Nobody disputes that Handler is a friend to the gays, but sometimes what comes out of her mouth isn’t heard the same way by everyone.  Her tweet “You say “Ice Dancing,” I say ‘Gay’” has ignited a debate on when we need to have a sense of humor. Hint: We laugh a little too much – it matters who hears what, and not everyone hears what we hear. 

Five years later, and the courts are still arguing about the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” at the Super Bowl. By the time they settle the Adam Lambert American Music Awards complaints, we’ll be handing him a lifetime achievement award.

Remember how silly, confusing financial documents that no one really understood nearly destroyed the economy? Evidently some people don’t, because the Hollywood Stock Exchange MMO is turning on the trading with real money. You can bet on movie earnings in a given time period and earn real returns. Heck, even studios can bet for or against their own pictures to recover money they spent on stinkers. Sure, this is a good idea.

There are some actresses that I maintain anything they do is a role for gay men. Christine Baranski falls into this category. So does Swoosie Kurtz, who just landed a role in the pilot for Mike & Molly, an overweight couple with food issues. She’s playing Molly’s mom, and it’s from Big Bang Theory creator Chuck Lorre, so it has potential.

Glee star Lea Michele doesn’t just sing in musicals, she inspires whole new ones to be written. In this case it’s Speargrove Presents, based around a real incident of Rent being blocked for performance in a high school.

I’ve mentioned 3D printers before, which roughly work like inkjet printers only instead of laying down ink in two dimesions, they lay down plastic goop in three. Anyway, they're generally used to to rapidly prototype furniture and the like Then I mentioned the cool new 3D food printer that can create real flavors on a tofu base. Now we’re getting weird, because a company with the unfortunate name of Organovo has developed a machine that can 3D print human organs, and it’s ready for clinical trials. Just the basics now: Skin, arteries, and muscles, but it’s a start to creating real organs on demand.

From the teaser, Caprica’s Scott Porter, or as I prefer to think of him, “Sweaty Nestor” has done an interview about his Friday Night Lights days, his new movie, and just what kind of a guy Nestor is on Caprica, and guess what? Golden boy isn’t so nice, not by a long shot. The article is worth a read, just for the story on how he got cast, which surprisingly was fully dressed. He hasn’t worn a shirt since. Good boy.

Among the sports that are lobbying to be part of the Olympics come 2012, we discover that competitive pole dancing is in the running. No word on who gets to judge, or if they’ll have both men’s and women’s competitions, which seems only fair.

I’ve been a fan of the “S*itMyDadSays” Twitter account since it had a dozen followers. I had a few doubts when they said it was going to go from a guy tweeting things his old cantankerous father says to a television show. But I’m now totally on board, because they’ve cast William Shatner in the pilot, and I can totally hear him saying those lines. Mostly because he said a lot of them on Boston Legal.

I’m going to finish with the news that a Utah lawmaker has filed a bill so that in his state, “Martin Luther King, Jr. Day” will become “Martin Luther King, Jr./John M. Browning Day” – yes that Browning, the gun manufacturer. He wants to share the day honoring a man who was shot with a man who manufactures guns. Did I mention yet today how proud I am of West Virginia?

Why don't we start with this picture I pulled out of Nick Adam's Twitter feed. Broadway Backwards 5 was last night. These look like the same guys he was with at the afterparty with in Briefs yesterday. I thought it then, I'll say it now. Entirely too many clothes for guys this attractive.

Wonder what they sang?

The fact that I burst out laughing when I saw this immediately renewed my geek membership.

They do greenscreen for a reason these days - just didn't know it was this reason.

I'm telling you, they have secret skills, and one day they'll decide humans are more trouble than we're worth. Because humans generally are more trouble than we're worth.

I bet it's The Art of War.

This picture also helped my geek cred. Frankly, I don't know why they didn't explain it like this in middle school. It's so obvious. And a little gay.

I'm not this creative.

Reader Miz Liz picked up on my fascination with Olympic curling (she probably slipped on a puddle of my drool - those guys are hot). She decided I might need one of these curling hats if I wanted to attract Marc Kennedy or John Morris' attention at the matches.

Can this help me bag a curler?

I feel this Toy Story 3 character "reveal" is a bit of a sham since we already met this particular toy in the trailer (where she was trying to delete a webchat with a dinosaur toy down the street before the other toys could read it.) Meet Trixie, voiced by Kristen Schaal. Who knows what sex the dinosaur toy down the street was.

I like the idea of a lesbian triceratops.

I had an optical illusion and a really cool animated gif on a man doing a handspring on his thumbs, but the system says the files are too big. So I present a baby turtle being born, which really is pretty awesome.

How often have you found a turtle this cute?

This flipbook blew my mind, and technically counts as an optical illusion. You can go read the story of how it came to be. I wonder if I get one, if I can blame this when people accuse me of spouting rainbows wherever I go?

People this creative make me fell like eating chocolate.

And today in advertising, we have this piece for Wasabi Chips. I've never had them, but I have gone too far when eating sushi, so I'll take their word for it.

I too have an abusive relationship with junk food.

Via New York Mag, we get this amazing shot of a random celebrity reunion, mere days after Jared had the pictures released of him having his hair done like this. He's still smokin' even with that silly hair.

Claire Danes and Jared Leto