Morning Meme: Conan's Hot Seat, Matthew Mitcham's Odd Comparison, Making a Double Down Less Healthy, and Alan Cumming's Cabaret

Should having had sex with a guy be considered Baggage, Daytime Emmys find an unlikely home, Mike Manning goes multimedia, plus Appa!

Frequent AfterElton.com reader Eric Hegedus caught up with Alan Cumming about his upcoming cabaret show at Feinstein’s in New York City, his new website, and the demise of his participation in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

Instants!

An official memo has leaked in the UK about things the government could do when the Pope visits, including launching “Benedict” condoms, taking him to the opening of an abortion clinic, or letting him bless a gay marriage. While the government is reportedly embarrassed, I think these activities might do Ratzie some good.

A restaurant owner in Australia has been ordered to pay $1,500 for refusing admission to a guide dog that they understood to be a “gay dog.” No word if the dog was wearing a rainbow sweater or an “I love Lady Gay Gay” t-shirt. h/t M-Phil

A man who realized that the price tags at his local Costco were just plain paper with a common font, decided to have a little fun. But instead of just acting locally, he thought nationally and printed up sets for friends to deploy nationwide. The new labels touted packs of “dead tree slices” and re-labled Heinz Ketchup as “fake blood.”

As a companion piece to the “not gay enough to play softball” controversy, TheOnion.com asks in their Sunday Magazine “How Gay Should Your Husband Be Before You File For Divorce?”

The smart folks at reddit.com remind us that there is actually a place to get nature shows without also getting Ice Road Truckers, news without opinion, and children’s entertainment without a commercial agenda: PBS. It’s really a stunning description of the channel no one watches.

New York City event promoter and the founder of HX Magazine Marc Berkley is dead at age 56.

The Real World: DC’s Mike Manning has launched Mike Gets Real, his personal portal to activism, GLBT life, healthy living, and all things Mike.

A really strange article at the English language version of People’s Daily in China asks the unusual question of “Who’s hotter, Halle Berry or Matthew Mitcham?” As smokin’ as Mis. Berry (and her boyfriend) is, we all know our Matthew wins. As a bonus, there are page after page of photos.

Producers are reportedly looking to shoot the Sherlock Holmes sequel in 3D. I still haven’t seen the first film, so I could be wrong, but on the list of things that would be improved by 3D, Sherlock Holmes isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.

I admit it: I tried a KFC Double Down this weekend. I’m still alive, but I’m fairly sure it shortened my lifespan. FYI, I’ve licked salt off a guy’s nipple (tequila shots!) that didn’t taste as salty as the Double Down and I have to wonder whether using a Krispy Kreme as a bun might improve it, or be a step too far?

If you’re a user of Blippy, which is a social networking service that publishes anything you buy online, you may have your credit card number available in Google search. The story keeps getting worse the more folks look into it.

Here’s the latest update on how managers, agents, studios, and networks are feeling about the new batch of pilots from which the networks will choose their fall schedules. Of interest to us are Quintuplets (good, but network is scared), and It Takes a Village, with Cheyenne Jackson (has potential). It’s only a few weeks until decision time, and not everything is written yet, much less filmed and screened.

Despite the fact they seem to be tripping over themselves to get out of the daytime soap business, CBS has agreed to air the Daytime Emmy Awards this year. Word is they’ll completely skip over the chance to honor As the World Turns and instead use it as a platform to launch its replacement.

In a quote that will be taken out of context all over the place, out professional dancer Louis van Amstel says of Kate Gosselin, “She needs a psychologist, that’s what it is.” See? I just did it. He was actually talking about getting her to relax and be more expressive on the dance floor.

We had mentioned last week that Doctor Who’s Matt Smith would be playing gay in an upcoming project he was excited about. We can now report that he’s going to be playing Christopher Isherwood during the time he lived in pre-war Nazi Germany. And as a bonus, we’ve got a much larger gallery from the play Citizenship we featured last week.

Conan O'Brien did a show last week from San Francisco. His dressing room was furnished in a fashion to which he wasn't accustomed.

RuPaul has these all over her house.

Best animated GIF ever.

As we all know, I don't really keep up with Lost, but I do think I've managed to identify the Smoke Monster.

Nature is frightening.

I shorted you a kitty last week when it turned out to be a baby fennec fox. Fairly sure this is feline.

My inner 5-year-old can't stop giggling at this do-it-yourself toilet decoration. Admiral Ackbar's pop culture foot print is so much bigger than his screen time.

It's a crap!

The Real World: DC's Mike Manning got to be the MC at Miami Pride. Big deal. Afterward, he got to hold a baby monkey!

O.K., I know it's a chimp, I just like saying monkey.

I'm not really sure how all this ties together - Posi+Tive Magazine did a male model issue, and let the models talk. As far as I can tell, Posi+Tive Magazine doesn't have any correlation to anything we'd normally associate with "Pos" and I don't know why you talk about the models and not the clothes, but if you click on it you can look at pretty boys.

Kelsey Grammer was on with David Letterman the other night promoting La Cage Aux Folles. I'm glad he's promoting the show for the benefit of Nick Adams and some of the other performers, even if I don't understand why he's doing the show. What they don't show in the clip is Kelsey singing, which is a mercy, because it was awful.

I know we get mixed reactions to Avatar: The Last Airbender, but something important shows up in this clip - Appa! And he's flying! And he looks like Appa!

Dancing With the Stars' Bruno Tonioli stopped by The Soup to discuss his passionate reaction to pint-size Jake Pavelka's pantsless entrance the other night. Naturally, he avoids pants, and most of his shirt.

Pay attention, this gets confusing: Baggage is a show on GSN. It's a weird mix of The Dating Game with suitcases like Deal or No Deal. The guy puts his secret in a suitcase, and meets three girls with secrets, then chooses his date based on the secret. She then gets to see his secret, and if she closes the case, the date is off. What this clip doesn't show is that Steve's secret was that once he'd gotten drunk in college and had sex with a man. She slams his case shut, game over. Jerry Springer has found a way to sink lower than his talk show.

Just as backup material, here's Steve's audition tape for Baggage. He's had "sugar mommas" and used to be a Chippendale's dancer.

Here's some Jake Gyllenhaal talking about Prince of Persia to wash off your eyeballs.