Morning Meme: Danny Miller Gets Goofy, Fall Television News, and Praising the Effeminate Man

Plus Jane Lynch reminds us about free speech, Bianca gets recast, and Michael Bublé has a potty mouth.

Jane Lynch spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the Newsweek/Ramin Setoodeh uproar, and she has a valid point: Ramin has a right to his opinion, no matter how much we disagree with it, or how shoddy his logic or writing, and Newsweek has a right to print it. The rest of us also have the right to speak up in opposition, but not in an “Off with his head!” approach. It’s not how you change hearts and minds.

Before I leave the subject I would like to point you to Autostraddle.com’s Let Us Now Praise Effeminate Men, which borrows some of the best lines from queer actors, characters, and activists to make the point. Favorites like Adam Lambert, Alan Cumming, Kurt Hummel, Emmett Honeycutt, Wilson Cruz and others feature prominently.

Frank Rich is one of the great columnists of our time, and I’m not just saying that because he always comes down on the side of gay rights. His piece on Sunday tying together the big stories of George Rekers and Elena Kagan’s treatment in the media strikes a Maddow-esque clever tone while still being framed in Anderson Cooper-like neutral language.

If you’ve got $99 to spare you can pre-order the all-electric Nissan Leaf. A credit card with just under a Benjamin reserves your place in line, whenever that line starts moving, either late 2011 or mid-2012. But at least you can handle it all online without visiting a dealer, since there’s nothing to test drive.

The networks are holding their “Upfronts” this week, where they announce new fall shows and rake in billions in advertising. NBC held their rehearsal Sunday morning and forgot to lock the door, and The Hollywood Reporter walked in and leaked the whole presentation. Needless to say NBC banned them from the real party, but that horse has left the barn. We get action/adventure Mondays, legal-eagle Wednesdays and comedy Thursdays for themes.

CBS has been silent on new shows other than Mike & Molly, but the rumor is that they also intend to greenlight Bleep My Dad Says with William Shatner, and Hawaii Five-O with Alex O’Loughlin is a lock, as is legal drama Defenders.

ABC has reportedly passed on It Takes A Village with Cheyenne Jackson and Christopher Sieber. They also sent the Debra Messing comedy Wright vs. Wrong back to be retooled for a possible midseason order. They’re also rumored to be giving a short, 18-episode order for Brothers & Sisters.

Kristen Schaal has been working mostly in the UK lately, though her voice is about to hit the big screen as Alice in Wonderland in Shrek Forever After and as Trixie the Triceratops in Toy Story 3. What I didn’t know was that she and her boyfriend Rich Blomquist have a new book called The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex. She claims she explores all sorts of kinks and sexualities in the book. Note: It’s Vanity Fair doing the interview, so it’s not terrible, but it is mildly NSFW.

Siblings Andy and Lana Wachowski are recovered from the disastrous Speed Racer, and are shopping an Iraq War movie with a gay relationship between a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi man. It’s not their first dip into same-sex romance, as 1996’s Bound had a lesbian romance.

As long as we’re talking lesbian romance, it’s being reported that All My Children has recast Bianca with Christina Bennett Lind, who will first appear in the role June 14^th. I’m sure Anthony will have more details in the Gays of Our Lives.

In perhaps the most disgusting display of wealth since the 1980s, a hotel in Abu Dhabi has installed an ATM that takes in bills and dispenses gold bars. Naturally, the machine is made of gold as well.

I thought Brits were liberal about sex, nudity and language on television, but it’s reported that Michael Bublé had to re-record some elements of his ITV Audience With… and huge edits had to take place because of the singer’s naughty jokes. Who does he think he is, Amy Winehouse?

On Friday Danny Miller (Aaron, Emmerdale) tweeted out this picture of him with the clapper. To me it was mostly notable in that we got to see him being a bit goofy, since his character has been so serious lately.

I thought these things were digital these days?

Has summer arrived where you're at? Perhaps you're in the southern hemisphere and it's barely hanging on? We're getting our first taste of the heat locally.

The dog has the right idea - cannonball!

There exists a Tumblr entirely devoted to animating album covers. For those of you who have never purchased physical media for your music, album covers used to be their own art form, and in my mind, this extends it into the digital age. The Sonic Youth cover caught my eye with the lyrics.

Remember when smoking was cool?

I've been neglecting your hunger for optical illusions lately, but that's because I demand quality for you, my delightful readers. This illusion won an award, so somebody thinks it was great. As for the trick, it went a different direction than I expected.

I bet you thought I left you on a Monday morning to face the week without a daily dose of cute, didn't you? Of course not! It's just that this dose of cute moves, so it's down with the videos. Granted, it doesn't move very fast, something you'd expect in a video about sloths. Still, they are an adorable way to start your week, plus I was unaware that a Sloth Sanctuary existed.

This coming Saturday is the first official observance of Harvey Milk Day in California. In honor of the occasion Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar for his screenplay about the civil rights leader, has recorded a Public Service Announcement. I think he's absolutely correct in how the day should be celebrated - it's what Harvey would want.