Morning Meme: "The Gay Warrior Song," Brian Burke Marches With Pride, Nuke's Not Ready for Primetime, and More!

Plus Adam outtakes, gay-positive reggae, warrior owls, hot dog weirdness, Melissa Etheridge is stingy, and Happy Birthday Edina!

*Note - Ed Kennedy is away for a couple of days, so AE Editor Michael Jensen and I will try to fill his size 18XXX shoes.

Congrats to Serena Williams, who won her fourth Wimbledon title over the weekend, and Rafael Nadal ... who won just his second. And a big shoutout to six-time champion Roger Federer, who spent time cherishing his growing family while the men's final was being played. Bravo, Federbear!

Xtra! has a video interview with Dan Choi about his activism, the first Pride celebration he ever attended, and the criticism he has for some of the gay media. "I felt that there were a lot of organizations that just didn’t portray my truth in the way that I wanted to portray it."

I know that "gay-positive reggae song" sounds like a contradiction-in-terms, but they do exist, and Guyanese artist Nhojj has hit #1 on CDBaby's reggae chart with "The Gay Warrior Song."

Oh dear. The Melissa Etheridge/Tammy Lynn Michaels split is getting ugly. I love Melissa, but if's true that she doesn't want to provide Tammy (who put her acting career on hold to be a stay-at-home mom) with financial support, I'll lose a lot of respect for her. And honestly, my eyebrow has been raised her way ever since her inexplicable embrace of Asshat Rick Warren.

Pride Month may be officially over, but that didn't stop Kylie Minogue from headlining the Orgulla Gay Parade in Madrid, Spain. And is it really necessary to include "Minogue" anymore? I think Kylie has earned the one-name moniker.

So I watched The Fabulous Beekman Boys marathon on PlanetGreen yesterday, and I think the moment I realized that Brent was totally off his porch rocker was when he insisted on cleaning the inside and outside ... of a Porta-Potty. Seriously, Brent? It's a Porta-Potty. And I adore Farmer John. I fear I may be hooked now.

A fabulous birthday cupcake goes to comedic genius Jennifer Saunders, who turns 52 today. Please tell me I'm not the only one who has to begin every trip by screaming "tickets, money, passport!"

I really can't add anything to this surreal report about the arrest at that hot dog-eating championship. How could I possibly top this: "Let him eat! Let him eat! the crowd chanted as police handcuffed the world's No. 3 professional eater, dubbed The Tsunami."

Alexander Skarsgard has neither the time or patience for your precious teams Jacob and Edward.

Speaking of Twilight, it's pulled in $280 million dollars worldwide since its release last Wednesday. And despite scathing (and hilarious) reviews, The Last Airbender has performed better than expected.

Gay Alaskans rallied to rebuild the Pride float which went up in rather suspicious flames.

Google gave gay employees who have signed up for domestic partner benefits a raise (AKA grossing up their income) in order to compensate them for discriminatory U.S. federal taxes. The San Jose Mercury News headline for the story was Google to Compensate Gay and Lesbian Employees while Fox News went with the decidedly slanted Google Raises Eyebrows With New Gay-Only Benefit. It turns out, according to the the rather slanted article, that the eyebrows being raised belong to the bigoted folks at Focus on the Family. 

In other good gay new, gays and lesbians in Ireland can now get themselves civil partnered. To put this in perspective, only a little more than fifteen years ago, no one in Ireland could even get divorced. 

Below you can see one of the many outtakes from the Adam Lambert 2009 album cover shoot by photog Warwick Saint.

Unfortunately, Adam's Phantasm remake never got off the ground.

Brian and Jennifer Burke marched in Sunday's Toronto Pride Parade in honor of their late son Brendan. Warning - don't read the article unless you want to be blubbering by the end.

Brian and Jennifer Burke (Pic: Vince Talotta/Toronto Star)

Speaking of Pride, Mexico showed theirs!

Cheyenne Jackson sent us this pic of him shooting Curb Your Enthusiasm. We're trying Cheyenne, but pics like this make it hard!

Stalking isn't nearly so much fun when the crushee is sooo cooperative!

Can you guess the star?

Remember the crappy As The World Turns "tribute" at the Daytime Emmys ... that featured Noah and Luke move in to kiss, then cut away just before their lips touched? CBS has released the "unrated extended director's cut" which does feature NUKE completing the kiss. So it's good enough for the internet, but not ready for prime time.

Below you can see the trailer for Legend of the Guardians, about warrior owls. It features the voices of Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, and Ryan Kwanten. It looks like it's a real ... wait for it ... hoot.