Morning Meme: Whitney Houston's "Sparkle" Still Set For August, Thomas Roberts Doodles For GLSEN, and "The Artist" Sweeps the BAFTAs

Whitney Houston's final film, Sparkle, is still set for release this August. A remake of the 1976 film, it stars Jordan Sparks and contains new original music recorded by Houston.

My favorite part in this how-to guide about having sex with an alien is "Treat tentacles, for example, not as an obstacle, but an opportunity," but it's all pretty great.

Washington Governor Gregoire is set to sign the marriage equality bill today, kicking off the window for opponents to begin gathering signatures for a referendum to block fairness.

The Westminster Kennel Show has replaced Pedigree with Purina as an official sponsor because Pedigree's commercials about pet adoption were too sad for the show. Critics are also claiming that Pedigree's focus on getting homes for mixed breed dogs in shelters conflicts with the purebred mission of Westminster, who denies the charge. Purina's commercials will be full of wagging tails and ball chasing.

Mike Vogel has landed the lead in a Fox comedy pilot about a hard partying blogger who ends up an NPR host. Vogel's good looks were at risk of going to waste when ABC gets around to canceling Pan Am.

The New York Times has written a strong editorial about the inevitability of marriage equality via legislation, while the Los Angeles Times takes the same view from the angle of the courts. Each state having their own path sounds like a long road to travel.

An 18-year-old has been arrested in connection with the brutal beating a gay man in Atlanta. Brandon White was set upon by a group of men as he left a store and the footage of his beating uploaded proudly online.

For the first non-holiday weekend ever, four movies took in over $20 million at the box office, with The Vow and Safe House taking in $40 million each, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island nabbing $27 million, and The Phantom Menace 3D dribbling another $23 million into George Lucas' pocket.

The Artist swept most of the top awards at the BAFTAs yesterday, taking Best Film, Best Actor and five more awards. Christopher Plummer took Best Supporting Actor for his role as a gay man in Beginners, and Meryl Streep overcame conservative opposition to The Iron Lady to take Best Actress.

Tony Bennett thinks the United States should legalize drugs, much like Amsterdam has done. “First it was Michael Jackson, then Amy Winehouse, now the magnificent Whitney Houston,” the legendary singer was quoted as saying on stage. “I’d like every person in this room to campaign to legalize drugs.” He said that legalization takes away the shame, “No one’s hiding or sneaking around corners to get it. They go to a doctor.”

NY state senator Ruben Diaz is extremely bad at math, like most bigots. "The Ninth Circuit Court in California has decided to overrule Proposition 8, a ballot measure that added a provision to the California Constitution that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California”. You should know that this Ninth Circuit Court panel of unelected judges has decided that they know better than the will of more than half of California’s population." California has a population of 39 million, seven million of whom voted for Prop 8, and 6.4 million who voted against it.

Sir Elton and David Furnish do fear their son will face challenges being the son of gay dads. “He’s going to be potentially doubly stigmatised, because one of his parents is extremely famous and because he comes from two dads." I'd honestly be more worried about when his friends find photographs of Sir Elton's old wardrobe than I would about the gay dads thing.

The AVClub talks to Chris Kuthill, aka "real life Cartman" about his sudden fame since a year-old picture of him surfaced on reddit.

Blythe Danner, Sarah Bolger and Madeline Zima have been cast in the ABC pilot Gilded Lillies, about New York City's first luxury hotel. Honestly, it sounds like they're going for an Americanized Downton Abbey but substituting wealth for titles, but they had me at Blythe Danner.