Morning Meme: Sir Elton's "The Union" Headed To HBO, Thank You Andrew Gold For Being a Friend, and Cocktails and Sodomy

Today we’re going to try something new: If I go ahead and acknowledge this whole Cheryl Cole fiasco on The X Factor: USA, can everyone stop writing about? She didn’t work out, she got paid $1.5 million for not working out, and now she’s caused The Voice: UK to go into a bidding war between the BBC and ITV because she might judge.

Scientists have managed to trap and study antimatter for nearly 17 minutes now. As the article states, you can’t let antimatter hit matter, because then the U.S.S. Enterprise goes to Warp 9. Or something like that.  In any case, what happened at the 18 minute mark?

The Los Angeles Times did a great story highlighting immigration inequality for binational same-sex couples.

Sony has announced plans for a sequel to Salt with Angelina Jolie. I actually caught the movie on Starz last week, and was pleasantly surprised. I don’t generally like that style movie, or Jolie, but it was shockingly watchable.

Goodbye to Andrew Gold, the man behind the iconic theme to Golden Girls. It’s like everyone on that show is passing away. Honestly, I’m starting to get suspicious of Betty White.

I was stunned that they actually made a movie called The Human Centipede. Oddly, I was not surprised it was successful enough for a sequel, which has now become one of only a handful of movies to be banned in the UK. To find out why, you need a strong stomach.

Maybe this isn’t the Best Headline Ever, but it’s pretty darn good: NYPD Sends In Cavalry to Quell Homo Thug Uprisings

Sir Elton John’s documentary The Union, about his collaboration with Leon Russell on an album, has been picked up by HBO for a January 2012 debut.

NY state Senator Greg Ball wants such a stunning list of religious exemptions in order to vote for marriage equality you would still have to go to Connecticut to get married in New York.

The French have banned the use of the words “Facebook” and “Twitter” on television unless the story is specifically about one of the companies. Contrast this with American television, which overlays hashtags on the shows as they’re broadcast, and source half of newscasts from social media.

Congratulations to J.T. Tenapa for winning Q Cinema’s award for Best Debut Director for Judas Kiss in Ft. Worth.

The British Film Institute has come into possession of the first male-on-male kiss broadcast on British television. It was between Sean Connery and Richard Pasco in the 1960 BBC drama Colombe.  Oddly, no one remembers it airing, and the footage was found in America.

Wesley Snipes has had the appeal of his income tax evasion conviction rejected by the Supreme Court and will have to serve the rest of his prison sentence.

Rep. Barney Frank has asked President Obama to signal Congress he will veto a Defense bill that comes to him with the anti-gay amendments attached that the House added.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Gates told an anti-gay Marine that there would be no early out for bigots who don’t want to serve with openly gay soldiers.

And in a move that stunned me, the British Scout Association is going to actively recruit more gay members and leaders. Contrast that with the homophobic American Scouts (that just opened an office beside my day job), and you really do see how far behind the United States is.