Weekend Meme: Farewell Clarence Clemons, Lance Bass Makes Boy Band Show, and "The Muppets" Trailer Has Arrived

In sad news, E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons has passed away after suffering a stroke last week. After decades of work with Bruce Springsteen, he recently collaborated with Lady Gaga.

Tracy Morgan met with gay teens at the Ali Forney Center to better understand the impact his words about stabbing his theoretical gay son. By all accounts, it was a good meeting. Meanwhile, Joan Rivers says he shouldn’t have apologized, cementing the hag in my book of people I don’t understand why the gays support.

Meanwhile, comedian and E! host Jo Koy is apologizing for calling a fan a “f*king faggot” during a comedy show. I’m going to sound a bit like a broken record, but with all this being in the news lately, the fact that they can hurl such insults says a lot about the ingrained societal homophobia that people claim doesn’t exist anymore.

The United Nations has passed a resolution supporting equal rights for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation.

Lance Bass is creating a boy band reality show, using former boy banders as coaches.  So far he’s got A.J. McClean, Joey Fatone, Joe McIntyre, and is working on Bobby Brown. VH1 is on to air it.

Starz is getting creative, greenlighting Sam Raimi’s live action adaptation of the anime Noir. No timeline yet on this one.

An open letter to the gentleman blow-drying his balls in the gym locker room.

The Hong Kong government is making waves for hiring a “gay cure” expert for their Social Welfare Department. I used to spend a lot of time in Hong Kong before the handover, and it had a thriving gay scene. I find this very disturbing, and very personal.

The Motion Picture Academy has invited 178 people for membership. Nothing really shook me about the actors, but if you look at the directors invited there’s a remarkable percentage known primarily for gay films, like Gregg Araki, John Cameron Mitchell, and Lisa Cholodenko.

Green Lantern is on its way to a $60 million opening, making talk of two sequels not premature, and possibly prescient.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has passed their version of the Defense Appropriations Bill that not only doesn’t contain the anti-gay amendments related to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, it goes a step further in proposing repeal of Article 125 of the UCMJ, the prohibition on sodomy.

Anti-gay Rep. Michelle Bachman was “glitter bombed” at the Right Online conference by gay activists. Can I just go on the record as saying this new trend is just stupid, and it’s bad for the movement. We’re not changing the victim’s mind, and we’re making them an actual victim – so the claims of “radical, violent homosexuals” have basis in fact. And I’m not entirely sure that free speech trumps possible assault charges in today’s legal climate.

GLAAD head Jarrett Barrios has resigned under pressure for his letter lobbying for AT&T’s merger with T-Mobile which has come under fire. GLAAD is preparing a statement concerning reports that the board had voted to remove Barrios, and we’ll bring that to you.

Since it’s the weekend, here’s a totally NSFW picture of himself that Jake Shears tweeted.

Malcolm in the Middle’s Frankie Muniz has tweeted an intention to run for public office, adding politician the long list of careers he’s taken on by the ripe old age of 31 that includes race car driver and rock band drummer.