Morning Meme: A Wet Hot American Prequel, James Franco Goes Explicitly Gay In "The Broken Tower," and is Blaine Out Of "Glee?"

I don't know where to begin with this screening report of James Franco's The Broken Tower, which he stars in as Hart Crane, a real-life poet stumbling through a series of gay relationships (except for one straight one). It's described as a chore to watch, but includes a scene of oral sex between Franco and another man so explicit as to guarantee an NC-17 rating, and reportedly has Franco performing the act on a prosthetic penis.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas continues to have a growing ethics problem sitting on the bench while taking gifts from rich men and having his wife lobby for extreme causes that are likely to end up before the court. Not only are the liberal blogs taking note, but the New York Times is now pressing the issue.

In yet another way to help Sarah Palin stay in the spotlight without actually doing anything, The Discovery Channel is trying to get her to the Emmy Awards for Sarah Palin's Alaska. I swear, if she walks red carpet, I may have to boycott.

Lady Gaga is fine that some gays "don't want to be defined by her." She also doesn't see herself as the general in the battle for equality some try to paint her as, "If some people don’t want to be defined by me as their mother, that’s wonderful. I don’t view it in that way. I view it as being part of the generation, not as the leader.”

Some of you may be upset about this prognostication of how many seasons your favorite shows have left. It lists Glee as having a mere two. But I am amused by their guess that there's not a Brinks truck big enough to keep Jason Segel and Neil Patrick Harris on How I Met Your Mother more than two years. What about your other favorites. Do you agree?

You can watch five minutes of Cars 2 to decide if you want to shell out the big bucks for it come Friday.

Jon Hamm is locked into three more years of Mad Men with an eight figure deal, making him the highest paid actor on cable television.

Glee is preparing major stories for Mike, Tina, and Mercedes for next year, and cutting back on the music and the guest stars. But the scary part is that Ryan Murphy says that he hasn't decided if the show has a place for Ashley Fink, Chord Overstreet, and … Darren Criss? Really?

Scott Foley is joining True Blood for season five, and it's in a role that I don't remember from the books, though it's been awhile since I've read the early books. Still, let's hope they get him naked!

There's a spoiler-free review of Torchwood: Miracle Day over at io9.com, and it does sound like the old Torchwood. And the old Captain Jack.

There's an idea for a prequel to Wet Hot American Summer kicking around, taking place the same summer. And they're actually talking about using the original cast to play 16-year-olds. But since it's a prequel, I can't imagine Michael Ian Black and Bradley Cooper getting busy, so who cares?

Roger Ebert continues to be under fire for his tweet about the car accident that took Ryan Dunn's life. It's not that he's wrong, exactly. It's just not the time.

I used to have a stack of CDs from Masterbeat back in my circuit boy days, so I'm sad to hear that they went out of business on Sunday.

The Tracy Morgan episode of The Marriage Ref will air as planned next month. Let's hope a parenting concern wasn't at the heart of the dispute.

If you've got speakers, please click here, let it load, and then watch while clicking the little rectangle under the video. It will change your life.

TV Guide is on board with the new season of Drag U on Logo. "Kicking off its second season last night, the crazy campy confection from the cross-dressing queen of workin' it — hailed as a lesson in helping 'biological women unleash their inner diva' — does more to promote acceptance than a Pride month-long marathon of 'very special' Glee episodes."

The intimidating Ian McShane has been cast as a dwarf in The Hobbit. I can't wait to see how that works.

The BBC is producing Holy Flying Circus about the controversy surrounding The Life of Brian when it premiered.

The top enlisted Marine, Command Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Michael Garrett told a group of Marines "Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution is pretty simple. It says, 'Raise an army.' It says absolutely nothing about race, color, creed, sexual orientation. You all joined for a reason: to serve. To protect our nation, right? How dare we, then, exclude a group of people who want to do the same thing you do right now, something that is honorable and noble? Right? Get over it. We’re magnificent, we’re going to continue to be. Let’s just move on, treat everybody with firmness, fairness, dignity, compassion and respect. Let’s be Marines."

Guillermo del Toro would love to direct Disney's Maleficent, but thinks they're probably moving too fast and he's too busy. Interestingly, I follow someone on Twitter who claims to have just read the script, and is blown away by the queen of evil.

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