Weekend Meme: Kitty the Cougar, Sex and the Poor Girls, and Kathy Griffin Returns to CNN New Year's Show

A while back we posted a picture of Jai Rodriguez in drag for an episode of the upcoming NBC series Harry’s Law on NBC. But it was much more complicated than that picture let on. Jai says he’s done drag before, but this role actually required him to “change my gender.” He cites Candis Cayne as his role model, and says he has two big production numbers as a singer in the show as well.

Speaking of NBC, they’re developing a new period drama set in the Playboy clubs of the 1960s. For the younger readers, Playboy used to have private clubs, with women in backkess swimsuits and bunny ears serving drinks.  I’m not at all sure how a broadcast network could handle the gender issues and the smoking, but I’m curious to find out.

 A while back, we showed you a picture from a NOM rally of a sign a supporter brought to the rally featuring two nooses for curing queers. I had gotten permission from our friends at the Bilerico Project to run their picture, and Bil Browning was more than happy to say yes. But Rachel Maddow? She just took the picture and cropped off the watermark.

When it comes to watching Supernatural, I always cringe at the descriptions of upcoming meta episodes, then go total fanboy at how well they execute the concept. This next one gets weird, because Sam and Dean are going to wake up and be Jensen and Jared, two actors that play the Winchester brothers on a popular television program. I wonder if the slash fiction will come up again?

Michael Patrick King has landed a second pilot for the upcoming season. Having already sold his straight-male-Beverly Hills-hairdresser comedy, he’s now making what’s being described as Sex and the City, but with poor girls trying to make it in New York.

I haven't yet had a chance to watch In Between Men, a new web series about men who are better looking than I am. Let me know if it’s any good.

In case you were wondering, Liza has no plans to retire. Liz, there’s a bit in the interview you’ll find particularly appealing.

The former publisher of the San Diego Gay & Lesbian Times, Michael Portantino has jumped to his death from a famous gay-owned building in San Diego, the Park Manor Suites. On any given evening four years ago in San Diego, I could have been walking past that building. It’s sad to know such a pillar of the SD gay community is gone like that.

In a rather jolting sign of the times, Netflix is about to replace the New York Times Co. in the Standards & Poor 500 Index.

Pam Spaulding joins a growing chorus of activists calling for Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign to resign. I’m on the fence. I have my own issues with the HRC, and some of them are quite personal, but they have access no other gay organization has. Plus, the rank-and-file staffers are driven, caring folks. I just don’t want the bathwater thrown out with the baby.

The NYC Health Department has released a graphic HIV/AIDS PSA that some activists are calling cruel and unnecessary. Many are questioning the statistics cited in the ad, and others are saying the graphic imagery will contribute to the stigma of HIV+ people.

On Brothers & Sisters, Kitty is being promoted to full-blown cougar. Her college age boytoy Seth was originally just a four episode fling, but his role has been expanded to eight episodes now.

The Ali Forney Center is about to have a very bad Christmas. Read the letter from the Center’s head Carl Siciliano, and help if you can afford it.

There is a new Project Runway: Accessories coming your way. Try to contain your enthusiasm.