Morning Meme: Sir Ian McKellen Lives Out and Proud, Katee Sackhoff's New Show, and David Boies Does "The Colbert Report"

Sir Ian McKellen is my hero. Speaking about homophobia to school children in conjunction with Stonewall, he says he’s doing it because “By talking frankly about my own life as a gay man and listening to the concerns of staff and students, parents and governors, I hope the visits arranged by Stonewall may make a difference in the classroom and the playground.”

Ft. Worth Councilman Joel Burns is a finalist for Texan of the Year. If a gay man wins this award, you can find me skiing at my chalet in hell.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees have been announced, and I really don’t care. Donna Summer didn’t make it. And Neil Diamond did. Not that either of those two have anything to do with rock and roll.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t even pick up a book titled Being Gay is Disgusting or God Likes the Smell of Burning Fat, but after reading the review at The Bilerico Project, I’m asking Santa to put a copy of this Old Testament satire in my stocking. I can’t say I’ve been a good boy, but that doesn’t seem a prerequisite for this book.

An Italian hospital chief is in trouble after sending out a memo asking doctors to not snort cocaine on their shifts. So they should snort cocaine?

Mark Zuckerberg is Time’s Person of the Year. Which is about right for Time, because I consider Facebook to have been interesting about five years ago. Now it just annoys me to hear people talk about it.

Meanwhile, Twitter, which has no real revenue stream, raised another $200 million in investment capital and is currently valued at $3.7 billion.

Based on the success of Fight Back NY, Tim Gill intends to take his activism national in the next election and go after a large slate of anti-gay politicians directly.

Retail sales point to a healthy holiday shopping season. Thanks to the day job, I already knew that.

On USA Network’s Character Approved Top Ten Influencers list, Lady Gaga appears prominently, along with Foursquare (which I use daily, unlike Facebook) and Alexander McQueen. So a pretty queer list for a network without many gay characters.

Speaking of lists, Matt Roush of TV Guide made his, and Modern Family is #2, while Glee is #7.

A California inmate convinced a judge to order him a special diet for almost a year based on his belief in Festivus. No one could convince the judge to watch Seinfeld. Just like no one can convince me to watch Seinfeld.

Bravo’s knockoff for The A List is quite real, and expanding the cast to include an underwear model. They’re talking about calling it The Plastics, after Mean Girls. And they promise less drama.

There is hope for polar bears after all, assuming they can learn to speak Russian.

I want the videos of this cheap cat bed falling off the windows of the people who buy it. But I doubt such videos exist, because the tricked kitties will have burned all copies, as well as exacted revenge.

AMC is picking up the western drama Hell On Wheels to series. Since it’s set just after the Civil War, I doubt we’ll see any gay representation. Because there’s never been a gay cowboy. Not one.

Broadway.com has a poll up for the 2010 Star of the Year, and a lot of our favorites are on it, including Kristen Chenoweth, Sean Hayes, Nathan Lane, Bernadette Peters, and Patti LuPone.

Katee Sackhoff has been cast in a new series called Sexy Evil Genius about a woman and her friends involved in a romantic revenge plot. Strong women bent on revenge always have a gay sidekick. It’s in the rules.

DADT–discharged veteran Pepe Johnson will hand deliver a petition to the only Democratic senator who voted against repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t tell. That happens to be my senator, Joe Manchin. In related asshattery, Rep. Nick Rahall, also mine, voted against the standalone repeal bill.

The co-director of Corpse Bride, Mike Johnson, has been tapped to direct the dark, adult stop-motion movie Oz Wars, set in the Wizard of Oz universe. That universe is getting a lot of work lately. It’s almost like it’s a George Lucas property.

Paley Festival 2011 tickets aren’t available yet, but with the focus being on True Blood, Freaks and Geeks and Walking Dead, I bet you can find a gay man with excellent taste planning on attending the festival.