Dante's Cove inhabitants are as gay as they are beautiful: Everyone is ripped and coiffed and shirtless. In fact, the official tourism slogan is "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem!" Dante's Cove's largest export product is cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. Its largest import product is body oil.

I wouldn't exactly describe Dante's Cove as a "quality" show, but if you can get past the low budget effects, hammy acting and absurd dialog, there's some campy good fun to be had.

There is also a veritable bounty of male eye candy, including newest cast members Reichen Lehmkuhl and Jensen Atwood. How much eye candy? Just to give you some idea, after the break we have photos for you!

Technically, it's not fair to call Dante's Cove a soap opera, because it was never sponsored by a detergent company and doesn't really feature much soap. But you know what it does feature a lot of?

Nipples.

So I think we should call it a "nipple opera".

To prove the point, here are some pics to celebrate the imminent start of season three of the ghostly nipple opera, which finds Noah's Arc's Jensen Atwood (with whom we have a brand-new interview running later this week) and Amazing Race's Reichen Lehmkuhl joining the undershirt-challenged cast. Enjoy!

Jensen Atwood is Griff

Charlie David is Toby

• Republican San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders reverses his stance on gay marriage after considering his gay daughter and staff members: "In the end, I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships -- their very lives -- were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife Rana." Related: I just reversed my stance on not crying at work.
• AMC has reportedly renewed its big-gamble original drama Mad Men, which has a gay man amidst its Vitalised cast.
• Further boosting its diversity and gay-friendliness, Ugly Betty has added "America's Gaysian Sweetheart," Alec Mapa, to its cast in a recurring role.
• If you've ever wondered what a Japanese gay variety television show would look like, head on over here to watch a clip from Onee-mans, an apparently very popular program. Bravo, get on this!!
• For you Dante's Cove devotees: the next season will debut Friday, October 19th, with new castmembers Reichen Lehmkuhl, Jenny Shimizu, and Jensen Atwood.
  

As you know, I’m all about the fluff, so when there’s news about Dante’s Cove, I’m all over it.

Okay, seriously, I put Dante’s Cove in my Google alerts back when I was writing my article on the most groundbreaking gay sex scenes in television history and I’ve been too lazy to remove it. So today I got an alert that the third season trailer is up on actor Greg Michael’s (Kevin) MySpace page, and it looks like the show will be as hard-hitting, gritty, realistic, and powerful as the first two seasons, which is to say, not at all, because if what you’re looking for is serious drama, Dante’s Cove is not where you go.

No, Dante’s Cove is where you go if you’re looking for guys with their shirts off rolling around in the sand making glorious love while ancient curses drive immortal beings to wreak havoc on the lives and loves of everyone they come in contact with.

And did I mention the guys keep taking their shirts off? I really need to mention that because if the first two seasons are anything to go by, that’s the main focus of the entire series. I guess it’s all highly metaphorical.

There are lots of new actors joining the cast this season, including the man with the most perfect eyebrows in television history, Noah’s Arc’s Jensen Atwood (who promises he’ll be taking his shirt off, although he told Greg Hernandez that he doesn’t actually think it’s possible to take it off more frequently than he did in Noah’s Arc). And journalistic integrity does force me to note that my friend, blogger Rod McCullom, feels that Atwood has more to offer than just those beautiful eyebrows, and also has some stills from the upcoming season over on Rod 2.0.)

Also taking his shirt off joining the cast this season is former Lance Bass boy-toy Reichen Lehmkuhl, as well as out actresses Jenny Shimizu and Jill Bennett, who rumors have forming two sides of a hot love triangle with the Cove’s sexy Britt (out actress Michelle Wolff). Wow, a three-way with three out actresses. Pardon me while I make sure my local cable system carries here! network.

Where was I? Oh, right, guys with their shirts off. Series regular Gabriel Romero (Marco) told Hernandez that the first ten minutes of the season premiere would blow the tops of people’s heads off, and that he and Atwood were going to get to know each other in a very special way:

“I have a very steamy scene with [new cast member] Jensen [Atwood]. It was very powerful and was supposed to be the biggest orgasm of my life."

In this week's vlog post of Two Gay Guys, Brent and I move from poolside to actually into the pool. Hey, it was 110 in Palm Springs! This week we "chew the fat" over the AfterElton.com's first annual Hot 100 List which, incidentally, turned out to be national and international news with the Associated Press writing an article about the whole shebang. (Many of the articles can't get over the fact Tom Cruise didn't get a single vote.)

In other words, all this week hundreds of thousands of folks — gay and straight — have been exposed to the shocking notion that gay men enjoy looking at attractive men — and that there is nothing wrong with being thought of as hot by us. In fact, it's a huge compliment! So, yes, the Hot 100 is fun and hot (as we discuss in the vlog), but I'd like to think it also serves a larger purpose in reminding folks of all sorts that gay sexuality is just like any other sexuality.

Plus, the Hot 100 proves once-and-for-all that I'm right about Jake Gyllenhaal and Brent is wrong. Bw-ha-ha!