Again, since we are through the WGA/AMPTP-forged looking glass this season, our beloved awards shows have traded bodies like one of those movies where Judge Reinhold switches bodied with his precocious 10-year-old son. While the Golden Globes and People's Choice - generally the bellweather events for drunken celebrity pratfalls and bad fashion - were hobbled at the knees by the strike, dark-horse events like the Critics' Choice, the DGA Awards (from which even Sean Young can still get kicked out), and last night's SAG Awards have become the hotness of the season. Go figure!

Last night's SAG Awards ceremony was a perfectly charming affair, with a few points of queer interest. First and foremost, Best Actor in a Moustache winner Daniel Day-Lewis (for There Will Be Blood) unexpectedly dedicated his award to Heath Ledger, noting that his performance in Brokeback Mountain was "perfect". Day-Lewis later noted that while he had never actually met Ledger, his death was all that he could think about for the past few days.

The show actually kicked off with some gay-fave goofiness, with (who played gay on Melrose and still looks adorable), Rebecca Romijn (who made a crack about playing a transgender character on Ugly Betty being no more odd than walking runways in underwear or being painted blue) and Jane Krakowski (introducing herself as Johnny Depp) among the stars who introduced the evening.

Another interesting moment came when Javier Bardem, who won Best Supporting Prince Valiant Bob (for No Country for Old Men), noted that not too long ago actors were not allowed to be buried on sacred ground because they were all "homosexuals and prostitutes". This would have been the perfect opportunity to single out some hustlers in the crowd, but apparently that was too squirmy for even the producers. I get what Bardem was saying, but it did come across a little differently than he'd intended, I think. Oh, and the first two people in the These are the People Who Died This Year montage were Merv Griffin and Charles Nelson Reilly.

Though Grey's Anatomy was up for Best Ensemble, neither T.R. Knight nor BFF Katie Heigl were present. And although a classic Marc St. James (Michael Urie) was used in the clip for Ugly Betty's ensemble nom, it and Brothers & Sisters took home no awards, with The Sopranos and 30 Rock sweeping pretty much everything. The clip for Extras' nomination also had mention of the "queer bench" where Ricky Gervais would meet George Michael cruising the park, and the clip for The Office had a rare appearance of Gay Oscar, who I thought had been lost in the supply closet this season.

Last week, Hollywood Reporter columnist Ray Richmond wrote a column titled "Griffin Never Revealed Man Behind the Curtain" that frankly disclosed that Griffin was gay. In hindsight, the opening paragraph to seems almost prophetic for the way it questions how the media treated the powerful producer's closet:

Merv Griffin was gay.

There. Is that plain enough for ya? No gossip, no scandal, no snickering behind the back. Just reality. Why should that be so uncomfortable to contemplate? Why is it so difficult to write? Why are we still so jittery even about raising the issue in purportedly liberal-minded Hollywood, in 2007? We can refer to it casually in conversation without a second thought, but the mainstream media still somehow remains trapped in the Dark Ages as relates to the gay label. Even in the capital of entertainment — in a business where homosexuality isn't exactly a rare phenomenon — it's still spoken of in hushed tones or, more often, not at all.

Richmond's column was quickly criticized for outing Griffin and the Reporter quickly pulled the column from its website and from Richmond's blog (the column was re-posted within an hour). But Reuters had already picked up the story and carried it to several news sources, including Yahoo, which kept the story up even after Reuters pulled it.

Richmond has posted a timeline of the controversy, as well as a reflection on the issues it raised. Richmond denies that the column was revised before it was reposted, attributing any changes observed to Reuters. Richmond wonders if there would have been as much outrage if Griffin had died penniless, noting "It appears that $1.6 billion will buy an awful lot of closet space."

However, I see some shame to be found in Griffin's dying a closeted yet incredibly powerful man. Richmond hints at it in his original column when he notes what Griffin could have achieved as an out producer:

But what a powerful message Griffin might have sent had he squired his male companions around town rather than Eva Gabor, his longtime good friend and platonic public pal. Imagine the amount of good Merv could have done as a well-respected, hugely successful, beloved and uncloseted gay man in embodying a positive image.

If you acknowledge Griffin's many accomplishments and his influence in Hollywood while also acknowledging that he's gay, that raises the question of what Griffin might have accomplished if he hadn't stayed in the closet. At the end of Richmond's original column, he notes that there aren't a lot of high-powered stars, executives or public figures who are openly gay. As Richmond puts it, "while it might seem everything has changed today, little actually has."

• Ugly Betty has found a boyfriend for Marc (Michael Urie), and his name is David Blue (above). Well, actually, his name is Cliff, but he's played by David Blue. Cliff is a photographer. David is an actor.
• Here's a game in which you have to pick out which word doesn't fit in the list: American Idol ... homophobic ... "Christian songs with Christian principles" ... eggplant.
• I'm pleasantly surprised to be linking to California Catholic Daily for their refreshingly neutral (and near-positive) story on gay-themed play The Other Side of the Closet, which tours schools in the state to teach a lesson of tolerance for (and celebration of) different lifestyles.
• Since religion seems to be a hot topic today, here's an interesting piece on the rift over gay unions in black religious communities in and around Washington, DC.
• Will Arnett will return to 30 Rock next season as the gay executive out for Jack's job, this time with a beard bride-to-be. I didn't find the first visit particularly funny (despite the quality Kenneth the Page time that came with it), but you never know.

• Two presenters on Brit radio network Talksport are heavily criticized for making homophobic comments referring to gays as "paedophiles" who are "preaching the gospel of perversion." I've checked my King James version and I'm not seeing that particular gospel, so it must be some sports reference that my stupid gay pedophile brain just isn't grasping. Oh, and I also throw like a girl.
• Annie Lennox fans take note: the video for "Dark Road", the first single off of her upcoming album, is up today on Amazon.
  
• The death of super-rich Merv Griffin last week prompted us to ask what the courtesy period was for outing a closeted dead celebrity, and apparently Reuters is flip-flopping on the subject as well.
• Gerard Way (above), the lead singer of emo-glam sensation My Chemical Romance, apparently likes to make the boys at his concerts takes their shirts off, shouting, "Just the boys!" and gets all friendly-like with other band members while performing. Upon hearing the news, David Bowie yawns, throws another brick of hundred-dollar-bills into the marble fireplace, goes back to cuddling with Iman.
• Leona Helmsley has died at 87. Gentlemen, start your Halloween costumes.
  

Michelangelo Signorile has a lot to say about the recent death of television mogul Merv Griffin and the way that his life (and apparent hidden homosexuality) is being discussed in legitimate outlets like The New York Times.

Griffin began his career as a big-band singer (his big hit was "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts"), but made his mark as a talk-show host and television producer, having created long-lasting game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Although personally, I best remember Griffin as "the guy who killed Kathleen Turner with Windex in The Man With Two Brains."

Pretty impressive list of accomplishments, to be sure (especially that last bit). But Signorile's piece focuses on Griffin's oft-rumored hidden gay life, which through the years was the subject of much speculation and several lawsuits. The posthumous outing of deceased gay celebrities is nothing new. In fact, it's an old standby in the biography industry, with noted gay and bisexual celebrities of old being outed in tell-all biopics left and right, years or decades after their deaths. But for an apparently closeted man to be outed in what is essentially his obituary piece compresses any seeming period of respect for the dead and their living wishes to the blink of an eye.

This man obviously had no intention of living as an out gay person. And, as Signorile suggests, his decision to fill a position of such power in the entertainment industry may have caused harm to other gay men (starting with his close relationship to the Reagans and going downhill from there). Does this trump his wishes to live a private life, or has the "glass closet" expanded to the "glass coffin" for closeted celebs everywhere, regardless of the power they wielded in life?