Steve Carell in Little Miss Sunshine

In a continued effort to bring you all that is important in the world of gay entertainment and ensure that you are being spoon-fed images of gorgeous, commoditized manflesh, we present the newly-minted AfterElton Briefs. Following the usual assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.

• Might Steve Carell have played Harvey Milk in Bryan Singer's Mayor of Castro Street, had Gus Van Sant's Milk not beaten them to the punch (starring Sean Penn)? The fat lady ain't sang yet, so we'll see ... but isn't Carell inspired casting? I miss you, Uncle Frank!!

• Readers of the Louisville Courier-Journal were appalled to see two straight basketball players in what looked like a celebratory kiss in the Sports pages. Fifty bucks says if they'd been WNBA players no one would have complained.

• John Barrowman loves Ugly Betty and buying home decor at TJ Maxx. Related: John Barrowman is one Chico's shopping spree away from becoming my mom.

• A gay British actor who played one of the Toombliboos in the hit children's show In the Night Garden is suing the production company (who also created the smash hit Teletubbies) for anti-gay harassment. Tinky Winky is said to be contemplating a class-action suit.

• And in case you haven't heard, Zac Efron doesn't care what He Who Blogs Behind the Rows says about him, including the gay-baits, noting, "Honestly, if the worst he can say about me is that I’m gay, then I think I’ll be fine. I can handle it."

What do you get when a male celebrity intentionally and self-consciously tries to be sexy? You get bad beefcake. And hey, in my book there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Silly though it is, sometimes bad beefcake is actually sort of cute. Case in point: recently a whole series of photos of Gossip Girl’s Chace Crawford popped on the web. No question the boy is adorable - but he might want to rethink the fringe suede jacket, ten gallon hat and come-hither smile. (Okay, he can keep the come-hither smile.) Now that’s bad beefcake, and I love it.

Anyway, Mr. Crawford’s recent photo shoot got me reminiscing about bad beefcake from years past, and I pulled together some of my favorite photos for AfterElton.com readers to enjoy. Brad Pitt, Ralph Fiennes, Rob Lowe, Mario Lopez, Sean Connery – all beautiful men – but all with very bad beefcake lurking in their closet.

I hope you enjoy the gallery of schmaltz after the break. And hey, if you have any favorite bad beefcake shots of your own, please share the wealth and post them in the comments!

There's a veritable smorgasboard of campy DVD titles out today that might be of interest
to you, or the perfect stocking stuffer for a friend or pet.

The FX series Dirt returns for its sophomore season in January and just in time for new viewers to catch up is this boxed set release of Season 1. The show itself was a bit uneven last year, but it did offer a few delights. Among them is Grant Show as a closeted movie star getting down and dirty with Leo Spiller (Will McCormack). The boy certainly has come a long way from Melrose Place.

Also out, you can finally get R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet R&B opera — all 22 chapters of it — on one DVD. Collectively the chapters tell the story of a one-night stand that sets off a chain of events "revealing a web of lies and deceit." Some of those lies involve certain characters "on the down low."

The front of the box says, "it's the big package," but that may not in fact be true. Kelly claims to have another 20 chapters written and yet to be released. Oh for goodness sake, come out of the closet already!

Are you a Zac Efron fan? Oh come on admit it. You know you are. Well you can see him gamely returning to the franchise that made him a teen heartthrob and breakout star in High School Musical 2: Extended Edition. And no doubt in a few months Disney will be releasing the "director's cut" of this cash cow franchise.

Of keener interest to me is the DVD release of a 1996 Lifetime original movie, Seduced by Madness...

• Were you, like we were, "Gay for Jamie" from last week's 30 Rock? Here's more on Val Emmich, who played the adorable coffee-boy that set Frank's heart aflutter. (Thanks to Popcandy for the find!)

• Russell T Davies' upcoming 40-something gay life drama series won't be up or coming for at least a few years.

• Happy birthday, Margaret Cho!

• Dennis over at Bravo's OutZone blog confirms that Project Runway's Jack and Top Chef's Dale are officially an item. I totally called this when I met the two lovebirds at the Out 100 party, but now it's network-approved! (Registry at Sur La Table and BlueFly.com to follow.)

• BestWeekEver wonders why Vanessa Hudgens wonders why her boyfriend, Zac Efron, wonders if that shirt makes him look gay. 

• OutZone has a handy-dandy roundup of Zac Efron fansites, including the creepy and gay-baiting ones.
• A mini-profile of Hot 100 vet Christian Bale, in which he reveals that he plays not one, but TWO incarnations of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' upcoming headtrip biopic, I'm Not There.



• Dan Kroll at SoapCentral posted a forum on the ATWT "Nuke" kiss (along with a very personal essay on the event and what surrounds it) and the comments are very encouraging. Sure, considering Dan started the site, the visitors are likely a little more reasonable and open to "that kind of thing," but it's still nice to see. (t/y Wayman!)
• What we won't hear reported about Larry Craig
• One of John Barrowman's many busy clones (as there is simply no way that one man can make as many public appearances as he apparently does!) will host a gala tribute to composer Jerry Herman (Hello, Dolly!, Mame) in London next month.

We seem to be on a teen roll of late what with all the discussion of gay teens in last week's BEST.GAY.WEEK.EVER! column as well as the latest edition of our vlog Two Gay Guys, so I thought I might as well do a pic post form this weekend's "Teen Choice Awards". The upset of the night occurred when PBS beat out MTV for the "All Time Rockingest Network Ever" award. Okay, that didn't happen, but for all I know it could have since I didn't actually tune in. Frankly, anyone over the age of twenty-five who watches strikes me a little dodgy.

Neil Patrick Harris of How I Met Your Mother was up for best actor in a comedy, but, alas, he didn't win. However, Will Ferrell did win for the gay-friendly Talladega Nights. The gay-seeming villain God King from 300 wasn't even up for best villain, so I'm happy about that. All the winners can be found here! Now on to the pics!

Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno of Dancing With the Stars was up for best male reality star...

but lost to Sanjaya Malakar of American Idol. Yay, Sanjaya!

I've no idea why Ryan Reynolds (The Nine) was there, but I'm glad he was. I think he won for best facial hair.

The out Adam Shankman, director of Hairspray with his lead actress Nikki Blonsky.