Out actor Bryan Batt (Mad Men's Salvatore) at the Season 2 premiere

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.

• Hey Randy Harrison fans! The out Queer as Folk alum is back at the Berkshire Theater Festival this summer, this time doing Beckett's Waiting for Godot. There's a fresh interview with him over here.

• George Michael performed on Good Morning America today and spoke about his history of drug busts and that fateful bathroom visit in Beverly Hills. Says George, "I meant to do that..."

• The good news: Jurassic gossip Liz Smith is reporting on George Takei's upcoming wedding just like she would on any other celebrity's. The bad news: She's doing it on FOX News, and makes a rather odd comment about William Shatner being "too butch" to attend.

• Above, ridiculously cool guest judge Natalie Portman comes out from behind the Project Runway Shadowpuppet Screen of Infamy, causing one designer to "freak out" and another to almost "pee her pants." Smell Watch what happens!

• The Newsweek cover story on the murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King is infuriating and fascinating in the same breath. Is it a coincidence that the victim and his murderer both had parents with histories of drug abuse and arrests, and that both kids themselves were troubled, disruptive, and prone to criminal behavior themselves? And yet the lesbian assistant principal who supported King's self-expression is taking the heat from many of those involved. Insane.

And today's Briefs are brought to you by...

Out gay actor Randy Harrison (who celebrated his 30th birthday last week) has been cast as Spencer in Garland Wright's adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's Edward the Second at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in Manhattan, December 11-January 13.

This work is very gay-subtexty and that element can be played up or down as the director chooses. Based on the poster, I can guess which way this director's going to choose...

Randy is playing Spencer, Edward the Second's new ... oh what shall I call him... "favorite"? "Lover"?... after Piers Gaveston is assassinated. It's all more exciting than As the World Turns, really.

Randy's other stage roles included Wicked on Broadway as well as Amadeus, Equus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Glass Menagerie, and Mrs. Warren's Profession.

And of course, he was Justin on Queer as Folk, a role that will continue to define (or perhaps haunt) him until he stops looking 16, which at this rate is going to be when he's 90.

Most modern interpretations of this work make Edward's homosexuality even more explicit than the text (which makes it very clear on its own). This is the play gay filmmaker Derek Jarman used for the basis of his very gay film Edward the Second. More info can be found at the company's website.

Randy Harrison, the out gay actor who played Justin in Showtime's Queer as Folk (and was number 34 on AfterElton.com's Hot 100) left television behind when that series wrapped in 2005, saying he wanted to focus on the stage. Lots of television actors say that's what they're doing even though secretly all they really want out of life is to be a movie star, but Randy seems to mean it — and have the chops to do it, too.

He's appeared on stage in Equus (and here I will shallowly admit that his hair in the promotional photographs was the kind of thing that sustains my belief in a benevolent deity ruling over a peaceful universe), as Mozart in Amadeus, as Boq in Wicked, and most recently as Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, all to reviews ranging from good to glowing.

And now he's grabbing a surprisingly large and positive amount of critical attention as the charming cad Frank Gardner in Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession at the prestigious Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, MA. While one critic did seem to think he fidgeted too much, whatever that means, all the other critical mentions have been positive — too many to list, in fact, so here are just a few:

The Boston Globe described Frank as "the young ne'er-do-well next door (Randy Harrison of "Queer as Folk," summoning some of the ludic qualities that made him such a superb "Amadeus" at BTF last season)." Theatermania didn't care for the production but singled Harrison's performance out for a positive mention. NewBerkshire.com loved him:

Frank, (Randy Harrison) the youngest of the quartet is charming, ardent, fickle, an amiable weakling, supportive of Vinie and loving her, but practical enough to know without her mother’s money to back them marrying her would never work because he is well aware he is incapable of earning any. A well-defined character, and one distinctively different from those leads he has played with skill in “Equus” and “Amadeus.”

From TheTranscript.com:

Randy Harrison plays ... Frank, with a persuasive charm that, aside from his Adonis-like handsomeness, is his chief means of survival. But Harrison, who seems to improve on excellence each successive year at BTF, provides dimension in also emphasizing the humanity Shaw has given him.

Of course, real Randy fans will never forget his stage debut as Winthrop in The Music Man in 1987, when he was 10 years old. Personally, while I'll concede he's grown up since then (he's now 29), I admit I'm wondering if in addition to having the best hair ever, he's been bathing in the blood of virgins or something, since no matter how hard I look at the photos from Mrs. Warren's Profession, he doesn't seem to look any older as the years go by.

One thing's for sure: If it's really what he wants, it looks like Harrison has a glowing career in the theater ahead of him. Even if I do still kind of miss seeing him on TV.