Bad news for three shows from gay creators: ABC has passed on ordering additional episodes past the original 13 for Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, and Dirty Sexy Money.

The ratings for all three sophomore dramas had been flagging seriously since their return in September, so this isn't too big of a surprise, but it's a bummer and a half to see the shows reach the end of their lines. Greg Berlanti's Dirty Sexy Money introduced a groundbreaking character in Carmelita, a transgender woman played by a transgender actress, Candis Cayne, who was actually treated as a human being and not as a punchline.

Stone brought gay pop star George Michael back to American televisions, and Daisies had a planned gay character before the strike pretty much nixed the development of the latter half of the first season. The only upside to this news is that this might mean that Bryan Fuller will return to pull the bloody body of Heroes out of the wreckage of Season 3 and breathe life back into it, as he has hinted he might.

Eonline has some exclusive quotes from Fuller and Kristin Chenoweth about Daisies' cancellation. 

So which of the shows (if any) will you miss most? Let us know in our poll after the break! 

Out writer/producer Greg Berlanti looking adorable at a recent Eli Stone event

Following this 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.

• Australian gay mag DNA wrongly outed a straight X Factor contestant, leading Austin Drage to have to come out as heterosexual to his gay fans. At least he was appreciative, and I hope he returned the toaster oven.

• TIME has a rather sobering article on the fight for gay marriage in California ... and beyond!

• Kevin Smith says that when he asked Brandon Routh if his Superman contract wouldn't allow him to play Justin Long's lover in Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Routh apparently replied, "What is this, 1940?" Okay, now I almost wish I didn't hate Superman Returns.

• Since it's the season ... the always-campy Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) will close the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival with drag personality Peaches Christ. For more info, check out the fest's site.

• And if you're in NYC tonite, be sure to stop by SPLASH for Patti Labelle's record release party, where the sould legend and her Labelle ladies (above) will be signing CDs for her gay fans. You go, Miss Patti!

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

The quirky Pushing Daisies (you're required to use "quirky") and nighttime soap Dirty Sexy Money begin their second seasons tonight on ABC, and both gay faves (Pushing Dirty Sexy Daisies) are hoping to avoid the dreaded sophomore jinx.

Pushing Daisies is the creation of the out Bryan Fuller, and continued his string of quirky eccentric shows like Dead Like Me and the gone-too-soon Wonderfalls (curse you, FOX!).

It debuted to fantastic reviews and great ratings, but by the season finale had lost half of its audience. Most critics blame the erratic second half of the season for the loss in viewership, but the writer's strike didn't help, shortening the season to just nine episodes.

If you haven't seen it, and want to give it a look, here's a sampling of some characters to watch for (and if you have seen it, it's a refresher, since the last original episode was last December!).

(L-R) Swoosie Kurtz, Ellen Greene, Lee Pace, Anna Friels, Kristin Chenoweth, Chi McBride

Ned (Lee Pace) is a pie shop owner who can touch a dead person and bring them back to life. There's a catch, though. If he touches that person again, they die for keeps. Oh, and if he does bring someone back to life, someone else has to die instead ... unless he touches that same person again within sixty seconds. Um ... got that?

That makes things difficult for his love interest, Charlotte aka "Chuck" (Anna Friels). They were childhood friends, but when they meet again, it's under deadly circumstances. She's dead. She was murdered, but he brought her back to life. Alas, this means they can never touch (until the final episode or a season cliffhanger).

Emerson (Chi McBride) is a former P.I. who finds out about Ned's ability and offers to keep his secret, for a price. Ned must bring murder victims back to life, find out what happened to them, then let them die again. Then he and Emerson will split the reward money.

Vivian (Ellen Greene) and Lily (Swoosie Kurtz) are Chuck's aunts, and total loons. Lily lost an eye from a tragic kitty litter accident, and her big secret is revealed when she confesses to Olive to actually being Chuck's mother.

As played by Kristin Chenoweth, Olive is a waitress at the Pie Hole, who has the hots for Ned. She's also a former jockey who won't hesitate to break out an Olivia Newton-John musical number.

Oh ... and be sure and keep an eye on the Coroner played by Sy Richardson, who should have some interesting scenes this season.

After the break, take a look at NYC's most dysfunctional brood (No, not the AfterElton.com bloggers ... this is a rich dysfunctional brood)...

(Berlanti, Rhimes, Horta, Lindelof, Cuse, Cherry; Photo credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

Looking at ABC showrunners panel, it's really not surprising that the network topped GLAAD's recent rating of the networks (as well as ours) in regards to GLBT diversity (and diversity of any sort, actually). In the above photo we've got three out gay men — Silvio Horta (Ugly Betty), Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) and Greg Berlanti (Brothers & Sisters, Eli Stone) — two people of color — Horta and Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy) — and four white guys — Berlanti, Cherry, Damon Lindelof (Lost), Carlton Cuse (Lost). Trust me, few other panels come with this much diversity unless actually somehow focused on that very thing.

Cherry quickly showed he had a way with quips. At one point the panel was discussing the recent writers strike which a number of the panelists had helped organize and run. Turns out there were a lot of sports metaphors thrown around during the negotiations. Said Cherry about that:

[The others said], "Okay. Look. It's the fourth down. We have to approach this." I go, "Why is it all sports metaphors? Why doesn't anybody use musical theater metaphors?" [Laughter.] So I actually got them to try to use Eliza Doolittle as a comparison on occasion.

Greg Berlanti, Silivo Horta, Marc Cherry (Photo credit: Getty Image/Frederick M. Brown)

Cherry again appeared later in the day for the Desperate Housewives panel and, believe it or not, someone else besides me asked a gay question. I guess he didn't get the memo that was my beat. Anyway, this turf-stealing journalist asked Cherry just what the heck has happened to Andrew and whether Cherry mirrored him in any way. Said Cherry:

"For me I think that the first season he really mirrored it. I actually did a scene from my life in that first season because I had my mom — and probably the only ugly moment I've ever had in my life when I came out to my mother, she told me that the only thing that concerned was that she wouldn't see me in heaven. And that was kind of hard to deal with given the fact that I had had kind of this idyllic relationship with her my entire life.

So what I got to do with Andrew was I got to get someone who was in her face, and I think I worked out a lot of my residual anger towards a woman that I completely adore because I made him this raving psychopath, and you know, writing is good for your soul. (Laughter.) And the truth is I got all that stuff out, and the thing that — once I did all this stuff with Andrew it was like, you know, I adore my mom. So what I thought was really cool is last season, you know, having Andrew and Bree come to terms again, and Bree is now kind of like my mother. She knows he's gay. Just don't talk about it."

More from Cherry and the rest after the break!

Cheyenne Jackson at this weekend's Broadway Barks 10

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.

• Shocker! The Mormon Church isn't happy about the Mormons Exposed: Men on a Mission 2009 calendar. The only thing that surprises me is that it took them this long to get upset about it.

• The Washington Post ran an interesting article about how gay people are coming out earlier, focusing on a 15-year-old African-American kid in Maryland. His uncommonly mature take on the taunts he's used to suffering for being gay: "If you have a birthmark on your leg for so long, you don't even notice it."

• Even Sir Ian McKellen has been the victim of death threats because he is gay, although he says that they have dropped off considerably in recent years. Uh, duh ... who's stupid enough to mess with Gandalf?!

Robert Gant

• Two of our best and brightest out stars, Cheyenne Jackson and Robert Gant, both celebrated birthdays over the weekend. Jackson is 33, while Gant is a ripe 40.

• Five more years! Out Brothers & Sisters producer Greg Berlanti has re-signed for five more years with ABC Studios, where he'll no doubt be bringing us more of the gay.

• And in sorta-gay casting news, Val Emmich has been cast as Betty's new love interest in Ugly Betty. Why sorta-gay? The actor's straight, but most of us know him as the object of male affection in 30 Rock's "Gay for Jamie" episode. Oh, and he's adorable, which never hurts.

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

George Michael croons to Jonny Lee Miller in an old version of Eli Stone's dream sequence

Way back in 2007 (like we can remember back past lunch!) we were a bit disappointed that Greg Berlanti's intriguing-sounding yuppie-in-ideological-peril dramedy Eli Stone wasn't picked up for the fall schedule. It was encouraging that it might make an appearance mid-season, but given the intriguing premise, gay pedigree and bizarro mentions of George Michael's presence as a guardian angel, we were hoping for more.

And perhaps due to the creative drought left in the dusty wake of the writers' strike, more is what we've ended up getting, with ABC putting a good amount of firepower behind the show's premiere after Lost on January 31st. 

While the visions that Eli (Jonny Lee Miller of Hackers, Trainspotting, and Angelina Jolie's lipstick case) had of "Faith"-crooning George Michael seemed initially like a minor flight of fancy in what would otherwise be a pedestrian drama, the ads for the show are putting the gay pop singer and the show's more fantastical (hallucinatory? divine?) elements front-and-center, be they North By Northwest crop-dustings or full dance numbers.

In fact, I've found two clips of the same dream sequence, the first (and likely more current, as it has the official ABC voice intro) of which is much more elaborate and well-filmed than the other, which I'm guessing might have been from the original pilot. Maybe the powers that be have decided to let the show wander further into surreal territory following the success of Pushing Daisies? Whatever the case, the more elaborate scene is definitely better, as it shakes off the low-rent Ally McBeal vibe of the cubicle-heavy clip.

Check out both clips featuring Michael doing what he does best (having "Faith") here and here! 

• That's apparently Neil Patrick Harris under all that clownery. As though I needed reason to love him any more than I already do...

• Gay horror legend Clive Barker has a new video game, Jericho, coming out for the XBox ... and the homophobes aren't happy about it, even though there's nothing gay about it in the least.

• A historian on the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade shares his thoughts on how the gays have been instrumental in making the holiday more than tricks and treats in this radio interview.

• Brothers & Sisters' gay exec producer Greg Berlanti is signed on to a Green Lantern movie. Break out the tights!

• Early images and art for the new film adaptation of the gay-but-not-gay classic, Brideshead Revisited.

• I don't know which is more alarming: the fact that Ann Coulter was spotted dining in a gay-owned West Hollywood restaurant, or the possibility that she has moved on from living strictly off the blood of cattle.