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 icon George Takei has followed up his country singing performance on Secret Talents of the Stars with an appearance on a show that harkens back to the heydays of glorious trainwrecks like Pink Lady & Jeff.

The show is called Wanna Bet?, and it's an American version of a German game show, hosted by the British comedy duo Ant and Dec (It's like a commercial for the United Colors of Crap).

George is one of the celebrity guests on the show, along with ... wait for it ... Harland Williams, Sherri Sheppard, and Tom Green. (AKA "Hell's Conga Line.") The fact that George (who can sometimes come across as a bit "eccentric") manages not to be the oddest one on the panel says a lot.

Please spare a thought today for Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg

The show has the four stars competing (for charity) to see if they can successfully guess whether a contestant with an unusual talent will be able to succeed or fail (it's basically "stupid human tricks" for money). They start out at $25,000 and wager parts of it on each player, and whoever has the most money at the end will win that money for his charity.

The first contestant is a former anthropologist who's going to try to hula hoop a 50-pound rubber tractor tire for 45 seconds, which leads to this awesomeness:

Sherri: "I think you should have stayed an anthropologist, cause you can dig up my bones anytime"

Harland: "I think he's got to succeed, because my father always told me, son, always wear your rubber"

And this is when the show moves from groan-inducing to Hall of Fame badness. Because it's a "family" show, TPTB decided that Harland's line was too "racy", so they add the word "tire" after "rubber". The only problem is that it's blatantly obvious that the word "tire" was added afterwards, and even though the line now makes absolutely no sense as a joke, the panel and audience laugh uproariously.

See if George was able to win after the break.

It's a big day, folks. Starting at 5:01PM last night, same sex marriages began legally taking place in the state of California, gaining widespread mainstream coverage of all sorts (we'll be back later with a survey of the fallout).

Some of the most comprehensive coverage has come from CBS News, who have been running segments on the topic since yesterday morning. My favorite piece, above, features George Takei and his partner of 21 years, Brad Altman, talking to Julie Chen about why this ruling is so important. I love that they're looking forward to enjoying the "delicious agony" of wedding preparation, which I think is definitely part of the rite of passage.

And here's another piece about the financial impact the ruling will have on California's tourism economy, and a third featuring San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom looking back on his groundbreaking decision to open City Hall to illegal gay weddings a few years ago.

Anderson Cooper

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.

• Happy birthday to Anderson Cooper! The two-time Hot 100 vet and longtime silver fox turns 41 today. Is it too late to hope for a Mole cameo?

• George Takei and his partner, Brad, will have Uhura as matron of honor and Chekov as best man at their long-overdue wedding. I can't wait to see the pics of those adorable Tribbles throwing rose petals!

• Actor Lucas Grabeel (Milk, High School Musical) wrote on his blog about how working on Gus Van Sant's film changed his life, and pointed out that although he has risen to fame playing gay or gay-vague characters, he is straight. Just so ya know.

• Bizarre gossip of the day: John Barrowman may have gone to California to participate in a scientific study looking to determine what causes gayness, as a part of a British TV documentary. This fansite claims that they collected Captain Jack's DNA and had him look at sexy photos of men and women ... is it wrong to ask if they did both at the same time?

• Seriously the best thing I've seen all day: Two kittens on a treadmill. (t/y Bryan!)

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

Following the announcement of the upcoming nuptials of Ellen Degeneres and Portia DeRossi, another well known gay celebrity has announced his intention to marry.

Star Trek icon George Takei has written on his blog that he intends to take the plunge, as well.

"The California Supreme Court has ruled that all Californians have a fundamental right to marry the person he or she loves. Brad and I have shared our lives together for over 21 years. We've worked in partnership; he manages the business side of my career and I do the performing. We've traveled the world together from Europe to Asia to Australia. We've shared the good times as well as struggled through the bad. He helped me care for my ailing mother who lived with us for the last years of her life. He is my love and I can't imagine life without him. Now, we can have the dignity, as well as all the responsibilities, of marriage. We embrace it all heartily."

It'll be interesting to see if other out celebs are going to follow suit, or maybe, hopefully, if it'll encourage some to inch their way out of the closet. Could we be hearing an announcement from Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka? Or T.R. Knight and Mark Cornelsen? Or maybe Luke McFarlane and Snicks?

Okay, that last one isn't likely (unless my voodoo love doll works its magic, and it should...it says it's "AUTHENTIC"), but we could get a slew of high profile celeb weddings coming up in the near future.

One of the most moving stories to come out of the court ruling is that of Bob Claunch and Jack Reavley, who, after 52 years together can finally, legally get married. The two former soldiers' remarkable romance has been the subject of a documentary (we reviewed it last year), and you can learn more about their story at their site. We wish the both of them a truly joyous wedding.

In this week's episode of Angry Puppy, Marc and Lee talk about breaking movie news (keywords: Jake Gyllenhaal!), George Takei's Secret Talent, Jack and Ianto's Weevil-hunting clinch, some new X-Men books, and much, much more.

On last night's premiere episode of celebrity competition Secret Talents of the Stars, out Star Trek legend George Takei made what was perhaps an ill-advised attempt at singing country music on live national television. But his performance wasn't half as bad as that of judge Gavin Polone (apparently an agent-turned-producer behind such projects as Panic Room, Tell Me That You Love Me and Curb Your Enthusiasm), who had this to say:

"Uh, yeah, well, you know, I guess as, uh, country and western styles go, that's sort of the Brokeback Mountain version of it. (Audience boos) And that's good, no, I like that, that's "alternative" and good. You know, it's your voice kind of, um, sucked. (Boos) I think if you're going to continue in this competition, you're going to have to find a way to de-suckify your voice."

This is after judges Brian McKnight and Debbie Reynolds found pleasant enough ways to say that George shouldn't quit his day job for a career in country music. George did not make it through to the semi-finals, but he was a sport about the whole thing.

As for Polone, a quick Google search brings up his highly-publicized firing from UTA in 1996 for allegedly mistreating a female subordinate and a litany of unflattering articles and comments about him. 

So just to catch up: multiple award-winning Brokeback Mountain is still a go-to punchline for lazy bullies, and thankfully we don't have to watch this show or this man again.

If you'd like to watch the whole mess, the episode is available online. 

2007 was quite a year for gay geeks, with gay representation in comics books, on science fiction television and in video games being a frequent discussion topic. While these topics aren't entirely new, this year the discussion was at its most active.

On TV, we saw ourselves more often, especially on BBC America's Torchwood ... even though we had frustrating setbacks on shows like Heroes. Things looked incredibly bright for gamers, who found themselves expecting a good number of games with expected gay-inclusiveness and found it easier to find each other.

Additionally, gay geeks became more visible. Logo debuted its collection of animation, Alien Boot Camp,which included bumpers showing gay fans at comics and sci-fi conventions, as well as gay comic creators like Alison Bechtel. For a long time, this subset of queers weren't seen often, with gay geeks being happily surprised when they found each other, but that's changing as our visibility within the gay community increases.

Let's take a look back at the past year, shall we?

Here they come, the sound of drums

If we were to declare a king of the gay geeks, Russel T. Davies would be the candidate to beat. The Doctor Who producer did plenty to increase gay visibility on sci-fi television. The past season of Who regularly showed gay people as simply a part of the human tapestry. More importantly, 2007 was the year Torchwood made its USA debut. The series quickly became BBC America's biggest hit and, seeking to maintain the momentum from season one's success, the network announced that the second season will air only two weeks after it airs on BBC Three.

The success of Torchwood, as well as Doctor Who, is a significant development for gay sci-fi fans. On Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness is a very different way of portraying queer men on television: as a dashing, heroic lead. Meanwhile, Captain Jack's return to Doctor Who this season continued to show his relationship with The Doctor as one having the kind of strained affection previously seen only with female companions like Sarah Jane Smith and Rose Tyler.

While Doctor Who is an obscure series for American fans, it's a major franchise in the UK and the series is the target of constant rumors and speculation regarding arrivals and departures both in front and behind the cameras. Those rumors included talk that Davies' may be cutting back on his Who duties with Steven Moffat taking over the series. Moffat wrote some of Who's most popular episodes and created the gay-inclusive Coupling and Jeckyll. If the speculation has any merit, Moffat sounds like a promising replacement.

We're still holding on for our hero on Heroes, Monday nights

For some media pundits, Heroes is a solid example of what diversity should look like on television,; but for people who actively advocate for increased diversity, the show is a mix of potential and problems. Last December, we noted that early promotion for the series had Zach as gay but that the show had suddenly turned away from the idea. Discussion into the character continued into the new year. Out producer Bryan Fuller confirmed that the character was written as gay, only to have those plans derailed by the management of Thomas Dekker, who played Zach. In its second season, Heroes was supposed to add a lesbian character but she, too, disappeared before becoming a major presence.