Out actor and current Broadway It-Boy Ben Daniels at last night's Theatre World Awards

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.

• Shia LaBeouf's publicist spoke to E!'s Marc Malkin, expressing regret for the "faggot" video and saying that the actor is "embarrassed" that it was made public. Considering the bulk of the video consists of the clearly drunk underage actor begging to be slapped in the face, I would hope that's an understatement.

• TV Guide grabbed Neil Patrick Harris and his How I Met Your Mother co-stars for one-on-one video chats this week. Here's Neil's.

• Forget the Joker dolls, the really ambitious bidder can get a hold of one of Heath Ledger's chairs from the Brokeback Mountain set. (Flannel, tobacco stains, and crushing sense of loss sold separately.)

Out actor B.D. Wong, also at the Theaatre Wold Awards

• You may have heard that Dwayne Johnson and Steve Carell share a smooch (for laughs, of course) in the upcoming Get Smart movie. You may not have heard that The Rock "smells like strawberry shortcake" or that the actors (both of whom have played gay before) are going out of their way to point out that the kiss was no big deal.

• What is it with weathermen and on-air catastrophes? I mean, first the cockroach guy, and now this poor fella gets called a pedophile?

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

I'm a day late on this, but was anyone else vaguely annoyed by the minor "gay" sub-plot on Monday's episode of How I Met Your Mother? Desperate for money, Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) decide to try to sell Lily's paintings. They have the usual sitcom-y back luck ... until Lily manages, to her delight, to sell a painting to the arbiters of truly good taste, a "GAYCWK" — a Gay Couple Without Kids.

But Marshall loves the painting and wants it back, so he goes to visit the gay couple's apartment. After Marshall inquires about the painting — "the one in the nice frame" — one of the gay guys says (in a queeny, lascivious voice):

"Talk about a nice frame! You are a big one, aren't you? My, my. And you're married to that little bit of a thing. How does that work? I'd like to find out."

The show pretends that Marshall, an obviously married, heterosexual man, would flattered by this creepy, totally inappropriate sexual attention, rather than having him give the correct response, which would be to tell the gay guy to go f*#& himself.

I confess: I hate gay-guy-hitting-on-straight-guy humor. I hate it when frat-boy comedies cement the rock-solid heterosexuality of their main characters by having them get hit on by, and then rejecting, some queeny stereotype of a gay guy.

(For the record, I also hate it when drag queens get cheap laughs by making double entendres to the hapless straight guy in the audience. Passive aggressive much?)

Anyway, you can tell who has the real power in Hollywood by looking atwho the sexual predators tend to be in movies and one television: women and gay men. Um, yeah, cause that's the way it is in real life.

This whole thing was beneath How I Met Your Mother, which, after the brilliant new Robin Sparkles video "Sandcastles in the Sand" a few weeks ago, had been on something of a winning streak.

I mean, the gay couple wasn't just creepy-lascivious, they were literally limp-wristed!

I refuse to blame Neil Patrick Harris for this — hey, he's just another actor on the show. But did the whole thing strike anyone else as a series of gags straight out of the 1980s?

Tony winners David Hyde Pierce are and Sara Ramirez are all smiles at this morning's announcement

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.

• The other day we mentioned that Neil Patrick Harris and Rosie O'Donnell would be among the celebrity guests on the upcoming primetime Million Dollar Password. Here's a rather hilarious interview with NPH behind-the-scenes, compete with another excellent Regis impression.

• Hiding in Hip Hop author Terrance Dean will be reading from the tell-most book this week in NYC, and taking Q&A. Check out AfterElton.com contributor Clay Cane's site for details.

• Hey Freak Show fans: Check out this kinda hilarious video of author James St. James reading from his brilliant young adult novel along with several other Lambda Literary Award nominees at A Different Light bookstore, hosted by Christopher Rice.

• In case you missed it, Neil Patrick Harris wound up in bed with Britney last night ... so that we don't have to. Thanks for taking one for the team, NPH!

• Apparently actor Mike Epps is famous enough to be stalked and harassed into a verbal and physical altercation by the bottom-feeders at TMZ. Epps regrettably stoops the their level by calling one of the paps "a fag, homosexual". 

• RADAR takes Joel Derfner, the author of Swish, to the Hello Kitty store and out for ice cream. Given that the rest of the book's title is "My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever", I'm guessing "Swish" isn't a basketball reference?

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

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 gay singer/songwriter Darren Hayes! The former Savage Gardener turns 36.

• The new Broadway show Glory Days, about four high school friends who reunite after their first year of college (and one comes out as gay), closed after one performance, the first time since 1983 that a new show has only lasted one night. If you're in the mood for some bittersweet, check out the opening night coverage.

• In Milk-related news ... May 22nd would have been the gay civic leader's 78th birthday, and the city of San Francisco will be unveiling a statue in his honor at City Hall to commemorate the day.

• Over yonder, you can see a sneak peek of Britney's encore "performance" on How I Met Your Mother. Think Neil Patrick Harris gets hazard pay? Oh, I keed, I keed ...

• Finally, an adorable story about Matthew Pope, the openly gay cheerleader recently named Homecoming King of his high school in Kansas, and how much his fellow students love and support him.

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

Moonlight's totally not-gay vampires (Jason Dohring and Alex O'Laughlin)

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.

• We've been mooning over Moonlight as of late (sexy men biting each other ... what's not to like?!), and it looks like they're on to us. In the recent "Beautiful People You're Not" issue of TV Guide, lead Alex O'Loughlin's co-star Sophia Myles notes, "The young girls love him, the older ladies love him, and the gay guys love him." So ... work well done, men.

• Moviefone is is running a feature on the 25 Sexiest Movie Couples, and were considerate enough to include two same-sex pairings in the bunch. (The Brokeback Mountain fellas are #13, and the ladies from Mulholland Drive make a much-deserved appearance as well.)

• Hey Clive Barker fans: if you're in or around NYC, the Sloan Gallery will be showing some of his latest artwork (including conceptual artwork from the upcoming Midnight Meat Train movie) for another week. Check it out!

• Maybe Neil Patrick Harris should never have clarified those misinterpreted anti-Britney remarks after all ... no good deed goes unpunished, Neil!

• Gay geek alert! Renowned out comics artist Phil Jimenez was at the recent NY Comic Con and this site has a lengthy interview with him regarding what he's up to.

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

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.

• One of tonight's episodes of the PBS documentary Carrier is called "Super Secrets" and discusses life on board the USS Nimitz for gay and lesbian servicemembers. Towleroad has an interview with Brian Downey, one of those servicemembers.

• Britney Spears is coming back to How I Met Your Mother (yawn) and what's up with Barney's (Neil Patrick Harris) kiss with Robin?

• The American Family Association (aka The Winguts of America) are getting in Procter & Gamble's face because As the World Turns "has resumed using explicit, open-mouth homosexual kissing". Really? Gosh, we hadn't noticed! Naturally, this calls for another one of the AFA's "successful" boycotts and they are encouraging folks to write letters to P&G. I used the AFA's own form letter to tell P&G to ignore these loons, but you should probably drop them a note as well.

• The out Rhys Bobridge came in second in Australia's first edition of So You Think You Can Dance.

Rhys Bobridge, Jack Chambers

• Steve Rothaus is blogging the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival including an appearance by the always fabulous Jennifer Tilly.

• Greg Hernandez of Out in Hollywood ran into Marc Cherry at the GLAAD Awards in LA and Marc told him Brothers & Sisters' Kevin and Scotty aren't the only ABC gays exchanging vows.

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

How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris learned a very valuable lesson over the last few days: "LEAVE BRITN--" ... (I'm sorry, I just can't finish it).

No doubt you've seen the hysterical overreaction to some remarks he made to an Associated Press reporter. Late last week, the story exploded, with headlines like NEIL PATRICK HARRIS: SAY NO TO BRITNEY!, NEIL PATRICK HARRIS: KEEP BRITNEY OFF MY SHOW!, and NEIL PATRICK HARRIS: CASTING BRITNEY WAS A STUNT! Here are some of his remarks from the original story:

'We've done a good three and three-quarter seasons with guest stars that we feel like are exactly perfect for the characters that (were) written ... by the crack writing staff,'' Harris told a reporter visiting the set of the Monday night CBS sitcom. ''I worry that if they start 'Will and Gracing' us too much, that the show will suffer. And we're all really proud of the content of the show. I mean viewership is not our game. It's the network and the studio's game, you know. It's the promotion department's game. We wish we weren't opposite an awkward reality dancing competition. But we have no say about that. I just am a real fan of our content. I think we have a great show going and I hope it's not screwed up by the desire for 700,000 more viewers.'

Bloggers had a field day with the comments, and now Neil Patrick has issued a "clarification":

"It seems that yesterday a writer took some quotes of mine and speculated an opinion about their intent. I write to you to set the record straight. "As I have said all along, Britney did a great job on the show. She really did. In fact, we are all hoping that she returns rather soon to reprise her role as Abby. Look, that episode garnered our highest ratings of the season — I would never ignore or disrespect that fact. I am just very protective of our show, and its content. I have a high standard of quality, and hope to maintain it on every level. Television is big business, I understand that. I have great faith in our casting department, as well as [Twentieth Century Fox Television] and CBS, to find the appropriate person for every role on our show. I was remiss in speculating otherwise. My job description is to act, and I should really do just that. "Britney Spears fits into our make-believe world very well — if she chose to return I can only imagine that Carter [Bays], Craig [Thomas], and the rest of the writers would create a humdinger of a storyline for her. We should be so lucky.

Not to be outdone, the AP released their own revision, saying that "We're issuing a clarification to our story," "Harris did not say that he opposed a return engagement for Spears, and our lead said that he did."

So what can we learn from all this? Obviously, that Britney Spears, more than ever, is the Black Hole of pop culture, trapping things like reason and sense in her imploding vortex.

What, no unicorn? Neil Patrick Harris (we think?) in the first Dr. Horrible teaser

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.

• Responding to Kevin Spacey's disparaging comments about the new reality show that looks to cast an upcoming UK production of Oliver!, judge John Barrowman says, "You know what, shut up!" Thank you, John. We've been wanting to say the same thing to him for years!

• This week's How I Met Your Mother made a cute reference to star Neil Patrick Harris's career-launching role in Doogie Howser ... including that damned blue screen!

• The gay-and-galpal novel Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List is being developed as a vehicle for Heroes' Hayden Panettiere. Let's just hope Ely fares better than her last gay BFF!

• Look! Our American Gladiators aren't the only ones with "gay porn pasts" (or as I prefer, "gay-adjacent porn pasts"): A recently-ousted Australian Gladiator has been uncovered as having posed for a gay website. Guess who's shocked? Nobody.

• Michael Ausiello has some scoop on a gay kiss coming up in an upcoming Grey's Anatomy episode that deals with two gay soldiers: He notes, "Interested thesps must be Caucasian, hot and be comfortable sharing a 'very romantic kiss' with another dude."

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

Neil Patrick Harris popped up on Entertainment Tonight talking about the upcoming Britney Spears guest-spot on his sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Watch closely for a crash course in how to diplomatically answer questions about someone whose reputation is clearly in the toilet without sounding mean. Aside from his referring to Brit as "... Madam? Spears?" this has to be my favorite line: "It'll be very unlike any Britney we've seen before ... and we've seen a lot of Britneys recently!"

He also muses on whether the whole batsh*t-crazy-Cheeto-fueled-head-shaving thing might just be an act. Oh, the kids these days with their optimism!

(I couldn't figure out how to stop the clip from playing on its own, so I moved it to after the jump. Check it out!)