Michael got the good news (in our opinion, anyway) late last night that Firefly and Death at a Funeral star Alan Tudyk has been cast as the gay lead in the new pilot that Mutchnick/Kohan (the guys behind Will & Grace) are producing for ABC. We're excited because Tudyk is a great comic actor and isn't afraid of taking risks (as his extended comic nude scene in Funeral can attest).

Another plus to Tudyk's casting, purely from a visibility perspective, is that he's got an enormous built-in fanbase of folks who might not otherwise be inclined to tune into a gay/straight buddy comedy: sci-fi geeks. 

Now let's hope that the rest of the cast fills out as well and that the pilot is a slam-dunk, and that we see the series on our sets this fall, eh? For an idea of just how insanely popular this guy is with the sci-fi set, check out the video after the break of his and co-star Summer Glau's appearance at a sci-fi convention. It's pretty awesome.

As we go into the weekend, here's a handy shortlist of the biggest stories of the week on AfterElton.com. And to get you into a playful mood, each Friday's final post will feature a pic up top that desperately needs captioning. Each week we'll pick our fave suggestion from the comments and run it in the following week's post. Have fun!

• Speculation about gay contestants on American Idol gets bigger and bigger as Danny Noriega gets cut.
• Project Runway's finale posted Bravo's best ratings 18-48. We not only spoke with winner Christian Siriano, but Chris March who came in fourth.
• Brent sacrificed himself to take a "revealing" look at the history or men's undies in the movies. Way to take one for the team, Brent! Then we both sacrificed ourselves by vlogging in our undies.
• The AfterElton Flying Monkey looked at bromances, gay subtext in cartoons and much more!
• Alec Baldwin discusses his younger, less talented, and and less good-looking younger brother's views on gay marriage.
• Of course, we recapped Torchwood even though there was no Janto action.)
• Max Mutchnick talked about Will & Grace, most notably not making straight people think about gay sex. Well, my!
• It turns out that Insightout Book Club isn't going out of business. Break out the bubbly!
• As the World Turns: Brian wonders if the show has jumped the shark and then ATWT proves him right by having Noah marry Ameera to keep her from being deported. If the Feds get wind of this, Noah might be joining his dad, Captain Pervy, in prison. Good times!
• Gay Ronnie is once again on the chopping block over on Make Me a Supermodel, but we'd bet anything he isn't going home. Prison Ben made up for last week's homophobic behavior by suggesting a little nuzzle with Ronnie. Now we forgive him.
• Cyndi Lauper's True Colors tour is back for a second go around this summer.
• The U.K.'s AXM magazine asked the gays who they find hot. Personally, I think our readers have much better taste!
• And don't forget our cornucopia of vlogs including That's Antertainment!, Angry Puppy, and Idol Chat
  
• And as usual, with the help of Nate Berkus, As the World Turns' scoop and guessing who is gay on Pushing Daisies, ee had the Best.Gay.Week.Ever!

Finally, last we asked you to caption this photo and promised we would pick the best answer to post today. And the winner is...

"You'll never guess what's in the Secret Sauce"

Congratulations to Moviedearest! Be sure to drop your caption ideas for this week's picture in the comments, and have a great weekend!

It was announced today that a comedy pilot from Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick has been greenlit by ABC. The as-yet-untitled show tells the story of two friends and writing partners - one straight, one gay - who navigate love and work with one another's help and support. We reported on a similar (but apparently unrelated) pilot that the duo had developed last year, but there aren't many details out yet about this one. (90210 vet Brian Austin Green played the gay character in the previous project, which was ordered by CBS.)

In a stroke of serendipity, AfterElton.com contributor James Hillis recently interviewed Max Mutchnick for a piece he's doing on gay television characters, and asked him a few questions about the project.

The two chatted before the strike was resolved and the pilot was ordered, but here's what Mutchnick had to say at the time:

Max Mutchnick: I'm happy to say that I have another pilot in the pipeline at Warner Bros right now that hopefully we will take out and sell to one of the networks when the strike is over, and it is another gay story. And I'm very excited about it. 

AfterElton: What would you do differently with the gay characters now almost ten years later, then you did starting out on Will & Grace?

MM: I want to be past the story.

AE: You don't want it to be about that? You don't want it to be about the gay jokes?

MM: I'll make as many gay jokes as I make in a given night. That's the barometer that I'll use. I don't want to make it the drive. ... In this show with the gay characters that are on ... I want to believe that we are past it. That the gay angle is not the hook.  The relationship is the hook. And it happens to be a gay man and a straight man who are best friends. And I want the relationship to be more interesting to people than I want the fact that one of them is gay. But by the way, I think that the thing that people were interested in with Will & Grace was that relationship also. ...

AE: Will the gay guy have as fully-developed a romantic life as the straight guy?

MM: Yes. (The gay character) is in the thick of a very serious relationship in the pilot.

We'll be all over this one, needless to say.