On the April 1 elimination show of ABC’s blockbuster reality competition, Dancing with the Stars, the judges chose Steve Guttenberg, star of Police Academy and Three Men and a Baby, for a repeat dance. But Guttenberg wasn’t partnered with Anna Trebunskaya, his teammate for the season. Instead he danced a cheek-to-cheek tango with her husband, DWTS dancer Jonathan Roberts – a tango they had briefly practiced earlier in the week when Trebunskaya fell too ill to rehearse.

Was the televised “Mango” a trial balloon being sent up by DWTS executive producer Conrad Green? Are Green and ABC contemplating a same-sex dance team for a season of DWTS? Was this an opportunity to judge audience response? (For the record: the audience LOVED it.)

Cut to late January, and AfterElton.com’s interview with Green for our insanely informative (if we don't say so ourselves) 2-part investigative report, "Gays in Primetime". At the time, we asked Green: Would they consider a same-sex partner dance team for DWTS? Green found the idea “interesting,” saying he was “open to it.” And straight-shooting ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson responded affirmatively to the notion, as well: “Yeah. I think there’s no reason not to.”

In fact, Green seemed to be working through the idea for the first time in our interview:

“I wouldn’t be against it (same-sex partners on the show) in principle. But I think where the difficulty comes, is we try to duplicate the real competition rules. … However we are an entertainment show so we are not necessarily bound by that. It’s not something we’d have to adhere to; it’s something we tend to adhere to. The other thing is you’d have to make sure that the dancer felt comfortable with it. And what I wouldn’t want to do is let it turn into a circus, if you see what I mean. If it would just look silly and feel like a stunt.”

Ruminating on the concept, Green continued, “But having said all that: it’s an interesting thought. It would make quite a statement in a way. I’m sort of open to it, but curious about the implications of it.” Green twice repeated the phrase “it’s interesting” as he turned the idea over.

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.

• Either the pic at top is of Kylie Minogue's performance at the Brit Awards, or the ghost of Marilyn Monroe is mounting a stage production of Earth Girls Are Easy.

• The Bay Area Reporter has a great interview with Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter of the in-production Harvey Milk biopic being helmed by Gus van Sant. (via Towleroad)

• Poor Jimmy Kimmel ... his girlfriend is "F*cking Matt Damon", and he has to settle for Ben Affleck? That's like aiming for Hall and getting Oats... (chances are the clip will air on Kimmel's post-Oscar show this Sunday)

• ABC announced the return schedules for most of our favorite shows (considering that they air almost everything that's actually watchable these days) including Betty, Daisies, Housewives. Grey's, and Brothers & Sisters. All but Daisies return by late April with new eps.

• The Rocky Horror Show recently revived itself in Sydney, and Rocky creator Richard O'Brien was there to give it his blessing.

• Speaking of Australian monsters, radio host Sonia Kruger has come under fire for calling Alan Jones, a competitor whose sexuality is a topic of much speculation, a "queen". Considering that Kruger played Tina Sparkle in Strictly Ballroom, it's safe to say that her next step will be to challenge Jones to a paso doble-off.

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

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.

GLAAD releases their annual "Where We Are on TV" report today. In summary: Of the 650 characters on the 87 scripted television shows scheduled to air this year on the Big Five broadcast networks, only seven (or 1.1%) are LGBT.

Here's the list of regular gay characters for the 2007-2008 season:

Two Leads

• Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys) ABC's Brothers & Sisters
• Caitlin (Bonnie Somerville) ABC's Cashmere Mafia

Five Supporting

• Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) ABC's Desperate Housewives
• Uncle Saul (Ron Rifkin) ABC's Brothers & Sisters
• Marc (Michael Urie) ABC's Ugly Betty
• Alexis (Rebecca Romijn) ABC's Ugly Betty
• Oscar (Oscar Nunez) NBC's The Office

As you can see, six of the seven characters are on ABC, which is a drastic change from last year when the nine regular gay characters were spread around all the networks.

Thanks to GLAAD for compiling this information and kudos to ABC for their great showing. But the dearth of LGBT characters on CBS, CW, Fox and NBC is disheartening. For a history of LGBT representation on the major networks, check out our recent "Grading The Majors" article.

The full text of GLAAD's press release announcing the "Where We Are on TV" report appears after the break.

We got an exclusive early peek at the latest PSA in GLAAD's "Be an Ally & Friend" PSA campaign, and are thrilled to share it.

This PSA, which speaks out against the use of anti-gay words and jokes, features nine stars from gay-happy ABC's biggest shows: Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty), Sara Ramirez (Grey's Anatomy), Rebecca Romijn (Ugly Betty), Eric Mabius (Ugly Betty), Kate Walsh (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice), T.R. Knight (Grey's Anatomy), Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), Rachel Griffiths (Brothers & Sisters) and Becki Newton (Ugly Betty).

For more on the campaign, check out GLAAD's website.

ABC's been fairly closemouthed about details of the gay couple moving on to Desperate Houswives' Wisteria Lane, but I believe these are the first pictures (okay, screenshots) of the happy couple actually on the set. Access Hollywood snagged a short interview the two actors playing the duo. The interview was conducted while the actors playing life partners Bob and Lee — Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm — were either acting out a kinky fantasy or were filming an Halloween-themed episode. That's Tuc on the left, Kevin on the right.

I always had my suspicion about Aladdin. Here is a pic of the two not playing dress-up.

When asked about the addition of a gay couple onto the show, Tuc told Access Hollywood, "I don’t know why it took so long to bring a gay couple onto this street. It seems natural for this couple or a couple like us to have been here."

Check out more pics after the jump!