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 "inspiring", "family-friendly" movie Tru Loved, which tells the story of queer youths in high school, has been selected as the opening night film of this year's Newfest and will play LA's Outfest as well. The flick stars Bruce Vilanch, Jasmine Guy, Alec Mapa, Cynda Williams, Jane Lynch, and more.

• Gay wizard lovers rejoice! Sir Ian McKellen has said that he will be playing Galdalf in the Hobbit films for recently-signed director Guillermo del Toro.

• Actor Jason Lewis (who played Kevin's closeted boyfriend on Brothers & Sisters and will soon be seen as Samantha's mancandy in the Sex and the City movie) chatted about playing gay at the recent Los Angeles GLAAD awards ceremony.

• James Franco isn't afraid to cry on camera, and he isn't afraid to show you how he does it (above). I wonder what kind of "sense memory" he'll utilize when he plays Harvey Milk's lover, Scott Smith, in Milk? (Warning, a little NSFW language in the clip)

• Check out these snaps from the recent Easter Bonnet competition (a fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS), featuring out stars David Hyde Pierce, Harvey Fierstein, and Project Runway fave Chris March.

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all photos courtesy Getty Images

The 19th annual GLAAD media awards were held in Hollywood on Saturday, and the the event was impressively heavy on star power. Kathy Griffin opened the show — during her act she invited her mother onstage to quiz her about her knowledge of the LGBT community.

The biggest award of the evening, the Vanguard Award, was presented by Ellen DeGeneres and was given to Janet Jackson. Said Jackson in her acceptance speech, "To everyone at GLAAD and everyone in this room, I would just like to say that I hope I can always walk worthy of this award that I have both in my hand and my heart."

Also honored was Rufus Wainwright. He accepted the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, which is presented to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for the LGBT community. Said Wainwright, "I'd like to thank GLAAD so much for allowing the world to see us as we are – as human beings – and to fight for us when we are being defamed and maligned," Wainwright said accepting his award. "And also to allow gay people, who think that everything's fine, to actually realize that it's not, and that there is a lot of work to do."

The remaining award winners (including honored television series) as well as red carpet photos after the break!

Earlier this week, I blogged about the upcoming gay themed film Taking Woodstock and its director, Ang Lee. Ang's partner on the project, James Schamus, is about to receive the Golden Gate award from GLAAD, and is one of the most influential gay allies in Hollywood.

As head of Focus Features (a division of Universal), he's collaborated three times with Ang on gay-themed projects: the aforementioned Taking Woodstock, 1993's The Wedding Banquet (which he also co-wrote), and of course Brokeback Mountain. He also greenlit out director Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven, and the film 8 Women from queer director Francois Ozon. Most recently, he's responsible for getting Milk, by out director Gus Van Sant, out of the gate after years of delays.

Variety interviewed him to find out why he gives the go ahead to such potentially non-blockbuster projects:

"Schamus doesn't consider movies with gay themes particularly risky enterprises. After all, he says, any film -- even a horror pic -- faces its own challenges in the theatrical marketplace. "A lot of movies bomb every weekend," he points out. He says if he wanted to play it safe, he would only make movies with gay Chinese cowboys since he has had the most success with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Brokeback." But he's found that deviating from the norm often works best. "When we've parted ways with formula, we've done pretty well," he says. Schamus admits homophobia is an issue, but says it shouldn't be a deterrent. The problem, he asserts, is not the homophobia itself but "the assumption that homophobia has an effect."

Obviously, Hollywood would be a better place with more men like him in charge.

Tom O'Neil who writes the Los Angeles Times blog The Envelope just emailed me asking me to join with him in calling on GLAAD to rescind the award the gay rights organization gave to the CBS soap opera last Monday. In his column on the subject, O'Neil says several interesting things including making the assertion that Van Hansis (who plays Luke) and Jake Silbermann (who plays Noah) were told by the powers that be they were not allowed to kiss at the GLAAD awards (something straight actors have previously done). Says O'Neil:

Not only are the program's gay lovers Luke (Van Hansis) and Noah (Jake Silbermann) forbidden to kiss on the CBS soap series, but they were, apparently, even forbidden to kiss at the GLAAD Awards where they were being honored for nondiscrimination!

I contacted the actors' representatives who gave AfterElton.com the following statement:

We were honored to have been asked to appear at the GLAAD Media Awards on Monday night. As actors, it is such a privilege to be part of this important evening. It was our choice not to kiss each other on the red carpet. While we love and support the characters we play, we attended the Award show as actors, not characters.

Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann

Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears is telling Tales

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.

• It looks like that rumored Tales of the City musical we mentioned a few months back has become a beautiful reality. The "large-scale" show, based on the first of Armistead Maupin's classic books, will hit the Great White Way in the 2009 season courtesy of Avenue Q bookwriter Jeff Whitty and Scissor Sisters' Jason Sellards (better known as Jake Shears) and John Garden.

• GLAAD has teamed with the gayest non-gay net out there, Bravo, to air the 19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards later this year. This marks the first time the awards will be broadcast on a fully distributed national cable channel.

• The gays like John Krasisnski, and he likes them right back.

• The Lambda Literary Foundation announced the nominees for its awards recognizing excellence in gay books, and our own Brent Hartinger is among the nominees for his young adult double-novella, Split Screen (in the Bisexual category). Congrats, Brent!

• Hey, Pushing Daisies fans! Our own Dan is out at the Paley Fest and has lots of fun updates on the show (including pics of out creator Bryan Fuller and the delightful cast) over on his site, The Pie Maker.

• The Advertising Standards Authority rejected the 54 complaints filed against the UK "Some people are gay. Get over it!" anti-bullying campaign. Good for them. Because they really do need to get over it.

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.

• The Queerty fellas read Star (so we don't have to!) and noticed that the rag did a piece on T.R. Knight's new fella, Mark Cornelsen. A mainstream tab covering a gay love interest just like they would a straight one? Awesome! (Except for you, Mark. Kiss your private life goodbye.)

• A recent episode of MTV's True Life focused on gay-for-pay porn star Aaron James, and Kenneth has all his vital stats. (He also has some commenters that suggest that James might be lighter on the "-for-pay" part than he suggests.)

• Us Weekly makes a point of acknowledging their GLAAD Media Award nomination.

• Gawker asks, "Hipster or Homo?" Really, if they all dress like that, we're good.

• Don't forget that we're liveblogging the Project Runway finale tonite at 10PM EST. And to prepare, check out this hilarious megamix of Christian's greatest moments (Courtesy of our fierce PR recapper, Christie Keith!)

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