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 are upgrading our To Make a Long Story Short ... news roundups to 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.

• Today in feverdream holiday entertainment: Kathy Griffin and Anderson "Andy" Cooper had a grand time ribbing one another (and themselves, in Coop's case) on CNN on New Year's Eve. Never one to be outdone, Andy actually gay-baits himself before Kathy can get around to it.

• These folks think Torchwood's same-sex dalliances are less than gay-friendly. 

• Out actors Raul Esparza, Dennis O'Hare and Cheyenne Jackson (pictured at top) are among the stars participating in the 24-Hour Musicals project, a benefit in NYC that challenges Broadway's best actors, writers, choreographers and directors to create entire shows in just one day. Rita Wilson, Kerry Butler, Tracie Thoms and more will also join the charitable fun.

• After the break, check out a Motorola ad (I think it might be Australian) that mines gay panic to sell cell-phone enabled sunglasses. The most curious thing about the ad is that it makes the guy using the product out to be a jackass, and the confused gay guy to be rather sympathetic. It's a marketing slam-dunk!

• Sean Hayes is among the comedy actors to participate in Funny or Die's New Year's Resolutions video (as well as someone named Fabrice Fabrice, Will Ferrell, and Fergie). His resolution? "Stop having unprotected sex." Watch the video for the full joke...

Last night, the MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss was awarded to Sasha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell for their kiss in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. This is the second year in a row that the Best Kiss award went to two men. Last year, the prize went to Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger for Brokeback Mountain.

Now, since these awards are voted on by MTV viewers, I think we've got a clear signal that MTV viewers want to see two guys kissing in movies more often.

In accepting the award, Cohen and Ferrell gave the audience what they wanted and locked lips once more.

The Awards had a couple more (minor) gay moments. Introducing the category, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry stars Adam Sandler and Kevin James talked about their first kiss. At first it sounded like the two kissed the same girl, but Sandler confessed that he pretended to be a girl in order to kiss James. (Yeah, that joke went down with a thud.) Earlier in the ceremony, host Sarah Silverman joked that 300 was named for how gay it rated on a scale of 1 to 10.

Check out Cohen and Ferrell's acceptance below the break, or check out a higher quality version here

In case you missed it today, our mainpage article today was the Summer Movie Blockbusters we'd like to see. We took a gander at what's coming up this summer movie-wise and upon realizing it pretty much sucks gay-wise, we queered up the offerings, even creating our own movie posters. In case you missed it, here are two of my favorites.

 

Spiderman exploring his kinkier side

And Live Hard or Die Free which shows the downside of product placement

Be sure to check out the others

Speaking of a cheeky look at the movies, it's doubtful Will Ferrell will ever score an Oscar win, but his odds of winning at this year's MTV Movie Awards are pretty damn great. Ferrell is up for a whole slow of awards, most notably for our interests, he snagged a nod for Best Kiss for the same-sex snogging in Talledega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby. This follows in the footsteps of last year's winners Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. However, Ferrell's lip lock with Sacha Baron Cohen in Talladega Nights was considerably more lighthearted than Brokeback Mountain's smooch. (I've got the Ferrell/Cohen smooch after the jump.) Ferrell and Cohen will have to beat out Cameron Diaz & Jude Law in The Holiday, Columbus Short & Meagan Good in Stomp The Yard, Mark Wahlberg & Elizabeth Banks in Invincible, and Marlon Wayans & Brittany Danie lin Little Man.

Looking at that list of nominees, I'd say the same-sex snog has a good chance of winning again.

Other gay noms of interest include Best Picture nominees Blades of Glory, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and Little Miss Sunshine all of which were more or less gay-friendly. Even Pirates of the Caribbean has a gay-sensibility.

It's official. America is obsessed with gay men. This weekend, Will Ferrell's comedy, Blades Of Glory, tops the weekend box office, raking in over $33 million.

The film explores the ways in which homophobia gets in the way of a straight male figure skating duo from doing there best work. They learn to overcome their fears of man-on-man intimacy in order to dazzle crowds with double axles and triple-luxes--while wearing sequins and spandex.

I haven't seen the film. But I have seen enough of the trailers and clips on TV over the last several weeks to get the premise.

But I think I am going to check this one out. A review I saw yesterday on CBS Sunday Morning helped allay my worries that this film would be just another Hollywood frat boy flick with prat falls, farts and gay jokes.

My fellow AfterElton writer and associate editor Brian Juergens wrote a review of Blades, and also (quite eloquently) responds to this very issue:

Was there a parade of mincing stereotypes? Absolutely. But oddly enough, none of the ridiculous characters was gay or was intended to be perceived as gay. Was the audience laughing at the few gay characters the film actually featured? Yes — because these characters were teaching the others about how dated and pathetic their own machismo-laden perceptions of masculinity really were.

But were Ferrell and Heder headlining a project that treated gay men as cannon fodder just to get a few cheap laughs? Absolutely not. In fact, I would argue that Blades of Glory is one of the most relentlessly clever and keenly perceptive comedies ever made about straight-male bonding, fear of intimacy, and masculinity — and figure skating, naturally.

Most of our favorite gay weekly/monthly mags haven't posted reviews yet, but you can read what the mainstream papers are saying at Meta Critic.

Have you seen it? What were your impressions? Is this a step forward or a step backward?