You didn't think we'd go into Mother's Day weekend without paying tribute to those wacky ladies (real and otherwise) that gave birth to our fabulousness, did you?  If you can't surprise your Mom with Sunday brunch or a T-shirt with your face on it, be sure to call her/them and express your love and gratitude for raising such a fierce child. 

It is, after all, Mother's Day so just remember, kiddies ... without Mothers there'd be no frakkers; without Mamas there'd be no Mia's, and the most important lesson of all: those lovely ladies that brought you into this world can take you out just as easily (sorry, I had to), so celebrate them!

Sit back and relax as I honor some of my favorite real-life Moms, as well as those from television and movies that represent the good, the bad and the ugly of memorable mamas.

THE NEWBIE
Lily Van der Woodsen (Gossip Girl)

Gossip Girl's Lily Van der Woodsen is a complex character who wants to be a better woman, Mother and lover than her upper crust gal pals and family will allow and I currently heart her. Sure Lily will marry any Tom, Dick or Bart for their money and she'll go to great lengths to save face amongst the Upper East Side elite and yes, she had a mini-meltdown when evil Georgina outed her son Eric at the dinner table but she came around in the end! Kelly Rutherford has taken what could have been a one-note rich bitch and made her a woman to root for. PFLAG will never be the same.

THE SEMI-OLD PRO
Nora Walker (Brothers & Sisters)

Nora Walker meddles and occasionally messes with her children's lives but she's always best friend and supporter to her gay son Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys) on ABC's Brothers & Sisters.  Sally Field is a powerful presence on screen and she can dominate the drama like no one else but she always let's her character live and breathe the world of her children (often to a fault) and she's really embraced Kevin's relationship and soon to be marriage to Scotty (played by Luke MacFarlane).  Nora could teach Lily a thing or two about patience and acceptance.

THE TRUE OLD PRO
Debbie Novotny (Queer as Folk - US)

Debbie (or PFLAG The Clown as my friend Armando likes to call her) could school all other Mother's on how to support your gay child and every fey friend that makes up his/her gay gang.  She's been crazy involved in her son Michael's (played by the adorable Hal Sparks) social and sex life so if you have questions on which gay clubs to haunt or which lube works best she's your go-to-gal.  Debbie does the gays proud and I salute her efforts and enthusiasm in grounding the sometimes outrageous Queer as Folk.

THE LEGEND
Anne Bancroft (Torch Song Trilogy's Ma Beckoff | Home For The Holiday's Adele Larson )

Anne Bancroft played two of the most memorable Gay Movie Moms from two of my favorite films with gay characters. In the classic Torch Song Trilogy she was the conflicted, confused, and sometimes pain in the ass Ma to Harvey Fierstein's Arnold Beckoff. In the end she realized that no matter how you raise them, sometimes kids really do "come that way."  In Jodie Foster's Home For The Holidays, she was the Mom most in need of a Silkwood shower and a neurotic nag to her gay son Tommy (Robert Downey Jr.) but she was never anything but amazing.  Rest In Peace Anne Bancroft (1931-2005).

THE ASS KICKER
Sandra Gangel (Beautiful Thing)

Sandra's the kind of woman that's not afraid to stand up to an abusive Father, knock out a whacked out Mama Cass lovin' neighbor, and encourage her gay son to make his own kind of music. Linda Henry's multi-layered performance in Beautiful Thing has always forced me to stand up and cheer.  She's funny, intense, and ruthless but encouraging and nurturing to not only her gay son Jamie but his teenaged lover Ste.  The final scene of the film is one of endless hope and utopia made even more amazing by Sandra's fearless efforts to accept her son.

Brent and Michael (aka Two Gay Guys) are classic multi-taskers. In this week's episode, they manage to discuss the conversation-starting top placers in the AfterElton.com Top 25 Gay TV Characters Poll while managing to do some housework at the same time. Now I know how these two manage to get so much done even after their Flying Monkeys have flown south for the winter.

If you had strong feelings about Brian Kinney or Jack MacFarland snagging the top spots in the poll, you'll definitely want to check this out. Me, I enjoyed it most for the chance to see my boss clean a toilet. "Celebrities ... They're Just Like Us!"

Out gay actor Randy Harrison (who celebrated his 30th birthday last week) has been cast as Spencer in Garland Wright's adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's Edward the Second at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in Manhattan, December 11-January 13.

This work is very gay-subtexty and that element can be played up or down as the director chooses. Based on the poster, I can guess which way this director's going to choose...

Randy is playing Spencer, Edward the Second's new ... oh what shall I call him... "favorite"? "Lover"?... after Piers Gaveston is assassinated. It's all more exciting than As the World Turns, really.

Randy's other stage roles included Wicked on Broadway as well as Amadeus, Equus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Glass Menagerie, and Mrs. Warren's Profession.

And of course, he was Justin on Queer as Folk, a role that will continue to define (or perhaps haunt) him until he stops looking 16, which at this rate is going to be when he's 90.

Most modern interpretations of this work make Edward's homosexuality even more explicit than the text (which makes it very clear on its own). This is the play gay filmmaker Derek Jarman used for the basis of his very gay film Edward the Second. More info can be found at the company's website.

Russell T Davies, who has brought us such hits as Queer as Folk, the new Doctor Who, and Torchwood, is developing a new series for the BBC that deals with gay men in their forties. The show will be called Old as Folk.

Okay, not really. The show is as yet unnamed and it's not been decided how it will be produced or on which BBC channel it will appear. All that's clear now is that Davies wants to focus on the age rift in gay men and the tendency gay men have to revel in the romantic misfortune of others. He noted in a recent interview with The Guardian that the inspiration came from a former Mr. Gay UK, who found that when he broke up with his boyfriend it was a cause celebre for other fellas:

"He asked me: 'Why are so many gay men so glad we split up?' That remark's stayed with me for six years. I think there's a self-punishing streak in that gladness and I want to explore it."

Can't say he's not on to something, but will a show about forty-something gay men play? Let's say I'm not holding my breath for an American remake, unless they pack in the sexy teens and relegate the older guys to the kitchen with a cheesecake.

Throughout the last couple of weeks, the UK’s Channel 4 has been celebrating its 25th birthday by re-screening some of its landmark programs on its new digital spinoff channel, More4. Among them is the original British Queer As Folk, first aired in 1999.

That’s right: before Michael, Brian and Justin ever partied their way across Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, there were Vince (Craig Kelly), Stuart (Aidan Gillen) and Nathan (Charlie Hunnam) partying their way across Canal Street, Manchester, England.

Queer As Folk: the original series was a much briefer thing than the American show it spawned, running for only ten episodes. But its immediate impact on mainstream society was arguably much greater, since it ran on one of the UK’s four main TV stations, rather than on a pay-cable channel as in the US.

Predictably denounced by conservatives, as well as protested by gay activists who worried about its lack of role models, the show nevertheless became a ratings hit. It also provided a breakout success for out gay screenwriter Russell T. Davies, who would go on to helm the current BBC revival of Doctor Who, as well as creating the bisexual-heavy sci-fi spinoff Torchwood.

• Queer as Folk's Peter Paige will be treading the Los Angeles boards in The History Boys.
  

• TMZ manages to work not one, but TWO oral sex jokes into a blurb about gay comic Scott Thompson reportedly bombing at the Softball Gay World Series. Get it? Gay men? Oral sex? Related: TMZ is the devil.

• This NY Times piece on the challenges faced by gay seniors (the elderly, not teens finishing high school) is incredibly upsetting and at the same time inspiring for making the top spot in the US section.

• A profile of gay tennis star Bill Tilden, who became the first American to win Wimbledon in 1920 (and again in 1921).
  

• A new TV spot for marriage equality put the shoe on the other foot, asking what it would be like if straights were stopped from marrying. (I'd bet Cuisinart would go out of business, for starters.)