Riechen Lehmkuhl at the Queer Lounge 

After a mellow opening Thursday night at the Sundance Film Festival – with opening film In Bruges – and rowdy shindig at concurrent festival Slamdance, things have sparked to life here in Park City, Utah. Celebs are appearing, much to the delight of paparazzi stalking Main Street – I walked alongside Alan Rickman, who attracted a handful of shutterbugs. Allegedly, Ang Lee was spotted drinking a Gatorade in Albertsons' supermarket. Colin Farell is all over the place. And I ran into High School Musical 2 co-star Kaycee Stroh in the Reaction swag lounge admiring Unstoppable brand "F*ck You" hats. Not that she can wear them just yet. "When I'm no longer with Disney, totally!"

Ah, swag, another "S" word that entails part of the Sundance hubbub. Being that today wasn't a heavy movie day for me – the queer films start bowing on Saturday (including Amy Redford's The Guitar, Isaac Julien's Derek, and Bruce LaBruce's Otto, or Up With Dead People) – I spent time investigating the numerous Main Street swag enclaves.

At the Revaleskin Rejuvenation Lounge I was treated to an EarTherapy consultation, during which my ears were inspected and massaged; Her Native Roots survival kits; cool organic Eco Gear, and of course Revaleskin products, which utilize uber-antioxidant-loaded coffee bean berries. At The Reaction Hospitality Lounge & In Touch Café at STEREO had some primo stuff including Triple Five Soul jackets and new Kenneth Cole scents (sales of which benefit Hope USA and Habitat for Humanity).

Meanwhile, The Queer Lounge opened its doors. And the evening ended with the Outfest Filmmaker Party at the Heineken Lounge, where Eating Out producer Michael J. Shoel told me an Eating Out 3 is in the works, to be co-written by Q. Allan Brocka and EO2 director Philip Bartell … Yes, things have just started and it only gets gayer from here!

Saturday morning kicked off with the press and industry screening of Amy Redford’s The Guitar, in which out actress Saffron Burroughs portrays a milquetoast New Yorker who, after discovering she has terminal cancer, goes credit card happy and has hot lesbian (and bisexual three-way!) sex. I found it entertaining, which seems to be the minority opinion asofar. “I thought it was dishonest,” scoffed a colleague. Well, sure. It’s fiction.

And off to the Queer Lounge for the PlanetOut Short Film Awards shindig. In fact there was a lot of lounging going on over the weekend. The Donnas performed a juicy set on Saturday night as part of the party for Isaac Julien’s Derek, a fantastic documentary/retrospective of the late Derek Jarman’s queer landmark work.

Dante's Cove inhabitants are as gay as they are beautiful: Everyone is ripped and coiffed and shirtless. In fact, the official tourism slogan is "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem!" Dante's Cove's largest export product is cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. Its largest import product is body oil.

I wouldn't exactly describe Dante's Cove as a "quality" show, but if you can get past the low budget effects, hammy acting and absurd dialog, there's some campy good fun to be had.

There is also a veritable bounty of male eye candy, including newest cast members Reichen Lehmkuhl and Jensen Atwood. How much eye candy? Just to give you some idea, after the break we have photos for you!

Technically, it's not fair to call Dante's Cove a soap opera, because it was never sponsored by a detergent company and doesn't really feature much soap. But you know what it does feature a lot of?

Nipples.

So I think we should call it a "nipple opera".

To prove the point, here are some pics to celebrate the imminent start of season three of the ghostly nipple opera, which finds Noah's Arc's Jensen Atwood (with whom we have a brand-new interview running later this week) and Amazing Race's Reichen Lehmkuhl joining the undershirt-challenged cast. Enjoy!

Jensen Atwood is Griff

Charlie David is Toby