News, Reviews & Commentary on Gay and Bisexual Men in Entertainment and the Media

Paul Rudd

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Paul Rudd naked, the "Boys in the Band" personality quiz, catching up with Tanner Cohen, and more!

"Saturday Night Live" riffs on gay marriage, prison rape, flamboyant backup dancers and more

As though having Paul Rudd and Beyonce on as guests weren't enough, SNL pulled out all the gay-adjacent stops this weekend with an episode that referenced gay people, gay sex or gay cartoon lions in some way or another in nearly every segment of the show.

Things started off innocently enough with a skit about a family who kisses one another a lot, including father/son and brother/brother, which ended up with Fred Armisen trying to swallow Andy Samberg's face. Fair enough, been done before. But as the night wore on the skits got weirder ... for more (and for more video), click on through the jump.

Out at the Movies: "Role Models", "RocknRolla", "Repo! The Genetic Opera"


Seann William Scott, Paul Rudd and Jane Lynch in Role Models

There are a few films in theaters this weekend that might hold special appeal to gay viewers, be it a gay character, musical sequences or the near-constant screen presence of the yummy his-and-his bookends of Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd.

Are any of them worth your eleven clams? Click on through the jump to find out.

Eleven guys who deserve to be bigger sex symbols

While we certainly don't overlook the sex symbols accepted within the mainstream of pop culture, gay men also like to take a look forward and pay notice to the hunks on the rise, the sex symbols who haven't been given the recognition they deserve. Thus, we thought it might be fun to put together a list of sexy men who deserve to be better recognized for their sexiness, including plenty of men AfterElton.com readers have recognized in the Hot 100 List.

Charlie Hunnam

Producers haven't underestimated the appeal of handsome and charismatic British actor who first got noticed as the young Nathan on the original Queer as Folk; he's been cast in a number of series that played off of his charm and good looks since QaF ... though all of those series are, at best, as a "Brilliant but Canceled" series (if not just plain canceled). Perhaps that will start to change with his upcoming fx series Sons of Anarchy where he plays a new father who joins a biker gang. If not, we'll always have Hunnam's memorable scenes with Aidan Gillen.

Cristiano Ronaldo

If there was more of an audience for soccer in the states, Ronaldo probably wouldn't belong on this list; whenever he's on the field it's hard not to be transfixed by the 23 year-old Portuguese footballer (except for when he's playing for Portugal for the Euro Cup and he has to compete for attention with Deco) but here the mainstream is only just noticing David Beckham's good looks. In the meantime, however, he's certainly gotten noticed by the gay blogosphere, including AfterElton readers who voted him twice into the AfterElton Hot 100.

James Purefoy

Gay audiences probably first noticed Purefoy in Bedrooms and Hallways, where Purefoy made time in the sauna a very uncomfortable situation for a gay man played by Kevin McKidd. Purefoy certainly has been busy (including a role on HBO's Rome as legendary lover Mark Anthony) but for some reason that one role that makes everyone remember all his other sexy performances hasn't happened yet.

Taye Diggs

This fall it looked like the talented Taye Diggs would finally get some due recognition for his sexiness and talent. After all, he had a role in the Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice, and look at what Grey's did for Patrick Dempsey. Unfortunately, the WGA Strike wrapped up the season early, leaving some much-due buzz delayed for another season.

Paul Rudd

Rudd's sexiness has probably gone underappreciated because of the roles he's taken. He may have first caught our attention as Alicia Silverstone's dreamy stepbrother in Clueless but lately his biggest hits have been in comedies that call for him to underplay his looks like Anchorman and The 40-Year Old Virgin. Still, having been voted into the AfterElton Hot 100 twice, it's not going completely unnoticed.

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Whether gays on reality TV are "real", what's up with Paul Rudd, gay cats and more!

Over His Gay-But-Not-Gay Body

 
So that's how you pretend to be gay? My "have sex with men" approach is all wrong?

For the three or four of you planning on checking out the new Eva Longoria/Paul Rudd comedy Hello Again 2 Over Her Dead Body this weekend, here's a spoiler.

Ready for a bit of gay intrigue? It seems that the movie has a gay BFF character named Dan, played by Jason Biggs (of American Pie fame), who apparently turns out not to be gay after all. A few of the (abominable) reviews for the film mention that Biggs' character is gay and that he is involved in a kooky last-act twist, but it wasn't clear what that twist was until our own sleuth Dennis Ayers found this interview with Biggs, where he makes it clear that his gay character ends up not being gay at all.

We're not sure why he's pretending to be gay (probably trying to get close to a chick, a la Rock Hudson ... although that situation gets so meta it hurts my walnut-sized brain), but at least Biggs indicates that he approached the character somewhat seriously and with a certain amount of respect for the gay element:

"So I had to figure out sort of what his idea of gay was, or at least what kind of gay impersonation he wanted to do. I didn't want to go to the sort of stereotypical cliché place. I just thought that would be over the top and not credible, so in the end we decided the more subdued the better. But I was nervous and insecure about it."   
 

I'm having flashbacks to Snakes on a Plane's gay-then-not-gay flight attendant, but in that case he wasn't actually pretending to be gay, everyone just assumed he was. This is even more bizarre. And disappointing, given the dearth of gay characters in movies these days ... but who am I kidding, it's not like I expected anything good to come out of this movie anyway.

And given that it was nearly impossible to find a publicity still or even screengrab of Biggs' character in any of the promo materials, even this not-gay-gay character is likely relegated to near-nonexistent status (except for the scene where he apparently sets himself on fire, no doubt paving the way for at least a "flaming" joke or two. Sing for your supper, Mary!).

Dennis also found out that the movie was originally titled Ghost Bitch. Now THAT I'd pay to see! 

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  • Pics from the premiere of The Ten

    In case you haven't heard me blab on about it before, I'm a huge fan of David Wain's summer camp comedy Wet Hot American Summer, which manages to be ridiculous, tasteless, star-studded, and incredibly gay-friendly while still staying true to its source material (80's summer camp movies).

    Wain's latest, The Ten, promises much the same ... only in this case the source material in question is the ten commandments. As far as I can tell, at least two of the moral tales in this anthology film are gay-themed: the "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" takes place in an all-male prison (although wouldn't that be the "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's ass"?), and there's another story involving male nudity and disco anthems (no idea).

    Anyway, surprise surprise, a few of the fellas in the film also showed up on our Hot 100, and here are some snaps of them and our other faves from last night's premiere (Chris Meloni pictured above).

    Tim Gunn, Michael Urie, Family Guy, and more

    Where does the time go? I've been trying to get to the blog for the past two days as I've got a whole slew of items to mention, but never seem to quite make it! So hold on tight to your Flying Monkeys because I'm gonna be flinging 'em at you fast and furious!

    This New York Times article oddly dances around Tim Gunn's sexuality while this New York Times article about Broadway director Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde) doesn't. Meanwhile, this Gay.com interview with Ugly Betty's Michael Urie doesn't even broach the topic.

    David Metzler and David Collins, the executive producers who blessed us with Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, are hoping lightning strikes twice with their new show Life as a Song. The gimmick? Significant events in participants lives--the birth of a child, getting married--will be reenacted as a musical. I'm most looking forward to seeing Karl Rove in Wicked:White House and Don Imus, Tim Hardaway, and Mel Gibson in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

    This summer CBS is inflicting on us bringing back Big Brother. As if that isn't enough, Mark Burnett has a new show called Pirate Master. In this reality show, sixteen "pirates" work together to decipher a pirate map in order to locate a treasure. Naturally, every week one of the pirates is forced to--wait for it, wait for it--walk the plank! The prize is one million dollars which is exactly what I'll offer CBS to not include any gay contestants thereby forcing me to have to watch it!

    A reader in Walter Scott's Personality Parade asks about Jodie Foster's sexuality and Scott answers frankly. It's hard not to wonder if Out Magazine's recent cover with Foster on the cover isn't encouraging the mainstream media to be more frank.

    Paul Rudd on Veronica Mars? I am so there.

    Here is a YouTube clip about a recent Family Guy episode about prostate exams. Straight guys can be such weenies.

    Gay, Straight, or Otter? Nonsensical, but cute.

    David Hyde Pierce says he and John Mahoney may reunite in a staged version of Frasier. Hey, if it can be done for Legally Blonde why the hell not?

    Out In Hollywood's Greg Hernandez talks with the gay gliterrati about the politics of outing. Martina Navratilova, John Amaeche, Chad Allen, and Robert Gant are so not down with it.



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