Rene Fris at the Shear Genius finale party
(for as much as we pick on him, boyfriend can take a mean photo)

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.

• Gay Six Feet Under mastermind Alan Ball is taking some heat for the title of his feature directorial debut, Towelhead, and points to his experience being at the receiving end of anti-gay language to support the title. Naturally, the critics reply, "Hey, that's my dog," force Ball to smoke crack, and threaten to set him on fire.

• Brit comedian Steve Coogan (of Hamlet 2 and Tropic Thunder) is introducing a new character to his live stand-up set: a gay rent-boy who has had his name legally changed to Keanu Reeves. Says Coogan, "He has very, very modern hair, wears low-cut jeans and scarves and he stares and tries to look pale and interesting. He's normally on something and is a compulsive liar." It's like he KNOWS me!

• Hurricane Gus may eradicate gay New Orleans party Southern Decadence for the second time in three years. Maybe they should rename it Southern Wetness and just roll with it?

• Above, from our newsy sib site, 365Gay: Protesters marched through Denver shouting and carrying anti-gay banners. In the end, police arrested two people.

• And this is just kind of cute: a straight men's guide to getting hit on by gay guys. Favorite line: "The reason that we're looking at you like that is because we're judging you."

And today's Briefs are brought to you by...

Happy birthday to out musician Rufus Wainwright (seen here playing in England earlier this month)!

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.

• EW's Michael Ausiello (how weird is it to say that after all these years?!) nabbed Ugly Betty's Michael Urie and Becki Newton at the TCA for some video scoopage: Cliff will be back, there will be drama, and ... Wilhelmina wields a sledgehammer in the first ep?

• John Barrowman and hubby Scott Gill may be looking to adopt an Asian baby, and on the other hand they may be opting for a surrogate. Or, you know, they may wait to see if they just stumble across one in the cabbage patch. (We now return you to your regularly scheduled slow news day.)

• Composer Danny Elfman discusses his in-the-works score for Gus Van Sant's Milk, noting that "the performances from Sean Penn and the cast are great. I'm really enjoying myself so far." Elfman also scored Van Sant's Good Will Hunting, and earned an Oscar nod for his work.

• Homophobicadvertisingpaloozagate! Ad Age's Bob Garfield writes an open letter to Omnicom's head calling out his company's track record for homophobic spots, while Nike draws ire for ads that use the fear straight men apparently have of other men jamming their crotches into their faces to sell basketball shoes. 

• So Christian Bale allegedly assaulted his sister and mother at a hotel the night before The Dark Knight premiered in London. Meanwhile, Bale says, "Eh ... not so much." I'll believe the accusations when witnesses report hearing "Hip to Be Square" blaring from his hotel room at the time of the incident.

And today's Briefs are brought to you by...

Birthday wishes go out today to two men who have used their talent to provide a generation of gay men with with wit, insight, and intelligent discourse.

First up is Armistead Maupin, who turns 64 today. It was on August 8th, 1974 that he first brought us the hilarious, shocking, and Madrigal magical world of Tales Of The City when it began running as a newspaper serial. Four years later, the first novel was released, and throughout the 70's and 80's, we were treated to the continuing adventures of the gang from Barbary Lane. When asked why his writing seemed to resonate in such a meaningful way with readers, he said:

"One of the things that I saw different about what I was doing was that I was allowing a little air into the situation by actually placing gay people in the context of the world at large. Most gay fiction that I was reading when I was coming out in the early 70s made me claustrophobic because it only dealt with the life of the gay bar and everybody in it was gay. Often gay and male and there weren't even any lesbians in the picture. That didn't make me feel the way I wanted to feel about life and it didn't correspond with the life that I was living in San Francisco which was wonderfully mixed up in terms of the people that came and went in my life and that was part of the enormous exhilaration of it. It felt revolutionary."

Last year, after almost twenty years, Armistead revisited some of the characters with Michael Tolliver Lives!, and though at first hesitant to call it a "sequel", he now says he's looking forward to even further tales in the future. In the meantime, we can look forward to a musical stage adaption of Tales Of The City, to be written by Avenue Q co-writer Jeff Whitty and featuring music by Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears.

And happy 51st birthday to Alan Ball, who has given us the ultimate dysfunctional family and hot undertakers, and who somehow survived Cybill.

He started out writing for Cybill Shepherd's sitcom, and allegedly based the Annette Bening character in his Oscar-winning American Beauty on the volatile star. But to us he's best known for creating the HBO series Six Feet Under and introducing us to one of the great gay characters in TV history, David Fisher, played by Michael C. Hall.

Currently, Alan is working on another HBO series, the adaption of Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Tales. The series will be called True Blood, and will premiere this fall. Given his track record, we can probably expect something gothic, twisted, and almost certainly of queer interest.

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.

You might have heard that Mensa, the organization for people with very high IQs, has assembled a list of the Smartest TV Shows of All Time. Frasier makes the list at number 8 (aided, no doubt, by the performance of David Hyde Pierce as natty Niles) and four shows known for occasionally tackling gay themes - The West Wing, Boston Legal, Mad About You and All in the Family - are also included.

The full list:

1. M*A*S*H
2. Cosmos with Carl Sagan
3. CSI
4. House
5. West Wing
6. Boston Legal
7. All in the Family
8. Frasier
9. Mad About You
10. Jeopardy

As always with a list like this, a number of omissions come to mind, ones that makes the inclusion of Boston Legal and Mad About You seem even odder. Seeing Mensa chairman Jim Wardell explain the choices doesn't help things, since there doesn't seem to be on over-arching rationale; CSI and House are considered smart for the way they use science in their stories while Frasier and M*A*S*H are praised for their characters and dialouge.

While a list of this always inspires people to think of their favorite deserving shows (I always go with Wonderfalls, myself) there are a couple general omissions that I find interesting. All of these ten shows originally aired on broadcast television, so critical darling cable networks like HBO and fx are not represented.

Animated and science fiction series don't make the cut, nor do any gritty, emotionally exhausting dramas like Homicide or Six Feet Under. One could almost say that Mensa picked shows that were intellectually challenging but not too intellectually challenging.

The most glaring omission is probably The Simpsons, a show that playfully challenged its audience's attention to detail almost constantly. Does the fact that Lisa Simpson is a high-ranking member of Mensa Springfield mean nothing?

But there are plenty of other gay-inclusive TV shows that could fit on the list. Earlier, I mentioned Homicide (which gave us an unflinchingly realistic look at police work and characters who developed over time, including Kyle Secor's Det. Bayliss becoming comfortable with his bisexuality), Six Feet Under and Wonderfalls, and would also think Oz and The Wire would be deserviing nominations.

What are your favorite examples of smart, gay television? Which shows do you think challenged audiences' brains the most? Let us know in the comments!

• Neil Patrick Harris will host the L.A. Ovation Awards, which honor theatre in Los Angeles.
  

• Brothers & Sisters' war-hating matriarch Sally Field will play former first lady Mary Todd Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's upcoming biopic of the great leader. Out playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America, Munich) is set to script.

• For you Six Feet Under fans: Peter Krause, on the eve of the bow of his new show, Dirty Sexy Money, talks all things Nate. I particularly like that they point out that his last name rhymes with "wowzah". I'll say it does!
  

• in GQ, Stephen Colbert lists the things that are making him gay, and AfterElton.com is not among them. Frowny-face.

• Our pal Michael Portantiere has some great snaps of out actors David Hyde Pierce, Christopher Sieber, Jim J. Bullock and more at the Broadway Flea Market fundraiser.

• The gay-rific Xanadu stage musical (for which we were pretty gaga) is reportedly launching a national tour, set to start next summer in San Francisco. Break your leg warmers out of cold storage and start practicing your figure-eights!
  
• Neil Patrick Harris joined fellow thesps Tim Robbins, Martin Sheen, Sandra Oh, Frances Conroy, Camryn Manheim and others in a staged reading of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, and received this sparkling review.
• Even though High School Musical and its sequel are suspiciously lacking in any gay characters (considering they're about musicals and all), the newly-launched stage version apparently amps up the gay-seemingness of Ryan, Sharpay's brother. (t/y Wayman for the tip!)
• Canadian MP Scott Brison becomes the country's first federal politician to marry a same-sex partner. Two former prime ministers attend the ceremony.
• A "Whatever Happened To..." piece on Mathew St. Patrick, who wonderfully played Keith (David's on-again, off-again boyfriend) on Six Feet Under.
• The host of a British children's show jokes in her stand-up act that all the people behind the scenes are "gay, childless, or don't like kids." The BBC defends her comments as being obviously ironic. The news comes hot on the heels of a recent contest-fixing scandal at children's show Blue Peter. Also scandalous: the fact that there is actually a children's show called "Blue Peter".