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.

• Jiminy Glick (a fat-suited and sibilant Martin Short, natch) interviews self-professed "filth elder" John Waters at the Independent Spirit Awards. I want one of each just to keep in the pantry for rainy days.

• Defamer has some fun pics of Sir Elton John's Oscar bash, which was one of the biggest parties in town this year. Those gays and their fetes!

• Okay, so this may or may not be American Idol contestant David Hernandez working at a gay bar in Phoenix. But any barfly worth his margarita salt knows that half of the men who work at gay bars aren't gay, they're "just experimenting with getting better tips". (t/y PBuG for the tip!)

• EastEnders actor Aaron Sidwell may be on his way out, but his character, Steven Beale, can add "bisexual" to his profile (along with "mentally ill" and "matricidal gun enthusiast") before his "big bang" of an exit.

• I mentioned the benefit that the Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice stars are holding for their crews to offset the wages lost during the writers' strike, but I didn't realize that T.R. Knight was actually one of the forces behind it.

• You may have heard that Microsoft vet Ric Weiland (he was one of the first 5 employees) bequeathed a tremendous private donation to gay groups - $65 million - following his tragic suicide. But did you also know that he had been out for decades (he sported a license plate reading "YES IAM" in 1977!!) and was a total hottie back in the day?

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

• I wonder, wonder why the WonderCon:
  For those of you who are heading out to Wondercon in San Francisco this weekend, local alt-weekly the Bay Guardian takes a look at what's gay at the convention. Meanwhile, Prism Comics has an even fuller agenda for gay fans. The San Francisco Chronicle also takes a look at the con's gay content. In addition to those panels, the Prism Comics booth is a place where you can usually find a wide variety of LGBT comics.
  
  
• Wolverine adds three hunks and Morrison creation:
  While most gay bloggers have been quick to notice the increasingly hunky cast of the Wolverine movie (which now includes Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Kitsch, Daniel Henney, along with Hugh Jackman), it's the news that Dominic Monaghan will be playing Beak that has gotten my attention. Beak? Beak? My inner Grant Morrison fanboy is pretty excited to hear that one of his characters is going to be a part of one of the X-Men films. Now, if only we could see signs of how Morrison pushed the franchise (creatively as well as its gay metaphor) forward in his New X-Men run show up in future films. Oh, and because the excuse doesn't come up often, here's an illustration of how abtastic the Wolverine film is getting:

  

  There aren't many guys who can manage to still look hot despite being stuck with Sally Brown's hairdo, but Jackman certainly manages it. (I'd link you to the Tim O'Neil comic I stole that joke from, but I can't find it anymore ... can anyone with better Google-fu help?)
  
  
• Wii old school gamers love the Commodore:
  One way of establishing your nerd credibility -- at least if you're old enough -- is by reminiscing about Commodore. (I get to mix my Commodore geekery with my marketing geekery by being able to tell people how my parents bought me two of Commodore's failed C64 emulators ... anyone remember the Commodore Plus 4 or the Commodore 128?) Wii owners are going to get the chance to indulge in that nostalgia when Commodore classics become available as Wii Ware titles in Europe. Now, if only someone would realize how the genius Dan Dare video game needs to be introduced to a wider audience. (And is Dan Dare the nexus of video game, anglophile and comics geekdom?)
  
  
• Turok the Guykiss Hunter:
  Well, this could have made it interesting, a conceptual storyboard for the Turok videogame reveal a cut scene where the game's dinosaur hunter locks lips with another guy.

  

  I'm not sure how the Turok franchise just keeps on going. No matter how much I ignore it, it keeps coming back (unlike Quantum and Woody or other Acclaim title I liked). Is there a quality about this one the rather generic title and bland story descriptions are hiding?
  
  
• Boys on film:
  The Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson comic The Boys was optioned for a possible film recently, which I have to admit has me a bit worried. While Ennis' history as a comic writer is mostly gay friendly (we did have complaints about his work on Midnighter and I'm not sure if there's a gay-friendly angle to The Boys' infamous "hamster" cover), his edgy style of humor is the type where some of his gay jokes can take on a homophobic undercurrent if mishandled by the screenwriter (and from what I've read about The Boys the title does have the occasional crude gay joke), this is one film I'll be keeping a cautious watch over.
  
  

Back over the summer there were rumors that Brokeback would get a Broadway musical adaptation. Names considered for the main roles? Hugh Jackman and James Marsden. That sounded a bit like wishful thinking.

But it looks like Brokeback will indeed be getting the musical treatment — albeit a more highbrow, operatic one. Today's New York Daily News mentions that Brokeback Mountain author Annie Proulx has given the go-ahead for an opera based on her short story. Hmm, wonder if Heath can sing? We already know Jake has the pipes (remember his SNL performance of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going?"). Seriously though, this sounds like a legitimate endeavor with Pulitzer prize winner Charles Wuorinen signed on to compose.

I'm not much of an opera fan but I'd sure be tempted to buy tickets for this one.

Rosie O'Donnell may be off The View, but that doesn't mean everything gay is gone from the show. Case in point was Friday's episode which briefly turned into a discussion about why some folks believe Hugh Jackman is gay. The ladies were actually discussing the phenomenon of unattractive but wealthy men who are married to beautiful when suddenly Joy asked:

Joy: What happens when a beautiful man marries a sort of unattractive woman? Then you have dilemma. People will really talk. They think he's gay. This is what happens.

Barbara Walters: Really?

Joy: Oh, yeah. I was reading in the article that we're reading that Hugh Jackman, who is a very handsome guy, people always think he's gay because his wife looks like the rest of us.

Barbara: That's not true. First of all, his wife is very attractive. I think people--

Joy: Not in his level. He's like Sex Man.

Barbara: I think a lot of people thought was gay because he was doing The Boy From Oz which was about Peter--

Joy: He wasn't "doing" the boy from Oz. He was playing in it. This is making Hugh Jackman's life more miserable.

Barbara: He was playing the role of Peter...Peter Allen who was gay. So people thought he must be gay because he was...She's very good looking and it's a very good marriage.

He must be miserable? Imagine his poor wife, Deborra-Lee Furness having to hear she's not at his "level". Sheesh, I hope she wasn't watching the show.

I've heard both reasons given by folks who think Jackman is really gay, though it's usually gay men who offer up the "unattractive wife" theory and silly straight folks who think playing gay means you really are gay. Jackman is usually linked to his longtime assistant John Palermo with whom he and Jackman's wife had started a production company. As evidence, folks frequently cite the fact that Jackman and Palermo reportedly exchanged rings engraved with the word unity, but according to Wikipedia, Furness also received a ring and it was to celebrate their company.

Maybe the rumors had something to do with same-sex kiss being removed when the show landed in Australia. After the jump you'll see a clip from Jackman's new drama Viva Laughlin. It may just be me, but I'm suddenly a little more confident we'll be seeing Eric Winter back on Brothers & Sisters this fall.