News: Ryan Reynolds, Sao Paulo, Halloween, Kay Hagan, Viagra

Ron Reagan endorses Obama.

Ryan Reynolds beefs up the NYC marathon.

Two Swedish women married in India: "The young women, Sara and Sandra had been living together in India's national capital, New Delhi for past one year and 'solemnized' their marriage according to the Vedic rites and rituals. The newly married couple said that they were extremely happy to get married in the city of Taj Mahal, the monument of love and one of the Seven Wonders of the World."

Lesbian engagement on All My Children: "That day, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. And I knew that I wanted to have a home with you and Miranda, and a future together. And so today, I am asking you my beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Bianca... will you marry me?"

Will & Grace creator Max Mutchnick marries.

Harrison Ford dressed as a peapod for Halloween while Maroon 5's Adam Levine took a sexier route.

Hawaii verifies Obama birth certificate.

New play about gay Iranian teens executed in 2005 to open in Chicago: " The play tells the story of two boys coming of age, and struggling with their identities as Arab Iranians, and as typical teenagers longing to discover their place in the world. Ayaz Marhouni and Mahmoud Asgari, the two fifteen year old boys who may have been gay or may have been experimenting with their sexuality – like many teenagers do, get caught in a compromised position, publicly humiliated and tried in the Iranian legal system."

New York voters targeted with robocalls claiming to be Gay City News with an endorsement for the Democratic candidate in certain districts.

Students kiss for gay rights in Sao Paulo.

North Carolina Democrat Kay Hagan is suing Elizabeth Dole for defamation over her "Godless" attack ad.

New McCain Keating 5 revelations on investigations on alleged leaks by the Senator: "All five senators--including McCain--had testified under oath and under the U.S. penal code that the leaks did not come from their camps. The leaks were also prohibited by rules of the Senate Ethics Committee; according to the rules of the Senate, anyone caught leaking such information could face expulsion from the body. These, then, were not the usual Washington disclosures: Discovered, they could have stopped the career of any Washington politician in his tracks."

Boy gunned down while trick-or-treating: "An ex-convict who thought he was being robbed gunned down a 12-year-old trick-or-treater, spraying nearly 30 rounds with an assault rifle from inside his home after hearing a knock on the door, police said Saturday."

Tom of Finland retrospective opens in Liverpool.

Joaquin Phoenix says good-bye to acting .

Homophobic attacks on the rise in Scotland.

Netherlands: Cannabis being laced with Viagra.

Straight man bringing discrimination suit against employer over "gay taunts" from colleagues who suggested he was gay because he lives in Brighton: "Stephen English, who is heterosexual, says he was called a 'faggot' and 'Mr Franglais' by fellow members of staff at the blind and awning firm where he worked. He alleges that the barbs began after a sales manager discovered that he went to boarding school and now lived in the Sussex seaside town, which has a large gay population. Mr English, who has been married for 20 years and has three teenage children, decided to take legal action after his attendance at Brighton's Gay Pride parade wearing "skin-tight Lycra cycling shorts" was mentioned in the Thomas Sanderson Blinds in-house magazine."

Sphere: Related Content

News: Adam Levine, Bigot of the Year, Writer's Strike, Thailand

Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner and partner Matt Nye are expecting twins in January.

Daughter of anti-gay leader Amy Contrada (MassResistance) comes out of the closet: "I am a lesbian, which my mom still does not get. She just says that I am confused. I realized in around eighth grade, but I was in denial for quite some time because I was scared due to my mother constantly saying that homosexuality is wrong. How can it ever be wrong to love though? That’s what I’d like to know."

Reuters discovers that some Republicans are gay!

Scientist tweak gene in mice to create "mighty mouse": "Scientists at Case Western Reserve University have genetically engineered mice that outrun, outlive, and out-eat ordinary mice while staying lean, light, and fertile well into old age...A major unanswered question, Hanson's team notes, is what brain changes accompany the genetically engineered mice's hyped-up activity."

Ellen DeGeneres takes on the holiday as a "not pregnant" Jennifer Lopez.

Maroon 5's Adam Levine dresses down for slut-o-ween.

Daniel Radcliffe confirmed for Equus on Broadway in September 2008: "... it took months of negotiations to secure a deal with the theatre-owning Shubert Organisation and for the producers David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers to sort out all the paperwork for the play's two leading men to perform in New York. Director Thea Sharrock will begin rehearsals next August."

Get ready for more Reality TV: Hollywood writers to strike for the first time in almost 20 years - "We've never been more united and we are willing to deal -- and our decision makers are at the table. Their decision makers are not at the table, and that tells you pretty much all you need to know about how the companies are pushing this."

Royal blackmailer Ian Strachan to apply for bail: "Lawyers representing Ian Strachan, 30, are due to make an application behind closed doors at the Old Bailey. A previous application last week was adjourned after a few minutes because the lawyers needed more time to prepare. Strachan is not expected to attend but will be released from Belmarsh prison, south-east London, if bail is granted."

Bishop wins Bigot of the Year award from UK gay rights group Stonewall: "An employment tribunal in Cardiff in April heard how youth worker John Reaney, 42, was left feeling humiliated after a two-hour interview during which the bishop grilled him about a previous gay relationship. The tribunal decided Mr Reaney had been a victim of unfair dismissal and awarded damages against the Church of England."

On Wednesday I posted about the latest hustler to bring down a Republican hypocrite, and his porn past. Fleshbot has a big round-up of Cody Castagna's adult activities (NSFW).

SLOG reads the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, and it's quite terrifying.

Munich version of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin features drag queens and Brokeback Mountain references. It's not being received well: "There is no novelty value left in the outing of Tchaikovsky. Half-naked cowboys and men in ballgowns are cheap cliches. An exploration of the two men's relationship is legitimate, since it is one of the opera's deepest and certainly its most tragic. With more subtlety and professionalism, it might have worked."

Thai gay activist says he was refused insurance because he is gay: "Natee Teerarojjanapongs, president of the Gay Political Group of Thailand, said he had tried to buy a policy from AIA sales agent Pachara Pipatwong on Sunday. However, after Pachara called to consult an AIA official who liaises with the company's agents, Natee was told he could not do so because he was gay. 'AIA is violating the 2007 Constitution, as it is restricting my rights. [Pachara] told me the official said AIA policy stated that it did not give homosexuals insurance,' Natee said after speaking to the council, which met to monitor how the new Constitution was being implemented. 'I'm willing to let them give me a full health check if they think that I'm in a high-risk group. There's no reason to deny me and other gays or transvestites life insurance. We are educated like others in society. Not all of us engage in risky behaviour,' he said."

Sphere: Related Content

Music News: Kelis Moves On From Jive, Plus Adam Levine, Alanis Morissette, Róisín Murphy, Simian Mobile Disco

Please welcome Robbie Daw, who will be penning occasional music posts for us here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own pop music site called Chart Rigger.

Kelis has been dropped from her contract with Jive Records, and is working on an album of dance tunes with Cee-Lo Green, current singer of Gnarls Barkley. The two have apparently already finished a pop album with British writer/producer Guy Chambers, who wrote many of Robbie Williams' original hits ("Angels," "Rock DJ," "Feel"). Williams himself is currently making a new album with Chambers after the two parted ways five years ago over creative differences following the singer's Escapology record.

If you haven't heard Kelis' 2006 album Kelis Was Here (and many likely haven't, as Billboard notes it's only sold 157,000 copies to date), you probably missed "Lil Star," her soulful, retro-sounding duet with Cee-Lo, which peaked at #3 earlier this year on the official U.K. singles chart.

Given the wide array of musical styles and producers used on Kelis Was Here and in her other work, she might have appeared to be a hard act to market for Jive. Last year's Top 20 single "Bossy" was the only song remotely close to her breakthrough hit "Milkshake."

Currently, Kelis, who is the wife of rapper Nas, can be heard on the Annie Lennox album Songs Of Mass Destruction, on the track "Sing" (although, good luck trying to pick her out, as she's one of 22 other female vocalists featured).

Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine (pictured left) goes the shirtless route in the band's video for "Wake Up Call." Perhaps it's an attempt to jump start the single -- currently at #19 on Billboard's Hot 100 after 11 weeks on the chart -- which is having a slower go than "Makes Me Wonder," which hit #1 in the spring.

Following her stint as a lesbian, Alanis Morissette is now taking a job as a secretary.

Singer Róisín Murphy returns home after damaging her eye socket on stage in Moscow with a chair on Saturday: "Despite serious concussion and losing a lot of blood, her vision is unimpaired."

Simian Mobile Disco's video for their dance track "Hustler" offers an interesting take on beauty and gluttony. Definitely don't miss the last minute of the clip.

Kurt Cobain loses his standing as top earning dead celebrity.

Despite having "nothing left to write about," Oasis trudge on making their seventh album.

Author Lucy O'Brien's book Madonna: Like An Icon makes some interesting claims. Meanwhile, Kanye West is taking his own stab at literature.

TODAY'S NEW RELEASES:

Party like it's 1999! Bumped up two weeks from its original release date, Britney Spears' fifth studio album (and her first in four years) Blackout arrives. Also out is Unbreakable, by Britney's Jive labelmates, Backstreet Boys.

If you'd rather party like it's 1989, pick up head-bangers Avenged Sevenfold's self-titled new set.

Atlanta hip hop group Arrested Development return with Since The Last Time.

Long Road Out Of Eden, the new studio album from The Eagles, will only be available for purchase through Wal-Mart stores.

The soundtrack to Joy Division biopic Control contains tracks by New Order, David Bowie, Roxy Music, The Killers, Kraftwerk, Iggy Pop and Joy Division themselves.

Sphere: Related Content

How SNL's "I Ran" Was Put Together

The NYT goes behind-the-scenes on SNL's digital short "I Ran":

"By yesterday afternoon, just four days after its network premiere, the various versions of the video posted on YouTube had been viewed nearly 300,000 times, according to tallies posted on the site. For Mr. Samberg and his main collaborators — Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone — 'I Ran' is something of a sequel. Last year, NBC posted an uncensored version of a boy-band video the group made — the cleaned-up title was 'Special Treat in a Box' — in which Justin Timberlake and Mr. Samberg each appeared to be making a gift of their male anatomy. Thus far, that film has been seen more than 29 million times on YouTube, and last month it won an Emmy...While the cast’s main goal was to have fun, Mr. Samberg said, the film has a political undertone. 'No one around here,' he said, 'is super fired-up about a guy who is denying the Holocaust and saying there are no homosexuals in his country.'"

Sphere: Related Content

SNL's "Iran So Far" with Samberg, Armisen, Levine and Gyllenhaal

Andy Samberg Fred Armisen and Maroon 5's Adam Levine riff on Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in this brilliant digital short. And the Jake Gyllenhaal cameo is just icing on the cake.

You may have missed...
Ahmadinejad: "In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals" [tr]

Sphere: Related Content