Towleroad Guide to the Tube #285

I'M YOUR #1 FAN: Tom Cruise's #1 fan on yesterday's Oprah special.

ALAN CUMMING: Talks to UK gossip site Holy Moly in Claridge's.

CESC FABREGAS: Is flaming.

SHARK SURFER: Fake, but funny.

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here.

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Thanksgiving Travel Tips from Alan Cumming

I know many of you will be traveling over the holidays and I wish you a safe trip.

So does Alan Cumming, who offers this bit of travel advice to New York magazine's Intelligencer:

"I always think the pressure on planes gives you a hard-on. My friend I was just working with said that when he goes to sleep, he always puts the table out in case he gets a hard-on whilst he’s asleep. That’s a very good tip for your readers if they want to avoid embarrassment on a plane."

Previously

Alan Cumming Film Tortures More Than David Boreanaz [tr]
Vienna Life Ball Brings out the Glitter to Fight AIDS [tr]
Alan Cumming Weds Partner Grant Shaffer in Civil Partnership [tr]

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News: Prince Harry, Radiohead, Oscar Wilde, Robo-Bugs, Paris Hilton

Florida Rep. and men's room-frequenter Bob Allen's trial begins on November 5th.

Matt Leveson, a 20-year-old Sydney man who went missing after a night of partying, is feared murdered: "The wildlife welfare officer, a regular at the club, was thought to be going home to Cronulla. His family reported him missing when he failed to show for work the following Tuesday. He had also stopped answering his phone. Two days later Mr Leveson's green 1999 Corolla hatchback was found dumped outside a public toilet at Waratah Park Reserve, Sutherland. Police said evidence suggested he did not park it there. They believe he 'met with foul play'."

Funeral held in Ireland for lesbian soldier Ciara Durkin, slain mysteriously in Afghanistan. The investigation into her death is ongoing.

Radiohead fans pissed at poor sound quality of In Rainbows digital download: "The sentiment among many fans seems to have gone from admiration for the group's willingness to let the consumer decide how much to pay for the new album to anger over the low quality of the downloads — and dismay over the band's manager's statement that the you-choose-the-price downloads were just a promotional tool for the release of the physical CD."

POLL: Oscar Wilde is Britain's greatest wit.

Paris Hilton heading to Rwanda on charity mission: I'm scared, yeah. I've heard it's really dangerous. I've never been on a trip like this before. I love having everything documented. It shows people what everyday life is like for me, how hard I work. There are a lot of misconceptions about me."

Jack Mackenroth, set to compete in the upcoming Project Runway season, denies a rumor that he was booted from the show because of a staph infection: "'He says he was the fifth designer voted off,' says the snitch. 'He is claiming that this was at least part of the reason he was booted.' Mackenroth, who had signed a confidentiality agreement, denied spilling the beans when contacted by Bravo. 'People will say things about me whether they know me or not,' he said in a statement released through Bravo's PR. 'Those were not my words and are fictitious.'"

Is the government employing high-tech robo-bugs at anti-war rallies?

Same-sex couples from Australia seen heading to the U.S. in increasing numbers on the quest for designer babies: "IVF pioneer Dr Jeffrey Steinberg said an increasing number of gay and lesbian Australians were visiting his Californian fertility centre to begin a family and side-step Australian law that prohibits surrogacy. 'We see about two or three gay couples from Australia each month and that's about a five-fold increase over the last two years,' he told The Sunday Mail. Dr Steinberg said between 75 per cent and 80 per cent of same-sex couples who came to him for treatment decided to choose the sex of the baby, using the controversial IVF procedure and embryo screening known as Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis."

The NYT looks into the mysterious death of gay club icon Dean Johnson: "After Mr. Johnson did not show up for band rehearsal on Sept. 27, his friends called the Washington police and finally got an answer. Mr. Johnson’s body was in the city morgue; it had been there for a week. As details of his death surfaced, the mystery around it grew. Four days earlier, the police had found the body of another man, Jeremy Conklin, 26, at the same apartment — that of Steven S. Saleh. Mr. Conklin had been pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, said Inspector Rodney Parks of the Washington police. For Dean Johnson, whose heyday in the 1980s mirrored the rise and fall of New York’s bohemian downtown club scene, and who rarely kept the salacious details of his life private, it seemed an inconceivable way to go. The apartment Mr. Johnson died in was at the end of a nondescript hallway on the second floor of a stately building — a distant cry from the East Village nightclubs where he and the naked go-go boys under his command once reigned."

Prince Harry cheers on English rugby at the World Cup. Unfortunately, no nipple-licking.

Who had sex with Alan Cumming?

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Alan Cumming Film Tortures More Than David Boreanaz

A screening of Alan Cumming's new film A Suffering Man's Charity at NYC's Core Club last night incited a few extreme reactions, Page Six reports:

"Some scenes in the dark comedy - about a 'failed composer turned music teacher with a weakness for impoverished young men' - were too much for the crowd. During a gruesome torture scene involving a scantily clad David Boreanaz and a whip, several people left and a woman fainted. Cumming - who adapted, directed, produced and stars in the movie - was unfazed and partied with Paper magazine execs afterward."

Here's a clip for you. No whips are involved in this one.

You may have missed...
Alan Cumming Weds Partner Grant Shaffer in Civil Partnership [tr]
David Boreanaz Shows Off His Bones [tr]

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Vienna Life Ball Brings out the Glitter to Fight AIDS

The 15th Annual Life Ball took place in Vienna on Saturday night, drawing 4,000 partygoers and more than 40,000 spectators to its opening ceremony. The Ball, which last year, according to the International Herald Tribune, raised $1.5 million to fight AIDS, featured a fashion show by Heatherette and musical performances by the Scissor Sisters.

Scissor Sisters photographer Kevin Tachman sent us these shots. Above, Lance Bass is kissed by Traver Rains, one half of Heatherette, as he ends his runway walk.

Scissor Sisters' Anamatronic and actor Alan Cumming. Amanda Lepore prepares for her walk-on.

Another Heatherette Life Ball model.

The Scissor Sisters perform. Porn star Jenna Jameson (left) takes the stage.

Jake Shears makes some adjustments.

Seth Kirby and Ana Matronic with musical group The Ones. Heatherette's Richie Rich, Mario Testino, Sharon Stone, Traver Rains. Stone told the crowd: "It's very important for us to remember that the AIDS and HIV situation is a situation that began from love, and it's a situation that will end with love...We have to constantly remind ourselves and others that there is no shame that love cannot cure; there is no hatred, no controversy and no walls that cannot come down when faced with the power of love and dignity."

Amanda Lepore walks the walk.

All photos: Kevin Tachman / WENN

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News: Rodrigo Santoro, Nancy Pelosi, Stem Cells, D&G

Washington state introduces gay marriage bill.

Designers disrobe: First it was Tom Ford; now Dolce & Gabbana take it off for Steven Klein in W magazine.

New Jersey says clerics are not required by law to perform same-sex union ceremonies: "In a letter to the state registrar, Joseph A. Komosinski, Attorney General Stuart Rabner wrote that clergy members could decline to perform civil union ceremonies without violating the law, if performing such ceremonies would go against their 'sincerely held religious beliefs.'"

How Nancy Pelosi's womb is advancing the gay agenda...

Spoiler: New Brazilian Lost hottie Rodrigo Santoro reveals his character's fate in the upcoming TV season.

Outfits in reverse: Alan Cumming and Grant Shaffer's first wedding photo.

Bush plans veto of stem-cell research bill just passed by the House. Kos: "Let's recap the utter absurdity of remaining conservative opposition to Embryonic Stem Cell Research. You're holding a cryogenic container with a blastocyst inside. It's a ball of cells (HT: PoliticAl2008) roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence. You have a choice of putting it in an incinerator or placing it in a petri dish and using it for research. George Bush and his shrinking base somehow reason, using unknown, convoluted pseudo-logic, that destruction by fire is saving it while the petri dish represents destroying it."

Gay porn stars team up for anti-meth campaign.

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News: Rosie O'Donnell, Gay Divorcees, Brazil and YouTube

In a dispute over $780,000, a State Supreme Court judge in New York has ruled that one couple's separation agreement is valid even if their marriage, performed in Massachusetts, is not.

Art attack: Rosie O'Donnell posts painting of "Him" on her website, and as Rosie returns from vacation the feud takes a new turn.

Alan Cumming and Grant Shaffer's civil partnership ceremony included a rented ice skating rink where the couple had their "first skate" and was attended by Rufus Wainwright, Sir Ian McKellen, Geri Halliwell, Neve Campbell, Jason Isaacs, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Monica Lewinsky, according to E's Marc Malkin. Said Cumming: "We'd like to thank everyone for their good wishes and messages of support—they mean a lot to us, not only as a celebration of our happiness but also a celebration that two men actually can get married and have the same civil rights as any straight couple. We really hope that soon gay people in America will be treated with the same respect as they are here in the U.K. America is really missing out. You know, the gays really know how to throw a party."

REPORT: French Vogue art director Fabien Baron dumped by Hugo Boss advertising campaign over excessive demands, such as "Baron's insistence that they travel in a black Range Rover for a shoot in Africa."

The first Presidential Debate of the 2008 cycle will be hosted by the South Carolina Democrats and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn on April 26.

YouTube banned in Brazil over MTV presenter's sex tape.

Conservatives at Agape Press, funded by the American Family Association, can't believe that retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Shalikashvili would come out against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" so they're calling his recent editorial on the topic a result of his recent stroke. Said one Servicemembers Legal Defense Network spokesman: "Even for Ms. Donnelly, her newest line of attack is an all-time low. To even insinuate that a four-star General is unable to reach his own conclusions about this issue is outrageous."

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Alan Cumming Weds Partner Grant Shaffer in Civil Partnership

Last November we talked about a wedding in the works for actor Alan Cumming and his partner of two years, illustrator Grant Shaffer.

Apparently the civil partnership ceremony took place this weekend in London and was attended by Rufus Wainwright and actress Mary-Elizabeth Mastrantonio, among others.

Cumming is the second high-profile actor in two weeks to register a civil partnership in the UK. Just before the New Year, John Barrowman tied the knot in Wales with his partner.

Best wishes and plenty of Cumming for the both of them.

Alan Cumming Marries [queerty]
Tony-Winner Alan Cumming Weds in London [broadway world]

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News: Wal-Mart, Wombs, Alan Cumming, Gay Bullying

Did Indonesian black magic practitioner curse Bush and entourage? "First, daughter Barbara had her purse burgled right out from under her cute perky little nose, while the Secret Service looked on. Second, two motorcycles in Bush's motorcade crashed yesterday, leaving three officers injured and one in serious condition and finally, top White House official and acting Director of the White House Travel office, Greg Pitts, was beaten and burgled yesterday outside of a Honolulu night club."

Amazing pictures from inside the womb of elephants, dolphins, dogs...

American Family Association calls off Thanksgiving boycott of Wal-Mart after company caves and changes policy language. Retailer says it "will not make corporate contributions to support or oppose highly controversial issues unless they directly relate to our ability to serve our customers." Wal-Mart does say they will still support gay rights groups on specific issues like workplace equality: "Going forward, we would partner with them on specific initiatives. ...As to opposed to just giving blanket support to their general operating budget."

Judge: Police were right in telling Wisconsin man to get his anti-gay signs off of freeway overpasses.

Alan Cumming to receive honorary degree from the University of Abertay in Dundee, Scotland for his contribution to film and television and his work to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS.

A few Ian Thorpe good-bye press conference pics...

Davis, California high school taking stand against homophobic bullying. Principal to student body: "Some of you sitting in this audience today have said mean things to others. Or you have stood by and watched others say things to hurt someone. We all must take a stand against every kind of taunt, every kind of slur or put-down ... whether that is because of race, or because how much money someone has, because their family is different or because of their gender, or religion, physical appearance or the country they come from, or because of their sexual identity. Anti-gay sentiments are probably the most difficult problem facing us."

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Alan Cumming to Tie the Knot with Partner Grant Shaffer?

That's what some are saying. If so, congrats!

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