News: Dubai, Sarah Palin, AIDS Vaccine, Guatemala, David Geffen

Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier: 'therapeutic' AIDS vaccine in 3 or 4 years.

British gay pub hit by "butt pirate" graffiti. Landlord: "I don’t think it’s homophobic, it’s just little minds, 11 or 12 year old boys who think ‘there’s a gay pub, let’s write on it’. They’ll probably be in here in 10 years’ time. If they want to hide in their closets let them. The people that are most anti are normally hiding from their gayness."

Saturday Night Live working to book Sarah Palin for spoof of Tina Fey.

Tax experts: Todd and Sarah Palin owe thousands of dollars in back taxes.

World Conservation Union: 1 in 4 mammals being pushed to extinction.

Gay Guatemalan man who changed a story about political persecution in his home country to one of sexual persecution loses U.S. asylum appeal: "Two judges with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said in an opinion filed Monday that it would be a 'manifest injustice' to allow Saul Martinez to benefit from gaming the system after he lied under oath. A third judge disagreed, arguing that it was easy to understand how a man who was persecuted because of his sexual orientation felt compelled to invent a story to escape from that persecution."

FOX planning remake of Absolutely Fabulous.

Kevin Sessums on J Lo's nervous breakdown and her relationship with Scientology: "I do know a lot about Scientology. And I know about the practices. I know all about what the technology is and all that kind of stuff. It’s very helpful. So in a sense, yeah, you do call on it."

New 'world's tallest skyscraper' planned for Dubai.

Dubai resort Palm Atlantis refuses to release whale shark captured in the waters of the UAE: "Whale Sharks are protected by CITES (Convention for the International Trade of Endangered Species) and apparently the hotel was urged to release the animal. Environmentalists have hit out at the management of Atlantis hotel for performing an apparent change of mind by deciding to keep a whale shark caught off Jebel Ali."

Fish filmed alive at greatest-ever depth.

Trial underway for former Mr. Gay UK who killed his lover and the tried to eat him.

Hollywood Reporter reviews W: "It's a gutsy movie but not necessarily a good one. Its greatest strength is that it wants to talk about what's on our minds right now and not wait for historians. In an election season, people will have opinions about 'W.' before even seeing it -- or not -- so boxoffice may be erratic. It deserves a fair hearing by American audiences, for Stone goes out of his way to give Bush a fair hearing."

Lance Bass wants to be in a sitcom as J.C. Chasez launches acting career...

Scientists detect massive baffling object around distant star.

Georgia Supreme Court finds that transgender candidate did not mislead voters when she ran as a woman: "In their suit, Fuller and Harris allege Bruce’s name is Michael Bruce. Their attorney, new Clayton school board member Michael King, argued that Bruce’s birth certificate lists her as Mickey Dwayne Bruce and a man. Bruce, who identifies herself as transgender and a woman, said she changed her name in Clayton County Superior Court in 1980 to Mickey Michelle Bruce and goes by Michelle Mickey Bruce."

David Geffen ends relationship with DreamWorks.

Arkansas judges oppose ban on foster care, gay adoption: "Thirteen retired Arkansas judges, including three former chief justices of the state Supreme Court, announced their opposition Monday to a ballot initiative that would ban unmarried couples from adopting or foster parenting children in Arkansas. Proposed Initiated Act No. 1 would limit the ability of every Arkansas judge to choose custodial parents who would serve the best interests of vulnerable children, the group said in a statement."

Sphere: Related Content

Tête-à-Tête: David Geffen and Michael Bloomberg

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg laughed yesterday at the two-day conference sponsored by the University of Southern California on bridging the political divide because David Geffen told him ___________.

Sphere: Related Content

News: David Geffen, Creationism, Iraq Surge, Prince Harry

Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi in letter to Bush — the escalation is a failure: "As many had foreseen, the escalation has failed to produce the intended results. The increase in U.S. forces has had little impact in curbing the violence or fostering political reconciliation. It has not enhanced America’s national security. The unsettling reality is that instances of violence against Iraqis remain high and attacks on U.S. forces have increased."

David Geffen yachting with Rupert Murdoch? Nikke Finke: "I'm told that the partner in DreamWorks SKG who's worth $4.7 billion, and the News Corp chief worth $9 billion, kept in contact during Geffen's quixotic quest to buy the Los Angeles Times. Murdoch tried to talk him out of it. I hear the New York Post and Times of London owner (whose Behemoth Media corp also owns print outlets around the world) Murdoch advised Geffen this about owning a newspaper: 'Every day is going to be a headache for you. I'm used to these headaches. You're not.'"

Ptown or bust: Cape Air grounds most of its fleet to repair engines.

British TV entertainer Michael Barrymore arrested in murder case: "Essex police said three men were arrested on suspicion of the murder of Mr Lubbock, who was found dead in Mr Barrymore's swimming pool in 2001. They were also questioned over allegations of serious sexual assault. According to sources, Mr Barrymore was one of the men arrested. The other two arrested men were named by sources as Justin Merritt, a dustman from Harlow, and Jonathan Kenny, Mr Barrymore's ex-lover. Police refused to name the three...Last year, the police launched a fresh inquiry into Mr Lubbock's death, after the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced an investigation into the way detectives handled the original inquiry. The IPCC said it had suspended its inquiry following the three arrests. Mr Barrymore left Britain for New Zealand in 2003, but he appeared on Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother in January 2006. He then went back to New Zealand but he returned to Britain a month ago."

Prince Harry works the rosy cheeks.

Battlestar Galactica (and Jamie Bamber towel scenes) coming to an end. Here's a flashback...

Boyband mogul Lou Pearlman taken into custody in Indonesia: "Pearlman was thought to be in Germany when federal investigators began to link him to several cases of bank fraud. He is being transferred to Guam to report before a federal judge. Pearlman has been involved in a number of legal battles. On Tuesday, thousands of items that once belonged to Pearlman were auctioned off in an effort to raise money toward the millions of dollars in debt claimed by a number of banks and individual investors. Initial numbers showed the auction brought in approximately $200,000."

A bride's prayer in Chelsea.

Boy George cancels tour, cites "last minute" commitments.

New Gallup poll reveals that more Americans believe in theory of creationism than evolution: "The majority of Republicans in the United States do not believe the theory of evolution is true and do not believe that humans evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life. This suggests that when three Republican presidential candidates at a May debate stated they did not believe in evolution, they were generally in sync with the bulk of the rank-and-file Republicans whose nomination they are seeking to obtain. Independents and Democrats are more likely than Republicans to believe in the theory of evolution. But even among non-Republicans there appears to be a significant minority who doubt that evolution adequately explains where humans came from."

Freddie Mercury's piano is for sale.

Sphere: Related Content

News: Hummingbird, Hugh Jackman, New Hope Pride, Geffen

Criminology professor explains psychology behind gay killing following murders in Halifax: "They tend to be young white males, usually between the ages of 16 and 30. They tend to be homophobic or feel threatened by gay men generally. It’s often meant as a way to exert their own power within society. One way to exert that authority is to turn to violence. Such attackers are often loners with some history of violence. Some are troubled by their own sexual identity. It could have been someone who was cruising for sex themselves and are outraged at their own behaviour and then lashed out at that as well. In this case, rather than lashing out at themselves, they’ve lashed out at these two individuals."

Hugh Jackman catches a few rays at Australia's Bondi Beach.

Gay enclave of New Hope, Pennsylvania to hold its first gay pride parade this Saturday.

New York City PrideFest canceled after denial of permit leaves organizers with no venue: "Participants at the May 8 emergency meeting worried that another organization would begin its own Sunday festival and questioned whether the permit denial was motivated by homophobia—something HOP board members said they were considering. Mannino said the American Civil Liberties Union has indicated it may be interested in pursuing a lawsuit against the city on behalf of HOP."

Paris Hilton's new get-out-of-jail strategy: pray.

David Geffen flips NYC apartment, adds another $6 million to his bankroll.

GALLUP POLL: Congress approval at 29%, Bush at 33%.

Recently discovered species of hummingbird threatened by Colombian cocaine trade.

Heavy multivitamin use linked to advanced prostate cancer: "The researchers found no association between multivitamin use and the risk of localized prostate cancer. But they did find an increased risk of advanced and fatal prostate cancer among men who used multivitamins more than seven times a week, compared with men who did not use multivitamins. The association was strongest in men with a family history of prostate cancer and men who also took selenium, beta-carotene, or zinc supplements."

Oboist suing Buffalo Philharmonic claiming his dismissal from the orchestra was homophobic: "According to a statement issued on Roach's behalf by GLAAD, the trouble began in February 2003, when Roach's supervisor, principal oboist Pierre Roy, allegedly remarked to him, 'We wouldn't want any more fags in the orchestra.'"

Scotland Yard says that investigations into anti-gay murders and bashings have been "marred by institutional homophobia" at the agency: "An independent review into how Met police handled a series of murders involving gay men and transsexuals found officers were hampered by a lack of knowledge and personal prejudices."

Sphere: Related Content

News: Walter Reed, McConaughey, Lunar Eclipse, Gay Sauna

How did Paris Hilton escape unscathed after GLAAD demanded she apologize for using the F and N words? "You'd think she'd have some 'splainin' to do—Hilton served as grand marshal of the 2005 Los Angeles gay pride parade. Presumably [handler Elliot] Mintz knows his charge is just too valuable to the media for them to call her on her hypocrisy and hatred."

Total lunar eclipse to turn moon red this Saturday: "Star gazers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa will have a front-and-center view of the eclipse in a late-night sky, with the zenith occurring at 23:21 GMT. On the east coast of North America, the Moon will already be eclipsed when it rises at around sunset, while in Asia early risers will get a glimpse of the lunar blackout as the Moon sets."

Largest gay sauna in Latin America to open in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Argentina moves toward same-sex civil unions: "The national civil unions bill would give same-sex couples all of the rights of marriage without the name. It was written with the support of the country's largest LGBT civil rights group, the Argentinean Homosexual Community."

Men's Fitness magazine blasted by industry watchdog for false claims, including "alcohol plus a steak dinner works like lighter fluid on your metabolism."

Historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. dies of heart attack at 89 in Manhattan.

Matthew McConaughey and a bevy of wet pecs.

Brothers & Sisters executive producer Greg Berlanti: Younger studio execs are driving gay TV visibility. "I think because the people who were assistants 10 years ago have become executives now, they are less afraid of what people are going to say because they've seen now that it's not such a big deal. Whereas the last batch of execs was maybe living with their fears of 10, 15 years ago. A large part of it though is cultural. The culture at ABC is just, I think, very supportive, and just maybe they have their finger a little bit more on the pulse. Certainly no one has an agenda of 'well, let's see as much man-on-man action as possible.' The agenda instead is: 'Hey, we want the story lines for all of our characters to be as interesting and as thoughtful and mature and real as they can possibly be.'"

John Edwards strategist says Barack Obama lost in the Clinton-Obama-Geffen feud: "They made it a five-day story, and it knocked Barack off his pedestal. They shouldn't have answered back. It would have gone away. I think Barack definitely lost that round."

Walter Reed hospital soldiers told to keep quiet to the media about conditions there: "Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media. 'Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,' one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. It is unusual for soldiers to have daily inspections after Basic Training."

Sphere: Related Content

Geffen Stirs Democratic Contenders with Hillary Criticism

Gay mogul David Geffen slammed Hillary Clinton by way of an interview in Maureen Dowd's NYT column, published the day after a fundraiser for Barack Obama that sent $1.3 million into his campaign coffers.

Said Geffen, who was once close to the Clintons but "fell out" in 2000, Dowd notes, when Clinton pardoned Marc Rich and not Geffen friend Leonard Peltier: "Whoever is the nominee is going to win, so the stakes are very high. Not since the Vietnam War has there been this level of disappointment in the behavior of America throughout the world, and I don’t think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is — and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? — can bring the country together. Obama is inspirational, and he’s not from the Bush royal family or the Clinton royal family. Americans are dying every day in Iraq. And I’m tired of hearing James Carville on television."

According to Dowd, Geffen believes the country has 'Clinton fatigue': "I don’t think anybody believes that in the last six years, all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person. I think they believe she’s the easiest to defeat."

Geffen also criticizes Hillary's current stance on Iraq: It’s not a very big thing to say, ‘I made a mistake’ on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t. She’s so advised by so many smart advisers who are covering every base. I think that America was better served when the candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms."

He calls Bill "a reckless guy" who "gave his enemies a lot of ammunition to hurt him and to distract the country....Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling."

The billionaire acknowledges, however, that Clinton will put up a tough fight: "...that machine is going to be very unpleasant and unattractive and effective."

The Clinton camp has demanded that Obama condemn Geffen's diatribe, noting that Obama has been denouncing "slash and burn politics" on the campaign trail. A press release from Clinton Communications director Howard Wolfson urged:

"If Senator Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign and return his money."

Yikes. I don't think it's gonna get any prettier from here on in.

Sphere: Related Content

News: Matthew McConaughey, Circumcision, Alabama Sex Sting

2006 is Britain's warmest year since records began: "All of the 10 warmest years in Britain have occurred in the past 18 years, except the fourth hottest, when in 1949 the year's mean temperature reached 10.62C."

Matthew McConaughey appears in public wearing shirt.

Circumcision cuts risk of infection by HIV in half: "Previous research has suggested that circumcision is beneficial, but the new trial is 'definitive,' according to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which cosponsored the study with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. 'It's not a magic bullet,' said Dr. Kevin De Cock, director of the World Health Organization's department of HIV/AIDS, but it has the potential to prevent 'many hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of infections over coming years.'"

David Geffen offers $2 billion for the L.A. Times. Paper continues to seek offers...

Acquitted Huntsville, Alabama man speaks out about sex sting in public park: "For months I lived a nightmare that I hoped to wake up from, but I didn't wake up from it. I did not and have not ever gone there for the purpose for sexual contact," he said. "My family and those people who know me know that I could not do and did not do those things I was charged with. People are going to believe what they want to believe. There is no anger in my heart for anyone. There is forgiveness in my heart, okay. I think he was wrong. I know he was wrong. And a jury of 12 people decided he was wrong."

Spoof video superintendent Richard Mitchell, who this fall in an extraordinary lapse of judgment posted a remixed video of rookie teacher interviews on a school district website, has filed a sexual orientation discrimination complaint with Chicago's Cook County, claiming he wasn't fired because of the video, but because a school board member encouraged others to conspire against him because he's gay.

STUDY: Gay marriage would mean an additional $100 million in yearly revenue for businesses in New Jersey.

Read My Mind: Pet Shop Boy fan Brandon Flowers sends next single to the duo for remix.

A Ford Mustang...station wagon?

Sphere: Related Content

Dripping in Money: David Geffen Sells Pollock for Record Price

Art "experts" with knowledge of the transaction say that David Martinez, "the Mexican financier who bought a two-floor apartment in the south building of the Time Warner Center for $54.7 million recently" purchased "No.5, 1948", a Jackson Pollock 4' x 8' drip painting, for $140 million from David Geffen. If the purchase price is correct, it would be the highest amount ever paid for a painting.

It would break a record set in June when Ronald Lauder purchased a Gustav Klimt painting for $135 million.

Speculation is that Geffen is filling his coffers for a possible purchase of the L.A. Times.

Sphere: Related Content

News: Seann William Scott, Gay Panic, Eureka Springs

Crying foul on 'gay panic': "Lawmakers in California and New York are considering bills to deter the common courtroom strategy of making a victim's sexual orientation central to a criminal defense. Both measures would require judges to remind jurors that bias toward the victim cannot influence their deliberations."

Eureka Springs, Arkansas: The Bible Belt's gay tourist mecca watched over by Christ.

18-year-old Jesse Newton gets 30-year prison sentence for killing 48-year-old Harold Bridges after meeting him online in a gay chatroom. Newton: "I'd like to apologize to the Bridges family. I'm sorry. I did not ever mean to kill nobody in my life."

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation called in to investigate cross-burning in front of gay man's home: "A cross six to eight feet tall was burned in the front yard of the home Brandon Waters shares with his mother in the Ten Mile community."

Death by espresso: Don't drink more than 112 cups in one sitting.

Stiff for Stiffler?: "Seann William Scott turned heads when he showed up at Los Angeles gay bar Heat on the arm of David Geffen."

Stephen Dorff's "big swingin' dick" confirmed by NYT critic Stephen Holden. Of course, we've already seen everything but...

Rapper Bow Wow may play gay in new film: "There has been some buzz about a film in pre-production that stars Bow Wow as a big-time New York drug dealer is bisexual. Supposedly it's a John Singleton project and the movie is tentatively entitled Boys. Reportedly, the script is (somewhat) homoerotic and involves a gay love scene." (via queerty)

Athletic dilution: As Gay Games in Chicago wind down, Out Games in Montreal wind up...

Remember that bouncing ball commercial for the Sony Bravia TV? Well, there's another one in the works and it looks like this time they're going to cover an apartment building in colored paint...

Sphere: Related Content