Tom Ford for Hong Kong's Prestige

A commenter in the earlier Marc Jacobs post snarked, where is the obligatory Tom Ford post? Since I don't aim to disappoint, here you go. Ford shows off one of his holes for the latest issue of Hong Kong's Prestige magazine. Hey, at least it's not this look again.

And here's the full interview to go along with it, along with one of the questions.

I’ve heard that you’re a hygiene fanatic who takes baths three times a day.

I take baths, yes, but it’s really nothing to do with hygiene. Sometimes at my ranch, I won’t bathe for three or four days. I take baths because when I’m in the city and working, I find it relaxing when I get up in the morning and need to wake up slowly. I’m not a great morning person, so I lie in a hot bathtub and just kind of come to life. Then I take a bath before I go out to dinner, as I’m exhausted by the day and I feel like I need to lie in that bathtub, so I can put on a crisp shirt and go out to dinner and then when I come home I want to lie in the bath and wash all the cigarette smoke off myself from wherever I’ve just been . . . and just relax enough so I can go to sleep . . . because I don’t sleep very well. So it isn’t a cleanliness thing. In fact, I think Americans are often too clean. And sometimes I don’t use soap when I take these baths. The goal isn’t to soap myself up and scrub everything off. It’s just to sort of lie in the hot water. It’s relaxation.

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Gay man jailed in Hong Kong for blackmailing his lover: "A gay blackmailer who threatened to tell a Hong Kong primary school teacher's employers about their one-night stand was Thursday beginning a three-year jail term. Alex Lo Man-nam, 21, extorted nearly 4,000 US dollars from his 34-year-old victim with threats to tell his school they had sex when Lo was under 21, the age for gay legal consent in Hong Kong. He also got his victim to buy him presents including a pressure cooker, a computer, printer and clothes after targeting the teacher in June after their one-night stand."

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According to a new Hunter College national poll, Hillary Clinton is winning the gay vote: "In the first public, political survey ever conducted by a university-based team of scholars with a nationally representative sample of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGBs) Americans, results released today show that Senator Hillary Clinton has the support of 63 percent of LGB likely voters in the Democratic primaries, followed by Senator Barack Obama with 22 percent and John Edwards with 7 percent. The Hunter College Poll also finds that during the process of 'coming out,' LGBs become more liberal and more engaged in the political process than the general population."

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Hong Kong Man Gets 10 Years for Killing of Gay Man

Cheung Yau-kong, a 22-year-old Hong Kong man, began a ten-year jail sentence on Tuesday for the murder of a gay man he says made a pass at him by trying to "touch his groin," according to the South China Morning Post

"Cheung killed butcher Chan Mow-sum, 67, in April 2003 by smashing his skull with a flashlight after Chan tried to touch his groin, said a report in the South China Morning Post. Chan, who was known to be a homosexual by many of his friends and staff, was found battered to death with a bag on his head in his bedroom by one of his employees the following day. Sentencing Chan, Recorder Andrew Macrae described the crime as a 'brutal killing' and said he did not accept that Cheung was remorseful because of his behaviour following the crime. The court heard, Cheung had set about to destroy the evidence and tried to create an alibi with a witness. He also fled to mainland China but was handed over to Hong Kong police by officials last September."

Cheung was found guilty of manslaughter, not murder, by a 6-1 majority at Hong Kong's Court of First Instance.

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Hong Kong Court Rules Public Gay Sodomy Law Discriminatory

Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal today dismissed an appeal by the government to prosecute two men for engaging in public sodomy, saying the 1991 law "does not criminalize heterosexuals for the same or comparable conduct."

The Associated Press reports: "The case stemmed from the prosecution of two men who acknowledged committing sodomy in a car parked on an isolated road at night, the ruling said. Public gay sex was a crime with a maximum penalty of five years in prison. After the two men challenged the charges, lower courts ruled in their favor, but the government appealed to Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal. A panel of five top judges unanimously dismissed the government's appeal."

This is the second gay sodomy case that has been unsuccessfully defended by the government in the last two years.

The laws, however, still need to be repealed. Said Hong Kong gay activist Cho Man-kit: "The government has no way to avoid amending the law now that the court has ruled unanimously against it."

Hong Kong court rejects gay sodomy law [ap via boston globe]

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Leslie Kee Exhibit Too Hot for Hong Kong?

Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee's traveling exhibition "Super Stars", which features photos of hundreds of Asian entertainers, has upset a couple of Chinese actors who feel their images are "too racy for public consumption."

One of them is pop star/actor Aaron Kwok, in the upper-right hand corner of the photo above (and a big version after the jump below), who says he wore a swimsuit in the shoot and his photo was digitally altered to make him appear naked.

Another pop star/actor, Andy Hui, has also objected. Said his manager: "We think the pictures are beautiful. It's a healthy form of sexiness, but we also understand if the pictures are released they'll provoke a reaction. It may not be suitable."

"Super Stars" has also been published in book form to raise money for victims of the 2004 Tsunami.

Big shot of Aaron Kwok (not necessarily SFW) after the jump...

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Hong Kong's government has lost an appeal against a court ruling last year which struck down a discriminatory and unfair age of consent law. Under that law, "heterosexuals and lesbians face a maximum of five years in jail if they have sex before the age of 16, but homosexuals who have sex before they are 21 risk life in prison." Gays in Hong Kong applauded the ruling: "This is a victory not only for me and the gay community in Hong Kong, it is a victory for all of us in Hong Kong, gay and straight alike who all have fundamental human rights that the courts here have shown us they are prepared to uphold."

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Hong Kong Superstar Andy Lau: "I'm Not Gay"

Andy Lau, a popular singer and the star of over 100 films in Asia, has told a Hong Kong media outlet that he's not gay, although he describes his relationship with gay fans as "very direct."

Said Lau: "I'm not, but if you say I am, I don't think it's a bad thing. Maybe my attitude has caused misunderstanding. I've never pronounced loudly I'm not gay, and I don't think there's the need to do so. I have gays friends."

Though he's not well-known in America, he has had the opportunity to star in Hollywood pictures. Lau once turned down the lead role in the film M. Butterfly because he says he found a scene offensive: "I asked the director if he could change that scene. I said I'm a superstar in Asia. This movie factors in the Asian market too. If I do that, it will affect my image.''

Some things never change.

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