Police Dept. Puts Officer on Leave Over Alleged Porn Past

News of Hollywood, Florida police officer and HGTV Design Star contestant Michael Verdugo's alleged participation in gay bondage porn videos was reported earlier this week, and the news of his possible involvement has led to his suspension on administrative leave from the police department:

"Verdugo joined the police force in 2001, five years after the movie was filmed. 'He's a great cop with a distinguished record of serving this community for many years,' said Al Milian, Verdugo's attorney. Milian would not deny or confirm Verdugo's possible involvement in the film. 'I think every police officer during their career are subject to investigations. The overwhelming number of allegations are always found to be unfounded,' Milian said. Milian said that ever since Verdugo's sexual orientation was revealed in 2004, he has dealt with discrimination and harassment. 'I think when you have a certain lifestyle in the 21st century, you're always going to be subject to heightened scrutiny,' Milian said...Milian said he is prepared to defend Verdugo's record and outstanding contribution to the community."

Here is what got him in trouble (it's most definitely NSFW).

Verdugo's finalist audition tape for Design Star, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Gus Mattox Still Working with Wood, and Building his Future

The New York Times looks at how Tom Judson, who many of you may know as porn actor Gus Mattox, leapt from his adult film retirement in 2005 to a career in house-flipping in upstate New York, renovating homes with a talent he learned using his own handiwork skills and some books:

"Mr. Judson's new business, Acme Housing (slogan: 'Yesterday’s Homes ... Today!'), came about accidentally. He bought a 700-square-foot cottage in Cairo, N.Y., in 2005 for $50,000, renovated it and moved in before realizing that he could not really keep two houses in the area. So he sold the Cairo cottage for $110,000 and headed back to the woods. 'Seeing the profit I made from the sale was my Aha! moment,' he said, and he realized 'that this hare-brained scheme might just be something to make money from.' The Cairo project was followed by a bungalow in Coxsackie, N.Y., which he bought in late 2006 for $72,000, quickly gave a quaint Arts-and-Crafts-inspired makeover and sold the next spring for $161,000. Much of the pleasure he takes in the work, he said, has to do with 'taking a house that most people consider not worth saving and giving it a new life.' He went on: 'I’ve passed on quite a few houses because, even though there was money to be made, I didn’t think I’d enjoy working on them. You know, if being responsible were a priority of mine, my résumé of the past 30 years would be totally different.'"

Sure beats traveling the country doing local theater productions of "Making Porn" which seems to be the route of other gay adult film stars.

Acme Housing [official site]
Now Rated R (for Resale) [nyt]
(via fleshbot site NSFW)

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All the World's a Stage: Kevin Sessums

The NYT's "Habitats" column takes a look inside the studio apartment (and accompanying life) of Kevin Sessums, who has been covering the theater for us here at Towleroad. Have a look yourself and don't miss his latest reviews.

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Marc Jacobs: Naked in Paris with a Poltergeist Tattoo

In the next installment of the naked fashion designer series, Marc Jacobs disrobes in his Paris apartment for W's "art issue" which features an interview with the designer and a collection of photos:

"As he sits in his Paris apartment on a midsummer afternoon, Jacobs is surrounded by eight John Currins, six Richard Princes and six Ruschas, plus an assortment of Elizabeth Peytons, Damien Hirsts, John Baldessaris, David Hockneys and Lisa Yuskavages, not to mention a small but growing collection of Fifties Scandinavian handblown glass birds. 'Typical addict behavior,' says Jacobs with a half smile. 'I just got this bug. I started going to galleries, and I kind of went mad.' Jacobs, whose struggles with drug and alcohol dependency are well known, sees his new passion for contemporary art as a (relatively) healthy habit, one he intends to indulge for the foreseeable future."

The interview also makes note of Jacobs' second collection:

"As Jacobs fills his walls with art, he is also using his own body as a canvas: His growing tattoo collection, which started with a little heart on his left shoulder, is itself almost exhibition-worthy. The newest additions are the French words OUI and LUI in bold graphics on each forearm, and, in the middle of his back, Carol Anne from Poltergeist, mesmerized by a glowing TV screen. ("Stay away from the light," Jacobs intones with mock solemnity.)"

Now that's a tattoo I'd like to see. Unfortunately, it's not among the photos.

Marc Jacobs [w]

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Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams Talk Home, Family, Coming Out

The NYT today runs a Joyce Wadler profile of Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams, the successful furniture designers who "divorced" five years ago after being together for 14 years. The article takes a look at their Jim Bartholomew-designed Manhattan apartment and the view Gold says it took him "30 years to get," and it also navigates the ins and outs of running a successful business with a once-romantic partner and how properties and possessions are handled after a breakup. The article also ends just as it gets going:

"Mr. Gold has said that when he was 14, he decided that if he couldn’t 'cure' himself by the time he turned 21 he would kill himself. By the time he was in college, he was so depressed that his father, unaware of the reason for his depression, sent him to a psychiatrist.

'I uttered the words, ‘I think I’m gay and I want to be cured,’ ' Mr. Gold says.'I remember him saying, ‘I can’t cure you of that, but I can work with you about how to live with it.’ He taught me this was the way it was and it was O.K. Of all the lucky things in the world that happened to me, I feel lucky that I got to go to a psychiatrist who told me it was O.K. Because in those days, the early ’70s, I could just as easily have hit a psychiatrist who said it was not O.K. If you grow up in Taylorsville or Hickory, N.C., they’re going to send you to some quack doctor who’s not really a doctor, to try cure your homosexuality.'

Being able to tell his parents that he was gay was still difficult for Mr. Gold. At 24, he blurted it out to his mother on the phone when he called one Sunday morning. Still half asleep, he told her he was going to St. Thomas for a week with his friend Michael. 'She said, ‘I don’t understand why you do everything with Michael — why can’t you get a girlfriend?’' Mr. Gold says. 'I said, ‘My idea of a girlfriend is Michael.'

There were tears and an argument, but these days Mr. Gold’s parents, both 86, are very accepting. When he called to tell them that he and Mr. Williams had decided not to be a couple anymore, his mother demanded to know if they would still be able to see Bob. Which is exactly the way Mr. Gold felt it should be."

Amicably Split, and Still Sharing [nyt]

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News: Amy Winehouse, David Vitter, Tooth X-Ray, Roger Mahony

A biting pain: X-Ray reveals that a rugby player's incessant headaches were caused by an opponent's tooth which was lodged in his forehead.

Didn't get to this yesterday, but over the weekend the NYT published a look at the rural retreat of political strategist David Mixner: "Inside, the cheerful rooms are filled with artwork and memorabilia, including antiwar posters and newspaper clippings. One sculpture consists of the faces of friends who died of AIDS, molded in Lucite and lighted from behind with neon. He never turns it off. 'It’s my eternal flame,' he said. His other eternal flame is the computer screen. Mr. Mixner’s main activity these days is blogging — his site, davidmixner.com, offers a mix of political discourse, arts criticism and folksy commentary on day-to-day life in Turkey Hollow. 'People will stop me on the street in New York and ask me about Attila and Kate,' he said, referring to the deer mentioned in many of his postings. Not that he has forgotten about politics. 'I have more political influence here than I did living in the city,' he said."

Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons, Amy Winehouse, Maps among those on shortlist for Britain's Mercury Music Prize.

Britney Spears inspires melee at Le Deux nightclub in Hollywood: "A girl was heard screaming and calling Britney a 'whore' and telling Britney to 'go back home to her babies.' This, in fact, actually upset a ton of people! A bunch of girls started attacking this girl and they actually pulled her weave out! Me and my friends were soooo scared man!"

Surreal: Rue McClanahan, Jeff Stryker, Bruce Vilanch, and Seattle drag queen Dina Martina performed a scene from Gone with the Wind last night at Ryan Landry's legendary variety revue Showgirls in Provincetown. Can we get a video please???

Elton John to build massive gallery at his British estate to house the more than 2,500 works of art in his collection.

Aaron Eckhart on his revelation about gay people: "I’ll always remember. I was working in a restaurant in California with a guy who was gay, and I asked him, 'What do you feel when you look at a guy?' And he said, 'Well, Aaron, what do you feel when you look at that girl over there, and she’s beautiful and you really want to be with her?' That’s when I got it: It’s the same thing."

Kenneth Walsh pages through the latest issue of L'Officiel Hommes.

Landmark gay rights case underway in Canada: "The controversy stems from a letter written by Boissoin, then a Red Deer youth pastor, that was published in the Red Deer Advocate in June 2002. In it, Boissoin wrote 'my banner has now been raised and war has been declared' against those who are part of the 'homosexual machine.' 'From kindergarten class on, our children, your grandchildren are being strategically targeted, psychologically abused and brainwashed by homosexual and pro-homosexual educators,' he wrote. 'Your children are being warped into believing that same-sex families are acceptable; that kissing men is appropriate.' Boissoin went on to attack gay activists as 'spreading their psychological disease,' saying they were 'just as immoral as the pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps that plague our communities.' 'Where homosexuality flourishes, all manner of wickedness abounds,' he wrote."

"Pro-family" Republican Senator David Vitter, who was discovered to be a client of the 'D.C. Madam', apologizes, saying he never had relationships with prostitutes.

Following $660 million settlement, Cardinal Roger Mahony apologizes to sex abuse victims: "There really is no way to go back and give them that innocence that was taken from them. The one thing I wish I could give the victims ... I cannot."

The Killers' Brandon Flowers has a son.

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Nate Berkus Does Your Coffee Table

Oprah's home design guru Nate Berkus prepares to hypnotize you on the forthcoming August issue of OUT magazine in which he mainly discusses how he found himself on Oprah and what he's got in the wings in terms of his design career. But he does briefly mention his January 2005 appearance on the show shortly after his partner Fernando Bengoechea was killed in the Southeast Asian tsunami:

"After the show, I got a tremendous amount of letters and e-mails from kids across the country who were coming out. They said that watching the way my relationship with Fernando was presented on the show gave them the courage to say to their friends and parents, 'You know what, I'm gay just like him and I want to have what he had.' The most touching correspondence I received came from an 18-year-old who said, 'I'd never seen a gay couple's love story presented like that on TV before. Now that I've seen it, I realize I'd be wasting a lot of time if I didn't get out there and try to find it for myself.' It was amazing, and it makes me really proud, because somebody somewhere was watching the show and it changed how they viewed themselves and their own opportunities to live in a successful gay relationship...I wasn't concerned about presenting my relationship with Fernando to the world. I wanted people to know about our life and what I lost."

No groundbreaking revelations on whether or not another significant other has entered the picture, but those of you with fantasies of setting up house with Berkus should be pleased he has at least make it to your coffee table.

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Nate's Long Good-bye [tr]

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News: Taj Mahal, Thom Filicia, iPhone, Mario Testino

15-year-old girls charged with felony hate crimes for targeting one of their male classmates with homophobic flyers.

Taj Mahal to get facial: "According to the BBC, Indian officials have concluded that a 'deep-cleansing mud pack may be the only way to return a yellowing Taj Mahal to the cultural landmark's former white marble glory.' By 'caking the building in clay,' we read, those same officials can actually 'draw out surface impurities'.

Queer Eye's Thom Filicia to renovate W hotels starting with the W Los Angeles-Westwood.

Paris Hilton gets lighter sentence - should be in the coop for only 23 days, if that: "The L.A. County sheriff's office announced that they recognize her good behavior including showing up at her recent court date. Paris will also serve her 23-days in a special unit. These cells are specifically reserved for high-profile inmates who might otherwise be targeted by fellow prisoners. She will also get an hour a day to make phone calls, watch TV and shower."

Homeless gay youths finding home in specialized shelters: "Many experts estimate that while gay men and lesbians make up 3 percent to 5 percent of the general population, more than 20 percent of homeless youths under age 21 in many urban areas are gay, according to recent surveys of street youths and shelter workers published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and a study released in January by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Coalition for the Homeless."

How the GOP candidates responded to Falwell's death — 5 strong supporters, 3 weak supporters, two made no comment at all.

Bogus tip to tech blog Engadget about delay of iPhone knocked $4 billion off Apple's market capitalization yesterday as the stock dropped from $107.89 to $103.42 in six minutes (11:56 - 12:02). Since then the stock has recovered.

Evandro Soldatti and a "legion of male models" attend Mario Testino's 'honorary citizenship" party in Rio.

In case you were wondering, your prayers have helped Britney Spears.

West Hollywood gay activist Larry Sprenger dies at 65: "In the mid-1980s, Sprenger was co-chairman of the Municipal Elections Committee of Los Angeles, then one of the nation's most influential gay political groups. He was instrumental in the group's controversial stand in 1985 urging the owners of gay bathhouses to voluntarily shut down their operations because of the baths' possible role in the spread of AIDS."

Amazon to challenge iTunes with DRM-free music download service: "The Amazon service will launch later this year with support from EMI, the third-largest record company, and more than 1,000 smaller labels...David Card, an analyst at Jupiter Research, said Amazon’s clout would increase the pressure on EMI’s competitors to follow suit. 'Getting another big, big player to endorse DRM-free is a big deal.'"

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News: Easter Parade, Spandau Ballet, Spray-On Computer, Ohio

Bush vs. Clinton - whose economy is stronger? Each claims his own. Economist Larry Kudlow: "Every expansion has a little different coloration. The Clinton years were colored by the technology boom and the dot-com boom, which ultimately produced a bubble that burst. The Bush years were colored by the tremendous housing boom from the Greenspan interest rates, and we're undergoing some kind of a bubble bursting right now."

Is Easter the new Gay Pride?

True: 80's power ballad group Spandau Ballet set to reform.

Pop singer Mika seems intent on attempting to control his image. The singer, whose album Life in Cartoon Motion entered the Billboard 200 chart at #29, continues to be annoyed by those wondering about his sexuality. Says Mika: "Sexuality in pop is genderless. If you look at icons such as Bowie or Prince, has it got to do with actual sexual orientation? No. Has it got to do with style, beauty and class, irrelevant to whether you want to f**k them? Yes."

Queer Eye's Thom Filicia getting his own show on the Style Network. [Dress my Nest...lets him riff on an individual client's favorite outfit as the basis for making over an important room. If you like khakis and topsiders, that will be reflected in Filicia's design. If you're more into pearls and cashmere, the makeover will reflect that elegance. Primary vendors are Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn and West Elm."

Justin Timberlake mocks Britney with GQ clip?

Gays at black colleges struggling to find community: "It's a tug-of-war that's emerging at other black schools, where students say outdated rules and homophobia block them from forming the gay campus voice common at majority white institutions. At Hampton [University], where rules govern everything from overnight guests to student dress, officials insist they don't discriminate against gays. They say they're simply enforcing the regulations on student groups, and there just isn't space for another one."

<---Paging Lance Bass?

Anti-gay Catholic leader William Donohue thought a South Park parody targeting him was hilarious: "Maybe I do come across too tough on TV. I thought it was hilarious and our staff thought it was hilarious. I said, listen, I said I have no defense except I'm gonna go with it."

Scientists unveil "spray-on" computer.

John McCain on lying about conditions in Iraq: "Of course I’m gonna misspeak. I’ve done it on numerous occasions. And I probably will in the future. I regret that when I divert attention to something that I’ve said from my message. But that’s just life. And I’m happy, frankly, with the way I operate. Otherwise it’d be a lot less fun."

First gay health clinic in Ohio opens in Cleveland.

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In the Spirit of Capote, Plaza Hotel Gets Versace Makeover

New York's famed Plaza Hotel has been undergoing massive renovations as much of the hotel is being converted into luxury condominiums.

In March 2006, Christie's held a massive auction of items from the hotel including a parquet dance floor, candelabras, leather club chairs, a Steinway grand piano,and the humidor which used to house cigars in the Oak Room.

Now available for viewing at the Plaza are a set of prefab residences designed with items almost exclusively from the Versace home collection.

As NYC real estate blog Curbed notes, perhaps the black and white motif is an homage to the Plaza's most famous event — Truman Capote's 1966 Black & White Ball.

Well, at least that painting over the bed is symbolic of some sort of gay angst.

Versace at the Plaza: Making Capote Proud [curbed]

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Plaza Hotel Holds Massive Garage Sale [tr]
Plaza to be Transformed [tr]

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Top Design's John Gray to Make Announcement Rare for TV

[[SPOILER ALERT]]

Last week's premiere of Top Design also featured its first feud, as two contestants forced to work as a team struggled with conflicting personalities. Contestant John Gray, the louder of the two, had a series of emotional outbursts that he reveals on tonight's show were the product of medication he's taking because he's HIV-positive (imho a few of the outbursts toward his annoying partner were entirely justified on their own).

Says Gray to the rest of the cast: "I just want everyone to know I'm HIV-positive. I'm not making excuses or apologies." The paper notes that soon after his explanation, attitudes from the other contestants change considerably.

As USA Today notes, it's "a rare moment for reality TV" to have a cast member disclose that he is HIV-positive. They compare Gray's admission to that of Pedro Zamora from '94's The Real World when attitudes toward AIDS were tainted by fear and ignorance. Still are today, in some parts.

According to the paper, "Gray says his anger was fueled by testosterone taken to counteract lower levels induced by HIV. His dosage was boosted 400% just before the show started because he wasn't sure how long he'd be away from home. 'After the first episode, I asked myself why I was so angry, and it was a light-bulb moment...I don't want to be the new face for HIV or be on the cover of Out. I felt the cast was entitled to an explanation for my behavior."

For those who haven't seen the show yet, I've provided links to a couple clips below. I must also disclose that they're one of this website's advertisers.

Clip One [top design]
Clip Two [top design]

'Top' designer tells housemates he has HIV [usa today]

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