News: Heath Ledger Hoax, Italy, Matt Damon, Mexico, Diana Ross,

Time magazine looks at the 15th anniversary of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell": "The issue exploded during Clinton's first week as President, triggered by those in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill opposed to his campaign pledge to reverse an executive order barring gays and lesbians from serving. 'The issue is whether men and women who can and have served with real distinction should be excluded from military service solely on the basis of their status,' Clinton said at the time. 'And I believe they should not.' While the phrase 'don't ask, don't tell' wasn't used at that January 29, 1993, press conference, that's what everyone soon began calling the policy."

Not that Oz: Matt Damon in the Emerald City.

Diana Ross BOOED in Jamaica: Not ready for her close-up.

200 Mexican youths and parents march to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS: "Participants marched through the city's main streets chanting slogans, such as 'Not One More Infected Person' and 'Equal Rights for Young Homosexuals.' Some of the participants also dressed in costumes and distributed condoms. Josue Quino, head of the CAIPAJ gay adolescent and youth center, said the march was necessary to warn youth that a 'single unprotected [sexual] encounter is enough to' contract HIV. Members from the Group of Mothers and Fathers for Diversity also marched in the demonstration, carrying signs that said 'We're Proud of Our Children' and 'Our Children Have United Our Families.'"

Manchester UK police investigate rape at gay sauna.

Clay Aiken: no love.

Which one's Twiggy, which one's Keira Knightley?

Barbara Walters bans Kathy Griffin from The View...again. Griffin: "I was supposed to be on 'The View' [today]. But then I get a call from [producer] Bill Geddie and he says, 'You were too mean to Barbara [Walters] on your last special, so you can't come on.' Can you believe it? I've been banned before, but never re-banned!"

Scammer, posing as Heath Ledger's father, takes advantage of doctor, funeral home, Tom Cruise, and John Travolta: " Cops want to arrest the con man on fraud and larceny charges, and sent detectives to Ledger's wake at the funeral home Friday in hopes of catching him, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. But police do not know the identity of the impostor - who also tried to finagle from one unidentified Hollywood star the numbers of actors Mel Gibson and Christian Bale, who have co-starred in movies with Ledger."

Michael Jackson to get additional reconstructive surgery — this time to his album Thriller.

Method Acting: Sean Penn and James Franco, playing Harvey Milk and his lover Scott Smith, respectively, in the Gus van Sant biopic Milk, reportedly wanted to shack up together for a while before filming started to get to know one another, but due to scheduling difficulties, those plans fell through.

Study finds middle age is truly depressing: "For men and women the probability of depression slowly builds and then peaks when people are in their forties -- a similar pattern found in 72 countries ranging from Albania to Zimbabwe, the researchers said. About eight nations -- mostly in the developing world -- did not follow the U-shaped pattern for happiness levels, Oswald and his colleague David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College in the United States wrote. 'It happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor, and to those with and without children,' Oswald said. 'Nobody knows why we see this consistency.' One possibility may be that people realize they won't achieve many of their aspirations at middle age, the researchers said. Another reason could be that after seeing their fellow middle-aged peers begin to die, people begin to value their own remaining years and embrace life once more. But the good news is that if people make it to aged 70 and are still physically fit, they are on average as happy and mentally healthy as a 20-year old."

German airline to offer nudist flight.

Italian MP called 'faggot, fairy' and 'traitor' for voting against party lines in order to defend Italian Premier Romano Prodi: "The name-calling erupted on the floor of the Italian Senate on Jan. 24 as Sen. Stefano 'Nuccio' Cusumano shocked fellow members of the tiny Udeur Party by declaring his support for Prodi. The party decided a week earlier to withdraw from Prodi’s fragile ruling coalition, forcing a 'confidence' vote under Italy’s parliamentary system. The Senate voted 161 to 156 to defeat a resolution of confidence for Prodi, forcing him to resign immediately. Although the Udeur Party had helped Prodi form his center-left government in 2006, the party strongly opposed legislation backed by Prodi to provide legal rights and benefits for same-sex couples."

Gay Fort Worth city councilman Joel Burns talks to the Victory Fund, calls anti-gay attack a galvanizing moment: “That morning was an awful, terrible, not good morning. I thought of my mother and father, the little rural town that they live in, and waking up and reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and seeing my name on the front page. No parent ever wants to see their child attacked, even if they’re an adult.”

Sphere: Related Content

Police Release Digital Image of Alleged UK Gay Basher

At the beginning of the month I posted about a gay bashing that had occurred south of Manchester, England in which a 39-year-old man was thrown to the grown, punched and kicked in the head while his attacker said he would kill him. The victim remains in the hospital.

According to This is Cheshire: "Police are hunting a white man, aged between 30 and 35, who is around 6ft 2ins tall and spoke with a Liverpool accent. He had dark brown hair, shaven in a number three grade and was wearing a grey and yellow striped top, light blue jeans and white trainers, which police say may have blood on them following the attack."

Police released an efit (electronic facial identification technology) portrait of the perpetrator in hopes that someone would recognize him.

Homophobic attack - Efit released [this is cheshire]

Sphere: Related Content

Cristiano Ronaldo: Me Look Pretty One Day

Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo showed up to a signing for his new book Moments trying to cover up a black eye and a forehead gash sustained during a match on Tuesday.

At least his ego wasn't bruised. He told reporters gathered there: "It's not a problem. In four or five days I will be beautiful once again."

Ronaldo was elbowed in a collision with Mirko Vucinic of Roma:

Said Ronaldo of the injury: "I don't think it was intentional. I don't like to look like this but this kind of thing can happen in football."

You may have missed...
Cristiano Ronaldo is Back [tr]
Cristiano Ronaldo Takes a Hit Where it Counts [tr]
Ronaldo and Rooney are Thick as Thieves [tr]
Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester Utd win Premier League Title [tr]

Sphere: Related Content

News: Manchester, David Bowie, Tennis, Tim Gunn, Madonna

Earthquakes strike Manchester's gay village: "It was the sixth earthquake to hit the city in the past month, all measuring between 1.4 and 2.5 magnitude. A swarm of 150 tremors occurred in the same area between October 2002 and January 2003. Seismologist Dr Brian Baptie of the British Geological Survey said: 'An earthquake of this magnitude is not unusual in the UK and you would not expect any structural damage as a result of this earthquake'."

Match-fixing alleged in professional tennis: "Two elite players made the claims, under anonymity, in an interview with the French sports daily claiming they have witnessed matches being "thrown" and that they had personally been offered bribes...The unnamed sources in L'Equipe's report called on the sport's authorities to act, 'before things get out of hand'. 'I know several players who have been approached, and who had the exact same experience as me,' said one player, identified only as Mister B and who claimed he had been approached physically by someone offering him 50,000 dollars to lose a match. He added: 'Not for one second did I believe it was a joke. 50,000 dollars is more than what I would have got for getting to the semi-final in this tournament, and it was tax-free cash. 'I refused his offer straight away, but I was left wondering what direction we're going in.'"

Willa Ford joins Bobby Trendy in new film about Anna Nicole Smith - first shots.

Yesterday, the death knell was sounded for West Village bar Julius. Today, news that it has reopened, at least for now.

Lesbian couple are first in Colorado to adopt. "'People say, they need two parents. We say, they've got two parents,' says Jeannie DiClementi, who along with life partner Mary Ross, have become the first gay couple to adopt children together under a new state law. 'This is a victory for children.'"

Jesse Metcalfe obtains topless female tattoo.

David Bowie to join UK TV series Dr Who as an evil alien abductor: "The singer who found fame as a cross-dressing glam rock star Ziggy Stardust in the 70s will cross swords with the Tardis's Time Lord, actor David Tennant when he kidnaps crime author Agatha Christie."

Lesbian is one of five finalists for bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago.

AfterElton talks to style guru Tim Gunn about his forthcoming show and his last relationship: "I had been in a relationship and a very intense one. And it broke up after quite a number of years. And it broke up abruptly – didn't break up from me. I was cast aside. And it was just, just at the advent of AIDS. And I found out he had been sleeping with a lot of people. And thank God I'm healthy. Because I didn't know and it had been going on for a while. So when we broke up, there the world of AIDS is spread out before me, and I thought ‘I can't do this. I don't want to be selfish, but I care too much about my health'. And the person I loved more than myself had been cheating on me and lying to me. So if that person is doing it, what about total strangers? So I just got used to being alone, very used to it."

An interactive graph based on The World Without Us, Alan Weisman's gripping new book about what would happen to the Earth should humans disappear.

REPORT: Madonna to adopt second orphan from Malawi.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tore a jewelry clerk to shreds, according to a new biography, after the clerk whispered something under her breath when Condi asked to see a nicer item: "Let’s get one thing straight. You are behind the counter because you have to work for minimum wage. I’m on this side asking to see the good jewelry because I make considerably more.

Filmmaker documents the end of three gay British men in 1967: "The outline of their deaths is well documented. On February 3 1967, the independent record producer Joe Meek killed his landlady, Violet Shenton, before turning the shotgun on himself. On August 9, the hottest new British playwright of his generation, Joe Orton, was murdered by his companion, Kenneth Halliwell. On August 27, the body of the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein was found after an accidental overdose of a prescribed sleeping pill."

Sphere: Related Content

News: Zac Efron, Gay Games, Ft. Lauderdale, Barbra Streisand

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle, under fire from gays for his proposed "robotic toilets", attacks gay and lesbian library: "Naugle said Tuesday he's not going to apologize for his comments about gay sex in bathrooms, or gay people being unhappy. But he did say he was 'impressed' with the number of 'happy homosexuals' in his city. 'If I've learned one thing through this,' he said, 'it's that there are a lot of happy homosexuals in Fort Lauderdale.'"

Aaron Eckhart suffers for his craft: "I had to pretend that my nuts hurt, so I put a clothespin on my nuts. Otherwise, you’re just learning your lines and saying them. There’s no art in that. People say, ‘Why do you want to put a clothespin on your nuts?’ You know why? Because that’s what I do for a living."

Zac Efron to star in remake of Footloose.

J.P. Morgan analyst retracts "iPhone Nano" report.

Breaking tradition, Chicago declares 2006 Gay Games a financial success: "In 2003 when we launched the bid to host the 2006 Gay Games, we promised our local LGBT community, the City of Chicago, and the worldwide LGBT sports movement that the 2006 Gay Games would break even financially. We also made the commitment to leave a lasting and positive legacy for future Gay Games hosts - a sound business model upon which future Gay Games could be built. We are proud today to have fulfilled those promises.

"Landro" said to be "just friends"?

Bryan Singer's close collaborator, screenwriter Michael Dougherty (X2: XMen United, Superman returns), talks movies: "Watching a lot of movies as a kid, watching a lot of t.v. I grew up on the 80s when cable had just come onto the scene, so you know, they were digging deep into the libraries and digging out all these old movies and t.v. shows. So every day I was watching Twilight Zone episodes, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, old B&W monster movies, just constantly being barraged by so many different genres of film -especially horror films. It seemed like cable was really big on putting horror films in there. So in a very short time period I was being exposed to the very same horror films and shows that my Dad grew up with. Oh, and old horror comics. Like 'Creepy' and 'Eerie' were huge for me."

New Florida group raises $1 million to fight proposed amendment banning gay marriage: "By focusing on the ban's potential repercussions for live-in partners -- instead of on the polarizing question of gay marriage -- opponents are trying to duplicate their success last year in Arizona, the first state to reject a same-sex marriage ban."

Live from Manchester, Barbra Streisand's diva demands: "Waiting for her backstage were five fabric-upholstered furniture suites, 60 tables and 120 bath-sized towels. Even the security staff were immaculate in the 'dark jackets, blazers or sweaters with no T-shirts' that she requested."

Sphere: Related Content

Cristiano Ronaldo Takes a Hit Where it Counts

The Manchester United phenomenon injured his groin during a training session in the rain yesterday. Medics from far and wide came running.

Sphere: Related Content

Ronaldo and Rooney are Thick as Thieves

The Manchester United teammates hug it out.

Sphere: Related Content

David Beckham: So Long, Manchester...Hello, Bel Air

David Beckham was a sharp-dressed man on Tuesday as he bid good-bye to the football club that made him an international star. Becks told the 74,000-strong sell-out crowd at Old Trafford in Manchester: "The time I spent at this club was the best time in my whole football career. I’ve waited four years to actually come back and to actually say thank you to the fans and the people of the club. I think I wouldn’t have got through many things without the people in this stadium...So good luck and thank you."

News also dropped yesterday that brand Beckham have plunked down a $20 million offer on a seven-bedroom, six-bath mansion owned by Meg Ryan in Bel Air.

And the British footballer is set to make an appearance in Vadim Perelman's House of Sand and Fog as a soldier "about a World War I football game between the English and German armies." The Beckhams continue to deny that he's interested in an acting career.

You may have missed...
Injury Does Not Stop Beckham from Looking Sharp [tr]
David Beckham Injures Knee, Could be Out for Two Months [tr]

Sphere: Related Content

Gay Manchester Couple Gets Hate Email from Construction Firm

A gay couple in Manchester, England who made a complaint about the work that had been done on their not inexpensive £33,000 loft conversion by a British company called Luxus Lofts received a hateful email in return:

"Dear Mr Gays, I hope you are very unhappy with your loft as I cannot stand benders and neither can anyone who works for us."

Police are reportedly investigating the email, which a receptionist at the firm says could have come from someone outside the company with access to the firm's account.

The story is reminiscent of the recent incident in Texas in which a landscaping firm told a gay couple they wouldn't work for homosexuals. The publicity generated from the Texas landscaper's email hitting the mainstream news resulted in $40,000 in new business for the bigots.

Perhaps Luxus Lofts is wise to the value of even the most negative publicity. In their email to the Manchester couple they urged them to contact the ITV show Builders from Hell, saying "Please get us on TV asap."

Sphere: Related Content

The Closet Xtina Fans of Manchester United

Power shopper Cristiano Ronaldo showed up to the Christina Aguilera concert in Manchester proudly displaying his favorite manbag, and teammates Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney weren't far behind.

Rooney, no stranger to lucrative deals, recently became the highest-paid player in British football history after signing a contract that will earn him £35million in salary over six years along with numerous endorsement deals. That should pay for a lot of Christina CDs.

And if Ronaldo's not earning £££ for the manbag endorsement, he should be.

Sphere: Related Content

News: Pelosi Fashion, Manchester Gay Rape, Ian Roberts

Charred body discovered in burned out car parked in gay and straight "lover's lane".

AP takes sexist approach to Pelosi's new leadership position, details label and color of outfit.

Gay man raped at knifepoint after a night out in Manchester's gay village. Detective: "This was a horrific attack on a man who had been having a night out with friends. He is understandably devastated that someone has done this to him and we want to make sure the man responsible is held to account for his actions. I know that some people may be reluctant to come forward as this area is known to be one where men meet for sex. We understand those concerns. But we would like to assure you that our priority is to catch this man. We treat all allegations of rape very seriously and any information you may have will be treated in the strictest confidence."

Guess the mystery man...

ChanningGate continues: Gay People's Chronicle defends its interview with the 85-year-old icon: "Knowing that Carol Channing is 85 years old and has been touring extensively for decades, it's understandable that she might be a little confused; she might have been tired. However, what Kaizaad Kotwal wrote is the truth of what was said."

Lakeland, Florida police officer Robert Knight suing his supervisor, a major, and the director of the Florida Highway Patrol for spreading rumors that he is gay, ordering another trooper to fight him, and trying unsuccessfully to charge him with harassing and stalking another male trooper.

Judge throws out defamation case brought by Frederick George Rix against rugby star-turned-actor Ian Roberts. Roberts testified against Rix earlier this year in an inquest into the death of his friend Arron Light.

Sphere: Related Content