Marc Jacobs' Acting Debut: VIDEO

Designer Marc Jacobs makes his acting debut in Henry Alex Rubin's film Disconnect, a role Jacobs described as that of a "porn baron," Movieline reports.

The film opens Friday.

Watch a 40-second clip preview, AFTER THE JUMP...

Train in Vain: VIDEO

Marc Jacobs this week released "Train in Vain", a campy short film to promote a new set of boxing glove necklaces, which are something like fashion dog tags for vanity athletes?

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: Tesco's Pride, Ellen Barkin, Marriage Licenses, Koch

Actress Jamie Anne Allman says frustrated viewers will be satisfied with season two of AMC's The Killing. I'll believe it when I see it.

Marc Jacobs and ex Lorenzo Martone show off their beach bodies during a New Year's swim in St. Barts.

Lady Gaga and boyfriend Taylor Kinney rang in 2012 together.

There's no way of knowing, but New York State officials believe marriage equality is responsible for a 14% increase - 4,042 - in the number of marriage licenses issued over the past six months.

CBS News' Brian Montopoli offers thoughts on the "overhyped, unrepresentative" Iowa caucuses: "The press' focus on every twist and turn of the Iowa horse race takes the focus away from the candidates' positions on issues and creates a distorted narrative in which candidates are often forced to spend weeks focused on winning a few thousand votes in an effort to win a trumped-up expectations game and avoid a flood of negative headlines."

UK retailer Tesco denies it has pulled gay pride support after criticism from a conservative Christian group. It remains "fully committed" to the cause.

Spanish activists hoping to create that nation's first LGBT retirement home have finally found land to start building their dream. "Homosexuals who go into homes often also have to go straight back into the closet," said one of the organizers, Federico Armenteros. "This will be a place that is open to everyone and where no one will have to hide their sexuality."

Benjamin Colton Barnes, an Iraq veteran accused of killing ranger Margaret Anderson at Mount Rainier, is believed to be dead after aircraft spotted a body in a secluded part of the park. (Update: Confirmed.)

Ellen Barkin claims she fell after being "shoved" by a New York police officer after haranguing them for Occupy Wall Street arrests on New Year's Eve.

ABC's cross-dressing "comedy" Work It, already being protested by gay groups GLAAD and HRC, is getting predictably bad reviews: "The show’s comedy is predicated on the fact that none of Lee’s female co-workers seem able to discern the obvious (she’s a man, baby), probably because they are too busy living down to every lame stereotype associated with office women, up to and including the itty-bitty salads they nibble at lunch."

A number of LGBT-inclusive laws, including the "Gay History law" and "Seth's Law," which combats anti-gay bullying, will be officially enacted this week.

Dee Rees, who used her experience coming out as inspiration for her movie Pariah, discusses how Spike Lee influenced her work.

Rick Santorum's daughter offers her thoughts on her father's opposition to gay marriage. "It's a policy thing, he thinks this is the right thing for America and the foundations of our country," said Elizabeth Santorum. "People are entitled to live the way they want, but to project those values and say those are the best values for our country are a different thing."

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch thinks Ron Paul is "the candidate of the white supremacists, Jew haters, and gay bashers."

James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald and other famous writers have joined the public domain.

Newt Gingrich is doing some pre-caucus damage control in Iowa. "I don't think I'm going to win," he said today, hoping to tamp down expectations ahead of New Hampshire's primary.

Glee actor Darren Criss makes his Broadway debut tomorrow.

Not too late: 101 movies from 2011.

The show’s comedy is predicated on the fact that none of Lee’s female co-workers seem able to discern the obvious (she’s a man, baby), probably because they are too busy living down to every lame stereotype associated with office women, up to and including the itty-bitty salads they nibble at lunch

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/01/3345090/abcs-vapid-transgender-take.html#storylink=cpy

The show’s comedy is predicated on the fact that none of Lee’s female co-workers seem able to discern the obvious (she’s a man, baby), probably because they are too busy living down to every lame stereotype associated with office women, up to and including the itty-bitty salads they nibble at lunch

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/01/3345090/abcs-vapid-transgender-take.html#storylink=cpy

The show’s comedy is predicated on the fact that none of Lee’s female co-workers seem able to discern the obvious (she’s a man, baby), probably because they are too busy living down to every lame stereotype associated with office women, up to and including the itty-bitty salads they nibble at lunch

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/01/3345090/abcs-vapid-transgender-take.html#storylink=cpy

 

Former Marc Jacobs Exec Sues Company, Claims Sexual Harassment, Discrimination

Marc Jacobs International's former CFO and COO is suing the company from which he was fired:

[President Robert] Duffy (pictured), who's Jacobs' longtime business partner, "uses company funds for personal expenses and does not censor what he does or says," former chief operating officer Patrice Lataillade says in his suit, which charges Duffy with having created a "discriminatory environment" at the company.

"Examples of Duffy's conduct which created a hostile work environment include his displaying gay pornography in the office and requiring employees to look at it; his production and dissemination of a book which includes photos of MJI staff in sexual positions or nude; [and] his requirement that an MJI store employee perform a pole dance for him," the suit says.

Lataillade said he stood up to Duffy's underlings, and was fired from his $1 million-a-year job in retaliation.

In a statement, the company blasted the allegations as "false," and that Lataillade was canned "for serious matters unrelated to the allegations contained in the complaint."

More at the NY Post...

News: Apple, Ashton Kutcher, Soloflex, Marc Jacobs

Lesbian couple's home in New Zealand is targeted with fire and hateful graffiti.

Ashton Kutcher's top 10 shirtless movie scenes.

Kutcher's new film, No Strings Attached, opens at number 1 at the box office.

This short history of Soloflex mentioned that "genetically perfect" Scott Madsen has recently been sent to prison.

The Apple app store has officially hit 10 billion downloads.

Ryan Kwanten rocks a bow tie.

The Catholic League's Bill Donohue resorts to name-calling while responding to Christopher Knight's piece in the LA Times about censhorship at the Smithsonian: "I had no idea that the vile video was part of a gay exhibition until after I called it hate speech. In any event, we won and you lost. Get over it. You are sounding like a narcissistic brat."

Tunisia-style protests could next engulf Egypt.

Pope Benedict: marriage is not a right.

The BBC apologizes for joking that Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings survivor is "the unluckiest man in the world."

Photos from Marc Jacobs's spread in drag from last year's Industrie Magazine.

Former Real World cast member Joey Kovar to bare all for Playgirl.

Elton John says he is sick of being a "second-class citizen...We need people to say, 'OK. I'm straight. You're gay. Let's get along. I'm Republican. You're Democratic. Let's work together.'"

Zsa Zsa Gabor goes home after surgery.

Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R-NC) says she plans to bring a concealed weapon to public events.

Stroke rate among those who are HIV-positive is on the rise.

New report: "Former Michigan assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell was warned about using state resources to launch anti-gay attacks on politicians two months before he began targeting the University of Michigan’s student body president."

John Travolta says that Rickey Gervais' hosting of the Golden Globes was "more like a roast."

Lady Gaga And Marc Jacobs Love New York

The two grace the cover of the new issue of V Magazine which highlights those who "are making the city their own way." The mag's editor on why he chose Gaga for the cover: "Just as the Statue of Liberty was France's gift to America, Gaga is, to us, New York's greatest gift to pop culture and fashion."

Based on his pose, Jacobs doesn't think much of the gift of Gaga.