News: Striking Poses, Roasting Rivers & Unhappy Day Campers

Via Out.com: London's National Portrait Gallery opens "Gay Icons," an exhibit filled with celebrated people "who may or may not be gay themselves" from all fields. Joe Dallesandro (pictured above), k.d. lang, Quentin Crisp and Andy Warhol are among the icons chosen by Waheed Alli, Alan Hollinghurst, Elton John, Jackie Kay, Billie Jean King, Ian McKellen, Chris Smith, Ben Summerskill, Sandi Toksvig and Sarah Waters. The show runs through October 18.

The Jonas Brothers are quitting music? Seems like this might be a ruse to buy a magazine. In this case, Time Out New York's July 9—15 issue. Which happens to have four unique collector's-edition covers of the Jonases shot by Dan Hallman.

Sarah Palin might not be running for president so much as for kingmaker. But if she did decide to run for president, despite turning off the left and the middle, she's got 7 in 10 Republicans willing to vote for her—even after abruptly quitting as governor of Alaska.

Outfest kicks off tomorrow, and Greg In Hollywood recommends the romantic comedy Make the Yuletide Gay.

UnXXXciting: Porn actress Savanna Samson is dispirited by the lack of good scripts lately. Cheer up, at least every year is the year of the woman in that genre and every role is meaty.

Kim Jong Il showed up at a tribute to his late father looking like he is about to join him at any moment.

Mug Shotz: Laverne & Shirley star Eddie Mekka ("Carmine"), 57,  bagged for DUI. It's a bad week for '70s sitcom-star sobriety.

Scenes from a Mall: Footage shot in 1990 at various Los Angeles malls sped up and set to music. More interesting that it sounds.

Popular Tyler Perry actor gets outed by an ex. Fans and haters react at Media Takeout.

In the wake of his wake, Michael Jackson's catalogue continues to moonwalk out of stores. (And 82% of the sales were physical albums.)

Kathy Griffin will host a roast of Joan Rivers. "I will be roasting Joan with more gentleness and tenderness than her latest chemical peel."

Oscar Mayer—yes, that one—has died at 95.

Over 60 kids from the Creative Steps Day Camp were kicked out of The Valley Swim Club because they were black. When the black children arrived (they'd paid nearly $2,000 to join) and entered the pool, the white children got out, said one of the parents. "I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" reported Dymire Baylor, one of the children asked to leave. Pool attendants reportedly admitted minorities are not allowed at the club, and in a statement, the president of the club said, "There was a concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion...and the atmosphere of the club." P.S. This happened in 2009.

Porn Again Legitimacy?

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If F. Scott Fitzgerald was right when he wrote that "there are no second acts in American lives" then how do you explain the careers of former porn boys turned mainstream fashion models Scott Andreasen and Thierry (aka Terry) Pepin?

Andreasen -- who is absolutely adorable -- is represented by Next Models USA in Miami, yet he can also be seen as the ironically named "Harry" in JO films for SeanCody.com, the famed producer who gets "straight boys to unload." And Pepin starred in the hard-core gay porno flick "Minets du Quebec" (plus the less salacious "Danny in the Sky"), most of which have been pulled from shelves. Does being the face of Ralph Lauren's Romance get you some top-notch legal representation? What do you think?

Unlike some publications, I'm not exactly ready to deem these two examples a full-scale trend. But I do think it's safe to say we're living in a post-Paris Hilton sex tape world now in which the stigma of pornography is quickly disappearing. The phenomenon began back in 1990 when John Waters cast Traci Lords in his 1950s musical "Cry Baby" (Roseanne Barr took it a step further and put Lords on her smash sitcom -- on Disney-owned ABC, no less!). Then Jenna Jameson wrote a bestseller and started popping up in mainstream venues, which wound up being a prelude to Hilton's overnight superstardom (let's be honest here: it wasn't "The Simple Life" that took her from Page Six darling to international headlines). I used to think it was sad 15-20 years ago that the only recognizable "stars" the gay community had were the likes of Jeff Stryker, Ryan Idol and Joey Stefano -- or someone famous with HIV (Greg Louganis), but these days I almost find it sadder a lot mainstream "stars" aren't much different.   

The fact that Hilton hangeroner Kim Kardashian and "Brandy's brother" Ray J can't stop "accidentally" leaking their so-called "private" sex tape (it's even available on pay-per-view at the Waldorf Astoria!) -- and have wound up becoming tabloid darlings as a result -- further proves that pornography is not only no longer the kiss of death in Hollywood, it's often an entre. Maybe this is a good thing that indicates Americans are finally getting over our sexual hang-ups, Or maybe not.

You can see some COMPLETELY NSFW shots of the boys here, here and here. There's more information on the Terry Pepin legal action regarding "Minets du Quebec" here. (The post isn't NSFW but the site is.)

News: Rodrigo Santoro, Nancy Pelosi, Stem Cells, D&G

Washington state introduces gay marriage bill.

Designers disrobe: First it was Tom Ford; now Dolce & Gabbana take it off for Steven Klein in W magazine.

New Jersey says clerics are not required by law to perform same-sex union ceremonies: "In a letter to the state registrar, Joseph A. Komosinski, Attorney General Stuart Rabner wrote that clergy members could decline to perform civil union ceremonies without violating the law, if performing such ceremonies would go against their 'sincerely held religious beliefs.'"

How Nancy Pelosi's womb is advancing the gay agenda...

Spoiler: New Brazilian Lost hottie Rodrigo Santoro reveals his character's fate in the upcoming TV season.

Outfits in reverse: Alan Cumming and Grant Shaffer's first wedding photo.

Bush plans veto of stem-cell research bill just passed by the House. Kos: "Let's recap the utter absurdity of remaining conservative opposition to Embryonic Stem Cell Research. You're holding a cryogenic container with a blastocyst inside. It's a ball of cells (HT: PoliticAl2008) roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence. You have a choice of putting it in an incinerator or placing it in a petri dish and using it for research. George Bush and his shrinking base somehow reason, using unknown, convoluted pseudo-logic, that destruction by fire is saving it while the petri dish represents destroying it."

Gay porn stars team up for anti-meth campaign.

Cops Nab Porn Star Suspected in Death of Gay Denver Man

Timothy Boham, a suspect in the shooting death of Denver businessman John "JP" Kelso, was taken into custody Thursday morning just steps away from the Mexico border in Arizona. Boham is a porn actor who goes by the name of Marcus Allen and has acted in several movies (link NSFW) and posed for Playgirl's "Campus Hunks" issue. According to the Denver Post, "When he was approached by customs officers, Boham allegedly told them he was a first- degree murder fugitive out of Denver. The officers arrested Boham, and Denver detectives are making arrangements to have him returned."

Boham was recently hired as a debt collector by the Kelso, who founded Professional Recovery Systems, a Denver collection agency, but any relationship beyond a professional one remains unclear, although Kelso was openly gay.

Boham, who has a 5-year-old daughter, had "numerous girlfriends" according to the Post and once told a downstairs neighbor that he "sanitized" his apartment "by thoroughly scrubbing it because a gay man had lived there previously."

Said the neighbor: "He hated (gays). He hated their lifestyle."

Yet he had no problem being "gay for pay" (link NSFW) in such movies as Falcon Studio's Through the Woods. One talent agency owner told the Post that Boham seemed desperate: "He didn't like people telling him what to do. He seemed like an angry person. His opportunities were tapering off. He got into bloody fistfights. He just had anger issues."

Sounds like plenty of self-loathing internal conflict going on here.

Arrest in businessman's killing [denver post]
Marcus Allen: Murder Suspect [gay porn blog] (NSFW)
Playgirl Killer Apprehended, Hates Gays [gay porn blog] (NSFW)

RNC and Chair Ken Mehlman Accepted Contributions from Distributor of Gay Porn Flick Featuring 82nd Airborne Soldiers

RNC Chair Ken Mehlman was confronted at a fundraiser last week at a residence on Capitol Hill about the various answers he has given to media inquiries about his sexuality. Said Mehlman to blogger Mike Rogers before turning away: "I don't think I've given different answers."

Yet the RNC's confusion about gays extends further than questions about what goes on in Ken Mehlman's bedroom.

Via AmericaBlog comes this bit:

The RNC has been running an attack ad in Tennessee against Rep. Harold Ford (D) which slams Ford for taking money from porn movie producers. Unfortunately for Mehlman, notes Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, the RNC "is a regular recipient of political contributions from Nicholas T. Boyias, the owner and CEO of Marina Pacific Distributors, one of the largest producers and distributors of gay porn in the United States."

As TPM notes, recent releases have included Fire in the Hole, Flesh and Boners, and a Velvet Mafia series (links NSFW).

Interesting. However, I'm not sure that anyone has made this connection yet:

Of interest to some might be the fact that Active Duty (link NSFW) is one of the production companies distributed by Marina Pacific. In January, seven soldiers from the 82nd Airborne were revealed to have been involved in porn movies produced by Active Duty. Four of the soldiers involved received non-judicial punishments while three others were court martialed, served prison time for their misconduct, and were discharged from the military.

So, the U.S. military discharged soldiers for participating in a gay porn flick while at the same time the RNC took political contributions from the film's distributor!

I'm sure the discharged paratroopers would be interested to know that portions of the profits from their films were headed to the coffers of the Republican Party.

You may have missed...
RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman: I'm Not Gay
The Military's Ugly Double Standard on Gay Porn [tr]
Blogger: Idaho Senator Larry Craig Had Gay Encounters [tr]
GQ on Outing Gay Republicans [tr]
82nd Airborne Gay Porn "Ringleader" Faces Court [tr]

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' XXX Stops Texans in their Tracks

You may be aware of Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' photo book Thinking XXX which features dual portraits of clothed and naked porn stars. The book was also the subject of an HBO film and traveling exhibit. Greenfield-Sanders was present as the exhibit opened in Houston  at the Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery this week as he's photographing Houstonians with their dogs.

Towleroad received an amusing photo of some visitors to the exhibit checking out the portrait of well-endowed Lucas Entertainment actor Chad Hunt. Link to the NSFW version after the jump.

[photo no longer available]