News: Kylie Minogue, Sydney, Spencer Tunick, Nikolai Alexeyev

In the first nationwide law of its kind in Latin America, Colombia grants health benefits to same-sex couples.

Jury in Princess Diana inquest gets an uncanny look at her final moments, as they too are chased by the paparazzi in Paris: "The coach carrying the Diana inquest jury has reportedly crashed as it traced the Princess's last movements around Paris. In an eerie parallel with the catastrophic accident which killed the Princess, the bus driver was apparently trying to out-manoeuvre paparazzi outside the Ritz. The jury, coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker, and teams of lawyers made British legal history by making a site inspection of the places where the Princess and her lover Dodi Fayed spent their final hours. But within minutes of starting the tour in the Place Vendome, close to the Ritz hotel, their bus knocked a police outrider from his motorcycle. Then seconds later the bus collided with an 18-inch metal bollard."

Britney Spears and sister attacked at sushi restaurant: "Nobody wants you in this neighborhood Britney! MOVE! You are making this neighborhood very unsafe!"

Bush White House has tried to "silence" MSNBC's Chris Matthews, host claims: "They will not silence me!...They’ve finally been caught in their criminality."

Russian gay activist Nikolai Alexeyev gets "solidarity reception" in the Windy City.

Kylie channels Patrick Nagel for new album cover...

Former OUT magazine editor Brendan Lemon and his friend Jerry Wade have started an entertainment-oriented blog called Lemonwade. Lemon has the scoop on Jake Gyllenhaal's rumored trip to the Broadway stage in Farragut North: "Lemonwade has learned that [Mike] Nichols will not be directing the play. For now, the production — with Gyllenhaal or anyone else — is on hold. And with Gyllenhaal’s film schedule filling up (he has just signed on to star in a love-triangle movie called 'Brothers,' with Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman), I don’t see him on Broadway anytime soon."

600 people to pose nude for Spencer Tunick at Sagamore Hotel in Miami Beach: "It's about fantasy and leisure. It's a stereotype, but it's true. You're going to have a good time if you come to Miami Beach. I'm going to have 100 to 200 women in pink rafts. We're going to have people on the balcony posing very much like the Tower of Babel meets Logan's Run. We're going to buy some champagne, 500 bottles, and were going to make a giant explosion for the climax of the installation from the balcony."

Violent anti-gay crimes in Sydney prompt unusual political visit to Oxford Street: "As partygoers looked on, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, Police Minister David Campbell, Labor candidate for Wentworth George Newhouse and local drag queen Maxi Shield wandered the clubs and back alleys of Oxford Street to gauge the impact of homophobic violence."

Gay nightlife "targeted" in Birmingham, England.

B'gosh! Gay and lesbian support group forms in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Movie theater lobby contains hidden erotic message.

Dead Prince Harry Sculpture to be Unveiled in London

A dead Prince Harry is featured in "a memorial honoring those willing but unable to serve in the Iraq conflict" by sculptor Daniel Edwards, scheduled to be unveiled at the Trafalgar Hotel on October 11.

"The Memorial features Prince Harry laid out before the Union Jack with pennies placed over his eyes and head rested on the Bible. The statue suggests the tragic outcome of a confrontation in Iraq’s Maysan Province with the Iranian weapons smugglers for whom Harry’s tank regiment was scheduled to patrol. Prone with his unfired gun still holstered, Prince Harry is represented clutching a bloodied flag of Wales, and holding to his heart a cameo locket of his late mother, Princess Diana, while a desert vulture perches on his boot. Harry’s head is earless, denoting the explicit threats against the Prince from militia leaders saying they planned to send him back to his grandmother 'without his ears.'"

The clay mold pictured here still has the ears, but according to Radar Online they are to be removed...and sold on eBay.

And, pardon me for noticing, but it looks as if there is something going on in Prince Harry's trousers (click on left shot, below).

You may remember Edwards for his oh-so-subtle takes on Britney Spears giving birth, a Paris Hilton autopsy, and Suri Cruise's poop.

News: Jeffrey Toobin, Wildebeest, Ann Coulter, He-Vage, Norway

Norwegian clergy to defy church, carry out same-sex marriages. Chaplain: "There will be a certain amount of civil disobedience. I want to start wedding homosexuals as soon as a new Marriage Act is in place."

Diana's final smile on film.

Jeffrey Toobin looks at Lawrence v. Texas in new book on Supreme Court, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court: "There was no mistaking the significance of Kennedy's opinion. The point was not that the court was halting sodomy prosecutions, which scarcely took place anymore. Rather, the court was announcing that gay people could not be branded as criminals simply because of who they were. They were citizens. They were like everyone else."

Welsh gay and lesbian film festival offers record £25,000 prize for best film: "Festival director Berwyn Rowlands said talent from at least half of the films shortlisted were flying in from all over the world to attend the event. 'This is a prize that unites a global network of film festivals located in LA, Sydney, Manila, Hong Kong and Dublin to bring together the most promising new talent from around the world,' he said."

Ann Coulter's piehole opens up: "If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women."

Britney Spears now licensed to cause havoc on the streets of L.A..

Anglican advisory committee says Episcopalian church has "complied with a directive" on same-sex unions and gay bishops folowing an announcement by the Episcopals that they would be exercising "restraint" on those issues in the future.

10,000 dead. One-percent of world's entire wildebeest population die in mass drowning over the course of several days. "As the animals passed through southern Kenya during their annual migration, part of the herd attempted to cross the fast-moving Mara at a "particularly treacherous" point, according to Terilyn Lemaire, a conservation worker with the Nairobi-based Mara Conservancy who witnessed the incident. 'Once they jumped into the water, they were unable to climb up either embankment onto land and, as a result, got swept up by the current and drowned,' she wrote in an email to National Geographic News."

The Daily Mail tackles some tough issues. How much He-vage should a man show? And which aging male stars have had plastic surgery?

Folsom Street down under: a look at Sydney's recent sleaze ball.

Domestic Violence Hotline for gay/bisexual/transgender men receives $75,000 Verizon grant to expand to cover Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut: "The Verizon grant is significant for several reasons. It expands a model program into other states, and it provides a lifeline to gay, bisexual and transgender male victims currently without access to services. It also raises awareness among other corporations that domestic violence is a critical issue that impacts everyone."

Irish man gets eight months in prison for gay bashing: "Garda John Lavery gave evidence that the victim was walking towards the diving board at Blackrock, at 3am on April 15 last year when he saw a group of youths were already there. He was accosted by Corcoran who shouted homophobic obscenities at him. Corcoran shouted, 'What the f*** are you looking at you poofter, you faggot.' He punched the victim to the face and told him he was going to kill him. The victim managed to escape and he reported the incident at Salthill Garda Station two days later."

Public Gets Last Glimpse of Princess Diana as Accident Inquest Begins

Several snapshots of Princess Diana's final moments were revealed yesterday as an inquest began into the circumstances surrounding her death, more than ten years after the accident in the Pont L'Alma tunnel that took her life as well as Dodi Fayed's and that of chaffeur Henri Paul.

The BBC reports: "Speaking at the start of the hearing on Tuesday, coroner Lord Justice Baker told jurors he would be 'conducting a vigorous and searching inquiry through the evidence so that the true cause of death may, if possible, be determined once and for all.'"

Many of the newly released photos depict the carnage following the accident, but the two pictures that were released of the moments before the crash are perhaps the most chilling, and appear to show consternation in the vehicle as it is sandwiched by paparazzi.

Via the Daily Mail: "Taken by one of the paparazzi, the princess is visible in the rear seat peering back at the pursuing French photographers. To her side Dodi Fayed is hunched forward in his seat. It is just seconds after the couple have left the back entrance of the Ritz Hotel on the fatal journey to Dodi's Paris apartment and provides the last known picture of Diana alive. But it is the occupants of the front seat that catch the eye. Trevor Rees-Jones, Dodi's bodygaurd and the only survivor of the terrible accident, holds a protective hand up as he peers into the lens. Beside him the driver Henri Paul - accused by police of being drunk - stares twistedly, almost mockingly, at the camera."

Published for the first time: The most remarkable pictures of the Diana crash [daily mail]

Moment Captured: Princess Diana's Death 8/31/97

As a follow-up to my last post, one of our readers sent us a link to a video he happened to be shooting (he had bought a new video camera that day and was playing around with it) at the moment he and his friends learned that Diana had been killed. It's an interesting "fly-on-the-wall" moment which captures the shock of the shock of the moment and the somber aftermath.

Tenth Anniversary of Diana's Death Marked by Pomp and Conspiracy

It's the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death tomorrow and the New York Times takes a look at the buzz and conspiracy theories that still surround the life of Diana:

"And people are still arguing, as they did in that odd, volatile time a decade ago, over Diana’s significance, in life and in death. Was she a naïve innocent or a sophisticated schemer? Was Diana an extraordinary woman whose 'lifetime of service touched the lives of millions,' as Mr. Brown wrote over the weekend, or a'devious moron' desperate for attention, as the feminist author Germaine Greer recently described her?"

ABC News is looking at Who's In and Who's Out at the Diana Memorial Service. Camilla Parker-Bowles, once labeled "the Rottweiler" by Diana, opted out earlier this week: "I'm very touched to have been invited by Prince William and Prince Harry to attend the thanksgiving service for their mother, Diana, princess of Wales. I accepted and wanted to support them. However, on reflection, I believe my attendance could divert attention from the purpose of the occasion, which is to focus on the life and service of Diana."

The hour-long private service, being held tomorrow at the Guards Chapel opposite St James' Park, near Buckingham Palace, has been criticized because it is being billed as a "family event" but is being held in the center of London to the dismay of the hordes that haven't been invited to the service itself, or even to watch it televised. Some are saying that if it was to be a private affair it should have been held at Althorp.

Australia's The Age notes: "Britain will mark the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death today with a low-key service that has been criticised for excluding the public and exposing the royal family to the same bad publicity that dogged it at the time of the princess' death."

The conspiracy theories are out in full force. Among them are a forthcoming interview with Diana's "love rat" James Hewitt, who reportedly refuels the Prince Harry paternity speculation: "In an exclusive interview with A Current Affair's Tracy Grimshaw, to be broadcast tomorrow night, Hewitt tells of his last conversation with Diana, his dislike of the Royal family and the delicate question of Harry's paternity. His handling of the latter question — he has stormed out of interviews or issued flat denials in the past — marks a dramatic shift, and arouses fresh speculation he is the true father of Britain's youngest prince."

I ran across this video this morning, however, and it's probably the weirdest 'psychic' theory I've come across regarding the events of August 31, 1997 — that the work of Morrissey and The Smiths somehow foreshadowed Diana's tragic death in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris.

The Queen is dead, boys. And it's so lonely on a limb.