News: It's Jackson By a Nose, Heteroflexibility & Meloni's Top Guns

Another actor makes weird comments about on-screen kissing...a dozen years after the fact.

Soap star Michael Muhney (also from Veronica Mars) talks "heteroflexibility" with AfterElton.

Was Canada's Federal Tourism Minister Diane Ablonczy punished for approving a fund that provided $400,000 to Toronto's pride festivities?

Rapamycin, an antibiotic, shows signs of delaying the aging process.

It's safe to say that John Micklow (pictured) might not have the sexiest name for a male model, but he's in the right line of work.

Metrosexual manual Details wonders if straight men will take to wearing male engagement rings. Marriage is sacred, but must it also be so precious?

Come Together: Madonna's new single "Celebrate" from her career-spanning hits package Celebration will hit airwaves July 28.

Miami Social, Bravo's latest reality show, debuts Tuesday, July 14, at 10 p.m. ET/PT, featuring two out men. One is HuffingtonPost blogger Michael Cohen, who will be launching Style Lab, a sort of fashion/style version of MySpace in the fall, and the other is Ariel Stein, who I hear you might not love to hate so much as just hate.

Announcing the arrival of Icarus, "the first magazine devoted to gay-themed speculative fiction and writing—from fantasy to horror to science fiction, and all the weird tales that fall between the cracks." The first issue features stories by Jameson Currier, Jeff Mann, Tom Cardamone and Joel D. Lane, interviews with Dan Stone and Peter Grahame and poetry by Lawrence M. Schoen.

A frighteningly detailed portrait of the late Michael Jackson taken for Q Magazine's August 2009 cover reveals the netting of his wig, salt-and-pepper stubble, the most surgically tortured nose since Ann Miller and a telltale gauntness. How could people around him not have feared the worst?

No-Brainer: Jackson's family will not bury him until the L.A. coroner is done with his brain, which they're still examining. Also of note, his sister La Toya was the family member who signed his death certificate. (She infamously agreed her brother may have been guilty of molestation charges, but later recanted, saying an abusive husband had driven her to say it.)

A lawyer who prosecuted an infamous 1983 gay-bashing case in Ireland (the unrepentant perps were convicted but a judge decided nothing would be served by jailing them) passes away.

Swami Baba Ramdev has filed suit in India to reverse the decriminalization of homosexuality, which he terms a "disease" that "can be treated by yoga, pranayama (breathing exercises) and other meditation techniques."

Christopher Meloni—have guns, will travel.

News: The P Word, Mrs. Furley, A Daytime Outing & "The" Funeral

A sandstorm that's injured many and stymied travel in Iraq may actually be the largest in modern history—it's even visible from space.

Perez Hilton is The Advocate's latest coverboy. The print edition was put to bed prior to his will.i.am "faggot" incident, but the online version of Benoit Denizet-Lewis's article contains updates, such as this nugget: "I thought about calling him the n word, but I thought the f word was even worse. I was so filled with hate at that moment because I was hated on so much, and I reacted in the worst way possible." The article is certainly no puff piece, but it takes the Perez phenomenon seriously.

According to records, Sarah Palin called Dick Cheney, Rudy Giuliani and Charlie Crist in the weeks before shocking everyone—even her own father-in-law—by announcing she was up and quitting.

Jackie O...Oh, Oh, Oh! Did President Kennedy's wife have an affair with his Attorney General brother, Bobby?

Too Much Time at the Regal Beagle: Three's Company alum Joyce DeWitt ("Janet"), 60, busted for DUI. Mug shot completes transformation into "Mr. Furley."

Margaret Cho's Web site gets a makeover.

Looks like today's the day on The Young & the Restless that "Phillip," played by openly gay (and openly hot) actor Thom Bierdz, comes out of the closet.

Michael Jackson's memorial in L.A. today (following last night's private service and an early-morning internment at the secretive Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills) is set to feature performances by Mariah Carey, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah and Stevie Wonder, with appearances by Martin Luther King III, Brooke Shields and a host of others, including Shaheen Jafargholi...an adorable Britain's Got Talent contestant who's about 12 and fits the profile. Not going? Debbie Rowe, who doesn't want her attendance to "be an unnecessary distraction to an event that should focus exclusively on Michael's legacy."

The oddest photo of Michael Jackson ever to be published.

Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat is the surprise screening at Philadelphia's QFest on Sunday, July 19, at 7 p.m. The film continues the series' theme of sexual deception and stars Rebekah Kochan, Mink Stole, Leslie Jordan and six openly gay actors in lead roles. (Cast and crew pictured at left.)

Could the Boies-Olson Prop 8 lawsuit judge be gay? If so...does it matter?

Veteran actress Penny Fuller is perhaps best known for her turn as Eve Harrington on Broadway in Applause, but she was also in the original 1963 production of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park. She will join cast members of Ground UP Productions' intimate, Off Broadway revival of Barefoot in the Park after the Saturday, July 11, 8 p.m. show for a "Barefoot Flashback." If you've never attended this kind of thing with original stars, I always find them to be highly entertaining. Tickets are $25.

Interview with Out Boy-Bander Nathaniel Flatt

Nathaniel Flatt. Photo by Keith Munyan.

Boy bands are successful because they're formulaic, giving fans the archetypes they want—you've got the cute one, the dangerous one, the young one.

Well, how about the gay one?

Twenty-seven-year-old Nathaniel Flatt is not a household name, and you can be excused if you have not yet heard of his boy band V Factory since their single "Love Struck" is just now making an impact at pop radio ahead of a projected summer album release on Warner Bros. Records. What makes him remarkable, aside from his obvious good looks and musicality, is that he's the first member of a U.S boy band to be out from the beginning of his career.

Lance Bass made a huge splash when he came out as gay three years ago on the cover of People after *NSYNC had disbanded, but he'd been beaten to the punch overseas—both Stephen Gately of Boyzone and Mark Feehily of Westlife, Irish boybands with enormous international followings, had come out while their groups were actively recording and touring.

But still, no American boy band has started out with an openly gay member. In talking with Nathaniel about his life and his approach to the media, it became apparent that simply being honest has helped him avoid a lot of uncomfortable situations, kept him proud of who he is and, interestingly, has made the act of coming out itself feel almost an afterthought.

The aim of pop music, in particular teen pop music, is usually to sell, sell, sell, leading to strict rules about the content and length of songs and the appearance and behavior of performers. But for Flatt, his sexual identity is "a part of me just like my arm is so I can't deny it." Being out is not a marketing ploy or a way to head off an impending tabloid story, but a simple matter of authenticity. And haven't explosions of authenticity  from within the clichés of the pop world led to some memorable artists?

It's anyone's guess whether V Factory will join their ranks, but they're on their way, sharing a manager with Ashley Tisdale of High School Musical fame and with former teen idol Tommy Page as their A&R at Warner Bros. (his "I'll Be Your Everything" went to #1 in 1990).

As for Flatt, it sounds like he's already where he needs to be.

Matthew Rettenmund's full interview with Nathaniel Flatt after the jump...

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #319

PIGSKIN: In the Locker Room: Trials of a Gay American Football Player with bully Matt Cavenaugh. Somewhat NSFW.

HIGH ON YOU: Via Dlisted, Pete Doherty serenades his ex.

FLOODTIDE OF FILTH: Via Ectoplasmosis, what are you gonna do about newsstand filth, perv?

SILLINESS: Via JoeMyGod, a wingnut is all strung out.

News: Prisoners Of War, On Set With Cyndi, Servicing Obama, Aren't Ross & Rachel Like 45 Now?, Unfriendly Skies & More

Freedom: Ingrid Betancourt, a Colombian presidential candidate held by the "Marxist-inspired" insurgents FARC in the jungle since 2002, has been rescued along with 14 other captives. Interesting that this happens while John McCain is in Colombia. In totally unrelated news, it's been revealed that a top John McCain fundraiser, Carl H. Lindner, Jr., has a history of supporting terrorist groups. The Cincinnati billionaire oversaw the payment of $1.7 million to a Colombian paramilitary group now defined as terrorists by the U.S. government and described as an "illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country's most notorious civilian massacres." Conspiracy theories aside, there's also been a long-overdue McCain campaign shake-up.

Rush Limbaugh is the $400 million-dollar Elvis of talk radio.

Bodybuilder Matus Valent shares recipes and visual access to his physique at connex24.7. And he's got quite a way with words: "My most often food I eat throughout the whole year is grilled chicken breasts with rice, but I would say my most favorite is a Steak, preferably from an upscale steakhouse. It can be Fillet Mignon, Ribeye or New York strip prepared medium so my muscles can get some of the highest quality protein." High-quality meat really does contain the best protein.

After Cyndi: Rocker and gay-rights activist Cyndi Lauper welcomes After Elton for an As the World Turns set visit.

Ask Obama not what your country can do for you, ask Obama what you can do for your country.

Does it pay to get gay-married?

For the first time, Army and RAF troops in the UK will be allowed to march in Gay Pride parades wearing their uniforms. Controversially, gay soldiers will be reimbursed their traveling expenses in getting to the parades, even though soldiers are not reimbursed for other functions—like attending the Queen's Garden Party.

Will the cast of Friends be there for you?

FOX deliberately alters images of New York Times reporters Steven Reddicliffe and Jacques Steinberg to enhance their point that they are "attack dogs."

Cuppa Joe...Bob...Bill...: WEtv set loose 15 shirtless, coffee-serving men in Midtown Manhattan to build awareness for its new show Hot Coffee Break, on which studly guys perform mundane tasks. Did I mention the network is aimed at women?

Openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson is set to preach at London's historic St Mary's, Putney, in the diocese of Southwark, at the invitation of church rector Rev. Giles Fraser. Says Fraser, "I am delighted that Gene Robinson is preaching in Putney. His exclusion from the Lambeth Conference, a meeting for listening, is an absolute scandal. He is a gracious and deeply courageous man of God."

Cindy McCain is very, very spendy.

Barack Obama shores up Hispanic support, so Bill Richardson might be off his short list. Obama also has the "grudging respect" of former Vice President Dan Quayle. There's a ringing endorsement.

Okay, so Pete Wentz is not gay and damn him for being on the cover of Out. But he's got a (cute) gay business partner...does that help?

American Airlines may be laying off up to 900 flight attendants beginning August 31—and if you don't get why this is a gay story, you must take the train.

Sunscreen is annoying to put on and most of it might not even work adequately.

Madonna is allegedly having an affair with Alex "A-Rod" Rodriguez. Denied. Now A-Rod's wife, Cynthia, is allegedly shacked up with Lenny Kravitz. Word to the wise: Madonna, Rodriguez and Kravitz all share a manager—Guy Oseary.

If "hotheaded" John McCain is elected president, his first trip to visit volatile French President Nicolas Sarkozy might be a real smackdown.

And the people who live on Gay Street think they have it hard...check out New York's newest awkward avenue.

Prince Hairless

Sneaky snapshots from Prince Harry's tour of Iraq Afghanistan are surfacing. No wonder they kept his presence a secret for so long—they wanted him all to themselves.