gay

Rock of Love star Bret Michaels ran smack into a descending piece of stage scenery at Sunday night's Tony Awards, going down for the count with multiple injuries.

You can watch the video here, or just watch after the jump. If you're not a fan of Michaels, his band (Poison) or his "looking for romance" reality show, you should resist the urge to watch it about 10 times while giggling. It's wrong to laugh at another person's misfortune. This reporter would certainly never dream of enjoying something like this.

MIchaels' injuries include a broken nose and three stitches in his lip. He had a CAT scan today as a precaution s he has an old neck injury. No word what effect the impact had on his permanent make-up.

The sixth and final season of Showtime's The L Word is about to kick off (January 18th at 9:00 p.m. EST), so that means the new promos are on their way. Check out this piece of work right here and please excuse me as I reveal my art snobbery.

When I first saw this poster, I thought it was some fan art from a Photoshop beginner. What happened to the days of solid design, when stuff like this totally wouldn't fly outside of Graphic Design I? If basic cable shows like Mad Men can make their ads sleek and sexy, what excuse does Showtime have? I was so distracted by the weird masking and forced shadows and weak composition and awkward font choice and various other super-sad arty elements, that I completely missed the eight chicks getting it on in the background.

Now, if that's not ineffective design, I don't know what is. See a larger version of the poster after the jump and analyze for yourself.

From gangsters and serial killers, it looks like cable television is preparing to tackle another adult subject: superheroes (or rather, homosexuality in the guise of superheroes). Showtime, along with Stan Lee's Pow! Entertainment, will be producing a series about a gay superhero. The series is based on the book "Hero" by Perry Moore.

Superhero secret identities have been used as analogies for closeted homosexuals before (the most obvious example I can think of is from the second X-Men movie in which Iceman's mom asks "have you considered not being a mutant?"). As a result, I think the concept holds some promise.

My biggest issue with this announcement is the involvement of Stan Lee. While I appreciate everything he's done for the comic industry and media entertainment, his ideas are kind of old-fashioned at this stage of the game. Still, if the show has the depth of other Showtime series such as Californication or Dexter, I'll be impressed.

(S01E13) The summer's officially over on Swingtown, marked by Tom's Labor Day clambake at the shore, which turned out to also be a key party.

Now that the first season of the show has come to an end, it's clear that while they explored hot topics like open marriage, wife-swapping and group sex, the essence of the show was not titillation or a guide page by page through The Joys of Sex. Swingtown was about the characters, three families and the changing times in 1976.

Questions, questions. Will Tom and Trina keep the baby? The Deckers are the open marriage couple and they've enjoyed the freedom to swing. But how amazing is it that they are the marriage that's in synch! They actually talk things out and share what they're thinking. You can't say that about the Thompsons and Millers.

Jon Stewart kicked off the night with some anger fueled by Mets love. Mets manager Willie Randolph was fired in a rather unceremonious manner. He was all the way on the other side of the country, contacted at 3:00 a.m. and fired by Mr. Met. Sick burn.

"The Gay After": In other news, same-sex marriage is now legal in California, and, somehow, the state is still attached to the rest of the country and it hasn't been engulfed in flames. Hmm, interesting. Some newsworthy couples have tied the knot since this announcement, including George Takei, who married his long-time partner. I just started one of my Summer mini-projects, watching the entire original Star Trek series in preparation for its TV Squad's Retro Squad week, and while I know I'm a newbie Trekkie, I'm pretty sure Takei's name is pronounced "Tek-ayy." It allows for maximum fun in rhyming, "George Takei is gay."

You would think since Don Imus and his dumb attempt at humor got him kicked off of MSNBC that TV personalities would think before they joke. You would like to think that's true -- but it's not. In the latest bit of amazing insensitivity and stupidity, NBC's Jay Leno has apologized for a gay gag.

The star of Tonight was chatting with Ryan Phillippe the other night about the star's new film Stop-Loss. Thanks to some crack researcher on the Tonight writing staff, Jay decided to ask Ryan about one of his earliest acting jobs -- playing Billy Douglas, a closeted, gay teenager on One Life to Live struggling with his sexual identity. In a flip way, Leno asked Ryan to show him what it was like when he was playing gay. He said, "Can you give me your gayest look? Say that camera is Billy Bob... Billy Bob has just ridden in shirtless from Wyoming."

According to a new study released by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, depictions of gay, lesbian and transgender characters and issues are not doing so well on prime-time television.

In the group's first ratings report, which ranges from "excellent" to "failing," looks at the number of occurrences of gay characters or themes in the 4,700 hours of programming between June 2006 and May 2007.

If you've been moaning over the lack of series centered on gay puppets, I have some good news for you.

Last November, I told you about a project from Jim Henson Studios called Tinsel Town (or Tinseltown, everyone seems to spell it differently). The series features two gay Muppets, a bull named Samson Knight and a pig named Bobby Vegan, who adopt a human child.

Remember how initial reports said Rosie O'Donnell took herself out of the running for The Price is Right hosting gig because she didn't want to uproot her family to LA? Not entirely true. In fact, the truth is so much better.

During her 'R' cruise, Rosie told TV Guide that CBS didn't want her because she wanted to "gay it up" (her words, not mine). She evidently offered the network a Rosie Hosting Package of some sort that included getting rid of Bob's Beauties and replacing them with "a chorus line of Broadway hunks, confetti, musical bumpers and a new set". O'Donnell admitted that she was disappointed when CBS didn't take her offer, because she's been a big fan of the show for 35 years. That's when she took herself out of the running for the job.

Way to go, CBS! Broadway hunks? Confetti? Musical acts? That sure would've ruined the show. Part of its charm is how outdated it is.

"Rogan Vs. Ant" sounds like a Japanese monster movie.

In this instance, though, I'm not talking about mutated monsters battling over Tokoyo, I'm talking about comedian Joe Rogan's recent accusation that comedian Ant, the openly gay judge on Last Comic Standing, steals jokes.

If that sounds familiar, it's because Rogan made the same accusations against Carlos Mencia not too long ago (and others have accused Mencia of stealing, as well).

I'm not going to comment on whether Rogan's allegations against either of these men are true, but I will say that no idea exists in a vacuum. If you're a comedian and you've come up with a funny joke or concept, it's likely someone else has thought of it, too. I'm not a comedian, but even I've had funny ideas that I later see pop up on The Onion, or Comedy Central, or any number of places. It's probably a comfortable delusion to think everything your brain concocts was pulled from some realm no one else's mind can touch, but that's just not how it works.

At this point, it just feels like we're watching Isaiah Washington self-destruct. Since being fired from Grey's Anatomy, he has said some pretty stupid stuff. But this one takes the cake.

Washington gave an interview to the Houston Chronicle, his hometown newspaper, where he says that actor T.R. Knight is the one who should have been fired from Grey's Anatomy. Sure, Washington is the one who practically got into a fistfight on set with co-star Patrick Dempsey after Washington used a derogatory gay slur referring to Knight. But, Washington says, Knight went on to have the nerve to be offended by it and ended up creating a negative work environment.

Rick and Steve are a gay couple, and they're animated. I don't mean they're lively, I mean they're the stars of a new animated series for Logo called Rick and Steve. The series, which begins July 10 at 10:00 p.m., features voice work by Alan Cumming, Margaret Cho, Wilson Cruz and Peter Paige. The music for the series is composed by the same folks who wrote the music for Avenue Q.

The characters in Rick and Steve resemble tiny posable toys, which makes the show look like something created for the Nick Jr. set. Of course, the themes are just a tad more adult than that, or so I gathered by watching the trailer.

Like Paul, I don't watch the Tonys, which isn't saying much because I don't watch the Oscars or the Emmys, either. The only award show I'll watch is the People's Choice Awards, and only because I didn't figure out until recently that the winners aren't all chosen by Nia Peeples. I just have a lot of respect for her opinion, I'm not sure why.

Anyway, Late Night with Conan O'Brien's resident insult dog puppet, Triumph, was as the Tony Awards (equipped with his Gaydar 4000), and as usual when Triumph crashes an event, the results are freaking hysterical. I want so badly to list all of my favorite lines from the bit, but since I don't want to ruin it for those who haven't seen it, check out the video below.

The LBGT Web site AfterElton.com decided to delve a little deeper into a statement made by actor David Hyde Pierce in a recent AP interview about his return to Broadway in the musical Curtains.

The article mentions producer/writer Brian Hargrove (Wanda at Large, Titus) as Pierce's partner, but doesn't go into any detail beyond that. AfterElton decided to find out for sure (and they're a site about gay celebrities, so why wouldn't they?) and received confirmation, that yes, David Hyde Pierce is indeed a gay man.

The world responded: "He's gay? Huh. Are you going to finish that muffin?"

Recently, Paul mentioned that the ombudsman for children's television in Poland had come out against the Teletubbies, and Tinky Winky specifically, for promoting homosexuality.

To be fair, the comment about Teletubbies promoting homosexuality was brought up by journalists during a magazine interview, and ombudsman Ewa Sowinska replied by saying that, due to the "purse" carried by Tinky Winky, she would investigate these claims. I say "to be fair" not to defend Sowinska exactly, but just to point out that she was responding to claims made by others. Still, that doesn't quite explain how holding a "purse," or "money bag," or whatever the hell that thing is, equals being gay. I think someone needs to go back to Gay School and learn a lot more about that specific sexual orientation.