Morning Glory: Papi Matt

Guys like Matt Loewen look good in anything ... (via Papi)

(Two more pictures of Matt here.)

Kathy Griffin: My Life on the Near-Death List

While looking for tickets for Kathy Griffin's upcoming show in New York, my friend Jay noticed a News Alert on Kathy's Web site that said she and her entourage had just experienced a brush with death last night en route to a gig in Stockton, Calif. It seems the discount commuter plane she undoubtedly rented started experiencing "extreme turbulence" 20 minutes after takeoff sending everything on-board flying around the cabin. Kathy then smelled smoke and the oxygen masks dropped. Fortuntately, the plane was quickly able to make an emergency landing back in Burbank, and while you probably can't tell by this photo, Kathy is actually still alive and well.

While the Wednesday show was canceled, the tour must go on when you're on the D-List ... including tonight's performance in Hanford(!) (you know this cheap bitch isn't gonna let a near-death experience get in her way of earning a buck). (KathyGriffin.net)

I'm glad she's OK -- Michael got us tickets for that Carnegie Hall show in January (I wouldn't want her dying getting in the way of our fun), plus Bravo has just announced that "My Life on the D-List" will be coming back for a third season (no word if Matt will be the new gardener).

In other Kathy news, can you believe her celeb-ass-kicking turn on "Celebrity Mole: Hawaii" is now out on DVD?(!)

Go to the kenneth in the (212) home page.

Music Box: Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield "Dusty in Memphis"

No music collection could be complete without Dusty's 1969 masterpiece, "Dusty in Memphis." Michael and I were just listening to it the other night and even after all these years I had to turn to him and say, "God, I can't believe how good this is." In 1999 the album was gloriously remastered and a whopping 13 bonus tracks were tagged on (that's more songs than were on the original lp), including fun covers of Bread's "Make It With You" and Carole King's "You've Got a Friend." But it's the classic album that you'll never forget -- "I Can't Make It Alone" still gives me goose bumps and "So Much Love" still makes me swoon everytime (both are Goffin-King compositions, suggesting that Dusty may very well have been the ultimate interpreter of their work). What a voice ...

Especially: "Son of a Preacher Man," "I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore," "So Much in Love," "I Can't Make It Alone"

Room 103: Return Engagement

 

 

Remember that steamy photo shoot of Scott Wilson at the Island House in Key West I blogged about over the summer? Now the photographer, Jason Rowan, has assembled those photos and many more into a sexy short film. The original spread from reFRESH magazine was hot enough, but let me tell you that the film version reveals that our fine young Scott did not spend that lost weekend alone as much of the time as it may have originally seemed ... 

Visit Room 103.

Thursday Photologue

The best part about high-waters? Because they were never in style they can never go out ...

I was sitting behind these two lovebirds at lunch yesterday. The only thing missing was a malted with two straws ... (do heteros always have to flaunt their sexuality?)

Yet another block of Chelsea gets overtaken by the mighty real estate developer. With no Service Station where will the Chelsea boys get their hand jobs massages?

I don't think this one needs an explanation.

Sporting Goods: Sean Lamont

Sean Lamont is one hunky rugby player.

Check out some risque wallpapers after the jump. --->

Page 1 Consider (11/29)

Mama Mia Museum: An ABBA museum dedicated to the music, clothing and history of the legendary Swedish pop group and its four members will open in Stockholm in 2008, organizers said Tuesday. The interactive museum will feature original outfits and instruments used by the group, handwritten song lyrics, a display of different awards, and "all other things we can think of and find," said Ulf Westman, an event consultant who is spearheading the project with his wife Ewa Wigenheim-Westman. How do you say campy in Swedish? (AP)

Wanting It Both Ways: A woman in Virginia is trying to get full custody of the daughter she gave birth to while joined in a same-sex civil union in Vermont. It seems when it suited her needs to have the protection of the law and be recognized as a co-parent, she was for it. Now that it doesn't, she's asking a court to deny everyone the rights she was once afforded. How sad is this woman? (Big surprise: she "isn't a lesbian anymore." Surprisingly, a Virginia judge ruled that all custody issues must be handled in Vermont -- quite a surprise for the state that gave custody of a child to a convicted murderer father over a lesbian mother. (NYT)

Five Alarm Lezzie Put Out: Bonnie Bleskachek, the nation's first openly lesbian big-city fire chief, has agreed to step down in the wake of firefighter lawsuits accusing her of harassment and discrimination, her attorney and the mayor of Minneapolis said. Mayor R.T. Rybak announced the agreement in a letter to the city's executive council in which he wrote that he no longer had confidence in Bleskachek as chief. Bleskachek, 43, was hailed as a trailblazer when she was promoted to the top job two years ago, but her tenure has been troubled. Three female firefighters have sued, alleging various acts of discrimination and sexual harassment. A city investigation ultimately found evidence that the department gave preferential treatment to lesbians or those who socialized with them. (AP)

Racing Line: In response to the whole Michael Richards incident, Jesse Jackson has called for a ban on all racial slurs in film and TV. I love how the ill-doings of one former sitcom star empower someone like this admitted adulterer reverend (with a child out of wedlock to prove it) to now try to rob the rest of society of its constitutional rights. Doesn't anyone "get it"? Incidentally, I brought up the whole race thing the other day to get a feel for the mood out there. My hypothetical of screaming something in anger at a bad driver on the road is along the lines of something that I have done that has gotten me a dirty look or two. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that people are so afraid of not being politically correct these days that frequently they won't mention race in any way whatsoever, even when it would be useful to do so. I'll be at work and someone will be trying to tell me who I need to talk to in the HR department about something. They will dance around describing her ... eventually they'll maybe say "she's got braids" ... and eventually a black person in the room (or I) will say, "You mean that black chick in HR?" (There's only one!!!) My whole "adjective" bit is mostly an issue for me when I'll be telling a story about something that's happened. If it was a "retarded Asian" who fucked up my sandwich at the deli, I'll probably mention his being Asian. (I want my audience to feel like they were there with me, as the wrong spread and the wrong cheese got put on, OK???) Like that contestant on "The Apprentice" who got in hot water for referring to "two old Jewish biddies" (or something like that) -- from what I gathered she was just being descriptive while trying to tell her story. Other cried anti-Semitism. I cried exhaustion. (BBC)

Sporting Goods: Colt Brennan

Don't be fooled by the porn star name and body ... Laguna Beach hottie Colt Brennan really is the University of Hawaii's star quarterback, not the star of Falcon's latest offering, "Tight Ends" ... (thanks, Breck!) (Read about Colt's off-the-field struggles here.)

Page 1 Consider (11/28)

Silly 'Radical': The president-elect of the Christian Coalition of America has stepped down after the group resisted his efforts to broaden its agenda to include reducing poverty and fighting global warming. (!) (NYT)

Valley Girl: I'm so excited that "All My Children" is finally bringing another tranny to Pine Valley (Erica Kane is so 20th century). This time she's "an American who nonetheless speaks in an exaggerated British accent." Sounds fun to me but then the producers went and named her Zarf ... Shouldn't they just call a spade a spade and call her Madge? (ET)

DOMA, Defenseless: When I see people like Pamela Anderson continually make a mockery out of marriage, it makes stories like this even more infuriating: Outraged by the N.J. Supreme Court’s decision declaring that same-sex couples are entitled to the same legal rights and financial benefits as heterosexual ones, a Republican legislator on Monday introduced a bill to amend the constitution by defining marriage as being only between a man and a woman. The lawmaker, Sen. Gerald Cardinale of Bergen County, said the proposed amendment was modeled after successful efforts in other states in recent years -- including several on this last Election Day -- to essentially ban same-sex marriage. Luckily he wasn't to have the last word on the subject -- at least in this story: Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, the state’s leading gay rights organization, said he was confident Cardinale’s bill would go nowhere. "He’s out of touch, and he’s out of his mind," Goldstein said. "This is laughable upon arrival." (NYT)

Pornstache Shaved: In a move straight out of the "All About Eve" playbook, my ex-husband and Broncos QB Jake Plummer has been benched for the upstart rookie Jay Cutler. (AP)

Les Enfants: There's nothing more annoying than a chainsmoking fetus. (Reuters)

Spinal Melt: I knew my bad posture would pay off one day. (BBC)

Type O-No: One of the myriad -- but perhaps best -- perks about being gay is not having to give blood. Now these kids wanna go and do this? (PinkNews)

Still the One: After a 30-year warm-up, former Orleans singer John Hall is ready for his gig on the national stage in the halls of Congress. If you haven't been following this story, then you're really missing out. (WP)

Death Becomes Him

I'm just now reading an e-mail I got from a friend in California:

This ad is from the obits page of the Nov. 22, 2006 (Riverside) Press-Enterprise, which runs a lot of "in loving memory" ads alongside the current obituaries. As you celebrate this beautiful Thanksgiving Day and contemplate how very good life can be, feel free to ask yourself: Any wonder this guy killed himself?

Baby Love

Not only is my niece, Ally Rose, the most adorable baby around, she makes no qualms about wearing stuff to promote my blog. And check out the cute Mary Jane socks I got her. She looks like she's dressed up and ready to hit the town at any moment :-)

Sporting Goods: Philip Rivers

6-5, 228-pound QB Philip Rivers of the San Diego Chargers heats up the December cover of ESPN magazine. You think the Giants are regretting letting him go?

Morning Glory: Evan Wade

I don't know much about this cutie fitness model named Evan Wade. A friend of mine said he saw him bartending at a Halloween party last month in New York. I do know that he's in Joe Oppedisano's steamy new photo book "Testosterone" -- and I'm hoping he's in the corresponding 2007 calendar.

Page 1 Consider (11/27)

Stiflegate: I was home for Thanksgiving during the whole Kelly Ripa-Clay Aiken fracas, so forgive me for pointing out what others may have already. But is Rosie O'Donnell not the best thing since sliced bread? "To me, that was a homophobic remark," O'Donnell said. "If that was a straight man, if that was a cute man, if that was a guy that she didn't question his sexuality, she would have said a different thing. I guarantee if that was Mario Lopez, she would not have said the same thing." While I completely agree with Rosie on this point, you gotta love it when your "advocate" calls you ugly and outs you in one fell swoop on national television. ("Commack in the house!!!) I felt this photo of Kelly's putting her hand over Regis' mouth pretty much let the air out of her "it's cold and flu season" balloon, but my sister says it's different to do that to someone with whom you're friends versus someone you're not -- while my mom thinks that "Rosie doesn't need to speak on behalf of all gay people." Fair enough (and I quickly changed the subject). (TittleTattle)

Reading Into Things Is Not Fundamental: Newsweek has a piece about race this week, written in the aftermath of Michael Richards' "meltdown" at the Laugh Factory. The story says "it's time to tell the truth about what's too scary to say out loud." Now I don't really know anything about the Kramer incident, so what I'm about to say isn't really referring to that. But call me naive (and start sending me threatening e-mails), but am I the only one who thinks adjectives used in frustration often get twisted into something far more nefarious? Sure, when Mel Gibson got drunk and let loose an anti-Semitic rant, that struck me as his true feelings finally coming out. But if I get cut off by a black woman on the highway and I scream "You fucking black bitch!" to myself or aloud, is that being racist? I'd scream "Fucking Stepford Wife!" if a prissy blond woman in a minivan in suburban Connecticut did it -- and I may very well scream "Stupid cocksucker!" if some gay guy with highlights and a rainbow flag on his Mini Cooper did it in Dupont Circle. When someone pisses me, I tend to call 'em like I see 'em -- across the board. (I think others feel the same way.) So now it's time for me to tell the truth about what's too scary to say out loud. There is racism in this world (just as there is homophobia). But not everything is about race. (Newsweek)

Twins: Did you hear about the boy born in Chile with a fetus in his stomach? Doctors are saying it was a rare case of "fetus in fetu" in which one twin becomes trapped inside another during pregnancy and continues to grow inside it. I'm sure Bill Frist thinks the second baby will be just fine -- and Rick Santorum wants to bring it home for a few days and bond. (Reuters)

Wal-Mart Pulls a Ford: An anti-gay Christian group that had called on supporters to boycott Wal-Mart's post-Thanksgiving Day sales to protest the retailer's support of gay rights groups withdrew its objections on Tuesday. The American Family Association, which had been asking supporters to stay away from Wal-Mart on Friday and Saturday -- two of the busiest shopping days of the year -- said it was pleased that Wal-Mart had pledged in a statement to stay away from controversial causes. (AP)

Holiday Blues? I don't think I've ever felt more indignant about an op-ed piece than I did by today's Bob Herbert column on Iraq, in which he describes "competing news images" of Black Friday and the mass killings in Baghdad: "There is something terribly wrong with this juxtaposition of gleeful Americans with fistfuls of dollars storming the department store barricades and the slaughter by the thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, including old people, children and babies. The war was started by the U.S., but most Americans feel absolutely no sense of personal responsibility for it. This indifference is widespread. It enables most Americans to go about their daily lives completely unconcerned about the atrocities resulting from a war being waged in their name. While shoppers here are scrambling to put the perfect touch to their holidays with the purchase of a giant flat-screen TV or a PlayStation 3, the news out of Baghdad is of a society in the midst of a meltdown." At least half of all Americans -- including yours truly -- did not did not vote for the president, did not support this war, and believe this administration has made a mockery of this country's founding principles. It's the holiday season here in America --what are we supposed to do? (NYTSelect)

Site of the Week: Findadeath.com

My friend Mark turned me on to this fascinatingly sick Web site called findadeath.com.

It's packed with fascinating/useless information about celebrities' deaths. The guy behind the site, Scott Michaels, is from Detroit and attended the same Divine concert in '86 as my friends Mark and Nina (oh, that's just the kind of useless information I was talking about!).

Here's how Scott explains his fetish:
Growing up in Detroit, I lived on one of the most dangerous intersections in the city. Fatal accidents were normal. There was a family ritual -- when we were jarred awake from our slumber by that horrible noise of a car accident. One would call the police, one would grab the towels, etc. One night while I was asleep, a car hit a lamp post in front of our house. I heard the sound of slamming brakes, the impact, and the live wires of a fallen street light zapping away. I got out of bed, looked out the window, yawned, and returned to bed. You get the idea. The first celebrity deaths of any real recollection to me were Martin Luther King and Janis Joplin. When Florence Ballard of the Supremes passed away in 1976, I became obsessed.

WHERE TO BEGIN: The entries on Glenn Quinn (Becky's dense hubby, Mark, on "Roseanne") and Jessica Savitch are particularly good.

Sunday Worship: Dallas Sartz

I wasn't happy to see Brady Quinn and the Fighting Irish lose to the Trojans, but 6-5, 235-pound USC linebacker Dallas Sartz sure made the agony of defeat far less painful to watch ...

The Birthday Girl

Here's wishing my adorable mom, Molly, a very happy 65th!

Photo Flashback: Thanksgiving 1989

Jenn and Mom in the living room on West Kiva.

My sister models my glasses on the staircase while my mom cuts the apple pie.

Above, ironing a shirt for the big day. Nice getaway sticks, huh? Below, my sister and my best pal Greg.

Jenn and Mom dig in ...

I hope your Thanksgiving is filled with family and happy memories!!

My Little Guy

Although I wouldn't trade my life in New York for anything, there's nothing like spending some time back home hanging out with my nephew, AJ, to actually make me miss the Valley of the Sun.

'Real World' Premiere

Can't decide if I'm up for another season of "The Real World." Key West was so bad I swore I'd never do it again ... do we dare?

Home for the Holidays

By the time you read this, Michael and I will be across the country visiting my family for Thanksgiving / my mom's 65th birthday celebration. I wouldn't put it past me to log on at her house and post a thing or two during the week, but essentially I'm "on vacation" for the rest of the week. Just wanted to let everyone who was sweet enough to inquire that my cat, Troy, seems to have gotten better. It seems a case of kitty constipation was behind all of his woes and he's back to going normally and hasn't thrown up in several days (put this high on my list of things I'm grateful for this year). I'm so excited to be going home to see my family (another thing I'm grateful for), especially to meet my newborn niece, Ally.

Have a great holiday week, everybody. I leave you with this classic photo of my grandmother Annamarie circa 1958 showing off the fruits of her labor over at her sister's house in Silver Spring, Maryland (my great-aunt Dorothy). That's Dorothy's daughter, Susan, in the foreground (my first cousin once removed), from whom I got this photo recently!

Brady Quinn: The Green Party

While all eyes were on the Ohio State-Michigan game, somehow I still found a routine win by the Notre Dame -- sporting green jerseys instead of the Fighting Irish's normal blue home -- over Army to be far more fun to look at ... (AP)

Previously:

A Very Brady Christmas

Luck of the Irish

Fighting Irish

The Hunkback of Notre Dame

Brady Quinn, Friend to the Gays, or Just Idol? (Deadspin)

My Two Dads (and Two Moms)

Parenthood: Be sure to pick up the Sunday Times for its magazine cover story on gay men and lesbians and the kids they are making and raising, sort of together. (NYTM)

Page 1 Consider (11/18)

My Favorite Pitcher: How hot would it be if Barry Zito joined the New York Mets? (RealGM)

Obituary: Florence "Rusty" Tullis, the strong-willed biker mother of a son with a rare disfiguring disease, who was portrayed by Cher in the 1985 movie "Mask," has died. She was 70. Tullis died of an infection Saturday at Beverly Hospital in Montebello about a month after being injured in a motorcycle accident. Ya gotta love a broad who keeps doing what she loves till the very end. RIP, Rusty. (LAT)

Only Her Optometrist Knows for Sure: Just when you thought you'd seen it all, eyelash transplants? (Newsweek)

Poor Baby: Disgraced lawmaker Mark Foley came out of rehab seclusion recently and told reporters that "It's just been a hard time." Um, slow down, sailor. Isn't that what got you into this mess in the first place? (AP)

Ruth Brown Dies at 78

The legendary R&B singer Ruth Brown died Friday in Las Vegas. She was 78.

"She was one of the original divas," said the singer Bonnie Raitt, who worked with Brown to improve royalties for rhythm-and-blues performers. "I can’t really say that I’ve heard anyone that sounds like Ruth, before or after. She was a combination of sass and innocence, and she was extremely funky. She could really put it right on the beat, and the tone of her voice was just mighty. And she had a great heart."

"What I loved about her," Raitt added, "was her combination of vulnerability and resilience and fighting spirit. It was not arrogance, but she was just really not going to lay down and roll over for anyone."

Brown's voice was unforgettable, but it's her delightful role as Motormouth Maybelle in John Waters' classic 1988 film, "Hairspray," that I will always remember most. Rest in peace. (NYT)

All the Right Moves?

Just in time for his perfect wedding to his perfect bride, yet another man has come forward to dispell the Tom Cruise is straight rumor -- only this time the accuser claims to have four sexually explicit Polaroids of Tom back in his early starlet days. The allegations revolve around a wealthy Russian/Jewish multimillionaire named Jacobo Yasha-Nicolayevsky, who was married with children but had an insatiable lust for young pretty boys. Being friends with Bruce Weber and Calvin Klein in the early '80s couldn't have hurt, and supposedly the old fart paid the rent etc. for Maverick and the others exchange for certain types of favors. (Viggo Mortensen is also implicated in the Keptgate scandal, but I guess it would have been more surprising if he weren't).

I've always tended to believe that these types of rumors were probably not true, but this is starting to have "The Little Dog Laughed" written all over it. (PRinside)

And speaking of rent boys, did you read about the Falcon porn star Marcus Allen (real name: Timothy J. Boham, 25, above) who was just arrested on suspicion of murder? Although he was a fairly well-known porn star (he starred in over a dozen movies over the past few years, and was named "Freshman of the Year" by Freshman Magazine in 2003), away from the gay porn spotlight he was known as an angry, gun-collecting, homophobic straight man (and father of two young girls). His victim was an older gay man (who had offered the troubled young man a "fresh start" with a job in his debt collection business) so you don't exactly have to get Jenny Jones on the horn to figure out this one. (DenverPost) (See Marcus Allen's risque side here and here.)

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