News

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s latest hire is further fueling speculation that he could be planning a 2020 presidential bid.

Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan have hired Democratic pollster Joel Benenson, a former top adviser and longtime pollster to President Barack Obama and the chief strategist of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, as a consultant, Politico reported, citing a person familiar with the hire.

Benenson’s company, Benenson Strategy Group, will conduct research for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropy run by the couple and endowed with their estimated $45 billion Facebook fortune — 99 percent of which they’ve vowed to give away.

Super Tuesday is here, which begs the question - what exactly is Super Tuesday? This nominating extravaganza is the single biggest voting day of the presidential race until November's general election, with ballots being cast in 13 states and one territory: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming and American Samoa. The voting process varies by state. Both Republicans and Democrats hold caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota. Both parties hold primaries in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. Republicans are also holding caucuses in Alaska and Wyoming, while Democrats hold caucuses in American Samoa.

Super Tuesday is here, which begs the question - what exactly is Super Tuesday? This nominating extravaganza is the single biggest voting day of the presidential race until November's general election, with ballots being cast in 13 states and one territory: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming and American Samoa. The voting process varies by state. Both Republicans and Democrats hold caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota. Both parties hold primaries in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. Republicans are also holding caucuses in Alaska and Wyoming, while Democrats hold caucuses in American Samoa.

Kinky Boots wants you to Just Be, Japan’s First Lady marches in Pride, can Maine bring us our first Lgbt governor?

An attorney for Donald Sterling’s girlfriend V. Stiviano says that the tapes of the Clippers owner going off on a racist tirade are legitimate, but due to pending litigation in which she’s a witness, they won’t be commenting further other than to say that she didn’t release the tapes to the media.

As for the players, in their game with the Warriors on Sunday, they dropped their shooting shirts in center court and wore their jerseys inside out with the logo hidden for warmups, adding black armbands.

Speaking of the comments, the longer version of the tape is out, and it’s worse than the original. Sterling is heard saying about his players, many of whom are African-American, “I support them and give them food,...

Jersey Boys sings tough, James Franco’s mature reaction to a bad review, the fight for credit in the marriage equality movement

One major question that kept recurring yesterday in the news about the lawsuit against Bryan Singer was the timing. It turns out the suit was filed now in Hawaii because the state has temporarily suspended the statute of limitations on sex offenses, giving a window.

The Gill Action Group was planning a conference of major donors at the Beverly Hills Hotel May 1-5, but as the iconic hotel is owned by the Sultan of Brunei, who just announced death by stoning for homosexuality, the conference is being moved, and the group is demanding all deposits back. The hotel is of course a favorite celebrity haunt, and I wonder if more things like this will happen.

Ahead of the World Cup in Brazil, Sergio K is selling shirts that...

One Direction loses their pants, Good Luck Charlie brings lesbian moms to Disney Channel, and is Paula Deen racist?

Helena Bonham Carter has been cast as the fairy godmother in the live action production of Cinderella, which should make for a trippy version of a Disney fairy tale.

Human Rights Watch is demanding the International Olympic Committee protect Glbt athletes from the Russian propaganda laws. I think it’s safe to say that Sochi won’t be having a Pride House.

Which might even mean physical protection, as a Russian MP is calling for a law that will allow gays to be whipped in public, and not in Folsom Street way. “In Russia for many centuries the ass was used for educational purposes and not for love entertainment. So we should use it according to its intended purpose.” I’ll let you chew on his choice of phrase for a bit.

Psych celebrates its 100th episode tonight. It's a Psych-centennial!

News

Deadline joined the morning news gossip mill and contributed a report that Anderson Cooper was approached to take Matt Lauer's job on The Today Show. Cooper ended up declining when he learned that the job was being offered to him behind Lauer's back.

In further Anderson Cooper news brought to you by Deadline, the silver fox has filmed a pilot with Kathy Griffin. The project was filmed in front of a live audience at CNN studios, though it's not clear if the pilot is meant for CNN.

In a double-feature of Pretty Little Liars news, ABC Family has ordered a fifth season of the hit thriller — and ordered a spin-off series, Ravenswood. The spin-off will be set in a town near the Pll setting of Rosewood where a deadly curse has tormented the town for generations, with five...

Washington -- Director Rob Reiner was the first person in the public line for the Supreme Court's oral arguments over California's Proposition 8 on Tuesday.

"We're number one! We're number one!" joked Reiner, who paid someone to hold his spot in line. (He declined to talk about that aspect.) Reiner told The Huffington Post he was looking forward to "a great argument" by Ted Olson.

"We feel really, really confident he's going to hit on all the points he needs to hit on," said Reiner, who is on the board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

"We feel confident we're prepared to answer any questions they throw at us," Reiner said.

Just behind Reiner was Ken Mehlman, another American Foundation for Equal Rights board member and former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

"It's very hard to predict what happens in a Supreme Court argument. I think they'll be probing questions,...

Here is last week's caption pic winner. This week's caption pic is at the bottom of the page.

Thanks to everyone for participating! The winner is ...

"I just can't decide how I feel about my new shirt."

Thanks to Strepsi for this week's winning caption!

Weekend Birthdays! (Note: Birthday shoutouts are for out entertainers, allies, or for any celeb that seems to have a following on Ae). Daniel Craig (above) is 44, Chris Martin is 35, Jennifer Warnes is 65, Miranda Richardson is 54, Julie Bowen is 42, Catherine O'Hara is 58, Adrian Zmed is 58, Chaz Bono is 43, and Karen Carpenter would have been 62. What are your top five Carpenter songs? Here are my picks: 5."Hurting Each Other." 4. "Top Of The World", 3. "We've Only Just Begun" 2. "Touch Me When We're Dancing," 1. "Superstar."

In big casting news, Zachary Quinto will be a series regular in Season Two of American Horror Story, playing one of the two male...

Ricky Martin has been granted Spanish citizenship in what is believed to be an effort to marry his boyfriend of many years.

Lionsgate is shopping an animated series of Harold and Kumar around to cable networks, with interest from Comedy Central. No word on whether it would have an animated Neil Patrick Harris, or at least a giant Claymation penis.

Meanwhile, the writers behind Smurfs are taking on a new animated version of Popeye for Sony. I hear a possible plotline has Bluto contaminating the spinach with e. coli.

Zachary Sire has a point about using Kim Kardashian's disaster of a marriage to advocate for marriage equality, because we're better than that. "Because saying that you are somehow better and that you take marriage more seriously than someone who became famous for getting pissed on in a sex tape is not saying much.”

Equality legend David Mixner has a...

Here's last week's caption pic winner. This week's caption pic is at the bottom of the page.

Thanks to everyone for participating! Argh! This was one of the toughest to decide. So many great captions. The winner is ...

"It seemed like a good idea at the time... but all I'm getting is fish food."

Thanks to ChanningLee for this week's winning caption.

Weekend Birthdays! (Note: Birthday shoutouts are for out entertainers, allies, or for any celeb that seems to have a following on Ae). Tilda Swinton (above) is 51, the faboo Kathy Griffin is 51, Doris Roberts is 81, Matthew McConaughey is 42, Mo Gaffney is 53, Sally Field is 65, Jon-Erik Hexum would have been 54, Emma Stone is 23, and Bryan Adams is 52. Time to name your top five Bryan songs! Here are mine: 5. "It's Only Love," 4. "Cuts Like A Knife" 3. "Heaven," 2. "Straight From The Heart," 1. "Run To You"

Cheyenne Jackson will co-star in the still-untitled...

What I find most stunning about Why Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' May Save the Music Industry isn’t the staggering amount of money that’s

generated around Mother Monster. It’s that at the top of the article there’s a picture of Lady Gaga surrounded by brand logos she works with – Polaroid, Estee Lauder, Spring, Virgin Mobile, and… a rainbow flag. Gay is a brand now?

A high school sophomore who challenged Tea Party favorite Michelle Bachman to a debate on the Constitution has been getting death threats for her trouble. Some of those “real Americans” are even threatening to rape her.

Should we be boycotting straight weddings on principle, even for our oldest friends? Probably not unless we don’t want to have any friends. But we can definitely shop at the low end of the registry.

Yesterday, Harvey Milk would have been 81-years-old. And yesterday,...

“This isn’t really an empowering list.”

— Aaron Hicklin, Editor-in-Chief, Out Magazine

“No, sh*t!”

— BriOut, writer, AfterElton.com

It’s more than a little ironic that a magazine named Out was so intent on sending the message that the closeted are more powerful than the colored. But with their Power 50 list, profiling who they feel are the most powerful gays and lesbians in the country, that is exactly what the editors at Out have done. And they've done it to such a dispiriting degree, I can't be entirely sure it wasn't sponsored by Wite-Out.

Aaron Hicklin (left), Out Editor-in-Chief

Their list includes Jodie Foster, who hasn’t come out as anything except a Mel (“raped-by-a-pack-of-n***ers”) Gibson apologist.

This list also includes Anderson Cooper who no one knows for sure is even gay or straight (okay, we know, but we really don’t) since he twists himself into knots to avoid talking about it.

Fox's Shepard Smith

Last week, Out Magazine released the Power 50, their (fifth) annual list of who they deem to be the most powerful gay, bisexual, lesbian, or transgender individuals in the U.S.

Acting Apple CEO Tim Cook topped the list, followed by Ellen DeGeneres.

I've worked at AfterElton.com long enough to know that it's impossible to publish any such list, which are all by definition pretty subjective, without attracting a whole host of complaints over omissions and overly generous rankings (and plenty of people are also upset the list includes no people of color, among many other reasons).

The discussions and arguments are kinda the whole point of lists like these.

But yeah, I have my own complaint: Out is almost ridiculously vague about exactly what it is they're actually measuring. They say, "As always, the positions were determined by a range of factors, including power to influence cultural and social attitudes,...

So the big news since the last time I wrote one of these things is that Britney Spears is going to sing on a remix of Rihanna’s “S&M.” And I’m not trying to be mean, but is there any evidence that Britney sings on her own songs anymore, much less someone else’s?

Kneel before Zod! Michael Shannon has been cast opposite Henry Cavill in Man of Steel. I know absolutely nothing about him beyond the fact that he has an Oscar nomination.

In the UK, they’re preparing to lift the ban on blood donations by gay men, but only if they’ve been celibate for ten years. I suppose those men exist, but this just seems like pandering.

I have nothing against Jennifer Lopez, but what kind of voodoo is she practicing? She’d completely dropped off the map, and now she’s back with a hit single,...

You Think They Talk About Gawker This Way?

Well, Christmas is almost upon us and I have to say this week I received just about the nicest gift I've received in a very long time. Actually, it was a gift for the whole staff and we got it from ... you guys!

TigerCub started a forum thread he titled Merry Xmas Ae Staffers that was all about saying thanks for the site and the work we do. And he even did caption pics for it! (Of course, picture captions are my turf, but I'm willing to make an exception this time.)

Reading the comments you guys left on the post about the site, well, it means a lot to all of us here. Writing for the online world can be a rough and tumble experience as folks are usually not shy about sharing their opinions. That's mostly a good thing as...

2010 may well have been a tipping point for gay public figures and the closet. The generally great reception celebrities have lately received for pro-actively coming out has got to be encouraging.

At the same time, the old rules of discretion and secrecy that could generally be counted on in the mainstream media and the entertainment industry seem to have completely eroded. Closeted gay celebrities just can't depend on the press or their industry peers to keep their secrets any longer. No closet is airtight, and staying in one these days leaves you highly vulnerable to rumor and innuendo. Or worse. Just ask an alleged friend of Carrie Fisher.

So arguably, in 2010 the risks of the celebrity closet have became patently greater than the rewards.

Two major stars did the math and chose to get on the honest gay bus this year, declaring themselves well-adjusted and fully content gay men. Ricky Martin...

This Is Still CBS. So Let's Not Get Carried Away...

I know we're only a couple of weeks into the fall television season, but it seems like there is already a fair bit to say about what is working ... and what isn't.

First the bad news for the two of you watching ABC's The Whole Truth. While it won't be the first show to get canceled (hello, Lone Star and My Generation!) it looks pretty well doomed. Which is a shame as Alejo (Anthony Ruviviar) is pretty great and last week's episode not only featured a funny moment in a strip club where he made it very clear he wasn't interested in the ladies shaking their bon-bons, but the episode also frequently referenced the fact Alejo is gay in completely casual ways. It truly seems like a shame we're never going to get to see where this character might have gone.

Maybe There's No Brokeback Mountain Or Milk, But There's Also No I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry

The fall movie season is upon us, and while we've already uncovered pretty much everything gay on TV, we haven't yet taken a look at what's gay in theaters over the next few months. But that's partly because there usually isn't enough to fill up a page, much less an entire movie preview article. Sadly, that looks to be the case this fall.

Nonetheless, with that in mind, I've dispatched a squad of AfterElton flying monkeys to poke around and see what they can find. And to make fun of the rest.

What did they learn? For starters, Betty White isn't as nice as she seems...

September

Easy A

September 17

What's it about? Nice girl gets bad rep pretending to sleep with geeky guys

What's gay? Dan Byrd plays Brandon, a gay...

Is that a Marc Jacobs manskirt?

Here at Twitterwatch, it's our job to admire celebrities - you didn't think we did this for free, did you? But it turns out that some of them like each other just as much as we do. So sometimes stars aren't looking at themselves in the mirror, they're looking at head shots of other actors.

One of the things that makes Chris Colfer so likable is his genuine wonder and starstruck nature. And he got to open the Emmy Awards with Jon Hamm, Betty White and Tina Fey - so he was understandably excited.

As much as he admires Betty, Tina, Jane and Ryan, he's an Emmy nominee himself, and a fellow California farm boy Christopher Gorham wants to make sure he remembers he's awesome too.

I wasn't quite sure what inspired this bicoastal admiration society, but when Scott Evans talks adorable, I think...

Plus Michael Caine's Chillout Room, the Palins are everywhere, and what ever happened to Caprica?

I had no idea that filming had begun on the $200 million adaptation of Battleship. But pictures have surfaced of Rhianna dressed in a military uniform for the film, and what’s most shocking is that you can’t see her fivehead – girlfriend has bangs.

If you recall, Oklahoma state rep Sally Kern once said that homosexuals were worse than terrorists. Today, she expounded on the topic, “Here in America we’ve had what, maybe three known real big terrorist attacks on our nation. But every day our young people especially, all of us, but our young people especially are in a sense bombarded with the message that homosexuality is normal and natural.” Sally, I’m pretty sure I’m more natural than your hair color.

I’d like to continue throwing stones at other states,...

Earlier this week, former Rnc chair Ken Mehlman made a bit of news when he acknowledged being gay. This was covered rather extensively by the cable news outlets, save one notable exception - Fox News only covered the story once, during the end of Bret Baier's show Friday evening. However, this contradicts reports in Think Progress and Politico, that incorrectly claimed that Fox News has completely ignored the story.

The first time I heard gay marriage mentioned, I was incredulous. Two gay people couldn't get married! It simply...well, it wasn't done. I wasn't objecting to their homosexuality. I was objecting to the disturbance caused to my mental categories.

Love and marriage, love and marriage

Go together like a horse and carriage

Dad was told by mother

You can't have one,

You can't have none,

You can't have one without the other!

In recent years, dad is being told something else by brother.

I must have heard about gay marriage sometime in the 1970s. It made an impression when it was mentioned by my mother. We had never discussed homosexuality. Neither of my parents did. Oh it might be observed, "Look at that Liberace! He sure is queer." It wasn't a criticism so much as a wonderment, as if he were playing with three hands.

After selling our family...

Plus Gareth Thomas needs your help, Dan Savage and Keith Olbermann on the coming out du jour, Project Runway loses a Team Gay member, and Happy Birthday to one half of Chrolli!

Here's last week's caption pic winner. This week's caption pic is at the bottom of the page.

Thanks to everyone for participating! And the winner is ...

"McRibs are Back!!"

Thanks to Sarrellec for this week's winning caption.

Weekend Birthdays! Paul Reubens turns 58, and Tom Ford turns 49

Vulture presents "Eight of the Filthiest TV Sex Scenes the Parents Television Council Doesn’t Want You to See." It includes the actual descriptions from the PTC. Apropos of nothing, I want a job on the PTC. Out rugger God Gareth Thomas needs everyone to register their support in bringing the Bingham Cup to Manchester.

Speaking of rugger Gods, Ben Cohen is auctioning items to benefit Gay Sports Day in England, including...

And According To Me, The Winner Is!

Since every media outlet in existence including American Woodworker, Embalming & Burial and Prison Guard Weekly has already weighed in with their Emmy pics for this Sunday's award show, I thought I'd do something different. Like … take the week off. But the rest of the staff objected to that for some reason.

So instead , since this column is called the Best.Gay.Week.Ever!, I thought it would be fun to look back to the dawn of time and name the gay shows, characters, actors, writers I think most deserving of, well, let's call them the Gay Emmys, or following the lead of Kathy Griffin, the Gemmys!

Here are the categories for which I'll be selecting winners as if these nominees were competing against each other for an Emmy: Best Drama Series, Best Comedy Series, Best Gay Actor Comedy, Best Gay Actor Drama, Best Writing Drama,...

Plus the Piano Man loves Glee, Iron Fist moves into production, and Bullied is powerful viewing.

SyFy’s pilot with the naughty name Three Inches about a team of superheroes with less than super powers keeps staffing up. Stephanie Jacobson of Melrose Place and Naoko Mori of Torchwood have joined the show. And James Marsters has been announced as the team lead.

Disney/Pixar have abandoned the Annie Awards, the biggest thing going for animation. They couldn’t come to terms with the sponsoring organization’s rules for voting. Anyone could pay a fee and get voting rights for the awards, and 40% of the membership works for Dreamworks Animation.

GLAAD’s Jarett Barios makes $225,000/year, which is a lot, but really doesn’t seem out of line for the class of person you want in that job. But it’s bad news that the organization is basically hemorrhaging money, spending...

• Ken Mehlman, George W. Bush’s former campaign chief and ex-r.N.C. head, has announced that he is gay. According to The Atlantic, this makes Mehlman “the most powerful Republican in history to identify as gay.” [The Atlantic] • The victor of Alaska’s Republican Senate primary has yet to be decided. Currently, incumbent Lisa Murkowski is about 1,700 votes behind the Tea Party’s Joe Miller, but thousands of absentee ballots are still uncounted. [The New York Times] • Google has added a telephone service to Gmail. The feature, which we’ll call GSkype, will allow users to place free calls to the U.S. and Canada. Calls to landlines in many other countries will cost two-cents for every minute. [The Wall Street Journal] • Crustacophiles, rejoice! Do not hesitate before consuming Mississippi oysters: officials have declared them Bop-free. [CNN] • Michael Enright, the 21-year-old student who allegedly stabbed a New York City cab driver after learning he was a Muslim, has been charged with attempted murder.

Police in Moscow said they briefly detained five Greenpeace and Amnesty International activists who were gathering signatures at U2's first-ever concert in Russia; Former Chairman of the Republican National Committee Ken Mehlman has reportedly announced to his friends and family that he is gay. In an interview with The Atlantic, the 2004 campaign manager for George W. Bush says he struggled with his identity as a gay man before coming to terms with his sexual identity.

Plus Jeff Lewis is flipeeing out, an Rnc powerhouse comes out, and Jensen Ackles Nude! (from the waist up).

Birthday cupcakes go out to out metal God Rob Halford (59) and Alexander Skarsgard (34).

So, former Rnc Chairman Ken Mehlman is about to come out. I think Joe.My.God. sums it up best. Below you can see a sneak peek at next week's Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion special. I don't watch any of the Housewives shows regularly, but occasionally I'll tune in, and my favorite has always been Danielle. Why? Because she always seems to amplify the bat crap craziness of those around her. Especially Theresa, who takes out her frustrations on poor cross-eyed Andy Cohen. (I can call him that because Kathy Griffin does).

Laineygossip has shirtless pics of gorgeous Supernatural star Jensen Ackles playing soccer, along with the complaint I've seen a tighter body. Yeah, get over...

Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Former New York Mayor Ed Koch. California Congressman David Dreier. Former Chairman of the Republican National Committee Ken Mehlman. Ex-Idaho Senator Larry Craig. Ex-Louisiana Congressman Jim McCrery. All play starring roles in Outrage, the incendiary new documentary from Academy Award-nominated director Kirby Dick. The film's thesis: The American political system is home to a large number of closeted homosexual lawmakers. Most are Republican. Nearly all of them oppose equal rights measures for gays because they want to conceal their own sexual orientation. In the words of openly gay congressman Barney Frank: "There is a right to privacy, but there is no right to hypocrisy." Outrage digs deep, and what's more, it names names. Now playing in theaters, it is a timely, unsettling expos...

IFC First Take

NEW YORK -- While there has been no recent shortage of politically themed documentaries, this effort from co-directors James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo distinguishes itself with its clearheaded approach and (mostly) lack of bias. An examination of the 2004 presidential election centering on the controversial race in Ohio, So Goes the Nation is particularly valuable for its insightful and ultimately depressing portrait of political machinations.

Not since The War Room has a film gone into such depth as to the nuts and bolts of a political campaign. Incorporating interviews with campaign strategists from both sides, it examines the contrasting methods of the Democrats and the Republicans, with the latter, not surprisingly, coming out far ahead in terms of effectiveness.

The central figures interviewed include Edward Gillespie and Terry McAuliffe (chairmen of the Republican and Democratic national committees, respectively), Ken Mehlman and Mary Beth Cahill (President Bush and John Kerry's respective campaign managers), Matthew Dowd and Tad Devine (their campaign strategists), Mark McKinnon (Bush's media strategist) and Paul Begala (senior Democrat adviser).

But the film also looks at various unknown figures in the campaign, including several of the thousands of volunteers on both sides whose work would figure so prominently in the election.

There is one thing that both sides clearly agree on: The Republicans ran the superior campaign. While Bush was playing to his strengths and mustering support from his own base, Kerry's team was looking to appeal to the swing voter, with little success.

The contrasting messages of the two candidates are scrutinized as well. Bush's team emphasized the war on terrorism above all else, to great effect. Meanwhile Kerry, according to Begala, ineffectively tried to cover all bases with a strategy awkwardly shortened to JHOS (jobs, health, oil and security).

The film vividly and credibly makes the sad case that current presidential elections are decided not so much on the basis of the issues involved or the comparative attributes of the candidates, but rather by which party has the best marketing team.