Castro Confidential

Castro Confidential does . . . Ibiza!

2009-05-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

I'm forming a new online community for adventurous world travelers: Ibiza Confidential chronicles our journey to the globe's top financial, cultural and spiritual destinations. From Burning Man, to dinner at Sao Paulo's ass-kicking Ritz burger joint, to this summer's Paris Hilton Watch on our first stop, the Mediterranean party island of Ibiza. Heck: We might even see more of my friend Paulo, the Portuguese personal trainer -- and jockstrap model!

Separated at birth: Cooper vs. Power

2009-05-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

Over-compensated CNN correspondent Anderson "Paris Hilton of the anchors" Cooper and over-endowed Rascal Video porn star Mike Power. For a most definitely NSFW photo of Power, go here. Think your puss matches a celebrity's? Check out My Heritage. [Photos: CNN and Greg Thompson]

Time to retool Castro Confidential!

2007-12-31T00:00:00.000-08:00

Eight months and nearly 800 posts (!) after starting Castro Confidential, I've decided to take a long break while I revamp, rethink and -- I expect -- relaunch this blog with a more focused approach. I want to inject more San Francisco in this blog so it lives up (down?) to its name of Castro Confidential. That means more original, local news, entertainment and hot photos about one of the world's gayest neighborhoods.

But that's going to take more time than I can devote when I've already got a full-time job. So, hang in there with me, folks! And consider shooting an e-mail to castroconfidential@gmail.com with your contact information; I'll fire you a note back when the blog relaunches, so you won't have to keep checking back on your own.

[Photo: Power house mechanic working on steam pump, 1920, by Lewis Hine]

He's gay, and he's got a big, big, big...

2007-12-19T21:34:00.000-08:00

. . . brokerage account! That's Peter Thiel (left), uber-investor, resident of San Francisco's posh Pacific Heights 'hood, and employer of a butler, Silicon Valley gossipeuse Valleywag is now reporting.

"By now, you've likely heard how Peter Thiel parlayed a $500,000 investment in Facebook to a stake now worth $750 million,'' the Wag says. "There's been a crush of coverage on his $220 million Founders Fund, which may well change the way entrepreneurs get paid in the Valley. We know about his mansion (he rents it -- clever!), his butler, his early-morning jogs. But what no one ever says out loud: Thiel is gay."

What are they drinking in the Menlo Park venture-capital firms along Sand Hill Road? Thiel would be at least the second high-profile outing this year of one of these famously stuffed-shirt financiers.

French men have such big baguettes!

2007-10-15T08:05:00.000-07:00

And I speak from experience, because I've just returned from a holiday in Paris with Sparky and my father. (More on that later!) I saw the cutest Parisian firemen in the way-gay Marais neighborhood -- though none so hunky as the rugby players featured in the newest Dieux du Stade calendar (above).

[Photo: Dieux du Stade]

Castro Confidential hits the road -- again!

2007-10-02T03:36:00.000-07:00

I'm off to Paris with Sparky and my father. See you after Oct. 14!

2007-10-01T08:11:00.000-07:00

A day before I leave on a trip to France, it looks like I'll be leaving summer-like weather behind in San Francisco: It's going to be mostly sunny this afternoon, with highs in the 60s and 70s.

2007-09-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

We couldn't ask for better weather for today's Folsom Street Fair: It's going to be sunny, with highs in the 70s.

2007-09-29T09:40:00.000-07:00

Have you polished your boots, yet, for tonight's Magnitude? It's going to be sunny today, with highs in the mid-60s to lower 70s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

R.I.P., dancing queens?

2007-09-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Bay Guardian's homosexualist nightlife critic ponders -- and I mean ponders -- the decline of gay-boy circuit music like Out Anthems 2 (left). "The once-omnipresent, thousand-nostriled behemoth of overbearing, poorly produced circuit and 'progressive house' music has been somewhat tamed,'' the slyly named Marke B. says in this story.

Cycling into Folsom Street Fair weekend

2007-09-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

Tonight's Critical Mass marks the 15th anniversary of the San Francisco bicycle protest event that's been copied in hundreds of cities worldwide. Plus! We love all those muscular thighs and even more muscle-ly butts. Folsom Street Fairies can navigate their way through Frisco this weekend with urban travel guide Gridskipper's handy-dandy roundup of fun places to see and be seen. Also, sex-toys retailer Good Vibrations, struggling to stay afloat amid heightened competition from online merchants, has agreed to be sold to a Cleveland company that plans to expand the chain.

2007-09-28T06:33:00.000-07:00

The summer weather seems to have disappeared for today: It's going to be mostly cloudy, with highs in the lower 60s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

[Photo: That's DJ Mikie G]

Leading B.A.R.: We're getting all leather-y

2007-09-27T07:21:00.000-07:00

What I'm reading in our little weekly today: LEATHER NATION. Folsom Street Fair weekend approaches and leather columnist Mister Marcus can barely keep a dry eye. To wit: "At approximately 12:30 p.m., the crew and spectators gathered in the area of the Harvey Milk Plaza to witness what is always an inspiring scene, the raising of the leather pride flag." (Oy.) CRIME & PUNISHMENT. A gun is seized, plus a rash of robberies and burglaries. WISH YOU WERE HERE. Florida tourism officials want a bigger slice of the gay market. KARRNAL KNOWLEDGE. Who knew? Porno producers unleash a raft of new flicks every year tied to Folsom Street Fair -- including this year's Folsom Leather, with newcomer Rick van Sant (shown above). OUT THERE. Our weekly's occasionally zaftig columnist notes: "It's such fun being clean!"

2007-09-27T06:32:00.000-07:00

Leather? Moi? Heading closer to San Francisco's leather-ama weekend, it's looking like a mostly sunny day, but a bit cooler than yesterday: Highs will be in the mid-60s to lower 70s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

Love that skirt! Where'd you get it?

2007-09-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

Super-creepy Gen. Peter Pace, who likes to play dress-up around men wearing plaid skirts (above), agrees there are "wonderful Americans who happen to be homosexual serving in the military.'' But! They're still immoral, he told a U.S. Senate hearing today. Pace, thank gawd, retires next week as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

[Photo: Pace greeting members of the Boston Police bagpipers at last year's Congressional Medal of Honor Society convention]

You talking about facial hair or Reese?

2007-09-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

That's a Jezebel reader's response to the fashion blog's question, "Jake Gyllenhaal: Better with a beard or without?" As faithful Castro Confidential readers know, I'm quite convinced that dear Jake is only dating Reese Witherspoon so he can get that much closer to her ex-squeeze, the hunkalicious Ryan Phillippe.

Quelle surprise: The French wear underwear!

2007-09-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

The usual suspects have condemned a Folsom Street Fair poster (above)portraying Jesus Christ and his disciples as "half-naked homosexual sadomasochists." A new book, 50 Reasons to Hate the French, cites a government survey that found 40% of French men and 25% of French women don't change their underwear daily. Australian gay glossie DNA launches its newest issue (left) with the winner of its model search, Dennis, on the cover. More photos of boxer Oscar De La Hoya in drag have surfaced; check him out in a pink miniskirt. Plus, arrestingly (har!) sexy Kent McCord, one-half of the Adam-12 cop show team, turns 65 today; more big birthdays here.

2007-09-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

Another warm, sunny day: Highs in the 70s to mid-80s. [Photo: Unless I'm mistaken, that's Oakland native and all-around hunk Marco Dapper]

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

We're desperate for more gay characters

2007-09-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

A new study found the number of gay characters is falling on network TV shows -- but rising on cable ones like Desperate Housewives, where Tuc Watkins (left) is joining the cast. A New York man accused of murdering a gay guy is defending himself against charges it was a hate crime by insisting he's gay; his proof: he's introduced as evidence his own stash of gay porn. Plus, Silicon Valley is definitely in a bubble, says wee San Francisco lesbian blogger Kara Swisher (she's only 5'2''!), if social networking site Facebook -- led by cute CEO Mark Zuckerberg -- is valuing itself as high as $15 billion.

[Photo: Watkins, who with actor Kevin Rahm, plays a gay couple moving to Wisteria Lane when the new season of Desperate Housewives debuts Sunday]

2007-09-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

Gosh: It's going to be really warm today: Sunny, with highs in the 70s to lower 80s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

His huge hose can now be bought

2007-09-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

Absurdly well-hung Brooklyn fireman Michael Biserta (left), whose schlong starred in a Guys Gone Wild video, is up for bids tonight at a dinner-with-a-celebrity auction in New York. The Great Media War, a new book by escort-turned-secret-conservative White House press reporter Jeff Gannon, is bombing at the newsstands. Semi-hot Hercules TV series actor Kevin Sorbo turns 49 today; more big birthdays here. Plus, definitely hot-daddy actor Bruce Willis and his entourage of eight got no respect at 1940s-era Havana-themed club Socialista in New York.

2007-09-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

All our leather-ama guests have brought mighty good weather with them this week. It's supposed to be mostly sunny today, with highs in the 60s to lower 70s.

Clothes make these men

2007-09-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

From Elvis Presley's knit ties to Woody Allen's "nerd chic," GQ magazine picks the 50 most stylish men of the past 50 years. My favorite on the list: Steve McQueen (left).

2007-09-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

It's going to be partly sunny and warmer today, with highs in the mid-60s to mid-70s. That photo is from Magnitude, the signature hoedown of Folsom Street Fair weekend. I had a stupendous time when I went two years ago, but I'm still debating whether to go this year. Sparky will be out of town. Want to be my date?

Why we love the other Clinton -- but hate hats

2007-09-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

The Advocate asks why so many gays support Hillary Clinton, considering that "her husband let us down, she won’t support marriage equality" -- and she's not, in answer to the magazine's question -- a lesbian. Plus, men don't men wear hats (and I'm not talking caps) for a host of reasons: from John F. Kennedy to our insistence on shunning conformity in the 1960s. Hat designer Orlando Palacios (above) for Worth & Worth in New York, says that's nuts. "A hat will change your whole look," he tells the New York Times today. "It says you’re daring. It pulls people in." [Photo: Gabriele Stabile, NYT]

2007-09-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

Today's forecast is for widespread showers, with highs in the mid-60s. There's a chance of more showers tonight, with temperatures in the lower to mid-50s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

Gap realizes what's missing. (Hint: more gays)

2007-09-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

San Francisco's troubled Gap chain has hired cute gay designer Todd Oldham (left) as design creative director for its discount Old Navy division. Oldham, who joins the company Oct. 1, also plans to develop a line of merchandise to be sold under the Todd Oldham label, exclusively at Old Navy. "The move is a shift in strategy for the brand, which currently sells all its clothing for adults and children under its own name," the Wall Street Journal says. How does Oldham spend a typical day? "I design and make things,'' he told New York magazine in this Q&A. [Photo: New York]

George Clooney has big honkin' feet

2007-09-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

And that's a good thing, assuming fashion blog Jezebel's got it right.

Happy New Year, all you sexy Jewish guys

2007-09-21T07:36:00.000-07:00

Yom Kippur, which starts tonight an ends tomorrow, gives me the perfect opportunity to post this photo of my favorite new hunky Jew, DJ Aron.

Euro maxes; schoolboy sex, Wilson's 36

2007-09-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

Just in time for my upcoming trip to France, the euro hits another new high against the dollar. A new book out next week, Restless Virgins, says top-drawer Milton Academy is a hotbed of kinky, casual teen sex; the authors describe acts of sodomy and claim that to the Boston-area prep school's hockey team, "group sex acts were just like showering together after practice." (Uhh: Yeah!) Plus, actor Luke "The Butterscotch Stallion" Wilson turns 36 today; more big birthdays here. [Photo: A Gallic hunk at Paris gay pride 2007]

2007-09-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

Oooph, huh? It's going to be a partly sunny today, with highs in the lower 60s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

Yet more evidence bears are lazy

2007-09-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

This shocking surveillance video confirms what a friend wrote about hairy gay men during Provincetown's bear week this past July:

Oscar, we hardly knew ye

2007-09-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

Hunky professional boxer Oscar De La Hoya (left) insists dragalicious photos of him in yards of fishnet are fakes. San Francisco Chronicle sex columnist Violet Blue notes that locals consider the Power Exchange to be the Pier 39 of area sex clubs; she also highlights 50 places to fuck in Golden Gate Park. C'est Si Bon: Eartha Kitt, playing at New York's Cafe Carlyle, told a recent audience: "I may be 80, but I'm still burning!"

[Photo: X17online]

Leading B.A.R.: Drama on the high seas

2007-09-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

What I'm reading today in our little weekly: MEOW! San Francisco lesbian cruise operator Olivia is embroiled in a nasty -- and I mean nasty -- series of lawsuits involving its founder, ousted CEO Amy Errett and three other former executives; the four execs want the company dissolved. KARRNAL KNOWLEDGE. Porn star Eddie Stone (left) -- with lips in a "perpetual kiss of sharply carved, bee-stun seduction" -- is fabu in Workload and H20. MISTER MARCUS. Even the prospect of the upcoming Folsom Street Fair can't get the B.A.R.'s odd leather columnist out of his funk. Again. OUT THERE. Fashion history, Mark "Marky Mark" Wahlberg, and his love affair with his own cock.

[Photo: Eddie Stone's MySpace page]

2007-09-20T06:48:00.000-07:00

Throw your rubbers on because it might rain today. It's supposed to be mostly cloudy with a chance of showers; highs in the 60s to lower 70s. [Photo: That's Marco Da Silva]

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

Things gay men would never do...

2007-09-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

. . . because they'd get all sooty.

You really, really like rugby

2007-09-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

My post about videotaped shenanigans on a British rugby team is now Castro Confidential's most popular page, surpassing an item about Anderson Cooper's eerie resemblance to a certain porn star. Such sports fans, you all!

[Photo: Dieux Du Stade 2007 calendar]

It's a bankers' holiday!

2007-09-19T07:05:00.000-07:00

Wall Street investment tycoons have even more big bucks to shower on their naughty boy toys as stocks keep going ga-ga today over the Federal Reserve's surprisingly steep rate cuts; the rally even sucks in shares of fucked-up PlanetOut, corporate parent of Gay.com. Supermodel Twiggy, known for the mod look created by British fashion designer Mary Quant, turns 58 today; more big birthdays here. And it was love at first stick-up: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid committed their first robbery together 107 years ago today. [Photo: Men at Play]

2007-09-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

Sparky, my resident weatherman, says it may rain a bit today -- even though the official forecast calls for partly sunny skies, with highs in the lower 60s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

'Cruising' at 27: Heat, humidity, human sweat

2007-09-18T16:30:00.001-07:00

Cruising, the politically incorrect gay S&M whodunit, still holds up -- 27 years after its first showing, the New York Times says today on the occasion of the film's re-release on DVD: "Al Pacino, still wreathed in the saintly idealism of Serpico, plays Steve Burns, a rookie cop who, in exchange for a fast-lane promotion, agrees to go undercover in the S&M bars of the meatpacking district in search of a psycho preying on gay men.

"Like all good noir heroes," the review continues, "he finds himself drawn to the killer he is tracking, an effect registered by [director William] Friedkin's deft use of tracking shots tied to Burns’s point of view. ("I like to watch," he says at one point.) The bars are portrayed as a kind of hell, photographed in a near-monochromatic black-and-blue color scheme [see photo, above], with an emphasis on heat, humidity, human sweat and sulfuric cigarette smoke. Though some scenes were fogged up to avoid censorship for the initial release, they are now presented as Mr. Friedkin shot them."

I remember two things about Cruising from when I crossed picket lines to see it back in 1980: It was way violent. And there was a molto-hot scene where Pacino's character fucks his wife (maybe it was a girlfriend) like there was no tomorrow.

[Photo: Warner Home Video, via NYT]

Barneys beckons; Mapplethorpe remembered

2007-09-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

Led by Wednesday's opening of the city's first Barneys, San Francisco is about to get a host of new and expanded retailers, including diamond king De Beers; Prada, and Helmut Lang. The Minneapolis airport toilet stall where Sen. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig was busted for soliciting sex has become a tourist attraction. Edward Mapplethorpe tells New York magazine he was drawn to the creative universe of his famous photographer brother Robert (left), "a world of subversive sex and hard drugs, obsession and ambition, darkness and beauty." Sounds like fun! Even though Edward says he isn't gay! Plus, it takes three hours to style Michael Jackson's "freaky coif,'' says the ever-reliable Page Six.

[Photo: Robert Mapplethorpe in a self-portrait, 1980]

2007-09-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

I'm getting off to a slow start today because I'm working on another super-secret blog that's taking up more of my time. So! It's going to be a little less warm today: partly sunny, with highs only in the 60s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

R.I.P., Brett Somers

2007-09-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

The comedian who frequently sparred with the late Charles Nelson Reilly on the Match Game TV show was 83; she died Saturday at her home in Westport, Conn.

All hail the queen!

2007-09-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

So mean (and yet true!): Gawker dissects last night's Emmy Awards with a super-special eye on host Ryan Seacrest.

Arnie veto expected; plus, a new office sweet

2007-09-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to veto the latest same-sex marriage bill approved by the state legislature, the San Francisco Chronicle says today. Those naughty boys at business-attire-themed porn producer Men at Play have released their newest waggishly-titled concoction, KamaSuitra Gold (left). Smack down! Chris Crocker, the over-the-top, 19-year-old way-fey Britney Spears fan, goes after Fox News in a new YouTube video: "Mention me again and there will be a problem, Fox News." Crocker's original video screed attacking Spears' critics continues to climb YouTube's charts. Meanwhile, oldie and definitely moldy disco group The Village People plans to sue YouTube over a video featuring Hitler and a coterie of prominent Nazis singing YMCA.

2007-09-17T07:07:00.000-07:00

Another partly sunny day ahead, with highs in the 60s to lower 70s. [Photo: That's one of my favorite porn stars, Alex Collack]

A rare glimpse of Tom Ford's boyfriend?

2007-09-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

Richard Buckley is in the light-colored suit, to the left of the sunglass-wearing fashion designer, according to Flickr member Luca ROME, who got this photo outside a Valentino show in July. Buckley, 59, Ford's lover for more than two decades, is a fashion and style journalist who's interested in modern architecture. The unbelievably sexy Ford, 45, told New York magazine in this Q&A that he'd like to have kids; Buckley doesn't. This post about Ford is one of the most popular on Castro Confidential.

2007-09-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

I'm praying for sun because I need to work on my tan before an upcoming trip. It's looking like a partly sunny day so far, with highs in the 60s.

I've found him!

2007-09-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

He's an Israeli known as DJ Aron and he plays in Paris and Milan. I've been trying to learn more about him after seeing him last month in Ibiza with porn star Franceso D'Macho. Hard to believe, but Aron is even sexier in person!

It's a mad, mad Zsa Zsa world!

2007-09-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

That's Zsa Zsa Gabor, now somewhere between 80 and 100 years old, with her husband, Prince Frédéric von Anhalt, in the crumbling Bel Air mansion she bought from crazy billionaire Howard Hughes. (Look carefully at that ottoman on the right; it's got a big hole in the upholstery.) This is the first time in years that Gabor has been photographed for public consumption, says Vanity Fair magazine, which published this fascinating story answering accusations that von Anhalt has been holding Gabor a virtual prisoner since she suffered a stroke two years ago.

"Nothing is as it seems when Zsa Zsa Gabor and Prince Frédéric von Anhalt are involved,'' Vanity Fair says. "He says he's her 10th husband; she says he's only her 8th. She won't say how old she is; he doesn't want to know. Some accuse him of keeping her prisoner, but he says he's the one who's hemmed in—never mind his self-proclaimed affair with the late Anna Nicole Smith or his alleged robbery by a lesbian street gang. Welcome to a surreal address that makes Sunset Boulevard look like Sesame Street." Like: Meow!

2007-09-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

Another warm day! It's going to be partly sunny, with highs in the mid 60s to lower 70s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

New and nipple-ly

2007-09-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Michael has impeccable taste (just like me!), so finds David Beckham oh-so-tasty. Well, Michael has just alerted me to these fresh photos of the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer player, from an advertising campaign for Motorola's new Razr 2 cellphone.

Becks won't do gay for pay; Gallo's penis envy

2007-09-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria has put the kibosh on wishful rumors that skirt-wearing British soccer stud David Beckham (left) is being considered for a role as one of the two new gay neighbors on the hit TV series. Plus, strange-looking actor Vincent Gallo says: Yessiree bob! That was my cock in indy film The Brown Bunny. (Gallo, BTW, was awesome with Christina Ricci in Buffalo '66!)

2007-09-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

It's going to be warmer today, and all weekend: Today's highs will be in the mid 60s to lower 70s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

RuPaul for president!

2007-09-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

That was the waggish retort by Peet's Coffee & Tea employees moments ago as supporters marched by the Montgomery Street store in San Francisco's financial district, demanding that we elect super-fringe Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

'Ass' is arrested; plastic lust, a cowboy's b-day

2007-09-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

New York gay nightspot Mr. Black, host of one of my favorite websites, was busted as a big drug den; among those taken in: "The Ass," aka Luke Nero, a waiter who goes bottomless. San Francisco Chronicle sex columnist Violet Blue probes (har!) the ethics of fucking inflatable dolls. Plus, Randy Jones (above), the original cowboy in the Village People, turns 55 today; more big birthdays here.

Leading B.A.R.: A ban on Castro chain stores?

2007-09-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

What I'm reading today in our little weekly: CHAIN, CHAIN, CHAIN. Merchants debated a plan to ban chain stores along Castro Street between Market and 19th streets and along 18th Street between Hartford and Collingwood streets; chain stores already in business could stay. BAD VIBES. Strapped for cash, famous sex retailer Good Vibrations is seeking investors. OUT THERE. Fag Fridays, the 11-year-old party at the EndUp, is kaput after Oct. 19. MISTER MARCUS is already hyping that most stirring of annual events, the Leather Walk, leading up to Folsom Street Fair.

2007-09-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

As Sparky said, he's kind of intense, huh? It's going to be a wee cloudy today, with highs in the low to mid 60s.

And now: Britney's most vocal defender

2007-09-12T23:00:00.000-07:00

Salon has an excellent Q&A with the 19-year-old gay guy who made the Leave Britney Alone! video that's now become the 48-hour-cycle's surprise YouTube hit.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

The one thing better than aussieBum in print

2007-09-12T16:30:00.000-07:00

U.S. life expectancy sets a new record

2007-09-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

Oh, joy! It's now nearly 78 years. Does that mean the minimum age to be considered a hot daddy is now higher, too?

We heart trainwrecks!

2007-09-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

The (apparently) gay Britney Spears fan's wild-ass crazy defense of the troubled pop star that I wrote about yesterday has become one of the most-discussed YouTube videos of all time -- barely 24 hours after it appeared. Chris Crocker launched Leave Britney Alone! to answer critics' takedown of Spears' performance on Sunday night's MTV Video Music Awards show. Crocker's two-minute video has now drawn more than 50,000 comments, ranking it among the top 50 most-discussed videos in the site's history. Plus, it's been viewed more than two million times.

2007-09-12T06:25:00.000-07:00

It might be a good day to stay inside and, well, wrassle. It's going to be on-and-off cloudy today, with highs in the 60s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

Next stop, rehab? (And not for Spears...)

2007-09-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hard to tell whether this is a genuine -- or fake -- defense of Britney Spears after her disastrous comeback on the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night. It was posted yesterday by Web celebrity Chris Crocker, 19, who describes himself as "The Queen of Ghetto" in his YouTube profile. "The game is positivity,'' Crocker writes. "I believe the best way to educate and spread positivity is through entertainment, which translates to edutainment. Which just so happens to be my speciality." In any case, this video's been viewed more than 420,000 times in less than 24 hours. Oy.

2007-09-11T07:49:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder (the first of many): The annual Folsom Street Fair is just 19 days away. Hmmm; it's kind of like a countdown to Christmas, no? Meanwhile, it's going to be another sunny and hot day, with highs in the mid 60s to mid 80s. [Photo: That's porn star Francois Sagat]

There'll always be an England

2007-09-10T17:34:00.000-07:00

And it's being rapidly exported to San Francisco. First, at the W hotel this morning, a concierge directed me to "the lifts." Then, just moments ago at G-Star Raw on Geary Street, a sales clerk told me customers were selling the chain's faux canvas shopping bags on eBay for "eight pounds." (Of course, maybe I'm just hearing wistful echoes of my recent holiday.)

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

One of my fave summer serials is over

2007-09-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

Indeed, we all learned today, "she done."

R.I.P., Jane Wyman

2007-09-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Deliciously evil as matriarch Angela Channing in the Napa Valley-inspired 1980s soaper, Falcon Crest, Wyman was 93; she died today at her Palm Springs home. We are forever grateful to that show for bringing us Lorenzo Lamas as Channing's no-good playboy grandson, Lance Cumson. (Love, love, love that porno-sounding last name!)

What makes the opera so gay?

2007-09-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

A little skin, in the form of this hunk dressed as a temple guard at the San Francisco Opera's 85th opening night gala Saturday night . . .

. . . and a lot o' fur and jewels, in the form of the city's top moneybags socialite, La Dede Wilsey (wearing Oscar de la Renta!). The San Francisco Chronicle has all the bold-face names here. [Photos: Laura Morton, Chronicle]

Penn plays Milk; Becks fights, Phillippe ages

2007-09-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

Sean Penn will play gay 1970s San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, and Matt Damon his assassin, in a long-planned movie by director Gus Van Sant; filming could start in December. Soccer god David Beckham, worried about losing his gay fans, says Britain's Daily Star, denies he called an ex-teammate a "poof." Plus, major cutie-pie Ryan Phillippe (left), now being thrown overboard by his clearly insane soon-to-be ex-wife Reese Witherspoon, turns 33 today; more big birthdays here.

2007-09-10T06:30:00.000-07:00

That's my kind of farmboy; check out the hay bales! It's going to be sunny today, with highs in the 60s.

Macho men go gay, Nolan suits us fine

2007-09-09T12:29:00.000-07:00

From Latin America to Africa, the growing maturity of the gay-rights movement in the western world is now spreading to developing nations, Newsweek magazine says in a new cover story (left), "Sex and the Macho Man." In San Francisco, football coaching dreamboat Mike Nolan gets the best-dressed award when the 49ers face off in their season opener against the Arizona Cardinals Monday night, the San Francisco Chronicle says. Plus, Syliva Miles, fabulous as the kept woman boinking Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy, turns 75 today; more big birthdays here.

2007-09-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

Rescue me, you little studlette, because today's weather is looking kind of yucky: It's going to be partly cloudy, with temperatures no higher than the 60s.

2007-09-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

Summer weather is still with us: It's going to be partly cloudy, with highs in the 60s to lower 70s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

[Photo: That's porn producer and star Collin O'Neal]

Jobs aren't us; Gaynor gains, Bankhead redux

2007-09-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

Yikes! We're all gonna lose our jobs because the economy's going into a total molto-meltdown. (Or not!) Answer: A gazillion. Question: "Just how many closeted, self-hating, violently repressed 'I-am-not-gay' totally gay hypocrites are there in the Republican Party?" Disco diva Gloria "I Will Survive" Gaynor (left) turns 58 today; more big birthdays here. Plus, Out There's dish, yesterday, on Tallulah Bankhead reminds me of a story from playwright Lillian Hellman's memoirs, Pentimento. While she was being considering for the role of Regina in the stage version of Hellman's The Little Foxes, Bankhead insisted on being interviewed in bed, with her husband, John Emery, by her side. "'Wait a minute, darling, just wait a minute. I have something to show you,''' Hellman quotes Bankhead saying. "She threw aside the sheets, pointed down at the naked, miserable Emery and said, 'Just tell me, darling, if you've ever seen a prick that big.''' Meanwhile, in other big-cock news, we have this debate. Mangia!

2007-09-07T06:05:00.000-07:00

It's looking like a day of partly cloudy skies, but warm: Temperatures should be in the 60s to near 70.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

I told you Andrew Sullivan's hubbie is tall

2007-09-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

The quasi-conservative blogger's new husbear, Aaron Tone, is kinda ginormous, no? [Photo: Michael Stuetz via Andrew Sullivan]

'Purple hairs' called out; Craig's waffling anew

2007-09-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

San Francisco magazine dishes a bit of dirt on the new (apparently very straight) chief of one of the city's gayest groups: the San Francisco Opera. "Ah, the things we do for love, the things we do for money," the frank-talking David Gockley (left) tells the magazine. (Confidential to Dede Wilsey: How do you like being lumped in with the "purple-hair" set?) In an about-face, conservative Idaho Sen. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig hinted today that he won't finish out his term after all, following his guilty plea in a sex-sting operation. Plus, Jo Anne Worley of Laugh-In fame turns 70 today; more big birthdays here.

Leading B.A.R.: 'Justice with a snap'

2007-09-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

What I'm reading today our our little weekly: MOVE OVER, JUDGE JUDY. Judge David Young of Miami will deliver "justice with a snap" when his half-hour syndicated TV show debuts Monday. BURNING DEATH. A man who committed suicide at Burning Man last week died in one of the event's gay camps. OUT THERE. Tallulah Bankhead (left) paved the way for Sen. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig (last item). CRIME & PUNISHMENT. A mugging near Sparky's Diner on Church Street, a pit bull is stolen, and a crazy man runs naked.

2007-09-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

We're in a real warm spell: It's going to be sunny and even warmer today, with highs in the 60s to upper 70s.

It's Five O'Clock

2007-09-05T17:00:00.001-07:00

[Photo: That's artist and actor Alessandro Calza]

Craig's return? Plus, cops on Craigslist!

2007-09-05T08:02:00.000-07:00

Having not humiliated his family enough, Republican Idaho Sen. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig (above, in booking photo) is now reconsidering plans to resign over his guilty plea after a Minneapolis airport bathroom sex-sting operation. Oh, my! Prostitutes are peddling themselves on Craiglist, according to the New York Times; the story makes no mention of men offering themselves for fun, even though I can find all these ads in the Castro alone. [Photo: Minneapolis Police Department]

2007-09-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

It should be mostly warmer and sunny today, with highs in the 60s to mid 70s. [Photo by Daniel Machado via Kenneth in the 212]