We mentioned it before, but it was sad when, on Election Night, America once again said thanks, but no thanks, to recognizing the rights of gay people. Specifically, California's Proposition 8, which banned the state's previously legal gay marriages, passed. Now, hey, everyone's going nuts. The gays are currently blaming Black People, Mormons, the governor, Barack Obama, and others, and they're protesting and demonstrating and doing all the other things everyone forgot to do before the vote happened. We know everyone was totally distracted by Barack Obama and his magical election, but guys, even we out here in New York knew you faced a well-funded, well-organized, media-savvy campaign of lies and misinformation, and the pro-gay marriage response was abysmal. Now—now!—Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says it's a shame gay marriage was banned, oh boo hoo. He didn't lift a finger to campaign against Prop 8 before! Now David Geffen is quoted in The Daily Beast babbling about the lack of outreach to black voters. Where was his money, before? [Update: Geffen gave $200k, out of his billions.] Did he get his rich liberal friends to contribute as much as the Mormon Church did? Did they use the money to build a grassroots movement as well-organized as the pro-Prop 8 guys did? Check out the list of Hollywood's non-donors as of September 10—many of them did eventually donate, but see how they didn't feel the need to until the last second? Blaming the blacks is ridiculous and unhelpful and stupid. There aren't enough black people in California to have make the ultimate difference, even with bigger turnout, unless you consider these black voters a subset of religious voters, a giant group everyone should've known they'd have to contend with months ago. Black people certainly posed less of an electoral threat than Catholics did in the California polls. It seems like everyone just assumed Prop 8 would fail, magically, even when the polls tightened significantly. And now—now!—the protests are ramping up. Now—now!—Keith Olbermann delivers his heartfelt Special Comment. Hey, let's all boycott Sundance! That'll show the Mormons! They won't meddle in our affairs ever again! Of course the anger and resentment is already hardening. But yes, outreach and education and organization and money (and maybe some genuine help from Barack Obama, who was against Prop 8, though you'd never know it) might've won the battle. Garnering support for gay rights in Arizona, in Arkansas, even in Florida, are difficult challenges that will still probably take years of work, but to get a gay marriage ban passed in California smacks of enlightened rich liberals not trying hard enough.

Sometimes, don't you wish you didn't have to get out of bed every morning, and could just wander the city all day, window shopping and drinking at whatever goddamned hour you choose? Time Out has a roundup about where recently laid-off media and finance proles go to drink, and they featured our former writer, the totally unjustly fired Moe. Look how happy and healthy she looks in the photo, due not to some South Beach vacation but from being away from the cancerous glow of her computer screen and the repetitive-stress injuries of typeblogging. It's almost enough to make us want to get fired.As Moe tells Time Out about her dream job:

This just in: Current TV's director of public relations sent us an email designed to be printed in its entirety. (Thanks for that. Since Valleywag fired everyone else, I spend way too much time editing.) Current didn't just cut staff, they reshuffled a couple dozen employees. Instead of the economy, Current blames "a new, innovative programming strategy." That's gotta make everyone feel better. A tipster tells us, "The few spared [in San Francisco] are being made to choose between unemployment or a move to L.A." Here's the statement:

Pop-country tween phenomenon Taylor Swift dropped by Ellen today to promote a new album of songs that tap deep into the wells of heartache she's already amassed in her scant 18 years on this planet. The most achy-breaky of all? Her breakup with dreamy-haired Jonas brother Joe, about whom she says pragmatically, "One day...I won't be able to remember the boy that broke up with me over the phone in 25 seconds when I was 18." What follows is a thunderous wave of "Ohhhhhhwaaahhhhhhwhoooooooaaaa" from the audience we think is supposed to encapsulate their shock, sympathy, and outrage over the callous tele-dumping. While we feel for the singer, we too are certain there's far more worthy suitors in her future, and she'll chalk this experience up to yet more grist for the country-song mill, culminating in a CMA-winning composition entitled, "I Need Your Lovin' (Like I Need A Fartin' Dog in My Dodge)." [Ellen]

A tipster tells us that Google VP Marissa Mayer, who owns a penthouse apartment in San Francisco's Four Seasons, recently berated the staff there about how long it's taken to paint the lobby of the residents' entrance at the hotel-condominium complex, and stormed off before they could apologize. Oh, how nouveau riche, arriviste, tacky — is that what you're thinking? Think again! As bad as one might feel for the Four Seasons workers, one has to think Mayer's imperiousness has its plusses — at least for Google's shareholders.As vice president for search products and user experience, she's guarded against clutter on Google's homepage. And Google continues to seize market share from rivals who can't grasp the obvious lessons of Mayer's perfectionism. Memo to Marissa: We actually like you better when you're being bossy, not ostentatiously girlish. More tirades, fewer cupcakes, please.

Poster Boy: an anonymous ad remixer in the New York subways. Art: is it what he does? Culture jamming: a term too annoying to use any more, though everyone knows what it means. Sell out: is he bound to, eventually? Questions: he asks them. Britney: slut, psycho, or star? Maria: is she really poopy? Man: why is he flying on outside of train car? Poetry: why aren't I good at it? Five new Poster Boy pieces: after the jump, ya dig:

After a week of attention-getting protests against Proposition 8, gay activists and allies are ready for their next big target — and some, like blogger John Aravosis, are suggesting a boycott of the Sundance Film Festival. Sure, the Prop, 8-pushing Mormon Church has no direct ties to Sundance, but the Park City fest could be affected by a growing movement to boycott not just Mormon-owned enterprises but the entire, caffeine-fearing state of Utah in general. So, should Robert Redford be shaking in his stylish snow boots? We think not, for these reasons:The boycott talk is coming from outside the industry, not inside. So far, calls for a boycott are mainly coming from bloggers, not influential directors, producers, and actors. We don't see that changing, unless the cash-poor Harvey Weinstein decides to make a dramatic nonattendance statement as a way to save face (and plane airfare). A boycott big enough to matter is unlikely. The young filmmakers accepted into the festival would crawl over their own mothers to be there, and the Sundance hangers-on like Paris Hilton have never been bastions of activism. Without enough straight allies who could bear to part with their tickets to Park City, there's no chance to make a big dent, because... The gay presence at Sundance has waned. Back before your associate editor took up blogging and adopted the royal "we" at Defamer, I held a regular gig as The Advocate's film critic and attended several Sundances working the gay beat (not as hustler-ish as it sounds!). Though the film festival has a deservedly gay-friendly rep, it's gone through some pretty sparse queer years as of late. At the 2007 festival, the gay slate had so little on it that the centerpiece was a Chad Allen movie. If Sundance was boycotted by gay filmmakers and queer-themed films, the lineup wouldn't change that much. We're all about new and novel ways to protest (what's this we keep hearing about "A Day Without a Gay"?), but the Sundance idea seems DOA to us, especially when everybody's already got their plane tickets set for January. Next year might be a different story — there'll be a lot more lead time — but let's hope there won't be reason to protest then, OK? [Photo Credit: AP]

One way to not have an intelligent discussion about race these day is to use the term "colored" to describe black people. It's antiquated and grampa-ish, like saying "Oriental" or "cripple." I think you're allowed to say "person of color" but not "colored." (Right?) So it's too bad to see that some big-time celebrities are using the term while trying to sound progressive and One Worldy. Both lesbians and the British alike. Perpetual blog fodder actress Lindsay Lohan used the term on Access Hollywood recently when talking about Barack Obama. She was well intentioned, saying "It’s an amazing feeling. It’s our first colored president," but... yikes. And then current James Bond actor Daniel Craig said that the world is ready for a "coloured" Bond now that Barry has taken the highest office in the land. We'd maybe expect this from old timers like Elaine Strich or the ghost of Charlton Heston, but coming from young Lindsay and Daniel? We expect more from a Sapphist and a limey, honestly.

You know, it would be a totally awesome Veteran's Day segment, says the bleary news producer, if we recreated that famous photo of the nurse kissing the sailor in Times Square. We think our ideas sound great when we're drunk, too. But soon, the painful truth sets in. This morning Fox & Friends decided to trot the actual nurse from the photo, Edith Shain, 90, in front of the cameras to kiss one of their interns wearing a paper sailor's cap. Witness the awkward Fox & Friends-intern-on-nanogenarian embrace after the jump.Shain's been through this before, however. Here she is with some actor-sailors from Broadway's South Pacific, recreating the kiss just a bit less awkwardly:

After coming under attack by pro-environment groups, Apple has tried hard to burnish its green image. But its latest laptops could ruin its reputation among the carbon-conscious. Apple has touted the innovation of its new "unibody" laser-manufacturing process, which carves the MacBook's body out of a block of aluminum. "The process uses a huge amount of energy to machine each case and then to recycle the material removed," an expert on computer supply chains tells Valleywag. "It's a much less efficient and there's a huge amount of waste than any other process to make the housings." The charge could be electrifying, if proven true.Apple has devoted an entire page to the MacBook's environmental merits. The company has taken considerable steps to lower the amount of energy used by the MacBook's display, hard drive, and processor. But Apple is vague about the energy consumed by making the MacBook's laser-carved unibody, and recycling the wasted aluminum. The Container Recycling Institute estimates that 3 percent of the world's electricity goes towards manufacturing aluminum — and China, where most of Apple's manufacturing is done, gets most of its electricity from dirty coal plants.

We already know Jennifer Aniston thinks Angelina Jolie's spouse-theft is the very picture of "uncool." But a little context couldn't hurt in understanding the true depth of Aniston's lingering antipathy over her split from Brad Pitt — like that whole part about Jolie's "detailed timeline" of their illicit courtship on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Definitely uncool, says Aniston:

Another one bites the dust. This time, instead of banning a new app, Apple has denied a music streaming app called CastCatcher from releasing an update, due to "unreasonable volume of traffic." As with the past bans, the developers come out as the folk heroes, but an evil corporate overlord would have helped CastCatcher a lot. Here's how:iPhone music apps comes in a variety of flavors, from licensed tracks streaming apps — such as Pandora — to radio streaming apps — such as AOL Radio — to computer music streaming — such as Simply Media. But they are all mostly corporate owned. AOL Radio is powered by CBS, Last.fm is owned by CBS. ClearChannel Communications, the radio monopoly has its own iPhone app. CastCatcher's main feature was the ability to stream things called shoutcasts, a media streaming format developed by Winamp creator Justin Frankel during his anti-corporate punk days at Nullsoft. Some radio stations have used shoutcast software to bridge their transmission online, but most shoutcast sites are operated by hobbyists — ham-radio operators, amateur DJs, sports coverage, or talk shows. That means no revenue to share with Apple. And that means Apple has no room for them to hog AT&T's bandwidth. Why don't you kids go make a podcast instead?(Photo by otakuchick)

So, have you heard that Jaden Smith, son of mega movie star Will, is going to be the next Karate Kid? Yeah, they're rebooting that old franchise—about street tough kids getting lessons in fightin' and thinkin' from mystical Asians—as a star vehicle for the kiddie. Sure, he's already starred (with Pa) in The Pursuit of Happy[sic]ness and has a role in the upcoming The Day The Earth Stood Still. But, the savvy tyke he is, Jaden's booked himself in the update of an iconic role that can shake off the simple title of "Will Smith's Kid." Now he'll be, well, "that new Karate Kid." He's not the first celeb spawn to go into the industry, and he won't be the last teetering into the fray to ditch associations with their famous folks. So who's next?? Who will be the next children of celebrities to hurl themselves in front of the camera in search of non-genetic fame? We'll take a look at some other famey babies after the jump and cast them in ideal (read: fake) break-out roles!

It looks like hotel mogul Barry Sternlicht, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Hollywood boss Peter Chernin may need to make some adjustments to their 2009 vacation itineraries: The Yellowstone Club, the invitation-only private ski and golf resort in Montana for the exceedingly wealthy, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday. Club officials say the resort will remain open for the ski season, but its long-term prospects are unclear. The good news is that the club's 340 members will no longer have to fork over $16,000 a year in membership dues. The not-so-good news: Their $250,000 initiation fees just went down the drain. [AP]

· In what THR dubs a "Rasinet recession," candy counter sales are dwindling, as families in these rough economic times are opting to meet their mortgage payments instead of investing in a tub of popcorn large enough to later turn into a cardboard shelter. [THR] · The Weinsteins have come on board to produce the movie of Pulitzer and Tony-winning play August: Osage County, which we saw this summer and can honestly say lives up to the hype. Weinstein says he has "already received calls from reps of interested actresses who've seen the play." Here's your cast: Judi Dench, Holly Hunter, Meryl Streep, Mary-Louise Parker. Bam. Back on the Oscars express. [Variety] · "Since I'm really curious about the world, what better place for [my partner Tom Leonardis] and me to exercise this interest than at Discovery?" said the delightfully gay-rights-incurious Whoopi Goldberg of her Discovery Emerging Networks deal. [Variety] After the jump: What lesbianwashing network is now playing God with its schedule?· CBS's Monday night comedy block won the night, including a series-best for The Big Bang Theory, which we're glad to know is 10.0 million people's dirty little secret as well. [Variety] · ABC is futzing with its schedule, putting Private Practice after Grey's Anatomy, and Life on Mars after Lost, in what they'll multi-platform promote as their new, "Let's Hope You Stick Around For Suckier TV Night in America!" campaign.

A quarter of the 50-something employees in Wired.com's San Francisco newsroom are gone, a source tells us — and with them, the bubbly delusion that Wired would not just report on the transformation of media by technology, but be a part of the revolution as well. The cuts hit Wired's tech team heavily, though some writers and editors also got pink slips. (CNET reports that 3 out of 28 editorial staffers are gone, but a Wired insider says that the actual number of edit jobs cut is at least six.)Also gone: Kourosh Karimkhany, the VP of corporate development for Wired.com's parent company, CondéNet. (The magazine is run separately by Condé Nast, a sister company to CondéNet.) Karimkhany did the deals to buy Reddit, an online news-discussion site; Ars Technica, a rival tech blog; and Webmonkey, a Web-technology how-to site. With no further deals planned, there wasn't much reason to keep him on, we hear. (Photo by Jackson West)

♦ At yesterday's Fashion Group International panel on fashion retail, Simon Doonan chatted with Sally Singer, Bloomingdale's fashion director Stephanie Solomon, and InStyle's beauty director Amy Synnott about the pervasive doom and gloom in the retail industry. Doonan's take: "It's really terrifying. But I think my job is to sustain the idea that fashion is exciting and glamorous. We really need to do our best even if sales are plunging." [WWD]
♦ When deciding who should front its next campaign, did Louis Vuitton go for someone fresh, edgy, and exciting? Nope, it's supposedly Madonna. [stylefile]
♦ Because now every article on Michelle Obama's person must be identified, priced, and judged: She wore Maria Pinto to the White House, and those dangly earrings she wore on election night? White gold with diamonds, priced at $11,000, and designed by Loree Rodkin. [WSJ, The Cut]

Conde Nast has laid off dozens of people today from CondeNet, the company's internet division. We hear from one source that 60 people were let go this morning, most in tech, some in marketing. We also hear that an additional 20 staffers were fired from "Conde Connect," the company's internal intranet division. Conde itself hasn't released specific numbers, but these are part of the 5% across-the-board cuts the company ordered two weeks ago. If you have info, email us.

Though Lindsay Lohan has recently revealed herself to be a stickler for semantics, we have a feeling there's a word or two in her recent interview with Access Hollywood that she might want to take back right around now.Maria Menounos quizzed the part-time actress on her reaction to Barack Obama's historic victory, and Lohan (clearly still reeling from the use of Homer Simpson's makeup gun) obliged with warm, hoarse words about "our nation's first colored president." That is maybe not how we would have put it, but neither would we have starred in the Chris Parnell vehicle Labor Pains. Someone's gotta be at the vanguard! Clip below:

Remember when Gmail first came out? Virtually unlimited email storage, free! A few people bitched about the ads, but even those were an improvement over Hotmail and Yahoo, which shoved ads into the middle of personal messages rather than alongside them. Nearly five years later, Gmail's new video chat feature is resoundingly meh by comparison. CNET old-timer Rafe Needleman, who got advance review access, listed shortcomings rather than breakthroughs in his writeup. Needleman had embedded in his article a self-produced video demo by one of the Google engineers who built the thing. The doofy-but-sincere video has been removed from YouTube. Dear Google PR: That's everything wrong with your company right there.