Joining Lindsay Lohan in declaring today a holiday for finally confirming open, same-sex secrets, Clay Aiken has come out of the closet. In an edition of People magazine to be published tomorrow, Aiken poses with his newborn son Parker and confirms the rumors that have dogged the singer since he belted out his first glory note on American Idol.The content of the article has not yet been released, but some hints can be gleaned about his long-anticipated confession from the Aiken quote teased on the cover: "I cannot raise a child to lie or hide things." Kudos, Clay! Now where's your donation? [HuffPo]

Hot on the heels of a philanthropic Brad Pitt, director Steven Spielberg has become the latest celebrity to make a major donation to the campaign to defeat the anti-gay Proposition 8. Spielberg matched Pitt's donation of $100,000 to fight the proposition, which would take away the same-sex marriage rights awarded to Californians this year. As terrific as it is for the industry's straight allies to open up their pocketbooks, we can't help but take a page from homo icon Kathy Griffin and wonder: "Where my gays at?" Specifically, why haven't gay stars like the recently married Ellen DeGeneres contributed to a movement that still lags millions of dollars behind its well-funded, religious opposition? IN magazine broke down some of the other queer power players who are too busy watching Work Out reruns to contribute:

Recently, things had been looking up for singer George Michael: not only had he embarked on his first world tour in years, but his music received another moment in the cultural spotlight thanks to the whimsical ABC series Eli Stone. (Here at Defamer, though, we'll maintain that his most triumphant turn of late was leading the insurrection against a held-hostage Dr. Phil at the Forum in June). Alas, all good things must come to and end, and for Michael, that fluorescent-lit endpoint was once again found in a public men's room:

An Important Drama like Brokeback Mountain has been many things to many people since its release three years ago, but who knew it was a budding franchise? Not only is the cowboys-in-love tale going opera, but ardent internet fans continue to sequelize the film with fan fiction, side stories and improbable follow-ups. Why, even Defamer has gotten into the act — Ang, the rights for "Ennis and Jack's Outrageous UFO Adventure" (above) are still available. Call us! However, there's one person who finds these add-ons downright Jack Nasty, and she's Annie Proulx, the tale's original author. As she told the Wall Street Journal:

We needed something to bleach the image of Julianna Margulies's privates off our cortex, and what better psychic disinfectant than some exclusive footage from Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi's recent nuptials. Both brides look stunning—their vaginas safely stowed away somewhere where guests and hovering helicopters would never see them. We were particularly moved by the moment Ellen first laid eyes on Portia emerging in full hair, makeup, and gown, a sight that could turn even the most ardent of penis-enthusiasts into card-carrying members of the American Association of Lipstick Lesbians. [Ellen]

Can't a network game show gather muscular, waxed contestants together anymore without one of them having a notorious gay porn past? Hot on the heels of the American Gladiator who was revealed to be more familiar with the joust than originally thought, Fox's bizarre new game show Hole in the Wall premiered on Sunday with a face that should be familiar to customers of the gay porn website Sean Cody. Dubbed "Ajay" during his stint in the skin trade, Hole introduced him as Aaron Savvy, member of the Six Pack team. Then, after being asked, "Are you ready to face the hole?" Savvy and his personal trainer teammate had to navigate advancing walls with perilous shapes cut in them, forcing the duo to assume positions not put into use since "Ajay & Spence Flip-Flop." Does Savvy make it into the holes intact? Let's just say he has better luck at his day job. [After Elton]

Perhaps it's just practice for the sapphic VMAs cameo that MTV wants her to make, but part-time actress Lindsay Lohan was snapped smooching Samantha Ronson in Manhattan yesterday. The development will no doubt please LAPD Chief William Bratton, who correctly intuited that Lohan "going gay" would somehow spirit her away from the more aggressive paparazzi in Los Angeles, though there is still no word on what father Michael Lohan thinks of the photo (we're sure, though, that a statement is incoming). Meanwhile, Playboy has offered Lohan a series of less tender snapshots, and they made a surprisingly low first offer:

While we have to say were taken slightly aback by the addition of limp-flippered velvet-slug mafioso Capote the Hutt to the Star Wars character universe, we were even more surprised to learn from a Defamer operative that the Lucas brand—Synonymous with Quality Intergalactic Family Entertainment Since 1977™—harbors other...how should we put this diplomatically...C3POic tendencies? They write:

After making an unsettling detour to Closeted-Heartthrob Rapesville, the Blind Item Express is once more on the move, this time heading for sunnier, more sapphic waters. How else to explain this provocative post from Crazy Days and Nights:

By all accounts, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi's Saturday wedding was a stunning and intimate affair, the two beautiful brides eliciting audible gasps from the guests as they walked down the aisle, trailed closely behind by Iggy the Flower Dog tossing mouthfuls of white rose petals. Obviously, the world bids these two rapturously-in-love and talented ladies a lifetime of happiness together, though it's interesting to see how those good wishes sometimes play themselves out. For starters, we have CNN's headline on the nuptials, noticed by blogger Chexydecimal, which reads, "Ellen DeGeneres 'marries' Portia Rossi." After complaints were lodged, they pulled the scare quotes—floating there like two chubby, hooked televangelist's fingers—but kept De Rossi's last name wrong. T.R. Knight's internalized, anti-breeder wrath nearly ruins the wedding video, after the jump!At the other end of the spectrum comes a video greeting card from People.com, where Katherine Heigl opens the well-wishes with a thoroughly exasperated, "Marriage...[defeated exhalation] marriage..." Glad you're loving it, Kath! Then, T.R. Knight swoops in to give what could very well be the most depressing congratulatory wedding message in history. He almost cracks a smile near the beginning, then pauses thoughtfully for an uncomfortably long moment before launching into a diatribe about "the anger, and rage, and rage, and sadness" he feels at the many wrongs inflicted by this country upon, presumably, Caucasian males making seven-figures a year such as himself. Thank God Jason Biggs is around to add a little—you know—happiness to the proceedings. This dude loves marriage! And breeding! He's a marriage-loving, breeding machine!

We'd heard of some unauthorized twaddle going around focusing on the gay undercurrent of the Summer Olympics, but as far as we're concerned, NBC is doing some of most trailblazing work this year by playing out Beijing's homoerotic currency right in the mainstream. Nowhere is it more evident than the network's Olympics Web site, where after a sleek, soaking stretch of Water Cube drama, a new slideshow today invites readers to guess the rippling abs whose owners made it through the historic week that was.Some are more challenging than others, but not knowing which Australian "recently dropped backstroke to focus on butterfly" or which American "has dominated his best stroke since 2001" (hint: not Michael Phelps!) hardly seems to detract from the guessing-game fun. All that's left now is to determine which of the fledgling Adonises will be first to attempt an unwitting, towel-snapping crossover opposite the latter-day equivalent of Steve Guttenberg and a diving dozen of West Village extras. (Read more coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games.)

He speaks! In the midst of fending off the rumors swirling about his job security, NBC head honcho Ben Silverman has taken time out to become a recurring Olympics correspondent for Ryan Seacrest's morning radio show on KIIS-FM. Broadcasting & Cable has the scoop (not to be missed is Silverman's quip about his Chinese tour guide: "Her name is Fun Fun, so you can imagine how much fun-fun Fun Fun is"), but with the help of Molly McAleer, we've assembled some of Silverman's most enthusiastic moments in the video after the jump. Who knew that Silverman and Seacrest were so well-versed about the gay goings-on in West Hollywood? [Broadcasting & Cable]

Caution: Like an old-school, deep-fried McDonald's cherry pie, contents of this blind item—courtesy of Page Six—are so scaldingly hot, they will likely burn through every layer of the skin on the roof of your mouth until you'll swear you're touching bone. Ah—but the hurt; it hurts so good:

Congratulations are in order for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, who married Saturday night in an intimate ceremony held on the grounds of their California home. The brides both wore Zac Posen and exchanged handwritten vows promising to love each other "in sickness and in health, for as long as no pesky cameramen get in the way." Attendance was capped at 19, all the better to exclude potential wedding crasher Barbara Walters. Still, the lesbian goddess giveth with one hand while she takes away with the other, for no sooner did the two marry than details of a sapphic Hollywood breakup emerged involving the famously "gone gay" Lindsay Lohan.

We thought all discussion of The Clone Wars ended yesterday with the discovery that if Harry Knowles hates it — enough even for George Lucas Warner Bros. to swoop in and kill his embargo-shattering review — it must be some kind of radioactively awful. But new revelations have surfaced this afternoon about Ziro the Hutt, the fringe character whom Knowles described as sounding like "a racist take on a Black New Orleans Crack-Dealing Whore." Not quite, Harry — not even close, in fact, according to an interview published today at MTV Movies:

Most gay men celebrate their coming out experience with increasing self-confidence and visibility (sometimes followed by a dark period that could be dubbed the "Fiesta Cantina stage"), and How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris is no exception. On the heels of flamboyant moves like starring in internet musicals and dressing up as a shoe fairy, the universally-adored actor has finally lost his gay press virginity, consenting to his first cover story in Out magazine. Though he admits to some trepidation (mostly fearing that his words will be taken out of context — why, who would do that?), he's not afraid to express his affection for a certain gray-haired anchorman:

After "going gay" for Samantha Ronson, is there anything left in the tabloid till for cinema alumna Lindsay Lohan? According to the ever-reliable UK fishwrap News of the World, there is: in a bid to retake the headlines stolen by little sister Ali, Lindsay and her sapphic sweetheart Sam are planning to get hitched (an anniversary present that somehow eluded our suggestions). Says the excitable Rav Singh:

Free from the vapid small talk she's forced to spout on MTV's The Hills, co-star Audrina Patridge finally has her own blog, a forum where she can finally unfetter her voice and speak from the depths of her very soul ("First I use the Dermalogica face cleanser, then the toner, and then Active Moist the moisturizer!"). In between pitching skin care products and admonishing paparazzi for spying on her (then using those pictures on her blog with a Splash photo credit), Patridge operates an advice column called "Ask Audrina," where the boring sample questions are quickly outshone by the icky, feeble requests from the comments section:

In today's niche-oriented gay world, is there anything that bears, twinks, gipsters (gay hipsters) and the like can all agree on (besides the fact that we totally need a better word than "gipster")? Gay hookup site Manhunt is betting there's at least one figure who can bridge that vast divide, so they've launched a new ad campaign featuring universal gay icon Kathy Griffin — only, according to a sticky press release, they're doing it without her approval:

In one of the crasser—and we mean that in the most splendid sense of the word—attempts at pandering to one's target audience we've seen, Kathy Griffin posed with a sloth of bear supermodels (just trust us, these three are the Cindy, Linda, and Naomi of their respective niche) for the cover of A Bear's Life magazine, a photoshoot captured for her reality show cameras. "Fine," you're thinking. "Kathy Griffin, a room full of mostly naked, middle-aged gay men draped on and around her. What's the big whoop?" Well, the big deal is that Steve "The Woz" Wozniak, the most bearish of all billionaire PC revolutionaries and Griffin's former boyfriend (who apparently never made it made to first base, even with the help of a speedcap-hacked Segway), was on hand to take in the proceedings. Not surprisingly, he was cajoled by the comedian into posing with his body-type teammates, who pestered him with questions about whether or not the iPhone 3G would be better equipped to handle the thousands of high-bandwidth images being traded daily on ChubbyFeeders.com.