· The WOW Report is all over Lindsay Lohan's next move should that angry letter from her producer hurt her future career prospects.
· The Franklin Avenue blog discovers what happens when Lost's producers get sloppy with the details: they have Hurley shrug it off. Sometimes a washing machine is just a washing machine, and not a Hanso Foundation conspiracy to drive people in the hatch crazy.
· AP entertainment editor writes headline, "Movie Prompts Barrymore to Take Up Poker," retrieves loaded revolver from desk drawer, blows brains out.
· More "Lance Bass used to pretend to be straight" hilarity: Giggle knowingly as Sharon Osbourne watches Bass shower and tries to set him up with her daughter.
· For that special lady in your life, Gawker's "Hot Piece of Twat" t-shirt.

• The Lance Bass DVD Collection [DVD NewsRoom]

The web archaeologists over at BestWeekEver.tv have unearthed a particularly impressive specimen: a 2001 McDonald's commercial featuring recently queer-empowered Lance Bass up at bat during a round of spin-the-bottle with the members of *NSYNC and Britney Spears. With the odds an attractive 5-1 that Bass would be spared the one vagina at the table, the bottle lands on the big money: Justin Timberlake, whose convincingly icked-out reaction undoubtedly drew upon countless late-night tour bus inquiries from his bandmate along the lines of, "Hey, Justin? You still up? Wanna arm wrestle, then compare abs?"

It's been too long since we've been able to fete that most joyous of Hollywood occasions, "celebrity everyone already knew was gay making it official by coming out of the closet on the cover of a major magazine." Happily, our long wait is over: Lance Bass, former *NSYNC member and current Reichen Lehmkuhl cuddlecake, has decided to put an end to all the lispy whispers, and proudly announced his orientation on the cover of People with a 190-pt. headline trumpeting, "I'M GAY."

Fans of Entourage are already more than familiar with the work of Rex Lee, the actor who portrays Lloyd, Ari Gold's much-abused, yet fiercely loyal, assistant. AfterElton.com interviewed the openly gay Lee about the part, and while he promised Lloyd will be on the receiving end of many more flying staplers and almost-too-skillfully-delivered pejorative comments from Jeremy Piven regarding his race and/or sexuality, don't expect the writers to give the long-suffering agent-in-training a sex life any time soon:

British tabloid News of the World just happened to be milling about a London park known for being a popular gay cruising spot (hey, even British tabloids have needs), when who should emerge from the bushes at 3 a.m. but a "wild-eyed and trembling" George Michael, who threatened to sue as he quickly peeled off in his car. He was followed soon thereafter by a tubby, 58-year-old man named Norman Kirtland, who was more than willing to describe in full detail their night of anonymous, public passion:

A recent eBay auction reminds us that it wasn't so long ago that there were no internets with which to conveniently disseminate unsubstantiated rumor and heresay. In this 1989 fax fished out of a dumpster outside David Hockney's Santa Monica studio, a "DIRT ALERT" reports that:

Nestled deeply in the "Surveillance" section of today's Rush & Molloy column in the NY Daily News comes this item regarding Seann William Scott, star of such upcoming entertainments as Coxblocker and Mr. Woodcock, tripping the gay light fantastic with none other than Carbon Beach land baron, David Geffen:

Oprah Winfrey, the patron saint of Vaguely Expounded Self-Actualization Techniques, felt the need to clarify once and for all the nature of her extremely cozy relationship to Oprah's Best Friend&trade, Gayle King. The two have long been rumored to be lesbian lovers, with Winfrey's longtime beau Stedman standing in as nothing more than her gender-reversed beard. In the August issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, Oprah explains the vast chasm of difference between calling someone "girlfriend," and...uh...calling someone "girlfriend."

• UES explosion video! Don't pretend like you're too classy to watch. [NYP]
• Ashley Judd is flakier than you might think. [Tacitus]
• Why are people assholes on line? They're trying to act like journalists. [Guardian]
• Gail Collins says "sorry 'bout that" for the whole WMD thing. [E&P]
• There is no direct correlation between the amount of food left on the plate and the request for a doggie bag. [NYT]
• Following up on a Page Six report that former *NSYNC star Lance Bass was seen in a gay bar in Provincetown, Mass, ABC's Buck Wolf takes a look at the ethical issues concerning the "outing" of celebrities in - wait a second. "Lance Bass"? "Buck Wolf"? Who did the spotting here, "Bruce Hung"? [ABC]
• Speaking of Provincetown, it's nice to see that the gays can be as intolerant as the rest of us. [Boston Globe]
• A propos of nothing, we're pretty sure the YouTube dude sold us pot at a Phish show back in '93. [NYP]

Back in the late 1990s, when *NSYNC was at the height of its boy band powers, if you were to have told us that one of its members was gay, and it was Lance Bass, we would have patiently sat you down and explained how that was simply impossible. Nothing about Bass—not his frosty-tipped hair, his immaculately manicured brows, nor his fondness for crocodile skin couture—pointed "that" way. The rumors have followed him, however, and while some just seemed outlandish—that his space tourism attempt was just Phase One of a larger plan to develop the Moon into a full-service gay resort, for example—a consensus has developed over the years that Bass is indeed a Gay who's cautiously inching his way out of the closet. Most recently, he was spotted cavorting around Provincetown with former Amazing Race winner and Second Tier Gay Celebrity™ Reichen Lehmkuhl. ABCNews.com's Buck Wolf uses the opportunity to pontificate on the true nature of Gay: "Visiting a gay club doesn't confirm that you are gay," he writes, netting high points for journalistic integrity. (And he's right: Maybe a hetero Lance has landed a role in the fake gay fireman movie, too.) Until a reporter can say they were literally perched on the corner of a hotel room bed, scribbling notes as they observed Reichen vigorously ass-fucking Bass (c'mon, he's gotta be the bottom*), Bass deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Alexander Payne's follow-up* to Sideways, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, is the Backdraft-meets-Boat Trip story of two firefighters who pretend to be a gay couple in order to receive domestic partner benefit. The fake firemen lovers in question are none other Adam Sandler and Kevin James, who, according to a Defamer operative, are either taking their field research very seriously, or just bouncy-shlong crazy and could care less who knows it:

And yet he keeps pushing for a gay-marriage ban.

Only in New York, kids. Only in New York.

Ah, yes. It was that mystical, halcyon time that archeologists call The Pre-Thursday Styles Era.

Something about Star Trek has always practically squealed "gay," from its unapologetic uniform fetish, to its multiple face-painting and dress-up opportunities, to the long-standing rumors about Klingons' massive endowments. Even one of its original stars, George "Sulu" Takei, has come out of the closet, and has since been spreading rainbow-colored, Federation pride wherever he goes. Given all that, it seems entirely egregious that none of the various incarnations of the franchise has ever so much as featured a single gay character. (Sulu doesn't count: He was still working through his issues.) But thanks to fan-made web series Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, the Gays have finally hit the bridge:

Our boss as just sent us the cover image for the July 2006 Out, the first from new editor Aaron Hicklin, the BlackBook vet. We can't say we find it particularly interesting or exciting, but bossman is buds with Hicklin and so we figured we might as well throw him a bone. And, actually, we ought to give Hicklin some credit. It's nice to see Out's cover-model tradition — a straight actor who happens to be playing a gay (in this case, bi) role — has remained intact. Excellent work.

Today is as good a time as any to update you on the current state of gay marriage in our theoretically homo-lovin' city. Indeed, it's a particularly good time, because this afternoon the New York State Court of Appeals — the highest court in the state — is hearing oral arguments on whether gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry. Here's where it gets fun: Among the lawyers arguing against gay marriage are those employed by New York City, where last year a trial-court judge ruled the state's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional, a decision the city's lawyers, at the direction of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, have been fighting in appeals since.

Good ol' homo-loving photog Eliot Shepard sent us pictures of the gay rugby players. And apparently equally homo-loving photog Rebecca Smeyne sent us pictures of the gay cowboy hoedowners. But nobody, alas, sent us any pictures of those M4M Fleet Week sailors. Sigh.

The new memoir from our favorite CNN anchor was finally published this week — oh, you thought it was just a coincidence he was interviewed everywhere from Oprah to EW? — and we'd like to direct your attention to the book's acknowledgements. Most are professional in nature — editors, agents, the like — but one doesn't quite fit that mold. On page 212: