Katie Couric's long-awaited, and equally as teased, interview with Manti Te'o aired this afternoon. Couric was not shy about addressing one of the most popular hypotheses about Te'o: "One of the theories, many theories, Manti, making the rounds is somehow you created this whole scenario to cover up your sexual orientation," Katie Couric begins. "Are you gay?"
Jodie Foster's second public mention of Cydney Bernard — her ex-girlfriend/ partner/ roommate/euphemism/whatever, of something like 16 years -– at Sunday's Golden Globe Awards, left people confused. They argued loudly, angrily on Twitter and elsewhere, about whether this counted as Foster's real coming out and, if in fact it did, whether she did it correctly by voicing apparent anger, frustration and conflict over her cultural obligation of having to discuss her private life at all.
In 2007, at a Women in Entertainment breakfast, Jodie Foster came out to the world by referring to her partner (or girlfriend or whatever, I don’t know what she prefers) of then 14 years, Cydney Bernard. During a seven-minute speech at tonight’s Golden Globe Awards, she also mentioned her producer ex, and people are considering it her coming out. Here’s gay authority Mike Signorile: [jump]
Earlier this week, to the delight of the young, the young at heart, gay boys and lecherous cable TV execs all around the globe, British boy band One Direction released the video for their single "Kiss You." This video is a thumbnail illustration of what makes this group so much fun to watch because it is so fucking homoerotic. Most of the boys are on record as women-daters (Harry Styles is apparently insatiable), but their overall image is full of winks, nudges and crotch-grabs. Their perpetual game of are-they-or-aren't-they makes them engaging on a level we've never seen from a prefab pack of kids singing plastic pop.
For the better part of the past 48 hours, 21-year-old New York rapper Azealia Banks (best known for her 2011 viral hit "212") has been holding the attention of her Twitter followers hostage. First it was a Twitter beef with fellow 21-year-old hip-hop up-and-comer Angel Haze, which resulted in a swapping of dis tracks. And then, last night, she really had people freaking out when, during a spat with Perez Hilton resulting from his #TeamAngelHaze status, she called him a "messy faggot":
"Anal sex would release into the world these rare demonic entities that even in the body could be conceived this, um, devil, it would be given birth to anally, not physically it was more of a spiritual body." - Joseph Sciambra, who once had to have his sphincter stitched shut (it might still be stitched).
It's strange that in a year when the two biggest pop music stories dealt with the renaissances that R&B and dance music are undergoing, we lost icons from those respective genres: Whitney Houston and Donna Summer. Long gone is the time when what those divas brought to their respective genres was fresh and, for that matter, commercially relevant—but the passing of the baton, the out with the old and in with the new, rarely feels so pronounced and tangible.
Out has named Nate Silver its Person of the Year, and the resulting profile by editor Aaron Hicklin is an endearing portrait of a dude who is doing well at life by being so right all the time. There's great stuff about the making of the man and his dealings with those who try to undo him. He says flattering things about Nick Denton ("He's willing to be kind of destructive and path-breaking, and to challenge the status quo; in some ways, it's kind of more my style"); Denton barely returns the favor ("He's not necessarily the best statistician, but he might be the best stats geek who can also write—and perform on television. His steadiness under pundit fire before the election was something to witness."). Heh.
Gay-hating presidential aspirant Michele Bachmann represents a district of Minnesota which public health officials have labeled a "suicide contagion area," according to a deeply disturbing piece in Mother Jones. Here's why: In the space of two years, nine teenagers from the area have taken their own lives—the most recent one in May—while "many more" have attempted suicide unsuccessfully. Most of them were known or perceived to be LGBT youth.
The murder trial has begun for Brandon McInerney, a high school student from Oxnard, California, who three years ago walked into computer class, sat behind openly gay classmate Larry King, and shot him twice in the back of the head. Opening statements from both sides offered new details about that senseless and horrific case.
Presidential pizza man candidate Herman Cain has been having a mini-crisis amid his staffers — nowhere near the calamitous hilarity that's befallen Newt Gingrich, but bad enough for a couple of staffers in important states to quit their posts. What gives? Is the seat padding aboard the Cain Train a bit rough on the buttocks? For now, let's just blame the gays.
Scientists have concluded that a woman's ability to tell apart gay men from straight men increases when they are ovulating, according to a study published this week in the journal Psychological Science.
What should have been just another interminable conversation between two mind-boggling A-holes took an intriguing turn down Rainbow Alley last night, when Fox News host (and self-loathing Gleek) Glenn Beck accidentally blurted out, "I could kiss you in the mouth" to Rick Santorum on Thursday's show. (It was in response to Santorum saying that he'd signed the "Cut, Cap and Balance" pledge, which is apparently the fiscal conservative equivalent of announcing, "I just scored a pair of Lady Gaga floor seats!")
