Two-time Academy Awards nominee Ian McKellen has spoken out about the lack of diversity in the film industry, as it relates to being acknowledged by the Oscars (and landing the kind of roles that could yield gold-plated glory). “The fact that black people feel underrepresented in studio movies and big movies…well, it’s what women thought for a long time,” he said in an interview with the U.K.’s Press Association. “It’s what gay people like myself still think. And it’s a legitimate complaint and the Oscars has become the focus of those worries. So I sympathize.”

James McAvoy's Patrick Stewart impression has been well-known for years, so when Sir Pat Stew himself asked to hear it, he couldn't say no. He wouldn't do the entire "Space, the final frontier" monologue, unfortunately, but he blew Stewart away with an X-Men line instead.

Close friends and X-Men costars Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart are already dressed for this Sunday's Super Bowl, though they might be confused about exactly which sport is being played. At least they got the teams right, though.

In case you were worried that married life would crimp Sir Patrick Stewart's inimitable style, fear not.

Magnet-powered mutant ultranationalist Magneto will set aside his political convictions for a day and officiate the wedding of his old friend and sometime enemy, assimilationist schoolmaster Professor Charles Xavier. Sort of.There are real human beings involved, but some of us have dreamed of writing this headline for years, so let's just pretend for a second:

Sir Ian McKellen, England's second most famous wizard, was sitting outside the Comedy Theatre in Australia in his Waiting for Godot costume when someone walked by and dropped money in his hat. They thought he was a real tramp. [Telegraph]

Last night was the first time in several months that we had to face a Sunday evening without Mad Men. What to watch? There are plenty of options, but how will they stack up against the critic's darling?

Russell Brand's house is for sale (so he can move in with Katy Perry?), Pam Anderson pulls a Blanche DuBois, and Robert Pattinson has poor hygiene. Welcome to Tuesday's gossip.

[Can gay actor Ian McKellen and straight playboy Jude Law really be checking out the same thing at the Only Make Believe 10th Anniversary after-party at Sardi's last night? Image via Getty]

On Fox & Friends this morning, Glenn Beck explained how Barack Obama must be stopped from using the PATRIOT Act—seriously!—to spy on whites by adding an aging British homosexual playing a wizard to his entertaining repertoire of impressions.

Melanie Griffith's drying out, an Amy Winehouse love letter sparks a lawsuit and Robin Williams may channel Susan Boyle. That — and more — in your Tuesday morning Gossip Roundup. Delicious!

New plays opened on Broadway to mixed reviews, the Greeks get big revivals, Laurie Metcalf is going to be awesome again, and Ian McKellen will soon be gouging his eyes out on your TV.

· Two guys disguised themselves as Hasids and stole $4 million in diamonds from a 47th St. wholesaler. Also stolen: Snatch's plot. It's all really a testament to how natural-looking synthetic payos have become.

In a blog post last month, before The Hobbit officially landed a director, Lord of the Rings veteran Sir Ian McKellen was more certain he would reprise his role as Gandalf than he was of his former castmates' sexualities. He was even surer in a recent interview with Empire magazine, in which the 68-year-old confirmed he was coming back for filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. "Yes, it's true," McKellen said. "I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it's not a part that you turn down, I loved playing Gandalf." And if McKellen's happy, then we're happy — especially when it means we don't have to further wrack our tired, beaten brains conjuring a suitable replacement. Thank God for small favors. [Reuters]

Even though the Warner Bros. ax has yet to fall around New Line headquarters and the Tolkien family still wants its cash for The Lord of the Rings saga, Sir Ian McKellen took to his blog (We know! We're as stunned as you are) Wednesday to confirm he's "keeping [his] diary open for 2009" to reprise his role as Gandalf in The Hobbit. But that's only the half of McKellen's big gay update, which also includes hot nose-tweaking action and yawning confirmations of his LOTR co-stars' heterosexuality:

Sorry slashers and fan fiction enthusiasts, but none of it's real. Ian McKellen, the only openly gay man thought to be "cool" by fourteen year old boys, says that there was no homo hanky panky going on during Lord of the Rings filming. On the adorably named "E-Post" section of his website McKellen answers a reader's question about rampant rumors of hot Orlando Bloom-on-hobbit action by saying: "This gossip is all news to me. Elijah, Dominic and Orlando introduced me to their girlfriends during shooting." The gays were convinced the whispers were true! But Sir Ian wouldn't lie. Ah well. I guess the fantasies will just have to live on in my writing. Like that Bilbo/Gollum 'ship I'm working on that starts so promisingly: "It was nearly time for elevenses in the Shire, but Gollum had already been nibbling on his precious all morning." Delightful! [Towleroad] Two more romantic slash images after the jump.

From the mailbag: "I saw Ian McKellen in Lear last night. I can confirm that, in addition to a truly inspired performance, he is still swinging some pipe. I hope that I'm still packing like that when I'm 68."

In the middle of this Sunday's Times Arts & Leisure profile of Ian McKellen, writer Alan Riding notes the following:

Stentorian English actor Ian McKellen — at left, with hobbit — is proudly gay as a heapin' bowl of Froot Loops, but that hasn't stopped him from being inducted into the Georgia state politico-military machine as an honorary "aide de camp" to the governor's staff. Various gay websites picked up this story from Rush & Molloy in the New York Daily News where McKellen recounts the honor bestowed upon him during press work for The Da Vinci Code (some sites misinterpreted this to mean that McKellen had been inducted into the Georgia National Guard). Trouble is, as the New York Blade reports, the Rush & Molloy item is itself a recycled McKellen quote actually given in 1997 during press for McKellen's movie Richard III.

The latest advancement in computer generated effects—a convincing reversal of the human aging process—is on display (spoiler alert) in an early scene of X-Men: The Last Stand, in which Ian McKellen's Magneto and Patrick Stewart's Prof. Xavier are rendered 20 years younger for a flashback. As McKellen raved to reporters in Cannes about the technique ("It's as brilliantly done as airbrushing in a magazine. You cannot tell the difference,"), director Brett Ratner fretted about how the powerful technology could possibly change showbiz forever: