It's bad enough we'll have to endure all the perky marketing for 'High School Musical 3' this weekend but now comes word that Zac Efron will costar in 'Pirates of the Caribbean 4.' Johnny Depp has joked that Captain Jack Sparrow would love having a cabin boy around but, after sitting through those horrible 'Pirate' sequels, even the notion of Depp buggering Efron senseless won't be enough to get me in the theatre!

Swedish hockey player Jan Huokko was embarrassed earlier this summer when a clip of a sex tape he made with his girlfriend ended up on the internet. During a game on Tuesday, fans for the rival team taunted Huokko by waving a giant inflatable penis and tossing dozens of dildos onto the ice. Huokko took it in stride ("I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of") but the Zamboni driver has been looking pretty happy ever since.

I never realized that Al Gore's eco-documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth' is a remake -- Frank Capra produced his own documentary on climate change...in 1958!

The fight to preserve same-sex marriage in California -- as residents prepare to vote on the anti-gay Proposition 8 -- is getting weird and ugly:
- Prop 8 supporters are claiming that gay marriage leads to child prostitution!
- over three-quarters of the $23-million raised to stop marriage equality in California is coming from the Mormon church in Utah, in an attempt to make evangelical Christians less alarmed by their magic underwear
- when a Mormon family plastered the front of their house with a massive 'Yes on 8' sign, a lesbian couple parked their SUV in front with "Bigots live here" written on it
- the 'Yes on 8' and 'Protect Marriage' campaigns are sending out letters demanding equivalent money from businesses that have donated to the 'No' groups fighting for gay marriage. "It is only fair for Proposition 8 supporters to know which companies and organizations oppose traditional marriage," says one letter but the owner of a real estate business calls it "blackmail" and says, "We're not caving...we'll support our employees. We're going to support the freedom to marry, a fundamental right to do what we can to make sure it's not taken away."

In such a highly-charged atmosphere leading up to the election, Oscar-winning director and former 'Happy Days' star Ron Howard thinks Obama should get the vote -- and he's going to ridiculous lengths to show it:

Meanwhile, it almost seems like John McCain has given up. It's hard enough to fight Obama while being saddled with Sarah Palin but now his idiot brother is making things worse!

Since everyone's talking about Palin's $150,000 wardrobe (even FOX News except they're fine with it), the Republicans will be desperate to focus on other things. One blog got a hold of some leaked campaign ads:

Seeing that in print is always ugly. And I'm not keen on the word 'faggots' either.

With all this going on, beloved gay humourist David Sedaris has lost his patience with "the undecided voters": "To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. 'Can I interest you in the chicken?' she asks. 'Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?' To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked." 

But hey, enough politics -- it's the weekend!  Time to get out there and dance!  And here's one guy who's been practicing:

 

In no particular order:

Dutch couple Hendricus Johannes Deijkers and Christianus Huijbregts had the first gay Hindu wedding ceremony at a Bali island resort. Adorable! 

Slated for construction in Singapore, the EDITT tower is one part office building, one part forest! 

The Bacon Fatty Melt is a bacon cheeseburger between two grilled-cheese-and-bacon sandwiches.  YES!!!

Back to the future! Tomorrow's new 'Entertainment Weekly' has first photos from next summer's 1960s-and-beyond 'Star Trek' revamp. Captain Kirk is looking better than ever!

Are the Sarah Palin parodies getting out of hand?  There's the 'Palin as President' interactive website, the New York cabaret songs (from the folks who brought you 'Brokeback Mountain: The Musical') and, most disturbingly, La Pequeña joins in on the fun:

When the stock market fell 700 points on Sept. 29, Manhunt recorded three times as many new memberships than usual and the media is now alarmed about a rise in "sex addiction." But how is that news?  When someone's love life dries up, they say they'll focus on their career. Did no one think the opposite ever happens?

Rumour has it Liberal leader Stephane Dion will quit as early as today.  Too soon!  The door is going to hit his ass!

The final debate between US presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama was last night and it looked eerily similar to this:

And some reminders of Things that are Entirely True:
-- Asians love the gays!
-- The Onion is as scary/funny now as it was eight years ago
-- smoking will kill you but make you look really old first

And finally, there's a cool timeline of every stupid Internet fad that's ever been emailed to you at work. So what's one more?  Here's a cat flushing a toilet:

  

Sure, everyone's anxious over the economy these past couple weeks but there are days like today when you just feel like the world's spun off its axis:

-- police in Texas have made an arrest for the possession of child pornography. They arrested a 13-year-old boy.

-- the government of India refuses to decriminalize gay sex because, says a spokesperson, "We cannot compel our society to follow the trend of Western society." Except for outsourced call centres, of course!

-- Michael Jackson takes his kids out to the comic store like any normal dad. Sort of.

-- while scientists debate whether circumcision is a necessary defense against HIV, one enterprising company has developed a bizarre back-up plan.

-- I used to have trouble in geography class remembering which country was Iceland and which one was Greenland. Now it's easy: Greenland is melting and Iceland is bankrupt!

-- my guidance counselor was so wrong: the newly promoted VP of casting at a Hollywood production company got his start performing in gay porn. The other candidates would only kiss ass.

-- John McCain and Sarah Palin keep insisting that Barack Obama is "pals with terrorists" and the crowds are eating it up with a spoon:

I may never sleep again.  Time to run off and dig up some happy news -- have a great weekend!

"We'll have something to talk about," teases a McCain campaign spokesperson, hinting at some game-changing revelation later today. Please. What, is McCain suspending his campaign again? One can only hope. For a man aiming at such a tough guy image, McCain really is a complete drama queen and, judging from his insane slip of the tongue yesterday, an unstable one. A new profile in 'Rolling Stone' has the whole sad story.

You know McCain's in trouble when he loses the country singers: while mentioning the 'True Blood' series yesterday, I forgot to salute "Bad Things," the show's sexy, twangy theme song by Jace Everett. On his blog, Everett writes, "I grew up an evangelical Christian in Grapevine, Texas...I was taught that Republicans were the party of Christianity in America; pro-life, anti-gay, low on taxes, pro small business, etc. As I got older, I realized that was mostly bullshit."

Being anti-gay, Everett continues, is "kind of like being anti-gravity. I mean, go nuts hoss, if you can fly I want to watch. But until all us breeders can learn to have a 0% divorce rate, maybe we should shut the fuck up. Don't get me wrong, I can't sit through 'Brokeback Mountain', but that's MY problem, not somebody else's." Cheers, Jace -- finally, a redneck we can all be proud of!

Speaking of rednecks, Stephen Harper tried to redeem himself (ie. prop up his flailing election campaign) by dropping the clause in Bill C-10 that would allow the government to deny tax credits to films deemed "immoral." We cheered for about twenty seconds before he next vowed to reintroduce the copyright reform legislation that could fine or jail you for copying your CDs to your iPod. Law professor Michael Geist has solid, reliable information and ideas proving that Harper is a complete jackass.

There are two things I'm sure of: comedian Wanda Sykes is fabulous and the teenage "That's so gay" line is like nails on a blackboard. Thankfully, the advocacy group GLSEN (Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network) agrees with me on both:

Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman are back together! But which one gets to fuck Matt Damon?

I'm old enough to remember the infamous censored gay kiss from 'Melrose Place' but I've noticed, leafing through the TV listings, there's a whole wave of male couples on soap operas now:
-- Luke and Noah on 'As the World Turns'
-- Kevin and Scotty on 'Brothers & Sisters'
-- Kyle and Eric on 'General Hosptial: Night Shift'
-- John Paul and Craig on the UK's 'Hollyoaks'
-- Christian and Oliver on Germany's 'Verbotene Liebe'
These storylines are mostly too brief, chaste or stereotypical but hey, it's great to have something to do my ironing to!

And finally, designer Matthew Inman's 'Eight Phases of Dating' is a complete scream:

British papers are claiming that the secret to David and Victoria Beckham's perfect skin comes from smearing themselves with bird poop. Man, writing jokes gets harder every day! 

My own secret is that I didn't watch the Obama-McCain debate last night. Between the US race and our Canadian free-for-all, I'm politicked out!  I decided instead to wait for the debate highlights on the news. Bottom line: Obama cleaned McCain's clock and if he wins (assuming the Supreme Court doesn't steal the election again) historians may look back on this brief-but-scummy moment right here as John McCain's undoing:

"That one."  Having ragged on John McCain for about a year now, I didn't think there was much he could say or do to surprise me anymore (especially after his VP pick) but watching this, I sat back in my chair and thought, "Wow...what a dick."

Speaking of which, there are now two hate crimes investigations underway against Canadian independent federal election candidate David Popescu, who says that Egale director Helen Kennedy should be executed too. Clearly, for his own good, this guy needs to shut the fuck up but since I have no problem seeing him in prison, I say Dave, feel free to call us! We're ready to listen!

Google's Gmail has a handy new feature: an option to answer math questions before you send out potentially embarrassing drunken email. Now if only we could get that for this blog!

So yes, instead of suffering through the US debate last night, I caught up with 'True Blood,' the southern vampire drama from gay 'Six Feet Under' creator Alan Ball. It's strange, sexy, silly stuff (and oh, oh, the eye candy) but I think Lafayette, the town bar's short-order-cook/drug dealer, is the coolest gay character on TV right now. Check out his brand of customer service (and turn down the NSFW volume!):