Could boxing be the newest gay fetish? And, if so, what does it say about the direction of gay culture? A few years ago, soccer and rugby were both consumer obsessions and prime fetish material with David Beckham’s hair and bulges flopping across fields. But suddenly, it seems, everyone-from amateur personals sites (link NSFW) to major porn studios-is throwing punches.
We’re trying to cover our bases with this series, examining everyone from obviously queeny minstrels like Charles Nelson Reilly and Paul Lynde to down-low homo stars like Anthony Perkins and Rock Hudson. And we’re actually starting to empathize with old Momwhen it comes to not being clued in to all the inside jokes and subtle (or not-so) fashion evidence paraded before them when these homos appeared on screen. We still can’t really forgive her for saying that the Village People “went right over [her] head,” but we at least kind of get that not everyone was all that cosmopolitan, and it was easier just to assume Truman Capote was “theatrical” than to shake up the Eisenhower-era-hangover that relegated these proto-Pride-Day MCs to the realm of “characters,” or just “perpetual bachelors.” Today, we look at a slightly different breed than the rest.
Former Lucas Entertainment videographer and director Tony DiMarco has jumped ship and is shooting with Raging Stallion, sources at the studio tell us. Dimarco worked with Lucas on beginning as a videographer in 2004 with Lost, eventually sharing directing credit on GayVN-winning La Dolce Vita. In addition to shooting and directing, DiMarco served a major role in Lucas Entertainment operations, editing, casting and helping produce some of the studio’s biggest hits.
The defection of DiMarco to Raging Stallion marks another high-profile get for the San Francisco-based studio. Shortly after their near sweep of the GayVN Awards for GRUNTS in February, Raging Stallion signed former Titan Exclusive Damien Crosse to an exclusive contact.
Unfounded rumors? In the gay porn community? WE CAN’T IMAGINE. Below are a few of the bits we’ve been hearing lately…
Which megawatt star may be leaving the business after his final video
wraps this week? With no time left on his current contract and some
mainstream offers on the table, could this be, uh, fin?
What totally-not-bareback-studio is experimenting with a
bareback tag-line and logo? Unless you read the fine print on a recent
test run of ads, you wouldn’t notice that it’s for their vintage
features.
What a week it’s been for fitness guru-made-whipping post Richard Simmons! Not only did he get to spend an entire day trying to stop Jimmy Kimmel from being disgusting for the sake of laffs, but he also got majorly criticized by gay journalist Brent Hartinger for setting a bad example by allowing people to ridicule him… or something. He may be annoying, and we might actually hate him (no, seriously, we think we hate him) but that doesn’t undermine the fact that he’s helped a lot of fatties and moms shed their chins in exchange for new leases on life. If he wants to cash in on his Hi-NRG character at this stage of his life, who can blame him?
Residents of Hong Kong were up in arms recently over one of Djimon Hounsou’s Calvin Klein underwear advertisements emblazoned across the side of the 15-year-old Ritz Carlton Hotel. Cited as “visual pollution” due to its proximity to public parks and historical landmarks, the advertisement features a statuesque, ebony Djimon kicking back against a white wall in a pair of skin-tight CK briefs. The campaign, launched last July, gained positive attention in the states for its positive use of a black model in a major fashion ad. Watchdog groups cleared the ad as not indecent, allowing it to remain erect (no pun intended) until April 15th when the whole building will be demolished to make room for offices anyway.
Barack and Hillary are still spending campaign ad dollars and making grand statements to woo gay voters in the remaining primaries, in particular in Pennsylvania where the primary is scheduled for April 22. Between the many college campuses and the gay-friendly metropolises of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh*, the candidates are banking on a large enough gay voting block that it could mean the difference of a state-wide majority at the polls.
Every hundred years (of Madonna’s lifetime), the planets align, the earth reaches a precise distance from a black hole of total vapidity, and the biggest divas of a generation-Mariah, Kylie, Janet and Madonna-all release albums at the same time. While numbers say one thing, we couldn’t help wondering where each oft-impersonated female entertainer stands in the heart of those who matter: the gays. We served the following question to our polling panel of around two dozen bitchy homosexuals: Who’s THE FIERCEST of them all? The results, in all of their critical vainglory, after the jump.
Our favorite porn Gremlin may not have much longer to live. We got word today that his contract holder, Cockboys.com, will be feeding the twink to the GHB-crazy muscle queens at the White Party like so much chum to sharks. Cockyboys announced today that they’ll be bringing lithe Tory, along with Jesse Santana and five of their spring lambs to the event, ostensibly to promote a Cockboys model search. It sounds like the old virgin/volcano sacrifice narrative without, of course, the virgins.
A Washington D.C.-based Christian group called Sojourners/Call to Renewal is reaching out to a younger and somewhat more liberal-minded generation of evangelical voters in Ohio by staging a 3-day “justice revival” that stresses the Christian Right’s roots in fighting for the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage. The event, which is scheduled for April 16 to April 18, is intended to appeal to younger Christians who may not be indefinitely tied to the Republican party and to shift the dialogue of evangelicals away from their core target issues of the last decade: abortion and gay marriage.
For the record, we’re not trying to work against The Cause, kids. Alls we’re trying to say is that the new figures released by the Centers for Disease Control are not, in their own words, cause for quite the level of alarm being sounded by 365gay.com and HIV/AIDS organizations who are bitter about cuts to their funding under the Bush Administration. So, we’re playing devil’s advocate in part because we’re bitches about spurious math, and in part because we like to feel like an actual news organization sometimes.
Gay cable television stations are a little like porn star blogs. You keep hoping and hoping you’re going to find something worth paying attention to, but instead it’s all navel-gazing pep talks and GHB-fueled cautionary tales. Actually, we wish gay cable was that interesting-we took a break this weekend from the porno blogs to see how the non-oral-cumshot-hand-wringing-set entertains itself. We’re going back to smut tomorrow.
Haha. Actually, it’s trans man Thomas Beatie who has been given the tabloid-like “pregnant man” moniker, and you should understand up front that in getting gender reassignment surgery a few years back Tom opted only for “top” surgery, not “bottom” in anticipation of getting a bun in the oven. But yeah, the medical community around Oregon is flipping the fuck out.
If you’re living in one of those blue states where they let you gay-marry (or unionize civilly), don’t be thinking you can change your name on your passport once you choose to become a hyphenate. Jason Hair-Wynn, an AIDS-counselor and all around do-gooder from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, tried to apply for a new passport with his new hyphenated last name (question: is the first name always the top?) and got DE-nied based on that federal trump card, the Defense of Marriage Act. Sorry, Jason. Rilly. And you look so pathetic in this photo, like they just took away your pony and all hope that the U.S. government might ever give a flying fuck about you and your right to a gay husband and 2.5 hyphenate children with liberal-superiority complexes.
Nickolay Petrov may be innocent until proven guilty, but CockyBoys is assuring worried consumers that it’s TOTALLY NOT milking the scandal to tell porn. Said CockyBoys rep Kyle Majors, “CockyBoys would like to wish its talented sexual performer Nickolay Petrov the best. We hope the stories circulating around this trial are untrue, and that all parties honor the standards that allow the accused a fair trial.”
Petrov was arrested in January for his alleged role in the
violent shakedown of an elderly couple in Florida. According to
police, the sexy, sexy Jet Set and CockyBoys exclusive was arrested
after attacking Galina and Grigori Komissarchuk with a hammer in the
Jacuzzi room of their Sarasota home.
Unfounded rumors? In the gay porn community? WE CAN’T IMAGINE. Below are a few of the bits we’ve been hearing lately…
What studio exclusive is kvetching about his current contract and not-so-quietly roamin’ around other studio heads to shop his wares? The only problem-it’s a recession and at the inflated prices he’s asking, no one’s buying.
Which former alleged child star turned adult actor turned
niche horror star has recently been trying to quiet allegations of his
alleged sitcom past because internet hawks have determined it never
happened?
Care of The Sword’s tireless editors, we bring you this roundup (by
no means complete, or even-handed) of stuff going on for those of the
homo persuasion this weekend in the two meccas we currently have
bandwidth to cover, San Francisco and New York. Check back soon to see
us cover more gay urban centers near you (sorry, Cheyenne, we may never
get to you).
Our heavily editorialized listings after the jump…
Thanks to a few well-placed handjobs and a bottle of Kahlua, we’ve weaseled our way into Grabby headquarters and stolen the list of nominees that’s scheduled to be published tomorrow. We started to tally the studio with the most noms, the movie with the most noms and the studio with the most movies and, well, wait… what were we saying? Sorry, we totally fell asleep. It doesn’t really matter since there’s enough noms here for each studio to spin, Bush-style, an edge up on the competition. By noon tomorrow, everyone will be in the lead.
Basically, everyone needs to get off sometimes. The governor of New York likes to hire whores when he’s down in D.C., and Benedictine monks don’t always want to use their imaginations when they need to relieve a little semen buildup.
A German monk from the 900-year-old Maria Laach Abbey in Rhineland-Palatinate was caught last week trying to steal several gay porn DVDs (titles unknown, sorry) in the city of Wuerzburg in southern Germany.
The gay news outlets really bore the shit out of us sometimes. Actually, most of the time. And thanks to a poll reported on that indispensable LGBT snooze-flash aggregator, 365gay.com, today’s no exception. Unjoy!
Two bareback titles have been pulled from the shelves in Britain amid allegations that four models were found to be infected with HIV shortly after a December shoot. The actions by San Diego-based Puppy Productions, distributed in Britain by Icreme, were prompted this week by an investigation BBC’s Newsnight program. The investigation was spurred by the arrest last week of film director Rufus Ffoulkes on charges stemming from the use of an sixteen-year old model.
He once had a war of words with Gore Vidal (whom he addressed as “you queer” after Vidal called him a “pro-war-crypto-Nazi”) and he made such condescending remarks about gay rights as, “A homosexual has a right not to get hit by a truck.” Yes, William F. Buckley Jr., that great charmer of men and founder of conservative soapbox The National Review, is finally dead. After graduating Yale in 1950, Buckley rose to right-wing fame after penning the book God and Man at Yale, in which he went after the growing threat of “liberal professors” who were forcing their heathen views on unsuspecting students. He may be responsible, in fact, for popularizing the term “liberal professor” and for turning the American Right into a bunch of anti-intellectual, academia-hating Texans. More recently he has weighed in on the illogic of the Episcopal Church in trying to canonize homosexuals and spoken in support of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. He leaves a great legacy of tight-assed stubbornness behind him, and his influence will probably still be felt for years to come.
When Spencer Quest disclosed his HIV positive status in a series of blogs last week, he echoed the concerns of a generation of performers worried that they don’t have enough information on set. In an anonymous survey conducted by The Sword of nearly one hundred gay porn stars, the men expressed confusion and nervousness around the issue of HIV and STDs with many concerned that they’d be blacklisted if their status were revealed.
The youngest superdelegate attending this year’s Democratic National Convention happens to be a fag! Take back what we said about fly-over states; 21-year-old Jason Rae, a junior at Marquette University, launched a grassroots campaign to become one of Wisconsin’s four members of the Democratic National Committee and therefore one of the 796 much-crowed-about-on-cable-news superdelegates who will likely end up deciding this year’s nominee (and probably the election) and he just gave an interview to The Advocate.
Two+ hours and countless fart jokes later, the 2008 GayVNs are over. While Derek and Romaine were limited to a five-minute intro due to bad press and an industry revolt, Lady Bunny hammed it up with Laugh-In segments and Benny Hill-style humor. High-larious. GRUNTS and Link were the big winners, but before we go back to our regularly scheduled pornography, we offer this uncensored look at the highlights of the best award show we’ve seen in awhile. Award highlights:
Best Videography: Brian Mills, H20
Best Director: Chris Ward and Ben Leon, GRUNTS
Best Picture: GRUNTS, Raging Stallion
Performer of the Year: Jake Deckard
Best Sex Comedy: The Intern, Lucas Entertainment
Best All-Sex: Link: The Evolution
Care of The Sword’s tireless editors, we bring you this roundup (by
no means complete, or even-handed) of stuff going on for those of the
homo persuasion this weekend in the two meccas we currently have
bandwidth to cover, San Francisco and New York. Check back soon to see
us cover more gay urban centers near you (sorry, Cheyenne, we may never
get to you).
Our heavily editorialized listings after the jump…
Oh, what a gay week it was! In between fashion week parties, Marc Jacobs’ assorted scandals, and Cher‘s diva meltdowns during Grammy practice, there were actually some photos taken that we feel emerged at the top of the big, flaming, online-media heap. From mesh-covered Manson fans to John Mayer in a major one-sy, we chose ten faggy photos that will be burned into our retinas for longer than we care to think about. After the jump, see who made the top ten on our gaydar for the unbearable workweek of February 4th through 8th!
Nevermind the fact that he was once known as Rod Majors on the gay porn circuit nor that his Manhunt profile professes that he can “get into fucking,” preferably “Bottoms who Want to Get plowed”. The real reason Republican convert and Marine reservist Matt Sanchez is fielding lascivious phone calls from a supposed horned-up gay in Iowa? Why, it’s because it’s really an undercover gay jihadist trying to defame him! How said jihadist got Sanchez’s number, why he allegedly recorded the conversation and sent it to Sanchez, and the fact that our Republican hero asks for sexy pix notwithstanding, we’re certain that our former Rod is truly the victim of a stalker. What is the world coming to?
We know: gay visibility is still tragically lacking in mainstream media. Queen Latifah and Gayken remain total liars, the only presidential candidate that openly supports gay marriage claims to have seen a U.F.O., and despite the fact that the characters in blockbuster-du-jour, Cloverfield, are caterwauling around Soho and midtown for the majority of the movie, there are no homos in sight! But thanks to the trusty internet and the technology that has citizen journalism on a one-way track to total media domination, visibility online is not only present and accounted for, it’s blinding. We actually feel sort of violated. After the jump, check out the Top 10 gay photos of the past week.
This may be the first year that the GayVNs best the Golden Globes in viewership, and we couldn’t be more pleased: not only has our industry’s little fete grown in recent years, the clothes are more exciting. No offense to Valentino Garavani or Domenico Dolce, but porn star fashion — with it’s reliance on mesh, mess and meth — is infinitely more exciting. We’ve got 35 days until we can bring you the new Spring Collection, so until then, here are the nominations …
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Gangbang! From mild to wild,
we’re not into bullshit. We’re versatile, we’ve got major loads to spill down
your throat, and all with no strings attached! If interested, please join the club:
On the latest Tim and
Roma Show, the two “Best Personality” nominees (thanks for giving them big heads, Cybersocket!) wax political over how barebacking
titles seem to be gaining popularity and how the trend parallels increased HIV
rates among gay men. Too bad the episode didn’t air before the filming of British Bareback Vacation, because one
of the co-stars contracted HIV on the set and is now thinking of suing the
film’s producers in
order to prevent other young men from suffering the same fate.. Hasn’t anyone told him that being popular is
the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS? (via GayVN
News)
The Cock
29 2nd Avenue
New York
Wednesdays
Drag mess legend Linda Simpson hosts this weekly party with DJs Telfar and Michael Magnan and a revolving cast of downtown’s most fashionable fags and their friends. Wake up on Thursday with fresh regrets! $5 at the door.