Jerry Curl

Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as ''Hud,'' ''Cool Hand Luke'' and ''The Color of Money'' -- and as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario -- has died. He was 83. Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends. (Via NYT )

Ryan Paevey as featured on the Major Models blog (NSFWish).

Via Major Models .

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign to return to Washington and focus on the "historic" crisis facing the U.S. economy. Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama said at a news conference later Wednesday that he and McCain had spoken by phone and had agreed to issue a joint statement about shared principles in the approach to resolving the economic crisis. But he disagreed with McCain's call for postponing Friday's first presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi. "It's my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person will be the next president," Obama said in Clearwater, Florida. "It is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once. It's more important than ever to present ourselves to the American people." (Via CNN )

[ Editor's note ] In my post-Obama euphoria, I forgot to mention that my friends and I were interviewed after the rally by Fred Grimm of the Miami Herald! I got a an early barrage of text messages this morning confirming that my name made it to page 3B of the Metro & State section. Here's the article in its entirety. Youth rock the vote -- but will they cast it? By FRED GRIMM fgrimm@herald.com They were loud and excited. As adoring as rock fans. They filled the basketball arena at the University of Miami and lent Barack Obama's rally the exuberance political organizers covet. They represented the most elusive demographic in American elections. They were young. And they were psyched, convinced that come November, they'll decide the presidential election. Young voters, Michelle Correa, 22, told me with fierce resolve, were "waking up and taking control of their future.'' I'm not so psyched. It sounded too much like a variation of the myth resurrected ...

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"We think too much and feel too little. More than machinary, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life would be violent and all will be lost." - Charlie Chaplin

The Vatican said on Tuesday the theory of evolution was compatible with the Bible but planned no posthumous apology to Charles Darwin for the cold reception it gave him 150 years ago. Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican's culture minister, was speaking at the announcement of a Rome conference of scientists, theologians and philosophers to be held next March marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's "The Origin of Species." Christian churches were long hostile to Darwin because his theory conflicted with the literal biblical account of creation. (Via MSNBC )

Ben Massing as featured on We Love Guys .

A Facebook group created to protest changes to the social networking website has attracted one million members and is growing by up to 200,000 a day. The "5,000,000 against the new version of Facebook" group reached a fifth of its planned membership, as users unhappy with the website's recent redesign look for ways to register their discontent. Facebook unveiled its new look in July, giving users the option to test the design and give feedback before making it mandatory this month. Organiser Adam Stanborough said he had created the group to give a voice to users who felt the redesign was unnecessary and not user-friendly. "I never would have imagined that we could get a million members by day 12," he said. "The growth of the group goes to show how many people disapprove of the new changes." Mr. Stanborough said many users were disgruntled that Facebook did not seek their approval before redesigning the website. (Via News.com )

[ Editor's note ] Despite an ungodly wake-up call, congested traffic, and three long hours of standing-up and waiting, I found myself standing 5-6ft away from the man, the myth, the legend. Sen. Barack Obama was in my neck of the woods this morning, rallying women into action. He discussed the bullet-points of his platform, much of which has already been widely covered. But being in his presence, listening to a future long-desired and way over due, it was confirmed that he is my candidate. He is a man who speaks to my needs; the need for health care, for a prosperous economy, a responsive educational system, and a government withdrawal from our bodies and our bedrooms. He's both attuned and receptive to the needs of an ailing and beleaguered people. He knows the challenges we face and is offering bright, concrete solutions to solving them. He's a smart man with smart ideas who is willing and able to lead this country in the direction of salvation. I, for one, feel that ...

A sow was sprayed with blue paint for more than 30 seconds, PETA said. An Iowa sheriff said today he has launched an investigation into a videotape showing abuse of pigs at a farm. The video, shot by PETA, shows farm workers hitting sows with metal rods, slamming piglets on a concrete floor and bragging about jamming rods into sows' hindquarters. Greene County Sheriff Tom Heater told The AP that he had met with PETA representatives Tuesday. Asked if crimes had been committed, Heater responded, "It appears that there were, yes." On the video, obtained by AP, a supervisor tells an undercover PETA investigator that when he gets angry or a sow won't move, "I grab one of these rods and jam it in her [anus]." The farm outside Bayard, Iowa, about 60 miles west of Des Moines, is a supplier to Hormel Foods of Austin, Minnesota. PETA wants to use the results of the investigation to pressure Hormel, the maker of Spam and other food products, to demand that its supplier...

Rosie O'Donnell is releasing her talk show to DVD!! Rosie will be debuting The Rosie O'Donnell Show - Season One: Rosie Reminisces this Sunday on HSN. --> ::Cue gay squeal::

They were the most famous orphans of the cold war, only 6 and 10 years old in 1953 when their parents were executed at Sing Sing for delivering atomic-bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. Then they were whisked from an unwanted limelight to urban anonymity and eventually to suburban obscurity. Adopting their foster parents’ surname, they staked their own claim to radical campus politics in the 1960s. Then in 1973, they emerged to reclaim their identities as the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, determined to vindicate their parents. Now, confronted with the surprising confession last week of Morton Sobell, Julius Rosenberg’s City College classmate and co-defendant, the brothers have admitted to a painful conclusion: that their father was a spy. “I don’t have any reason to doubt Morty,” Michael Meeropol said after several conversations with Mr. Sobell over the weekend. Their conclusions, in separate interviews, amount to a milestone in America’s culture wars and the culmination of the br...

Jameson Arasi as featured on Queerty .

Drinking three or more cups of tea a day is as good for you as drinking plenty of water and may even have extra health benefits, say researchers. The work in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition dispels the common belief that tea dehydrates. Tea not only rehydrates as well as water does, but it can also protect against heart disease and some cancers, UK nutritionists found. Experts believe flavonoids are the key ingredient in tea that promote health. These polyphenol antioxidants are found in many foods and plants, including tea leaves, and have been shown to help prevent cell damage. Public health nutritionist Dr Carrie Ruxton, and colleagues at Kings College London, looked at published studies on the health effects of tea consumption. They found clear evidence that drinking three to four cups of tea a day can cut the chances of having a heart attack. Some studies suggested tea consumption protected against cancer, although this effect was less clear-cut. Other health benefits s...

Stocks tanked today, as investors reeled amid the fallout from the largest financial crisis in years after Lehman Brothers filed for the biggest bankruptcy in history and Bank of America said it would buy Merrill Lynch in a $50 billion deal. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 500 points, or 4.4%, according to early tallies. It was the biggest one-day point decline for the Dow since Sept. 17, 2001, when the market reopened for trading after having been closed in the aftermath of 9/11 terrorist attacks. (Via CNN )

Andrés Segura as featured on Queerty .

Weekend Top Five #1 Burn After Reading ($19.4M) #2 The Family That Preys ($18M) #3 Righteous Kill ($16.5M) #4 The Women ($10.1M) #5 The House Bunny ($4.3M)

Alban Wurn as featured on Queerty .

Young black gay men, black women and white gay men in their 30s and 40s are much more likely to be newly infected with HIV than other groups in the United States, according to a new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The analysis -- based on figures showing that the HIV infection rate for 2006 is much worse than previously thought -- looks at the number of new HIV infections and who gets them. The study appears in this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. It shows 53 percent of the estimated 56,000 cases of new HIV infection in 2006 were among gay and bisexual men, and 46 percent of the infections occurred among blacks. Within the gay and bisexual group, young black men (13 to 29 years old ) were roughly twice as likely to get infected as young white and young Hispanic men. And among women, black women were almost 15 times more likely to get HIV than white women and almost four times more likely than Hispanic women. These new figures -- highlight...

Mischel as feature on We Love Guys .

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday he is recalling his own ambassador from Washington and expelling the U.S. ambassador from Venezuela. "He has 72 hours, from this moment, the Yankee ambassador in Caracas, to leave Venezuela," Chavez told a crowd of supporters. The president said he was making the moves "in solidarity with Bolivia and the people of Bolivia." Bolivia's Evo Morales accused the United States Thursday of fomenting a coup d'etat by rich eastern department landowners against him, the country's first Indian president. "We have seen reports about President Chavez's remarks but have not received any official diplomatic communication," said Gordon Duguid, a State Department spokesman. "Our embassy in Caracas is looking into these reports." (Via CNN )

How could we forget?

Michael Keute as featured on Queerty .

A Florida judge has found the state's 31-year ban on gay adoptions to be unconstitutional, reports the Miami Herald. The ruling from Judge David Audlin Jr. will allow a gay Key West resident to adopt the teenage boy he has raised as a foster parent since 2001. Judge Audlin said the adoption was in the child's "best interest" and asserted that barring gays from adopting conflicted with the state constitution since it targets a specific group for punishment. Audlin had appointed the foster father to be the boy's legal guardian in 2006. At a hearing earlier this year, the order says the boy testified that he wanted the man to be his "forever father...because I love him," the Herald reports. ''Contrary to every child welfare principle,'' Audlin wrote in his opinion, ''the gay adoption ban operates as a conclusive or irrebuttable presumption that...it is never in the best interest of any adoptee to be adopted by a homosexual.''...

It's being reported that Shannon Doherty will only do the four episodes she originally signed up for on the new 90210 . Doherty said she's the one who chose not to do anymore episodes. She said: "They asked me to do a lot more. I'm in the middle of pitching a show, so I couldn't commit to more than I did." --> Unless Andrea Zuckerman comes back, there goes any interest I had in West Beverly's newest class. (Via Dlisted )

"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

John Kenney as featured on Queerty .

Senator Barack Obama learned how hard it can be to solve America’s public education problems when he headed a philanthropic drive a decade ago that spent $150 million on Chicago’s troubled schools and barely made a dent. Drawing on that experience, Mr. Obama is campaigning on an ambitious plan that promises $18 billion a year in new federal spending on early childhood classes, teacher recruitment, performance pay and dozens of other initiatives. Were he to become president, Mr. Obama would retain the emphasis on the high standards and accountability of President Bush’s education law, No Child Left Behind. But he would rewrite the federal law to offer more help to high-need schools, especially by training thousands of new teachers to serve in them, his campaign said. He would also expand early childhood education, which he believes gets more bang for the buck than remedial classes for older students. More of the New York Times article here .

The budget deficit will jump by $246 billion to $407 billion this year, the Congressional Budget Office estimates in a report released Tuesday. Over the long run, growing budget deficits and the resulting increases in federal debt would lead to slower economic growth," the agency said. The budget deficit shot up 153% from last year's shortfall of $161 billion. The government's fiscal year ends Sept. 30. The agency attributes the jump to "a substantial increase in spending and a halt in the growth of tax revenues." That drop in revenue is driven in part by an estimated 15% decline in corporate tax receipts. They fell as a result of lower corporate profits and tax rules governing how businesses depreciate their investments this year. A second factor is the rebates provided to tax filers from the economic stimulus law Congress passed earlier this year. The spending hike is partly due to efforts by the government "to cover the insured deposits of insolvent finan...

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"An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?" - Rene Descartes

Christian Jørgensen as featured on Queerty .

To create our list of the 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time, we polled more than 100 actors, comedians, musicians, writers, critics, performance artists, label reps, and DJs, asking each to list the 10 albums that left the most indelible impressions on their lives. After receiving responses from Boy George, Rufus Wainwright, Cyndi Lauper, the Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray, Candis Cayne, Perez Hilton, Nate Berkus, Jake Shears, John Cameron Mitchell, Wilson Cruz, Justin Bond, Darren Hayes, Junior Vasquez, Bruce Vilanch, Janis Ian, the Cliks, Ari Gold, Holly Johnson, and a slew of others, we tallied the results to determine our top-100 list. So here they are : the seminal, flamboyant, trailblazing, gender-bending, campy, theatrical, audacious, unforgettable albums that changed our lives.

Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger. Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes. But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair ...

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Felipe Torretta as featured on We Love Guys .

Weekend Top Five #1 Bangkok Dangerous ($7.8M) #2 Tropic Thunder ($7.5M) #3 The House Bunny ($5.9M) #4 The Dark Knight ($5.71M) #5 Traitor ($4.66M)

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Barack Obama's campaign for president has raised $10 million since Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoke Wednesday night, the campaign announced, calling it a "one-day record." Palin, the governor of Alaska, launched harsh attacks on Obama, accusing him of being two-faced and a political lightweight with no significant legislative accomplishments. "Coverage of the Palin attacks on the news this evening just pushed us over $10 million," Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in an e-mail to reporters Wednesday night. The Republican Party announced earlier in the day it had raised $1 million in the wake of Palin's speech. (Via CNN )