Meme: Ianto Jones Heads To Calgary, Ian Nelson Joins “Teen Wolf” As a Young Derek Hale, and Anderson Cooper Talks Celebrity Coming Outs

Big news: There will be a Torchwood: Children of Earth reunion at Calgary Comic Expo, featuring John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd and Eve Myles. Ianto lives! Now who’s going?

My friend Rod McCullom writes about the possibility of an African pope coming next month, and it’s not good news for gays, HIV on the continent, or condom education.

After months of drama that ultimately meant nothing but political theater when there are real problems to solve, Senator Chuck Hagel has been confirmed as Defense Secretary. Most gay advocacy groups are celebrating his commitment to further implementing the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

More than 75 influential Republicans have filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court asking them to overturn Prop 8. Among them is Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, who was a pro 8 supporter when she ran for governor of California. She says she changed her mind because “there is no legitimate, fact-based reason for providing different legal treatment of committed relationships between same-sex couples. Without the presence of such a rationale, precedent should result in the U.S. Supreme Court overturning California’s ban on gay marriage.”

In addition, dozens of major corporations are preparing to file in support of Windsor in the DOMA case. Major names include Apple, Cisco, Xerox, Nike, Levi Strauss, Facebook, and Morgan Stanley. The brief will state that DOMA “send an unmistakeable signal that same-sex couples are in some way inferior to opposite-sex couples, a proposition that is anathema to amici’s commitment to equality and fair treatment to all.”

A person I don’t understand at all, Marina Abramović, is preparing to make a movie about one of the most confusing people on the planet, James Franco. She says Franco is “the most interesting actor of the moment” because he’s not afraid of failure.

Coke doesn’t refer to their best customers as loyal, but as “heavy users.” These heavy users make up about 20% of the market, but consume 80% of the product. Somehow they’re aware of the tower of Coke Zero that stands in my kitchen at all times, and powers the Meme. They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said “no, no, no.”

The Sean Hayes pilot has cast Lindsay Sloane as Sean’s BFF. The more I read about this, the more I assume Hayes character is gay, but I have nothing concrete to base that on, and networks are always vague about pilots.

The Russian Foreign Minister says that the gay propaganda bill currently being considered is necessary to protect the Christian majority from the “kind of discrimination when one group of citizens gets the right to aggressively promote their own values that run against those shared by the majority of the society and impose them on children.” I find it extremely rare for a majority to need protection.

Hip Hop star A$AP Rocky says that thanks to his interest in fashion, a lot of people assume he’s gay, but “I have a lot of bitches so why would I care? It doesn’t bother me at all. You know why they say that? Because they can’t say that I suck, they can’t say that I’m not handsome, and they can’t say that my lyrics are wack, so they say that I’m gay because they don’t have anything on me.” OK, so let’s set aside the “I have a lot of bitches” part of the comment, and focus on the fact that his answer implicitly says that calling him gay is an insult. He may have been trying to help, but, well, swing and a miss.

Joss Whedon says that he doesn’t even know how you’d go about making a good Hulk film. “He’s the Claudio of superheroes. Because the problem is it’s a very popular character, but it’s not a superhero. Half of it’s a superhero, half of it’s a werewolf. And you can’t structure it like a superhero movie, you can’t light it like a superhero movie. How do you develop that?”

For the first time since 1999, the music industry sold more music last year, led by strong sales from Adele and Taylor Swift, plus One Direction had two albums out, which is precisely how many One Direction songs I can name.

The Hunger Games‘ Ian Nelson has been cast as a young Derek Hale
on Teen Wolf. He has a lot of time in the gym in his future

The Alpha twins played by Charlie and Max Carver have motorcycles, which I hope translates to a lot of leather

Every young actor who plays a gay role is going to eventually be asked if he’s actually gay, either by fans or a journalist (I recently asked a producer if his star was gay or straight – it was a valid question.) It may not be right, and I know it rubs some of you the wrong way, but it’s going to happen. What matters is how they handle the question, and I think Shameless‘ Cameron Monaghan did a great job with it.

He even seems a little ashamed that he had to come out as straight, which is endearing

Seems pretty accurate to me

Finally, Andrew Garfield is suited up for Spider-Man.

Indie singer-songwriter Matt Gold is back with a new video for his single “Oh, Joe.” The video is really a touching piece about belonging and connection, helped along by Matt’s incredibly rich, emotional voice. He’s rapidly becoming a favorite of mine.

Anderson Cooper appeared on Watch What Happens Live, and Andy Cohen asked him if his opinion of celebrities coming out had changed much since he’d decided to be open in his own life. Anderson gives a fairly PC answer about everyone finding their own time, but he does seem somewhat dumbfounded about some unnamed others that share so much of their lives, but not the fact that they’re gay.

Father Tiger is back with another sexy music video for “Head Hung Low” featuring jello fights and pie eating contests, and a musical change up part way through that I really wasn’t expecting, but completely enjoyed.

Tumblr is a weird experience for me. I’m addicted to it in a way that I never was with Facebook, but I don’t really share a lot of original content there myself, other than the offical AfterElton.com Tumblr. But things there can get fairly weird and intense really quickly, and it can be an adventure scrolling through your dashboard, moving from porn to politics to animals to comics. It certainly was as I sat in a crowded airport Sunday night doing just that. It was almost like my dashboard sang to me. Bonus points for the Johnlock love.

Job interviews are tough enough without the employer deciding to prank you, but if you’re interviewing at a company that specializes in animatronics for movies, you probably should be prepared for something.

In the Flesh is a new BBC series about zombies who get rehabilitated and sent back into society, but keep all their memories of the people they killed as they suffer from Partially Deceased Syndrome. Could you reintegrate with your old life?

Just how big is the universe? Well, pretty big, and bigger than you would logically conclude. Sit back and prepare to feel absolutely insignificant.