Required Reading

Over at his blog Boy Culture, blogger, novelist and magazine editor Matthew Rettenmund has written a long, well-reasoned, compelling piece entitled The Death of "Perez Hilton" which I whole-heartedly suggest you read. It is about Perez, of course, but also about the state of entertainment reporting , internet nastiness, and a possible, long overdue, change in the zeitgeist. You will find it here.

P.S. I just put up that picture of gymnast Marcel Nguyen in order to get your attention.

Sid Gets Medieval On Your Ass

Nobody bothered to tell me (or IMDb for that matter) that Mike Bailey, who was so awesome as Sid in the original version of Skins, had finally landed a new role. In May he had a lead role in a two-part movie on British TV Channel 4 called 1066: The Battle For Middle Earth. These pictures don't even begin to convey how adorable he is.

Hair Wars

Adonis Aaron Johnson utilizes the pages of Interview Magazine to step up his bid for the title of Most Titanic Tresses- Mop Top division. Nick Jonas and Olly Alexander are surely watching their backs. Could he soon be a serious challenge to Matty Prokop for the over-all title?

Toreador Out, Aria In

News from the Blogosphere... for some reason the powers to be at Blogger deleted the beautiful and elegant gay picture blog Toreador Masquerade last week. Thank goodness The Toreador Prince is not the kind to give up easily. His new blog Aria is up and running. Check it out, show your support, and subscribe.

Another Sad Adieu

Sadly, mega cutie-pie Jonathan Platero was kicked off So You Think You Can Dance last night. Luckily, through the miracle of the internet I was able to bring you something to remember him by, including (Huzzah!) his MySpace self-portrait.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

I don't think I can go without saying something about the passing of Michael Jackson. He was unquestionably the biggest star of my generation, and arguably its most tragic figure. I can't say that I was a fan of his in his latter years, I think I went off him long before the general public did, but there was a time when I adored him. This is how I prefer to remember him, a beautiful child with the voice of an angel.

Skins Skin

Can't say that I was crazy for the new version of Skins, but looking at Luke Pasqualino was no chore. I just love me a skinny boy! Thanks to Baton at Famous Male Forums for this scan.

Beastly Alex

Beastly just started filming in beautiful Montreal last week and isn't scheduled for release until next summer, but production company CBS Films has already started beating the drum for it. These are the first official stills from the film, before and after photos of some dude named Alex Pettyfer. Alex's beast make-up is not at all what I expected, but at least we know that if this doesn't work out for him he has a future as a Klingon in a Star Trek movie.

Dance Fever!

I don't know if I've ever mentioned how much I love to watch So You Think You Can Dance every summer. I was a late-comer to the series, having first encountered it when MTV ran a marathon of Season Two a couple of years ago. Despite some annoying aspects (half the time I want to smack Nigel in the face, and Mary's screaming can get old pretty fast) SYTYCD gets more things right than just about any competition show on TV. One of the things it gets the right-est is having the super-fabulous Cat Deeley as host. Also, unlike most shows of this type, by the time we get to the live studio airings even the least of the contestants are talented to a crazy degree. All of them are great. Of course I have my favorites...

What The Well-Dressed Knight Will Wear

I can't say that I object to this particular outfit from an aesthetic point of view, I'm just not sure how much protection it offers in the heat of battle.

Strait Talk

Before he was the star of horrible movies Steven Strait was a mop-topped teen model. You may have seen him in the ridiculous 10,000 BC (Enslaved cavemen built the pyramids using woolly mammoths as beasts of burden, while fighting off sabre toothed tigers? In North Africa? Whaaa?) and the most (unintentionally?) over-the-top homoerotic mainstream film since, well, ever, The Covenant. So far as an actor he has impressed me with his good looks but not necessarily his acting ability. Maybe someday he'll get a chance to change my mind. I'm informed that he's a pretty good singer, but I'm not willing to sit through a film starring Ashlee Simpson to find out.

Styles That Might Not Catch On

"Aunt Clara had for years labored under the delusion that I was not only perpetually 4 years old, but also a girl. "

Random Shirtless Guy of the Day

Styles That Might Not Catch On

I think this would be the perfect ensemble for a special occasion, say a wedding or a christening, and the mask is perfect if you have developed super powers and wish to remain anonymous.

Alex News: He F***s More Than A Rabbit

It's been over a month since the name Alex Pettyfer has occured on these pages. Do you admire my restraint? Quite a lot has happened in Alex World over the last few weeks. First, his film Tormented opened in the UK to, um, mixed reviews. It seems that Tormented is a love it or hate it experience. Alex's performance in his first-ever role as a bad guy garnered him personal reviews which were either praiseful or damning, with very little in between.

Alex did a lot of media to promote Tormented, including many video interviews in which he was charming, witty, self-effacing and beautiful, and many newspaper/magazine interviews, some of which depicted him as a cocky snot who needs to be taken down a peg. Is there any nation besides Great Britain where the most unforgivable trait a person can possess is self-confidence?

My favorite of these interviews was in The London Paper. There has been a long desputed rumor on the internet that Alex was the wearer of a chastity ring engraved with the words "True Love Waits." This interviewer asked him if it was true. Alex's response: "I fuck more than a rabbit." Is it any wonder that I love him?

Alex had been scheduled to attend the big Leicester Square premiere of Tormented, and then host a VIP after party, but at the last minute Hollywood beckoned and he was whisked back to North America to begin shooting Beastly instead. Aside from Vanessa Hudgens, as "Beauty " to Alex's "Beast", he will also joined by Mary-Kate Olsen as the witch who beastifies him. Fear of karmic retribution keeps me from commenting on this particular development. In good news, Awesomest Person Alive Neil Patrick Harris is his other co-star, which makes me happy, and the film's writer/director, Daniel Barnz, an out gay man, recently wrote/directed the highly praised Pheobe in Wonderland, which gives me hope.

Pictured above, is Alex and Mary Kate (but who is the gal in sunglasses and the blue robe?) between takes in Montreal last Saturday. I'm still swooning.

Model of the Moment

Baptiste Giabiconi is currently ranked by Models.com as the #1 male model in the world. He has campaigns by Fendi, Armani and Chanel under his belt, and apparently Karl Lagerfeld has a major hard-on for him. All I know is that you could serve dinner on those nipples.

A Quickie

I don't have a lot of time to blog today, so here are some nice photos of a dark-haired Luke Worall taken by artsy-fartsy (and I mean that in the nicest way) photographer Ram Shergill.