I guess it's bearable in a game where you can be grabbed roughly by a big strong butchie and thrown physically to the ground... LMAO..!!

^Ooh err.. I wasn't expecting that! lol

What's everyone make of that website article that (allegedly) tried to out some athletes?

Strange people. Leave them and their strange obsessions to themselves, the rest of us couldn't care less.

^I'll bet the athletes that could have been outed against their will cared though.

Moving on...

Some serious hotness out and about today. Found a small coffee shop that seemed to be staffed by ex-Abercrombie & Fitch / Hollister blokes.
*fans self*

No you do make a point. However what I meant was none of us really pay any attention to any of their garbage anyways. Tom Daley for example, gay or not, winning a medal is a commendable thing, he does flippity flips into a big swimming pool. What he does behind closed doors is no one's business.

Meh, I couldn't think of a bigger turn off. If the staff were failed footballers, builders and plommer types I'd never be out of the place.

Ahh true. I see your point now.


Well some of them might have fit that bill as well. i just used A&F as a bit of a vague analogy.

Fangirling... NBC is doing a production of Hairspray live.
Then I find out that Garrett Clayton is playing Link Larkin... *squeeeeee*

Edit: And now I find out that Disney is going to release a recording of Newsies in cinemas.
*double squeeeeee*

Hairspray???..... Hee hee!!!!

^Yup. Harvey Firestein is reprising his role as Edna. Rosie O'Donnel is guesting as the Gym coach, and Sean Hayes will be Mr. Pinkie.

Hopfully it will be one itv over christmas......

I'm guessing ITV2 if they do a live show themselves. The Sound of Music had a mixed reception, so fingers crossed they'll do another despite that. (3.8m viewers ain't that bad).

I'm trying to think of what would be a good show for them to choose.

Okay advice time gays.

I have a friend who hasn't been near the gay scene. He's recently single and on the rebound. I'm worried about him. I've offered to take him on his first night out in the scene so he doesn't get taken advantage of but how do I do this without him thinking him I'm after him?

Just tell him. When you say he's "recently single", do you mean he's left a woman or that he's been in a same sex relationship? It's difficult to tell from your post, so I'm going to proceed on the assumption he's recently parted company from a woman and is undergoing the coming out process after a period of living the lie.

I'm sure that, being the newby, he'd appreciate you being straight with him (no pun intended. lol) about it. You're going out as buddies and actually, it's good of you to help steer him through the minefield of that first time on the scene. I know I found it scary at first.

But because you're taking him out and showing him the haunts doesn't necessarily mean you want more. Or does he want you to? Hmmm?? Have you thought of that..? Perhaps, after a few beers and he's relaxed, HE might come on to YOU?

Talk it through together. Make sure you both know the situation so there can be no misunderstanding later.

A friend at Uni took me out on the scene first time (not that Portsmouth had a "scene". It was one club in the high street... and even that's closed now....) but I still had to cross that threshold and be the self-conscious 19 year old newby who felt as if everyone was checking her out. I guess it's a Rubicon that we all have to cross at some time.

Good luck to you and your buddy, Seb. I'm sure things will work out fine.

He's gay, and a lot younger than me. It was his first relationship so he's not used to the rejection.

I wouldn't go there, and I'm definitely not his type, I just don't want him getting the idea that I'm some kind of sleaze trying to get him alone or whatever..

Well, I guess this kind of resolved itself because pretty much everyone bar one person cancelled on me. Ah well, I'm still gonna go out with her and dance the night away!

My iPod has a sarcastic sense of humour. Today's shuffle yielded 'I Will Survive' (Gloria Gaynor) followed by 'Walk Like a Man' (Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons).

Just found out that there's going to be a Broadway adaptation of Fox Animation-Don Bluth's '97 animated musical Anastasia.

Probably one of the best non-Disney animated films IMO.

For those that remember the original 'Are You Being Served?', what do we make of the one-off rivial of Mr. Humphries?

After all, he is quite a significant LGBT character in TV history. (Admittedly he was never out).

or

Is it a brief return of a sterotype that should remain back in TV's past?

I don't see the reason to get butthurt (no pun) over a series that was made a very, very long time ago. And I'm not so insecure as to feel that all gay people need to be portrayed a certain way to appease that insecurity. In fact I even chuckled a few times at it myself. I really hope no one has had a stick up their ass about this.

I've never seen the original but I enjoyed the cheesiness of the whole thing. It felt nostalgic, I miss old comedies. The Porridge remake that followed however was atrocious.

There's quite a few episodes of AYBS on YouTube if the mood takes you.

Sure the original show has some out of date humour, but its still enjoyable. Like you said, there's a bit of 'cheese' about it, but in a nice way. (Perhaps that's me looking back with nostalgia though).

As for Mr. Humphries, I guess any attempt to portray the character now is always going to be compared to John Inman's performance.

Perhaps the best way to look at it is that this was a tribute show set in '88 and not a new show set today with what some would deem to be a stereotype.

I thought are you being served was very good.

It would of been nice to of seen humpries has 'out and proud'.....

^That's a very intersting angle that they could have looked at. Although no doubt they'd get flack for doing it - either traditonal fans that says itshould remain as the original, or those complaining it's "pushing the agenda".

The only real snag would be that it was set in '88. More progressive times than when the original show was set, but I don't think it was a time when someone like dear ol' Wiberforce could talk about it openly.

Funny when you think, if they had made the AYBS tribute in a modern day Grace Bros. store, there very well could have been an out character that no one would bat an eyelid about.

I'd actually think it would be more progressive to either say "eh - hang on, he's actually straight? but he seemed so... gay." As in a message to people that you musn't be so presumptuous, particularly now where masculinity is becoming more and more ambiguous.

^You mean like restaurant critic Gil Chesterton on Frasier?

All along they thought/implied he was gay - and that 'Deb' was not his wife but his cat.