ON OUR GAYDAR — News, notes, clicks, and quips from around the web.

• It's a biopic about Chippendales creator Steve Banerjee, but director Tony Scott can't make a movie like that without muscled men in french cuffs.

• Speaking of gay-oriented entertainment, there might be a New York version of Real Housewives that's being put together, but there's also a casting call out out for The Real Gay Housewives of San Francisco.

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Last week, underwear line Undergear headed to New York's Time Square to have male models parade around in their briefs. The local news was even there! And while pure publicity stunt (for their "Where Do You Wear Yours?" campaign), the makeshift fashion show was the only thing to make Times Square bearable all week, so we owe them a debt of gratitude. Allow us to thank them.

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With the advertising slide forcing media organizations to overhaul their news gathering operations (maybe you've heard? newspapers are closing), you'd have to be crazy to think newspapers and television networks are being told to invest in another costly reporting endeavor. But are you not crazy, and this is happening anyway. Someone had the bright idea to suggest the media create an entire beat out of … hate. Yup, hate, that thing that causes so much violence in the world. It could be its own newspaper section!

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When you read yesterday Michael Lucas' complaint about losing out on a New York Times puff piece, what you didn't know is that the fashion reporter who opted not to interview the porn star-producer was also hitting up Lucas Entertainment for free porn DVDs. For "review," of course.

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Back from making gay porn in Israel, and just in time to defend certain Oscar-winner screenwriters, Michael Lucas found another figure to be furious with: a New York Times reporter.

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It's been less than two weeks since Christian school Grove City College officially terminated John Gechter's studies after learning about his proclivity to have sex for gay Internet porn websites. Gechter — who GCC says has "voluntarily chosen to withdraw" — threatened to sue the school, but agreed to let up if administrators allow him to transfer credits for a degree — so he can move to New York and take some bio-chem classes this summer!

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If you're unfamiliar, New York City's Highline is an abandoned set of rail yards on Manhattan's West Side that's been undergoing attempted renovation plans (public park! elevated walk way! waterfront condos!) for what seems like decades. Calvin Klein threw his Fashion Week party there. Naturally, there are environmentally conscious folks who don't want the Highline messed with, and see its "renovation" as an excuse for the wealthy to treat yet another part of the city as their playground. But what happens when photographer Kevin McDermott uses the Highline as his playground? Well, this. (Semi-NSFW)

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We here at Queerty are big fans of the United States, the nation that bore us, Celebrity Jeopardy, the hamburger and that whole representative democracy thing. It's a nation rich in natural resources, can-do attitude and homosexuals, and each week, we're visiting a new state to find out just what makes it so uniquely fabulous.

Illinois
Land O' Bama

Home to amber waves of grain and politicians as esteemed as Abraham Lincoln (and as corrupt as Rod Blogajevich), Illinois is the cultural capitol of America's beating Heartland. Gays and lesbians enjoy a relative degree of freedom in the Land of Lincoln, with full adoption rights and protection against workplace discrimination in both public and private business. However, in 1996, gay marriage was outlawed in the state.

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"It definitely gave me a platform, but for other young designers I would say, it's not the best way to go if you want to be a real, serious designer." —Project Runway Season 4 winner Christian Siriano, who showed a Payless collection at New York Fashion Week today, on whether reality TV is the ticket to success [Reuters]

If you believe reports, Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson have been on-and-off more times than Madonna and Guy, Liza and David, and Britney and Adnan combined. Lohan's publicist would always blame the scurrilous tabloid press who would make up break up stories to generate tabloid magazine sales (and pageviews!). But then Lohan and Ronson performed their latest very public fight in front of a reporter outside the Fashion Week afterparty of Sam's sister Charlotte.

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OH SNAP — Of course you need star wattage to get amFAR some press for its New York Gala, which helps kick off Fashion Week.

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We like to think of Queerty as one big dysfunctional family, and we're looking to add a new member to our brood. With nepotism and insider-dealings passe in our scary, newly impoverished world, we decided that instead of choosing a music reviewer, we'd let you, the readers, decide. So when you ask yourselves, "Who put this guy in charge?" the answer will be, "You did."

After culling through almost 200 applications, we narrowed down your would-be musical tastemakers to 10 lucky finalists. To be honest, we're glad you're the ones deciding—this is one talented group. This week, we're rolling them out for you – along with a sample review of one of their favorite albums – the top five will go on to the final round. Vote for your favorites Idol-style (that means as often as you like) at the bottom of this post, until, like a gay, musical version of Highlander, only one remains.

Let's meet the contestants.

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PARTY ON — We just got done sharing with you an in-depth look at how gay businesses are faring in this recession. But what about Individual Gay Persons? Anecdotal evidence suggests un- or under-employed fags are tearing things up while the rest of the country is in a fetal position. Could it be true? Is Wall Street's collapse a perfect excuse to party?

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If you follow New York Times' "The Moment" twitter account, you might have noticed this particularly bitchy tweet, yesterday: "Going through mountains of New York fashion week invitations. Just received Christian Siriano invite (2/19 6 p.m.). Who wants it?" It's one thing to not attend, it's another to announce it via Twitter. Anyway, Siriano's boyfriend and photographer Brad Walsh was not having it, and responded to The Moment's shadiness through his blog.

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One of our favorite pastimes here at Queerty is chronicling the The New York Times' slow transformation into a college literary magazine by way of self-mythologizing "culture" pieces about the writing staff's various crippling addictions. Previously, we told you about Susan Cheaver's irritating and erroneous dry drunk conclusion that New Yorkers never drink. While we wait for Bill Kristol to write a 1,000 word essay on how he discovered the true heart of conservatism by way of a fourteen day LSD odyssey on the banks of the Russian River, the Times has fed our own personal addiction for awkward belles-lettres by way of Benoit Denizet-Lewis' account of his super-entertaining sex addiction via online gay sex sites.

We could go on about the tickle in our throat we got while reading Lewis' imagined dialogue with his addictive personality (Eg: “I will make Benoit lie and manipulate and chase sex every hour of every day, until he can’t feel anything anymore, until everything good and decent about him is removed. He needs me"), but the real question running through our head is, "If Benoit Denizet-Lewis was an online sex whore who would drive hundreds of miles for a hook-up, how the hell did we never see him on any gay sex site, ever?"

So, we pulled up all our old hook-up site accounts and decided to take a walk down memory lane to see where we missed out on the chance to take advantage of America's favorite homo cultural anthropologist's uncontrollable (but now controlled, congrats/alas) desire to examine the nooks and crannies of every boy on the 'net.

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Watching the news last night, as president-elect Barack Obama told us that the economy faces a deficit of a trillions of dollars in the near future, we were reminded just how totally doomed we are. There's no money, no jobs and, soon enough, we'll all be raiding the local BDSM shop so we can cook down the leather into something digestible. (Sorry, we've been watching lots of "Apocalypse Week" on the History Channel.)

But just because you're poor, doesn't mean you can't be stylish. Gays are nothing if not resourceful, and to help get the ball rolling, here are five belt-tightening ideas that aren't horribly depressing.

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Pity the New York Times columnist: Each week, they're tasked with defining the social trends and mores of our entire doomed civilization and each week they reach hilariously inaccurate conclusions that read like dispatches from the land of Upper East Narnia. Take Susan Cheever's post yesterday on the New York Times' alcohol blog, Proof. Once upon a time she was a raging boozehound and New York was full of boozy out-of-control drunks, but now that she's sober, New York City has miraculously given up its drinking ways and become a more civilized place. Funny how that works, eh?

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Mathias Guerrand-Hermès' wife, Valesca probably has loads of questions.

The 39-year old heir to the Hermès fashion house found himself behind bars earlier this week after launching into a drunken, pill-induced rage on an Air France flight from Paris to New York.

In addition to harassing other passengers and generally acting a fool, Mr. Guerrand-Hermes went for the captain's crotch:

Court papers say that the socialite had drunk "quite a bit of alcohol', as well as taking the prescription drug, Propofan, before perching on the arm rest of a female passenger, who was sitting near him in first class.
…
As members of the flight crew tried to intervene, the captain stepped in asking him to calm down.

Instead, he allegedly grabbed the pilot's crotch shouting: "I am not going to behave myself," and tried to throw a punch.

He failed at throwing that bunch an could face up to 20-years in prison, but he's rich and powerful and probably hasn't gotten into that much trouble in the past, so experts are predicting six months in the slammer, where there will be all sorts of crotches to grab.

Edmund White spent his boarding school nights crouched in a toilet stall reading Rimbaud, the French poet who gained notoriety for his drunken violence and love of older men. Fast-forward some odd years and White's again thinking about Rimbaud, but under decidedly different circumstances.

No longer the teen clinging to dreams of the big city and loving men, White's made quite a name for himself on the literary scene, a name that led Atlas publishing company to ask the author to pen Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel.

White recently invited our editor into his home to talk about the book, but, as happens, the conversation veered in all sorts of directions – from Rimbaud's drunken days to White's evolving take on gay marriage; from Rimbaud as the "teen top terror" to how France changed White's writing style. It's a potpourri!

Take a peek, after the jump…

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Homo-journo James Kirchick lavishes more praise on Republicans and their relative gay silence at last week's convention.

Once the fiercest of the culture warriors, Republicans have a long history of railing against the gays, but remained relatively mum during the events in St. Paul, Kirchick credits to multiple factors, not least of all John McCain…

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Gal pals Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson had a gay old time this weekend, first hitting up Ronson sister Charlotte's fashion show – and others – here in New York and then jetting to Los Angeles, where they attended MTV's Video Music Awards.

Oh, to be a young, famous lesbian! That's the life for us! (Although we'd appreciate more penis and less titty, but beggars can't be choosers…)

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New York Post claims Marc Jacobs and Brazilian beau Lorenzo Martone got hitched in France this weekend. Jacobs' people, however, claim otherwise. This story makes our head hurt, go numb. [NY Post and The Daily]

"Fashion designer Marc Jacobs will wed his Brazilian boyfriend Lorenzo Martone in Paris, France this weekend, according to reports. Jacobs has been dating the advertising executive since the beginning of the year, and went public with the romance at the Costume Institute Gala in New York in May. Sources tell Fashionista.com the pair will sign a Civil Solidarity Pact – the French equivalent of a gay marriage – which will legally unite them." [PR Inside]

Madonna's sliding down the style food chain, according to Eric Wilson, who spills an insane amount of ink on the pop star's evolving "look." Or is it devolving?

For a performer who has spent 25 years shocking audiences into submission, through her lyrics, actions and attire, Madonna’s latest stylistic reinvention — timed to the start of a new tour next month — is mostly shocking for not having teeth.

The new Madonna look, as seen in paparazzi photographs taken on the streets of New York over the last couple of weeks, evokes a kind of athletic, campus-casual blandness, as if designed for anonymity at the gym.
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“She doesn’t seem to have found a particular look for this album,” said Clare Parmenter, a 35-year-old biomedical scientist in London who maintains a fan site called Madonnalicious.com. “It’s a bit — I don’t know how to say it — it’s nondescript.”

Well, you pretty much know how we feel about the singer…

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From The Editor: Hello, reader, you attractive young devil! (Don't argue with me.)

A little known fact about me: I've always wanted to be a writer. Ever since I could pick up a pencil, I've been scrawling yarns and tales and the such. Perhaps it was because I was a confused little homo looking for solace or because my parents divorced or because my sister used to beat the shit out of me, but I've always found comfort in the written word. Totally gay, right?

Like so many before me, I envisioned myself becoming a novelist or something equally glamorous. And, like every other blogger and/or journalist in New York, I've been working on a novel – it's called Homecoming and will be published in the year 4013. Until then, however, I'll have to sustain myself on short stories and other imagined things.

Since it's Friday – and a fairly slow news day – I'm going to go ahead and publish something I wrote about four years ago. It's called "Postcards" and I haven't edited it since I wrote it, but it's a good distraction from the six or so hours we all have left in this increasingly tedious work week.

Enjoy it or die. (Bonus points for those of you who send me some appropriate art!)

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Hold on to your hats, ladies and gents, because it's time for some good old fashioned Trolling Tuesday!

This week brings us all sorts of Craigslist madness. Like what? Like this straight-forward offering: "use my mouth like you would your toilet." It's almost poetic in its simplicity.

Get an even more ickier taste of gnarliness, after the jump.

Oh, and as you can imagine, the language ain't safe for work. Or anyone with a weak tum-tum. Don't worry, though, we didn't attach any of the pictures we came across. Even we're not that cruel.

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Project Runway winner Christian Siriano went from being gay media darling to GLBT nemesis in an instant after he compared transsexuals – the butt of his signature "hot tranny mess" line – and drag queens to the "white trash" of the straight community.

This week's Time Out New York asked Siriano: "Drag has always been part of our experience and always will be. What is its everlasting appeal? Why won’t it ever die?"

He replied: "If you think of heterosexuals, they have white-trash women and trailer parks, and we have drag queens and trannies. I don’t know if I’m the one who can explain it. It’s, like, drag queens are just there. These answers are hard!"

GLAAD, as it's wont to do, got upset. So Siriano clarified: "I wish that my words were not taken in that way. When I was speaking, some comments that I made were not used in the article. I completely support the fabulousness and amazing fashion inspiration that most transgender people provide."

So, is all forgiven? Should he stop using the "hot tranny mess" line? Or are some people overreacting?

Those of you outside of New York probably aren't following this story, but State Island Representative Vito Fossella grabbed headlines last week when he was arrested for drunk driving.

Well, as can expected, the Republican politico's private life has been getting probed like you wouldn't believe. One of the juicier details: the married father of two had an illicit affair – and bastard child – with another woman.

It's good old-fashioned fun, of course, and Pride Agenda just made it even more of a knee-slapper by reminding us of Fossella's predictable political history: "…We thought it would be useful to remind people that the Staten Island Representative had voted not once or twice–but three times to, as many of his colleagues argued, 'preserve the sanctity of marriage.'"

Absolutely shocking.

We're not really sure what to make of self-professed celebrity Jonny Makeup. Aside from a few snarky Gawker references, he's not big on our radar.

That may change as Makeup – the "heiress" of American Apparel – makes a play for wonky-eyed Paris Hilton's new MTV show, Paris Hilton's My New BFF.

We were curious about this specimen, who has also appeared on Tyra Banks' talk show, so we dispatched brave Queerty correspondent Megan Metzger have a bit of face time with Makeup. And, the way she tells it, Jonny's more than just a side show. In fact, she describes him as "one shrewd cookie."

Read the duo's dialogue and decide for yourself – after the jump…

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The GLAAD Media Awards may be causing some residual drama.

Cable channel Bravo paid an unspecified sum to air the entire event next month, but a reader speculated that queer-centric Logo, an MTV property, decided to play a little game of "gotcha" with the awards.

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