We're falling back on a classic this afternoon. Mary J. Blige's "Real Love." You want it, you need it and you love it.
• Alright, we're willing to forgive The View's Sherri Shepard for not knowing whether the world's flat, but we're absolutely astonished that Shepard forgot that Patti LaBelle's black.
• Out's Shana Krochmal talks to Panic At The Disco. Note the lack of exclamation!
• Writer's strike be damned! AfterElton launches Gay People's Choice Awards:
We're asking you to vote on your favorites in the traditional movie, television, music, and internet categories, but at the end we've included several gay-specific categories that you won't find covered anywhere else this awards season!
Vote like your life depends on it!
• Gay panic strikes Kentucky after b-ballers partake in celebratory kiss.
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• Japanese scientists have made a "humanoid robot" called Simroid, which can feel "pain".
• It's that time of the year again: Bid 2 Beat AIDS offers 1000s of collectibles on eBay. The eBay charity auction officially begins tomorrow, but they've already posted tickets for Mary J Blige's Tuesday show honoring BET's Stephen Hill.
• Popnography's Shana Naomi Krochmal and NPR "consider" bands who play queer.
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The gays have long loved Mary J Blige, so it should come as no surprise that the beautiful singer makes an appearance on the forthcoming issue of The Advocate. Our soul sister Stereotyped passes along some of Blige's money quotes:
On having gay fans: “The majority of them are [gay], and I have to really make sure that they know I’m paying attention to the fact that they support me, and I support them.”On the reason she became involved in the fight to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS: “It was the elephant in the room that nobody’s looking at. It made me be like, Oh, this is right at our front door. This can touch us. So why wouldn’t I want to get involved with something that can help save all our lives, save everybody’s lives?”
Blige also takes on homophobia in the hip-hop community, telling journo Ernest Hardy, that the haters are nothing but suckers and give hp-hop a bad name. Word.
Also in this issue, a look at New York's domestic partnership laws, an inside view of the war on AIDS and a rousing interview with fag favorite Amy Adams, who admits her Psycho Beach Party doesn't do Ann-Margaret's original justice. Ain't that the truth.
• Mary J's new video for "Just Fine"!
• Gay paper Outlook refuses to endorse Republican queer Bill Brownson. Says co-publisher Michael Daniels:
We started the process, as the queer newspaper, hoping we could endorse the queer candidate. But we were not going to endorse someone based purely on their sexual orientation.
They will, however, endorse every Democrat in the district. Hmmm…
• Mitt Romney endorsed by anti-gay Bob Jones University.
• The outs and outs of Oprah's gay show.
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It's been over four years since Annie Lennox released an original album. No doubt, then, this fall's offering will be pull out all the stops.
According to perpetually wet gossips, pool party, the former Eurythmics singer has enlisted the help of Madonna, Mary J. Blige and Kelis, among others for her forthcoming full-length.
This is a Sweet Dream come true!
We get a lot of mail around here. Most are from people enjoying the site and passing along ideas. A small percentage is hate mail. And then there are the crazies. Most of the crazy mails we receive we simply ignore. But this last letter we felt we needed to share, since, um, it can save lives.
We love Mary J. But we had no clue she was this amazing. One reader writes below.
I am a 58 years old man and I can attest to the fact the Mary J.'s music healed me and kept me from taking an operation that 3 doctors had said that I needed. After I realized that I was completed healed, I let one of my friends who is 5 years of my senior and very sick to listen to my album. Each day he would listen to the album for about and hour. On the 5th day when I went to visit him, he told me how much better he felt. On the 14th day he called his doctor and told the doctor that he wanted to stop taking the 7 pills that he was taking each day.
At first his doctor recommended against it, but once my friend went in for his routine checkup, the doctor said that it had to be a miracle. There was no trace of his liver problem and the doctor had colleague doctor to give him a full examination. This doctor could find any trace of any liver problems also.
I went and bought 2 more of the identical albums and gave them to my two diabetic brothers who are both much older than me. Within two months they both could stop taking their insulin shots and now their pancreas is back producing insulin. Their doctors refuse to comment and call it mind over matter, but we all know better.
There are four more other sick elder persons whom I have had to listen to Mary J.s music and they are all now from under the care of their doctors. One is now training to become a minister and he promises to spread in his gospel the heeling power of Mary J.s music.
The entire letter, with all its grammatical errors intact, after the jump.
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• Erasure are planning a spring release of Union Street, an acoustic album of underrated and forgotten tracks. Some of our faves made the cut. Via Arjan.
• The Manhattan Offender has a message for the ladies. In fashion, that is. Gawker has a different take.
• We scored a copy of Mary J. Blige’s new album The Breakthrough and it is hot, hot, hot. The diva even sings with and covers U2. Want a taste yourself? Check out Pop Bytes.
• Not a soul that reads this site could win the Mr. Hetero pageant. Of course, we wouldn’t want to either. Rip up copies of Oprah's magazine? Heck no. We have them cataloged and stored in airtight bags. They'll be collector's items some day, you know.
• Brokeback Mountain is released today. Check out Andy’s site within a site dedicated to the gay cowboy film. It’s the virtual equivalent to this shrine to Paris Hilton. And are we bad gays to want to see The Chronicles of Narnia more?
