The newest addition to the madness of Times Square is Spotlight, a karaoke bar where you are joined onstage by in-house back-up singers and background dancers. There’s even a “green room” with a make-up artist to prepare you for belting out Flashdance. Audience members can send the performers Simon Cowell-worthy snide comments from their tableside interactive consoles. Spotlight also features …

Courtesy of Showtime, this week’s Swag Tuesday giveaway is a special advance DVD box set of the full first season of their hit series, The Tudors, starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Henry VIII. In March, I attended a screening of the first two episodes of The Tudors and I was immediately reeled in by the lush photography and uber-hot cast. Steve …

“Over the next 20 years Pride Festivals will fall out of favor as we move from outward challenges to inward ones. We’ll grow up to understand that pride cannot be given or taken away by others. In our past, we marched to be proud and not ashamed. The next 20 years we convince ourselves.” – Former Log Cabin Republicans head …

Fresh off last week’s victory in stifling a possible reversal of gay marriage rights, Massachusetts advocates are now attempting a repeal of a 1913 law that only allows people from other states to marry in Massachusetts if their marriage would be recognized in their home state. The 1913 law was originally created to slow the spread of interracial marriages. Republican …

We talk a lot about privacy and the internet here, so I’m rather curious what you think about an interesting story out of San Francisco. The owner of Castro porn shop Auto-Erotica downloaded a naked photo of a man from the internet, photoshopped a sex toy onto the bed next to him, and posted the photo in his store’s window …

Newly retired Bob Barker has switched gears and endorsed Rosie O’Donnell to replace him on The Price Is Right, although he cautions that he isn’t sure that CBS is willing to have a female host for the show. On Friday, the now Rosie-less chat fest The View continued its 10-year losing streak at the Daytime Emmys, with Ellen Degeneres winning …

Yesterday’s Folsom Street East fair was a smash success, with a massive crowd of leatherfolk and looky-loos crowding W.28th Street from 10th to 11th Avenues. FSE head John Weis was ecstatic, telling me that attendance was an all-time high, somewhere around 10,000, putting the event on a scale with SF’s similar Dore Alley Fair. Porn stars, media types, LGBT leaders …

The Hotel Chelsea is the most famous artists residence in New York City. Those having made their homes there include such luminaries as Mark Twain, Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, Arthur C. Clarke, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Janis Jopin, and pretty much anyone else who’s ever been famous for anything. It has been memorialized in song by such artists as Joni …

San Francisco club promoters DJ Jeff Johnson and Kurt Cooper have generated some unpleasant attention for their June 1st “Fag Bash” party , with some taking great offense to both the name and ad image used. The ad appeared in two issues of the Bay Area Reporter and on fliers posted around town. The ad also appears on the Folsom …

Openly gay Dallas mayoral candidate Ed Oakley lost today in that city’s runoff election, defeated by retired businessman Tom Leppert. Surprising poll workers, today’s runoff seems to have had higher turnout than last month’s general election. Oakley, who is CFO of a company that owns several Dallas gay bars, called Leppert late today to concede and congratulate him on his …

Last summer a “gang” of seven young black lesbians partying near the Christopher Street piers attacked a passing straight man after he allegedly made a lewd sexual remark about “turning them straight.” The man was beaten and stabbed. You may recall me posting about it at the time as part of the still-ongoing debate about the situation with unruly minority …

The Flatiron’s rehab has been going on for, what, 200 years? I’ve never seen the building without scaffolding and ad barns around it. These pics embiggen nicely.

“If Travolta was homophobic, dancing in that fat suit with as many gay people as are working on this film, he would have had a heart attack and been dead.” – John Waters, responding to yesterday’s Daily News story about a brewing boycott of his upcoming movie, Hairspray. Waters: “First of all, he is playing a loving mother, not Harvey …

YouTube isn’t allowing me to embed the video, for some reason, but you MUST go and watch I Got A Crush On Obama by Obama Girl. It’s actually a pretty sweet tune and I could totally see it being this summer’s slow jam. The girl in the video is not the singer, by the way. Lyric sample: “You’ll get your …

Openly gay reps Tammy Baldwin and Barney Frank have written to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, demanding an inquiry into the abuse and murder of LGBT people in Iraq. The full text of the letter is here. Islamic militias continue to abuct Iraqis suspected of being gay, often leaving their battered corpses for their families to find. In April, the …

The Trevor Project, which operates the nation’s only 24/7 suicide prevention helpline for gay teens, will be holding a gala event on June 25th at NYC’s Millenium Hotel. The event will include a silent auction, dinner, music and comedy performances and an awards ceremony where Nathan Lane will receive the Trevor Hero Award. Also scheduled to appear: Tim Gunn, Carson …

Last night I attended the Queerty-sponsored speech of presidential candidate Sen. Mike Gravel at the Hotel Chelsea’s Star Lounge. While Gravel spoke passionately about ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and marriage equality, he made a couple of missteps. First, when expounding on his position that closeted gays hurt the cause, which all here agree, I’m sure, he said, “Be proud …

From the Really Unimportant News department comes word that the University of Central Florida (my alma mater) has dropped the “Golden” from their team names, now being merely the UCF Knights. I’m still a little freaked out that the little commuter college I attended (back when dinosaurs ruled the earth) is the 6th largest university in the country and is …

These silly sheep are waiting in line at Madison Square’s Shake Shack, Danny Meyer’s insanely popular burger joint where it can take two hours from getting in line to actually eating. Once you order, it can be about another 45 minutes before you get your food. The Shack Shack has a live cam so office workers nearby can assess the …

Lady Randomocity stepped away from the keno table, lit a Marlboro 100, and revealed that Dan of Rochester, NY, was the winner of this week’s Swag Tuesday: a copy of Armisted Maupin’s Michael Tolliver Lives. Dan sez: “Read Armistead Maupin!! Not just the Tales of the City series, but The Night Listener, and Maybe The Moon – two of my …