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"The Kids in the Hall" and "Little Britain USA" are headed back to television

If the gay sketch comedy fan in your life has suddenly taken to repeating The Kids in the Hall catchphrases to you, that's probably because the Canadian comedy troupe is preparing for a return to television, according to Dave Foley. Foley said that the Kids are working on an 8-episode mini-series for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which aired the original Kids in the Hall that American viewers saw on HBO, Comedy Central and CBS.

Find out the details of the Kids return to TV (as well as Little Britain's Stateside return) after the break.

IMHO: "Little Britain": Season One

Sunday night marked the end of the first season of HBO's British import Little Britain USA starring David Walliams and the out (and recently divorced) Matt Lucas. If you missed our original review of the series, the U.S. version added new characters as well as transported a number of the original characters stateside including Daffyd "the Only Gay in the Village" Thomas, as well as Vicki Pollard and the now British Prime Minister Sebastian Love.

I've always considered myself a bit of an Anglophile (Coupling is probably my favorite sitcom of all time) so I was actually quite looking forward to Little Britain's jump to America. But now that the first season is over, I'm less than thrilled with the results. In fact, I'm giving the show a down arrow for the first season. Read why after the jump.

AfterElton Briefs: Ellen talks Sarah Palin, Roger Ebert gives himself a thumbs down, and more!

David Burtka and Neil Patrick Harris looking adorable as always.

Following this assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.

  • Just because we can never get enough of them, the above pic is super-couple Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka at the one year anniversary party for the nightclub Blush in Las Vegas.
  • Ellen Degeneres is once again using her celebrity to fight the good fight, as she blasted V.P. nominee Sarah Palin on her talk show today. The highlight is when Ellen dismisses the view that children will be "influenced" in some way by learning that gay people can also be parents: "I was surrounded by heterosexuals, just everywhere I looked — heterosexuals. And they did not influence ... I mean I dabbled in high school, who didn't? Everyone dabbled, ya know?"
  • We've been talking about the new gay themed high school film Tru Loved for quite a while, and now, Roger Ebert has given the film the kind of publicity it wasn't expecting ... or wanting. The iconic critic gave the film one star (out of four), and admitted he only watched eight minutes before shutting it off, something he now regrets.

  • Well, they may as well call the election now, as Barack Obama has received the most important of all his endorsements. According to the Weekly World News, Batboy has come out in full support of Barack, thanks to the encouragement of the nominee's recently discovered half-bat, half-human brother Obatma. Rumor has it that Stephen Baldwin has already challenged Obatma to a boxing match.
  • Someone who's already made his decision is the out David Sedaris (aka the world's greatest living humorist), whose latest essay contains a hilarious and profane analogy about the presidential nominees (he compares them to airplane food).
  • In sad news, out Little Britain star Matt Lucas is officially divorced from his husband of two years, Kevin McGee. They've been split up since June, allegedly due to McGee's "unreasonable behavior".

And today's Briefs are brought to you by...

Meet the gays in "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire"


Matt Lucas (Photo credit: Getty Images/Claire Greenway), Marques Ray, Sean Maguire

This week Comedy Central announced that out actor Matt Lucas of Little Britain fame is joining the cast of the the network's new action-comedy series Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire. Now there's a title that just trips off the tongue!

Matt will play the evil Chancellor Dongalor and here's hoping he doesn't play it as the evil queeny type of character we see so often in fantasy and science fiction. Anyone who has seen Matt knows he can play a multitude of different types so there is no reason for this to be another lisping, mincing villain.

Read about the show's gay character after the jump!

The "Little Britain" guys on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson"

 

On Friday The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson welcomed Little Britain's Matt Lucas and David Walliams for a chat, and Ferguson did a bangup job of interviewing the guys, including about Matt's being gay and David's being straight. The ease with which Ferguson handles the interview is quite refreshing to see, and he doesn't ask either gentleman to show off their "gayest look" or anything.

Mutual talk show respect has never been so camp or entertaining. Enjoy after the break!

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A "Little Britain USA" giveaway, our exclusive "Ugly Betty" interviews, a gay bar crawl, and more !

Television Critics Association Day Three: "Little Britain", "True Blood", and more!


Joshua Bernstein (Photo credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. March)

Hi everybody! Michael down here in LA on day three of the hostage crisis TCA. It's still hot outside and frickin' freezing inside, but I discovered this great new invention called a "jacket" that I'm now wearing. Oy.

The first part of the day was about as gay as the Republican National Convention. Well, except for all the closeted politicians. The highlight of the morning was watching Josh Bernstein, hottie host of Into the Known with Josh Bernstein. The rest was Discovery Channel/Animal Planet/ESPN and apparently out gay men just aren't interested in adventure, animals or sports. Yeah, right. 

I was really looking forward to attending HBO's panel with Ricky Gervais, but that happened to overlap with my interview with the stars of Little Britain and Little Britain USA, David Walliams and the out Matt Lucas. Oh, well. I can't have everything.

I'll have the whole interview with Matt and David a little later, but I did get some scoop about Paul Rudd I'll share. First, Matt and David swear Paul is the coolest guy ever and a joy to work with. Matt also thinks he's dreamy and who can disagree with that?

Anyway, in LBU Paul plays the president of France. For those who know the original LB, one of the show's gay characters is Sebastian, the Prime Minister's aide. Well, in LBU Sebastian has become the Prime Minister of England and has transferred his affections to an Obama-type president played by Harry Lennix. When Sebastian suspects that the US President is having an affair with the French Prime Minister, he becomes increasingly jealous despite the assurances nothing is going on between the two. Or is there?

David Walliams is a lay-dee!

I'll have the answer and other details when we post the whole interview; however, before the panel we were treated to several clips of the new show and jaw-droppingly outrageous is the term that comes to mind. Gay fans are especially likely to love gym bunnies Mark and Tom, two muscle-bound "straight" boys willing to do anything for each other -- including bikini line shaving while completely naked in a lockerroom. And did I mention the two end up in a rather gay compromising postion that will probably cause your eyes to bug out? Trust me, you won't ever see this on Saturday Night Live.

Lots more after the break!

AfterElton Briefs: Bruce Banner "too gayish" for TV, a split for "Little Britain", and more!


George Michael

In a continued effort to bring you all that is important in the world of gay entertainment and ensure that you are being spoon-fed images of gorgeous, commoditized manflesh, we present the newly-minted AfterElton Briefs. Following the usual assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.

  • Above, George Michael kicks off his "25 Live" North American tour in California, bouyed by recent high-profile appearances on Eli Stone and American Idol. It's great to have the out international star back onstage (and not in the tabs!) where he belongs.
  • Lou Ferrigno reveals that "Bruce Banner" was changed to "David" for the Hulk TV series because execs thought it sounded "too gayish", adding, "I thought it was the most absurd, ridiculous thing I've ever heard." The part about playing a big green guy with a yak's hair wig, on the other hand? Totally reasonable.
Bruno

  • Be sure to mark your calendars for May 15, 2009: Sacha Baron Cohen's gay Austrian fashionista character, Bruno, will invade American theaters with an oversized man-purse filled with gay panic jokes. 
  • According to the London Times Online, Little Britian's Matt Lucas to "divorce" his "husband," whom he "married" 18 months ago. Does anyone find that a bit "condescending?"

And today's Briefs are brought to you by...

Why are they arresting that laydee? Our first glimpse of HBO's Little Britain

I was rather late to get on the Little Britian love train. It took a few tries for me to learn to laugh at the likes of Vicky Pollard and Andy Pipkin (eventually Carol Beers won me over) but once I did I became a full-on Little Britain fan... and one quite eager to see the HBO version, which looks like it'll feature many of the popilar Little Britian characters making people miserable in the United States.

And now, UK paper The Mail on Sunday has the first pictures from the new series. It looks like we'll be seeing the style-challenged cross-dresser Emily Howard (played hilariously by David Walliams) facing arrest for shoplifting:

And who's that officer manhandling Emily?

It's the gay half of the Little Britain duo, Matt Lucas! (Ouch, did The Mail make a fat joke there? They shouldn't try comedy.)

In addition to Emily Howard, we can expect to see Dafydd Thomas -- who'll go to great lengths to maintain his ability to whine about being "the only gay in the village", Sebastian Love -- the flamboyant assistant who blatantly chased after a Prime Minister played by Anthony Stewart Head and will probably be flirting madly with the President and, of course, Vicky Pollard causing trouble in the states. There's also news of a couple new American characters -- Lucas will be playing an American schoolgirl, Ellie Grace and Walliams will play a dog trainer:

After the break, check out a very NSFW clip of Dafydd that was highlighted in our look at great gay sketch comedy. I'm pretty eager to see what Dafydd's adventures in the states are like.


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