Aaron Yoo, Rafi Gavron, and Michael Cera work on their Playlist

There's a film coming our way next month that might be worth keeping an eye on if you're a fan of screwball comedy, New York City, indie bands or gay-inclusive ensemble movies: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (based on the novel of the same name) tells the story of one crazy night out in New York as two music fans fall in love while trying to find a super-secret show by their favorite band.

Michael Cera (Superbad, Juno) and Kat Dennings (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) play the titular couple, but the central straight romance isn't the only one in the mix.

It seems that Nick is the only straight member of an all-gay band, and his two best friends and bandmates are along for the ride. Tom (Aaron Yoo) and Dev (Rafi Gavron) get involved in their own misadventures, and I understand that Dev has his own love story with a guy named Lethario (Jonathan B. Wright).

A little background on the actors invovled...

Aaron Yoo and Shia Something-or-Other in Disturbia

Aaron Yoo might be best known for playing Shia LaBeouf's girl-crazy and rather annoying best friend in Disturbia, and will be appearing in the much-anticipated Friday the 13th remake due out in February.

Rafi Gavron and Juliette Binoche in Breaking and Entering

Rafi Gavron played Juliette Binoche's adorable thief son Miro in Breaking and Entering and appeared on a few episodes of Rome as Duro. If you're keeping track, that means he's now played characters named Miro, Duro, and Dev. Maybe there's a Devo biopic in the works he can be involved in? Actually, oddly enough, Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo did the score for Nick and Norah. Small world!

Jonathan B. Wright in the dark

Jonathan B. Wright is best known for playing gay Hanschen in Broadway's Spring Awakening, and this is his first feature film role. 

Director Peter Sollett proved in Raising Victor Vargas that he can pull great performances from young actors, and I hope he can do the same here. To check out the trailer and more for Nick and Norah, check out the incredibly elaborate official site.

****If you haven't watched last night's episode, SPOILERS follow...****

Yes, after four seasons and countless plot twists (including one pink herring) it was revealed last night that one of the show's 4,397 characters is a gay homosexual.

The Oni Press comic Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life is closer to making it onto the big screen with the news that Michael Cera is in negotiations for the title role. While it'll be interesting to see how this romantic action-comedy's manga and video game influences are adapted to the big screen, I'll definitely be watching to see how they handle Scott's relationship with his gay roommate Wallace Wells.

In the comic, Scott and Wallace share a small apartment with space for only one bed, and the two are incredibly comfortable with the situation. In fact, both joke about the situation, trading sexual innuendos without any tension. Scott doesn't worry if sleeping in the same bed as a gay man threatens his heterosexuality and Wallace doesn't pine for his heterosexual bed mate.

Wallace is Scott's snarky voice of maturity, frequently calling Scott out on his emotional wishy-washiness. Wallace isn't perfect, though, and he isn't a sexless fairy godfather who is there to make Scott a better heterosexual. In the first Scott Pilgrim volume, he steals away the friend Scott's sister brings to a club, charming the guy with the way he hilariously heckles the band from their balcony seat.

The casting of Cera brings to mind his breakout role in Superbad, where the subtly-gay Seth (played by Jonah Hill, who certainly hasn't shied away from gay roles) seemed to have romantic feelings for Cera's character, Evan, a quality which Superbad played without turning to homophobic humor.

Cera's not the only person attached to Scott Pilgrim who has handled gay-ish themes comfortably. Edgar Wright is set to direct the film. Wright, who co-wrote and directed Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, gave us wonderfully touching "bromances" that didn't need to stoop to gay-baiting humor to affirm the guys' heterosexuality.

It's been great to see depictions of straight men who aren't threatened by an affectionate and intimate friendship, but Scott Pilgrim could take things further by depicting a "bromance" between a straight and gay guy with no underlying sexual tension. I don't want to overplay the prominence of Wallace (who is definitely a supporting character) but he could make Scott Pilgrim's Little Life one for gay filmgoers to keep an eye on.

It was announced today that a comedy pilot from Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick has been greenlit by ABC. The as-yet-untitled show tells the story of two friends and writing partners - one straight, one gay - who navigate love and work with one another's help and support. We reported on a similar (but apparently unrelated) pilot that the duo had developed last year, but there aren't many details out yet about this one. (90210 vet Brian Austin Green played the gay character in the previous project, which was ordered by CBS.)

In a stroke of serendipity, AfterElton.com contributor James Hillis recently interviewed Max Mutchnick for a piece he's doing on gay television characters, and asked him a few questions about the project.

The two chatted before the strike was resolved and the pilot was ordered, but here's what Mutchnick had to say at the time:

Max Mutchnick: I'm happy to say that I have another pilot in the pipeline at Warner Bros right now that hopefully we will take out and sell to one of the networks when the strike is over, and it is another gay story. And I'm very excited about it. 

AfterElton: What would you do differently with the gay characters now almost ten years later, then you did starting out on Will & Grace?

MM: I want to be past the story.

AE: You don't want it to be about that? You don't want it to be about the gay jokes?

MM: I'll make as many gay jokes as I make in a given night. That's the barometer that I'll use. I don't want to make it the drive. ... In this show with the gay characters that are on ... I want to believe that we are past it. That the gay angle is not the hook.  The relationship is the hook. And it happens to be a gay man and a straight man who are best friends. And I want the relationship to be more interesting to people than I want the fact that one of them is gay. But by the way, I think that the thing that people were interested in with Will & Grace was that relationship also. ...

AE: Will the gay guy have as fully-developed a romantic life as the straight guy?

MM: Yes. (The gay character) is in the thick of a very serious relationship in the pilot.

We'll be all over this one, needless to say.

 
So that's how you pretend to be gay? My "have sex with men" approach is all wrong?

For the three or four of you planning on checking out the new Eva Longoria/Paul Rudd comedy Hello Again 2 Over Her Dead Body this weekend, here's a spoiler.

Ready for a bit of gay intrigue? It seems that the movie has a gay BFF character named Dan, played by Jason Biggs (of American Pie fame), who apparently turns out not to be gay after all. A few of the (abominable) reviews for the film mention that Biggs' character is gay and that he is involved in a kooky last-act twist, but it wasn't clear what that twist was until our own sleuth Dennis Ayers found this interview with Biggs, where he makes it clear that his gay character ends up not being gay at all.

We're not sure why he's pretending to be gay (probably trying to get close to a chick, a la Rock Hudson ... although that situation gets so meta it hurts my walnut-sized brain), but at least Biggs indicates that he approached the character somewhat seriously and with a certain amount of respect for the gay element:

"So I had to figure out sort of what his idea of gay was, or at least what kind of gay impersonation he wanted to do. I didn't want to go to the sort of stereotypical cliché place. I just thought that would be over the top and not credible, so in the end we decided the more subdued the better. But I was nervous and insecure about it."   

I'm having flashbacks to Snakes on a Plane's gay-then-not-gay flight attendant, but in that case he wasn't actually pretending to be gay, everyone just assumed he was. This is even more bizarre. And disappointing, given the dearth of gay characters in movies these days ... but who am I kidding, it's not like I expected anything good to come out of this movie anyway.

And given that it was nearly impossible to find a publicity still or even screengrab of Biggs' character in any of the promo materials, even this not-gay-gay character is likely relegated to near-nonexistent status (except for the scene where he apparently sets himself on fire, no doubt paving the way for at least a "flaming" joke or two. Sing for your supper, Mary!).

Dennis also found out that the movie was originally titled Ghost Bitch. Now THAT I'd pay to see! 

By now you may have seen some of the online videos that various television talents have made in support of the writers' strike. (The "Speechless Without Writers" campaign is the biggest, although a recent bit about cute animals in viral videos featuring David Cross as a scab piano-playing kitten was my favorite so far.)

The ladies over at AfterEllen.com took the opportunity to toss in some gentle suggestions of their own regarding the woeful state of lesbian and bi characters on television, asking the striking writers to start writing more gals with pals when the strike is over. Now, we may think we have it bad in terms of gay visibility on television, but we've got a cakewalk compared to the ladies. Aside from The L Word it's pretty much crickets, which has driven the AEllen ladies to dangerous extremes, including creating their own online programming.

We of course fully support this cause. Actually, we're more behind this than we are behind getting stuff like Jay Leno back on the air, but that's another discussion. To check out the plea for lesbian and bi characters and some examples of their endearingly makeshift lesbian-inclusive replacement entertainment, click on through the jump!

That's right, folks: in our continued celebration of the gayest gaynesses of entergaynment, we're running a readers' choice survey for the 25 Best Gay/Bi Television Characters of All Time. (Yes, ALL TIME. Even before there was television. That's how seriously we take this.)

It's so easy to play: all you need to do is head on over to the poll page, select up to ten of your favorite nominees (or write in your own, if we somehow missed one) and sit back and wait to become a part of gay pop culture history. You can also comment with your choices to egg on your fellow contributors or lobby for your faves. Voting is already fast and furious, so it's anyone's game right now.

To help get your noodles unspooling, here are my top ten picks...

Luke Snyder, As the World Turns
Yes, I have to place Oakdale's Alpha Gay Teen at the top of my list just for being his feisty, uncompromising, perfectly-tousled self. He can be a bit of a goody-goody, sure, but he's also got a solid head on his shoulders and he's not out to hurt anyone, which is a rarity for both soaps and for teen gay characters in general. Aided immensely by the great work of actor Van Hansis.

Enrique Ricky Vasquez, My So Called Life
I have to admit, I missed most of this series the first time around, but the one episode I caught was the Christmas episode, which ripped me apart. Ricky was a good kid in a tough spot, and he brought the plight of countless gay kids across the country into living rooms everywhere. Great show, great job by Wilson Cruz, great character.

Keith Charles, Six Feet Under
Sure, we all loved those nutty, fragile Fishers, but I was always saying, "but what about KEITH? What's KEITH doing right now?" David's droopy-dog realism was countered beautifully by Keith's at times maniacal idealism, which made for some explosive fights and some hot make-up sessions. Keith didn't settle for less, and he made us wonder if we couldn't do the same.

Here's some good news: the Venice Film Festival (one of the biggest in the world) has announced a Queer Lion award, which will be handed out to the best feature film featuring a gay or lesbian character at the fest. This is similar to the Berlin Film Festival's Teddy award.

Considering the dearth in gay characters in feature films as of late, this may (optimistically speaking) encourage filmmakers to consider including gay storylines in their films. Or if nothing else, it means Venice will be getting a great party -- the Teddy award ceremony at Berlin is pretty much the highlight of the fest, from what I've heard. Apparently it took four years of negotiating to get the award approved .. but this being Venice, I'm sure there were lots of breaks for wine and cigarettes in that time.

Noted competition director Daniel Casagrande: "We aren't looking for the next Brokeback Mountain. We are just looking for films that accurately portray gay characters or themes." The award itself will be a rainbow-fitted version of the fest's main Golden Lion prize.