Sir Ian McKellen (Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

Okay, all you gay boys, try not to hate me because I just finished watching Broadway star Idina Menzel perform a selection of songs including "Defying Gravity" for 100 or so of us television critics here at the TCA in Los Angeles. Okay, you can hate me a little! At least Idina's adorable hubby Taye Diggs wasn't here, so you don't have to be jealous of that. 

Aside from enjoying Menzel's talents, we had some one-on-one time with the one and only Sir Ian McKellen. Read all about it after the jump!

Carson Kressley (Photo credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

While things aren't yet where I would like them to be when it comes to gay visibility (I suspect there is at least one interview I'm not getting here at the Television Critics Association because we're a gay website), things are vastly improved from years past. What I found most encouraging was that this weekend's panels included three out gay men here to promote a wide array of projects. Best of all, their being out gay men wasn't even really of note to anyone, yet nor was it a topic everyone was afraid to bring up.

The always funny Carson Kressley was here to tout the second season of his surpise hit Lifetime hit How To Look Good Naked. Season 2 looks to be very much like Season 1, but I mean that in a good way. I genuinely like the show's emphasis on learning to look at yourself in a realistic, healthy way as opposed to trying to physically be something most of us can't be. (I spoke with one critic afterward who seemed disbelieving of the idea I actually identified with the women Carson helps until I explained I'd been pretty heavy myself until my early 20's.)

Carson was his usual funny self, getting off a series of one-liners. When he was asked if he was surprised to have this particular job, he replied:

You know, I wake up every day and think to myself, wow, I'm doing women. I never thought this was going to happen. I was a little surprised when we first talked to the producers about the show, and they were like, would you host this show "How to Look Good Naked"? And I was like, "That's easy. "A box of wine and a dimmer switch."

Carson also announced he's got a daily talk show in the works. Could we finally have our own Ellen or Rosie? While I suspect Carson would do well in this format, it's not quite the breakthrough I'd been hoping for in talk shows. Where is our David Letterman or Arsenio Hall?  

David Hyde Pierce

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

Present for a much more somber reason was stage and television star David Hyde Pierce continuing his longtime Alzheimer's activism. PBS is presenting a rebroadcast of The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimers, followed by a thirty minute panel discussion hosted by Pierce covering the most recent developments in the treatments of Alzheimers. David and I chatted afterward about our experiences with Alzheimers (the disease runs on both sides of my partner's family having killed both his mother and grandmother), same-sex marriage, and what he has coming up next. More on that to follow.

Stan Zimmerman

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

Last in the gay male department, out writer Stan Zimmerman (The Golden Girls, Roseanne, A Very Brady Sequel) has a new show on Lifetime called Rita Rocks starring MadTV alum Nicole Sullivan. During the panel, the show was described as being similar to Reba and the clip show definitly confirmed that with a slightly hipper edge thanks to Sullivan who truly shone on MadTV.

Of course, it wasn't all just gay men this weekend. In fact, it was quite a eclectic line-up including one of the last true movie stars, Shirley MacLaine.

Shirley MacLaine

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

Ms. MacLaine (it just feels wrong to call her Shirley) is starring in Coco Chanel, a Lifetime movie about the French designer. For you MacLaine fans who will only be tuning into see her, I should say that she is only in about 20% of the movie, 10% at the start and 10% at the end. During the panel and afterward, MacLaine was funny, outspoken and normally jaded critics actually seemed a little in awe.

Afterward, a group of us were chatting with the screen legend who has very definite views on politics. Asked what she watches MacLaine named off a variety of programs before someone asked which news channels she watces. Said MacLaine, "I want to see what old Bill O'Reilly is up to because he's so full of shit. Gotta see what he's doing now. ... I like Bill Moyer. I very much like that society lady's son [Anderson Cooper]. I like him. I think he's honest."

So Anderson not only made the AfterElton.com Hot 100 top ten, but now he's got Shirley MacLaine's stamp of approval.

After the jump, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Kline, and Lee Tergesen!

• Sir Ian McKellen has taken on Shakespeare's King Lear to great success. The British thespian brings the role to New York in a few weeks, but the Times catches up with him to discuss the very difficult part. And to apparently ogle McKellen while changing. Reports Alan Riding:

(After our conversation this reporter was invited to accompany him while he changed from jeans and sweater into his Lear costume to record a scene used to publicize the production’s Antipodean tour. And, at a glance, it seemed evident that he is an actor who still works out.)

• Perry Moore talks about his new gay teen novel Hero. (Check back soon for our interview with Perry!)
• Editorial cartoonist Tom Toles takes on Larry Craig and anti-gay Republicans-- brilliantly.
  

• Gays in New Jersey help revive town owned by a Methodist organization which in turn won't let them hold their Civil Unions there.
• Larry Craig isn't Idaho's first gay sex scandal.
  
• Laura Mac Donald writes about America's Toe-Tapping Menace.