• Were you, like we were, "Gay for Jamie" from last week's 30 Rock? Here's more on Val Emmich, who played the adorable coffee-boy that set Frank's heart aflutter. (Thanks to Popcandy for the find!)

• Russell T Davies' upcoming 40-something gay life drama series won't be up or coming for at least a few years.

• Happy birthday, Margaret Cho!

• Dennis over at Bravo's OutZone blog confirms that Project Runway's Jack and Top Chef's Dale are officially an item. I totally called this when I met the two lovebirds at the Out 100 party, but now it's network-approved! (Registry at Sur La Table and BlueFly.com to follow.)

• BestWeekEver wonders why Vanessa Hudgens wonders why her boyfriend, Zac Efron, wonders if that shirt makes him look gay. 

So on Friday night I left the house (I know, crazy, right?) in the rain to brave the crowds at the annual Out 100 party in downtown Manhattan. It was a night of elbow-rubbing, open-bar-flocking gay media craziness, and I have a few tidbits to share for those of you who missed my live Twitter from the event or couldn't read my bizarre abbreviated Jumpin' Jack Flash-esque updates. (For future reference, "Cat meows, no galoshes for baby" means "Tori Spelling's purple dress was fierce, but I could have done without the mushroom risotto.")

Highlights

• Easily the highlight of the night for me was meeting Dale Levitski, almost-Top-Chef and all-around nice guy. I asked if he thought that he was portrayed accurately on the show (which he really should have won, having brought it in spades to the final challenge), and he said it was "a ditzy version" of the real Dale that made it to broadcast. He's opening his own restaurant in Chicago and when I saw him he was canoodling with Jack Mackenroth from the upcoming season of Project Runway. I asked if there was some Bravo incest going on and he said "Well...?" but the fact that the two were holding hands when he said it pretty much answered the question. Hot! Seriously, just as sweet as I'd hoped, and all the best to him and to Jack, who has some pretty big gay reality contestant shoes to fill. Jack, also very nice, told me he's pretty happy with how he comes off in the season, which starts Wednesday. We'll have to tune in to find out!

• Mary-Louise Parker was a total goofball, which really surprised me given how stiff I've always found her to be in interviews and events. She even told a gay oral sex joke when receiving her award ... know your audience, I guess!

• Gina Gershon, likewise, was great. She looked hot, but I maintain that if you piled her hair on her head and attacked her with eyeliner she'd be a dead ringer for Amy Winehouse. For real.

• Bryan Batt gave a fun and animated acceptance speech and Paul Rudnick introduced him, which was really nice and made me feel that I wasn't 100 years old.

• Honoree Jennifer Hudson looked fantastic. I wish she would have performed (especially given who did, more on that later) but I guess she was there to be admired, not sing for her supper.

• Other sightings: Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear, Marc Jacobs, Peter Stickles from The Lair (had a nice chat with him, he heads back in February to shoot Season 2), the gay judge guy from Shear Genius, the Target dog, Michael Musto, Andy Cohen, and about 100 other stylists/designers/fashion gurus that I recognized from a host of other makeover shows, reality competitions and my own nightmares.

Lowlights

• When I got home I discovered in horror that my gift bag included a DVD of famously homophobic buddy comedy Wild Hogs. What, Cruising was out-of-stock?
  

• For some reason Mya was there to perform, and for some reason she sang "Lady Marmalade". Funny, just the other day I was saying to someone, "You know, I really wish it was 2001 again, don't you?"

• Speaking of disposable pop tarts whose popularity with the gays has me continually mystified, Kelly Rowland was there to present someone some kind of something. I of course immediately wanted to yell, "Hey, Kelly - thanks for using the word "faggot" in Freddy vs. Jason!" Yes, I can hold a grudge. Especially when she helped ruin not one, but TWO horror franchises.

On Survivor, the reunion specials offer the pleasure of seeing people who clearly loathe each other pretending (badly) that they don’t any more, as well as after-the-fact insights into the hugely misguided thinking behind their failed strategic decisions.

That’s something Top Chef can’t really replicate -- how interesting would it really be to hear reflections along the lines of “I guess in retrospect I really should have cooked that chicken all the way through” -- so the only real interest I had in watching the second reunion special this season was confirmation that it wasn’t just a horrible dream and Hung had in fact won. (Part of me was hoping we’d actually get a “do-over” challenge here, because it’s not like this show has proven itself above that kind of blatant disregard for established procedure.) Oh, and I also wanted to see if Dale is still cute. Happily, the answer is "Yes," but sadly, it’s also "Yes" to the Hung question as well.

The reunion kicks off with this very topic, as Bravo Andy (a.k.a. “Brandy”) asks if the right chef won. The only one to answer is tellingly the person who spent the least amount of time with him, Sandee, who says, Hung was “the one to beat,” apparently forgetting about the other 13 cheffersons she also wasn’t able to beat. Brandy pushes the point and directly asks if Hung should have won and is met with a show of hands. These are not, I suspect, hands raised in support of Hung but more likely requests for permission to leave the room and barf.

I was hoping that in an hour of television that managed to find time for such urgent topics as which person Gail would like to cater her wedding, Brandy would ask Hung if there’s a special someone in his life and of what gender, or at least clarify his “I can go both ways” comment from his audition tape. No such luck. Instead, Hung is given yet another chance to defend his strategy of being an a-hole. Hung blah blah blahs about not letting feelings get in the way of competition. And Dale, bless his bandana-ed heart, pipes in here that it’s also about the kind of chef you are and says he’s the type of chef who’s going to help out the person next to him, whether it’s in the restaurant kitchen or in a competition.

We’ve made it through Clay, Sandee, Micah, two Saras, and a bunch of other people I don’t really remember or care about. We’ve also made it through two wars, IQF, the Smurf Village, disasters on sea and air, dinner at the Elks, and dinner made from elks. And now, we’ve finally made it to Top Chef: Miami: Aspen, and it’s going to be coming to you (almost) live. I’m a liveblogging virgin, so please be kind. And if you can’t be kind, please be quiet.

For the occasion, I’ve lined up a festive meal for myself of an applecore amuse bouche, vanilla lobster tail, reinterpreted meatloaf, raw jerk chicken, broccolini, prosciutto cigars, black-and-blue elk, yogurt cheesy poofs, and of course everyone’s favorite -- salmon -- all stored in the fabulous, handy Glad family of products. (There you go, Glad people. I did it just like you asked, so you can go ahead and send me that check now.) And of course I’ve got my big bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin (ditto for you Bombay). I plan on drinking whenever Padma does, so who knows if I’ll even be able to type after the Quickfire. This should be, if not coherent, at least interesting.

Tonight all our Top Chef questions will be answered. Will Casey’s frog Grandmama have a Pan-Asian family recipe to help the perky Rachel-lookalike to victory? Will Chef Tom like the taste of Hung, if the Robochef starts, as directed, putting more of himself in every bite? Will Dale remember to count how many judges there are and make enough entrees? And most importantly, where is Ted and what have they done to him?

Across the blogosphere, Hung or Casey are the odds-on favorites, but here, we’ll only let ourselves celebrate if the self-proclaimed “Big Gay Chef” wins. He might not be crowned Top Chef, but here at AfterElton.com, Dale will always be Top.

Liveblogging starts after the jump a few minutes before 10PM EDT!