MD News Desk: Trick ünd Treat

Keep up to date with all the latest from the entertainment world with the MD News Desk:

Hands Off the Merchandise:
- Acht, lederhosen! Get your own Brüno costumefor Halloween! Also available in "Clear Vinyl" and "Pink Penis".
- Coming to a Wii near you: Project Runway, the video game.

Cinematic Crushes:
- The Robert Pattinson phenomenon is explored in the new documentary Robsessed, coming to DVDNovember 10.
- Get in line: True Blood's Stephen Moyer wants gay sex scene with Alexander Skarsgård.
- Ewan McGregor to play son to Christopher Plummer's gay dad in Beginners.


Glee:
- In what may be a first, the first half of Glee's debut season will be released on DVD while the season is still in progress. Glee, Volume One: Road to Sectionals goes on sale December 29 (click here to pre-orderfrom Amazon.com).
- A germaphobe guidance counselor's worst enemy: Jessalyn Gilsig on playing Terri Schuester.
- Watch This: Kurt/Puck slash.

Videodrone:
- Trailer Park: You'll laugh, you'll cry ... the Toy Story 3 trailer!
- Lin-Manuel Miranda goes viral for the tour of his Tony winning musical In the Heights.

Awards Watch:
- The eight documentary short subjects short-listed for the 2009 Oscars includes Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are.

Coming to TV:
- A Fantasy Island reality show and a Hawaii 5-0 remake. (Go on say it ... "Book 'em, Danno!")


Kish:
- One Life to Live diva Robin Strasser (a.k.a. the devious Dr. Dorian Lord) talks to The Advocate about her lesbian wedding storyline and her own support of GLBT rights.

In the News:
- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill to approve "Harvey Milk Day". GayPolitics.com reports that the Oscar-winning movie Milk helped.

The Latest on TV:
- George Takei and Brad Altman make game show history as the first gay couple to ever appear on The Newlywed Game. The episode airs tomorrow night on the Game Show Network.


Out in Film:
- The Los Angeles Times chats with T.R. Knight about his Grey's Anatomy exit and the "complex musical" Parade.
- Tab Hunter's "tell-all autobiography" to become a "tell-all documentary".
- Upon the release of his new cover album, Colton Ford talks about the "virtues of the flesh and the joys of song".
- Bryan Singer hints he may return to the X-Men universe.
- Here's a tease of Adam Lambert's "Time for Miracles", a.k.a. "The Love Theme from 2012".

RIP:
- Irish pop star Stephen Gately, of Boyzone fame, passed away suddenly Saturday while on vacation in Mallorca. He was only 33 years old. Here's a video of Boyzone performing "No Matter What" (from the musical version of Whistle Down the Wind) during the Andrew Lloyd Webber Celebration at Royal Albert Hall.

Potent Quotables:
- Actor Said Mohamed on his new film Colonial Gods: "I was aware of the gay content in the film but this did not bother me. I am a Muslim but I approached the project in a professional manner, as I hope most actors would."

Believe It or Not

Controversy has erupted over perceived homophobia in The X-Files: I Want to Believe, which opend last weekend to lackluster reviews and middling box office (guess there won't be an X-Files 3 ... although, apparently nobody told Chris Carter). Reportedly, the sequel contains some questionable content that, considering its spoilerish nature, I'll let AfterElton.com describe.

In response to this possibly offensive material, our resident critic Chris Carpenter (who gave I Want to Believe a favorable review) had this to say:

"I had some of the same concerns watching the film, and I'm a gay Catholic priest so I was especially sensitive about that. However, as I've thought the story through, I think its point is quite the opposite: it tries to equate the gay married couple with straight married couples in showing the (admittedly twisted) extremes that some will go to in order to keep a loved one alive. Working in hospice as I do, I see that desperation pretty regularly."

UPDATED: Frank Spotnitz, co-writer of I Want to Believe, responds to the controversy.

In the News: Way to Burst Their Bubble

Hilarious but true headline (from Broadway.com):

"Gazillion Bubble Show Robbed; 3.4 Tons of Bubble Solution Missing".

In the News: Van Doren Talks

Charles Van Doren, the man at the center of the "quiz show scandal" that was the basis of the Oscar nominated movie Quiz Show, is finally speaking out on the events that lead to his infamy.

Van Doren, who was played by Ralph Fiennes in the Robert Redford directed film, will tell "pretty much all" in an article scheduled for publication in next week's New Yorker. Watch this space for an update.

UPDATE: And here it is (the movie is addressed starting on page 7 of the piece).

In the News: Boys Do Confess

In the News is a new Movie Dearest feature that will take a look at breaking stories wherein the reel world merges with the real world.

Marvin Nissen, one of the two men convicted of murdering Brandon Teena and two other people as depicted in the Academy Award-winning movie Boys Don't Cry, has recently changed his story of what happened fourteen years ago.

Nissen (portrayed by Brendan Sexton III as "Tom" Nissen in the film) now claims that he was the lone killer in the slayings. Nissen's previous testimony stated that it was John Lotter (played by Peter Sarsgaard) who fired the fatal shots at Teena and the others. Lotter is currently on death row in Nebraska, but with this confession, he has asked for a new trial. The Advocate has the full story here.

Hilary Swank won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as Teena, whose life was also recounted in the documentary The Brandon Teena Story.

Links via Imdb.com and Advocate.com.