Rich Uncle Pennybags was good friends with Merv Griffin

Seemingly unperturbed by our crumbling national economy, gays will continue to buy their daily Starbucks and keep their Internet porn subscriptions current, in addition to purchasing luxury items like televisions the size of small countries, according to a new study conducted by MergeMedia Group. The group surveyed 500 Judy Garland-loving gay men and lesbians online (which means at least 30 of the respondents were mentally unbalanced heterosexuals or tech-savvy prison inmates) and found that a mere five percent felt “more vulnerable to a recession” than heterosexuals.

These surveys always strike me as kind of ridiculous because gays lie the way everyone lies: frequently, and especially about money. And especially on the Internet, as almost anyone who regularly scours Gay.com and Craiglist for their M4M hookups could tell you. (How much do you want to bet that at least half of the guys who aren’t worried about their financial futures are also “straight-acting” and packing eight inches?) Still, I found this part of the “Hurray for Gays and Their Gobs and Gobs of Money” press release interesting:

Industry estimates put the total buying power of American gays and lesbians at $780 billion for 2008, and a recent report by economist Lee Badgett and the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation and the Law at UCLA says gay buying power may reach $835 billion by 2011.

And that’s not even counting the personal fortunes of Oprah Winfrey and Barry Diller. Put all of our money together and American gays are rich, filthy rich, yet our own government, which taxes us the same as they tax everyone else, still treats us like second-class citizens. Oh, well. At least we have high-definition TVs.

In happier news…

You know how sometimes when oafish actors are asked stupid questions about playing gay characters, it’s a recipe for disaster that results in defensive answers like “Do you have to be a murderer to play a murderer?” Gael Garcia Bernal has already demonstrated that he’s not one of those jackasses, having observed with some bewilderment that he’s more likely to be asked whether it’s hard to play gay than if it’s hard to play a murderer (he also vocally supported the legalization of same-sex civil unions in Mexico), and now he’s at it again, making waves in the blogosphere for referring to his gay roles as “cool” and elaborating:

“I don’t see what all the fuss is about playing gay characters. When I did Y Tu Mama Tambien, I was asked, ‘Don’t you worry about what people will say to you in the street?’ It seemed like it was such a huge deal.

“Why would it be an issue for me? I think it is a very American thing. In Mexico, no one has given me any shit for playing gay roles, for playing a transvestite, whatever. They don’t confuse the actor with the role. I mean, they don’t think Al Pacino’s a cop!”

Finally, someone equates us with a character who is on the right side of the law.


And in granola news…

Actresses Emily Deschanel, Daniela Sea and Jorja Fox (guess she wasn’t in Japan after all) want you to stop feasting on animal carcasses and go green. I suggest they band together and present some kind of eco-friendly workshop at this summer’s Michfest, because massive hilarity would almost certainly ensue.