Sir Ian McKellen has given his blessing to the new stamps and coins that New Zealand is issuing in honor of The Hobbit. "To put Gandalf on these splendiferous coins is a wizard idea." The coins are legal tender, and feature several characters.

This article about parents wanting to help their kids come out is touching, and reminds me that 15 years ago this month I came out to my mom, who had a fairly typical reaction, but also said "I guess I've always known." Thanks, mom.

There's a push underway to locate and preserve the British episodes of Fraggle Rock in the run up to the anniversary of the show. I wasn't aware that the British episodes were different, with The Captain, his lighthouse and Sprocket substituting for Doc and his workshop. Only 12 episodes of the British version are known to have survived.

SyFy has picked up a reality show that will have contestants competing to live in a dystopian past environment or a push-button future setup.

Mormon leader Dallin Oaks says that parents of children who struggle with being gay should meet it with "loving understanding" and not bullying or ostracism. Then he goes on to say that children being raised by gay parents are being victimized. “We should assume the same disadvantages for children raised by couples of the same gender,” as for children raised by unmarried opposite-sex couples, and single parents.”

Mila Kunis has been named the Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire. It's not that I dispute that she's hot, but to me there's something vaguely creepy about it having watched her grow up on television.

Rosie O'Donnell says that she loves Honey Boo Boo and her entire family. “She has a presence and an intellect that goes way beyond her years.” Rosie says that she'd love to meet the family and "buy them a house."

Roy Moore, former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court (who was fired from the job after refusing a court order to remove the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Judicial Building) is running for office again, and running on an anti-gay platform. “Same sex marriage will be the ultimate destruction of our country because it destroys the very foundation upon which this nation is based. Divisive, I’ve been accused of being divisive I’ll tell you what’s divisive. It’s this Democratic platform.”

Taken 2 did even better at the box office than originally projected, bringing in $50.2 million. Frankenweenie underwhelmed dramatically with a mere $11 million, making me wonder how long Disney will keep backing truckloads of money up to Tim Burton's door.

Christian Newswire is trumpeting a release claiming that HIV/AIDS patients are being cured and lepers "cleansed" and that it's all certified by the Centers for Disease Control.

Congratulations to tireless equality advocate Audra McDonald on her marriage to Queen of the Dessert Will Swenson.

Would you drink beer made with bull testicles?

Soon, a Russian and an American will embark on a year-long mission to the International Space Station, the longest posting yet to the orbiting science lab. It's hoped that knowledge on long term space residency can help prepare for missions to asteroids.

A man at his bachelor party ruptured his bladder after a stripper launched herself at him from a pole as he was laying on the stage for his special night. I'm still trying to imagine how the bride reacted.

CBS is developing a television series around Bad Teacher. No word if Justin Timberlake will use this as yet another reason to not make music.

I'm not sure what's happening with Trevor Donovan, but could we have the picture from two minutes later?

I'm guessing from pictures that Gareth Thomas spent the weekend at a Con. Here he is with Freddie

And here he is with Darth Vader himself, Dave Prowse

Josh Hopkins with ally Pauley Perrette at the American Hero Dog Awards

It's fall, which means a lot of football pictures with Stephen Amell

And a great find of Matthew Mitcham in Beijing earlier this year with the ukulele we didn't then know he had

On Saturday Night Live this week, laughs were few and far between. This sketch about "Lesser Known Bond Girls" is notable for the Lea Michele appearance, which is exactly how you'd expect Rachel Berry to behave as a Bond girl.

The biggest cheers of the night were reserved for Big Bird, who made an appearance on "Weekend Update." This was obviously carefully choreographed since PBS has been very careful to not take a political position that would put them in jeopardy, but it was still pretty cute to bring out the real Big Bird.

We mentioned earlier this week that Hungry Hungry Hippos was becoming a movie, though an animated children's movie. Still, if they made the film that Film School Rejects put together, I'd be outside the theater screaming "Shut up and take my money!"

Lucas Gray, who is an animator for The Simpsons, put together Why Obama Now based around a speech that President Obama made at the Associated Press Luncheon this spring. It really brings the points to life in a way that President Obama was unable to do in the debate this week.

I admit to never having seen a single episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, but I remain fascinated by the fandom surrounding it. Griffin Lewis and Jenny Nicholson, who provide voices for the show, wrote this song for Canterlot Gardens, a Con celebrating the show, and they managed to tip their hat to everything great about a con, including adult materials created around their decidedly G-rated cartoon. I love it when creators embrace their fans like this.

This weekend was the Human Rights Campaign's National Dinner, an interminably long event I've sat through on more than one occasion. Sally Field was presented with the Ally for Equality Award, and was introduced by her son Sam Greisman (who happens to be a Towelroad intern). She's easily mom of the decade from the sound of it, and it's worth taking the 13 minutes to listen to the endearing introdution from Greisman as well as her speech, in which she drops an f-bomb to great effect.