Pablo Castelblanco: The OCD guy from "Happy's Place" beefcakes, plays gay, but closets his Insta. With Steve Howey and Pablo p*nis

  

Link to the n*de photos

I was running low on tv series to review, so I clicked on Happy's Place on Netflix, in spite of the annoyingly manipulative title.

Making your way through the world today takes everything you got

Taking a break from all your worries sure would mean a lot

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name...

Whoops, wrong sitcom. 

Sometimes it feels like a big ol' fight

To get through the day and sleep on through the night

You can't complain because no one's here to hear it

But here you'll surely find a place that will lift your spirits...

Happy's Place (2024-) currently airing on NBC, stars Reba McIntyre as a woman (not named Happy) who inherits a Tennessee bar from her father.  Her co-owner is a much younger half sister that she never knew about.

I watched Episode 1.7, "Ho-Ho Howey," because of guest star Steve Howey, who played Reba's son-in-law on her earlier series (Reba, 2001-07),  and has played gay characters (and shown his stuff) often in movies and on tv.

His stuff is on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

I wasn't impressed.  An old-fashioned sitcom plotline with jokes requiring your familiarity with the earlier Reba.  It reminded me of the Saturday-night shows that the old folks used to watch while we were out at the clubs.  

And only one cute guy in the regular cast. 

  

Not Tokala Black Elk as the sardonic bartender.  The n*de photo on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends must be of a different Tokala Black Elk; the guy behind the bar was grizzled, gaunt, and craggy.

The cute guy was Steve (Pablo Castelblanco, top photo), the bar's full-time  accountant, shy, awkward, germaphobic, suffering from OCD.  Could I hope that he was gay?

To explore further, I watched Episode 1.17, "The Doctor is Out": Steve has improved so much, moving from a giant bottle to a small bottle of hand sanitizer, able to handle someone else's pencil, that he gives up therapy.  But then he starts using Reba as a substitute therapist, and reverts, rearranging the spices in the kitchen.

Steve  doesn't express any heteros*xual interest in either episode, nor is a girlfriend mentioned in the Seasons 1-2 episode synopses.  Could a character in a sitcom for old people, set in Knoxville, Tennessee, starring a lady who tells us to seek out God's help for our problems, be canonically gay?  

Reba is an outspoken gay ally, so maybe...

I read two interviews, one from just last month.  Pablo Castelblanco says only that Happy's Place is the best gig he's ever had, he hopes it runs for years, and in future episodes he would like to explore Steve's "love life." 

That's a little vague, buddy.  Do you expect him to have a boyfriend or a girlfriend?  Which will the writers permit?

The articles also mention that Pablo is gay in real life.

Pablo Castelblanco, aka Pablo Esteban, grew up in Colombia, doing the usual school plays and watching Reba's earlier show.   His parents planned on him becoming an accountant, but he thought of engineering -- or acting. He studied at El Bosque University in Bogota and then the AMDA College of the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, where he appeared in Sálvese Quien Pueda, Yerma, Stage Door, Metamorphoses, and The Diary of Anna Frank.  

Pablo's first on-screen role was Tristan St. Pierre in a 2016 episode of Scream Queens: he writes lesbian fan fiction about the Chanels  (the It-Girls of the school), and is finally invited to join them, becoming the first male member.  According to the fan wiki, he is "homos*xual." 

A good start, buddy.

Then came some artsy shorts (Sedation, Admission, There's No Such Thing as a Dragon) and guest spots on some comedies (Dear White People, New Girl), and in 2022, a starring role on Alaska Daily: Hilary Swank plays a journalist seeking a "fresh start" in Anchorage after a career crash. She ends up investigating the murders of several Native women.  Philip Lewitski (left) played her photographer colleague Miles.

Pablo played another reporter, Gabriel Martin, aka Gabriel Tovar,  The show is no longer available on Hulu, and he's not mentioned in the plot synopses, so I can't tell if he is gay or not. 

More after the break

Gemstones Episode 4.7: Kelvin and Pontius have their nards threatened, Teenjus meets the Devil, and Jordanians show their junk

  

Link to the n*de photos.

Title: "For jealousy is the rage of a man," Proverbs 6:34, KJV.  

The full verse, NIV: "For jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.  Husband? I think we're going for Cobb as the Big Bad.

Left and below: Michael Sayfou, who plays Ash, Pontius' friend (and Abraham's boyfriend in my fan fiction).

The plotlines in this episode are not thematically linked, so I'll separate them by character.

Cobb's Story

We open with the gaping mouth of an alligator!  Various hooks, tools, skins, and Lori's ex-husband Cobb practicing boxing on a mannequin labeled "Feel the Pain."  

Lori drives up and yells "Nope!  We're not doing this again!"  She yells at him for trying to scare off every man she gets involved with.  She's probably referring to the brick through the her window and the car set on fire, but you never know.

He tries flirting with her - "You can't stay away.  Must be my animal magnetism."  But she says next time she's calling the cops. Next time?  I'd be calling the moment it happened.

Later, Cobb puts on a show at the Gator Farm. He rings a bell to signal "dinner time" to his favorite gator, the huge, ornery Big Gus.  "Gators are territorial.  Invade their territory, they'll bite you."  Uh-oh, Eli is in the audience!  The connection to Eli and Lori is too easy.  It must be a misdirection.

Cut to Cobb bagging up a toy alligator in the gift shop.  Shouldn't he have someone working during the show?   Eli approaches and explains that Lori is with him now, so "no more trouble." 

Cobb lays into him, noting that Lori has been with a lot of men since the divorce, and she was doing "sick, nasty stuff" up in Pigeon Forge.  He hands Eli a newspaper ad for her escort service: "Adult companionship -- wealthy men.  Call, click, connect.  First half hour free."

Ok, this has to be fake.  Prostitution is illegal in the U.S., so she couldn't advertise openly.  Escorts usually work from a standard client list.  You would neveer specify "wealthy men."  And what does "first half hour free" mean?  You charge by the act, not by the hour.

Cut to lunch. Eli asks Lori about the escort business ad. She claims that it's fake: "Cobb made up those ads to try to smear me."  There's not much call for 65-year old hookers in Pigeon Forge.

Eli also ran a credit check.  "You're broke.  You declared bankruptcy last year."

This makes Lori angry.  Accusing her of being a "who re," and then of being a gold-digger!  "Aimee-Leigh used to tell me how much you care about money.  I thought she was exaggerating."  She throws some money on the table to pay for her lunch and walks out. 

Kelvin's Story

Keefe arrives at Kelvin's treehouse, but the rope ladders and platforms have been pulled up, so he can't get in. 

Kelvin: "This is what cowards do.  They hide in their forts."  In what way was the round table debacle cowardice?  

Keefe points out that everyone at Prism is worried about him, but Kelvin doesn't believe it: "They're not concerned.  They just realized that I am a failure."

Tonight is the final event in the Top Christ Following Man promotion: the Night of Testimonies. "Nope, not going.  Now go away."

Cut to Keefe morosely turning off the lights at the Prism Prayer Room and puting a sign up: "No Prism today.  Maybe tomorrow or maybe another day or something."

The Monkey's Story 

In the kitchen, the Monkey feeds BJ pretzels, gets him some water, and kisses him on the lips -- five or six times, yuck! -- while Judy fumes.   

Later, she is in her bathroom, primping in front of the mirror, when the Monkey starts flinging its treats at her.  Then it jimps onto her vanity and throws her makeup onto the floor.  She rushes out into the dining room to tell BJ what's happening -- he's cleaning the Monkey's butt.  Gross!  

BJ says that it's not a competition.  He loves both Judy and the Monkey.

Then he brings up Kelvin's round-table debacle: "Poor guy.  Vance Simkins is a self-righteous bigot and a homophobe."  Judy is angry with Kelvin due to his insults earlier, so she refuses the Monkey's suggestion that she visit and talk to him.

Vance's Story

At the Cape and Pistol Society, Vance gloats: "Getting rid of Kelvin gives me a clear path to victory (in the Top Christian Man Contest).  He was the only real competition."  Plus, he enjoys hurting Kelvin, because it hurts Jesse. 

But Jesse counters that he hates Kelvin due to his insults from earlier, so "it doesn't hurt me at all.  It strengthens me."

Vance continues, evoking the Night of Testimonies: "I'm going to ruthlessly dismantle Kelvin tonight."  The ensuing conversation is censored.  It's on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

Gideon's Story

At the back entrance to the Salvation Center, Pontius and his friends, including Ash (Michael Sayfou) and Edge (Alexander Matoussian), are skateboarding and getting high on air duster spray. 

Jesse, Amber, and the kids arrive.  Jesse yells at him for disrespecting a sacred place, and Gideon agrees.  

Pontius: "What happened to you, man?  You used to be cool.  Now you're just like them -- a sellout."  

The conversation that follows is censored.  

He and his friends walk away jeering.  Jesse: "I hate Pontius so much!"

Cut to another of Gideon's inept Prayer Time powerpoint presentations, this one on "The Lord's Divine Power."   It looks like he proved that God exists and is eternal, and that Jesus made an expiatory sacrifice -- all in 40 minutes?  And the takeaway from all that complicated theology: "Love one another." 

He concludes: "You can stay or you can go, but it's over."  Agreed.

Afterwards Amber praises the clarity of his speaking voice, but Jesse found the sermon boring.  Too much crammed in.  Make it simple.

Next Amber asks about his feud with Pontius.  "I don't know.  I tried being nice to him for a long time, but now I sort of keep my distance."  Try "love one another"?

"You need to work it out."

'But he says the most awful things to me."

"That's the problem with siblings,"  Jesse says.  "hey know your weaknesses, and can f*ck you right in the a-hole with them."  It wouldn't be the first thing that's been in Gideon's a-hole.  Seriously, why has this guy never expressed any interest in men or women since Season 1.  

Amber suggests that Jesse reconcile with his brother Kelvin, to be a role model for Gideon and Pontius.

Cut to the freeway underpass where Pontius and his friends are skating to the song  "Suck my d*ck.  Suck my mf*ing d*ck."  Do you mean that literally, dudes?

Gideon appears and invites them to church. But you lead Prayer Time, not the church service.

 "Go back to Sunday school and start doing stuff with your Daddy."  Sure, no problem.  Tell Jesse I'm free around 10:00.

Gideon tears up his notecards, takes a skateboard, steals a dude's sunglasses, and does some harsh shredding, proving himself a bad dude.  Pontius and the guys are shocked, and hug him.  Dudes, don't you remember the blackmail schme with Scotty?  The Cycle Ninjas?  Smashing the militia compound? Gideon has always been a bad dude.

They all  hug him and say "Sick!"  This is why Gideon was terrible at preaching: he was trying to be a "good Christian boy."  In every season, he is torn between Charleston and California, the life his family wants for him and the life he wants for himself.  I can relate, having grown up with a constant litany of "job, house, wife, kids."   Like Kelvin, he has now found a way to meet family expectations while being true to himself.

Reconciled, Gideon and Pontius hug.

Jordanian junk after the break

Aaron Collict: "N*ked Attraction" contestant, modelwith a degree in math, Albanian teen, Afghan daddy, caveman with a d*ck.

  

Link to the n*de photos

One of my first beefcake images was in a kids' book about the Stone Age: the Lake Dwellers of neolithic Switzerland, around 3000 BC, n*ked as they hauled in their nets. 

I've read a lot about prehistory since, and visited some Neolithic sites, so I don't have much patience for the portrayal of the wacky caveman Robin in the British Ghosts.  He says he lived around the time of Stonehenge, 3000-2500 BCE, the Neolitic Era, with permanent villages and domesticated plants and animals.  But he acts like a nomadic hunter-gatherer of the Mesolithic Era.   

But in this case I'll excuse the reverse anachronism. In Episode 4.5, Robin flashes back to the day of his death.  He and two companions were attacked by a bear; he climbed a tree to escape, but was hit by lightning.

 Check out the chest of the caveman in the foreground.  Massive, and accentuated by the costume design. 

 He's worth a bit of research

Robin has two caveman companions in this episode. 

Dan King has only one acting credit, no photos, and a very common name.  There are many actor Dan Kings out there, as well as several p*rn stars.  A dead end.  So I'm going to go with Aaron Collict.

Aaron Collict has the chest for the job, but research is made difficult by his lack of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok pages.  At least he has several resumes posted online.  And a lot of n*de photos.

He's a model, actor, and personal trainer, with the tagline: "H*ng human being with a passion for endorphins."  Sorry, I meant "hungry."

He received a B.Sci. in Mathematics from the University of East Anglia in 2007, and has worked as an operations manager and film producer.  Currently he is a salesperson for Steady Solar, a solar-power company.

After modeling and doing commercials for Slater's Menswear, Hot Tub Barn, Oriel Mobile Valeting, and The Cutting Room, Aaron moved into tv with two reality programs:

More after the break. Caution: Explicit.

Topper Guild: The youtube star breaks into tv. With Kaido Roberts, muscle men, Nick d*ck, and Topper doing stuff.

 This post was completely innocent, but it got one of those idiotic "sensitive content" tags for no reason.  So I added some n*de photos and s*xual content, and moved the whole thing to RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

Link to the "sensitive content."

Daniel DiMaggio: The queerbaiting son on "American Houswife" grows up to play Count Chocula and post selfies

 

Link to the NSFW version

You may be familiar with Daniel DiMaggio, no relation to Joe DiMaggio, as Oliver Otto on American Housewife (2016-21).  I never heard of it, but I wouldn't have watched anyway.  Who wants to watch a sicom about June Cleaver or Donna Reed?  

It starred Katy Mixon as Katie Otto, a housewife who, although not pretentious herself, is immersed in the ultra-pretentious world of ladies who lunch in Westport, Connecticut, along with her husband (Diedrich Bader), two daughters, and son Oliver (Daniel). 

She has a lesbian best friend, and there's a gay character (Jake Choi) in Season 5, so there's a bit of representation.  The main problem fans had was queerbaiting Oliver.  

He is presented as gay, with everything from pictures of muscular men on his bedroom wall to an interest in ballet to a boyfriend, the wealthy, femme Cooper (Logan Bell).  Everyone thinks they are boyfriends, including Cooper, who is upset every time Oliver claims that they are not dating.  But then he backs off and gets a girlfriend.  

Logan Bell (the femme one) is gay in real life, and states that he played Cooper as gay.  So why five seasons of "crumbs" that led nowhere?  Fans were irate when the showrunners were too cowardly to let Oliver come out.

Daniel already has two strikes against him (baseball metaphor, har har) for five years of queerbaiting.  Let's check on his other projects.

He was born in 2003 in Los Angeles, and began acting at age nine in the short Geisho (2010): a man (Horatio Sanz) wants to become the world's first male geisha.  Kind of gender-fluid.

Next, a 2013 episode of Burn Notice, which, I discovered today, is not about a hospital burn unit, in spite of the misleading title.  It's about a spy who was "burned" (fired). How the heck are potential viewers supposed to know that?   Daniel plays the young version of focus character Michael (Jeffrey Donovan). 

More after the break

Pizza Movie: A surreal update of the teen nerd genre, with no heterosexism or homophobia, lots of backsides, and Daniel Radcliffe as a butterfly

  

Link to the n*de dudes

Pizza Movie (2026), on Hulu, stars Sean Giambrone of The Goldbergs and Gaten Matarazzo of Stranger Things as college boys who accidentally get stoned on a weird drug.  I haven't seen a teen nerd movie for awhile; I wonder if they're still about the nerd winning the Girl of His Dreams with the help of his flamboyantly feminine best friend, while everyone throws homophobic slurs about.  It appears on a list of "The Top LGBTQ Movies to Watch This Spring," so maybe not. 

Scene 1: Room check in a college dorm.  A student stashes her drugs in a tin in the ceiling tiles. 

 Ten years later,  Montgomery (Sean) is frantically running across campus with a laundry basket.  He reaches the laundromat just in time to take all the quarters in the change machine.  When the Girl of His Dreams (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) arrives, he's  reading a book on How to Lower Your Testosterone, so he can impress her with his studliness when she asks for quarters.  Or you could just say hello.

"We're always here at the same time," she notes.  

"Well, nobody has dirtier underwear than me.  But not from poop...or pee, or c*m.  I'm not weird."  I'm just wondering what else could soil your underwear.

Scene 2: Montage of two guys chugging beer (outside, in the daytime); a girl thinking that a guy is sketchng her, but he's actuallly sketchng himself; and Jack (Gaten) being chased and bullied because he ruined the football team.  He tries to apologize, but they tape him to the clock tower and pelt him with water balloons full of pee (his suggestion).

Scene 3: The guys return to their dorm. Montgomery wants to "drown their sorrows" in a good night's sleep, while Jack wants to get drunk.  They're a superego/id  pair, got it.  I'm going to keep calling them Sean and Gaten, to make identification easier.

The housing requests for next year are due tonight.  They can choose from Orrick Tower, Stonewell Courts, or..ugh...the scary, crumbling Gralk Hall. 

Suddenly Sean is distracted by the Girl of His Dreams. "Just ask her out!" Gaten exclaims, no doubt for the 300th time.

"No way!  Hot girls only date Alpha guys, so I can't ask her out until I trick her into thinking that I'm an ALpha."  I'll bet she really likes the quiet, shy geeky types.

"But you don't know her.  How do you know that you have compatible interests?"

"Who cares?  She makes me feel like I'm floating on a cloud of lavender, being sung to by lollipop pixies."   Ugh.

Up to their room.  No posters of nekkid ladies.  They're just getting ready to drink, when  six bullies burst in, three girls and three guys, including Kevin Matthew Reyes (left).   "What's up, dildos?", the leader, Logan, announces.  A creative slur.  Not homophobic, which is a good sign.  

They come in every week to hold the guys down and fart in their faces in retaliation for the football incident.  In the struggle the drug tin from the ceiling falls down.

While sitting on the guys' faces waiting to fart, they discuss the "pajama party tonight."  They have beer and weed, and Lizzy (Lulu Wilson) is bringing Wizard's Oath, a Dungeon's and Dragons-style board game.  The others dismiss this idea.

As they leave, Lizzy looks back, sympathetic. 

 

I like the way that the guys have no problem with physical contact, even with Gaten's face two inches from Sean's privates, a welcome relief from the usual: "We accidentally touched hands!!!!  I'm going to be sick!!!!!"

Scene 4: The guys discuss how they are failures at college.  They should be popular, going to keggers and pajama parties, but everybody hates them.  Sean tries to make things better by ordering a pizza.  

Suddenly Gaten sees the tin that fell from the ceiling: it says "Mints," with a green, toothy smile.  Inside, tablets with a starburst image.  An internet search gets one hit, a youtube video with a "psychedelic adventurer" tell us about Mind Igniting Neural Tuning Stimulants (MINTS, get it?).  Sean is hesitant, but then she uses his "cloud of lavender" fantasy, and he's in.

Scene 5: The evil Head RA (Jack Martin) tells his subordinates about the "debauchery" infesting their school.  Is this RAs for the whole campus?  There are like 30 of them, all wearing black berets.

Meanwhile, in the dorm room, the bullies discuss how much the guys blow. Hey, the men and women aren't sitting together.  They are not romantic partners.  Sympathetic Lizzy tries to defend them, and is un-invited to the pajama party-- until she offers to provide a party bus. Then she rules.

There are too many plot twists to continue the scene by scene.  Here's the gist:

Turns out that Lizzy used to be the guys' friend.  They played Wizard's Oath every day at lunch.   Then she joined the cool kids and dropped them.  But she took the drug, thinking that it was a mint, now they're in it together.

Everyone hates Gaten because as team mascot, he was leading the football team on their traditional naked run, and decided to prank a professor that he hated.  They chased the guy out of the stadium and onto the street. past the police department on a "bring your daughter to work day."  They all had to register as s*x offenders. Wait -- why didn't the guys just stop at the stadium exit?

More after the break

Gemstones Episode 4.6: Kelvin screams, Corey lies, and Cobb get his cobb bit off. With Jace Norman and Mongolian dudes

 

Link to the n*de dudes

Title: "Interlude IV."  The Interlude is usually Episode 5, but this season started with a stand-alone, so it's Episode 6.  We're halfway through the action in the present day, with Kelvin's meltdown, Judy's jealousy over the monkey, and Eli and Lori dealing with violence.

The New Parking Lot: 2002.  Eli is standing before the County Zoning Board, discussing his plan to build a 10-acre parking lot at the Salvation Center, which would involve buying and demolishing neighboring houses.   He claims that it will  bring thousands of people to town, who will spend money, so it's a "win-win" situation.  Aimee-Leigh points out that they're also bringing in jobs.  The townsfolk growl and complain.  So am I.  Zoning restrictions?  How boring can you get? 

 The council president yells: "You may be able to buy out desperate people, Dr. Gemstone, but that doesn't make it right!"   She notes that the county board usually rubber-stamps their crazy plans, but not this time: "The crowd of people behind you is voiceless, and someone has to be their voice!"  

The plan is rejected, and the couple leaves in defeat. Aimee-Leigh wonders why they're even doing this ministry stuff.

Eli: "For the lake house."  That is, for the money. Um...serving God?  Spreading the Gospel? Helping people?

They walk out into a huge demonstration.  Someone shoves pies in their faces.

Writers: This sequence has no connection to the plot.  In Season 3, the Y2K scandal caused Peter's meltdown and enmity toward the Gemstones, but Cobb's enmity has nothing to do with the new parking lot.

Corey Defends Daddy: At the lake house, Lori's husband Cobb (Michael Rooker) is trying to water-ski, but Eli drives too fast, and he capsizes. His manhood challenged, he splutters and swears. 

Meanwhile, on a raft-slide, Young Judy and Jesse laugh at Cobb, which upsets his son, Young Corey.

Young Kelvin defends him, pointing out that at least Cobb is trying, whereas Jesse spends all his time "being bad, doing bedroon stuff."  This has resulted in Amber getting pregnant.  The enraged Jesse tries to attack, but Corey stops him.

A New Album: While Lori and Aimee-Leigh watch their husband in the water, posturing to see who will become the Silverback, they advise the very pregnant Amber that she should go inside and take a nap.  She refuses, so they discuss how much they dislike their kids until Amber gets tired of it and leaves.

Then they discuss recording a new album; they haven't recorded together in years, so it will be nostalgic.

Cut to the studio, where they are making up song lyrics while Judy listens.  Kelvin eavesdrops from outside the door.  Notice that his t-shirt says The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius,  reflecting his belief that he is a "boy genius."  The tv show premiered on July 20, 2002, so this must be a few months later, maybe in September 2002.

Kelvin Sneaks Teen Idols:  Seeing that Judy is occupied, Kelvin sneaks into her room, says "Hello" to a photo of Hayden Christiansen (Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones, which premiered in May 2002),, and retrieves a box from under the bed.  He draws out a Tiger Beat magazine with Ricky Martin (below) on the cover. "Wow!" Kelvin is afraid to let anyone know about his interest in teen idols, although he had no problem with a muscle magazine cover taped to his bedroom wall in 1993. 

He exclaims "Oh, my God!" at photos of Ryan Gosling, Brendan Fraser, Hayden Christiansen, and Josh Hartnet, and then stops at the Gossip Page.  This is important, as an interest in gossip makes Kelvin a real-life jerk.

Next  he finds Judy's diary, with an entry on a crush on her economics professor, Dr. Carmichael (in Season 1, she admits to assaulting him, then kidnapping his son).

Suddenly Judy is in the room!  She chases Kelvin out of the house and to his treehouse (much closer than it was in an earlier episode).  He pulls up the ladder -- safe! -- gives her the finger as she storms off, frustrated. You're in the wrong, Kelv Baby -- that's your sister's property.

Recording:  Aimee-Leigh and Lori recording the song that Lori will sing at the telethon in 2024:

I feel so lonely, all on my own/ Running from the darkness, since you've been gone.

They take a break, and Lori reveals that things with her husband Cobb are bad.  The marriage is over.  

Cobb's Pecker:  At dinner, Corey is telling about the time a gator took a piece of his Dad's pecker off, and all he said was "Boy, go get me a napkin."  Lori claims that it was an improvement, because it doesn't work anymore.  In earlier seasons, there were frequent symbolic castrations.  This is the first for Season 4.

Husband Cobb arrives, drunk, and orders Lori to come home.  She points out that she's busy working on an album, but he doesn't care.  He tries to pull her into the truck, but Eli intervenes and punches him. 

"Ok, then, don't come home ever!"

Corey says he's going to drive his dad home, but he'll right back.  Wait -- if the Milsaps live close by, why haven't they been visiting all along?

That night, Jesse, Amber, and Judy overhear their parents discussing what they are going to do about Lori and Cobb. Jesse (J. Gaven Wilde) in his underwear displays an impressive dong. 

A day or two later, Eli arrives at the Milsap Gator Farm to ask how he can help.  Cobb: "Your wife is making it easy for her to act like me and her's life together don't even exist."  He notes that he's rich, but not into fancy things, and Lori likes fancy.

"Would you like to pray?"  

"No, I'd rather jump into the water with them gators. I don't ever want to see your face again."

Another song: Lori and Aimee-Leigh recording: 

I was lost in a dream, floating away.
 I'm lucky to sing with you.  
When we're older, I guess, we'll say
These were the best of times in our lives. 

The best times of my life were in West Hollywood:  Saturday night Mama's Family, Golden Girls, cruising at Mugi, then, if I didn't meet anyone, stopping at the all night comic book store; the gym that was half gay men, half B-list celebrities; Sunday service at the Metropolitan Community Church on Fairfax; the beer bust at the Fault Line, then tangerine chicken; buying every new gay book that came out at the Different Light; Hamburger Habit, the Greenery, Mickey's, the Unicorn....

Isn't that what The Righteous Gemstones is about?  How our lives today are affected by the memories of the past?

Cobb's Gator Farm: Close-up of alligaators and scary snakes, then the gift shop (Cobb sells "Gemstone necklaces," har har).  

Corey (Sean Ryan Fox, in bed with his Henry Danger co-star Jace Norman) is helping close up for the evening.  Daddy Cobb asks if he wants to stay for dinner -- he could cook some hot dogs --  but Corey has to go to the mansion and hang out with the Gemstone kids while the parents are out.

Mansion or hot dogs?  Gee, what a difficult decision.

"That rich bitch Aimee-Leigh done poisoned your mama's brain!" Cobb sneers.

"It's ok -- I won't even be with her, just with the kids."  He begs his Sad Dad to not force him to choose between his parents.

Cut to the Eli, Aimee-Leigh, and Lori getting ready to go out for the evening, while the kids are playing Monopoly. Presumably they've already had dinner.  Jesse is in charge.  "Just promise that you won't burn the house down."

Wait -- Corey is 26 or 27 years old, well into adulthood.  Shouldn't he be in charge?

More after the break. 

The Testament of Ann Lee: The origin of the Shakers, with a female Christ, energetic dancing, gay guys, and a lot of n*de men

Link to the n*de men

In high school I read Escape to Utopia by Everett Webber, about Icaria, New Harmony, and the many other attempts to create a perfect society that sprang up in 19th century America. They were usually founded by a reincarnated Jesus Christ, or God himself (or herself).  Most were communal, s*xually adventurous, and, at least according to Webber, wacky.

The Koreshans believed that "we live inside," on the concave surface of the cosmic egg, even after the Messiah Cyrus Teed failed to come back to life three days after his passing.

Thomas Lake Harris and the Brotherhood of the New Life worshipped Lady Pink Ears, queen of the rabbit fairies.

The Shakers practiced a radical separation of the men and women (they could never touch each other) and regulated everything (climb out of bed on the left side, with your right foot hitting the floor first).  Their energetic dance-worship drew the attention of many ghosts, iincluding Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who chatted with them and recited poetry.

Could we go back to the "never touch a woman" rule?  

I read more about the Shakers later, and visited one of the restored Shaker Villages, Sabbathday Lake in Maine.  And last night I saw The Testament of Ann Lee (2025), a sort of musical biopic about the founder of the Shakers.

Yes, it has gay interest.

Ann Lee was born in Manchester, England in 1735, and went to work in the cotton factory when she was five years old.  She had seven siblings, but she was only close to her younger brother William, who followed her everywhere.

She longed to be close to God, but didn't know how.  The rituals in the Anglican Church were meaningless.  Women were not permitted to learn to read, so she couldn't consult the Bible.  All she knew was that a barrier of some sort kept her broken, unable to experience Divine Love.

One night Ann saw her father (Willem van der Vegt) engaging in marital relations with her mother.Points for showing all of Dad's body and none of the wife's..   

 It was a sordid, bestial act; she imagined the Serpent tempting Adam in the Garden of Eden.  The next morning, when Ann called him out on his sin, he beat her.  

Years passed, and  the young adult Ann took a job as a cook in an infirmary, where she was overwhelmed by human suffering.  But she also heard about the Shaking Quakers or Shakers, a radical group that believed that God was male and female, so men and women had equal access to the Divine. 

One night she and her brother William attended a meeting.  The Shakers trembled uncontrollably as they confessed their sins to the group, and then as they were overwhelmed by the joy of God's forgiveness.  They also performed energetic, intricately-choreographed dances.  I imagine that these were not historically accurate, but they are worth the admission price.

Ann and William had found a home.

  

 She married a fellow Shaker, the blacksmith Abraham (Christopher Abbott, top photo), but was disgusted when he insisted on performing the same sordid, bestial act that she saw her father performing years ago.  

One of his apprentices loaned him a book about b*ndage and s*x games.  Maybe adding pain to the act would make it a sort of penance and ease her disgust?  But she didn't enjoy the n*de spanking.  

Ann bore four children, but they all passed away in infancy.  This proved that the act could never be holy.  

More after the break

One beefcake photo of Michael J. Fox and nine of other guys

Other than "that character can't be gay! He said hello to a girl in Scene 12!", the most common complaint I get is "that photo isn't of the obscure actor you're writing about!"

I don't understand the problem. Beefcake is beefcake.  Why is it essential that a review or profile  be illustrated by pictures of the exact guy?  Especially if it's his c*ck, so you have practically no chance of seeing it in real life.  Or if the guy is so obscure that not one person in a hundred will be able to tell the difference.   

It's not intentional.  It's just that it's hard to recognize an actor after seeing him in just one movie or one episode of a tv show.  There are usually a hundred other people with similar features.  Plus he might look completely different over time.  And searches on Google Images are famously inaccurate.

For instance, take Michael J. Fox, the famous star of Family Ties, Back to the Future, Teen Wolf, Spin City, and so on, the first celebrity I met  when I moved to West  Hollywood.  I'm going to pretend that I I've only seen him in Back to the Future, and google "Michael J. Fox" and "n*de." Here's who pops up:

1. Robbie Benson, a teen idol of the 1980s. I had the same poster hanging on my bedroom wall. 

2. Charlie Sheen in Full Metal Jacket. 

Correction: a reader informs me that this is his father, Martin Sheen, in Apocalypse Now.  

How the heck am I supposed to know that Charlie Sheen's dad was also an actor, looked exactly like him, and also appeared in a war movie?  I don't even watch war movies.

3. No idea.  Google AI says that this is Charlie Sheen and Chad Lowe promoting Silence of the Heart (1984).  I don't think so.

4. I think he was in one of those Friday-night TGIF sitcoms, Full House or Raising Dad or something.  Maybe it appeared close to Michael's Family Ties sereis?

More after the break

Nathaniel Bacon: Canadian muscleman plays classic gay characters, but is he gay in real life? With three d*ck shots, Christmas, and Charlie Brown

Link to the n*de photos

My "Profiles to Do" collection has a folder entitled "Nathaniel Bacon," compiled on December 25th of last year: a day that I generally devote to celebrating the end of the dark melancholic Holiday Season and those depressing holiday songs, especially Judy Garland's "Haaaaaave yooourself..."

Nathaniel Bacon must have been special to warrant starting a folder on that auspicious day, but it contains only six photos: three n*de, two muscle, and one indicating that he's a fan of The Golden Girls (and Friday the 13th).

I'll check his Instagram for more photos before committing to a profile.

And maybe some that I can post on this G-rated, censor-happy site.

Not much luck in that department: Nathaniel is wearing underwear that displays everything in almost all of his Instagram photos.  Maybe he can't help it.  Even extra-large is too small for him.

I found one where he's displaying his backside instead of his front.  Does that count?

Finally, a G-rate photo.  He's with a lady, but that can't be helped.  When he's not showing his stuff, he's hugging, frolicking with, or dining with a lady (or two or three). I'm going to peg Bacon Boy as straight.  

His tagline tells us that he's a tv/stage/film actor and singer, Broadway World Toronto Award Winner, and ACTRA Award Nominee, so let's check out his plays.  Maybe some have gay content.

Cabaret: A muscle guy.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Rocky, of course.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch: um...he played Hedwig? 

Fade to Black:  The "young, gay fan" of a movie legend.

Wait....

Mike and Aaron Write a Musical:  Mike, in an "enchanting gay love story."

That's a lot of gay content, Bacon Boy.  Are you sure that you're straight?  Maybe you're hugging, dining with, and cuddling in hot tubs with platonic pals, or your sister? 

Nathaniel's on screen work after the break.

Arturo Castro: The gay Guatemalan roommate and gay-subtext gangster, with the c*ck that got censored.

  

Link to the d*ck pics

When I posted a d*ck pic of gay-subtext gangster Arturo Castro on my review of Mike + Nick, it got a "sensitive warning" exclamation point that wouldn't go away.  Wait -- isn't every post on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends sensitive? .  

So I'm going to try again, and put the post so far down that I won't see the exclamation point.

Guatemalan actor Arturo Castro is best known for Broad City (2014-19), the New York gal-pal sitcom.  He plays Jaime Castro, Ilana's pocket-gay roommate, in 25 episodes.  Most of his centrics involve being fashion conscious and shy, but eventually he begins dating Johnny (Guillermo Diaz, right).

There's a c*ck pic of Guillermo Diaz on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

Arturo has 95 other acting credits listed on the IMDB, but I don't recognize any except Narcos (2015-17), a biography of drug lord Pablo Escobar, and The Menu (2022), about a chef whose posh creations involve the deaths of his dinner guests. As far as I can tell, none of his other characters are gay

Although he does show his physique in a 2019 episode of Room 104, the anthology series featuring paranormal problems bedeviling guests who stay in that room.  Craig (Arturo) suffers from a debilitating skin condition that gets worse and worse, no matter what he tries.

Shaving his stuff doesn't help.

But he never gives up hope, which is why he continues smiling even as his body falls apart.

We see his backside, too.

Nice.  Too bad you're not into bottom stuff.  With guys, anyhow.

More after the break, including the c*ck that got me censored.