"Loser Day" Jock River Mardesic tears up the Melbourne stage, stars in artsy shorts, buddies up to Knox GIbson. Just don't ask if he's gay.

Link to the n*de photos

The upcoming A Day for Losers stars Dakota Lotus as a military school cadet who can only win the Girl of His Dreams by throwing an epic party.  To do this, he must avoid the bullyin jocks and befriend all of the outcasts and losers. Wait -- the outcasts and losers are invited to the epic party? 

It sounds super retro, with all of that stupid Girl of His Dreams rhetoric, but it also stars Jacob Sartorius and Benji Kroll (left), who is gay in real life, so there might be some LGBT representation.  

Checking through the male cast members for beefcake or gay content, I came across River Mardesic, who plays a "High School Jock."  

Unusual name (it's Croatian), no photo, only a few acting credits, but a full Instagram, with some beefcake photos.  I'm going in for a closer look.  The IMDB is incomplete, so I'll check his Instagram in backwards chronological order.

In 2025, he flies from Australia to the U.S. to appear in A Day for Losers.

 

And he starred in Home Alone: The Australian Musical, "an immersive parody of the classic film with an Australian twist." Jasper McDonald Parsons (center) plays a teenage Kevin, accidentally left home alone when his family flies off to Port Arthur for a Christmas holiday.  

Older brother Buzz (River, next to him) is "an eshay looking for love.  It's a youth subculture given to toxic masculinity and pig Latin, but apparently he gets into a relationship with Gus (John Rochford), an adaption of the Polka king who gave Kevin's mom a ride back to Chicago in the original.

In 2024, River appeared in A Weekend at Nan's, a short film by Matt Harris, which had several local showings before going off to the festivals. The ad says "bring your family and friends."

In 2023, he starred in the short film Speech, directed by Charles Laversha, which won awards at four film festivals. Lloyd (River) has to read a speech by a historic figure to his class.  Then he finds out that the speech was given by a dictator.

In 2022, he was cast in the Wonder Years remake, with the grown-up Dean Williams (Don Cheadle, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends), narrating the story of his childhood in Montgomery, Alabama, in the 1960s.  River was going to play the buddy of the teenage Dean, but  due to the COVID lockdown, he couldn't leave Australia. Julian Lerner got the role.

More after the break

Mr. Student Body President: Finn the Human Rules the School

You're probably wondering what the extremely bicep-gifted Jeremy Shada has been since Adventure Time ended, sending Jake the Dog and Finn the Human into Ooovian history.

The answer is: running for student body president at Beringer High, a position of unlimited power and prestige.

Mr. Student Body President is a rather awkward title; we're apparently supposed to read it as Mr. President, with "Student Body" in parenthesis.

The 15-minute long episodes are called "Clips." I watched the first.

1. Teen operator Tyler Prendergast (Jeremy) and his entourage (cheerleader girl on one side, smart clipboard holding girl on the other, nonbinary person carrying his coffee) discuss his morning schedule and the new principal's hassles over the upcoming pep rally. He hyperbolizes: "This pep rally will be the most important thing any of us will ever do."  It will be big, with fireworks and live music.

2. He argues with Principal Helfrick, who is young enough to be a student, but a stick-in-the-mud.  She makes a reference to Van Halen, and Smart Girl explains: "It's something old people are into, like Twilight or email."

3. He negotiates with his Vice President, Jenna, and Lance, the Spirit Chair (whatever that is).

4. The Student Council deals with the crisis of the day: Star quarterback Damion was suspended for appearing with a red cup in an instagram post, so now he can't play in the Big Game. 

Other players and cheerleaders are getting suspended for social media posts where they use terms like "get turnt," which the oldsters don't understand but think must refer to sex or drugs.  To try to defuse the situation, Tyler decides to cancel the party being held by Cheerleader Natalie tonight.  He can do that?

Unlimited power.

5. Tyler tries to use his executive privilege to grant clemency to the suspended students, but the Principal vetoes him.  She assures him that it doesn't matter: once you graduate, you move into the world, and never think about high school again.

Wrong!  The memories of high school stay with us forever.  High school defines us, Tyler explains.

But...no one cares except for football players and cheerleaders: there are many other groups pursuing their own interests, like the ecology club and the honor society.

6. So Tyler invites them all to Natalee's party and has them post contraband or bad words to social media, so the whole school will be suspended.

The Principal can't suspend them all, nor can she suspend just the football players and cheerleaders and not the honor society president and chief cellist, so she backs off.

7. Tyler gets his vast, expensive home coming, with the theme "The Sexual Awakening of Miley Cyrus."  Dancing in Miley Cyrus drag, Tyler waves at the Principal.

She says: "You want a war, Tyler, you got it."

Beefcake:  None.  They're all at school all the time.  I  got these photos by googling "Mr. Student Body President" and "shirtless" or "nude," so there are apparently shirtless shots later on.  Gabriel Conte (3rd photo) appears in 36 episodes, Spencer Watson (4th photo) in 17. and Michael J, Murphy (2nd photo) in 8.

Location Shots: None.

Gay Characters;  None specified.  There's a lot of drag in the last scene, suggesting that these people are mostly post-gay  "you like guys, whatever."

The non-binary person in Tyler's entourage is Rory, played by Caelan Scrivener.  According to his Facebook page, he identifies as male in real life.

Heterosexism: None.  No one mentions or engages in heterosexual activity, even at Natalee's party. No "Girsl are the meaning of life!" rhetoric

Will I continue to watch:  I've seen it all before, many, many times.  There are similar premises in Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Saved by the Beill, and even Our Miss Brooks. But it might be interesting to see a kinder, gentler, non-bullying, non-homophobic take on the old Principal vs. Golden Boy trope.  Sure, why not?

See also: The Shada Brothers

Fionna and Cake: Complex adult-oriented sequel to "Adventure Time," with two out gay couples and lot of back story and butts

Parker Lewis Can't Lose

Aidan Langford: Some gay characters, a gay anthem, and a wife. Not the best record, but we've got his backside and the Nicky Ricky guy's d*ck

  

Link to the NSFW version

The teen idol website says that Aidan Langford has only appeared in one movie, 1985.   I never heard of it, but I imagine that it's a nostalgia piece about coming of age, which means "discovering girls."  But he has a nice chest, so we'll go forward.

I don't care much for the super-thick, ostentatious rings. 

Even his girlfriend wears super-sized, ostentatious -- wait, they both wear wedding rings.  His wife. 

After about 30 photos of hugging and kissing his wife, he's in the arms of a guy?  Maybe he's bi, and this is before they started dating.  

Time to check Aidan's resume.  The teen idol website could be wrong.

He was born in Dallas on an unspecified date, and got his start at the Dallas Theatre Center with roles in To Kill a Mockingbird and A Christmas Carol.

He's got 15 acting roles on the IMDB, beginning with Cooper and the Castle Hill Gang (2011).  Four have LGBTQ representation:

1985 (2018), about a young man with AIDS (Cory Michael Smith) who goes back to his conservative home town and struggles about coming out to his family -- and revealing that he's going to die soon. His roommate and most of his friends have already died.  Aidan plays his younger brother Andrew, who may be gay also (it's left in the air).  

Sounds like a real tearjerker.  I moved to West Hollywood in 1985, but I remember it as a joyous time. Only one of my friends died of AIDS, many years later.

More after the break

What has Gavin Munn, Abraham on "The Righteous Gemstones," been up to lately? Hint: It's not acting, and there's a prom involved. With some n*de buddies.

 

Link to the n*de photos

I've been checking up on the Gemstone guys, to see what they've been doing since the show ended, or since their last appearance, and it's time for Gavin Munn. His Abraham, one of Jesse Gemstone's three sons, was a minor character with only a few lines per season and only a few probably-unintentional queer codes (enough for me to write a fan fiction story where he comes out).  But Gavin had a strong social media presence.  He posted so many interesting photos that I had enough for six cute/cool collections.

He was an athlete, so as he moved through adolescence, we saw him bulking up.

He had a hot dad and older brother.

He buddied up to his Gemstone costars, male gues stars, and hunky stuntmen.  And a surprising number of non-actor friends (n*de photos on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).

The Righteous Gemstones ended in 2025.  What has Gavin been up to lately?

Answer after the break.  Hint: It ain't pretty.