The final cultural barrier is shattered

SPIDER-MAN creator Stan Lee is to unveil the world’s first gay superhero.

High school basketball star Thom Creed hides his developing superpowers along with his sexuality.

Former Marvel Comics boss Stan, 86 — who also created the Hulk and the X-Men — will unleash the character in an hour-long TV drama being shot in the US.

If it’s a hit there it will cross to the UK.

TV execs hope it will rival the huge success of shows likes Heroes.

Lee developed the idea of a gay character from the award-winning novel Hero by Perry Moore.

A TV insider said: It was only a matter of time before we had our first gay superhero. And if there is one man who can make him a success it is Stan Lee.

There’s a real buzz among comic book fans.

I'm afraid that gay superheros have been around for years. I remember watching a TV show about them when I was a kid.

Think about it. Bruce Wayne, a never married millionaire who spends a lot of time in the gym, lives in his mansion with his "butler" Alfred and a doting elderly aunt who is so clueless that she cannot tell when people who live under the same roof with her are living secret lives.

Then he takes in Dick Grayson, a very athletic teenage boy - who throughout the entire series never had a girlfriend - as his "youthful ward".

Bruce and Dick dress in tights and spend a great deal of time associating with men who are steeped in American penitentiary culture, with all that implies.

When not "fighting crime" Bruce and Dick are avid patrons of the arts, attending the ballet, gallery openings and the theater.

Do I need to continue?

[Yeah, I know you've never heard any of those before]

As a powerful and influential member of the new media I have obtained an advertisement for the new series which is being shown to focus groups representing key demographic groups.

Seriously, I've known that Stan Lee was a wackjob since he apologized for making the communist North Vietnamese look like bad guys in the first issue of Iron Man.

Any doubt about where Mr. Lee stood on political/cultural issues was removed when he got so deeply involved with members of Bill Clinton's inner circle that he barely escaped a jail sentence.

Say it ain't so

NEW YORK - On-again friends Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are taking "The Simple Life" — which shows the tabloid-ready celebutantes thrown into everyday situations with real people — to camp. After last season's format allowed the then-feuding friends to have little to do with each other, this year's edition brings them together again.

"The Simple Life Goes to Camp," set to debut in May, has Hilton and Richie working as counselors at Camp Shawnee in the mountains near Los Angeles. . .


"Paris and Nicole will be advising and training girls and their moms for beauty pageants, or providing therapy for couples seeking to strengthen their relationships," she said.

They are going to be "counselors".

They will be giving advice to children.

Spank your child in public and someone will call the cops and report you for child abuse, but turning your daughter over to Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie and you get to be on TV.

Lord come back; it's time.

Warning! Do not view if you have a weak stomach!

This painting is called Blessed Art Thou. Over on Knowledge is Power they are asking people to tell, in twenty words or less, why this represents everything that is wrong with America.

This is how the artist, Kate Kretz explains it:

This painting addresses the celebrity worship cycle. The title, “Blessed Art Thou”, is taken from a line in the Catholic prayer “Hail Mary”: “…blessed art thou among women”. Our culture is deifying celebrities, but in the bible, it is the meek who are blessed, so the title presents a question for the viewer to ponder.

I chose a setting where the cycle begins: psychologically oppressive environments like this one are one of the feeding sources for the consumer, hungry for “information” about the celebrity's private life. I am interested in the psychological ramifications of celebrity worship, particularly as they relate to class.

Angelina Jolie was chosen as the subject because of her unavoidable presence in the media, the world-wide anticipation of her child, her "unattainable" beauty and the good that she is doing in the world through her example, which adds another layer to the already complicated questions surrounding her status.

I draw your attention to the statement that Angelina is doing good in the world through her example.

[Lemuel pauses to laugh out loud for 45 minutes]

Sondra and friends have their contest and I have mine. Tell us just how "attainable" Angelina's beauty is. For example, "My word Angelina, that's a beautiful dress. It must have taken your seamstress two or three hours to get you into that. Of course from what I hear it only takes a line of coke and a shot of Stollie to get you out of it".