::   Did John Lennon harbor a gay crush on his Beatles writing partner Paul McCartney? John Lennon: The Life, a book by noted Beatles biographer Philip Norman, says he did, claiminig John suggested to Sir-to-be Paul, "bohemians should try everything." McCartney and Yoko Ono, who were interviewed by Norman for the book, say it never happened and reportedly "are extremely angry and upset" about the that claim and a MILF charge in the book.

   ::   LA's Laugh Factory, which enjoys a celeb/paparazzi cred because hotspot Hyde is its next-door neighbor, will launch a weekly midnight Lesbian and Gay show on Friday, September 19, 2008. LA comic Jerome Cleary will produce and perform in "Thank Gays It's Friday". "LA needs a weekly show like this again and we will reinvent this show genre as The Laugh Factory wants to be the fun Friday midnight destination," says club owner Jamie Masada.

    ::   British pop singer Adele claims that her UK hit Chasing Pavements has been banned by some US radio stations because, she says, "Some weirdo on the 'net wrote that Chasing Pavements was about being gay." Adele insists that "isn't true at all," but says the charge, made in an entry in the user-generated Urban Dictionary site, has damaged her chances of making it big in the US. The stories don't explain which stations have banned the lightweight poppy ballad, or how a general ban could even be possible, or for that matter, why any station would want to play the song.

   ::   Don't worry. It doesn't give away the ending, but Salon offers a review by Joy Press of the collections by the several Project Runway contestants who showed at New York Fashion Week yesterday. "The collections shown this season were either great or terrible -- with very little in between," Press observes. The producers of the show probably helped that along by a trick that maintains the mystery of the final, despite web reviews like Salon's, and -- more importantly, Project Rungay's. Three of the remaining contestants who won't be in the final were nonetheless allowed to show their lines this year at Bryant Park, alongside the real, undisclosed finalists.
-- Press hates the garments shown by Suede ("His collection is totally wackadoodle"), Jerrell ("the gawdiest dresses this side of Dollywood"), and straight guy Joe ("utterly confused and uninspired"). She likes (and, thus, might give something away) what she sees from Kenley ("a spectacular change from the dispiriting collections of the previous three designers"), Korto ("strong, bright and subtly innovative"), and Leanne ("every piece is surprising and lovely").

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