Apparently Patti Stanger’s particular brand of matchmaking advice isn’t applicable only to straight people. Advocate.com reported that her popular Bravo series Millionaire Matchmaker will feature a gay and lesbian episode in the coming weeks. Now I’ve always found the people on her show just a little bit creepy…particularly the people who go into the situation just so they can meet a partner with ridiculous amounts of money. I guess straight people haven’t cornered the market on materialism.

What’s particularly gross about this is the awkward advice clip Bravo’s posted on their site, in which Stanger doles out stereotypically laden advice for gay men and lesbians. According to Stanger, lesbians are “leaving their husbands to become gay,” and gay guys had better be careful because “We have AIDS still available.” While her delivery is terrible, I have to admit there’s maybe a kernel of truth to what she has to say…if you’re willing to put up with the caked-on layers of dumb. Or was it just eyeliner?

A Thursday report in the Telegraph demonstrates that communication strategy seems to be falling apart at the Vatican.  The Holy See continues to deal with the fall-out of the Pope’s statement upon his first official African visit that Aids “cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”.

This, in the wake of his recent lifting of the 20-year excommunication of a British bishop who has questioned the Holocaust has created a call for a major shift in the way the pontiff delivers his message online and has some looking at the possibility of a change in leadership within the Catholic Church.

“He’s out of touch with the real world,” a Vatican insider said. “On the condom issue, for example, there are priests and bishops in Africa who accept that condoms are a key part of the fight against Aids, and yet the pope adheres to this very conservative line that they encourage promiscuity. The Vatican is far removed from the reality on the ground.”

Part of the challenge for the Pope is that he seems to have lost control of the way his message is being delivered, and may have to shift the Vatican’s means of communication with the public, and may need to (gasp) keep the press office open later than 3 pm.

“Until recently the Vatican was secretive and their way of controlling the message of the Church was to release information slowly and highly selectively through carefully worded documents,” said Francis X Rocca, Vatican correspondent for Religion News Service.

“The problem now is that the internet and the blogosphere won’t wait for the Vatican, so its message gets swamped.”

Now, Benedict’s an old guy, and we can’t entirely blame him for not having a solid working knowledge of the internet.  But it was pointed out by critics that a simple Google search would have yielded information on the anti-Semetic views of British bishop Richard Williamson (who denies the extent of the Holocaust) who caused an uproar recently when his ex-communication was overturned by the Pope.

Maybe it’s time for Benedict to educate himself on the difference between a blog and a tweet…or just get his head out of his ass.  That might help too.

Just when you thought she’d gone back to Alaska for good, Sarah Palin’s back in action, slamming President Obama…not for his political decisions, but for a JOKE.  According to US Weekly,

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is slamming President Barack Obama for the Special Olympics joke he made on Thursday’s Tonight Show With Jay Leno.

“I was shocked to learn of the comment made by President Obama about Special Olympics,” said the Alaska Gov., whose son Trig was born with Down syndrome last year. “This was a degrading remark about our world’s most precious and unique people, coming from the most powerful position in the world.”

Now, don’t get me wrong.  It was a bad joke.  Totally inappropriate.  I guess I don’t so much have a problem with what you’re saying, Sarah…as I do with the fact that it’s YOU saying it!

Andrew Sullivan reports that “Dr. John Grohol sums up the findings of a new (not very robust) study about online dating. It seems that we aren’t very good at evaluating thousands of profiles:

The more our brains have to search through, the more difficult it…becomes to ignore irrelevant information. A person is also more likely to be distracted (or attracted to) attributes that were not initially relevant or pertinent to their original search…The findings will likely ring true to many who have spent a lot of time on the popular online dating websites. While browsing through a million profiles may sound like heaven to some initially, it’s possible that it’ll result in making poorer choices than if you had a much smaller number of profiles to search through in the first place.

Genre Magazine cover

It’s a terrible thing when LGBT businesses close, but if a tree falls in the woods and there’s nobody around to hear, will it break a nail?  GENRE magazine announced today that they will “temporarily suspend publication, due to the ongoing recession,” according to a statement issued by the publishers.

According to a statement in the Washington Blade, also owned by parent company Window Media…

“We thank all of our readers, advertisers and editorial staff for their support throughout our more than 16-year history and hope that we can re-establish our relationship when times are better,” company CEO David Unger said in a statement.

He noted that the decision to suspend Genre does not have any impact on other publications produced by HX Media, Window Media or Unite Media, which include the Washington Blade, Southern Voice, South Florida Blade, New York Blade and HX magazine.

“Those publications will continue to publish and support their local communities,” Unger said.”

It should be noted though that rumors abound on the web that the shut-down may have been due to more than just the recession.  Queerty’s Japhy Grant reports that the company has been in financial hot water for several months now.

“We’ve been speculating about the collapse of the gay glossy since last month, when it was revealed that Window Media, the parent company of Genre and a half-dozen gay publications, including the Washington Blade, had gone into federal receivership last August. Strangely, Unger didn’t resign.”