Next Magazine has the scoop on Rue McLanahan's personal effects being auctioned off to her fans, which was the late Golden Girl's wish. I bet Ruby Dee bids on that music box from Big Daddy!

Prove it!

As of midnight last night, it was exactly six years since my first post. It's been a tough thing to keep up with a dayjob and outside activities, and just when I think I might walk away, a valuable connection or interesting opportunity or a kind word comes my way. Thank you all for reading me.

Of whom are you more jealous?

Here are my favorite 100+ posts out of nearly 11,000. Please take some time to read (or re-read!) a couple and tweet or Facebook any you like.

xoxo Matt

The pocket pool championships were intense this year

BOY CULTURE

Boy-crazy

FROM BOY TO MAN: BC B.C. (2007): The entire history of my novell and novel Boy Culture as well as the movie version; might be my ultimate post.

Jonathon Trent & Derek Magyar make an Allan Brocka sandwich

BOY ON FILM (2006): An account of the NYC launch party for Boy Culture as it played the TriBeCa Film Fest.

I was left "Reeling" by the experience

FRIENDS AND "FAMILY" (2006): The movie version of Boy Culture hits Chicago.

No one would've mistaken me for Taylor Lautner

RAPT PUPIL (2006): The final night of Outfest with Boy Culture; I was fat but on the other hand got to meet Bryan Singer.

 

MY ART

 

Construction worker (shot this week) vs. James Dean

GUYDAR (since at least January 17, 2008) & ENDS OF THE WORLD (since at least January 13, 2008): Attractive men of the world—I got your backs. Your fronts, too.

i-i-i (phone)

Not totally built

Unaltered iPhone image that still blows me away

"Your pictures suck" (2008): An art critic attacks me, but not without sustaining some hits in return.

Let's call it a draw

DRAWN TOGETHER (2008): How my desire to draw related to my secret desire. One of my absolute favorite posts.

The shirtless one

LOST ANGELES (2009): My favorite photographic travelogue of L.A.

Even then, New Yorkers feared 9/11 was the beginning of the end

ART IMITATES LIFE (2006): My 9/11 and my distaste for grief tourism.

ME

Death of the party—Jeff in high school, already halfway through his life

BURNING MAN (2007): Tribute to my late high school friend and first romance.

Signed, sealed (eventually) delivered

LOST BOY FOUND (2011): There is a book in here somewhere.

Be Italian

CIAO HOUNDS: OUR TRIP TO ITALY (2011): Finally got José to Europe.

Death becomes here

ILLINOIS DEATH TRIP (2007): Ruminations on death while revisiting a past home, and the past.

Life is short...and meaningful

PASSING BY (2008): Mourning the loss of a person I only met once.

Lots more...

Above, Josh Dallas is picture-perfect in Us (October 31, 2011). Below, Betty White displays her good taste in men for In Touch (October 31, 2011):

This Gerard Butler pic from Star (October 31, 2011) could've been 10 times better if the angle were slightly adjusted:

People (October 31, 2011) spotlights country singer Jake Owen:

More after the jump...

If you ask her...and we did!

Went to Betty White's New York Times TimesTalks Q&A last night with José and had a great time. TimesTalks are a lot of fun, and you can see them live on the Web or see truncated versions here after the fact. It's a small auditorium and the subject is paired with a Times moderator for about 45 minutes of back-and-forth before taking audience questions.

When I arrived, I bought her just-released memoir If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) for $29 on the promise that she'd be signing it after. I couldn't believe she'd actually sign the 300 or so copies she must have sold after being grilled (and after having taped Letterman as well), but figured I'd risk it. The pages have gigantic borders and some of the chapters are a page and a half long, but it is her sixth tome so you gotta figure it's not going to be too in depth.

Too many of the questions—from Frank Bruni, of whom I am not a big fan considering his fawning George W. Bush book...Bush's name was left off of his introduction lest the audience boo him, I think—were focused on Hot in Cleveland and Saturday Night Live and the Comedy Central roast of William Shatner, but White's replies were witty and informative.

Well alllll riiiight!

The SAG nominations are out—and are quite interesting!

Even a potentially throw-away ad for her clothing line is elevated by Betty White's comic touch. Video after the jump...

McCarthy & his co-star: Two peas in a pod

Two familiar faces took their final bows recently, Harold Gould at 86 and Kevin McCarthy at 96. McCarthy is iconic for his performance in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which was all about the other kind of McCarthyism even though it wasn't intended to be. Gould I remember most fondly for his stint as Rose's (Betty White) beau Miles on Golden Girls, but I do recall seeing him on Feather & Father first. He seems to have always been white-haired.

Harold Gould, R.I.P.

There's a new Betty White comic book...but the likeness is so bad it kind of steals the fun. The hair is perfect but she looks like an albino Shirley Chisholm. (Nothing wrong with albinos or Shirley Chisholms, but they should have their own comics.)

TV Guide (July 19—August 3, 2010) correctly "Jeers" at Hot in Cleveland for "stranding a quartet of golden girls with tin-plate material" and "lukewarm jokes." Still, it's been renewed for a second season. And now Betty White will also appear on an episode of Community, one of the only shows with which I'm familiar that I think is even worse. (Just wait till you see how awful Outsourced is, though.)

Are we really going to pretend that Hot in Cleveland is great or even good TV just because it has (a miscast) Betty White in it? It's incredibly broad, the situation—three high-powered women move to Cleveland because they are hot in comparison to the other women there—is so far-fetched it's not funny (literally) and of the three leads, only Jane Leeves seems to be doing more than a send-up of herself.

Betty's handed a bunch of odd-old-lady jokes, but nothing too spectacular.

I can understand why the ratings were initially high; if it continues to be popular, I will have to chalk it up to White's charisma.