Separated at birth: Cooper vs. Power

Over-compensated CNN correspondent Anderson "Paris Hilton of the anchors" Cooper and over-endowed Rascal Video porn star Mike Power. For a most definitely NSFW photo of Power, go here. Think your puss matches a celebrity's? Check out My Heritage. [Photos: CNN and Greg Thompson]

Time to retool Castro Confidential!

Eight months and nearly 800 posts (!) after starting Castro Confidential, I've decided to take a long break while I revamp, rethink and -- I expect -- relaunch this blog with a more focused approach. I want to inject more San Francisco in this blog so it lives up (down?) to its name of Castro Confidential. That means more original, local news, entertainment and hot photos about one of the world's gayest neighborhoods.

But that's going to take more time than I can devote when I've already got a full-time job. So, hang in there with me, folks! And consider shooting an e-mail to castroconfidential@gmail.com with your contact information; I'll fire you a note back when the blog relaunches, so you won't have to keep checking back on your own.

[Photo: Power house mechanic working on steam pump, 1920, by Lewis Hine]

There'll always be naughty boys in France

If I only knew French better, I could maybe understand the serial killer theme behind the new issue of gay-boy glossy, Pref magazine, now heading to global newsstands. Maybe the point is: We love bad boys. In the era of Idaho Sen. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig, these are my kind of mug shots!

Drudging up dirt on Web's mysterious blogger

New York magazine profiles uber-blogger Matt Drudge (left), he of the famous fedora. Drudge, 4o, comes off as rich -- two homes in Miami -- really paranoid, and probably gay. "Conservative-turned-liberal David Brock, who is gay, described Drudge coming on to him sexually in 1997, including e-mailing Brock the suggestion that they be 'fuck buddies,''' New York says. "Michaelangelo Signorile, a journalist who has broken down many a closet door, calls Drudge 'a nasty faggot.'" [Photo: NNDB]

Murdoch wins; 'Don't Ask' review, sex science

Exceptionally unattractive late-in-life babymaking media mogul Rupert Murdoch, dark overlord of the anti-gay Fox News channel, is adding a new jewel to the crown of his evil empire: Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the ultra-conservative Wall Street Journal and other rags for the monied set. Adm. Michael Mullen, President Bush's nominee for the nation's top military post, told a Senate panel yesterday he welcomes congressional review of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." So sad: Lately underdressed actor Matthew McConaughey may start wearing clothes again. Plus, researchers have discovered why people like sex: It feels good to cum!

[Photo: AP; Murdoch doppelganger C. Montgomery Burns, Fox]

Not so pretty (and kind of mean) in pink

In barely three years, Mario Armando Lavandeira -- best known as Perez Hilton -- has emerged as one of the most-read (and most-hated) bloggers about celebrities, the New York Times says in a new story. The way-gay Lavandeira (above, with singer Gloria Estefan) started Perez Hilton as a hobby about three years ago, presenting himself as a Latin version of another self-invented celebrity, Paris Hilton. He now earns as much as $9,000 a week for a single advertisement, the NYT says, and $45,000 for the most expensive ad package. (Believe you me: I'm not making a dime off Castro Confidential. Yet.)

[Photo: Lavandeira with Estefan in Miami at her restaurant, Larios on the Beach. NYT]

New interview: Francois unwrapped

Barely three years after making his first porn film for Raging Stallion Studios in San Francisco, Francois Sagat has become one of the most recognizable faces in the global gay skin trade, Beautiful says in a series of interviews featuring lots of naughty photos of the Parisian star; the last installment was published yesterday. Sagat, 28, born and raised in Cognac, moved to Paris when he was 18:

• No details spared! "Believe it or not,'' Sagat says in interview Part I, "my asshole is really tight, even though some think the opposite."
• He's doing what he loves -- a lot! "I’m really nasty and a pig. What can I say . . . I love sex, and I like it aggressive,'' he says in Part II. "But I think I’m more expressive in my own private sex life than in the movies."
• And, life in the big city isn't as swell as you'd think, Part III says: "Paris is so boring sometimes."

[Photo: Francois Sagat]

Who are the sexiest men alive?

That's the question DNA's asking readers in this new online poll. The Australian glossy just published its newest issue (left), featuring Miami model Levi Poulter on the cover in a photo shot by David Vance. Ethan Says has more Poulter pix.

Cruise bids to be the next Ron Jeremy

Porn entrepreneur Jake Cruise (left) hasn't achieved the legendary "spherical hirsuteness" of Ron "The Hedgehog" Jeremy. But he's definitely working the same playbook: Older, not especially buff man plays with pretty young things, satisfying fantasies we could do the same if we hauled our butts to SF Badlands any Saturday night. Of course, we're buff! But here's my truly favorite Cruise line: Straight Guys for Gay Eyes, where he casts hotties in straight porn meant for the gay market. Huh? The camera lingers a whole lot on the men, and rarely on the women, who stay mostly clothed. It's for guys like me, who prefer straight porn. Just not too straight. [Photo: Jake Cruise Media]

The Advocate loses its plain brown wrapper

The magazine's July 3 issue (left) was mailed to most subscribers with a standard address label in the lower left-hand corner, doing away with the extra cover that kept The Advocate a secret from nosey mailmen and unsuspecting wives. Publisher Michael Phelps says the change came after the magazine polled readers in April, asking if they wanted to keep getting the glossy in a wrapper. “The majority no longer wanted the covering,” Phelps tells the New York Times today. “For some, they said they were environmentally conscious and wanted to cut down on waste. For others, it was more of an out-and-proud issue.” [Photo: NYT]

11:25 a.m.: Pink Saturday

The scene at Castro and Market streets this morning, hours before thousands of visitors pour into the 'hood for the annual Pink Saturday street party tonight. As many as one million people will mass along fewer than two miles of Market Street tomorrow for the weekend's signature gay-a-palooza happening, the Gay Pride Parade.

The parade is one of California's biggest public events, so it draws tons of media attention.

Lists

We like 'em when they tote up 10s.

Valleywag just won't be the same

Now that the gossip blog is installing a new editor, our source for all things simultaneously gay and nerdy on the Internets (hi, Nick Denton!) will be missed. Like: Denton's snarky takedown (above) of Yahoo's new gay avatars. The maybe good-looking-but-definitely-sweaty Denton -- impresario over the Gawker Media blog-o-pire that includes Valleywag -- ranked No. 22 on Out's buzz-inducing Power 50, that indignant list that was so mean to divo-of-the-week Anderson Cooper. But hey! We'll always have Denton's Fleshbot, eh?

Hello, all you Towleroad readers...

. . . out there in the dark. Ditto for my new friends at Kenneth in the 212 and at the Chronicle's Culture Blog. There's lots more to read, so please come back.

Our consolation: Now he'll reproduce himself

Very cute New York Times mergers and acquisitions reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin (left) is so straight-acting that he married New York literary agent Pilar Jenny Queen (love, love, love that name!) last night. While we had different plans for Andrew, we can at least look forward to his producing many equally handsome sons. [Photo: Dealbook]

American gothic

The photographer, Nick Ut, who shot this photo of a weeping Paris Hilton on her way to a fateful day in court yesterday is the same photographer who took this iconic Vietnam War photo:

And in a spooky coincidence, the two photos were taken exactly 35 years apart. [Photo: AP. Homburg tip to Andrew Sullivan]

Separated at birth: Murdoch vs. Burns

Keith Rupert Murdoch, evil overlord of a gay-unfriendly media empire Fox News, and Charles Montgomery Burns, evil overlord of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and extremely unlikely gay love object. How much more conservative will the Wall Street Journal become if Murdoch gets his mitts on the newspaper and its corporate parent, Dow Jones & Co.? [Photo, AP; cartoon, Fox]

Times grow even tougher at the Chronicle

Management is now threatening to ax 100 reporters, editors and others -- about 25% of the newsroom's entire staff. That may be more saber-rattling on the part of union-hating publisher Frank Vega. Still, recent court documents revealed the Chronicle has been losing $1 million a week since Hearst bought it from the de Young family seven years ago.

An upside to Murdoch's gazillion-dollar bid

I'm hoping sexy son Lachlan (left) returns stateside from a self-imposed Oz Land exile if his prehistoric media mogul dad prevails in his $5 billion Dow Jones deal. New York magazine told the tale of their angry parting two years ago in "The Boy Who Wouldn't Be King."

My personal favorite is 'Corrections Today'

Daffy-but-still-one-of-us film director John Waters (left) gets 160 magazines a month. His favorite: Capital Punishment Newsletter. If he were to start a magazine, it would be called Drip, as his last name is Waters, and it would be about "all the worst places to be famous. You know, the embarrassing side of celebrity." Those worst places no doubt include prisons. And what better way to learn more about life in the Big House than through Corrections Today, the American Correctional Association's monthly glossy. "Gang suppression and institutional control," anyone? [Source: Gawker]