Attention Fictional Characters Everywhere!

Who will be next?

Now that Dumbledore has come out, now that Potter scholars are popping up everywhere saying they knew it all along, including one who counted off the wizard’s seven clues of gayness, not least of which was the lighthearted observation that “Albus Dumbledore” is an anagram for ‘Male bods rule, bud…”

Now in these heady, happy days of full-disclosure, Nightcharm wishes to urge other fictional characters to come out finally and share the love. And so we have composed Our Open Letters to the biggest Closet Cases in Films and Fiction: (more…)

Is this you?

1. Gay and Mormon
2. Gay and in the military
3. A survivor of the Ex-Gay Movement
4. A country boy who came of age during the Bush Era

Have you had any of these life experiences?

Nightcharm is looking for thoughtful first-person accounts on these topics. More details below the jump. (more…)

You met him online and he seems like a real stud.

One thing leads to another and before you know it you’re building fantasies all over this guy. You’re nervous to arrange the date but his deep, masculine phone voice is everything you’ve been looking for from your ultimate fuck buddy.

It’s not until you enter his apartment that you’re confronted with the reality of your predicament: peach-scented candles, a collection of Gone With the Wind commemorative plates with certificates of authenticity from the Franklin Mint, a pastel-blue yarn toilet seat cover.

It’s too late to turn back, friend. You’ve entered the world of a Lurid Digs contender.

Of course if you’re lucky, Romeo will have posted images of himself online with indicative clues to his lack of taste before you ever arrive on the scene.

Each month, the readers of our sister site, Lurid Digs send us so many horrifying photos of their past, present, and potential online lovers surrounded by the type of carnage that we do so love to hate… it’s impossible for us to publish them all, but we sportingly keep trying.

It’s our mission to let the world know that no matter how hot a man is, if there is a giant pile of orange dog puppets behind him when he takes the shot for his profile, he’s probably not safe from scrutiny.

Visit the world of Lurid Digs now.

Outing. It’s not just for politicians, celebrities, pro athletes, and your dad anymore. You don’t even have to be three dimensional to have people wondering which way you swing.

Cartoon characters are facing the same laser intensity of gaydar as anyone else in the public eye.

What was the deal with Snagglepuss? Did little Jonny Quest have two daddies? Were Vanity and Hefty the gayest of the already queer manly commune known as the Smurfs?

And didn’t The Peanuts‘ Peppermint Patty and Marcie seem different than the frillier girl members of the Charlie Brown posse? On some level we’ve always suspected that the tastes of Scooby-Doo ’s Velma Dinkley leaned more toward Josie & The Pussycats than Thundarr The Barbarian.

Few characters elicit the amount of near-unanimous speculation as the Reagan Era phenom He-Man does. For grade schoolers in the 80s more taken with Dick than Jane, He-Man & The Masters of The Universe was weekly catnip. Years later we’re sure the series meant to present us with a robust action hero who could teach us valuable life lessons. What we really appreciate it for are the curvaceous bodies- rotoscoped over actual bodybuilder models- swaggering toward the camera, the brazen flexing, rippling limbs grappling in combat, and shots being framed from the back between clenched asses and gigantic thighs. (more…)

We’re living in a world of stars and dust.

Between heaven –
and all that surrounds us.

We’re travelers here –
spirits passing through.

And the love we give is all that will endure…

Tears will leave no stain,
Time will ease the pain.

For every light that fades
Something beautiful remains.

Words are here, finally, superfluous. Let’s us listen then. Let us remember Pavarotti, both the Sacred and the Profane. (more…)

After working like mules through July to redesign Nightcharm’s front page and blog, we’ve decided to do what every sane art and nature-loving Frenchman does: take the month of August off.

Europeans are lucky that way. For eons August has been the time of year when folks retreat from their day-to-day grind and take time to contemplate other people, places and things. Traveling, or not. Catching up on literature, film and fucking.

Some of the more privileged and blessed on our staff — people like our dear editor-in-chief John Calendo — will take both August and September off (the bitch) for some deep soul rejuvenation. Expect miraculous things from him in October when he returns from the Promises Treatment Center. (more…)

By Zeus, Dick rules the heavens!

Yes, several sightings of the Celestial Phallus have made the news this month.

Certainly you’ve heard of, if not been visited by, the miraculous Divine Penis.

That Wing-ed Divinity, its proud erection and stiff little winglets so like those of the Christian dove or the Rococo cherub (its later appropriations) was beloved of the Ancients — and is still worshiped by many a Modern today, hey boys?

1. Down from Mount Olympus

First up this month was the rebirth of Zeus, Apollo and all the gang in the annual party dance-show Broadway Bares, a charity event to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

This year the theme was Myth-Behavior and so laurel wreathes and just a hint of toga, no more than a few shipwrecked shreds, covered Broadway’s most sensational boys and girls of the chorus. Everywhere gods, demi-god and just plain hunkeroonies stripped down to their raw, near-naked talent, in obedience to those tenets so oft repeated on Inside the Actors Studio, peel away the layers, serve the character. Yes, boys and girls, Art was in her temple.

Featured was a jaw-droppingly salacious number, Heroes, in which a roll call of the major Greco-Roman beefcake came to life (Hercules, Odysseus, Adonis) and went against humpy reimaginings of the Minotaur, the Cyclops and a campy Harpy played by a comic actor.

Our favorite moment: the Sirens, appearing in all their Neptunal, sea-weedy weirdness, singing — this, the genius touch — the theme from Love Boat (”Aw-hhh, Love. Exciting and new. Come aboard. We’re expecting you…)

In addition was the annual Stripathon, right, which needed no theme more eternal than cowboy hat, boots and a jockstrap. (More Myth-Behavior photos and details )

This year’s show was so successful (a record-breaking $740,000 haul) that Variety reports talks are now ongoing with an unnamed Las Vegas casino to bring the show permanently to the Strip, rebaptised for a less New York-centric audience, Peep Show. (more…)

Nightcharm: Hi Daniel. It’s Nightcharm calling.

Daniel Nardicio: Your timing is impeccable. I’m shopping right now.

Nightcharm: What are you shopping for?

Daniel: I’m at Michael Fina’s which is pretty upscale. I’m looking at diamonds. I’m not actually going to buy diamonds nor do I wear diamonds but I like looking at them.

Nightcharm: I think I recall a picture of you having something to do with diamonds somehow.

Daniel: Really?

Nightcharm: I don’t know for sure. It seemed like maybe you had diamonds in your teeth, or you were wearing an enormous diamond necklace or something? (more…)