At first, the war on HIV was fought with fear: ''grim reaper'' commercials, stern pamphlets and alarming TV reports.

But 25 years on, authorities are using very different weapons, including Facebook, stand-up comedians and an Oscar-winning actor, to tackle the epidemic.

The result is an educational web drama called Queer as F---, featuring Academy Award-winner Geoffrey Rush and comedians Judith Lucy, Denise Scott, Adam Richard and Andrea Powell, all of whom worked free.

The series, which made its debut last year on Facebook and YouTube and has already reached its fifth season, follows five gay men in a Melbourne share house.

NSW recorded a decline in the rate of HIV diagnosis last year, according to the Kirby Institute at the University of NSW's 2011 Surveillance report. However, the report found that, despite safe sex generally among gay men, unprotected sex among casual partners was on the rise. 'Scare campaigns worked in the '80s,'' says Colin Batrouney, the lead writer and director of the series, who is also the health promotion manager of the Victorian AIDS Council.

''But we can't just keep frightening people; we can't just keep banging on about condoms and safe sex. That's not going to cut it with today's young men, which is why we had to be more clever in our approach.''

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Viewers embrace Neighbours' gay character played by newcomer James Mason.

Chris Pappas, played by newcomer James Mason, was a fairly new addition to the show when the decision was made to reveal he was gay.

It was a brave move because it came the year after Home and Away's controversial lesbian storyline.

Conservative groups were outraged when Home and Away police officer Charlie Buckton (Esther Anderson) romanced and kissed deckhand Joey Collins (Katie Bell).

The decision to create Neighbours' first regular gay character was bound to cause a storm.

"I do believe homophobia is alive and well, and I have no doubt that we will get complaints about it," Bower told the Herald Sun last October.

It is a credit to Australian TV viewers that a year later there has been precious little protest about Chris. Instead, Neighbours' fans have embraced the young mechanic who has had to cope with coming out.

Chris knows the revelation about his sexuality has disappointed his father George (Lliam Amor) but it has liberated him as an individual.

Not everyone in Erinsborough approves.

Last week, Chris was verbally threatened by homophobic customer Warren Burrell (Tony Rickards).

Since then, Chris has been brutally bashed and events in this week's Neighbours finale will put his life on the line.

"Chris is embarrassed that he thinks he was gay bashed and he doesn't want to tell anyone," Mason says.

"He is trying to build a relationship (with his father) but this incident happening, if it revolves around him being gay, just causes more chaos around the fact that he is gay.

THERE is no denying little Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John is one cute celebrity baby who was being spoiled rotten by his two dads in Sydney this week.

Sir Elton John, David Furnish and Zachary, who turns one on Christmas Day, have been catching up with old friends across Sydney, who report the little tyke's physical resemblance to John is so striking there seems little question about who the biological father is.

Zachary's paternity has been an issue of some public conjecture since it was revealed both men combined their sperm when the surrogate mother was impregnated.

This week their entourage, including a nanny and a wet nurse for Zachary, has been hopping between luxury hotels in Sydney, ditching the Darling at The Star for the Four Seasons.

PS can reveal the reason Furnish had to suddenly leave Sydney for LA on Tuesday was to seek treatment for an infection, understood to have resulted from recent surgery.

Meanwhile, Sydney's art gallery owners are hoping to see Sir Elton swing by, the singer having already met Sydney art adviser/broker Amanda Love and keen to drop serious money on Australian photography.

On previous trips to Sydney Sir Elton, estimated to have a fortune of £195 million ($299 million) in the Sunday Times Rich List of 2011, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on works by the likes of Australian artists Bill Henson and Tracey Moffatt. Sydney gallery owners are hoping he will do it again.

Read more at: http://www.smh.com.au

Legendary singer Cher was moved to tears as she watched her son Chaz Bono perform on US TV show Dancing With The Stars. Bono, 42, has been competing with professional partner Lacey Schwimmer in the dancing competition, and they performed a routine to the theme music from boxing movie Rocky on last night's show.

The performance was particularly important to the transgender star as his family, including his 65-year-old mum and stepmother Mary Bono Mack, were in the audience.

Judge Carrie Ann Inaba said she was moved to tears during the performance. And Cher was also moved as she gave her son a standing ovation. The Believe singer wrote on her Twitter page after the show: "OMG! I was crying! Wa

Source: /www.metrolyrics.com

Teddy and Shane are getting married on ’90210′

‘90210‘ is to feature a gay wedding as Teddy (Trevor Donovan) and Shane (Ryan Rottman) will finally get married.

The much-awaited episode will air early next month. In a photo that went viral, we can see that Teddy is wearing a white shirt and Shane looks sharp in a dark-colored suit.

The wedding will take place in a common Las Vegas chapel, which has colorful lights and an Elvis impersonator is officiating the ceremony.

Teddy and Shane characters are played by Trevor Donovan and Ryan Rottman.

After the wedding episode, Donovan will only play two more episodes before his exit from the show. Despite having a great impact to fans and critics last season for his coming out as gay. Donovan’s character will bid goodbye to 90210 fans.

In his interview, he said that the staff handled his farewell very well. Donovan’s character is in every episode of ’90210′ and he was glad that his character ended in a heroic way.

Source: http://www.malecelebnews.com

Ricky Martin becomes Spanish citizen to marry partner.

Singer Ricky Martin is reportedly planning to marry his long-term partner Carlos Gonzalez after becoming Spanish citizen and is currently applying for a Spanish passport, all of which are needed for him to get married in Spain.

Martin, who is father to twin boys, has been in a relationship with his boyfriend Carlos Gonzalez for four years.

Spanish newspaper ‘El Pais’ reports, Martin applied for a Spanish passport in order to be able to wed Gonzalez under the country’s same-sex marriage legislation.

The Spanish government apparently chose to confer citizenship on Martin without asking him to renounce his Puerto Rican or US citizenship, which The AP notes is not usually the case.

Earlier this year, Martin claimed that he and Gonzalez were not planning a wedding in the near future, saying: “The other day we were reading a magazine and, we were like, ‘You’re cool with this, right? No pressure?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m cool, everything is cool’. Not yet. Whenever it’s time.”

Martin previously told Oprah Winfrey of his relationship: “All I can say is he loves my children and they love him. It can’t get better.”

Martin came out in a statement to his fans in March 2010 and said that his position as a sex symbol for women stopped him from previously revealing his sexuality.