Ron Howard Refuses To Remove Gay “Joke” From The Dilemma, Johnny Weir Urges Bullied Youth To Make Living The Way You Want To Live Your Statement, Shia LaBeouf Shirtless, Ryan Gosling Sexiness

Ron Howard tells the Los Angeles Times that a gay joke in his film The Dilemma will remain, despite demands that the joke, spoken by Vince Vaughn’s character Robbie Valentine, saying that an electric car is “gay,” most famously by Anderson Cooper, who said of the trailer “we’ve got to do something to make those words unacceptable, ‘cause those words are hurting kids.” Universal Pictures pulled the trailer, replacing it with one absent of any gay humour. Howard’s defence – exhaustive and thorough – rests on the idea that he defends “the right for some people to express offense at a joke as strongly as I do the right for that joke to be in a film.” I think the part missed in all the discussions to date is that using the word “gay” in pejorative way is not, um, funny.

Johnny Weir, interviewed for Eye Weekly, is asked how he feels about the recent rash of gay youth suicides precipitated by bullying, Weir saying “I don’t feel myself as a preacher for anyone aside from people that feels a little but different and feel unique and feel that they want to express themselves. I’m from a tiny, tiny village in the middle of Pennsylvania ... that was literally 99.86 per cent Christian Caucasians. And Amish. To come from there, and be what I am today, it’s – it’s not an easy road. I’ve been bullied nearly every day of my life. Today, how many times was I called ma’am today? I think four times today. Or, you know, constantly being called ‘faggot’ in school. It’s awful. But those things make you stronger. It’s so distressing to see what’s actually happening with these kids that feel so alone and so weak and it’s so sad and I mean, I can relate in a way that I’ve been bullied. I’ve never been hit or beat up. Friends of mine have – have been dragged behind trucks. I am aware of what’s going in the world. But suicide is never the answer. If you want to send a message, live. And live the way that you want to live. And let that be your statement to the world. You have to be strong. Suicide is an easy way out of a problem.”

Shia LaBeouf seen shirtless on the set of Transformers Thursday.

Ryan Gosling spotted on set of Drive Thursday, smoking sexy.