Hey, guys! Remember earlier this month when Neil Patrick Harris offhandedly used the word “tranny” and people got angry? Because the word isn’t really that funny? And because your being gay doesn’t earn you a “pass” for using certain slurs? (I mean, NPH is my patron saint and all, but let’s not be cavepeople, here.)

Yeah, well. Lance Bass was co-hosting an episode of Access Hollywood Live, and he was right in the midst of interviewing Funny or Die‘s Billy Eichner when the word just kind of tumbled out of Bass’s big mouth.

Billy Eichner was quick to call Lance out, if a little sardonically: “We’re not supposed to call them ‘trannies,’ though, did you see that?” After all, NPH got a ton of flack for that very mistake, Eichner went on to point out.

Lance Bass tried his best to play it off: “Oh, great, now I’m gonna get in trouble. Awesome.”

Then he said, a little sheepishly, “I didn’t get the memo.” The goof seemed innocent enough? Maybe? I don’t know.

No one was particularly apologetic—which is almost understandable, because copping to an error on live TV is a great way to underscore an error instead of just letting it slide off the radar where it belongs—but then co-anchor Kit Hoover wondered aloud what we’re supposed to call them now. She wondered this out loud. She asked this multiple times.

And everything had been twee till then, but when Hoover made those remarks, my jaw actually dropped. I just can’t even…!

Eichner stared at her for a long time before dismissing her question with a quip, but the whole thing was horrifying.

Let me add that, while the use of “tranny” offends me, so did Eichner’s exclamation of “Jesus Christ!” On live television. Come on, people: your daytime audience is right here in the U.S. Bible Belt. Knock it off.

I mean, it’s not like I’m tuning into Access Hollywood for champagne and caviar, but this whole thing was just tacky. Ugh. If you can’t do live television without also behaving like horrible people, use the teleprompter already.

Yes, Lance Bass is producing a boy band called Heart2Heart and appearing in their music videos. Gee, that’s something, Lance Bass.  That’s really something.

Even if you don’t care about Lance Bass, please just do yourself a favor and watch this glorious music video. The song is called “Facebook Official,” ok? Do you really need another reason?

Man, sometimes I hit the boy band stuff hard around here, don’t I? But you love it, right? Right?!

Well, even if you didn’t care about one of the Backstreet Boys checking into rehab (and for shame if you did not!), you almost HAVE to care about this news. Because this news involves Bobby Brown. Are you sold yet? No? Ok, let me explain.

Beautiful Lance Bass is apparently making reality shows these days, and he wants to do his own singing competition show, natch. Except, of course, there’s a catch: no girls allowed! Because it’s all about boy bands, get it? Let’s let Lance explain:

“It’s a really great music show, starring all your favorite boy bands. It’s going to be really fun,” Bass says. “I got a member from Backstreet Boys, A.J. McLean. A member from *NSYNC, Joey Fatone. A member from New Kids on the Block, Joe McIntyre. And a member from New Edition, Bobby Brown. They’re all going to form a boy band, each, from the most talented guys in America that I’ve scouted, and then they’ll go head-to-head in a competition to see who the best band is, so it’s bragging rights for the guy in the group, for sure.” Well, almost: Bass admits that Brown hasn’t officially signed on yet. “I think Bobby will do it,” Bass says. “I think he’d love it.”

I don’t see how Bobby couldn’t love it, Lance. I truly don’t.

Ok, maybe not the world, but at least an Oscar.

Remember The Social Network?  I don’t, because I didn’t see it (until they make a movie about Neopets or Youporn, I doubt I’ll be interested enough to see a movie about a website), but the rest of the world did, including Lance Bass.  And like many people, Lance had strong feelings about it:

“I think ‘The Social Network’ just made sense for everyone. It was something that everyone had in common. Everyone could relate to it. Even I finally got a Facebook page, and honestly, it changed my life. The movie captured that revolution, and Justin helped capture that revolution.”

When Lance was asked if he thinks Justin deserves an Oscar, he responded with “Of course! Justin did an amazing job in the movie. He was incredible.”  Lance also said that Justin “blew me away.”

I’ve seen Justin on SNL and in Model Behavior and everything, but an Oscar, really?  Maybe I’m just way too attached to “Sexy Back” Justin and “Tearin’ Up My Heart” Justin, but this seems like a little much.  On the other hand, I’ve only seen clips, so maybe some magic happened that I don’t know about.  So you guys tell me – does Justin deserve an Oscar?

Thank God so many celebrities are stepping out to talk about bullying in schools after the suicides two gay teens have been making headlines. This is a subject that’s been deserving of our attention for so long because it’s always been a problem. Hell, I am not even gay and I still got called a dyke like, every single day of middle and high school.

But Lance Bass’ confession that he was a closet gay teen who bullied other gay teens mildly upsets me. Sure, that’s one possible reason that students are gay-bashing in the hallways, but general homophobia and ignorance seems like it effects much more of the population. Getting kids to stop bullying other kids because they might come off as closeted doesn’t really seem like the best way to convince people that it’s wrong.

And since we’re probably not going to cure a lot of the population’s ignorance before they die off, I’d also like to bring your attention to this video that sex columnist Dan Savage and his husband posted on their YouTube page. The It Gets Better Project is designed so that gay teens living in rural areas or feeling unaccepted in their environment have something to watch to let them know that there isn’t anything more difficult than being an unaccepted gay teen, but if you stick it through the rough years, you can have a wonderful, open and fulfilled life.

Dan Savage and his husbo are my favorite people, BTW.

Lance Bass recently posted these photos on his Facebook, taken at a recent photo shoot by Mike Ruiz.  And I don’t get it.

Ok, Nsync has been over for years, so it’s not like he’s trying to break away from that wholesome image.  He came out a few years ago, so it’s not really like a cheeky “fuck all y’all, I rock makeup too, go ahead and suck it.”  And he never went to space like he wanted to.  I don’t know how that’s immediately relevant, it just always disappointed me.

I’m not trying to judge you, Lance Bass.  I mean, whatever you want to do, that’s cool, I’ll support you.  You wanna wear makeup and weird eyebrows and hair that doesn’t make you look like a frat boy from the late 90′s, that’s cool.  It doesn’t matter, because I recognize that it’s just about respect, and you get me hyped and you do it to me every time (this is an ok demographic to quote Nsync lyrics to, right?).

Then I had a chance to talk to Lindsey Vuolo, Playmate Extraordinaire. She was at Kendra’s wedding and they’re close friends, so of course I had to ask her about Kendra’s impending motherhood. I mean, this is a girl who can’t keep her room even remotely clean — how’s she gonna raise a baby? “She is going to be a great mom,” says Lindsey, “because she wants to be a mom. She wanted to be married, she wanted to have a baby. She looks crazy and stupid on TV, but she is really a good person and she has a great family. She’ll learn, like we all do. I mean, it’s a baby, so I think she realizes she needs to be a little more responsible, but she’ll definitely have help. Her mom and her grandmother are fantastic. I wish her the best.”

Here’s Lindsey on the red carpet:

Then I grabbed Housewife Danielle Staub for a photo and interview. I have to admit, she looked really pretty when I first saw her on the carpet and in the club, but the camera flash kind of did away with all that. (I can’t say it did me any favors either). I stood next to her for this photo and I swear her tits are made of rubber. Too funny. But you know what? I kind of thought she was awesome. She’s had scandal after scandal dug up about her — she was a stripper, she abused drugs, she’s been arrested — but she’s kept a positive attitude about it all. “I didn’t know that people would dig up things [when I signed up for the show], but I’m kind of really relived it happened the way it did,” she says. “I kind of wish people would leave my past in the past and let me tell my own story. And I’m about to do that … I’m writing a book.” But as for all the stories from her past — which she’s admitted are true — she says it’s freeing to have that all out there. “It’s almost like taking those tights off at the end of the day.”

Last, I talked to Kelly Bensimon — who divorced photographer Gilles Bensimon in 2007. I didn’t take a photo with Kelly. I didn’t want to be anywhere near a photo with Kelly. She is way too freakishly gorgeous in person. Totally unreal. So of course I had to ask her about her beauty regime. “I use body scrub every day and use a Neutrogena body oil on my skin, keeps my skin really soft,” she told me. “I drink a ton of water. And I sleep a lot. I really don’t drink that much, and I think that’s one of the reasons I look the way that I look. I’m not one of those people who is always on a diet, I just exercise and take care of myself and live a healthy life. I think of the word ‘diet’ as ‘die’ with a ‘t.’” Kelly’s launching a line of costume jewelry, so I asked her about her favorite fashion trend right now. “Shorts,” she says. “Shorts are like the new mini. You can run around and have fun in them but you still feel covered.” Kelly was, of course, looking absolutely stunning in a pair of glittery silver shorts, which I’m sure I never could have afforded, let alone looked good in. But she? Looked fabulous.

Lance Bass walked the red carpet really quickly, didn’t do many interviews, and then spent the rest of the night holed up in the VIP area texting away, Lohan-style. So I didn’t get a chance to talk with him, but I did grab him and make him take a photo with me, and he was really sweet about it, even though I’m pretty sure he was very annoyed with me:

And what would the end of the night be without a crazy non-celeb photo shoot on the red carpet? Yes, of course, my friend Kate and I hopped right on up there and made random people on the street take our photos. The fabulous end result?

All in all? Exactly what an NYC party should be like. We had a blast. And now? I must sleep.

That’s right everyone.  There are now awards for paying common respect to one another.  The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, the people responsible for this, “recognize individual and corporate leaders who have helped propel GLSEN’s efforts to ensure safe schools for all of America’s students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.”  I applaud the agenda and cannot understate its importance.  

Since there are now awards for everything, I want my own “You didn’t run over any old ladies this week” phallic looking award thingy.  I mean, I’m showing respect to the elderly.  I deserve it.

There have been rumors for several months now, but I think Lance Bass has made it official by dragging hottie (married!) trainer Sebastian Leal to Puerto Rico with him for the grand opening of Brother Jimmy’s BBQ in San Juan. Looks like Lance has a new lover boy.

Granted, Sebastian’s been separated from his wife, Jessica Gannon, for years now (and it may well have been a green card marriage, since he was born in Brazil), but still. Scandalicious!!!

As I mentioned earlier, I had the chance to chat last week with Danielle Fishel (aka Topanga Lawrence!), who’s promoting her new show The Dish on the Style network, which premieres this Saturday. The full interview is now up on Film.com (read it here), but here are some excerpts:

Film.com: Katie Holmes has recently been photographed wearing those peg-and-roll jeans, and the LA Times did a piece on how that look is coming back. What’s your take on that?

DF: Awful. Absolutely awful. How do we boycott this? How do we create a rally and say, “We’re not going to take it anymore!” No. I say no. I’m putting my foot down. The real women of the world need to put out a statement saying, “No. We’re not going to accept this. Change to something else. Find a different trend you want us to follow!”

See? Danielle agrees with me!

She also opened up to me about her relationship with Lance Bass, a guy she adores to this day and about whom she has nothing but positive things to say.

Film.com: … You dated Lance Bass before he was openly gay. I just have to ask you: Were you guys sleeping together? What was the physical part of it like for you?

DF: No, we were not sleeping together. We never slept together. I was seventeen. I was a really good girl. I didn’t lose my virginity until much later in life. Lance and I talked about the fact that we weren’t going to sleep together, and his reason was, you know, “I’m always on the road. We don’t get to spend as much time together as we’d like, and this is going to be a really special time in your life. I don’t want to share something that intimate and then take off and leave for a month.” Which, at seventeen years old, I completely respected. We traveled a lot together, once I turned eighteen, and we stayed in the same room, but we never did actually consummate the relationship.

Make sure to read the full interview here — we talk about her hair, her DUI and Tyra Banks — and catch Danielle on The Dish this Saturday.

1) It is, both literally and figuratively, totally gay.

2) When Reichen wakes up one day and realizes that he is not at all a homosexual, I don’t want him to be mad at me.

You can read about it here.

Let’s review all the possible meanings of “pulled a Britney.” Is it:

1) Showed the world his vagina?
2) Fought a car with an umbrella?
3) Shaved his head?
4) Checked in and out of rehab three times while you were asleep?
5) Married Kevin Federline?

No, no, kids, it’s none of the above.

As it turns out, Lance Bass once got hitched in Vegas.

“I’ve been in Vegas where I’ve gotten married for like five minutes, but no one talks about it, though.”

Bass, who was part of the boy band ‘N Sync, says he got hitched in “1999 or 2000,” and the bride was “just a friend.”

“In fact, the only reason we did it is because we wanted to get free drinks all night … and we didn’t get one,” he says. “We’re like, `we just got married,’ and they’re like, `ah, whatever.’”

Oh, and, hey, this little revelation happens to coincide with Lance hyping his new book, the title of which is … oh, God, I can’t even say it. Soooooooooo gay.