ABOVE: Bodybuilding god Mickey Hargitay would be 98 today.

BELOW: Keep reading for Zac Efron, Barry Manilow and other gay topics ...

The Iron Claw-some (Image via W Magazine)

SOCIALITE LIFE: W Magazine is honoring some actors as having given among the year's best performances, but only some actors were available and others seem to be hoping W's exposure will give them a much-needed last-minute lift ahead of Oscar nominations.

HUFF POST: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), who just vetoed an anti-trans bill, has now banned ALL gender-affirming surgeries for trans youth (gee, I bet someone under 18 can still get a nosejob and a boob job ... ), and added barriers for ADULTS seeking the procedures.

MY NEW PLAID PANTS: Parker Posey is coming to The White Lotus. We finally won.

EW.COM: Christina Aguilera has postponed some of her Vegas shows already — the flu. (If this were Madonna, it would be a three-day story. In fact, fake postponements WERE a three-day story, lol.) Christina looks fantastic, BTW, and I can't even get some starter Wegovy!

Show time! (Image via Continental Baths)

THR: We had to wait until he turned 8o, but Barry Manilow is finally chatting about his gay-bathhouse days. However, he's still somewhat reticent:

I ask Manilow — who came out officially in 2017 after decades of public speculation — if the Continental Baths hastened any kind of awakening in his own sexual development. 

“At that point I wasn’t sure about that,” he says. “There were a lot of us in the world that had yet to figure it out.”

“I mean, the show was literally in a gay bathhouse,” I say.

“What do you think, they were fucking in front of us?” he asks. “They were just an audience. A great audience, too.”

“Well, it’s just a very unusual venue,” I reply.

“It’s unusual, I agree. But for me, it was a job for 75 bucks.”

NYT: The Ackmans, billionaires who pushed for the firing of Harvard's Claudine Gay (who resigned under relentless pressure) are now receiving the same scrutiny.

CBS NEWS: White billionaires abhor diversity? I'm shocked!

YOUTUBE: President Biden's Pennsylvania speech was fiery and historically resonant. Plus, he nearly called Trump a sick fuck. (I think if he began cursing Trump out, it would only help his standing, and it would be funny to listen to Trumpers cry foul about profanity.)

TWITTER: Newly released video shows part of the confrontation between Capitol cops and the mob that attempted insurrection exactly three years ago today. I don't care if it's your mom, dad, best friend, husband, pal — WHOMEVER it is — but if they're voting for Trump, they're voting for the end of democracy, for the hanging of congresspeople by vigilantes, for QAnon (note in the video the part where someone in the mob brings up pedophilia, which the right things infiltrates every space of life now):

NEW:

Dramatic new Jan. 6 video shows two GOP representatives speaking with Capitol rioters through the broken windows of the House chamber doors as officers point weapons at the mob attempting to breach the floor.

This evidence was released in response to a request by @NBCNews. pic.twitter.com/ZL5kgGlFzi

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) January 6, 2024

BUSINESS INSIDER: A straight woman hit on a gay man accidentally, and their story went viral. Robert Rodi should quickly write an e-book.

NBC NEWS: Vanessa Joy, a trans woman running for public office in Ohio, was disqualified — because she wouldn't use/disclose her former aka deadname. Come the fuck on. And before anyone says she should've just complied with the law, she says she would have. It was not a law she knew about until she was disqualified:

It’s a barrier to entry for many trans and gender-nonconforming people. Where I personally would have just bit the bullet and allowed my deadname to be on the petitions and likely on the ballot, for a lot of trans people, they don’t want their deadnames printed. It’s a safety concern for many.

TWITTER: Cher is proud of her May/December romance, so posted a loving image to commemorate it. Of course, the comments include people bringing up Jeffrey Epstein and pedophilia. Her boyfriend is 38 years of age,

Love is Love pic.twitter.com/WE7PCpiezZ

— Cher (@cher) January 6, 2024