OZ RESORT PLANS 'ANYTHING GOES' PARTY • Now that AIDS is cured, go nuts (don't get herpes, though): "An Australian holiday resort will hold a month-long, nude "anything goes" party to combat an expected economic downturn, media reports said on Thursday. 'Tough economic times call for stiff measures,' Tony Fox, the owner of the White Cockatoo resort in Mossman, in tropical Queensland state, told the Courier-Mail newspaper. 'It will be a hedonism resort, where anything goes for a month. It doesn't take rocket science to work out what it means,' Fox said…"

HAS AIDS BEEN CURED? • "An American man who suffered from AIDS appears to have been cured of the disease 20 months after receiving a targeted bone marrow transplant normally used to fight leukemia, his doctors said. While researchers - and the doctors themselves - caution that the case might be no more than a fluke, others say it may inspire a greater interest in gene therapy to fight the disease that claims 2 million lives each year. The virus has infected 33 million people worldwide." CONTINUED »

LIBERACE BIOPIC IN THE WORKS "Fresh off his sale of 'Che' to IFC Films, Steven Soderbergh has set his sights on directing a very different sort of biopic about Liberace, with Michael Douglas his first choice to play the flamboyant pianist, Variety reports. … Discussions are under way to cast Matt Damon as Scott Thorson, who sued Liberace for palimony, despite the glittery performer’s persistent denials that he was gay. Thorson settled his claim in 1986, and Liberace died in 1987 of complications due to AIDS."

The Republican National Convention attempted to match the star-studded DNC with a comedic routine by First Lady Laura Bush, who took to the stage to defend her husband's 8-year mistake.

'America is in the middle of a heated campaign,' she said, '… but you haven’t heard very many facts.'

'In honor of our nominee,' she continued, 'let’s call this a little straight talk.' The First Lady proceeded to tick down a list of President George W. Bush’s accomplishments, including the 'No Child Left Behind' education changes, freedom for Iraq and Afghanistan and HIV-AIDS relief in Africa.

'You might call that change you can really believe in,' she said with a grin.

Or we could call it a load of crock.

[Source]

• It's the first picture of Nicole Kidman's baby Sunday. Except … we can't see her. At all. [DListed]

• Shia LaBeouf will not have his pinky finger amputated. That sound you hear is the entire Indiana Jones cast and crew breathing a huge sigh of relief. [ICYDK]

• Ashley Olsen has decided Starbucks is so 2007. [PS]

• Saint Angelina Jolie will build an AIDS clinic in daughter Zahara's homeland of Ethiopia. She really can do no wrong as of late. [INO]

• Jessica Alba popped out her baby and got back on the chair. [CityRag]

• Naked pictures of a 2004 Christina Aguilera would be more exciting if it were, you know, four years ago. [Yeeeah]

Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag ruined one of the most beloved children's characters at an AIDS benefit yesterday in LA. Barney would have been infinitely cooler had he eaten the reality show losers, so now he's kind of dead to me.

[Source]

An excerpt from the Observer's Chris Crocker interview:

If you could bring a celeb back from the dead, who would it be, and why?

I would bring back John Holmes so that he could fuck me. That dick was too pretty.

John Holmes died of AIDS!

Also: Crocker's mother had him when she was 14, he has an eighth grade education and he believes 9/11 was an "inside job."

• Sacha Baron Cohen stuffed his crotch for Sweeney Todd. No idea why. [Queerty]

• "In my lifetime, from World War II on, life got freer and freer until herpes, then AIDS. That was the end, ask any bar owner. Things moved to the right." [DListed]

• The Gossip Girl boy is gossiping with girls at a basketball game. Oh boy! [PS]

• Most of the hookers we've seen in New York have "hooker flip flops with holes in the soles" and "hooker crippling drug addictions," not leather "hooker boots." [HT]

• No makeup. That's what we like to see. [INO]

• Madonna's new album will not be titled Licorice. What a relief, huh? [ICYDK]

• For her babies, Jennifer Lopez wants a bunch of impractical stuff that's absurdly expensive. How incongruous with the miracle of life. [Yeeeah]

• People write all over this city, and, when it's not racist, it can be really great. [CityRag]

Sharon Stone has followed fellow actor George Clooney to Dubai for that city's film festival.

Rather than premiering a film in the Arab nation, Stone is debuting the amfAR foundation to the UAE, hopefully meaning she's abandoned acting for her true calling: Being a gaudy spectacle people attach to good things they want to get noticed.

CONTINUED »

Duly upset copywriter Copyranter shared with us this hoaxish find: A "leaked" Sarah Silverman song called "Happy AIDS Day, Anyway," which was supposedly part of Gap's (Product) Red campaign before being shelved. Maybe someone who wanted to not get fired thought better of releasing lyrics like this:

I'm not black
I'm not gay
And Africa is so far away
But what's one more December holiday?
Happy AIDS Day anyway

Yikes! And if that didn't get your toes tapping, there's more:

CONTINUED »

• Since he can't screw them he's taken to screwing with them. [DListed]

• Brooke Burke in another bikini. I wonder if she has warm ones for the winter. [HT]

• Don't you dare say anything about Giada, you cruel harlots! [Glitterati]

• Christian Bale promises Heath Ledger will be doing a "different" Joker. Which just means worse than Jack Nicholson. [ICYDK]

• George Michael being a vanguard in the gay community and refusing to get an HIV test. And the band plays on! [Yeeeah]

• "Oh, drugs drugs! Then, yes!" [CityRag]

Vanity Fair's July issue, an Africa-themed edition guest-edited by Bono, will feature 20 different star-studded cover photos taken by Annie Liebovitz. The goal of the shoot, Bono said, was to "bring some sex appeal to the idea of wanting to change the world." Here's a thought, Bono: try bringing some money to the idea of wanting to change the world.

To be sure, what this whole pitiful—surely catered—charade amounts to is nothing more than rich people with the best of intentions exerting very little effort in the hopes that it will make a difference. But despite their aspirations, the fact is that this gesture will probably prove to be relatively meaningless.

CONTINUED »

Jenna Jameson was a guest at this past weekend's Life Party in Vienna, using her celebrity to raise money for and heighten awareness about AIDS research. Event organizers said Jenna was a perfect choice to be a featured celebrity at an AIDS benefit, because just looking at her reminds one to not do drugs or have unprotected sex.

[Source]