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Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. (October 29, 2010): Amanda Palmer wants to save the music industry, Rachel Maddow gets her man

Robyn. The Swedish songstress may be straight, but she threw a bone to her lesbian friends with her new video for “Indestructible.”

Coronation Street. The soap has extended Sacha Parkinson’s contract into the next year and promises more lesbians. Magic words!

Anna Silk. The actress took time off from her new show Lost Girl to reprise her lesbian role on Being Erica. Unfortunately, there was no rekindled romance.

True Blood. The show is adding several new female characters, including an Asian cage fighter who is interested in other women. Alan Ball really does make dreams come true.

Fable 3. A video game that allows you to marry your same-sex partner? It’s even better than real life!

k.d. lang. The most lesbian thing about Glee‘s Christmas album will be k.d.’s duet with Matt Morrison. Hey, it’s something!

More Magazine. Jane Lynch is this month’s cover woman, following last month’s model Jodie Foster. Is More the new Curve? (Actually Curve will be the new Curve soon.)

The Veronicas. The twin sisters joined Aussie’s Wear It With Pride equality campaign, saying they were inspired by the way the press handled Jess’ bisexuality.

Nurse Jackie. The lesbian moms will be making a return this season, with a slight change: Judith Light is stepping in for Blythe Danner. But we’re OK with that, and trust the lesbian writers on staff of the awesomely gay show.

Florida. Attorney General McCollum has decided not to appeal the ruling against the gay adoption ban in Florida. Now couples will only be evaluated on the quality of home they can provide for the children. Welcome to the 21st century Florida!.

Jolene. A new movie featuring an older lesbian that teaches a young woman how to, uh, engage her. It looks like many films we’ve seen before, the kinds you watch with your hands over your eyes, while groaning and saying “Noooo.”

KETK. The Texas NBC affiliate this week asked viewers “Will the acceptance of homosexuality be the fall of America?” Thanks to heat applied from GLAAD and other activist organizations, they will “pull the segment from their site, cancel re-airings, meet with the owners of KTTB radio (where the piece originated) as well as rethink how they use the radio station’s content for future broadcasts.” KTTB radio also posted an apology on their web site. That’s a good start.

Dexter. The show completely wasted the talents of Kate Moennig, using her for a two-minute bit in which she played a mildly predatory lesbian interested in Deb. She was shut down and ended up not being much help. What Would Shane Do (WWSD)?

Essence. The Nigerian singer said she rejects lesbian rumors about her because being gay is “nasty and dirty.” It probably would have been more convincing to say something like “I wish it were true, but no, I’m straight.” Well maybe not convincing, but at least less offensive.

Marvel. The Runaways movie is being put on hold because there are too many other comic book film projects in the works right now. Shocking that the one they choose to put off stars mostly women.

Syfy The network has canceled Caprica, effectively erasing a bisexual female character from our television sets. Don’t they know we’re in it for the long haul? Perhaps they haven’t caught up on our recaps yet.

Star magazine. Kim Zolciak is reportedly pregnant so, naturally, it’s time for that scoop on Kim’s ex-fling from months ago, DJ Tracy Young. Isn’t the 15 minutes already up for this story?

Twisting quotes. Portia DeGeneres gave an interview about her new memoir, which included references to her once being closeted and hiding her eating disorder. Quotes from it were misappropriated by several news outlets and twisted into “being a lesbian made Portia anorexic.” Let’s hope that isn’t ultimately the message that people take from reading her book (or the interview).

The Game. The rapper sent out homophobic Tweets and later clarified that he was OK with lesbians (like Ellen DeGeneres). Sorry, you don’t really get to pick and choose like that, Game. You offended us all in one Tweet.

Clint McCance. The Arkansas Midland School Board Vice President celebrated the suicides of gay teens and deaths of people with AIDS on his Facebook page. The Arkansas Department of Education “strongly condemns remarks or attitudes of this kind“. The good news is that McCance is resigning.

Emil Wilbekin, managing editor of Essence.com, on the first lesbian couple featured in”Bridal Bliss”

Jane Lynch, on her Glee co-stars and their controversial photoshoot for GQ

Portia DeGeneres to The Australian Women’s Weekly, on falling for her wife, Ellen

– Filmmaker Nicole Conn, on meeting her partner

Charlotte Church, on being threatened by t.A.T.u. fans after she said the duo couldn’t sing

This week, Amanda Palmer talked with The Huffington Post about her insane schedule, discovering a street musician and her theories about saving the music industry.

Basically, the woman’s been beyond busy and more like a real-life superhero in the past three months. She’s starred in a Boston production of Cabaret (which was sold out for three months), organized a 10th Anniversary Tour of The Dresden Dolls, self-released an EP (Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukelele) and participated in multiple other recording projects and after-hours performances.

So how does she do it all? Palmer explained that the key to not getting run down and staying focused is a daily yoga and meditation practice. “You have to make the time to take care of yourself in that way or your insides get chipped away,” she said

The future of the music industry, a hot topic, has also been weighing on Amanda’s mind. She thinks Radiohead was brilliant for releasing their last album for free, and the industry should move towards a more patron-based business model. After all, digital sharing of content is not likely to go away anytime soon.

“I don’t think people give enough credit to people who love music and that they actually like supporting it. [The music industry] doesn’t have enough faith in people to see that … it’s not just about money and the bottom line, and dollars and cents, and I don’t think they realize how good it makes people feel to support artists. People actively love giving money to artists who touch them and change them, or make them dance,” Palmer said.

Palmer recently started a Kickstarter (online crowdfunding project) for Tristan Allen, a piano player she met on the street. The kickstarter goal was $3,000 to produce his album, but they ended up raising $9,000.

“It’s also such a web 4.0 phenomenon with Tristan because I think a lot of the people who funded the album were literally reading my Twitter feed when I ran into the kid on the street,” Palmer said.

Amanda has about half a million followers on Twitter, and you could say she’s something of a “celebrity favorite” because she actually interacts with her followers and has from day one. Her reason for starting a kickstarter for a kid she met on the street: Why not?

“Maybe I should take my one weekend off and – in parentheses, this is why I f–king suffer, but that’s fine – and make a record with the kid; why not? And that’s also where I get into trouble, that’s where we veer into the conversation of Amanda, why are you such a wreck. It’s because I want to do everything. So much is possible, and I want to do it all!”

Palmer said that, at any given moment, she’s not sure if she’s doing the right thing but that all options seem open and possible and she tries to go for what makes her happy.

“I find it hilarious,” Palmer said, “especially when young musicians come up to me and say, you obviously have all the answers, what am I supposed to do? And I just look at them and laugh heartily – because if they think I’ve got it figured out – I mean, good God.”

The Dresden Dolls 10th Anniversary Tour kicks off on Halloween night in New York.

– Megan Hargroder

This week we had many great contenders for this slot, so we’re posting a couple of videos. First up, watch in amazement as Rachel Maddow doesn’t lose her cool (or patience) or let Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller evade her questions about his stance on gay rights.

And the following video is brought to you by Ethos and The LGBT Aging Project. Our community elders offer some wisdom (and humor) when explaining why they believe “It Gets Better.”

Finally, if you haven’t seen the “It Gets Better” Project video by out opera singers (and real life wives) Patricia Racette and Beth Clayton, you should totally watch it here. (Is it just us, or is Racette channeling Dr. Arizona Robbins in this clip?)

New York Magazine offers “Eight Reasons Why You Should Catch Up With Skins Before MTV Airs Its Remake.” We suggest you do so by reading Heather Hogan‘s recaps here.

Lesbian comedy duo That’s What She Said will be performing a show to benefit The Trevor Project in Los Angeles on Nov. 6.

(Warning: Spoilers!) Unless this means a Grey’s Anatomy spin-off set in an exotic locale, we’re not convinced that this is good news.

We’re not sure, but we think our brother site, AfterElton.com, may have outed Bert from Sesame Street.

Follow this link to see spoilers about the Carol Burnett/Jane Lynch storyline on Glee.

Out DJ Kim Ann Foxman has a new project, MR. INTL, with her Hercules & Love Affair partner-in-crime Andy Butler. Check out this preview of some of their new tracks on XLR8R.

TV writer Jill Soloway (United States of Tara, Six Feet Under) and her lesbian sis Faith Soloway are contributors to a new book on sibling relationships, Freud’s Blind Spot. The Rumups ran an excerpt of them interviewing each other, and the book will be available Nov. 16.

The Comedy Network will be live streaming John Stewart’s Rally for Sanity in Washington, D.C. this Saturday, October 30 from 12 – 3 p.m.

Have you read our new lesbian wedding column? Check out “Chicks Getting Hitched” by Meg Streit.

Betty White is all for gay marriage.

Liz Feldman is back with the funny this week in a new episode of This Just Out, featuring returning guest Tegan Quin of Tegan and Sara.

Our sibling site, 365Gay.com has a list of “13 Races to Worry About November 2 and Why They Matter to the LGBT Community.” If this doesn’t inspire you to vote, what will?

Biggest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels is getting very sweaty for GoDaddy.com.

On a recent episode of Children’s Hospital, Malin Akerman and Zandy Hartig felt the heat in the hallway.

Ever wonder what it would be like to spend the day with Jasika Nicole on the set of Fringe?

Next week on the Canadian Space show Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, Katie Strain will play “Delilah or Dee, a vegan indie punk lesbian.” Canadians, tune in Nov. 3 for the episode, or watch the next day at spacecast.com.

That’s it for this week! Got the inside scoop on a hot new lesbian/bi actor/musician/TV show/film? Tell us at [email protected]. Check back next Friday for another edition of Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever.

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