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I found it! TIME Magazine was the culprit. In the very last paragraph of this story, he mentions that he’s been living with a man for three years and that he now describes himself as a “queer artist.”
 
I’m not as upset as I was. TIME’s story isn’t called “Michael Stipe is GAY!”, and the admission doesn’t seem to have been dropped as a bombshell. So it’s not as exploitative and promotional as I thought. I guess he just wanted to try and slip it in there under the radar. Good for him. I’m gonna stop talking about it now, because it isn’t anybody’s business but his.
 
(Although I will snarkily remark that this makes yet another similarity between Stipey and my ex.)

R.E.M. Wierdness: This is so odd. Last night Nick tried to tell me that Michael Stipe came out and announced he was gay. He claims he heard it on the radio. I scoffed and told him that he shouldn’t believe it, because people have been questioning Stipe’s sexuality for years and he’s always said that he felt it was his own private business. And besides, I said, everybody knows that radio stations get all their news from the Internet anyway, so who are ya gonna believe?
 
The weirdness, though, is that this morning Snookums reported hearing this rumor on “This Morning with Richard and Judy”, the UK’s most popular breakfast show. So what’s going on? He didn’t, did he? I mean, timing it to the release of his new album (“Reveal”) is just a tad too promotional for my tastes. I’ve been trying to find confirmation on any news sites (I know, I know – a bit hypocritical given my statement to Nick) and I can’t find it anywhere. Rolling Stone‘s got nothin’, and R.E.M.’s site is mum as well. Have you heard? Can you point me to a concrete source?

R.E.M. News: (I actually wrote this Monday afternoon, but Blogger problems… yada yada yada. When I say “tomorrow”, I actually mean “Tuesday.”) So everybody knows that the new R.E.M. album is supposed to come out tomorrow, right? I decided to look online this morning to see if any of the record stores near me would be open at midnight to sell it. When I went to TowerRecords.co.uk, though, they claimed it was already for sale. So at lunch I headed up to the nearest record store but didn’t see it. When I asked the lady, she said that it was on sale but had already sold out that morning. Poodoo. So I dragged Snookums up the street to the nearest Virgin V.shop where I hit the jackpot. Hooray! I got my beloved R.E.M. plus Burt Bacharach’s Greatest Hits for good measure. We made a quick pit stop at Pret a Manger for lunch, and then it was back to the office to give my new treasure a listen.
 
So far, I like “Reveal” a lot. I’d already managed to collect about half the songs off Napster, but they sound even better within the context of the rest of the album. I like the first single “Imitation of Life” (that’s the one they performed all over British TV last week), but I think that my personal favorite right now is “I’ll Take the Rain.” It’s nice to hear Mike singing again. I’m not quite used to the new Brian-Wilson-type sound, but it’s growing on me. “Beat a Drum” is nice too. Heck, it’s all good, but those are the ones that I immediately reacted to. Have you gotten it yet? What do you think? (Damn, I wish I had a comment box for this!)
 
And before I forget, check out R.E.M. A to Z at Rolling Stone’s site. I couldn’t get the video clips to work, but it was very cool to read reviews from the entire back catalog.

“You can get a condom over your head if you want to.” Uh, I’ll take her word for it.

How do you write a “news” article about a rumor nobody wants to utter? You write about the denial.

I’m a sucker for headlines like this: “Smugglers recipe for smoked monkey meat”.

Who in the world is going to go to a Dracula theme park? I can see the marketing slogan now: “The Goth-est Place on Earth!”

I love the French. They’ve gotten themselves so worked up over a new “Big Brother”-type show that 80 protestors stormed the site and tried to “liberate” the contestants. They were pushed back by security guards with tear gas. See? In America we just bitch about crap television, but Europeans actually stage revolutions.

Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler gettin’ it on? Now that’s a book I’d like to read. (Link courtesy of NowThis.com.)

WHOA! They’re gonna make red Mountain Dew? I gotta try me some of this when I go home in a few weeks…