As long as Neil Patrick Harris is already running Hollywood – at least that’s how it seems these days – he might as well participate in some Christmas specials, right? So the How I Met Your Mother star has lent his voice to a new animated holiday special, Yes, Virginia, based on the famous 19th century newspaper editorial column, “Is There A Santa Claus?” The special, about a little girl who wonders about the existence of the jolly old elf, will also feature the voices of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Alfred Molina and, unless drastic modernist rewrites have taken place, will most likely confirm that Santa is, in fact, real. The show airs Dec. 11, a safe, non-competitive three days after A Charlie Brown Christmas. Make sure you have plenty of cocoa on hand.

Last year around this time Romeo reported that The Danish Girl, a feature film about the lives of the world’s first-ever post-operative transgender woman and her devoted wife, would star Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron. Kidman was cast as Einar Wegener, the man who transitions, and Theron as the wife who sticks around for the journey. Not anymore. Theron’s schedule couldn’t be made to fit and now Gwyneth Paltrow has stepped into the role. To be directed by Thomas Alfredson (Let The Right One In), the film will probably see screens in 2011, provided there are no more delays. Both actors have played it queer on screen before, but can Paltrow fill the shoes of the voluptuous, same-sex-kiss-auctioning Theron? Will the lesbians rebel against it all? Stay tuned.

Forgotten what Ian McKellen looks like without an X-Men costume, robes, a long beard or a giant wizard staff? So has he, apparently – and the actor’s out to refresh everyone’s memory with a new comedy series, The Academy, a mockumentary in the style of The Office. Before he runs off to New Zealand to appear in The Hobbit, McKellen is planning to shoot six episodes of the sitcom, in which he’ll play his fictional brother, Murray McKellen, who runs a broken-down drama school. The show is already being shopped to both U.K. and U.S. buyers, although no other cast members have been announced. Great idea: bring in Ricky Gervais as his character from Extras. That’ll bring the sitcom-as-documentary genre full circle.

What “RuPaul’s Drag Race” set in motion is now picking up steam: another drag-based reality show is tottering on giant platform shoes toward TV glory. “Queens of Drag: NYC”, conceived by producer Larry Kennar (“The L Word”), former “Project Runway” contestant Jack Mackenroth and longtime gay porn director John Rutherford, will explore the lives and fashion insanity of New York’s fiercest drag performers. Names like Lady Bunny, Hedda Lettuce, Acid Betty, Mimi Imfurst and Kevin Aviance are already famous to NYC nightlife fans, but now they’ll have their shot at mainstream stardom in this sure-to-be-loud series. Shooting is scheduled to begin any second now, with cable network bidding to follow. Romeo thinks Fine Living Network should air it alongside episodes of “Whatever, Martha!”

You don’t know Jamie Campbell-Bower yet. But you will, and soon, especially if you’re a rabid Twilight or Harry Potter enthusiast. Bower co-stars, however briefly, in New Moon as Caius, leader of the Volturi. What’s that, you ask? Well, the Volturi are a powerful coven of vampires who figure prominently in the upcoming films, and Campbell-Bower is on board as their shocking-white-haired leader. Between those shoots he’ll hop on one of those wizard broom things and fly on over to Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows where, in flashback, he’ll portray Gellert Grindelwald, young Dumbledore’s closest friend and subtext-heavy (now that J.K. Rowling has outed the beloved character) lover. It can be assumed that the young actor isn’t especially worried about getting typecast in fantasy-themed spectacles. But if he does wind up unhappy with that fate, he can always dry his tears with money.

When comedian Kathy Griffin recently took lesbian finance whiz Suze Orman as her date to the Gracie Awards (American Women in Radio in Television’s annual gala), the trash-talking redhead might have had research – not just photo-ops for once – on her mind. Turns out Griffin will be playing a lesbian activist on an upcoming episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” The Emmy-winner is no stranger to episodic TV, but her appearance on “SVU” will mark the first time in quite a while where she’s appeared on a network series playing a character other than herself. So yeah, the queen of all gay-adjacent media plays a gay lady herself, and it’s another excuse to watch Chris Meloni for an hour. This win-win situation airs on Feb. 10.

Former “ER” crush – and the world’s most famous Croatian actor – Goran Visnjic has joined the cast of Beginners, the indie drama currently in production from writer-director Mike Mills (Thumbsucker). It stars Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer and early reports are that Plummer plays a man who comes out of a lifelong closet after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. The role of Plummer’s new, younger admirer falls to Visnjic, with McGregor playing Plummer’s shocked son. So while this may annoy McGregor’s gay following – his career to date as been marked by a well-documented, enthusiastic willingness to have an on-screen love scene with either gender – there will be no make-out moments between him and Visnjic. Fans of intergenerational romance, however, may now have a date movie to call their own.

Two new projects, one definitively queer and one simply featuring men in tight, acid-wash jeans, are headed to screens big and bigger. Actor-writer Dan Futterman (The Birdcage, Capote) and his wife Anya Epstein are aiming their pilot T (as in testosterone injections) in HBO’s direction. Based on a story first heard on the radio program “This American Life,” the half-hour drama will center on a woman who transitions to male. Meanwhile, Rock of Ages, Broadway’s goofy hair-metal extravaganza, is coming to the big screen under the direction of Hairspray’s choreographer-director Adam Shankman (currently seen as a judge on “So You Think You Can Dance”). Finally, all that guyliner and styling gel will get the proper context. Neither project has a cast yet. Stay tuned here for more details.