The Sundance Film Festival, where serious indies get scooped up for distribution at prices they’ll never match at the box office, is right around the corner. And one of the highlights is sure to be The Extra Man, from writers Jonathan Ames and Shari Springer Berman (who co-wrote and co-directed the awesome American Splendor) and directed by Robert Pulcini (the other half of that Splendor team). The film stars Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), John C. Reilly, Katie Holmes and Kevin Kline, and the story couldn’t be more retro-gay if it tried. Klein plays a “walker,” an older gay man who squires society ladies to the theater and Dano stars as his young protégé, a man struggling with both his sexual orientation and his penchant for female drag. There’s no word on whether this film is set in 2010 or 1959, but there’s definitely a deliciously old-school feeling Romeo is getting from the plot synopsis. Vive le shadowy underworld of vintage gayness!

It was, perhaps, inevitable. When a popular film franchise gears up for its third outing, it’s only logical that the ridiculous combined spirits of Friday the 13th 3D and Jaws 3D find their way into a development person’s mind. And so it’s literally a no-brainer for someone to have come up with the concept for Jackass 3D. The feature, set to star Johnny Knoxville and the rest of the aging teenage men in his crew (and to be released late in 2010), begins shooting at the end of January. And it surely will – there can be no doubt about this – contain all the body fluids and extremely gay below-the-belt antics it can think of to aim straight at your face. Not ready to deal with Chris Pontius’s penis (and who knows what else) on that level? Then you might consider sitting it out until the small-screen incarnation hits stores and that first wave of 3D TVs come along.

Ask your favorite media-immersed, comedy-loving lesbian who her TV dream date is. Once you get them to calm down about Tina Fey, chances are your lady pal will talk about how hilarious “The Office’s” Mindy Kaling is. And she’d be right. Kaling not only co-stars on the show as Kelly Kapoor, she writes and co-executive produces it as well. Oh, yes, and she’s adorable, too, which always helps. So it’s a pleasure to report that she’ll be co-scripting a new big-screen romantic comedy titled The Low Self-Esteem of Lizzie Gillespie. Nothing particularly same-sexish about this project (at least, not as far as anyone knows right now), but the fact is that it’s just plain old good news when a smart, cool woman gathers momentum as a boys-club-intruding comedy power player in Hollywood. Now if only Kelly Kapoor had her alter ego’s good luck.

“True Blood,” HBO’s grown-up entry in the current vampire boom, has entered its third season of production. And as if to up the ante and set itself even farther outside the realm of Twilight and its unbridled heterosexuality, the creators have decided to get even gayer and add a new homosexual vampire to its cast of characters. Theo Alexander will join the show as a culinary genius named Talbot, love interest of Russell (Denis O’Hare). This makes perfect sense, of course, as contemporary vampire stories up until now have traded heavily on an omnivorous code of blood-feaster conduct. And while Bella, Edward and Jacob seem blissfully unaware of that longstanding homo vibe, the freak flag still flies high over on cable’s premium channels. Episodes will begin airing not long after more of those novelty red energy drink ads start appearing at bus stops again.

As if this show couldn’t get any gayer, Broadway’s alliance with “Glee” –specifically, the show’s stuck-like-glue ties to Wicked – continues to pick up steam and may even spark a renewed love of showtunes in America’s heartland. First they brought in Kristin Chenoweth as a boozy, way-post-grad ringer-singer. Then came that rousing “Defying Gravity” number. And now, the Wicked witch herself, Idina Menzel, is about to join the cast for the second half of its hit debut season as the coach of McKinley High’s rival glee club, Vocal Adrenaline. Still not enough for you? Then add new cast member Jonathan Groff, who co-starred in Spring Awakening with “Glee’s” vocal powerhouse Lea Michele, as Vocal Adrenaline’s lead male voice (and rumored love interest of Michele’s character). It’s enough to cause a “Gleek” overload.

When lesbian-dream-date Michelle Rodriguez started her career in 2001 with the film Girlfight, did she imagine becoming the next Audrey Hepburn? Or did she have a sense that she would become American film’s go-to gal for tough ass-kickings and weapon-brandishing? Because, as her recent action turn in Avatar shows, the camera loves her when she’s got a gun – and she’s using it. Meanwhile the next big budget production to happily typecast the swaggering star is called Battle: Los Angeles –Rodriguez’s second movie with the word “battle” in the title – due sometime in 2010. The film just wrapped its Lousiana shoot (tax breaks for film crews!) and its plot concerns, well, a battle in Los Angeles, with Rodriguez co-starring as a member of the military. Romeo’s money is on our gal busting some skulls.

They’re the closest thing this country has to a royal family, and they’ve played historical roles in everything from the highest level of politics to the quirkiest moments in fashion. So it’s fitting that the History Channel makes the Kennedy family part of its own history – the first scripted project to air on the cable outlet – with the eight-hour miniseries, “The Kennedys.” Co-created by “24” producer Joel Surnow, the series, due to air in 2011, will focus not only on the dynastic aspect of the legendary clan and the powerful men it produced, but the women involved in their lives as well. This, of course, means that the iconic, enigmatic Jackie Kennedy will be front and center and, if gay men of a certain cultural bent get their wish, there will perhaps be at least a side trip down the road to Jackie’s crazily entertaining Grey Gardens relations, The Beales. OK, the latter may be asking for too much. But we can hope.

They put Tim Gunn in a comic book already, so why not Ellen? If that’s the kind of pop-culture question that you hold your breath over, you can exhale: it’s happening. Bluewater Comics has just announced a March 2010 release date for Female Force: Ellen Degeneres. No, she won’t be a superheroine. But she will be the next woman in line to get the company’s biographical comic book treatment (after Michelle Obama, Oprah and J.K. Rowling). And it’s about time, really. Ellen is, after all, one of TV’s most powerful daytime movers and shakers, beloved by mainstream audiences and a permanent part of television history thanks to coming out on primetime network TV in the late ’90s on her sitcom “Ellen.” And think of the comic-book adventure possibilities with characters like Portia and Anne (!) along for the ride. The more Romeo thinks about it the better it gets.