A lecherous womanizer is the hottest entertainer out there for gay audiences.  
    
Or more precisely openly gay actor Neil Patrick Harris, who plays the character in question on the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” has topped a “Hot 100″ list determined by an online poll at a Web site popular with gay and bisexual men.
    
There’s a separate list for the ladies, and the No. 1 spot went to Australian actress Portia de Rossi, the wife of comedienne Ellen DeGeneres.
    
Both were compiled for the third year by gay-oriented cable channel Logo, which polled visitors to its afterelton.com and afterellen.com Web sites.
    
Harris, who revealed he was gay in 2006, ends the two-year reign of Jake Gyllenhaal, who played a gay cowboy in “Brokeback Mountain” but otherwise prefers the girls, specifically actress Reese Witherspoon. Gyllenhaal dropped to No. 4 on the new list.
    
Indeed, one does not have to be gay or lesbian to make it into the Hot 100s. The picks should be “hot … in the physical sense,” Logo said, but “also command our respect and admiration.” That might explain why President Barack Obama made it to No. 39 on the gay Hot 100. But Michelle Obama is either less popular with lesbians or faces tougher competition. The first lady came in at No. 97 on their list. 
    
Logo helpfully identified the “out” people on its lists. Actresses Jennifer Beals (”The L Word”) and Lena Headey (”Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”), who are not, came in at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Beals’ “L Word” co-star Leisha Hailey, who is, was No. 4. Yet another “L Word” alumna, Sarah Shahi, who also is not, was No. 5.
    
For the men, “out” actors John Barrowman (”Doctor Who”) and Luke MacFarlane (”Brothers and Sisters”) ranked at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. Straight actor Jensen Ackles (”Supernatural”) came in behind Gyllenhaal at No. 5.

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres said she was “saddened beyond belief” at the decision by voters to ban the newly-won rights of gays and lesbians to marry in California.

But singer Melissa Etheridge sounds downright angry.

Etheridge,  47,  who did not get to marry her partner Tammy Lynn Michaels before the Nov 4 ballot,   suggested in a blog post that she would no longer pay her California state taxes because, as a lesbian, she did not now enjoy the same rights as as other Californians.

“Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen,” Etheridge wrote.

DeGeneres and her longtime partner, actress Portia de Rossi, were among the roughly 18,000 gay or lesbian couples who married in California in the five-month honeymoon between same sex marriage becoming legal and then being banned in a ballot initiative known as Proposition 8.

The popular chat show host married de Rossi in August in the most high-profile same sex marriage since such unions were declared legal in California in May.

“I was saddened beyond belief. Here we just had a giant step toward equality and then on the very next day, we took a giant step away,” DeGeneres wrote on her website

“I believe one day a ‘ban on gay marriage’ will sound totally ridiculous. In the meantime, I will continue to speak out for equality for all of us,” she added.

California authorities say marriages of gays and lesbians between June and November will remain legal. Hundreds of gay rights activists held street protests in Los Angeles and San Francisco after the Prop 8 vote and have filed several lawsuits in a bid to overturn the decision.

Brad Pitt has donated $100,000 to fight California voters’ attempt to eliminate the rights of gay couples to marry.

Pitt’s donation to the No on Prop 8  campaign is the largest single donation so far by a celebrity to the bid to defeat the anti-gay marriage California ballot measure in November, organizers said.

“Because no one has the right to deny another their life even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn’t harm another, and because discrimination has no place in America,  my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8,” Pitt said in a statement.

The California Supreme Court struck down a ban on marriage in May but state voters will decide in a voter referendum in November whether to abolish those new rights.

Chad Griffin, political strategist for the No on 8 campaign, said he hoped Pitt’s contribution would encourage other celebrities to put their hands in their pockets. “The entertainment industry should view this contribution as a challenge,” Griffin said.

Many lesbian and gay couples marrying in Califronia have asked friends and relatives to donate to the campaign instead of buying wedding gifts.

Chat show host Ellen DeGeneres and actress Portia de Rossi married in Beverly Hills in August and former “Star Trek” crew member George Takei married his long time partner Brad Altman in September.   

Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres wore a white vest and pants while actress Portia de Rossi was decked out in a lacy dress, as the lesbian couple wed at their Los Angeles home this past weekend in a ceremony caught on camera by People magazine.
    
While the Saturday ceremony was a closely guarded affair, People posted details and images on its Web site.
    
Candles and flowers surrounded DeGeneres and de Rossi as they wed. They sat on floor pillows with Wayne Dyer, the author of books on spiritualism and self-help, who officiated the ceremony.
    
“She’s officially off the market,” DeGeneres told People of her new spouse. “No one else gets her. And now she’ll cook and clean for me.”
    
Just how much de Rossi will be expected to cook remains in doubt, given that People reports the couple has a personal chef named David Silberkleit, who prepared an all-vegan meal for the wedding.
    
DeGeneres hosts daytime talk show, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” and De Rossi has starred in the television shows “Arrested Development” and “Ally McBeal.” The couple started dating in 2004. 
 
The wedding of DeGeneres, 50, and de Rossi, 35, was one of the most highly anticipated same-sex weddings since the California Supreme Court in May overturned a state ban on those unions.
    
A ballot measure before the state’s voters in November threatens to override the court’s decision. Gay and lesbian groups, dismayed at the prospect of losing a hard-won right, have expressed hope that happy same-sex couples getting married will help convince voters to support the unions.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)