Filmmaker & Model Dirk Shafer Dies At 52

Filmmaker and former model Dirk Shafer has been found dead of a presumed heart attack.

The former Playgirl centerfold who came out as gay and made the 1995 mockumentary Man Of The Year about his experiences, has died. Dirk Shafer was found dead in his car Thursday in West Hollywood, law enforcement officials told Deadline. The model, actor and fitness trainer was 52. An autopsy likely will be performed in the next few days, sources say. Police identified Shafer by his driver’s license and his family has been notified. Born on November 7, 1962, in Carbondale, IL, Shafer became an icon in the mid-90s when the 1992 Playgirl Man of the Year announced he was gay to the magazine’s straight female audience.

Shafer also directed the 2001 look at circuit parties, Circuit. In 2012 he returned to Playgirl for a 20th anniversary photo spread.

Des Hommes Et Des Chatons

Cats posing like male models. More. (Tipped by JMG reader Melissa)

Bears In A Bathtub

Boy Culture has the story: "Chris Camplin is the latest model to acquiesce to an in-tub interview with Accidental Bear." OK!

That Doesn't Make You A Model

I'm getting a Jason Stackhouse vibe from the singer.

The Pit And The Pendulum

America's Next Top Model meets Wipe Out.

Quote Of The Day - Tyson Beckford

"Well, I don't actually go that way. But I notice a lot of people think I do. But if I'm gonna do it, I'm going for Obama. If I got with him, I could run the country. If I was that way, yeah, Obama. I would give it to you, brotha." - Supermodel Tyson Beckford, telling Tyra Banks who he'd go gay for. Tyson added that he'd be the top and "Michelle would hold the camera."

(Via - Rod 2.0)

Chaos At Manhattan ANTM Audition

Pandemonium, chaos, rioting, whatever you want to call it - that was the scene yesterday outside the America's Next Top Model auditions at CW Studios in Manhattan. After thousands of women began pressing early arrivals against the walls and barricades, a nearby car started smoking and a couple of idiots apparently thought they could thin the crowd by shouting, "There's a bomb!"

Screaming as they ran for their lives, hundreds of hotties in heels toppled over barricades along W. 55th St. after several people in the crowd started yelling, "There's a bomb!" By the time the model madness ended, two women were hospitalized and two others and one man were busted for inciting a riot, authorities said. "The girls were running like it was 9/11 part two," said Jennifer Brown, 27, of Kensington, Brooklyn. "I feared for my life." The audition for the The CW show, which for the first time was open to women under 5-feet-7, was doomed from the start, several said.

Scores of aspiring models slept overnight outside the Park Central Hotel, hoping to be the first to sashay before the hit show's casting agents. But shortly after the sun rose, women began arriving and lining up indiscriminately. Tensions quickly boiled over. Things only got worse when the dolled-up ladies were told if they stepped out of the line, they couldn't come back in. "I had to pee in a cup and change my clothes in the street," said Mona Knight, 18, of the Bronx, who slept on the street. "There was no organization whatsoever." Cops arrived and placed barricades along the street. But by that point, there were already several thousand women lined up. A handful of women started fainting after getting pressed up against the wall, witnesses said.

It's a ridiculous story, no matter how you look at it, but the video is pretty scary. Police report that once the chaos started, some men in the crowd started snatching purses.

Underwear Day

I spend an fair amount of my job dealing with ad and PR agencies, attending dreary riveting meetings in over-austere offices. And while underwear models are more Towleroad or Queerty territory than JMG, since I spent an hour at the launch party for 2(x)ist's new Liquid Cotton line today, I hope you won't object to a little beefcake on the twink side of life. Definitely beats my normal day.

The PR materials in the gift bag say "liquid cotton combines the best of both worlds, a rich cotton touch with the added benefit of comfort stretch" and the Dow Chemicals rep on hand invited me to ask the models how their junk feels inside the undies, but I'm not sure any of them could speak. I kid, they seemed like nice guys, although it must feel weird to stand around in very snug underwear while media wonks chatter and consume nibbly bits. But that comes with the territory, I suppose.

BELOW: Factory PR honchess Mary Lou Burkhardt shows off the goods.