Afternoon Greg: New pics of Chris Pine as Kirk; Black boosts Milk Day; No Carrie Prejean day in hometown

Happy Friday everyone!

This has been an unbelievable week for Greg In Hollywood as far as traffic goes and it feels just terrific to have more and more people checking in each day.

Just like Mary Richards, we’re gonna make it after all.

Now on to the afternoon items.

Is this photo of Star Trek star Chris Pine delicious or WHAT? The heartthrob posed for GQ as Capt. James T. Kirk in a series of photos that you can see over at Socialite Life. There’s an accompanying interview and Chris is asked about what his Just My Luck co-star Lindsay Lohan was like when they made that film as few years ago:  “She was making a lot of money and attracting a lot of attention from the paparazzi. It put in stark relief that I don’t want that kind of life.”

Well, this movie has made him a superstar so it will be up to him how well he handles the attention. Somehow I think he’ll fare better than poor Lindsay whose parents did not always seem to have her best interests at heart. As a result, she just seems like a crazy lost lamb.

DUSTIN LANCE BLACK’S INFLUENCE ON POLITICIAN: The young man who won an Academy Award for his Milk screenplay has not stopped in his campaign to honor Harvey Milk’s legacy and in fighting for full federal equal rights for LGBT Americans.

I am not close to Lance, but I do know him a little bit and I have to just say that I am just so inspired by him, so damned proud of him, so appreciative of him.

Here’s a big reason why: When he testified before a California Senate committee earlier this month in support of establishing a Harvey Milk Day in California, he spoke from his heart saying  that Milk’s story would inspire gay youths, who often feel inferior and contemplate suicide.

“I grew up in a very conservative environment, in a church that condemned homosexual activity,” Black said. “I knew I was gay from a very early age. I knew I was less than my fellow students and, according to my church, I was right down there with all the sinners, murderers and rapists.”

But Milk’s campaigns against prejudice and bigotry “lit the fire” for the national and international gay rights movements and gave the then 14-year-old hope.

“For the first time in many years, I did not think about taking my own life and I did not cry myself to sleep on sabbath nights, and I started to dream again and I stopped trying to vanish and I started trying to excel,” he said.

This week, the State Senate Ok’d the bill which now goes to the Assembly. All of the Democratic senators voted in favor which was expected. But what was not expected was the vote of a Republican senator named Abel Maldonado who was so moved by Lance’s testimony that he crossed party lines after voting against a similar bill last year.

“I rarely get swayed by testimony,” Maldonado told the Sacramento Bee.

NO CARRIE PREJEAN DAY: It takes a bit of an adjustment to go from someone as honest, intelligent and heroic as Dustin Lance Black to someone as dishonest, bigoted and clueless as Carrie Prejean but I did want to share this item: There was a debate in her hometown of Vista about whether or not to honor the embattled Miss California and Miss USA runner-up.

The Vista Unified School District in San Diego are not on the same page as the grotesque Donald Trump when it comes to the topless photos Carrie posed for and explained away at a press conference Tuesday. After a 45 minute debate, only one school board member voted in favor of “Carrie Prejean Day.”

Board Vice President Steve Lily remarked that the district had never honored a former student before and did not want to start with someone who “had breast implants (and) posed semi-nude.”

Yeah, not exactly a good role model.