"Loser Day" Jock River Mardesic tears up the Melbourne stage, stars in artsy shorts, buddies up to Knox GIbson. Just don't ask if he's gay.

The upcoming A Day for Losers stars Dakota Lotus as a military school cadet who can only win the Girl of His Dreams by throwing an epic party.  To do this, he must avoid the bullyin jocks and befriend all of the outcasts and losers. Wait -- the outcasts and losers are invited to the epic party? 

It sounds super retro, with all of that stupid Girl of His Dreams rhetoric, but it also stars Jacob Sartorius and Benji Kroll, who is gay in real life, so there might be some LGBT representation.  

Checking through the male cast members for beefcake or gay content, I came across River Mardesic, who plays a "High School Jock."  

Unusual name (it's Croatian), no photo, only a few acting credits, but a full Instagram, with some beefcake and even a few bulges.  I'm going in for a closer look.  The IMDB is incomplete, so I'll check his Instagram in backwards chronological order.

In 2025, he flies from Australia to the U.S. to appear in A Day for Losers.

 

And he starred in Home Alone: The Australian Musical, "an immersive parody of the classic film with an Australian twist." Jasper McDonald Parsons (center) plays a teenage Kevin, accidentally left home alone when his family flies off to Port Arthur for a Christmas holiday.  

Older brother Buzz (River, next to him) is "an eshay looking for love.  It's a youth subculture given to toxic masculinity and pig Latin, but apparently he gets into a relationship with Gus (John Rochford), an adaption of the Polka king who gave Kevin's mom a ride back to Chicago in the original.

In 2024, River appeared in A Weekend at Nan's, a short film by Matt Harris, which had several local showings before going off to the festivals. The ad says "bring your family and friends."

In 2023, he starred in the short film Speech, directed by Charles Laversha, which won awards at four film festivals. Lloyd (River) has to read a speech by a historic figure to his class.  Then he finds out that the speech was given by a dictator.

In 2022, he was cast in the Wonder Years remake, with the grown-up Dean Williams (Don Cheadle, left), narrating the story of his childhood in Montgomery, Alabama, in the 1960s.  River was going to play the buddy of the teenage Dean, but  due to the COVID lockdown, he couldn't leave Australia. Julian Lerner got the role.

More after the break

The Season: Rich straight guys have problems, too. Even in Hong Kong. With some dicks, bulges, yachts, and the dad from "Lost in Space"

I've been fooled by two tv series and a movie today.

Voice mails for Isabelle: A guy sits by Golden Gate Bridge, complaining to his dead sister he can't find his people in San Francisco. Where are all the drag queens. It took me 20 minutes to figure out that it's actually a girl, not a gay guy.  She was wearing a hoodie and pants to trick you into watching.  

Booth Bangla: A guy plans his sister's wedding.  He doesn't express any heterosexual interest -- until halfway through the movie, when he meets the Girl of His Dreams.

Oasis: A family checks into an exclusive resort.  Two boys immediately meet the Girls of Their Dreams, and an established couple smooch.  I was holding out for the teenage daughter to be a lesbian because she keeps cruising girls.  Nope,  she meets the Boy of Her Dreams at Minute 12.  

Heck with it.  I'm watching The Season on Hulu, about "the glittering world of super-yachts, sun, and scandal" in Hong Kong.  At least there will be some nice exterior shots.

Episode 1 Prologue.  A woman tells us: "Hong Kong is a city of bloodlines.  It will destroy you."   An elegantly dressed middle-aged woman floats in the water outside a burning yacht.  She sinks.

Scene 1: Six weeks earlier.  A young woman jogs through Hong Kong.  Nice exterior shots.  Someone named Carrie calls, and tells her that her job today is impress the Hexts.  Impress them, and you've got it made in Hong Kong.

A taxi takes her through the forest to her destination, a mansion or institution.   Carrie ends her cardio work out to greet her.  Back story: Her name is Cola (I love your parents' products, girl!), she has graduated with a degree in economics and maths, and her classmate Carrie, a wealth mover, has invited her to come out to Hong Kong as an intern.  "I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get a full-time job offer," Cola says.  Lie?  Steal?  Blow up yachts? 

The summer is Boating Season, where Hong Kong A-Listers decide who they will admit to their social network.  You have one chance to make a good impression; a single misstep, and you're out. 

Scene 2:  A lady, maybe Carrie, tells the staff that everything must be spotless, and asks Jon if he is ready for the maiden voyage.  "Bring on the Bacchanalia," he says in a bored/aesthete tone. He'll be telling the guests to "Diversity at your own risk."  He must be gay.

His teenage daughter sneers: "Great small talk, dad."  Nope. 

On the way upstairs to change, Jon asks a Male Staffer, "Is everything ready?"  Maybe they are having an affair. Wife, now calling him Christopher, says "I really need this to work."

Why the changed name?  It turns out that Bored Aesthete is Christopher (Toby Stephens, the Dad on Lost in Space).  Jon (Lee-Jai Yoon, top photo) is the Male Staffer.  Wife asked him a question while she was walking away from him, toward Christopher, who answered for him.

Scene 3: Cola and Carrie enter the yacht.  They're joined by a guy named Andrew Fung (Chris Pang of Crazy Rich Asians), who was in St. Tropez, but it's too hot in Europe. "Global warming is so inconvenient."

When Carrie introduces Cola, Andrew teases "A younger, hotter version of you?" Heterosexual identity established in his second sentence.  His "lovely wife" Niki arrives and is introduced.  Her family owns the Harbor Club, and are the bitter rivals of the Hexts, whom they are there to impress.  

Next Jay and Sara Byford, from Melbourne, arrive and kiss up to Andrew and his Lovely Wife, but he doesn't like them.  

He does like Hong Kong's most eligible bachelor, David Ho (Justin Chien, left). Maybe he's.....

Confused by the plethora of names?  Don't worry; all you really need to know is that everyone is very rich, very bored, and heterosexual.  

Back story: the family from Scene 2 are Christopher and Fiona Hext.  This is their yacht.  Wait -- everyone is here to impress them.  Why are they concerned about the day going well?  Spoiler alert: they're having financial problems.

Sceme 4: Cola is introduced to the Hext Family.  "How nice to see some new faces!" Fiona Hext exclaims.

Cola is turned on by a semi-shirtlessC hunk with his lady, but Carrie warns her: "God, no, that's Matthias! Just a personal trainer, not rich.  Ignore." Heterosexual identity established at Minute 11.

Left: Lincoln Younes plays Matthias the Personal Trainer, Gigolo, Drug Dealer, and Actor.

Dirt on the Hexts: "Christopher's family practically invented colonialism, and Fiona's Old Hong Kong money fueled it."  

Scene 5: Eligible Bachelor is helping the Captain pilot the ship.  Christopher Hext takes over and asks how things are going since the divorce.  It must be rough.  After all, he and Lian were together for 13 years. Don't get your hopes up -- Lian can be used for any gender, but 2/3rds of the time, it's a girl.  And gay marriage is not permitted in Hong Kong, so he would have to establish residence somewhere else if Lian was a guy.

"You're right, I'm miserable.  How are you doing?"

"Miserable, too."  

More after the break

Aidan Langford: Some gay characters, a gay anthem, and a wife. Not the best record, but we've got his butt and the Nicky Ricky guy's dick.

 

The teen idol website says that Aidan Langford has only appeared in one movie, 1985.   I never heard of it, but I imagine that it's a nostalgia piece about coming of age, which means "discovering girls."  But he has a nice chest, so we'll go forward.

I don't care much for the super-thick, ostentatious rings. 

Even his girlfriend wears super-sized, ostentatious -- wait, they both wear wedding rings.  His wife. 

After about 30 photos of hugging and kissing his wife, he's in the arms of a guy?  Maybe he's bi, and this is before they started dating.  

Time to check Aidan's resume. The teen idol website could be wrong.

He was born in Dallas on an unspecified date, and got his start at the Dallas Theatre Center with roles in To Kill a Mockingbird and A Christmas Carol.

He's got 15 acting roles on the IMDB, beginning with Cooper and the Castle Hill Gang (2011).  Four have LGBTQ representation:

1985 (2018), about a young man with AIDS (Cory Michael Smith) who goes back to his conservative home town and struggles about coming out to his family -- and revealing that he's going to die soon. His roommate and most of his friends have already died.  Aidan plays his younger brother Andrew, who may be gay also (it's left in the air).  

Sounds like a real tearjerker.  I moved to West Hollywood in 1985, but I remember it as a joyous time. Only one of my friends died of AIDS, many years later.

In the episode "Two Doors Down" of Dolly Parton's Heartstrings (2019), a gay guy comes out to his conservative mother just before his sister's wedding.  Aidan plays Ren (center), a nibling who has come out as nonbinary.  Mom finds that much easier to accept than a gay son.

More after the break

What has Gavin Munn, Abraham on "The Righteous Gemstones," been up to lately? Hint: It's not acting, and there's a prom involved. With some n*de buddies.

I've been checking up on the Gemstone guys, to see what they've been doing since the show ended, or since their last appearance, and it's time for Gavin Munn. His Abraham, one of Jesse Gemstone's three sons, was a minor character with only a few lines per season and only a few probably-unintentional queer codes (enough for me to write a fan fiction story where he comes out).  But Gavin had a strong social media presence.  He posted so many interesting photos that I had enough for six cute/cool collections.

He was an athlete, so as he moved through adolescence, we saw him bulking up.

He had a hot dad and older brother.

He buddied up to his Gemstone brothers, Skyler Gisondo and Kelton Dumont, male Gemstone guest stars, and hunky stuntmen.

And a surprising number of non-actor friends.

The Righteous Gemstones ended in 2025.  What has Gavin been up to lately?

Answer after the break.  Hint: It ain't pretty.