Cal Tolentino: Bodybuilder dates "Best Medicine's" Liam, rooms with Martin Herlihy, kisses a ninja. With two Cal cocks.

I've been watching Best Medicine (2026) on Netflix: Josh Charles plays a gruff physician in a small town in Maine, where there are a surprising number of diseases with weird symptoms.  Turning blue?  Suddenly seeing birds?  I like the gay characters fully integrated into the community, like sarcastic teenager Liam (Josh Hoon Lee).  

In most episodes, Liam hangs out with two girls, Harley and Amelia.  But in Episode 1.9, at a high school "sleep-in," Amelia is replaced by Kyle (Cal Tolentino), joining them for a giant-sized Connect Four and a "Skeeter" game.   

In Episode 1.13, Kyle appears as the third of the rude teenagers again, protesting the plan to bring a salmon farm to the city, which would destroy the ecosystem. They're arrested for trespassing, which they find thrilling.  Later, they sit together at the wedding of the gay couple Greg and George.

I couldn't figure out why the showrunners replaced the girl in the trio with a boy, except to imply that Kyle was dating one of the other two.  In my headcanon, he's dating Liam.

When I started researching the actor to see if he is gay in real life, I got a surprise:

The dude is built.

Cal grew up in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, about an hour west of Philadelphia.  He competed on American Ninja Warrior Junior, a reality show where you race through a multilevel obstacle course, beginning at age 11, then switched to the teen version, where he was a national finalist three times.  But he really wanted to be an actor, so the minute he got his driver's license at age 16, he started training at Playhouse West.  Also he changed his name from Caleb Plohoros to Cal Tolentino. From Greek to Italian?

While training, Cal was in three plays: A South Philly Christmas, Meisner, and Savannah. 

He broke into on-screen acting in 2025, with four short and a tv spot:

Hundred Dollar Brawler, about boxing. Cal plays the Hype Guy.

Guardians of the Outward Plain: A boy and his lion pal try to make human connections. Cal plays a Mechanic.

Godhead, not to be confused with the other 2025 Godhead short: A man searching for his lost brother stumbles into a sinister drug den. There are four characters other than addicts: Adam, Judas (Cal), and a Preacher (Sullivan Vaughan, left).

My Teenage Great Grandma, a vertical-format drama streaming on NetShort. A scientist dies in 1945 and re-animates as a teenager in 2025. Sounds wacky.  Cal's character appears halfway down the cast list.

Plus Cal and Peyton Carson wrote, directed, and starred in 4 AM: After a "rowdy Memorial Day Weekend," two guys try to go back to life as usual, but a text message results "in a painful test of trust." It's not available to stream, and I can't tell from the description and photos if they're buddies or boyfriends.

In 2026, Cal appeared in two episodes of Good Luck, Baby Girl, a short-form vertical series streaming on TikTok and Instagram.  It's about three girls trying to make it in L.A.

Two episodes of Best Medicine.

And the movie Roommates.  This photo is misleading: Cal and Martin Herlihy aren't the stars.  It's a comedy about girls who become roommates in college, and have increasingly dark adventures.   I went through on fast forward, and couldn't find Cal, but his sister posts a clip: he walks down the dorm corridor with his shirt off, and shakes hands with one of the girls while she gazes lustfully.

Aidan Langford plays the high school-aged brother of one of the girls.  He is outed as a prank.  

More after the break.

Mo Bakker: Santa Claus's grandson and his boyfriend cruise in Kenya, cuddle in Greece. With bonus Belgian cocks

English-speaking audiences are most familiar with Flemish actor Mo Bakker for the three Claus Family movies: 

Die Familie Claus 1 (2020): Christmas-hating teenager Jules discovers that his grandfather is Santa Claus, about to retire and expecting him to take over the family job

Die Familie Claus 2 (2021): Jules goes on a trial run to grant a little girl's holiday wish.  Plus the kids try to fix up Mom with her best friend, not realizing that he is gay and has a husband.

Die Familie Claus 3 (2022): Jules and his sister Noor work together to fix the mess Grandpa made of the gift-delivery. Plus Mom's new boyfriend Jeff (Kurt Rogiers) drops towel.

Throughout, Jules is heavily queer-coded, with an interest in musclemen and no romantic interest in girls: he keeps partnering with girls, but they are always relatives or just friends.  Although there are no undeniable queer codes, no boyfriends, or "I'm gay" statements, the series, and especially the first, appears every year on lists of "The Best LGBTQ Holiday Movies."

But what about actor Mo Bakker.  Surely he wasn't cast because he was gay.  At age 14, he may not even have known.  So let's check to see if he is out now.

Mo was born in 2006, son of Belgian actor Kuno Bakker, who played a gay guy in Feast (2022).  

 

Older brother Kes, also an actor, has 12 credits listed on the IMDB, including the teen drama High Tide, available to stream on Netflix.  He plays a gay character, falls in love with a dude, and drops towel.

Mo's acting career begins with August (2014), a short about a boy with a girlfriend.   He has several other projects listed, with plot synopses and trailers only in Flemish, including:

Niet Schieten (Don't Shoot, 2018): A boy is dying, and his grandfather feels guilty.

The tv series Please Love Me (Zie miej graag, 2017-20): A divorced woman is "trying to put her life back together."  Mo and his brother Kes play her sons.

Sisyphus at Work (2021): A film director is dying.

Finn's Heel (Finn's hiel, 2022): Two boys (Mo, Brecht Dael) bond over boxing lessons, and hug.  This one sounds gay.

The teen tv series wtFOCK (2023), about students in a prestigious high school in Antwerp.  There are gay guys in the cast (who make out naked in the pool), but Mo plays a heterosexual athlete who gets his girlfriend pregnant.

Not a lot of gay content here.  Let's check Mo's Instagram to see if he is gay in real life.

I'm always jealous of Europeans, who can jet to my top 10 favorite countries (outside the U.S.) in a couple of hours.  Here Mo and his boyfriend are cuddling on a raft in Nicosia, Cyprus: five hours from Brussels, 14 hours from Minnesota.

More after the break

Nicolas Bechtel: Soap opera prince and Stuck twin femmes up, hot tubs with hunks, still believes. With two Prince prongs and a Cole cock

 

The next person in my "Profiles to Do" folder that I've never heard of: Nicolas Bechtel.  I get a positive vibe from his name due to the lesbian cartoonist Allison Bechdel, whose Bechdel Test measures women's representation in movies.

But I'm sure he has no connection to that.

According to Wikipedia, Nicolas was born in 2005 in Fontana, California, and is best known as Spencer Cassidine on General Hospital and Lewis Diaz on Stuck in the Middle.

Prince Spencer Cassidine was born in 2006, son of Greek prince Nicholas Cassidine (Tyler Christopher, left).  He began his life fighting, born  premature and infected with the deadly virus that was rampant in Port Charles. As a baby he goes through a paternity test, kidnapping, attempted murder, and his dad's near-fatal illness (it's General Hospital, after all).  

Nicolas plays Spencer from 2013 to 2020: he is  trapped in a fire and severely burned, kidnapped twice more, and sent to juvenile hall after stalking his mother.  

A 2020-24 Spencer, played by Nicholas Chavez, is attacked by the Hook Killer, beaten into unconsciousness, and kidnapped again.  Finally he drowns in the River Seine (or maybe not).  

He is heterosexual, with four girlfriends at various times. 

The Disney Channel's Stuck in the Middle (2016-18) stars Jenna Ortega as Harley Diaz, an engineering prodigy who is "stuck in the middle," third of seven children. She has three brothers, aspiring singer Ethan (Isaak Presley) and the twins Lewie (Nicolas) and Beast (Malachi Barton).  Neither of the twins seem to have any heterosexual crushes, according to the episode synopses and fan wiki.

Left: Malachi Barton has muscled up.

Nicholas has 14 other acting credits on the IMDB, including episodes of Good Luck Charlie, Baby Daddy, Girl Meets World, and American Crime Story.

He's got a 7-episode run in Rake (2014), with Greg Kinnear as a defense attorney who gets beat up a lot. 

Two movies:

The List (2013), not to be confused with The List (2013): Michael Peña stars as an FBI agent tracking down a killer who is targeting everyone on a list of people in the Witness Protection Program.  Gary Cole (left) plays his boss. Nicolas plays a kid. 

More after the break

Joey Beni: Bodybuilder appears in five gay tv shows with multiple nude scenes, so he's obviously gay, right?

 

I don't usually have good luck with the guys depicted on the celebrity cock subreddit.  It seems like they either appeared in one movie 15 years ago and have no social media presence, or they are very famous in Lithuania but have no movies or tv shows available to stream in the U.S.  But I'll give Joey Beni a try because he has an Instagram page, 22 acting credits, and a 2025 interview in VoyageLA, which features "LA's most inspiring stories."

His bio comes from the interview: Joey was born in San Diego in 1994.  His first acting gig was playing Aladdin in the San Diego Children's Theater. Later he moved to Florida and then to Virginia Beach, where he attended Tidewater Community College.  In 2006 he decided to become an actor, which means moving to L.A., so he saved up his  money for two years and drove out: "I had no friends, no family, and no job in LA. I was able to lock in an apartment over the phone so all I had was an address, my life savings, and a dream."  

He studied comedy with the Groundlings and acting at the Archibald Studio, and started auditioninng. 

 Joey wonders why his friends are getting acting roles so easily, and he is so often left behind.  Maybe you need more nude photos?   He got one job because the guy they cast had to drop out, so they asked him to substitute at the last minute. He complains that acting is 90% luck, 10% talent.

Not too inspiring, buddy.  Actually, you sound a little bitter.  

After 18 years in the business, Joey has some industrial videos (The Benefits of Sunscreen, Sexual Harassment in the Workplace), some tv commercials, a drug prevention PSA, and a dating show, The Hook-Up.

That last show sounds promising, but it was actually heterosexual only.  Joey's episode features contestant Ray using social media to choose from between "four lovely ladies."  

Those 22 acting credits listed on the IMDB are mostly small roles, often unnamed characters:

Contestant #1 in Youthful Days (2014), starring Bryan James as a guy with two personalities.

Hot Guy #1 in an episode of Go-Go Boy Interrupted (2016): Jimmy Fowlie stars as a "go-go boy" who is approaching 30 and aging out of the business, with no other marketable skills. Being hung won't get you a job staring at a computer screen in a cubicle.  Gay actor Brian Jordan Alvarez, Scott Evans, and Nick Adams appear, and Lynne Marie Stewart of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, who I thought was a drag queen until recently, played Go-Go's Mom.

The Other Cowboy in Country Thunder (2017).

In M.F.A. (2017), an art student turned vigilante, targeting rapists got away with it, like former teen idol Michael Welch, Kyle Pettis (left), and Joey.

Wedding Photographer in a 2022 episode of Days of Our Lives.

Sexy Man in a 2022 episode of DemonHuntr, featuring two gay guys whose side hustle is paranormal investigation.  Apparently they don't investigate many nude ghosts; only Joey (top photo)  and Jason Caceres (left) give us frontals.

Man in Bondage #1 in Babylon (2023), which I found too disgusting to get through.

More after the break

Rooster Episode 1.1: Trashy novelist at an elite college, hetero romance problems, a gay sidekick, Dunster dick, and the guy from "Scrubs"

 

Robert Heinlein once complained that science fiction was about exploring the vastness of time and space, while mainstream fiction -- the Rabbit Runs, Appointments in Samarra, and  Complaining Portnoys of our college lit classes -- was about men who hate their jobs and their wives.  "For Heaven's sake, get new jobs, get new wives, and shut the f*k up."

I am reminded of that quote when I think of the works of Steve Carrell:  Anchorman, Dan in Real Life,  The 40 Year Old Virgin, Cafe Society,  Date Night, Dinner for Schmucks, The Morning Show, The Four Seasons, all about little men trying desperately to find meaning in jobs and wives that they hate. Coincidentally, this is precisely the "job, house, wife, kids" trajectory that I rebelled against growing up.

So I wasn't planning to watch the HBO MAX series Rooster (2026).  Then the promo showed a young man telling Steve, "nice washboard (abs)," referring to the hunk on the cover of his book.  Later he seems to become Steve's sidekick.  So Steve probably writes gay novels, and probably has a gay sidekick.  Enough potential to review Episode 1.

Scene 1:  Famous novelist Greg Russo (Steve) looks morose as he is escorted through the elegant Spanish Colonial campus of Ludlow College (actually the University of the Pacific, Stockton).  He sees a naked old guy, who waves -- but his escort, Eric (Myles Perez, left), doesn't see anyone.  A hallucination?

Eric tells him to wait here, then zones him out and refuses to speak anymore.  Fortunately, Professor Shepherd, who arranged his campus visit,  is just walking up. 

He's nervous -- he writes trashy beach novels, not literature: "Characters you like have sex, characters you don't like get shot in the face."  Why would elite college students want to see him?  

Scene 2: The reading, in a giant lecture hall.  The students criticize his protagonist, Rooster, for describing the Girl in food terms during their 17 sexual acts (18, if you count the blow job). Isn't that sexist?  

Russo counters that she is strong and powerful -- she rescues Rooster, remember? "But she takes off her bikini top to do it."   A jock praises that scene: "The Girl is smokin'!"  Hey, isn't he the gay sidekick?  I'm starting to suspect that I've been tricked.

Scene 3: Next Russo meets the College President (John C. McGinley, the homophobic, sexist jerk on Scrubs).  He strips to his underwear to show off his physique: "You're thinking, most college presidents are bookish shut-ins, but this guy is jacked!" He looks like the naked guy from earlier.  So it wasn't a hallucination, just a crazy act that would never happen on any real college campus.

They allude to a "sex scandal" involving Katie and Archie (not mentioned before), and the President offers Russo a job as Writer-in-Residence.  "But I didn't even go to college."  "Who cares?  It's over-rated."  Academic malaise at its snarkiest. 

Left: McGinley's butt

Scene 4:  Next stop: Another giant lecture hall, a lecture on French impressionism, Monet at Giverny.  It's Russo's daughter Katie, a professor of art history (and the sex scandal lady).  As the students leave, she notes that her Dad doesn't like interacting with other humans, so they can get extra credit for looking him in the eye and saying "I love you very much."  A student does it!

Next Katie points out that the college has asked Russo to do a reading a billion times; why agree now?  "Admit it -- you're checking up on me, to see if I'm ok after the sex scandal."  We finally find out what it is: her husband Archie dumped her for a grad student.  Hetero Romance Problem #1.  

She has no idea why. Everything was normal, and then she was moving into the dead hockey coach's house.   Everybody on campus knows, and keeps staring at her and asking questions.  And it's difficult to avoid running into him or his new girlfriend on a small campus.  She's about to crack.

She points them out, sitting on a park bench.  "The girlfriend isn't even hot.  She's like a regular person.  Why did he dump me for her?"  Maybe he liked her personality?

As Russo peeks through the bushes, husband Archie and the girlfriend leave, and a lesbian couple notice him.  They think he's a perv, har har.   He runs away as they film him.  

Spoiler alert: This is set up to have consequences, like Russo being arrested, or the job offer rescinded, but it is never mentioned again.

Scene 5: Russo stops at a convenience store for some water.  Tommy (Maximo Salas), the jock from earlier, praises the Rooster books. Uh-oh, he forgot his id, so Russo buys his beer for him.  If he's under 21, you're in big trouble, buddy.

More after the break

Jacob Tierney: Former teen idol produces homophobic and gay-positive work, has a husband and two wives, but is not a sea monster.

 

As the younger generation says, "I was today years old" when I discovered that Jacob Tierney, producer of Heated Rivalry (2025), about gay hockey players, did not voice the gay sea monster in the Disney-Pixar Luca ( 2021).  That was Jacob Tremblay.  They're both gay, their names are almost identical, and I thougt that Luca came out in the 2010s, so it's an understandable mistake.

Correction: Tremblay (potential dick left) has played only girl-crazy since Luca, and there's no significant boy hugging on his social media.  He may be straight.

But I was sure that I remembered Jacob Tierney as a teen idol somewhere.

Turns out that I remember the other Jake from the creepy indie film Josh and S.A.M. (1993).  13-year old Josh (Jacob) is upset by "accusations" that he is gay, so he concocts a wild scheme to prove his straightness, including convincing his 7-year brother Sam (Noah Fleiss) that he is a cyborg.  How does having a cyborg brother make you straight? 

They go on a bizarre road trip similar to the one in Motorama, and meet The Girl (Martha Plimpton of The Goonies)

As a child star, Jacob appeared in many other Canadian movies and tv shows.  He was best known for playing 10-year old vampire hunter Max in Dracula: The Series; Greg in the teen soap Watatow; and the sarcastic Eric, who was cut after the first season of Are You Afraid of the Dark?

As a teenager he was best know for The Neon Bible (1995), based on the book by Confederacy of Dunces author John Kennedy Toole.  I thought that guy only wrote the one book, and his mom found it in his room after his death and had it published, to the protests of readers everywhere.

Back to Neon: Shy, awkward David (Jacob, Drake Bell), growing up in an awful Southern Gothic town, finds comfort in the visit of an eccentric aunt.   Critics called it "unrelentingly downbeat": "it starts off dark and gets darker."

In adulthood Jacob began writing, directing, producing, and often  starring in his own films.  He came out at some point, so we should expect some LGBT representation:

Dad (2002): After a year in Africa, Mark comes home to find his Mom schtupping his best friend (Jacob).   I guess we're not there yet.

Twist (2003): A queer (more queer) Oliver Twist set in contemporary Toronto, with Nick Stahl as Dodge (The Artful Dodger).  Here's the gay stuff, finally.

The Trotsky (2009): A Montreal high school student (Jay Baruchel) believes that he is the reincarnation of Trotsky.  He starts a revolution and kisses The Girl.  Wait, that's heterosexist...

Good Neighbors (2010): Three friends in Montreal, all straight, one a serial killer.  Hey....

He Hated Pigeons (2015): A man (Pedro Fontaine, left) drives from the north to the south end of Chile to keep a promise to a dead boyfriend.  Back to gay content.

Lovesick (2016): Dash (Jacob, left) is depressed over losing his ex-girlfriend, until he meets The New Girl.  The gay representation didn't last long.

Another Kind of Wedding (2017).  You think it's going to be about a gay wedding, but the title is just queerbaiting.  A man (Jacob) is about to get married, when his brother (Kevin Zegers), who happens to be the bride's ex-boyfriend, shows up to try to win her back.  

More after the break

Zak Ford Williams: Better Bridgerton Batteries and the British Stonewall: all gay roles all the time. With a lot of cocks.

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Hudson Yang: From "Fresh Off the Boat" to Harvard, cooking, dudes, and the best gay comedy of the year. With Hudson and Xu bedroom stuff

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Anton Starkman: I keep forgetting the teencom star's name and show. But he's got a physique, he plays gay-vague characters, and there are dicks

 

I found this guy on the teen idol website, star of a Nickelodeon show that I'd never heard of.  He's got a muscular physique, he is at the beach with a dude, and is that a pride pillow?  Certainly worth a profile.  So I checked him on IMDB, then got called away -- and forgot his name and the name of the show.  Wham or Whomp or something?

The only other shows I recalled were The Magical Mystery of something or other and Grey's Anatomy, his last acting role, in 2025.

So I went through the Grey's Anatomy Season 22 cast list on wikipedia and the IMDB, , and the only male actors who looked like my guy were Niko Terho, who has never appeared in a Nickelodeon show

Todd Denson, ditto.

Left: Google thinks that this is Todd Denson, but I'm not sure.

And Micah McNeill, who was in one episode of  ICarly.

Maybe I could find Wham or Whomp or whatever he starred in?

 I checked every Nickelodeon show broadcast during the last 20 years, and the only one close to Wham or Whomp was Warped, with 13 episodes airing between January and April 2022. 

 

It was a buddy comedy set in a comic book store, with superego Milo (Anton Starkman) butting heads with unrestrained id Ruby.  They both had heterosexual crushes, but not on each other.  Their friend Hurley (Christopher Martinez) worked in the pizza place upstairs.

 Harrison Xu of Extremely Unique Dynamic appeared in two episodes.

Darn, I forgot the name of the show while looking up the supporting cast.   

Anyhow, it appears that Anton Starkman is our guy. 

Repeat:  Anton Starkman, aka Anton Lee Starkman. 

He'd better be worth it.

Anton lists his gender identity and pronouns on the IMDB, but not his sexual orientation.  A good sign.

His on-screen experience begins  with the short Henry (2011): the "bookworm" boy keeps interfering with Mom's dates.  She tries to date four guys, including Jason  Beghle, seen here jumping out of a window naked.

In the short Lucy Falls (2013), a 7-year old small-town girl gets a boyfriend.  Guess who.

Next Anton played a young vampire in six episodes of American Horror Story (2015-16).

The younger brother of a boy with a dead pal in Shovel Buddies (2016).

The young version of Gideon, son of  Beauty and the Beast Belle and Rumpelstiltskin, on two episodes of Once Upon a Time (2017).  As far as I can tell, the older version, played by Giles Matthey, doesn't display any heterosexual interest.

More after the break. Caution: Explicit.