We're not sure whether Julia Louis-Dreyfus is angling for a "guest actress on a talk show" Emmy that doesn't exist, but she's certainly put in game performances over the past week, whether she's enlisting in the Letterman/McCain War or stealing from Tina Fey on the advice of a mischievous Conan O'Brien. Louis-Dreyfus's latest target was The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and she smoothly changed promotional gears to talk about the newest storyline on her sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine, which finds her character entering into a gay marriage with Wanda Sykes to help the latter stay in the country (even though immigration is a federal issue that California's same-sex marriage laws can't circumvent). Naturally, Ellen had a few Prop 8-related words to say on the subject — though, Ellen? Money talks, too. [The Ellen DeGeneres Show]

Google cofounder Sergey Brin has announced that the company is officially opposing Proposition 8, a California ballot proposition that would make same-sex marriages illegal. The reason? Gayglers: "It is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8." But Sergey, you still haven't spoken out for the robots. [Official Google Blog]

So you've had like three months to pick out a nice gift (at Rigged or whatever) for Ellen DeGeneres and her very hot fiancée Portia De Rossi, and if you haven't bought anything yet HURRY UP because the big day is apparently this weekend. DeGeneres was charmingly awkward about the whole thing, per usual: "Planning a wedding is very stressful. It's crazy. My gardener is now invited." But it's a "small, intimate ceremony" nevertheless. Of course this means that September is now open for Lindsay and Samantha, who can bolster their relationship, civil rights and celebrity buzz all in one fell swoop. Gay weddings are sort of magical that way. [Us]

If you found yourself skipping over to the fridge for a glass of O.J. feeling refreshingly sanguine this morning, we think we may know the reason why: Today marks the first day since the historic overturning of the gay marriage ban that same-sex couples could show up to any county clerks' office in the state to apply for a marriage license and, in most cases, tie the paisley knot. LAist has photos of the couple who started it all by challenging the ruling, and, fittingly, were first to benefit at a traditional Jewish ceremony held yesterday beneath an all-orientation-welcoming chupah. A reader sent in the above photo of George Takei and his—OMGay! Husband!—Brad Altman, who showed up bright and early to West Hollywood City Hall to collect their marriage license. Takei told reporters, "Today we are all here to give flesh and blood reality to that ruling. We are going to make history. Congratulations to all of us and may equality live long and prosper." Still, gay leaders are cautioning their people to buffer their enthusiasm, the LAT reports:

When Bertolt Brecht said, "Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it," well, he was just being an egomaniacal auteur. But it's quite possible that he was right — if you're willing to classify network television as art, that is. Consider the case of two recent seemingly unthinkable societal shifts — Barack Obama's presidential nomination and the recent decision to legalize gay marriage in California starting today. Both were the plots of popular television shows before they actually happened. Could the paranoid social conservatives be right? Does what people see on TV actually change their opinions? Do Kiefer Sutherland's powers of persuasion extend beyond Defamer? Consider the evidence after the jump.

So the gays are officially marrying each other in California. And there are a few celebrities sprinkled in among the hordes of couples now rushing to the altar: George "Mr. Sulu" Takei of Star Trek married his partner Brat Altman today, and Ellen DeGeneres says she plans to marry her longtime girlfriend, Portia De Rossi, later this month. But what about here in New York? Which locals are going to take advantage of David Paterson's recent decision to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere and fly out West to pick up a marriage license of their own?

Lifehacker editor Gina Trapani has long been a role model for obsessive neatniks; now she's providing another kind of inspiration. Trapani—one of Forbes' top 25 web celebs—is getting married today to her girlfriend in California.

Last April, the New York Times Magazine published a piece by Benoit Denizet-Lewis that seemed to be about how lots and lots of young men were getting gay married. 700 men age 29 or younger got hitched in Massachusetts. Trend! Or, as Choire Sicha put it in his excoriation of the story, "what else can the story be when an author points out a small group of people that are united by a common activity?" Now, California offers the gay marriage as well. So surely this trend of so many of the young gay men getting gay married must be rising still! Not according to today's Times!

ABCNews.com has noticed that practitioners of Hollywood's dirty little secret—same-sex love—have become increasingly emboldened in recent months, perhaps spurred on by Supreme Court rulings and increasingly desperate shock-starlets hoping to nudge up their per-staged-paparazzi-op asking prices. Their investigative team have therefore taken it upon themselves to blow the lid wide open on the distressing, "gay celebrities leading their lives openly and happily" trend currently plaguing the industry.

We hardly think it would be an overstatement to suggest that California is currently gripped with a severe case of Gay Marriage Fever, a rare condition whose only cure is bearing witness to thousands of fabulously over-the-top, same-sex nuptials. On the heels of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DeRossi's joyful announcement that they'd finally make official their loving halfway home to hundreds of our city's homeless mongrels, comes this AP report via ABCNews.com—the same news outlet who sensitively proclaimed, "Stars' Gay Marriage Possible Career Suicide" shortly following the ruling—detailing the whirlwind romance of newly engaged Hikaru "George Takei" Sulu and his totally hunkycakes fiancé, Brad Altman:

Guys we LOVE our new governor! Thank Roger Stone the abrasive other guy got caught up in that hooker thing because that's really the only way we could've ended up with this awesome black and blind dude who is compulsively honest. AND, it turns out, gay-friendly! He decided the state of the New York would recognize gay marriages performed in California, and he compared the gay rights battle to the African-American civil rights battle, which, as the Times notes, "put him at odds with some black leaders, who bristle at such comparisons." Yes, they do. Why did Governor Paterson do it?

Old-fashioned Kreepie Kats cartoonery! After the jump, in cartoonist Jim Behrle's words, "a very special pirate reaction to gay marriage in California." A short film entitled "By the Time We Get to California We'll Get Married and Then I'll Stab You Thru The Nipples and Rape Those Bleeding Holes."

California's Supreme Court has overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage. While others will doubtless take this opportunity to argue about whether to call it marriage or not, I'm betting corporate America will just cash in on another wave of gay weddings. A recent study commissioned by PlanetOut found that Apple, Absolut, Bravo, and Levi's are the most gay-friendly brands (PDF). His-and-his MacBook Airs, anyone?