NBC knows about all of this. An entry over at the official American Gladiators blog appeared within days of the original story hitting the wires (”Gladiator ‘Militia’ Alex Castro Linked To Gay Adult Photos“). “It looks like all he did for COLT was to pose for some nude photos with no involvment in films of any kind,” wrote the anonymous blogger. “It’s not really my place to pass judgement why someone might do this unless they really needed the money.”

The gossip blogosphere quivered for a few days when news broke last month that Mr. Cortez was among the new cast of Gladiators. (Click here for our previous story.) Among Elian Cortez’ COLT pictorials is a “Butts Beautiful” calendar that I highly recommend if you’re an inveterate assman like me. Contrary to NBC’s belief, he’s also got some body worship vignettes over at MuscleHunks.com and some solo/J.O. vignettes uploaded to his Yahoo! fan club (there is a review of ALEX CASTRO: ALL MY MUSCLES from Dynamite Studios over at ManNet.com). He has also appeared in Playgirl (I haven’t been able to find the issue just yet..anyone know?).

There have been some complaints about how this story has been covered in the gay press, particularly by gossipmeister Perez Hilton (”His Secret Gay Porn Past!“). Last month my colleagues at Gay Porn Blog called it “Perez Hilton’s Gay Porn Witch Hunt.” They also took note of the homophobic comments section attached to Mr. Hilton’s original story. “Perez, Perez, Perez…it’s clear you’re not going anywhere despite becoming one of the bloated celebrities you have built a career on lambasting,” they wrote. “But in your reckless quest to dig up the ’salacious,’ you seem to have morphed into a Matt Drudge-style right-wing homophobe. Case in point: Your squeamish declaration…that American Gladiators star Alex √¢‚Ǩ≈ìMilitia√¢‚Ǩ¬ù Castro’s ’shady past is coming back to haunt him’ when all he did was pose nude for COLT. C’mon, Perez√¢‚Ǩ‚Äùdon’t make me dig up your nude photos again. Not on Christmas.”

[Top image © NBC.com; bottom image © MuscleHunks.com.]