Danny Puff

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) The impish boy who showed off his dance moves alongside PSY in "Gangnam Style" is hoping to go viral, too.

The 7-year-old nicknamed "Little PSY" is releasing an electro pop song next week through iTunes. The boy whose real name is Hwang Min-woo says he wants to gain global fame like his "big brother," PSY.

Sporting a black suit and a sleek haircut, Min-woo performed at a news conference in South Korea on Wednesday. He is the latest recruit in the increasingly global K-pop industry.

Min-woo is a second-grader and his mother comes from Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the big PSY has released a "Gangnam Style" remix and is continuing his worldwide tour. The video released on YouTube in July has a record 1.39 billion views.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When veteran rock band Journey chose unknown Filipino singer Arnel Pineda to become their new frontman it inspired a filmmaker to capture his rise from obscurity in the streets of Manila to performing on arena stages.

"Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey," directed by Filipino-American filmmaker Ramona Diaz, picks up Pineda's story soon after he was chosen to join Journey in 2007 after the group saw him on YouTube.

Diaz's documentary film opens in theaters on Friday. She spoke to Reuters about Pineda's story and working with the band.

Q: Were you worried about dealing with all the different personalities of a famous band?

A: My very first film was about the former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos. She was very powerful and she was difficult. I hung out with her for two months. She ended up suing me because she didn't like the film. After that experience, I thought, I can handle anything now. I can handle rock bands!

Q: What surprised you most about Journey?

A: It was a surprise to me that for such a veteran rock band, they were not used to having cameras ... backstage or in their dressing rooms. I thought rock bands were used to it because of MTV, where backstage and tour buses are open to cameras. But at the height of Journey's fame, MTV was just forming as well. They didn't understand the reality of what full access meant. But at the end of the day, we got it.

Q: Do you consider this a music documentary or more of a documentary about Filipino heritage?

A: I think it transcends all that. It really is a Cinderella story with a very modern twist because of YouTube. This story could not have happened 10 or 15 years ago, not in this way with the help of social media. But at the heart of it, it's a Cinderella story. For non-Journey fans, Arnel's personal history is very compelling.

Q: How so?

A: He was a street kid in Manila. Success happened to him later in his life. I think he was 40 the year he joined the band. He had already lived the rock 'n' roll life, even without the money - the drugs, the women. He saw this as an opportunity for him to really get his life together.

Q: It seems like you really bonded with Pineda. Did it help that you were Filipino?

A: I think so, mostly because of the language. I can speak Tagalog. That first summer when he toured with Journey, he had no entourage. It was just him in his dressing room. We (a crew of five) became his sounding board because no one else was traveling with him. The second year he had a roadie, his wife was traveling with him, and it would have been a completely different dynamic.

Q: In the film Pineda switches between speaking English and Tagalog. Sometimes the same sentence is a mixture of both.

A: We call that 'Taglish.' Taglish is very common in the Philippines. I actually encouraged him to speak Filipino in the documentary. There were certain things I don't think I would have gotten from him emotionally or with such strength and passion if he had to stick to English.

Q: The budget for this documentary was under $2 million. Was it easy to raise the money because of the band's name?

A: I've done three other features and I thought it would be very easy to fundraise for this because (the subject matter) is very accessible, but no. No one believed in us. We were never able to raise the money. So it was on our dime, on our credit cards, small investments from family. The title song, "Don't Stop Believin'" that's us - the crew, me and my producer.

Q: Didn't the band want to kick in some funds?

A: There are certain boundaries you don't cross. This is an independently produced film. If Journey had funded it, there would have been strings attached to it. Money isn't free. The final cut wouldn't have been ours. It would have been deemed a vanity project, which it isn't.

Q: The rock 'n' roll lifestyle is very male-centric. Did being a woman help or hinder you on this film?

A: I think sometimes it was to my advantage. I'm small - 5'1" - so I'm less threatening to people. They allow me more things.(Laughs) So I was allowed in dressing rooms and tour buses. They just say yes!"

(Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Patricia Reaney)

(This story was corrected to give full name of filmmaker in the second paragraph and gender in the third paragraph)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Snowquester" was a no-show in the U.S. capital, which on Wednesday confirmed its status as the center of winter weather wimpdom.

Unlike the Washington snows of yesteryear - "Snowmageddon" and "Snowpocalypse" in 2010 and 2011 - Wednesday's storm failed to bring the heavy snows and high winds forecast. Before its arrival, wags dubbed this storm "Snowquester" after the budget-cutting sequester that went into effect last week.

As the storm damply spun itself out, the National Weather Service's storm warnings were downgraded to watches, then advisories, and ultimately were canceled. With temperatures just above freezing, a soupy slush covered many roadways by evening rush hour, a sparse affair with little traffic.

While most federal offices were closed to the public, with many government workers authorized to telecommute, those who made it to work offered a bit of snark.

"I realize we are under horrendous snow conditions. I think it's up to half an inch now," Senator Patrick Leahy told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. In his home state of Vermont, he said, there was once a weather forecast calling for "a dusting of snow, no more than five or six inches."

Senator John McCain, one of several Republicans joining President Barack Obama for dinner on Wednesday, joked, "I have a dog sled ready to go to be able to get there because of these terrible weather conditions that we're under."

CANCELLING A SNOWBALL FIGHT

It has almost become a tradition to dump on Washington's neurotic response to winter weather. Obama himself did it barely a week after his first inauguration in January 2009, when his daughters' school was canceled due to icy conditions.

"As my children pointed out, in Chicago school is never canceled," the new president said, adding that he would have to instill "some flinty Chicago toughness" into Washingtonians: "When it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things."

The decision to declare a snow day for the federal government is made by the Office of Personnel Management in consultation with the National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management Administration. For this storm, the alert went out at 3:29 a.m., before a flake had fallen in most areas.

A young tradition in the U.S. capital is a snowball fight in the DuPont Circle neighborhood, a few blocks from the White House. There wasn't enough snow to make that possible this time, and organizers were not amused.

"Well, that's all folks," the Washington DC Snowball Fight Association posted at mid-afternoon, after the predicted five to eight inches of snow failed to materialize. "Sadly, the Noquester promised much & delivered nada. So DCSFA is returning to hibernation mode until next winter."

School children in suburban Maryland just outside Washington had slightly better luck with snowballs, though not with sledding.

"It's good packing," said 10-year-old Jason Kaplan after a snowball fight. But sleds and inner tubes didn't work on slushy local hillsides.

"The sledding was just not working. It (the slush) stuck to the bottom of the sled," said Andy Blower, 11.

"There was a lot of mud," said Kaplan.

The Capital Weather Gang blog, billed on the Washington Post website as "the inside scoop on weather in the D.C. area and beyond," got some heavy online criticism. "#Snowquester perfect name: Advertised as epic disaster. Verifies as annoying disruptive flop no one can agree on. @capitalweather," Bethany_Usher posted on Twitter.

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko, additional reporting by Lawrence Hurley, Rachelle Younglai, Timothy Ryan and Diane Bartz; Editing by Karey Van Hall and Phil Berlowitz)

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LONDON (AP) Nautical sailor tops and Madonna's conical bra are coming to London next year in an exhibition of the work of fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier.

"The Fashion World Of Jean Paul Gaultier" will open at the Barbican Centre in April 2014.

It features more than 140 outfits by the cutting-edge French couturier, including the bra-and-corset costume from Madonna's 1990 Blonde Ambition tour and outfits for singers Kylie Minogue and Bjork. There are also pieces from Gaultier's couture collections, which often feature sailor stripes.

The show comes from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and is currently running at Rotterdam's Kunsthal gallery.

Gaultier said Wednesday that London held a special place in his heart, because "the English were the first ones to come to my shows and appreciate my fashion."

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MOSCOW (AP) A Russian ballet star who has danced the roles of violent and powerful historical figures at the Bolshoi Theater has confessed to organizing the acid attack on the theater's ballet chief, Moscow police said Wednesday.

A masked man threw a jar of sulfuric acid in the face of artistic director Sergei Filin as he returned home late on Jan. 17, severely burning his eyes. The 42-year-old former dancer is undergoing treatment in Germany.

Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko, 29, confessed to masterminding the attack, and two other men confessed to being the perpetrator and the driver of the getaway car, police said in a statement. All three were to appear in court on Thursday, when prosecutors were to move for criminal charges to be filed against them.

"I organized that attack but not to the extent that it occurred," a bleary-eyed Dmitrichenko said in footage released by Russian police.

Moscow police said in a statement that investigators believe that Dmitrichenko harbored "personal enmity" against Filin.

The attack threw light on a culture of deep intrigue and infighting at the famed Moscow theater. Within hours of the attack, Bolshoi managers were speculating that the attack could have been in retaliation for Filin's selection of certain dancers over others for prized roles.

Dmitrichenko, who joined the Bolshoi in 2002, has not suffered for starring roles. Most recently, he danced the title role in "Ivan the Terrible," a ballet based on the life of the ruthless 16th-century czar who killed his son in a rage. He also has danced Spartacus in the ballet of the same name. Dmitrichenko's page on the social networking site VKontakte includes a photograph of him as the leader of the slave uprising dancing with a dagger in each hand.

Dmitrichenko's girlfriend, who also is a Bolshoi soloist, is reported to have had a troubled relationship with Filin and felt she was unfairly denied major parts, an angle to the case that has been played up by Russian state television.

Filin's lawyer and wife, however, both cautioned that the ballerina is unlikely to have been the only cause of the conflict.

"Sergei thinks the motives of the crime are somewhat different," Filin's wife, Maria Prorvich, was quoted as saying in an interview to the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. "The girl is only a pretext, but certainly not the main cause of the crime."

She said Filin had suspected Dmitrichenko's involvement in the attack, but is certain that the circle goes beyond the three men arrested on Tuesday.

Filin's lawyer agreed. "We believe that investigators still have a lot of work to do to establish all of the facts," Tatyana Stukalova said in an interview on Rossiya state television.

Investigators became suspicious of Dmitrichenko when they found out that he had recently been in a close contact with an unemployed man with a prison record. The suspects were making inquiries about Filin's schedule and whereabouts, and bought SIM cards for mobile phones registered under fake names, police said.

Police determined that the acid that the alleged attacker, 35-year-old Yuri Zarutsky, splashed on Filin's face had been purchased at an auto shop. Police said Zarutsky is believed to have heated it to evaporate the water to make the acid stronger. On the night of the attack Dmitrichenko tipped off Zarutsky when Filin left the theater, police said.

Bolshoi spokeswoman Katerina Novikova told The Associated Press that Filin had been informed about Dmitrichenko's detention, but said the theater would not comment until after the trial.

The Bolshoi's general director, Anatoly Iksanov, has accused veteran principal dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze of inspiring the attack. Tsiskaridze, a long-time critic of the theater's management, has denied the allegation.

Dmitrichenko's girlfriend, Anzhelina Vorontsova, was coached by Tsiskaridze.

When contacted Wednesday by the AP, Tsiskaridze texted back: "I have nothing to say..."

Izvestia, a Kremlin-friendly daily, on Wednesday quoted ballet teacher Marina Kondratyeva as saying that Vorontsova had not been given leading parts lately but for a good reason: "How could Filin 'elbow her out'? Tsiskaridze is mentoring and coaching her but she was just plain fat."

Filin was instrumental in bringing Vorontsova to Moscow to study and had hoped she would stay to dance for him at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater, Moscow's second ballet company, where he was artistic director before taking up the Bolshoi post in March 2011. Instead she joined the Bolshoi.

Russian newspapers quoted unidentified ballet dancers as saying that Dmitrichenko had a fiery temper.

In a rare public outburst, Dmitrichenko posted an angry comment in November responding to a newspaper review that said his "artistic scope is limited not to mention his physical potential."

On the website of the Kommersant daily, Dmitrichenko accused the ballet critic of bias, calling the writer "a failed performer." Kommersant later took down his comment. One of the screenshots of the detailed remarks read: "I'm happy, I'm accomplished, I work with the genius of a teacher, I work with a genius, Grigorovich himself!!! What about you??"

Yuri Grigorovich led the dance company for three decades, resigning in 1995, after losing a protracted dispute with theater management, but he remains on the Bolshoi staff. Dancers and teachers still loyal to Grigorovich have resisted efforts by a series of successive artistic directors to bring a more modern repertoire to the theater, still celebrated mainly for the classical ballets that grace its stage. Filin, who danced for the Bolshoi from 1989 until 2007, was seen as capable of bridging that gap.

Both of Dmitrichenko's main starring roles were in ballets choreographed by Grigorovich. He was next due to appear at the Bolshoi on March 16, in "Sleeping Beauty, dancing the part of Bluebird.

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AP writers Lynn Berry, Varya Kudryavtseva, Sasha Merkushev and Yelena Yegorova contributed to this report.

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PARIS (AP) The classic Hollywood scene of a mysterious and glamorous woman leaving an anonymous hotel room inspired Louis Vuitton's ready-to-wear show, moving the house in a more sensual, feminine direction.

A carpeted hotel corridor with a series of numbered doors was recreated inside the Louvre for the fall-winter 2013-14 show, to the sound of nostalgic piano.

Suddenly the doors opened, out of which slinked models in '50s wigs wearing satin dresses resembling slips. A bathrobe made from a man's coat followed a crepe dress made with motifs of an undergarment.

"It was about intimacy, the mystery of what's going on behind the door," said creative director Marc Jacobs. "It's Hollywood mixed with rive gauche."

The Hollywood-factor was certainly there in the roll call of top actresses lining the front row including Jessica Chastain, Madmen's January Jones and Naomi Watts, who's in Paris promoting her new film "The Grandmothers."

The numerous long fur coats some of the most luxurious seen this season also provided a glam-factor. Mink coats dyed in two tones and murky-colored astrakhan were stand outs as well as crocodile bags lined with sheared mink, lashings of marabou feathers and hand-curled goose feathers.

"All sorts of creatures were lying around in embroidered form," joked Jacobs, who may indeed be responsible for emptying a local zoo.

Menswear touches like a button-less tailored jacket or the pajama print reined in the more overtly feminine lingerie looks, ensuring a nice overall balance.

But the show was also about Kate Moss.

The 39-year-old, possibly the most famous model in the world, strutted the catwalk sporting a sheer organza slip, with dense floral embroideries, to rapturous applause.

Jacobs, who conducted interviews backstage in red pajamas, said the show grew from his relationship with Moss.

"I've spent many, many, many nights over many, many years in hotel rooms with Kate, and we've always had a very nice time," Jacobs said. "And I'm sure many wondered what we were doing. I'm sure we showed off a lot (here) what we were doing."

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Thomas Adamson can be followed at http://Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

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NORMAN, Okla. (AP) Event organizers have learned the hard way that the usual half-hour warning of severe weather might be enough for people in their homes, but it's not enough to clear people from big venues where concerts and football games are held.

Seven people died and more than 40 were injured at the Indiana State Fair in 2011 when a sudden 60 mph gust knocked a stage onto a crowd waiting to see the band Sugarland perform. In 2009, high wind toppled a canopy at a Dallas Cowboys practice facility, leaving one person paralyzed and 11 others less seriously hurt.

"Like 9-11, it takes a really bad thing to get our attention," said Harold Hansen, the life, safety and security director for the International Association of Venue Managers. "The rules changed."

The incidents prompted venue managers to move their annual storm-preparedness meeting to the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. the heart of Tornado Alley and the forecast centers that watch it.

"Now some of the heavy hitters are getting involved," said David VandenHeuvel, a senior vice president with Weather Decision Technologies, which has provided forecasts to about 150 events in the past 1 years.

The conference had about a dozen participants when it started five years ago. This year, more than 40 emergency managers and event operators came, including the NFL and the Country Music Association.

Through lectures about weather watches, lightning, crowd dynamics and shelter readiness, the experts repeatedly stressed the need to have a plan before the weather turns bad.

"They're waiting for a warning to be issued," said Kevin Kloesel, associate dean of the University of Oklahoma's College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences. "The message over the two days here is: if you wait until that point, you are not going to have the time. If you wait for the warning, it's too late."

The list of close calls is chilling. A 2010 tornado shredded the roof of a Montana sports arena packed with thousands of people the day before. A lightning bolt struck 500 feet from the Texas Rangers pitcher's mound during a game in July 2012. Pennsylvania's Pocono Raceway was struck by lightning the next month, three minutes after a race was canceled.

Jim Digby, who managed world tours for the rock band Linkin Park, attended last year's conference and has since formed the Event Safety Alliance. That group has suggested adopting procedures based on specific weather conditions, such as wind speed.

Digby told The Associated Press he is working on expanding its guidelines to Australia, with international music tours in mind.

"Last year, when I first announced this initiative, I thought I was throwing a hand grenade in the room," he said with a laugh. "The entire industry once they figured out what we were trying to do, they have embraced the project."

Event organizers and managers said they're taking Digby's advice to heart.

"We're going to go back and adapt the trigger plan," said Vilma Salinas, the Country Music Association's senior manager of projects. The CMA Music Festival at Nashville, Tenn., which draws 200,000 fans, has emergency plans in place, but could benefit from more precision on when people need to move, she said.

"The biggest thing is who gets to make the call," she said. "Country music fans are die-hard fans. We need to be as clear as possible."

As tornado expert Chuck Doswell told the conference, severe weather is relatively rare but inevitable.

"Imagine the Indianapolis 500 ... with those hundreds and hundreds of RVs with nowhere to go," Doswell said. If a tornado such as one that killed 158 in Missouri two years struck an event that did not have a severe weather plan in place, "it would make Joplin look like a Saturday afternoon picnic."

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William Moody, better known to pro wrestling fans as Paul Bearer, the pasty-faced, urn-carrying manager for performers The Undertaker and Kane, has died, the WWE said. He was 58.

A spokesman for the wrestling company said Moody's family contacted the WWE to report the death on Tuesday. No cause was released.

After stints in various independent wrestling promotions, Moody joined the WWE in 1990 and quickly became associated with The Undertaker, a character who claimed he was undead and boasted of mystical powers.

In the WWE plotline, Paul Bearer later managed Undertaker's on-screen half brother Kane. He also managed the bad-guy character Mick "Mankind" Foley.

His shrill catchphrase, "Ooohhh yeeesss!" and contorted facial expressions made him one of the sports-entertainment company's more popular personalities for more than a decade.

In the outlandish world of pro wrestling, Paul Bearer was once placed in a glass casket and buried in concrete. In his final WWE appearance last year, Paul Bearer was locked in a freezer by Randy Orton and left there tied up even after he was found by Kane.

That was Moody's life in the WWE. And it was a business he loved for nearly 40 years. Many of his colleagues paid tribute to him on Wednesday on Twitter.

"Rest in peace, Paul Bearer. You will never be forgotten. There will never be another," wrote wrestler Triple H.

Moody was a perfect fit as a macabre mortician. When he joined the WWE, he ditched the blond hair and Percy Pringle name he forged in the 1980s for jet black locks complete with powdered white face. In the act, Paul Bearer's urn had some unexplained power that protected the Undertaker, allowing his protege to escape unscathed from every leg drop and big boot to the face. Paul Bearer also hosted the WWE segment, "The Funeral Parlor."

Moody, an Alabama native, told the pro wrestling website PWTorch.com last year that had a degree in mortuary science. He said he was a licensed funeral director and embalmer. He was called to WWE chairman Vince McMahon's office about taking the job as Undertaker's manager without the company knowing his true background.

"It was one those had-to-be-there moments when Vince realized I was the real thing, the real deal," Moody told the website. "I was the real Undertaker."

Moody battled health and weight problems and worked on and off for the company after 2002.

Foley said he babysat Moody's children and called him "Uncle Paul." The Paul Bearer character will be remembered most for the soap opera twists in his relationship with The Undertaker, still one of the premier stars of the company.

"It just seemed so bizarre," Foley said in a telephone interview. "But at the same time, he was a perfect fit for The Undertaker. They went on to become iconic figures in our profession."

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Dan Gelston can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APGelston

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Nothing's certain in network television, but things have been especially uncertain on the set of "Community," the quirky college sitcom that's been a cult favorite, but never a mainstream hit.

"Near cancellation," actress Gillian Jacobs said before a PaleyFest tribute to the series Tuesday night. "On the schedule, off the schedule. Tell us one night. We never air on that night. We lose a creator of our show. Reduced episodes. Everything that can happen has happened to us."

Cast member Chevy Chase left the series without even finishing up the current season, months after the show creator Dan Harmon was fired by "Community" distributor Sony Pictures Television. (Chase bolted with two episodes unfinished and according to cast members, doesn't appear at all in one of them.)

"It's always tough to lose people," said actress Alison Brie. "It's very strange and weird. So I can only imagine that coming back for a fifth season without Chevy would also be weird. But, luckily, it didn't affect us too much this season."

"Community" returned as a mid-season replacement in February for the first time without any involvement from creator Harmon.

"I think, as far as season four as a whole, I think the heart is still there," said actress Yvette Nicole Brown. "There's a lot of really great adventures to come. You guys haven't seen the best that this season has to offer yet, so I'm excited for you to see it."

This week's episode, airing Thursday, marks star Joel McHale's character, Jeff, meeting up with his long-lost father, played by actor James Brolin. Perhaps Brolin's real-life wife Barbra Streisand could play Jeff's mom?

"I don't think we could afford Babs," McHale replied. "I would love it. It was interesting listening to Jim say, 'My wife ...' (And McHale would say) 'Yeah, your wife is Barbra Streisand!' And he was just getting ready to go on tour with her. So, yeah, that would be pretty extraordinary. And what if Justin Bieber were my brother, and the cast of 'Twilight' were my cousins. Explosion!"

As usual, the future of "Community" is in question. Brie said a fifth season is by no means a given. The series' latest episodes have been clobbered in the ratings by its powerhouse competition, "The Big Bang Theory."

As for a possible series finale?

"If I had a super-wish list, it would be the biggest paintball (fight)," answered actor Jim Rash "like the world needs to be saved and only 'Community' can do it. That would be a good way to end."

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Online: www.paleycenter.org

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Follow Michael Cidoni Lennox on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MikeCLennox

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NEW YORK (AP) -- A new TV commercial features a good-looking young woman on a beach vacation lounging next to a good-looking young man. He bemoans the glare on his iPad and she fills him in on the Kindle Paperwhite's sun-friendly screen.

He clicks to buy one himself and suggests they celebrate with a drink.

"My husband's bringing me a drink right now," chirps she.

"So is mine," smiles he as they turn and wave at their male loved ones sitting together at a tiki bar.

Welcome to the latest in gay imagery in mainstream advertising, where LGBT people have been waiting for a larger helping of fairness, or at least something other than punchlines and cliches.

While there are still plenty of those, something has happened in advertising over the last two or three years, nearly two decades after Ikea broke ground in the U.S. with a TV spot featuring a gay couple shopping for a dining room table a spot that ran only once in New York and Washington, D.C., and was pulled after bomb threats to Ikea stores.

Today, gay and lesbian parents and their kids are featured along with pitchwoman Ellen DeGeneres in J.C. Penney ads. Same-sex couples have their own, advertised wedding registries at Macy's and elsewhere and President Barack Obama offered his seal of approval by evolving into a supporter of gay marriage.

Two happy young men sit together eating at a dining table, with wine and romantic candlelight, in a section of a Crate & Barrel catalog marked "Us & Always." And we made it through a Super Bowl without any gay jokes at commercial breaks like the Snickers ad of several years ago featuring two men freaking out after kissing by accident while eating one of the candy bars.

Traditionally lagging behind TV and film content in terms of LGBT inclusion, advertisers in this country are facing considerably less trouble than they used to when taking on gay themes, observers said. Penney's rebuffed critics and launched a lesbian-focused catalog ad for Mother's Day that the company followed with a two-dads family a real family for Father's Day.

DeGeneres, who married Portia de Rossi in 2008, continues as a CoverGirl in magazines. Also recently? A lesbian couple was treated to fireworks in a commercial real ones flash on screen for K-Y Intense, a personal lubricant that makes their moment or two more memorable. They're shown spent and satisfied in bed, hair tussled. "Good purchase," one says to the other.

Though Crate & Barrel declined comment for this story and Amazon didn't respond to email requests for the same about the Kindle ad, LGBT-focused marketers and monitors think the Mad Men and Women of today's Madison Avenue and the companies that employ them might finally be getting it. Now, they hope, a greater degree of diversity in skin tone and ethnicity will follow.

"They're no longer just targeting gay and lesbian people. They're targeting people like my mom, who want to know that a company embraces and accepts their gay and lesbian family members, friends and neighbors," said Rich Ferraro, a spokesman for the media watchdog group the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

Others, too, are celebrating the newfound bump in ad visibility, a mirror of cultural gains overall. It's a boost that comes as the U.S. Supreme Court takes up oral arguments later this month in key challenges that could lead to further recognition of same-sex marriage and spousal benefits.

Bob Witeck, who consults for Fortune 100 companies on LGBT marketing and communications strategies, put the buying power of U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults at $790 billion last year. He estimated, roughly, the U.S. LGBT adult population at 16 million, though others say their ranks could be as many as 25 million.

There's no demographic evidence or social science that points to the LGBT segment as notably higher earning or wealthier than anybody else, though they're often louder in protesting offensive ad messaging and loyal to brands and companies that support them.

"Things have changed significantly in terms of risk and reward," Witeck said. "Businesses don't view this as a risk model any longer."

Particularly, he said, when it comes to portraying marriage.

"Marriage, at one time, was the third rail," Witeck said. "That terrified companies. Most of this happened when the president said he supported marriage equality."

A consumer lust for "truth-telling" isn't lost on major advertisers, including those that once restricted themselves to trotting out gay-friendly fodder as one-offs when Pride Month and its multicolored flag flies freely each June. One recent pride standout in advertising, restricted to digital markets, is an Oreo cookie with a mountain of multicolored filling.

The company fielded queries from consumers who thought it was available for purchase in stores. It wasn't.

American Airlines, in 2010, ran outdoor advertising at bus stops and subway stations in New York showing two men on a beach with the slogan: "Here's to his and his beach towels.Proud to support the community that supports us."

Generally, Witeck said, putting a human face on gay couples and families in advertising is where much of the effort lands today.

"For the gay consumer and their families and friends, and lots and lots and lots of Americans, they expect to see those couples appear everywhere, but they don't want them trotted out with a pride flag," Witeck said. "Amazon didn't ballyhoo the message. They just landed it."

Mark Elderkin, CEO of the Gay Ad Network, which focuses on the LGBT niche market, said mainstream gay messaging has "passed the tipping point, where there's more to gain than there is to lose" for advertisers.

While there are groups of "vocal antagonists," he said more advertisers bolstered by broader media exposure for gay characters and storylines in non-ad content "The New Normal," ''Modern Family," ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show," CNN's out-of-the-closet anchor Anderson Cooper have explored non-traditional families and included LGBT imagery in "normal" settings.

"It seems to be moving quickly forward. It's companies that want to be more on the leading edge, more for the next generation of this country," Elderkin said. "It's not your parents' brand anymore. It's your brand and your kids' brand."

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Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie

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