Bass looks past hurtful words

Lance Bass gives me a shocker of a quote in today's Neon section: "Every other day, I get called a 'fag,' and get threatened to (get) beat up."

That's a despicable state of homophobia directed at openly gay Bass. He chats more about being gay in Hollywood in today's Neon section.

But the 'N Syncer mostly has happy work on his mind, because he's on tour for the first time in about six years. He performs Monday in the "Dancing with the Stars" tour at the Orleans Arena.

Training for "Dancing with the Stars" on TV was comparable to his preparation, a few years ago, to fly to space via the Russians, he says.

"Cosmonaut training was a little harder ... a lot more things to learn."

But: "My body hurt more doing the 'Dancing with the Stars' than it did with the training for a cosmonaut, because every day you're destroying your body."

On "Dancing," he lost more than 20 pounds and got more limber.

"I still don't consider myself a dancer, but I think I'm faking it pretty well," he says and chuckles.

Bass is officially certified as a cosmonaut and is waiting for an available mission to live at the international space station for a 10-day stretch.

"But my dream is -- a lot of my experiments are going to be environmental studies. And I want to do more scholastic stuff for our schools -- update textbooks, pictures, experiments in space."

Bass says he loves the physical demands of cosmonaut training, just as he took to sky diving.

"I'm a thrill junkie, for sure," he says.

Space flying/sky diving/thrill-seeking does not scare him, because?

"I trust things more than I should."

After the "Dancing" tour, Bass goes back to his production company in Los Angeles, working on three or four TV shows in development, with hopes of getting a pilot on TV by summer.

"There's one (show) I might actually join the cast of. It just depends on how this next year goes."

By the way, maybe you saw the gossip item a few weeks ago, saying Bass' hectic "Dancing" schedule led to a breakup with his boyfriend at the time. Bass isn't backing off that statement.

"It was," he says, "me being dramatic, saying it did destroy my relationship -- which it did.

"In every relationship, you have to spend time with the other person, and I went days without seeing him. So it had to end."

WHERE THE UFC STARS ARE

After Saturday's UFC fight at the MGM Grand:

• Dana White hosts the official UFC after-fight club party at LAX at Luxor.

• Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell goes to Studio 54 at MGM for a party hosted by John Huntington. Liddell will present a free Hummer H2 to the winner of a sweepstakes (which is no longer open for registration).

• CB "The Doberman" Dollaway goes to Hawaiian Tropic Zone at Planet Hollywood.

• And Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva goes to Tabu lounge at MGM.

• Doug "The Game Dork" Elfman will be at home on staycation, playing "Call of Duty: World at War" online until 4 a.m.

Doug Elfman's column appears on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.