Could it BE more over?

It's the end of an era.

After what seems like an eternity, Channel 4 (and its multiple offshoots) have ended their fifteen year deal with Warner Bros to exclusively air Friends.

Even though the show ended five years ago, it's become such a staple of the media landscape that it's hard to turn on the TV without seeing the giant porcelain greyhound, the peephole picture-frame, or a thin Matthew Perry spitting a spray of water out of his mouth.

In fact, Friends has become so ubiquitous, that it's hard to remember that, for the best part of a decade, it was the best comedy show on TV. Maybe we take it for granted, like a moving version of the test card picture of the girl with the terrifying clown ragdoll.

Even now, the show manages to drum up daily viewing figures of around 400,000, despite the fact that the majority of the population must have committed all 236 episodes to memory.

The E4 schedulers must be flicking through page after page of blank diary sheets, wondering how they're ever going to fill all that space without Monica's OCD, Rachel's amazing hair or Ross's borderline paedophilia.

As for The Rembrandts, who performed the show's nosebleed-inducing theme tune, they're going to take a massive hit on their royalties now that it's not going to be broadcast around the clock.

Head of Channel 4 acquisitions Gill Hay says "It's time to say goodbye to old Friends and welcome new ones, in the form of more comedy, drama and entertainment from the US and UK. We are incredibly proud to have been the home of Friends for so long, but at a point when the channel is undergoing a period of creative renewal it felt like the right time to part company."

It's a sad time for anyone who's grown accustomed to their daily fix of Central Perk. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that BBC takes note and follows suit by finally putting 'Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps' out of its misery. At least Friends had the decency to be funny.

Move over Jessica Rabbit

Despite its reputation as a purveyor of wholesome family entertainent, populated with anthropomorphised animals and sing-a-long songs, Disney has a positively progressive approach to diversity that leaves other studios in the shade.

Although uncle Walt had a right-wing world view that even Fox News would struggle to justify, the company he left behind enjoys a far more tolerant reputation, particularly when it comes to the gays.

Conservatives hate the fact that the magnetic north of family entertainment, Walt Disney World in Orlando, has been staging unofficial 'Gay Days' for twenty years now. During the first week of June, LGBT fans of animation, thrill rides and ducks who are naked from the waist down, run amok in the Magical Kingdom.

And this fun-packed tradition is sure to continue with this week's news that Disney has appointed its first gay studio chief, Rich Ross. Although Disney hasn't made a big deal about Ross' proclivities, journalists seem to think that this is because the company, quite rightly, doesn't care whether its new boss prefers the speedway or the teacups.

However, the limits of Disney's homo-tolerance are likely to be tested by new artwork creayed by Israeli conceptual artist David Kawena. In a bizarre gallery posted at deviantART.com, David has given some of his favourite Disney characters a decidedly homo-erotic makeover.

Sporting bulging briefs, glinting weapons and come-hither glances, these decidedly non-canon interpretations will have Walt spinning in his cryonic freezer.

After all, Disney characters are supposed to be sexless, like Barbie dolls or the Jonas Brothers. Hell, Aladdin didn't even have nipples. And yet the weirdest aspect of these pictures is that Zac Efron looks more two-dimensional than his cartoon counterparts.

But it's not the overt sexuality that will upset the powers-that-be at Disney, it's the fact that the characters are appearing in ensembles not approved by the official character costume guides.