Forget all the speculation about Adam Lambert's sexuality. (We mean it! Forget! He's dead now, there's nothing we can do, we have to keep moving!) The new hot is-he-or-isn't-he question is this: Is the fat kid from Up supposed to be Asian? Let's investigate!
Disney isn't usually shy about tooting its own horn when the studio breaks racial boundaries (talk of The Princess and the Frog's black heroine dominated animation chatter until that first, iffy trailer came out). So far, though, they haven't said zip over whether Up's Russell might be Asian, despite the tentative questions arising online.
Phil Yu, who blogs about pop culture over at Angry Asian Man, thinks Russell's definitely Asian. Having seen the film, I could go either way -- the character's look is ambiguous, and a relative is glimpsed in only one scene (though she has dark black hair). The best evidence of Russell's ethnicity, though, might come from the actor who voiced him: young Jordan Nagai, at left.
Why is the question relevant? Well, Russell might be Disney's very first Asian male co-lead, if you don't count that drippy dude from Mulan. And at a time when Hollywood is in no hurry to cast an Asian actor as the star of a movie (unless he knows martial arts), it's significant that one of the summer's biggest movies might quietly signify some small progress.