Who knew SANTA CLAUSE was gay? The only people seem to be Rudolph and gay actor HARVEY FIERSTEIN, who used his appearance as a cross-dressing Mrs. Clause in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade last week to make a political statement.

While the Santa that traditionally closes out the parade still rode alongside a female Mrs. Clause, Fierstein also appeared as Mrs. Claus, while dressed as his character Edna Turnblad from the Tony Award-winning musical “Hairspray.”

The brouhaha began when he used the gig as an excuse to write an op-ed about equal marriage rights for gay couples in the New York Times on Nov. 26.

“Just the sight of [Santa’s] face is enough to bring a smile to the Scroogiest of politicians. Would his gifts of love and goodwill be answered with exclusion and derision?” Fierstein wrote. “The answer, history tells us, is ‘of course.’”

While he later told the Associated Press that he didn’t appear in drag as a political statement, Fierstein also said, “Everyone is so shocked that a man is going to be Mrs. Santa Clause. No one is shocked that in America … we’re looking into passing laws to discriminate against our own citizens.”

Meanwhile, Macy’s, the department store that sponsors the annual parade, tried to distance itself from the hoopla.

“The parade has never and will never be a platform for political and social issues and opinions,” a store representative said in a statement on Thanksgiving Day.

Popular support seems to side with our man Harvey.

“Mr. Fierstein has entertained us all, gay and straight, whatever those words mean, for many years and is certainly deserving of our respect,” Alice D. Scheller of Paterson, N.J., wrote in a letter the Times published on Nov. 29.

Reality check
Another reality television contestant wants to be a star. How quaint, and what a cliché.

The latest “celebrity” to cash in on his 15 minutes of fame is REICHEN LEHMKUHL, who, with his then-“husband” CHIP ARNDT, won first place on CBS’s “The Amazing Race, Season Four” in August. While the happy couple has since parted ways, Reichen had a brief role in the season premiere of “Frasier” on NBC and a three-day stint as a waiter on CBS’s soap “The Young & The Restless” in October.

Now, plans are under way for him to star in his own beefcake calendar.

10% Consumer Products, a division of Village Lighthouse L.L.C., announced in a written statement that Reichen will have his own 2005 calendar. Company officials say Reichen “bears it all on 13 stunning, brilliant color photographs.”

“Each month reveals a different aspect of this all-around amazing guy. You will crave to see every image of Reichen — from him in bed to on the beach; from being leather clad on his Series 9 Ducati motorcycle to stripped down to his underwear in the kitchen.”

He also will appear draped in an American flag “as a tribute to his former Air Force military service days and continued patriotism.”

Let’s hope Reichen’s 15 minutes aren’t over before any of us actually get to see this masterpiece.

Ride ‘em cowboy
Director ANG LEE, who gained fame with movies such as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “The Hulk,” and the “The Wedding Banquet,” has gotten the green light for a movie about gay cowboys, the Hollywood Reporter reports.

The movie, “Brokeback Mountain,” is about a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy who meet in the early ’60s and fall in love.

No word yet on the casting of the two men but, for starters, Dish would suggest BRAD PITT and ASHTON KUTCHER.

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