This is a great example of why i discourage the use of $_ and other implicit variables. It perpetuates misunderstanding of what is really going on. Do others feel that this shorthand leads to confusion, or am i too anal?
I like to go one step further in reading files:

while( my $line = <TEMPLATE> ) {
    $outputpage .= $line;
}
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or even

my @lines = <TEMPLATE>;
foreach my $line (@lines) {
    $outputpage .= $line;
}
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