Last June the pap-masters at Beverly Hills 90210 decided to chuck the show’s slutty gay character Teddy. Apparently, they’ve replaced the ass-tastic blond with a hunky 20-year-old brunette named Shane, played by Ryan Rottman.
Shane will be, “a smart, handsome gay 20-something who is confident in his identity and is committed to fighting for marriage equality.” Sadly Rottman made a queer-ally “Straight But Not Narrow” video which all but confirms his heterosexuality—but that doesn’t mean we won’t drool over the two hunky photos we have of him on the next two pages.
Image via Pop Tower
Tony
He’s hot, but he doesn’t even come close to how ridiculously good looking Trevor is.
🙁
EdWoody
Once again, Trevor/Teddy has not been removed. He will still be on the show. He has just been downgraded from regular to recurring. Which considering how much screen time they were giving him anyway probably won’t change a thing.
Cam
(Yawn), an article about somebody straight playing (yawn) a gay character.
How challenging, how daring, how unusual!
meego
Flavor of the month. Nothing more.
Ever notice how an actor playing a gay character is always so quick to state that he’s straight? Hmmmm….
doug105
So we get 3 mins. of him instead of teddy per a show ?
Still not enough to make me watch.
hf2hvit
“Does this dick in my mouth make me look gay?”
Mr. Enemabag Jones
@Cam:
@meego:
Couldn’t agree more.
SteveC
Are there really no gay actors in Hollywood.
All these actors are constantly whining about how difficult it is for a gay actor to have a career in Hollywood.
Meanwhile even the gay roles are taken by straight actors.
90210 should be asked why they did not choose a gay actor for this role.
of course they’ll have some crap excuse about the best person getting the job.
I don’t buy that.
Jimmy Fury
@meego: Maybe because of people like you who assume everyone playing gay must be gay, especially if they say they aren’t?
mbm
oh please. this guy is Zac Efron’s lover. they were spotted at a Lakers game together a while a back. Did Efron forget that he’s not at Disney anymore?
meego
@Jimmy Fury: No, actually, its because of people like you who constantly attribute the wrong meaning to other people’s comments.
meego
@mbm: This, if true, would not surprise me. “Oh but they’re just friends”. Well, what did you expect them to do? Have wild animal sex right there in the middle of a huge crowd? Of course they’re going to be discreet!
Jimmy Fury
@meego: Oh do please correct me then.
What exactly does the “Hmmmm….” at the end of your comment mean if you’re not implying that he’s trying to hide being gay? Did you smell delicious cookies being baked? Was it an impromptu impression of a vibrator?
No really, educate me. Obviously there was a much more profound meaning that what I erroneously saw there and my curiosity will drive me mad if I don’t learn the truth!
meego
@Jimmy Fury: I won’t bother trying to “educate” you because whatever I write would fly way over your head. The tone of your last message bears me out on that. Good luck, kiddo!
Jimmy Fury
@meego: Nice try but patronizing me and refusing to answer only proves me right.
You can’t argue what I said because you know i’m right. You were implying he’s gay and I simply pointed out that it’s that very same crap that causes even the most gay-friendly straight actors to feel they have to clarify their sexuality.
Little Kiwi
this is not news. this is what almost always happens. they hire a straight actor to play gay because they want someone who doesn’t ‘appear’ gay in order to make some bogus “point” that is utterly negated by the fact that they couldnt’ get what they wanted from an openly-gay actor.
*yawn*
look, good for him. good for the show for trying to show a “gay side” – alas, it’s the same old fucking story:
Hire an attractive WHITE heterosexual male as your ‘gay’
why not an openly-gay actor or a gay actor of COLOUR, eh?
Little Kiwi
“the best person for the job” , in cases like these, simply means “we wanted a guy that could be gay but wasn’t obvious”
the fact that they can’t find a gay person to do this should wake them up.
gay people can tell who is gay and who isn’t.
remember “The Crying Game”? Remember all the “don’t give away the secret!” talk? WHAT SECRET? it was only a secret to straight audiences. every queer person who saw that film knew in the first two seconds “oh, that’s a dude”
Brad
It’s really pathetic that anytime a straight actor plays a gay character he’s assumed to be closet case. Such an attitude does nothing but reinforce stereotypes and prevent straight guys from being friends with gays.
Pickles55
What does being gay have to do with playing a character? Do you have to be Jewish to portray a Jew? It’s called ACTING.
The actor’s sexual orientation is irrelevant to the character they are portraying. Good acting is good acting.
How exactly would having an out gay actor portray this character change the character?
This is backwards thinking.
Gay actors have been convincingly portraying straight characters since acting began.
Straight actors convincingly portray gay characters all the time in every country, every year.
It’s just homophobic essentialist crap to think that only gay actors should portray gay characters as if there is a way to “act gay”.
If you’re a bad actor, you won’t be convincing no matter what part you play.
Really?
Do any adults actually watch 90210? I would hope not…
jj
I had no idea this show was still on the air.
meego
@Jimmy Fury: It proves nothing, you idiot! What is interesting here is the fact that you feel you must be right or rather that you need to be right. That says a heck of a lot more about you that it does about me. One cannot educate the uneducable. Like I wrote, good luck, kiddo!
For the record, Colin Farrell never felt he had to defend himself by, among other things, insisting he’s straight. He just laughed and accepted it. He did not care. So this tends to negate your theory that straight actors feel they must insist on saying they are straight because too many people think they’re gay. Truly, what you wrote, your little theory, is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read. Anyone who has been there will tell you that if you are truly secure with your sexuality, if you have nothing to hide, then people calling you gay won’t bother you a bit. You clearly do not undestand this. I’m guessing you’re in your early 20’s and with very limited life experience. Geez, I hope you are in your 20’s. It would be quite scary for a middle-aged man to think the way you do!
Cam
@Brad: said…
“It’s really pathetic that anytime a straight actor plays a gay character he’s assumed to be closet case. Such an attitude does nothing but reinforce stereotypes and prevent straight guys from being friends with gays.”
___________________________
Actually, that is never the case. Gay actors are told by their Publicists to not take gay roles. And every single time a straight actor plays a gay role they give about 100 interviews talking about how it was an interesting challenge, and then say something about their girlfriend.
Either that, or if their publicist has told them that they are not seen as “Edgy” enough they talk about what other male actor they would like to kiss if they were gay.
M
@SteveC: Dude, there’s a lot of gay actors in this town. Please take my word on that. It’s a really complicated issue, inexplicably, and it would take forever to deal with it.
@mbm: Heh.
@Brad: I don’t think that’s necessarily true. It makes things a big more frustrating for some, yes, but I don’t think it prevents much.
@Cam: True. However, it has been occurring more and more that gay actors take the gay role, stay closeted, but play the role in public as the enlightened straight guy who likes the attention gay dudes gives them. You’ve seen them, they do really interesting videos for the internet, they go to the GLADD awards and appear to be very open, liberal and progressive when they’re in fact gay themselves.
We role our eyes, smile politely and guffaw when they walk away. It’s quite common.