Brad Pitt is rumored to be shopping around for a gay role to 
figuratively throw in his mother’s homophobic face.
According to that bastion of journalistic integrity, The National Enquirer, the actor is in secret dealings with his Seven Years in Tibet producers to play a gay on the big screen. Mr. Jolie-Pitt has apparently wanted to play it not-straight for years feeling it would add dimension to his work as an actor — and an Oscar to his mantle, if history is any judge.
Jane Pitt’s diatribe in the Springfield News Leader last month reportedly spurred the actor’s decision to put this project on the fast-track, telling producers, “I’ll do whatever it takes to make this film happen.”
Le sigh, be still our collective hearts. Of course, why this couldn’t have happened during his Fight Club physical peak as opposed to his post-Benjamin Button grace period is neither here nor there. We’re just glad that not only did the apple fall far from the tree, in Pitt’s case, the apple is trying to roll downhill to distance itself from the tree’s wacky anti-gay slurs.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Brickman
He’s been saying this for years…..and still no gay roles…just damage control trying to distance himself from his wacky mom….
KW
Pitt continues to show himself to be thoughtful, politically minded, and urbane. A great role model for the 21st century.
Kim
Another lie from NE according to producers. JOhn Williams rep
ian
i recall him saying this back when Brokeback Mountain was out. i’d love to see ‘the front runner’ made. brad would be very credible as the ex-marine/olympian turned coach Harlan Brown. who would be billy? if he does find a gay character to play, (i doubt it’ll happen, but it would be nice), i just hope it’s a good role in a great film.
Analog
I don’t think he’ll ever play a gay character.
Same with George Clooney.
Lifer
He could’ve been in Brokeback if he so desired (& would have made a decent movie into an awful one). So put up or shut up.
C.D
he’s a great man and has been an ally of ours for years. so for that, i admire him greatly
Steve
Brad Pitt is NOT an ally to LGBT people or a great man as people are claiming, he’s a celebrity and a total media wh0re.
Ian actually the character Harlan Brown in the front runner was bisexual, not gay.
mike ramon
Brad is one of the brightest and best actors in Hollywood and a firm supporter of lgbt rights. If he wants to play gay, thats totally cooool, but if doesn’t thats totally coool too. His mom though should keep her homophobic mouth shut.
mike ramon
Steve, all celebrities are media whores, some just pretend not to be, aint nothing’ wrong with that.@<@Steve: a href=”#comment-676992″>Steve:
David Ehrenstein
@Steve: Yes he is. He’s played gay once already as he played the judge in “8” — Dustin Lance Black’s dramtization of the Prop 8 trial.
LadyL
@David Ehrenstein: See, I’d forgotten that–which is why I don’t think it counts. The judge’s sexuality was never mentioned or acknowledged since technically speaking it wasn’t relevant to the proceedings. (Well, it was… but it wasn’t. You know what I mean.)
Might be coolish to see Pitt in a gay role if he would fully commit to it like Gyllenhaal and Ledger did.
Aaron
Actually Lady L the male characters in Brokeback were bisexual men, not gay. Then again calling them “gay” is a prime example of bisexual erasure and biphobia at work.
Mrs. Patrick Campbell
Why is this alcoholic untalented actor with tiny meat so worshiped? He is not for gay or LGBT rights at all but just pretends he is. When he started out he looked like any other Hu$tler on Santa Monca Blvd. and he is a major pothead and alcoholic.
UsualPlayers
@LadyL: THe judges sexuality later becomes a basis for appeal because the pro8 people argued he should have recused himself for being gay. I don’t know if that shows up in the story
UsualPlayers
@Aaron: Actually its not clear they were intended to be gay or bisexual.
That was one of the main debates of the time when the both the short story and the later the movie came out. There were arguments on both sides. Some said that the Ennis character was bisexual, but the other character was gay. The reasoning is pretty complicated. Some say they were both a product of their times. Again complicated reasoning, both sides of the debate.
I remember all of this because my friends and I had lengthy discussions.
Whatever the answer is ultimately one thing is clear: You are full of b.s. to claim that anyone was covering up anything since it was a big debate of the time.
Don’t believe me? Look it up.
In fact, it takes about a second to Google the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brokeback_Mountain
I really wish some of you were less interested trying to stir shit up, and a little bit more interested in discussion.
UsualPlayers
Here’s another link:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/bbmovie.htm
The reason it could go either way is because it was not clear whether they were two men who would have married women if they were not the product of their society of the time or they would have not dated women at all. On the other hand, it could be argued that Ennis was really in love with his wife. On yet another, some say that Ennis was bisexual (because he loved his wife) and only seem to love Jack, but Jack was gay and was having affair with other men on the side although he may have married his wife to conform.
Its a pretty complicated situation not subject to manipulations by those seeking to reduce the story.
Each argument, given the nature of the story, is possible. That’s the honest rather than b.s. interpretation of the movie and short story.
Nina
Personal interpretation, but Ennis seemed like more of a Kinsey character (complicated and not well-pigeonholed) than flat out gay/bisexual. Which isn’t to say he’s “not bisexual,” it’s to say that Ennis loved a man and dated other women, and Jack loved a man and dated other men. One is pretty clearly gay-or-close-to-it. The other one . . . without Jack, would Ennis have ever been interested in men at all? Tricky question.
Analog
@Nina: Agreed. Jack is obviously gay and has less of a problem with his sexuality than Ennis does (he sleeps with other men, he’s the one who suggests they both live together), while Ennis is less clear, though it’s inferred in his relationship with Alma that their sex life is far from fulfilling.
In fact, it’s pretty clear that the relationships both have with their respective female partners are fairly bleak and unfulfilling to them.
How many gay men in times such as those would end up marrying a woman and starting a family?
When I first saw the film I assumed Ennis was bisexual, but the more I’ve seen it the less I’m convinced of that – there’s just no evidence to suggest that either of them gets any kind of sexual or emotional fulfillment from their relationships outside of each other (and in Jack’s case, outside of his relationships with other men)…
Nina
@Analog: I think Ennis’ relationships in general are dysfunctional (starting with how his dad taught him “not to be one of those queers”). Notice how one of his daughters disappears halfway through the film? She’s not even mentioned at the end by her sister. He could be gay, but with Ennis I think the evidence is actually equally compelling that he’s “gay-or-bi-or-somewhere-in-between-the-two” and just doesn’t know how to connect to anyone. The reason he connected so thoroughly with Jack is because they were outside of society–as soon as their boss shows up, Ennis shuts down again. When they’re living on their own rules and terms, Ennis is finally able to open up without fear of recrimination. As long as he’s with other people, he’s always living in the shadow of his father (just as Jack is, in the book–if you haven’t read it, Jack’s most vivid childhood memory is of seeing his father in the bath and discovering his father “looked different”–I don’t remember which is which, but one of them is cut and one is uncut. Little Jack commented on this and got thrown across the room).
So, for example, what would have happened if, say . . . instead of going up in the mountains for three months with Jack, he’d gotten stranded for three months with Alma? Would there have been a connection between them that, in the actual story, they lack? Obviously we’ll never know, but I think it’s very telling that the place in the movie where you see Ennis’ biggest show of emotion is when he finds the shirts–the thing that links them to Brokeback.
Kim
@Mrs. Patrick Campbell: Why so bitter? He refused to screw you. I guess his peen was enough for Paltrow, Aniston, Jolie, Givens (post Tyson), etc
Alexi3
@Mrs. Patrick Campbell: Aren’t you just tons of fun?
Edmund
well, he did play one quasi-gay role early on… Interview With The Vampire
LadyL
@Nina: I’m with you part of the way in your analysis of Ennis, but not completely. It is quite possible to be gay (not bi or Kinsey ambiguous) and for all sorts of reasons have difficulty connecting emotionally with others… and that may have been the case with Ennis. I think his dysfunctional relationships were rooted in his having been taught by his father, and the times in which they lived, to hate who he was and to not trust the truth of his own feelings. Ledger himself once described Ennis as a homophobic man who happens to be gay.
*
I also think the title give us this answer: Brokeback Mountain, the mountain being significant both because Ennis met the love of his life there and because its beauty and isolation was the only place he felt free to acknowledge that love. The compelling love story was between the two men, period–it wasn’t a triangle involving Alma. And the abortive romance between Ennis and Valerie, the cocktail waitress he meets later on, didn’t work out either because by then he knew full well that his romantic and sexual preference was male. He may have been physically capable of heterosexual coupling (plenty of gay men are) but it wasn’t what he truly wanted. The tragedy of that relationship is that he couldn’t explain this to Valerie, who might have offered him the emotional nourishment of friendship had she known and been understanding.
*
I think we know Ennis would not have had the same connection with Alma on the mountain because we see how restless and unhappy in his marriage to her he is. Even before the burden and responsibility of parenthood–he didn’t look happy on his wedding day; he seemed resigned. He married Alma because he was supposed to, because that was the only kind of union society permitted, especially in that corner of the world. Watching the wedding scene I had the sense that even as he was speaking his vows Ennis’s thoughts were with Jack and the mountain. And when you compare Ennis and Alma’s marital lovemaking–his frustration with mission position sex and his flipping her over to satisfy himself (her confusion and disgust as she submits)–to the joyful, full-on, passionate embrace of Jack when he comes to collect him, there’s little doubt of Ennis del Mar’s true orientation.
@Aaron–it is not being biphobic to point any of this out; it’s an honest appraisal of the story and its characters.
Drew
I think Front Runner would be excellent for Brad (even thou he’s not body type correct) and it would be great to finally see it on celluloid – I would like to know if Patrica (the author) feels the same – As to Billy I think Bradley Cooper could be a candidate (Hopefully not to old and as I write this, I think he could be Harlan more so than Brad)or Alex Pettyfer or Colten Hayes or even better yet, a hot young newbie that’s willing to take the challenge and would spring board his carer!
UsualPlayers
Re Brokeback
I think ultimately there is no clear answer about Jack or Ennis, and that this was the point of the story, at least to me. That their relationship to each other was about true love and that’s about all you can say outside of the societal pressures that were around them. The rest, where someone tries to claim them, is kind of irrelevant. That’s the beauty of the story.
Nina
@UsualPlayers, I actually think this is an excellent point. In the ‘real world’ there may not be “The One” for all people (some people have many loves, some have none), but there are plenty of folks who have “The One” and, often, find that person falls outside their expectations.
queergal
I don’t know about any films, but I believe Brad Pitt is bisexual. I was hanging out with a trusted friend tonight who told me that she’s friends with a woman who works for a major magazine who knows lots of random info about actors. Like she knew Rosie was a lesbian long before Rosie came out. So you’re all hearing this really far down the grapevine, but anyway, from what I am told, Brad Pitt is definitely bisexual and had a relationship with a man in Europe. It’s so sad that Angelina could come out as bi so many years ago while Brad is still in the closet. I can’t wait till he comes out, but sadly I expect it will be another 10-20 years before he does. If we’re lucky, maybe in 5 years. But I see no reason NOT to believe he’s bisexual. Those two are amazing parents, from the sound of it, too.
queergal
@Aaron: Really? I don’t recall them ever identifying as bisexual in the film? Since when does having sex define your sexual orientation? Plenty of gay men have married women and had sex and kids with them…. same goes for lesbians. Maybe they were bi, maybe they were gay. I am going to assume based on the film that at least one of them was more on the gay side if not totally gay. By the way, I’ve had sex with one man, even long after coming to terms with my attractive to women, but I absolutely do NOT identify as bisexual. Not because I can’t enjoy sex with men but for two reasons: 1) I am attracted to MORE THAN two genders, and 2) I am mostly, by far, attracted to women, can’t imagine falling in love with a man (although I am open to it), and even when I’m attracted to a man, it’s just not as passionate as with so many women. EVEN SO, my most successful sexual relationship was with a man. I identify as queer because no label can really capture the specifics of my experience…. queer is a nice, vague label.