Remember the soap opera Central Park West? It was sort of a thing in the mid-’90s.
Well, producers apparently fired John Barrowman from the show after learning he was gay and unwilling to stay in the closet.
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The news was revealed on the show Loose Women. Opening up about his experiences 20 years ago, Barrowman said, “The producers pulled me into the office and sat me down – one was gay – and said they didn’t want me to talk about my boyfriend at the time, Scott, who I eventually married.”
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He went home and talked to Scott about it and they both agreed: “I can’t do that.”
The producers shrugged and simply fired him.
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His character was written off the show, he claims, with the explanation that he went to South America for a facelift. The character subsequently returned played by another actor.
Barrowman doesn’t mention who the producers were, but IMDB lists all the key players here.
Who is Barrowman referring to here? Your guess is as good as ours.
OzJosh
No prizes for guessing: Darren Star. A thoroughly unpleasant person.
Baba Booey Fafa Fooey
Darren Starr really? If that is true, I will boycott everything he does.
Brian
Gay men can be the most homophobic people in the world. It would not surprise me if a gay male producer fired John Barrowman.
I have complete and utter disdain for most gay-identifying men as I consider them to be hypocrites and creeps.
jpcolter
What an idiotic comment.
paul dorian lord fredine
it was all for the best because he’s done better having not been chained to some obviously forgettable soap.
Deepdow
@Brian:
How is Brian still allowed to post here? He is sick and his message is hateful.
frenchbug
Most of what in this story is untrue.
Now, I have no idea whether the producers told him to stay in the closet and fired him
BUT
his character did not go abruptly to South America for a facelift: he fled after accidentally killing his psycho wife, a story that had been building up for a while
His character never returned – no new actor or anything.
Why? Because the show was cancelled three episodes after his character’s disappearance.
No way to know if they were writing him off because he was gay or writing him off because they were tying up loose ends before the end of the show but I can emphatically say that, having watched the show, most of the story’s details are false and added for effect.
Obviously no personal knowledge of the core of the story.
Worth adding too that he was immediately cast in another failed primetime soap (Titans) and still was in the closet during that show’s run as well.
Tête Carrée
@Brian: “I have complete and utter disdain for most gay-identifying men as I consider them to be hypocrites and creeps.”
No homophobia in that statement. AH HA HA HA!
I have to go now, I just peed my pants laughing.
Tête Carrée
@Deepdow:
There’s no law against being a dink. Don’t expect your new pres Dinkald Trump to bring in anti-dink laws. Despite his tiny fingers, he’s one of the biggest dinks around.
mediajky
I was in hispanic tv in the early 2000’s and was out. Some of the most unsupportive networks executives were gay.
RomanHans
@Brian: How is Brian still allowed to post here? He is sick and his message is hateful.
If we all just post this in any thread with Brian’s moronic comments maybe Queerty will eventually do something.
jess_lopez
I remember watching that show when in was a teenager. I had a huge crush on him.
MarionPaige
I don’t get the gay blogs’ fascination with John Barrowman, I doubt many gay men even know who he is.
The thing that stands out for me about the tv show Central Park West is the horrible women’s fashion of the times. Lauren Hutton was the only woman on the show who didn’t look like a drag queen.
MarionPaige
I remember re-visiting the tv show Central Park West because I learned a young Justin Lazard (from Species II) was in it.
SumSay
@MarionPaige: I actually remember him, and his head-regrowth scene still intrigues me to this day, but boy did he fall from grace. I hope he’s recovered since those incidents.
chris_clb614
The show was a “thing” on CBS for all the wrong reasons. CBS trying to be hip = not possible
Captain Obvious
No secret that most Hollywood gays are deeply in the closet and the ones who come out fear losing their careers for this very reason. People should remember that the next time they ask why Colton Haynes said he had a hard time with it despite the fact that he was out to family and friends.
LA is crawling with gays and yet they recoil if you ask them if they’re gay(outside of WeHo obviously) because no one is supposed to know. It’s really weird.
They’ll publicly flirt, go out with you, and sleep with you. Ask if they’re gay and they’ll blacklist you. It’s stupid.