“Apparently this former B list movie actor and now probably a C, although with close to A name recognition has been scrambling because his beard relationship with his C list movie actress could be sinking quickly. The reason? Our actor thought he was on a private beach when he decided to lay out naked with his boyfriend. The next thing he knew, there were groups of tourists from a nearby hotel walking by and he is scared that someone recognized him and took pictures.” [CDAN]
Republican
I’m so sick of this. It’s 2009. Your movie or TV career won’t tank just because you quit lying to the public about your sexual orientation. Besides, the longer you Hollywood actor gays keep up the charade, the longer the fight for equality will be. If kids from scary home situations can come out despite the very real threat of being tossed out on the street, beaten up, or worse, you certainly can too. It amazes me that fear of a few old execs (who won’t give a damn anyway once they see that the numbers haven’t significantly changed) turns some people into total cowards.
Now, that doesn’t mean you have to come out on the cover of People, but it does mean you should dump the beards and just be who you are. You can be as loud or quiet about it as you want, but just suck it up and be you.
Cam
Hollywood can pretend it’s liberal all it wants, but it is still run by a bunch of arrogant fat old guys that use the casting couch to get laid. They really do think the American Public will rise up with torches if they do anything gay. Idiots. Brokeback Moutain made a fortune yet not one Hollywood studio put together a major gay themed picture after it. Scream made half as much and yet we had to deal with 2 secuels AND a whole host of copycat movies from every studio out there.
adolf
come on, if this were true, no matter A, B or C status. TMZ would of posted said pics like 30sec’s after it happened. unless this guy is so far down the list no one cares to see it. but lets be honest, people in this country have no lifes of their own so some one would want to see it
terrwill
Look at NPH, his career is doing 100% better since first poked his head outta the closet………..The days of being a Gay being career suicide are ova………..
That being said my pick is Hayden Christinsen. Mainly because I would really, really, really like to play with his saber. 😛
terrwill
……that being said where are the pictures of Hayden????????
mark
Why does anyone care what a C-list anything does?
scott ny'er
other than NPH, please list successful actors who are out and proud. And when I say successful, I mean, still making major movies or a big star in a tv series. Not some crap on LOGO or Lifetime.
I’ll start Sir Ian McCellan.
ummm… yeah, that’s all I got.
I still think it’s career suicide to be out. I mean you’re judged the minute you walk in a room, so imagine Actor A in a casting situation and think of millions of dollars being used on actor A or betting on Actor A, and thus you get, naw, people in Peoria won’t buy that. So let’s go with actor B.
not saying it’s right just it is what it is.
Catttt
Sigh. This is like something from Confidential Magazine back in the 50s. I hate this kind of thing so much.
Joey
Pics or it didn’t happen.
FakeName
Out and proud successful LGBT actors include:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_actors
I’ll let you sort out which ones are still alive and leave it to you to decide if they meet your definition of successful.
scott ny'er
@fakename
thanks. I skimmed the list and I would suggest that Wanda Sykes is the only current out actor who is successful. Because of her talk show, which I think is a big deal. And she’s a co-star (not Star tho) on that Christine show.
otherwise, the other actors are bit players. IMHO.
emb
Closeted gays are contributing to the success of anti-marriage and homophobic forces in the US. They’re not just silent, they’re complicit by virtue of actively NOT helping to socialize the notion that homosexuals are not strange monsters. Quite the opposite, really, since they seem to want the sex without the responsibility that being visible brings. I used to have sympathy for closeted gays; then I found it pathetic; now it’s infuriating.
scott ny'er
whatever. unless you’re an actor who is trying to make it big I think it’s wrong to judge. You have to pay the piper and this is unfortunately the outcome.
i’m not an actor. I just don’t like to judge unless i’m walking in their shoes.
terrwill
OK lets all play nice here! I wonder what the per centage of the Gays would be if every closeted actor suddenly grew a pair (I don’t know the euphanism for the ladies) and all decided to come out en masse????? Suddenly it wouldn’t be much of an issue…….’ecpt I bet a certain very short actor would still profess his heteroness (and he has the legally binding contracts to prove it!!)
Keith Kimmel
So who is it? And lets teh nudes!
Cam
No. 11 · scott ny’er said…
I still think it’s career suicide to be out. I mean you’re judged the minute you walk in a room,
___________________________
But they are actors and actresses. They are judged the second they walk into a room anyway. 80% of casting decisions are made on looks.
VegasTeaRoom
Shemar?
Joseph
Actually, Adolf, even TMZ refrained from sharing the Matt Bomer kissing another guy pics. I’ve been wondering why that is. You know that if it were an attractive star on a new hit (albeit cable) series kissing a stripper or something like that, they’d be all over TMZ and Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood would be doing their best to get the exclusive interview with the girl. But they totally avoided it; only Queerty bothered to find out who the guy in the pic was and got a statement from him.
I’m sorry, but I don’t think it is career suicide, because it’s never been proven that it IS career suicide. Neil Patrick Harris has a hit show, Cheyenne Jackson headlines on Broadway and gets choice guest spots on TV, Scott Evans has become one of the most popular actors on daytime. It’s time these closeted actors took the risk and broke down the barriers; I bet they be shocked to discover the barriers are pretty weak.
Marcus
I agree with you, Joseph. Matt Bomer will be fine as far as his career goes.
You do have to wonder why it took him forever to become established, though.
As far as TMZ not running the pictures, do they ever run gay gossip stories?
Did they even run the stories about Neil Patrick before he came out? TR Knight?
Joseph
Marcus, according to AfterElton, “claiming a person is gay still has legal ramifications and you can be sued for defamation in almost half of the states in the U.S.” So perhaps TMZ and the like don’t want to be sued (though the person has to prove that he’s straight, and that TMZ and the like were wrong).
However, having said that, in August, the New York Southern District Court apparently turned over a previous ruling that calling someone gay is defamation when they sided with the author of a book about Anna Nicole Smith in which the author claimed that Larry Birkhead and Howard K. Stern were lovers; the judge ruled that given that homosexual relations (of the sexual kind) are no longer illegal and that same-sex couples can marry in some states, thus saying someone is gay is no longer a defamatory statement. Which is the correct and sound ruling.
Marcus
Joseph, that sounds like a valid reason for TMZ to give, but something in the back of mind is going, “bullshit.”
They could have run the Bomer story, or the Neil story, and no one was going to sue–and I’m sure Levin (with his law background) knew they weren’t going to sue.
Who was the last celebrity to sue because someone claimed he was gay? This Howard K. Stern douchebag, and from what I remember, singer Robbie Williams. I found it strange that Robbie actually won that case, because he is gay, but never mind that.
Daniel
I could understand why some of these actors/actresses wouldn’t want to come out publicly… The chances of them being cast for roles of ‘straight’ characters would go down because the public wouldn’t believe a movie about a man who they know is gay in reality being in love with a woman.
BGryphon
Romanovsky & Phillips summed it up well in “Queers In The Closet”
“Deals with the devil to be heroes for an hour
How long must we pay the price?”
full lyrics at http://romanovskyandphillips.com/politicallyrics.htm#queersin
Marcus
Daniel, it’s not the public, per se. It’s certainly not the young public.
It’s the casting people. They’re the ones who make this difficult. It’s not the people on the outside.
Charles Merrill
Queerty wrote: “Apparently this former B list movie actor and now probably a C, although with close to A name recognition has been scrambling because his beard relationship with his C list movie actress could be sinking quickly.”
I give up. A closeted gay on the golfing channel?
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
Kermit the Frog!
scott ny'er
@joseph…
NPH came out AFTER the report about him and his beau surfaced online. And I don’t think he can open a film nor carry his own show. But I will admit he is immensely popular now and did score hosting those shows.
Cheyenne Jackson headlines Broadway. True. But, c’mon that’s Broadway. And does America really know who the hell he is. I’ll give you Doogie but not Cheyenne Jackson.
Shemar is not gay or he’s not out. And won’t open a movie nor headlines a tv show. He’s not the Frasier or Roseanne of a show but part of the ensemble cast like TR Night.
And I’m waiting with baited breath on Adam Lambert. Hopefully, it’ll be similar to the Clay experience but I am concerned. I think the music industry might be a little more different and have some latitude. Ala David Bowie, Elton John.
Oh and Roseanne was immensely popular but came out and went on a rampage and that was all she wrote on her career.
Cash14
No. 7 · scott ny’er- I’m glad you said that and I agree. And I’m a little sick of ppl using NPH as an example of something that really hasn’t happened. Besides NPH, I can think of few out actors and no headliners on network television. And where are all those out men and women who are headlining films? I know its not what ppl want to hear, but the reality is being out is still a serious consideration for actors. While they may score some personal peace of mind and some love from the community (and judging from some of the gossip you see on the blogs, that’s questionable)it can put a serious crush on their career ambitions. As far as I’m concerned its a decision that they need to make for themselves.
Outing or shaming them won’t make them into good representatives for the community, and its just in bad taste. Maybe we need to start being the role models that we keep expecting every gay celebrity to be. Instead of waiting for them to inspire us, maybe we need to inspire them.
FakeName
I think everyone in “Queers in the Closet” is out now. Except for Merv, who’s dead. So let’s here it for R&P’s powers of prognostication.
Except of course the next song on the album is about the imminent demise of the moribund Catholic Church. Oops.
Andre
I don’t know, but it sure ain’t Robert Kardashian (the butt doesn’t compare :))
http://www.examiner.com/x-13907-DC-GLBT-Arts-Examiner~y2009m11d10-Kim-Kardashian-Tweets-her-brother-Robs-ass-photos
scott ny'er
re post #26.
i meant Rosie O’Donnell was popular and then came out and got mean and that’s all they wrote for her Q factor. Not “Roseanne”.
David Ehrenstein
Amazing the number of people in here cursing the darkness as candles (NPH, Cheyenne Jackson, Ian McKellen, Ellen & Portia, Wanda Sykes — the list goes on and on and on) set the room abaze.
Internalized Homophobia much?
republican
Scott NY,
If you’re going to consider comedians like Rosie whose acting careers were never that great anyway, then what about Ellen? Sure, she’s not currently acting in a series, but she does have her own show which gets good ratings despite her openly discussing her same-sex marriage on it (with photos of the two brides!). And she gets to do a comic monologue everyday, so she certainly gets to use her talent. Oh, and now she finds herself as Paula Abdul’s replacement on American Idol, and we all know the kind of ratings that show pulls in. Her career just keeps getting better and better.
As for the men, we simply don’t have many big names to help us judge (too many closet cases), but if you look at the amount of the fan mail that Luke Macfarlane and openly gay men like him get from WOMEN, I think you’ll find at least some support for the idea that being openly gay isn’t as much as a turnoff for people as common wisdom says.
Again, this is 2009. It is not 20, 10, or even five years ago. I don’t support outing people, but my patience is running thin. The fear of an anti-gay ratings/box office backlash is looking more and more not to be based on any evidence that isn’t years old. And if the fear is based on what essentially amounts to nothing, then it’s about time that a few A-listers started fighting back against the old guard that hate open homosexuality. All the casting people and execs care about is the bottom line, so once they see that it doesn’t hurt the numbers for their stars to come out of the closet, they’ll take the stick out of their asses. But first it’s going to take a few big names to go against the wishes of whoever they’re working for at the moment and just be themselves.
Oh, and again, it’s hard for me to feel for some of these closeted actors when far more vulnerable people than they come out every single day.
baconeggandcheese
NPH is considered by hollywood a safe gay. He doesnt have the quintessential masculine ideal like Gerard Butler, who could be gay himself. Safe gays stay primarily in network tv or do movies with madonna or ?drew barrymore?
MakeItNotBeTrue
We can not blame straights on this one. WE HAVE TO BLAME OURSELVES: The gay community that keeps patronizing and supporting closeted actors; the gay journalists that play the game and protect the closet cases (TMZ’s owner is a gay man, and has different standards for his gay mafia Hollywood friends. That’s why he will shy from putting up a Matt Bomer pic, but not a stripper and a straight actor); the gay publicists like Bomer’s bf, whose PR company has for client Tom Cruise; the gay casting directors, the gay agents, the gay movie directors, all the gay Hollywood executives that lead double lives, that could break down the barriers and do nothing, that laugh all the way to the bank at our expense, that keep silent when someone like Matthew Shepard is kille, that only speak up when their careers are affected, are going down the drain or face incriminating materials.
SHAME ON THEM, AND SHAME ON US FOR NOT DEMANDING THAT THEY SPEAK OUT. Why? Because Hollywood celebrities are where they are thanks to us. We buy their books, their magazines, go to their movies, listen to their music. And we are complacent. We bitch about straights, or think these people should not be role models and have a right to privacy. NO. Wrong. A public person making money of other people is FAIR game. This has always applied to straights, so why not to gays? The argument of difamation is ridiculous and archaic. The argument of “privacy” is archaic. What privacy? Sure, Anderson Cooper, Tom Cruise, Jodie Foster, Ricky Martin, so many other celebrities forgo their privacy to talk about “their latest project”, but then their private lives are off-limits? Unless they want to show the world the pictures of the babies they had or adopted? Please. Let’s call a spade a spade. Hollywood is so gay, and so full of self-hatred, fear and homophobia. And no, it is not the straights running the show. IS IT US.
adamblast
New York or LA gays who defend the actor closet usually do so for social reasons or because they have their own foolish dreams of stardom.
Those who place career or financial gain for themselves over equality or justice for all deserve to be shamed.
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
C List? Ashlee Simpson (and don’t tell me she’s a woman!) BTW – Who cares? “We” are just unemployed bitter gays waiting for our Foodstamps to kick in or Crystal Meth to arrive (as in the case of Queerty) while we sulk alone into our Crap-tops at Starbucks on 8th Avenue and 21st street….selling our HIV prescriptions online for pocket money.
Dan
..the point really to all of this is, the’re so many guys in the closet within so many careers–who can really spot them is the weird part? Some might be able to more than others—but it’s not a choice—in my evaluation, I believe almost every ‘good looking man’ wants to have sex with another man–truly. But because of all the pressures of society and rules and codes in what the MALE ought to deliver, even in this day and age—a lot just hide within heterosexual relationships or even marriages…they can muster/perform vaginal intercourse and therefore feel they will remain secure/safe as a whole in their lives. I therefore believe it takes real guts to be GAY in this World….really…