Richard Chamberlain agrees with us – and with Rupert Everett – that leading male actors in Hollywood (or anywhere else) should NOT come out as gay. Chamberlain came out at the age of 69 when he was too old for romantic roles and he advises younger actors to keep quiet about their sexual preference. Rupert Everett regrets coming out at the age of 30 because leading roles dried up and now he spends much of his time writing. Chamberlain made a point when he told The Advocate “Look what happened with Prop 8 – don’t pretend we’re suddenly accepted.” Let’s face it – would Rob Pattinson have all those fans drooling over him if he were openly gay?
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Any particular reason why you shield and defend Jake Gyllenhaal from the gay rumors and then write something as blisteringly full of innuendo as your question about Rob P?
And your comment is in contradiction of the article as a whole, so why did you write it?
Last question and for the record, Rob is bi and Jake is totally gay which you must know or else you just make things up, so what is your game?
Movies require a suspension of disbelief in order to work. If the audience sees you making out with your BF on the red carpet how can they buy you in a straight role? It’s not about homophobia, it’s about an actor needing to be a blank slate. Some straight actors are also making it hard to accept them by having too much of their personal life out there…***ahem*** Brad and Angie.
Jake G. is totally gay. John Travolting is totally gay.
As to these 2 fags advising actors to stay in the closet, duh, just about everyone who has built-in gaydar knows who and who is not gay. Besides that, there are websites galore defining who is and who is not, and they are probably 90% accurate.
Oops, meant to say John Revolting.
During Richard Chamberlain’s days as a leading man, his coming out would have definitely killed his career. But he unfortunately does have a point. Besides Neil Patrick Harris who makes ladies’ man Barney very believable, what other “out” gay actor is actually working in straight roles?
Wow!!! What I.M. said!
I feel so badly for Rupert Everett; I loved him.
I can see how being out can interfere with leading men types, but it should be okay for most actors. I think we forget how many actors there are out there who do not need to cultivate a public image to support their acting roles. Character actors, even lead actors who actually play ROLES (AKA Cate Blanchett) – not just themselves in different situations (AKA Julia Roberts) should be okay in or out of the closet. But I got to admit, there are plenty of actors who I’d rather not know if they are gay. It’s fun to harbour crushes from a safe distance.
That said, there are too many actors out there whose celebrity antics, such as heterosexual marriages, drug binges, etc. also interfere with my suspension of disbelief. Maybe I should stop reading gossip sites, eh?
and be sure the closet will be locked for life.
When Richard Chamberlain was Dr. Kildare back in the 1960’s,he was a heart throb. When he was in the mini series The Thorn Birds, women of a different area swooned over him big time. He kept his private life so very quiet even though there were rumors about his sexuality. Richard
chose to tell the world nothing of his preference. He never lost that right,but eventually he decided to answer that all important question regarding his life that we, the general public did not have to know.
Rupert was absolutely adorable with Julia Roberts in My Best Friend’s Wedding. Rock Hudson was a dream working with Doris Day in Pillow Talk. Back in the late 1950’s, movie magazines were read,crushes were formed,and the studios protected their stars. I believe that after Rock Hudson kissed Linda Evans on Dynasty
and it was later discovered that he was terminally ill,and later died that eyes opened up and flags were waved. Tom Hanks winning his 2nd Oscar for the movie Philadelphia was also an eye opener.Women including Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres
being so open about their lives make them more acceptable because they were more “straight forward” at the beginning of their fame.Clay Aikens, Ricky Martin are parents who get to live quietly while still persuing their goals in entertainment.Liberace was gay, that didn’t stop the little old ladies and his bevy of fans from traveling across the country to see him in Las Vegas,and last but certainly not least being openly gay has never hurt the career of one of my all time favorites ELTON JOHN.
Rupert Everett’s offers stopped because he is a beyotch, always whining and complaining about something. Plus, he was never that great an actor.
I’m confused, didn’t Rupert write in his book that he slept with Madonna, Susan Sarandon and dozens of other women? So how is he gay if he’s banging females? I don’t get it.
Agree about Rupert, all of that plus he ruined his face with that plastic surgery, he doesn’t even look like himself any more.
Richard Chamberlain stayed in the closet all those years because homosexuality was not as accepted as it is today.
I think he has a good point. It is not about homophobia but about visualizing that person in a heterosexual role. Ellen D., Liberace, Elton are all fantastic in their field — they perform, they do not act.
Coming out as gay is a personal matter for those who face this dilemma.
The only people who should be outed are those who publically anti-gay.
Food for thought:
The gay rumors about Jake Gylleynhall started to float AFTER he played the bottom in BrokeBack Mountain.
This just pisses me off. Quit giving these closet queens with backwards ideas the idea….that we are too repressed as a country…to accept an ACTOR (who in Shakespere times, boys played girls) as a sexual being. I know everyone thinks the public is a bunch of dumb ass losers with no brains and only operate from repressed animal instincts….but, I choose to believe that cinema goers certainly can and will and do accept homosexuals as regular actors in a movie.
God, this makes me puke.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look…………enough with the gays…AIDS is still an epidemic!
Rupert’s case may be more about sour grapes than anything else. When he came out publicly the press couldn’t have been more favorable. This was around the time of “My Best Friend’s Wedding”—for which he received glowing reviews, and all sorts of doors were opened to him as a result…
Including a proposed series of movies loosely based on “The Thin Man” classic whodunits—but with Rupert playing a gay man.
UNFORTUNATELY the opportunities also included the BOMB he filmed with Madonna. His career hasn’t been the same since. (And when you read in his book about how HE was the one who insisted on her being cast, you might ask who really was to blame.)
He’s indicated envy over Hugh Grant’s Big Hollywood career—which he claims he would have had if he weren’t gay, blah-blah-blah…
One has to wonder what tensions may have arisen when Colin Firth was nominated for an Oscar for playing a gay man in 2009 as he and Rupert have been close friends for many years. (Firth is almost a sure bet to be nominated again this year.)
@Palermo: He denies plastic surgery and the evidence supports him. The picture of him above is how he looks today. He claims that the infamous photos of him where he looks so alarmingly stretched were photo-shopped, which is almost surely a lie, since he appeared in a movie around the same time looking just like them.
More likely: He experimented with Botox and a heavier (more obvious) makeup—with DISASTROUS results—and has since decided to age more gracefully, albeit grudgingly.
Troubled, difficult and very talented.
LOL @strom and the “Cassius” ref. 🙂
…And at the risk of tempting fate: Did someone pull the plug on the internets up in Canadaland?
I dunno but I think gays are being ridiculous. I don’t like it when any actor gay or straight makes a huge public ass of themselves by being really public with their personal lives. I don’t want to know about anyone’s sex life and I don’t want to see anyone swap spit on the red carpet. Everyone should stay in the closet and just do their job which is to like not suck in their movies.
^^^^ Excepting those in porn, of course.
I suppose Tom Cruise has taken this advice to heart.
It really upsets me, how homophobia can break a career. Why can’t we just all grow up, live and let live, and if you must read the bible, then read it cover to cover, and get over your hateful insecurities, Let’s just all vow, this New Year, to live with tolerance, love , and human dignity.
Chamberlain used to circulate socially around Malibu and LA with his boyfriend way back in the early 80’s, and I believe they are still a couple.
With no disrespect toward him, perhaps a better comparison would be made to another TV actor, which Chamberlain is/was.
Neil Patrick Harris, for instance, whose coming out hasn’t seemed to dent his career in the least.
Movie stars are a whole other animal. And as long as the conventional wisdom is that audiences won’t respond well to an openly gay man, then it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing one—except maybe posthumously; Rock Hudson’s comedies are still great even after all these years.
Great comment, but unfortunately many of those who plumb the depths of the Bible and imagine themselves taking it to heart all too often emerge from the experience believing that now they have the duty to impose their thinking on others, and acting as if they have suddenly been bestowed with the right to impose God’s judgment and justice on those who don’t listen to them. Bible thumping evangelicals, aka the Christian Right, are usually the ones who protest loudest against things like providing gays the same rights as others, imagining that the Biblical injunction not to judge lest you be judged doesn’t apply to the self-appointed ‘saved’ like themselves. Hypocrites every one.
And exactly who is setting themselves up as the judge of others and their lifestyles? Christ is the judge, He made the rules, and the rules do not change.
Quite right, which is why they reinvent God in their own image, acting like Gods themselves instead of humbly subordinating their will to His.
I understand..Why Chamberlain had to do what he did and..wanted to take care of himself and set his life up for better in his future and that was a different time and people did not seem to understand? It means that we would had never enjoyed his acting and his History of making movies…If he would had put everything on the table and just let the world know and know that Chamberlain is set up for life…Of course let the world know and..At this point royalities will happen with the showing of his pass movies and this smart man is set for life and..Ricky Martan did the same thing and bought himself an Island? But Rupert my sweet there is another direction you can go and that is to just throw your life into making Gay movies and really open up and just let it go and..Rock it out….Massive amount of man are truly attracted to you and think of you as there Hero and that is something you need to do is work on that. Dear Rupert I wish you the very Best and Hope everything turns around? I Like you as an actor and your really funny when you want to be!