Kinda VERY Homophobic Newsweek Editorial on Gay Actors- Page 4

[Piper3500]

Posted: 5/10/10 at 7:35pm

"I remember quite well when Rock Hudson finally came out, and half the public didn't believe him. Refused to believe him.

They couldn't understand how such a manly man could be gay.

This jerk found a campy comedy or two where Rock played fey for laughs (as did so many other actors in comic farces (from Jack Lemmon to James Garner, etc.), and said, "See? See?! Told ya!"

Now go look at the other movies Rock made, bub, and shut the hell up."

So perfectly said. I also remember when Linda Evans then went and had to be tested.

Heck at that time, there were probably those who would refuse to believe Freddy Mercury was gay. Well, you know what I mean. I think Rock was such a shock to my mom, because in her words "we just wouldn't have thought" "they even covered up the LA Confidential story"

There were others. I remember my mom also talking about Montgomery Clift and how Elizabeth Taylor always knew about her dear friend. Back then it was so well hidden and could really ruin a career, and although now I am sure it may have an effect, it is clearly put in that article as a "duh" moment to come out at the wrong time. My guess is most knew Sean was gay anyway and it certainly hasn't slowed down sales.

This guy is a real idiot - stick the tony nod and the sales in your pipe and smoke it Setoodeh. He is also openly gay which makes me wonder why Kristin called him homophobic. I suppose she was talking about his take on audiences and how they "should" feel about Sean.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 5/11/10 at 9:03am

It's weird that Kristen wasn't so concerned with horrendous homophobia when she appeared on the 700 club to promote her album.

[Piper3500]

Posted: 5/11/10 at 9:15am

when did Kristin do this on the 700 club? I don't think that's entirely fair. This article had not been written and had she been on the 700 club and they went on about it, perhaps she would have made a statement. I know what you mean and can see why you may think it's hypocrisy. The only thing i didn't get is that it is more judgemental than hompophobic from Stedoodeh because he is gay. Also, It isn't only Sean he judged . I didn't find Jonathon "gay" at all and he plays heterosexual fine as does Gavin Creel who he did not mention. His article is ridiculous and without merit. He looks like a fool.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 5/11/10 at 9:28am

Kristen and the 700 club

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 5/11/10 at 9:29am

Oops! I spelled her name wrong...and BWW doesn't let me edit my posts for some reason.

[Piper3500]

Posted: 5/11/10 at 9:49am

lol! big deal. it is known who you meant. when i referenced that before it was a joke in another thread. :)

[sabrelady]

Posted: 5/12/10 at 12:32am

As a bitter and cynical individual w slightly more than yer average paranoia( comes w being Jewish). I find myself wondering if Setoodeh isn't just a stalking horse for the corperate shills. This is the most attention Newsweek has had in ,well, months if not years. We KNOW Time is seen as having a liberal slant, at least by the Christian/Conservatives. Doesn't this make Newsweek look MORE attractive to the C/C group? Wouldn't they ( or a business group of them) think more positively about buy this rag so they could have a larger national forum for their POV's? Esp w their own pet gay who would espouse exactly their causes and interests.( see- he's a GOOD gay knows his place)
It's not too much of a reach to see Setooodeh as a the house slave who didn't want to be free. As long as he's got his- he cares nothing for any others hopes, dreams or aspirations.

[Gleeky]

Posted: 5/12/10 at 2:18am

can we stop referring to people being camp as their 'gayness'

[twinbelters]

Posted: 5/12/10 at 4:10pm

Entertainment Weekly chimes in on the matter in their typically humorous and pointed fashion. Love it!

Fave quotes:

"Groff is a 25-year-old man playing a high school student…and his sexuality is the problem? Come on. It’s a show about a glee club, for pity’s sake. There isn’t a character in it who isn’t self-dramatizing. Even the straight ones are theater queens (as are, by the way, any number of straight people in real life)[Hellloooo, nuance, meet Ramin Setoodeh. -TB]. Call me crazy, but knowing Groff is gay doesn’t shatter what would otherwise be Glee‘s unflinchingly gritty documentary realism."

"The Newsweek article suggests that gay actors take a lesson from Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks, who apparently “guard their privacy carefully.” That’s funny, because I’m pretty sure I’ve read that both men are openly heterosexual. And yet, somehow I was able to watch Hanks play a gay man in Philadelphia without becoming confused or disoriented."

EW on Newsweek's article.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/12/10 at 5:02pm

Setoodeh and the editors of Newsweek seem to have been too heavily influenced by the advent of reality television in this mew millennium as they seem to have no knowledge of the definition of an "actor". If they cannot realistically separate an actor from his/her character with any sense of objectivity, then there they are not qualified to write on the subject. To somehow make the connection that all of Rock Hudson's performances were suddenly unconvincing upon the his coming out some 20-odd years later was enough to negate the entire article. And when there is a MASSIVE community out there that insists Michael Jackson is staunchly heterosexual, then we are acutely aware of the flaws in Setoodeh's argument that there cannot be a suspension of disbelief when it comes to the sexual orientation of performers.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 5/12/10 at 5:03pm

"The only thing i didn't get is that it is more judgemental than hompophobic from Stedoodeh because he is gay."

You've never heard of internalized homophobia before?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/14/10 at 1:59pm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126781137&sc=fb&cc=fp

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 5/14/10 at 3:40pm

Maybe it's just that Sean Hayes is a terrible actor?

[LindaTNo1]

Posted: 5/15/10 at 12:31am

Yankeefan007

Sean Hayes is an Award winning actor. Emmy award, SAG award, American Comedy award, TV Guide award, SAG nominated for his portrayal of Jerry Lewis,

Tony Award nominated too.

Sean Hayes is a talented and gifted actor and musician (piano). He is an executive producer and Hot In Cleveland with the great Betty White is starting in June so he is very gifted.

Sean Hayes got great raves and reviews of his performance in The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Critics commented that he was not utilized enough and they would have loved to see more of him.

You go Sean! Simply the best!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/15/10 at 12:45am

LindaT, you number ONE!

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 5/15/10 at 12:03pm

A Few Words in Defense of—and Against—Newsweek's Ramin Setoodeh

by Benjamin Horner on May 12th, 2010 at 6:11 pm in Film, Theater

By now, I'm sure many of us have read about Ramin Setoodeh's infamous Newsweek piece about gay actors—particularly gay male actors—in Hollywood. In case you've been in some sort of No Homo Stone Age, however, Setoodeh's argument is essentially that coming out of the closet is bad for an actor's career because he'll always be seen as gay first and the character he plays second. He supports this argument with cringe-worthy points like:

1. Sean Hayes is too gay to convincingly play straight in the current Broadway production of Promises, Promises because he "comes off as wooden and insincere, like he's trying to hide something, which of course he is."

2. Jonathan Groff isn't butch enough to convincingly play straight on Glee because the way he smiles "seems more like [that of] your average theater queen, a better romantic match for Kurt than Rachel."

3. "Jack Nicholson, by the force of his charm, makes you forget how he's entirely too old to win Helen Hunt's heart in As Good as It Gets, whereas…

4. "For all the beefy bravado that Rock Hudson projects on screen, Pillow Talk dissolves into a farce when you know the likes of his true bedmates. (Just rewatch the scene where he's wading around in a bubble bath by himself.)"

So let's be clear on this: Two out actors' performances don't effectively convince Setoodah (which is to say only him, and nothing about any other audience's reception) that their characters are straight, Jack Nicholson once starred as Helen Hunt's romantic foil, and Pillow Talk is a late-'50s cinematic artifact that makes it impossible to avoid Rock Hudson's off-screen sexuality because of a bubble bath (as opposed to the fact that the whole film is so campy in the first place), which means we'll never have a big, gay George Clooney because coming out is a terrible move for your career. Obviously an infallible string of logic. And by "infallible," I mean ZOINKS.
More at SlantMagazine.com...

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/15/10 at 6:20pm

Wouldn't you love to meet the commenter named Joanne?

I am a heterosexual woman, and I support gay rights 100%. But I probably would not pay to see a movie where there is a romantic role for a leading man who is known to be gay.
Now before everyone gets up in arms, let me tell you why. When I see a movie I get a little crush on the leading man and maybe have a few fantasies about him. Maybe it is a failing on my part but I just can't do that with a gay man, knowing it would be impossible for it to ever happen. This might sound ridiculous but I'm sure there are a lot of other women who feel this way.
I just can't suspend disbelief that much.

[Calvin]

Posted: 5/15/10 at 6:26pm

I think the odds that "Joanne" will get banged by George Clooney or Ryan Reynolds in her lifetime is about the same odds that she'll get banged by Christopher Lowell. And I think the odds are about the same that said comment was actually written by a woman. Setoodeh's making sock puppets now?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/15/10 at 6:32pm

Right? It's so dumb. When I see straight actors I find attractive, it doesn't make my erection less hard because I know they are straight. If she is real, I wonder how often she actually gets banged.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 5/16/10 at 4:07pm

I have so much to say about,
this I do not know where to begin.

And I always shudder to express myself on here because someone will call me names, correct my grammar or call me a shill for a show that I genuinely like.

And that brings us to the point of Judgmental people with preconceived notions.

PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS AND A TRUE STORY--MINE.

I am a gay actor, I have been the victim of preconceived notions by casting people because they know I am gay.

My agent submitted me for a part on Unsolved mysteries, in 1994
The casting director said she didn't want to see me as "I was too light in the loafers..too gay for the part."

The agent argued.. "He is an actor he deserves to be seen... and he is very right for this role."

The casting director in her infinite wisdom asked her bird - a parrott. ( i am not making this up) if she should let me in on the casting. Apparently the parrot said yes. This is the way this casting director in Florida makes all of her decisions.


I went to the audition. The casting director was not in the room The role was for a prosecuting attorney. I auditioned.

The director and the producer chose me for the role. And I filmed it.
I always secretly gloated about this.. but the gay perception has made a problem in my career.

I have not been brought in because in some other casting directors actual words...
" I was too special."

Perhaps it is wise for actors to stay in the closet!! Perhaps it is wise for casting directors and the public to not know your sexuality.

This of course chagrins gay liberators but what the hell.. they are not actors.

PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS.

As for preconceived notions, I originally thought that Sean Hayes was poor casting for the role do my preconceived notion of him as the very gay Jack on Will and Grace, I guess I am guilty of this as others are.

I went to Promises Promises and I WAS WRONG! Sean Hayes was wonderful, a revelation, a great singing voice, masucline, endearing, charming and believeable in the role and very deserving of his tony nomination. He carries the show.
He has my vote for the Tony. (I'd also be okay with Chad Kimball who was also wondeful in my opinion.)

JUDGEMENT-MINE

And as for judgement -- no one is more opinionated or judgmental than the gay community. There is a line in Valley of the Dolls. "You know how bitchy queens can be."

Well as a gay man I have to say there is truth to that statement. Obviously the Newsweek @riter falls into that judgmental bitchy queen category. And it does reek
of self loathing and self homophobia.

I can see him with his friends. " That Sean Hayes is way to queeny to pull this one off Mary." and the have the misquided power to write an article based on his faulty judgmental opinion.

This Ramin Setoodeh (what a name-isnt that an Asian Soup?) does not know what harm he causes. He sees nothing more than his own self importantce and opinion.

An article in Newsweek by its very name should be fact.... not opinioin. So Shame on Newsweek for running this trash as well