It’s the age old question.
So the at the Globes last week, Jodie Foster “came out”… Can’t say I, or indeed anybody was surprised. In fact, I’d have been more surprised if she had arrived with a man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwNDiZCcE0U
Don’t get me wrong, it WAS very brave. I wouldn’t come out with Tommy Lee Jones in the front, giving me the critical burning gaze that he gave everybody that night. Now… don’t turn on me here, but I found her coming out really uncomfortable. She won the Cecil B De Mille award and she certainly deserved it more than anybody else that night, but was there any need for her to do it? Saying it in perhaps a magazine interview or on Ellen or something would have been great! The perfect platform to confirm everybody’s suspicions!
Yet at the same time it was undeniably genius, she didn’t quite SAY it, but she couldn’t have implied it any heavier if she had walked on stage with a strap-on wildly flailing around beneath her stunning gown. She did have this incredibly blunt yet delicate way of putting it across, which I admire her for no end I just feel it could have been better suited elsewhere. Maybe it’s just me, perhaps Foster used to spotlight to get an important message across, I just never really got it.
Recently Rupert Everett advised gay actors to stay in the closet. Personally I’m not a fan of Rupert Everett; I think he tries too hard. Everett, instead of encouraging young Hollywood to stay in hiding, should have encouraged them to be open about their sexuality, instead of putting them off. Everett said this because “Gay men aren’t being cast in straight roles”. Yes they are Rupert; you’re not because you’ve been creating negative press like this for a while. Other actors are getting the roles you want, not because they are straight, but because they are better actors than you. Sorry, you probably prefer to be called a “Thespian” or something equally as pretentious.
On the other hand, Hollywood is homophobic. In the sense that if you have made a career from portraying drag queens in movies or flaming homosexuals you’re not going to be the first choice for the next Die Hard movie. It makes sense. There are plenty of roles in Hollywood movies for gay men, not necessarily the macho roles, but there ARE opportunities out there. Hollywood is brimming with gay actors playing a varied mix of characters, for example Neil Patrick Harris, Ian McKellen, Denis O’Hare, Victor Garber and Zachery Quinto, all of which are well known, in the public eye, OUT and all have played undeniably straight roles in popular films and shows.
So is Hollywood homophobic?
Only to the moaning and bitter. I’m looking at you Rupert.
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