We'll have a gay old time.........

Here's an interesting thought. A good portion of men in ameteur theatre are gay. A good portion of the professional actors I know are gay. Then how come television and film manages to only cast straight men? A few have slipped through the cracks but the rest are avowedly hetrosexual. Makes you wonder if somewhere in Hollywood there isn't a closet big enough to fit the cast of Ben Hur.

By the way, the above was not an invitation to Out nice Hollywood superstars with bad tempers and very good lawyers. Lets all remember what happened to "The Face" when it dared to suggest Mr Donovan might be a wearer of rainbows.

And in the UK they knight them.

Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Nigel Hawthorne..

Good point!
Really people's sexual preferences don't affect their acting talent so why don't they appear as much in hollywood?
Could be worth while research.

Jason

Might have something to do with the medium- is theatre REAAAALLY an enclave for gay men?

And does it REAAAAAALLY matter?

Eliot

Leah Maher wrote:
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Makes you wonder if somewhere in Hollywood there isn't a closet big enough to fit the cast of Ben Hur.
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There probably is, but it will be a long while before that closet starts to empty. The reason is money.
Hypothetical:
If I'm a producer making a $100 million picture I need to bring in roughly about $400 million gross to break even (after tax, studio's cut, etc). That's a lot of dosh. So I really don't want to piss off the customers (the audience). Now, a sizeable proportion of the planet's population believe that homosexuals (particularly men) are perverted or downright evil. They're taught this from an early age. I, as a producer, don't want to alienate these people because it makes it so much harder to break even. So I will in all likelihood choose not to cast an openly gay actor because it's too high a risk - remember making $100 million pictures is a business not an art, that's why most of them suck. For an actor in Hollywood being gay is a deterent to a successful career. It's hard enough already so most actors will stay in the closet.
It's unfortunate, but until homosexuality becomes an accepted lifestyle choice (and even a heterosexual couple living defacto is unacceptable to some cultures - I'm speaking from experience) you're likely to see only a handful of Hollywood actors coming out.

This is a little bit off topic but I recommend the documentary "The Celluloid Closet". It isn't about "out" actors, it's about how homosexuality has been treated on-screen, from very early silent films until the present, in Hollywood. It is fascinating and fabulous.

>> Might have something to do with the medium- is theatre REAAAALLY an enclave for gay men?

Woo-Hoo! More ladies for me and Dean (and Amanda if she's really serious about investigating the dark underside of masculinity).

Now there's an oxymoron with Dean's name all over it: "dark underside" and "masculinity" used in the same sentence. (Don't worry Dean. That comment about more ladies for me and you ought to dispel those rumours about you. Well, some of them...)

JB

Yes,I've heard it said that it is'nt a good career move to declare oneself Gay in Hollywood. Perhaps the closet is made of Holly Wood!
In any event there seems to some denial around this issue,but I hope we don't return to the McCarthyist era and see actors blacklisted in some kind of BITCH HUNT!
The Nation which prides itself on a fair go for all can turn very nasty on non compliers!
Queer is'nt it!!
PJF.

Rumours about me? Sheesh, ya screw one lousy goat...........