So does this mean Janeane Garofalo will be the next woman to come “out”?
I have a crush on Ellen Page. And Garofalo also, although she always seems to dress frumpy.
Maybe she is a lesbian and I’m the only one who doesn’t know.
Page? I could see the tom-boy in her in Juno, but I thought that was just portrayal of the character. Oh well. I still think she is cute.
Just watched the clip in the OP, and that seemed very hard for her, and at the same time, once she said “I am gay” a big weight fell from her shoulders.
I would imagine (unless I am just crazy here) a lot of men found her attractive and hit on her constantly at parties or whatnot. I know if I was in Hollywood and was in the same room with her, I’d try to get to know her.
In any event, I am happy for her that she finally came out, since hiding it seemed to be a very painful exercise for her.
On a side note, did the black CNN anchor cause anyone’s “gaydar” to go off?
I just don’t see how this is “news.”
That Ellen Page is gay wasn’t a surprise to anyone who worked with her or who followed her career; and it’s been an open secret to Hollywood insiders since she became somewhat popular. She completely whiffed her “beard romance” with Skarsgaard and her coyness about her sexuality screamed “lesbian” louder than anything else.
A modestly talented character (not leading) actress comes out as gay in 2014. That’s almost *de rigueur *. In fact it would have been bigger “news” if she had said that she was straight. Now that would have been a shocker.
Call me when:
[ol]
[li]Jennifer Aniston[/li][li]Charlize Theron[/li][li]Gabrielle Union[/li][li]Salma Hayek[/li][/ol]
Come out.
Now THAT would be news.
Are you saying that those 4 actreses are gay and are in the closet?
Or are you saying if one of these women came out it would be news because of their well-known heterosexuality?
Thank you for saying that more eloquently than I ever could.
I can’t stand it when responses to this sort of story are ‘who cares’? Loads of people care. Shame that they do, but they do.
Speaking personally, I…
Garofalo is pretty open about her sexuality. Last I saw she was claiming to be asexual, which, she admitted, sucked for her boyfriend. On the other hand, it’s probably not an unusual experience for a 10-year relationship to become asexual.
And the list of famous men that Garofalo has dated and accidentally married is well known, so it’s unlikely she’s going to come out as exclusively lesbian.
The latter.
I only care about Ellen Page’s “coming out” announcement if it limits her acting roles. Selfish of me, I know, but I really value her talent and would like to see her in a variety of roles. Another poster mentioned that her “advanced” age (she turns 27 this week) is becoming a problem, but I disagree. For every wunderkind like Jennifer Lawrence or Emma Stone, there’s and Amy Adams or Sally Field who didn’t get high-profile, leading roles until they hit their 30’s.
As for the people who care being assholes, many of those a-holes are producers who care primarily about the bottom line, and they may be pandering to those assholes that constitute part of the potential viewing audience for a wide release motion picture.
Finally, Anne Heche’s career tanked after her only leading role in a wide release picture, Six Days, Seven Nights. Fairly, or unfairly, a lot of reviews cited a lack of chemistry between her and her co-star, Harrison Ford, and some attributed it to Ms. Heche’s sexual preference (at the time.) Over 15 years ago, I thought it was a cheap and inaccurate shot, but that was the perception of many in 1998. Taste in actors/actresses is a personal one, I realize, but I love her work – the only good thing in the cable series, Hung, IMO. In any event her public breakdown came 2 years after her roles dried up.
Count me in for Janeane too, and you want frumpy, add Fran Lebowitz to my choices as well.
In the latter case, I believe it’s more a crush on her brilliant mind. 
Okay, maybe I’ve got the timeline wrong. But I agree about the “lack of chemistry” in that film; I just attributed it to a lack of talent.
That said, in hindsight how many of Harrison Ford’s romantic roles had any chemistry? Working Girl? Sabrina? Star Wars? Really, the only female lead he’s ever clicked with on screen was Karen Allen. So maybe it’s all his fault instead.
Fran Lebowitz is awesome. I used to enjoy her when she was a guest on the old Letterman show from the 80s. She was very funny and brilliant, indeed.
It’s hard to say exactly. There’s probably never just one reason that an actor is chosen or not chosen for a role.
But it’s undeniable that there are few gay people in Hollywood’s A-list. Here is Forbes’ Most Powerful Celebrities list. It lists all types of entertainers, but for talking about roles in Hollywood, I’m just going to look at the actors and actresses. The actors and actresses are as follows:
[ul]
[li]Hugh Jackman[/li][li]Robert Downey Jr.[/li][li]Leonardo DiCaprio[/li][li]Channing Tatum[/li][li]Dwayne Johnson[/li][li]Tom Cruise[/li][li]Mark Wahlberg[/li][li]Will Smith[/li][li]Ben Affleck[/li][li]Adam Sandler[/li][li]Angelina Jolie[/li][li]Jennifer Lawrence[/li][li]Jennifer Aniston[/li][li]Kristen Stewart[/li][li]Gwyneth Paltrow[/li][li]Meryl Streep[/li][li]Emma Stone[/li][li]Charlize Theron[/li][li]Mila Kunis[/li][li]Sandra Bullock[/li][/ul]
As far as I know, the only openly non-straight person on the list is Angelina Jolie, who I believe came out years ago as bisexual. But she’s not primarily thought of as bisexual, she’s thought of as being married to Brad Pitt. It’s possible her career would be the same if she was married to some other actress, but it’s very possible it wouldn’t be.
I know Tom Cruise is often thought of as being gay and in the closet, but that doesn’t count for this discussion, because I’m trying to go into whether coming out of the closet would hurt an actor’s career.
Looking over the top grossing movies of last year, it doesn’t appear that there were many starring openly gay actors there either. It’s very possible I’m forgetting some gay actors, but the only ones I see on the list would be The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (featuring Ian McKellen) at number 8, and The Smurfs 2 (starring Neil Patrick Harris) at number 49.
Looking at Oscar winners since 1990, I don’t see many gay actors there either. Kevin Spacey is rumored to be gay, but I don’t think he’s out of the closet, and I’m fairly certain he wasn’t out before either of his wins. For actresses, there is only Angelina Jolie, who won for Best Supporting in 1999, and I’m pretty sure she was openly bisexual then. There’s also Jodie Foster and Anna Paquin as winners, but before either of them was out when they won(Foster as gay, Paquin as bisexual). There are several actors who won awards for playing gay characters, but those actors were straight.
Please point it out if I’m missing something, but from what I can tell, there are very few gay actors in the most powerful list, in the top grossing movies, or even as Oscar winners. Maybe there are some other metrics where gay actors would show up, please feel free to share them.
Maybe it’s all just coincidence that there aren’t more openly gay or bisexual actors at the very top in Hollywood. But considering how at the moment, there aren’t that many at the top, it wouldn’t be too surprising if there were some actors staying in the closet for the sake of their careers. An openly gay actor can definitely get good steady work in 2014, but not necessarily be at the pinnacle of Hollywood. So I would say it is somewhat risky for an actor to come out of the closet today, and it is still a big deal.
I think the lack of chemistry had more to do with the fact that at the time they shot the film, Heche was 28 while Ford was 55. The age difference was often cited for the lack of chemistry between Ford and Julia Ormond, when Ford was 52 and Ormond was 29. And in both films, Ford was playing his age, and being an old fart.
I still like Heche, a lot. Quirky, perhaps, but I first noticed her in Wag The Dog (1998) in which she had a lot of screen time with two old pros, DiNiro and Hoffman, and more than held her own. It’s easy to forget how hot a property she was, with Wag the Dog, Psycho and 6 Days 7 Nights all released in a span of 6 months. None of which made money, btw, and all of which were released after she came out as Ellen DeGeneres’ lover. I understand that her public breakdown in 2000, contributed to her shot at a second chance, but Katherine Heigl is reportedly horrible to work with, yet she gets endless roles.
I seriously had no idea she had announced her sexuality. I am not one to pay attention to Hollywood/celebrity news, but I do hear things from time to time. And I like Garofalo, so if there was something out there, I probably would have paid attention. So, she has a boyfriend, says she is asexual, but the thought is that she is actually bisexual?
I really need to do some research on Garofalo. I have always liked her, but i know next to nothing about her personal life. When the movie “The Truth About Cats and Dogs” came out, I was into Garofalo more than Uma. I always have been attracted to her, but i had no idea she was asexual/bisexual/lesbian… I thought she was straight.
Lebowitz is a bit too frumpy for my tastes, so she is all yours. Is she lesbian, bi or straight? (I know nothing about her sexuality either. Clearly, I need to pay attention to TMZ or something.)
Oooh, really? Not the actress I’d put in the lead role (assuming it’s the lead she’s playing), but that is a very interesting choice.
I have never heard her say that she had any sexual interest in women and I don’t know that she has openly dated a woman. All her romantic liaisons I know of have been with men, including Ben Stiller, Bob Oedenkirk, and Henry Rollins. I also know that she was unwittingly married for 20 years to another Hollywood type but didn’t realize it until he tried to get married to someone else and discovered that the law required him to divorce Garofalo first.
It’s not like I have made any effort to acquire this information, so it’s entirely possible that Garofalo is known to have had relationships with women that I simply haven’t heard. So far as I know she is straight.
Marc Maron has interviewed her and has discussed her with others and noted that “every guy was kind of in love with her” in their comedy circles and she never said anything like “well, I like women, so you guys didn’t have a chance.” It seems to me that the evidence is that she’s straight.
In the last standup show of hers I saw on TV, she talked about how she had no interest in sex even though she has been living with her boyfriend for years. She used the word “asexual” although I have no idea whether the term as used clinically is applicable to her situation.
As for people thinking she might be bisexual or lesbian, I think she superficially pings some stereotypes about lesbians, especially now with her tattooed look and harder edge. I have always had a crush on her, but I have nothing invested in her sexuality so I don’t care to make a declaration one way or another, but I see no actual reason to think she’s lesbian or bi. Who am I to say, though? Maybe she’ll come out tomorrow.
The “lack of chemistry” between Heche and Ford had much to do with the fact Ford was old enough to be Heche’s father.
Or the fact that Working Girl had already proven how terrible a romantic lead that Harrison Ford really is.