# Celebrities you were surprised to find out were straight **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 22, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024 "2010-02-22T20:53:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/21 "2010-02-23T00:12:58Z")
Anyone got the “Straight” Dope on ol’ Barry Manilow??? I think I read (Rolling Stone?) that he has been married to a woman for many years, and while he played gay bars a lot when his career was just starting out, he was personally full-on hetro, even though he was often identified with gay culture… ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/22 "2010-02-23T00:26:29Z")
Stuart Goddard aka Adam Ant. Every member of Depeche Mode, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/23 "2010-02-23T00:38:43Z")
I could have sworn that I’d heard years ago that Jason Alexander (George on _Seinfeld_) was gay. Turns out he’s been married since the early '80s and has two kids. Not a household name in his own right, but I thought for years that Pearl Jam bassist [Jeff Ament](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Ament) was gay. The only overt evidence for this was that in the early '90s he wore one of those pink triangle “SILENCE = DEATH” t-shirts in a couple of photo shoots and interviews. He also made a few comments in interviews about AIDS awareness and IIRC even once mentioned that he hadn’t really fit in with his basketball teammates in college and that they’d called him a fag in the locker room. Given what little else I knew about Ament personally – lapsed Catholic, athletic but artistic, studied graphic design in college, penchant for flamboyant hats, came from a small town in Montana but said he’d known from the time he was 12 or 13 that he had to get out and be in a bigger city – well, I connected the dots in a certain way. I’m a big enough Pearl Jam fan that I’d have heard if Ament had ever come right out and _said_ he was gay, but I figured he didn’t want to make a big deal about it either because he’s a private person or because his family wasn’t comfortable with it. As the years went by he remained the only member of Pearl Jam who never got married and didn’t have kids, and I figured I knew why. Then a couple of years ago I read an article describing some charitable work Ament and his partner had been involved with. (The article used the word “partner”.) “Aha!” I thought, until I read the partner’s name…an uncommon but definitely feminine one. Actually, I wasn’t sure even then, but there was an accompanying photo and the person pictured with Ament was clearly a woman. I was rather surprised, but realized I’d had little reason for thinking he was gay in the first place. A few months ago I read an interview that tied in with the re-release of _Ten_ where Ament talked about his life pre-Pearl Jam. He said when he’d first moved to Seattle in the '80s he’d gotten a job at a cafe where most of the other staff was gay or “experimenting”. He said although he wasn’t the hippest or even the most tolerant young man at that time, the other cafe employees kind of took him under their wings and helped him a lot in adjusting to life in the city. So I guess that whatever interest he has in gay rights or AIDS awareness was thanks to the influence of these friends and not because of his own sexual orientation. ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/24 "2010-02-23T01:09:25Z")
Greg Norton, the bassist from Husker Du. I mean, look at that goddamn mustache: > **[Husker Du images: Zen Arcade shoot, 1984](http://www.thirdav.com/hd_images/im1984xxxx_za.html)** > > Husker Du images, Hüsker Dü images, Bob Mould images, Grant Hart images, Greg Norton images, Sugar images Apparently, however, he was the only one in the band who WASN’T gay: _Presumably the only heterosexual member of the Hüskers; singer-songwriter-drummer Grant Hart and singer-songwriter-guitarist Bob Mould are both openly gay. This is especially ironic since Greg Norton is the one with the handlebar mustache, the one wearing a cowboy hat in the “Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely” video, and the one who quit music to become a recognized chef._ ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/25 "2010-02-23T01:24:00Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I remember there were rumors Bob Crane was gay after he was murdered. Someone asked Werner Klemperer and he said “Bob was the most heterosexual man I ever met” which was probably true since he tried to screw just about any woman he met. I think the rumor was closer to “Crane was deeply immersed in the swinger lifestyle and that may have involved some ‘experimentation.’” Versions of the murder story I’ve heard contained overtones that the “friend” who’s widely suspected of having killed Crane had some sort of “complicated” feelings toward Old Bob. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/26 "2010-02-23T01:26:39Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Should Hugh Jackman also be on that list? For whatever reason I don’t get the same vibe on Jackman. I just looked up a contemporary picture of Patinkin. He’s looking more and more like someone’s Uncle Murray and no one would call his current look as fey as I might have thought 15 years ago. > **[Mandy Patinkin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandy_Patinkin)** > > Mandel "Mandy" Bruce Patinkin (/pəˈtɪŋkɪn/ ⓘ; born November 30, 1952) is an American actor and singer in musical theatre, television, and film. As a Broadway performer he has collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. > Patinkin made his theatre debut in 1975 starring opposite Meryl Streep in the revival of the comic play Trelawny of the "Wells" at The Public Theatre's Shakespeare Festival. He played Che in the first Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita (1979) ear... ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/27 "2010-02-23T01:28:39Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Billy Corgan. What’s the word on Moby? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/28 "2010-02-23T01:39:04Z")
Evan Lysacek says he has no girlfriend nor is he dating anyone [Nastia Liukin, Evan Lysacek's Girlfriend? Maybe Not! Skater Says He's Single (PHOTO, VIDEO) | HuffPost Sports](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/22/nastia-liukin-evan-lysace_n_472195.html) Seems like the gymnast may be after him but he doesn’t feel the same way towards her ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/29 "2010-02-23T01:39:27Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Ira Glass. Gotta say I’m in this boat, too. “My wife and I were watching …” Your _what_ and you? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/30 "2010-02-23T02:11:40Z")
Mentioned in the other thread but I’ll repost: Bronson Pinchot- would have bet my cuticles he was “one of us gooble gobble”; he’s not only straight but apparently something of a horndog. Dave Coulier always struck me as gay but again- in addition to his wife he’s been romantically associated with a couple of famous women. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/31 "2010-02-23T02:26:45Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > You can have a wife and be gay, ask Mrs. Larry Craig, Mrs. Ted Haggard, McGreevey’s ex, and so on. Pete Burns was married for 25 years. 'Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/32 "2010-02-23T03:06:36Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan. He mentioned his wife in an episode recently, which made me do a spit-take. [She’s pretty cute too.](http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.doggiechronicles.com/wp-content/images/illusionmillan.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.doggiechronicles.com/product-reviews/sessions-with-cesar-midnight-pass&h=297&w=240&sz=48&tbnid=4LlRja8W74DwoM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcesar%2Bmillan%2527s%2Bwife&hl=en&usg=__cJ3nwqBuYR7uDtehlpJm5-V7pBM=&ei=v0SDS5-lFozenAep-ZjrAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=2&ct=image&ved=0CAgQ9QEwAQ) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/33 "2010-02-23T03:20:02Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Ira Glass. David Tennant? not a ping. Ira Glass? A forced admission that I could never figure out guys from the entire eastern seaboard, though I grew up not that far inland. Which, I suppose, explains the surprise when midwestern cow-orkers realize I’m straight. Who knew? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/34 "2010-02-23T03:29:53Z")
I have said this before, and I’ll say it again: _ **STRAIGHT PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE GAYDAR.** _ You may pick up on a mannerism or speech pattern here or there, but you tend to pick up on the wrong things more than the right. The posts in this thread are a testament to that. But my gaydar works very well, and with my last dying breath I will steadfastly maintain that these two people are gay, regardless of their marriages or offspring: Regis Philbin. S. Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/35 "2010-02-23T03:44:40Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I have said this before, and I’ll say it again: > > _ **STRAIGHT PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE GAYDAR.** _ > > You may pick up on a mannerism or speech pattern here or there, but you tend to pick up on the wrong things more than the right. The posts in this thread are a testament to that. > > But my gaydar works very well, and with my last dying breath I will steadfastly maintain that these two people are gay, regardless of their marriages or offspring: > > Regis Philbin. > > S. Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. How does [Florida Governor Charlie Crist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Crist) read on your gaydar? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/36 "2010-02-23T03:57:32Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan. He mentioned his wife in an episode recently, which made me do a spit-take. I don’t care if he has 18 illegitimate children and a girl in a gold bikini chained to his chair and Paris Hilton runs a website called “Cesar Millan is the best hetero sex I ever had dot com”, there is no way that man is straight. If he could pass a ‘peter meter’ test I’d give you my kidneys. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/37 "2010-02-23T04:06:36Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > When I was growing up, I always thought Prince was gay, with his high voice and fancy clothes. But no, that man has probably bedded more women than I know people. > > Sheesh. I think Prince, like Ricky Martin mentioned in the other thread, and other artists (though mostly only known in Spanish-speaking places), are not hetero or homosexuals… They’ll go with whatever. So Prince has probably bedded more people than you know, period. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/38 "2010-02-23T04:08:18Z")
I always thought Rob Lowe was gay. Surprised me when his sextape came out and he was caught with two women. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/39 "2010-02-23T04:26:14Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I don’t care if he has 18 illegitimate children and a girl in a gold bikini chained to his chair and Paris Hilton runs a website called “Cesar Millan is the best hetero sex I ever had dot com”, there is no way that man is straight. If he could pass a ‘peter meter’ test I’d give you my kidneys. Reminds me of [_Blackadder Goes Forth,_ Episode 2, “Corporal Punishment”:](http://www.suslik.org/Humour/FilmOrTV/BlackAdder/ba4-2.html) > [@](#): > > Perkins: (Edmund’s guard) Sadder than a happy hour then, sir? Wave all our last goodbyes. > > Edmund: Oh, no need for that, Perkins, I’ll just dash off a couple of notes, one asking for a sponge bag, and the other sending for my lawyer. > > Perkins: Oh, your lawyer now, yes sir. Don’t you think that might be a bit of a waste of money, sir. > > Edmund: Not when he’s the finest mind in English legal history. Ever heard of Bob Mattingburg? > > Perkins: Oh, yes indeed, sir! A most gifted gentleman! > > Edmund: I remember Mattingburg’s most famous case, the case of the bloody knife. A man was found next to a murdured body, he had the knife in his hand, thirteen witnesses that seen him stab the victim, when the police arrived he said, “I’m glad I killed the bastard.” Mattingburg not only got him off, but he got him knighted in the New Year’s Honors list, and the relatives of the victim had to pay to have the blood washed out of his jacket. > > Perkins: There is a job under the prosecution involved, sir. > > Edmund: Yes, well, look at Oscar Wilde. > > Perkins: Oh, butch, Oscar. > > Edmund: A big, bearded, bonking, butch Oscar. The terror of the ladies. 114 illegitimate children, world heavyweight boxing champion, and author of the best-selling phamplet, “Why I Like To Do It With Girls”. Mattingburg had him sent down for being a whoopsie. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024/40 "2010-02-23T04:29:12Z")
Truly they are/were entitled to what they wanted, but these three, all already mentioned will always make me wonder: Tony Randall Kelsey Grammar Paul Shaffer Kelsey Grammar moreso after Cheers. Every character on Fraiser except Daphne looked ragingly gay, including Bulldog. Even for Hollywood it was a bit much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-find-out-were-straight/530024.md?page=3)