The former manager of Robbie Williams (official site here, or for an older pick (here) says the singer is definitely gay (and by gay I mean homosexual). This is news to… uh… a thirteen year old girl in Bristol, maybe?
So have there ever been any celebs who surprised you when they came out or were outed? Do you think that closet cases have a duty to either come out or at least not lie about their orientation, or is it totally a private concern?
I was shocked when I found out David Hyde Pierce was gay.
Niles was such an obivously closet cased character that I always thought it would have been too obvious for Pierce to be gay in real life.
Guess I was wrong.
I thought they never confirmed that David Hyde Pierce was gay.
Dan Butler, the guy who played the raving womanizer “‘Bulldog’ Briscoe” on Frasier is gay, though.
I suppose it was because she looks exactly like what men are told that real lesbians *don’t * look like. 
Sir Ian McKellan.
In fact, a few years ago, when he took what I assume was his boyfriend to the Oscars, I was a little shocked. In fact, a friend regularly calls to tell me, “Gandalf’s gay.”
Was it on open secret in show business, a la Liberace?
I was a little surprised when I heard the late Dusty Springfield’s manager say the singer was a lesbian, if only because it had never come up before. My first thought was “Wow! So the only boy who could ever reach her really WAS the son of the Preacher Man.”
He lives (or has lived) in Silverlake.
I know, not everyone who lives in Silverlake is gay, but that fact cemented it for me. 
Well, he publicly came out in 1988, so I don’t think there was much of a secret to it at all.
That didn’t surprise me. What surprised me was hearing that the guy who plays their dad is gay.
Unless he isn’t, and I’m just an idiot. Which wouldn’t be surprising.
Robbie Williams is gay?? Ok, it’s so totally news to me. (36-year old female engineer in Austin, TX who is actually sorta dating a bi-guy and who’s best friend is a lesbian) Didn’t he always cultivate that playboy, Lothario type image? I totally thought he was a total dog with the ladies… (to be honest tho’, we don’t get a whole lot of Brit gossip here so I only know about him thru his albums)
I don’t know if he’s gay, but he is British.
Same diff.
That’s why the British had to get an empire- they can’t reproduce on their own, so they had to recruit. (I do believe British marriage should be legal, though.)
I heard over the weekend that Henry Rollins is gay. This totally shocked me, given that I saw his stand up act live in February and he talked about dating women. I think the people who told me that are wrong, but he may not talk about it in his act.
That I just don’t buy. If any celebrity on the planet would be up-front and in-your-face about being gay, it’d be Henry Rollins.
That’s been a rumor forever. He’s definitely gay-friendly, but says he’s not gay himself.
It’s probably one of the reasons that Robbie lives here in LA - less tabloid stalking than in the UK. I remember when he “went on vacation” with Ginger Spice as I was living in London at the time … and that did it for me! I like him - I think he should come out like Sir Ian or Rupert Everett.
It surprised me to hear that Ian McKellan was gay… and not only that, I felt like an idiot for not having figured it out after seeing Gods And Monsters.
I was also a bit jolted when I heard that Clive Barker was gay, although some of his stories take on a whole new slant when you discover this…
I was surprised to learn that Bulldog on Frasier was gay, that Amanda Bearse(sp?) on Married With Children was gay, and if “Frasier’s dad” were gay I wouldn’t have thought it but it wouldn’t surprise me.
The biggie of all biggies for me though was Rock Hudson.
I have relatively reliable second-person confirmation that he is in fact gay. Unless the person who told me, who would know, was lying, which he wouldn’t, he’s gay.
(Not a reliable cite, I know; just telling you why I personally believe he’s gay.)
I always kind of giggle when I hear people being amazed about Rock Hudson. My mother told me he was gay back about 1970. Long before anybody (including Rock Hudson) was open about it. I figured it was common knowledge!
My mom told me that she heard “whispers” about him in the fifties, and guessed everybody knew it but nobody “talked about it” back then. She said she wasn’t a bit surprised…just a LOT disappointed! 
